Le silence des Sirènes : Franz Kafka

La nouvelle de Kafka, une page écrite le 23 octobre 1917, est une réécriture du passage de l’Odyssée d’Homère1 dans lequel Circé avertit Ulysse qu’il va passer au large de l’île des Sirènes. Ces êtres hybrides, mifemmes mioiseaux, attirent irrésistiblement les marins par leur chant et provoquent leur naufrage ce dont témoigne le rivage couvert d’ossements. Circé indique aussi à Ulysse le moyen d’échapper à ce sort funeste: il devra boucher les oreilles de ses compagnons avec de la cire; lui seul, solidement attaché au mât, pourra jouir de la voix des Sirènes.

ENTREVISTA CON FRANZ HINKELAMMERT

El 05 de abril de 2001, en sesión ordinaria del Consejo Universitario de la Universidad Nacional, éste órgano de la UNA tomó el acuerdo de otorgar al Dr. Franz J. Hinkelammert, científico social alemán radicado en Costa Rica desde hace más de veinte años y uno de los fundadores del Departamento Ecuménico de Investigaciones(DEI); el Doctorado Honoris Causa, “por su excepcional aporte a las ciencias sociales contemporáneas”. El acto público para la entrega oficial de tal distinción se realizó un mes después, y en ese mismo acto, se le solicitó al Dr.Hinkelammert la entrega de una obra reciente o en preparación de su autoría, para que fuera publicada por la Editorial de la UNA, como parte del reconocimiento a su labor intelectual. El borrador final de esa obra fue entregada a la EUNA a finales de 2001, y tratándose de más de 500 páginas, tomó casi un año de prolijo trabajo la tarea de corrección y edición. Se trata del libro que comentamos en la presente entrevista, EL SUJETO Y LA LEY. El retorno del Sujeto reprimido, Editorial Universidad Nacional,Heredia, Costa Rica, 2003.

UNA REVISITA A LA OBRA Y EL PENSAMIENTO DE FRANZ HINKELAMMERT

Catalogado por el también connotado Enrique Dussel, como el filósofo más prominente en la actualidad en América Latina, Franz Hinkelammert es, en efecto, un pensador y crítico social de gran trayectoria en nuestro continente, desde su llegada a Chile en 1963. Autor de obras de gran relevancia en el campo de la economía, la filosofía y la teología de la liberación, Hinkelammert se desempeña actualmente como miembro del equipo de investigadores del Departamento Ecuménico de Investigaciones (DEI), con sede en San José de Costa Rica.Con Franz Hinkelammert nos une una amistad de varios años, lo mismo que un vínculo de colaboración con la Escuela de Economía de la UNA, donde asiduamente un grupo de académicos y estudiantes trabajamos y discutimos sus obras. Recordamos en especial sus tesis sobre el subdesarrollo, la teoría del valor, el fetichismo mercantil, y sobre la deuda externa. Su obra es realmente prolija y sugerente, al mismo tiempo que reúne la singular característica de la multidisciplinariedad en la mayoría de sus trabajos. Por estos, y muchos otros motivos, hemos considerado extraordinariamente valioso presentar a los lectores de Economía y Sociedad una síntesis de su pensamiento, a través de los resultados de esta entrevista que tuve el honor de realizar y editar. La misma está estructurada en quince preguntas, numeradas de forma consecutiva. No obstante, y dado que cada pregunta abarca en realidad un área temática, aparecen preguntas o comentarios adicionales de mi parte que se identifican en letra negrita y que son antecedidas por las siglas H.M. La entrevista se realizó a mediados de enero del 2000, y el trabajo de edición finalizó a finales de febrero.

Application of dried blood spots to determine vitamin D status in a large nutritional study with unsupervised sampling: the Food4Me project

An efficient and robust method to measure vitamin D (25-hydroxy vitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) and 25-hydroxy vitamin D2 in dried blood spots (DBS) has been developed and applied in the pan-European multi-centre, internet-based, personalised nutrition intervention study Food4Me. The method includes calibration with blood containing endogenous 25(OH)D3, spotted as DBS and corrected for haematocrit content. The methodology was validated following international standards. The performance characteristics did not reach those of the current gold standard liquid chromatography-MS/MS in plasma for all parameters, but were found to be very suitable for status-level determination under field conditions. DBS sample quality was very high, and 3778 measurements of 25(OH)D3 were obtained from 1465 participants. The study centre and the season within the study centre were very good predictors of 25(OH)D3 levels (P<0·001 for each case). Seasonal effects were modelled by fitting a sine function with a minimum 25(OH)D3 level on 20 January and a maximum on 21 July. The seasonal amplitude varied from centre to centre. The largest difference between winter and summer levels was found in Germany and the smallest in Poland. The model was cross-validated to determine the consistency of the predictions and the performance of the DBS method. The Pearson's correlation between the measured values and the predicted values was r 0·65, and the sd of their differences was 21·2 nmol/l. This includes the analytical variation and the biological variation within subjects. Overall, DBS obtained by unsupervised sampling of the participants at home was a viable methodology for obtaining vitamin D status information in a large nutritional study.

A agonia do insecto: Abordagem psicológica à obra de Franz Kafka

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada ao Instituto Superior de Psicologia Aplicada para obtenção de grau de Mestre na especialidade de Psicologia Clínica.

Archaeology and History at the Johannes Kolb Site–38DA75

This document describes the Johannes Kolb archaeological site in Darlington County, S.C.

Work integrated learning for design : a scholarship of integration

Within an action research framework, this paper describes the conceptual basis for developing a crossdisciplinary pedagogical model of higher education/industry engagement for the built environment design disciplines including architecture, interior design, industrial design and landscape architecture. Aiming to holistically acknowledge and capitalize on the work environment as a place of authentic learning, problems arising in practice are understood as the impetus, focus and ‘space’ for a process of inquiry and discovery that, in the spirit of Boyer’s ‘Scholarship of Integration’, provides for generic as well as discipline-specific learning.

Calling Home

Through the exhibition implicit conceptions of home held by the participating artists and those viewing the exhibition were externalized. Represented as images, the conceptions conveyed different as well as shared understandings categorized as physical, cognitive, emotional, instrumental and existential. Unlike written papers on the meaning of home, the exhibition enabled access to a richer understanding of home as facilitating a way of being-in-the-world.

At-the-edge-of-the-forest

This exhibition was the outcome of a personal arts-based exploration of the meaning of interiority. Through the process it was found that existentially the architectural wall differentiating inside from outside does not exist but operates as a space of overlap, a groundless ground providing for dwelling in the real existential sense of the word.

Existential experience : the unfolding

This paper reports on a project concerned with the relationship between person and space in the context of achieving a contemplative state. The need for such a study originated with the desire to contribute to the design of multicultural spaces which could be used for a range of activities including prayer and meditation. Given that the words ‘prayer’ and ‘meditation’ are highly value-laden and potentially alienating for some people, it was decided to use the more accessible term ‘contemplative’. While the project is still underway,several findings have emerged that can be reported on and are of relevance to the conference both methodologically and substantively. Informed by phenomenological methodology, data were collected from a diverse group of people using photo-elicitation and interviewing. The technique of photo-elicitation proved to be highly effective in helping people to reveal their everyday lived experience of contemplative spaces. This methodological aspect of the project is described more fully in the paper. The initial stage of analysis produced two categories of data: varying conceptions of contemplation and contemplative space; and, common understandings of contemplation and contemplative space. From this it was found that achieving a state of contemplation involves both the person and the environment in a dialectic process of unfolding. The unfolding has various physical, psycho-social, and existential dimensions or qualities which operate sequentially and simultaneously. In the paper, these are labelled:the unfolding of the core; distinction; manifestation; cleansing; creation; and sharing, and have parallels with Mircea Eliade’s 1959 definition of sacred as 'something that manifests itself, shows itself, as something wholly different from the profane’. It also connects with the views of Nishida Kitaro from the Kyoto School of Philosophy on the theme of ‘absolute nothingness’: ‘the body-mind is dropped off and we are united with the consciousness of absolute nothingness’ (Kitaro in Heisig, 2001, p. 169). According to Marion (2005), ‘nothingness’ is defined by givenness. In the paper, this fold of givenness is interpreted in the context of the qualities of the environment that accomplish the act of coming forward into visibility through the dialectic relationship with a person. (Eliade, 1959, Heisig, 2001, Marion, 2002)

Raman spectroscopic study of the magnesium carbonate minerals– artinite and dypingite

Magnesium minerals are important in the understanding of the concept of geosequestration. The two hydrated hydroxy magnesium carbonate minerals artinite and dypingite have been studied by Raman spectroscopy. Intense bands are observed at 1092 cm-1 for artinite and at 1120 cm-1 for dypingite attributed CO32- ν1 symmetric stretching mode. The CO32- ν3 antisymmetric stretching vibrations are extremely weak and are observed at1412 and 1465 cm-1 for artinite and at 1366, 1447 and 1524 cm-1 for dypingite. Very weak Raman bands at 790 cm-1 for artinite and 800 cm-1 for dypingite are assigned to the CO32- ν2 out-of-plane bend. The Raman band at 700 cm-1 of artinite and at 725 and 760 cm-1 of dypingite are ascribed to CO32- ν2 in-plane bending mode. The Raman spectrum of artinite in the OH stretching region is characterised by two sets of bands: (a) an intense band at 3593 cm-1 assigned to the MgOH stretching vibrations and (b) the broad profile of overlapping bands at 3030 and 3229 cm-1 attributed to water stretching vibrations. X-ray diffraction studies show the minerals are disordered. This is reflected in the difficulty of obtaining Raman spectra of reasonable quality and explains why the Raman spectra of these minerals have not been previously or sufficiently described.

Mailed treatment to augment primary care for alcohol disorders : a randomised controlled trial

Introduction and Aims: Remote delivery of interventions is needed to address large numbers of people with alcohol use disorders who are spread over large areas. Previous correspondence trials typically examined its effects as stand-alone treatment. This study aimed to test whether adding postal treatment to general practitioner (GP) support would lower alcohol use more than GP intervention alone. Design and Methods: A single-blind, randomised controlled trial with a crossover design was conducted over 12 months on 204 people with alcohol use disorders. Participants in an immediate correspondence condition received treatment over the first 3 months; those receiving delayed treatment received it in months 3–6. Results: Few participants were referred from GPs, and little intervention was offered by them. At 3 months, 78% of participants remained in the study. Those in immediate treatment showed greater reductions in alcohol per week, drinking days, anxiety, depression and distress than those in the delayed condition. However, post-treatment and follow-up outcomes still showed elevated alcohol use, depression, anxiety and distress. Greater baseline anxiety predicted better alcohol outcomes, although more mental distress at baseline predicted dropout. Discussion and Conclusions: The study gave consistent results with those from previous research on correspondence treatments, and showed that high levels of participant engagement over 3 months can be obtained. Substantial reductions in alcohol use are seen, with indications that they are well maintained. However, many participants continue to show high-risk alcohol use and psychological distress.

An experiment in mixed compilation/interpretation

One of the classic forms of intermediate representation used for communication between compiler front-ends and back-ends are those based on abstract stack machines. It is possible to compile the stack machine instructions into machine code by means of an interpretive code generator, or to simulate the stack machine at runtime using an interpreter. This paper describes an approach intermediate between these two extremes. The front-end for a commercial Modula 2 compiler was ported to the "industry standard PC", and a partially compiling back-end written. The object code runs with the assistance of an interpreter, but may be linked with libraries which are fully compiled. The intent was to provide a programming environment on the PC which is identical to that of the same compilers on 32-bit UNIX machines. This objective has been met, and the compiler is available to educational institutions as free-ware. The design basis of the new compiler is described, and the performance critically evaluated.