Transnational identities in diaspora writing: The narratives of Vasily Yanovsky

Focusing on Vasily Yanovsky's prose fiction as a specific case study, this article sets modernist narratives informed by exile, dislocation, and migration in dialogue with the evolving theory of transnationalism. By engaging with the hybrid, cross-cultural nature of diaspora writing, this research challenges conventional, mono-national classifications based on the author's language and origin. Yanovsky's key texts transcending a range of boundaries (between Russian and English, fiction and nonfiction, Russian spirituality and western thought, science and fantasy) are brought to bear to demonstrate that language can be a matter of a writer's personal aesthetic choice, rather than a fixed marker of his appurtenance to a national canon. This article also argues for transnational identity as an intellectual and emotional, and thus translatable, affiliation, formed across national fault lines and cultural traditions

EPR measurement of Cu2+-fe2+ exchange in FeSif6 · 6H20 at 4.2 K

Six inequivalent Cu2+ EPR spectra were observed at 4.2 K in single crystals of FeSiF 6 • 6H20. The estimated parametersgz ---2.38 and 8=40°, where 8 is the angle between the ionicz axis and the c axis, differ from those measured in crystals of similar structure. Thes~ differences have been explained in terms of an isotropic Cu2+ -Fe2+ exchange Hamiltonian JS1 • S2, with J = + (0.030 ± 0.003) em - 1 ' which gives a contribution gex = - 5.05 J sin2 e, where e is the angle between the external magnetic field and the z axis. Perpendicular to the c axis, an independent estimate of + 0.034 em -I for J was made from the low-field displacement of a satellite spectru

Limitations in Predicting the Space Radiation Health Risk for Exploration Astronauts

Despite years of research, understanding of the space radiation environment and the risk it poses to long-duration astronauts remains limited. There is a disparity between research results and observed empirical effects seen in human astronaut crews, likely due to the numerous factors that limit terrestrial simulation of the complex space environment and extrapolation of human clinical consequences from varied animal models. Given the intended future of human spaceflight, with efforts now to rapidly expand capabilities for human missions to the moon and Mars, there is a pressing need to improve upon the understanding of the space radiation risk, predict likely clinical outcomes of interplanetary radiation exposure, and develop appropriate and effective mitigation strategies for future missions. To achieve this goal, the space radiation and aerospace community must recognize the historical limitations of radiation research and how such limitations could be addressed in future research endeavors. We have sought to highlight the numerous factors that limit understanding of the risk of space radiation for human crews and to identify ways in which these limitations could be addressed for improved understanding and appropriate risk posture regarding future human spaceflight.Comment: Accepted for publication by Nature Microgravity (2018

Dissecting interferon-induced transcriptional programs in human peripheral blood cells

Interferons are key modulators of the immune system, and are central to the control of many diseases. The response of immune cells to stimuli in complex populations is the product of direct and indirect effects, and of homotypic and heterotypic cell interactions. Dissecting the global transcriptional profiles of immune cell populations may provide insights into this regulatory interplay. The host transcriptional response may also be useful in discriminating between disease states, and in understanding pathophysiology. The transcriptional programs of cell populations in health therefore provide a paradigm for deconvoluting disease-associated gene expression profiles.We used human cDNA microarrays to (1) compare the gene expression programs in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) elicited by 6 major mediators of the immune response: interferons alpha, beta, omega and gamma, IL12 and TNFalpha; and (2) characterize the transcriptional responses of purified immune cell populations (CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, B cells, NK cells and monocytes) to IFNgamma stimulation. We defined a highly stereotyped response to type I interferons, while responses to IFNgamma and IL12 were largely restricted to a subset of type I interferon-inducible genes. TNFalpha stimulation resulted in a distinct pattern of gene expression. Cell type-specific transcriptional programs were identified, highlighting the pronounced response of monocytes to IFNgamma, and emergent properties associated with IFN-mediated activation of mixed cell populations. This information provides a detailed view of cellular activation by immune mediators, and contributes an interpretive framework for the definition of host immune responses in a variety of disease settings

Single-ion and exchange anisotropy effects and multiferroic behavior in high-symmetry tetramer single molecule magnets

We study single-ion and exchange anisotropy effects in equal-spin $s_1$ tetramer single molecule magnets exhibiting $T_d$, $D_{4h}$, $D_{2d}$, $C_{4h}$, $C_{4v}$, or $S_4$ ionic point group symmetry. We first write the group-invariant quadratic single-ion and symmetric anisotropic exchange Hamiltonians in the appropriate local coordinates. We then rewrite these local Hamiltonians in the molecular or laboratory representation, along with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriay (DM) and isotropic Heisenberg, biquadratic, and three-center quartic Hamiltonians. Using our exact, compact forms for the single-ion spin matrix elements, we evaluate the eigenstate energies analytically to first order in the microscopic anisotropy interactions, corresponding to the strong exchange limit, and provide tables of simple formulas for the energies of the lowest four eigenstate manifolds of ferromagnetic (FM) and anitiferromagnetic (AFM) tetramers with arbitrary $s_1$. For AFM tetramers, we illustrate the first-order level-crossing inductions for $s_1=1/2,1,3/2$, and obtain a preliminary estimate of the microscopic parameters in a Ni$_4$ from a fit to magnetization data. Accurate analytic expressions for the thermodynamics, electron paramagnetic resonance absorption and inelastic neutron scattering cross-section are given, allowing for a determination of three of the microscopic anisotropy interactions from the second excited state manifold of FM tetramers. We also predict that tetramers with symmetries $S_4$ and $D_{2d}$ should exhibit both DM interactions and multiferroic states, and illustrate our predictions for $s_1=1/2, 1$.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

EPR study of the Jahn-Teller effect of Cu2+ in ZnTiF6·6H20

The 34-GHz EPR spectrum of Cu2+ in ZnTiF6·6H20 shows a Jahn-Teller effect with a transition from a single-line spectrum at high temperatures to a multiline anisotropic spectrum. The transition temperature on cooling varied with Cu concentration from 172 K for a sample containing 0.2 at.% Cu to roughly 90 K for a 46-at. % Cu sample. For dilute samples, the single-line spectrum was isotropic at 300 K with g =2.223±0.005, but showed axial symmetry about the trigonal axis at 180 K with gj1 =2.226±0.005 and g~ =2.223±0.005. At 4.2 K, a "static" Jahn-Teller effect was observed with six axially symmetric Cu2+ spectra, each with g 11 =2.470±0.005, g1 =2.100±0.005, I A 11 I ~ I 06 X 10- 4 em -I, and I A 1 I ~30 X 10- 4 em - I. The z axis of these spectra was found to lie along the fourfold axes of two cubes with a common [Ill] axis, rotated by 40"±2" with respect to each other about this axis. Analysis of the 4.2-K data leads to the values q~O. 50 for the Ham reduction factor and K~O. 26 for the Fenni contact parameter, with A uA 1 < 0. An activation energy of about 100 cm-1 was deduced from the gradual increase of the anisotropy of the spectrum on cooling in the low-temperature region

Observation of the cubic-field splitting of an excited S = 2 manifold in a cubic copper tetramer

EPR measurements on single crystals of Cu40Cl6(triphenylphosphine oxide)4 at liquid helium temperatures in the frequency ranges 14-17 and 34-35 GHz were fitted to a simple cubicS= 2 spin Hamiltonian with g = 2.10 ± 0.01 and a zero-field splitting of(0.53 ± 0.01) em - 1 • From the decrease in intensity of the S = 2 spectrum on cooling below 4.2 K and the absence of an S = 1 spectrum, the S = 2 manifold was deduced to lie ( 14 ± 1) em- 1 above a nonmagnetic ground state. The EPR results are used as a test of the various theories developed to explain the magnetic susceptibility of copper tetramer

Jahn-Teller EPA spectra of Cu2 + in MgSif6.6H20

The 34 GHz EPR spectrum ofCu2+ in MgSiF6-6H20 showed a "static" Jahn-Teller effect at 4.2 K with two inequivalent Jahn- Teller sites per unit cell. The six axially symmetric sets of Cu2+ lines had their z axes parallel to the three tetragonal axes of two cubes, which were rotated by approximately 40" with respect to each other about a common (Ill) axis, which is the crystal c axis. The measured spin-Hamiltonian parameters at 4.2 K for each set of lines were g11 = 2.47 ± 0.01, g1 = 2.10 ± 0.01 , and lA 11 1 = (110 ± 3)X 10- 4 em- •. There was a gradual decrease in the anisotropy of the spectrum on warming the crystal, with a single, nearly isotropic line being observed above 220 K. At 270 K the spectrum had axial symmetry about the c axis with Kn = 2.23 ± 0.01 and g~ = 2.25 ± 0.01 . The temperature evolution of the spectrum was interpreted in terms of a Boltzmann distribution over inequivalent distorted Jahn-Teller configurations, with one potential well lowered by an amount L1:::::: I 05 em- 1 below the other two

Негуманистический вектор в русской литературе XX века [The Non-humanist Vector in Twentieth-century Russian Literature]

The article focuses on a corpus of narratives written in various cultural and historical contexts both within metropolitan Russia and in diaspora, which engaged with the process of dehumanization of the world and mankind and the inadequacy of Russian literature’s traditional arsenal to represent the anthropological experience of the 20th c. These texts revised the humanist pathos of Russian culture, the European legacy and Eurocentric discourse, and articulated an alternative conceptual and aesthetic language that became particularly relevant for contemporary Russian literature