Search

Data Stewards work at the interface between research and research infrastructure. Vienna University Library has offered the first Data Steward certificate course in Austria since 2022 to equip individuals for this emerging role. The course covers the fundamentals of Research Data Management (RDM), Open Science, programming, and didactics. The first 25 individuals from 10 countries completed the Englishlanguage training in September 2023. This paper introduces the University of Vienna‘s Data Stewardship program, the concept of the certificate course, and experiences from the initial implementation. The objective is to provide other libraries with innovative training ideas and provide prospective participants with insights into the course structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Google Scholar, ein Eckpfeiler der wissenschaftlichen Forschungslandschaft, dient täglich Millionen von Nutzern als unverzichtbare Ressource zur Ermittlung von Zitierungen und Literaturverweisen. Doch ein neuer wissenschaftlicher Artikel von Hazem Ibrahim, Fengyuan Liu und Talal Rahwan zeigt zwei Seiten dieser beliebten Plattform und deckt alarmierende Schwachstellen auf, die die Integrität wissenschaftlicher Metriken untergraben könnten. In ihrer Untersuchung „Google Scholar is manipulatable“, veröffentlicht auf arXiv, enthüllen die Forscher, wie einfach es ist, die Zitationszahlen zu manipulieren – ein Problem, das weitreichende Folgen für die Bewertung akademischer Leistungen haben kann. Dieser Bericht zeigt, wie tiefgreifend die Herausforderungen sind, denen sich Forschende und Institutionen gegenübersehen, wenn sie auf transparente und gerechte Bewertungsmechanismen angewiesen sind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An electronic lab notebook (ELN) will replace the paper lab books that have been used for decades in every research laboratory in the future. To this purpose, digital entries are being created at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (HHU) in the web-based software eLabFTW. Under the theme „Preserve your data & empower your research“ of the e-Science Days 2023, Bert Zulauf and Nina Knipprath presented the process of laboratory digitisation on a poster.1 This article explains the content of the poster and addresses the points of digitally reusable laboratory documentation, improving research quality, strengthening one‘s own research, forms and infrastructure as well as security requirements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

LIFE is the only European Union funding instrument that exclusively addresses wildlife, the environment, and climate protection. Within the framework of the integrated LIFE project (Atlantic) Sand Landscapes (IPSL) – as well as through the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), among others – investment-based nature conservation measures are being implemented. IPSL is characterised by a project-specific implementation design, such as stakeholder participation, the spatial scale, the use of leverage funds, the range of conservation measures implemented, the service approach, project duration and funding, and flexibility. In this paper, the case of IPSL's implementation design is considered in detail, based on the results of guided interviews, and the strengths and weaknesses are elaborated. The results indicate that the implementation design has a predominantly positive effect on the implementation of investment-based nature conservation measures and could also provide approaches for the design of other funding instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports that several years ago Viennese designer Victor Papanek published "Design for the Real World", a critique of the environmentally harmful culture of designing things that are consumed and then thrown away and for Papanek, there was a "Kleenex culture" in western societies as today these countries have struggle with the consequences of their unsustainable consumption.

This paper compiles international literature on COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021 regarding outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism. It is based on a bibliometric and qualitative analysis of 287 papers. The paper illustrates and summarizes the recent publications on COVID-19. The synopsis describes the impact of the pandemic, handling of the protective measures, as well as consequences for behaviour and the necessary management consequences to analyze the possible after-effects, including the long-term impacts. Against this background, solutions and new strategies are analyzed. In the discussion part, we take a closer look at the consequences of the presentations in the literature with regard to adapted visitor management and an improved urban green concept. Furthermore, we discuss whether the pandemic may also have positive consequences in the appreciation of nature, which may lead to a new target group in the field of outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores how Shi ˘ ite and Protestant groups use the metaphor of sacrifice to cope with traumatic child deaths. The theoretical framework for this study is shaped by Henri Hubert and Marcel Mauss' theory of sacrifice and Mahmoud M. Ayoub and Jürgen Moltmann's theology of suffering. In this paper, religious services from digital media are examined, including sermons, hymns, songs, poems, laments, and social media posts, in the context of nine child deaths in the US, Germany, Iran, Afghanistan, and Yemen. The shared function of sacrificial imagery in Shi ˘ ite and Protestant communities is driven by common themes of 'comfort and anxiety', 'narrative fusion' and 'consecration of social order'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is about a response letter from students in Trier regarding the continental stage of the Synod on Synodality. The students were disappointed that they were not aware of the opportunity to participate in the diocesan phase of the World Synod. They have written a response letter that addresses various aspects, including youth issues, reflection on the current state of the Church, a return to the core mission of the Church, and the topic of synodality. The working paper has been sent to various individuals and institutions, including Cardinal Kurt Koch and the Synod Secretariat in Rome. [Extracted from the article]

Pastoral care and leadership are two central tasks of the pastoral profession. Nevertheless, their relationship to each other remains underdetermined in the theorizing of the respective sub-disciplines as well as in practical theology as a whole. This paper attempts to constructively define the relationship by understanding pastoral care primarily as a leadership task, namely as the organization and staging of pastoral care. Then he unfolds the thesis that the neglect of this ecclesial cybernetic dimension of pastoral care, but also of ecclesial cybernetics as a whole, results in a weakening of both theory and practice of the common priesthood of the believers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency and sustainability play a central role in the continuing development of research data management services. Given the steady increase in research data and their usage, these objectives can hardly be achieved continuing to develop manual processes. The paper will discuss an example of process transformation implemented to achieve efficiency and sustainability when publishing data with DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers). It will present the Django web application that the Science Data Management team at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin has developed to automate the registration process using the API made available by the DOI provider DataCite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the discussion on Onleihe experiencing a historic one with 1.3 million users and around 46 million loans leading e-lending service in public libraries in German-speaking countries.

The paper introduces Clarivate‘s Data Citation Index and asks whether it is a valuable resource for research as well as for libraries. The paper discusses the coverage of research data in the Data Citation Index, its selection criteria and indexing process, but also filtering functions and external links. This article demonstrates that the Data Citation Index can be a valuable resource for researchers as well as librarians, because it covers data of different disciplines and countries. It also makes it easier to find relevant research data and related literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines which new phenomena are emerging in the discourse around life in the vicarage due to advancing digitalisation. On Instagram, it becomes apparent that, in addition to the pastors and various liturgical formats, the private spaces, often the vicarages, are also being staged in a new way. This explorative-qualitative study examines this finding in more detail by analyzing awell-known pastor and influencers' use of the vicarage. It becomes clear that the smartphone provides a direct insight into the vicarage, whereby the focus of the discourse is less on the house per se than on the (religious) life led in it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Liebenburg forest district near Salzgitter in Lower Saxony, one of Germany's largest projects for restoring traditional coppice-with-standards forest management under today's economic and technical conditions has been underway for 35 years. This paper shows how species diversity, vegetation, and forest structure of this ancient coppice-with-standards woodland have been conserved and developed in comparison to a neighbouring site under high forest management. Based on this, the framework conditions are discussed under which conservation-oriented coppice-with-standards forest management can be successful today. Due to the natural site conditions and its centuries-long history of coppice-with-standards forest management, the study area has proven to be very suitable for reactivating this management technique. Ecological continuity had not been disrupted and the occurrences of animal and plant species typical for coppice-with-standards woodlands were successfully conserved and supported. The comparison of species' occurrences in the coppice-with-standards and high forest stands shows that the overall species richness and especially the number of exclusive species are significantly higher in the coppice-with-standards stand. Overall, the evaluation of animal and plant occurrences after the initial reactivation cycle documents a rich biodiversity that is typical for coppice-with-standards woodlands. The rotational felling of the underwood causes a small-scale coexistence of different succession stages and thus different microclimatic conditions. These habitats are missing in closed high forests. It becomes clear that active coppice-with-standards forest management is very well suited to permanently restore and secure the favourable conservation status of Galio-Carpinetum oakhornbeam forests and thus EU Habitats Directive habitat type 9170. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bavarian Forest National Park and Šumava National Park are located in the Bavarian-Czech border area. These national parks form a cross-border protected area attracting locals, day visitors, and tourists; they come not only due to its ecology, but also due to its history and culture. Against the background of increasing visitor numbers, protected area management faces the challenging task of preserving biodiversity as well as enabling high-quality recreational use in the parks. To identify potential conflicts between nature conservation and recreational use, and to gain in-depth knowledge about the visitors in the national parks, joint cross-border socioeconomic monitoring (SÖM) was implemented. One of the SÖM work packages focuses on visitors undertaking cross-border recreational activities. This paper presents the main results of this work package, based on a visitor survey and census. First, it points out the socio-demographic characteristics, motivation, and satisfaction of this specific visitor group. Second, it analyses the socio-temporal patterns of cross-border recreational use in the transboundary protected area. Finally, the results indicate the great importance of cross-border recreational use, as well as the heterogeneity of visitors crossing the border in terms of their origin, language skills, and activities. Based on these findings, practical recommendations for coordinated cross-border visitor management are derived. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional cultural landscapes are the basis for providing a variety of ecosystem services. Their preservation is linked to adapted land use practices and the associated social and ecological conditions. Using common pastures of the Black Forest biosphere area as an example, this paper examines possible solutions for the continuation of agricultural practices that are associated with positive effects for the traditional cultural landscape. We use socio-ecological resilience as a analytical framework. Resilience is understood as the ability of agriculture and the landscape to cope with disturbances and changes without losing central characteristics and functions. Based on the results of 44 farm consultations and 23 semi-structured interviews, we show how forward-looking guidelines and measures proposed by farmers operationalise resilience. Central to this are improved networking between stakeholders, increased learning, and expanded participation in cultural landscape preservation. From a resilience and regional governance perspective, we recommend that polycentric approaches (i.e., linking horizontal and vertical axes of decision making and governance) be given greater consideration in agricultural management and landscape stewardship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Native seeds – opportunity or risk for biodiversity conservation? A thesis paper on the implementation of § 40 BNatSchG According to § 40 BNatSchG, since March 2020 only plants that “have their genetic origin in the area concerned” may be spread in the wild. This article discusses possibilities for implementing this regulation with regard to the use of wild plant seeds (excluding woody plants) with special consideration of faunistic aspects. It emerged from an expert workshop with the aim of initiating a reflective interdisciplinary debate on the consideration of genetic diversity, which sheds light on the implications for nature conservation practice from a holistic perspective. It became clear that existing regulations are based on great uncertainties and entail massive restrictions for the effectiveness of restoration and for the attainability of higher-level nature conservation goals. This applies in particular to the excluded relevance of phytodiversity for the occurrence of numerous animal species and, thus, for species-rich ecological communities that are as complete as possible and the restoration of biotopes. Possible solutions are derived from the analysis, which should be urgently discussed in order to establish goal-oriented regulations for nature conservation practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the debate on climate protection and the promotion of renewable energies, the increased material and thermal use of wood as a supposedly climate-neutral building material and energy source is often promoted as necessary and sensible. The adoption of this narrative is increasingly leading to more intensive use of forests, to a further increase in the global supply of raw wood with a concomitant reduction in wood reserves, and is also contributing to the disappearance of the last primeval forests in Europe. This second part of a literature-based review on primeval forests, natural forests and managed forests in the context of biodiversity and climate protection analyses the development of wood reserves and wood use in Germany and discusses the CO2 sink performance of wood in the prevailing usage pathways. This issue has important implications for biodiversity conservation. The climate relevance of wood as a substitute for other resources and the supposed CO2 neutrality of wood as an energy source are critically examined. The climate policy goals of the EU and Germany and their instrumental implementation overestimate the performance of forests as CO2 sinks and their potential supply of wood. This is especially true in light of the consequences of climate change. The demand this paper makes of policy-makers is to prohibit logging in primeval and natural forests and to introduce corresponding normative requirements and criteria to restrict the use of timber for energy purposes. This applies in particular to imports of pellets and wood chips for electricity generation in large power plants. Thermal use of wood and short-life wood products usually leads to little or no reduction in greenhouse gas emissions compared to the fossil fuel benchmark. Wood that cannot be further utilised for materials, along with residual or sawmill by-products, may be utilised thermally, but then as locally as possible and only in efficient facilities. Wood that remains in the forest in the form of living trees or deadwood can make at least as great and often even greater a contribution to climate protection than when it is used for energy and inefficient materials. The primary goal of forestry must not be maximum yield but forest preservation with stands that are as robust and resilient as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article delves into the question of whether the Brothers Grimm fabricated their fairy tales, debunking the myth through the research findings of Professor Holger Ehrhardt from Kassel University, who discovered previously unknown original manuscripts among the Grimm Brothers' papers in Germany.

This paper starts off by giving a tentative definition of 'theopoetics', in order to distinguish between different versions of this program. At the heart of this definition lies a genuinely theological qualification of the theopoetic element according to which dogmatic consequences for the concept of God have to be drawn from the poetic form. It is this elementwhich turns theopoetics so intriguing – and yet, delicate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

So far, around 30,000 wind turbines (WT) have been installed in Germany, and the trend is still rising. To protect bats and birds, operators must in many cases implement shutdown algorithms to reduce mortality. Risks are posed by a possible collision with the rotor blades or, especially in the case of bats, due to barotrauma caused by pressure differences near the rotor blades. In this paper, a technological approach is presented which can provide first indications for monitoring compliance with species protection regulations for WT operation. The technical developments include sensor technology, a web portal, and the timely detection of a potential malfunction. Within the scope of field studies, the first prototypes were successfully tested both with mobile WT demonstrators and with an active WT (type Vestas V82). With a correlation coefficient of 0.982, the rotational speeds determined achieve very good conformity with WT operating protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Debbie Barberee and Holly Cypret from Florida who turns plastic bags into mattresses for sleeping is presented. Topics include talks about ideas for crocheting sleeping mats out of plastic bags as there are a lot of groups in America that make mats like this and they are crocheted from used plastic bags.

An interview with Jasbir Singh, the harvest worker who has been picking berries in the Alentejo, presented. He discusses that he emigrate from India to Europe because his brother worked as a harvest hand in Spain and he paid an employment agency in India the equivalent of around 10,000 euros for a flight ticket, tourist visa, papers and so on. His plans to get Portuguese nationality or go to France and work in agriculture.

The article reports that Treasure Hill housing estate in Taipei is to be demolished as an enclave for Taiwanese and foreign artists get away from conventional architecture. Topics include international artists from all disciplines live in the artists' village studios through exchange programs from foreign arts foundations; and residence offers free accommodation and a material cost supplement with Treasure Hill as an old housing estate with partly illegally built huts from the 20th century.