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The publication of research activities and results as well as the various participants pose major challenges for data exchange, exploration and visualization. The German Centre for Higher Education Research and Science Studies (DZHW) has developed an open data portal for the National Academics Panel Study (Nacaps), funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). With interactive graphics on topics such as doctoral conditions, career intentions, mobility and financing, the portal offers an overview of the life and work reality of doctoral students in Germany. Survey data is prepared in the data portal so that it can be used at a low threshold. Since the data is made available free of charge in open and reusable formats without restrictions, it can be used by researchers and the public alike. At the same time, the portal offers cooperating partner universities university-specific reporting on the data of doctoral students at their institution in a protected space. The possible further development and effective use of the Nacaps data portal for the management of open survey data will be discussed. In particular, the quality of open survey data as well as the potential and special features of the Nacaps data portal when visualizing survey data are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The measurement of political solidarities and related concepts is an important endeavor in numerous scientific disciplines, such as political and social science research. European surveys, such as the Eurobarometer, frequently measure these concepts for people's home country and Europe raising questions with respect to the order of precedence. Research has shown that the order of asking questions can have a profound impact on answer behavior compromising data quality. In this study, we therefore investigated the occurrence of question order effects in a German-European context using two questions on political solidarities. For this purpose, we conducted an experiment in a German online panel (N = 874) and analyzed response behavior and effort in terms of response times. In contrast to previous research, we found no empirical evidence for question order effects impacting people's responses. Even though there were no response time differences between the question order conditions, the first question always took longer to respond to than the remaining one. Overall, our findings indicate the robustness of questions on political solidarities against question order effects. One potential explanation is that people have comparatively strong (or crystallized) attitudes when it comes to political solidarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Measuring the quality of provided healthcare presents many challenges, especially in the context of medical rehabilitation. Rehabilitation is based on a holistic biopsychosocial model of health that includes a person's long-term functioning; hence, outcome domains are very diverse. In Germany, rehabilitation outcomes are currently assessed via patient and physician surveys. Health insurance claims data has the potential to simplify current quality assurance procedures in Germany, since its comprehensive collection is federally mandated from every healthcare provider. By using a cross-sectoral approach, quality assessments in rehabilitation can be adjusted for the quality provided in previous sectors and individual patient risk factors. Methods: SEQUAR combines two studies: In a prospective longitudinal study, 600 orthopedic rehabilitation patients and their physicians are surveyed at 4 and 2 time points, respectively, throughout rehabilitation and a follow-up period of 6 months. The questionnaires include validated instruments used in the current best-practice quality assurance procedures. In a retrospective cohort study, a nationwide claims database with more than 312,000 orthopedic rehabilitation patients will be used to perform exploratory analysis for the identification of quality indicators. The identified SEQUAR claims data quality indicators will be calculated for our prospective study participants and tested for their ability to approximate or replace the currently used, best-practice quality indicators based on primary data. Discussion: The identified SEQUAR quality indicators will be used to draft a novel, state-of-the-art quality assurance procedure that reduces the administrative burden of current procedures. Further research into the applicability to other indications of rehabilitation is required. Trial registration: WHO UTN: U1111-1276-7141; DRKS-ID: DRKS00028747 (Date of Registration in DRKS: 2022/08/10). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental data are the key to defining and addressing water quality and quantity challenges at the catchment scale. Here, we present the first large-sample water quality data set for 1386 German catchments covering a large range of hydroclimatic, topographic, geologic, land use, and anthropogenic settings. QUADICA (water QUAlity, DIscharge and Catchment Attributes for large-sample studies in Germany) combines water quality with water quantity data, meteorological and nutrient forcing data, and catchment attributes. The data set comprises time series of riverine macronutrient concentrations (species of nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic carbon) and diffuse nitrogen forcing data (nitrogen surplus, atmospheric deposition, and fixation) at the catchment scale. Time series are generally aggregated to an annual basis; however, for 140 stations with long-term water quality and quantity data (more than 20 years), we additionally present monthly median discharge and nutrient concentrations, flow-normalized concentrations, and corresponding mean fluxes as outputs from Weighted Regressions on Time, Discharge, and Season (WRTDS). The catchment attributes include catchment nutrient inputs from point and diffuse sources and characteristics from topography, climate, land cover, lithology, and soils. This comprehensive, freely available data collection with a large spatial and temporal coverage can facilitate large-sample data-driven water quality assessments at the catchment scale as well as mechanistic modeling studies. QUADICA is available at 10.4211/hs.0ec5f43e43c349ff818a8d57699c0fe1 (Ebeling et al., 2022b) and 10.4211/hs.88254bd930d1466c85992a7dea6947a4 (Ebeling et al., 2022a). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A question asking for respondents' sex is one of the standard sociodemographic characteristics collected in a survey. Until now, it typically consisted of a simple question (e.g., "Are you...?") with two answer categories ("male" and "female"). In 2019, Germany implemented the additional sex designation divers for intersex people. In survey methodology, this has led to an ongoing discussion how to include a third category in questionnaires. We investigate respondents' understanding of the third category, and whether introducing it affects data quality. Moreover, we investigate the understanding of the German term Geschlecht for sex and gender. To answer our research questions, we implemented different question wordings asking for sex/gender in a non-probability-based online panel in Germany and combined them with open-ended questions. Findings and implications for surveys are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental data are the key to define and address water quality and quantity challenges at catchment scale. Here, we present the first large-sample water quality data set for 1386 German catchments covering a large range of hydroclimatic, topographic, geologic, land use and anthropogenic settings. QUADICA (water QUAlity, DIscharge and Catchment Attributes for large-sample studies in Germany) combines water quality with water quantity data, meteorological and nutrient forcing data, and catchment attributes. The data set comprises time series of riverine macronutrient concentrations (species of nitrogen, phosphorus and organic carbon) and diffuse nitrogen forcing data at catchment scale (nitrogen surplus, atmospheric deposition and fixation). Time series are generally aggregated to an annual basis; however, for 140 stations with long-term water quality and quantity data (more than 20 years), we additionally present monthly median discharge and nutrient concentrations, flow-normalized concentrations and corresponding mean fluxes as outputs from weighted regressions on time, discharge, and season (WRTDS). The catchment attributes include catchment nutrient inputs from point and diffuse sources and characteristics from topography, climate, land cover, lithology and soils. This comprehensive, freely available data collection can facilitate large-sample data-driven water quality assessments at catchment scale as well as mechanistic modeling studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drinking water quality data, though regularly monitored, is not available in Germany as national overview, but only decentralized from the water suppliers. On the national level, only the number of limit exceedances are reported. An overview on drinking water qualities as complete as possible however is necessary to assess and develop regulations and helpful for authorities, political decision makers, the public and the scientific community. Due to the fragmented nature of the data sources, web-scraping was used in the present study to mitigate aforementioned challenges and knowledge gaps. Data from 502 water supply areas were compiled and further evaluated. The extent and form of reported values varied strongly, as did the availability of data for the different water supply areas. The results show, that the scraped values were not close to but well below associated legal limits or guidance values. For organic parameters, the reported values were mostly below the respective limits of quantification. However, further developments are needed to cover more water supply areas in Germany and internationally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive pretesting is an essential method of piloting questionnaires and ensuring quality of survey data. Web probing has emerged as an innovative method of cognitive pretesting, especially for cross-cultural and web surveys. The order of presenting questions in cognitive pretesting can differ from the order of presentation in the later survey. Yet empirical evidence is missing whether the order of presenting survey questions influences the answers to open-ended probing questions. The present study examines the effect of question order on web probing in the United States and Germany. Results indicate that probe responses are not strongly impacted by question order. However, both content and consistency of probe responses may differ cross-culturally. Implications for cognitive pretesting are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cause-specific mortality statistics are essential for understanding a population's health situation and for developing and evaluating public policies. Yet collecting these data is not straightforward, and their reliability is often questioned. Different approaches can be used to assess their quality. Using cause-of-death data from four countries of different sizes, histories, and mortality levels, the authors propose an original method for assessing the quality of these health statistics based on regional variations within a country's mortality structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Timely and accurate information on population trends is a prerequisite for effective biodiversity conservation. Structured biodiversity monitoring programmes have been shown to track population trends reliably, but require large financial and time investment. The data assembled in a large and growing number of online databases are less structured and suffer from bias, but the number of observations is much higher compared to structured monitoring programmes. Model‐based integration of data from these disparate sources could capitalize on their respective strengths. Location: Germany. Methods: Abundance data for 26 farmland bird species were gathered from the standardized Common Breeding Bird Survey (CBBS) and three online databases that varied with regard to their degree of survey standardization. Population trends were estimated with a benchmark model that included only CBBS data, and five Bayesian hierarchical models integrating all data sources in different combinations. Across models, we compared consistency and precision of the predicted population trends and the accuracy of the models. Bird species body mass, prevalence in the dataset and abundance were tested as potential predictors of the explored quantities. Results: Consistency in predicted annual abundance indices was generally high especially when comparing the benchmark models to the integrated models without unstructured data. The accuracy of the estimated population changes was higher in the hierarchical models compared to the benchmark model but this was not related to data integration. Precision of the predicted population trends increased as more data sources were integrated. Main conclusions: Model‐based integration of data from different sources can lead to improved precision of bird population trend estimates. This opens up new opportunities for conservation managers to identify declining populations earlier. Integrating data from online databases could substantially increase sample size and thus allowing to derive trends for currently not well‐monitored species, especially at sub‐national scales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany has a mandatory surveillance system for acute hepatitis B (AHB) with the Protection against Infection Act as the legal basis in place since 2001. An amendment was introduced in 2013. We aimed at evaluating the surveillance systems' performance regarding timeliness, data quality, and simplicity from 2005 to 2014 and at assessing the effect of the amendment on timeliness of AHB surveillance. This study is a trend analysis of surveillance data. Aspects of simplicity versus complexity of the surveillance system were assessed by describing data flow, levels of reporting, and data management procedures. Data quality, in terms of data completeness, was evaluated by quantitative indicators, and timeliness was measured in days between different levels of the surveillance system, notification delay, and reporting delay. Trends over time in data quality were analyzed by logistic regression, while negative binomial regression was used to test for trend over time regarding mean notification and reporting delay. Between January 2005 and December 2014, a total of 22,549 AHB infections were reported at the national level. The data flow of the German AHB surveillance system showed structural characteristics of a complex system. Over the 10-year period, completeness of reporting sex, age, probable route of transmission, and hepatitis B virus (HBV) vaccination were 99%, 100%, 25%, and 73%, respectively. However, data quality decreased over the evaluation period. Although notification delay improved over time (incident rate ratio [IRR] = 0.95, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.95–0.96; P < 0.05), reporting delay improved only since the amendment (IRR = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.70–0.82; P < 0.05). In total, mean notification and reporting delay were 3.0 days and 14.3 days, respectively. The German AHB surveillance system is operating in a timely manner. Although timeliness improved over the evaluation period and the amendment to the Protection against Infection Act succeeded in reducing reporting time, data quality in terms of completeness of information decreased considerably. As improved data completeness is required to adequately design prevention activities, reasons for this decrease should further be explored. • We assessed the German surveillance system for acute hepatitis B infections (AHB) from 2005–2014. • Over the 10-year period, a total of 22,549 acute hepatitis B infections were reported at the national level. • Structural characteristics of a complex surveillance system were revealed. • Completeness of reporting sex, age, route of transmission, and vaccination were 99%, 100%, 25%, and 73%, respectively. • While notification delay improved, data quality significantly decreased over the 10-year period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The identity management is a central component in medical research. Patients are recruited from various sites, which requires an error tolerant record linkage method, to ensure that patients are registered only once. In large research projects or institutions, the identity management has to deal with several thousands or millions of patients. In environments with large numbers of patients the register process could lead to high runtimes caused by record linkage. The Central Biomaterial Bank of the Charité (ZeBanC) searched for an identity management solution, which can handle millions of patients in large research projects with an acceptable performance. The goal of this paper was to simulate the registration of several million patients using the E-PIX service at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin. The E-PIX service was evaluated in terms of needed runtimes, memory requirements, and processor utilization. A total of at least 20 million patients had to be registered. The runtimes to register patients into databases with various sizes should be examined, and the maximum number of patients, which the E-PIX service could handle, should be determined.Methods: Tools were set up or developed to measure the needed runtimes, the memory used and the processor usage to register patients into various sizes of databases. To generate runtimes close to reality, modified patient data based on transposed real patient data were used for the simulation. The transposed patient data were sent to E-PIX to measure the runtimes of the registration process. This measurement was repeated for various database sizes.Results: E-PIX is suitable to manage multi-million patients within a dataset. With the given hardware, it was possible to register a total of more than 30 million patients. It was possible to register more than 16 thousand patients per day into this database.Conclusions: The E-PIX tool fulfills the requirements of the Charité to be used for large research projects. The use of E-PIX is intended for the research context in the Charité. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Collecting clinical data is viewed as the gold standard for assessing health-care quality. However, considerable investment is needed if the quality of care is to be recorded over a long period of time. Accordingly, the question arises as to whether routine administrative data may be used for quality assurance purposes if certain methodological standards are followed. This present study now compares the outcomes of inguinal hernia repair from the Herniamed Hernia Registry with routine data from Germany's largest sickness fund, the Local General Sickness Fund "AOK".Materials and Methods: Included in the study were the hospital inpatient cases for the years 2011-2013 with inguinal hernia surgical repair whose data had been prospectively entered into the voluntary Herniamed Hernia Registry by 318 participating hospitals. These collectives were then compared, on the basis of the routine administrative data available, with patients from the AOK sickness fund who had been operated on during the same time period. The outcome criteria selected were the perioperative complication rates within 30 days as well as the recurrence rate and the pain rate requiring treatment at 1-year follow-up.Results: The data records examined comprised 64,748 cases from the Herniamed Registry and 130,121 AOK cases. Since in the Herniamed collective, the proportion of bilateral procedures was significantly higher, only the collectives of elective primary unilateral inguinal hernias in men (Herniamed n = 37,667; AOK n = 78,973) were compared. The most pronounced difference between these two collectives was in the proportion of laparo-endoscopic procedures (Herniamed 61.3% vs AOK 49.0%; p < 0.001). Accordingly, the Herniamed collective was found to have a significantly lower postoperative surgical complication rate (Herniamed 1.5% vs AOK 2.6%; p < 0.001) and surgical site infection (SSI) rate (Herniamed 0.3% vs AOK 0.6%; p < 0.001) within 30 days after the operation. On the other hand, the pain rates requiring treatment in the Herniamed collective were somewhat higher (Herniamed 3.0% vs AOK 2.6%; p < 0.001). No difference was found in the recurrence rate at 1-year follow-up (Herniamed 1.0% vs AOK 0.9%; ns).Conclusion: Subject to critical evaluation of the limitations of data acquisition in this study, it does appear possible to use the routine administrative data from the AOK Sickness Fund for assessment of the quality of inguinal hernia surgery in Germany. Voluntary participation in the Herniamed Registry appears to be characterized by the fact that the participating hospitals conduct a higher proportion of laparo-endoscopic inguinal hernia repair. That could possibly explain the differences in outcome. However, in large patient collectives, statistical significance should not always be equated with clinical relevance. Univariate analysis does not take account of differences in the hernia findings, risk factors or operative details. Further efforts should be employed in future to improve the accuracy and granularity of routine administrative data for assessing the quality of care and to decrease the cost of gathering such data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How did socio-cultural transformation processes change land-use patterns? Throughout the last 50 years, outstanding comprehensive geographic, archaeobiological, and archaeological data have been produced for the area of Oldenburger Graben, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Based on this exceptional data set, we are able to study the land-use patterns for a period ranging from the Final Mesolithic until the Late Neolithic (4600–1700 BCE). By application of fuzzy modeling techniques, these patterns are investigated diachronically in order to assess the scale of transformations between the different archaeological phases. Based on nutrient requirements and proposed dietary composition estimates derived from empirical archaeobotanical, archaeozoological, and stable isotope data, the required extent of the areas for different land-use practices are modeled. This information is made spatially explicit using a fuzzy model that reconstructs areas of potential vegetation and land-use for each transformation phase. Pollen data are used to validate the type and extent of land-use categories. The model results are used to test hypotheses on the dynamics of socio-cultural transformations: can we observe a diversification of land-use patterns over time or does continuity of land-use practices prevail? By integrating the different lines of evidence within a spatially explicit modeling approach, we reach a new quality of data analysis with a high degree of contextualization. This allows testing of hypotheses about Neolithic transformation processes by an explicit adjustment of our model assumptions, variables, and parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: In 2003, a certification system was introduced to ensure high standards of oncological care in breast cancer patients in Germany. Certified breast cancer centers (BCCs) must fulfill specific requirements including quality indicators (QI) derived from the clinical guidelines that are evaluated in annual audits. When target values for QIs are not fulfilled, centers need to give explanations. We analyzed data from BCCs for a selected indicator: the recommendation of trastuzumab for patients with early HER-2-positive invasive breast cancer. We investigated explanations given in cases when trastuzumab was not recommended to see whether this was justified.Methods: Patient data from 274 BCCs treating 53,777 primary cases in 2015 were analyzed using descriptive statistics.Results: In the 274 BCC sites, 5700 primary patients with early HER-2-positive breast cancer were treated in 2015. 128 sites (46.7%) did not reach the target value of 95% trastuzumab recommendation and thus had to give explanations. In these 128 sites, 2663 primary HER-2-positive breast cancer patients were treated, 343 (12.9%) of whom did not receive a recommendation for adjuvant trastuzumab treatment. All 128 sites delivered explanations. Overall, 450 explanations were given, allowing multiple explanations for single patients. No explanation was given for 8 of the 343 patients (2.3%). The most common given explanation was multi-/comorbidity (45.5%).Conclusions: The analysis suggests thorough decision-making when quality indicator target values for a trastuzumab recommendation were not fulfilled. Our data do not provide information on whether such decisions have an impact on treatment outcome for these patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Comprehensive analysis of the LCA database of the DGNB. • Identification of qualitative flaws in the database. • Statistical analysis of 22 buildings LCAs. • Development of the basics for LCA benchmarks of buildings. • Recommendation for high-quality and uniform databases on buildings LCA. The evaluation of environmental aspects in the early planning phase of buildings can support the reduction of the resource use and environmental impacts associated with the building sector over the whole building life-cycle. The integration of life cycle assessment (LCA) benchmarks in the planning phase is one potential measure. To derive these benchmarks a large database of existing building assessment is essential. Potential data input is available from the German Sustainable Building Council (DGNB), as it certifies more than 200 buildings annually and the certification includes a mandatory LCA. In this study, the current submission files and database of the DGNB are assessed and critically reviewed with regard to their usability for automated LCA benchmarks. First, a harmonized database is created from the large number of assessed buildings. Second, the data is examined for its suitability for benchmarking with regard to data format, structure and level of detail. The data that were declared fit for purpose were used to create an exemplary, harmonized data set with 22 office buildings. The evaluation of these data for various environmental indicators of the individual life-cycle phases shows their respective relevance and can thus serve as a benchmark. Another focus is to encourage improvement of the additional documentation like the energy source required for better benchmarking, interpretation of results and auditing of the LCA rules for building certification. The results of this study highlight the opportunities and challenges in the development of a database for benchmarking. Before long-term LCA benchmarks can be developed and deployed, a standardized and uniform submission format of results, that is indifferent regarding the used LCA software, needs to be developed. In the future the submission process should be extended by an automated quality assurance to prevent restraints from low data quality and data gaps that otherwise have to be detected manually. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The CIRSmedical is a publicly available error reporting and learning system of the German medical profession for reporting near misses and critical events. To improve learning from the CIRS reports, a systematic analysis of all reported cases would be desirable. This requires in the first instance that quality and completeness of the data are suitable for a systematic analysis. Therefore, in March 2017 we downloaded 100 CIRS cases with the numbers 144893 to 160395 as PDF from CIRSmedical.de and analyzed them considering five quality criteria of IDQA: completeness, value-added, comprehensibility, time/topicality, accessibility. To check the completeness, we determined how often information was missing in the reports. Value-added means if knowledge has been added to a report in the form of comments. For the comprehensibility, we checked if standard terminologies were used. We verified what kind of information existed at the time of analysis and the actuality of the data as well. Accessibility was checked by analyzing the retrieval of case reports. The evaluation of the criterion completeness shows that only one question was answered in all reports. Fifteen questions were answered in less than half the reports. This results from two different input concepts addressing different items. About 50% of the reports had no comments, a professional commentary was found in 47 cases, and three reports had a comment from users. The reported cases are only available as PDF-files. According to our results CIRSmedical has limited suitability for systematic analysis. This is caused by the low completeness and by the limited accessibility of the data sets. One of the major reasons for these findings isthatCIRSmedical.de receives data from different CIRS systems which address various questions in the input forms, leading to missing information. The case reports published in CIRSmedical are primarily meant for the analysis of the unique case report. Systematic analyzes are made even more difficult since there exist no interfaces for automatic access. The automatic and systematic analysis would important value and thus the acceptance of CIRSmedical could be improved. Consistent data management with a standardized and structured input can lead to improved data quality resulting in meaningful analysis of CIRS reports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: National registers which document assisted reproductive technology (ART) treatments are important for a range of stakeholders. Their websites and reports are a source of information for ART practitioners, (future) patients and the public. The aim of our study was to compare national ART registers in the three European countries with the largest populations and evaluate whether ART registers currently meet the information needs of the different groups.Methods: We compared the publications of national registers in three European countries (the United Kingdom, France and Germany) with diverse regulatory approaches. Our analysis focused on two criteria: data quality and patient orientation.Results: Our findings suggest that the German and French registers' publications fulfil the criteria to a lesser degree than the British register publications, by collecting data that are likely to be less accurate and publishing less information specifically targeted at patients.Conclusions: Differences in the publications and the data collection methods of the three registers impact the opportunities of various stakeholders to access information about ART from their respective national registers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we analyse the effect of an incentive experiment on German consumers' recording behaviour on the basis of a one-week diary of their point-of-sale expenditure. Part of the experiment, which was carried out shortly before the consumers began filling in their payment diaries, involved consumers rolling a die with a chance of winning either EUR 20 or nothing, that is, they were randomly assigned an incentive. We ask whether respondents' recording behaviour differs depending on whether individuals win or lose. We argue that winners attach a more positive feeling to the survey than losers and therefore show a stronger commitment to the diary. As the incentive experiment is part of a larger experiment to elicit respondents' risk preferences, we also provide evidence on the effect of conducting up-front behavioural experiments in representative surveys. Our results indicate that the outcome of the lottery (rolling of the die) has an impact on the quantity of transactions recorded, but does not affect other aspects of respondents' recording behaviour, such as item nonresponse or rounding. It also has a negligible impact on substantive measures, such as the cash share. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital soil mapping (DSM) relies on statistical relationships between soil properties and covariates (e.g. terrain attributes, land use class, geology) which may not explain a large proportion of measured soil properties variability. This uncertainty combined with low spatial resolution of existing maps makes it difficult to monitor soils. Diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform mid-infrared spectroscopy (midDRIFTS) with partial least square regression (PLSR) may offer an alternative source of high quality data for improved DSM. Previously validated midDRIFTS-PLSR models were used to predict soil total carbon (TC), total inorganic carbon (TIC), total organic carbon (TOC) and texture of 1170 samples from contrasting agroecological regions (~ 3600 km 2 ), Kraichgau (K) and Swabian Alb (SA), Southwest Germany. MidDRIFTS-PLSR predictions were integrated with geostatistics for soil property maps (200 m resolution). An average of 93% of the total soil samples were predicted within the confidence intervals of the midDRIFTS-PLSR models for the respective properties. Ordinary kriging (OK) resulted in maps for TC, TIC, TOC and texture with a root mean square standardized error (RMSSE) ~ 1. Soil organic matter (SOM) (DRIFTS_SOM) and texture (DRIFTS_texture) maps developed in the current study were of higher spatial resolution than previously existing maps. The DRIFTS_SOM and DRIFTS_texture in the both regions showed considerable differences when compared to existing maps. The DRIFTS_SOM in K and SA regions had overlaps of 45 and 69% with the 1:200,000 existing map. While the DRIFTS_texture in K had an overlap of 92% with the 1:1,000,000 existing map, the overlap in SA region was only 11%. We conclude that traditional DSM with covariates can be improved via higher sampling density which is made possible using midDRIFTS-PLSR. Incorporation of mid-infrared spectral data with both remote sensing and other environmental data would be a further application to cope with uncertainty associated to both spectroscopic and spatial modeling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subsurface reservoir quality assessments are among the most important workflows in reservoir geology. The application has been standard practice in the hydrocarbon industry and is also adopted for geothermal reservoir systems hosted in clastic rocks. With the emergence of fluid mining for metals, such as lithium for the energy transition, yet another field may adopt the standard practice. However, as drill cores and hard geological data from the subsurface are expensive commodities they may be substituted by outcrop analog studies to fill in data gaps in the understanding of the deep subsurface. However, reservoir quality controls, such as pore-filling cements or natural fractures may be altered or overprinted during uplift to the surface and exposure to undersaturated meteoric fluids and associated stress release. A complete understanding of geochemical and geomechanical processes affecting the rocks since their deposition is needed to account for that, otherwise data may not be representative of the subsurface. In this case study using petrographic (point-counting) and petrophysical (porosity and permeability) analyses we highlight the possibilities and limitations of outcrop analog data used for the evaluation of subsurface reservoir quality. The focus is on the Triassic Buntsandstein within the Upper Rhine Graben in southwestern Germany and eastern France and exposed outcrop analogs along the western margin of the graben. Here, we show that some data (detrital composition, quartz cement, K-feldspar cement, and clay mineral cement volumes) may directly be applicable to subsurface reservoir quality assessment. However, other data (porosity, permeability, IGV, carbonate cement, and iron hydroxide cement contents) cannot be used analogously to subsurface samples and we outline possible approaches to mitigate some of the mismatches in the frame of a reservoir quality study. In particular, the correction for uplift diagenetic dissolution of carbonate cemented nodules and goethite precipitation will be the key to gain more accurate results in the presented area. • Outcrop analog data can partially be used to assess RQ controls in the subsurface. • Quartz-, K-feldspar- and clay mineral cement volumes may be extracted from outcrop samples. • Detrital compositions, grain coating coverages and their effect on cementation and compaction are comparable. • Carbonate cements (dissolved) and iron hydroxides (precipitated) are the main mismatch in authigenic components. • Absolute values for IGV, porosity, and permeability are not transferable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) such as data derived from the OpenStreetMap (OSM) project is a popular data source for freely available geographic data. Normally, untrained contributors gather these data. This fact is frequently a cause of concern regarding the quality and usability of such data. In this study, the quality of OSM land use and land cover (LULC) data is investigated for an area in southern Germany. Two spatial data quality elements, thematic accuracy and completeness are addressed by comparing the OSM data with an authoritative German reference dataset. The results show that the kappa value indicates a substantial agreement between the OSM and the authoritative dataset. Nonetheless, for our study region, there are clear variations between the LULC classes. Forest covers a large area and shows both a high OSM completeness (97.6%) and correctness (95.1%). In contrast, farmland also covers a large area, but for this class OSM shows a low completeness value (45.9%) due to unmapped areas. Additionally, the results indicate that a high population density, as present in urbanized areas, seems to denote a higher strength of agreement between OSM and the DLM (Digital Landscape Model). However, a low population density does not necessarily imply a low strength of agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• New bottom hole temperature correction method based on cylinder source model for single shut-in time at each depth. • This study proves that the new method gives better results than the previously used method. • 2156 improved bottom hole temperature data sets for Germany archived in geophysics information system FIS-GP at the leibniz institute for applied geophysics. Subsurface temperature is a key parameter for any geothermal exploration activity. In Germany, records of subsurface temperatures exist for approximately 11,000 wells. It is well known that the uncertainty of corrected BHTs is generally high on the order of ± 8 K. It might be even higher in the case of incomplete data sets. In this study, new correction methods based on statistical analyses were developed to improve the correction of BHTs if only one measurement is available. A comparison with high quality temperature records reveals a substantial improvement compared to the previously applied correction method. Since the corrected temperatures are used for the calculation of a geostatistical 3D temperature model and for geothermal project planning, the assessment of uncertainty is very important. High quality data must be preferred over low quality data but low quality data might be better than remote or no data. Knowledge about the degree of certainty of specific data categories may help to improve subsurface temperature predictions for future geothermal projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective Health care quality monitoring has been introduced in cystic fibrosis (CF) by a few groups and national registries. Based upon this, continuous quality improvement can be achieved by applying the benchmarking method which is focused on learning from best practice. Setting A group of 12 CF centres in Germany, treating a total of 1200 patients of all ages, enrolled in a nationwide pilot benchmarking project from 2004 to 2007. Intervention Key nutritional and respiratory parameters were used as quality indicators. Numerical benchmarks were set and used for ranking. Applying the plan-do-check-act cycle, quality improvement interventions were introduced, such as harmonization of definitions and references, improvement of measurement standards, data quality, completion of missing data, enforcement of early aggressive antibiotic treatment and individual adaptation of dietary counselling. Results Ranking alone was not sufficient for identification of the best performing centres unless it was accompanied by longitudinal follow-up. Improvement was possible in the 3 years’ period as shown by benchmarking for single centres that introduced new interventions in nutritional and antibiotic treatment most consequently. Conclusion CF provides a model of the link between processes of health care delivery and health outcomes of patients. Quality improvement is a continuous goal in CF care with realistic potential as exemplified by our data. Accountability was introduced and transparency was improved by our pilot benchmarking project. Using the benchmarking procedure, our long-term project will reinforce standards, programmes, and individual attitudes and principles to ensure continuous quality improvement in CF health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing relevance of data quality has revealed the need for adequate measurement. As time aspects are extremely important in data quality management, we propose a novel approach to assess data currency. Our metric, which is founded on probability theory, enables an objective and widely automated assessment for data liable to temporal decline. Its values are easy to interpret by business users. Moreover, the metric makes it possible to analyse the economic impacts of data quality measures like data cleansing and can therefore build a basis for an economic management of data quality. The approach can be applied in various fields of application where the currency of data is important. To illustrate the practical benefit and the applicability of the novel metric, we provide an extensive real world example. In cooperation with a major German mobile services provider, the approach was successfully applied in campaign management and led to an improved decision support. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In 2005 a nationwide monitoring scheme for butterflies (and diurnal moths) was launched in Germany. Coordinated by the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research—UFZ, it started as an integral part of the public relations campaign "Abenteuer Schmetterling" (Adventure Butterfly) with German public television and an environmental NGO as partners. The core objectives of the monitoring scheme are (a) to provide a central element for the analysis of biodiversity and (b) to investigate and develop the role of butterflies as indicators for the state of biodiversity. Both are aims at a regional, national, and European scale. After three years of monitoring (2005-2007), first results and experiences are presented. We show that the use of multiple media (TV, internet, community-level activities) yielded high responsiveness from the public and high recruitment of volunteers. We further show that the quality of data is likely to qualify for scientific analyses of abundances and phenology and therefore possibly for the recognition of long-term trends. Main lessons learned for the successful establishment of a volunteer-based monitoring scheme are that (a) an institution that hosts such a project should be able to provide long-term basic financial and personnel resources; (b) the media can play a vital role in activating a minimum number of volunteers required to start a monitoring project; and (c) the motivation of recorders is the key for success. Therefore permanent coordination, support, motivation activities, continuous contacts with the volunteers, and continuous recruitment of new recorders are all essential to ensure regular data entry and the overall success of such a project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerical simulations of rainfall-runoff processes are valuable tools for understanding hydrological processes and for assessing the impact of certain decisions on the hydrological cycle of the study areas. The advancements in the computer technology and data acquisition have assisted their rapid development and wide use. The current research aims at evaluating the applicability of the physically-based, fully distributed model TOPographic Kinematic APproximation and Integration TOPKAPI-eX for the simulation of flood events in two sub-catchments in Saxony State, Germany. This model has not been applied for German watersheds with high spatial resolution data. The results indicate that the model is calibrated well for the Wernersbach sub-catchment (Nash Sutcliffe Efficiency coefficient-0.89), whereas for the Wesenitz sub-catchment it was only satisfactory (NSE-0.7). As the model uses two soil layers, the addition of the second soil layer has improved the model performance in comparison to the simulations with only one soil layer in the case of the Wernersbach sub-catchment (NSE increase from 0.83 to 0.89). During the validation process, the model performance has shown variable results for both catchments. The best performance was achieved for the Wernersbach sub-catchment for the year with the highest flow (NSE-0.95) in the last decade. The lowest performance coefficients for Wernersbach and Wesenitz sub-catchments were 0.64 and 0.64, respectively. The reasons for low model performance were discussed to be: low data quality and data insufficiency, methods used during the simulations are interpolations, manual calibration, ETP estimation, etc., and the assumptions made during the calibration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]