'Same, same, but different?!' Investigating diversity issues in the current Austrian national curriculum for physical education

Discussions on educational policy are shaped by current societal transformations associated with diversity. At the same time, the most recent reform of the Austrian National Curriculum for Physical Education (NCPE) was driven by the desire to stipulate standardised learning outcomes. Building upon Bernstein's framework, this paper explores to what extent issues of diversity are addressed in curricular documents, which inform and structure teaching and learning processes. Based on a qualitative content analysis, the General National Curriculum (GNC) and the latest NCPE were investigated. In a two-stage process, combining predetermined and emerging coding, significant themes were developed throughout the data analysis process. The findings demonstrate differing understandings of what diversity means and how it should be taken into consideration, indicating a less comprehensive way in the NCPE compared to the GNC. Since a uniform understanding of diversity is missing, this ambiguity fails to comply with a NC’s function to act as a systematic framework for teachers. There is friction at the level of education policy, as the NCPE should both reflect generally acknowledged societal transformations associated with diversity and be standardised at the same time. The paper concludes that future curriculum reforms should specifically address diversity-sensitive teaching and learning within the subject in a more comprehensive way, interlink the GNC and NCPE precisely and rethink the tension between diversity and standardisation in the NCPE

A simple and versatile analytical approach for planar metamaterials

We present an analytical model which permits the calculation of effective material parameters for planar metamaterials consisting of arbitrary unit cells (metaatoms) formed by a set of straight wire sections of potentially different shape. The model takes advantage of resonant electric dipole oscillations in the wires and their mutual coupling. The pertinent form of the metaatom determines the actual coupling features. This procedure represents a kind of building block model for quite different metaatoms. Based on the parameters describing the individual dipole oscillations and their mutual coupling the entire effective metamaterial tensor can be determined. By knowing these parameters for a certain metaatom it can be systematically modified to create the desired features. Performing such modifications effective material properties as well as the far field intensities remain predictable. As an example the model is applied to reveal the occurrence of optical activity if the split ring resonator metaatom is modified to L- or S-shaped metaatoms.Comment: 5 figures, 1 tabl

Qualification of silane coatings for the strength enhancement of concrete parts

In former own publications [2]..[6] it was shown, that high precision concrete parts are a reliable alternative to natural stone for machine base frames. Beside long-term stability, also a predictable and highly reproducible thermal behavior is required. One opportunity is the application of materials with identical thermal expansion coefficients and appropriate mechanical properties. Concrete is a promising material for the whole machine structure under these circumstances. In contrast to base frames, moving parts need to have a lightweight design thus requiring a high level of specific stiffness. Concrete with a specific stiffness close to steel is an interesting material for the design of movable components coming up with dynamic properties comparable to welded steel structures. Additionally a high material strength is needed in lightweight design. To guarantee reliability at the same level as steel or aluminum light-weight parts, the endurance strength of concrete parts has to be improved significantly

Yeast XRS2 and human NBN gene: Experimental evidence for homology using codon optimized cDNA

The genes, XRS2 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and NBN in mammals, have little sequence identity at the amino acid level. Nevertheless, they are both found together with MRE11 and RAD50 in a highly conserved protein complex which functions in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. Here, we have examined the evolutionary and functional relationship of these two genes by cross-complementation experiments. These experiments necessitated sequence correction for specific codon usage before they could be successfully conducted. We present evidence that despite extreme sequence divergence nibrin can, at least partially, replace Xrs2 in the cellular DNA damage response, and Xrs2 is able to promote nuclear localization of MRE11 in NBS cells. We discuss that the extreme sequence divergence reflects a unique adaptive pressure during evolution related to the specific eukaryotic role for both Xrs2 and nibrin in the subcellular localisation of the DNA repair complex. This, we suggest, is of particular relevance when cells are infected by viruses. The conflict hypothesis of co-evolution of DNA repair genes and DNA viruses may thus explain the very low sequence identity of these two homologous genes

How do ionic superdiscs self-assemble in nanopores?

Discotic ionic liquid crystals (DILCs) consist of self-assembled superdiscs of cations and anions that spontaneously stack in linear columns with high one-dimensional ionic and electronic charge mobility, making them prominent model systems for functional soft matter. Unfortunately, a homogeneous alignment of DILCs on the macroscale is often not achievable, which significantly limits their applicability. Infiltration into nanoporous solid scaffolds can in principle overcome this drawback. However, due to the extreme experimental challenges to scrutinise liquid crystalline order in extreme spatial confinement, little is known about the structures of DILCs in nanopores. Here, we present temperature-dependent high-resolution optical birefringence measurement and 3D reciprocal space mapping based on synchrotron-based X-ray scattering to investigate the thermotropic phase behaviour of dopamine-based ionic liquid crystals confined in cylindrical channels of 180~nm diameter in macroscopic anodic aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes. As a function of the membranes' hydrophilicity and thus the molecular anchoring to the pore walls (edge-on or face-on) and the variation of the hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance between the aromatic cores and the alkyl side chain motifs of the superdiscs by tailored chemical synthesis, we find a particularly rich phase behaviour, which is not present in the bulk state. It is governed by a complex interplay of liquid crystalline elastic energies (bending and splay deformations), polar interactions and pure geometric confinement, and includes textural transitions between radial and axial alignment of the columns with respect to the long nanochannel axis.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, 1 ancillary fil