In the Western world of today, the swastika is practically exclusively associated with Nazism, but in reality it is an ancient religious symbol, used in a number of different cults, symbolizing ...different deities. The oldest finds so far have been made in Ukraine and are between twelve and fifteen thousand years old. About seven thousand years ago the symbol existed in present-day Iran and five thousand years ago it was frequently used in the Indus culture, later to occupy a prominent place as a symbol of luck and happiness in Hinduism and Jainism and also in Buddhism. It also occurred very early in Mesopotamia and was later taken over by Greek, Etruscan, Roman, Byzantine and Christian cultures. During the latter half of the 19th century in particular, its popularity as symbol of good luck grew steadily and a large number of different countries, companies, organizations and semi-religious societies adopted it in their seals, trademarks and icons. During the first decades of the 20th century, several quasi-religious movements with a pan-Germanic, “Aryan”, and nationalist orientation chose it for their blazons. In 1920, the swastika was selected as the symbol of the then newly formed Nazi party and in 1935 of Germany. In connection with the Nazi takeover in 1933, the Finnish art historian Lars-Ivar Ringbom wrote an article in which he questions the Nazis’ right to the swastika and their definition of its content. The present article reproduces Ringbom’s short text in extenso, commenting on and contrasting it with the now current Western way of seeing and defining the ancient sign.
A dilemma that the iconographer is often faced with when it comes to medieval imagery is what the fantastic hybrid animals actually represent. What are they? What do they mean? On the outer walls of ...the mid 11th century church of Vä, in north-eastern Scania, there are a number of sadly withered reliefs that may be interpreted as representing a number of different mythological animals with completely different meanings. One of them has usually been interpreted as either a dragon or a basilisk, but there are in fact a number of other, and at least as likely, alternatives. Based on historical sources and pictorial parallels, Near Eastern, European as well as local, it is argued that this relief can very well represent an amphisbaena or a simurgh, the latter with a theological meaning totally opposite to a dragon or basilisk. The simurgh, together with other mythical animals of ancient Persian origin, may well have been introduced into recently Christianised Medieval Denmark either through direct contacts with Byzantium, or via Italy and France, before appearing on at least two of the earliest high status stone churches (Lund and Vä), perhaps as a symbol of resurrection. Another intriguing motif is an Agnus Dei which, contrary to established iconography, shows the lamb holding two rods instead of one.
Anton Nilsson (1887-1989) est l’une des plus célèbres figures du mouvement ouvrier suédois, un militant de premier plan élevé au statut d’icône. Membre du Mouvement des jeunes socialistes dans la ...ville ouvrière de Malmö, il place une bombe sur le navire Amalthea, qui abritait 73 briseurs de grève anglais, dans le cadre d’un vaste conflit du travail impliquant les dockers des ports suédois. Il est condamné à mort, mais à la suite de nombreuses protestations, y compris internationales, sa peine est commuée en prison à vie. En 1917, après les troubles de la « révolution des pommes de terre » et l’élection du premier gouvernement social-démocrate/libéral, il est libéré à la faveur d’une amnistie. À la veille de la Saint-Jean 1919, Anton Nilsson décroche un permis international de piloter des avions et rejoint le jeune État soviétique, où il devient pilote dans l’Armée rouge. Toute sa vie il est resté un militant et, centenaire, il participait encore à la manifestation du 1er mai à Stockholm, où il s’était installé et où il est enterré.
Anton Nilsson (1887–1989) is one of the most famous people in the Swedish labour movement and a prominent activist with the status of an icon. He was a member of the Young Socialist movement in the working-class city of Malmö, he placed a bomb on the ship Amalthea, which housed 73 English strike breakers, in connection with an extensive dock worker conflict in the Swedish ports. Anton Nilsson was sentenced to death in a subsequent trial, but after extensive protests, also abroad, the death sentence was converted to life imprisonment. Following the “potato revolution” and as the first Social Democratic / Liberal government was elected, he was granted an amnesty in 1917 and released from captivity. On Midsummer's Eve 1919, Anton Nilsson took an international flight certificate and went to the young Soviet state to become a pilot in the Red Army. He remained an agitator throughout his life and participated as a centenarian in the First of May demonstration in Stockholm, where he then lived and later was also buried.
The analgesic effects of intraarticular morphine are controversial. To systematically evaluate the effects, we performed a review of the literature and a metaanalysis of the peripheral effects of ...morphine injected intraarticularly. Research databases were searched to identify articles in which peripheral analgesic effects of morphine were studied in patients undergoing arthroscopic knee procedures under local, regional, or general anesthesia. The review was performed on three issuesdoes morphine injected intraarticularly produce analgesia, is it a dose-dependent effect, and, if so, is the effect systemic or mediated via peripheral opioid receptors? Visual analog score (VAS) and analgesic consumption were studied during the early phase (0–2 h), intermediate phase (2–6 h), and late phase (6–24 h) postoperatively after injection of morphine intraarticularly. Metaanalysis of these effect variables was performed by the weighted-analysis technique, and the essential homogeneity assumption was tested by the χ test. Forty-five articles could be identified in which the effects of morphine were studied in a prospective, randomized manner, and 32 of these studies included a placebo control. Pooled analyses of data from 19 studies suitable for metaanalysis showed an improvement in analgesia after morphine compared with placebo in the order of 12–17 mm on the VAS during all three phases of treatment. Studies with high quality scores showed somewhat smaller improvements. Total analgesic consumption could not be analyzed statistically, but the number of studies showing decreased analgesic consumption or no differences between groups was identical (six and six). No clear dose-response effect was seen when VAS was used as a measure of pain, but it was seen when area under the curve was used as a measure of pain. A systemic effect of peripherally-injected morphine was not possible to exclude because of the very limited data available. We conclude from this metaanalysis that intraarticularly administered morphine has a definite but mild analgesic effect. It may be dose dependent, and a systemic effect cannot be completely excluded.
In the art collection of the Swedish Institute of Classical Studies in Rome, there are six “dalmålningar” (“dala” or “kurbits” paintings) whose origin, provenance and motifs have not previously been ...treated in a scholarly context. In fact, their existence is probably unknown to researchers in the field. Five of the paintings are genuine “dalmålningar”, i.e. painted tapestries made in the province of Dalecarlia (central Sweden), in the area around Lake Siljan, during the 18th and 19th centuries. Four of them are by one of the most famous Dala painters, Hjelt Per Persson (1821–1886), while the fifth is a “wedding plaque” the author of which cannot be determined. The sixth and largest painting is actually a Småland tapestry painted by Per i Duvhult (1787–1862), one of the foremost representatives of the Breared school, active in the borderland between the provinces of Småland and Halland (southern Sweden). All the paintings were made during the period 1836–1840. In the article, the individual works are dealt with in turn, their motifs described and their sometimes almost illegible and fragmentary texts interpreted. How and why the paintings ended up at the Swedish Rome Institute during the Second World War is something of a mystery and the article ends with a summary of what the author has been able to find out about their provenance – and a hypothetical reconstruction of their path to Rome.
Electrochromic tungsten oxide: the role of defects Niklasson, Gunnar A.; Berggren, Lars; Larsson, Anna-Lena
Solar energy materials and solar cells,
10/2004, Letnik:
84, Številka:
1
Journal Article, Conference Proceeding
Recenzirano
Tungsten oxide is today the most widely used electrochromic material, and the optical and transport properties have been extensively studied. The optical properties of polycrystalline tungsten oxide ...films are well understood in terms of polaron theory. However, there is still a lack of detailed physical understanding of the properties of amorphous tungsten oxide. In this paper we review the concept of defects in amorphous materials with a special emphasis on tungsten oxide coatings produced by sputter deposition. Different types of oxygen vacancies and interstitials are believed to be of importance depending on the deposition conditions of the films. Tungsten oxide exhibits a strong electron–phonon interaction, which makes the occurrence of doubly charged defects likely. Different defects give rise to transparent and coloured as-deposited amorphous tungsten oxide coatings. We also discuss the character of the localized electronic states giving rise to the electrochromic effect upon proton or lithium intercalation.
Title in English: Tubal-Kain and the Mysterious Blacksmith in Öja, Gotland. On the late-Gothic north portal of Öja Church in southern Gotland, a strange human figure lies stretched out on top of the ...colonnettes. Dressed in a long robe and a peculiar hat, with a full beard and long curly hair, he is holding a hammer and a tong, which in turn grips a horseshoe. That he is a blacksmith seems obvious, but nothing else indicates his identity. Who is he, what is he doing there, and when did he get there? In previous research this figure is habitually identified as St Eligius or St Dunstan, both patron saints of blacksmiths. On the basis of his attributes, position in the portal and the contemporary literary and iconographic context, especially the immensely popular Speculum humanae salvationis, the author reviews the grounds for this assumption and argues for a new solution to the question of the smith’s identity: Tubal Cain, the antediluvian inventor of the craft of smithery and working of iron. However, none of these identifications can be considered secure: it is quite possible that we are dealing with a portrait of a local chieftain or magnate whose prominent position is legitimized by the addition of saintly attributes.
"ICO 50 years! Past, present, future" is an overview of the journal's first half-century as a forum for Nordic iconographic research and collaboration.
Title in English: The Rise and Fall of the Zlatan Statue. On the Iconography of Destruction In the previous issue of ICO, published December 31, 2019, the repeated attacks on football star Zlatan ...Ibrahimović’s statue in Malmö were described, and to one of them especially a brief historical background was given: the sawing off of the statue’s nose. The attacks on the monument continued and culminated in January 2020, when the statue was sawn off at the ankles and toppled from its pedestal. The subsequent debate was characterized largely by both conceptual confusion and pure ignorance regarding the grounds, traditions and iconography of monument mutilation and destruction. In this article, the Zlatan statue is the starting and ending point for placing the attacks on statues in a larger cultural-historical context where different types of motives and strategies are exemplified, and where it is shown that precisely the elimination of the nose has an ancient and very specific meaning.
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