Middling transnationalism and translocal lives: young Germans in the UK

The thesis examines the migration decision-making and everyday experiences of young highly skilled professional migrants through the case study of German migration to the UK. It develops a framework combining the twin notions of transnational urbanism and translocal subjectivities, allowing a strong focus on migrants’ subjective experiences, perceptions and emotionalities of mobility, while acknowledging the centrality of spaces and places for them. The geographical setting of the case study further serves to accentuate the relatively small-scale disruption occurring during the migration process, and the subjectivities connected to this. Data was collected in the UK (mainly London) during thirteen months of fieldwork, using participant observation, in-depth interviews and expert interviews. The research reveals a previously unacknowledged high ambivalence and diversity of this migrant group. Young German highly skilled migrants display various mobility and migration patterns with regard to the translocal connections they maintain, the emotional importance they attach to these connections, and their previous internal and international migration history. Three mobility types emerge from this: ‘bi-local’, ‘multi-local’ and ‘settled’ migrants. The close translocal connections practiced by migrants can lead to conflict, particularly for bi-local migrants, as judging of the migration project can occur by friends and families; meaning the spatial and emotional proximity between the migrants and their social network can be both positive and negative. The expectations towards the UK are also highly complex, and strongly influence micro-scale personal geographies. Lastly, the diversity of migration projects leads to widely varying attitudes towards fellow German migrants, as well as tensions and potentially conflicts within German social spaces. Overall, a strong and pervasive ambivalence about the migration experience emerges, which is experienced differently by the three migrant groups and the geographical proximity between Germany and the UK plays a large role in this. This thesis adds empirical and analytical insight to the academic debate regarding young professional migrants within the EU, and German contemporary migration in particular. Theoretically, it contributes to the discussion around lifestyle migration and middling transnationalism, and it enhances the practical use of the concept ‘emotional geographies’ for migration studies

Mattering: A Recreation of the Realism of Charles S. Peirce

Mattering' is the process and the product of Reality. It is One from nothing. Whether there is more than one universe as the string theorists argue, is beyond my ken. Fortunately I am not concerned here with epistemology but with understanding. Nor am I preoccupied with revealing Truth. Rather, my purpose is to explore the meaning and consequences of 'mattering': to be able to say that, beyond reasonable doubt, I believe that 'it' matters – that 'it' is 'mattering'. This can be made intelligible by way of reflection on the Pragmatic Maxim of the American polymath Charles S. Peirce [1839-1914] and validated with his systematic method of inquiry. Part 1 of my thesis explores and presents Peirce's work. Part 2 is an exposition of my three part hypothesis of 'mattering', that: 1. value functions as a condition of intelligibility - purpose, as the ground of 'mattering' is dependent on value; 2. power - where power is the capacity to cause - is the enabler of force functioning as actual 'mattering'; 3. 'mattering' is evolutionary realization of universal telos. For Peirce, inquiry is triggered by genuine doubt. His method begins with imagination: with the generation of a hypotheses that, if valid, will relieve the irritation of doubt. Creating my hypothesis of 'mattering' free of consideration of truth was liberating. This is what Peirce called abduction: active imagination which can be considered as reasonable, but only in so far as it can be reasoned from by deduction and induction. This is Mathematics, the first of the heuretic sciences (the branch of sciences which treats of discovery or invention) and its aim is to draw necessary conclusions; Philosophy is the next class of the heuretic sciences, followed by the Special Sciences. The first order of Peirce's second class, Philosophy, is his Phenomenology - his doctrine of categories - the purpose of which is to describe what is before the mind and to show that the description is correct. It is the beginning of discovering meaning, and involves observation of what Peirce called the phaneron (whatever is before the mind) - in my case, my hypothesis. Through differentiation, abstraction or prescision, and dissociation it identifies the three irreducible categories of reality identified by Peirce as First (possibility), Second (actuality) and Third (probability). The second order of his philosophical method is the Normative Sciences of Esthetics (aesthetics), the ideal, Ethics, going for the ideal, and Semeiotic or logic, what can reasonably be hoped for. By practicing what he preached, Peirce built the third order of Philosophy, his Metaphysics of Tychism (chance), Synechism (continuity), and Agape. [In physics, Agape arguably is gravity and the still to be discovered something that will deliver the Holy Grail: the theory of everything.] This is 'mattering'. I argue it is grounded in the values of integrity, respect and transparency, values which are expressed through the enactment (or powering) of 'mattering's' purpose or telos which grows and develops. This is, 'mattering': universal realisation of evolutionary telos. Our species, which evolved, as did the Universe, from the Universe - the process and product of 'mattering' - appears set on a trajectory of ecocide for which we are responsible. One model for understanding this travesty is Freud's scheme of Id (desire) Ego (mediator) Superego (should). If Ego, which makes choices, sides with and empowers the unmitigated, individual wanting that is Id, by ignoring Superego - cooperative imperatives for universal growth and development - Earth's evolutionary trajectory is jeopardised. We ignore the categorial values of integrity, respect, and transparency with which evolutionary universal telos is co-dependent, at our peril. The global dysfunction of Egos, especially those that have commandeered power by disempowering others, can be healed. Together, but only together, we can get back on track and reclaim Earth's and our future. This one Universe from which we evolved and with which we are evolving, can do it, and, even granted that it has been practicing longer, we too can do it: we can make it matter. It matters. It is 'mattering'

Pupil light reflex evoked by light-emitting diode and computer screen: methodology and association with need for recovery in daily life

Objectives: Pupil light reflex (PLR) has been widely used as a method for evaluating parasympathetic activity. The first aim of the present study is to develop a PLR measurement using a computer screen set-up and compare its results with the PLR generated by a more conventional setup using light-emitting diode (LED). The parasympathetic nervous system, which is known to control the ‘rest and digest’ response of the human body, is considered to be associated with daily life fatigue. However, only few studies have attempted to test the relationship between self-reported daily fatigue and physiological measurement of the parasympathetic nervous system. Therefore, the second aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between daily-life fatigue, assessed using the Need for Recovery scale, and parasympathetic activity, as indicated by the PLR parameters. Design: A pilot study was conducted first to develop a PLR measurement set-up using a computer screen. PLRs evoked by light stimuli with different characteristics were recorded to confirm the influence of light intensity, flash duration, and color on the PLRs evoked by the system. In the subsequent experimental study, we recorded the PLR of 25 adult participants to light flashes generated by the screen set-up as well as by a conventional LED set-up. PLR parameters relating to parasympathetic and sympathetic activity were calculated from the pupil responses. We tested the split-half reliability across two consecutive blocks of trials, and the relationships between the parameters of PLRs evoked by the two set-ups. Participants rated their need for recovery prior to the PLR recordings. Results: PLR parameters acquired in the screen and LED set-ups showed good reliability for amplitude related parameters. The PLRs evoked by both set-ups were consistent, but showed systematic differences in absolute values of all parameters. Additionally, higher need for recovery was associated with faster and larger constriction of the PLR. Conclusions: This study assessed the PLR generated by a computer screen and the PLR generated by a LED. The good reliability within set-ups and the consistency between the PLRs evoked by the set-ups indicate that both systems provides a valid way to evoke the PLR. A higher need for recovery was associated with faster and larger constricting PLRs, suggesting increased levels of parasympathetic nervous system activity in people experiencing higher levels of need for recovery on a daily basis

Der Erwerb des Deutschen bei türkisch-deutsch und russisch-deutsch bilingualen Kindern: Gibt es doch einen Einfluss von Sprachfördermaßnahmen?

Die vorliegende Langzeitstudie untersucht den Einfluss von Sprachfördermaßnahmen auf die Entwicklung des Lexikons und der Grammatik bei 160 türkisch-deutsch und russisch-deutsch bilingualen Kindern im Alter von zwei bis sechs Jahren. Zwei Sprachförderprogramme - eine additive, kinderzentrierte und eine alltagsintegrierte, erzieherzentrierte Maßnahme - wurden über einen Zeitraum von drei Jahren durchgeführt. Die produktiven und rezeptiven grammatischen und lexikalischen Fähigkeiten der Kinder wurden in dieser Zeit erhoben und mit einer Kontrollgruppe ohne Sprachfördermaßnahmen verglichen. Einen signifikanten positiven Einfluss auf das Lexikon erbrachte lediglich die kinderzentrierte Maßnahme. Die anderen beiden Gruppen unterschieden sich nicht signifikant voneinander.The present longitudinal study examines the influence of preschool language support programs on the development of grammar and lexicon of 160 Turkish-German or Russian-German bilingual children aged two to six years. Two language support programs were implemented over the course of three years - one supplementary, child-centered program and one integrated, teacher-centered program. The children’s grammar and lexicon development in the intervention groups were compared with grammar and lexicon development in a control group without additional support. Only the child-centered support program significantly affected lexicon development. The other two groups did not differ significantly

Impact of stimulus-related factors and hearing impairment on listening effort as indicated by pupil dilation

Previous research has reported effects of masker type and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) on listening effort, as indicated by the peak pupil dilation (PPD) relative to baseline during speech recognition. At about 50% correct sentence recognition performance, increasing SNRs generally results in declining PPDs, indicating reduced effort. However, the decline in PPD over SNRs has been observed to be less pronounced for hearing-impaired (HI) compared to normal-hearing (NH) listeners. The presence of a competing talker during speech recognition generally resulted in larger PPDs as compared to the presence of a fluctuating or stationary background noise. The aim of the present study was to examine the interplay between hearing-status, a broad range of SNRs corresponding to sentence recognition performance varying from 0 to 100% correct, and different masker types (stationary noise and single-talker masker) on the PPD during speech perception. Twenty-five HI and 32 age-matched NH participants listened to sentences across a broad range of SNRs, masked with speech from a single talker (−25 dB to +15 dB SNR) or with stationary noise (−12 dB to +16 dB). Correct sentence recognition scores and pupil responses were recorded during stimulus presentation. With a stationary masker, NH listeners show maximum PPD across a relatively narrow range of low SNRs, while HI listeners show relatively large PPD across a wide range of ecological SNRs. With the single-talker masker, maximum PPD was observed in the mid-range of SNRs around 50% correct sentence recognition performance, while smaller PPDs were observed at lower and higher SNRs. Mixed-model ANOVAs revealed significant interactions between hearing-status and SNR on the PPD for both masker types. Our data show a different pattern of PPDs across SNRs between groups, which indicates that listening and the allocation of effort during listening in daily life environments may be different for NH and HI listeners

Toward a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of masker type and signal-to-noise ratio on the pupillary response while performing a speech-in-noise test

Difficulties arising in everyday speech communication often result from the acoustical environment, which may contain interfering background noise or competing speakers. Thus, listening and understanding speech in noise can be exhausting. Two experiments are presented in the current study that further explored the impact of masker type and Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) on listening effort by means of pupillometry. In both studies, pupillary responses of participants were measured while performing the Danish Hearing in Noise Test (HINT; Nielsen and Dau, 2011). The first experiment aimed to replicate and extend earlier observed effects of noise type and semantic interference on listening effort (Koelewijn et al., 2012). The impact of three different masker types, i.e. a fluctuating noise, a 1-talker masker and a 4-talker masker on listening effort was examined at a fixed speech intelligibility. In a second experiment, effects of SNR on listening effort were examined while presenting the HINT sentences across a broad range of fixed SNRs corresponding to intelligibility scores ranging from 100% to 0% correct performance. A peak pupil dilation (PPD) was calculated and a Growth Curve Analysis (GCA) was performed to examine listening effort involved in speech recognition as a function of SNR. The results of two experiments showed that the pupil dilation response is highly affected by both masker type and SNR when performing the HINT. The PPD was highest, suggesting the highest level of effort, for speech recognition in the presence of the 1-talker masker in comparison to the 4-talker babble and the fluctuating noise masker. However, the disrupting effect of one competing talker disappeared for intelligibly levels around 50%. Furthermore, it was demonstrated that the pupillary response strongly varied as a function of SNRs. Listening effort was highest for intermediate SNRs with performance accuracies ranging between 30% and 70% correct. GCA revealed time-dependent effects of the SNR on the pupillary response that were not reflected in the PPD

Impact of SNR, masker type and noise reduction processing on sentence recognition performance and listening effort as indicated by the pupil dilation response

Recent studies have shown that activating the noise reduction scheme in hearing aids results in a smaller peak pupil dilation (PPD), indicating reduced listening effort, at 50% and 95% correct sentence recognition with a 4-talker masker. The objective of this study was to measure the effect of the noise reduction scheme (on or off) on PPD and sentence recognition across a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) from +16 dB to −12 dB and two masker types (4-talker and stationary noise). Relatively low PPDs were observed at very low (−12 dB) and very high (+16 dB to +8 dB) SNRs presumably due to ‘giving up’ and ‘easy listening’, respectively. The maximum PPD was observed with SNRs at approximately 50% correct sentence recognition. Sentence recognition with both masker types was significantly improved by the noise reduction scheme, which corresponds to the shift in performance from SNR function at approximately 5 dB toward a lower SNR. This intelligibility effect was accompanied by a corresponding effect on the PPD, shifting the peak by approximately 4 dB toward a lower SNR. In addition, with the 4-talker masker, when the noise reduction scheme was active, the PPD was smaller overall than that when the scheme was inactive. We conclude that with the 4-talker masker, noise reduction scheme processing provides a listening effort benefit in addition to any effect associated with improved intelligibility. Thus, the effect of the noise reduction scheme on listening effort incorporates more than can be explained by intelligibility alone, emphasizing the potential importance of measuring listening effort in addition to traditional speech reception measures

Adipositas ist mit verminderter Spermienqualität und veränderten Konzentrationen an Adipokinen in Serum und Seminalplasma assoziiert

In den letzten Jahren wurde ein inverser Zusammenhang zwischen der Zunahme an Fettgewebe und der Funktionalität von Spermatozoen festgestellt, dessen molekulare Ursachen weitgehend unbekannt sind. Möglichweise spielen Sekretionsprodukte des Fettgewebes, sogenannte Adipokine, dabei eine entscheidende Rolle. Um diese Hypothese zu prüfen, wurden in einer Querschnittsstudie Sexualhormonkonzentionen, Spermiogrammparameter und die Konzentration der Adipokine Adiponektin, Leptin, Resistin, Chemerin, Vaspin, Visfatin (Nampt) und Progranulin im Serum von normalgewichtigen, präadipösen und adipösen Probanden bestimmt. Die Adipokinkonzentrationen im Serum wurden mit den korrespondierenden Werten im Seminalplasma (SP) verglichen. Desweiteren wurden die gemessenen Adipokinspiegel beider Körperflüssigkeiten auf Zusammenhänge mit Sexualhormonkonzentrationen im Blut und den Parametern des klassischen Spermiogramms (WHO) untersucht. Dabei zeigte sich, dass die altersgemachten präadipösen/adipösen Probanden signifikant weniger progressiv motile und normomorphe Spermatozoen aufwiesen als die Gruppe der Normalgewichtigen (p<0,05). In ihrem SP war die Konzentration von Adiponektin signifikant erniedrigt, während die von Chemerin im Vergleich zu normalgewichtigen Männern erhöht war (p<0,05). Außerdem konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass die mittlere Konzentration von Adiponektin (400-fach), Leptin (5-fach), Resistin (1,5-fach) und Chemerin (1,5-fach) im Serum signifikant höher als die im SP war. Demgegenüber fand sich bei Vaspin (4-fach), Progranulin (50-fach) und Visfatin (100-fach) die Konzentration im SP signifikant erhöht. Bei Korrelationsanalysen unter Einschluss der Ergebnisse aus der Gesamtgruppe korrelierte von allen untersuchten Adipokinen nur die SP-Konzentration von Adiponektin direkt und signifikant mit der im Serum (p<0.01). Zudem zeigten Adiponektin, Chemerin und Progranulin im SP direkte Assoziation mit den Spermiogrammparametern Spermienkonzentration, Spermienanzahl und progressive Motilität (p<0.05). Wir konnten erstmals nachweisen, dass eine Vielzahl von Adipokinen im männlichen Reproduktionstrakt präsent sind und dort möglicherweise einen Einfluss auf die Spermienqualität in Abhängigkeit vom Körpergewicht haben könnten

Christlich-gebührende Mitleidens-Bezeigung/ Dem ... Herrn Andreas Rosen/ Hoch-Fürstl. Sächs. Hochverordneten Cammer-Rath allhier zu Eisenach über dem Früh-Zeitigen Ableben Seiner geliebten ältesten Jungfer Tochter/ Tit. Jungfer Dorotheen Sophien Rosin/ Am Tage Ihrer Beerdigung/ War der 26. Octobris des 1694sten Christen-Jahres

CHRISTLICH-GEBÜHRENDE MITLEIDENS-BEZEIGUNG/ DEM ... HERRN ANDREAS ROSEN/ HOCH-FÜRSTL. SÄCHS. HOCHVERORDNETEN CAMMER-RATH ALLHIER ZU EISENACH ÜBER DEM FRÜH-ZEITIGEN ABLEBEN SEINER GELIEBTEN ÄLTESTEN JUNGFER TOCHTER/ TIT. JUNGFER DOROTHEEN SOPHIEN ROSIN/ AM TAGE IHRER BEERDIGUNG/ WAR DER 26. OCTOBRIS DES 1694STEN CHRISTEN-JAHRES Christlich-gebührende Mitleidens-Bezeigung/ Dem ... Herrn Andreas Rosen/ Hoch-Fürstl. Sächs. Hochverordneten Cammer-Rath allhier zu Eisenach über dem Früh-Zeitigen Ableben Seiner geliebten ältesten Jungfer Tochter/ Tit. Jungfer Dorotheen Sophien Rosin/ Am Tage Ihrer Beerdigung/ War der 26. Octobris des 1694sten Christen-Jahres ([1]) Text ([1]

Als Des ... Herrn Andreas Rosens/ Hoch-Fürstl. Sächß. Hocherverordneten Cammer-Raths in Eisenach älteste Jungfer Tochter/ Jungfer Dorothea Sophia/ Am 23. Octobris des 1694sten Jahrs/ In Ihrem Heylande Christo Jesu Seelig verschieden/ Und Ihr Leichnam den 26. dieses in die Kirche zu St. Nicolai daselbst zur Ruhe gebracht worden

ALS DES ... HERRN ANDREAS ROSENS/ HOCH-FÜRSTL. SÄCHSS. HOCHERVERORDNETEN CAMMER-RATHS IN EISENACH ÄLTESTE JUNGFER TOCHTER/ JUNGFER DOROTHEA SOPHIA/ AM 23. OCTOBRIS DES 1694STEN JAHRS/ IN IHREM HEYLANDE CHRISTO JESU SEELIG VERSCHIEDEN/ UND IHR LEICHNAM DEN 26. DIESES IN DIE KIRCHE ZU ST. NICOLAI DASELBST ZUR RUHE GEBRACHT WORDEN Als Des ... Herrn Andreas Rosens/ Hoch-Fürstl. Sächß. Hocherverordneten Cammer-Raths in Eisenach älteste Jungfer Tochter/ Jungfer Dorothea Sophia/ Am 23. Octobris des 1694sten Jahrs/ In Ihrem Heylande Christo Jesu Seelig verschieden/ Und Ihr Leichnam den 26. dieses in die Kirche zu St. Nicolai daselbst zur Ruhe gebracht worden ([1]) Titelblatt ([1]) Text ([2]