18833 research outputs found
Sort by
From vision to reality: the use of artificial intelligence in different urban planning phases
No full textIn an urban context, the use of artificial intelligence (AI) can help to categorise and analyse large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. The AI approach can make municipal administration and planning processes more efficient, improve environmental and living conditions (e.g., air quality, inventory of road damages, etc.), or strengthen the participation of residents in decision-making processes. The key to this is “machine learning” that has the ability to recognise patterns, capture models, and learn on the basis of big data via the application of automated statistical methods. However, what does this mean for urban planning and the future development of cities? Will AI take over the planning and design of our cities and actively intervene in and influence planning activities? This article applies a systematic literature review supplemented by case study analyses and expert interviews to categorise various types of AI and relate their potential applications to the different phases of the planning process. The findings emphasize that AI systems are highly specialised applications for solving and processing specific challenges and tasks within a planning process. This can improve planning processes and results, but ultimately AI only suggests alternatives and possible solutions. Thus, AI has to be regarded as a planning tool rather than the planning solution. Ultimately, it is the planners who have to make decisions about the future development of cities, taking into account the possibilities and limitations of the AI applications that have been used in the planning process
Narrating Inflation
No full textThis paper examines the pivotal role of journalists in shaping
economic narratives, focusing on inflation coverage in Germany in
2022. While the media’s influence on disseminating economic narratives
is widely acknowledged, little research has focused on journalists, the
agents responsible for content production. Using a mixed-method approach
combining survey data with media content analysis, this study
investigates how economic journalists explain inflation causes and persistence
compared to professional economists. The results from surveys
conducted during peak inflation (10.4%) show that journalists hold less
optimistic views on inflation persistence than experts and that they are
more likely to attribute inflation to specific protagonists, particularly the
European Central Bank (ECB) and corporate profit-seeking. The ECB’s
role emerges as an especially contentious issue among journalists, revealing
significant disagreement within the profession. Analysis of media
coverage reveals notable alignment between journalists’ perceptions and
actual content, especially regarding the emphasis placed on the ECB’s
role—despite experts considering monetary policy a relatively minor factor.
While this might suggest that journalists’ personal narratives influence
media coverage, the study’s design precludes causal claims. The
findings underscore the need for further research into how journalists’
personal narratives impact public discourse on economic matters
Estimating and using block information in the Thurstonian IRT model
No full textMultidimensional forced-choice (MFC) tests are increasing in popularity but their construction is complex. The Thurstonian item response model (Thurstonian IRT model) is most often used to score MFC tests that contain dominance items. Currently, in a frequentist framework, information about the latent traits in the Thurstonian IRT model is computed for binary outcomes of pairwise comparisons, but this approach neglects stochastic dependencies. In this manuscript, it is shown how to estimate Fisher information on the block level. A simulation study showed that the observed and expected standard errors based on the block information were similarly accurate. When local dependencies for block sizes > 2 were neglected, the standard errors were underestimated, except with the maximum a posteriori estimator. It is shown how the multidimensional block information can be summarized for test construction. A simulation study and an empirical application showed small differences between the block information summaries depending on the outcome considered. Thus, block information can aid the construction of reliable MFC tests
Frei lizensierte und diversitätssensible Bilder für Unterricht, Förderung und Therapie
No full textBilder spielen in Unterricht, Förderung und Therapie eine zentrale Rolle. Sie unterstützen die Verständlichkeit von Inhalten, erhöhen die Unterrichtstransparenz und erleichtern die Informa-tionsvermittlung. Insbesondere im Bereich der Wortschatzarbeit und des Sprachverständnisses werden sie vielfältig zur Diagnostik und Förderung eingesetzt. Ein Einsatzbeispiel sind die kosten-freien Fördermaterialien und Lernverlaufstests der Onlineplattform www.levumi.de (Gebhardt et al., 2016; Jungjohann et al., 2020; Jungjohann et al., 2021a, 2021b). Eine nachhaltige Lösung zum Einsatz von Bildern bieten frei verfügbare Bildungsmedien, sogenannte Open Educational Resources (OER). Denn freilizensierte Bilder als OER ermöglichen Nachnutzenden wie beispiels-weise Lehrkräften und pädagogischen Fachkräften die Erstellung neuer ressourcenschonender Unterrichtsmaterialien, eine flexible Anpassung bestehender Materialien an spezifische Bedürf-nisse sowie die Weitergabe (Jungjohann, 2024).
Diese Sammlung von 220 frei lizenzierten, diversitätssensiblen Bildern steht für den kosten-freien Einsatz als OER zur Verfügung. Sie wurde gezielt mit inklusiven und kulturübergreifenden Darstellungen erstellt, um eine diskriminierungsfreie Nutzung von Bildern im Bildungsbereich zu ermöglichen. Die Bilder stehen für frei zur Verfügung und können individuell angepasst werden. Alle Bilder wurden in einem iterativen und partizipativen Entwicklungsprozess entwickelt und überarbeitet, um die zielgruppengerechte Eignung sicherzustellen. Eine Pilotierung mit Schü-ler:innen verschiedener Altersgruppen hat die Verständlichkeit und Eindeutigkeit der finalen Bilder innerhalb der Zielgruppe bestätigt. Die Bildersammlung umfasst verschiedene themati-sche Kategorien: Personen, Lebensmittel, Gebäude und Umgebungen, Möbel und Einrichtung, Schule, Alltagsgegenstände, Technik und Medien, Fahrzeuge, Pflanzen und Natur sowie Tiere
Warum sind Konfidenzellipsen eigentlich Ellipsen? – Vernetzung zwischen Stochastik und Geometrie
No full textIn den letzten Jahren ist in der Literatur der Begriff der Konfidenzellipse vermehrt in Erscheinung getreten (bei Konfidenzintervallen für eine unbekannte Wahrscheinlichkeit p). Damit kann gut der Unterschied zwischen Prognose- und Konfidenzintervallen veranschaulicht werden. Die Tatsache, dass es sich dabei um eine Ellipse handelt, ist aus stochastischer Sicht eigentlich nicht wichtig, daher wird das auch kaum irgendwo näher hinterfragt bzw. begründet. Im Vortrag wird versucht es trotzdem zu erklären, und zwar auf möglichst anschauliche und elementare Weise
Investigation of lncRNA GRASLND in the context of melanoma differentiation and IFNy response
No full textMelanoma, originating from malignant melanocytes, is the leading cause of skin cancer-related deaths arises from its high metastatic potential, heterogeneity, and phenotypic plasticity. This plasticity drives tumor progression, metastasis, and therapy resistance. Immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy, the primary treatment for metastatic melanoma, enhances cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) activity but faces challenges due to resistance. Resistance is linked to impaired HLA class I antigen presentation and loss of melanocytic differentiation antigens via phenotype switching, allowing immune evasion. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate key melanoma processes, including immune escape, proliferation, metastasis, and drug resistance, but their role in melanoma plasticity remains largely unknown.
This study investigated lncRNA GRASLND in melanoma, building on its known role in mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as an inhibitor of IFNγ signaling, a key pathway regulating HLA class I-APM and CTL immunogenicity via interaction with PKR. GRASLND was overexpressed in melanoma tumors, associated with a differentiated cell state, and linked to poor prognosis. Its knockdown induced a shift from a proliferative melanocytic state to a dedifferentiated, invasive state. GRASLND was also enriched in immune “cold” tumors and inversely correlated with immune response activation. Notably, IFNγ reduced GRASLND expression, leading to increased ISG and HLA-I expression, confirming its suppressive effect on IFNγ signaling in melanoma. The GRASLND-PKR interaction was validated, suggesting an immune evasion mechanism. Targeting this interaction may help counteract immune escape in melanoma
A posteriori error analysis for optimization with PDE constraints
No full textWe consider finite element solutions to optimization problems, where the state depends on the possibly constrained control through a linear partial differential equation. Basing upon a reduced and rescaled optimality
system, we derive a posteriori bounds capturing the approximation of the state, the adjoint state, the control and the observation. The upper and lower bounds show a gap, which grows with decreasing cost or Tikhonov regularization parameter. This growth is mitigated compared to previous results and can be countered by refinement if control and observation involve compact operators. Numerical results illustrate these properties for model problems with distributed and boundary control
Herausforderungen und Chancen bei der Förderung und Inklusion von Schüler*innen mit Unterstützungsbedarf in Grundschulen
No full textDevelopment of subjective well-being in adolescents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic
No full textPrevious studies have already revealed detrimental effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on school students’ subjective well-being (SWB). However, there is a lack of studies examining the development of various facets of SWB such as life satisfaction, mood as well as domain satisfactions regarding peers, family, or school before and during the pandemic among adolescents longitudinally. Furthermore, the present study aims to shed further light on various moderators such as gender, age, migration background and socioeconomic status. Data from N = 207 students (Grade 5 to 9) from two German schools were assessed on four measurement time points, three before and one after the onset of the pandemic. Piecewise latent growth curve models with three time slopes were conducted to investigate the development of SWB and its moderators. They showed significant declines in general mood and domain-specific satisfaction with family, peers and school before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, only satisfaction with family decreased significantly. Among the moderators, especially the socioeconomic status indicated interindividual differences in the variation of different SWB facets