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Not all high school students who wish to study think that they will be able to realize this wish. This article examines whether admission barriers to higher education (HE) are a potential reason for this mismatch between educational aspirations and expectations and whether they are more constraining for students from socially less advantaged backgrounds. It does so for the German context in which the role of admission barriers for social inequality in HE has long been neglected. Empirically, the paper uses a unique combination of individual data on high school students' educational aspirations and expectations and institutional data on admission barriers that vary by field of study. Findings indicate that the socially most privileged students stick to their college aspiration regardless of admission barriers to their aspired field of study. However, they seem to be willing to compromise their preferred field of study if this comes along with high admission barriers. Contrastingly, socially less privileged students seem willing to compromise both their general college aspiration and their aspired field of study if admission appears difficult. The concluding section discusses the implications of these findings for social inequality in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the profitability of investments in agricultural land, using the rent–price ratio (RPR) as a profitability measure. In order to allow for district-level heterogeneity, the full conditional distribution of the RPR is modelled using a generalised additive model for location, shape and scale. The analysis is based on data from Lower Saxony, Germany. The profitability of investments in land varies between and within districts. The variation can be explained by differences in the farming structure, the production programme and economic indicators. Further, differences in the distribution of the RPR between arable land and grassland are found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing studies on employers' preferences towards institutions of class cooperation suggest that certain types of employers support these institutions because they provide economic benefits. To test this thesis, this paper examines attitudes of German employers towards board-level codetermination. It compares firms' attitudes at the individual and the collective level: individual firms' attitudes are analysed using survey data and media statements from individual executives; collective attitudes are analysed using policy statements from the national business federations. The paper finds considerable support for board-level codetermination among individual firms but continued opposition from the federations. The paper suggests that this difference arises from the federations strategically over-representing dissatisfied members. The promotion of voluntary arrangements allows the federations to campaign against board-level codetermination without alienating the satisfied members. The paper highlights the need to complement a micro-foundational analysis of preference formation with an analysis of intra-associational processes of preference aggregation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides an introduction to a series of articles reporting results from the EU concerted action ‘Gender, Culture and Alcohol Problems: A Multi-national Study’ which examined differences in drinking among women and men in 13 European and two non-European countries. The gender gap in alcohol drinking is one of the few universal gender differences in human social behavior. However, the size of these differences varies greatly from one society to another. The papers in this issue examine, across countries, (1) men's and women's drinking patterns, (2) the prevalence of men's and women's experience of alcohol-related problems, (3) gender differences in social inequalities in alcohol use and abuse, (4) gender differences in the influence of combinations of social roles on heavy alcohol use, and (5) how societal-level factors predict women's and men's alcohol use and problems on a regional and global level. Country surveys were independently conducted and then centralized at one institution for further data standardization and processing. Several results indicated that the greater the societal gender equality in a country, the smaller the gender differences in drinking behavior. In most analyses the smallest gender differences in drinking behaviour were found in Nordic countries, followed by western and central European countries, with the largest gender differences in countries with developing economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the Third Workshop on Early Modern German History," held in London on the October 22, 2004. The third annual session of this successful venture, sponsored by the German Historical Society, the German Historical Institute and the University of Sunderland, brought over thirty scholars to Bloomsbury Square. The explicit aim of the workshop is to offer a cross-disciplinary forum to discuss new research on early modern German-speaking Europe. Following a general call for papers, co-organizers Michael Schaich and Peter Wilson selected ten speakers representing the rich spectrum of work currently in progress.

In this paper, we address gender differences in the host language proficiency of humanitarian migrants. Prior research has produced inconclusive results with regard to women's host language proficiency relative to that of men: sometimes women's proficiency exceeds that of men, sometimes women lag behind men, and sometimes there are no substantial differences. Using data on recent humanitarian migrants in Germany, we investigate factors contributing to similarities and differences in men's and women's language proficiency. We consider gender differences with respect to the family-related factors: marital status, children's ages and children's childcare situations are important for women but not for men. These findings point to the continued relevance of a gendered division of work. It also becomes clear that gendered role expectations are particularly consequential for mothers and wives. Moreover, we find evidence that women are more efficient learners than men are, while they have fewer learning opportunities than men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we investigate how co-ethnic networks affect the economic success of immigrants. Using longitudinal data of immigrants in Germany and including a large set of fixed effects and pre-migration controls to address the possible endogeneity of initial location, we find that immigrants in districts with larger co-ethnic networks are more likely to be employed soon after arrival. This advantage fades after four years, as migrants located in places with smaller co-ethnic networks catch up due to greater human capital investments. These effects appear stronger for lower-skilled immigrants, as well as for refugees and ethnic Germans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the role of school closures in the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. To isolate the impact of the closures from other containment measures and identify a causal effect, we exploit variation in the start and end dates of the summer and fall school holidays across the 16 federal states in Germany using a difference-in-differences design with staggered adoption. We show that neither the summer closures nor the closures in the fall had a significant containing effect on the spread of SARS-CoV-2 among children or a spill-over effect on older generations. There is also no evidence that the return to school at full capacity after the summer holidays increased infections among children or adults. Instead, we find that the number of children infected increased during the last weeks of the summer holiday and decreased in the first weeks after schools reopened, a pattern we attribute to travel returnees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how a new theory on the ontology of musical works, Musical Stage Theory, can address the problem of change in musical works. A natural consequence of the ontological framework of this theory is that musical works change intrinsically through a change in the sonic-structural properties of performances. From this a surprising consequence follows: everyone can change a musical work. Still, it seems that some changes matter more than others. The article offers a revisionary reply to this concern by arguing that normative change is not a change in the ontological nature of the work but rather in its authenticity conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper compares Friedrich Hayek's classic analysis of 'unlimited democracy' to arguments put forward by Walter Eucken, the founder of German ordoliberalism. It is shown that Eucken's criticism of democracy is directly related to his liberal conviction: similar to Hayek, Eucken anticipates the possibility of interest groups to engage in rent seeking through the democratic process. In view of Hayek's distinction between the basic ideal of democracy and its institutional realisation, it is argued that Eucken's criticism relates to the latter aspect. Furthermore, the paper maintains that a comprehensive liberalism as represented by Eucken and Hayek implies a constitutional concept of democracy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the British Bombing Restriction Committee's efforts in preventing the British Royal Air Force's (RAF's) aerial bombing of civilians in Germany during World War II, from 1941 through 1945, including the committee's pacifist protests. An overview of committee chairperson H. Stanley Jevons' advocating that British aerial bombing be restricted to military targets in Germany is provided. British politician George Bell's perspective on aerial bombing is discussed.

Border crossing migration always includes (re-)negotiation of world views, home and the meaning of arrival. This negotiation of arrival takes place within the broader societal contexts of the countries of origin and of arrival but is also a mediation with oneself and with social networks. This holds true especially for refugees and émigrés who have to leave their habitual places of living involuntarily. This paper examines the lives of Yazidi women, who survived captivity and sexual enslavement by the self-declared Islamic State and subsequently decided to resettle from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to Germany. First, the study addresses the complex processes of managing and re-establishing social belongings with a sociological concept of arrival and outlines some lessons from historical forced migration research. It then presents the findings and analysis of five face-to-face narrative interviews with Yazidi survivors. What similarities and differences exist between these individuals and historical cases of forced migrants and their arrival? Are there different patterns of coping with their individual and collective experiences and of developing new life projects? Our findings show how Yazidi émigrés continue to experience and negotiate the complexities of migration between weak and strong belonging to social spaces of origin and of arrival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ‘New Woman’ was an important part of the culture and society of Weimar Germany, both as a discursive figure and as social reality. However, the interdependencies between these two aspects—the ‘New Woman’ as a media phenomenon and as a lived reality—have not yet been investigated in depth. Using the example of the tabloid newspaper Tempo (1928–1933) and its interaction with its readership, this article sheds light on the ways in which Germans reconciled the ‘New Woman’ ideal with their own experiences at the end of the Weimar Republic. Most importantly, it shows the struggle of many readers to accommodate new ideas about ‘modern’ relationships between men and women at a time when traditional morals persisted in a rapidly deteriorating economic climate.A number of scholars have pointed to a change in the media-driven construction of images of femininity in the late 1920s, with the modern, independent ‘New Woman’ making way for a more conservative ideal of motherhood and devotion. This article argues that this shift in the discourse on femininity did not reflect a change in the self-definition of German women. Rather, the interaction of Tempo’s female and male readers with the paper suggests that they tried to accommodate new concepts of modern femininity with persisting traditional ideas about women’s role in society, arriving at a hybrid type of ‘moderately modern’ womanhood. Thus, only the image of the ‘New Woman’ constructed in the media changed at the end of the 1920s, while the self-definition of German women remained relatively stable—even beyond 1933. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this paper we examine differences in access to finance and business value by gender. Using recent data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, instrumented linear probability models show that an increase in personal wealth substantially affects the probability of being a business owner only among females. This is indicative of differential access to finance by gender. Among business owners, fixed-effects regressions reveal that obtaining a bank loan increases mean total business value more for females than for males. Thus, possession of a bank loan appears to be a critical factor in explaining the business value gender gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Flexible retirement is supposed to increase labour supply of older workers without touching the third rail of pension politics, the highly unpopular increase of the retirement age. While this may have intuitive appeal, this paper shows that it might be wishful thinking. Economic theory tells us that flexible retirement policies can have a zero or positive effect on labour force participation (LFP) while the effect on hours worked can be positive or negative depending on the distribution of leisure preferences. Thus, the overall effect is ex ante unclear. Empirical results from nine OECD countries show that the effect on LFP is ex post small and positive while the effect on hours worked is negative. Overall, there is no evidence of the desired positive effect on total labour supply (TLS). We conclude that the flexibility reforms enacted so far are dangerous instruments if one wants to increase TLS because they postpone or even replace the installment of more effective policies and may, even worse, reduce total labour volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic poses a challenge to certain standards in patent law as well as in pharmaceutical law. This paper discusses questions as to whether and under what conditions government-ordered or privately claimed compulsory licensing can contribute to controlling the pandemic. The existing obstacles and conflicts under the current legal framework, such as a lack of international harmonization and a lack of coherence between patent law (compulsory licensing) and pharmaceutical law (data protection), are outlined and discussed. A possible solution could lie in a modernization of relevant legal provisions to create an internationally harmonized balance between the public interest in using important patents in the present and in future emergency situations and the interest of patent owners and data and market exclusivity holders in allowing exemptions within clearly defined limits. The article concludes with a discussion of conditions that may influence possible solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Crisis-induced refugee migration raises questions of fair responsibility-sharing among political territories. This is relevant for nation states and for subnational territories alike. Theories addressing this problem have mainly been developed with regard to international responsibility-sharing. They assume collective action problems when it comes to organising intergovernmental transfer schemes, something which cannot be easily overcome. It is not well understood how effective transfer schemes can be institutionalised when no hierarchical decision-making is in place. Complementary to that perspective, this paper builds upon constructivist institutional theories that suggest paying more attention to guiding ideas, which can be called upon when intergovernmental transfer schemes are at stake, and to criteria of rationality that can legitimately claim to embody this idea. Legitimate criteria of rationality are typically the result of "investments in form", i.e. social practices which imbue material objects with certain qualities so that they stand for particular guiding ideas. The article tests this assumption empirically by tracing the institutionalisation process of the Königstein key (Königsteiner Schlüssel) as a dynamic formula for determining state quotas in Germany's refugee federalism. While important precedents of physical intergovernmental responsibility-sharing in refugee matters had already existed in West Germany, their translation to the territorial dispersal of non-German asylum seekers was highly controversial in the 1970s. In this case, resorting to the Königstein key proved to be feasible in part because, by then, the formula had already become a symbol of the idea of federal justice through its use in a variety of different and far less controversial policy fields. However, during the recent wave of refugee immigration it has increasingly become the object of critique. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany streamlined its nuclear phase-out policy following the Fukushima Daishi nuclear accident, planning to decommission all of its nuclear capacity by 2022. As a member of the EU, although Germany is entitled to determine its own energy mix pursuant to Article 194(2) of the TFEU, this policy may conflict with other EU legislation and jurisprudence relevant to the EU energy sector. In particular, in this paper, we argue that the German nuclear phase-out may be contrary to the European Atomic Energy Community Treaty and the primary and secondary EU legislation regarding security of energy supply. We explore how Germany's commitments under this legislation act as a limitation to its national energy policy autonomy and might entail the unlawfulness of the German nuclear phase-out strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Atopic diseases are among the most common chronic conditions in childhood. Causes of allergies are manifold. The aim of this paper is to evaluate risk factors for atopic diseases and unremitting wheeze and to examine if there is an association between measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccination and atopic dermatitis, asthma and unremitting wheeze in Bavarian pre-schoolers. Methods Parents filled out a questionnaire on children's health and environmental and socioeconomic factors. The questionnaire was administered within the Health Monitoring Units in a cross-sectional study in Bavaria, Germany (2014/2015). Data on vaccinations were obtained via the School Entrance Examination, a mandatory examination for pre-school children in Bavaria. Rates of influential factors of atopic diseases and wheeze, MMR and DTP (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) vaccination were calculated for all children stratified by health outcomes. To examine if there is an association between MMR vaccination and health outcomes, a multiple logistic regression analysis was performed. Results Data were available for 3237 individuals. Symptoms and diseases were more frequent in boys. Higher parental education was associated with a higher prevalence of atopic dermatitis. There were no significant associations between any of the health outcome groups and MMR vaccination in the multiple logistic regression models with adjustment for potential confounders. Conclusions The present study is in line with the current state of research that MMR vaccination is not associated with atopic diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the decline in German foreign exchange. According to the author, the paper currency in Germany may have increased, as well as the prices, and that the value in foreign currency of the German mark decreased. He explains that paper currency indicates the poverty of a country. The movement and changes in the foreign exchange in New York and in Great Britain illustrated the changed state of affairs in exchange. Because there were only few commodities coming to Germany and cotton shipments were being paid for, the exchange in New York decreased.

The aim of this study is to determine the criteria according to which world news presented in the Soviet Union-controlled press of Berlin, Germany is selected. Berlin of today, with its four sectors under U.S., British, Russian and French control respectively, offers a fertile field for the application of content analysis techniques developed in this country during the war. From the start of the quadripartite occupation Berliners have been aware that the press in the Soviet sector of Berlin differs radically from that in the sectors controlled by the Western Powers. Differences have not been confined to the editorial pages but have extended to the news columns. It is of particular importance to attempt to isolate criteria of selection at this time, since a critical news-print shortage limits nearly all German papers to one page or less of world news, and only a small percentage of available dispatches can be given space.

The article comments on the paper "Waiting and the Period of Production," by Robert Dofman in the August 1959 issue of the "Quarterly Journal of Economics." Just as postwar West Germany has been a leading example of a comparatively unregulated economy, so it has been a principal source of academic literature extolling the virtues of competitive markets and economic co-ordination via unregulated prices. A flood of crusading books, pamphlets and papers attests to the numbers and energies of economists whose social theories and policy recommendations differ radically from those for which their homeland was earlier famous. Neoliberal teachings do not constitute a completely standardized product; disagreement on matters of detail is common and that on more important questions is not rare. But, on the whole, agreement--and repetition--is impressive. The West German crusade is perhaps the outstanding example of non-socialist academicians banding together to fight for and against economic programs.

Information about the Royal Musical Association Study Day on the Analysis of Baroque Music which was held on November 12, 2005. Papers presented during the event revealed a renewed interest in Baroque music especially among younger scholars, dealt with aspects of modal theory and discussed the death and the Phrygian mode in 17th-century Germany.

A workshop on quantitative history 22–24 SEPTEMBER 2004, HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITY, BERLIN [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduces a series of articles about the papers about the practical application of indicators on specific problems of research management and policy presented at the 2002 International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators held in Karlsruhe, Germany.

In most developed countries there exist ample possibilities for individuals to minimize their personal income tax burden by means of tax deductions. The associated revenue losses for the government have been estimated for a variety of tax deductions. However, relatively little is known about the share of eligible taxpayers who actually use these deductions, and, more specifically, about what determines utilization. The present paper tries to shed some light on this question in the context of the tax deductibility of expenses for child care in Germany. Using survey data on actual child care expenses and official tax-return data on deductions for child-care expenses, we derive utilization rates. We also analyze the determinants of utilization among those who filed a tax-return, using a subsample of the tax-return data. Our estimation results show that (potential) tax breaks from utilization are significantly positively correlated with the probability of utilization. Other kinds of deductions are also highly significant, suggesting that knowledge of tax statutes as well as opportunity costs matter. Moreover, we simulate the effects of a policy reform that enhances the generosity of deductions on the utilization rate. Such a reform would substantially increase utilization. Our results indicate that responses in utilization are more important than potential responses in labor supply. (JEL codes: D14, H24, H43). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper contributes to solving the following research puzzle: When the influx of refugees from Syria and elsewhere to Germany significantly increased, German society and politics seemed to be rather robust in the face of xenophobic and right-wing populist movements; however, only 2years later, the Alternative fűr Deutschland made it into the Bundestag , and in late 2018 Chancellor Angela Merkel could solve a governmental crisis triggered by the 'refugee crisis' only by announcing her stepwise withdrawal from political offices. The making of the 'refugee crisis' was facilitated by a securitization policy. On three crucial cases of domestic politics — security, socio-economics, and socio-cultural politics — it is shown that right-wing populism proved to be capable of dominating the political agenda as it came up with argumentation figures that were — though not hegemonic — also prominent among leading politicians on the whole political spectrum in Germany from the right to the left. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the international transmission of U.S. tax shocks. Using structural vector autoregressions, we study the impact on the German economy and on German tax legislation. Our results suggest that, after a U.S. tax cut, German GDP increases only moderately. Positive effects via the income channel outweigh negative effects stemming from price developments. Significant changes in the transmission channels arise by distinguishing between the types of the U.S. tax shock. German tax policy either reacts with diametric measures, or remains passive when considering the whole sample period. For a sample starting in 1980, we find that, in particular, after U.S. corporate income tax cuts, tax reductions are also implemented in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do educational systems prepare workers for the labor market? Stratification research has often made a distinction between two ideal-types: "qualificational spaces," exemplified by Germany with a focus on vocational education, and "organizational spaces," exemplified by France with a focus on general education. However, most studies that investigated this distinction did so by focusing only on the size of the vocational sector, not on whether graduates with a vocational degree actually link strongly to the labor market. Moreover, they often studied male workers only, ignoring potential gender differences in how school-to-work linkages are established. In this paper, we map the change in education–occupation linkage in France and Germany between 1970 and 2010 using an approach that can distinguish between changes in rates and changes in the structure of school-to-work linkages. Surprisingly, we find that the German vocational system in 1970 was not, on average, substantially more efficient in allocating graduates to specific occupations than the French system. This finding is a major departure from earlier results, and it shows that the differences between 1970's France and Germany, on which the qualificational-organizational distinction is based, are smaller than previously assumed. Partly, this is due to the fact that the female labor force was omitted from earlier analyses. We thus show that ignoring the female workforce has consequences for today's conception of skill formation systems, particularly because a large share of educational expansion is caused by an increase in female enrollment in (higher) education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Prevalence of overweight and obesity in Germany is increasing. High body weight can affect children's growth and development. This paper aimed to determine the association between body mass index (BMI) and visual impairment among preschool children and explore the potential role of obesity in predicting visual developmental disorder. Methods Six consecutive years of data from the School Entry Examination were collected for all preschool children aged from 4 to 6 years residing in Rhine-Neckar County and the City of Heidelberg, Germany from 2013 to 2018. Univariate and multivariate regression were used to analyze the complete data, multiple imputation was used to deal with missing data. Results Among the group with an immigrant background, children with obesity [OR = 1.20, 99% (1.02–1.42)] were more likely to have visual impairment compared to those with normal body weight (P  <   0.01) after adjusting for survey year, age, and gender of children, education and occupation of parents, screen time-frequency, whether a television was in their bedroom, and quality of preschool outdoor environment. Conclusion There were significant associations between obesity and visual impairment among German preschool children with immigrant backgrounds. Strategies to support vulnerable groups were needed across all regional schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: The U.S. Army medics are often the first responders in the care of sick and injured soldiers on the battlefield, sick call in a Role 2 aid station and garrison clinics. Sick call medics are required to utilize the Algorithm Directed Troop Medical Care (ADTMC) to care for and then render a disposition for these soldiers. The current ADTMC manual is a thick, heavy paper manual. A desktop and smartphone application has been developed that contains the entire ADTMC manual algorithm-based content. Our goal is to enhance the medics' clinical learning and critical thinking skills while improving their evaluation, disposition, and documentation during patient encounters.Materials and Methods: The application was field-tested with the 173rd IBCT (A) while attending a field exercise at Grafenwoehr, Germany. At the unit's Role 2 tent setup, the use of the paper manual to the utilization of the same material via the ADTMC application was compared by observing the medics' workflows directly while they were caring for ill and injured soldiers.Results: Medics, while examining patients, would demonstrate 50% faster exam time using the application compared to medics using only the manual. Moreover, a 50% decrease in document processing time as a result of digitization of the paper documentation process was confirmed. The application ("app") enabled the medics to continue their screening assessments and patient disposition duties on a desktop computer or a smartphone without the need to refer to the paper manual.Conclusion: Medics, by adopting this tool, will become quicker, more efficient, and develop critical thinking skills. In other words, the ability to objectively evaluate patients in order to form a proper disposition of sick and injured soldiers during training, in the field, as well as in garrison. When utilized properly, the ADTMC application ensures that soldiers reporting to sick call are expeditiously routed to the appropriate level of care, and is a vehicle for further training for medics in the care of soldiers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effect of financial sanctions on cross-border capital flows. While sanctions can be expected to hinder international transactions, thereby putting political and economic pressure on a target country, we study the patterns of adjustment in bilateral financial relationships after the imposition of sanctions along various dimensions. Our analysis is based on highly disaggregated, monthly data from the German balance of payments statistics for the period from 2005 through 2014. During this time, Germany imposed financial sanctions on 20 countries; two of these sanctions have been lifted. Applying a differences-in-differences approach, we find two key results. First, financial sanctions have a strong and immediate negative effect on direct financial flows with the sanctioned country, with cross-border flows reduced in either direction. Second, sanctions imposed by the European Union alone, and therefore only enforced by their member countries instead of the United Nations, are evaded as flows with major trading partners of sanctioned countries increase. We conclude that financial sanctions do matter for capital flows. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper applies regression-based decomposition methods to analyse the impact of worker-, plant-, region-, and sector-specific determinants on the level and the continuous increase in wage inequality between 1995 and 2007 in Germany. Almost the entire increase in wage inequality is explained by this approach. Altogether, changes in the composition of wage determinants are minor compared to changes in their returns. In particular, occupation-specific skills are the most important wage determinant. Changes in the age structure, unemployment rates, and the plant size premium in combination with assortative matching are also important factors that contribute to the rise in wage inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last two hundred years or so have seen the transformation of medical practice from a clinical art to the application of science to the diagnosis and treatment of disease. There has been a historical debate about how the use of technology and discoveries of the laboratory have become integrated within medical practice. In trying to understand the evolution of “scientific medicine,” this has generally focused on the tensions between the differing cultures, persons, and professions of the “laboratory” and “clinic” and sought to explain how they were resolved within specific institutions. This paper looks again at the “Glasgow School” (the subject of a number of seminal papers on this subject) and the forces that shaped it, by exploring the career of Leonard Findlay, whose training in Glasgow, and in Berlin (where he worked in a department in which science and medicine were integrated), defined a style of clinical medicine that formed the model for a new sort of university department of medicine in which clinicians and scientists worked side by side, albeit under the leadership of the former. As a clinician exposed in Berlin to the emerging new sciences of nutrition, microbiology, and immunology, which were particularly relevant to the care of sick children, Findlay created in Glasgow a department of medical pediatrics, which owed less to local factors, figures, and forces and more to his experience in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper analyses labour productivity and the law of decreasing labour content (LDLC) originally formulated by Farjoun and Machover. While accepting the validity of that law, it shows that the conventional measures of labour productivity used in the literature may be rather misleading, because they are based on monetary aggregates. Theoretically and empirically sounder measures are provided by standard Marxian real labour values. The notion of labour content and the LDLC are therefore central to understanding capitalist economies. Some rigorous theoretical relations between different forms of profit-driven technical change and productivity are derived in a general input–output framework with fixed capital, and these provide foundations to the LDLC. These theoretical propositions are empirically illustrated using a new dataset of the German economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Islamische Theologie in Deutschland: Ein Modell für Europa und die Welt (Islamic Theology in Germany: A Model for Europe and the World) Edited by Mouez Khalfaoui and Jean Ehret While aware of secular and religious criticisms of the establishment of Islamic theology departments, they believe that their establishment could be an opportunity to revive subjects long neglected in the Islamic world such as scholastic theology. One of the most significant developments in the contemporary history of European Islam has been the institutionalization of Islamic theology in German public universities. [Extracted from the article]

This paper discusses the institutional persistence of systems of national laboratories (SNLs) that unlike other public and private research organizations appear to have experienced only minor institutional shifts in recent years. Although national laboratories started as time-limited mission-oriented projects, most of them have remained in operation as continuously renewed multi-purpose organizations. By comparing the SNLs in Germany and the USA, this paper discusses the relationship between the system and the organizational level and concludes that incremental organizational rearrangements have enabled the institutional persistence of SNLs despite considerable changes in their political and funding environments. The paper applies recent advances in institutional theory and thus contributes to a better understanding of institutional change in path-dependent public R&D systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To perform a systematic literature review as a basis for the update of the Assessment in SpondyloArthritis International Society and European League Against Reumatism (ASAS/EULAR) recommendations for the management of AS with non-pharmacological interventions and non-biologic drugs.Methods. The search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, PEDro and Cochrane between 1 January 2005 and 1 December 2009, and in abstracts of EULAR and ACR meetings (2007–09). Effect sizes for outcomes on pain, disease activity, spinal mobility and physical function and level of evidence were presented.Results. Of 2383 papers, 35 with complete data were included. Physical therapy exercises in various modalities have positive effects on BASFI, BASDAI, pain and mobility function. Various NSAIDs including coxibs improve BASDAI, disease activity and BASFI. No effect of SSZ and MTX on any variable was found. Surgical interventions of the spine and the hip can give excellent results by restoring function.Conclusion. This concise summary of current evidence for non-pharmacological interventions and non-biologic drugs formed the basis for the update of the ASAS/EULAR recommendations for the management of AS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yu, Tian, and Tang (2008) proposed two new techniques for asking questions on sensitive topics in population surveys: the triangular model (TM) and the crosswise model (CM). The two models can be used as alternatives to the well-known randomized response technique (RRT) and are meant to overcome some of the drawbacks of the RRT. Although Yu, Tian, and Tang provide a promising theoretical analysis of the proposed models, they did not test them. We therefore provide results from an experimental survey in which the crosswise model was implemented and compared to direct questioning. To our knowledge, this is the first empirical evaluation of the crosswise model. We focused on the crosswise model because it seems better suited than the triangular model to overcome the self-protective “no” bias observed for the RRT. This paper-and-pencil survey on plagiarism was administered to Swiss and German students in university classrooms. Results suggest that the CM is a promising data-collection instrument eliciting more socially undesirable answers than direct questioning. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Regularized intergovernmentalism refers to a distinct kind of foreign policy practice that connects and intertwines foreign policy processes in particular ways. This paper puts forth a concept to properly capture and expose such distinctive foreign policy realities characterizing certain periods and places. With this concept, the article systematically scrutinizes the intergovernmental fabric of bilateral Franco–German relations from 1963 to 2009. The characteristic features of Franco–German regularized intergovernmentalism represent a crucial foreign policy connection, foundational for European affairs of the past half century and a defining feature of Europe’s post-war order and regional governance. Exploring key aspects of what it is that links France and Germany in particular ways, this paper offers a historically deeply grounded constitutive analysis. Based on its constitutive inquiries, the papers points at new possibilities of causal theorizing and explores some of regularized intergovernmentalism’s hypothesized effects and limitations. Franco–German intergovernmental affairs may be the most developed instance of this practice. But regularized bilateral intergovernmentalism is not a Franco–German idiosyncrasy. Rather, it is an important and apparently growing approach to structuring foreign policy conduct, and seems an increasingly prominent aspect of how the world is organized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses a longitudinal dataset on legal protection of shareholders over a 36 year period, 1970–2005, for four advanced countries, the UK, France, Germany and the USA. It examines two aspects of the legal origin hypothesis—whether shareholder protection is higher in the common law countries (UK and USA) than in the civil law countries (France and Germany) and whether shareholder protection matters for stock market development in the short and long runs. It also examines the ‘causation’ issue and the ‘endogeneity’ problem—whether greater shareholder protection leads to stock market development or whether stock market development leads to changes in law. The paper casts serious doubt on the validity of the basic theses of the Anglo Saxon legal and developmental model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While the roots of mania and melancholia can be traced to the 18th century and earlier, we have no such long historical narrative for dementia praecox (DP). I, here, provide part of that history, beginning with Kraepelin's chapter on Verrücktheit for his 1883 first edition textbook, which, over the ensuing 5 editions, evolved into Kraepelin's mature concepts of paranoia and paranoid DP. That chapter had 5 references published from 1865 to 1879 when delusional-hallucinatory syndromes in Germany were largely understood as secondary syndromes arising from prior episodes of melancholia and mania in the course of a unitary psychosis. Each paper challenged that view supporting a primary Verrücktheit as a disorder that should exist alongside mania and melancholia. The later authors utilized faculty psychology, noting that primary Verrücktheit resulted from a fundamental disorder of thought or cognition. In particular, they argued that, while delusions in mania and melancholia were secondary, arising from primary mood changes, in Verrücktheit, delusions were primary with observed changes in mood resulting from, and not causing, the delusions. In addition to faculty psychology, these nosologic changes were based on the common-sense concept of understandability that permitted clinicians to distinguish individuals in which delusions emerged from mood changes and mood changes from delusions. The rise of primary Verrücktheit in German psychiatry in the 1860–1870s created a nosologic space for primary psychotic illness. From 1883 to 1899, Kraepelin moved into this space filling it with his mature diagnoses of paranoia and paranoid DP, our modern-day paranoid schizophrenia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The order of crystallization of minerals from melt is of prime importance for an understanding of magma fractionation and chemical differentiation from the magma chamber to the planetary scale. Determination of the crystallization sequence based on petrographic observations, however, is often ambiguous; especially in multiply saturated, nearly eutectic felsic melts. This paper presents a novel approach to estimate the order of crystallization of minerals in igneous systems based on a quantitative study of their spatial distributions. Statistical modelling of crystallization demonstrates that later crystallizing mineral phases are generally more clustered. A simple inversion model is then derived to calculate the crystallization sequence and the volume fraction of older minerals present in the system at the onset of crystallization of a later (younger) phase. Application of the model to a sample of equigranular granodiorite (Fichtelgebirge granite batholith, Germany) indicates that plagioclase was the first liquidus phase. It was followed by biotite, K-feldspar, and quartz at 41, 48, and 63 vol. % crystallized, respectively, which is in qualitative agreement with experimental phase equilibria results for moderately hydrous granitic melts. If phase equilibria for a given composition are known or assumed, the crystallization sequence thus constrains the intensive variables (e.g. water content) and their evolution during magma solidification. The model thus provides a novel and independent approach to reconstruct the magma crystallization path that would be inaccessible by other methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents data on publication and collaboration patterns of USA and German research institutions in the field of global environmental change research. A dataset derived from the Web of Science showed that a marked rise in international co-authorship occurred in the period 1993-2002. However, this increase covered different world regions unevenly. Building on interview data, four factors driving international collaboration in this particular research area are identified which help to explain this specific trend. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper intends to explore the impact of Information technology (IT) development on the legal concept of `signatures'. To what extent and in which way does it impact on the legal concept of `signatures'? This paper attempts to examine this issue from an international and comparative perspective. It was found that IT development has different levels of impact on the legal concept of `signatures' in different jurisdictions. In the Common Law system such as the UK and the US, it does not change the legal concept of `signatures'. However, it does put the legal concept on such an important position. On the contrary, IT development changes the legal concept of `signatures' in the Civil Law system such as Germany and China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing importance of technology-relevant non-publication output of university research has come into the focus of policy-makers' interest. A fierce debate arose on possible negative consequences of the increasing commercialization of science, as it may come with a reduction in research performance. This paper investigates the relationship between publishing as a measure of scientific output and patenting for German professors active in a range of science fields. We combine bibliometric/technometric indicators and econometric techniques to show that patenting positively correlates with the publication output and quality of patenting researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to reveal whether fixed-term contracts are the new European inequality and does so in a comparative analysis of two countries typically regarded as eurosclerotic: West Germany and France. We compare the wages, wage growth and labour market outcomes of fixed-term contract workers relative to a matched sample of permanent workers with similar characteristics. Using seven waves of the European Community Household Panel (ECHP) we find evidence of wage penalties, increased exposure to unemployment and repeat spells of fixed-term employment. However, these tendencies vary significantly by country and by gender. The main finding of this paper is the extent to which fixed-term contract employment is of considerable disadvantage for French women. This is important, as previous research on female employment in the UK and in West Germany (Booth et al., 2002; Giesecke and Gross, 2003), two countries with intermittent female employment, did not find evidence of fixed-term worker disadvantage. Our findings, however, suggest that in countries where female employment tends to be full-time and continuous, the introduction of fixed-term contracts challenges the existing gender contract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper finds empirical evidence on the ripple effect of sunspots on the interwar German economy. It identifies a sequence of negative shocks to expectations for the 1927–32 period. The artificial economy predicts the 1928–32 depression and a long boom from 1933 onwards. Overall, a tangible fraction of interwar output volatility is attributed to sunspots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the first results of an ongoing research project at the University of Trier (Germany), which has been funded since March 2002 by the German Research Association (DFG). The aims of the project are: (1) to develop a lexicographical working environment for a particular dictionary project, the new Middle High German Dictionary; and (2) to customize this system for the requirements of other dictionary projects. In the first section of this paper the starting position is outlined and the goal of the project is introduced. The second section describes the technical concept and the realization of our system as a client-server architecture with a relational database in its center. In the third section we present the essential features of the system supporting all different steps of compiling dictionary entries up to the publishing in different media. Finally, we end the paper by giving a short conclusion and looking briefly at the prospects of our future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Foreign direct investment is an essential aspect of‘globalization’ yet its empirical determinants are not well understood. What we do know is based either on poor data for a wide range of nations, or good data for the US and Swedish cases. In this paper, we provide evidence on the determinants of the activities of German multinational firms by using a newly available firm-level data set from the Deutsche Bundesbank. The specific goal of this paper is to demonstrate the relative role of country-level and firm-level determinants of foreign direct investment. We focus on three main questions: First, what are the main driving forces of German firms’ multinational activities? Second, is there evidence that sector-level and firm-level factors shape internationalization patterns? Third, is there evidence of agglomeration effects in the foreign activities of German firms? We find that the market access motive for internationalization dominates. Firms move abroad mainly to gain better access to large foreign markets. Cost-saving motives, however, are important for some manufacturing sectors. Our results strongly suggest that firm-level heterogeneity has an important influence on internationalization patterns– as stressed by recent models of international trade. We also find positive agglomeration effects for the activities of German firms that stem from the number of other German firms that are active on a given foreign market. In terms of lessons for economic policy, our results show that lowering barriers to the integration of markets and encouraging the formation of human capital can promote the activities of multinational firms. However, our results related to the heterogeneity of firms and agglomeration tendencies show that it might be difficult to fine-tune policies directed at the exploitation of synergies and at the creation of clusters of foreign firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]