Markt und Privatisierung im Bildungsbereich: Internationale Tendenzen

Finanzkrise und wachsende Legitimationsprobleme staatlicher Institutionen haben in einer ganzen Reihe von öffentlichen Aufgabenbereichen zu einer Einschränkung staatlicher Aktivitäten geführt. Es hat den Anschein, als hätte diese Entwicklung mittlerweile auch den Bildungsbereich erfasst. Die Schaffung marktähnlicher Bedingungen durch Privatisierung scheint in einer wachsenden Zahl von Ländern handlungsleitend für die Bildungspolitik zu sein. Zur Privatisierungsbegründung geltend gemachte Effizienzvorteile sind empirisch nicht zu sichern. Ein Trend in Richtung einer stärkeren Privatisierung der Bildungsproduktion lässt sich in OECD-Ländern bislang weder im Vorschulbereich noch im allgemeinbildenden Schulbereich nachweisen. Dieser Befund lässt sich freilich nicht in die Zukunft extrapolieren. Ein weiter wachsendes gesellschaftliches Interesse an einer Pluralisierung des schulischen Bildungsangebots im Zuge einer fortschreitenden Ausdifferenzierung von Bildungspräferenzen in westlichen Industrienationen lassen im Schulbereich einen Bedeutungszuwachs des privaten Sektors erwarten. Verstärken könnte diesen Trend die als Qualitätsdeterioration perzipierte Verschlechterung der Ressourcenausstattung des öffentlichen Schulwesens im Gefolge der sich verschärfenden staatlichen Finanzkrise. Am stärksten dürfte der Privatisierungstrend im Bildungssektor jedoch von den expandierenden und staatlich weniger regulierten Bereichen außerhalb des formalen Bildungswesens geprägt werden, in denen private Bildungsanbieter traditionell eine besondere Rolle spielen. (DIPF/ Orig.)The fiscal crisis and the increasing legitimacy problems of state institutions have caused a worldwide reduction of state activities in several areas of the public sector. It seems that this development has in the meantime also seized the field of education and that the establishment of market-like conditions through privatisation has become a guiding principle of education policy in a growing number of countries. This article shows that claims of advantages in efficiency brought about by privatisation in education are not supported empirically as proposed by proponents of the market oriented system. Statistics also do not indicate a trend towards privatisation in elementary or primary and secondary general education in OECD countries. It is argued, however, that this result cannot be extrapolated into the future since in the course of the growing pluralisation of societies and the resource constraints that public education is facing the private sector might gain greater importance. Furthermore, the aggregate statistics do not reflect interesting small scale developments in the privatisation of education, some of which are demonstrated in the article using examples from English speaking countries. (DIPF/ Orig.

Privatisierungsstrategien im Schulbereich

Die Verschärfung der staatlichen Finanzkrise leistet Privatisierungsbestrebungen ebenso Vorschub wie die massiver gewordene Kritik am staatlichen Bildungsmonopol sowie die Klagen über die geringe Effizienz des öffentlichen Bildungswesens und seine unzureichende Reagibilität auf die veränderten Anforderungen von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft. ... Markt und Privatisierung stehen für Kostenwirtschaftlichkeit, Effektivität, "Kundenorientierung", Angebotsvielfalt und Flexibilität. ... Für daran orientierte Privatisierungsmaßnahmen im Schulbereich kommen zwei strategische Ansatzpunkte in Betracht: die Leistungserstellung ("Bildungsproduktion") und die Mittelaufbringung (Finanzierung). Unter "Privatisierung" ist dann die vollständige oder teilweise Verlagerung der Leistungserstellung bzw. Mittelaufbringung in den nichtstaatlichen Sektor zu verstehen. (DIPF/Orig.

A longitudinal study of dominance and aggression in greylag geese (Anser anser)

A variety of factors are known to affect dominance and aggression in social vertebrates. In the present study, we used a long-term data set on greylag geese (Anser anser) to investigate the complex relationships between individual life histories, the social environment, and dominance-related behaviors. We applied a multifactorial approach to assess the relative importance of factors in different life-history stages. Previous studies in geese documented effects of sex and social status and achieved differing results for the effects of family size, age, and body weight on dominance and aggression. Extrinsic factors like season or flock structure were generally not considered. Our analyses showed that a considerable number of factors related to individual life histories, season, and the social environment affected dominance and aggression in greylag geese, but not all significant effects were necessarily strong effects. Pronounced effects on aggression rates were caused by the flock's sex ratio, parental effects, individual social status, and sex. Whether individuals interacted with the same opponents repeatedly was influenced most by parental effects and the sex ratio, whereas the strongest determinants of dominance rank were parental effects and social status. Hence, dominance behaviors may not only be influenced by intrinsic factors but also by season and an individual's social environment. Furthermore, our study indicates that optimal choices for achieving or maintaining a high dominance rank may vary considerably between life-history stages. This highlights the value of long-term studies and multifactorial approaches for understanding the complexities of dominance relationships in social vertebrate

Significance of Apoptosis in the Process of Tumorigenesis in Colorectal Mucosa and Adenomas in FAP Patients

The relation between proliferation and apoptosis was studied in colorectal mucosal biopsies (N=41), tubular adenomas (TA) (N=104) and tubulovillous adenomas (TVA) (N=34) from 37 FAP patients. Proliferative activity was determined by cell cycle distribution analysis. In addition, transcriptional capacity was determined by chromatin in situ testing. For both, DNA flow cytometry was used. Cycling cells were identified by immunohistochemical staining with monoclonal antibody Ki67. The existence of subdiploid apoptotic cells was derived from DNA and/or DNA/protein patterns. In a follow‐up group, the mucosa is characterised by a balance between proliferation (S % + G2M % = 19) and apoptotic cells (% = 17). The percentage of Ki67 positive cells (16%) corresponds to the percentages mentioned above. In TA, the amount of apoptotic cells remains unaltered, in TVA it decreases to 8%. At the same time, the percentage of Ki67 positive cells increases significantly in both TA and TVA (39%, 42%). With patients who underwent surgery due to clinical signs without histological evidence for malignancy, apoptotic cells in TA continue to decrease significantly (9%), without any changes in cycling cells. Only in the carcinoma‐bearing bowel, cycling cells increase to 52%. Here, the percentage of apoptotic cells in TVA reaches the lowest level (5%). A connection between proliferation and apoptosis was observed in mucosa and TVA. The process of tumorigenesis is characterised by a stepwise increase in resistance to apoptosis followed by an increase in cycling cells

Early development of gaze following into distant space in juvenile Greylag geese ( Anser anser )

Visual co-orientation with another's gaze direction (gaze following) may provide important information about the location of food, social interactions or predators. Gaze following has been shown in a variety of mammals, but only in few bird species, and has not been tested in precocial birds at all. It has been suggested that gaze following is an anti-predator behaviour, and in Common ravens (Corvus corax) and rooks (C. frugilegus), it emerges shortly after fledging, at a time when young birds leave the predator-safe nest. However, if gaze following is adaptive, the developmental pattern should differ between altricial and precocial birds. Greylag geese (Anser anser) are highly social birds with a precocial development. Goslings move and feed independently within 24h post-hatching, and they are highly vulnerable to aerial predators. We therefore predicted that greylag geese are capable of gaze following and that they develop this skill already pre-fledging. We experimentally tested 19 hand-raised greylag goslings for their ability to follow a conspecific's gaze when they were between 10days and 6weeks old. In line with our predictions, first responses were already detectable in 10-day-old goslings. Our results therefore not only demonstrate that greylag geese follow the gaze of conspecifics into distant space, but that they also develop this ability much earlier than altricial bird

Individual dispersal decisions affect fitness via maternal rank effects in male rhesus macaques

Natal dispersal may have considerable social, ecological and evolutionary consequences. While speciesspecific dispersal strategies have received much attention, individual variation in dispersal decisions and its fitness consequences remain poorly understood. We investigated causes and consequences of natal dispersal age in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), a species with male dispersal. Using long-term demographic and genetic data from a semi-free ranging population on Cayo Santiago, Puerto Rico, we analysed how the social environment such as maternal family, group and population characteristics affected the age at which males leave their natal group. While natal dispersal age was unrelated to most measures of group or population structure, our study confirmed earlier findings that sons of high-ranking mothers dispersed later than sons of low-ranking ones. Natal dispersal age did not affect males\\\'' subsequent survival, but males dispersing later were more likely to reproduce. Late dispersers were likely to start reproducing while still residing in their natal group, frequently produced extra-group offspring before natal dispersal and subsequently dispersed to the group in which they had fathered offspring more likely than expected. Hence, the timing of natal dispersal was affected by maternal rank and influenced male reproduction, which, in turn affected which group males dispersed to

Serum glial fibrillary acidic protein and neurofilament light chain in patients with early treated phenylketonuria

To pave the way for healthy aging in early treated phenylketonuria (ETPKU) patients, a better understanding of the neurological course in this population is needed, requiring easy accessible biomarkers to monitor neurological disease progression in large cohorts. The objective of this pilot study was to investigate the potential of glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and neurofilament light chain (NfL) as blood biomarkers to indicate changes of the central nervous system in ETPKU. In this single-center cross-sectional study, GFAP and NfL concentrations in serum were quantified using the Simoa® multiplex technology in 56 ETPKU patients aged 6–36 years and 16 age matched healthy controls. Correlation analysis and hierarchical linear regression analysis were performed to investigate an association with disease-related biochemical parameters and retinal layers assessed by optical coherence tomography. ETPKU patients did not show significantly higher GFAP concentrations (mean 73 pg/ml) compared to healthy controls (mean 60 pg/ml, p = 0.140). However, individual pediatric and adult ETPKU patients had GFAP concentrations above the healthy control range. In addition, there was a significant association of GFAP concentrations with current plasma tyrosine concentrations (r = −0.482, p = 0.036), a biochemical marker in phenylketonuria, and the retinal inner nuclear layer volume (r = 0.451, p = 0.04). There was no evidence of NfL alterations in our ETPKU cohort. These pilot results encourage multicenter longitudinal studies to further investigate serum GFAP as a complementary tool to better understand and monitor neurological disease progression in ETPKU. Follow-up investigations on aging ETPKU patients are required to elucidate the potential of serum NfL as biomarker

Grey parrots use inferential reasoning based on acoustic cues alone.

Our ability to make logical inferences is considered as one of the cornerstones of human intelligence, fuelling investigations of reasoning abilities in non-human animals. Yet, the evidence to date is equivocal, with apes as the prime candidates to possess these skills. For instance, in a two-choice task, apes can identify the location of hidden food if it is indicated by a rattling noise caused by the shaking of a baited container. More importantly, they also use the absence of noise during the shaking of the empty container to infer that this container is not baited. However, since the inaugural report of apes solving this task, to the best of our knowledge, no comparable evidence could be found in any other tested species such as monkeys and dogs. Here, we report the first successful and instantaneous solution of the shaking task through logical inference by a non-ape species, the African grey parrot. Surprisingly, the performance of the birds was sensitive to the shaking movement: they were successful with containers shaken horizontally, but not with vertical shaking resembling parrot head-bobbing. Thus, grey parrots seem to possess ape-like cross-modal reasoning skills, but their reliance on these abilities is influenced by low-level interferences

Stress behaviour and physiology of developing Arctic barnacle goslings (<i>Branta leucopsis</i>) is affected by legacy trace contaminants

Natural populations are persistently exposed to environmental pollution, which may adversely impact animal physiology and behaviour and even compromise survival. Responding appropriately to any stressor ultimately might tip the scales for survival, as mistimed behaviour and inadequate physiological responses may be detrimental. Yet effects of legacy contamination on immediate physiological and behavioural stress coping abilities during acute stress are virtually unknown. Here, we assessed these effects in barnacle goslings (Branta leucopsis) at a historical coal mine site in the Arctic. For three weeks we led human-imprinted goslings, collected from nests in unpolluted areas, to feed in an abandoned coal mining area, where they were exposed to trace metals. As control we led their siblings to feed on clean grounds. After submitting both groups to three well-established stress tests (group isolation, individual isolation, on-back restraint), control goslings behaved calmer and excreted lower levels of corticosterone metabolites. Thus, legacy contamination may decisively change stress physiology and behaviour in long-lived vertebrates exposed at a young age.</p

Macaques can contribute to greener practices in oil palm plantations when used as biological pest control

Conversion of tropical forests into oil palm plantations reduces the habitats of many species, including primates, and frequently leads to human–wildlife conflicts. Contrary to the widespread belief that macaques foraging in the forest–oil palm matrix are detrimental crop pests, we show that the impact of macaques on oil palm yield is minor. More importantly, our data suggest that wild macaques have the potential to act as biological pest control by feeding on plantation rats, the major pest for oil palm crops, with each macaque group estimated to reduce rat populations by about 3,000 individuals per year (mitigating annual losses of 112 USD per hectare). If used for rodent control in place of the conventional method of poison, macaques could provide an important ecosystem service and enhance palm oil sustainability