Crossing the Bridge : The Sound of Istanbul

Ebenso wie sein Vorbild Martin Scorsese (THE LAST WALTZ, 1978; SHINE A LIGHT, 2008) drehte Fatih Akin mit CROSSING THE BRIDGE: THE SOUND OF ISTANBUL ein Rockumentary, das einen emotionalen Strudel erzeugt und den Zuschauer sehr nah ans Geschehen bringt. Anders aber als Scorsese, der in SHINE A LIGHT den Mythos „Rolling Stones“ feiert und somit sein Publikum sicher hat, begibt sich Akin auf eine Reise ins Unbekannte. Die Musikszene Istanbuls, die er porträtiert, ist für die meisten Europäer Neuland

Still an Opaque Institution? Explaining Decision-Making in the EU Council Using Newspaper Information: A Reply to Sullivan and Veen

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Nanomaterials in the aquatic environment: A European Union-United States perspective on the status of ecotoxicity testing, research priorities, and challenges ahead

The US-EU Community of Research (CoR) was established in 2012 to provide a platform for scientists to develop a ‘shared repertoire of protocols and methods to overcome nanotechnology environmental health and safety (nanoEHS) research gaps and barriers’ (www.us-eu.org/). Based on work within the Ecotoxicology CoR (2012–2015) we provide here an overview of the state-of-the-art of nanomaterials (NMs) in the aquatic environment by addressing different research questions with a focus on ecotoxicological test systems and the challenges faced when assessing nanomaterial (NM) hazards (e.g., uptake routes, bioaccumulation, toxicity, test protocols and model organisms). Our recommendation is to place particular importance on studying the ecological effects of aged/weathered NMs, as-manufactured NMs, as well as NMs released from consumer products in addressing the following overarching research topics: i) NM characterization and quantification in environmental and biological matrices, ii) NM transformation in the environment and consequences for bioavailability and toxicity, iii) alternative methods to assess exposure, iv) influence of exposure scenarios on bioavailability and toxicity, v) development of more environmentally realistic bioassays and vi) uptake, internal distribution, and depuration of NMs. Research addressing these key topics will reduce uncertainty in ecological risk assessment and support the sustainable development of nanotechnology

Lack of correlation between reaction speed and analytical sensitivity in isothermal amplification reveals the value of digital methods for optimization: validation using digital real-time RT-LAMP

In this paper, we asked if it is possible to identify the best primers and reaction conditions based on improvements in reaction speed when optimizing isothermal reactions. We used digital single-molecule, real-time analyses of both speed and efficiency of isothermal amplification reactions, which revealed that improvements in the speed of isothermal amplification reactions did not always correlate with improvements in digital efficiency (the fraction of molecules that amplify) or with analytical sensitivity. However, we observed that the speeds of amplification for single-molecule (in a digital device) and multi-molecule (e.g. in a PCR well plate) formats always correlated for the same conditions. Also, digital efficiency correlated with the analytical sensitivity of the same reaction performed in a multi-molecule format. Our finding was supported experimentally with examples of primer design, the use or exclusion of loop primers in different combinations, and the use of different enzyme mixtures in one-step reverse-transcription loop-mediated amplification (RT-LAMP). Our results show that measuring the digital efficiency of amplification of single-template molecules allows quick, reliable comparisons of the analytical sensitivity of reactions under any two tested conditions, independent of the speeds of the isothermal amplification reactions

“And miles to go before…” – Are speech intensity levels adjusted to VR communication distances?

The latter prosodic factor, voice power, is the subject of the present study. Following the conventions of current prosody research, we refer to it as ‘intensity’. Our investigation of intensity is motivated by two reasons: Firstly, the critical role of intensity for speakers to make a positive, persuasive impression on stage has for a long time stressed in rhetorical guidebooks but was only recently supported by empirical phonetic evidence. Second, the inherent immersion effect of VR (i.e. the users’ feeling of being “present”) almost seems tailor-made for training intensity, a vocal factor that is otherwise extremely difficult to train intuitively and effectively in the real world. It is known that speakers in everyday communication automatically adapt their intensity to the communication conditions and, in particular, to the speaker-listener distance. In public speaking, however, this adaptation often takes place insufficiently or not at all, with the result that speakers on stage speak much too quietly and, thus, inappropriately for the situation

“And miles to go before…” – Are speech intensity levels adjusted to VR communication distances?

The latter prosodic factor, voice power, is the subject of the present study. Following the conventions of current prosody research, we refer to it as ‘intensity’. Our investigation of intensity is motivated by two reasons: Firstly, the critical role of intensity for speakers to make a positive, persuasive impression on stage has for a long time stressed in rhetorical guidebooks but was only recently supported by empirical phonetic evidence. Second, the inherent immersion effect of VR (i.e. the users’ feeling of being “present”) almost seems tailor-made for training intensity, a vocal factor that is otherwise extremely difficult to train intuitively and effectively in the real world. It is known that speakers in everyday communication automatically adapt their intensity to the communication conditions and, in particular, to the speaker-listener distance. In public speaking, however, this adaptation often takes place insufficiently or not at all, with the result that speakers on stage speak much too quietly and, thus, inappropriately for the situation

“And miles to go before…” – Are vocal-effort levels in speech adjusted to VR communication distances?

A clear, powerful voice is crucial for impactful public speaking, yet many learners struggle with achieving adequate 'vocal effort.' This study investigates whether varying virtual distances in a Virtual Reality (VR) setting could influence speakers' vocal-effort levels. We conducted 15 description tasks involving German native speakers, analyzing their spontaneous statements and pre-defined questions for prosodic features indicative of vocal effort. Participants' attitudes toward VR technology were assessed via a VR-adapted UTAUT questionnaire. Our findings suggest that longer virtual distances effectively elevate vocal-effort levels when 3D sound accurately simulates interlocutor distances. These results strongly advocate for the development of a VR-based public-speaking training application focused on vocal effort. However, we also found that individual attitudes toward VR, which varied considerably among participants, correlated with speech prosody. We conclude with recommendations for future research and practical applications of our findings

“And miles to go before…” – Are speech intensity levels adjusted to VR communication distances?

The latter prosodic factor, voice power, is the subject of the present study. Following the conventions of current prosody research, we refer to it as ‘intensity’. Our investigation of intensity is motivated by two reasons: Firstly, the critical role of intensity for speakers to make a positive, persuasive impression on stage has for a long time stressed in rhetorical guidebooks but was only recently supported by empirical phonetic evidence. Second, the inherent immersion effect of VR (i.e. the users’ feeling of being “present”) almost seems tailor-made for training intensity, a vocal factor that is otherwise extremely difficult to train intuitively and effectively in the real world. It is known that speakers in everyday communication automatically adapt their intensity to the communication conditions and, in particular, to the speaker-listener distance. In public speaking, however, this adaptation often takes place insufficiently or not at all, with the result that speakers on stage speak much too quietly and, thus, inappropriately for the situation

Toxicity and toxicokinetics of cadmium in \u3ci\u3eCapitella\u3c/i\u3e sp. I: Relative importance of water and sediment as routes of cadmium uptake

The importance of dissolved versus sediment-bound cadmium as uptake routes for the deposit-feeding polychaete Capitella species I and the toxicity and toxicokinetics of cadmium from these exposure routes were investigated. Effects were reported as changes in worm growth rate, egestion rate and allometry. Radioactive cadmium (109Cd) was used as a tracer to examine the uptake (5 d) and subsequent depuration (6 d) of cadmium. Both effects and kinetics were investigated in systems with and without sediment. Individual Capitella sp. I were exposed to (1) dissolved (i.e. –1). Worms in water-only treatments showed negative growth rates, which decreased linearly from –5 to –10% d–1 with increasing cadmium concentration. Cadmium had no detectable effect on egestion rate or growth in the presence of sediment in either sediment-bound only (ca 36% d–1) or porewater & sediment (ca 30% d–1) treatments. Cadmium exposure had no detectable effect on the allometric exponent (i. e. area-length relation) in any of the treatments; however, worms in water-only treatments were relatively thinner than in the 2 treatments with sediment. Worms in porewater & sediment treatments took up ca 50-fold more cadmium (ca 195 ng Cd worm–1) than worms in water-only treatments (3.9 ng Cd worm–1) during 5 d of exposure. Sediment-bound cadmium was calculated to contribute 95 % of the total amount taken up by feeding worms. Starving worms retained all of the cadmium during the subsequent depuration period (6 d), and exhibited an increased weight-specific body burden (μg Cd g–1 dry wt worm) due to shrinkage. In feeding worms, the decrease in weight-specific body burden was faster (T½ = 3 d) than the decrease in total body burden (μg Cd worm–1; T½ = 11 d), indicating that both active excretion and dilution of cadmium body burden as a result of growth contributed to the change in cadmium tissue concentration during the depuration period. Thus, our results indicate that in Capitella sp. I sediment-bound cadmium is the major route of uptake. We found that cadmium affects starving but not fed worms, despite the fact that fed worms took up considerably more cadmium than starving worms. Our results suggest that stress associated with food limitation increases the susceptibility of worms to cadmium stress

Toxicity and toxicokinetics of cadmium in \u3ci\u3eCapitella\u3c/i\u3e sp. I: Relative importance of water and sediment as routes of cadmium uptake

The importance of dissolved versus sediment-bound cadmium as uptake routes for the deposit-feeding polychaete Capitella species I and the toxicity and toxicokinetics of cadmium from these exposure routes were investigated. Effects were reported as changes in worm growth rate, egestion rate and allometry. Radioactive cadmium (109Cd) was used as a tracer to examine the uptake (5 d) and subsequent depuration (6 d) of cadmium. Both effects and kinetics were investigated in systems with and without sediment. Individual Capitella sp. I were exposed to (1) dissolved (i.e. –1). Worms in water-only treatments showed negative growth rates, which decreased linearly from –5 to –10% d–1 with increasing cadmium concentration. Cadmium had no detectable effect on egestion rate or growth in the presence of sediment in either sediment-bound only (ca 36% d–1) or porewater & sediment (ca 30% d–1) treatments. Cadmium exposure had no detectable effect on the allometric exponent (i. e. area-length relation) in any of the treatments; however, worms in water-only treatments were relatively thinner than in the 2 treatments with sediment. Worms in porewater & sediment treatments took up ca 50-fold more cadmium (ca 195 ng Cd worm–1) than worms in water-only treatments (3.9 ng Cd worm–1) during 5 d of exposure. Sediment-bound cadmium was calculated to contribute 95 % of the total amount taken up by feeding worms. Starving worms retained all of the cadmium during the subsequent depuration period (6 d), and exhibited an increased weight-specific body burden (μg Cd g–1 dry wt worm) due to shrinkage. In feeding worms, the decrease in weight-specific body burden was faster (T½ = 3 d) than the decrease in total body burden (μg Cd worm–1; T½ = 11 d), indicating that both active excretion and dilution of cadmium body burden as a result of growth contributed to the change in cadmium tissue concentration during the depuration period. Thus, our results indicate that in Capitella sp. I sediment-bound cadmium is the major route of uptake. We found that cadmium affects starving but not fed worms, despite the fact that fed worms took up considerably more cadmium than starving worms. Our results suggest that stress associated with food limitation increases the susceptibility of worms to cadmium stress