The Mystery Method Reconsidered—A Tool for Assessing Systems Thinking in Education for Sustainable Development

Influence diagrams, derived from the mystery method as its learning output, represent an externalization of systems thinking and are, therefore, valid to research; so far they have not been conceptualized in the research literature for teaching systems thinking in education for sustainable development. In this study, 31 of those diagrams are confronted with (1) three different expert references, in (2) two different ways, by (3) three different scoring systems to determine which evaluation option is both valid and easy to implement. As a benchmark, the diagrams’ diameters are used, which allows statements about the quality of the maps/diagrams in general. The results show that, depending on the combination of variables that play a role in the evaluation (1, 2, 3), the quality of the influence diagram becomes measurable. However, strong differences appear in the various evaluation schemes, which can be explained by each variable’s peculiarities. Overall, the tested methodology is effective, but will need to be sharpened in the future. The results also offer starting points for future research to further deepen the path taken here

Inertial self-propelled particles in anisotropic environments

Self-propelled particles in anisotropic environments can exhibit a motility that depends on their orientation. This dependence is relevant for a plethora of living organisms but difficult to study in controlled environments. Here, we present a macroscopic system of self-propelled vibrated granular particles on a striated substrate that displays orientation-dependent motility. An extension of the active Brownian motion model involving orientation-dependent motility and inertial effects reproduces and explains our experimental observations. The model can be applied to general $n$-fold symmetric anisotropy and can be helpful for predictive optimization of the dynamics of active matter in complex environments.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

Modellversuch Bürgerarbeit : zwischen Workfare und Sozialem Arbeitsmarkt

"Vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen Debatte um das Thema 'mehr Beschäftigung für wettbewerbsschwächere Arbeitnehmer und Arbeitslose' untersucht der Forschungsbericht die aktivierenden Wirkungen der ersten drei Stufen des Modellversuchs 'Bürgerarbeit'. Dieser Modellversuch wurde von der Regionaldirektion der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) Sachsen-Anhalt-Thüringen gemeinsam mit dem Land Sachsen-Anhalt entwickelt und zuerst in der Kurstadt Bad Schmiedeberg umgesetzt. Das Konzept der Bürgerarbeit hat sowohl Elemente von 'Workfare' als auch eines 'Sozialen Arbeitsmarktes' und sieht ein vierstufiges Vorgehen vor. Die ersten drei Stufen beinhalten ein umfassendes Profiling der Arbeitslosen, die Forcierung der Eigenbemühungen zur Stellensuche sowie ggf. den Einsatz des arbeitsmarktpolitischen Instrumentariums, um die Personen möglichst rasch in den ersten Arbeitsmarkt zu integrieren. Erst wenn dies alles scheitert, soll die vierte Stufe - öffentlich geförderte Beschäftigungsverhältnisse - zum Einsatz kommen. Die Analysen zeigen, dass die Betreuung der Arbeitslosen in Bad Schmiedeberg während des Modellversuchs durchaus intensiviert worden ist. Dies schlug sich etwa auch - gemessen an der Anzahl der erstatteten Bewerbungs- und Reisekosten - in verstärkten Eigenbemühungen der Arbeitslosen nieder. Dies führte aber nicht in großem Umfang zu zählbaren Arbeitsmarkterfolgen: Die Abgänge aus Arbeitslosigkeit gingen weit überwiegend in öffentlich geförderte Beschäftigung, während die Abgangsraten in Beschäftigung auf dem ersten Arbeitsmarkt und in Nichterwerbstätigkeit kaum positiv beeinflusst wurden. Eine mögliche Erklärung hierfür ist, dass die mangelnde Aktivierung der Arbeitslosen nicht der Hauptgrund für die lang andauernde Arbeitslosigkeit ist. Möglicherweise war der Zeitraum der intensiven Betreuung auch zu kurz, um schon deutlich messbare Erfolge zu erzielen. Durch die genauere Analyse und Dokumentation der Vermittlungshemmnisse der Arbeitslosen könnte aber eine Grundlage gelegt worden sein, bei Fortführung der Bemühungen zu besseren Vermittlungsergebnissen zu kommen." (Autorenreferat, IAB-Doku) Additional Information Hier finden Sie eine Replik von Ulf Rosner Hier finden Sie die Erwiderung von Susanne Koch und Christopher OsianderArbeitslose, Profiling, Workfare, Bürgerarbeit - Erfolgskontrolle, aktivierende Arbeitsmarktpolitik, Vermittlungshemmnisse, beruflicher Verbleib, Betreuung, Sachsen-Anhalt, Bad Schmiedeberg, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Telemedical Support in Patients with Chronic Heart Failure: Experience from Different Projects in Germany

The great epidemiological significance and costs associated with chronic heart failure pose a challenge to health systems in Western industrial countries. In the past few years, controlled randomised studies have shown that patients with chronic heart failure benefit from telemedical monitoring; specifically, telemonitoring of various vital parameters combined with a review of the symptoms, drug compliance and patient education. In Germany, various telemedical monitoring projects for patients with chronic heart failure have been initiated in the past few years; seven of them are presented here. Currently 7220 patients are being monitored in the seven selected projects. Most patients (51.1%) are in NYHA stage II, 26.3% in NYHA stage III, 14.5% in NYHA stage I and only 6.6% in NYHA stage IV respectively. Most projects are primarily regional. Their structure of telemedical monitoring tends to be modular and uses stratification according to the NYHA stages. All projects include medical or health economics assessments. The future of telemedical monitoring projects for patients with chronic heart failure will depend on the outcome of these assessments. Only of there is statistical evidence for medical benefit to the individual patient as well as cost savings will these projects continue

From in situ to ex vivo: the effect of autolysis and fixation on quantitative MRI markers for myelin

Ex vivo histology remains the gold standard against which MRI biophysical models, e.g. the MR g-ratio which characterises the fraction of a fibre’s diameter that is myelinated, are evaluated. The MR g-ratio model requires a measure of myelin density, for which magnetization transfer saturation (MT) has been used as a biomarker. However, changes occurring post mortem, e.g. autolysis, temperature changes and fixation, significantly alter the MRI signal. Here we investigate how these changes impact MT. We found that MT decreased post mortem but greatlyincreased upon fixation. These effects are similar to reported changes of other established MRI myelin-markers

Digital reality: a model-based approach to supervised learning from synthetic data

Hierarchical neural networks with large numbers of layers are the state of the art for most computer vision problems including image classification, multi-object detection and semantic segmentation. While the computational demands of training such deep networks can be addressed using specialized hardware, the availability of training data in sufficient quantity and quality remains a limiting factor. Main reasons are that measurement or manual labelling are prohibitively expensive, ethical considerations can limit generating data, or a phenomenon in questions has been predicted, but not yet observed. In this position paper, we present the Digital Reality concept are a structured approach to generate training data synthetically. The central idea is to simulate measurements based on scenes that are generated by parametric models of the real world. By investigating the parameter space defined of such models, training data can be generated in a controlled way compared to data that was captured from real world situations. We propose the Digital Reality concept and demonstrate its potential in different application domains, including industrial inspection, autonomous driving, smart grid, and microscopy research in material science and engineering

Local comparisons of tropospheric ozone: vertical soundings at two neighbouring stations in southern Bavaria

In this study ozone profiles of the differential-absorption lidar at Garmisch-Partenkirchen are compared with those of ozone sondes of the Forschungszentrum Jülich and of the Meteorological Observatory Hohenpeißenberg (German Weather Service). The lidar measurements are quality assured by the highly accurate nearby in situ ozone measurements at the Wank (1780 m a.s.l.) and Zugspitze (2962 m a.s.l.) summits and at the Global Atmosphere Watch station Schneefernerhaus (UFS, 2670 m a.s.l.), at distances of 9 km or less from the lidar. The mixing ratios of the lidar agree with those of the monitoring stations, with a standard deviation (SD) of 1.5 ppb, and feature a slight positive offset of 0.6 ± 0.6 ppb (SD) conforming to the known −1.8 % calibration bias of the in situ instruments. Side-by-side soundings of the lidar and electrochemical (ECC) sonde measurements in February 2019 by a team of the Forschungszentrum Jülich shows small positive ozone offsets for the sonde with respect to the lidar and the mountain stations (0.5 to 3.4 ppb). After applying an altitude-independent bias correction to the sonde data an agreement to within just ±2.5 ppb in the troposphere was found, which we regard as the wintertime uncertainty of the lidar. We conclude that the recently published uncertainties of the lidar in the final configuration since 2012 are realistic and rather small for low to moderate ozone concentrations. Comparisons of the lidar with the Hohenpeißenberg routine measurements with Brewer-Mast sondes are more demanding because of the distance of 38 km between the two sites implying significant ozone differences in some layers, particularly in summer. Our comparisons cover the 3 years September 2000 to August 2001, 2009, and 2018. A slight negative average offset (−3.64 ± 3.72 ppb (SD)) of the sondes with respect to the lidar was found. We conclude that most Hohenpeißenberg sonde data could be improved in the troposphere by recalibration with the Zugspitze station data (1978 to 2011 summit, afterwards UFS). This would not only remove the average offset but also greatly reduce the variability of the individual offsets. The comparison for 2009 suggests a careful partial re-evaluation of the lidar measurements between 2007 and 2011 for altitudes above 6 km, where occasionally a negative bias occurred

Neurometabolic correlates of depression and disability in episodic cluster headache

A close association between pain, depression and disability has been shown. However, the neurometabolic correlates of this association have been barely investigated in disease states. Episodic cluster headache is a severe headache syndrome and represents a suitable disease model for the investigation of episodic pain. The aim of this study was to explore the relationship between depression and disability as well as pain scores and brain metabolism in patients with cluster headache during the disease period with repetitive pain attacks, but outside an acute attack. Thirteen patients with cluster headache underwent 2-[fluorine-18]-fluoro-2-deoxy-d-glucose positron emission (FDG-PET) and completed questionnaires on depression and disability as well as a pain visual analogue rating scale (VAS). A positive correlation between the depression scores and glucose metabolism was observed in the insular cortex. A positive correlation between the pain disability scores and brain metabolism was detected in the amygdala. The same applied to the pain visual analogue rating scores. Our data underline the association between severe episodic pain, depression and disability. In addition to this clinical observation, our results stress the importance of the insula and amygdala in pain processing and suffering

Modellversuch Bürgerarbeit: zwischen Workfare und Sozialem Arbeitsmarkt

"Vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen Debatte um das Thema 'mehr Beschäftigung für wettbewerbsschwächere Arbeitnehmer und Arbeitslose' untersucht der Forschungsbericht die aktivierenden Wirkungen der ersten drei Stufen des Modellversuchs 'Bürgerarbeit'. Dieser Modellversuch wurde von der Regionaldirektion der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) Sachsen-Anhalt-Thüringen gemeinsam mit dem Land Sachsen-Anhalt entwickelt und zuerst in der Kurstadt Bad Schmiedeberg umgesetzt. Das Konzept der Bürgerarbeit hat sowohl Elemente von 'Workfare' als auch eines 'Sozialen Arbeitsmarktes' und sieht ein vierstufiges Vorgehen vor. Die ersten drei Stufen beinhalten ein umfassendes Profiling der Arbeitslosen, die Forcierung der Eigenbemühungen zur Stellensuche sowie ggf. den Einsatz des arbeitsmarktpolitischen Instrumentariums, um die Personen möglichst rasch in den ersten Arbeitsmarkt zu integrieren. Erst wenn dies alles scheitert, soll die vierte Stufe - öffentlich geförderte Beschäftigungsverhältnisse - zum Einsatz kommen. Die Analysen zeigen, dass die Betreuung der Arbeitslosen in Bad Schmiedeberg während des Modellversuchs durchaus intensiviert worden ist. Dies schlug sich etwa auch - gemessen an der Anzahl der erstatteten Bewerbungs- und Reisekosten - in verstärkten Eigenbemühungen der Arbeitslosen nieder. Dies führte aber nicht in großem Umfang zu zählbaren Arbeitsmarkterfolgen: Die Abgänge aus Arbeitslosigkeit gingen weit überwiegend in öffentlich geförderte Beschäftigung, während die Abgangsraten in Beschäftigung auf dem ersten Arbeitsmarkt und in Nichterwerbstätigkeit kaum positiv beeinflusst wurden. Eine mögliche Erklärung hierfür ist, dass die mangelnde Aktivierung der Arbeitslosen nicht der Hauptgrund für die lang andauernde Arbeitslosigkeit ist. Möglicherweise war der Zeitraum der intensiven Betreuung auch zu kurz, um schon deutlich messbare Erfolge zu erzielen. Durch die genauere Analyse und Dokumentation der Vermittlungshemmnisse der Arbeitslosen könnte aber eine Grundlage gelegt worden sein, bei Fortführung der Bemühungen zu besseren Vermittlungsergebnissen zu kommen." (Autorenreferat

Assessing the risk of central post-stroke pain of thalamic origin by lesion mapping

Central post-stroke pain of thalamic origin is an extremely distressing and often refractory disorder. There are no well-established predictors for pain development after thalamic stroke, and the role of different thalamic nuclei is unclear. Here, we used structural magnetic resonance imaging to identify the thalamic nuclei, specifically implicated in the generation of central post-stroke pain of thalamic origin. Lesions of 10 patients with central post-stroke pain of thalamic origin and 10 control patients with thalamic strokes without pain were identified as volumes of interest on magnetic resonance imaging data. Non-linear deformations were estimated to match each image with a high-resolution template and were applied to each volume of interest. By using a digital atlas of the thalamus, we elucidated the involvement of different nuclei with respect to each lesion. Patient and control volumes of interest were summed separately to identify unique areas of involvement. Voxelwise odds ratio maps were calculated to localize the anatomical site where lesions put patients at risk of developing central post-stroke pain of thalamic origin. In the patients with pain, mainly lateral and posterior thalamic nuclei were affected, whereas a more anterior-medial lesion pattern was evident in the controls. The lesions of 9 of 10 pain patients overlapped at the border of the ventral posterior nucleus and the pulvinar, coinciding with the ventrocaudalis portae nucleus. The lesions of this area showed an odds ratio of 81 in favour of developing thalamic pain. The high odds ratio at the ventral posterior nucleus-pulvinar border zone indicates that this area is crucial in the pathogenesis of thalamic pain and demonstrates the feasibility of identifying patients at risk of developing central post-stroke pain of thalamic origin early after thalamic insults. This provides a basis for pre-emptive treatment studie