Managerial Ownership and Firm Performance in German Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This paper studies the effect of managerial ownership on performance and the determinants of managerial ownership for small and medium-sized private companies. We use a panel of around 1300 firms in the German business-related service sector for the years 1997-2000. Managerial ownership up to around 80 per cent has a positive impact on firm performance (incentive effect); for higher shares the effect becomes negative (entrenchment effect). Moreover, risk-aversion of managers and signalling of firm quality leads to a non-linear relationship between managerial ownership and the risk exposure of a firm. The determinants of performance and ownership are estimated simultaneously.corporate governance, managerial ownership, firm performance, small and medium-sized enterprises

Intermedialität in John Banvilles "The Sea" : Erinnerung an ein Kindheitstrauma

In seinem 2005 mit dem Booker-Preis ausgezeichneten Roman The Sea nimmt sich der irische Schriftsteller John Banville dem Thema Trauma, Erinnerung und Trauer durch den Einsatz intermedialer Manifestationen, gestalterisch an. Das Werk schildert vor allem die subtilen Auswirkungen eines Kindheitstraumas auf die Identitätsbildung und Lebensführung des alternden Protagonisten, dessen Wahrnehmungsweise und Weltanschauung durch das Medium der bildenden Kunst geprägt sind

Energija niti u monopolnom modelu Nanbua, Jone i Lasinia

The string energy is calculated to the one-monopole loop approximation in the dual monopole Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (MNJL) model with dual Dirac strings by taking into account quantum fluctuations of the dual vector field and string shape fluctuations around the Abrikosov flux line. The quantum fluctuations are shown to increase the value of the string tension. The string shape fluctuations give contributions in the form of a Coulomb-like universal potential. Due to the London limit regime the scalar field exchange is taken into account in the tree approximation.Računa se energija niti u aproksimaciji monopolne petlje u dualnom monopolnom modelu Nanbua, Jone i Lasinia, s dualnim Diracovim nitima, uzimajući u obzir kvantne fluktuacije dualnoa vektorskog polja i oblika niti oko Abrikosove krivulje toka. Pokazuje se da kvantne fluktuacije povećavaju napetost niti. Fluktuacije oblika niti daju doprinose u vidu općeg potencijala Coulombovog oblika. Zbog uvjeta Londonove granice, izmjena skalarnim poljem se uzima u aproksimaciji drveta

Identifizierung eisenreduzierender Mikroorganismen in anoxischem Reisfeldboden mit Hilfe stabiler Isotope

In den letzten Jahrzehnten erlangte die Eisenreduktion als ein wichtiger mikrobieller Prozess und die daran beteiligten Mikroorganismen zunehmend an Bedeutung. In vielen anoxischen Habitaten ist Fe(III) der am häufigsten vorkommende natürliche Elektronenakzeptor. So auch in geflutetem Reisfeldboden, wo die dissimilatorische Eisenreduktion neben der Methanogenese den wichtigsten anaeroben respiratorischen Prozess darstellt. Über die Diversität der mikrobiellen Populationen, die ihre Energiegewinnung an die Reduktion von Fe(III) koppeln, ist bisher wenig bekannt. In dieser Arbeit wurde erstmals mittels biogeochemischer und molekularbiologischer Methoden die mikrobielle Eisenreduktion in geflutetem Reisfeldboden in Anwesenheit von verschiedenen Eisen(III)-Oxiden (Ferrihydrit, Lepidokrokit, Goethit und Hämatit) und unterschiedlichen Kohlenstoffquellen (13C2-Acetat und 13C3-Lactat) untersucht. Die Anwendung der Stabilen Isotopenbeprobung ermöglichte dabei die Verknüpfung von Funktion und phylogenetischer Einordnung der metabolisch aktiven Mikroorganismen und erlaubte die Identifizierung von bekannten und neuartigen eisenreduzierenden Mikroorganismen als funktionelle Gilde im Reisfeldboden ohne ihre vorherige Kultivierung. Die Zugabe von Acetat als ein zentrales Intermediat im anaeroben Stoffwechsel führte unter eisenreduzierenden Bedingungen zur Detektion von bakteriellen Populationen, die bekannten Geobacter und Anaeromyxobacter spp. (delta-Proteobacteria) zugeordnet werden konnten. In Anwesenheit von Goethit zeigten diese beiden Cluster sogar eine vergleichbare Abundanz, was auf die Ausbildung von unterschiedlichen ökologischen Nischen innerhalb des Ökosystems hinweist. Die detektierten neuartigen Bakterien-Cluster sind phylogenetisch in den Familien der Clostridiaceae und Paenibacillaceae (Firmicutes) angesiedelt, wurden bislang jedoch nicht mit der dissimilatorischen Eisenreduktion in Verbindung gebracht. Ob diese Populationen Lactat oder die daraus resultierenden Abbauprodukte Acetat und Propionat metabolisieren, ist anhand der Ergebnisse nicht ersichtlich. Auch in den mitgeführten Kontrollen (ohne Zugabe von Eisen[III]-Oxiden) wurde der Einbau des stabilen Kohlenstoffisotops (13C) nachgewiesen. Die Analyse der 16S rRNA zeigte, dass es zu einer starken Aktivierung von Vertretern der Rhodocyclaceae (beta-Proteobacteria) kam. Die beobachtete Aktivität dieser Population in den Ansätzen mit Goethit und Hämatit stützt die in dieser Arbeit aufgestellte Hypothese, dass diese bisher nicht kultivierten Rhodocyclaceae an der Reduktion von Eisen(III)-Oxiden mit geringer Bioverfügbarkeit beteiligt sein könnten. Neben der Identifizierung der dissimilatorisch eisenreduzierenden Mikroorganismen unter diversen physiologischen Bedingungen, wurde der Einfluss charakteristischer Eigenschaften (z.B. Kristallinität, Oberflächen- und Partikelgröße) der Eisen(III)-Oxide auf die mikrobielle Reduzierbarkeit untersucht. Die Zugabe der verschiedenen Eisen(III)-Oxide resultierte in einem selektiven Effekt auf die mikrobielle Gemeinschaft der Eisenreduzierer in geflutetem Reisfeldboden. Es wurden nicht nur Eisen(III)-Oxid-spezifische und phylogenetisch diverse Populationen angereichert, sondern es zeigten sogar einige Spezies desselben Genus (Geobacter) eine Spezialisierung auf bestimmte Eisen(III)-Oxide mit unterschiedlichem Redoxpotential. Diese Beobachtung weist auf eine hohe funktionelle Diversität innerhalb dieser phylogenetisch, auf Ebene der 16S rRNA-Gene sehr ähnlichen Gruppe von Mikroorganismen hin und bietet somit einen interessanten Ansatzpunkt für vergleichende Analysen auf Genombasis. Mit Hilfe der vorliegenden Arbeit konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Diversität eisenreduzierender Mikroorganismen im natürlichen Habitat weitaus größer ist als bisher angenommen. Neben dem zur Verfügung stehenden Elektronendonor hat die Eisen(III)-Oxid-Phase einen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die metabolisch aktive mikrobielle Gemeinschaft. Die Identifizierung der eisenreduzierenden Mikroorganismen als funktionelle Gilde leistet außerdem einen wesentlichen Beitrag zum Verständnis der Eisenreduktion und der daran gekoppelten Prozesse im Modellsystem Reisfeldboden

Energija niti u monopolnom modelu Nanbua, Jone i Lasinia

The string energy is calculated to the one-monopole loop approximation in the dual monopole Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (MNJL) model with dual Dirac strings by taking into account quantum fluctuations of the dual vector field and string shape fluctuations around the Abrikosov flux line. The quantum fluctuations are shown to increase the value of the string tension. The string shape fluctuations give contributions in the form of a Coulomb-like universal potential. Due to the London limit regime the scalar field exchange is taken into account in the tree approximation.Računa se energija niti u aproksimaciji monopolne petlje u dualnom monopolnom modelu Nanbua, Jone i Lasinia, s dualnim Diracovim nitima, uzimajući u obzir kvantne fluktuacije dualnoa vektorskog polja i oblika niti oko Abrikosove krivulje toka. Pokazuje se da kvantne fluktuacije povećavaju napetost niti. Fluktuacije oblika niti daju doprinose u vidu općeg potencijala Coulombovog oblika. Zbog uvjeta Londonove granice, izmjena skalarnim poljem se uzima u aproksimaciji drveta

The IAB establishment panel : from sample to survey to projection

"The IAB Establishment Panel is an annual survey of establishments and is unique in Germany, as it represents all industries and establishment sizes nationwide and can also be analysed on a longitudinal basis. The design of the IAB Establishment Panel was developed in the early 1990s and subjected to a wide range of tests. This process also involved parallel development activities taking place on the Hannover Firm Panel, which were carried out on behalf of the "Forschungsstelle Firmenpanel" at the University of Hanover (Gerlach et al.: 1998) and the Institute for Applied Economic Research in Tübingen (IAW). The survey began in West Germany in 1993, with the aim of building up a representative information system for continuous analysis of labour demand. It has been carried out in East Germany since 1996, making it a nationwide survey. The IAB Establishment Panel is conceived as a longitudinal survey, i.e. a large majority of the same establishments are interviewed every year. Consequently, it enables both analysis of developments across time through comparison of cross-sectional data on different points in time, and also longitudinal studies of individual establishments. Now in the IAB Establishment Panel approx. 16,000 establishments are surveyed on a large number of employment policy-related subjects, including employment development, business policy and business development, investment activities, innovations in the establishment, public funding, personnel structure, vocational training and apprenticeships, new and exiting personnel, recruitment, wages and salaries, working times in the establishment, further training and general data on the establishment. The survey also includes varying focal topics every year. With the exception of Hamburg, all the German federal states (Bundesländer) currently contribute regional extension samples to the IAB Establishment Panel. This firstly enables evaluations on the federal state level, and secondly results in a total range of samples that significantly widens the evaluation options on the nationwide level. The IAB Establishment Panel contains high data quality, achieved by means of the high-quality sample, the high exploitation level and the sophisticated process of data monitoring and error correction. The survey is carried out by TNS Infratest Sozialforschung GmbH on behalf of the IAB. A general introduction to the IAB Establishment Panel is contained in German in Bellmann (2002) or in English in Kölling (2000). The IAB Establishment Panel is based on a complex study design, which also presents challenges for users of the dataset. This paper provides an overview of the methodology of the IAB Establishment Panel. It goes into detail on the design of the samples and survey, the weighting process, and data access at the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The most important points are presented at the beginning of each chapter. It is intended for users of the IAB Establishment Panel, firstly as a collection of methodological aspects of the IAB Establishment Panel, and secondly to make it easier for first-time users in particular to start using the data. This paper is also aimed at users of the IAB Linked-Employer-Employee Dataset (LIAB1), in which the IAB Establishment Panel is an important component." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Here you can find the German version of the report.IAB-Betriebspanel, Datengewinnung, Stichprobenverfahren, Stichprobe, Erhebungsmethode, Befragung, Fragebogen, Antwortverhalten, Datenaufbereitung, Datenanalyse, Hochrechnung, Querschnittuntersuchung, Längsschnittuntersuchung

Software Grand Exposure: SGX Cache Attacks Are Practical

Side-channel information leakage is a known limitation of SGX. Researchers have demonstrated that secret-dependent information can be extracted from enclave execution through page-fault access patterns. Consequently, various recent research efforts are actively seeking countermeasures to SGX side-channel attacks. It is widely assumed that SGX may be vulnerable to other side channels, such as cache access pattern monitoring, as well. However, prior to our work, the practicality and the extent of such information leakage was not studied. In this paper we demonstrate that cache-based attacks are indeed a serious threat to the confidentiality of SGX-protected programs. Our goal was to design an attack that is hard to mitigate using known defenses, and therefore we mount our attack without interrupting enclave execution. This approach has major technical challenges, since the existing cache monitoring techniques experience significant noise if the victim process is not interrupted. We designed and implemented novel attack techniques to reduce this noise by leveraging the capabilities of the privileged adversary. Our attacks are able to recover confidential information from SGX enclaves, which we illustrate in two example cases: extraction of an entire RSA-2048 key during RSA decryption, and detection of specific human genome sequences during genomic indexing. We show that our attacks are more effective than previous cache attacks and harder to mitigate than previous SGX side-channel attacks

New Perspectives in Interdisciplinary Cultural Heritage Studies: Contributions of the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage in the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018

Inspired by the announcement of a European Year of Cultural Heritage, the European Students’ Association for Cultural Heritage (ESACH) was established in 2017 by students at the University of Passau. Today, ESACH has become the first still-growing interdis-ciplinary and cross-generational network in the field. ESACH cur-rently brings together young researchers in the field of culture and heritage from all kinds of academic disciplines and is made up of members from various European universities and research centres, such as the UNESCO Chair on Cultural Property Law at the University of Opole (Poland) thanks to Dr. Alicja Jagielska-Burduk. ESACH’s main goal is to highlight the perspective of the younger generations with regard to cultural issues of European and national importance. Where various cultural institutions already show interest in collaborating with younger generations, we aim to establish a mutual exchange and active involvement as future decision makers. Within the network, the main questions are: How do we engage with the past elements of our culture(s)? How and why do we protect culture as a genuine element of a contemporary cultural system? What do younger generations state as heritage and what ways do they see to safeguard and experience it? ESACH stands up for a participatory way of involvement and is eager to take part in the cultural discourse at European and national levels. Until now ESACH members have been given the opportunity to contribute their ideas in several European events organized by the respective stakeholders. In June 2018, the ESACH Message as part of the “Student Summit” was presented during the high-level policy debate on the occasion of the Berlin European Cultural Heritage Summit. Present, amongst others, were Monika Grütters, Minister of State and Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (Germany) and Tibor Navracsics, European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Youth and Sport (Hungary). In November 2018, ESACH has been actively involved in the annual meetings of the German Cultural Heritage Committee and the Swedish National Heritage Board in Strasbourg and Stockholm. This book brings together fifteen articles by twenty-two authors from Portugal, Germany, Spain, Greece, Brazil, USA, Romania and Turkey. This sharing of knowledge, culture and heritage studies through various disciplines shows the richness – and new perspectives – generated by the common passion for cultural heritage. The new perspectives and the sharing feeling are also present in both images on the cover. The "view of Lisbon" (Portugal) was drawn in the sixteenth century; it shows a disappeared Lisbon through the eyes and the colours of a German engraver. In the “Azulejo (tile) wainscot” we have the perfect example of foreign influences in the artistic creation of a Portuguese painter. These reinterpreted decorative patterns were affirmed over centuries as a feature of Portuguese identity. In the words of the “Berlin Call to Action”, we fervently hope that “The 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage marks a turning point for Europe’s ever-growing movement for cultural heritage. We must build on this momentum to recognize and unfold the positive and cohesive power of our shared cultural heritage and values to connect Europe’s citizens and communities and to give a deeper meaning to the entire European project. The time for action is now.”info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio