Managing Integration of Immigrant Youth in the United States, Germany, and Poland

The aim of the dissertation is to examine ways of managing immigrant integration and integration policies in advanced industrial societies, with a special focus on labor market integration of young immigrants in the two neighboring EU countries: Germany and Poland and in two US neighboring states: Arizona and California. The analyses of theoretical research framework and empirical study provide answers to the following main research questions: 1) Which factors influence the development of local labor market integration initiatives for young immigrants into the labor market 2) How these factors enable the receiving society to tap into potential of young immigrants 3) Whether the exchange of integration policy research and practical experience of integration management in the United States and the European Union is useful and transferable. The study can provide incentives to create a transatlantic bridge between researchers and integration practitioners. The analysis of integration management of immigrant youth and recommendations for further research and practical work should help to raise awareness of these integration problems which have not been recognized so far either by national governments or local municipalities.Das Ziel der Dissertation besteht darin, Arten der Integration von Migranten und Integrationsprogramme in hoch entwickelten Industriegesellschaften zu untersuchen. Dabei liegt ein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf der Integration junger Migranten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt in zwei Nachbarländern der EU: Deutschland und Polen sowie in zwei Nachbarstaaten der USA: Arizona und Kalifornien. Die Analysen des Forschungsrahmens und einer empirischen Studie beantworten folgende zentrale Forschungsfragen: 1) Welche Faktoren beeinflussen die Entwicklung von Integrationsinitiativen für jugendliche Migranten in den Arbeitsmarkt? 2) Wie ermöglichen diese Faktoren der Gastgesellschaft das Potential junger Migranten anzuzapfen? 3) Ob der Austausch der Forschung über Integrationsprogramme in den USA und der EU nützlich und praktische Erfahrungen des Integrationsmanagements übertragbar sind. Die Analyse des Integrationsmanagements für jugendliche Migranten und Empfehlungen für weiterführende Forschung und die Praxis sollte dabei helfen, sich jener Integrationsprobleme bewusst zu werden, welche bisher weder von den Nationalregierungen noch von den Kommunen anerkannt wurden

Practical Precision Electrical Impedance Measurement for the 21st Century – EMPIR Project 17RPT04 VersICal

The core objective of EMPIR project 17RPT04 VersICaL is to improve the European measurement infrastructure for electrical impedance, with particular emphasis on the capabilities of developing NMIs and calibration centres. The project will seek to exploit the results of existing research on digital impedance bridges (DIBs) by designing, constructing and validating simple, affordable versions suitable to realise the impedance scale in the range 1 nF to 10 μF and 1 mH to 10 H with relative uncertainties in the range 10-5 to 10-6. The first results of the research project, including the bridge designs and details of a polyphase digitally synthesized multichannel source capable of providing voltage outputs of precise ratio and phase are presented

Measuring lung mechanics of expiratory tidal breathing with non-invasive breath occlusion

Background and objective: Lung mechanics measurements provide clinically useful information about disease progression and lung health. Currently, there are no commonly practiced methods to non-invasively measure both resistive and elastic lung mechanics during tidal breathing, preventing the important information provided by lung mechanics from being utilised. This study presents a novel method to easily assess lung mechanics of spontaneously breathing subjects using a dynamic elastance, single-compartment lung model. Methods: A spirometer with a built-in shutter was used to occlude expiration during tidal breathing, creating exponentially decaying flow when the shutter re-opened. The lung mechanics measured were respiratory system elastance and resistance, separated from the exponentially decaying flow, and interrupter resistance calculated at shutter closure. Progressively increasing resistance was added to the spirometer mouthpiece to simulate upper airway obstruction. The lung mechanics of 17 healthy subjects were successfully measured through spirometry. Results: N = 17 (8 female, 9 male) healthy subjects were recruited. Measured decay rates ranged from 5 to 42/s, subjects with large variation of decay rates showed higher muscular breathing effort. Lung elastance measurements ranged from 3.9 to 21.2 cmH -2 2 O/L, with no clear trend between change in elastance and added resistance. Resistance calculated from decay rate and elastance ranged from 0.15 to 1.95 cmH -2 2 Os/L. These very small resistance values are due to the airflow measured originating from low-resistance areas in the centre of airways. Occlusion resistance measurements were as expected for healthy subjects, and increased as expected as resistance was added. Conclusions: This test was able to identify reasonable dynamic lung elastance and occlusion resistance values, providing new insight into expiratory breathing effort. Clinically, this lung function test could impact current practice. It does not require high levels of cooperation from the subject, allowing a wider cohort of patients to be assessed more easily. Additionally, this test can be simply implemented in a small standalone device, or with standard lung function testing equipment

Glycerol valorization: dehydration to acrolein over silica-supported niobia catalysts

The catalytic dehydration of glycerol to acrolein is investigated over silica-supported niobia catalysts in a continuous fixed-bed gas-phase reactor. Various supported niobia catalysts are prepared and characterized using surface analysis and spectroscopic methods (XRD, UV–Vis, XPS, N2 adsorption), as well as with ammonia adsorption microcalorimetry. Good results are obtained with initial glycerol conversions of over 70% and with 50–70% selectivity to acrolein. We investigate the influence of changing the catalyst acid strength by varying the niobia content and catalyst calcination temperature. Glycerol conversion and acrolein selectivity depend on the surface acid strength. Catalyst deactivation by coking is also observed, but simple oxidative treatment in air restores the activity of the catalysts completely

Morphology of bile salts micelles and mixed micelles with lipolysis products, from scattering techniques and atomistic simulations

Hypotheses Bile salts (BS) are biosurfactants released into the small intestine, which play key and contrasting roles in lipid digestion: they adsorb at interfaces and promote the adsorption of digestive enzymes onto fat droplets, while they also remove lipolysis products from that interface, solubilising them into mixed micelles. Small architectural variations on their chemical structure, specifically their bile acid moiety, are hypothesised to underlie these conflicting functionalities, which should be reflected in different aggregation and solubilisation behaviour. Experiments The micellisation of two BS, sodium taurocholate (NaTC) and sodium taurodeoxycholate (NaTDC), which differ by one hydroxyl group on the bile acid moiety, was assessed by pyrene fluorescence spectroscopy, and the morphology of aggregates formed in the absence and presence of fatty acids (FA) and monoacylglycerols (MAG) – typical lipolysis products – was resolved by small-angle X-ray/neutron scattering (SAXS, SANS) and molecular dynamics simulations. The solubilisation by BS of triacylglycerol-incorporating liposomes – mimicking ingested lipids – was studied by neutron reflectometry and SANS. Findings Our results demonstrate that BS micelles exhibit an ellipsoidal shape. NaTDC displays a lower critical micellar concentration and forms larger and more spherical aggregates than NaTC. Similar observations were made for BS micelles mixed with FA and MAG. Structural studies with liposomes show that the addition of BS induces their solubilisation into mixed micelles, with NaTDC displaying a higher solubilising capacity

Identification of the first steps in charge separation in bacterial photosynthetic reaction centers of Rhodobacter sphaeroides by ultrafast mid-infrared spectroscopy: Electron transfer and protein dynamics

AbstractTime-resolved visible pump/mid-infrared (mid-IR) probe spectroscopy in the region between 1600 and 1800cm−1 was used to investigate electron transfer, radical pair relaxation, and protein relaxation at room temperature in the Rhodobacter sphaeroides reaction center (RC). Wild-type RCs both with and without the quinone electron acceptor QA, were excited at 600nm (nonselective excitation), 800nm (direct excitation of the monomeric bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) cofactors), and 860nm (direct excitation of the dimer of primary donor (P) BChls (PL/PM)). The region between 1600 and 1800cm−1 encompasses absorption changes associated with carbonyl (CO) stretch vibrational modes of the cofactors and protein. After photoexcitation of the RC the primary electron donor P excited singlet state (P*) decayed on a timescale of 3.7ps to the state P+BL− (where BL is the accessory BChl electron acceptor). This is the first report of the mid-IR absorption spectrum of P+BL−; the difference spectrum indicates that the 9-keto CO stretch of BL is located around 1670–1680cm−1. After subsequent electron transfer to the bacteriopheophytin HL in ∼1ps, the state P+HL− was formed. A sequential analysis and simultaneous target analysis of the data showed a relaxation of the P+HL− radical pair on the ∼20ps timescale, accompanied by a change in the relative ratio of the PL+ and PM+ bands and by a minor change in the band amplitude at 1640cm−1 that may be tentatively ascribed to the response of an amide CO to the radical pair formation. We conclude that the drop in free energy associated with the relaxation of P+HL−, is due to an increased localization of the electron hole on the PL half of the dimer and a further consequence is a reduction in the electrical field causing the Stark shift of one or more amide CO oscillators