Disruptive Student Behavior: The Effects on Various Constituent Groups in Large Suburban School Communities

Disruptive student behavior in elementary school causes problems for the student, the peers in the classroom, and the teacher. There is a lack of research and understanding as to how disruptive student behavior affects other groups in the school community. This phenomenological study examined the experiences of a total of nine elementary school administrators, psychologists, social workers, and counselors to understand how their professional roles were affected by chronic disruptive student behavior. Professional coping strategies were also shared and examined by the participants. Findings reveal that school leaders need to develop formal structures to help themselves and their staff cope with chronic disruptive student behaviors. Results from the data were used to make recommendations for policy and professional development to help constituents in school communities understand the effects of chronic disruptive student behavior and to find ways to alleviate stress caused by disruptive student events. The recommendations of this study include revised school practices to dedicate time for staff to debrief and plan after behavioral events, the inclusion of a behavioral specialist at each elementary building, and continued study of this phenomenon

Design of the Magnet System of the Neutron Decay Facility PERC

The PERC (Proton and Electron Radiation Channel) facility is currently under construction at the research reactor FRM II, Garching. It will serve as an intense and clean source of electrons and protons from neutron beta decay for precision studies. It aims to contribute to the determination of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa quark-mixing element $V_{ud}$ from neutron decay data and to search for new physics via new effective couplings. PERC's central component is a 12m long superconducting magnet system. It hosts an 8m long decay region in a uniform field. An additional high-field region selects the phase space of electrons and protons which can reach the detectors and largely improves systematic uncertainties. We discuss the design of the magnet system and the resulting properties of the magnetic field.Comment: Proceedings of the International Workshop on Particle Physics at Neutron Sources PPNS 2018, Grenoble, France, May 24-26, 201

Civil society assistance in Central and Eastern Europe

Die Arbeit stellt sich die Frage, inwieweit es externen Akteuren möglich ist, zivilgesellschaftli-che Strukturen eines in der Transformation befindlichen Staates zu stärken, um damit einen Beitrag zur Konsolidierung nachkommunistischer Gesellschaften zu leisten. Resultiert die externe Förderung tatsächlich in eine „zivilere“ Gesellschaft, welche sich auf mündige und aktive Bürger stützt, oder führt sie zu einem bloßen Transfer von Strukturen in Form von Nicht-Regierungsorganisationen (NRO), welche jedoch keine gesellschaftliche Anbindung haben und bloße Zuarbeiter westlicher Geberorganisationen sind? // Um diese Frage zu beantworten, werden im theoretischen Teil der Arbeit ausgehend vom akteurszentrierten Institutionalismus zwei wesentliche Mechanismen identifiziert, durch wel-che die Aktivitäten der Geber Veränderungen bei den Nehmern erzielen: Ermächtigung und Lernen. Während Ersteres die Einsatzmöglichkeiten und Ressourcen einiger Akteure stärkt und damit vorhandene Akteurskonstellationen ändert, führt Letzteres dazu, dass neue Ideen Eingang in die politische Arena finden. // Die Arbeit stellt die Aktivitäten vier verschiedener Geberländer und –organisationen in Polen und der Slowakei in den 1990er Jahren vor; der Europäischen Union, Deutschlands, der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika und dem privaten Netzwerk der Soros Stiftungen; und un-tersucht deren Beitrag zur zivilgesellschaftlichen Entwicklung beider Länder. Hierzu werden lokale NROs in den Blick genommen, welche maßgeblich von westlichen Gebern unterstützt werden und untersucht, inwieweit diese als Träger der Zivilgesellschaft fungieren, welche Legitimität sie bei der Bevölkerung besitzen und ob sie nach Rückzug der Geber weiter exis-tieren. // Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Schluss, dass westliche Zivilgesellschaftsförderung in beiden un-tersuchten Ländern einen positiven Effekt hatte in dem Sinne, dass maßgeblich geförderte NROs tatsächlich als Träger der Zivilgesellschaft fungierten. Sie bemühten sich um die Un-terstützung anderer NROs, erweitern gesellschaftliche Partizipationsmöglichkeiten und sind soweit in nationale Strukturen und in der Gesellschaft verankert, dass auch ein Fortbestand ohne westliche Gelder möglich ist.With the end of the communist bloc and the transformations taking place in Central and Eastern Europe the promotion and protection of democracy from abroad became a major field of assistance. Especially civil society assistance, understood as direct support granted to non-governmental actors of the target state with the explicit aim to promote the consolida-tion of democracy, became a major pillar of democracy aid. The dissertation analyzes civil society assistance and aims to tackle the question whether it is feasible to promote and strengthen civil society from abroad. Does civil society assistance result in more civil society or does it result in nothing more than the establishment of donor driven NGOs which are nei-ther voluntary nor independent but solely function as puppets of donors? // In order to answer this question and following the insights of actor-centered institutionalism, the dissertation identifies to modes of external intervention labeled „empowerment” and “learning. In the first case, donors may increase the action resources of chosen domestic actors, thus altering domestic actor constellations, by providing finances, technical equip-ment, information and know-how. In the latter case, external actors may impact upon the ori-entations, that is, the perceptions and preferences, of domestic actors. // The dissertation analyses the contribution of the activities of four different donors; the Euro-pean Union, the USA, Germany and the private network of Soros Foundations; to the devel-opment of civil society in Poland and Slovakia. In order to pinpoint outcomes of civil society assistance the dissertation focuses on recipients and their activities. The dissertation thus clarifies to what extent main recipient organizations act as carriers of civil society, whether they transmit the interests of their constituency into politics, whether they fulfill a watch-dog function and democratic functions attributed to civil society. It therefore analyzes main recipi-ents, their sustainability, legitimacy and effectiveness as carriers of civil society. // The dissertation jumps to the conclusion that externally driven civil society assistance had positive effects in both countries under investigation as supported NGOs acted as carriers of civil society

"Studienbedingungen und Berufserfolg" : Absolventenbefragung der Universität Konstanz - Prüfungsjahrgang 2007

Im Wintersemester 2008/09 führte die Universität Konstanz eine Absolventenbefragung durch, die mit dem Prüfungsjahrgang 2007 erstmals eine gesamte Absolventenkohorte von 1612 Studierenden umfasst.Der vorliegende Abschlussbericht fasst die Ergebnisse der Befragung zusammen und gibt einen Überblick darüber wie die Absolventen ihr Studium retrospektiv bewerten, welche Kompetenzen sie dabei erworben haben und wie sich nach dem Studium ihr Übergang ins Berufsleben gestaltete. Insgesamt 686 Absolventen nahmen an der Befragung teil.Die Studie berücksichtigt neben den neu eingeführten Abschlussarten Bachelor und Master auch die Abschlüsse Diplom, Magister, Staatsexamen und Promotion

Low Osteogenic Differentiation Potential of Placenta-Derived Mesenchymal Stromal Cells Correlates with Low Expression of the Transcription Factors Runx2 and Twist2

Recent studies indicated that mesenchymal stromal cells from bone marrow (bmMSC) differ in their osteogenic differentiation capacity compared to MSC from term placenta (pMSC). We extended these studies and investigated the expression of factors involved in regulation of bone metabolism in both cell types. To this end, MSC were expanded in vitro and characterized. The total transcriptome was investigated by microarrays, and for selected genes, the differences in gene expression were explored by quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, immunocytochemistry, and flow cytometry. We report that bmMSC and pMSC share expression of typical lineage surface markers, including CD73, CD90, CD105, and lack of CD14, CD34, and CD45. However, according to transcriptome analyses, they differ significantly in their expression of more than 590 genes. Factors involved in bone metabolism, including alkaline phosphatase (P<0.05), osteoglycin (P<0.05), osteomodulin (P<0.05), runt-related transcription factor 2 (Runx2) (P<0.04), and WISP2 (P<0.05), were expressed at significantly lower levels in pMSC, but twist-related protein 2 (Twist2) (P<0.0002) was expressed at significantly higher levels. The osteogenic differentiation capacity of pMSC was very low. The adipogenic differentiation was somewhat more prominent in bmMSC, while the chondrogenic differentiation seemed not to differ between bmMSC and pMSC, as determined by histochemical staining. However, expression and induction of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma-2 (PPARγ2) and Sox9, factors involved in early adipogenesis and chondrogenesis, respectively, were higher in bmMSC. We conclude that despite many similarities between bmMSC and pMSC, when expanded under identical conditions, they vary considerably with respect to their in vitro differentiation potential. For regenerative purposes, the choice of MSC may therefore influence the outcome of a treatment considerably