Library Resources For Ethnic Minorities In The Federal Republic of Germany

published or submitted for publicatio

Life after eruption, II : the eclipsing old nova V728 Scorpii

The old nova V728 Sco has been recently recovered via photometric and spectroscopic observations, 150 yr after the nova eruption. The spectral properties pointed to a high-inclination system with a comparatively low mass-transfer rate. In this paper, we show that the object is an eclipsing system with an orbital period of 3.32 h. It has enhanced long-term variability that can be interpreted as `stunted' dwarf-nova-type outbursts. Using the ingress and egress times of the eclipsed components we calculate the radius of the central object. The latter turns out to be significantly larger than a white dwarf and we identify it with a hot inner disc. The implications for models on the behaviour of post-novae are discussed

Konjunkturprognose Ostdeutschland und Sachsen 2008/2009 : Abschwung und Rezession

Der globale Abschwung hat in den letzten Monaten auch die Wirtschaft der ostdeutschen Bundesländer massiv erfasst. Während das Bruttoinlandsprodukt Ostdeutschlands im ersten Halbjahr 2008 noch um gut zwei Prozent gestiegen ist, dürfte das Wirtschaftswachstum in der zweiten Jahreshälfte nahezu zum Erliegen gekommen sein. In diesem Jahr ist mit einer drastischen Verschlechterung der Wirtschaftslage zu rechnen. Das Bruttoinlandsprodukt Ostdeutschlands (mit Berlin) wird 2009 voraussichtlich um 1,9% zurückgehen. Für das Bruttoinlandsprodukt Sachsens wird eine Schrumpfung um 2,1% prognostiziert. Die Zahl der Erwerbstätigen dürfte im Jahresdurchschnitt in beiden Regionen um rund 1% abnehmen.Konjunktur; Konjunkturprognose; Sachsen; Neue Bundesländer

Understanding information security compliance - Why goal setting and rewards might be a bad idea

Since organizational information security policies can only improve security if employees comply with them, understanding the factors that affect employee security compliance is crucial for strengthening information security. Based on a survey with 200 German employees, we find that reward for production goal achievement negatively impacts security compliance. Whereas a distinct error aversion culture also seems to impair security compliance, the results provide no evidence for an impact of error management culture, affective commitment towards the organization, security policy information quality or quality of the goal setting process. Furthermore, the intention to comply with security policies turns out to be a bad predictor for actual security compliance. We therefore suggest future studies to measure actual behavior instead of behavioral intention

Human factors shaping the cooperation of police with other sectors: the example of domestic violence

Policing is a profession with a significant human factor component, and police psychology has contributed to its structure and to improve police relations throughout various fields of crime prevention and intervention. Within police and in police-client interaction, the management of the human factor has become quite elaborate in policing. However, in the challenging field of domestic violence, there is a lot of uncharted land. The EU-funded research project IMPRODOVA sought to approach this topic in an empirical approach via document analyses, secondary data analyses and expert interviews. Its major insights and outputs for police practice (including an open access training website) are discussed in the following. Also, recommendations for police multi-professional and inter-agency cooperation are presented

Prefrontal involvement in imitation learning of hand actions : effects of practice and expertise.

In this event-related fMRI study, we demonstrate the effects of a single session of practising configural hand actions (guitar chords) on cortical activations during observation, motor preparation, and imitative execution. During the observation of non-practised actions, the mirror neuron system (MNS), consisting of inferior parietal and ventral premotor areas, was more strongly activated than for the practised actions. This finding indicates a strong role of the MNS in the early stages of imitation learning. In addition, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) was selectively involved during observation and motor preparation of the non-practised chords. This finding confirms Buccino et al.’s (2004a) model of imitation learning: for actions that are not yet part of the observer’s motor repertoire, DLPFC engages in operations of selection and combination of existing, elementary representations in the MNS. The pattern of prefrontal activations further supports Shallice’s (2004) proposal of a dominant role of the left DLPFC in modulating lower-level systems, and of a dominant role of the right DLPFC in monitoring operations

Quasistatic inflation processes within compliant tubes: Part 2

In former work, a mechanical system was considered that models a segment of a live or artificial worm or a balloon for angioplasty that is placed within a cylindrical rigid or compliant tube (vein). Based on the Principle of Minimal Potential Energy and treated as an optimal control problem with state constraint the authors derived a system of differential equations that describes the statics of the inflation process including the shape of the inflated system and the contact forces between balloon and vein. This Part 2 now presents corresponding simulation results. A short but complete introduction to the theory makes the paper selfconsistent