A novel system for glycosylation engineering by natural and artificial micrornas

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Analytical and toxicological aspects of nanomaterials in different product groups: Challenges and opportunities

The widespread integration of engineered nanomaterials into consumer and industrial products creates new challenges and requires innovative approaches in terms of design, testing, reliability, and safety of nanotechnology. The aim of this review article is to give an overview of different product groups in which nanomaterials are present and outline their safety aspects for consumers. Here, release of nanomaterials and related analytical challenges and solutions as well as toxicological considerations, such as dose-metrics, are discussed. Additionally, the utilization of engineered nanomaterials as pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals to deliver and release cargo molecules is covered. Furthermore, critical pathways for human exposure to nanomaterials, namely inhalation and ingestion, are discussed in the context of risk assessment. Analysis of NMs in food, innovative medicine or food contact materials is discussed. Specific focus is on the presence and release of nanomaterials, including whether nanomaterials can migrate from polymer nanocomposites used in food contact materials. With regard to the toxicology and toxicokinetics of nanomaterials, aspects of dose metrics of inhalation toxicity as well as ingestion toxicology and comparison between in vitro and in vivo conclusions are considered. The definition of dose descriptors to be applied in toxicological testing is emphasized. In relation to potential exposure from different products, opportunities arising from the use of advanced analytical techniques in more unique scenarios such as release of nanomaterials from medical devices such as orthopedic implants are addressed. Alongside higher product performance and complexity, further challenges regarding material characterization and safety, as well as acceptance by the general public are expected

Grasping isoluminant stimuli

We used a virtual reality setup to let participants grasp discs, which differed in luminance, chromaticity and size. Current theories on perception and action propose a division of labor in the brain into a color proficient perception pathway and a less color-capable action pathway. In this study, we addressed the question whether isoluminant stimuli, which provide only a chromatic but no luminance contrast for action planning, are harder to grasp than stimuli providing luminance contrast or both kinds of contrast. Although we found that grasps of isoluminant stimuli had a slightly steeper slope relating the maximum grip aperture to disc size, all other measures of grip quality were unaffected. Overall, our results do not support the view that isoluminance of stimulus and background impedes the planning of a grasping movement

Analysis of the African coelacanth genome sheds light on tetrapod evolution

It was a zoological sensation when a living specimen of the coelacanth was first discovered in 1938, as this lineage of lobe-finned fish was thought to have gone extinct 70 million years ago. The modern coelacanth looks remarkably similar to many of its ancient relatives, and its evolutionary proximity to our own fish ancestors provides a glimpse of the fish that first walked on land. Here we report the genome sequence of the African coelacanth, Latimeria chalumnae. Through a phylogenomic analysis, we conclude that the lungfish, and not the coelacanth, is the closest living relative of tetrapods. Coelacanth protein-coding genes are significantly more slowly evolving than those of tetrapods, unlike other genomic features . Analyses of changes in genes and regulatory elements during the vertebrate adaptation to land highlight genes involved in immunity, nitrogen excretion and the development of fins, tail, ear, eye, brain, and olfaction. Functional assays of enhancers involved in the fin-to-limb transition and in the emergence of extra-embryonic tissues demonstrate the importance of the coelacanth genome as a blueprint for understanding tetrapod evolution

On the Multiscale Solution of Satellite Problems by Use of Locally Supported Kernel Functions Corresponding to Equidistributed Data on Spherical Orbits

Being interested in (rotation-)invariant pseudodi erential equations of satellite problems corresponding to spherical orbits, we are reasonably led to generating kernels that depend only on the spherical distance, i. e. in the language of modern constructive approximation form spherical radial basis functions. In this paper approximate identities generated by such (rotation-invariant) kernels which are additionally locally supported are investigated in detail from theoretical as well as numerical point of view. So-called spherical di erence wavelets are introduced. The wavelet transforms are evaluated by the use of a numerical integration rule, that is based on Weyl's law of equidistribution. This approximate formula is constructed such that it can cope with millions of (satellite) data. The approximation error is estimated on the orbital sphere. Finally, we apply the developed theory to the problems of satellite-to-satellite tracking (SST) and satellite gravity gradiometry (SGG)

Interkulturelle Kompetenz

Im DESI-Modul "Interkulturelle Kompetenz" wird auf der Grundlage des "Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity" von Milton Bennett und den Arbeiten zu kritischen Interaktionssituationen von Alexander Thomas ein Verfahren entwickelt, das es erlaubt, kulturspezifische interkulturelle Kompetenz im Rahmen des Englischunterrichts zu erfassen. Die Konzeption und die Datenauswertung mittels eines hypothesenorientierten Modells der "Latent-Class-Analysis" wird dargestellt. (DIPF/Autor)On the basis of Milton Bennett\u27s "Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity" and the work about critical incidents of Alexander Thomas the members of the DESI-module "intercultural competence" developed a method for the assessment of culture-specific intercultural competence within the scope of English lessons. The basic concept and the data analysis by means of a hypothesis-oriented model of "Latent-Class-Analysis" is presented. (DIPF/author

Vermittlung interkultureller Kompetenzen im Englischunterricht

Der interkulturelle Lernerfolg von Schülerinnen und Schülern wird durch verschiedene Bedingungen beeinflusst. Hier sind zum einen die allgemeinen Einstellungen der Schülerinnen und Schüler zu interkulturellen Themen zu nennen, die einen deutlichen Einfluss auf die Lernentwicklung haben. Auf der anderen Seite stellt die tatsächliche Gelegenheit zur Beschäftigung mit interkulturellen Themen im Unterricht eine wichtige Bedingung für das Lernen dar. Es stellt sich demnach die Frage, inwieweit Schülerinnen und Schüler Gelegenheiten zum interkulturellen Lernen in ihrem Unterricht erhalten und ob sie diese wahrnehmen. Im DESI-Projekt sind die interkulturellen Lernergebnisse der Schülerinnen und Schüler in Anlehnung an das Modell von M. Bennett durch die Bearbeitung von Critical Incidents operationalisiert. Der Beitrag stellt Analyseergebnisse zum Zusammenhang zwischen Lehrer- bzw. Unterrichtsmerkmalen und den interkulturellen Lernergebnissen der Schüler dar. (DIPF/Orig.

Vermittlung interkultureller Kompetenz im Englischunterricht - eine curriculare Perspektive

Die Entwicklungen von einem statischen zu einem dynamischen Kulturbegriff und die Forderung nach einem Verständnis von interkultureller Kompetenz im Sinne der konstruktiven Auseinandersetzung mit einer anderen und der eigenen Kultur bilden die Grundlage einer theorieorientierten Curriculumanalyse. Ausgehend vom Modell von Milton Bennett zur Entwicklung interkultureller Sensibilität werden die Englischcurricula der 16 deutschen Bundesländer daraufhin überprüft, inwieweit die in ihnen enthaltenen interkulturellen Lehrziele und Inhalte die Modellvorstellungen reflektieren. (DIPF/Orig.)Theoretical developments from a static to a dynamic culture concept in the discussion about intercultural competence in the foreign language classroom and demands to understand intercultural competence as a constructive interaction with another and one´s own culture, form the basis of a theory-oriented curriculum analysis. Applying Milton Bennett´s model of development of intercultural sensitivity the English curricula of the 16 German federal states are analyzed in terms of the degree of correspondence between the aims and contents of teaching and the theoretical model. (DIPF/Orig.

A lower bound for the worst-case cubature error on spheres of arbitrary dimension

This paper is concerned with numerical integration on the unit sphere $S^r$ of dimension $r\\geq 2$ in the Euclidean space $\\mathbb{R}^{r+1}$. We consider the worst-case cubature error, denoted by $E(Q_m;H^s(S^r))$, of an arbitrary $m$-point cubature rule $Q_m$ for functions in the unit ball of the Sobolev space $H^s(S^r)$, where s>r/2, and show that $E(Q_m;H^s(S^r))\\geq c_{s,r} m^{-s/r}$. The positive constant $c_{s,r}$ in the estimate depends only on the sphere dimension $r\\geq 2$ and the index $s$ of the Sobolev space $H^s(S^r)$. This result was previously only known for $r=2$, in which case the estimate is order optimal. The method of proof is constructive: we construct for each $Q_m$ a `bad' function $f_m$, that is, a function which vanishes in all nodes of the cubature rule and for which $\\|f_m\\|_{s,r}^{-1} |\\int_{S^r} f_m(\\mathbf{x}) d\\omega_r(\\mathbf{x})| \\geq c_{s,r} m^{-s/r}$. Our proof uses a packing of the sphere $S^r$ with spherical caps, as well as an interpolation result between Sobolev spaces of different indices