Paris-Wien-St.Petersburg oder Alger-Brno-Charkiv?: Wissenstransfer und die ‚composite states

The article was submitted on 02.07.2015.The exchange of science and knowledge between capital cities has dominated research in recent decades. Imperial provinces have played only a minor role in recent works partly because as independent states, their histories are analyzed by other historians. In this article, I propose an alternative model to conceptualize and describe the contacts between both centers and provinces and between empires. Following ideas of Jurij Lotman, Andreas Kappeler and Moritz Csáky, I maintain that provinces and peripheries function as a necessary and constitutive moment in the intellectual geography of empires, and their interplay with the center prove essential for intellectual productivity. I discuss such processes as multicultural and multilingual exchange, including scholars defining themselves as Polish and Ukrainian, who helped to transmit new knowledge to imperial centers. I claim that the periphery is a privileged space for innovation, which is not constrained by the center’s tight control, but instead subjected to manifold influences enabled though its heterogeneity. For instance, historiographically Kiev served in the 19th century as a center of innovation for the Russian empire. Similarly, John Stewart Mill’s positivism was first discussed in Russian by a multilingual scholar of Polish origin, Baltazar Kalinowski, in St. Petersburg in the context of Polish (inner) Émigré organizations. Philosopher Henryk Struve, professor of Warsaw Main School, then Imperial Warsaw University, on the other hand, helps to visualize entanglements in the sphere of logic and history of philosophy. When Struve received his doctoral degree in Moscow, his controversial views sparked a debate over materialism, engaging several established and younger scholars. Also later, while predominantly writing in Polish, he published in Russian on contemporary philosophy and logic, presenting new insights from his western-peripheral position. Finally, while working in Graz, the Habsburg periphery, sociologist Ludwik Gumplowicz, of Jewish ancestry and Polish national allegiance, not only served a pivotal role in late imperial Russian sociology but also was cited in early Marxist works. Gumplowicz stands for manifold peripheries either though his Jewishness, his Anti-Clericalism and / or his scholarly position. Nonetheless, his sociology came to Russia by detouring through France, where it was popularized first by Réné Worms and his Institut International de Sociologie, a similarly peripheral institution, albeit located in the very center of Paris.В последние десятилетия обмен знаниями между столицами государств стал главным источником развития науки. Провинциальным городам империй в недавних исследованиях уделялось мало внимания - в том числе и потому, что ученые рассматривают их историю как независимых государств. В настоящей статье я представляю альтернативный метод концептуализации и описания контактов между центрами и их провинциальными владениями, а также взаимодействия между империями. Опираясь на идеи Юрия Лотмана, Андреаса Каппелера и Морица Чаки, я предлагаю рассматривать провинции и периферию как необходимую составляющую интеллектуальной карты империй, а их взаимодействие с центром - как важный момент в порождении знания. Я рассматриваю такие процессы на примере мультикультурного и межъязыкового обмена, включая труды ученых, считавших себя поляками и украинцами и помогавших передавать новое знание в центры империй. Я настаиваю на том, что периферия является благоприятным местом для инноваций, так как она свободна от строгого контроля центра и при этом, благодаря своему разнородному характеру, открыта для воздействия множества взглядов. Прежде всего это касается историографии, относительно которой в XIX в. Киев служил инновационным центром Российской империи. Также позитивизм Джона Стюарта Милля впервые был описан на русском языке ученым польского происхождения Бальтазаром Калиновским в Санкт-Петербурге в контексте польских (внутренних) организаций эмигрантов. С другой стороны, благодаря философу Генриху Струве, профессору Варшавской главной школы, а впоследствии Императорского Варшавского университета, были обнаружены проблемные вопросы в сфере логики и истории философии. Когда Струве защищал докторскую диссертацию в Москве, его противоречивые взгляды вызвали споры молодых, но уже именитых ученых вокруг материализма. Позже, создавая свои работы почти исключительно на польском, он опубликовал труды и на русском языке на тему современной философии и логики, представляя новый взгляд на вещи, обусловленный проживанием на западной периферии страны. И, наконец, роль социолога еврейского происхождения Людвика Гумпловича, гражданина Польши и профессора университета Граца, города Габсбургской периферии, была ключевой для социологии поздней Российской империи, и его цитируют ранние марксистские труды. Гумплович оказался сразу на нескольких перифериях - в силу своего еврейского происхождения, а также антиклерикальных и научных воззрений. Но его труды по социологии пришли в Россию через Францию, где были популяризованы Рене Уормом и его Международным институтом социологии, также учреждением периферийного характера, хотя и находившимся в самом центре Парижа

The sensitivity of r-process nucleosynthesis to the properties of neutron-rich nuclei

About half of the heavy elements in the Solar System were created by rapid neutron capture, or r-process, nucleosynthesis. In the r-process, heavy elements are built up via a sequence of neutron captures and beta decays in which an intense neutron flux pushes material out towards the neutron drip line. The nuclear network simulations used to test potential astrophysical scenarios for the r-process therefore require nuclear physics data (masses, beta decay lifetimes, neutron capture rates, fission probabilities) for thousands of nuclei far from stability. Only a small fraction of this data has been experimentally measured. Here we discuss recent sensitivity studies that aim to determine the nuclei whose properties are most crucial for r-process calculations.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Fission and Properties of Neutron-Rich Nuclei (ICFN5

Neutrinos, Fission Cycling, and the r-process

It has long been suggested that fission cycling may play an important role in the r-process. Fission cycling can only occur in a very neutron rich environment. In traditional calculations of the neutrino driven wind of the core-collapse supernova, the environment is not sufficiently neutron rich to produce the r-process elements. However, we show that with a reduction of the electron neutrino flux coming from the supernova, fission cycling does occur and furthermore it produces an abundance pattern which is consistent with observed r-process abundance pattern in halo stars. Such a reduction can be caused by active-sterile neutrino oscillations or other new physics.Comment: Typos corrected. Presented at NIC-IX, International Symposium on Nuclear Astrophysics - Nuclei in the Cosmos - IX, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, 25-30 June, 200

Sensitivity studies for r-process nucleosynthesis in three astrophysical scenarios

In rapid neutron capture, or r-process, nucleosynthesis, heavy elements are built up via a sequence of neutron captures and beta decays that involves thousands of nuclei far from stability. Though we understand the basics of how the r-process proceeds, its astrophysical site is still not conclusively known. The nuclear network simulations we use to test potential astrophysical scenarios require nuclear physics data (masses, beta decay lifetimes, neutron capture rates, fission probabilities) for all of the nuclei on the neutron-rich side of the nuclear chart, from the valley of stability to the neutron drip line. Here we discuss recent sensitivity studies that aim to determine which individual pieces of nuclear data are the most crucial for r-process calculations. We consider three types of astrophysical scenarios: a traditional hot r-process, a cold r-process in which the temperature and density drop rapidly, and a neutron star merger trajectory.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the Proceedings of the International Nuclear Physics Conference (INPC) 201

Changes in r-process abundances at late times

We explore changes in abundance patterns that occur late in the r process. As the neutrons available for capture begin to disappear, a quasiequilibrium funnel shifts material into the large peaks at A=130 and A=195, and into the rare-earth "bump" at A=160. A bit later, after the free-neutron abundance has dropped and beta-decay has begun to compete seriously with neutron capture, the peaks can widen. The degree of widening depends largely on neutron-capture rates near closed neutron shells and relatively close to stability. We identify particular nuclei the capture rates of which should be examined experimentally, perhaps at a radioactive beam facility.Comment: 8 pages, 14 figures included in tex

Fission Cycling in a Supernova r-process

Recent halo star abundance observations exhibit an important feature of consequence to the r-process: the presence of a main r-process between the second and third peaks which is consistent among halo stars. We explore fission cycling and steady-beta flow as the driving mechanisms behind this feature. The presence of fission cycling during the r-process can account for nucleosynthesis yields between the second and third peaks, whereas the presence of steady-beta flow can account for consistent r-process patterns, robust under small variations in astrophysical conditions. We employ the neutrino-driven wind of the core-collapse supernova to examine fission cycling and steady-beta flow in the r-process. As the traditional neutrino-driven wind model does not produce the required very neutron-rich conditions for these mechanisms, we examine changes to the neutrino physics necessary for fission cycling to occur in the neutrino-driven wind environment, and we explore under what conditions steady-beta flow is obtained.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figure

Formation of oligopeptides in high yield under simple programmable conditions

Many high-yielding reactions for forming peptide bonds have been developed but these are complex, requiring activated amino-acid precursors and heterogeneous supports. Herein we demonstrate the programmable one-pot dehydration–hydration condensation of amino acids forming oligopeptide chains in around 50% yield. A digital recursive reactor system was developed to investigate this process, performing these reactions with control over parameters such as temperature, number of cycles, cycle duration, initial monomer concentration and initial pH. Glycine oligopeptides up to 20 amino acids long were formed with very high monomer-to-oligomer conversion, and the majority of these products comprised three amino acid residues or more. Having established the formation of glycine homo-oligopeptides, we then demonstrated the co-condensation of glycine with eight other amino acids (Ala, Asp, Glu, His, Lys, Pro, Thr and Val), incorporating a range of side-chain functionality

Targeting of anionic membrane species by lanthanide(III) complexes: towards improved MRI contrast agents for apoptosis

No abstract available