Intertextuality in exile: the fusion of French and Russian language and literature in the works of Gaito Gazdanov

This thesis considers the works of Gaito Gazdanov (1903-1971) and analyses his engagement with a transnational range of predecessors and contemporaries. In foregrounding Gazdanov’s intertextual practice as a crucial element of his creative process, it demonstrates his deliberate cultivation of a (primarily, but not exclusively) Franco-Russian canon as a means of fashioning an identity as an exilic writer. The method draws flexibly on different theories of intertextuality (Kristeva, Barthes, Culler, Taranovskii) and aligns them with Russian Formalist theories of the literary process as unfolding through imitation, struggle and parody. Gazdanov’s influences are situated according to four distinct axes: a Russian nineteenth-century tradition, European (principally French) modernism, early Soviet writing, and the works of émigré contemporaries of the younger generation. Each of the four cases articulates a different iteration of intertextuality: typological transpositions of Russian classical novels, the impact of Proust as a cultural institution in interwar Paris, an interest in Babel’ as a Russian author mediating the non-Russian influence of Maupassant, and a mutual dialogue with Nabokov as a fellow émigré playing with canonical Russian influences. Intertextuality serves as a means of understanding how Gazdanov and other émigré writers aligned themselves with established literary canons, and simultaneously struggled against them in search of their own voice. What emerges from this enquiry is literature representing a multilingual, heterotopic form of identity that resists rigidly national canons

English witches and SS academics: evaluating sources for the English witch trials in Himmler’s Hexenkartothek

Prior to WWII, Himmler organised a team of SS researchers to collate records of historical witchcraft trials that had taken place in lands of the expanding Reich. The ideological pretext for this undertaking was the collection of evidence demonstrating an anti-German crusade by the Church. While this was a figment of historical imagination, the SS pursued it doggedly against the backdrop of the Holocaust. Whereas trials that had taken place on historically German lands were often sourced from primary documents to which the researchers had access within Reich libraries, trials further afield were less rigorously sourced. Little was done to differentiate between primary and secondary or even tertiary sources. One SS source for English witch trials was a text by a German-Jewish literary scholar about witchcraft in Renaissance drama. Such critical indifference on the part of the SS is thought by some to render the archive of little interest, but examining the ideological underpinnings of Nazi reception of these materials can help situate these researchers among the turbulent social and political structures of the Third Reich and its uneven privileging of the intellectual fringe. This also constitutes the first critical/biographical analysis in any language of the sources for the English trial cards in the catalogue

Structure of the Human FANCL RING-Ube2T Complex Reveals Determinants of Cognate E3-E2 Selection

The combination of an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme with an E3 ubiquitin-ligase is essential for ubiquitin modification of a substrate. Moreover, the pairing dictates both the substrate choice and the modification type. The molecular details of generic E3-E2 interactions are well established. Nevertheless, the determinants of selective, specific E3-E2 recognition are not understood. There are ~40 E2s and ~600 E3s giving rise to a possible ~24,000 E3-E2 pairs. Using the Fanconi Anemia pathway exclusive E3-E2 pair, FANCL-Ube2T, we report the atomic structure of the FANCL RING-Ube2T complex, revealing a specific and extensive network of additional electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. Furthermore, we show that these specific interactions are required for selection of Ube2T over other E2s by FANCL

Neurotrophins, immediate early genes and neuronal cell death

The selective nature of the neuronal cell death that accompanies excitotoxic lesions of the striatum has been predominantly attributed to possible receptor heterogeneities amongst the various classes of striatal neurons. The involvement of any endogenous protective mechanism in contributing to this selectivity remain largely unexplored. Intrastriatal infusions of quinolinic acid were found to result in a relative sparing of the striatal cholinergic neuron, that could be enhanced by lowering glucocorticoid levels using metyrapone or reduced by raising glucocorticoid concentrations with dexamethasone. This relative sparing of the cholinergic neuron was accompanied by a characteristic pattern of expression of immediate early genes of the AP-1 family: c-fos mRNA and protein, and jun B mRNA were induced rapidly and transiently within the periphery of the striatum and throughout the ipsilateral cortex, whilst c-jun mRNA and protein, jun D mRNA and fos B mRNA all showed a latent and prolonged pattern of expression in the central lesioned area of the striatum. Furthermore, NGF mRNA and protein, and NT-3 mRNA were all found to be upregulated in the ipsilateral striatum by 24 hours post-lesion; both NGF mRNA and NI'-3 mRNA reached a maximum expression by 48 hours, and persisted until 7 days. At the earliest time points (9 hours), enhanced expression of NGF mRNA and NT-3 mRNA was restricted to areas immediately proximal to the lesion tract; this subsequently expanded to encompass the majority of the striatum by 24 hours, exhibiting a spatial expression very similar to that of c-jun mRNA, jun D mRNA and fos B mRNA at the same time point, as well as to the area of neurodegeneration revealed by histochemical techniques. In the same animals, BDNF mRNA showed an early and transient (2-9 hours) upregulation in discrete regions of the ipsilateral cortex but remained at constitutive levels in the ipsilateral striatum. A prior injection of metyrapone was found to bring forward the expression of both NGF mRNA and NT-3 mRNA, whilst a co-infusion with dexamethasone had the effect of delaying their expression. These results highlight a potential mechanism for the relative sparing of the striatal cholinergic neuron following excitotoxic neuronal injury via the endogenous upregulation of NGF and NT-3 by compromised neurons as well as perhaps glia. They also indicate a potential role tor c-jun, fos B and jun D in the transcriptional upregulation of both NGF and NT-

A Review of Sorting and Separating Technologies Suitable for Compostable and Biodegradable Plastic Packaging

As a result of public pressure and government legislation to reduce plastic waste there has been a sharp rise in the manufacture and use of alternatives to conventional plastics including compostable and biodegradable plastics. If these plastics are not collected separately, they can contaminate plastic recycling, organic waste streams, and the environment. To deal with this contamination requires effective identification and sorting of these different polymer types to ensure they are separated and composted at end of life. This review provides the comprehensive overview of the identification and sorting technologies that can be applied to sort compostable and biodegradable plastics including gravity-based sorting, flotation sorting, triboelectrostatic sorting, image-based sorting, spectral based sorting, hyperspectral imaging and tracer-based sorting. The advantages and limitations of each sorting approach are discussed within a circular economy framework

Sáenz de Oíza, el proyecto fenomenológico

La huella de Sáenz de Oíza en la arquitectura contemporánea española no se medirá por el número de proyectos que reproduzcan caracteres estilísticos de su obra. Su legado se encuentra en la comprensión del proyecto arquitectónico como un campo de experimentación fenomenológica en la que buscó encontrar la arquitectura que se escondía en cada proyecto. Esta manera de enfrentarse al proyecto como si en cada nuevo reto la arquitectura tuviese que ser re-escrita, re-descubierta, representa una constante en su trayectoria.La idea fundamental para Sáenz de Oíza estriba en proponer un modelo de ciudad y de relación de ésta con la vivienda, utilizando modelos y conceptos de la modernidad conciliados con conceptos urbanos históricos. Propone una obra completamente abierta, un método de crecimiento, una estructura de generación urbana más que una imagen de ciudad, un proceso fluido de conformación urbana en el que la relación de los espacios vacíos y llenos de la ciudad propuesta y la ciudad por venir configuraran un lugar fenomenológico. En ese lugar los habitantes del Pozo de Entrevías habrían de desarrollar sus vidas. La propuesta en Entrevías es una experimentación proyectual, en la que el proyecto es producto de ese proceso de análisis fenomenológico de la realidad arquitectónica que intenta definir. Esta forma de abordar el proyecto de arquitectura, con todas las interrogantes abiertas, constituirá por extensión su personal y propedéutico quehacer arquitectónico y se convertirá en uno de sus legados más importantes como arquitecto y como maestro.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Experimental Analysis of The Behaviour of Aluminium Alloy EN6082AW T6 at High Temperature

The paper presents test results for the mechanical and creep properties of European aluminium alloy EN6082AW T6 at high temperatures. Mechanical properties of the aluminium alloy were determined by means of two types of test: constant stress-rate and stationary creep tests. Mechanical properties were determined up to a temperature of 350°C, while the creep tests were conducted within the temperature interval 150-300°C. The creep tests conducted have identified the critical temperature interval for creep development, which represents an important factor when analysing creep behaviour of aluminium structures. This temperature interval was found to be within the range 200-300°C. Test results for stress at 0.2% strain and modulus of elasticity at different temperatures have shown good agreement with the codified values from Eurocode 9 and with other comparable studies