Habent sua fata libelli - oder: Menschen haben ihre eigenen Schicksale

Seit die Bremer Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek 1991 von dem Bremer Politikwissenschaftler und Judaika-Forscher Klaus von Münchhausen auf Buchbestände in ihrem Bestand aufmerksam gemacht wurde, deren Herkunfts- und Eigentumsverhältnisse ungeklärt sind, hat sich die Leitung bemüht, diese Fragen zu klären. Dafür wurde extra eine Stelle geschaffen. Es handelt sich um ca. 1.200 Titel, die alle den Vermerk J.A. (=Judenauktion) tragen, und die größtenteils 1942 bei Versteigerungen von sogenannten „Auswanderer-Umzugsgut“ zugunsten des NS-Staates erworben wurde. Es gelang in mühsamer Kleinarbeit 45 Familiennamen zu rekonstruieren, und bei einigen davon konnte mit den Erben Kontakt aufgenommen werden, wobei die Rückgabe angeboten wurde. Es geht bei der Forschungsarbeit und eventuellen Rückgabe nicht um materielle, sondern um persönliche Werte

Life history of Aptesis nigrocincta (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae) a cocoon parasitoid of the apple sawfly, Hoplocampa testudinea (Hymenoptera: Tenthredinidae)

Aptesis nigrocincta Gravenhorst is a bivoltine ectoparasitoid of apple sawfly cocoons, hosts that must be found and parasitized by females at a depth of 10-25 cm in the soil. Females are significantly smaller than males and nearly wingless. After encountering a host, females needed 29.3 min at 20°C and 19.9 min at 25°C to deposit an egg on the host. Development from egg to adult took 39.6 days for females and 38.0 days for males at 20°C. This small difference was significant. At 20°C, the longevity of females that had no opportunity to oviposit was on average 72.5 days, significantly higher than male longevity (50.6 days). The longevity of females given access to hosts throughout their lifetime averaged 58.6 days. Females were able to mate immediately after emergence and copulation lasted on average 21.7 s. After a pre-oviposition period averaging 5.8 days, females laid 20.2 eggs during their lifetime, thus less than one egg per day. Neither the fecundity nor longevity of individual females was correlated with body size. If females were deprived of food, longevity as well as lifetime fecundity were drastically reduced. Field studies were carried out in one organically managed apple orchard in Switzerland. Aptesis nigrocincta showed parasitism rates ranging from 12.1 to 39.7 % within single parasitoid generations, thereby constituting the most important mortality factor of apple sawfly cocoon

Harmonia axyridis: an environmental risk assessment for Northwest Europe

In this paper, we summarize the international situation with respect to environmental risk assessment for biological control agents. Next, we apply a recently designed, comprehensive risk evaluation method consisting of a stepwise procedure to evaluate the environmental risks of Harmonia axyridis in Northwest Europe. This resulted in the very clear conclusion that H. axyridis is a potentially risky species for Northwest Europe, because it is able to establish, it has a very wide host range including species from other insect orders and even beyond the class of Insecta, it may feed on plant materials, it can cover large distances (>50 km per year), it does move into non-target areas, it may attack many non-target species including beneficial insects and insects of conservation concern, its activities have resulted in the reduction of populations of native predators in North America, it is known as a nuisance in North America and recently also in Northwest Europe, and it may develop as a pest of fruit in North America. Considering the H. axyridis case, current knowledge would lead to the conclusion that, although the predator is capable to effectively control several pest species, its risks are manifold and it should, thus, not have been released in Northwest Europe. At the time of the first releases in Nortwest Europe in 1995, the available scientific literature made clear that H. axyridis is a large sized polyphagous predator and has a great reproductive capacity in comparison with other ladybird beetles, and that there was a need to study non-target effects because of its polyphagous behaviour. In retrospect, this information should have been sufficient to reject import and release of this species, but it was apparently ignored by those who considered release of this predator in Northwest Europe. The case of Harmonia releases in Northwest Europe underlines that there is an urgent need for harmonized, world-wide regulation of biological control agents, including an information system on risky natural enemy species

Impact and oviposition behaviour of Ageniaspis fuscicollis (Hymenoptera: Encyrtidae), a polyembryonic parasitoid of the apple ermine moth, Yponomeuta malinellus (Lepidoptera: Yponomeutidae)

The distribution and extent of parasitism of the apple ermine moth Yponomeuta malinellus Zeller by the polyembyronic encyrtid parasitoid Ageniaspis fuscicollis (Dalman) were examined in a three year field study and related to oviposition behaviour in the laboratory. Ageniaspis fuscicollis attacks egg batches of its host and kills the final instar larvae, which feed gregariously from within tents. Host population densities in the field were low, from 1.5 to 2.2 tents per 100 leaf clusters, and parasitism increased from 7.8% to 18% over the three year period. Parasitism was independent of host density at the whole tree scale, but at the individual tent scale, the probability of a tent containing parasitized host larvae increased and percent parasitism decreased with the number of host larvae per tent. Observations on the oviposition behaviour of A. fuscicollis in the laboratory revealed that parasitoids distributed their eggs randomly within host egg batches. On average, they spent almost two hours on an egg batch and laid 44% of their egg load of 132 eggs into the first egg batch visited, leading to a mean of 1.4 eggs laid per host egg through frequent self-superparasitism of hosts. The percentage of eggs receiving one or more ovipositions was independent of the size of an egg batch, contradicting our field observations of inverse density dependence. Factors that might account for the differences in rates of parasitism and attack distributions between laboratory and field data are discusse

Intraguild predation between the invasive ladybird Harmonia axyridis and non-target European coccinellid species

The coccinellid Harmonia axyridis (Pallas) has been used for augmentative and classical biological control in many environments. More recently it has invaded large parts of Europe and negative effects for native populations of aphidophagous coccinellids are beginning to emerge. Here we investigate intraguild predation (IGP) between H. axyridis and eleven native non-target European coccinellids, including less common species which have not been studied so far within this context of non-target effects. When first-instars of H. axyridis were paired with the native species, only Anatis ocellata (Linnaeus) and Calvia quatuordecimguttata (L.) were significantly superior to the former whereas H. axyridis was superior in three cases, i.e. against Aphidecta obliterata (L.), Coccinella septempunctata L. and Hippodamia variegata (Goeze). Non-significant results were obtained for all other pairings. Similar tests with the fourth larval instar revealed stronger IGP rates and H. axyridis was found to be superior in the interactions with Adalia bipunctata (L.), Adalia decempunctata (L.), A. obliterata, Calvia decemguttata (L.), C. quatuordecimguttata, C. septempunctata, H. variegata, Oenopia conglobata (L.) and Propylea quatuordecimpunctata (L.) whereas non-significant results were obtained for interactions with two other native species. Another experiment revealed that H. axyridis was able to prey more successfully upon egg of most native coccinellid species than vice versa. However, C. quatuordecimguttata eggs seem to be more protected against predation than those of the other species. Survival of first-instar H. axyridis was higher on conspecific eggs compared to eggs of any other species tested. Our results suggest that H. axyridis may become a threat to a wide range of native aphidophagous coccinellids sharing similar ecological niches except species showing high potential for chemical or physical protectio

The Texture of Diaspora – Collecting Dissipated Objects, Dissipating Collected Objects

Provenienzforschung zu betreiben, sei schon immer Aufgabe jeder Kultureinrichtung gewesen und für Bibliotheken und Museen nichts Neues. Sie sei professioneller Standard. Diese selbstbewusste Reaktion der Kulturträger auf die sich nach Abschluss der Washington Conference Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art (1998) ergebenden Forschungsaufgaben versteckt, dass die Suche nach NS–Raubgut nicht nur zwingend nach einer Biographie der Objekte verlangt, sondern auch nach einer Biographie seiner Vorbesitzer. Und dass mit dem Abschluss der Suche nicht der Verbleib der fragwürdigen Objekte in einer Sammlung, sondern deren Restitution, also deren Zerstreuung in der Diaspora verbunden ist. Der Essay thematisiert die Spannung und den Widerspruch zwischen Sammeln und Zerstreuen, zwischen sammlungsbewahrender Provenienzforschung und sammlungsauflösender Restitutionswissenschaft.Provenance research has always been an inherent task of cultural institutions and is therefore no novelty for libraries and museums. It is professional standard. This self-confident reaction of cultural organizations towards research assignments resulting from the Washington Conference Principles on Nazi Confiscated Art (1998) conceals the fact that the search for NS looted objects does not only call for a biography of objects but also for a biography of their pre-possessors. It also conceals that a successful termination of any search does not mean that those dubious objects found remain as part of a collection, but that it entails their restitution, which inevitably leads to their dispersal into the diaspora. The object of this essay is to show the tension and discrepancies between collection and dissipation, between provenance research, aiming at the conservation of collections, and the restitution science, aiming and the dissipation of collections

Seismic investigation of massive submarine landslide deposits offshore Oregon and subducting North American plate along the Puerto Rico Trench

This thesis focuses on subduction zones, where oceanic plates plunge beneath continental plates, giving rise to geohazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis. My investigation centers on two subduction margins, introduced in Chapter 1, that have been seismically quiescent over the last 200 to 300 years: the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Chapter 2) and the Puerto Rico Trench (Chapter 3), both of which are critical to understanding and mitigating risks posed to nearby coastal communities. Chapter 2 explores large mass-transport events along the underwater slopes of the Cascadia accretionary wedge, revealing basin-scale deposits from ancient submarine landslides. Utilizing recently acquired 2D seismic reflection data from the Cascadia Seismic Imaging Experiment (CASIE21), my research maps these massive deposits in detail and investigates impacts of these events on the morphotectonic evolution of the accretionary wedge. The analysis method encompasses detailed mapping of the deposits, estimate of their dimensions, inferences about slide-motion, and determination of the timing of slope failures through integration with regional drilling data. The analysis shows 10 individual submarine landslides occurred along the wedge slopes, all within the last 1.6-Ma. The mass-movements involved 100s to >1000-km³ of material from the wedge and were likely influences on morphotectonic evolution of the wedge itself. Chapter 3 examines the Puerto Rico Trench, focusing on the incoming plate and shallow plate interface imaged by a legacy seismic reflection dataset. The 19 single-channel seismic reflection profiles, acquired during the EW9605 cruise, provide constraints on the deformation of the North American Plate as it subducts beneath the Caribbean Plate. My research highlights significant variations in shallow plate-boundary structure along the trench, which I divide into four-segments with distinct deformation patterns within the incoming plate and shallow plate-interface geometries. The findings improve our understanding of the complex geological processes at play in the Puerto Rico Trench. These chapters are thematically linked through utilization of seismic reflection imaging, shedding light on the intricate geological processes within subduction zones. The following research contributes insights which may be used in future evaluations for the safety and resilience of coastal communities along the western United States and the island of Puerto Rico.Earth and Planetary Science

Modern values in the apologetics of G.K.Chesterton

We would first like to state the reason for this study. An eminent Thomistic philosopher, Etienne Gilson, thought Chesterton's Orthodoxy «the best piece of apologetic the century had produced » '. If someone had said the same of an eighthcentury apologist eleven hundred years ago, it would not have been the same; Gilson's judgement becomes all the more interesting when we remember that Chesterton's century has been the century of the great apologetic studies, second in importance only to the epoch of the Fathers of the Church and their apologetic endeavours. Moreover, it is not just Orthodoxy that has captured our attention. Rev. Ronald Knox —himself a renowned Catholic apologist— said of Chesterton «that, if every other line he wrote should disappear from circulation, Catholic posterity would still owe him an imperishable debt of gratitude, so long as a copy of The Everlasting Man enriched its libraries» 2 . And although the honor constitutes no guarantee by the Magisterium of the Chruch on the doctrinal content of Chesterton's works in general, Pope Pius XI confered the title «Defender of the Catholic Faith» on the British apologist shortly after his death in June of 1936