Michael Wimmer / Roland Reichenbach / Ludwig Pongratz (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit und Bildung. Paderborn: Schöningh 2007 (202 S.) [Rezension]

Rezension von: Michael Wimmer / Roland Reichenbach / Ludwig Pongratz (Hrsg.): Gerechtigkeit und Bildung. Paderborn: Schöningh 2007 (202 S.; ISBN 978-3-506-76446-1; 24,90 EUR)

Gert Biesta: Beyond Learning. Democratic Education for a Human Future. Boulder, London: Paradigm Publishers 2006 (171 S.) [Rezension]

Rezension von: Gert Biesta: Beyond Learning. Democratic Education for a Human Future. Boulder, London: Paradigm Publishers 2006 (171 S.; ISBN 1-59451-234-5)

Hans-Christoph Koller / Markus Rieger-Ladich (Hrsg.): Grenzgänge. Pädagogische Lektüren zeitgenössischer Romane. Bielefeld: transcript 2005 (176 S.) [Rezension]

Rezension von: Hans-Christoph Koller / Markus Rieger-Ladich (Hrsg.): Grenzgänge. Pädagogische Lektüren zeitgenössischer Romane. Bielefeld: transcript 2005 (176 S.; ISBN 3-89942-286-4; 20,80 EUR)

Data-Driven Self-Optimization from an Educational-Theoretical Perspective

Die zunehmende Implementation digitaler Technologien in pädagogische Settings wirft Fragen im Hinblick auf Selbstverhältnisse und Subjektivierung auf. Der Beitrag fragt entsprechend aus bildungstheoretischer Perspektive danach, wie digitale Technologien mit Blick auf eine datengestützte Selbstoptimierung zu einem Teil des Selbst werden. Im ersten Teil des Beitrags wird ein modernisierungstheoretischer Rahmen skizziert, der die Fragmentierung und Verflüssigung des modernen Lebens bildungstheoretisch perspektiviert. Im Anschluss daran lassen sich Prozesse der Datafizierung im Sinne einer doppelten modernen Formatierung fassen: zum einen hinsichtlich der Hoffnung auf eine doch erfüllbare Selbstbestimmung und zum anderen als ein symbolischer Riss, der sich im Medium der Daten unmittelbar wieder öffnet. Diese Struktur treibt die Datafizierung im Horizont einer sich ausweitenden «Risikoindustrie» (Rose 1999) an. Im letzten Schritt werden die Konsequenzen dieser Entwicklung für die Konstitution pädagogischen Wissens beleuchtet.The ongoing implementation of digital technologies in educational settings raises questions concerning what it means to be a subject. This article is precisely concerned with the question of how digital technologies become a part of the self in and through practices of data-based self-optimization. The first part of the paper develops the fragmentation and fluidity of the self in modernity. In the second part of the paper, the authors demonstrate that datafication is related to modernity in a twofold way: It nourishes the idea of a fulfilment of the self, on the one hand, and the symbolical rupture of the self in the data, on the other hand. This structure propels datafication in the context of an increased «risk industry» (Rose 1999). The final part of the article discusses the consequences for the constitution of pedagogical knowledge

Macroergonomic factors in the patient work system: examining the context of patients with chronic illness

Human factors/ergonomics recognises work as embedded in and shaped by levels of social, physical and organisational context. This study investigates the contextual or macroergonomic factors present in the health-related work performed by patients. We performed a secondary content analysis of findings from three studies of the work of chronically ill patients and their informal caregivers. Our resulting consolidated macroergonomic patient work system model identified 17 factors across physical, social and organisational domains and household and community levels. These factors are illustrated with examples from the three studies and discussed as having positive, negative or varying effects on health and health behaviour. We present three brief case studies to illustrate how macroergonomic factors combine across domains and levels to shape performance in expected and unexpected ways. Findings demonstrate not only the importance of context for patients\u27 health-related activities but also specific factors to consider in future research, design and policy efforts. Practitioner Summary: Health-related activities of patients are embedded in and shaped by levels of social, physical and organisational context. This paper combined findings from three studies to specify 17 contextual or macroergonomic factors in home-and community-based work systems of chronically ill patients. These factors have research, design and policy implications

Undifferentiated febrile illness in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Undifferentiated febrile illnesses (UFIs) are common in low- and middle-income countries. We prospectively investigated the causes of UFIs in 627 patients presenting to a tertiary referral hospital in Kathmandu, Nepal. Patients with microbiologically confirmed enteric fever (218 of 627; 34.8%) randomized to gatifloxacin or ofloxacin treatment were previously reported. We randomly selected 125 of 627 (20%) of these UFI patients, consisting of 96 of 409 (23%) cases with sterile blood cultures and 29 of 218 (13%) cases with enteric fever, for additional diagnostic investigations. We found serological evidence of acute murine typhus in 21 of 125 (17%) patients, with 12 of 21 (57%) patients polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-positive for Rickettsia typhi. Three UFI cases were quantitative PCR-positive for Rickettsia spp., two UFI cases were seropositive for Hantavirus, and one UFI case was seropositive for Q fever. Fever clearance time (FCT) for rickettsial infection was 44.5 hours (interquartile range = 26-66 hours), and there was no difference in FCT between ofloxacin or gatifloxacin. Murine typhus represents an important cause of predominantly urban UFIs in Nepal, and fluoroquinolones seem to be an effective empirical treatment

The Code of Protest. Images of Peace in the West German Peace Movements, 1945-1990

The article examines posters produced by the peace movements in the Federal Republic of Germany during the ColdWar, with an analytical focus on the transformation of the iconography of peace in modernity. Was it possible to develop an independent, positive depiction of peace in the context of protests for peace and disarmament? Despite its name, the pictorial selfrepresentation of the campaign ‘Fight against Nuclear Death’ in the late 1950s did not draw on the theme of pending nuclear mass death. The large-scale protest movement in the 1980s against NATO’s 1979 ‘double-track’ decision contrasted female peacefulness with masculine aggression in an emotionally charged pictorial symbolism. At the same time this symbolism marked a break with the pacifist iconographic tradition that had focused on the victims of war. Instead, the movement presented itself with images of demonstrating crowds, as an anticipation of its peaceful ends. Drawing on the concept of asymmetrical communicative ‘codes’ that has been developed in sociological systems theory, the article argues that the iconography of peace in peace movement posters could not develop a genuinely positive vision of peace, since the code of protest can articulate the designation value ‘peace’ only in conjunction with the rejection value ‘war’

Telomeric expression sites are highly conserved in trypanosoma brucei

Subtelomeric regions are often under-represented in genome sequences of eukaryotes. One of the best known examples of the use of telomere proximity for adaptive purposes are the bloodstream expression sites (BESs) of the African trypanosome Trypanosoma brucei. To enhance our understanding of BES structure and function in host adaptation and immune evasion, the BES repertoire from the Lister 427 strain of T. brucei were independently tagged and sequenced. BESs are polymorphic in size and structure but reveal a surprisingly conserved architecture in the context of extensive recombination. Very small BESs do exist and many functioning BESs do not contain the full complement of expression site associated genes (ESAGs). The consequences of duplicated or missing ESAGs, including ESAG9, a newly named ESAG12, and additional variant surface glycoprotein genes (VSGs) were evaluated by functional assays after BESs were tagged with a drug-resistance gene. Phylogenetic analysis of constituent ESAG families suggests that BESs are sequence mosaics and that extensive recombination has shaped the evolution of the BES repertoire. This work opens important perspectives in understanding the molecular mechanisms of antigenic variation, a widely used strategy for immune evasion in pathogens, and telomere biology