Islam und Muslime im Kontext deutschschweizerischer Öffentlichkeit

This study tries to assess the status of Islam in the context of the Swiss discursive public sphere. Relying on an empirical survey conducted with representatives from fifty Muslim organisations based in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the study examines the relative position of Muslim organisations in the political public sphere and the role of Islam in public debate from the perspective of the organisations themselves. The empirical findings will be interpreted using two ideal types. The category “public sphere” known from Jürgen Habermas’ works will help to determine the social status of the Muslim community in the context of the Swiss public sphere, while the normative concept “public religion”, as developed by the sociologist José Casanova in his book Public Religions in the Modern World, will contribute to determine the role of Islam in Swiss public debate.

Intermittent spike-wave dynamics in a heterogeneous, spatially extended neural mass model

Generalised epileptic seizures are frequently accompanied by sudden, reversible transitions from low amplitude, irregular background activity to high amplitude, regular spike-wave discharges (SWD) in the EEG. The underlying mechanisms responsible for SWD generation and for the apparently spontaneous transitions to SWD and back again are still not fully understood. Specifically, the role of spatial cortico-cortical interactions in ictogenesis is not well studied. We present a macroscopic, neural mass model of a cortical column which includes two distinct time scales of inhibition. This model can produce both an oscillatory background and a pathological SWD rhythm. We demonstrate that coupling two of these cortical columns can lead to a bistability between out-of-phase, low amplitude background dynamics and in-phase, high amplitude SWD activity. Stimuli can cause state-dependent transitions from background into SWD. In an extended local area of cortex, spatial heterogeneities in a model parameter can lead to spontaneous reversible transitions from a desynchronised background to synchronous SWD due to intermittency. The deterministic model is therefore capable of producing absence seizure-like events without any time dependent adjustment of model parameters. The emergence of such mechanisms due to spatial coupling demonstrates the importance of spatial interactions in modelling ictal dynamics, and in the study of ictogenesis.

Applaus und Komposition im 18. Jahrhundert

Wer eine Konzertkarte kauft, verpflichtet sich gewissermaßen, die „Regeln“ des Konzertes zu befolgen. Diese beinhalten auch, dass nicht jederzeit und nicht an beliebiger Stelle applaudiert werden darf. Das Verbot, zwischen den Sätzen eines Werkes zu klatschen, ist heute ein ungeschriebenes Gesetz, das es so – wie ein Blick in die Geschichte des Konzertwesens zeigt – nicht immer gegeben hat. Die Rezeption von Musik, wie sie im Konzert stattfindet, ist vielmehr eine junge Erfindung, die an die Entstehung der Öffentlichkeit im 18 Jh. gekoppelt ist. Die Musikwissenschaftlerin Cristina Urchueguía wird diese Entwicklung anhand von Bildern, Kompositionen und Zeugnissen schlaglichtartig skizzieren