Reconceptualising teacher-child dialogue in early years education: A Bakhtinian approach

This thesis argues that a Bakhtinian dialogic approach holds possibilities for reconceptualising and re-enacting teacher–child dialogue interactions in early years education. It accepts education as open-ended, with children as active participants and frames teacher–child dialogues as unique encounters, which can go beyond children’s neoliberal enculturation in the world. Neoliberal discourses have exerted an important influence on early years education, emphasising universal “best evidence” strategies and narrowly defined learning “outcomes” which can lead to technicist approaches to teaching and learning. The study explores the dialogic interactions between children aged from 3½ to 5 years and their teachers in two early childhood settings. In a dialogic methodological approach, two of the teachers and myself as a researcher critically engaged in collaborative discussions of selected video recordings of the teacher–child interactions. A Bakhtinian concept of moral answerability applies to the collaborative dialogic approach between teachers and researcher. It goes beyond teaching as a technical approach with universal strategies, to provide guidance for teachers in the unique lived experiences with their students. A dialogic reflexivity, which is employed both pedagogically and as a methodological approach in the study, is aligned with Bakhtin’s philosophy of praxis in everyday life experiences. A second Bakhtinian notion of polyphony explains how each person accesses multiple voices in response, which are shaped simultaneously by unique previous experiences and the encounter itself. In educational dialogue, polyphony can open up a view of dialogue as open-ended and providing different possibilities; it can allow for more meaningful responses by students and more respectful listening from teachers. Furthermore, young children’s carnivalesque utterances are viewed as challenging authoritative, monologic discourses when analysed through a Bakhtinian lens. For Bakhtin, subjectivity is not only shaped in and through dialogue; it also in turn shapes present and future dialogue. Dialogue is therefore inevitably intertwined with subjectivity. Findings show that teaching in early childhood settings involves a complex mix of both monologic and dialogic acts. Dialogic processes can provide alternative understandings of children and teachers as agentic and unfinalised. At times, children were engaged in carnivalesque acts, resisting authoritative teaching through their play, chanting and non-verbal communication, thereby making visible the institutionalisation of children and teachers in early childhood settings. It is suggested that children who are active participants in their education need to be given opportunities for carnivalesque responses. Furthermore, when early childhood teachers have opportunities to critically reflect on children’s utterances in a collaborative dialogue with colleagues, they can gain a more complex understanding of teacher–child dialogue, enabling them to answer morally to the children in their care. Ongoing dialogic encounters with the teachers provided multiple perspectives of the data, resulting in changes to their teaching practices and routines. The findings of the study hold important implications for teaching and for in-service and pre-service teacher education. I suggest that respectful dialogic approaches between teachers and researchers hold pedagogical and methodological potential and, when used thoughtfully, can counteract neoliberal, technicist interventions. In relation to both pre-service and in-service teacher education, the study speaks to the importance of teachers being equipped to engage in open-ended dialogue with children and collaborative dialogues with peers. Drawing on Bakhtin’s concept of moral answerability, this thesis is an utterance asking for an active response not only in everyday teacher-child dialogues, but also in the ongoing, open-ended dialogue about early childhood education and, in particular, teacher–child dialogue. It leaves unfinalised not only children and adults, but also the subject of teacher- child dialogue. There is no first utterance and no last word; Bakhtinian dialogue views both children and adults as becoming

Математическая модель воздействия лесных пожаров на населенные пункты

Дипломная работа посвящена проведению математического моделирования воздействия лесных пожаров на населенные пункты для определения безопасных расстояний от лесного массива до зданий. Подход к моделированию основан на использовании стандартных нестационарных двумерных уравнений сохранения, которые решаются численно при входных условиях, характерных для крупных лесных пожаров.The diploma work is devoted to the mathematical modeling of the impact of forest fires on human settlements to determine the safe distance from the forest to the buildings. The modeling approach is based on the use of standard non-stationary two-dimensional conservation equations, which are solved numerically under the input conditions typical for large forest fires

A new duplex qPCR-based method to quantify Mycoplasma mycoides in complex cell culture systems and host tissues.

Bacterial pathogen-host interactions are a complex process starting with adherence and colonization followed by a variety of interactions such as invasion or cytotoxicity on one hand and pathogen recognition, secretion of proinflammatory/antibacterial substances and enhancing the barrier function of epithelial layers on the other hand. Therefore, a variety of in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo models have been established to investigate these interactions. Some in vitro models are composed of different cell types and extracellular matrices such as tissue explants or precision cut lung slices. These complex in vitro models mimic the in vivo situation more realistically, however, they often require new and more sophisticated methods for quantification of experimental results. Here we describe a multiplex qPCR-based method to quantify the number of bacteria of Mycoplasma (M.) mycoides interacting with their hosts in an absolute manner as well as normalized to the number of host cells. We choose the adenylate kinase (adk) gene from the pathogen and the Carcinoembryonic antigen-related cell adhesion molecule 18 (CEACAM18) gene from the host to determine cell numbers by a TaqMan-based assay system. Absolute copy numbers of the genes are calculated according to a standard containing a defined number of plasmids containing the sequence which is amplified by the qPCR. The new multiplex qPCR therefore allows the quantification of M. mycoides interacting with host cells in suspension, monolayer, 3D cell culture systems as well as in host tissues

Vergleichbarkeit manueller und automatischer Haubenmesstechnik zur Erfassung des Ökosystem-CO2-Austauschs

Eine insbesondere für kleinräumige Parzellenversuche gut geeignete Methode zur Quantifizierung des Ökosystem-CO2-Austauschs basiert auf periodischen Messkampagnen mit einem manuellen non-flow-through non-steady-state Haubensystem (Livingston und Hutchinson 1995; Drösler 2005). Da die Datenlücken zwischen den einzelnen Messkampagnen durch Modellierung auf Basis kontinuierlicher Witterungsdaten geschlossen werden, hängt die Güte der Ergebnisse stark von der Frequenz der Messkampagnen und der Passfähigkeit der ermittelten Modellparameter für die Zeiträume zwischen den Kampagnen ab. Der Einsatz eines automatischen Mess-systems mit transparenten Hauben liefert fortlaufend hochaufgelöste Messdaten für den Netto-Ökosystemaustausch (NEE; tagsüber) und Ökosystematmung (Reco; nachts) und begrenzt die Modellierung auf kurze Zeiträume, in denen die Technik z.B. wegen Bewirtschaftungs-maßnahmen deinstalliert werden muss. Eine Kombination manuell und automatisch erhobener CO2-Flussraten wäre zur Erhöhung der Zuverlässigkeit der modellierten CO2-Austauschraten sinnvoll, erfordert jedoch Untersuchungen darüber, ob bzw. unter welchen Voraussetzungen das möglich ist. Ergebnisse von Vergleichsmessungen der beiden Messsysteme zu drei verschiedenen Terminen (2011/2012) zeigen, dass beide Messsysteme tagsüber (NEE) prinzipiell vergleichbare Ergebnisse liefern und somit eine NEE-Modellierung auf Basis kombinierter manuell und automatisch ermittelter CO2-Flussraten zulässig ist. Nachts (Reco) weist jedoch das manuelle Messsystem leicht höhere Flussraten als die automatischen Hauben auf, so dass die Messsysteme diesbezüglich nur eingeschränkt kombinierbar sind. Mögliche Ursachen der Differenzen sind in weiteren Versuchen zu analysieren

The Structure of Climate Variability Across Scales

One of the most intriguing facets of the climate system is that it exhibits variability across all temporal and spatial scales; pronounced examples are temperature and precipitation. The structure of this variability, however, is not arbitrary. Over certain spatial and temporal ranges it can be described by scaling relationships in the form of power‐laws in probability density distributions and autocorrelation functions. These scaling relationships can be quantified by scaling exponents which measure how the variability changes across scales and how the intensity changes with frequency of occurrence. Scaling determines the relative magnitudes and persistence of natural climate fluctuations. Here, we review various scaling mechanisms and their relevance for the climate system. We show observational evidence of scaling and discuss the application of scaling properties and methods in trend detection, climate sensitivity analyses, and climate predictio

TURBOMOLE: Today and Tomorrow

TURBOMOLE is a highly optimized software suite for large-scale quantum-chemical and materials science simulations of molecules, clusters, extended systems, and periodic solids. TURBOMOLE uses Gaussian basis sets and has been designed with robust and fast quantum-chemical applications in mind, ranging from homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis to inorganic and organic chemistry and various types of spectroscopy, light–matter interactions, and biochemistry. This Perspective briefly surveys TURBOMOLE’s functionality and highlights recent developments that have taken place between 2020 and 2023, comprising new electronic structure methods for molecules and solids, previously unavailable molecular properties, embedding, and molecular dynamics approaches. Select features under development are reviewed to illustrate the continuous growth of the program suite, including nuclear electronic orbital methods, Hartree–Fock-based adiabatic connection models, simplified time-dependent density functional theory, relativistic effects and magnetic properties, and multiscale modeling of optical properties

The Flavonoid Luteolin Inhibits Fcγ-Dependent Respiratory Burst in Granulocytes, but Not Skin Blistering in a New Model of Pemphigoid in Adult Mice

Bullous pemphigoid is an autoimmune blistering skin disease associated with autoantibodies against the dermal-epidermal junction. Passive transfer of antibodies against BP180/collagen (C) XVII, a major hemidesmosomal pemphigoid antigen, into neonatal mice results in dermal-epidermal separation upon applying gentle pressure to their skin, but not in spontaneous skin blistering. In addition, this neonatal mouse model precludes treatment and observation of diseased animals beyond 2–3 days. Therefore, in the present study we have developed a new disease model in mice reproducing the spontaneous blistering and the chronic course characteristic of the human condition. Adult mice were pre-immunized with rabbit IgG followed by injection of BP180/CXVII rabbit IgG. Mice pre-immunized against rabbit IgG and injected 6 times every second day with the BP180/CXVII-specific antibodies (n = 35) developed spontaneous sustained blistering of the skin, while mice pre-immunized and then treated with normal rabbit IgG (n = 5) did not. Blistering was associated with IgG and complement C3 deposits at the epidermal basement membrane and recruitment of inflammatory cells, and was partly dependent on Ly-6G-positive cells. We further used this new experimental model to investigate the therapeutic potential of luteolin, a plant flavonoid with potent anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties and good safety profile, in experimental BP. Luteolin inhibited the Fcγ-dependent respiratory burst in immune complex-stimulated granulocytes and the autoantibody-induced dermal-epidermal separation in skin cryosections, but was not effective in suppressing the skin blistering in vivo. These studies establish a robust animal model that will be a useful tool for dissecting the mechanisms of blister formation and will facilitate the development of more effective therapeutic strategies for managing pemphigoid diseases

Novel approach to analysing large data sets of personal sun exposure measurements

Personal sun exposure measurements provide important information to guide the development of sun awareness and disease prevention campaigns. We assess the scaling properties of personal ultraviolet radiation (pUVR) sun exposure measurements using the wavelet transform (WT) spectral analysis to process long-range, high-frequency personal recordings collected by electronic UVR dosimeters designed to measure erythemal UVR exposure. We analysed the sun exposure recordings of school children, farmers, marathon runners and outdoor workers in South Africa, and construction workers and work site supervisors in New Zealand. We found scaling behaviour in all the analysed pUVR data sets. We found that the observed scaling changes from uncorrelated to long-range correlated with increasing duration of sun exposure. Peaks in the WT spectra that we found suggest the existence of characteristic times in sun exposure behaviour that were to some extent universal across our data set. Our study also showed that WT measures enable group classification, as well as distinction between individual UVR exposures, otherwise unattainable by conventional statistical methods