The wave 6 NEPS adult study incentive experiment

"In wave 6 of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) adult starting cohort, an incentive experiment was conducted that randomly switched respondent cash incentives from promised to (partly) prepaid for half of the eligible sample. This research note examines the effects that this change in incentive scheme had on response rates, on sample composition in terms of some key survey variables, and fieldwork efforts by interviewers. We find moderately sized positive effects on overall response rates. The switch in incentive scheme appears to be particularly effective in raising response rates of low educated individuals and those with low reading and mathematics competencies, subgroups that participated underproportionately in prior waves. This differential reaction to the changed incentive scheme therefore leads to a somewhat more balanced sample composition along these dimensions. In line with prior studies, effects on fieldwork efforts such as the number of contact attempts to obtain an interview could be found, but are small in magnitude." (author's abstract

Soziale Herkunft, Lebensverlaufsereignisse und die verspätete Aufnahme einer beruflichen Ausbildung formal Geringqualifizierter

Rund ein Viertel der Sekundarstufe-I-Absolventen in Deutschland erwirbt bis zum 25. Lebensjahr keinen beruflichen Abschluss. Diese Gruppe der formal Geringqualifizierten weist ein deutlich erhöhtes Risiko auf, erwerbslos zu sein, ein niedriges Einkommen zu beziehen oder eine prekäre Erwerbstätigkeit auszuüben. Dieser Beitrag geht der Frage nach, welche Faktoren formal Geringqualifizierte motivieren, ab dem 25. Lebensjahr noch eine berufliche Erstausbildung aufzunehmen. Zur Begründung nachholender Bildungsentscheidungen wird einerseits auf Theorien sozialer Herkunft und andererseits auf individuelle Lebensverlaufsereignisse (Bildungs- und Erwerbsverlauf sowie Migration) Bezug genommen. Unter Verwendung von Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanel (NEPS SC6:7.0.0) belegen Logit-Regressionen, dass formal Geringqualifizierte aus bildungsnahen Elternhäusern mit höherer Wahrscheinlichkeit ab dem Alter von 25 Jahren noch eine erste berufliche Ausbildung aufnehmen als formal Geringqualifizierte anderer Herkunftsgruppen. Während der individuelle Bildungsverlauf einen schwachen Einfluss auf verspätete Bildungsentscheidungen ausübt, erweist sich der individuelle Erwerbsverlauf bis zur Bildungsentscheidung als äußerst relevant. Langzeitarbeitslose und formal Geringqualifizierte, die sich am Arbeitsmarkt etabliert haben (d. h. Personen mit hoher Erwerbserfahrung und Betriebszugehörigkeit), haben eine geringe Neigung, verspätet in berufliche Bildung zu investieren. Bei Personen mit Migrationshintergrund kommt insbesondere dem Alter beim Zuzug nach Deutschland Bedeutung zu. Insgesamt verweisen die Befunde auf ein beachtliches Potenzial für die berufliche Bildung in Deutschland, das bislang zu wenig ausgeschöpft wird.Approximately one quarter of all school leavers from lower secondary education does not finish apprenticeship training or an equivalent school-based vocational training in Germany before age 25. This group of low-qualified individuals suffers from a clearly increased risk of being unemployed, of having a low income and being employed in precarious jobs. This article identifies factors, which motivate low-qualified individuals aged 25 and older to start a vocational training. In doing so, the article focuses on both social origin and specific life course events, such as the individual educational and employment career and immigration. Results from logit regression models employing data from the national educational panel (NEPS SC6:7.0.0) indicate that low-qualified individuals from an educated family background are more likely to start vocational training past the age of 25, compared to other low-qualified individuals. Whilst individual school experience contributes less to a delayed vocational training, individual employment experience appears to be relevant. Both low-qualified individuals with long-term unemployment experience and low-qualified individuals who report above average work experience or tenure are less motivated for a delayed vocational training decision. Immigrants who arrived in Germany after school age show above average training motivation. In general, the study identified a quantitatively relevant group of low-qualified individuals; a group that needs more support to invest in vocational training

Investigating how Users Imagine their Personal Privacy Assistant

Personal Privacy Assistants (PPAs) can support users in managing their privacy. Conducting a user study, we provide qualitative and quantitative insights into how users imagine their PPA and how PPAs designs can appear for different user groups. We highlight five aspects derived from the literature that are essential when designing a PPA: What features should the PPA have? How should the PPA learn the users’ preferences? What level of user involvement in its decisions should the PPAs have? Which vendor should offer the PPA? What data are users willing to disclose to their PPA? Our results provide a holistic view of user perceptions of PPAs. We identify two user groups that differ in their characteristics, such as technology affinity and privacy concerns, and have different ideas of a PPA in terms of automation level and provider, for example. We discuss our results in relation to the literature and derive recommendations for designing PPAs to fulfill user needs

Approaching prehistoric demography: proxies, scales and scope of the Cologne Protocol in European contexts

In many theories on the social and cultural evolution of human societies, the number and density of people living together in a given time and region is a crucial factor. Because direct data on past demographic developments are lacking, and reliability and validity of demographic proxies require careful evaluation, the topic has been approached from several different directions. This paper provides an introduction to a geostatistical approach for estimating prehistoric population size and density, the so-called Cologne Protocol and discusses underlying theoretical assumptions and upscaling transfer-functions between different spatial scale levels. We describe and compare the specifics for farming and for foraging societies and, using examples, discuss a diachronic series of estimates, covering the population dynamics of roughly 40 kyr of European prehistory. Ethnohistoric accounts, results from other approaches—including absolute (ethno-environmental models) and relative estimates (site-numbers, dates as data, etc.) allow a first positioning of the estimates within this field of research. Future enhancements, applications and testing of the Cologne Protocol are outlined and positioned within the general theoretical and methodological avenues of palaeodemographic research. In addition, we provide manuals for modelling Core Areas in MapInfo, ArcGIS, QGIS/Saga and R. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cross-disciplinary approaches to prehistoric demography’

The association of late-acting snoRNPs with human pre-ribosomal complexes requires the RNA helicase DDX21

Translation fidelity and efficiency require multiple ribosomal (r)RNA modifications that are mostly mediated by small nucleolar (sno)RNPs during ribosome production. Overlapping basepairing of snoRNAs with pre-rRNAs often necessitates sequential and efficient association and dissociation of the snoRNPs, however, how such hierarchy is established has remained unknown so far. Here, we identify several late-acting snoRNAs that bind pre-40S particles in human cells and show that their association and function in pre-40S complexes is regulated by the RNA helicase DDX21. We map DDX21 crosslinking sites on pre-rRNAs and show their overlap with the basepairing sites of the affected snoRNAs. While DDX21 activity is required for recruitment of the late-acting snoRNAs SNORD56 and SNORD68, earlier snoRNAs are not affected by DDX21 depletion. Together, these observations provide an understanding of the timing and ordered hierarchy of snoRNP action in pre-40S maturation and reveal a novel mode of regulation of snoRNP function by an RNA helicase in human cells