פרסומים

While political communication scholarship has long underscored the importance of political talk—casual conversations about news and politics that occur in everyday situations—as a way for citizens to clarify their opinions and as a precursor for political engagement, much of this literature tends to depict political talk as uncomfortable and difficult for citizens. Yet, this focus on the challenging aspects of political talk has been informed predominantly by the US context. To what extent may a different picture emerge when looking across different cultural contexts? And how are these dynamics shaped by the affordances of the multi-platform social media environment? This paper explores these questions through a unique dataset of 122 qualitative interviews conducted between 2016 and 2019 with young people (ages 18–29) from five countries: Argentina, Finland, Israel, Japan, and the United States. Rather than solidifying the avoidance of controversial political talk as the key strategy at the disposal of young people, our findings point at a five-pronged typology of young people, with each type representing a different approach toward political talk. Our typology thus contributes to a more comprehensive and nuanced picture of various approaches towards political talk employed by young people across different countries and in relation to different digital media affordances.

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.

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.

 

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.

Of the various chrono-stratigraphic entities of the Chalcolithic period in the southern Levant, the Middle Chalcolithic period (ca. 5300–4700 BCE) is the most poorly defined, with most of the relevant data coming from Tel Tsaf. While excavations at Tel Tsaf in the last two decades provide valuable information concerning the site’s upper occupational levels, the earlier strata and their material culture are still unknown. Past excavations focused on the later stage of the site’s occupation, leaving unanswered questions concerning the transition from the Early to the Middle Chalcolithic period. In order to shed new light on this topic, the current paper presents the results of the renewed research project, which focuses on the earliest occupational levels at Tel Tsaf, coinciding with the onset of the Middle Chalcolithic period. To start defining the characteristics of this episode, we present the archaeological layers, features, and finds uncovered just above the Lisan bedrock. We discuss the results’ implications and their contribution to an improved understanding of the Chalcolithic period’s broader temporal framework in the southern Levant.

An especially critical task is to raise awareness of the effects of war on children, in general, and with reference to specific children whose circumstances might enhance their vulnerability. Starting points, from which we begin our discussion, are the abduction and separation of 3-year-old identical twins during the Hamas attacks on the South of Israel, on October 7, 2023. Emphasis is given to these twins’ circumstances and to all children’s heightened vulnerability to the detrimental effects of war-related trauma, including mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Specific attention is given to the profound bond between identical twins and the devastating consequences of separation on their immediate and long-term emotional well-being. Drawing on research findings surrounding children at war and on historical evidence for the effects of twin separation on individuals exposed to war, our commentary underscores the urgent need for awareness and condemnation of the direct targeting of children. We advocate the preservation of family ties as essential for fostering children’s resilience and emotional support. We also call upon professional organizations and the international community to prioritize the reunification of children with their families as a moral imperative in safeguarding the well-being and future of innocent children exposed to terrorism and conflict in war-torn regions.

This essay examines poems about cremation written by adherents of both 19^th-century German bourgeois initiatives to reintroduce cremation and the early 20^th-century German proletarian freethought movement. Supporters of these currents held secularist views. Cremation poems can be considered a laboratory of secularism in which certain secularist truths and beliefs could be formulated and expressed in compelling ways. Notably, these poems fleshed out secularism by paying particular attention to its emotional aspects. The poems discussed point to the existence of a secularist, cremationist emotional community across class and temporal boundaries. The essay contributes to the study of secularist mentalities and convictions in the 19^th and 20^th centuries, probing the role of poetry in establishing secularist themes and positions.

 

September 2024: Carolin Kosuch is a historian with research interests in Jewish history, secularism, anarchism and intellectual history. After holding positions at Leipzig’s Simon Dubnow Institute for Jewish History and Culture and the German Historical Institute in Rome, she completed her habilitation project on secularism and death in Western modernities at the chair of Rebekka Habermas, University of Göttingen, in summer 2023. She teaches courses in 19^th and 20^th century transnational history, the history of gender, technology and Jewish history. Her work was funded by the German Research Foundation. Since winter term 2023/24, she represents the chair of Rebekka Habermas (December 2023) at the University of Göttingen.