Refine
Year of publication
- 2013 (2103) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (1336)
- Doctoral Thesis (311)
- Monograph/Edited Volume (136)
- Postprint (89)
- Review (71)
- Preprint (49)
- Conference Proceeding (48)
- Part of Periodical (21)
- Other (17)
- Master's Thesis (16)
Language
Keywords
- Curriculum Framework (18)
- European values education (18)
- Europäische Werteerziehung (18)
- Familie (18)
- Family (18)
- Lehrevaluation (18)
- Studierendenaustausch (18)
- Unterrichtseinheiten (18)
- curriculum framework (18)
- lesson evaluation (18)
Institute
- Institut für Biochemie und Biologie (269)
- Institut für Physik und Astronomie (189)
- Institut für Geowissenschaften (187)
- Institut für Chemie (158)
- Wirtschaftswissenschaften (89)
- Department Psychologie (86)
- Institut für Romanistik (84)
- Extern (83)
- Department Linguistik (64)
- Institut für Mathematik (63)
Vorwort
(2013)
Sansibar und der Klimawandel
(2013)
We present and discuss the results of crystallographic and electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopic analyses of five tetrachloridocuprate(II) complexes to supply a useful tool for the structural characterisation of the [CuCl4]2− moiety in the liquid state, for example in ionic liquids, or in solution. Bis(benzyltriethylammonium)-, bis(trimethylphenylammonium)-, bis(ethyltriphenylphosphonium)-, bis(benzyltriphenylphosphonium)-, and bis(tetraphenylarsonium)tetrachloridocuprate(II) were synthesised and characterised by elemental, IR, EPR and X-ray analyses. The results of the crystallographic analyses show distorted tetrahedral coordination geometry of all [CuCl4]2− anions in the five complexes and prove that all investigated complexes are stabilised by hydrogen bonds of different intensities. Despite the use of sterically demanding ammonium, phosphonium and arsonium cations to obtain the separation of the paramagnetic Cu(II) centres for EPR spectroscopy no hyperfine structure was observed in the EPR spectra but the principal values of the electron Zeeman tensor, g∥ and g⊥, could be determined. With these EPR data and the crystallographic parameters we were able to carry out a correlation study to anticipate the structural situation of tetrachloridocuprates in different physical states. This correlation is in good agreement with DFT calculations.
Tetrahalidocuprat(II)-komplexe : Untersuchungen zur Relation von Struktur- und EPR-Parametern
(2013)
Films are nanoscopic elements of foams, emulsions, and suspensions that form a paradigm for nanochannel transport that eventually tests the limits of hydrodynamic descriptions. Here, we study the collapse of a freestanding film to its equilibrium. The generation of nanoscale films usually is a slow linear process; using thermal forcing we find unprecedented dynamics with exponentially fast thinning. The complex interplay of thermal convection, interface, and gravitational forces yields optimal turbulent mixing and transport. Domains of collapsed film are generated, elongated, and convected in a beautiful display of chaotic mixing. With a time scale analysis, we identify mixing as the dominant dynamical process responsible for exponential thinning. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.094501
Thin liquid films serve as the paradigms of atmospheric convection, thermal convection in the Earth’s mantle or turbulence in magnetohydrodynamics, thereby connecting with typical systems exhibiting turbulent mixing. In addition, recent research on colloids, interfaces and nanofluids led to advances in the development of micro-mixers (lab-on-a-chip devices). By the thermal forcing of a film, one can reach Rayleigh numbers in the turbulent regime, such that the experiment may serve as a prototype of a mixer on the basis of thermally induced turbulence in free-standing thin liquid films with thicknesses in the nanometer range. Here, the specific experimental results of a setup with a focus on the mixing statistics of a thermally driven two-dimensional thin film are presented. Our setup allows us to capture thin film interference patterns under controlled surface and atmospheric conditions. The convection is realized by placing a cooled copper rod in the center of the film. The temperature gradient between the rod and the atmosphere results in a density gradient in the liquid film, so that the varying buoyancy induces turbulent motion. The flow field is characterized by a newly developed algorithm-color imaging velocimetry (CIV). This analysis determines not only the velocity, but also the full deformation tensor in the Lagrangian frame. On the basis of these insights, the flow in the experiment was investigated with respect to its mixing properties: we calculated the mixing efficiency and entropy of the flow scheme to sufficiently high accuracy.
In den vergangenen Jahren wurden stetig wachsende Produktionskapazitäten von Biokunststoffen aus nachwachsenden Rohstoffe nverzeichnet. Trotz großer Produktionskapazitäten und einem geeigneten Eigenschaftsprofil findet Stärke nur als hydrophile, mit Weichmachern verarbeitete thermoplastische Stärke (TPS) in Form von Blends mit z. B. Polyestern Anwendung. Gleiches gilt für Kunststoffe auf Proteinbasis. Die vorliegende Arbeit hat die Entwicklung von Biokunststoffen auf Stärkebasis zum Ziel, welche ohne externe Weichmacher thermoplastisch verarbeitbar und hydrophob sind sowie ein mechanisches Eigenschaftsprofil aufweisen, welches ein Potenzial zur Herstellung von Materialien für eine Anwendung als Verpackungsmittel bietet. Um die Rohstoffbasis für Biokunststoffe zu erweitern, soll das erarbeitete Konzept auf zwei industriell verfügbare Proteintypen, Zein und Molkenproteinisolat (WPI), übertragen werden. Als geeignete Materialklasse wurden Fettsäureester der Stärke herausgearbeitet. Zunächst fand ein Vergleich der Säurechlorid-Veresterung und der Umesterung von Fettsäurevinylestern statt, woraus letztere als geeignetere Methode hervorging. Durch Variation der Reaktionsparameter konnte diese optimiert und auf eine Serie der Fettsäurevinylester von Butanoat bis Stearat für DS-Werte bis zu 2,2-2,6 angewandt werden. Möglich war somit eine systematische Studie unter Variation der veresterten Fettsäure sowie des Substitutionsgrades (DS). Sämtliche Produkte mit einem DS ab 1,5 wiesen eine ausgprägte Löslichkeit in organischen Lösungsmitteln auf wodurch sowohl die Aufnahme von NMR-Spektren als auch Molmassenbestimmung mittels Größenausschlusschromatographie mit gekoppelter Mehrwinkel-Laserlichtstreuung (GPC-MALLS) möglich waren. Durch dynamische Lichtstreuung (DLS) wurde das Löslichkeitsverhalten veranschaulicht. Sämtliche Produkte konnten zu Filmen verarbeitet werden, wobei Materialien mit DS 1,5-1,7 hohe Zugfestigkeiten (bis zu 42 MPa) und Elastizitätsmodule (bis 1390 MPa) aufwiesen. Insbesondere Stärkehexanoat mit DS <2 sowie Stärkebutanoat mit DS >2 hatten ein mechanisches Eigenschaftsprofil, welches insbesondere in Bezug auf die Festigkeit/Steifigkeit vergleichbar mit Verpackungsmaterialien wie Polyethylen war (Zugfestigkeit: 15-32 MPa, E-Modul: 300-1300 MPa). Zugfestigkeit und Elastizitätsmodul nahmen mit steigender Kettenlänge der veresterten Fettsäure ab. Ester längerkettiger Fettsäuren (C16-C18) waren spröde. Über Weitwinkel-Röntgenstreuung (WAXS) und Infrarotspektroskopie (ATR-FTIR) konnte der Verlauf der Festigkeiten mit einer zunehmenden Distanz der Stärke im Material begründet werden. Es konnten von DS und Kettenlänge abhängige Glasübergänge detektiert werden, die kristallinen Strukturen der langkettigen Fettsäuren zeigten einen Schmelzpeak. Die Hydrophobie der Filme wurde anhand von Kontaktwinkeln >95° gegen Wasser dargestellt. Blends mit biobasierten Polyterpenen sowie den in der Arbeit hergestellten Zein-Acylderivaten ermöglichten eine weitere Verbesserung der Zugfestigkeit bzw. des Elastizitätsmoduls hochsubstituierter Produkte. Eine thermoplastische Verarbeitung mittels Spritzgießen war sowohl für Produkte mit hohem als auch mittlerem DS-Wert ohne jeglichen Zusatz von Weichmachern möglich. Es entstanden homogene, transparente Prüfstäbe. Untersuchungen der Härte ergaben auch hier für Stärkehexanoat und –butanoat mit Polyethylen vergleichbare Werte. Ausgewählte Produkte wurden zu Fasern nach dem Schmelzspinnverfahren verarbeitet. Hierbei wurden insbesondere für hochsubstituierte Derivate homogenen Fasern erstellt, welche im Vergleich zur Gießfolie signifikant höhere Zugfestigkeiten aufwiesen. Stärkeester mit mittlerem DS ließen sich ebenfalls verarbeiten. Zunächst wurden für eine Übertragung des Konzeptes auf die Proteine Zein und WPI verschiedene Synthesemethoden verglichen. Die Veresterung mit Säurechloriden ergab hierbei die höchsten Werte. Im Hinblick auf eine gute Löslichkeit in organischen Lösungsmitteln wurde für WPI die Veresterung mit carbonyldiimidazol (CDI)-aktivierten Fettsäuren in DMSO und für Zein die Veresterung mit Säu-rechloriden in Pyridin bevorzugt. Es stellte sich heraus, dass acyliertes WPI zwar hydrophob, jedoch ohne Weichmacher nicht thermoplastisch verarbeitet werden konnte. Die Erstellung von Gießfolien führte zu Sprödbruchverhalten. Unter Zugabe der biobasierten Ölsäure wurde die Anwendung von acyliertem WPI als thermoplastischer Filler z. B. in Blends mit Stärkeestern dargestellt. Im Gegensatz hierzu zeigte acyliertes Zein Glasübergänge <100 °C bei ausreichender Stabilität (150-200 °C). Zeinoleat konnte ohne Weichmacher zu einer transparenten Gießfolie verarbeitet werden. Sämtliche Derivate erwiesen sich als ausgeprägt hydrophob. Zeinoleat konnte über das Schmelzspinnverfahren zu thermoplastischen Fasern verarbeitet werden.
The unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is a long-established model organism for studies on photosynthesis and carbon metabolism-related physiology. Under conditions of air-level carbon dioxide concentration [CO2], a carbon concentrating mechanism (CCM) is induced to facilitate cellular carbon uptake. CCM increases the availability of carbon dioxide at the site of cellular carbon fixation. To improve our understanding of the transcriptional control of the CCM, we employed FAIRE-seq (formaldehyde-assisted Isolation of Regulatory Elements, followed by deep sequencing) to determine nucleosome-depleted chromatin regions of algal cells subjected to carbon deprivation. Our FAIRE data recapitulated the positions of known regulatory elements in the promoter of the periplasmic carbonic anhydrase (Cah1) gene, which is upregulated during CCM induction, and revealed new candidate regulatory elements at a genome-wide scale. In addition, time series expression patterns of 130 transcription factor (TF) and transcription regulator (TR) genes were obtained for cells cultured under photoautotrophic condition and subjected to a shift from high to low [CO2]. Groups of co-expressed genes were identified and a putative directed gene-regulatory network underlying the CCM was reconstructed from the gene expression data using the recently developed IOTA (inner composition alignment) method. Among the candidate regulatory genes, two members of the MYB-related TF family, Lcr1 (Low-CO2 response regulator 1) and Lcr2 (Low-CO2 response regulator 2), may play an important role in down-regulating the expression of a particular set of TF and TR genes in response to low [CO2]. The results obtained provide new insights into the transcriptional control of the CCM and revealed more than 60 new candidate regulatory genes. Deep sequencing of nucleosome-depleted genomic regions indicated the presence of new, previously unknown regulatory elements in the C. reinhardtii genome. Our work can serve as a basis for future functional studies of transcriptional regulator genes and genomic regulatory elements in Chlamydomonas.
Temperate forest soils of central Europe are regarded as important pools for soil organic carbon (SOC) and thought to have a high potential for carbon (C) sequestration. However, comprehensive data on total SOC storage, particularly under different forest types, and its drivers is limited. In this study, we analyzed a forest data set of 596 completely sampled soil profiles down to the parent material or to a depth of 1 m within Bavaria in southeast Germany in order to determine representative SOC stocks under different forest types in central Europe and the impact of different environmental parameters. We calculated a total median SOC stock of 9.8 kg m(-2) which is considerably lower compared with many other inventories within central Europe that used modelled instead of measured soil properties. Statistical analyses revealed climate as controlling parameter for the storage of SOC with increasing stocks in cool, humid mountainous regions and a strong decrease in areas with higher temperatures. No significant differences of total SOC storage were found between broadleaf, coniferous and mixed forests. However, coniferous forests stored around 35% of total SOC in the labile organic layer that is prone to human disturbance, forest fires and rising temperatures. In contrast, mixed and broadleaf forests stored the major part of SOC in the mineral soil. Moreover, these two forest types showed unchanged or even slightly increased mineral SOC stocks with higher temperatures, whereas SOC stocks in mineral soils under coniferous forest were distinctly lower. We conclude that mixed and broadleaf forests are more advantageous for C sequestration than coniferous forests. An intensified incorporation of broadleaf species in extent coniferous forests of Bavaria would prevent substantial SOC losses as a result of rising temperatures in the course of climate change.
Agricultural soils have a high potential for sequestration of atmospheric carbon due to their volume and several promising management options. However, there is a remarkable lack of information about the status quo of organic carbon in agricultural soils. In this study a comprehensive data set of 384 cropland soils and 333 grassland soils within the state of Bavaria in southeast Germany was analyzed in order to provide representative information on total amount, regional distribution and driving parameters of soil organic carbon (SOC) and nitrogen (N) in agricultural soils of central Europe. The results showed that grassland soils stored higher amounts of SOC (11.8 kg m(-2)) and N (0.92 kg m(-2)) than cropland soils (9.0 and 0.66 kg m(-2), respectively) due to moisture-induced accumulation of soil organic matter (SOM) in B horizons. Surprisingly, no distinct differences were found for the A horizons since tillage led to a relocation of SOM with depth in cropland soils. Statistical analyses of driving factors for SOM storage revealed soil moisture, represented by the topographic wetness index (TWI), as the most important parameter for both cropland and grassland soils. Climate effects (mean annual temperature and precipitation) were of minor importance in agricultural soils because management options counteracted them to a certain extent, particularly in cropland soils. The distribution of SOC and N stocks within Bavaria based on agricultural regions confirmed the importance of soil moisture since the highest cropland SOC and N stocks were found for tertiary hills and loess regions, which exhibited large areas with potentially high soil moisture content in extant floodplains. Grassland soils showed the highest accumulation of SOC and N in the Alps and Pre-Alps as a result of low temperatures, high amounts of precipitation and high soil moisture content in areas of glacial denudation. Soil class was identified as a further driving parameter for SOC and N storage in cropland soils. In total, cropland and grassland soils in Bavaria store 242 and 134 Mt SOC as well as 19 and 12 Mt N down to a soil depth of 1 m or the parent material, respectively.
Deep into the second half of the twentieth century the traditionalist definition of India as a country of villages remained dominant in official political rhetoric as well as cultural production. In the past two decades or so, this ruralist paradigm has been effectively superseded by a metropolitan imaginary in which the modern, globalised megacity increasingly functions as representative of India as a whole. Has the village, then, entirely vanished from the cultural imaginary in contemporary India? Addressing economic practices from upper-class consumerism to working-class family support strategies, this paper attempts to trace how ‘the village’ resurfaces or survives as a cultural reference point in the midst of the urban.
Deep into the second half of the twentieth century the traditionalist definition of India as a country of villages remained dominant in official political rhetoric as well as cultural production. In the past two decades or so, this ruralist paradigm has been effectively superseded by a metropolitan imaginary in which the modern, globalised megacity increasingly functions as representative of India as a whole. Has the village, then, entirely vanished from the cultural imaginary in contemporary India? Addressing economic practices from upper-class consumerism to working-class family support strategies, this paper attempts to trace how 'the village' resurfaces or survives as a cultural reference point in the midst of the urban.
Gleichheit
(2013)
The rapid reorganization of the actin cytoskeleton in response to external stimuli is an essential property of many motile eukaryotic cells. Here, we report evidence that the actin machinery of chemotactic Dictyostelium cells operates close to an oscillatory instability. When averaging the actin response of many cells to a short pulse of the chemoattractant cAMP, we observed a transient accumulation of cortical actin reminiscent of a damped oscillation. At the single-cell level, however, the response dynamics ranged from short, strongly damped responses to slowly decaying, weakly damped oscillations. Furthermore, in a small subpopulation, we observed self-sustained oscillations in the cortical F-actin concentration. To substantiate that an oscillatory mechanism governs the actin dynamics in these cells, we systematically exposed a large number of cells to periodic pulse trains of different frequencies. Our results indicate a resonance peak at a stimulation period of around 20 s. We propose a delayed feedback model that explains our experimental findings based on a time-delay in the regulatory network of the actin system. To test the model, we performed stimulation experiments with cells that express GFP-tagged fusion proteins of Coronin and actin-interacting protein 1, as well as knockout mutants that lack Coronin and actin-interacting protein 1. These actin-binding proteins enhance the disassembly of actin filaments and thus allow us to estimate the delay time in the regulatory feedback loop. Based on this independent estimate, our model predicts an intrinsic period of 20 s, which agrees with the resonance observed in our periodic stimulation experiments.
An asymmetric variant of the dehydro-Diels-Alder (DDA) reaction has been developed and applied in the atropselective synthesis of various (1,5)naphthalenophanes. Whereas the suitability of the photochemically induced DDA (PDDA) was limited, the thermally induced DDA provided the desired product, depending on the chiral auxiliary used and the length of the linker, with nearly perfect stereoselectivity. Furthermore, the mechanism of the DDA was investigated by means of DFT calculations, and a stepwise mechanism involving 1,4-biradicals was suggested.
Various 1,6- and 1,8-naphthalenophanes were synthesized by using the Photo-Dehydro-Diels-Alder (PDDA) reaction of bis-ynones. These compounds are easily accessible from omega-(3-iodophenyl)carboxylic acids in three steps. The obtained naphthalenophanes are axially chiral and the activation barrier for the atropisomerization could be determined in some cases by means of dynamic NMR (DNMR) and/or dynamic HPLC (DHPLC) experiments.
Various 1,6- and 1,8-naphthalenophanes were synthesized by using the Photo-Dehydro-Diels-Alder (PDDA) reaction of bis-ynones. These compounds are easily accessible from omega-(3-iodophenyl)carboxylic acids in three steps. The obtained naphthalenophanes are axially chiral and the activation barrier for the atropisomerization could be determined in some cases by means of dynamic NMR (DNMR) and/or dynamic HPLC (DHPLC) experiments.
Das Konzept der dynamischen Fähigkeiten, das der Forschung zur Privatwirtschaft entspringt, stellt die Frage wie Unternehmen um ihre Ressourcen optimal nutzen zu können, Fähigkeiten entwickeln, durch die sie in der Lage sind, sich stetig zu verbessern. Da sich auch im öffentlichen Sektor die Frage nach einer verbesserten Nutzung und Einsetzung der zur Verfügung stehenden Potentiale stellt, ist es Ziel dieser Arbeit das Konzept der dynamischen Fähigkeiten auf den öffentlichen Sektor und hierein den Untersuchungsgegenstand Museum anzuwenden. Somit werden mithilfe der Durchführung einer explorativen Fallstudie dynamische Fähigkeiten und deren Parameter untersucht und identifiziert. Hierzu wird zuerst das der Arbeit zugrundeliegende theoretische Verständnis des Konzepts dargelegt um darauf aufbauend anhand narrativer Interviews mit Mitarbeitern des Jüdischen Museums Berlin im empirischen Teil der Arbeit das Konstrukt auf den Untersuchungsgegenstand anzuwenden. Durch den somit erlangten detaillierten Einblick können dynamische Fähigkeiten und Faktoren, die sich auf diese auswirken, identifiziert werden.
Der Aufsatz rekonstruiert Daniel Heinsius’ Verachtung der Philologie, wie sie in seinen „Orationes” zum Ausdruck kommt. Die These lautet, dass diese Verachtung in Heinsius’ neuplatonischer Poetik mit ihrer Sakralisierung der Dichtung begründet ist. In seinem Kommentar zur aristotelischen „Poetik“, der „Constitutio tragoediae“, ordnet Heinsius das technische Wissen der aristotelischen „Poetik“ der neuplatonischen Inspirationstheorie unter. Dadurch transformiert er den traditionellen, historisch-philologischen Kommentar in eine neue Form des technischen Handbuchs, wie es die „Constitutio tragoediae“ darstellt.
Global commons form a comparatively new part of international law, since the term appeared in international discussions and codifications only in the second half of the 20th century. The Common Heritage of Mankind is the corresponding legal principle that can establish an international regime to determine the legal status of non-sovereign territories and to allocate exploitation rights. Its main aim is to balance competing national claims by emphasising mankind’s common interest in the preservation and controlled exploitation of natural re-
sources. Against this background, the chapter sheds a critical light on attempts to transfer the institute of the Common Heritage of Mankind to the sphere of communication. Taking debates revolving around the New World Information and Communication Order in the framework of UNESCO since the late 1970s as a starting point, the author analyses the pitfalls and limits of attempts to establish governance structures for a global information order, including recent attempts to govern the internet.
We investigated the morphology, phylogeny of the 18S rDNA, and pH response of Oxytricha acidotolerans sp. nov. and Urosomoida sp. (Ciliophora, Hypotricha) isolated from two chemically similar acid mining lakes (pH similar to 2.6) located at Langau, Austria, and in Lusatia, Germany. Oxytricha acidotolerans sp. nov. from Langau has 18 frontal-ventral-transverse cirri but a very indistinct kinety 3 fragmentation so that the assignment to Oxytricha is uncertain. The somewhat smaller species from Lusatia has a highly variable cirral pattern and the dorsal kineties arranged in the Urosomoida pattern and is, therefore, preliminary designated as Urosomoida sp. The pH response was measured as ciliate growth rates in laboratory experiments at pH ranging from 2.5 to 7.0. Our hypothesis was that the shape of the pH reaction norm would not differ between these closely related (3% difference in their SSU rDNA) species. Results revealed a broad pH niche for O. acidotolerans, with growth rates peaking at moderately acidic conditions (pH 5.2). Cyst formation was positively and linearly related to pH. Urosomoida sp. was more sensitive to pH and did not survive at circumneutral pH. Accordingly, we reject our hypothesis that similar habitats would harbour ciliate species with virtually identical pH reaction norm.
Multiple environmental stressors confine the ecological niche of the rotifer Cephalodella acidophila
(2013)
1The planktonic food web in extremely acidic mining lakes is restricted to a few species that are either acidophilic or acidotolerant. Common metazoans inhabiting acidic mining lakes with a pH below 3 include rotifers in the genera Cephalodella and Elosa. 2The life history response of Cephalodella acidophila to three environmental key factors, pH (2, 3.5, 5.0 and 7.0), temperature (10, 17.5 and 25 degrees C) and food concentration (10000, 35000 and 50000algal cells per mL), was investigated in a full factorial design using life-table experiments. 3The effect of each of the three environmental variables investigated on the rotifer life cycle parameters (life span, fecundity and population growth rate) differed. C.acidophila is a stenoecious species with a pH optimum in the range 34 and a comparably high food threshold. Combining the laboratory results with field data, we conclude that C.acidophila is severely growth limited in its natural habitat. However, low pH alone is not harmful as long as temperatures are moderate to warm and food is abundant. 4The population of C.acidophila in the field is maintained mainly due to release from competitors and predators.
Bekenntnisse
(2013)
Informatics as a school subject has been virtually absent from bilingual education programs in German secondary schools. Most bilingual programs in German secondary education started out by focusing on subjects from the field of social sciences. Teachers and bilingual curriculum experts alike have been regarding those as the most suitable subjects for bilingual instruction – largely due to the intercultural perspective that a bilingual approach provides. And though one cannot deny the gain that ensues from an intercultural perspective on subjects such as history or geography, this benefit is certainly not limited to social science subjects. In consequence, bilingual curriculum designers have already begun to include other subjects such as physics or chemistry in bilingual school programs. It only seems a small step to extend this to informatics. This paper will start out by addressing potential benefits of adding informatics to the range of subjects taught as part of English-language bilingual programs in German secondary education. In a second step it will sketch out a methodological (= didactical) model for teaching informatics to German learners through English. It will then provide two items of hands-on and tested teaching material in accordance with this model. The discussion will conclude with a brief outlook on the chances and prerequisites of firmly establishing informatics as part of bilingual school curricula in Germany.
The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the amount of inter-speaker variability in the articulation of monozygotic twin pairs (MZ), dizygotic twin pairs (DZ), and pairs of unrelated twins with the goal of examining in greater depth the influence of physiology on articulation. Physiological parameters are assumed to be very similar in MZ twin pairs in contrast to DZ twin pairs or unrelated speakers, and it is hypothesized that the speaker specific shape of articulatory looping trajectories of the tongue is at least partly dependent on biomechanical properties and the speaker's individual physiology. By means of electromagnetic articulography (EMA), inter-speaker variability in the looping trajectories of the tongue back during /VCV/ sequences is analyzed. Results reveal similar looping patterns within MZ twin pairs but in DZ pairs differences in the shape of the loop, the direction of the upward and downward movement, and the amount of horizontal sliding movement at the palate are found.
Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit in der Russischen Föderation und in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
(2013)
Der Tagungsband enthält die Referate und Diskussionsbeiträge des in Moskau an der Staatlichen Juristischen Kutafin-Universität am 9. und 10. Oktober 2012 durchgeführten Rundtischgespräches zur Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit. Behandelt werden ausgewählte rechtshistorische und -politische Fragen sowie aktuelle rechtliche Probleme der Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit in der Russischen Föderation und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland sowohl aus der Sicht der Rechtspraxis als auch der Wissenschaft: insbesondere die Entwicklung der Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit in Geschichte und Gegenwart, Status, Rechtsnatur und Aufgaben des Verfassungsgerichts in den Subjekten der Föderation und in den Ländern sowie Verfassungsgericht und Gesetzgebung. Zudem werden Spezialfragen der Verfassungsgerichtsbarkeit erörtert, z.B. die Institution des Bevollmächtigten Vertreters des Präsidenten im Verfassungsgericht in Russland, der Eilrechtsschutz durch das BVerfG und der Rechtsschutz bei überlangen Verfahren vor dem BVerfG in Deutschland.
Multi-messenger constraints and pressure from dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs
(2013)
Despite striking evidence for the existence of dark matter from astrophysical observations, dark matter has still escaped any direct or indirect detection until today. Therefore a proof for its existence and the revelation of its nature belongs to one of the most intriguing challenges of nowadays cosmology and particle physics. The present work tries to investigate the nature of dark matter through indirect signatures from dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs in two different ways, pressure from dark matter annihilation and multi-messenger constraints on the dark matter annihilation cross-section. We focus on dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs and adopt a model-independent approach, where all the electrons and positrons are injected with the same initial energy E_0 ~ m_dm*c^2. The propagation of these particles is determined by solving the diffusion-loss equation, considering inverse Compton scattering, synchrotron radiation, Coulomb collisions, bremsstrahlung, and ionization. The first part of this work, focusing on pressure from dark matter annihilation, demonstrates that dark matter annihilation into electron-positron pairs may affect the observed rotation curve by a significant amount. The injection rate of this calculation is constrained by INTEGRAL, Fermi, and H.E.S.S. data. The pressure of the relativistic electron-positron gas is computed from the energy spectrum predicted by the diffusion-loss equation. For values of the gas density and magnetic field that are representative of the Milky Way, it is estimated that the pressure gradients are strong enough to balance gravity in the central parts if E_0 < 1 GeV. The exact value depends somewhat on the astrophysical parameters, and it changes dramatically with the slope of the dark matter density profile. For very steep slopes, as those expected from adiabatic contraction, the rotation curves of spiral galaxies would be affected on kiloparsec scales for most values of E_0. By comparing the predicted rotation curves with observations of dwarf and low surface brightness galaxies, we show that the pressure from dark matter annihilation may improve the agreement between theory and observations in some cases, but it also imposes severe constraints on the model parameters (most notably, the inner slope of the halo density profile, as well as the mass and the annihilation cross-section of dark matter particles into electron-positron pairs). In the second part, upper limits on the dark matter annihilation cross-section into electron-positron pairs are obtained by combining observed data at different wavelengths (from Haslam, WMAP, and Fermi all-sky intensity maps) with recent measurements of the electron and positron spectra in the solar neighbourhood by PAMELA, Fermi, and H.E.S.S.. We consider synchrotron emission in the radio and microwave bands, as well as inverse Compton scattering and final-state radiation at gamma-ray energies. For most values of the model parameters, the tightest constraints are imposed by the local positron spectrum and synchrotron emission from the central regions of the Galaxy. According to our results, the annihilation cross-section should not be higher than the canonical value for a thermal relic if the mass of the dark matter candidate is smaller than a few GeV. In addition, we also derive a stringent upper limit on the inner logarithmic slope α of the density profile of the Milky Way dark matter halo (α < 1 if m_dm < 5 GeV, α < 1.3 if m_dm < 100 GeV and α < 1.5 if m_dm < 2 TeV) assuming a dark matter annihilation cross-section into electron-positron pairs (σv) = 3*10^−26 cm^3 s^−1, as predicted for thermal relics from the big bang.
Previously, [1,3]dioxolo[4,5-f][1,3]benzodioxole (DBD)-based fluorophores used as highly sensitive fluorescence lifetime probes reporting on their microenvironmental polarity have been described. Now, a new generation of DBD dyes has been developed. Although they are still sensitive to polarity, in contrast to the former DBD dyes, they have extraordinary spectroscopic properties even in aqueous surroundings. They are characterized by long fluorescence lifetimes (10-20ns), large Stokes shifts (approximate to 100nm), high photostabilities, and high quantum yields (>0.56). Here, the spectroscopic properties and synthesis of functionalized derivatives for labeling biological targets are described. Furthermore, thio-reactive maleimido derivatives of both DBD generations show strong intramolecular fluorescence quenching. This mechanism has been investigated and is found to undergo a photoelectron transfer (PET) process. After reaction with a thiol group, this fluorescence quenching is prevented, indicating successful bonding. Being sensitive to their environmental polarity, these compounds have been used as powerful fluorescence lifetime probes for the investigation of conformational changes in the maltose ATP-binding cassette transporter through fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy. The differing tendencies of the fluorescence lifetime change for both DBD dye generations promote their combination as a powerful toolkit for studying microenvironments in proteins.
Fluoreszenzfarbstoffe mit Dioxolobenzodioxol-Grundgerüst: Synthese, Untersuchungen und Anwendungen
(2013)
Developmental senescence is a coordinated physiological process in plants and is critical for nutrient redistribution from senescing leaves to newly formed sink organs, including young leaves and developing seeds. Progress has been made concerning the genes involved and the regulatory networks controlling senescence. The resulting complex metabolome changes during senescence have not been investigated in detail yet. Therefore, we conducted a comprehensive profiling of metabolites, including pigments, lipids, sugars, amino acids, organic acids, nutrient ions, and secondary metabolites, and determined approximately 260 metabolites at distinct stages in leaves and siliques during senescence in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). This provided an extensive catalog of metabolites and their spatiotemporal cobehavior with progressing senescence. Comparison with silique data provides clues to source-sink relations. Furthermore, we analyzed the metabolite distribution within single leaves along the basipetal sink-source transition trajectory during senescence. Ceramides, lysolipids, aromatic amino acids, branched chain amino acids, and stress-induced amino acids accumulated, and an imbalance of asparagine/aspartate, glutamate/glutamine, and nutrient ions in the tip region of leaves was detected. Furthermore, the spatiotemporal distribution of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates was already changed in the presenescent leaves, and glucosinolates, raffinose, and galactinol accumulated in the base region of leaves with preceding senescence. These results are discussed in the context of current models of the metabolic shifts occurring during developmental and environmentally induced senescence. As senescence processes are correlated to crop yield, the metabolome data and the approach provided here can serve as a blueprint for the analysis of traits and conditions linking crop yield and senescence.
Aim In response to environmental changes and to avoid extinction, species may either track suitable environmental conditions or adapt to the modified environment. However, whether and how species adapt to environmental changes remains unclear. By focusing on the realized niche (i.e. the actual space that a species inhabits and the resources it can access as a result of limiting biotic factors present in its habitat), we here examine shifts in the realized-niche width (i.e. ecological amplitude) and position (i.e. ecological optimum) of 26 common and widespread forest understorey plants across their distributional ranges.
Location Temperate forests along a ca. 1800-km-long latitudinal gradient from northern France to central Sweden and Estonia.
Methods We derived species' realized-niche width from a -diversity metric, which increases if the focal species co-occurs with more species. Based on the concept that species' scores in a detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) represent the locations of their realized-niche positions, we developed a novel approach to run species-specific DCAs allowing the focal species to shift its realized-niche position along the studied latitudinal gradient while the realized-niche positions of other species were held constant.
Results None of the 26 species maintained both their realized-niche width and position along the latitudinal gradient. Few species (9 of 26: 35%) shifted their realized-niche width, but all shifted their realized-niche position. With increasing latitude, most species (22 of 26: 85%) shifted their realized-niche position for soil nutrients and pH towards nutrient-poorer and more acidic soils.
Main conclusions Forest understorey plants shifted their realized niche along the latitudinal gradient, suggesting local adaptation and/or plasticity. This macroecological pattern casts doubt on the idea that the realized niche is stable in space and time, which is a key assumption of species distribution models used to predict the future of biodiversity, hence raising concern about predicted extinction rates.
The Respiratory Arsenite Oxidase: Structure and the Role of Residues
Surrounding the Rieske Cluster
(2013)
The arsenite oxidase (Aio) from the facultative autotrophic Alphaproteobacterium Rhizobium sp. NT-26 is a bioenergetic enzyme involved in the oxidation of arsenite to arsenate. The enzyme from the distantly related heterotroph, Alcaligenes faecalis, which is thought to oxidise arsenite for detoxification, consists of a large alpha subunit (AioA) with bis-molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide at its active site and a 3Fe-4S cluster, and a small beta subunit (AioB) which contains a Rieske 2Fe-2S cluster. The successful heterologous expression of the NT-26 Aio in Escherichia coli has resulted in the solution of its crystal structure. The NT-26 Aio, a heterotetramer, shares high overall similarity to the heterodimeric arsenite oxidase from A. faecalis but there are striking differences in the structure surrounding the Rieske 2Fe-2S cluster which we demonstrate explains the difference in the observed redox potentials (+225 mV vs. +130/160 mV, respectively). A combination of site-directed mutagenesis and electron paramagnetic resonance was used to explore the differences observed in the structure and redox properties of the Rieske cluster. In the NT-26 AioB the substitution of a serine (S126 in NT-26) for a threonine as in the A. faecalis AioB explains a -20 mV decrease in redox potential. The disulphide bridge in the A. faecalis AioB which is conserved in other betaproteobacterial AioB subunits and the Rieske subunit of the cytochrome bc(1) complex is absent in the NT-26 AioB subunit. The introduction of a disulphide bridge had no effect on Aio activity or protein stability but resulted in a decrease in the redox potential of the cluster. These results are in conflict with previous data on the betaproteobacterial AioB subunit and the Rieske of the bc(1) complex where removal of the disulphide bridge had no effect on the redox potential of the former but a decrease in cluster stability was observed in the latter.
BACKGROUND: Mirror therapy (MT) was found to improve motor function after stroke, but its neural mechanisms remain unclear, especially in single stroke patients.
OBJECTIVES: The following imaging study was designed to compare brain activation patterns evoked by the mirror illusion in single stroke patients with normal subjects.
METHODS: Fifteen normal volunteers and five stroke patients with severe arm paresis were recruited. Cerebral activations during movement mirroring by means of a video chain were recorded with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Single-subject analysis was performed using SPM 8.
RESULTS: For normal subjects, ten and thirteen subjects displayed lateralized cerebral activations evoked by the mirror illusion while moving their right and left hand respectively. The magnitude of this effect in the precuneus contralateral to the seen hand was not dependent on movement speed or subjective experience. Negative correlation of activation strength with age was found for the right hand only. The activation pattern in stroke patients is comparable to that of normal subjects and present in four out of five patients.
CONCLUSIONS: In summary, the mirror illusion can elicit cerebral activation contralateral to the perceived hand in the majority of single normal subjects, but not in all of them. This is similar even in stroke patients with severe hemiparesis.
Objective: To compare lateralized cerebral activations elicited during self-initiated movement mirroring and observation of movements.
Subjects: A total of 15 right-handed healthy subjects, age range 22-56 years.
Methods: Functional imaging study comparing movement mirroring with movement observation, in both hands, in an otherwise identical setting. Imaging data were analysed using statistical parametric mapping software, with significance threshold set at p<0.01 (false discovery rate) and a minimum cluster size of 20 voxels.
Results: Movement mirroring induced additional activation in primary and higher-order visual areas strictly contralateral to the limb seen by the subject. There was no significant difference of brain activity when comparing movement observation of somebody else's right hand with left hand.
Conclusion: Lateralized cerebral activations are elicited by inversion of visual feedback (movement mirroring), but not by movement observation.
The Pleistocene archeological record in East Africa has revealed unusual accumulations of Acheulean handaxes at prehistoric sites. In particular, there has been intensive debate concerning whether the artifact accumulation at the Middle Pleistocene Olorgesailie (Southern Kenya Rift) and Kariandusi (Central Kenya Rift) sites were a result of fluvial reworking or of in situ deposition by hominids. We used a two-step approach to test the hypothesis of fluvial reworking. Firstly, the behavior of handaxes in water currents was investigated in a current flume and the flow threshold required to reorientate the handaxes was determined. The results of these experiments suggested that, in relatively high energy and non-steady flow conditions, handaxes will reorientate themselves perpendicular to the current direction. Secondly, an automated image analysis routine was developed and applied to archeological plans from three Acheulean sites, two at Olorgesailie and one at Kariandusi, in order to determine the orientations of the handaxes. A Rayleigh test was then applied to the orientation data to test for a preferred orientation. The results revealed that the handaxes at the Upper Kariandusi Site and the Olorgesailie Main Site Mid Trench had a preferential orientation, suggesting reworking by a paleocurrent. The handaxes from the Olorgesailie Main Site H/6A, however, appeared to be randomly oriented and in situ deposition by the producers therefore remains a possibility.
In a recent paper with N. Tarkhanov, the Lefschetz number for endomorphisms (modulo trace class operators) of sequences of trace class curvature was introduced. We show that this is a well defined, canonical extension of the classical Lefschetz number and establish the homotopy invariance of this number. Moreover, we apply the results to show that the Lefschetz fixed point formula holds for geometric quasiendomorphisms of elliptic quasicomplexes.
The nutrition of animal consumers is an important regulator of ecological processes due to its effects on their physiology, life-history and behaviour. Understanding the ecological effects of poor nutrition depends on correctly diagnosing the nature and strength of nutritional limitation. Despite the need to assess nutritional limitation, current approaches to delineating nutritional constraints can be non-specific and imprecise. Here, we consider the need and potential to develop new complementary approaches to the study of nutritional constraints on animal consumers by studying and using a suite of established and emerging biochemical and molecular responses. These nutritional indicators include gene expression, transcript regulators, protein profiling and activity, and gross biochemical and elemental composition. The potential applications of nutritional indicators to ecological studies are highlighted to demonstrate the value that this approach would have to future studies in community and ecosystem ecology.
We know exactly what you want the development of a completely individualised conjoint analysis
(2013)
Improving the predictive validity of conjoint analysis has been an important research objective for many years. Whereas the majority of attempts have been different approaches to preference modelling, data collection or product presentation, only a few scholars have tried to improve predictive validity by individualising conjoint designs. This comes as a surprise because many markets have observed an augmented demand for customised products and highly heterogeneous customers' preferences. Against this background, the authors develop a conjoint variant based on a completely individualised conjoint design. More concretely, the new approach not only individualises the attributes, but also the attribute levels. The results of a comprehensive empirical study yield a significantly higher validity than existing standardised-level conjoint approaches. Consequently, they help marketers to gain deeper insights into their customers' preferences.
Nodularia spumigena is a filamentous diazotrophic cyanobacterium that dominates the annual late summer cyanobacterial blooms in the Baltic Sea. But N. spumigena also is common in brackish water bodies worldwide, suggesting special adaptation allowing it to thrive at moderate salinities. A draft genome analysis of N. spumigena sp. CCY9414 yielded a single scaffold of 5,462,271 nucleotides in length on which genes for 5,294 proteins were annotated. A subsequent strand-specific transcriptome analysis identified more than 6,000 putative transcriptional start sites (TSS). Orphan TSSs located in intergenic regions led us to predict 764 non-coding RNAs, among them 70 copies of a possible retrotransposon and several potential RNA regulators, some of which are also present in other N2-fixing cyanobacteria. Approximately 4% of the total coding capacity is devoted to the production of secondary metabolites, among them the potent hepatotoxin nodularin, the linear spumigin and the cyclic nodulapeptin. The transcriptional complexity associated with genes involved in nitrogen fixation and heterocyst differentiation is considerably smaller compared to other Nostocales. In contrast, sophisticated systems exist for the uptake and assimilation of iron and phosphorus compounds, for the synthesis of compatible solutes, and for the formation of gas vesicles, required for the active control of buoyancy. Hence, the annotation and interpretation of this sequence provides a vast array of clues into the genomic underpinnings of the physiology of this cyanobacterium and indicates in particular a competitive edge of N. spumigena in nutrient-limited brackish water ecosystems.
In undisturbed tropical montane rainforests massive organic layers accommodate the majority of roots and only a small fraction of roots penetrate the mineral soil. We investigated the contribution of vegetation to slope stability in such environments by modifying a standard model for slope stability to include an organic layer with distinct mechanical properties. The importance of individual model parameters was evaluated using detailed measurements of soil and vegetation properties to reproduce the observed depth of 11 shallow landslides in the Andes of southern Ecuador. By distinguishing mineral soil, organic layer and above-ground biomass, it is shown that in this environment vegetation provides a destabilizing effect mainly due to its contribution to the mass of the organic layer (up to 973 t ha-1 under wet conditions). Sensitivity analysis shows that the destabilizing effect of the mass of soil and vegetation can only be effective on slopes steeper than 37.9 degrees. This situation applies to 36% of the study area. Thus, on the steep slopes of this megadiverse ecosystem, the mass of the growing forest promotes landsliding, which in turn promotes a new cycle of succession. This feedback mechanism is worth consideration in further investigations of the impact of landslides on plant diversity in similar environments.
This paper presents a simple approach for the temporal disaggregation from daily to 3-hourly observed gridded temperature and precipitation (1 x 1km(2)) on the national scale. The intended use of the disaggregated 3-hourly data is to recalibrate the hydrological model currently used by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) for daily flood forecasting. By adapting the hydrological model to a 3-hourly temporal scale, the flood forecasting can benefit from available meteorological forecasts with finer temporal resolution and can better represent critical events of short duration and at small spatial scales. By consulting the temporal patterns of a High-Resolution Limited-Area Model (HIRLAM) hindcast series for northern Europe with an hourly temporal and a 0.1 degrees spatial resolution, existing daily 1 x 1km(2) grids for temperature and precipitation covering all of Norway (the seNorge data) were disaggregated into 3-hourly values for the time period September 1957 to December 2010. For the period 2000-05, the disaggregated 3-hourly temperature and precipitation data are validated against observed values from five meteorological stations and against 3-hourly data from the HIRLAM hindcast and daily seNorge data simply split into eight fractions. The results show that the disaggregated data perform best with anomaly correlation coefficients between 0.89 and 0.92 for temperature. With regard to precipitation, the disaggregated data also provide the highest correlations and the lowest errors. In addition, the disaggregated data prove to be best in estimating intervals without precipitation and tend to be most appropriate in estimating extreme precipitation with low occurrence probability (<20%).
Gewaltfiguren
(2013)
Das Personalmanagement in der öffentlichen Verwaltung steht in Zeiten von Haushaltskürzungen und demographischem Wandel vor der Herausforderung, den gestiegenen Erwartungen an Effizienz und Effektivität mit zunehmend älteren Belegschaften zu begegnen. Als ein wesentlicher Stellhebel für den Erhalt bzw. die Steigerung der Arbeitsfähigkeit der Mitarbeiter gilt in der wissenschaftlichen Debatte die Qualität des Führungsverhaltens der Führungskräfte. Im Fokus dieser Arbeit steht das Konzept altersspezifischer Führung, das sich an den individuellen, altersspezifischen Bedürfnissen des einzelnen Mitarbeiters orientiert. Es wird mittels einer standardisierten Befragung von Führungskräften und deren Mitarbeitern in einer Dienststelle der Bundesagentur für Arbeit untersucht, ob die Ausprägung altersspezifischer Führung Einfluss auf die Qualität der dyadischen Arbeitsbeziehung von Führungskraft und Mitarbeiter (LMX-Qualität) hat. Dafür wird zunächst überprüft, wie altersspezifisch die befragten Führungskräfte führen, und welche Faktoren darauf Einfluss nehmen. Im Ergebnis der Untersuchung zeigt sich, dass ein hochsignifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen altersspezifischer Führung und der LMX-Qualität besteht. Daneben stellt sich heraus, dass die befragten Führungskräfte überwiegend altersspezifisches Führungsverhalten aufweisen, wobei jedoch zu berücksichtigen ist, dass die Ergebnisse auch durch organisationale Vorgaben beeinflusst werden, die den Handlungsspielraum der Führungskräfte begrenzen. Auch wurde für die untersuchte Stichprobe festgestellt, dass Alter und Führungserfahrung die Ausprägung altersspezifischen Führungsverhaltens beeinflussen, während sich für das Geschlecht sowie eine vorurteilsfreie Wahrnehmung älterer Mitarbeiter kein Zusammenhang gezeigt hat.
What theories best characterise the parsing processes triggered upon encountering ambiguity, and what effects do these processes have on eye movement patterns in reading? The present eye-tracking study, which investigated processing of attachment ambiguities of an adjunct in Spanish, suggests that readers sometimes underspecify attachment to save memory resources, consistent with the good-enough account of parsing. Our results confirm a surprising prediction of the good-enough account: high-capacity readers commit to an attachment decision more often than low-capacity participants, leading to more errors and a greater need to reanalyse in garden-path sentences. These results emerged only when we separated functionally different types of regressive eye movements using a scanpath analysis; conventional eye-tracking measures alone would have led to different conclusions. The scanpath analysis also showed that rereading was the dominant strategy for recovering from garden-pathing. Our results may also have broader implications for models of reading processes: reanalysis effects in eye movements occurred late, which suggests that the coupling of oculo-motor control and the parser may not be as tight as assumed in current computational models of eye movement control in reading.
Human-mediated dispersal is known as an important driver of long-distance dispersal for plants but underlying mechanisms have rarely been assessed. Road corridors function as routes of secondary dispersal for many plant species but the extent to which vehicles support this process remains unclear. In this paper we quantify dispersal distances and seed deposition of plant species moved over the ground by the slipstream of passing cars. We exposed marked seeds of four species on a section of road and drove a car along the road at a speed of 48 km/h. By tracking seeds we quantified movement parallel as well as lateral to the road, resulting dispersal kernels, and the effect of repeated vehicle passes. Median distances travelled by seeds along the road were about eight meters for species with wind dispersal morphologies and one meter for species without such adaptations. Airflow created by the car lifted seeds and resulted in longitudinal dispersal. Single seeds reached our maximum measuring distance of 45 m and for some species exceeded distances under primary dispersal. Mathematical models were fit to dispersal kernels. The incremental effect of passing vehicles on longitudinal dispersal decreased with increasing number of passes as seeds accumulated at road verges. We conclude that dispersal by vehicle airflow facilitates seed movement along roads and accumulation of seeds in roadside habitats. Dispersal by vehicle airflow can aid the spread of plant species and thus has wide implications for roadside ecology, invasion biology and nature conservation.
Two synthetic approaches to functionalize plant oil derived platform chemicals were investigated. For this purpose, methyl 10-undecenoate, which can be obtained by pyrolysis of castor oil, was used in olefin cross-metathesis under neat conditions forming an unsaturated a,?-acetoxy ester. A catalyst screening with 11 different ruthenium-based metathesis catalysts was performed, revealing that well-suited catalysts allow for full conversion and very good cross-metathesis selectivity at a loading of only 0.5?mol%. An alternative possibility to the aforementioned synthetic method is a palladium-catalyzed reaction of methyl 10-undecenoate with acetic acid in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide. Here, the formation of linear and branched unsaturated acetoxy esters as well as a ketone was observed. The conversion as well as the selectivity of this procedure was studied under different reaction conditions and compared to the cross-metathesis results. Based on the successful functionalization of methyl 10-undecenoate, methyl oleate was investigated in this palladium-catalyzed C?H activation reaction. Due to the lower reactivity of the internal double bond the desired acetoxy ester was only obtained in moderate conversion in this case. In summary, this study clearly shows that palladium-catalyzed functionalization of unsaturated fatty compounds via C?H activation is an attractive alternative to the well-established olefin cross-metathesis procedure.
Gegenstand dieser Arbeit sind die (Selbst-)Darstellungen von Gründer_innen von Nichtregierungsorganisationen (NGOs) im Bereich Kinder- und Frauenrechte in Tamil Nadu, Südindien. Um diese (Selbst-)Darstellungen angemessen analysieren zu können, wird zuerst eine analytische Herangehensweise entworfen, die davon ausgeht, dass bestehende soziologische Konzepte, die in erster Linie in Auseinandersetzung mit einem spezifischen (west-europäischen) Kontext entstanden sind, nicht unhinterfragt auf andere Kontexte übertragen werden können. Das erschwert die Verwendung von Begrifflichkeiten wie „Zivilgesellschaft“, „Entwicklung“ oder auch der scheinbar klaren Dichotomie von Moderne und Tradition. Eisenstadt machte diese Problematik in der von ihm begonnenen Debatte um „Multiple Modernities“ deutlich. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird an diese Diskussion mit handlungstheoretischen Argumenten angeknüpft, um auch Akteursperspektiven angemessen analysieren zu können. Nachdem der theoretische Rahmen und die methodische Grundlage der Arbeit erläutert wurden, wird Kontextwissen erarbeitet, um die Analyse der Interviews einzubetten. Es werden Diskurse um Kaste und den Status von Frauen sowie Aspekte der aktuellen politischen Situation Tamil Nadus betrachtet. Die (Selbst-)Darstellungen lassen sich dann anhand der im Titel angedeuteten Dreiteilung aufschlüsseln: Die Gründer_innen setzen sich zum ersten mit der eigenen Rolle auseinander. Sie beschreiben sich als „social worker“ und greifen in den Selbstbeschreibungen zum Teil auf populistische Elemente des politischen Umfeldes zurück. Zum zweiten beschreiben sie die eigene Position gegenüber ihren „Zielgruppen“. Dabei wird deutlich, dass die Beziehungen zwischen NGO und „community“ zwischen Partizipation und Paternalismus schwanken. Zum dritten formulieren sie Zielsetzungen in Abgrenzung zu anderen (lokalen) politischen Akteuren: Sie grenzen sich zum Beispiel von einem ihrem Verständnis nach „westlichen“ Begriff von Entwicklung ab und formulieren demgegenüber „eigene“ Ziele. Sie reflektieren über lokale Kooperationen, z.B. mit politischen Persönlichkeiten, Kastenassoziationen, aber auch über Abgrenzungen oder Zusammenstöße, die sich dabei ergeben. Insgesamt wird deutlich, dass die (Selbst-)Darstellungen der Gründer_innen sich spannungsgeladen und ambivalent auf unterschiedliche Diskurse, Ideen und soziale Praktiken beziehen. Sie lassen sich insbesondere nicht in eine Perspektive von „Entwicklung“ einordnen, welche auf der Dichotomie von Moderne und Tradition aufbaut.
The development of self-adaptive software requires the engineering of an adaptation engine that controls and adapts the underlying adaptable software by means of feedback loops. The adaptation engine often describes the adaptation by using runtime models representing relevant aspects of the adaptable software and particular activities such as analysis and planning that operate on these runtime models. To systematically address the interplay between runtime models and adaptation activities in adaptation engines, runtime megamodels have been proposed for self-adaptive software. A runtime megamodel is a specific runtime model whose elements are runtime models and adaptation activities. Thus, a megamodel captures the interplay between multiple models and between models and activities as well as the activation of the activities. In this article, we go one step further and present a modeling language for ExecUtable RuntimE MegAmodels (EUREMA) that considerably eases the development of adaptation engines by following a model-driven engineering approach. We provide a domain-specific modeling language and a runtime interpreter for adaptation engines, in particular for feedback loops. Megamodels are kept explicit and alive at runtime and by interpreting them, they are directly executed to run feedback loops. Additionally, they can be dynamically adjusted to adapt feedback loops. Thus, EUREMA supports development by making feedback loops, their runtime models, and adaptation activities explicit at a higher level of abstraction. Moreover, it enables complex solutions where multiple feedback loops interact or even operate on top of each other. Finally, it leverages the co-existence of self-adaptation and off-line adaptation for evolution.
Even though quite different in occurrence and consequences, from a modeling perspective many natural hazards share similar properties and challenges. Their complex nature as well as lacking knowledge about their driving forces and potential effects make their analysis demanding: uncertainty about the modeling framework, inaccurate or incomplete event observations and the intrinsic randomness of the natural phenomenon add up to different interacting layers of uncertainty, which require a careful handling. Nevertheless deterministic approaches are still widely used in natural hazard assessments, holding the risk of underestimating the hazard with disastrous effects. The all-round probabilistic framework of Bayesian networks constitutes an attractive alternative. In contrast to deterministic proceedings, it treats response variables as well as explanatory variables as random variables making no difference between input and output variables. Using a graphical representation Bayesian networks encode the dependency relations between the variables in a directed acyclic graph: variables are represented as nodes and (in-)dependencies between variables as (missing) edges between the nodes. The joint distribution of all variables can thus be described by decomposing it, according to the depicted independences, into a product of local conditional probability distributions, which are defined by the parameters of the Bayesian network. In the framework of this thesis the Bayesian network approach is applied to different natural hazard domains (i.e. seismic hazard, flood damage and landslide assessments). Learning the network structure and parameters from data, Bayesian networks reveal relevant dependency relations between the included variables and help to gain knowledge about the underlying processes. The problem of Bayesian network learning is cast in a Bayesian framework, considering the network structure and parameters as random variables itself and searching for the most likely combination of both, which corresponds to the maximum a posteriori (MAP score) of their joint distribution given the observed data. Although well studied in theory the learning of Bayesian networks based on real-world data is usually not straight forward and requires an adoption of existing algorithms. Typically arising problems are the handling of continuous variables, incomplete observations and the interaction of both. Working with continuous distributions requires assumptions about the allowed families of distributions. To "let the data speak" and avoid wrong assumptions, continuous variables are instead discretized here, thus allowing for a completely data-driven and distribution-free learning. An extension of the MAP score, considering the discretization as random variable as well, is developed for an automatic multivariate discretization, that takes interactions between the variables into account. The discretization process is nested into the network learning and requires several iterations. Having to face incomplete observations on top, this may pose a computational burden. Iterative proceedings for missing value estimation become quickly infeasible. A more efficient albeit approximate method is used instead, estimating the missing values based only on the observations of variables directly interacting with the missing variable. Moreover natural hazard assessments often have a primary interest in a certain target variable. The discretization learned for this variable does not always have the required resolution for a good prediction performance. Finer resolutions for (conditional) continuous distributions are achieved with continuous approximations subsequent to the Bayesian network learning, using kernel density estimations or mixtures of truncated exponential functions. All our proceedings are completely data-driven. We thus avoid assumptions that require expert knowledge and instead provide domain independent solutions, that are applicable not only in other natural hazard assessments, but in a variety of domains struggling with uncertainties.
Background.Vocational interests play a central role in the vocational decision-making process and are decisive for the later job satisfaction and vocational success. Based on Ackerman's (1996) notion of trait complexes, specific interest profiles of gifted high-school graduates can be expected. Aims.Vocational interests of gifted and highly achieving adolescents were compared to those of their less intelligent/achieving peers according to Holland's (1997) RIASEC model. Further, the impact of intelligence and achievement on interests were analysed while statistically controlling for potentially influencing variables. Changes in interests over time were investigated. Sample.N= 4,694 German students (age: M= 19.5, SD= .80; 54.6% females) participated in the study (TOSCA; Koller, Watermann, Trautwein, & Ludtke, 2004). Method. Interests were assessed in participants' final year at school and again 2 years later (N= 2,318). Results.Gifted participants reported stronger investigative and realistic interests, but lower social interests than less intelligent participants. Highly achieving participants reported higher investigative and (in wave 2) higher artistic interests. Considerable gender differences were found: gifted girls had a flat interest profile, while gifted boys had pronounced realistic and investigative and low social interests. Multilevel multiple regression analyses predicting interests by intelligence and school achievement revealed stable interest profiles. Beyond a strong gender effect, intelligence and school achievement each contributed substantially to the prediction of vocational interests. Conclusions.At the time around graduation from high school, gifted young adults show stable interest profiles, which strongly differ between gender and intelligence groups. These differences are relevant for programmes for the gifted and for vocational counselling.
We consider an array of Josephson junctions with a common LCR load. Application of the Watanabe-Strogatz approach [Physica D 74, 197 (1994)] allows us to formulate the dynamics of the array via the global variables only. For identical junctions this is a finite set of equations, analysis of which reveals the regions of bistability of the synchronous and asynchronous states. For disordered arrays with distributed parameters of the junctions, the problem is formulated as an integro-differential equation for the global variables; here stability of the asynchronous states and the properties of the transition synchrony-asynchrony are established numerically.
Architectural analysis of the Late Cretaceous alveolinaceans of the Caribbean palaeobioprovince has made it possible to separate four genera: Praechubbina, Chubbinella gen. nov., Chubbina and Caribalveolina. The first three genera belong to the family Rhapydioninidae, while the fourth is placed in the family Alveolinidae. Two species, Praechubbina breviclaustra and P. oxchucensis sp. nov., represent the primitive genus Praechubbina, while the species cardenasensis and obesa, previously ascribed to this genus, must be reassigned respectively to Chubbinella gen. nov. and Caribalveolina. The species Chubbina jamaicensis, C. macgillavryi and C. fourcadei sp. nov. complete the inventory of Chubbina. The alveolinid genus Caribalveolina comprises two species, C. obesa and C. michaudi. Caribbean alveolinaceans include two successive assemblages. The lower assemblage is characterized by Praechubbina oxchucensis, P. brevisclaustra, Chubbinella cardenasensis and Caribalveolina obesa. The upper assemblage is represented by the genus Chubbina, with C. fourcadei, C. jamaicensis and C. macgillavryi, and Caribalveolina michaudi. The age of the lower assemblage is uncertain (probably Late CampanianEarly Maastrichtian), while the upper assemblage has been dated by strontium isotope stratigraphy as Late Maastrichtian.
This article investigates gender differences in implicit and explicit measures of the Big Five traits of personality. In a high-powered study (N = 14,348), we replicated previous research showing that women report higher levels of Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion and Neuroticism. For implicit measures, gender differences were much smaller for all, and opposite in sign for Extraversion. Somewhat higher levels of implicit Neuroticism and Agreeableness were observed in women, and somewhat higher levels of implicit Extraversion and Openness were observed in men. There was no gender difference in implicit Conscientiousness. A possible explanation is that explicit self-concepts partly reflect social norms and self-expectations about gender roles, while implicit self-concepts may mostly reflect self-related experiences.
Polyadenylation of pre-mRNAs is critical for efficient nuclear export, stability, and translation of the mature mRNAs, and thus for gene expression. The bulk of pre-mRNAs are processed by canonical nuclear poly(A) polymerase (PAPS). Both vertebrate and higher-plant genomes encode more than one isoform of this enzyme, and these are coexpressed in different tissues. However, in neither case is it known whether the isoforms fulfill different functions or polyadenylate distinct subsets of pre-mRNAs. Here we show that the three canonical nuclear PAPS isoforms in Arabidopsis are functionally specialized owing to their evolutionarily divergent C-terminal domains. A strong loss-of-function mutation in PAPS1 causes a male gametophytic defect, whereas a weak allele leads to reduced leaf growth that results in part from a constitutive pathogen response. By contrast, plants lacking both PAPS2 and PAPS4 function are viable with wild-type leaf growth. Polyadenylation of SMALL AUXIN UP RNA (SAUR) mRNAs depends specifically on PAPS1 function. The resulting reduction in SAUR activity in paps1 mutants contributes to their reduced leaf growth, providing a causal link between polyadenylation of specific pre-mRNAs by a particular PAPS isoform and plant growth. This suggests the existence of an additional layer of regulation in plant and possibly vertebrate gene expression, whereby the relative activities of canonical nuclear PAPS isoforms control de novo synthesized poly(A) tail length and hence expression of specific subsets of mRNAs.
Eye movement data have proven to be very useful for investigating human sentence processing. Eyetracking research has addressed a wide range of questions, such as recovery mechanisms following garden-pathing, the timing of processes driving comprehension, the role of anticipation and expectation in parsing, the role of semantic, pragmatic, and prosodic information, and so on. However, there are some limitations regarding the inferences that can be made on the basis of eye movements. One relates to the nontrivial interaction between parsing and the eye movement control system which complicates the interpretation of eye movement data. Detailed computational models that integrate parsing with eye movement control theories have the potential to unpack the complexity of eye movement data and can therefore aid in the interpretation of eye movements. Another limitation is the difficulty of capturing spatiotemporal patterns in eye movements using the traditional word-based eyetracking measures. Recent research has demonstrated the relevance of these patterns and has shown how they can be analyzed. In this review, we focus on reading, and present examples demonstrating how eye movement data reveal what events unfold when the parser runs into difficulty, and how the parsing system interacts with eye movement control. WIREs Cogn Sci 2013, 4:125134. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1209 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.
A general fact about language is that subject relative clauses are easier to process than object relative clauses. Recently, several self-paced reading studies have presented surprising evidence that object relatives in Chinese are easier to process than subject relatives. We carried out three self-paced reading experiments that attempted to replicate these results. Two of our three studies found a subject-relative preference, and the third study found an object-relative advantage. Using a random effects bayesian meta-analysis of fifteen studies (including our own), we show that the overall current evidence for the subject-relative advantage is quite strong (approximate posterior probability of a subject-relative advantage given the data: 78-80%). We argue that retrieval/integration based accounts would have difficulty explaining all three experimental results. These findings are important because they narrow the theoretical space by limiting the role of an important class of explanation-retrieval/integration cost-at least for relative clause processing in Chinese.
Bereits seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre greift die schulische Sprachförderung im Land Berlin vor allem auf das Merkmal der „nichtdeutschen Herkunftssprache“ (ndH) zurück. Mit der Einführung dieses Merkmals entschied sich der Landesgesetzgeber dafür, die – aus seiner Sicht weiterhin dringend notwendige – Sprachförderung von Kindern und Jugendlichen mit Migrationshintergrund in der Schule nicht mehr an eine ausländische Staatsbürgerschaft, sondern, ungeachtet der Staatsbürgerschaft der Schüler, an das Vorherrschen einer nichtdeutschen Kommunikationssprache in der Familie anzuknüpfen. An diesem Ansatz hat sich auch durch die Novellierung des Berliner Schulgesetzes im Jahre 2004 nichts Grundsätzliches geändert. Neben der Bedeutung des Merkmals ‚ndH‘ für die individuelle Sprachförderung in Schulen kommt diesem Merkmal – zusammen mit dem erst unlängst aufgewerteten weiteren Sprachfördermerkmal „Lernmittelbefreiung“ (LmB) – jedoch nunmehr auch eine zentrale Rolle bei der Zumessung von Sprachfördermitteln und Personalressourcen zu. In der Vergangenheit ist das Merkmal ‚ndH‘ allerdings wegen seiner angeblich diskriminierenden und vermeintlich segregierenden Wirkung mehrfach in die Kritik geraten, die sich, ausgelöst durch einen Vorfall an einer Kreuzberger Grundschule im Jahre 2012, noch einmal verstärkt hat. So wird neben der Tatsache, dass das Merkmal ‚ndH‘ überhaupt erhoben und der Sprachförderung zugrunde gelegt wird, auch die Praxis der Berliner Senatsverwaltung für Bildung, Jugend und Wissenschaft, auf den sog. Schulporträts im Internet ‚ndH‘-Quoten zu veröffentlichen, angegriffen und die Abschaffung dieser Praxis gefordert. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Beantwortung der Frage nach der Berechtigung dieser Kritik. Ausgehend von einer Darstellung zur Einführung und Entwicklung des Merkmals ‚ndH‘ unter Berücksichtigung der zuvor geltenden Rechtslage und einer Darstellung der aktuellen rechtlichen Grundlagen der schulischen Sprachförderung im Land Berlin wird dieses Merkmal einer näheren Betrachtung unterzogen. Nach einer Bestimmung des Merkmals ‚ndH‘, einer Erläuterung der einschlägigen Regelungen zur ‚ndH‘-Sprachförderung und einem Vergleich mit dem zusätzlich bestehenden Fördermerkmal ‚LmB‘ im Kontext der aktuellen Bestimmungen wird zunächst ein Überblick über wesentliche Aspekte der schulischen Sprachförderung auf der Grundlage des Merkmals ‚ndH‘ in der Praxis gegeben, in den wiederum das Vergleichsmerkmal ‚LmB‘ einbezogen wird. Daran knüpft die Untersuchung der These an, das Merkmal ‚ndH‘ bzw. zumindest seine Veröffentlichung im Rahmen der Schulporträts der Senatsschulverwaltung habe diskriminierende Wirkung und führe zu einer Segregation der Schülerschaft. Im Anschluss daran wird als zusätzliche Überlegung der Frage nach der tatsächlichen Notwendigkeit einer sich an dem Merkmal ‚ndH‘ und damit einer familiären Kommunikationssprache orientierenden Sprachförderung nachgegangen, die, wenn sie denn bejaht werden könnte, etwaige Diskriminierungs- und Segregationswirkungen rechtfertigte.
Deutschland und die UNO
(2013)
The process of introducing compulsory ICT education at primary school level in the Czech Republic should be completed next year. Programming and Information, two topics from the basics of computer science have been included in a new textbook. The question is whether the new chapters of the textbook are comprehensible for primary school teachers, who have undergone no training in computer science. The paper reports on a pilot verification project in which pre-service primary school teachers were trained to teach these informatics topics.
Context. The Tarantula Nebula (a.k.a. 30 Dor) is a spectacular star-forming region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), seen through gas in the Galactic disc and halo. Diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) offer a unique probe of the diffuse, cool-warm gas in these regions.
Aims. The aim is to use DIBs as diagnostics of the local interstellar conditions, whilst at the same time deriving properties of the yet-unknown carriers of these enigmatic spectral features.
Methods. Spectra of over 800 early-type stars from the Very Large Telescope Flames Tarantula Survey (VFTS) were analysed. Maps were created, separately, for the Galactic and LMC absorption in the DIBs at 4428 and 6614 angstrom and - in a smaller region near the central cluster R 136 - neutral sodium (the Na ID doublet); we also measured the DIBs at 5780 and 5797 angstrom.
Results. The maps show strong 4428 and 6614 angstrom DIBs in the quiescent cloud complex to the south of 30 Dor but weak absorption in the harsher environments to the north (bubbles) and near the OB associations. The Na maps show at least five kinematic components in the LMC and a shell-like structure surrounding R 136, and small-scale structure in the Milky Way. The strengths of the 4428, 5780, 5797 and 6614 angstrom DIBs are correlated, also with Na absorption and visual extinction. The strong 4428 angstrom DIB is present already at low Na column density but the 6614, 5780 and 5797 angstrom DIBs start to be detectable at subsequently larger Na column densities.
Conclusions. The carriers of the 4428, 6614, 5780 and 5797 angstrom DIBs are increasingly prone to removal from irradiated gas. The relative strength of the 5780 and 5797 angstrom DIBs clearly confirm the Tarantula Nebula as well as Galactic high-latitude gas to represent a harsh radiation environment. The resilience of the 4428 angstrom DIB suggests its carrier is large, compact and neutral. Structure is detected in the distribution of cool-warm gas on scales between one and > 100 pc in the LMC and as little as 0.01 pc in the Sun's vicinity. Stellar winds from the central cluster R 136 have created an expanding shell; some infalling gas is also detected, reminiscent of a galactic "fountain".
This article focuses on the emergence of a decentralized institutional complex, interplay management, and the institutional interplay between the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the EU in the issue area of environmental shipping policies. It shows that the synergistic relationship between both institutions has been driven primarily by commitment and compliance mechanisms. By influencing IMO decision-making and improving the implementation and effectiveness of IMO conventions, the EU has become a driving force in international environmental shipping policies, and its new initiatives may even enhance its leadership role within the IMO in the future. Despite the still-existing lack of cognitive leadership by the EU, the synergies between both institutions provide evidence for the EU's leadership capacities in global environmental politics.
The concept of Linked Data has made its entrance in the cultural heritage sector due to its potential use for the integration of heterogeneous collections and deriving additional value out of existing metadata. However, practitioners and researchers alike need a better understanding of what outcome they can reasonably expect of the reconciliation process between their local metadata and established controlled vocabularies which are already a part of the Linked Data cloud. This paper offers an in-depth analysis of how a locally developed vocabulary can be successfully reconciled with the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) and the Arts and Architecture Thesaurus (AAT) through the help of a general-purpose tool for interactive data transformation (OpenRefine). Issues negatively affecting the reconciliation process are identified and solutions are proposed in order to derive maximum value from existing metadata and controlled vocabularies in an automated manner.
Newly determined Late Cretaceous Ar-40/Ar-39 ages on megacrystic kaersutite from four lamprophyre dikes, and a U-Pb zircon age on a trachyte, from central and north Westland (New Zealand) are presented. These ages suggest that the intrusion of mafic dikes (88-86 and 69 Ma) was not necessarily restricted to the previously established narrow age range of 80-92 Ma. The younger lamprophyre and trachyte dikes (c. 68-70 Ma) imply that tensional stresses in the Western Province were either renewed at this time, or that extension and related magmatism continued during opening of the Tasman Sea. Extension-related magmatism in the region not only preceded Tasman seafloor spreading initiation (starting at c. 83 Ma, lasting to c. 53 Ma), but may have sporadically continued for up to 15 Ma after continental break-up.
On the Role of Phonetic Motivation and Frequency in the Acquisition of Alternations
German nouns may alternate in two ways: a final word-final voiceless obstruent in the singular may correspond to a voiced one in the plural and a back vowel in the singular may correspond to a front one in the plural. We investigate the role of phonetic motivation and frequency in the acquisition of these alternations. The voicing alternation has a phonetic motivation, but the vowel alternation does not. On the basis of two corpus studies, we conclude that both alternations occur with equal frequency in the ambient language. In two production experiments, one with 5-year-olds and one with adults, we asked both populations to form plurals for given singular words and nonces. The children produce more voicing alternations in nonces than adults and fewer vowel alternations than adults. We conclude that children rely more on phonetic motivation than adults.
Transcriptome analysis through next-generation sequencing technologies allows the generation of detailed gene catalogs for non-model species, at the cost of new challenges with regards to computational requirements and bioinformatics expertise. Here, we present TRAPID, an online tool for the fast and efficient processing of assembled RNA-Seq transcriptome data, developed to mitigate these challenges. TRAPID offers high-throughput open reading frame detection, frameshift correction and includes a functional, comparative and phylogenetic toolbox, making use of 175 reference proteomes. Benchmarking and comparison against state-of-the-art transcript analysis tools reveals the efficiency and unique features of the TRAPID system.
TRAPID
(2013)
Transcriptome analysis through next-generation sequencing technologies allows the generation of detailed gene catalogs for non-model species, at the cost of new challenges with regards to computational requirements and bioinformatics expertise. Here, we present TRAPID, an online tool for the fast and efficient processing of assembled RNA-Seq transcriptome data, developed to mitigate these challenges. TRAPID offers high-throughput open reading frame detection, frameshift correction and includes a functional, comparative and phylogenetic toolbox, making use of 175 reference proteomes. Benchmarking and comparison against state-of-the-art transcript analysis tools reveals the efficiency and unique features of the TRAPID system. TRAPID is freely available at http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/webtools/trapid/.