Cinema programs as a source for research on historical film audiences. Berlin 1945–1949

In my paper, I analyse programs from cinemas in all four sectors of occupied Berlin from 1945 to 1949. I focus primarily on ads. Looking at cinema programs allows me to conduct research on local audiences by taking into consideration the social structure of the German population under occupation, the Berliners’ mobility between the sectors and – if possible – the viewers’ habits before, during and after the screenings. The analysis is based on research done at the archives of the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek in Berlin. The programs collected from the SDK are not representative in terms of statistics, though. The SDK owns programs from 44 Berlin cinemas from the years 1945–1949 (unfortunately all incomplete) making up approximately 20 percent of all the cinemas in the city during that period. As a result, I examined about 400 programs.This book was financially supported by the National Programme for the Development of Humanities: project “Cinema: Intercultural Perspective. Western-European Cinema in Poland, Polish Cinema in Western Europe. Mutual Perception of Film Cultures (1918–1939)”; Research on this paper was enabled by a grant from the Polish National Science Centre, number 2012/05/D/HS2/03490. My thanks to Lisa Roth and Regina Hoffmann from the Archive Deutsche Kinemathek for their help and comments as well as to Anna Labentz for editing this paper

Ramy recepcji: publiczne reakcje na fabularne filmy historyczne

This article focuses on the methodology of studying the reception of historical fiction films by means of press coverage. Although a common practice, it is usually taken for granted without additional methodological reflection. Using the example of three films and their reviews in the Polish press, the article highlights the need to specify the reception’s discursive frameworks on a case-by-case-basis. The political, geographic, or time-related contexts of the historical fiction films significantly modify their modes of interpretation.Artykuł koncentruje się na metodologii badania recepcji filmów historycznych z zastosowaniem recenzji i artykułów prasowych. Mimo że jest to powszechna praktyka, to stosowana jest zazwyczaj jako oczywistość, bez dodatkowej refleksji metodologicznej. Na przykładzie trzech filmów oraz komentarzy, które ukazały się na ich temat w prasie, artykuł zwraca uwagę na konieczność każdorazowego określania ram dyskursu, w którym odbywa się odbiór. Polityczny, geograficzny czy czasowy kontekst funkcjonowania filmów historycznych istotnie zmienia bowiem sposoby jego odczytania

Students´ language in computer-assisted tutoring of mathematical proofs

Truth and proof are central to mathematics. Proving (or disproving) seemingly simple statements often turns out to be one of the hardest mathematical tasks. Yet, doing proofs is rarely taught in the classroom. Studies on cognitive difficulties in learning to do proofs have shown that pupils and students not only often do not understand or cannot apply basic formal reasoning techniques and do not know how to use formal mathematical language, but, at a far more fundamental level, they also do not understand what it means to prove a statement or even do not see the purpose of proof at all. Since insight into the importance of proof and doing proofs as such cannot be learnt other than by practice, learning support through individualised tutoring is in demand. This volume presents a part of an interdisciplinary project, set at the intersection of pedagogical science, artificial intelligence, and (computational) linguistics, which investigated issues involved in provisioning computer-based tutoring of mathematical proofs through dialogue in natural language. The ultimate goal in this context, addressing the above-mentioned need for learning support, is to build intelligent automated tutoring systems for mathematical proofs. The research presented here has been focused on the language that students use while interacting with such a system: its linguistic propeties and computational modelling. Contribution is made at three levels: first, an analysis of language phenomena found in students´ input to a (simulated) proof tutoring system is conducted and the variety of students´ verbalisations is quantitatively assessed, second, a general computational processing strategy for informal mathematical language and methods of modelling prominent language phenomena are proposed, and third, the prospects for natural language as an input modality for proof tutoring systems is evaluated based on collected corpora

Misspellings in responses to listening comprehension questions: prospects for scoring based on phonetic normalization

Automated scoring systems which evaluate content require robust ways of dealing with form errors. The work presented in this paper is set in the context of scoring learners’ responses to listening comprehension items included in a placement test of German as a foreign language. Based on a corpus of over 3000 responses to 17 questions, by test takers of different language proficiencies, we perform a quantitative analysis of the diversity in misspellings. We evaluate the performance of an off-the-shelf open source spell-checker on our data showing that around 45% of the reported non-word errors are not correctly accounted for, that is, they are either falsely identified as misspelt or the spell-checker is unable to identify the intended word. We propose to address misspellings in computer-based scoring of constructed response items by means of phonetic normalization. Learner responses transcribed into Soundex codes and into two encodings borrowed from historical linguistics (ASJP and Dolgopolsky’s sound classes) are compared to transcribed reference answers using string distance measures. We show that reliable correlation with teachers’ scores can be obtained, however, similarity thresholds are item-specific

Mikrogeschichten der Erinnerungskultur

Who constructs memory culture? What kind of impact do conceptions of history have on their users? What kind of infrastructure activates cultural memory? In three microhistorical studies, this volume examines Through the Night as a novel, audio play, and TV series (1955–1960) to ask how memories of the mass shootings of Jews in the occupied Soviet Union during the Second World War circulated in the Federal Republic of Germany

Mnemonic Wars in Poland: An Introduction to New Research Directions

Mnemonic Wars in Polan

Uhistorycznienie nauk o kulturze – niemieckie modele kulturoznawstwa

Na temat istoty kulturoznawstwa zaś od dwóch dziesięcioleci toczy się żywa debata – jednym z jej miejsc był moguncki uniwersytet. Dyskusja ta zrodziła jednak więcej pytań niż odpowiedzi, nie uporządkowawszy nawet fundamentalnej kwestii: czy kulturoznawstwo jest jedno (Kulturwissenschaft), czy jest ich wiele (Kulturwissenschaften)? A może jest tak rozmyte, że nie ma go wcale, jak wynika z artykułu Engela, i należałoby mówić raczej o kulturoznawczo zorientowanych dyscyplinach, na przykład o kulturoznawczym literaturoznawstwie? Status kulturoznawstwa w Niemczech nie został od tamtej pory doprecyzowany, mimo że zorganizowano wiele konferencji poświęconych temu problemowi oraz wydano liczne publikacje. Na rynku funkcjonuje nawet kilka podręczników i leksykonów, ale przedstawiają one różne, nieraz wręcz wzajemnie sprzeczne koncepcje. Pewne jest tylko, że ciągła dyskusja na temat specyfiki niemieckiego kulturoznawstwa wpisana jest w jego funkcjonowanie. Przyglądając się z zewnątrz refleksji o kulturze prowadzonej przez naszych zachodnich sąsiadów, można jedynie pokusić się o tezę, że obecnie jej charakterystyczną cechą jest uhistorycznienie dyscypliny oraz jej przedmiotu

General characteristics and comorbidities in patients with palmoplantar pustulosis

The aim of this prospective study was to analyze comorbidities in patients with palmoplantar pustulosis (PPP). The current study comprised 63 consecutive patients with palmoplantar pustulosis. The control group consisted of 37 patients with psoriasis vulgaris (PSV). The study included a standardized anamnesis, a clinical examination, blood tests for thyroid hormones, as well as calcium, magnesium, antiendomysial antibody, and patch tests. Hypertension was observed in 28/63 (44.44%) patients with PPP. Eight (12.7%) had ischaemic heart disease, and 7/63 (11.11%) had type 2 diabetes mellitus. There was no statistically significant difference between the patients with PPP and those in the control group. Metabolic syndrome was diagnosed in 19/63 (30.16%) patients with PPP and in 12/37 (32.43%) patients with PSV. Thyroid disease was more prevalent among patients with PPP in comparison to patients with PSV (31.75% vs. 13.51%; p=0.0421). Body mass index was statistically significantly higher in patients with PSV (28.25 vs. 25.86 kg/m², p=0.0144). BMI was higher than 25 kg/m2 in 18.03% patients with PPP and 26.47% patients with PSV (p=0.333). Positive patch tests were observed in 12/39 (30.77%) patients with PPP. The most common allergens were nickel chloride (5/12, 41.67%) and fragrances (5/12, 41.67%). In the control group, patch tests were positive in 2/11 (18.18%) cases (p&lt;0.05). Patients with PPP, like patients with PSV, often presented with hypertension and metabolic syndrome. Given that many studies have focused on cardiovascular risk in PSV, there is a need for further research on the association between PPP and cardiovascular risk. In addition, patients resistant to PPP treatment should be screened for contact allergies.</h2