German insurance industry: market overview and trends

This article presents an overview of the contemporary German insurance market, its structure, players, and development trends. First, brief information about the history of the insurance industry in Germany is provided. Second, the contemporary market is analyzed in terms of its legal and economic structure, with statistics on the number of companies, insurance density and penetration, the role of insurers in the capital markets, premiums split, and main market players and their market shares. Furthermore, the three biggest insurance lines—life, health, and property and casualty—are considered in more detail, such as product range, country specifics, and insurance and investment results. A section on regulation outlines its implementation in the insurance sector, offering information on the underlying legislative basis, supervisory body, technical procedures, expected developments, and sources of more detailed information

Distance learning and higher education : a study in state-wide policy and coordination for continuing education in the 1980\u27s

This study was concerned with policy research for coordinating state higher education and telecommunication efforts. It focused on graduate and continuing education and on distance learning. (Distance learning is an extension of the classroom which utilizes interactive television.).;This study\u27s research was to identify and analyze possible coordinating state policies that would best facilitate distance learning in Virginia. This is linked to how Virginia higher education can interact with business and industry to encourage academic and industrial cooperation in distance learning.;It was hypothesized that there is consensus among influential people in Virginia as to the best coordinating policy for Virginia\u27s graduate and continuing education and distance learning. The results of the study indicated the research hypothesis was not fully supported. However, one of the seven policy options, the telecommunications cooperative, revealed near consensus (87%) among participants and was considered to be the best option to facilitate distance learning in Virginia. The results of the data fit with the study\u27s theoretical model, Plude\u27s Telecommunications Cooperatives Model.;The responses of influential Virginia leaders in higher education, government, business and industry seem to support these conclusions: (1) The participants confirmed that there was a real and urgent need for distance learning in Virginia\u27s graduate and continuing education. (2) Participant opinions concerning the best way to fund and to coordinate a workable system did not result in overall agreement. However, they agreed in three areas: higher education must include business and industry, a state-level cooperative be formed to coordinate and facilitate a workable system, and funds for distance learning come from those who are involved--the customers and providers and these funds would include both state and private monies. (3) Participants gave strong support to the need for developing a coherent state policy in Virginia. (4) of the seven policy options considered, the participants considered a state telecommunications cooperative policy to be the best option.;In the future, policy research will need to focus on interstate and international education and in issues relating to education as a life-long pursuit

The Private Life Annuity Market in Germany: Products and Money’s Worth Ratios

We explore the workings of the German private annuity market to evaluate whether annuities are delivering an adequate value for money by measuring their money’s worth. We examine key features of the German private annuity market and give a comprehensive description of the main product groups, taking into consideration the statutory obligation to distribute substantial parts of insurer’s annual profits to the annuitant. Relying on a large dataset covering about 90% of the German market, we calculate money’s worth ratios for private payout annuities and trace long-term developments

Building the Infrastructure: The OhioLINK CollaboraTeS Project

This presentation describes the OhioLINK CollaboraTeS project and assesses the survey used to create the CollaboraTeS Tookbox

Building a Cross-Institutional Infrastructure for Technical Services: The OhioLINK CollaboraTeS Project

Academic libraries in the 21st century must forge new cross-institutional service models based on the knowledge and expertise gained by years of building the shared bibliographic environment. Specific tools, such as cross-institutional best practices, must be developed. OhioLINK’s Database Management and Standards Committee (DMSC) is building the infrastructure that will enable OhioLINK libraries to look across institutional boundaries for inspiration and opportunities. In the spring of 2009 DMSC surveyed OhioLINK libraries to inventory cataloging and technical services expertise. The results are in and are available for use on a day-to-day basis by OhioLINK libraries. OhioLINK’s CollaboraTeS Project facilitates cross-institutional projects by providing information on which libraries are willing to assist others, barter or trade for assistance, or contract for assistance, skills or work. The project will include supportive best practices documents including boilerplate contracts, project specification patterns, cost models and sample memorandums of understanding. The researchers will present what they discovered and provide an update on the status of CollaboraTeS. Ohio academic libraries will become more aware of resources available to them via the CollaboraTeS project, and other libraries will be encouraged to consider the model

If You Build it, Will They Come? Building the Collaborative Infrastructure and the OhioLINK CollaboraTeS Toolbox

This research examines how libraries are collaborating, why libraries collaborate, and seeks the environmental conditions that foster successful cross-institutional collaborations. The Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) Consortium’s CollaboraTeS Project is examined, to inventory expertise and needs within the OhioLINK community and the members’ willingness to share, barter or contract their expertise with other OhioLINK institutions. This is followed by an examination of a sample of North American collaborative projects to identify environmental conditions that foster collaborations in North American libraries. A brief survey within the OhioLINK environment was then conducted that validated anecdotal evidence that the CollaboraTeS Toolbox has not been used as much as was intended. The OhioLINK environment was then assessed using the environmental factors discussed in the second phase of the research, and it was evident that only two of the factors were present within the OhioLINK environment that were identified as fostering collaboration. More research is suggested into inventories of expertise and into identifying and building the environmental conditions that foster cross-institutional library collaborations

If You Build it, Will They Come? Building the Collaborative Infrastructure and the OhioLINK CollaboraTeS Toolbox

This research examines how libraries are collaborating, why libraries collaborate, and seeks the environmental conditions that foster successful cross-institutional collaborations. The Ohio Library and Information Network (OhioLINK) Consortium’s CollaboraTeS Project is examined, to inventory expertise and needs within the OhioLINK community and the members’ willingness to share, barter or contract their expertise with other OhioLINK institutions. This is followed by an examination of a sample of North American collaborative projects to identify environmental conditions that foster collaborations in North American libraries. A brief survey within the OhioLINK environment was then conducted that validated anecdotal evidence that the CollaboraTeS Toolbox has not been used as much as was intended. The OhioLINK environment was then assessed using the environmental factors discussed in the second phase of the research, and it was evident that only two of the factors were present within the OhioLINK environment that were identified as fostering collaboration. More research is suggested into inventories of expertise and into identifying and building the environmental conditions that foster cross-institutional library collaborations

Auswirkungen von "Gentling"-Programmen auf das Verhalten von Laborratten (Wistar)

The goal of this study was to investigate whether there is a “critical period” in the fourth and fifth week of life of laboratory rats, where an effect comparable to a socialisation to people can be achieved. Preliminary tests on 6 female wistar-rats at the age of six weeks have been carried out to test different methods of non-invasive stress assessment in rats, and to develop a test procedure for the main experiments. Not all investigated methods of stress assessment were applicable for the performed study. For example it could be shown that the determination of corticosterone metabolites in the faeces pointed out a distinct circadian rhythm, but no stress-related peak after performing the planned test procedure. The determination of IgA in the faeces has not been adequate to show stress-induced changes either. The developed test procedure consisted of different behaviour tests: a modified home cage emergence test, a modified open field test, and a handtest. Additionally, a neck grip and a body-surface thermometry have been carried out, and catching has been evaluated. In main experiment I, the animals have been allocated to different cages, splitting into experimental and control groups in a genetically balanced way. The rats have been housed in groups of three under standard conditions in type-IV Makrolon™ cages. 24 female wistar rats of age 21 days have been used for main experiment I (“early gentling”). The animals of the experimental group have been gentled for 10 minutes each day in the fourth and fifth week of life. All animals underwent tests to assess their behaviour towards people at the beginning of the sixth, eighth, tenth and fourteenth week of life, as well as at the age of six, six and a half and nine months. Following the tests at the beginning of the fourteenth week of life and at the age of six months the same test procedure has been carried out by a person unfamiliar to the rats (test with unfamiliar person). 12 female wistar rats, which were sisters of the animals in main experiment I and had been purchased together with them at the age of 21 days, have been used for main experiment II (“late gentling”). All animals were tested for the first time at the age of 6 months. In this test, as in the subsequent test with the unfamiliar person, they served as the zero check for the animals of main experiment I. Following these tests, the animals were allocated into experimental and control groups. The six animals of the experimental group were gentled for 10 minutes each day for two weeks. After the two weeks of gentling, at the age of six and a half months, and at the age of nine months, the rats of both groups have been tested to assess their behaviour towards people. For the main experiment III (early “intensified gentling”) 24 female wistar rats of the age of 21 days have been used. The animals of the experimental group were gentled in the fourth and fifth week of life for 10 minutes twice each day. Furthermore, the animals were talked to during the gentling and recieved a food reward. The tests have been performed analogously to the tests of main experiment I. All different parts of the test procedure have been analysed separately. Furthermore five principal target figures (PTF), summarising some results, have been defined. PTF 1 summarised the audible vocalisation and the freezing behaviour during the catching tests, PTF 2 the audible vocalisation and biting during the manipulations and the neck grip as well as the abortion of the neck grip, PTF 3 the behaviour during the handtest, PTF 4 the behaviour towards the stressor in the open field and PTF 5 summarised catching from the open field, without vocalisation. High values have been rated as “tameness”. The “early gentling” of main experiment I had a distinct effect on the behaviour towards people. The animals of the experimental group showed a significantly (p<0.05) higher tameness” than the animals of the control group in test 1 (beginning of the 6th. week of life) in PTF 3 and 4, in test 2 (beginning of the 8th week of life) in PTF 4 and 5, in test 3 (beginning of the 10th week of life) in PTF 3 and in test 5 (14th week of life, test with unfamiliar person) in PTF 1, 4 and 5. The gentling programme, conducted at the age of 6 months (main experiment II), had no noteworthy effect on the behaviour towards people. In both tests the differences between experimental and control group in the PTF were insignificant. The early “intensified gentling” in main experiment III had the most distinctive effect on the behaviour towards people. The animals of the experimental group showed in at least one PTF a significant higher “tameness” than the animals of the control group in test 1 (beginning of the 6th week of life) up to and including test 7 (6 months, test with unfamiliar person). In test 1 (beginning of the 6th week of life), the difference in PTF 3 was significant with p<0.01 and in PTF 2 with p<0.05. In test 2 (beginning of the 8th week of life) the difference in PTF 1 was significant with p<0.01 and in PTF 3 and 4 with p<0.05. Furthermore, the animals of the experimental group showed in test 3 (beginning of the 10th week of life) in PTF 4 and in test 4 (beginning of the 14th week of life) in PTF 1 and in test 5 (14th week of life, test with unfamiliar person) in PTF 1, 2 and 5, in test 6 (6 months) in PTF 1 and in test 7 (6 months, test with unfamiliar person) in PTF 2 a significant (p<0.05) higher “tameness” than the animals of the control group. Further results were that the gentling in the fourth and fifth week of life led to a significant (p<0.001) better feed utilization for the animals of the experimental groups. In parts great differences in the behaviour of the animals of the different litters occured. Not all litters were responsive to the gentling to the same extent. Furthermore, with increasing number of conducted tests, a habituation of the animals to the test procedure occurred. The gentling programmes were appropriate to reduce the fear reactions of laboratory rats towards people, when they were conducted on the animals in the fourth and fifth week of life. The animals which have been gentled at that age showed fewer fear reactions in contact with people. A more intense gentling led to longer lasting effects. Because the results of the tests with the unfamiliar person also indicated a higher “tameness” in the experimental group, this could be taken as a hint that the gentling had an effect on the behaviour towards people in general and was not limited to the experimenter. Since the gentling effects did not last a lifetime, they could not be called a “socialisation” to people. However, the results have to be regarded as hints that a “critical period” does exist in the early development of laboratory rats, in which they are particularly responsive to a gentling programme. Further studies are necessary to develop a gentling programme optimised for effort and impact, and to more accurately define the “critical period”

Blauzungenkrankheit

Die Blauzungenkrankheit ist eine hochansteckende Tierseuche. Sie befällt vor allem Schafe und Rinder. Es steht im Moment noch kein Impfstoff zur Verfügung. Überträgerin der Krankheit ist eine Stechmücke. Bei der vorbeugenden Bekämpfung geht es somit darum, Mückenstiche möglichst zu verhindern. Das Merkblatt zeigt wie