Curriculum: Longevity

in Arch + (2023)

Curriculumentwicklung in einer mehrsprachigen Gesellschaft: Das Beispiel Luxemburg

Doctoral thesis (2021)

The study starts by shedding light on the specific language situation in Luxembourg’s schools and society and explores the ways in which national curriculum is constructed utilizing the three official ... [more ▼]

The study starts by shedding light on the specific language situation in Luxembourg’s schools and society and explores the ways in which national curriculum is constructed utilizing the three official languages of Luxembourg, namely French, German and Luxembourgish. Against this backdrop it provides a detailed discussion of how specific ideas of a national linguistic identity have evolved in the course of history, and the extent to which they act as the basis for debates on language policy in today’s Luxembourgian school system. Identity formation and curriculum making shall therefore be considered as co-constructing processes, in the sense that the curriculum anticipates future societal ideals. In this respect, the curriculum ‘fabricates’ certain kinds of people and also different kinds of people (Popkewitz, 2008, 2020). Keeping this definition in mind, curriculum design becomes challenging when the school population is highly heterogenous and multilingual in itself: In addition to its historically and contextually determined multilingualism, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is home to numerous immigrant languages, and today almost 48% of the population are foreigners (STATEC, 2020a). Educational policy thus has to integrate pupils of non-Luxembourg origin and languages into the trilingual school system. While considering the different usage of languages in Luxembourgian society and the school system, I examine how certain ideas of multilingualism evolved and with it the representation of an ideal member of Luxembourg’s society. The dissertation will first give a historical and sociopolitical overview, concentrating on the interrelation of nation building during the 19th century and the creation of a national school system. Following the historical background, this dissertation focuses on the school and curriculum reform process of 2009 in Luxembourg, in the course of which the former education act of 1912 was replaced by a new law on elementary education. The reform was a response to the below-average performance results in large-scale assessments, first and foremost the PISA-study in the year 2000. Furthermore, it was as well the attempt to create a far more permeable school curriculum in the entire school system, and with it equal opportunities for pupils of different origins. The reform process of 2009 is accordingly seen as a turning point that broke up previously dominant ideas about the intertwinement of language and identity. With regard to these considerations, this study claims the process of curriculum making not only to be an explicit and implicit attempt to control school, and thus social realities. It is explicit to the extent that educational planning is used as a politically conscious mean of social intervention; and implicit because this control simultaneously correlates with cultural-historical practices which create common sense and therefore became subconsciously part of policy making. Following the theoretical approaches of Ludwik Fleck’s epistemology about thought styles (Fleck, 2017 [1935]), my research analyzes the extent to which specific ways of reasoning and acting in the context of curriculum making implicitly result from specific cultural historical conditions underlying the trilingual Luxembourgian school curriculum. Regarding the correlations between the institutional ideal of trilingualism in Luxembourg, the orientation towards international education standards and the extremely heterogeneous and multilingual structure of Luxembourgian society, the dissertation mainly focuses on the interrelation of the curricular paradigm and the challenges faced in the classroom reality. In light of these reflections, the dissertation tackles the following central questions: Which logics of argumentation do different actors within the curriculum making process pursue and how do they legitimize their positions on language policy? Which conflicts arise regarding the students’ linguistic repertoire and (supra-)national standards? To what extent do (supra)national educational agendas interfere with the shaping of a Luxembourg language(s) identity? How is the Luxembourg language(s) identity in light of curriculum making produced and thought? Methodologically, the reform process of 2009 will be historicized and the research questions will be addressed by a two folded research design. First, I conduct a historiographical evaluation of newspaper articles, parliamentary debates, minutes of curriculum meetings, publications of the ministry of education and legal texts. Second, the study contains an empirical analysis of 17 expert interviews which I conducted with key figures of the reform process and those who have been working with the reformed curriculum requirements. Based on the findings of my analyses, the dissertation will show that and why Luxembourg, as a kind of laboratory, is relevant to other multilingual contexts in general and in light of immigration processes in particular. The dissertation offers an innovative impetus by looking at the school reform of 2009 through a cultural-historical perspective. [less ▲]

Curvature based DAD-method for damage localisation under consideration of measurement noise minimisation

in Engineering Structures (2019), 181

Several research projects on condition assessment of bridges have proven that structural responses from dynamic excitation or static loading are influenced by local damages and thus, could be used for the ... [more ▼]

Several research projects on condition assessment of bridges have proven that structural responses from dynamic excitation or static loading are influenced by local damages and thus, could be used for the detection and localisation of damages. Particularly, the curvature of structures is directly depending on their stiffness. In order to localise the discontinuities in curvature lines resulting from damage, this paper uses the so-called Deformation Area Difference Method (DAD), which is based on static load deflection tests on bridge structures. The DAD-method for damage localisation is presented within the paper using a theoretical example, which is then verified by two laboratory experiments. The first experiment consists of a reinforced concrete beam, which is loaded stepwise until failure of the concrete in the compression zone. Due to the load increase, the tensile zone of the beam starts cracking, leading to a stiffness reduction. The application of the DAD-method allows identifying the cracked area from the measurement of the deflection line. However, a challenge and a prerequisite for the applicability of the DAD-method is the highly accurate measurement of the deflection line. Therefore, one of the most modern measurement techniques such as digital photogrammetry is applied. Nonetheless, the accuracy of each measurement technique is limited. The second laboratory experiment consists of a steel beam, which is locally damaged at three positions. The degree of the damage is stepwise increased in order to identify at which degree of damage the applied DAD-method is still able to identify and localise damage. In this work, the focus lies on the minimisation of the effect of noise resulting from the limited measurement precision. Possible solutions were examined and proposed based on methods such as data smoothing using polynomial regression, consideration of standard deviation and measurement point variation. The reduction of the noise effect leads to an increase in the sensitivity of the damage localisation. The DAD-method has proven its potential for practical application through the successful localisation of cracking in the concrete beam. [less ▲]

Curvature-dimension inequalities on sub-Riemannian manifolds obtained from Riemannian foliations: Part I

in Mathematische Zeitschrift (2016), 282(1), 99-130

We give a generalized curvature-dimension inequality connecting the geometry of sub-Riemannian manifolds with the properties of its sub-Laplacian. This inequality is valid on a large class of sub ... [more ▼]

We give a generalized curvature-dimension inequality connecting the geometry of sub-Riemannian manifolds with the properties of its sub-Laplacian. This inequality is valid on a large class of sub-Riemannian manifolds obtained from Riemannian foliations. We give a geometric interpretation of the invariants involved in the inequality. Using this inequality, we obtain a lower bound for the eigenvalues of the sub-Laplacian. This inequality also lays the foundation for proving several powerful results in Part II. [less ▲]

Curvature-mediated Programming of Liquid Crystal Microflows

in Soft Matter (2023)

Using experiments and numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the curvature of microscale conduits allow programming of liquid crystal (LC) flows. Focusing on a nematic LC flowing through U- and L ... [more ▼]

Using experiments and numerical simulations, we demonstrate that the curvature of microscale conduits allow programming of liquid crystal (LC) flows. Focusing on a nematic LC flowing through U- and L-shaped channels of rectangular cross-section, our results reveal that curved flow paths can trigger gradients of flow-induced director field in the transverse direction. The emergent director field feeds back into the flow field, ultimately leading to LC flows controlled by the channel curvature. This curvature-mediated flow control, identified by polarizing optical microscopy and supported by the nematofluidic solutions, offers novel concepts in LC-based microfluidic valves and throttles, wherein the throughput distribution is determined by the Ericksen number and the variations in the local curvature. Finally, this work highlights the role of deformation history on flow-induced director alignments, when the viscous and elastic effects comparable in strength. [less ▲]

Curves over finite fields and moduli spaces

in Curves over finite fields: past, present and future. (in press)

Customary international law in the legal order of the European Union

in Lopez Escudero, Manuel (Ed.) THE EUROPEAN UNION'S EXTERNAL ACTION IN TIME OF CRISIS (2016)

Article 3(5) TEU does not unify the status of conventional and customary rules in the legal order of the European Union, but underlines their difference, by its nature as a provision regulating the ... [more ▼]

Article 3(5) TEU does not unify the status of conventional and customary rules in the legal order of the European Union, but underlines their difference, by its nature as a provision regulating the exercise of competences with the view to attain an ultimate, constitutional objective of being a credible actor in the international scene. [less ▲]

Customization of System Software for Large-scale Embedded Applications

in Computer Communications (1997), 20

Cut-and-Mouse and Ghost Control: Exploiting Antivirus Software with Synthesized Inputs

in Digital Threats: Research and Practice (2021), 2(1),

To protect their digital assets from malware attacks, most users and companies rely on antivirus (AV) software. AVs' protection is a full-time task against malware: This is similar to a game where malware ... [more ▼]

To protect their digital assets from malware attacks, most users and companies rely on antivirus (AV) software. AVs' protection is a full-time task against malware: This is similar to a game where malware, e.g., through obfuscation and polymorphism, denial of service attacks, and malformed packets and parameters, tries to circumvent AV defences or make them crash. However, AVs react by complementing signature-based detection with anomaly or behavioral analysis, and by using OS protection, standard code, and binary protection techniques. Further, malware counter-acts, for instance, by using adversarial inputs to avoid detection, and so on. In this cat-and-mouse game, a winning strategy is trying to anticipate the move of the adversary by looking into one's own weaknesses, seeing how the adversary can penetrate them, and building up appropriate defences or attacks. In this article, we play the role of malware developers and anticipate two novel moves for the malware side to demonstrate the weakness in the AVs and to improve the defences in AVs' side. The first one consists in simulating mouse events to control AVs, namely, to send them mouse "clicks" to deactivate their protection. We prove that many AVs can be disabled in this way, and we call this class of attacks Ghost Control. The second one consists in controlling whitelisted applications, such as Notepad, by sending them keyboard events (such as "copy-and-paste") to perform malicious operations on behalf of the malware. We prove that the anti-ransomware protection feature of AVs can be bypassed if we use Notepad as a "puppet" to rewrite the content of protected files as a ransomware would do. Playing with the words, and recalling the cat-and-mouse game, we call this class of attacks Cut-and-Mouse. We tested these two attacks on 29 AVs, and the results show that 14 AVs are vulnerable to Ghost Control attack while all 29 AV programs tested are found vulnerable to Cut-and-Mouse. Furthermore, we also show some weaknesses in additional protection mechanisms of AVs, such as sandboxing and CAPTCHA verification. We have engaged with the affected AV companies, and we reported the disclosure communication with them and their responses. [less ▲]

Cut-Elimination for Quantified Conditional Logic

in Journal of Philosophical Logic (2017), 46(3), 333353

A semantic embedding of quantified conditional logic in classical higher-order logic is utilized for reducing cut-elimination in the former logic to existing results for the latter logic. The presented ... [more ▼]

A semantic embedding of quantified conditional logic in classical higher-order logic is utilized for reducing cut-elimination in the former logic to existing results for the latter logic. The presented embedding approach is adaptable to a wide range of other logics, for many of which cut-elimination is still open. However, special attention has to be payed to cut-simulation, which may render cut-elimination as a pointless criterion. [less ▲]