Allegory and animals in Olive Schreiner’s Undine : A Queer Little Child (1929)

Written and abandoned in the 1870s, and published posthumously in 1929, Undine: A Queer Little Child has remained on the margins of Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) studies, repeatedly dismissed as a juvenile and poor antecedent to The Story of An African Farm (1883), or deemed valuable primarily for its autobiographical content. This article redresses these schematic readings by analysing how Schreiner draws on allegorical forms in order to explore aspects of her burgeoning radicalism. Focusing on one of the main allegorical thrusts of the novel, provided by the zoomorphic and anthropomorphic animal characters that descend from mythical, fairytale, and Ancient Greek philosophical origins, it investigates how the protagonist’s metaphorically significant associations with animals relate to freethinking, feminist, and anti-imperialist ideas introduced by the novel. Undine thus undermines dominant nineteenth-century models of the “primitive” human or animal as less evolutionarily developed and without political platform, which can be seen to be a liberating move when the novel is read in dialogue with Jacques Derrida’s lectures on animals, and with other recent work in postcolonial ecocriticism

Aerosolized Delivery of Antifungal Agents

Pulmonary infections caused by Aspergillus species are associated with significant morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised patients. Although the treatment of pulmonary fungal infections requires the use of systemic agents, aerosolized delivery is an attractive option in prevention because the drug can concentrate locally at the site of infection with minimal systemic exposure. Current clinical evidence for the use of aerosolized delivery in preventing fungal infections is limited to amphotericin B products, although itraconazole, voriconazole, and caspofungin are under investigation. Based on conflicting results from clinical trials that evaluated various amphotericin B formulations, the routine use of aerosolized delivery cannot be recommended. Further research with well-designed clinical trials is necessary to elucidate the therapeutic role and risks associated with aerosolized delivery of antifungal agents. This article provides an overview of aerosolized delivery systems, the intrapulmonary pharmacokinetic properties of aerosolized antifungal agents, and key findings from clinical studies

Methods for assessing movement path recursion with application to African buffalo in South Africa

ArticleRecent developments of automated methods for monitoring animal movement, e.g., global positioning systems (GPS) technology, yield high-resolution spatiotemporal data. To gain insights into the processes creating movement patterns, we present two new techniques for extracting information from these data on repeated visits to a particular site or patch (“recursions”). Identification of such patches and quantification of recursion pathways, when combined with patch-related ecological data, should contribute to our understanding of the habitat requirements of large herbivores, of factors governing their space-use patterns, and their interactions with the ecosystem. We begin by presenting output from a simple spatial model that simulates movements of large-herbivore groups based on minimal parameters: resource availability and rates of resource recovery after a local depletion. We then present the details of our new techniques of analyses (recursion analysis and circle analysis) and apply them to data generated by our model, as well as two sets of empirical data on movements of African buffalo (Syncerus caffer): the first collected in Klaserie Private Nature Reserve and the second in Kruger National Park, South Africa. Our recursion analyses of model outputs provide us with a basis for inferring aspects of the processes governing the production of buffalo recursion patterns, particularly the potential influence of resource recovery rate. Although the focus of our simulations was a comparison of movement patterns produced by different resource recovery rates, we conclude our paper with a comprehensive discussion of how recursion analyses can be used when appropriate ecological data are available to elucidate various factors influencing movement. Inter alia, these include the various limiting and preferred resources, parasites, and topographical and landscape factors

SQUIDs aus Hoch-T_c-Supraleitern Abschlussbericht

In this research project low-noise SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices) for biomagnetic measurements were made of high-Tc-superconductors. 1. YBaCuO films were prepared by ''off-axis''-sputtering and by a newly developed ionbeam sputter deposition technique. 2. The influence of the substrate material and its crystallographic orientation on the film properties was investigated systematically. 3. For film patterning Ar-plasma etching and Ar-ionbeam etching were used. Superconducting constrictions down to 200nm width were prepared. 4. Several concepts of Josephson junctions were investigated. The most successful one was the ''step-edge'' SQUID. Many SQUIDs have been prepared showing a reasonably large modulation depth at 77K (7.5 #mu#V). Using a bias-modulation technique a flat noise spectrum was obtained with a noise level of 70#mu##PHI#_0/#sq root#Hz at 77K. 5. A multilayer-technology was developed using insulating layers of SrTiO_3 with which superconducting coupling coils were realized. (orig.)In diesem Forschungsvorhaben wurden rauscharme SQUIDs (Superconducting Quantum Interference Devices) aus Hoch-Tc-Supraleitern fuer biomagnetische Messungen hergestellt. 1. Es wurden YBaCuO-Filme mit dem ''off-axis''-Sputterverfahren und mit der neu entwickelten Ionenstrahlsputter-Deposition hergestellt. 2. Es wurde der Einfluss vom Substratmaterial und dessen kristallographischer Orientierung auf die Schichteigenschaften systematisch untersucht. 3. Fuer die Mikrostrukturierung wurde Ar-Plasma-Aetzen und Ar-Ionenstrahl-Aetzen eingesetzt. Es gelang, supraleitende Bahnen bis zu einer kleinsten Breite von 200 nm herzustellen. 4. Es wurden verschiedene Konzepte zur Realisierung von Josephson-Kontakten untersucht. Am erfolgreichsten erwies sich das ''Stufen-Kontakt''-SQUID. Hier konnten viele SQUIDs hergestellt werden, die bis 77K eine relativ grosse Modulation (7.5 #mu#V) aufweisen. Mit Bias-Modulation konnte bei 77K ein flaches Rauschspektrum mit 70#mu##PHI#_0/#sq root#Hz gemessen werden. 5. Es wurde eine Mehrlagentechnologie mit isolierenden Zwischenlagen aus SrTiO_3 entwickelt und fuer supraleitende Einkoppelspulen eingesetzt. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RN 3289(806)+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEBundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technologie (BMFT), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman