Formvollendetes Leiden an ästhetisierten Krankheiten im aktuellen Jugend- bzw. All-Age-Roman

“Whatever is fitted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain, and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, [...], is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling” (Burke 1958, 36), writes Edmund Burke 1757 in A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful. The idea that pain, danger and terror are much stronger impressions than pleasure, and may be classified as “sources of the sublime”, not only inspired philosophers like Kant, it also can be found in recent young adult literature, in particular the subgenre of Sick Lit, where suffering from a terminal illness is often represented as a sublime condition. Using the examples of Lara Schützsack’s Und auch so bitterkalt (2014), a novel about an anorexic female character, and Anthony McCarten’s novel Superhero (2007), which focuses on a male cancer patient, this article aims to explore the literary strategies employed in illness narratives, emphasizing their aesthetical dimensions

Getreideanbau im Elsaß, Versorgungslage Straßburgs und Basels und der Handel mit elsässischem Korn (14.-16. Jahrhundert)

Diese wirtschafts- und agrarhistorische Studie entstand im Rahmen der Vorbereitungen zur großen Landesausstellung „Spätmittelalter am Oberrhein. Alltag, Handwerk und Handel“ (Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, 2001). Sie geht der in der Forschung immer wieder gestellten Frage nach dem Umfang und der Regelmäßigkeit des Getreidehandels oberdeutscher Städte am Beispiel Straßburgs und Basels nach. In der einleitenden Darstellung des elsässischen Getreideanbaus wird überprüft, ob die Produktionsbedingungen und die aus ihnen resultierende Versorgungslage überhaupt größere regelmäßige Exporte zuließen. Daraufhin werden obrigkeitliche Maßnahmen zur Steuerung des Kornhandels und der Vorratshaltung sowie die tatsächliche Versorgungslage Straßburgs und Basels betrachtet. Im Anschluss wird untersucht, welche Hinweise Preisentwicklungen und Preisniveaus verschiedener Städte auf Handelsbeziehungen geben können, und schließlich konkret nachweisbare Getreideexporte in den Blick genommen. Für Straßburg stehen dabei überwiegend erzählende Quellen zur Verfügung, für Basel auch die Stadtrechnungen. Insgesamt zeigt sich, dass im Elsass durchaus Kornüberschüsse erwirtschaftet wurden, die es ermöglichten, große Getreidevorräte anzulegen und - insbesondere im Fall von Straßburg - gerade in Notzeiten viel zu verkaufen. Doch waren der Vorratsbildung durch die im Vergleich zu heute geringen Erträge und die beschränkten Lagerungsmöglichkeiten Grenzen gesetzt, so dass es infolge von Missernten oder Kriegszügen immer wieder zu Hungersnöten und großen Teuerungen kam. Da ein Großteil der Bevölkerung kaum Reserven zur Überbrückung von Ernteausfällen anlegen konnte und es wenig Möglichkeiten gab, Getreide durch andere Nahrungsmittel zu ersetzen, führte schon die Befürchtung einer schlechten Ernte häufig zu überproportionalen Preisanstiegen, die von potentiellen Verkäufern natürlich gerne angeheizt und ausgenützt wurden. Die Stadtobrigkeiten versuchten dem zu begegnen, indem sie die Getreideeinfuhr förderten, große städtische Kornspeicher anlegten und Exporte stark einschränkte. Dennoch ist fraglich, ob die erlassenen Ausfuhrbeschränkungen tatsächlich immer nötig waren. Denn auf der Nachfrageseite sprach gegen Getreidekäufe am Oberrhein, die im Hinblick auf das relativ niedrige Preisniveau durchaus attraktiv gewesen wären, dass der Transport über längere Strecken nicht nur sehr teuer und langwierig, sondern auch riskant war. Er lohnte sich also nur bei sehr hohen Getreidepreisen, und selbst dann war oft kein Gewinn zu machen. Verkäufe in entferntere Gebiete blieben zumindest im südwestdeutsch-schweizerischen Raum wohl noch im 14.-16. Jahrhundert eher Gelegenheitsgeschäfte, bei denen die Verkäufer manchmal allerdings große Gewinne erzielen konnten. Wirtschaftlich war aber vor allem der Getreidehandel im Nahbereich von Bedeutung, wobei darunter vor allem der Verkauf der Produzenten, also der Grundherren und Bauern, zu verstehen ist, da der Zwischenhandel mit Gewinn sehr stark reglementiert und vielfach ganz verboten war

Nanofiltration and reverse osmosis for defluoridation: The role of inorganic carbon

Fluoride (F) concentrations above the World Health Organization (WHO) guideline value of 1.5 mg/L in drinking water can lead to serious health problems such as dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis. High F levels are often associated with carbonaceous (i.e. high inorganic carbon (IC)) type waters. The high fluoride concentrations in natural waters often occur in arid regions where no sufficient quantity of alternative water is readily available due to scarcity of water, consequently, treatment is the best option to provide safe drinking water. Nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) are promising and appropriate membrane technologies for defluoridation due to their high fluoride removal efficiency and their ability to simultaneously remove a wide range of other inorganic and organic contaminants 1. Different ions can have various effects on F removal by NF/RO 2. IC in natural waters is present as carbonate ion (CO32-), bicarbonate ion (HCO3-), carbonic acid (H2CO3), and carbon dioxide (CO2) depending on the pH. Due to the different characteristics of these species it is important to study the impact of IC on F retention mechanisms at different pH. In this study the mechanisms of IC species impact on F retention by NF/RO has been investigated as a function of pH.Two commercial NF and RO membranes, BW30 and NF270 respectively from DOW Chemicals (USA) were used. Synthetic waters were prepared using realistic ranges of F and IC for carbonaceous waters found for example in the fluoride rich waters in Tanzania. Feed concentration of F and IC were 50 mgF/L as NaF and 500 mgC/L as NaHCO3 respectively. Visual MINTEQ software was used to predict the speciation of IC and F at various pH. Figure 1 indicates that the permeate F concentrations were high (35-47 mg/L) at pH 2 where F existed mainly as uncharged HF. At pH 8 and 11, when there was a change in speciation to F ion and the membranes were negatively charged, permeate F concentrations decreased drastically. Permeate F concentrations for the RO BW30 membrane were lower than that of the relatively open NF270. BW30 removed fluoride to meet WHO guideline value of 1.5 mg/L at pH 11 up to about 40% recovery, while NF270 did not achieve the guideline value at any pH studied. In the past, BW30 had achieved the guideline value at pH 8 but with relatively low electrical conductivity (EC) of about 2000 µS/cm. However, in the current study the high IC concentration resulted in high EC (3600 µS/cm) and high osmotic pressure. This led to a decrease in the net driving pressure thus facilitating the diffusion of F through the membrane 3. The predominant IC species at pH 2 was H2CO3. This resulted in very low feed IC concentrations (1-5 mg C/L, less than intended 500 mgC/L) at pH 2 due to degassing (H2CO3 decomposes to CO2). Monovalent HCO3- predominated at pH 8 and easily permeated the NF270 membrane. At pH 11, MINTEQ predicted divalent CO32- as the predominant IC species and permeate IC was lower than at pH 8 for the NF270. For the BW30 membrane, IC concentrations in the permeates were lower than the NF270 and impact of IC speciation was not observed. This suggests that the main retention mechanism of IC by the NF270 is charged repulsion and that of the RO BW30 membrane is size exclusion. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

Investigating patterns of local climate governance: How low-carbon municipalities and intentional communities intervene in social practices

The local level has gained prominence in climate policy and governance in recent years as it is increasingly perceived as a privileged arena for policy experimentation and social and institutional innovation. However, the success of local climate governance in industrialized countries has been limited. One reason may be that local communities focus too much on strategies of technology-oriented ecological modernization and individual behavior change and too little on strategies that target unsustainable social practices and their embeddedness in complex socioeconomic patterns. In this paper we assess and compare the strategies of "low-carbon municipalities" (top-down initiatives) and those of "intentional communities" (bottom-up initiatives). We were interested to determine to what extent and in which ways each community type intervenes in social practices to curb carbon emissions and to explore the scope for further and deeper interventions on the local level. Using an analytical framework based on social practice theory we identify characteristic patterns of intervention for each community type. We find that low-carbon municipalities face difficulties in transforming carbon-intensive social practices. While offering some additional low-carbon choices, their ability to reduce carbon-intensive practices is very limited. Their focus on efficiency and individual choice shows little transformative potential. Intentional communities, by contrast, have more institutional and organizational options to intervene in the web of social practices. Finally, we explore to what extent low-carbon municipalities can learn from intentional communities and propose strategies of hybridization for policy innovation to combine the strengths of both models

Comparison of Photocatalytic Membrane Reactor Types for the Degradation of an Organic Molecule by TiO₂-Coated PES Membrane

Photocatalytic membrane reactors with different configurations (design, flow modes and light sources) have been widely applied for pollutant removal. A thorough understanding of the contribution of reactor design to performance is required to be able to compare photocatalytic materials. Reactors with different flow designs are implemented for process efficiency comparisons. Several figures-of-merit, namely adapted space-time yield (STY) and photocatalytic space-time yield (PSTY), specific energy consumption (SEC) and degradation rate constants, were used to assess the performance of batch, flow-along and flow-through reactors. A fair comparison of reactor performance, considering throughput together with energy efficiency and photocatalytic activity, was only possible with the modified PSTY. When comparing the three reactors at the example of methylene blue (MB) degradation under LED irradiation, flow-through proved to be the most efficient design. PSTY1/PSTY2 values were approximately 10 times higher than both the batch and flow-along processes. The highest activity of such a reactor is attributed to its unique flow design which allowed the reaction to take place not only on the outer surface of the membrane but also within its pores. The enhancement of the mass transfer when flowing in a narrow space (220 nm in flow-through) contributes to an additional MB removal. © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Investigation of the reaction kinetics of photocatalytic pollutant degradation under defined conditions with inkjet-printed TiO2_{2} films – from batch to a novel continuous-flow microreactor

Pollutants accumulating in natural and drinking water systems can cause severe effects to the environment and living organisms. Photocatalysis is a promising option to degrade such pollutants. When immobilizing the photocatalyst, additional catalyst separation steps can be avoided. Among various reactor types, the use of microreactors in photocatalysis has proven advantageous regarding process intensification. However, so far the local conditions are not well understood and described in literature and there is little quantitative understanding of the relevant phenomena. In this work, inkjet-printing was used to immobilize TiO$_{2}$ as a thin film with a precisely tuneable thickness and catalyst loading. In a batch reactor, the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) as a model pollutant was performed for different initial concentrations and catalyst layer thicknesses. By employing the Langmuir–Hinshelwood model and a light irradiation model, the kinetic parameters were determined. The influence of the light intensity at different positions inside the immobilized photocatalyst on the reaction kinetics is quantified. RhB degradation was tested under defined operational conditions using an in-house developed continuous-flow microreactor with advanced fiber optics for precise light introduction. The models derived from batch experiments were used to simulate the degradation in the continuous-flow microreactor. Results show that the simulation allows prediction of the performance with less than 20% deviation to the experimental data. An analysis of mass transport effects on the reaction rate indicates that external mass transfer is a limiting factor in the microreactor experiment. This study further demonstrates the potential of the new reactor system (microreactor, fiber optics and printed catalyst) for detailed investigations on photocatalytic reaction kinetics

Investigation of the reaction kinetics of photocatalytic pollutant degradation under defined conditions with inkjet-printed TiO2_{2} films – from batch to a novel continuous-flow microreactor

Pollutants accumulating in natural and drinking water systems can cause severe effects to the environment and living organisms. Photocatalysis is a promising option to degrade such pollutants. When immobilizing the photocatalyst, additional catalyst separation steps can be avoided. Among various reactor types, the use of microreactors in photocatalysis has proven advantageous regarding process intensification. However, so far the local conditions are not well understood and described in literature and there is little quantitative understanding of the relevant phenomena. In this work, inkjet-printing was used to immobilize TiO$_{2}$ as a thin film with a precisely tuneable thickness and catalyst loading. In a batch reactor, the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) as a model pollutant was performed for different initial concentrations and catalyst layer thicknesses. By employing the Langmuir–Hinshelwood model and a light irradiation model, the kinetic parameters were determined. The influence of the light intensity at different positions inside the immobilized photocatalyst on the reaction kinetics is quantified. RhB degradation was tested under defined operational conditions using an in-house developed continuous-flow microreactor with advanced fiber optics for precise light introduction. The models derived from batch experiments were used to simulate the degradation in the continuous-flow microreactor. Results show that the simulation allows prediction of the performance with less than 20% deviation to the experimental data. An analysis of mass transport effects on the reaction rate indicates that external mass transfer is a limiting factor in the microreactor experiment. This study further demonstrates the potential of the new reactor system (microreactor, fiber optics and printed catalyst) for detailed investigations on photocatalytic reaction kinetics

Diagnostic tests in canine andrology - What do they really tell us about fertility?

Dog breeders often require breeding soundness evaluations which include andrological examinations of the genital organs, hormone measurements, and semen analyses. During the past decades, a considerable number of research results have been published, allowing diagnoses of specific andrological conditions and fertility assessment. For specific examinations, however, no standard procedures have been defined and for some parameters different reference ranges have been published. Therefore, examination results from different facilities are difficult to compare and profound conclusions regarding health and fertility of a male dog are not always possible. Conventional semen examination, however, is still useful in identifying deviations or no deviations from normality, especially if confounding factors are taken into account and if the exam is repeated in case of inconclusive findings. A standardization of examination procedures and reference ranges would help to harmonize the exchange of examination results and interpretation of the findings