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Religious Anthropology studies the origins, evolution and functions of religions. The discipline researching religious beliefs and rituals comparatively with cross-cultural perspectives tries to enlighten the belief world of the mankind. Religion, as a term, can be defined as "believing as well as worshipping to the supernatural powers and/or beings by the individual who are emotionally or consciously devoted to them" (Örnek 1988: 127). There have been a number of theories so far which try to bring an explanation to the origins and the evolution of religion. In these theories, Fetishism, cults of nature, animism, Totemism, dynamism, Manism, magic, polytheism, monotheism as well as certain physiological phenomena have been particularized as evolutionary stages and forms of belief (Evans-Pritchard 1998: 124). All of these theories have the perspective of so called "progressive" and / or "unilinear" that maintain a religion which has reached ongoing stages and that communities which have developed from primitiveness to civilization. They argue that there has only been one single line of progress, and all of the communities are bound to go through the same evolutionary stages.
Untouchability and inter-caste relations in rural India : the case of southern Tamil villages
(2004)
Justice and equality are the two subjects often talked about by most of the nationalists and leaders of various political and ideological streams across the world including India. India was at the fore-front in condemning racial discrimination particularly apartheid and also the influence of super powers) on the internal affairs of independent nations. Her commitment to secure its citizens' freedom, justice, equality and fraternity is reflected in the very preamble of the Indian Constitution. Towards achieving these challenging goals, special provisions have also been made in the Constitution to protect and promote the interests of the most oppressed section of Indian society - traditionally known as Untouchables and Constitutionally as the Scheduled Castes. These provisions are expected to alter the given unjust distribution of power (political and economic) and status (social) among different sections of people and thereby transform India into an egalitarian society. Given India's unequivocal commitment to secure its citizens these noble ideals - particularly the most exploited and pilloried section of India -, we shall attempt here to understand Indian villages, which host over 80 per cent of the Indian population, from the point of view of whether or not these villages patronise the institution of caste which is in contravention of these ideals or whether there are these little republics ideal for realising the said goals and thus to be preserved as they are as claimed by many social reformers including Mahatma Gandhi. In the process, we shall also address the question of how caste has remained unchanged, how it controls social interaction between higher and lower caste groups and accordingly perpetuates unequal control over power and status. And most importantly we shall also understand whether all the Scheduled Castes (lower castes) treat their members as equals or there is hierarchy, discrimination and practice of untouchability even among them.
Safety concerns associated with the use of viral vectors in gene therapy applications have attracted considerable attention towards the development of nonviral vectors as alternatives for DNA delivery. While nonviral vectors are commonly not associated with safety problems, they are still very inefficient compared to viral vectors, and require significant improvements to approach the efficiency of their viral counterparts. Meanwhile ligands or single-chain antibody fragments that bind to cell surface receptors for increased and/or specific cellular uptake, endosome escape activities, and nuclear localization sequences (NLSs) to enhance transport of plasmid DNA into the nucleus, have become available that can be incorporated into nonviral vectors to improve their efficacy. However, as gene delivery is a multistep process, the challenge is to incorporate multiple of these functional elements into a single nonviral vector system, while retaining their specific activities. A promising method to attach such entities to plasmid DNA is the use of multifunctional fusion proteins that bind to DNA through a DNA-binding domain. In principle, two types of DNA-binding domains/proteins can be used to anchor additional functional domains or peptides to a plasmid, namely sequence-specific DNA-binding domains, described in the first part of this thesis, or those that bind DNA independent of its sequence, exemplified in the second part of this work by a derivative of the human HMGB2 protein. The first fusion protein constructed and analyzed contained the E. coli LexA repressor as a sequence-specific DNA-binding domain. In addition, this DNA-carrier protein, termed TEL, included a bacterial translocation domain as an integrated endosome escape activity, and human TGF-a for specific targeting to the EGF-receptor (EGFR). TEL was expressed in E. coli and purified under both native and denaturing conditions. Purified, denatured TEL was refolded and subsequently shown to bind specifically to EGFR-expressing cells. However, inclusion of TEL in complexes of plasmid DNA and poly-L-lysine (pL) did not lead to increased gene delivery into EGFR-expressing COS-1 cells. Most likely this was due to the absence of DNA-binding activity of the LexA moiety in TEL. In contrast, native TEL was able to interact specifically with DNA. Nevertheless, since this interaction was rather weak, and refolding of denatured TEL had not resulted in functional activity of all of its protein domains, it seemed unlikely that fusion proteins containing LexA would exhibit gene transfer capabilities superior to those of similar DNA-carrier proteins previously constructed in our group. Further work therefore focused on the use of the E2C-Sp1C protein as an alternative sequencespecific DNA-binding domain. This artificial zinc-finger protein was fused to the single-chain antibody fragment scFv(FRP5), directed against the human ErbB2 growth factor receptor. The resulting 5-E2C fusion protein was expressed in E. coli and purified under native and denaturing conditions. Refolded and native 5-E2C were found to bind specifically to ErbB2-expressing cells, indicating that scFv(FRP5) in 5-E2C was functional in both preparations. In contrast, whereas refolded 5-E2C bound DNA only weakly, significant DNA binding was observed for native 5-E2C. In addition, it could not only be shown that the interaction of native 5-E2C with DNA containing its recognition sequence was specific, but also that this protein was able to bind DNA and recombinant ErbB2 simultaneously, demonstrating the functionality of both domains in native 5-E2C. Despite these encouraging results, the inclusion of native 5-E2C in pL- or polyethyleneimine (PEI)-DNA complexes did not lead to an (5-E2C-specific) enhancement of gene transfer efficiency, irrespective of the presence of the endosome-disruptive reagent chloroquine during transfection. In the second part of this thesis an alternative approach for the development of DNA-carrier proteins for nonviral gene delivery is described, based on human HMGB2, a DNA-binding protein without sequence specificity. HMGB2 contains an acidic C-terminus that has been found to decrease the affinity of the protein for DNA. Therefore, this C-terminal tail was deleted, resulting in an HMGB2-variant consisting of amino acids 1-186. HMGB2186, purified under native conditions from E. coli lysates, was able to interact with DNA and bound to the surface of different cell lines. Importantly, after binding to plasmid DNA HMGB2186 mediated gene delivery into COS-7 cells with higher efficiency than pL. In addition, HMGB2186-mediated gene transfer was strongly enhanced in the presence of chloroquine, indicating that the endocytic pathway was involved in cellular uptake. To improve internalization and intracellular routing of HMGB2186 as a DNA-carrier, a derivative containing the TAT47-57 cell-penetrating peptide (CPP), reported to facilitate cell entry independent of endocytosis, was constructed. Since this peptide also contains an NLS, in addition an HGMB2186-variant containing the SV40-NLS was constructed to investigate the effect of a peptide that has only nuclear localizing properties. Interestingly, the resulting TAT-HMGB2186 and SV40-HMGB2186 fusion proteins displayed DNA-binding activities similar to HMGB2186, but mediated gene delivery into different cell lines clearly more efficiently than the parental molecule. Furthermore, the efficacy of both fusion proteins was enhanced markedly in the presence of chloroquine, an indication that endocytosis was involved in the transfection process mediated by these proteins. This suggests that the increased transfection efficiency observed for TAT-HMGB2186 was more likely due to the NLS function present in the TAT47-57 peptide, rather than to its ‘cell penetrating properties’. Finally, the incorporation of functional peptides derived from human proteins into HMGB2186 was investigated. An uncharged CPP originating from Kaposi-FGF, reported to facilitate efficient cellular uptake of fused protein domains in an endocytosis-independent manner, was fused to HMGB2186 together with the SV40-NLS. Interestingly, the resulting KSV40-HMGB2186 fusion protein bound DNA similarly as previously tested DNA-carrier proteins, but did not mediate enhanced transfection compared to HMGB2186. In addition, the importin-b-binding (IBB) domain derived from human importin-a2 was investigated as a component of a DNA-carrier protein. Since the IBB domain can function as an NLS, it was fused to HMGB2186 resulting in the DNA-carrier protein IBBHMGB2186. Although IBB-HMGB2186 bound DNA in a similar manner as the other HMGB2186-derivatives, gene delivery mediated by IBB-HMGB2186 was only as effective as HMGB2186 mediated transfection, suggesting no significant role of the IBB domain. However, addition of chloroquine resulted in a remarkable enhancement of IBB-HMGB2186-mediated gene transfer, which was now more efficient than with any other HMGB2186-variant tested, and not much lower than gene transfer mediated by PEI, one of the most efficient transfection reagents available to date. To enhance nonviral gene delivery even further, the HMGB2186-based DNA-carrier proteins described in this thesis might now serve as building blocks for novel fusion proteins that include additional complementing activities. In this respect it seems particularly promising that, under conditions of effective end some escape, IBB-HMGB2186, which consists entirely of protein domains of human origin, was the most efficient of all proteins tested in this work.
RcsB is a central transcriptional regulator in enteric bacteria involved in exopolysaccharide (EPS) biosynthesis, in cell division, in the expression of osmoregulated genes, and regulates at least 20 other genes and operons. It is a member of a phosphorelay system and signal transfer is mediated by phosphorylation through the RcsC/YojN phosphorelay. RcsB proteins modified with the phosphorylation mimic BeF3- as shown by its conformational changes and DNA binding properties and resulted phosphorylated RcsB derivatives with sufficient stability. Both, the wild type RcsB protein and the mutant RcsBD11A could be modified with BeF3-. Non-phosphorylated RcsB has been shown to bind as a heterodimer with the coinducer RcsA at the conserved RcsAB box in Rcs regulated promoters. In this study, it has been shown that the modification of RcsB by BeF3 - (I) has a negative effect on its homodimerization, (II) abolishes the complex formation of RcsAB with the RcsAB box as shown by the EMSA and SPR technique. All the effects were found to be reversible by increasing the NaF concentration in the assays presumably leading to the formation of the inactive BeF4 2- salt. This hypothesis of RcsB being modified by BeF3- was also supported by other phosphodonors like ATP and acetyl phosphate, both of them showed the same negative effect on DNA binding by RcsAB heterodimer giving evidence that BeF3- could be used as a phosphorylation mimic. In addition, the phosphorylation mimic BeF3- was found to be a better phosphorylating agent than ATP and acetyl phosphate. This is the first evidence that phosphorylation of RcsB might have a negative effect on the activation of RcsAB regulated operons. Autophosphorylation of RcsB proves that it has the ability to take up phosphoryl groups and the mutant protein also become autophosphorylated with less efficiency or stability than the wild type protein. RcsB probably takes up phosphoryl groups through RcsC -> YojN -> RcsB phosphorelay pathway. To study the interaction among the proteins in this pathway, fluorescence spectroscopy, NMR spectroscopy, and an in vivo ß galactosidase assay were performed by using two domains of RcsC (T-RcsC and R-RcsC), HPt domain of the protein YojN, and RcsB. The interactions between R-RcsC/YojN-HPt and YojN-HPt/RcsB supports the proposed pathway of phosphorylating RcsB. RcsB might also be phosphorylated by YojN-HPt that is phosphorylated by other sensor kinase other than RcsC in a cross-talk mechanism. The phosphorylation of RcsB by YojN-HPt probably has the same negative effect on cps induction as obtained with BeF3 - effect on DNA binding by RcsAB heterodimer.
The biomarker record in two different lakes in central Europe, Lake Albano and Lake Constance, is used to reflect environmental changes and lake system response during the Late Glacial and Holocene. Extractable organic compounds in lake sediments, which can be assigned to their biological source (biomarkers) function as fingerprints of past aquatic or land plant organisms. Using gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, 21 different biomarkers (predominantly steroids and triterpenoids) as well as a variety of n-alkanes, nalkanols, and n-alkanoic acids could be identified in the sediment records of Lake Albano and Lake Constance. In the Holocene sediments of Lake Albano, the distribution of biomarkers such as dinosterol (dinoflagellates), isoarborinol, and diplopterol (aquatic organisms) indicate three biomarker zones: The period between 0-3,800 years BP (zone 3) is characterized by high concentrations of these biomarkers and others such as tetrahymanol and diploptene. Conversely, zone 2 (3,800-6,500 years BP) shows very low concentrations of all autochthonous biomarkers. In zone 1 (6,500–11,480 years BP), dinosterol, isoarborinol, and diplopterol range on a relatively high level, whereas diploptene and tetrahymanol display comparatively low concentrations. The results suggest at least two distinct changes in the predominance of primary producers during the Holocene, which are related to changes in the lake system such as lake mixing and water column stratification. This interpretation is consistent with previous investigations of Lake Albano sediments including pigment and hydrogen index data (Ariztegui et al., 1996b; Guilizzoni et al., 2002). Allochthonous biomarkers such as long-chain n-alkanes, amyrenones and friedelin indicate a development from forest to a more open landscape from 6,000 and 5.000 years BP, respectively. After a period of high concentrations during the first half of the Holocene, all biomarkers derived from deciduous trees exhibit relatively low values until around 1,000 years BP. Again, this is consistent with results from previous pollen investigations (Ariztegui et al., 2000). The sediment core from Upper Lake Constance comprises the Late Glacial and Holocene. It was analysed for biomarkers and inorganic tracers in order to compare the biomarker results with other proxy data from the same core. Magnetic susceptibility (MS) was measured to get a high-resolution stratigraphic framework of the core and to obtain further information about changes of the proportions of allochthonous and autochthonous input. Enhanced concentrations and accumulation rates of dinosterol (biomarker for dinoflagellates) and biogenic calcite give evidence of increasing lake productivity at the beginning of the Holocene followed by a decrease in bioproductivity after around 7,000 years BP. Younger Dryas sediments are characterized by low amounts of both dinosterol and biogenic calcite indicating a low productivity. The comparison of the concentrations and accumulation rates of b-sitosterol and stigmastanol with parameters reflecting lake productivity suggests that both steroids in Lake Constance sediments are mainly derived from terrigenous sources. Biomarkers as well as concentrations and accumulation rates of allochthonous inorganic compounds such as titanium, magnesium and strontium indicate a slightly enhanced allochthonous input after 8,500 years BP. Significant increase of erosive matter input from enhanced soil erosion is not observed before 4,000 years BP. This can be attributed to the combined effects of precipitation increase as a result of climatic deterioration and anthropogenic deforestation which is consistent with observations from other lakes in Central Europe. The MS record of Lake Constance confirms these results by tracing the climatically induced shifts of more intense bioproduction (low MS caused by increased calcite deposition) during the ‘climatic optimum’. This is followed by increasing input of terrigenous sediment compounds during colder and wetter periods which lead to higher MS values in the lake sediments. The occurrence of tetrahymanol in Lake Constance sediments questions the unambiguous use of tetrahymanol as an indicator for water column stratification. Anaerobic organic macroaggregates within the oxygenated, photic zone of the water column have to be considered as a possible living space for anaerobic microorganisms containing tetrahymanol. The direct comparison of two very different lakes Albano and Constance with respect to biomarkers indicating climate or environmental change provides a contribution to the recent biomarker research for a better understanding of biomarkers in lacustrine sediments.
Much has been written on the success of the Indian software industry, enumerating systemic factors like first-class higher education and research institutions, both public and private; low labour costs, stimulating (state) policies etc. However, although most studies analyzing the 'Indian' software industry cover essentially the South (and West) Indian clusters, this issue has not been tackled explicitly. This paper supplements the economic geography explanations mentioned above with the additional factor social capital, which is not only important within the region, but also in transnational (ethnic) networks linking Indian software clusters with the Silicon Valley. In other words, spatial proximity is complemented with cultural proximity, thereby, extending the system of innovation. The main hypothesis is that some Indian regions are more apt to economic development and innovation due to their higher affinity to education and learning, as well as, their more general openness, which has been a main finding of my interviews. In addition, the transnational networks of Silicon Valley Indians seem to be dominated by South Indians, thus, corroborating the regional clustering of the Indian software industry. JEL Classifications: O30, R12, Z13, L86
Im Zeitalter von Internet und digitaler Wissensvermittlung hat auch die Geschichtswissenschaft die Photographie als Quellenmaterial zur Dokumentation historischer Lebensbedingungen und Ereignisse schätzen gelernt. Neben dem geisteswissenschaftlichen Aspekt solcher Photodokumente gibt es einen technisch-konservatorischen Aspekt.
Anomalous monism and mental causality : on the debate of Donald Davidson’s philosophy of the mental
(2004)
The English version of the first chapter of Erwin Rogler and Gerhard Preyer: Materialismus, anomaler Monismus und mentale Kausalität. Zur gegenwärtigen Philosophie des Mentalen bei Donald Davidson und David Lewis (2001) "Anomaler Monismus und Mentale Kausalität. Ein Beitrag zur Debatte über Donald Davidsons Philosophie des Mentalen" is a contribution to the current debates on the philosophy of the mental and mental causality initiated from Donald Davidson's philosophy with his article "Mental Events" (1970). It is the intent of the English version to give a response to the controversy among American, British and Australian philosophers in the context of a global exchange of ideas on problems understanding the mental. Contents 1. Preliminary Remarks 2. The Critique of Property-Epiphenomenalism and Counterarguments (a) The Enlargement of Nomological Reasoning (b) The Counterfactual Analysis (c) Supervenient Causality 3. Are Mental Properties real or unreal (fictive)? Abstract Things and events are fundamental entities in Davidson's ontology. Less distinct is the ontological status of properties, especially of mental types. Despite of some eliminative allusions there are weighty reasons to understand Davidson's philosophy of mind as including intentional realism. With it, the question of mental causality arises. There are two striking solutions to this problem: the epiphenomenalism of mental properties and the downward causation of mental events. Davidson cannot accept either. He claims to justify the mental as supervenient causality in order to thus integrate it into physicalism (his version of monism). But his argument at best proves the explanatory, not the causal relevance of mental properties. For this and for other reasons, Davidson fails the aspired synthesis of a sufficiently strong physicalism and the autonomy of the mental; a project whose realization is anyhow hard to achieve.
Background and Aim: In Germany, the discharge medication is usually reported to the general practitioner (GP) by an inital short report (SR) /notification (handed over to the patient) and later by a more detailed discharge letter (DL) of the hospital.
Material and Method: We asked N=536 GPs (from Frankfurt/Main and Luebeck) after the typical report format of their patients discharge medication by the local hospitals. The questionnaire asked for 26 items covering (1) the designation of the medication (brand name, generic name) in SR and DL, (2) further specifications e.g. possibilities of generic substitution or supervision of sensible medications, (3) reasons why GPs do not follow the hospitals recommendations and (4) possibilities for an improvement in the medication-related communication between GP and hospitals.
Results: 39% GPs responded sufficiently to the questionnaire. The majority of the GPs (82%) quoted that in the SR only brand names are given (often or ever) and neither the generic name or any further information on generic substitution is available (seldom or never). 65% of the responders quoted that even in the DL only brand names are given. Only 41% of the responders quoted that further treatment relevant specifications are given (often or ever). 95% responded that new medications or change of custom medication is seldom or never explained in the DL and GP were not explicitly informed about relevant medication changes. 58% of the responders quoted economic reasons for re-adjustment of the discharge medication e.g. by generic substitution. The majority of responders (83%) are favouring (useful or very useful) a pre-discharge information (e.g. via fax) about the medication and 54% a hot-line to some relevant person in the hospital when treatment problems emerge. 67% of the responders quoted in favour of regular meetings between GPs and hospital doctors regarding actual pharmacotherapy.
Conclusion: In conclusion, our survey pointed to marked deficiencies in reporting the discharge medication to GPs.
Conflict of interest: None
Background The detection of the new Coranavirus (CoV) causing agent of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) for diagnostic purposes is still a critical step in prevention of secondary hospital infections. In this respect the PCR for SARS diagnostic is the fastest and most sensitive method and was published very early after the description of the new pathogen by different groups. To evaluate the quality and sensitivity of the SARS PCR performed in diagnostic laboratories all over the world an external quality assurance (EQA) for SARS PCR was initiated by the WHO, the European Network for Diagnostics of "Imported" Viral Diseases (ENIVD) and the Robert Koch-Institut. Methods Therefore 10 samples of inactivated SARS CoV strains isolated in Frankfurt and Hong Kong in different dilutions and negative controls were prepared. The freeze dried samples were send by mail to 62 different laboratories, in 37 countries in Europe and Israel (35), Asia (11), The Americas (11), Australia and New Zealand (4) and Africa (1). The results were returned by email or fax 1 week (13), 2 weeks (14), 3 weeks (6) and later (29) after receiving the material which does not mimic at all the possible speed of this fast method. But this was not considered in the evaluation of these first SARS EQA. Results 44 laboratories showed good or excellent results (26 = 100%, 18 = 90%) and even the 14 laboratories which archived only 80% (10) or 70% (4) correct results are mostly lacking sensitivity. The results of the other 4 laboratories show basic problems in regard to sensitivity, specificity and consistency of results and must be overcome as soon as possible. 4 laboratories seem to have problems with the specificity finding a positive signal in negative samples. The different methods used for preparation of the SARS CoV genome and diagnostic PCR test procedure used by the participating laboratories will be discussed in more detail in the presentation. Conclusion However, in contrast to previous EQAs for Ebola, Lassa and Orthopoxviruses the quality of PCR results was rather good which might be caused by the early publication and distribution of well developed PCR methods. An EQA for evaluation of SARS specific serology is still ongoing, first results will be available beginning of April 2004.