Managing Integration of Immigrant Youth in the United States, Germany, and Poland

The aim of the dissertation is to examine ways of managing immigrant integration and integration policies in advanced industrial societies, with a special focus on labor market integration of young immigrants in the two neighboring EU countries: Germany and Poland and in two US neighboring states: Arizona and California. The analyses of theoretical research framework and empirical study provide answers to the following main research questions: 1) Which factors influence the development of local labor market integration initiatives for young immigrants into the labor market 2) How these factors enable the receiving society to tap into potential of young immigrants 3) Whether the exchange of integration policy research and practical experience of integration management in the United States and the European Union is useful and transferable. The study can provide incentives to create a transatlantic bridge between researchers and integration practitioners. The analysis of integration management of immigrant youth and recommendations for further research and practical work should help to raise awareness of these integration problems which have not been recognized so far either by national governments or local municipalities.Das Ziel der Dissertation besteht darin, Arten der Integration von Migranten und Integrationsprogramme in hoch entwickelten Industriegesellschaften zu untersuchen. Dabei liegt ein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf der Integration junger Migranten auf dem Arbeitsmarkt in zwei Nachbarländern der EU: Deutschland und Polen sowie in zwei Nachbarstaaten der USA: Arizona und Kalifornien. Die Analysen des Forschungsrahmens und einer empirischen Studie beantworten folgende zentrale Forschungsfragen: 1) Welche Faktoren beeinflussen die Entwicklung von Integrationsinitiativen für jugendliche Migranten in den Arbeitsmarkt? 2) Wie ermöglichen diese Faktoren der Gastgesellschaft das Potential junger Migranten anzuzapfen? 3) Ob der Austausch der Forschung über Integrationsprogramme in den USA und der EU nützlich und praktische Erfahrungen des Integrationsmanagements übertragbar sind. Die Analyse des Integrationsmanagements für jugendliche Migranten und Empfehlungen für weiterführende Forschung und die Praxis sollte dabei helfen, sich jener Integrationsprobleme bewusst zu werden, welche bisher weder von den Nationalregierungen noch von den Kommunen anerkannt wurden

Voltage-based separation of respiration and cardiac activity by harmonic analysis in electrical impedance tomography

This study aims to improve the accuracy of Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) measurements for monitoring ventilation and cardiac signal in medical imaging by proposing a new signal separation approach that does not require contrast agents. Conventionally, contrast agents like high-conductive saline solutions are used for signal separation in EIT measurements. This study uses a harmonic analysis on EIT raw voltage data to separate the ventilation- and cardiac-related signals (early separation). It evaluates its efficacy with a simulation model at low (1%) and high (10%) superimposed additive noise levels against the already published harmonic analysis at pixel level after EIT image reconstruction (late separation). The findings indicate that the voltage-based harmonic analysis approach, i.e., early separation, provides reliable signal separation, especially under high noise conditions, compared to the late separation. This method enables the possibility of incorporating independent cardiac-specific or ventilation-specific prior knowledge into the image reconstruction process, potentially improving the resulting images

Structure and Dynamics of Nanoconfined Water between Surfactant Monolayers

The properties of nanoconfined water arise in direct response to the properties of the interfaces that confine it. A great deal of research has focused on understanding how and why the physical properties of confined water differ greatly from the bulk. In this work, we have used all-atom molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to provide a detailed description of the structural and dynamical properties of nanoconfined water between two monolayers consisting of an archetypal ionic surfactant, cetrimonium bromide (CTAB, [CH3(CH2)15N(CH3)3]+Br-). Small differences in the area per surfactant of the monolayers impart a clear effect on the intrinsic density, mobility, and ordering of the interfacial water layer confined by the monolayers. We find that as the area per surfactant within a monolayer decreases, the mobility of the interfacial water molecules decreases in response. As the monolayer packing density decreases, we find that each individual CTAB molecule has a greater effect on the ordering of water molecules in its first hydration shell. In a denser monolayer, we observe that the effect of individual CTAB molecules on the ordering of water molecules is hindered by increased competition between headgroups. Therefore, when two monolayers with different areas per surfactant are used to confine a nanoscale water layer, we observe the emergence of noncentrosymmetry.</p