25 Jahre deutsche Einheit: Kontinuität und Wandel in Ost- und Westdeutschland

Der Sammelband behandelt ausgewählte Aspekte des Zusammenwachsens von Ost- und Westdeutschland 25 Jahre nach der Wiedervereinigung: Dominieren Gemeinsamkeiten oder Unterschiede das Verhältnis beider Landesteile zueinander? Neben Gesamtbilanzen zur Demokratieentwicklung und zur politischen Kultur stehen Politikfeldanalysen wie die Sozial-, Bildung- und Zuwanderungspolitik im Mittelpunkt.The book analyzes selected aspects of the reunification of East and West Germany after 25 years: Dominate similarities or differences the relationship between the two parts of the country to each other? The volume focuses on overviews about the development of democracy and political culture as well as on social, education- and immigration policy

25 Jahre Systemtransformation in Osteuropa: Bilanz und Perspektiven

Der Sammelband behandelt die Verläufe, Ergebnisse und Perspektiven der Systemtransformationen im postkommunistischen Europa nach 25 Jahren. Dabei geht es um politische Institutionen wie Verfassungen und Wahlen, um die Prozesse der Demokratisierung, aber auch der Re-Autokratisierung in der Region und um ausgewählte Politikfelder wie die Bevölkerungsentwicklung in Osteuropa sowie die Sozial- und Außenpolitik.The volume analyzes covers the courses, results and prospects of system transformations in post-communist Europe after 25 years. It is about political institutions such as constitutions and elections, about the processes of democratization, but also the Re-Autocratization in the region and about specific policies such as demographic, the social policy and foreign policy

Jenseits des vereinten Europas: rechtsextreme Parteien in Tschechien und der Slowakei

"Despite the generally positive transformation in East Central Europe, there are still participants in politics connecting to the totalitarian inheritance of the past. This essay examines the causes, effects and developments of rightwing extremism in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia from a comparative perspective. Although both countries have much in common as far as historical and current causes for the development of extremism are concerned, they differ particularly in the extent of right- and left-wing extremism. While the Czech Republic's extreme left-wing KSCM achieved two-digit results in all national elections, since more than one decade right-wing extremist organizations have almost disappeared from the political stage. Meanwhile in Slovakia, by the SNS there exists one of the most successful right-wing extremist parties of Europe, while the orthodox communists are not at all as successful as their Czech comrades. Nevertheless, there are common grounds also beyond the extremist antipodes: Right and left-wing extremists share strongly anti-European and national protective attitudes as well as their own mixture of nationalist and social populist positions." (author's abstract

Polizeidienst in Krisenzeiten: Beschäftigtenbefragung zur Corona-Pandemie in der Polizei Sachsen

Wie hat die Corona-Pandemie den Polizeidienst verändert? Wie haben die Beschäftigten ihren Dienst während des Lockdowns ganz persönlich erlebt? Welche Einstellungen und Sichtweisen prägen ihren Blick auf die Pandemiebekämpfung? Wie hat sich das auf ihre mentale Belastung und ihre dienstliche Handlungssicherheit ausgewirkt? Und was lässt sich aus alldem für das zukünftige Krisenmanagement von Behörden und Organisationen mit Sicherheitsaufgaben lernen? Zu diesen Fragen führte das Sächsische Institut für Polizei- und Sicherheitsforschung (SIPS) im Zeitraum von Mitte Oktober bis Mitte November 2020 eine Umfrage in der Sächsischen Polizei durch – also genau in jener Zeit, als sich die Pandemie in Sachsen erneut zuspitzte. Dieser Forschungsbericht gibt Auskunft über die Befunde der quantitativen und qualitativen Analysen des so entstandenen Datenmaterials – und gewährt erstmals belastbare Einblicke in Lebens- und Erfahrungswelten der Beschäftigten einer Sicherheitsbehörde während der Corona-Pandemie

Temperature-Dependent Interplay between Structural and Charge Carrier Dynamics in CsMAFA-Based Perovskites

State-of-the-art triple cation, mixed halide perovskites are extensively studied in perovskite solar cells, showing very promising performance and stability. However, an in-depth fundamental understanding of how the phase behavior in Cs0.05FA0.85MA0.10Pb(I0.97Br0.03)3 (CsMAFA) affects the optoelectronic properties is still lacking. The refined unit cell parameters a and c in combination with the thermal expansion coefficients derived from X-ray diffraction patterns reveal that CsMAFA undergoes an α–β phase transition at ≈280 K and another transition to the γ-phase at ≈180 K. From the analyses of the electrodeless microwave photoconductivity measurements it is shown that shallow traps only in the γ-phase negatively affect the charge carrier dynamics. Most importantly, CsMAFA exhibits the lowest amount of microstrain in the β-phase at around 240 K, corresponding to the lowest amount of trap density, which translates into the longest charge carrier diffusion length for electrons and holes. Below 200 K a considerable increase in deep trap states is found most likely related to the temperature-induced compressive microstrain leading to a huge imbalance in charge carrier diffusion lengths between electrons and holes. This work provides valuable insight into how temperature-dependent changes in structure affect the charge carrier dynamics in FA-rich perovskites.</p

Characterization of Total RNA, CD44, FASN, and PTEN mRNAs from Extracellular Vesicles as Biomarkers in Gastric Cancer Patients

In-depth characterization has introduced new molecular subtypes of gastric cancer (GC). To identify these, new approaches and techniques are required. Liquid biopsies are trendsetting and provide an easy and feasible method to identify and to monitor GC patients. In a prospective cohort of 87 GC patients, extracellular vesicles (EVs) were isolated from 250 µL of plasma. The total RNA was isolated with TRIZOL. The total RNA amount and the relative mRNA levels of CD44, PTEN, and FASN were measured by qRT-PCR. The isolation of EVs and their contained mRNA was possible in all 87 samples investigated. The relative mRNA levels of PTEN were higher in patients already treated by chemotherapy than in chemo-naïve patients. In patients who had undergone neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by gastrectomy, a decrease in the total RNA amount was observed after neoadjuvant chemotherapy and gastrectomy, while FASN and CD44 mRNA levels decreased only after gastrectomy. The amount of RNA and the relative mRNA levels of FASN and CD44 in EVs were affected more significantly by chemotherapy and gastrectomy than by chemotherapy alone. Therefore, they are a potential biomarker for monitoring treatment response. Future analyses are needed to identify GC-specific key RNAs in EVs, which could be used for the diagnosis of gastric cancer patients in order to determine their molecular subtype and to accompany the therapeutic response

Body Matters:Exploration of the Human Body as a Resource for the Design of Technologies for Meditation

Much research on meditation has shown its significant benefits for wellbeing. In turn, there has been growing HCI interest for the design of novel interactive technologies intended to facilitate meditation in real-time. In many of these systems, physiological signals have been mapped onto creative audiovisual feedback, however, there has been limited attention to the experiential qualities of meditation and the specific role that the body may play in them. In this paper, we report on workshops with 24 experts exploring the bodily sensations that emerge during meditation. Through material speculation, participants shared their lived experience of meditation and identified key stages during which they may benefit from additional aid, often multimodal. Findings emphasize the importance of recreating mindful physical sensations during moments of mind-wandering; in particular for supporting the regulation of attention through a range of embodied metaphors and haptic feedback, tailored to key transitions in the meditation process

Traps in the spotlight: How traps affect the charge carrier dynamics in Cs2AgBiBr6 perovskite

Suitable optoelectronic properties of lead halide perovskites make these materials interesting semiconductors for many applications. Toxic lead can be substituted by combining monovalent and trivalent cations, such as in Cs2AgBiBr6. However, efficiencies of Cs2AgBiBr6-based photovoltaics are still modest. To elucidate the loss mechanisms, in this report, we investigate charge dynamics in Cs2AgBiBr6 films by double-pulse excitation time-resolved microwave conductivity (DPE-TRMC). By exciting the sample with two laser pulses with identical wavelengths, we found a clear photoconductance enhancement induced by the second pulse even 30 μs after the first laser pulse. Modeling the DPE-TRMC results, complemented by photoluminescence and transient absorption, we reveal the presence of deep emissive electron traps, while shallow hole trapping is responsible for the long-lived transient absorption signals. These long-lived carriers offer interesting possibilities for X-ray detectors or photocatalysis. The DPE-TRMC methodology offers unique insight into the times involved in charge trapping and depopulation in Cs2AgBiBr6

Gastroesophageal reflux GWAS identifies risk loci that also associate with subsequent severe esophageal diseases.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is caused by gastric acid entering the esophagus. GERD has high prevalence and is the major risk factor for Barrett's esophagus (BE) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (EA). We conduct a large GERD GWAS meta-analysis (80,265 cases, 305,011 controls), identifying 25 independent genome-wide significant loci for GERD. Several of the implicated genes are existing or putative drug targets. Loci discovery is greatest with a broad GERD definition (including cases defined by self-report or medication data). Further, 91% of the GERD risk-increasing alleles also increase BE and/or EA risk, greatly expanding gene discovery for these traits. Our results map genes for GERD and related traits and uncover potential new drug targets for these conditions

Author Correction: Gastroesophageal reflux GWAS identifies risk loci that also associate with subsequent severe esophageal diseases.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper