feat: 2026.1.0-alpha.16 – dashboard banner refactor, period auto-activation, text & docs

Dashboard (dashboard/src/dashboard.tsx, settings.tsx, apiAcademicPeriods.ts):
- Refactor loadHolidayStatus to useCallback with stable empty-deps reference;
  removes location.pathname dependency that caused overlapping API calls at mount
  and left the banner unresolved via request-sequence cancellation
- Add key prop derived from severity:text to Syncfusion MessageComponent to force
  remount on state change, fixing stale banner that ignored React prop/children updates
- Correct German transliterated text to proper Umlauts throughout visible UI strings
  (fuer -> für, oe -> ö, ae -> ä etc. across dashboard and settings views)

Backend (server/init_academic_periods.py):
- Refactor to idempotent two-phase flow: seed default periods only when table is
  empty; on every run activate exactly the non-archived period covering date.today()
- Enforces single-active invariant by deactivating all periods before promoting match
- Emits explicit warning when no period covers current date instead of doing nothing

Deployment (docker-compose.prod.yml):
- Add init_academic_periods.py to server startup chain after migrations and defaults;
  eliminates manual post-deploy step to set an active academic period

Release docs:
- program-info.json: bump to 2026.1.0-alpha.16; fix JSON parse error caused by
  typographic curly quotes in the new changelog entry
- TECH-CHANGELOG.md: detailed alpha.16 section with root-cause motivation for both
  dashboard refactoring decisions (unstable callback ref + Syncfusion stale render)
- DEV-CHANGELOG.md: document dashboard refactor, Syncfusion key fix, Umlaut changes,
  and program-info JSON regression and fix
- README.md: add Latest Release Highlights section for alpha.16
- .github/copilot-instructions.md: sync file map, prod bootstrap note, backend and
  frontend pattern additions for academic period init and Syncfusion remount pattern

docker-compose.prod.yml

@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ services:
     command: >
       bash -c "alembic -c /app/server/alembic.ini upgrade head &&
                python /app/server/init_defaults.py &&
+               python /app/server/init_academic_periods.py &&
                exec gunicorn server.wsgi:app --bind 0.0.0.0:8000"
 
   dashboard: