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The available skid resistance, or friction, in a pavement surface is a vital parameter for functional evaluations of roads due to its relation with crashes. Therefore, highway administrations must collect friction data on their road network to provide safe roads to users. Additionally, a prediction model that can forecast the available skid resistance in each road segment is necessary for an efficient pavement management system (PMS). The aim of this paper is to develop a skid resistance prediction model for the bituminous pavements of the motorway network of federal state of Bavaria, in Germany, with information that is typically available in a PMS: the Annual Average Daily Traffic , the Annual Average Daily Heavy Traffic , and the number of lanes in each segment. Despite its simplicity, with 6410 road segments of 2 and 3 lanes of the Bavarian motorway network, the model achieves a determination coefficient (R2) of 0.405. If information about the surface layer material is added, R2 increases to 0.480. Consequently, apart from predicting the minimum available friction in each lane in a motorway, the study underlines the necessity that a PMS should contain the recommended elements and additional surface layer material, because the quality of the prediction improves. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the swabian and franconian karsts of southern Germany have yielded rich and important neogene vertebrate faunas, the middle to late Miocene transition is still extremely underrepresented. This period is however key for the understanding of the European mammal evolution. A microtoid rodent Microtocricetus M2 is described and commented in this paper. The fossil discovered in the karst filling Petersbuch 69 is regarded herein such as derived and might be thus the youngest fossil of the genus in Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in the distribution and availability of images for personal use in the late Middle Ages raises the question of their potential historical value for understanding the societies that produced and made use of them. This paper exposes the effects and the historical meanings of some woodcut illustrations of disputations between Jews and Christians: the woodcuts were widespread during the 1470s and 1480s in Swabia and Bavaria and surrounding areas, and they are still familiar and continue to play a role in shaping perceptions of Jewish-Christian relations of that period. These images do not reflect actual events: rather they are misrepresentations of polemical anti-Jewish sermons, designed as fictitious scholarly discourses. Their historical value is not limited to their ability to expose hidden angles. They can guide us to a better understanding of the written sources and to find new meanings there. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In contemporary urban research, classical notions of differences in mentality between the urban and rural population as known since the writings of Cicero have once again become en vogue. The concept of ‘metropolitan habitus’, elaborated by British Sociologist Tim Butler, is the most influential revival of mental differentiation in this context. With the help of the concept of metropolitan habitus, Butler is able to differentiate between distinct gentrified neighbourhoods in London. The paper takes up this discussion of urban attitudes and lifestyles and presents a slightly different concept of habitual urbanity and residential capital, derived from the work of Pierre Bourdieu. The main aim of these theoretical ideas is the investigation of urban-rural differences and differences within rural areas in relation to urbanity, which is not possible with Butler's urban-focused concept. Therefore, the paper defines urbanity as the contingency of a city, which means its broad range of possible coincidences due to social density. Urbanity manifests itself in the greater scope of action of its inhabitants. Habitual urbanity and residential capital are instrumental in helping people to deal with the broad range of possibilities that urban life offers. After introducing this theoretical conceptualisation, the paper presents empirical results of a visual study concerning urban-rural differences carried out in South Bavaria using the reflexive photography method. The study reveals indications that habitual differences between urbanites and the rural population in terms of urbanity and contingency still exist. These seem to be just a matter of how to respond to the challenges of strangeness and otherness. The study thus demonstrates the empirical potential of the concept of habitual urbanity and residential capital. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Balancing the demand for ecosystem services (ES) with available supply is one key challenge for decision making in sustainable landscape management. ES demand is context-specific. Therefore, the assessment of perceptions articulated by multiple societal actors in different regions can help to identify differences and commonalities in predominant preferences for landscapes and their ES. The goal of this study was to investigate four societal actor groups (citizens, farmers, foresters, nature managers) in 12 study regions across Bavaria, Germany, with respect to their valuation of landscapes and ES provided by certain landscape elements. The 2,438 participants mapped specific locations and selected landscape elements that they perceived as valuable, and further elaborated on this value in open statements. We applied qualitative content analysis, word frequency analysis, spatial location-density analysis, and statistical testing. The perceived value of landscape elements for ES differed across actor groups and regions. Preference for landscape elements was driven by topography and land use and was significantly associated with actor groups. The most apparent differences occurred between farmers and nature managers. Generally, participants preferred forests, water bodies, natural landscapes, and distinct geographical structures. The landscape was mostly valued for its habitat, diverse wildlife, recreational purposes, climate-regulating functions, and provisioning of water and food. We conclude that, although differences exist among societal actors, the study respondents highly valued the importance of functioning and diverse ecosystems. The high perceived value for many ecosystem services and species protection suggests that ambitious policy measures are supported by different societal actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current paper examines an assessment instrument used for combined medical and occupational rehabilitation (MOR) in a group of German hospitals. Patients with a history of musculo-skeletal disease make up a significant proportion of those undergoing rehabilitation. Scale and factor structures, discriminant factors and clustering procedures used in the Bavaria rehabilitation patient assessment method (BRPAM) are investigated in a cross-sectional study involving a sample of 800 patients. Although the results reveal good correlation between differences in the job demand/patient capability profiles and the typical stresses to which the relevant occupation is exposed, analyses also indicate that several factors and items are unstable. According to subjective assessment by the patients, the therapeutic objectives are fully attained in some 80% of cases. Discrepancies between job demands and patient capability revealed by the BRPAM yield pointers to choice of therapy and its chances of success, but these need to be examined in greater detail in long-term studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives a critical overview of school reform measures in the German state of Bavaria in the aftermath of the OECD's PISA 2000 and 2003 studies. While the highly selective Bavarian school system has provided the best test results among the German federal states, its overall performance in an international context has been less impressive. In order to improve the Bavarian education system a range of initiatives has been introduced in recent years. While following pedagogically sound ideas in most cases, however, the projects have been hampered by fiscal restraints, ideological reservations against breaking up the traditional three-tier system of secondary education, prevailing bureaucratic restrictions, and a lack of improvements in incentives for teachers' involvement in reform. As a consequence, genuine, fundamental changes in the traditional system have not so far been initiated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decline of human fertility that occurred in Europe and North America in the nineteenth century, and elsewhere in the twentieth, remains a topic of debate largely because there is no accepted explanation for the event. This paper uses district-level data from Bavaria to study the correlates of the decline of fertility in that German kingdom in the nineteenth century, Bavaria's fertility transition was later and less dramatic than in other parts of Germany. Our results for Bavaria indicate that the European Fertility Project was right about the role of religion and secularization, but missed an important role for the economic and structural effects stressed by economic historians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Though Bavaria is far inland, at least 20 logboats are known, but only recently have some been properly recorded. This paper deals with two vessels discovered in the early 1990s. The remains at Laufen-Pfaffing represent a semi-manufactured logboat, which was purposely sunk as was the custom in Austria until the mid-20th century. The vessel from Wessobrunn-Blaik is also unfinished and shows several tool-marks. It is too narrow to float on its own: therefore it is part of a paired logboat. There is plenty of archaeological evidence for this kind of craft, but no ethnographic evidence. Apart from use as ferries, other uses are discussed. © 2005 The Nautical Archaeology Society [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

King Ludwig II of Bavaria was the subject of an extraordinary diagnostic process by a commission of psychiatrists appointed by the government when concerns were harboured about his profligacy of spending and about his mental state. Before being taken for treatment and being relieved of his royal duties, the king and his psychiatrist, Professor Bernhard von Gudden, died in 1886 in unclear and controversial circumstances. While a definitive account of the events that led to their deaths cannot be provided, it is apparent that Professor Gudden did not satisfactorily identify the risks posed by his patient. Lessons should be learned from his error and from other ways in which psychiatry functioned in this unfortunate case. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most research on parliamentary opposition focuses on constitutional and institutional aspects. This article argues that these approaches are limited in explaining differences between opposition parties. A case study of the Bavarian State Parliament supports the assumption that complex patterns of a number of factors, such as individual party groups' ideology and history, their members' socio-demographic background, and their informal rules of engagement, influence the way opposition parties behave. The study shows distinctive differences between the appearance and the strategies employed to influence the majority's decision-making. The Social Democrats, a traditional mass party with over 40 years in opposition, focused on a strategy of professional, subject-oriented cooperation within parliament. The Greens chose confrontational power policies that had their main effect outside parliament. This stands in line with the party's origin in grassroots movements and its culture of conflict resolution. The particular way of how party identities and policies coincide with the preference of one opposition strategy over another indicates that historic and socio-cultural factors are highly relevant for parliamentary behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the various ways in which regionalist parties approach the issue of immigration. Drawing on several cases, it compares how regionalist parties 'construct' the territory and how issues of diversity and immigration inform their policy goals. It is shown that mobilisation on immigration varies across regions. Whilst parties in Scotland and Catalonia have encouraged immigration as a way of expanding national membership and bolstering the labour market, those in Bavaria and Northern Italy have viewed immigration as a threat to their culture and economy. This article identifies factors influencing party immigration policies, including party ideology, local party competition, central government policy and other state-wide influences. It also assesses the extent to which European integration has influenced parties' territorial projects, in particular whether parties have responded to pressures to adopt EU norms and common principles, such as diversity and multiculturalism, in order to be perceived as credible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the possible seasonality of birth in adult patients suffering from glioma. For this purpose, data from the database of the population-based cancer registry of Bavaria (Germany) were retrieved. For the period 2002-2005, we identified a total of 2174 patients born between 1931 and 1986 diagnosed with malignant glioma. Statistical analyses failed to document a significant annual periodicity of glioma risk in either men or women with respect to birth month in the observed cohort. Thus, we found no association between month of birth and the risk of glioma. In contrast, an analysis of the official birth rate data of Bavaria revealed marked annual variation in birth rates up until 1965, which decreased markedly in prominence in the years thereafter. Our findings confirm the results of a recent similar study conducted in The Netherlands. Therefore, we support the hypothesis of possible etiological factors of glioma acting in adulthood rather than in the perinatal period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the continuing salience of the territorial cleavage in Bavarian party politics. It does so through an exploration of the Christian Social Union's (CSU) mobilisation of Bavarian identity as part of its political project, which has forced other parties in Bavaria to strengthen their territorial goals and identities. Parties have articulated different constructions of 'Bavaria' to rival the CSU's dominant nation-building project. However, they have been unable to portray themselves as 'standing up for Bavarian interests' due to the constraints of the state-wide parties to which they belong. As an exclusively Bavarian party, the CSU has no such constraints. Indeed, the CSU's core aim of strengthening Bavaria's position vis-a-vis the German federation may be viewed as akin to that of the Convergencia i Unio in Catalonia, Spirit in Flanders or Plaid Cymru in Wales. Like these parties, the case of the CSU in Bavaria demonstrates that sub-state territorial mobilisation has as much to do with negotiating autonomy within the state as seceding from it. To that end, the CSU provides a valuable case of how a regionalist party operating within a multi-level political system has sought to influence the regional, state and European levels to obtain a comparative territorial advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrogen saturation is currently one of the most important environmental issues in forests of Central Europe. In this study, a nested model design at different spatial scales is presented to predict the risk of elevated nitrate concentrations. The model was developed from a state-wide inventory at about 400 stands and a complementary regional survey of 64 stands in the forests around Munich. High deposition of ammonium and low precipitation were significantly associated with high nitrate concentrations. Especially site properties and forest type influenced the risk of nitrate leaching significantly. At the regional scale the forest coverage and the stand age contribute considerably to explain the variance of the nitrate concentrations. The results suggest that forestry policy and practice could contribute to mitigate nitrogen saturation and nitrate leaching by conversion of spruce stands into mixed stands with a high percentage of deciduous trees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article introduces the methodology of Web-based mood induction and it presents empirical evidence for its feasibility. The Velten procedure, autobiographical recall, and mood-suggestive photographs were tested for their effectiveness in evoking either a positive or a negative mood when compared to an untreated control group. The Velten technique and the photographs successfully deteriorated mood, but were unsuccessful in generating a positive mood. Autobiographical recall failed to induce either positive or negative mood. The effectiveness of these on-line techniques is compared with the effectiveness of similar off-line mood induction procedures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the application of a post-modern theoretical framework to examine the ideological construction of the concepts of Nation, Heimat and Vaterland by the Christian Social Union party in Bavaria, Germany. Analysis of political conditions in Bavaria; Overview of the position of the political party within German and Bavarian politics; Discussion on discourse theory and its use to characterize the dynamics of the bid of the CSU for ideological hegemony in Bavaria.

The great achievements of Bernhard von Gudden in the field of biological psychiatry are overshadowed by his two-day treatment of the Bavarian 'fairy-tale' king Ludwig II, with whom he drowned in the Lake of Starnberg in 1886. Gudden was in fact a visionary psychiatrist who blended a strong interest in neurobiology with humanitarian principles. He was far more than just a consulting psychiatrist to the Bavarian royal family. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Bavaria has achieved a dynamic change in its economic structure since the end of World War II, having evolved in the last four decades from an agricultural to a well-performing modern and service state. A wide variety of R&D-, SME-and infrastructure-oriented industrial policy measures have significantly contributed to the establishment of new small firms and job creation, the modernization of industrial structure as well as the economic and technology development in this German state. Bavarian industrial policy also stresses the subsidiarity principle and the working-together-through-dialogue principle of various groups including government, firms, trade unions, interest groups, etc. This type of loosely defined industrial policy has functioned remarkably well in the Bavarian-specific framework, in which a few large leading firms of international renown, in combination with the strong SME-basis, have played a key role for the rapid development. This study examines some major characteristics of regional industrial policy measures in Germany, taking Bavaria as a successful case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]