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Purpose: In light of a need for more critical education about datafication, this paper aims to develop a framework for critical datafication literacy that is grounded in theoretical and empirical research. The framework draws upon existing critical data literacies, an in-depth analysis of three well-established educational approaches - media literacy, the German "(politische) Bildung" and Freirean "critical pedagogy" - and empirical analyses of online educational resources about datafication. Design/methodology/approach: The study interconnects theoretical analyses with an empirical mixed methods investigation that includes expert interviews with creators of online educational resources about datafication and a qualitative survey with educators interested in teaching about data technologies. Findings: The research identified novel findings on the goals of resource creators and educators, such as a focus on empowering and emancipatory approaches, fostering systemic understanding of datafication and encouraging collective action. Such perspectives are rare in existing critical data literacy conceptualisations but show resemblance to traditional education scholarship. This highlights how much can be learnt from practitioners and from these more established educational approaches. Based on these findings, a framework for critical datafication literacy is suggested that aims for systemic understanding of datafication, encouraging critical thinking and enabling learners to make enlightened choices and take different forms of action. Originality/value: The study is unique in its interconnection of theoretical and empirical research, and it advances previous research by suggesting a grounded framework for critical datafication literacy.

This paper reports on an empirical case study conducted to investigate the overall conditions and challenges of integrating corpus materials and corpus-based learning activities into English-language classes at a secondary school in Germany. Starting from the observation that in spite of the large amount of research into corpus-based language learning, hands-on work with corpora has remained an exception in secondary schools, the paper starts by outlining a set of pedagogical requirements for corpus integration and the approach which has formed the basis for designing the case study. Then, the findings of the study are reported and discussed. As a result of the methodological challenges identified in the study, the author argues for a move from "data-driven learning" to needs-driven corpora, corpus activities and corpus methodologies.

Learning Analytics can provide powerful tools for teachers in order to support them in the iterative process of improving the effectiveness of their courses and to collaterally enhance their students' performance. In this paper, we present the theoretical background, design, implementation, and evaluation details of eLAT, a Learning Analytics Toolkit, which enables teachers to explore and correlate learning object usage, user properties, user behavior, as well as assessment results based on graphical indicators. The primary aim of the development of eLAT is to process large data sets in microseconds with regard to individual data analysis interests of teachers and data privacy issues, in order to help them to self-reflect on their technology-enhanced teaching and learning scenarios and to identify opportunities for interventions and improvements. (Contains 9 figures.)

Purpose: Linking Open Data (LOD) provides a vast amount of well structured semantic information, but many inconsistencies may occur, especially if the data are generated with the help of automated methods. Data cleansing approaches enable detection of inconsistencies and overhauling of affected data sets, but they are difficult to apply automatically. The purpose of this paper is to present WhoKnows?, an online quiz that generates different kinds of questionnaires from DBpedia data sets. Design/methodology/approach: Besides its playfulness, WhoKnows? has been developed for the evaluation of property relevance ranking heuristics on DBpedia data, with the convenient side effect of detecting inconsistencies and doubtful facts. Findings: The original purpose for developing WhoKnows? was to evaluate heuristics to rank LOD properties and thus, obtain a semantic relatedness between entities according to the properties by which they are linked. The presented approach is an efficient method to detect popular properties within a limited amount of triples. Ongoing work continues in the development of sound property ranking heuristics for the purpose of detecting the most relevant characteristics of entities. Originality/value: WhoKnows? uses the approach of "Games with a Purpose" to detect inconsistencies in Linked Data and score properties to rank them for sophisticated semantic search scenarios. (Contains 13 notes, 2 tables and 2 figures.)

Poverty is generally defined as income or expenditure insufficiency, but the economic condition of a household also depends on its real and financial asset holdings. This paper investigates measures of poverty that rely on indicators of household net worth. We review and assess two main approaches followed in the literature: income-net worth measures and asset-poverty. We provide fresh cross-national evidence based on data from the Luxembourg Wealth Study. (Contains 3 figures, 6 tables, and 16 footnotes.)

As part of the research project Open Data Cloud Services (ODCS), we have been trying to overcome some of the limitations introduced through the heterogeneity of spatial open government data (sOGD). In this paper we describe some of the challenges of sODG and one of the tools we built to spatially organize heterogenous sOGD, to make it easier for users to find data and automatically integrate it into existing data structures and in the future allow for crossdataset spatial analysis. In Europe and beyond the number of sOGD is continuously growing. Derived from government mapping and planning programs, remote sensing and other sources, open spatial government data provides insights into a broad range of topics from geology to weather phenomena, to socio-demographic developments and much more. The data is provided through a variety of government institutions. The distributed generation and provision of spatial data through these different stakeholders has created an extremely heterogenous data space. Heterogenous regarding formats, data structure (time, space, and other attributes), spatial granularity, classification, down to publication cycles and the documentation of changes over time. While national and international working groups are working towards more standardisation, and e.g., in Europe, particularly the INSPIRE (European Commission, 2022) initiative had a positive impact on the standardisation of open spatial data's meta data, as our analysis of all (registered) German open data sets showed, the quality and especially taxonomies still vary strongly between data providers. This heterogeneity presents obstacles for all stakeholders alike from the civil society to researchers to companies trying to build business models on top of open data. The goal is to classify data sets across a variety of spatial hierarchies. An exemplary hierarchy are administrative regions (see figure 1). Classifying a certain dataset to cover a certain state and its granularity to be on a community level, allows users to compare this data set to other data sets of the same granularity for other states. Other exemplary hierarchies in Germany are statistical districts or various grid systems. Beyond inconsistencies within individual hierarchies, calculating relationships between different hierarchies or even non-hierarchical organizational systems, e.g. urban density areas, systems based on natural features, is a challenge, which we are trying to overcome with our work. The ODCS infrastructure is comprised of multiple web services for processing OGD. The pipeline for the spatial classification (see Fig. 2) starts with the 1) aggregation of sOGD's meta data from a variety of sources. The resulting meta data is then 2) homogenized and stored in a central database. Based on the meta data the system then decides if this could potentially be a spatial data set (file format, file name, URL structure, etc.) and then tries to 3) download the actual dataset. The downloaded data is then 4) analysed, if necessary, the analysis and classification process is 5) assisted by a user and the resulting classified data or rather the improved meta data is 6) provisioned to the users of the platform. As described above, the classification should provide improved meta data, to serve users a more precise search and, for future applications, allow for automatic spatial analysis across multiple data sources. To build the classification we primarily rely on spatial hierarchies and relationships between data sets (unconnected, touching, intersecting, containing). To identify those relationships, data sets are analysed threefold: 1) The bounding box of the dataset is calculated and compared to existing bounding boxes in the database. Compared to the next two analysis steps this is fast and works for raster as well as vector datasets. For vector datasets we 2) proceed to generate a "union" from the dataset and then compare the union to other already classified datasets. Exact matches are quite rare (even for datasets from the same provider), therefore, we use buffers on the existing data sets as well as the to be classified data set. As figure 3 illustrates, one and the same border can exist in a variety of geometries. Differences resulting from simplification, generalisation, precision, or actual errors in the data. The differences are in part so big, that we implemented a graphical user interface for human assistance, to manually classify "outliers". If a "good enough" match cannot be found, the next best matches are stored in the database and are then provided to the user to choose from. After the dataset's "union" is analysed, we then 3) split the features up into individual polygons, to again compare those to the already classified polygons in our database. Data sets or rather their polygons that could not be classified are added to the manual classification queue and are then classified by the user. Through this semiautomatic process, the library of polygons quickly grows and increases the automation over time. The system also runs a thematic classification based on meta data and data set attributes, which goes beyond the scope of this paper. Due to the limitations of the abstract, we focused on an overview of the method, rather than the technologies used to perform the analysis. In short: GDAL, OGR2OGR, NodeJS, Python, PostgreSQL + PostGIS. While the above-described use case was developed for Germany's OGD portals, the technique is not limited to German spatial data sets, as all applied methods are not language-depended, but only rely on spatial geometries. Even the metadata homogenization, which is not described in depth in this paper, mostly relies on language-independent methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the subversive role of statistics paleontology at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries. In particular, I will focus on German paleontology and its relationship with statistics. I argue that in paleontology, the quantitative method was questioned and strongly limited by the first decade of the 20th century because, as its opponents noted, when the fossil record is treated statistically, it was found to generate results openly in conflict with the Darwinian theory of evolution. Essentially, statistics questions the gradual mode of evolution and the role of natural selection. The main objections to statistics were addressed during the meetings at the Kaiserlich- Königliche Geologische Reichsanstalt in Vienna in the 1880s. After having introduced the statistical treatment of the fossil record, I will use the works of Charles Léo Lesquereux (1806-1889), Joachim Barrande (1799-1833), and Henry Shaler Williams (1847-1918) to compare the objections raised in Vienna with how the statistical treatment of the data worked in practice. Furthermore, I will discuss the criticisms of Melchior Neumayr (1845-1890), one of the leading German opponents of statistical paleontology, to show why, and to what extent, statistics were questioned in Vienna. The final part of this paper considers what paleontologists can derive from a statistical notion of data: the necessity of opening a discussion about the completeness and nature of the paleontological data. The Vienna discussion about which method paleontologists should follow offers an interesting case study in order to understand the epistemic tensions within paleontology surrounding Darwin's theory as well as the variety of non-Darwinian alternatives that emerged from the statistical treatment of the fossil record at the end of the 19th century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies show that time series data about the frequency of hits for tourism-related search terms from Google (Google Trends data) is a valuable predictor for short-term tourism demand forecasting in many different tourism regions worldwide. The paper contributes to this literature in three ways. First, it shows that Google Trends data is useful for short-term predictions of monthly tourist arrivals in several German holiday regions. Second, the paper also demonstrates that the Google Trends time series we employ share certain patterns with Google Trends time series used in previous studies, including several studies totally unrelated to the tourism industry. We refer to these artefacts as "spurious patterns" and perform a detailed analysis of their negative impact on forecasting. Last, the paper proposes a method to sanitize Google Trends data and reduce the adverse impact of spurious patterns, thereby paving the way to develop statistically sound tourism demand forecasts. • Google Trends data is a valuable predictor for tourism in Germany. • The data shows "spurious patterns" that are unrelated to tourism. • The spurious patterns have a negative impact on tourism forecasts. • Data modi_cation can reduce the impact of the spurious patterns. • The spurious patterns can be seen in several previously published studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One major criticism against the use of synthetic data has been that the efforts necessary to generate useful synthetic data are so intense that many statistical agencies cannot afford them. We argue many lessons in this evolving field have been learned in the early years of synthetic data generation, and can be used in the development of new synthetic data products, considerably reducing the required investments. The final goal of the project described in this paper will be to evaluate whether synthetic data algorithms developed in the U.S. to generate a synthetic version of the Longitudinal Business Database (LBD) can easily be transferred to generate a similar data product for other countries. We construct a German data product with information comparable to the LBD - the German Longitudinal Business Database (GLBD) - that is generated from different administrative sources at the Institute for Employment Research, Germany. In a future step, the algorithms developed for the synthesis of the LBD will be applied to the GLBD. Extensive evaluations will illustrate whether the algorithms provide useful synthetic data without further adjustment. The ultimate goal of the project is to provide access to multiple synthetic datasets similar to the SynLBD at Cornell to enable comparative studies between countries. The Synthetic GLBD is a first step towards that goal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses comprehensive high-quality panel data from official statistics for exporting enterprises to investigate the micro-structure of the recent export recovery in 2010 in manufacturing industries in Germany after the great recession of 2008/ 2009. Almost all of the increase in exports was due to positive changes of exports in firms that continue to export (i. e. at the so-called intensive margin) while the increase of exports due to export starters (at the so-called extensive margin) was tiny. It is shown that very large firms played a decisive role in shaping the export recovery. These findings are remarkably symmetric to the results from an analysis of the great export collapse of 2008/09. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers collected here are the result of an INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: 'Data · Phenomena · Theories: What's the notion of a scientific phenomenon good for?' held in Heidelberg in September 2008. The event was organized by the research group 'Causality, Cognition, and the Constitution of Scientific Phenomena' in cooperation with Philosophy Department at the University of Heidelberg (Peter McLaughlin and Andreas Kemmerling) and the IWH Heidelberg. The symposium was supported by the 'Emmy-Noether-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft' and by 'Stiftung Universitat Heidelebrg'. The workshop was held in honor of Daniela Bailer-Jones, who died on 13 November 2006 at the age of 37 (cf. my 2007 'Daniela Bailer-Jones'). Bailer-Jones was an Emmy Noether fellow, and the symposium was arranged and run by those who were working in her research group at the time of her death: Monika Dullstein, Jochen Apel, and Pavel Radchencko. To them goes the credit for the conception, planning, and carrying out of the symposium. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the politicization of gender inequality through a cross-national analysis of attitudes towards inequality between men and women. The data were obtained from national surveys in the United States, Britain, West Germany, Australia and Italy. In all of these countries, attitudes towards gender inequality were found to be associated with the 'left- right' cleavage over economic inequality and redistribution, but they were unrelated to 'new politics' issues. It was also found that attitudes towards gender inequality were more closely integrated into the left-right cleavage in those countries where there was greater awareness of gender issues, and that they had very little net impact on partisanship. Thus high levels of awareness of gender inequality are not associated with the emergence of a new cross-cutting political cleavage. It is concluded that inequality of opportunity between men and women does not constitute part of a new politics agenda, nor does it cross-cut other sources of political interests. It is more plausibly seen as a new element of the well-established left-right cleavage. Consequently, it leaves the structure of political divisions relatively intact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On-demand mobility platforms have long struggled with profitability in industrialised nations. To compensate, companies seek out new forms of rationalisation and automation to increase the efficiency of mobility work. Most scholarship on mobility platforms has focussed primarily on the experiences and responses of platform workers to managerial decisions and forms of software-based control; less understood are the managers and technologies themselves. My ethnographic research with logistics management and couriers ('riders') at Fleatz, a German app-based food-delivery company, shows how the effort to increase the efficiency of rider mobilities is underpinned by the central managerial goal of 'breaking even operationally', wherein the cost of providing courier services is offset by the revenue from the orders the couriers fulfil. However, I identify three challenges to increasing rider efficiency: low rider investment in the job, the limitations of rider-management software, and the German political protection of labour and data. Examining platform mobility from both sides of the user interface—from workers' and managers' perspectives—allows us to understand not only the anticipated but also the more hidden limitations of platform rationalisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Wissenschaftliche Berichte des Instituts für Meteorologie und Klimaforschung des Karlsruher Instituts für Technologie is the property of KIT Scientific Publishing and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Accurate and reliable gridded data sets are important for analyzing extreme weather and climate events. Specifically, these data sets should produce extreme value statistics that are close to reality. Here we use various statistical methods to evaluate the quality of four gridded data products in representing daily precipitation extremes. The data products are the COSMO‐REA6 regional reanalysis, the ERA5 global reanalysis, and the E‐OBS and HYRAS gridded observation‐based data sets. The statistical methods we use offer a thorough insight into the quality of the different data sets by providing temporal and spatial extreme value statistics of daily precipitation. Our results show that all data sets except HYRAS underestimate the magnitude of daily precipitation extremes when compared with weather station data. Moreover, the reanalysis data sets give generally worse extreme value statistics of daily precipitation than the gridded observation‐based data sets. In particular, the reanalysis data sets often fail in reproducing the accurate timing of observed daily precipitation extremes. Plain Language Summary: Gridded data products provide long‐term estimates of climate variables such as temperature and precipitation at regularly spaced grids on the Earth. They are an important source for the research of extreme weather. For example, for investigating the change in frequency and intensity of heavy precipitation over time. To achieve reliable results, we need such data products to be able to accurately represent extreme weather events. To verify if this is the case, we evaluate the quality of several gridded data products in representing heavy daily precipitation events and find that there is room for improvement. Key Points: Most examined gridded data products underestimate the magnitude of observed daily precipitation extremesGridded observation‐based data sets generally perform better than reanalyses in representing daily precipitation extremesReanalyses often fail to capture the timing of observed daily precipitation extremes [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rainfall is the most important input for rainfall–runoff models. It is usually measured at specific sites on a daily or sub-daily timescale and requires interpolation for further application. This study aims to evaluate whether a higher temporal and spatial resolution of rainfall can lead to improved model performance. Four different gridded hourly and daily rainfall datasets with a spatial resolution of 1 km × 1 km for the state of Baden-Württemberg in Germany were constructed using a combination of data from a dense network of daily rainfall stations and a less dense network of sub-daily stations. Lumped and spatially distributed HBV models were used to investigate the sensitivity of model performance to the spatial resolution of rainfall. The four different rainfall datasets were used to drive both lumped and distributed HBV models to simulate daily discharges in four catchments. The main findings include that (1) a higher temporal resolution of rainfall improves the model performance if the station density is high; (2) a combination of observed high temporal resolution observations with disaggregated daily rainfall leads to further improvement in the tested models; and (3) for the present research, the increase in spatial resolution improves the performance of the model insubstantially or only marginally in most of the study catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The applicability of a post‐infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIRIR290) protocol and two different thermoluminescence (TL) protocols—a single aliquot regeneration (SAR) and a multiple aliquot additive dose (MAAD)—was tested on six polymineral fine‐grain (4–11 μm) samples extracted from the wall remains of a Roman lime kiln and a Roman roof tile. These remains had been excavated close to Bergisch Gladbach, which was at that time part of Germania magna. For the pIRIR290 measurements, no dependence of De on first‐stimulation temperature was detectable, and the standard first stimulation temperature at 50°C was adopted. Fading tests and dose‐recovery tests were made for all samples. Background subtracted glow curves were recorded up to 480°C for TL after a preheat of 220°C for 120 s. A‐values were determined for all TL and pIRIR measurements. The results for all three protocols were fairly consistent, and TL and pIRIR290 protocols are shown to be suitable to estimate reliable equivalent doses for the fired kiln walls. The resulting ages are in agreement with the expected time range—Roman Iron Age—and with independent age control provided by radiocarbon ages of animal bones and charcoal from the firing chamber. Highlights: A Roman lime kiln and surrounding sediments were successfully dated using both thermoluminescence (TL) and post‐infrared infrared stimulated luminescence (pIRIR). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal for Labour Market Research is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

few years ago, a new relative sea-level curve for northwest Germany was constructed for the entire German North Sea coast. It is characterised by several suspected sea-level fluctuations. To test this curve for local effects, it was broken down into five relative sea-level curves representative for five coastal sections. The relative sea-level curves were corrected for tidal effects and also, a rough first correction for compaction was applied. The five curves all differ from the original curve and from each other. Most of the suspected sea-level fluctuations in the original curve cannot be supported and are discussed as data-artefacts or local effects. Around AD 800-1000 all curves show stagnation or drop of sea-level. Thus, this signal is discussed as of over-regional stratigraphic meaning. This study is a first step (1) to show that several curves are needed to demonstrate the Holocene sea-level history of such a big area as the entire German North Sea coast and (2) to establish reliable relative sea-level curves for the German North Sea coast. Further research is necessary to apply detailed corrections especially with respect to compaction-prone data and to improve the individual curves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A well-established principle of language is that there is a preference for closely related words to be close together in the sentence. This can be expressed as a preference for dependency length minimization (DLM). In this study, we explore quantitatively the degree to which natural languages reflect DLM. We extract the dependencies from natural language text and reorder the words in such a way as to minimize dependency length. Comparing the original text with these optimal linearizations (and also with random linearizations) reveals the degree to which natural language minimizes dependency length. Tests on English data show that English shows a strong effect of DLM, with dependency length much closer to optimal than to random; the optimal English grammar also has many specific features in common with English. In German, too, dependency length is significantly less than random, but the effect is much weaker than in English. We conclude by speculating about some possible reasons for this difference between English and German. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The invasive temperate mosquito Aedes japonicus japonicus is a potential vector for various infectious diseases and therefore a target of vector control measures. Even though established in Germany, it is unclear whether the species has already reached its full distribution potential. The possible range of the species, its annual population dynamics, the success of vector control measures and future expansions due to climate change still remain poorly understood. While numerous studies on occurrence have been conducted, they used mainly presence data from relatively few locations. In contrast, we used experimental life history data to model the dynamics of a continuous stage-structured population to infer potential seasonal densities and ask whether stable populations are likely to establish over a period of more than one year. In addition, we used climate change models to infer future ranges. Finally, we evaluated the effectiveness of various stage-specific vector control measures. Results: Aedes j. japonicus has already established stable populations in the southwest and west of Germany. Our models predict a spread of Ae. j. japonicus beyond the currently observed range, but likely not much further eastwards under current climatic conditions. Climate change models, however, will expand this range substantially and higher annual densities can be expected. Applying vector control measures to oviposition, survival of eggs, larvae or adults showed that application of adulticides for 30 days between late spring and early autumn, while ambient temperatures are above 9 °C, can reduce population density by 75%. Continuous application of larvicide showed similar results in population reduction. Most importantly, we showed that with the consequent application of a mixed strategy, it should be possible to significantly reduce or even extinguish existing populations with reasonable effort. Conclusion: Our study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms concerning the establishment of stable populations in invasive species. In order to minimise the hazard to public health, we recommend vector control measures to be applied in 'high risk areas' which are predicted to allow establishment of stable populations to establish. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]