67 research outputs found
Towards a better understanding of climate proxies in stalagmites - Modelling processes from surface to cave
No full textIn recent years stalagmites revealed their high potential as archives for palaeo climate variability. However, the quantitative interpretation of the climate-related features - proxies - is still a challenging task. In this work two numerical models assessing the infuence of climate parameters on two stalagmite proxies - the Mg/Ca ratio and the d18O value - were developed. The models describe quantitatively how the proxies evolve from the atmospheric signals to the incorporation into stalagmite calcite. Both models were successfully applied to stalagmites from caves in western Germany. The models were used to establish two novel approaches of inverse modelling yielding simultaneously palaeo-temperatures and palaeo-precipitation from d18O and Mg/Ca values. Although both models are based on substantially di erent setups, their climate reconstructions show remarkable similarities applied on a Holocene stalagmite from western Germany. In addition, for the rst time a stalagmite model (the d18O model developed in this thesis)was forced with the output data of a General Circulation Model, as a new concept to understand the climate impact on d18O values of speleothems. The advantage is that this method can be applied to caves worldwide and for any given point in time without requiring observational climate data. An experiment including twelve European caves at 6ka before present shows the potential of this method to analyse synoptic-scale patterns of the climate of the past
Language skills, physical appearance, and immigrant integration in Germany
No full textThesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Political Science, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Page 239 is a foldout table. Includes survey in German.Includes bibliographical references (p. 263-287).Breaking with a long-held political stance that Germany is, despite a sizeable share of permanent immigrant residents, not a country of immigration, the German legislature has drawn up a new immigration law, which entered into force in January 2005. It states a new commitment to integrate legal immigrants into German society by teaching them German and acquainting them with the legal, cultural, and historical precepts of the German state and society. To gauge the role of the host society in the integration process, I use a three-pronged methodological approach to evaluate the influence of physical appearance and several other potentially salient attributes of immigrants on integration outcomes. Statistical analysis of recent census data provides a general picture of economic integration outcomes of foreign national residents in Germany. More specific information gathered by way of a structured survey among second generation immigrants in Germany allows me to investigate deeper levels of integration using variables geared more narrowly to my research question. Finally, qualitative interviews provide valuable insights into whether and to what extent immigrants themselves perceive language skills and physical appearance, as well as other issues, as shaping their integration experience. Overall, my analysis suggests that language proficiency is a strong predictor of economic integration. The impact of physical appearance, by comparison, is negligible. The survey suggests that despite high levels of cultural, social, and identificational integration, immigrants still feel disadvantage as a function of their cultural difference from the host society. They also universally report having and cherish ties to both German and their society of origin. In-depth interviews suggest that second generation immigrants, although aware of a certain degree of discrimination, do not see it as a major issue. Still, lasting emotional attachment to Germany could be boosted by policies that show genuine acceptance of immigrants' perceived or real ties to two cultures and communities, and recognize the assets they entail.by Anne-Katrin Wickboldt.Ph.D
Finiteness and children with specific language impairment: an exploratory study
No full textChildren with specific language impairment (SLI) are well known for their difficulties in mastering the inflectional paradigms; in the case of learning German they also have problems with the appropriate verb position, in particular with the verb in second position. This paper explores the possibilities of applying a broader concept of finiteness to data from children with SLI in order to put their deficits, or rather their skills, into a wider perspective. The concept, as developed by Klein (1998, 2000), suggests that finiteness is tied to the assertion that a certain state of affairs is valid with regard to some topic time; that is, finiteness relates the propositional content to the topic component. Its realization involves the interaction of various grammatical devices and, possibly, lexical means like temporal adverbs. Furthermore, in the acquisition of finiteness it has been found that scope particles play a major role in both first- and second-language learning. The purpose of this paper is to analyze to what extent three German-learning children with SLI have mastered these grammatical and lexical means and to pinpoint the phase in the development of finiteness they have reached. The data to be examined are mostly narrative and taken from conversations and experiments. It will be shown that each child chooses a different developmental path to come to grips with the interaction of these devices
Do changing institutional settings matter? : educational attainment and family related employment interruptions in Germany
No full text"Cross-sectional studies show that in West Germany women with different levels of educational attainment participate differently in the labor market. In this paper, I examine one potential underlying mechanism: the re-entry of mothers in the labor market after a period of inactivity. I argue that besides societal changes the reforms of parental leave legislation could be responsible for the educational divide in mothers' employment. Hypotheses are derived from human capital theory and labor supply theory assuming a rational behavior of women. Using retrospective life-course data from the IAB study ALWA, I find evidence that women with different levels of educational attainment have different re-entry patterns also when taking the educational attainment of the partner into account. Furthermore, parental leave schemes play a crucial role for re-entries. Some evidence of an educational polarization of re-entry behavior is found after the year 2000." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))erwerbstätige Frauen, Mütter, berufliche Reintegration, Berufsrückkehrerinnen, Erwerbsunterbrechung, IAB-Datensatz Arbeiten und Lernen, Bildungsniveau, Erziehungsurlaub, Erwerbsverhalten, Mutterschaftsurlaub, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Research in medical education - chances and challenges : international conference, 20th - 22nd May 2009, Heidelberg ; congress abstracts
No full textFunctional Characterisation of Alpha-Galactosidase A Mutations as a Basis for a New Classification System in Fabry Disease
No full textThis is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.The study has been supported partially by an unrestricted scientific grant from Shire Human Genetic Therapies (Germany
Things Don't Really Exist Until You Give Them a Name: Unpacking Urban Heritage
No full textUrban built environments are spatial and material archives. Streets, buildings, open spaces, or infrastructures are registers of historical negotiations and repositories of data. Stories of power, geopolitics, economic systems, labour and culture can be revealed through road names and construction materials, portals and pediments, park benches and chimneys. Embodying our desires, needs, and resources, they condition how we live and interact with each other, and trigger countless reinterpretations and re-appropriations. Most of this dense layering is not immediately legible; it has not been decoded. Rather it is part of a more intuitive, lived sense of “urbanity” that generates contemporary individual and collective senses of identity and belonging. These complex urban palimpsests form the constitutive stages upon, with and against which everyday and extraordinary cultural life is performed.History, Form & Aesthetic
Unlikely Collaborations?: Planning Experts from both Sides of the Iron Curtain and the Making of Abuja
No full textAs a so-called “playground of the Cold War”, post-colonial sub-Saharan Africa was contested territory in the ideological power game that dominated the second half of the twentieth century. However, despite the tension between eastern and western blocs, the non-aligned nations of the “South” also provided opportunities for unlikely collaborations. In the realm of urban planning, this can be observed in the development of new capital cities. Abuja, the new capital of Nigeria, serves as a potent example. While including a variety of voices (notably from the USA and UK), in this article we focus on the involvement of the GDR and particularly on the contribution of Heinz Schwarzbach. By providing analyses at both macro and micro scales, we hope to complicate existing Cold War planning histories. And even though the GDR appears as a minimal player, the fact that figures from the GDR took part in the Abuja project at all fundamentally questions the general narrative of the Cold War in Africa.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository 'You share, we take care!' - Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.History, Form & Aesthetic
Certification of railroads based on the example of VKG
No full textRaudteid mõõdistatakse erinevatel eesmärkidel. Käesolevas lõputöös on antud lühike ülevaade, millistel põhjustel ja milliste instrumentidega toimub raudteede mõõdistamine. Täpsemalt on kirjeldatud tahhümeetrilist mõõdistamisviisi raudteede pasportiseerimismõõdistustel. Antud töö koostamisel on aluseks võetud VKG Transport AS-i poolt tellitud Viru Keemia Grupp AS-ile kuuluvate Kohtla-Järve linnas paiknevate raudteede mõõdistamine ning selle põhjal vajalike jooniste ja dokumentide vormistamine. Lahti on kirjutatud erinevad tööde etapid, näiteks ettevalmistus mõõdistustöödeks, mõõdistuspõhise tihendamine vajalikul määral, reaalne mõõdistamisprotsess ning erinevad sisetööd. Töö praktilise poole kirjelduse vahele on põimitud seadustest ja määrustest tulenevad nõuded mõõdistamisele, seejuures on käsitletud Raudtee tehnokasutuseeskirja ning Majandus- ja kommunikatsiooniministri määruse „Ehitusgeodeetiliste uurimistööde tegemise kord“ nõudeid. Töö esimeses kahes peatükis on antud ülevaade mõõdistusobjektist, tellija korraldatud hankest, töö lähteülesandest ja kasutatud geodeetiliste instrumentide spetsifikatsioonidest. Kolmandas peatükis on käsitletud objektil olemasolevat mõõdistamispõhist ning selle tihendamise meetodeid. Mõõdistamisel kasutati maksimaalselt Kohtla-Järve linna polügonomeetriapunkte, kuid objekti paiknemine ja teised objekti eripärad tingisid vajaduse täiendavate kindelpunktide loomise järele. Mõõdistuspõhist tihendati objektil mitmes jaos ning vastavalt vajadusele, kasutades selleks traditsioonilist tahhümeetriat polügonomeetriakäigu näol, aga ka satelliitgeodeesia meetodeid, mida osaliselt kombineeriti nivelleerimisega. Töösse on lisatud lisaks meetodite kirjeldustele illustreerivad skeemid ja tulemuste tabelid ning hinnang tulemuste osas. Tööde ettevalmistuse all on eraldi kirjeldatud tellija poolt läbiviidud tööohutuse alast instruktaaži. Mõõdistamise käiku selgitavas peatükis on antud ülevaade, mida ja kuidas objektil mõõdeti, ning räägitud elektrontahhümeetri orienteerimiseks kasutatud meetoditest: nurgalis-joonelise lõike meetodil ja kindelpunkti kohale orienteerimisest. Välja on toodud, milliste probleemidega (juhendmaterjalide vähesus, ilmastikulised ning raudteeliiklusest tingitud probleemid) mõõdistajad tööde käigus kokku puutusid. Kameraaltööde peatükki on koondatud info maa-ala plaani joonestamisest, kõvera elementide arvutamisest, pikiprofiilide koostamisest koos sellele eelnenud tegevustega ning teede, pöörangute, signaalide, hoonete ja rajatiste andmike koostamisest.The current thesis is titled as “Certification of railroads based on the example of VKG“. There are a number of possible reasons for railroad surveying, ranging from simple topographic surveys of areas including railroads all the way to detailed rail track specific surveys. For instance, one might order a railroad survey in order to examine the condition of existing railroad tracks, to certify tracks or rail facilities, to design new railroad associated equipment and facilities or additional paths to an existing railway network, but also to design and construct buildings or other objects in the close vicinity of a railroad, etc. Each of the survey types has its nuances and differences. Despite the fact that general principles of measuring railroads have remained relatively unchanged over time, there has been a remarkable development of the instruments used for surveying. Before the introduction of total stations railroads (as all other objects) were measured in two stages – positional data was collected using a theodolite and height data was obtained via levelling. These two stages can be combined when working with a total station. By now even more complex instruments have been developed for measuring track geometry, which provide extremely high precision results and can be combined with laser scanning. However, classic tachymetric surveying is still the most common means of geodetic measurements and therefore total stations are involved in a constant process of development. The main purpose of this thesis is to give a general overview of tachymetric railroad surveying, as well as a specific description of the different stages of geodetic works carried out while certifying VKG’s railroads located in Kohtla-Järve, Ida-Viru County. The writing provides information about the preparation of works, establishing a network of geodetic base points, also about the process of surveying and the indoor works. Furthermore, an overview of requirements applicable to railroad surveying is provided. The thesis begins with a brief introduction of the work site and the procurement for finding a suitable contractor, followed by the initial assignment issued by the client. Additionally, a listing of geodetic instruments used on site is given, accompanied by the technical specifications of each instrument. The surveying on site was planned out to be, as much as possible, based on the network of polygonometric points of Kohtla-Järve. However, the placement and other circumstances of the work site caused the need to densify the existing network of geodetic points which are used to set up the total station. The densifying took place in various places when necessary; traditional polygonometry and GNSS methods were used, the latter being combined with digital levelling. The thesis explains the different methods and provides illustrative figures and tables of results. The current thesis contains in full extent an earlier project report published by the author on establishing a network of geodetic base points to be used on the VKG’s closed territory. This report was initially written to be a part of the thesis; in the current writing additional referencing to the report has not been done. The paragraph about railroad surveying covers the general aspect of the topic, but also explains what exactly, where and how was measured, which methods were used to set up the total station (resection based on two geodetic points with known coordinates, and setting the instrument up over a known point), and what kind of problems occurred while surveying. In addition, the mentioned paragraph provides a summary of the most important points of VKG’s safety regulations for working on or close to railroads. The last part of the thesis speaks about indoor works, more specifically about drawing up a topographic plan, calculating the elements of curves, composing longitudinal profiles of railroad tracks and preparing specification tables for railroad paths, rail switches, signals, buildings and facilities. The mentioned works were carried out using the AutoCAD software
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