Dicen por aquí, que una cosa es saber, otra cosa es hacer, otra cosa es sentir

Diese Arbeit untersucht eine traditionelle Gruppierung (calpulli cencalli) im Valle de México, in deren Rahmen spirituelles und philosophisches Wissen sowie Heilkunde aus Mexica- Tradition weitergegeben und praktiziert werden (limpias, Behandlung von susto, Heilmassagen). Da lokale therapeutische Traditionen im Zuge der Globalisierung immer intensiver mit einem breiten Spektrum von fremden Glaubensvorstellungen in Kontakt kommen, beschäftigt sich diese Arbeit hauptsächlich mit der Weitergabe und Transformation des spirituellen, medizinischen und rituellen Wissens. Im Mittelpunkt steht die Frage nach de, Lernen der HeilerInnen (curanderos/as) und wie sie von AnfängerInnen zu ExpertInnen werden. Ausgangspunkt der multidimensionalen Vorgangsweise bei der Forschung ist die eigene Lehrzeit des Verfassers. Neben der Methode des apprenticeship wurden Teilnehmende Beobachtung und themenzentriert-narrative Leitfadeninterviews durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse lassen sich in drei Hauptaspekte gliedern: Zugang zur Praxis, Praxis des Lernens und Entwicklung der Identität. Im Feld wird der don, die Gabe zum Heilen, als Vorraussetzung gesehen, HeilerIn zu werden. Der don wir als anthropologisches Potenzial verstanden, welches grundsätzlich in jedem vorhanden ist und mehr oder weniger ausgeprägt sein kann. Die Praxis des Lernens gestaltet sich in einen theoretisch-philosophischen Teil und einen anwendungsorientierten, praktischen Teil. Dadurch wird ein Entwicklungsprozess der Selbstheilung und der Selbsterkenntnis angeregt. Diese Arbeit zeigt, wie das Zurückgreifen auf lokale Wege zur Herstellung von Gesundheit, Wohlbefinden und Lebensqualität die Autonomie der Praktizierenden fördert. Das Lernen in Gemeinschaft und die Revitalisierung von verschüttetem Wissen (la mexicayotl), die Aufwertung von autochthonem Potenzial, wirken sich identitätsfördernd auf die TeilnehmerInnen aus und führen sie zu mehr Selbstbestimmung und Empowerment

A long-term analysis of the declining population of the Egyptian vulture in the Italian peninsula: Distribution, habitat preference, productivity and conservation implications

Between the beginning of the 1970s and the early 1990s the breeding population of the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus) in the Italian peninsula declined from 29 to nine breeding pairs. We analysed the main aspects of the decline of this population during the last 30 years, namely: (1) landscape structure and composition of active and extinct nesting sites; (2) changes in the land use and number of cattle within the breeding range; (3) productivity (1986-1999) of the last nine pairs breeding in the Italian peninsula. Further decline in the breeding population was probably stopped by creating artificial feeding sites and protecting the last nesting sites from direct persecution. Nearly two-thirds of the pairs laid at least one egg per year, and half of the pairs fledged at least one young per year. The mean number of fledged young was 0.99±0.66 per breeding pair, and 1.27±0.45 per successful pair. About 75% of the breeding failures occurred during incubation, and 71% were related to human activities and direct persecution. The nesting cliff occupation rate, percentage of breeding attempts that fledged at least one chick and mean number of fledged young were negatively correlated with the distance to an artificial feeding site. © 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Mixed-state quasiparticle transport in high-T_c cuprates: localization by magnetic field

Theory of quasiparticle transport in the mixed state of a d-wave superconductor is developed under the assumption of disordered vortex array. A novel universal regime is identified at fields above H*= c*H_{c2}(T/T_c)^2, characterized by a field-independent longitudinal thermal conductivity. It is argued that this behavior is responsible for the high-field plateau in the thermal conductivity experimentally observed in cuprates by Krishana, Ong and co-workers.Comment: 4 pages REVTeX + 1 PostScript figure. Final version to appear in PRL. Several changes in response to referee comments. For related work and info visit http://www.pha.jhu.edu/~fran

"Urban Plant" light-weight solar system for parking and other urban double use applications

Innovations on all aspects of BOS and solar cell integration into the module are essential to further reducing the costs of PV electricity and substantial progress has been made in the past years. One other important aspect is the availability of space for PV power production, especially in densely occupied urban areas. Roof space is limited or only partially useable. A promising other application for PV power production in urban areas today are PV carports on parking lots, which require massive structures and foundations. The approach presented here is a newly developed PV plant which automatically stores the PV modules in a protection box in case of bad weather conditions. Avoiding bad weather conditions implies that only a fraction of the mechanical load is present on the PV modules and the structure, enabling light weight structural design. The newly developed PV plant is folding the PV generator into a protection box and will pull out the PV generator, carried on two supporting cables for operation during good weather conditions. An innovative autonomous control system was developed based on local meteo sensors and regional weather information. The PV modules of the Urban Plant are mounted six meters above a parking lot with the benefit of full double use of the land below. Thus a PV system has been built with currently 52 kW nominal power, 16 meter wide, with a folding roof of PV modules expanding 24 meters in one direction. The system can be extended to 104 kWp with a second folding roof expanding into the other direction. As special PV system design was developed with a light weight PV generator using module laminates with special mounting elements. Moreover the system comprises innovative string wiring and inverters that can be also integrated into the safety box. A first 250kW commercial system is scheduled to be set into operation in Jan 2014 in Southern Germany

[11C]acetate PET/CT Visualizes Skeletal Muscle Exercise Participation, Impaired Function, and Recovery after Hip Arthroplasty; First Results

Purpose: Based on skeletal muscle acetate physiology we aimed studying muscle function after hip arthroplasty with [11C]acetate PET. Procedures: Two male patients were investigated 3 and 12weeks after hip arthroplasty with muscle [11C]acetate PET/CT performed at rest and exercise. Median muscle SUVmean were calculated on three non-consecutive transverse PET slices. Results: The four exercise PET/CT showed, compared with rest, consistent increase in [11C]acetate uptake in active muscles contralateral to surgery. On the arthroplasty side most muscles showed symmetric activity increase under exercise both at 3 and 12weeks after surgery, but four muscles showed only minor activity increase at 3weeks. At 3months, functional recovery of the latter four muscles was observed. Conclusion: Consistent increase in [11C]acetate uptake in healthy muscles under exercise compared with rest was observed by PET/CT. Transiently impaired muscle function 3weeks after surgery recovered at 3months. These first observations merit further investigatio

Self-Assembly of Semiconductor Nanoplatelets into Stacks Directly in Aqueous Solution

Since their discovery, cadmium chalcogenide nanoplatelets (NPLs) gained a lot of interest, not only due to their beneficial characteristic, but also because of their high affinity to self-assemble into ordered stacks. Interestingly, the stacks showed both the properties of the single NPLs and new collective features, such as charge carrier transport within the stacks. Until now, the stacking was, to the best of the knowledge, only performed in non-polar media mostly through the addition of antisolvents with higher polarity. Due to the fact, that many applications (e.g., photocatalysis) or procedures (such as gelation) occur in water, a route to self-assemble stacks directly in aqueous solution is needed. In this work a new synthesis route is thus introduced to produce stacks directly in aqueous media. The NPLs are phase transferred with mercaptocarboxylic acids to an aqueous KOH solution followed by an addition of less polar antisolvents to initialize the stacking (e.g., tetrahydrofuran). Furthermore, a mechanism of the stacking as well as four possible driving forces involved in the process are proposed supported by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements