Creating Awareness of Pluricentricity at University Language Departments: A Case Study of Dutch

Dutch is a pluricentric language: It is an official language in six countries spread over two continents. Its national varieties became recognized as officially accepted, equal varieties of the standard language in the 21st century. These recognized varieties are Belgian Dutch, Dutch Dutch, and Surinamese Dutch. We show that despite the official equal status of these varieties, Dutch Dutch remains the dominant variety and the relatively recent official pluricentric status of Dutch is not generally known to all language users. We discuss that this is still noticeable in textbooks used for advanced learners of Dutch at schools in the German federal state of Lower Saxony for example, but also in Dutch language teaching in general. It is thus of importance to create (even more) awareness amongst future teachers. For this reason, we propose a matrix to evaluate and implement awareness of the pluricentricity of Dutch at university language departments. We illustrate and discuss the application of this matrix in the Department of Dutch Studies at the University of Oldenburg, Germany

Dynamics of eddying abyssal mixing layers over sloping rough topography

The abyssal overturning circulation is thought to be primarily driven by small-scale turbulent mixing. Diagnosed watermass transformations are dominated by rough topography “hotspots”, where the bottom-enhancement of mixing causes the diffusive buoyancy flux to diverge, driving widespread downwelling in the interior—only to be overwhelmed by an even stronger up-welling in a thin Bottom Boundary Layer (BBL). These watermass transformations are significantly underestimated by one-dimensional (1D) sloping boundary layer solutions, suggesting the importance of three-dimensional physics. Here, we use a hierarchy of models to generalize this 1D boundary layer approach to three-dimensional eddying flows over realistically rough topography. When applied to the Mid-Atlantic Ridge in the Brazil Basin, the idealized simulation results are roughly consistent with available observations. Integral buoyancy budgets isolate the physical processes that contribute to realistically strong BBL upwelling. The downwards diffusion of buoyancy is primarily balanced by upwelling along the sloping canyon sidewalls and the surrounding abyssal hills. These flows are strengthened by the restratifying effects of submesoscale baroclinic eddies and by the blocking of along-ridge thermal wind within the canyon. Major topographic sills block along-thalweg flows from restratifying the canyon trough, resulting in the continual erosion of the trough’s stratification. We propose simple modifications to the 1D boundary layer model which approximate each of these three-dimensional effects. These results provide local dynamical insights into mixing-driven abyssal overturning, but a complete theory will also require the non-local coupling to the basin-scale circulation.First author draf

Integrating Data Science and Earth Science

This open access book presents the results of three years collaboration between earth scientists and data scientists, in developing and applying data science methods for scientific discovery. The book will be highly beneficial for other researchers at senior and graduate level, interested in applying visual data exploration, computational approaches and scientifc workflows

Creating Awareness of Pluricentricity at University Language Departments: A Case Study of Dutch

Dutch is a pluricentric language: It is an official language in six countries spread over two continents. Its national varieties became recognized as officially accepted, equal varieties of the standard language in the 21st century. These recognized varieties are Belgian Dutch, Dutch Dutch, and Surinamese Dutch. We show that despite the official equal status of these varieties, Dutch Dutch remains the dominant variety and the relatively recent official pluricentric status of Dutch is not generally known to all language users. We discuss that this is still noticeable in textbooks used for advanced learners of Dutch at schools in the German federal state of Lower Saxony for example, but also in Dutch language teaching in general. It is thus of importance to create (even more) awareness amongst future teachers. For this reason, we propose a matrix to evaluate and implement awareness of the pluricentricity of Dutch at university language departments. We illustrate and discuss the application of this matrix in the Department of Dutch Studies at the University of Oldenburg, Germany

Windenergie Report Deutschland 2017

Der Windenergiereport des Fraunhofer-Instituts für Energiewirtschaft und Energiesystemtechnik (IEE) berichtet wissenschaftlich und anschaulich über die jährliche Entwicklung der Windenergie. Der Zubau und Ertrag von On- und Offshore Windenergieanlagen, der Anteil der Windenergie im Strommix, die Netzintegration und die Schritte zum Netzausbau werden übersichtlich dargestellt. Special Reports informieren über aktuelle Themen und Trends der Branche