The study of the Cauchy problem for solutions of the heat equation in a cylindrical domain with data on the lateral surface by the Fourier method raises the problem of calculating the inverse Laplace transform of the entire function cos root z. This problem has no solution in the standard theory of the Laplace transform. We give an explicit formula for the inverse Laplace transform of cos root z using the theory of analytic functionals. This solution suits well to efficiently develop the regularization of solutions to Cauchy problems for parabolic equations with data on noncharacteristic surfaces.

Obtaining information about functional details of proteins of extinct species is of critical importance for a better understanding of the real-life appearance, behavior and ecology of these lost entries in the book of life. In this chapter, we discuss the possibilities to retrieve the necessary DNA sequence information from paleogenomic data obtained from fossil specimens, which can then be used to express and subsequently analyze the protein of interest. We discuss the problems specific to ancient DNA, including mis-coding lesions, short read length and incomplete paleogenome assemblies. Finally, we discuss an alternative, but currently rarely used approach, direct PCR amplification, which is especially useful for comparatively short proteins.

PURPOSE: To determine the feasibility of upright compared to supine MRI measurements to determine characteristics of the lumbar spine in AA with spondylolisthesis. METHODS: Ten AA (n=10; m/f: 4/6; 14.5±1.7y; 163±7cm; 52±8kg) from various sports, diagnosed with spondylolisthesis grade I-II Meyerding confirmed by x-ray in standing lateral view, were included. Open low-field MRI images (0.25 Tesla) in upright (82°) and supine (0°) position were evaluated by two observers. Medical imaging software was used to measure the anterior translation (AT, mm), lumbosacral joint angle (LSJA, °) and lordosis angle (LA, °). Reliability was analyzed by the intra-rater correlation coefficient (ICC) and standard error of measurements (SEM). RESULTS: Due to motion artifacts during upright position, measures of three participants had to be excluded. Between observers, AT ranged from 4.2±2.7mm to 5.5±1.9mm (ICC=0.94, SEM=0.6mm) in upright and from 4.9±2.4mm to 5.9±3.0mm (ICC=0.89, SEM=0.9mm) in supine position. LSJA varied from 5.1±2.2° to 7.3±1.5° (ICC=0.54, SEM=1.5°) in upright and from 9.8±2.5° to 10±2.4° (ICC=0.73, SEM=1.1°) in supine position. LA differed from 58.8±14.6° to 61.9±6° (ICC=0.94, SEM=1.19°) in upright and from 51.9±11.7° to 52.6±11.1° (ICC=0.98, SEM=1.59°) in supine position. CONCLUSIONS: Determination of AT and LA showed good to excellent reliability in both, upright and supine position. In contrast, reliability of LSJA had only moderate to good correlation between observers and should therefore be interpreted with caution. However, motion artifacts should be taken into consideration during upright imaging procedures.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing fundamentally the way how IT solutions are implemented and operated across all application domains, including the geospatial domain. This contribution outlines AI-based techniques for 3D point clouds and geospatial digital twins as generic components of geospatial AI. First, we briefly reflect on the term "AI" and outline technology developments needed to apply AI to IT solutions, seen from a software engineering perspective. Next, we characterize 3D point clouds as key category of geodata and their role for creating the basis for geospatial digital twins; we explain the feasibility of machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) approaches for 3D point clouds. In particular, we argue that 3D point clouds can be seen as a corpus with similar properties as natural language corpora and formulate a "Naturalness Hypothesis" for 3D point clouds. In the main part, we introduce a workflow for interpreting 3D point clouds based on ML/DL approaches that derive domain-specific and application-specific semantics for 3D point clouds without having to create explicit spatial 3D models or explicit rule sets. Finally, examples are shown how ML/DL enables us to efficiently build and maintain base data for geospatial digital twins such as virtual 3D city models, indoor models, or building information models.

Background Non-invasive transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has received tremendous attention as a potential neuromodulator of cognitive and affective functions, which likely exerts its effects via activation of the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system. Reliable effects of taVNS on markers of LC-NA system activity, however, have not been demonstrated yet. Methods The aim of the present study was to overcome previous limitations by pooling raw data from a large sample of ten taVNS studies (371 healthy participants) that collected salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) as a potential marker of central NA release. Results While a meta-analytic approach using summary statistics did not yield any significant effects, linear mixed model analyses showed that afferent stimulation of the vagus nerve via taVNS increased sAA levels compared to sham stimulation (b = 0.16, SE = 0.05, p = 0.001). When considering potential confounders of sAA, we further replicated previous findings on the diurnal trajectory of sAA activity. Conclusion(s) Vagal activation via taVNS increases sAA release compared to sham stimulation, which likely substantiates the assumption that taVNS triggers NA release. Moreover, our results highlight the benefits of data pooling and data sharing in order to allow stronger conclusions in research.

Matching participants (as suggested by Hope, 2015) may be one promising option for research on a potential bilingual advantage in executive functions (EF). In this study we first compared performances in three EF-tasks of a naturally heterogeneous sample of monolingual (n = 69, age = 9.0 y) and multilingual children (n = 57, age = 9.3 y). Secondly, we meticulously matched participants pairwise to obtain two highly homogeneous groups to rerun our analysis and investigate a potential bilingual advantage. The initally disadvantaged multilinguals (regarding socioeconomic status and German lexicon size) performed worse in updating and response inhibition, but similarly in interference inhibition. This indicates that superior EF compensate for the detrimental effects of the background variables. After matching children pairwise on age, gender, intelligence, socioeconomic status and German lexicon size, performances became similar except for interference inhibition. Here, an advantage for multilinguals in the form of globally reduced reaction times emerged, indicating a bilingual executive processing advantage.

The spatial magnetic properties, through-space NMR shieldings (TSNMRSs), of stable O, S and Hal analogues of N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) have been calculated using the GIAO perturbation method employing the nucleus-independent chemical shift (NICS) concept and the results visualized as iso-chemical-shielding surfaces (ICSSs) of various sizes and directions. The TSNMRS values (actually the anisotropy effects measurable in H-1 NMR spectroscopy) are employed to qualify and quantify the position of the present mesomeric equilibria (carbenes <-> ylides). The results are confirmed by geometry (bond angles and bond lengths), IR spectra, UV spectra, and C-13 chemical shifts of the electron-deficient carbon centers.

It is well known that functional diversity strongly affects ecosystem functioning. However, even in rather simple model communities consisting of only two or, at best, three trophic levels, the relationship between multitrophic functional diversity and ecosystem functioning appears difficult to generalize, because of its high contextuality. In this study, we considered several differently structured tritrophic food webs, in which the amount of functional diversity was varied independently on each trophic level. To achieve generalizable results, largely independent of parametrization, we examined the outcomes of 128,000 parameter combinations sampled from ecologically plausible intervals, with each tested for 200 randomly sampled initial conditions. Analysis of our data was done by training a random forest model. This method enables the identification of complex patterns in the data through partial dependence graphs, and the comparison of the relative influence of model parameters, including the degree of diversity, on food-web properties. We found that bottom-up and top-down effects cascade simultaneously throughout the food web, intimately linking the effects of functional diversity of any trophic level to the amount of diversity of other trophic levels, which may explain the difficulty in unifying results from previous studies. Strikingly, only with high diversity throughout the whole food web, different interactions synergize to ensure efficient exploitation of the available nutrients and efficient biomass transfer to higher trophic levels, ultimately leading to a high biomass and production on the top level. The temporal variation of biomass showed a more complex pattern with increasing multitrophic diversity: while the system initially became less variable, eventually the temporal variation rose again because of the increasingly complex dynamical patterns. Importantly, top predator diversity and food-web parameters affecting the top trophic level were of highest importance to determine the biomass and temporal variability of any trophic level. Overall, our study reveals that the mechanisms by which diversity influences ecosystem functioning are affected by every part of the food web, hampering the extrapolation of insights from simple monotrophic or bitrophic systems to complex natural food webs.

Flood risk management in Germany follows an integrative approach in which both private households and businesses can make an important contribution to reducing flood damage by implementing property-level adaptation measures. While the flood adaptation behavior of private households has already been widely researched, comparatively less attention has been paid to the adaptation strategies of businesses. However, their ability to cope with flood risk plays an important role in the social and economic development of a flood-prone region. Therefore, using quantitative survey data, this study aims to identify different strategies and adaptation drivers of 557 businesses damaged by a riverine flood in 2013 and 104 businesses damaged by pluvial or flash floods between 2014 and 2017. Our results indicate that a low perceived self-efficacy may be an important factor that can reduce the motivation of businesses to adapt to flood risk. Furthermore, property-owners tended to act more proactively than tenants. In addition, high experience with previous flood events and low perceived response costs could strengthen proactive adaptation behavior. These findings should be considered in business-tailored risk communication.

Predation is a strong species interaction causing severe harm or death to prey. Thus, prey species have evolved various defence strategies to minimize predation risk, which may be immediate (e.g., a change in behaviour) or transgenerational (morphological defence structures). We studied the behaviour of two strains of a rotiferan prey (Brachionus calyciflorus) that differ in their ability to develop morphological defences in response to their predator Asplanchna brightwellii. Using video analysis, we tested: (a) if two strains differ in their response to predator presence and predator cues when both are undefended; (b) whether defended individuals respond to live predators or their cues; and (c) if the morphological defence (large spines) per se has an effect on the swimming behaviour. We found a clear increase in swimming speed for both undefended strains in predator presence. However, the defended specimens responded neither to the predator presence nor to their cues, showing that they behave indifferently to their predator when they are defended. We did not detect an effect of the spines on the swimming behaviour. Our study demonstrates a complex plastic behaviour of the prey, not only in the presence of their predator, but also with respect to their defence status.

Hintergrund: Im Rahmen des reformierten Psychotherapeutengesetzes wird eine starkere Praxisorientierung in der klinisch-psychologischen Lehre und in der Prufung psychotherapeutischer Kompetenzen verankert. Hierbei sollen Studierende durch die Interaktion mit standardisierten Patient*innen (SP) therapeutische Kompetenzen erwerben und demonstrieren. Fragestellung: Das Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, eine evidenzbasierte Umsetzung dieser neuen Lehr- und Prufungsformate zu unterstutzen, indem bisherige Forschungsbefunde zum Einsatz von SP dargestellt und Bereiche, in denen weitere Forschung notwendig ist, aufgezeigt werden. Ergebnisse: Empirische Befunde zeigen, dass SP psychische Storungen authentisch darstellen konnen. Voraussetzung dafur sind beispielsweise die Auswahl geeigneter SP, detaillierte Rollenanleitungen, spezifisches Training, Feedback und Nachschulungen. Auch wenn einige Forschungsfragen, wie zur vergleichenden Wirksamkeit des Einsatzes von SP, noch unbeantwortet sind, lassen sich praktische Implikationen fur SP-Programme in Lehre, Prufung und Forschung ableiten, die in einem Ablaufschema dargestellt werden. Schlussfolgerungen: Der Einsatz von SP bietet gro ss es Potenzial fur die klinisch-psychologische Lehre und Ausbildungsforschung. Um den Einsatz von SP an anderen Standorten zu unterstutzen, werden Beispielmaterialien (z.B. Rollenanleitung) in den elektronischen Supplementen (siehe www.karger.com/doi/10.1159/000509249 fur alle Supplemente) zum Artikel zur Verfugung gestellt.

Elaeidobius kamerunicusis the most important insect pollinator in oil palm plantations. In this study, the mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) ofE. kamerunicus(17.729 bp), a member of the Curculionidae family, will be reported. The mitogenome consisted of 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 transfer RNA genes (tRNAs), 2 ribosomal RNA genes (rRNAs), and a putative control region (CR). Phylogenetic analysis based on 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs) using maximum Likelihood (ML) methods indicated thatE. kamerunicusbelongs to the Curculionidae family. This mitochondrial genome provides essential information for understanding genetic populations, phylogenetics, molecular evolution, and other biological applications in this species.

Selenium (Se) is an essential trace element that is ubiquitously present in the environment in small concentrations. Essential functions of Se in the human body are manifested through the wide range of proteins, containing selenocysteine as their active center. Such proteins are called selenoproteins which are found in multiple physiological processes like antioxidative defense and the regulation of thyroid hormone functions. Therefore, Se deficiency is known to cause a broad spectrum of physiological impairments, especially in endemic regions with low Se content. Nevertheless, being an essential trace element, Se could exhibit toxic effects, if its intake exceeds tolerable levels. Accordingly, this range between deficiency and overexposure represents optimal Se supply. However, this range was found to be narrower than for any other essential trace element. Together with significantly varying Se concentrations in soil and the presence of specific bioaccumulation factors, this represents a noticeable difficulty in the assessment of Se epidemiological status. While Se is acting in the body through multiple selenoproteins, its intake occurs mainly in form of small organic or inorganic molecular mass species. Thus, Se exposure not only depends on daily intake but also on the respective chemical form, in which it is present. The essential functions of selenium have been known for a long time and its primary forms in different food sources have been described. Nevertheless, analytical capabilities for a comprehensive investigation of Se species and their derivatives have been introduced only in the last decades. A new Se compound was identified in 2010 in the blood and tissues of bluefin tuna. It was called selenoneine (SeN) since it is an isologue of naturally occurring antioxidant ergothioneine (ET), where Se replaces sulfur. In the following years, SeN was identified in a number of edible fish species and attracted attention as a new dietary Se source and potentially strong antioxidant. Studies in populations whose diet largely relies on fish revealed that SeN represents the main non-protein bound Se pool in their blood. First studies, conducted with enriched fish extracts, already demonstrated the high antioxidative potential of SeN and its possible function in the detoxification of methylmercury in fish. Cell culture studies demonstrated, that SeN can utilize the same transporter as ergothioneine, and SeN metabolite was found in human urine. Until recently, studies on SeN properties were severely limited due to the lack of ways to obtain the pure compound. As a predisposition to this work was firstly a successful approach to SeN synthesis in the University of Graz, utilizing genetically modified yeasts. In the current study, by use of HepG2 liver carcinoma cells, it was demonstrated, that SeN does not cause toxic effectsup to 100 μM concentration in hepatocytes. Uptake experiments showed that SeN is not bioavailable to the used liver cells. In the next part a blood-brain barrier (BBB) model, based on capillary endothelial cells from the porcine brain, was used to describe the possible transfer of SeN into the central nervous system (CNS). The assessment of toxicity markers in these endothelial cells and monitoring of barrier conditions during transfer experiments demonstrated the absence of toxic effects from SeN on the BBB endothelium up to 100 μM concentration. Transfer data for SeN showed slow but substantial transfer. A statistically significant increase was observed after 48 hours following SeN incubation from the blood-facing side of the barrier. However, an increase in Se content was clearly visible already after 6 hours of incubation with 1 μM of SeN. While the transfer rate of SeN after application of 0.1 μM dose was very close to that for 1 μM, incubation with 10 μM of SeN resulted in a significantly decreased transfer rate. Double-sided application of SeN caused no side-specific transfer of SeN, thus suggesting a passive diffusion mechanism of SeN across the BBB. This data is in accordance with animal studies, where ET accumulation was observed in the rat brain, even though rat BBB does not have the primary ET transporter – OCTN1. Investigation of capillary endothelial cell monolayers after incubation with SeN and reference selenium compounds showed no significant increase of intracellular selenium concentration. Speciesspecific Se measurements in medium samples from apical and basolateral compartments, as good as in cell lysates, showed no SeN metabolization. Therefore, it can be concluded that SeN may reach the brain without significant transformation. As the third part of this work, the assessment of SeN antioxidant properties was performed in Caco-2 human colorectal adenocarcinoma cells. Previous studies demonstrated that the intestinal epithelium is able to actively transport SeN from the intestinal lumen to the blood side and accumulate SeN. Further investigation within current work showed a much higher antioxidant potential of SeN compared to ET. The radical scavenging activity after incubation with SeN was close to the one observed for selenite and selenomethionine. However, the SeN effect on the viability of intestinal cells under oxidative conditions was close to the one caused by ET. To answer the question if SeN is able to be used as a dietary Se source and induce the activity of selenoproteins, the activity of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and the secretion of selenoprotein P (SelenoP) were measured in Caco-2 cells, additionally. As expected, reference selenium compounds selenite and selenomethionine caused efficient induction of GPx activity. In contrast to those SeN had no effect on GPx activity. To examine the possibility of SeN being embedded into the selenoproteome, SelenoP was measured in a culture medium. Even though Caco-2 cells effectively take up SeN in quantities much higher than selenite or selenomethionine, no secretion of SelenoP was observed after SeN incubation. Summarizing, we can conclude that SeN can hardly serve as a Se source for selenoprotein synthesis. However, SeN exhibit strong antioxidative properties, which appear when sulfur in ET is exchanged by Se. Therefore, SeN is of particular interest for research not as part of Se metabolism, but important endemic dietary antioxidant.

The Magellanic Bridge, stretching between the Small and the Large Magellanic Cloud (SMC and LMC), is the nearest tidally stripped intergalactic environment. The Bridge has a significantly low average metallicity of Z less than or similar to 0.1 Z(circle dot). Here we report the first discovery of O-type stars in the Magellanic Bridge. Three massive O stars were identified thanks to the archival spectra obtained by the ESO's Very Large Telescope FLAMES instrument. We analyze the spectra of each star using the Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) non-local thermodynamic equilibrium model atmosphere code, which provides the physical parameters, ionizing photon fluxes, and surface abundances. The ages of the newly discovered O stars suggest that star formation in the Bridge is ongoing. Furthermore, the discovery of O stars in the Bridge implies that tidally stripped galactic tails containing low-density but highly dynamical gas are capable of producing massive O stars. The multi-epoch spectra indicate that all three O stars are binaries. Despite their spatial proximity to one another, these O stars are chemically distinct. One of them is a fast-rotating giant with nearly LMC-like abundances. The other two are main-sequence stars that rotate extremely slowly and are strongly metal depleted. We discover the most nitrogen-poor O star known to date. Taking into account the previous analyses of B stars in the Bridge, we interpret the various metal abundances as the signature of a chemically inhomogeneous interstellar medium (ISM), suggesting that the Bridge gas might have accreted during multiple episodes of tidal interaction between the Clouds. Attributing the lowest derived metal content to the primordial gas, the time of the initial formation of the Bridge may date back several billion years. Using the Gaia and Galex color-magnitude diagrams, we roughly estimate the total number of O stars in the Bridge and their total ionizing radiation. Comparing this with the energetics of the diffuse ISM, we find that the contribution of the hot stars to the ionizing radiation field in the Bridge is less than 10% and conclude that the main sources of ionizing photons are leaks from the LMC and SMC. We estimate a lower limit for the fraction of ionizing radiation that escapes from these two dwarf galaxies.

Gravitational-wave (GW) astrophysics is a field in full blossom. Since the landmark detection of GWs from a binary black hole on September 14th 2015, fifty-two compact-object binaries have been reported by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration. Such events carry astrophysical and cosmological information ranging from an understanding of how black holes and neutron stars are formed, what neutron stars are composed of, how the Universe expands, and allow testing general relativity in the highly-dynamical strong-field regime. It is the goal of GW astrophysics to extract such information as accurately as possible. Yet, this is only possible if the tools and technology used to detect and analyze GWs are advanced enough. A key aspect of GW searches are waveform models, which encapsulate our best predictions for the gravitational radiation under a certain set of parameters, and that need to be cross-correlated with data to extract GW signals. Waveforms must be very accurate to avoid missing important physics in the data, which might be the key to answer the fundamental questions of GW astrophysics. The continuous improvements of the current LIGO-Virgo detectors, the development of next-generation ground-based detectors such as the Einstein Telescope or the Cosmic Explorer, as well as the development of the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA), demand accurate waveform models. While available models are enough to capture the low spins, comparable-mass binaries routinely detected in LIGO-Virgo searches, those for sources from both current and next-generation ground-based and spaceborne detectors must be accurate enough to detect binaries with large spins and asymmetry in the masses. Moreover, the thousands of sources that we expect to detect with future detectors demand accurate waveforms to mitigate biases in the estimation of signals’ parameters due to the presence of a foreground of many sources that overlap in the frequency band. This is recognized as one of the biggest challenges for the analysis of future-detectors’ data, since biases might hinder the extraction of important astrophysical and cosmological information from future detectors’ data. In the first part of this thesis, we discuss how to improve waveform models for binaries with high spins and asymmetry in the masses. In the second, we present the first generic metrics that have been proposed to predict biases in the presence of a foreground of many overlapping signals in GW data. For the first task, we will focus on several classes of analytical techniques. Current models for LIGO and Virgo studies are based on the post-Newtonian (PN, weak-field, small velocities) approximation that is most natural for the bound orbits that are routinely detected in GW searches. However, two other approximations have risen in prominence, the post-Minkowskian (PM, weak- field only) approximation natural for unbound (scattering) orbits and the small-mass-ratio (SMR) approximation typical of binaries in which the mass of one body is much bigger than the other. These are most appropriate to binaries with high asymmetry in the masses that challenge current waveform models. Moreover, they allow one to “cover” regions of the parameter space of coalescing binaries, thereby improving the interpolation (and faithfulness) of waveform models. The analytical approximations to the relativistic two-body problem can synergically be included within the effective-one-body (EOB) formalism, in which the two-body information from each approximation can be recast into an effective problem of a mass orbiting a deformed Schwarzschild (or Kerr) black hole. The hope is that the resultant models can cover both the low-spin comparable-mass binaries that are routinely detected, and the ones that challenge current models. The first part of this thesis is dedicated to a study about how to best incorporate information from the PN, PM, SMR and EOB approaches in a synergistic way. We also discuss how accurate the resulting waveforms are, as compared against numerical-relativity (NR) simulations. We begin by comparing PM models, whether alone or recast in the EOB framework, against PN models and NR simulations. We will show that PM information has the potential to improve currently-employed models for LIGO and Virgo, especially if recast within the EOB formalism. This is very important, as the PM approximation comes with a host of new computational techniques from particle physics to exploit. Then, we show how a combination of PM and SMR approximations can be employed to access previously-unknown PN orders, deriving the third subleading PN dynamics for spin-orbit and (aligned) spin1-spin2 couplings. Such new results can then be included in the EOB models currently used in GW searches and parameter estimation studies, thereby improving them when the binaries have high spins. Finally, we build an EOB model for quasi-circular nonspinning binaries based on the SMR approximation (rather than the PN one as usually done). We show how this is done in detail without incurring in the divergences that had affected previous attempts, and compare the resultant model against NR simulations. We find that the SMR approximation is an excellent approximation for all (quasi-circular nonspinning) binaries, including both the equal-mass binaries that are routinely detected in GW searches and the ones with highly asymmetric masses. In particular, the SMR-based models compare much better than the PN models, suggesting that SMR-informed EOB models might be the key to model binaries in the future. In the second task of this thesis, we work within the linear-signal ap- proximation and describe generic metrics to predict inference biases on the parameters of a GW source of interest in the presence of confusion noise from unfitted foregrounds and from residuals of other signals that have been incorrectly fitted out. We illustrate the formalism with simple (yet realistic) LISA sources, and demonstrate its validity against Monte-Carlo simulations. The metrics we describe pave the way for more realistic studies to quantify the biases with future ground-based and spaceborne detectors.

Herein, we report on the synthesis of highly K+/Na+ selective fluorescent probes in a feasible number of synthetic steps. These K+ selective fluorescent probes, so called fluoroionophores, 1 and 2 consists of different highly K+/Na+ selective building blocks the alkoxy-substituted N-phenylaza-18-crown-6 lariat ethers (ionophores) and "green" (cf. coumarin unit in 1) or "red" (cf. nile red unit in 2) fluorescent moieties (fluorophores). The fluorescent probes 1 and 2 show K+ induced fluorescence enhancement factors of 4.1 for 1 and 1.9 for 2 and dissociation constants for the corresponding K+ complexes of 43 mM (1+K+) and 18 mM (2+K+) in buffered aqueous solution. The fluorescence signal of 1 and 2 is changed by less than 5 % by pH values in the range of 6.8 to 8.8. Thus, 1 and 2 are capable fluorescent tools to determine extracellular K+ levels by fluorescence enhancements at wavelengths higher than 500 nm.

In this paper, the phenomenon of light-driven diffusioosmotic (DO) long-range attractive and repulsive interactions between micro-sized objects trapped near a solid wall is investigated. The range of the DO flow extends several times the size of microparticles and can be adjusted to point towards or away from the particle by varying irradiation parameters such as intensity or wavelength of light. The "fuel" of the light-driven DO flow is a photosensitive surfactant which can be photo-isomerized between trans and cis-states. The trans-isomer tends to accumulate at the interface, while the cis-isomer prefers to stay in solution. In combination with a dissimilar photo-isomerization rate at the interface and in bulk, this yields a concentration gradient of the isomers around single particles resulting in local light-driven diffusioosmotic (l-LDDO) flow. Here, the extended analysis of the l-LDDO flow as a function of irradiation parameters by introducing time-dependent development of the concentration excess of isomers near the particle surface is presented. It is also demonstrated that the l-LDDO can be generated at any solid/liquid interface being more pronounced in the case of strongly absorbing material. This phenomenon has plenty of potential applications since it makes any type of surface act as a micropump.

Die Rolle Italiens im Zweiten Weltkrieg wird, trotz enormer Fortschritte in den letzten Jahren, häufig stiefmütterlich behandelt oder bleibt das Metier einiger Spezialisten. Emanuele Sica und Richard Carrier, beide ausgewiesene Experten und in Kanada lehrend, haben einen anregenden Sammelband vorgelegt, der vergleichende (Ein‑)Blicke gestattet. Der Band überzeugt durch eine gute Balance zwischen quellengesättigten Beiträgen und neuen Erkenntnissen sowie sekundärliteraturgestützten Synthesen. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt hierbei deutlich auf militärischen Themen, auch wenn durchaus sozialgeschichtliche Aspekte einfließen. Der erste Abschnitt untersucht die Besatzungsherrschaft in Jugoslawien, Kreta und Südfrankreich. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zur italienischen Besatzungsherrschaft haben in den letzten Jahren das ehemals vorherrschende Bild des »guten Italieners« einer notwendigen Korrektur unterzogen. Diese Besatzungen können mittlerweile als eines der am besten erforschten Felder bezeichnet werden. Eric Gobetti und Federico Goddi steuern konzise Zusammenfassungen ihrer Monografien bei. Gobetti, der die italienische Besatzung Jugoslawiens von 1941 bis 1943 beleuchtet, hebt die zugleich arrogante und unkoordinierte Okkupationspolitik sowie die kontraproduktive Zusammenarbeit mit lokalen radikalen Nationalisten hervor. Diese beiden Faktoren, so Gobetti, bestärkten den Widerstand gegen die Italiener und beendeten faschistische Träume eines Imperiums entlang der Adria. Goddi analysiert in seinem primärquellenreichen Beitrag die Reaktionen des italienischen Militärs auf den montenegrinischen Aufstand am 13. Juli 1941. Anhand des Militärgerichts in Cetinje verdeutlicht der Autor die unterschiedlichen Repressionsinstrumente und die Zusammenarbeit mit lokalen Kollaborateuren, wobei nicht immer deutlich wird, in welche Richtung Goddi argumentiert. Der Beitrag von Paolo Fonzi über das italienische Besatzungsregime auf Kreta ist besonders hervorzuheben. Fonzi zeigt, dass im Vergleich zur italienischen Besatzung auf dem griechischen Festland die Herrschaft über den östlichen Teil Kretas weniger brutal war. Das lag nicht an der sprichwörtlichen Milde der Italiener, sondern an situativen Gegebenheiten. Die Italiener versuchten, wie in anderen Teilen Griechenlands, ihre Zone vom deutschen Besatzungsgebiet »abzutrennen« und eine italienische Sphäre zu errichten. Allerdings fielen die Zwangsmaßnahmen, etwa im wirtschaftlichen oder kulturellen Bereich, viel geringer aus als andernorts, was sich darin niederschlug, dass sich im Osten der Insel keine Guerrillabewegung bildete. Neben der generell geringen Partisanenaktivität auf den griechischen Inseln führt Fonzi dies auch auf die große Zahl der italienischen Soldaten (15 000–22 000) in Relation zur Zivilbevölkerung (70 000) zurück. Schaut man jedoch auf die Zahlen in Montenegro aus Goddis Beitrag (107 000 italienische Soldaten – 390 000 Zivilisten) scheint das zahlenmäßige Verhältnis nicht ungewöhnlich, auch wenn in beiden Fällen die Zahl der Soldaten sehr hoch ist. Überzeugender ist Fonzis Analyse der lokalen Kultur als hemmender Faktor. Im Osten der Insel sei die Tradition des Widerstandes und des Militärdienstes allgemein weniger verankert gewesen. Zudem halfen die Italiener der Bevölkerung Engpässe in der Lebensmittelversorgung zu vermeiden. Die Beiträge zur Besatzung, abgerundet durch eine Studie zur italienischen Besatzung in (Südost‑)Frankreich, zeigen daher unterschiedliche Herangehensweisen und Reaktionen des Militärs, je nach Situation. Der zweite Abschnitt widmet sich einem oft vernachlässigten Kapitel der italienischen Rolle im Zweiten Weltkrieg: dem Kampf regulärer Einheiten, also nicht der Resistenza, gegen die Wehrmacht und die italienische faschistische Republik im Norden ab Oktober 1943. Richard Carrier analysiert die ambivalenten britischen und amerikanischen Einschätzungen des taufrischen Bündnispartners, die internen Probleme der »neuen« Armee (die das Fundament der Streitkräfte nach 1945 bildete und somit institutionelle Kontinuität »bewahrte«) sowie den nicht unbedeutenden aktiven und passiven Einsatz italienischer Soldaten an der Seite der Alliierten. Niccolò Da Lio skizziert in einer Militärgeschichte »von unten« die Motivation und Gefühlslagen der Soldaten nach dem 8. September 1943 (Waffenstillstand zwischen Italien und den Alliierten) bis zur Befreiung des Landes. Der dritte Abschnitt des Sammelbandes widmet sich der Rolle der Resistenza und geht auf verschiedene Facetten des Bürgerkriegs ein, etwa die Miteinbeziehung von Frauen oder die Bestrafung von Faschisten bis 1945. Der letzte Teil des Bandes untersucht den Einsatz der istrischen Minderheit im Krieg gegen die Sowjetunion und die Kriegserfahrung italienisch-stämmiger Soldaten der Alliierten im Geburtsland ihrer Vorfahren sowie die Aufarbeitung deutscher Kriegsverbrechen in Italien nach dem 8. September 1943. Das Vor‑ und Nachwort der Herausgeber spannt einen gelungenen Bogen, zeigt Forschungstendenzen auf, fasst Ergebnisse des Bandes zusammen und liefert zugleich Anreize für weitere Studien. Zu bemängeln ist, dass sich auf 366 Seiten keine Karte findet und dem Leser daher eine detaillierte Kenntnis, zum Beispiel der Geografie Montenegros, abverlangt wird. Dennoch wird das vorliegende Werk für viele Kollegen ein wichtiger und ständiger Begleiter werden, denn es leistet einen wichtigen Beitrag, um Italiens Rolle (und die des Königlichen Heeres) im Zweiten Weltkrieg besser zu verstehen.

Process-oriented theories of cognition must be evaluated against time-ordered observations. Here we present a representative example for data assimilation of the SWIFT model, a dynamical model of the control of fixation positions and fixation durations during natural reading of single sentences. First, we develop and test an approximate likelihood function of the model, which is a combination of a spatial, pseudo-marginal likelihood and a temporal likelihood obtained by probability density approximation Second, we implement a Bayesian approach to parameter inference using an adaptive Markov chain Monte Carlo procedure. Our results indicate that model parameters can be estimated reliably for individual subjects. We conclude that approximative Bayesian inference represents a considerable step forward for computational models of eye-movement control, where modeling of individual data on the basis of process-based dynamic models has not been possible so far.

Aim Although research and clinical definitions of psychotherapeutic competence have been proposed, less is known about the layperson perspective. The aim was to explore the views of individuals with different levels of psychotherapy experience regarding what-in their views-constitutes a competent therapist. Method In an online survey, 375 persons (64% female, mean age 33.24 years) with no experience, with professional experience, or with personal pre-experience with psychotherapy participated. To provide low-threshold questions, we first presented two qualitative items (i.e. "In your opinion, what makes a good/competent psychotherapist?"; "How do you recognize that a psychotherapist is not competent?") and analysed them using inductive content analysis techniques (Mayring, 2014). Then, we gave participants a 16-item questionnaire including items from previous surveys and from the literature and analysed them descriptively. Results Work-relatedprinciples, professionalism, personalitycharacteristics, caringcommunication, empathy and understandingwere important categories of competence. Concerning the quantitative questions, most participants agreed with items indicating that a therapist should be open, listen well, show empathy and behave responsibly. Conclusion Investigating layperson perspectives suggested that effective and professional interpersonal behaviour of therapists plays a central role in the public's perception of psychotherapy.

This paper studies how the request for a favor has to be devised in order to maximize its chance of success. We present results from a mini-dictator game, in which the recipient can send a free-form text message to the dictator before the latter decides. We find that putting effort into the message, writing in a humorous way and mentioning reasons why the money is needed pays off. Additionally, we find differences in the behavior of male and female dictators. Only men react positively to efficiency arguments, while only women react to messages that emphasize the dictators power and responsibility.

The harmonic oscillator is a powerful model that can appear as a limit case when examining a nonlinear system. A well known fact is that, without driving, the inclusion of a friction term makes the origin of the phase space-which is a fixed point of the system-linearly stable. In this work, we include a telegraph process as perturbation of the oscillator's frequency, for example, to describe the motion of a particle with fluctuating charge gyrating in an external magnetic field. Increasing intensity of this colored noise is capable of changing the quality of the fixed point. To characterize the stability of the system, we use a stability measure that describes the growth of the displacement of the system's phase space position and express it in a closed form. We expand the respective exponent for light friction and low noise intensity and compare both the exact analytic solution and the expansion to numerical values. Our findings allow stability predictions for several physical systems.

Im deutschsprachigen Raum existiert eine Vielzahl von Modellen zur Entwicklung der Rechtschreibkompetenz von Grundschulkindern. Es zeigen sich starke Übereinstimmungen in der Vorstellung von aufeinanderfolgenden Kompetenzniveaus, wobei in allen Modellen drei Niveaus auftreten: 1) noch nicht lautgetreue Schreibungen, 2) lautgetreue Schreibungen und 3) orthographisch korrekte Schreibungen. Die Kriterien, auf Basis derer ein Kind dem jeweiligen Niveau zugeordnet wird, bleiben jedoch vage. Ebenso fehlt eine umfassende empirische Überprüfung der Modelle. Die vorliegende Längsschnittstudie untersuchte zu drei Messzeitpunkten (Anfang Klasse 2, Ende Klasse 2, Ende Klasse 3) die Schreibungen von N = 697 Grundschulkinder mit standardisierten Rechtschreibtests. Mittels latenter Transitionsanalyse wurden drei Profile identifiziert: 1) Überwiegend nicht lautgetreu 2) Überwiegend lautgetreu und 3) Überwiegend korrekt. Auch die durchlaufenen Pfade und Übergangswahrscheinlichkeiten stützen die angenommene hierarchische Struktur der Modelle.

Tätigkeitsorientierung als Maßgabe und Element der Gestaltung von Lehre und Studium ist mehr als die Integration eines Praktikums in das Curriculum. Die Diskussionen an den Hochschulen darum haben in den vergangenen Jahren an Komplexität gewonnen, insbesondere veranlasst durch den Fokus auf „Employability“ im Rahmen des Bologna-Prozesses. So wird mittlerweile verstärkt theorie- und evidenzbasiert auf die verschiedenen Perspektiven des Begriffs eingegangen, was sich auch in den Strategien der Hochschulen wiederfindet. Entsprechend wird in diesem Beitrag zunächst eine Einordnung der Tätigkeitsorientierung in den größeren hochschulpolitischen Rahmen sowie in die Konstrukte studienerfolgsfördernder Faktoren vorgenommen, bevor in einem zweiten Schritt auf die Notwendigkeit und Möglichkeiten verwiesen wird, wie sich der Stand der jeweilig hochschulspezifischen Tätigkeitsorientierung erfassen lässt. Abschließend soll beispielgebend gezeigt werden, wie Studieninhalte ergänzende Beratungen von Studierenden zur Berufsorientierung ausgestaltet werden können. Damit wird das Thema der Tätigkeitsorientierung aus unterschiedlichen Handlungsfeldern in den Blick genommen, um dem Anspruch an ein multiperspektivisches Vorgehen bei der Leitbild-entwicklung Rechnung zu tragen.

Over the past decades, floods have caused significant financial losses in Turkey, amounting to US$ 800 million between 1960 and 2014. With the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 (SFDRR), it is aimed to reduce the direct economic loss from disasters in relation to the global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. Accordingly, a methodology based on experiences from developing countries was proposed by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) to estimate direct economic losses on the macro-scale. Since Turkey also signed the SFDRR, we aimed to adapt, validate and apply the loss estimation model proposed by the UNDRR in Turkey for the first time. To do so, the well-documented flood event in Mersin of 2016 was used to calibrate the damage ratios for the agricultural, commercial and residential sectors, as well as educational facilities. Case studies between 2015 and 2020 with documented losses were further used to validate the model. Finally, model applications provided initial loss estimates for floods occurred recently in Turkey. Despite the limited event documentation for each sector, the calibrated model yielded good results when compared to documented losses. Thus, by implementing the UNDRR method, this study provides an approach to estimate the direct economic losses in Turkey on the macro-scale, which can be used to fill gaps in event databases, support the coordination of financial aid after flood events and facilitate monitoring of the progress toward and achievement of Global Target C of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030.

In his short and often quoted essay 'Postscript on the Societies of Control', Gilles Deleuze famously describes the structures of power in the dawning twenty-first century as driven by 'machines of a third type, computers', as novel and predominantly digital infrastructures. In fact, from a Deleuzian perspective the entire ecosystem of the digital transformation can be described as a larger shift in modes of production and the political economy. This essay proposes to read this 'technological evolution' as the power of algorithms and their material substance - digital infrastructures that entail a different mode of interaction between humans and technology. In looking at these infrastructures from a materialist position, my essay reconceptualises the digital as the unfolding logic of assemblages that have been shaping a 'long now' of technological modernity. In bringing a Deleuzian reading of infrastructures to the study of technology and society, this essay seeks to shed a new light on the political function-and the increasing abstraction-of infrastructures in the realm of the digital.

Partial synchronous states appear between full synchrony and asynchrony and exhibit many interesting properties. Most frequently, these states are studied within the framework of phase approximation. The latter is used ubiquitously to analyze coupled oscillatory systems. Typically, the phase dynamics description is obtained in the weak coupling limit, i.e., in the first-order in the coupling strength. The extension beyond the first-order represents an unsolved problem and is an active area of research. In this paper, three partially synchronous states are investigated and presented in order of increasing complexity. First, the usage of the phase response curve for the description of macroscopic oscillators is analyzed. To achieve this, the response of the mean-field oscillations in a model of all-to-all coupled limit-cycle oscillators to pulse stimulation is measured. The next part treats a two-group Kuramoto model, where the interaction of one attractive and one repulsive group results in an interesting solitary state, situated between full synchrony and self-consistent partial synchrony. In the last part, the phase dynamics of a relatively simple system of three Stuart-Landau oscillators are extended beyond the weak coupling limit. The resulting model contains triplet terms in the high-order phase approximation, though the structural connections are only pairwise. Finally, the scaling of the new terms with the coupling is analyzed.

Women's rights are a core part of a global consensus on human rights. However, we are currently experiencing an increasing popularity of anti-feminist and misogynist politics threatening to override feminist gains. In order to help explain this current revival and appeal, in this article I analyse how anti-feminist communities construct their collective identities at the intersection of local and global trends and affiliations. Through an in-depth analysis of representations in the collective identities of six popular online anti-feminist communities based in India, Russia and the United States, I shed light on how anti-feminists discursively construct their anti-feminist 'self' and the feminist 'other' between narratives of localized resistance to change and backlash against the results of broader societal developments associated with globalization. The results expose a complex set of global-local dynamics, which provide a nuanced understanding of the differences and commonalities of anti-feminist collective identity-building and mobilization processes across contexts. By explicitly focusing on the role of discursively produced locations for anti-feminist identity-building and providing new evidence on anti-feminist communities across three different continents, the article contributes to current discussions on transnational anti-feminist mobilizations in both social movement studies and feminist International Relations.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the rising waves of workplace militancy in the public sector and to provide insights into the perceptions that frame justification for industrial action among Ugandan public sector employees. Design/methodology/approach In-depth interviews and documentary analysis, analysed qualitatively, as well as a review of theoretical and empirical literature. Findings Public school teachers and public university lecturers in Uganda who frequently engage in industrial action mainly rationalise their engagement by the absence, or the ineffectiveness of alternative conflict resolution mechanisms. The findings also show that industrial action, even in resource-constrained settings like Uganda, is stimulated more by the desire to achieve equity rather than by the basic desire to improve working conditions. It is also notable that new, often unstructured, forms of workplace militancy continue to emerge in the public sector, and waves of industrial action are shifting from the industrial to the public sector. Practical implications Whereas industrial action is a protected labour right, the findings of this research strongly suggest that public employees do not necessarily enjoy their right to engage, but only reluctantly take industrial action as a "last resort". The findings will, therefore, help public managers and policymakers to appreciate their responsibility in reducing the compulsion for industrial action among public employees. Originality/value This paper provides a general explanation for industrial action from the perspective of the people involved, rather than explaining the causality of specific strike actions. At a time when industrial action is generally declining in the developed industrialised states, this paper sheds light on the rise in collective action in developing countries and especially in the public sector.

Halogenated uracil derivatives are of great interest in modern cancer therapy, either as chemotherapeutics or radiosensitisers depending on their halogen atom. This work applies UV-Vis spectroscopy to study the radiation damage of uracil, 5-bromouracil and 5-fluorouracil dissolved in water in the presence of gold nanoparticles upon irradiation with an Nd:YAG ns-pulsed laser operating at 532 nm at different fluences. Gold nanoparticles absorb light efficiently by their surface plasmon resonance and can significantly damage DNA in their vicinity by an increase of temperature and the generation of reactive secondary species, notably radical fragments and low energy electrons. A recent study using the same experimental approach characterized the efficient laser-induced decomposition of the pyrimidine ring structure of 5-bromouracil mediated by the surface plasmon resonance of gold nanoparticles. The present results show that the presence of irradiated gold nanoparticles decomposes the ring structure of uracil and its halogenated derivatives with similar efficiency. In addition to the fragmentation of the pyrimidine ring, for 5-bromouracil the cleavage of the carbon-halogen bond could be observed, whereas for 5-fluorouracil this reaction channel was inhibited. Locally-released halogen atoms can react with molecular groups within DNA, hence this result indicates a specific mechanism by which doping with 5-bromouracil can enhance DNA damage in the proximity of laser irradiated gold nanoparticles.

Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic affects all European countries, the ways in which these countries are prepared for the health and subsequent economic crisis varies considerably. Financial solidarity within the European Union (EU) could mitigate some of these inequalities but depends upon the support of the citizens of individual member states for such policies. This paper studies attitudes of the Austrian population - a net-contributor to the European budget - towards financial solidarity using two waves of the Austrian Corona Panel Project collected in May and June 2020. We find that individuals (i) who are less likely to consider the Covid-19 pandemic as a national economic threat, (ii) who believe that Austria benefits from supporting other countries, and (iii) who prefer the crisis to be organized more centrally at EU-level show higher support for European financial solidarity. Using fixed effects models, we further show that perceiving economic threats and preferring central crisis management also explain attitude dynamics within individuals over time. We conclude that cost-benefit perceptions are important determinants for individual support of European financial solidarity during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The spatial magnetic properties, through-space NMR shieldings (TSNMRS), of bent cyclobutylcarbene 8, 1,2-diboretane-3-ylidene 9, and some carbene analogues of boron 14-18 as most intriguing examples of carbenes, which can be stabilized as homoaromatic systems with 3c,2e bonding, have been calculated using the GIAO perturbation method employing the nucleus independent chemical shift (NICS) concept and the results visualized as iso-chemical-shielding surfaces (ICSS) of various size and direction. The TSNMRS values (actually, ring current effect/anisotropy effects as measurable in H-1 NMR spectroscopy) are employed to qualify and quantify the degree of present 3c,2e-homoaromaticity. Results are confirmed by geometry (bond angles and bond lengths) and spectroscopic data, the delta(B-11)/ppm data and the C-13 chemical shifts of the carbene electron-deficient centre.

Identifying urban pluvial flood-prone areas is necessary but the application of two-dimensional hydrodynamic models is limited to small areas. Data-driven models have been showing their ability to map flood susceptibility but their application in urban pluvial flooding is still rare. A flood inventory (4333 flooded locations) and 11 factors which potentially indicate an increased hazard for pluvial flooding were used to implement convolutional neural network (CNN), artificial neural network (ANN), random forest (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) to: (1) Map flood susceptibility in Berlin at 30, 10, 5, and 2 m spatial resolutions. (2) Evaluate the trained models' transferability in space. (3) Estimate the most useful factors for flood susceptibility mapping. The models' performance was validated using the Kappa, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). The results indicated that all models perform very well (minimum AUC = 0.87 for the testing dataset). The RF models outperformed all other models at all spatial resolutions and the RF model at 2 m spatial resolution was superior for the present flood inventory and predictor variables. The majority of the models had a moderate performance for predictions outside the training area based on Kappa evaluation (minimum AUC = 0.8). Aspect and altitude were the most influencing factors on the image-based and point-based models respectively. Data-driven models can be a reliable tool for urban pluvial flood susceptibility mapping wherever a reliable flood inventory is available.

Large-scale databases that report the inhibitory capacities of many combinations of candidate drug compounds and cultivated cancer cell lines have driven the development of preclinical drug-sensitivity models based on machine learning. However, cultivated cell lines have devolved from human cancer cells over years or even decades under selective pressure in culture conditions. Moreover, models that have been trained on in vitro data cannot account for interactions with other types of cells. Drug-response data that are based on patient-derived cell cultures, xenografts, and organoids, on the other hand, are not available in the quantities that are needed to train high-capacity machine-learning models. We found that pre-training deep neural network models of drug sensitivity on in vitro drug-sensitivity databases before fine-tuning the model parameters on patient-derived data improves the models’ accuracy and improves the biological plausibility of the features, compared to training only on patient-derived data. From our experiments, we can conclude that pre-trained models outperform models that have been trained on the target domains in the vast majority of cases.