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In Germany, the efficiency of cultural diplomacy is ensured by the "separation of powers" approach: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the official lead agency for foreign policy, holds the decision-making power, while leaving the concrete implementation to cultural intermediaries. This paper aims to explore Germany's cultural diplomacy strategies in China by analyzing the content of the public account operated by one of its main institutions in China, the German Cultural Center Beijing - Goethe-Institute. It combines qualitative and quantitative research methods and integrates the disciplinary perspectives of linguistics and intercultural communication. Our findings suggest that the Germany's cultural diplomacy strategies are characterized by preference, pluralism, interaction and individualism. These findings can also provide an optimizing path for China's own cultural institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the development of digital convergence, more and more mergers and acquisitions are taking place across media industries. In the past few years, most studies on horizontal mergers and acquisitions examine the concentration ratios or on vertical cases concerning entry barriers that block new entrants. Few research papers have discussed the impact of cross-media merger and acquisition and how to calculate the index. Thus, this paper introduces the experiences of index construction and application from the U.S., Germany, and South Korea, in order to provide a better analysis and concentration measurement index across different media for Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spray drift, which may result in a waste of pesticides and environmental risks, has been viewed as a concern in the use of pesticides. The indoor test of spray drift is mainly measured by the wind tunnel which possess a more stable and controllable wind speed. Recently, the laser is widely used in a range of fields owing to its perfect light stability and the Tyndall phenomenon is remarkable in dispersed particles. Therefore, this paper develops a new method for measuring the drift of pesticide spray in wind tunnels. According to the international standard ISO22856, 11 kinds of additives such as silicone and vegetable oil were measured in the wind tunnel using LU120-01 nozzle from Lechler, Germany. Each additive adjuvant liquid was sprayed for 5 s, repeated 3 times. The collectors were Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) lines and Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) cards. The PTFE lines were placed at a distance of 2 m from the nozzle in the downwind direction and were 5-85 cm in height (interval 10 cm). The collected droplet particles were analyzed by LS-55 fluorescence analyzer. At the same time, laser imaging technology was used to continuously image during the spraying process. The exposure time is 1/8 s, the ISO is 100 and the aperture is f/1.8. The shutter was controlled by Bluetooth Controller. Combined with computer image rapid batch processing, RGB three-color layer was filtered by MATLAB 2017a, and R-layer minus G-layer image was calculated. The maximum value of gray level and the image feature parameters such as position, barycentric coordinates, and the average value in the horizontal and vertical directions of the image were extracted. The drift rate, feature height and drift potential index (DIX) of the spray drift were calculated from the actual measurement results. The calculated result was fitting with the measured result. The fitting results showed that the maximum value and position of maximum in the x and y axis, the center of gravity coordinates, and the mean value were significantly correlated (Sig. F<0.05) with the drift rate, drift feature height, and DIX. The correlation coefficient was greater than 0.91, the maximum absolute value relative error was only 5.9%. The fitting results of vertical feature height and horizontal feature distance were the best, the average relative error was 0, the absolute relative error was 0.6% and 1.5% (vertical and horizontal direction), followed by DIX index (the absolute relative error of the vertical and horizontal direction were 4.8% and 3.2%) and drift rate (the absolute relative error of the vertical and horizontal direction were 5.9% and 5.3%). It showed that this method could be used to evaluate the drift of droplets accurately. The test speed was faster than the traditional measurement method, and one picture only cost less 1 s for calculation. The test repeatability was high, the DIX index had a comprehensive accuracy of 96%. The test was no needed consumables, which greatly reduced the costing of spray drift testing. The measurement of spray drift in wind tunnels based on laser imaging is an evaluation method that can give one more choice for spraying drift testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aerodynamic configuration study of ATLLAS-M6 transport aircraft proposed by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is presented and discussed. The ATLLAS-M6 has a turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) propulsion system, and it's aerodynamic configuration has the following characteristics, double delta-wing with low-aspect ratio, axial vertical tail, high-set horizontal tail and lifting body with high-fineness ratio. In this paper, a parameterized configuration is proposed via the "class function and shape function transformation technique" (CST) method. The aerodynamic characteristics are investigated, such as the trim characteristic, static/dynamic stability and control efficiency of control surfaces. The detail research indicated that the ATLLAS-M6 analog has a high hypersonic lift to drag ratio at the cruise state of low trimming angle of attack. The hypersonic stability derivatives predicted by the "dahlem-buck" method and the "prandtl-meyer" method shown that the transporter is static and dynamic stable in both lateral and directional directions and the proposed configuration is one of the feasible transporter choices. Yet, the aerodynamic configuration conceptual design of the hypersonic transport aircraft is a highly integrated project, several disciplines involved must be considered farther, such as structured materials and thermal protection system. Therefore, the "multidisciplinary design optimization" (MDO) method would be used to optimize the ATL LAS-M6 analog aerodynamic configuration at the farther work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]