South German Research Articles

Scientists as Forced Labourers: the Case of Researchers from Kharkiv in the South German Province during World War II

Scientists as Forced Labourers: the Case of Researchers from Kharkiv in the South German Province during World War II

Understanding cross-cultural differences in pedagogical beliefs: A comparison among South Korean, Spanish, and German early childhood teachers

This study aimed to elucidate how cultural values and the ECE context in three distinct countries —South Korea, Spain, and Germany— shape teachers' perspectives on their pedagogy. This study unveiled three key findings. First, the study identified partial strong invariance for the pedagogical beliefs measure. Second, Korean ECE teachers showed significantly stronger constructivistic beliefs than Spanish teachers. Third, instructivistic beliefs were significantly higher among Korean teachers than German teachers. The findings emphasize the notable differences in teachers' pedagogical beliefs among the three countries, underscoring the substantial impact of cultural values and ECE background on the development of the teachers’ beliefs.

Identification of aquifer leakage by formation-specific sulphur and strontium isotopes (South German Scarp land)

Identification of aquifer leakage by formation-specific sulphur and strontium isotopes (South German Scarp land)

German ‘enemy aliens’ in internment camps in South Africa in the Second World War

ABSTRACT After the Union of South Africa declared war on Germany in September 1939 approximately 5000 German men were interned as ‘enemy aliens'. Fears of a destabilisation of South Africa by German ‘fifth columnists’ were nurtured by the fractured social and political environment of the Union. The attempts made by Afrikaner nationalists to undermine the war effort of the Union reverberated with anti-Semitic and anti-British Nazi propaganda. Apprehensions about the disruptive effects of Nazi activities among Afrikaners and German residents also blended with the perpetual fears of the white minority about losing control of the black population. These challenges to domestic security convinced the Smuts government that the internment of German men suspected of subversion was urgent and justified. The internment of German civilian internees in South Africa has been briefly mentioned in some studies, but this article seeks to provide a more detailed analysis of their internment against the background of wartime South Africa. Based on South African and German archival and secondary sources, this article also constitutes a first attempt at exploring important aspects of the conditions inside the internment camps.

An Analysis of Conflict Patterns between Headquarters and Foreign Subsidiaries: Focusing on the Case of a South Korean Company's German Subsidiary

An Analysis of Conflict Patterns between Headquarters and Foreign Subsidiaries: Focusing on the Case of a South Korean Company's German Subsidiary

Metastatic Prostate Carcinoma in an Early 18th-Century South German Abbot—Interdisciplinary Research Reveals Clues to His Final Disease History

This interdisciplinary investigation of the human remains of Balduin Helm, one of the most important abbots of the Fürstenfeld monastery, provides novel information on this historic individual. This is particularly interesting since Balduin, during the early 18th century, was involved in the renovation of this large Bavarian monastery. Metastatic prostate cancer was found as evidenced by multiple mixed osteolytic–osteoblastic bone lesions in all available vertebral bodies, fragments of both os coxae, and isolated metastases in skull bones. Distribution, radio- and histomorphology, and especially the immunohistochemical detection of prostate-specific antigens in those metastases definitively confirm this diagnosis. Further investigation, especially by stable isotope analysis, showed a balanced high-level diet with considerable contribution from animal protein and significant freshwater fish. These additional findings suggest a significant radiocarbon reservoir effect as an explanation for a “too old” radiocarbon date. Finally, the obviously high-level protein diet may have contributed to the tumorigenesis which caused the death of the abbot at an advanced age.

ТВОРЧІСТЬ ТОМАСА ГУТТЕРА ТА ЙОГО СКУЛЬПТУРНІ ТВОРИ

The study of the work of the German-born sculptor Thomas Gutter, who worked in Galicia during the late Baroque period, is currently poorly studied, so it needs a thorough study. The article is devoted to the analysis of the work of the sculptor Thomas Gutter. It explores the life and creative path of the artist, the peculiarities of his style, and the use of materials in sculpture. Gutter's main works, their themes, and symbolism, in particular expressiveness in space, are considered. His works are distinguished by the expressiveness of the form, the drama of expression and the detailing of the plastic treatment of draperies. Thomas Hutter's style is characterized by a combination of South German traditions and Central European styles and shows an evolution from the late Baroque to greater geometrization. With his sculptural works, Gutter not only enriched local art, but also made a significant contribution to the formation of the late Baroque style in the Western Ukrainian region. His work influenced the style of many subsequent generations of sculptors. The sculptural works of Thomas Hutter have a high artistic value and belong to the cultural heritage not only of Ukraine but also of Europe. The results of the study can be useful for art historians, sculptors, and researchers.

The loss of synthetic past tense forms in Slovene in the context of the hypothesised Central European convergence area

Summary One of the salient morphosyntactic features of the hypothesised Central European convergence area is allegedly a simple three-tense verb system (i. e. past, present, and future) without any formal and semantic distinction between the different past tense forms. The simplification of the originally more complex past tense system has been claimed to be contact-induced, which is mirrored in the loss of synthetic past tense forms in the linguistic history of German and Slavic. The article verifies the hypothesis according to which the loss of the preterit (i. e. a synthetic past tense form) in Upper German caused the disappearance of synthetic past tense forms, i. e. the aorist and the imperfect, in Slavic, more specifically Slovene. First, the process of the loss of the aorist and the imperfect in three medieval Slovene texts is presented, viz. the Freising Fragments (c. 972–1039), the Klagenfurt/Celovec or Rateče Manuscript (2nd half of the 14th century), and the Castelmonte/Stara Gora Manuscript (end of the 15th century). Second, the use of the preterit and the perfect in the Early New High German text Ain newes lied von den kraynneriſchen bauren (c. 1515) from the South Bavarian-Austrian speech territory, more precisely Lower Styria, is analysed. The historical linguistic analysis of the cited Slovene and German linguistic material (the latter originating from the Slovene linguistic area as well) shows that in medieval Slovene the aorist (and most probably the imperfect, too) was lost no later than by the end of the 15th century, while the formal and semantic distinction between the preterit on one hand and the perfect on the other is still preserved in Early New High German documented in the “Slovene-speaking lands” in the second decade of the 16th century. From these facts one cannot but conclude that the loss of synthetic past tense forms in Slovene could not have been influenced by (the demonstrably later) loss of the preterit in South Bavarian-Austrian German dialects, which were historically (and in some regions still are) in geographical and, consequently, sociolinguistic contact with Slovene.

Owning the just transition: comparing citizen participation in South African and German wind farms

ABSTRACT The global effort to reduce carbon emissions, driven by industrialised countries in the north is increasingly perceived as an unfair imposition by countries in the south. Wind turbine technology importantly contributes to the energy transition and its introduction has produced new players in energy systems, for instance through financial citizen participation in wind farms. The shape and degree of citizen participation is geographically variegated even within countries. Taking a multi-scalar perspective inspired by institutional theory, we explore the micro, meso and macro institutional and regulatory frameworks perceived as supportive or restrictive in the development of citizen participation in Germany and South Africa. Our findings highlight the importance of citizens’ ability and will to create legal structures for inclusive collective action and their ability to access affordable investment capital through local banks and other financing arrangements. Under the right institutional conditions decentralised energy systems, such as small-scale wind farms, provide an opportunity for fostering emotive and economic ownership by citizens in the global north and south alike.

A Comparison of the South Korean and German Secondary School Curricula in Quantum Physics

A Comparison of the South Korean and German Secondary School Curricula in Quantum Physics

Comparative Analysis of Machine Learning Models for Credit Scoring: A Case Study on the South German Credit Dataset

In this research, proposed a novel hybrid machine learning approach that combines the strengths of Random Forest, Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), and LightGBM algorithms for classification tasks. This research work focuses on evaluating the performance of this hybrid model using the South German Credit dataset obtained from Kaggle, comprising bank client data, client last contact information, and labels. With 45,211 records and 16 attributes, this dataset provides a suitable environment for assessing the effectiveness of our proposed approach. Employ various evaluation metrics including accuracy, sensitivity and specificity and Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) to comprehensively analyze the model's performance. Through experiments, aim to demonstrate the efficacy of the hybrid approach in accurately classifying instances and providing insights into its potential applications in real-world scenarios

Climate change impacts on regional fire weather in heterogeneous landscapes of central Europe

Abstract. Wildfires have reached an unprecedented scale in the Northern Hemisphere. The summers of 2022 and 2023 demonstrated the destructive power of wildfires, especially in North America and southern Europe. Global warming leads to changes in fire danger. Specifically, fire seasons are assumed to become more extreme and will extend to more temperate regions in northern latitudes in the future. However, the extent to which the seasonality and severity of fire danger in regions of central Europe will change in the future remains to be investigated. Multiple studies claim that natural variability and model uncertainty hide the trend of increasing fire danger in multi-model climate simulations for future potentially fire-prone areas. Such a trend might be isolated with single-model initial-condition large ensembles (SMILEs), which help scientists to distinguish the forced response from natural variability. So far, the SMILE framework has only been applied for fire danger estimation on a global scale. To date, only a few dynamically downscaled regional SMILEs exist, although they enhance the spatial representation of climatic patterns on a regional or local scale. In this study, we use a regional SMILE of the Canadian Regional Climate Model version 5 Large Ensemble (CRCM5-LE) over a region in central Europe under the RCP8.5 (Representative Concentration Pathway) scenario from 1980 to 2099 to analyze changes in fire danger in an area that is currently not fire prone. We use the Canadian Forest Fire Weather Index (FWI) as a fire danger indicator. The study area covers four heterogeneous landscapes, namely the Alps, the Alpine Foreland, the lowlands of the South German Escarpment, and the Eastern Mountain Ranges of the Bavarian Forest. We demonstrate that the CRCM5-LE is a dataset suitable for disentangling climate trends from natural variability in a multi-variate fire danger metric. Our results show the strongest increases in the median (50th) and extreme (90th) quantiles of the FWI in the northern parts (South German Escarpment and Eastern Mountain Ranges) of the study area in the summer months of July and August. There, high fire danger becomes the median condition by the end of the century, and levels of high fire danger occur earlier in the fire season. The southern parts (Alps and Alpine Foreland) are less strongly affected by changes in fire danger than the northern parts. However, these regions reach their time of emergence (TOE) in the early 2040s because of very low current fire danger. In the northern parts, the climate change trend exceeds natural variability only in the late 2040s. We find that today's 100-year FWI event will occur every 30 years by 2050 and every 10 years by the end of the century. Our results highlight the potential for severe future fire events in central Europe, which is currently not very fire prone, and demonstrate the need for fire management even in regions with a temperate climate.

Interplay of weathering, formation of secondary mineral soil constituents, and soil organic matter in South German Umbrisols

Umbrisols, a reference soil group of the World Reference Base for Soil Resources, are defined by the umbric horizon, which is characterized by structure, accumulation of soil organic matter (SOM), dark colour, low “base” saturation, and thickness. Our exemplary study focussed on typical horizons of four Umbrisol profiles developed from paragneiss or granite in the Black Forest (South Germany). To deepen our understanding of Umbrisol formation and properties, we characterized pedogenic species that are involved in SOM stabilization, including short-range ordered aluminosilicates (SROAS), hydroxy-interlayered minerals (HIMs), extractable aluminium (Al) and iron (Fe) species, and SOM itself. All mineral horizons under study had sandy texture (>51% sand) and acidic pH (3.2–4.7). The large proportion of dithionite-extractable Fe relative to total Fe (up to 55%) indicated intensive weathering. Large fractions of Al and Fe were in organic association, as derived from further extraction with oxalate, citrate-ascorbate, and citrate. Soil organic carbon contents of up to 103 g kg−1 reflected SOM accumulation with C:N ratios ranging from 14 to 29. SOM was generally thermally stable, and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy revealed the contribution of black carbon to SOM, possibly as a remnant of historical charcoal production, typical of forested German low-mountain ranges. Far-infrared spectroscopy indicated imogolite-type SROAS, increasing with soil depth. X-ray diffractometry revealed the dominance of quartz, feldspars, micas, and interstratified phases in all horizons. HIMs formed progressively with depth. Both HIMs and SROAS have formed; their formations do not exclude each other. Irrigation experiments pointed to partial equilibrium dissolution of imogolite-type SROAS and their colloidal transport. Al and Fe were mostly released in colloidal form. Dissolved OM eluted reflected the presence of black carbon in soil. Together with HIMs, Al-SOM associations and SROAS formed as in Andosols, but to lesser extent. HIMs and SROAS may affect SOM stabilization in the subsoil more strongly than in the topsoil, where Al-SOM associations may largely contribute to stabilization. However, mechanistic studies on SOM stabilization and mineral formation in Umbrisols are scarce yet and require further attention particularly regarding Umbrisols formed in different climates.

Mathematical Modeling and Analysis of Credit Scoring Using the LIME Explainer: A Comprehensive Approach

Credit scoring models serve as pivotal instruments for lenders and financial institutions, facilitating the assessment of creditworthiness. Traditional models, while instrumental, grapple with challenges related to efficiency and subjectivity. The advent of machine learning heralds a transformative era, offering data-driven solutions that transcend these limitations. This research delves into a comprehensive analysis of various machine learning algorithms, emphasizing their mathematical underpinnings and their applicability in credit score classification. A comprehensive evaluation is conducted on a range of algorithms, including logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machines, and neural networks, using publicly available credit datasets. Within the research, a unified mathematical framework is introduced, which encompasses preprocessing techniques and critical algorithms such as Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), the Light Gradient Boosting Model, and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), among others. The focal point of the investigation is the LIME (Local Interpretable Model-agnostic Explanations) explainer. This study offers a comprehensive mathematical model using the LIME explainer, shedding light on its pivotal role in elucidating the intricacies of complex machine learning models. This study’s empirical findings offer compelling evidence of the efficacy of these methodologies in credit scoring, with notable accuracies of 88.84%, 78.30%, and 77.80% for the Australian, German, and South German datasets, respectively. In summation, this research not only amplifies the significance of machine learning in credit scoring but also accentuates the importance of mathematical modeling and the LIME explainer, providing a roadmap for practitioners to navigate the evolving landscape of credit assessment.

The Most Significant Musical Source of the Premonstratensian Abbey in Jasov: An Adiastematic Fragment of an Unknown Breviary, Shelfmark KF of Inc 164

Slovak medieval musicology saw its remarkable revival at the beginning of the third millennium. It could draw on the fundamental research on medieval Latin sources carried out by the codicologist Július Sopko in the 1980s and on the specialized articles of the musicologists Konštantín Hudec, Richard Rybarič, Ľubomír Vajdička, and Zuzana Czagányová. Systematic in-depth research on medieval notated sources held by Slovak archives, museums, and libraries was started by the musicologist Eva Veselovská of the Institute of Musicology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava in collaboration with Rastislav Adamko and the author of this study, both lecturers at the Department of Music of the Faculty of Education of the Catholic University in Ružomberok. Thanks to the twenty-year-long research – tracking down, digitalizing, studying the sources, and making them accessible – a number of monographs, catalogues, scholarly studies, and specialized articles have been published on this topic. In this study, we will zoom in on a recently discovered fragment with staveless notation, deposited in the archive of the Premonstratensian Abbey in Jasov in eastern Slovakia. The original manuscript was used in a diocesan environment. The textual and neumatic analysis and comparison of the chants of the Jasov fragment and the comparative sources has revealed a high percentage of their reciprocal similarity and we may consequently presume that the original breviary from which the respective bifolio was removed originated in a South German region and was probably later imported to the territory of Slovakia.

Vorarlberg: ein making-of in 50 Szenen—Objekte/Geschichte/Ausstellungspraxis ed. by Markus Barnay and Andreas Rudigier

Reviewed by: Vorarlberg: ein making-of in 50 Szenen—Objekte/Geschichte/Ausstellungspraxis ed. by Markus Barnay and Andreas Rudigier Günter Bischof Markus Barnay and Andreas Rudigier, eds., Vorarlberg: ein making-of in 50 Szenen—Objekte/Geschichte/Ausstellungspraxis. Bielefeld: transcript Verlag, 2022. 313 pp. Most Americans probably don't know that Vorarlberg is the smallest of the nine states that make up Austria. Nestled against Switzerland and Germany in the very west of Austria, Vorarlberg is highly industrialized and very entrepreneurial. Its people have a reputation of being hard-working and frugal. Vorarlbergers are separated from the Tyrol through the Arlberg pass and far removed from Vienna; they are suspicious of centralism. Markus Barnay and Andreas Rudigier's edited volume Vorarlberg is about the remaking of the Vorarlberg Museum in Bregenz. In 2011 a team of experts/curators were given the task by Rudigier, as the museum's new director, of coming up with a new exhibit on the entire 4th floor of the rebuilt facility, to be opened in 2013, with a relaunch in 2015 (294). The concept they came up with, and this is what this book is about, was the "making-of" Vorarlberg in 50 scenes. Accompanying the remaking of the museum exhibits was a public program on Friday evenings (Freitags um 5), discussing the history(-ies) of Vorarlberg with the public at large (292). What was exhibited in the new galleries were objects from the museum's collections as well as many loaned ones. The new museum won all kinds of Austrian and European prizes. The book features four main parts, called "episodes." It also features feedback from exhibit visitors from "wonderful" and "extraordinary" to "boring" and "a house full of banalities" (280–83). Episode A is dedicated to the theme "Wer bestimmt über mich." The twelve scenes go back in history to the original borders of Vorarlberg, the Counts of Montfort, and Habsburg control. But these scenes also cover foreign occupations like the Bavarian one during the time of Napoleon and the French one after World War II. There is also the intriguing scene of a potential "Anschluss" to Switzerland after World War I (68–73), where the distinguished [End Page 141] regional historian Meinrad Pichler portrays Ferdinand Riedmann, a teacher and propagandist for joining Switzerland. Episode B, "Was mache ich hier?," is dedicated to largely economic topics. Ingrid Böhler, a contemporary historian at the University of Innsbruck, sets the scenes with an essay about industrialization and migration (98–101). Scene 13 is dedicated to baroque-era construction workers, who seasonally migrated from the Bregenzerwald to build churches and monasteries from Switzerland to Southern Germany to Alsace. Scene 14 is set with the Schwabenkinder, children who migrated seasonally to Southern Germany to work as cheap farm labor. Additional scenes deal with industrial exploitation of working children, the Alpine cheese industry, the Alpine hydroelectric industry, and the advent of tourism as well as the rise of the Doppelmayr family business, as the world's premier builder of ski lifts. Episode C confronts the identity issue "Wer bin ich?" This part of the book deconstructs Vorarlberg myths. Marcus Barnay, a well-known regional historian, deconstructs the notion that Vorarlbergers originate from the South German tribe of Alemannen and that they have their own mentality ("hard working and frugal"; 162–65). Mathias Moosbrugger thoroughly deconstructs the myth of the ur-democratic "peasant republic" of the "Hintere Bregenzerwald" with their own parliament and a freely elected Landammann (186). Scene 32 deals with the unique local dialect, very popular among young people (my niece is an artist whose pictures are all about odd sayings in the local dialect). Vorarlberg developed its first institutions in the nineteenth century and became one of the nine Austrian states in 1918 (before some wanted to be part of Switzerland). After World War II Vorarlbergers increasingly called their region "Ländle": Scene 37 (Christian Schützinger) deconstructs Ländle-dwellers not taking Vorarlberg seriously with such a diminutive term, creating associations of "provincial, lazy, and well-meaning" (212). Episode D deals with belonging ("Gehöre ich dazu?"). Eva Grabher starts this section with the longest introductory essay in the book, analyzing the construction of...

Astronomical timescale for the early Toarcian (Early Jurassic) Posidonia Shale and global environmental changes

Lower Toarcian sediments (Early Jurassic, c. 183 Ma) record the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE), which represents a period of profound environmental changes. The event involved the widespread deposition of organic carbon-rich strata in oxygen-depleted paleo-shelf settings, global warming, and is characterized by a negative Toarcian carbon-isotope excursion (T-CIE). The T-CIE provides a global time-correlative chemostratigraphic marker; however, its age, duration and underlying causes remain uncertain in the absence of an accurate early Toarcian timescale. This article presents a cyclostratigraphic framework for the lower Toarcian Posidonia Shale Formation from the Dotternhausen Quarry (South German Basin), one of the best-studied sediment archives that record early Toarcian environmental and ecosystem changes. The Posidonia Shale in the study site was deposited in the deeper part of the epicontinental shelf sea, where sediment accumulation rates were relatively uniform and major hiatuses unlikely. These factors are rarely found in most sections, and favor obtaining accurate cyclostratigraphic results at the study site. Our astronomical timescale indicates that black shale deposition at the site lasted about ∼3.2 Myr, a remarkably long period for sufficient primary productivity in stagnant bottom-water conditions. The estimated durations of the tenuicostatum and falciferum ammonite zones, and the T-CIE are ∼0.9, ∼1.8 and ∼ 1.2 Myr, respectively. Early Toarcian global warming, accompanying the T-CIE, occurred over a period of ∼400 kyr. Early Toarcian 3rd-order sea-level cycles correlate to 1.2 to 1.6 Myr orbital cycles, reflecting long-term obliquity and eccentricity periods. Orbitally-forced 3rd-order sea-level cycles, in combination with 405 kyr long-eccentricity, and potentially 100 kyr short-eccentricity cycles, controlled sea-floor oxygenation and deposition of black shales. Short-term environmental changes (e.g., redox cycles), responding to long- and short-eccentricity cycles were most pronounced during 3rd-order sea-level lowstands, when the depositional environment was most susceptible to short-term environmental instabilities. Our results highlight orbital-forcing as a key driving mechanism for early Toarcian environmental conditions.

Walking My Path Together with W. W. Phelps

Walking My Path Together with W. W. Phelps

Comparing the Use of Educational Technology in Mathematics Education between South African and German Schools

This mixed-method study investigated how primary school mathematics teachers in South Africa and Germany utilise educational technology. The perceptions of the principals and teachers regarding the use of educational technology and the obstacles to its integration were contrasted. In addition, the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 data from these countries were used to evaluate the relationship between educational technology and learner accomplishment. The results showed that teachers from both nations employed educational technology as a presentation-, reinforcement-, supplement-, and problem-solving tool, and also used it to stimulate the learning environment, as shown through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. In addition, obstacles such as a lack of tablets/computers, technical support, and a lack of relevant continuous professional development impeded the incorporation of educational technology in mathematics by these teachers. Additionally, multi-level models revealed that access to a computer and internet connectivity at home correlated positively with German learners’ mathematics performances, while no statistically significant relationship was observed in South Africa. The results of this study have policy implications and are discussed at the end of this paper.

Support Vector Machine for Credit System: The Effect of Parameter Optimization and Training Sample

The credit assessment system is an essential part of modern financial institutions, and most of them have adopted different models to perform the task according to their specific needs. Support Vector Machine has been widespread and proved an efficient classifier, especially for relatively small datasets in recent years. When using SVM, data processing, choosing an appropriate kernel function, and tuning parameters can largely affect its performance. The most popular kernel function of SVM is the Radial basis function (RBF), and its main parameters are the regularization parameter, C, and the kernel coefficient, . Our study based on the South German credit dataset demonstrates that parameter optimization and an appropriate ratio of the size of the training dataset to the size of the testing dataset could significantly improve the performance of SVM.