The Mechanism of Biotremor Production in the Veiled Chameleon (Chamaeleo calyptratus)

Vibratory communication has evolved in numerous animal groups, including insects, spiders, fishes, mammals, and was recently discovered in veiled chameleons (Chamaeleo calyptratus). I examined the mechanism by which C. calyptratus produce these biotremors. Muscle activity data were gathered during simulated anti-predator responses via electromyography (EMG) with simultaneous recordings of biotremor production using an accelerometer. I correlated EMG data with the accelerometer data to implicate the muscles responsible for the production of the biotremors. Mixed-effect linear regression models described the mechanism, and a model selection framework determined which model fit the data best. I then used an analysis of variance to partition the variance to each variable to determine which muscles were most important in the biotremor producing mechanism. The Mm. sternohyoideus superficialis et profundus, Mm. mandibulohyoideus, and M. levator scapulae were active during the production of biotremors. Mean latency calculations revealed that the M. levator scapulae and Mm. mandibulohyoideus activated prior to the vibration onset, and the Mm. sternohyoideus superficialis et profundus activated after the vibration onset. The M. sternohyoideus superficialis then ceased activity prior to vibration cessation, and the M. sternohyoideus profundus, Mm. mandibulohyoideus, and M. levator scapulae ceased activity after the vibration had ended. The description of the biotremor producing mechanism further supports that C. calyptratus can produce biotremors, possibly for communication

Refugees Threats of Terrorism: Securitization by means of Social Integration

This research analyzes factors that affect the number of terrorist incidents in Europe with large numbers of refugees. My research intends to explore the correlation between refugees and terrorist incidents and to identify if social integration and immigration policies can have an effect on the volume of attacks. My independent variables of social policies in addition to immigration policies confirm my hypothesis that certain factors within these policies affect terrorism in Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Germany. The answer to this question will aid in the creation of stability, prosperity, and justice within Europe and provide a model for the rest of the international community. Initiating studies on this political phenomenon is crucial to reducing European terrorism, explaining some of its causes, preventing future conflict, and ultimately increasing the security of Europe’s citizens and non-citizens alike

Using pathway correlation profiles for understanding pathway perturbation

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 5, 2013).The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.Dissertation advisor: Dr. Dong XuIncludes bibliographical references.Vita.Ph. D. University of Missouri-Columbia 2012."December 2012."Identifying perturbed or dysregulated pathways is critical to understanding the biological processes that change within an experiment. Previous methods identified important pathways that are significantly enriched among differentially expressed genes; however, these methods cannot account for small, coordinated changes in gene expression that amass across a whole pathway. In order to overcome this limitation, we developed a novel computational approach to identify pathway perturbation based on pathway correlation profiles. In this approach, we can rank the pathways based on the significance of their dysregulation considering al gene-gene pairs. We have shown this successfully for differences between two experimental conditions in Escherichia coli and changes within time series data in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, as well as two estrogen receptor response classes of breast cancer. Overall, our method made significant predictions as to the pathway perturbations that are involved in the experimental conditions. Further, I can use these pathway correlation profiles to better understand pathway dynamics and modules of regulation. I have applied this developed method to the Ribosome pathway for several model organisms and various tissue types, where I was able to isolate alternative regulation patterns for each species and tissue. In addition, I have applied these pathway correlation profiles for the MAPK pathway to help characterize the disease progression of colon cancer from normal tissue, through all four stages, culminating in final metastasis. The pathway correlation profile method allows for more meaningful and biologically significant interpretation of the current data available. In short, we developed a novel computational method for identifying pathway perturbation. This method is a powerful tool that better utilizes gene expression data when studying pathway dynamics in regards to biological processes. Moreover, this method provides hypotheses for understanding the mechanisms within meaningful pathways, and where the pathway dynamics change across conditions.Includes bibliographical reference

Inklusion als schulischer Transformationsprozess. Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der indikatorengestützten Darstellung des Gemeinsamen Lernens auf kommunaler und Einzelschulebene

Die Umsetzung des Inklusionsgedankens konfrontiert das gesamte Bildungssystem mit neuen Herausforderungen. Entsprechend der föderalen Zuständigkeiten sind dafür neben dem Land auch Kreise und Schulträger in der Pflicht, die Entwicklung mitzugestalten. Derzeit gibt es nur wenig systematisierte Informationen über den Stand der inklusiven Bildung im Schulsystem auf kommunaler Ebene. Dies hängt auch mit einer weitgehenden Unklarheit zusammen, welche Bemessungsgrundlagen für eine Einschätzung der Qualität inklusiv arbeitender Schulen zur Verfügung stehen, insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund der lokal höchst unterschiedlichen Formen der Unterrichtsorganisation sowie ungleichen Voraussetzungen im Hinblick auf Ressourcenverteilung (personell, räumlich und sächlich) und Schülerklientel (sonderpädagogischer Förderbedarf, soziale Herkunft, Migrationshintergrund, etc.). Untersucht werden am Beispiel des Flächenkreises Paderborn die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen, die Entwicklung des Gemeinsamen Lernens im Bereich Schule indikatorengestützt abzubilden und Schlussfolgerungen für inklusive Schulorganisation und -planung auf kleinräumiger Ebene abzuleiten. Die Hauptfrage der Arbeit lautet: Welche Indikatoren lassen sich auf kommunaler Ebene identifizieren, um Entwicklungen in den Dimensionen Input, Prozess und Output bei der Umsetzung eines inklusiven Schulsystems zu beschreiben? Die Beantwortung der Forschungsfrage folgt einem dreistufigen Vorgehen. In einem ersten Schritt werden auf Basis kleinräumiger und einzelschulischer Daten der amtlichen Schulstatistik indikatorengestützte Analysen im Zeitraum von 2007 bis 2015 durchgeführt. Im Anschluss werden diese datengestützten Befunde durch Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Schulleiterbefragung im Kreis Paderborn 2016 ergänzt. In einem letzten Schritt erfolgt drittens eine Charakterisierung des nachgezeichneten Transformationsprozesses auf Einzelschulebene sowie auf kommunaler Ebene. Die Synthese der gewonnenen Forschungsergebnisse bildet den Ausgangspunkt für die Ableitung von aussagekräftigen Indikatoren und Desideraten einer Dauerbeobachtung des Gemeinsamen Lernens von Schülerinnen und Schülern mit und ohne sonderpädagogischen Förderbedarf. Wenngleich bestimmte Qualitätsaspekte schulischer Inklusion mit den verfügbaren amtlichen und den ergänzenden Schulleiterdaten nur näherungsweise indikatorisiert werden können, wird sowohl kommunalen Entscheidungsträgerinnen und -trägern aus Politik und Verwaltung, als auch Akteurinnen und Akteuren in den Bildungseinrichtungen ein breites Spektrum an Operationalisierungen zur Verfügung gestellt, um Ansatzpunkte zur organisationalen und systemischen Weiterentwicklung von Inklusion im Schulbereich auszumachen. (DIPF/Orig.)With the development of inclusive schools comes a broad range of new challenges within the whole German education system. According to the different responsibilities in the educational governance of the German system, not only the state level but also the district level has an important role in the reorganization process towards an inclusive school system. This doctoral thesis thus aims at developing a set of educational indicators at district and individual school level that provides information about the inputs, processes and outputs of inclusive schooling, i.e. conditions and school organizational aspects such as experience in dealing with heterogeneity (special educational needs, migration, gender, etc.). Thereby it can also provide a foundation for continuous, largely data-based observation and analysis of the implementation process of school inclusion. This kind of monitoring can inform both German educational policy and the public regarding contexts, process characteristics, outcomes and benefits of inclusive schooling. The main question of the thesis thus is: What indicators can be identified to describe and reflect developments in the implementation of an inclusive school system at the district level? This is addressed by a three-step analysis, exemplified by a typical German municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia. (1) Starting with an analysis of available school statistics in the period from 2007 to 2015 (2), the results are supplemented by a quantitative school-leadership survey in 2016 (3). A synthesis of the given results marks the last step with a characterization of the transformation process at school and district level. The framework of indicators is meant to identify general problems and offer an empirical foundation for the information on inclusive schooling in German municipalities, thus providing valid governance knowledge for a holistic, coherent educational management as well as contributing to improve the quality of inclusive education at district level. (DIPF/Orig.

Inklusion als schulischer Transformationsprozess

With the development of inclusive schools comes a broad range of new challenges within the whole German education system. According to the different responsibilities in the educational governance of the German system, not only the state level but also the district level has an important role in the reorganization process towards an inclusive school system. This doctoral thesis thus aims at developing a set of educational indicators at district and individual school level that provides information about the inputs, processes and outputs of inclusive schooling, i.e. conditions and school organizational aspects such as experience in dealing with heterogeneity (special educational needs, migration, gender, etc.). Thereby it can also provide a foundation for continuous, largely data-based observation and analysis of the implementation process of school inclusion. This kind of monitoring can inform both German educational policy and the public regarding contexts, process characteristics, outcomes and benefits of inclusive schooling. The main question of the thesis thus is: What indicators can be identified to describe and reflect developments in the implementation of an inclusive school system at the district level? This is addressed by a three-step analysis, exemplified by a typical German municipality in North Rhine-Westphalia. (1) Starting with an analysis of available school statistics in the period from 2007 to 2015 (2), the results are supplemented by a quantitative school-leadership survey in 2016 (3). A synthesis of the given results marks the last step with a characterization of the transformation process at school and district level. The framework of indicators is meant to identify general problems and offer an empirical foundation for the information on inclusive schooling in German municipalities, thus providing valid governance knowledge for a holistic, coherent educational management as well as contributing to improve the quality of inclusive education at district level. (DIPF/Orig.)Die Umsetzung des Inklusionsgedankens konfrontiert das gesamte Bildungssystem mit neuen Herausforderungen. Entsprechend der föderalen Zuständigkeiten sind dafür neben dem Land auch Kreise und Schulträger in der Pflicht, die Entwicklung mitzugestalten. Derzeit gibt es nur wenig systematisierte Informationen über den Stand der inklusiven Bildung im Schulsystem auf kommunaler Ebene. Dies hängt auch mit einer weitgehenden Unklarheit zusammen, welche Bemessungsgrundlagen für eine Einschätzung der Qualität inklusiv arbeitender Schulen zur Verfügung stehen, insbesondere vor dem Hintergrund der lokal höchst unterschiedlichen Formen der Unterrichtsorganisation sowie ungleichen Voraussetzungen im Hinblick auf Ressourcenverteilung (personell, räumlich und sächlich) und Schülerklientel (sonderpädagogischer Förderbedarf, soziale Herkunft, Migrationshintergrund, etc.). Untersucht werden am Beispiel des Flächenkreises Paderborn die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen, die Entwicklung des Gemeinsamen Lernens im Bereich Schule indikatorengestützt abzubilden und Schlussfolgerungen für inklusive Schulorganisation und -planung auf kleinräumiger Ebene abzuleiten. Die Hauptfrage der Arbeit lautet: Welche Indikatoren lassen sich auf kommunaler Ebene identifizieren, um Entwicklungen in den Dimensionen Input, Prozess und Output bei der Umsetzung eines inklusiven Schulsystems zu beschreiben? Die Beantwortung der Forschungsfrage folgt einem dreistufigen Vorgehen. In einem ersten Schritt werden auf Basis kleinräumiger und einzelschulischer Daten der amtlichen Schulstatistik indikatorengestützte Analysen im Zeitraum von 2007 bis 2015 durchgeführt. Im Anschluss werden diese datengestützten Befunde durch Ergebnisse einer quantitativen Schulleiterbefragung im Kreis Paderborn 2016 ergänzt. In einem letzten Schritt erfolgt drittens eine Charakterisierung des nachgezeichneten Transformationsprozesses auf Einzelschulebene sowie auf kommunaler Ebene. Die Synthese der gewonnenen Forschungsergebnisse bildet den Ausgangspunkt für die Ableitung von aussagekräftigen Indikatoren und Desideraten einer Dauerbeobachtung des Gemeinsamen Lernens von Schülerinnen und Schülern mit und ohne sonderpädagogischen Förderbedarf. Wenngleich bestimmte Qualitätsaspekte schulischer Inklusion mit den verfügbaren amtlichen und den ergänzenden Schulleiterdaten nur näherungsweise indikatorisiert werden können, wird sowohl kommunalen Entscheidungsträgerinnen und -trägern aus Politik und Verwaltung, als auch Akteurinnen und Akteuren in den Bildungseinrichtungen ein breites Spektrum an Operationalisierungen zur Verfügung gestellt, um Ansatzpunkte zur organisationalen und systemischen Weiterentwicklung von Inklusion im Schulbereich auszumachen. (DIPF/Orig.

Levels of Empathy in Undergraduate Healthcare Professions Students

Empathy is a central component in effective healthcare provider-patient relationships, yet evidence exists that healthcare professions students lack empathy. A cross-sectional survey was completed to identify whether a relationship exists between empathy levels in baccalaureate nursing, psychology, pre-medical, pre-dental, pre-physical therapy, and pre-occupational therapy majors who have or have not identified a projected specialty within their profession upon entry into practice, and compare these findings. A 28-item questionnaire was completed by a convenience sample of 202 students with declared majors in the healthcare professions of interest. There was no significant difference in empathy levels between students of all majors who had or who had not indicated a projected specialty, validating findings in previous research (Ward et aI., 2009). Empathy levels in nursing students with a projected specialty were significantly higher than those of students in all other majors with projected specialties. Gender and age significantly influenced empathy levels between students of all majors with a projected specialty. These findings expand the current understanding of empathy and what may influence empathy levels in students planning to enter healthcare. Suggestions for future research are described

Synthesis of Peptides from α- and β-Tubulin Containing Glutamic Acid Side-Chain Linked Oligo-Glu with Defined Length

Side-chain oligo- and polyglutamylation represents an important posttranslational modification in tubulin physiology. The particular number of glutamate units is related to specific regulatory functions. In this work, we present a method for the synthesis of building blocks for the Fmoc synthesis of peptides containing main chain glutamic acid residues that carry side-chain branching with oligo-glutamic acid. The two model peptide sequences CYEEVGVDSVEGEG-E(Ex)-EEGEEY and CQDATADEQG-E(Ex)-FEEEEGEDEA from the C-termini of mammalian α1- and β1-tubulin, respectively, containing oligo-glutamic acid side-chain branching with lengths of 1 to 5 amino acids were assembled in good yield and purity. The products may lead to the generation of specific antibodies which should be important tools for a more detailed investigation of polyglutamylation processes

Belgische Literaturen in deutscher Übersetzung: Kulturelle und historische Verflechtungen von 1945 bis zur Gegenwart

Was verraten literarische Übersetzungen über die komplexen kulturellen und historischen Verflechtungen von Belgien und Deutschland? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage bezieht die Autorin erstmals beide belgischen Ausgangssprachen - Französisch und Niederländisch - in ein innovatives Forschungsformat ein. Durch detaillierte Übersetzungsanalysen von Texten namhafter Autor*innen wie Hugo Claus und Amélie Nothomb gibt sie Aufschluss über epistemische Konfigurationen im deutschen Zielkontext. Über Bilder der Fremdwahrnehmung und Selbstidentifikation bildet sie die Wirkmacht sozio-historischer Diskurse auf belgische Literaturen ab und verdichtet diese zu Tendenzen der Translationsdynamik

Investigating song-based language teaching and its effect on lexical learning

The present thesis addresses the following question: Can popular songs as they are currently used in second and foreign language classrooms benefit lexical learning? Lexical learning is defined as the acquisition of new vocabulary as well as the consolidation and further elaboration of familiar words and phrases. To answer this research question, three methodologically distinct studies are reported. In the first study an international questionnaire explored teacher cognitions as well as actual teaching practices involving songs. The responses of 568 informants in 41 countries indicate that a majority of respondents believe in the usefulness of songs for language learning and that many respondents utilize songs in class for clearly defined pedagogical purposes, including vocabulary learning. The questionnaire also elicited information from the respondents about the way they incorporate songs in lessons, including details about how often a song is played and what types of form- and meaning-focused activities are used to engage learners with the lyrics of a song. The second study investigated the lexical characteristics of teacher-selected songs and the vocabulary learning opportunities they afford. For this purpose, a corpus of 635 songs used for ESL/EFL purposes, comprising 177,384 tokens, was compiled and analysed. Results indicate that teacher-selected songs are short, repetitive and relatively undemanding as far as lexis is concerned compared to other authentic text genres. Knowledge of the 4000 most frequent word families of English provides 98% coverage of the running words in this song corpus. Little difference was found in terms of the overall vocabulary demands between songs intended for use with beginners, intermediate and advanced learners. The third study investigates whether participating in a song-based lesson results in higher verbatim text retention compared to a lesson based on a poem or a prose text. For the sake of ecological validity, the procedures and the materials used in the classroom intervention study were informed by the findings of the teacher questionnaire (study one) and the song corpus analysis (study two). Results indicate that a song-based language lesson but also a poem-based lesson result in significantly higher recognition and cued recall of verbatim text than a lesson based on a prose text. In response to the overall question, this thesis provides evidence that songs as they currently tend to be used by language teachers around the world indeed benefit certain aspects of lexical learning, perhaps in particular the entrenchment in memory of already (half-)familiar words in association with their phraseological patterning. It is argued that, while certain structural characteristics of songs (and poems) have the potential of rendering text (and the lexis therein) memorable, it is the way that songs tend to be exploited in the classroom that capitalizes on this mnemonic potential