Occupational Licensing and the Wage Structure in Germany

In order to work in licensed occupations, employees need permission from the state. For Germany, it remains unanswered why occupations become licensed and how licensing affects the wage structure. The article describes the institutional embeddedness of licensing in the German labor market. These institutions create barriers to entry and regulate prices of occupational tasks. By accounting for licensing and its accompanying institutions, the article shows licensing to generate a safety net effect rather than mere monopoly rents. Wage inequality is reduced as a consequence. Results from conditional and unconditional quantile regressions based on the BIBB-BAuA Employment Survey 2012 strongly support that view

Relational Sociology on a Global Scale: Field-Theoretical Perspectives on Cross-Cultural Comparison and the Re-Figuration of Space(s)

Der Vergleich, obwohl eines der grundlegendsten Verfahren der Sozialwissenschaften, ist alles andere als eine unumstrittene Methode. Tatsächlich existiert nach wie vor ein enorm heterogenes Feld vergleichender Ansätze, die jeweils auf unterschiedliche intellektuelle Traditionen, verschiedenartige Verständnisse des "Vergleichens", spezifische Probleme und Forschungsstrategien bezogen sind. Verschiedene, auf ihre jeweilige Weise hochentwickelte komparative Forschungsrichtungen stehen so weitgehend unverbunden nebeneinander, wodurch letztlich analytische Potenziale verschenkt werden: ländervergleichende (häufig mit quantitativen Verfahren und erklärenden Zielsetzungen verknüpfte) Studien einerseits und kulturvergleichende (typischerweise mit qualitativen Verfahren und verstehend-hermeneutischen Anliegen verbundene) Ansätze andererseits. Die modernen Sozialwissenschaften sehen sich indes mit einer zunehmend komplexen globalen Wirklichkeit konfrontiert, die sich weniger als je zuvor adäquat auf der Grundlage einseitiger Referenzsysteme erfassen lässt. Vor diesem Hintergrund entwickeln wir in diesem Beitrag die Sozialraum- und Feldtheorie Pierre BOURDIEUs durch eine konsequent relationale Lesart in eine Richtung weiter, die es erlaubt, unterschiedliche Konzeptionen und Techniken des sozialwissenschaftlichen Vergleichs im Rahmen eines einheitlichen Bezugsrahmens zur Geltung zu bringen. Der Rückgriff auf diesen allgemeinen Bezugsrahmen eröffnet die Möglichkeit, nationale, internationale sowie transnationale Vergleiche anzustellen, ohne dabei die jeweiligen Referenzsysteme und die damit korrespondierenden Vergleichsentitäten essenzialisieren oder hypostasieren zu müssen.Comparison, as a fundamental operation in the social sciences, is anything but a clearly defined method. Rather, there is a highly heterogeneous field of comparative approaches with different intellectual traditions, ideas of "comparison," specific problems, and research strategies. In fact, different streams of comparative studies exist in parallel, each highly elaborated in its own way but largely ignoring the achievements of the other tradition and thus ultimately wasting analytical potential—namely cross-national studies (often associated with quantitative methods and explanatory objectives) on the one hand and cross-cultural studies or cultural comparisons (usually associated with qualitative methods and hermeneutical approaches) on the other. However, contemporary social sciences are confronted with an increasingly complex global reality that can no longer be described on the basis of one-dimensional frames of reference. Drawing on the basic methodological principle of relationality, the aim of our article is to develop Pierre BOURDIEU's theory of fields and social spaces in a direction that allows different approaches to comparison to be made fruitful on the basis of a common frame of reference. Based on this generalized framework, national, international, and transnational comparisons become possible without having to essentialize or hypostasize specific reference frames and corresponding units of analysis

A Healthy and Ecologically Balanced Environment: An Argument for a Third Generation Right

Chymotrypsin-like serine proteases are found in high abundance in mast cell granules. By site-directed mutatgenesis, we have previously shown that basic amino acids in positions 143 and 192 (Arg and Lys respectively) of the human mast cell chymase are responsible for an acidic amino acid residue preference in the P2' position of substrates. In order to study the influence of these two residues in determining the specificity of chymase inhibitors, we have synthesized five different potent inhibitors of the human chymase. The inhibitory effects of these compounds were tested against the wild-type enzyme, against two single mutants Arg143Gln and Lys192Met and against a double mutant, Arg143Gln+Lys192Met. We observed a markedly reduced activity of all five inhibitors with the double mutant, indicating that these two basic residues are involved in conferring the specificity of these inhibitors. The single mutants showed an intermediate phenotype, with the strongest effect on the inhibitor by the mutation in Lys192. The Lys192 and the double mutations also affected the rate of cleavage of angiotensin I but did not seem to affect the specificity in the cleavage of the Tyr(4)-Ile(5) bond. A more detailed knowledge about which amino acids that confer the specificity of an enzyme can prove to be of major importance for development of highly specific inhibitors for the human chymase and other medically important enzymes

A Viable Business Model for Innovations with Digital Healthcare Applications in Germany

Germany established laws to quickly introduce digital innovations in healthcare by forcing statutory insurances to reimburse companies producing digital applications. This could enhance the well-being of patients. For example, an application in psychotherapy can cut the waiting time for a psychotherapist in Germany. However, such enhancements will reach the patients only if companies offering digital applications have a viable business model to survive. Our analysis of the business model of a company offering a recognized digital application shows that such business models are not easy to develop. The analysis is transferrable to other countries, if they establish similar laws. First, we describe the legal framework for digital healthcare applications set up in Germany. We also describe the conditions that must be met for such an application to be recognized by the relevant body so that statutory insurances must pay for it. This is followed by a discussion of the reimbursement amount. Then, we develop the business model of a producer of a specific digital healthcare application. Although the possibility of reimbursement for accepted applications constitutes a competitive advantage, underestimating costs from the approval process and marketing may be dangerous. The same is true for relying on revenues from reimbursement

EVALUATION OF A SWIM BENCH

Swim benches are used in dry-land training and for performance diagnosis by most elite swimmers. For the purpose of diagnosis generally the swimmer's mechanical output power is measured. But there are some problems: E. g. the influence of the water resistance and the influence of the legs' power to swimming are not included in a swim bench test. Competitive performances (200 m) and data from swim bench tests (average mechanical output power) of four elite female swimmers (one participant of Olympic finals 2000 and three participants of German championships) over a period of two years were correlated for each swimmer. The results suggest, that swim benches are useful for an individual performance diagnosis if the mechanical output power is acquired

A DIRECT MEASURING METHOD FOR THE DETERMINATION OF THE EDGING ANGLE AND THE GROUND REACTION FORCE IN ALPINE SKIING

The purpose of this study was to clarify the advantages and disadvantages of a combined dynamic and body mounted kinematical measurement system in alpine skiing. A high profile former world cup athlete of the German national team performed a test-run equipped with a bilateral insole and an inertial measurement system. In particular the edging angle and the ground reaction force were of interest. The measured values were comparable to previous findings. The main benefit can be seen in the application in the training process for an enhanced objectified technique training. The weight and the mechanical characteristics of the measuring system may slightly affect an athlete adversely

Verification of the effectiveness of the Integrated Product Development paradigm for the development of sports equipment — A case study

AbstractThe sporting goods companies face significant challenges. To be successful on the market it is essential to follow a structured systematic product development process. A potential approach is the Integrated Product Development (IPD) paradigm. In this paper Insider Action Research (IAR) is used to verify the effectiveness of the IPD in a case study. It is shown that IPD is a potential development paradigm for the sporting goods industry to support a systematic development process for a successful product development in sports

ResBuilder: Automated Learning of Depth with Residual Structures

In this work, we develop a neural architecture search algorithm, termed Resbuilder, that develops ResNet architectures from scratch that achieve high accuracy at moderate computational cost. It can also be used to modify existing architectures and has the capability to remove and insert ResNet blocks, in this way searching for suitable architectures in the space of ResNet architectures. In our experiments on different image classification datasets, Resbuilder achieves close to state-of-the-art performance while saving computational cost compared to off-the-shelf ResNets. Noteworthy, we once tune the parameters on CIFAR10 which yields a suitable default choice for all other datasets. We demonstrate that this property generalizes even to industrial applications by applying our method with default parameters on a proprietary fraud detection dataset

Application of a Full Body Inertial Measurement System in Dressage Riding

a b s t r a c t With the steady further development of microelectromechanical systems, nowadays, it is possible to measure various specific kinematics of riders with inertial sensors. The aim of the study was to quantify the rider's posture on the horse with a full-body inertial measurement system (Xsens MVN) under field conditions. Ten high-level riders from the German National Equestrian Federation participated in this study. The measurements were performed in sitting trot (ST) in an indoor riding hall. Kinematic data from the riders' segments (head, trunk, and pelvis) and joint angles (elbow and knee) were collected. Qualitative analyses of the waveform parameters and statistical analyses were applied to the data. In addition, the coefficient of multiple correlations (CMCs) was calculated between angle-time courses to quantify the waveform similarities and intertrial repeatability for each rider. All analyzed CMCs ranged from moderate (0.65) to very good (0.92). The two-beat rhythm of the ST was qualitatively represented in the waveform data of the head, trunk, and pelvis about the rotation of the mediolateral axes (Roll). The Roll of the riders' pelvis was significantly greater than the Roll of the riders' trunk. In general, the movements of the riders' segments about the sagittal axes (Pitch) show smaller values than about the mediolateral axes. In conclusion, this setup seems to be suitable to quantify riders' kinematics under certain field conditions. Based on these findings, there is a possibility to obtain several objective information of the riders' kinematics in different equine gaits and skill levels

German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS): Documentation of the Second Wave

International migration originating from highly developed countries is a crucial component of global migration flows. There are, however, surprisingly little data about the international mobility of the populations of affluent countries. The German Emigration and Remigration Panel Study (GERPS) aims to provide a resource that enables the analysis of individual consequences of international migration as well as the socio-structural consequences for the country of origin. GERPS is based on an origin-based multistage probability sample using the German population registers as a sampling frame. The second wave yields a net sample of roughly 7,000 persons who recently moved abroad from Germany and persons who returned from Germany after having lived abroad. The study follows a multidestination-country-design and enables the comparative analysis of migrants and nonmigrants, who stayed in the country of origin. GERPS is a panel study with at least four waves during a period of at least 24 months. This documentation presents the methods and data of the second wave. It provides information for researchers and invites them to use the new data infrastructure for their own research