Compulsory education - in schools only? : divergent developments in Germany

Germany is the focus of this paper, owing to the fact that since 1938 it has had the strictest laws on compulsory schooling worldwide. As a result, homeschooling in Germany has become virtually impossible. There are interesting divergences between policy and practice in the German setting, both in the country’s educational history and present educational problems. The Länder (federal states) have the responsibility for education, and they are taking a much stricter line against homeschoolers than a decade ago, especially by depriving parents of the custody of their homeschooled children at an early stage. The laws relied upon, however, were never intended to deal with such educational matters; they were designed to punish parents who abuse or neglect their children. The present, highly questionable legal action succeeds only because of the consent of state schools, state social welfare offices, and courts. The same laws are not used against the parents of the approximately 250,000 teens who are truant. The functioning of the legal and sociological machinery in Germany is being employed aggressively to stamp out homeschooling, while at the same time it ignores the crucial issue of parents who allow their children to skip school—thus depriving them of an adequate education at home or elsewhere. At the same time, the number of specialists in law and education, as well as politicians and governmental experts who argue in favor of homeschooling is growing, and media reports on homeschooling are much more positive than they were a decade ago

LAUNCH STRATEGIES OF DIGITAL PLATFORMS: PLATFORMS WITH SWITCHING AND NON-SWITCHING USERS

Due to two-sidedness and network effects, digital platforms face a coordination problem to attract producers and consumers upon launch. Scholars have suggested launch strategies for solving this problem with only limited empirical evidence. In this paper, we relate to the strategies of sequential and simultaneous entry of consumers and producers. We conducted a qualitative study interviewing 14 founders and CEOs of digital platforms. We used an analysis of 1st and 2nd order concepts to relate the emerging data to existing theory. We observe that the ability to switch between the producer and consumer side, (i.e., being producer in one transaction and consumer in another one), has so far remained unexplored in the platform literature despite its importance for the implementation of launch strategies.Our findings suggest that digital platforms with switching sides implement a simultaneous entry strategy, whereas digital platforms without switching sides implement a sequential entry strategy. We conclude by providing implications for researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors and by giving directions for future research

Multi-decadal atmospheric and marine climate variability in southern Iberia during the mid- to late-Holocene

To assess the regional multi-decadal to multicentennial climate variability along the southern Iberian Peninsula during the mid- to late-Holocene record of paleoenvironmental indicators from marine sediments were established for two sites in the Alboran Sea (ODP-161-976A) and the Gulf of Cadiz (GeoB5901-2). High-resolution records of organic geochemical properties and planktic foraminiferal assemblages are used to decipher precipitation and vegetation changes as well as hydrological conditions with respect to sea surface temperature (SST) and marine primary productivity (MPP). As a proxy for precipitation change, records of plant-derived n-alkane composition suggest a series of five distinct dry episodes in southern Iberia at 5.4 +/- 0.3 ka cal BP, from 5.1 to 4.9 +/- 0.1 ka cal BP, from 4.8 to 4.7 +/- 0.1 ka cal BP, from 4.4 to 4.3 +/- 0.1 ka cal BP, and at 3.7 +/- 0.1 ka cal BP. During each dry episode the vegetation suffered from reduced water availability. Interestingly, the dry phase from 4.4 to 4.3 +/- 0.1 ka cal BP is followed by a rapid shift towards wetter conditions revealing a more complex pattern in terms of its timing and duration than was described for the 4.2 ka event in other regions. The series of dry episodes as well as closely connected hydrological variability in the Alboran Sea were probably driven by NAO-like (North Atlantic Oscillation) variability. In contrast, surface waters in the Gulf of Cadiz appear to have responded more directly to North Atlantic cooling associated with Bond events. In particular, during Bond events 3 and 4, a pronounced increase in seasonality with summer warming and winter cooling is found.DFG (German Research Foundation) CRC 1266 2901391021 Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia SFRH/BPD/111433/2015info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

τBu₂SiF-Derivatized D₂-Receptor Ligands: The First SiFA-Containing Small Molecule Radiotracers for Target-Specific PET-Imaging

The synthesis, radiolabeling and in vitro evaluation of new silicon-fluoride acceptor (SiFA) derivatized D-2-receptor ligands is reported. The SiFA-technology simplifies the introduction of fluorine-18 into target specific biomolecules for Positron-Emission-Tomography (PET). However, one of the remaining challenges, especially for small molecules such as receptor-ligands, is the bulkiness of the SiFA-moiety. We therefore synthesized four Fallypride SiFA-conjugates derivatized either directly at the benzoic acid ring system (SiFA-DMFP, SiFA-FP, SiFA-DDMFP) or at the butyl-side chain (SiFA-M-FP) and tested their receptor affinities. We found D2-receptor affinities for all compounds in the nanomolar range (Ki(SiFA-DMFP) = 13.6 nM, Ki(SiFA-FP) = 33.0 nM, Ki(SiFA-DDMFP) = 62.7 nM and Ki(SiFA-M-FP) = 4.21 nM). The radiofluorination showed highest yields when 10 nmol of the precursors were reacted with F-18]fluoride/TBAHCO(3) in acetonitrile. After a reversed phased cartridge purification the desired products could be isolated as an injectable solution after only 10 min synthesis time with radiochemical yields (RCY) of more than 40% in the case of SiFA-DMFP resulting in specific activities >41 GBq/mu mol (>1,100 Ci/mmol). Furthermore, the radiolabeled products were shown to be stable in the injectable solutions, as well as in human plasma, for at least 90 min

Wirtschaftsfaktor sächsische Landwirtschaft

Im Mittelpunkt der Broschüre steht die Bedeutung der Vorleistungen der sächsischen Landwirtschaft für die regionalökonomische Entwicklung in Sachsen und darüber hinaus. Dabei werden sowohl die direkten Effekte als auch die indirekten und induzierten Effekte der Lieferbeziehungen der Vollerwerbslandwirte mit Ackerbau und Viehhaltung bewertet. Mit ihren Vorleistungen und getätigten Investitionen sorgt die Landwirtschaft für fast 2 Mrd. Euro Wertschöpfung in Sachsen. Pro Euro Wertschöpfung der sächsischen Landwirtschaft wird 1,60 Euro weitere Wertschöpfung in anderen sächsischen Wirtschaftszweigen erzielt. Jedem landwirtschaftlichen Arbeitsplatz sind weitere 0,8 Arbeitsplätze im Vorleistungsbereich zurechenbar

Öko-Buchführungsergebnisse - Auswertung der Buchführungsergebnisse ökologisch wirtschaftender Betriebe im Wirtschaftsjahr 2005/2006

In Fortführung des im Jahr 2003 ins Leben gerufenen Gemeinschaftsprojektes der ostdeutschen Bundesländer zur Auswertung der Buchführungsergebnisse ökologisch wirtschaftender Betriebe liegen nunmehr die Ergebnisse des Wirtschaftsjahres 2005/06 vor. Hintergrund dieser länderübergreifenden Analyse ist die unzureichende Anzahl auswertbarer BMELV-Jahresabschlüsse in den einzelnen Bundesländern. Die Zusammenführung der zur Verfügung stehenden Datensätze zu einer Gesamtstichprobe gestattet demgegenüber die Ableitung allgemeingültiger Aussagen zur Situation und Entwicklung der Öko-Betriebe. Darüber hinaus wird die Wirtschaftskraft der Betriebe insgesamt sowie einzelner Rechts- und Betriebsformen auch im Vergleich zu Betrieben mit konventioneller Bewirtschaftung dargestellt und beurteilt

Superantigen reactive Vβ6+ T cells induce perforin/granzyme B mediated caspase-independent apoptosis in tumour cells

The endogenous viral superantigen 7 in DBA/2 mice serves as a target antigen on syngeneic ESb-MP lymphoma cells for allogeneic graft-vs-leukaemia reactive cells. Allogeneic viral superantigen 7 reactive Vβ6+ T cells are able to transfer graft-vs-leukaemia reactivity and to kill specifically viral superantigen 7+ ESb-MP tumour cells in vitro. Here we elucidate the mechanism of this superantigen specific cell lysis. Already 10 min after co-incubation with in vitro stimulated Vβ6+ T cells, viral superantigen 7+ ESb-MP tumour cells show an apoptotic phenotype (Annexin V-positivity, DNA-fragmentation). This extremely rapid type of cell death is not mediated by the death inducing ligands CD95L, TRAIL and TNF but by perforin and granzyme B. Surprisingly, neither mitochondria nor any of the known caspases appear to be involved in this type of tumour cell killing. In contrast, nitric oxide, released by activated macrophages and endothelial cells, induces in the same tumour cells another type of apoptosis which is much slower and involves mitochondria and caspase activation. A synergistic effect between the two different effector mechanisms of superantigen reactive donor cytotoxic T lymphocytes and nitric oxide releasing host macrophages and endothelial cells might explain the effective immune rejection of even advanced metastasised cancer in this graft-vs-leukaemia animal model

Wirtschaftsfaktor sächsische Landwirtschaft

Im Mittelpunkt der Broschüre steht die Bedeutung der Vorleistungen der sächsischen Landwirtschaft für die regionalökonomische Entwicklung in Sachsen und darüber hinaus. Dabei werden sowohl die direkten Effekte als auch die indirekten und induzierten Effekte der Lieferbeziehungen der Vollerwerbslandwirte mit Ackerbau und Viehhaltung bewertet. Mit ihren Vorleistungen und getätigten Investitionen sorgt die Landwirtschaft für fast 2 Mrd. Euro Wertschöpfung in Sachsen. Pro Euro Wertschöpfung der sächsischen Landwirtschaft wird 1,60 Euro weitere Wertschöpfung in anderen sächsischen Wirtschaftszweigen erzielt. Jedem landwirtschaftlichen Arbeitsplatz sind weitere 0,8 Arbeitsplätze im Vorleistungsbereich zurechenbar