Objectives In October 2016, a single centre quality improvement programme ‘IBIS’ (from the German “Intraventrikuläre Blutungs-Inzidenz Senken”), an intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) prevention bundle had the Specific Measurable Achievable Reasonable Time-bound (SMART) Aim to reduce IVH incidence from 29.6% to 18.5% within 2 years for very preterm (gestational age (GA) between 23 0/7 and 29 6/7).Design Monocentric retrospective cohort study of a failed quality improvement project using prospectively collected data including 1276 live-born very preterm infants between 2010 and 2023. Primary outcome measures were IVH, severe IVH and death or severe IVH. Statistical analysis included propensity score matching.Interventions IBIS, an ongoing IVH prevention bundle based on a systematic literature search starting in October 2016.Results Comparing pre-IBIS patients (2010–September 2016) to IBIS patients (October 2016–2023) revealed no reduction in IVH (25.1% vs 25.1%) or severe IVH (9.6% vs 9.1%). Instead, mortality (24.8% vs 13%) and delivery room mortality (9% vs 5%) were almost halved and fewer infants died after primary palliative care (8.5% vs 4.7%) or after redirection from intensive to palliative care (15.1% vs 7.9%). Longitudinal analysis revealed no trends for IVH or severe IVH over the entire period. Limiting the analysis to the IBIS period reveals a significant trend for fewer IVH (p=0.001). Propensity score matching revealed significant reduction for severe IVH (OR 0.62, 95% CI 0.39 to 0.99) and death or severe IVH (OR 0.42, 95% CI: 0.3 to 0.59) but not for IVH.Conclusions The IBIS SMART Aim to reduce IVH failed. Simultaneously, survival was significantly increased by the increased provision of life-sustaining intensive care at lower GAs, which possibly led to an increased risk for acquiring IVH. Our results highlight the need for a better understanding of the effects of extending perinatal interventional activity to lower GAs on adverse outcome monitoring.
This study explores the understudied role of privately financed ecosystem service provision in biodiversity conservation, focusing on the example of wildflower strips in Germany. Using qualitative methods, it investigates the diversity of private financing schemes, stakeholder involvement, scheme implementation and farmers motivations to engage in private schemes. The results draw on literature-based stakeholder analysis and expert interviews, including ecologists and practitioners, in three German federal states: Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Lower Saxony. Findings include a stakeholder map, the identification of four types of private financing schemes, and the formulation of 17 design criteria covering ecological, economic, and social aspects. These criteria aim to guide providers and sponsors and to emphasise the diverse nature of private wildflower strip financing schemes and their role as crucial links among farmers, the private sector, and society. The study highlights private schemes as viable alternatives to public funding but raises concerns about quality control and coordination with public measures. Combining publicly funded agri-environment schemes with private financing is controversial among stakeholders. Government intervention could formalise the private market, improving control and protection, possibly limiting private sector flexibility and attractiveness due to higher levels of bureaucracy. In any case, transparency in management and financial structures is crucial. Policy recommendations overall include incentivising private sector conservation involvement, offering tax credits for private financing, improving government mechanisms, streamlining coordination of public and private conservation at the landscape level and fostering stakeholder networking. Consequently, this study lays a foundational framework for further exploration into the realm of private financing in biodiversity conservation.
Human ecology. Anthropogeography, Environmental sciences
Christin Schmidtmann, Dierck Segelke, Jörn Bennewitz
et al.
ABSTRACT: This study sheds light on the genetic complexity and interplay of production, body size, and metabolic health in dairy cattle. Phenotypes for body size-related traits from conformation classification (130,166 animals) and production (101,562 animals) of primiparous German Holstein cows were available. Additionally, 21,992, 16,641, and 7,096 animals were from herds with recordings of the metabolic diseases ketosis, displaced abomasum, and milk fever in first, second, and third lactation. Moreover, all animals were genotyped. Heritabilities of traits and genetic correlations between all traits were estimated and GWAS were performed. Heritability was between 0.240 and 0.333 for production and between 0.149 and 0.368 for body size traits. Metabolic diseases were lowly heritable, with estimates ranging from 0.011 to 0.029 in primiparous cows, from 0.008 to 0.031 in second lactation, and from 0.037 to 0.052 in third lactation. Production was found to have negative genetic correlations with body condition score (BCS; −0.279 to −0.343) and udder depth (−0.348 to −0.419). Positive correlations were observed for production and body depth (0.138–0.228), dairy character (DCH) (0.334–0.422), and stature (STAT) (0.084–0.158). In first parity cows, metabolic disease traits were unfavorably correlated with production, with genetic correlations varying from 0.111 to 0.224, implying that higher yielding cows have more metabolic problems. Genetic correlations of disease traits in second and third lactation with production in primiparous cows were low to moderate and in most cases unfavorable. While BCS was negatively correlated with metabolic diseases (−0.255 to −0.470), positive correlations were found between disease traits and DCH (0.269–0.469) as well as STAT (0.172–0.242). Thus, the results indicate that larger and sharper animals with low BCS are more susceptible to metabolic disorders. Genome-wide association studies revealed several significantly associated SNPs for production and conformation traits, confirming previous findings from literature. Moreover, for production and conformation traits, shared significant signals on Bos taurus autosome (BTA) 5 (88.36 Mb) and BTA 6 (86.40 to 87.27 Mb) were found, implying pleiotropy. Additionally, significant SNPs were observed for metabolic diseases on BTA 3, 10, 14, 17, and 26 in first lactation and on BTA 2, 6, 8, 17, and 23 in third lactation. Overall, this study provides important insights into the genetic basis and interrelations of relevant traits in today's Holstein cattle breeding programs, and findings may help to improve selection decisions.
Tatiana V. Akasheva, Nuriya M. Rakhimova, Alexandra D. Zharkova
Background. The Austrian Reading Room Organized, which was founded on the basis of MSTU named after G.I. Nosov more than 10 years ago, has become a platform for the implementation of educational, career guidance, cultural and scientific projects, providing university students with the opportunity to read both classical and modern Austrian literature.
However, when reading, students often experience difficulties as texts normally contain typical Austrian lexemes and expressions due to the pluricentric nature of the German language. In this regard, there is a need for a linguistic analysis of the territorial functioning of the German language in Austria from the standpoint of an adequate understanding and interpretation of a literary text, which explains the relevance of addressing this topic.
Purpose. To identify and typologize austricisms that express gastronomic names being relevant for understanding and interpreting a literary text, as well as to analyze their functional load in the space of a literary text.
Materials and methods. The main research methods are the analysis of scientific literature by Russian and foreign scientists on the problem of the pluricentricity German language, continuous sampling, functional analysis of text fragments, and contextual analysis.
Research results. During the study, texts of classical and modern Austrian literature were analyzed, gastronomic austricisms were identified and typologized, and their functional load in a literary text was described.
Practical implications. The results obtained can be used when reading Austrian fiction for a deeper interpretation, as well as when teaching students German as a foreign language.
Pavel Dietz, Antonia M. Werner, Jennifer L. Reichel
et al.
BackgroundAccording to the literature, the conditions of studying and living as well as the psychological, social and health behavior-related variables, which were strongly related to pharmacological neuroenhancement (PN) before the pandemic, significantly changed during the pandemic. For this reason, it is expected that the prevalence of PN among university students is higher during the pandemic compared to before the pandemic. Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate and compare the prevalence of PN among university students before and during the COVID-19-pandemic.MethodsThree online surveys assessing the 12-month prevalence of PN were conducted among university students at the University of Mainz, Germany. The first survey took place in summer term 2019 (before the pandemic), the second in summer term 2020 (during the first German lockdown), and the third in summer term 2021 (after the second German lockdown). Pearson's chi-square test was used to test whether the 12-month prevalence of PN differed significantly between the three surveys.ResultsThe 12-month prevalence of PN was 10.4% in 2019, 11.3% in 2020, and 8.0% in 2021. Chi-square tests revealed no statistical difference in the prevalence of PN between 2019 and 2020. Overall, the use of PN was lower in 2021 compared to 2019 (p < 0.0001) as well as in comparison to 2020 (p = 0.001). Only the use of cannabis slightly increased from 2019 to 2020 (7.1 vs. 8.3%) and decreased in 2021 (5.4%). At all three time points, cannabis was the most commonly used substance for the purpose of PN. Consequently, the results suggest that the prevalence of PN was highly intertwined with the prevalence of cannabis use for PN.DiscussionThe decrease in the prevalence of PN of around three percentage points in 2021 compared to the previous years was a surprising finding. It may be mainly due to the decrease in the prevalence of cannabis for the purpose of PN. However, the fairly high prevalence of PN of around 8% in 2021 is still an important finding that demonstrates that there is still an urgent need for prevention initiatives among university students to combat the use of PN.
Since the millennium, representations of intimate relationships have become one of the major trends in contemporary German fiction. This article examines two novels, Hanns-Josef Ortheil’s <i>Liebesnähe</i> (<i>Love’s Closeness</i>, 2011) and Ronja von Rönne’s <i>Wir kommen</i> (<i>We Are Coming</i>, 2016) as examples of two oppositional modes of representation of modern love relationships. Starting from an exposition of the configuration of love in social theory (Niklas Luhmann, Eva Illouz) as a compensatory mechanism for the fragmentation of social roles in modernity, the article reviews two concepts that describe love from a perspective of plenitude, Hartmut Rosa’s “resonance” and Francois Jullien’s “intimacy”. Reading Ortheil’s and von Rönne’s novels against Rosa’s and Jullien’s concepts, the article argues that while von Rönne’s representation of intimate relations falls squarely within the social theoretical parameters outlined by Luhmann and Illouz, Ortheil’s novel presents a fictional alternative to the “unhappy consciousness” of modern love, echoing Rosa’s and Jullien’s ideas.
History of scholarship and learning. The humanities
Every single theory is based on some fundamental terms, which can also be used by other, unrelated theories. However, in our case, two related theories use the same basic term. “Controlling” terms are used in management (one of the main management functions) and management accounting (a management subsystem that helps managers to make qualified decisions). This semi-continental problem begun to emerge in the last years, since English has become the main language of scientists, even the coexistence of two controlling terms has lasted for almost half a century. The German controlling term needed an appropriate translation back into English. While the German-speaking authors quietly found other terms for translating, many authors from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) mistakenly assume that English and German “controllings” are equivalents, causing an increase of confusing literature. To solve this problem, we need a clear separation of the two theories and a qualitative prognosis of possible development. In this paper, we used a relatively simple but reliable method for the prognosis, which includes five different scenarios of development. Ultimately, management or managerial accounting is the most widely used translation. Therefore, we assume that in the long term, this term will gain the major position.
In diesem Beitrag werden Emotionen und Besonderheiten der Kommunikation im medizinischen All-tag präsentiert. Es wird gezeigt, vom wem, wie und aus welchen Anlässen bzw. in welchen Situation Sprachökonomie und Fachjargon verwendet werden. Ist unter Medizinern eine spezifische Fachsprache gebräuchlich, die sie bereits verstehen, wir aber nicht? Was macht diese Fachkommunikation aus? Mit welchen sprachlichen Mittel werden die Emotionen ausgedrückt? // The article presents the emotions and peculiarities of communication in everyday medical life are pre-sented. It is shown by whom, how and on what occasions or in which situation language economics and jargon are introduced into the conversation. Is there a specific medical terminology among doctors that they already understand, but not yet? What makes this specialist communication? Which linguistic means express the emotions?
Historians have tended to focus on propaganda when assessing Edwardian attitudes towards Germans, but a shift of focus to fiction reveals a rather different picture. Whereas propaganda created the cliché of ‘the Hun’, fiction produced non- and even counter-stereotypical figures of Germans. An analysis of German governess characters in a selection of short stories, performances, novels, and cartoons indicates that the Edwardian image of Germans was not purely negative but ambivalent and multifarious. Imagined German governesses appeared as patriots and spies, pacifists and warmongers, spinsters and seducers, victims and evil-doers. A close look at characterisations by Saki [H. H. Munro], M. E. Francis [Margaret Blundell], Dorothy Richardson, D. H. Lawrence, Radclyffe Hall, Frank Hart and others reveals not only their variety but also their metaphorical use as responses to Germany’s aggressive militarism and avant-garde modernity. Each governess figure conveyed a positive, negative or ambivalent message about the potential impact of German militarism and modernity on England and Englishness. The aggregate image of German governesses, and by inference Germans, was therefore equivocal and demonstrates the mixed feelings of Edwardians toward their ‘cousin’ country.
The article deals with the phenomenon of the authorial self-fashioning in the contemporary German literature. The “increased visibility” of the author in his literary work is considered as a well-planned strategy to attract readers’ attention to the writer and his work in the situation of media competition. Taking into account contemporary classification, the article distinguishes between extra-textual and intra-textual self-fashioning. The study is focused on the textual forms of authorial self-fashioning and their functions in the novels by T. Glavinic “Isn’t That Me” and W. Haas “The Weather Fifteen Years Ago”. The study proved that the image of the author can be reconstructed from various projections – the writer as an ambitious loser who envies his more famous competitors (T. Glavinic) or the writer as a successful craftsman, who publishes romance novels and understands the needs of readers (W. Haas). In both works, which are examples of metafiction, the authors endow their character with autobiographical features. The identity of names, some facts of a real biography, references to their own works enable writers to model a pseudo-reality and construct an artificial image of themselves for the sake of provocative play with the reader. It is shown that T. Glavinic in his novel “Isn’t That Me” mocks the position of the readers, who always try to identify the narrator with the author. W. Haas in his novel “The Weather Fifteen Years Ago”, which is a fake interview with the author, criticizes mediocre readers and tendency to entertaining genres of literature. It is emphasized that the authors, turning to various forms of self- fashioning, appeal, first of all, to the readers who are attracted by any sort of authenticity and try to find the biographical trace in literary fiction. The analysis of the novels proved that the author’s self-fashioning in his own work is a medium used to imitate authenticity and criticize average tastes of the readers who turn into consumers of popular fiction. Likewise, self-fashioning can be described as an ironic auto-commentary and an effective strategy of self-promotion.
Elena Shastina, Julia Kazakova, Marina Shastina
et al.
The purpose of the article is to discuss the perception of Kafka's The Castle (Das Schloss, 1922) in the novels The Peaches Killers (Die Pfirsichtöter, 1972) by Alfred Kolleritsch, Among the Bieresch (Bei den Bieresch, 1979) by Klaus Hoffer and Into the Castle (Ins Schloss, 2004) by Marianne Gruber. The reference to the writers and their works is no coincidence; preference is given to the artists whose creative manner reflects the most fashionable trends in Western European literary process - from avant-garde to postmodernism. The authors of the article deliberately arrange the analysed works in chronological order to follow the stages in the development of German postmodernism which originates from modernist literature. The universal Kafkaesque discourse suggests the existence of direct and inverse connections between the author and the reader, the extra-textual tradition and reality. The article focuses on the narrative strategies of Austrian avant-garde (Kolleritsch), analyses postmodern discourse (Hoffer, Gruber) in the Austrian literature of the second half of the 20th and early 21st centuries, reveals signs of typological similarity between the novels by Kafka, Kolleritsch, Hoffer, and Gruber, which seems productive for understanding the influence of modernist literature on the development of the postmodern paradigm in the German-language literary space. Austrian literature, to a greater extent, is fraught with the search for new forms of self-expression rather than with the artistic “overcoming the past” - the awareness of collective guilt. It brought to the forefront the authors in whose works the age of change was reflected. Literary avant-garde has been replaced by authors who skillfully “play” with the previous culture and establish a dialogue with the present. The comparative methodology is to reveal the perception of "Kafkaesque discourse" in modern Austrian literature and to draw conclusions about the ways authors treat ontological questions.
Naomi Shiheb Nye is an American Arab poetess, who lives within the Arab diaspora of Texas in harmony with other Diasporas. Her tie with Palestine is a tie of 14 years stay. Her sympathy with her father, Aziz, becomes the inciting element for her poetry. Besides, her mother, who is an exiled German, has a great effect on the visionary aspect of the nature of her exile. Nye’s reaction to what is happening in Palestine seems to be very paradoxical and challenging in explanation. Her “peaceful” revolt seems to be against Zionism and the ideology of racism, rather than the loss of Palestine. Though she is far from her father’s land, she does not consider herself as a stranger – an other in America, where her father and some other intellectuals installed after the Nekba (War of 1967). These exile writers found this new land tolerant and accepting the melting pot. Such friction between their own culture and the cultures of other diasporas make them reconstruct another identity, which seems to exclude them from both their home and the host country – America. This in-betweenness is a home within literature – a home conceived with art, and where the self-reveals its nature and philosophical outlook through language.
The Theosophical Society, founded in New York in 1875, includes a Rosicrucian current that sees the Rosy Cross as ‘the divine light of self-knowledge’ (Franz Hartmann, 1838-1912). Yet there are no commentaries specifically dedicated to the Chymical Wedding in the theosophical literature. Like Helena Blavatsky (1831-1891), the co-founder of the Theosophical Society, the Austrian theosopher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) was convinced that the mysteries of the Rosy Cross were ‘solely passed on through oral tradition’ (1906). Steiner became the Secretary General of the German branch of the Theosophical Society in 1902. He expected to discover authentic Rosicrucian rituals when he joined the Freemasons as his mentor Goethe had. But like the theosophers, he observed that the true spirit of the Rosy Cross was no longer to be found in the secret societies of his day. In 1906, the ‘Rosy Cross of the Theosophical Society’ began presenting the ‘Mystery of Golgotha’ as an entirely unique event in the history of mankind, at odds with the Theosophical Society’s custom of granting equal importance to all religions. In 1917, ten years after leaving Annie Besant’s Esoteric School and five years after founding the Anthroposophical Society, Steiner published a study on the Chymical Wedding in Berlin. The present article shows that this written commentary was a means for him to situate himself in the continuity of the Rosicrucian tradition of esoteric Christianity while introducing his own theosophy, which he called ‘anthroposophy’ or ‘spiritual science’, as the heir of the authentic Rosicrucians. The reference to the authoritative text allowed him to illustrate and justify his former assertions on 1) the actual existence of Christian Rosenkreuz and the Rosicrucian order, 2) the seven stages of Rosicrucian initiation, 3) Rosicrucianism as the best way of initiation for modern European man, 4) the “etheric vision” of Christ based on the action of Christian Rosencreuz’s “etheric body”. These ideas influenced a number of Western esotericists, including Neville Meakin (†1912), Max Heindel (1865-1919) and Jan van Rijckenborgh (1896-1968).
Objective: This study aims to address possible associations between excessive use of the Internet and ADHD and Depression. As most of the studies on this topic were conducted in Asia, the aim of this investigation is to review the literature on this subject from Germany and examine problematic Internet use for potential associations with the propensity for Depression and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in a new, distinct German sample. Methods: A review of the literature was conducted. Subsequently, a total of N = 895 healthy participants from Germany (413 males, 482 females) took part in a new study. Participants filled in questionnaires on their Internet usage, propensity for depression and ADHD. Results: The review of the literature revealed predominantly positive associations between problematic Internet use and depression, whereas only one study on the relationship between problematic Internet use and ADHD from Germany was found. The results from the current study showed that male participants had significantly higher scores on the Internet Addiction Test (IA-T) than female participants. Finally, the IA-T scores of the participants were linked to both the propensity for depression (r = .247, p < .01) and ADHD (r = .335, p < .01). This association was stronger for ADHD and in particular for the subscale “attention deficit”, as revealed by a post-hoc analysis. Conclusion: The results of this study are consistent with most of the research on this topic in other cultural circles and highlight the role of ADHD and depression when it comes to problematic Internet use. This study provides a basis for consideration about the clinical implications and treatment of comorbid problematic Internet use.
Migration und ihre gesellschaftlich-kulturellen Folgen, darunter multikulturelle Identitäten, Mehrsprachigkeit und Herausforderungen der Interkulturalität, sind zum alltäglichen Element des Lebens in Deutschland geworden, und Literatur, die diese Erscheinungen thematisiert, gehört inzwischen zu den wichtigsten Genres der deutschsprachigen Gegenwartsliteratur. Unter anderem aus diesem Grund sollten die oben genannten Phänomene in neuphilologischen Studiengängen mit der Unterrichtssprache Deutsch außerhalb der deutschsprachigen Länder selbst behandelt werden. In dem vorliegenden Beitrag werden Erfahrungen und Arbeitsergebnisse aus dem Seminar „Interkulturelle Literatur“ beschrieben, das Studierenden der Angewandten Linguistik der Adam-Mickiewicz-Universität Poznań seit dem Wintersemester 2014/2015 angeboten wird. Es wird vor allem der Frage nachgegangen, welche Problembereiche und Potentiale sich aus der Beschäftigung mit interkultureller Literatur ergeben und welche didaktisch-methodischen Maßnahmen sich in der Arbeit mit Texten interkultureller Literatur bewährt haben.
Migration and its social and cultural consequences like multicultural identities, multilingualism and challenges of interculturality became a part of everyday life in Germany and literature that makes these phenomena subject of discussion developed into one of the most important genres in the German literature. That is why, among other things, they should be dealt with in the German studies. The present paper describes experiences and results of work in the seminar “Intercultural Literature” that is offered in the studies of applied linguistics at the Adam-Mickiewicz-University Poznań since the winter term 2014/2015. It is primarily looked into what problem areas and potentials are there in the study of intercultural literature and which didactical and methodical approaches were successful in dealing with intercultural literature.
The article is an analysis of Anna Pilarski’s book called „Das Nullsubjekt im Polnischen. Dependenzielle Verbgrammatik und Generative Transformationsgrammatik im Modellvergleich“ [Null-subject in Polish. A comparison of the models: Dependency Verb Grammar and Transformational Generative Grammar]. The author of the book aims to compare two grammar models present in the contemporary linguistics. Pilarski explicitly emphasises that she neither criticizes nor gives preference to any of them. The constructions analysed in detail in the book are the subjectless constructions with incorporated, context-conditioned, role-prominent, referential and transformation-conditioned realization of the subject. The reader of the book can notice that the two models, DVG and TGG, in principle exist independently and neither of them alone allows for a full description of all the aspects of null-subject in Polish since each of the two examines the null-subject phenomenon in a different way and applies different research mechanisms. Hence, during reading one can have an impression that Pilarski used the two models interchangeably, instead of confronting them with each other. Therefore, it seems reasonable to consider an integrative framework based on the two models with respect to the issue of null-subject instead of comparing DVG und TGG with one another.
This article concerns the portrayal of the World War II in the Belgian literature on the basis of Les Jumeaux millénaires Maud Frère (1923-1979). Published in 1962, the novel is considered as one of few testimonies of German Occupation in Belgium, its influence on the post-war Belgian-Belgian conflicts (Quastion royale, 1940-1945) and the literary output (déshistoire). This autobiographic narration, full of bitterness and disappointment, portrays a literary and very subjective interpretation of this shameful, unsaid and often neglected period in the Belgian history.
This study deals with smileys/emoticons which are frequently used in e-mails, chats and other modern types of text. The use of these signs is analyzed from the viewpoint of the theory of writing; special attention is paid to the question of the relationship of these signs to (German) punctuation. For this purpose, smileys and traditional punctuation are compared under various aspects (emotionality, irony, structuring of text). Another component of this study is a discussion of reflections on the use of smileys found in the pertinent literature and in internet forums. It is shown that the “system of smileys” shares several common features with the older theory of punctuation and can therefore be regarded as a (rudimentary) system of punctuation in a nascent state.
Computational linguistics. Natural language processing, Language. Linguistic theory. Comparative grammar