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Background
Eating in absence of hunger is quite common and often associated with an increased energy intake co-existent with a poorer food choice. Intuitive eating (IE), i.e., eating in accordance with internal hunger and satiety cues, may protect from overeating. IE, however, requires accurate perception and processing of one’s own bodily signals, also referred to as interoceptive sensitivity. Training interoceptive sensitivity might therefore be an effective method to promote IE and prevent overeating. As most studies on eating behavior are conducted in younger adults and close social relationships influence health-related behavior, this study focuses on middle-aged and older couples.
Methods
The present pilot randomized intervention study aims at investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of a 21-day mindfulness-based training program designed to increase interoceptive sensitivity. A total of N = 60 couples participating in the NutriAct Family Study, aged 50–80 years, will be recruited. This randomized-controlled intervention study comprises three measurement points (pre-intervention, post-intervention, 4-week follow-up) and a 21-day training that consists of daily mindfulness-based guided audio exercises (e.g., body scan). A three-arm intervention study design is applied to compare two intervention groups (training together as a couple vs. training alone) with a control group (no training). Each measurement point includes the assessment of self-reported and objective indicators of interoceptive sensitivity (primary outcome), self-reported indicators of intuitive and maladaptive eating (secondary outcomes), and additional variables. A training evaluation applying focus group discussions will be conducted to assess participants’ overall acceptance of the training and its feasibility.
Discussion
By investigating the feasibility and effectiveness of a mindfulness-based training program to increase interoceptive sensitivity, the present study will contribute to a deeper understanding of how to promote healthy eating in older age.
Objective: There is a lack of brief rating scales for the reliable assessment of psychotherapeutic skills, which do not require intensive rater training and/or a high level of expertise. Thus, the objective is to validate a 14-item version of the Clinical Communication Skills Scale (CCSS-S).
Methods: Using a sample of N = 690 video-based ratings of role-plays with simulated patients, we calculated a confirmatory factor analysis and an exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM), assessed convergent validities, determined inter-rater reliabilities and compared these with those who were either psychology students, advanced psychotherapy trainees, or experts.
Results: Correlations with other competence rating scales were high (rs > 0.86–0.89). The intraclass correlations ranged between moderate and good [ICC(2,2) = 0.65–0.80], with student raters yielding the lowest scores. The one-factor model only marginally replicated the data, but the internal consistencies were excellent (α = 0.91–95). The ESEM yielded a two-factor solution (Collaboration and Structuring and Exploration Skills).
Conclusion: The CCSS-S is a brief and valid rating scale that reliably assesses basic communication skills, which is particularly useful for psychotherapy training using standardized role-plays. To ensure good inter-rater reliabilities, it is still advisable to employ raters with at least some clinical experience. Future studies should further investigate the one- or two-factor structure of the instrument.
Glaciated high-alpine areas are fundamentally altered by climate change, with well-known implications for hydrology, e.g., due to glacier retreat, longer snow-free periods, and more frequent and intense summer rainstorms. While knowledge on how these hydrological changes will propagate to suspended sediment dynamics is still scarce, it is needed to inform mitigation and adaptation strategies. To understand the processes and source areas most relevant to sediment dynamics, we analyzed discharge and sediment dynamics in high temporal resolution as well as their patterns on several spatial scales, which to date few studies have done.
We used a nested catchment setup in the Upper Ötztal in Tyrol, Austria, where high-resolution (15 min) time series of discharge and suspended sediment concentrations are available for up to 15 years (2006–2020). The catchments of the gauges in Vent, Sölden and Tumpen range from 100 to almost 800 km2 with 10 % to 30 % glacier cover and span an elevation range of 930 to 3772 m a.s.l. We analyzed discharge and suspended sediment yields (SSY), their distribution in space, their seasonality and spatial differences therein, and the relative importance of short-term events. We complemented our analysis by linking the observations to satellite-based snow cover maps, glacier inventories, mass balances and precipitation data.
Our results indicate that the areas above 2500 m a.s.l., characterized by glacier tongues and the most recently deglaciated areas, are crucial for sediment generation in all sub-catchments. This notion is supported by the synchronous spring onset of sediment export at the three gauges, which coincides with snowmelt above 2500 m but lags behind spring discharge onsets. This points at a limitation of suspended sediment supply as long as the areas above 2500 m are snow-covered. The positive correlation of annual SSY with glacier cover (among catchments) and glacier mass balances (within a catchment) further supports the importance of the glacier-dominated areas. The analysis of short-term events showed that summer precipitation events were associated with peak sediment concentrations and yields but on average accounted for only 21 % of the annual SSY in the headwaters. These results indicate that under current conditions, thermally induced sediment export (through snow and glacier melt) is dominant in the study area.
Our results extend the scientific knowledge on current hydro-sedimentological conditions in glaciated high-alpine areas and provide a baseline for studies on projected future changes in hydro-sedimentological system dynamics.
Quantifying neurological disorders from voice is a rapidly growing field of research and holds promise for unobtrusive and large-scale disorder monitoring. The data recording setup and data analysis pipelines are both crucial aspects to effectively obtain relevant information from participants. Therefore, we performed a systematic review to provide a high-level overview of practices across various neurological disorders and highlight emerging trends. PRISMA-based literature searches were conducted through PubMed, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore to identify publications in which original (i.e., newly recorded) datasets were collected. Disorders of interest were psychiatric as well as neurodegenerative disorders, such as bipolar disorder, depression, and stress, as well as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's, and Parkinson's disease, and speech impairments (aphasia, dysarthria, and dysphonia). Of the 43 retrieved studies, Parkinson's disease is represented most prominently with 19 discovered datasets. Free speech and read speech tasks are most commonly used across disorders. Besides popular feature extraction toolkits, many studies utilise custom-built feature sets. Correlations of acoustic features with psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders are presented. In terms of analysis, statistical analysis for significance of individual features is commonly used, as well as predictive modeling approaches, especially with support vector machines and a small number of artificial neural networks. An emerging trend and recommendation for future studies is to collect data in everyday life to facilitate longitudinal data collection and to capture the behavior of participants more naturally. Another emerging trend is to record additional modalities to voice, which can potentially increase analytical performance.
This study examines the access to healthcare for children and adolescents with three common chronic diseases (type-1 diabetes (T1D), obesity, or juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA)) within the 4th (Delta), 5th (Omicron), and beginning of the 6th (Omicron) wave (June 2021 until July 2022) of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany in a cross-sectional study using three national patient registries. A paper-and-pencil questionnaire was given to parents of pediatric patients (<21 years) during the routine check-ups. The questionnaire contains self-constructed items assessing the frequency of healthcare appointments and cancellations, remote healthcare, and satisfaction with healthcare. In total, 905 parents participated in the T1D-sample, 175 in the obesity-sample, and 786 in the JIA-sample. In general, satisfaction with healthcare (scale: 0–10; 10 reflecting the highest satisfaction) was quite high (median values: T1D 10, JIA 10, obesity 8.5). The proportion of children and adolescents with canceled appointments was relatively small (T1D 14.1%, JIA 11.1%, obesity 20%), with a median of 1 missed appointment, respectively. Only a few parents (T1D 8.6%; obesity 13.1%; JIA 5%) reported obstacles regarding health services during the pandemic. To conclude, it seems that access to healthcare was largely preserved for children and adolescents with chronic health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany.
Older adults with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) who in addition to their memory deficits also suffer from frontal-executive dysfunctions have a higher risk of developing dementia later in their lives than older adults with aMCI without executive deficits and older adults with non-amnestic MCI (naMCI). Handgrip strength (HGS) is also correlated with the risk of cognitive decline in the elderly. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate the associations between HGS and executive functioning in individuals with aMCI, naMCI and healthy controls. Older, right-handed adults with amnestic MCI (aMCI), non-amnestic MCI (naMCI), and healthy controls (HC) conducted a handgrip strength measurement via a handheld dynamometer. Executive functions were assessed with the Trail Making Test (TMT A&B). Normalized handgrip strength (nHGS, normalized to Body Mass Index (BMI)) was calculated and its associations with executive functions (operationalized through z-scores of TMT B/A ratio) were investigated through partial correlation analyses (i.e., accounting for age, sex, and severity of depressive symptoms). A positive and low-to-moderate correlation between right nHGS (rp (22) = 0.364; p = 0.063) and left nHGS (rp (22) = 0.420; p = 0.037) and executive functioning in older adults with aMCI but not in naMCI or HC was observed. Our results suggest that higher levels of nHGS are linked to better executive functioning in aMCI but not naMCI and HC. This relationship is perhaps driven by alterations in the integrity of the hippocampal-prefrontal network occurring in older adults with aMCI. Further research is needed to provide empirical evidence for this assumption.
Importance Alcohol consumption (AC) leads to death and disability worldwide. Ongoing discussions on potential negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on AC need to be informed by real-world evidence.
Objective To examine whether lockdown measures are associated with AC and consumption-related temporal and psychological within-person mechanisms.
Design, Setting, and Participants This quantitative, intensive, longitudinal cohort study recruited 1743 participants from 3 sites from February 20, 2020, to February 28, 2021. Data were provided before and within the second lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany: before lockdown (October 2 to November 1, 2020); light lockdown (November 2 to December 15, 2020); and hard lockdown (December 16, 2020, to February 28, 2021).
Main Outcomes and Measures Daily ratings of AC (main outcome) captured during 3 lockdown phases (main variable) and temporal (weekends and holidays) and psychological (social isolation and drinking intention) correlates.
Results Of the 1743 screened participants, 189 (119 [63.0%] male; median [IQR] age, 37 [27.5-52.0] years) with at least 2 alcohol use disorder (AUD) criteria according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (Fifth Edition) yet without the need for medically supervised alcohol withdrawal were included. These individuals provided 14 694 smartphone ratings from October 2020 through February 2021. Multilevel modeling revealed significantly higher AC (grams of alcohol per day) on weekend days vs weekdays (β = 11.39; 95% CI, 10.00-12.77; P < .001). Alcohol consumption was above the overall average on Christmas (β = 26.82; 95% CI, 21.87-31.77; P < .001) and New Year’s Eve (β = 66.88; 95% CI, 59.22-74.54; P < .001). During the hard lockdown, perceived social isolation was significantly higher (β = 0.12; 95% CI, 0.06-0.15; P < .001), but AC was significantly lower (β = −5.45; 95% CI, −8.00 to −2.90; P = .001). Independent of lockdown, intention to drink less alcohol was associated with lower AC (β = −11.10; 95% CI, −13.63 to −8.58; P < .001). Notably, differences in AC between weekend and weekdays decreased both during the hard lockdown (β = −6.14; 95% CI, −9.96 to −2.31; P = .002) and in participants with severe AUD (β = −6.26; 95% CI, −10.18 to −2.34; P = .002).
Conclusions and Relevance This 5-month cohort study found no immediate negative associations of lockdown measures with overall AC. Rather, weekend-weekday and holiday AC patterns exceeded lockdown effects. Differences in AC between weekend days and weekdays evinced that weekend drinking cycles decreased as a function of AUD severity and lockdown measures, indicating a potential mechanism of losing and regaining control. This finding suggests that temporal patterns and drinking intention constitute promising targets for prevention and intervention, even in high-risk individuals.
Cognitive resources contribute to balance control. There is evidence that mental fatigue reduces cognitive resources and impairs balance performance, particularly in older adults and when balance tasks are complex, for example when trying to walk or stand while concurrently performing a secondary cognitive task.
We conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed (MEDLINE), Web of Science and Google Scholar to identify eligible studies and performed a random effects meta-analysis to quantify the effects of experimentally induced mental fatigue on balance performance in healthy adults. Subgroup analyses were computed for age (healthy young vs. healthy older adults) and balance task complexity (balance tasks with high complexity vs. balance tasks with low complexity) to examine the moderating effects of these factors on fatigue-mediated balance performance.
We identified 7 eligible studies with 9 study groups and 206 participants. Analysis revealed that performing a prolonged cognitive task had a small but significant effect (SMDwm = −0.38) on subsequent balance performance in healthy young and older adults. However, age- and task-related differences in balance responses to fatigue could not be confirmed statistically.
Overall, aggregation of the available literature indicates that mental fatigue generally reduces balance in healthy adults. However, interactions between cognitive resource reduction, aging and balance task complexity remain elusive.
Inverted perovskite solar cells still suffer from significant non-radiative recombination losses at the perovskite surface and across the perovskite/C₆₀ interface, limiting the future development of perovskite-based single- and multi-junction photovoltaics. Therefore, more effective inter- or transport layers are urgently required. To tackle these recombination losses, we introduce ortho-carborane as an interlayer material that has a spherical molecular structure and a three-dimensional aromaticity. Based on a variety of experimental techniques, we show that ortho-carborane decorated with phenylamino groups effectively passivates the perovskite surface and essentially eliminates the non-radiative recombination loss across the perovskite/C₆₀ interface with high thermal stability. We further demonstrate the potential of carborane as an electron transport material, facilitating electron extraction while blocking holes from the interface. The resulting inverted perovskite solar cells deliver a power conversion efficiency of over 23% with a low non-radiative voltage loss of 110 mV, and retain >97% of the initial efficiency after 400 h of maximum power point tracking. Overall, the designed carborane based interlayer simultaneously enables passivation, electron-transport and hole-blocking and paves the way toward more efficient and stable perovskite solar cells.
Models are useful tools for understanding and predicting ecological patterns and processes. Under ongoing climate and biodiversity change, they can greatly facilitate decision-making in conservation and restoration and help designing adequate management strategies for an uncertain future. Here, we review the use of spatially explicit models for decision support and to identify key gaps in current modelling in conservation and restoration. Of 650 reviewed publications, 217 publications had a clear management application and were included in our quantitative analyses. Overall, modelling studies were biased towards static models (79%), towards the species and population level (80%) and towards conservation (rather than restoration) applications (71%). Correlative niche models were the most widely used model type. Dynamic models as well as the gene-to-individual level and the community-to-ecosystem level were underrepresented, and explicit cost optimisation approaches were only used in 10% of the studies. We present a new model typology for selecting models for animal conservation and restoration, characterising model types according to organisational levels, biological processes of interest and desired management applications. This typology will help to more closely link models to management goals. Additionally, future efforts need to overcome important challenges related to data integration, model integration and decision-making. We conclude with five key recommendations, suggesting that wider usage of spatially explicit models for decision support can be achieved by 1) developing a toolbox with multiple, easier-to-use methods, 2) improving calibration and validation of dynamic modelling approaches and 3) developing best-practise guidelines for applying these models. Further, more robust decision-making can be achieved by 4) combining multiple modelling approaches to assess uncertainty, and 5) placing models at the core of adaptive management. These efforts must be accompanied by long-term funding for modelling and monitoring, and improved communication between research and practise to ensure optimal conservation and restoration outcomes.
Privacy regulations and the physical distribution of heterogeneous data are often primary concerns for the development of deep learning models in a medical context. This paper evaluates the feasibility of differentially private federated learning for chest X-ray classification as a defense against data privacy attacks. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to directly compare the impact of differentially private training on two different neural network architectures, DenseNet121 and ResNet50. Extending the federated learning environments previously analyzed in terms of privacy, we simulated a heterogeneous and imbalanced federated setting by distributing images from the public CheXpert and Mendeley chest X-ray datasets unevenly among 36 clients. Both non-private baseline models achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.940.94 on the binary classification task of detecting the presence of a medical finding. We demonstrate that both model architectures are vulnerable to privacy violation by applying image reconstruction attacks to local model updates from individual clients. The attack was particularly successful during later training stages. To mitigate the risk of a privacy breach, we integrated Rényi differential privacy with a Gaussian noise mechanism into local model training. We evaluate model performance and attack vulnerability for privacy budgets ε∈{1,3,6,10}�∈{1,3,6,10}. The DenseNet121 achieved the best utility-privacy trade-off with an AUC of 0.940.94 for ε=6�=6. Model performance deteriorated slightly for individual clients compared to the non-private baseline. The ResNet50 only reached an AUC of 0.760.76 in the same privacy setting. Its performance was inferior to that of the DenseNet121 for all considered privacy constraints, suggesting that the DenseNet121 architecture is more robust to differentially private training.
In the present thesis I investigate the lattice dynamics of thin film hetero structures of magnetically ordered materials upon femtosecond laser excitation as a probing and manipulation scheme for the spin system. The quantitative assessment of laser induced thermal dynamics as well as generated picosecond acoustic pulses and their respective impact on the magnetization dynamics of thin films is a challenging endeavor. All the more, the development and implementation of effective experimental tools and comprehensive models are paramount to propel future academic and technological progress.
In all experiments in the scope of this cumulative dissertation, I examine the crystal lattice of nanoscale thin films upon the excitation with femtosecond laser pulses. The relative change of the lattice constant due to thermal expansion or picosecond strain pulses is directly monitored by an ultrafast X-ray diffraction (UXRD) setup with a femtosecond laser-driven plasma X-ray source (PXS). Phonons and spins alike exert stress on the lattice, which responds according to the elastic properties of the material, rendering the lattice a versatile sensor for all sorts of ultrafast interactions. On the one hand, I investigate materials with strong magneto-elastic properties; The highly magnetostrictive rare-earth compound TbFe2, elemental Dysprosium or the technological relevant Invar material FePt. On the other hand I conduct a comprehensive study on the lattice dynamics of Bi1Y2Fe5O12 (Bi:YIG), which exhibits high-frequency coherent spin dynamics upon femtosecond laser excitation according to the literature. Higher order standing spinwaves (SSWs) are triggered by coherent and incoherent motion of atoms, in other words phonons, which I quantified with UXRD. We are able to unite the experimental observations of the lattice and magnetization dynamics qualitatively and quantitatively. This is done with a combination of multi-temperature, elastic, magneto-elastic, anisotropy and micro-magnetic modeling.
The collective data from UXRD, to probe the lattice, and time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (tr-MOKE) measurements, to monitor the magnetization, were previously collected at different experimental setups. To improve the precision of the quantitative assessment of lattice and magnetization dynamics alike, our group implemented a combination of UXRD and tr-MOKE in a singular experimental setup, which is to my knowledge, the first of its kind. I helped with the conception and commissioning of this novel experimental station, which allows the simultaneous observation of lattice and magnetization dynamics on an ultrafast timescale under identical excitation conditions. Furthermore, I developed a new X-ray diffraction measurement routine which significantly reduces the measurement time of UXRD experiments by up to an order of magnitude. It is called reciprocal space slicing (RSS) and utilizes an area detector to monitor the angular motion of X-ray diffraction peaks, which is associated with lattice constant changes, without a time-consuming scan of the diffraction angles with the goniometer. RSS is particularly useful for ultrafast diffraction experiments, since measurement time at large scale facilities like synchrotrons and free electron lasers is a scarce and expensive resource. However, RSS is not limited to ultrafast experiments and can even be extended to other diffraction techniques with neutrons or electrons.
Is There a Rural Penalty in Language Acquisition? Evidence From Germany's Refugee Allocation Policy
(2022)
Emerging evidence has highlighted the important role of local contexts for integration trajectories of asylum seekers and refugees. Germany's policy of randomly allocating asylum seekers across Germany may advantage some and disadvantage others in terms of opportunities for equal participation in society. This study explores the question whether asylum seekers that have been allocated to rural areas experience disadvantages in terms of language acquisition compared to those allocated to urban areas. We derive testable assumptions using a Directed Acyclic Graph (DAG) which are then tested using large-N survey data (IAB-BAMF-SOEP refugee survey). We find that living in a rural area has no negative total effect on language skills. Further the findings suggest that the “null effect” is the result of two processes which offset each other: while asylum seekers in rural areas have slightly lower access for formal, federally organized language courses, they have more regular exposure to German speakers.
Physical activity and exercise are effective approaches in prevention and therapy of multiple diseases. Although the specific characteristics of lengthening contractions have the potential to be beneficial in many clinical conditions, eccentric training is not commonly used in clinical populations with metabolic, orthopaedic, or neurologic conditions. The purpose of this pilot study is to investigate the feasibility, functional benefits, and systemic responses of an eccentric exercise program focused on the trunk and lower extremities in people with low back pain (LBP) and multiple sclerosis (MS). A six-week eccentric training program with three weekly sessions is performed by people with LBP and MS. The program consists of ten exercises addressing strength of the trunk and lower extremities. The study follows a four-group design (N = 12 per group) in two study centers (Israel and Germany): three groups perform the eccentric training program: A) control group (healthy, asymptomatic); B) people with LBP; C) people with MS; group D (people with MS) receives standard care physiotherapy. Baseline measurements are conducted before first training, post-measurement takes place after the last session both comprise blood sampling, self-reported questionnaires, mobility, balance, and strength testing. The feasibility of the eccentric training program will be evaluated using quantitative and qualitative measures related to the study process, compliance and adherence, safety, and overall program assessment. For preliminary assessment of potential intervention effects, surrogate parameters related to mobility, postural control, muscle strength and systemic effects are assessed. The presented study will add knowledge regarding safety, feasibility, and initial effects of eccentric training in people with orthopaedic and neurological conditions. The simple exercises, that are easily modifiable in complexity and intensity, are likely beneficial to other populations. Thus, multiple applications and implementation pathways for the herein presented training program are conceivable.
Background
Animal personality has emerged as a key concept in behavioral ecology. While many studies have demonstrated the influence of personality traits on behavioral patterns, its quantification, especially in wild animal populations, remains a challenge. Only a few studies have established a link between personality and recurring movements within home ranges, although these small-scale movements are of key importance for identifying ecological interactions and forming individual niches. In this regard, differences in space use among individuals might reflect different exploration styles between behavioral types along the shy-bold continuum.
Methods
We assessed among-individual differences in behavior in the European hare (Lepus europaeus), a characteristic mammalian herbivore in agricultural landscapes using a standardized box emergence test for captive and wild hares. We determined an individuals’ degree of boldness by measuring the latencies of behavioral responses in repeated emergence tests in captivity. During capture events of wild hares, we conducted a single emergence test and recorded behavioral responses proven to be stable over time in captive hares. Applying repeated novel environment tests in a near-natural enclosure, we further quantified aspects of exploration and activity in captive hares. Finally, we investigated whether and how this among-individual behavioral variation is related to general activity and space use in a wild hare population. Wild and captive hares were treated similarly and GPS-collared with internal accelerometers prior to release to the wild or the outdoor enclosure, respectively. General activity was quantified as overall dynamic body acceleration (ODBA) obtained from accelerometers. Finally, we tested whether boldness explained variation in (i) ODBA in both settings and (ii) variation in home ranges and core areas across different time scales of GPS-collared hares in a wild population.
Results
We found three behavioral responses to be consistent over time in captive hares. ODBA was positively related to boldness (i.e., short latencies to make first contact with the new environment) in both captive and wild hares. Space use in wild hares also varied with boldness, with shy individuals having smaller core areas and larger home ranges than bold conspecifics (yet in some of the parameter space, this association was just marginally significant).
Conclusions
Against our prediction, shy individuals occupied relatively large home ranges but with small core areas. We suggest that this space use pattern is due to them avoiding risky, and energy-demanding competition for valuable resources. Carefully validated, activity measurements (ODBA) from accelerometers provide a valuable tool to quantify aspects of animal personality along the shy-bold continuum remotely. Without directly observing—and possibly disturbing—focal individuals, this approach allows measuring variability in animal personality, especially in species that are difficult to assess with experiments. Considering that accelerometers are often already built into GPS units, we recommend activating them at least during the initial days of tracking to estimate individual variation in general activity and, if possible, match them with a simple novelty experiment. Furthermore, information on individual behavioral types will help to facilitate mechanistic understanding of processes that drive spatial and ecological dynamics in heterogeneous landscapes.
In semi-arid environments characterized by erratic rainfall and scattered primary production, migratory movements are a key survival strategy of large herbivores to track resources over vast areas. Veterinary Cordon Fences (VCFs), intended to reduce wildlife-livestock disease transmission, fragment large parts of southern Africa and have limited the movements of large wild mammals for over 60 years. Consequently, wildlife-fence interactions are frequent and often result in perforations of the fence, mainly caused by elephants. Yet, we lack knowledge about at which times fences act as barriers, how fences directly alter the energy expenditure of native herbivores, and what the consequences of impermeability are. We studied 2-year ungulate movements in three common antelopes (springbok, kudu, eland) across a perforated part of Namibia's VCF separating a wildlife reserve and Etosha National Park using GPS telemetry, accelerometer measurements, and satellite imagery. We identified 2905 fence interaction events which we used to evaluate critical times of encounters and direct fence effects on energy expenditure. Using vegetation type-specific greenness dynamics, we quantified what animals gained in terms of high quality food resources from crossing the VCF. Our results show that the perforation of the VCF sustains herbivore-vegetation interactions in the savanna with its scattered resources. Fence permeability led to peaks in crossing numbers during the first flush of woody plants before the rain started. Kudu and eland often showed increased energy expenditure when crossing the fence. Energy expenditure was lowered during the frequent interactions of ungulates standing at the fence. We found no alteration of energy expenditure when springbok immediately found and crossed fence breaches. Our results indicate that constantly open gaps did not affect energy expenditure, while gaps with obstacles increased motion. Closing gaps may have confused ungulates and modified their intended movements. While browsing, sedentary kudu's use of space was less affected by the VCF; migratory, mixed-feeding springbok, and eland benefited from gaps by gaining forage quality and quantity after crossing. This highlights the importance of access to vast areas to allow ungulates to track vital vegetation patches.
In recent years digital technologies have become a major means for providing health-related services and this trend was strongly reinforced by the current Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As it is well-known that regular physical activity has positive effects on individual physical and mental health and thus is an important prerequisite for healthy aging, digital technologies are also increasingly used to promote unstructured and structured forms of physical activity. However, in the course of this development, several terms (e.g., Digital Health, Electronic Health, Mobile Health, Telehealth, Telemedicine, and Telerehabilitation) have been introduced to refer to the application of digital technologies to provide health-related services such as physical interventions. Unfortunately, the above-mentioned terms are often used in several different ways, but also relatively interchangeably. Given that ambiguous terminology is a major source of difficulty in scientific communication which can impede the progress of theoretical and empirical research, this article aims to make the reader aware of the subtle differences between the relevant terms which are applied at the intersection of physical activity and Digital Health and to provide state-of-art definitions for them.
Inverted perovskite solar cells still suffer from significant non-radiative recombination losses at the perovskite surface and across the perovskite/C₆₀ interface, limiting the future development of perovskite-based single- and multi-junction photovoltaics. Therefore, more effective inter- or transport layers are urgently required. To tackle these recombination losses, we introduce ortho-carborane as an interlayer material that has a spherical molecular structure and a three-dimensional aromaticity. Based on a variety of experimental techniques, we show that ortho-carborane decorated with phenylamino groups effectively passivates the perovskite surface and essentially eliminates the non-radiative recombination loss across the perovskite/C₆₀ interface with high thermal stability. We further demonstrate the potential of carborane as an electron transport material, facilitating electron extraction while blocking holes from the interface. The resulting inverted perovskite solar cells deliver a power conversion efficiency of over 23% with a low non-radiative voltage loss of 110 mV, and retain >97% of the initial efficiency after 400 h of maximum power point tracking. Overall, the designed carborane based interlayer simultaneously enables passivation, electron-transport and hole-blocking and paves the way toward more efficient and stable perovskite solar cells.
Basic psychological needs theory postulates that a social environment that satisfies individuals’ three basic psychological needs of autonomy, competence, and relatedness leads to optimal growth and well-being. On the other hand, the frustration of these needs is associated with ill-being and depressive symptoms foremost investigated in non-clinical samples; yet, there is a paucity of research on need frustration in clinical samples. Survey data were compared between adult individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD; n = 115; 48.69% female; 38.46 years, SD = 10.46) with those of a non-depressed comparison sample (n = 201; 53.23% female; 30.16 years, SD = 12.81). Need profiles were examined with a linear mixed model (LMM). Individuals with depression reported higher levels of frustration and lower levels of satisfaction in relation to the three basic psychological needs when compared to non-depressed adults. The difference between depressed and non-depressed groups was significantly larger for frustration than satisfaction regarding the needs for relatedness and competence. LMM correlation parameters confirmed the expected positive correlation between the three needs. This is the first study showing substantial differences in need-based experiences between depressed and non-depressed adults. The results confirm basic assumptions of the self-determination theory and have preliminary implications in tailoring therapy for depression.
The first step towards assessing hazards in seismically active regions involves mapping capable faults and estimating their recurrence times. While the mapping of active faults is commonly based on distinct geologic and geomorphic features evident at the surface, mapping blind seismogenic faults is complicated by the absence of on-fault diagnostic features. Here we investigated the Pichilemu Fault in coastal Chile, unknown until it generated a Mw 7.0 earthquake in 2010. The lack of evident surface faulting suggests activity along a partly-hidden blind fault. We used off-fault deformed marine terraces to estimate a fault-slip rate of 0.52 ± 0.04 m/ka, which, when integrated with satellite geodesy suggests a 2.12 ± 0.2 ka recurrence time for Mw~7.0 normal-faulting earthquakes. We propose that extension in the Pichilemu region is associated with stress changes during megathrust earthquakes and accommodated by sporadic slip during upper-plate earthquakes, which has implications for assessing the seismic potential of cryptic faults along convergent margins and elsewhere.
This dataset comprises tree inventories and damage assessments performed in Namibia's semi-arid Zambezi Region. Data were sampled in savannas and savanna woodlands along steep gradients of elephant population densities to capture the effects of those (and other) disturbances on individual-level and stand-level aboveground woody biomass (AGB). The dataset contains raw data on dendrometric measures and processed data on specific wood density (SWD), woody aboveground biomass, and biomass losses through disturbance impacts. Allometric proxies (height, canopy diameters, and in adult trees also stem circumferences) were recorded for n = 6,179 tree and shrub individuals. Wood samples were taken for each encountered species to measure specific wood density.
These measurements have been used to estimate woody aboveground biomass via established allometric models, advanced through our improved methodologies and workflows that accounted for tree and shrub architecture shaped by disturbance impacts. To this end, we performed a detailed damage assessment on each woody individual in the field. In addition to estimations of standing biomass, our new method also delivered data on biomass losses to different disturbance agents (elephants, fire, and others) on the level of plant individuals and stands.
The data presented here have been used within a study published with Ecological Indicators (Kindermann et al., 2022) to evaluate the benefits of our improved methodology in comparison to a standard reference method of aboveground biomass estimations. Additionally, it has been employed in a study on carbon storage and sequestration in vegetation and soils (Sandhage-Hofmann et al., 2021).
The raw data of dendrometric measurements can be subjected to other available allometric models for biomass estimation. The processed data can be used to analyze disturbance impacts on woody aboveground biomass, or for regional carbon storage estimates. The data on species-specific wood density can be used for application to other dendrometric datasets to (re-) estimate biomass through allometric models requiring wood density. It can further be used for plant functional trait analyses.
The intake of high-fat diets (HFDs) containing large amounts of saturated long-chain fatty acids leads to obesity, oxidative stress, inflammation, and insulin resistance. The trace element selenium, as a crucial part of antioxidative selenoproteins, can protect against the development of diet-induced insulin resistance in white adipose tissue (WAT) by increasing glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) and insulin receptor (IR) expression. Whether selenite (Se) can attenuate insulin resistance in established lipotoxic and obese conditions is unclear. We confirm that GPX3 mRNA expression in adipose tissue correlates with BMI in humans. Cultivating 3T3-L1 pre-adipocytes in palmitate-containing medium followed by Se treatment attenuates insulin resistance with enhanced GPx3 and IR expression and adipocyte differentiation. However, feeding obese mice a selenium-enriched high-fat diet (SRHFD) only resulted in a modest increase in overall selenoprotein gene expression in WAT in mice with unaltered body weight development, glucose tolerance, and insulin resistance. While Se supplementation improved adipocyte morphology, it did not alter WAT insulin sensitivity. However, mice fed a SRHFD exhibited increased insulin content in the pancreas. Overall, while selenite protects against palmitate-induced insulin resistance in vitro, obesity impedes the effect of selenite on insulin action and adipose tissue metabolism in vivo.
Technological progress allows for producing ever more complex predictive models on the basis of increasingly big datasets. For risk management of natural hazards, a multitude of models is needed as basis for decision-making, e.g. in the evaluation of observational data, for the prediction of hazard scenarios, or for statistical estimates of expected damage. The question arises, how modern modelling approaches like machine learning or data-mining can be meaningfully deployed in this thematic field. In addition, with respect to data availability and accessibility, the trend is towards open data. Topic of this thesis is therefore to investigate the possibilities and limitations of machine learning and open geospatial data in the field of flood risk modelling in the broad sense. As this overarching topic is broad in scope, individual relevant aspects are identified and inspected in detail.
A prominent data source in the flood context is satellite-based mapping of inundated areas, for example made openly available by the Copernicus service of the European Union. Great expectations are directed towards these products in scientific literature, both for acute support of relief forces during emergency response action, and for modelling via hydrodynamic models or for damage estimation. Therefore, a focus of this work was set on evaluating these flood masks. From the observation that the quality of these products is insufficient in forested and built-up areas, a procedure for subsequent improvement via machine learning was developed. This procedure is based on a classification algorithm that only requires training data from a particular class to be predicted, in this specific case data of flooded areas, but not of the negative class (dry areas). The application for hurricane Harvey in Houston shows the high potential of this method, which depends on the quality of the initial flood mask.
Next, it is investigated how much the predicted statistical risk from a process-based model chain is dependent on implemented physical process details. Thereby it is demonstrated what a risk study based on established models can deliver. Even for fluvial flooding, such model chains are already quite complex, though, and are hardly available for compound or cascading events comprising torrential rainfall, flash floods, and other processes. In the fourth chapter of this thesis it is therefore tested whether machine learning based on comprehensive damage data can offer a more direct path towards damage modelling, that avoids explicit conception of such a model chain. For that purpose, a state-collected dataset of damaged buildings from the severe El Niño event 2017 in Peru is used. In this context, the possibilities of data-mining for extracting process knowledge are explored as well. It can be shown that various openly available geodata sources contain useful information for flood hazard and damage modelling for complex events, e.g. satellite-based rainfall measurements, topographic and hydrographic information, mapped settlement areas, as well as indicators from spectral data. Further, insights on damaging processes are discovered, which mainly are in line with prior expectations. The maximum intensity of rainfall, for example, acts stronger in cities and steep canyons, while the sum of rain was found more informative in low-lying river catchments and forested areas. Rural areas of Peru exhibited higher vulnerability in the presented study compared to urban areas. However, the general limitations of the methods and the dependence on specific datasets and algorithms also become obvious.
In the overarching discussion, the different methods – process-based modelling, predictive machine learning, and data-mining – are evaluated with respect to the overall research questions. In the case of hazard observation it seems that a focus on novel algorithms makes sense for future research. In the subtopic of hazard modelling, especially for river floods, the improvement of physical models and the integration of process-based and statistical procedures is suggested. For damage modelling the large and representative datasets necessary for the broad application of machine learning are still lacking. Therefore, the improvement of the data basis in the field of damage is currently regarded as more important than the selection of algorithms.
The Covid-19 pandemic imposed new constraints on empirical research and forced researchers to transfer from traditional laboratory research to the online environment. This study tested the validity of a web-based episodic memory paradigm by comparing participants’ memory performance for trustworthy and untrustworthy facial stimuli in a supervised laboratory setting and an unsupervised web setting. Consistent with previous results, we observed enhanced episodic memory for untrustworthy compared to trustworthy faces. Most importantly, this memory bias was comparable in the online and the laboratory experiment, suggesting that web-based procedures are a promising tool for memory research.
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.
Das Dokument "Forschungsdatenmanagement bei personenbezogenen Daten - eine Handreichung" versammelt zentrale Inhalte, Verweise und Vorgehensweisen für Forscher*innen, die in einer Studie personenbezogene Daten erheben und diese verarbeiten, archivieren oder veröffentlichen wollen. Die Handreichung verweist an den entsprechenden Abschnitten auf weiterführende Materialien wie insbesondere die Handreichung „Datenschutz“ des Rats für die Sozial-, Verhaltens-, Bildungs- und Wirtschaftswissenschaften (RatSWD).
Sulfur is an important element that is incorporated into many biomolecules in humans. The incorporation and transfer of sulfur into biomolecules is, however, facilitated by a series of different sulfurtransferases. Among these sulfurtransferases is the human mercaptopyruvate sulfurtransferase (MPST) also designated as tRNA thiouridine modification protein (TUM1). The role of the human TUM1 protein has been suggested in a wide range of physiological processes in the cell among which are but not limited to involvement in Molybdenum cofactor (Moco) biosynthesis, cytosolic tRNA thiolation and generation of H2S as signaling molecule both in mitochondria and the cytosol. Previous interaction studies showed that TUM1 interacts with the L-cysteine desulfurase NFS1 and the Molybdenum cofactor biosynthesis protein 3 (MOCS3). Here, we show the roles of TUM1 in human cells using CRISPR/Cas9 genetically modified Human Embryonic Kidney cells. Here, we show that TUM1 is involved in the sulfur transfer for Molybdenum cofactor synthesis and tRNA thiomodification by spectrophotometric measurement of the activity of sulfite oxidase and liquid chromatography quantification of the level of sulfur-modified tRNA. Further, we show that TUM1 has a role in hydrogen sulfide production and cellular bioenergetics.
In late summer, migratory bats of the temperate zone face the challenge of accomplishing two energy-demanding tasks almost at the same time: migration and mating. Both require information and involve search efforts, such as localizing prey or finding potential mates. In non-migrating bat species, playback studies showed that listening to vocalizations of other bats, both con-and heterospecifics, may help a recipient bat to find foraging patches and mating sites. However, we are still unaware of the degree to which migrating bats depend on con-or heterospecific vocalizations for identifying potential feeding or mating opportunities during nightly transit flights. Here, we investigated the vocal responses of Nathusius’ pipistrelle bats, Pipistrellus nathusii, to simulated feeding and courtship aggregations at a coastal migration corridor. We presented migrating bats either feeding buzzes or courtship calls of their own or a heterospecific migratory species, the common noctule, Nyctalus noctula. We expected that during migratory transit flights, simulated feeding opportunities would be particularly attractive to bats, as well as simulated mating opportunities which may indicate suitable roosts for a stopover. However, we found that when compared to the natural silence of both pre-and post-playback phases, bats called indifferently during the playback of conspecific feeding sounds, whereas P. nathusii echolocation call activity increased during simulated feeding of N. noctula. In contrast, the call activity of P. nathusii decreased during the playback of conspecific courtship calls, while no response could be detected when heterospecific call types were broadcasted. Our results suggest that while on migratory transits, P. nathusii circumnavigate conspecific mating aggregations, possibly to save time or to reduce the risks associated with social interactions where aggression due to territoriality might be expected. This avoidance behavior could be a result of optimization strategies by P. nathusii when performing long-distance migratory flights, and it could also explain the lack of a response to simulated conspecific feeding. However, the observed increase of activity in response to simulated feeding of N. noctula, suggests that P. nathusii individuals may be eavesdropping on other aerial hawking insectivorous species during migration, especially if these occupy a slightly different foraging niche.
The central gas in half of all galaxy clusters shows short cooling times. Assuming unimpeded cooling, this should lead to high star formation and mass cooling rates, which are not observed. Instead, it is believed that condensing gas is accreted by the central black hole that powers an active galactic nuclei jet, which heats the cluster. The detailed heating mechanism remains uncertain. A promising mechanism invokes cosmic ray protons that scatter on self-generated magnetic fluctuations, i.e. Alfvén waves. Continuous damping of Alfvén waves provides heat to the intracluster medium. Previous work has found steady state solutions for a large sample of clusters where cooling is balanced by Alfvénic wave heating. To verify modeling assumptions, we set out to study cosmic ray injection in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamical simulations of jet feedback in an idealized cluster with the moving-mesh code arepo. We analyze the interaction of jet-inflated bubbles with the turbulent magnetized intracluster medium.
Furthermore, jet dynamics and heating are closely linked to the largely unconstrained jet composition. Interactions of electrons with photons of the cosmic microwave background result in observational signatures that depend on the bubble content. Those recent observations provided evidence for underdense bubbles with a relativistic filling while adopting simplifying modeling assumptions for the bubbles. By reproducing the observations with our simulations, we confirm the validity of their modeling assumptions and as such, confirm the important finding of low-(momentum) density jets.
In addition, the velocity and magnetic field structure of the intracluster medium have profound consequences for bubble evolution and heating processes. As velocity and magnetic fields are physically coupled, we demonstrate that numerical simulations can help link and thereby constrain their respective observables. Finally, we implement the currently preferred accretion model, cold accretion, into the moving-mesh code arepo and study feedback by light jets in a radiatively cooling magnetized cluster. While self-regulation is attained independently of accretion model, jet density and feedback efficiencies, we find that in order to reproduce observed cold gas morphology light jets are preferred.
The light reactions of photosynthesis are carried out by a series of multiprotein complexes embedded in thylakoid membranes. Among them, photosystem I (PSI), acting as plastocyanin-ferderoxin oxidoreductase, catalyzes the final reaction. Together with light-harvesting antenna I, PSI forms a high-molecular-weight supercomplex of ~600 kDa, consisting of eighteen subunits and nearly two hundred co-factors. Assembly of the various components into a functional thylakoid membrane complex requires precise coordination, which is provided by the assembly machinery. Although this includes a small number of proteins (PSI assembly factors) that have been shown to play a role in the formation of PSI, the process as a whole, as well as the intricacy of its members, remains largely unexplored.
In the present work, two approaches were used to find candidate PSI assembly factors. First, EnsembleNet was used to select proteins thought to be functionally related to known PSI assembly factors in Arabidopsis thaliana (approach I), and second, co-immunoprecipitation (Co-IP) of tagged PSI assembly factors in Nicotiana tabacum was performed (approach II).
Here, the novel PSI assembly factors designated CO-EXPRESSED WITH PSI ASSEMBLY 1 (CEPA1) and Ycf4-INTERACTING PROTEIN 1 (Y4IP1) were identified. A. thaliana null mutants for CEPA1 and Y4IP1 showed a growth phenotype and pale leaves compared with the wild type. Biophysical experiments using pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) revealed insufficient electron transport on the PSII acceptor side. Biochemical analyses revealed that both CEPA1 and Y4IP1 are specifically involved in PSI accumulation in A. thaliana at the post-translational level but are not essential. Consistent with their roles as factors in the assembly of a thylakoid membrane protein complex, the two proteins localize to thylakoid membranes. Remarkably, cepa1 y4ip1 double mutants exhibited lethal phenotypes in early developmental stages under photoautotrophic growth. Finally, co-IP and native gel experiments supported a possible role for CEPA1 and Y4IP1 in mediating PSI assembly in conjunction with other PSI assembly factors (e.g., PPD1- and PSA3-CEPA1 and Ycf4-Y4IP1). The fact that CEPA1 and Y4IP1 are found exclusively in green algae and higher plants suggests eukaryote-specific functions. Although the specific mechanisms need further investigation, CEPA1 and Y4IP1 are two novel assembly factors that contribute to PSI formation.
In recent decades, astronomy has seen a boom in large-scale stellar surveys of the Galaxy. The detailed information obtained about millions of individual stars in the Milky Way is bringing us a step closer to answering one of the most outstanding questions in astrophysics: how do galaxies form and evolve? The Milky Way is the only galaxy where we can dissect many stars into their high-dimensional chemical composition and complete phase space, which analogously as fossil records can unveil the past history of the genesis of the Galaxy. The processes that lead to large structure formation, such as the Milky Way, are critical for constraining cosmological models; we call this line of study Galactic archaeology or near-field cosmology.
At the core of this work, we present a collection of efforts to chemically and dynamically characterise the disks and bulge of our Galaxy. The results we present in this thesis have only been possible thanks to the advent of the Gaia astrometric satellite, which has revolutionised the field of Galactic archaeology by precisely measuring the positions, parallax distances and motions of more than a billion stars. Another, though not less important, breakthrough is the APOGEE survey, which has observed spectra in the near-infrared peering into the dusty regions of the Galaxy, allowing us to determine detailed chemical abundance patterns in hundreds of thousands of stars. To accurately depict the Milky Way structure, we use and develop the Bayesian isochrone fitting tool/code called StarHorse; this software can predict stellar distances, extinctions and ages by combining astrometry, photometry and spectroscopy based on stellar evolutionary models. The StarHorse code is pivotal to calculating distances where Gaia parallaxes alone cannot allow accurate estimates.
We show that by combining Gaia, APOGEE, photometric surveys and using StarHorse, we can produce a chemical cartography of the Milky way disks from their outermost to innermost parts. Such a map is unprecedented in the inner Galaxy. It reveals a continuity of the bimodal chemical pattern previously detected in the solar neighbourhood, indicating two populations with distinct formation histories. Furthermore, the data reveals a chemical gradient within the thin disk where the content of 𝛼-process elements and metals is higher towards the centre. Focusing on a sample in the inner MW we confirm the extension of the chemical duality to the innermost regions of the Galaxy. We find stars with bar shape orbits to show both high- and low-𝛼 abundances, suggesting the bar formed by secular evolution trapping stars that already existed. By analysing the chemical orbital space of the inner Galactic regions, we disentangle the multiple populations that inhabit this complex region. We reveal the presence of the thin disk, thick disk, bar, and a counter-rotating population, which resembles the outcome of a perturbed proto-Galactic disk. Our study also finds that the inner Galaxy holds a high quantity of super metal-rich stars up to three times solar suggesting it is a possible repository of old super-metal-rich stars found in the solar neighbourhood.
We also enter into the complicated task of deriving individual stellar ages. With StarHorse, we calculate the ages of main-sequence turn-off and sub-giant stars for several public spectroscopic surveys. We validate our results by investigating linear relations between chemical abundances and time since the 𝛼 and neutron capture elements are sensitive to age as a reflection of the different enrichment timescales of these elements. For further study of the disks in the solar neighbourhood, we use an unsupervised machine learning algorithm to delineate a multidimensional separation of chrono-chemical stellar groups revealing the chemical thick disk, the thin disk, and young 𝛼-rich stars. The thick disk is shown to have a small age dispersion indicating its fast formation contrary to the thin disk that spans a wide range of ages.
With groundbreaking data, this thesis encloses a detailed chemo-dynamical view of the disk and bulge of our Galaxy. Our findings on the Milky Way can be linked to the evolution of high redshift disk galaxies, helping to solve the conundrum of galaxy formation.
Cosmic rays (CRs) constitute an important component of the interstellar medium (ISM) of galaxies and are thought to play an essential role in governing their evolution. In particular, they are able to impact the dynamics of a galaxy by driving galactic outflows or heating the ISM and thereby affecting the efficiency of star-formation. Hence, in order to understand galaxy formation and evolution, we need to accurately model this non-thermal constituent of the ISM. But except in our local environment within the Milky Way, we do not have the ability to measure CRs directly in other galaxies. However, there are many ways to indirectly observe CRs via the radiation they emit due to their interaction with magnetic and interstellar radiation fields as well as with the ISM.
In this work, I develop a numerical framework to calculate the spectral distribution of CRs in simulations of isolated galaxies where a steady-state between injection and cooling is assumed. Furthermore, I calculate the non-thermal emission processes arising from the modelled CR proton and electron spectra ranging from radio wavelengths up to the very high-energy gamma-ray regime.
I apply this code to a number of high-resolution magneto-hydrodynamical (MHD) simulations of isolated galaxies, where CRs are included. This allows me to study their CR spectra and compare them to observations of the CR proton and electron spectra by the Voyager-1 satellite and the AMS-02 instrument in order to reveal the origin of the measured spectral features.
Furthermore, I provide detailed emission maps, luminosities and spectra of the non-thermal emission from our simulated galaxies that range from dwarfs to Milk-Way analogues to starburst galaxies at different evolutionary stages. I successfully reproduce the observed relations between the radio and gamma-ray luminosities with the far-infrared (FIR) emission of star-forming (SF) galaxies, respectively, where the latter is a good tracer of the star-formation rate. I find that highly SF galaxies are close to the limit where their CR population would lose all of their energy due to the emission of radiation, whereas CRs tend to escape low SF galaxies more quickly. On top of that, I investigate the properties of CR transport that are needed in order to match the observed gamma-ray spectra.
Furthermore, I uncover the underlying processes that enable the FIR-radio correlation (FRC) to be maintained even in starburst galaxies and find that thermal free-free-emission naturally explains the observed radio spectra in SF galaxies like M82 and NGC 253 thus solving the riddle of flat radio spectra that have been proposed to contradict the observed tight FRC.
Lastly, I scrutinise the steady-state modelling of the CR proton component by investigating for the first time the influence of spectrally resolved CR transport in MHD simulations on the hadronic gamma-ray emission of SF galaxies revealing new insights into the observational signatures of CR transport both spectrally and spatially.
Many widely used observational data sets are comprised of several overlapping instrument records. While data inter-calibration techniques often yield continuous and reliable data for trend analysis, less attention is generally paid to maintaining higher-order statistics such as variance and autocorrelation. A growing body of work uses these metrics to quantify the stability or resilience of a system under study and potentially to anticipate an approaching critical transition in the system. Exploring the degree to which changes in resilience indicators such as the variance or autocorrelation can be attributed to non-stationary characteristics of the measurement process – rather than actual changes in the dynamical properties of the system – is important in this context. In this work we use both synthetic and empirical data to explore how changes in the noise structure of a data set are propagated into the commonly used resilience metrics lag-one autocorrelation and variance. We focus on examples from remotely sensed vegetation indicators such as vegetation optical depth and the normalized difference vegetation index from different satellite sources. We find that time series resulting from mixing signals from sensors with varied uncertainties and covering overlapping time spans can lead to biases in inferred resilience changes. These biases are typically more pronounced when resilience metrics are aggregated (for example, by land-cover type or region), whereas estimates for individual time series remain reliable at reasonable sensor signal-to-noise ratios. Our work provides guidelines for the treatment and aggregation of multi-instrument data in studies of critical transitions and resilience.
In this work, binding interactions between biomolecules were analyzed by a technique that is based on electrically controllable DNA nanolevers. The technique was applied to virus-receptor interactions for the first time. As receptors, primarily peptides on DNA nanostructures and antibodies were utilized. The DNA nanostructures were integrated into the measurement technique and enabled the presentation of the peptides in a controllable geometrical order. The number of peptides could be varied to be compatible to the binding sites of the viral surface proteins.
Influenza A virus served as a model system, on which the general measurability was demonstrated. Variations of the receptor peptide, the surface ligand density, the measurement temperature and the virus subtypes showed the sensitivity and applicability of the technology. Additionally, the immobilization of virus particles enabled the measurement of differences in oligovalent binding of DNA-peptide nanostructures to the viral proteins in their native environment.
When the coronavirus pandemic broke out in 2020, work on binding interactions of a peptide from the hACE2 receptor and the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus revealed that oligovalent binding can be quantified in the switchSENSE technology. It could also be shown that small changes in the amino acid sequence of the spike protein resulted in complete loss of binding. Interactions of the peptide and inactivated virus material as well as pseudo virus particles could be measured. Additionally, the switchSENSE technology was utilized to rank six antibodies for their binding affinity towards the nucleocapsid protein of SARS-CoV-2 for the development of a rapid antigen test device.
The technique was furthermore employed to show binding of a non-enveloped virus (adenovirus) and a virus-like particle (norovirus-like particle) to antibodies. Apart from binding interactions, the use of DNA origami levers with a length of around 50 nm enabled the switching of virus material. This proved that the technology is also able to size objects with a hydrodynamic diameter larger than 14 nm.
A theoretical work on diffusion and reaction-limited binding interactions revealed that the technique and the chosen parameters enable the determination of binding rate constants in the reaction-limited regime.
Overall, the applicability of the switchSENSE technique to virus-receptor binding interactions could be demonstrated on multiple examples. While there are challenges that remain, the setup enables the determination of affinities between viruses and receptors in their native environment. Especially the possibilities regarding the quantification of oligo- and multivalent binding interactions could be presented.
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.
Für eine gelingende Kommunikation und Zusammenarbeit zwischen Therapeut:innen und Eltern sind meines Erachtens zwei Aspekte wesentlich: die therapeutische Haltung/innere Einstellung zur Beziehungsgestaltung auf Seiten der Therapeut:innen sowie ihr Wissen und die Fähigkeiten, Eltern ganz pragmatisch in den therapeutischen Prozess einzubinden.
Both horizontal-to-vertical (H/V) spectral ratios and the spatial autocorrelation method (SPAC) have proven to be valuable tools to gain insight into local site effects by ambient noise measurements. Here, the two methods are employed to assess the subsurface velocity structure at the Piano delle Concazze area on Mt Etna. Volcanic tremor records from an array of 26 broadband seismometers is processed and a strong variability of H/V ratios during periods of increased volcanic activity is found. From the spatial distribution of H/V peak frequencies, a geologic structure in the north-east of Piano delle Concazze is imaged which is interpreted as the Ellittico caldera rim. The method is extended to include both velocity data from the broadband stations and distributed acoustic sensing data from a co-located 1.5 km long fibre optic cable. High maximum amplitude values of the resulting ratios along the trajectory of the cable coincide with known faults. The outcome also indicates previously unmapped parts of a fault. The geologic interpretation is in good agreement with inversion results from magnetic survey data. Using the neighborhood algorithm, spatial autocorrelation curves obtained from the modified SPAC are inverted alone and jointly with the H/V peak frequencies for 1D shear wave velocity profiles. The obtained models are largely consistent with published models and were able to validate the results from the fibre optic cable.
In the present thesis, AC electrokinetic forces, like dielectrophoresis and AC electroosmosis, were demonstrated as a simple and fast method to functionalize the surface of nanoelectrodes with submicrometer sized biological objects. These nanoelectrodes have a cylindrical shape with a diameter of 500 nm arranged in an array of 6256 electrodes. Due to its medical relevance influenza virus as well as anti-influenza antibodies were chosen as a model organism. Common methods to bring antibodies or proteins to biosensor surfaces are complex and time-consuming. In the present work, it was demonstrated that by applying AC electric fields influenza viruses and antibodies can be immobilized onto the nanoelectrodes within seconds without any prior chemical modification of neither the surface nor the immobilized biological object. The distribution of these immobilized objects is not uniform over the entire array, it exhibits a decreasing gradient from the outer row to the inner ones. Different causes for this gradient have been discussed, such as the vortex-shaped fluid motion above the nanoelectrodes generated by, among others, electrothermal fluid flow. It was demonstrated that parts of the accumulated material are permanently immobilized to the electrodes. This is a unique characteristic of the presented system since in the literature the AC electrokinetic immobilization is almost entirely presented as a method just for temporary immobilization. The spatial distribution of the immobilized viral material or the anti-influenza antibodies at the electrodes was observed by either the combination of fluorescence microscopy and deconvolution or by super-resolution microscopy (STED). On-chip immunoassays were performed to examine the suitability of the functionalized electrodes as a potential affinity-based biosensor. Two approaches were pursued: A) the influenza virus as the bio-receptor or B) the influenza virus as the analyte. Different sources of error were eliminated by ELISA and passivation experiments. Hence, the activity of the immobilized object was inspected by incubation with the analyte. This resulted in the successful detection of anti-influenza antibodies by the immobilized viral material. On the other hand, a detection of influenza virus particles by the immobilized anti-influenza antibodies was not possible. The latter might be due to lost activity or wrong orientation of the antibodies. Thus, further examinations on the activity of by AC electric fields immobilized antibodies should follow. When combined with microfluidics and an electrical read-out system, the functionalized chips possess the potential to serve as a rapid, portable, and cost-effective point-of-care (POC) device. This device can be utilized as a basis for diverse applications in diagnosing and treating influenza, as well as various other pathogens.
‚Maise Jeschurun‘
(2023)
The birth of the Yishuv’s national shipping company, ZIM was preceded by private enterprise; the sea had not traditionally been a focus of the Zionist movement. In the 1930s, a five-year span of private commercial shipping saw three companies in the Jewish community in Palestine – Palestine Shipping Company, Palestine Maritime Lloyd, and Atid – before shipping was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War. Despite their brief lifespans and their negligible contribution to general shipping, these companies constituted an important milestone. Their existence helped shift the Yishuv leadership’s attitudes about shipping’s importance for the community and the need for it to be supported by national institutions.
Mothers of Seafaring
(2023)
The article aims to trace the contribution of Jewish women in the Yishuv’s maritime history. Taking the example of Henrietta Diamond, a founding member and chairperson of the Zebulun Seafaring Society, the article seeks to explore the representation and role of women in a growing Jewish maritime domain from the 1930s to the 1950s. It examines Zionist narratives on the ‘New Jew’ and the Jewish body and studies their relevance for the emerging field of maritime activities in the Yishuv. By contextualizing the work and depiction of Henrietta Diamond, the article sheds new light on the gendered notions that underlay the emergence of the Jewish maritime domain and illustrates the patterns of inclusion and exclusion in it.
Properties of Arctic aerosol in the transition between Arctic haze to summer season derived by lidar
(2023)
During the Arctic haze period, the Arctic troposphere consists of larger, yet fewer, aerosol particles than during the summer (Tunved et al., 2013; Quinn et al., 2007). Interannual variability (Graßl and Ritter, 2019; Rinke et al., 2004), as well as unknown origins (Stock et al., 2014) and properties of aerosol complicate modeling these annual aerosol cycles. This thesis investigates the modification of the microphysical properties of Arctic aerosols in the transition from Arctic haze to the summer season. Therefore, lidar measurements of Ny-Ålesund from April 2021 to the end of July 2021 are evaluated based on the aerosols’ optical properties. An overview of those properties will be provided. Furthermore, parallel radiosonde data is considered for indication of hygroscopic growth.
The annual aerosol cycle in 2021 differs from expectations based on previous studies from Tunved et al. (2013) and Quinn et al. (2007). Developments of backscatter, extinction, aerosol depolarisation, lidar ratio and color ratio show a return of the Arctic haze in May. The haze had already reduced in April, but regrew afterwards.
The average Arctic aerosol displays hygroscopic behaviour, meaning growth due to water uptake. To determine such a behaviour is generally laborious because various meteorological circumstances need to be considered. Two case studies provide further information on these possible events. In particular, a day with a rare ice cloud and with highly variable water cloud layers is observed.
The Andean Cordillera is a mountain range located at the western South American margin and is part of the Eastern- Circum-Pacific orogenic Belt. The ~7000 km long mountain range is one of the longest on Earth and hosts the second largest orogenic plateau in the world, the Altiplano-Puna plateau. The Andes are known as a non-collisional subduction-type orogen which developed as a result of the interaction between the subducted oceanic Nazca plate and the South American continental plate. The different Andean segments exhibit along-strike variations of morphotectonic provinces characterized by different elevations, volcanic activity, deformation styles, crustal thickness, shortening magnitude and oceanic plate geometry. Most of the present-day elevation can be explained by crustal shortening in the last ~50 Ma, with the shortening magnitude decreasing from ~300 km in the central (15°S-30°S) segment to less than half that in the southern part (30°S-40°S). Several factors were proposed that might control the magnitude and acceleration of shortening of the Central Andes in the last 15 Ma. One important factor is likely the slab geometry. At 27-33°S, the slab dips horizontally at ~100 km depth due to the subduction of the buoyant Juan Fernandez Ridge, forming the Pampean flat-slab. This horizontal subduction is thought to influence the thermo-mechanical state of the Sierras Pampeanas foreland, for instance, by strengthening the lithosphere and promoting the thick-skinned propagation of deformation to the east, resulting in the uplift of the Sierras Pampeanas basement blocks. The flat-slab has migrated southwards from the Altiplano latitude at ~30 Ma to its present-day position and the processes and consequences associated to its passage on the contemporaneous acceleration of the shortening rate in Central Andes remain unclear. Although the passage of the flat-slab could offer an explanation to the acceleration of the shortening, the timing does not explain the two pulses of shortening at about 15 Ma and 4 Ma that are suggested from geological observations. I hypothesize that deformation in the Central Andes is controlled by a complex interaction between the subduction dynamics of the Nazca plate and the dynamic strengthening and weakening of the South American plate due to several upper plate processes. To test this hypothesis, a detailed investigation into the role of the flat-slab, the structural inheritance of the continental plate, and the subduction dynamics in the Andes is needed. Therefore, I have built two classes of numerical thermo-mechanical models: (i) The first class of models are a series of generic E-W-oriented high-resolution 2D subduction models thatinclude flat subduction in order to investigate the role of the subduction dynamics on the temporal variability of the shortening rate in the Central Andes at Altiplano latitudes (~21°S). The shortening rate from the models was then validated with the observed tectonic shortening rate in the Central Andes. (ii) The second class of models are a series of 3D data-driven models of the present-day Pampean flat-slab configuration and the Sierras Pampeanas (26-42°S). The models aim to investigate the relative contribution of the present-day flat subduction and inherited structures in the continental lithosphere on the strain localization. Both model classes were built using the advanced finite element geodynamic code ASPECT.
The first main finding of this work is to suggest that the temporal variability of shortening in the Central Andes is primarily controlled by the subduction dynamics of the Nazca plate while it penetrates into the mantle transition zone. These dynamics depends on the westward velocity of the South American plate that provides the main crustal shortening force to the Andes and forces the trench to retreat. When the subducting plate reaches the lower mantle, it buckles on it-self until the forced trench retreat causes the slab to steepen in the upper mantle in contrast with the classical slab-anchoring model. The steepening of the slab hinders the trench causing it to resist the advancing South American plate, resulting in the pulsatile shortening. This buckling and steepening subduction regime could have been initiated because of the overall decrease in the westwards velocity of the South American plate. In addition, the passage of the flat-slab is required to promote the shortening of the continental plate because flat subduction scrapes the mantle lithosphere, thus weakening the continental plate. This process contributes to the efficient shortening when the trench is hindered, followed by mantle lithosphere delamination at ~20 Ma. Finally, the underthrusting of the Brazilian cratonic shield beneath the orogen occurs at ~11 Ma due to the mechanical weakening of the thick sediments covered the shield margin, and due to the decreasing resistance of the weakened lithosphere of the orogen.
The second main finding of this work is to suggest that the cold flat-slab strengthens the overriding continental lithosphere and prevents strain localization. Therefore, the deformation is transmitted to the eastern front of the flat-slab segment by the shear stress operating at the subduction interface, thus the flat-slab acts like an indenter that “bulldozes” the mantle-keel of the continental lithosphere. The offset in the propagation of deformation to the east between the flat and steeper slab segments in the south causes the formation of a transpressive dextral shear zone. Here, inherited faults of past tectonic events are reactivated and further localize the deformation in an en-echelon strike-slip shear zone, through a mechanism that I refer to as “flat-slab conveyor”. Specifically, the shallowing of the flat-slab causes the lateral deformation, which explains the timing of multiple geological events preceding the arrival of the flat-slab at 33°S. These include the onset of the compression and of the transition between thin to thick-skinned deformation styles resulting from the crustal contraction of the crust in the Sierras Pampeanas some 10 and 6 Myr before the Juan Fernandez Ridge collision at that latitude, respectively.
Late-type stars are by far the most frequent stars in the universe and of fundamental interest to various fields of astronomy – most notably to Galactic archaeology and exoplanet research. However, such stars barely change during their main sequence lifetime; their temperature, luminosity, or chemical composition evolve only very slowly over the course of billions of years. As such, it is difficult to obtain the age of such a star, especially when it is isolated and no other indications (like cluster association) can be used. Gyrochronology offers a way to overcome this problem.
Stars, just like all other objects in the universe, rotate and the rate at which stars rotate impacts many aspects of their appearance and evolution. Gyrochronology leverages the observed rotation rate of a late-type main sequence star and its systematic evolution to estimate their ages. Unlike the above-mentioned parameters, the rotation rate of a main sequence star changes drastically throughout its main sequence lifetime; stars spin down. The youngest stars rotate every few hours, whereas much older stars rotate only about once a month, or – in the case of some late M-stars – once in a hundred days. Given that this spindown is systematic (with an additional mass dependence), it gave rise to the idea of using the observed rotation rate of a star (and its mass or a suitable proxy thereof) to estimate a star’s age. This has been explored widely in young stellar open clusters but remains essentially unconstrained for stars older than the sun, and K and M stars older than 1 Gyr.
This thesis focuses on the continued exploration of the spindown behavior to assess, whether gyrochronology remains applicable for stars of old ages, whether it is universal for late-type main sequence stars (including field stars), and to provide calibration mileposts for spindown models. To accomplish this, I have analyzed data from Kepler space telescope for the open clusters Ruprecht 147 (2.7 Gyr old) and M 67 (4 Gyr). Time series photometry data (light curves)
were obtained for both clusters during Kepler’s K2 mission. However, due to technical limitations and telescope malfunctions, extracting usable data from the K2 mission to identify (especially long) rotation periods requires extensive data preparation.
For Ruprecht 147, I have compiled a list of about 300 cluster members from the literature and adopted preprocessed light curves from the Kepler archive where available. They have been cleaned of the gravest of data artifacts but still contained systematics. After correcting them for said artifacts, I was able to identify rotation periods in 31 of them.
For M 67 more effort was taken. My work on Ruprecht 147 has shown the limitations imposed by the preselection of Kepler targets. Therefore, I adopted the time series full frame image directly and performed photometry on a much higher spatial resolution to be able to obtain data for as many stars as possible. This also means that I had to deal with the ubiquitous artifacts in Kepler data. For that, I devised a method that correlates the artificial flux variations with the ongoing drift of the telescope pointing in order to remove it. This process was a large success and I was able to create light curves whose quality match and even exceede those that were created by the Kepler mission – all while operating on higher spatial resolution and processing fainter stars. Ultimately, I was able to identify signs of periodic variability in the (created) light curves for 31 and 47 stars in Ruprecht 147 and M 67, respectively. My data connect well to bluer stars of cluster of the same age and extend for the first time to stars redder than early-K and older than 1 Gyr. The cluster data show a clear flattening in the distribution of Ruprecht 147 and even a downturn for M 67, resulting in a somewhat sinusoidal shape. With that, I have shown that the systematic spindown of stars continues at least until 4 Gyr and stars continue to live on a single surface in age-rotation periods-mass space which allows gyrochronology to be used at least up to that age. However, the shape of the spindown – as exemplified by the newly discovered sinusoidal shape of the cluster sequence – deviates strongly from the expectations.
I then compiled an extensive sample of rotation data in open clusters – very much including my own work – and used the resulting cluster skeleton (with each cluster forming a rip in color-rotation period-mass space) to investigate if field stars follow the same spindown as cluster stars. For the field stars, I used wide binaries, which – with their shared origin and coevality – are in a sense the smallest possible open clusters. I devised an empirical method to evaluate the consistency between the rotation rates of the wide binary components and found that the vast majority of them are in fact consistent with what is observed in open clusters. This leads me to conclude that gyrochronology – calibrated on open clusters – can be applied to determine the ages of field stars.
Das 16. Herbsttreffen Patholinguistik mit dem Schwerpunktthema »Schnittstelle Alltag: Transfer und Teilhabe in der Sprachtherapie« fand am 19.11.2022 als Online-Veranstaltung statt. Das Herbsttreffen wird seit 2007 jährlich vom Verband für Patholinguistik e.V. (vpl), seit 2021 vom Deutschen Bundesverband für akademische Sprachtherapie und Logopädie (dbs) in Kooperation mit der Universität Potsdam durchgeführt. Der vorliegende Tagungsband beinhaltet die Vorträge zum Schwerpunktthema sowie die Posterpräsentationen zu weiteren Themen aus der sprachtherapeutischen Forschung und Praxis.
Complex emulsions are dispersions of kinetically stabilized multiphasic emulsion droplets comprised of two or more immiscible liquids that provide a novel material platform for the generation of active and dynamic soft materials. In recent years, the intrinsic reconfigurable morphological behavior of complex emulsions, which can be attributed to the unique force equilibrium between the interfacial tensions acting at the various interfaces, has become of fundamental and applied interest. As such, particularly biphasic Janus droplets have been investigated as structural templates for the generation of anisotropic precision objects, dynamic optical elements or as transducers and signal amplifiers in chemo- and bio-sensing applications. In the present thesis, switchable internal morphological responses of complex droplets triggered by stimuli-induced alterations of the balance of interfacial tensions have been explored as a universal building block for the design of multiresponsive, active, and adaptive liquid colloidal systems. A series of underlying principles and mechanisms that influence the equilibrium of interfacial tensions have been uncovered, which allowed the targeted design of emulsion bodies that can alter their shape, bind and roll on surfaces, or change their geometrical shape in response to chemical stimuli. Consequently, combinations of the unique triggerable behavior of Janus droplets with designer surfactants, such as a stimuli-responsive photosurfactant (AzoTAB) resulted for instance in shape-changing soft colloids that exhibited a jellyfish inspired buoyant motion behavior, holding great promise for the design of biological inspired active material architectures and transformable soft robotics.
In situ observations of spherical Janus emulsion droplets using a customized side-view microscopic imaging setup with accompanying pendant dropt measurements disclosed the sensitivity regime of the unique chemical-morphological coupling inside complex emulsions and enabled the recording of calibration curves for the extraction of critical parameters of surfactant effectiveness. The deduced new "responsive drop" method permitted a convenient and cost-efficient quantification and comparison of the critical micelle concentrations (CMCs) and effectiveness of various cationic, anionic, and nonionic surfactants. Moreover, the method allowed insightful characterization of stimuli-responsive surfactants and monitoring of the impact of inorganic salts on the CMC and surfactant effectiveness of ionic and nonionic surfactants. Droplet functionalization with synthetic crown ether surfactants yielded a synthetically minimal material platform capable of autonomous and reversible adaptation to its chemical environment through different supramolecular host-guest recognition events. Addition of metal or ammonium salts resulted in the uptake of the resulting hydrophobic complexes to the hydrocarbon hemisphere, whereas addition of hydrophilic ammonium compounds such as amino acids or polypeptides resulted in supramolecular assemblies at the hydrocarbon-water interface of the droplets. The multiresponsive material platform enabled interfacial complexation and
thus triggered responses of the droplets to a variety of chemical triggers including metal ions, ammonium compounds, amino acids, antibodies, carbohydrates as well as amino-functionalized solid surfaces.
In the final chapter, the first documented optical logic gates and combinatorial logic circuits based on complex emulsions are presented. More specifically, the unique reconfigurable and multiresponsive properties of complex emulsions were exploited to realize droplet-based logic gates of varying complexity using different stimuli-responsive surfactants in combination with diverse readout methods. In summary, different designs for multiresponsive, active, and adaptive liquid colloidal systems were presented and investigated, enabling the design of novel transformative chemo-intelligent soft material platforms.
Technologically important, environmentally friendly InP quantum dots (QDs) typically used as green and red emitters in display devices can achieve exceptional photoluminescence quantum yields (PL QYs) of near-unity (95-100%) when the-state-of-the-art core/shell heterostructure of the ZnSe inner/ZnS outer shell is elaborately applied. Nevertheless, it has only led to a few industrial applications as QD liquid crystal display (QD–LCD) which is applied to blue backlight units, even though QDs has a lot of possibilities that able to realize industrially feasible applications, such as QD light-emitting diodes (QD‒LEDs) and luminescence solar concentrator (LSC), due to their functionalizable characteristics.
Before introducing the main research, the theoretical basis and fundamentals of QDs are described in detail on the basis of the quantum mechanics and experimental synthetic results, where a concept of QD and colloidal QD, a type-I core/shell structure, a transition metal doped semiconductor QDs, the surface chemistry of QD, and their applications (LSC, QD‒LEDs, and EHD jet printing) are sequentially elucidated for better understanding. This doctoral thesis mainly focused on the connectivity between QD materials and QD devices, based on the synthesis of InP QDs that are composed of inorganic core (core/shell heterostructure) and organic shell (surface ligands on the QD surface). In particular, as for the former one (core/shell heterostructure), the ZnCuInS mid-shell as an intermediate layer is newly introduced between a Cu-doped InP core and a ZnS shell for LSC devices. As for the latter one (surface ligands), the ligand effect by 1-octanethiol and chloride ion are investigated for the device stability in QD‒LEDs and the printability of electro-hydrodynamic (EHD) jet printing system, in which this research explores the behavior of surface ligands, based on proton transfer mechanism on the QD surface.
Chapter 3 demonstrates the synthesis of strain-engineered highly emissive Cu:InP/Zn–Cu–In–S (ZCIS)/ZnS core/shell/shell heterostructure QDs via a one-pot approach. When this unconventional combination of a ZCIS/ZnS double shelling scheme is introduced to a series of Cu:InP cores with different sizes, the resulting Cu:InP/ZCIS/ZnS QDs with a tunable near-IR PL range of 694–850 nm yield the highest-ever PL QYs of 71.5–82.4%. These outcomes strongly point to the efficacy of the ZCIS interlayer, which makes the core/shell interfacial strain effectively alleviated, toward high emissivity. The presence of such an intermediate ZCIS layer is further examined by comparative size, structural, and compositional analyses. The end of this chapter briefly introduces the research related to the LSC devices, fabricated from Cu:InP/ZCIS/ZnS QDs, currently in progress.
Chapter 4 mainly deals with ligand effect in 1-octanethiol passivation of InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs in terms of incomplete surface passivation during synthesis. This chapter demonstrates the lack of anionic carboxylate ligands on the surface of InP/ZnSe/ZnS quantum dots (QDs), where zinc carboxylate ligands can be converted to carboxylic acid or carboxylate ligands via proton transfer by 1-octanethiol. The as-synthesized QDs initially have an under-coordinated vacancy surface, which is passivated by solvent ligands such as ethanol and acetone. Upon exposure of 1-octanethiol to the QD surface, 1-octanthiol effectively induces the surface binding of anionic carboxylate ligands (derived from zinc carboxylate ligands) by proton transfer, which consequently exchanges ethanol and acetone ligands that bound on the incomplete QD surface. The systematic chemical analyses, such as thermogravimetric analysis‒mass spectrometry and proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, directly show the interplay of surface ligands, and it associates with QD light-emitting diodes (QD‒LEDs).
Chapter 5 shows the relation between material stability of QDs and device stability of QD‒LEDs through the investigation of surface chemistry and shell thickness. In typical III–V colloidal InP quantum dots (QDs), an inorganic ZnS outermost shell is used to provide stability when overcoated onto the InP core. However, this work presents a faster photo-degradation of InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs with a thicker ZnS shell than that with a thin ZnS shell when 1-octanethiol was applied as a sulfur source to form ZnS outmost shell. Herein, 1-octanethiol induces the form of weakly-bound carboxylate ligand via proton transfer on the QD surface, resulting in a faster degradation at UV light even though a thicker ZnS shell was formed onto InP/ZnSe QDs. Detailed insight into surface chemistry was obtained from proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis–mass spectrometry. However, the lifetimes of the electroluminescence devices fabricated from InP/ZnSe/ZnS QDs with a thick or a thin ZnS shell show surprisingly the opposite result to the material stability of QDs, where the QD light-emitting diodes (QD‒LEDs) with a thick ZnS shelled QDs maintained its luminance more stable than that with a thin ZnS shelled QDs. This study elucidates the degradation mechanism of the QDs and the QD light-emitting diodes based on the results and discuss why the material stability of QDs is different from the lifetime of QD‒LEDs.
Chapter 6 suggests a method how to improve a printability of EHD jet printing when QD materials are applied to QD ink formulation, where this work introduces the application of GaP mid-shelled InP QDs as a role of surface charge in EHD jet printing technique. In general, GaP intermediate shell has been introduced in III–V colloidal InP quantum dots (QDs) to enhance their thermal stability and quantum efficiency in the case of type-I core/shell/shell heterostructure InP/GaP/ZnSeS QDs. Herein, these highly luminescent InP/GaP/ZnSeS QDs were synthesized and applied to EHD jet printing, by which this study demonstrates that unreacted Ga and Cl ions on the QD surface induce the operating voltage of cone jet and cone jet formation to be reduced and stabilized, respectively. This result indicates GaP intermediate shell not only improves PL QY and thermal stability of InP QDs but also adjusts the critical flow rate required for cone-jet formation. In other words, surface charges of quantum dots can have a significant role in forming cone apex in the EHD capillary nozzle. For an industrially convenient validation of surface charges on the QD surface, Zeta potential analyses of QD solutions as a simple method were performed, as well as inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) for a composition of elements.
Beyond the generation of highly emissive InP QDs with narrow FWHM, these studies talk about the connection between QD material and QD devices not only to make it a vital jumping-off point for industrially feasible applications but also to reveal from chemical and physical standpoints the origin that obstructs the improvement of device performance experimentally and theoretically.
Facing the environmental crisis, new technologies are needed to sustain our society. In this context, this thesis aims to describe the properties and applications of carbon-based sustainable materials. In particular, it reports the synthesis and characterization of a wide set of porous carbonaceous materials with high nitrogen content obtained from nucleobases. These materials are used as cathodes for Li-ion capacitors, and a major focus is put on the cathode preparation, highlighting the oxidation resistance of nucleobase-derived materials. Furthermore, their catalytic properties for acid/base and redox reactions are described, pointing to the role of nitrogen speciation on their surfaces. Finally, these materials are used as supports for highly dispersed nickel loading, activating the materials for carbon dioxide electroreduction.
Functional materials, also called "Smart Materials", are described by their ability to fulfill a desired task through targeted interaction with its environment. Due to this functional integration, such materials are of increased interest, especially in areas where the increasing micronization of components is required. Modern manufacturing processes (e.g. microfluidics) and the availability of a wide variety of functional materials (e.g. shape memory materials) now enable the production of particle-based switching components. This category includes micropumps and microvalves, whose basic function is the active control of liquid flows. One approach in realizing those microcomponents as pursued by this work, enables variable size-switching of water-filled microballoons by implementing a stimulus-sensitive switching motif in the capsule's membrane shell, while being under the influence of a constant driving force. The switching motif with its gatekeeper function has a critical influence on one or more material parameters, which modulate the capsule's resistance against the driving force in microballoon expansion process. The advantage of this concept is that even non-variable analyte conditions, such as concentration levels of ions, can be capitalized to generate external force fields that, under the control of the membrane, cause an inflation of the microballoon by an osmotically driven water influx. In case of osmotic pressure gradients as the driving force for the capsule expansion, material parameters associated with the gatekeeper function are specifically the permeability and the mechanical stiffness of the shell material. While a modulation of the shell permeability could be utilized to kinetically impede the water influx on large time scales, a modulation of the shell's mechanical stiffness even might be utilized to completely prevent the capsule inflation due to a possible non-deformability beneath a certain threshold pressure. In polymer networks, which are a suitable material class for the demanded capsule shell because of their excellent elasticity, both the permeability and the mechanical properties are strongly influenced by the crystallinity of the material. Since the permeability is effectively reduced with increasing crystallinity, while the mechanical stiffness is simultaneously greatly increased, both effects point in the same direction in terms of their functional relationship. For this reason and due to a reversible and contactless modulation of the membrane crystallinity by heat input, crystallites may be suitable switching motifs for controlling the capsule expansion. As second design element of reversible expandable microballoons, the capsule geometry, defined by an aqueous core enveloped by the temperature-sensitive polymer network membrane, should allow an osmotic pressure gradient across the membrane layer. The strength of the inflation pressure and the associated inflation velocity upon membrane melting should be controlled by the salt concentration within the aqueous core, while a turn in the osmotic gradient should furthermore allow the reversible process of capsule deflation. Therefore, it should be possible to build either microvalves and micropumps, while their intended action of either pumping or valving is determined by their state of expansion and the direction of the osmotic pressure gradient.. Microballoons of approximately 300 µm in diameter were formed via droplet-based microfluidics from double-emulsion templates (w/o/w). The elastomeric capsule membrane was formed by photo-crosslinking of methacrylate (MA) functionalized oligo(ε-caprolactone) precursors (≈ 3.8 MA-arms, Mn ≈ 12000 g mol-1) within the organic medium layer (o) via UV-exposure after droplet-formation. After removal of the toluene/chloroform mixture by slow extraction via the continuous aqueous phase, the capsules solidified under the development of a characteristic "mushroom"-like shape at specific experimental conditions (e.g. λ = 308 nm, 57 mJ·s-1·cm-2, 16 min). It could be furthermore shown that in dependency to the process parameters: oligomer concentration and curing-time also spherical capsules were accessible. Long curing-times and high oligomer concentrations at a fixed light-intensity favored the formation of "mushroom"-like capsules, whereas the contrary led to spherical shaped capsules. A comparative study on thin polymer network films of same composition and equal treatment proved a correlation between the film's crosslink density and their contraction capability, while stronger crosslinked polymer networks showed a stronger contraction after solvent removal. In combination with observations during capsule solidification via light-microscopy, where a continuous shaping from almost spherical crosslinked templates to "mushroom"-shaped and solidified capsules was stated, the following mechanism was proposed. In case of low oligomer contents and short curing-times, the contraction of the capsule shell during solvent removal is strongly diminished due to a low degree of crosslinking. Therefore, the solidifying shell could freely collapse onto the aqueous core. In the other case, high oligomer concentrations and long curing-times will favor the formation of highly crosslinked capsule membranes with a strong contraction capability. Due to an observed decentered location of the aqueous core within the swollen polymer network, an uneven radial stress along the capsule's circumference is exerted to the incompressible core. This lead to an uneven contraction during solvent removal and a directed flow of the core fluid into the direction of the minimal stress vector. In consequence, the initially thicker spherical cap contracts, whereas the opposing thinner spherical cap get stretched. The "mushroom"-shape over some advantages over their spherical shaped counterparts, why they were selected for the further experiments. Besides the necessity of a high density of crosslinking for the purpose of extraordinary elasticity and toughness, the form-anisotropy promotes a faster microballoon expandability due to a partial reduction of the membrane thickness. Additionally, pre-stretched regions of thin thickness might provide a better resistance against inflation pressure than spherical but non-stretched capsules of equal membrane thickness. The resulting "mushroom"-shaped microcapsules exhibited a melting point of Tm ≈ 50 - 60 °C and a degree of crystallinity of Xc ≈ 29 - 38 % depending on the membrane thickness and internal salt content, which is slightly lower than for the non-crosslinked oligomer and reasoned by a limited chain mobility upon crosslinking. Nonetheless, the melting transition of the polymer network was associated with a strong drop in its mechanical stiffness, which was shown to have a strong influence on the osmotic driven expansion of the microcapsules. Capsules that were subjected to osmotic pressures between 1.5 and 4.7 MPa did not expand if the temperature was well below the melting point of the capsule's membrane, i.e. at room temperature. In contrast, a continuous expansion, while approaching asymptotically to a final capsule size, was observed if the temperature exceeded the melting point, i.e. 60 °C. Microballoons, which were kept for 56 days at ∆Π = 1.5 MPa and room temperature, did not change significantly in diameter, why the impact of the mechanical stiffness on the expansion behavior is considered to be the greater than the influence of the shell permeability. The time-resolved expansion behavior of the microballoons above their Tm was subsequently modeled, using difusion equations that were corrected for shape anisotropy and elastic restoring forces. A shape-related and expansion dependent pre-factor was used to dynamically address the influence of the shell thickness differences along the circumference on the inflation velocity, whereas the microballoon's elastic contraction upon inflation was rendered by the inclusion of a hyperelastic constitutive model. An important finding resulting from this model was the pronounced increase in inflation velocity compared to hypothetical capsules with a homogeneous shell thickness, which stresses the benefit of employing shape anisotropic balloon-like capsules in this study. Furthermore, the model was able to predict the finite expandability on basis of entropy-elastic recovery forces and strain-hardening effects. A comparison of six different microballoons with different shell thicknesses and internal salt contents showed the linear relationship between the volumetric expansion, the shell thickness and the applied osmotic pressure, as represented by the model. As the proposed model facilitates the prediction of the expansion kinetics depending on the membranes mechanical and diffusional characteristics, it might be a screening tool for future material selections. In course of the microballoon expansion process, capsules of intermediate diameters could be isolated by recrystallization of the membrane, which is mainly caused by a restoration of the membrane's mechanical stiffness and is otherwise difficult to achieve with other stimuli-sensitive systems. The capsule's crystallinity of intermediate expansion states was nearly unchanged, whereas the lamellar crystal size tends to decreased with the expansion ratio. Therefore, it was assumed that the elastic modulus was only minimally altered and might increased due to the networks segment-chain extension. In addition to the volume increase achieved by inflation, a turn in the osmotic gradient also facilitated the reversible deflation, which was shown in inflation/deflation cycles. These both characteristics of the introduced microballoons are important parameter regarding the realization of micropumps and microvalves. The fixation of expanded microcapsules via recrystallization enabled the storage of entropy-elastic strain-energy, which could be utilized for pumping actions in non-aqueous media. Here, the pumping velocity depended on both, the type of surrounding medium and the applied temperature. Surrounding media that supported the fast transport of pumped liquid showed an accelerated deflation, while high temperatures further accelerate the pumping velocity. Very fast rejection of the incorporated payload was furthermore realized with pierced expanded microballoons, which were subjected to temperatures above their Tm. The possible fixation of intermediate particle sizes provide opportunities for vent constructions that allowed the precise adjustment of specific flow-rates and multiple valve openings and closings. A valve construction was realized by the insertion of a single or multiple microballoons in a microfluidic channel. A complete and a partial closing of the microballoon-valves was demonstrated as a function of the heating period. In this context, a difference between the inflation and deflation velocity was stated, summarizing slower expansion kinetics. Overall, microballoons, which presented both on-demand pumping and reversible valving by a temperature-triggered change in the capsule's volume, might be suitable components that help to design fully integrated LOC devices, due to the implementation of the control switch and controllable inflation/deflation kinetics. In comparison to other state of the art stimuli-sensitive materials, one has to highlight the microballoons capability of stabilizing almost continuously intermediate capsule sizes by simple recrystallization of the microballoon's membrane.
Eine reflexive Haltung gegenüber der eigenen Lehrtätigkeit gilt als Schlüsselqualifikation in Bezug auf die Professionalisierung von Lehrer:innen in allen Didaktiken (GFD, 2004, S. 4). Das universitäre Seminarformat Lehr-Lern-Labor (LLLS) kann diese Haltung fördern (Rehfeldt et al., 2018). Das Lehrformat eignet sich außerdem zur Steigerung des Professionswissens und der unterrichtlichen Handlungsfähigkeit angehender Lehrer:innen (Rehfeldt et al., 2020; Brämer & Köster, 2021). Dieser Beitrag stellt, neben der grundsätzlichen Konzeption des Seminarformats, dessen Implementierung in vier verschiedenen Fachdidaktiken (Didaktiken des Englischen, der Geschichte, der Physik und Sachunterricht und seine Didaktik) vor. Ein Fokus liegt dabei auf der unterschiedlichen Umsetzung der Reflexionsphasen.
Reflexion ist eine Schlüsselkategorie für die professionelle Entwicklung von Lehrkräften, welche als Ausbildungsziel in den Bildungsstandards für die Lehrkräftebildung verankert ist. Eine Verstetigung universitär geprägter Forschung und Modellierung in der praxisnahen Anwendung im schulischen Kontext bietet Potentiale nachhaltiger Professionalisierung. Die Stärkung reflexionsbezogener Kompetenzen durch Empirie und Anwendung scheint eine phasenübergreifende Herausforderung der Lehrkräftebildung zu sein, die es zu bewältigen gilt. Ziele des Tagungsbandes Reflexion in der Lehrkräftebildung sind eine theoretische Schärfung des Konzeptes „Reflexive Professionalisierung“ und der Austausch über Fragen der Einbettung wirksamer reflexionsbezogener Lerngelegenheiten in die Lehrkräftebildung. Forschende und Lehrende der‚ drei Phasen (Studium, Referendariat sowie Fort- und Weiterbildung) der Lehrkräftebildung stellen Lehrkonzepte und Forschungsprojekte zum Thema Reflexion in der Lehrkräftebildung vor und diskutieren diese. Gemeinsam mit Teilnehmenden aller Phasen und von verschiedenen Standorten der Lehrkräftebildung werden zukünftige Herausforderungen identifiziert und Lösungsansätze herausgearbeitet.
In diesem Beitrag wird ein geplantes digitales Lehrkonzept für die universitäre Begleitung des Praxissemesters in den Fächern Biologie und Mathematik vorgestellt. Darin setzen sich Studierende im Praxissemester selbstständig fachspezifische Schwerpunkte für die Planung, Durchführung und Reflexion von Unterrichtsprojekten in der Schule. Optimalerweise ergibt sich aus den Unterrichtsprojekten auch eine fachbezogene Fragestellung, die von den Studierenden im Zuge Forschenden Lernens ergründet werden kann. Begleitet wird der gesamte Prozess durch systematisch angeleitete E-Peer-Assessments (E-PA). Dabei treten Studierende in Peers in den digitalen, schriftlichen Dialog über Unterricht und durchlaufen gemeinsam Reflexions- und Feedbackschleifen, welche durch die universitäre Seminarleitung instruiert werden.
Reflexion wird in diesem Artikel als Rückmeldung (Feedback) zu einem Sprachlernstand begriffen. Es soll anhand eines Fallbeispiels (IRF-Sequenz) aus dem Unterricht Deutsch als Zweitsprache (DaZ) der Frage nachgegangen werden, wie sich die Feedback-Interaktion gestaltet und inwiefern sich ihr Gelingen oder Misslingen erklären lässt. Dazu wird die evidenzbasierte Forschung zum effektiven Feedback nach Hattie (u. a. Hattie 2020; Hattie & Zierer 2020; Wisniewski & Zierer 2018) in die Analyse einbezogen. Zu wissen, welche Wirkung Feedbacks erzielen, hilft (angehenden) Lehrer:innen, das eigene Handeln zu reflektieren.
Die Professionalisierung angehender Lehrer:innen für Fragen rund um sprachliche Bildung, Deutsch als Zweitsprache und Mehrsprachigkeit ist in den letzten Jahren verstärkt in den Blick der Praxis und Forschung der Lehrer:innenbildung gerückt. Während der Fachdiskurs im Hinblick auf die Konstrukte (Handlungs-)Kompetenz und Einstellungen bereits vorgeschritten ist, stellen die Modellierung und Erforschung des Konstrukts Reflexion im Fach Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache (DaF*Z) noch ein Desiderat dar. Im Beitrag wird die Fachspezifik der Reflexion als eines der Qualifizierungsziele der Ausbildung von Lehrer:innen für die sprachlich und kulturell heterogene Schülerschaft diskutiert und eine Modellierung vorgestellt.
Reflexion im Dialog
(2023)
Fast 40 Jahre nach dem Erscheinen von Donald Schöns Buch „The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action“ (1984) ist das Konzept der „reflexiven Kompetenz“ immer noch hochaktuell und wird daher in akademischen Kreisen weiterhin intensiv diskutiert. Der Artikel greift die Diskussionen zu diesem Thema im Bereich der Fremdsprachenlehrkräftebildung auf und unterstreicht sie mit Beispielen aus der universitären Aus- und Fortbildungspraxis für Deutsch als Fremd- und Zweitsprache in Brasilien und Deutschland. Auffällig ist dabei, dass es sowohl bei den Fragestellungen als auch bei den Maßnahmen und Instrumenten zahlreiche Überschneidungen gibt. Reflexion als Ziel in der Lehrkräftebildung kann somit als übergreifendes Thema wahrgenommen und weiterentwickelt werden.
Auf der Zeitachse von Zyklusmodellen des Unterrichts wird der Handlungsreflexion eine zentrale Bedeutung zugesprochen: Vor seiner Umsetzung im Unterricht soll das kommende Handeln zunächst in einer antizipierenden Reflexion gedanklich entworfen werden, um seine Erfolgswahrscheinlichkeit zu erhöhen. Nach dem Unterricht soll es einer retrospektiven Reflexion unterzogen werden, in der die Handlungsumsetzung vor dem Hintergrund der Handlungsplanung evaluiert wird und Konsequenzen für künftige Handlungsplanungen gezogen werden. Trotz der Plausibilität dieses postulierten Zusammenhangs von antizipierender und retrospektiver Reflexion steht seine genauere empirische Untersuchung allerdings noch aus. In einer querschnittlichen Onlineerhebung werden diese beiden Reflexionsformen deshalb als generische Unterrichtsplanungsfähigkeit und Reflexionskompetenz spezifiziert, um ihren Zusammenhang mit Hilfe einer Stichprobe von angehenden Lehrkräften (N = 479) aus zwei Universitäten zu explorieren. Die gefundenen schwachen Zusammenhänge werden vor dem Hintergrund der Operationalisierungen und der Testmotivation der Teilnehmenden diskutiert.
Obwohl der Reflexion von Unterricht eine zentrale Bedeutung für Lehrkräfte zukommt, ist die Reflexionsfähigkeit von Lehramtsstudierenden oftmals nur gering ausgeprägt und wird auch in Praxisphasen nicht automatisch weiterentwickelt. Es besteht also bereits im Studium ein Bedarf, die Studierenden bei der Entwicklung dieser Fähigkeit zu unterstützen. Hier soll die nachfolgend vorgestellte Lernumgebung ansetzen und eine systematische Erfassung, Rückmeldung und Förderung der Reflexionsfähigkeit ermöglichen. Die Lernumgebung ist für das Lehramtsstudium im Fach Physik entwickelt und besteht aus einem Diagnoseinstrument mit daran anschließendem Assessment-Feedback und Fördermaterial. Erste Untersuchungen zur Validität zeigen, dass die Studierenden während der Bearbeitung des Diagnoseinstruments inhaltlich relevante Überlegungen anstellen sowie das erhaltene Assessment-Feedback inhaltlich sinnvoll interpretieren und auch dem Fördermaterial einen Mehrwert für ihre Professionalisierung zusprechen.
Seit 2016 wird ePortfolioarbeit an der Universität Vechta im Rahmen der vom BMBF geförderten Qualitätsoffensive Lehrerbildung (QLB) Projekte (BRIDGES I und II) mit einem eigens dafür entwickelten digitalen Tool konzeptioniert, implementiert und formativ evaluiert. Über entsprechende Aufgabenstellungen wird dabei studiumsbegleitend und insbesondere in Praxisphasen auf die Anregung von Reflexivität, die als grundlegende Schlüsselkompetenz pädagogischer Professionalität verstanden wird, fokussiert. Im Beitrag werden die Konzeptionierung und Implementierung digitaler Portfolioarbeit inkl. Anlassbeispielen zur Anregung von Reflexion in der Lehrkräftebildung vorgestellt. Zudem werden Chancen und Grenzen der Reflexionsanregung unter Zuhilfenahme eines digitalen Portfolios diskutiert. Dabei unterstützt auch die Betrachtung von Gelingensbedingungen für digitale Reflexionsanregung.
Kumulativer Aufbau der Reflexionskompetenz in den schulpraktischen Phasen der Lehrkräftebildung
(2023)
Die Reflexionskompetenz wird als zentrale Bedingung zur Professionalisierung im Lehrberuf angesehen. Um diese im Verlauf der Lehrkräftebildung zu entwickeln, müssen Etappenziele beschrieben werden, die sowohl das Lehramtsstudium als auch den Vorbereitungsdienst in den Blick nehmen. Ausbildende beider Phasen der Lehrkräftebildung haben dazu ein Kompetenzraster erarbeitet. Dieses soll einen Beitrag dazu leisten, die Progression der Reflexionskompetenz anhand von Handlungsschritten zu beschreiben. Den Handlungsschritten werden dann wiederum Entwicklungsstufen für die jeweiligen Praxisphasen (Blockpraktikum A, Schulpraktische Übungen, Blockpraktikum B, 2. Phase Ende) zugeordnet, die den Ausprägungsgrad der Reflexionskompetenz darstellen.
Im Rahmen der Förderung sozialer Teilhabe von Schüler:innen im Unterricht benötigen Lehrkräfte Reflexionskompetenzen, die es ihnen ermöglichen, mit den damit verbundenen Antinomien umzugehen. Davon ausgehend wird in diesem Beitrag ein Lehr-/Lernkonzept vorgestellt, welches auf die Förderung von Lehramtsstudierenden im Sinne einer reflexiven Inklusion abzielt. Der Fokus liegt auf dem Einsatz der Methode des Lauten Denkens, welches die Denk- und Problemlösungsprozesse der Studierenden beim Schauen von Unterrichtsvideos introspektiv erfasst. Das laut Gedachte wird anschließend für Metareflexionen genutzt. Inwiefern damit (fehlende) erfahrungsbasierte und wissenschaftliche Formen pädagogischen Wissens thematisiert und prozessbegleitend begegnet werden können, um eine Entwicklung von kritisch-reflexiven Kompetenzen zu fördern, wurde in einer Pilotphase im Rahmen eines Seminars erprobt. Ergänzend wurde die Anwendung des Lauten Denkens bei einzelnen Studierenden videographiert. Dazu werden erste Ergebnisse vorgestellt und ein Ausblick auf die weitere Nutzung und Erforschung der Methode für die Förderung von Reflexionsprozessen bei Lehramtsstudierenden im Seminarkontext gegeben.
Zur Reflexionsförderung wurde 2017/18 ein Aufgabenkonzept für Biologielehramtsstudierende an der Universität Bremen entwickelt, das gezielt im ersten fachdidaktischen Schulpraktikum eingesetzt wurde. Die ausgewerteten e-Portfolios zeigten, dass die studentischen Reflexionen die Dimensionen Theorieeinbezug, Perspektivenübernahme, Handlungsalternativen und Professionalisierung berücksichtigen, jedoch in den einzelnen Dimensionen nur durchschnittliche Ergebnisse in der Tiefe erzielt wurden. Deswegen wurde eine Intervention für die erste Phase der Lehrer:innenbildung entwickelt, die nach dem Design-Based Research-Ansatz (DBR) iterativ adaptiert wird und fremde Unterrichtsvideos einbindet. Ziel der Studie ist es, zu untersuchen, inwieweit die Intervention die fachdidaktische Reflexion in die Tiefe fördert. Als Datengrundlage wurden 28 Reflexionen inhaltsanalytisch ausgewertet. Erste Ergebnisse stellen dar, dass die Reflexionen hinsichtlich der Handlungsalternativen und der Professionalisierung von insgesamt vier Niveaustufen überwiegend die Niveaustufen 2 und 3 erreichen. Die Reflexionsdimensionen Theorieeinbezug und Perspektivenübernahme erfolgen hingegen auf Stufe 2, jedoch selten auf einer höheren Stufe. Die Ergebnisse werden hinsichtlich des weiteren Vorgehens diskutiert.
Reflexion – besser digital?
(2023)
Die Einführung des Praxissemesters in allen Lehramtsstudiengängen in NRW wurde mit der Forderung nach einer theoriegeleiteten Reflexion schulpraktischer Erfahrungen verbunden. Empirische Befunde deuten an, dass mithilfe videografierter Unterrichtsszenen eine Förderung der Reflexionskompetenz von Studierenden möglich ist. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde im Wintersemester 2020 an der Universität Paderborn eine quasi-experimentelle Studie mit dem Ziel durchgeführt, die Entwicklung der Fähigkeit zur videobasierten Reflexion eigenen Unterrichtshandelns in realen Unterrichtssituationen im Kontrollgruppenvergleich zu untersuchen. Dabei reflektierte eine Versuchsgruppe Videovignetten des eigenen Unterrichts ohne weitere Hilfsmittel während eine andere Versuchsgruppe mithilfe einer digitalen Lernumgebung reflektierte, die die Möglichkeit zum Setzen von Sprungmarken, Annotationen und (kollaborativer) Kommentierung des Videos bot. Eine Kontrollgruppe reflektierte den eigenen Unterricht erinnerungs- und textbasiert. Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass die Nutzung der digitalen Lernumgebung zu einer stärkeren Entwicklung der Reflexionskompetenz beitragen könnte.
Die Fähigkeit zur professionellen Unterrichtsreflexion ist eine Kernkompetenz von Lehrkräften, um den eigenen Unterricht weiterentwickeln zu können. Schon in der Lehramtsausbildung kann diese Kompetenz aufgebaut werden. Das transdisziplinäre Projekt FALKE-e hat das Ziel, die adaptive Erklärkompetenz von Lehramtsstudierenden in sechs unterschiedlichen Fächern zu messen und durch Reflexion videografierter Erkläreinheiten in fachdidaktischen Seminaren zu fördern. In Bezug auf das Reflektieren ergibt sich daraus die Fragestellung, inwiefern sich Zuwächse in der Reflexionskompetenz unterscheiden, wenn Studierende ihre eigenen videografierten Erklärungen (Selbstreflexion) oder die videografierten Erklärungen von Peers reflektieren (Fremdreflexion). In einer ersten Phase entwickeln Studierende in fachdidaktischen Seminaren Erkläreinheiten. Ein Teil der Studierenden (ca. 25 pro Fach) erprobt diese selbst in der Schule und wird dabei videografiert. Die übrigen Studierenden (ca. 25 pro Fach) beobachten die videografierten Erklärungen der anderen. Beide Gruppen reflektieren die Erklärungen und überarbeiten auf Basis der Reflexion die eigenen Erklärungen. Das Vorgehen wird anschließend in einer zweiten Phase von beiden Gruppen analog wiederholt.
Inwiefern begünstigt die Fähigkeit zur Fremdreflexion die Selbstreflexionsfähigkeit? Welche Rolle spielen affektiv-motivationale Dispositionen der Reflektierenden? Praxisveranstaltungen wird in der Lehrkräftebildung eine bedeutende Rolle zugeschrieben. Eine mögliche Ausgestaltung sind Lehr-Lern-Labore mit iterativen Ansätzen. Studierende führen dabei an mehreren Durchführungstagen in zeitlichem Abstand außerschulischen Unterricht mit kleineren Schüler:innengruppen durch. Zwischen den einzelnen Erprobungen finden Überarbeitungen der verwendeten Materialien und Erklärungen statt. Ergebnisse aus der Forschung erlauben die Interpretation, dass für die Professionalisierung von Lehrpersonen die Qualität der ablaufenden Reflexionsprozesse bedeutsam ist. Die geplante Studie im Rahmen des Lehr-Lern-Labor-Seminars Physik an der Universität Würzburg möchte mögliche Zusammenhänge zwischen unterschiedlichen Ansätzen der Qualitätsbestimmung genauer beleuchten. Begleitend zum Lehr-Lern-Labor-Seminar mit Phasen intensiver Selbstreflexion werden die Entwicklung von Fremd- und Selbstreflexionsfähigkeit sowie die Reflexionsbereitschaft bei Studierenden erhoben und Zusammenhänge zwischen diesen untersucht.
Wahrnehmungsvignetten als Zugang zur „Reflexiven Professionalisierung“ in der Lehrkräftebildung
(2023)
Der Beitrag handelt von einer pädagogisch-phänomenologischen Zugangsweise mit Wahrnehmungsvignetten. Diese kleinen Texte beschreiben persönliche Erfahrungen in der pädagogischen Arbeit mit Kindern und Jugendlichen. In den Phasen des Reflexionsprozesses stellen wir die Bezüge zu professioneller inklusionssensibler Haltung her, geben Denkanstöße für inklusiv-partizipatives Handeln im Unterricht und in anderen pädagogischen Kontexten, verknüpfen diese Bezüge mit erlerntem Wissen, bspw. aus Seminaren zu kindlicher Entwicklung, kindlichem Lernen und diagnostischen Fragestellungen. Die Studierenden durchlaufen verschiedene Phasen der Reflexion mit unterschiedlichen Erkenntnisqualitäten, wie Erschließen oder Bewusstmachen des Inhalts bzw. der Aussage einer Wahrnehmungsvignette, Herstellen von Zusammenhängen und Bezügen zur Anthropologie und Entwicklungspsychologie, Begriffsbildung für eine pädagogische Professionalität sowie Erkennen der Angemessenheit räumlicher Strukturen und didaktischen Handelns durch Abgleich mit pädagogischen Fachkenntnissen. Die Reflexionsprozesse unterstützen die Ausbildung einer professionellen Haltung und pädagogische Handlungssensibilität.
Im BMBF-Projekt DigiLeG – digitale Lernumgebungen in der Grundschule des Zentrums für Lehrerbildung der Technischen Universität (TU) Chemnitz werden ausgehend von einem gemeinsamen Lehrkonzept in Veranstaltungen der beteiligten Fachdidaktiken gemeinsam mit Studierenden Lernumgebungen entwickelt und reflektiert, die digitale Medien lernförderlich in den Grundschulunterricht einbinden. Im folgenden Beitrag werden zunächst das Lehrkonzept und seine theoretischen Grundlagen vorgestellt. Anschließend wird die praktische Umsetzung am Beispiel der Fachdidaktik Philosophieren mit Kindern (PmK) veranschaulicht. Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Zusammenfassung der Erfahrungen in der Umsetzung des Lehrkonzepts.
Die Potenziale von standardisierten Testverfahren wie VERA werden von Lehrkräften nur selten im vollen Umfang ausgeschöpft. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde gemeinsam mit dem Institut für Schulqualität Berlin-Brandenburg auf der Grundlage von realen VERA-Ergebnissen die „VERA-Box“ entwickelt. Die Lerngelegenheit soll Erwartungen und Werte von Lehrkräften im Umgang mit Ergebnissen standardisierter Testverfahren, deren Absicht, Unterricht zukünftig unter Bezug auf solche Testergebnisse zu entwickeln, sowie den differenziellen Nutzen dieser Rückmeldeinformationen stärken. Es wurde experimentell variiert, ob zusätzlich entweder die Aufforderung enthalten war, die Relevanz standardisierter Daten für die spätere Lehrtätigkeit zu reflektieren, oder sich mit negativen Argumentationen zu VERA auseinanderzusetzen. An drei Stichproben von insgesamt 763 Lehramtsstudierenden wurde die „VERA-Box“ über drei Semester erprobt und die Wirksamkeit evaluiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Intention, VERA-Rückmeldungen für die eigene Unterrichtsentwicklung zu nutzen, vom ersten zum zweiten Messzeitpunkt in allen Kohorten signifikant gestärkt wurde.
Förderung der professionellen Wahrnehmung von angehenden Mathematiklehrkräften durch Reflexion
(2023)
Sowohl Professionelle Wahrnehmung als auch Reflexionskompetenzen sind wichtige Voraussetzungen für die Professionalisierung von (angehenden) Mathematiklehrkräften. Bewährt hat sich zur Förderung der Einsatz von Videovignetten, wobei das Einnehmen einer interpretativen Grundhaltung Studierenden oft schwerfällt. Im vorgestellten Projekt sollen daher Lehramtsstudierende der Grundschule mithilfe von Videovignetten mit Reflexionsanlässen zur Perspektivenübernahme bei der Entwicklung ihrer professionellen Wahrnehmung mathematischer Denk- und Arbeitsprozesse von Kindern unterstützt werden. Methodologisch folgt das Projekt der fachdidaktischen Entwicklungsforschung. Dargestellt werden vier der zentralen Designprinzipien für die Konzeption einer entsprechenden Lernumgebung.
Wie nicht zuletzt der pandemiebedingte Distanzunterricht deutlich gemacht hat, besteht ein Bedarf an der Förderung von Medienkompetenzen bei (angehenden) Lehrkräften. Diesbezügliche Lerngelegenheiten in der Lehrkräftebildung werden als essenziell angesehen, um eine lernförderliche Anwendung digitaler Medien im Unterricht zu erlernen und dahingehende didaktische Reflexionsprozesse anzustoßen. Hieran anknüpfend wird ein Projekt vorgestellt, in dem ein Selbstlernkurs für Lehramtsstudierende zur digital gestützten Gestaltung von interaktivem Lernmaterial entwickelt und eingesetzt wird. Eingebettet in die universitäre Lehre erhalten Lehramtsstudierende Lerngelegenheiten zum Einüben mediendidaktischer Kompetenzen, indem sie eigenständig Themen als digitale Lerneinheiten aufbereiten und dazu direktes Feedback bekommen. Ziel ist es, dass die Studierenden nicht nur in der technischen Aufbereitung von Lerninhalten unterstützt werden, sondern – verknüpft mit kognitionspsychologischen Lerntheorien und didaktischen Konzepten – interaktive Lernmaterialien derart reflektieren und digital-gestützt aufbereiten können, dass sie adaptiv, motivierend und lernunterstützend eingesetzt werden können.
Sich mit dem eigenen Denken und Handeln reflexiv auseinanderzusetzen ist ein zentrales Element im Selbstreifungsprozess von Lehrkräften im Studium, über die Ausbildung bis hin zur Lehrer:innentätigkeit im Alltag. Der Workshop ermöglichte Zugänge zur selbstreflexiven Auseinandersetzung mit den eigenen Handlungsmustern mithilfe vom Autor (weiter)entwickelter Coachingtools, die im Rahmen der seminaristischen Lehrer:innenbildung in der zweiten Phase konzipiert und erprobt wurden.
Im Sinne einer „Meta-Reflexivität“ zielt dieser Beitrag darauf ab, den strukturtheoretischen und kompetenzorientierten Professionalisierungsansatz im Konstrukt der adaptiven Lehrkompetenz zusammenzuführen, was vor allem für inklusionsorientierte Ansätze vielversprechend erscheint: Anhand der Konstruktfacetten adaptiver diagnostischer, didaktischer sowie Sach- und Klassenführungskompetenz werden mögliche Herangehensweisen für eine inklusionsorientierte Lehrkräftebildung formuliert, die sowohl konkrete Kompetenzbereiche benennen als auch die Reflexion entsprechender Spannungsverhältnisse im strukturtheoretischen Sinne voraussetzen. So soll der Beitrag einen knappen theoretischen Aufriss zur Zusammenführung der unterschiedlichen Professionalisierungsansätze unter der Prämisse (mehr) Reflexion für (mehr) Inklusion leisten.
Portfolioarbeit ist ein gesetzlich verankerter Bestandteil der Lehramtsausbildung in Nordrhein-Westfalen. Über alle Praxisphasen hinweg führen Lehramtsstudierende ein Portfolio und dokumentieren darin ihren individuellen Professionalisierungsweg und reflektieren ihre Studien- und Berufswahl, ihre schulpraktischen Beobachtungen und Erfahrungen sowie ihre individuelle Kompetenzentwicklung. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die Arbeit mit dem ePortfolio in der Lehrkräftebildung an der Universität zu Köln (UzK). Dabei werden zunächst die Potenziale von Portfolioarbeit aufgeführt und Herausforderungen herausgestellt. Im Anschluss erfolgt eine konkrete Erläuterung der Notwendigkeit einer kohärenten Einbindung des ePortfolios in die Seminararbeit und eine kurze Darstellung der Weiterentwicklung im Rahmen des Verbundprojekts ePort.nrw.
Die Fachausbildung des Vorbereitungsdiensts im Land Brandenburg bietet Lehramtskandidat:innen (LAK) gemeinsame Fachgruppenarbeit, individuelle Fachkonsultationen sowie Hospitationen als unterstützende Angebote im Entwicklungsprozess. Um diesen Professionalisierungsprozess sichtbar zu machen und Zielperspektiven entwickeln und verfolgen zu können, wurden aus einem Spinnennetzdiagramm zwei Praxistools zur Reflexion und Diagnose entwickelt.
(1) Reflexionstool: Die Übertragung eines tabellarischen Kompetenzprofils (Arnold & Iffert nach MBJS [Ministerium für Bildung, Jugend und Sport des Landes Brandenburg], 2014) in das Spinnennetzdiagramm bietet den LAK niederschwellige Gelegenheit der kontinuierlichen, prozessbegleitenden Selbstreflexion. Die Selbstwahrnehmung von positiven Entwicklungen kann zur Stärkung der Selbstwirksamkeit führen, schafft gleichzeitig jedoch eine Bewusstmachung für einzelne Herausforderungen. Die Abbildung individueller Entwicklungsaufgaben und Professionalisierungsbedarfe ermöglicht eine bedarfsorientierte Gestaltung der Fachgruppenarbeit.
(2) Diagnosetool: Analog wird Fachausbilder:innen durch die Übertragung der Beobachtungskriterien des MBJS (2014) in das Diagramm eine übersichtliche Bestandsaufnahme einzelner Unterrichtssituationen zur Diagnose von Grundkoordinaten des Unterrichts transparent. Auf diese Weise können Fachausbilder:innen mögliche blinde Flecken identifizieren und Feedback zur Auswahl von Beobachtungskriterien geben. Darüber hinaus ergeben sich Aspekte zur Gestaltung von Fachkonsultationen sowie Diskussionsgrundlagen für Gruppenhospitationen.
Menschen mit Aphasie erleben erhebliche Einbußen in sozialer Teilhabe und Lebensqualität. Peer-to-Peer-Unterstützung durch Selbsthilfeangebote oder Peer-Befriending-Maßnahmen kann sich positiv auf Partizipation und psychisches Wohlbefinden auswirken. Mit dem Projekt shalk konnte gezeigt werden, dass von Betroffenen geleitete Selbsthilfegruppen maßgeblich zu Selbstwerterleben und verbesserter Lebensqualität der Leitungspersonen und der Gruppenteilnehmenden beitragen können. Um einen Austausch zwischen Betroffenen auch jenseits des Gruppensettings zu ermöglichen, können digitale Medien genutzt werden. Im Projekt PeerPAL wird ein für Menschen mit Aphasie angepasstes digitales soziales Netzwerk (Smartphone-App) zur virtuellen Vernetzung und persönlichen Begegnung entwickelt und evaluiert. Erste Daten weisen darauf hin, dass die Betroffenen die App nutzen können und mit Design und Funktionen zufrieden sind. Auswirkungen auf die Lebensqualität werden aktuell untersucht. Sprachtherapeut:innen nehmen in der Peer-to-Peer-Unterstützung insofern eine zentrale Rolle ein, als dass sie Betroffene in entsprechende Angebote einführen und sie mittels abgestufter Begleitung an die eigenständige Nutzung heranführen.
Diversity is a term that is broadly used and challenging for informatics research, development and education. Diversity concerns may relate to unequal participation, knowledge and methodology, curricula, institutional planning etc. For a lot of these areas, measures, guidelines and best practices on diversity awareness exist. A systemic, sustainable impact of diversity measures on informatics is still largely missing. In this paper I explore what working with diversity and gender concepts in informatics entails, what the main challenges are and provide thoughts for improvement. The paper includes definitions of diversity and intersectionality, reflections on the disciplinary basis of informatics and practical implications of integrating diversity in informatics research and development. In the final part, two concepts from the social sciences and the humanities, the notion of “third space”/hybridity and the notion of “feminist ethics of care”, serve as a lens to foster more sustainable ways of working with diversity in informatics.
Informatikstudiengänge verzeichnen hohe Abbruchquoten innerhalb der ersten beiden Semester, die häufig mit Leistungsdefiziten oder Motivationsproblemen begründet werden. Eine Ursache dafür, dass trotz intensiver Bemühungen um bessere Lehre und motivationsfördernde Maßnahmen diese Situation imWesentlichen unverändert bleibt, könnte darin liegen, dass nicht die eine Maßnahme oder der eine Ansatz das Problem im Ganzen lösen kann, sondern dass eine heterogene Studierendenschaft vielmehr nach unterschiedlichen Maßnahmen verlangt. Bisher findet sich wenig Forschung zu differenzierten Studierendentypen in der Informatik. Wir stellen in dieser Arbeit einen Ansatz dafür vor, die Heterogenität der Informatikstudierenden zu ergründen, und beschreiben die Ergebnisse erster Versuche mit diesem Ansatz. Um die große Anzahl von Studierenden auf eine überschaubare Anzahl von Typen mit jeweils ähnlichen Bedürfnissen und Erwartungen zu reduzieren, wird dazu die im Produktmanagement bewährte Personas-Methode adaptiert. Im Rahmen einer Befragung von 170 Informatikstudierenden konnten hierzu bereits einige Personas mit unterschiedlichen Merkmalshäufungen ausgearbeitet werden, die eine gute Grundlage darstellen, um auf dieser Basis differenzierte Interventionen zur Förderung und Motivation der Informatikstudierenden zu entwickeln.
Forschendes Lernen ist eine Lehr-Lernform, in der Studierende einen eigenen Forschungsprozess vollständig durchlaufen. In Informatikstudiengängen und insbesondere in Informatikbachelorstudiengängen ist die Forschungsorientierung allerdings nur gering ausgeprägt: Forschendes Lernen wird kaum eingesetzt, obwohl dies möglich und sinnvoll ist. Dieser Artikel stellt ein Konzept für ein Seminar Software Engineering im Bachelorstudium vor und beschreibt dessen Durchführung. Abschließend wird das Konzept diskutiert und sowohl aus Studierenden- als auch aus Lehrendensicht positiv evaluiert.
Die alleinige Ursache von Stottern ist weiterhin nicht abschließend geklärt. Auf neurofunktioneller und -morphologischer Ebene zeigen stotternde Personen Abweichungen in den Arealen, welche nicht nur für die Initiierung von sprechmotorischen Programmen, sondern auch für die Produktion und Perzeption von musikalischen Rhythmen zuständig sind. Unterschiede zu flüssigsprechenden Personen treten jedoch nicht nur im verbalen, sondern auch im nonverbal sensomotorischen Bereich auf, was auf eine Störung domänenübergreifender auditiv-motorischer Koordinationsprozesse hindeutet. Ausgehend davon wurde in einigen Studien postuliert, dass dem Störungsbild Stottern ein domänenübergreifendes Rhythmusdefizit zugrunde liegt. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Störungsbildern, welche auch Probleme in rhythmischen Aufgaben aufweisen, gibt es bis dato jedoch keine Intervention, welche dieses Defizit angeht. Es soll untersucht werden, ob ein nonverbales rhythmisches Training bei stotternden Kindern im Alter von zehn bis zwölf Jahren eine Verbesserung der sensomotorischen Synchronisationsfähigkeiten zur Folge hat. Zudem soll erforscht werden, ob es Transfereffekte auf die Sprechmotorik und Sprechflüssigkeit gibt. Für die vorliegende einfach verblindete Pilotstudie sollen 20 Kinder rekrutiert werden. Zehn davon werden randomisiert der Experimentalgruppe zugewiesen, welche das rhythmische Spiel Rhythm Workers über drei Wochen daheim auf einem Tablet spielen sollen. Die Kontrollgruppe spielt ein nicht-rhythmisches Bubble-Shooter-Spiel namens Frozen Bubble. Diese Studie könnte somit den Weg ebnen für technologieunterstützte Rehabilitationsmaßnahmen, welche darauf abzielen die rhythmisch-motorischen Defizite bei Stottern zu lindern.
Der Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der Entwicklung im Gesundheitswesen forderte bereits 2007 eine verbesserte Zusammenarbeit der Gesundheitsberufe und beschreibt in seinem Gutachten „Kooperation und Verantwortung als Voraussetzung einer zielorientierten Gesundheitsversorgung“ (S. 25). Mit der vorgestellten Arbeit wird untersucht, welche Modelle der berufsübergreifenden Kooperation in der ambulanten sprachtherapeutischen Praxis Anwendung finden und wie diese Kooperationen von Sprachtherapeut*innen bewertet werden. Zu diesem Zweck wurde ein Online-Fragebogen konzipiert. Anschließend wurden die Antworten von insgesamt 30 teilnehmenden Sprachtherapeut*innen ausgewertet. Dabei wurde deutlich, dass die viel diskutierte und häufig geforderte interprofessionelle Zusammenarbeit in der Praxis nur selten zu finden ist. Vielmehr arbeiten die befragten Sprachtherapeut*innen nach multiprofessionellen Modellen. Es fehlen berufsübergreifende Besprechungen, und der fachliche Austausch ist noch viel zu oft dem Engagement einzelner Personen überlassen. Auch die Bewertung der Kooperationen zeigt Verbesserungspotenzial: Die Befragten bewerteten die Zusammenarbeit mit angrenzenden Berufsgruppen durchschnittlich als „befriedigend“.
Ethical issues surrounding modern computing technologies play an increasingly important role in the public debate. Yet, ethics still either doesn’t appear at all or only to a very small extent in computer science degree programs. This paper provides an argument for the value of ethics beyond a pure responsibility perspective and describes the positive value of ethical debate for future computer scientists. It also provides a systematic analysis of the module handbooks of 67 German universities and shows that there is indeed a lack of ethics in computer science education. Finally, we present a principled design of a compulsory course for undergraduate students.
Nach Erkenntnissen der Sprachheilpädagogik bzw. Sprachtherapie laufen logopädische Leistungen derzeit überwiegend isoliert vom Bildungsgeschehen ab. Im sogenannten Pull-Out-Modell der Leistungserbringung gibt es keine räumliche, zeitliche und inhaltliche Verbindung mit dem Unterricht in der Grundschule (Reber, 2012). Eine Verknüpfung beider Leistungsdomänen erscheint aber in Bezug auf eine erfolgreiche Inklusion und Teilhabe von Kindern mit Sprach- und Sprechstörungen äußerst sinnvoll. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Frage nachgegangen, in welcher Quantität und Qualität ein Austausch zwischen beiden Bereichen aus der Sicht von Grundschullehrkräften in Berlin derzeit erfolgt. Für die Untersuchung wurde ein Befragungswerkzeug entwickelt, womit die Perspektive der Lehrkräfte im Rahmen einer onlinegestützten Umfrage untersucht werden kann. Innerhalb einer Pilotierung konnten erste Daten gewonnen werden, die darauf hinweisen, dass es derzeit tatsächlich selten zu einer Zusammenarbeit kommt. Als wichtigste Hürde konnten dabei die fehlenden zeitlichen Ressourcen identifiziert werden. Anhand der Pilotierung konnten Vorschläge für eine verbesserte Anpassung des Befragungstools erarbeitet werden, so dass dieses nun die Grundlage für eine breiter angelegte Untersuchung bietet.
Das von E. Berne für psychotherapeutische Gespräche begründete Konzept der Vertragsarbeit lässt sich gut auf die sprachtherapeutische Arbeit übertragen. Der Kern ist die explizite Formulierung von therapeutischen Nah- und Fernzielen, die Wahl der Therapiemethode sowie die Aufgaben und Verantwortlichkeiten der Beteiligten. Voraussetzung ist die Freiwilligkeit und das Arbeiten auf Augenhöhe. Vertragsarbeit verteilt die Verantwortung für das Gelingen und macht Vorgehensweisen transparent. Sehr zeitgemäß ist die ressourcenorientierte Sichtweise auf das therapeutische Angebot.
Schulpraktische Phasen stellen eine bedeutende praxisnahe Lerngelegenheit im Lehramtsstudium dar, da sie Raum für umfangreiche Reflexionen der eigenen Lernerfahrung bieten. Das im Studium erworbene theoretisch-formale Wissen steht hierbei dem praktischen Wissen und Können gegenüber. Mit der professionellen Entwicklung im Referendariat, besonders im Kompetenzbereich des Unterrichtens, kann geschlussfolgert werden, dass sich eine Reflexion über eher fachliche Aspekte unter den Studierenden im Referendariat auf eine Reflexion über eher überfachliche und pädagogische Aspekte weitet. Infolge der Analyse von N = 55 schriftlichen Fremdreflexionen von angehenden Physiklehrkräften aus Studium und Referendariat konnte diese Hypothese für den Bereich der Unterrichtsanalyse und -reflexion unterstützt werden. Weiter wurde aus der Videovignette ein Workshopangebot für Lehrkräfte der zweiten und dritten Phase der Lehrkräftebildung entwickelt, erprobt und evaluiert.
Um universitär vermittelte Inhalte (Theorie) und praktische Anforderungen in der Berufsschule (doppelte Praxis – Unterricht und Beruf) sowie den Einfluss gesellschaftsrelevanter Themen (Nachhaltigkeit und Digitalisierung) kohärent in der Lehrkräftebildung zu verknüpfen, sind innovative Ansätze nötig. Die Kooperationslabore (Ko-Labs) der Technischen Universität Berlin bedienen dieses Anliegen für den Bereich der Aufgabengestaltung. Teil dieses Ansatzes ist eine Checkliste, die es Dozierenden und zukünftigen Lehrkräften ermöglicht, relevante Punkte bei der Gestaltung von Unterrichtsaufgaben adäquat zu berücksichtigen. In diesem Beitrag wird als fachdidaktisches Instrument die Checkliste vorgestellt sowie deren Einsatz in der universitären Lehre nach dem ALACT-Modell reflektiert.
Dieser Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit den Herausforderungen der Professionalisierung angehender Lehrkräfte im Rahmen der universitären Lehrkräftebildung und nimmt dabei kasuistische Lehrformate als wichtige Elemente hochschuldidaktischer Konzeptionen in den Blick. In diesem Zusammenhang wird das Modul „Außerunterrichtliches Pädagogisches Praktikum“ (AuPP) als ein zentrales Element der Praxisphasen des Lehramtsstudiums an der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) vorgestellt. Im Rahmen dieses Moduls wird versucht, durch die Arbeit an konkreten Fällen aus der pädagogischen Praxis – gemeint sind vor allem Beobachtungsprotokolle und Transkripte von Interviewauszügen aus unterschiedlichen (sozial-)pädagogischen Handlungsfeldern – einen reflexiven Zugang zu Spannungsmomenten, Problem- und Krisendynamiken, Orientierungsmustern der Akteur:innen sowie Gelingensbedingungen pädagogischer Praxis für angehende Lehrpersonen zu eröffnen und darüber einen reflexiven Habitus anzubahnen, der für die weitere Berufsbiografie und Professionalisierung essenziell erscheint.
While inequality of opportunity (IOp) in earnings is well studied, the literature on IOp in individual net wealth is scarce to non-existent. This is problematic because both theoretical and empirical evidence show that the position in the wealth and income distribution can significantly diverge.We measure ex-ante IOp in net wealth for Germany using data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). Ex-ante IOp is defined as the contribution of circumstances to the inequality in net wealth before effort is exerted. The SOEP allows for a direct mapping from individual circumstances to individual net wealth and for a detailed decomposition of net wealth inequality into a variety of circumstances; among them childhood background, intergenerational transfers, and regional characteristics. The ratio of inequality of opportunity to total inequality is stable from 2002 to 2019. This is in sharp contrast to labor earnings, where ex-ante IOp is declining over time. Our estimates suggest that about 62% of the inequality in net wealth is due to circumstances. The most important circumstances are intergenerational transfers, parental occupation, and the region of birth. In contrast, gender and individuals’ own education are the most important circumstances for earnings.
High growth firms (HGFs) are important for job creation and considered to be precursors of economic growth. We investigate how formal institutions, like product- and labor-market regulations, as well as the quality of regional governments that implement these regulations, affect HGF development across European regions. Using data from Eurostat, OECD, WEF, and Gothenburg University, we show that both regulatory stringency and the quality of the regional government influence the regional shares of HGFs. More importantly, we find that the effect of labor- and product-market regulations ultimately depends on the quality of regional governments: in regions with high quality of government, the share of HGFs is neither affected by the level of product market regulation, nor by more or less flexibility in hiring and firing practices. Our findings contribute to the debate on the effects of regulations by showing that regulations are not, per se, “good, bad, and ugly”, rather their impact depends on the efficiency of regional governments. Our paper offers important building blocks to develop tailored policy measures that may influence the development of HGFs in a region.
In the past decades, scholars and courts have paid considerable attention to the extraterritorial applicability of human rights treaties. By contrast, the extraterritorial application of constitutional rights has received comparable scholarly attention only in the United States. Specifically, there is a paucity of comparative research in this area, which contributes to the prevailing view that human rights law provides the proper framework under which domestic courts should examine extraterritoriality questions under constitutional law.
This article argues that domestic constitutional regimes and their judicial enforcers can and should provide an important counterweight to the deadlocked extraterritoriality debate at the international level. Using two case studies from Germany and the United States, it shows that domestic constitutional courts are sometimes better suited than treaty bodies to guard the normative values of human dignity and universality in an extraterritoriality context. This is most apparent in the case of Germany, which has a long tradition of integration into international multi-level governance systems and "bottom-up" resistance based on fundamental rights within such systems. Recent cases from the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht) about the extraterritorial application of the Basic Law (Grundgesetz) to foreign intelligence gathering and climate change support this theory. However, an independent constitutional approach can also achieve some normative effects in domestic systems that are more isolated from the international human rights system. Thus, the US Supreme Court likewise used domestic constitutional doctrine to sidestep the American government's strictly territorial interpretation of the ICCPR and employ a functional approach to the extraterritorial applicability of fundamental rights in the case of detention of suspected terrorists in the Guantánamo Bay naval base.
The study of these two examples does not purport to be comprehensive or even representative of the world’s diverse array of constitutions and their relationships with international human rights law. However, the independent power of constitutional frameworks in these two disparate cases should all the more provide an impetus for increased comparative research into constitutional extraterritoriality regimes and their value for the project of human rights.
Dimensionen von Macht
(2023)
Ziele: Die Autorin konzentriert sich auf die Betrachtung des ethischen Berufskodex der Sozialen Arbeit und untersucht Schlüsselthemen (professionelle Haltung, systemimmanente Dilemmata, Gewalt und Machtmissbrauch) in der Praxis der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe und des Kinderschutzes in Ungarn und Deutschland.
Methoden: Kurzdarstellung einer standardisierten Online-Befragung von Fachkräften im System der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe sowie des Kinderschutzes, die in Ungarn und Deutschland durchgeführt wurde. Der bereinigte Datensatz beläuft sich auf insgesamt 122 Fragebögen (Deutschland N=89, Ungarn N=33 aus Ungarn). Einige kinderrechtliche Herausforderungen in Bezug auf Institutionen der stationären Kinder- und Jugendhilfe und des Kinderschutzes in Ungarn werden darüber hinaus in einem Dialog vertiefend erörtert.
Ergebnisse: Der ethische Rahmen der Profession ist weitgehend bekannt, aber die Bedingungen in der Praxis müssen so verbessert werden, dass professionsethisch korrektes Handeln möglich ist. Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass in der täglichen Praxis Verstöße gegen die Berufsethik vorkommen. Besonders besorgniserregend sind die Ergebnisse bezüglich Gewalt und Missbrauch gegenüber Adressat*innen.
Implikationen für die Sozialarbeit: Die Profession der Sozialen Arbeit als Menschenrechtsprofession ist unweigerlich in normative Fragen der gesellschaftlichen Macht- und Dominanzverhältnisse verstrickt. Professionelles Handeln erfordert zum einen Kenntnisse der Kinder- sowie Menschenrechte, das Bewusstsein für moralische Normen, Standards und Werte, zum anderen die Fähigkeit zur ethischen Urteilsbildung, Selbstreflexion sowie Intervention.
Diskriminierungsverbote gehören zu den Grundpfeilern des internationalen Menschenrechtsschutzes. Es gibt sie in unterschiedlichen Ausprägungen: Manche schützen nur vor einer Ungleichbehandlung bei der Inanspruchnahme eines Freiheitsrechts (sog. akzessorische Diskriminierungsverbote), andere schützen demgegenüber vor einer Ungleichbehandlung in sämtlichen Rechtskontexten. Ein allgemeines und umfassendes Diskriminierungsverbot, welches in allen Rechtskontexten gilt, findet sich in Artikel 1 des 12. Zusatzprotokoll zur EMRK. Dieses Zusatzprotokoll wurde von vielen europäischen Staaten - darunter auch Deutschland - bisher nicht ratifiziert. Der Beitrag möchte die menschenrechtlichen Potenziale und Mehrwerte dieses Zusatzprotokolls aufzeigen und nimmt dabei auch umfassend Bezug auf die Lernerfahrungen des UN-Zivilpakts, welcher mit Art. 26 UN-Zivilpakt eine strukturanaloge Regelung kennt.
Die Knappheit medizinischer Ressourcen im Verlauf der COVID-19-Pandemie machte die Überlegung notwendig, wie und an wen medizinische Güter, besonders COVID-19-Impfstoff, verteilt werden sollen. Dafür wurden sowohl national als auch international Priorisierungskonzepte zur Impfstoff-Allokation entwickelt. Neben verschiedenen moralphilosophischen Grundsätzen und nationalstaatlicher Gesetzgebung sollten auch die Menschenrechte bei der Etablierung von Allokationssystemen berücksichtigt werden. Möglichkeiten zur praktischen Umsetzung sind etwa die Priorisierung vulnerabler Gruppen sowie die Gewährleistung von Diskriminierungsfreiheit und Chancengleichheit bei der Inanspruchnahme von Gesundheitsleistungen. Ein intersektionaler, menschenrechtsbasierter Ansatz kann dazu beitragen, einen ganzheitlichen Blick auf die Gesundheitsversorgung der Gesellschaft zu werfen und neben den direkten medizinischen Problemen auch die sozialen Determinanten von Gesundheit und die Interdependenz aller zu schützenden Menschenrechte zu adressieren. Welche Rolle die Menschenrechte im Kontext der Ressourcenverteilung spielen, wird anhand der Verteilung von COVID-19-Impfstoff in Deutschland analysiert, wobei exemplarisch der besondere Schutz Älterer betrachtet wird.
Die Verbesserung der sozialen Teilhabe eines Kindes ohne ausreichende Lautsprache steht im Fokus der Versorgung mit Unterstützter Kommunikation. Die Schnittstelle Alltag ist für die Intervention mit Unterstützter Kommunikation besonders wichtig, da das unterstützt kommunizierende Kind in seiner alltäglichen Kommunikation extrem abhängig von seinem sozialen Umfeld ist. Die Bezugspersonen müssen die Hilfsmittel und ihre Verwendung gut kennen, Kommunikationssituationen spezifisch gestalten und individuell abgestimmte Sprachlehr- und Kommunikationsstrategien einsetzen. Dass dieser Transfer gelingt, ist Aufgabe der Sprachtherapie. Der Sprachtherapie stehen dazu verschiedene Modelle zur Verfügung: das bio-psycho-soziale Modell der Internationalen Klassifikation der Funktionsfähigkeit, Behinderung und Gesundheit der WHO (ICF) und Modelle, die aus dem Fachgebiet der Unterstützten Kommunikation selbst stammen, wie das Kooperative Partizipationsmodell, Fähigkeitskontinuum und Modell kommunikativer Kompetenz. Die Umsetzung der Modelle in die Praxis wird anhand eines Fallbeispiels veranschaulicht. Letztendlich geht es um die natürliche Nutzung von Unterstützter Kommunikation in echten Kommunikationssituationen und um die langfristige Unterstützung der Entwicklung hin zu Fähigkeiten, selbstinitiiert und unabhängig kommunizieren zu können.
Partizipation meint in diesem Kontext die erfolgreiche mündliche Verständigung im sozialen Miteinander. Unter der Bedingung einer Aphasie verändert sich die Partizipation im Alltag bis hin zur sozialen Isolation. Die Sprachtherapie bietet verschiedene Therapieformate, um dagegen verbale Freiräume zu eröffnen. Bei einer globalen Aphasie werden Interaktionshilfen zur Kompensation von sprachlichen Defiziten systematisch und gezielt eingesetzt. Mein Vorgehen beschreibe ich ausführlich. Bei Restaphasie, bei Patient*innen im erwerbsfähigen Alter ohne Arbeitschancen handelt es sich eher um individuelle Projekte zur Selbständigkeit oder Beschäftigung. Hilfreich ist ein Netzwerk an kollegialen Kontakten. Meine Überlegungen und Daten stammen alle aus meinen Erfahrungen in der eigenen Praxis für Sprachtherapie in Dresden.
Der vorliegende Beitrag stellt die deutsche kurze Version des kommunikativen Partizipationsassessments ‚Fokus auf den Erfolg der Kommunikation für Kinder unter 6 Jahren (FOCUS©-34-G)‘ (Thomas-Stonell et al., 2012a) vor. Es werden die Entwicklung und psychometrische Validierung, Zielsetzung, Durchführung und Auswertung für den konkreten Einsatz in der sprachtherapeutischen Praxis beschrieben.
Im Beitrag wird das Lehrkonzept Reflexives Schreiben zur Förderung der Reflexionskompetenz dargestellt, das für die erste Phase der Lehrkräfteausbildung in der Fachdidaktik Deutsch entwickelt und umgesetzt wurde. Reflexives Schreiben wird hier als Schreiben aufgefasst, das sich auf das schreibende Subjekt zurückbezieht und eine Reflexion über sich selbst als Subjekt im Bildungskontext des Fachpraktikums intendiert. Die theoretische Grundlage für das Lehrkonzept bilden schreibwissenschaftliche Ansätze, die das Schreiben in seiner epistemisch-heuristischen Funktion als Denk-/Lernmedium zum Zwecke der Wissenserweiterung auffassen. Zentrale Bedeutung kommt Schreibarrangements zu, die einen situations- und subjektnahen Zugang zu den Gegenständen der Reflexion, d. i. zu Handeln und Affekten der Lehramtsstudierenden im Fachpraktikum, schaffen und mit subjektiven, (auto-)biografischen und kreativen Schreibformen der Herausforderung begegnen, sich selbst als Praktikant:in zu thematisieren. Die Schreibarrangements erweisen sich insofern als reflexionsfördernd, als sie Nähe zu eigenen Erlebnissen und Erfahrungen schaffen und zugleich kritische Distanz zu sich selbst ermöglichen.