Prior to Germany’s emergence as an imperial power in 1884, scholarly knowledge of the Orient was only deemed useful to a handful of academics, largely in part because oriental scholarship’s primary emphasis was the study of classical languages and ancient manuscripts. German colonialism, on the other hand, required the creation of a new body of oriental knowledge, one that was firmly rooted in the contemporary world instead of antiquity. In 1907, Carl Heinrich Becker published Christianity and Islam, one of the first pieces of scholarship to examine the modern Orient with a modern methodology. In particular, it was Becker’s adoption of the sociology of religion, a concept pioneered by Max Weber and Émile Durkheim, which allowed him to interpret the modern Orient in a way not previously possible under the philological tradition that defined oriental studies for previous generations of scholars.

14th International Summer School on Crystal Growth ( 1–7 August 2010, Dalian (China))

Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophies (DMD, BMD) are allelic X-linked diseases which affect approximately one in 3500 male newborns. They are caused by mutations in a gene positioned on the short arm of the X chromosome at Xp21. The first indication of the location of this gene was the description of rare females expressing DMD and who were found to have constitutional X;autosome translocations with an X chromosome breakpoint at this site. There are now 24 such females known worldwide. They express DMD as a consequence of preferential inactivation of the normal X chromosome. In order to contribute to the understanding of the aetiology of mutations causing DMD and the aetiology of constitutional translocations, two types of study have been performed here. Firstly, the detailed mapping of the X chromosome breakpoints of DMD-associated X;autosome translocations has been investigated. The results of this study have been compared with data on the physical distribution of mutations causing DMD in male patients. Secondly, one translocation, an X;l translocation with an autosomal breakpoint at Ip34, has been selected for more detailed investigation and the DNA sequence has been determined at the site of the rearrangement. Translocation breakpoint mapping studies were performed by somatic cell hybrid analysis. Hybrids were karyotyped and this information was used to construct a hybrid panel for the purpose of determining the autosomal localisations of anonymous DNA probes. The mapping of seven probes using this panel is described. The work described in this thesis revealed that the distribution of translocation breakpoints within the DMD gene appears to be random and may differ from the distribution of mutations in male patients. The X;l translocation whose breakpoints are cloned and sequenced was found to involve two expressed loci, one coding for dystrophin on the X chromosome and one for the leukocyte antigen related protein on chromosome 1. Sequence data revealed that a deletion of four to seven nucleotides from the X chromosome and a duplication of two to five nucleotides are associated with the translocation. The possible involvement of trinucleotides adjacent to the breakpoints, and of a LINE, a SINE and a stretch of potential Z-DNA within 1 kb of the X chromosome or the chromosome 1 breakpoint, is discussed.

Zugl.: Oldenburg, Univ., Diss., 2002

Genf, Univ., Diss., 2003.

Submitted by Barroso Patrícia (barroso.p2010@gmail.com) on 2014-07-25T14:24:00Z No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_vera_versao_FINAL_karla.pdf: 2026265 bytes, checksum: fb3caeace2da6f925b573adef288e880 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-25T14:24:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_vera_versao_FINAL_karla.pdf: 2026265 bytes, checksum: fb3caeace2da6f925b573adef288e880 (MD5) / As distrofias musculares de Duchenne e Becker são as formas mais comuns de distrofia muscular progressiva, caracterizadas por uma grave, progressiva e irreversível degeneração da musculatura esquelética, sendo a forma Becker mais branda e de evolução mais tardia. Apresentam um padrão de herança autossômica recessiva ligada ao cromossomo X. As manifestações clínicas da forma Duchenne iniciam-se na infância, evoluem com perda da deambulação em torno dos doze anos de idade, com acometimento das funções cardíaca e pulmonar, ocorrendo o óbito geralmente após os vinte anos de idade. Objetivos – Analisar a qualidade de vida de pacientes com distrofia muscular progressiva através do questionário WHOQOL abreviado e descrever a situação clínica, diagnóstica e terapêutica de pacientes com distrofia muscular progressiva no estado da Bahia. Metodologia – Realizou-se uma busca ativa de prontuários dos pacientes atendidos em um centro de referência para pessoas com deficiência no estado da Bahia e da demanda espontânea de pacientes que chegaram ao serviço durante o estudo. Foram efetuadasavaliação clínica dos pacientes e aplicação do questionário de qualidade de vida WHOQOL abreviado. Resultados – Foram avaliados 21 pacientes com história clínica e exames indicativos de distrofia muscular progressiva. A idade dos indivíduos, no momento de inclusão no estudo, variou de 6 a 23 anos. A idade de diagnóstico variou de 0,1 a 13,3 anos. A perda da deambulação com consequente uso da cadeira de rodas foi observada em 9 pacientes (42,8%). Oito pacientes (38,1%) estavam em uso de corticoide. História familiar de distrofia muscular estava presente em 12 pacientes (57,1%). Em todos os domínios do questionário WHOQOL abreviado, houve associação inversa entre QV e idade de início dos sintomas, sendo mais evidente no domínio de relações sociais (r=-74,8). Conclusões – Verificou-se que, quanto mais tardio o início da doença, pior a qualidade de vida do paciente com distrofia muscular progressiva. A perda da marcha foi um fator consistente na piora da qualidade de vida em todos os domínios analisados. Observou-se uma demora no diagnóstico de pacientes com distrofia muscular progressiva dentre os indivíduos estudados. Nesse grupo de pacientes, observou-se que o diagnóstico foi predominantemente clínico, seguido da dosagem sérica de CPK.

Thesis (MTech (Radiography))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2011 / This thesis records a study undertaken by a radiography lecturer at a satellite campus of a University of Technology (UoT) in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. The study investigated the academic writing practices of first year Radiation Science learners and focused on an intervention to assist learners to enhance their academic writing competence. Three research questions were addressed: 1. What did radiography learners perceive to be the factors that enabled and constrained their academic writing competence during the first year of academic study?; 2. What were the 2010 first year learners’ perceptions of the changes in their academic writing following an academic writing intervention?; and 3. According to the 2010 first year lecturers, how did the academic writing of the learners change following the intervention? To answer these questions, the research comprised two qualitative approaches: firstly a case study approach, to gain an in-depth understanding of learner writing in radiography; then the insights gained allowed for the design of an appropriate academic writing intervention, carried out in two action research spirals. Thereafter the intervention was evaluated for its impact on learners’ writing competence. The findings and interpretations from this study culminated in a forward looking model that is recommended for use by radiography educators to enhance first year learners’ academic writing competence. The model reflects a zone for the optimal enhancement of academic writing competence for entry-level learners. This ‘zone’ is created in the region of overlap of three contributing factors: collaborative guidance and support, peer mentoring and technology. The model also represents applicable underlying theories (critical theory, constructivism, and academic literacies theory) which provide the theoretical framework for enhanced academic writing competence.

Les maladies neurodégénératives amyloïdes sont caractérisées par la dégénération et l'agrégation de protéines spécifiques. Ces processus d'agrégations restent mal compris par les spécialistes, et pour la plupart, hypothétiques seulement. Dans cette thèse, faîte en collaboration avec des biophysiciens, nous analysons ces méchanismes d'agrégations en nous basant sur des données expérimentales. Pour cela, la modélisation est une étape incontournable. Nous présentons deux modèles que nous confrontons aux expériences. Le premier modèle, connu de la littérature, est celui de Becker-Döring. Un système infini d'équations différentielles ordinaires. Ce premier modèle nous permet de reproduire se manière satisfaisante les premières étapes des expériences. Le second modèle que nous introduisons, se base sur une hypothèse réactionnelle additionnelle, formulée à partir des simulations du premier modèle, et qui consiste en la formation de fibres différentes. Ce deuxième modèle nous permet de mieux reproduire les expériences. / The amyloid neurodegenerative diseases are characterized by the degeneration and the aggregation of specific proteins. These aggregation processes remain misunderstood by specialists and, mostly, only hypothetical. In this thesis, and in collaboration with biophysicists, we analyze the mechanisms of aggregation, relying on experimental data. Modeling is then a must. We present two models which we compare with the experiments. The first model, well-known from the literature is the Becker-Döring system. An infinite system of ordinary differential equations. This first model allows us to reproduce satisfactorily the early stages of the experiments. The second model we introduce is based on an additional hypothesis which is about the formation of different fibers. This second model allows us to reproduce the experiments.

This study determines consumer demand for staple food crops biofortified with micronutrients in three sub-Saharan African countries. Specifically, the study investigates how the choice of a valuation technique for a nonmarket good or new product, and gender, influence acceptance of biofortified food crops. Biofortification, a new public health intervention for alleviating micronutrient deficiency problems in developing countries, is achieved by enhancing the micronutrient content of staple food crops using conventional plant breeding or biotechnology. The rural poor in developing countries are likely to benefit most from biofortification, for two main reasons. Firstly, their diets are primarily comprised of staple foods that are usually poor sources of micronutrients. Secondly, they have limited access to fortified food products, mineral and vitamin supplements. The novel property of biofortification, however, has been associated with changes in the intrinsic properties of staple food crops that may not be familiar to consumers. Thus, knowing consumers’ attitudes and potential reactions to such changes in their staple food crops has been important to researchers and marketers alike. The study employs hedonic evaluations and incentive-compatible economic experimental data from HarvestPlus that aimed at determining consumer acceptance of micronutrient biofortified staple food crops in three sub-Saharan countries, i.e., Nigeria, Rwanda, and Zambia. The first objective compares the Becker–DeGroot–Marschak (BDM) mechanism to the non-hypothetical choice experiment (nHCE) in revealing the willingness to pay (WTP) for a new maize variety biofortified with vitamin A, under a field setting in Zambia. A mixed logit model was used to determine consumers’ WTP for the biofortified orange maize, relative to the two local maize varieties in the nHCE. While a symmetrically censored least square (SCLS) model was used to determine consumers’ WTP for the biofortified orange maize in the BDM experiment. The results show that the nHCE yielded significantly higher WTP estimates than that from the BDM mechanism. The second objective, related to the first, explored potential reasons for the WTP disparity between the BDM and the nHCE. The results indicate that accounting for additional training in the BDM experiment and lexicographic behaviour in the nHCE, together resulted in a decrease by half in the WTP estimates difference between the two methods. This difference, however, remains statistically significant. The third objective determined whether the gender of the decision-maker is important in determining consumer’s attitudes and behaviour towards biofortified food crops. Specifically, the study explores gender differences in hedonic preferences and consumer valuations of food products made from biofortified food crops. Emphasis was placed on the statistical analysis methods that incorporate gender while fully accounting for sources of both the observed and unobserved heterogeneity across gender. Results suggest that the gender of the decision-maker may be an important factor in both hedonic preferences and WTP for biofortified food crops, although the results varied across three countries. In Zambia and Rwanda, gender differences were observed in hedonic preferences for vitamin A-biofortified orange maize and biofortified iron beans respectively, while no evidence of gender differences was observed in hedonic preferences for vitamin A biofortified cassava in Nigeria. On the other hand, gender differences in WTP for biofortified foods were observed across the three countries in the respective biofortified food crops. While it is not yet clear how the BDM and the nHCE can result in significantly different empirical estimates under similar conditions, these results suggest the solution could lie in controlling for design effects from the two techniques. Similarly, controlling for gender differences not only in the outcome variable but also in its determinants may be necessary to attain valid estimates of consumer acceptance of biofortified foods. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / PhD / Unrestricted

Located at the intersection of literary, journalistic, and socio-historical discourses, “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” looks at diaristic texts in post-war German literature through the lens of news reporting and mass media. Since the 1970s, diaristic texts in German emerged across genres in the works of canonical authors. These works are widely read as subjective texts and linked to their authors’ supposedly diaristic interest in introspection and self-expression. However, these texts’ orientation towards the outside world and their interest in the temporality and scene of writing does not fit into this existing narrative. This dissertation looks at four decades worth of journal texts by Peter Handke, Sarah Kirsch, Jürgen Becker, and Rainald Goetz. Considering these texts between the poles of diary and news(papers), “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” argues that the modes of writing that emerged must be read as a new genre. Looking at novels, poetry, prose, blogs, and epics, “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” analyses writing as the site of narrative experiments that resulted in new attempts to define literary categories. “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” establishes links between the accelerating and alienating effects of mass media and the narratological impact of journalistic reporting on literary writing. The project takes reporting and the report as its methodological cornerstones and looks at the journal’s conception of scene, time, image, narrative, and writing through the lens of contemporary literary theory. My project situates itself within the temporal turn and contributes to recent studies on literature and time. The three chapters of this dissertation trace different modes of journal writing emerging since the early 1970s. Chapter I investigates how the texts of Jürgen Becker focus on the temporality of short-term memory and its implications for a new definition of plot. Chapter II traces journal writing in Sarah Kirsch’s poetry and prose and the way in which it focalizes settings of spatio-temporal liminality. Chapter III looks at the works of Peter Handke and their focus on the temporal simultaneity of writing and its relation to the surrounding scene. My conclusion revisits these modes through the lens of 2000s journal writing in the works of Rainald Goetz. “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” suggests that these texts’ very rigid repudiation of mass media and journalistic reporting lies at odds with the extraordinary phenomenological influence both have on the conceptions of writing contained in them. This dissertation, therefore, intervenes in a literary history of the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s by challenging common center/periphery binaries that imply an author’s supposed degree of (non)involvement with the modern world. It expands existing theories on diaristic writing, looking at journal writing as a specific genre that transcends existing categories. “Writing Scenes and Telling Time” concludes that a broad range of supposedly diaristic texts from the German post-war era must be reconceived with regards to their genre status. Through its focus on writing, this dissertation ultimately aims at establishing journal writing as a new theory of genre.