DIREKTNA USMENA KOMUNIKACIJA KAO BITNO OBILJEŽJE FOLKLORA? Uz povijesno obrazloženje problema

Usmena i pamćena tradicija u obliku izravne usmene komunikacije predstavljala je u prošlosti tipično obilježje načina postojanja folklora. No to ipak nije ključ ni kriterij za određivanje biti folklora uopće. Povijesno gledano, usmena i pamćena tradicija i usmeni stil bili su u prošlosti karakteristični i za druge književne rodove, za epiku i za liriku. Usmena tradicija odgovara ranijem kulturnom stupnju razvoja ljudskog društva. Danas taj oblik tradicije sve više gubi na značenju u usporedbi s drugim medijima. Nacin prenošenja, a osobito tako specifičan kao direktna usmena komunikacija prema pamćenju, tek je sekundarno obilježje folklora. Folkloristika danas treba da svoja istraživanja proširi i na amatersku kulturnoumjetničku djelatnost i na nove navike i običaje u suvremenom životu

Competition between airports with an application to the state of Baden-Württemberg

Classical theories of competition in two-dimensional space mainly deal with the questions of where firms locate in the plane and what shape their market areas willconsequently adopt. Out of that develops the construct of catchment areas. As part of long-term infrastructure equipment, an airport can not change location. Once it is chosen and operational, an airport has to compete for passengers and market share on basis of its prevailing catchment areas. Passenger choice determines the shape of an airport?s market and these markets, other than in the presented theories, commonly overlap. On the basis of passengers? selection criterions, the valuation of an airport?s attraction takes place. The developed procedure is applied to the state of Baden-Württemberg. It paints a picture of airport competition in the German Southwest. In order to get a sharper image, the formed catchment areas are subdivided into zones of different competition intensity

Quantifying the Uncertainties in an Ensemble of Decadal Climate Predictions

Meaningful climate predictions should be accompanied by the corresponding uncertainty range. Common methods for estimating the uncertainty range are based on the spread of ensemble predictions. However, a simulation ensemble is not necessarily a proper sample of the real distribution of the climate, and therefore, the ensemble spread cannot be interpreted as the actual uncertainty. We propose a new method that links between the ensemble spread and the uncertainty without relying on any assumptions regarding the distribution of the ensemble predictions. The method is tested using CMIP5 1981-2010 decadal predictions and is shown to outperform other common methods

On the impacts of working memory training on executive functioning

Recent studies have reported improvements in a variety of cognitive functions following sole working memory (WM) training. In spite of the emergence of several successful training paradigms, the scope of transfer effects has remained mixed. This is most likely due to the heterogeneity of cognitive functions that have been measured and tasks that have been applied. In the present study, we approached this issue systematically by investigating transfer effects from WM training to different aspects of executive functioning. Our training task was a demanding WM task that requires simultaneous performance of a visual and an auditory n-back task, while the transfer tasks tapped WM updating, coordination of the performance of multiple simultaneous tasks (i.e., dual-tasks) and sequential tasks (i.e., task switching), and the temporal distribution of attentional processing. Additionally, we examined whether WM training improves reasoning abilities; a hypothesis that has so far gained mixed support. Following training, participants showed improvements in the trained task as well as in the transfer WM updating task. As for the other executive functions, trained participants improved in a task switching situation and in attentional processing. There was no transfer to the dual-task situation or to reasoning skills. These results, therefore, confirm previous findings that WM can be trained, and additionally, they show that the training effects can generalize to various other tasks tapping on executive functions

The role of working memory for task-order coordination in dual-task situations

Dual-task (DT) situations require task-order coordination processes that schedule the processing of two temporally overlapping tasks. Theories on task-order coordination suggest that these processes rely on order representations that are actively maintained and processed in working memory (WM). Preliminary evidence for this assumption stems from DT situations with variable task order, where repeating task order relative to the preceding trials results in improved performance compared to changing task order, indicating the processing of task-order information in WM between two succeeding trials. We directly tested this assumption by varying WM load during a DT with variable task order. In Experiment 1, WM load was manipulated by varying the number of stimulus–response mappings of the component tasks. In Experiment 2A, WM load was increased by embedding an additional WM updating task in the applied DT. In both experiments, the performance benefit for trials with repeated relative to trials with changed task order was reduced under high compared to low WM load. These results confirm our assumption that the processing of the task-order information relies on WM resources. In Experiment 2B, we tested whether the results of Experiment 2A can be attributed to introducing an additional task per se rather than to increased WM load by introducing an additional task with a low WM load. Importantly, in this experiment, the processing of order information was not affected. In sum, the results of the three experiments indicate that task-order coordination relies on order information which is maintained in an accessible state in WM during DT processing.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001659Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg (1043)Peer Reviewe

Zellen in der Logik des Lebens

In diesem Aufsatz wird im Rahmen des Projekts einer Logik des Lebens die Ebene der Zellen und die Beziehung zwischen Lebewesen und Zellen behandelt. Es werden die Beziehungen "ist Zell-Vorfahre von", "ist Zelle von" und "ist Zelle desselben Lebewesens wie" untersucht. Postulate für Lebewesen werden umgedeutet und auf die Zellebene ertragen. Es werden Mlichkeiten diskutiert, die Vorfahren-Relation für Lebewesen auf der Grundlage der Vorfahren-Relation für Zellen zu definieren. Eine besondere Rolle spielen dabei Einzellflaschenhse ("one-cell bottlenecks" / "single-cell bottlenecks")