Sozialmodelle im internationalen Vergleich: wo stehen die neuen EU-Mitgliedstaaten

This paper explores social models in Europe with focus on the new EU Member States in a comparative perspective. The analysis is based on indicators representing the main tasks of social models. Principal components analysis yields three synthetic factors that reflect these tasks: the factor labour market security captures the flexibility and income security on labour markets. It might be interpreted as an indicator of flexicurity which plays a dominant role in the modernization of European social models as envisaged by the Lisbon strategy. Further factors are social equity and personal responsibility; the latter characterizing the trade-off between the usage of welfare transfers and the regulat-ing power of liberal employment protection. These components give rise to five country groups which however only partially coincide with the regional clustering proposed in the literature. Most of the new EU-member states together with Italy and Greece form a group of their own which is characterised by low labour market security and low personal responsibility

The Orange and the Green: National and Religious Identity of Young Adults in Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has traditionally housed a discordant mix of those that identify as Irish Catholic and those that consider themselves British Protestant. After a thirty-year period of political and ethnic violence known as the Troubles, these two groups came to peace terms in 1998. Yet, a sense of distinction between Irish Catholics and British Protestants remains in this society today. Research indicates that identity is changing in Northern Ireland in both kind and numbers, and individuals now form identity in a climate vastly different than that of their parents. While there is a wealth of research on the general population and youth in Northern Ireland, little qualitative focus has been given to young adults in the region, particularly in religion. My primary research questions are, 1) How do young adults in Northern Ireland identify religiously and nationally? and 2) How do they form this identity?. Using a social identity perspective, sixteen qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted in Belfast, Northern Ireland with those ages 18-35. Structured questions were asked to all participants, designed to elicit narratives about the nature and formation of national and religious identities. Results indicate that while these two identities were previously nearly synonymous, young adults in Northern Ireland today disassociate with a religious identity yet retain a national identity. Furthermore, young adults categorize society by level of tolerance, and form national and religious identity from parental influence and geographic upbringing. Through this research, I hope to present a more accurate portrayal of the current religious and national climate in Northern Ireland and the evolution of identity for young adults in this area.Arts and Sciences International Research GrantArts and Sciences Undergraduate Research ScholarshipURO Undergraduate Education Summer Research FellowshipNo embargoAcademic Major: PsychologyAcademic Major: Sociolog

Virtual Reference for Video Collections: System Infrastructure, User Interface and Pilot User Study

A new video-based Virtual Reference (VR) tool called VideoHelp was designed and developed to support video navigation escorting, a function that enables librarians to co-navigate a digital video with patrons in the web-based environment. A client/server infrastructure was adopted for the VideoHelp system and timestamps were used to achieve the video synchronization between the librarians and patrons. A pilot usability study of using VideoHelp prototype in video seeking was conducted and the preliminary results demonstrated that the system is easy to learn and use, and real-time assistance from virtual librarians in video navigation is desirable on a conditional basis

Flexicurity : Vorbild für die neuen Mitgliedstaaten (NMS)?

Im Zuge der aufholenden Wirtschaftsentwicklung und Integration in die EU ist in den NMS ein tief greifender Strukturwandel von sektoraler und regionaler Produktion und Beschäftigung aber auch von Qualifikationsprofilen zu verzeichnen. Die durch den Strukturwandel geforderte Anpassungsfähigkeit der Arbeitsmärkte wird nicht unwesentlich durch die Mischung von institutioneller Ausgestaltung der Arbeitsmärkte und sozialer Sicherheit bestimmt. Im folgenden Beitrag wird das Konzept der Flexicurity, das im Rahmen der europäischen Beschäftigungsstrategie als Antwort auf die Herausforderungen der Globalisierung bei gleichzeitiger Bewahrung des europäischen Sozialmodells gesehen wird (European Commission, 2007), als Referenzmodell verwendet, um zu beleuchten wo sich die NMS innerhalb des Mix von Arbeitsmarktflexibilität und inkommenssicherheit im Vergleich zu den anderen EU-Staaten positioniert haben. Abschließend erfolgen einige Anmerkungen zu Problemen der Realisierung von Flexicurity in den NMS.

ROOT ZONE TEMPERATURE AFFECTS EMERGENCE AND GROWTH TRAITS OF SNAKE TOMATO (TRICHOSANTHES CUCUMERINA L.)

Two Nigerian morphological variants of Trichosanthes cucumerina L., (Cucurbitaceae) an under-exploited tropical leaf and fruit vegetable were evaluated for response to root zone temperature (RZT) in a climate controlled growth chamber at 20, 25 and 30 oC. The Green variant [V1] has long fruit with deep green background and white stripes at unripe stage while Light Green variant [V2] has light green coloured long fruit when at unripe stage. Results showed that the first emergence for seeds at RZT of 30 oC occurred at 7 days after planting (DAP) for both variants while those planted at RZT of 20 oC and 25 oC showed first emergence at 10 and 14 DAP, respectively. At RZT of 20 oC, 25 oC and 30 oC, days to 50% emergence were 18, 12 and 8 DAP while last emergence was registered at 24, 15 and 10 DAP, respectively. This work showed that under controlled growth chamber conditions, days to first emergence was reduced by 5 days compared to the 12 DAP recorded under tropical field conditions. Root zone temperatures (T) produced statistically significant (P ≤ 0.05) effects on the average number of tendrils, number of leaves, fresh leaf weight, stem length, fresh stem weight, root length, root weight and root volume while the main effect of T. cucumerina variants (V) and the interaction (V x T) produced no significant effects on all the parameters measured. The values recorded for each of the growth parameters were only numerically higher in the Green Variant (V1) compared to Light Green Variant (V2). The significantly highest value for each of the growth traits were recorded at 30 oC followed by 25 oC and 20 oC, in that order. Low root zone temperature of 20 oC produced adverse effects on both emergence and growth of T. cucumerina. This study established the need for providing soil warming facility for a successful cultivation of T. cucumerina in chilly (temperate) environment

Personalization in Serious and Persuasive Games and Gamified Interactions

© Lennart Nacke, 2015. This is the author’s version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in CHI PLAY '15 Proceedings of the 2015 Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, https://doi.org/10.1145/2793107.2810260Serious and persuasive games and gamified interactions have become popular in the last years, especially in the realm of behavior change support systems. They have been used as tools to support and influence human behavior in a variety of fields, such as health, sustainability, education, and security. It has been shown that personalized serious and persuasive games and gamified interactions can increase effectivity of supporting behavior change compared to "one-size-fits all"-systems. However, how serious games and gamified interactions can be personalized, which factors can be used to personalize (e.g. personality, gender, persuadability, player types, gamification user types, states, contextual/situational variables), what effect personalization has (e.g. on player/user experience) and whether there is any return on investment is still largely unexplored. This full-day workshop aims at bringing together the academic and industrial community as well as the gaming and gamification community to jointly explore these topics and define a future roadmap.Österreichische ForschungsförderungsgesellschaftPeer-reviewe