Generating Dutiful Members in Communities of 'Rational Choice'

The study 'Youth Welfare as Prevention - The reconfiguration of support and control in advanced liberalism' is part of the Graduate program 'Youth Welfare in Transition' funded by the 'German Research Association'. In empirical terms it is based on both interviews with professionals, reconstructive discourse analysis based on documents and programs as well as a secondary analysis of a range of existing studies.

Modeling and Vibration Suppression for Telescopic Systems of Structural Members with Clearance

Telescopic systems of structural members with clearance are found in many applications, e.g., mobile cranes, rack feeders, fork lifters, stacker cranes (see Figure 1). Operating these machines, undesirable vibrations may reduce the performance and increase safety problems. Therefore, this contribution has the aim to reduce these harmful vibrations. For a better understanding, the dynamic behaviour of these constructions is analysed. The main interest is the overlapping area of each two sections of the above described systems (see markings in Figure 1) which is investigated by measurements and by computations. A test rig is constructed to determine the dynamic behaviour by measuring fundamental vibrations and higher frequent oscillations, damping coefficients, special appearances and more. For an appropriate physical model, the governing boundary value problem is derived by applying Hamilton’s principle and a classical discretisation procedure is used to generate a coupled system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations as the corresponding truncated mathematical model. On the basis of this model, a controller concept for preventing harmful vibrations is developed.

Swiss Army Survey in Switzerland to determine the prevalence of Francisella tularensis, members of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila genogroup, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, and tick-borne encephalitis virus in ticks

A total of 6071 Ixodes ricinus ticks were collected on Swiss Army training grounds in five regions of Switzerland. The aim of the survey was to assess the prevalence of ticks infected with the human pathogens Francisella tularensis, members of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila genogroup, Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, and the European tick-borne encephalitis virus. TaqMan PCR (PE Biosystems, USA) and TaqMan RT-PCR (PE Biosystems) analyses were performed on DNA and RNA extracted from pools of ten ticks grouped by gender. Here, for the first time, it is shown that ticks may harbor Francisella tularensis in Switzerland, at a rate of 0.12%. Furthermore, 26.54% of the ticks investigated harbored Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato, 1.18% harbored members of the Ehrlichia phagocytophila genogroup, and 0.32% harbored the European tick-borne encephalitis virus. A new instrumentation was applied in this study to carry out and analyze more than 2300 PCR reactions in only 5 days. Furthermore, the results reveal that people working in outdoor areas, including army personnel on certain training grounds contaminated with ticks containing tick-borne pathogens, are at risk for different tick-borne diseases.

A unified nomenclature of NITRATE TRANSPORTER 1/PEPTIDE TRANSPORTER family members in plants

Members of the plant NITRATE TRANSPORTER 1/PEPTIDE TRANSPORTER (NRT1/PTR) family display protein sequence homology with the SLC15/PepT/PTR/POT family of peptide transporters in animals. In comparison to their animal and bacterial counterparts, these plant proteins transport a wide variety of substrates: nitrate, peptides, amino acids, dicarboxylates, glucosinolates, IAA, and ABA. The phylogenetic relationship of the members of the NRT1/PTR family in 31 fully sequenced plant genomes allowed the identification of unambiguous clades, defining eight subfamilies. The phylogenetic tree was used to determine a unified nomenclature of this family named NPF, for NRT1/PTR FAMILY. We propose that the members should be named accordingly: NPFX.Y, where X denotes the subfamily and Y the individual member within the species.

Challenges for medical educators: results of a survey among members of the German Association for Medical Education

BACKGROUND Despite the increasing interest in medical education in the German-speaking countries, there is currently no information available on the challenges which medical educators face. To address this problem, we carried out a web-based survey among the members of the Association for Medical Education (Gesellschaft für medizinische Ausbildung, GMA). METHODS A comprehensive survey was carried out on the need for further qualifications, expertise and the general conditions of medical educators in Germany. As part of this study, the educators were asked to list the three main challenges which they faced and which required urgent improvement. The results were analysed by means of qualitative content analysis. RESULTS The questionnaire was completed by 147 of the 373 members on the GMA mailing list (response rate: 39%). The educators named a total of 346 challenges and emphasised the following areas: limited academic recognition for engagement in teaching (53.5% of educators), insufficient institutional (31.5%) and financial support (28.4%), a curriculum in need of reform (22.8%), insufficient time for teaching assignments (18,9%), inadequate teacher competence in teaching methods (18.1%), restricted faculty development programmes (18.1%), limited networking within the institution (11.0%), lack of teaching staff (10.2%), varying preconditions of students (8.7%), insufficient recognition and promotion of medical educational research (5.5%), extensive assessment requirements (4.7%), and the lack of role models within medical education (3.2%). CONCLUSION The medical educators found the biggest challenges which they faced to be limited academic recognition and insufficient institutional and financial support. Consequently, improvements should be implemented to address these issues.

Knowledge and valuation of Andean agroforestry species: the role of sex, age, and migration among members of a rural community in Bolivia

Background Agroforestry is a sustainable land use method with a long tradition in the Bolivian Andes. A better understanding of people’s knowledge and valuation of woody species can help to adjust actor-oriented agroforestry systems. In this case study, carried out in a peasant community of the Bolivian Andes, we aimed at calculating the cultural importance of selected agroforestry species, and at analysing the intracultural variation in the cultural importance and knowledge of plants according to peasants’ sex, age, and migration. Methods Data collection was based on semi-structured interviews and freelisting exercises. Two ethnobotanical indices (Composite Salience, Cultural Importance) were used for calculating the cultural importance of plants. Intracultural variation in the cultural importance and knowledge of plants was detected by using linear and generalised linear (mixed) models. Results and discussion The culturally most important woody species were mainly trees and exotic species (e.g. Schinus molle, Prosopis laevigata, Eucalyptus globulus). We found that knowledge and valuation of plants increased with age but that they were lower for migrants; sex, by contrast, played a minor role. The age effects possibly result from decreasing ecological apparency of valuable native species, and their substitution by exotic marketable trees, loss of traditional plant uses or the use of other materials (e.g. plastic) instead of wood. Decreasing dedication to traditional farming may have led to successive abandonment of traditional tool uses, and the overall transformation of woody plant use is possibly related to diminishing medicinal knowledge. Conclusions Age and migration affect how people value woody species and what they know about their uses. For this reason, we recommend paying particular attention to the potential of native species, which could open promising perspectives especially for the young migrating peasant generation and draw their interest in agroforestry. These native species should be ecologically sound and selected on their potential to provide subsistence and promising commercial uses. In addition to offering socio-economic and environmental services, agroforestry initiatives using native trees and shrubs can play a crucial role in recovering elements of the lost ancient landscape that still forms part of local people’s collective identity.

Nonviolent factors: Variables associated with ethnic violence, and factors which are associated with nonviolent response to grievances toward members of other ethnic groups

Ethnic violence appears to be the major source of violence in the world. Ethnic hostilities are potentially all-pervasive because most countries in the world are multi-ethnic. Public health's focus on violence documents its increasing role in this issue.^ The present study is based on a secondary analysis of a dataset of responses by 272 individuals from four ethnic groups (Anglo, African, Mexican, and Vietnamese Americans) who answered questions regarding variables related to ethnic violence from a general questionnaire which was distributed to ethnically diverse purposive, nonprobability, self-selected groups of individuals in Houston, Texas, in 1993.^ One goal was psychometric: learning about issues in analysis of datasets with modest numbers, comparison of two approaches to dealing with missing observations not missing at random (conducting analysis on two datasets), transformation analysis of continuous variables for logistic regression, and logistic regression diagnostics.^ Regarding the psychometric goal, it was concluded that measurement model analysis was not possible with a relatively small dataset with nonnormal variables, such as Likert-scaled variables; therefore, exploratory factor analysis was used. The two approaches to dealing with missing values resulted in comparable findings. Transformation analysis suggested that the continuous variables were in the correct scale, and diagnostics that the model fit was adequate.^ The substantive portion of the analysis included the testing of four hypotheses. Hypothesis One proposed that attitudes/efficacy regarding alternative approaches to resolving grievances from the general questionnaire represented underlying factors: nonpunitive social norms and strategies for addressing grievances--using the political system, organizing protests, using the system to punish offenders, and personal mediation. Evidence was found to support all but one factor, nonpunitive social norms.^ Hypothesis Two proposed that the factor variables and the other independent variables--jail, grievance, male, young, and membership in a particular ethnic group--were associated with (non)violence. Jail, grievance, and not using the political system to address grievances were associated with a greater likelihood of intergroup violence.^ No evidence was found to support Hypotheses Three and Four, which proposed that grievance and ethnic group membership would interact with other variables (i.e., age, gender, etc.) to produce variant levels of subgroup (non)violence.^ The generalizability of the results of this study are constrained by the purposive self-selected nature of the sample and small sample size (n = 272).^ Suggestions for future research include incorporating other possible variables or factors predictive of intergroup violence in models of the kind tested here, and the development and evaluation of interventions that promote electoral and nonelectoral political participation as means of reducing interethnic conflict. ^

Family business: Multiple members of major phytohormone classes orchestrate plant stress responses

Low-molecular-weight compounds such as jasmonic, abscisic and salicylic acids are commonly thought to be regulators of plant stress responses. However, it is becoming clear that these molecules, often referred to as phytohormones, are only a part of bigger groups of compounds with biological activity. We propose that the concept of "hormone families" may help to better understand plant physiological responses by taking into account not only the alleged main regulators, but also their precursors, conjugates and catabolites. Novel approaches to profile potentially active compounds in plants are discussed.

The Jews of Philadelphia : their history from the earliest settlements to the present time. A record of events and institutions, and of leading members of the Jewish community in every sphere of activity

Henry Samuel Morais