Unternehmenskultur: Werte schaffen Vertrauen

Wenn Mitarbeiter nicht aufrichtig sind oder Kunden das Vertrauen verlieren, geraten Unternehmen schnell in eine Krise. Dabei zeigen Experimente: Schon die Erinnerung an christliche oder moralische Werte macht Menschen ehrlicher und vertrauensvoller. Das können Unternehmen für sich nutzen

Korruption als Fluchtursache

Kontinuierlich sucht die Politik nach Lösungen in der Flüchtlingskrise. Dabei wird es langfristig nicht ausreichen, sich ausschließlich auf die Versorgung und Integration der ankommenden Flüchtlinge zu konzentrieren. Vielmehr müssen alle Parteien die Ursachen verstehen und bekämpfen. Eine davon ist Korruption

Infrared Free Space Communication - The Autonomous Testing of Free Space Infrared Communication

Fiber optics has been a winning player in the game of high-speed communication and data transfer in cable connections. Yet, in free space RF has been the repeated choice of communication medium of the space industry. Investigating the benefits of free space optical communication over radio frequency is worthwhile. An increase in science data rate return capabilities could occur if optical communication is implemented. Optical communication systems also provide efficiencies in power, mass, and volume over RF systems1. Optical communication systems have been demonstrated from a satellite in orbit with the moon to earth, and resulted in the highest data rates ever seen through space (622Mbps)2. Because of these benefits, optical communication is far superior to RF. The HiDRA (High Data Rate Architecture) project is researching Passive Misalignment Mitigation of Dynamic Free Apace Optical Communication Links. The goal of this effort is to enable gigabit per second transmission of data in short range dynamic links (less than 100 meters). In practice this would enhance data rates between sites on the International Space Station with minimal size, weight, and power requirements. This paper will focus on an autonomous code and a hardware setup that will be used to fulfill the next step in the research being conducted. The free space optical communications pointing downfalls will be investigated. This was achieved by creating 5 python programs and a top-level code to automate this test

Causes and consequences of corruption: An overview of empirical results

Corruption is a main threat in many countries around the world. Therefore, the causes and consequences of corruption are analyzed in various empirical studies. Since the results are quite mixed, we have summarized the findings of the central empirical literature from the last two decades for a comprehensive overview. Main causes for corruption are according to the studies (1) the size and structure of governments, (2) the democracy and the political system, (3) the quality of institutions, (4) economic freedom/openness of economy, (5) salaries of civil service, (6) press freedom and judiciary, (7) cultural determinants, (8) percentage of women in the labor force and in parliament (9) colonial heritage and (10) the endowment of natural resources. Corruption has an impact on (1) investment in general, (2) foreign direct investment and capital inflows, (3) foreign trade and aid, (4) official growth, (5) inequality, (6) government expenditure and services, and (7) shadow economy and crime

The appropriate limits placed upon what people can expect from health care

In ‘Speaking Truth to Power’, the American political scientist Aaron Wildavsky argued that the ‘pathology’ of healthcare policy is that the past successes of medicine are likely to lead to future failures in healthcare policy. For, as life expectancy increases, only partly as the result of medicine, a nation’s healthcare system is faced with an older population whose ailments are more difficult to treat, sending the costs of treatment ever higher while each improvement in health and medicine becomes more expensive than the last. It is the ‘doing better – feeling worse’ syndrome which, in the end, Wildavsky argued, will also undermine solidarity, since: ‘the rich don’t like waiting, the poor don’t like high prices, and those in the middle tend to complain about both.

Verbraucherschutz und Verhaltensökonomik: Zur Psychologie von Vertrauen und Kontrolle

Die Entscheidungsfindung wird für Verbraucher immer komplexer. Die Frage nach einer effizienten und effektiven Verbraucherpolitik stellt sich damit dringender denn je: Wie können Konsumenten gestärkt werden, ohne die Anbieter und die Angebotsvielfalt zu sehr einzuschränken? Das Menschenbild der neoklassischen Wirtschaftstheorie, der Homo oeconomicus, liefert keine ausreichende Basis zur Beantwortung dieser Frage. Denn viele Phänomene des Konsumentenverhaltens lassen sich damit nicht vereinbaren. Diese IW-Analyse widmet sich daher alternativen Konzepten für eine evidenzbasierte Verbraucherpolitik, deren Grundlage die Verhaltensökonomik ist. Psychologische Erkenntnisse helfen, ein realistischeres Bild des Konsumenten zu zeichnen und Lösungen für einen gezielteren Verbraucherschutz zu entwickeln. Im Fokus stehen dabei auch die Unternehmen, die durch Vertrauensbildung die Beziehung zum Kunden verbessern und so regulatorischen Eingriffen vorbeugen können. Denn schärfere Gesetze mit immer mehr Informationspflichten nutzen vielfach weder den Unternehmen noch den Verbrauchern.With consumers being confronted to make increasingly complex decisions, the need for an efficient and effective consumer policy is more urgent than ever. Yet how can consumers' choices be made easier without imposing excessive restrictions on suppliers and the variety of goods and services available? No convincing answer to this question can be provided on the basis of homo economicus, the model of man adopted by neo-classical economic theory, since many aspects of consumer behaviour are not consistent with this concept. The present IW analysis is therefore devoted to alternative strategies for developing an evidence-based consumer policy drawing on behavioural economics. The results of psychological research help us to paint a more realistic picture of the consumer and to develop solutions for better-targeted consumer protection. Our focus is also on companies, which can use confidence-building measures to improve relations with the demand side and thus pre-empt regulatory intervention. Stricter laws stipulating ever more detailed consumer information are often of little use to either companies or their customers

Using Social Media to Promote STEM Education: Matching College Students with Role Models

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) fields have become increasingly central to U.S. economic competitiveness and growth. The shortage in the STEM workforce has brought promoting STEM education upfront. The rapid growth of social media usage provides a unique opportunity to predict users' real-life identities and interests from online texts and photos. In this paper, we propose an innovative approach by leveraging social media to promote STEM education: matching Twitter college student users with diverse LinkedIn STEM professionals using a ranking algorithm based on the similarities of their demographics and interests. We share the belief that increasing STEM presence in the form of introducing career role models who share similar interests and demographics will inspire students to develop interests in STEM related fields and emulate their models. Our evaluation on 2,000 real college students demonstrated the accuracy of our ranking algorithm. We also design a novel implementation that recommends matched role models to the students.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, accepted by ECML/PKDD 2016, Industrial Trac

In vivo magnetic resonance imaging of mesenchymal stem cells in myocardial infarction

Background - We investigated the potential of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to track magnetically labeled mesenchymal stem cells (MR-MSCs) in a swine myocardial infarction (MI) model. Methods and Results - Adult farm pigs (n=5) were subjected to closed-chest experimental MI. MR-MSCs (2.8 to 16×107 cells) were injected intramyocardially under x-ray fluoroscopy. MRIs were obtained on a 1.5T MR scanner to demonstrate the location of the MR-MSCs and were correlated with histology. Contrast-enhanced MRI demonstrated successful injection in the infarct and serial MSC tracking was demonstrated in two animals. Conclusion - MRI tracking of MSCs is feasible and represents a preferred method for studying the engraftment of MSCs in MI

Prospecting for Polar Volatiles: Results from the Resolve Field

Both the Moon and Mercury evidently host ice and other volatile compounds in cold traps at the planets poles. Determining the form, spatial distribution, and abundance of these volatiles at the lunar poles can help us understand how and when they were delivered and emplaced. This bears directly on the delivery of water and prebiotic compounds to the inner planets over the solar system s history, and also informs plans for utilizing the volatiles as resources for sustained human exploration as well as the commercial development of space. Temperature models and orbital data suggest near-surface volatile concentrations may exist at polar locations not strictly in permanent shadow. Remote operation of a robotic lunar rover mission for the 7-10 days of available sunlight would permit key questions to be answered. But such a short, quick-tempo mission has unique challenges and requires a new concept of operations. Both science and rover operations decisionmaking must be done in real time, requiring immediate situational awareness, data analysis, and decision support tools