Search

This paper examines the technologisation of the pedagogical space "classroom". We will discuss the development and establishment of the subject-specific classroom system in the German Democratic Republic (GDR, East Germany, 1949–1989) by taking a closer look at organisational-structural conditions and responsibilities, as well as at the functioning and challenges that emerged during the implementation of subject classrooms. The furnishing of the subject classroom with seating, desks, teaching and learning objects including technical equipment, and storage furniture was planned down to the last detail and aligned to the requirements of the curriculum. We will concentrate on the classrooms for Physics and Music to highlight the peculiarities of this principle of school spatial organisation and its impact on social school practice. Our paper will focus on the political agenda and regulations, by drawing on sources from state-led research programmes. The article uses the concept of the classroom dispositif as a description of the programmatic claims. Thus, the subject-specific classroom could be considered as a technically shaped apparatus whose architectural structure determines pedagogical practices in their spatial, temporal, social, institutional, and technical dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper, based on 15 months of fieldwork and archival research carried out in 2018/2019 for my PhD in Social Anthropology, takes as its object the everyday coexistence with the Second World War military dead scattered across the rural landscape of Brandenburg, formerly part of the German Democratic Republic (1949–1990). Focusing on the practices through which the living relate to the war dead 'out of place', I argue that the construction of the war dead as valued members of the social collectivity does not necessarily depend upon their ritual 'separation'. Indeed, the physical proximity of the misplaced and unrelated war dead in my fieldsite results in their adoption and conceptualization as local dead. I contextualize attachments to the fallen in the local history of chaotic 'total war', which collapsed the boundary between the military and civilian experience of war, and transformed the spaces of everyday life into battlefields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to further develop the CLC stage/path's identification model that distinguishes between path's emergence (emergence stage), path's development (growth stage), path's sustainment (maturity stage), path's decline (decline stage) and path's transformation (renewal stage), and by applying it, define the current stage/path of the Demarcated Douro Region (DDR) cluster. The Port wine industry, which is the dominant industry of the DDR cluster, is at the maturity/decline stage – is the same for the cluster itself? Design/methodology/approach: It is a case study with a longitudinal perspective based on the analysis of the dynamics of the parameters of cluster evolution using available secondary sources (cluster identity/brand; number of firms; number of employees; network; innovation; policies and regulations; and external markets – exports), especially addressing the past decade, that represent the stage of maturity/decline of the cluster's dominant Port wine industry. Findings: The conclusion is that since the 1990s the Demarcated Douro Region has gone through a "path transformation" where during the following 20 years new "anchors" for the cluster were gradually introduced, such as Doc Douro Wines, new forms of consumption of Port wine, tourism and olive oil. Since 2010 the cluster has entered a growth stage/(new) path's development, where these "anchors" are in steady growth. The Douro brand is becoming more internationally recognized and established, the number of firms and employees is increasing, the network is restructuring with the creation of cluster-specific official institutions, innovation is especially reflected with increasing heterogeneity through diversification of the clusters into new activities and regulations and policies are supportive for expansion – all these parameters are indicating the rise of the new cycle for the cluster. Thus, the DDR cluster represents an attractive business environment and requires attention from regional policymakers to support the cluster's development. Especially institutions have been highlighted as internal factors driving clusters growth, European integration as an external factor and firms' strategies of diversification and internationalization as an appropriate de-locking mechanism for new path's development. Research limitations/implications: This research contributes to the CLC theory by further developing and applying a CLC stage/path identification model. It provides a better understanding of the dynamics of the DDR cluster that diverge from its dominant industry life cycle, which is relevant for regional policies and firms' strategies. This study has its limitations. It provides an exploratory application of the theoretical framework proposed, and consequently, no general conclusions are possible yet. More empirical studies with different clusters in different stages are necessary to test the framework. Practical implications: These findings are useful to policymakers when designing their policies for cluster development but also for clusters' entities and actors when making their strategic decisions as it allows based on the verification of the established parameter of CLC to identify its current stage/path of development. Originality/value: The paper presents a theoretically grounded model for CLC identification and for the first time to the best of the authors' knowledge applies it to a cluster case – the DDR cluster. This case applies the proposed model and illustrates its usefulness. The model provides the tools for a better understanding of cluster dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This document is an editorial from the International Journal of Molecular Sciences that discusses the intricate relationship between DNA damage response (DDR) and metabolism. It highlights the importance of maintaining genomic integrity and the role of metabolism in providing energy and building blocks for DNA repair processes. The editorial also introduces a collection of nine papers from leading experts in the fields of DNA damage response and cancer metabolism, which explore various aspects of DDR and its connection to cancer, aging, and metabolic diseases. The findings presented in these papers contribute to our understanding of genomic stability and offer potential avenues for preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic strategies. [Extracted from the article]

The early diagnosis of diabetic retinopathy (DR) can effectively prevent irreversible vision loss and assist ophthalmologists in providing timely and accurate treatment plans. However, the existing methods based on deep learning have a weak perception ability of different scale information in retinal fundus images, and the segmentation capability of subtle lesions is also insufficient. This paper aims to address these issues and proposes MLNet for DR lesion segmentation, which mainly consists of the Multi-Scale Attention Block (MSAB) and the Lesion Perception Block (LPB). The MSAB is designed to capture multi-scale lesion features in fundus images, while the LPB perceives subtle lesions in depth. In addition, a novel loss function with tailored lesion weight is designed to reduce the influence of imbalanced datasets on the algorithm. The performance comparison between MLNet and other state-of-the-art methods is carried out in the DDR dataset and DIARETDB1 dataset, and MLNet achieves the best results of 51.81% mAUPR, 49.85% mDice, and 37.19% mIoU in the DDR dataset, and 67.16% mAUPR and 61.82% mDice in the DIARETDB1 dataset. The generalization experiment of MLNet in the IDRiD dataset achieves 59.54% mAUPR, which is the best among other methods. The results show that MLNet has outstanding DR lesion segmentation ability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diabetic retinopathy (DR) is a serious ocular complication that can pose a serious risk to a patient's vision and overall health. Currently, the automatic grading of DR is mainly using deep learning techniques. However, the lesion information in DR images is complex, variable in shape and size, and randomly distributed in the images, which leads to some shortcomings of the current research methods, i.e., it is difficult to effectively extract the information of these various features, and it is difficult to establish the connection between the lesion information in different regions. To address these shortcomings, we design a multi-scale dynamic fusion (MSDF) module and combine it with graph convolution operations to propose a multi-scale dynamic graph convolutional network (MDGNet) in this paper. MDGNet firstly uses convolution kernels with different sizes to extract features with different shapes and sizes in the lesion regions, and then automatically learns the corresponding weights for feature fusion according to the contribution of different features to model grading. Finally, the graph convolution operation is used to link the lesion features in different regions. As a result, our proposed method can effectively combine local and global features, which is beneficial for the correct DR grading. We evaluate the effectiveness of method on two publicly available datasets, namely APTOS and DDR. Extensive experiments demonstrate that our proposed MDGNet achieves the best grading results on APTOS and DDR, and is more accurate and diverse for the extraction of lesion information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The socialist German Democratic Republic (GDR) in the east part of former divided Germany, which existed between 1949 and 1990, saw the emancipation of women as a national objective. In this paper we examine the gender ideologies of young people in the GDR in relation to state socialist ideas of gender equality. First, we outline the GDR's socialist state policy in favour of maternal full-time employment, even with young children, between the 1950s and the 1980s. We then present the results of our analysis of gender ideologies using survey data collected by the GDR's Central Institute of Youth Research in 1984. By applying latent class analysis, we identify two patterns of egalitarianism in the analytic sample, which we term 'all-inclusive-egalitarians' and 'not-in-my-backyard-egalitarians' ('nimby-egalitarians'). The former supported gender equality in both the public and familial spheres. The nimby-egalitarians, by contrast, had ambivalent attitudes, as they supported gender equality in the public sphere and at the same time held more traditional attitudes towards the private sphere. Our study demonstrates that after almost 40 years of propagating gender equality, state socialism in the GDR had some success in shaping societal gender ideologies. However, we reveal ambivalences which researchers have previously often overseen, especially in contrast to the Western part of Germany. The top-down shaped GDR patterns of egalitarianism also bear similarities to the stalled gender revolution in contemporary Western democratic societies. Beyond the results, the paper proves the richness and principle usability of hitherto rarely used data sets preserved from the GDR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes diverse features extracted from spoken language to select the most discriminative ones for dementia detection. We present a two-step feature selection (FS) approach: Step 1 utilizes filter methods to pre-screen features, and Step 2 uses a novel feature ranking (FR) method, referred to as dual dropout ranking (DDR), to rank the screened features and select spoken language biomarkers. The proposed DDR is based on a dual-net architecture that separates FS and dementia detection into two neural networks (namely, the operator and selector). The operator is trained on features obtained from the selector to reduce classification or regression loss. The selector is optimized to predict the operator's performance based on automatic regularization. Results show that the approach significantly reduces feature dimensionality while identifying small feature subsets that achieve comparable or superior performance compared with the full, default feature set. The Python codes are available at https://github.com/kexquan/dual-dropout-ranking. • Dual-net architecture enables automatic regularization. • Ensemble from multiple cross-validations stabilizes detection performance. • Two-step feature selection significantly reduces feature dimensions. • Identified spoken language biomarkers boost detection performance. • Codes are available at https://github.com/kexquan/dual-dropout-ranking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study aims to elucidate the quantitative and qualitative differences in employment development between German districts. Building on ideas from competitive development and resource-based theory, the paper particularly seeks to explain enduring East-West differences between rural regions by two different forms of competitive advantage: cost leadership and quality differentiation. Design/methodology/approach: This study follows a two-step empirical approach: First, an extended shift-share regression is conducted to analyze employment development in Western and Eastern German districts between 2007 and 2016. Second, the competitive share effect and other individual terms of the shift-share model are further examined in additional regressions using regional economic characteristics as exogenous variables. Findings: The findings suggest that the above-average employment growth of the rural districts in the West is owed to the successful exploitation of experience in manufacturing that has been gathered by firms in the past 100 years or so. While their strategy is largely based on advanced and specialized resources and an innovation-driven differentiation strategy, the relatively weak employment development of Eastern rural districts might be explained by a lack of comparable long-term experiences and the related need to focus on the exploitation of basic and general resources and, accordingly, on the efficiency-based strategy of cost leadership. Originality/value: This study offers an in-depth empirical analysis of how the competitive share effect, i.e. region-specific resources beyond industry structure, contributes to regional employment development. The analysis reveals that quantitative differences in rural employment development are closely related to qualitatively different levels of input factors and different regimes of competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research, Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries were tested at four different charge rates (DCR): 0.2C, 0.5C, 1C, and 1.5C, and four different discharge rates (DDR): 0.5C, 0.9C, 1.3C, 1.6C. This paper proposes a capacity fade model for charging and discharging at accelerated current-rate (C-rate), to interpret the vulnerabilities of Li-ion batteries in energy storage system, because Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are prone to ageing at the fluctuation of the loads in micro-grids. The characteristics of Li-ion batteries both at accelerated DCR and DDR are thoroughly investigated. It is discovered that charging and discharging Li-ion batteries outside of the standard C-rate accelerates their ageing. In addition, the degree of capacity fade is assessed at an accelerated C-rate to develop an ideal charge and discharge model for the micro-grids. Furthermore, the battery capacity fade model is then investigated with deep learning algorithm-based feed-forward neural network (FNN), and recurrent neural network with long-short term memory layer (RNN-LSTM). A comparison of the developed capacity fade models is performed, and it is discovered that the LSTM-RNN battery ageing model outperforms the conventional FNN network at accelerated C-rate. Nevertheless, the error metrics performance of both FNN and LSTM-RNN are less than 0.1%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The DNA damage response (DDR) is a signaling cascade that is triggered by DNA damage, involving the halting of cell cycle progression and repair. It is a key event leading to senescence, which is characterized by irreversible cell cycle arrest and the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) that includes the expression of inflammatory cytokines. Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is a ubiquitous pathogen that plays an important role in the senescence process. It has been established that DDR is necessary for HCMV to replicate effectively. This paper reviews the relationship between DDR, cellular senescence, and HCMV, providing new sights for virus-induced senescence (VIS). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores negotiations of futures within and beyond Germany's formerly fastest shrinking city, the East German city of Hoyerswerda. Originally built for the German Democratic Republic's miners and energy workers, its model socialist New City attracted tens of thousands of people in the latter half of the 20th century. In the wake of German reunification, this direction of mobility reversed. Economic transformations resulted in widespread unemployment and subsequent outmigration. Mostly the young and well-educated left the city, as reunified Germany saw millions of East Germans move 'to the West'. Beyond outmigration, those staying behind continued to face their city's presumed loss of the future. However, widespread expectations of better futures elsewhere did not necessarily result in ever more people leaving. Futures elsewhere were contrasted to futures elsewhen: hopeful local futures different to the one of continuous decline so commonly predicted. Based on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, I explore these entangled practices of place- and future-making and map the different expectations of im/mobility that make up a surprisingly complex local regime of im/mobility. I do so in order to ascertain what keeps peripheral postindustrial cities like Hoyerswerda going amidst accelerated urban decline and ubiquitous outmigration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

INTRODUCTION: Quality Standards (QS) are an important priority in European drug policy, although the extent of their application remains unclear. The FENIQS-EU project (Further ENhancing the Implementation of Quality Standards in drug demand reduction across Europe) was set up to foster the use of QS. The objective of this paper is to present the main findings of the first 18 months of this project. METHODS: A multi-method study design was used to assess the application of QS. It consisted of: 1) an online survey and brief interviews with key stakeholders in various areas of drug demand reduction across Europe; 2) the development of criteria and selection of examples of inspiring practices; 3) a Delphi study to reach consensus around successful QS implementation strategies. RESULTS: QS have been implemented in the prevention domain, with the European Drug Prevention Quality Standards being the most commonly implemented standards. In the treatment/social reintegration domain, national standards and the Standards and Goals of Therapeutic Communities are most commonly used, while the EU Council conclusions on the implementation of minimum quality standards are primarily applied in the field of harm reduction. In total, 14 inspiring examples of practice were selected. Three rounds of a Delphi study resulted in consensus on successful implementation strategies, covering five core themes: collaboration, communication, support structure, education, and funding. DISCUSSION: Despite the recognition that the implementation of QS is important, these efforts vary across European countries and are unevenly spread across DDR areas. CONCLUSION: This paper focuses on the relevance of QS availability, and emphasises key factors influencing successful implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mid-level commanders are commonly considered the visible heads of the rebel body: as leaders of combat operations, they are often targeted in counterterrorism or counterinsurgency operations. While their role during conflict has been theorized extensively, only recent scholarship has focused on mid-level commanders in post-conflict transitions. Specifically, it is not clear how mid-level commanders function within ex-combatant groups to create divergent peacebuilding results. This paper argues that transitions from conflict involve fraying of wartime bonds and rebel command-and-control structures, which is counterproductive to peace when rebels demobilize collectively. In peacetime and in the absence of wartime command, social groups formed through military logic struggle to redefine individual roles. Mid-level commanders, responsible for shaping intergroup bonds during conflict, are essential for allocating ex-combatant roles and redefining rebel-civilian relations. Against the common practice of breaking rebel wartime command-and-control structure during demobilization, this paper argues that ex-combatant groups can demobilize and reintegrate more successfully if they maintain their wartime cohesion and are provided the necessary tools for building sustainable livelihoods. To support the argument, the paper provides original qualitative and quantitative evidence from the Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) programme with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing amount of literature in economic geography showing that historical episodes can leave long‐lasting cultural and institutional legacies across space. For credibly identifying such persistent effects the analyses should not pick up trends preceding the respective episodes. Against this background, the paper re‐examines the famous case of the German division and reunification. The empirical focus is on the persistent mark‐up of women in work in East relative to West German regions that are often associated with legacy effects of the socialist regime that was in place in East Germany during the country's four decades of division. In contrast to the conventional wisdom in academia, policy, and the public, the current paper shows that the higher share of working women in East German regions is not due to a legacy of socialism. Female labor force participation was already remarkably higher in the East before the introduction of socialism. The general lesson is that any attempt to explain spatial variation in individual decision‐making by persisting institutional and cultural legacies of certain historical episodes needs to assess regional conditions predating these episodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the year of 2015, about 800.000 refugees arrived in Germany, a number which equals around one percent of the total population. This migration process was labelled the refugee crisis and was accompanied by a contested debate. On the one hand, there was a widespread willingness to voluntarily help arriving refugees, on the other hand, the number of xenophobic attacks against refugees drastically increased. Our paper will focus on a specific form of xenophobic violence with a strong symbolic meaning: We analyze how arson attacks against collective accommodation facilities spread. Using a comprehensive web chronicle, we collected temporal and spatial data about arson attacks perpetrated on accommodations or facilities for refugees in Germany between 2015 and 2017. We counted 251 attacks, assigned each incident location to its county, merged county characteristics such as population size, proportion of foreigners, right-wing party support, and—going beyond previous research—added geographically coded media data from two digital archives. Besides newspaper contents of a popular nation-wide tabloid, we use a data base that covers local fake news on refugees. Based on these data, we constructed a balanced panel data set with the counties as geographical units and periods of 14 days as the time dimension. Results indicate that social contagion drives the diffusion process of arson attacks. Spatial proximity of previous attacks increased the propensity of attacks in the neighboring counties. Attacks were more likely to occur in counties with larger populations and fewer foreigners. While local newspaper coverage did not impact the diffusion of xenophobic attacks, fake news were relevant–but only in East Germany. We also considered two particularly salient threatening events that received nation-wide media attention, namely Merkel's "border opening" on the 5th of September 2015 and the sexual assaults occurring during New Year's 2015/16 in Cologne. Both were followed by temporary increases in violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the last two decades, large housing estates in eastern Germany have become the scene of an increased concentration of low-income households. At the same time, considerable shifts in the structure of home ownership have been documented in these areas. National and international investors have acquired large housing stocks here and become a fundamental part of the local housing markets. This paper discusses the connection between both developments. Based on a case study in two large housing estates in Halle (Saale) and Schwerin, it is argued that the relative impoverishment of large housing estates can be traced back to two developments on the supply side: On the one hand, municipal housing companies are increasingly made responsible for the provision of homes for households that cannot provide for themselves on the market. Due to the uneven spatial distribution of municipal housing, this leads to an increased concentration of poor households in the large housing estates. On the other hand, letting policies of financial investors are characterised by tight yield requirements. In view of a rather restrained demand for the housing they manage, they therefore increasingly rent their flats to population groups that are avoided by other landlords. Together, these developments operate like a 'segregationmachine', which continuously shifts low-income population groups to the large housing estates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the social and symbolic meanings of recipes in the creation of community imagined online. Linking scholarship on the social relevance of recipes with research on food memories, identity, as well as research on memory in the digital age, I examine how internet users remember the German Democratic Republic (GDR) through recipes they post and discuss online on the two most popular German-based recipe sharing websites. My findings show that sharing and commenting on recipes is a form of collective identity labor through which Internet users create, negotiate and maintain symbolic boundaries between East and West Germany. Specifically, I identify key dynamics of how recipes – as vehicles of identity labor – perform collective GDR identity: negotiations about authenticity and collective affirmations of GDR identity which both serve as symbolic demarcations within a Western-centered reunified Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The representation of East Germans in elite positions has been a broadly debated topic. Most studies show that, comparative to other elite sectors, East Germans are best represented in politics. However, in some areas of the political sector, like the federal government, we find very few East Germans, despite Angela Merkel's chancellorship. This paper looks at East German representation in parliamentary leadership positions. It finds East Germans remain underrepresented in these positions, especially outside of The Left. It explores three explanatory approaches: (1) there are not enough East Germans in the recruitment pool, (2) East German members lack the desired qualifications and (3) the leadership recruitment process is biased against East Germans. Using statistical analysis based on a biographical dataset including all MPs from the 13th to the 18th legislative period, it finds that both low East German membership in the Bundestag and the existence of a bias lead to underrepresentation of East Germans in those positions. While The Left tries to strongly represent East German interests by recruiting them into leadership positions, East Germans' access to these positions in all other party parliamentary groups remains low. This has negative effects on the substantive representation of East Germans and on their trust in representative democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The reunification of the socialist German Democratic Republic and the capitalist Federal Republic of Germany presents a unique setting for studying the impact of socio-economic and political change on migration. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the interdisciplinary literature on migration between East and West Germany since reunification, conducted in disciplines such as economics, demography, sociology, and human geography. We synthesise the literature with regard to data-related challenges as well as individual and contextual determinants of migration. We clarify some misinterpretations and discrepancies in previous studies, identify research gaps, and suggest directions for future research. Our review demonstrates that East-West migration mainly occurred in line with what could have been expected based on migration theory with regard to migrants' sex, age, education, labour market position, and social networks. West-East migration, in contrast, was strongly affected by return migrants who often stated non-occupational motives for moving. On the contextual level, differences in wages are better able to explain East-West migration over time than differences in unemployment rates. West-East migration, however, cannot be explained well with such macroeconomic models. This paper contributes a point of reference for future research on this topic, as well as on internal migration and socio-economic disparities in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employment among mothers has been rising in recent decades, although mothers of young children often work fewer hours than other women do. Parallel to this trend, approval of maternal employment has increased, albeit not evenly across groups. However, differences in attitudes remain unexplored despite their importance for better understanding mothers' labour market behaviour. Meanwhile, the employment of fathers has remained stable and attitudes towards paternal employment do not differ as much as attitudes towards maternal employment do between socio-economic groups. This paper examines attitudes towards maternal and paternal employment. It focuses on Germany, drawing on data from the German Family Demography Panel Study (FReDA). The survey explicitly asks whether mothers and fathers should be in paid work, work part-time or full-time, presenting respondents with fictional family profiles that vary the youngest child's age. Unlike previous studies, the analysis compares the views of respondents with different origins: West Germany, East Germany, immigrants from different world regions, and second-generation migrants in West Germany. The results highlight remarkable differences between respondents from West and East Germany, with the former group displaying strong approval for part-time employment among mothers and fathers of very young children and the latter group reporting higher approval for full-time employment. Immigrant groups are far from homogenous, holding different attitudes depending on their region of origin. Taken together, the results offer a nuanced picture of attitudes towards maternal and paternal employment. We discuss these findings in relation to labour markets participation in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The long-prevailing image of a clear delimitation between core city and suburbs has been increasingly questioned in research. New qualitative approaches are necessary to describe the urban-suburban relationship based on a sociocultural heterogenization of suburbs and the spread of suburban lifestyles into inner cities. The concept of inner-city suburbanization is one approach to define spaces as urban or suburban regardless of geographical location. Drawing upon this concept, the present paper explores suburban lifestyles in the inner-city area of Leipzig and their role in the sociospatial urban transformation. For this purpose, we identify and map owner-occupied middle-class family housing estates in central urban locations. Using qualitative individual and focus group interviews with the residents, complemented by site observation, we explore to what extent these single-family houses resemble traditional suburbs in terms of morphology and social structure in four different case studies. All of the cases show how suburban qualities, such as homeownership and socio-economical homogeneity, go hand in hand with the benefits of their urban locations. This hybrid character reflects the dissolution of the classical place-specific distinctions between urban and suburban environments and patterns. Simultaneously, dynamics of upgrading and social exclusion from housing unfold in the residential areas, where middle-class family housing estates emerge. Thus, we raise the question of the interrelation between inner-city suburbanization processes and gentrification trends in Leipzig. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an often-overlooked period of conflict, the era of transformation after German re-unification represents a time of collective and individual identity crisis for East Germans, who experienced a loss of their Lebenswelt (lifeworld; Edmund Husserl) and a devaluation of their life achievements that often led to severe discontent, causing conflict both in and between East and West Germany. During this period, People of Colour experienced a discharge of the general tension through a sharp increase in violence directed against them by radical right-wing actors. Since then, their experiences have gone largely unnoticed in popular media and publications, having only recently found their way into a broader discourse of remembrance. This paper seeks to contribute to a shift away from a discussion about People of Colour and towards a position that focuses on their narratives, experiences and opinions. In doing so, it takes a firmly female-centred perspective, using written and video-recorded material from Women of Colour as a doubly marginalised group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Video retrieval methods, e.g., for visual concept classification, person recognition, and similarity search, are essential to perform fine-grained semantic search in large video archives. However, such retrieval methods often have to be adapted to the users' changing search requirements: which concepts or persons are frequently searched for, what research topics are currently important or will be relevant in the future? In this paper, we present VIVA, a software tool for building content-based video retrieval methods based on deep learning models. VIVA allows non-expert users to conduct visual information retrieval for concepts and persons in video archives and to add new people or concepts to the underlying deep learning models as new requirements arise. For this purpose, VIVA provides a novel semi-automatic data acquisition workflow including a web crawler, image similarity search, as well as review and user feedback components to reduce the time-consuming manual effort for collecting training samples. We present experimental retrieval results using VIVA for four use cases in the context of a historical video collection of the German Broadcasting Archive based on about 34,000 h of television recordings from the former German Democratic Republic (GDR). We evaluate the performance of deep learning models built using VIVA for 91 GDR specific concepts and 98 personalities from the former GDR as well as the performance of the image and person similarity search approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the 1970s, the existing historical building stock gained more value. Monument protection was gradually introduced in the urban planning process as were its methods and instruments. Approaches for an urban development based on the existing building stock were made in both former german countries, GDR (German Democratic Republic) and FGR (Federal Republic of Germany), even if the extent was different. Especially with the regeneration of the historical old towns in the GDR beginning in late 1989, early 1990, the preservation of urban architectural heritage formally became an integrated part of urban development strategies in united Germany. The adaption and development of instruments to protect and develop historical city centres is part of the research project 'Stadtwende', funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Surveys based on the results of qualitative expert interviews and archive research show that the 'turn' (Wende) in 1989 had an impact on the development of a planning practice that took the existing building stock into account. With regard to recent trends the paper shows the historical genesis of the preservation of urban heritage in urban planning and asks to what extent it could support a resource-saving urban development today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article will argue that the popularization of the amateur genre 'family film' in guides, manuals and a leisure film festival became a paternalistic strategy to regulate individual moviemakers in state socialism. It reveals the benefits of historical research on guiding literature and guidelines at an amateur festival in East Germany. Analyzing promoted norms diachronically points to a changing understanding of leisure in socialism. Additionally, it reveals a complex media history that is not reduced to top-down orders. On the contrary, guides display constant negotiations between state regulation and individualism. Thus, this paper questions a perspective on private media production in the GDR that is often politicized by categories such as propaganda or subversion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the number of people who do not belong to any religion ("nones") has long been observed in many societies in the Northern hemisphere. This process is already well advanced in East Germany, where the proportion of "stable nones", i.e., those who grew up without any ties to religion from childhood onwards, has become particularly large and will most likely form the majority in the near future. Given the sociocultural relevance of this group, it is worth taking a closer look at them. In this paper, we examine how far they differ in terms of their familial religious conditions of origin and their present-day religiosity from the nones who still grew up in a religious-denominational tradition ("leavers"), and also from those who still have ties to a denomination ("affiliates"). Finally, we discuss the consequences for the future development of the religious field that arise from the fact that the group of "stable nones" will constitute the majority. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing inequality of private income and wealth requires the redistribution of financial resources. Thus, several financial support schemes allocate budget across countries or regions. This work shows how to estimate private wealth at low regional levels by means of a modified Fay–Herriot approach that deals with (a) unit and item non-response, especially with used multiple imputation, (b) the skewness of the wealth distribution, and (c) inconsistencies of the regional estimates with the national direct estimate. One compelling example for financial redistribution is the promoted catching-up process of East Germany after the German reunification. This work shows that 25 years after the reunification differences are more diverse than just between the East and the West by estimating private wealth at two regional levels in Germany. The analysis is based on the Household Finance and Consumption Survey (HFCS) that the European Central Bank launched for all euro area countries in 2010. Although the application in this paper focuses particularly on Germany, the approach proposed is applicable to the other countries participating in the HFCS as well as to other surveys that make use of multiple imputation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of hard exudate (EX) lesions is an early clinical symptom of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR); its accurate segmentation is essential for diagnosis and treatment. Automatic segmentation of EX lesions is challenging because they have a wide range of sizes, shapes, and brightness, and can be confused with soft exudate lesions. In this paper, we present and assess an efficient segmentation method for interactively segmenting EX lesions in fundus images from DR patients. Our approach consisted of two main stages: (1) the first stage generates an automatic segmentation using a CNN-based method. (2) If the obtained segmentation is suboptimal, the second stage is used to refine each inaccurately segmented region using a CNN-based interactive segmentation method. To train and evaluate method performance, we used two public datasets (IDRiD and DDR) and two local datasets from two medical centers (EHos and EWT) containing a wide range of EX lesions. Several state-of-the art CNN-based models and the proposed method were trained and evaluated on IDRiD, DDR and EHos datasets using the area under the precision–recall curve (AUPR), the dice similarity coefficient (Dice) and the intersection over union (IoU). In addition, EWT dataset was used to evaluate the methods without retraining the CNN models. The evaluation results using IDRiD dataset showed that the proposed method achieved AUPR , mean Dice and mean IoU scores of 0.893, 76.6% and 62.4%, respectively, which are comparable to the state-of-the-art method on EX segmentation. When evaluated on the DDR dataset with large portion of small EX lesions, the proposed method achieved AUPR , mean Dice and mean IoU scores of 0.693, 60.8% and 45.5%, yielding state-of-the-art performance. Furthermore, with the main evaluation metric being AUPR , the evaluation results on two datasets, EHos and ETW, with scores of 0.689 and 0.667 demonstrated superiority of the proposed method over the other segmentation methods. The proposed two-stage CNN-based segmentation method is an useful approach for accurately segmenting EX lesions in color fundus images, enabling lesion quantification to aid experts in treating patients with DR. The source code, the trained CNN models and the data are publicly available at: https://github.com/dvquang2000/Interactive_HardExudates_Segmentation. • A two-stage CNN-based method was proposed for accurate EX lesions segmentation in fundus image • Multiple datasets in several hospitals and countries were included in the study • An assessment of the proposed method on two different field of view in image acquisition was performed • State-of-the-art and the proposed methods were tested with and without retraining the CNN models • The proposed method outperformed state-of-the-art methods in most evaluation scores [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Accurate modeling of dry-type detuned reactor (DDR) in the time domain and calculating the impulse voltage distribution for the first time. • Development of an accurate high frequency model considering the complex permeability for DDR foil conductors. • Applying the proposed model to study the FRA of the DDR. • Validating the accuracy of calculations by performing measurements in the time and frequency domains. • Modifying the design of a real DDR based on the performed analysis. Dry-type detuned reactor (DDR) is a key component for power quality management. Improper design of DDR may result in insulation failure during power system transient events. This can be avoided by developing a proper DDR high frequency model that can accurately capture the behavior of the reactor during transients and provide better insight into its performance under various operating conditions. One of the main challenges of proper DDR modeling is the shape of the leakage flux, which is strongly dependent on the shielding effect of the foil conductors and hence affecting the winding frequency response at high frequencies. This paper proposes a high-frequency lumped equivalent circuit model for DDR with frequency-dependent parameters. The frequency-dependent inductances and resistances are calculated using anisotropic equivalent complex permeability to represent the damping effects in the core and winding. A combined analytical-finite element modelling approach is employed to calculate the winding capacitances. The accuracy of the proposed model is verified by comparing its frequency response with the experimental results obtained from a laboratory prototype. Furthermore, the impulse voltage distribution within the windings is obtained through simulation and measurement analyses to attest the robustness of the proposed model. The proposed model is expected to aid in the proper design and optimization of DDR to improve its insulation withstand capability and enhance its performance during transient events within power grids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work we design and analyse a Discrete de Rham (DDR) method for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. Our focus is, more specifically, on the SDDR variant, where a reduction in the number of unknowns is obtained using serendipity techniques. The main features of the DDR approach are the support of general meshes and arbitrary approximation orders. The method we develop is based on the curl–curl formulation of the momentum equation and, through compatibility with the Helmholtz–Hodge decomposition, delivers pressure-robust error estimates for the velocity. It also enables non-standard boundary conditions, such as imposing the value of the pressure on the boundary. In-depth numerical validation on a complete panel of tests including general polyhedral meshes is provided. The paper also contains an appendix where bounds on DDR potential reconstructions and differential operators are proved in the more general framework of Polytopal Exterior Calculus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the history of infant homes for babies and toddlers in the two German states after World War II. Peak capacity of these institutions was not reached in the immediate post-war years, as one might suppose, but in the early 1960s. At that time in socialist East Germany one in forty children under the age of three lived in an infant home, while the rate was about half as high in capitalist West Germany. Thus, these institutions impacted the lives of more children than previously assumed. From a comparative perspective, divided developments become clear: In East Germany, socialist legislation and media promoted the infant home; in West Germany, the expansion took place in the shadow of the capitalistic welfare state. Criticism of the homes was articulated in both states at about the same time, following publication of British psychoanalyst John Bowlby's early attachment theory. His WHO report Maternal Care and Mental Health from the year 1951 served as a reference point for the work of several pediatricians and psychologists in both German states. It appears that Bowlby's theory – stressing the importance of exclusive maternal care and so far described as highly impactful for Western Europe and the USA – also met with approval under East German state socialism in the 1950s. However, it had different implications: In West Germany, scientific criticism of infant homes was acted on by the authorities, who quickly disbanded the institutions from the mid-1960s onwards. In East Germany, political intervention favoring maternal employment prevented this, which is why numerous places in infant homes remained available for babies and toddlers until the end of the socialist state in 1989. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There seems to be some evidence that Germany is turning from being a 'domestic' to a 'public' gender regime. The extension of public childcare, increasing female labour market participation rates and the introduction of gender quotas, among other changes, point to this development. However, a detailed analysis reveals an ambivalent and even contradictory trajectory. This development can only be understood by applying an intersectional perspective and looking at families with different socioeconomic backgrounds, class, and gender. By focusing on family households in which women are the main earners, this paper illustrates changes and stability in different domains and contributes to the understanding of the German gender regime's trajectory. On the basis of a qualitative study conducted in West and East Germany, the article shows that many women who are the main breadwinners in their families are in this position not because of modernised gender relations and by their own choice, but 'involuntarily', because of their partners' weak labour market position and increasing pressure within the German welfare state to earn their own living and contribute to covering the needs of the household through gainful employment. Many female-breadwinner families do not live reversed, modernised gender roles, but face an above-average risk for poverty and have little room for manoeuvre. Political and economic factors, as well as norms (in the domains of polity, economy and civil society), help to explain these findings. We see mainly neoliberal, activation policies directed at households with low resources, whereas the institutional framework for households with higher incomes has remained relatively stable. The results of the study show that dual-earner households are not necessarily progressive and dual earning is a poor indicator of a gender regime change. • There is some evidence that the German system is moving from a 'domestic' to a 'public' gender regime. However, we see a quite ambivalent trajectory. • By focusing on households where women are the main earners, this paper contributes to the understanding of the trajectory of the German gender regime. • Female breadwinner families often have a poverty risk above average and few room for manoeuvre. • Activating policies are addressed to households with low resources, whereas the institutional framework for high income households has remained stable. • Applying an intersectional perspective, the study helps to understand how different policies play out if social class is taken into account. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vascular aging is a major risk factor for age-related cardiovascular diseases, which have high rates of morbidity and mortality. It is characterized by changes in the blood vessels, such as macroscopically increased vascular diameter and intima-medial thickness, chronic inflammation, vascular calcification, arterial stiffening, and atherosclerosis. DNA damage and the subsequent various DNA damage response (DDR) pathways are important causative factors of vascular aging. Deficient DDR, which may result in the accumulation of unrepaired damaged DNA or mutations, can lead to vascular aging. On the other hand, over-activation of some DDR proteins, such as poly (ADP ribose) polymerase (PARP) and ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM), also can enhance the process of vascular aging, suggesting that DDR can have both positive and negative effects on vascular aging. Despite the evidence reviewed in this paper, the role of DDR in vascular aging and potential therapeutic targets remain poorly understood and require further investigation. • Vascular aging is the most important risk factor in the high morbidity and mortality of age-related cardiovascular diseases. • DNA damage and the subsequent various DNA damage response (DDR) pathways as important causative factors in vascular aging. • DDR can positively or negatively influence vascular aging. • Modulating DDR pathways pharmacologically or molecularly might have potential therapeutic benefits in managing age-related cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 2021 German Federal Election saw an increasing variation in voting behavior between both age groups and geographic groups. This paper brings these developments together and argues that the urban-rural divide is much bigger among younger than among older voters. We combine data from the German Longitudinal Election Study with original survey data and introduce the number of freelance artists at the ZIP code level as a new measure of urbanity. Using this data, we show that the urban-rural age divide concerns cultural attitudes as well as the propensity to vote. While the Greens mainly attract young voters in cities, the AfD performed well among young rural voters, particularly in Eastern Germany. At the same time, the differences between the young and the old are larger in cities than in the countryside. These results suggest that the importance of the urban-rural divide is likely to increase in future elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Heinrich Bredt (1906–1989) has to be considered one of the most prominent German pathologists of the past century. While his scientific oeuvre – especially his research on pathology of the cardiovascular system – received widespread attention, his actual connection to National Socialism remains largely concealed. This paper takes this need for clarification as an occasion for a detailed investigation of Bredt's political role in the Third Reich, based on source material from Federal, State and University Archives. The analysis shows that Heinrich Bredt had already joined the anti-Semitic and anti-democratic Association of German Students in the 1920s, and from 1933 onward he entered various Nazi organizations – including the Nazi Party. Unlike in later statements, Bredt was not just a nominal member of the Party, he held various offices in National Socialist organizations and was accordingly classified as loyal to the regime by the Nazi authorities. In contrast, during his time in the socialist dictatorship of East Germany, Bredt remained aloof from the ruling Socialist Unity Party of Germany and its political organizations – unlike many former Nazi Party members who behaved in a political opportune manner in East Germany as well. Bredt demonstrated a distance from the socialist system which suggests that his political actions were guided not by pragmatic but by ideological considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]