"Ein neuer Weg des Films": Joseph Roth's reviews of documentary films

Joseph Roth touched on film in around 80 of his articles in the 1920s and 1930s. His attitudes towards the new medium, and documentaries in particular, are examined

"Zivil ist allemal schädlich"? Clothing in German-language culture of the 1920s

This paper examines the representation of clothing, and specifically of uniforms, in German-language texts of the period 1918–1933. The following questions are central: What were the prevailing attitudes to fashion and clothing in German-speaking Central Europe after the War? To what extent should these attitudes be related to rather than contrasted with those dominant until 1914? And how were these attitudes represented and reflected in contemporary culture? These questions are addressed in the context of the complex identity and gender politics of the interwar period. A central focus will be the significance of clothing, and particularly of uniform, to contemporary constructions of gender in general, and of masculinity in particular. Texts examined include novels by Joseph Roth, Erich Maria Remarque and Hans Fallada, and F. W. Murnau''s film Der letzte Mann

Roads to Nowhere? Cycling, Happiness and Emotional Authenticity in Contemporary German Fiction

This article compares a selection of recent German literary representations of cycling in the context of contemporary discourses of slow travel, with a particular focus on themes of happiness and emotional authenticity. It seeks to expand the framework of discussions of slow travel with a comparative focus on four novels: Der Mann auf dem Hochrad (‘The Man on the Penny Farthing’, 1984) by Uwe Timm, Im Sommer wieder Fahrrad (‘I’ll Cycle Again in the Summer’, 2016) by Lea Streisand, Im Feld (‘In the Field’, 2018) by Joachim Zelter and Neujahr (‘New Year’, 2018) by Juli Zeh. The article surveys the cultural history of cycling, and pays attention to the status of cycling in German society and culture. Drawing on the work of John Day, Valeria Luiselli, Erling Kagge and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, it presents a reading of the texts’ treatment of cycling as performance within a broader reflection upon slow travel as a non-functional, affective and authentic practice is experienced as a contrast to everyday life

Battlegrounds of environmental change

The Thames catchment encompasses one of Europe’s largest cities, the UK’s principal aquifer, an extensive zone of coastal interaction and much else. It presents a unique conjunction of geological, hydrogeological, environmental and socio-economic factors that are intrinsically linked by the effects of environmental change and the pressures of developmen

Sonic Explorations in Divergent Landscapes

This document presents a portfolio of ten composition projects produced between September 2010 and June 2014 created by composer Jon Hughes working in collaboration with a number of artists and researchers. Each individual chapter deals with a separate project, and is accompanied by a Data Drive presented alongside the text as an integral part of the submission. This contains audio, video and other supplementary material. There is also an introductory essay, Chapter 1: Footprints and Philosophy: Sonic Explorations in Divergent Landscapes, designed to set the composition portfolio in context. Although contrasting in terms of content and media, the ten works presented here share a number of common conceptual threads. They all involve the use of sound to reveal, uncover, communicate, and to map hidden aspects of the subject matter explored with each individual project, whether that be mathematical principles (Phase Revival), the shared experience of landscape (Terrarium, Hydrology, Another Place), principles from evolutionary biology (Transmission), or the rich complexity of shared acoustic space (A Dip in the Lake). A further related common thread is the use of large-scale ambisonic speaker arrays (Terrarium, A Dip in the Lake, Phase Revival, Sonic Horizons, Hydrology). This gave production teams the ability to create fully immersive audio/visual environments in which hidden themes and concepts referred to above could be better communicated. Working together with fellow collaborators, it thus became possible to create cultural interventions in the form of portable, immersive public spaces. Other themes explored in the portfolio include the use of found sound, and the exploration of landscape narrative. Found sound is used extensively, in combination with instrumental and vocal material

Tyrosine 263 in Cyanobacterial Phytochrome Cph1 Optimizes Photochemistry at the prelumi-R→lumi-R Step

We report a low-temperature fluorescence spectroscopy study of the PAS-GAF-PHY sensory module of Cph1 phytochrome, its Y263F mutant (both with known 3D structures) as well as Y263H and Y263S to connect their photochemical parameters with intramolecular interactions. None of the holoproteins showed photochemical activity at low temperature, and the activation barriers for the Pr→lumi-R photoreaction (2.5-3.1 kJ mol(-1)) and fluorescence quantum yields (0.29-0.42) were similar. The effect of the mutations on Pr→Pfr photoconversion efficiency (ΦPr→Pfr) was observed primarily at the prelumi-R S0 bifurcation point corresponding to the conical intersection of the energy surfaces at which the molecule relaxes to form lumi-R or Pr, lowering ΦPr→Pfr from 0.13 in the wild type to 0.05-0.07 in the mutants. We suggest that the Ea activation barrier in the Pr* S1 excited state might correspond to the D-ring (C19) carbonyl - H290 hydrogen bond or possibly to the hindrance caused by the C13(1) /C17(1) methyl groups of the C and D rings. The critical role of the tyrosine hydroxyl group can be at the prelumi-R bifurcation point to optimize the yield of the photoprocess and energy storage in the form of lumi-R for subsequent rearrangement processes culminating in Pfr formation

The Extremely Luminous Quasar Survey in the Pan-STARRS 1 Footprint (PS-ELQS)

We present the results of the Extremely Luminous Quasar Survey in the $3\pi$ survey of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS; PS1). This effort applies the successful quasar selection strategy of the Extremely Luminous Survey in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey footprint ($\sim12,000\,\rm{deg}^2$) to a much larger area ($\sim\rm{21486}\,\rm{deg}^2$). This spectroscopic survey targets the most luminous quasars ($M_{1450}\le-26.5$; $m_{i}\le18.5$) at intermediate redshifts ($z\ge2.8$). Candidates are selected based on a near-infrared JKW2 color cut using WISE AllWISE and 2MASS photometry to mainly reject stellar contaminants. Photometric redshifts ($z_{\rm{reg}}$) and star-quasar classifications for each candidate are calculated from near-infrared and optical photometry using the supervised machine learning technique random forests. We select 806 quasar candidates at $z_{\rm{reg}}\ge2.8$ from a parent sample of 74318 sources. After exclusion of known sources and rejection of candidates with unreliable photometry, we have taken optical identification spectra for 290 of our 334 good PS-ELQS candidates. We report the discovery of 190 new $z\ge2.8$ quasars and an additional 28 quasars at lower redshifts. A total of 44 good PS-ELQS candidates remain unobserved. Including all known quasars at $z\ge2.8$, our quasar selection method has a selection efficiency of at least $77\%$. At lower declinations $-30\le\rm{Decl.}\le0$ we approximately triple the known population of extremely luminous quasars. We provide the PS-ELQS quasar catalog with a total of 592 luminous quasars ($m_{i}\le18.5$, $z\ge2.8$). This unique sample will not only be able to provide constraints on the volume density and quasar clustering of extremely luminous quasars, but also offers valuable targets for studies of the intergalactic medium.Comment: 34 pages, 10 figures, accepted to ApJ

Asymmetry During Maximal Sprint Performance in 11- to 16-Year-Old Boys

Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the influence of age and maturation upon magnitude of asymmetry in the force, stiffness and the spatiotemporal determinants of maximal sprint speed in a large cohort of boys. Methods: 344 boys between the ages of 11 and 16 years completed an anthropometric assessment and a 35 m sprint test, during which sprint performance was recorded via a ground-level optical measurement system. Maximal sprint velocity, as well as asymmetry in spatiotemporal variables, modeled force and stiffness data were established for each participant. For analysis, participants were grouped into chronological age, maturation and percentile groups. Results: The range of mean asymmetry across age groups and variables was 2.3–12.6%. The magnitude of asymmetry in all the sprint variables was not significantly different across age and maturation groups (p > .05), except relative leg stiffness (p < .05). No strong relationships between asymmetry in sprint variables and maximal sprint velocity were evident (rs < .39). Conclusion: These results provide a novel benchmark for the expected magnitude of asymmetry in a large cohort of uninjured boys during maximal sprint performance. Asymmetry in sprint performance is largely unaffected by age or maturation and no strong relationships exist between the magnitude of asymmetry and maximal sprint velocity