Ein Arbeitsbericht

Das Grab des Konrad von Burgsdorff (gest. 1652) wurde im Jahr 2008 in einer Gruft im Bereich des alten Berliner Doms, dem Areal des ehemaligen Dominikaner Klosters in Berlin-Mitte, entdeckt und freigelegt. Der Tote wurde in einem Sarkophag in einer Gruft am Rande der Klosterkirche mit 17 weiteren Bestattungen beigesetzt. Aufgrund des schlechten Erhaltungszustands der Metallbleche entschieden sich die Ausgräber für eine Blockbergung. In den Restaurierungslaboren der HTW Berlin wurde eine detaillierte Zustandsdokumentation erstellt. Dabei war es das Ziel, jegliche aufliegenden Verzierungen, Farbfassungen, Metall- oder Stoffapplikationen in situ zu erhalten. Es stellte sich heraus, dass der Sarkophag aus zwei großen Teilen aufgebaut war – einer unteren Wanne und einem oberen Deckel, die beide aus an den Kanten verlöteten Blechen hergestellt waren. Die Außenseiten waren mit Metallverzierungen besetzt: Löwenköpfe mit Ringen als Handgriffe, Metallborten in Akanthusmotiven, zwei Engelköpfe und einige runde Medaillons. Ein hölzerner Sarg, innen mit Textilien ausgekleidet, barg den Verstorbenen. Die Füllung der Gruft mit Bauschutt hatte den Sarkophag, der unter dieser Last eingebrochen war, stark beschädigt. Aufgrund der durchgeführten Analysen und anhand von Vergleichen mit zeitgleichen Sarkophagen aus der Hohenzollern-Gruft im Berliner Dom konnte eine überzeugende virtuelle Rekonstruktion des Sarkophags von Konrad von Burgsdorff erarbeitet werden

Ape duos and trios: spontaneous cooperation with free partner choice in chimpanzees

The purpose of the present study was to push the boundaries of cooperation among captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). There has been doubt about the level of cooperation that chimpanzees are able to spontaneously achieve or understand. Would they, without any pre-training or restrictions in partner choice, be able to develop successful joint action? And would they be able to extend cooperation to more than two partners, as they do in nature? Chimpanzees were given a chance to cooperate with multiple partners of their own choosing. All members of the group (N = 11) had simultaneous access to an apparatus that required two (dyadic condition) or three (triadic condition) individuals to pull in a tray baited with food. Without any training, the chimpanzees spontaneously solved the task a total of 3,565 times in both dyadic and triadic combinations. Their success rate and efficiency increased over time, whereas the amount of pulling in the absence of a partner decreased, demonstrating that they had learned the task contingencies. They preferentially approached the apparatus when kin or nonkin of similar rank were present, showing a preference for socially tolerant partners. The forced partner combinations typical of cooperation experiments cannot reveal these abilities, which demonstrate that in the midst of a complex social environment, chimpanzees spontaneously initiate and maintain a high level of cooperative behavior

The peacemakers: envisioning a Pax Americana in the age of empires

The Peacemakers is an imperial history of the American peace movement. The American peace movement – a porous group of cosmopolitan, middle-class Americans – lay at the epicentre of both a transimperial web of peace activism and a broader political ecosystem of nineteenth- century liberal reform. Between 1895 and 1906, the United States, much like its European counterparts, was beset with imperial crises; it violently acquired an insular empire and jostled for position with other empires, as the global imperial system grew to its most expansive and fractious. This thesis explores the liberal conception of the American imperial project, unpacking how ideas of peace, civilisation, and internationalism framed the American imperial imaginary. It addresses a tension at the heart of this vision of empire, namely that liberal thinkers, policymakers, and activists justified imperialism’s inherent violence by appealing to progressive notions of a civilising mission, while also positing that peace stood at the apex of Victorian civilisation. To untangle this contradiction, this thesis asks: How did liberal Americans reconcile their peaceful ideals with their imperial ambitions? The peacemakers envisioned a utopian world of peaceful empire, as they sought to remedy the ills of the nineteenth-century international order by devising and lobbying for solutions rooted in emerging ideas of global governance. This story is instructive in explaining how liberalism, as an ideology of rights and political restraint, was used to justify a political formation characterised by violence and the abrogation of the sovereignty of non-white peoples. Furthermore, this thesis elevates the contingency of the American imperial project, illustrating how American imperialism was consistently made and remade by a variety of state and non-state actors, whose motives and means sat outside the norms of Victorian America’s accepted political discourse

Having children outside a heterosexual relationship: options for persons living with HIV

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link.This article presents information about the social, legal and medical issues that medical and non-medical practitioners in the UK should consider in order to signpost options for people living with HIV (PLWH) who are not in a heterosexual relationship and want to become parents. Despite significant medical advances, increased medical awareness amongst HIV practitioners, and the ability to live a full life with HIV, stigma still exists around PLWH wanting to have children. There is a lack of awareness amongst the general public and the non-specialist medical community, about the realities of living with HIV, and the options available to become a parent. Vertical transmission rates in the UK are very low (<0.5%) [1]. Despite this, even amongst PLWH it is evident that stigma surrounding parenting with HIV is real, with almost 50% of HIV-positive respondents in a European study saying that having HIV would be a barrier to them deciding to have a family [2]. Irrespective of their sexual orientation, HIV-positive parents and prospective parents may bear not only the brunt of an historical HIV stigma, but also the negative discourses that surround lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgendered/gender diverse (LGBT) parenting, despite the legal advances over the past decade. First steps to breaking down this stigma are to increase public awareness around the realities of living with HIV, and awareness among PLWH that being a parent is an option for them. In 2016 in London, the UNAIDS 90-90-90 target was achieved for the first time. England came close to meeting that target, with 88% of those living with HIV being diagnosed, 96% of those on HIV treatment and 97% of them having an undetectable viral load [3]. Most PLWH taking antiretroviral medication therefore have undetectable levels of HIV in blood, meaning they cannot transmit HIV via sexual fluids [4]. Despite this, parenting is not always routinely discussed with PLWH. A recent study in London HIV clinics found that very few clinicians spoke with HIV-positive gay men about the possibility of having children [5]. Misconceptions about HIV transmission risk and medico-legal issues concerning reproduction may, thus, be rarely addressed. Education is also key to challenging stigma, and supporting the medical profession to better advise HIV-positive patients is critical, as a medical appointment is often the first opportunity that people who are newly diagnosed have to think about future options

On-die sensors for transient events

Failures caused by transient electromagnetic events like Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) are a major concern for embedded systems. The component often failing is an integrated circuit (IC). Determining which IC is affected in a multi-device system is a challenging task. Debugging errors often requires sophisticated lab setups which require intentionally disturbing and probing various parts of the system which might not be easily accessible. Opening the system and adding probes may change its response to the transient event, which further compounds the problem. On-die transient event sensors were developed that require relatively little area on die, making them inexpensive, they consume negligible static current, and do not interfere with normal operation of the IC. These circuits can be used to determine the pin involved and the level of the event in the event of a transient event affecting the IC, thus allowing the user to debug system-level transient events without modifying the system. The circuit and detection scheme design has been completed and verified in simulations with Cadence Virtuoso environment. Simulations accounted for the impact of the ESD protection circuits, parasitics from the I/O pin, package and I/O ring, and included a model of an ESD gun to test the circuit\u27s response to an ESD pulse as specified in IEC 61000-4-2. Multiple detection schemes are proposed. The final detection scheme consists of an event detector and a level sensor. The event detector latches on the presence of an event at a pad, to determine on which pin an event occurred. The level sensor generates current proportional to the level of the event. This current is converted to a voltage and digitized at the A/D converter to be read by the microprocessor. Detection scheme shows good performance in simulations when checked against process variations and different kind of events --Abstract, page iii

Predictors of proximity to others in colony housed shelter cats (Felis silvestris catus)

Colony housing of cats allows shelters to maximize the number of cats housed in limited space. Most research on colony-housed cats examines stress in relation to group size or enclosure size. While this is important for evaluating welfare, it is equally important to understand how cats are interacting socially in these colonies. We observed 259 adult cats housed in groups of two to eight individuals. Scan samples were used to assess how frequently individual cats were in close proximity to other cats. These data were used to measure individual differences in sociability and patterns of proximity to certain partners. We used information about the past history of the cat, which was collected upon admission to the shelter to identify predictors of time spent in proximity. There was a high degree of inter-individual variability in sociability. Strays tended to spend less time in proximity to other cats, and this effect was most pronounced in females. However, none of the information collected upon admission predicted patterns of proximity to certain partners, or which cats spent time in association with each other. Future studies should explore the implications of differences in sociability by associating observations of social behavior and stress behaviors

EFFICIENCY OF BANKS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES: A CASE STUDY OF INDIA.

An unbalanced panel dataset of 282 banks over 10 years, which included the commercial banks, the co-operative banks and other financial institutes, was put to test for efficiency. The intermediation approach is applied to find the variables for this study. The variables include three inputs and three outputs. Distribution Free Approach (DFA) and Stochastic Frontier Approach (SFA) are two efficiency approaches implemented to find the efficiency. Under these approaches two functions were utilized, cost and production function. Production function further helped in finding the technical efficiency, which included market variables. The results showed satisfactory production and technical efficiency in the stochastic approach. The technical efficiency is better than the production efficiency, which shows a good repose of the banks towards the market variables. A slight dip can be seen in the technical efficiency in the year 2008, which is presumed to be due to the recession that hit the world. However, the cost efficiency exhibited poor results, which showed inefficiency on behalf of the management to administer the price of input to get maximum output. In my opinion if the Indian banks want to become highly efficient and compete with the foreign banks in Indian market, they need to improve the cost structure by either reducing the costs like labor or non-operating expenses or increase the output quantity to increase the profits

Neurosyphilis Masquerading as an Acute Adie's Tonic Pupil: Report of a Case

We describe the case of a male patient who presented with anisocoria, and was initially diagnosed with an acute Adie’s tonic pupil. On subsequent laboratory testing, he was found to have neurosyphilis. Magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated enhancement of the right oculomotor nerve. This case underscores the importance of considering this diagnosis in patients with acute onset internal ophthalmoplegia and hypersensitivity to dilute pilocarpine, even in the absence of other oculomotor nerve findings

Prospective study comparing the safety and efficacy of totally tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy vs standard percutaneous nephrolithotomy

Background: To evaluate the feasibility and safety of totally tubeless percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PCNL) Vs standard PCNL.Methods: From August 2014 to January 2016, 66 patients underwent PCNL in our institute. Of this group, 35 patients underwent traditional nephrostomy drainage following PCNL. A tubeless procedure was performed in the remaining 31 patients. These  groups were compared with respect to age, stone burden, intraoperative events, postoperative pain, analgesic requirements, soakage, postoperative change in hemoglobin, hospitalization time and complication rates.Results: Two groups were comparable with respect to age, stone burden (2.03 cm Vs. 2.12 cm) and intraoperative events. The mean pain score (day2 - 4.95 vs. 2.95) (day3 - 4.33 vs. 1.44) and analgesic requirement (mg diclofenac) (day2 - 140.22 vs. 65.31) (day3 - 124.44 vs. 43.89) was significantly less for group 2 on day 2 and 3. There was significant problem of soakage from nephrostomy tract in group 1. Patients in group 2 returned faster to normal activities but there was no difference found in drop in hemoglobin, complication rates even in subset of patients with large stone burden. No patient required readmission in the follow-up for pain, obstruction or infection in group 2. One patient developed urinoma which resolved conservativelyConclusions: In selected cases totally tubeless PCNL is feasible and safe

Effect of Maxillary Osteotomy on Speech in Cleft Lip and Palate: Instrumental Outcomes of Velopharyngeal Function

Objective: To investigate the effect of maxillary osteotomy on velopharyngeal function in cleft lip and palate (CLP) using instrumental measures. / Design: A prospective study. / Participants: A consecutive series of 20 patients with CLP undergoing maxillary osteotomy by a single surgeon were seen at 0 to 3 months presurgery (T1), 3 months (T2), and 12 months (T3) post-surgery. / Interventions: Nasalance was measured on the Nasometer II 6400. For videofluoroscopy and nasendoscopy data, visual perceptual ratings, for example, palatal lift angle (PLAn), and quantitative ratiometric measurements, for example, closure ratio (CRa), were made using a validated methodology and computer software. Reliability studies were undertaken for all instrumental measures. / Main Outcome Measures: Repeated measures analysis of variance (with time at 3 levels) for nasalance and each velar parameter. Planned comparisons across pairs of time points (T1-T2, T1-T3, and T2-T3) including effect sizes. / Results: A significant difference over time was found for nasalance (P = .001) and planned comparisons across pairs of time points were significant between T1 and T2 (P = .008), T1 and T3 (P = .002), but not between T2 and T3 (P = .459) providing evidence that maxillary osteotomy can impact on nasalance adversely and that the changes seen are permanent and stable. There were also significant differences over time for PLAn (P = .012) and CRa (P = −.059) and planned comparisons for both velar parameters reflected similar findings to those of nasalance. / Conclusions: Maxillary osteotomy can adversely affect velopharyngeal function in patients with CLP. The study provides evidence for a much earlier post-surgery review even as early as 3 months after surgery