Magister Artium - MA / Domestic violence has reached epidemic proportions worldwide. Every year, 275 million children globally are exposed to domestic violence. Witnessing domestic violence during childhood has been linked to various risks such as potential health risks, unemployment, deviant behavior, susceptibility to other subsets of family violence, various psychopathologies, as well as potential perpetration and revictimization. Boys are twice as likely to become perpetrators of abuse in adulthood if they have witnessed domestic violence in comparison to boys from nonviolent homes. Girls exposed to domestic violence were shown to be more accepting of abusive married life than girls from non-violent homes. The aim of the study was to describe the perceptions of childhood exposure to domestic violence as a predisposing factor for revictimization in adulthood. The study used a quantitative approach with a cross-sectional correlational design. The sample consisted of 77 female participants from shelters across Cape Town, Western Cape. The study employed an adapted version of The Child Exposure to Domestic Violence (CEDV) Scale. The questionnaire was divided into three sections, namely demographic details, types of exposure to domestic violence the adult may have experienced as a child, and lastly current adult experiences of domestic violence. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences V21 (SPSS). Results suggest that there is a significant positive relationship between past perceived experiences of domestic violence and present perceived experiences of domestic violence. Limitations and recommendations are stipulated for proposed intervention strategies and further study expansion on this topic

Radio frequency system optimization and troubleshooting remains one of the most challenging aspects of working in a cellular network. To stay competitive, cellular providers continually monitor the performance of their networks and use this information to determine where to improve or expand services. As a result, operators are saddled with the task of wading through overwhelmingly large amounts of data in order to trouble-shoot system problems. Part of the difficulty of this task is that for many complicated problems such as hand-off failure, clues about the cause of the failure are hidden deep within the statistics of underlying dynamic physical phenomena like fading, shadowing, and interference. In this research we propose that Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) be used as a method to infer signature statistics about the nature and sources of faults in a cellular system by fitting models to various time-series data measured throughout the network. By including HMMs in the network management tool, a provider can explore the statistical relationships between channel dynamics endemic to a cell and its resulting performance. This research effort also includes a new distance measure between a pair of HMMs that approximates the Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD). Since there is no closed-form solution to calculate the KLD between the HMMs, the proposed analytical expression is very useful in classification and identification problems. A novel HMM based position location technique has been introduced that may be very useful for applications involving cognitive radios. / Ph. D.

No description available.

Die konzeptionelle Verbindung zwischen Bildung und Gesellschaft, die im 19. Jahrhundert deutlich gemacht und wissenschaftlich begründet wurde, wird oft als selbstverständlich betrachtet. Diese veraltete Verbindung bildete aber die Basis für Bildungsreformen im Sekundärbereich in Deutschland und Indien in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts. Diese Arbeit unternimmt den Versuch, zum Verständnis dieser Verzögerung zwischen den Ideen und den Reformen, die sie einrahmten, beizutragen, indem sie eine geeignete Theorie der Verbindung zwischen Bildung und einer komplexen Gesellschaft aufstellt. Grundsätzliche Annäherungen an Gesellschaft und Bildung treten in Dialog mit post-kolonialen und kritischen Theorien. Universalistische Annahmen werden problematisiert, und eine offene Lösung für die Vorstellung zukünftiger Reformen wird präsentiert. Nationale Bildungsreformen in Indien und Deutschland nach ihren „Critical Junctures“ von 1947/1945 werden eingehend und chronologisch verglichen, um einen spezifischen Charakter historisch- und bildungs-bedingter Reproduktion beider Länder herauszuarbeiten sowie einen gemeinsamen Lernprozess zu ermöglichen. Abschließend wird eine Lösung des Problems in der Form offener Bildung präsentiert. Bildung als öffentliches Gut muss nicht zwangsläufig nur auf soziale Probleme reagieren, stattdessen kann sie verändert werden, um sozialen Wandel voran zu treiben. / The conceptual link between education and society, forged in the 19th Century, is often taken for granted. This seemingly outdated connection, however, has guided reforms in secondary education in India and Germany throughout the second half of the 20th Century. This study attempts to understand this lag between underlying ideas and the reforms they framed by synthesizing a viable theory for imagining the connection between education and a complex society. Foundational approaches to society and education are brought into dialogue with post-colonial and critical theories. Universalistic assumptions are problematized, and an open-ended solution for theorizing new connections is presented. National educational reforms in India and Germany subsequent to their critical junctures of 1947/1945 are exhaustively and chronologically compared in order to conceptualize a generic character of historical-educational reproduction for each country and to facilitate a process of mutual learning. Finally, a solution to the problems associated with educational reproduction is presented. Education as a public good does not need to simply be reactive to social problems. Instead, it can be reconfigured so as to drive social change.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Ikone der indischen Unabhängigkeitsbewegung, war überzeugt davon, dass eine neue soziale Ordnung für ein Indien frei von kolonialer Unterdrückung und basierend auf seinen Ideen von sarvodaya (Wohlstand für alle), swaraj (Selbstbestimmung) und wirtschaftlicher Unabhängigkeit nur mit einem radikalen Wandel im Bildungsbereich Realität werden konnte. Er kritisierte, dass Bildung vornehmlich auf die Bedürfnisse der städtischen Eliten, der Kolonialverwaltung und -wirtschaft ausgerichtet war und hatte die Vision einer ‚neuen‘ Bildung, später auch bekannt als Basic Education oder Nai Talim, basierend auf ruralem Handwerk und Landwirtschaft und damit fokussiert auf die ländliche Bevölkerung. Die vorliegende Dissertation rekonstruiert die Herausbildung von Gandhis Bildungsideen und verschiedene Versuche zu deren Institutionalisierung. Dabei kontextualisiert sie seine Sichtweisen vor dem Hintergrund der Debatten um diverse Vorstellungen einer neuen sozialen Ordnung in der indischen Unabhängigkeitsbewegung, zeigt auf, wie seine Bildungsideen eng verknüpft waren mit seiner Kritik an der Kolonialherrschaft und nimmt seine Ideen vom Zusammenhang zwischen Bildung und sozialer Transformation in den Blick. Besonderes Augenmerk gilt dabei Gandhis Vorstellungen von manueller Arbeit und welche Rolle er ihr im Bildungsprozess zudachte. Bei der Analyse seiner Ideen und Metaphern und seiner Vision von Nai Talim nimmt die Arbeit auch die diversen damit verbundenen Inspirationsquellen in den Blick und fokussiert auf die von ihm konstruierten symbolischen Bedeutungswelten und visuellen Elemente, die ein wichtiger Teil seiner Selbstrepräsentation und Massenmobilisierung waren und später auch ihren Niederschlag in Bildungsrealitäten fanden. Nicht zuletzt analysiert die Arbeit Institutionalisierungsprozesse, ihre Widersprüche, die Kritik an Gandhi’s Ideen und den Wandel von Gandhis ‚Pädagogik der manuellen Arbeit‘ hin zu einer ‚Pädagogisierung der manuellen Arbeit‘. / Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the icon of the Indian independence movement, was convinced that a new social order for an India free from colonial subjugation and based on his ideas on sarvodaya (the welfare of all), swaraj (self-rule) and economic self-sufficiency could only become reality with a radical shift in education. He criticized the fact that, hitherto, education had been primarily targeted at the urban elites and the needs of the colonial government and economy and envisioned a ‘new’ education, later also known as Basic Education or Nai Talim, centred on rural crafts and agriculture and targeted especially at village populations. This dissertation traces the historical development of Gandhi’s educational ideas. It reconstructs his vision of Nai Talim primarily based on his own writings and reflections, contextualises it in ongoing debates in the independence movement on the future of India’s social order and analyses how his vision was embedded in his critique of British colonial rule and in the connection he made between education and social reconstruction. A focus thereby is also his understanding of manual labour in society and its relationship with the education process. Analysing key ideas and metaphors in his educational thought, the dissertation refers to his sources of inspiration, his use of symbolism and the visual in his self-presentation and mass mobilization and how elements of these symbolic worlds of meaning also became part of education programmes. Finally, it also deals with the diverse institutional developments based on Gandhi’s education ideas, their inherent contradictions, the criticism they generated and the shift from his ‘pedagogy of manual work’ to a ‘pedagogization of manual work’.

Cardiovascular complications associated with elevated levels of glucose in the blood (Hyperglycemia, HG) is a growing health concern. HG is known to be associated with a variety of cardiovascular morbidities including higher incidence of electrical disturbances. Although effects of chronic HG have been widely investigated, electrophysiological effects of acute hyperglycemia are relatively less known. Further, hyperglycemic effects on adrenergic response is not widely investigated. We used excised ventricular tissues from mice to record trans-membrane potentials during a variety of pacing protocols to investigate cellular/tissue level electrophysiological effects of acute hyperglycemia and adrenergic stimulation (1µM Isoproterenol, a β-adrenergic agonist). A custom program was used to compute action potential durations (APD), maximal rates of depolarization (dv/dtmax), and action potential amplitudes (APA) from the recorded trans-membrane potentials. From these computed measures, electrical restitution and alternans threshold were quantified. Restitution was quantified using the Standard Protocol (SP; basic cycle length BCL= 200ms), Dynamic Protocol (DP; 200-40ms or until blockade) and a novel diastolic interval (DI) control protocol with Sinusoidal Changes in DI. Results from 6 mice show that acute hyperglycemia causes prolongation of the APD. Effects of adrenergic stimulation during acute hyperglycemia were partially blunted compared with non-hyperglycemic state, i.e. hyperglycemia minimized the decrease in APD that was produced by adrenergic stimulation. Similar, but less consistent (across animals) effects were seen in other electrophysiological parameters such as alternans threshold. These results show that acute hyperglycemia may itself alter cellular level electrophysiology of myocytes and importantly, modify adrenergic response. These results suggest that in addition to long term re-modeling that occurs in diabetes, acute changes in glucose levels also affect electrical function and further may contribute to systemically observed changes in diabetes by blunting adrenergic response. Therefore, further investigation into the electrophysiological effects of acute changes in glucose levels are warranted.

Chapter-I Introduction The bacteria known as Salmonellae are gram-negative, rod-shaped intracellular pathogenic bacilli that belong to the family Enterobacteriacea and causes typhoid fever. Enteric fever or typhoid fever is a systemic infection caused by human specific enteric pathogen S.typhi. Another very similar but less severe disease, paratyphoid fever, is caused by another human pathogen S.paratyphi A, B and C and S.sendai. Typhoid fever is estimated to have caused 21.6 million illness and 1-4 % death worldwide in the year of 2000 effecting all ages and 90% of death occurs in Asia. In Asia, the incident of typhoid fever was highest with 274 cases per 100,000 persons worldwide, especially in Southeast Asian countries and the Indian subcontinent, followed by sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America with 50 cases per 100,000 persons. Transmission of the disease occurs through faecal-oral route upon ingestion of contaminated water and food. Salmonella can stay for long in ground and pond water. Typhoid fever can be fatal if left untreated and there are reports of 10-30 fatality in such cases and can persist for weeks. Prevention is better than cure. Same hold true even for typhoid fever also. The important and key preventive measures are clean and safe water, safe food, personal hygiene and appropriate sanitation. There are many antibiotics for typhoid fever but till now there are only two licensed vaccine recommended by the World Health Organization for the typhoid fever, one Vi polysaccharide subunit vaccine (sold as Typhim Vi by Sanofi Pasteur and Typherix by GlaxoSmithKline) which is administered through intramuscular route and another one is live oral attenuated vaccine Ty21a (sold as Vivotif Berna) for oral immunization. Both the vaccines are recommended to be used for the children above the age of 3-5 years. Both are between 50 to 80% protective and are recommended for travelers to areas where typhoid is endemic. Salmonella has evolved many strategies to survive inside host system especially during initial time of infection when bacteria counteract to host AMPs in intestine lumen. Salmonella has many pathogenesis island which help bacteria to invade the host system e.g. SPI-1(Salmonella pathogenicity island -1) and also help in intracellular survival as well proliferation e.g. SPI-2 (Salmonella pathogenicity island -2). Salmonella has many strategies to evade host immune system, one of them which is very important for bacteria is LPS modification. Salmonella is capable to modify its own LPS by increasing the +ve charge and increasing AMPs resistance. This modification and resistance is brought about by PhoP/Q and pmrA/B two different two-component system (TCS). These TCS regulate many genes like pmrD, pmrC, pmrG, pmrH-M operon, pmrE etc, which are important for LPS modification by adding 4-amino-arabinose and provide antimicrobial peptide resistance. Chapter-II Development of live attenuated Salmonella vaccine The superiority of live attenuated vaccines in systemic salmonellosis has been proven over killed and subunit vaccines, because of its ability to induce protective cell mediated immunity by CD8+ T cells. A live attenuated Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium vaccine has been developed by systematic site directed deletion of the pmrG-HM-D chromosomal genomic loci. This gene confers involved in antimicrobial peptide resistance and is involved in LPS modification, both of which are the major immune evasive mechanisms in Salmonella. The efficacy of the newly developed strain in inducing protection against mortality after challenge with the virulent wild type Salmonella typhimurium 12023 was evaluated in mice model of typhoid fever. Animals were immunized and then boosted on days 7 and 14. Following challenge with virulent S. typhimurium 12023, organ burden and mortality of vaccinated mice were less compared to non-immunized controls. The vaccine strain also induced elevated CD8+ T cells in the vaccinated mice. This multiple mutant vaccine candidate appears to be safe for use in pregnant mice and provides a model for the development of live vaccine candidates against naturally occurring salmonellosis and typhoid fever. Chapter -III A Safe and Efficient Vaccine against Salmonella Infection During Pregnancy Pregnancy is a transient immuno-compromised condition which has evolved to avoid the immune rejection of the fetus by the maternal immune system. The altered immune response of the pregnant female leads to increased susceptibility to invading pathogens, resulting in abortion and congenital defects of the fetus and a subnormal response to vaccination. Active vaccination during pregnancy may lead to abortion induced by heightened cell mediated immune response. In this study, we have administered the highly attenuated vaccine strain ΔpmrG-HM-D (DV-STM-07) in female mice before onset of pregnancy and followed the immune reaction against challenge with virulent S. typhimurium in pregnant mice. This vaccine strain gives protection against Salmonella in pregnant mice and also prevents Salmonella induced abortion. This protection is conferred by directing the immune response towards humoral immunity through Th2 activation and Th1 suppression. The low Th1 response prevents abortion. The use of live attenuated vaccine just before pregnancy carries the risk of transmission to the fetus. We have shown that this vaccine is safe as the vaccine strain is quickly eliminated from the mother and is not transmitted to the fetus. This vaccine also confers immunity to the new born mice of vaccinated mothers. Since there is no evidence of the vaccine candidate reaching the new born mice, we hypothesize that it may be due to trans-colostral transfer of protective anti-Salmonella antibodies. Chapter-IV Crosstalk between Salmonella genes involved in antimicrobial peptide resistance (pmrG, pmrD, pmr H-M) The pmr system of Salmonella consists of many genes and they are regulated by two component system (TCS), PmrA/B and PhoP/Q. These two component systems are activated at different Mg 2+and Fe3+ condition, low pH and the presence of antimicrobial peptides. Downstream genes like pmrD, pmrG, pmrH-M operon, pmrE, pmrC ect which are regulated by these TCS are involved in LPS modification and AMPs resistance. When these genes were deleted a highly attenuated strain with good vaccine potential was developed. The high degree of attenuation of the vaccine strain is a combined effect of the deletion of the all genes, when single mutation of the two single genes and the operon were created; the attenuation was not as good as the vaccine strain. When tried checking the cross-talk between these genes in vaccine strain and the single mutants of pmrD, pmrG and pmrH-M operon. In one of the previous report pmrH-M mutant was shown to be attenuated through oral route but not through intra-peritoneal route. However, pmrD-HM-G mutant (DV-STM-07) was attenuated when administered through both the routes of infection. To further explain the cross-talk and regulation of these genes, promoter analysis was done for all genes individually in different mutant background of pmrD, pmrG, pmrH-M and DV-STM-07. We hypothesize that the superior attenuation of the triple mutant is achieved because of transcriptional cross-regulation that exists between these genes which attenuates the bacteria when administered through the intra-peritoneal route.

Diese Forschung untersucht die lehrplanmäßige, pädagogische und didaktische Entwicklung der staatsbürgerlichen Bildung in Costa Rica im Zeitraum von 1886 bis 2015. Die Analyse wurde unter Berücksichtigung der nationalen Politik durchgeführt, indem unterschiedliche Situationen, Akteure, Tendenzen und politisch-pädagogischen Spannungen in Zusammenhang mit dem Lehrplan und der didaktischen Artikulation der politischen Bildung gesetzt wurden. Es wird angenommen, dass die Perspektive der bildungspolitischen Internationalisierung unterschiedliche Momente, Akteure und transnationale Prozesse bei der Artikulation der staatsbürgerlichen Bildung in Costa Rica einnimmt. Auf Grundlage der Kombination nationaler Politik und transnationalen politisch-pädagogischen Trends können drei Schlüsselmomente in der Entwicklung der Staatsbürgerschaftsbildung in Costa Rica identifiziert werden: Der erste Moment zeichnet sich zwischen 1886 und 1949 ab und ist gekennzeichnet durch die Dominanz republikanischer und liberaler politischer Gruppen in der nationalen Politik, die den staatsbürgerlichen Unterricht an zentraler Stelle im nationalen Lehrplan positionierten und mit französischen Ideen der Bürgerbildung unterfüttern. Auch der Einfluss des Instituto Pedagógico de Chile, in dem in der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts relevante Persönlichkeiten im Bereich des staatsbürgerlichen Unterrichts des Landes ausgebildet wurden, schlägt sich nieder. Der zweite Moment ab 1949 nach dem letzten Bürgerkrieg im Land und der Gründung der zweiten Republik war geprägt von der Dominanz der sozialdemokratischen Ideologie und der nationalen Befreiungspartei in der nationalen Politik. Die politische Bildung orientierte sich in dieser Zeit am demokratischen, antikommunistischen Diskurs und später an der Friedenserziehung aufgrund der Befriedung Mittelamerikas und des Friedensnobelpreises, der 1987 an den ehemaligen Präsidenten Oscar Arias verliehen wurde. Schließlich konzentrierte sich die Forschung auf die Haupttrends in Bezug auf politisch-pädagogische, pädagogische und lehrplanmäßige Transformationen, die in den ersten Jahren des 19. Jahrhunderts bis 2015 stattfanden. / This research studies the curricular, pedagogical, and didactic evolution of Citizenship Education in Costa Rica for the period from 1886 -2015. The analysis has been carried out taking into account national politics, that is, the different situations, actors, tendencies, and political-educational tensions around the curricular and didactic articulation of Civic Education. The perspective of educational political internationalization is also assumed to observe different moments, agents, and transnational processes in the articulation of Citizenship Education in Costa Rica. There are three key moments in the evolution of Costa Rican Citizenship Education, as a result of the combination of national politics and transnational political-educational trends. The process developed between 1886 and 1949, characterized by the dominance in national politics of republican and liberal political groups, who positioned Civic Instruction in a central place in the national curriculum and came into contact with French ideas of citizen education and also with the Pedagogical Institute of Chile, in which relevant figures in the field of Civic Instruction of the country were formed during the first half of the 20th century. The second moment from 1949, after the last Civil War in the country and the founding of the Second Republic, was characterized by the dominance of the social-democratic ideology in national politics and the National Liberation Party. Civic Education was oriented in this period by democratic, anti-communist discourse and later by education for peace due to the pacification of Central America and the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to former president Oscar Arias in 1987. Finally the research focused on the main trends in political-educational, pedagogical, and curricular transformations that occurred during the first years of the 19th century until 2015. / En esta investigación se estudia la evolución curricular, pedagógica y didáctica de la formación para la ciudadanía en Costa Rica durante el periodo 1886-2015. Se asume también la perspectiva de la internacionalización político educativa para observar distintos momentos, agentes y procesos transnacionales en la articulación de la educación para la ciudadanía en Costa Rica. Se distinguen tres momentos claves en la evolución de la educación para la ciudadanía, en los que la politicidad nacional y las tendencias político-educativas transnacionales dieron como resultante histórica distintas versiones de formación para la ciudadanía en Costa Rica. Un primer momento fue el comprendido entre 1886 y 1949, caracterizado por el dominio en la política nacional de las ideas y los grupos políticos republicanos y liberales, quienes posicionaron la Instrucción Cívica en un lugar central del currículo nacional.El segundo momento a partir de 1949, después de la última Guerra Civil del país y la fundación de la Segunda República, se caracterizó por el dominio en la política nacional de la socialdemocracia y del Partido Liberación Nacional. La Educación Cívica estuvo orientada en este período por el discurso democrático, anticomunista y más tarde por la educación para la paz debido a la pacificación de Centroamérica y el premio Nobel de la Paz otorgado al expresidente Oscar Arias en 1987. Un resultado de este proceso fue la implementación de la asignatura de Estudios Sociales procedente de Estados Unidos, asignatura que incluyó las materias de Historia, Geografía y Educación Cívica. Finalmente, se estudian las principales tendencias y transformaciones político-educativas, pedagógicas y curriculares que se produjeron durante los primeros años del siglo XIX hasta 2015.

Zur Zeit sieht sich die Finanzdienstleistungswirtschaft vielfältigen technologischen sowie wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen gegenüber. Virtuelle Finanzdienstleister sind ein Ansatz, um diesen Entwicklungen gerecht zu werden. In der Literatur wird das Konzept des Virtuellen Finanzdienstleisters nicht einheitlich beschrieben. Es werden fünf Sichtweisen unterschieden: Virtual-Reality-Technologien, Finanzmanagementsoftware, Marketingmix, elektronischer Marktplatz sowie Virtuelle Organisation. An der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Technischen Universität Chemnitz wurde von den Professuren Wirtschaftsinformatik II sowie Finanzwirtschaft und Bankbetriebslehre ein Modell eines Virtuellen Finanzdienstleisters konzipiert, entworfen und implementiert. Der entwickelte Prototyp cofis.net implementiert zur Zeit das Produkt Virtuelle Überweisung. Das Fach-, DV- sowie Implementierungskonzept des Prototyps wird in dieser Arbeit vorgestellt. Der Prototyp basiert auf einer 5-stufigen Schichtenarchitektur. Die gewählte Architektur konnte realisiert werden. Es verbleiben zahlreiche weiterführende Fragen bspw. hinsichtlich der Gestaltung des Produktmanagement-Zyklus eines Virtuellen Finanzdienstleisters oder der allgemeinen informationstechnischen Abbildbarkeit von Finanzprodukten.

Zur Zeit sieht sich die Finanzdienstleistungswirtschaft vielfältigen technologischen sowie wirtschaftlichen Entwicklungen gegenüber. Virtuelle Finanzdienstleister sind ein Ansatz, um diesen Entwicklungen gerecht zu werden. In der Literatur wird das Konzept des Virtuellen Finanzdienstleisters nicht einheitlich beschrieben. Es werden fünf Sichtweisen unterschieden: Virtual-Reality-Technologien, Finanzmanagementsoftware, Marketingmix, elektronischer Marktplatz sowie Virtuelle Organisation. An der Fakultät für Wirtschaftswissenschaften der Technischen Universität Chemnitz wurde von den Professuren Wirtschaftsinformatik II sowie Finanzwirtschaft und Bankbetriebslehre ein Modell eines Virtuellen Finanzdienstleisters konzipiert, entworfen und implementiert.