Aristocratic Subjectivity in Revolutionary Turmoil

This article revisits a vexed question in Russian historiography, the extent of the immediate influence on Russia’s best minds of the revolutionary events of the early 1790s. It considers the writings of Prince Ivan Ivanovich Bariatinskii (1772‑1825), who may have witnessed a short period of the French Revolution in Paris in 1790, before going to Geneva to study and becoming an observer of street unrest and revolutionary fervour in the cité de Calvin. Bariatinskii kept a notebook in the years 1790‑92, in which he wrote down his thoughts and observations, as well as a short, more formal text on the political situation in Geneva entitled “Coup d’œil sur Genève.” On the basis of these archival texts, we trace how the subjective identity of a member of the elite was affected by the spectacle of the unfolding revolution and assess the extent to which his subsequent life was informed by this experience. This case study demonstrates that the French Revolution caused aristocrats to question their role in society, evaluate the extent of their freedoms, and think about how they could lead meaningful lives in an autocratic society without losing their moral integrity. We also draw on the writings of Pavel Stroganov, who was likewise among those marked by the Revolution in this way. The fact that these reflective questions, this political and moral soul‑searching, arose among a group of elite members of society can be seen as one of the indirect effects of the French Revolution on Russia. Due to the intrinsic interest of Bariatinskii’s “Coup d’œil sur Genève,” an annotated version of it is published in an appendix to this article.Cet article examine le sujet controversé dans l’historiographie de la Russie de l’impact des événements révolutionnaires des années 1790 sur les esprits les plus brillants de l’aristocratie russe. L’article se base sur les écrits du prince Ivan Ivanovič Barjatinskij (1772‑1825), dont on peut soupçonner qu’il a brièvement visité Paris en 1790, avant de se rendre à Genève pour faire des études. Dans la cité de Calvin, il deviendra un observateur perspicace de l’engouement révolutionnaire et de l’agitation populaire dans les rues. Entre 1790 et 1792, Barjatinskij tint un carnet dans lequel il nota ses réflexions, ainsi qu’un essai plus formel intitulé « Coup d’œil sur Genève », sur la situation politique à Genève. Sur la base de ces documents d’archive, nous examinons l’influence du spectacle de la Révolution sur le développement de l’identité subjective d’un membre de l’élite aristocratique. Nous tentons également de mesurer l’impact de cette expérience de la révolution sur la vie future de Barjatinskij. Ce cas d’espèce démontre que la Révolution força certains aristocrates à mettre en question leur rôle dans la société, à évaluer les limites de leur liberté, et donc à réfléchir à la manière dont ils pourraient mener une existence empreinte de sens sans perdre leur intégrité morale. Les écrits de Pavel Stroganov, un contemporain de Barjatinskij, qui lui aussi fut témoin de la Révolution, présentent un cas analogue. On peut considérer que l’émergence de ces questionnements, de ces examens de conscience sur les plans politique et moral constitue un des effets indirects de la Révolution française en Russie. Du fait de l’intérêt intrinsèque de « Coup d’œil sur Genève », une version annotée en est publiée en annexe

Analysis of the unique protozoan communities of the abyssal sea floors

Although the abyssal seafloor (3-6 km depths) is the largest benthic habitat on this planet covering around 54% of the Earth's surface, knowledge about deep-sea protists, their ecological function, species-level distribution and diversity in these depths is scarce. This is in striking contrast to their potential importance regarding the material flux and bacteria consumption in the deep sea. The aim of this study was to extend the knowledge of biodiversity and biogeography of benthic deep-sea protist communities, with a focus on abyssal regions. We established a protocol combining several available qualitative and quantitative methods to receive a detailed information on biodiversity and biogeography of benthic deep-sea protist communities. For a global comparative study on benthic protist diversity we sampled sediment from 20 deep-sea basins located in the Pacific and Atlantic Ocean and extracted the DNA for next-generation sequencing (NGS). Comparing our deep-sea OTUs to reference sequences indicated the existence of a specific deep-sea protist fauna (sequence similarity of 90.6% on average). The majority (91%) of our total operational taxonomic units (OTUs) could be assigned to protists. Dominant protist OTUs belonged to Discoba (Diplonemea and Kinetoplastea), Alveolata (Dinophyceae, MALV-I, MALV-II, Ciliophora) and Rhizaria (Foraminifera and Endomyxa). Comparative analysis of the different deep sea basins revealed distinct protist communities on a large and small spatial scale. Only 0.8% of protist OTUs occured in all stations. Molecular studies of cultured deep-sea protists helped us to assess the quality of deep-sea sampling. Several protist OTUs could solely be assigned to our isolated strains underlining the importance of cultivation and taxonomic assignment of protists. In addition, the enhanced cultivation of deep-sea and surface water protists led to a deeper evaluation of the phylogenetic relationship within the Cafeteriaceae. Based on multigene analysis, we regrouped the Cafeteriaceae into eight species of which six were newly described. We could cultivate the first phagotrophic euglenid, Keelungia nitschei sp. nov., from the deep sea. Phagotrophic euglenids are known to be typical components in marine sediments and shallow waters, but have seldom been reported, and not yet cultivated from deep-sea samples. Cultured isolates were further used to verify the potential deep-sea origin of the protists recovered by the NGS technique with the aid of pressure and temperature experiments. The deep-sea strain Keelungia nitschei, for instance, was better adapted to high hydrostatic pressures at low temperatures (4°C) than the two surface water euglenids Petalomonas acorensis gen. et sp. nov. and Ploeotia costaversata sp. nov.. While our metagenome data and literature review on ciliates indicated a deep-sea specific nanofauna, we could cultivate and isolate the same genotypes for the bicosoecid Cafeteria burkhardae sp. nov. and the ciliate Pseudocohnilembus persalinus from marine surface waters as well as the deep sea. These genotypes, despite their isolation of depths, survived high hydrostatic pressure indicating their potential to live and reproduce in the abyss. There might be a possible exchange of several protist groups between surface waters and the deep sea. Aggregations such as sinking detritus, besides being a food source, may serve as transportation vehicles to the deep sea for different protist species. For the southern North Atlantic Ocean we could show that there is a large biomass of sedimented Sargassum algae on the seafloor which can be in the same range as that at the surface. Analysis of fatty acids and stable isotopes indicated that the benthic macrofauna might not directly consume Sargassum in the abyss, but probably via the components of the abyssal microbial food web including bacteria and protists. To summarize, we could establish methodological approaches to cultivate and analyze deep-sea protist communities (morphological and molecular techniques), describe new species and analyze abiotic (pressure) and biotic conditions (food sources) in deep-sea environments. We showed that protist diversities differed on a local and global scale and are distinct from surface water communities, while several genotypes occured in cultures from surface waters and the deep sea

Synthesis and characterisation of chromium (III) complexes with polypyridyl ligands

Slowing down climate change is probably the biggest current global challenge for mankind. The two main strategies to achieve this are the development of new sustainable energy sources and new or improved technologies that are less energy consuming. Inorganic transition metal complexes are the basis for two technologies that address both energy production and energy saving: dye-sensitised solar cells (DSCs) and light emitting electrochemical cells (LECs). Promising results were obtained for devices based on scarce metal complexes, such as iridium and ruthenium, but the rarity of these metals is a big drawback in terms of their widespread use and commercialisation. Therefore, complexes with more abundant metals, such as zinc and copper, are now being investigated. Since chromium(III) complexes are known to be emitting and kinetically inert, we chose [Cr(2,20-bipyridine)3]3+ as a model for our approach to use chromium(III) complexes as active compounds in LECs. A series of both new and known homoleptic and heteroleptic {Cr(bpy)3}3+ containing complexes were synthesised. However they showed no electroluminescence in the device con guration, even though they exhibited photoluminescence in solution. The synthesis and characterisation of 25 new chromium(III) complexes with polypyridyl ligands have been presented in this PhD-thesis (7 tris(diimine)chromium(III) complexes and 18 bis(terpyridine)chromium(III) complexes). A new three step synthesis route for the preparation of {Cr(tpy)2}3+ complexes was developed. Starting with anhydrous CrCl3, {Cr(tpy)Cl3} was prepared, followed by exchange of the Cl- counter anions to CF3SO3- to yield {Cr(tpy)(CF3SO3)3}. In the last step, the second tpy ligand is added to get {Cr(tpy)2}3+. The successive addition of the two tpy ligands gives the possibility to synthesise heteroleptic {Cr(tpyA)(tpyB)}3+ complexes. These are the first reported examples of heteroleptic bis(terpyridine)chromium(III) complexes. The structures of several heteroleptic complexes could be confirmed with X-ray analysis. Altogether, 17 crystal structures (homoleptic and heteroleptic, 6 tris(diimine)chromium(III) complexes and 12 bis(terpyridine) chromium(III) complexes) could be determined. Despite the fact that the Cr3+ ion (d3) is widely recognised as a kinetically inert metal centre, we observed a sensitive liability of the complexes in the presence of F- or in an alkaline environment. The residues of these decompositions could be confirmed as {Cr(tpy)F3} and {Cr(tpy)(OH)3} respectively. These findings led to an explanation of the photoluminescence observations done previously. It was already known that the photoluminescence properties of {Cr(tpy)2}3+ are quite different from those of {Cr(bpy)3} 3+. We found that the majority of the observed emission could be assigned as deriving from small quantities of neutral or protonated free ligand. The {Cr(tpy)2}3+ complexes containing at least one N,N -diphenylaniline-tpy showed a broad and solvatochromic absorption. Although the broad absorption makes these complexes strong candidates for DSC applications, all trials were unsuccessful. Also, the application of {Cr(bpy)3}3+ complexes in LEC devices was unsuccessful

Far-field Super-resolution Imaging with Dual-Dye-Doped Nanoparticles

We propose to achieve super-resolution in far-field imaging by use of dual-dye-doped nanoparticles. The nanoparticles with a diameter of a few nanometers are co-doped with two types of dye molecules, namely, Cy3 and Cy5, at a controllable ratio. Due to the short distances between the dye molecules confined in the nanoparticles, Forster resonant energy transfer can occur between the Cy3 and Cy5 molecules with high efficiency. Therefore, the Cy5 molecules can quench the fluorescence emission from the Cy3 molecules in the outer region of focal spot of the excitation beam, thereby enhancing the resolution of imaging.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Neuropragmatics in the 21st century

One of the great challenges of the new millennium is the continuing search of how the mind works. Although a relatively young field, the study of neuropragmatics can greatly contribute to this search by its interdisciplinary nature, the possibility to be applied to different research meth-ods and by the opportunity to study its nature by taking vastly different perspectives

The surprising lability of bis(2,2’:6’,2’’-terpyridine)- chromium(III) complexes

The complex [Cr(tpy)(O3SCF3)3] (tpy = 2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine) is readily made from [Cr(tpy)Cl3] and is a convenient precursor to [Cr(tpy)2][PF6]3 and to [Cr(tpy)(4′-(4-tolyl)tpy)][PF6]3 and [Cr(tpy)(5,5′′-Me2tpy)][PF6]3 (4′-(4-tolyl)tpy = 4′-(4-tolyl)-2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine; 5,5′′-Me2tpy = 5,5′′-dimethyl-2,2′:6′,2′′-terpyridine); these are the first examples of heteroleptic bis(tpy) chromium(III) complexes. The single crystal structures of 2{[Cr(tpy)2][PF6]3}·5MeCN, [Cr(tpy)(4′-(4-tolyl)tpy)][PF6]3·3MeCN and [Cr(tpy)(5,5′′-Me2tpy)][PF6]3·3MeCN have been determined. Each cation contains the expected octahedral {Cr(tpy)2}3+ unit; in all three structures, the need to accommodate three anions per cation and the solvent molecules prevents the formation of a grid-like array of cations that is typical of many lattices containing {M(tpy)2}2+ motifs. Three reversible electrochemical processes are observed for [Cr(tpy)(4′-(4-tolyl)tpy)][PF6]3 and [Cr(tpy)(5,5′′-Me2tpy)][PF6]3, consistent with those documented for [Cr(tpy)2]3+. At pH 6.36, aqueous solutions of [Cr(tpy)2][PF6]3 are stable for at least two months. However, contrary to the expectations of the d3 Cr3+ ion being a kinetically inert metal centre, the tpy ligands in [Cr(tpy)2]3+are labile in the presence of base; absorption and 1H NMR spectroscopies have been used to monitor the effects of adding NaOH to aqueous and CD3OD solutions, respectively, of the homo- and heteroleptic complexes. Ligand dissociation is also observed when [Bu4N]F is added to CD3OD solutions of the complexes, but in aqueous solution, [Cr(tpy)2][PF6]3 is stable in the presence of fluoride ion

The study of the regenesis of mind in the 21st century

The enigma of consciousness and the brain-mind relationship will - most likely - be unveiled in the 21st century through the new technologies developed at the end of the 20th century and new technologies yet to come. The new technologies will be used to tackle the problem from evolu-tionary, developmental, normal and pathological brain functioning. A major contribution, how-ever, will surface when investigating a particular perspective of pathological brain functioning - a perspective that has not received any attention in the past: the investigation of the re-emergence of mind out of prolonged coma and coma like states

Digital twin as a service : Ressourcenmanagement mit Energiedaten aus cyber-physischen Systemen

Die Energiewende führt zu einer Paradigmenänderung. Der Zeitpunkt der Energieabnahme wird sich zunehmend an dem der Energieerzeugung orientierten. Die Steuerung des Energiebedarfs kann durch energieorientierte Produktionsplanung gesteigert werden. Dies erfordert eine Vorhersage des Energiebedarfs. Hierfür wird ein System entwickelt, das eine Modellierung mittels maschinellen Lernens nutzt. Die Datenbasis wird durch eine Vorgehensweise zur Abstrahierung von Fertigungsmaschinen erzeugt. Das System besteht aus gruppierten Microservices, es berücksichtigt die unterschiedlichen Anforderungen der Modelle an die Infrastruktur. Die Modelle sind in digitalen Zwillingen integriert, die als Dienst genutzt werden. Hierdurch ist eine effiziente Adaption von ˜Äderungen an Fertigungsmaschine oder Modell-Methodik möglich. Eine exemplarische Anwendung der Abstraktionsmethode und der Modellierung mittels neuronalen Netzes demonstrieren die Umsetzbarkeit.The energy transition in Germany leads to a shift of paradigm. Time of energy consumption will increasingly be oriented to that of energy production. Control of the energy demand can be increased by energy-oriented production planning. This requires a prediction of the energy demand. For this purpose, a system is developed which uses modelling by machine learning. A procedure for abstraction of production machines generates the data basis. The models are integrated in digital twins as services, following the microservice architecture. An exemplary application of the abstraction method and modelling by means of neural networks demonstrate the feasibility

Point Spread Function Engineering in Fluorescence Spectroscopy

Die Synthese von Mikroskopie und Fluoreszenzspektroskopie hat das Mikroskop in ein vielseitiges Werkzeug zur funktionelle Analyse biologischer Systeme verwandelt. In dieser Arbeit wird untersucht, ob und wie kürzlich entwickelte Techniken zur Manipulation von Punktabbildungsfunktionen neue spektroskopische Anwendungen im Mikroskop hervorbringen können. Die Ableitung einer einfachen Integraldarstellung der Fouriertransformation der fokalen Intensitätsverteilung schafft die Grundlage für die numerische Modellierung dynamischer, intensitätsabhängiger Prozesse im Fokus. Als nächstes wird Fluoreszenz-Korrelationsspektroskopie mit Detektionsvolumina, deren beugungsbegrenzte Einhüllende periodisch moduliert ist, theoretisch beschrieben. Darauf aufbauend wird ein �Diffusions- und Strömungsmikroskop� mit hoher räumlicher Auflösung vorgeschlagen. Sein Aufbau ähnelt dem eines multifokalen 4Pi-Mikroskops und seine Fähigkeit, die Parameter anisotroper Diffusion und die Strömungsrichtung und -geschwindigkeit in einer Flüssigkeit zu bestimmen, wird in simulierten Messungen demonstriert. Zuletzt wird aufgezeigt und experimentell verifiziert, dass Entvölkerung durch stimulierte Emission (stimulated emission depletion) dazu verwendet werden kann, zwischenmolekularen Förster-Energie-Transfer in einer Probe zu identifizieren