Review of Anke Gleber, The Art of Taking a Walk: Flanerie, Literature, and Film in Weimar Culture.

Anke Gleber, The Art of Taking a Walk: Flanerie, Literature, and Film in Weimar Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. 283 pp. ISBN 069100238X

Gender, Cultural Memory, and the Representation of Queerness in Ingeborg Bachmann\u27s Narrative A Step Towards Gomorrah.

This paper explores the questioning of a culturally produced fixed binary gender opposition, as well as of genre conventions, in Bachmann\u27s Gomorrah. This questioning, I argue, is achieved despite and in part even due to the fact that a lesbian relationship between the text\u27s protagonists remains unrealized. The text\u27s refusal to depict a lesbian relationship is not so much a capitulation to taboos of the 1950\u27s. Rather, it points up the lack of a language and the lack of generic forms that would allow for the representation of true alternatives to traditional gendered power dynamics. If the narrative wants to avoid the reproduction of traditional patriarchal gender relations, it also has to avoid the reproduction of traditional literary forms. Since the narrative cannot speak itself in a form that would represent a viable alternative to traditional genres, it ultimately silences itself in the face of the impossible task of representing a queer relationship. This silence marks a moment of resistance to established cultural norms

Instrumental conditioning and learning in Poroderma Pantherinum

Recent research has shown that higher cognitive functions and learning occur in teleosts and elasmobranchs. Very little is known about the cognitive abilities of benthic sharks and no research has been published on the learning ability of the endemic Leopard catshark (Poroderma pantherinum) species of South Africa. This species is listed as data deficient on the IUCN red list and known threats due to anthropogenic impacts include fatalities because of bycatch and depredation in the small-scale commercial fishing industry. It has been suggested that sharks can be attracted to fishing boats through the sound of outboard motors and an association can be formed between the sound and easy prey on the hooks of fisherman. This pilot study examined the learning capacity of Leopard catsharks in Hermanus, South Africa, by using a series of food-reward tests based on instrumental conditioning. A target with black and white stripes was used as the discriminative stimulus, while an auditory cue acted as a bridging stimulus for the food-reward task. Sharks were collected by hand whilst diving and shore-angling in Hermanus from August 2015 to November 2015 and acclimatised before the onset of experiments. Four juvenile sharks were trained through operant conditioning using visual and auditory stimuli for ten days each, consisting of six trials per day. A fifth juvenile shark, acting as the control, was trained through the same method without the auditory stimulus to test the influence thereof on the learning rates of Leopard catsharks. This study showed that Leopard catsharks have the ability to associate a visual stimulus with a food reward through the aid of an auditory cue. The auditory cue was also shown to increase learning rates significantly as an association was formed between the presence of food in front of the target and the auditory signal. The individual sharks in this study displayed differing levels of stress and learning rates. It is suggested that even though Leopard catsharks show high diversity in learning rates and adaptation to stress, they possess the ability to learn and adapt rapidly to changing environments. The results possibly have important implications for the understanding of learning and conditioning in Leopard catsharks and the likely anthropogenic threats caused through learned behaviour in benthic sharks

The hepatitis B virus PRE contains a splicing regulatory element

The posttranscriptional regulatory element (PRE) is considered to enhance hepatitis B virus (HBV) gene expression by facilitating the nuclear export of intronless viral subgenomic RNAs. Its role in the RNA metabolism of the viral pregenomic RNA (pgRNA) is currently unknown. We identified a positively cis-acting splicing regulatory element (SRE-1) and present two lines of evidence for its functionality. Firstly, in a heterologous context SRE-1 functionally substitutes for a retroviral bidirectional exonic splicing enhancer (ESE). As expected, SRE-1 is a splicing enhancer also in its natural viral sequence context, since deletion of SRE-1 reduces splicing of pgRNA in cell culture experiments. Secondly, we show that stimulation of HBV RNA splicing by the splicing factor PSF was repressed by the PRE. Analysis of a variety of PSF mutants indicated that RNA-binding and protein–protein interaction were required to enhance splicing. In addition, we show that the PRE contributed to pgRNA stability, but has little influence on its nuclear export. Herein, we report for the first time that the PRE harbors splicing stimulating and inhibiting regulatory elements controlling processing of the viral pregenome. We discuss a model in which the regulation of pgRNA splicing depends on cellular factors interacting with the PRE

Wenn der Nachwuchs flügge wird – Angebote durch die Nachwuchsvertretung der GDM

Die deutschsprachige Community der Mathematikdidaktik ist zahlreich und höchst unterschiedlich. Ebenso ist es deren Nachwuchs, darunter viele Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden, die in ganz Deutschland an ihrer Promotion und meist zusätzlichen Projekten arbeiten. Die GDM zeigt seit Jahren ein besonders großes Interesse an der Nachwuchsförderung und veranstaltet substanzielle Angebote wie die Summerschool oder das Doktorandenkolloquium der GDM, in denen Forschungsmethoden und Inhalte der individuellen Dissertationsprojekte diskutiert werden. Zur Unterstützung dieser Bemühungen organisiert die Gruppe der Nachwuchsvertretung im Rahmen der Jahrestagung der GDM ein Fortbildungsangebot, das sich an ihre Peers richtet: Das entstehende Vertrauensverhältnis der Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden untereinander wird für ein substanzielles, bedarfsorientiertes Arbeiten in verschiedenen Workshops zum wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten in der Mathematikdidaktik genutzt

Electronic Control of Spin-Crossover Properties in Four-Coordinate Bis(formazanate) Iron(II) Complexes

The transition between spin states in d-block metal complexes has important ramifications for their structure and reactivity, with applications ranging from information storage materials to understanding catalytic activity of metalloenzymes. Tuning the ligand field (Delta(O)) by steric and/or electronic effects has provided spin-crossover compounds for several transition metals in the periodic table, but this has mostly been limited to coordinatively saturated metal centers in octahedral ligand environments. Spin-crossover complexes with low coordination numbers are much rarer. Here we report a series of four-coordinate, (pseudo)tetrahedral Fe(II) complexes with formazanate ligands and demonstrate how electronic substituent effects can be used to modulate the thermally induced transition between S = 0 and S = 2 spin states in solution. All six compounds undergo spin-crossover in solution with T-1/2 above room temperature (300-368 K). While structural analysis by X-ray crystallography shows that the majority of these compounds are low-spin in the solid state (and remain unchanged upon heating), we find that packing effects can override this preference and give rise to either rigorously high-spin (6) or gradual spin-crossover behavior (5) also in the solid state. Density functional theory calculations are used to delineate the empirical trends in solution spin-crossover thermodynamics. In all cases, the stabilization of the low-spin state is due to the pi-acceptor properties of the formazanate ligand, resulting in an "inverted" ligand field, with an approximate "two-over-three" splitting of the d-orbitals and a high degree of metal-ligand covalency due to metal -> ligand pi-backdonation. The computational data indicate that the electronic nature of the para-substituent has a different influence depending on whether it is present at the C-Ar or N-Ar rings, which is ascribed to the opposing effect on metal-ligand sigma- and pi-bonding

Digital formative assessment in basic education. Lesson support from lea.online

Aufgrund der überaus heterogenen Lernbiographien von Erwachsenen spielen besonders in der Basisbildung/Alphabetisierung individuelle Förderung und damit auch die Diagnostik eine wichtige Rolle für einen zielgerichteten und erfolgreichen Lernprozess. Im Rahmen einer Eingangsdiagnostik können die jeweiligen Förderbedarfe identifiziert und in einer begleitenden Diagnostik die jeweiligen Fortschritte erkannt werden. Dazu wurden im Projekt "lea.Literalitätsentwicklung" seit 2008 Diagnoseinstrumente für die Bereiche Lesen, Schreiben, Mathematisches Grundwissen und Sprachgefühl entwickelt und sowohl in Papierform als auch für eine Online-Nutzung aufbereitet. Im Folgeprojekt "lea.online" (2018-2022) wurden drei digitale Anwendungen für den Einsatz in der Praxis von Basisbildung/Alphabetisierung entwickelt: eine verbesserte Version des bestehenden Online-Diagnostik-Instruments otu.lea, das lea.Dashboard für Lehrende zur fall- und gruppenbasierten Auswertung von Testergebnissen sowie die lea.App mit berufsfeldbezogenen Übungsaufgaben für Lernende. Alle Anwendungen sind mit Blick auf die Zielgruppe gezielt niederschwellig und ansprechend und sollen zum Lernen motivieren. Die Vorteile dieser digitalen Anwendungen sind Effizienzsteigerung in der Diagnostik durch automatisierte Auswertungen sowie Möglichkeiten zur differenzierten individuellen Förderung der Lernenden, Möglichkeiten zur didaktischen Steuerung in der Lehre und zum notwendigen Üben auch außerhalb der Kurszeiten. (DIPF/Orig.)Because of the thoroughly heterogeneous learning biographies of adults, individual support and thus assessment play an important role in a targeted and successful learning process in basic education/literacy. As part of initial assessment, their support needs can be identified, and progress can be recognized in an accompanying diagnostic procedure. Since 2008 the project "lea.Literalitätsentwicklung" has developed assessment tools for the areas reading, writing, basic mathematics and feel for language and prepared them in a paper format as well as for online use. In the follow-up project "lea.online" (2018-2022), three digital applications have been developed for use in basic education/literacy practice: an improved version of the existing online assessment tool otu.lea, the lea.Dashboard for teachers for case- and group-based evaluation of test results and the lea.App with occupational field-related exercises for learners. All applications are intentionally easy to use and appealing to the target group and should motivate them to learn. The advantages of these digital applications are an increase in diagnostic efficiency through automated analysis and opportunities for individualized support for learners, didactic control in teaching and the practice required outside of the lessons. (DIPF/Orig.

Rainfall estimates on a gridded network (REGEN) – a global land-based gridded dataset of daily precipitation from 1950 to 2016

We present a new global land-based daily precipitation dataset from 1950 using an interpolated network of in situ data called Rainfall Estimates on a Gridded Network – REGEN. We merged multiple archives of in situ data including two of the largest archives, the Global Historical Climatology Network – Daily (GHCN-Daily) hosted by National Centres of Environmental Information (NCEI), USA, and one hosted by the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) operated by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). This resulted in an unprecedented station density compared to existing datasets. The station time series were quality-controlled using strict criteria and flagged values were removed. Remaining values were interpolated to create area-average estimates of daily precipitation for global land areas on a 1∘ × 1∘ latitude–longitude resolution. Besides the daily precipitation amounts, fields of standard deviation, kriging error and number of stations are also provided. We also provide a quality mask based on these uncertainty measures. For those interested in a dataset with lower station network variability we also provide a related dataset based on a network of long-term stations which interpolates stations with a record length of at least 40 years. The REGEN datasets are expected to contribute to the advancement of hydrological science and practice by facilitating studies aiming to understand changes and variability in several aspects of daily precipitation distributions, extremes and measures of hydrological intensity. Here we document the development of the dataset and guidelines for best practices for users with regards to the two datasets.This research has been supported by the Australian Research Council (grant nos. DP160103439, CE110001028 and DE150100456) and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (grant no. RYC-2017-22964)Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Feeding difficulties in children with food allergies: An EAACI Task Force Report

The term “feeding difficulties” refers to a spectrum of phenotypes characterized by suboptimal intake of food and/or lack of age‐appropriate eating habits. While it is evident that feeding difficulties are prevalent within healthy children, no consensus has been reached for those with food allergies. The aim of this study was to systematically review all the available literature reporting the prevalence of feeding difficulties within food allergic children. We searched eight international electronic databases for all published studies until June 2022. International experts in the field were also contacted for unpublished and ongoing studies. All publications were screened against pre‐defined eligibility criteria and critically appraised by established instruments. The substantial heterogeneity of included studies precluded meta‐analyses, so narrative synthesis of quantitative data was performed. A total of 2059 abstracts were assessed, out of which 21 underwent full‐text screening and 10 studies met the study criteria. In these, 12 different terms to define feeding difficulties and 11 diagnostic tools were used. Five papers included data of feeding difficulty prevalence in children with food allergies, ranging from 13.6% to 40%. Higher prevalence was associated with multiple food allergies. The current literature suggests that feeding difficulties are prevalent within food allergic children, particularly those with multiple food allergies. However, the heterogeneity of terminologies and diagnostic tools makes drawing conclusions challenging. Consensus guidelines for the diagnosis and management of feeding difficulties within food allergic children and further research on the development and perpetuation of feeding difficulties are needed to appropriately manage such patients