Ferne Räume im Erdkundeunterricht. Eine Komplexanalyse unterrichtlicher Entscheidungsfelder aus unterrichtspraktischer Sicht

Knowledge of remote regions and countries is an important topic of geographical education. Due to rapid changes all over the world and global challenges on the one hand and a lot of changes in school education on the other hand the task of teaching the geography of remote regions is facing many problems. The following essay presents some results of an investigation into this topic which aims at developing recommendations and guidelines for teachers and students to deal with the multitude of questions connected to the topic. This investigation analyses the factors influencing this particular field of geographical education at school (ger. Unterrichtliche Entscheidungsfelder) and puts emphasis on the question in what way these factors influence each other. The analysis shows that problems such as over-simplification, distortion of facts, stereotypes and lack of insight into possible solutions still exist in modern concepts. However, they are mostly not due to theoretical problems but to deficiencies in everyday teaching and the supply of information because lessons and schoolbooks are often influenced by topical trends that emphasize one aspect but neglect other aspects of a topic. The study proved that the complex situation of teaching remote regions cannot be described and evaluated by means of simple input-output strategies and monostructural studies of efficiency but that decisions as well as judgements within the learning process have to made on the basis of the complexity of the systems, standards of ethics and a "feeling" for the requirements of a particular group of learners at a particular time

Sortie-Based Aircraft Component Demand Rate to Predict Requirements

Purpose — Forecasting techniques improve supply chain resilience by ensuring that the correct parts are available when required. In addition, accurate forecasts conserve precious resources and money by avoiding new start contracts to produce unforeseen part requests, reducing labor intensive cannibalization actions and ensuring consistent transportation modality streams where changes incur cost. This study explores the effectiveness of the United States Air Force’s current flying hour-based demand forecast by comparing it with a sortie-based demand forecast to predict future spare part needs. Design/methodology/approach — This study employs a correlation analysis to show that demand for reparable parts on certain aircraft has a stronger correlation to the number of sorties flown than the number of flying hours. The effect of using the number of sorties flown instead of flying hours is analyzed by employing sorties in the United States Air Force (USAF)’s current reparable parts forecasting model. A comparative analysis on D200 forecasting error is conducted across F-16 and B-52 fleets. Findings — This study finds that the USAF could improve its reparable parts forecast, and subsequently part availability, by employing a sortie-based demand rate for particular aircraft such as the F-16. Additionally, our findings indicate that forecasts for reparable parts on aircraft with low sortie count flying profiles, such as the B-52 fleet, perform better modeling demand as a function of flying hours. Thus, evidence is provided that the Air Force should employ multiple forecasting techniques across its possessed, organically supported aircraft fleets. The improvement of the forecast and subsequent decrease in forecast error will be presented in the Results and Discussion section. Research limitations/implications — This study is limited by the data-collection environment, which is only reported on an annual basis and is limited to 14 years of historical data. Furthermore, some observations were not included because significant data entry errors resulted in unusable observations. Originality/value — There are few studies addressing the time measure of USAF reparable component failures. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there are no studies that analyze spare component demand as a function of sortie numbers and compare the results of forecasts made on a sortie-based demand signal to the current flying hour-based approach to spare parts forecasting. The sortie-based forecast is a novel methodology and is shown to outperform the current flying hour-based method for some aircraft fleets

Pyrene Mineralization by Mycobacterium sp. Strain KMS in a Barley Rhizosphere

To determine whether the soil Mycobacterium isolate KMS would mineralize pyrene under rhizosphere conditions, a microcosm system was established to collect radioactive carbon dioxide released from the labeled polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon. Microcosms were designed as sealed, flow-through systems that allowed the growth of plants. Experiments were conducted to evaluate mineralization of 14C-labeled pyrene in a sand amended with the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons degrading Mycobacterium isolate KMS, barley plants, or barley plants with roots colonized by isolate KMS. Mineralization was quantified by collecting the 14CO2 produced from 14C-labeled pyrene at intervals during the 10-d incubation period. Roots and foliar tissues were examined for 14C incorporation. Mass balances for microcosms were determined through combustion of sand samples and collection and quantification of 14CO2 evolved from radiolabeled pyrene. No pyrene mineralization was observed in the sterile control systems. Greater release of 14CO2 was observed in the system with barley colonized by KMS than in microcosms containing just the bacterium inoculum or sterile barley plants. These findings suggest that phytostimulation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons mineralization could be applied in remediation schemes

Seroprevalence of Zika virus in wild African green monkeys and baboons

ABSTRACT Zika virus (ZIKV) has recently spread through the Americas and has been associated with a range of health effects, including birth defects in children born to women infected during pregnancy. Although the natural reservoir of ZIKV remains poorly defined, the virus was first identified in a captive “sentinel” macaque monkey in Africa in 1947. However, the virus has not been reported in humans or nonhuman primates (NHPs) in Africa outside Gabon in over a decade. Here, we examine ZIKV infection in 239 wild baboons and African green monkeys from South Africa, the Gambia, Tanzania, and Zambia using combinations of unbiased deep sequencing, quantitative reverse transcription-PCR (qRT-PCR), and an antibody capture assay that we optimized using serum collected from captive macaque monkeys exposed to ZIKV, dengue virus, and yellow fever virus. While we did not find evidence of active ZIKV infection in wild NHPs in Africa, we found variable ZIKV seropositivity of up to 16% in some of the NHP populations sampled. We anticipate that these results and the methodology described within will help in continued efforts to determine the prevalence, natural reservoir, and transmission dynamics of ZIKV in Africa and elsewhere. IMPORTANCE Zika virus (ZIKV) is a mosquito-borne virus originally discovered in a captive monkey living in the Zika Forest of Uganda, Africa, in 1947. Recently, an outbreak in South America has shown that ZIKV infection can cause myriad health effects, including birth defects in the children of women infected during pregnancy. Here, we sought to investigate ZIKV infection in wild African primates to better understand its emergence and spread, looking for evidence of active or prior infection. Our results suggest that up to 16% of some populations of nonhuman primate were, at some point, exposed to ZIKV. We anticipate that this study will be useful for future studies that examine the spread of infections from wild animals to humans in general and those studying ZIKV in primates in particular. Podcast: A podcast concerning this article is available

Развитие альтернативной энергетики Германии

В данной статье рассмотрены последние тенденции развития альтернативной энергетики Германии. Приведены некоторые причины выбора политики, направленной на столь стремительную интеграцию технологий, использующих возобновляемые источники энергии. Проведено сравнение Германии с другими странами Евросоюза по динамике использования возобновляемой энергии

Модульная сумка для авиаперевозок

Путешествие является неотъемлемой частью жизни каждого современного человека. Летают больше и чаще: интенсивность воздушного движения в 2019 году достигла рекордной отметки в 1,83 млн полетов. С января 2019 года нормы багажа и ручной клади изменены. В связи с этим проектирование корпуса багажа стало актуально, поскольку на рынке отсутствует универсальный багаж, подходящий под новые нормы. В работе предложено решение проблемы отсутствия универсального багажа при помощи метода дизайн-проектирования, которое позволит: объединить в своем решении все нормы ручной клади и багажа авиакомпаний, осуществляющих рейсы на территории РФ; изменять конструкцию с учетом цели потребителей и сроков их поездки.Travel is an integral part of every modern person's life. They are flying more and more often: the intensity of air traffic in 2019 reached a record level-1.83 million flights. Starting in January 2019, fares for baggage and hand luggage were changed. In this regard, the design of the luggage compartment has become relevant, since there is no universal luggage suitable for the new standards on the market. The proposed solution to the lack of universal luggage by using design method-design, which will allow to unite in its decision all of the baggage and luggage of airlines flying on the territory of the Russian Federation; to change the design taking into account the objectives of consumers and the duration of their trip

3D Assembly Group Analysis for Cognitive Automation

A concept that allows the cognitive automation of robotic assembly processes is introduced. An assembly cell comprised of two robots was designed to verify the concept. For the purpose of validation a customer-defined part group consisting of Hubelino bricks is assembled. One of the key aspects for this process is the verification of the assembly group. Hence a software component was designed that utilizes the Microsoft Kinect to perceive both depth and color data in the assembly area. This information is used to determine the current state of the assembly group and is compared to a CAD model for validation purposes. In order to efficiently resolve erroneous situations, the results are interactively accessible to a human expert. The implications for an industrial application are demonstrated by transferring the developed concepts to an assembly scenario for switch-cabinet systems

Stimulated amplification of propagating spin waves

Spin-wave amplification techniques are key to the realization of magnon-based computing concepts. We introduce a novel mechanism to amplify spin waves in magnonic nanostructures. Using the technique of rapid cooling, we create a non-equilibrium state in excess of high-energy magnons and demonstrate the stimulated amplification of an externally seeded, propagating spin wave. Using an extended kinetic model, we qualitatively show that the amplification is mediated by an effective energy flux of high energy magnons into the low energy propagating mode, driven by a non-equilibrium magnon distribution