Investigating the Interactions Between Protocadherin-19 and Ryk and its Effect on Neurogenesis

Protocadherins are a large, diverse family of neural cell adhesion proteins, but their functions are not understood. Mutations or in several protocadherins have been associated with neurological disorders. For example, Protocadherin19 (PCDH19) causes epilepsy in females with mental retardation (EFMR). In this X chromosome-linked disease, girls randomly express one good allele or one mutant allele per cell due to a phenomenon known as X-linked inactivation. This mosaic expression leads to the symptoms classified as EFMR, but the effects on cellular pathways for the disease are not known. In zebrafish, the loss of Pcdh19 leads to the loss of columnar organization in the developing optic tectum through the loss of adhesion and an increase in neuronal proliferation and differentiation. The literature shows that Pcdh19 interacts with Ryk, a noncanonical Wnt receptor involved in neurogenesis. Based on previous data and the literature, we hypothesize that Pcdh19 binds to the extracellular domain of Ryk to inhibit binding of the Wnt3 ligand, preventing the intracellular domain of Ryk from being cleaved and translocated to the nucleus where it would initiate pathways for neuronal proliferation. Immunohistochemistry and co-immunoprecipitation were attempted to show if Pcdh19 affects cleavage of the Ryk intracellular domain, its nuclear translocation, and subsequent Wnt signaling. Transgenic and Ryk-knockout fish are being developed to perform experiments in vivo.School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Honors CommitteeUndergraduate Research Office Summer Funding AwardA three-year embargo was granted for this item.Academic Major: Biomedical Scienc

Considering Emigration: German University Graduates Are Moving Abroad - But Only Temporarily

Much of the current German debate about the integration of immigrants overlooks the fact that Germany is not solely a country of immigration, but also - and to a substantial degree - a country of emigration. One of the largest groups of emigrants is made up of Germans themselves. The percentage of German natives in the total population of emigrants has risen substantially over the last few years. In 2009, of the almost 750,000 individuals who emigrated from Germany, 155,000 were German citizens. Data from the Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) show that in 2009, one in every eight German citizens seriously considered moving abroad. Of these, one in three considered leaving Germany permanently and one in eleven considered leaving within the next twelve months. Of the factors that tend to favor emigration, previous experiences and friends abroad play a crucial role. University graduates are more inclined to move abroad temporarily. Concerns that Germany is suffering a "brain drain," losing its best and brightest to other countries, are therefore unjustified at the present time.SOEP, Migration, Mobility

A voice recording, a portrait photo and three drawings: tracing the life of a colonial soldier

Out of a total of approximately 1.4 million South Asians fighting in the First World War, more than 90,000 combatants fought on the Western Front in France and Belgium. Nearly 50,000 South Asian labourers were also sent to France and Flanders to support the British troops. During the First World War, South Asian combatants and non-combatants were taken prisoner in France, Belgium, Mesopotamia, East Africa, and other theatres of war. Around a thousand South Asian military POWs and approximately the same number of civilian South Asians living in Europe were detained in German camps. Within this article, these years of captivity in the life of the colonial soldier Gangaram Gurung are reconstructed - by exploring visual, auditory and textual evidence about him

Cultural Education and Digitisation: Experiences and Perspectives in German‐Chinese Dialogue

Many actors in the field of cultural education work and cooperate internationally. This international context repeatedly provides illustration that the concept of cultural education is not based on a universal understanding. Thus, international dialogue forums are even more important - in particular, when societies are facing similar structural challenges, which also affect cultural education. Digitisation, which is transforming each area of life, is such a challenge. As it constitutes a significant aspect of a fundamental global and local cultural shift, the question of how the challenges of digitisation can be handled is of utmost importance for the extent, form and content of cultural education. It is not only about developing new ways of mediation, but also about understanding digitisation itself as a cultural transformation in order to shape and handle it in the best possible manner."Cultural Education and Digitisation" was the subject of the German‐Chinese expert forum which took place in Berlin from 27 to 30 November 2017. The Mercator Foundation and the China Soong Ching Ling Foundation initiated and funded the event as the second in the German‐Chinese forum "Cultural Education Across Cultural Borders", and carried it out in cooperation with ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen). This Input summarises the core findings of the expert forum and shows perspectives for connecting digitisation and cultural education in Germany and China. Which discourses determine the debates on cultural education in both countries? Which hopes and concerns are connected to digitisation in general, but also to cultural education in specific? Which perspectives can be shown for future development, and which significance will be attributed to the international dialogue between Germany and China

"SAMs meet MEMS": surface modification with self-assembled monolayers for the dry-demolding of photoplastic MEMS/NEMS

In this contribution we demonstrate the use of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) as anti-adhesion coating to assist the removal of photoplastic MEMS/NEMS with a patterned metal layer from the surface without wet chemical sacrificial layer etching, so-called 'dry-demolding'. The SAMs functionality here is to reduce the stiction between the surface and a thin evaporated metal film. The double-layer SAM/metal provides enough stability to support subsequent micromachining step

Respondent driven sampling

Respondent driven sampling (RDS) is a network sampling technique typically employed for hard-to-reach populations (e.g. drug users, men who have sex with men, people with HIV). Similar to snowball sampling, initial seed respondents recruit additional respondents from their network of friends. The recruiting process repeats iteratively, thereby forming long referral chains. Unlike in snowball sampling, it is crucial to obtain estimates of respondents' personal network size (i.e., number of acquaintances in the target population) and information about who recruited whom. Markov chain theory makes it possible to derive population estimates and sampling weights. We introduce a new Stata program for RDS and illustrate its use