The determinants and outcomes of user commitment to mandatory information system change

Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 248-287).Winning the commitment and support of employees for organisational transformation is a major objective of the leaders of organisational change. However, the determinants and outcomes of employee commitment to organisational change (Herscovitch & Meyer, 2002) are still not yet fully understood, especially with regard to a mandatory information system change in a non-Western environment

Annual Policy Report 2011

Der Politikbericht 2011 der deutschen nationalen Kontaktstelle für das Europäische Migrationsnetzwerk (EMN) gibt einen Überblick über die wichtigsten politischen Diskussionen und Entwicklungen in den Bereichen Migration, Integration und Asyl in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland für das Jahr 2011. Der Bericht nimmt besonderen Bezug auf Maßnahmen, welche die Bundesrepublik Deutschland zur Umsetzung des Europäischen Pakts zu Einwanderung und Asyl und des Stockholm Programms des Europäischen Rats beschlossen hat (eine gesonderte Übersicht zur Umsetzung der konkreten Zielvorgaben befindet sich im Anhang des Berichts). Diese Maßnahmen werden durch weitere Gesetze und Initiativen der Bundesregierung in den Bereichen Migration, Integration und Asyl ergänzt. Außerdem stellt der Bericht die allgemeine Struktur des politischen und rechtlichen Systems in Deutschland dar und skizziert die wichtigsten politischen und institutionellen Veränderungen im Jahr 2011.The 2011 Policy Report by the German National Contact Point for the European Migration Network (EMN) provides an overview of the most important political discussions and developments in migration, integration and asylum in the Federal Republic of Germany for the year 2011. The report focuses in particular on measures enacted by the Federal Republic of Germany for implementing the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum and the Stockholm Programme of the European Council (a separate report on implementing concrete goals is in the appendix to this report). These measures are supplemented by additional laws and initiatives by the Federal Government in the areas of migration, integration and asylum. Furthermore, the report describes the general structure of the political and legal system of Germany, and outlines the most important political and institutional changes of 2011

Immigration of International Students from Third Countries: Study by the German National Contact Point for the European Migration Network (EMN)

Zuzüge zum Zweck des Studiums in Deutschland haben in den letzten Jahren zugenommen und machen die drittgrößte Gruppe aller Zuzüge von Ausländern nach Deutschland aus. Die Studie bietet eine Übersicht der rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen sowie der praktischen Maßnahmen zur Gewinnung von Studierenden aus Drittstaaten. Zudem analysiert sie statistische Daten über erteilte Aufenthaltstitel zu Studienzwecken sowie zu Studienanfängern, Studierenden und Absolventen. Die rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen für internationale Studierende wurden in den letzten Jahren kontinuierlich liberalisiert, um so die internationale Attraktivität Deutschlands als Hochschulstandort zu steigern. Die rechtlichen Bestimmungen der Zuwanderung von Studierenden aus Drittstaaten werden durch Länder, Hochschulen und Mittlerorganisationen mit praktischen Maßnahmen ergänzt. Der Bestand an Drittstaatsangehörigen mit einer Aufenthaltserlaubnis zum Zweck des Studiums lag zwischen 2007 und 2010 konstant bei ungefähr 120.000 und ging im Jahr 2011 auf rund 112.000 zurück. Die häufigsten Herkunftsländer sind China (mit großem Abstand), Russland, Südkorea und die Türkei. Die politischen Bemühungen, dem Fachkräftemangel entgegenzuwirken und internationale Studierende als Fachkräfte für den deutschen Arbeitsmarkt zu gewinnen, verzeichnen Erfolge, d.h. internationale Studierende machen von den entsprechenden rechtlichen Zuwanderungsmöglichkeiten Gebrauch: Im Jahr 2011 erhielten rund 4.000 Personen einen Aufenthaltstitel zu Erwerbszwecken im Anschluss an eine Aufenthaltserlaubnis zu Studienzwecken und ungefähr 3.500 eine Aufenthaltserlaubnis zur Arbeitssuche nach Studienabschluss. Seit dem Wintersemester 2010/2011 ist es auch Bildungsausländern aus Drittstaaten erlaubt, an EU-Mobilitätsprogrammen, z.B. den Erasmus-Programmen, teilzunehmen; jedoch nimmt nur eine geringe Zahl von Drittstaatsangehörigen diese Möglichkeiten wahr. Das Working Paper 47 wurde von der deutschen EMN-Kontaktstelle im Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge als Teilbericht zu einer europäisch-vergleichend angelegten Studie erarbeitet und aus EU-Mitteln kofinanziert.The study offers an overview of the legal framework and practical measures to attract students from third countries. It also analyses statistical data on residence permits that have been issued for study purposes, as well as on persons taking up their studies, students and graduates. The legal framework for international students has been continually liberalised in recent years in order to make Germany more internationally attractive as a place to study. The legal provisions for immigration by students from third countries are supplemented by practical measures from the Länder, higher education institutions and intermediary organisations. The number of third-country nationals with a residence permit for study purposes was at a constant level of roughly 120,000 between 2007 and 2010, falling to about 112,000 in 2011. The most common countries of origin are China (with a considerable lead), Russia, South Korea and Turkey. The political efforts to counter the shortage of specialists and to attract international students as specialists for the German labour market are proving successful, i.e. international students are taking up the appropriate legal possibilities to immigrate: In 2011 roughly 4,000 individuals received a residence title for employment purposes following on from a residence permit for study purposes, and roughly received 3,500 a residence permit for job-seeking after graduation. Since the winter semester 2010/2011, persons from third countries who have acquired their entitlement to study outside Germany have also been permitted to participate in EU mobility programmes such as the Erasmus programmes. However, only a small number of third-country nationals take up these possibilities. Working Paper 47 was drawn up by the German EMN Contact Point at the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees as a sub-report to a comparative European study, and was co-funded from funds from the EU

AAV-Mediated Overexpression of the CB1 Receptor in the mPFC of Adult Rats Alters Cognitive Flexibility, Social Behavior, and Emotional Reactivity

The endocannabinoid (ECB) system is strongly involved in the regulation of cognitive processing and emotional behavior and evidence indicates that ECB signaling might affect these behavioral abilities by modulations of prefrontal cortical functions. The aim of the present study was to examine the role of the CB1 receptor in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) on cognitive flexibility and emotional behavior. Therefore, the CB1 receptor was overexpressed by adeno-associated virus vector-mediated gene transfer specifically in the mPFC of adult Wistar rats. Animals were then tested in different anxiety-related paradigms for emotional reactivity [e.g., elevated plus maze (EPM), light/dark emergence test (EMT), social interaction] and the attentional set shift task (ASST) – an adaptation of the human Wisconsin card sorting test – for cognitive abilities and behavioral flexibility. A subtle increase in exploratory behavior was found in CB1 receptor overexpressing animals (CB1-R) compared to Empty vector injected controls (Empty) in the EMT and EPM, although general locomotor activity did not differ between the groups. During social interaction testing, social contact behavior toward the unknown conspecific was found to be decreased, whereas social withdrawal was increased in CB1-R animals and they showed an inadequate increase in exploratory behavior compared to control animals. In the ASST, impaired reversal learning abilities were detected in CB1-R animals compared to controls, indicating reduced behavioral flexibility. In conclusion, upregulation of the CB1 receptor specifically in the rat mPFC induces alterations in emotional reactivity, leads to inadequate social behavior, and impairs cognitive flexibility. These findings might be relevant for neuropsychiatric disorders, since higher cortical CB1 receptor expression levels as well as similar behavioral impairments as observed in the present study have been described in schizophrenic patients

Reversible Tuning of Collinear versus Chiral Magnetic Order by Chemical Stimulus

The Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction mediates collinear magnetic interactions via the conduction electrons of a non-magnetic spacer, resulting in a ferro- or antiferromagnetic magnetization in magnetic multilayers. The resulting spin-polarized charge transport effects have found numerous applications. Recently it has been discovered that heavy non-magnetic spacers are able to mediate an indirect magnetic coupling that is non-collinear and chiral. This Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya-enhanced RKKY (DME-RKKY) interaction causes the emergence of a variety of interesting magnetic structures, such as skyrmions and spin spirals. Applications using these magnetic quasi-particles require a thorough understanding and fine-tuning of the balance between the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction and other magnetic interactions, e.g., the exchange interaction and magnetic anisotropy contributions. Here, we show by spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy that the spin structure of manganese oxide chains on Ir(001) can reproducibly be switched from chiral to collinear antiferromagnetic interchain interactions by increasing the oxidation state of MnO$_2$ while the reverse process can be induced by thermal reduction. The underlying structural change is revealed by low-energy electron diffraction intensity data (LEED-IV) analysis. Density functional theory calculations suggest that the magnetic transition may be caused by a significant increase of the Heisenberg exchange upon oxidation.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

SPHERES, J\"ulich's High-Flux Neutron Backscattering Spectrometer at FRM II

SPHERES (SPectrometer with High Energy RESolution) is a third-generation neutron backscattering spectrometer, located at the 20 MW German neutron source FRM II and operated by the Juelich Centre for Neutron Science. It offers an energy resolution (fwhm) better than 0.65 micro-eV, a dynamic range of +-31 micro-eV, and a signal-to-noise ratio of up to 1750:1.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables. Supplemental material consists of 3 pages, 2 figures, 2 table

Two-channel pseudogap Kondo and Anderson models: Quantum phase transitions and non-Fermi liquids

We discuss the two-channel Kondo problem with a pseudogap density of states, \rho(\w)\propto|\w|^r, of the bath fermions. Combining both analytical and numerical renormalization group techniques, we characterize the impurity phases and quantum phase transitions of the relevant Kondo and Anderson models. The line of stable points, corresponding to the overscreened non-Fermi liquid behavior of the metallic $r=0$ case, is replaced by a stable particle-hole symmetric intermediate-coupling fixed point for 0. For r>\rmax, this non-Fermi liquid phase disappears, and instead a critical fixed point with an emergent spin--channel symmetry appears, controlling the quantum phase transition between two phases with stable spin and channel moments, respectively. We propose low-energy field theories to describe the quantum phase transitions, all being formulated in fermionic variables. We employ epsilon expansion techniques to calculate critical properties near the critical dimensions $r=0$ and $r=1$, the latter being potentially relevant for two-channel Kondo impurities in neutral graphene. We find the analytical results to be in excellent agreement with those obtained from applying Wilson's numerical renormalization group technique.Comment: Added reference

Politikbericht 2011

Der Politikbericht 2011 der deutschen nationalen Kontaktstelle für das Europäische Migrationsnetzwerk (EMN) gibt einen Überblick über die wichtigsten politischen Diskussionen und Entwicklungen in den Bereichen Migration, Integration und Asyl in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland für das Jahr 2011. Der Bericht nimmt besonderen Bezug auf Maßnahmen, welche die Bundesrepublik Deutschland zur Umsetzung des Europäischen Pakts zu Einwanderung und Asyl und des Stockholm Programms des Europäischen Rats beschlossen hat (eine gesonderte Übersicht zur Umsetzung der konkreten Zielvorgaben befindet sich im Anhang des Berichts). Diese Maßnahmen werden durch weitere Gesetze und Initiativen der Bundesregierung in den Bereichen Migration, Integration und Asyl ergänzt. Außerdem stellt der Bericht die allgemeine Struktur des politischen und rechtlichen Systems in Deutschland dar und skizziert die wichtigsten politischen und institutionellen Veränderungen im Jahr 2011.The 2011 Policy Report by the German National Contact Point for the European Migration Network (EMN) provides an overview of the most important political discussions and developments in migration, integration and asylum in the Federal Republic of Germany for the year 2011. The report focuses in particular on measures enacted by the Federal Republic of Germany for implementing the European Pact on Immigration and Asylum and the Stockholm Programme of the European Council (a separate report on implementing concrete goals is in the appendix to this report). These measures are supplemented by additional laws and initiatives by the Federal Government in the areas of migration, integration and asylum. Furthermore, the report describes the general structure of the political and legal system of Germany, and outlines the most important political and institutional changes of 2011

An acoustically-driven biochip: particle-cell interactions under physiological flow conditions [Abstract]

Introduction: The interaction of particulate drug carriers with cells has generally been assessed in stationary microplate assays. These setups fail to reflect the flow conditions in vivo which generate substantial hydrodynamic drag forces [1]. In order to address this shortcoming, a microfluidic biochip with the capability of imitating a wide range of shear rates and pulsation modes has been developed. This device, which is based on an incorporated surface acoustic wave pump, was used to study the interaction of targeted microparticles with epithelial cells under flow conditions