Estimation of human body concentrations of DDT from indoor residual spraying for malaria control

Inhabitants of dwellings treated with DDT for indoor residual spraying show high DDT levels in blood and breast milk. This is of concern since mothers transfer lipid-soluble contaminants such as DDT via breastfeeding to their children. Focusing on DDT use in South Africa, we employ a pharmacokinetic model to estimate DDT levels in human lipid tissue over the lifetime of an individual to determine the amount of DDT transferred to children during breastfeeding, and to identify the dominant DDT uptake routes. In particular, the effects of breastfeeding duration, parity, and mother's age on DDT concentrations of mother and infant are investigated. Model results show that primiparous mothers have greater DDT concentrations than multiparous mothers, which causes higher DDT exposure of first-born children. DDT in the body mainly originates from diet. Generally, our modeled DDT levels reproduce levels found in South African biomonitoring data within a factor of 3.http://www.elsevier.com/locate/envpolhb2017Urolog

Using a pharmacokinetic model to interpret biomonitoring data of PBDEs in the Australian population

From human biomonitoring data that are increasingly collected in the United States, Australia, and in other countries from large-scale field studies, we obtain snap-shots of concentration levels of various persistent organic pollutants (POPs) within a cross section of the population at different times. Not only can we observe the trends within this population with time, but we can also gain information going beyond the obvious time trends. By combining the biomonitoring data with pharmacokinetic modeling, we can re-construct the time-variant exposure to individual POPs, determine their intrinsic elimination half-lives in the human body, and predict future levels of POPs in the population. Different approaches have been employed to extract information from human biomonitoring data. Pharmacokinetic (PK) models were combined with longitudinal data1, with single2 or multiple3 average concentrations of a cross-sectional data (CSD), or finally with multiple CSD with or without empirical exposure data4. In the latter study, for the first time, the authors based their modeling outputs on two sets of CSD and empirical exposure data, which made it possible that their model outputs were further constrained due to the extensive body of empirical measurements. Here we use a PK model to analyze recent levels of PBDE concentrations measured in the Australian population. In this study, we are able to base our model results on four sets5-7 of CSD; we focus on two PBDE congeners that have been shown3,5,8-9 to differ in intake rates and half-lives with BDE-47 being associated with high intake rates and a short half-life and BDE-153 with lower intake rates and a longer half-life. By fitting the model to PBDE levels measured in different age groups in different years, we determine the level of intake of BDE-47 and BDE-153, as well as the half-lives of these two chemicals in the Australian population

Wahrheit und Urteilen im "Postfaktischen Zeitalter"

Diese Arbeit widmet sich einer Analyse von Hannah Arendts Theorien des Urteilens und des Politischen sowie deren Anwendung auf die Phänomene des sogenannten Postfaktischen Zeitalters. Ausgehend von der Annahme eines Spannungsfeldes von Heteronomie und Auto-nomie im Urteilsprozess sowie in der Meinungsbildung werden unterschiedliche Formen von Fremdbestimmung im Internet sowie in sozialen Netzwerken ermittelt. Darauf aufbau-end wird Arendts politische Lesart des Kant’schen ästhetischen Urteils als wirksames Mittel gegen Urteilsfehler und emotional affiziertes Urteilen in digitalen Räumen und emotional aufgeladenen Zeiten vorgestellt. Abschließend wird versucht, mit Arendt eine Definition einer digitalen Öffentlichkeit zu liefern, um ferner die Dringlichkeit ihrer Gestaltung und Regulierung zu unterstreichen. Diese Dringlichkeit resultiert aus der Tatsache, dass die digi-talen Manipulationsmöglichkeiten und politische Desinformation das individuelle emanzi-patorische Potential kritischen Denkens und Urteilens übersteigen und eine Gefahr für die Demokratie, das Politische und die Freiheit darstellen. Um dem beizukommen, wird eine Kombination aus individuellen, strukturellen und institutionellen Zugängen vorgeschlagen

Von Aischylos zu Jelinek

Hauptziel dieser Arbeit ist es zu eruieren, ob authentischen Flüchtlingen auf der Theaterbühne eine Stimme gegeben werden soll. Daraus ergibt sich die Auseinandersetzung mit der Rolle des Chores am Theater und spannt einen Bogen von der griechischen Antike zum 21. Jahrhundert. Dabei wird untersucht, inwiefern sich das theatrale Mittel Chor im Laufe der Zeit in Form und Dramaturgie entwickelt und verändert hat. Betrachtet wird hauptsächlich die Entwicklung von Aischylos´ Die Schutzflehenden zu Elfriede Jelineks´ Die Schutzbefohlenen, denn Jelinek verflechtet ihr „chorisches“ Werk mit der Tragödie des Aischylos. Überblicksartig werden die Chorversuche einiger Autoren und Theatermacher analysiert, wie die Arbeiten Friedrich Schillers, Max Reinhardts und Bertolt Brechts. Wichtig für diese These ist die Wiederbelebung des Chores durch den Autor und Regisseur Einar Schleef Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts. Der Regisseur Nicolas Stemann hat mit seiner Uraufführung Die Schutzbefohlenen von Elfriede Jelinek die Methode vorgegeben, das Stück mit realen Flüchtlingschören zu erarbeiten. Manch ein Theatermacher folgt seiner Vorgabe. Analysiert werden zur Frage „Flüchtlinge auf der Bühne?“ einige Inszenierungen: Die Produktionen Nicolas Stemanns (in Mannheim und Hamburg), die Arbeit Michael Thalheimers, der in Wien den Chor der Schutzbefohlenen ausschließlich mit dem Ensemble des Burgtheaters inszeniert, sowie die Aufführung Enrico Lübbes am Schauspiel Leipzig Die Schutzflehenden/Die Schutzbefohlenen. In dieser Inszenierung wird im ersten Teil wortgetreu Aischylos Tragödie und im zweiten Teil – stark gekürzt – Jelineks Textgeflecht auf der Bühne wiedergegeben. Die Chöre bestehen aus dem Ensemble des Schauspiels Leipzig, sowieThe principal purpose of this study is to determine whether genuine refugees should be given a voice on the theatre stage. This question evokes an analysis of the role of the chorus in the theatre and spans an arc from ancient times to the 21st century. It examines the extent to which the theatrical chorus developed and changed in the course of time in form and dramaturgy. The main aspect taken into consideration is the development of the chorus from The Suppliants of Aeschylus to Elfriede Jelinek´s Die Schutzbefohlenen, because Jelinek intertwines her choric work with the tragedy of Aeschylus. The choral experiments of some authors and stage directors, such as the works of Friedrich Schiller, Max Reinhardt and Bertolt Brecht, are briefly analyzed. Significant for this thesis is the revival of the choir by the author and director Einar Schleef at the end of the 20th century. The director Nicolas Stemann staged the premiere of Jelinek´s Die Schutzbefohlenen with choirs of real refugees. To answer the question “Refugees on the stage?”, some performances are analyzed, such as the productions of Nicolas Stemann in Germany, the work of Michael Thalheimer, who staged the chorus of Die Schutzbefohlenen in Vienna exclusively with the ensemble of the Burgtheater, as well as the performance of Enrico Lübbe at the Schauspiel Leipzig. He combines The Suppliants of Aeschylus with Jelinek´s Die Schutzbefohlenen into one play. In the first part Aischylos´ tragedy is staged verbatim, the second part is Jelinek's text, however, extremely shortened. The choirs consist of the ensemble of the Schauspiel Leipzig, as well as citizens of the city. There are no authentic refugees on the stage

on ornament, textiles and baldachins depicted on the ceilings of buddhist cave temples in khartse valley, western tibet. form, function and meaning

Paintings of textiles and ornament on ceilings of early Western Himalaya Buddhist temples have an important role to play in the experience of sacred space and religious meaning. Roger Goepper (1993 , 1995 ) was one of the first Western scholars to point out the importance of textile depictions and ceiling decoration in the art of Alchi/ Ladakh (ca 1200). Various other researchers, focusing in particular on the Assembly Hall of Tabo/ Spiti, Himachal Pradesh (mid. 11th C), elucidated specific aspects of ceiling depictions as purely decorative elements, imitations of textile patterns (Wandl 1996) or focused on the possible function of ornamental depictions as honorific covers as suggested for earlier ceiling paintings in Dunhuang by Whitfield & Farrer 1990 and Whitfield 1996 . Giuseppe Tucci (1935) was the first to interpret early Western Himalayan temple’s ceilings as symbolic representations of canopies, which was later adopted by Klimburg-Salter 1996 , 1997 , 2001 for various distinctive types of ceilings in Afghanistan and Western Tibet. However, collating new data from examples of this genre of painting during different periods as a single corpus allows a fresh perspective on the genre of ceiling designs and gives insights into structural principles of this long and refined artistic expression as well as the interpretation of their meaning within the architectonic tradition of Western Tibet temples and their overall iconographic programmes