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Thought to be monotypic for decades, the only species in the goosefish genus Lophiomus Gill, Lm. setigerus (Vahl), shows a wide range of morphological variation and is distributed widely in the Indo-West Pacific (IWP). In this study, datasets for two mitochondrial and two nuclear genes sequences obtained from samples of Lophiomus collected in different localities across the IWP were constructed and analyzed to explore the phylogeny and species diversity within the genus. Our integrated approach with multiline evidence unveiled an unanticipated richness of at least six delimited species of Lophiomus. Herein, based on materials already available from museums and new specimens obtained primarily through the Tropical Deep-Sea Benthos program surveying IWP benthic fauna, we formally describe three new species: Lm. immaculioralis sp. nov., Lm. nigriventris sp. nov., and Lm. carusoi sp. nov. Also, we resurrect Lm. laticeps stat. rev. from synonyms of Lm. setigerus. These species can be diagnosed by genetics, body coloration, patterns on the floor of the mouth, peritoneum pigmentation, morphometric measurements, and meristic counts of cranial spines, dorsal-fin spines, and pectoral-fin and pelvic-fin rays from each other and from Lm. setigerus. The species Lm. setigerus, as well as the genus Lophiomus, are re-described accordingly based on the new results. Amended identification keys to the four extant lophiid genera and to species of Lophiomus are also provided.
The compulsive habit of cars
(2014)
The car dependence of people living in contemporary cities is a major concern for policy makers, who often find it difficult to persuade people into more sustainable transport modes. By contrast, recent insights from neuroscience have shown that a broad spectrum of behaviors can become habitual and, thus, resistant to change. Here, we outline the potential of collaboration between neuroscience and human geography aiming at a better understanding of habits that determine everyday commuting routines.
Sparse sensor networks for Lamb wave-based structural health monitoring (SHM) can detect defects in plate-like structures. However, the limited number of sensor positions provides little information to characterize the unknown scatterer. This can be achieved by full wavefield analysis e.g. using Laser Doppler vibrometry measurements.
This paper proposes deconvolution processing that enhances the acoustic wavefield interpretation by increasing the temporal resolution of the underlying ultrasound signals. Applying this preprocessor to the whole wavefield allows improved non-destructive assessment of the defect. This approach is verified experimentally through a case study on an isotropic aluminum plate with four cracks.
Inhibitors of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) have improved the treatment of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, chronic drug exposure may trigger resistance, limiting the utility of these agents. The metastatic behavior of RCC cells, susceptible (RCC(par)) or resistant (RCC(res)) to the mTOR inhibitor temsirolimus, was investigated. Adhesion to vascular endothelium or immobilized collagen and fibronectin was quantified. Chemotactic motility was evaluated with a modified Boyden chamber assay. Integrin α and β subtype receptors were analyzed by flow cytometry and Western blot analysis. The physiological relevance of the integrins was then determined by blocking studies and small interfering RNA knockdown. Adhesion to endothelial cells and to fibronectin (not to collagen) and chemotaxis were enhanced in RCC(res) compared to RCC(par). RCC(res) detached from fibronectin and motile activity further increased under retreatment with low-dosed temsirolimus. α5 integrin was diminished inside the cell and at the cell surface, whereas the β3 subtype was reduced intracellularly but elevated at the plasma membrane. In RCC(par), blocking α5 surface receptors enhanced RCC-collagen but reduced RCC-fibronectin interaction, whereas the opposite was true for RCC(res). Chemotaxis of RCC(par) but not of RCC(res) was strongly diminished by the α5 antibody. Blocking β3 significantly lowered chemotaxis with stronger effects on RCC(res), compared to RCC(par). Importantly, β3 knockdown reduced chemotaxis of RCC(par) but upregulated the motile behavior of RCC(res). Temsirolimus resistance is characterized by quantitative alterations of integrin α5 and β3 expression, coupled to functional changes of the integrin molecules, and forces a switch from RCC adhesion to RCC migration.
Antigen presentation to cytotoxic T lymphocytes via major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC I) molecules depends on the heterodimeric transporter associated with antigen processing (TAP). For efficient antigen supply to MHC I molecules in the ER, TAP assembles a macromolecular peptide-loading complex (PLC) by recruiting tapasin. In evolution, TAP appeared together with effector cells of adaptive immunity at the transition from jawless to jawed vertebrates and diversified further within the jawed vertebrates. Here, we compared TAP function and interaction with tapasin of a range of species within two classes of jawed vertebrates. We found that avian and mammalian TAP1 and TAP2 form heterodimeric complexes across taxa. Moreover, the extra N-terminal domain TMD0 of mammalian TAP1 and TAP2 as well as avian TAP2 recruits tapasin. Strikingly, however, only TAP1 and TAP2 from the same taxon can form a functional heterodimeric translocation complex. These data demonstrate that the dimerization interface between TAP1 and TAP2 and the tapasin docking sites for PLC assembly are conserved in evolution, whereas elements of antigen translocation diverged later in evolution and are thus taxon specific.
While it is extraordinarily difficult to theoretically specify privacy, in the last 100 years or so (social) psychology, philosophy, communication studies, economics, and, to a lesser degree, also sociology and anthropology, provided attempts to conceptualize its meaning. Be that as it may, from the 1960s onwards privacy discourse has focused upon data, understood as “personal information”, to a certain extent because of the advent of huge databases and information and communication technologies (ICTs). Influential scholarship at the present time tends to conceive of ICT-related privacy in terms of the “sociotechnical”, thus highlighting the interlocking of human and technical agency. Although having developed a manifold of instruments to research sociotechnical phenomena, STS engagement with sociotechnical privacy, so far, has been rather low-key. In our contribution we therefore provide a mapping of the research landscape, identify connecting factors between STS and sociotechnical privacy research, and calling for further STS contributions.
Several microRNAs (miRNAs) are associated with the molecular pathogenesis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, previous studies analyzing the dysregulation of miRNAs in HCC show heterogeneous results. We hypothesized that part of this heterogeneity might be attributable to variations of miRNA expression deriving from the HCC capsule or the fibrotic septa within the peritumoral tissue used as controls. Tissue from surgically resected hepatitis C–associated HCC from six well-matched patients was microdissected using laser microdissection and pressure catapulting technique. Four distinct histologic compartments were isolated: tumor parenchyma (TP), fibrous capsule of the tumor (TC), tumor-adjacent liver parenchyma (LP), and cirrhotic septa of the tumor-adjacent liver (LC). MiRNA expression profiling analysis of 1105 mature miRNAs and precursors was performed using miRNA microarray. Principal component analysis and consecutive pairwise supervised comparisons demonstrated distinct patterns of expressed miRNAs not only for TP versus LP (e.g., intratumoral down-regulation of miR-214, miR-199a, miR-146a, and miR-125a; P< .05) but also for TC versus LC (including down-regulation within TC of miR-126, miR-99a/100, miR-26a, and miR-125b; P< .05). The tumor capsule therefore demonstrates a tumor-like phenotype with down-regulation of well-known tumor-suppressive miRNAs. Variations of co-analyzed fibrotic tissue within the tumor or in controls may have profound influence on miRNA expression analyses in HCC. Several miRNAs, which are proposed to be HCC specific, may indeed be rather associated to the tumor capsule. As miRNAs evolve to be important biomarkers in liver tumors, the presented data have important translational implications on diagnostics and treatment in patients with HCC.
The traffic AAA-ATPase PilF is essential for pilus biogenesis and natural transformation of Thermus thermophilus HB27. Recently, we showed that PilF forms hexameric complexes containing six zinc atoms coordinated by conserved tetracysteine motifs. Here we report that zinc binding is essential for complex stability. However, zinc binding is neither required for pilus biogenesis nor natural transformation. A number of the mutants did not exhibit any pili during growth at 64 °C but still were transformable. This leads to the conclusion that type 4 pili and the DNA translocator are distinct systems. At lower growth temperatures (55 °C) the zinc-depleted multiple cysteine mutants were hyperpiliated but defective in pilus-mediated twitching motility. This provides evidence that zinc binding is essential for the role of PilF in pilus dynamics. Moreover, we found that zinc binding is essential for complex stability but dispensable for ATPase activity. In contrast to many polymerization ATPases from mesophilic bacteria, ATP binding is not required for PilF complex formation; however, it significantly increases complex stability. These data suggest that zinc and ATP binding increase complex stability that is important for functionality of PilF under extreme environmental conditions.
In the search for novel organic charge transfer salts with variable degrees of charge transfer we have studied the effects of two modifications of the recently synthesized donor–acceptor system [tetramethoxypyrene (TMP)]–[tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ)]. One is of chemical nature by substituting the acceptor TCNQ molecules by F4TCNQ molecules. The second consists in simulating the application of uniaxial pressure along the stacking axis of the system. In order to test the chemical substitution, we have grown single crystals of the TMP–F4TCNQ complex and analyzed its electronic structure via electronic transport measurements, ab initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations and UV/VIS/IR absorption spectroscopy. This system shows an almost ideal geometrical overlap of nearly planar molecules stacked alternately (mixed stack) and this arrangement is echoed by a semiconductor-like transport behavior with an increased conductivity along the stacking direction. This is in contrast to TMP–TCNQ which shows a less pronounced anisotropy and a smaller conductivity response. Our band structure calculations confirm the one-dimensional behavior of TMP–F4TCNQ with pronounced dispersion only along the stacking axis. Infrared measurements illustrating the C[triple bond, length as m-dash]N vibration frequency shift in F4TCNQ suggest however no improvement in the degree of charge transfer in TMP–F4TCNQ with respect to TMP–TCNQ. In both complexes about 0.1e is transferred from TMP to the acceptor. Concerning the pressure effect, our DFT calculations on the designed TMP–TCNQ and TMP–F4TCNQ structures under different pressure conditions show that application of uniaxial pressure along the stacking axis of TMP–TCNQ may be the route to follow in order to obtain a much more pronounced charge transfer.
The phase diagram of the square lattice bilayer Hubbard model: a variational Monte Carlo study
(2014)
We investigate the phase diagram of the square lattice bilayer Hubbard model at half-filling with the variational Monte Carlo method for both the magnetic and the paramagnetic case as a function of the interlayer hopping and on-site Coulomb repulsion U. With this study we resolve some discrepancies in previous calculations based on the dynamical mean-field theory, and we are able to determine the nature of the phase transitions between metal, Mott insulator and band insulator. In the magnetic case we find only two phases: an antiferromagnetic Mott insulator at small for any value of U and a band insulator at large . At large U values we approach the Heisenberg limit. The paramagnetic phase diagram shows at small a metal to Mott insulator transition at moderate U values and a Mott to band insulator transition at larger U values. We also observe a re-entrant Mott insulator to metal transition and metal to band insulator transition for increasing in the range of . Finally, we discuss the phase diagrams obtained in relation to findings from previous studies based on different many-body approaches.
Recent density functional theory (DFT) calculations for KFe2As2 have been shown to be insufficient to satisfactorily describe angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) measurements as well as observed de Haas–van Alphen (dHvA) frequencies. In the present work, we extend DFT calculations based on the full-potential linear augmented plane-wave method by dynamical mean field theory (DFT+DMFT) to include correlation effects beyond the local density approximation. We present results for two sets of reported crystal structures. Our calculations indicate that KFe2As2 is a moderately correlated metal with a mass renormalization factor of the Fe $3{\rm d}$ orbitals between 1.6 and 2.7. Furthermore, the obtained shape and size of the Fermi surface are in good agreement with ARPES measurements and we observe some topological changes with respect to DFT calculations such as the opening of an inner hole cylinder at the Z point. As a result, our calculated dHvA frequencies differ greatly from existing DFT results and qualitatively agree with experimental data. On this basis, we argue that correlation effects are important to understand the -presently under debate- nature of the superconducting state in KFe2As2.
The hydrophobic thickness of membranes, which is manly defined by fatty acids, influences the packing of transmembrane domains of proteins and thus can modulate the activity of these proteins. We analyzed the dynamics of the dimerization of Glycophorin A (GpA) by molecular dynamics simulations to describe the fatty acid dependence of the transmembrane region assembly. GpA represents a well-established model for dimerization of single transmembrane helices containing a GxxxG motif in vitro and in silico. We performed simulations of the dynamics of the NMR-derived dimer as well as self-assembly simulations of monomers in membranes composed of different fatty acid chains and monitored the formed interfaces and their transitions. The observed dimeric interfaces, which also include the one known from NMR, are highly dynamic and converted into each other. The frequency of interface formation and the preferred transitions between interfaces similar to the interface observed by NMR analysis strongly depend on the fatty acid used to build the membrane. Molecular dynamic simulations after adaptation of the helix topology parameters to better represent NMR derived structures of single transmembrane helices yielded an enhanced occurrence of the interface determined by NMR in molecular dynamics simulations. Taken together we give insights into the influence of fatty acids and helix conformation on the dynamics of the transmembrane domain of GpA.
Analysis of whole cell lipid extracts of bacteria by means of ultra-performance (UP)LC-MS allows a comprehensive determination of the lipid molecular species present in the respective organism. The data allow conclusions on its metabolic potential as well as the creation of lipid profiles, which visualize the organism's response to changes in internal and external conditions. Herein, we describe: i) a fast reversed phase UPLC-ESI-MS method suitable for detection and determination of individual lipids from whole cell lipid extracts of all polarities ranging from monoacylglycerophosphoethanolamines to TGs; ii) the first overview of a wide range of lipid molecular species in vegetative Myxococcus xanthus DK1622 cells; iii) changes in their relative composition in selected mutants impaired in the biosynthesis of α-hydroxylated FAs, sphingolipids, and ether lipids; and iv) the first report of ceramide phosphoinositols in M. xanthus, a lipid species previously found only in eukaryotes.
ω-Azido fatty acids as probes to detect fatty acid biosynthesis, degradation, and modification
(2014)
FAs play a central role in the metabolism of almost all known cellular life forms. Although GC-MS is regarded as a standard method for FA analysis, other methods, such as HPLC/MS, are nowadays widespread but are rarely applied to FA analysis. Here we present azido-FAs as probes that can be used to study FA biosynthesis (elongation, desaturation) or degradation (β-oxidation) upon their uptake, activation, and metabolic conversion. These azido-FAs are readily accessible by chemical synthesis and their matization with high sensitivity by HPLC/MS, contributing a powerful tool to FA analysis, and hence, lipid analysis in general.
Background: Influenza vaccination of healthcare workers (HCWs) is recommended to prevent the transmission of influenza to vulnerable patients. Nevertheless, vaccination coverage rates of HCWs in European countries have been low.
Aim: To investigate the relative and combined strength of sociocognitive variables, from past research, theory and a qualitative study, in explaining the motivation of HCWs to receive the influenza vaccine.
Methods: An anonymous, online questionnaire was distributed among HCWs in hospital settings in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands between February and April 2013.
Findings: Attitude and past vaccination uptake explained a considerable amount of variance in the intention of HCWs to receive the influenza vaccine. Moreover, low perceived social norms, omission bias, low moral norms, being older, having no patient contact, and being Belgian or Dutch (compared with German) increased the probability of having no intention to receive the influenza vaccine compared with being undecided about vaccination. High intention to receive the influenza vaccine was shown to be more likely than being undecided about vaccination when HCWs had high perceived susceptibility of contracting influenza, low naturalistic views, and lower motivation to receive the vaccine solely for self-protection.
Conclusion: Country-specific interventions and a focus on different sociocognitive variables depending on the intention/lack of intention of HCWs to receive the influenza vaccine may be beneficial to promote vaccination uptake.
The title solvated salt, C29H41N2+·Br-·2CH2Cl2 was obtained from the reaction of the Arduengo-type carbene 1,3-bis(2,6-diisopropylphenyl)-1,3-dihydro-4,5-dimethyl-2H-imidazol-2-ylidene with Si2Br6 in dichloromethane. The complete cation is generated by a crystallographic mirror plane and the dihedral angle between the five-membered ring and the benzene ring is 89.8 (6)°; the dihedral angle between the benzene rings is 40.7 (2)°. The anion also lies on the mirror plane and both dichloromethane molecules are disordered across the mirror plane over two equally occupied orientations. In the crystal, the cations are linked to the anions via C-H...Br hydrogen bonds.
The ALICE Zero Degree Calorimeter system (ZDC) is composed of two identical sets of calorimeters, placed at opposite sides with respect to the interaction point, 114 meters away from it, complemented by two small forward electromagnetic calorimeters (ZEM). Each set of detectors consists of a neutron (ZN) and a proton (ZP) ZDC. They are placed at zero degrees with respect to the LHC axis and allow to detect particles emitted close to beam direction, in particular neutrons and protons emerging from hadronic heavy-ion collisions (spectator nucleons) and those emitted from electromagnetic processes. For neutrons emitted by these two processes, the ZN calorimeters have nearly 100% acceptance.
During the √sNN = 2.76 TeV Pb-Pb data-taking, the ALICE Collaboration studied forward neutron emission with a dedicated trigger, requiring a minimum energy deposition in at least one of the two ZN. By exploiting also the information of the two ZEM calorimeters it has been possible to separate the contributions of electromagnetic and hadronic processes and to study single neutron vs. multiple neutron emission.
The measured cross sections of single and mutual electromagnetic dissociation of Pb nuclei at √sNN = 2.76 TeV, with neutron emission, are σsingle EMD = 187:4 ± 0.2 (stat.)−11.2+13.2 (syst.) b and σmutual EMD = 5.7 ± 0.1 (stat.) ±0.4 (syst.) b, respectively [1]. This is the first measurement of electromagnetic dissociation of 208Pb nuclei at the LHC energies, allowing a test of electromagnetic dissociation theory in a new energy regime. The experimental results are compared to the predictions from a relativistic electromagnetic dissociation model.
Single-pion production in proton-proton collisions at 1.25 GeV: measurements by HADES and a PWA
(2014)
We report on the single-pion production in proton-proton collisions at a kinetic energy of 1.25 GeV based on data measured with HADES. Exclusive channels npπ+ and ppπ0 were studied simultaneously. The parametrization of production cross sections of the one-pion final states by means of the resonance model has been obtained. Independently, the extraction of the leading partial waves in the data were analyzed within the framework of the partial wave analysis (PWA). Contributions for the production of ∆(1232) and N(1440) intermediate states have been deduced.
Event-by-event fluctuations of the mean transverse momentum of charged particles produced in pp collisions at s√ = 0.9, 2.76 and 7 TeV, and Pb-Pb collisions at sNN−−−−√ = 2.76 TeV are studied as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity using the ALICE detector at the LHC. Dynamical fluctuations indicative of correlated particle emission are observed in all systems. The results in pp collisions show little dependence on collision energy. The Monte Carlo event generators PYTHIA and PHOJET are in qualitative agreement with the data. Peripheral Pb-Pb data exhibit a similar multiplicity dependence as that observed in pp. In central Pb-Pb, the results deviate from this trend, featuring a significant reduction of the fluctuation strength. The results in Pb--Pb are in qualitative agreement with previous measurements in Au-Au at lower collision energies and with expectations from models that incorporate collective phenomena.
Na(+)/H(+) exchangers are essential for regulation of intracellular proton and sodium concentrations in all living organisms. We examined and experimentally verified a kinetic model for Na(+)/H(+) exchangers, where a single binding site is alternatively occupied by Na(+) or one or two H(+) ions. The proposed transport mechanism inherently down-regulates Na(+)/H(+) exchangers at extreme pH, preventing excessive cytoplasmic acidification or alkalinization. As an experimental test system we present the first electrophysiological investigation of an electroneutral Na(+)/H(+) exchanger, NhaP1 from Methanocaldococcus jannaschii (MjNhaP1), a close homologue of the medically important eukaryotic NHE Na(+)/H(+) exchangers. The kinetic model describes the experimentally observed substrate dependences of MjNhaP1, and the transport mechanism explains alkaline down-regulation of MjNhaP1. Because this model also accounts for acidic down-regulation of the electrogenic NhaA Na(+)/H(+) exchanger from Escherichia coli (EcNhaA, shown in a previous publication) we conclude that it applies generally to all Na(+)/H(+) exchangers, electrogenic as well as electroneutral, and elegantly explains their pH regulation. Furthermore, the electrophysiological analysis allows insight into the electrostatic structure of the translocation complex in electroneutral and electrogenic Na(+)/H(+) exchangers.
In reply to internal or external danger stimuli, the body orchestrates an inflammatory response. The endogenous triggers of this process are the damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs). DAMPs represent a heterogeneous group of molecules that draw their origin either from inside the various compartments of the cell or from the extracellular space. Following interaction with pattern recognition receptors in cross-talk with various non-immune receptors, DAMPs determine the downstream signaling outcome of septic and aseptic inflammatory responses. In this review, the diverse nature, structural characteristics, and signaling pathways elicited by DAMPs will be critically evaluated.
While patients with chronic hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are treated in order to prevent liver-related morbidity and mortality, we rely on sustained virological response (SVR) as a virological biomarker to evaluate treatment efficacy in both clinical practice as well as in drug development. However, conclusive evidence for the clinical benefit of antiviral therapy or validity of SVR as surrogate marker, as derived from trials randomizing patients to a treatment or control arm, is lacking. In fact, the Hepatitis C Antiviral Long-term Treatment Against Cirrhosis (HALT-C) trial recently showed an increased mortality rate among interferon-treated patients compared to untreated controls. Consequently, the recommendation to treat patients with chronic HCV infection was challenged.
Here, we argue that the possible harmful effect of long-term low-dose pegylated interferon mono therapy, as was observed in the HALT-C trial cohort, cannot be extrapolated to potentially curative short-term treatment regimens. Furthermore, we discuss SVR as a surrogate biomarker, based on numerous studies which indicated an association between SVR and improvements in health-related quality of life, hepatic inflammation and fibrosis, and portal pressure as well as a reduced risk for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), liver failure and mortality.
Pattern recognition applied to whole-brain neuroimaging data, such as functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), has proved successful at discriminating psychiatric patients from healthy participants. However, predictive patterns obtained from whole-brain voxel-based features are difficult to interpret in terms of the underlying neurobiology. Many psychiatric disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia, are thought to be brain connectivity disorders. Therefore, pattern recognition based on network models might provide deeper insights and potentially more powerful predictions than whole-brain voxel-based approaches. Here, we build a novel sparse network-based discriminative modeling framework, based on Gaussian graphical models and L1-norm regularized linear Support Vector Machines (SVM). In addition, the proposed framework is optimized in terms of both predictive power and reproducibility/stability of the patterns. Our approach aims to provide better pattern interpretation than voxel-based whole-brain approaches by yielding stable brain connectivity patterns that underlie discriminative changes in brain function between the groups. We illustrate our technique by classifying patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and healthy participants, in two (event- and block-related) fMRI datasets acquired while participants performed a gender discrimination and emotional task, respectively, during the visualization of emotional valent faces.
The ability to delay gratification, to wait for a larger but delayed reward in the presence of a smaller but constantly available reward, has been shown to be predictive for various aspects of everyday life. For instance, preschool children who were better able to delay gratification achieved better school grades, a higher education, a better ability to cope with stress, as well as a reduced risk for being overweight or consume drugs up to 30 years later (Mischel et al., 2011). However, despite the importance of delay of gratification cognitive factors underlying individual differences are only poorly understood. Wittmann and Paulus (2008) suggested that individuals who overestimate the duration of time intervals experience waiting times as more costly and are, therefore, less likely to delay gratification. Furthermore, a recent study revealed an association between less accurate internal clock speed and a behavioral choice delay task (Corvi, Juergensen, Weaver, & Demaree, 2012). Further evidence for an association between temporal processing and delay of gratification can be derived from studies using clinical samples. For instance, children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) consistently prefer smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards and show impaired temporal processing (Sonuga-Barke, Bitsakou, & Thompson, 2010). However, no study has directly tested an association between a measure of temporal processing and a classical delay of gratification task in children with and without ADHD so far.
As part of a larger study, 64 children (29 with ADHD) aged between 8 to 12 years performed a version of an auditory duration discrimination task and a delay of gratification task. In the duration discrimination task, the children were presented with two unfilled intervals indicated by two brief tones each. The baseline interval lasted for 400 ms, while the comparison interval was always longer and adjusted up or down in 10 ms steps securing an accuracy of 80%. In the delay of gratification task, the children were instructed that they could either opt for one chocolate bar immediately or that they could wait to receive two chocolate bars. Unbeknownst to the children, the waiting time lasted 25 minutes but children were told that they could decide for the immediate chocolate bar at any time by ringing a bell.
Children with ADHD did not differ in their performance from children without ADHD in the duration discrimination task or the delay of gratification task. However, in the whole sample of children with and without ADHD, children who waited for the additional chocolate bar showed a better duration discrimination than children who failed to wait for the additional chocolate bar [t(62) = -2.52, p = .01].
We demonstrated an association between temporal processing ability and the ability to delay gratification. These results need to be replicated in further studies with larger sample sizes. Moreover, different tasks measuring temporal processing and delay of gratification should be used to further clarify the relationship of temporal processing, delay of gratification, and ADHD.
Autophagy plays an essential role in maintaining an intricate balance between nutrient demands and energetic requirements during normal homeostasis. Autophagy recycles metabolic substrates from nonspecific bulk degradation of proteins and excess or damaged organelles. Recent work posits an active and dynamic signaling role for extracellular matrix-evoked autophagic regulation, that is, allosteric and independent of prevailing nutrient conditions. Several candidates, representing a diverse repertoire of matrix constituents (decorin, collagen VI, laminin α2, endostatin, endorepellin, and kringle V), can modulate autophagic signaling pathways. Importantly, a novel principle indicates that matrix constituents can differentially modulate autophagic induction and repression via interaction with specific receptors. Most of the matrix-derived factors described here appear to control autophagy in a canonical manner but independent of nutrient deprivation. Because the molecular composition and structure of the extracellular matrix are dynamically remodeled during various physiological and pathological conditions, we propose that matrix-regulated autophagy is key for maintaining proper tissue homeostasis and disease prevention, such as cancer progression and muscular dystrophies.
Neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy is a possible therapeutic approach for the treatment of locally advanced operable, primarily non-operable or inflammatory breast cancer. Neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy is an option for breast cancer patients who would require adjuvant chemotherapy otherwise based on clinical and histological examination and imaging. The use of neoadjuvant systemic therapy in operable breast cancer is currently increasing because of its advantages that include higher rates of breast conserving surgery and the possibility of measuring early in-vivo response to systemic treatment. The timing of axillary sentinel lymph node diagnosis (i.e. before or after neoadjuvant chemotherapy) is critical in that it may influence the likelihood of axillary preservation. It is not yet clear if neoadjuvant therapy might improve outcomes in certain subgroups of breast cancer patients. Neoadjuvant treatment modalities require a close collaboration between oncology professionals, including surgeons, gynecologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, radiologists and pathologists. The most important parameter for treatment success and improved overall survival is the achievement of a pathologic complete response (pCR), although the role of pCR in patients with luminal A like tumours might be less informative. Identification of patient subgroups with high pCR rates may allow less invasive surgical or radiological interventions. Patients not achieving a pCR may be candidates for postoperative clinical trials exploring novel systemic treatments.
The colour-singlet axial-vector vertex plays a pivotal role in understanding dynamical chiral symmetry breaking and numerous hadronic weak interactions, yet scant model-independent information is available. We therefore use longitudinal and transverse Ward–Green–Takahashi (WGT) identities, together with kinematic constraints, in order to ameliorate this situation and expose novel features of the axial vertex: amongst them, Ward-like identities for elements in the transverse piece of the vertex, which complement and shed new light on identities determined previously for components in its longitudinal part. Such algebraic results are verified via solutions of the Bethe–Salpeter equation for the axial vertex obtained using two materially different kernels for the relevant Dyson–Schwinger equations. The solutions also provide insights that suggest a practical Ansatz for the axial-vector vertex.
We explore the parameter space of the two-flavor thermal quark–meson model and its Polyakov loop-extended version under the influence of a constant external magnetic field B. We investigate the behavior of the pseudo critical temperature for chiral symmetry breaking taking into account the likely dependence of two parameters on the magnetic field: the Yukawa quark–meson coupling and the parameter T0 of the Polyakov loop potential. Under the constraints that magnetic catalysis is realized at zero temperature and the chiral transition at B=0 is a crossover, we find that the quark–meson model leads to thermal magnetic catalysis for the whole allowed parameter space, in contrast to the present picture stemming from lattice QCD.
Coherent photo-production of sons in ultra-peripheral Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC measured by ALICE
(2014)
We present the differential cross section for coherent ρ0 photo-production at mid-rapidity (−0.5 < y < 0.5) measured by the ALICE experiment in Pb-Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV at the LHC, as well as the total ρ0 cross section obtained by modelbased extrapolation to all rapidities. These cross sections are compared to various model predictions, as well as to earlier measurements at RHIC. In addition, we present results on nuclear breakup in coincidence with coherent ρ0 photo-production.
We study vacuum masses of charmonia and the charm-quark diffusion coefficient in the quark-gluon plasma based on the spectral representation for meson correlators. To calculate the correlators, we solve the quark gap equation and the inhomogeneous Bethe–Salpeter equation in the rainbow-ladder approximation. It is found that the ground-state masses of charmonia in the pseudoscalar, scalar, and vector channels can be well described. For 1.5Tc<T<3.0Tc, the value of the diffusion coefficient D is comparable with that obtained by lattice QCD and experiments: 3.4<2πTD<5.9. Relating the diffusion coefficient with the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density η/s of the quark-gluon plasma, we obtain values in the range 0.09<η/s<0.16.
We present a simultaneous calculation of heavy single-Λ hypernuclei and compact stars containing hypernuclear core within a relativistic density functional theory based on a Lagrangian which includes the hyperon octet and lightest isoscalar-isovector mesons which couple to baryons with density-dependent couplings. The corresponding density functional allows for SU(6) symmetry breaking and mixing in the isoscalar sector, whereby the departures in the σ–Λ and σ–Σ couplings away from their values implied by the SU(3) symmetric model are used to adjust the theory to the laboratory and astronomical data. We fix σ–Λ coupling using the data on the single-Λ hypernuclei and derive an upper bound on the σ–Σ from the requirement that the lower bound on the maximum mass of a compact star is 2M⊙.
In this work the baryon number and strange susceptibility of second and fourth order are presented. The results at zero baryon-chemical potential are obtained using a well tested chiral effective model including all known hadron degrees of freedom and additionally implementing quarks and gluons in a PNJL-like approach. Quark and baryon number susceptibilities are sensitive to the fundamental degrees of freedom in the model and signal the shift from massive hadrons to light quarks at the deconfinement transition by a sharp rise at the critical temperature. Furthermore, all susceptibilities are found to be largely suppressed by repulsive vector field interactions of the particles. In the hadronic sector vector repulsion of baryon resonances restrains fluctuations to a large amount and in the quark sector above Tc even small vector field interactions of quarks quench all fluctuations unreasonably strong. For this reason, vector field interactions for quarks have to vanish in the deconfinement limit.
We show how repulsive interactions of deconfined quarks as well as confined hadrons have an influence on the baryon number susceptibilities and the curvature of the chiral pseudo-critical line in effective models of QCD. We discuss implications and constraints for the vector interaction strength from comparisons to lattice QCD and comment on earlier constraints, extracted from the curvature of the transition line of QCD and compact star observables. Our results clearly point to a strong vector repulsion in the hadronic phase and near-zero repulsion in the deconfined phase.
We study the phase structure of QCD at finite temperature within a Polyakov-loop extended quark–meson model. Such a model describes the chiral as well as the confinement-deconfinement dynamics. In the present investigation, based on the approach and results put forward in [1], [2], [3], [4], both matter and glue fluctuations are included. We present results for the order parameters as well as some thermodynamic observables and find very good agreement with recent results from lattice QCD.
Within the statistical model, the net strangeness conservation and incomplete total strangeness equilibration lead to the suppression of strange particle multiplicities. Furthermore, suppression effects appear to be stronger in small systems. By treating the production of strangeness within the canonical ensemble formulation we developed a simple model which allows to predict the excitation function of K+/π+ ratio in nucleus–nucleus collisions. In doing so we assumed that different values of K+/π+, measured in p + p and Pb + Pb interactions at the same collision energy per nucleon, are driven by the finite size effects only. These predictions may serve as a baseline for experimental results from NA61/SHINE at the CERN SPS and the future CBM experiment at FAIR.
The fluctuations in the ideal quantum gases are studied using the strongly intensive measures Δ[A,B] and Σ[A,B] defined in terms of two extensive quantities A and B. In the present Letter, these extensive quantities are taken as the motional variable, A=X, the system energy E or transverse momentum PT, and number of particles, B=N. This choice is most often considered in studying the event-by-event fluctuations and correlations in high energy nucleus–nucleus collisions. The recently proposed special normalization ensures that Δ and Σ are dimensionless and equal to unity for fluctuations given by the independent particle model. In statistical mechanics, the grand canonical ensemble formulation within the Boltzmann approximation gives an example of independent particle model. Our results demonstrate the effects due to the Bose and Fermi statistics. Estimates of the effects of quantum statistics in the hadron gas at temperatures and chemical potentials typical for thermal models of hadron production in high energy collisions are presented. In the case of massless particles and zero chemical potential the Δ and Σ measures are calculated analytically.
The diagnosis of drug induced liver injury (DILI) is based primarily on the exclusion of alternative causes. To assess the frequency of alternative causes in initially suspected DILI cases, we searched the Medline database with the following terms: drug hepatotoxicity, drug induced liver injury, and hepatotoxic drugs. For each term, we used the first 100 publications. We reviewed references, selected those reports relevant to our study, and retrieved finally 15 publications related to DILI and alternative causes. A total of 2,906 cases of initially assumed DILI were analyzed in these 15 publications, with diagnoses missed in 14% of the cases due to overt alternative causes. In another 11%, the diagnosis of DILI could not be established because of confounding variables. Alternative diagnoses included hepatitis B, C, and E, CMV, EBV, ischemic hepatitis, autoimmune hepatitis, primary biliary cirrhosis, primary sclerosing cholangitis, hemochromatosis, Wilson’s disease, Gilbert’s syndrome, fatty liver, non alcoholic steatohepatitis, alcoholic liver diseases, cardiac and thyroid causes, rhabdomyolysis, polymyositis, postictal state, tumors, lymphomas, chlamydial and HIV infections. Causality assessment methods applied in these 15 publications were the CIOMS (Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences) scale alone (n = 5) or combined with the Maria and Victorino (MV) scale (n = 1), the DILIN (Drug-Induced Liver Injury Network) method (n = 4), or the Naranjo scale (n = 1); the qualitative CIOMS method alone (n = 3) or combined with the MV scale (n = 1). In conclusion, alternative diagnoses are common in primarily suspected DILI cases and should be excluded early in future cases, requiring a thorough clinical and causality assessment.
The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C28H42N2O5·H2O, consists of one half of the organic molecule and one half-molecule of water, both of which are located on a mirror plane which passes through the central C atoms and the hydroxyl group of the heterocyclic system. The hydroxyl group at the central ring is disordered over two equally occupied positions. The six-membered ring adopts a chair conformation, and the 2-hydroxybenzyl substituents occupy the sterically preferred equatorial positions. The aromatic rings make dihedral angles of 75.57 (9)° with the mean plane of the heterocyclic ring. The dihedral angle between the two aromatic rings is 19.18 (10)°. The molecular structure features two intramolecular phenolic O-H...N hydrogen bonds with graph-set motif S(6). In the crystal, molecules are connected via O-H...O hydrogen bonds into zigzag chains running along the a-axis direction.
Connecting narrative worlds
(2014)
The electric dipole strength distribution in 130Te has been investigated using the method of Nuclear Resonance Fluorescence. The experiments were performed at the Darmstadt High Intensity Photon Setup using bremsstrahlung as photon source and at the High Intensity -Ray Source, where quasi-monochromatic and polarized photon beams are provided. Average decay properties of 130Te below the neutron separation energy are determined. Comparing the experimental data to the predictions of the statistical model indicate, that nuclear structure effects play an important role even at sufficiently high excitation energies. Preliminary results will be presented.
Fission fragment mass distributions were measured in heavy-ion induced fissions using 238U target nucleus. The measured mass distributions changed drastically with incident energy. The results are explained by a change of the ratio between fusion and qasifission with nuclear orientation. A calculation based on a fluctuation dissipation model reproduced the mass distributions and their incident energy dependence. Fusion probability was determined in the analysis, and the values were consistent with those determined from the evaporation residue cross sections.
The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR), under construction at Darmstadt will provide intense relativistic beams of exotic nuclei at its Superconducting-FRagment Separator. High-resolution in-beam γ-ray spectroscopy will be performed in the HISPEC experiment, using the European Advanced GAmma-ray Tracking Array (AGATA). The PreSPEC-AGATA campaign is the predecessor of HISPEC and runs from 2012 to 2014 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH. Up to19 AGATA modules were used at GSI's F Ragment Separator in 2012. We report on the status of the experiment including preliminary results from performance commissioning.
The n_TOF facility operates at CERN with the aim of addressing the request of high accuracy nuclear data for advanced nuclear energy systems as well as for nuclear astrophysics. Thanks to the features of the neutron beam, important results have been obtained on neutron induced fission and capture cross sections of U, Pu and minor actinides. Recently the construction of another beam line has started; the new line will be complementary to the first one, allowing to further extend the experimental program foreseen for next measurement campaigns.
The production of charmonia in the antiproton-nucleus reactions at plab = 3 − 10 GeV/c is studied within the Glauber model and the generalized eikonal approximation. The main reaction channel is charmonium formation in an antiproton-proton collision. The target mass dependence of the charmonium transparency ratio allows to determine the charmonium-nucleon cross section. The polarization effects in the production of χc2 states are evaluated.
The simultaneous description of the hadronic yields, pion, kaon and proton spectra, elliptic flows and femtoscopy scales in hydrokinetic model of A+A collisions is presented at different centralities for the top RHIC and LHC energies. The hydrokinetic model is used in its hybrid version that allows one to switch correctly to the UrQMD cascade at the isochronic hypersurface which separates the cascade stage and decaying hydrodynamic one. The results are compared with pure hybrid model where hydrodynamics and hadronic cascade are matching just at the non-space-like hypersurface of chemical freeze-out. The initial conditions are based on both Glauber- and KLN- Monte-Carlo simulations and results are compared. It seems that the observables, especially femtoscopy data, prefer the Glauber initial conditions. The modification of the particle number ratios caused, in particular, by the particle annihilations at the afterburn stage is analyzed.
The HADES collaboration has searched for the anti-kaonic nuclear cluster “ppK−” in p+p collisions by its decay into pΛ. In the course of this analysis several cross checks had to be performed. This report discusses two examples thereof. In one test it was checked whether the presence of background events could introduce a bias on the applied partial wave analysis. The second item discussed here is the extraction of the total pK+Λ production cross section necessary to derive the absolute upper limit on the “ppK−” production cross section.
The study of neutron-induced reactions is of high relevance in a wide variety of fields, ranging from stellar nucleosynthesis and fundamental nuclear physics to applications of nuclear technology. In nuclear energy, high accuracy neutron data are needed for the development of Generation IV fast reactors and accelerator driven systems, these last aimed specifically at nuclear waste incineration, as well as for research on innovative fuel cycles. In this context, a high luminosity Neutron Time Of Flight facility, n_TOF, is operating at CERN since more than a decade, with the aim of providing new, high accuracy and high resolution neutron cross-sections. Thanks to the features of the neutron beam, a rich experimental program relevant to nuclear technology has been carried out so far. The program will be further expanded in the near future, thanks in particular to a new high-flux experimental area, now under construction.
We propose an effective theory of SU(3) gluonic matter where interactions between color-electric and color-magnetic gluons are constrained by the center and scale symmetries. Through matching to the dimensionally-reduced magnetic theories, the magnetic gluon condensate qualitatively changes its thermal behavior above the critical temperature. We argue its phenomenological consequences for the thermodynamics, in particular the dynamical breaking of scale invariance.
The so-called Pygmy Dipole Resonance, an additional structure of low-lying electric dipole strength, has attracted strong interest in the last years. Different experimental approaches have been used in the last decade in order to investigate this new interesting nuclear excitation mode. In this contribution an overview on the available experimental data is given.
Many QCD based and phenomenological models predict changes of hadron properties in a strongly interacting environment. The results of these models differ significantly and the experimental determination of hadron properties in nuclear matter is essential. In this paper we present a review of selected physics results obtained at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung GmbH by HADES (High-Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer). The e+e− pair emission measured for proton and heavy-ion induced collisions is reported together with results on strangeness production. The future HADES activities at the planned FAIR facility are also discussed.
The High Acceptance DiElectron Spectrometer HADES [1] is installed at the Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) accelerator facility in Darmstadt. It investigates dielectron emission and strangeness production in the 1-3 AGeV regime. A recent experiment series focusses on medium-modifications of light vector mesons in cold nuclear matter. In two runs, p+p and p+Nb reactions were investigated at 3.5 GeV beam energy; about 9·109 events have been registered. In contrast to other experiments the high acceptance of the HADES allows for a detailed analysis of electron pairs with low momenta relative to nuclear matter, where modifications of the spectral functions of vector mesons are predicted to be most prominent. Comparing these low momentum electron pairs to the reference measurement in the elementary p+p reaction, we find in fact a strong modification of the spectral distribution in the whole vector meson region.
We review recent results on J/ψ production measured by the ALICE collaboration at the LHC. For pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV yields and spectra of inclusive and prompt J/ψ, as well as results on their polarization and the charged particle multiplicity dependence of yields are presented. Measurements of the nuclear modification factor RAA of inclusive J/ψ at mid-(|y| < 0.9) and forward-rapidities (2.5 < y < 4), covering the range to pt = 0, for centrality selected Pb-Pb collisions are discussed. Also, first results on the J/ψυ2 at forward-rapidities are shown.
During the 2011 Pb-Pb run, dedicated triggers were used by the ALICE Collaboration to enrich ultra-peripheral collisions (UPC) to measure the J/ψ production cross section and its rapidity dependence at a centre of mass energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair. In this article, the ongoing studies on J/ψ photoproduction in UPC events are presented.
The neutron sensitivity of the C6D6 detector setup used at n_TOF facility for capture measurements has been studied by means of detailed GEANT4 simulations. A realistic software replica of the entire n_TOF experimental hall, including the neutron beam line, sample, detector supports and the walls of the experimental area has been implemented in the simulations. The simulations have been analyzed in the same manner as experimental data, in particular by applying the Pulse Height Weighting Technique. The simulations have been validated against a measurement of the neutron background performed with a natC sample, showing an excellent agreement above 1 keV. At lower energies, an additional component in the measured natC yield has been discovered, which prevents the use of natC data for neutron background estimates at neutron energies below a few hundred eV. The origin and time structure of the neutron background have been derived from the simulations. Examples of the neutron background for two different samples are demonstrating the important role of accurate simulations of the neutron background in capture cross-section measurements.
We report on the measurement of the inclusive Υ (1S) production in Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV carried out at forward rapidity (2.5 < y < 4) and down to zero transverse momentum using its μ+μ−decay channel with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. A strong suppression of the inclusive Υ (1S) yield is observed with respect to pp collisions scaled by the number of independent nucleon–nucleon collisions. The nuclear modification factor, for events in the 0–90% centrality range, amounts to 0.30 ± 0.05(stat) ± 0.04(syst). The observed Υ (1S) suppression tends to increase with the centrality of the collision and seems more pronounced than in corresponding mid-rapidity measurements. Our results are compared with model calculations, which are found to underestimate the measured suppression and fail to reproduce its rapidity dependence.
Transverse momentum spectra of π±, K± and p(p¯) up to pT = 20 GeV/c at mid-rapidity in pp, peripheral (60–80%) and central (0–5%) Pb–Pb collisions at √sNN = 2.76 TeV have been measured using the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The proton-to-pion and the kaon-to-pion ratios both show a distinct peak at pT ≈ 3 GeV/c in central Pb–Pb collisions. Below the peak, pT < 3 GeV/c, both ratios are in good agreement with hydrodynamical calculations, suggesting that the peak itself is dominantly the result of radial flow rather than anomalous hadronization processes. For pT > 10 GeV/c particle ratios in pp and Pb–Pb collisions are in agreement and the nuclear modification factors for π±, K± and p(p¯) indicate that, within the systematic and statistical uncertainties, the suppression is the same. This suggests that the chemical composition of leading particles from jets in the medium is similar to that of vacuum jets.
Freeze-out radii extracted from three-pion cumulants in pp, p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC
(2014)
In high-energy collisions, the spatio-temporal size of the particle production region can be measured using the Bose–Einstein correlations of identical bosons at low relative momentum. The source radii are typically extracted using two-pion correlations, and characterize the system at the last stage of interaction, called kinetic freeze-out. In low-multiplicity collisions, unlike in high-multiplicity collisions, two-pion correlations are substantially altered by background correlations, e.g. mini-jets. Such correlations can be suppressed using three-pion cumulant correlations. We present the first measurements of the size of the system at freeze-out extracted from three-pion cumulant correlations in pp, p–Pb and Pb–Pb collisions at the LHC with ALICE. At similar multiplicity, the invariant radii extracted in p–Pb collisions are found to be 5–15% larger than those in pp, while those in Pb–Pb are 35–55% larger than those in p–Pb. Our measurements disfavor models which incorporate substantially stronger collective expansion in p–Pb as compared to pp collisions at similar multiplicity.
We report on a polarization measurement of inclusive J/ψ mesons in the di-electron decay channel at mid-rapidity at 2 < pT < 6 GeV/c in p + p collisions at √s = 200 GeV. Data were taken with the STAR detector at RHIC. The J/ψ polarization measurement should help to distinguish between different models of the J/ψ production mechanism since they predict different pT dependences of the J/ψ polarization. In this analysis, J/ψ polarization is studied in the helicity frame. The polarization parameter λθ measured at RHIC becomes smaller towards high pT , indicating more longitudinal J/ψ polarization as pT increases. The result is compared with predictions of presently available models.
The ALICE Collaboration at the LHC reports measurement of the inclusive production cross section of electrons from semi-leptonic decays of beauty hadrons with rapidity |y| < 0.8 and transverse momentum 1 < pT < 10 GeV/c, in pp collisions at √s = 2.76 TeV. Electrons not originating from semi-electronic decay of beauty hadrons are suppressed using the impact parameter of the corresponding tracks. The production cross section of beauty decay electrons is compared to the result obtained with an alternative method which uses the distribution of the azimuthal angle between heavy-flavour decay electrons and charged hadrons. Perturbative QCD predictions agree with the measured cross section within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The integrated visible cross section, σb→e = 3.47 ± 0.40(stat) +1.12 −1.33(sys) ± 0.07(norm) μb, was extrapolated to full phase space using Fixed Order plus Next-to-Leading Log (FONLL) calculations to obtain the total bb production ¯ cross section, σbb¯ = 130 ± 15.1(stat) +42.1 −49.8(sys) +3.4 −3.1(extr) ± 2.5(norm) ± 4.4(BR) μb.
'Provinzielle Weite' ist eine Formulierung, die eine Spannweite aufzumachen gedenkt zwischen einem Verständnis von Provinz/provinziell als beschränkter, statischer, nicht weltoffener Lebens- und Denkweise und einer zwar peripheren Position, die aber gleichwohl gesellschaftliche und mentale Veränderungen sensibel wahrnimmt und künstlerische, technische und wissenschaftliche Innovationen in ihrer ganzen "Weite" zu registrieren und produktiv zu verarbeiten weiß. Im besten Fall kann es sogar geschehen, dass die Provinz die Chance des weit Abgelegenen nutzt, die dort gegebenen Spielräume und Eigenheiten produktiv zu wenden, um damit sogar ins Zentrum zurückzuwirken. Mit dieser Schlusswendung und der Nennung eines Zentrums wird in das Begriffsfeld "provinzielle Weite" eingestandenermaßen eine Denkfigur eingeführt, die mit dem Begriffspaar Peripherie und Zentrum umschrieben ist. Der [...] Abschnitt wird sich allein auf Kerner in Weinsberg konzentrieren, um das erstaunliche Phänomen zu erörtern, auf welche Weise es Justinus Kerner gelang, mit geschärftem Bewusstsein in der Provinz und weitab von der großen Hauptstadt zu leben und doch eine selten erreichte, weltoffene, internationale Plattform errichten zu können, kurz, wie es Kerner schaffte, die weite Welt in der Provinz Weinsberg zu implantieren.
[...] [Hoffmann] ist es im Sandmann [...] darum zu tun, beide Lesarten, die des Übernatürlichen/Wunderbaren auf der einen Seite und des Natürlichen, in diesem Falle: des dezidiert Psychologischen, auf der anderen, in der Schwebe zu halten. [...] er verfolgt [...] eine Strategie der unsinnlichen Ähnlichkeit, dergestalt dass das Wunderbare mittels einer metaphysisch angereicherten Psychologie als allegorisch lesbar wird.
The present paper focuses on some aspects of the so called wooden language in the german newspaper published in Romania from the pre-revolutionary period, to be exact in the forms of expression of this language identified in the condolences messages on the death of the communist leaders Josef Wissarionowitsch Stalin and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, which were published in the newspaper Neuer Weg (NW) (1953 respectively 1965). The theoretical point of view hold by the author is that of sociolinguistics and pragmalinguistics. At first, the concept wooden language is defined and its most important structural features and means of utterance are identified, the socio-historical background, that encourages the existence of the analysed phenomenon is also explained. The results of the analysis are presented further: the form of expression of the “wooden” statements, their morpho-syntactic, semantic, pragmatic-stylistic structure. The paper contains some final remarks on general characteristics of the written press.
The present contribution is meant as an approach to the debate mentioned in the heading. It is important to find ways, to make on one side the learning and the cultivation of the German language attractive for the young people and on the other side to regain again the peoples’ conscious, here and there, for the centuries-long German culture and history. Teachers of both sexes as well as the students who are going to become teachers are the future multipliers par excellence. Due to a variety of integral pedagogical and linguistic didactical concepts –meant simultaneously for transmitting information, meeting, exchange and networking – there have to be found innovative ideas, precise proposals have to be worked out, which both also strengthen the social relevance of the local Institutions and German Departments respectively Faculties, which qualify teachers for the German language and providing in this way a contribution to the harmonization of the civil society.
Das Projekt „Film-Sprache-Begegnung“ ist ein interkulturelles Sprachfördercamp, dass in Rumänien (Seligstadt) stattfindet. Über 30 Jugendliche im Alter von 13 bis 16 Jahren drehen innerhalb von zehn Tagen gemeinsam Spielfilme. Die Geschichten dafür entwickeln sie selbst. Sie verfassen Drehbücher und erlernen das Kamerahandwerk, sie arbeiten sich in filmtypische Aufgabenfelder wie Regie, Kamera, Ton, Licht und Schauspiel ein. Sie lernen die Tricks der digitalen Postproduktion kennen und werden am Ende zu richtigen Filmemachern/-innen, die stolz die Premiere ihrer Filme vor einem begeisterten Publikum feiern. Das Ziel des Camps ist aber nicht nur die Produktion von Spielfilmen. Es geht insbesondere darum, dass die Teilnehmer/ -innen Deutsch als Fremdsprache kommunikativ und zweckgebunden sprechen. Die Jugendlichen stammen aus Ländern wie Serbien, Kroatien und Rumänien. Dort erlernen sie überwiegend in der Schule Deutsch als Fremdsprache...
The following article documents a theater project with Romanian and German young people, which took place in April 2013 in Sibiu / Romania and questioned in this example conceptual entities of the concept of culture, in particular approaches to intercultural versus transcultural pedagogy.
The answer to the question – Which can be the best way to teach and to learn to understand foreign people and culture in ethnically, culturally and linguistically homogenous teaching contexts? – is simple: through language teaching and learning. This process is per definitionem the encounter between a culture of origin and a target culture. The process of learning and teaching foreign languages generates the encounter with languages and cultures, which implies on the one hand a comparison of different cultural contexts and on the other hand self-reflection.
Starting from data, which were collected based on a survey, the present contribution attempts to answer the following questions:
1. What is the role of foreign language teachers in ethnically, culturally and linguistically homogenous teaching contexts?
2. To what extent do foreign language teachers and students perceive the intercultural dimensions of foreign language education in such contexts?
Jugendliche aus Serbien, Kroatien, Ungarn und Rumänen produzieren gemeinsam Kurzfilme. Die medienpädagogische Jugendbegegnung bringt im Sommer 2013 jeweils Jugendliche zwischen 14 und 16 Jahren aus Serbien, Kroatien, Ungarn und Rumänien zusammen. Zusammen ist das Schlagwort des Camps in Sombor/Serbien, in welchem die Jugendlichen in Kleingruppen gemeinsam filmische sowie andere mediale Kleinproduktionen planen und durchführen. Dabei soll spielerisch eine Förderung der deutschen Sprache geschehen, welche für die Teilnehmenden die Zweitsprache ist. Im Vordergrund der Jugendbegegnung stehen die gemeinsamen Gruppenerfahrungen der Teilnehmenden, die intensive Sprachförderung und Sprechpraxis sowie die Heranführung an technische und ästhetische Medienarbeit...
This paper deals with German and Serbian idioms which contain the numeral seven (germ. Sieben, serb. sedam) in order to determine and analyse the different types of equivalence that exist between these German and Serbian idiomatic expressions. It is also an aim of this paper to define the semantics of the numeral seven or sedam, as the similarities and differences between German and Serbian provide interesting results. The results of this paper are to the benefit of the students in German studies, but also students who study German as a foreign language.
This contribution examines the cooperation between Ludwigsburg University of Education, the Danube-Swabian Cultural Foundation and to a lesser extent the German Academic Exchange Service with respect to partnerships and projects developed with educational institutions in South-Eastern Europe. This is followed by a critical assessment of the achievements so far with some suggestions for improvements and further developments.
The paper shows that experiential education and modern approaches to teaching German as a foreign language (GFL) share a number of characteristics, suggesting that experiential education ought to be integrated in teacher training programs. Based on the feedback received from participants in the experiential education project organised in autumn 2013 by the department of “Pedagogy for Primary and Secondary Schools” at the Lucian Blaga University, Sibiu, the paper demonstrates not only that important characteristics of experiential education and principles of modern GFL teaching coincide from a theoretical perspective, but also that this confluence can be experienced at an intuitive and practical level. The project is described in detail and recommended as a possible pilot for other networking projects on German-language teacher training in the Danubian regions.
In this paper there is offered an overview on the possibilities of the German teacher training and its importance in Hungary with a special focus on the German nationality in Hungary, which forms an additional area of the German teacher training. The teacher should not only teach namely German (nationality-) language and culture, but also initiate projects that strengthen the minority’s identity. Also the knowledge and skills tought in the German teacher training are discussed divided on areas.
This paper offers an overview of the presence of the german language and culture in Serbia. The focus lies on the region Vojvodina, as it has the greatest significance for the spread of the German language, culture and literature in Serbia, and there German as a foreign language is still strongly represented in schools. At the same time, it presents the status of the German teacher training in Serbia and discusses some perspectives in this domain.
Vergangenheit und Gegenwart der deutschen Spracheinflüsse an der Germanistikabteilung in Osijek
(2014)
The paper describes the influence of German language on the language and literature in Osijek, Croatia and the way these influences are being researched and kept alive at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in Osijek. The German language and culture had a strong impact both on the language and the literature of Slawonia. The literary tradition is taught as a course about 18th and 19th ct literature in Slawonia, the linguistic aspect lives through publications and has the potential to be included in courses or to be used for further research.
[...] Halten wir [...] als Arbeitshypothese fest, dass Jean Paul in seinem zweiten bürgerlichen Roman nach dem "Siebenkäs" einerseits den Gedanken der psychischen Doppelgängerschaft fortschreibt, ihm aber andererseits über die Zwillingsmetapher eine neue, hereditäre und generative Dimension verleiht.
Auch wenn das auf den ersten Blick kontraintuitiv erscheint, steht diese Veränderung, wie sich herausstellen wird, für eine größere und größer werdende Unähnlichkeit zwischen den beiden Helden. Der gleitende Wechsel der Metaphern markiert also einen sich schon im "Siebenkäs" abzeichnenden, in den "Flegeljahren" jedoch verstärkt fortgesetzten Entfremdungsprozess der für
die bürgerlichen Romane konstitutiven Doppel-Protagonisten.
Prämissen für die Vermittlung interkultureller Kompetenzen im studienbegleitenden DaF-Unterricht
(2014)
Language teaching alone is not sufficient in order to communicate successfully in the foreign language. Even with the acquisition of one’s native language, one does not learn just vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, speaking and listening. Apart from all that one learns how to identify and to practice cultural patterns. Here, the learning and teaching process is accompanied by another component: intercultural communication and the acquisition of intercultural competences. These teach the lerner to understand first and foremost their own cultural background in order for them to be able to change perspective and look at and understand the cultural background of the target language. Teaching must be centered on the learner, and the foreign language is not taught „in general“, but with regard to the learners’ culture of origin.
This study aims to analysing the exclusively phraseological occurrency of some adjectives taken from German. This phenomenon reffers to the isolation of words and lexical forms out of linguistical and extralinguistical causes, in phraseological sintagmas. Firstly, we will briefly present the main directions in the research of this isolated lexemes. Then, we will analyse the linguistical features specific to these linguistical facts, using as exemples some of the German adjectives.
The Transylvanian-Saxon Dictionary (SSWB) documents the general thesaurus of the Transylvanian Saxons by means of meaningful idiomatic samples. In addition there are certified documents of Transylvanian sources of the German language from the mid 13th to mid 10th century, which are of relevance for the idiomatic influence upon the literary German written language in Transylvania or the history of the German language. From this point of view some lexemes are absorbed into the dictionary, which refer to established legal agreements and mandatory services pertaining to a specific time period. The case studies in the following article are documented sources, extracted from the SSWB and the Transylvanian vernacular literature.
Banater Schnitten, Pariser Stangen, Russische Elegante : zur Reichweite siebenbürgischer Kochrezepte
(2014)
The present paper analyses the gastronomic terms with geographical components, which appear especially in the German cooking books, characteristic for the 19th and 20th century from Transylvania. The linguistic analysis (phonology, morpho-syntax, and semantics) and the pragmatics of these terms help us to reflect the economic, historical and cultural realities of those times; the interethnic interferences from the gastronomic field are as profound as those from the cultural and linguistic field are.
The following article analys the perception of th famous character Till Eulenspiegel (Howleglas) in Romania, mostly focusing on „Întâmplãrile ºi faptele de pominã ale nãzdrãvanului Til Buhoglindã”, retold by Al. Alexianu. His fame was currently brought by the numerous translations, in 280 languages. The first complete Romanian translation was published in 1840, in Braºov. The book represented a major success towards the Romanian audience, following other editions being published (1848, 1856, 1858, etc.). The 43 tales chosen in the 1970s edition are focused on Till Eulenspiegels-character (translated in Romanian as Til Buhoglindã), revealing his complex personality, as well as his amuzing and educational side.
Der Beitrag widmet sich einem ausgewählten Bereich öffentlicher Pressesprache, wobei strukturelle, semantische und pragmatische Besonderheiten der sogenannten hölzernen Sprache in der deutschsprachigen Zeitung Neuer Weg (NW) aus Rumänien exemplarisch am Beispiel von Beileidstelegrammen zum Ableben der kommunistischen Führer Josef Wissarionowitsch Stalin und Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (1953 bzw.1965) erfasst werden sollen. Mit der Darstellung von Formulierungspräferenzen in einer ausgewählten Textsorte der öffentlichen schriftlichen Kommunikationspraxis und der Analyse dieses soziokulturell geprägten Sprachgebrauchs hinaus sollen auch die sozial-historischen Bedingungen, die für das Auftauchen der Ausdrucksformen der hölzernen Sprache förderlich waren, eruiert werden.
Mathilde Roth belongs to a small group of Transylvanian ladies who, by the end of the 19th century, benefitted by the relative opening of the Transylvanian Saxon society, which permitted women to embrace a profession. The gifted young woman followed her vocation and studied for several years painting in Vienna and Munich, being in the aftermath active for almost a decade in her native city, Sibiu/Hermannstadt, where she exhibited paintings, organized Christmas exhibitions and gave art lessons. After her marriage, Mathilde left Transylvania in 1910 and settled in Zurich. Being also a gifted writer, she contributed travel reports to different periodicals. The paper aims at presenting the almost forgotten artist both, as a painter and as a writer.
„[I]m Fegefeuer von Diktaturen“. Die Darstellung arabischer Diktaturen im Prosawerk von Abbas Khider
(2014)
This article deals with the works of the Iraqi writer Abbas Khider who lives in Germany. His works revolve around a major topic, namely, the life of the ordinary Arab citizen under dictatorship. In all Arab countries, dictatorship has been able to set up and update a new cultural fashion based on oppression and persecution, looking man down and depriving him of his freedom.
Our writer has suffered so much from dictatorship which pushed him to live in delinquency from one country to the other. Building on this, the article is attempting through linking the author’s autobiography to the major events and characters of his works to point to the nature of the Arab dictatorship dominating in the Arab world before the Arab Spring which would contribute to understanding the works of Khider and identify their real content.
The aim of the present paper is to show how intertextuality and poetological reflection are interrelated in Josef Winkler’s later works (starting with the short novel Natura morta published in 2001). After a short presentation of the author, the main motifs of his novels and his specific prose style which draws on mannerist tropes in order to distance itself from mimetic, realistic narrative, the paper offers a brief overview of the different types of intertextuality Winkler makes use of in his writing. The last part of the paper focuses on a short chapter from the novel Leichnam, seine Familie belauernd (2003), analyzing the intertextual references to Jean Genet in both their (auto)biographical and narratological dimension.
The title Grenzfall of this crime novel is based on a pun because it means in German both “borderline case” and “border incident”. The novel refers to an incident at the border between Poland and Germany, that really happened in 1992, when two Roma from Romania were shot in strange circumstances. Kröger continues in her fiction the film script that she had written for the documentary Revision, produced in 2012, 10 years after the incident. The crime novel tries to reveal the causes that led to the violent death of the two, to disclose why German police investigations were so superficial, to present what effects all this had on the families of the two dead men, and what regional and ethnic stereotypes dominate the thinking of those involved in the action.
The paper aims at the discussion of some major aspects of postmodern theatre from the vantage point of actual staging and performing. Theatre should be regarded as the result of varied cross-cultural, intermedial and intertextual elements merged into a hybrid art form. The paper illustrates my statements by referring to the theatrical activity of the German language players known as DUO BASTET from Braºov and some of their adaptations.
The research objective of the present article is the book Der heilige Teufel [The Holy Devil], written in the field of cultural history by the Romanian German language author Renë Fülöp Miller, published in 1927 and very well received at the time. Important contemporary voices, for instance Th. Mann, ranked it next to fictional works. Taking into consideration postmodern viewpoints, according to which reality and fiction have become impossible to distinguish and interchangeable, it may be concluded that Miller’s work, in spite of its cultural-historical content, is a historical narrative, its style being subordinated to „documentary fiction”. The depiction of reality is a possible one; Russia’s image during Rasputin’s time is a probable one.
The present paper deals with inter- and hypertextual relations between two unpublished elegies of the Romanian poet of German origin Anemone Latzina and R M. Rilke’s Duino Elegies. The research aims at uncovering the importance of Rilke as an author of the German Modernity in times of dictatorship, as Rilke’s texts provided trust, hope, courage and strength. So the reception of the German poetry of the Modernity is to be understood both as individual as well as generational.
One can deal with aspects of language use from different perspectives (sociologically, pragmatically, psycho-linguistically etc.). The present article discusses stylistic markedness in different selected phrasemes whereby the following question is subject to investigation: do phrasemes as complex signs of secondary nomination show specific properties which, in contrast to simple lexemes, make them predisposed to stylistically marked use?
„Leonore”, the debut novel of the writer Adolf Meschendörfer (1877-1963), is rightly considered to be proof of the modern Transylvanian spirit at the beginning of the XXth century. The novel had been released during the first year of publication (1907/08) of the periodical edited by the author himself, “Die Karpathen“, and as a volume in 1920, being repeatedly republished during the course of the century both in German and in Romanian translation. The novelty of this literary work consists in the detached vision concerning the traditionalist mentality with its obsolete conventionalism and in adopting an unusual stylistic register as compared to national prose types, Meschendörfer relying on dynamism and laconic depiction. However, the deficiencies specific to a beginner are evident, as observed by the author’s contemporaries, involving an excessive reliance on older and newer literary models, inconsistencies of the fiction and decreases concerning adequate expression.
Wer nicht nur die Tag-, sondern auch die Nachtseite des menschlichen Seelenlebens beschreiben möchte, so könnte die Konsequenz aus dem Vergleich der beiden Texte Hoffmanns lauten, muss sich die, der Zigeunerin zugeschriebene, "schmutzige" Kraft der Natur zu eigen machen. Umgekehrt resultiert daraus, dass sich in dieser schmutzigen Kraft, über welche die Zigeunerin verfügt, Potenzial von allerhöchstem literarischen Adel verbirgt. Zigeunerromantik eben.
Das Thema des Monologs ist das Schreiben und Sprechen als
"närrische Sache". Ich beginne meine Lektüre, indem ich den Begriff wörtlich nehme: Ein Narr ist, in der Psychologie der Zeit, jemand, der an Melancholie leidet, dessen Verstand bzw. Vernunft jedoch nicht vollständig, sondern nur teilweise angegriffen ist. [...] Die Diagnose der Narrheit gilt auch [...] für denjenigen, der sich in Novalis' Augen der Sprache zuwendet. Auch er wird zum Narren oder Partialwahnsinnigen, der sowohl vernünftig als auch ganz und gar unvernünftig sprechen kann. Die Krankheit liegt aber, und das stellt eine Differenz gegenüber der Psychologie der Zeit dar, nicht im Sprechenden, zumindest nicht in ihm allein, sondern in der Sprache. Sie selbst ist es, welche die "närrische Sache" ausmacht.