Hasil untuk "History of Germany"

Sina F. J. Dupuis, Jordan Bestwick, Dennis M. Hansen et al.

Abstract The sauropodomorph Plateosaurus is one of the best-known dinosaurs from Europe due to the large numbers of articulated skeletons discovered from bonebed horizons in Switzerland and Germany. Plateosaurus exhibits high degrees of developmental plasticity, which makes investigations of specimen life-histories from gross morphology alone difficult. Furthermore, comparatively few specimens have been rigorously examined for possessing any evidence of pathology, i.e., injury or disease, that could provide insight into how these dinosaurs lived. Here, we provide an osteological description of a nearly complete Plateosaurus trossingensis (excavation ID SMF 18.1, collection NMZ 1000001) from the Late Triassic Klettgau Formation from Frick, Switzerland, with an unusual pathology in its right scapula and proximal portion of the right humerus. We also perform histological analyses on two dorsal ribs to investigate the relative ontogenetic stage and life history of the specimen and investigate the morphology and aetiology of its scapula-humerus pathology using Micro-Computed Tomography and comparisons with a previously undescribed Plateosaurus from Frick (SMF 11.4; comprising left and right radii and ulnae) that exhibits pathological tissues. We infer that NMZ 1000001 was an adult of around 23–25 years of age when it died. We estimate a total body length of around 7.7 m, making NMZ 1000001 one of the largest known specimens from Frick and an above average-sized adult for the species overall. The scapula-humerus pathology is characterised by highly rugose surface textures, possible element fusion and extensive remodelling of internal bone structures. We infer the pathology to be a chronic case of osteomyelitis (bone tissue infection). Based on the size and extent of the infected area it is likely one of most advanced cases known from the fossil record. We further document the process of producing an exhibit with a museum-grade life reconstruction based on the pathological fossil.

Carla Plieth

In lieu of an abstract: Football/soccer is the most popular sport in Germany, as is the case in many countries worldwide, and it has, unsurprisingly, been a staple feature in German children’s and youth literature (CYL) and media since the first half of the 20th century (see Geßmann & Reuter; Geßmann). Fußball in der deutschen Kinder- und Jugendliteratur [Football in German Children’s and Youth Literature] (2024), edited by Markwart Herzog and Claudia Maria Pecher, brings together studies by scholars of literature, linguistics, history of sports, media studies, and other fields on how this beloved sport has featured in German CYL. The collection grew out of the 14th Irseer Sports-Historical Conference, which sought to trace the cultural history of football in fictional German CYL since World War I. Although it does not cover all relevant aspects, authors, and texts, the publication seeks to respond to an ongoing interest in the meeting point of football and literature.

Isabella M. Radhuber, Amelia Fiske, Barbara Prainsack

This article contributes to understanding health in a changing climate by analysing public perceptions of the root causes of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria. Drawing on 209 in-depth qualitative interviews conducted between April 2020 and October 2021 in a country that was facing significant challenges regarding national climate targets at that time, the study explores how people linked health, nature, and politics during the pandemic. While many initially expressed hope that the COVID-19 Anthropause would catalyse sustainable change, this optimism soon faded. Over the following year and a half, participants increasingly identified the broken relationships between humans, nature, and things as the root cause of overlapping health, environmental, and climate crises. This culminated in a widespread awareness that personal health is inextricably connected to the wellbeing of the natural environment—and that systemic change, though considered unlikely at the time, is necessary to address these intersecting crises. Our findings show strong resonances between Austrian residents’ multidimensional understanding of health in times of climate change and insights from decolonial scholarship, Indigenous people’s knowledges, as well as global majority perspectives. In dialogue with environmental health, Planetary Health, and Indigenous scholarship, we draw out how participants conceived health as a condition shaped by various ‘natural’, biological, ecological, social, political, economic and other dimensions that interact over time and space. Highlighting this perspective from a global minority context raises more far-reaching questions about the need for decolonial repair to address climate-related health impacts.

Dennis Krämer, Anja Bosold, Martin Minarik et al.

Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot, or Gemini have a crucial impact on academic research and teaching. Empirical data on how students perceive the increasing influence of AI, which different types of tools they use, what they expect from them in their daily academic tasks, and their concerns regarding the use of AI in their studies are still limited. The manuscript presents findings from a quantitative survey conducted among sports students of all semesters in Germany using an online questionnaire. It explores aspects such as students' usage behavior, motivational factors, and uncertainties regarding the impact of AI tools on academia in the future. Furthermore, the social climate in sports studies is being investigated to provide a general overview of the current situation of the students in Germany. Data collection took place between August and November 2023, addressing all sports departments at German universities, with a total of 262 students participating. Our Findings indicate that students have a strong interest in using AI tools in their studies, expecting them to improve their overall academic performance, understand the complexity of scientific approaches, and save time. They express confidence that the proliferation of AI will not compromise their critical thinking skills. Moreover, students are positive about integrating more AI-related topics into the curriculum and about lecturers adopting more AI-based teaching methods. However, our findings also show that students have concerns about plagiarism, lecturer preparedness and their own skills and future skill development.

Derek Marsh

Progress of the COVID-19 pandemic was quantified, in the first instance, using the daily number of positive cases recorded by the national public health authorities. Averaged over a seven-day window, the daily incidence of COVID-19 in Germany reveals clear sections of exponential growth or decay in propagation of infection. Comparing with incidence profiles according to onset-of-symptoms shows that reporting of cases involves variable delays. Observed changes in exponential rates come from growing public awareness, governmental restrictions and their later relaxation, annual holidays, seasonal variation, emergence of new viral variants, and from mass vaccination. Combining the measured rates with epidemiological parameters established for SARS-CoV-2 yields the dynamics of change in disease transmission. Combined with the distribution of serial intervals (or generation times), the rate gives basic and instantaneous values of the reproduction number that govern development and ultimate outcome of the epidemic. Herd immunity requires vaccination of approximately seventy percent of the population, but this increases to circa eighty percent for the more transmissible Alpha-variant. Beyond this point, progressive vaccination reduces the susceptible population, and competes with the emergence of new variants. By the first Omicron wave, circa seventy percent were doubly vaccinated, with the target then standing at circa eighty percent. Combined with the distribution of times-to-death, incidence rates from onset of symptoms predict the daily profile of COVID-associated deaths and estimated case-fatality ratio. Cases are under-reported in the first wave and reflect age heterogeneity in fatalities at the second wave. In periods of low incidence, COVID mortality was one percent or less of detected infection.

Dirk Tunger, Philipp Schaer

In the context of academic publishing and peer review, this study investigates the relationship between post-publication expert evaluations, their agreement levels, and the subsequent scientific and public recognition of the reviewed research. Using expert statements from the Science Media Center Germany as a dataset, we analyze Research in Context reviews to examine the alignment between qualitative post-publication assessments and bibliometric as well as altmetric indicators. We employ a Large Language Model to translate unstructured expert reviews into a structured rating scheme. Furthermore, we correlate these evaluations with citation counts from the Web of Science and alternative impact metrics such as the Altmetric Attention Score, news mentions, and Mendeley readership statistics from the Altmetric Explorer. We investigate the alignment of positive or critical post-publication reviews and high or low citation or altmetric counts.

Niklas Petersen

Following the recent shift in medicine towards viewing dementia as a preventable disease, various activating interventions are being discussed to halt cognitive decline of people living in long-term care facilities. This article examines how the dementia discourse, with its turn towards prevention, translates into local everyday care practices. Based on problem-centered interviews, the study analyses how nurses negotiate the prevention paradigm in the context of current health policies, active aging culture, and institutional frameworks in German nursing homes.The study reveals two contrasting patterns in how nurses perceive, interpret, and implement current principles of dementia prevention in care: Despite most nurses being aware of current prevention recommendations, subjective conceptions of both the impact of lifestyle choices in earlier life and the effectiveness of activating interventions in care settings vary greatly. Adopting conceptions of successful aging, neuroplasticity and activity theory, some nurses understand dementia as associated with earlier lifestyle choices and see prevention as a task of nursing care. Focusing strongly on the individuals' personal needs and the well-being of those in need of care, the other group still sees dementia as fated, suggesting either a critical stance or a more holistic understanding of dementia prevention.Furthermore, institutional frameworks and economization processes in the German care system undermine the goal of strengthening prevention and health promotion. While prevention is promoted as an answer to the care crisis in health policy discourses, the implementation of preventive interventions is severely restricted by the fragmentation of nursing tasks, time constraints, and limited resources in care facilities.

Carlos A. Guerra, Nico Eisenhauer, Christoph C. Tebbe et al.

Abstract Soils, just like all other ecosystem compartments, change over time and, consequently, conditions for soil‐inhabiting organisms are also changing, affecting their composition and diversity. Soil biodiversity is a critical component of ecosystems that supports many essential ecosystem functions and services, such as nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, water regulation and biomass production for food, fodder, fibre and energy. However, and despite the importance of soil biodiversity for ecosystem health and human well‐being, neither current state, drivers, potential consequences for ecosystem services nor options for sustainable governance of soil biodiversity are well understood. Here, we provide a framework for and argue that conducting a national assessment of soil biodiversity, albeit being a complex endeavour, is fundamental to building a baseline to understand the current state and trends of soil biodiversity, but also to identify the main drivers of change, the impacts of soil biodiversity loss and the potential pathways for conservation and sustainable governance of soil biodiversity.

Francesca Färber, Enrique Alonso-Perez, Christin Heidemann et al.

Abstract Background Differences in type 2 diabetes risk have been reported for several sociodemographic determinants including sex/gender or socioeconomic status. From an intersectional perspective, it is important to not only consider the role of social dimensions individually, but also their intersections. This allows for a deeper understanding of diabetes risk and preventive needs among diverse population groups. Methods As an intersectionality-informed approach, multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) was used in a population-based sample of adults without known diabetes in Germany from the cross-sectional survey “Disease knowledge and information needs– Diabetes mellitus (2017)”. Diabetes risk was assessed by the German Diabetes Risk Score (GDRS, range 0-122 points), estimating the individual risk of developing type 2 diabetes within the next 5 years based on established self-reported risk factors. Nesting individuals in 12 intersectional strata defined by combining sex/gender, educational level, and history of migration, we calculated measures to quantify the extent to which individual differences in diabetes risk were explained at strata level, and how much this was due to additive or multiplicative intersectional effects of social determinants. Results Drawing on data of 2,253 participants, we found good discriminatory accuracy of intersectional strata (variance partition coefficient = 14.00% in the simple intersectional model). Model-predicted GDRS means varied between 29.97 (corresponding to a “low risk” of < 2%) in women with high educational level and a history of migration, and 52.73 (“still low risk” of 2–5%) in men with low educational level without a history of migration. Variance in GDRS between strata was mainly explained by additive effects of social determinants (proportional change in variance to intersectional interaction model = 77.95%) with being male and having low educational level being associated with higher GDRS. There was no evidence of multiplicative effects in individual strata. Conclusions Type 2 diabetes risk differed between intersectional strata and can to some extent be explained at strata level. The role of intersectional effects was minor and needs to be further investigated. Findings suggest a need for specific preventive measures targeted at large groups with increased diabetes risk, such as men and persons with low educational level.

Sabrina Mai, Caroline Wittor, Stefan Merker et al.

Abstract With the increasing urbanization of the last decades, more and more bird species occur in urban habitats. Birds which thrive in urban habitats often have a higher tolerance toward human disturbance and show behaviors which differ from their rural counterparts. There is increasing evidence that many behaviors have a genetic basis. One candidate gene is the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4), which has been associated with fear and thus, flight initiation distance (FID). In this study, we analyzed a segment of DRD4 in greylag geese Anser anser, describing the variability of this gene across several geographically distant populations, and comparing its variability between an urban and a rural site in south–west Germany. We additionally measured FIDs of urban and rural geese to test for a possible correlation with DRD4 genotypes. We found a high variation within DRD4, with 10 variable sites leading to 11 alleles and 35 genotypes. Two genotypes occurred in 60% of all geese and were thus defined as common genotypes versus 33 rare genotypes. Population differentiation was very low between the urban and rural sites in Germany but common genotypes occurred more often in the urban area and rare genotypes more often in the rural area. FID was significantly higher at the rural site, but no significant correlation between FID and DRD4 genotypes could be detected. Nevertheless, our results suggest that local site selection may be related to DRD4 genotypes.

Marta Hanson

Jelena Kostić Tomović

This article provides a brief overview of the history of libraries in the German-speaking world from the Middle Ages to 2021. After introductory information about the German-speaking world in the past and present, there are some references to the libraries that probably existed there in Roman times. It is followed by information about the first royal and monastic libraries during the Carolingian and Ottonian dynasties and then about the first German university libraries in the 14th century. The focal points of this article are the Gutenberg Revolution and the Reformation and their impact on the spread of literacy and education and the development of libraries. The author goes on to describe the flourishing of libraries in German courts in the 17th and 18th centuries, the opening of the first commercial libraries, and the great progress of university libraries during the Enlightenment era, as well as the expansion of the modern library network in the German Empire after 1871. Throughout the 20th century, different library focuses in West and East Germany were of particular interest, and then the integration of East German libraries into the West German system after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the reunification of Germany in 1991. Data from the beginning of the third decade of the 21st century shows that in all three countries that make the core of today’s German-speaking world libraries are facing some decline in users and visitors. It is partly, but not entirely, attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, as libraries are also facing other challenges, primarily the need to continually adapt to changes brought about by rapid developments in information technology.

Ľubomír Rajter, Borong Lu, Erika Rassoshanska et al.

Ciliates have a long history of being central in evolutionary and ecological studies on eukaryotic microorganisms. Although thousands of species have been discovered, their total diversity still remains unknown. Here, we will discuss two unsolved problems that hinder the further exploration of ciliate diversity at the species level, and potential solutions to these problems are proposed. First, ciliate morphospecies are difficult to identify because the different silver stains are not scalable (they do not represent high-throughput methods) and basic supplies are lacking (e.g., protargol); a solution may be the development of fluorescent staining techniques. Second, ciliate phylogenetic species are difficult to identify because of extensive paralogy in nuclear-protein-coding genes; a solution may be to concentrate on sequencing mitochondrial genomes. These two approaches could be integrated into a high-throughput fluorescent-single-cell sorting and mitochondrial genomes sequencing process that would enable the observation and better understanding of ciliate species on a massive scale.

Moritz E. Wigand, Cristian Timmermann, Ansgar Scherp et al.

Abstract Climate change, pollution, and deforestation have a negative impact on global mental health. There is an environmental justice dimension to this challenge as wealthy people and high‐income countries are major contributors to climate change and pollution, while poor people and low‐income countries are heavily affected by the consequences. Using state‐of‐the art data mining, we analyzed and visualized the global research landscape on mental health, climate change, pollution and deforestation over a 15‐year period. Metadata of papers were exported from PubMed®, and both relevance and relatedness of terms in different time frames were computed using VOSviewer. Co‐occurrence graphs were used to visualize results. The development of exemplary terms over time was plotted separately. The number of research papers on mental health and environmental challenges is growing in a linear fashion. Major topics are climate change, chemical pollution, including psychiatric medication in wastewater, and neurobiological effects. Research on specific psychiatric syndromes and diseases, particularly on their ethical and social aspects is less prominent. There is a growing body of research literature on links between mental health, climate change, pollution, and deforestation. This research provides a graphic overview to mental healthcare professionals and political stakeholders. Social and ethical aspects of the climate change‐mental health link have been neglected, and more research is needed.

Arturo Cueva-Temprana, Diego Lombao, Diego Lombao et al.

The Oldowan represents the earliest recurrent evidence of human material culture and one of the longest-lasting forms of technology. Its appearance across the African continent amid the Plio-Pleistocene profound ecological transformations, and posterior dispersal throughout the Old World is at the foundation of hominin technological dependence. However, uncertainties exist concerning the degree to which the Oldowan constitutes an environment-driven behavioral adaptation. Moreover, it is necessary to understand how Oldowan technology varied through time in response to hominin ecological demands. In this study, we present the stone tool assemblage from Ewass Oldupa, a recently discovered archeological site that signals the earliest hominin occupation of Oldupai Gorge (formerly Olduvai) ∼2.03 Ma. At Ewass Oldupa, hominins underwent marked environmental shifts over the course of a ∼200 kyr period. In this article, we deployed an analysis that combines technological and typological descriptions with an innovative quantitative approach, the Volumetric Reconstruction Method. Our results indicate that hominins overcame major ecological challenges while relying on technological strategies that remained essentially unchanged. This highlights the Oldowan efficiency, as its basic set of technological traits was able to sustain hominins throughout multiple environments.

Katharina T. Paul, Bettina M. Zimmermann, Paolo Corsico et al.

Vaccine uptake is essential to managing the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and vaccine hesitancy is a persistent concern. At the same time, both decision-makers and the general population have high hopes for COVID-19 vaccination. Drawing from qualitative interview data collected in October 2020 as part of the pan-European SolPan study, this study explores early and anticipatory expectations, hopes and fears regarding COVID-19 vaccination across seven European countries. We find that stances towards COVID-19 vaccines were shaped by personal lived experiences, but participants also aligned personal and communal interests in their considerations. Trust, particularly in expert institutions, was an important prerequisite for vaccine acceptance, but participants also expressed doubts about the rapid vaccine development process. Our findings emphasise the need to move beyond the study of factors driving vaccine hesitancy, and instead to focus on how people personally perceive vaccination in their particular social and political context.

Jolanta Kiewisz, Damian Drzyzga, Karolina Rozanska et al.

This study aimed to measure, considering a prior history of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection (SCV-negative/positive), antibodies titer using Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 S immunoassay (Roche Diagnostics, Mannheim, Germany), in a serum of healthcare workers (HCW) who received two doses of BNT162b2 vaccines. The local and systemic adverse reactions occurrence was checked with a self-reported questionnaire. A total of 60 SCV-negative HCW showed lower antibody titers than those presented by SCV-positive subjects (n = 7). The highest antibody level was detected 8 days after the second dose of vaccine administration. At the same time, the titer was higher in the SCV2 -positive than the SCV2-negative group and comparable after the first dose in those who became infected to the level after the second dose of those who did not. The local and systemic effects in the SCV2-negative and SCV2-positive groups appeared independent of the vaccine dose. After the second dose, systemic reactions were reported more often than the local adverse effects. Whether no effect was observed or whether the response was local or systemic, the antibody level in a specific group remains constant. These results can be helpful in the improvement of vaccination programs, controlling the occurrence of adverse and long-term effects of the vaccination.

Luis A. Anchordoqui, Ignatios Antoniadis, Dieter Lüst et al.

It was recently pointed out that the existence of dark energy imposes highly restrictive constraints on effective field theories that satisfy the Swampland conjectures. We provide a critical confrontation of these constraints with the cosmological framework emerging from the Salam-Sezgin model and its string realization by Cvetič, Gibbons, and Pope. We also discuss the implication of the constraints for string model building.

Elmar Zozmann, Mirjam Helena Eerma, Dylan Manning et al.

The paper provides energy system-wide estimates of the effects sufficiency measures in different sectors can have on energy supply and system costs. In distinction to energy efficiency, we define sufficiency as behavioral changes to reduce useful energy without significantly reducing utility, for example by adjusting thermostats. By reducing demand, sufficiency measures are a potentially decisive but seldomly considered factor to support the transformation towards a decarbonized energy system. Therefore, this paper addresses the following question: What is the potential of sufficiency measures and what is their impacts on the supply side of a 100% renewable energy system? For this purpose, an extensive literature review is conducted to obtain estimates for the effects of different sufficiency measures on final energy demand in Germany. Afterwards, the impact of these measures on the supply side and system costs is quantified using a bottom-up planning model of a renewable energy system. Results indicate that final energy could be reduced by up to 20.5% and as a result cost reduction between 11.3% to 25.6% are conceivable. The greatest potential for sufficiency measures was identified in the heating sector.