Georg Lukács as a Communications Scholar: Cultural and Digital Labour in the Context of Lukács’ Ontology of Social Being

The task of this work is to apply thoughts from Georg Lukács’ final book, the Ontology of Social Being, for the theoretical analysis of cultural and digital labour. It discusses Lukács’ concepts of work and communication and relates them to the analysis of cultural and digital work. It also analyses his conception of the relation of labour and ideology and points out how we can make use of it for critically understanding social media ideologies. Lukács opposes the dualist separation of the realms of work and ideas. He introduces in this context the notion of teleological positing that allows us to better understand cultural and digital labour as well as associated ideologies, such as the engaging/connecting/sharing-ideology, today. The analysis shows that Lukács’ Ontology is in the age of Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter still a very relevant book, although it has thus far not received the attention that it deserves. This article also introduces the Ontology’s main ideas on work and culture, which is important because large parts of the book have not been translated from the German original into English. Lukács’ notion of teleological positing is crucial for understanding the common features of the economy and culture

Negative radiation pressure exerted on kinks

The interaction of a kink and a monochromatic plane wave in one dimensional scalar field theories is studied. It is shown that in a large class of models the radiation pressure exerted on the kink is negative, i.e. the kink is {\sl pulled} towards the source of the radiation. This effect has been observed by numerical simulations in the $\phi^4$ model, and it is explained by a perturbative calculation assuming that the amplitude of the incoming wave is small. Quite importantly the effect is shown to be robust against small perturbations of the $\phi^4$ model. In the sine-Gordon (sG) model the time averaged radiation pressure acting on the kink turns out to be zero. The results of the perturbative computations in the sG model are shown to be in full agreement with an analytical solution corresponding to the superposition of a sG kink with a cnoidal wave. It is also demonstrated that the acceleration of the kink satisfies Newton's law.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, LaTeX/RevTe

Occurrence of double-stranded RNA species in champignon and their relation to Mushroom Virus X symptoms

Mycoviruses are known to infect fungi of different habitats and life style. Some of them, like the Mushroom Virus X (MVX) complex, cause abnormal development of fruiting bodies and severe yield losses in mushroom cultivation. Most mycoviruses have a double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) genome, therefore dsRNA-detection is frequently used as a first step to identify virus infection. In relation with MVX 23 dsRNAs species have been described, occurring in variable number and combination in diseased mushrooms. The aim of our experiments was to find out whether dsRNA-immunoblotting can be used to detect dsRNA in small samples of cultivated A. bisporus varieties and of wild growing Agaricus species. We found that by immunoblotting, the same dsRNA species were detected in apparently healthy cultivated champignon fruiting bodies and in MVX-infected reference samples, respectively, as by conventional CF11 chromatography, but for immunoblotting a much smaller sample size was needed. In two out of three deformed fruit bodies of cultivated A. bisporus from Hungary we detected a 4.1 kbp dsRNA species which was also present in the MVX infected reference samples. Diverse and variable dsRNA patterns were observed in apparently healthy samples of 12 wild growing Agaricus species, indicating that extreme care should be taken when non-cultivated Agaricus is used for breeding new varieties. Non-sterile cultures and environmental mushroom specimens are fairly often mixed with parasitic and endofungal organisms, therefore, we also tested fungi isolated from mushroom cultures. Here again, 1–7 dsRNA species were found in extracts of Trichoderma and Dactylium isolates and of Mycogone-infected sporophores. Our results demonstrate clearly that dsRNAs from very different origins can be present in cultivated champignon and support the view that the MVX symptom-associated dsRNAs are probably of polyphyletic origin and do not represent one defined virus

The Urban Political Ecology of Post-industrial Scottish Towns: Examining Greengairs and Ravenscraig

Urban ecological politics is shaped by both moments of concerted action and more silent perceptions and responses. Instead of only being evident in situations of organised protest, the politics of urban ecology is also manifested, in material and symbolic terms, in the daily life of the residents. The fragmentation of urban political ecology turns out to be an important element in the affirmation of post-political forms of urban governance. Those issues were the object of fieldwork research carried out in Greengairs and Ravenscraig, two towns in North Lanarkshire, near Glasgow, with the goal of unravelling the understanding and the coping mechanisms of environmentally deprived residents. The towns are permeated by a widespread, often dissimulated, political ecology that is nonetheless always present. Empirical results demonstrate that a more comprehensive handling of the political ecology of the urban is crucial in order to halt the sources of marginalisation and ecological degradation

Imaging of viroids in nuclei from tomato leaf tissue by in situ hybridization and confocal laser scanning microscopy.

The intracellular localization of viroids has been investigated by viroid-specific in situ hybridization and analysis by digital microscopy of the distribution of the fluorescent hybridization signals. Isolated nuclei from green leaf tissue of tomato plants infected with potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTVd) were bound to microscope slides, fixed with formaldehyde and hybridized with biotinylated transcripts of cloned PSTVd cDNA. The bound probe was detected with lissamine--rhodamine conjugated streptavidin. Nucleoli were identified by immunofluorescence using the monoclonal antibody Bv96 and a secondary FITC-conjugated antibody. In plants infected with either a lethal or an intermediate PSTVd strain, the highest intensity of fluorescence that arose from hybridization with the probe specific for the viroid (+)strand was found in the nucleoli, confirming results of previous fractionation studies. A similar distribution was found for (-)strand replication intermediates of PSTVd using specific (+)strand transcripts as hybridization probes. In order to determine if viroids are located at the surface or in the interior of the nucleoli, the distribution of the fluorescence hybridization signals was studied with a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). It was shown by three-dimensional reconstruction that viroids are neither restricted to the surface of the nucleoli nor to a peripheral zone, but are instead homogeneously distributed throughout the nucleolus. The functional implications of the intranucleolar location of viroids and their replication intermediates are discussed with respect to proposed mechanisms of viroid replication and pathogenesis

A gyógyszer indukálta vérzékeny betegek fogorvosi, szájsebészeti ellátása: a 2015-ös hazai szakmai ajánlás alkalmazása és értékelése

Absztrakt Bevezetés: A Magyar Arc-, Állcsont- és Szájsebészeti Társaság és a Magyar Fogorvosok Implantológiai Társasága által 2015-ben elfogadásra került „A gyógyszer indukálta vérzékeny betegek fogorvosi ellátása” szakmai ajánlás. Célkitűzés: A szerzők célja volt az ajánlásban leírt lokális vérzéscsillapítási módszerek hatékonyságának, megbízhatóságának ellenőrzése. Módszer: Az orális antithromboticus kezelésben részesülő betegeiknél vizsgálták a fogorvosi, szájsebészeti ellátásukat követő utóvérzések előfordulását, retrospektív módon. Eredmények: 263, vérzéssel járó beavatkozás történt (186 betegnél), amelyből 138 K-vitamin-antagonista, 97 thrombocytaaggregáció-gátló és 6, úgynevezett új típusú orális antikoaguláns kezelésben részesülő betegeknél. Összesen 6 (2,3%) esetben tapasztaltak utóvérzést az egyórás kontrollnál, míg ügyeletbe 1 beteg jött vissza utóvérzés miatt (0,5%). Ezzel szemben 86-an jelentkeztek ügyeletükön, akiknél az ajánlást nem vették figyelembe, közülük K-vitamin-antagonista gyógyszert szedett 3 beteg, alacsony molekulasúlyú heparinkezelésben részesült 24 beteg, thrombocytaaggregáció-gátló szert szedett 30 beteg és új típusú orális antikoaguláns kezelésben részesült 1 beteg. Következtetések: A hazai szakmai ajánlás az ambuláns gyakorlatban biztonságosan alkalmazható az antithromboticus terápiában részesülő páciensek vérzéssel járó fogorvosi/szájsebészeti beavatkozásakor, habár a körzetes fogorvos ellátók sok esetben nincsenek ilyen jellegű ellátásra felkészülve. Orv. Hetil., 2016, 157(43), 1722–1728. | Abstract Introduction: In 2015 a new Hungarian guideline was published regarding dental treatment and management of anticoagulated patients in agreement of the Hungarian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Dental Implantology Association of Hungarian Dentists. Aim: The aim of the authors was to evaluate the efficiency and safety of local hemostatic measures recommended by the guideline in anticoagulated patients. Method: In these patients, postoperative bleeding episodes were examined after dental and oral surgical treatments, retrospectively. Results: Overall 263 bleeding risk cases were treated; 138 patients with vitamin K antagonists, 97 patients with antiplatelet therapy and 6 patients with novel oral anticoagulants. Six patients (2.3%) had minor postoperative bleeding after the “one hour control”, while one patient needed a night duty support (0.5%). In contrast, 86 patients who were treated in rural practices neglecting the guideline attended the night duty with postoperative bleeding (3 patients treated with vitamin K antagonists, 24 patients taking low molecular weight heparin, 30 patients receiving antiplatelet therapy and one patient on novel oral anticoagulant therapy. Conclusions: The Hungarian guideline can be applied safely, without increasing the risk of postoperative bleeding, however, rural dental practices are frequently unprepared for these treatments. Orv. hetil., 2016, 157(43), 1722–1728

Crime or social harm? A dialectical perspective

This paper proposes to examine some of the core philosophical issues to have arisen out of the recent calls to move "beyond criminology". It will be claimed that the dismissal of crime as a "fictive event" is premature, as crime does indeed have an "ontological reality". Nevertheless, it will be asserted that the relation between harm and crime is contingent rather than necessary. Accordingly, this paper will argue that there is merit to the claim that we should unify research on social harm through the creation of a new field, a step which would have the added benefit of constructing an alternative venue for crimes of the powerful scholars who wish to explore the destructive practices of states and corporations unconstrained. This paper, therefore, will also offer a dialectical definition of social harm based upon classical Marxist strains of ontological thought

Observable implications of geometrical and dynamical aspects of freeze-out in heavy ion collisions

Using an analytical parameterization of hadronic freeze-out in relativistic heavy ion collisions, we present a detailed study of the connections between features of the freeze-out configuration and physical observables. We focus especially on anisotropic freeze-out configurations (expected in general for collisions at finite impact parameter), azimuthally-sensitive HBT interferometry, and final-state interactions between non-identical particles. Model calculations are compared with data taken in the first year of running at RHIC; while not perfect, good agreement is found, raising the hope that a consistent understanding of the full freeze-out scenario at RHIC is possible, an important first step towards understanding the physics of the system prior to freeze-out.Comment: 36 pages, 56 figures, 2 tables; version accepted for publication in PRC: some figures, references and discussion added; now also discusses classical versus quantum statistic