Beyond the Sign. Henri Meschonnic's Poetics of Rhythm and Continuum. Towards an Anthropological Theory of Language

Basing the conception of language on the sign represents also an obstacle to the awareness of certain elements of human life, especially to a full understanding of what language or art do, Henri Meschonnic’s poetics of the continuum and of rhythm criticizes the sign based on Benveniste’s terms of rhythm and discourse, developing an anthropology of language. Rhythm, for Meschonnic, is no formal metrical but a semantic principle, each time unique and unforeseeable. As for Humboldt, his starting point is not the word but the ensemble of speech; language is not ergon but energeia. The poem then is not a literary form but a process of transformation that Meschonnic defines as the invention of a form of life by a form of language and vice versa. Thus a poem is a way of thinking and rhythm is form in movement. The particular subject of art and literature is consequently not the author but a process of subjectivation – this is the contrary of the conception of the sign. By demonstrating the limits of the sign, Meschonnic’s poetics attempts to thematize the intelligibility of presence. Art and literature raise our awareness of this element of human life we cannot grasp conceptually. This poetical thinking is a necessary counterforce against all institutionalization.

Transformation of vaterite into calcite in the absence and the presence of copper(II) species. Thermal analysis, IR and EPR study

The transformation of vaterite into calcite may be performed by heating in the presence and the absence of oxygen. Vaterite remains thermally stable until a calcination temperature of 450°C. It transforms progressively to calcite up to 500°C giving two exothermic peaks: 1) at 481°C due to the transformation of vaterite surface which is in contact with a small amount of calcite phase already formed with the time on the solid surface from the humidity atmosphere; 2) at 491°C due to the transformation of pure vaterite bulk. The calcite phase remains stable until 700°C. Above this temperature the formation of CaO is observed.

Sex, Politics and Religion: The Transformation of the Figure of the Fairy Queen from Thomas off Ersseldoune to ‘‘Thomas Rymer’’

Our earliest version of the Thomas Rymer story is the medieval romance Thomas off Ersseldoune (c.1430). There is a four hundred year lacuna before the ballad “Thomas Rymer”, our next surviving version, is recorded in the early 1800s. In the intervening time the narrative changed very little but the dynamic of the piece, radically. The romance transformed into the highly subversive ballad, “Thomas Rymer”. Central to this transformation is the reconceptualization of the romance's heroine. Referred to simply as the “lufly lady” and caught between her husband, the fay King, and a mere mortal, Thomas, she becomes in the ballad the powerful Queen of the Fairies. The ballad is structured around a series of revelations in which the enigmatic Queen assumes the roles of Eve and Mary, and finally Christ Himself. I will explore the implications of this extraordinary ballad. Moreover, I suggest that it is Queen Elizabeth herself who, ironically, enables the heroine's transformation. “Ironically” because it appears that it was Elizabeth's own restrictions, designed to suppress heretical, seditious or radical literature, which forced Thomas off Ersseldoune (and many other romances which employed religious imagery or figures) out of the written domain and into the oral tradition. And yet, it is Elizabeth who, in creating the image of herself as a female prince, as the Faerie Queen, inspires a new literary vocabulary designed to describe female executive power, without which it would have been impossible to imagine a figure such as the ballad's Queen of the Fairies.

1-D constitutive model for evolution of stress-induced R-phase and localized Lüders-like stress-induced martensitic transformation of super-elastic NiTi wires

NiTi alloys have been widely used in the applications for micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS), which often involve some precise and complex motion control. However, when using the NiTi alloys in MEMS application, the main problem to be considered is the degradation of functional property during cycling loading. This also stresses the importance of accurate prediction of the functional behavior of NiTi alloys. In the last two decades, a large number of constitutive models have been proposed to achieve the task. A portion of them focused on the deformation behavior of NiTi alloys under cyclic loading, which is a practical and non-negligible situation. Despite of the scale of modeling studies of the field in NiTi alloys, two experimental observations under uniaxial tension loading have not received proper attentions. First, a deviation from linearity well before the stress-induced martensitic transformation (SIMT) has not been modeled. Recent experiments confirmed that it is caused by the formation of stress-induced R phase. Second, the influence of the well-known localized Lüders-like SIMT on the macroscopic behavior of NiTi alloys, in particular the residual strain during cyclic loading, has not been addressed. In response, we develop a 1-D phenomenological constitutive model for NiTi alloys with two novel features: the formation of stress-induced R phase and the explicit modeling of the localized Lüders-like SIMT. The derived constitutive relations are simple and at the same time sufficient to describe the behavior of NiTi alloys. The accumulation of residual strain caused by R phase under different loading schemes is accurately described by the proposed model. Also, the residual strain caused by irreversible SIMT at different maximum loading strain under cyclic tension loading in individual samples can be explained by and fitted into a single equation in the proposed model. These results show that the proposed model successfully captures the behavior of R phase and the essence of localized SIMT.

A methodological review of the Short Form Health Survey 36 (SF-36) and its derivatives among breast cancer survivors

Purpose: A systematic review of the validity, reliability and sensitivity of the Short Form (SF) health survey measures among breast cancer survivors.
Methods: We searched a number of databases for peer-reviewed papers. The methodological quality of the papers was assessed using the COnsenus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN).
Results: The review identified seven papers that assessed the psychometric properties of the SF-36 (n = 5), partial SF-36 (n = 1) and SF-12 (n = 1) among breast cancer survivors. Internal consistency scores for the SF measures ranged from acceptable to good across a range of language and ethnic sub-groups. The SF-36 demonstrated good convergent validity with respective subscales of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Treatment—General scale and two lymphedema-specific measures. Divergent validity between the SF-36 and Lymph-ICF was modest. The SF-36 demonstrated good factor structure in the total breast cancer survivor study samples. However, the factor structure appeared to differ between specific language and ethnic sub-groups. The SF-36 discriminated between survivors who reported or did not report symptoms on the Breast Cancer Prevention Trial Symptom Checklist and SF-36 physical sub-scales, but not mental sub-scales, discriminated between survivors with or without lymphedema. Methodological quality scores varied between and within papers.
Conclusion: Short Form measures appear to provide a reliable and valid indication of general health status among breast cancer survivors though the limited data suggests that particular caution is required when interpreting scores provided by non-English language groups. Further research is required to test the sensitivity or responsiveness of the measure.

(Dis‑)Harmony in movement: effects of musical dissonance on movement timing and form

While the origins of consonance and dissonance in terms of acoustics, psychoacoustics and physiology have been debated for centuries, their plausible effects on movement synchronization have largely been ignored. The present study aims to address this by investigating whether, and if so how, consonant/dissonant pitch intervals affect the spatiotemporal properties of regular reciprocal aiming movements. We compared movements synchronized either to consonant or to dissonant sounds, and showed that they were differently influenced by the degree of consonance of the sound presented. Interestingly, the difference was present after the sound stimulus was removed. In this case, the performance measured after consonant sound exposure was found to be more stable and accurate, with a higher percentage of information/movement coupling (tau-coupling) and a higher degree of movement circularity when compared to performance measured after the exposure to dissonant sounds. We infer that the neural resonance representing consonant tones leads to finer perception/action coupling which in turn may help explain the prevailing preference for these types of tones.

On the antioxidant properties of erythropoietin and its association with the oxidative-nitrosative stress response to hypoxia in humans

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine if erythropoietin (EPO) has the potential to act as a biological antioxidant and determine the underlying mechanisms.

Methods: The rate at which its recombinant form (rHuEPO) reacts with hydroxyl (HO center dot), 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH center dot) and peroxyl (ROO center dot) radicals was evaluated in-vitro. The relationship between the erythopoietic and oxidative-nitrosative stress response to poikilocapneic hypoxia was determined separately in-vivo by sampling arterial blood from eleven males in normoxia and following 12 h exposure to 13% oxygen. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy, ELISA and ozone-based chemiluminescence were employed for direct detection of ascorbate (A(center dot-)) and N-tert-butyl-a-phenylnitrone spin-trapped alkoxyl (PBN-OR) radicals, 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT) and nitrite (NO2-).

Results: We found rHuEPO to be a potent scavenger of HO center dot (k(r) = 1.03-1.66 x 10(11) M-1 s(-1)) with the capacity to inhibit Fenton chemistry through catalytic iron chelation. Its ability to scavenge DPPH. and ROO center dot was also superior compared to other more conventional antioxidants. Hypoxia was associated with a rise in arterial EPO and free radical-mediated reduction in nitric oxide, indicative of oxidative-nitrosative stress. The latter was confirmed by an increased systemic formation of A(center dot-), PBN-OR, 3-NT and corresponding loss of NO2- (P <0.05 vs. normoxia). The erythropoietic and oxidative-nitrosative stress responses were consistently related (r =-0.52 to 0.68, P <0.05).

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate that EPO has the capacity to act as a biological antioxidant and provide a mechanistic basis for its reported cytoprotective benefits within the clinical setting.

Activity and coke formation of nickel and nickel carbide in dry reforming: A deactivation scheme from density functional theory

Dry reforming is a promising reaction to utilise the greenhouse gases CO2 and CH4. Nickel-based catalysts are the most popular catalysts for the reaction, and the coke formation on the catalysts is the main obstacle to the commercialisation of dry reforming. In this study, the whole reaction network of dry reformation on both flat and stepped nickel catalysts (Ni(111) and Ni(211)) as well as nickel carbide (flat: Ni3C(001); stepped: Ni3C(111)) is investigated using density functional theory calculations. The overall reaction energy profiles in the free energy landscape are obtained, and kinetic analyses are utilised to evaluate the activity of the four surfaces. By careful examination of our results, we find the following regarding the activity: (i) flat surfaces are more active than stepped surfaces for the dry reforming and (ii) metallic nickel catalysts are more active than those of nickel carbide, and therefore, the phase transformation from nickel to nickel carbide will reduce the activity. With respect to the coke formation, the following is found: (i) the coke formation probability can be measured by the rate ratio of CH oxidation pathway to C oxidation pathway (r(CH)/r(C)) and the barrier of CO dissociation, (ii) on Ni(111), the coke is unlikely to form, and (iii) the coke formations on the stepped surfaces of both nickel and nickel carbide can readily occur. A deactivation scheme, using which experimental results can be rationalised, is proposed. 

Religion, pragmatic fundamentalism and the transformation of the Northern Ireland conflict

Since 11 September 2001, the religious dimension of conflict has been the focus of increasing attention. In The Clash of Civilizations, Huntington has identified the West in religious-cultural terms, as Christian with a dominant democratic culture emphasizing tolerance, moderation and consensus. The persistence of conflict in Northern Ireland among 'White' Protestant and Catholic Christians undermines this simplistic argument and demands a more subtle understanding of the role of religion and fundamentalism in contemporary conflict. Modernization theory - which is echoed among some theorists of globalization - had predicted the declining importance of religion as the world became industrialized and increasingly interconnected. This is echoed by those who argue that the Northern Ireland conflict is 'ethno-national' and dismiss the role of religion. On the other hand, others have claimed that the conflict is religious and stress the role of Protestant fundamentalism. This article draws on new evidence from Northern Ireland of the complex and subtle ways in which religion impacts on the conflict there, incorporating insights about the pragmatism of fundamentalist Protestants and how religious actors are contributing to conflict transformation. This analysis leads to three broader conclusions about understanding conflicts with religious dimensions. First, the complexity of religion must be understood, and this includes a willingness to recognize the adaptability of fundamentalisms to particular contexts. Second, engaging with fundamentalists and taking their grievances seriously opens up possibilities for conflict transformation. Third, governments and religious actors within civil society can play complementary roles in constructing alternative (religious) ideologies and structures as part of a process of transformation. In a world in which the impact of religion is persistent, engaging with the religious dimension is a vital part of a broader-based strategy for dealing with conflict. © 2008 Journal of Peace Research.

Cement As a Waste Form for Nuclear Fission Products: The Case of 90Sr and Its Daughters

One of the main challenges faced by the nuclear industry is the long-term confinement of nuclear waste. Because it is inexpensive and easy to manufacture, cement is the material of choice to store large volumes of radioactive materials, in particular the low-level medium-lived fission products. It is therefore of utmost importance to assess the chemical and structural stability of cement containing radioactive species. Here, we use ab initio calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) to study the effects of ⁹⁰Sr insertion and decay in C-S-H (calcium-silicate-hydrate) in order to test the ability of cement to trap and hold this radioactive fission product and to investigate the consequences of its β-decay on the cement paste structure. We show that ⁹⁰Sr is stable when it substitutes the Ca²⁺ ions in C-S-H, and so is its daughter nucleus ⁹⁰Y after β-decay. Interestingly, ⁹⁰Zr, daughter of ⁹⁰Y and final product in the decay sequence, is found to be unstable compared to the bulk phase of the element at zero K but stable when compared to the solvated ion in water. Therefore, cement appears as a suitable waste form for ⁹⁰Sr storage.