University Of Zurich Research Articles

In the field: an interview with Harald Wolf

Harald Wolf has recently retired as a Professor at the University of Ulm, Germany, where he investigated navigation, locomotor control and sensorimotor integration in invertebrates. After completing his diploma in biology in 1980 at the Technical University Darmstadt, Germany, he undertook a PhD with Otto von Helversen at Erlangen University, Germany, and postdocs with Keir Pearson at Edmonton University, Canada, and Werner Rathmayer at Constance University, Germany. He then received a Heisenberg Fellowship to complete research at Constance University and the California Institute of Technology, USA, before completing a 2-year lectureship at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.

The Savage principle and accounting for outcome in single-criterion nonlinear problem under uncertainty

In the middle of the last century the American mathematician and statistician professor of Michigan University Leonard Savage (1917-1971) and the well-known economist, professor of Zurich University (Switzerland) Jurg Niehans (1919-2007) independently from each other suggested the approach to decision-making in one-criterion problem under uncertainty (OPU), called the principle of minimax regret. This principle along with Wald principle of guaranteed result (maximin) is playing the most important role in guaranteed under uncertainty decision-making in OPU. The main role in the principle of minimax regret is carrying out the regret function, which determines the Niehans-Savage risk in OPU. Such risk has received the broad extension in practical problems during last years. In the present article we suggest one of possible approaches to finding decision in OPU from the position of a decision-maker, which simultaneously tries to increase the payoff (outcome) and to reduce the risk (i.e., “to kill two birds with one stone in one throw”). As an application, an explicit form of such a solution was immediately found for a linear-quadratic variant of the OPU of a fairly general form.

Change in Alcohol Consumption and Binge Drinking in University Students During the Early COVID-19 Pandemic.

ObjectivesYoung adults have been overly affected by the containment measures against COVID-19 and, consequently, worsening in mental health and change in health behavior have been reported. Because the life phase of emerging adulthood is crucial for developing health behaviors, this study aims to examine increase in alcohol consumption, single and multiple binge drinking, and associated factors in students during lockdown and post-lockdown periods.MethodsA prospective open cohort study design with nine survey time points between April 2020 and June 2021 was conducted. The present study uses pooled data from the first survey T0 (3 April to 14 April) and follow-ups at T1 (30 April to 11 May 2020) and T2 (28 May to 8 June 2020). Students from all faculties of the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) (N = 12'431) were invited. Of the 1,300 students who participated at baseline and in at least one follow-up, 1,278 (98.3%) completed the questionnaires, final net sample size was 947. Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE) models were used to investigate the factors associated with increases in alcohol consumption based on number of occasions/last 30 days; drinks/week, and binge drinking at T0, and respective changes at T1 and T2 (increases, decreases, no change).ResultsOverall, 20% of Swiss university students reported an increased alcohol consumption and 26% engaged in binge drinking. Number of drinks at baseline was associated with a higher probability of increased alcohol consumption, as well as engaging in single and multiple binge drinking events. Higher anxiety scores were associated with a higher probability to increase the alcohol consumption and engaging at least once in binge drinking. Additional factors associated with any binge drinking were male gender, younger age and not living with parents. Higher perceived social support was only associated with engaging in heavy binge drinking.ConclusionsA substantial number of students developed a more risky health behavior regarding alcohol consumption. It is important to identify at risk students and design target prevention including factors such as age, gender and social norms. Further, health behavior and determinants of health behaviors of students should be carefully monitored during the further course of the pandemic.

“So, I decided to focus on all the useful words with her first.”

Instead of doing an on-site-teaching internship at a primary school in an English-speaking country (Assistant Teachership), about 300 student teachers from the Zurich University of Teacher Education taught ten one-to-one online English lessons to young learners from Kyrgyzstan. This was administered by the language-learning-platform, loquilove. Due to the learners’ basic English knowledge, student teachers mostly focussed on teaching lexis. The evaluation of the alternative programme revealed that both student teachers and headmasters of the Kyrgyz schools agree that thanks to these online lessons the young learners expanded their lexical knowledge and in addition that most student teachers made considerable progress in their media competence.

Attractiveness of medical disciplines amongst Swiss first-year medical students allocated to different medical education tracks: cross-sectional study

BackgroundAs most countries, Switzerland is experiencing a shortage of physicians especially in general practice and new medical education tracks with respective focusses have been started in response. This study investigated Swiss medical students’ career openness and attractiveness of different medical disciplines as well as the concordance of students’ career intentions with assigned medical education tracks.MethodsCross-sectional study surveying first year medical students assigned to four different Swiss medical education tracks with distinctive additional education focuses (ETH Zurich: medical technology and engineering, University of St. Gallen and University of Lucerne: primary healthcare and University of Zurich: no distinctive focus).ResultsWe surveyed 354 medical students (response rate across all included medical education tracks 71.1%), 64.8% female, mean age 20 years. Regarding career openness, we found that 52.8% of medical students had neither a strong commitment nor a strong reservation for any of the proposed career options and 17.0% had a strong commitment. Among medical disciplines, medical subspecialties were attractive to the largest part of students (inpatient subspecialties attractive for 71%, outpatient for 58%), attractiveness of general practice was moderate (30%), academic (22%) and industrial sector (17%) careers were least attractive. Proportions of medical students attracted to general practice were similar at medical education tracks with focus on primary healthcare compared to other medical education tracks (32.2% vs. 25.8%, p = 0.391). Conversely, proportions of medical students attracted to academic or industry careers were significantly higher at the ETH Zurich compared to other medical education tracks (37.2%, vs. 13.1%, p < 0.001 and 31.9%, vs. 8.8%, p < 0.001 respectively).ConclusionWhile most first-year medical students were open to careers in many medical disciplines, attractiveness of disciplines varied strongly. Students attracted to academic or industrial careers accumulated at the medical education track with concordant teaching focus but students attracted to general practice did not accumulate at medical education tracks focused on primary healthcare. For medical education tracks with primary care teaching focus this is both a challenge and an opportunity to specifically counteract the shortage of general practitioners in Switzerland.

Institute Focus Center for Molecular Cardiology, University of Zurich

Institute Focus Center for Molecular Cardiology, University of Zurich

The Nietzsche Pilgrimage of Nikos Kazantzakis and Elli Lambridi

AbstractAfter meeting in Zurich, Nikos Kazantzakis and Elli Lambridi undertook a number of Nietzsche pilgrimages in Switzerland together in 1918, beginning with a trip to Silvaplana. At the time, Kazantzakis had written a thesis on Nietzsche and had translatedThe Birth of Tragedy(1872) andThus Spoke Zarathustra(1883–85) into Greek, while Elli Lambridi was enrolled in a PhD in philosophy at the University of Zurich writing on Aristotle. They continually debated the nature of the philosopher-type in relation to Nietzsche and Dionysianism, and this philosophical engagement is the central topic of this paper. Lambridi envisaged a Dionysian philosopher fully engaged in an ethical and natural life within a community of others and also envisaged a derived politics of affirmative communal responsibility. Kazantzakis considered that the philosopher should take a much more Apolline, spiritually focused and solitary path, continually ascending toward heroic self-redemption. As well as examining their recorded exchanges, this paper also addresses the fictional resumption of their relationship inThe New People, a novel which Lambridi wrote some time after Kazantzakis’ death. In the novel, they resume their discussion of the philosopher-type in 2118, in an eternal recurrence event. In the end, the male character, Petros, learns that the grounding event of a Dionysian Nietzscheanism is an instinctive promise of responsibility for the future of others.

Deposition of metal thin films using a hollow cathode hydrogen discharge

Approximately 30 to 40 years ago the group of Stan Vepřek of the University of Zurich described the fabrication of silicon thin films by formation and decomposition of silicon hydride. In their paper they described how pieces of silicon exposed to a low-pressure hydrogen plasma could promote the formation of a volatile silicon hydride. The hydride was then transported to a hot substrate which caused its thermal decomposition and the formation of the silicon film.Hollow cathodes under appropriate experimental conditions can produce a semi-resonant high-density plasma. In a previous study we used such a high-density hydrogen plasma to etch pieces of quartz but under extreme conditions, we observed that rather than etching there was deposition of a thin film of the metal used for the electrode of the hollow cathode.In this paper we describe the etching of the metal (Mo or Ta) lining of a water-cooled cylindrical hollow cathode by a high-density hydrogen plasma. The metal hydride vapour generate in the plasma by chemical sputtering was directed, by the gas flow, to the quartz substrates which were maintained at various temperatures in excess of 573 K. Here the metal hydride was thermal decomposed, and a thin film of the metal was formed. To improve the experimental reproducibility a special substrate heater was constructed such that four quartz substrates could be simultaneously exposed to the metal hydride vapour, but with each substrate at a different temperature: each approximately 30.3 K greater than the neighbouring one. In this way, depositions under identical plasma conditions could be carried out at the same time, but at four different temperatures. We report the deposition rate as a function of the substrate temperature, the hydrogen gas flow and the RF or P-DC plasma power applied to the hollow cathode.

Ready-To-Go Questionnaire - Development and validation of a novel medical pre-travel risk stratification tool

BackgroundThere are no validated pre-travel self-assessment tools to stratify travellers' health risks and identify their needs for pre-travel medical preparation. This study presents a novel pre-travel risk stratification tool (Ready-To-Go Questionnaire). MethodsThe Ready-To-Go Questionnaire was developed by travel medical experts. It assesses information on travellers' itinerary and current health status, thereby assigning travellers to one out of four risk categories. To explore the Ready-To-Go Questionnaire's validity, we analysed the agreement between the risk categories resulting from the questionnaire and predefined validation criteria. This study was carried out at the Travel Clinic, University of Zurich, Switzerland. ResultsOne hundred travellers attending a pre-travel consultation were included. 82% corresponded to the substantial-risk category, 17% to the high-risk category, 1% to the moderate-risk category and 0% to the low-risk category. The concordance between the risk categories and the consultants' risk assessment, was 0.39 and 0.29 (unweighted/weighted Cohen's Kappa). No significant concordance was found between the risk categories and additional validation criteria. ConclusionThe Ready-To-Go Questionnaire is a medical triage tool developed to identify different levels of travel-related health risks. This tool assists in better understanding travellers' needs, shaping modern travel consultations and offering patient-centred travel medicine services. Clinical trial registration numberISRCTN10172086.

Trends in research on corneal cross linking from 2001 to 2020: a bibliometric analysis

ABSTRACT Clinical relevance The research status and hotspots in the field of corneal cross linking (CXL) can benefit clinicians, researchers and the general public. Background The purpose of this study was to map the publishing trend on CXL research and explore the research hotspots. Methods A bibliometric analysis was performed using the Web of Science Core Collection to investigate the publishing trend on CXL research. VOSviewer was used to build the knowledge map to visualise the number of annual publications, distribution of countries and institutions, international cooperation, author productivity, source journals and research hotspots in the field of CXL. Results A total of 2061 peer-reviewed articles on CXL research were collected from 2001 to 2020, and the annual research production increased over time. The United States was the country with the largest number of published articles, and the University of Zurich was the most active institution. Hafezi F published the largest number of articles on CXL, while Cornea was the journal with the largest number of studies on CXL. The most frequently cited references mainly focus on CXL in the treatment of keratoconus. The keywords were divided in 5 categories: 1) CXL mechanism, 2) ectasia diseases and refractive surgery, 3) corneal biomechanics, 4) efficacy evaluation, 5) treatment of infectious keratitis. Conclusion The quantity and quality of articles on CXL were evaluated using bibliometric techniques by extracting the data from the Web of Science Core Collection. The research hotspots could provide insights on CXL research, providing valuable information for clinicians to perform research in this field and find potential partners.

The Center for Reproducible Science at the University of Zurich

The Center for Reproducible Science at the University of Zurich

Historically High Excess Mortality During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain.

Excess mortality quantifies the overall mortality impact of a pandemic. Mortality data have been accessible for many countries in recent decades, but few continuous data have been available for longer periods. To assess the historical dimension of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 for 3 countries with reliable death count data over an uninterrupted span of more than 100 years. Observational study. Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain, which were militarily neutral and not involved in combat during either world war and have not been affected by significant changes in their territory since the end of the 19th century. Complete populations of these 3 countries. Continuous series of recorded deaths (from all causes) by month from the earliest available year (1877 for Switzerland, 1851 for Sweden, and 1908 for Spain) were jointly modeled with annual age group-specific death and total population counts using negative binomial and multinomial models, which accounted for temporal trends and seasonal variability of prepandemic years. The aim was to estimate the expected number of deaths in a pandemic year for a nonpandemic scenario and the difference in observed and expected deaths aggregated over the year. In 2020, the number of excess deaths recorded per 100000 persons was 100 (95% credible interval [CrI], 60 to 135) for Switzerland, 75 (CrI, 40 to 105) for Sweden, and 155 (CrI, 110 to 195) for Spain. In 1918, excess mortality was 6 to 7 times higher. In all 3 countries, the peaks of monthly excess mortality in 2020 were greater than most monthly excess mortality since 1918, including many peaks due to seasonal influenza and heat waves during that period. Historical vital statistics might be affected by minor completeness issues before the beginning of the 20th century. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to the second-largest infection-related mortality disaster in Switzerland, Sweden, and Spain since the beginning of the 20th century. Foundation for Research in Science and the Humanities at the University of Zurich, Swiss National Science Foundation, and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Telemedicine Literature during COVID-19: A Scientometric Analysis

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, telemedicine is applied for various purposes, such as reducing the time of diagnosis and initiating treatment, quarantining and stabilizing patients, enabling the system to closely monitor the citizens at home, and supporting health professionals. Objectives: The present study used Scientometrics analysis to comprehensively analyze the body of research conducted on telemedicine regarding COVID-19. Methods: By using a searching formula, 900 documents were retrieved from the Web of Science. Co-authorship networks were drawn by CiteSpace and Gephi software that are free and powerful illustrating networks. The selected co-authorship indicators were Degree Centrality, Betweenness Centrality, and Closeness Centrality. Results: Andrea M. Russo had by far a high degree of centrality, compared to other authors. Regarding the countries, Belgium and Portugal had a larger node, indicating that they had a higher degree of centrality. Neurosciences had a large node, showing the higher degree of centrality of this subject area. Psychology and Clinical Neurology were also the nodes with a higher degree of centrality. The degree of centrality was high for the University of Zurich, University of Barcelona, and King College London, and the connections of these nodes were more and even stronger, compared to other nodes. Conclusion: This study, which was based on 900 scientific credentials in the field of telemedicine during COVID-19, indicated the level of cooperation among authors, countries, and organizations in 2020. Moreover, by presenting different indicators in these networks’ researchers, countries, and key organizations were introduced for each indicator.

Global Trends and Hotspots in Research on Rehabilitation Robots: A Bibliometric Analysis From 2010 to 2020.

Background: In recent years, with the development of medical science and artificial intelligence, research on rehabilitation robots has gained more and more attention, for nearly 10 years in the Web of Science database by journal of rehabilitation robot-related research literature analysis, to parse and track rehabilitation robot research hotspot and front, and provide some guidance for future research.Methods: This study employed computer retrieval of rehabilitation robot-related research published in the core data collection of the Web of Science database from 2010 to 2020, using CiteSpace 5.7 visualization software. The hotspots and frontiers of rehabilitation robot research are analyzed from the aspects of high-influence countries or regions, institutions, authors, high-frequency keywords, and emergent words.Results: A total of 3,194 articles were included. In recent years, the research on rehabilitation robots has been continuously hot, and the annual publication of relevant literature has shown a trend of steady growth. The United States ranked first with 819 papers, and China ranked second with 603 papers. Northwestern University ranked first with 161 publications. R. Riener, a professor at the University of Zurich, Switzerland, ranked as the first author with 48 articles. The Journal of Neural Engineering and Rehabilitation has the most published research, with 211 publications. In the past 10 years, research has focused on intelligent control, task analysis, and the learning, performance, and reliability of rehabilitation robots to realize the natural and precise interaction between humans and machines. Research on neural rehabilitation robots, brain–computer interface, virtual reality, flexible wearables, task analysis, and exoskeletons has attracted more and more attention.Conclusions: At present, the brain–computer interface, virtual reality, flexible wearables, task analysis, and exoskeleton rehabilitation robots are the research trends and hotspots. Future research should focus on the application of machine learning (ML), dimensionality reduction, and feature engineering technologies in the research and development of rehabilitation robots to improve the speed and accuracy of algorithms. To achieve wide application and commercialization, future rehabilitation robots should also develop toward mass production and low cost. We should pay attention to the functional needs of patients, strengthen multidisciplinary communication and cooperation, and promote rehabilitation robots to better serve the rehabilitation medical field.

Meet the First Authors.

Meet the First Authors.

Authors and Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright by Monika Dommann

Reviewed by: Authors and Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright by Monika Dommann Peter Shirts Authors and Apparatus: A Media History of Copyright. By Monika Dommann. Translated by Sarah Pybus. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2019. [xiii, 263 p. ISBN 9781501709920 (hardcover), $45.95; ISBN 9781501734984 (e-book), price varies.] Illustrations, bibliography, index. Is copyright legislation shaped by media technology innovations, or does author protection move innovation forward? This is one of the major questions that Monika Dommann seeks to complicate in Authors and Apparatus. Dommann, a professor at the University of Zurich specializing in the economic and legal history of media, data, and culture, shows that the progress of author protection in history is not clear cut. How we define authors, what type of control is granted, and extralegal cultural practices and agreements all affect the level of protection at any one time. The path copyright takes is anything but linear and predicable—though we can learn from the responses to each new technological development, which turn out to be not all that different from reactions to previous technological interruptions. This book, first published in German in 2014, is organized roughly in chronological order as a series of ten cases studies, with framing introduction and conclusion, and a brief section on further reading. The case studies are organized into three periods: 1850–1915 (“Part I: Writing and Recording”), 1915–45 (“Part II: Collecting Agencies and Research Materials”), and 1945– 80 (“Part III: Private Copies and Universal Standards”). Throughout the book, Dommann traces the copyright disputes related to new technologies of copying: music recordings and photocopies. The author also puts the history of Europe and the US and their respective copyright systems in conversation with each other, which has not been done before in a study of this length. In another duality, the author describes how various stakeholder groups vacillate between protecting creators and valuing the free flow of information. Part 1, the early history of copyright, covers debates over new technologies in music such as the development of mechanical instruments (music boxes, barrel organs, and the pianola) through early sound recordings. The result was the invention of the compulsory license [End Page 442] system in the US, which was later exported to parts of Europe. This license system approach generally favored business control over author protection. The author also briefly covers debates around early photographic reproduction of text—debates perhaps more about information dissemination than copyright. Of the three parts, part 1 is perhaps the most difficult read, consisting mainly of opinions of legal scholars and court decisions furthest removed from our current systems of copyright. In part 2, covering mainly the interwar period, Dommann examines the rise of authors’ collecting agencies around the world to capitalize on the public performance of music. She also covers the development of microfilm and increased international cooperation in information sharing. Together, these cases show that often only particular groups were allowed at copyright negotiating tables. As Dommann makes explicit in the conclusion, copyright will always be contested because it establishes ownership over the expression of ideas, rewarding some and denying others. The author even shows how the mid-twentieth-century fight over who collected radio royalties in the US, a result of how copyright was framed, may explain the rapid popularization of southern, rural, oral-based music. Part 3 may be for me the most compelling of the three parts, covering the invention of magnetic tape in Germany (including the spread of soundcollecting culture as an eerie precedent to the free culture of the internet), the development of the photocopier and related legal dispute over library copies, the legal ramifications of database input, and the debate over the ownership of folk music. In the end, Dommann demonstrates that copyright has been in crisis since at least the 1960s, if not earlier, and often stakeholders find solutions (sometimes temporary) outside a legal framework. For example, the legal battle over recording device fees in the early 1940s led to theorizing the approaches that would become digital rights management. Also, the debate over who should profit from oral traditions (yes, this is the Lomax controversy) led to new discussions about protecting traditional knowledge outside of...

Business and climate change - Research tendencies

The aim of the article is to analyze the tendencies in scientific research on business and climate change. The main research question (what tendencies can be identified in scientific research on business and climate change over the years) allowed to formulate three specific research questions. The Analyses of dynamics over time, research centers and content were carried out using bibliometric methods. The dataset was obtained from Scopus and consisted of 1546 records related to scientific publications from 1989 to 2018. A clear upward trend emerged over time in business and climate change research. University of Waterloo, Griffith University, and ETH Zurich were identified as the most important research centers for thought development. Furthermore, climate change, greenhouse gases, and global warming emerged as the three very well explored thematic areas in the business context. Additionally, three research gaps were identified, i.e., adaptive management, tourism management, and waste management. The results of the analyses can be useful to researchers when planning, designing, and conducting own research. Political decision-makers who seek support and advice could also take advantage of the findings, as they may assist in the development of new political instruments. Last but not least, the presented research outcomes may serve the business community by providing solutions, and references to appropriate experts and analysts.

Theological Empowerment of Lay Leaders: A Citizen Science Project in Switzerland and Austria

Abstract The present research project addresses the question of how the theological literacy and agency of volunteer church leaders can be fostered so that cooperative church leadership can be achieved. The Protestant Churches of the Canton of St. Gallen (Switzerland) and Austria, together with the Centre for Church Development of the University of Zurich, designed a participatory research process. The aim was to increase the communicative and participative competence of volunteers. Together, through a creative and discursive process, the foundations, educational processes and tools necessary for theological empowerment were developed with the volunteer church leaders. The cooperative project combines research and practice in the sense that practitioners were actively involved in generating, evaluating and discussing the data. In addition, in this project we found ways to continue participatory research – for example through online discourse formats – and thus not lose the essence of such research in times of covid-19.

Historical research in education: Understanding contemporary situations and conditions through analysis of the relevant history. An Interview with the Lucien Criblez

Lucien Criblez works and researches at the University of Zurich, where he has held the professorship for Historical Educational Research and Educational Policy since 2008. His publication record encompasses more than 28 authored, edited or co-edited books, and countless journal articles as well as book chapters on the history of education, educational policy analysis, school theory and teacher education. Prior to his position in Zurich, Criblez held a professorial position for pedagogy at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, where he also served as director of the Institute for Research and Development. Lucien Criblez is one of only few academics who unites theory and practice as he pursued his studies in Bern (1987–1997) and Zurich (1999–2003), while gaining experience in youth work, teacher education and educational administration. He has held multiple public positions related to his areas of expertise.

PEDAGOGICAL DESIGN AT THE UNIVERSITY: «INTERVIEW WITH THE AUTHOR» AS A NONLINEAR METHOD OF TEACHING LITERATURE

This study attempts to demonstrate some non-linear methods and techniques for organizing the educational process at a university within the framework of the modern branch of practical pedagogy - pedagogical design (using the example of studying literature at a university). The definition of the concept of «Pedagogical design» is given; the problem of the need to create a new educational environment is raised, in connection with the increased need for high-quality and relevant knowledge aimed at the realization of the individual in the new digital realities. The relevance and novelty of the undertaken analysis is substantiated. The study presents the results of the analysis of the preferences of the contingent of students and the analysis of the educational environment. The concept of pedagogical activity is substantiated, which implies the introduction of such a genre as an interview (interview with the author) into lectures and practical classes in literature, using innovative technologies and digital capabilities of the educational process within the framework of pedagogical design, the expediency of this form of presentation of educational material is substantiated. An example of the design of educational material in the form of an interview, tested in the framework of a project with the University of Zurich (Switzerland), is proposed.