Figurations of Time in Asia

The experience and the ensuing structuring of time forms a constitutive part of human cultures. There are many ways of coming to terms with time, calendars and historiographies being its most common cultural representations. The contributions to this volume deal with lesser known figurations that result directly from the various perceptions about time and phenomena related to time. Diachronous investigations in various parts of Asia (predominantly South Asia) reveal a broad spectrum of such visual and literary figurative manifestations. While Hinduism recognizes a divine personification of time and allocates the ominous factor time in an ontological proximity to death, other cultures of Asia have developed their own specific concepts and strategies. This collection of essays combines perspectives of various disciplines on figurations in which time congeals, as it were. These figurations result from local time regimes, and beyond demonstrating their diversity of forms this volume offers coordinates for a comparison of cultures. The topics include chronograms as well as early Buddhist topoi of the vastness of time, the Indian Jaina representation of both temporality and non-temporality and the teachings of a Mediaeval Zen master hinting at the more stationary aspects of time

Analysis of Barriers to the Development of Industrial Internet of Things Technology and Ways to Overcome Them

The development of the digital economy requires the compilation of a roadmap for the development of all the end-to-end technologies included in the cluster of technologies that need to be developed to a new level. At the first stage, anticipating decisions on state financing of this cluster, a list of critical end-to-end technologies is compiled. The second step is the preparation of roadmaps for each of the selected critical technologies. As a rule, many experts are involved in drawing up roadmaps, including foreign experts. As a rule, the team of such experts is headed by an organization that has received instructions to develop a roadmap on a competitive basis. Of course, not all the wishes of all experts are taken into account by such an organization; therefore, there may be alternative opinions and alternative roadmaps, or additions to the developed roadmaps. If the roadmap developed by the governing organization is approved, alternative documents are only of perhaps scientific interest. If the roadmap developed by the core team of experts is not approved due to its insufficient completeness, the decision seems to be postponed, and the specified roadmap should be corrected by adding information from alternative documents, which, of course, should be done taking into account the opinion of all experts in the field. Since the approved roadmap for the "Industrial Internet of Things" direction does not yet exist, the authors consider it useful to present their position on this issue

Human embryonic stem cell-derived test systems for developmental neurotoxicity: a transcriptomics approach

Developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) and many forms of reproductive toxicity (RT) often manifest themselves in functional deficits that are not necessarily based on cell death, but rather on minor changes relating to cell differentiation or communication. The fields of DNT/RT would greatly benefit from in vitro tests that allow the identification of toxicant-induced changes of the cellular proteostasis, or of its underlying transcriptome network. Therefore, the 'human embryonic stem cell (hESC)- derived novel alternative test systems (ESNATS)' European commission research project established RT tests based on defined differentiation protocols of hESC and their progeny. Valproic acid (VPA) and methylmercury (MeHg) were used as positive control compounds to address the following fundamental questions: (1) Does transcriptome analysis allow discrimination of the two compounds? (2) How does analysis of enriched transcription factor binding sites (TFBS) and of individual probe sets (PS) distinguish between test systems? (3) Can batch effects be controlled? (4) How many DNA microarrays are needed? (5) Is the highest non-cytotoxic concentration optimal and relevant for the study of transcriptome changes? VPA triggered vast transcriptional changes, whereas MeHg altered fewer transcripts. To attenuate batch effects, analysis has been focused on the 500 PS with highest variability. The test systems differed significantly in their responses (\20 % overlap). Moreover, within one test system, little overlap between the PS changed by the two compounds has been observed. However, using TFBS enrichment, a relatively large 'common response' to VPA and MeHg could be distinguished from 'compound-specific' responses. In conclusion, the ESNATS assay battery allows classification of human DNT/RT toxicants on the basis of their transcriptome profiles.EU/FP7/ESNATSDFGDoerenkamp-Zbinden Foundatio

Reconstruction of primary vertices at the ATLAS experiment in Run 1 proton–proton collisions at the LHC

This paper presents the method and performance of primary vertex reconstruction in proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 1 of the LHC. The studies presented focus on data taken during 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of √s=8 TeV. The performance has been measured as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing over a wide range, from one to seventy. The measurement of the position and size of the luminous region and its use as a constraint to improve the primary vertex resolution are discussed. A longitudinal vertex position resolution of about 30μm is achieved for events with high multiplicity of reconstructed tracks. The transverse position resolution is better than 20μm and is dominated by the precision on the size of the luminous region. An analytical model is proposed to describe the primary vertex reconstruction efficiency as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing and of the longitudinal size of the luminous region. Agreement between the data and the predictions of this model is better than 3% up to seventy interactions per bunch crossing

New genetic loci link adipose and insulin biology to body fat distribution.

Body fat distribution is a heritable trait and a well-established predictor of adverse metabolic outcomes, independent of overall adiposity. To increase our understanding of the genetic basis of body fat distribution and its molecular links to cardiometabolic traits, here we conduct genome-wide association meta-analyses of traits related to waist and hip circumferences in up to 224,459 individuals. We identify 49 loci (33 new) associated with waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for body mass index (BMI), and an additional 19 loci newly associated with related waist and hip circumference measures (P < 5 × 10(-8)). In total, 20 of the 49 waist-to-hip ratio adjusted for BMI loci show significant sexual dimorphism, 19 of which display a stronger effect in women. The identified loci were enriched for genes expressed in adipose tissue and for putative regulatory elements in adipocytes. Pathway analyses implicated adipogenesis, angiogenesis, transcriptional regulation and insulin resistance as processes affecting fat distribution, providing insight into potential pathophysiological mechanisms

Whole-Day Schools - Management and Education

Ganztagsschulen haben durch ihr Mehr an Zeit einen größeren Spielraum, die Schulgestaltung an den Bedürfnissen der Beteiligten zu orientieren. In einer Auseinandersetzung mit anderen Perspektiven kann es gelingen, die Ausrichtung der eigenen Schule zu diskutieren, zu festigen und zu schärfen. Pädagogische Fortbildungsveranstaltungen bieten dazu eine Möglichkeit. Der zweite bayerische Ganztagsschulkongress Ganztagsschule gestalten – ganztags Unterricht organisieren am 3. und 4. März 2010 in Forchheim bot den Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern anhand vielfältiger Vorträge und Workshops ein Forum zur Diskussion mit Perspektiven aus Wissenschaft, Schulpraxis und Bildungspolitik. Die Dokumentation der Veranstaltung liegt hiermit vor.All-day schools stand out against other types of schools due to the extended availability of time and therewith a wider range of possibilities to adjust the orientation of the school to the needs of the persons involved. Schools can evolve and strengthen their orientation by a discursive examination and discussion of different approaches. A good opportunity for advancing this discussion are events in pedagogical further education. During the second Bavarian all-day school congress "Modelling All-Day School - Organizing All-Day Tuition", held on the 3rd and 4th of March 2010 in Forchheim/Germany, participants had the opportunity to attend numerous workshops and presentations as well as a panel discussion featuring experts from the fields of educational science, educational policy and teaching. The documentation of the congress is now available

Event-shape engineering for inclusive spectra and elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at root(NN)-N-S=2.76 TeV

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