Germans in Germany's Ethnic Neighborhoods

In contrast to most research on the effects on residents of living in an ethnic neighborhood, this paper explores how living within an ethnic neighborhood affects members of the dominant ethnic group - in this case Germans - rather than the minorities that define it. The results indicate that Germans living within ethnic neighborhoods are less well off financially than their peers in other parts of the city, and are more likely to be living in large buildings in need of repair. The analysis did not however suggest that Germans living in ethnic neighborhoods have fewer social contacts, or that they are more likely to be unemployed. Indeed, Germans living within ethnic neighborhoods reported levels of satisfaction with their housing and standard of living equal to Germans elsewhere. These results would seem to paint a rosy picture of the lives of German residents of ethnic neighborhoods, were it not for a notable absence of school-aged German children within these spaces.

K-Electron-Capture-to-Positron-Emission Ratio in the Decays of ^(15)O and ^(19)Ne

The K/β^+ ratio in the decays of ^(19)Ne and ^(15)O have been measured as (9.6 ± 0.3) × 10^(-4) and (10.7 ± 0.6) × 10^(-4), respectively. A gas-flow proportional counter, operating in anticoincidence with the surrounding plastic scintillator, was used. Theoretical K/β^+ ratios for ^(19)Ne and ^(15)O were computed, using exchange-overlap corrections calculated by Vatai and, separately, exchange corrections extrapolated from the results of Bahcall for 14 ≤ Z ≤ 37. The experimental results were found to be in better agreement with Vatai's calculations

Measurement of Tritium as Water Vapor

When Geiger or proportional counters are used for the assay of tritiated water, the sample is usually converted into hydrogen or methane which is included in the counter filling. Measurement of the sample itself as water vapor would appear to be a more direct method which avoids possible uncertainties in the chemical conversion, and this technique has been used recently [1,2]. It will be shown, however, that although counters containing water vapor may have satisfactory characteristics, adsorption effects can introduce large errors

Doppler-Induced Dynamics of Fields in Fabry-Perot Cavities with Suspended Mirrors

The Doppler effect in Fabry-Perot cavities with suspended mirrors is analyzed. Intrinsically small, the Doppler shift accumulates in the cavity and becomes comparable to or greater than the line-width of the cavity if its finesse is high or its length is large. As a result, damped oscillations of the cavity field occur when one of the mirrors passes a resonance position. A formula for this transient is derived. It is shown that the frequency of the oscillations is equal to the accumulated Doppler shift and the relaxation time of the oscillations is equal to the storage time of the cavity. Comparison of the predicted and the measured Doppler shift is discussed, and application of the analytical solution for measurement of the mirror velocity is described

Measurements of mechanical Q in levitated paramagnetic crystals

Thermal noise from test masses, arising both from internal noise in the test mass material and from losses in the suspension wires and their attachments, is a significant factor limiting sensitivity of interferometric gravity-wave detectors. To investigate ways of reducing these noise sources we are using magnetic levitation in place of suspension wires. A search for high-Q crystals with magnetic properties allowing tests in moderate field strengths has led us to paramagnetic crystals, and we report preliminary results with small levitated samples of Gadolinium Gallium Garnet (GGG) and Terbium Gallium Garnet (TGG). The technique seems the first to allow Q measurements with no mechanical contact, and may facilitate work aimed at reducing thermal noise

Analysis of a four-mirror cavity enhanced Michelson interferometer

We investigate the shot noise limited sensitivity of a four-mirror cavity enhanced Michelson interferometer. The intention of this interferometer topology is the reduction of thermal lensing and the impact of the interferometers contrast although transmissive optics are used with high circulating powers. The analytical expressions describing the light fields and the frequency response are derived. Although the parameter space has 11 dimensions, a detailed analysis of the resonance feature gives boundary conditions allowing systematic parameter studies

Gaining Access to Housing in Germany: The Foreign Minority Experience

Housing is a critical component of household well being and the extent to which minority households have achieved parity with Germans is a measure of the extent to which this population is integrated into the larger German society. Specifically we examine whether the housing conditions for immigrants2 has improved between 1985 and 1998 despite the greater barriers to upward mobility for low skill workers arising from industrial restructuring. We use regression models to determine the degree to which socioeconomic differences between the two populations account for variations in the average quality of their housing. Finally, given the low number of vacancies in the German housing market and the disadvantaged position of minorities within it, we are interested in measuring the magnitude of the improvements persons of foreign origin are able to make through residential mobility. Our descriptive analyses reveal that although housing conditions for minorities have improved in absolute terms across a wide array of indicators, only in a few instances has the housing quality gap between Germans and persons of foreign origin narrowed. Further, we find that the housing conditions of minorities remained poorer even after controlling for variables thought to be strong predictors of housing quality (income, age, family size etc..) Finally, persons of foreign origin are becoming increasingly likely to move into the large, often geographically and socially isolated apartment complexes built in the post World War II era.

Make not a Mockery of Me: Feminine Performance and Masculine Mockery in Medea and A Midsummer Night’s Dream

The paper focuses on Euripides’ Medea and Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to analyze how tragedy and comedy address female freedom. In a history of drama, women tend to be underrepresented and submissive to their fellow male players. This paper examines how gender dynamics work in theatre, with a focus on how men use their speech to inhibit the autonomy of women. Utilizing gender scholarship from Judith Butler, the argument justifies Medea’s seemingly horrific actions and spotlights Helena as the driver of her play. These women’s quests allow audiences to explore the roles of women in the theatre, where art can portray fantasy while reflecting reality. Ultimately, Medea violently and Helena rhetorically creates her autonomy and thrives outside of patriarchal confines

Rapid acquisition of long spatial sequences in long-term memory

Learning complex movement sequences requires an active, attentional selection of the content that is learned. The selection mechanism can not be investigated in classical stimulus-guided sequence learning paradigms because it requires a movement sequence production that is not triggered by external stimuli. In deferred imitation learning the whole stimulus sequence is presented and reproduction is started only after the presentation has ended. In order to investigate how the selective control of the learning process proceeds in natural learning situations and to investigate all influencing parameters we developed a new paradigm in which long sequences were learned by deferred imitation learning. In this task a long sequence of stimuli was presented on a graphic tablet and reproduced by manual pointing after the stimulus presentation was finished. Since the sequence exceeded the capacity of working memory because of its length it had to be reproduced and learned in several trials. Therefore, an attentional selection was required during learning. In our first study a method for evaluating reproduction performance in the new learning paradigm was developed. The assignment of reproductions to target positions posed a major methodological difficulty. This problem was solved by introducing an assignment algorithm that takes the order of reproduction into account. The algorithm was explained, it was further compared to an algorithm that performs a nearest neighbor assignment and finally validated by a comparison to a human operator assignment. The results showed that the assignment algorithm is an appropriate method for analyzing long sequences of pointing movements and is suitable for evaluating reproduction performance and learning progress in deferred imitation learning of long sequences. In the second study we investigated further how long sequences of pointing movements are acquired. Long-term retention tests showed that the sequences were retained for at least two weeks in long-term memory. A transfer test showed that the sequences were represented in an effector independent representation. The distributions of pointing positions were analyzed in detail in order to characterize the control signal of the pointing movements. The analysis showed that position errors to successive target positions were not dependent on the movement direction and further, that directional error did not propagate to reproductions of successive target positions. These results suggest that end points rather than movement trajectories are memorized in this learning task. Our third study evaluated the organization and reorganization of the sequence representation in memory. The change in sequence reproduction without intermediate presentations showed that the remembered target positions drifted away from the initial representation, where the target drift saturated after about 5 trials. The analysis of the drift direction of representations of single target positions showed that there was no systematic drift direction for single subjects. Further it indicated that the representation did not drift to similar, but to different patterns across subjects. In order to investigate whether sequences are encoded in chunks or as single target positions we performed an experiment in which two target positions in a well learned sequence were exchanged. We analyzed the effect of the target exchange on target positions neighboring the exchanged target position. The target exchange effected neither the position nor the variance of neighboring memorized target positions. These results support the view that single target positions rather than chunks of target positions are memorized. Thus our study suggests that the sequence acquisition is guided by an active selection process which is able to quickly acquire abstract movement plans. Our findings further support the view that these movement plans are represented as strings of independent, absolute target positions