Relative Efficiencies of the Burkard 7-Day, Rotorod and Burkard Personal Samplers for Poaceae and Urticaceae Pollen under Field Conditions

Introduction: In aerobiological studies it is often necessary to compare concentration data recorded with different models of sampling instrument. Sampler efficiency typically varies from device to device, and depends on the target aerosol and local atmospheric conditions. To account for these differences inter-sampler correction factors may be applied, however for many pollen samplers and pollen taxa such correction factors do not exist and cannot be derived from existing published work. Materials and methods: In this study the relative efficiencies of the Burkard 7-Day Recording Volumetric Spore Trap, the Sampling Technologies Rotorod Model 20 and the Burkard Personal Volumetric Air Sampler were evaluated for Urticaceae and Poaceae pollen under field conditions, and the influence of wind speed and relative humidity on these efficiency relationships was assessed. Data for the two pollen taxa were collected during 2010 and 2011-12 respectively. Results: The three devices were found to record significantly different concentrations for both pollen taxa, with the exception of the 7-Day and Rotorod samplers for Poaceae pollen. Under the range of conditions present during the study wind speed was found to only have a significant impact on inter-sampler relationships involving the vertically orientated Burkard Personal sampler, whilst no interaction between relative efficiency and relative humidity was observed. Conclusions: Data collected with the three models of sampler should only be compared once the appropriate correction has been made, with wind speed taken into account where appropriate.

Seasonal Variation in Diurnal Atmospheric Grass Pollen Concentration Profiles

In this study, the diurnal atmospheric grass pollen concentration profile within the Danish city of Aarhus was shown to change in a systematic manner as the pollen season progressed. Although diurnal grass pollen profiles can differ greatly from day-to-day, it is common practice to establish the time of day when peak concentrations are most likely to occur using seasonally averaged diurnal profiles. Atmospheric pollen loads are highly dependent upon emissions, and different species of grass are known to flower and emit pollen at different times of the day and during different periods of the pollen season. Pollen concentrations are also influenced by meteorological factors – directly through those parameters that govern pollen dispersion and transport, and indirectly through the weather-driven flowering process. We found that three different profiles dominated the grass pollen season in Aarhus – a twin peak profile during the early season, a single evening profile during the middle of the season, and a single midday peak during the late season. Whilst this variation could not be explained by meteorological factors, no inconsistencies were found with the theory that it was driven by a succession of different grass species with different diurnal flowering patterns dominating atmospheric pollen loads as the season progressed. The potential for exposure was found to be significantly greater during the late-season period than during either the early- or mid-season periods.

Robert Crawford, Baritone, August 16, 1937

Concert Program for Robert Crawford, Baritone, August 16, 1937

Beyond time and oblivion : Sir Robert Sidney’s autograph manuscript

Dealing with ancient manuscript or old printed texts often constitutes a difficult task, especially to philologists and editors, for two main reasons: the precarious state of preservation of the documents and the uncertainty regarding their origin, authenticity and authorship. These problems are aggravated by spurious versions, due to the publication of truncated works, poorly supervised miscellanies and non-authorised editions. Sir Robert Sidney’s literary text constitutes an exception amidst such vicissitudes, once the original corpus is wholly contained in a notebook exhibiting the organisation and unity conceived by the author himself. Today, there is no evidence that any loose poems, either autograph or copied by amanuenses, were in circulation among members of the Elizabethan court society. The notebook was kept in private collections for four centuries, which probably explains why it was so well preserved. In fact, only in 1984 would P.J. Croft’s fine edition bring the youngest Sidney’s Poems into light. In this work, I approach Croft’s perceptive, accurate philological study that eventually rescued from oblivion a remarkable piece both of the Elizabethan lyric poetry and of the English Renaissance, and, at the same time, look into Robert Sidney’s peculiar, careful and original formatting of his own autograph manuscript.

A Queda de Ícaro, de Brueghel e Schimmernde Inselchen im Meer, de Robert Walser – uma viagem ao mundo da tradução intersemiótica

O tema sobre o qual me proponho escrever insere-se no âmbito da 'tradução intersemiótica', já que se trata de uma análise comparativa da obra Der Sturz des Ikarus, de Pieter Brueghel, e do poema Schimmernde Inselchen im Meer, de Robert Walser, em que estamos perante um exemplo flagrante de transposição de uma obra pictórica para a escrita. No artigo, darei, ainda, especial enfoque à questão de aquele quadro representar, também ele, um exemplo de 'tradução intersemiótica' (neste caso, uma passagem da palavra às artes plásticas), uma vez que Brueghel faz, nele, uma recontextualização do mito de Ícaro, ao transpor para a tela um poema de Ovídio (estamos, assim, mais uma vez, perante um exemplo de mudança de medium). Dado que a questão da 'tradução intersemiótica' se inscreve numa outra, mais vasta ainda, que éa da intertextualidade, tentarei enquadrar uma na outra, tecendo, na introdução do artigo e, sempre que oportuno, ao longo do mesmo, algumas considerações breves sobre a função significante do mitema, as metamorfoses do mito e o papel do mito no 'diálogo intermedial das artes' ao longo dos tempos. Nesta análise comparativa, parto do pressuposto de estarmos, em qualquer tradução, face a um acto de re-escrita, pelo que há que reflectir, particularmente no caso da 'tradução intersemiótica', sobre a (nova) dimensão interpretativa conferida pelo processo de transposição mediática

Wissen um Stimmung : zu einem vagen Begriff in Robert Musils Frühwerk

Diese Studie untersucht die Poetik und Wirkungsästhetik von Robert Musils Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß (1906) und Die Vereinigungen (1911) anhand des Schlüsselbegriffs >Stimmung<. Wegen der Vagheit des Begriffs und seiner Relevanz in Psychologie, Philosophie und Ästhetik um 1900 wird das Wissen um >Stimmung< im ersten Teil der Studie diskursgeschichtlich beschrieben. Es kann dabei anhand von Robert Mayer, Gustav Theodor Fechner, Hermann von Helmholtz und Wilhelm Wundt gezeigt werden, dass >Stimmungen< als psychologische Zustände wie ästhetische Phänomene in einem engen Verhältnis mit der thermodynamischen Theorie und der Denkfigur des psychophysischen Parallelismus standen. >Stimmungen< galten zum Ende des 19. Jh. einerseits als gleichermaßen experimentell unzugängliche wie grundlegende psychologische Dispositionen, die Körper, Emotion und Intellekt umfassen können, und andererseits als energetisch konzipiertes Verhältnis des Einzelnen zur Außenwelt, das sich in Schwingungen und Strahlen äußert. Im zweiten und dritten Teil wurden die Wissensübertragungen und die genuin literarischen Ausdifferenzierungen von >Stimmungen< in einer dezidiert textnahen Lektüre von Musils Frühwerk entwickelt. Die Textanalyse zeigte, dass in Musils Frühwerk auf thematischer, metaphorologischer, poetologischer und wirkungsästhetischer Ebene von Stimmungen konstituiert wird. Von herausragender Bedeutung sind dabei immaterielle Phänomene. In Auseinandersetzung mit der Ästhetik des Fin de Siècle und dem >Psychophysischen< formuliert der Roman Die Verwirrungen des Zöglings Törleß eine Poetik des Duftes, mit der das dichtungstheoretische Ideal einer gleichsam emotional wie rational wirksamen Literatur umgesetzt werden soll. Die Novellen Die Vollendung der Liebe und Die Versuchung der stillen Veronika übertragen psychologisches Stimmungswissen in den literarischen Text und differenzieren es zu ästhetischen Strukturen aus. Zwei verschiedene Leitkonzepte konnten in Die Vereinigungen identifiziert werden: Während Die Versuchung der stillen Veronika eine Poetik bzw. eine Wirkungsästhetik der Wellen entwirft, formuliert Die Vollendung der Liebe eine literarische Anthropologie anhand musikalischen Metaphern und Texturen aus.