A study of the sublime in English Romantic aesthetics

The nature and role of sublime experience has been an enduring topic of discussion in the history of aesthetics, dating back nearly 2000 years to the rhetorical sublime of Longinus. The emergence of English romanticism at the juncture of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries wrought substantial change on conceptions of the sublime, driven primarily by Immanuel Kant’s transcendental philosophy. Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, and Percy Bysshe Shelley each develop a theory of sublimity grounded in the expression of unified and universal experience in human consciousness. Naturally, certain philosophical differences arise within the theoretical discourse of the authors - most notably, with Shelly - but the number and strength of the similarities are such that an identifiable and consistent view of Romantic sublimity emerges. Coleridge\u27s conception of the sublime is most closely related to Kant\u27s. Like Kant, Coleridge characterizes the sublime experience as one in which the comparing power, or imagination is suspended ( Coleridge Marginalia 342). The Coleridgean Sublime, however, differs from the Kantian in that it is less a reaction to infinite size and power than it is the highest apprehension of multeity in unity, the infinitely complex and infinitely unified idea (Biographia Literaria 2: 232). Wordsworth\u27s conception of sublimity is substantially similar, resting on an aesthetic experience that suspends the comparing power of the mind & possesses it with a feeling or image of intense unity, without a conscious contemplation of parts ( The Sublime and the Beautiful 354). Shelley, like Coleridge and Wordsworth, founds his version of sublimity on the poet\u27s perception and communication of the eternal, the infinite, and the one (A Defence of Poetry 124). These separate but closely comparable accounts of sublimity reveal a Romantic conception of sublimity based in discovering the universal in human experience, a conception that fundamentally differentiates Romanticism from Neo-Classicism as a philosophical and literary movement

Reply to the comment of Chudnovsky&Garanin on "Spin relaxation in Mn12-acetate"

Reply to the comment of E.M. Chudnovsky and D.A. Garanin on Europhys. Lett. 46, 692 (1999).Comment: 2 pages, Latex (europhys.sty

Carbon Isotope Constraints on the Deglacial CO2 Rise from Ice Cores

The stable carbon isotope ratio of atmospheric CO2 (d13Catm) is a key parameter in deciphering past carbon cycle changes. Here we present d13Catm data for the past 24,000 years derived from three independent records from two Antarctic ice cores. We conclude that a pronounced 0.3 per mil decrease in d13Catm during the early deglaciation can be best explained by upwelling of old, carbon-enriched waters in the Southern Ocean. Later in the deglaciation, regrowth of the terrestrial biosphere, changes in sea surface temperature, and ocean circulation governed the d13Catm evolution. During the Last Glacial Maximum, d13Catm and atmospheric CO2 concentration were essentially constant, which suggests that the carbon cycle was in dynamic equilibrium and that the net transfer of carbon to the deep ocean had occurred before then

Spin relaxation in Mn12-acetate

We present a comprehensive derivation of the magnetization relaxation in a Mn12-acetate crystal based on thermally assisted spin tunneling induced by quartic anisotropy and weak transverse magnetic fields. The overall relaxation rate as function of the magnetic field is calculated and shown to agree well with data including all resonance peaks. The Lorentzian shape of the resonances is also in good agreement with recent data. A generalized master equation including resonances is derived and solved exactly. It is shown that many transition paths with comparable weight exist that contribute to the relaxation process. Previously unknown spin-phonon coupling constants are calculated explicitly.Comment: 4 pages,4 EPS figures,LaTeX(europhys.sty);final version accepted for EP

Comparison of continuous in situ CO2 observations at Jungfraujoch using two different measurement techniques

Since 2004, atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is being measured at the High Altitude Research Station Jungfraujoch by the division of Climate and Environmental Physics at the University of Bern (KUP) using a nondispersive infrared gas analyzer (NDIR) in combination with a paramagnetic O2 analyzer. In January 2010, CO2 measurements based on cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) as part of the Swiss National Air Pollution Monitoring Network were added by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa). To ensure a smooth transition – a prerequisite when merging two data sets, e.g., for trend determinations – the two measurement systems run in parallel for several years. Such a long-term intercomparison also allows the identification of potential offsets between the two data sets and the collection of information about the compatibility of the two systems on different time scales. A good agreement of the seasonality, short-term variations and, to a lesser extent mainly due to the short common period, trend calculations is observed. However, the comparison reveals some issues related to the stability of the calibration gases of the KUP system and their assigned CO2 mole fraction. It is possible to adapt an improved calibration strategy based on standard gas determinations, which leads to better agreement between the two data sets. By excluding periods with technical problems and bad calibration gas cylinders, the average hourly difference (CRDS – NDIR) of the two systems is −0.03 ppm ± 0.25 ppm. Although the difference of the two data sets is in line with the compatibility goal of ±0.1 ppm of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the standard deviation is still too high. A significant part of this uncertainty originates from the necessity to switch the KUP system frequently (every 12 min) for 6 min from ambient air to a working gas in order to correct short-term variations of the O2 measurement system. Allowing additional time for signal stabilization after switching the sample, an effective data coverage of only one-sixth for the KUP system is achieved while the Empa system has a nearly complete data coverage. Additionally, different internal volumes and flow rates may affect observed differences

Parallel adaptations to nectarivory in parrots, key innovations and the diversification of the Loriinae

Specialization to nectarivory is associated with radiations within different bird groups, including parrots. One of them, the Australasian lories, were shown to be unexpectedly species rich. Their shift to nectarivory may have created an ecological opportunity promoting species proliferation. Several morphological specializations of the feeding tract to nectarivory have been described for parrots. However, they have never been assessed in a quantitative framework considering phylogenetic nonindependence. Using a phylogenetic comparative approach with broad taxon sampling and 15 continuous characters of the digestive tract, we demonstrate that nectarivorous parrots differ in several traits from the remaining parrots. These trait-changes indicate phenotype–environment correlations and parallel evolution, and may reflect adaptations to feed effectively on nectar. Moreover, the diet shift was associated with significant trait shifts at the base of the radiation of the lories, as shown by an alternative statistical approach. Their diet shift might be considered as an evolutionary key innovation which promoted significant non-adaptive lineage diversification through allopatric partitioning of the same new niche. The lack of increased rates of cladogenesis in other nectarivorous parrots indicates that evolutionary innovations need not be associated one-to-one with diversification events

A fast screening method for the detection of CERA in dried blood spots.

Continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA) is a third-generation erythropoiesis-stimulating agent that was developed for the treatment of anemia. However, misuse of CERA for doping in endurance sports has been reported. Previous studies have shown blood as the matrix of choice for the detection of CERA, due to its high molecular weight. The use of dried blood spots (DBSs) for anti-doping purposes constitutes a complementary approach to the standard urine and venous blood matrices and could facilitate sample collection and increase the number of blood samples available for analysis due to reduced costs of sample collection and transport. Here, we investigated whether CERA could be indirectly detected in extracts of single DBSs using an erythropoietin-specific immunoassay that is capable of providing results within approximately 2 h. Reconstituted DBS samples were prepared from mixtures of red blood cell pellets and serum samples. The samples were collected in a previous clinical study in which six healthy volunteers were injected with a single, 200 μg dose of CERA. Using a commercially available ELISA kit, CERA was detected in the DBSs with a detection window of up to 20 days post-injection. Furthermore, in order to demonstrate the fitness-for-purpose, three authentic doping control serum samples, which were identified as containing CERA, were analyzed by the presented methodological approach on DBS. The testing procedure described here could be used as a fast and cost-effective method for the detection of CERA abuse in sport

Investigating masking effects of age trends on the correlations among tree ring proxies

Age-related trends are present in tree-ring widths (TRW), but their presence in tree rings isotope is debated. It is unclear how cambial age influences the relationships between TRW and isotopes. Tree-ring isotopes of alpine larch and cembran-pine trees showed only trends in the juvenile period (>100 years), which might mask the inter-relations between tree-ring proxies during cambial age. This work tries to unmask the age-trend influences by examining the correlations in TRW-stable isotopes with and without age-trend correction. The non-detrended and linear-detrended values of TRW, of δD and δ18O showed significant correlations for ages up to 100 years, but not afterward. However, the correlation values, after spline or first-difference time-series detrending, were not age-related. Thus, detrending methods affect the correlations in the juvenile phase and may affect climate-related interpretations. The correlations between TRW and δ13C were not age-related, while those among the isotopes were significant throughout the ages. The correlation between δ13C and δD was the exception, as it became significant only after age > 100 years, suggesting a different use of reserves in the juvenile phase. In conclusion, the relationships among the tree-ring parameters are stable in all the different detrend scenarios after the juvenile phase, and they can be used together in multi-proxy paleoclimatic studies. The data of the juvenile phase can be used after spline-detrending or first-difference time-series calculation, depending on the purpose of the analysis to remove age-related trends. The work also provides clues on the possible causes of juvenile age trends