Concurrent, Web-First, or Web-Only? How Different Mode Sequences Perform in Recruiting Participants for a Self-Administered Mixed-mode Panel Study

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many survey programs switched to self-administered modes of data collection, often offering respondents both web-based and paper-based questionnaires. However, there is little guidance as to when to offer which mode, especially when the aim is to recruit participants for a panel survey. This study examines the effectiveness of different mode-sequence designs by analyzing an experiment implemented in the recruitment wave of the German panel study "Family Research and Demographic Analysis." We randomly assigned 108,256 individuals aged 18-49 years to one of three mode-sequence-design conditions: concurrent, web-first including a paper-based questionnaire with the second reminder (web-first-2), and web-first including a paper-based questionnaire with the third reminder (web-first-3). A fourth, simulated group did not receive a paper-based questionnaire (web-only). We analyzed how different mode-sequence designs affected outcome rates, sample composition, response distributions, data quality, share of paper-based questionnaires, postage costs, number of postal mailings in the recruitment wave, and participation in the first regular wave. Our results show no differences in response distributions and small differences in sample composition across the four mode-sequence designs. As the web-first-2 and simulated web-only designs yielded comparatively good response and recruitment rates at reasonable costs, we recommend their use when surveying adults between 18 and 49 years old.Während der COVID-19-Pandemie gingen viele Erhebungsprogramme zu selbstverwalteten Formen der Datenerhebung über und boten den Befragten häufig sowohl webbasierte als auch papierbasierte Fragebögen an. Es gibt jedoch kaum Anhaltspunkte dafür, wann welcher Modus angeboten werden sollte, insbesondere wenn das Ziel darin besteht, Teilnehmende für eine Panelerhebung zu rekrutieren. Diese Studie untersucht die Effektivität verschiedener Modus-Sequenz-Designs durch die Analyse eines Experiments, das in der Rekrutierungswelle der deutschen Panelstudie "Familienforschung und Demographische Analyse" durchgeführt wurde

Schulische Inklusion: Untersuchung zu Einstellungen zu schulischer Inklusion und Wirkungen im Bildungsverlauf

Deutschland hat im Jahr 2009 die Behindertenrechtskonvention der Vereinten Nationen (UN-BRK) ratifiziert. Aber auch zehn Jahre nach Inkrafttreten der UN-BRK ist die Verpflichtung, ein inklusives Bildungssystem einzuführen, noch lange nicht verwirklicht. In der Öffentlichkeit, vor allem aber unter Pädagog*innen und Eltern, wird das Thema nach wie vor kontrovers diskutiert. Aus diesem Anlass hat die Aktion Mensch gemeinsam mit der Wochenzeitung "Die Zeit" und dem infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft eine Studie zum Thema "Schulische Inklusion" durchgeführt. Zentrale Fragen der Untersuchung waren: Wird die (schulische) Inklusion als wünschenswertes Ziel in unserer Gesellschaft anerkannt? Welche Erwartungen bestehen hinsichtlich der Auswirkungen von inklusivem Unterricht? Wie wird die gegenwärtige Umsetzung schulischer Inklusion bewertet? Wie entwickeln sich Schüler*innen in unterschiedlichen Lernumfeldern tatsächlich? Forschungsmethodisch hat das infas Institut für angewandte Sozialwissenschaft im Februar 2019 zum einen eine bevölkerungsrepräsentative Stichprobe von rund 1.500 Erwachsenen nach ihren Einstellungen zu gesellschaftlicher und schulischer Inklusion und deren Folgen befragt. In der Stichprobe waren Eltern schulpflichtiger Kinder überproportional vertreten. Die Eltern wurden gefragt, ob ihr Kind eine Schule besucht, an der gleichermaßen Kinder mit und ohne Beeinträchtigungen bzw. Behinderungen unterrichtet werden. Somit liegen Aussagen für Eltern mit und ohne Inklusionserfahrung vor. Zum anderen wurden für die Studie bestehende Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanels (NEPS) ausgewertet. Für die NEPS-Studie wurden von 2009 bis 2016 unter anderem insgesamt 11.755 Schüler*innen mehrfach befragt. Insgesamt zeigen die Ergebnisse der Befragung, dass in der Gesamtbevölkerung ein hohes Maß an Zustimmung zu Inklusion besteht. Die bisherige Umsetzung des inklusiven Schulsystems wird dagegen skeptischer beurteilt, vor allem wegen fehlenden Personals oder wegen zu großer Klassen. Die Analyse auf Basis der Daten des Nationalen Bildungspanels (NEPS) gibt jedoch Hinweise darauf, dass trotz derzeit noch schwieriger Rahmenbedingungen schulischer Inklusion der Übergang in eine Ausbildung bzw. ein Studium bei inklusiv beschulten Jugendlichen häufig genauso gut gelingt wie bei nicht inklusiv Beschulten. Dies deckt sich mit dem Befund der inklusionserfahrenen Eltern, von denen fast drei Viertel sagen, dass ein inklusives Schulsystem gut auf das Berufsleben vorbereitet

Fast-, Light-Cured Scintillating Plastic for 3D-Printing Applications

Additive manufacturing techniques enable a wide range of possibilities for novel radiation detectors spanning simple to highly complex geometries, multi-material composites, and metamaterials that are either impossible or cost prohibitive to produce using conventional methods. The present work identifies a set of promising formulations of photocurable scintillator resins capable of neutron-gamma pulse shape discrimination (PSD) to support the additive manufacturing of fast neutron detectors. The development of these resins utilizes a step-by-step, trial-and-error approach to identify different monomer and cross-linker combinations that meet the requirements for 3D printing followed by a 2-level factorial parameter study to optimize the radiation detection performance, including light yield, PSD, optical clarity, and hardness. The formulations resulted in hard, clear, PSD-capable plastic scintillators that were cured solid within 10 s using 405 nm light. The best-performing scintillator produced a light yield 83% of EJ-276 and a PSD figure of merit equaling 1.28 at 450–550 keVee

Abundances of Baade's Window Giants from Keck/HIRES Spectra: II. The Alpha- and Light Odd Elements

We report detailed chemical abundance analysis of 27 RGB stars towards the Galactic bulge in Baade's Window for elements produced by massive stars: O, Na, Mg, Al, Si, Ca and Ti. All of these elements are overabundant in the bulge relative to the disk, especially Mg, indicating that the bulge is enhanced in Type~II supernova ejecta and most likely formed more rapidly than the disk. We attribute a rapid decline of [O/Fe] to metallicity-dependent yields of oxygen in massive stars, perhaps connected to the Wolf-Reyet phenomenon. he explosive nucleosynthesis alphas, Si, Ca and Ti, possess identical trends with [Fe/H], consistent with their putative common origin. We note that different behaviors of hydrostatic and explosive alpha elements can be seen in the stellar abundances of stars in Local Group dwarf galaxies. We also attribute the decline of Si,Ca and Ti relative to Mg, to metallicity- dependent yields for the explosive alpha elements from Type~II supernovae. The starkly smaller scatter of [/Fe] with [Fe/H] in the bulge, as compared to the halo, is consistent with expected efficient mixing for the bulge. The metal-poor bulge [/Fe] ratios are higher than ~80% of the halo. If the bulge formed from halo gas, the event occured before ~80% of the present-day halo was formed. The lack of overlap between the thick and thin disk composition with the bulge does not support the idea that the bulge was built by a thickening of the disk driven by the bar. The trend of [Al/Fe] is very sensitive to the chemical evolution environment. A comparison of the bulge, disk and Sgr dSph galaxy shows a range of ~0.7 dex in [Al/Fe] at a given [Fe/H], presumably due to a range of Type~II/Type~Ia supernova ratios in these systems.Comment: 51 pages, 6 tables, 27 figures, submitte

Spinel-structured ZnCr2O4 with excess Zn is the active ZnO/Cr2O3 catalyst for high-temperature methanol synthesis

A series of ZnO/Cr2O3 catalysts with different Zn:Cr ratios was prepared by coprecipitation at a constant pH of 7 and applied in methanol synthesis at 260–300 °C and 60 bar. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) results showed that the calcined catalysts with ratios from 65:35 to 55:45 consist of ZnCr2O4 spinel with a low degree of crystallinity. For catalysts with Zn:Cr ratios smaller than 1, the formation of chromates was observed in agreement with temperature-programmed reduction results. Raman and XRD results did not provide evidence for the presence of segregated ZnO, indicating the existence of Zn-rich nonstoichiometric Zn–Cr spinel in the calcined catalyst. The catalyst with Zn:Cr = 65:35 exhibits the best performance in methanol synthesis. The Zn:Cr ratio of this catalyst corresponds to that of the Zn4Cr2(OH)12CO3 precursor with hydrotalcite-like structure obtained by coprecipitation, which is converted during calcination into a nonstoichiometric Zn–Cr spinel with an optimum amount of oxygen vacancies resulting in high activity in methanol synthesis. Density functional theory calculations are used to examine the formation of oxygen vacancies and to measure the reducibility of the methanol synthesis catalysts. Doping Cr into bulk and the (10–10) surface of ZnO does not enhance the reducibility of ZnO, confirming that Cr:ZnO cannot be the active phase. The (100) surface of the ZnCr2O4 spinel has a favorable oxygen vacancy formation energy of 1.58 eV. Doping this surface with excess Zn charge-balanced by oxygen vacancies to give a 60% Zn content yields a catalyst composed of an amorphous ZnO layer supported on the spinel with high reducibility, confirming this as the active phase for the methanol synthesis catalyst

Differential requirement of MALT1 for BAFF-induced outcomes in B cell subsets

B cell activation factor of the TNF family (BAFF) activates noncanonical nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) heterodimers that promote B cell survival. We show that although MALT1 is largely dispensable for canonical NF-κB signaling downstream of the B cell receptor, the absence of MALT1 results in impaired BAFF-induced phosphorylation of NF-κB2 (p100), p100 degradation, and RelB nuclear translocation in B220+ B cells. This corresponds with impaired survival of MALT1−/− marginal zone (MZ) but not follicular B cells in response to BAFF stimulation in vitro. MALT1−/− MZ B cells also express higher amounts of TRAF3, a known negative regulator of BAFF receptor–mediated signaling, and TRAF3 was found to interact with MALT1. Furthermore, phenotypes associated with overexpression of BAFF, including increased MZ B cell numbers, elevated serum immunoglobulin titers, and spontaneous germinal center formation, were found to be dependent on B cell–intrinsic MALT1 expression. Our results demonstrate a novel role for MALT1 in biological outcomes induced by BAFF-mediated signal transduction

Ageing in Europe. Empirical Analysis with the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe

Dieser Band versammelt Beiträge zu ausgewählten Konsequenzen der Bevölkerungsalterung, die auf ein Forschungspraktikum im Fach Bevölkerungswissenschaft an der Universität Bamberg zurückgehen. Die behandelten Untersuchungsgegenstände umfassen die Determinanten intergenerationaler instrumenteller Transfers im europäischen Vergleich, die Effekte von Arbeitsmarktstrukturen auf freiwillige und unfreiwillige Frühverrentung in Deutschland sowie den Zusammenhang von Versicherungsart und der Inanspruchnahme allgemeinmedizinischer Leistungen im Alter. Diese aktuellen sozialwissenschaftlichen Fragestellungen werden anhand der Daten der ersten Welle des Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) empirisch untersucht.This volume brings together selected contributions on the consequences of population ageing which evolved in an empirical research training course in population studies at the University of Bamberg. The topics ranged from the determinants of intergenerational instrumental transfers in a European comparative perspective, the effects of labor market structures on voluntary and involuntary early retirement in Germany as well as the relation between private and public health insurance and medical treatment for aged people. These actual research questions were empirically investigated using the first wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE)

Pathogenic Fungi Regulate Immunity by Inducing Neutrophilic Myeloid-Derived Suppressor Cells

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