Bildersturm im Berner Münster? Berns Umgang mit sakralen Bildern in der Reformation – Symptom der städtischen Herrschaft

After the adoption of the Reformation in January 1528, the authorities of the city of Bern gave order to remove sacred images as a logical consequence of the transformations in theology, liturgy and pastoral care. However, selective handling of the order can be observed in the minster. In Bern’s main church, not all sacred images were erased and some have been preserved until today. The article proposes a differentiating use of the German term "Bildersturm" (iconoclasm) which has a historically propagandistic notion. It arose in martial statements of Luther against the "spiritless" riots against images around Karlstadt and Müntzer in 1522/24. In the opinion of the author, "Bildersturm" leads to prejudice and the stereotype of the artless Protestant. The example of image removal in Bern provides a more nuanced view of the phenomenon of Protestant iconoclasm. The first part examines the written sources from the city’s council archives, several Swiss chronicles and theological positions. On this basis, in the second part, the removed and conserved types of sacred images in the Bernese Minster are analysed as a case study. In conclusion, the resolute and selective handling is proposed as the formation of a visual program that strengthened the ideal of strong and fair governance

Chloroplasts of the green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii possess at least four distinct stromal processing proteases

The majority of the proteins in the chloroplast are encoded in the nucleus and synthesised in the cytoplasm as precursors with N-terminal extensions. These targeting sequences guide the precursor proteins into the chloroplast where they are immediately cleaved off by a stromal processing protease (SPP). It is commonly assumed that in higher plant chloroplasts one general SPP processes almost all imported precursor proteins. In the green alga Chlamydomonas, however, there exist several different SPPs which process the various Chlamydomonas precursor proteins. The seven precursor proteins investigated here, which were all correctly imported into isolated chloroplasts, could be divided into two groups: Four precursor proteins were cleaved correctly when processed in vitro with an extract of stromal proteins. Four different SPPs were found in Chlamydomonas chloroplasts to be responsible for the processing of this class of precursors and these four activities were separated chromatographically, characterised and further distinguished by their sensitivity to different inhibitors. The three precursors of the second group were degraded completely by unidentified enzyme(s) present in the stromal extract. Degradation of these precursors was dependent on their conformational integrity as well as on the redox state in the strom

The Perfect Laplace Operator for Non-Trivial Boundaries

The application of Renormalization Group (RG) methods to find perfect discretizations of partial differential equations is a promising but little investigated approach. We calculate the classically perfect fixed-point Laplace operator for boundaries of non-trivial shape analytically and numerically and present a parametrization that can be used for solving the Poisson equation.Comment: Poster for Lattice 2000 (Improvement), 5 page

Gerhard de Haan/Tobias Rülcker: Der Konstruktivismus als Grundlage für die Pädagogik. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang Verlag 2009. 205 S. [Rezension]

Rezension zu: Gerhard de Haan/Tobias Rülcker: Der Konstruktivismus als Grundlage für die Pädagogik. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang Verlag 2009. 205 S

Biomaterials Used in Injectable Implants (Liquid Embolics) for Percutaneous Filling of Vascular Spaces

The biomaterials currently used in injectable implants (liquid embolics) for minimally invasive image-guided treatment of vascular lesions undergo, once injected in situ, a phase transition based on a variety of physicochemical principles. The mechanisms leading to the formation of a solid implant include polymerization, precipitation and cross-linking through ionic or thermal process. The biomaterial characteristics have to meet the requirements of a variety of treatment conditions. The viscosity of the liquid is adapted to the access instrument, which can range from 0.2 mm to 3 mm in diameter and from a few centimeters up to 200 cm in length. Once such liquid embolics reach the vascular space, they are designed to become occlusive by inducing thrombosis or directly blocking the lesion when hardening of the embolics occurs. The safe delivery of such implants critically depends on their visibility and their hardening mechanism. Once delivered, the safety and effectiveness issues are related to implant functions such as biocompatibility, biodegradability or biomechanical properties. We review here the available and the experimental products with respect to the nature of the polymer, the mechanism of gel cast formation and the key characteristics that govern the choice of effective injectable implant

On the scalar nonet lowest in mass

The hypothesis that there exists a nonet of scalars mainly composed of a valence quark-antiquark pair and mixed according to near singlet-octet separation : f_0 (980) singlet, a_0^{+,0,-} (980), K^{* +,0}_0 (1430), \bar K^{* -,0}_0 (1430), f_0 (1500) octet, is put to further tests from the three body decays D^{\pm}, D_{s}^{\pm} -> PS^{\pm} pi^+ pi^- with PS^{\pm} = pi^{\pm}, K^{\pm}. The analysis of decay phases supports the singlet nature of f_0 (980).Comment: Talk (by P.M.) given at the QCD 02 9th International High-Energy Physics Conference in QuantumChromoDynamics (Montpellier 2-9th July 2002), 4 page

Perfect Gauge Actions on Anisotropic Lattices

On anisotropic lattices, where generally the lattice is rather coarse in spatial directions, a parametrized classically perfect action could help reducing lattice artifacts considerably. We investigate the possibility of constructing such actions for SU(3) gauge theory. We present two different methods to do so, either repeating the procedure used to create our newly parametrized isotropic FP action, or performing one single step starting with the isotropic result. The anisotropic action is parametrized using an ansatz including anisotropically APE-like smeared (``fat'') links. The parametrized classically perfect action with anisotropy $\xi=a_s/a_t=2$ is constructed and the renormalized anisotropy is measured using the torelon dispersion relation. It turns out that the renormalization is small.Comment: Lattice 2000 (Improvement and Renormalisation), 4 pages, 9 eps-figures, Late

Quasi 18 h wave activity in ground-based observed mesospheric H2O over Bern, Switzerland

Observations of oscillations in the abundance of middle-atmospheric trace gases can provide insight into the dynamics of the middle atmosphere. Long-term, high-temporal-resolution and continuous measurements of dynamical tracers within the strato- and mesosphere are rare but would facilitate better understanding of the impact of atmospheric waves on the middle atmosphere. Here we report on water vapor measurements from the ground-based microwave radiometer MIAWARA (MIddle Atmospheric WAter vapor RAdiometer) located close to Bern during two winter periods of 6 months from October to March. Oscillations with periods between 6 and 30 h are analyzed in the pressure range 0.02–2 hPa. Seven out of 12 months have the highest wave amplitudes between 15 and 21 h periods in the mesosphere above 0.1 hPa. The quasi 18 h wave signature in the water vapor tracer is studied in more detail by analyzing its temporal evolution in the mesosphere up to an altitude of 75 km. Eighteen-hour oscillations in midlatitude zonal wind observations from the microwave Doppler wind radiometer WIRA (WInd RAdiometer) could be identified within the pressure range 0.1–1 hPa during an ARISE (Atmospheric dynamics Research InfraStructure in Europe)-affiliated measurement campaign at the Observatoire de Haute-Provence (355 km from Bern) in France in 2013. The origin of the observed upper-mesospheric quasi 18 h oscillations is uncertain and could not be determined with our available data sets. Possible drivers could be low-frequency inertia-gravity waves or a nonlinear wave–wave interaction between the quasi 2-day wave and the diurnal tide