The Israel-Jordan borderlands in the Arava Valley: differential development and prospects for co-operation

The area of study extends from south of the Dead Sea to the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat. The Arava Valley is divided between Jordan and Israel, having a desert environment marked by high temperatures and low precipitation. The boundary was disputed from 1948 until the Jordanian-Israeli Peace Treaty on the 26th of October 1994. This border situation led to different settlement patterns on either side: the Israeli side was settled with Kibbutzim and Moshavim to secure the borders, whereas the Jordanian side stayed largely untouched because of the extreme conditions. Jordan and Israel share a common hydrogeological system in the Arava Valley, which has not as yet been fully investigated. This will only be possible through transboundary co-operation. Further areas of co-operation include agriculture, infrastructure, industry and tourism. Projects for co-operation in these areas were discussed between the two countries at the Casablanca Summit in October 1994. Each chapter of this thesis analyses the differences and commonalities between the two borderlands in the activities mentioned above, and assesses the prospects for future co-operation. The conclusion compares possibilities for co-operation in the Arava Valley with other selected borderlands in the world where transboundary co-operation already exists. Most cases seem to show that one party is likely to benefit more than the other, at least in the short-term

Enacting Social Justice Ethically: Individual and Communal Habits. A Response to Ethics in Teaching for Democracy and Social Justice

In response to Hytten’s provocative opening of a conversation about an ethics for activist teaching, in this essay I address three interesting contributions that Hytten made. First, I explore the significance of the imagined ethical subject in Hytten’s example and in many prior authors’ work on ethics in social justice teaching. Expanding the imagined ethical subject (beyond the resistant student with limited experience of difference), which Hytten began to do, is fruitful for additional contexts. Second, I attend to the philosophical basis upon which Hytten rested her ethical theory and suggest some ways that philosophers might follow her critical and pragmatist sensibilities and avoid the meta-ethical limitations of more traditional ethical theory. Third, the essay ends with considerations of potentially a more social ethics, and toward that end, I propose two communal habits implied in Hytten’s work—cultivating solidarity and comfort with discomfort—that might complement the four habits Hytten named in her ethics

Simple method for sub-diffraction resolution imaging of cellular structures on standard confocal microscopes by three-photon absorption of quantum dots

This study describes a simple technique that improves a recently developed 3D sub-diffraction imaging method based on three-photon absorption of commercially available quantum dots. The method combines imaging of biological samples via tri-exciton generation in quantum dots with deconvolution and spectral multiplexing, resulting in a novel approach for multi-color imaging of even thick biological samples at a 1.4 to 1.9-fold better spatial resolution. This approach is realized on a conventional confocal microscope equipped with standard continuous-wave lasers. We demonstrate the potential of multi-color tri-exciton imaging of quantum dots combined with deconvolution on viral vesicles in lentivirally transduced cells as well as intermediate filaments in three-dimensional clusters of mouse-derived neural stem cells (neurospheres) and dense microtubuli arrays in myotubes formed by stacks of differentiated C2C12 myoblasts

Glaucoma Screening Guidelines Worldwide

PrcisRecommendations for glaucoma screening vary significantly from organization to organization, and while worldwide screening is currently not recommended, there is support in many organizations for screening at-risk subgroups of the general population.ObjectiveTo summarize and compare current glaucoma screening protocols of major national and international, governmental, and non-governmental organizations.MethodsA general review of the major medical, and more specifically ophthalmic, organizations within North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa was undertaken. Protocols from recent international and regional meetings were reviewed and summarized and a comparative analysis was employed to highlight differences between national and regional policies.ResultsIn general, it was found that worldwide screening for glaucoma is currently of limited clinical utility and unlikely to be cost-effective. However, a more targeted approach is recommended by some major organizations, including the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the Pan-American Association of Ophthalmology, and the International Council of Ophthalmology in conjunction with a group of prominent ophthalmologists based in Sub-Saharan Africa recommend a targeted approach to screening specific populations that are deemed to be at higher risk of developing glaucoma.ConclusionGeneral population screening for glaucoma has been adopted as a recommendation by only a few organizations and only in specific situations. It is the screening of high-risk populations that has been demonstrated to be not only clinically useful in diagnosing and treating larger proportions of the general population benefiting from a higher positive-predictive value for screening protocols in these groups but also cost-effective. Further research is needed to create cost-effective protocols to successfully screen these high-risk populations for glaucoma using methods that are sufficiently sensitive and specific

Konzeption und Aufbau eines Literatur- und Informationsverwaltungssystems für ein mittelständisches Unternehmen : dargestellt am Beispiel der kunststoffverarbeitenden Firma Ensinger

Gegenstand dieser Arbeit ist die Auswahl und Einführung eines EDV-gestützten Literaturverwaltungssystems in der kunststoffverarbeitenden Firma Ensinger. Anhand einer aufgestellten Kriterienliste wurden verschiedene Systeme auf ihre Eignung getestet und aufgrund seiner leichten und unkomplizierten Bedienung fiel die Entscheidung auf das Literaturverwaltungssystem PARADISE. Für die Inhaltliche Erschliessung wurde unter verschiedenen Möglichkeiten ein Schlagwortindex ausgewählt. Zusätzlich wurden allgemeine und fachspezifische Internetquellen für die weiterführende Suche nach Literatur bereitgestellt. Zum Abschluss erfolgt die Einführung des Systems in der Firma durch Mitarbeiterschulungen und Benutzungsanweisungen

E-Medien-Service nach Maß – Qualitative Studie zu Nutzungsaspekten und Optimierung des E-Medien-Portfolios an den Bibliotheken der Hochschule Furtwangen

Studierende und Lehrende als Kunden wissenschaftlicher Bibliotheken sind im digitalen Zeitalter aufgrund virtueller Angebote nicht mehr wie früher auf physische Bibliotheken angewiesen. Die Tendenz zu „entmaterialisierten Bibliotheken“, stellt komplexe Anforderungen an das Bibliotheksmanagement, mit dem Ziel, die E-Medien als umfassende Services für ihre Zielgruppen sichtbar darzustellen. Ausgehend von diesem Fokus soll das E-Medien-Portfolio der Bibliotheken der Hochschule Furtwangen konsequent an den Bedarfen ihrer Kernzielgruppen ausgerichtet werden. „E-Medien-Service nach Maß“ bedeutet eine komplexe Herausforderung und ist zugleich eine strategische Aufgabe des Bibliotheksmanagements, im Kontext von Studium und Lehre sowie dem Qualitätsmanagement der Hochschule. Die Arbeit stellt dazu eine qualitative Studie vor, die im Wintersemester 2014/2015 am Campus Tuttlingen durchgeführt wurde. Sie erläutert Hintergrund und Zielsetzung der Untersuchungsfrage, beschreibt die angewandte Methode und das Untersuchungsdesign. Ziel der Studie war, Nutzungsaspekte und Bedarfe der Zielgruppen Professoren und Studierende der Fakultät Industrial Technologies festzustellen. Darüber hinaus wurde ermittelt, inwieweit das E-Medien-Angebot der Bibliotheken bekannt ist und welche Möglichkeiten bestehen, es besser sichtbar zu machen. Die Ergebnisse aus der Studie wurden in Empfehlungen zur Optimierung des E-Medien-Portfolios zusammengefasst. Darauf basierend kann ein strategisches Konzept entwickelt werden, welches durch die Untersuchung der Bedarfe und unter Beachtung der Relevanzsysteme ihrer Zielgruppen erfolgreich vom Bibliotheksmanagement eingeleitet werden kann.In the digital age the broad range of virtual media on offer means that the users of scientific libraries, the students and teachers, must no longer rely on physical libraries as in the past. The tendency towards “dematerialized libraries“, with the accompanying increase in non-material digital media, presents broad challenges for library management aiming to design, organize and evaluate e-media in order to introduce it as a service for library customers in a practical and visible manner. In this context, an optimized e-media portfolio of the Furtwangen University libraries, which focuses consistently on the needs of the core target group, customized e-media service, presents a complex challenge which at the same time represents a strategic library management objective of meeting the quality directives on study and teaching set by the university. This work is a qualitative study carried out in the winter semester of 2014/2015 on the Tuttlingen Campus. It explains the background and aims of the research question, de-scribes the methods implemented and the research design. The aim of the study was to investigate the types of use and needs of the target group of professors and students of the Faculty of Industrial Technologies. The extent to which the e-media offerings of the library are known and how the options available can be made more visible was also investigated. The results from the study were summarized in the form of action recommendations: implementation of these recommendations would lead to the optimization of the e-media portfolio. This would be based on a design development strategy which has at its core the needs of the core target groups, which can then be successfully introduced by the library management

Emotion-Marketing durch Events in Bibliotheken : eine Hochschulbibliothek inszeniert "Kunst am Campus"

Kunden wissenschaftlicher Bibliotheken sind im digitalen Zeitalter durch virtuelle Angebote nicht mehr im selben Umfang wie früher auf physische Bibliotheken angewiesen. Die Tendenz zur „entmaterialisierten Bibliothek“ stellt eine Herausforderung dar, welche die Zunahme immaterieller, digitaler Medien impliziert. In diesem Kontext ist ein einladendes, kommunikatives Ambiente der Bibliotheksräume von Bedeutung. Der Einsatz von Emotion-Marketing durch Events in Bibliotheken hat das Ziel, die Bibliothek als Lernort und desgleichen als kulturellen und sozialen Treffpunkt im Umfeld der Hochschule und auch im öffentlichen Raum darzustellen. Die Arbeit gibt einen Einblick, wie mittels des Szenarios „Kunst am Campus“ Emotion-Marketing durch ein Event in der Hochschulbibliothek Tuttlingen realisiert wurde, ausgehend von dem Impuls, ihre Kunden durch Kunst emotional zu berühren und durch positive Erinnerung an die Bibliothek zu binden bzw. sich bei ihren Kooperationspartnern durch ein positives Image zu profilieren.In the digital age, customers of academic libraries are no longer dependent on physical libraries. The tendency towards a “dematerialized library” is a challenge caused by the increase of intangible, digital media. In this context, a friendly, communicative environment of the library rooms is very important. Emotion marketing trough events in libraries has the objective to present the library as a learning place and as a cultural and social meeting place in the university and in public spaces. The paper gives insight into how emotion marketing has been implemented at the university library Tuttlingen with the “Art on Campus” event, intending to affect the customers’ emotions through art in order to increase their loyalty through positive memories and create a positive image among its cooperation partners

Structure of cellular ESCRT-III spirals and their relationship to HIV budding

Abstract The ESCRT machinery along with the AAA+ ATPase Vps4 drive membrane scission for trafficking into multivesicular bodies in the endocytic pathway and for the topologically related processes of viral budding and cytokinesis, but how they accomplish this remains unclear. Using deep-etch electron microscopy, we find that endogenous ESCRT-III filaments stabilized by depleting cells of Vps4 create uniform membrane-deforming conical spirals which are assemblies of specific ESCRT-III heteropolymers. To explore functional roles for ESCRT-III filaments, we examine HIV-1 Gag-mediated budding of virus-like particles and find that depleting Vps4 traps ESCRT-III filaments around nascent Gag assemblies. Interpolating between the observed structures suggests a new role for Vps4 in separating ESCRT-III from Gag or other cargo to allow centripetal growth of a neck constricting ESCRT-III spiral. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.02184.00

“Hot” executive functions are comparable across monolingual and bilingual elementary school children: Results from a study with the Iowa Gambling Task

Past research found performance differences between monolingual and bilingual children in the domain of executive functions (EF). Furthermore, recent studies have reported advantages in processing efficiency or mental effort in bilingual adults and children. These studies mostly focused on the investigation of “cold” EF tasks. Studies including measures of “hot” EF, i.e., tasks operating in an emotionally significant setting, are limited and hence results are inconclusive. In the present study, we extend previous research by investigating performance in a task of the “hot” EF domain by both behavioral data and mental effort via pupillary changes during task performance. Seventy-three monolingual and bilingual school children (mean age = 107.23 months, SD = 10.26) solved the Iowa Gambling Task in two different conditions. In the standard task, characterized by constant gains and occasional losses, children did not learn to improve their decision-making behavior. In a reversed task version, characterized by constant losses and occasional gains, both monolinguals and bilinguals learned to improve their decision-making behavior over the course of the task. In both versions of the task, children switched choices more often after losses than after gains. Bilinguals switched their choices less often than monolinguals in the reversed task, indicating a slightly more mature decision-making strategy. Mental effort did not differ between monolinguals and bilinguals. Conclusions of these findings for the bilingual advantage assumption will be discussed

Unexpected Vision Loss following Six Intravitreal Injections for Neovascular Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Introduction: We present a case of a patient with preceding vitreomacular traction (VMT) who developed a full-thickness macular hole (FTMH) following his sixth intravitreal aflibercept injection for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration and review the literature on risk factors and pathogenesis of this adverse event. Case Presentation: FTMH can occur after an extended number of repeat intravitreal injections in the setting of worsening vitreomacular adhesion or VMT. This patient’s FTMH was successfully treated surgically in a timely manner, and additional injections were resumed safely. Conclusions: Patients with an unexpected decrease in vision after intravitreal injections should be reevaluated with optical coherence tomography to rule out alternative pathology including vitreomacular interface abnormalities. FTMH, if present, should be treated promptly to allow for resumption of therapy as needed and visual optimization