Modiano and Sebald: Walking in Another\u27s Footsteps

This article studies Patrick Modiano\u27s Dora Bruder (1997) and W.G. Sebald\u27s Austerlitz (2000) in conjunction with a contemporary literature of diaspora grounded in the extended aftermath of World War II. Both texts straddle fiction and testimonial accounts such as memoirs, letters, and video/audio recordings. In addition, both raise questions with which traditional historians seldom contend, even when they group these questions under the category of memory. What understanding of the recent past might these two narratives promote? What do they imply—individually or as a set—concerning the nature and function of the historical subjectivity that literature can convey? Each in its own way, Dora Bruder and Austerlitz override conventions of literary genre by mixing elements of novel, autobiography, and essay. Accordingly, language becomes a prime point of inquiry in conjunction with the double question most likely to be raised in terms of the historical record: who is writing and to what end or purpose? These questions, in turn, direct inquiry to enunciation and point of view as components of historical subjectivity associated with the literature of a post-World War II diaspora

A Musical Note

Frequent references to musical terms in Barthes\u27s writings since 1970 suggest a progression beyond a standard semiological inquiry. A text on the «grain» of the voice, another on música practica, and a third on Romantic song develop a model of figuration Barthes explores actively in the Fragments d\u27un discours amoureux (A Lover\u27s Discourse) and La Chambre claire

Paulhan Before Blanchot: From Terror to Letters Between the Wars

Readers of Blanchot\u27s writings make up at least three generations which, in turn, point to the relevance of locating his practices of modernity in relation to literary and social history. An initial inquiry sets Blanchot\u27s early writings against those of Jean Paulhan in the 1936 period of the Popular Front, rather than in the early part of the Second World War, as is commonly supposed. By pushing the early writings back to the period between the wars, we can better understand the place of political concerns in Blanchot\u27s subsequent narratives and essays

R.B. Polygraphe

Introduction to the special issu

Spacecraft Crew Cabin Condensation Control

A report discusses a new technique to prevent condensation on the cabin walls of manned spacecraft exposed to the cold environment of space, as such condensation could lead to free water in the cabin. This could facilitate the growth of mold and bacteria, and could lead to oxidation and weakening of the cabin wall. This condensation control technique employs a passive method that uses spacecraft waste heat as the primary wallheating mechanism. A network of heat pipes is bonded to the crew cabin pressure vessel, as well as the pipes to each other, in order to provide for efficient heat transfer to the cabin walls and from one heat pipe to another. When properly sized, the heat-pipe network can maintain the crew cabin walls at a nearly uniform temperature. It can also accept and distribute spacecraft waste heat to maintain the pressure vessel above dew point

Latent human traits in the language of social media: An open-vocabulary approach

Over the past century, personality theory and research has successfully identified core sets of characteristics that consistently describe and explain fundamental differences in the way people think, feel and behave. Such characteristics were derived through theory, dictionary analyses, and survey research using explicit self-reports. The availability of social media data spanning millions of users now makes it possible to automatically derive characteristics from behavioral data-language use-at large scale. Taking advantage of linguistic information available through Facebook, we study the process of inferring a new set of potential human traits based on unprompted language use. We subject these new traits to a comprehensive set of evaluations and compare them with a popular five factor model of personality. We find that our language-based trait construct is often more generalizable in that it often predicts non-questionnaire-based outcomes better than questionnaire-based traits (e.g. entities someone likes, income and intelligence quotient), while the factors remain nearly as stable as traditional factors. Our approach suggests a value in new constructs of personality derived from everyday human language use

Technical Data Interoperability (TDI) Pathfinder Via Emerging Standards

The TDI project (TDI) investigates trending technical data standards for applicability to NASA vehicles, space stations, payloads, facilities, and equipment. TDI tested COTS software compatible with a certain suite of related industry standards for capabilities of individual benefits and interoperability. These standards not only esnable Information Technology (IT) efficiencies, but also address efficient structures and standard content for business processes. We used source data from generic industry samples as well as NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) data from space systems

Characterization of the Fecal Microbiome from Non-Human Wild Primates Reveals Species Specific Microbial Communities

BACKGROUND: Host-associated microbes comprise an integral part of animal digestive systems and these interactions have a long evolutionary history. It has been hypothesized that the gastrointestinal microbiome of humans and other non-human primates may have played significant roles in host evolution by facilitating a range of dietary adaptations. We have undertaken a comparative sequencing survey of the gastrointestinal microbiomes of several non-human primate species, with the goal of better understanding how these microbiomes relate to the evolution of non-human primate diversity. Here we present a comparative analysis of gastrointestinal microbial communities from three different species of Old World wild monkeys. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We analyzed fecal samples from three different wild non-human primate species (black-and-white colobus [Colubus guereza], red colobus [Piliocolobus tephrosceles], and red-tailed guenon [Cercopithecus ascanius]). Three samples from each species were subjected to small subunit rRNA tag pyrosequencing. Firmicutes comprised the vast majority of the phyla in each sample. Other phyla represented were Bacterioidetes, Proteobacteria, Spirochaetes, Actinobacteria, Verrucomicrobia, Lentisphaerae, Tenericutes, Planctomycetes, Fibrobacateres, and TM7. Bray-Curtis similarity analysis of these microbiomes indicated that microbial community composition within the same primate species are more similar to each other than to those of different primate species. Comparison of fecal microbiota from non-human primates with microbiota of human stool samples obtained in previous studies revealed that the gut microbiota of these primates are distinct and reflect host phylogeny. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: Our analysis provides evidence that the fecal microbiomes of wild primates co-vary with their hosts, and that this is manifested in higher intraspecies similarity among wild primate species, perhaps reflecting species specificity of the microbiome in addition to dietary influences. These results contribute to the limited body of primate microbiome studies and provide a framework for comparative microbiome analysis between human and non-human primates as well as a comparative evolutionary understanding of the human microbiome

Neuropeptidomic Components Generated by Proteomic Functions in Secretory Vesicles for Cell–Cell Communication

Diverse neuropeptides participate in cell–cell communication to coordinate neuronal and endocrine regulation of physiological processes in health and disease. Neuropeptides are short peptides ranging in length from ~3 to 40 amino acid residues that are involved in biological functions of pain, stress, obesity, hypertension, mental disorders, cancer, and numerous health conditions. The unique neuropeptide sequences define their specific biological actions. Significantly, this review article discusses how the neuropeptide field is at the crest of expanding knowledge gained from mass-spectrometry-based neuropeptidomic studies, combined with proteomic analyses for understanding the biosynthesis of neuropeptidomes. The ongoing expansion in neuropeptide diversity lies in the unbiased and global mass-spectrometry-based approaches for identification and quantitation of peptides. Current mass spectrometry technology allows definition of neuropeptide amino acid sequence structures, profiling of multiple neuropeptides in normal and disease conditions, and quantitative peptide measures in biomarker applications to monitor therapeutic drug efficacies. Complementary proteomic studies of neuropeptide secretory vesicles provide valuable insight into the protein processes utilized for neuropeptide production, storage, and secretion. Furthermore, ongoing research in developing new computational tools will facilitate advancements in mass-spectrometry-based identification of small peptides. Knowledge of the entire repertoire of neuropeptides that regulate physiological systems will provide novel insight into regulatory mechanisms in health, disease, and therapeutics