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Studies using transcranial magnetic stimulation with simultaneous electroencephalography (TMS-EEG) revealed an imbalance between cortical excitation and inhibition (E/I) in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) in depression. As adolescence is a developmental period with an increase in depression prevalence and profound neural changes, it is crucial to study the relationship between depression and cortical excitability in adolescence. We aimed to investigate the cortical excitability of the DLPFC in adolescents with depression and a dependency of the TMS-evoked potential N100 on the depression severity. 36 clinical patients (12–18 years of age; 21 females) with a major depressive episode were assessed twice in a longitudinal design: shortly after admission (T0) and after six weeks of intervention (T1). GABA-B-mediated cortical inhibition in the left and right DLPFC, as assessed by the N100, was recorded with EEG. Significantly higher depression scores were reported at T0 compared to T1 (p < 0.001). N100 amplitudes were significantly increased (i.e., more negative) at T0 compared to T1 (p = 0.03). No significant hemispheric difference was found in the N100 component. The correlation between the difference in depression severity and the difference in N100 amplitudes (T0–T1) obtained during stimulation of the left DLPFC did not remain significant after correction for testing in both hemispheres. Higher N100 amplitudes during a state of greater depression severity are suggestive of an E/I imbalance in the DLPFC in adolescents with an acute depressive episode. The N100 reduction potentially reflects a normalization of DLPFC over inhibition in association with decreased depressive symptomatology, indicating severity dependency.
This paper presents the ongoing development of HAnS (Hochschul-Assistenz-System), an Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) designed to support self-directed digital learning in higher education. Initiated by twelve collaborating German universities and research institutes, HAnS is developed 2021–2025 with the goal of utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data in academic settings to enhance technology-based learning. The system employs AI for speech recognition and the indexing of existing learning resources, enabling users to search and compile these materials based on various parameters. Here, we provide an overview of the project, showcasing how iterative design and development processes contribute to innovative educational research in the evolving field of AI-based ITS in higher education. Notwithstanding the potential of HAnS, we also deliberate upon the challenges associated with ensuring a suitable dataset for training the AI, refining complex algorithms for personalization, and maintaining data privacy.
Background
Reduced birthweight is associated with adverse physical and mental health outcomes later in life. Children of adolescent mothers are at higher risk for reduced birthweight. The current study aimed to identify the key risk factors affecting birthweight in a well-characterized sample of adolescent mothers to inform preventive public health efforts.
Methods
Sixty-four adolescent mothers (≤ 21 years of age) provided detailed data on pregnancy, birth and psychosocial risk. Separate regression analyses with (1) birthweight and (2) low birthweight (LBW) as outcomes, and pregnancy complications, prenatal care, maternal age, substance abuse during pregnancy, socioeconomic risk, stressful life events and the child’s sex as independent variables were conducted. Exploratively, a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was performed to investigate the quality of the discriminatory power of the risk factors.
Results
The following variables explained variance in birthweight significantly: prenatal care attendance (p = .006), pregnancy complications (p = .006), and maternal substance abuse during pregnancy (p = .044). Prenatal care attendance (p = .023) and complications during pregnancy (p = .027) were identified as significant contributors to LBW. Substance abuse (p = .013), pregnancy complications (p = .022), and prenatal care attendance (p = .044) showed reasonable accuracy in predicting low birthweight in the ROC analysis.
Conclusions
Among high-risk adolescent mothers, both biological factors, such as pregnancy complications, and behavioural factors amenable to intervention, such as substance abuse and insufficient prenatal care, seem to contribute to reduced birthweight in their children, a predisposing factor for poorer health outcomes later in life. More tailored intervention programmes targeting the specific needs of this high-risk group are needed.
Childhood adversity has been suggested to affect the vulnerability for developmental psychopathology, including both externalizing and internalizing symptoms. This study examines spontaneous attention biases for negative and positive emotional facial expressions as potential intermediate phenotypes. In detail, typically developing boys (6–13 years) underwent an eye-tracking paradigm displaying happy, angry, sad and fearful faces. An approach bias towards positive emotional facial expressions with increasing childhood adversity levels was found. In addition, an attention bias away from negative facial expressions was observed with increasing childhood adversity levels, especially for sad facial expressions. The results might be interpreted in terms of emotional regulation strategies in boys at risk for reactive aggression and depressive behaviour.
Objective: The current study explored the role of maternal depressive symptoms in the intergenerational transmission of childhood maltreatment and developmental psychopathology. Based on the sensitive window hypothesis, the effects of earlier versus later maternal depression symptoms on child development were analysed.
Method: Ninety-nine mother-child dyads, 65% of which had high-risk teenage mothers, participated in a longitudinal study with three assessments in the first 18 months of the child’s life (T1–T3) and a 4th reassessment (T4) at the child’s preschool age. Using serial mediation analyses, we tested whether the relationship between the mother’s own maltreatment history (Childhood Experience of Care and Abuse Questionnaire) and the child’s psychopathological outcome at preschool age was mediated in a causal effect chain by maternal depression in the first 2 years of life, by current maternal depression (Beck Depression Inventory-II) and by current maternal child abuse potential (Child Abuse Potential Inventory). The children’s emotional problems and externalizing symptoms were assessed at preschool age by parent or teacher Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire ratings.
Results: The results indicated that especially later maternal depression mediated the relationship between maternal childhood maltreatment and negative developmental outcomes in the next generation. The effects of maltreatment type on maternal depression were rather nonspecific. However, mental abuse affected existing risk factors more directly over time compared to physical and sexual abuse. Additionally, the impact of early life maltreatment and maternal depression on child psychopathology varied by rater. The pathway to externalizing symptoms was significant only in teacher ratings and for the pathway to emotional problems only in maternal ratings.
Conclusions: The present findings suggest that early maternal depression followed by ongoing maternal depression plays a mediating role in the intergenerational cycle of maltreatment. Therefore, in the future, interventions should be offered at an early stage, but also extend well beyond the first 2 years of a child’s life, addressing maternal depression and trauma.
Background: The measures taken to contain the COVID-19 pandemic have led to significant changes in people’s daily lives. This paper examines changes in substance use during the first lockdown (March–July 2020) and investigates mental health burdens in substance users with increased consumption of alcohol, nicotine or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in Germany compared to users with unchanged or reduced consumption. Method: In a cross-sectional online survey, 2369 people were asked about their mental health and their substance use during the first lockdown in Germany. Results: Of the participants, 28.5% increased their alcohol use, 28.8% their use of tobacco products, and 20.6% their use of THC-containing products during the pandemic. The groups with increased alcohol, nicotine, and THC use during the first lockdown reported more depressive symptoms and anxiety. Individuals who reported increased consumption of alcohol or nicotine were also more likely to experience loneliness and have suicidal thoughts and were more often stressed due to social distancing. Conclusion: Alcohol, nicotine and THC increased in a subgroup of consumers who reported to have more mental health problems compared to individuals who did not increase their consumption. This increased substance use could, therefore, be understood as a dysfunctional strategy to cope with negative emotions during the lockdown.
This paper will present in broad strokes the professional lifespan and philosophical doctrine of Israeli educational philosopher Ilan Gur-Ze’ev (1955-2012). Major attention will be devoted to his articulation of the concept of “new antisemitism,” which seeks to capture the uniqueness of the contemporary form of antisemitism. Compared to “older” forms of antisemitism, which situated the Jews in opposition to western civilization, as its ultimate “other,” contemporary progressive thinkers identify “Jewishness” and Jewish ideas such a “chosenness,” “elitism” and “uniqueness,” as the innate evil embedded deep within the “suppressing, white, colonial patriarchy” of the Judo-Christian civilization. Thus, the redemption of the soul of the new progressive thinker from the historical sins of western civilization, involves cleansing it from its “Jewishness.” It also involves an attack on the physical representation of everything that is wrong in western civilization – the Jewish state.
This thesis examines the topic of access to justice from a contrastive perspective and observes how the capability of taking advantage of the judicial system is ensured for people through
the lens of the Capability Approach. The question addressed here is whether the constitutional
right to education enables the surpassing of a certain capability threshold and thereby promotes access to justice.
This approach offers a broad perspective of the implications of constitutional rights to education, and interconnects it with ethical considerations of justice.
The thesis begins with a short overview of access to justice (2.) and how it relates to the Capability Approach (3.). This is followed by a conceptualized functionalist comparison of the German and Indian constitutional rights to education (4.). Subsequently, the implementation in practice is analyzed using the 4-A scheme developed by the United Nations (5.). The final segment relates to the capability threshold and utilizes the results of the comparison to establish guidelines for policymakers in the education sector (6.).
Overall, this thesis finds that achieving the capability of literacy, a major aspect of legal literacy, can ultimately lead to the promotion of access to justice.
Background
The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic not only threatens physical health, but also affects the mental health of people. Yet, health consequences of the pandemic do not affect all members of society equally. We therefore assessed the mental health burden of individuals who are at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 compared to individuals who are at low risk of severe illness during the first lockdown (March, 2020) in Germany. Furthermore, we investigated variables mediating the effect of being an individual at increased risk of serve illness on depression.
Methods
Adult German residents (n = 2.369) provided responses to a cross-sectional online survey about risk factors for of severe illness from Covid-19 and various aspects of mental health during the first lockdown in Germany. For data collection, standardized and validated self-report measures were used and for data analysis Mann-Whitney U-tests as well as regression and mediation analyses were performed.
Results
The results clearly show that the mental health burden is higher among individuals at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 compared to individuals at low risk of severe illness from Covid-19. Moreover, our findings indicate that the association between Covid-19 risk status and depressive symptoms is mediated by concerns about mental health, anxiety and loneliness in a causal effect chain.
Conclusions
Individuals at increased risk of severe illness from Covid-19 have an increased need for psychosocial support during times of lockdown. Future public health policies should pay special attention to these individuals and support them by targeted offers. More research, however, is needed on possible long-term consequences of social distancing on mental health.
In order to make justice work, participation and reconciliation is needed within and between societies, peoples, and nations. In this compilation, authors - senior academics as well as students from Bethlehem University, Israel, and the Catholic University of Applied Sciences, Cologne, Germany – contribute to this important field. Thus, to some extent, the book in itself is an example of the subjects it deals with.
Die Debatte um ferngesteuerte und sogenannte "autonome" militärische Robotik hat auch zu neuen Anfragen, an das soldatische Ethos geführt: Sollen Soldatinnen und Soldaten auch Risiken tragen, die sie mit technologischen Mitteln leicht vermeiden könnten? Werden durch den Einsatz von Drohnen und autonomen Waffensystemen militärische Tugenden zugrunde gehen? Wie viel technologische Asymmetrie ist in einem Kampf noch akzeptabel? Bedarf es eines neuen Ethos der Ritterlichkeit für Soldaten? Der vorliegende Band versucht, in einer thematischen Auswahl den traditionellen Grundideen von Ritterlichkeit und militärischer Tugend, wie etwa Tapferkeit, nachzuspüren. Auch fragt er nach der ethischen Bedeutung dieser soldatischen Eigenschaften für gegenwärtige Konflikte.
The speed of technological change is demonstrated not least by the new military technologies that are in use or are currently being developed. For example, the use of remote-controlled and semi-autonomous weapons systems has long been standard in the armed forces, and advances in artificial intelligence mean that more "decision-making " can be expected to be transferred to the machines used by the military. But not everything that is technologically possible is ethically justifiable. This volume, which brings together contributions to an annual conference of the European Chapter of the International Society for Military Ethics, attempts to address the ethical and legal problems posed by emerging military technologies. In a number of exciting essays, internationally renowned researchers present their insights.
The publication shows the significance of certain conflicts in international politics, considers how conflicts are dealt with in the theological and philosophical tradition as well as the approaches to a constructive conflict culture and their political institutionalization. Finally, the author explains how soldiers can be part of such a constructive conflict culture.
Background: An ever-increasing number of patients seek health information via the internet. However, there is an overabundance of differing, often low-quality information available, while a lack of health literacy makes it difficult for patients to understand and assess the quality and trustworthiness of the information at hand. The web portal tala-med was thus conceived as an evidence-based, up-to-date, and trustworthy information resource for lower back pain (LBP), which could be used by primary care physicians (PCPs) and patients during and following consultations for LBP. The current evidence demonstrates that patients with LBP could benefit from web portals. However, the use of such portals by patients remains low, thus limiting their effectiveness. Therefore, it is important to explore the factors that promote or hinder the use of web portals and investigate how patients perceive their usability and utility.
Objective: In this study, we investigated the acceptance, usability, and utility of the web portal tala-med from the patient perspective.
Methods: This qualitative study was based on telephone interviews with patients who had access to the web portal tala-med from their PCP. We used a semistructured interview guide that consisted of questions about the consultation in which patients were introduced to tala-med, in addition to questions regarding patient perceptions, experiences, and utilization of tala-med. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through framework analysis.
Results: A total of 32 half-hour interviews were conducted with 16 female and 16 male patients with LBP. We identified 5 themes of interest: the use of tala-med by PCPs during the consultation, the use of tala-med by patients, its usability, added values derived from its use, and the resultant effects of using tala-med. PCPs used tala-med as an additional information resource for their patients and recommended the exercises. The patients appreciated these exercises and were willing to use tala-med at home. We also identified factors that promoted or hindered the use of tala-med by patients. Most patients rated tala-med positively and considered it a clear, comprehensible, trustworthy, and practical resource. In particular, the trustworthiness of tala-med was seen as an advantage over other information resources. The possibilities offered by tala-med to recap and reflect on the contents of consultations in a time-flexible and independent manner was perceived as an added value to the PCP consultation.
Conclusions: Tala-med was well accepted by patients and appeared to be well suited to being used as an add-on to PCP consultations. Patient perception also supports its usability and utility. Tala-med may therefore enrich consultations and assist patients who would otherwise be unable to find good-quality web-based health information on LBP. In addition, our findings support the future development of digital health platforms and their successful use as a supplement to PCP consultations.
Treatment thresholds and minimal clinically important effect sizes of antiosteoporotic medication
(2022)
Background
Patient decisions to take preventative treatments for osteoporosis depend on their perceptions of fracture risk, medication effect sizes (ES) of benefits and harms. However, physicians and lay persons may have differing perceptions of risks and medication efficacy. Both tend to overestimate medication benefits. This study surveyed at what risk physicians would prescribe and lay persons would be willing to take bisphosphonates, the minimum ES both groups do demand and the physicians estimates of the actual benefit of bisphosphonates.
Design
Cross-sectional online questionnaire survey.
Methods
Respondents were confronted with a case vignette with an osteoporotic patient (10-year femoral fracture risk: 32%). They were asked at what threshold of 10-year-risk of femoral neck fracture they would prescribe or take a drug. They were asked for the minimum ES (absolute risk reduction, ARR) they demand from bisphosphonates to prescribe or take them. Physicians were asked to provide their estimate of the actual ARR of bisphosphonates.
Results
114 physicians and 140 lay persons answered (convenience sample/snowball distribution). The 10-year-risk threshold of lay persons (Mdnlay = 60%) willing to take medication was twice as high as the physicians’ threshold (Mdnphy = 30%) to prescribe it (p < .001). The median minimum ARR physicians demanded for bisphosphonates prescription was 17%, whereas lay persons demanded 22% (p < .001). Physicians estimated the actual ARR of bisphosphonates to be 12%. This estimated effect size was below their own minimum threshold for prescription.
Conclusions
Lay persons tolerate a higher fracture risk and demand a larger benefit of antiosteoporotic medication for fracture prevention than physicians. Physicians demand higher minimum benefits than their own estimates which in turn are above the benefit evidence suggests. Physicians should be more familiar with ES of antiosteoporotic drugs concerning patient outcomes and actively advise lay persons before preventive treatment decisions are taken.
Serotonin immunoreactivity was previously found in myenteric neurons co-innervating motor endplates in the mouse esophagus striated muscle and aninvolvement in motility control was suggested. However, it is not known ifother neuroactive substances are present in these neurons and to what extentthey co-localize. First, vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) was established as abona fide marker for putative inhibitory myenteric neurons by evaluating co-localization with neuronal nitric oxide synthase (nNOS) and neuropeptide Y(NPY). Then, co-localization of serotonin and VIP was tested in co-innervatingaxons on motor endplates, which were visualized withα-bungarotoxin (α-BT)by multilabel immunofluorescence. Myenteric ganglia were also surveyed forco-localization in neuronal perikarya and varicosities. nNOS, NPY, and VIPwere completely co-localized in enteric co-innervating nerve terminals onmotor endplates. After co-staining with VIP, we found (a) serotonin (5-HT)-positive nerve endings without VIP (44% of 5-HT-positively innervated end-plates), (b) 5-HT- and VIP-positive endings without co-localization (35%), and(c) 5-HT- and VIP-positive endings with co-localization (21%). About one-fifthof nerve terminals on motor endplates containing 5-HT originate from putativeinhibitory peptidegic nitrergic neurons. However, the majority represents a different population presumably subserving different functions.
Background and teaching situation: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic had a substantial didactic impact on medical teaching. In Erlangen, the lecture “General Practice” was offered asynchronously and digitally in an inverted-classroom concept. Contents were available via a learning platform. The lecture was presented using annotated videos, consolidation materials and control questions. A forum encouraged for discussions and feedback and collected in-depth aspects for a case-based video consultation. The aim of this work is to evaluate and critically examine the digital teaching concept during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Methodology: Two semester cohorts evaluated the lecture. Overall impression of the lecture, didactic elements, suitability and the desired future lecture format were surveyed quantitatively. Free text answers were evaluated by means of qualitative content synthesis.
Results: In terms of overall impression, the students (N=199) rated the lecture on average as “very good” (M=1.41, SD=.57). Digital methods were perceived as suitable for supporting self-study, and digital usage was rated as unproblematically (M=1.18, SD=.50). Desired future teaching formats were blended learning concepts (79.4%). Organisation, structure and content presentation were highly appreciated. The time for completing the course was perceived critically. The students urged for more practical and consolidating lecture work.
Discussion and implications: The results illustrate high acceptance of digital teaching and underline the demand for future blended learning concepts. It is particularly important to better consider the students’ time investment and practical relevance of digital self-learning mechanisms.
Education institutions in European immigration societies must struggle with a lot of challenges. About one-third of the refugees are school-age children and youth. Every third child has a migration biography and many of the refugee and displaced children and youth come from Arabic countries. They bring along their various religious affiliation and culture into secular societies formerly molded by Christianity. This situation requires a lot of special accommodations for educational institutions like schools, kindergarten, and religious communities. Besides language barriers and being mindful of their traumatic experiences, educational actors need to be sensitive in particular with intercultural and interreligious conflict situations, anti-Semitic or Islamophobic positions and radicalization tendencies of cultural and/or religious identity.
The background for this topic is provided by the experiences of children and youth, who give us an insight into the clash of different religions and cultures in immigrant educational systems, into the significance of faith, the complexity of hybrid identities, but also the experience of being subaltern. That there is the importance of religious literacy for coping with the impacts of migration in educational work in schools, churches and religious communities will finally be discussed.
Post-migrant societies in Europe are characterized by political, cultural, religious, and social changes. Where people meet under the conditions of migration and globalization, new places and spaces of negotiating are arising. They are formed by provocative questions, dynamic reorientation, and social transformation, in particular regarding religious affiliations, contexts and experiences. This article will consider challenges and the resources of religion in terms of coping with ambiguity and building up post-migrant community relations. In this context, the concept of the ‘contact zone’ as a post-migrant place or space provides an insight to social spaces where cultures and religions meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in emotionally charged contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, like displacement and their aftermaths. These contact zones offer a place of discussing power, oppression, and religious diversities, but also find innovative perspectives for post-migrant identities. With reference to this, three case studies based on experiences of refugees in Europe with contact zones in refugee centers, schools and educational institutions allow for an understanding of the significance of places, the feeling of rootlessness and the findings of new places of religious identity, of ‘embodied’ habitation and participation. Finally, this article emphasizes the meaning of public speech in post-migrant societies from a Christian perspective.
Religious Literacy in Early Childhood Education as a Societal Resource in Immigrant Societies
(2022)
Western immigration societies are struggling with numerous of educational challenges. Every third, sometimes every second child has an immigration biography and teachers working in early childhood education are often minimally prepared to deal with the resulting diverse and complex conditions of cultural and religious diversity. Children and Childhood studies show that religion is an essential reference point for migrant families and their children. How could these empirical settings be transformed into intercultural and inter-religious competences and spiritual well-being in early childhood education? In which ways religious education in pre-schools provides a “safe place” or space of negotiating (religious) identity, value building, resilience, and the capacity to deal with pluralism and otherness? On the basis of empirical and theoretical results, the opportunities of religious education in early childhood education for developing an attitude of global citizenship should be taken into serious consideration
This paper deals with the question, to what extent, in the German context, have biblical didactic implications and systemic requirements in religious education led to social inequality in heterogeneous classrooms. Based on four different case studies in elementary, middle, and vocational schools, an empirical insight is provided that sheds exploratory and descriptive light on the construction of reality in the context of biblical learning. The analysis clearly shows that physical as well as socialization-related limitations, structural and systemic conditions in the German school system, and also strangeness and existential irrelevance, are obvious barriers that prevent students in heterogeneous settings from accessing biblical learning. In the synopsis, with theological–pedagogical implications as well as didactical challenges, it becomes clear how necessary difference-sensitive Bible didactics in the context of heterogeneity and social inequality is. Finally, based on the empirical evidence of the analyzed case studies and the theoretical framings, concrete expectations for biblical learning in religious education, in relation to heterogeneity and social inequality, are highlighted.
The focus of this research is on the early acquisition of English as a
foreign language in primary schools in Austria and Norway. The aim of
this study was to find out the di!erences between the two countries
in the acquisition of English as a foreign language with regard to the
two curricula and the pedagogical concepts in primary school. Within
the framework of qualitative research, five interviews were conducted
with Austrian teachers and five interviews with Norwegian teachers
who teach English in primary schools. The data were analysed with the
help of qualitative content analysis according to Mayring. The results
of the guided interviews demonstrate the importance of the topic and
the di!erence in weighting that English has in both countries. In Norwegian
primary schools, English is taught as an independent subject.
This is considered an uno"cial main subject due to the low prevalence
of the Norwegian language. In Austrian primary schools, English has
the status of a compulsory exercise subordinate to that of an independent
subject and is taught using a curriculum with content dating
from 1998. Pedagogical concepts that emphasise the importance of
stress-free, fun-filled instruction emerged as commonalities between
the two countries.
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of different coping styles on situational coping in everyday life situations and gender differences. An ecological momentary assessment study with the mobile health app TrackYourStress was conducted with 113 participants. The coping styles Positive Thinking, Active Stress Coping, Social Support, Support in Faith, and Alcohol and Cigarette Consumption of the Stress and Coping Inventory were measured at baseline. Situational coping was assessed by the question “How well can you cope with your momentary stress level” over 4 weeks. Multilevel models were conducted to test the effects of the coping styles on situational coping. Additionally, gender differences were evaluated. Positive Thinking (p = 0.03) and Active Stress Coping (p = 0.04) had significant positive impacts on situational coping in the total sample. For women, Social Support had a significant positive effect on situational coping (p = 0.046). For men, Active Stress Coping had a significant positive effect on situational coping (p = 0.001). Women had higher scores on the SCI scale Social Support than men (p = 0.007). These results suggest that different coping styles could be more effective in daily life for women than for men. Taking this into account, interventions tailored to users’ coping styles might lead to better coping outcomes than generalized interventions.
"In the present study, we have examined in depth the portrait of Apollos in the writings of two New Testament authors - Paul and Luke - in order to highlight or approach the rhetorical-pragmatic implications they have for the authorial audience. Historical implications aside, or in addition to that, and despite the generational and generic (genre) difference between the two works, the effect of these two literary approaches on the figure of Apollos seems to have been aimed at bringing about a change in the audience’s perception."
Photovoice as a participatory method: impacts on the individual, community and societal levels
(2020)
We present the visual data collection method called “photovoice” in participatory research, and discuss its impetus for change and its possible impacts on work with different groups of people. Using three case examples
from PartKommPlus – Research Consortium for Healthy Communities, we report our experiences from joint research involving adults with learning difficulties and young people. Following the Photovoice Impact Model of
CATALANI and MINKLER (2010), we assigned the observed impacts to three categories: the individual, community and societal levels. In line with the model, we discuss the contribution that the photovoice method can make to the
individual empowerment of co-researchers, the understanding of community needs and assets, and to changing social reality by influencing political and other key actors.
Combating antisemitism is a young policy field with regard to structured state action. The article presents the relevance of combating antisemi-tism and its emergence as a decided state task in order to show exemplarily, using the Berlin model of combating antisemitism as an example, how it is concretely implemented in state action. Berlin is chosen for three reasons: First, the state of Berlin is the first and only federal state to have a cross-departmental concept for combating an-tisemitism. Second, the Berlin model is based on integrative cooperation between state and civil society agencies. Third, looking at Berlin allows for the perspective of interlocking different ver-tical differentiations of administration, since the state of Berlin is at the same time a large city, which with its twelve districts has administrative dimensions that correspond to those of other large German cities, in each case and in them-selves. In the absence of a federal comparative perspective, the focus of the article is descrip-tive-explorative.
This study investigates the characteristics perceived by English language teachers for setting effective online collaborative writing task goals using task-based langugage teach ing (TBLT) and provides advice to English student-teachers to help them with designing their own online writing task goals in the future. Two rounds of online semi-structured focus-group interviews were conducted with eight interviewees, who were MSc TESOL students in UK universities. The acquired dataset was thematically analysed in order to answer the two research questions of this study. Based on the results from the first round of interviews, we extended the seven general characteristics included in the conventional SMARTER effective-goal-setting framework to adapt to both the online collaborative learning environment and using TBLT, by identifying extra characteristics, three of which were then determined as the key characteristics from the second round of interviews. Accordingly, the measures for implementing these three key characteristics are provided as advice to better realise the increasingly popular online collaborative learning methods using TBLT, hence enhancing the application of the findings to practice.
Although he was a major figure in the early development of the Cistercian movement, liturgical veneration for St. Stephen Harding (†1134) seldom took place in the Middle Ages. Legends rarely discuss him. But in the Early Modern Period, he was "discovered" and credited more and more with being the sole author of the Carta Caritatis, although there were certainly other authors. This article shows how Stephen's personality was assessed differently from one era to the next.
Dieser Artikel erforscht, wie ein Forschender Lernansatz auf mehreren Ebenen als Prozess von partizipativer Aktionsforschung in der Schulentwicklung genutzt werden kann. Der Lernprozess findet im Klassenzimmer mit Schülerinnen und Schülern statt, aber auch bei den Lehrkräften selbst sowie, nicht zuletzt, beim unterstützenden außerschulischen Forschungsteam. Bei diesem Prozess sollen auf all diesen Ebenen gewisse Kriterien zur Entfaltung gebracht werden, die für forschende, partizipative Lernarrangements typisch sind. Das Ziel der Studie ist es, jene Parameter zu finden, die forschendes, partizipatives Lernen begünstigen, sowie spezifische Methoden zu identifizieren, die Lehrkräfte in ihren Unterrichtsstunden dafür tatsächlich einsetzen. Dies wird einerseits durch die quantitative Analyse von Daten untersucht, die die Lehrkräfte in ihren Klassen bei ihren Schülerinnen und Schülern sammelten, und andererseits durch die qualitative Analyse von Leitfadeninterviews des unterstützenden Forschungsteams mit acht Lehrkräften. Die Analysen der Daten zeigen, dass eine fundierte Kenntnis der Theorie zum Forschenden Lernen, die Unterstützung des Forschungsteams, die Teilnahme der Lehrkräfte an schulinternen Lerngemeinschaften und vor allem auch das Vertrauen, das Lehrkräfte in die Fähigkeiten ihrer Schülerinnen und Schüler haben, eine zentrale Rolle bei der Effektivität des forschenden, partizipativen Unterrichtsansatzes spielen. Es zeigt sich, dass professionelle Refexion und Analyse der Aktivitäten im Unterricht schließlich neue, vertiefende Zyklen von Aktionsforschung auslösen, den Prozess der partizipativen Aktionsforschung dadurch vorantreiben und letztlich in einen Schulentwicklungsprozess münden.
Der Beitrag berichtet von einer Studie unter 107 Englischstudierenden in Österreich, die in der ersten Phase des COVID-19 Lockdowns von März bis Juni 2020 durchgeführt wurde. Zur Untersuchung wurden vier Arten von Online Interaktion (learner-self, learner-interfact, learner-content und learner-support) herangezogen (Ally, 2011; Boling, Hough, Krinsky, Saleem, & Stevens, 2012; Zheng, Lin, & Kwon, 2020). In einem Mixed-methods Untersuchungsdesign wurden geschlossene Fragebogenitems mithilfe quantitativer Methoden auf Verteilung und Homogenität der verwendeten Skalen untersucht, während offene Fragestellungen mittels Inhaltsanalyse verarbeitet wurden. Diese parallel durchgeführten Analysen mündeten in eine Triangulation der Daten, welche die folgenden Ergebnisse brachte: Studierende erleben regelmäßige Unterstützung durch die Lehrenden, welche ihre Lehrmaterialien in Lernmaterialien umwandeln, als ihrem Lernerfolg zuträglich. Wichtig erscheint der Einbezug von Aufgaben, welche kognitiv anspruchsvolle Denkprozesse initiieren. Darüber hinaus wurden positive Lernerlebnisse in Bezug auf Unterstützung durch die Lehrpersonen beschrieben, jedoch ein Defizit in Bezug auf kooperative und kollaborative Lernformen unter Studierenden. Der Artikel endet mit Empfehlungen betreffend die Weiterentwicklung von Online Lehre und weiterführenden Forschungsideen.
Background: The present study examined the extent to which grit, self-efficacy, and resilience are present in newly immigrated adolescents and how they differ from the norm population. The data was also examined for gender differences and correlations with the variables.
Methods: The study examined newly immigrated adolescents (n=55) while using RS-13 (Resilience Scale), GSE (General Self-efficacy Scale) and the Grit-Scale. Furthermore, sociodemographic variables like age, religion and gender were collected. The study variables were self-reported and t-tests, asymptotic Mann-Whitney- U -Test and Bravais-Pearson correlation analysis were performed.
Results: The participants showed a lower score regarding grit and general self-efficacy compared to the norm population, but they exhibited a higher resilience-score. Female participants demonstrated a lower resilience-score than male participants. Male participants showed lower general self-efficacy compared to female participants. There were no gender differences with regard to grit. The data revealed a negative correlation between resilience and grit and resilience and general self-efficacy.
The Münster dissertation was accepted by Bruno Schüller (1925-2007) in 1984. The author, Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, was appointed Archbishop of Owerri in 2022. He is the president of the Nigerian Bishops' Conference. He published several works on moral theology since receiving his doctorate. Ugorji's doctoral thesis has received extraordinarily positive reviews from international experts. Nevertheless, a close reading reveals several problems concerning scientific ethics. This essay uses seven tables to document Ugorji's unacknowledged use of texts by other authors. Several passages are identical to popular reference works. Ugorji's book also contains numerous unacknowledged passages that can be found verbatim in an American dissertation published in 1935. In view of these facts, the research value of the Münster dissertation is open to discussion, as are the academic qualifications of its author.
Employees of the public employment services (PES) are street-level bureaucrats who shape activation policy on the ground. This paper examines how PES staff use enhanced discretion in an innovation project carried out by the German Federal Employment Agency. Applying a bottom-up perspective, we reconstruct PES employees’ logic of action and the dilemmas they face in improving counselling and placement services. According to our findings, placement staff use enhanced discretion to promote more individualised support and an adequate matching of jobseekers and employers. The use of discretion is framed by organisational norms and reward mechanisms and by the current labour market situation. Our analyses are based on qualitative interviews and group discussions with placement staff.
Employees of the public employment services (PES) are street-level bureaucrats who shape activation policy on the ground. This paper examines how PES staff use enhanced discretion in an innovation project carried out by the German Federal Employment Agency. Applying a bottom-up perspective, we reconstruct PES employees’ logic of action and the dilemmas they face in improving counselling and placement services. According to our findings, placement staff use enhanced discretion to promote more individualised support and an adequate matching of jobseekers and employers. The use of discretion is framed by organisational norms and reward mechanisms and by the current labour market situation. Our analyses are based on qualitative interviews and group discussions with placement staff.
Corona Health
(2021)
Physical and mental well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic is typically assessed via surveys, which might make it difficult to conduct longitudinal studies and might lead to data suffering from recall bias. Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) driven smartphone apps can help alleviate such issues, allowing for in situ recordings. Implementing such an app is not trivial, necessitates strict regulatory and legal requirements, and requires short development cycles to appropriately react to abrupt changes in the pandemic. Based on an existing app framework, we developed Corona Health, an app that serves as a platform for deploying questionnaire-based studies in combination with recordings of mobile sensors. In this paper, we present the technical details of Corona Health and provide first insights into the collected data. Through collaborative efforts from experts from public health, medicine, psychology, and computer science, we released Corona Health publicly on Google Play and the Apple App Store (in July 2020) in eight languages and attracted 7290 installations so far. Currently, five studies related to physical and mental well-being are deployed and 17,241 questionnaires have been filled out. Corona Health proves to be a viable tool for conducting research related to the COVID-19 pandemic and can serve as a blueprint for future EMA-based studies. The data we collected will substantially improve our knowledge on mental and physical health states, traits and trajectories as well as its risk and protective factors over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic and its diverse prevention measures.
Carmody was a prominent theater and film critic for The Washington (Evening) Star ca. 1934–1964. His career spans an important period in theater and film criticism, because Carmody helped introduce a new genre of American writing to a large audience. His writing combined Hollywood and Broadway appeal with a commitment to cutting-edge European cinema. His stance as a Catholic was morally conservative, yet his writing style was basically encouraging and friendly. Carmody received several awards and served on international film juries.
Vortrag bei der Generalversammlung 2018 von BETH (Bibliothèques Européennes de Théologie).
Es werden Charakter und Inhalt der sogenannten Kirchenkampfschriften beschrieben sowie das Projekt "Digitale Bibliothek des Kirchenkampfes" der Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Archive und Bibliotheken in der evangelischen Kirche.
Nursing homes are places of high complexity where staff, residents and the institution itself are in an interdependent, non-linear relationship. Therefore phenomena cannot be explained mono-causally and additively. The thesis focuses on the infuence of organizational characteristics on resident outcomes. These characteristics are limited by a number of internal and external infuences, such as legislation, economics, etc. This form of complex causality with its factors of equifnality, assymetry and conjunctural causation is the main reason why nursing homes are considered complex adaptive systems.
Organizational research has been aware of these methodological difficulties for many decades. However, the lack of a method capable of taking them into account has long led to a gap between theory and methods.
With the emergence and development of Qualitative Comparative Analysis by Charles Ragin in
1987, a way of closing this gap was found. The method is based on the principles of set theory and Mill's methods. With a synthesis of qualitative and quantitative elements, necessary and sufficent conditions for the emergence of an outcome are revealed through the analysis of a truth table. It is shown that although the method is already used in nursing science in several instances, it is still incomplete, erroneous, or not yet used in accordance with newest methodological developments in many places.
The own practical application shows that fundamental influences of organizational characteristics on the residents outcome "fall" can be demonstrated. The comprehensive organizational data from the research project "PiBaWü" were used for this purpose. However, the results also show that without the inclusion of person-intrinsic conditions no exhaustive solution can be found. In view of the high complexity of the phenomenon, this was to be expected. Nevertheless, the method offers decisive advantages for nursing science due to its possibilities to act with low data levels and smaller case numbers. At the same time, the need for theoretically sound assumptions also presents the discipline with obstacles.
As a catalyst for the lack of theory-building in recent decades, it can still have a stimulating effect and be seen as a real progress.
The Work of Fr. Raymond Flanagan, OCSO, Author of Historical Novels, Devotional Books, and Pamphlets
(2021)
Father Mary Raymond Flanagan (1903–1990), a monk of Gethsemani Abbey, was the widely- read author of dozens of books and pamphlets particularly popular in the 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s. Numbering in the dozens, his publications were characterized by a hard-hitting, vigorous Catholic piety that accentuated American family values, fidelity to Catholic traditions, the beauty of religious vocations, anti-Communism, and the athletic asceticism he associated with the first Cistercians. His works lost their appeal to a wide audience during the cultural shift of the late 1960s and later, but several of his writings have been reissued in recent years.
This essay includes a short biography and a bibliography of Flanagan's books and pamphlets.
Introduction: In emergency care, geriatric requirements and risks are often not taken sufficiently into account. In addition, there are neither evidence-based recommendations nor scientifically developed quality indicators (QI) for geriatric emergency care in German emergency departments. As part of the GeriQ-ED© research project, quality indicators for geriatric emergency medicine in Germany have been developed using the QUALIFY-instruments. Methods: Using a triangulation methodology, a) clinical experience-based quality aspects were identified and verified, b) research-based quality statements were formulated and assessed for relevance, and c) preliminary quality indicators were operationalized and evaluated in order to recommend a feasible set of final quality indicators. Results: Initially, 41 quality statements were identified and assessed as relevant. Sixty-seven QI (33 process, 29 structure and 5 outcome indicators) were extrapolated and operationalised. In order to facilitate implementation into daily practice, the following five quality statements were defined as the GeriQ-ED© TOP 5: screening for delirium, taking a full medications history including an assessment of the indications, education of geriatric knowledge and skills to emergency staff, screening for patients with geriatric needs, and identification of patients with risk of falls/ recurrent falls. Discussion: QIs are regarded as gold standard to measure, benchmark and improve emergency care. GeriQ-ED© QI focused on clinical experience- and research-based recommendations and describe for the first time a standard for geriatric emergency care in Germany. GeriQ-ED© TOP 5 should be implemented as a minimum standard in geriatric emergency care.
A longitudinal pilot study on stress-levels in the crowdsensing mHealth platform TrackYourStress
(2019)
Background: The mobile phone app, TrackYourStress (TYS), is a new crowdsensing mobile health platform for ecological momentary assessments of perceived stress levels.
Objective: In this pilot study, we aimed to investigate the time trend of stress levels while using TYS for the entire population being studied and whether the individuals’ perceived stress reactivity moderates stress level changes while using TYS.
Methods: Using TYS, stress levels were measured repeatedly with the 4-item version of the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-4), and perceived stress reactivity was measured once with the Perceived Stress Reactivity Scale (PSRS). A total of 78 nonclinical participants, who provided 1 PSRS assessment and at least 4 repeated PSS-4 measurements, were included in this pilot study. Linear multilevel models were used to analyze the time trend of stress levels and interactions with perceived stress reactivity.
Results: Across the whole sample, stress levels did not change while using TYS (P=.83). Except for one subscale of the PSRS, interindividual differences in perceived stress reactivity did not influence the trajectories of stress levels. However, participants with higher scores on the PSRS subscale reactivity to failure showed a stronger increase of stress levels while using TYS than participants with lower scores (P=.04).
Conclusions: TYS tracks the stress levels in daily life, and most of the results showed that stress levels do not change while using TYS. Controlled trials are necessary to evaluate whether it is specifically TYS or any other influence that worsens the stress levels of participants with higher reactivity to failure.
Mobile apps are increasingly utilized to gather data for various healthcare aspects. Furthermore, mobile apps are used to administer interventions (e.g., breathing exercises)to individuals. In this context, mobile crowdsensing constitutes a technology, which is used to gather valuable medical databased on the power of the crowd and the offered computationalcapabilities of mobile devices. Notably, collecting data withmobile crowdsensing solutions has several advantages comparedto traditional assessment methods when gathering data overtime. For example, data is gathered with high ecological validity, since smartphones can be unobtrusively used in everyday life. Existing approaches have shown that based on these advantages new medical insights, for example, for the tinnitus disease, can be revealed. In the work at hand, data of a developed mHealth crowdsensing platform that assesses the stress level and fluctuations of the platform users in daily life was investigated. More specifically, data of 1797 daily measurements on GPS and stress-related data in 77 users were analyzed. Using this data source, machine learning algorithms have been applied with the goalto predict stress-related parameters based on the GPS data of the platform users. Results show that predictions become possible that (1) enable meaningful interpretations as well as (2) indicate the directions for further investigations. In essence, the findings revealed first insights into the stress situation of individuals over time in order to improve their quality of life. Altogether, the work at hand shows that mobile crowdsensing can be valuably utilized in the context of stress on one hand. On the other, machine learning algorithms are able to utilize geospatial data of stress measurements that was gathered by a crowdsensing platform with the goal to improve the quality of life of its participating crowd users.
The following dissertation addresses the longstanding problem of religious language. The work begins by explaining the shortcomings of the various philosophical approaches to religious language, before ultimately presenting a novel concept of religious language built upon Richard
Rorty’s position of philosophical ironism. The freshly minted concept of ironic theology is further
unpacked as building from Rorty’s own understanding of contingent final vocabulary.
Section two shines a light on the ancestors of ironic thought by presenting an analysis of theologian Johann Gottfried Herder, as a proto-ironist figure. This point is argued based upon Herder’s own focus upon the historical contingency of language, as well as his potential to be read
as a pragmatic thinker.
Section three closes the dissertation by applying the theoretical framework of ironic theology to the on-going task of interreligious dialogue. Here it is argued that the principles of contingent language and philosophical humility can be applied as a grounds for maintaining healthy
dialogue.
This dissertation aims to shift academic theology beyond the realm of stale history-oriented theory and towards a variety of imaginative new forms of practical religious language and concepts.
Insights Europe 2016-1
(2016)
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The history of the Congo Evangelistic Mission/Communauté Pentecôtiste au Zaïre from 1915 to 1982
(2008)
Geschichte der Congo Evangelistic Mission/Communauté Pentecôtiste au Zaïre von 1915 bis 1982. Zugl.: Aberdeen, Univ., Diss., 1983