How our neighbourhoods shape our European and national identities

How does the diversity of a neighbourhood affect the political identities of the people who live there? Drawing on new research, Dominik Schraff and Ronja Sczepanski show that those who live in neighbourhoods with a diverse mix of western and non-western immigrants are more likely to have strong European identities

Labour market disadvantage, political orientations and voting: how adverse labour market experiences translate into electoral behaviour

How does labour market disadvantage translate into political behaviour? Bringing together the literatures on political alienation, redistribution preferences and insider-outsider politics, we identify three mechanisms by which labour market disadvantages influence voting behaviour. Disadvantages can increase support for redistribution, reduce internal political efficacy or lower external political efficacy. This translates into support for pro-redistribution parties, vote abstention or support for protest parties. Using the Dutch LISS survey, we observe a twin effect of increased support for redistribution and decreased external efficacy. Mediated through redistributive preferences, we find a positive effect of labour market disadvantage on voting for left parties. Mediated through external efficacy we find a positive effect of labour market disadvantage on protest voting. In contrast, we do not find any effect of labour market disadvantage on internal efficacy. Hence, the observed effect of labour market disadvantage on political abstention is entirely mediated by external efficac

United or divided in diversity? The heterogeneous effects of ethnic diversity on European and national identities

In this article, we argue that the size and cultural proximity of immigrant populations in people's residential surroundings shape national and European identities. This means that the type of migrant population activates cultural threat perceptions and opportunities for contact to varying degrees. Geocoded survey data from the Netherlands suggests that large non-Western immigrant shares are associated with more exclusive national identities, while mixed contexts with Western and non-Western populations show more inclusive identities. These results suggest that highly diverse areas with mixed immigrant populations hold a potential for more tolerance. In contrast, exclusive national identities become strongly pronounced under the presence of sizeable culturally distant immigrant groups

EU funding policies may be undermined by regional authorities using structural fund allocations to win votes at the local level

More than half of the EU budget is dedicated to Structural Funds, which are allocated across EU regions with the aim of promoting economic and social development. Lisa Dellmuth, Michael Stoffel and Dominik Schraff write that the use of decentralised authorities to allocate structural funding can create substantive problems for the EU’s policy goals. They illustrate that the distribution of funds often reflects local political concerns, with districts that support the regional government’s party receiving disproportionate shares of funding

Die Reliefplatten des Großen Wendelsteins der Albrechtsburg Meißen

Nach einem Rückblick auf die Geschichte der Meißner Wendelsteinreliefs widmet sich der Beitrag ihrer Beschreibung und Erläuterung. Beginnend mit den ältesten Reliefplatten von 1485, die den Neidhart-Zyklus darstellen, folgen die Wappenbilder und schließlich die Reliefs mit biblischen und mythologischen Motiven. Sie wurden vom Breslauer Bildhauer Christoph Walther I. zwischen 1521 - 1524 geschaffen

All-conjugated donor-acceptor block copolymers featuring a pentafulvenyl-polyisocyanide-acceptor

We report a fulvenyl-functionalized polyisocyanide (PIC2) with a high electron mobility of μe = 10-2 cm2 V-1 s-1. PIC2 has been incorporated into block-copolymers with either regioregular poly(3-dodecylthiophene) (P3DT → P(3DT-b-IC2)) or regioregular polythiazole (PTzTHX → P(TzTHX-b-IC2)). Block copolymer batches with different block-sizes have been isolated and their properties have been studied. Fluorescence quenching in the solid state and transient absorption spectroscopy indicate energy transfer from the donor-to the acceptor block upon photo-excitation. Fabrication of proof-of-principle organic photovoltaic cells with P(3DT-b-IC2) gave cells with an open circuit voltage (VOC) of ca. 0.89 V. The aggregation behavior of P(3DT-b-IC2) from solution was also studied, which revealed self-assembly into discreet microspheres of 1-8 μm diameter, with a size distribution of 1.72 (±0.37) μm under optimized aggregation conditions

Assimilation of 3D radar reflectivities with an ensemble Kalman filter on the convective scale

An ensemble data assimilation system for 3D radar reflectivity data is introduced for the convection-permitting numerical weather prediction model of the COnsortium for Small-scale MOdelling (COSMO) based on the Kilometre-scale ENsemble Data Assimilation system (KENDA), developed by Deutscher Wetterdienst and its partners. KENDA provides a state-of-the-art ensemble data assimilation system on the convective scale for operational data assimilation and forecasting based on the Local Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF). In this study, the Efficient Modular VOlume RADar Operator is applied for the assimilation of radar reflectivity data to improve short-term predictions of precipitation. Both deterministic and ensemble forecasts have been carried out. A case-study shows that the assimilation of 3D radar reflectivity data clearly improves precipitation location in the analysis and significantly improves forecasts for lead times up to 4 h, as quantified by the Brier Score and the Continuous Ranked Probability Score. The influence of different update rates on the noise in terms of surface pressure tendencies and on the forecast quality in general is investigated. The results suggest that, while high update rates produce better analyses, forecasts with lead times of above 1 h benefit from less frequent updates. For a period of seven consecutive days, assimilation of radar reflectivity based on the LETKF is compared to that of DWD's current operational radar assimilation scheme based on latent heat nudging (LHN). It is found that the LETKF competes with LHN, although it is still in an experimental phase

Peritonsillar Abscess in a 40-Day-Old Infant

A peritonsillar abscess is one of the most commonly occurring deep space infections of the head and neck in adults and children. A peritonsillar abscess that appears in newborns, however, is extremely rare. The treatment of a peritonsillar abscess requires both the selection of appropriate antibiotics and the best procedure to remove the abscessed material. We report a case of a peritonsillar abscess in a 40-day-old infant who was treated with antibiotic therapy alone