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The present study examines the effect of cross-varietal prosodic characteristics of two German varieties, Northern Standard German (NG) and Swiss German (SG), on the production and perception of foreign accent in L2 Belfast English. The analysis of production data revealed differences in the realisation of nuclear pitch accents in L1 German and L2 English produced by the two groups of speakers. Foreign accent ratings of L2 English sentences produced by NG speakers with no or extensive experience, native Belfast English speakers and SG speakers were obtained from native Belfast English listeners. The findings showed that segmental and prosodic characteristics play a role in the perception of foreign accent. In addition, they can be more similar across languages than across varieties of the same language. This in turn affects which and how cross-varietal differences in L1 impact on the degree of perceived foreign accentedness. The results are consistent with a usage-based account.

Tree fall onto railway lines puts passengers at risk and causes large economic losses due to disruption of train services and damage to infrastructure. Railway lines in Germany are vulnerable to tree fall because of the large number of trackside trees that exist in that country with approximately 70% of all railway lines being tree-lined. In this paper we first tested whether a hybrid-mechanistic tree wind damage model, ForestGALES, could identify the sections of the railway network affected by tree fall in two federal states of Germany, Northrhine-Westphalia (NRW) and Thuringia (TH). We secondly tested whether the model, in combination with meteorological forecast models, could predict where tree fall occurred during a damaging windstorm. We used information on tree characteristics derived from LiDAR and aerial photography along the railway line network in NRW and TH to calculate the critical wind speed (CWS) at which damage is expected to happen for every individual tree as a function of its size and species, and the underlying soil. The railway network was then divided into 500 m sections and the statistics of the CWS , tree height, and species composition (broadleaf/conifer mix) within each section were calculated. Analysis of past tree fall events recorded by Deutsche Bahn AG (DB) showed that there was a significantly lower minimum CWS and significantly greater maximum tree height in sections that had recorded damage. In a second step we compared the calculated CWS values for all trees against downscaled wind speed assessments across the two federal states during Storm Friederike (named Storm David internationally) on 18 January 2018 and tested the ability of the model to discriminate sections with recorded damage during the storm. Excellent model discrimination was found with an AUC value of 0.82 and an overall model accuracy of 74.2%. The first test showed that the ForestGALES model with precise individual tree information can identify the sections of a railway network most vulnerable to tree fall. The second analysis showed, for the one storm tested, that the ForestGALES model when combined with predicted storm wind speeds can identify the most probable sections of the railway network to experience tree fall during an approaching damaging storm. Such information could be of value in firstly planning remedial work along railway lines, and secondly preparing the railway network ahead of a major storm. • Tree fall is a major hazard to the railway network in Germany. • A mechanistic model could identify sections of a railway most at risk of tree fall. • The model identified sections likely to suffer tree fall prior to a storm. • Sections with tree fall had trees with significantly greater maximum heights. • The model can be used to identify sections requiring remedial action. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial patterns of near-surface wind speeds and resulting loss potentials associated with severe winter storms were investigated in multi-model simulations with regional climate models (RCMs), driven by ERA40 re-analyses. The benefits and limitations of dynamical downscaling for windstorm loss calculations were explored, including a quantification of the performance of the multi-model ensemble as a whole and the systematic investigation of the influence of model selection on the ensemble results. A comparison of the wind fields in the different models revealed both systematic biases in individual RCMs and model-specific anomalies over mountainous regions. Further, a storm loss model was applied to the RCM wind fields, and the calculated losses were validated against observed annual insurance loss data available for Germany. Generally, a distinct advantage from dynamical downscaling was obvious. However, all RCMs failed in realistically simulating 1 specific major event. If this particular event was excluded from the considerations, almost all simulations revealed high correlations (above 0.8) with observed losses, comparable to losses calculated directly from the large-scale reanalysis wind field. For the best performing models, considerably higher loss correlations up to 0.95 were obtained, suggesting that the high-resolution RCMs exceeded the value of assimilation in the driving data for the area considered. Combining calculated losses from the individual RCMs into a multi-model ensemble, the performance of the ensemble mean was as good as the performance of the best single model. Examining all possible sub-ensembles, we found that generally a higher minimum performance was obtained with a larger number of ensemble members, whereas the maximum performance was hardly affected by the ensemble size. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of our paper is to identify explanatory variables for income disparities between women and men across different regional types. Using data from the BA Employment Panel (BEP) descriptive statistics show that the gender pay gap grows wider from core regions to periphery. The main explanatory variables for the income differentials are vocational education in the men's case and size of enterprise in the women's case. Whereas in the case of women the importance of vocational status increases and the importance of size of enterprise decreases from rural areas to urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article mentions the anniversary of the terra rossa gallery in Leipzig, Germany, which has been in business for 15 years.

When deciding between alternative options, a rational agent chooses on the basis of the desirability of each outcome, including associated costs. As different options typically result in different actions, the effort associated with each action is an essential cost parameter. How do humans discount physical effort when deciding between movements? We used an action-selection task to characterize how subjective effort depends on the parameters of arm transport movements and controlled for potential confounding factors such as delay discounting and performance. First, by repeatedly asking subjects to choose between 2 arm movements of different amplitudes or durations, performed against different levels of force, we identified parameter combinations that subjects experienced as identical in effort (isoeffort curves). Movements with a long duration were judged more effortful than short-duration movements against the same force, while movement amplitudes did not influence effort. Biomechanics of the movements also affected effort, as movements towards the body midline were preferred to movements away from it. Second, by introducing movement repetitions, we further determined that the cost function for choosing between effortful movements had a quadratic relationship with force, while choices were made on the basis of the logarithm of these costs. Our results show that effort-based action selection during reaching cannot easily be explained by metabolic costs. Instead, force-loaded reaches, a widely occurring natural behavior, imposed an effort cost for decision making similar to cost functions in motor control. Our results thereby support the idea that motor control and economic choice are governed by partly overlapping optimization principles.