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Once the “popular plaything of Realpolitiker” the doctrine of rebus sic stantibus post the 1969 VCLT is often described as an objective rule by which, on grounds of equity and justice, a fundamental change of circumstances may be invoked as a ground for termination. Yet recent practice from States such as Ecuador, Russia, Denmark and the United Kingdom suggests that it is returning with a new livery. They point to an understanding based on vital States’ interests––a view popular among scholars such as Erich Kaufmann at the beginning of the last century.
This article explores an instructive case of translation critique against the background of the rise of Zionism in Europe at the turn of the previous century. It seeks to answer the question: Why did David Frishman, one of the most prolific Hebrew writers and translators of the late 1890s and early 1900s, criticize Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Russian translation of Hayim Nahman Bialik’s Hebrew poems? Both Bialik and Jabotinsky were major figures in the field of Hebrew culture and Zionist politics in the early 1900s, while Frishman generally shunned partisan activism and consistently presented himself as devoted solely to literature. Frishman perceived literature, nevertheless, as a political arena, viewing translation, in particular, as a locus of ideological debate. Writing from the viewpoint of a political minority at a time in which the Hebrew translation industry in Europe gained momentum, Frishman deemed translation a tool for cementing cultural hierarchies. He anticipated later analyses of the act and products of translation as reflective of intercultural tensions. The article suggests, more specifically, that it was Frishman’s view of the Hebrew Bible that informed his “avant-garde” stance on translation.
Accusative Unaccusatives
(2019)
The importance of cryptic diversity in rotifers is well understood regarding its ecological consequences, but there remains an in depth comprehension of the underlying molecular mechanisms and forces driving speciation. Temperature has been found several times to affect species spatio-temporal distribution and organisms’ performance, but we lack information on the mechanisms that provide thermal tolerance to rotifers. High cryptic diversity was found recently in the freshwater rotifer “Brachionus calyciflorus”, showing that the complex comprises at least four species: B. calyciflorus sensu stricto (s.s.), B. fernandoi, B. dorcas, and B. elevatus. The temporal succession among species which have been observed in sympatry led to the idea that temperature might play a crucial role in species differentiation.
The central aim of this study was to unravel differences in thermal tolerance between species of the former B. calyciflorus species complex by comparing phenotypic and gene expression responses. More specifically, I used the critical maximum temperature as a proxy for inter-species differences in heat-tolerance; this was modeled as a bi-dimensional phenotypic trait taking into consideration the intention and the duration of heat stress. Significant differences on heat-tolerance between species were detected, with B. calyciflorus s.s. being able to tolerate higher temperatures than B. fernandoi.
Based on evidence of within species neutral genetic variation, I further examined adaptive genetic variability within two different mtDNA lineages of the heat tolerant B. calyciflorus s.s. to identify SNPs and genes under selection that might reflect their adaptive history. These analyses did not reveal adaptive genetic variation related to heat, however, they show putatively adaptive genetic variation which may reflect local adaptation. Functional enrichment of putatively positively selected genes revealed signals of adaptation in genes related to “lipid metabolism”, “xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism” and “sensory system”, comprising candidate genes which can be utilized in studies on local adaptation. An absence of genetically-based differences in thermal adaptation between the two mtDNA lineages, together with our knowledge that B. calyciflorus s.s. can withstand a broad range of temperatures, led to the idea to further investigate shared transcriptomic responses to long-term exposure to high and low temperatures regimes. With this, I identified candidate genes that are involved in the response to temperature imposed stress. Lastly, I used comparative transcriptomics to examine responses to imposed heat-stress in heat-tolerant and heat-sensitive Brachionus species. I found considerably different patterns of gene expression in the two species. Most striking are patterns of expression regarding the heat shock proteins (hsps) between the two species. In the heat-tolerant, B. calyciflorus s.s., significant up-regulation of hsps at low temperatures was indicative of a stress response at the cooler end of the temperature regimes tested here. In contrast, in the heat-sensitive B. fernandoi, hsps generally exhibited up-regulation of these genes along with rising temperatures. Overall, identification of differences in expression of genes suggests suppression of protein biosynthesis to be a mechanism to increase thermal tolerance. Observed patterns in population growth are correlated with the hsp gene expression differences, indicating that this physiological stress response is indeed related to phenotypic life history performance.
In a previously published article in HIN under the title of “Eduard Dorsch and his unpublished poem on the occasion of Humboldt’s 100th birthday,” I elaborated on Dorsch’s poem that was read in Detroit in front of a German-American audience on Sept. 14, 1869, a day widely celebrated in the US in honor of Humboldt. Although it was not surprising that Dorsch wrote the occasional poem in the first place given his affinities with Humboldt’s world of thought, a discovery of a second occasional poem upon further research in Dorsch’s voluminous papers was indeed unexpected, in this case read on the same date in Monroe, Michigan. Although there are a number of similarities between the Detroit and Monroe versions, there are enough differences that warrant this addendum to my original article.
Address on the opening of the Alexander von Humboldt Season
in Quito, Ecuador, on 13 February 2019
(2019)
Bienenfresserortungsversuch
(2019)
Expanding public or publicly subsidized childcare has been a top social policy priority in many industrialized countries. It is supposed to increase fertility, promote children’s development and enhance mothers’ labor market attachment. In this paper, we analyze the causal effect of one of the largest expansions of subsidized childcare for children up to three years among industrialized countries on the employment of mothers in Germany. Identification is based on spatial and temporal variation in the expansion of publicly subsidized childcare triggered by two comprehensive childcare policy reforms. The empirical analysis is based on the German Microcensus that is matched to county level data on childcare availability. Based on our preferred specification which includes time and county fixed effects we find that an increase in childcare slots by one percentage point increases mothers’ labor market participation rate by 0.2 percentage points. The overall increase in employment is explained by the rise in part-time employment with relatively long hours (20-35 hours per week). We do not find a change in full-time employment or lower part-time employment that is causally related to the childcare expansion. The effect is almost entirely driven by mothers with medium-level qualifications. Mothers with low education levels do not profit from this reform calling for a stronger policy focus on particularly disadvantaged groups in coming years.