Schuld und Schulden Wie Moralisch ist die Wirtschaft?

This article provides a critical reconstruction of the problems of debt and neoliberalism in the modern and contemporary philosophical thought. Starting from the well-known lexical analogy between “fault” and “debt” as expressed by the German word Schuld, the article focuses in particular on the topics of subjectivity, of property and self-ownership of the body and on the moral consequences of forgiveness and solidarity. None of us depends entirely on him/herself: we always owe our very existence to the subjects who created us, that is to say we always are indebted to something or someone. Economic decisions are also (and most of all) moral decisions. From the ancient roman law categories to the neoliberal thinking, the article casts a new philosophical light on the subtle overlapping of “time”, “money” and “ethics” in the contemporary society.This article provides a critical reconstruction of the problems of debt and neoliberalism in the modern and contemporary philosophical thought. Starting from the well-known lexical analogy between “fault” and “debt” as expressed by the German word Schuld, the article focuses in particular on the topics of subjectivity, of property and self-ownership of the body and on the moral consequences of forgiveness and solidarity. None of us depends entirely on him/herself: we always owe our very existence to the subjects who created us, that is to say we always are indebted to something or someone. Economic decisions are also (and most of all) moral decisions. From the ancient roman law categories to the neoliberal thinking, the article casts a new philosophical light on the subtle overlapping of “time”, “money” and “ethics” in the contemporary society.This article provides a critical reconstruction of the problems of debt and neoliberalism in the modern and contemporary philosophical thought. Starting from the well-known lexical analogy between “fault” and “debt” as expressed by the German word Schuld, the article focuses in particular on the topics of subjectivity, of property and self-ownership of the body and on the moral consequences of forgiveness and solidarity. None of us depends entirely on him/herself: we always owe our very existence to the subjects who created us, that is to say we always are indebted to something or someone. Economic decisions are also (and most of all) moral decisions. From the ancient roman law categories to the neoliberal thinking, the article casts a new philosophical light on the subtle overlapping of “time”, “money” and “ethics” in the contemporary society.This article provides a critical reconstruction of the problems of debt and neoliberalism in the modern and contemporary philosophical thought. Starting from the well-known lexical analogy between “fault” and “debt” as expressed by the German word Schuld, the article focuses in particular on the topics of subjectivity, of property and self-ownership of the body and on the moral consequences of forgiveness and solidarity. None of us depends entirely on him/herself: we always owe our very existence to the subjects who created us, that is to say we always are indebted to something or someone. Economic decisions are also (and most of all) moral decisions. From the ancient roman law categories to the neoliberal thinking, the article casts a new philosophical light on the subtle overlapping of “time”, “money” and “ethics” in the contemporary society

Requirements for a Dashboard Application to Facilitate Climate-Smart Planning for Sustainable Resilient Green and Blue Cities

To ensure a liveable, resilient and sustainable city in the future, climate change adaptation and mitigation measures must be integrated into urban development projects. This is necessary to counteract the negative effects of climate change, as Austria is already experiencing a noticeable increase in the number of hot days and an increase in extreme weather events (ÖKS 15). Adaptation to climate change requires that the impact of an urban development project on the local microclimate be assessed as early as possible in order to minimise the effects and optimise the project. Microclimate analyses can be used to assess the impact of a development project or to compare different variants of a project and show the effects on local temperature, perceived temperature, wind field or humidity (Oswald et al. 2020). At the same time, urban planning processes are increasingly influenced by digitalisation in the form of Building Information Modelling (BIM). Linking microclimate simulation and BIM is therefore an important step for the future of sustainable cities. So far, however, no tool exists that combines the various requirements and enables microclimatic assessment or optimisation of urban development projects. Some planning or assessment tools, such as microclimate models or green area indicators, allow for sectoral assessments. What is missing is a comprehensive tool that makes it easy to present the various impacts of a project to spatial planning and development decision-makers, investors and planners and, last but not least, to the general public, such as (future) residents. This contribution analyses and describes the requirements for such a tool in the form of a web-based dashboard that uses BIM models, links them to microclimatic simulations, and additionally presents key performance indicators (KPI), such as green area indicators, in a structured way. The design of the dashboard is data and task dependent (Conrow et al. 2023); in light of the challenges and opportunities associated with optimising urban development projects from a microclimatic point of view, we set out to address issues related to (i) the requirements for the user interface, i.e. the dashboard, (ii) the requirements for the models (BIM model and microclimatic numerical simulation model), (iii) the possible applications in different planning phases, and (iv) the necessary requirements for data and data preparation. The aim of the contribution is to analyse and describe the requirements, implementation perspectives and application possibilities of a web-based dashboard, which enables climate impact assessments, macro-ecological data for properties and neighbourhoods in an early planning phase (“climate check”) on the basis of three-dimensional building models

Ökonomie des Opfers. Literatur im Zeichen des Suizids

Warum bleibt im Gedächtnis nur, was nicht aufhört, weh zu tun, wie Nietzsche einmal gesagt hat? Der vorliegende Sammelband sucht Antworten darauf – im Werk und im Suizid von Autoren wie Heinrich von Kleist, Virginia Woolf, Yukio Mishima, Anne Sexton, Hermann Burger und David Foster Wallace. Es scheint einen fatalen Zusammenhang zu geben zwischen Dichtung, die den Erwartungshorizont der Zeitgenossen sprengt, und dem Suizid des Dichters – einen fatalen Zusammenhang auch von Suizid und Nachruhm eines Autors. Von individuellen Leiden abgesehen gilt: Wer monströs als Subjekt aus der Geschichte verschwindet, taucht irgendwann als Objekt von Geschichten wieder auf, erreicht Aufmerksamkeit in Nachrufen, Erzählungen, mündlicher und schriftlicher Historiografie. Dergestalt paradox ist die Ökonomie des Selbstopfers, in der sich auch eine vorgängige Anökonomie verbergen kann

A Conserved EAR Motif Is Required for Avirulence and Stability of the Ralstonia solanacearum Effector PopP2 In Planta

(extract) Overall, this study reveals high conservation of the PopP2 effector in Korean R. solanacearum strains isolated from commercially cultivated tomato and pepper genotypes. Importantly, our data also indicate that the PopP2 conserved repressor motif could contribute to the effector accumulation in plant cells

Transgenic expression of the dicotyledonous pattern recognition receptor EFR in rice leads to ligand-dependent activation of defense responses

Plant plasma membrane localized pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) detect extracellular pathogen-associated molecules. PRRs such as Arabidopsis EFR and rice XA21 are taxonomically restricted and are absent from most plant genomes. Here we show that rice plants expressing EFR or the chimeric receptor EFR::XA21, containing the EFR ectodomain and the XA21 intracellular domain, sense both Escherichia coli- and Xanthomonas oryzae pv. oryzae (Xoo)-derived elf18 peptides at sub-nanomolar concentrations. Treatment of EFR and EFR::XA21 rice leaf tissue with elf18 leads to MAP kinase activation, reactive oxygen production and defense gene expression. Although expression of EFR does not lead to robust enhanced resistance to fully virulent Xoo isolates, it does lead to quantitatively enhanced resistance to weakly virulent Xoo isolates. EFR interacts with OsSERK2 and the XA21 binding protein 24 (XB24), two key components of the rice XA21-mediated immune response. Rice-EFR plants silenced for OsSERK2, or overexpressing rice XB24 are compromised in elf18-induced reactive oxygen production and defense gene expression indicating that these proteins are also important for EFR-mediated signaling in transgenic rice. Taken together, our results demonstrate the potential feasibility of enhancing disease resistance in rice and possibly other monocotyledonous crop species by expression of dicotyledonous PRRs. Our results also suggest that Arabidopsis EFR utilizes at least a subset of the known endogenous rice XA21 signaling components

Direct inhibition of phosphate transport by immune signaling in Arabidopsis

Soil availability of inorganic ortho-phosphate (PO 4 3−, P i) is a key determinant of plant growth and fitness. 1 Plants regulate the capacity of their roots to take up inorganic phosphate by adapting the abundance of H +-coupled phosphate transporters of the PHOSPHATE TRANSPORTER 1 (PHT1) family 2 at the plasma membrane (PM) through transcriptional and post-translational changes driven by the genetic network of the phosphate starvation response (PSR). 3–8 Increasing evidence also shows that plants integrate immune responses to alleviate phosphate starvation stress through the association with beneficial microbes. 9–11 Whether and how such phosphate transport is regulated upon activation of immune responses is yet uncharacterized. To address this question, we first developed quantitative assays based on changes in the electrical PM potential to measure active P i transport in roots in real time. By inserting micro-electrodes into bulging root hairs, we were able to determine key characteristics of phosphate transport in intact Arabidopsis thaliana (hereafter Arabidopsis) seedlings. The fast P i-induced depolarization observed was dependent on the activity of the major phosphate transporter PHT1;4. Notably, we observed that this PHT1;4-mediated phosphate uptake is repressed upon activation of pattern-triggered immunity. This inhibition depended on the receptor-like cytoplasmic kinases BOTRYTIS-INDUCED KINASE 1 (BIK1) and PBS1-LIKE KINASE 1 (PBL1), which both phosphorylated PHT1;4. As a corollary to this negative regulation of phosphate transport by immune signaling, we found that PHT1;4-mediated phosphate uptake normally negatively regulates anti-bacterial immunity in roots. Collectively, our results reveal a mechanism linking plant immunity and phosphate homeostasis, with BIK1/PBL1 providing a molecular integration point between these two important pathways

New preparative methods to enhance phase purity and physical properties of cuprate superconductors

Several methods which avoid the problems inherent in solid state reactions have been developed. These methods include freeze drying, liquid ammonia based processes and a novel xerogel process. They are applicable to both 123, 124 and BISCCO based superconductors and have as their goal the atomic mixing of precursors in order to reduce inhomogeneity in the final product. The three methods are described and compared to each other and to conventional methods of synthesis. The products prepared by these methods are fully characterized by elemental analysis, XRD, TGA, DSC, resistivity and magnetic susceptibility versus temperature and by SEM. 13 refs., 2 figs

Die Sieben Todsünden

Weshalb faszinieren und inspirieren die Sieben Todsünden bis heute – auch und gerade obwohl theologische Kommentare längst an Verbindlichkeit eingebüßt haben? In exemplarischen Studien widmet sich der Sammelband der Wirkungsgeschichte der Sieben Todsünden in den unterschiedlichen Künsten: Literatur und bildende Kunst, Film und Fernsehen. Der Fokus liegt weniger auf einer Ideengeschichte der Todsünden als auf deren Formelhaftigkeit, die gerade im Verblassen der ursprünglichen Hintergründe ihre Wirkmacht in breiter diskursiver Streuung entfaltet. Dabei reichen die vielfältigen Fortschreibungen und Transformationen weit über das frühe Mittelalter und die klassische Theologie hinaus und zeigen in der Moderne und Postmoderne verstärkt nur noch Allusionen auf die ursprünglich religiöse Ordnungsphantasie. So werden die Todsünden zu einem intermedialen Fundus für ethische und politische Reflexionen, ästhetische Transformationen und künstlerische Experimente. Der Band versammelt Studien, die sich aus literatur-, medien- und kulturwissenschaftlicher Perspektive sowohl den einzelnen Todsünden superbia, invidia, ira, acedia, avaritia, gula, luxuria als auch dem Septenar insgesamt widmen

Activation loop phosphorylaton of a non-RD receptor kinase initiates plant innate immune signaling

Receptor kinases (RKs) are fundamental for extracellular sensing and regulate development and stress responses across kingdoms. In plants, leucine-rich repeat receptor kinases (LRR-RKs) are primarily peptide receptors that regulate responses to myriad internal and external stimuli. Phosphorylation of LRR-RK cytoplasmic domains is among the earliest responses following ligand perception, and reciprocal transphosphorylation between a receptor and its coreceptor is thought to activate the receptor complex. Originally proposed based on characterization of the brassinosteroid receptor, the prevalence of complex activation via reciprocal transphosphorylation across the plant RK family has not been tested. Using the LRR-RK ELONGATION FACTOR TU RECEPTOR (EFR) as a model, we set out to understand the steps critical for activating RK complexes. While the EFR cytoplasmic domain is an active protein kinase in vitro and is phosphorylated in a ligand-dependent manner in vivo, catalytically deficient EFR variants are functional in antibacterial immunity. These results reveal a noncatalytic role for EFR in triggering immune signaling and indicate that reciprocal transphoshorylation is not a ubiquitous requirement for LRR-RK complex activation. Rather, our analysis of EFR along with a detailed survey of the literature suggests a distinction between LRR-RKs with RD- versus non-RD protein kinase domains. Based on newly identified phosphorylation sites that regulate the activation state of the EFR complex in vivo, we propose that LRR-RK complexes containing a non-RD protein kinase may be regulated by phosphorylation-dependent conformational changes of the ligand-binding receptor, which could initiate signaling either allosterically or through driving the dissociation of negative regulators of the complex