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College graduates earn substantially more and are more likely to be employed. Consequently, it is critically important to understand the predictors of college dropout so that students and administrators can make a difference in college graduation outcomes. Previous studies remain limited in the scope of evaluating machine learning models for dropout prediction. Leveraging a dataset of 4,424 students that includes graduation outcome, demographic, socioeconomic and course data, and macroeconomic data, the objective of this paper is to identify the optimum machine learning model for predicting college dropout as a classification problem. We (a) perform extensive exploratory data analysis, (b) perform feature optimization (c) identify the best performing machine learning model across seven models evaluated, (d) study different testing-to-training ratios, (e) perform a comprehensive model evaluation, and (f) compare a multi-class classification approach to a binary classification one. The models were fine-tuned leveraging a grid search optimization algorithm and validated with k-fold cross-validation. Optimizing the hyperparameters, the grid search optimized random forest model performed the best in predicting college dropout with 0.85 accuracy, 0.72 sensitivity, 0.92 specificity, 0.82 precision, and 0.89 AUC-ROC. Furthermore, the optimized random forest model suggested the key predictors of dropout, in order of importance to be: number of curricular units in the second semester, number of curricular units in the first semester and whether the tuition and fees are up-to-date. The findings underscore the value of using machine learning for timely dropout risk prediction, enabling targeted resource allocation to mitigate risk and support successful graduation outcomes.

Article Karl-Peter Krauss, Dem Vergessen entrissen. Der „Ostjude“ Simon Leinmann und die Neuapostolische Kirche. Köln, Böhlau 2024 was published on August 1, 2025 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 321, issue 1).

ABSTRACT. Adrenocortical cancer is a rare malignant tumor with a high risk of recurrence and disease progression. Clinical protocols do not clearly define the surgical and special treatment of such patients, apart from radical removal of the adrenal gland. Clinical case. Patient O., born in 1967, has been suffering from cancer of the right adrenal gland since 2020. On April 4, 2020, the patient underwent a right-sided epinephrectomy. Since February 2022, the patient has seen progression of the main process. Received 5 courses of poly chemotherapy (PCT) as adjuvant therapy. Since August 2022, he has been receiving Mitotane 500 mg under the control of Mitotane concentration in the blood plasma. Since May 2023, the patient has observed progression of the process. The patient was offered repeated PCT courses, which the patient refused. On 09.2023, the patient underwent a biopsy of a recurrent tumor of the "bed" of the right adrenal gland, an immunohistochemical study (IGH) was performed, according to the results of which the patient received therapy with m-TOR inhibitors, 4 courses of PCT. According to the control CT scan, the progression of the recurrent adrenal tumor was revealed. Due to the increase in the size of the recurrent tumor of the right adrenal gland, on April 4, 2024, the patient underwent laparoscopic cytoreductive assisted removal of the recurrent neoplasm of the right adrenal gland. Received Everalimus 10 mg per day of adjuvant therapy. According to the pathological examination: recurrence of adrenocortical cancer of the adrenal gland with invasion of the fibrous capsule without signs of tumor growth at the edges of the resection. According to the IHC study, there was a decrease in PTEN expression, an increase in Ki-67 expression, and the absence of PD-L1 expression. The given case of relapse and progression of the disease is of interest, because the removal of part of the liver during cytoreductive surgery and preservation of the kidney, which improves the quality of life, reduces the tumor burden on the patient’s body. CONCLUSIONS. Cytoreductive surgery is an important step in the complex treatment of adrenal cortex cancer in late stages.

Patients who experience seizures, including PNES, are usually advised to discontinue driving, or have their driving privileges revoked until a determined period of seizure-freedom is achieved. In this retrospective study, patients with PNES who requested driving privileges or reported having resumed driving were compared to those who did not on measures of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and cognitive flexibility/motor speed. DiagnosisofPNESwasconfirmedwithvideo-EEG.Demographicand clinical dataand requests for reinstatement of driving privileges (requiring 6 or more months seizure freedom) and reports of decisions to resume driving were noted. Tests of motor speed and hand eye coordination and self-report questionnaires of depression, anxiety and PTSD administered as part of neuropsychological assessment were analyzed. A total of 403 patients with PNES evaluated in 2010-2020 were identified. Of those, 365 patients were eligible for inclusion, and of those, 60 applied for driving privileges or reported that they resumed driving. When the two groups were compared, the group that applied for driving privileges or decided to resume driving was significantly less depressed (p=0.001) when tested than the group that did not. Furthermore, a significant difference was seen in measures of motor performance between those who requested to resume driving and those who did not (DKEFS T1, p=0.006, DKEFS T2, p=0.001, DKEFS T3, p=0.002, DKEFS T4, p=0.001; GPT dominant, p=0.05, GPT non-dominant, p=0.003). Driving a motor vehicle is a useful measure of improvement for PNES because patients with seizures are required to discontinue driving until seizure-freedom is achieved. This study revealed that lower levels of depression and better fine motor functioning were associated with reported seizure-freedom and driving resumption. Depression is commonly associated with diminished performance (slower motor response times and impaired fine motor movements) on tests of motor functioning, both of which may result in less interest in pursuing permission to resume driving. These findings suggest that mood symptoms (and associated performance on measures of motor speed and coordination) may have prognostic significance in patients diagnosed with PNES. This also suggests that timely treatment of depression in newly diagnosed patients with PNES may be indicated.

ABSTRACT The complex connections between women’s land tenure security (WLTS) and climate action need to be understood to inform investments and plans for mitigating climate change and achieving more resilient futures. We synthesise empirical evidence using a conceptual framework with three pathways through which improving WLTS could contribute to climate change mitigation, adaptation, and resilience: long-term land investments, increased range of response options, and sustainable management of forest resources. Although emerging evidence supports WLTS as a route to climate change mitigation and adaptation, data gaps and an insufficiently clear framing of mitigation and adaptation outcomes impede analysis of the impacts of WLTS on mitigation and adaptation. Applying conceptual frameworks for resilience can clarify, organise, and help communicate the expected adaptation and resilience outcomes. Data on women’s bundle of land and resource rights within collective systems, their completeness and durability, and equity compared with men’s rights in the same system are needed to analyse and make more visible WLTS and its potential influence on mitigation and adaptation actions. Researchers, governments, and funders can collaborate to generate the data and evidence needed and assess already existing relevant data. Initiatives to facilitate closer collaboration across land and climate change sectors can help motivate the cross-sector collaboration needed to address data gaps.

The paper examines local and global logistics involved in the transfer of animals to and from zoos in the twentieth century. The key contexts discussed here are, on the one hand, the relationship between the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (Museum of Natural History) and Berlin Zoo, and on the other hand, trade in and the market of exotic animals, a market that both exceeds and constitutes the institutions of the museum and the zoo. Taking the accidental death of a giant tortoise in the zoo in 1969 as its starting point, the paper studies the movement of animals, dead and alive. It traces the acquisition history of two new Galápagos giant tortoises by following the animals’ trajectory from Ecuador to West Berlin during the Cold War. At the same time, it reconstructs the itineraries of the dead animals’ remains through different natural history institutions, leading into the shared history of trade and traffic between zoos and natural history museums and into the political geographies of the Cold War. To put these episodes into a broader historical context, the article looks back on the expansion of global networks in animal trade through the lens of transport infrastructures, trading networks, and the accompanying red tape, tracing this back to the period around 1900 in order to reveal genealogies, thereby historicizing current logistical practices, policies, and problems. Taking logistics as a critical analytical category for natural history and thus examining natural history as logistics allows us to gain new insights into how logistics not only enabled but also shaped and reshaped natural history’s material, economic, and epistemic frameworks.

Der Beitrag fasst die Judikatur zur tatbestandlichen Handlungseinheit bei § 28a SMG zusammen und skizziert dabei vor allem die Auswirkungen auf die Strafrechtspraxis. Beleuchtet werden daher häufige Verhandlungssituationen und die Konsequenzen für das Haupt- und Rechtsmittelverfahren sowie die ne bis in idem Problematik bei einer tatbestandlichen Handlungseinheit und Zusatzstrafen.

Mit dem Erscheinen dieses Buches geht eine lange, spannende und ungemein bereichernde Reise zu Ende. Begleitet wurde ich hierbei von vielen Menschen, die mein Forschungsvorhaben und mich in verschiedentlicher Hinsicht unterstützt haben. Die vorliegende Publikation ist eine geringfügig überarbeitete Version meiner Dissertationsschrift, die ich im Mai 2021 am Friedrich-Meinecke-Institut der Freien Universität Berlin verteidigt habe. Meinem Doktorvater Professor Oliver Janz möchte ich herzlich für die hervorragende fachliche Betreuung meines Dissertationsprojektes danken. Unverzagt unterstützte er mein Vorhaben von der Idee bis zur Drucklegung des Manuskripts. Seine Geduld, seine kritische Begleitung und sein stets ermutigender Zuspruch trugen wesentlich zum Abschluss der Dissertation bei. Ein besonderer Dank gilt auch Professor Jürgen Kocka, der ohne Umschweife für das Zweitgutachten zur Verfügung stand und die Arbeit mit kritischen und wichtigen Anregungen unterstützte. Gefördert wurde die vorliegende Arbeit mit einem Promotionsstipendium der Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Ohne diese finanzielle Förderung wäre das Forschungsprojekt nicht so schnell umsetzbar gewesen. Für diese und die mit dem Stipendium verbundene ideelle Förderung sowie die großartige Betreuung der Promotionsabteilung der FES bin ich sehr dankbar. Mein Dank gilt darüber hinaus der Universitätsbibliothek der Freien Universität Berlin, die einen bedeutenden Anteil an der Veröffentlichung der Arbeit hatte. Bereits zu Beginn meines Forschungsvorhabens stand für mich fest, dass das Ergebnis als frei zugängliches Werk für alle interessierten Studierenden und Forschenden in einem angemessenen Rahmen verfügbar gemacht werden soll. Mit dem Fonds zur Ko-Finanzierung von Open-Access-Monografien der Freien Universität Berlin war dies umsetzbar. Beim transcript-Verlag bedanke ich für die Aufnahme des Buches in sein Programm und die damit verbundene Betreuung. Für die hilfsbereite und freundliche Unterstützung bei meinen Recherchen möchte ich mich auch bei den Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern des Bundesarchivs in Berlin, des Geheimen Staatsarchivs Preußischer Kulturbesitz, des Landesarchivs Berlin, des Wiener Stadt-und Landesarchivs sowie der Wienbibliothek bedanken. Ein ganz besonderer Dank gilt Dr. Alfred Pfoser, der mir in den vergangenen Jahren regelmäßig mit Rat und wichtigen Anregungen zur Seite stand und keine Mühen scheute, das Manuskript mit großer Sorgfalt und kritischem Blick zu lesen. Ebenso bedeu-