4-d semistrict higher Chern-Simons theory I

We formulate a 4-dimensional higher gauge theoretic Chern-Simons theory. Its symmetry is encoded in a semistrict Lie 2-algebra equipped with an invariant non singular bilinear form. We analyze the gauge invariance of the theory and show that action is invariant under a higher gauge transformation up to a higher winding number. We find that the theory admits two seemingly inequivalent canonical quantizations. The first is manifestly topological, it does not require a choice of any additional structure on the spacial 3-fold. The second, more akin to that of ordinary Chern-Simons theory, involves fixing a CR structure on the latter. Correspondingly, we obtain two sets of semistrict higher WZW Ward identities and we find the explicit expressions of two higher versions of the WZW action. We speculate that the model could be used to define 2-knot invariants of 4-folds.Comment: 97 pages, LaTex, a few references adde

Molecular spintronics using noncollinear magnetic molecules

We investigate the spin transport through strongly anisotropic noncollinear magnetic molecules and find that the noncollinear magnetization acts as a spin-switching device for the current. Moreover, spin currents are shown to offer a viable route to selectively prepare the molecular device in one of two degenerate noncollinear magnetic states. Spin-currents can be also used to create a non-zero density of toroidal magnetization in a recently characterized Dy_3 noncollinear magnet.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

National e-resources of Shakespeare translations in Europe: (Dis)assembling the black box

This article discusses the construction, operation and scholarly usefulness of electronic resources of Shakespeare translations. In particular, it offers an overview of several existing European digital resources of Shakespeare translations by singling out trends, challenges and new vistas of research; describing the content, editing policies and functionalities of selected European projects, already in operation or currently assembled; and discussing the aims and major difficulties faced by the researchers, the choice of navigation and search tools, the possibilities of integrating national repositories with other resources and the relation of translation e-resources to adjacent disciplines, including corpus linguistics or stylometry

A single serine residue determines selectivity to monovalent metal ions in metalloregulators of the MerR family

MerR metalloregulators alleviate toxicity caused by an excess of metal ions, such as copper, zinc, mercury, lead, cadmium, silver, or gold, by triggering the expression of specific efflux or detoxification systems upon metal detection. The sensor protein binds the inducer metal ion by using two conserved cysteine residues at the C-terminal metal-binding loop (MBL). Divalent metal ion sensors, such as MerR and ZntR, require a third cysteine residue, located at the beginning of the dimerization (α5) helix, for metal coordination, while monovalent metal ion sensors, such as CueR and GolS, have a serine residue at this position. This serine residue was proposed to provide hydrophobic and steric restrictions to privilege the binding of monovalent metal ions. Here we show that the presence of alanine at this position does not modify the activation pattern of monovalent metal sensors. In contrast, GolS or CueR mutant sensors with a substitution of cysteine for the serine residue respond to monovalent metal ions or Hg(II) with high sensitivities. Furthermore, in a mutant deleted of the Zn(II) exporter ZntA, they also trigger the expression of their target genes in response to either Zn(II), Cd(II), Pb(II), or Co(II).Fil: Ibáñez, María Marta. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Checa, Susana Karina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; ArgentinaFil: Soncini, Fernando Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Rosario. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario. Universidad Nacional de Rosario. Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas. Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario; Argentin

“A horror so deep only ritual can contain it”: The art of dying in the theatre of Sarah Kane

Death is an overarching presence in Sarah Kane's dramatic universe, peopled by characters charging towards death, and usually encountering it in scenes of Grand Guignol excess and grotesque violence. Death is ambivalently presented as the only escape from the nightmare of living and, at the same time, as that which makes living a nightmare; as the moment of "complete sanity and humanity" in which "everything suddenly connects", and as the ultimate, irrevocable and unredeemable act of self-annihilation. Following Kane's turn towards a more poetic form of drama, in her last two plays this discourse of death is handed over to the words nameless characters or unidentified voices who are likewise engaged in a long, painful quest for selfhood pivoting on the awareness of mortality and the simultaneous dread of and longing for death it engenders. This essay focuses on the ritual quality of the death scenes and/or narratives that crowd Kane's drama. Throughout her work, dying is never an easy, straightforward business, but rather a long, complicated, and at times frustrating mise en scène which also entails rehearsing a repertory of traditional rituals and, once their shortcomings become apparent, devising and testing new ones. The amount of theatricality involved in the art of dying is foregrounded through a web of intertextual references to other literary and/or dramatic sources; this dialogue ties in with a self-reflexive probing of the theatre's ability to provide a ritual that will be capable of "contain[ing] the horror" by supplying a formal framework to express, embody and experience death collectively

"Money's a Meddler": Jeanette Winterson's Cover Version of The Winter's Tale

First published in October 2015, Jeanette Winterson’s The Gap of Time is the inaugural volume in a “Hogarth Shakespeare” series of prose retellings commissioned from acclaimed novelists with the ambitious aim of reimagining Shakespeare’s entire dramatic canon for a present-day readership. If the relocation of The Winter’s Tale to a contemporary setting was part of the editorial remit, however, what is striking about Winterson’s “cover version” (her definition) is the apparent ease with which Shakespeare’s tragicomedy lent itself to be re-translated into a contemporary tale about our own market-saturated 21st-century environment. As if taking her cue from the trickster Autolycus’s acknowledgment that “money’s a meddler / that doth utter all men’s ware-a”, Winterson brings out the strong monetary undercurrent in The Winter’s Tale, delving into the potential of Shakespeare’s narrative of loss and gain, revenge and redemption for a critique of our late-capitalist world and its all-pervasive monetary ethos. In this sense, her creative intervention is aligned with the more recent economic criticism of Shakespeare’s work; but Winterson’s distinctive contribution to this debate, as I argue in this paper, is in her special emphasis on the economic aspects of Shakespeare’s metatheatrical discourse. In The Gap of Time the sustained self-reflexivity of The Winter’s Tale, culminating in the inset performance of Hermione’s resurrection, is refocused in economic terms, pointing to the commodification of art and its deep entanglement with money as a powerful latent theme in Shakespeare’s play and a key aspect of its continued relevance today