Interrupting tradition : now-time (Jeztzeit) in and out of the theatre

‘Progress has its seat not in the continuity of elapsing time but in its interruptions—where the truly new makes itself felt for the first time’. Interruption, as articulated by Walter Benjamin in The Arcades Project, presupposes both the potential continuation of historical time (defined as the sequential movement of history toward its end) as well as its possible cessation. To interrupt, meaning to “break between,” implies a space of allowing that punctures the status quo—be that status quo the disequilibria of power and material means or otherwise. Where the new ruptures, tradition maintains. For Benjamin this interruption occurs in the present. The present, being the site of interruption, is endowed with a potential to break with the self-positing structures of the past. The time of the present, now-time as Benjamin conceives of it, does not, however, condition itself transcendentally but must, instead, be immanently possible in and of world. The necessity for the metaphorical becoming space of time in the phrase “space of allowing” only reconfirms this. This paper questions how we can think and actualise interruption in both philosophy and the theatre. It argues that the theoretical germ for Benjamin’s concept of now-time derives from his work on the idea of tragedy found in his essays of the 1920s and in The Origins of German Tragic Drama. Elucidating these texts, this paper reconciles Benjamin’s aesthetic and political philosophies.peer-reviewe

Anarchic Reflection and the Crisis of Krisis: Working with Artaud

This article begins by arguing that the ‘madness’ of Antonin Artaud is either fetishised or resisted, depending on the disciplinary angle from which one works. It proposes an alternative approach to the study of Artaud, which might avoid such pitfalls by reading Artaud’s work as performative philosophy or a philosophy of performance. The approach is defined by the principle of ‘working with’, rather than working on, a literary or philosophical figure. The second part of the article works, or philosophises, with Artaud, reading his work on the ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ alongside Immanuel Kant’s work on judgment from the third Critique. It explores the Kantian distinction between determining and reflective judgment, extending reflective judgment into what I call anarchic reflection. To do so, the article elucidates the conceptual relation between actuality, entropy, an-archy, cruelty and sublimity, defining anarchic reflection as an unintentional and/or intentional crisis of the judgment or krisis (??????) of Form that opens the possibility of its transformation

The functional potential of methane producing and consuming microorganisms in a changing world : Den funktionella potentialen hos mikroorganismer som producerar och förbrukar metan i en föränderlig värld.

It’s clear that human activities have heated our climate via the release of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Recent changes within the earth climate are rapid, intensifying, and unprecedented. With each additional increment of warming, climate change is impacting ecosystems through changes in average conditions, climate variability, coupled with other associated changes such as biodiversity loss and changes in elemental cycles.One ecosystem of particular importance are peatlands. Despite covering only ~3% of the terrestrial environment, northern peatlands are estimated to store 415 ± 150 Pg carbon, while permafrost peatlands are estimated to store 185 ± 66 Pg of soil organic carbon soil, thus acting as a large carbon sink. The highly concentrated carbon is maintained by the waterlogged anaerobic conditions that limit oxygen and bacterial decomposition. However, these anaerobic conditions favour methanogenesis, i.e. the formation of the strong greenhouse gas methane. During the thesis, one laboratory and three in-situ field studies were conducted. In paper I, we studied variation in methane fluxes with the structure and function of methane producing and consuming communities. In paper II, we performed an in-situ drought experiment across two years where we identified the effects of drought on the functional potential of methane producing and consuming communities. While working on paper II, we conducted a temporal experiment (paper IV) to intemperate the variation in methane emission rates and their δ13C-CH4 values. Finally, paper III addresses how sub-arctic peatland microbial communities respond to permafrost thaw at different degradation rates and whether this change is reflected in greenhouse gas emissions.We found that the structure and composition of the whole methane producing, and consuming community has minor effect on predicting the magnitude methane fluxes (paper I), however, during drought the structure and functional composition significantly changed in favor of more methane oxidation despite the lower methane emissions (paper II). In the sub arctic, paper III concluded that peatlands with fast permafrost degradation yielded the most differences in functional potential between thaw categories, indicating that the microbial community may be responding to newly available substrate previously inaccessible to microbial degradation. Finally, paper IV suggested that the substrate availability for methanogenesis is a major factor in explaining the spatial variation, but not the temporal variation in methane fluxes. Combined, these results suggest that the methane producing, and consuming community hold a high functional potential and can produce and consume methane in many ways despite disturbances such as drought and permafrost loss. This highlights a resilient community with the functional ability to adapt to future climate conditions

Social Learning and Coordination in High-Stakes Games: Evidence from Friend or Foe

We analyze the behavior of game-show contestants who play a one-shot game called Friend or Foe. While it is a weakly dominant strategy not to cooperate, almost half the contestants on the show choose to play friend.' Remarkably, the behavior of contestants remains unchanged even when stakes are very high, ranging from $200 to more than$10,000. We conclude that the frequent cooperation observed in one-shot social dilemma games is not an artefact of the low stakes typically used in laboratory experiments. Strategic decisions on Friend or Foe change markedly if players can observe previous episodes. We show that these contestants play friend' if they have reason to expect their opponent to play friend,' and they play foe' otherwise. The observed decisions are consistent with recent fairness theories that characterize individuals as conditional cooperators. Using information about past play, some groups (e.g., pairs of women) manage to stabilize cooperation in this high-stakes environment. For most others, improved coordination implies a drastic decline in monetary winnings. Prior to playing the social dilemma game, contestants produce' their endowment by answering trivia questions. We find some evidence for reciprocal behavior: Players who produce fewer correct answers for their team are more likely to cooperate in the social dilemma game.

The Role of Radiation Therapy in Renal Carcinoma

In the treatment of renal adenocarcinoma, radiation therapy alone is insufficient. Preoperative radiation increases the resectability rate and delays metastasis, but overall improvement in survival is tentative. Postoperative radiation has not been of proven benefit. While palliation may be achieved, relatively high doses of radiation are required

Advances in the Radiation Therapy of Carcinoma of the Prostate

Basic principles of radiation biology and radiation tolerance are reviewed. The Implications for radiation therapy of newer staging techniques in carcinoma of the prostate such as exploratory laparotomy, lymphangiography, and bone marrow acid prosphatase are discussed. A technique for treating the prostate and para-aortic lymph nodes in continuity is presented. Complications and results of therapy are discussed

Senior Recital, Joel Hansen, guitar

The presentation of this senior recital will fulfill in part the requirements for the Bachelor of Music degree in Performance. Joel Hansen studies guitar with Steve Ashby

A Systems Approach to the Physiology of Weightlessness

A systems approach to the unraveling of the complex response pattern of the human subjected to weightlessness is presented. The major goal of this research is to obtain an understanding of the role that each of the major components of the human system plays following the transition to and from space. The cornerstone of this approach is the utilization of a variety of mathematical models in order to pose and test alternative hypotheses concerned with the adaptation process. An integrated hypothesis for the human physiological response to weightlessness is developed

Competitive swimmers modify racing start depth upon request

To expand upon recent findings showing that competitive swimmers complete significantly shallower racing starts in shallower pools, 12 more experienced and 13 less experienced swimmers were filmed underwater during completion of competitive starts. Two starts (1 routine and 1 “requested shallow”) were executed from a 0.76 m block height into water 3.66 m deep. Dependent measures were maximum head depth, head speed at maximum head depth, and distance from the starting wall at maximum head depth. Statistical analyses yielded significant main effects (p < 0.05) for both start type and swimmer experience. Starts executed by the more experienced swimmers were deeper and faster than those executed by the less experienced swimmers. When asked to dive shallowly, maximum head depth decreased (0.19 m) and head speed increased (0.33 ms-1) regardless of experience. The ability of all swimmers to modify start depth implies that spinal cord injuries during competitive swimming starts are not necessarily due to an inherent inability to control the depth of the start

Block height influences the head depth of competitive racing starts

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not starting block height has an effect on the head depth and head speed of competitive racing starts. Eleven experienced, collegiate swimmers executed competitive racing starts from three different starting heights: 0.21 m (pool deck), 0.46 m (intermediate block), and 0.76 m (standard block). One-way repeated measures ANOVA indicated that starting height had a significant effect on the maximum depth of the center of the head, head speed at maximum head depth, and distance from starting wall at maximum head depth. Racing starts from the standard block and pool deck were significantly deeper, faster, and farther at maximum head depth than starts from the intermediate block. There were no differences between depth, speed, or distance between the standard block and pool deck. We conclude that there is not a positive linear relationship between starting depth and starting height, which means that starts do not necessarily get deeper as the starting height increases