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'To Be or Not to Be in Ukraine' : Ruining Shakespeare and Rebuilding Communities in H-Effect and The Hamlet Syndrome
No full textThis article focuses on a transmedial project that has become an important strand in a growing adaptational network in which Hamlet is being reactivated to explore the current situation in Ukraine. Exploring the adaptational principles of ruination and reconstruction, it discusses the fragility and promises of local, national and transnational community-building through Shakespeare.publishe
Sprache in Grenzsituationen : eine interdisziplinäre Untersuchung von Patienteninterviews in Münchner Kliniken
No full textGrenzsituationen sind für Karl Jaspers existenzielle Erschütterungen, die sich angesichts von Tod, Leiden, Kampf und Schuld einstellen und zu einer neuen Sicht auf die Welt führen können. Patientinnen und Patienten, die schweres körperliches oder seelisches Leid ertragen müssen oder aufgrund einer unheilbaren Erkrankung mit dem eigenen Tod konfrontiert sind, können ihre Situation daher als Grenzsituation im Sinne von Jaspers erfahren. In einer bereits durchgeführten qualitativen Studie zu Grenzsituationen im Gesundheitsbereich wurde untersucht, wie Patientinnen und Patienten Grenzsituationen erleben. Dabei spielten Grenzen der Sprache eine wichtige Rolle, die auch charakteristisch für religiöse Erfahrungen sind. Davon ausgehend untersucht die vorliegende Studie noch einmal gesondert die sprachliche Dimension von Grenzsituationen, indem sie die geführten Interviews interdisziplinär aus psychoanalytischer, philosophischer und linguistischer Sicht reanalysiert. Auf Grundlage von Jaspers’ Theorie der Grenzsituation und einer dreidimensionalen religionslinguistischen Heuristik wird dabei untersucht, welche Sprachformen und kommunikative Praktiken für den Umgang mit Grenzsituationen genutzt werden und welche kommunikativen Ereignisse, Akteure, Diskurse und Artefakte in verschiedenen Phasen von Grenzsituationen relevant gemacht werden.publishe
A Blue Tit Cyanistes caeruleus caught in a mist net as prey for a Red Squirrel Sciurus vulgaris
No full textpublishe
Krisen in der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung am Beispiel der COVID–Pandemie
No full textDie COVID-19-Pandemie war beispielhaft für mögliche Krisen, die die Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung ereilen. An ihrem Beispiel werden Auswirkungen auf die Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung bilanzierend angesprochen sowie ausgewählte Erkenntnisse genannt, was aus dieser Krise möglicherweise gelernt werden kann. Die exemplarische Darstellung wird durch eine allgemeinere Betrachtung von Krisen, Turbulenzen und Disruptionen in der Lehrerinnen- und Lehrerbildung kontextualisiert, um mögliche Implikationen für zukünftig zu erwartende Krisen deutlich zu machen.publishe
Clustering and Analyzing Ensembles of Residue Interaction Networks from Molecular Dynamics Simulations
No full textNetwork methods and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have become essential tools for studying protein dynamics. However, applying network methods to MD simulations of flexible proteins is a major challenge, since the high conformational heterogeneity in such multistate systems can lead to vastly different network topologies across an ensemble. To address this, tools that can disentangle conformational ensembles on a network level are needed. Here, we propose a graph-based clustering framework that provides state-specific insight into the residue interactions of flexible proteins. The framework hinges on using the set of graph-theoretic closeness centralities of all amino acid residues as a structural fingerprint and input for unsupervised machine learning algorithms to perform dimensionality reduction and clustering. The resulting clusters─states with shared network topology─are subsequently fed back into the upstream workflow and characterized at every representation level. Based on the example of FAT10─a protein with intrinsically disordered regions and two folded domains connected by a flexible linker─we demonstrate how this approach can be used to understand the protein’s residue interactions on different, interconnected levels and to characterize its most populated states. Due to the modularity of the framework, it can be easily adapted, which makes it a suitable method to support network-based analyses of MD simulations for a wide variety of proteins.publishe
Redefining Parameter Estimation and Covariate Selection via Variational Autoencoders : One Run Is All You Need
No full textGenerative Artificial Intelligence (AI) frameworks, such as Variational Autoencoders (VAEs), have proven powerful in learning structured representations from complex, high‐dimensional data. In pharmacometrics (PMX), nonlinear mixed effects (NLME) modeling is widely used to capture inter‐individual variability and link covariates to characterize parameters with the goal of informing key decisions in drug research and development. This research combines the strengths of both approaches by introducing a VAE framework specifically designed for NLME modeling. The proposed method integrates the flexibility of generative AI with the interpretability and robustness of mechanism‐based PMX modeling. To advance covariate selection in PMX, we replace the Evidence Lower Bound objective in VAEs with an objective function based on the corrected Bayesian information criterion. This enables the simultaneous evaluation of all potential covariate‐parameter combinations, thereby allowing for automated and joint estimation of population parameters and covariate selection within a single run. Manual selection and repeated model fitting across covariate combinations are no longer required. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this combined AI‐PMX approach with two representative cases. As the first generative AI‐based optimization method for NLME modeling, the VAE achieves high‐quality results in a single run, outperforming traditional stepwise procedures in terms of efficiency. As such, the presented approach facilitates automated model development, advancing PMX and its applications in model‐informed drug development.publishe
The effect of mortality salience and early-life maternal care on neuroendocrine, autonomic, and psychological stress responses
No full textAdverse early-life experiences alter the regulation of major stress systems such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Low early-life maternal care (MC) has repeatedly been related to blunted cortisol stress responses. Likewise, an acutely increased awareness of mortality (mortality salience [MS]) also has been shown to blunt cortisol responses. In this study we investigated the effects of early-life MC and a potential interaction with MS on HPA axis responsivity, as well as autonomic and subjective stress responses. Seventy-three women (Mage=21.56, SDage=2.85) with self-reported low (n = 30) or high (n = 43) early-life MC, underwent the Trier Social Stress Test for groups. Before, they were asked to briefly contemplate either death (mortality condition, n = 38) or sleep (control condition, n = 35). Salivary cortisol and alpha amylase, heart rate variability and subjective stress levels were assessed repeatedly. Multilevel mixed models confirmed an effect of MC on stress system regulation, indicated by blunted cortisol responses and overall reduced heart rate variability in low versus high MC individuals. Moreover, we found an interaction between MS and MC concerning subjective stress and autonomic measures. Specifically, low MC individuals in the control compared to the mortality condition showed both overall higher subjective stress levels, and less increase in heart rate variability following stress. These findings demonstrate the enduring impact of low early-life MC and the potential role of acute mortality primes on the regulation of stress systems in healthy women.publishe
‘And they dance’ : Queering Shakespeare through balletic seriality
No full textUnderstanding Shakespearean ballet as an encapsulation of the serial tension between repetition and variation, this chapter discusses the complex relationship between seriality and choreographic Shakespeare adaptations. What affordances does seriality offer for the analysis of Shakespearean ballet? And to what extent do serial discussions of Shakespearean ballet in return reveal new perspectives onto seriality as an adaptational concept? These theoretical questions are framed by a recent case study that self-reflectively interrogates its own serialized mediality: Benjamin Millepied’s staging of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet at La Seine Musicale (2022). Through the use of cinematic techniques as well as racially and gender diverse casting, the production queered performative conventions in Shakespearean ballet and showcased that we can only ever engage with the iconic story through serialized imagery. This imagery highlights the seriality of desire and violence within the play and foregrounds the drama as a tragedy of seriality.publishe
Understanding Dioxygen Activation in the Fe(III)-Promoted Oxidative Dehydrogenation of Amines : A Computational Study
No full textpublishe
One direction? : Cultural aspects of the mental number line beyond reading direction
No full textSpatial-Numerical Associations (SNAs) refer to the demonstrations of spatial processing of numbers. The Mental Number Line (MNL) is a representation model describing numbers as aligning left-to-right (LR) and was suggested to account for directional biases in participants’ responses during numerical tasks. One common behavioral demonstration of this is the Spatial-Numerical Associations of Response Codes (SNARC) effect, which describes faster left-/right-hand responses to smaller/larger numbers, respectively. The MNL, and, consequently, directional SNAs, show variabilities across different cultures. Reading direction is considered to be the main factor in explaining these differences. In line with this, individuals with right-to-left (RL) reading habits show a weaker or even reverse SNARC effect. In the present study, we investigated whether SNAs are influenced not only by reading direction, but also by cultural directional preferences such as drawing lines, arranging objects, imagining objects (i.e., rightward or leftward facing), or representing events in time (i.e., mentally representing the past/future on the left/right, respectively). To test this hypothesis, we measured the cultural directional preferences and the SNARC effect across three cultures in an online setup; German, Turkish, and Iranian. LR preferences in the Cultural Directional Preferences Questionnaire were most prominent in German participants, intermediate in Turkish participants, and least prominent in Iranian participants. In line with this, the LR SNARC effect was strongest in German, intermediate in Turkish, and weakest (but not RL) in Iranian culture. These findings suggest that cultural directional preferences are involved in the emergence of adult SNAs in addition to the reading direction.publishe