Empty Apartment Research Articles

Works by Andrii Levytskyi for the “Homage à trois” Project (Barcelona, Spain)

Andrii Levytskyi is a well-known Kyivan graphic artist, a recognized master of gravure printing (intaglio). The artist has been participating regularly in the “Homage à trois” (Tribute to Three) project, which takes place in Barcelona (Spain) on the initiative of the Duana de les Arts – AIDA International Association – since 2021. Only masters of graphic art can participate in the project. It should commemorate three literary figures on the occasion of their birthday anniversaries, and the artists should choose at least two of the three proposed personalities. Intaglio 2021, satisfying the conditions of the project, at the same time continues seamlessly the themes and motifs peculiar to Andrii Levytskyi’s heritage in general. Poem about a Henna Tree (Jean Lafontaine) is somewhat unexpected and paradoxical, but naturally connected with the artist’s favourite images of trees. In the Player the themes of confrontation, game, rivalry are developed. They are arisen, in particular, in the intaglio Motus Animi Continuus (2021). Three works of 2022, made in the computer design technique, are distinguished by a bright and at the same time elegant color solution. The artist is inspired by themes of the theater and, widely, carnival culture (Molière’s Mask), Japanese art (IchiyōHiguchi’s Stream). The work for the anniversary of the legendary German romantic Novalis (Ask Baron: Is Religion the Opium of the Peoples) is especially unexpected. In 2023, Andrii Levytskyi has returned to the intaglio technique again and at the same time abandoned color. The works dedicated to Federico García Lorca (At Five O’clock in the Afternoon) and Wisława Szymborska, winner of the Nobel Prize (Cat in an Empty Apartment), are the artist’s reflections on the theme of death, while the work Dream. My Ántonia (based on the novel by Willa Cather) softens their tragical essence. The Ukrainian artist’s works dedicated to Molière, Novalis and Willa Cather have been nominated and awarded by the organizers of “Homage à trois”. Taking part in the international artistic projects, and even more so winning in them, Ukrainian artists contribute actively to the creation of a positive image of the state. After all, the culture of Ukraine consists not only of the historical heritage, but also of the works of modern masters.

Effect of heatwaves on PM2.5 levels in apartments of low-income elderly population. A case study using low-cost air quality monitors

Heatwaves are known to result in negative health effects in general and especially in vulnerable populations. At the same time, the effect of high outdoor temperatures on indoor air quality is largely unknown. To start filling this knowledge gap, we recruited 24 seniors from 3 low-income housing sites in Elizabeth, NJ, to participate in a study, during which we deployed consumer-grade sensors in their apartments to monitor airborne particulate matter (PM2.5) and air temperature. Additionally, one empty apartment, used as a control, and an outdoor station were set up with the same type of sensors. Measurements were performed from July to September 2017. During this period, there were seven days when outdoor temperatures exceeded 90 °F (32 °C), our criterion for heatwave days.First, we found that the average hourly indoor PM2.5 levels varied among apartments and were greatly affected by the presence of smokers. During non-heatwave days, in apartments without smokers, the hourly median PM2.5 concentrations ranged from 4 μg/m3 to 12 μg/m3, while in apartments with smokers, the hourly median PM2.5 concentrations ranged from 14 μg/m3 to 90 μg/m3. More importantly, the indoor PM2.5 levels were higher (p < 0.05) during heatwave days. A statistically significant increase was observed for all apartments, regardless of the building site, presence of smokers, or type of air conditioning. Moreover, since human activity contributes to indoor PM2.5, we separated the data into an active period (6:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.) and the rest period (10:00 p.m. to the next day 6:00 a.m.); the PM2.5 increase during heatwaves was statistically significantly higher for both periods.Overall, our data suggest that higher ambient temperatures could be an important factor for indoor PM2.5 exposures. Future investigations should consider several exposure-modifying factors, such as the use of windows and AC, for a more accurate assessment of outdoor conditions affecting indoor exposures.

Real Estate Pictures: The Role of Furniture Preferences in Subjective Valuation

In real estate pictures, home staging, which is the temporary display of high-end furniture, is meant to positively impact the sales process for the involved parties: the broker, the seller and also the buyer. In this article we focus on the impact of home staging on the price aspect in this process. In our experimental design to isolate the effect of furniture on valuation, we show pictures with furniture to one group and those without furniture to the other group. The main task for both groups of students is to estimate the market value of an empty apartment. Additionally, they must state their preferences for furniture in an apartment. On aggregate, we do not find significant differences in market value estimates between the two conditions, which is in line with the recent literature. At subsets based on individually indicated preferences for furniture, we find two main differences: those in the group with lower indicated preferences for furniture do not adjust their value estimates in a second estimation task, where the presence of furniture is changed, while those in the second group adjust their value estimates in the second estimate, where the adjustments are significant with a magnitude of approximately 11% based on their preferred condition. We conclude that if a client indicates a high preference for furniture, then the presented furniture affects his or her perception of the property. Additionally, we monitor the dwell time, which is significantly longer for the furnished condition and is an indication of information reception.

Ivo van Hove and Almodóvar: Remixing The Human Voice

Ivo van Hove and Almodóvar: Remixing <i>The Human Voice</i>

Save the Cat

Save the Cat S. N. Rodriguez (bio) I stole a cat the same year my parents divorced. It happened a few months after my mother and I came home to an empty apartment. My father left my mother a fucking cake in the freezer—and nothing else. The boy was tall, and the kitten struggled in his hands as he held it over the second-floor balcony. I had just gotten off the school bus. I squinted my eyes under the cloudless blue sky and ran beneath a cluster of great oaks along our cracked, stuccoed digs. I looked up just as the boy tossed the meowing kitten over the railing. Before that moment, the last thing I saw thrown from a balcony was the cake. It was an ice cream cake, vanilla with pralines and cream. My mother’s favorite. On it were the letters DTA piped in red icing. A reference to one of my father’s everlasting mottos. The kitten plummeted, its limbs spread, smoky paws shielding itself from the approaching earth. I ran to the kitten, backpack bouncing. When my father came back that night to tell me goodbye before leaving us, my mother emerged from the apartment wielding the cake above her head. Her curly hair shook like serpents as she hurled it over the balcony down toward my laughing but retreating father. [End Page 33] The young cat stood dazed in the grass, eyes wide, heart racing, mouth open. I examined the fluffy gray feline and scooped her into my arms. “Pobrecita! Are you okay?” The boy shouted from his balcony, “Hey, Blanquita! Whatchu doin’? That’s my cat!” I always did what I was told like the good little soldier my father raised. Always focused on survival. Adapt and overcome. I was quiet. Always kept my head down. Always took shit from everyone for being different. “Not anymore!” I snapped. “You don’t deserve her.” “Don’t trust anyone, mamita. Remember that,” my father said, before kissing the top of my head and disappearing like a magician for months. As we left that dumbstruck boy, I stroked the kitten’s fur. We walked home to the mostly empty eggshell apartment. “We’ll have to think of a name for you, little cat.” She inched her chin high into the air and purred. We were going to be okay. [End Page 34] S. N. Rodriguez S. N. Rodriguez is a writer and photographer in Austin, Texas. She is a Writers’ League of Texas Fellow, and her work has appeared, or is forthcoming, in The Journal of Latina Critical Feminism, Blue Mesa Review, Southeastern Naturalist, and elsewhere. Copyright © 2022 River Teeth

Spatio-temporal variations and contextual factors of the supply of Airbnb in Rome. An initial investigation

This paper offers an analysis of the supply of Airbnb accommodation in Rome, one of the main tourist destinations in the world, the third-largest city in Europe, by the number of Airbnb listings. The aim is to focus on the recent spatial trend of Airbnb listings, including the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, and highlight the main housing and socioeconomic characteristics of the neighbourhoods associated with a strong presence of Airbnb listings. The study is developed with quantitative methods and spatial regression (spatial lag and spatial error using OLS as a benchmark), based on data collected from the Inside Airbnb and Tomslee websites. In the period 2014–2019, the listing trend in Rome has been increasing in absolute numbers. After the start of the pandemic, the trend became negative, and the decline of Airbnb offerings is more substantial for shared accommodation. Airbnb supply is related to the distance from the city centre, the average income of the area, empty apartments, singles and the share of foreign residents coming from high-income countries. A signal of spatial diffusion of Airbnb listings emerges in the coastal area, even if they are increasingly concentrated in the historic centre, where there is a monoculture of short-term renting.

Lift Energy Storage Technology: A solution for decentralized urban energy storage

The world is undergoing a rapid energy transformation dominated by growing capacities of renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar power. The intrinsic variable nature of such renewable energy sources calls for affordable energy storage solutions. This paper proposes using lifts and empty apartments in tall buildings to store energy. Lift Energy Storage Technology (LEST) is a gravitational-based storage solution. Energy is stored by lifting wet sand containers or other high-density materials, transported remotely in and out of the lift with autonomous trailer devices. The system requires empty spaces on the top and bottom of the building. An existing lift can be used to transport the containers from the lower apartments to the upper apartments to store energy and from the upper apartments to the lower apartments to generate electricity. The installed storage capacity cost is estimated at 21 to 128 USD/kWh, depending on the height of the building. LEST is particularly interesting for providing decentralized ancillary and energy storage services with daily to weekly energy storage cycles. The global potential for the technology is focused on large cities with high-rise buildings and is estimated to be around 30 to 300 GWh.

Реэвакуация населения в Москву и жилищная проблема, 1942–1948 гг.

Abstract This article examines the housing problem of the Soviet civilians who returned from the evacuation to Moscow during the World War II and immediately after it. The reevacuation began in 1942 after the successful counteroffensive of the Red Army near Moscow. It was a priority for the Soviet government to restore the economy of the capital and return workers to the city. However, thousands of square meters of housing in Moscow rendered uninhabitable during the war for different reasons. Based mainly on the archival sources, especially on court materials, this paper examines the magnitude of the housing problem in Moscow and highlights its legal and social aspects. I argue that the authorities at first protected the apartments of evacuees, but then they began to cancel the rights of people to housing and move new residents into the empty apartments. This situation forced reevacuees to start judicial proceedings, which often ended not in their favor.

‘Homeless in their own home’: the case of home-deprived single mothers

Abstract Institutional statistics and academic research in Israel tend to present a partial description of the gender characteristics of the problem of Israeli homelessness. They often focus on the manifest aspect of the phenomenon, which essentially characterizes homelessness as men living on the streets. By doing so, they ignore its hidden aspect, especially its feminine characteristics. Based on 10 interviews that I conducted with Jewish and Arab women, who are home-deprived single mothers, the article reveals how these women, who have some kind of roof over their heads, have living arrangements that are characterized by a lack of stability and security. The women engage in a number of strategies, which include, for example: living with family and friends, constantly moving from one apartment to another, refusing to evacuate, and squatting in empty apartments, which make them invisible homeless, hidden from the public eye. The analysis of the women's coping strategies reveals that the women are not passive objects of the hegemonic discourse, but rather active members of society. The women engage in resistance and redefine the boundaries of the social problem of homelessness, in order to meet their parental obligations and ensure that their children will have a roof over their heads. Keywords: hidden homelessness; women; feminism; social problem, resistance, Israel

De quoi aimer vivre by Fatou Diome

Reviewed by: De quoi aimer vivre by Fatou Diome Rosemary Haskell Fatou Diome De quoi aimer vivre Paris. Editions Albin Michel. 2021. 240 pages. “AH, LOOK AT all the lonely people!” The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” refrain captures the essence of Senegalese writer Fatou Diome’s 2021 short-story collection De quoi aimer vivre (Enough to make us love life). It is peppered with characters on the edge of society, longing for human connection and fulfillment. Their lonely exclusion is frequently explained through their remembered pasts, while the book’s title unites the stories’ characters: we must all have something that makes us want to live. Bread alone is not enough. Disabled Andy, D. D. the washed-up boxer, divorced Octave, refugee Samira, the poor Senegalese fishing family: all frequent the typically Diomien liminal or marginal spaces, such as the café, the empty apartment, the mountain cabin, and the coastal fringe. Varying her trademark focus on the Black woman migrant, Diome still pursues her key themes of the quest for personal fulfillment and social integration. All but two of the stories are set in Europe, the exceptions returning us to Senegal with “La Marmite du Pêcheur” (The fisherman’s stewpot) and to the beloved navigator grandfather, represented here by “Le Vieil Homme sur la Barque” (The old man on the boat), a 2010 story. The two opening pieces stamp the collection’s identity. “Une Fenêtre pour les Anges I – Présence, II – Absence” (A window for angels: I – presence, II – absence) richly configure the fragile relationship between Andy, a disabled white French man and the Black Senegalese woman narrator, charting the ultimately successful achievement of unconventional friendship while illuminating Andy’s experiences of disability as he counters others’ repulsion with resilience and forgiveness. “Le Bleu de la Roya” (Roya’s blue) and “Le Vieil Homme sur la Barque” explore the figure of the man-savior: the Italian shepherd shelters the Libyan refugee, and the fisher-grandfather guides the little Senegalese girl—in the present and in memory. A welcome reprint of a 2002 story, “Ports de Folie” (Ports of madness), traces a woman’s obsessive dramatization of places where her absent lover is traveling. “Indémodable!” (Timeless), whose talking dress recalls the speaking objects of Diome’s novel Kétala, also enacts the longing for the absent beloved. De quoi aimer vivre reminds us of the strengths of Diome’s earliest work, the 1990 short-story collection La Préférence Nationale (National preference). This 2021 volume illustrates how the novelist flourishes within the story genre’s tighter formal framework. Rosemary Haskell Elon University Copyright © 2022 World Literature Today and the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma

The situatedness of meaning construction in Wisława Szymborska’s “Cat in an Empty Apartment”

Abstract So far the cognitively-oriented study of literature has largely missed out on the cognitive conception of situatedness, which holds that human mental activity should be seen through the lens of its grounding in the physical, social and cultural milieu of the individual. Accordingly, the article shows the value of this approach in a Cognitive Linguistic analysis of Wisława Szymborska’s poem “Cat in an Empty Apartment”, setting out the ways in which situatedness underlies dynamic meaning construction in the production and reception of the work, giving rise to the singularity (Attridge 2004. The singularity of literature. London-New York: Routledge) of the poem. The paper concludes that situatedness can illuminate how the interplay of cognitive, linguistic, social and cultural factors might be brought to bear on the singularity of a literary work.

Jak (wy)tłumaczyć punkt widzenia kota?

How to Explain a Cat’s Viewpoint? (On Russian Translations of Wisława Szymborska’s Poem Cat in an Empty Apartment)&#x0D; This paper deals with some difficulties related to Russian translations of Wisława Szymborska’s poem Cat in an empty apartment. The question of presence and visibility of lyrical subject in the original text and its translations is one of the major issues presented in the article. An analysis of N. Astafiewa’s and N. Gorbaniewska’s tranlations has been conducted with special respect to the agentivity phenomenon on the level of verb forms. Linguistic categorization has also been mentioned. The author tries to present how differently Russian translators, who perform their typical role of poetry translators, strive for faithfulness of form and content of the original text and in what manner their solutions can influence the lyrical subject’s viewpoint.

Finding healing through animal companionship in Japanese animal cafés

Animal cafés—businesses in which customers pay by the hour to have a drink and relax in a space filled with cats, rabbits or other animals—began to appear in Japan in...

The Robotic Imaginary: The Human and the Price of Dehumanized Labor by Jennifer Rhee

655 BOOKS IN REVIEW This concern aside, Reddell’s book is a highly informative and thoughtprovoking read. It is a wonderful contribution to sf cinema, cinematic sound analysis, and, more generally, an understanding of the sf cinematic experience in various periods and countries. Reddell deftly articulates the profound intellectual and experimental dynamics that make up what is often considered to be a secondary element of the cinematic experience. Further, he greatly expands the examination of how, in concert with broader technological forces, the explorative and innovative nature of sound technologies circumscribes conceptions of possible futures and of potential interactions with the indeterminacy of the alien and of outer space.—Dylan Cree, Concordia University Distance and Intimacy. Jennifer Rhee. The Robotic Imaginary: The Human and the Price of Dehumanized Labor. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2018. 240pp. $108 hc, $27 pbk. The mechanisms we humans use officially and circumstantially to judge another’s humanness emerge from the realms of care work, domestic work, and emotional labor. Such work tends to operate under two interwoven rules: distance and intimacy. Both must be present to counterweigh the work of the healthcare assistant, the childcare provider, or the mental health counselor. Too little contact and we accuse our caregivers of bitter medicine; too much and we might feel the need to reciprocate the care we have received. Another way to frame the central problematic here might be to suggest that whoever gets to be the one in need is the one we describe as human. Now imagine that the caregiver is a robot giving off an electric hum and emoting according to cybernetic protocols. Jennifer Rhee’s The Robotic Imaginary explores the human as a conceptual category in search of the mechanisms of humanness and dehumanization. The book introduces many robots across its four chapters. Readers will meet ELIZA. Designed by Jospeh Weizenbaum in 1966, this screen-interface AI was used to emulate a therapist. It would first ask leading questions and later reference past user inputs to perform conversational acuity (33-37). Readers will meet Shakey, a robot designed by a team led by Nils Nilsson at the Stanford Research Institute between 1966 and 1972. Shakey uses a programmed map of a more-orless empty apartment along with basic sensory input to navigate. Shakey malfunctioned often and was a very early prototype for the robotic vacuum (7075 ). Readers will also meet Kismet, a robotic head programmed to learn from conversational inputs. Kismet’s speech patterns, inquisitiveness, and appearance are all designed so that conversation partners will underestimate the robot and treat it as a child, mentee, or dependant (101-105). The pattern of introducing uniquely likable robots designed for care, domestic, and emotional labor stops when the book returns in the fourth chapter to the subject with which it opens: drones. Rhee begins her study by comparing the dehumanizing experience of Yemenis living under the threat of drone strikes with a related yet distinct manner of dehumanization exhibited by drone operators in the United States. Rhee’s epigraphs include a statement by Yemeni Ezzaldeen Tuaiman, “They’re going to kill me next,” beside another made by drone operator Michael Haas, “Ever step 656 SCIENCE FICTION STUDIES, VOLUME 46 (2019) on ants and never give it another thought?” (1). Here two forms of dehumanization have taken effect, mediated by drone ballistics, flight tech, hardware, and software. Such dynamics are taken up in great detail in “Dying,” the book’s fourth chapter. But first Rhee offers a thoroughgoing elaboration of the cultural history of robotics and artificial intelligence, interspersed with excursions into robot aesthetics and cybernetic art. Rhee offers much more than a cultural history of robotics. The book focuses on history, but it does so in order to attend to the robotic imaginary, which Rhee defines as “the shifting inscriptions of humanness and dehumanizing erasures evoked by robots” (5). Robots call to mind certain figurations of both the human and the inhuman. For Rhee, the work of the robotic imaginary is simultaneously about forming humanizing connections between otherwise differentiated entities and dehumanizing divisions between otherwise similar entities. The robotic imaginary operates in the realm of metaphor and anti-metaphor, and such connections and disconnections...

"The Written World” - Conceptions of the origins, properties and uses of literature

Inspired by such imaginative works as Alan Lightmans Einstein’s Dreams and Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, “The Written World” is a series of descriptive vignettes paying homage to literature itself. In an office in an ambiguous high school, an English teacher with hopeful dreams of becoming a published author tries to escape the mundane life of staying late to mark essays before returning home to an empty apartment. He reminisces about the once promising days of his university undergrad years and his mind wanders to a conversation he had in an English class one year about the different meanings of literature: the different ways in which to look at literature and the different metaphors that surround literature. “In a moment’s lapse of inspiration” (“The Written World”) the teacher writes at the top of a page: “Conceptions of the Origins, Properties and Uses of Literature” and begins to record his short vignettes. “The Written World” presents literature in many different styles. From the metaphorical tale of a pregnant woman giving birth to a book, to the dark story of a literary orphanage where the city’s discarded and unwanted literature is kept. From the absurd tale of literature being the only chew toy suitable for dogs to the romantic story of a young man who finds and loses love through literature. Behind the text lies such ideas as “what does it mean to be an author?” “Why do we read?” “Why do we discuss literature with others?” and “What inspires one to write?”20

Sorting through Neoliberal Variations of Ghost Cities in China

Since 1978, the Chinese central government has undertaken a series of market-oriented policy reforms which has led to responsibility for urban development shifting from central government to the local level, i.e., the provincial, prefectural city and district governments. As a result, local district governments in China’s larger cities have become key players driving economic development through an intensive process of entrepreneurial urbanization (where markets drive urban policy). These urban projects are best characterized as property-led, encouraged by neoliberal policies such as government support for land-based urban growth coalitions and property speculation. Based on local government planning and infrastructure development, this process has led to several newly built districts or towns. However, they have become ghost cities due to their lack of inhabitants and empty apartment units (apartment units are often purchased as part of an investment portfolio rather than as primary residences). This paper will unpack economic mechanisms and government motivations behind three iterations of ghost cities, to explore how local governments interact with central government as well as with property developers to expand urbanization. We examine three cases, the distinct urban contexts of Shanghai Thames town, Ordos, and Kunming (reflecting suburban tourism; debt-financed urbanism; and pro-growth strategic urbanism respectively) – to examine the variations across ghost cities in China (both in terms of neoliberal mechanisms and its outcomes).

Impressionist Interiors

We associate the Impressionists — apart from Degas — primarily with the ‘out-of-doors’. Monet famously called his ‘studio’ nature itself. This catalogue, however, puts ‘indoors’ firmly in the picture too. Citing Mallarmé's 1876 comment that ‘the chief part of modern existence is passed indoors’, McLean notes how Haussmann's transformations made Paris a city of ‘modern apartment living’ (p. 12); the ‘interior’, in this sense, was contemporary life, the radical new theme adopted by the Impressionists. The exhibition that the catalogue accompanied naturally included some of Degas's works, as well as a lively sketch for Manet's famous Bar aux Folies-Bergère. Prominent too, however, were less familiar images, such as Monet's early Intérieur après dîner, whose subtle simplicity speaks of the ‘rediscovery’ of Vermeer at the period; and Henri Gervex's smoke-filled Scène de café à Paris. Extending recent interest in international Impressionism, several non-French works were also shown, such as the Belgian Louis-Joseph Anthonissen's view of an ironing workshop at Trouville, with its sailors' garments hanging amidst a haze of steam and sunshine. The catalogue provides perceptive and informative entries for these and all the other works from the exhibition, together with two thought-provoking thematic essays. The first, ‘Threshold Space’ by Hollis Clayson, shows how Impressionist interiors were typically permeable, even ambiguous, with windows, balconies, or doors linking outdoor and indoor worlds, so that Caillebotte's Jeune Homme à la fenêtre, for example, recalls Baudelaire's flâneur, who is ‘in the city without being of it’ (p. 21). Suzanne Singletary's essay on ‘Men “At Home”’ in turn reveals how the traditional gendering of private space as ‘feminine’ and public space as ‘masculine’ was frequently subverted in Impressionism. Edmond Duranty's 1876 defence of Impressionism, with its maxim that the empty apartment should reveal ‘the character and habits of its occupant’ (p. 12), is clearly relevant to these ideas, but an impressive range of wider literary and historical references is also cited. These show that ‘interiority’ — the expression of an inner state of mind — was as important in Impressionism as specific ‘interiors’. Singletary, for example, relates Gauguin's Intérieur du peintre, Paris, rue Carcel, with its figures listening to music, not only to the Wagnerian Gesamtkunstwerk, but also to Gautier's correlation of mood, figure, and object. Clayson notes how the ‘complex circuitry of connection and separation’ (p. 23) in Manet's Intérieur à Arcachon, with its contrasted male and female ‘zones’ and distant sea view, reflects the anxieties of his refuge from Paris during the Franco-Prussian War. Because the essays concentrate mainly on the 1870s and 1880s, the years of the Impressionists' group exhibitions, it is left to the reader to make bridges from them to the later works in the Dublin exhibition, such as Bonnard's glowing Déjeuner and Vuillard's intimiste interiors. However, the catalogue overall provides a most insightful and welcome contribution to the ongoing reappraisal of Impressionism as an art concerned with meaning as well as with style, and will surely become a standard reference source.

Detection of Legionella by quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) for monitoring and risk assessment

BackgroundCulture and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assays for the detection of Legionella were compared on samples from a residential area before and after two interventions. A total of 84 samples were collected from shower hoses and taps as first flush samples and at constant temperature. Samples were grouped according to the origin of the sample, a) circulation water b) water from empty apartments c) water from shower hoses. The aims were to investigate the usefulness of qPCR compared to culture for monitoring remedial actions for elimination of Legionella bacteria and as a tool for risk assessment.ResultsIn water collected from the apartments Legionella spp were detected by qPCR in the concentration range from LOQ to 9.6*105GU/L while L. pneumophila were detected in a range from LOQ to 6.8*105 GU/L. By culturing, the legionellae were detected in the range from below detection limit (> 10 CFU/L) to 1.6*106 CFU/L. In circulating water and in first flush water from shower hoses, culture and qPCR showed the same tendencies. The overall correlation between the bacteria number detected by culture and the two developed qPCR assays (L. spp and L. pneumophila) was relatively poor (r2 = 0.31 for culture and Legionella spp. assay, r2 = 0.20 for culture and L. pneumophila assay).ConclusionDetection by qPCR was suitable for monitoring changes in the concentration of Legionella but the precise determination of bacteria is difficult. Risk assessment by qPCR only on samples without any background information regarding treatment, timing, etc is dubious. However, the rapid detection by qPCR of high concentrations of Legionella - especially Legionella pneumophila - is valuable as an indicator of risk, although it may be false positive compared to culture results. On the other hand, the detection of a low number of bacteria by qPCR is a strong indication for the absence of risk.

Inassouvies, nos vies by Fatou Diome

novel is one of interwoven secrets and searching: for identities, miss ing loved ones, self-esteem, and the solution to mysteries. Kathleen McNerney West Virgnia University Fatou Diome. Inassouvies, nos vies. Paris. Flammarion. 2008. 271 pages. 19. isbn978-2-0812-1353-1 The latest novel by the author of Le Venire de l'Atlantique (2003; see WLT, September 2004, 83) and Ketala (2006) is set in Strasbourg, where Fatou Diome has been living since she left Senegal in 1994. The narra tive is based on a plot device that has both literary and cinematic ante cedents: the narrator, Betty, is fasci nated by the lives she surreptitiously observes through the windows of the apartment building situated across the street from where she lives. In fact, this apparently solitary young woman refers to herself as "Betty la Loupe" (magnifyingglass), describ ing in detail the results of her daily periods of scrutiny to her readers. A mixture of voyeurism and soci ological observation, her curiosity leads her to focus on an old woman who lives by herself, who seems to lead an active, independent life, and whom Betty decides to name Felicite. The two women sometimes cross paths in the street, on the way to neighborhood shops, but Betty's attempts tomake contactwith the object ofher inquisitive gaze remain ineffectual. It is when Felicite is shipped off to a nursing home by insensitive relatives thatBettydecides to call on the now-embittered senior citizen. The initially awkward encounter between the younger African narra tor and the older French retiree soon becomes an unusual but real friend ship,which allows both women to reveal something about their back grounds and to share stories about Felicitas former neighbors. Predict ably, their cross-cultural connec tionwill eventually be cut shortby Felicitas death. Shocked by theway inwhich the old woman had been abandoned by her relatives, Betty recalls the loss of those who were important in her own life. Increas ingly depressed, she "disappears," leaving onlywords andmusic inher empty apartment. The narration is frequently punctuated by exclamations similar to the title ("our lives are unsatisfied, unappeased") with the narrator/ magnifying glass emphasizing that there is always some type of empti ness at theheart of every individual existence. This form of literary rep etition functions as amusical refrain, intensifiedby the references to the kora, a twenty-one-string instrument used byWest African griots.Diome's authorial voice is often heard com menting on the storylineor provid ing asides on various social or politi cal issues. Some of these tangents degenerate into ranting sessions that detract from the novel's exception ally high stylistic level and should have been removed at the editing stage. A central theme is the differ ence between African and European attitudes toward elders. Diome, who was raised by her grandmother, con trasts their traditionally respected place inAfrican communities with the European practice of isolating old people within specialized insti tutions. For Diome, this form of internal banishment not only pun ishes thosewho deserve dignitydur ing their finalyears, itdeprives the following generations of theknowl edge and stories accumulated by elders.Whether or not this lack of generational division is still char acteristic of increasingly urbanized African societies, Fatou Diome's keenly perceptive novel resonates with a strong, clear voice. EdwardOusselin WesternWashington University Jean Echenoz. Courir. Paris. Minuit. 2008. 142 pages. 13.50. isbn978-2 7073-2048-3 The long-distance runner, we are often told, is a lonely figure. Yet "Emile," the protagonist of Jean Echenoz's latest novel, does not seem to fitthat mold. Though by no means a backslapper, he nonetheless functions well enough among oth ers, becoming, eventually, not only a productive but also a revered mem ber ofhis society.By thesame token, Echenoz's book does not quite fitthe mold thatwe usually imagine for the novel. Like Ravel (2006),which immediately precedes it in Eche noz's oeuvre, it is slightly askew with regard to theconventions of the genre, leaning distinctly once again toward biography. For Echenoz's "Emile" turns out to be the Czech athlete Emil Z?topek (1922-2000), who famously came to dominate long-distance running during the mid-twentieth century. His preemi nence was such that he...

Courir by Jean Echenoz

novel is one of interwoven secrets and searching: for identities, miss ing loved ones, self-esteem, and the solution to mysteries. Kathleen McNerney West Virgnia University Fatou Diome. Inassouvies, nos vies. Paris. Flammarion. 2008. 271 pages. 19. isbn978-2-0812-1353-1 The latest novel by the author of Le Venire de l'Atlantique (2003; see WLT, September 2004, 83) and Ketala (2006) is set in Strasbourg, where Fatou Diome has been living since she left Senegal in 1994. The narra tive is based on a plot device that has both literary and cinematic ante cedents: the narrator, Betty, is fasci nated by the lives she surreptitiously observes through the windows of the apartment building situated across the street from where she lives. In fact, this apparently solitary young woman refers to herself as "Betty la Loupe" (magnifyingglass), describ ing in detail the results of her daily periods of scrutiny to her readers. A mixture of voyeurism and soci ological observation, her curiosity leads her to focus on an old woman who lives by herself, who seems to lead an active, independent life, and whom Betty decides to name Felicite. The two women sometimes cross paths in the street, on the way to neighborhood shops, but Betty's attempts tomake contactwith the object ofher inquisitive gaze remain ineffectual. It is when Felicite is shipped off to a nursing home by insensitive relatives thatBettydecides to call on the now-embittered senior citizen. The initially awkward encounter between the younger African narra tor and the older French retiree soon becomes an unusual but real friend ship,which allows both women to reveal something about their back grounds and to share stories about Felicitas former neighbors. Predict ably, their cross-cultural connec tionwill eventually be cut shortby Felicitas death. Shocked by theway inwhich the old woman had been abandoned by her relatives, Betty recalls the loss of those who were important in her own life. Increas ingly depressed, she "disappears," leaving onlywords andmusic inher empty apartment. The narration is frequently punctuated by exclamations similar to the title ("our lives are unsatisfied, unappeased") with the narrator/ magnifying glass emphasizing that there is always some type of empti ness at theheart of every individual existence. This form of literary rep etition functions as amusical refrain, intensifiedby the references to the kora, a twenty-one-string instrument used byWest African griots.Diome's authorial voice is often heard com menting on the storylineor provid ing asides on various social or politi cal issues. Some of these tangents degenerate into ranting sessions that detract from the novel's exception ally high stylistic level and should have been removed at the editing stage. A central theme is the differ ence between African and European attitudes toward elders. Diome, who was raised by her grandmother, con trasts their traditionally respected place inAfrican communities with the European practice of isolating old people within specialized insti tutions. For Diome, this form of internal banishment not only pun ishes thosewho deserve dignitydur ing their finalyears, itdeprives the following generations of theknowl edge and stories accumulated by elders.Whether or not this lack of generational division is still char acteristic of increasingly urbanized African societies, Fatou Diome's keenly perceptive novel resonates with a strong, clear voice. EdwardOusselin WesternWashington University Jean Echenoz. Courir. Paris. Minuit. 2008. 142 pages. 13.50. isbn978-2 7073-2048-3 The long-distance runner, we are often told, is a lonely figure. Yet "Emile," the protagonist of Jean Echenoz's latest novel, does not seem to fitthat mold. Though by no means a backslapper, he nonetheless functions well enough among oth ers, becoming, eventually, not only a productive but also a revered mem ber ofhis society.By thesame token, Echenoz's book does not quite fitthe mold thatwe usually imagine for the novel. Like Ravel (2006),which immediately precedes it in Eche noz's oeuvre, it is slightly askew with regard to theconventions of the genre, leaning distinctly once again toward biography. For Echenoz's "Emile" turns out to be the Czech athlete Emil Z?topek (1922-2000), who famously came to dominate long-distance running during the mid-twentieth century. His preemi nence was such that he...