Neoliberal Darlings: the Commodification of Grotesque Children in Contemporary Comics and Literature

This dissertation analyzes grotesque depictions of children in contemporary, speculative comics and literature: Katherine Dunn’s Geek Love, Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go, Jeff Lemire’s Sweet Tooth, Ben Marcus’ The Flame Alphabet, and Richard Starkings’ Elephantmen. It argues that the grotesque in these texts embodies the tension between children as economic objects and children as social beings, as the protagonists’ nonhuman elements are used to justify their commodification. Because commodification metaphorically transforms people into hybrids, part human/part commodity, the grotesque, with its emphasis on hybrid forms and ontological destabilization, is uniquely suited for representing this tension. Concern over the transformation of childhood reflects anxiety over the dominance of neoliberalism, which subsumes everything under market logic. Realms that were recently considered social, like family and childhood, are increasingly understood in economic terms. These texts turn to the grotesque as a way to visualize the effects of an abstract ideology

Development and Application of a Complete Active Space Spin‐Orbit Configuration Interaction Program Designed for Single Molecule Magnets

We present a spin-orbit configuration interaction program which has been tailored for the description of the magnetic properties of polynuclear metal complexes with partially filled d- and f-shells. The spin-orbit operators are directly included in the configuration interaction program based on Slater-determinants. The lowest states are obtained by a Block-Davidson-type diagonalisation. The usage of localised active orbitals enables the construction of start vectors from tensor products of single-center wave functions that already include spin-orbit interaction. This allows for an analysis of the role and the interplay of the different metal centres. Furthermore, in case of weak coupling of the metal centres these tensor products are already close to the final wave functions ensuring fast convergence. In combination with a two-layer hybrid parallelisation, this makes the program highly efficient. Based on the spin-orbit coupled wave functions, magnetic D-tensors, g-tensors and temperature-dependent susceptibilities can be calculated. The applicability and performance of the program is shown exemplarily on a trinuclear transition metal (Co$^{II}$V$^{II}$Co$^{II}$) complex

Etats-Unis : la patrie du muscle

Sport, patriotisme et cohésion nationale aux Etats-Unis

Genomics and clinical aspects of progressive retinal atrophy in dogs: review of literature

PRA is an autosomal-recessive inherited disease affecting the photoreceptor cells of the retina. Currently there is no treatment available. The aim of this thesis was to render a comparative literature review for the current situation of PRA according to clinical presentation, genomics, and research progress. To access the prevalence of PRA, seven different breeds were compared in the occurrence of PRA within the last 25 years. All of the data stated that the prevalence of PRA has significantly decreased, which can be linked to breeding techniques in some of the breeds

Cultiver sa solitude jusqu'à se perdre

Portrait d'Alain Gerbault, joueur de tennis, navigateur, écrivain voyageur

MPI/OpenMP Hybrid Parallelisierung eines CAS-Spin-Bahn-CI Programms und Anwendung auf einen fünfkernigen Osmium-Nickel Komplex

In dieser Arbeit wurde wurde das CASOCI-Programm[1], dessen Implementierung bereits Thema der Dissertation von Dr. Tilmann Bodenstein war und Gegenstand kontinuierlicher Weiterentwicklung in den Arbeitsgruppen Fink (Karlsruher Institut für Technologie) und van Wüllen ist, MPI/OpenMP Hybrid parallelisiert. Dieses wurde im Anschluss daran verwendet, um den fünfkernigen [Ni(tmphen)2]3[Os(CN)6]2- Komplex (tmphen = 3,4,7,8-Tetramethyl-1,10-Phenanthrolin) auf dessen magnetische Eigenschaften hin zu untersuchen. Dieser wurde in der Gruppe von Kim R. Dunbar durch χT-Messungen experimentell untersucht[2,3]. Durch diamagnetische Substitution wurden von diesem Komplex Varianten mir nur ein und zwei aktiven Zentren erzeugt. An diesen wurden CASOCI-Rechnungen durchgeführt und g-Tensoren, Austauschkopplungen, D-Tensoren sowie Tensoren für den anisotropen Austausch bestimmt. Mit Hilfe dieser Tensoren konnte eine χT-Kurve berechnet werden, die eine gute Übereinstimmung mit der aus Dunbars Arbeiten zeigt aufweist. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass der anisotrope Austausch maßgeblich für den Kurvenverlauf ist und die Einzel-Ionen Nullfeldaufspaltung praktisch keine Rolle spielt. [1] T. Bodenstein, A. Heimermann, K. Fink, C. van Wüllen, Chem. Phys. Chem. 2022, 23, e202100648. [2] M. G. Hilfiger, M. Shatruk, A. Prosvirin, K. R. Dunbar, Chem. Commun. 2008, 5752–5754. [3]A.V.Palii,O.S.Reu,S.M.Ostrovsky,S.I.Klokishner,B.S.Tsukerblat,M.Hilfiger, M. Shatruk, A. Prosvirin, K. R. Dunbar, J. Phys. Chem. A 2009, 113, 6886–6890

Nager entre deux eaux

Johnny Weissmuller est une sorte de dieu sorti des eaux pour toucher les cimes. Son corps impressionnant de nageur médaillé olympique lui permet de passer des bassins aux studios de cinéma. Il y incarnera un Tarzan intrépide et invincible. Mais hors scène, il s'essouffle

Analyzing Anisotropic Exchange in a Pentanuclear Os2Ni3 Complex

Spin Hamiltonian parameters of a pentanuclear Os Ni cyanometallate complex are derived from ab initio wave function based calculations, namely valence-type configuration interaction calculations with a complete active space including spin-orbit interaction (CASOCI) in a single-step procedure. While fits of experimental data performed so far could reproduce the data but the resulting parameters were not satisfactory, the parameters derived in the present work reproduce experimental data and at the same time have a reasonable size. The one-centre parameters (local matrices and single-ion zero field splitting tensors) are within an expected range, the anisotropic exchange parameters obtained in this work for an Os−Ni pair are not exceedingly large but determine the low-T part of the experimental χT curve. Exchange interactions (both isotropic and anisotropic) obtained from CASOCI have to be scaled by a factor of 2.5 to obtain agreement with experiment, a known deficiency of such types of calculation. After scaling the parameters, the isotropic Os−Ni exchange coupling constant is  cm−1 and the D parameter of the (nearly axial) anisotropic Os−Ni exchange is −1, so anisotropic exchange is larger in absolute size than isotropic exchange. The negative value of the isotropic J (indicating antiferromagnetic coupling) seemingly contradicts the large-temperature behaviour of the temperature dependent susceptibility curve, but this is caused by the negative g value of the Os centres. This negative g value is a universal feature of a pseudo-octahedral coordination with configuration and strong spin-orbit interaction. Knowing the size of these exchange interactions is important because Os(CN) is a versatile building block for the synthesis of / magnetic materials