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INTRODUCTION: Rotavirus causes severe-diarrheal diseases in infants. An estimation of 138 million rotavirus-associated diarrheal cases and 215,000 deaths occur every year globally. In December 2016, West-Shewa zone in Ethiopia reported unidentified gastrointestinal diarrhea outbreak. We investigated to identify the causative agent of the outbreak to support response operations. METHODS: Medical records were reviewed, and the daily line list was collected from health facilities. Descriptive data analysis was done by time, person and place. Stool specimens were first tested by antigen capture enzyme immunoassay (EIA) technique and further confirmed by reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) as a gold standard. The product of RT-PCR was genotyped for each gene using G1-G4, G8-G9 and G12 primers for VP7 gene and P(4), P(6), P(8) and P(14) primers for VP4 gene. RESULTS: A total of 1,987 diarrheal cases (5.7 per 1000) and five deaths (case-fatality rate 0.25%) were identified and epidemiologically-linked to confirmed rotavirus from December 2016 to February 2017. Among the cases, 1,946 (98%) were 5 children. Fourteen (74%) of the 19 tested stool specimens were positive for rotavirus by EIA and RT-PCR. Majority of strains detected were G12P(6) (25%) and G-negative P(8) (25%) followed by G9P(8) (19%), G1P(8) (13%) and G3/G2 P(8), G12P(8), and G-negative P(6) (6% each). CONCLUSIONS: Diarrheal outbreak which occurred in West-Shewa zone of Ethiopia was associated with rotavirus and relatively more affected districts with low vaccination coverage. Routine rotavirus vaccination quality and coverage should be evaluated and the surveillance system needs to be strengthened to detect, prevent and control a similar outbreak.

A sustainable energy economy implies high shares of volatile renewable energy sources and requires the use of energy storage technologies. Hydrogen is a very flexible energy carrier and can be employed as a large-scale energy storage in electric grids. This paper focuses on the integration of hydrogen production, conversion and storage options in a smart grid environment. A process current source (PCS) that functions as a rectifier for an alkaline electrolysis system and is compared to a conventional rectifier structure that is not specifically designed for dynamic operation. All components of the smart grid are scaled using a staggered algorithm that combines a pattern search algorithm and a genetic algorithm. This smart optimization tool shows high flexibility, accuracy and low computing times. The required computing time has been reduced by 56% in contrast to genetic algorithms without the pattern search method. Furthermore, the energy system optimization reduced the alkaline electrolysis below 30% of the initial scale in order to yield lower costs. Therefore, the difference in rectifier performance was reduced to a minor contribution.

"Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich der Erfassung heterogenen Verständnisses von ökonomischen Phänomenen bei Schülerinnen und Schülern. Die Autoren gehen davon aus, dass ein besseres Verständnis dieser Heterogenität für die Wirtschaftsdidaktik in Wissenschaft und Praxis von fundamentaler Bedeutung ist. Da mit der Phänomenographie ein geeignetes Erfassungsinstrument zur Verfügung steht, das in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Didaktik des deutschsprachigen Raums bisher nahezu keine Rolle spielt, versprechen sie sich gerade hierneue Impulse. Der Artikel beschreibt und diskutiert ein phänomenographisches Vorgehen für die ökonomische Bildung in Abgrenzung zu anderen Methoden. Er schließt mit Implikationen für die Unterrichtspraxis, da eine Kombination der Phänomenographie mit einer Konzeptvariation die Schülerwahrnehmungen in den Wirtschaftsunterricht integrieren lässt und hilft, Lernfortschritte zu erzielen.This article addresses the issue of identifying students’ heterogeneous understanding of economic phenomena. The authors assume that a better understanding of this heterogeneity is essential for economic education in science and practice. Phenomenography stands by as an adequate tool for identifying heterogeneity. However, so far, it is hardly adapted in German-speaking social science didactics and therefore we hope for new stimuli from its reception. The article describes and discusses the phenomenographic approach in economic education in distinction to other available methods. It closes by showing the implications for lesson practice, because a combination of phenomenography and concept variation will help to integrate students’ perceptions into economic instruction and to achieve progress in learning."

Der vorliegende Beitrag widmet sich der Erfassung heterogenen Verständnisses von ökonomischen Phänomenen bei Schülerinnen und Schülern. Die Autoren gehen davon aus, dass ein besseres Verständnis dieser Heterogenität für die Wirtschaftsdidaktik in Wissenschaft und Praxis von fundamentaler Bedeutung ist. Da mit der Phänomenographie ein geeignetes Erfassungsinstrument zur Verfügung steht, das in der sozialwissenschaftlichen Didaktik des deutschsprachigen Raums bisher nahezu keine Rolle spielt, versprechen sie sich gerade hier neue Impulse. Der Artikel beschreibt und diskutiert ein phänomenographisches Vorgehen für die ökonomische Bildung in Abgrenzung zu anderen Methoden. Er schließt mit Implikationen für die Unterrichtspraxis, da eine Kombination der Phänomenographie mit einer Konzeptvariation die Schülerwahrnehmungen in den Wirtschaftsunterricht integrieren lässt und hilft, Lernfortschritte zu erzielen This article addresses the issue of identifying students’ heterogeneous understanding of economic phenomena. The authors assume that a better understanding of this heterogeneity is essential for economic education in science and practice. Phenomenography stands by as an adequate tool for identifying heterogeneity. However, so far, it is hardly adapted in German-speaking social science didactics and therefore we hope for new stimuli from its reception. The article describes and discusses the phenomenographic approach in economic education in distinction to other available methods. It closes by showing the implications for lesson practice, because a combination of phenomenography and concept variation will help to integrate students’ perceptions into economic instruction and to achieve progress in learning.

The GEMAS project started in 2008 with a joint field campaign of almost all geological surveys in Europe in cooperation with some external organizations. 2211 samples of agricultural soil and 2118 samples from land under permanent grass cover were collected from a large part of Europe over a total area of about 5 million sqkm. Analysis of 53 chemical elements were carried out and The initial results indicate that nature, geology and climate are the major driving forces for the mapped distribution of element patterns at the European scale. Once completed, this project will deliver good quality and comparable exposure data of metals in agricultural and grazing land soil.