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Data structures and advanced models of computation on big data : report from Dagstuhl seminar 14091
(2014)
This report documents the program and the outcomes of Dagstuhl Seminar 14091 "Data Structures and Advanced Models of Computation on Big Data". In today's computing environment vast amounts of data are processed, exchanged and analyzed. The manner in which information is stored profoundly influences the efficiency of these operations over the data. In spite of the maturity of the field many data structuring problems are still open, while new ones arise due to technological advances.
The seminar covered both recent advances in the "classical" data structuring topics as well as new models of computation adapted to modern architectures, scientific studies that reveal the need for such models, applications where large data sets play a central role, modern computing platforms for very large data, and new data structures for large data in modern architectures.
The extended abstracts included in this report contain both recent state of the art advances and lay the foundation for new directions within data structures research.
Purpose: To evaluate the effect of chronic liver disease (CLD) in a multivariate analysis of associated risk factors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) using transarterial chemoembolization (TACE). Materials and methods: A total of 145 patients with HCC (99 men, 46 women; mean age: 63 years ±8.1; age range: 46-84 years) underwent 598 TACE procedures. The presence of CLD, number and location of lesions, tumor size, Child-Pugh score, vascularity, portal involvement and alpha fetoprotein value were analyzed using the multivariate regression model. Cox regression was used for survival analysis. Results: The median survival time was 26.7 months, and 78.6% of all treated lesions showed tumor responses. The presence of CLD (OR 2.12, P=0.004), Child-Pugh score B (OR 2.24, P=0.002), alpha fetoprotein >100ng/dl (OR 1.18, P<0.001), multinodularity (≥3 lesions) (OR 4.41, P=0.003), lesion size >5cm (OR 4.12, P=0.002) and hypervascularity (OR 7.94, P=0.003) were significant effective factors for a local response when analyzed using a multivariate logistic model. Multivariate survival analysis using Cox's regression model during the median follow-up period of 25 months (range: 1-42 months) demonstrated a significant difference in survival rates (P values <0.05). No significant difference in responses was noted for males, locations of lesions and portal involvements statistically. Conclusion: The presence of chronic liver disease as well as associated risk factors including Child-Pugh score B, alpha fetoprotein 100ng/dl, multinodularity (≥3 lesions), lesion size >5cm and hypervascularity statistically led to a significant effect in tumor response in HCC patients treated with TACE. Patient gender, location of lesion and involvement of portal vein showed no significant difference in response.
Introduction: Currently there are several advanced guiding techniques for pathoanatomical diagnosis of incidental solitary pulmonary nodules (iSPN): Electromagnetic navigation (EMN) with or without endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) with miniprobe, transthoracic ultrasound (TTUS) for needle approach to the pleural wall and adjacent lung and computed tomography (CT) -guidance for (seldom if ever used) endobronchial or (common) transthoracical approach. In several situations one technique is not enough for efficient diagnosis, therefore we investigated a new diagnostic technique of endobronchial guided biopsies by a Cone Beam Computertomography (CBCT) called DynaCT (SIEMENS AG Forchheim, Germany). Method and Material: In our study 33 incidental solitary pulmonary nodules (iSPNs) (28 malignant, 5 benign; mean diameter 25 +/-12mm, shortest distance to pleura 25+/-18mm) were eligible according to in- and exclusion criteria. Realtime and onsite navigation were performed according to our standard protocol.22 All iSPN were controlled with a second technique when necessary and clinical feasible in case of unspecific or unexpected histological result. In all cases common guidelines of treatment of different iSPNs were followed in a routine manner. Results: Overall navigational yield (ny) was 91% and diagnostic yield (dy) 70%, dy for all accomplished malignant cases (n=28) was 82%. In the subgroup analysis of the invisible iSPN (n=12, 11 malignant, 1 benign; mean diameter 15+/-3mm) we found an overall dy of 75%. For the first time we describe a significant difference in specifity of biopsy results in regards to the position of the forceps in the 3-dimensional volume (3DV) of the iSPN in the whole sample group. Comparing the specifity of biopsies of a 3D-uncentered but inside the outer one third of an iSPN-3DV with the specifity of biopsies of centered forceps position (meaning the inner two third of an iSPN-3DV) reveals a significant (p=0,0375 McNemar) difference for the size group (>1cm) of 0,9 for centered biopsies vs. 0,3 for uncentered biopsies. Therefore only 3D-centered biopsies should be relied on especially in case of a benign result. Conclusion:The diagnostic yield of DynaCT navigation guided transbronchial biopsies (TBB) only with forceps is at least up to twofold higher than conventional TBB for iSPNs <2cm. The diagnostic yield of DynaCT navigation guided forceps TBB in invisible SPNs is at least in the range of other navigation studies which were performed partly with multiple navigation tools and multiple instruments. For future diagnostic and therapeutic approaches it is so far the only onsite and realtime extrathoracic navigation approach (except for computed tomography (CT)-fluoroscopy) in the bronchoscopy suite which keeps the working channel open. The system purchase represents an important investment for hospitals but it is a multidisciplinary and multinavigational tool with possible access via bronchial airways, transthoracical or vascular approach at the same time and on the same table without the need for an expensive disposable instrument use.
Die kutane Larva migrans ist eine in ihrem klinischen Bild typische Hautinfektion, die durch aktives Eindringen und anschließende epidermale Wanderung von Nematodenlarven hervorgerufen wird. Dieses typische klinische Bild wird durch Larven von Hakenwürmern, meist Ancylostoma braziliense, selten andere bei Kaniden und Feliden vorkommende Hakenwurmarten, verursacht.
Ziele der Leitlinie sind die Verbesserung der Versorgung der Patienten durch Optimierung von Diagnostik und Therapie bei Infektionen mit Larva migrans cutanea sowie die Verbesserung der Kenntnisse von Ärztinnen und Ärzte über aktuelle Therapieoptionen.
We present an approach for combining high resolution MRI-based myelin mapping with functional information from electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG). The main contribution to the primary currents detectable with EEG and MEG comes from ionic currents in the apical dendrites of cortical pyramidal cells, aligned perpendicularly to the local cortical surface. We provide evidence from an in-vivo experiment that the variation in MRI-based myeloarchitecture measures across the cortex predicts the variation of the current density over individuals and thus is of functional relevance. Equivalent current dipole locations and moments due to pitch onset evoked response fields (ERFs) were estimated by means of a variational Bayesian algorithm. The myeloarchitecture was estimated indirectly from individual high resolution quantitative multi-parameter maps (MPMs) acquired at 800 μm isotropic resolution. Myelin estimates across cortical areas correlated positively with dipole magnitude. This correlation was spatially specific: regions of interest in the auditory cortex provided significantly better models than those covering whole hemispheres. Based on the MPM data we identified the auditory cortical area TE1.2 as the most likely origin of the pitch ERFs measured by MEG. We can now proceed to exploit the higher spatial resolution of quantitative MPMs to identify the cortical origin of M/EEG signals, inform M/EEG source reconstruction and explore structure–function relationships at a fine structural level in the living human brain.
he aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of controlled intraoral grinding and polishing on the roughness of full-contour zirconia compared to classical veneered zirconia. Thirty bar-shaped zirconia specimens were fabricated and divided into two groups (n=15). Fifteen specimens (group 1) were glazed and 15 specimens (group 2) were veneered with feldspathic ceramic and then glazed. Prior to grinding, maximum roughness depth (Rmax) values were measured using a profilometer, 5 times per specimen. Simulated clinical grinding and polishing were performed on the specimens under water coolant for 15 s and 2 N pressure. For grinding, NTI diamonds burs with grain sizes of 20 µm, 10 µm, and 7.5 µm were used sequentially. The ground surfaces were polished using NTI kits with coarse, medium and fine polishers. After each step, Rmax values were determined. Differences between groups were examined using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The roughness of group 1 was significantly lower than that of group 2. The roughness increased significantly after coarse grinding in both groups. The results after glazing were similar to those obtained after fine grinding for non-veneered zirconia. However, fine-ground veneered zirconia had significantly higher roughness than venerred, glazed zirconia. No significant difference was found between fine-polished and glazed zirconia, but after the fine polishing of veneered zirconia, the roughness was significantly higher than after glazing. It can be concluded that for full-contour zirconia, fewer defects and lower roughness values resulted after grinding and polishing compared to veneered zirconia. After polishing zirconia, lower roughness values were achieved compared to glazing; more interesting was that the grinding of glazed zirconia using the NTI three-step system could deliver smooth surfaces comparable to untreated glazed zirconia surfaces.
The U-turn is a classical three-dimensional RNA folding motif first identified in the anticodon and T-loops of tRNAs. It also occurs frequently as a building block in other functional RNA structures in many different sequence and structural contexts. U-turns induce sharp changes in the direction of the RNA backbone and often conform to the 3-nt consensus sequence 5'-UNR-3' (N = any nucleotide, R = purine). The canonical U-turn motif is stabilized by a hydrogen bond between the N3 imino group of the U residue and the 3' phosphate group of the R residue as well as a hydrogen bond between the 2'-hydroxyl group of the uridine and the N7 nitrogen of the R residue. Here, we demonstrate that a protonated cytidine can functionally and structurally replace the uridine at the first position of the canonical U-turn motif in the apical loop of the neomycin riboswitch. Using NMR spectroscopy, we directly show that the N3 imino group of the protonated cytidine forms a hydrogen bond with the backbone phosphate 3' from the third nucleotide of the U-turn analogously to the imino group of the uridine in the canonical motif. In addition, we compare the stability of the hydrogen bonds in the mutant U-turn motif to the wild type and describe the NMR signature of the C+-phosphate interaction. Our results have implications for the prediction of RNA structural motifs and suggest simple approaches for the experimental identification of hydrogen bonds between protonated C-imino groups and the phosphate backbone.
A consistent muscle activation strategy underlies crawling and swimming in Caenorhabditis elegans
(2014)
Although undulatory swimming is observed in many organisms, the neuromuscular basis for undulatory movement patterns is not well understood. To better understand the basis for the generation of these movement patterns, we studied muscle activity in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. Caenorhabditis elegans exhibits a range of locomotion patterns: in low viscosity fluids the undulation has a wavelength longer than the body and propagates rapidly, while in high viscosity fluids or on agar media the undulatory waves are shorter and slower. Theoretical treatment of observed behaviour has suggested a large change in force–posture relationships at different viscosities, but analysis of bend propagation suggests that short-range proprioceptive feedback is used to control and generate body bends. How muscles could be activated in a way consistent with both these results is unclear. We therefore combined automated worm tracking with calcium imaging to determine muscle activation strategy in a variety of external substrates. Remarkably, we observed that across locomotion patterns spanning a threefold change in wavelength, peak muscle activation occurs approximately 45° (1/8th of a cycle) ahead of peak midline curvature. Although the location of peak force is predicted to vary widely, the activation pattern is consistent with required force in a model incorporating putative length- and velocity-dependence of muscle strength. Furthermore, a linear combination of local curvature and velocity can match the pattern of activation. This suggests that proprioception can enable the worm to swim effectively while working within the limitations of muscle biomechanics and neural control.
This article focuses on the opportunities and challenges of implementing an extensive reading project in an English as a foreign language classroom in Germany. Studies such as PISA have shown that comparatively poor German and foreign language reading skills are still a prevalent issue in German society today. Consequently, the question of how these poor results can be improved is of utmost importance. Reading motivation is often described as the ‘driving force of reading’. Research has shown that if reading motivation and reading for pleasure are supported, interest in reading in a foreign language can be created, which may in turn have a positive impact on the other influential factors in reading and related skills. Dörnyei’s framework of L2 motivation sums up the current thinking on reading motivation. With its constituents ‘language’, ‘learner’, and ‘learning situation’, it shows the aspects to be taken into consideration when it comes to the improvement of motivation. Within this theoretical framework, an ER project was conducted at a grammar school (Gymnasium) in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. On the basis of the gathered data, gained from questionnaires, worksheets and the transcript of a focus group discussion, six main categories could be identified. They point to the development of a positive attitude towards reading among the students and the potential of graphic novels as a motivating factor. It was also confirmed that a successful application of reading strategies led to increased motivation. Generally, the project showed that reading is still an issue amongst many teenagers and that an ER project can affect learners, their motivation and related language skills in a positive way.
Aim: The cytokine receptor tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9 (TNFRSF9) is mainly considered to be a co-stimulatory activation marker in hematopoietic cells. Several preclinical models have shown a dramatic beneficial effect of treatment approaches targeting TNFRSF9 with agonistic antibodies. However, preliminary clinical phase I/II studies were stopped after the occurrence of several severe deleterious side effects. In a previous study, it was demonstrated that TNFRSF9 was strongly expressed by reactive astrocytes in primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors, but was largely absent from tumor or inflammatory cells. The aim of the present study was to address the cellular source of TNFRSF9 expression in the setting of human melanoma brain metastasis, a highly immunogenic tumor with a prominent tropism to the CNS.
Methods: Melanoma brain metastasis was analyzed in a cohort of 78 patients by immunohistochemistry for TNFRSF9 and its expression was correlated with clinicopathological parameters including sex, age, survival, tumor size, number of tumor spots, and BRAF V600E expression status.
Results: Tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily member 9 was frequently expressed independently on both melanoma and endothelial cells. In addition, TNFRSF9 was also present on smooth muscle cells of larger vessels and on a subset of lymphomonocytic tumor infiltrates. No association between TNFRSF9 expression and patient survival or other clinicopathological parameters was seen. Of note, several cases showed a gradual increase in TNFRSF9 expression on tumor cells with increasing distance from blood vessels, an observation that might be linked to hypoxia-driven TNFRSF9 expression in tumor cells.
Conclusion: The findings indicate that the cellular source of TNFRSF9 in melanoma brain metastasis largely exceeds the lymphomonocytic pool, and therefore further careful (re-) assessment of potential TNFRSF9 functions in cell types other than hematopoietic cells is needed. Furthermore, the hypothesis of hypoxia-driven TNFRSF9 expression in brain metastasis melanoma cells requires further functional testing.
Speolepta leptogaster (Winnertz, 1863) is frequently occurring in European subterranean environments. As for most cave animals, studies addressing non-anatomical aspects are sparse. Here we present the first molecular study on S. leptogaster. We investigated the demographic structure (i.e. COI locus) of 69 specimens from 36 underground populations in Hesse (Central German Uplands) to get first insights into the species’ dispersal ability.
In total, 14 haplotypes were revealed. Haplotype diversity was relatively high, whereas nucleotide diversity was low. Furthermore, a significant but low pattern of isolation-by-distance and (a) past population expansion event(s) were detected.
Our genetic results suggest a (good) active dispersal ability for Speolepta leptogaster. The occurrence of several surface records of adult specimens corroborates this hypothesis. We discuss the developmental stages of S. leptogaster in the context of the ecological classification system and regard the species as a eutroglophile. Evidence has been found to distinguish two larval types. A reconstructed life-cycle of the species is provided.
Does the rotten child spoil his companion? : spatial peer effects among children in rural India
(2014)
This paper identifies the effect of neighborhood peer groups on childhood skill acquisition using observational data. We incorporate spatial peer interaction, defined as a child's nearest geographical neighbors, into a production function of child cognitive development in Andhra Pradesh, India. Our peer group definition takes the form of networks, whose structure allows us to identify endogenous peer effects and contextual effects separately. We exploit variation over time to avoid confounding correlated with social effects. Our results suggest that spatial peer and neighborhood effects are strongly positively associated with a child's cognitive skill formation. Further, we explore the effect of peer groups in helping to provide insurance against the negative impact of idiosyncratic shocks to child learning. We find that the data reject full risk-sharing, but cannot rule out the existence of partial risk-sharing on behalf of peers. We show that peer effects are robust to different specifications of peer interactions and investigate the sensitivity of our estimates to potential misspecification of the network structure using Monte Carlo experiments.
Research in the field of Digital Humanities, also known as Humanities Computing, has seen a steady increase over the past years. Situated at the intersection of computing science and the humanities, present efforts focus on making resources such as texts, images, musical pieces and other semiotic artifacts digitally available, searchable and analysable. To this end, computational tools enabling textual search, visual analytics, data mining, statistics and natural language processing are harnessed to support the humanities researcher. The processing of large data sets with appropriate software opens up novel and fruitful approaches to questions in the traditional humanities. This report summarizes the Dagstuhl seminar 14301 on “Computational Humanities - bridging the gap between Computer Science and Digital Humanities”.
1998 ACM Subject Classification I.2.7 Natural Language Processing, J.5 Arts and Humanities
Historisch und kulturell bestimmte Formen des Spiels gehören zweifellos zu den bedeutendsten Techniken der Subjektivierung. Inwieweit dies jenseits entwicklungsbiologischer und -psychologischer Aspekte auch für das erwachsene Subjekt gilt, dem gesellschaftlich determinierte Spielräume die Möglichkeit der Selbsterkundung und Selbsterprobung geben, war die Ausgangsfrage des interdisziplinären Symposiums 'Sich selbst aufs Spiel setzen. Spiel als Technik und Medium von Subjektivierung', das unter Federführung der Komparatisten Christian Moser (Bonn) und Regine Strätling (Berlin) veranstaltet wurde. Institutionell getragen wurde das Symposium vom Internationalen Graduiertenkolleg InterArt der Freien Universität Berlin in Kooperation mit der Abteilung für Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft am Institut für Germanistik, Vergleichende Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaft der Universität Bonn. Es basierte auf vorab zirkulierten schriftlichen Beiträgen und konzentrierte sich ganz auf deren Diskussion.
Benjamin's early reception in the United States can be broken into eight phases: 1) a few notices of his work in the 1930s; 2) the appearance of two major works, without translation, in the 'Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung', when it was published in New York and mimeographed in Los Angeles; 3) several reports of his suicide along with the death of other Jewish and left-wing writers who fell victim to Nazi terror; 4) scattered use of his work in the late 1940s and 1950s; 5) a growing realization in the early 1960s that American literary and cultural criticism was missing something of significance by neglecting Benjamin's work; 6) the appearance in the 1960s of competing portraits of Benjamin by four of his surviving friends, including Hannah Arendt, who edited and introduced the first collection of his writings in English; 7) an uncanny repetition of the earlier neglect, as a significant number of Benjamin's texts are published in Great Britain during the 1970s and early 1980s but remain unavailable in the States; 8) the beginning of a sustained critical engagement with Benjamin in the late 1970s.
At the forefront of those who tenaciously pondered this issue are, I would claim, Walter Benjamin and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Benjamin and Wittgenstein both are philosophers of language who tried to establish in unique ways the doctrine of resemblance respectively: "Lehre vom Ähnlichen" and "[Lehre der] Familienähnlichkeit." What they see and find in language are not communication and mutual understanding but instead one of the weirdest phenomena in/of the world, viz., resemblance (likeness) in/of language. This phenomenon, I would insist, indicates the correlation of appearing and disappearing, of differentiating and integrating, and of dividing and imparting of language as such. For Benjamin and Wittgenstein, to sum up, language is a paradigmatic paradoxical site of (dis)appearance, differentiating integrity, and divisive imparting. For this reason, it is worthwhile to pin down where their thoughts on language converge and where they diverge.
"Eine gewichtige Pranke" : Walter Benjamin und Giorgio Agamben zu Erzählung und Gesetz bei Kafka
(2014)
In seinem Brief an Gershom Scholem vom 11. August 1934 nennt Walter Benjamin das Gesetz den "toten Punkt" in Kafkas Werk. In seinen Notizen zu diesem Brief spricht Benjamin abfällig von Kafkas "stete[m] Drängen auf das Gesetz" und bezeichnet es als "Schublade des Geheimniskrämers" und als "Begriff, mit dem [er sich] nicht einlassen möchte" (BK, 154). Aus den darauf folgenden Sätzen wird allerdings deutlich, dass Benjamin die Auseinandersetzung mit dem Gesetz bei Kafka nur insofern scheut, als dieses auf den 'Begriff' gebracht werden soll, denn, so Benjamin weiter, "sollte er in Kafkas Werk dennoch eine Funktion haben [...] so wird auch eine Interpretation die von Bildern ausgeht - wie die meinige - auf sie führen" (ebd.). Die Unterscheidung zwischen begrifflicher Festlegung, die Benjamin ablehnt, und bildlicher, also im weiteren Sinne metaphorischer Darstellung, die er einigermaßen billigt und praktiziert, weist auf die auffallende, wenn auch schwer deutbare Bildsprache hin, mit der Benjamin sich der Bedeutung des Gesetzes bei Kafka annähert. Tatsächlich befasst Benjamin sich, im Widerspruch zu seiner angekündigten Weigerung, ebenso in seinem großen Essay "Franz Kafka. Zum zehnten Jahrestag seines Todes" (BK, 9-38) wie in seinem Briefwechsel mit Scholem ausführlich mit Fragen des Gesetzes im Werk des Prager Autors. Diese Ausführungen gilt es im Folgenden mit den zahlreichen Betrachtungen zu diesem Thema in den Schriften Giorgio Agambens, der sich gerade in Bezug auf Kafka häufig explizit auf Benjamin als Vorlage beruft, zu vergleichen. Dabei sollen ebenso die Gemeinsamkeiten wie die Unterschiede der beiden Denker und deren ideeller Horizont herausgestrichen werden, um Einsicht in die Ausrichtung des 'Nachlebens' von Benjamins Gedankengut bei einem seiner bedeutendsten heutigen Erben zu gewinnen.
Die folgenden Überlegungen behandeln Phänomene der Temporalität und Zeitchoreographie in Walter Benjamins Prosamix 'Berliner Kindheit um neunzehnhundert'. Es gilt darüber nachzudenken, inwieweit es sich hierbei um ein ästhetisch induziertes Zeitarrangement handelt, von dem sich sagen ließe, dass in Augenblicken dieser faszinierenden Erinnerungsbilder die Zeit poetologisch konzeptionell geordnet, doch nicht instrumentell hierarchisiert wird. Sollen also Zeitphänomene im ästhetischen Modus betrachtet werden, so wird es unverzichtbar sein, sich der ästhetisch realisierten Zeitvarianten so zu versichern, dass eine minimale Zeitphilosophie formulierbar ist, die mehr besagt als eine rein systematisierende Zeitkasuistik. Von einer mikrologischen Zeitrettung könnte dann gesprochen werden, wenn unter dem Modus der Erinnerung dieser autobiographischen Sequenzen nicht allein Aspekte der Verräumlichung und Topographie verstanden werden, sondern stattdessen auch jene Zeitreserven in den Blick genommen werden, die besonders im Modus der Selbstwahrnehmung beim Erinnern hervorgebracht werden. Ich möchte die These vertreten, dass Benjamin als Zeitsammler, Zeitbewahrer und als uchronischer Zeitphysiognomiker auf der Grundlage einer tendenziellen Stillstellung von Zeit in diesen prosaischen Bildsequenzen gegenläufig geradezu multiple und dynamisierte Zeitphänomene und Zeiterfahrungen hervorbringt. Da diese an einen bestimmten rekursiven Wahrnehmungsmodus gebunden sind, werden zunächst Phänomene dieses Modus behandelt, um anschließend damit einhergehende Typen ästhetischer Eigenzeiten zu benennen und diese im Zusammenhang mit einer strukturierenden Logik der uchronischen Zeitlichkeit in der 'Berliner Kindheit' zu denken.
Während der Arbeit an den 'Thesen über den Begriff der Geschichte' hat Walter Benjamin den in der Geschichtsschreibung gebräuchlichen Begriff der "Quelle" einer radikalen Kritik unterworfen, die die Formen der Überlieferung überhaupt infrage stellt. Statt sich an das Schauspiel eines Stroms der Überlieferung zu verlieren, zu dem sich die Quellen vereinigt haben, frage der historische Materialist danach, wessen Mühlen der Strom treibe, wer sein Gefälle verwerte, wer ihn eindämmte, und indem er die Kräfte beim Namen nenne, "die in ihr am Werke gewesen sind", verändere er "das Bild der Landschaft" (GS I, 1160 f.). Diese Kritik sieht die "Quellen" in einen selber von Interessen und Macht bestimmten, weitgehend 'verderbten' Prozess der Überlieferung eingebunden. In der echten Geschichtsschreibung, heißt es in einem Entwurf der 'Thesen', erwachse daraus, und eben so stark wie ihr destruktiver Impuls, "der Impuls der Rettung", nicht nur vor "dem Verruf und der Mißachtung", in die Gewesenes geraten ist, sondern eben "vor einer bestimmten Art seiner Überlieferung" (WuN XIX, 128) selber. Der Begriff der "Quelle" gehört für Benjamin einer positivistisch verstandenen 'reinen' Wissenschaft der Geschichte an; der "wissenschaftliche" Charakter der Geschichte aber wird "erkauft mit der gänzlichen Ausmerzung alles dessen, was an ihre ursprüngliche Bestimmung als Eingedenken erinnert. Die falsche Lebendigkeit der Vergegenwärtigung, die Beseitigung jedes Nachhalls der 'Klage' aus der Geschichte bezeichnet ihre endgültige Unterwerfung unter den modernen Begriff der Wissenschaft." (GS I, 1231) Die 'Thesen' legen theoretisch-methodisch den Grund dafür, dass Referenztexte ganz anders aufgefasst werden als "Quellen" in einer begriffs- oder ideengeschichtlichen Darstellung. Wie aber dann, zumal in den 'Thesen' selber? Die Frage nach der Funktion der Referenzen in den 'Thesen' ist anders zu stellen als die nach einer Verwendung von Quellen, nämlich als die Frage danach, in welcher Weise Benjamin 'in' ihnen, 'mit' ihnen und 'gegen' sie denkt. So kommen auch die unterschiedlichen Formen der nicht explizit gemachten, verborgenen Referenzen ins Spiel.
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).