Sekundenschlaf e il kabarett austriaco

Cabaret is deeply rooted in Austrian culture, particularly in Vienna, where nowadays this genre can once again live its glory days thanks to the effort of many cabaret comedians like Michael Niavarani, Roland Düringer, Alfred Dorfer and Andreas Vitásek. The starting point for this work is the show “Sekundenschlaf”, of the Viennese cabaret artist Andreas Vitásek. The core of the show is time, a dimension that is not fixed, but time can both fly as well as lengthen almost endlessly. Moreover, Vitásek also speaks about many current issues, like politics and the economic crisis, but the focus of the show is always the author’s personal experience. By means of this work I wanted to identify the difficulties of a potential translation of the show in order to find out whether such a translation might be possible and effective. I chose the examples that were more significant from a thematic and linguistic point of view, transcribed them directly from the DVD and analyzed them in detail. The translation of cabaret proves to be particularly difficult, as it is essential to convey the humorous elements to the target audience. Although humor belongs to all human beings, it is extremely specific for each culture and language. Therefore it is the job of a translator to manage to build a bridge between the source and the target culture. This work is divided into two major parts, one dedicated to cabaret as artistic genre, and the other one specifically dedicated to the show “Sekundenschlaf”. Through the analysis of the transcribed examples I have identified first the linguistic and then the thematic difficulties, pointing out which cultural elements are specific for Austrian culture and which elements can be understood (almost) everywhere.

Devising: Pioneering Uncharted Territory in Theater

Throughout theatre history, styles of theatre have come in and out of favor in response to the zeitgeist of the period. Neoclassical, Melodrama, Naturalism, all have their place in history offering enlightenment, passion and truth each in tune with the values of the culture in which it was created. As society transforms, so too does the stage, offering new ways to reflect, interpret and challenge our assumptions about the changing world. Our current society wrestles with a ‘shrinking world’, a world consumed with technological advances that fan the fire of the growing interconnectedness of human beings all over the earth. This ‘shrinking world’ phenomenon has the effect of an‘expanded world awareness’. That is to say, now more than ever we question all assumption regarding singular perspectives and cultural convictions. What our new society values is diversification of insight and a myriad of experiences from which to draw our conclusions about the world in which we live. The kind of theatre that fills this need is Devised Theatre. Theatre is a collaborative art form by nature. Theatre cannot be practiced alone. One must partner other artists as well as an audience in order to create a theatre performance. Theatre is a dialogue which can take many shapes. Devised Theatre is a process of making theatre that enables a group of performers to be physically and practically creative in the sharing and shaping of an original product that directly emanates from assembling, editing and reshaping individual’s contradictory experiences of the world. A devised theatre product is a work that has emerged from and been generated by a group of people working in collaboration. There is an emphasis on a way of working that values an accumulation of ideas. (Oddey)

Cosmologies and Regionalisms from "Above' and "Below' in the Post-Cold War Americas: the Relevance of Karl Polanyi for the 21st Century

Drawing on a Polanyian analysis of the land question, this article aims to analyse both Western and Indigenous cosmologies of Abya Yalathe name that indigenous peoples give to the American continentto understand the relationship between human beings and land and nature. These cosmologies are at the heart of the way in which two distinct societies construct their regional space, one from above', the other from below', and they are therefore key to understanding today's climate change problematique. Following this nexus it is argued that, since the end of the Cold War, a new regional double-movement', unleashed by the quest for land and natural resources has been in the making. This is a superstructural or legal battle between Western transnational regime-making and a law that originated at the centre of the Earth'. The article explains both regionalisms and the dialectical interaction between them and demonstrates that Karl Polanyi's legacy remains relevant for the 21st century.

Saving morality: Why we cannot, and why we must

Philosophers and laymen alike have often used morality to invite misconceptions of human life into ethics, and also of ethics into human life. The Kant/Williams discourse provides a rich backdrop on which to consider these misconceptions. But the misconceptionsof morality involved are just as numerous and just as serious. One thing that the Kant/Williams discourse shows is this: that ethics can be neither contained by nor cultivated without morality. Though much of Williams’ critique of Kantian morality is quite astute, thephilosophical and ethical wisdoms of morality abound in spite of these. Morality understands the fundamental condition of moral loss, and the sometimes irreducible quandaries that this condition places human beings in. It understands the nature of the moral law, and theintricacies that the levels of letter and spirit invite into human life. Perhaps more importantly, it understands the uncompromising relationship between moral loss and moral law, and how the human navigation of this relationship leads into the ethical realm via giving rise to ethical conviction. Finally, for all of its pressures, morality abounds in valuable wisdoms for the one discovering that the human soul occupies a place of ethical significance in the world. It is responsible for pointing out, grounding and providing a framework for some of the most fundamental truths about the world and human beings; and these are essential to any viable ethical theory and sensible conception of human life.

Burning Skies: A Novella

Burning Skies is a seventy-page novella completed as an Honors Thesis in Creative Writing. The story is set in Los Angeles, California, during the 1992 riots surrounding the controversy over the beating of Rodney King by four white police officers. The story is toldthrough the perspectives of the four main characters: Erin, a woman who is four months pregnant with a baby she desperately wants; her husband David, who has moved the couple out to California so that he can pursue his dream of being a cinematographer; Abby, David’s deeplyreligious younger sister who has unexpectedly flown out to Los Angeles from her home in Indiana after discovering her husband’s infidelity; and Cameron, a black man training to be a pastor who Abby has befriended through her years of missionary work in Los Angeles.The novella follows the events of the riots as they break out all across the city and the personal dramas of each of the four main characters, looking at how the public interacts with theprivate and examining the ways in which explosions in the public and political sphere can ricochet into our private and personal lives. It is a story about the political and racial climate in Los Angeles in the early 1990s, but it is also a story about four human beings, about their needs and their desires, about their struggles to survive in an unpredictable world. The novella showcases the skills and techniques the author has learned after four years of studying fiction at Bucknell University; it can best be described as a work of realistic fiction.

Atypical transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in ruminants: a challenge for disease surveillance and control

Since 1987, when bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) emerged as a novel disease in cattle, enormous efforts were undertaken to monitor and control the disease in ruminants worldwide. The driving force was its high economic impact, which resulted from trade restrictions and the loss of consumer confidence in beef products, the latter because BSE turned out to be a fatal zoonosis, causing variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in human beings. The ban on meat and bone meal in livestock feed and the removal of specified risk materials from the food chain were the main measures to successfully prevent infection in cattle and to protect human beings from BSE exposure. However, although BSE is now under control, previously unknown, so-called atypical transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) in cattle and small ruminants have been identified by enhanced disease surveillance. This report briefly reviews and summarizes the current level of knowledge on the spectrum of TSEs in cattle and small ruminants and addresses the question of the extent to which such atypical TSEs have an effect on disease surveillance and control strategies.

[House dust mite allergy]

House dust mites can be found all over the world where human beings live independent from the climate. Proteins from the gastrointestinal tract- almost all known as enzymes - are the allergens which induce chronic allergic diseases. The inhalation of small amounts of allergens on a regular base all night leads to a slow beginning of the disease with chronically stuffed nose and an exercise induced asthma which later on persists. House dust mites grow well in a humid climate - this can be in well isolated dwellings or in the tropical climate - and nourish from human skin dander. Scales are found in mattresses, upholstered furniture and carpets. The clinical picture with slowly aggravating complaints leads quite often to a delayed diagnosis, which is accidently done on the occasion of a wider spectrum of allergy skin testing. The beginning of a medical therapy with topical steroids as nasal spray or inhalation leads to a fast relief of the complaints. Although discussed in extensive controversies in the literature - at least in Switzerland with the cold winter and dry climate - the recommendation of house dust mite avoidance measures is given to patients with good clinical results. The frequent ventilation of the dwelling with cold air in winter time cause a lower indoor humidity. Covering encasings on mattresses, pillow, and duvets reduces the possibility of chronic contact with mite allergens as well as the weekly changing the bed linen. Another option of therapy is the specific immunotherapy with extracts of house dust mites showing good results in children and adults. Using recombinant allergens will show a better quality in diagnostic as well as in therapeutic specific immunotherapy.

Tolerance and Critical Thinking

Post-soviet countries are in the process of transformation from a totalitarian order to a democratic one, a transformation which is impossible without a profound shift in people's way of thinking. The group set themselves the task of determining the essence of this shift. Using a multidisciplinary approach, they looked at concrete ways of overcoming the totalitarian mentality and forming that necessary for an open democratic society. They studied the contemporary conceptions of tolerance and critical thinking and looked for new foundations of criticism, especially in hermeneutics. They then sought to substantiate the complementary relation between tolerance and criticism in the democratic way of thinking and to prepare a a syllabus for teaching on the subject in Ukrainian higher education. In a philosophical exploration of tolerance they began with relgious tolerance as its first and most important form. Political and social interests often lay at the foundations of religious intolerance and this implicitly comprised the transition to religious tolerance when conditions changed. Early polytheism was more or less indifferent to dogmatic deviations but monotheism is intolerant of heresies. The damage wrought by the religious wars of the Reformations transformed tolerance into a value. They did not create religious tolerance but forced its recognition as a positive phenomenon. With the weakening of religious institutions in the modern era, the purely political nature of many conflicts became evident and this stimulated the extrapolation of tolerance into secular life. Each historical era has certain acts and operations which may be interpreted as tolerant and these can be classified as to whether or not they are based on the conscious following of the principle of tolerance. This criterion requires the separation of the phenomenon of tolerance from its concept and from tolerance as a value. Only the conjunction of a concept of tolerance with a recognition of its value can transform it into a principle dictating a norm of conscious behaviour. The analysis of the contemporary conception of tolerance focused on the diversity of the concept and concluded that the notions used cannot be combined in the framework of a single more or less simple classification, as the distinctions between them are stimulated by the complexity of the realty considered and the variety of its manifestations. Notions considered in relation to tolerance included pluralism, respect and particular-universal. The rationale of tolerance was also investigated and the group felt that any substantiation of the principle of tolerance must take into account human beings' desire for knowledge. Before respecting or being tolerant of another person different from myself, I should first know where the difference lies, so knowledge is a necessary condition of tolerance.The traditional division of truth into scientific (objective and unique) and religious, moral, political (subjective and so multiple) intensifies the problem of the relationship between truth and tolerance. Science was long seen as a field of "natural" intolerance whereas the validity of tolerance was accepted in other intellectual fields. As tolerance eemrges when there is difference and opposition, it is essentially linked with rivaly and there is a a growing recognition today that unlimited rivalry is neither able to direct the process of development nor to act as creative matter. Social and economic reality has led to rivalry being regulated by the state and a natural requirement of this is to associate tolerance with a special "purified" form of rivalry, an acceptance of the actiivity of different subjects and a specification of the norms of their competition. Tolerance and rivalry should therefore be subordinate to a degree of discipline and the group point out that discipline, including self-discipline, is a regulator of the balance between them. Two problematic aspects of tolerance were identified: why something traditionally supposed to have no positive content has become a human activity today, and whether tolerance has full-scale cultural significance. The resolution of these questions requires a revision of the phenomenon and conception of tolerance to clarify its immanent positive content. This involved an investigation of the contemporary concept of tolerance and of the epistemological foundations of a negative solution of tolerance in Greek thought. An original soution to the problem of the extrapolation of tolerance to scientific knowledge was proposed based on the Duhem-Quine theses and conceptiion of background knowledge. In this way tolerance as a principle of mutual relations between different scientific positions gains an essential epistemological rationale and so an important argument for its own universal status. The group then went on to consider the ontological foundations for a positive solution of this problem, beginning with the work of Poincare and Reichenbach. The next aspect considered was the conceptual foundations of critical thinking, looking at the ideas of Karl Popper and St. Augustine and at the problem of the demarcation line between reasonable criticism and apologetic reasoning. Dogmatic and critical thinking in a political context were also considered, before an investigation of critical thinking's foundations. As logic is essential to critical thinking, the state of this discipline in Ukrainian and Russian higher education was assessed, together with the limits of formal-logical grounds for criticism, the role of informal logical as a basis for critical thinking today, dialectical logic as a foundation for critical thinking and the universality of the contemporary demand for criticism. The search for new foundations of critical thinking covered deconstructivism and critical hermeneutics, including the problem of the author. The relationship between tolerance and criticism was traced from the ancient world, both eastern and Greek, through the transitional community of the Renaissance to the industrial community (Locke and Mill) and the evolution of this relationship today when these are viewed not as moral virtues but as ordinary norms. Tolerance and criticism were discussed as complementary manifestations of human freedom. If the completeness of freedom were accepted it would be impossible to avoid recognition of the natural and legal nature of these manifestations and the group argue that critical tolerance is able to avoid dismissing such negative phenomena as the degradation of taste and manner, pornography, etc. On the basis of their work, the group drew up the syllabus of a course in "Logic with Elements of Critical Thinking, and of a special course on the "Problem of Tolerance".

Continuous extradural analgesia in a cow with complex regional pain syndrome

A chronic pain syndrome, similar to the complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) described in human beings, was diagnosed in a cow with persisting severe pelvic limb lameness. Diagnosis was based on the disproportionate relationship between the severity and duration of pain and the lesion, the failure of conventional analgesic and surgical therapy and the presence of characteristic clinical features. Multimodal therapy, i.e. a mixture of methadone, ketamine and bupivacaine was administered continuously for 17 days via an extradural catheter to counteract nociceptive hypersensitization. Doses were adjusted daily after assessing the effect, using a composite pain score. Physiotherapy was also performed. The diagnosis of CRPS in cattle is unusual. In this case, treatment was successful and the cow was discharged mildly lame and in improving physical condition. Long-term extradural analgesia proved to be safe and effective in the treatment of this syndrome, which was nonresponsive to conventional therapy.

Body sensor network for in-home personal healthcare

A body sensor network solution for personal healthcare under an indoor environment is developed. The system is capable of logging the physiological signals of human beings, tracking the orientations of human body, and monitoring the environmental attributes, which covers all necessary information for the personal healthcare in an indoor environment. The major three chapters of this dissertation contain three subsystems in this work, each corresponding to one subsystem: BioLogger, PAMS and CosNet. Each chapter covers the background and motivation of the subsystem, the related theory, the hardware/software design, and the evaluation of the prototype’s performance.

Modeling spontaneous three-dimensional polymerization

For human beings, the origin of life has always been an interesting and mysterious matter, particularly how life arose from inorganic matter through natural processes. Polymerization is always involved in such processes. In this paper we built what we refer to as ideal and physical models to simulate spontaneous polymerization based on certain physical principles. As the modeling confirms, without taking external energy, small and simple inorganic molecules formed bigger and more complicated molecules, which are necessary ingredients of all living organisms. In our simulations, we utilized actual ranges of parameters according to their experimentally observed values. The results from the simulations led to a good agreement with the nature of polymerization. After sorting out through all the models that were built, we arrived at a final model that, it is hoped, can be used to simply and efficiently describe spontaneous polymerization using only three parameters: the dipole moment, the distance between molecules, and the temperature.

NICKEL-COBALT SOLID SOLUTION AND ITS APPLICATIONS AS CATALYSTS FOR CARBON DIOXIDE REFORMING OF METHANE

Global warming issue becomes more significant to human beings and other organisms on the earth. Among many greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide (CO2) has the largest contribution to global warming. To find an effective way to utilize the greenhouse gas is urgent. It is the best way to convert CO2 to useful compounds. CO2 reforming of methane is an attractive process to convert CO2 and methane into synthesis gas (CO/H2), which can be used as a feedstock for gasoline, methanol, and other hydrocarbons. Nickel and cobalt were found to have good activity for CO2 reforming. However, they have a poor stability due to carbon deposition. This research developed efficient Ni-Co solid solution catalysts with excellent activities and high stability for CO2 reforming of methane. First, the structure of binary oxide solid solution of nickel and cobalt was investigated. It was found that while the calcination of Ni(NO3)2 and Co(NO3)2 mixture with 1:1 molar ratio at a high temperature above 800 oC generated NiO-CoO solid solution, only Ni3O4-Co3O4 solid solution was observed after the calcination at a low temperature of 500 oC. Furthermore, if the calcination was carried out at a medium temperature arranged from 600 to 700 oC, both NiO-CoO and Ni3O4-Co3O4 solid solutions can be formed. This occurred because Co3O4 can induce the formation of Ni3O4, whereas NiO can stabilize CoO. In addition, the lattice parameter of Ni3O4, which was predicted by using Vegard’s Law, is 8.2054 Å. As a very important part of this dissertation, Ni-Co solid solution was evaluated as catalysts for CO2 reforming of methane. It was revealed that nickel-cobalt solid solution showed excellent catalytic performance and high stability for CO2 reforming of methane. However, the stability of Ni-Co solid solution catalysts is strongly dependent on their composition and preparation condition. The optimum composition is 50%Ni-50%Co. Furthermore, the structure of Ni-Co catalysts was characterized by XRD, Vvis, TPR, TPD, BET, AES, TEM, XANES and EXAFS. The relationship between the structure and the catalytic performance was established: (1) The reduced NiO-CoO solid solution possesses better catalytic performance and stability than the reduced Ni3O4-Co3O4 solid solution. (2) Ni is richer on surface in Ni-Co catalysts. And (3) the reduction of Ni-Co-O solid solution generated two types of particles, small and large particles. The small ones are dispersed on large ones as catalytic component.

RAPID SPACE TRAJECTORY GENERATION USING A FOURIER SERIES SHAPE-BASED APPROACH

With the insatiable curiosity of human beings to explore the universe and our solar system, it is essential to benefit from larger propulsion capabilities to execute efficient transfers and carry more scientific equipment. In the field of space trajectory optimization the fundamental advances in using low-thrust propulsion and exploiting the multi-body dynamics has played pivotal role in designing efficient space mission trajectories. The former provides larger cumulative momentum change in comparison with the conventional chemical propulsion whereas the latter results in almost ballistic trajectories with negligible amount of propellant. However, the problem of space trajectory design translates into an optimal control problem which is, in general, time-consuming and very difficult to solve. Therefore, the goal of the thesis is to address the above problem by developing a methodology to simplify and facilitate the process of finding initial low-thrust trajectories in both two-body and multi-body environments. This initial solution will not only provide mission designers with a better understanding of the problem and solution but also serves as a good initial guess for high-fidelity optimal control solvers and increases their convergence rate. Almost all of the high-fidelity solvers enjoy the existence of an initial guess that already satisfies the equations of motion and some of the most important constraints. Despite the nonlinear nature of the problem, it is sought to find a robust technique for a wide range of typical low-thrust transfers with reduced computational intensity. Another important aspect of our developed methodology is the representation of low-thrust trajectories by Fourier series with which the number of design variables reduces significantly. Emphasis is given on simplifying the equations of motion to the possible extent and avoid approximating the controls. These facts contribute to speeding up the solution finding procedure. Several example applications of two and three-dimensional two-body low-thrust transfers are considered. In addition, in the multi-body dynamic, and in particular the restricted-three-body dynamic, several Earth-to-Moon low-thrust transfers are investigated.

Fish possess multiple copies of fgfrl1, the gene for a novel FGF receptor

FGFRL1 is a novel FGF receptor that lacks the intracellular tyrosine kinase domain. While mammals, including man and mouse, possess a single copy of the FGFRL1 gene, fish have at least two copies, fgfrl1a and fgfrl1b. In zebrafish, both genes are located on chromosome 14, separated by about 10 cM. The two genes show a similar expression pattern in several zebrafish tissues, although the expression of fgfrl1b appears to be weaker than that of fgfrl1a. A clear difference is observed in the ovary of Fugu rubripes, which expresses fgfrl1a but not fgfrl1b. It is therefore possible that subfunctionalization has played a role in maintaining the two fgfrl1 genes during the evolution of fish. In human beings, the FGFRL1 gene is located on chromosome 4, adjacent to the SPON2, CTBP1 and MEAEA genes. These genes are also found adjacent to the fgfrl1a gene of Fugu, suggesting that FGFRL1, SPON2, CTBP1 and MEAEA were preserved as a coherent block during the evolution of Fugu and man.

Capabilities and Education

This paper provides an outline about the basic ideas of the capability approach. It will be argued that the capability approach is able to provide an appropriate approach in order to evaluate educational and social human services. As an egalitarian approach to social justice, the capability approach has particular strengths when issues concerning the actual life-conduct of tangible human beings come to the fore. In particular educational aspects of welfare and well-being might thus be well grounded on the Aristotelian reasoning of the capability approach. The paper focuses on the potentially fruitful relations of the capability approach and the philosophy and practice of ‘just’ education referring to the idea of the autonomy of life-practice.