Maria Schmidt und Theodor Kirchner

An article commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Theodor Kirchner (1823-1903), with a special focus on his wife, the soprano Maria Schmidt-Kirchner, and featuring the first publication of a portrait of her by Clementine Stockar-Escher

Ein Rat für Armutsfragen in der Schweiz schafft Legitimität für die Perspektive der Betroffenen

Die Nationale Plattform gegen Armut (NAPA) lanciert zum Abschluss ihres Arbeitsprogramms einen Rat für Armutsfragen für die Schweiz. In diesem Gremium erhalten Armutsbetroffenen eine kollektive Stimme, sodass sie Initiativen und Anliegen in politischen Prozesse zielgerichtet einfliessen lassen können. Gleichzeitig können politische Entscheidungsträger:innen Beratung und Rückmeldungen zu Vorlagen in der Armutspolitik vom Rat einholen. In einem gemeinsam mit Forschenden lancierten Projekt wurden die Eckpunkte dieser Beteiligungsstruktur erarbeitet. Der Bundesrat entscheidet nun, ob er sich am Rat für Armutsfragen in der Schweiz beteiligt. Wie kam es dazu? Was hat der Prozess der Erarbeitung gebracht? Welche Hoffnungen werden in den Armutsrat gesetzt? Ein Gespräch mit vier Beteiligten

Novel insights into red deer ( Cervus elaphus ) habitat use and suitability in human-dominated versus near-natural landscapes

Red deer populations, once extirpated in large parts of Europe, have recovered over the last century in many regions. In Switzerland, primarily inhabiting mountain forests, they have recently started to expand into human-dominated lowland landscapes. To study their habitat selection, we analyzed day- and nighttime positions of 15 GPS-collared red deer. Our results show that during daytime, all animals generally preferred forests; open land was mainly used at night. In summer and fall, some lowland individuals deviated from this pattern and used agricultural crops as daytime retreats. Human settlements were often avoided in the lowlands. Day-site selection in the lowlands occurred irrespective of the distance to trails and the probability of being accessed by humans, in contrast to the pattern observed in the mountains. At night, red deer preferred forest edges and open land. In the lowlands, human settlements were avoided. Trails and transport infrastructures had a marginal influence at night. Our study confirmed a high behavioral plasticity of red deer. The use of daytime retreats close to trails and in high-standing crops represent major extensions of their behavior. Our habitat models indicate that there is ample suitable habitat in the lowlands, which is of major relevance for their management

GraLMatch : matching groups of entities with graphs and language models

In this paper, we present an end-to-end multi-source Entity Matching problem, which we call entity group matching, where the goal is to assign to the same group records originating from multiple data sources but representing the same real-world entity. We focus on the effects of transitively matched records, i.e. the records connected by paths in the graph G = (V,E) whose nodes and edges represent the records and whether they are a match or not. We present a real-world instance of this problem, where the challenge is to match records of companies and financial securities originating from different data providers. We also introduce two new multi-source benchmark datasets that present similar matching challenges as real-world records. A distinctive characteristic of these records is that they are regularly updated following real-world events, but updates are not applied uniformly across data sources. This phenomenon makes the matching of certain groups of records only possible through the use of transitive information. In our experiments, we illustrate how considering transitively matched records is challenging since a limited amount of false positive pairwise match predictions can throw off the group assignment of large quantities of records. Thus, we propose GraLMatch, a method that can partially detect and remove false positive pairwise predictions through graph-based properties. Finally, we showcase how fine-tuning a Transformer-based model (DistilBERT) on a reduced number of labeled samples yields a better final entity group matching than training on more samples and/or incorporating fine-tuning optimizations, illustrating how precision becomes the deciding factor in the entity group matching of large volumes of records

Perfection, hybridity or shutting up? A cross-country study of how language ideologies shape participation in international business

Employees’ participation in professional international business (IB) communication has important consequences for knowledge transfer and processing, a crucial function for multinational enterprises (MNEs). Research suggests that participation is shaped by language, but prior research has focused on firm-internal language dynamics, meaning that less is known about the influence of external context. We help redress this balance by drawing on the sociolinguistic concept of “language ideologies”. Language ideologies, or shared sets of beliefs about language(s) amongst social groups, are societal-level phenomena that employees bring with them to work. As such, they are part of the external social, political and historical context of IB activities. Our analysis of 82 interviews in three countries indicates that some language ideologies block participation and create friction, while others support participation. Implications for the conceptual understanding of language in IB and the management of internationally active firms are discussed

Revisiting the definition of humanitarian logistics

Humanitarian logistics (HL) is a relatively new research area that requires clear boundaries and a defined foundational perspective. Recent disasters have shown that the scope of HL is expanding, as in cases of cash-based interventions, outsourcing to commercial companies, and stronger involvement of local communities. These changes imply the importance of scrutinizing the old definitions of HL and determining whether they require adaptation. This step is important considering that inadequate definitions create (i) misconceptions about what HL is, (ii) a lack of unity and understanding of the field's research goals, (iii) confusion about what constitutes a contribution, and (iv) theoretical ambiguity, which masks promising research directions, fragments knowledge, and retards the progress of scientific research. Based on a structured review, we found that three definitions from around 2005 have predominated in the literature so far. We identified various issues with these definitions and then conducted an expert elicitation process to develop and validate an updated foundational perspective on HL. Finally, we analyzed the data collected from experts using the literature on what constitutes a “good definition.” This led us to propose a revised definition and accompanying properties for HL. We conclude the article by offering important avenues for future research

Fachkurs "Gemeinsam mehr wissen und bewegen": Fachkurs zur Partizipation und Befähigung armutsbetroffener Klientel

Die Beteiligung von Nutzenden kann in der Entwicklung und Weiterentwicklung von sozialen Dienstleistungen immer mehr als Qualitätsmerkmal angesehen werden. Dabei ist zentral, dass sich die Nutzenden einbringen und mitwirken können. Für den Kanton Glarus wird hierfür eine massgeschneiderte Einführung in einen potenziellen Fachkurs zur Partizipation und Befähigung armutsbetroffener Klientel vorgestellt

Künstliche Intelligenz und Pflege: Entwicklungen, Beispiele und Perspektiven

Das Thema Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) ist omnipräsent. Der folgende Beitrag geht darauf ein, was KI ist, welche Rolle Pflegende bei der Entwicklung von KI spielen und welche KI-Anwendungen Potenzial für die Patientenversorgung haben. Pflegende sollten sich engagieren, aktiv KI-Lösungen mitgestalten und am kritischen Diskurs teilnehmen, damit sich die digitale Identität der Profession Pflege etablieren lässt