The purpose of the present study is to assess the role of the concepts of health and sickness in Nietzsche&rsquo / s philosophy. While doing this, our basic presupposition will be that these concepts owe their special place to their being the new criteria for Nietzsche&rsquo / s project of revaluation of all existing values. Nietzsche was philosophizing in the face of the crisis of 19th century Europe, that is, nihilism. According to him, Western traditional thought is based on an otherworldly oriented conception of life the values of which are nothing but a negation of life. Although these values had served man&rsquo / s justification of living for a long time, they reached their expiration by the &lsquo / death of god&rsquo / resulting from the materialistic tendency of the flourishing natural sciences of the 19th century. The &lsquo / death of god&rsquo / paved the way for a devaluation of once most valuable values, of which the most notable are &lsquo / good&rsquo / and &lsquo / bad&rsquo / . Thus, Nietzsche&rsquo / s project of revaluation needs new evaluative criteria as well, which is &lsquo / health&rsquo / and &lsquo / sickness&rsquo / . In this study, I will argue that, Nietzsche situates a physiological understanding of these concepts at the very heart of his revaluation and their somehow metaphorical application to culture and modern society is based on a physiological conception of them as well.

In light of the notions of freedom, legitimacy, equality, autonomy, plurality, publicity and action in the philosophies of Rousseau and Arendt, it can be seen that formal democracy, having ceased to be the expression of the sovereignty of the people, fell into a legitimacy crisis and has become a system which makes the people apolitical. Behind these problems, there are many reasons like the ethical deficiency of the monetarist system, deputies&rsquo / abuse of authority and tyranny of the majority. The facts in question have pushed philosophers to re-think the fundamental concepts underlying democracy and search for new conceptions of democracy. Nevertheless, it seems that no political model can succeed unless the people reach a certain level of ethical maturity. In this context, we are confronted with two models: liberal deliberative model which is criticized for giving negative rights priority over the process of public will-formation, and Habermas&rsquo / proceduralism which is based on the theory of discourse ethics. Habermasian democracy&mdash / which, contrary to majoritarianism, assumes the consent of all people as the basis of legitimacy&mdash / has goals like intersubjective understanding through rational justification and consensus in an ideal speech situation. Although it has criticizable sides, being the most appropriate account for our understanding of democracy ethics, which considers politics as a part of being human rather than a matter of governance, proceduralism can be defended with the contributions of Benhabib and Young. In the end, the point is making ethics of democracy prior to political models for re-politization of the people.

The purpose of the present study is to signify the explanatory value of the Meno on the coherence as well as the disparateness of the Plato&rsquo / s early and middle dialogues. Indeed, the Meno exposes the transition on the content and form of these dialogues. The first part of the dialogue resembles the Socrates&rsquo / way of investigation, the so-called Elenchus, whereas Plato presents his own philosophical project in the second part of the dialogue. Three fundamental elements of Plato&rsquo / s middle dialogues explicitly arise for the very first time in the Meno, namely / the recollection, the hypothetical method and reasoning out the explanation. Therefore, the connexion of the early and middle dialogues can be understood better if the structure of the Meno is analyzed properly. In other words, the Meno is the keystone dialogue which enables the readers of Plato to sense the development in Socratic-Platonic philosophy.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop a critical reading of Badiou&rsquo / s theory of truth. Contemporary popular trends such as postmodernism and anti-philosophy champion the principles of pluralism and contingency. They use these against Hegel&rsquo / s conception of history and theory of &lsquo / relational totality&rsquo / . Badiou agrees with these trends. But he criticizes their relativist theory of truth. He wants to provide an &lsquo / objective&rsquo / foundation for &lsquo / truth&rsquo / . The question I wish to explore in this thesis is then to analyze critically Badiou&rsquo / s work to find out whether he succeeds? To do this I am presenting Badiou&rsquo / s philosophical sources in ancient and modern philosophy and his main concepts he relies on. I am analyzing in particular in depth Badiou&rsquo / s understanding of ontology and phenomenology. To explain his concept of truth, I am analyzing his concepts of &lsquo / void&rsquo / , &lsquo / plurality&rsquo / , &lsquo / infinity&rsquo / . However, to make sense of his theory of truth more fully, I am looking also at his conceptions of &lsquo / event&rsquo / and subject&rsquo / , which are the main components of his theory of truth. After having analyzed his theory of of truth, I am looking at his conception of emancipatory politics, to see how his conception of truth works in his practical philosophy.

The string quartet is one of the most important genre since the Classical period, especially beginning with the works of Joseph Haydn. The abundance of quantity and internal proficiency of the string quartet reach its highest point in late period of Beethoven¡¦s work. A few composers treated the string quartets as priority genre in their entire creative life before Bartók composed a series of six string quartets which included his musical thoughts and spiritual progression spreading in the different stages during his lifetime. The purpose of the study is to discuss the various characteristics in every stage creative processes and techniques of Bartók¡¦s string quartets. The discussion of this thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter one the background of twentieth-century such as global influence of politics, economy, arts activity. During the wars, Bartók concentrated on folk songs that is the most powerful change his career and influenced the way he composed. The discussions of the chapter two include the intergrade and combine folk songs of the Western traditional music and East Europe which occupied his great creative changes, and the differences of traditional string instruments usage. Chapter three elaborates the content of six quartets which is the manipulation of the logical and unity of Bartók¡¦s use of motive, theme, melody, interval, harmony or instrumental usage. Furthermore, a popular topic called golden section is introduced from those integral elements. Chapter four concludeds the study with the discussion of which the composer was under the influence of the music development in Hungary and his contribution to the history of western music. Not only Bartók¡¦s six string quartets are one of the most important works in twentieth-century string literature, but also they are continuation of Beethoven¡¦s late six string quartets. Bartók devoted himself to musical materials from Western and Eastern Europe. As this point of view, Bartók¡¦s six string quartets are the finest expression of his heart. No matter what composition skills he used or as a humanism, it is no doubt that Béla Bartók made his great contribution in the field of string quartets.

Abstract Neutrophils are the major cellular component of acute inflammatory response. The mechanism by which fMLP or PAF activates neutrophils is not fully elucidated. Stimulation of MAPKs and activation of NF-kappa B in neutrophils regulate various cell functions, including superoxide production. Neutrophils isolated from blood taken from healthy donors, were incubated with specific inhibitors, GF109203X (PKC inhibitor), calphostin C (PKC-gamma isoform inhibitor), wortmannin (PI3K inhibitor), U73122 (PLC inhibitor), aristolochic acid (PLA2 inhibitor), SKF96365 (SOC channel inhibitor), EGTA (extracellular calcium chelator), SB203580 (p38 MAPK inhibitor), and PD98059 (MEK inhibitor), followed by fMLP or PAF treatment. MAPK activation by fMLP or PAF is based on immunoblot analysis. NF-kappa B activation is detected by EMSA, and superoxide production is measured by flow cytometry. The data indicate that neutrophil MAPK signaling pathways mediated by fMLP and PAF are different. PAF-induced ERK MAPK phosphorylation was involved PI3K, PKC, PLA2, PLC, and extracellular calcium, wheres fMLP-induced phosphorylation doesn¡¦t involve PKC

The use of gene-based techniques to produce antinociceptive molecules has been actively investigated for treatment of neuropathic pain and trauma of central nervous system. Among the endogenous opioids, b-endorphin (b-EP) is the most potent one, which is derived from pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC). In addition to b-endorphin, POMC is also the precursor of many neuropeptides such as adrenocorticotropin hormone (ACTH), melanocyte-stimulating hormone (a-MSH), ¡Ketc. Appropriate administration of POMC gene is essential for the success of its clinical application. Thus, gene transfer approach seems to be suitable for continuous supply of b-endorphin to alleviate intractable pain. Recombinant adenovirus was used as gene delivery system for POMC because of its high titer, wide host range, and transduction efficiency. In the present study, we have generated and characterized the recombinant adenovirus encoding POMC (Ad-POMC) by PCR and western blot analysis, and detect the presence of opioid peptides including ACTH, a-MSH and b-EP by RIA and chemilluminiscent assay. GH3 cells infected with Ad-POMC showed significantly higher levels of ACTH, b-endorphin, and a¡VMSH comparing with cells of control groups. By using Ad-GFP, the optimal MOI for adenovirus vector to infect neuronal GH3 cells, glial C6 cells, hepatoma Hep3B cells, smooth muscle G8 cells, fibroblast CCD-965K cells, and endothelial EA.hy926 cells was determined at 50, 500, 50, 500, 500, and 200, respectively. The results of determining the efficiency of POMC processing in different types of cells after in vitro cell cultures gene delivery indicated that peripheral cells, though at a lower extent, are capable of cleaving POMC and releasing opioid peptides after POMC gene delivery like neuronal cells of central nervous system. In formalin test, the intrathecal POMC gene delivery significantly decreased the magnitude of the formalin-evoked flinching response phase 1 (P < 0.05) and phase 2 (P < 0.001) when compared with rats receiving saline or Ad-GFP. In conclusion, the intrathecal POMC gene delivery can produce effectively attenuation on the inflammatory pain response. So far, there have been various gene delivery studies confirming the potential role of POMC in antinociception. In the future, more experiments will be needed to characterize the effects of POMC expression on cellular lipid metabolism. This will enable us to evaluate the therapeutic potential of POMC on treatment of obesity.

The risk of injury, inflammation, and oxidative stress increases in skeletal muscle with aging. It has been postulated that pro-oxidant signaling, including upregulation of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) contributes to inflammation, pathology, and aging in the brain, liver and heart. Exercise training reduces the risk of injury and inflammation. The purpose of this study was: 1) to identify the mechanisms that upregulate iNOS, pro-oxidant and pro-inflammatory signaling in skeletal muscle, and 2) to identify the mechanisms by which exercise training reduces pro-oxidant signaling. Protein levels and activity of iNOS were measured in 4 groups of male Fischer-344 rats (5 mo and 24 mo, n=10/group), old-control (OC), old-trained (OT), young-control (YC), and young-trained (YT). Exercise training protocol was 60 min at 15 m/min at 15° incline for 5 d/wk for 12 wk. Both iNOS protein expression and activity were significantly higher in OC compared to YC, but exercise training reversed the elevation of iNOS levels lower than OC in tibialis anterior. Surprisingly, NF-&#954;B DNA binding activity was significantly lower in OC than YC, while increased with exercise training in white and red gastrocnemius in both OT and YT. In contrast, protein expression of p65, a regulatory subunit of NF-&#954;B was significantly greater in OC than YC, while exercise training significantly reduced p65 in OT compared to OC from the white gastrocnemius. These data indicate that regulation of NF-&#954;B activity with aging is post-translational and alterations in iNOS expression may result from alternative NF-&#954;B pathways. As decreased NF-&#954;B activity with aging could result in downstream increase in pro-apoptotic signaling, we tested follow-up hypotheses that aging would increase pro-apoptotic regulator Bax and decrease the anti-apoptotic regulator Bcl-2. Bax increased while Bcl-2 decreased in OC in white gastrocnemius when compared to YC. In contrast, exercise training resulted in a dramatic upregulation of Bcl-2 and downregulation of Bax protein expression in OT when compared to OC. These novel results indicate that alterations in pro-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic signaling occur in skeletal muscle during the aging process. Importantly, our findings strongly support the hypothesis that exercise training reverses age-induced changes in pro-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic signaling.

Bats of the genus Scotophilus are distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa, parts of southern and Southeast Asia, a majority of the Indomalayan Islands, Reunion Island, and Madagascar. The genus is composed of 14 recognized species with seven distributed throughout sub-Saharan Africa including: (S. dinganii (A. Smith, 1833), S. leucogaster (Cretzschmar, 1830), S. nigritellus de Winton, 1899, S. nigrita (Schreber, 1774), S. nucella Robbins, 1983, S. nux Thomas, 1904, and S. viridis (Peters, 1852). The remaining species include four from southern and southeast Asia (S. celebensis Sody, 1928; S. collinus Sody 1936; S. heathi (Horsfield, 1831); S. kuhlii Leach, 1821), two on Madagascar (S. sp. nov. Goodman et al., in press; and S. robustus Milne-Edwards, 1881), and one endemic to Reunion Island (S. borbonicus (E. Geoffroy, 1803). The systematics and taxonomy of this genus have been controversial and continue to be confusing. The genus is plagued with problems in species definition and the systematic relationships among members of the genus are poorly understood. The major goal of this study was to use a molecular phylogenetic approach to clarify some of the controversy and confusion surrounding the members of this genus. Nucleotide differences from mtDNA and the Y chromosome were used to examine phylogenetic patterns within Scotophilus. Based on these data two new species of Scotophilus were identified. Phylogenetically, African Scotophilus were found to comprise a monophyletic group with S. nux as the most basal African taxon. Overall, the Asian S. kuhlii was the most basal taxon. A distant relationship was identified between S. kuhlii and S. heathi, the other Asian species examined. The multiple origins of Malagasy Scotophilus are apparent as the two Malagasy taxa in the study do not share a sister-group relationship. The large bodied S. nigrita is closely related to S. dinganii and the S. dinganii-like species all share a close relationship. S. nigrita has a S. dinganii-like mtDNA haplotype and a very distinct zfy haplotype, suggesting a possible hybridization event with a S. dinganii-like ancestor.

Sonata had gone through the development of Baroque and Classical Era and reached the high point in the beginning of 19th century. Liszt¡¦ s Piano Sonata in B minor is an important work. It is also an arguable piece in the sonata literatures. Its musical form or content are both the issues of which is considered to carry on the past musical heritage and opened up the future. This thesis starts from the introduction of the composing background of Piano Sonata in B minor. It then focuses to the significance of this work in Romantic Era. After that, many pianists¡¦ and scholars¡¦ view points are collected and analyzed for discussing how this work has the characteristics of absolute music and program music. The relationship between Liszt¡¦s Faust Symphony and this sonata is also explored. Finally, the structure of this sonata is analyzed for understanding how the technique of thematic transformation works in this piece.