From colonial port to socialist metropolis : imperialist legacies and the making of 'New Dalian'

This article explores the transformation of the city of Dalian from a colonial export port to an industrialized core city of the Japanese wartime empire and finally a model production city of the People's Republic of China. These shifts in the economic and political function of the city also resulted in complex identity issues for Dalian's urban residents. Dalian's rise reminds that there were trajectories of urban development and modernity in China which were different from that of Shanghai. Dalian provides an important, local view of the transition from empire to nation in this strategically important part of Manchuria

Path integrals on manifolds by finite dimensional approximation

Let M be a compact Riemannian manifold without boundary and let H be a self-adjoint generalized Laplace operator acting on sections in a bundle over M. We give a path integral formula for the solution to the corresponding heat equation. This is based on approximating path space by finite dimensional spaces of geodesic polygons. We also show a uniform convergence result for the heat kernels. This yields a simple and natural proof for the Hess-Schrader-Uhlenbrock estimate and a path integral formula for the trace of the heat operator.Comment: 23 page

Unusual Nernst effect and spin density wave precursors in superconducting LaFeAsO1−xFx\rm\bf LaFeAsO_{1-x}F_x

The Nernst effect has recently proven as a sensitive probe for detecting unusual normal state properties of unconventional superconductors. Here we present a systematic study of the Nernst effect of the iron pnictide superconductor \laf with a particular focus on its evolution upon doping. For the parent compound we observe a huge negative Nernst coefficient accompanied with a severe violation of the Sondheimer cancellation in the spin density wave (SDW) ordered state. Surprisingly, an unusual and enhanced Nernst signal is also found at underdoping ($x=0.05$) despite the presence of bulk superconductivity and the absence of static magnetic order, strongly suggestive of SDW precursors at $T\lesssim150$ K. A more conventional normal state Nernst response is observed at optimal doping ($x=0.1$) where it is rather featureless with a more complete Sondheimer cancellation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Dalian’s Past, Dalian’s Present, Part 3

The past week has seen Dalian become the focal point of significant global press coverage for two different reasons. The uptick in interest started with the maiden voyage of China’s first aircraft carrier, the former Soviet vessel Varyag, which set sail from Dalian’s harbour after years of not-so-secret rebuilding. More recently, the ongoing drama of citywide protests over the feared environmental impact caused by damage to one of the city’s major chemical plants has made the rounds of the international press

Mapping the Linguistic Landscapes of Mesopotamia

Though Ancient Near Eastern Studies has increasingly paidattention to language contact and areal linguistics in recentyears, there have so far been but few systematic attempts atplacing the relevant languages on a map. The essay provides asurvey of maps of the languages of the Ancient Near East fromthe first areal maps in the 19th century to the artefact mapsin recent publications. The different visual grammars used inthe cartography of these ancient languages also imply widelyvarying narratives of linguistic geography. The recent move to-wards artefact mapping shifts the discussion away from staticinterpretations of language as a strong correlate of ethnicity to-wards an interpretation of language as a public expression oflinguistic identity within the landscapes of Mesopotamia

Gateway to Manchuria:: The Port City of Dalian under Japanese, Russian and Chinese Control, 1898–1950

Dieser Aufsatz untersucht die Transformation der Stadt Dalian (Russ. Dal’nii, Jap. Dairen) von einem Exporthafen der von kolonialen Einflüssen geprägten Mandschurei zu einer Industriemetropole des japanischen Imperiums während der Kriegszeit und schließlich zu einer Modellstadt für industrielle Produktion der Volksrepublik China. Dalian ist ein besonders eindrückliches lokales Beispiel für den Übergang vom Imperium zur Nation in dem strategisch wichtigen Gebiet der Mandschurei. Der Beitrag analysiert, wie die aufeinander folgenden Regime die Stadt definierten und sich die Stadt in wechselnden geographischen und ökonomischen Kontexten veränderte, von einem weit entfernten russischen Handelsposten über ein Zentrum des Exports während der japanischen Kolonialzeit und einer japanischen Produktionsstätte während des Krieges zu einer sowjetisch besetzten Zone und bis zu einem integralen Teil der Volksrepublik China. Diese fortwährenden Verschiebungen übten einen großen Einfluss auf die lokale Gesellschaft aus, insbesondere auf die chinesische Bevölkerungsmehrheit der Stadt. Der Wandel der wirtschaftlichen und politischen Funktionen der Stadt veränderte nicht nur ihre physische Gestalt, sondern auch die komplexe, im steten Wechsel begriffene Identität ihrer Bewohner. Als eine instant city oder „neue Stadt“ an den Grenzen des Imperiums, des militärischen Schutzgebiets und der Nation war die urbane Identität Dalians dynamischer als in anderen Städten Nordostasiens. Die Geschichte dieser Stadt rückt bislang von der historischen Forschung vernachlässigte Aspekte der großen Narrative von Entkolonialisierung, Revolution und Nationalstaatsbildung, die gemeinhin mit der Region in Verbindung gebracht werden, ins Zentrum der Analyse

NDI-phanes with tailor-made optical properties

The concept of nanoscience was introduced at the talk entitled “Plenty of Room at the Bottom” by Richard Feynman, the father of nanotechnology, in 1959. Nanoscience is an interdisciplinary field and involves biology, chemistry, material science, and physics. The electrical, optical, magnetic, and mechanical properties of materials change as we move from macro- to the nanoscale and thus allow us to design new functional nanomaterials with tailor-made properties. One of the approaches to nanoscale materials, varying in size between 1 and 100 nm, is the so-called “bottom-up” approach. Because of the great potential of nanodevices, they are of interest for industrial applications and, so far, billions of dollars have been invested into this field of research. The focus of this doctoral thesis was the synthetic aspect of new functional materials with tailor-made optical properties. All of the synthesized model compounds have one characteristic in common: they contain a naphthalene diimide (NDI) unit within their structure

The Differences between Recommender Technologies in their Impact on Sales Diversity

Recommender systems are frequently used as part of online shops to help consumers browse through large product offerings by recommending those products which are the most relevant for them. Although consumers’ interactions with recommender systems have been subject to substantial research, it is still unclear what the effect on aggregated sales diversity is, i.e. whether this leads to predominance of fast-selling or niche products. It is also unclear, whether any potential effects would differ between specific recommender technologies. We created a realistic web-experiment to monitor consumer behavior while purchasing digital music tracks when different recommender technologies are present. To analyze potential changes in sales diversity we used the Gini coefficient as well as additional measures. We found that sales diversity increases for all recommender technologies, except for bestseller lists. Furthermore, the differences across recommender technologies are rather small. Our findings have significant implications for online retailers and for producers

Tumor-targeting properties of novel immunocytokines based on murine IL1β and IL6

There is an increasing biotechnological interest in ‘arming' therapeutic antibodies with bioactive payloads. Many antibody-cytokine fusion proteins (immunocytokines) have been described and some of these biopharmaceuticals have progressed to clinical studies. Here, we describe for the first time the expression and in vivo characterization of immunocytokines based on murine IL1β and IL6. These potent pro-inflammatory cytokines were fused at the N-terminus or at the C-terminus of the monoclonal antibodies F8 (specific to the alternatively-spliced extra-domain A domain of fibronectin, a marker of tumor angiogenesis). All immunocytokines retained the binding properties of the parental antibody and were homogenous, when analyzed by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and size-exclusion chromatography, except for the N-terminal fusion of IL1β which revealed the presence of glycosylated species. When analyzed by quantitative biodistribution analysis using radioiodinated protein preparations, F8 fusions with IL6 revealed a preferential accumulation at the tumor site for both cytokine orientations, whereas IL1β fusions exhibited lower tumor to organ ratios and a slower blood clearance profile. The fusion proteins with the cytokine payload at the C-terminus were studied in therapy experiments in immunocompetent mice bearing F9 tumors. Immunocytokines based on IL1β resulted in 10% body weight loss at a 5-µg dose, whereas IL6-based products caused a 5% body weight loss at a 225-µg dose. Both F8-IL1β and F8-IL6 exhibited a <50% inhibition of tumor growth rate, which was substantially lower than the one previously reported for F8-TNF, a closely related pro-inflammatory immunocytokine. This study indicates that IL6 can be efficiently delivered to the tumor neo-vasculature by fusion with the F8 antibody. While F8-IL6 was not as potent as other F8-based immunocytokines that exhibit similar biodistribution profiles, the fusion protein sheds light on the different roles of pro-inflammatory cytokines in boosting immunity against the tumo