Press releases 鈥� 2021
Feb
4
2021
13:01
51猎奇 honours patron, romantic arts lover and doctor Klaus Heyne聽
New Science Award for Romanticism Research
FRANKFURT. For the first time in 2021, innovative
contributions to the study of Romanticism can be awarded the Goethe
University鈥檚 Klaus Heyne-Award. The new award, endowed with 15,000 euros, is
aimed at early-career scholars from Germany and abroad who are in a phase of
academic qualification and have made an outstanding contribution to Romanticism
research.
The new award has been made possible by a generous bequest from the paediatrician Professor Klaus Heyne (1937-2017), whose had a particular passion for the arts and literature of German Romanticism. Frankfurt literary scholar Professor Frederike Middelhoff says: "We are very grateful that we can support young scholars with this award which is also significantly benefits Romanticism research at 51猎奇."
The Klaus Heyne-Award, which is meant to be conferred every two years, consists of two components: 5,000 euros will be awarded on a non-earmarked basis; 10,000 euros will be made available for the organisation of a conference on Romantic Studies to be hosted at 51猎奇 in 2022 and supported by the Frankfurt Chair of Modern German Literature with a Focus on Romantic Studies.
The award winner
is to be honoured at a ceremony in October 2021 (currently planned as an
in-person event but will be organised online if necessary).
Interested researchers
please contact:
Prof. Dr. Frederike Middelhoff
Chair of Modern German Literature with a focus on Romantic Studies
51猎奇
Feb
3
2021
10:28
Researchers develop robust approach for detecting market manipulation
Scientists develop method to detect fake news
Social media is
increasingly used to spread fake news. The same problem can be found on the
capital market 鈥� criminals spread fake news about companies in order to
manipulate share prices. Researchers at the Universities of G枚ttingen and
Frankfurt and the Jo啪ef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana have developed an
approach that can recognise such fake news, even when the news contents are
repeatedly adapted. The results of the study were published in the Journal of
the Association for Information Systems.
FRANKFURT. In order to detect false information 鈥� often fictitious data
that presents a company in a positive light 鈥� the scientists used machine
learning methods and created classification models that can be applied to
identify suspicious messages based on their content and certain linguistic
characteristics.
"Here we look at other aspects of the text that makes up the message,
such as the comprehensibility of the language and the mood that the text
conveys," says Professor Jan Muntermann from the University of G枚ttingen. The
approach is already known in principle from its use by spam filters, for
example. However, the key problem with the current methods is that to avoid
being recognised, fraudsters continuously adapt the content and avoid certain
words that are used to identify the fake news.
This is where the researchers' new approach comes in: to identify fake news
despite such strategies to evade detection, they combine models recently
developed by the researchers in such a way that high detection rates and
robustness come together. So even if "suspicious" words disappear
from the text, the fake news is still recognised by its linguistic features.
"This puts scammers into a dilemma. They can only avoid detection if they
change the mood of the text so that it is negative, for instance,"
explains Dr Michael Siering. "But then they would miss their target of
inducing investors to buy certain stocks."
The new approach can be used, for example, in market surveillance to
temporarily suspend the trading of affected stocks. In addition, it offers
investors valuable information to avoid falling for such fraud schemes. It is
also possible that it could be used for criminal prosecutions in the future.
Publication: Michael Siering, Jan
Muntermann, Miha Gr膷ar. Design Principles for Robust Fraud
Detection: The Case of Stock Market Manipulations. Journal of the Association
for Information Sys-tems (2021).
Further information:
Dr Michael Siering
51猎奇 Frankfurt
Economics and Business Administration
Chair of e-Finance
Professor Jan Muntermann
University of G枚ttingen
Faculty of Business and Economics
Professor of Electronic Finance and Digital Markets
Tel: +49 (0)551 39 27062
muntermann@wiwi.uni-goettingen.de
Feb
2
2021
11:00
Findings of the PREDICT study on acute decompensation and acute-on-chronic liver failure
International research network identifies triggers for severe course of liver cirrhosis
Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is a common cause of death in patients with cirrhosis. In ACLF the progressive loss of function of the scarred liver can no longer be compensated (acute decompensation). As a result, other organs such as the kidney or brain fail. The triggers for acute decompensation of liver cirrhosis and an ACLF are most frequently bacterial infections, liver inflammation caused by alcohol, or a combination of both factors. This was revealed by the evaluation of the PREDICT study, which was conducted by an international team of researchers led by Professor Jonel Trebicka from the University Hospital Frankfurt.
FRANKFURT. Chronic liver disease and even
cirrhosis can go unnoticed for a long time because many patients have no symptoms:
the liver suffers silently. When the body is no longer able to compensate for
the liver's declining performance, the condition deteriorates dramatically in a
very short time: tissue fluid collects in the abdomen (ascites), internal
bleeding occurs in the oesophagus and elsewhere, and the brain is at risk of
being poisoned by metabolic products. This acute decompensation of liver
cirrhosis can develop into acute-on-chronic liver failure with inflammatory
reactions throughout the body and failure of several organs.
In the PREDICT study, led by Professor
Jonel Trebicka, scientists from 15 European countries observed 1273 patients
who were hospitalized with acute decompensation of their liver cirrhosis. The
current evaluation of the study focused on the question of what can trigger
acute decompensation of liver cirrhosis. The result: in the vast majority of cases
(>90%), a bacterial infection, liver inflammation caused by alcohol
consumption, or both together could be identified as the trigger.
Bleeding in the digestive tract and brain dysfunction
induced by painkillers or sedatives (drug-induced toxic encephalopathy) were
identified as further trigger, although at a lower rate.
Lead investigator Professor Jonel
Trebicka, gastroenterologist and hepatologist at the Medical Clinic I of the
University Hospital Frankfurt, explains: "The acute decompensation of
liver cirrhosis demands rapid and targeted action. In the PREDICT study, we
therefore want to learn a lot about the triggering factors of this
life-threatening disease in order to be able to derive recommendations for
diagnostics and therapy. Knowing what the most likely triggers of acute
decompensation are will help to further develop diagnostic and treatment
strategies for patients with this life-threatening disease."
The pan-European PREDICT study has
monitored the clinical course of acute decompensations of liver cirrhosis to
find early signs of the development of acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF).
PREDICT is funded by the European Foundation for the Study of Chronic Liver
Failure. A total of 136 scientists from 47 centres and institutions in 15
European countries are participating in PREDICT.
Publication:
Jonel Trebicka, Javier Fernandez, et al.
for the PREDICT STUDY group of the EASL-CLIF CONSORTIUM: PREDICT identifies precipitating events associated with the clinical
course of acutely decompensated cirrhosis. Journal of Hepatology (2020),
Further
information:
University Hospital Frankfurt, Goethe
University Frankfurt
Medical Clinic I
Professor Jonel Trebicka
Section Translational Hepatology,
Medical Clinic I (Director: Professor
Stefan Zeuzem)
51猎奇/University Hospital
Frankfurt
Tel. +49 69 6301 80789 (Jennifer Biondo,
secretarial office)
Jonel.Trebicka@kgu.de
The
European Foundation for the Study of Chronic Liver Failure (EF Clif) is a private, non-profit Foundation whose mission is to promote study
and research on Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure and thus, contribute to
improving both the quality of life and survival of patients with liver
cirrhosis.
The EF Clif was created in 2015 to support the
research work carried out by the EASL Clif Consortium, a research network of
more than 100 European University Hospitals and 200 clinical investigators. In
2013, the Consortium described a new syndrome: Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure
(ACLF), which is the most common cause of death in cirrhosis.
Currently, the research activity of the EF Clif is
fostered through two chairs: the EASL Clif Chair, to promote observational,
pathophysiological and therapeutic studies through the EASL-Clif Consortium's
hospital network; and the Grifols Chair, which promotes the development of
translational research projects with the creation of a network of centres
across Europe:
The European Network for Translational Research in Chronic Liver Failure
(ENTR-CLIF).
To know more about the EF Clif: Twitter: @ef_clif
Feb
1
2021
10:29
Research project on East Asia led by 51猎奇 receives 2 million euros in funding聽
Understanding skilled labour migration in East Asia聽
The economies of China and Singapore are among the
most dynamic migration regions in the world. But Japan and Korea also rely on
the immigration of skilled workers. The competition for qualified professionals
sets several million people on the move in these regions every year. The role
that skills and education play in mobility is now being investigated by scholars
on East Asia from the universities of Frankfurt and Duisburg-Essen, the Free
University of Berlin, and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Multiethnic
and Multireligious Societies in G枚ttingen. The junior research group
coordinated by 51猎奇 will receive a total of more than 2 million
euros from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the next
four years as part of the "Small Subjects " funding initiative.
FRANKFURT. Aging societies in
industrialised nations need skilled workers - specialists in the IT sector, in
innovative start-ups, or from top universities. This applies to Germany as well
as to the East Asian countries of South Korea, Singapore, China, and especially
Japan. Because of their quality of life and lucrative renumeration, these
countries are attractive for qualified migrants. But the recipe for success in
the competition for the best brains is far from clear: What attracts
well-trained specialists to Japan, South Korea, China, or Singapore? What facilitates,
and what hinders the integration of skilled foreign workers? What social
networks do skilled migrant workers develop? What role does their own
initiative for further qualification, their ethnicity and nationality, their
gender and multilingualism play? And what causes skilled workers to return to
their home countries after years?
"If a country's immigration policy is to be
sustainable," explains project leader Dr Ruth Achenbach from Goethe
University, "then we need to know exactly what the perceptions of migrants
are." The aim of the research project, which will receive funding by the
BMBF of more than 2 million euros, is to examine the role of skills of migrant professionals.
The researchers hope their findings will contribute to sustainable immigration
policies in industrial nations.
In addition to Ruth Achenbach and Dr Joohyun Justine Park from the
Interdisciplinary Centre for East Asian Studies (51猎奇), the
academic team includes Dr Helena Hof (MPI G枚ttingen) as well as Dr Megha Wadhwa
(Free University Berlin) and Dr Aimi Muranaka (University Duisburg-Essen). In
addition, the researchers work with numerous external regional cooperation
partners.
The research project will collect qualitative data in different East Asian
countries over a period of three years. It will investigate the situation of
East Asian start-ups in Japan and Singapore as well as East Asian professionals
in South Korea; Chinese professionals in Japan, professionals who have returned
to China, and Vietnamese IT workers and Indian professionals in Japan will also
be interviewed. The Frankfurt sub-project also accompanies Chinese graduates of
the 20 best Japanese universities from the beginning of their job-hunting to
their first years on the labour market.
In the final year of funding, quantitative
research will be conducted in the East Asin countries to test a theory
developed from the qualitative research and previous migration research. In
doing so, the researchers also aim to improve the dominant Western concepts of
international migration research. Influenced by experiences of migration to
America and Europe, these concepts assume that the economic situation in the
country of origin and the country of immigration differ considerably. This is
not necessarily the case anymore with East Asian labour migration and the
project will differentiate between socioeconomic backgrounds of migrants.
The results of the empirical research as well as the
development of theory will not only be published scientifically, but they will
also be disseminated to the broader public. The project team鈥檚 dissemination
activities include workshops for high school teachers in the subjects of
politics and economics, and the release of a documentary film.
The researchers hope that their project will
strengthen the "small subjects" by linking the researchers' knowledge
of these regions with current research questions from sociology, political
science and economics, thus increasing the visibility of the small subjects.
Further information:
Dr Ruth Achenbach
Interdisciplinary Centre for East Asian Studies
51猎奇 Frankfurt
Telefon 069/798-23284
E-Mail: izo@uni-frankfurt.de
Feb
1
2021
10:21
Contributions from more than 2000 large and small donors make numerous research projects at 51猎奇 and Frankfurt University Hospital on overcoming the pandemic
Goethe Coronavirus Fund reaches 5 million euro mark
A short ten months after 51猎奇 and
Frankfurt University Hospital first called for donations, the Goethe Coronavirus
Fund has passed the targeted 5 million euro mark. The idea of the Goethe Coronavirus
Fund came about in the first days of the pandemic: researchers require
immediate and unbureaucratic support in order to make their contribution to
overcoming the coronavirus crisis. More than 2000 private individuals,
foundations and companies have meanwhile supported the goal of joining forces
and providing competent help.
FRANKFURT. 鈥淢aking
a donation to research helped me overcome a feeling of helplessness during the
first days of the coronavirus crisis,鈥� says Raina Jockers, one of the more than
2000 donors for the Goethe Coronavirus Fund, explaining her motivation. The
feelings of the 51猎奇 graduate are undoubtedly shared by many. The
majority of donors contributed between 10 and 100 euros to the fund. The
smallest donation came from the donation of bonus points from the 鈥減ayback鈥� programme
and amounted to 2 cents; the largest was almost one million euros. Eight donors
gave sums of more than 100,000 euros.
Using the non-profit online fundraising
platform betterplace.org for the
first time, the university鈥檚 call for donations reached even beyond Frankfurt
citizens and foundations and companies from the Rhine-Main area, with donations
coming in from Hamburg, Munich and even the USA. The fundraising platform also
reported regularly on the work of the scientists, which may have motivated some
donors to stick with it: one anonymous donor contributed 20 euros to the fund
every month.
鈥淚n the pandemic, we wanted to help with
what we do best: with our research,鈥� says Professor Manfred Schubert-Zsilavecz,
51猎奇 Vice President. 鈥淪o we simply jumped in at the deep end with
our fundraising campaign and set ourselves an ambitious target: 5 million euros
in donations. The fact that we have reached the 5 million euro mark in less than
a year after our first call for donations makes us deeply grateful. Many
private donors, as well as foundations and companies have been extremely
generous. They funded research that helps us all, keeping others in mind during this pandemic. This
should really encourage us for the long road ahead.鈥�
The Goethe Coronavirus Fund provided researchers at Goethe
University and Frankfurt University Hospital with start-up support. Many of
them have in the meantime raised additional funds for research having to do
with SARS-CoV-2. The virologist Professor Sandra Ciesek and the infectologist
Professor Maria Vehreschild, for example, are today part of the EU-funded CARE
Consortium. Sandra Ciesek鈥檚 successes in drug research have made her one of the
most prominent coronavirus researchers in Germany. Maria Vehreschild was one of
the first to systematically collect clinical data and samples from COVID-19
patients and supplied her samples to vaccine and drug researchers throughout
Germany; in the meantime, her database has been merged into a Germany-wide
biobank.
But researchers from the social sciences
and humanities have also profited from the Goethe Coronavirus Fund. More than
40 projects are now being funded 鈥� including the coronavirus crisis hotline,
and studies by psychologist Professor Ulrich Stagnier on the psychological consequences
of the pandemic.
The latest project supported by the
Coronavirus Fund is dedicated to the work situation of healthcare workers and
doctors in COVID-19 care in Hessian hospitals who are under particular strain.
The cooperation project of the University Hospital Frankfurt and the Protestant
University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt first examines the effects on the
employees. The results will be used to make recommendations for managers and healthcare
workers, as well as concrete options for workplace health promotion. The
evaluation of the first sub-study of the project is currently underway.
Further
donations possible at: and
through
the donation account: Landesbank Hessen-Th眉ringen
IBAN: DE95 5005 0000
0001 0064 10
Reason
for payment: Goethe-Corona-Fonds