Digital diplomacy in GCC countries: strategic communication of Western embassies on Twitter

Drawing upon online communication research, this study identifies six effective communication strategies for social media-based diplomacy on Twitter: interactive, personalized, positive, relevant, and transparent communication among a broad network of stakeholders. By using an extensive mix-method design (i.e., combining a manual content and automated network analyses, N = 4438 tweets), this research examines to what extent these communication strategies are adopted on Twitter by Western embassies active in countries from the Gulf Cooperation Council. We found that embassies are not utilizing social media to its full potential. Although embassies are transparent, use positive sentiment in their online communication and post relevant information to their stakeholders, they hardly engage in direct interactive and personal communication, and only reach out to a limited group of stakeholders. We recommend embassies to put more emphasis on two-way interactive communication with a vast variety of stakeholders

Fission studies with 140 MeV α\bm{\alpha}-Particles

Binary fission induced by 140 MeV $\alpha$-particles has been measured for $^{\rm nat}$Ag, $^{139}$La, $^{165}$Ho and $^{197}$Au targets. The measured quantities are the total kinetic energies, fragment masses, and fission cross sections. The results are compared with other data and systematics. A minimum of the fission probability in the vicinity $Z^2/A=24$ is observed.Comment: 4 figures, 2 table

Unterirdische Deponie industrieller Abprodukte - cyanidhaltige Härtereialtsalze

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Results from 730 kg days of the CRESST-II Dark Matter Search

The CRESST-II cryogenic Dark Matter search, aiming at detection of WIMPs via elastic scattering off nuclei in CaWO$_4$ crystals, completed 730 kg days of data taking in 2011. We present the data collected with eight detector modules, each with a two-channel readout; one for a phonon signal and the other for coincidently produced scintillation light. The former provides a precise measure of the energy deposited by an interaction, and the ratio of scintillation light to deposited energy can be used to discriminate different types of interacting particles and thus to distinguish possible signal events from the dominant backgrounds. Sixty-seven events are found in the acceptance region where a WIMP signal in the form of low energy nuclear recoils would be expected. We estimate background contributions to this observation from four sources: 1) "leakage" from the e/\gamma-band 2) "leakage" from the \alpha-particle band 3) neutrons and 4) Pb-206 recoils from Po-210 decay. Using a maximum likelihood analysis, we find, at a high statistical significance, that these sources alone are not sufficient to explain the data. The addition of a signal due to scattering of relatively light WIMPs could account for this discrepancy, and we determine the associated WIMP parameters.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure