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The article informs that mass deacidification technology in Germany and its quality control. European archives and library preservation officers today are able to choose among several commercial companies providing mass deacidification services according to different systems. To develop a holistic deacidification programme, they have to be able to evaluate which collection materials should be subjected to such a mass treatment. Until recently, there has been no meaningful analytical procedure for evaluating the efficacy of mass deacidification treatments. Common tests provided only limited information and required destructive analysis on extensive sample material. None of these tests can predict the chemical stability or ageing properties of paper.

The global energy landscape is undergoing a significant shift toward green energy solutions, with Germany leading the way in the transition to renewable energy through its Energiewende initiative. This topic is of great importance as it offers valuable insights for other countries in the European Union and worldwide seeking sustainable and environmentally friendly alternatives for their energy sectors. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive assessment of Germany's green energy transition, focusing on the technological advancements, strategic management, and country economics that drive this transformation. Utilising a bibliometric study research method, the paper analyses data from scientific publications in the Scopus database and employs VOSviewer and Bibliometrix software to develops bibliometric maps of keyword co-occurrences. The analysis reveals the main changes in Germany's green energy transition, uncovering the meaning and important structures of keywords, suggesting new directions for research, and pointing out strategies based on the technological transition toward renewable energy sources and green job creation. By integrating sustainable development and technological changes, this study contributes to the understanding of green energy transition strategies and their impact on adjacent domains, offering valuable insights for business and society. Furthermore, the assessment of Germany's green energy transition serves as a valuable example for governments and policymakers in other countries, helping them to learn from Germany's experience and implement similar strategies in their energy sectors. The full paper will discuss the limitations of the paper and potential directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is among the most common injuries in forensic medicine, the identification of which is of particular importance in forensic practice. To reveal the circumstances and trends of TBI in the forensic field, we used the Web of Science (WoS) database for comprehensive retrieval. We made a metrological analysis of 1,089 papers in the past 50 years (1972-2021). The United States and Germany have the most forensic research on TBI. Diffuse axonal injury (DAI) has been the focus of attention for many years, and much effort has been devoted to its diagnosis in forensic pathology. Infants and children are the subgroups of most concern, especially in infant and child abuse cases. Research on identifying shaken baby syndrome has received increasing attention in recent years. Overall, our study provides a comprehensive list and analysis of the articles regarding TBI in legal medicine, which may shed light on recognizing the trends and research hotspots in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the process of recruiting a researcher with a learning disability at a United Kingdom (UK) university. Topics discussed include how the editors choose the paper, the job application process, and how the team works together. The support needed by people with learning disabilities when they apply for a job is also mentioned.

In order to find optimized headlight distributions based on real traffic data, a three-step approach has been chosen. Since the complete investigations are too extensive to fit into one single publication, this paper is the second of three papers. Over the course of these papers, a novel way to optimize automotive light distributions based on real-life traffic and eye-tracking data is presented. Over all three papers, 119 test subjects participated in the studies, with over 15,000 km of driving, including recordings of gaze behavior, light data, detection distances and other objects in traffic. In the first paper, an ideal headlight distribution for straight roads with no other road users was identified. The second paper aims to collect the data required to modify this idealized headlight distribution for use on real roads. The first step is to find the extent to which real roads differ from an ideal, straight road. To do this, the German traffic space was analyzed. A new test vehicle recorded video and GPS data over a selected route. The video data were then evaluated by a machine learning algorithm. Object recognition software was used to find different traffic participants and road signs. Camera calibrations were used to find the exact angles of these objects. Using publicly available road data combined with the recorded GPS data, the video data were split into different road categories, and traffic object distributions were calculated for urban roads, country roads and motorways. The resulting analyses provided representative distributions of vehicles and highway signs along different types of roadways and roadway geometries. The GPS data were also used to find the curvature distributions along the selected route. These data were then used to optimize segment sizes for an adaptive driving beam. Overall, increasing the number of segments above 100 did not have appreciable benefits. These data will also be used in the third paper, where along the same route, the gaze distribution of drivers was recorded and analyzed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to find optimized headlight distributions based on real traffic data, a three-step approach has been chosen. The complete investigations are too extensive to fit into a single paper; this paper is the last of a three part series. Over the three papers, a novel way to optimize automotive headlight distributions based on real-life traffic and eye tracking data is presented. Across all three papers, a total of 119 test subjects participated in the studies with over 15,000 km of driving, including recordings of gaze behaviour, light data, detection distances, and other objects in traffic. In this third paper, driver gaze behaviour is recorded while driving a 128 km round course, covering urban roads, country roads, and motorways. This gaze behaviour is then analysed and compared to prior work covering driver gaze behaviour. Comparing the gaze distributions with roadway object distributions from part two of this series, Analysis of Real-World Traffic Data in Germany and combining them with the idealized baseline headlight distribution from part one, different optimized headlight distributions can be generated. These headlight distributions can be optimized for different driving requirements based on the data that is used and weighting the different road types differently. The resulting headlight distribution is then compared to a standard light distribution in terms of the required luminous flux, angular distribution, and overall shape. Nonetheless, it is the overall approach that has been taken that we see as the primary novel outcome of this investigation, even more than the actual distribution resulting from this effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities find themselves faced with the conflicting institutional demands of being cathedrals of learning and research as well as introducing managerial and corporate-like structures. Despite many studies in higher education research that focus on how this situation affects the mission of universities, the role of imprinting has not received considerable attention yet. Our study aims at closing this research gap by analyzing the influence of institutional founding conditions on mission statements of universities. Results show that imprinting does not affect the introduction of mission statements, but rather their contents. The role of imprinting is, however, moderated by the power and the reputation of universities. In discussing these findings within the context of higher education research, our study contributes to a better understanding of developments in the field of universities.

The article deals with the problem of forming social partnership policy in vocational training of service sector specialists in Germany and Austria. The foreign and domestic pedagogical experience in establishing an effective system of social partnership in vocational education has been analyzed. The author has considered main factors of social partnership development in vocational education that influence the forming of normative and legal support; a multilevel structure of government management, powers of employers and trade unions, regional economic development authorities of local government (industrial, commercial, trade, agricultural units), professional orientation of future specialists vocational education institutions and enterprises where specialists are trained; continuous monitoring of labour market needs and dynamic response to its changes; mechanisms of multivariate and multilevel approach to vocational education funding. Based on the analysis of scientific and reference sources the author has concluded that the main feature of vocational education in Germany and Austria is the participation of social partners who make common decisions and bear responsibility for normative and legal support; a multilevel management structure; monitoring of labour market needs and dynamic response to its changes; an optimal combination of theoretical and practical vocational training of future specialists.

The IEEE International Conference on Self-Adapting and Self-Organizing Systems (SASO) is the main forum for studying and discussing the foundations of a principled approach to engineering systems, networks, and services based on self-adaptation and self-organization. Over the past decade, it has consolidated as the primary scientific conference for sharing ideas on algorithms, technologies, tools and applications across a wide range of scientific fields. In 2016, the conference was hosted by the University of Augsburg, in Augsburg, Germany; its scientific program comprised full papers, short papers, poster and demo presentations, workshops, doctoral symposium and tutorials. This special issue of ACM TAAS champions some of the most solid research results of SASO 2016, presenting selected, revised and extended best articles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper outlines the theoretical foundation of a skill enhancement programme in early childhood settings which follows the ideas of the Anti-Bias approach. A focal point of the concept is to acknowledge the connection between societal, structural and individual biases. It challenges those biases and assists educators in improving their competences to promote diversity. The paper describes the history of the transfer of the Anti-Bias approach across?three different international contexts. An empirical study is then introduced which is based on the combination of a document analysis and expert interviews of those who facilitate the concept. The findings reveal that developing competences in reflecting the individual self and professional actions are key methods, and they entail implications for concepts of enabling educators to support inclusion. Those implications as well as input on dealing with diversity in Germany are outlined. (Contains 9 notes.)

Dialkyl diketene dimers are used as sizing agents in the manufacture of paper and board for food contact applications to increase wetting stability. Unbound residues can hydrolyze and decarboxylate into dialkylketones. These non-intentionally added substances (NIAS) have potential to migrate to fatty foods in contact with those packaging materials. In Germany, the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) established a specific migration limit (SML) of 5 mg/kg for the transfer of these dialkylketones into foodstuffs. In order to investigate the differences between simulants and real foods, an analytical method was optimized for extraction and quantification of dialkylketones in edible oils and fatty foods by gas chromatography coupled with flame ionization detection (GC-FID), and additionally by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), to confirm their identification and to quantify them in case of interferences. Dialkylketones are separated from the extracted fat by alkaline saponification of the triglycerides. Dialkylketones migration from paper-based food contact articles into organic solvents isooctane and dichloromethane, in olive and sunflower oils, and in fatty foods (croissants, Gouda, cheddar cheese, and salami was studied). As a result, it was found that the simulating tests, including the edible oil extraction tests, gave migration values that exceeded the SML largely, while the migration with the food samples were largely below the SML. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

General practices are rooted in the local community and considered to be particularly well‐positioned for engaging in preventive and health‐promoting activities. The overall aim of the scoping review is to identify priorities and gaps in research published in the past 20 years on preventive and health‐promoting activities provided by general practitioners or their teams in general practices in Germany. MEDLINE and Embase databases were systematically searched in November 2020. Papers were selected in dual‐review mode and extracted in single‐review mode. Data analysis was finished by May 2021. In total, 530 papers were included in the synthesis. Little research has been carried out into collaboration opportunities both within the general practice team and in communities as a whole, with specialists (18%), hospitals (9%), and health insurance companies (6%) being the most frequent cooperation partners of GPs. 15%–20% of papers each dealt with 'early detection', 'information provision' and 'cardiovascular prevention'. Secondary (53%) and tertiary prevention (43%) was more often the subject of research than primary (39%) and quaternary prevention (15%). Healthy subjects (26%) were less often studied than people with pre‐existing conditions (42%) and risk factors (48%). Little information was available on preventive activities in terms of gender, young people, migration background, housing conditions or educational background. Personal counselling (15%) was the most frequently described approach to health promotion in general practices, along with printed information materials (10%). This scoping review provides information on which to base targeted interventions and future research that can contribute towards transforming general practices into promoters of health within the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports follow-up findings for an Mentalization based treatment (MBT) parenting intervention delivered to a community mental health sample. Parents completed the 12-week version of the Lighthouse Parenting Program (LPP) and were evaluated on parenting practices, parent-child relationships, parental mental health indicators, and child problem behaviour levels. We evaluated the extent to which improvements in mentalizing at follow-up mediated changes in parenting, parental adjustment, mental health, and child outcomes. Results included a reduction in parental coercive behaviours and child problems, improved parent-child relationship, and better parental psychological adjustment and mental health. Improvement in self-focused mentalizing were observed. Self-focused mentalizing mediated the changes in most outcomes from baseline to 3-month follow-up. These results provide strong preliminary evidence that the LPP improves parent and child outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) involves cognitive decline beyond typical age-related changes, but without significant daily activity disruption. It can encompass various cognitive domains as the causes of MCI are diverse. MCI as well as frequent comorbid neuropsychiatric conditions like depression and anxiety affect individuals' quality of life. Early interventions are essential, and computerized cognitive training (cCT) is an established treatment method. This paper presents the protocol for the NeuroNation MED Effectiveness Study, evaluating the self-administered mobile cCT intervention ("NeuroNation MED") in individuals with MCI to assess training effects on cognitive domains, health competence, neuropsychiatric symptoms, psychological well-being, and the general application usability. Methods: This study protocol presents a single-blinded multicenter randomized controlled trial that will be carried out in six study centers in Germany and Luxembourg. We included adults with MCI (existing F06.7 ICD-10-GM diagnosis and TICS ≥ 21 and ≤ 32). The intervention group will use a mobile, multi-domain cCT ("NeuroNation MED") for 12 weeks. Meanwhile, the wait list control group will receive standard medical care or no care. The eligibility of volunteers will be determined through a telephone screening. After completion of the baseline examination, patients will be randomly assigned to one of the experimental conditions in a 2:1 ratio. In total, 286 participants will be included in this study. The primary outcome is the change of cognitive performance measured by the index score of the screening module of the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery. Secondary outcomes are changes in the Cognitive Failures Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Health-49, Health Literacy Questionnaire, among others. All of the primary and secondary outcomes will be assessed at baseline and after the 12-week post-allocation period. Furthermore, the intervention group will undergo an assessment of the System Usability Scale, and the training data of the NeuroNation MED application will be analyzed. Discussion: This study aims to assess the effectiveness of a mobile self-administered cCT in enhancing cognitive abilities among individuals diagnosed with MCI. Should the findings confirm the effectiveness of the NeuroNation MED app, it may confer possible benefits for the care management of patients with MCI, owing to the accessibility, cost-effectiveness, and home-based setting it provides. Specifically, the cCT program could provide patients with personalized cognitive training, educational resources, and relaxation techniques, enabling participants to independently engage in cognitive training sessions at home without further supervision. Trial registration: German Clinical Trials Register DRKS00025133. Registered on November 5, 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: While extant research does mention performance management systems as antecedent to a management accountant's role, and that there is tension between both, there is little detailed research. Thus, this paper aims to investigate the extent to which a performance management system interacts with the role of a management accountant. Design/methodology/approach: The study is a cross-sectional field study, using interviews with paired management accountants and operative managers in 16 multinational organisations in Germany. The perspectives of both management accountants and operative managers are analysed separately. The role episode model theoretically informs the study. Findings: The findings reveal management accountants distinguish between three roles of scorekeeping, controlling and business support, similar to prior literature. By contrast, operating managers are concerned with the value-adding and non-value-adding character of activities and thus support a dichotomy of management accountants' roles. Drawing upon the role episode model, this study elucidates the interplay between performance management systems and the roles of management accountants, which encompass both role-taking and role-making dynamics. Additionally, this study contributes to management control literature by operationalising the components of a performance management system framework and linking them to the role of management accountants, as proposed by role antecedents in previous literature. The study also uncovers factors influencing role-taking and role-making, alongside examining the repercussions of role consensus or conflict based on the interaction with the operating manager. Research limitations/implications: This paper is subject to the normal limitations of case study research and generalisation. The findings may also be influenced by the cultural context of the study. Originality/value: An updated role episode model is presented, highlighting further performance management systems' components. The study also reveals factors enabling and/or inhibiting the management accountants' business support role and the impact of role consensus/conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research in economics and sociology demonstrates the existence of significant occupational segregation by sexual orientation and gender identity and differences in a range of labor market outcomes, such as hiring chances, earnings, and leadership positions. In this paper, we examine one possible cause of these differences that is associated with the disadvantaged position of sexual and gender minorities in the labor market: LGBTQ* individuals' choices aimed at avoiding possible discrimination. This paper examines LGBTQ* people's relative importance of income, time, promotion prospects, an LGBTQ*-friendly work environment, and diversity management in the decision for or against a job. Based on a discrete choice experiment conducted in a large online sample recruited through social media in Germany (N = 4,507), an LGBTQ*-friendly work climate accounted, on average, for 33.8 percent of respondents' decisions which is comparable with the relative importance of income. Overtime, a diversity management on company level and promotion prospects are less important in the job decision process of LGBTQ* people. While the results show only small differences by sexual orientation, they show group-specific preferences by gender identity. An LGBTQ*-friendly work climate is more important for cisgender women of the LGBTQ* community and gender minorities than for cisgender men of the LGBTQ* community. In contrast, income is less important for gender minorities and cisgender women of the LGBTQ* community than for cisgender men of the LGBTQ* community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This paper provides an initial exploration of Ukrainian–Russian bilingualism in the context of the war-affected migration from Ukraine to Austria and Germany. While extensive research exists on various aspects of Ukrainian– Russian bilingualism in relation to Ukraine itself, thus far no studies have been conducted on this bilingualism in the diasporic context, i.e., as a language of the first and subsequential generations with a migrant background in Austria and Germany. Methods: To address this research gap, our paper examines the language attitudes of two respondent groups with a Ukrainian background in the two countries: migrants and refugees who left Ukraine after 2014 and those who left after Russia’s invasion in February 2022. In the framework of a sociolinguistic survey, we describe their current attitudes regarding the use of Ukrainian and Russian, among others, in relation to the actual and intended use of the language(s) in the multilingual context of migration. The survey eliciting information on demographic information, language proficiency, language attitudes and language use was conducted on 406 Ukrainians in two host countries (Austria: n = 103; Germany: n = 306). First, we compared self-rated proficiency in Ukrainian and Russian as well as attitudes and use of these languages. Second, we applied a network modelling analysis to determine the nature of relationships between these variables. Results and discussion: The results indicated that proficiency in Ukrainian and in Russian were the strongest nodes in the model affecting language use and language attitudes toward the respective languages. Our data analysis focused on the pragmatic and symbolic value of Russian and Ukrainian playing a crucial role in the language vitality in multilingual settings. The paper discusses the imbalanced correlation of the symbolic and pragmatic value of Ukrainian and Russian in the diasporic Ukrainian communities. While Ukrainian has gained a higher symbolic status, Russian maintains a better pragmatic one, despite its negative symbolic status. However, we anticipate that the increasing symbolic value of Ukrainian and the diminishing value of Russian will lead to an increase in the use of Ukrainian also in Russian-dominant bilingual groups of Ukrainian migrants and refugees, even as an insider-code in hermetic minority groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests how lessons from Germany's national-level, comprehensively focused place-based regeneration (or levelling up) efforts could be applied in the UK. It draws the direct linkage between spatial inequality and the decline of large-scale heavy manufacturing industry at the end of the 20th century in Germany and the UK. It also posits that rapid deindustrialisation, poor-quality education and other indices of poverty and economic inequality have fuelled political fragmentation — including loss of public trust in government, national and civic institutions — in both countries. The paper explores and compares two sets of German redevelopment efforts over time, in the industrial heartland of the former West German Ruhr region and across the former East Germany, to assess their impacts on reducing political polarisation as well as bolstering redevelopment. It highlights which elements of these efforts have been most successful and why. The German experience, as described in the paper, clearly demonstrates that it takes decades to achieve measurable positive economic outcomes from redevelopment programmes. Political outcomes can also be mixed, even negative, if grassroots sentiment and public well-being are ignored or discounted in the process. In the former East Germany, despite huge transfers of development funds, grievances rooted in the economic and political dislocation of German unification in the 1990s have fuelled anti-establishment politics. The paper also examines how grassroots, philanthropic and private sector actors work alongside regional and federal governments in Germany in shaping positive political as well as socio-economic outcomes and how this might be most effectively adapted for the UK. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The political participation literature has documented a long-term trend of the normalization of noninstitutional participation that is often equated with the conventionalization of engagement in protest politics. Less is known on the extent to which noninstitutional forms are differentiated by their mobilization context. Population surveys find it difficult to contextualize individual engagement, and on-site surveys point to effects that are hard to generalize. This study fills this gap by emphasizing differentiation and distinguishing participation according to the issue of engagement. It introduces a conceptual distinction between political insiders and outsiders, defined based on the extent to which they are embedded in the organizational landscape of the dominant cleavage dimension. Using an original survey conducted in Germany during the Covid-19 crisis, the analysis demonstrates that general-population surveys are fit to examine issue-specific participation patterns. The results expose an insider and outsider divide, captured by the effect of attitudinal and behavioral indicators, and demonstrates that the two groups are equally likely to participate in noninstitutional forms. However, insiders engage on the established issues of climate and anti-racism, whereas outsiders engage on the new issues of Covid-19 related economic assistance and civil liberties restrictions. In addition, dynamic models reveal that noninstitutional participation is rooted in volatile issue preferences. Overall, the paper argues that participation during the Covid-19 crisis has furthered the trend towards a differentiated protest arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the causality between the German current account and financial account. It contrasts with past research which assumes the current account and financial account to be jointly determined by a saving-investment imbalance. Our analysis decomposes the current account into exports and imports (real resource flows) and the financial account into domestic capital outflows and foreign capital inflows (gross capital flows). Evidence from the Toda-Yamamoto causality test shows that for Germany from Q1.1980 to Q2.2023, the causality runs from the financial account to the current account. It is not real resource flows but gross capital flows which exert significant impacts on the German real exchange rate. The finding implies that over the long run, strong German capital outflows and weak foreign capital inflows contributed to weak wage growth and stagnant investment in Germany, sustaining the persistent German current account surpluses. A reduction of the German current account surpluses requires a policy mix of fiscal expansion and monetary tightening which would expand the absorption of German and foreign capital in the German economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines school management and policies in Germany and Australia during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study, which is comparative and qualitative, explores the interrelationship between different levels of governance and the responses of teacher unions. The inquiry is informed by the perspectives of historical institutionalism and path dependency, and the document analysis is conducted by utilising the justification categories of value, collective, and formal and procedural driven arguments. We argue the contestation which occurred between different levels of school governance and the teacher unions amidst the pandemic created the potential for changes in policy settings and influence over the administration of schooling. However, there is no indication of fundamental shifts in the organisation, policy direction or control over schooling in Germany or Australia. Instead, there is a conformity to established institutional arrangements and path dependencies, which secure and protect the vested interests of the different policy actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The introduction of self-service technology (SST), particularly self-checkout and self-scan services, has gained increasing attention from German retail. But to date, end-customer SST use has not developed extensively. The majority of German customers still prefer to use the traditional checkout service counter. The purpose of this paper is to explore how trust, fun, and usefulness can attract inexperienced prospective adopters and experienced customers to use SST. For this, our study investigated the intention to use an SST as a holistic system (self-scan and self-checkout) and considered trust in the SST technology for the first time. Also the interplay between fun and perceived usefulness has not been investigated before. The data were collected using an online questionnaire and in front of a German hypermarket that offers SST. The sample (n = 222) consists of both inexperienced and experienced customers. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling in SmartPLS4. Results demonstrate fun is a decisive factor for a holistic SST system that incorporates the task of self-scanning and self-checkout. This also holds for trust and perceived usefulness. With regard to experienced and prospective users, the results show different effects in the importance of both groups. Fun is crucial for prospective users. For experienced users, benefits and trust become more important for long-term usage. Trust is an essential aspect for both user types. Managerial implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper underscores the importance of securing strategic mineral raw materials for economic competitiveness, particularly in Germany. It highlights the dependency on imports, leading to reliance on resource-rich countries. The paper discusses the risks of this dependency, including supply disruptions from exogenous shocks. It explores national economic policies to increase supply security and presents a quantitative analysis showing that active resource policy can significantly reduce supply risk for national companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses Germany's approach to repaying emergency debts. It explores legal frameworks, fiscal implications and challenges in debt management. Despite legal obligations, public discourse often misunderstands the details of repayment, raising concerns about fiscal sustainability. The paper calls for transparent and accountable debt management to ensure intergenerational fairness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to examine the complex relationship between leadership styles, organizational performance, and employee retention across different economic systems. Furthermore, it seeks to illustrate how different leadership approaches impact organizational dynamics within different economic contexts. Employing a mix of case study and qualitative methodologies, the research investigates the multiple organizations in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, utilizing a structured analysis on the collected data. The methodology is designed to capture the nuanced ways in which leadership influences key organizational outcomes, including employee loyalty and organizational efficacy. The findings suggest that transformational leadership universally enhances organizational performance and employee retention, yet the effectiveness of leadership styles is significantly shaped by cultural and economic factors. In conclusion, this research paper indicates that adaptable, context-aware leadership is crucial for navigating the complexities of global economic systems, highlighting the need for leaders to tailor their approaches according to the environment in which it operates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In some countries, a sizable fraction of savings is derived from corporate savings. Although larger, traded corporations are often co-owned by foreign portfolio investors, current international accounting standards allocate all corporate savings to the host country. This paper suggests a framework to correct for this misleading attribution and applies this concept to Germany. For the years 2012–2020, our corrections retrospectively reduce German savings and consequently the German current account surplus by, on average, €11.5 bn annually. This amounts to lowering Germany's average official current account surplus (€226.6 bn) across these years by approximately five percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades, scholars have increasingly called for the 'deterritorialization' of the notion of citizenship. The realities concerning citizenship have changed with new expressions of transnationalism. However, whereas the main body of research has focused on the transnational aspects of citizenship among migrants in the form of their transnational political practices and dual nationalities, their descendants have received far less attention. This paper examines the political practices of Kurdish migrants' descendants in France and Germany and their narratives of identity and citizenship. We employ migrant descendants' political activism as an empirical entry point to gain insight into the meanings they attach to citizenship. The paper draws from two qualitative datasets collected in France (2015–2017) and Germany (2015–2023) with individuals of Kurdish background, who were born to migrant families arriving from Turkey in the 1980s and 1990s. The findings show that national contexts – both in grandparents'/parents' country of departure and the country of arrival – and the transnational, diasporic and even supranational space (EU) shape migrant descendants' political activism, identity construction and consequently resonate in the meanings they attach to citizenship. This study highlights the need to approach migrants' descendants as transnational citizens in their own right. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Raumforschung und Raumordnung is the property of Oekom Verlag GmbH and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The digital age requires people of all ages to communicate and organise their lives through digital technologies. The project EQualCare investigates how the growing population of older people living alone is managing this transition, how it shapes their (non-)digital social networks and what changes on a local level need to be brought about. This paper aims to give insight into the process of participatory action research (PAR) with older people in the community across four countries and reflects on experiences made by academic and co-researchers. Design/methodology/approach: Following the emancipatory underpinnings of PAR, which aims to reduce inequalities through collaboration and co-design, EQualCare involved nine teams of co-researchers across Finland, Germany, Latvia and Sweden making older people the centre of policy development. Co-researchers were involved in formulating research aims, collecting data, reflecting on data, formulating and disseminating recommendations for local policy stakeholders. Findings: Co-researchers' motivation to invest considerable time and effort was driven by a desire to create a more equal future for older people living alone. Moreover, they were keen to involve marginalised older people and became frustrated when this proved difficult. Power dynamics played a role throughout the process but became productive as roles and responsibilities were renegotiated. Doing PAR with older people can be emotionally challenging for co-researchers when negative feelings around ageing are encountered. Originality/value: The paper advances understanding on the process of PAR in ageing research by reflecting on the social, cultural and political contexts of doing PAR with diverse sets of older people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Small Business & Entrepreneurship is the property of Routledge and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: Hospital information systems (HIS) play a critical role in modern healthcare by facilitating the management and delivery of patient care services. We aimed to evaluate the current landscape of HIS in the specialty of gynecology and obstetrics in Germany. Methods: An anonymous questionnaire was distributed via the German Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics newsletter in December 2022. The questionnaire covered the domains baseline demographic information, satisfaction with daily use, satisfaction with implementation, and degree of digitization. Results: Ninety-one participants completed the survey. Median age was 34 years; 67.4% (60 of 89) were female, and 32.6% (29 of 89) were male. Of the survey participants, 47.7% (42 of 88) were residents, 26.1% (23 of 91) senior physicians, and 9.1% (8 of 88) medical directors. The degree of digitization of clinical documentation is mainly mixed digital and paper-based (64.0%, 57 of 89) while 16.9% (15 of 89) operate mainly paper-based. The current HIS has been in use on average for 9 years. The median number of different software systems used in daily routine is 4. About 33.7% (30 of 89) would likely or very likely recommend their current HIS to a colleague. Conclusions: The current landscape of HIS in gynecology and obstetrics in Germany is characterized by a high heterogeneity of systems with low interoperability and long service life; thus, many healthcare professionals are not satisfied. There is both a need to enhance and an interest in modernizing the technological infrastructure to meet today's requirements for patient care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The motivation for this paper comes from the recognition that our understanding of specialisation might be too simplistic and that the dichotomy of specialisation and diversification could be outdated not reflecting the richness of real complex economic and technological relations among industries. Drawing on a qualitative study of the Hamburg Aviation (HAv) cluster, this paper discusses the peculiarities of a cluster profile in the digital time - the age of Industry 4.0 (I4.0), touching upon the issues of cluster structure and the complexity of production, synchronising specialisation with diversification, branching, and bridging, and the I4.0 attributes facilitating complementarity. The final research proposal, which is empirically embedded in the studied context, states that related variety encompassing both 'specialisation in diversification' and 'diversification within specialisation' can be further developed by a blending process. This can lead to branching and is modulated by the universal character of the I4.0 and a problem-solving attitude. It takes the form of an additive (new entries) or multiplicative (spinoffs) evolution, and, ultimately, owing to the complementarity, it can provide sustainable competitive advantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Wiktionary is a collaborative web-based project to produce a free-content multilingual dictionary of terms in all natural languages and in a number of artificial languages. This study aims to provide an overview of the citation rate of Wiktionary. Materials and Methods: The primary source of data utilized in this study was the Scopus database. A REFERENCE search was conducted for indexed citations in the Scopus citation index, to find citations to Wiktionary in June 2023. Bibliometrix was used to design the keyword co-occurrence network of author-supplied keywords of documents citing Wiktionary. Results: This study determines to what extent the Wiktionary is used and cited by papers indexed in Scopus. The total number of citations to Wiktionary from 2006 was 1,766 of which the highest number of citations is 161 in the year 2017 and the lowest number of citations is five in the year 2006. Wiktionary is highly cited by the subject areas of computer science, social sciences, and arts and humanities. The analysis of the language distribution of citations to Wiktionary indicates that the authors of citing papers used Wiktionary in different languages. However, the English language was the most dominant language of citing documents with 1,642 citations (i.e., 93%). Conclusion: Wiktionary was cited 1,766 times in Scopus by different languages (especially English, German, and French) in different countries (especially the U.S. with 335 citations, Germany with 295 citations, and France with 122 citations) mainly by the subject areas of computer science, social sciences, and arts and humanities. The significance of Wiktionary from a citation analysis point of view goes well beyond open access and enhanced opportunities for citation in linguistics, natural language processing systems, computational linguistics, semantics, and ontology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Discussion Papers is the property of Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this keynote address given at the International Association for Citizenship, Social and Economics Education (IACSEE) Conference in July 2015, Sabine Manzel focused on participation and decision-making as key competences for democracy. She analysed with standardized videography how both of these competences are realized in classroom interaction.

Unlike in the US and other western countries, the higher education market in Germany has been sheltered from competition. This changed recently, when a governmental "excellence initiative" began to allocate substantial supplementary funds dependent on higher education institutions' performance, in 2005. This study is aimed at assessing differentiation tendencies arising from the acute need to become more discernible in an increasingly competitive environment. Based on a content analysis of the full sample of German higher education institutions' mission statements, we measure the degree of horizontal differentiation among institutions, applying correspondence and cluster analysis techniques. We conclude that horizontal differentiation is not incisive to date, and identify idle potential for creating a more perceptible brand personality.

Background: On August 5th, 2006, the third meeting of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilities (IASSID) Special Interest Research Group (SIRG) on Parents and Parenting with Intellectual Disabilities was convened in Maastricht, The Netherlands, coinciding with the 2nd International Congress of IASSID-Europe. The SIRG Parents and Parenting with Intellectual Disabilities membership includes scholars from a number of countries including the United States, Canada, England, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark, Iceland, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. These scholars come from a range of academic and professional disciplines, including sociology, psychology, education, nursing, social work and occupational therapy. Method: This position paper developed by the Parenting SIRG brings into sharp relief the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006. The convention affirms the right of persons with disabilities to marry and found a family (Article 23, (1)(a)). Further, states parties are bound to "take effective action and appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against persons with disabilities in all matters relating to marriage, family, parenthood and relationships..." (Article 23 (1)), and "...render appropriate assistance to persons with disabilities in the performance of their child-rearing responsibilities" (Article 23 (2)). Results: This position paper synthesizes messages from research about the challenges that parents labelled with intellectual disability face, and how they can be assisted in their parenting role.

In the Kupferstichkabinett (Museum of Prints and Drawings) of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin), the collection of the drawings and prints of Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1781-1841) is stored in cabinets made of laminated chipboard panels. The works are enclosed in portfolios that sit inside the cabinets on shelves made of bonded beech wood. Oddy tests carried out on the various storage materials showed their high corrosive potential on lead. In particular, the two wood composite materials caused a corrosion rate that was even higher than that of 5% acetic acid or 5% formic acid. The analysis of the air composition inside the storage cabinets confirmed this showing a considerably high concentration of acetic acid (4.7 mg/m3 on average) and a slightly elevated concentration of formaldehyde. Filling the cabinet and measuring its air composition in several steps allowed the determination of the main emission sources which were the shelves for acetic acid, and the cabinet walls for acetic acid as well as for formaldehyde. Further research on the organic acid content in the beech wood shelves together with a literature review led to the conclusion that formic acid is also expected to be present in elevated concentrations inside the cabinet. However, it could not be detected in the air quality measurements for technical reasons. In a next step, the ability of various historical and modern papers with and without alkaline reserve to adsorb acetic acid and formic acid was tested. It was shown that all papers adsorbed acidic VOCs in a relatively short period of time, whereas afterwards the adsorption proceeded more slowly. It was further shown that the sorption capacity of alkaline papers on acetic acid and on formic acid was five times as high as of neutral or acidic papers. Finally, the effectiveness of various measures to reduce the emergence of volatile organic compounds in the objects' surroundings was tested. The removal of the beech wood shelves led to a significant decrease in the acetic acid concentration, while the addition of alkaline papers did not show any positive effect at all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of ABI Technik is the property of De Gruyter and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Mutual funds often invest in other funds. In this paper, we analyze the economics behind such cross-fund investments and investigate their financial stability implications. Using granular data for the German fund sector, our main findings are that cross-fund investments (a) are becoming increasingly important over time, (b) were heavily liquidated during March 2020, and (c) display measurable contagion effects. Overall, cross-fund investments can elevate structural fund sector vulnerabilities. Authors have furnished an Internet Appendix , which is available on the Oxford University Press Web site next to the link to the final published paper online. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Polish Journal of Management Studies is the property of Czestochowa University of Technology, Faculty of Management and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper presents a data base of hydrochemical and hydraulic groundwater measurements of a younger Pleistocene multilayered, unconfined/confined aquifer system in NE Germany. The Institute of Landscape Hydrology of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) e. V. operates seven groundwater monitoring wells in the Quillow catchment located in the Uckermark region (Federal State of Brandenburg, Germany). From July 2000 to March 2014, water samples were collected periodically on different days of the year and at depths between 3 and 5 m (shallow wells) and 20 and 25 m (deeper wells) below the surface. The parameters pH value, redox potential, electric conductivity, water temperature, oxygen content, spectral absorption coefficient and concentration of hydrogen carbonate, ammonium, phosphate, chloride, bromite, nitrite, sulfate, sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcite, dissolved organic carbon, iron(II) and manganese were determined for each sample (doi:10.4228/ZALF.2000.266). The measurements, taken over a period of 14 years, include a high variation of hydraulic situations represented by a corresponding database of detected groundwater heads. The hydraulic head was measured between 2000 and 2014 (doi:10.4228/ZALF.2000.272). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An Inter-agency Panel of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) experts, drawn from seven United Nations and other international agencies, was one of the highlights in the programme of UNESCO's International Experts Meeting "Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability" (Bonn, Germany, 25-28 October 2004). The Panel was chaired by Jane Stewart, Director of the Skills and Employability Department at the International Labour Organization (ILO). Panel members comprised: (1) Arvil Van Adams, World Bank; (2) Ulrich Hillenkamp, European Training Foundation (ETF); (3) Wataru Iwamoto, UNESCO; (4) Gunter Klein, World Health Organization (WHO); (5) Akpezi Ogbuigwe, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and (6) Juan Carlos Villagran De Leon, United Nations University. The Chairperson asked the panelists to discuss the following questions: (1) What would a TVET system for sustainable development look like?; (2) Where is this on the agenda? What priority are agencies giving the issue of TVET for sustainable development?; and (3) What outcomes are the agencies' trying to achieve over the United Nations Decade for Sustainable Development? This article is based on the discussion of these three questions during the panel, as well as on concept papers provided by the presenters prior to the event. (Contains 5 notes.)

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic led to restrictions in production worldwide. Numerous firms were affected and unable to keep up production due to lockdowns. In disruptive events like this, the resilience of the production system is of central importance, as the survivability of the entire firm depends on it. In this context, the literature argues that cutting-edge technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), raise the proactive and reactive capabilities of firms, enabling them to better resist and recover from disruptive events and thus, show a higher resilience. This paper takes up this topic and observes the Covid-19 pandemic with the aim to analyse whether a firm's AI-readiness had an impact on its production resilience during the spring 2020 lockdown in Germany. For this purpose, we combine two large-scale surveys containing data from 237 manufacturers in Germany and test hypotheses based on quantitative analyses. Our results show that firms could indeed benefit from AI-enabled production during the lockdown. However, it is also clear that manufacturers have to exceed a certain AI threshold to significantly increase their resilient capabilities and realise positive effects. Our findings not only hold implications for research, but also provide recommendations for the resilience management of manufacturers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the sustainability of mass deacidification of books from the German National Library (DNB) and Berlin State Library (SBB) in Germany. It says that both libraries use mass deacidification treatment through Papersave™, CSC Book Saver™, and Libertec™ processes. It states the investigation of surface pH, alkaline reserve, and molecular structure of cellulose to determine the effectiveness of deacidification of books and the stability of paper.

Higher education institutions on their way to quasi-markets have to identify their distinct characteristics and nowadays, most of the German universities have published a mission statement. But since the tasks and mission of German universities are set for them by state regulation, the paper analyses for what mission statements have been introduced and what universities are stating in their mission statements. Addressing this question, the article reveals that mission statements contribute to constructing corporate images. Instead of defining a single overarching organizational identity that is distinct from other universities, mission statements express the tasks and missions that are set for them by higher education law and supplement these missions with distinct images. An important implication of this symbolic profile-building is that the underlying intuitional models of these images are related to the history, subject profile and often geographical location of the universities and thus, contribute to creating competitive fields of universities. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table and 6 notes.)

This paper investigates the Maximum Acquisition Values (MAVs) of weeding robots and their determinants in both organic and conventional sugar beet farming in Germany. The MAV is defined in this paper as the price of the weeding robot that renders the same net profit as the current weeding methods. For our analysis, a Monte Carlo simulation approach is used, combined with empirical data and data collected from weeding robot companies. The results show that the MAVs of mechanical weeding robots for organic farming are substantially higher than that of spot spraying robots for conventional farming. Technology attributes are more influential than labour cost in determining the MAVs of weeding robots: in organic farming, technology attributes such as area capacity and weeding efficiency impact the MAVs of mechanical weeding robots the most; in conventional farming, supervision intensity and the robot's ability to save herbicides are the most influential factors. The wage rate of unskilled labour, relevant for manual weeding, plays a more important role in determining the MAVs than that of skilled labour, relevant for supervision of the robot. This implies that a shortage of seasonal workers and hence increases in the wage of low-skilled labour could be important drivers of the adoption of mechanical weeding robots. Plot characteristics such as plot size and mechanisation level only have limited impacts on the MAVs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Erdkunde is the property of Universitaet Bonn, Geographisches Institut and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)