University of Bayreuth

Billions of fishes are kept in captivity for research and food production world‐wide, with a strong impetus for maintaining high welfare standards. Accordingly, the importance of empirical research into the welfare and husbandry of captive fishes is increasingly acknowledged in both science and aquaculture, alongside growing public and governmental interest. Physical enrichment can have an important influence on welfare in of captive fishes, but many questions remain. Here, we summarise the current state of research and outline knowledge gaps in the area of physical enrichment, which is a fundamental aspect to improving welfare of captive fishes. To explore the level of research interest this area across time we conducted a series of surveys, using the number of papers published per year as a metric. These surveys highlight that work on fish welfare, while representing a relatively low proportion of fish research overall, is increasing rapidly. For species that are of aquaculture importance or used commonly as laboratory subjects, we show a positive relationship between general research interest and number of welfare‐related papers. However, for many, particularly relatively less studied, species the proportion of papers on enrichment remains low, with a slower increase compared to welfare‐related papers in general. In terms of common metrics used to quantify fish welfare, there is a reliance on growth and behaviour, with scope for inclusion and combination of a more comprehensive range of reproducible measures. We finish by highlighting recent progress, promising areas for future research and suggestions for advances in this area.

The rising prevalence of chronic diseases and an aging population have led to a significant increase in disability rates worldwide. Stroke, a major cause of disability, necessitates effective rehabilitation strategies to restore lost motor functions in the lower limbs. Human-robot interaction (HRI) in lower limb rehabilitation offers promising solutions, providing personalized feedback and intensive, repetitive training to enhance motor recovery. While personalized feedback and adaptive assistance have shown promise in enhancing rehabilitation outcomes, there remains limited exploration of how these elements can be optimized through machine learning and other advanced technologies. This review aims to bridge these gaps by systematically examining the design criteria for effective human-robot interaction (HRI) systems, evaluating various modalities employed in robotic rehabilitation, and analyzing control strategies that enhance user outcomes. By delving into these areas, our review seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of HRI in lower limb rehabilitation, offering a foundation for future research and development in this critical field. By integrating advanced technologies with personalized rehabilitation approaches, HRI systems can adapt more effectively to individual patient needs, maximizing their potential to improve rehabilitation outcomes. Finally, our review emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in advancing HRI systems for lower limb rehabilitation.

“Ernst Reuter, with other German scientists in exile in Ankara, was planning to establish a radio station to give a voice to Germany. They even designed some programs. An exile radio… 85 years later, together with other refugees in exile, Dündar founded Özgürüz Radyo in Berlin to make Turkey’s voice heard. A tragic repetition of history… painful but also instructive… exile is a reality of oppressed societies: like prison, like censorship… The media in exile is another reality… The history of the press is full of examples of journalists and writers trying to reach those on the border. Going beyond the borders of the country under bans…” This chapter will discuss the new-exile journalism, new options for cross-border journalism, solidarity and the networks of exile journalists.

As editor of this section, Eylem Çamuroğlu Çığ is following the traces of the violent accumulation that leads to the transformation of media and triggers ‘new-exile journalism’, among other things. She draws the theoretical framework of the forced migration of journalists from Turkey to Germany, which accelerated after the Gezi Resistance in 2013, and at the same time to underline the potential of new-exile journalism for the future of journalism and democracy in terms of transnational experiences. This chapter theoretically analyses the transformation of media in Turkey and emphasizes the unique characteristics of the repression of media and journalists in Turkey with regard to the characteristic coupling of neoliberalism with political Islam.

This two-volume edition examines the new-exile and displacement from Turkey to Germany with its multifaceted dimensions. As both subjects and scholars of this current state of exile, we tried to collect historical testimonies, artistic or academic insights, and analysis of the new-exile and displacement process. Each author contributed to this book hails from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing a spectrum of social, cultural, and class, gender and race perspectives. Despite all these differences, what unites us and crosses our paths in this book is our shared role as intellectuals in Turkey, tasked with the vital responsibility of seeking and disseminating truth. Within each article of this book, you will encounter not only the personal narratives of the authors but also the tales of their journeys, undertaken with a keen awareness of this responsibility and the enduring pursuit of the truth.

This study addresses challenges in real-time gait regulation for a pediatric exoskeleton by introducing an adaptive finite-time sliding mode control. The approach utilizes a non-singular fast terminal sliding mode (NFTSM) surface with adaptive laws to guide the system states toward equilibrium within a finite time. Lyapunov’s theory validates the swift convergence of tracking error. The proposed adaptive-NFTSM (ANFTSM) control is applied on an existing lower-limb exoskeleton and tested for a Cerebral Palsy-affected pediatric subject (12 years, 35 kg, 131 cm) over 7 days of gait training. On the seventh day, ANFSTM control strategy outperforms the contrast adaptive terminal sliding mode (ATSM) strategy by 21.57% and 16.36% in tracking knee and ankle joint trajectories. ANFSTM control achieves convergent sliding manifolds [Formula: see text] within 25%, 23%, and 21% of the respective gait cycles. Moreover, the proposed ANFTSM control demonstrates negligible chattering in sliding surfaces over 7 days compared to the adaptive terminal sliding mode (ATSM) control. The precise estimation of unknown coefficients in the ANFTSM control ensures robustness against uncertainties and external interferences. On the seventh day, ANFTSM control excels over ATSM control with a remarkable reduction of more than 18% in voltage consumption. Finally, statistical measures over the entire gait training period emphasize the potential of the ANFTSM control scheme in ameliorating abnormal gait patterns in pediatric subjects.

More and more basic practical application scenarios have been gradually ignored/disregarded, in fundamental research on rechargeable batteries, e.g. assessing cycle life under various depths‐of‐discharge (DODs). Herein, although benefit from the additional energy density introduced by anionic redox, we critically revealed that lithium‐rich layered oxide (LRLO) cathodes present anomalously poor capacity retention at low‐DOD cycling, which is essentially different from typical layered cathodes (e.g. NCM), and pose a formidable impediment to the practical application of LRLO. We systemically demonstrated that DOD‐dependent capacity decay is induced by the anionic redox and accumulation of oxidized lattice oxygen (Oⁿ⁻). Upon low‐DOD cycling, the accumulation of Oⁿ⁻ and the persistent presence of vacancies in the transition metal (TM) layer intensified the in‐plane migration of TM, exacerbating the expansion of vacancy clusters, which further facilitated detrimental out‐of‐plane TM migration. As a result, the aggravated structural degradation of LRLO at low‐DOD impeded reversible Li⁺ intercalation, resulting in rapid capacity decay. Furthermore, prolonged accumulation of Oⁿ⁻ persistently corroded the electrode‐electrolyte interface, especially negative for pouch‐type full‐cells with the shuttle effect. Once the “double‐edged sword” effect of anionic redox being elucidated under practical condition, corresponding modification strategies/routes would become distinct for accelerating the practical application of LRLO.

Proprioception is one of the least understood senses, yet fundamental for the control of movement. Even basic questions of how limb pose is represented in the somatosensory cortex are unclear. We developed a topographic variational autoencoder with lateral connectivity (topo-VAE) to compute a putative cortical map from a large set of natural movement data. Although not fitted to neural data, our model reproduces two sets of observations from monkey centre-out reaching: 1. The shape and velocity dependence of proprioceptive receptive fields in hand-centered coordinates despite the model having no knowledge of arm kinematics or hand coordinate systems. 2. The distribution of neuronal preferred directions (PDs) recorded from multi-electrode arrays. The model makes several testable predictions: 1. Encoding across the cortex has a blob-and-pinwheel-type geometry of PDs. 2. Few neurons will encode just a single joint. Our model provides a principled basis for understanding of sensorimotor representations, and the theoretical basis of neural manifolds, with applications to the restoration of sensory feedback in brain-computer interfaces and the control of humanoid robots.

Recent experimental investigations of grain size evolution in bridgmanite-ferropericlase assemblages have suggested very slow growth for these bimodal phases. Despite numerous speculations on grain size-dependent viscosity, a comprehensive test with realistic grain size evolution parameters compatible with the lower mantle has been lacking. In this study, we develop self-consistent 2-D spherical half-annulus geodynamic models of Earth’s evolution using the finite volume code StagYY to assess the role of grain size on lower mantle viscosity. We explore several models with and without grain size evolution to compare their effects on mantle viscosity. In models with grain size evolution, we consider three scenarios: (1) uniform grain growth throughout the entire mantle with a composite rheology, (2) different grain growth in the upper and lower mantle with a composite rheology, and (3) different grain growth in the upper and lower mantle with purely diffusion creep rheology. In the case of different grain size evolution, the upper mantle’s grain size evolution law is controlled by forsterite-enstatite grain growth, while the lower mantle’s grain size evolution law is controlled by bridgmanite-ferropericlase grain growth. Our results suggest that mantle viscosity is primarily controlled by temperature, whereas grain size has a minor effect compared to the effect of temperature. We attribute two primary reasons for this: First, the bridgmanite-ferropericlase growth is very slow in the lower mantle and the grain size variation is too small to significantly alter the mantle viscosity. Secondly, if grains grow too fast, thus the mantle deforms in the dislocation creep regime, making viscosity grain size-independent. To establish the robustness of this finding we vary several other model parameters, such as surface yield strength, phase transition grain size reset, different transitional stresses for creep mechanisms, pressure dependence on grain growth, and different grain damage parameters. For all our models, we consistently find that grain size has a very limited effect on controlling lower mantle viscosity in the present-day Earth. However, large grain size may have affected the lower mantle viscosity in the early Earth as larger grains of single phase bridgmanite could increase the viscosity of the early mantle delaying the onset of global convection.

This chapter starts from the conviction that literary sources are nexuses in long chains of other recycled sources. No source exists alone. An epistemological source is a product of a complex process of reading, rereading, writing, rewriting, adaptation, and readaptation. In this process of source recycling, the author adds to her/his own text new cultural, historical, or political perspectives, as well as fresh imageries, motifs, and symbolisms. Nevertheless, authors may not be consciously aware of where their imaginations/sources stem from. Here, the concept of the Re*source comes into play. The West’s underestimation of the epistemological contributions of the East hinders a sustainable understanding of not only the West’s own epistemological history but also of all humanity’s history. Lori Humphrey Newcomb, in her essay “Toward a Sustainable Source Study” (2018), called for a sustainable source study. Borrowing the ecosystem term of sustainability evokes the ramifications that sources should be regarded as naturally recyclable. Accordingly, the ever-flowing human fountain of imagination and inspiration must not be discontinued for the sake of a superior hegemonic West at the expense of a deemed inferior East. The one human literary and cultural corpus itself contains endless multiplicities of creative formations, hence Ikhwan Al-Safa’s Al-Aql Al-Kuli. Some of the trans*textual literary examples given in this chapter are based on the research results of my book Trans*textual Shakespeare the Arabic and Persian Pretexts of Romeo and Juliet (2020).

In many scientific fields, sparseness and indirectness of empirical evidence pose fundamental challenges to theory development. Theories of the evolution of human cognition provide a guiding example, where the targets of study are evolutionary processes that occurred in the ancestors of present-day humans. In many cases, the evidence is both very sparse and very indirect (e.g., archaeological findings regarding anatomical changes that might be related to the evolution of language capabilities); in other cases, the evidence is less sparse but still very indirect (e.g., data on cultural transmission in groups of contemporary humans and non-human primates). From examples of theoretical and empirical work in this domain, we distill five virtuous practices that scientists could aim to satisfy when evidence is sparse or indirect: (i) making assumptions explicit, (ii) making alternative theories explicit, (iii) pursuing computational and formal modelling, (iv) seeking external consistency with theories of related phenomena, and (v) triangulating across different forms and sources of evidence. Thus, rather than inhibiting theory development, sparseness or indirectness of evidence can catalyze it. To the extent that there are continua of sparseness and indirectness that vary across domains and that the principles identified here always apply to some degree, the solutions and advantages proposed here may generalise to other scientific domains.

For almost two decades now, scientists have increasingly focused on the occurrence of microplastic particles (MPs) in the environment and their impact on environmental and human health. Currently, the variety of analytical methods used in microplastic research result in data of different quality. This largely hampers comparability between data sets and consequently prevents a reliable risk assessment. In this context, the lack of suitable reference microplastic particles (RMPs) that can be added as an internal standard in an exactly known number further prevents quality assessment of, and harmonization in terms of comparability between different analytical methods. Although this challenge has been widely recognized, the availability of RMPs is currently limited to commercially available particles in the form of micro-beads or -fragments (powders). Manual addition of such RMPs to samples in a precisely defined number as an internal standard is inefficient and the alternative use of MP suspensions does not allow for the addition of an exactly defined particle number. The optimum solution to solve this issue would be RMPs embedded in an easy-to-use soluble matrix in exact numbers. This would allow for evaluating analytical quality during microplastic analysis as well as establishing harmonization in terms of comparability between different methods. In the present study we focused on the development of such RMPs. We used computerized numerical controlled (CNC) milling to produce small diameter plastic columns followed by gelatine embedment and subsequent cryosectioning. This results in gelatin slices containing an exactly defined number of RMPs with well-defined size, shape and polymer type / chemical composition that can be added to a sample easily with the dissolution of the gelatine. We successfully produced square shaped RMPs in a size range of 125–1000 μm of five different polymers. The overall size-deviation of the RMPs never exceeded ± 11.2% from the mean value of a set of particles. The highest percentage mass-deviation was 25.5% from the mean value of a set of 125 × 125 × 20 μm polystyrene (PS) RMPs. Our approach allows for the production of RMPs tailored to specific needs of all different analytical methods used in current microplastic research. Beyond analytical method validation, these RMPs furthermore open possibilities for experiments on MPs in different fields.

The notion of a nation-specific inflation trauma among the German population is ubiquitous in the public debate in Germany and beyond. According to a widespread reading of history because of its experience with hyperinflation in 1923, the Germans not only fear rising prices but favor a stability-oriented monetary and fiscal policy. The historical origins of this contemporary understanding of the German inflation trauma are controversial. The majority of the literature presumes that a specific traumatic disposition persists since 1923, and as communicative memory has been transposed intergenerationally ( persistence thesis ). Others, however, point to a post-hoc reconstruction of past experiences, explaining it as a distinctly cultural memory that is largely detached from the first-hand experiences of 1923 ( reconstruction thesis ). By drawing on both methods of history and political sciences, we provide new insights on the question of origin. Specifically, we examine the remembrance of hyperinflation in personal memoirs and German Bundestag debates. Doing so, we find plausible support for the logic of reconstruction . We show that individual memories of hyperinflation were ambiguous and hardly ever provided explanations or specific policy lessons. Thus, personal memoirs do not provide any manifest testament for a communicative memory of the German inflation as understood by the persistence thesis. Furthermore, Bundestag speeches in the first decades of the Federal Republic indicate a contested communicative memory of 1923 with conflicting political lessons drawn from the historical experience. As only the Weimar memory transcended into the cultural realm from the 1980s onwards, a process of discursive alignment occurred resulting in the contemporary understanding of the inflation trauma. These findings rebut the persistence thesis and underscore the logic of reconstruction .

An increasing body of research adopts a performative perspective of brands, assuming that multiple actors co-create brands in interrelated brand co-creation performances (BCCP). While gaining traction in branding research, empirical work identifying BCCP is scarce (n = 3). BCCP have yet been discussed in single research contexts, evolving largely independent and leading to disparate findings. Initially, this research aims to expand existing empirical work. Using the unusually revelatory ‘over-over-the-top’ context of the sport brand FC St. Pauli, we apply semi-structured interviews, internal brand-related documents, media content analysis, and social media analysis to identify BCCP in a novel research context. Building on this single-case study and existing research on BCCP, we empirically consolidate these primary studies (n = 4) following qualitative meta-synthesis to unpack brand co-creation in various contexts. The empirical consolidation results in eight interrelated BCCP (i.e. communicating, implementing, contesting, developing, negotiating, facilitating, social listening, and assimilating), which are divided into direct brand co-creation performances (dBCCP) and enabling brand co-creation performances (eBCCP). This research contributes to branding literature by unpacking how (i.e. through which BCCP) multiple actors co-create brands. Additionally, it provides brand managers with an enhanced understanding of their brand and the influence of multiple internal and external actors.

The global demand for technological advancement frequently involves discovering novel, exotic, multifunctional materials. Due to their broad spectrum of properties, including ferroelectricity, magnetism, magnetoresistance, and superconductivity, complex oxides are one of the most alluring research topics. These functional electrical and magnetic materials are crucial to modern science and technology. For example, ferroelectrics, materials with spontaneous electric polarization that can be changed by an applied electric field, are frequently utilized as tunable capacitors and are used as the basis for ferroelectric random-access memory in computers. On the other hand, ferromagnetic materials are the materials that are typically used for encoding and storing data, such as in hard drives. Multiferroic materials may allow the fabrication of multiple control devices, such as electric fields, electric field-controlled magnetic data storage, and energy storage devices. Rare earth manganites are a perfect example of multiferroic materials with unique structural properties that change their physical properties. Therefore, studies on functional oxide materials and compounds with multiple degrees of complexity are essential. The present article is focused on the structural aspects of these multifunctional oxide materials, which are vital to understanding the correlation to the physical properties of such exotic materials.

The active skin of the Earth, the Earth Critical Zone (ECZ), is a complex layer with diffuse limits towards the atmosphere and the lithosphere resulting from interacting physical, chemical, and biological processes. Biodiversity across all biological realms, including bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, is a substantial component and contribution to the ECZ. Without the activity of organisms, this zone and its ecosystems would not be functional or even exist.