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Promoting motor skills in preschool age: a focus on balance regulation
No full textObjective. This study examines the influence on balance regulation of a training program of targeted coordination exercises to improve balance skills in preschool children between the ages of 3 and 7 (in German 'Kindergarten'). On average, the children received targeted, age-appropriate training in basic coordination over a period of 3–4 years during their preschool years. The present results consider selected measurements of balance skills in 5- to 7-year-old children at the end or in the last third of the intervention period. It aims to determine if structured training programs can significantly improve postural control and serve as early interventions for enhancing motor skills. Approach. A cohort of 136 children participated in weekly two-hour coordination training over three years, focusing on foundational motor skills, including balance and spatial orientation. Postural control was measured using the Leonardo Mechanograph® GRFP LT force plate system, employing both linear and nonlinear analyses. The experimental group's performance was compared to a control group of 86 children who did not receive targeted training. Main Results. The experimental group exhibited significant improvements in balance regulation, reflected in steadier posture and reduced fluctuations (p < 0.01). Nonlinear analysis revealed increased stability and frequent occurrence of stationary balance phases. Linear discriminant analysis showed moderate separability (AUC = 0.69) between groups based on balance parameters. The findings underscore the role of intensive, targeted coordination training in enhancing neurophysiological modulation of postural control. Significance. The study highlights the potential of early, structured motor skill programs to address declining physical activity trends and improve holistic child development. These interventions could play a critical role in promoting health, preventing postural issues, and supporting cognitive and motor development in early childhood.Peer Reviewe
Reflexes of the Proto-Ju retroflex click in Lucy Lloyd’s ǃXun notebooks
No full textThe retroflex click [!!] is an extremely rare sound, attested today only in the Central varieties of the Ju language family (formerly known as Northern Khoisan) in Northern Namibia. It is reconstructed in Proto-Ju. This click has merged with other clicks (lateral or alveolar) in all other Ju varieties. This paper looks at the reflexes of the retroflex click in Lucy Lloyd's !Xun notebooks (late 19th century), and draws three conclusions: (i) The !Xun varieties (Northwestern Ju) that Lloyd documented still had a distinct reflex of the retroflex click; (ii) this shows that the merger of the retroflex click with the lateral click in Northwestern Ju is relatively recent; and (iii) this change involved an intermediate lateralization stage which facilitated the merger
Exploring impacts of participatory science communication on science, politics, and society
No full textDiscussions on potential impacts of participatory science communication (PSC) formats on science, society, and politics would benefit from more empirical investigation. This article provides a systematic analysis of the perceptions of science communicators on the potential impacts of PSC on these different groups. The two basic questions are: What impact does PSC have on science, society, and politics? To what extent can these impacts be attributed to the different PSC communication formats? To answer these questions, 20 PSC projects implemented in the German Science Year 2022 were analysed. Semi-structured interviews with project coordinators revealed diverse potential impacts on science, society, and politics. While the impacts on science and society were predominantly assessed positively, impacts on politics were considered to be more case-specific and subordinate. Regression analyses indicate that these impacts can rarely be attributed to the PSC communication formats applied in projects. The results call into question global statements on the relevance of participation, and highlight the importance of different impact mechanisms for different groups in communication projects.Peer Reviewe
Right-peripheral subjects in German and Persian across registers
No full textThe right clause edge links the utterance to the larger discourse and supports interlocutors in navigating the communicative situation, making such linguistic alternatives prime candidates to be exploited for register distinction. We investigate whether right-peripheral subjects behave similar with respect to registers in the verb-final languages German and Persian, using the multi-lingual Lang*Reg corpus (Adli, Aria, Elisabeth Verhoeven, Nico Lehmann, Vahid Mortezapour & Jozina Vander Klok. 2023. Lang*Reg: A multi-lingual corpus of intra-speaker variation across situations. Version 0.1.0. Zenodo ), which includes intra-speaker variation for six communicative situations differentiated by interactivity (monologue vs. dialog), social distance (close vs. distant), social hierarchy (equal vs. unequal) and mode (spoken vs. written). We identified four formal types of right-peripheral subjects: extraposition, right dislocation, afterthought + pronoun correlate and afterthought + NP correlate. Our analysis of the functions of these types across languages revealed that Persian extraposition and German right dislocation behave functionally similar whereas German extraposition is highly restricted and no Persian right dislocation could be found. The corpus analysis reveals that Persian and German speakers used the right periphery more often in interactive in contrast to monological communicative events.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)Peer Reviewe
Multisensory Integration of Naturalistic Speech and Gestures in Autistic Adults
No full textSeeing the speaker often facilitates auditory speech comprehension through audio‐visual integration. This audio‐visual facilitation is stronger under challenging listening conditions, such as in real‐life social environments. Autism has been associated with atypicalities in integrating audio‐visual information, potentially underlying social difficulties in this population. The present study investigated multisensory integration (MSI) of audio‐visual speech information among autistic and neurotypical adults. Participants performed a speech‐in‐noise task in a realistic multispeaker social scenario with audio‐visual, auditory, or visual trials while their brain activity was recorded using EEG. The neurotypical group demonstrated a non‐linear audio‐visual effect in alpha oscillations, whereas the autistic group showed merely additive processing. Despite these differences in neural correlates, both groups achieved similar behavioral audio‐visual facilitation outcomes. These findings suggest that although autistic and neurotypical brains might process multisensory cues differently, they achieve comparable benefits from audio‐visual speech. These results contribute to the growing body of literature on MSI atypicalities in autism.European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation ProgramAgencia Estatal de Investigación 10.13039/501100011033AGAUR Generalitat de CatalunyaPeer Reviewe
trilemmatic positionality in teaching racialization processes in Germany
No full textThe article processing charge was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.This article analyzes the pedagogical and institutional challenges of teaching about racialization processes in Germany through a BA-level seminar, Processes of Racialization in the “Two Germanies. ” Drawing on critical race pedagogy and the concept of trilemmatic positionality, we explore how students navigated tensions between institutional resistance, anti-racist commitments, and their own lived experiences. Based on students' reflections and feedback, the article examines how language, digital learning, and institutional structures shape anti-racist learning. Our findings reveal the emotional labor of students, the discomfort of privileged learners, and the limits of institutional recognition of racism. We argue for the institutionalization of anti-racist pedagogy in German higher education and highlight how trilemmatic positionality provides an analytical tool for understanding the contradictions and potential of anti-racist teaching.Peer Reviewe
Machine learning driven design of spiropyran photoswitches
No full textThis study presents the development and application of a generative machine learning model for the design of novel spiropyran photoswitches with enhanced switching speed and absorption bands with small spectral overlap between the open and closed form ( i.e. high addressability). Leveraging a scaffold decoration approach, we fine-tuned a general chemical recurrent neural network (RNN) model on a curated dataset of photoswitches. The fine-tuned model was evaluated against both the pretrained baseline and literature-reported spiropyran compounds, demonstrating superior performance in generating diverse and novel candidates. Notably, the fine-tuned model effectively mitigates common biases in decoration patterns and functional group selection observed in the literature. The study also outlines the synthesis and experimental characterization of several newly designed spiropyran photoswitches, validating the design principles derived from the generative model. These findings highlight the potential of generative models in accelerating the discovery of advanced molecular photoswitches with tailored properties.Fonds der Chemischen Industrie 10.13039/100018992Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft 10.13039/501100001659Peer Reviewe
Aus der Zeit fallen. Ein Essay über die St. Galler Waldhandschrift
No full textDie Waldhandschrift wurde 1985–1987 nach dem Vorbild mittelalterlicher Handschriften (auf Pergament, mit mittelalterlichen Techniken des Schreibens und Buchmalens) produziert. Thematisch geht es in ihr um das Waldsterben. Sie unterliegt spezifischen Nutzungsbedingungen, unter anderem darf sie nur per Hand abgeschrieben werden. Heute liegt sie in der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen. In diesem Essay geht es darum, die Waldhandschrift möglichst nahe am Objekt zu beschreiben und gleichzeitig eine Interpretation zu versuchen: Wie wirkt sie heute?The Waldhandschrift (forest manuscript) is a book produced 1985–1987 following medieval procedures (on parchment, with medieval techniques for writing and book illustration). Its topic is the “Waldsterben” (forest decline). It is subject to specific requirements, for instance handwriting as the only form of reproduction method permitted. Today, the Waldhandschrift is deposited at the abbey library of Saint Gall. This essay tries to describe the Waldhandschrift as concrete as possible and attempts to interpret this manuscript: How does it affect today?Peer Reviewe
Functional Trade-Offs of Regulatory Mechanisms in the Management of Body Energy, Frontal Plane Angular Momentum and Mediolateral Margin of Stability During Hole Negotiation Gait
No full textThe functional interaction of regulatory mechanisms that manage total centre of mass (CoM) energy, frontal plane whole-body angular momentum and mediolateral margin of stability (MoS) during hole negotiation gait was investigated. Joint kinematics, leg posture, total CoM energy, frontal plane whole-body angular momentum, mediolateral MoS and muscle activation patterns of seven bilateral lower leg muscles were assessed in 18 participants. During hole negotiation, we found an increase in the peak-to-peak range of total CoM energy and frontal plane whole-body angular momentum during the preparation, hole and recovery steps, and a decrease in mediolateral MoS at touch-down during the preparation and hole steps compared to level walking, providing evidence of an increased challenge in stability control. Anticipatory adjustments in CoM trajectories, joint kinematics and muscle activation patterns regulated mechanisms that primarily supported the management of total CoM energy at the expense of whole-body angular momentum in the frontal plane. We identified an anticipatory foot placement strategy during the step in the hole that significantly reduced the moment arm of the vertical ground reaction force ( p = 0.011, d = 0.81), thereby favouring the control of frontal plane whole-body angular momentum. Conversely, this foot placement strategy significantly reduced ( p < 0.001, d = 1.05) the mediolateral MoS. The mutual influence between the regulatory mechanisms that control total CoM energy, frontal plane angular momentum and mediolateral MoS represent trade-offs rooted in the nature of the hole negotiation gait and demonstrate the challenge of moving on uneven terrain.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.No fundingsHumboldt-Universität zu Berlin (1034)Peer Reviewe
Socio‐ecological correlates of wildlife species identification across rural communities in northern Tanzania
No full textThe article processing charge was funded by the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Citizen or community science has the potential to inform wildlife management by including the general public in research and generating datasets on human perceptions of wildlife population dynamics and human–wildlife interactions. These contributions are especially valuable in areas with limited formal capacity for wildlife monitoring. However, people's perceptions are not always reliable and hinge on the accurate classification of species. In the absence of artificial intelligence‐supported automatic identification tools or wildlife experts, effectively incorporating people's reports of wildlife sightings into conservation management plans depends on the abilities of people to accurately identify animals (i.e. species literacy). These skills likely vary across human populations in accordance with a range of demographic, geographic and species‐specific factors. We carried out 680 semi‐structured interviews with rural citizens, randomly selected along transects in 25 villages across northern Tanzania. We showed photographs of 17 mammal species to participants and assessed species identification ability. Using a generalized linear mixed model within a Bayesian framework that accommodated the hierarchical data structure and non‐independence of the data, we tested specific hypotheses regarding the correlations of species identification accuracy with human demographic (ethnicity, education, age, wealth, gender), geographic (Human Footprint Index [HFI], distance to protected areas, district) and species‐specific (conservation status, activity patterns, body mass, diet) variables. Most respondents accurately identified key wildlife species commonly involved in human–wildlife interactions. Gender strongly influenced species identification accuracy, with men three times more likely to correctly identify species as compared to women. Formal education was negatively correlated with species identification accuracy. Respondents identified large species more accurately than smaller ones, whereas other species traits were not markedly correlated with identification accuracy. Distance to the nearest protected area, district and the HFI score in the area surrounding the household of the respondent were not markedly associated with species identification accuracy. Our results show that rural residents in northern Tanzania can reliably identify key wildlife species implicated in consequential human–wildlife interactions, though identification accuracy was affected by a combination of demographic and species‐specific factors that must be appropriately contextualized. This finding validates studies of local perceptions of wildlife populations and community reports of human–wildlife interactions. Finally, we discuss how local perspectives on wildlife can be applied to improve human–wildlife coexistence. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.The Canadian Anthropology SocietySocial Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) 10.13039/501100000155Prentice Institute for Global Population and EconomyUniversity of Lethbridge 10.13039/100008740Directed Research Fund of the School for Field StudiesPeer Reviewe