Africa.com: the self-representation of sub-Saharan nations on the World Wide Web

In a textual analysis of government Web sites of 29 sub-Saharan countries, we evaluate how African nations use the Internet to construct a self-image for the world. Our analysis finds that the sites echo the ongoing struggle over the definition and purpose of the nation-state in relation to a global economy. Rather than representing a variety of domestic concerns, African countries present a “reflected” identity mirroring Western interests. Their governmental Web sites position the nation as a “brand” and construct citizens as exotic Others who can be marketed to foreign investors and tourists. The tensions between primordial loyalties and modernizing ambitions dissipate in favor of branded identities celebrating ethnicities and natural beauty to attract global investments. Moreover, the technological logic and aesthetics of the Internet reinforce the dependence of these texts on Western knowledge production. Our analysis challenges common assumptions of both post-colonial and Internet research.     

Development Broadcasting in India and Beyond: Redefining an Old Mandate in an Age of Media Globalization

This study examines the fate of the development model of public broadcasting in the face of rapid global media commercialization. Using the Indian broadcaster Doordarshan as an example, the authors illustrate how a public media outlet with a development mandate has responded to new pressures and examine the consequences for development broadcasting in general. This inquiry challenges not only the strategies of this broadcaster but also some of the assumptions by media scholars regarding development broadcasting. The study concludes by advocating a new type of development broadcasting that establishes a distinct brand and plays a vital role in creating an informed citizenry.     

Zum Einfluss von Migration und Schulklassenzugeh?rigkeit auf die übergangsempfehlung für die Sekundarstufe I

Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist die Kl?rung der Frage, inwieweit sachfremde ethnische Kriterien die übergangsempfehlung für weiterführende Schulen beeinflussen. Bei einer Stichprobe von 620 Schülerinnen und Schülern der vierten Klassenstufe wurden Schulleistungstest- und Fragebogendaten erhoben und diese in Beziehung zu den übergangsempfehlungen gesetzt. Wenn individuelle Schülervoraussetzungen unter Einschluss kognitiver F?higkeiten kontrolliert werden, gibt es keine Best?tigung der Auffassung, dass Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund bei der übergangsempfehlung benachteiligt werden. Auch ein hoher Anteil an Kindern mit nicht-deutscher Familiensprache in der Schulklasse übt keine ungünstigen Effekte auf die Empfehlung der Schulform aus. Hingegen ist ein sachfremder Referenzgruppeneffekt (Big-fish-little-pond-Effekt) nachweisbar: Mit einem h?heren Anteil an Schülerinnen und Schülern in der Klasse, deren Schultestleistungen und kognitive Grundf?higkeiten hoch sind und deren Eltern eine h?here Bildungsorientierung aufweisen, sinkt die relative Chance, statt an eine Hauptschule an eine Realschule oder ein Gymnasium zu wechseln.     

Packaging culture: The potential and limitations of travel programs on global television

This study interrogates the representational politics of travel programs as examples of global media products. It presents a textualization analysis of the three television travel shows Rough Guide, Lonely Planet, Travelers, all aired in the U.S. by the cable outlet Travel Channel. Beyond merely highlighting the ideological assumptions of these texts, this type of analysis situates the texts within their conditions of production. The study focuses on modern and postmodern depictions of travel and tourism, on strategies of representing the Other and on the discourse of these shows as global media texts. The shows' narratives tend to stress individual pleasure within untourist, post‐tourist or multicultural frameworks, but neglect broader political, social and economic problems of contemporary tourism and international relations in general. The analysis demonstrates the inadequacy of commercial nonfiction entertainment as a global television genre to address the difficult issue of cross‐cultural contact or to develop non‐essentialized strategies for representing the Other.     

In-service high school mathematics teacher training in Mexico

Since the training of high school mathematics teachers in Mexico is not organized in form of a well defined teacher training program, those teachers go into high school mathematics teaching without being specially prepared for it. This situation makes in-service teacher training more and more important. Most of it is done by means of graduate (Master's) degrees in mathematics education.     

Method evaluation study of a new generation of vitamin D assays

Introduction

Recently several diagnostic manufacturers have launched new 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25[OH]D) assays, which are aligned to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Materials (SRM) (NIST, Gaithersburg, Maryland). The aim of this study was to compare the performance of one liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method, one enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and one recalibrated and previous version of a chemiluminescence immunoassay (CLIA).

Material and methods

Serum-aliquots of 198 patient samples from routine 25(OH)D analysis were measured by the ClinMass® LC-MS/MS Complete Kit (RECIPE Chemicals + Instruments GmbH, Munich, Germany), the ORGENTEC 25(OH)D₃/D₂ ELISA (ORGENTEC Diagnostika GmbH, Mainz, Germany), the recalibrated Immunodiagnostic Systems (IDS)-iSYS 25(OH)D^S and the previous used IDS-iSYS 25(OH)D CLIA (Immunodiagnostic Systems Ltd, Boldon, United Kingdom). Bland-Altman and Deming regression analyses were calculated for methods comparison of all tested 25(OH)D assays. The LC-MS/MS method was defined as the reference method. Within-run and between-run precision measurements were performed for all methods with three different concentration levels.

Results

Compared to the LC-MS/MS method, the new IDS-iSYS 25(OH)D^S and ORGENTEC 25(OH)D₃/D₂ assay demonstrated mean relative biases of 16.3% and 17.8%. The IDS-iSYS 25(OH)D assay showed the lowest mean bias of 1.5%. Deming regression analyses of the recalibrated IDS-iSYS 25(OH)D^S and the ORGENTEC 25(OH)D₃/D₂ assay showed proportional differences, when compared to the reference method. All assays showed a within-run and between-run imprecision of ≤ 20% at each of the evaluated concentration levels.

Conclusions

The evaluated standardized immunoassays and LC-MS/MS are useful methods for measuring 25(OH)D serum-levels in clinical laboratories.Key words: vitamin D, immunoassays, liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, reference standards, quality improvement     

Wie erfolgreich sind Gymnasiasten ohne Gymnasialempfehlung?

This contribution has the objective of analyzing the school success of pupils, whose parents chose a school with a higher academic profile than recommended by their teachers. On the basis of longitudinal data for a complete transition cohort of 81,811 pupils in Lower Saxony, Germany, we will investigate the link between teachers’ recommendations for school-type at the end of year 4, the parents’ choice of school-type and pupils’ ultimate success. The criterion used here for measuring success is reaching year 7 without repeating a year. 15% of the parents chose a school-type with a higher academic profile than had been recommended. All groups of pupils with conflicting recommendations and eventual choice—whether for the academically-oriented Gymnasium or the more vocationally-oriented Realschule—were generally successful. Overall 12% of the total sample is successfully studying at a school-type of higher academic profile than recommended. These results mean that educational resources are not being fully exploited and educational chances restricted.