Aleksei Tikhomirov, “Luchshii drug nemeckogo naroda”, kul´t Stalina v Vostochnoi Germanii (1945‑1961 gg.) [“The German people best friend” : The Stalin cult in East Germany (1945‑1961)]

In June 1951, the security service of the German Democratic Republic arrested an East German citizen. The member of the People’s police had attracted the Stasi’s attention for several reasons. In private conversations with colleagues the former activist of the East German socialist youth organization FDJ repeatedly had boasted about his crimes against Soviet Prisoners of War. In addition, again and again he had swaggered about his ideas of racial German superiority and advantages of Hitler’s ..

Diplomatie für die deutsche Einheit. Dokumente des Auswärtigen Amts zu den deutsch-sowjetischen Beziehungen 1989/90

Im Jahr 2010 hat das Auswärtige Amt seine Akten zur deutschen Vereinigung 1989/90 freigegeben. Sie zeigen einmal mehr, dass den Beziehungen Bonns zur UdSSR im Vereinigungsprozess eine besondere Bedeutung zukam: Die deutsche Diplomatie hatte sich hier vor allem mit sicherheits- und europapolitischen Forderungen Moskaus zu befassen. Der vorliegende Band präsentiert die wesentlichen Dokumente dieser Verhandlungen. Von besonderer Bedeutung sind dabei die Protokolle der ausführlichen Gespräche der Außenminister Genscher und Schewardnadse. Sie unterstreichen die Komplexität und die Dynamik des Einigungsprozesses, der die internationale politische Landschaft einschneidend veränderte

The Internationalization of Central and Eastern European Companies - Foreign Market Entry Strategies and Human Resource Management

The first Article, presented in Chapter 2, identifies the motives and competitive advantages of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by PSE companies in advanced economies, thereby ad-dressing the first research question of this dissertation. This study identifies the motives and com-petitive advantages of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by PSE companies in advanced economies. The authors analyse Slovenian international business in Germany by juxtaposing eight Slovene foreign investors and three exporters using a multiple case study approach. Rich data from semi-structured interviews, field notes, key figures, and internal and external documents were ex-amined via content analysis to gain comprehensive and in-depth insights into PSE investments in advanced economies. Contrary to findings from other emerging economies, Slovene companies employ firm- and country-specific advantages, such as high technology, high service quality, and a highly educated labour force, to enter the German market based on market-seeking motives. Our study fills a gap in the theory-testing contextualized explanations of PSE investment in more ad-vanced host economies by offering new insights into the specific motives and competitive ad-vantages that differ from other emerging economy companies. It also expands our knowledge of the relevance of OFDI direction from PSEs and cross-border EU investments. The second Article, in Chapter 3 of this dissertation, examines control perceptions among Central and Eastern European parent companies and their subsidiaries in developed markets based on hu-man resource management and corporate social responsibility practices. The article, therefore, deals with the second topic of the dissertation regarding CEEC subsidiary management in the West and simultaneously targets the second research question. Using a multiple case study approach, we find impersonal and personal control mechanisms being used across three parent companies from the Czech Republic in their subsidiaries in Germany. We also identified perception gaps regarding the intensity of asserted parental control of subsidiary practices. Due to isomorphic pressures, con-trolled practices with high contextuality in the developed host market result in the perception of being tightly controlled in the subsidiary, which is in contrast to the parent’s perception. Neverthe-less, we demonstrate that close personal ties between parent and subsidiary managers alleviate the control perception on the subsidiary side, and consequently, the overall control perception gap. In the third Article, the dissertation's fourth chapter, we examine the extent to which home and host country contexts shape the communication of diversity management in the Oil and Gas indus-try across Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) through a qualitative approach. Therefore, the second topic regarding Western practice adoption and the third research question are covered. The article maps the institutional boundary conditions of diversity management across nine CEE countries and finds a lack of effective pro-diversity pressures across CEE, except for cultural and legal enforcement in European Union member countries. However, based on content analyses of the corporate dis-course in the CEE oil and gas industry, we find that the industry reports a broader focus on diversity management than previous studies suggest. Companies with subsidiaries in the Global North report etic diversity approaches to a higher degree. The authors deduct a convergence of diversity practic-es in CEE oil and gas MNEs towards the Western diversity paradigms suggests dominance effects in global diversity management

Global Dyson-Schwinger-Bethe-Salpeter Approach to Mesons with Open Flavour

Exploiting an interplay of the Bethe-Salpeter equation enabling us to regard mesons as bound states of quark and antiquark and the Dyson-Schwinger equation controlling the dressed quark propagator, we amend existing studies of quarkonia by a comprehensive description of open-flavour mesons composed of all conceivable combinations of quark flavour. Employing throughout a fixed set of model parameters, we predict some basic characteristics of these mesons, i.e., their masses, leptonic decay constants and corresponding in-hadron condensates entering in a generalized formulation of the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, contributed to "QCD@Work 2018 - International Workshop on Quantum Chromodynamics: Theory and Experiment" (25 - 28 June 2018, Matera, Italy

Diktaturdurchsetzung: Instrumente und Methoden der kommunistischen Machtsicherung in der SBZ/DDR 1945 - 1955

Aus der Einleitung S. 7: „...Der Streit um die letzten Ziele und Motive der sowjetischen Besatzungspolitik ist auch heute, über zehn Jahre nach dem Ende der zweiten deutschen Diktatur, nicht beigelegt. Die Vielzahl neuer Dokumente, die der Forschung mittlerweile in deutschen und in russischen Archiven zur Verfügung stehen, hat noch keine abschließende Klarheit bringen können. Dennoch weisen die bislang gewonnenen Einsichten und Erkenntnisse darauf hin, dass in der SBZ/DDR die diktatorische Entwicklung nicht erst im Ergebnis des Kalten Krieges oder gegenseitiger Fehlperzeptionen der Großmächte USA und UdSSR Gestalt annahm...

Hepatic excretory function in sepsis: implications from biophotonic analysis of transcellular xenobiotic transport in a rodent model

INTRODUCTION: Hepatobiliary elimination of endo- and xenobiotics is affected by different variables including hepatic perfusion, hepatocellular energy state and functional integrity of transporter proteins, all of which are altered during sepsis. A particular impairment of hepatocellular transport at the canalicular pole resulting in an accumulation of potentially hepatotoxic compounds would have major implications for critical care pharmacology and diagnostics. METHODS: Hepatic transcellular transport, that is, uptake and hepatobiliary excretion, was studied in a rodent model of severe polymicrobial sepsis by two different biophotonic techniques to obtain insights into the handling of potentially toxic endo- and xenobiotics in sepsis. Direct and indirect in vivo imaging of the liver was performed by intravital multifluorescence microscopy and non-invasive whole-body near-infrared (NIRF) imaging after administration of two different, primarily hepatobiliary excreted xenobiotics, the organic anionic dyes indocyanine green (ICG) and DY635. Subsequent quantitative data analysis enabled assessment of hepatic uptake and fate of these model substrates under conditions of sepsis. RESULTS: Fifteen hours after sepsis induction, animals displayed clinical and laboratory signs of multiple organ dysfunction, including moderate liver injury, cholestasis and an impairment of sinusoidal perfusion. With respect to hepatocellular transport of both dyes, excretion into bile was significantly delayed for both dyes and resulted in net accumulation of potentially cytotoxic xenobiotics in the liver parenchyma (for example, specific dye fluorescence in liver at 30 minutes in sham versus sepsis: ICG: 75% versus 89%; DY635 20% versus 40% of maximum fluorescence; P < 0.05). Transcutaneous assessment of ICG fluorescence by whole body NIRF imaging revealed a significant increase of ICG fluorescence from the 30th minute on in the bowel region of the abdomen in sham but not in septic animals, confirming a sepsis-associated failure of canalicular excretion. CONCLUSIONS: Hepatocytes accumulate organic anions under conditions of sepsis-associated organ dysfunction. These results have potential implications for monitoring liver function, critical care pharmacology and the understanding of drug-induced liver injury in the critically ill

Combined Application of X-Ray and Neutron Imaging Techniques to Wood Materials

Conservation of Cultural Heritage is extremely important not only from a cultural point of view, but also from a practical one. It is our duty to pass on to future generations the cultural heritage left tous by our ancestors. Wood is one of the most common materials used to generate works of art which are in a state of constant change and/or deterioration. In order to optimize the knowledge of artworks together with their conservation, it is necessary to use the most advanced scientific and technological tools. In the following paper, we will show the results which can be achieved by application of complementary techniques based on the combined use of X-rays and neutrons as structural probes

A distinctive gene expression fingerprint in mentally retarded male patients reflects disease-causing defects in the histone demethylase KDM5C

Background: Mental retardation is a genetically heterogeneous disorder, as more than 90 genes for this disorder has been found on the X chromosome alone. In addition the majority of patients are non-syndromic in that they do not present with clinically recognisable features. This makes it difficult to determine the molecular cause of this disorder on the basis of the phenotype alone. Mutations in KDM5C (previously named SMCX or JARID1C), a gene that encodes a transcriptional regulator with histone demethylase activity specific for dimethylated and trimethylated H3K4, are a comparatively frequent cause of non-syndromic X-linked mental retardation (NS-XLMR). Specific transcriptional targets of KDM5C, however, are still unknown and the effects of KDM5C deficiency on gene expression have not yet been investigated. Results: By whole-mount in situ hybridisation we showed that the mouse homologue of KDM5C is expressed in multiple tissues during mouse development. We present the results of gene expression profiling performed on lymphoblastoid cell lines as well as blood from patients with mutations in KDM5C. Using whole genome expression arrays and quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (QRT-PCR) experiments, we identified several genes, including CMKOR1, KDM5B and KIAA0469 that were consistently deregulated in both tissues. Conclusions: Our findings shed light on the pathological mechanisms underlying mental retardation and have implications for future diagnostics of this heterogeneous disorder