Einführung und Modifikation von Genrebegriffen als Wertungsstrategien im literarischen Feld

In the first part of the paper, the interconnection of evaluation and classification in the literary field is discussed. Genre constitutes one of the central notions in Pierre Bourdieu’s sociology of literature. Werner Michler’s suggestion to regard genres not as theoretical models or collections of features, but as classifications by agents of the literary field, is expanded by the aspect of genre evaluation. Both processes of classification and evaluation seem intertwined and could be understood as evaluation strategies by agents and communities of the literary field. Introduction of new genre terms and their modification are popular strategies of revaluation of genres, works, authors, and audiences. In the paper, four groups of agents of the generic process identified by Michler (producers, distributors, non-professional recipients, and professional agencies of evaluation) are analysed in view of their power of revaluation. Furthermore, they are placed in the contemporary German literary field on the basis of Heribert Tommek’s model and depicted as hypothetical members of evaluative genre communities. These communities consist of agents and groups (e. g. fandoms) that defend and support genres, seeing in them a stake in the game which is the illusio, the faith in the principles of the field. In the second part, agents, communities, and their evaluative strategies are presented. First of all, it is the reception mechanisms which decide on the attribution of values to genres and affect the production of literature. Therefore, the authors write their texts with regard to conventional classifications and take part as well, more or less directly, in the processes of revaluation of genres they want to be associated with. The avant-garde is either interested in original genre terms or it avoids any ascriptions whatsoever. In comparison, the mainstream and the subfield of mass production concentrate on medially attractive or conventional and recognizable terms. Authors which have accumulated large symbolic capital can also revaluate genres with their prestige. The potential of terms and evaluations is also reflected in the structure of the field as seen by distributors of literature. Paratexts, advertisements, blurbs, and brands change according to their place on the aesthetic or economic pole of the field. This way, audiences that can choose genres, values and evaluations on the basis of the existing classifications are created and influenced. Even if their symbolic power is small, they manage to formulate evaluative classifications, first of all in the flexible area (forums, blogs) close to the professional agencies of evaluation. Genres are re- and devaluated also in the literary studies and by the critics. Here, the conscious usage of genre terms characterizes the profession. Literary critics and reviewers often choose new, original terms in order to prove their professional abilities of classification. In the structure of the field, between the avant-garde and the subfield of mass production, struggles for symbolic capital and the right to establish new classifications and evaluations take place. In these struggles, there are various agents of the generic process with their specific strategies involved. Many of them can be grasped as members of more or less stable evaluative communities. In the third part, the mainly theoretical explanations are complemented by two case studies of a weak (the so-called Aussteigerroman) and a strong (dystopian science fiction) revaluation of the genre in the last decades. Behind the career of the Aussteigerroman (novel about an outsider) there is of course the outsider-trend returning regularly since the 60’s, however, no strong evaluative communities in the form of institutions, media, or genre-oriented critics. In comparison, the career and popularity of dystopian fiction in all its variety and terminological modifications of the recent years cannot be reduced to external factors (like fear of the uncertain future, terrorism or pandemics), but it should be primarily explained in view of the influence exerted by agents and communities revaluating the genre. Both careers are cursorily depicted at the end of the paper.

User-centered design of power tools: a generic process for evaluation of usability aspects

User-centered design focuses on the individual needs of the product users. The aim is to adjust the design of the product according to the requirements of the user and application. Existing methods for evaluation of the perceived usability are often limited to one specific aspect, and it requires a high effort to transfer the respective method to other aspects. A generic process for the evaluation of the perceived usability is missing. This paper presents the generic Usability Study Evaluation Process (USE-Process) that helps product designers to identify and evaluate usability aspects relevant to the suitability of the usage of a product. The process is divided into three sections:1. A structured field study to identify the relevant usability aspects;2. A generic study design for the subjective evaluation of usability aspects under objective and reproducible conditions;3. The use of measurement tools that help to quantify the results of the subjective evaluation.The generic applicability of the process is shown by the example of the evaluation of cordless screwdrivers; several usability aspects were identified, clustered, and evaluated by using subjective evaluation methods and measurement techniques.

A Generic Process Model for Sociocultural Data Collection and Decision Making in Facility Programming

This is the third paper in a trilogy of papers that started with developing the philosophical and theoretical foundations for the study of sociospatial interactions. In the second paper, we created a guiding framework for facilities programming information collection and decision making. In this paper, we use that guiding framework and develop a process model for the programming process. Our methodology involves systems theory, activity theory, and task analysis. We present a generic model of the data collection process in facilities programming. This model delineates process steps, their sequence, and their content. The intent of this model is to provide structure and content suggestions for developing project-specific facilities programing research designs for information collection, processing, and programmatic decision-making. It is a plan for action, articulated and explicated so that professional programmers can use it as a template for organizing their work. This process model is tentative and general, intended as a guide for creating customized process designs for each programming project, considering the specifics of the building type and the programming situation.

From Molecular Biology to Epithelial Carcinogenesis

The theory of the origin of carcinomas suggests that neoplasias from epithelial tissues are the consequence of the reactivation of developmental programs. It proposes a model in which the epithelial cells undergo cellular transitions due to replicative senescence and inflammation towards a mesenchymal-undifferentiated phenotype with cancerous behavior. The conserved pattern of histological progression and the molecular biology of carcinomas is congruent with the view of cancer as a developmental disease. In support of the theory, the experimental literature regarding the molecular, cellular, and histopathological mechanisms associated with epithelial carcinogenesis were aligned according to the premises of the hypothesis. Thereby identified a generic process in the carcinogenesis of the breast, endometrium, prostate, colon, lung, pancreas, bladder, liver, and cervix. Then, is provided a methodology overview of modeling in systems biology derived from previous research testing the hypothesis. The results illustrate the value of the complex systems approach to recover behavior that cannot be inferred only by traditional methods. Specifically, the model suggests that the consistency in the cell types and the directionality of the observed cellular transitions during epithelial carcinogenesis arise from structural constraints in the molecular networks associated with the carcinomas. Overall, the results of the dynamical analysis agree with the premises of the hypothesis and provide an insightful perspective of the potential mechanisms underlying the cellular plasticity displayed during epithelial carcinogenesis. In an era of big data and yet few advances in the underlying causes of chronic diseases, the manuscript also aims to inspire molecular biologists to integrate existing empirical evidence with systems biology modeling in the pursuit of understanding.

Assessment of cost management practices of civil engineering (project procurement) organisations in Ondo State, Nigeria

Purpose The purpose of the work presented here is to assess the cost management practices of civil engineering organisations in Nigeria, with an overall aim of developing a generic cost management process map. The first objective is to compare existing frameworks theoretically to highlight their strengths and weaknesses. The second objective is to use the findings of the first objective to assess or benchmark the developed process map obtained from the multiple cases. The third objective is to compare the generic process map with the traditional building cost management process map to evaluate the strengths and shortcomings of the generic process map, which resulted in conclusions and recommendations made at the end of the research. Design/methodology/approach Data for the work was collected via semi-structured interviews, review of literature and official documents of the civil engineering organisations visited. To achieve the stated objectives, comparative analysis technique was used to compare existing frameworks on cost management to obtain the basis to benchmark the generic process map. The single case narrative technique was used to present each case; and the cross-case synthesis technique was used to present the multiple cases on each cost management process examined. Then, process maps were deployed to represent the homogeneous sets of civil engineering organisations, out of which the generic process map was developed. Comparative analysis was again deployed to compare the generic process map with the traditional building process map of cost management practice to evaluate the findings. Findings It was found out that the generic civil engineering process map is not as detailed and effective as the building process map in providing best value for money, accurate early cost estimates, accurate cost certainty and post-contract cost control. Originality/value This research study provides an industrial impetus to push for the involvement of more quantity surveyors (QS) as cost management process owners in the procurement of civil engineering projects in Nigeria, hence encouraging government’s efforts in the enforcement of more accurate project cost estimates and promoting the QS’s project-specific advice on capital, operational, maintenance and life cycle costs.

Construction of Differentiated Periodic Freight Train Paths in Dense Mixed Traffic

The article is focused on detailed framework process for hierarchized construction of periodic freight train paths (PFTPs) – allocation of pre-arranged railway capacity to freight rail operators. The framework process considers fluctuations in demand for capacity from freight rail opera-tors, so the quality of a freight train path is related with its construction priority. Introduced framework process aims to offer freight rail operators attractive train paths, with low number of scheduled stops, and this way enhance competitiveness and decrease energy consumption of freight railway as a factor for sustainable development. The proposed generic process is in-tended for all time horizons of capacity allocation. Correctness of the framework process is tested on the example of mainline Prague – Dresden, in the context of prospective (denser) mod-el passenger timetable.

Features of the course of birth in northern domestic deer in the conditions of the North-East of Russia (Yakutia)

Purpose: Determination of the peculiarities of the behavior and the flow of childbirth in females (wrenches) of the northern home deer of the Even Breed of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), depending on the natural climatic zone of breeding.Material and research methods. Research of the reservation of the hotel's reservoir of the northern home deer was held from April to June in the reindeer herds of the mountain-taiga (FSUE «Yuchjuyuskoye») and the Tundrov zones (SHPZK «Taba-Yana») of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in the conditions of nomadic home reindeer herding since 2013 2018 In the study, the method of observation is used with the registration of motor activity of animals and the activities of individual bodies in a certain living environment.Results. To fix some patterns and species features of the generic process, 8 main elementary behavioral reactions spent venizables of northern domestic deer per day before childbirth: walking, feeding feed, chewing, leisure standing, rest lying, sleep, urination (how many times / total time), defecation (how many times / total time). Also marked 4 behavioral reactions on the hotel day: the exploitation time of the fetus, the licking of the calf, the time of the calf on his feet after delivery, the first reception of the mosper calf after birth. For each parameter, data reflected in tabular format is obtained.Conclusion. It has been established that the degree of adaptation of the northern domestic deer to the harsh conditions of existence in various natural-climatic zones of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) is very high, which is manifested in a minor difference in the duration of the generic process and behavioral reactions at the vainer of the mountain and tundra and tundra dilution zones.

Increasing robustness, reliability and storage stability of critical reagents by freeze-drying

Aim: Stabilization of critical reagents by freeze-drying would facilitate storage and transportation at ambient temperatures, and simultaneously enable constant reagent performance for long-term bioanalytical support throughout drug development. Freeze-drying as a generic process for stable performance and storage of critical reagents was investigated by establishing an universal formulation buffer and lyophilization process. Results: Using a storage-labile model protein, formulation buffers were evaluated to preserve reagent integrity during the freeze-drying process, and to retain functional performance after temperature stress. Application to critical reagents used in pharmacokinetics and anti-drug antibodies assays demonstrated stable functional performance of the reagents after 11 month at +40°C. Conclusion: Stabilization and storage of critical assay reagents by freeze-drying is an attractive alternative to traditional deep freezing.

Benchmarking Unsupervised Outlier Detection with Realistic Synthetic Data

Benchmarking unsupervised outlier detection is difficult. Outliers are rare, and existing benchmark data contains outliers with various and unknown characteristics. Fully synthetic data usually consists of outliers and regular instances with clear characteristics and thus allows for a more meaningful evaluation of detection methods in principle. Nonetheless, there have only been few attempts to include synthetic data in benchmarks for outlier detection. This might be due to the imprecise notion of outliers or to the difficulty to arrive at a good coverage of different domains with synthetic data. In this work, we propose a generic process for the generation of datasets for such benchmarking. The core idea is to reconstruct regular instances from existing real-world benchmark data while generating outliers so that they exhibit insightful characteristics. We propose and describe a generic process for the benchmarking of unsupervised outlier detection, as sketched so far. We then describe three instantiations of this generic process that generate outliers with specific characteristics, like local outliers. To validate our process, we perform a benchmark with state-of-the-art detection methods and carry out experiments to study the quality of data reconstructed in this way. Next to showcasing the workflow, this confirms the usefulness of our proposed process. In particular, our process yields regular instances close to the ones from real data. Summing up, we propose and validate a new and practical process for the benchmarking of unsupervised outlier detection.

Fitting of Generic Process Models by an Asymmetric Short Relay Feedback Experiment—The n-Shifting Method

This paper presents the generalization of the shifting method for relay feedback identification of dynamic systems of any order. The original shifting method enables the fitting of a maximum of five parameters of a transfer function model from the information obtained from a short relay test and without prior knowledge of the process to identify. The generalization, known as n-shifting, allows the estimation of the parameters of transfer functions of any order by applying one short relay test to the process to identify. Without loss of generality, the n-shifting approach is applied to fit an n-order plus time delay (n-OPTD) model but the approach can be also developed to identify models with other structures (non-minimum phase, unstable, integrators). Some examples of estimations are presented.