The Impact of Demographic Change on the Accessibility to Public Services for the Elderly on Children of Hannover, Germany

Late in 2009, the German government conducted an exercise to determine population trends for the next 50 years. This study indicated that the German population, which is approximately 82 million, is expected to decrease by 12 to 17 million people as well as experience a significant shift in its demographic profile (Statitistisches Bundesamt, 2009). The most significant finding from this exercise is the projection for a shift in the share of senior citizens and children with respect to the economically active population; children and seniors are expected to account for half of the entire population of Germany, whereas they currently only represent 40%. Additionally, the ratio of senior citizens to children is expected to increase to 2:1 by the year 2040, indicating a trend towards an ageing population. With this expected declining population and changes in the age pyramid, a renewed focus on planning for future investments has been initiated with an eye on effective and efficient resource allocation of social services

Analysis of the sugar transfer and metabolism in the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis

Die hier vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt die Isolierung und Charakterisierung des ersten symbiontischen Zuckertransporters, GiMST1, eines AM Pilzes. GiMST1 wurde zusammen mit vier weiteren Zuckertransportern mittels Sequenzanalysen in der Genomdatenbank von Glomus intraradices gefunden. Von diesen Zuckertransportern ist GiMST1 der einzige, der in planta signifikant expremiert wird

Nutrient interactions between sponges and corals

Corals are able to conserve and recycle inorganic nutrients in a generally nutrient poor environment due to their photosynthesizing symbionts. However it has been demonstrated that sponges are the main producers of nitrogenous nutrients in coral reefs contributing to a greater extent to the nutrient recycling than corals. The present study examined if sponges support corals in terms of nutrient supply. The study further investigated if sponges have an influence on the “well-being” of corals by releasing additional nutrients. Corals and sponges were incubated separately and together in either artificial seawater or artificial seawater enriched with cyanobacteria and nutrients (ammonium and nitrate). Changes in dissolved inorganic nutrients, in total dissolved nitrogen and dissolved organic nitrogen as well as in dissolved and total organic carbon were measured and compared between the different treatments. Furthermore, particulate matter on filters of the water samples was analysed for its carbon and nitrogen contents and ratios. According to the carbon and nitrogen measurements, sponges ingested cyanobacteria while the carbon and nitrogen ratios of the corals are not indicative of a consumption of cyanobaceria. An accumulation of nitrate was detected when sponges alone were incubated in water enriched with cyanobacteria and nutrients. This accumulation was not found in incubations of corals alone. When both organisms were incubated together a slight elevation in nitrate and nitrite concentrations occurred. Besides, the maximum electron transport rate of the coral symbionts was significantly higher in the presence of a sponge. These results indicate that sponges are able to convert the added cyanobacteria to nutrients and that corals may directly benefit from the additional nutrients released by the sponges

La asignación de los recursos públicos para subsanar el déficit de vivienda de interés prioritario en Bogotá

En el presente trabajo se plantea la problemática de la vivienda social en la ciudad de Bogotá y la forma en que las políticas publicas pueden contribuir a una asignación de recursos mas eficiente que permita subsanar el déficit habitacional, el trabajo hace una revisión de las diferentes políticas habitacionales de Colombia y otros países con el fin de exponer las cualidades, fortalezas y debilidades y su aplicabilidad en el caso de Bogotá.In this paper raises the issue of social housing in the city of Bogota and how public policy can contribute to more efficient resource allocation program to address the housing shortage, the paper reviews the various policies housing in Colombia and other countries in order to expose the qualities, strengths and weaknesses and their applicability in the case of Bogota

Addition reactions of quinones

The general purpose of this project has been to obtain a knowledge about the reaction of para-benzoquinone when irradiated with ultraviolet light in water or ethanol. The 1, 4, benzoquinone, often called simply quinone, is a yellow crystalline solid melting at 116°C and having a sharp penetrating odor. Quinone shows a marked increase in reactivity when it is irradiated with U.V. A possible explanation for this could be that the electrons in central carbon atoms of the quinone absorb quanta of energy. The resulting excited state could then leas to a free radical formation. This could account for the increased reactivity

Self-efficacy and instructional leadership: Does mentoring make a difference?

The responsibility of principals has shifted significantly over the past few decades. During 1960s and 1970s school leaders were expected to be organizers and managers of schools and to serve as buffers to the organization to protect a weak technical core. Standards-based reform, beginning in the 1980s, was in direct conflict with this mindset. Instead of protecting a weak technical core, school leaders had to focus on instruction guided by standards and demonstrate alignment to such standards. Today, there is an increased attention on academic achievement and accountability in schools (Leithwood, Jantzi, & Steinbach, 1999). Principals are being held responsible for the quality of their teaching staff and the results of high stakes assessments. Mentoring programs for practicing principals are limited and those for aspiring principals are inconsistent. Given the changing role of the principal in public education, the researcher conducted this study to determine how mentoring impacts a principal\u27s self-efficacy in instructional leadership. Data were collected through the use of a web-based quantitative survey. A sample size of 505 principals was captured. Principals were asked to characterize their mentoring experience and answer questions that identified their self-efficacy in instructional leadership categories. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. Major findings included the following: 1) Principals who were mentored had higher self-efficacy scores in each of the instructional leadership categories; culture, data, and enactment (school improvement, evaluation and curriculum; 2) Suburban school principals ranked their mentoring experiences at a higher level than urban or rural principals; 3) Principals who held doctoral degrees were more efficacious in all three instructional leadership categories; 4) Elementary principals were more efficacious in the use of data to improve instruction; 5) Principals who had served longer tenures had higher self-efficacy scores in building a positive school culture. The results of this research will contribute to the existing knowledge base about the effects of a mentoring program on instructional leadership self-efficacy and will be beneficial to school districts, college and university educational administration programs, and building leaders across the state

Guided democracy reversed terrorism. Regulation of state terrorism and exceptionality in democracy

The aim of this paper is to establish if the contemporary democratic model is guided and based on spreading fear and terror to exterminate the “enemy.” To do this, the first thing is to note the conceptual framework of guided democracy and reverted terrorism both spent legally and sociologically. Then differentiating aspects of democracy as “national security” were identified as well as the disruptive, economic and political methods, and, finally, the use of the criminal law of the enemy. With these elements, it will be defined if it is possible to affirm the existence of guided democracy in Colombia taking into account the factors and criteria described above.El objetivo del presente artículo es establecer si el modelo democrático contemporáneo es dirigido y se fundamenta en la difusión de miedo y el terror para exterminar al “enemigo”. Para ello, lo primero es señalar el marco conceptual de la democracia dirigida y del terrorismo invertido tanto desde lo jurídico como desde lo sociológico. Luego se identifican aspectos diferenciadores como la democracia de la “seguridad nacional”, los métodos disociadores, los económicos y políticos y, por último, la utilización del Derecho Penal del enemigo. Con estos elementos se definirá si en Colombia es posible afirmar la existencia de la democracia dirigida a partir de los factores y características descrita

Mapping Informal Settlements in Developing Countries using Machine Learning and Low Resolution Multi-spectral Data

Informal settlements are home to the most socially and economically vulnerable people on the planet. In order to deliver effective economic and social aid, non-government organizations (NGOs), such as the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), require detailed maps of the locations of informal settlements. However, data regarding informal and formal settlements is primarily unavailable and if available is often incomplete. This is due, in part, to the cost and complexity of gathering data on a large scale. To address these challenges, we, in this work, provide three contributions. 1) A brand new machine learning data-set, purposely developed for informal settlement detection. 2) We show that it is possible to detect informal settlements using freely available low-resolution (LR) data, in contrast to previous studies that use very-high resolution (VHR) satellite and aerial imagery, something that is cost-prohibitive for NGOs. 3) We demonstrate two effective classification schemes on our curated data set, one that is cost-efficient for NGOs and another that is cost-prohibitive for NGOs, but has additional utility. We integrate these schemes into a semi-automated pipeline that converts either a LR or VHR satellite image into a binary map that encodes the locations of informal settlements.Comment: Published at the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, ethics and society. Extended results from our previous workshop: arXiv:1812.0081