Ritual zwischen Ethologie und Postmoderne : philologisch-historische Anmerkungen

Traditionelle Rituale, als schematisierte Handlungen mit Mitteilungs- charakter, werden in drei Bereichen anschaulich vorgestellt: Eidrituale, Un-terwerfungs- und Verehrungsrituale, Totenrituale. Gefragt wird insbesondere nach dem Verhältnis zur Sprache als Parallele oder Kontrast sowie nach der Rolle des Körperlichen inmitten der sozialen Interaktionen. Ins Auge gefaßt sind jeweils soziale und psychische Funktionen, der Ausdrucksgehalt samt möglichen 'Ursprüngen' im biologischen, ggfs. vormenschlichen Bereich, die Absterbe-Faktoren im Modernisierungsprozeß und das trotzdem bestehende Erneuerungspotenzial einer vielfältigen Wirkungsmacht

The dwarf galaxy DDO 47: testing cusps hiding in triaxial halos

We present HI data of the dwarf galaxy DDO 47, aimed at testing the hypothesis that dark halo triaxiality might induce non-circular motions resulting in rotation curves best fitted by cored halos, even if the dark matter halo is intrinsically cuspy. We performed a harmonic decomposition of the velocity field in order to search for alleged non-circular motions needed to ``hide'' a cusp: in DDO 47 non-circular motions are globally at a level of 2-3 km s$^{-1}$, far from being sufficient to reconcile the observed rotation curve with the $\Lambda$CDM predictions. We conclude that the dark matter halo around DDO 47 is truly cored and that a cusp cannot be hidden by non-circular motions. More details are shown in Gentile et al. (2006, ApJL in press, astro-ph/0506538).Comment: 2 pages, to appear in Proc. XXIst IAP Colloquium "Mass Profiles and Shapes of Cosmological Structures", Paris 4-9 July 2005 (EAS Publications Series, G. Mamon, F. Combes, C. Deffayet, B. Fort eds.

The dwarf galaxy DDO 47 as a dark matter laboratory: testing cusps hiding in triaxial halos

We present an analysis of high resolution HI data of the dwarf galaxy DDO 47, aimed at testing the hypothesis that dark halo triaxiality might induce non-circular motions resulting in rotation curves best fitted by cored halos, even if the dark matter halo is intrinsically cuspy. This hypothesis could be invoked in order to reconcile the predictions of the standard LambdaCDM theory with the rotation curves of disk galaxies. DDO 47 is an ideal case to test this hypothesis because it has a very regular velocity field, its rotation curve is best fitted by a cored halo and a NFW halo is inconsistent with the data. We analysed the velocity field through the higher-order harmonic terms in order to search for kinematical signatures of alleged non-circular motions needed to "hide" a cusp: the result is that globally non-circular motions are at a level of 2-3 km/s, and they are more likely to be associated to the presence of some spiral structure than to a global elongated potential (e.g. a triaxial halo). These non-circular motions are far from being sufficient to account for the discrepancy with the LambdaCDM predictions. We therefore conclude that the dark matter halo around the dwarf galaxy DDO 47 is truly cored and that a cusp cannot be hidden by non-circular motions.Comment: 4 pages, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters, substantial changes from original versio

Left atrial diverticulum - An unexpected finding in routine transesophageal echocardiography

We report a 55-year-old male patient with lone paroxysmal atrial fibrillation who underwent routine transesophageal echocardiography (TOE) at our institution. In a mid-esophageal 125 degrees three-chamber angulation, a distinct thinning of the left atrial (LA) wall was observed, forming a 7 x 4 mm canal with only a small membrane separating the LA from the pericardial space. Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging diagnosed a small LA diverticulum. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first manuscript describing detection of a small LA diverticulum via TOE