A Thousand and One Nights between Orient and Occident

No other country is influenced in its political, social and cultural structures by both western and eastern mentality such as Lebanon, and hardly any other country has such a pivotal function. In this mediator function it can be compared with a literary work, that merits its role in world literature as hardly any other piece of literature in regard to the co-operation of Orient and Occident. I am thinking of the collection of "A Thousand and One Nights", or with its original title "Alf Laila wa-Laila"

Influence of calcination conditions on structural and solid‐state kinetic properties of iron oxidic species supported on SBA‐15

Iron oxidic species supported on silica SBA-15 were synthesized with various iron loadings using two different FeIII precursors. The effect of varying powder layer thickness during calcination on structural and solid-state kinetic properties of FexOy/SBA-15 samples was investigated. Calcination was conducted in thin (0.3 cm) or thick (1.3 cm) powder layer. Structural characterization of resulting FexOy/SBA-15 samples was performed by nitrogen physisorption, X-ray diffraction, and DR-UV/Vis spectroscopy. Thick powder layer during calcination induced an increased species size independent of the precursor. However, a significantly more pronounced influence of calcination mode on species size was observed for the FeIII nitrate precursor compared to the FeIII citrate precursor. Temperature-programmed reduction (TPR) experiments revealed distinct differences in reducibility and reduction mechanism dependent on calcination mode. Thick layer calcination of the samples obtained from FeIII nitrate precursor resulted in more pronounced changes in TPR profiles compared to samples obtained from FeIII citrate precursor. TPR traces were analyzed by model-dependent Coats-Redfern method and model-independent Kissinger method. Differences in solid-state kinetic properties of FexOy/SBA-15 samples dependent on powder layer thickness during calcination correlated with differences in iron oxidic species size.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Influence of Adding Molybdenum on Structure and Performance of FexOy/SBA‐15 Catalysts in Selective Oxidation of Propene

Mixed iron and molybdenum oxide catalysts supported on nanostructured silica, SBA‐15, were synthesized with various Mo/Fe atomic ratios ranging from 0.07/1.0 to 0.57/1.0. Structural characterization of as‐prepared MoxOy_FexOy/SBA‐15 samples was performed by nitrogen physisorption, X‐ray diffraction, and DR‐UV‐Vis spectroscopy. Adding molybdenum resulted in a pronounced dispersion effect on supported iron oxidic species. Increasing atomic ratio up to 0.21Mo/1.0Fe was accompanied by decreasing species sizes. Strong interactions between iron and molybdenum during the synthesis resulted in the formation of Fe−O−Mo structure units, possibly Fe2(MoO4)3‐like species. Reducibility of MoxOy_FexOy/SBA‐15 catalysts was investigated by temperature‐programmed reduction experiments with hydrogen as reducing agent. The lower reducibility obtained when adding molybdenum was ascribed to both dispersion and electronic effect of molybdenum. Catalytic performance of MoxOy_FexOy/SBA‐15 samples was studied in selective gas‐phase oxidation of propene with O2 as oxidant. Adding molybdenum resulted in an increased acrolein selectivity and a decreased selectivity towards total oxidation products.TU Berlin, Open-Access-Mittel - 201

Glottophagy in Eco, Schnurre and Tawada

The paper deals with an aspect of materiality in language as it is expressed in the complex metaphor of glottophagia, invented by Louis-Jean Calvet in the context of linguistics and colonialism. In this article the term is released from Calvet's unilateral negative use of the term as he focuses on its relation to orality, and instead it is linked with the positive literal tradition of eating written language as e.g. in the Bible and in the Classical Antiquity. From this point of view, glottophagia's poetological function as destroying, combining, reanimating, and purifying language emerges as a crucial feature of literary texts by Umberto Eco, Wolfdietrich Schnurre and Yoko Tawada

Simultaneous Inference in General Parametric Models

Simultaneous inference is a common problem in many areas of application. If multiple null hypotheses are tested simultaneously, the probability of rejecting erroneously at least one of them increases beyond the pre-specified significance level. Simultaneous inference procedures have to be used which adjust for multiplicity and thus control the overall type I error rate. In this paper we describe simultaneous inference procedures in general parametric models, where the experimental questions are specified through a linear combination of elemental model parameters. The framework described here is quite general and extends the canonical theory of multiple comparison procedures in ANOVA models to linear regression problems, generalized linear models, linear mixed effects models, the Cox model, robust linear models, etc. Several examples using a variety of different statistical models illustrate the breadth of the results. For the analyses we use the R add-on package multcomp, which provides a convenient interface to the general approach adopted here

Blurring the binary: positioning postfeminist texts and contexts

This dissertation has grown out of the contested theoretical and popular debates surrounding postfeminism. The postfeminist phenomenon has confounded and split contemporary critics with its contradictory significations, its definitional ambiguity and its pluralistic outlook. Commentators have applied a number of preconceived frameworks and classifications in order to define and categorize postfeminism. They have claimed the term for various and even oppositional understandings and appropriations that range from a backlash rhetoric, Girl Power to poststructuralist feminism. As I intend to show, these interpretative schemes have often been upheld at the expense of postfeminism's paradoxical multiplicity. In the following, I contend that postfeminism cannot be discussed as an easily identifiable, singular and totalizing movement and, instead, it illustrates a methodological crisis that exceeds the logic of non-contradiction. In fact, I argue that postfeminism blurs the binary as it depicts the struggle between previously antagonistic stances and establishes a non-dualistic and ambiguous in-betweenness. My analysis seeks to counter the critical need for categorization and question the continued insistence upon an either/or structure. I will explore the gap between binary formulations as a locus of difficulty and a potentially productive space for a new understanding of postfeminist theory and practice. The dissertation is divided in three parts that position, contextualize and textualize postfeminist discourses. The first part aims to provide an overview of the postfeminist landscape, introduce a new postfeminist strategy of theorization and depict the various manifestations of postfeminism. I suggest that postfeminism cannot be conceptualized with recourse to simplistic definitions and epistemological foundations as it represents a 'shaky ground', a site of contest and revision that eschews monological thinking. I put forward the idea of a contextual definition of postfeminism that takes into account its thoroughly situated nature and its relation to other discourses and theories. Postfeminism exists both as a theoretical and popular movement, combining a range of viewpoints from conflicting sources. It is steeped in the language and principles of feminism, patriarchy, postmodemism and the media, creating a multi-dimensional postfeminist context that depolarizes and incorporates seemingly incompatible opposites. In this way, postfeminism exploits and expands the discursive junctures to posit its own pluralistic propositions. It effects a double movement whereby it manages to reinforce as much as subvert the presuppositions that inform its emergence. I assert that postfeminism is characterized by a paradoxical stance that intermingles complicity and critique by undercutting their mutual exclusivity. Postfeminism's complicitous critique always works within conventions in order to undermine them and, thus, it cannot be appropriated to a single and non-contradictory theoretical position. On the contrary, postfeminist theorizing walks a tightrope between subversion and conformity, whereby it relies on a process of resignification to re-contextualize and re-employ the norms of power/discourse. Part two of the dissertation takes up the idea of postfeminist contexts to situate postfeminism in the intersections of feminism, postmodemism and popular culture. I examine the interactions between these discourses as wen as their internal complexities in order to highlight the flexible and dynamic relationships that give rise to postfeminism. I argue that postfeminist meanings are context-specific and have to be reassessed continuously with regard to their discursive surroundings. At the same time, I insist that postfeminism cannot be subsumed and arrogated into easily distinguishable categories of feminism, popular mainstream and postmodem theory. Postfeminism is located in the ongoing struggle between and within discourses and it cannot be reduced to a distinct unanimous position. Thus, I resist a static contextualization that seeks to immobilize and finalize postfeminist locations and I declare that the postfeminist landscape is a complex and paradoxical field of convergence where feminism, postmodemism and the media are brought into contact and conflict. Moreover, I maintain that these postfeminist 'origins' are themselves areas of contention and dispute rather than unified and coherent monoliths. Postfeminism emerges from the heterogeneous links and contradictions within and between discursive fields, emphasizing the diverse and multiple ways in which discourse is reproduced. The dissertation's third section considers textual representations of postfeminism and in particular, it focuses on the figure of the 'postfeminist woman' who has variously been described as a backlash anti-feminist, a sexy 'do-me feminist', a Girlie feminist etc. I contend that the 'new woman' of postfeminism rearticulates the tensions between feminism, femininity and femaleness as she adopts a non-dichotomous and contradictory subject position that transcends dualities. She is characterized by a desire to 'have it all' as she refuses to compromise on her joint aspirations for public and private success, feminine and feminist values. I discuss diverse manifestations of the postfeminist woman, exemplified by the Singleton, the Cinderella and the Supergirl who blur binary distinctions in their quest for a pluralistic and utopian wholeness. I suggest that these postfeminist women seek to negotiate the conflicting demands of heterosexual romance and professional achievement, feminine embodiment and feminist agency, female passivity and masculine activity. They inhabit an ambiguous space that holds together these varied and even antagonistic stances and they endeavor to reconcile their incongruous multiplicity. In fact, the postfeminist Singleton, Cinderella and SupergirI lack a harmonious inner balance and they are marked by struggle rather than resolution. Their attempts to cross the dualism and occupy an in-between space are presented as hazardous and perplexing, potentially alienating them from their social and emotional contexts. These postfeminist heroines epitomize postfeminism's frontier discourse that understands heterogeneity as an explosive and strenuous combination of contradictory beliefs, theories and practices

Romance revisited: transformations of the marital love triangle in women’s fictions.

First paragraph: Introduction The triangle is a model of a sort, or rather a whole family of models. [...] They always allude to the mystery, transparent yet opaque, of human relations. (Girard, 1976: 2-3). The graphic schema and the theoretical frame of analysis of this study is what David Lodge has aptly described as a familiar novelistic situation: the ‘eternal’ love triangle (Lodge, 1981: 143). As a structural literary device, the love triangle artificially stabilises impulses of desire into a fixed set of erotic positions. In other words, it is a ‘figure by which the “commonsense” of our intellectual tradition schematizes erotic relations’ (Sedgwick, 1985: 21). From the legendary Tristan and Iseult to the American soap epic Dynasty1, from Jewish mythology to postfeminist fiction, triangular models have always engaged the interest of generations of listeners/readers/viewers and, over the centuries, the notoriously enduring and seemingly transhistorical appeal of the love triangle has affirmed itself. Narratives abound with love triangles and triadic configurations construct standard and paradigmatic narrative situations that, using Umberto Eco’s terminology, could be termed ‘intertextual archetypes’ (Eco, 1988: 448).3 Triangular constellations of human interaction are not only inscribed within Western culture but are also formative erotic models that are 2 embedded in a shared socio-cultural script and that, as a result, contribute to the ideological construction of the iconography of love

Spacetime Catmull Recursive Subdivision Facilitated with Occlusion Culling

We describe an extension and a generalization of the Catmull recursive subdivision algorithm: first, an imagebased occlusion culling stage is added; second, all rendering stages, that is, view-frustum and occlusion culling, subdivision of geometric primitives into micropolygons, and rasterization, are performed in spacetime. Operating in spacetime allows to exploit temporal coherence in animated scenes