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In their daily practice, health care workers (HCWs) experience the effects of tensions between professional ethos and work realities, which can lead to ethical dilemmas. We aim to explore the ethical dilemmas that affected HCWs in Germany during the COVID-19 pandemic and to understand these in the context of the German health system. Between April and December 2022, we interviewed HCWs from various levels of care and key informants responsible for decisions related to HCWs in Germany. Three themes were identified in the data analyzed from 78 participants. The first highlighted the potency of pre-existing health system problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second captured the ethical dilemmas that were described as having arisen due to the tension between professional ethos and structural constraints. The third included factors related to increasing or diminishing the implications of ethical dilemmas. A lack of opportunities for HCWs to participate in political and managerial decisions was suggested to result in policies that do not meet the needs of HCWs and patients. Positive interpersonal interactions were described as helpful when coping with dilemmatic decision-making situations. In order to avoid negative consequences caused by unresolved ethical dilemmas, including moral distress, among HCWs, staff shortages and decision-making in the German health system urgently need to be addressed. HCWs' working conditions regularly evoke ethical dilemmas, particularly during public health emergencies. Together with HCWs, decision-makers must develop new models for working in health care settings that are in line with HCWs' professional ethos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With increasing levels of mobility, driven by political, economic, technological, and cultural factors, mobility regimes are established to facilitate and control both internal and cross-border travel. Still, the degree to which individuals are mobile is a function of multiple factors, including power, citizenship, ethnicity, income, education, culture, networks, and technology. We advance the concept of "Mobility Spaces" as a way to identify the implications of politically induced changes in mobility regimes for individuals. In particular, we show how politically induced shifts in such regimes affect the mobility options of different groups. Mobility spaces are defined as the area to which a person belonging to a certain group can possibly travel, in a regulated but unimpeded or in a partially impeded fashion. The restrictions limiting mobility spaces can be divided into three thematic hierarchies, domestic, international and for refugees. The mobility spaces implications of changes in mobility regimes resulting from political shifts are exemplified along the first two hierarchies for the Israeli-Palestinian and German-European cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the treatment of Germany on the provisions in Versailles Treaty with France. Like her treaty with Belgium, Germany did not follow the provisions within the Versailles Treaty. It has been discovered that Germany has at least 12,000 three-inch field guns, whereas the treaty limited her to 204. Also, Germany increased the number of armed forces from 1,500,000 to 2,000,000 men.. The treaty also required the disposal of all her airplanes but she has 6,000 airplanes intact.

The article reports on the comeback of the old-fashioned school slate in German education. The school slate will be used because of the nation's lack of raw material and the Nazi four-year plan requirements. Minister of education Bernhard Rust has prescribed slates to be used instead of exercise books in the first and second-year classes as well as in the third and fourth grades for the 1938 school term.

The collective communication model of terrorism (CCMT) proposes that understanding terrorists' motives influences appraisal (threat perception and emotional well-being) and reaction to terrorism (intention to retaliate). Fischer et al. (2011) presented evidence from two experiments for the assumption that understanding motives of terrorism influences appraisal. The present preregistered experiment aimed to replicate their second experiment, validate the measures they used, and also test the second proposition of the CCMT. Ensuring sufficient power for multiple tests and the given effect size, we collected data from 188 participants. The findings by Fischer et al. (2011) were partly replicated, but the comparison of the original effect sizes and the effect sizes from the replication attempt does not provide convincing evidence for the hypothesis that understanding the motives for terrorism reduces the perceived threat or negative emotional impact of acts of terrorism. Correlations with other risk-perception measures call into question the validity of the items used to assess perceived threat. Results suggest that understanding the motives for terrorism may influence whether the targeted populations want to retaliate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the effects of the platform economy on work are mainly studied through the lens of gig or cloud workers, many more employees are likely to be affected in non-platform firms or sectors. We discuss the mechanisms of platform economy's impact on the employment relationships and indirect effect on employment trends. Platform firms enter the service economy with business models that put existing service providers under pressure and advance a platform model of employment relationship. However, their transformative force is limited by three factors: employment regulations, access to welfare provisions and the employment relations at legacy firms. We examine the case of Amazon logistics in the US, Germany and the UK and find that the employment contract, as a legal institution, prevents the dissemination of independent contracting as the preferred employment model. Moreover, the welfare state has a paradoxical effect on platform work: universal welfare and liberal employment law facilitate the rise of precarious work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Half the population of Europe's largest economy by population and economic output lives in 30 main urban agglomerations. This paper presents a series of cartogram visualisations of population changes in Germany for these areas that happened in the period 2008–2013. Most of the areas have seen an urban renaissance by regaining growth. After a long period of suburbanisation, growth started returning to city centres. Among the few declining major urban agglomerations, the old industrial Ruhr area stands out, with an overall decline that is larger than any decline in all other major urban agglomerations put together. Population decline in the analysed period almost exclusively took place in suburban areas. Both trends mark an important change in the population dynamics of these major urban regions in the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany, the use of life story work as an approach to care in nursing homes has not been implemented successfully. Using Grounded Theory, we explored care staff's understandings of life story work when caring for persons with dementia. Thirty-six staff from seven nursing homes participated in semi-structured interviews or group discussions. In this paper we discuss new aspects and theoretical connections between understandings and practices of life story work. For some participants, obtaining 'true facts' about a resident's course of life was considered the most important topic. Others highlighted the importance of narratives as well as embodied stories told by persons with dementia, as aspects that generated emotionally meaningful situations. Delivering sound life story work can be challenging for care staff working with persons with dementia. To enhance care in nursing homes, the importance of life story work needs to be further developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the ambitious forward-looking project "Industry 4.0", the German government is promoting the computerisation of traditional industry as we know it today. Among other things, the factory of the future will automatically adapt to fluctuating requirements and increase its resource efficiency. An essential element of these developments is the systematic establishment of additional control loops. These control loops can be machine-oriented, ensuring as part of process control that the process stays reliably within predefined states. In addition, higher-level control loops, e.g. in the form of quality control loops, can adjust machine parameters as a function of the product quality required. In all cases, control technology promotes automatic and reproducible production. This paper gives a brief outlook on how methods from advanced control technology can support and improve production processes, e.g. in the plastics technology sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the 2006 Air Security decision rendered by the German Constitutional Court as an occasion to question typical assumptions in critical scholarship about the relations between sovereign power and biopolitics and about the kinds of political spaces these logics can generate. After a brief overview of the argument the first part of the paper summarizes the 2006 Air Security decision and the legislation it addressed. Public debates in Germany around the issue are then surveyed, with an emphasis on the contrast drawn by a number of commentators between utilitarian and 'Kantian' ethical positions. As a result of the apparently Kantian line it took, the Court conjured a specific but ambivalent space of 'benevolent abandonment'. The latter half of the paper explores the theoretical implications of the decision, arguing that understanding it as Kantian is too simple, and relating it to Michel Foucault's and Georgio Agamben's theorizations of the nexus of biopower and sovereignty. While the 2006 decision does not easily fit within Agamben's discussion of the 'sovereign ban' in Homo Sacer (Stanford University Press, 1998), it can be grasped by means of another strand of his reasoning, most fully developed in his discussion of "inoperativity" in The Kingdom and the Glory (Stanford University Press, 2011). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Going beyond the territorial/relational divide in regional studies requires researchers to do more than examine the extent to which territoriality and relationality are complementary alternatives. The variety of networked regional spaces means it is intellectually unsustainable to simply relate a single networked regional space to territory-scale without first considering how networked regional spaces interact. Illustrated through the experience of Germany, our paper demonstrates that interaction between different networked regional spaces (eg, city-regions and cross-border regions) is resulting in new networked regional imaginaries (eg, cross-border metropolitan regions). Its overall aim is to show that the production of entirely new networked spaces can assist in overcoming the contradictions present in one configuration of regions, but this only serves to create a new 'regional problem' requiring ever more complex configurations of regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The partnership principle in the European Union has often been examined in the context of the emergence of a multi-level type of governance. Recently, a number of studies have focused on the implementation of the European Cohesion Policy in the new member states. They have listed the numerous obstacles to its functioning effectively. However, given the shortfalls, they were not in the position to question the entire range of effects of partnership when it does indeed work. Complementary to this approach, this paper starts from the example of a best-practice, looking at the concrete results of the use of partnership to ensure a place-based approach to regional policies. It uses the example of the East-German Land of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, a NUTS II region that benefits from structural funding under the convergence objective. After a brief description of how the partnership principle works on the ground, it examines the conditions of its success. It then analyses its contribution to “good governance”. Lastly, it examines whether this form of partnership rises to the challenge of implementing a place-based approach as defined in the Barca Report. It argues that it neither offers all individuals a chance to become informed and contribute their knowledge or express their preferences about the delivery of projects, which involve the very technical issues of regional development and the disbursement of the structural funds. Nor does it allow control and pressure on policy makers by the citizen. The findings show that, as a consequence, the kind of policies promoted fail to fulfil both the objectives of efficiency and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores several dimensions of the work and career of Kurt Leibbrand, often considered the most influential German urban transportation planner after 1945. It examines some key ideas prevalent in his publications, such as his advocacy of the priority of transportation planning, hostility to citizen participation in planning, and rejection of pedestrian zones. In assessing his status, the paper discusses his contributions to traffic plans for the cities of Basel, Mainz and Selb. The paper also examines some shifts in his career, including his move to the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in 1950 and his resignation there after his arrest for having ordered the murder of Italian volunteers in his army unit during the war. Leibbrand was convicted of manslaughter but not punished because the statute of limitations had expired. He continued to work as a consultant but did not again hold an academic position in the German-speaking world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The German reserve power market has been subject to important regulatory changes in recent years. A new market design has been introduced by synchro-nizing and interconnecting the four regional German control areas. We analyze whether the reforms have led to lower prices for minute reserve power (MRP). In contrast to existing papers, we use a unique panel dataset to account for un-observed heterogeneity between the four German regional markets. Moreover, we control for endogeneity by using weather data as instruments for electricity spot market prices. We find that the reforms were jointly successful in decreasing MRP prices leading to substantial cost savings for the transmission system operators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent decades have been dominated by discourses describing a resurgence of regions. Yet despite its prominence the region remains a largely Delphian concept. In the period of new regionalist orthodoxy, for example, while it was recognized that regions take various forms, the normative claim that we were living in a ‘regional world’ became narrowly focused on regions as subnational political units. Nevertheless, the emergence of city-regions, cross-border regions, and European Metropolitan Regions is leading some scholars to suggest the formation in this century of a brave new ‘regional world’. With economic, social and political activity increasingly orchestrated through regional spaces that cross-cut the territorial map that prevailed through much of the twentieth century, the literature is adorned with accounts advancing the theoretical and policy rationale for relational approaches to regions and regionalism. Yet far less has been written on the struggle to construct these spaces politically, thereby neglecting questions of territory and territorial politics. With this in mind, our paper draws on the experience of Germany to consider the political struggle to overcome the contradictions, overlaps, and competing tendencies that result from new regional spaces appearing alongside, rather than replacing, existing forms of state scalar organization. In particular, we observe how the Federal State is using the ambiguity of the regional concept to present territorial and relational approaches as complementary alternatives. The paper concludes by relating these findings to ongoing debates on how we, as ‘regional’ researchers, should approach the analysis of regions and regionalism; speculates on the degree to which they form progressive and effective spatial policies; and asks what lessons can be learnt about contemporary state spatiality more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Analysis of gender-specific differences in short- and long-term outcome after elective open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair (OAR) regarding the distal anastomosis. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, data from 4853 patients of a German health insurance company undergoing OAR for infrarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) between 2010 and 2016 were analysed. The patients were followed through 2018. Results: A total of 4050 (83.5%) men and 803 (16.6%) women underwent OAR. Women were older than men (72.9 ± 8.7 vs 69.8 ± 8.5 years; P <.001). A tube graft was used in 2644 (54.5%) patients, an aorto-biiliac bifurcated graft in 1657 (34.1%) and an aorto-bifemoral bifurcated graft in 552 (11.4%). Perioperative mortality was not significantly different between men (5.7%) and women (6.5%) in the total patient population (P =.411). This was true for aorto-aortic tube grafting (P =.361), aorto-biiliac reconstructions (P = 1.000) and aorto-bifemoral reconstructions (P =.345). Kaplan-Meier estimated long-term survival of men after 9 years was better than that of women (55.0% vs 43.8%; P =.006). However, separated by the site of the distal anastomosis, this was only true for aorto-aortic reconstructions (survival men vs women 56.0% vs 42.1%; P =.005), not for aorto-biiliac and aorto-bifemoral reconstructions. In the multivariate Cox regression analysis, age over 80 years, heart failure, aorto-bifemoral reconstruction, chronic kidney disease stage 3-5, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral artery disease, arterial hypertension, but not gender (P =.531), had a negative impact on long-term survival. Conclusion: If possible, an aorto-aortic tube graft should be preferred to aorto-biiliac and aorto-bifemoral reconstructions in OAR. Patients selected for aorto-bifemoral artery reconstruction exhibit higher perioperative morbidity and mortality as well as worse long-term survival compared to patients selected for an intra-abdominal reconstruction. In the multivariate regression analysis, gender was not an independent risk factor for either short- or long-term outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study asks for the consequences of intensive parenthood demands on fertility decisions for a first, second or third birth in Germany. The prevalence of intensive parenting norms was analysed using data from the representative panel 'Concepts of Family in Germany'. The results show that intensive parenting norms are widely accepted in Germany, especially the need for expert guidance and financial investment in children. Parities of zero, one and two children are associated with differences in these norms. The transition to a first or further birth is influenced negatively by fatherhood norms (childless individuals), financial norms (parents of one or two children) and child-centredness norms (parents of two children), but the impact is small. Instead, their non-significance may be interpreted as a preparation towards parenthood which we call 'nest-building'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic piqued interest in remote work, but research yields mixed findings on the impact of working from home on workers' well-being and job attitudes. The authors develop a conceptual distinction between working from home that occurs during regular work hours (replacement work-from-home) and working from home that occurs outside of those hours (extension work-from-home). Using linked establishment-employee survey data from Germany, the authors find that extension work-from-home is associated with lower psychological well-being, higher turnover intentions, and higher work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts. By contrast, replacement work-from-home is associated with better well-being and higher job satisfaction, but higher work-to-family conflict. Extension work-from-home has more negative effects for women's well-being and work-to-family conflict. This distinction clarifies the conditions under which remote work can have positive consequences for workers and for organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article identifies some of the patterns and dynamics that have emerged in the uneven landscape and shifting constellations of local immigration regimes in the wake of the 2015 ‘summer of welcome’. Using the German case, it explores key players and institutions within this urban policy arena, and how their collaborative/competitive interactions in addressing the challenges of (receiving) the many newcomers have been shaped by supra-local as well as contingent and political factors. Firstly, it looks at the role and relative autonomy that municipalities exert in designing (proactive) refugee and integration policies. Out of the broad spectrum of civil society organisations that engage in this field, the paper then focuses on the new civic engagement often referred to as volunteer welcome initiatives, and on another civil society actor less frequently discussed in this context: the protest movement organised by refugees themselves. The evolving practices of, and interrelations among, these three sets of actors illustrate the trajectory of the transforming relations within the city as a networked and contested space of immigration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Measuring socioeconomic inequalities in health and health care, and understanding determinants of such inequalities, are critical for achieving higher equity in health. Equity in health is a prerequisite for public health and welfare. The aim of the paper is (1) to quantify inequality in diabetes morbidity patterns over patients’ entire life span, and (2) to compare levels of inequality measured through income and educational level, respectively, as proxies for socioeconomic status (SES). Method: Historic individual register data on the entire Danish diabetes population alive in 2011 were gathered. Cox survival analysis and a concentration index decomposition approach were applied to analyse relevant morbidity indicators reflecting patients’ health state at diagnosis and throughout their lives with diabetes. Results: Patients with high education have approximately 26% lower mortality hazard when diagnosed with diabetes and 10–15% lower hazard of developing complications as compared with patients with short education. The outcome variables: ‘severe complications at diagnosis’ and ‘years with severe complications’ inhibit the highest negative concentration index value, indicating that morbidity is concentrated among the lower SES groups, whereas the outcome variables ‘years without complications’ and ‘duration of diabetes’ concentrate among the socioeconomically better-off patients. Conclusions: Significant differences in diabetes patients’ morbidity patterns and survival indicate that diabetes impacts harder on patients of lower SES; these patients experience more severe complications and die earlier. Hence to reduce inequality in health, it is important to invest in efforts targeted towards socially vulnerable groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides evidence on the role of art experts (bohemians) in high-skilled professionals' locational choices in German regions (NUTS 3) over the period 1998–2008. In particular, it examines Richard Florida's thesis, which considers art experts as creative people who attract high-skilled labour force. Our panel data estimation results support the thesis that art experts have positive and significant impact on high-skilled experts and that these individuals flock where art experts are. We also find that regional per capita income and employment have positive and robust effect on the distribution of high-skilled professionals. The positive effects suggest that the distribution of the high-skilled labor force is a reflection of economic and non-economic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In crisis situations, people have to change their behavior. A collective learning process begins and new patterns of order emerge. Externalities of behavior lead to the emergence of new social norms. But are the social norms also followed? A closer examination must take into account the different character of social norms. Following the theory of Ullmann-Margalit, coordination norms or conventions have different consequences for norm-oriented behavior than cooperation norms. This distinction is also important for lawmaking. There is no "free-rider problem" with coordination norms, but there is one with cooperation norms. This paper examines the question of the characteristics of new norms which emerged during the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis, such as the requirement for distance, the obligation to wear masks and cooperation in the digital tracing of infection chains. This study is based on how Germany has coped with the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020. However, the analysis leads to conditions which in general may explain the degree of compliance with different types of new social norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers trained in one country are often not allowed to serve as teachers in another country because their teacher's license is not recognised as equivalent. The barriers these teachers have to overcome in order to work in their profession again are high and often require further (full) teacher training at the university. The paper provides insights into the conditions for teachers who participate in (re-)qualification programmes in Germany and Europe. By linking the theoretical concepts of a biographical approach to teacher professionalisation and transnationalisation in education, the results of an interview study with teachers who have participated in a programme for refugee teachers at a university in Germany are presented. The Grounded Theory analysis reconstructs the strategies of internationally educated teachers managing to keep up their hope to be able to work as teachers again and thus counter the formal de-professionalisation they are facing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teachers with so-called migration backgrounds are often assumed to possess higher intercultural competencies or skills for more adequately dealing with migration-related diversity than other teachers. However, these assumptions of higher intercultural competencies, specific pedagogical orientations and attitudes have rarely been systematically empirically examined. On the other hand, such a utilitarian ethnicization is increasingly criticized by migration researchers in educational science in Germany as furthering stigmatization and deprofessionalization. Against this background, our paper aims to contribute to the lively discourse about teacher with so-called migration backgrounds. We start with analysing teacher data from the German National Education Panel Study (NEPS). Our analyses indicate that teachers with and without so-called migration backgrounds do not differ significantly in most respects. These findings led us to methodological considerations with regard to the (non-)usefulness of the statistical category of 'migration background' in educational migration research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the spring of 2023, the ninth European Conference on African Studies (ECAS) took place in Cologne. Though not unexpected (or unusual) this event sparked critical comments and questions. As the organisers, we understand and appreciate this criticism. We, therefore, felt the need to respond to at least some of them, partly because we also asked ourselves many of these questions before, during, and after the conference. At the same time, we want to call for a certain degree of pragmatism when it comes to organising an event this size by providing a look behind the scenes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Candidates with local ties perform better than their rivals without such attachments. We focus on the underlying mechanism of the localness effect and hypothesise that voters prefer local candidates for instrumental reasons, expecting better representation, and for reasons of a shared place identity. To test these expectations, we rely on the unusually detailed ballot for local elections in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Using multi-level regressions of the electoral results of 6503 candidates running in 21 cities in 2014, we confirm the importance of candidate localness for electoral success in low-information elections. Furthermore, we provide insights into the mechanisms behind this relationship. While instrumental motivations are independent of the composition of the electorate, a large share of elderly voters amplifies the identity effect, whereas many young voters, a high residential mobility, and a high population density diminishes this effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Caring for terminally ill patients with minor children can be very stressful. The perceived quality of life is significantly influenced by the Meaning in Life (MiL). No studies were found that focus on the prioritized special needs of this patient group. Objectives: The aim is to compare and contrast terminally ill parents with minor children and palliative care patients in Germany, in order to provide appropriate support beyond medical, nursing or therapeutic interventions. Methods: Terminally ill parents diagnosed were surveyed using a validated instrument 'Schedule for Meaning in Life Evaluation (SMiLE)'. The study listed various areas that contribute to the MiL, followed by an evaluation of their importance and satisfaction levels. The researchers then compared these findings with data collected from palliative care patients. Results: In Germany, 54 patients, mostly female and with a mean age of 43, were included in this study between February 2017 and September 2020. The median age of the 96 children during the survey phase was 7 years. The comparison group consists of 100 palliative care patients in Germany; mostly aged 50 years and older. For terminally ill patients most important areas were in decreasing order family (100%), social relations (80%), leisure time (61%), nature/animals (39%) and home/garden (30%). Although the overall indices are close between both groups, there are significant and highly correlated differences between them. Parents felt limited by their illness in being a mother or father, as they wanted to be. Conclusion: The involvement with SMiLE led patients to consider their coping resources. The areas relevant to terminally ill parents differed from those relevant to palliative care patients. All participants identified family as the most important factor for MiL. The results suggest that evaluating MiL can serve as a coping strategy and help terminally ill parents with minor children. Plain language summary: A comparison of answers to the meaning in life from seriously ill parents with young children with the answers of other seriously ill patients Background: Caring for seriously ill patients with young children can be very stressful. The quality of life depends on meaning in life. No studies were found that focus on the needs of this patients. Objectives: The aim was to explore similarities and differences between seriously ill parents with young children and palliative care patients in Germany to find the best way to support them. Methods: The Meaning in Life questions were used to find this out. Two researchers asked seriously ill parents about different things that make their lives meaningful. The researchers then compared the results with data from other seriously ill patients in need of palliative care. In Germany, 54 seriously ill parents with young children were interviewed between February 2017 and September 2020. The children were usually seven years old. The compared group consisted of 100 palliative care patients and was mostly older than 49 years. For seriously ill patients most important were family, social relations, leisure time, nature/animals, and home/garden. The values seemed similar, but there are clear differences between the groups. Parents felt their illness limited them in being a mother or a father. Conclusion: The questions helped patients helped to remember meaning in life and set goals. The things that mattered to seriously ill parents were different from those that mattered to palliative care patients. All participants said that family was the most important thing for meaning in life. The results show that thinking about meaning in life can help. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although gender ideologies influence many outcomes, research shows they often fluctuate across the life course. Family structure transitions are one mechanism through which gender ideologies change. Divorced and single adults report more egalitarian ideologies than stably married adults. Little research has examined whether children in these families experience similar gender ideologies. Based on parental role modeling, we would expect children in non-traditional families to exhibit more egalitarian gender ideologies. We examine family structure and youth gender ideologies in two contexts, essentially two case studies: Germany and South Korea. Using Starting Cohort 3—Grade 5 (N = 4,021) and Starting Cohort 4—Grade 9 (N = 9,913) of the Germany National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and Cohorts 1 (N = 2,844) and 2 (N = 3,449) of the Korea Youth Panel Survey (KYPS), we uncover counterintuitive findings that youth gender ideologies do not vary across family structures. Child gender is the most salient predictor of gender ideologies across contexts. Plain Language Summary: Little research has examined whether children experience more egalitarian or less egalitarian gender based beliefs across various family structures, including step-families, single parent families, and two parent families. Based on parental role modeling, we would expect children in non-traditional families to exhibit more egalitarian gender beliefs. We examine family structure and youth gender ideologies in two contexts: Germany (NEPS) and South Korea (KYPS). Using Starting Cohort 3—Grade 5 (N = 4,021) and Starting Cohort 4—Grade 9 (N = 9,913) of the Germany National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) and Cohorts 1 (N = 2,844) and 2 (N = 3,449) of the Korea Youth Panel Survey (KYPS), we uncover counterintuitive findings that youth gender ideologies do not vary across family structures, but that it is the youth's gender that is the most important predictor of a youth's gender beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children with mathematical difficulties need to spend more time than typically achieving children on solving even simple equations. Since these tasks already require a larger share of their cognitive resources, additional demands imposed by the need to switch between tasks may lead to a greater decline of performance in children with mathematical difficulties. We explored differential task switch costs with respect to switching between addition versus subtraction with a tablet-based arithmetic verification task and additional standardized tests in German elementary school children in Grades 1 to 4. Two independent studies were conducted. In Study 1, we assessed the validity of a newly constructed tablet-based arithmetic verification task in a controlled classroom-setting (n = 165). Then, effects of switching between different types of arithmetic operations on accuracy and response latency were analyzed through generalized linear mixed models in an online-based testing (Study 2; n = 3,409). Children with mathematical difficulties needed more time and worked less accurately overall. They also exhibited a stronger performance decline when working in a task-switching condition, when working on subtraction (vs. addition) items and in operations with two-digit (vs. one-digit) operations. These results underline the value of process data in the context of assessing mathematical difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Caring for parents continuing pregnancy after learning about a severe life-limiting condition in their unborn is challenging. Most existing studies focus on affected families, whereas research on the subjective experience of care professionals is scarce. Aim: We aimed to (1) explore experiences and needs of involved care professionals, (2) obtain information about existing care structures, and (3) identify requirements for a structured perinatal palliative care program. Design: Grounded Theory study using theoretical sampling. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews and analyzed following the principles of grounded theory coding and situational analysis. Setting: A total of 18 professionals from 12 different services in Munich and surroundings participated in the study: 8 physicians, 3 midwives, 2 nurses, 1 each pregnancy counselor, grief counselor, chaplain, clinical psychologist, and undertaker. Results: Several organizations provide support for affected parents, but inter-institutional communication is scarce. Due to the lack of a dedicated perinatal palliative care program, professionals make immense and partly unpaid efforts to support concerned parents. Providers experience "collateral beauty" in their work despite all the suffering and grief. This includes the development of a humble attitude and feelings of gratitude toward life, the feeling of having a meaningful task and professional as well as personal growth. Requirements for a structured perinatal palliative care program include: fostering peer support, ensuring regular supervision, and enhancing interdisciplinary exchange. Conclusions: Perinatal palliative care demands a high level of personal engagement but is experienced as highly rewarding by care professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Consume-less appeals in social marketing can help reduce the lavish consumption in wealthy countries, which poses a major threat to the climate. This study experimentally examines the effectiveness of three different types of consume-less appeals (informative, social normative, and emotional appeals) on participants' actual spending levels during a real shopping trip compared to a control group (no appeal). In addition, the study tests whether these appeals evoke negative rebounds (in terms of post-purchase climate donation) or positive rebounds (in terms of accepting post-purchase material giveaways). A field experiment in a grocery store in Germany with 170 participants shows that social normative and the emotional appeals reduce actual shopping spending. Informative and social normative appeals increase donations, and emotional appeals reduce the items of taken giveaways. The findings further support certain indirect impacts of the consume-less appeals on rebounds in terms of spending levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Under the recently enacted pharmaceutical price and reimbursement regulation in Germany, new drugs are subject to a rapid assessment to determine whether there is sufficient evidence of added clinical benefits compared with the existing standard of treatment. If such added benefits are confirmed, manufacturers and representatives of the Statutory Health Insurance (SHI) are expected to negotiate an appropriate reimbursement price. If parties fail to reach an agreement, a final decision on the reimbursement price will be made by an arbitration body. If one of the parties involved wishes so, then the Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (Institut für Qualität und Wirtschaftlichkeit im Gesundheitswesen, IQWiG) will be commissioned with a formal evaluation of costs and benefits of the product in question. IQWiG will make a recommendation for a reimbursement price based on the ‘efficiency frontier’ in a therapeutic area. The purpose of the assessments is to provide support for decision-making bodies that act on behalf of the SHI insurants. To determine the willingness to pay for new drugs, IQWiG uses the following decision rule: the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of a new drug compared with the next effective intervention should not be higher than that of the next effective intervention compared with its comparator. The purpose of this paper was to investigate the theoretical and empirical relationship between the willingness to pay for drugs and their health benefits. The analysis shows that across disease areas IQWiG has a curvilinear relationship between willingness to pay and health benefits. Future research may address the validity of the willingness-to-pay function from the viewpoint of the individual SHI insurants. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper compares two flagship policies in the area of energy efficient building refurbishment, the German CO2-Building Rehabilitation Programme and the Green Deal in the UK. Although both policies are essentially loan programmes to finance energy efficiency measures, the nature of the two policies is very different regarding scope, financial architecture, integration with other policies, and carbon reductions. The paper draws out the main differences of the programmes as well as similarities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a unique, longitudinal data set of UK and German new technology-based firms (NTBFs) to investigate the determinants of internationalization and firm survival. Specifically, it tests the influence of absorptive capacity, inter-firm specific relationships and international exposure on survival. Its key findings are that high absorptive capacity increases survival probabilities; specific customer-supplier relationships enhance survival; and the greater the firm's exposure to internationalization activity, the higher its subsequent chance of survival. Thus, the paper provides evidence that young firms are more likely to survive when they pursue an internationalization strategy based on resource consolidation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The formation or consolidation of ‘ethnic’ neighbourhoods in European cities has made ethnic/racial differences more visible in urban space and has brought back to the forefront of both academic and political debate questions about the spatial concentration of ‘strangers’ (segregation), citizenship rights and ‘integration’. The women and men who live in the city have, or may claim, a right to the city that includes on the one hand the right to appropriate urban space and on the other hand the right to participate in its production and in decisions about it but also in (re)defining patterns of living it. In this context, migrants reconfigure the meanings of belonging against dominant spatializations through their everyday practices. Moreover, more or less institutionalized forms of political participation create new spatial levels of citizenship not limited to the scale of the nation-state. Interactions among migrants and locals continuously redefine the subject of rights as they activate processes of access, participation and inclusion/exclusion in/from the urban public sphere. This paper discusses these processes and terms, drawing on examples from Berlin and Athens. We focus in particular on neighbouring as the space and resource of belonging and on how this is related to participation and urban citizenship. The two cities offer different contexts in which institutional policies, informal practices and claims for participation at the neighbourhood level define, in different ways, citizenship as a spatial strategy and help qualify the content of the ‘right to the city’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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The paper demonstrates how seasonal variation in sequentially arriving temperature data can be visualized by the specification of landmarks and subsequent time warping. We exemplify the idea with water temperature data from the river Wupper in northwestern Germany and with air temperature data from Berlin, Germany. Landmarks are thereby based on temperature thresholds. The method allows to assess whether the seasonal variation is running ahead or behind the average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The withdrawal of the welfare states from pensions underscores the need for a better understanding of the spatial characteristics of adoption processes in the case of financial innovations. In 2001 the German pension reform reduced publicly provided pensions, and introduced subsidised, voluntary occupational plans to replace the loss in retirement income. This paper looks at the spatial and temporal adoptions of the newly created occupational pensions by analysing a unique, proprietary database, containing data on 12000 employers and 286 000 employees working in the German metal and electric industry. The study identifies metropolitan/nonmetropolitan, East — West, and further geographical differences in the employers' timing to adopt, which in turn influences employees' decisions to enrol. Differences are identified among employee-level adoptions depending on the employers' timing and further, individual-level factors. The results emphasise the importance of geography in the transformation of old-age finances in the German welfare state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents various factors explaining the rise of road freight, which is put in the context of a mass consumption society. With the mass consumption society a new kind of cargo arose: manufactured goods which are delivered as packaged goods. The limits of railway logistics to handle the increasing stream of packaged goods are explained with six considerations. Two of them can be understood as being strategic: the price system and the marshalling yards as infrastructure. Four considerations are concerned with logistic processes and show the slow and complex operations. The paper shows how these limits gave rise to road freight logistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An organization’s ability to act strategically under conditions of path dependence relies not only on the particular form of a strategic path but also on how this path is inscribed in an organization. To achieve a better understanding of this process, we shall introduce the concept of strategic path inscription and distinguish between mechanism inscription and pattern inscription. By referring to power, and formal and informal structures, the paper explores dimensions of the organizational context and its relation to strategic path inscription. The paper draws on an empirical study contrasting two established newspaper publishing organizations based in Germany. The comparative analysis of these cases reveals that in both organizations there are different forms of strategic pattern inscription but very similar forms of mechanism inscription. It is argued that the analysis of pattern inscription reveals much about the organizational nature of strategic lock-ins and, consequently, the range of variety that remains available to an organization after a specific path has emerged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Data from the core data set of the Hospice and Palliative Care Evaluation (HOPE) from 1999 to 2001 demonstrated considerable variance in the incidence of patients' symptoms and problems between participating services. This paper aims to investigate these differences more closely. Methods: During the evaluation period of HOPE in 2002 a telephone survey with a representative of each participating unit was performed. Telephone interviews assessed the professionals' definitions of selected symptoms and estimates of problem and symptom incidences. Content analysis was used to evaluate qualitative answers. Results: Staff members rated pain, weakness, nausea/emesis as the most frequent physical symptoms; anxiety, depression and amentia as most frequent psychological symptoms; wound treatment, mobilisation and weakness as nursing problems and organisation of care settings, loneliness, demands of relatives the most common social needs. Staff members used a wide range of definitions for cachexia, weakness and depression. Discussion: Standard definitions of symptoms and problems were lacking in the articulation of subjective staff members' perspectives. Meaningful evaluation of multicentre surveys would require training in symptom assessment and classification in order to produce a common basis for documentation. Even though definitions differed widely, underlying concepts seemed to be compatible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Some twenty years since the reunification of Germany, the cultural and interpersonal communication between eastern and western Germans remains problematic – complicated by oversimplified media representations of the GDR-past that induce an attitude of mistrust towards eastern Germans as well as making them feel unacknowledged. This paper explores the question of German integration post-1989 through an analysis of the documentary series Die Kinder von Golzow (Winfried and Winfried, 1961–2005). The aim is to show how the series, even if marginal in the public memory, offers a cultural meeting ground by narrating the recent past from the perspective of everyday-life. The paper argues that the construction of a political community is not only the result of institutional politics, but also of everyday praxis. In other words, it is necessary to distinguish between two levels of integration in the case of the reunification of Germany: on the one hand the acceptance of institutions of the Federal Republic; and on the other the exchange of historical (collective and individual) experiences, since these form the basis of a cultural and mutual acknowledgment of identity and difference among eastern and western Germans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After WWII, Germany found itself in physical ruin as well as in a moral shambles. The rebuilding process in West Germany included both economic reconstruction and moral reconstitution. In my paper I argue that these two processes were more closely related than generally believed. While economic instability, measured by unemployment rates, certainly has not caused a greater willingness to come to terms with the National Socialist past, such times seem to have coincided with some of the great historiographical controversies about that past, namely the Fischer controversy, the Historikerstreit, the Goldhagen affair, and the highly controversial, so-called Wehrmachtsausstellung. This paper proposes a model for the relationship and explores possible explanations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The present paper describes acoustic and hot-wire measurements that were done in the aeroacoustic wind tunnel at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus on various SD7003-type airfoils made of different porous (flow permeable) materials. The objective of the research is the analysis of the turbulent boundary layer properties of porous airfoils and, subsequently, of the noise generated at the trailing edge. The influence of the porous materials, characterized by their air flow resistivity, is discussed. The acoustic measurements were performed using a planar 56-channel microphone array and the boundary layer properties were measured using constant temperature anemometry. The recorded acoustic data underwent further processing by application of advanced beamforming algorithms. A noticeable reduction of the emitted trailing edge noise was measured for the porous airfoils over a large range of frequencies. At high frequencies, some of the porous airfoils were found to generate more noise than the reference airfoil which might be due to the surface roughness noise contribution. It is found that the turbulent boundary layer thickness and the boundary layer displacement thickness of the airfoils increase with decreasing flow resistivities for both suction and pressure side. Both boundary layer thickness and displacement thickness of the porous airfoils are greater than those of a non-porous reference airfoil. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This overview of the publication market for sociologists in Austria also examines a few recent publications by Austrian sociologists. Writing in German, Austrian sociologists are highly dependent on the market in neighbouring Germany, where approximately one-third of the books written by Austrians are published. Particular deficiencies of books by Austrians published in Austria are careless editing, indexing and copy editing. Among types of publication, most common are volumes of collected papers and monographs. A small number of publications attempt 'diagnoses of the era', addressing a larger audience. Core areas are the history of sociology and the humanities, immigration and the labour market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts on macromarketing which include the insurance advertising, on the antecedents of ethical consumption activities in Germany and the U. S. and customer citizenship behavior in the retail marketplace are presented.

This paper undertakes a rigorous analysis of the effects of policies to respond to the looming demographic pressures in Europe and elsewhere. We examine the impact of fiscal adjustment by itself, and when pursued in combination with tax, labor and product market reforms, using the IMF's Global Fiscal Model (GFM), calibrated to the German economy, the euro area, and the United States. We also explore the international spillover effects of demographic pressures and associated fiscal adjustment, and the benefits of cooperative action. In addition, we examine the extent to which structural reforms (including tax reform) to boost productivity growth, labor participation, and product market competition could ameliorate the adverse short-term effects of adjustment. The results suggest (i) substantial spill-over effects of aging on debt sustainability through international financial channels; (ii) the preferred adjustment package is broad-based relying on both revenue and expenditure measures while avoiding increases in direct taxes; and (iii) there are substantial benefits from fiscal cooperation. Nonetheless, even a cooperative response has initial contractionary effects, and we show that these effects can be offset by combining fiscal adjustment with expeditious implementation of structural reforms in product and labor markets, as envisaged in the Lisbon Agenda. Moreover, the benefits accrue early and to all income-groups if the reforms are implemented as part of a package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is based on a survey of doctors in which qualitative in-depth interviews were followed by quantitative online interviews. These were conducted with 80 general practitioners (GPs) in Germany. Special focus was placed on investigating changes in satisfaction, prescription practice and the image perception of doctors in terms of mergers & acquisitions (M&As). Enquiries were made into information-seeking behaviour, awareness of M&As in past years, and experiences with sales and marketing during M&As (as well as preferences), to name just a few examples. The expectations placed on sales representatives as a key marketing tool from a GP's perspective were also analysed. This paper provides an overview of the consequences of M&As on the everyday work lives of GPs. It should contribute to a better understanding of the needs of doctors following M&As and point out where further potential may exist in sales and marketing.Journal of Medical Marketing (2008) 8, 211–219; doi:10.1057/jmm.2008.8; published online 23 May 2008 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the central themes running through the collection of papers in this special issue of Childhood, which were all given as papers at the XVI Durban World Congress of Sociology, 23-29 July 2006. These themes encompass the ways in which global processes of social change combining modernity with tradition have become important for both the perception of childhood and for childrens real lives. They also include the ways in which those processes intertwined with social inequalities — of gender, generation and socioeconomic status — among children and between children and other age groups. The article goes on to provide an outline of the ways in which more general theoretical concerns in the sociology of childhood globally are related to local situations, to a variety of practical settings, to the conceptual concerns in different sociological fields and other social science disciplines in South Africa, Ethiopia, Taiwan, Germany, Sweden, and Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the labor market of temporary agencies in Germany. He describes the position of Randstad in the German market. As one of the largest temporary and contract staffing organizations in the world, Randstad delivered creative employment solutions with 312,000 flexworkers in 20 countries in 2006. Further, he also adds the results of some neglected international papers on the effects of temporary agency works and discusses the incentives of temporary agencies for flexworkers' human capital investments.