Sino - Indian Mutual Perceptions : Intercultural Students’ Discourse on Ontological Security and Identity

A critical review of the history of the discursive formation of Sino-Indian relations suggests that the largely negative mutual perceptions by the Chinese and Indian public and media are opposed by an optimistic discourse of both nations’ political and economic elites. This is also accompanied by a juxtaposed, binary discourse of the bilateral relation by members of the Liberal and Realist camp in academia. While the former largely emphasizes mutual economic cooperation, the latter argues that future tensions are inexorable due to the difficult past and territorial issues. 20 semi-structured interviews with Indian and Chinese exchange students in both countries were conducted and analysed with a Critical Discourse Analysis in order to understand to what degree they conform with the dominant discursive formation. The results suggest a stronger Ontological Security fixation of the Indian side on China than vice versa and a strong power imbalance in favour of China. Even though the students made intense use of mutual stereotyping, their overall discourse was optimistic and critical towards the prevalent negative discourse, mutual lack of knowledge and trust. Students tended to emphasize an intensified effort to improve mutual ties through economic and cultural cooperation, exchanges and the solution of the border issue

Numerical Investigation of Residual Stresses in Welded Thermoplastic CFRP Structures

Using thermoplastics as the matrix in carbon fiber-reinforced polymers (CFRP) offers the possibility to make use of welded joints, which results in weight savings compared to conventional joining methods using mechanical fasteners. In this paper, the resulting temperature distribution in the material due to resistance welding is investigated by transient finite element (FE) simulations. To examine the effects on the component structure, a numerical modeling approach is created, which allows determining the residual stresses caused by the welding process. It is shown that the area of the structure, especially near the joining zone, is highly affected by the process, especially in terms of residual stresses. In particular, the stresses perpendicular to the fiber direction show failure relevant values up to a maximum of 221 MPa, which might lead to the formation of microcracks in the matrix. In turn, that is assumed to be critical in terms of the fatigue of welded composite structures. Thus, the suggested modeling approach provides residual stresses that can be used to determine their effects on the strength, structural stability, and fatigue of such composite structures. In a subsequent step, these findings could play an important role in the design process of thermoplastic composite structures

When details are difficult to portray: enriching vision videos

The creation of a shared understanding of the project vision of all relevant stakeholders is vital to the requirements engineering process. One way to create such a shared understanding is through the use of vision videos that visualize the project vision at an early project stage. However, not all functional aspects can be presented. For example, the fact that an access code is valid for only a single use can be hard to visualize. One low-effort solution could be the insertion of short texts or short audio clips. In this work, our question is twofold: What effects do short pieces of additional information have in vision videos? What are suitable ways to add this information to vision videos? To answer these research questions, we investigated three different methods of inserting additional information to vision videos in an eye tracking study. We inserted short texts either below the scene or as overlays and also investigated the addition of short audio clips. These methods were evaluated in terms of participants’ video comprehension, visual effort, cognitive load and subjective preference. The results of our study show that the pieces of additional information improve vision comprehension, thereby supporting the creation of a shared understanding. All investigated methods lead to only marginal increases of the viewers’ cognitive load. Based on our results, we derive recommendations on how to insert additional information in vision videos

Homotopy ribbon concordance, Blanchfield pairings, and twisted Alexander polynomials

We establish homotopy ribbon concordance obstructions coming from the Blanchfield form and Levine-Tristram signatures. Then, as an application of twisted Alexander polynomials, we show that for every knot K with nontrivial Alexander polynomial, there exists an infinite family of knots that are all concordant to K and have the same Blanchfield form as K, such that no pair of knots in that family is homotopy ribbon concordant.Comment: 33 pages. Comments welcome. v2: Added details and new Example 3.5, accepted for publication by Canadian Journal of Mathematic

Einfluss von Habitatmanagement auf die Reduktion von Schadlepidopteren im Kohl

Beneficials can prevent or reduce outbreaks of pest species. To strengthen the populations of beneficials, their food sources must be improved in cultivated areas. The effects of habitat management for augmenting beneficial population on parasitism and predation rates of three lepidopteran pest species were investigated on two organic fields in Alten (Switzerland). The aim was to improve pest regulation through wild flower strips along fields and by planting Centaurea cyanus as companion plant within the crop. Strips of Centaurea cyanus and Fagopyrum esculentum increased parasitsm on the lepidopteran pests. C. cyanus planted as companion plant furthermore increased predation on the eggs and parasitism of the larvae of Mamestra brassicae. Several technical and methodological aspects still need to be improved before the approach is ready for practical use

Homotopy ribbon concordance, Blanchfield pairings, and twisted Alexander polynomials

We establish homotopy ribbon concordance obstructions coming from the Blanchfield form and Levine–Tristram signatures. Then, as an application of twisted Alexander polynomials, we show that for every knot K with nontrivial Alexander polynomial, there exists an infinite family of knots that are all concordant to K and have the same Blanchfield form as K, such that no pair of knots in that family is homotopy ribbon concordant

Land Corruption Risk Mapping

In 2016, the Centre for Rural Development – commissioned by Transparency International – developed a Handbook on Land Corruption Risk Mapping, which helps NGOs, governmental institutions, and other actors to systematically identify and assess corruption risks in land governance and to develop effective counter-measures. The present study was produced during the development process of the handbook. It explains the handbook’s conceptual framework (corruption, corruption risks, risk assessment, etc.) and details the methodological approach that was used to develop and test the handbook. In addition, the study presents the results of four case studies that were conducted in Kenya as part of the development and testing process, namely: 1) Urban space land conflicts in Nairobi; 2) Indigenous communities and their role in initial land registration in West Pokot; 3) Inheritance of land and land rights for women in Kakamega; 4) Large scale land acquisitions in Kwale. Finally, the study includes recommendations – for Transparency International, for governmental institutions, and for NGOs – that were drawn from the handbook development process and from the case studies in Kenya

Aversive memory formation in humans involves an amygdala-hippocampus phase code

Memory for aversive events is central to survival but can become maladaptive in psychiatric disorders. Memory enhancement for emotional events is thought to depend on amygdala modulation of hippocampal activity. However, the neural dynamics of amygdala-hippocampal communication during emotional memory encoding remain unknown. Using simultaneous intracranial recordings from both structures in human patients, here we show that successful emotional memory encoding depends on the amygdala theta phase to which hippocampal gamma activity and neuronal firing couple. The phase difference between subsequently remembered vs. not-remembered emotional stimuli translates to a time period that enables lagged coherence between amygdala and downstream hippocampal gamma. These results reveal a mechanism whereby amygdala theta phase coordinates transient amygdala -hippocampal gamma coherence to facilitate aversive memory encoding. Pacing of lagged gamma coherence via amygdala theta phase may represent a general mechanism through which the amygdala relays emotional content to distant brain regions to modulate other aspects of cognition, such as attention and decision-making