Against Accumulation: \u3cem\u3eMoby-Dick, Mason & Dixon,\u3c/em\u3e and Atlantic Capitalism

This thesis examines the question of what it means to think about a text as Atlantic literature. I consider two novels, Melville’s Moby-Dick and Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon, in their relation to the Atlantic cycle of capital accumulation. I borrow this term from Ian Baucom, who, drawing on the work of Giovanni Arrighi, argues that the period extending from the late eighteenth century to the late twentieth century represents a definite epoch of historical capitalism: an Atlantic cycle of capital accumulation. To think about these texts as Atlantic literature, then, is to think about how they reproduce the logic of or understand themselves in relation to this Atlantic cycle, the dynamic engine of a circum-Atlantic world. I turn to two key theorists whose work I feel is best suited to each novel. Moby-Dick is primarily focused on capitalist production as represented by the whaling industry,and thus I employ Georg Lukács—particularly his model of realism and its emphasis on revealing the nature of production of a given social field—for my reading of that novel. Mason & Dixon, however, is less directly concerned with production and instead centers its narrative on the consumption of Atlantic commodities, which invites a reading that draws on Walter Benjamin, whose work focuses (primarily) on this stage of capitalist production. In my reading of Moby-Dick, I argue that the novel approaches the requirements of Lukácsian realism, but fails to meet them because of its compositionally eclectic nature. Because Moby-Dick is inherently contradictory, it does not contain what Lukács calls the moving center (the force that orients and directs the “totality of objects” of a given social field, in this case, capital)—or at least not conventionally. Instead, the moving center is displaced and reproduced figuratively in Ahab’s monomaniacal hunt for the white whale, leaving the empty shell of its rhetoric on Starbuck: Atlantic capitalism as contradiction. This, I argue, is not Lukácsian realism per se, but what I term a “realism of crisis,” as the text encounters its own moving center (capital) in a moment of crisis and subsequently displaces it (to Ahab). Mason & Dixon, however, traces the Atlantic cycle across space and, importantly,through a time that does not simply pass, but accumulates. We see this in the novel’s ghostliness, in how it represents commodities, and in the Benjaminian constellation of the late eighteenth and late twentieth centuries—the “bookends” of the Atlantic cycle. Through adopting a Benjaminian philosophy of history, the text reveals how the Atlantic cycle is composed not of discrete and isolated past moments moving through the empty, homogeneous time of capitalist modernity, but rather of nonsynchronously contemporaneous moments accumulating in the wake of a singular historical catastrophe. That catastrophe, Pynchon’s “the Day,” is analogous to the Atlantic cycle of accumulation. Both novels encounter the logic of capitalist accumulation and respond in turn with an alternative form of accumulation. In Moby-Dick, we see a trend of literary accumulation (the “nonrealist” element) that seeks to counteract the brutalizing reality of the logic of capitalist accumulation (uncovered by he “realist” element). And in Mason & Dixon, we see an accumulative (Benjaminian) philosophy of history that seeks to counteract the empty time of capitalist modernity, and articulates itself as a politics of melancholy

Security governance and networks: New theoretical perspectives in transatlantic security

The end of the Cold War has not only witnessed the rise of new transnational threats such as terrorism, crime, proliferation and civil war; it has also seen the growing role of non-state actors in the provision of security in Europe and North America. Two concepts in particular have been used to describe these transformations: security governance and networks. However, the differences and potential theoretical utility of these two concepts for the study of contemporary security have so far been under-examined. This article seeks to address this gap. It proposes that security governance can help to explain the transformation of Cold War security structures, whereas network analysis is particularly useful for understanding the relations and interactions between public and private actors in the making and implementation of national and international security policies

Clinical Manifestations and Case Management of Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever caused by a newly identified virus strain, Bundibugyo, Uganda, 2007-2008

A confirmed Ebola haemorrhagic fever (EHF) outbreak in Bundibugyo, Uganda, November 2007-February 2008, was caused by a putative new species (Bundibugyo ebolavirus). It included 93 putative cases, 56 laboratory-confirmed cases, and 37 deaths (CFR = 25%). Study objectives are to describe clinical manifestations and case management for 26 hospitalised laboratory-confirmed EHF patients. Clinical findings are congruous with previously reported EHF infections. The most frequently experienced symptoms were non-bloody diarrhoea (81%), severe headache (81%), and asthenia (77%). Seven patients reported or were observed with haemorrhagic symptoms, six of whom died. Ebola care remains difficult due to the resource-poor setting of outbreaks and the infection-control procedures required. However, quality data collection is essential to evaluate case definitions and therapeutic interventions, and needs improvement in future epidemics. Organizations usually involved in EHF case management have a particular responsibility in this respect

Adsorption and reaction of CO on (Pd–)Al2O3 and (Pd–)ZrO2: vibrational spectroscopy of carbonate formation

γ-Alumina is widely used as an oxide support in catalysis, and palladium nanoparticles supported by alumina represent one of the most frequently used dispersed metals. The surface sites of the catalysts are often probed via FTIR spectroscopy upon CO adsorption, which may result in the formation of surface carbonate species. We have examined this process in detail utilizing FTIR to monitor carbonate formation on γ-alumina and zirconia upon exposure to isotopically labelled and unlabelled CO and CO2. The same was carried out for well-defined Pd nanoparticles supported on Al2O3 or ZrO2. A water gas shift reaction of CO with surface hydroxyls was detected, which requires surface defect sites and adjacent OH groups. Furthermore, we have studied the effect of Cl synthesis residues, leading to strongly reduced carbonate formation and changes in the OH region (isolated OH groups were partly replaced or were even absent). To corroborate this finding, samples were deliberately poisoned with Cl to an extent comparable to that of synthesis residues, as confirmed by Auger electron spectroscopy. For catalysts prepared from Cl-containing precursors a new CO band at 2164 cm−1 was observed in the carbonyl region, which was ascribed to Pd interacting with Cl. Finally, the FTIR measurements were complemented by quantification of the amount of carbonates formed via chemisorption, which provides a tool to determine the concentration of reactive defect sites on the alumina surface

Sixfold improved single particle measurement of the magnetic moment of the antiproton

Our current understanding of the Universe comes, among others, from particle physics and cosmology. In particle physics an almost perfect symmetry between matter and antimatter exists. On cosmological scales, however, a striking matter/antimatter imbalance is observed. This contradiction inspires comparisons of the fundamental properties of particles and antiparticles with high precision. Here we report on a measurement of the g-factor of the antiproton with a fractional precision of 0.8 parts per million at 95% confidence level. Our value /2=2.7928465(23) outperforms the previous best measurement by a factor of 6. The result is consistent with our proton g-factor measurement gp/2=2.792847350(9), and therefore agrees with the fundamental charge, parity, time (CPT) invariance of the Standard Model of particle physics. Additionally, our result improves coefficients of the standard model extension which discusses the sensitivity of experiments with respect to CPT violation by up to a factor of 20.EU/ERC/290870-MEFUCOMax-Planck SocietyHelmholtz-GemeinschaftRIKEN Initiative Research Unit ProgramRIKEN President FundingRIKEN Pioneering Project FundingRIKEN FPR FundingRIKEN JRA ProgramMEXT/24000008Max-Planck SocietyEU/ERC Advanced Grant/290870-MEFUCOHelmholtz-GemeinschaftCERN-fellowship program

Improved limit on the directly measured antiproton lifetime

Continuous monitoring of a cloud of antiprotons stored in a Penning trap for 405 days enables us to set an improved limit on the directly measured antiproton lifetime. From our measurements we extract a storage time of 3.15x108 equivalent antiproton-seconds, resulting in a lower lifetime limit of Tp > 10.2,a with a confidence level of 68%. This result improves the limit on charge-parity-time violation in antiproton decays based on direct observation by a factor of 7

Features of mammalian microRNA promoters emerge from polymerase II chromatin immunoprecipitation data

Background: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are short, non-coding RNA regulators of protein coding genes. miRNAs play a very important role in diverse biological processes and various diseases. Many algorithms are able to predict miRNA genes and their targets, but their transcription regulation is still under investigation. It is generally believed that intragenic miRNAs (located in introns or exons of protein coding genes) are co-transcribed with their host genes and most intergenic miRNAs transcribed from their own RNA polymerase II (Pol II) promoter. However, the length of the primary transcripts and promoter organization is currently unknown. Methodology: We performed Pol II chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP)-chip using a custom array surrounding regions of known miRNA genes. To identify the true core transcription start sites of the miRNA genes we developed a new tool (CPPP). We showed that miRNA genes can be transcribed from promoters located several kilobases away and that their promoters share the same general features as those of protein coding genes. Finally, we found evidence that as many as 26% of the intragenic miRNAs may be transcribed from their own unique promoters. Conclusion: miRNA promoters have similar features to those of protein coding genes, but miRNA transcript organization is more complex. © 2009 Corcoran et al