Aid or imperialism? West Germany in sub-Saharan Africa

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 6

Imperialism, dependency, and social class

African Studies Center Working Paper No. 45INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this essay is to examine what has become known in the language of post-World War II social science as "dependency theory." Although all variants of this dependency theory are more or less nationalist and anti-imperialist, they are not uniformly socialist or Marxist. That is to say, many of those working within the broad category of dependency theory are not fundamentally anti-capitalist. Thus, they do not articulate a socialist program for breaking the constraints they see as being responsible for poverty, backwardness, stagnation, and underdevelopment. In the writings of these non-socialist or "bourgeois-nationalist" writers, the problem was seen merely as the domination of weaker economies by stronger ones. If this domination could be removed, so would be the economic backwardness that characterizes most of the Third World. The result would be capital accumulation and an independent, autonomous but nevertheless capitalist development. "Independent" or "autonomous" capitalist development should not be equated with some abstract notion of "absolute autarky." Absolute autarky is here understood to mean the complete severing of all economic links that any particular political-economic formation has that extend beyond its boundaries. It is, however, argued that some degree of autocthonous development is necessary if structural underdevelopment is to be overcome. [TRUNCATED

Polymer microarrays for cell based applications

The development and identification of new biomaterials that can replace specific tissues and organs is desirable. In the presented PhD thesis polymer microarrays were applied for the screening of polyacrylates and polyurethanes and evaluation for material discovery for applications in the life sciences. In the first part of the thesis, the largest polymer microarray ever made with more than 7000 features was fabricated and subsequently used for the screening of polyacrylates that can control the fate of human embryonic stem cells. As stem cells have unique properties that offer the potential of replacing damaged or diseased tissue in future, the identification of cultivation substrates that can replace current biological and animal derived products was desirable. The water contact angle, roughness and cell doubling time of the cells on the identified polymers was determined and the stem cells characterised after 5 passages and compared to the currently most widely used animal derived substrate MatrigelTM. In the second part of the thesis, the development of a new polymer gradient microarray is presented. Initial studies involved the optimisation of printing parameters for the generation of linear polymer gradient lines and confirmed by XPS analysis. Cellular binding studies with the suspension cell line K562 and the adherent cell line HeLa were carried out and compared to previous binding studies to confirm the success of the concept. In further studies, the polymer gradients were functionalised with small molecules and proteins, allowing the generation of a protein gradient microarray with Semaphorin 3F. In binding studies with neuron cells it could be shown that the binding of the cells was concentration-dependent. The identification of polyacrylates for the effective and rapid activation and aggregation of platelets is described in the third part of the presented thesis. Here, polymer microarrays were applied for the binding of platelets in human blood samples. The amount of bound platelets as well as their activation state was compared to the natural agonist collagen by employing fluorescence intensity studies and scanning electron microscopy. In shear studies, the activation of the platelets by the polymers was evaluated under physiological conditions. The mechanism by which the polymer triggered the activation was further explored by protein binding studies. It was shown that the initial adsorption of fibrinogen and von Willebrand factor on the polymers lead to the adherence and aggregation of platelets. In the final part of the presented thesis, polymer microarrays were used to identify polymers that can sort and collect the precursor cells of platelets (megakaryocytes). For this purpose, the cell lines K562 and MEG-01 were used as cellular models. The identified polymers and the effect on the immobilised cells was further investigated by scanning electron microscopy, flow cytometry and miRNA studies. The adsorbed proteins on the different polymers were found to influence the cellular morphology on the different substrates

From Targets to Action : Rolling up our Sleeves after Paris

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in 2015 ambitious targets for responding to the threat of climate change have been set: limiting global temperature increase to “well below 2 °C […] and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C”. However, calculating the CO2 budget for 1.5 °C, it becomes clear that there is nearly no room left for future emissions. Scenarios suggest that negative emission technologies will play an even more important role for 1.5 °C than they already play for 2 °C. Especially against this background the feasibility of the target(s) is hotly debated, but this debate does not initiate the next steps that are urgently needed. Already the negotiations have featured the move from targets to implementation which is needed in the coming decade. Most importantly, there is an urgent need to develop and implement instruments that incentivize the rapid decarbonization. Moreover, it needs to be worked out how to link the climate and development agenda and prevent a buildup of coal power causing lock-in effects. Short term entry points into climate policy should now be in the focus instead of the fruitless debate on the feasibility of targets

Incorrect storage of medicines and potential for cost savings

Objective Incorrect storage and handling of refrigerated medicines may result in destruction of medicines and financial loss for hospitals. At the Medicine Information Centre we receive and answer queries on drug-related issues. In this study we aimed to investigate and quantify savings made following advice supplied by the Medicine Information Centre in reply to queries regarding the incorrect storage of refrigerated medicines.Methods A retrospective study was conducted by systematically reviewing each drug when the cold chain had been impaired, in order to determine whether the drug could continue to be used, possibly with a shortened expiry date. Thus, by examining all cases of incorrect storage, the value of drugs that pharmacists advised could be used despite a broken cold chain, could be estimated.Results The Medicine Information Centre dealt with 171 cases concerning incorrect storage in 2013. Data show that advice from Medicine Information Centre pharmacists resulted medicine cost savings of DKK 13 million (approx. €1.7 million) in hospitals in the Capital Region for that year.Conclusions Substantial savings can be made by seeking the advice of a team of information pharmacists regarding the incorrect storage of medicines

New near-IR observations of mesospheric CO2 and H2O clouds on Mars

Carbon dioxide clouds, which are speculated by models on solar and extra-solar planets, have been recently observed near the equator of Mars. The most comprehensive identification of Martian CO2 ice clouds has been obtained by the near-IR imaging spectrometer OMEGA. CRISM, a similar instrument with a higher spatial resolution, cannot detect these clouds with the same method due to its shorter wavelength range. Here we present a new method to detect CO2 clouds using near-IR data based on the comparison of H2O and CO2 ice spectral properties. The spatial and seasonal distributions of 54 CRISM observations containing CO2 clouds are reported, in addition to 17 new OMEGA observations. CRISM CO2 clouds are characterized by grain size in the 0.5-2\mum range and optical depths lower than 0.3. The distributions of CO2 clouds inferred from OMEGA and CRISM are consistent with each other and match at first order the distribution of high altitude (>60km) clouds derived from previous studies. At second order, discrepancies are observed. We report the identification of H2O clouds extending up to 80 km altitude, which could explain part of these discrepancies: both CO2 and H2O clouds can exist at high, mesospheric altitudes. CRISM observations of afternoon CO2 clouds display morphologies resembling terrestrial cirrus, which generalizes a previous result to the whole equatorial clouds season. Finally, we show that morning OMEGA observations have been previously misinterpreted as evidence for cumuliform, and hence potentially convective, CO2 clouds.Comment: Vincendon, M., C. Pilorget, B. Gondet, S. Murchie, and J.-P. Bibring (2011), New near-IR observations of mesospheric CO2 and H2O clouds on Mars, J. Geophys. Res., 116, E00J0

Literatur im Russischunterricht

Die vorliegende Arbeit ist als praktische Hilfe für den Russischlehrer gedacht. Die Verwendung der verbreiteten Schulausgaben hat zur Folge, daß einzelne Autoren als Verfasser kurzer Prosaformen oder sprachlich leichterer Texte im Vergleich zu anderen überrepräsentiert sind (Bevorzugung z.B. von Cechov, Zoščenko). Man sah daher die Notwendigkeit, eine Literaturliste zu erarbeiten, aufgrund derer ein umfassenderes Bild der russischen und sowjetischen Literatur vermittelt werden kann. Diese Liste berücksichtigt (...) für den Schulunterricht wichtigen Epochen einschließlich der neuesten Sowjetliteratur, bezieht alle Gattungen ein ebenso wie Formen der Volksliteratur, die im Literaturunterricht selten behandelt werden (Castuški, Bylinen, Märchen). Literaturverz. S. 61 - 149. Durchsuchbare elektronische Faksimileausgabe als PDF. Digitalisiert im Rahmen des DFG-Projektes Digi20 in Kooperation mit der BSB München. OCR-Bearbeitung durch den Verlag Otto Sagner.</P

Search for supersymmetry with a dominant R-parity violating LQDbar couplings in e+e- collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 130GeV to 172 GeV

A search for pair-production of supersymmetric particles under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a dominant LQDbar coupling has been performed using the data collected by ALEPH at centre-of-mass energies of 130-172 GeV. The observed candidate events in the data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectation. This result is translated into lower limits on the masses of charginos, neutralinos, sleptons, sneutrinos and squarks. For instance, for m_0=500 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=sqrt(2) charginos with masses smaller than 81 GeV/c^2 and neutralinos with masses smaller than 29 GeV/c^2 are excluded at the 95% confidence level for any generation structure of the LQDbar coupling.Comment: 32 pages, 30 figure

Tumor inhibition by genomically integrated inducible RNAi-cassettes

RNA interference (RNAi) has emerged as a powerful tool to induce loss-of-function phenotypes by post-transcriptional silencing of gene expression. In this study we wondered whether inducible RNAi-cassettes integrated into cellular DNA possess the power to trigger neoplastic growth. For this purpose inducible RNAi vectors containing tetracycline (Tet)-responsive derivatives of the H1 promoter for the conditional expression of short hairpin RNA (shRNA) were used to target human polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1), which is overexpressed in a broad spectrum of human tumors. In the absence of doxycycline (Dox) HeLa clones expressing TetR, that carry the RNAi-cassette stably integrated, exhibited no significant alteration in Plk1 expression levels. In contrast, exposure to Dox led to marked downregulation of Plk1 mRNA to 3% and Plk1 protein to 14% in cell culture compared to mismatch shRNA/Plk1-expressing cells. As a result of Plk1 depletion cell proliferation decreased to 17%. Furthermore, for harnessing RNAi for silencing disease-related genes in vivo we transplanted inducible RNAi-HeLa cells onto nude mice. After administration of Dox knockdown of Plk1 expression was observed correlating to a significant inhibition of tumor growth. Taken together, our data revealed that genomically integrated RNAi-elements are suitable to hamper tumor growth by conditional expression of shRNA

Long term in-vivo studies of a photo-oxidized bovine osteochondral transplant in sheep

BACKGROUND: Articular cartilage has limited capacity to repair. Defects greater than 3 mm heal with formation of inferior fibrous cartilage. Therefore, many attempts have been made to find the ideal graft for larger cartilage lesions. Different grafts, such as untreated or cryopreserved osteochondral transplants, have been used with variable success. METHODS: Photo-oxidized osteochondral grafts were implanted in both femoral condyles of one ovine knee. Untreated xenogeneic and autogeneic grafts served as controls. Three groups of 8 sheep each were formed and they were sacrificed 6, 12 or 18 months after surgery. RESULTS: The macroscopic evaluation of the condyle and graft showed a well-maintained cartilage surface in most grafts at all time points. However, the host cartilage matrix deteriorated considerably in all xenogeneic, most autogeneic and fewer of the photo-oxidized grafts at 12 and 18 months, respectively. The blue colour of the photo-oxidized grafts resulting from the process of photo-oxidation was visible in all grafts at 6 months, had diminished at 12 months and had completely disappeared at 18 months after surgery. Histologically a loss of matrix staining was almost never noticed in untreated xenografts, transiently at 6 months in photo-oxidized grafts and increased at 12 and 18 months. Fusion between graft and host cartilage could be seen in photo-oxidized grafts at 12 and 18 months, but was never seen in autografts and xenografts. CONCLUSIONS: The photo-oxidation of osteochondral grafts and its use as transplant appears to have a beneficial effect on cartilage and bone remodelling. Osteochondral grafts pre-treated with photo-oxidation may be considered for articular cartilage replacement and therefore may delay artificial joint replacements in human patients