Measuring Income in Household Panel Surveys for Germany: A Comparison of EU-SILC and SOEP

Empirical analyses of economic inequality, poverty, and mobility in Germany are, to an increas-ing extent, using microdata from the German Federal Statistical Office's contribution to the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) as well as data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP). In addition to their significance for national reporting, the EU-SILC data are of great international significance for comparative EU-wide measurement, description, and analysis in support of the European Commission's stated objective of fighting poverty and reducing social inequality through the European social cohesion process. It is therefore crucial to assess the quality of the German contribution to EU-SILC, particularly in view of evidence in the literature of methodological problems in this still relatively young survey with respect to the representation of specific social groups and the distri-bution of key educational characteristics that can have a considerable impact on the degree and structure of inequality and poverty (see Hauser 2008, Causa et al. 2009, Nolan et al. 2009). While previous papers have critically examined the German EU-SILC contribution in comparison to the cross-sectional data from the German Survey of Income and Expenditure (EVS), the present paper compares EU-SILC-based results about income trends, inequality, and mobility with results based on SOEP, a widely used alternate panel survey of private households in Germany. The - in some cases severe - differences identified are discussed in the context of the surveying and interviewing methods, post-data-collection treatment of the micro-data as well as sample characteristics of the two studies, all of which exert a major influence on the substantive results and thus on the core findings regarding the social situation of Germany in EU-wide comparison.Inequality, poverty, mobility, household panel, EU-SILC, SOEP

Einkommensmessungen in Haushaltspanelstudien für Deutschland: ein Vergleich von EU-SILC und SOEP

Analysen zu Einkommensungleichheit, Armut und Mobilität in Deutschland basieren überwiegend auf den Mikrodaten der amtlichen deutschen Stichprobe der European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) und des wissenschaftsgetragenen Sozio-oekonomischen Panels (SOEP). Dabei kommt den EU-SILC-Daten neben ihrer Relevanz für die nationale Berichterstattung eine große internationale Bedeutung zu für die EU-weit vergleichende Erfassung, Beschreibung und Analyse des von der Europäischen Kommission spezifizierten Ziels der Armutsbekämpfung und Minderung der sozialen Ungleichheit im Rahmen des sozialen Kohäsionsprozesses in Europa. Insofern ist es nahe liegend, den deutschen Beitrag zu EU-SILC einer intensiven Qualitätsprüfung zu unterziehen; zumal es in der Literatur (vgl. Hauser 2007, Causa et al. 2009, Nolan et al. 2009) deutliche Hinweise auf Probleme dieser noch jungen Erhebung bezüglich der Repräsentation bestimmter sozialer Gruppen und der Verteilung zentraler Bildungscharakteristika gibt, was einen nicht unerheblichen Einfluss auf Ausmaß und Struktur von Ungleichheit und Armut haben kann. Während in der Literatur auch die Querschnittsdaten der amtlichen Einkommens- und Verbrauchsstichprobe (EVS) in kritische Vergleiche einbezogen werden, konzentriert sich dieses Papier auf den Vergleich von EU-SILC-basierten Ergebnissen zu Ein-kommensentwicklung, Ungleichheit und Mobilität mit jenen auf Basis des SOEP als einer national und international viel genutzten alternativen Erhebung der sozio-oekonomischen Entwicklung privater Haushalte in Deutschland. Die dabei festgestellten, zum Teil gravierenden Unterschiede werden vor dem Hintergrund unterschiedlicher Erhebungs- und Befragungsmethoden bzw. Stichprobencharakteristika diskutiert, die einen großen Einfluss auf die inhaltlich motivierten Untersuchungsergebnisse und somit auf die Kernaussagen zur sozialen Situation Deutschlands im EU-weiten Vergleich haben.Inequality, poverty, mobility, household panel, Einkommensungleichheit, Armut, Mobilität, Haushaltspanel, EU-SILC, SOEP

Twenty Questions: The Most Common Inquiries Regarding Bean Leaf Beetle Biology, Ecology and Management

The bean leaf beetle has become a more significant pest of soybeans during the last several years. Not only do the beetles feed on leaves and pods, but they also transmit bean pod mottle virus. This presentation will review the most commonly asked questions about the biology, ecology and management of this pest. Answers to each question will help you better understand the pest and manage your soybeans in 2003

The association between physical activity with incident obesity, coronary heart disease, diabetes and hypertension in adults: a systematic review of longitudinal studies published after 2012

Background A growing body of studies that investigated the longitudinal association between physical activity (PA) and the outcome of incident obesity, coronary heart disease (CHD), diabetes and hypertension has become available in recent years. Thus, the purpose of this systematic review was to provide an update on the association between PA and onset of obesity, CHD, diabetes and hypertension in individuals aged ≥18 years who were free of the respective conditions at baseline. Methods We systematically searched OVID, Pubmed, and Web of Science databases for pertinent literature published between January of 2012 and February of 2019. To ensure that conclusions are based on high quality evidence, we only included longitudinal studies conducted in samples of ≥500 participants and with ≥5 years of follow-up. Result The search yielded 8929 records of which 26 were included in this review. Three studies were conducted on the outcome of incident obesity, eight on incident CHD, nine on incident diabetes, four on incident hypertension, one on the outcome of both diabetes and hypertension, and one on the outcome of CHD, diabetes and hypertension. Overall, there was an association between PA and lower risk of incident obesity, CHD and diabetes, but not hypertension. Higher levels or amount of PA were associated with a reduced risk of new onset of the respective diseases in 20 studies (77%). Whereas four studies reported an elevated risk of incidence of diseases with lower PA levels (15%). PA was not associated with incidence of diseases in two studies (8%). Conclusion Higher levels of PA are likely associated with a lower risk of becoming obese, develop CHD or diabetes. These findings replicate and strengthen conclusions from earlier reviews underlining the importance of promoting PA in adults. The associations between PA and incident hypertension were less consistent. More research, particularly using prospective cohort designs in large population-based samples, is needed to further untangle the association between PA and incident hypertension

Shikimate pathway in apicomplexan parasites

No abstract available

Sonophenology: A Tangible Interface for Sonification of Geo-Spatial Phenological Data at Multiple Time-scales

Presented at the 16th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD2010) on June 9-15, 2010 in Washington, DC.Phenology is the study of periodic biological processes, such as when plants flower and birds arrive in the spring. In this paper we sonify phenology data and control the sonification process through a tangible interface consisting of a physical paper map and tracking of fiducial markers. The designed interface enables one or more users to concurrently specify point and range queries in both time and space and receive immediate sonic feedback. This system can be used to study and explore the effects of climate change, both as tool to be used by scientists, and as a way to educate members of the general public

Identifying Audiences of E-Infrastructures - Tools for Measuring Impact

Research evaluation should take into account the intended scholarly and non-scholarly audiences of the research output. This holds too for research infrastructures, which often aim at serving a large variety of audiences. With research and research infrastructures moving to the web, new possibilities are emerging for evaluation metrics. This paper proposes a feasible indicator for measuring the scope of audiences who use web-based e-infrastructures, as well as the frequency of use. In order to apply this indicator, a method is needed for classifying visitors to e-infrastructures into relevant user categories. The paper proposes such a method, based on an inductive logic program and a Bayesian classifier. The method is tested, showing that the visitors are efficiently classified with 90% accuracy into the selected categories. Consequently, the method can be used to evaluate the use of the e-infrastructure within and outside academia