Educational reform in France, West-Germany and the United Kingdom: updating the CASMIN educational classification

In der empirischen Bildungs-, Arbeitsmarkt- und Ungleichheitsforschung werden unterschiedliche Konzepte zur Messung und Operationalisierung von Bildung angewendet: von der Anzahl der Schuljahre über Bildungsskalen als kontinuierliche Messungen hin zu kategorialen Typologien wie z.B. der International Standard Classification of Education der UNESCO oder auch der CASMIN-Klassifikation, die Mitte der 80er Jahre im Projekt 'Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations' entwickelt wurde. In der komparativen soziologischen Mobilitätsforschung hat sich die CASMIN-Bildungsklassifikation als ein Konzept erwiesen, das den Besonderheiten der Bildungsinstitutionen in den einzelnen Ländern und der Vergleichbarkeit der Bildungszertifikate zwischen den Ländern Rechnung trägt. Die Autorinnen beschreiben für Frankreich, (West-)Deutschland und Großbritannien die institutionellen Entwicklungen in den Bildungssystemen und die dadurch notwendig gewordene Anpassung der CASMIN-Bildungsklassifikation. (pre)"In empirical education and labour market research, different approaches for measuring education have been pursued; they reach from 'number of years of schooling' and educational scoring as continuous measures to typologies as the ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) and CASMIN classification (Comparative Analysis of Social Mobility in Industrial Nations) as categorical approaches. The value of the CASMIN educational classification has been demonstrated in many studies in comparative social mobility and labour market research. The original CASMIN coding scheme, however, does not capture the institutional changes that took place in the course of the educational reforms that affected most European societies following World War II. In this paper, the original CASMIN coding scheme is updated according to recent developments in the educational systems of France, West-Germany, and the United Kingdom. In addition, specific refinements and modifications of the CASMIN classification are proposed." (author's abstract

Die Konstruktion des Klassenschemas nach Erikson, Goldthorpe und Portocarero (EGP) am Beispiel nationaler Datenquellen aus Deutschland, Großbritannien und Frankreich

In der soziologischen Ungleichheits- und Mobilitätsforschung hat das Klassenschema von Erikson, Goldthorpe und Portocarero (vgl. Erikson/Goldthorpe 1992) einen wichtigen Stellenwert. Die empirische Umsetzung erfolgt auf der Basis erwerbsstatistischer Angaben, die im Rahmen repräsentativer Umfragen in den meisten Gesellschaften regelmäßig abgefragt werden. Die komparative Ungleichheitsforschung, die auf die Entwicklung eines vergleichbaren Instrumentes zur Messung der sozialen Lage von Individuen, Familien oder Haushalten angewiesen ist, ist dabei mit einem spezifischen Problem konfrontiert: Die Datenquellen verschiedener Gesellschaften unterscheiden sich teilweise erheblich dann, wie erwerbsstatistische Informationen erhoben und kategorisiert werden. Auch im Zeitverlauf unterliegen die nationalen Erhebungen diesbezüglich einem Wandel. Dieser Beitrag schlägt eine an Datensätze der 90er und 80er Jahre angepasste Operationalisierung des EGP-Klassenschemas vor, die sich an den ursprünglichen Überlegungen der CASMIN-Forscher orientiert. Wir konzentrieren uns auf die Länder Deutschland, Großbritannien und Frankreich. Besonderheiten der von den nationalen statistischen Ämtern verwendeten Systematiken, zugrundeliegende Klassifizierungsprinzipien und historische Veränderungen werden skizziert und im Hinblick auf ihre Probleme für die Entwicklung eines für international vergleichende Studien geeigneten Klassenschemas beleuchtet." (Autorenreferat)The class scheme of Erikson, Goldthorpe and Portocarero has an important role in sociological research on social inequality and mobility. The operationalization is based on information about individuals' labour market situation which is regularly collected in representative population surveys in most societies. This constitutes a specific problem for comparative inequality research. The data sources in different societies sometimes vary greatly with regard to the collection and technical systematization of information related to individuals' occupational situation. Over time national surveys also undergo change in this regard. This paper proposes an operationalization of the EGP class scheme which is adapted to datasets of the 1990s and is orientated on the original considerations of the CASIIIN researchers. We concentrate on Germany, France, and Great Britain. Peculiarities of the classification systems used by the national statistical offices, for coding occupations for example, the principles they are based on, and historical changes are sketched out in detail and discussed with regard to the problems they pose for the development of a comparative measuring instrument." (author's abstract

Effectiveness of a primary care based complex intervention to promote self-management in patients presenting psychiatric symptoms: study protocol of a cluster-randomized controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Anxiety, Depression and Somatoform (ADSom) disorders are highly prevalent in primary care. Managing these disorders is time-consuming and requires strong commitment on behalf of the General Practitioners (GPs). Furthermore, the management of these patients is restricted by the high patient turnover rates in primary care practices, especially in the German health care system. In order to address this problem, we implement a complex, low-threshold intervention by an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) using a mixture of case management and counseling techniques to promote self-management in these patients. Here we present the protocol of the “Self-Management Support for Anxiety, Depression and Somatoform Disorders in Primary Care” (SMADS)-Study. METHODS/DESIGN: The study is designed as a cluster-randomized controlled trial, comparing an intervention and a control group of 10 primary care practices in each case. We will compare the effectiveness of the intervention applied by an APN with usual GP-care. A total of 340 participants will be enrolled in the study, 170 in either arm. We use the Patient Health Questionnaire-German version (PHQ-D) as a screening tool for psychiatric symptoms, including patients with a score above 5 on any of the three symptom scales. The primary outcome is self-efficacy, measured by the General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE), here used as a proxy for self-management. As secondary outcomes we include the PHQ-D symptom load and questionnaires regarding coping with illness and health related quality of life. Outcome assessments will be applied 8 weeks and 12 months after the baseline assessment. DISCUSSION: The SMADS-study evaluates a complex, low threshold intervention for ambulatory patients presenting ADSom-symptoms, empowering them to better manage their condition, as well as improving their motivation to engage in self-help and health-seeking behaviour. The benefit of the intervention will be substantiated, when patients can enhance their expected self-efficacy, reduce their symptom load and engage in more self-help activities to deal with their everyday lives. After successfully evaluating this psychosocial intervention, a new health care model for the management of symptoms of anxiety, depression and somatoform disorders for ambulatory patients could emerge, supplementing the work of the GP. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT0172638

Continuous bunch-by-bunch spectroscopic investigation of the micro-bunching instability

Electron accelerators and synchrotrons can be operated to provide short emission pulses due to longitudinally compressed or sub-structured electron bunches. Above a threshold current, the high charge density leads to the micro-bunching instability and the formation of sub-structures on the bunch shape. These time-varying sub-structures on bunches of picoseconds-long duration lead to bursts of coherent synchrotron radiation in the terahertz frequency range. Therefore, the spectral information in this range contains valuable information about the bunch length, shape and sub-structures. Based on the KAPTURE readout system, a 4-channel single-shot THz spectrometer capable of recording 500 million spectra per second and streaming readout is presented. First measurements of time-resolved spectra are compared to simulation results of the Inovesa Vlasov-Fokker-Planck solver. The presented results lead to a better understanding of the bursting dynamics especially above the micro-bunching instability threshold.Comment: 12 pages, 11 figure

Field-level land-use data reveal heterogeneous crop sequences with distinct regional differences in Germany

Crop cultivation intensifies globally, which can jeopardize biodiversity and the resilience of cropping systems. We investigate changes in crop rotations as one intensification metric for half of the croplands in Germany with annual field-level land-use data from 2005 to 2018. We proxy crop rotations with crop sequences and compare how these sequences changed among three seven-year periods. The results reveal an overall high diversity of crop sequences in Germany. Half of the cropland has crop sequences with four or more crops within a seven-year period, while continuous cultivation of the same crop is present on only 2% of the cropland. Larger farms tend to have more diverse crop sequences and organic farms have lower shares of cereal crops. In three federal states, crop rotations became less structurally diverse over time, i.e. the number of crops and the number of changes between crops decreased. In one state, structural diversity increased and the proportion of monocropping decreased. The functional diversity of the crop sequences, which measures the share of winter and spring crops as well as the share of leaf and cereal crops per sequence, remained largely stable. Trends towards cereal- or leaf-crop dominated sequences varied between the states, and no clear overall dynamic could be observed. However, the share of winter crops per sequence decreased in all four federal states. Quantifying the dynamics of crop sequences at the field level is an important metric of land-use intensity and can reveal the patterns of land-use intensification

Increasing the Single-Bunch Instability Threshold by Bunch Splitting Due to RF Phase Modulation

RF phase modulation at twice the synchrotron frequency can be used to split a stored electron bunch into two or more bunchlets orbiting each other. We report on time-resolved measurements at the KArlsruhe Research Accelerator (KARA), where this bunch splitting was used to increase the threshold current of the microbunching instability, happening in the short-bunch operation mode. Switching the modulation on and off, reproducibly influences the sawtooth behaviour of the emitted coherent synchrotron radiation

Ambulatory health services utilization in patients with dementia - Is there an urban-rural difference?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Due to demographic changes and an un-equal distribution of physicians, regional analyses of service utilization of elderly patients are crucial, especially for diseases with an impact like dementia. This paper focuses on dementia patients. The aim of the study is to identify differences in service utilization of incident dementia patients in urban and rural areas.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Basis for the analysis were all insured persons of a German Health Insurance fund (the GEK) aged 65 years and older living in rural and urban areas. We focussed on physician contacts in the outpatient sector during the first year after an incidence diagnosis of dementia. Special attention was given to contacts with primary care physicians and neurologists/psychiatrists. The dementia cohort was analyzed together with a non-dementia control group drawn according to age, gender and amount of physician contacts. Uni- and bivariate as well as multivariate analysis were performed to estimate the influences on service utilization.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Results show that the provision of primary care seems to be equally given in urban and rural areas. For specialists contacts however, rural patients are less likely to consult neurologists or psychiatrists. This trend can already be seen before the incident diagnosis of dementia. All consultations rise in the quarter of the incident dementia diagnosis compared to the control group. The results were also tested in a linear and a logistic regression, showing a higher chance for persons living in urban areas to visit a specialist and an overall higher rate in service utilization for dementia patients.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Because of a probable increase in the number of dementia patients, service provision has to be accessible even in rural areas. Due to this and the fact that demographic change is happening at different paces in different regions, regional variations have to be considered to ensure the future service provision.</p

Fast Mapping of Terahertz Bursting Thresholds and Characteristics at Synchrotron Light Sources

Dedicated optics with extremely short electron bunches enable synchrotron light sources to generate intense coherent THz radiation. The high degree of spatial compression in this so-called low-alpha optics entails a complex longitudinal dynamics of the electron bunches, which can be probed studying the fluctuations in the emitted terahertz radiation caused by the micro-bunching instability ("bursting"). This article presents a "quasi-instantaneous" method for measuring the bursting characteristics by simultaneously collecting and evaluating the information from all bunches in a multi-bunch fill, reducing the measurement time from hours to seconds. This speed-up allows systematic studies of the bursting characteristics for various accelerator settings within a single fill of the machine, enabling a comprehensive comparison of the measured bursting thresholds with theoretical predictions by the bunched-beam theory. This paper introduces the method and presents first results obtained at the ANKA synchrotron radiation facility.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, to be published in Physical Review Accelerators and Beam

Simultaneous Detection of Longitudinal and Transverse Bunch Signals at a Storage Ring

To understand and control the dynamics in the longitudinal phase space, time-resolved measurements of different bunch parameters are required. For a reconstruction of this phase space, the detector systems have to be synchronized. This reconstruction can be used e.g. for studies of the micro-bunching instability. It occurs if the interaction of the bunch with its own radiation leads to the formation of sub-structures on the longitudinal bunch profile. These sub-structures can grow rapidly -- leading to a sawtooth-like behaviour of the bunch. At KARA, we use a fast-gated intensified camera for energy spread studies, Schottky diodes for coherent synchrotron radiation studies as well as electro-optical spectral decoding for longitudinal bunch profile measurements. For a synchronization, a hardware synchronization scheme is used which compensates for eventual hardware delays. In this paper, the different experimental setups and their synchronization are discussed and first results of synchronous measurements are presented

Enhancing the sensitivity of the electro-optical far-field experiment for measuring CSR at KARA

At the KIT storage ring KARA (Karlsruhe Research Accelerator), a far-field electro-optical (EO) experimental setup to measure the temporal profile of the coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR) is implemented. Here, the EOSD (electro-optical spectral decoding) technique will be used to obtain single-shot measurements of the temporal CSR profile in the terahertz frequency domain. To keep the crucial high signal-to-noise ratio a setup based on balanced detection is under commission. Therefore, simulations are performed for an optimized beam path and the setup is characterized. In this contribution, the upgraded setup and first measurements are presented