Inclusion of children identified as having special educational needs (SEN) within the Austrian compulsory educational system

Este artigo pretende descrever vários aspetos da segregação, integração e inclusão dentro do sistema educativo obrigatório austríaco. Após uma introdução que contém definições e um resumo internacional, será brevemente descrito o sistema educativo da Áustria. Subsequentemente, três temas de interesse serão debatidos. Primeiro será caracterizada a situação atual referente à inclusão de crianças com necessidades educativas especiais. Esta situação difere bastante entre estados federais. Serão descritos os desenvolvimentos que conduziram à situação atual. Em segundo serão apresentados estudos empíricos recentes relativos ao movimento austríaco que almeja a inclusão. Em terceiro e a título exemplificativo serão apresentados em detalhe alguns desenvolvimentos recentes, alguns planos e visões futuras de três estados federais austríacos.Abstract The present paper aims at describing various aspects of segregation, integration and inclusion within the Austrian compulsory school system. After a general introduction which includes definitions and a short international overview, the Austrian compulsory school system is described shortly. Subsequently, three subjects of interest are discussed. Firstly, the current situation of inclusion of children identified as having special educational needs (SEN) is characterized. This is very different in each one of the federal states, and the various developments which led to this situation are described. Secondly, recent empirical studies on the Austrian movement towards inclusion are shown in a brief overview. Thirdly, by way of example, recent developments, further plans and future visions of three federal states of Austria are presented in more detail.Résumé Cet article prétend décrire les différents aspects de la ségrégation, intégration et inclusion dans le système éducatif obligatoire autrichien. Après une introduction générale qui comprend des définitions et une perspective internationale, nous décrirons le système éducatif en Autriche. Ensuite, trois thèmes d’intérêt seront discutés. En premier lieu, la situation actuelle d’inclusion des enfants ayant des besoins éducatifs particuliers sera décrite. Cette situation diffère dans chacun des états fédéraux; les diverses conditions qui conduisent à la situation actuelle seront présentées. Deuxièmement, de récentes études empiriques qui abordent le mouvement vers l’inclusion seront présentées. Troisièmement et à titre d’exemple, les développements récents, plans et visions futures de trois états fédéraux seront présentés plus en détail

What is behind the diagnosis of learning disability in Austrian schools?

Every school system has to deal with children with Learning Disabilities (LD). However, the concepts of LD, the assessment procedures, the diagnostic criteria as well as their interpretation vary widely from country to country. What they usually seem to have in common is that general cognitive abilities, as measured by standardized IQ tests, are seen as an important aspect of the label.. In Austrian schools the diagnosis of LD is largely based on expert opinions provided by special education teachers. The diagnostic procedure is quite unregulated and open to individual interpretation. As a rule, standardized tests are not used in this connection. In the present study the characteristics of children with a diagnosis of LD are evaluated in terms of standardized testing. Thiry-seven pupils diagnosed as having LD and 136 regular school children were assessed at the end of the 5th grade in Austrian schools using standardized tests of intelligence, reading, writing and arithmetic skills and questionnaires regarding social integration in class, emotional integration in school and cultural capital of their families. Compared with a group of pupils without LD, matched for IQ and age, the LD children showed significantly worse basic arithmetic and reading skills, inferior social integration in class and lower familial cultural capital. A stepwise logistic regression analysis indicated that poor basic arithmetic and reading skills were the strongest predictors of having a diagnosis of LD. Other variables, including IQ, had significantly less weight. The results are seen as indication of the fact that precise guidelines for diagnosing LD in the school system and a transition to a system of evidence-based allocation of resources are urgently needed

The Alkamide trans-Pellitorine Targets PPARγ via TRPV1 and TRPA1 to Reduce Lipid Accumulation in Developing 3T3-L1 Adipocytes

Adipose tissue is an important endocrine organ in the human body. However, pathological overgrowth is associated with chronic illness. Regulation of adipogenesis and maturation of adipocytes via bioactive compounds in our daily diet has been in focus of research in the past years and showed promising results for agonists of the ion channels transient receptor potential channel (TRP) V1 and A1. Here, we investigated the anti-adipogenic potential and underlying mechanisms of the alkamide trans-pellitorine present in Piper nigrum via TRPV1 and TRPA1 in 3T3-L1 cells. trans-pellitorine was found to suppress mean lipid accumulation, when applied during differentiation and maturation, but also during maturation phase solely of 3T3-L1 cells in a concentration range between 1 nM and 1 μM by up to 8.84 ± 4.97 or 7.49 ± 5.08%, respectively. Blockage of TRPV1 using the specific inhibitor trans-tert-butyl-cyclohexanol demonstrated that the anti-adipogenic activity of trans-pellitorine depends on TRPV1. In addition, blockage of the TRPA1 channel using the antagonist AP-18 showed a TRPA1-dependent signaling in the early to intermediate stages of adipogenesis. On a mechanistic level, treatment with trans-pellitorine during adipogenesis led to reduced PPARγ expression on gene and protein level via activation of TRPV1 and TRPA1, and increased expression of the microRNA mmu-let-7b, which has been associated with reduced PPARγ levels. In addition, cells treated with trans-pellitorine showed decreased expression of the gene encoding for fatty acid synthase, increased expression of microRNA-103 and a decreased short-term fatty acid uptake on the functional level. In summary, these data point to an involvement of the TRPV1 and TRPA1 cation channels in the anti-adipogenic activity of trans-pellitorine via microRNA-let7b and PPARγ. Since trans-pellitorine does not directly activate TRPV1 or TRPA1, an indirect modulation of the channel activity is assumed and warrants further investigation

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles at high transverse momenta in PbPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV

The azimuthal anisotropy of charged particles in PbPb collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV is measured with the CMS detector at the LHC over an extended transverse momentum (pt) range up to approximately 60 GeV. The data cover both the low-pt region associated with hydrodynamic flow phenomena and the high-pt region where the anisotropies may reflect the path-length dependence of parton energy loss in the created medium. The anisotropy parameter (v2) of the particles is extracted by correlating charged tracks with respect to the event-plane reconstructed by using the energy deposited in forward-angle calorimeters. For the six bins of collision centrality studied, spanning the range of 0-60% most-central events, the observed v2 values are found to first increase with pt, reaching a maximum around pt = 3 GeV, and then to gradually decrease to almost zero, with the decline persisting up to at least pt = 40 GeV over the full centrality range measured.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu channel in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the H to ZZ to 2l 2nu decay channel, where l = e or mu, in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is presented. The data were collected at the LHC, with the CMS detector, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation, and upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section. The presence of the standard model Higgs boson with a mass in the 270-440 GeV range is excluded at 95% confidence level.Comment: Submitted to JHE

Combined search for the quarks of a sequential fourth generation

Results are presented from a search for a fourth generation of quarks produced singly or in pairs in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2011. A novel strategy has been developed for a combined search for quarks of the up and down type in decay channels with at least one isolated muon or electron. Limits on the mass of the fourth-generation quarks and the relevant Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements are derived in the context of a simple extension of the standard model with a sequential fourth generation of fermions. The existence of mass-degenerate fourth-generation quarks with masses below 685 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for minimal off-diagonal mixing between the third- and the fourth-generation quarks. With a mass difference of 25 GeV between the quark masses, the obtained limit on the masses of the fourth-generation quarks shifts by about +/- 20 GeV. These results significantly reduce the allowed parameter space for a fourth generation of fermions.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Search for new physics with same-sign isolated dilepton events with jets and missing transverse energy

A search for new physics is performed in events with two same-sign isolated leptons, hadronic jets, and missing transverse energy in the final state. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. This constitutes a factor of 140 increase in integrated luminosity over previously published results. The observed yields agree with the standard model predictions and thus no evidence for new physics is found. The observations are used to set upper limits on possible new physics contributions and to constrain supersymmetric models. To facilitate the interpretation of the data in a broader range of new physics scenarios, information on the event selection, detector response, and efficiencies is provided.Comment: Published in Physical Review Letter