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This paper presents a study on remote learning of primary school children during the first school closures that were imposed in Germany in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. Data were collected at a primary school covering learners from age 6-12 and include a comprehensive survey amongst parents (n=69) as well as interviews with learners (n=17). Employing a mixed-methods approach, we first analyse the parent-survey's quantitative dataset. The analyses demonstrate that using modern technology for teaching and for communication between teachers and learners positively impact learners' motivation and well-being. Multivariate statistics show that teacher-learner contact frequency as well as teaching-learning transparency are predictive towards learner well-being. The subsequent analysis of interview data helps to gain a more nuanced picture on learners' experiences and well-being. Analyses show that learners experience multifaceted worries and concerns, and that one of the most substantial challenges of remote learning lies in a perceived change of teacher expectations. Based on the analyses of both datasets, it is argued that the contact frequency and quality, the proficient use of up-to-date technology, as well as transparency of teachers' expectations positively influence learners' well-being, and that thus, contact quality and transparency can counteract children's worries and concerns.

Our paper presents the methodological approach of group discussions and documentary method to investigate team beliefs in Early Childhood Education and Care facilities. The research addresses the question of how team beliefs on multilingualism and language education are shaped. To reconstruct team beliefs, we used group discussions and the sociologically informed documentary method, which is a two-step content and discourse analysis. The data analysis gives insights into the teams' conflicts, perceptions, and shared beliefs concerning the use of home languages in the facilities. This methodological approach offers a perspective that adds to the investigation of individual beliefs on multilingualism and language education by covering collective orientations in organisations.

In this paper we use intraday government bond futures price changes around German and Italian Treasury auctions to identify unexpected shifts in the demand for public debt. Estimates show that positive demand shocks lead to large negative movements in Treasury yields. Evidence shows significant spillover effects into Treasury bond, equity, and corporate bond markets of other eurozone countries. We find interesting differences in the effects of demand shocks between the two countries, consistent with the "safe‐haven" status of German bonds versus the "high‐debt" status of Italian Treasuries. Results suggest that these effects are stronger during periods of high financial stress. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article and associate is to highlight the social and economic diversity of the Ruhr area in Germany through the use of multivariate analysis and visualization. To this end we combine two different datasets. Demographic parameters stemming from the 2011 German census and socioeconomic indicators obtained from the microdialog of the German post service. Due to the different spatial resolution of the two datasets, we aggregated the data at the neighbourhood (Stadtteil) level. The multivariate analysis was carried out at this scale using Self-Organizing Maps (SOM), an artificial neuron network, which uses an unsupervised learning mechanism for projecting multidimensional data in a low (in our case two) dimensional space. First we used a visualization technique to better comprehend the relationship between our observations via reducing the dimensionality or complexity of our input data. At the same time, we established a global statistical relationships between the indicators. Finally, using these results we built clusters for revealing the distribution of socioeconomic profiles over the whole region. Our results demonstrate that structural inequalities resulting from the processes of industrialization/deindustrialization in the region are still widely persistent and result in characteristic patterns along the three main rivers, the Lippe, Emscher and the Ruhr. In close connection with this, three types of societal segregation patterns become clearly evident in the Ruhr area, namely nationality, age and economic power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a significant event of the 20th century European thought, the debate of Cassirer and Heidegger at Davos has had a long-lasting impact on a number of disciplines and scholars. My investigations serve the aim of offering an access to various methodological layers of a famous debate and exploring whether this debate can contribute to re-think horizons beyond subjectivity. This problematics is inseparable from the recognition of a new reading of Kant, of human (in)finitude and of Cassirer's and Heidegger's two alternative approaches to hermeneutics. First, I offer some basic philological and historical considerations with regard to the development of a better understanding of this debate. Furthermore, I explore the Davos dispute itself as a hermeneutic-phenomenological event, concentrating on its own context and reconstructing the human condition, i. e. Cassirer's and Heidegger's return to the single, and main question "What is to be a human being? Finally, I propose to assess what may be regarded as the main characteristic of these two eminent thinkers' dispute and a sense of this debate for philosophy and intellectual history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • The genome sequence and phylogenetic analysis of two novel orthoreovirus strains are described. • Strain 2533/4/1-10 is probably a triple reassortant. • Strain 2533/6/1-10 might have been acquired from an unknown natural host species. Abstract Complete genomic sequences of two orthoreovirus strains, D2533/4/1-10 and D2533/6/1-10, isolated from Pekin ducklings in Germany have been determined. Pairwise sequence comparisons and phylogenetic analyses indicated that strain D2533/4/1-10 might have acquired its genomic segments from three different origins, from classical and novel waterfowl reoviruses, and a yet unknown orthoreovirus strain. D2533/6/1-10 proved to be only distantly related to previously described orthoreoviruses. Reassortment, host species transmission events, and successful adaptation of novel variants may signify a challenge for animal health and maintenance of economic production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]