Forced Displacement, Suffering and the Aesthetics of Loss

This article investigates how artists have addressed shocking experiences of displacement in different political contexts. Drawing on the notion of ‘the aesthetics of loss’ (Köstlin, 2010), it examines and compares the different aims, desires and strategies that have shaped the histories and social lives of paintings, memorial statues, installations and other artefacts. The analysis identifies a mode of artistic engagement with the sense of a ‘loss of homeland’ that has been commonly felt amongst Sudeten German expellees, namely the production and framing of visual images as markers of collective trauma. These aesthetics of loss are contrasted with the approach taken by the Dutch artist Sophie Ernst in her project entitled HOME. Working with displaced people from Pakistan, India, Palestine, Israel and Iraq, she created a mnemonic space to stimulate a more individualistic, exploratory engagement with the loss of home, which aimed, in part, to elicit interpersonal empathy. To simply oppose these two modes of aesthetic engagement, however, would ignore the ways in which artefacts are drawn into different discursive, affective and spatial formations. This article argues for the need to expose such dynamic processes of framing and reframing by focusing on the processual aspects of aestheticisation with attention to the perspective of loss.

The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species’ threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project – and avert – future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups – including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems – www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.

Mutant and chimeric recombinant plasminogen activators

Mutant urokinase-type plasminogen activator (u-PA) genes and hybrid genes between tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and u-Pa have been designed to direct the synthesis of new plasminogen activators.

Cloning and expression in Escherichia coli of full-length complementary DNA coding for human α1-antitrypsin

A cDNA library prepared from human liver was screened for α₁-antitrypsin, a major constituent of plasma which functions as inhibitor of proteolytic enzyms. The library was screened using a 12-base-long synthetic oligodeoxyribonucleotide corresponding to a known DNA fragment of human α₁-antitrypsin and by hybrid-selection of α₁-antitrypsin mRNA.

Stressbewältigung durch Entwicklung von Spiritualität im Sinne einer religionsunabhängigen Erfahrung : ein Konzept zur Verbesserung von Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und Steigerung von Produktivität in Unternehmen

Die Zeit liegt noch nicht lange zurück, da es insbesondere im Bereich des unternehmensbezogenen Managements einfach dazugehörte, „im Stress“ zu sein. Häufig wurde es als Zeichen für Wichtigkeit und Unentbehrlichkeit gedeutet. Bemerkenswert ist, dass sich diese Einstellung zur Stressthematik in der einschlägigen wirtschaftsbezogenen Öffentlichkeit grundlegend geändert hat. Heutzutage – so heißt es dort – handeln Führungskräfte verantwortungsvoll, wenn Stresssymptome ernst genommen werden, weil man davon ausgeht, dass erholte Mitarbeiter auf allen Ebenen der Hierarchie weniger Fehler machen, seltener krank sind und produktiver arbeiten. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird empfohlen, der Balance zwischen An- und Entspannung durch beispielsweise meditative Entspannungstechniken mehr Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken und auch der im Menschen stattfindenden Kommunikation, der sog. inneren Kommunikation, größere Beachtung zu schenken, denn der Stress beginnt im Kopf. Im folgenden Beitrag wird die eben skizzierte Einstellungsänderung aufgegriffen, um auf dieser Grundlage die Relevanz der Entwicklung von Spiritualität im Sinne einer religionsunabhängigen Erfahrung zum Zwecke der Stressbewältigung herauszuarbeiten.

Förderung psychosozialer Gesundheit in Unternehmen durch Entwicklung von Spiritualität - eine Betrachtung mit Blick auf ayurvedische Strategien

Entstanden im Rahmen des Forschungsschwerpunkts "Entwicklung von Spiritualität in der Wirtschaft".

Transzendenz - Basis für Kreativität im Management

Wird ein Problem chronisch, könnte man dies als Mangel an Kreativität interpretieren. Die Antwort auf die Frage „wie könnte eine Problemlösung ohne schädliche Nebenwirkungen aussehen?“ fällt häufig allerdings nicht leicht. Der vorliegende Arbeitsbericht hat sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, für solche Problemlösungen die Aufmerksamkeit auf eine Tür zu lenken, die heutzutage tendenziell verschlossen ist. Die Empfehlung lautet, das gewohnte Denken zu transzendieren. Viele große Künstler und Wissenschaftler sind diesen Weg gegangen und haben auf diese Weise Kreatives hervorgebracht. So hat sich z.B. Johannes Brahms für seine Kompositionen in einen besonderen Zustand versetzt, der ihm „transzendentale Offenbarungen“ ermöglichte. Er erwähnte auch, dass jeder Mensch über solche Möglichkeiten verfügt, um auf diese Weise unkonventionelle Problemlösungen auf die Erde zu holen.

Julius Caesar, August 8, 1939

Concert program for Julius Caesar, August 8, 1939

Marriage of Figaro, January 22, 1940

Concert program for Marriage of Figaro, January 22, 1940

Utopia and its Discontents: Dreams of Catastrophe and the End of 'the End of History'

The institutionalization of Utopia Studies in the last decade is premised upon a specifically aesthetic reception of Ernst Bloch’s theory of the “utopian impulse” during the 1980s and 1990s. A postmodern uneasiness to both left and right formulations of the "End of History" during this period imposes a resistance to concepts of historical and political closure or totality, resulting in a "Utopianism without Utopia". For all the attractiveness of this pan-utopianism, its failure to consider the relation between historical representation and fulfillment renders it consummate with liberalism as a merely inverted conservatism. In contrast to this specific recuperation of a Bloch, the continuing importance of Walter Benjamin’s theory of the dialectical image and the speculative concept of historical experience which underlies it becomes apparent. The intrusion of the historical Absolute is coded throughout Benjamin’s thought as the eruptive and mortuary figure of catastrophe, which stands as the dialectical counterpart to the utopian wish images of the collective dream. Indeed, the motto under which the Arcades Project was to be constructed derives from Adorno: “Each epoch dreams of itself as annihilated by catastrophe”.

Europa nach 1945 – zur situation nach dem zweiten weltkrieg

Bevor man „Europa― als politisches Konzept in zahlreichen theoretischen Texten erörterte, ist in der deutschen Literatur der Gedanke eines vereinten Europas schon seit dem 16. Jahrhundert thematisiert worden. Im folgenden Aufsatz sollen Texte der Essayisten Ernst Jünger, Frank Thiess, Werner Bergengruen und Klaus Mann (20. Jahrhundert), in denen ihr Standpunkt bezüglich des Europa-Gedanken, d.h. ein vereintes Europa zur Zeit nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg zum Ausdruck gebracht wird. Dabei sind hauptsächlich Gemeinsamkeiten und Differenzen zwischen den Autoren unter geistigen und historischen Gesichtspunkten zu ziehen.

Recommandations pour une alimentation saine

Afin de tenir compte de ces recommandations pour notre alimentation quotidienne, il faut adapter aussi bien les menus domestiques destinés à la famille que les menus des cantines sur les lieux de travail, et ceci de façon simultanée. Ce but peut être atteint sans modifier nos traditions alimentaires, ni même notre approvisionnement.Le respect de ces directives permettra d'équilibrer rapidement notre alimentation et adapter notre consommation à nos besoins réels.

Results of a collaborative study of the EDNAP group regarding mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy and segregation in hair shafts.

A collaborative exercise was carried out by the European DNA Profiling Group (EDNAP) in order to evaluate the distribution of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) heteroplasmy amongst the hairs of an individual who displays point heteroplasmy in blood and buccal cells. A second aim of the exercise was to study reproducibility of mtDNA sequencing of hairs between laboratories using differing chemistries, further to the first mtDNA reproducibility study carried out by the EDNAP group. Laboratories were asked to type 2 sections from each of 10 hairs, such that each hair was typed by at least two laboratories. Ten laboratories participated in the study, and a total of 55 hairs were typed. The results showed that the C/T point heteroplasmy observed in blood and buccal cells at position 16234 segregated differentially between hairs, such that some hairs showed only C, others only T and the remainder, C/T heteroplasmy at varying ratios. Additionally, differential segregation of heteroplasmic variants was confirmed in independent extracts at positions 16093 and the poly(C) tract at 302-309, whilst a complete A-G transition was confirmed at position 16129 in one hair. Heteroplasmy was observed at position 16195 on both strands of a single extract from one hair segment, but was not observed in the extracts from any other segment of the same hair. Similarly, heteroplasmy at position 16304 was observed on both strands of a single extract from one hair. Additional variants at positions 73, 249 and the HVII poly(C) region were reported by one laboratory; as these were not confirmed in independent extracts, the possibility of contamination cannot be excluded. Additionally, the electrophoresis and detection equipment used by this laboratory was different to those of the other laboratories, and the discrepancies at position 249 and the HVII poly(C) region appear to be due to reading errors that may be associated with this technology. The results, and their implications for forensic mtDNA typing, are discussed in the light of the biology of hair formation.