@phdthesis{Paraskevopoulou2019, author = {Paraskevopoulou, Sofia}, title = {Adaptive genetic variation and responses to thermal stress in brachionid rotifers}, pages = {IV, 177}, year = {2019}, abstract = {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.}, language = {en} } @techreport{Pellet2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Pellet, Alain}, title = {Values and Power Relations - The "Disillusionment" of International Law?}, series = {KFG Working Paper Series}, journal = {KFG Working Paper Series}, number = {34}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43581}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-435819}, pages = {15}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This paper - which is based on the Thomas Franck Lecture held by the author at Humboldt University Berlin on 13 May 2019 - argues that the most likely development of international to be expected will be the coexistence of two "legal worlds". On the one hand, an inter-State law brutally regulating political relations between human groups whitewashed by nationalism; on the other hand, a transnational or "a-national" law regulating economic relations between private as well as public interests. Further, the paper argues that there are two obvious victims - of very different nature - of this foreseeable evolution: the human being on the one hand, the certainty and effectiveness of the rule of law itself on the other hand.}, language = {en} } @article{RebokWinkle2019, author = {Rebok, Sandra and Winkle, Timothy}, title = {"Mason without apron"}, series = {HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {XX}, journal = {HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {38}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2568-3543}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43473}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-434735}, pages = {31 -- 50}, year = {2019}, abstract = {W{\"a}hrend das Fehlen einer religi{\"o}sen Haltung in Humboldts Werk, sowie die Kritik, die er diesbez{\"u}glich erhalten hat, allgemein bekannt sind, ist sein m{\"o}glicher Bezug zur Freimaurerei noch weitgehend unerforscht. Zwar erscheint Humboldt auf einigen Listen von „illustren Freimaurern", zudem tragen mehrere Logen seinen Namen, aber die Frage bleibt offen, ob Humboldt wirklich ein Freimaurer war. Wenn ja, wann und wo ist er einer Loge beigetreten? Gibt es vielleicht Kommentare von ihm zu dieser Art von Geheimb{\"u}nden? Und wer waren die bekanntesten Freimaurer in seiner Umgebung? Der Artikel beantwortet diese Punkte, aber wichtiger noch geht er der Frage nach, was eine Mitgliedschaft f{\"u}r Humboldts wissenschaftliche Arbeit bedeutet haben k{\"o}nnte, insbesondere im Hinblick auf den herausragenden Erfolg, den er in den Vereinigten Staaten zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts hatte und die Gr{\"u}nde hierf{\"u}r. Was h{\"a}tten solche Verbindungen f{\"u}r ihn bedeutet und wie wurde er von den wichtigsten freimaurerischen Pers{\"o}nlichkeiten und Logen in der transatlantischen Welt wahrgenommen?}, language = {en} } @techreport{Roggeband2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Roggeband, Conny}, title = {International women's rights}, series = {KFG Working Paper Series}, journal = {KFG Working Paper Series}, number = {26}, issn = {2509-3770}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42388}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-423887}, pages = {24}, year = {2019}, abstract = {This paper explores current contestations of women's rights and the implications thereof for international legislation. While contestation over women's rights is a far from new phenomenon, over the past two decades opposition to gender equality has become better organized at the transnational level, mobilizing a dispersed set of state and non-state actors, and is becoming more successful in halting the progress of women's rights. I argue that the position of oppositional actors vis-{\`a}-vis women rights activism appears to be strengthened by two recent political developments: democratic backsliding and the closure of civic space. Some preliminary findings show how these interrelated developments lead to an erosion of women's rights at the national level. Governments use low key tactics to dismantle institutional and implementation arrangements and sideline women's organisations. Next, I explore the implications of these developments for gender equality norms at the national and international level. The active strategy of counter norming adopted by conservative and religious state and non-state actors, designed to circumvent and also undermine Western norms, is increasingly successful. In addition to this, the threatened position of domestic actors monitoring compliance of international treaties, makes the chances of backsliding on international commitments much higher.}, language = {en} } @techreport{Sandholtz2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Sandholtz, Wayne}, title = {Resurgent Authoritarianism and the International Rule of Law}, series = {KFG Working Paper Series}, journal = {KFG Working Paper Series}, number = {38}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43589}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-435899}, pages = {31}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Modern rule of law and post-war constitutionalism are both anchored in rights-based limitations on state authority. Rule-of-law norms and principles, at both domestic and international levels, are designed to protect the freedom and dignity of the person. Given this "thick" conception of the rule of law, authoritarian practices that remove constraints on domestic political leaders and weaken mechanisms for holding them accountable necessarily erode both domestic and international rule of law. Drawing on political science research on authoritarian politics, this study identifies three core elements of authoritarian political strategies: subordination of the judiciary, suppression of independent news media and freedom of expression, and restrictions on the ability of civil society groups to organize and participate in public life. According to available data, each of these three practices has become increasingly common in recent years. This study offers a composite measure of the core authoritarian practices and uses it to identify the countries that have shown the most marked increases in authoritarianism. The spread and deepening of these authoritarian practices in diverse regimes around the world diminishes international rule of law. The conclusion argues that resurgent authoritarianism degrades international rule of law even if this is defined as the specifically post-Cold War international legal order.}, language = {en} } @techreport{Sandholtz2019, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Sandholtz, Wayne}, title = {Human Rights Courts and Global Constitutionalism}, series = {KFG Working Paper Series}, journal = {KFG Working Paper Series}, number = {35}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43583}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-435831}, pages = {30}, year = {2019}, abstract = {International courts regularly cite each other, in part as a means of building legitimacy. Such international, cross-court use of precedent (or "judicial dialogue") among the regional human rights courts and the Human Rights Committee has an additional purpose and effect: the construction of a rights-based global constitutionalism. Judicial dialogue among the human rights courts is purposeful in that the courts see themselves as embedded in, and contributing to, a global human rights legal system. Cross-citation among the human rights courts advances the construction of rights-based global constitutionalism in that it provides a basic degree of coordination among the regional courts. The jurisprudence of the U.N. Human Rights Committee (HRC), as an authoritative interpreter of core international human rights norms, plays the role of a central focal point for the decentralized coordination of jurisprudence. The network of regional courts and the HRC is building an emergent institutional structure for global rights-based constitutionalism.}, language = {en} } @article{Schramm2019, author = {Schramm, Netta}, title = {Radical Translation as Transvaluation}, series = {PaRDeS : Zeitschrift der Vereinigung f{\"u}r J{\"u}dische Studien = Transformative Translations in Jewish History and Culture}, volume = {2019}, journal = {PaRDeS : Zeitschrift der Vereinigung f{\"u}r J{\"u}dische Studien = Transformative Translations in Jewish History and Culture}, number = {25}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-468-5}, issn = {1614-6492}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-47137}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-471374}, pages = {73 -- 87}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Scholars of modern Jewish thought explore the hermeneutics of "translation" to describe the transference of concepts between discourses. I suggest a more radical approach - translation as transvaluation - is required. Eschewing modern tests of truth such as "the author would have accepted it" and "the author should have accepted it," this radical form of translation is intentionally unfaithful to original meanings. However, it is not a reductionist reading or a liberating text. Instead, it is a persistent squabble depending on both source and translation for sustenance. Exploring this paradigm entails a review of three expositions of the Korah biblical narrative; three readings dedicated to keeping an eye on current events: (1) Tsene-rene (Prague, 1622), biblical prose; (2) Yaldei Yisrael Kodesh, (Tel Aviv, 1973), a secular Zionist reworking of Tsene-rene; and (3) The Jews are Coming (Israel, 2014-2017) a satirical television show.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Scianna2019, author = {Scianna, Bastian Matteo}, title = {The Italian war on the eastern front, 1941-1943}, series = {Italian and Italian American Studies}, journal = {Italian and Italian American Studies}, publisher = {Palgrave Macmillan}, address = {Cham}, isbn = {978-3-03026-523-6}, pages = {365}, year = {2019}, abstract = {The Italian Army's participation in Hitler's war against the Soviet Union has remained unrecognized and understudied. Bastian Matteo Scianna offers a wide-ranging, in-depth corrective. Mining Italian, German and Russian sources, he examines the history of the Italian campaign in the East between 1941 and 1943, as well as how the campaign was remembered and memorialized in the domestic and international arena during the Cold War. Linking operational military history with memory studies, this book revises our understanding of the Italian Army in the Second World War.}, language = {en} } @article{Skopeteas2019, author = {Skopeteas, Stavros}, title = {Splits and Birds}, series = {Of trees and birds. A Festschrift for Gisbert Fanselow}, journal = {Of trees and birds. A Festschrift for Gisbert Fanselow}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-457-9}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43257}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-432578}, pages = {335 -- 341}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @article{Steinmeier2019, author = {Steinmeier, Frank-Walter}, title = {Address on the opening of the Alexander von Humboldt Season in Quito, Ecuador, on 13 February 2019}, series = {HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, volume = {XX}, journal = {HiN : Alexander von Humboldt im Netz ; international review for Humboldtian studies}, number = {39}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {2568-3543}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43472}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-434723}, pages = {23 -- 30}, year = {2019}, language = {en} }