Dating of ice cores from Vernagtferner (Austria) with fission products and lead-210

Fission product (90Sr_ 90y, I37CS, total beta) and 2tOPb_210pO activities were measured in core samples from the temperate vernagtferner (3150 m altitude, Oetztal Alps, Austria). The results show that the investigated fission products are transported with water resulting from melting processes, and are sorbed on dust or dirt horizons. These products are, therefore, not suited for dating temperate glaciers. 210Pb is also transported with water and displaced from its original deposition. However, despite large fluctuations, the specific activity of 210Pb decreases with depth, and can be used to estimate accumulation rates and the age of the ice. The average annual accumulation rate amounts to about 80 cm water equivalent, and the deepest sample (81 m i. e. "" 65 m w. e.) was deposited in the beginning of this century. These results agree with data obtained from other observations on this glacier and show that the 210Pb_method is suitable to date temperate glaciers, if the ice cores cover a time interval of about 100 years (i. e. "" 4 half-lives of 210Pb). The surface activity of 210Pb was found to be 5 ± I dpm per kg of ice in agreement with other locations in the Alps and with measurements of fresh snow

Schriftliches Peer-Textfeedback unter Studierenden: Auseinandersetzungen mit dem Inhalt von fremdem Text. Ergebnisse der qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse von 6 retrospektiven Interviews

The paper at hand presents the results of a substudy from a 3-year research project carried out by the Bern University of Teacher Education, investigating how student teachers in their 1st semester deal with the content of other students’ texts when writing peer text feedback without guidance. In this study six future teachers were asked to substantiate their comments in retrospective verbalizations (see Linnemann 2017: 339) immediately after having written their text feedback. The transcriptions of the verbalizations were evaluated through thematic qualitative text analysis (see Kuckartz 2012). Whilst the result presentation is mainly category based, some case related results are also singled out, with a view to deriving observations for higher education teaching

Mapping economists’ belief spaces using survey data

Most survey research on the beliefs of economists has focused on measuring consensus within the profession. Researchers have given less emphasis to other aspects of the organization of economists’ belief systems. This paper shows using representative survey data for the first time that economists’ beliefs on an important subset of policy-relevant beliefs are ideologically aligned, despite moderately high levels of agreement on these issues. The analysis does not support the existence of a second dimension of alignment capturing a Keynesian/anti-Keynesian split on macroeconomic stabilization topics. Going beyond conventional methods, the paper also reports the results of belief network centrality and correlational class analyses, methods motivated by recent developments in cognitive science and cultural sociology. This analysis suggests that beliefs including those relating to inequality and redistribution, the level of government spending, environmental regulation, and the minimum wage play a generative role in economists’ belief systems. The results also indicate that the main source of heterogeneity in economists' belief systems is between ideologically aligned and less ideologically aligned subgroups. There is limited evidence of qualitatively distinct patterns of construals of relations between beliefs. Finally, although the analysis is tentative, I fail to find evidence supporting the hypothesis of a decrease in ideological alignment since the 1970s

Book review: Gregory W. Fuller: The Political Economy of Housing Financialization

No abstrac

Homeschooling :: jouer le rôle du parent-enseignant

Ce travail de recherche traite du thème de l’école à la maison qui est une pratique encore peu répandue en Suisse. Je me suis intéressée à cette pratique pour savoir comment elle fonctionne et quelles sont les bases légales qui la régissent. Le but de cette recherche est de comprendre comment fonctionne cette alternative à l’école obligatoire et de répondre à la question de recherche suivante : comment le parent gère-t-il sa double posture du parent-enseignant ? En raison de la confidentialité, je n’ai pas pu obtenir les noms des familles du canton de Neuchâtel qui pratiquent l’école à la maison. C’est pourquoi je me suis rendue dans deux familles faisant l’école à la maison dans le canton de Vaud. J’ai pu observer un moment d’école dans chaque famille et réaliser deux entretiens qualitatifs avec les deux mères des familles. Suite à cela, j’ai comparé mes entretiens entre eux ainsi qu’avec les observations menés dans le but de répondre à ma question de recherche. Parmi les différents résultats, il faut relever un aspect affectif qui est une tension de cette posture du parent-enseignant ainsi que la limite due à la socialisation