פרסומים

This introduction considers the perhaps unorthodox pairing of secularism and poetry and explores their relationship during the 19^th century. It surveys the Forum’s five essays, which consider how secularism’s multiplicities were negotiated in 19^th-century poetry and how the formal affordances of poetry itself contributed to secularist beliefs, emphasizing national cultural differences as well as points of connection.

The 2023 Nobel Prize awarded to Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus, and Alexei Ekimov “for the discovery and synthesis of quantum dots” (QDs) marks a milestone in the field to which I devoted the past 30-years of my career. In this perspective, I reflect on key concepts and directions in my research journey. I began by exploring the “artificial atom” nature of QDs while advancing the development of III-V QDs. Shape control, particularly in rods, captured my attention due to its impact on dimensionality related properties. I also discovered semiconductor-metal hybrid nanocrystals and uncovered synergetic effects, highlighting their transformative role in photocatalysis and heavy doping. My work extended to QD applications in displays and, more recently, to forming coupled QD molecules, continuing the artificial atom theme. I conclude by outlining future directions and challenges, envisioning a bright future for this vibrant field at the intersection of materials and physical chemistry.

Stereolithography printing of ceramics and glass relies on compositions containing dispersed particles in photopolymerizable solutions. A new approach based on utilizing sol–gel precursor solutions has been introduced in recent years, which overcomes challenges in particle-based printing compositions, such as light scattering, particle sedimentation, and high viscosity. Following sol–gel and photopolymerization processes’ combination, this paper presents the methodologies for the 3D printing of complex ceramics and glass structures. This combination allows precise structure control, enabling dense or porous objects, transparent forms, and simple doping. These advantages are presented through the fabrication of porous γ-alumina, transparent silica glass, and chromium-doped α-alumina.

In recent years one has observed the rise of new forms of (self-)life-storying, not only as a means of expressing one’s dissatisfaction with the turn-of-the-21^st-century auto/biographical boom but also as a manifestation of the crisis of both the auto/biographical self and form. These new self-narratives ostensibly resist the canonical “laws” of auto/biographical writing yet eagerly embrace real events from the authors’ lives. This article discusses one of the most acclaimed examples of 21^st-century (self-)life-storying, Rachel Cusk’s “Fay” trilogy — Outline (2014), Transit (2016), and Kudos (2018). Drawing on Cusk’s archival records, it focusses on the way Cusk’s auto/biographical authorial self becomes first fictionalized and then compartmentalized into the series’ fictional characters. By referring to Clair Bishop’s Artificial Hells (2012), this essay argues that Cusk’s trilogy should be recognized as employing the strategy of “delegated performances,” where the narrativization of the self is dependent on “outsourcing” the authorial self. This strategy is here seen as a signpost of new autofiction.

 

December 2024.  Robert Kusek (Ph.D, D.Litt) is Associate Professor at the Department of Comparative Studies in Literature and Culture, Faculty of Philology, as well as Head of Research Centre for Transnational Literary Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland. His research interests include life writing genres, the contemporary novel in English, queer heritage, as well as a comparative and transnational approach to literary studies. He is the author of two monographs and several dozen articles published in books and academic journals. He was a researcher in a number of Polish and international projects – currently he is a principal investigator in the National Science Centre funded project entitled “(Un)accidental Tourists: Polish Literature and Visual Culture in South Africa in the 20th and 21st Centuries.”

O ensaio analisa criticamente o conceito de Am Haarets – tradicionalmente associado ao “ignorante” nas fontes rabínicas – e propõe uma reinterpretação inclusiva desse termo no contexto do ensino judaico contemporâneo. A partir de uma revisão histórica e textual das fontes bíblicas, farisaicas, mishnáicas e talmúdicas, o autor evidencia a evolução semântica de Am Haarets desde um termo polissêmico até sua cristalização como categoria de exclusão no judaísmo rabínico hegemônico. O trabalho questiona a centralidade do letramento e da leitura textual como marcadores de pertencimento religioso, destacando a primazia da oralidade na tradição judaica e a existência histórica de judeus fora dos circuitos institucionais de transmissão da Torá. Dialogando com autores como Oppenheimer, Halbertal, Ben-Zion e Hezser, o texto denuncia o viés elitista das narrativas tradicionais e propõe a valorização da diversidade interna do povo judeu – cultural, religiosa e epistemológica. Ao resgatar a figura do Am Haarets como símbolo de judeidades não normativas, o estudo reivindica uma pedagogia judaica pluralista, crítica e comprometida com as múltiplas formas de vivenciar e transmitir a tradição.

 

Was the catastrophic flooding in Derna, Libya—one of the deadliest hydrometeorological disasters on record—an inevitable outcome of rare weather conditions, or did the design of the infrastructure fail to account for probable risks? On 10 to 11 September 2023, Storm Daniel, a Mediterranean tropical-like cyclone, caused heavy rainfall that led to the collapse of two dams and more than 5000 casualties in Derna. Using a combination of atmospheric reanalysis, satellite data, and hydrologic modeling, we overcame key limitations typical of data-scarce, high-variability regions and revealed that despite the catastrophic impact, the return periods of the rainfall and flood were only a few decades. Hydraulic simulations revealed that the dam failures amplified the damage nearly 20-fold compared to a dam-free scenario. With extensive and timely implications, our findings underscore the importance of uncertainty-aware risk assessment and highlight the value of distributed flood prevention and early warning systems in mitigating risks in vulnerable regions.

 

The coexistence of multiple types of orders is a common thread in condensed matter physics and unconventional superconductors. The nature of superconducting orders may be unveiled by analyzing local perturbations such as vortices. For thin films, the vortex magnetic profile is characterized by the Pearl-length $Λ$ Λ , which is inversely proportional to the 2D superfluid density; hence, normally, also inversely proportional to the film thickness, $$d$$ d . Here we employ the scanning SQUID-on-tip microscopy to measure $Λ$ Λ in NbSe 2 flakes with thicknesses ranging from $$N=3$$ N = 3 to $$53$$ 53 layers. For $$N\, > \,10$$ N > 10 , we find the expected dependence $$Λ\propto 1/d$$ Λ ∝ 1 / d . However, six-layer films show a sharp increase of $Λ$ Λ deviating by a factor of three from the expected value. This value remains fixed for $$N=3$$ N = 3 to $$6$$ 6 . This unexpected behavior suggests the competition between two orders; one residing only on the first and last layers of the film while the other prevails in all layers.

Chickens serve as an excellent model organism for developmental biology, offering unique opportunities for precise spatiotemporal access to embryos within eggs. Optogenes are light-activated proteins that regulate gene expression, offering a non-invasive method to activate genes at specific locations and developmental stages, advancing developmental biology research. This study employed the Magnet-Cre optogenetic system to control gene expression in developing chicken embryos. Magnet-Cre consists of two light-sensitive protein domains that dimerize upon light activation, each attached to an inactive half of the Cre recombinase enzyme, which becomes active upon dimerization. We developed an all-in-one plasmid containing a green fluorescent protein marker, the Magnet-Cre system, and a light-activated red fluorescent protein gene. This plasmid was electroporated into the neural tube of Hamburger and Hamilton (H&H) stage 14 chicken embryos. Embryo samples were cleared using the CUBIC protocol and imaged with a light sheet microscope to analyze optogenetic activity via red-fluorescent cells. We established a pipeline for Magnet-Cre activation in chicken embryos, demonstrating that a single 3-min exposure to blue light following incubation at 28 °C was sufficient to trigger gene activity within the neural tube, with increased activity upon additional light exposure. Finally, we showed a spatiotemporal control of gene activity using a localized laser light induction. This research lays the groundwork for further advancements in avian developmental biology and poultry research, enabling spatiotemporal control of genes in both embryos and transgenic chickens.

A bicyclic PSP-pincer ligand featuring a sulfonium cation at the bridgehead position of its rigid triptycene-like scaffold was synthesized and metallated with a bis-cationic Pt(II) center. The resulting tris-cationic Pt(II) complex exhibits excellent photostability and improved catalytic performance compared to its analogue with the previously reported sulfonium pincer ligand.

In the new millennium, new media have made conscious self-performance an everyday and continuous activity. Memory has always been creative, but in the digital age it is becoming more commonplace to actively shape pictorial and verbal stories of oneself according to what one wishes to remember and show to the world. Many autofictional books explore the boundary and the overlap between memory, self-presentation, and self-invention, often through protagonists whose acts of writing appear to affect the lives they lead. This article argues that a new autofictional form turns the fluidity, mutability, and collaborative nature of self-presentation into a structural principle. It shows how Sheila Heti’s How Should a Person Be (2010/2012), Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being (2013), and Ben Lerner’s 10:04 (2014) critically explore the potentials and dangers of new media ecologies, suggesting that self and world can be changed through acts of (self-)presentation. The article also addresses the question of how autofictional destabilizations of reality relate to concepts such as “alternative facts” and proclamations of a “post-factual” age, and reflects on political and ethical implications of how autofictional texts challenge the belief in uniform and universal truth.

 

December 2024: Alexandra Effe is Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Oslo, where she is part of the interdisciplinary research and teaching initiative “Literature, Cognition, and Emotions,” and teaches Anglophone and comparative literature. She is the author of J. M. Coetzee and the Ethics of Narrative Transgression (Palgrave, 2017) and co-editor of The Autofictional (Palgrave, 2022) and Autofiction, Emotions, and Humour (Routledge, 2023). She has published articles and book chapters on narrative and cognitive theory, twenty-first-century literature, postcolonial literature, and testimonial writing. As Visiting Scholar at the Oxford Centre for Life-Writing, she co-convened the project “Autofiction in Global Perspective.”