Incomes and inequality in the long run: the case of German elderly

We employ German Sample Survey Income data to examine income inequality and the financial situation of elderly citizens for the period from 1978 to 2003, focussing on differences between retired and non-retired elderly and between elderly with residence in the Old and the New German Laender. Inter-temporal changes in income inequality are also decomposed by income sources. To our knowledge, this is the first study that provides comparable and detailed longitudinal income statistics for the German elderly. We find some remarkable inter-temporal patterns. First, the financial situation of the elderly has improved substantially over time. This is true especially for the New Laender, although elderly with residence in the Old Laender remain financially privileged. Within the same age cohort, we also find that non-retired, on average, are financially better-off compared to retired elderly. For reunified Germany, inequality is astonishingly stable over time, but rises significantly since 1993 in the New German Laender. --Pensioner,Inequality,Inequality Decomposition,German Sample Survey Income data

Incomes and inequality in the long run: the case of German elderly

We employ German Sample Survey Income data to examine income inequality and the financial situation of elderly citizens for the period from 1978 to 2003, focussing on differences between retired and non-retired elderly and between elderly with residence in the Old and the New German Laender. Inter-temporal changes in income inequality are also decomposed by income sources. To our knowledge, this is the first study that provides comparable and detailed longitudinal income statistics for the German elderly. We find some remarkable inter-temporal patterns. First, the financial situation of the elderly has improved substantially over time. This is true especially for the New Laender, although elderly with residence in the Old Laender remain financially privileged. Within the same age cohort, we also find that non-retired, on average, are financially better-off compared to retired elderly. For reunified Germany, inequality is astonishingly stable over time, but rises significantly since 1993 in the New German Laender. --Pensioner,Inequality,Inequality Decomposition,German Sample Survey Income data

Von der Evaluation von Lernsoftware zur Gestaltung von Unterricht

In der Forschung zur Wirkung der neuen Medien kann oft beobachtet werden, dass mediale und (unterrichts-)methodische Einflüsse nicht auseinander gehalten werden. Daher wurde bislang wenig systematisch untersucht, unter welchen instruktionalen Bedingungen der Einsatz einer bestimmten Software überhaupt effektiv Lernen unterstützt. Wir schlagen eine Evaluationsmethode vor, die vom Konstrukt der Lernumgebung ausgeht und plädieren dafür, Software unter der möglichst umfassenden Kontrolle der Parameter der jeweiligen Lernumgebung zu evaluieren. Auf diese Weise können Erkenntnisse darüber gewonnen werden, unter welchen Bedingungen das Potenzial einer bestimmten Software zur Geltung kommt und wie Software didaktisch begründet im Unterricht eingesetzt werden sollte

Nanomechanical and topographical imaging of living cells by Atomic Force Microscopy with colloidal probes

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) has a great potential as a tool to characterize mechanical and morphological properties of living cells; these properties have been shown to correlate with cells' fate and patho-physiological state in view of the development of novel early-diagnostic strategies. Although several reports have described experimental and technical approaches for the characterization of cell elasticity by means of AFM, a robust and commonly accepted methodology is still lacking. Here we show that micrometric spherical probes (also known as colloidal probes) are well suited for performing a combined topographic and mechanical analysis of living cells, with spatial resolution suitable for a complete and accurate mapping of cell morphological and elastic properties, and superior reliability and accuracy in the mechanical measurements with respect to conventional and widely used sharp AFM tips. We address a number of issues concerning the nanomechanical analysis, including the applicability of contact mechanical models and the impact of a constrained contact geometry on the measured elastic modulus (the finite-thickness effect). We have tested our protocol by imaging living PC12 and MDA-MB-231 cells, in order to demonstrate the importance of the correction of the finite-thickness effect and the change in cell elasticity induced by the action of a cytoskeleton-targeting drug.Comment: 51 pages, 12 figures, 3 table

the case of German elderly

We employ German Sample Survey Income data to examine income inequality and the financial situation of elderly citizens for the period from 1978 to 2003, focussing on differences between retired and non-retired elderly and between elderly with residence in the Old and the New German Laender. Inter-temporal changes in income inequality are also decomposed by income sources. To our knowledge, this is the first study that provides comparable and detailed longitudinal income statistics for the German elderly. We find some remarkable inter-temporal patterns. First, the financial situation of the elderly has improved substantially over time. This is true especially for the New Laender, although elderly with residence in the Old Laender remain financially privileged. Within the same age cohort, we also find that non-retired, on average, are financially better-off compared to retired elderly. For reunified Germany, inequality is astonishingly stable over time, but rises significantly since 1993 in the New German Laender

Informatische Aufgabenbereiche der Medienbildung

Die Spezifika computerbasierter Medien sind bislang zu wenig in Konzepten zur Medienbildung berücksichtigt. In dem Artikel werden aus informatischer Perspektive Aufgabenbereiche erarbeitet, mit deren Hilfe die Besonderheiten computerbasierter Medien beschrieben werden können. Darüber hinaus wird ein Ausblick für eine Integration dieser Aspekte in ein fächerübergreifendes Medienbildungskonzept gegeben

Digitale Technologien und informatische Bildung im Sachunterricht der Grundschule

Digitale Technologien und digitale Artefakte nehmen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf das tägliche Leben und erweisen sich als relevant, zumal sich bereits im Grundschulalter Einstellungen zu Computern und Informatik formen. Der Autor diskutiert unter Berücksichtigung verschiedener informatikdidaktischer Positionen die These, dass v.a. die Interaktion des Menschen mit (digitalen) Artefakten eine sinnstiftende Perspektive für den informatikbezogenen Sachunterricht darstellen konnte. Er plädiert dafür, formale Ideen der Fachwissenschaft Informatik nicht losgelöst von Aspekten zur Relevanz, Bewertung und Nutzung digitaler Artefakte im Unterricht zu behandeln, sondern gerade die wechselseitige Beeinflussung in den Blick zu nehmen. (DIPF/Orig.)In this chapter the role of digital artifacts as learning topic in primary education and as part of computing education will be discussed. Its main thesis is that the things, the digital artifacts and especially the interaction between human and (digital) artifact provide a useful and important perspective for computing education in primary schools. It can be understood as an approach to balance the role of ideas and artifacts, instead of focussing only either of them. (DIPF/Orig.

Eye movements in code reading:relaxing the linear order

Abstract—Code reading is an important skill in programming. Inspired by the linearity that people exhibit while natural lan-guage text reading, we designed local and global gaze-based mea-sures to characterize linearity (left-to-right and top-to-bottom) in reading source code. Unlike natural language text, source code is executable and requires a specific reading approach. To validate these measures, we compared the eye movements of novice and expert programmers who were asked to read and comprehend short snippets of natural language text and Java programs. Our results show that novices read source code less linearly than natural language text. Moreover, experts read code less linearly than novices. These findings indicate that there are specific differences between reading natural language and source code, and suggest that non-linear reading skills increase with expertise. We discuss the implications for practitioners and educators. I