Die islamische Welt und das christliche Europa zur Zeit Heinrichs V.:Machtverschiebungen und institutionelle Neuansätze

Während der Herrschaftszeit Heinrichs V. wurden die Voraussetzungen für die Neujustierung der christlich-islamischen Mächtekonstellation geschaffen. Hierzu gehört die Entstehung des neuartigen Instituts der geistlichen Ritterorden, die einerseits für das militärische Überleben der Kreuzfahrerherrschaften von entscheidender Bedeutung war, andererseits aber eine neue Form christlichen Ordenslebens begründete, deren Einfluss auf die sich herausbildende ritterliche Kultur kaum zu überschätzen ist. Die Kreuzzüge wirkten als ein wesentlicher Stimulus für das ritterliche Ethos: Ab dem hohen Mittelalter waren Angehörige des niederen wie des hohen Adels, einschließlich der europäischen Monarchen, Angehörige einer kämpfenden militia Christi. Mit dieser Eingliederung der Herrscher in eine zumindest partiell egalitäre Adelsgesellschaft war eine Relativierung des exklusiven Gottesgnadentums der Könige und Kaiser verbunden, was wiederum auf die Neubestimmung des Verhältnisses von regnum und sacerdotium verweist, die sich während der Herrschaft der Salier vollzog. Dieser Entwicklung stand die zeitgleiche Entstehung der Bewegung der Almohaden gegenüber, die zu einer religiösen Neubesinnung auf islamischer Seite führte, die in der Levante mit Nur ad-Din und den Ayyubiden verbunden war. Die Kreuzzüge und die damit verbundene ritterliche Kultur waren wesentliche Elemente der europäischen politischen Kultur des späteren Mittelalters.The institutional foundations for a readjustment of the relationship between Islamic and Christian powers were laid during the reign of Emperor Henry V. With the emergence of the Christian military orders, a completely new form of monastic life came into being. They were indispensable for the military survival of the crusader states; on the other hand, this new form of religious life had momentous consequences for the emergence of chivalry. The crusades provided a powerful stimulus for the development of a chivalric ethos: From the high Middle Ages onwards, members both of the lower and of the higher nobility, including ruling monarchs, saw themselves as belonging to a fighting community, a militia Christi. The absorption of rulers into a partly egalitarian aristocratic culture tended to diminish the divine right of kings and emperors, which was linked to the changing interrelationship of regnum and sacerdotium during the reign of the Salian dynasty. On the Islamic side, this change was matched by a religious revival associated with the movement of the Almohads, and later by Nur ad-Din and the Ayyubids. Crusades and chivalric culture, which were stimulated decisively by developments taking place in this period, turned out to be characteristic elements of European political culture during the later medieval period

Der Dortmunder Totenbund Heinrichs II. und die Reform der futuwwa durch den Bagdader Kalifen al-Nāṣir:Überlegungen zu einer vergleichenden Geschichte mittelalterlicher Institutionen

In the middle ages, political rulers began to use religious institutions in new ways to legitimize their rule. The German king Henry II was the first to establish a new kind of confraternity, of which he became a member himself, together with his wife, the Saxon duke and several bishops. The participants incurred mutual obligations, both liturgical and charitable. The earliest comparable Islamic parallel is the reform of the futuwwa by the caliph al-Nasir. Also in this case, the ruler became a member of a particular religious organization, distinct from the umma at large. However, futuwwa brotherhoods had existed before, but only after the breakdown of Seljuk power had the caliph been in a position to make himself a master of such organizations, using them to promote his religious standing in the wider Sunni world. The relative chances of stability of the institutions depended on many factors, such as ideas concerning the role of monarchs within the respective religious communities, as well as regarding their relationship with political elites. A careful contextualized comparison shows that in western Christianity reciprocal relations of monarchs and other believers were more in line with religious tradition than in Sunni Islam, where it was far more difficult to present the ruler as a member of particular religious confraternities. It becomes evident that the history of political institutions cannot be written without putting them into the wider religious and social context

Herrschergedenken bei den Karolingern und Abbasiden

Unterschiedliche Praktiken des Herrschergedenkens bei christlichen und islamischen Herrschern gehen auf den jeweiligen Entwicklungsstand der „transzendentalen Logik“ zurück, d. h. auf die jeweiligen Annahmen über Möglichkeiten, transzendente Phänomene durch religiöse Praktiken zu beeinflussen. Zu berücksichtigen ist auch der unterschiedliche Ausprägungsgrad von Institutionen: Im Frankenreich existierten in spätantiker Tradition Klöster, die als Grablegen genutzt werden konnten. In frühislamischer Zeit gab es vergleichbare Institutionen nicht; erst später bildeten sich mit den Madrasas Institutionen heraus, die von einer Gemeinschaft getragen wurden und somit die Aufsicht über dort erfolgte Bestattungen übernehmen konnten. Erst die Grabmadrasa schuf die Voraussetzung für kontinuierliches Herrschergedenken, das sich als „soziale Institution“ bezeichnen lässt. Es zeigt sich, dass Formen der Erinnerung an Verstorbene keineswegs anthropologische Konstanten sind, sondern dass jeweils der kulturelle und religiöse Kontext zu berücksichtigen ist. Im Islam entwickelten sich solche Praktiken erst spät, mutmaßlich unter der Einwirkung außerislamischer Vorstellungen, die allerdings, wie in der klassischen islamischen Kultur üblich, unter der Hand islamisiert wurden. Der Blick auf kulturelle Unterschiede kann dabei helfen, die Verabsolutierung von Praktiken der jeweils eigenen Kultur zu vermeiden und zu einer differenzierteren Sicht der historischen Entwicklung zu gelangen.Different practices of commemorating Christian and Islamic rulers are due to different stages of development of the respective „transcendental logic“, i.e. assumptions regarding the possibility to influence transcendental phenomena by religious performance. It is also important to note the different degree of institutionalization: In the Frankish world, there were – as in late antiquity – monasteries that could be used for royal burials. In early Islam there were no comparable institutions. It was only later that the institution of madrasas developed, which were sustained by communities that could also care for burials. The institutionalized madrasa provided the precondition for ongoing practices of commemorating dead rulers. The comparison shows that practices commemorating the dead should not be taken for granted; their development depended on the respective cultural and religious context. In Islam, such practices emerged only at a later stage, possibly influenced by non-Islamic customs, which were tacitly islamicized, as was usual in classical Islamic culture. Pinpointing cultural differences can help to avoid generalizing developments in one’s own culture, clarifying the reasons of different developments

Imperiale Herrschaft an der Peripherie?:Hegemonialstreben und politische Konkurrenz zwischen christlichen und islamischen Herrschern im früh- und hochmittelalterlichen ‛Westen’

The only imperial coronation in medieval Spain, which took place in León in 1135, provides the basis for a comparative analysis of political languages in Christian and Islamic Spain, putting various imperial claims into the context of the political culture of the wider Mediterranean world. The changing use of both Christian and Muslim imperial titles reflects claims to regional hegemony at the periphery of the large oriental power blocks which existed in the Mediterranean until the 12th century. Christian and Muslim monarchs in Spain were not only reacting to rival rulers of the same religion when they adopted or usurped imperial titles, they were also looking at rulers of the other monotheistic religion. The imperial coronation of 1135 took place immediately after the renewed establishment of a second Muslim caliphate in the Muslim West by the Almohads, which, in return, can be understood as the expression of the Almohads’ fight for supremacy in Western Islam against the Almoravids. The latter, in turn, had derived their imperial claims from the caliph in Baghdad, while also rejecting imperial claims to overlordship by the Castilian king, who called himself “emperor of both religions”. Between the 10th and 12th centuries, the changing use of imperial titles by Christian and Muslim rulers was the expression of a competitive principle in which the entanglement of Christian and Islamic Spain became manifest

Cell Phone-Induced Perceptual Impairments During Simulated Driving

Our research assessed the effects of cellular phone conversations on driving performance. When subjects were deeply involved in cellular phone conversations using either a hand-held or hands-free device, they were more than twice as likely to miss simulated traffic signals presented at the center of fixation than when they were not distracted by the cell phone conversation. By contrast, performance was not disrupted by listening to radio broadcasts or listening to a book on tape. One might argue that when subjects were conversing on a cell phone that they detected the simulated traffic signals, but that the responses to them were suppressed. To assess this, we examined the implicit perceptual memory for items that were presented at fixation but called for no response. Implicit perceptual memory was strong when subjects were not engaged in a cellphone conversation but impaired when they were so engaged. We suggest that active participation in a cell phone conversation disrupts performance by diverting attention to an engaging cognitive context other than the one immediately associated with driving

The European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA): collaboration from bottom-up

The European Climate Research Alliance (ECRA) is an association of leading European research institutions in the field of climate research (http://www.ecra-climate.eu/, last access: 6 December 2018). ECRA is a bottom-up initiative and helps to facilitate the development of climate change research, combining the capacities of national research institutions, and inducing closer ties between existing national research initiatives, projects and infrastructures. ECRA works as an open platform to bring together climate researchers, providing excellent scientific expertise for policy makers and of societal relevance. The ECRA Board consists of representatives of ECRA partners and decides on governance, scientific priorities, and organisational matters. Currently organized into four Collaborative Programmes, climate scientists share their knowledge, experience and expertise to identify the most important research requirements for the future, thus developing a foresight approach. The CPs cover the topics: (1) Arctic variability and change, (2) Sea level changes and coastal impacts, (3) Changes in the hydrological cycle and (4) High impact events. The CP activities are planned in workshops and participation is open to all interested scientists from the relevant research fields. In particular, young researchers are actively encouraged to join the network. Each CP develops its joint research priorities for shaping European research into the future. Because scientific themes are interconnected, the four Collaborative Programmes interact with each other, e.g. through the organization of common workshops or joint applications. In addition, the Collaborative Programme leads attend the Board meetings. The different formats of ECRA meetings range from scientific workshops to briefing events and side events at conferences to involve different groups of interests. This facilitates the interaction of scientists, various stakeholder groups and politicians. A biennial open ECRA General Assembly that is organised in Brussels represents an umbrella event and acts as a platform for discussion and contact with stakeholders. This event is an excellent opportunity to jointly discuss research priorities of high societal relevance

Knowledge Author: Facilitating user-driven, Domain content development to support clinical information extraction

Background: Clinical Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems require a semantic schema comprised of domain-specific concepts, their lexical variants, and associated modifiers to accurately extract information from clinical texts. An NLP system leverages this schema to structure concepts and extract meaning from the free texts. In the clinical domain, creating a semantic schema typically requires input from both a domain expert, such as a clinician, and an NLP expert who will represent clinical concepts created from the clinician's domain expertise into a computable format usable by an NLP system. The goal of this work is to develop a web-based tool, Knowledge Author, that bridges the gap between the clinical domain expert and the NLP system development by facilitating the development of domain content represented in a semantic schema for extracting information from clinical free-text. Results: Knowledge Author is a web-based, recommendation system that supports users in developing domain content necessary for clinical NLP applications. Knowledge Author's schematic model leverages a set of semantic types derived from the Secondary Use Clinical Element Models and the Common Type System to allow the user to quickly create and modify domain-related concepts. Features such as collaborative development and providing domain content suggestions through the mapping of concepts to the Unified Medical Language System Metathesaurus database further supports the domain content creation process. Two proof of concept studies were performed to evaluate the system's performance. The first study evaluated Knowledge Author's flexibility to create a broad range of concepts. A dataset of 115 concepts was created of which 87 (76%) were able to be created using Knowledge Author. The second study evaluated the effectiveness of Knowledge Author's output in an NLP system by extracting concepts and associated modifiers representing a clinical element, carotid stenosis, from 34 clinical free-text radiology reports using Knowledge Author and an NLP system, pyConText. Knowledge Author's domain content produced high recall for concepts (targeted findings: 86%) and varied recall for modifiers (certainty: 91% sidedness: 80%, neurovascular anatomy: 46%). Conclusion: Knowledge Author can support clinical domain content development for information extraction by supporting semantic schema creation by domain experts