Tracing the Origins of Successful Aging: The Role of Childhood Conditions and Societal Context

This study investigates the role of childhood conditions and societal context in older Europeans’ propensity to age successfully, controlling for later life risk factors. Successful aging was assessed following Rowe and Kahn’s conceptualization, using baseline interviews from the first two waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). These data were merged with retrospective life-histories of participants from 13 Continental European countries, collected in 2008-09 as part of the SHARELIFE project. Our sample consists of 22,474 men and women, who are representative of the non-institutionalized population aged 50 or older (mean age: 63.3) in their respective country. Estimating multilevel logistic models, we controlled for demographics (age, sex), childhood conditions (SES, health, cognition), later life risk factors (various dimensions of SES and health behaviors), as well as country-level measures of public social expenditures and social inequality. There is an dependent association of childhood living conditions with elders’ odds of aging well. Higher parental SES, better math and reading skills, as well as self-reports of good childhood health were positively associated with successful aging, even if contemporary characteristics were controlled for. Later-life SES and health behaviors exhibited the expected correlations with our dependent variable. Moreover, higher levels of public social expenditures and lower levels of income inequality were associated with a greater probability to meet Rowe and Kahn’s successful aging criterion. We conclude that unfavorable childhood conditions exhibit a harmful influence on individuals’ chances to age well across all European welfare states considered in this study. Policy interventions should thus aim at improving the conditions for successful aging throughout the entire life-course.

Effects of complex information presentation on change decision making

The result of using a Common Point of Reference framework decision base, to implement implicit information patterns, aimed to support business decisions during the initial phases of change and improvement projects, was examined in this study. Participants (n=30) were asked to solve four different assignments with a decision base as support consisting of fictive change project data from a fictive manufacturing company producing candy. The participants were also asked to evaluate the decision base on different dimensions like in terms of interest, stressfulness, visualization of patterns and relations etc. The control group and the test group had access to the same information but the presentation was different. The test group had access to a Common Point of Reference based structure implemented in the inorigo® software with non-typical visualization. The control group had the information made available in Excel and Power point documents. The results suggest that a Common Point of Reference framework decision base gives a foundation for more correct decisions in a shorter time frame. No significant interaction effects were found; however there seem to be a tendency for interaction effects of working experience and computer experience

Results From Core-Collapse Simulations with Multi-Dimensional, Multi-Angle Neutrino Transport

We present new results from the only 2D multi-group, multi-angle calculations of core-collapse supernova evolution. The first set of results from these calculations was published in Ott et al. (2008). We have followed a nonrotating and a rapidly rotating 20 solar mass model for ~400 ms after bounce. We show that the radiation fields vary much less with angle than the matter quantities in the region of net neutrino heating. This obtains because most neutrinos are emitted from inner radiative regions and because the specific intensity is an integral over sources from many angles at depth. The latter effect can only be captured by multi-angle transport. We then compute the phase relationship between dipolar oscillations in the shock radius and in matter and radiation quantities throughout the postshock region. We demonstrate a connection between variations in neutrino flux and the hydrodynamical shock oscillations, and use a variant of the Rayleigh test to estimate the detectability of these neutrino fluctuations in IceCube and Super-K. Neglecting flavor oscillations, fluctuations in our nonrotating model would be detectable to ~10 kpc in IceCube, and a detailed power spectrum could be measured out to ~5 kpc. These distances are considerably lower in our rapidly rotating model or with significant flavor oscillations. Finally, we measure the impact of rapid rotation on detectable neutrino signals. Our rapidly rotating model has strong, species-dependent asymmetries in both its peak neutrino flux and its light curves. The peak flux and decline rate show pole-equator ratios of up to ~3 and ~2, respectively.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, ApJ accepted. Replaced with accepted versio

Master of Science

thesisThe ability to walk is considered an essential motor function for normal human locomotion and transportation. Healthy ambulation is required of relatively all persons on a daily basis, and can be detrimentally affected by an array of different gait disorders. Following a diagnosis, traditional rehabilitative techniques often require the attention of a trained specialist, in addition to expensive instrumentation and training devices. Previous research has been performed regarding the use of insole mounted sensors to detect and quantify gait abnormalities with a comparable rate of accuracy to established systems. Sensory feedback derived from the gait data can be a versatile tool for use alongside established rehabilitative methods, with the potential to act as a standalone technique. This thesis presents the continuing research into the usage and implementation of force sensitive resistor (FSR) based insoles, with respect to the development of a portable and intuitive feedback device for use in clinical gait modification. The new system design, titled the Adaptive Real-Time Instrumentation System for Tread Imbalance Correction, or ARTISTIC, incorporates a wireless insole system that can transmit gait data wirelessly via a Bluetooth connection. An Android mobile smartphone application, or app, was developed to receive the gait data, and provide the user with different forms of sensory feedback in order to modify their gait. Subjects were tested using each of the feedback methods to determine the efficacy of the ARTISTIC system in modulating their gait away from normal. As a result of the testing, it was determined that visual feedback resulted in a statistically significant (p < 0.05) change in gait ratio for all 12 human subjects. It is anticipated that further improvements will be made, to address suggestions provided by the test subjects as well as to strengthen alternative forms of feedback, such as audible and vibrotactile cues

Die Schleiereule: flexibel durch das Leben : Gedanken über einen Kulturfolger

Schleiereulen leben in Deutschland als Gebäudebrüter eng angeschlossen an den Menschen. Der Beitrag spiegelt Gedanken wider, ob und wie Schleiereulen in Mitteleuropa bereits vor der Besiedlung durch den Menschen geeignete Lebensräume vorfanden und eine Population etablieren konnten. Das flexible Verhalten der Schleiereule, insbesondere das variable Paarungssystem, wird auf der Basis verhaltensökologischer Überlegungen vorgestellt und erläutert.Due to their dependence on breeding places in buildings Barn owl Tyto alba occurrence in Germany is closely connected to human settlements. The present contribution approaches the question if Tyto alba was able to spread over Central Europe already before colonization by humans. Further its flexibility in behaviour is described and discussed, especially concerning the reproduction strategy

Eels With Strings: Live at Town Hall

Die US-amerikanische Alternative Rockband The Eels wurde 1995 durch den Songwriter Mark Oliver Everett gegründet, der der programmatische Kopf der Gruppe geblieben ist. Sie zeichnete sich von Beginn an durch eine ungewöhnliche Experimentierfreude aus, darum bemüht, immer neue unterschiedliche Klangspektren in der Musik der Band zu entfalten. Everett ist der einzige, der noch aus der Erstformation stammt; sämtliche anderen Mitglieder der Gruppe sind z.T. mehrfach ausgetauscht wurden

The Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus : Großbritannien 1996

"You've heard of Oxford Circus, you've heard of Piccadilly Circus, and this is the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus" - als Rolling-Stones-Frontmann Mick Jagger diesen Satz am 11. Dezember 1968 gegen 14 Uhr in der Montur eines Zirkusdirektors in die Kameras der BBC spricht, ahnt er mit Sicherheit noch nicht, was insbesondere er in den folgenden Wochen für einen beispiellosen Zirkus rund um diese Fernsehaufzeichnung veranstalten wird. Zu diesem Zeitpunkt, da die Bänder für die Aufzeichnung des 'Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus' gestartet werden, glaubt Jagger wohl noch, dass die TV-Sendung ein entspanntes Aufeinandertreffen mit befreundeten Rock'n'Roll-Größen wird; er glaubt wohl noch, dass der Auftritt der Rolling Stones am Ende des Konzertes zum furiosen Abschluss wird und die Performances der übrigen Bands in den Schatten stellt; und vor allem glaubt er wohl noch, dass der 'Rock and Roll Circus' wenige Wochen nach der Aufzeichnung über die heimischen Fernseher Großbritanniens flimmert. 15 Stunden später denkt Jagger über all dies anders. Aber der Reihe nach

EVALUATING SCHEDULING METHODS FOR ENERGY COST REDUCTION IN A HETEROGENEOUS DATA CENTER ENVIRONMENT

Over the past two decades the rise of information technologies (IT) has enabled businesses to communicate, coordinate, and cooperate in unprecedented ways. However, this did not come without a price. Today, IT infrastructure accounts for a substantial fraction of the national energy consumption in most advanced countries. Subsequently, research turned to finding ways of making IT more sustainable and lessening the environmental impact of IT infrastructure. In our previous work we developed LINFIX, an innovative method for handling the scheduling problem in data centers, which substantially reduced the total energy consumption compared to commonly used practices. Due to the computational complexity of the scheduling problem, we were, however, unable to estimate the cost reduction of LINFIX compared to what is theoretically possible. In this work we employ a genetic algorithm to provide a benchmark to better assess the quality of the LINFIX solutions. While the genetic algorithm frequently finds better solutions, the additional average cost reduction when compared to LINFIX is less than 0.1 percent. Taking the computational speed into account, this confirms our hypothesis that LINFIX provides very energy efficient scheduling plans in short time

Striving for Social Sustainability of Football Commercialization : An Ethnographic Case Study of the German Fan-Governed Club HFC Falke

In several European countries, a new football fan type has emerged in recent years—the post-consumer fan. These fans break with commercialized football by founding their own clubs in order to incorporate their vision of football. This vision is antagonistic to commercialized “modern football”. However, the newly founded clubs compete in the existing commercialized structures and need to generate financial capital. To date, little is known about how clubs deal with these contradictory goals. Based on a 27 month long ethnographic participant observation and ten semi-structured interviews, this article investigates how the members of the German club HFC Falke negotiated sponsoring and players’ wages. It highlights how the clubs implement alternative practices in order to remain close to their values while being competitive. As a result, they emphasize the democratic process, and implement normative guidelines. Some of the strategies are known from previous research on other clubs but during our research we also detected new strategies. The club and its members experiment with new practices, such as transparent payment based on effort and sponsoring used for the fans’ benefit (e.g., subsidies of beer prices on matchdays). Through these normative guidelines and practices, the clubs strive to establish a more sustainable football in commodified structures. The discussions in the club and its practices might also inspire debates on the future of professional football