Von Holunderblüten zum Holunderbusch. Über Wege und Umwege in Wilhelm Raabes "Holunderblüte" und Theodor Storms "Ein Bekenntnis"

Conference (2013, September)

„Lauter und stärker, wohlhäbiger, fülliger wurden die Straßen.“ – Gertrud Kolmar. Bibliographie der Übertragungen in Wort und Ton

in Nörtemann, Regina; Viehöver, Vera (Eds.) Kolmar übersetzen. Studien zum Problem der Lyrikübertragung (2013)

Solar buildings and the urban environment

in The 3rd New Energy Forum-2013. From Green Dream to Reality. (2013, September)

Mutual inhibition and bistability: two key elements of the endochondral ossification process

Poster (2013, September)

A small overview of available computer software to support computerized adaptive testing

Conference (2013, August 27)

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is becoming a central tool for testing and assessment. It offers many advantages over fixed (“paper-and-pencil”) methods, such as individualized assessment, reduction ... [more ▼]

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) is becoming a central tool for testing and assessment. It offers many advantages over fixed (“paper-and-pencil”) methods, such as individualized assessment, reduction of fraud, and straightforward estimation of proficiency levels. CAT has been studied for decades and remains an up-to-date research field in psychometrics and educational science. Practical CAT administration, however, is less frequently considered in such studies. Assigning CAT to respondents requires both the sufficient availability of computer machines, and the use of a powerful and easy-to-use CAT software. With the fast increase of computer resources at moderate cost, the availability of computer machines is becoming a less central, yet important, issue in the practical assessment of CAT tests. The choice of an accurate CAT software, on the other hand, should be guided by its flexibility, its underlying statistical modeling, and its user-friendly potential. According to the type of research or data analysis, some CAT software might be preferred to another. It is therefore important for the researcher or the clinician to know about the current availability of such software, in line with current research and practice in the CAT framework. Moreover, these software should allow enough flexibility to incorporate updates and new theoretical developments, such as e.g., new rules for next item selection. This talk proposes a simple and user-oriented presentation of several CAT software that are currently available. The software to be presented are: the Firestar software (Choi, 2009), the R package catR (Magis & Raîche, 2012), the R package catIrt (Nydick, 2012) and the CAT web-platform Concerto (Kosinski & Rust, 2011). The first three are non-commercial software, while Concerto is a web interface between end users (willing to develop computerized assessment tests) and catR (as underlying routine software). Both R packages are written to be most useful for researchers, without end-user interface, and are therefore less appealing for applied researchers who are not familiar with R. Yet, they offer flexible solutions by means of many options to optimize the design of the test and generate many response patterns for further analyses. Also, they can be easily integrated as sub-routines for more sophisticated CAT software. Firestar provides a user interface and makes all necessary computations with underlying R code. This talk aims at focusing on freely available CAT software. For this reason, only the four aforementioned programs will be presented, although it exists other, commercial CAT software such as e.g., the CATSim software (Assessment Systems Corporation, 2012). The different CAT software are briefly presented and their advantages and drawbacks, flexibility and usefulness are compared, mostly from the point of view of the applied researcher and clinician. The following criteria were retained for objective comparison: (a) their main goal of application; (b) the type of data and IRT modeling they can deal with; (c) the type of users they are focusing on; (d) their operating options; (e) their availability and flexibility for further improvements. A small demonstration of the R package catR will be proposed optionally, depending on time limitation. References Assessment Systems Corporation (2012). CATSim: Comprehensive simulation of computerized adaptive testing. St. Paul, MN. URL: http://www.assess.com/. Choi , S. W. (2009). Firestar: Computerized adaptive testing simulation program for polytomous item response theory models. Applied Psychological Measurement, 33, 644-645. Kosinski, M., & Rust, J. (2011). The development of Concerto: An open source online adaptive testing platform. Paper presented at the International Association for Computerized and Adaptive Testing (IACAT), Pacific Grove, CA. Magis, D., & Raîche, G. (2012). Random generation of response patterns under computerized adaptive testing with the R package catR. Journal of Statistical Software, 48, 1-31. Nydick, S. W. (2012). catIrt: An R package for simulating IRT-based computerized adaptive tests. R package version 0.3-0. [less ▲]

Taste analysis. How practice in an industrial and scientific context shapes sturdy sensory categories.

Conference (2013, August 08)

Sensory analysis presents the particular characteristic to be placed in a crossroad, especially when it is about taste. Sensory, which is the most of the time the space of subjective and hedonic judgments ... [more ▼]

Sensory analysis presents the particular characteristic to be placed in a crossroad, especially when it is about taste. Sensory, which is the most of the time the space of subjective and hedonic judgments, meets Science, which has the main goal to establish an objective truth, through sturdy and stable categories. I followed several types of sensory expert panels, and among them a panel who has the mission to discriminate different sorts of carrots and define their respective sensory profile. The judges were specifically teached and trained to taste and analyze carrots. I was interested to observe the period of training to understand how those people had acquired their expertness. In this presentation, I would tempt an analysis of how participants build themselves the tools and tricks to perform a best organoleptic perception, and how they go beyond the rules and formal process to answer to the forms. [less ▲]

Recipes of the self. Moroccan women and culinary practices in migration context.

Scientific conference (2013, August)

This paper aims at exploring the culinary practices exerted by Moroccan women living in Milan's (Italy) hinterland, highlighting their role in the definition of one’s own identity in the context of ... [more ▼]

This paper aims at exploring the culinary practices exerted by Moroccan women living in Milan's (Italy) hinterland, highlighting their role in the definition of one’s own identity in the context of migration. The analysis will focus on the praxeological and material basis of female agency and on the role of the concept of “style” in the dynamics and processes studied. In the context of the everyday life of some Moroccan women living in a city of the province of Milan (Italy), cooking practices play a fundamental role, because of their importance in the construction of personal and collective identities. The ethnographic work reveals that the choice of the used objects and the performing of precise gestures reflect a dynamical positioning between two poles. On the one hand a commitment to the home country’s culinary traditions is needed to overcome a state of disorientation due to being perceived as a foreigner in Italy as in Morocco; on the other hand taking a distance of these same practices is functional to adhere to the "modernity" rules or the dietary ones. Within these processes, the active dialogue with the concept of Moroccan “style”, defined locally as transnationally, results as a crucial factor. The life stories collected and the material culture analyzed reveal in fact singular strategies of self-definition, which allow women to exercise their own agency both in the family context and in public spaces. [less ▲]

Recent PhD Abstract: A multiaxial constitutive model for concrete in the fire situation including transient creep and cooling down phases

in Structural Engineering International (2013), (3),

A novel strategy towards cyclic aliphatic (co)polyesters

in eXPRESS Polymer Letters (2013), 7(8), 690-702

This feature article focuses on a novel strategy towards macrocyclic (co)polyesters that combines controlled ring-opening polymerization of lactones initiated by a cyclic tin(IV) dialkoxide and ... [more ▼]

This feature article focuses on a novel strategy towards macrocyclic (co)polyesters that combines controlled ring-opening polymerization of lactones initiated by a cyclic tin(IV) dialkoxide and intramolecular cyclization by photocross- linking of pendant unsaturations next to the propagating sites. No linear species is ever involved in the polymerization and permanent cyclization steps, which allows higher molecular weight macrocycles to be prepared with high efficiency and no need for further purification. Moreover, this synthetic route is very flexible to the point where macrocyclic polyesters with more complex although well-defined architectures, such as tadpole-shaped and sun-shaped copolyesters, can be tailored. Synthesis of well-defined eight-shaped polyesters and twin tadpole-shaped copolymers has also been explored by using a spirocyclic tin(IV) alkoxides as an initiator. When functional lactones were introduced, the ‘click’ copper-mediated cycloaddition [3+2] reaction was utilized to make the eight-shaped and twin tadpole-shaped copolyesters amphiphilic. [less ▲]

Effects of eccentrically and concentrically biased training on mouse muscle phenotype

in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2013)

Introduction: The molecular adaptations specifically induced by different muscle contraction types have only been partially elucidated. We previously demonstrated that eccentric contractions in human ... [more ▼]

Introduction: The molecular adaptations specifically induced by different muscle contraction types have only been partially elucidated. We previously demonstrated that eccentric contractions in human quadriceps elicited proteome modifications that suggest a muscle fiber typology adaptation. We address this question in a more systematic way by examining here the effects of different running modes on the mouse muscle proteome and the muscle fiber typology. Methods: Male adult mice (C57BL6) were randomly divided into downhill running (DHR, quadricipital eccentrically biased contractions), uphill running (UHR, quadricipital concentrically biased contractions) and untrained control (CONT) groups. Running groups performed five training sessions on an inclined treadmill for 75 to 135 min/day and the quadriceps muscles were dissected 96hours after the last session. Muscle protein extracts of DHR and UHR groups (n=4/group) were subjected to a 2D-DIGE analysis coupled with mass spectrometry. The assessment of fiber type, size and number was performed on the rectus femoris of the three groups (n=6/group) using myosin heavy chain (MHC) immunohistochemistry. Results: In the proteomic analysis, eight spots identified as the fast MHC isoforms exhibited a lower abundance in DHR compared to UHR (p<0.05, t-test). In contrast, ATP synthase subunit α and tubulin β were more expressed in DHR (p<0.05). A significant higher proportion of type I and IIa fibers was found for DHR compared to UHR or CONT groups (p<0.05, one-way ANOVA). Conclusions: Our data suggest that the eccentrically biased contractions in mice induced specific adaptations in protein expression and muscle fiber composition which may reflect a more oxidative muscle phenotype. The differences in stress placed on the muscle between both trainings may be responsible for some unique adaptations resulting from the eccentrically biased training. [less ▲]