Interkulturelle Bildung oder von der Notwendigkeit der Fremdheit

Die hier vorliegende Diplomarbeit wurde am Institut für Bildungswissenschaft verfasst und ist dem Studienschwerpunkt Sozialpädagogik zuzurechnen. „Welche Bedeutung hat Fremdheit für interkulturelle Bildung?“ – so lautet die Forschungsfrage, der hier nachgegangen wurde. Die hier verfolgte Argumentation wendet sich gegen ein unreflektiertes Einfordern eines immer besseren Verstehens des Fremden. Demgegenüber wird die Notwendigkeit von Fremdheit für eine interkulturelle Bildung herausgearbeitet. Anstatt davon auszugehen, dass Fremdes durch Verstehen in Eigenes integriert werden könnte oder sollte zeigt sich im Zuge der Argumentation, dass Fremdes als solches jeglichen Bemächtigungsversuchen erhaben ist. Andernfalls wäre Fremdes nicht das was es ist – fremd. Könnte Fremdes dagegen in die eigenen Denkstrukturen eingefügt werden, wäre es am Ende doch wieder ein Eigenes. In dieser Diplomarbeit wird folglich für eine Anerkennung des Fremden plädiert, wobei diese mehr bedeutet als bloße Toleranz. Anerkennung bedeutet hier, verschiedene Normalitäten zu achten und sich von der Vorstellung des Eigenen als einzig gangbaren Weg zu verabschieden. Ohne Fremdheit wäre nach der hier verfolgten Argumentation keine interkulturelle Bildung möglich. Denn will diese mehr sein als bloß pädagogische Inszenierung im Zuge so genannter interkultureller Trainings oder Workshops, braucht es den Anreiz und Anspruch eines Fremden, welcher Antworten und nicht bloß Beantwortungen provoziert. Antworten auf den Anspruch des Fremden wurde in dieser Arbeit als ein möglicher Weg dargelegt mit Fremdem umzugehen, ohne sich dessen durch ein Immer- besser- verstehen- Wollen zu bemächtigen. Indem der fremde Anspruch bisherige eigene Strukturen und Denkschemata übersteigt, liegt es an jedem Einzelnen die Herausforderung des Antwortens auf den fremden Anspruch anzunehmen und auf diese Weise neue Wege des Denkens über Eigenes und Fremdes, über das jeweilige Welt- und Selbstverhältnis zu beschreiten.The diploma project at hand was written at the Institute of Pedagogy and ranks to social pedagogy - the major field of study. “What is the impact of foreignness with regard to intercultural education?” – this is the basic research question, which I dealt with. The line of argument speaks against the perpetual postulation of mutual comprehension. In contrast of better understanding, the need of strangeness in respect of intercultural education is discussed. Instead of trying to assimilate the strange to ones own normality, the strange should be acknowledged as the strange. It is not possible to seize the strange – because it is spaced out. Would it be possible to incorporate the strange in ones own familiar reasoning, it would after all not be strange. The discussed acknowledgement of the strange implies more than tolerance. It means to respect that each and every got his own path trough life and that the own way is just one of many. The strangeness – so the line of reasoning – is indispensable in view of intercultural education. If intercultural education should be more than just pedagogical staging within so called intercultural trainings or workshops, the stimulus of the strange is essential. It is the appeal of the strange, which calls for responses and not just for prefigured answers. Responding to the stimulation of the strange could be one way to deal with without seizing it. Exceeding usual structures, it is on one’s own to reply to the strange stimulus and to evolve a different view of the own and the strange

Bestimmung von Flächenniederschlägen über Zentral- und Nordeuropa aus Wetterradardaten

Zur Verbesserung von numerischen Wettervorhersagemodellen wurde das Demonstrationsprojekt ELDAS (Development of an European Land Data Assimilation Systems to predict floods and droughts) gestartet. Dieses sieht vor, dass die Bodenfeuchte in den Assimilationszyklus eingeht, mit der Absicht die Niederschlagsvorhersage zu verbessern. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, Radardaten zur quantitativen Bestimmung der Bodenfeuchte bereitzustellen. Dazu werden die beiden europäischen Radarnetzwerke BALTRAD (Baltic Weather Radar Network) und CERAD (Central European Weather Radar Network) verwendet. Die Radardaten werden für die Periode Oktober 1999 bis Dezember 2000 auf 3-stündige Werte akkumuliert. Besonders berücksichtigt werden die radarspezifischen Fehler, wie Bodenechos, inhomogene Kalibrierung und Fehlwerte. Die in den Radardaten enthaltenen Artefakte werden mit einem entwickelten teilautomatischen Algorithmus, der auf der Methode der multitemporalen objektiv vergleichenden Bildverarbeitung basiert, reduziert. Zusätzlich wurden die Daten einer visuellen Kontrolle unterzogen. Ein Problem stellt die Unvollständigkeit der Daten dar. So fehlen beim CERAD rund 14 % der Daten, beim BALTRAD lediglich 0.16 %. Das Ergebnis dieser Arbeit sind 3-stündige Niederschlagsfelder auf dem 0.2 ELDAS-Gitter, die im ECWMF Mars Archive archiviert werden. Die Qualität der Radardatenbearbeitung wird durch Verifikationsmaßzahlen für das Jahr 2000 angegeben. Im CERAD-Gebiet wurde ein mittlerer Niederschlag von 2.48 mm/Tag (Analysefehler 0.15 mm/Tag) gemessen. Während das unkorrigierte CERAD diesen Wert um 0.22 mm/Tag überschätzt, beträgt der mittlere Wert nach der Korrektur 2.19 mm/Tag. Jedoch kommt es zu einer Abnahme des RMS-Fehlers um rund 23 % (RMSE: uncorr. = 7.92 mm/Tag, corr. = 6.10 mm/Tag). Die Zunahme der Rang-Korrelationskoeffizient und des True Skill Score verdeutlicht die höhere Genauigkeit des korrigierten Niederschlags (R: uncorr. = 0.62, corr. = 0.63; TSS: uncorr. = 0.47, corr. = 0.50). In Einzelfällen ist der Genauigkeitsgewinn bedeutend höher. Beim BALTRAD wird der tatsächliche Niederschlag 2.40 mm/Tag um 1.64 mm/Tag unterschätzt. Der RMS-Fehler hingegen ist bedeutend niedriger als der beim CERAD (RMSE = 4.17 mm/Tag).To improve Numeric Weather Prediction models the EU-funded project ELDAS (Development of an European Land Data Assimilation Systems to predict floods and droughts) was launched. According to ELDAS the soil moisture enters the assimilation cycle with the purpose to improve the precipitation forecast. Aim of this work is to provide radar data for the quantitative determination of the soil moisture. For this purpose the two European radar networks BALTRAD (Baltic Weather Radar Network) and CERAD (Central European Weather Radar Network) are combined. 3-hourly values of the radar data have been accumulated for the period October 1999 to December 2000. Radar specific short coming like ground clutter, inhomogeneous calibration and other errors have been considered. Radar data, which contain artefacts, are reduced with a developed semi-automatic algorithm, that is a method based on multitemporal objective image processing. Additionally, these data are checked by a visual control. The incompleteness of the data is one of the most common failures. While in CERAD approximately 14 % of the data are missing, about 0.16 % are missing in BALTRAD. The result of this work are 3-hourly precipitation fields on the 0.2 ELDAS grid, which are stored in the ECWMF Mars Archive. The quality of radar data processing is given by objective measures, developed for verification of weather forecast models, for the year 2000. In the CERAD domain a mean precipitation of 2.48 mm/day (analysis error 0.15 mm/day) was measured. Whereas the uncorrected CERAD overestimates this value about 0.22 mm/day, mounts the mean value after the correction 2.19 mm/day. Although the RMS error decreases about 23 % (RMSE: uncorr. = 7.92 mm/day, corr. = 6.10 mm/day). The increase of the Rank-order correlation coefficient and the True Skill Score clari es the higher accuracy of the corrected precipitation (R: uncorr. = 0.62, corr. = 0.63; TSS: uncorr. = 0.47, corr. = 0.50). With relation to individual cases the accuracy gain is significant higher. According to the BALTRAD the real precipitation of 2.40 mm/day is underestimated about 1.64 mm/day. Whereas the RMS error is significant lower than those for CERDAS (RMSE = 4.17 mm/day)

Isolated high altitude psychosis, delirium at high altitude, and high altitude cerebral edema: are these diagnoses valid?

Psychosis is a psychopathological syndrome that can be triggered or caused by exposure to high altitude (HA). Psychosis can occur alone as isolated HA psychosis or can be associated with other mental and often also somatic symptoms as a feature of delirium. Psychosis can also occur as a symptom of high altitude cerebral edema (HACE), a life-threatening condition. It is unclear how psychotic symptoms at HA should be classified into existing diagnostic categories of the most widely used classification systems of mental disorders, including the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-11). We provide a diagnostic framework for classifying symptoms using the existing diagnostic categories: psychotic condition due to a general medical condition, brief psychotic disorder, delirium, and HACE. We also discuss the potential classification of isolated HA psychosis into those categories. A valid and reproducible classification of symptoms is essential for communication among professionals, ensuring that patients receive optimal treatment, planning further trips to HA for individuals who have experienced psychosis at HA, and advancing research in the field

Modelling the monthly abundance of Culicoides biting midges in nine European countries using Random Forests machine learning

Background: Culicoides biting midges transmit viruses resulting in disease in ruminants and equids such as bluetongue, Schmallenberg disease and African horse sickness. In the past decades, these diseases have led to important economic losses for farmers in Europe. Vector abundance is a key factor in determining the risk of vector-borne disease spread and it is, therefore, important to predict the abundance of Culicoides species involved in the transmission of these pathogens. The objectives of this study were to model and map the monthly abundances of Culicoides in Europe. Methods: We obtained entomological data from 904 farms in nine European countries (Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Sweden and Norway) from 2007 to 2013. Using environmental and climatic predictors from satellite imagery and the machine learning technique Random Forests, we predicted the monthly average abundance at a 1 km2 resolution. We used independent test sets for validation and to assess model performance. Results: The predictive power of the resulting models varied according to month and the Culicoides species/ensembles predicted. Model performance was lower for winter months. Performance was higher for the Obsoletus ensemble, followed by the Pulicaris ensemble, while the model for Culicoides imicola showed a poor performance. Distribution and abundance patterns corresponded well with the known distributions in Europe. The Random Forests model approach was able to distinguish differences in abundance between countries but was not able to predict vector abundance at individual farm level. Conclusions: The models and maps presented here represent an initial attempt to capture large scale geographical and temporal variations in Culicoides abundance. The models are a first step towards producing abundance inputs for R0 modelling of Culicoides-borne infections at a continental scale

Monthly variation in the probability of presence of adult Culicoides populations in nine European countries and the implications for targeted surveillance

Background: Biting midges of the genus Culicoides (Diptera: Ceratopogonidae) are small hematophagous insects responsible for the transmission of bluetongue virus, Schmallenberg virus and African horse sickness virus to wild and domestic ruminants and equids. Outbreaks of these viruses have caused economic damage within the European Union. The spatio-temporal distribution of biting midges is a key factor in identifying areas with the potential for disease spread. The aim of this study was to identify and map areas of neglectable adult activity for each month in an average year. Average monthly risk maps can be used as a tool when allocating resources for surveillance and control programs within Europe. Methods : We modelled the occurrence of C. imicola and the Obsoletus and Pulicaris ensembles using existing entomological surveillance data from Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Poland. The monthly probability of each vector species and ensembles being present in Europe based on climatic and environmental input variables was estimated with the machine learning technique Random Forest. Subsequently, the monthly probability was classified into three classes: Absence, Presence and Uncertain status. These three classes are useful for mapping areas of no risk, areas of high-risk targeted for animal movement restrictions, and areas with an uncertain status that need active entomological surveillance to determine whether or not vectors are present. Results: The distribution of Culicoides species ensembles were in agreement with their previously reported distribution in Europe. The Random Forest models were very accurate in predicting the probability of presence for C. imicola (mean AUC = 0.95), less accurate for the Obsoletus ensemble (mean AUC = 0.84), while the lowest accuracy was found for the Pulicaris ensemble (mean AUC = 0.71). The most important environmental variables in the models were related to temperature and precipitation for all three groups. Conclusions: The duration periods with low or null adult activity can be derived from the associated monthly distribution maps, and it was also possible to identify and map areas with uncertain predictions. In the absence of ongoing vector surveillance, these maps can be used by veterinary authorities to classify areas as likely vector-free or as likely risk areas from southern Spain to northern Sweden with acceptable precision. The maps can also focus costly entomological surveillance to seasons and areas where the predictions and vector-free status remain uncertain

The ASCAT soil moisture product: a review of its specifications, validation results, and emerging applications

Many physical, chemical and biological processes taking place at the land surface are strongly influenced by the amount of water stored within the upper soil layers. Therefore, many scientific disciplines require soil moisture observations for developing, evaluating and improving their models. One of these disciplines is meteorology where soil moisture is important due to its control on the exchange of heat and water between the soil and the lower atmosphere. Soil moisture observations may thus help to improve the forecasts of air temperature, air humidity and precipitation. However, until recently, soil moisture observations had only been available over a limited number of regional soil moisture networks. This has hampered scientific progress as regards the characterisation of land surface processes not just in meteorology but many other scientific disciplines as well. Fortunately, in recent years, satellite soil moisture data have increasingly become available. One of the freely available global soil moisture data sets is derived from the backscatter measurements acquired by the Advanced Scatterometer (ASCAT) that is a C-band active microwave remote sensing instrument flown on board of the Meteorological Operational (METOP) satellite series. ASCAT was designed to observe wind speed and direction over the oceans and was initially not foreseen for monitoring soil moisture over land. Yet, as argued in this review paper, the characteristics of the ASCAT instrument, most importantly its wavelength (5.7 cm), its high radiometric accuracy, and its multiple-viewing capabilities make it an attractive sensor for measuring soil moisture. Moreover, given the operational status of ASCAT, and its promising long-term prospects, many geoscientific applications might benefit from using ASCAT soil moisture data. Nonetheless, the ASCAT soil moisture product is relatively complex, requiring a good understanding of its properties before it can be successfully used in applications. To provide a comprehensive overview of the major characteristics and caveats of the ASCAT soil moisture product, this paper describes the ASCAT instrument and the soil moisture processor and near-real-time distribution service implemented by the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). A review of the most recent validation studies shows that the quality of ASCAT soil moisture product is – with the exception of arid environments –comparable to, and over some regions (e.g. Europe) even better than currently available soil moisture data derived from passive microwave sensors. Further, a review of applications studies shows that the use of the ASCAT soil moisture product is particularly advanced in the fields of numerical weather prediction and hydrologic modelling. But also in other application areas such as yield monitoring, epidemiologic modelling, or societal risks assessment some first progress can be noted. Considering the generally positive evaluation results, it is expected that the ASCAT soil moisture product will increasingly be used by a growing number of rather diverse land applications.The Austrian Science Fund (FWF) through the Vienna Doctoral Programme on Water Resource Systems (http://www.waterresources.at/,DK-plusW1219-N22

Estimating Ixodes ricinus densities on the landscape scale

Background: The study describes the estimation of the spatial distribution of questing nymphal tick densities by investigating Ixodes ricinus in Southwest Germany as an example. The production of high-resolution maps of quest-ing tick densities is an important key to quantify the risk of tick-borne diseases. Previous I. ricinus maps were based on quantitative as well as semi-quantitative categorisations of the tick density observed at study sites with differ-ent vegetation types or indices, all compiled on local scales. Here, a quantitative approach on the landscape scale is introduced. Methods: During 2 years, 2013 and 2014, host-seeking ticks were collected each month at 25 sampling sites by flag-ging an area of 100 square meters. All tick stages were identified to species level to select nymphal ticks of I. ricinus, which were used to develop and calibrate Poisson regression models. The environmental variables height above sea level, temperature, relative humidity, saturation deficit and land cover classification were used as explanatory variables. Results: The number of flagged nymphal tick densities range from zero (mountain site) to more than 1,000 nymphs/100 m2. Calibrating the Poisson regression models with these nymphal densities results in an explained variance of 72 % and a prediction error of 110 nymphs/100 m2 in 2013. Generally, nymphal densities (maximum 37

Genetic landscape of pediatric acute liver failure of indeterminate origin.

BACKGROUND AIMS Pediatric acute liver failure (PALF) is a life-threatening condition. In Europe, main causes are viral infections (12-16%) and inherited metabolic diseases (14-28%). Yet, in up to 50% of cases the underlying etiology remains elusive, challenging clinical management, including liver transplantation. We systematically studied indeterminate PALF cases referred for genetic evaluation by whole-exome sequencing (WES), and analyzed phenotypic and biochemical markers, and the diagnostic yield of WES in this condition. METHODS With this international, multicenter observational study, patients (0-18 y) with indeterminate PALF were analyzed by WES. Data on the clinical and biochemical phenotype were retrieved and systematically analyzed. RESULTS In total, 260 indeterminate PALF patients from 19 countries were recruited between 2011 and 2022, of whom 59 had recurrent PALF (RALF). WES established a genetic diagnosis in 37% of cases (97/260). Diagnostic yield was highest in children with PALF in the first year of life (46%), and in children with RALF (64%). Thirty-six distinct disease genes were identified. Defects in NBAS (n=20), MPV17 (n=8) and DGUOK (n=7) were the most frequent findings. When categorizing, most frequent were mitochondrial diseases (45%), disorders of vesicular trafficking (28%) and cytosolic aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase deficiencies (10%). One-third of patients had a fatal outcome. Fifty-six patients received liver transplants. CONCLUSION This study elucidates a large contribution of genetic causes in PALF of indeterminate origin with an increasing spectrum of disease entities. The high proportion of diagnosed cases and potential treatment implications argue for exome or in future rapid genome sequencing in PALF diagnostics