Human sociality in the times of the Covid-19 pandemic: A systematic examination of change in greetings.

Using multimodal conversation analysis this article examines embodied and tactile greetings in social interaction, documenting their change during the Covid-19 pandemic. Recognizing social interaction as foundational for human sociality, we consider greetings as a crucial normative, organizational, and ritual practice for mutually engaging in intersubjective action. Analyses use video recordings made in Switzerland (featuring (Swiss-)German and English as a lingua-franca), focusing on embodied greetings of acquainted people in public spaces at the age of Covid19-a historical moment in which physical proximity and contact are targeted by official measures restricting social interactions. Studying a range of tactile embodied greetings, the paper shows how they change from routine greetings to hesitated, suspended yet still completed ones, and to projected but resisted and refused ones. Furthermore, it reveals some 'new' practices of greeting (elbow/feetbumps, hugs-in-the-air) and their non-straightforward and accountable character, as well as how they sediment and normalize during the pandemic.

Dans le cadre de l'analyse conversationnelle multimodale, cet article se penche sur les salutations incarnées et tactiles dans l'interaction sociale, pour en documenter les changements observables durant la pandémie de Covid­19. En reconnaissant que l'interaction sociale a un rôle fondateur pour la socialité humaine, nous considérons les salutations comme des pratiques normatives, organisationnelles, et rituelles cruciales pour s'engager mutuellement dans l'action intersubjective. Les analyses proposées reposent sur des enregistrements vidéo effectués en Suisse (langues impliquées: Allemand, Suisse­Allemand, Anglais lingua franca), documentant des salutations incarnées entre interconnaissances dans les espaces publics à l'ère de la Covid­19­un moment historique durant lequel la proximité physique et le contact corporel sont la cible de mesures officielles restreignant les interactions sociales. En étudiant une variété de salutations incarnées tactiles, cette étude montre comment elles changent, passant de salutations routinières à des salutations hésitantes, suspendues, tout en continuant à être complétées, aboutissant à des salutations projetées, mais faisant l'objet de résistance et de refus. Enfin, l'étude montre l'émergence de quelques "nouvelles" pratiques de salutations (avec les pieds, les coudes, et des embrassades en l'air), leur caractère initialement non­évident, puis progressivement sédimenté et normalisé au fil de la pandémie.

Monolayers as models for supported catalysts: zirconium phosphonate films containing manganese(III) porphyrins.

Organized monolayer films of a manganese tetraphenylporphyrin have been prepared and used as supported oxidation catalysts. Manganese 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(tetrafluorophenyl-4'-octadecyloxyphosphonic acid) porphyrin (1) has been immobilized as a monolayer film by a combination of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) and self-assembled monolayer techniques that use zirconium phosphonate linkages to bind the molecule to the surface. Analysis by FTIR, XPS, UV-vis and polarized optical spectroscopy show that the films consist of noninteracting molecules effectively anchored and oriented nearly parallel to the surface. The monolayer films are stable to the solvent and temperature conditions needed to explore organic oxidations. The activity of films of 1 toward the epoxidation of cyclooctene using iodosylbenzene as the oxidant was compared to that of Manganese 5,10,15,20-tetrakis(pentafluorophenyl) porphyrin (2) and 1 under equivalent homogeneous conditions. The immobilized porphyrin 1 shows an enhanced activity relative to either homogeneous reaction. The main difference between 1 and 2 is the four alkyl phosphonate arms in 1 designed to incorporate the porphyrin within the films. The increased activity of immobilized 1 is a combination of the porphyrin structure, which prohibits the formation of mu-oxo dimers even in solution, and a change in conformation when anchored to the surface. The study demonstrates that careful monolayer studies can provide useful models for the design and study of supported molecular catalyst systems.