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Werner Krause and Christina Gahn argue that we need to pay more attention to how the media communicates the results of opinion polls to the public. Reporting methodological details, such as margins of error, can alter citizens’ vote choices on election day. This has important implications for elections around the world
Our dignity in your hands
(2024)
Social institutions
(2024)
Social institutions are a system of behavioral and relationship patterns that are densely interwoven and enduring and function across an entire society. They order and structure the behavior of individuals in core areas of society and thus have a strong impact on the quality of life of individuals. Institutions regulate the following: (a) family and relationship networks carry out social reproduction and socialization; (b) institutions in the realm of education and training ensure the transmission and cultivation of knowledge, abilities, and specialized skills; (c) institutions in the labor market and economy provide for the production and distribution of goods and services; (d) institutions in the realm of law, governance, and politics provide for the maintenance of the social order; (e) while cultural, media, and religious institutions further the development of contexts of meaning, value orientations, and symbolic codes.
Without fear or favour
(2024)
The US perennially has a far higher poverty rate than peer-rich democracies.1 This high poverty rate in the US presents an enormous challenge to population health given that considerable research demonstrates that being in poverty is bad for one’s health.2 Despite valuable contributions of prior research on income and mortality, the quantity of mortality associated with poverty in the US remains uknown. In this cohort study, we estimated the association between poverty and mortality and quantified the proportion and number of deaths associated with poverty.
‘Steadfast and unreserved’
(2023)
From victims to activists
(2022)
The politics of fear
(2022)
This special issue, "Concrete constraints of abstract concepts", addresses the role of concrete determinants, both external and internal to the human body, in acquisition, processing and use of abstract concepts while at the same time presenting to the readers an overview of methods used to assess their representation.
Most flowering plants are hermaphrodites, with flowers having both male and female reproductive organs. One widespread adaptation to limit self-fertilization is self-incompatibility (SI), where self-pollen fails to fertilize ovules.(1,2) In homomorphic SI, many morphologically indistinguishable mating types are found, although in heteromorphic SI, the two or three mating types are associated with different floral morphologies.(3-6) In heterostylous Primula, a hemizygous supergene determines a short-styled S-morph and a long-styled L-morph, corresponding to two different mating types, and full seed set only results from inter morph crosses.(7-9) Style length is controlled by the brassinosteroid (BR)-inactivating cytochrome P450 CYP734A50,(10) yet it remains unclear what defines the male and female incompatibility types. Here, we show that CYP734A50 also determines the female incompatibility type. Inactivating CYP734A50 converts short S-morph styles into long styles with the same incompatibility behavior as L-morph styles, and this effect can be mimicked by exogenous BR treatment. In vitro responses of S-and L-morph pollen grains and pollen tubes to increasing BR levels could only partly explain their different in vivo behavior, suggesting both direct and indirect effects of the different BR levels in S-versus L-morph stigmas and styles in controlling pollen performance. This BR-mediated SI provides a novel mechanism for preventing self-fertilization. The joint control of morphology and SI by CYP734A50 has important implications for the evolutionary buildup of the heterostylous syndrome and provides a straightforward explanation for why essentially all of the derived self-compatible homostylous Primula species are long homostyles.(11)
Background and Aims: Ostarek et al. (2019) claimed a conclusive
demonstration that language comprehension relies profoundly on
visual simulations. They presented participants with visual noise during sentence-picture verification (SPV) and measured lateralized button response speed. The authors selectively eliminated the classical congruency effect (faster yes decisions when pictures match the objects implied by the sentences) with ‘‘high level’’ noise made from images of other objects. However, that visual noise included tool pictures, known to activate lateralized motor affordances. Moreover, some of their sentences described motor actions. This raises the question whether motor simulation may have contaminated their results.
Methods: Replicating Ostarek et al. (2019), 33 right-handed
participants performed SPV but either without visual noise or while viewing (a) only left-handled or (b) only right-handled or (c) alternatingly left- and right-handled tools. Accuracy and reaction times of manual yes responses were analyzed. Additionally, hand-relatedness of sentences was rated.
Results: Replicating Ostarek et al. (2019), the classical SPV congruency effect appeared without noise and vanished when alternatingly handled tools were presented. Crucially, it reappeared when noise objects were consistently either left- or righthandled. Higher hand-relatedness of sentence content reduced SPV performance and accuracy was lower with right-handled noise.
Conclusion: First, we demonstrated an interaction between motor-
related language, visual affordances and motor responses in SPV.
This result supports the embodied view of language processing.
Second, we identified a motor process not previously known in SPV. This extends our understanding of mental simulation and calls for methodological controls in future studies.
Teen dating violence
(2021)
Immune to COVID?
(2021)
Don’t settle for less
(2021)
Religious Mapping Erbil (RME) is a joint project of teams from the Catholic University in Erbil (CUE), Salahaddin University-Erbil (SUE) and Tishk International University (TIU) under the guidance of the University of Potsdam (UP). From 2018 to 2022, the project was financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).
This project involves scholars of various disciplines including religious studies, Islamic studies, English language, applied computing, and computer engineering. The research is a cooperation of students, PhD candidates and advanced scholars.
The project attempts to display the religious diversity in Erbil, the fast-changing capital of Iraqi Kurdistan. Unlike a census or a survey, which focuses on individuals, RME presents the locations (mosques, churches, synagogues, temples and other venues) together with the history and social profiles of the congregations meeting there. [insert tiny map or part of it]
The data were obtained by visiting the locations, observing their services, interviewing community leaders (mostly imams and priests), evaluating information from the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs, and by consulting websites. All investigations followed the same pattern, consisting of (I) spatiotemporal and (III) social dimensions, framed by (II) religious performance.
Im Hochmittelalter entstehen Erzählungen, die etablierte literarische Formen und Traditionen neu verbinden: Sie sind volkssprachig, allegorisch und verwenden als Erzählform die erste Person, um in dieser Kombination, die sich zu einem die Grenzen der Einzelsprachen überschreitenden Erzähl-Format verfestigt, unterschiedlichste Themen aufzugreifen. Dieses Format, erstmals realisiert im altfranzösischen Roman de la Rose, wird die europäische Literatur mit Texten wie Dantes Divina Comedia, Guillaumes de Deguileville Pèlerinage de la Vie Humaine, William Langlands Pierce Plowman und Christines de Pizan Le Livre de la mutation de Fortune bis weit in die Neuzeit hinein prägen. Der in den Band einleitende Beitrag geht der Frage nach, ob das narrative Format dabei universell verwendet wird oder, z.B. im Rahmen der Liebesdichtung, spezifische Besonderheiten aufweist.
In their comment on our paper (Caesar et al 2020 Environ. Res. Lett. 15 024003), Chen and Tung (hereafter C&T) argue that our analysis, showing that over the last decades Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) strength and global mean surface temperature (GMST) were positively correlated, is incorrect. Their claim is mainly based on two arguments, neither of which is justified: first, C&T claim that our analysis is based on 'established evidence' that was only true for preindustrial conditions-this is not the case. Using data from the modern period (1947-2012), we show that the established understanding (i.e. deep-water formation in the North Atlantic cools the deep ocean and warms the surface) is correct, but our analysis is not based on this fact. Secondly, C&T claim that our results are based on a statistical analysis of only one cycle of data which was furthermore incorrectly detrended. This, too, is not true. Our conclusion that a weaker AMOC delays the current surface warming rather than enhances it, is based on several independent lines of evidence. The data we show to support this covers more than one cycle and the detrending (which was performed to avoid spurious correlations due to a common trend) does not affect our conclusion: the correlation between AMOC strength and GMST is positive. We do not claim that this is strong evidence that the two time series are in phase, but rather that this means that the two time series are not anti-correlated.
History without borders
(2020)
Climate change entails an intensification of extreme weather events that can potentially trigger socioeconomic and energy system disruptions. As we approach 1 degrees C of global warming we should start learning from historical extremes and explicitly incorporate such events in integrated climate-economy and energy systems models.
Xenikoudakis et al. report a partial mitochondrial genome of the extinct giant beaver Castoroides and estimate the origin of aquatic behavior in beavers to approximately 20 million years. This time estimate coincides with the extinction of terrestrial beavers and raises the question whether the two events had a common cause.
Editorial
(2020)
Background:
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) represents a dysregulation of the mucosal immune system. The pathogenesis of Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) is linked to the loss of intestinal tolerance and barrier function. The healthy mucosal immune system has previously been shown to be inert against food antigens. Since the small intestine is the main contact surface for antigens and therefore the immunological response, the present study served to analyse food-antigen-specific T cells in the peripheral blood of IBD patients.
Methods:
Peripheral blood mononuclear cells of CD, with an affected small intestine, and UC (colitis) patients, either active or in remission, were stimulated with the following food antigens: gluten, soybean, peanut and ovalbumin. Healthy controls and celiac disease patients were included as controls. Antigen-activated CD4+ T cells in the peripheral blood were analysed by a magnetic enrichment of CD154+ effector T cells and a cytometric antigen-reactive T-cell analysis (‘ARTE’ technology) followed by characterisation of the ef- fector response.
Results:
The effector T-cell response of antigen-specific T cells were compared between CD with small intestinal inflammation and UC where inflammation was restricted to the colon. Among all tested food antigens, the highest frequency of antigen-specific T cells (CD4+CD154+) was found for gluten. Celiac disease patients were included as control, since gluten has been identified as the disease- causing antigen. The highest frequency of gluten antigen-specific T cells was revealed in active CD when compared with UC, celiac disease on a gluten-free diet (GFD) and healthy controls. Ovalbuminspecific T cells were almost undetectable, whereas the reaction to soybean and peanut was slightly higher. But again, the strong- est reaction was observed in CD with small intestinal involvement compared with UC. Remarkably, in celiac disease on a GFD only
antigen-specific cells for gluten were detected. These gluten-specific T cells were characterised by up-regulation of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IFN-γ, IL-17A and TNF-α. IFN-g was exclusively elevated in CD patients with active disease. Gluten-specific T-cells expressing IL-17A were increased in all IBD patients. Furthermore, T cells of CD patients, independent of disease activity, revealed a high expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α.
Conclusion:
The ‘ARTE’-technique allows to analyse and quantify food antigen specific T cells in the peripheral blood of IBD patients indicating a potential therapeutic insight. These data provide evidence that small intestinal inflammation in CD is key for the development of a systemic pro-inflammatory effector T-cell response driven by food antigens.
Several overlapping crises which affected the EU during the past ten years have recently aggravated. Especially the progressing refugee crisis, the persisting financial crisis and geopolitical turmoil in the EU's neighbourhood contributed to the rise of anti-EU movements and diverse articulations of Euroscepticism. Although public opinion and mainstream political analysis have easily identified right-wing populism as one of the most important drivers, it is still doubtful if it can be equated with Euroscepticism without further ado. To date it is by no means clear how and where Euroscepticism exactly originates.
Chronic ankle instability (CAI) is not only an ankle issue, but also affects sensorimotor system. People with CAI show altered muscle activation in proximal joints such as hip and knee. However, evidence is limited as controversial results have been presented regarding changes in activation of hip muscles in CAI population. PURPOSE: To investigate the effect of CAI on activity of hip muscles during normal walking and walking with perturbations. METHODS: 8 subjects with CAI (23 ± 2 years, 171 ± 7 cm and 65 ± 4 kg) and 8 controls (CON) matched by age, height, weight and dominant leg (25 ± 3 years, 172 ± 7 cm and 65 ± 6 kg) walked shoed on a split-belt treadmill (1 m/s). Subjects performed 5 minutes of baseline walking and 6 minutes walking with 10 perturbations (at 200 ms after heel contact with 42 m/s2 deceleration impulse) on each side. Electromyography signals from gluteus medius (Gmed) and gluteus maximus (Gmax) were recorded while walking. Muscle amplitudes (Root Mean Square normalized to maximum voluntary isometric contraction) were calculated at 200 ms before heel contact (Pre200), 100 ms after heel contact (Post100) during normal walking and 200 ms after perturbations (Pert200). Differences between groups were examined using Mann Whitney U test and Bonferroni correction to account for multiple testing (adjust α level p≤ 0.0125). RESULT: In Gmed, CAI group showed lower muscle amplitude than CON group after heel contact (Post100: 18±7 % and 47±21 %, p< .01) and after walking perturbations ( 31±13 % and 62±26 %, p< .01), but not before heel contact (Pre200: 5±2 % and 11±10 %, p= 0.195). In Gmax, no difference was found between CAI and CON groups in all three time points (Pre200: 12±5 % and 17±12 %, p= 0.574; Post100: 41±21 % and 41±13 %, p= 1.00; Pert200: 79±46 % and 62±35 %, p= 0.505). CONCLUSION: People with CAI activated Gmed less than healthy control in feedback mechanism (after heel contact and walking with perturbations), but not in feedforward mechanism (before heel contact). Less activation on Gmed may affect the balance in frontal plane and increase the risk of recurrent ankle sprain, giving way or feeling ankle instability in patients with CAI during walking. Future studies should investigate the effect of Gmed strengthening or neuromuscular training on CAI rehabilitation.
Eccentric exercises (ECC) induce reversible muscle damage, delayed-onset muscle soreness and an inflammatory reaction that is often followed by a systemic anti-inflammatory response. Thus, ECC might be beneficial for treatment of metabolic disorders which are frequently accompanied by a low-grade systemic inflammation. However, extent and time course of a systemic immune response after repeated ECC bouts are poorly characterized.
PURPOSE: To analyze the (anti-)inflammatory response after repeated ECC loading of the trunk.
METHODS: Ten healthy participants (33 ± 6 y; 173 ± 14 cm; 74 ± 16 kg) performed three isokinetic strength measurements of the trunk (concentric (CON), ECC1, ECC2, each 2 wks apart; flexion/extension, velocity 60°/s, 120s MVC). Pre- and 4, 24, 48, 72, 168h post-exercise, muscle soreness (numeric rating scale, NRS) was assessed and blood samples were taken and analyzed [Creatine kinase (CK), C-reactive protein (CRP), Interleukin-6 (IL-6), IL-10, Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)]. Statistics were done by Friedman‘s test with Dunn‘s post hoc test (α=.05).
RESULTS: Mean peak torque was higher during ECC1 (319 ± 142 Nm) than during CON (268 ± 108 Nm; p<.05) and not different between ECC1 and ECC2 (297 ± 126 Nm; p>.05). Markers of muscle damage (peaks post-ECC1: NRS 48h, 4.4±2.9; CK 72h, 14407 ± 19991 U/l) were higher after ECC1 than after CON and ECC2 (p<.05). The responses over 72h (stated as Area under the Curve, AUC) were abolished after ECC2 compared to ECC1 (p<.05) indicating the presence of the repeated bout effect. CRP levels were not changed. IL-6 levels increased 2-fold post-ECC1 (pre: 0.5 ± 0.4 vs. 72h: 1.0 ± 0.8 pg/ml). The IL-6 response was enhanced after ECC1 (AUC 61 ± 37 pg/ml*72h) compared to CON (AUC 33 ± 31 pg/ml*72h; p<.05). After ECC2, the IL-6 response (AUC 43 ± 25 pg/ml*72h) remained lower than post-ECC1, but the difference was not statistically significant. Serum levels of TNF-α and of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were below detection limits. Overall, markers of muscle damage and immune response showed high inter-individual variability.
CONCLUSION: Despite maximal ECC loading of a large muscle group, no anti-inflammatory and just weak inflammatory responses were detected in healthy adults. Whether ECC elicits a different reaction in inflammatory clinical conditions is unclear.
Eccentric (ECC) exercises might cause muscle damage, characterized by delayed-onset muscle soreness, elevated creatine kinase (CK) levels and local muscle oedema, shown by elevated T2 times in magnet resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Previous research suggests a high inter-individual difference regarding these systemic and local responses to eccentric workload. PURPOSE: To analyze ECC exercise-induced muscle damage in lumbar paraspinal muscles assessed via MRI. METHODS: Ten participants (3f/7m; 33±6y; 174±8cm; 71±12kg) were included in the study. Quantitative paraspinal muscle constitution of M. erector spinae and M. multifidius were assessed in supine position before and 72h after an intense eccentric trunk exercise bout in a mobile 1.5 tesla MRI device. MRI scans were recorded on spinal level L3 (T2-weighted TSE echo sequences, 11 slices, 2mm slice thickness, 3mm gap, echo times: 20, 40, 60, 80, 100ms, TR time: 2500ms). Muscle T2 times were calculated for manually traced regions of interest of the respective muscles with an imaging software. The exercise protocol was performed in an isokinetic device and consisted of 120sec alternating ECC trunk flexion-extension with maximal effort. Venous blood samples were taken before and 72h after the ECC exercise. Descriptive statistics (mean±SD) and t-testing for pre-post ECC exercises were performed. RESULTS: T2 times increased from pre- to post-ECC MRI measurements from 55±3ms to 79±28ms in M. erector spinae and from 62±5ms to 78±24ms in M. multifidius (p<0.001). CK increased from 126±97 U/L to 1447±20579 U/L. High SDs of T2 time and CK in post-ECC measures could be due to inter-individual reactions to ECC exercises. 3 participants showed high local and systemic reactions (HR) with T2 time increases of 120±24% (M. erector spinae) and 73±50% (M. multifidius). In comparison, the remaining 7 participants showed increases of 11±12% (M. erector spinae) and 7±9% (M. multifidius) in T2 time. Mean CK increased 9.5-fold in the 3 HR subjects compared with the remaining 7 subjects. CONCLUSIONS: The 120sec maximal ECC trunk flexion-extension protocol induced high amounts of muscle damage in 3 participants. Moderate to low responses were found in the remaining 7 subjects, assuming that inter-individual predictors play a role regarding physiological responses to ECC workload.
PURPOSE: To determine the feasibility of upright compared to supine MRI measurements to determine characteristics of the lumbar spine in AA with spondylolisthesis.
METHODS: Ten AA (n=10; m/f: 4/6; 14.5±1.7y; 163±7cm; 52±8kg) from various sports, diagnosed with spondylolisthesis grade I-II Meyerding confirmed by x-ray in standing lateral view, were included. Open low-field MRI images (0.25 Tesla) in upright (82°) and supine (0°) position were evaluated by two observers. Medical imaging software was used to measure the anterior translation (AT, mm), lumbosacral joint angle (LSJA, °) and lordosis angle (LA, °). Reliability was analyzed by the intra-rater correlation coefficient (ICC) and standard error of measurements (SEM).
RESULTS: Due to motion artifacts during upright position, measures of three participants had to be excluded. Between observers, AT ranged from 4.2±2.7mm to 5.5±1.9mm (ICC=0.94, SEM=0.6mm) in upright and from 4.9±2.4mm to 5.9±3.0mm (ICC=0.89, SEM=0.9mm) in supine position. LSJA varied from 5.1±2.2° to 7.3±1.5° (ICC=0.54, SEM=1.5°) in upright and from 9.8±2.5° to 10±2.4° (ICC=0.73, SEM=1.1°) in supine position. LA differed from 58.8±14.6° to 61.9±6° (ICC=0.94, SEM=1.19°) in upright and from 51.9±11.7° to 52.6±11.1° (ICC=0.98, SEM=1.59°) in supine position.
CONCLUSIONS: Determination of AT and LA showed good to excellent reliability in both, upright and supine position. In contrast, reliability of LSJA had only moderate to good correlation
between observers and should therefore be interpreted with caution. However, motion artifacts should be taken into consideration during upright imaging procedures.
Acute ankle sprain leads in 40% of all cases to chronic ankle instability (CAI). CAI is related to a variety of motor adaptations at the lower extremities. Previous investigations identified increased muscle activities while landing in CAI compared to healthy control participants. However, it remains unclear whether muscular alterations at the knee muscles are limited to the involved (unstable) ankle or are also present at the uninvolved leg. The latter might potentially indicate a risk of ankle sprain or future injury on the uninvolved leg. Purpose: To assess if there is a difference of knee muscle activities between the involved and uninvolved leg in participants with CAI during perturbed walking. Method: 10 participants (6 females; 4 males; 26±4 years; 169±9 cm; 65±7 kg) with unilateral CAI walked on a split-belt treadmill (1m/s) for 5 minutes of baseline walking and 6 minutes of perturbed walking (left and right side, each 10 perturbations). Electromyography (EMG) measurements were performed at biceps femoris (BF) and rectus femoris (RF). EMG amplitude (RMS; normalized to MVIC) were analyzed for 200ms pre-heel contact (Pre200), 100ms post heel contact (Post100) and 200ms after perturbation (Pert200). Data was analyzed by paired t-test/Wilcoxon test based on presence or absence of normal distribution (Bonferroni adjusted α level p≤ 0.0125). Results: No statistical difference was found between involved and uninvolved leg for RF (Pre200: 4±2% and 11± 22%, respectively, p= 0.878; Post100: 10± 5 and 18±31%, p=0.959; Pert200: 6±3% and 13±24%, p=0.721) as well as for BF (Pre200: 12±7% and 11±6, p=0.576; Post100: 10±7% and 9±7%, p=0.732; Pert200: 7±4 and 7±7%, p=0.386). Discussion: No side differences in muscle activity could be revealed for assessed feedforward and feedback responses (perturbed and unperturbed) in unilateral CAI. Reduced inter-individual variability of muscular activities at the involved leg might indicate a rather stereotypical response pattern. It remains to be investigated, whether muscular control at the knee is not affected by CAI, or whether both sides adapted in a similar style to the chronic condition at the ankle.
We are glad to introduce the Second Journal Club of Volume Five, Second Issue. This edition is focused on relevant studies published in the last few years in the field of resistance training, chosen by our Editorial Board members and their colleagues. We hope to stimulate your curiosity in this field and to share with you the passion for the sport, seen also from the scientific point of view. The Editorial Board members wish you an inspiring lecture.
In the comment on "Varves of the Dead Sea sedimentary record." Quaternary Science Reviews 215 (Ben Dor et al., 2019): 173-184. by R. Bookman, two recently published papers are suggested to prove that the interpretation of the laminated sedimentary sequence of the Dead Sea, deposited mostly during MIS2 and Holocene pluvials, as annual deposits (i.e., varves) is wrong. In the following response, we delineate several lines of evidence which coalesce to demonstrate that based on the vast majority of evidence, including some of the evidence provided in the comment itself, the interpretation of these sediments as varves is the more likely scientific conclusion. We further discuss the evidence brought up in the comment and its irrelevance and lack of robustness for addressing the question under discussion.
In June 2019, more than a hundred plant researchers met in Cologne, Germany, for the 6th European Workshop on Plant Chromatin (EWPC). This conference brought together a highly dynamic community of researchers with the common aim to understand how chromatin organization controls gene expression, development, and plant responses to the environment. New evidence showing how epigenetic states are set, perpetuated, and inherited were presented, and novel data related to the three-dimensional organization of chromatin within the nucleus were discussed. At the level of the nucleosome, its composition by different histone variants and their specialized histone deposition complexes were addressed as well as the mechanisms involved in histone post-translational modifications and their role in gene expression. The keynote lecture on plant DNA methylation by Julie Law (SALK Institute) and the tribute session to Lars Hennig, honoring the memory of one of the founders of the EWPC who contributed to promote the plant chromatin and epigenetic field in Europe, added a very special note to this gathering. In this perspective article we summarize some of the most outstanding data and advances on plant chromatin research presented at this workshop.
Based on the notion that time, space, and number are part of a generalized magnitude system, we assume that the dual-systems approach to temporal cognition also applies to numerical cognition. Referring to theoretical models of the development of numerical concepts, we propose that children's early skills in processing numbers can be described analogously to temporal updating and temporal reasoning.
Bridging the Gap
(2019)
The recent restructuring of the electricity grid (i.e., smart grid) introduces a number of challenges for today's large-scale computing systems. To operate reliable and efficient, computing systems must adhere not only to technical limits (i.e., thermal constraints) but they must also reduce operating costs, for example, by increasing their energy efficiency. Efforts to improve the energy efficiency, however, are often hampered by inflexible software components that hardly adapt to underlying hardware characteristics. In this paper, we propose an approach to bridge the gap between inflexible software and heterogeneous hardware architectures. Our proposal introduces adaptive software components that dynamically adapt to heterogeneous processing units (i.e., accelerators) during runtime to improve the energy efficiency of computing systems.
Mise-Unseen
(2019)
Creating or arranging objects at runtime is needed in many virtual reality applications, but such changes are noticed when they occur inside the user's field of view. We present Mise-Unseen, a software system that applies such scene changes covertly inside the user's field of view. Mise-Unseen leverages gaze tracking to create models of user attention, intention, and spatial memory to determine if and when to inject a change. We present seven applications of Mise-Unseen to unnoticeably modify the scene within view (i) to hide that task difficulty is adapted to the user, (ii) to adapt the experience to the user's preferences, (iii) to time the use of low fidelity effects, (iv) to detect user choice for passive haptics even when lacking physical props, (v) to sustain physical locomotion despite a lack of physical space, (vi) to reduce motion sickness during virtual locomotion, and (vii) to verify user understanding during story progression. We evaluated Mise-Unseen and our applications in a user study with 15 participants and find that while gaze data indeed supports obfuscating changes inside the field of view, a change is rendered unnoticeably by using gaze in combination with common masking techniques.
Diffusion of cosmic rays (CRs) is the key process for understanding their propagation and acceleration. We employ the description of spatial separation of magnetic field lines in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in Lazarian & Vishniac to quantify the divergence of the magnetic field on scales less than the injection scale of turbulence and show that this divergence induces superdiffusion of CR in the direction perpendicular to the mean magnetic field. The perpendicular displacement squared increases, not as the distance x along the magnetic field, which is the case for a regular diffusion, but as the x 3 for freely streaming CRs. The dependence changes to x 3/2 for the CRs propagating diffusively along the magnetic field. In the latter case, we show that it is important to distinguish the perpendicular displacement with respect to the mean field and to the local magnetic field. We consider how superdiffusion changes the acceleration of CRs in shocks and show how it decreases efficiency of the CRs acceleration in perpendicular shocks. We also demonstrate that in the case when the small-scale magnetic field is generated in the pre-shock region, an efficient acceleration can take place for the CRs streaming without collisions along the magnetic loops.
Editorial
(2019)
Editorial
(2019)
The new year starts and many of us have right away been burdened with conference datelines, grant proposal datelines, teaching obligations, paper revisions and many other things. While being more or less successful in fulfilling To‐Do lists and ticking of urgent (and sometimes even important) things, we often feel that our ability to be truly creative or innovative is rather restrained by this (external pressure). With this, we are not alone. Many studies have shown that stress does influence overall work performance and satisfaction. Furthermore, more and more students and entry‐levels look for work‐life balance and search for employers that offer a surrounding and organization considering these needs. High‐Tech and start‐up companies praise themselves for their “Feel‐Good managers” or Yoga programs. But is this really helpful? Is there indeed a relationship between stress, adverse work environment and creativity or innovation? What are the supporting factors in a work environment that lets employees be more creative? What kind of leadership do we need for innovative behaviour and to what extent can an organization create support structures that reduce the stress we feel? The first issue of Creativity and Innovation Management in 2019 gives some first answers to these questions and hopefully some food for thought.
The first paper written by Dirk De Clercq, and Imanol Belausteguigoitia starts with the question which impact work overload has on creative behaviour. The authors look at how employees' perceptions of work overload reduces their creative behaviour. While they find empirical proof for this relationship, they can also show that the effect is weaker with higher levels of passion for work, emotion sharing, and organizational commitment. The buffering effects of emotion sharing and organizational commitment are particularly strong when they are combined with high levels of passion for work. Their findings give first empirical proof that organizations can and should take an active role in helping their employees reducing the effects of adverse work conditions in order to become or stay creative. However, not only work overload is harming creative behaviour, also the fear of losing one's job has detrimental effects on innovative work behaviour. Anahi van Hootegem, Wendy Niesen and Hans de Witte verify that stress and adverse environmental conditions shape our perception of work. Using threat rigidity theory and an empirical study of 394 employees, they show that the threat of job loss impairs employees' innovativeness through increased irritation and decreased concentration. Organizations can help their employees coping better with this insecurity by communicating more openly and providing different support structures. Support often comes from leadership and the support of the supervisor can clearly shape an employee's motivation to show creative behaviour. Wenjing Cai, Evgenia Lysova, Bart A. G. Bossink, Svetlana N. Khapova and Weidong Wang report empirical findings from a large‐scale survey in China where they find that supervisor support for creativity and job characteristics effectively activate individual psychological capital associated with employee creativity.
On a slight different notion, Gisela Bäcklander looks at agile practices in a very well‐known High Tech firm. In “Doing Complexity Leadership Theory: How agile coaches at Spotify practice enabling leadership”, she researches the role of agile coaches and how they practice enabling leadership, a key balancing force in complexity leadership. She finds that the active involvement of coaches in observing group dynamics, surfacing conflict and facilitating and encouraging constructive dialogue leads to a positive working environment and the well‐being of employees. Quotes from the interviews suggest that the flexible structure provided by the coaches may prove a fruitful way to navigate and balance autonomy and alignment in organizations.
The fifth paper of Frederik Anseel, Michael Vandamme, Wouter Duyck and Eric Rietzchel goes a little further down this road and researches how groups can be motivated better to select truly creative ideas. We know from former studies that groups often perform rather poorly when it comes to selecting creative ideas for implementation. The authors find in an extensive field experiment that under conditions of high epistemic motivation, proself motivated groups select significantly more creative and original ideas than prosocial groups. They conclude however, that more research is needed to understand better why these differences occur. The prosocial behaviour of groups is also the theme of Karin Moser, Jeremy F. Dawson and Michael A. West's paper on “Antecedents of team innovation in health care teams”. They look at team‐level motivation and how a prosocial team environment, indicated by the level of helping behaviour and information‐sharing, may foster innovation. Their results support the hypotheses of both information‐sharing and helping behaviour on team innovation. They suggest that both factors may actually act as buffer against constraints in team work, such as large team size or high occupational diversity in cross‐functional health care teams, and potentially turn these into resources supporting team innovation rather than acting as barriers.
Away from teams and onto designing favourable work environments, the seventh paper of Ferney Osorio, Laurent Dupont, Mauricio Camargo, Pedro Palominos, Jose Ismael Pena and Miguel Alfaro looks into innovation laboratories. Although several studies have tackled the problem of design, development and sustainability of these spaces for innovation, there is still a gap in understanding how the capabilities and performance of these environments are affected by the strategic intentions at the early stages of their design and functioning. The authors analyse and compare eight existing frameworks from literature and propose a new framework for researchers and practitioners aiming to assess or to adapt innovation laboratories. They test their framework in an exploratory study with fifteen laboratories from five different countries and give recommendations for the future design of these laboratories. From design to design thinking goes our last paper from Rama Krishna Reddy Kummitha on “Design Thinking in Social Organisations: Understanding the role of user engagement” where she studies how users persuade social organisations to adopt design thinking. Looking at four social organisations in India during 2008 to 2013, she finds that the designer roles are blurred when social organisations adopt design thinking, while users in the form of interconnecting agencies reduce the gap between designers and communities.
The last two articles were developed from papers presented at the 17th International CINet conference organized in Turin in 2016 by Paolo Neirotti and his colleagues. In the first article, Fábio Gama, Johan Frishammar and Vinit Parida focus on ideation and open innovation in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises. They investigate the relationship between systematic idea generation and performance and the moderating role of market‐based partnerships. Based on a survey among manufacturing SMEs, they conclude that higher levels of performance are reached and that collaboration with customers and suppliers pays off most when idea generation is done in a highly systematic way. The second article, by Anna Holmquist, Mats Magnusson and Mona Livholts, resonates the theme of the CINet conference ‘Innovation and Tradition; combining the old and the new’. They explore how tradition is used in craft‐based design practices to create new meaning. Applying a narrative ‘research through design’ approach they uncover important design elements, and tensions between them.
Please enjoy this first issue of CIM in 2019 and we wish you creativity and innovation without too much stress in the months to come.
An efficient selection of indexes is indispensable for database performance. For large problem instances with hundreds of tables, existing approaches are not suitable: They either exhibit prohibitive runtimes or yield far from optimal index configurations by strongly limiting the set of index candidates or not handling index interaction explicitly. We introduce a novel recursive strategy that does not exclude index candidates in advance and effectively accounts for index interaction. Using large real-world workloads, we demonstrate the applicability of our approach. Further, we evaluate our solution end to end with a commercial database system using a reproducible setup. We show that our solutions are near-optimal for small index selection problems. For larger problems, our strategy outperforms state-of-the-art approaches in both scalability and solution quality.
Interactive Close-Up Rendering for Detail plus Overview Visualization of 3D Digital Terrain Models
(2019)
This paper presents an interactive rendering technique for detail+overview visualization of 3D digital terrain models using interactive close-ups. A close-up is an alternative presentation of input data varying with respect to geometrical scale, mapping, appearance, as well as Level-of-Detail (LOD) and Level-of-Abstraction (LOA) used. The presented 3D close-up approach enables in-situ comparison of multiple Regionof-Interests (ROIs) simultaneously. We describe a GPU-based rendering technique for the image-synthesis of multiple close-ups in real-time.
The availability of detailed virtual 3D building models including representations of indoor elements, allows for a wide number of applications requiring effective exploration and navigation functionality. Depending on the application context, users should be enabled to focus on specific Objects-of-Interests (OOIs) or important building elements. This requires approaches to filtering building parts as well as techniques to visualize important building objects and their relations. For it, this paper explores the application and combination of interactive rendering techniques as well as their semanticallydriven configuration in the context of 3D indoor models.
A fundamental task in 3D geovisualization and GIS applications is the visualization of vector data that can represent features such as transportation networks or land use coverage. Mapping or draping vector data represented by geometric primitives (e.g., polylines or polygons) to 3D digital elevation or 3D digital terrain models is a challenging task. We present an interactive GPU-based approach that performs geometry-based draping of vector data on per-frame basis using an image-based representation of a 3D digital elevation or terrain model only.
Stress and bone health
(2019)
An essential, respected, and critical aspect of the modern practice of science and scientific publishing is peer review. The process of peer review facilitates best practices in scientific conduct and communication, ensuring that manuscripts published are as accurate, valuable, and clearly communicated. The over 216 papers published in Tectonics in 2018 benefit from the time, effort, and expertise of our reviewers who have provided thoughtfully considered advice on each manuscript. This role is critical to advancing our understanding of the evolution of the continents and their margins, as these reviews lead to even clearer and higher-quality papers. In 2018, the over 443 papers submitted to Tectonics were the beneficiaries of more than 1,010 reviews provided by 668 members of the tectonics community and related disciplines. To everyone who has volunteered their time and intellect to peer reviewing, thank you for helping Tectonics and all other AGU Publications provide the best science possible.
We review the evidence for a putative early 21st-century divergence between global mean surface temperature (GMST) and Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) projections. We provide a systematic comparison between temperatures and projections using historical versions of GMST products and historical versions of model projections that existed at the times when claims about a divergence were made. The comparisons are conducted with a variety of statistical techniques that correct for problems in previous work, including using continuous trends and a Monte Carlo approach to simulate internal variability. The results show that there is no robust statistical evidence for a divergence between models and observations. The impression of a divergence early in the 21st century was caused by various biases in model interpretation and in the observations, and was unsupported by robust statistics.
Domain-specific physical activity patterns and cardiorespiratory fitness among adults in Germany
(2019)
Background Studies show that occupational physical activity (OPA) has less health-enhancing effects than leisure-time physical activity (LTPA). The spare data available suggests that OPA rarely includes aerobic PAs with little or no enhancing effects on cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) as a possible explanation. This study aims to investigate the associations between patterns of OPA and LTPA and CRF among adults in Germany. Methods 1,204 men and 1,303 women (18-64 years), who participated in the German Health Interview and Examination Survey 2008-2011, completed a standardized sub-maximal cycle ergometer test to estimate maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). Job positions were coded according to the level of physical effort to construct an occupational PA index and categorized as low vs. high OPA. LTPA was assessed via questionnaires and dichotomized in no vs. any LTPA participation. A combined LTPA/OPA variable was used (high OPA/ LTPA, low OPA/LTPA, high OPA/no LTPA, low OPA/no LTPA). Information on potential confounders was obtained via questionnaires (e.g., smoking and education) or physical measurements (e.g., waist circumference). Multi-variable logistic regression was used to analyze associations between OPA/LTPA patterns and VO2max. Results Preliminary analyses showed that less-active men were more likely to have a low VO2max with odds ratios (ORs) of 0.80 for low OPA/LTPA, 1.84 for high OPA/no LTPA and 3.46 for low OPA/no LTPA compared to high OPA/LTPA. The corresponding ORs for women were 1.11 for low OPA/LTPA, 3.99 for high OPA/no LTPA and 2.44 for low OPA/no LTPA, indicating the highest likelihood of low fitness for women working in physically demanding jobs and not engaging in LTPA. Conclusions Findings confirm a strong association between LTPA and CRF and suggest an interaction between OPA and LTPA patterns on CRF within the workforce in Germany. Women without LTPA are at high risk of having a low CRF, especially if they work in physically demanding jobs. Key messages Women not practicing leisure-time physical activity are at risk of having a low cardiorespiratory fitness, especially if they work in physically demanding jobs. Different impact of domains of physical activity should be considered when planning interventions to enhance fitness among the adult population.
Editorial
(2019)
Words as social tools
(2019)
The target article discusses the question of how educational makerspaces can become places supportive of knowledge construction. This question is too often neglected by people who run makerspaces, as they mostly explain how to use different tools and focus on the creation of a product. In makerspaces, often pupils also engage in physical computing activities and thus in the creation of interactive artifacts containing embedded systems, such as smart shoes or wristbands, plant monitoring systems or drink mixing machines. This offers the opportunity to reflect on teaching physical computing in computer science education, where similarly often the creation of the product is so strongly focused upon that the reflection of the learning process is pushed into the background.