Electrostatic topology of ferroelectric domains in YMnO3_3

Trimerization-polarization domains in ferroelectric hexagonal YMnO$_3$ were resolved in all three spatial dimensions by piezoresponse force microscopy. Their topology is dominated by electrostatic effects with a range of 100 unit cells and reflects the unusual electrostatic origin of the spontaneous polarization. The response of the domains to locally applied electric fields explains difficulties in transferring YMnO$_3$ into a single-domain state. Our results demonstrate that the wealth of non-displacive mechanisms driving ferroelectricity that emerged from the research on multiferroics are a rich source of alternative types of domains and domain-switching phenomena

Transnational industrial relations in Europe

This is the third volume dedicated to a World Congress of the IIRA: the one for the Tokyo Congress in 2000 and it is dealing with the European scene. The perspective reflects the fact that Europe has reached a stage where it does no longer make too much sense to analyse national systems in isolation: they have to be put into the European context. The development of structural elements for a European industrial relations pattern has become an even more urgent task in view of the introduction of the European monetary union. Whether and how far collective bargaining can be coordinated throughout Europe or whether the trade unions are already in a stage to be a relevant actor on European level, are burning questions to be asked. The impact of already existing patterns of workers' participation on the spirit of European industrial relations has to be reflected. The still dramatic unemployment situation has led to a joint job creation strategy on EU level whose functioning needs careful analysis. In view of the forthcoming enlargement of the EU it has in addition become of utmost importance to reflect on the question how the industrial relations systems of the newcomers can be integrated in the already existing pattern. These and other aspects of the generation of a European industrial relations machinery are dealt with in this volume

Antibiotic resistance in primary care in Austria - a systematic review of scientific and grey literature

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Antibiotic resistance is an increasing challenge for health care services worldwide. While up to 90% of antibiotics are being prescribed in the outpatient sector recommendations for the treatment of community-acquired infections are usually based on resistance findings from hospitalized patients. In context of the EU-project called "APRES - the appropriateness of prescribing antibiotic in primary health care in Europe with respect to antibiotic resistance" it was our aim to gain detailed information about the resistance data from Austria in both the scientific and the grey literature.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A systematic review was performed including scientific and grey literature published between 2000 and 2010. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were defined and the review process followed published recommendations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Seventeen scientific articles and 23 grey literature documents could be found. In contrast to the grey literature, the scientific publications describe only a small part of the resistance situation in the primary health care sector in Austria. Merely half of these publications contain data from the ambulatory sector exclusively but these data are older than ten years, are very heterogeneous concerning the observed time period, the number and origin of the isolates and the kind of bacteria analysed. The grey literature yields more comprehensive and up-to-date information of the content of interest. These sources are available in German only and are not easily accessible. The resistance situation described in the grey literature can be summarized as rather stable over the last two years. For <it>Escherichia coli </it>e.g. the highest antibiotic resistance rates can be seen with fluorochiniolones (19%) and trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (27%).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Comprehensive and up-to-date antibiotic resistance data of different pathogens isolated from the community level in Austria are presented. They could be found mainly in the grey literature, only few are published in peer-reviewed journals. The grey literature, therefore, is a very valuable source of relevant information. It could be speculated that the situation of published literature is similar in other countries as well.</p

Lehr-Lernprozesse im Physikunterricht - eine Videostudie

[Der Beitrag berichtet aus einem Projekt des DFG-Schwerpunktprogramms Bildungsqualität]. Hintergrund für dieses Projekt sind ... die Befunde aus internationalen Vergleichsstudien (TIMSS, PISA). Die Studie untersucht den deutschen Physikunterricht und die Lernprozesse, die in diesem Unterricht ermöglicht werden. Ziel ist es, eine erste Bestandsaufnahme der "didaktischen Orchestrierung" von Physikuntericht vorzunehmen und insbesondere die Möglichkeiten für verständnisvolles Lernen zu untersuchen ... . Mit theoriegeleiteten Analysen von Unterrichtsbeobachtungen und von ergänzenden Daten aus Befragungen und Tests soll geklärt werden, wie sich Bedingungen bzw. Muster des Physikunterrichts auf Lernprozesse und Bildungsergebnisse auswirken. Der Beitrag konzentriert sich auf die Zielorientierung und die Lernbegleitung. (DIPF/Orig.

Conception, Implementation and Empirical Evaluation of a Domain-Specific Language for Multi-Agent Traffic and Transport Simulations

Conception and implementation of agent-based simulation programs is a complex task. One of the key problems is the requirement of technical agent-based software engineering expertise on the one hand and professional knowledge of the application domain on the other. Either skill set is rare and only few people possess adequate knowledge of both domains. A joint development of software engineers and domain experts is often impeded by inaccurate communication resulting from the incompatible terminologies of the technical and the application domain. This is especially problematic since every change commences a new development cycle based on inapt communication. Domain-specific languages (DSLs) are a promising approach to overcome this gap. A well-designed concrete syntax can serve as the communicational basis. An expressive meta-model in combination with a concise concrete syntax allows modelling on a more abstract level close to the application domain. Via pre-defined transformations, executable simulation software can be generated from DSL-models. DSLs thus have the potential to increase the quality of the software and at the same time accelerate the entire development process. Realisation of this potential demands a perfectly designed language which in turn renders a proper language evaluation indispensable. However, this crucial step is often neglected by DSL developers. Therefore, there is a general demand for further contributions in this area of language engineering. This thesis presents the development of a DSL for the domain of agent-based traffic simulation and vehicle-routing optimisation together with a comprehensive empirical language evaluation. It depicts how an expressive meta-model was developed and merged with a concise concrete textual syntax. It also presents transformations that allow the generation of executable software for different platforms. Most importantly, it provides empirical evidence that language users with little programming knowledge as well as modellers with advanced software development skills can benefit from the application of the DSL in terms of software quality and development time

Antiferromagnetic structure and electronic properties of BaCr2As2 and BaCrFeAs2

The chromium arsenides BaCr2As2 and BaCrFeAs2 with ThCr2Si2 type structure (space group I4/mmm; also adopted by '122' iron arsenide superconductors) have been suggested as mother compounds for possible new superconductors. DFT-based calculations of the electronic structure evidence metallic antiferromagnetic ground states for both compounds. By powder neutron diffraction we confirm for BaCr2As2 a robust ordering in the antiferromagnetic G-type structure at T_N = 580 K with mu_Cr = 1.9 mu_B at T = 2K. Anomalies in the lattice parameters point to magneto-structural coupling effects. In BaCrFeAs2 the Cr and Fe atoms randomly occupy the transition-metal site and G-type order is found below 265 K with mu_Cr/Fe = 1.1 mu_B. 57Fe Moessbauer spectroscopy demonstrates that only a small ordered moment is associated with the Fe atoms, in agreement with electronic structure calculations with mu_Fe ~ 0. The temperature dependence of the hyperfine field does not follow that of the total moments. Both compounds are metallic but show large enhancements of the linear specific heat coefficient gamma with respect to the band structure values. The metallic state and the electrical transport in BaCrFeAs2 is dominated by the atomic disorder of Cr and Fe and partial magnetic disorder of Fe. Our results indicate that Neel-type order is unfavorable for the Fe moments and thus it is destabilized with increasing iron content.Comment: 14 pages, 14 figures, submitted to Physical Review

The influence of general practitioners on access points to health care in a system without gatekeeping: a crosssectional study in the context of the QUALICOPC project in Austria

Aim To assess the rates of specialist visits and visits to hospital emergency departments (ED) among patients in Austria with and without concurrent general practitioner (GP) consultation and among patients with and without chronic disease. Methods The cross-sectional questionnaire study was conducted in the context of the QUALICOPC project in 2012. Fieldworkers recruited 1596 consecutive patients in 184 GP offices across Austria. The 41-question survey addressed patients’ experiences with regard to access to, coordination, and continuity of primary care, as well demographics and health status. Descriptive statistics as well as univariate and multivariate regression models were applied. Results More than 90% of patients identified a GP as a primary source of care. Among all patients, 85.5% reported having visited a specialist and 26.4% the ED at least once in the previous year. Having a usual GP did not change the rate of specialist visits. Additionally, patients with chronic disease had a higher likelihood of presenting to the ED despite having a GP as a usual source of care. Conclusion Visiting specialists in Austria is quite common, and the simple presence of a GP as a usual source of care is insufficient to regulate pathways within the health care system. This can be particularly difficult for chronic care patients who often require care at different levels of the system and show higher frequency of ED presentations