Government and Social Media: A Case Study of 31 Informational World Cities

Social media platforms are increasingly being used by governments to foster user interaction. Particularly in cities with enhanced ICT infrastructures (i.e., Informational World Cities) and high internet penetration rates, social media platforms are valuable tools for reaching high numbers of citizens. This empirical investigation of 31 Informational World Cities will provide an overview of social media services used for governmental purposes, of their popularity among governments, and of their usage intensity in broadcasting information online.Comment: In Proceedings of the 47th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (pp. 1715-1724). IEEE Computer Society, 201

The Impact of Lighting Type on Consumer Behavior in the Purchase of Healthy Products

This project explored how lighting in the produce section of a supermarket can influence a consumer\u27s decision to purchase healthier options. There is research in this field that examines this idea in restaurants, however, this specific area has not been researched. For this study subjects participated in a pre survey, viewed renderings, and took a post survey all at one predetermined time. The estimated time for the completion of this was about 20 minutes, but this time varied between subjects based on how long they spent taking the surveys and viewing the models. The surveys determined correlation between lighting and consumers preferences and were used in the results section of my thesis

The informal market of education in Egypt : private tutoring and its implications

Education is generally perceived as a public good which should be provided by the state. In Egypt, free and equal access to education has been guaranteed to all citizens since President Nasser’s socialist reforms in the 1950s. However, due to high population growth rates and a lack of financial resources, the public education system has been struggling to accommodate rapidly increasing numbers of students. While enrolment rates have risen steadily, the quality of state-provided services has deteriorated. Teachers and students have to cope with high class densities, insufficient facilities, a rigid syllabus and a centralized examination system. Today, teaching is among the lowest-paying occupations in the public sector. One strategy to cope with this situation is the widespread practice of private tutoring, which usually takes place at students’ homes or in commercial tutoring centers. Based on research carried out in Cairo in 2004/05 and 2006, I use an actor-centered approach to analyze the motivations of Egyptian teachers and students for participating in private tutoring and the impact that this practice has on the relationship between teachers and students. Students of all socio-economic backgrounds resort to tutoring in order to succeed in a highly competitive and exam-oriented education system. However, the form and quality of tutoring that can be accessed depends on the financial means of the family. For teachers, tutoring provides a good opportunity not only to supplement their income, but also, in the case of renowned “star teachers”, to improve their professional status and autonomy. On the informal “market of education” that has developed in Egypt during the last decades, the educational responsibilities of the state are increasingly being taken over by private actors, i.e. the process of teaching and learning is dissociated from the direct control of the state and from school as an institution. At the same time, education is turned into a marketable commodity. Despite the government’s efforts to provide free education to all citizens, the quality of social services that can be accessed in Egypt, thus, depends mainly on the financial means of the individual or the family

Corporate Social Responsibility in the German Pork Industry: Relevance and Determinants

Due to manifold scandals meat production and processing has been in the spotlight of public concern over the last decades. CSR can safeguard an enterprise against risks following e.g. food safety, environmental or social incidences in a sector. To reap the full benefit of their CSR involvement it is essential for firms to communicate their activities to their stakeholders in a credible way. Given this background, the objective of the paper is to find answers to the following questions: To what extent pursue and communicate German meat companies CSR activities, what factors determine their CSR involvement and communication and regarding the latter, how do those companies evaluate a CSR standardization?The results of our study are based on a standardized survey of 68 North Rhine-Westphalian companies in the pork value chain. The data is analysed using descriptive as well as uni- and multivariate methods. The findings show that companies of the pork sector already are active in the area of CSR. They also communicate their activities, however, not yet to a great extent. The level and kind of CSR performance and CSR communication vary between companies depending on firm characteristics (e.g. size). Main motives for firms to engage in CSR are differentiation from competitors and consideration of stakeholders’ requirements. In addition the analysis provides some indication that doing good has not to be at the expense of doing well. A CSR standard that could inform stakeholders in a credible way about companies’ CSR activities is evaluated very heterogeneously. The complementary implementation of voluntary more demanding and quasi-obligatory minimum CSR standards could be a solution to this problem

Impacts of indoor surface finishes on bacterial viability.

Microbes in indoor environments are constantly being exposed to antimicrobial surface finishes. Many are rendered non-viable after spending extended periods of time under low-moisture, low-nutrient surface conditions, regardless of whether those surfaces have been amended with antimicrobial chemicals. However, some microorganisms remain viable even after prolonged exposure to these hostile conditions. Work with specific model pathogens makes it difficult to draw general conclusions about how chemical and physical properties of surfaces affect microbes. Here, we explore the survival of a synthetic community of non-model microorganisms isolated from built environments following exposure to three chemically and physically distinct surface finishes. Our findings demonstrated the differences in bacterial survival associated with three chemically and physically distinct materials. Alkaline clay surfaces select for an alkaliphilic bacterium, Kocuria rosea, whereas acidic mold-resistant paint favors Bacillus timonensis, a Gram-negative spore-forming bacterium that also survives on antimicrobial surfaces after 24 hours of exposure. Additionally, antibiotic-resistant Pantoea allii did not exhibit prolonged retention on antimicrobial surfaces. Our controlled microcosm experiment integrates measurement of indoor chemistry and microbiology to elucidate the complex biochemical interactions that influence the indoor microbiome

Die europäische Regulierung audiovisueller Mediendienste: Kohärenz des materiellen Anwendungsbereichs der AVMD-Richtlinie für hybride Onlineangebote vor dem Hintergrund der Medienkonvergenz

Die europäische AVMD-Richtlinie, die auch die deutsche Medienregulierung determiniert, befindet sich seit 2016 in einem Reformprozess. Insbesondere der materielle Anwendungsbereich der Richtlinie wird dem Anspruch einer rechtssicheren Unterscheidung zwischen regulierungsbedürftigen und nicht-regulierungsbedürftigen Diensten nicht gerecht. Auch mit der Neugestaltung der Richtlinie werden die Herausforderungen der Medienkonvergenz nicht angemessen bewältigt. Ausgehend von diesen Defiziten konzipiert die Autorin eine alternative Ausgestaltung des materiellen Anwendungsbereiches, die auf rechtsvergleichende Erkenntnisse der Medienregulierung in Großbritannien, Australien, Neuseeland und Deutschland zurückgreift und maßgeblich an die Meinungsbildungsrelevanz der Angebote anknüpft

Die europäische Regulierung audiovisueller Mediendienste

Die europäische AVMD-Richtlinie, die auch die deutsche Medienregulierung determiniert, befindet sich seit 2016 in einem Reformprozess. Insbesondere der materielle Anwendungsbereich der Richtlinie wird dem Anspruch einer rechtssicheren Unterscheidung zwischen regulierungsbedürftigen und nicht-regulierungsbedürftigen Diensten nicht gerecht. Auch mit der Neugestaltung der Richtlinie werden die Herausforderungen der Medienkonvergenz nicht angemessen bewältigt. Ausgehend von diesen Defiziten konzipiert die Autorin eine alternative Ausgestaltung des materiellen Anwendungsbereiches, die auf rechtsvergleichende Erkenntnisse der Medienregulierung in Großbritannien, Australien, Neuseeland und Deutschland zurückgreift und maßgeblich an die Meinungsbildungsrelevanz der Angebote anknüpft

Country Portfolio Reviews: A tool for strategic portfolio analysis in German development cooperation

Background and objectives The 2030 Agenda is making new demands on international cooperation International development cooperation is frequently criticised for being of limited effectiveness, and therefore doing little to actually promote sustainable development. It is undisputed that shortcomings in policy and institutional frameworks in partner countries, and inefficient structures and processes in international cooperation, prevent development cooperation from being more effective. In particular, partner country institutions face the challenges created by the growing fragmentation of development cooperation. More and more stakeholders are getting involved in development cooperation and playing an active role in more and more projects. In some partner countries many donors operate in the same sectors instead of complementing each other, which makes the task of coordination more complex for partner governments. In many cases, donors' working structures also act as a constraint on more effective development cooperation. Existing projects and programmes are continued for political reasons or due to the self-interest of implementing organisations, rather than in response to changing contextual factors. This means that the decisions taken are not always evidence-based. These challenges often prevent development cooperation from responding coherently and effectively to current development needs in a partner country, and prevent governments in partner countries from assuming ownership of joint development projects. Since 2015 the 2030 Agenda has provided a guiding framework for action by international cooperation. Through it the international community has agreed on a new understanding of development as well as 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It emphasises the alignment of international cooperation with partner country priorities and needs. The Agenda aims to achieve a holistic perspective on development challenges, and to take greater account of the interactions between the social, economic and environmental dimensions of development than has so far been the case. Against this background, ensuring the relevance and ultimately also the effectiveness of bilateral development cooperation will require strategic steps to be taken on various levels. This will involve focusing bilateral development cooperation as a whole (macro level), ensuring strategic alignment and coherence at country level (meso-level), and enhancing planning and management at programme and project level (micro level). The BMZ has responded to these new demands on international development cooperation With this very much in mind, over the last few years the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has launched processes of structural change for the strategic planning and management of its bilateral development cooperation. Alongside efforts made by the BMZ at the macro level to focus bilateral development cooperation, an increasing number of changes are being implemented at the meso-level. As also emphasised by the strategy paper Entwicklungspolitik 2030 ['Development Policy in 2030' – currently only available in German] published by the BMZ in 2018, rather than pursuing a compartmentalised focus on individual programmes and projects, it is envisaged that portfolio management will now focus on integrated and holistic country-level approaches. These changes at the meso-level reflect the understanding of development inherent in the 2030 Agenda. Be it the coherent design of country portfolios, focusing on macro-level development needs and trends in the partner country, responding to current reform momentum and government priorities, or including interactions between the social, environmental and economic dimensions of development – needed management decisions cannot be taken at the level of individual projects. They can only be made at the portfolio level. Accordingly, the BMZ has been seeking to strengthen the coherence of country portfolios through country strategies ever since 2012

Does the experience of parasocial interaction enhance persuasiveness of video public service messages?

Does the experience of parasocial interaction (EPSI) increase the persuasiveness of a video message? In a between-subjects experiment (N = 465) we used bodily addressing to successfully vary EPSI in viewers of three brief video-recorded health messages. This manipulation, however, yielded no significant effect on viewers’ perceived persuasiveness of the message and their attitude toward the recommended behavior, and the effect on viewers’ felt obligation to comply with the presenter of the message was only marginally significant. However, self-reported EPSI was significantly positively correlated with all persuasion measures, and exploratory analyses yielded significant indirect effects of the manipulation on persuasion via self-reported EPSI. Limitations and implications are discussed

Preservation as an origin

Creative Heritage ist ein Manifest im Europäischen Jahr des Kulturerbes 2018 – es ruft dazu auf, Kulturerbe als Dinge und Räume neu mit Ideen und Menschen in Verbindung zu bringen. Creative Heritage fordert, Kulturerbe zu schützen, kreativ zu nutzen und als Grundlage und Anregung zu sehen, Neues zu schaffen. Creative Heritage zeigt, wie Kulturerbe Impulse geben kann, um die Gesellschaft von heute zu integrieren und Städte von morgen zu gestalten.Creative Heritage is a manifesto during the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 – it represents a call to forge connections once again between cultural heritage as things and spaces on the one hand and ideas and people on the other. Creative Heritage demands that cultural heritage be protected, used creatively and viewed as the basis and impulse to create something new. Creative Heritage shows how cultural heritage can provide an impetus to integrate the society of today and design the cities of tomorrow