2,599 research outputs found

    Children and Youth at Risk in Times of Transition: International and Interdisciplinary Perspectives

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    Children and youth belong to one of the most vulnerable groups in societies. This was the case even before the current humanitarian crises around the world which led millions of people and families to flee from wars, terror, poverty and exploitation. Minors have been denied human rights such as access to education, food and health services. They have been kidnapped, sold, manipulated, mutilated, killed, and injured. This has been and continues to be the case in both developed and developing countries, and it does not look as if the situation will improve in the near future. Rather, current geopolitical developments, political and economic uncertainties and instabilities seem to be increasing the vulnerability of minors, especially in the wars and armed conflicts currently being waged not only in Europe, but on almost every continent. How can risks children and youth are exposed to in times of transition be reduced? Which role do state agencies, non-governmental organisations, as well as children's coping strategies play in mitigating the vulnerabilities of minors? This volume addresses risks to which children and young people are exposed, especially in times of transition. The focus is on different groups of children in the European wartime and post-war societies of the Second World War, 'occupation children' in Germany, teenage National Socialist collaborators in Norway, and more recent cases such as child soldiers, refugee children, and children of European "Islamic State" fighters. The contributions come from international scholars and different academic disciplines (educational and social sciences, humanities, law, and international peace and conflict studies) and are based on historical, quantitative, and/or qualitative analyses.Kinder und Jugendliche gehören zu den am meisten gefĂ€hrdeten Gruppen einer Gesellschaft. Dies war auch schon vor den aktuellen humanitĂ€ren Krisen in der Welt der Fall, die Millionen von Menschen und Familien zur Flucht vor Kriegen, Terror, Armut und Ausbeutung veranlassten. MinderjĂ€hrigen wurden Menschenrechte wie der Zugang zu Bildung, Nahrung und medizinischer Versorgung verweigert. Sie wurden entfĂŒhrt, verkauft, manipuliert, verstĂŒmmelt, getötet und verletzt. Dies war und ist sowohl in den Industrie- als auch in den EntwicklungslĂ€ndern der Fall, und es sieht nicht so aus, als wĂŒrde sich die Situation in naher Zukunft verbessern. Dieser Band befasst sich mit Risiken, denen Kinder und Jugendliche vor allem in Zeiten des Übergangs ausgesetzt sind. Im Mittelpunkt stehen verschiedene Gruppen von Kindern in den europĂ€ischen Kriegs- und Nachkriegsgesellschaften des Zweiten Weltkriegs, "Besatzungskinder" in Deutschland, jugendliche NS-Kollaborateure in Norwegen und neuere FĂ€lle wie Kindersoldat*innen, FlĂŒchtlingskinder und Kinder von europĂ€ischen "Islamischen Staat"-KĂ€mpfer*innen. Die BeitrĂ€ge stammen von internationalen Wissenschaftler*innen und verschiedenen akademischen Disziplinen (Erziehungs- und Sozialwissenschaften, Geisteswissenschaften, Rechtswissenschaften und internationale Friedens- und Konfliktstudien) und basieren auf historischen, quantitativen und/oder qualitativen Analysen

    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volume

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    LIPIcs, Volume 251, ITCS 2023, Complete Volum

    Doing Research. Wissenschaftspraktiken zwischen Positionierung und Suchanfrage

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    Forschung wird zunehmend aus Sicht ihrer Ergebnisse gedacht - nicht zuletzt aufgrund der UmwĂ€lzungen im System Wissensschaft. Der Band lenkt den Fokus jedoch auf diejenigen Prozesse, die Forschungsergebnisse erst ermöglichen und Wissenschaft konturieren. Dabei ist der Titel Doing Research als Verweis darauf zu verstehen, dass forschendes Handeln von spezifischen Positionierungen, partiellen Perspektiven und Suchbewegungen geformt ist. So knĂŒpfen alle Beitragenden auf reflexive Weise an ihre jeweiligen Forschungspraktiken an. Ausgangspunkt sind AbkĂŒrzungen - die vermeintlich kleinsten Einheiten wissenschaftlicher Aushandlung und VerstĂ€ndigung. Der in den Erziehungs-, Sozial-, Medien- und Kunstwissenschaften verankerte Band zeichnet ein vieldimensionales Bild gegenwĂ€rtigen Forschens mit transdisziplinĂ€ren AnknĂŒpfungspunkten zwischen DigitalitĂ€t und Bildung. (DIPF/Orig.

    A new global media order? : debates and policies on media and mass communication at UNESCO, 1960 to 1980

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    Defence date: 24 June 2019Examining Board: Professor Federico Romero, European University Institute (Supervisor); Professor Corinna Unger, European University Institute (Second Reader); Professor Iris Schröder, UniversitĂ€t Erfurt (External Advisor); Professor Sandrine Kott, UniversitĂ© de GenĂšveThe 1970s, a UNESCO report claimed, would be the “communication decade”. UNESCO had started research on new means of mass communication for development purposes in the 1960s. In the 1970s, the issue evolved into a debate on the so-called “New World Information and Communication Order” (NWICO) and the democratisation of global media. It led UNESCO itself into a major crisis in the 1980s. My project traces a dual trajectory that shaped this global debate on transnational media. The first follows communications from being seen as a tool and goal of national development in the 1960s, to communications seen as catalyst for recalibrated international political, cultural and economic relations. The second relates to the recurrent attempts, and eventual failure, of various actors to engage UNESCO as a platform to promote a new global order. I take UNESCO as an observation post to study national ambitions intersecting with internationalist claims to universality, changing understandings of the role of media in development and international affairs, and competing visions of world order. Looking at the modes of this debate, the project also sheds light on the evolving practices of internationalism. Located in the field of a new international history, this study relates to the recent rediscovery of the “new order”-discourses of the 1970s as well as to the increasingly diversified literature on internationalism. With its focus on international communications and attempts at regulating them, it also contributes to an international media history in the late twentieth century. The emphasis on the role of international organisations as well as on voices from the Global South will make contributions to our understanding of the historic macro-processes of decolonisation, globalisation and the Cold War

    Method versatility in analysing human attitudes towards technology

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    Various research domains are facing new challenges brought about by growing volumes of data. To make optimal use of them, and to increase the reproducibility of research findings, method versatility is required. Method versatility is the ability to flexibly apply widely varying data analytic methods depending on the study goal and the dataset characteristics. Method versatility is an essential characteristic of data science, but in other areas of research, such as educational science or psychology, its importance is yet to be fully accepted. Versatile methods can enrich the repertoire of specialists who validate psychometric instruments, conduct data analysis of large-scale educational surveys, and communicate their findings to the academic community, which corresponds to three stages of the research cycle: measurement, research per se, and communication. In this thesis, studies related to these stages have a common theme of human attitudes towards technology, as this topic becomes vitally important in our age of ever-increasing digitization. The thesis is based on four studies, in which method versatility is introduced in four different ways: the consecutive use of methods, the toolbox choice, the simultaneous use, and the range extension. In the first study, different methods of psychometric analysis are used consecutively to reassess psychometric properties of a recently developed scale measuring affinity for technology interaction. In the second, the random forest algorithm and hierarchical linear modeling, as tools from machine learning and statistical toolboxes, are applied to data analysis of a large-scale educational survey related to students’ attitudes to information and communication technology. In the third, the challenge of selecting the number of clusters in model-based clustering is addressed by the simultaneous use of model fit, cluster separation, and the stability of partition criteria, so that generalizable separable clusters can be selected in the data related to teachers’ attitudes towards technology. The fourth reports the development and evaluation of a scholarly knowledge graph-powered dashboard aimed at extending the range of scholarly communication means. The findings of the thesis can be helpful for increasing method versatility in various research areas. They can also facilitate methodological advancement of academic training in data analysis and aid further development of scholarly communication in accordance with open science principles.Verschiedene Forschungsbereiche mĂŒssen sich durch steigende Datenmengen neuen Herausforderungen stellen. Der Umgang damit erfordert – auch in Hinblick auf die Reproduzierbarkeit von Forschungsergebnissen – Methodenvielfalt. Methodenvielfalt ist die FĂ€higkeit umfangreiche Analysemethoden unter BerĂŒcksichtigung von angestrebten Studienzielen und gegebenen Eigenschaften der DatensĂ€tze flexible anzuwenden. Methodenvielfalt ist ein essentieller Bestandteil der Datenwissenschaft, der aber in seinem Umfang in verschiedenen Forschungsbereichen wie z. B. den Bildungswissenschaften oder der Psychologie noch nicht erfasst wird. Methodenvielfalt erweitert die Fachkenntnisse von Wissenschaftlern, die psychometrische Instrumente validieren, Datenanalysen von groß angelegten Umfragen im Bildungsbereich durchfĂŒhren und ihre Ergebnisse im akademischen Kontext prĂ€sentieren. Das entspricht den drei Phasen eines Forschungszyklus: Messung, Forschung per se und Kommunikation. In dieser Doktorarbeit werden Studien, die sich auf diese Phasen konzentrieren, durch das gemeinsame Thema der Einstellung zu Technologien verbunden. Dieses Thema ist im Zeitalter zunehmender Digitalisierung von entscheidender Bedeutung. Die Doktorarbeit basiert auf vier Studien, die Methodenvielfalt auf vier verschiedenen Arten vorstellt: die konsekutive Anwendung von Methoden, die Toolbox-Auswahl, die simultane Anwendung von Methoden sowie die Erweiterung der Bandbreite. In der ersten Studie werden verschiedene psychometrische Analysemethoden konsekutiv angewandt, um die psychometrischen Eigenschaften einer entwickelten Skala zur Messung der AffinitĂ€t von Interaktion mit Technologien zu ĂŒberprĂŒfen. In der zweiten Studie werden der Random-Forest-Algorithmus und die hierarchische lineare Modellierung als Methoden des Machine Learnings und der Statistik zur Datenanalyse einer groß angelegten Umfrage ĂŒber die Einstellung von SchĂŒlern zur Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie herangezogen. In der dritten Studie wird die Auswahl der Anzahl von Clustern im modellbasierten Clustering bei gleichzeitiger Verwendung von Kriterien fĂŒr die Modellanpassung, der Clustertrennung und der StabilitĂ€t beleuchtet, so dass generalisierbare trennbare Cluster in den Daten zu den Einstellungen von Lehrern zu Technologien ausgewĂ€hlt werden können. Die vierte Studie berichtet ĂŒber die Entwicklung und Evaluierung eines wissenschaftlichen wissensgraphbasierten Dashboards, das die Bandbreite wissenschaftlicher Kommunikationsmittel erweitert. Die Ergebnisse der Doktorarbeit tragen dazu bei, die Anwendung von vielfĂ€ltigen Methoden in verschiedenen Forschungsbereichen zu erhöhen. Außerdem fördern sie die methodische Ausbildung in der Datenanalyse und unterstĂŒtzen die Weiterentwicklung der wissenschaftlichen Kommunikation im Rahmen von Open Science

    Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion. Collected Works, Volume 5

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    This ïŹfth volume on Advances and Applications of DSmT for Information Fusion collects theoretical and applied contributions of researchers working in different ïŹelds of applications and in mathematics, and is available in open-access. The collected contributions of this volume have either been published or presented after disseminating the fourth volume in 2015 in international conferences, seminars, workshops and journals, or they are new. The contributions of each part of this volume are chronologically ordered. First Part of this book presents some theoretical advances on DSmT, dealing mainly with modiïŹed Proportional ConïŹ‚ict Redistribution Rules (PCR) of combination with degree of intersection, coarsening techniques, interval calculus for PCR thanks to set inversion via interval analysis (SIVIA), rough set classiïŹers, canonical decomposition of dichotomous belief functions, fast PCR fusion, fast inter-criteria analysis with PCR, and improved PCR5 and PCR6 rules preserving the (quasi-)neutrality of (quasi-)vacuous belief assignment in the fusion of sources of evidence with their Matlab codes. Because more applications of DSmT have emerged in the past years since the apparition of the fourth book of DSmT in 2015, the second part of this volume is about selected applications of DSmT mainly in building change detection, object recognition, quality of data association in tracking, perception in robotics, risk assessment for torrent protection and multi-criteria decision-making, multi-modal image fusion, coarsening techniques, recommender system, levee characterization and assessment, human heading perception, trust assessment, robotics, biometrics, failure detection, GPS systems, inter-criteria analysis, group decision, human activity recognition, storm prediction, data association for autonomous vehicles, identiïŹcation of maritime vessels, fusion of support vector machines (SVM), Silx-Furtif RUST code library for information fusion including PCR rules, and network for ship classiïŹcation. Finally, the third part presents interesting contributions related to belief functions in general published or presented along the years since 2015. These contributions are related with decision-making under uncertainty, belief approximations, probability transformations, new distances between belief functions, non-classical multi-criteria decision-making problems with belief functions, generalization of Bayes theorem, image processing, data association, entropy and cross-entropy measures, fuzzy evidence numbers, negator of belief mass, human activity recognition, information fusion for breast cancer therapy, imbalanced data classiïŹcation, and hybrid techniques mixing deep learning with belief functions as well

    Hybrid BEM-FEM for 2D and 3D dynamic soil-structure interaction considering arbitrary layered half-space and nonlinearities

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    Experiences and studies have shown that soil-structure interaction (SSI) effect has a vital role in the dynamic behaviour of a soil-structure system. Despite this, analyses involving dynamic SSI are still challenging for practicing engineers due to their complexity and accessibility. In this thesis, the hybrid BEM-FEM implementation is aimed at practicality by combining commercial software and an in-house code. The pre-processing task can be performed under one graphical environment, and it is enhanced with the capability to compute different types of dynamic sources and other improvements to increase its efficiency, accuracy, and modeling flexibility. Further, the underlying soil is commonly a layered profile with arbitrary geometries. Most existing solutions solve the problem through simplification of the geometry and pattern. One of the main contributions in this thesis is the development of layer-wise condensation method to solve these cases using hybrid BEM-FEM. The method significantly reduces the computational memory requirement. Another challenge in the dynamic SSI addressed in this work is the consideration of secondary nonlinearities. Existing solutions using the time domain BEM and iterative hybrid method are computationally costly, and implementation of such a hybrid method on commercial software is tedious. The solution to address this case using a sequential frequency-time domain procedure is presented. The relatively simple approach makes it possible to consider the nonlinearities in the simulation without using the time domain BEM and without requiring additional iterations. Case studies demonstrating the application of the enhanced hybrid method are presented including cases of bridges, containment structures, and a 3D multi-storey structure under point source and double-couple sources. These case studies illustrate the role of following critical factors such as the site effect, inhomogeneity, and nonlinearities

    KĂŒnstliche Intelligenz in der Hochschulbildung. Chancen und Grenzen des KI-gestĂŒtzten Lernens und Lehrens

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    Der Einsatz von KĂŒnstlicher Intelligenz erfĂ€hrt in hochschuldidaktischen Kontexten wachsendes Interesse. Durch individualisierte Lernwege ergeben sich fĂŒr Studierende und Dozierende neue Lern-Lehr-Möglichkeiten. Der Band befasst sich jedoch auch mit den daraus resultierenden Gefahren: Es sind Demarkationslinien zu ziehen, wenn es um Datenschutz oder ethische Bedenken geht. Die Autor*innen des Bandes nehmen verschiedene Sichtweisen ein, um eine multidisziplinĂ€re Betrachtung der neuen Problemstellungen, die die Anwendung von KI im Hochschulkontext mit sich bringt, zu ermöglichen. (DIPF/Orig.)Higher education teaching contexts are becoming increasingly interested in the use of artificial intelligence. Individualized learning paths give students and lecturers new opportunities for learning and teaching. The volume, however, also covers the risks that follow: There must be clear boundaries when it comes to privacy or ethical issues. To enable a multidisciplinary view of the new issues raised by the application of AI in the university context, the volume\u27s authors adopt various vantage points. (Editors

    Cryo-Electron Microscopy to Investigate Molecular Dynamics and Conformational Changes in Protein Complexes

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    Stress can be considered as one of the most fundamental aspects in life, and all living organisms are constantly exposed to a variety of different stress situations. Thus, efficient stress sensing and reaction mechanisms are crucial for their survival. Stress response mechanisms are as diverse as the causative stimuli and oftentimes cross-linked forming a versatile reaction network, to ensure the cells’ survival under critical situations. Notably, stress response mechanisms play a major role in pathogenicity, virulence and disease. Pathogenic Bacteria are permanently facing environmental pressure originating from the host’s defense systems or drug treatments, while mutations in eukaryotic stress response systems have been shown to cause a large number of severe human diseases such as diabetes, cancer or Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. A profound molecular knowledge on the respective mechanisms is thus the inevitable prerequisite towards a global understanding of this fundamental aspect of life, paving the way for the development of new drugs or therapeutic approaches. Within this thesis, various aspects of stress response mechanisms in three different systems were investigated using state-of-the-art electron microscopy techniques. First, I set out to solve the structure of the Vibrio vulnificus stressosome complex, a key player in the bacterial environmental stress response. Currently, there is no structural data available for any gram-negative stressosome. A medium-resolution cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of the minimal complex could be obtained, which features an exceptional symmetry break originating from its unique, regulatory stoichiometry. Based on the structural data, it was possible to propose an activation mechanism and to pinpoint a number of significant differences in comparison to gram-positive stressosome complexes. Undoubtedly, the structure contributes a major piece of information necessary to understand stress sensing and signal transduction in this human pathogen. This study was complemented by a number of physiological and phylogenetic experiments contributed by our co-workers, and published recently (VIII. PUBLICATION 1). The second project focused on the gram-positive soil bacterium Corynebacterium glutamicum, a prime model organism for investigations of the bacterial osmostress response. Sensing of hyper-osmotic stress and regulation of the respective stress response in C. glutamicum are simultaneously performed by BetP, a conformationally asymmetric-trimeric secondary active transporter able to import the compatible solute betaine. Two stimuli are identified to initiate the full osmostress response in BetP, namely an elevated cytoplasmic K+ concentration and a loosely defined ‘membrane stimulus’. Despite the availability of functional data on BetP regulation, structural information especially of the down-regulated state and the subsequent transition events are absent. Using single particle cryo-EM analysis, I was able to provide high-resolution structures of the down-regulated and a transition state, which elucidated a number of important structural features not described so far. It could be shown that down-regulated BetP adopts a symmetric arrangement stabilized by antight cytoplasmic interaction network of the sensory domain, further strengthened by Cardiolipin molecules located at regulatory lipid binding sites. These constraints are released upon stress sensing, as demonstrated by fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and molecular dynamics simulation (MD) data contributed by our co-workers, resulting in the well-established, asymmetric-trimeric structures previously known. The wealth of new data on the down-regulated state allowed to propose a detailed regulation mechanism and to further sharpen the previously vague picture of the membrane stimulus. The data are summarized and presented in IX. PREPRINT 1. A third topic of this thesis was the three dimensional investigation via dual-axis scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) tomography of crystalloid-ER structures we identified before in human embryonic kidney (HEK) cells upon over-expression of polycystin-2 (PC-2). In this study presented in X. MANUSCRIPT 1, I was further able to proof the presence of ER whorls, and to obtain high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) reconstructions of the two different ER morphotypes. These data provided unmatched insights into the cellular ER interaction partners and clearly demonstrated the dynamic nature of the organelle even under stress situations. A detailed discussion of the identified morphological features in their respective cellular context finally allowed for the description of the organellar membrane architecture at a high level of detail. Lastly, the discussion addresses the electron microscopy techniques and instruments used and contains an outlook on further perspectives for the projects. Overall, this thesis yielded intriguing mechanistic insights into the versatile bacterial and eukaryotic stress response mechanisms, reflecting their manifold nature ultimately converging to a common outcome
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