Effetti di corpo e teologia della carne in Morte di Danton di Georg Büchner

Il contributo è volto a illuminare le relazioni di potere, le dinamiche sociali, politiche e private della prima prova teatrale büchneriana, composta quando Büchner era un giovane studente di anatomia, impegnato nei moti rivoluzionari. Tra figure retoriche ed economia libidica Morte di Danton sonda i limiti della sovranità nella società occidentale come eredità della Rivoluzione Francese e dei suoi eccessi. In tal senso il corpo incarna i suoi propri effetti attraverso situazioni paradossali, grottesche, argute dove si impone l’ambivalenza dello psichico. La psicoanalisi freudiana e lacaniana offre gli strumenti per indagare il valore semiotico del corpo-carne, la retorica rivoluzionaria e la struttura della sconfessione nella semantica della frase. Alto e basso; purezza e sporcizia nutrono l’universo del Danton dove teologico e scatologico sono embricati in un intreccio blasfemo e confusivo, volto a denunciare una società allo sbando in cui perversione, tradimento e inganno hanno la meglio. Lo sguardo autoptico di Büchner smaschera nell’ideale di sovranità un desiderio di dominio sull’altro che sfocia in violenza e fanatismo; orge e terrorismo reggono i rapporti umani. A dominare è una pulsionalità che gira a vuoto e sconfessa l’Edipo come principio ordinatore delle generazioni e della filiazione. Incesto e sovraesposizione del corpo popolano la scena insieme ai feticci del potere, ridotto a legge di fazione nel disconoscimento della creatura e della sua presenza nel mondo. Celan riconosce nel personaggio di Lucile la lingua della poesia e ne fa uno dei perni del suo discorso Il meridiano. L’accettazione del limite e della differenza; lo scacco della mancanza immettono nella pièce il respiro della creatura capace di congiungere in un unico destino alterità ed etica del vivente. «Body effects and theology of the flesh in Georg Büchner’s Danton’s death». The present contribution aims at highlighting the political, social and private intertwinings of Georg Büchner’s first play, written when he was a twenty-one year old German student of anatomy engaged in revolutionary events. Between rhetorical figures and the economics of Danton’s death investigates the limits of sovereignty in Western societies as heritage of the French Revolution and its excesses. Body incarnates its own effects by means of paradoxical situations, wit and ambivalence. Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis yield useful clues to investigate the semiotic value of the flesh as well as revolutionary rhetoric and semantic denial. Robespierre’s fantasy of purity nourishes a Sadian-sadistic innocence. The condensation of low and high, purity and filth, discipline and disorder, theological and scatological elements, denounces a scattered social order dominated by perversion, ravaged by deception, exploitation and betrayal. Büchner’s clinical clear-eyed, autoptic analysis reaches beyond the idea of sovereignty to a perverted desire of mastery breaking out into violence and fanaticism. Considering the overabundant flesh the body becomes theery protagonist of the drama: the place of possession and exclusion, idolatry and cannibalism. What dominates is a pure, wasteful expenditure; autonomous and unlinking acts reject the Oedipal conflict. This entails the substitution of a personal law for the collective one thus suggesting that the history of the Western onto-theological tradition is the history of the sequestration of the life of the body into fetishes and the disavowal of creatureliness, as Paul Celan argues in The Meridian. Celan draws attention to the ethical questions raised by Lucile as a way of relating to otherness, i. e. to poetry as the very voice of each single creature

Fracture mechanics of pseudoelastic NiTi alloys: review of the research activities carried out at University of Calabria

This paper reports a brief review of the research activities on fracture mechanics of nickel-titaniumbased shape memory alloys carried out at University of Calabria. In fact, this class of metallic alloys show aunusual fracture response due to the reversible stress-induced and thermally phase transition mechanismsoccurring in the crack tip region as a consequence of the highly localized stresses. The paper illustrates the mainresults concerning numerical, analytical and experimental research activities carried out by using commercialNiTi based pseudoelastic alloys. Furthermore, the effect of several thermo-mechanical loading conditions onthe fracture properties of NiTi alloys are illustrated

Structural transitions in a NiTi alloy: a multistage loading-unload cycle

NiTi shape memory alloys (SMAs) are increasingly used in many engineering and medical applications, because they combine special functional properties, such as shape memory effect and pseudoelasticity, with good mechanical strength and biocompatibility. However, the microstructural changes associated with these functional properties are not yet completely known. In this work a NiTi pseudo-elastic alloy was investigated by means of X-ray diffraction in order to assess micro-structural transformations under mechanical uniaxial deformation. The structure after complete shape recovery have been compared with initial state

Absence of Phase Stiffness in the Quantum Rotor Phase Glass

We analyze here the consequence of local rotational-symmetry breaking in the quantum spin (or phase) glass state of the quantum random rotor model. By coupling the spin glass order parameter directly to a vector potential, we are able to compute whether the system is resilient (that is, possesses a phase stiffness) to a uniform rotation in the presence of random anisotropy. We show explicitly that the O(2) vector spin glass has no electromagnetic response indicative of a superconductor at mean-field and beyond, suggesting the absence of phase stiffness. This result confirms our earlier finding (PRL, {\bf 89}, 27001 (2002)) that the phase glass is metallic, due to the main contribution to the conductivity arising from fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter. In addition, our finding that the spin stiffness vanishes in the quantum rotor glass is consistent with the absence of a transverse stiffness in the Heisenberg spin glass found by Feigelman and Tsvelik (Sov. Phys. JETP, {\bf 50}, 1222 (1979).Comment: 8 pages, revised version with added references on the vanishing of the stiffness constant in the Heisenberg spin glas

Contribution of polymorphic variation of inositol hexakisphosphate kinase 3 (IP6K3) gene promoter to the susceptibility to late onset Alzheimer's disease

Maintenance of electric potential and synaptic transmission are energetically demanding tasks that neuronal metabolism must continually satisfy. Inability to fulfil these energy requirements leads to the development of neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease. A prominent feature of Alzheimer's disease is in fact neuronal glucose hypometabolism. Thus understanding the fine control of energetic metabolism might help to understand neurodegenerative disorders. Recent research has indicated that a novel class of signalling molecules, the inositol pyrophosphates, act as energy sensors. They are able to alter the balance between mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and glycolytic flux, ultimately affecting the cellular level of ATP. The neuronal inositol pyrophosphate synthesis relies on the activity of the neuron enriched inositol hexakisphosphate kinase 3 (IP6K3) enzyme. To verify an involvement of inositol pyrophosphate signalling in neurodegenerative disorders, we performed tagging single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis of the IP6K3 gene in patients with familial and sporadic late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). Two SNPs in the 5'-flanking promoter region of the IP6K3 gene were found to be associated with sporadic LOAD. Characterizing the functionality of the two polymorphisms by luciferase assay revealed that one of them (rs28607030) affects IP6K3 promoter activity, with the G allele showing an increased activity. As the same allele has a beneficial effect on disease risk, this may be related to upregulation of IP6K3 expression, with a consequent increase in inositol pyrophosphate synthesis. In conclusion, we provide the first evidence for a contribution of genetic variability in the IP6K3 gene to LOAD pathogenesis

Spin-Glass State in CuGa2O4\rm CuGa_2O_4

Magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, specific heat and positive muon spin relaxation (\musr) measurements have been used to characterize the magnetic ground-state of the spinel compound $\rm CuGa_2O_4$. We observe a spin-glass transition of the S=1/2 $\rm Cu^{2+}$ spins below $\rm T_f=2.5K$ characterized by a cusp in the susceptibility curve which suppressed when a magnetic field is applied. We show that the magnetization of $\rm CuGa_2O_4$ depends on the magnetic histo Well below $\rm T_f$, the muon signal resembles the dynamical Kubo-Toyabe expression reflecting that the spin freezing process in $\rm CuGa_2O_4$ results Gaussian distribution of the magnetic moments. By means of Monte-Carlo simulati we obtain the relevant exchange integrals between the $\rm Cu^{2+}$ spins in this compound.Comment: 6 pages, 16 figure

Reentrant Spin-Peierls Transition in Mg-Doped CuGeO_3

We report a synchrotron x-ray scattering study of the diluted spin-Peierls (SP) material Cu_{1-x}Mg_xGeO_3. In a recent paper we have shown that the SP dimerization attains long-range order only for x < x_c = 0.022(0.001). Here we report that the SP transition is reentrant in the vicinity of the critical concentration x_c. This is manifested by broadening of the SP dimerization superlattice peaks below the reentrance temperature, T_r, which may mean either the complete loss of the long-range SP order or the development of a short-range ordered component within the long-range ordered SP state. Marked hysteresis and very large relaxation times are found in the samples with Mg concentrations in the vicinity of x_c. The reentrant transition is likely related to the competing Neel transition which occurs at a temperature similar to T_r. We argue that impurity-induced competing interchain interactions play an essential role in these phenomena.Comment: 5 pages, 4 embedded eps figure

Finite-Size and surface effects in maghemite nanoparticles: Monte Carlo simulations

Finite-size and surface effects in fine particle systems are investigated by Monte Carlo simulation of a model of a $\gamma$-Fe$_2$O$_3$ (maghemite) single particle. Periodic boundary conditions have been used to simulate the bulk properties and the results compared with those for a spherical shaped particle with free boundaries to evidence the role played by the surface on the anomalous magnetic properties displayed by these systems at low temperatures. Several outcomes of the model are in qualitative agreement with the experimental findings. A reduction of the magnetic ordering temperature, spontaneous magnetization, and coercive field is observed as the particle size is decreased. Moreover, the hysteresis loops become elongated with high values of the differential susceptibility, resembling those from frustrated or disordered systems. These facts are consequence of the formation of a surface layer with higher degree of magnetic disorder than the core, which, for small sizes, dominates the magnetization processes of the particle. However, in contradiction with the assumptions of some authors, our model does not predict the freezing of the surface layer into a spin-glass-like state. The results indicate that magnetic disorder at the surface simply facilitates the thermal demagnetization of the particle at zero field, while the magnetization is increased at moderate fields, since surface disorder diminishes ferrimagnetic correlations within the particle. The change in shape of the hysteresis loops with the particle size demonstrates that the reversal mode is strongly influenced by the reduced atomic coordination and disorder at the surface.Comment: Twocolumn RevTex format. 19 pages, 15 Figures included. Submitted to Phys. Rev.

Nonlinear magnetic susceptibility and aging phenomena in reentrant ferromagnet: Cu0.2_{0.2}Co0.8_{0.8}Cl2_{2}-FeCl3_{3} graphite bi-intercalation compound

Linear and nonlinear dynamic properties of a reentrant ferromagnet Cu$_{0.2}$Co$_{0.8}$Cl$_{2}$-FeCl$_{3}$ graphite bi-intercalation compound are studied using AC and DC magnetic susceptibility. This compound undergoes successive phase transitions at the transition temperatures $T_{h}$ (= 16 K), $T_{c}$ (= 9.7 K), and $T_{RSG}$ (= 3.5 K). The static and dynamic behaviors of the reentrant spin glass phase below $T_{RSG}$ are characterized by those of normal spin glass phase with critical exponent $\beta$ = 0.57 $\pm$ 0.10, a dynamic critical exponent $x$ = 8.5 $\pm$ 1.8, and an exponent $p$ (= 1.55 $\pm$ 0.13) for the de Almeida -Thouless line. A prominent nonlinear susceptibility is observed between $T_{RSG}$ and $T_{c}$ and around $T_{h}$, suggesting a chaotic nature of the ferromagnetic phase ($T_{RSG} \leq T \leq T_{c}$) and the helical spin ordered phase ($T_{c} \leq T \leq T_{h}$). The aging phenomena are observed both in the RSG and FM phases, with the same qualitative features as in normal spin glasses. The aging of zero-field cooled magnetization indicates a drastic change of relaxation mechanism below and above $T_{RSG}$. The time dependence of the absorption $\chi^{\prime \prime}$ is described by a power law form ($\approx t^{-b^{\prime \prime}}$) in the ferromagnetic phase, where $b^{\prime \prime} \approx 0.074 \pm 0.016$ at $f$ = 0.05 Hz and $T$ = 7 K. No $\omega t$-scaling law for $\chi^{\prime \prime}$ [$\approx (\omega t)^{-b^{\prime \prime}}$] is observed.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, and 2 table