@article{DordevicHoelzerRussoetal.2022, author = {Dordevic, Milos and H{\"o}lzer, Sonja and Russo, Augusta and Garc{\´i}a Alanis, Jos{\´e} Carlos and M{\"u}ller, Notger Germar}, title = {The Role of the Precuneus in Human Spatial Updating in a Real Environment Setting—A cTBS Study}, series = {Life}, volume = {12}, journal = {Life}, edition = {8}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel, Schweiz}, issn = {2075-1729}, doi = {10.3390/life12081239}, pages = {1 -- 13}, year = {2022}, abstract = {As we move through an environment, we update positions of our body relative to other objects, even when some objects temporarily or permanently leave our field of view—this ability is termed egocentric spatial updating and plays an important role in everyday life. Still, our knowledge about its representation in the brain is still scarce, with previous studies using virtual movements in virtual environments or patients with brain lesions suggesting that the precuneus might play an important role. However, whether this assumption is also true when healthy humans move in real environments where full body-based cues are available in addition to the visual cues typically used in many VR studies is unclear. Therefore, in this study we investigated the role of the precuneus in egocentric spatial updating in a real environment setting in 20 healthy young participants who underwent two conditions in a cross-over design: (a) stimulation, achieved through applying continuous theta-burst stimulation (cTBS) to inhibit the precuneus and (b) sham condition (activated coil turned upside down). In both conditions, participants had to walk back with blindfolded eyes to objects they had previously memorized while walking with open eyes. Simplified trials (without spatial updating) were used as control condition, to make sure the participants were not affected by factors such as walking blindfolded, vestibular or working memory deficits. A significant interaction was found, with participants performing better in the sham condition compared to real stimulation, showing smaller errors both in distance and angle. The results of our study reveal evidence of an important role of the precuneus in a real-environment egocentric spatial updating; studies on larger samples are necessary to confirm and further investigate this finding.}, language = {en} } @article{WestphalKalinowskiHoferichteretal.2022, author = {Westphal, Andrea and Kalinowski, Eva and Hoferichter, Clara Josepha and Vock, Miriam}, title = {K-12 teachers' stress and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic review}, series = {Frontiers in Psychology}, journal = {Frontiers in Psychology}, publisher = {Frontiers}, address = {Lausanne, Schweiz}, issn = {1664-1078}, doi = {10.3389/fpsyg.2022.920326}, pages = {1 -- 29}, year = {2022}, abstract = {We present the first systematic literature review on stress and burnout in K-12 teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a systematic literature search, we identified 17 studies that included 9,874 K-12 teachers from around the world. These studies showed some indication that burnout did increase during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were, however, almost no differences in the levels of stress and burnout experienced by K-12 teachers compared to individuals employed in other occupational fields. School principals' leadership styles emerged as an organizational characteristic that is highly relevant for K-12 teachers' levels of stress and burnout. Individual teacher characteristics associated with burnout were K-12 teachers' personality, self-efficacy in online teaching, and perceived vulnerability to COVID-19. In order to reduce stress, there was an indication that stress-management training in combination with training in technology use for teaching may be superior to stress-management training alone. Future research needs to adopt more longitudinal designs and examine the interplay between individual and organizational characteristics in the development of teacher stress and burnout during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.}, language = {en} } @article{SpikesRodriguezSilvaBennettetal.2021, author = {Spikes, Montrai and Rodr{\´i}guez-Silva, Rodet and Bennett, Kerri-Ann and Br{\"a}ger, Stefan and Josaphat, James and Torres-Pineda, Patricia and Ernst, Anja and Havenstein, Katja and Schlupp, Ingo and Tiedemann, Ralph}, title = {A phylogeny of the genus Limia (Teleostei: Poeciliidae) suggests a single-lake radiation nested in a Caribbean-wide allopatric speciation scenario}, series = {BMC Research Notes}, volume = {14}, journal = {BMC Research Notes}, publisher = {BMC Research Notes / Biomed Central}, address = {London}, issn = {1756-0500}, doi = {10.1186/s13104-021-05843-x}, pages = {1 -- 8}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Objective The Caribbean is an important global biodiversity hotspot. Adaptive radiations there lead to many speciation events within a limited period and hence are particularly prominent biodiversity generators. A prime example are freshwater fish of the genus Limia, endemic to the Greater Antilles. Within Hispaniola, nine species have been described from a single isolated site, Lake Mirago{\^a}ne, pointing towards extraordinary sympatric speciation. This study examines the evolutionary history of the Limia species in Lake Mirago{\^a}ne, relative to their congeners throughout the Caribbean. Results For 12 Limia species, we obtained almost complete sequences of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, a well-established marker for lower-level taxonomic relationships. We included sequences of six further Limia species from GenBank (total N  = 18 species). Our phylogenies are in concordance with other published phylogenies of Limia. There is strong support that the species found in Lake Mirago{\^a}ne in Haiti are monophyletic, confirming a recent local radiation. Within Lake Mirago{\^a}ne, speciation is likely extremely recent, leading to incomplete lineage sorting in the mtDNA. Future studies using multiple unlinked genetic markers are needed to disentangle the relationships within the Lake Mirago{\^a}ne clade.}, language = {en} } @article{KruegerFoersterTrauthetal.2021, author = {Kr{\"u}ger, Johanna and Foerster, Verena Elisabeth and Trauth, Martin H. and Hofreiter, Michael and Tiedemann, Ralph}, title = {Exploring the Past Biosphere of Chew Bahir/Southern Ethiopia: Cross-Species Hybridization Capture of Ancient Sedimentary DNA from a Deep Drill Core}, series = {Frontiers in Earth Science}, journal = {Frontiers in Earth Science}, publisher = {Frontiers in Earth Science}, address = {Lausanne, Schweiz}, issn = {2296-6463}, doi = {10.3389/feart.2021.683010}, pages = {1 -- 20}, year = {2021}, abstract = {Eastern Africa has been a prime target for scientific drilling because it is rich in key paleoanthropological sites as well as in paleolakes, containing valuable paleoclimatic information on evolutionary time scales. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) explores these paleolakes with the aim of reconstructing environmental conditions around critical episodes of hominin evolution. Identification of biological taxa based on their sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) traces can contribute to understand past ecological and climatological conditions of the living environment of our ancestors. However, sedaDNA recovery from tropical environments is challenging because high temperatures, UV irradiation, and desiccation result in highly degraded DNA. Consequently, most of the DNA fragments in tropical sediments are too short for PCR amplification. We analyzed sedaDNA in the upper 70 m of the composite sediment core of the HSPDP drill site at Chew Bahir for eukaryotic remnants. We first tested shotgun high throughput sequencing which leads to metagenomes dominated by bacterial DNA of the deep biosphere, while only a small fraction was derived from eukaryotic, and thus probably ancient, DNA. Subsequently, we performed cross-species hybridization capture of sedaDNA to enrich ancient DNA (aDNA) from eukaryotic remnants for paleoenvironmental analysis, using established barcoding genes (cox1 and rbcL for animals and plants, respectively) from 199 species that may have had relatives in the past biosphere at Chew Bahir. Metagenomes yielded after hybridization capture are richer in reads with similarity to cox1 and rbcL in comparison to metagenomes without prior hybridization capture. Taxonomic assignments of the reads from these hybridization capture metagenomes also yielded larger fractions of the eukaryotic domain. For reads assigned to cox1, inferred wet periods were associated with high inferred relative abundances of putative limnic organisms (gastropods, green algae), while inferred dry periods showed increased relative abundances for insects. These findings indicate that cross-species hybridization capture can be an effective approach to enhance the information content of sedaDNA in order to explore biosphere changes associated with past environmental conditions, enabling such analyses even under tropical conditions.}, language = {en} } @inproceedings{BandaGallagher2010, author = {Banda, Gourinath and Gallagher, John P.}, title = {Constraint-based abstraction of a model checker for infinite state systems}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-41516}, year = {2010}, abstract = {Abstract interpretation-based model checking provides an approach to verifying properties of infinite-state systems. In practice, most previous work on abstract model checking is either restricted to verifying universal properties, or develops special techniques for temporal logics such as modal transition systems or other dual transition systems. By contrast we apply completely standard techniques for constructing abstract interpretations to the abstraction of a CTL semantic function, without restricting the kind of properties that can be verified. Furthermore we show that this leads directly to implementation of abstract model checking algorithms for abstract domains based on constraints, making use of an SMT solver.}, language = {en} } @article{Benacka2013, author = {Benacka, Jan}, title = {BubbleSort, SelectSort and InsertSort in Excel \& Delphi}, series = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, journal = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, number = {6}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1868-0844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-64636}, pages = {153 -- 154}, year = {2013}, abstract = {A method is presented of acquiring the principles of three sorting algorithms through developing interactive applications in Excel.}, language = {en} } @article{Ragonis2013, author = {Ragonis, Noa}, title = {Problem-solving strategies must be taught implicitly}, series = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, journal = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, number = {6}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1868-0844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-64645}, pages = {155 -- 157}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Problem solving is one of the central activities performed by computer scientists as well as by computer science learners. Whereas the teaching of algorithms and programming languages is usually well structured within a curriculum, the development of learners' problem-solving skills is largely implicit and less structured. Students at all levels often face difficulties in problem analysis and solution construction. The basic assumption of the workshop is that without some formal instruction on effective strategies, even the most inventive learner may resort to unproductive trial-and-error problemsolving processes. Hence, it is important to teach problem-solving strategies and to guide teachers on how to teach their pupils this cognitive tool. Computer science educators should be aware of the difficulties and acquire appropriate pedagogical tools to help their learners gain and experience problem-solving skills.}, language = {en} } @article{SentanceHodges2013, author = {Sentance, Sue and Hodges, Steve}, title = {.NET Gadgeteer Workshop}, series = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, journal = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, number = {6}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1868-0844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-64654}, pages = {159}, year = {2013}, language = {en} } @article{BerryKusterer2013, author = {Berry, Carol and Kusterer, Peter}, title = {Using Teachers' TryScience to support educators and improve teaching}, series = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, journal = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, number = {6}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1868-0844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-64665}, pages = {161 -- 162}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The challenge is providing teachers with the resources they need to strengthen their instructions and better prepare students for the jobs of the 21st Century. Technology can help meet the challenge. Teachers' Tryscience is a noncommercial offer, developed by the New York Hall of Science, TeachEngineering, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and IBM Citizenship to provide teachers with such resources. The workshop provides deeper insight into this tool and discussion of how to support teaching of informatics in schools.}, language = {en} } @article{GujberovaTomcsanyi2013, author = {Gujberov{\´a}, Monika and Tomcs{\´a}nyi, Peter}, title = {Environments for programming in primary education}, series = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, journal = {Commentarii informaticae didacticae : (CID)}, number = {6}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, issn = {1868-0844}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-64499}, pages = {53 -- 60}, year = {2013}, abstract = {The aim of our article is to collect and present information about contemporary programming environments that are suitable for primary education. We studied the ways they implement (or do not implement) some programming concepts, the ways programs are represented and built in order to support young and novice programmers, as well as their suitability to allow different forms of sharing the results of pupils' work. We present not only a short description of each considered environment and the taxonomy in the form of a table, but also our understanding and opinions on how and why the environments implement the same concepts and ideas in different ways and which concepts and ideas seem to be important to the creators of such environments.}, language = {en} }