Emotional topics as reasons for language swiching in bilinguals: interaction between emotional and culture, and the semantic categorisation of topics

The aim of this research is to investigate whether culture and emotions affect language choice in bilinguals. It also seeks to research what culture-specific topics tend to arouse emotions in bilinguals and whether the inducing of bilinguals into communicating about a strongly emotional topic leads them to favour L1 or L2, even when the topic is relevant to the culture of their L2.This study uses an online questionnaire for data collection, which was quantitatively and qualitatively analysed. Ninety responses were examined to gain understanding of what topics participants perceive to be emotional and to investigate reasons for why participants switch languages. This study found that although discussion topics can make participants emotional to the extent that they switch languages, results however also demonstrate that individual differences and other factors play an important role in language-switching. Reporting to the hypothesis of this study, as to whether bilinguals will favour speaking the language of the culture a discussion topic relates to when experiencing strong emotions, a significant main effect of culture on language choice was found. This study finds that topics that relate to participants' social lives and culture are perceived as highly emotional. Participants vary in terms of topics they consider emotional and important. No definitive topics exist that would make participants necessarily emotional to the same degree. A majority of participants uses the L2 in the workplace or at university. This points to the role of workplace and perhaps university as being important places for language practice and acculturation. Results also show that memory encoding, embodiment, context, social purposes and cultural scripts affect language choice. Findings specifically point to the family home and the sharing of one's life with a partner and family as contexts, which allow for the continued practice and the emotional encoding of life events in an L2, that can ultimately lead to L2 dominance

In NVivo Veritas: How Information Systems Increase the Flexibility and Relevance of Strategic Management Accounting

One of the key tasks for strategic management accountants is to estimate the size of the market in which their firm operates. For such an estimation to be correct, strategic management accountants need to have access to private information from the firm’s competitors. Such access is impossible since no competitor is willing to share internal documents, resulting in a problem of imperfect information. This problem hinders strategic management accountants’ efforts to perform their main tasks, forcing them to just approximate the size of their firms’ markets. In this paper we show how, by applying text analysis techniques to publicly available documents from their firm’s competitors, strategic management accountants can significantly increase the accuracy of their forecasts. This increased accuracy implies that the use of techniques from the Information Systems (IS) field can help mitigating the thus far unsolvable problem of imperfect information from which the strategic management accounting field has traditionally suffered

A new model of competitor accounting for the German Mechanical Engineering Sector

The trend of increasing internationalization of business and competition in general and particularly within the German mechanical engineering sector, as one of Germany’s most important industrial sectors, forms the economic background of this project concerning competitor accounting/analysis. This has implications regarding the interface between the corporate functions of marketing and control. In this context, literature confirms that resilient contributions regarding competitor accounting/analysis from strategic management accounting (SMA) are needed and that management accounting knowledge would support in developing this, which contributes to closing the gap in literature and practice. Regarding theory, performance-orientated elements, particularly from the area of consolidated margin accounting, have been transferred into the context of SMA/competitor accounting/-analysis and have been applied in the conceptual framework/model. Theoretical generalization has been conducted through applying an existing theory (cost accounting on the group level) in a new context (SMA/competitor accounting) and through extending the applicability of the conceptual framework/model to other industries within the mechanical engineering sector. Concerning practice, the implication in this context would be to execute this step of transferring knowledge from the area of group cost accounting/management accounting into competitor accounting/-analysis in practice as well. The conceptual framework/model contributes to closing the gap in competitor accounting/-analysis through providing both the theoretical foundation and the application in practice. The data considered in the case study covers a five-year period. Both numerical data and the textual information contained in almost 2000 documents has been structured according to the dimensions information category and consolidation hierarchy. Textual information has been evaluated and related to numerical data which enabled a model to be built of competitions’ margin accounting, P&L statement, balance sheet and cash flow statement on both the level of single entity and the group. Furthermore, the processes established allow contrasting of the competition’s actual performance with the model and, in addition, identifying the competition’s critical success factors. This in turn sheds light on the competition’s next strategic move and thus aids in the creation of competitive advantage

Sensitivity to cdk1-inhibition is modulated by p53 status in preclinical models of embryonal tumors

Dysregulation of the cell cycle and cyclin-dependent kinases (cdks) is a hallmark of cancer cells. Intervention with cdk function is currently evaluated as a therapeutic option in many cancer types including neuroblastoma (NB), a common solid tumor of childhood. Re-analyses of mRNA profiling data from primary NB revealed that high level mRNA expression of both cdk1 and its corresponding cyclin, CCNB1, were significantly associated with worse patient outcome independent of MYCN amplification, a strong indicator of adverse NB prognosis. Cdk1 as well as CCNB1 expression were readily detectable in all embryonal tumor cell lines investigated. Pharmacological inhibition or siRNA-mediated knockdown of cdk1/CCNB1 induced proliferation arrest independent of MYCN status in NB cells. Sensitivity to cdk1 inhibition was modulated by TP53, which was demonstrated using isogenic cells with wild-type TP53 expressing either dominant-negative p53 or a short hairpin RNA directed against TP53. Apoptosis induced by cdk1 inhibition was dependent on caspase activation and was concomitant with upregulation of transcriptional targets of TP53. Our results confirm an essential role for the cdk1/CCNB1 complex in tumor cell survival. As relapsing embryonal tumors often present with p53 pathway alterations, these findings have potential implications for therapy approaches targeting cdks

Experimental comparison of photon versus particle computed tomography to predict tissue relative stopping powers

Purpose: Measurements comparing relative stopping power (RSP) accuracy of state-of-the-art systems representing single-energy and dual-energy computed tomography (SECT/DECT) with proton CT (pCT) and helium CT (HeCT) in biological tissue samples. Methods: We used 16 porcine and bovine samples of various tissue types and water, covering an RSP range from 0.90urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00010.06 to 1.78 urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00020.05. Samples were packed and sealed into 3D-printed cylinders (urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0003 cm, urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0004 cm) and inserted into an in-house designed cylindrical polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) phantom (urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0005 cm, urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0006 cm). We scanned the phantom in a commercial SECT and DECT (120 kV; 100 and 140 kV/Sn (tin-filtered)); and acquired pCT and HeCT (urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0007 MeV/u, 2urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0008 steps, urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0009 (p)/urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0010 (He) particles/projection) with a particle imaging prototype. RSP maps were calculated from SECT/DECT using stoichiometric methods and from pCT/HeCT using the DROP-TVS algorithm. We estimated the average RSP of each tissue per modality in cylindrical volumes of interest and compared it to ground truth RSP taken from peak-detection measurements. Results: Throughout all samples, we observe the following root-mean-squared RSP prediction errors urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0011 combined uncertainty from reference measurement and imaging: SECT 3.10urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00122.88%, DECT 0.75urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00132.80%, pCT 1.19urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0014 2.81%, and HeCT 0.78urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00152.81%. The largest mean errors urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-0016 combined uncertainty per modality are SECT 8.22 urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00172.79% in cortical bone, DECT 1.74urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00182.00% in back fat, pCT 1.80 urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00194.27% in bone marrow, and HeCT 1.37urn:x-wiley:00942405:media:mp15283:mp15283-math-00204.25% in bone marrow. Ring artifacts were observed in both pCT and HeCT reconstructions, imposing a systematic shift to predicted RSPs. Conclusion: Comparing state-of-the-art SECT/DECT technology and a pCT/HeCT prototype, DECT provided the most accurate RSP prediction, closely followed by particle imaging. The novel modalities pCT and HeCT have the potential to further improve on RSP accuracies with work focusing on the origin and correction of ring artifacts. Future work will study accuracy of proton treatment plans using RSP maps from investigated imaging modalities

Emotional Situation of Children and Adolescents during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Germany: Results from the COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring Study (COSMO)

The COVID-19 pandemic led to numerous restrictions in daily life that had a significant impact on the well-being and mental health of the population. Among others, children and adolescents were particularly affected, being a vulnerable group at risk. The aim of this study was to assess the emotional situation of children and adolescents during different phases of the pandemic and to identify modifying factors. Data from the serial cross-sectional COVID-19 Snapshot Monitoring (COSMO) survey in Germany were used for this study. The survey waves 12 (19th/20th May 2020) and 21 (15th/16th September 2020) were investigated as examples of two different pandemic phases. The psychosocial and emotional situation and well-being of children were measured with the emotional subscale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) assessed by parents. Descriptive analyses and logistic regressions were calculated. In total, a third of the participating parents in wave 12 and in wave 21 reported having children and adolescents with emotional symptoms. Especially children with younger parents seemed to be more affected by emotional symptoms. Sociodemographic aspects, such as household language, showed a significant association with reported emotional symptoms in children (Wave 12: OR = 2.22; 95% CI: 1.20–4.09). Reported prevalences of emotional symptoms in children did not differ between the pandemic phases. In conclusion, the pandemic had negative influences on the emotional symptoms of children and adolescents in COVID-19 pandemic waves in 2020, indicating a forecasted reoccurrence and need for preventive measures for upcoming waves and other pandemics in the future

Technisches Informationssystem für die Entwicklung textilbewehrten Betons

In der letzten Periode des Sonderforschungsbereichs 532 wurde eine benutzerfreundliche Internetplattform für den Verbundwerkstoff Textilbeton entwickelt. Die Plattform beinhaltet auf verschiedenen Ebenen umfassende Informationen über Textilbeton, die in Form eines digitalen Handbuchs aufbereitet sind. Präsentiert werden unter anderem die Möglichkeiten des Bauens mit Textilbeton, die Bauteilbemessung, die materialspezifischen Festigkeits- und Verbundeigenschaften sowie verschiedene Produktionstechnologien. Mit der neuen Internetpräsentation wird der Transfer der Forschungsergebnisse in die Baupraxis gezielt unterstützt, und der Baustoff Textilbeton wird der breiten Öffentlichkeit anschaulich näher gebracht.Within the last period of the collaborative research center SFB 532 a user friendly internet platform for textile reinforced concrete was developed. The platform provides various information about textile reinforce concrete on different information levels, which are combined in a digital handbook for textile reinforced concrete. The platform presents application examples of textile reinforced concrete, design rules for different types of construction elements, material and bond characteristics, production technologies and other helpful information for the practical application of textile reinforced concrete. The internet platform will support the transfer of the research results into the building practice and demonstrate the wide range of applications with textile reinforced concrete

The CLIC Study of Magnet Stability and Time-dependent Luminosity Performance

The present parameters of the CLIC study require the collision of small emittance beams with a vertical spot size of 1 nm. The tolerances on vertical quadrupole vi-bration (above a few Hz) are as small as a few nm in the linac and most of the Final Focus. The final focusing quadrupole has a stability requirement of 4 nm in the horizontal and 0.2 nm in the vertical direction. Those tol-erances can only be achieved with the use of damped support structures for CLIC. A study has been set-up at CERN to explore the application of stabilization devices from specialized industry and to predict the time-dependent luminosity performance for CLIC. The results will guide the specification of required technological im-provements and will help to verify the feasibility of the present CLIC parameters