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A Book of Rooms
(2014)
Kobus Moolman has published six previous collections of poetry, and several plays. He has been awarded the Ingrid Jonker prize, the PANSA award, the South African Literary Award, the DALRO poetry prize and the Sol Plaatje European Union Poetry award. He teaches creative writing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
The article reviews distribution records of Deroceras invadens (previously called D. panormitanum and D. caruanae), adding significant unpublished records from the authors’ own collecting, museum samples, and interceptions on goods arriving in the U.S.A. By 1940 D. invadens had already arrived in Britain, Denmark, California, Australia and probably New Zealand; it has turned up in many further places since, including remote oceanic islands, but scarcely around the eastern Mediterranean (Egypt and Crete are the exceptions), nor in Asia. Throughout much of the Americas its presence seems to have been previously overlooked, probably often being mistaken for D. laeve. New national records include Mexico, Costa Rica, and Ecuador, with evidence from interceptions of its presence in Panama, Peru, and Kenya. The range appears limited by cold winters and dry summers; this would explain why its intrusion into eastern Europe and southern Spain has been rather slow and incomplete. At a finer geographic scale, the occurrence of the congener D. reticulatum provides a convenient comparison to control for sampling effort; D. invadens is often about half as frequently encountered and sometimes predominates. Deroceras invadens is most commonly found in synanthropic habitats, particularly gardens and under rubbish, but also in greenhouses, and sometimes arable land and pasture. It may spread into natural habitats, as in Britain, South Africa,
Australia and Tenerife. Many identifications have been checked in the light of recent taxonomic revision, revealing that the sibling species D. panormitanum s.s. has spread much less extensively. A number of published or online records, especially in Australia, have turned out to be misidentifications of D. laeve.
In this concise volume, author and legal scholar Michael Stolleis provides an overview of the development of the modern German welfare state. Stolleis’ analysis focuses on labor law and social policy, while acknowledging the influence of economic, social, and cultural factors thereon. Origins of the German Welfare State does not emphasize a complete understanding of its subject; rather it seeks to provide insight into the development of German social policy in relation to the political/ historical eras in which it finds itself, leading to a deeper understanding of the foundations of social policy. ...
The volume under review contains the published proceedings of a conference held in 2009 with the challenging title, "Merowingische Monetarmünzen und der Beginn des Mittelalters". These Merovingian "Monetarmünzen" are a distinctive group of coins of which less than 10 000 are currently known. Quite suddenly, in the late sixth century, this type of gold coinage appears, with the name of a moneyer ( monetarius ) on the obverse and the place name on the reverse (presumably, but not necessarily in all instances, the mint). Thus, over a thousand moneyers and 722 place names are recorded, many only attested once or twice. In the late 7 th c. these coins slowly give way to a system based on the silver penny/denier, no longer showing names of moneyers. Who were these moneyers? What was their relationship with the court and the kings? To what ends were those coins produced, and how were they used in daily commerce? Why are so many different mints attested? These questions have occupied scholars for several generations now. However, Jarnut and Strothmann have added a new perspective: in how far are these coinages and the associated monetary policy a continuation of late Roman practices, or do they represent something altogether different and can, therefore, be understood as an expression of a fundamentally altered society that could be termed medieval? ...
Published in good time for the 2014 "Karlsjahr", marking 1200 years since the emperor’s death, Johannes Fried’s latest book is intended to make specialist scholarship on Charlemagne accessible to a broad audience. Judging by the impressive sales figures, it has admirably fulfilled that purpose. That is not however to say that it is an anodyne synthesis of current research. The picture of the Frankish ruler it provides is very much the author’s own, as he himself emphasises, so there is little danger that it might be lost to sight amongst the many other biographies currently available. ...
Andreas Fahrmeir’s history of the first half of the "long nineteenth century" begins with a disdainful Arthur Young travelling through France at the beginning of 1790 and ends with London’s Great Exhibition of 1851. The contrasting fortunes of France and Great Britain exemplify the contrasting concepts of the title. While the former experienced at least eleven contested regime changes – 1789, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1799, 1814, 1815 (twice), 1830, 1848 and 1850 – the British political system endured, albeit modified by reforms. Moreover, revolutionary-Napoleonic France was responsible for numerous revolutions from above elsewhere, uprooting old regimes and creating satellite states right across the continent, from the Batavian Republic to the Grand Duchy of Warsaw. Old Europe was not restored in 1815. With the Holy Roman Empire gone for good, the Low Countries combined in a single kingdom, Poland expunged from the map once again and the Habsburg Empire much more of an Italian and Balkan power than in the past, quite a new order had emerged. The shallow roots of the new creations ensured their future fragility. ...
For faunistic research on a certain animal group, knowledge of the situation in surrounding countries is a necessity. The presence of certain species in neighbouring regions, together with notes on their distribution and trends, offers valuable information for the interpretation of the status of these species in one’s own study area. Changes in the national fauna – e.g. the discovery of a new species – can often better be explained when integrating information on the status of species in nearby countries. Distribution atlases are therefore not only valuable publications for the country of concern, but also for other countries in the same region.
In the title compound, C19H24N2O2, a di-Mannich base derived from 2-methylphenol and 1,3,6,8-tetraazatricyclo[4.4.1.13,8]dodecane, the imidazolidine ring adopts a twist conformation, with a twist about the ring N—C bond [C—N—C—C torsion angle = −44.34 (14)°]. The two 2-hydroxy-3-methylbenzyl groups are located in trans positions with respect to the imidazolidine fragment. The structure displays two intramolecular O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, which each form an S(6) ring motif. In the crystal, the molecules are linked by weak C—H⋯O interactions with a bifurcated acceptor, forming a three-dimensional network.
The radiative capture cross section of 238U is very important for the developing of new reactor technologies and the safety of existing ones. Here the preliminary results of the 238U(n,γ) cross section measurement performed at n_TOF with C6D6 scintillation detectors are presented, paying particular attention to data reduction and background subtraction.
In the title solvate, C14H12N2O·0.5C6H6, the complete benzene molecule is generated by a crystallographic inversion centre. The dihedral angle between the planes of the benzimidazole moiety and the phenol substituent is 75.28 (3)°. In the crystal, O—H⋯N hydrogen bonds link the molecules into parallel chains propagating along [100]. The molecules are further connected by C—H⋯π interactions.
1D-3D hybrid modeling : from multi-compartment models to full resolution models in space and time
(2014)
Investigation of cellular and network dynamics in the brain by means of modeling and simulation has evolved into a highly interdisciplinary field, that uses sophisticated modeling and simulation approaches to understand distinct areas of brain function. Depending on the underlying complexity, these models vary in their level of detail, in order to cope with the attached computational cost. Hence for large network simulations, single neurons are typically reduced to time-dependent signal processors, dismissing the spatial aspect of each cell. For single cell or networks with relatively small numbers of neurons, general purpose simulators allow for space and time-dependent simulations of electrical signal processing, based on the cable equation theory. An emerging field in Computational Neuroscience encompasses a new level of detail by incorporating the full three-dimensional morphology of cells and organelles into three-dimensional, space and time-dependent, simulations. While every approach has its advantages and limitations, such as computational cost, integrated and methods-spanning simulation approaches, depending on the network size could establish new ways to investigate the brain. In this paper we present a hybrid simulation approach, that makes use of reduced 1D-models using e.g., the NEURON simulator—which couples to fully resolved models for simulating cellular and sub-cellular dynamics, including the detailed three-dimensional morphology of neurons and organelles. In order to couple 1D- and 3D-simulations, we present a geometry-, membrane potential- and intracellular concentration mapping framework, with which graph- based morphologies, e.g., in the swc- or hoc-format, are mapped to full surface and volume representations of the neuron and computational data from 1D-simulations can be used as boundary conditions for full 3D simulations and vice versa. Thus, established models and data, based on general purpose 1D-simulators, can be directly coupled to the emerging field of fully resolved, highly detailed 3D-modeling approaches. We present the developed general framework for 1D/3D hybrid modeling and apply it to investigate electrically active neurons and their intracellular spatio-temporal calcium dynamics.
The subject of this thesis is the experimental investigation of the neutron-capture cross sections of the neutron-rich, short-lived boron isotopes 13B and 14B, as they are thought to influence the rapid neutron-capture process (r process) nucleosynthesis in a neutrino-driven wind scenario.
The 13;14B(n,g)14;15B reactions were studied in inverse kinematics via Coulomb dissociation at the LAND/R3B setup (Reactions with Relativistic Radioactive Beams). A radioactive beam of 14;15B was produced via in-flight fragmentation and directed onto a lead-target at about 500 AMeV. The neutron breakup of the projectile within the electromagnetic field of the target nucleus was investigated in a kinematically complete measurement. All outgoing reaction products were detected and analyzed in order to reconstruct the excitation energy.
The differential Coulomb dissociation cross sections as a function of the excitation energy were obtained and first experimental constraints on the photoabsorption and the neutron-capture cross sections were deduced. The results were compared to theoretical approximations of the cross sections in question. The Coulomb dissociation cross section of 15B into 14B(g.s.) + n was determined to be s(15B;14B(g:s:)+n) CD = 81(8stat)(10syst) mb ; while the Coulomb dissociation cross section of 14B into a neutron and 13B in its ground state was found to be s(14B;13B(g:s:)+n) CD = 281(25stat)(43syst) mb: Furthermore, new information on the nuclear structure of 14B were achieved, as the spectral shape of the differential Coulomb dissociation cross section indicates a halolike structure of the nucleus.
Additionally, the Coulomb dissociation of 11Be was investigated and compared to previous measurements in order to verify the present analysis. The corresponding Coulomb dissociation cross section of 11Be into 10Be(g.s.) + n was found to be 450(40stat)(54syst ) mb, which is in good agreement with the results of Palit et al.
The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C28H42N2O5·H2O, consists of one half of the organic molecule and one half-molecule of water, both of which are located on a mirror plane which passes through the central C atoms and the hydroxyl group of the heterocyclic system. The hydroxyl group at the central ring is disordered over two equally occupied positions. The six-membered ring adopts a chair conformation, and the 2-hydroxybenzyl substituents occupy the sterically preferred equatorial positions. The aromatic rings make dihedral angles of 75.57 (9)° with the mean plane of the heterocyclic ring. The dihedral angle between the two aromatic rings is 19.18 (10)°. The molecular structure features two intramolecular phenolic O-H...N hydrogen bonds with graph-set motif S(6). In the crystal, molecules are connected via O-H...O hydrogen bonds into zigzag chains running along the a-axis direction.
To explicate what distinguishes pain, Benjamin elaborates: "Of all corporeal feelings, pain alone is like a navigable river which never dries up and which leads man down to the sea. [...] Pain [...] is a link between worlds. This is why organic pleasure is intermittent, whereas pain can be permanent. This comparison of pleasure and pain explains why the cause of pain is irrelevant for the understanding of man's nature, whereas the source of his greatest pleasure is extremely important. For every pain, even the most trivial one, can lead upward to the highest religious suffering, whereas pleasure is not capable of any enhancement, and owes any nobility it possesses to the grace of its birth - that is to say, its source. (SW I, 397)" In these important lines, pain's unique strength is linked not to its origin (this is reserved for pleasure), but rather to the way that its strenuous flow throughout the suffering body has the power to lead it to infinite heights. In contrast to pleasure, which is forever seeking out its sources, pain manifests itself most consummately when it is intensified; it fulfills itself most deeply by gradually reenforcing its own fortitude. To make sense of pain, therefore, we must understand the nature of its 'movement': and in Benjamin's metaphor of the "navigable river" - its flow. In what follows, I develop Benjamin's idea of the nature of pain as manifested in the internal law of its ,ow in two other of Benjamin's texts: 'Berlin Childhood Around 1900' (1934) and 'Thought Figures' (1933).
Background: Health Authorities recommend influenza vaccination of healthcare personnel (HCP) to decrease the transmission of influenza to vulnerable patients. Recent studies have almost exclusively used quantitative questionnaires in order to identify determinants of vaccination behaviour. Interviews enable HCP to express freely why they think they are (not) willing to get vaccinated against influenza.
Methods: By means of semi-structured one-on-one interviews with 123 Belgian, Dutch and German HCP, reasons for and against vaccination, experiences with influenza vaccination, intention to get vaccinated and possible barriers, as well as willingness to advice influenza vaccination to patients were investigated. Data were processed with QSR NVivo 8.0 and analysed using a combination of a deductive and a general inductive approach.
Results: Across countries, self-protection, patient protection, and protection of family members were reported as most important reasons to get vaccinated against influenza. Reasons to not get vaccinated against influenza were fear of side effects caused by the vaccine, a low risk-perception, the disbelief in the effectiveness of influenza vaccination, organizational barriers, misconceptions, and undefined negative emotions.
Conclusions: The social cognitive variables underlying the decision of HCP to get vaccinated against influenza (or not) seem to be similar in Belgium, Germany, and the Netherlands, even though some differences surfaced. A quantitative investigation of those social cognitive variables is needed in order to determine the importance of the social cognitive variables in explaining the intention to get vaccinated and the importance of the similarities and differences between countries that have been found in this study.
"I Am a Hottentot" : africanist mimicry and green xenophilia in Hans Paasche and Karen Blixen
(2014)
Claims that industrialized western countries must reform their environmental practices have often been made with reference to less-developed non-western societies living in greater "harmony" or "balance" with the natural world. Examples of what I call green xenophilia (from the Greek "xenos", meaning strange, unknown or foreign, and "philia", meaning love or attraction), are myriad, wide-ranging and culturally dispersed. They range from the appearance of the iconic "crying Indian" in anti-pollution TV and newspaper spots in the months leading up to the first Earth Day on April 22 1970 to numerous environmentalist individuals' and groups' use of the fabricated "Chief Seattle's Speech" as an authoritative touchstone of ecological consciousness, and from the British Schumacher College's endorsement of India as a source of simplicity, holism, humility, vegetarianism etc. to leading deep ecologists' advocacy of East Asian religions (especially Buddhism, Jainism and Taoism) as "biocentric" alternatives to "anthropocentric" Christianity (Rolston 1987; Dunaway 2008; Krupat 2011; Corrywright 2010). Invocations of non-western cultures, identities and worldviews have proved potent heuristic devices, enabling greens both to critique the status quo and to gesture (however schematically) towards the possibility of alternatives. Pervasive media-borne ideas and images like "the Green Tibet" (Huber 1997) and "the ecological Indian" (Krech 1999) have given environmentalist ideas about the good life physical incarnation, making them seem less remote and abstract. Yet the prevalence of xenophile dis course has also made environmentalism vulnerable to recurrent accusations of romantic primitivism, orientalism and exoticism, as western greens have sometimes (though not always) appeared to buttress traditional socio-cultural norms in the very act of challenging them (Guha 1989; Lohmann 1993; Bartholomeusz 1998). What is gained and what is risked when western greens speak about, with, for or as "the other"? In this essay I engage with two early-twentieth-century North European writers, the German Hans Paasche (1881-1921) and the Dane Karen Blixen (1885-1962), whose works bring this question to the forefront. Critical of European industrialization, and awkwardly positioned vis-a-vis their upper-class social milieus, Paasche and Blixen wrote as self-made "Africans", testing the limits between colonialism, anti-colonialism and emergent forms of environmentalism and green" lifestyle reform. More precisely, Paasche in "Die Forschungsreise des Afrikaners Lukanga Kukara ins Innerste Deutschland" ("The African Lukanga Mukara's Research Joumey into the Innermost of Germany" (1912-1913) and Blixen in "Out of Africa" (1937) deploy the ambiguous form of mimicry that Susan Gubar labels "racechange", impersonating or appropriating culturally other voices and perspectives on animals, food, physical embodiment and human-natural relations (Gubar 1997). Paasche and Blixen, I argue, used their considerable intercultural insight to construct images of Africa that they hoped would stand in redemptive contrast to the humanly and environmentally ruinous beliefs and practices of European modernity. I am interested in the acts of ethnic and textual self-alienation that these writers perform because they highlight the discursive, ethical and political ambiguities of green xenophilia - ambiguities that can be explored from different positions within the developing field of ecocritical studies.
"Great technology, football and ..." : Malaysian language learners' stereotypes about Germany
(2014)
This study focuses on stereotypes about Germany, its culture and people, held by learners of German in a big public university in Malaysia. It examines not only the stereotypical representations of the target language country but also assesses its favourability and salience, which has not been done previously. The findings revealed that the students' stereotypes about Germany were varied and diverse. Also, they were overwhelmingly positive. The top three salient categories of images about Germany were related to technology, famous personalities – for the most part football players and scientists – and cars. The findings also indicated that very few references had been made to German culture and to its great cultural figures. The results of the present study suggest that students could benefit from a wider and deeper exposure to German culture in the language classroom.
Vasointestinal peptide metabolism plays a key physiological role in multimodular levels of vasodilatory, smooth muscle cell proliferative, parenchymal, and inflammatory lung reactions. In animal studies, vasointestinal peptide relaxes isolated pulmonary arterial segments from several mammalian species in vitro and neutralizes the pulmonary vasoconstrictor effect of endothelin. In some animal models, it reduces pulmonary vascular resistance in vivo and in monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension. A 58-year-old woman presented with dyspnea and mild edema of the lower extremities. A bronchoscopy was performed without any suspicious findings suggesting a central tumor or other infiltrative disease. Endobronchial ultrasound revealed enlarged pulmonary arteries containing thrombi, a few enlarged lymph nodes, and enlarged mediastinal tissue anatomy with suspicion for mediastinal infiltration of a malignant process. We estimated that less than 10% of the peripheral vascular bed of the lung was involved in direct consolidated fibrosis as demonstrated in the left upper lobe apex. Further, direct involvement of fibrosis around the main stems of the pulmonary arteries was assumed to be low from positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging scans. Assuming a positive influence of low-dose radiation, it was not expected that this could have reduced pulmonary vascular resistance by over two thirds of the initial result. However; it was noted that this patient had idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension mixed with "acute" (mediastinal) fibrosis which could have contributed to the unexpected success of reduction of pulmonary vascular resistance. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of successful treatment of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, probably as a result of low-dose radiation to the pulmonary arterial main stems. The patient continues to have no specific complaints concerning her idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Franz Kafka's (1883-1924) "Die Brücke" is one of the less well-known texts by one of the most prolific authors of literary modernity. However, this short prose text embodies prevalent questions of literary modernity and philosophy as it reflects the crisis of language in regard of identity, communication, and literary production. Placed in the context of fin-de-siècle's discourse of language crisis, this article provides a dialogue between Kafka's "Die Brücke" and Hannah Arendt's (1906-1975) philosophy of thinking and speaking in "The Life of the Mind". Contrary to Arendt's understanding of the metaphor as "a carrying over" between the mental activities of the solitude thinker and a reconciliation with the pluralistic world shared with others, this article argues for a deconstructionist reading of "Die Brücke" as a tool to reevaluate Arendt"s notion of a shared human experience ensured through language and illustrates the advantages of poetic texts within philosophical discourses.