The image of Siberia in Zedler’s encyclopaedia (1732–1754)

The article was submitted on 25.04.2016.Интерес немцев к Сибири проявился несколько веков назад. В XVIII в. немецкие ученые и их коллеги принимали активное участие в освоении региона. Тем не менее, образ Сибири и информация о ней в глазах широкой общественности во многом были фрагментарными и полными стереотипов, так как прямой контакт с местным населением был и остается довольно редким. Целью автора стало рассмотрение того, какая информация о Сибири была доступна немцам в XVIII в. В статье рассматривается энциклопедия И. Г. Цедлера, до сих пор являющаяся ценным источником по истории и географии этого региона. Изданная в 1732–1754 гг. в Лейпциге, энциклопедия Цедлера не уступает по полноте изложенного материала иному современному изданию. Так, в 37-м томе мы находим обзорную статью, которая повествует о Сибири и занимает почти девять колонок на пяти страницах. В 44-м томе есть статья, посвященная Тобольску, и она гораздо объемнее, чем статьи на ту же тему в более поздних немецких энциклопедиях, вышедших в XX в., например, в Der große Brockhaus (так называемом «Большом Брокгаузе»). Глубоко и содержание статей, описывающих географию и историю бывшей сибирской столицы, рассказывающих в том числе о захвате этой территории Ермаком. Статья настолько подробна, что включает сведения о ценах на рыбу и мясо на рынке в те времена. Делается вывод о том, что изучение энциклопедии И. Г. Цедлера и сегодня может быть интересным для читателя, интересующегося географическими и культурно-историческими достопримечательностями России.The German interest in Siberia dates back several centuries. During the 18th century, German scientists in particular, together with their Russian colleagues, were very active in the exploration and conquest of this region. Nevertheless, the image of Siberia and information about it remained very fragmentary and clichéd in Germany because direct contact was (and still is) very rare. Therefore, the aim of this article is to show what information was already accessible in the 18th century. Certainly, Zedler’s Encyclopaedia, with 64 volumes and four supplementary volumes, was the largest German encyclopaedia of the time: it is thus a useful source for investigating common knowledge of this region. Surprisingly, there is a lot of information about Russian and Siberian geography and history within the encyclopaedia. We find a general article about Siberia of nearly nine columns over five pages in the 37th volume and two and a half columns about Tobolsk in the 44th volume. This is much more than in the last German encyclopaedias printed in the 20th century (e. g., Der große Brockhaus). The contents of the articles are also astonishingly extensive. We find a full description of the geography and history of the former Siberian capital, as well as a complete report about the capture of Tobolsk by Ermak. Indeed, we are even informed about the prices of fish or meat on the marketplace

Toll-like Receptor 2 and 4 (TLR2 and TLR4) Agonists Differentially Regulate Secretory Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Gene Expression in Macrophages

Treatment of macrophages with lipopolysaccharide (LPS) from Gram-negative bacteria or peptidoglycan (PGN) from Gram-positive bacteria activates multiple intracellular signaling pathways and a large, diverse group of nuclear transcription factors. The signaling receptors for PGN and LPS are now known to be the Toll-like receptors 2 and 4 (TLR2 and -4, respectively). While a large body of literature indicates that the members of the TLR family activate nearly identical cytoplasmic signaling programs, several recent reports have suggested that the functional outcomes of signaling via TLR2 or TLR4 are not equivalent. In the current studies, we compared the responses of the secretory IL-1 receptor antagonist (sIL-1Ra) gene to both LPS and PGN. Both LPS and PGN induced IL-1Ra gene expression; however, the combination of both stimuli synergistically increased sIL-1Ra mRNA expression and promoter activity, suggesting that the signals induced by PGN and LPS are not equivalent. While both LPS and PGN utilized the PU.1-binding sites in the proximal sIL-1Ra promoter region to generate a full response, additional distinct promoter elements were utilized by LPS or PGN. Activation of p38 stress-activated protein kinase was required for LPS- or PGN-induced IL-1Ra gene expression, but the p38-responsive promoter elements localized to distinct regions of the sIL-1Ra gene. Additionally, while the LPS-induced, p38-dependent response was dependent upon PU.1 binding, the PGN-induced, p38 response was not. Collectively, these data indicated that while some of the intracellular signaling events by TLR2 and TLR4 agonists are similar, there are clearly distinct differences in the responses elicited by these two bacterial products

Tobolsk in August von Kotzebue’s Sketches: On the Perception of Siberia by Germans

The article was submitted on 03.02.2015.Предметом рассмотрения в данной статье является уникальный исторический документ - записки о городе Тобольске известного немецкого писателя и драматурга Августа фон Коцебу. Заметки, написанные в начале XIX в., открывают своеобразный облик Тобольска, автор описывает природу, общество, местную элиту, с которой он познакомился за 14 дней своего пребывания в сибирском городе. Отмечается небывалый для такого скромного сочинения успех книги, неоднократно переизданной в XIX и XX вв. Сочинение Коцебу сопоставляется с другими, более поздними произведениями «литературы пленных» и путешественников. Подробное цитирование источника сопровождается анализом художественных и информационных достоинств текста. Выявляется интерес немецкого общества к далекой Сибири, обусловленный причудливой природой, климатическими аномалиями, бытовой экзотикой, с одной стороны, и желанием продолжить и совершенствовать культурные, а возможно, в перспективе экономические контакты между двумя странами - с другой. Коцебу оценивается как первооткрыватель образа Тобольска и Сибири. Его объективные оценки русского гостеприимства, благожелательности населения резко контрастировали описанию произвола российской власти и были очень перспективны для немецких культурных и экономических кругов. Статья предлагает профессиональный обзор изучения судьбы Коцебу в немецкой и российской историографии; выявление позиции писателя к своему положению как ссыльного и описание взаимоотношений с местными жителями дают дополнительные штрихи к известной биографии драматурга.The article considers a unique historical document - notes on the town of Tobolsk of the famous German writer and dramatist August von Kotzebue. Written in the early 19th century, the notes reflect the peculiar character of Tobolsk; the author describes its nature, society, local elite that he became acquainted with during his two-week stay in the Siberian town. The author points out that the book enjoyed success with the public which was unusual for this modest work, and was published repeatedly in the 19th and 20th centuries. Kotzebue’s work is compared with some later works of the literature of captives and travelers. The author of the article extensively quotes the source and analyzes its artistic and informational value. Additionally, he reveals the interest of the German society towards the remote region of Siberia conditioned by its fanciful nature, climatic anomalies, exoticism of its everyday life, on the one hand, and a desire to improve the cultural, and, potentially, economic contacts between the two countries on the other. According to the author, Kotzebue was the first to discover the image of Tobolsk and Siberia. His objective account of Russian hospitality and the goodwill of the population contrasted sharply with his description of the arbitrary rule of the Russian authorities and had a significant potential for the German cultural and economic circles. The article makes a professional review of the life of Kotzebue in German and Russian historiography; it also describes the position of the writer as to his condition of an exile and makes a description of his relationships with the locals, which adds to the already known biography of the playwright

Quantum-measurement backaction from a Bose-Einstein condensate coupled to a mechanical oscillator

We study theoretically the dynamics of a hybrid optomechanical system consisting of a macroscopic mechanical membrane magnetically coupled to a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate via a nanomagnet attached at the membrane center. We demonstrate that this coupling permits us to monitor indirectly the center-of-mass position of the membrane via measurements of the spin of the condensed atoms. These measurements normally induce a significant backaction on the membrane motion, which we quantify for the cases of thermal and coherent initial states of the membrane. We discuss the possibility of measuring this quantum backaction via repeated measurements. We also investigate the potential to generate nonclassical states of the membrane, in particular Schrödinger-cat states, via such repeated measurements

Thermodynamic evidence for valley-dependent density of states in bulk bismuth

Electron-like carriers in bismuth are described by the Dirac Hamiltonian, with a band mass becoming a thousandth of the bare electron mass along one crystalline axis. The existence of three anisotropic valleys offers electrons an additional degree of freedom, a subject of recent attention. Here, we map the Landau spectrum by angle-resolved magnetostriction, and quantify the carrier number in each valley: while the electron valleys keep identical spectra, they substantially differ in their density of states at the Fermi level. Thus, the electron fluid does not keep the rotational symmetry of the lattice at low temperature and high magnetic field, even in the absence of internal strain. This effect, reminiscent of the Coulomb pseudo-gap in localized electronic states, affects only electrons in the immediate vicinity of the Fermi level. It presents the most striking departure from the non-interacting picture of electrons in bulk bismuth.Comment: 6 pages, 3 Figure

Quantum measurement backaction from a BEC coupled to a mechanical oscillator

We study theoretically the dynamics of a a hybrid optomechanical system consisting of a macroscopic mechanical membrane magnetically coupled to a spinor Bose-Einstein condensate via a nanomagnet attached at the membrane center. We demonstrate that this coupling permits us to monitor indirectly the center-of-mass position of the membrane via measurements of the spin of the condensed atoms. These measurements normally induce a significant backaction on the membrane motion, which we quantify for the cases of thermal and coherent initial states of the membrane. We discuss the possibility of measuring that quantum backaction via repeated measurements. We also investigate the potential to generate non-classical states of the membrane, in particular Schrodinger cat states, via such repeated measurements.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures. Submitted to PR

Unusual cross-sectional imaging findings in hepatic peliosis

Abstract.: Hepatic peliosis is a rare entity that represents focal, multifocal, segmental, or diffuse dilatation of liver sinusoids. Hepatic peliosis is often associated with chronic wasting diseases but also has been reported in association with anabolic, contraceptive, or other hormonal treatment, and even in context with HIV-related bacterial infections. Hepatic peliosis is usually clinically unapparent and mostly found only during autopsy, but occasionally it may lead to diagnostic problems if detected radiologically since the imaging findings in hepatic peliosis are quite variable according to the variety of its possible histologic features as well as the possibility of additional hemorrhage. We present a case of hepatic peliosis associated with bronchial carcinoma that showed moderate centripetal enhancement during the portal-venous phase on CT, pronounced venous pooling on contrast enhanced T1-weighted images acquired during the hepatic-venous phase, and bright signal on T2-weighted images, thus mimicking in some way a capillary hemangioma. We also discuss some not yet described CT and MR features of this rare entity which should be included into the differential diagnosis of atypical liver lesions in patients with the above-mentioned condition

Optomechanical backaction-evading measurement without parametric instability

We review a scheme for performing a backaction-evading measurement of one mechanical quadrature in an optomechanical setup. The experimental application of this scheme has been limited by parametric instabilities caused in general by a slight dependence of the mechanical frequency on the electromagnetic energy in the cavity. We find that a simple modification to the optical drive can effectively eliminate the parametric instability even at high intracavity power, allowing realistic devices to achieve sub-zero-point uncertainties in the measured quadrature

The role of quantum fluctuations in the optomechanical properties of a Bose-Einstein condensate in a ring cavity

We analyze a detailed model of a Bose-Einstein condensate trapped in a ring optical resonator and contrast its classical and quantum properties to those of a Fabry-P{\'e}rot geometry. The inclusion of two counter-propagating light fields and three matter field modes leads to important differences between the two situations. Specifically, we identify an experimentally realizable region where the system's behavior differs strongly from that of a BEC in a Fabry-P\'{e}rot cavity, and also where quantum corrections become significant. The classical dynamics are rich, and near bifurcation points in the mean-field classical system, the quantum fluctuations have a major impact on the system's dynamics.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR