The Problem of Political Exchange in Complex Governance Systems: The Case of Germany's Alliance for Jobs

A number of continental states have adopted tripartite concertation in order to reform their welfare and employment regimes. The German welfare state, in contrast, was highly resistant to reform efforts during the 1990s. The article analyses the emergence of tripartite concertation in Germany. It presents two arguments. First, unlike many European countries, Germany encountered major economic problems only from the mid-1990s. Second, the German case illustrates the very complex nature of institutional barriers which restrict government intervention in policy fields. The examples of the Alliances for Jobs in 1995 and 1998 show the interaction between institutional barriers and reform policies

The Craft of Cross-Cultural Engagement

How might Extension professionals become proficient in engaging communities with knowledge that does not correspond to our own scientific understandings? Cross-cultural engagement (CCE) requires a commitment toward building trust as a foundation for greater relationship and asks us to think within other worldviews in order to understand divergent knowledge. This is quite different from learning about other worldviews from a familiar or scientific perspective. CCE brings diversity of perspective and with it new possibilities for innovation at land-grant universities

What accounts for good practice? Assessment of obesity prevention projects for kindergarten children in Germany

Objective: Up to now, no guideline has been set up that provides criteria for good practice in universal and selective childhood obesity prevention projects for children aged 3 to 6 in the kindergarten setting. Hence, based on guidelines for targeted prevention, the present study not only aims at assessing the current state of German universal and selective childhood obesity prevention projects in kindergartens, but also at deriving criteria of good practice in order to help fill this gap. Methods: An assessment of German childhood obesity prevention projects in the kindergarten setting was carried out by investigating prevention projects. Results: We identified 78 projects. It was not possible to find adequate information on all derived criteria at hand. We assessed the documentation in the databases as rather insufficient and fragmentary. Based on the documented data and the additional telephone inquiry, the identification of good practice projects seems rather difficult. Conclusion: The derived criteria are helpful to access universal and selective childhood obesity projects, but in the future the documentation in the databases needs to be augmented in order to increase project transparency and comparability

Oxygen permeation modelling of perovskites

A point defect model was used to describe the oxygen nonstoichiometry of the perovskites La0.75Sr0.25CrO3, La0.9Sr0.1FeO3, La0.9Sr0.1CoO3 and La0.8Sr0.2MnO3 as a function of the oxygen partial pressure. Form the oxygen vacancy concentration predicte by the point defect model, the ionic conductivity was calculated assuming a vacancy diffusion mechanism. The ionic conductivity was combined with the Wagner model for the oxidation of metals to yield an analytical expression for the oxygen permeation current density as a function of the oxygen partial pressure gradient. A linear boundary condition was used to show the effect of a limiting oxygen exchange rate at the surface

The use of non-vacuum electron beam (NVEB) technology as an universal manufacturing process for welding and cutting of high-strength steels

This publication presents the advantages of NVEB technology as an universal tool for material processing based on our investigations on welding and cutting of high-strength S960QL, S1100 and S1300 steels. In this work, the effect of welding cooling time t8/5 on the microstructure of the heat-affected zone (HAZ) and mechanical properties of the joints were investigated. The new process NVEB-cutting with a local suction produces extremely high cutting speeds, up to 17 m/min with high quality edges, render this method a significant development for new NVEB-applications. To demonstrate the capabilities of the non-vacuum electron beam as a universal tool for the technological process chain, the samples of steel S1100QL were made, while cutting and welding was carried out by one machine basement. The experimental results will be shown and discussed

First Calorimetric Measurement of OI-line in the Electron Capture Spectrum of 163^{163}Ho

The isotope $^{163}$Ho undergoes an electron capture process with a recommended value for the energy available to the decay, $Q_{\rm EC}$, of about 2.5 keV. According to the present knowledge, this is the lowest $Q_{\rm EC}$ value for electron capture processes. Because of that, $^{163}$Ho is the best candidate to perform experiments to investigate the value of the electron neutrino mass based on the analysis of the calorimetrically measured spectrum. We present for the first time the calorimetric measurement of the atomic de-excitation of the $^{163}$Dy daughter atom upon the capture of an electron from the 5s shell in $^{163}$Ho, OI-line. The measured peak energy is 48 eV. This measurement was performed using low temperature metallic magnetic calorimeters with the $^{163}$Ho ion implanted in the absorber. We demonstrate that the calorimetric spectrum of $^{163}$Ho can be measured with high precision and that the parameters describing the spectrum can be learned from the analysis of the data. Finally, we discuss the implications of this result for the Electron Capture $^{163}$Ho experiment, ECHo, aiming to reach sub-eV sensitivity on the electron neutrino mass by a high precision and high statistics calorimetric measurement of the $^{163}$Ho spectrum.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

Herschel observations of EXtra-Ordinary Sources: Analysis of the HIFI 1.2 THz Wide Spectral Survey Toward Orion KL II. Chemical Implications

We present chemical implications arising from spectral models fit to the Herschel/HIFI spectral survey toward the Orion Kleinmann-Low nebula (Orion KL). We focus our discussion on the eight complex organics detected within the HIFI survey utilizing a novel technique to identify those molecules emitting in the hottest gas. In particular, we find the complex nitrogen bearing species CH$_{3}$CN, C$_{2}$H$_{3}$CN, C$_{2}$H$_{5}$CN, and NH$_{2}$CHO systematically trace hotter gas than the oxygen bearing organics CH$_{3}$OH, C$_{2}$H$_{5}$OH, CH$_{3}$OCH$_{3}$, and CH$_{3}$OCHO, which do not contain nitrogen. If these complex species form predominantly on grain surfaces, this may indicate N-bearing organics are more difficult to remove from grain surfaces than O-bearing species. Another possibility is that hot (T$_{\rm kin}$$\sim$300 K) gas phase chemistry naturally produces higher complex cyanide abundances while suppressing the formation of O-bearing complex organics. We compare our derived rotation temperatures and molecular abundances to chemical models, which include gas-phase and grain surface pathways. Abundances for a majority of the detected complex organics can be reproduced over timescales $\gtrsim$ 10$^{5}$ years, with several species being under predicted by less than 3$\sigma$. Derived rotation temperatures for most organics, furthermore, agree reasonably well with the predicted temperatures at peak abundance. We also find that sulfur bearing molecules which also contain oxygen (i.e. SO, SO$_{2}$, and OCS) tend to probe the hottest gas toward Orion KL indicating the formation pathways for these species are most efficient at high temperatures.Comment: 31 pages, 6 figures, 1 Table, accepted to the Astrophysical Journa