Humanities & Social Sciences

This open access book provides an overview of the dissertations of the eleven nominees for the Ernst Denert Award for Software Engineering in 2020. The prize, kindly sponsored by the Gerlind & Ernst Denert Stiftung, is awarded for excellent work within the discipline of Software Engineering, which includes methods, tools and procedures for better and efficient development of high quality software. An essential requirement for the nominated work is its applicability and usability in industrial practice. The book contains eleven papers that describe the works by Jonathan Brachthäuser (EPFL Lausanne) entitled What You See Is What You Get: Practical Effect Handlers in Capability-Passing Style, Mojdeh Golagha’s (Fortiss, Munich) thesis How to Effectively Reduce Failure Analysis Time?, Nikolay Harutyunyan’s (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) work on Open Source Software Governance, Dominic Henze’s (TU Munich) research about Dynamically Scalable Fog Architectures, Anne Hess’s (Fraunhofer IESE, Kaiserslautern) work on Crossing Disciplinary Borders to Improve Requirements Communication, Istvan Koren’s (RWTH Aachen U) thesis DevOpsUse: A Community-Oriented Methodology for Societal Software Engineering, Yannic Noller’s (NU Singapore) work on Hybrid Differential Software Testing, Dominic Steinhofel’s (TU Darmstadt) thesis entitled Ever Change a Running System: Structured Software Reengineering Using Automatically Proven-Correct Transformation Rules, Peter Wägemann’s (FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg) work Static Worst-Case Analyses and Their Validation Techniques for Safety-Critical Systems, Michael von Wenckstern’s (RWTH Aachen U) research on Improving the Model-Based Systems Engineering Process, and Franz Zieris’s (FU Berlin) thesis on Understanding How Pair Programming Actually Works in Industry: Mechanisms, Patterns, and Dynamics – which actually won the award. The chapters describe key findings of the respective works, show their relevance and applicability to practice and industrial software engineering projects, and provide additional information and findings that have only been discovered afterwards, e.g. when applying the results in industry. This way, the book is not only interesting to other researchers, but also to industrial software professionals who would like to learn about the application of state-of-the-art methods in their daily work.

How is something 'other' possible in relation to patriarchal gender relations and hegemonic masculinity? How can gender relations be captured sociologically in order to analyse the persistence of domination and other aspects? Situated in the triangle of women's and gender studies, sociology of masculinity and queer-feminist perspectives, the author develops a sociological modelling that differentiates various gender relations and their structures. In doing so, she analyses gender sociological concepts in terms of power and substantiates them with a diverse concept of gender.

The Natural History Museum of the University of Florence, founded in 1775 by Grand-Duke Pietro Leopold, is the oldest scientific museum in Europe. With this second volume on the Botanical Collection, Florence University Press continues its series dedicated to the six Sections of the Museum. The first part of the volume recounts the birth of botanical sciences in Florence and the history of the museum collections from sixteenth century to today. Then follows the second part which describes the historical and modern Herbaria, for each of which the main events that went to their formation, the importance of the plants they contain and biographical information on those who built the collections are described. The third section expounds the other collections in the Botanical Section of the Museum, among which of particular interest are the wax models of plants and fruits, manufactured by the old Grand-ducal Ceroplastics Laboratory, the wood collection, plaster of Paris mushrooms and the eighteenth century still life paintings of fruits and vegetables by Bartolomeo Bimbi. Finally, the last part illustrates the importance that herbaria play today in modern scientific research, drawing attention to the fact that they are an archive that holds taxonomical, chorological and ecological information in function of the plants they contain, as well as historical-biographical information on the scholars who, through their efforts, built up the collections.

1963 was an exceptional year for Italian literature because it was marked by six or seven works that play a decisive role in the history of their respective authors: in addition to Libera nos a malo, Meneghello’s first book, Lessico famigliare by Natalia Ginzburg, La tregua by Primo Levi, La giornata d’uno scrutatore by Italo Calvino, Una questione privata by Beppe Fenoglio, Il consiglio d’Egitto by Leonardo Sciascia. A comparison of these books reveals the profile of a very specific generation, that of writers coming of age during the Second World War and their particular sensitivity to the link between individual existence and collective destiny.

Ein multidisziplinärer Sammelband zu literarischen Porträtfilmen mit einem Schwerpunkt auf der deutschsprachigen Schweizer Literatur.Filmporträts über lebende und verstorbene Autor:innen gehören heute zu den wichtigsten Formen der öffentlichen Vermittlung von Literatur. Sie bilden oft den ersten, wenn nicht ausschließlichen Zugang zur Belletristik und prägen deren Bild in der breiten Öffentlichkeit.Die Formen und Anwendungen von Autor:innenporträts erstrecken sich über das ganze Spektrum von Kinofilmen über Fernsehporträts und Serien bis hin zu Kurzfilmen auf Websites. So werden fortlaufend Elemente einer plurimedialen und autorzentrierten Literaturgeschichtsschreibung produziert, die der vorliegende Band kritisch reflektiert.Neben exemplarischen Untersuchungen zur Frage nach dem in Porträtfilmen vermittelten Bild von Autorschaft richtet der vorliegende Band sein besonderes Augenmerk auf den filmischen Umgang mit Archivalien und deren Funktion. Im Gespräch mit Filmautor:innen und Schriftstellern wird zudem die Möglichkeit der Repräsentation des Werks im Film ausgelotet. Damit verknoten sich die mediengeschichtlichen Perspektiven: Die Porträtfilme erweisen sich nicht nur als Bestandteile einer »bewegten Literaturgeschichte«, sondern zugleich als Elemente einer Geschichte des Autor:innenfilms.Beiträge zu Matthias Diggelmann, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Annie Ernaux, Hermann Hesse, Patricia Highsmith und Ludwig Hohl

The internal combustion engine was invented around 1790 by various scientists and engineers worldwide. Since then the engines have gone through many modifications and improvements. Today, different applications of engines form a significant technological importance in our everyday lives, leading to the evolution of our modern civilization. The invention of diesel and gasoline engines has definitely changed our lifestyles as well as shaped our priorities. The current engines serve innumerable applications in various types of transportation, in harsh environments, in construction, in diverse industries, and also as back-up power supply systems for hospitals, security departments, and other institutions. However, heavy duty or light duty engines have certain major disadvantages, which are well known to everyone. With the increasing usage of diesel and gasoline engines, and the constantly rising number of vehicles worldwide, the main concern nowadays is engine exhaust emissions. This book looks at basic phenomena related to diesel and gasoline engines, combustion, alternative fuels, exhaust emissions, and mitigations.

Since World War II, separatist conflicts have been the most common and deadly types of war in international politics. Such wars result from a simple incongruity: ethno-nationalist groups desire a homeland, but on territory that is controlled by states unwilling to give it up. This book examines states’ strategies, particularly their use of violence, when confronted by separatist movements. Using more than 110 interviews, American and British diplomatic archives, and newspaper archives, this book’s emphasis on external security can account for separatist violence, or its lack thereof, in a variety of historical contexts including Pakistan's treatment of Bengali secessionists; India’s treatment of separatism in Assam, Punjab, and Jammu and Kashmir; interactions between the Ottoman Empire and Armenia; and Israel's attitudes toward Palestine.

Cord Borgentrik (about 1430-1501) was a quite successful image carver with an own large studio in Braunschweig in the second half of the 15th century. Traces of his activity which show the influence of Dutch realism are to be found in the region of Braunschweig, in Westphalia, in the region around Goettingen, Gandersheim, and in Halle. The study discusses two of his major altarpieces that have survived. It focusses on how iconography and spiritual message of the works are dependent on the ideas of Borgentrik´s monastic commissioners. The Mary Retable of the parish church of Hemmerde in Westphalia which was completed in 1483 and even signed by Borgentrik (now in the Städtische Museum Braunschweig) was commissioned by the Premonstratensian monks of the monastery of Scheda, whereas the Mary Retable of St. Nicolai church in Alfeld (Lower Saxony), which long can be found in the Minoritenkirche Cologne, was commissioned by the Cistercian monks of Marienrode. In both cases Mary is shown as Regina Coeli in the way the Byzantine Hodegetria is represented. The study analyzes the Christological and Mariological presuppositions that underlie the iconography of both retables.

The 43rd UID conference, held in Genova, takes up the theme of ‘Dialogues’ as practice and debate on many fundamental topics in our social life, especially in these complex and not yet resolved times. The city of Genova offers the opportunity to ponder on the value of comparison and on the possibilities for the community, naturally focused on the aspects that concern us, as professors, researchers, disseminators of knowledge, or on all the possibile meanings of the discipline of representation and its dialogue with ‘others’, which we have broadly catalogued in three macro areas: History, Semiotics, Science / Technology. Therefore, “dialogue” as a profitable exchange based on a common language, without which it is impossible to comprehend and understand one another; and the graphic sign that connotes the conference is the precise transcription of this concept: the title ‘translated’ into signs, derived from the visual alphabet designed for the visual identity of the UID since 2017. There are many topics which refer to three macro sessions: - Witnessing (signs and history) - Communicating (signs and semiotics) - Experimenting (signs and sciences) Thanks to the different points of view, an exceptional resource of our disciplinary area, we want to try to outline the prevailing theoretical-operational synergies, the collaborative lines of an instrumental nature, the recent updates of the repertoires of images that attest and nourish the relations among representation, history, semiotics, sciences.

Online Anti-Rape Activism examines the nature, use and scope of online spaces for anti-rape activism. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with activists from around the world, survey data from participants in these spaces, and a content analysis of social media pages, weblogs and websites, this book explores the complexities, contradictions, possibilities and politics that underscore the ways these online spaces are engaged with, regulated and their potential to contribute to social change. In the wake of the #MeToo movement, this book offers a critical commentary on the limitations and potentials of online anti-rape campaigning. It provides a foundation for understanding the emergence of #MeToo and sheds light on the complex history associated with keeping rape on the public agenda and the enduring tension between the personal and the political within feminist activism. The interdisciplinary and international approach makes this book suitable for a broad audience, including academics, students and activists working in the fields of gender and women’s studies, media studies, politics, sociology and criminology worldwide.

Die Bedeutung von mehrsprachiger Bildung für Lernprozesse, für eine inklusive Bildungsumgebung sowie im erweiterten Sinn auch für Individuen und Gesellschaft ist Thema des Sammelbandes. Die Autor:innen plädieren für einen stärkeren Einbezug sprachlicher Vielfalt in Bildungseinrichtungen. Der Schwerpunkt des Sammelbands liegt auf den Potenzialen mehrsprachiger Bildungspraktiken zur Entwicklung von fachlichen und persönlichen Kompetenzen sowie zur Bewältigung des Alltags in einer mehrsprachigen Gesellschaft. Die Autor:innen präsentieren konkrete Vorschläge zur Forschung, Umsetzung und Evaluation mehrsprachiger Bildungspraktiken. Eine zentrale Rolle in der Forschungsdebatte spielt die kritische Reflexion des Translanguaging-Konzepts von Ofelia García. Darüber hinaus werden die Diagnostik von Mehrsprachigkeit, die Rolle von Herkunftssprachen in der Bildungspraxis sowie Diskrepanzen zwischen den Überzeugungen von Grundschullehrkräften und der tatsächlichen Umsetzung einer mehrsprachigen Bildungspraxis thematisiert. Der Sammelband bietet vielfältige Perspektiven auf die Potenziale, Herausforderungen und Chancen von mehrsprachiger Bildungspraxis. Er richtet sich an Forschende, Praktiker:innen sowie Studierende, die an einer evidenzbasierten und inklusionsorientierten Bildung interessiert sind und sich für die Förderung mehrsprachiger Kompetenzen einsetzen möchten.

Bucharest; Budapest; Antagonisms; Field of contention

This open access book explores what makes women decide to pursue a career in male-dominated fields such as information technology (IT). It reveals how women experience gendered stereotypes but also how they bypass, negotiate, and challenge such stereotypes, reconstructing gender-technology relations in the process. Using the example of Norway to illuminate this challenge in Western countries, the book includes a discussion of the “gender equality paradox”, where gender equality exists in parallel with gender segregation in fields such as IT. The discussion illustrates how the norm of gender equality in some cases hinders rather than promotes efforts to increase women’s participation in technology-related roles.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder is one of the most prominent and important authors of post-war European cinema. Thomas Elsaesser is the first to write a thoroughly analytical study of his work. He stresses the importance of a closer understanding of Fassbinder's career through a re-reading of his films as textual entities. Approaching the work from different thematic and analytical perspectives, Elsaesser offers both an overview and a number of detailed readings of crucial films, while also providing a European context for Fassbinder's own coming to terms with fascism.

Obwohl in fiskalföderalen Systemen Konsens über die Vorteilhaftigkeit der dezentralen Bereitstellung öffentlicher Güter besteht, zeigen sich große Unterschiede bei der Ausgestaltung von Finanzausgleichssystemen. Diese Unterschiede werden hier aus dem Blickwinkel der Anreizwirkungen analysiert. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Anreizwirkungen wesentlich von der Informationsverteilung zwischen den Akteuren abhängen. Das Buch diskutiert sowohl die «Theorien der ersten Generation» ohne Informationsasymmetrien und unter Annahme eines wohlmeinenden Sozialplaners, als auch die «Theorien der zweiten Generation» mit Informationsasymmetrien und eigennützig handelnden Akteuren. Auf Grundlage dieser Erkenntnisse wird abschließend ein anreizeffizienter Finanzausgleich bei Informationsasymmetrie entworfen.