107 research outputs found
Reclaiming Romanticism
The earliest environmental criticism took its inspiration from the Romantic poets and their immersion in the natural world. Today the âromanticisingâ of nature has come to be viewed with suspicion. Written by one of the leading ecocritics writing today, Reclaiming Romanticism rediscovers the importance of the European Romantic tradition to the ways that writers and critics engage with the environment in the Anthropocene era. Exploring the work of such poets as Wordsworth, Shelley and Clare, the book discovers a rich vein of Romantic ecomaterialism and brings these canonical poets into dialogue with contemporary American, Canadian and Australian poets and artists. Kate Rigby demonstrates the ways in which Romantic ecopoetics responds to postcolonial challenges and environmental peril to offer a collaborative artistic practice for an era of human-non-human cohabitation and kinship
Reclaiming Romanticism
The earliest environmental criticism took its inspiration from the Romantic poets and their immersion in the natural world. Today the âromanticisingâ of nature has come to be viewed with suspicion. Written by one of the leading ecocritics writing today, Reclaiming Romanticism rediscovers the importance of the European Romantic tradition to the ways that writers and critics engage with the environment in the Anthropocene era. Exploring the work of such poets as Wordsworth, Shelley and Clare, the book discovers a rich vein of Romantic ecomaterialism and brings these canonical poets into dialogue with contemporary American, Canadian and Australian poets and artists. Kate Rigby demonstrates the ways in which Romantic ecopoetics responds to postcolonial challenges and environmental peril to offer a collaborative artistic practice for an era of human-non-human cohabitation and kinship
Editorial Introduction: 'Encountering Australia, Confronting Catastrophe'
'Encountering Australia, Confronting Catastrophe'. These articles are based on papers presented at one of two consecutive conferences on Australia held in Europe during the northern summer of 2014. The European Association for Studies on Australia held a conference at the Monash University Prato Centre, Italy, in September that explored sites of contact, connection and exchange between Australia and the world, with particular emphasis on Europe, and with the aim of highlighting the importance of cross cultural dialogue. The conference drew on diverse modes and ideas of encountering Australia- imaginatively, theoretically, institutionally, politically, socially, historically, pedagogically and symbolically. Themed sessions included âEcocultural Encounters' and âEcopoetics', but animated discussion of our natural-cultural environment, whether in terms of climate change, migration and mobility, histories of war and violence, or national and collective memory, was evident across the varied foci. Tellingly, this conference was preceded by a symposium in the same month, hosted by the Australian Studies Centre at the University of Copenhagen, on âCultural Response to Environmental Disaster in Australia.'
Regarding the Earth: Ecological Vision in Word & Image
Special Issue editors, Professor Kate Rigby and Associate Professor Linda Williams, introduce papers arising from the 5th Biennial conference, âRegarding the Earth: Ecological Vision in Word and Vision'. Participants in this issue were asked to consider the ecological implications of different ways of perceiving, imagining, valuing and representing Earth, whether understood as planet, place or collective, comprising a multiplicity of more-than-human entities, agencies and processes.
Forests of the Night: Topographies of the Sacred in European Romanticism
Earlier this year I walked for the first time in a myrtle beech forest, not far from Powelltown in Victoria, once the site of Australia's largest timber processing plant. It was quite late in the afternoon when we arrived there. Lambent late summer sunlight shimmered in the delicate emerald green foliage above our heads and slanted downward through a tangle of branches and ferns to cast a golden glow on the path where our feet fell softly on fallen leaves. Overwhelmed by the beauty of this remnant old-growth rainforest, we felt simply to be here was a blessing and a joy
Of Mice and Men and Aquatic Flows: Distributed Agency in Theodor Storm's Der Schimmelreiter
Species Determination and Quantitation in Mixtures Using MRM Mass Spectrometry of Peptides Applied to Meat Authentication
We describe a simple protocol for identifying and quantifying the two components in binary mixtures of species possessing one or more similar proteins. Central to the method is the identification of 'corresponding proteins' in the species of interest, in other words proteins that are nominally the same but possess species-specific sequence differences. When subject to proteolysis, corresponding proteins will give rise to some peptides which are likewise similar but with species-specific variants. These are 'corresponding peptides'. Species-specific peptides can be used as markers for species determination, while pairs of corresponding peptides permit relative quantitation of two species in a mixture. The peptides are detected using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mass spectrometry, a highly specific technique that enables peptide-based species determination even in complex systems. In addition, the ratio of MRM peak areas deriving from corresponding peptides supports relative quantitation. Since corresponding proteins and peptides will, in the main, behave similarly in both processing and in experimental extraction and sample preparation, the relative quantitation should remain comparatively robust. In addition, this approach does not need the standards and calibrations required by absolute quantitation methods. The protocol is described in the context of red meats, which have convenient corresponding proteins in the form of their respective myoglobins. This application is relevant to food fraud detection: the method can detect 1% weight for weight of horse meat in beef. The corresponding protein, corresponding peptide (CPCP) relative quantitation using MRM peak area ratios gives good estimates of the weight for weight composition of a horse plus beef mixture
Hubble Constant Measurement from Three Large-separation Quasars Strongly Lensed by Galaxy Clusters
Tension between cosmic microwave backgroundâbased and distance ladderâbased determinations of the Hubble constant H 0 motivates the pursuit of independent methods that are not subject to the same systematic effects. A promising alternative, proposed by Refsdal in 1964, relies on the inverse scaling of H 0 with the delay between the arrival times of at least two images of a strongly lensed variable source such as a quasar. To date, Refsdalâs method has mostly been applied to quasars lensed by individual galaxies rather than by galaxy clusters. Using the three quasars strongly lensed by galaxy clusters (SDSS J1004+4112, SDSS J1029+2623, and SDSS J2222+2745) that have both multiband Hubble Space Telescope data and published time delay measurements, we derive H 0, accounting for the systematic and statistical sources of uncertainty. While a single time delay measurement does not yield a well-constrained H 0 value, analyzing the systems together tightens the constraint. Combining the six time delays measured in the three cluster-lensed quasars gives H 0 = 74.1 ± 8.0 km sâ1 Mpcâ1. To reach 1% uncertainty in H 0, we estimate that a sample size of order of 620 time delay measurements of similar quality as those from SDSS J1004+4112, SDSS J1029+2623, and SDSS J2222+2745 would be needed. Improving the lens modeling uncertainties by a factor of two and a half may reduce the needed sample size to 100 time delays, potentially reachable in the next decade
Far-IR/Submillimeter Spectroscopic Cosmological Surveys: Predictions of Infrared Line Luminosity Functions for z<4 Galaxies
Star formation and accretion onto supermassive black holes in the nuclei of
galaxies are the two most energetic processes in the Universe, producing the
bulk of the observed emission throughout its history. We simulated the
luminosity functions of star-forming and active galaxies for spectral lines
that are thought to be good spectroscopic tracers of either phenomenon, as a
function of redshift. We focused on the infrared (IR) and sub-millimeter
domains, where the effects of dust obscuration are minimal. Using three
different and independent theoretical models for galaxy formation and
evolution, constrained by multi-wavelength luminosity functions, we computed
the number of star-forming and active galaxies per IR luminosity and redshift
bin. We converted the continuum luminosity counts into spectral line counts
using relationships that we calibrated on mid- and far-IR spectroscopic surveys
of galaxies in the local universe. Our results demonstrate that future
facilities optimized for survey-mode observations, i.e., the Space Infrared
Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics (SPICA) and the Cerro Chajnantor
Atacama Telescope (CCAT), will be able to observe thousands of z>1 galaxies in
key fine-structure lines, e.g., [SiII], [OI], [OIII], [CII], in a
half-square-degree survey, with one hour integration time per field of view.
Fainter lines such as [OIV], [NeV] and H_2 (0-0)S1 will be observed in several
tens of bright galaxies at 1<z<2, while diagnostic diagrams of active-nucleus
vs star-formation activity will be feasible even for normal z~1 galaxies. We
discuss the new parameter space that these future telescopes will cover and
that strongly motivate their construction.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal on 20/10/2011,
17 pages, 13 figure
The Cosmic Telescope that Lenses the Sunburst Arc, PSZ1 G311.65-18.48: Strong Gravitational Lensing model and Source Plane Analysis
We present a strong lensing analysis of the cluster PSZ1 G311.65-18.48, based
on Hubble Space Telescope imaging, archival VLT/MUSE spectroscopy, and Chandra
X-ray data. This cool-core cluster (z=0.443) lenses the brightest lensed galaxy
known, dubbed the "Sunburst Arc" (z=2.3703), a Lyman continuum (LyC) emitting
galaxy multiply-imaged 12 times. We identify in this field 14 additional
strongly-lensed galaxies to constrain a strong lens model, and report secure
spectroscopic redshifts of four. We measure a projected cluster core mass of
M(<250 kpc)=2.93+0.01/-0.02x10^14M_sun. The two least-magnified but complete
images of the Sunburst Arc's source galaxy are magnified by ~13x, while the LyC
clump is magnified by ~4-80x. We present time delay predictions and conclusive
evidence that a discrepant clump in the Sunburst Arc, previously claimed to be
a transient, is not variable, thus strengthening the hypothesis that it results
from an exceptionally high magnification. A source plane reconstruction and
analysis of the Sunburst Arc finds its physical size to be 1x2 kpc, and that it
is resolved in three distinct directions in the source plane, 0, 40, and 75
degrees (east of North). We place an upper limit of r <~ 50 pc on the source
plane size of unresolved clumps, and r<~ 32 pc for the LyC clump. Finally, we
report that the Sunburst Arc is likely in a system of two or more galaxies
separated by <~6 kpc in projection. Their interaction may drive star formation
and could play a role in the mechanism responsible for the leaking LyC
radiation.Comment: 31 pages, 14 figures, 4 tables. Submitted to Ap
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