Hasil untuk "History of Germany"

T. Salthammer, S. Menteşe, R. Marutzky

1.1. History Formaldehyde was described in the year 1855 by the Russian scientist Alexander Michailowitsch Butlerow. The technical synthesis by dehydration of methanol was achieved in 1867 by the German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann. The versatility that makes it suitable for use in various industrial applications was soon discovered, and the compound was one of the first to be indexed by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS). In 1944, Walker published the first edition of his classic work Formaldehyde.(1) Between 1900 and 1930, formaldehyde-based resins became important adhesives for wood and wood composites. The first commercial particle board was produced during World War II in Bremen, Germany. Since 1950, particle board has become an attractive alternative to solid wood for the manufacturing of furniture. Particle board and other wood-based panels were subsequently also used for the construction of housing. Adverse health effects from exposure to formaldehyde in prefabricated houses, especially irritation of the eyes and upper airways, were first reported in the mid-1960s. Formaldehyde emissions from particle boards bonded with urea formaldehyde resin were soon identified as the cause of the complaints. As a consequence, a guideline value of 0.1 ppm was proposed in 1977 by the former German Federal Agency of Health to limit human exposure in dwellings. Criteria for the limitation and regulation of formaldehyde emissions from wood-based materials were established in 1981 in Germany and Denmark. The first regulations followed in the United States in 1985 or thereabouts. In Germany and the United States, large-scale test chambers were used for the evaluation of emissions. Although the chamber method is very reliable, it is also time-consuming and expensive. This meant there was a strong demand for simple laboratory test methods.(2)

R. dell’Omo, C. Costagliola, Ferdinando Di Salvatore et al.

G. Hudelist, N. Fritzer, Abbey C. Thomas et al.

Sruthi Krishna Kunji Purayil, Mathias Röllig, Philipp Daniel Hirsch et al.

Infrared thermography is a widely recognized non-destructive testing (NDT) method used in material research and defect detection across various industrial applications. Moreover, thermography plays a crucial role in preserving cultural heritage, including historical paintings and buildings. This study focuses on the application of thermography in inspecting the historic Bücker Bü 181 aircraft, which was used in Germany during World War II. Over time, the original appearance of aircraft has often been altered as part of preservation efforts, either before or during their time in museums, leading to deviations from their historically original state. Additionally, the operational history of such objects is frequently undocumented or entirely lost, making it difficult to understand the presence of artifacts and historically significant data. These factors present major challenges in cultural heritage preservation, and destructive methods cannot be used to investigate such invaluable objects. Therefore, thermography is implemented as a non-destructive and contactless examination method. Active flash thermography combined with phase analysis is a powerful tool for evaluating multilayer systems. In this study, multiple layers of old paint on the object posed a challenge in assessing defect conditions and retrieving other critical information beneath the surface coatings. Nevertheless, pulse thermography not only demonstrated its capability to identify defects and markings in multilayered coatings but also provided insights into the internal structure and subsections of the investigated aircraft.

Gbadebo Collins Adeyanju, Sally Frampton, Constanze Hein

This study aims to highlight the complex and multifaceted nature of vaccination drivers, uptake, and hesitancy in the face of the recent outbreak of diphtheria in Nigeria and its significant impact on the regional and global burden of disease. The outbreak has highlighted the continuing threat and vulnerability of vaccine-preventable disease (VPD) outbreaks or epidemics due to the low vaccine uptake in the country and across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study first identifies recent drivers and challenges to vaccine uptake. It then promotes the need for regionally based, interdisciplinary approaches with a focus on visual communication strategies, particularly in low-literacy settings. Ultimately, visual communication strategies would benefit from a broader evidence base to better understand the effectiveness and impact of design in promoting vaccine uptake. The study recommends that in the Nigerian context, addressing the threat of VPD outbreaks should be embedded in communication strategies, especially when they are designed considering the local population. This should occur alongside strategies to reduce psychological impact factors like stress associated with travel time for vaccination and waiting time at healthcare facilities. Vaccination programs should be linked to local sources of safety or individuals with high credibility to increase trust; healthcare workers should stop exaggerating the effectiveness of vaccines to stimulate demand; and fathers should be considered an important target group in intervention programs.

Felix Strnad, Jonathan Schmidt, Fabian Mockert et al.

The European electricity power grid is transitioning towards renewable energy sources, characterized by an increasing share of off- and onshore wind and solar power. However, the weather dependency of these energy sources poses a challenge to grid stability, with so-called Dunkelflaute events -- periods of low wind and solar power generation -- being of particular concern due to their potential to cause electricity supply shortages. In this study, we investigate the impact of these events on the German electricity production in the years and decades to come. For this purpose, we adapt a recently developed generative deep learning framework to downscale climate simulations from the CMIP6 ensemble. We first compare their statistics to the historical record taken from ERA5 data. Next, we use these downscaled simulations to assess plausible future occurrences of Dunkelflaute events in Germany under the optimistic low (SSP2-4.5) and high (SSP5-8.5) emission scenarios. Our analysis indicates that both the frequency and duration of Dunkelflaute events in Germany in the ensemble mean are projected to remain largely unchanged compared to the historical period. This suggests that, under the considered climate scenarios, the associated risk is expected to remain stable throughout the century.

Toni Seibold, Fabian Neumann, Falko Ueckerdt et al.

Greenhouse gas emissions from the steel, fertiliser and plastic industries can be mitigated by producing their precursors with green hydrogen. In Germany, green production may be economically unviable due to high energy costs. This study quantifies the 'renewables pull' of cheaper production abroad and high-lights trade-offs between cost savings and import dependence. Using a detailed European energy system model coupled to global supply curves for hydrogen and industry precursors (hot briquetted iron, ammonia and methanol), we assess five scenarios with increasing degrees of freedom with respect to imports. We find that precursor import is preferred over hydrogen import because there are significant savings in hydrogen infrastructure. Cost savings in the German industry sector from shifting precursor production to European partners compared to domestic production are at 4.1 bnEUR/a or 11.2 %. This strategy captures 47.7 % of the cost savings achievable by precursor import from non-European countries, which lowers industry costs by 8.6 bnEUR/a (23.3 %). Moving energy-intensive precursor production abroad allows Germany to save costs while still retaining a substantial share of subsequent value-creating industry. However, cost savings must be weighed against the risks of import dependence, which can be mitigated by sourcing exclusively from regional partners.

Yakir Aharonov, Guy Hetzroni

This oral history interview provides Yakir Aharonov's perspective on the theoretical discovery of the Aharonov-Bohm effect in 1959, during his PhD studies in Bristol with David Bohm, the reception of the effect, the efforts to test it empirically (up to Tonomura's experiment), and some of the debates regarding the existence of the effect and its interpretation. The interview also discusses related later developments until the 1980s, including modular momentum and Berry's phase. It includes recollections from meetings with Werner Heisenberg, Richard Feynman, and Chen-Ning Yang, also mentioning John Bell, Robert Chambers, Werner Ehrenberg, Sir Charles Frank, Wendell Furry, Gunnar Källén, Maurice Pryce, Nathan Rosen, John Wheeler, and Eugene Wigner.

Carina Zell-Ziegler, Célia Burghardt, Kaya Dünzen et al.

The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasises the potential of demand-side measures, such as sufficiency, for mitigating climate change. Although quantified potentials of various sufficiency measures exist, policy advisors and energy modellers criticise the lack of findability and comparability of the relevant data. Due to the high level of heterogeneity in units, reference points and calculation methods, the data cannot be used to summarise sufficiency potentials at a national level. Consequently, this paper aims to identify, structure, harmonise and synthesise existing data in order to determine the greatest saving potentials per sector and highlight data gaps. Based on a systematic literature review, we have created a curated open-source database containing over 300 quantified energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) saving potentials for Germany, which could be used as a blueprint for other such data collections. Most quantifications were available for the building sector, particularly for appliances. The highest total energy and GHG emission savings in Germany were identified in measures that reduce per capita living space, with saving potentials of -150 Terawatt-hours per year (TWh/a) and -118 Million Tons of Carbon Dioxide Equivalents per year (Mt CO2eq./a; this measure also includes lower heating temperatures). This synthesis can help modellers to better account for sufficiency potentials in scenarios, and help policymakers to understand the saving potentials of sufficiency. We encourage researchers to quantify more energy and GHG saving potentials in order to fill the identified gaps and to use the proposed synthesis structure.

Hiroto Sato, Konan Shimizu

In social learning environments, agents acquire information from both private signals and the observed actions of predecessors, referred to as history. We define the value of history as the gain in expected payoff from accessing both the private signal and history, compared to relying on the signal alone. We first characterize the information structures that maximize this value, showing that it is highest under a mixture of full information and no information. We then apply these insights to a model of markets for history, where a monopolistic data seller collects and sells access to history. In equilibrium, the seller's dynamic pricing becomes the value of history for each agent. This gives the seller incentives to increase the value of history by designing the information structure. The seller optimal information discloses less information than the socially optimal level.

Mèhèza Kalibani

In 1877, the invention of the phonograph enabled a new hearing practice that created a bridge between spaces and times. For the first time in human history, it was possible to record sound and replay it independently of its original source. The phonograph was used worldwide, including in regions where people were considered “primitive” according to the Western ideologies of the time. Today, these early recordings of non-European musical traditions are stored in European archives. From early on, they have been studied by scholars or used for cultural projects in museums. A look at the collections of many historical sound archives clearly shows that the colonial era (for Germany especially from 1900 to 1914) was the golden age of this collecting practice. Thus, these sound recordings embody a certain “sensibility” due to their relation to colonialism. In fact, a considerable part of the recordings was produced under hegemonic power relations. But how are they heard today, what stories and discourses do they transmit, and how do we deal with them? Close listening, listening to history, collective listening, and listening to the silences are some of the theoretical-methodological approaches developed in recent years in the context of dealing with historical sound recordings. In this article, I will introduce these approaches and highlight their advantages and gaps. In order to bridge the gaps thus identified, I will introduce “discourse analysis of the historically audible,” a cultural-historical approach to historically sensitive sound recordings. Discourse analysis of the historically audible is a cultural-historical approach to sound recordings from colonial contexts which can facilitate the past-present dialogue between former colonized people and former colonizers.  previous article back to index next article

Emily F. Kerrison, Ron D. Ekers, John Morgan et al.

Recent observations of interplanetary scintillation (IPS) at radio frequencies have proved to be a powerful tool for probing the solar environment from the ground. But how far back does this tradition really extend? Our survey of the literature to date has revealed a long history of scintillating observations, beginning with the oral traditions of Indigenous peoples from around the globe, encompassing the works of the Ancient Greeks and Renaissance scholars, and continuing right through into modern optics, astronomy and space science. We outline here the major steps that humanity has taken along this journey, using scintillation as a tool for predicting first terrestrial, and then space weather without ever having to leave the ground.

Chi Zhang, Janis Sprenger, Zhongjun Ni et al.

Predicting pedestrian crossing behavior is important for intelligent traffic systems to avoid pedestrian-vehicle collisions. Most existing pedestrian crossing behavior models are trained and evaluated on datasets collected from a single country, overlooking differences between countries. To address this gap, we compared pedestrian road-crossing behavior at unsignalized crossings in Germany and Japan. We presented four types of machine learning models to predict gap selection behavior, zebra crossing usage, and their trajectories using simulator data collected from both countries. When comparing the differences between countries, pedestrians from the study conducted in Japan are more cautious, selecting larger gaps compared to those in Germany. We evaluate and analyze model transferability. Our results show that neural networks outperform other machine learning models in predicting gap selection and zebra crossing usage, while random forest models perform best on trajectory prediction tasks, demonstrating strong performance and transferability. We develop a transferable model using an unsupervised clustering method, which improves prediction accuracy for gap selection and trajectory prediction. These findings provide a deeper understanding of pedestrian crossing behaviors in different countries and offer valuable insights into model transferability.

Jan Moritz Fischer, Farid-Ihab Kandil, Matthias Karst et al.

BackgroundMedical cannabinoids are controversial. Their use is comparatively rare, but it is rising. Since 2017, cannabinoids can be prescribed in Germany for a broader range of indications. Patient surveys on these drugs are hampered by the stigmatization of cannabinoids and their (still) low prevalence in medical contexts. Against this background, patients’ willingness to provide information is limited. Moreover, it is logistically challenging to reach them with a survey. A thorough knowledge of currently ongoing therapies and their effects and side effects, however, is important for a more appropriate and effective use of cannabinoids in the future. ObjectiveThis study is an exploratory data collection using a representative sample. The main goal is to provide a detailed picture of the current use of medical cannabinoids in Germany. It is intended to identify subgroups that may benefit particularly well or poorly. MethodsWe are conducting a representative, anonymous, cross-sectional, one-time, web-based survey based on mixed methods in 3 German federal states. Health conditions under cannabinoid therapy and before are documented with validated, symptom-specific questionnaires. This allows an estimation of the effect sizes of these therapies. The selection of parameters and questionnaires was based on the results of independent qualitative interviews in advance. Representative samples of the hard-to-reach study population are obtained by cluster sampling via contracted physicians of the statutory health insurance companies. ResultsRecruitment was ongoing until the end of June 2022, with 256 enrolled participants. Validated questionnaires on pain, spasticity, anorexia or wasting, multiple sclerosis, nausea or vomiting, depression, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were selected. Symptom scores are being assessed for both current conditions under cannabinoid therapy and conditions prior to this therapy (in retrospect). Validated questionnaires are also used for treatment satisfaction and general quality of life. These are supplemented by existing diagnoses, a detailed medication history, any previous experiences with cannabis or illegal substances, experiences with the prescription process, and sociodemographic data. Based on the results of the previous qualitative interviews, questions were added regarding prior experience with relaxation methods and psychotherapy, personal opinions about cannabinoids, pre-existing or symptom-related psychological trauma, and different experiences with different cannabis-based therapies. ConclusionsThe exploratory mixed methods approach of this project is expected to provide valid and relevant data as a basis for future clinical research. The study design may be representative for a large proportion of outpatients treated with cannabinoids in the German federal states studied. It may have less bias toward social desirability and may provide valuable information in addition to existing studies. Due to the observational and cross-sectional nature of this study, various limitations apply. Causal relations cannot be drawn. Trial RegistrationGerman Clinical Trials Register DRKS00023344; https://drks.de/search/en/trial/DRKS00023344 International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)DERR1-10.2196/38814

Rüdiger Kelm

At the end of September 2023 the third face-to-face meeting of the partners from the RETOLD-project took place in Albersdorf in Northern Germany, hosted by the Stone Age Park Dithmarschen (Steinzeitpark Dithmarschen). The meeting took place in the recently opened new museum “Stone Age House” and in the open-air area of the Museum. The Stone Age Park Dithmarschen presents the oldest history in this region of Middle Europe, beginning with Palaeolithic times with reindeer hunters at the end of the ice age, continuing with the Mesolithic times of the last hunter-gatherer societies and ending, finally, in the Neolithic “village” of the first farmers. Special attention is given to educational work in front of the visitors.

Kerem Akdogan, Lucas Heger, Andrew Iskauskas et al.

The June software package is an open-source framework for the detailed simulation of epidemics based on social interactions in a virtual population reflecting age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic indicators in England. In this paper, we present a new version of the framework specifically adapted for Germany, which allows the simulation of the entire German population using publicly available information on households, schools, universities, workplaces, and mobility data for Germany. Moreover, JuneGermany incorporates testing and vaccination strategies within the population as well as the simultaneous handling of several different virus strains. First validation tests of the framework have been performed for the state of Rhineland Palatinate based on data collected between October 2020 and December 2020 and then extrapolated to March 2021, i.e. the end of the second wave.

Ryan M. McGranaghan

This review examines complexity science in Heliophysics, describing it not as a discipline, but as a paradigm. In the context of Heliophysics, complexity science is the study of a star, interplanetary environment, magnetosphere, upper and terrestrial atmospheres, and planetary surface as interacting subsystems. Complexity science studies entities in a system (e.g., electrons in an atom, planets in a solar system, individuals in a society) and their interactions, and is the nature of what emerges from these interactions. It is a paradigm that employs systems approaches and is inherently multi- and cross-scale. Heliophysics processes span at least 15 orders of magnitude in space and another 15 in time, and its reaches go well beyond our own solar system and Earth's space environment to touch planetary, exoplanetary, and astrophysical domains. It is an uncommon domain within which to explore complexity science. This review article excavates the lived and living history of complexity science in Heliophysics. It identifies five dimensions of complexity science. It then proceeds in three epochal parts: 1) A pivotal year in the Complexity Heliophysics paradigm: 1996; 2) The transitional years that established foundations of the paradigm (1996-2010); and 3) The emergent literature largely beyond 2010. The history reveals a grand challenge that confronts most physical sciences to understand the research intersection between fundamental science (e.g., complexity science) and applied science (e.g., artificial intelligence and machine learning). A risk science framework is suggested as a way of formulating the challenges in a way that the two converge. The intention is to provide inspiration and guide future research. It will be instructive to Heliophysics researchers, but also to any reader interested in or hoping to advance the frontier of systems and complexity science.

Hanno Hoven, Nico Dragano, Peter Angerer et al.

Since the WHO’s “Influenza Pandemic Preparedness Plan” in 1999, pandemic preparedness plans at the international and national level have been constantly adapted with the common goal to respond early to outbreaks, identify risks, and outline promising interventions for pandemic containment. Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, public health experts have started to reflect on the extent to which previous preparations have been helpful as well as on the gaps in pandemic preparedness planning. In the present commentary, we advocate for the inclusion of social and ethical factors in future pandemic planning—factors that have been insufficiently considered so far, although social determinants of infection risk and infectious disease severity contribute to aggravated social inequalities in health.

Roi Harel, Roi Harel, Shauhin Alavi et al.

The complex, interconnected, and non-contiguous nature of canopy environments present unique cognitive, locomotor, and sensory challenges to their animal inhabitants. Animal movement through forest canopies is constrained; unlike most aquatic or aerial habitats, the three-dimensional space of a forest canopy is not fully realized or available to the animals within it. Determining how the unique constraints of arboreal habitats shape the ecology and evolution of canopy-dwelling animals is key to fully understanding forest ecosystems. With emerging technologies, there is now the opportunity to quantify and map tree connectivity, and to embed the fine-scale horizontal and vertical position of moving animals into these networks of branching pathways. Integrating detailed multi-dimensional habitat structure and animal movement data will enable us to see the world from the perspective of an arboreal animal. This synthesis will shed light on fundamental aspects of arboreal animals’ cognition and ecology, including how they navigate landscapes of risk and reward and weigh energetic trade-offs, as well as how their environment shapes their spatial cognition and their social dynamics.

Susanna Välimäki

This article concerns the life and career of composer Betzy Holmberg Deis (1860–1900), a woman artist of Finnish-Norwegian heritage who pursued an active career in Central Europe in the late 19th Century. Methodologically the research represents feminist music history and biographical research, which highlights women’s agency. The research material consists of original historical material from several archives, mainly in Finland, Norway, Denmark and Germany. In focusing on a women composer who until now has been omitted from scholarly writing on music history, the author aims to contribute new knowledge to the history of Nordic music. Holmberg Deis was successful in her composition studies at the Leipzig Conservatory. Her chamber and orchestral works, including a symphony, were performed during her lifetime in several countries. The orchestral works are lost, but a few of her chamber music compositions have survived. These make an original contribution to the late and neo-romantic Nordic repertoire.