Auschwitz mitt ibland oss: Om Peter Weiss "Min hemvist" och Rannsakningen. Oratorium i 11 sånger

The essay explores Peter Weiss's play "Die Ermittlung" (1965) and public reactions to it in BRD, DDR and Sweden

The Noise of Multilingualism: Reader Diversity, Linguistic Borders and Literary Multimodality

The article proposes a new multimodal approach to literary multilingualism, with special attention devoted to how readers with different language skills partake in making literary multilingualism happen. It presents a critical assessment of previous scholarship on literary multilingualism, which we claim is characterized by monolingual assumptions and a problematic division between mono- and multilingual literature. As a continuation of the theoretical argument, multimodal readings of three contemporary poets Cia Rinne, Caroline Bergvall and Ralf Andtbacka are presented. Instances of contemporary multilingual poetry, the article concludes, can help us to critically scrutinize notions of clear-cut linguistic borders, as well as to study the intricate dynamics between the acoustic and visual aspects of literary multilingualism

The Reader as Multilingual Soloist: Linguistic and Medial Transgressions in the Poetry of Cia Rinne

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht den Lyrikband notes for soloists (2009) der transnationalen Lyrikerin Cia Rinne mit einem besonderen Schwerpunkt auf der Frage der literarischen Vielsprachigkeit und der Intermedialität des Textes. Mit Ausgangspunkt in Naoki Sakais Verständnis von Übersetzung als bordering (Sakai 2009) wird die Rolle des Lesers von notes for soloists als Erzeuger sprachlicher Grenzen hervorgehoben. Hierbei funktioniert Rinnes mehrsprachiger und intermedialer Text als eine Art Partitur, die Leser verschiedener Sprachkompetenz auf unterschiedliche Weise realisieren. Es wird veranschaulicht, wie die Dynamik zwischen dem gedruckten Text und den verschiedenen artikulatorischen Möglichkeiten des Textes die Leser in eine Sphäre zwischen Sonorität und sprachlicher Artikulation versetzt; eine Sphäre, die normalerweise kleinen Kindern, die noch keine Sprache beherrschen, vorbehalten ist. Dabei wird die Kontingenz sprachlicher Grenzen ins Auge gefasst, zugleich werden jedoch auch mögliche Verbindungen zwischen verschiedenen für die Leser unbekannten bzw. bekannten Sprachen vorgeführt

The days of plenty might soon be over in glacierized Central Asian catchments

Despite the fact that the fast-growing population of Central Asia strongly depends on glacial melt water for fresh water supply, irrigation and hydropower production, the impact of glacier shrinkage on water availability remains poorly understood. With an annual area loss of 0.36 to 0.76%, glaciers are retreating particularly fast in the northern Tien Shan, thus causing concern about future water security in the densely populated regions of Bishkek and Almaty. Here, we use exceptionally long in-situ data series to run and calibrate a distributed glacio-hydrological model, which we then force with downscaled data from phase five of the Climate Model Intercomparison Project CMIP5. We observe that even in the most glacier-friendly scenario, glaciers will lose up to two thirds (−60%) of their 1955 extent by the end of the 21st century. The range of climate scenarios translates into different changes in overall water availability, from peak water being reached in the 2020s over a gradual decrease to status quo until the end of the 21st century. The days of plenty, however, will not last much longer, as summer runoff is projected to decrease, independent of scenario uncertainty. These results highlight the need for immediate planning of mitigation measures in the agricultural and energy sectors to assure long-term water security in the densely populated forelands of the Tien Shan

Cruentaren A, a highly cytotoxic benzolactone from Myxobacteria is a novel selective inhibitor of mitochondrial F1-ATPases

AbstractCruentaren A, a new antifungal benzolactone produced by the myxobacterium Byssovorax cruenta, proved to be highly cytotoxic against various human cell lines. It inhibited the proliferation of different cancer cell lines including a multidrug-resistant KB line at low nanomolar levels. It arrested human histocytic lymphoma cells (U-937) in G0/1 phase, but did not trigger an apoptotic process. Studies to uncover the molecular target of cruentaren A showed that the novel compound, despite its structural similarity to the benzolactone enamides apicularen and salicylihalamide, was no V-ATPase inhibitor. In contrast, cruentaren specifically inhibited mitochondrial FOF1-ATPases with IC50 values of 15–30nM. Although the exact binding site of cruentaren remains undefined, inhibition was shown to occur by interaction with the catalytic F1 domain. Since mitochondrial ATPases play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of several human disorders including cancer, cruentaren or synthetic derivatives thereof could form the basis of future therapeutic strategies

The Reader as Multilingual Soloist : Linguistic and Medial Transgressions in the Poetry of Cia Rinne

Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht den Lyrikband notes for soloists (2009) der transnationalen Lyrikerin Cia Rinne mit einem besonderen Schwerpunkt auf der Frage der literarischen Mehrsprachigkeit und der Intermedialität des Textes. Ausgangspunkt ist Naoki Sakais Verständnis von Übersetzung als „bordering“ (Sakai 2009); hier wird die Rolle des Lesers von notes for soloists als Erzeuger sprachlicher Grenzen hervorgehoben. Hierbei funktioniert Rinnes mehrsprachiger und intermedialer Text als eine Art Partitur, die Leser verschiedener Sprachkompetenzen auf unterschiedliche Weise realisieren. Es wird veranschaulicht, wie die Dynamik zwischen dem gedruckten Text und den verschiedenen artikulatorischen Möglichkeiten des Textes die Leser in eine Sphäre zwischen Sonorität und sprachlicher Artikulation versetzt; eine Sphäre, die normalerweise kleinen Kindern, die noch keine Sprache beherrschen, vorbehalten ist. Dabei wird die Kontingenz sprachlicher Grenzen ins Auge gefasst, zugleich werden jedoch auch mögliche Verbindungen zwischen verschiedenen für die Leser unbekannten bzw. bekannten Sprachen vorgeführt.Peer reviewe

Archazolid and apicularen: Novel specific V-ATPase inhibitors

BACKGROUND: V-ATPases constitute a ubiquitous family of heteromultimeric, proton translocating proteins. According to their localization in a multitude of eukaryotic membranes, they energize many different transport processes. Since their malfunction is correlated with various diseases in humans, the elucidation of the properties of this enzyme for the development of selective inhibitors and drugs is one of the challenges in V-ATPase research. RESULTS: Archazolid A and B, two recently discovered cytotoxic macrolactones produced by the myxobacterium Archangium gephyra, and apicularen A and B, two novel benzolactone enamides produced by different species of the myxobacterium Chondromyces, exerted a similar inhibitory efficacy on a wide range of mammalian cell lines as the well established plecomacrolidic type V-ATPase inhibitors concanamycin and bafilomycin. Like the plecomacrolides both new macrolides also prevented the lysosomal acidification in cells and inhibited the V-ATPase purified from the midgut of the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta, with IC(50 )values of 20–60 nM. However, they did not influence the activity of mitochondrial F-ATPase or that of the Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase. To define the binding sites of these new inhibitors we used a semi-synthetic radioactively labelled derivative of concanamycin which exclusively binds to the membrane V(o )subunit c. Whereas archazolid A prevented, like the plecomacrolides concanamycin A, bafilomycin A(1 )and B(1), labelling of subunit c by the radioactive I-concanolide A, the benzolactone enamide apicularen A did not compete with the plecomacrolide derivative. CONCLUSION: The myxobacterial antibiotics archazolid and apicularen are highly efficient and specific novel inhibitors of V-ATPases. While archazolid at least partly shares a common binding site with the plecomacrolides bafilomycin and concanamycin, apicularen adheres to an independent binding site

Coupling a global glacier model to a global hydrological model prevents underestimation of glacier runoff

Global hydrological models have become a valuable tool for a range of global impact studies related to water resources. However, glacier parameterization is often simplistic or non-existent in global hydrological models. By contrast, global glacier models do represent complex glacier dynamics and glacier evolution, and as such, they hold the promise of better resolving glacier runoff estimates. In this study, we test the hypothesis that coupling a global glacier model with a global hydrological model leads to a more realistic glacier representation and, consequently, to improved runoff predictions in the global hydrological model. To this end, the Global Glacier Evolution Model (GloGEM) is coupled with the PCRaster GLOBal Water Balance model, version 2.0 (PCR-GLOBWB 2), using the eWaterCycle platform. For the period 2001–2012, the coupled model is evaluated against the uncoupled PCR-GLOBWB 2 in 25 large-scale (>50 000 km2), glacierized basins. The coupled model produces higher runoff estimates across all basins and throughout the melt season. In summer, the runoff differences range from 0.07 % for weakly glacier-influenced basins to 252 % for strongly glacier-influenced basins. The difference can primarily be explained by PCR-GLOBWB 2 not accounting for glacier flow and glacier mass loss, thereby causing an underestimation of glacier runoff. The coupled model performs better in reproducing basin runoff observations mostly in strongly glacier-influenced basins, which is where the coupling has the most impact. This study underlines the importance of glacier representation in global hydrological models and demonstrates the potential of coupling a global hydrological model with a global glacier model for better glacier representation and runoff predictions in glacierized basins

Development of an ultrasensitive microfluidic assay for the analysis of Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in blood

Introduction: A rapid and reliable detection of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) in biological samples could assist in the diagnostic evaluation of neurodegenerative disorders. Sensitive assays applicable in the routine setting are needed to validate the existing GFAP tests. This study aimed to develop a highly sensitive and clinically applicable microfluidic immunoassay for the measurement of GFAP in blood.Methods: A microfluidic GFAP assay was developed and validated regarding its performance. Subsequently, serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and control patients were analyzed with the established assay, and levels were compared to the commercial GFAP Simoa discovery kit.Results: The developed GFAP assay showed a good performance with a recovery of 85% of spiked GFAP in serum and assay variations below 15%. The established assay was highly sensitive with a calculated lower limit of quantification and detection of 7.21 pg/mL and 2.37 pg/mL, respectively. GFAP levels were significantly increased in AD compared to control patients with advanced age (p = 0.002). However, GFAP levels revealed no significant increase in MS compared to control patients in the same age range (p = 0.140). Furthermore, serum GFAP levels evaluated with the novel microfluidic assay strongly correlated with Simoa concentrations (r = 0.88 (95% CI: 0.81–0.93), p < 0.0001).Conclusion: We successfully developed a sensitive and easy-to-use microfluidic assay to measure GFAP in blood. Furthermore, we could confirm previous findings of elevated GFAP levels in AD by applying the assay in a cohort of clinically characterized patients

Estimating the volume of glaciers in the Himalayan–Karakoram region using different methods

Ice volume estimates are crucial for assessing water reserves stored in glaciers. Due to its large glacier coverage, such estimates are of particular interest for the Himalayan–Karakoram (HK) region. In this study, different existing methodologies are used to estimate the ice reserves: three area–volume relations, one slope-dependent volume estimation method, and two ice-thickness distribution models are applied to a recent, detailed, and complete glacier inventory of the HK region, spanning over the period 2000–2010 and revealing an ice coverage of 40 775 km2. An uncertainty and sensitivity assessment is performed to investigate the influence of the observed glacier area and important model parameters on the resulting total ice volume. Results of the two ice-thickness distribution models are validated with local ice-thickness measurements at six glaciers. The resulting ice volumes for the entire HK region range from 2955 to 4737 km3, depending on the approach. This range is lower than most previous estimates. Results from the ice thickness distribution models and the slope-dependent thickness estimations agree well with measured local ice thicknesses. However, total volume estimates from area-related relations are larger than those from other approaches. The study provides evidence on the significant effect of the selected method on results and underlines the importance of a careful and critical evaluation