Belonging and exclusion: the dark side of regional identity in Germany

A collective regional identity is a favourable condition for the acceptance of majority decisions made at the regional level and for the delegation of competencies from the central to regional governments. Moreover, a regional identity can play an important role in times of global challenges. Regional attachment might generate a we-feeling and help individuals to cope better with a complex world. The same feeling, however, might also serve as a basis for exclusionary attitudes. In this article, we analyse regional identity at the Land level in Germany with data from the German General Social Survey. Our results show that regional identity is strong in both the eastern and western parts of the country, with people in the east, surprisingly, identifying with their respective Land slightly more than people in the west, even though the five eastern Länder were only established in 1990 after decades of centralist rule. Furthermore, the dark side of regional identity manifests itself only in eastern Germany, where a stronger regional identity tends to go hand in hand with a greater dislike of foreigners.

Fecundity and preferential oviposition by pulse beetle, Callosobruchus maculatus F on chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) var dollar

In a laboratory experiment female Callosobruchus maculatus distributed eggs on healthy chickpea seeds in a manner that maximizes the amount of resources allocated to each offspring under favourable condition. The female preferred seeds having more quantity of resources to meet the nutrition of her offspring, seeds having healthy seed coat over damaged ones, fresh seeds over infested seeds for laying higher number of eggs under normal day light condition over the total dark. This was more so in presence of multiple copulating males over single one. Host deprivation did not have any influence on fecundity.

Siwalik Flora from Koilabas Area in the Nepal Himalaya and its Significance on Palaeoenvironment and Phytogeography

The plant fossil assemblages recovered from the Siwalik sediments of Koilabas area (Darwaja and Chorkholi) in the Western part of Nepal are described. An attempt has been made to deduce the palaeoclimate and phytogeography of the area during sedimentation. Based on available data, Low land mixed mesophytic forest communities of broad leaved semievergreen to evergreen trees appeared to be nourishing around Koilabas area during Siwalik period. Analysis of the present distribution of the modem equivalents of the fossils shows that about 80 percent of taxa have disappeared from the area and have got migrated to other suitable regions like northeast India, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Malaya where they have found favourable condition for their longer survival. It indicates a positive change in the climate after Mio-Pliocene times. The study of physiognomic characters of the fossil leaves in relation to climate has been done and based on these characters a well as habit and habitat of comparable taxa, a tropical (warm humid) climate with plenty of rainfall has been deduced.

Solenoidal Excitation of Eigenmodes in Cylindrical Magnetized Plasma with Two Ion Species

The conditions for the experimental observation of new types of eigenmodes in a typical laboratory magnetized plasma with two ion species are discussed. It is shown that the most favourable condition occurs during the current carrying phase of the discharge, with an appropriately chosen mixture of ions.

Complexing reverse transcriptase with polyspermine-ribonuclease

Polyspermine-ribonuclease (Mr approximately 17 000) and the enzyme transcriptase from Rauscher-leukaemia virus (Mr approximately 70 000) form a complex Mr approx. 160 000) such that the molar ratio of polyspermine-ribonuclease to reverse transcriptase is 5:1. The most favourable condition for complex-formation is in a solution consisting of 0.01 M-Tris/HCl buffer, pH 7.5, 0.25 M-KCl and 1 mM-Mn2+ at 37 degrees C. The association of the two enzymes retains full RNAase activity, but reverse-transcriptase activity is completely inhibited when ribonuclease-sensitive polymers such as (dG)12 x (rC)n or viral 70S RNA are used as primer templates.

Captain Cook and the transit of Venus of 1769

The motions of the planets among the stars even if observed with instruments capable of no greater accuracy than one minute of arc can be analysed to produce orbits whose relative sizes are known quite accurately. Kepler, for example, gave the correct shape of the planetary orbits as ellipses with the Sun in one focus. He was also able to assert that the squares of the periodic times were proportional to the cubes of the semi axes major, without being able to determine the length of any one of these axes in terms of the mile. As a matter of fact he thought that the scale was less than onesixth of what we now know it to be. To calibrate the scale of the planetary orbits against a terrestrial scale it is enough to measure any one interplanetary distance by triangulation from a terrestrial base line, of which the angle at the apex is necessarily small. So long as only the classical planets were known, the most favourable case is presented by the planet Mars, which approaches to within a distance of 4278 times the diameter of the Earth. Under the most favourable condition (of observing Mars at its closest approach from opposite ends of a diameter of the Earth) the angle at the apex of the triangle would be 1/4278 radian or 48 seconds of arc (so that the parallax, which is the semiangle, is 24 seconds of arc). There are many reasons why an accurate determination of the parallax of Mars was not easy to be accomplished by seventeenth-century astronomers. However, if early astronomers had settled the parallax of Mars at its closest approach to the Earth, they would have known the ratios of the distance between the planet and the Earth to the distances of either body from the Sun, from the orbits whose relative sizes were perfectly well known.

Der Bauernkrieg in Ostpreussen 1525

The above article, a chapter from a larger work on the socio-historical foundation of Prussia, deals with the only peasants' revolt of importance that ever took place in Germany east of the Elbe. In September 1525, when in western Germany the after-effects of the great revolt were ebbing down, the peasants in the recently secularized dukedom of Prussia revolted against the rising nobility. The course of the peasants' action and the insufficient assistance they received from the town of Konigsberg and its citizens are sketched separately from material gathered from a contemporary chronicle. Already five days after the outbreak of the revolt and before serious acts of violence had occurred, the aristocratic town-council of Königsberg effected peace between the peasants and the nobility. After the return of the duke from Germany, severe punishments were inflicted, followed in the next year by the statutory regulation of all the new peasants' obligations.Special attention deserve: the close connection between the peasant movement and contemporary unrests in Konigsberg; the influence that radiated from there; the lack of support from the towns as the cause of the speedy break-down of the revolt; its pronouncedly political character, hardly influenced by religious ideas and aiming at rooting out the aristocratic “weeds”. The leading elements of the revolt were the well-to-do, self-confident, free peasants—of German as well as of Polish descent—and not the mostly impoverished serfs, which proves that no peasants' revolts occurred east of the Elbe not because of the favourable condition of the peasants there, and that also in this one particular case socially higher situated elements were sooner inclined to revolt against suppression.

On postural and non-postural activities of the mid-brain

In the course of experiments in which the cerebral cortex of the monkey is stimulated, it is peculiarly noticeable that the activity of the cortex varies from time to time. That such variation should occur is by no means strange, in view of the difficulty of maintaining a constant depth of narcosis. But there are other variations which seemingly are not conditioned by variation of depth of narcosis. Thus it not rarely happens that, when the depth of narcosis is certainly a constant one, the motor cortex becomes suddenly inexcitable. This occurs, for instance, after a cortical discharge, which is followed by “ epileptic ” after-discharge. But it also occurs without any apparent preceding cause. Thus suddenly the cortical excitability becomes abolished—at any rate, to practicable strengths of stimulation. This sudden loss of cortical excitability is a phenomenon of interest. It is accompanied by two marked states. Of these, the first is an anæmia of the cortex ; the second is a maintained postural contraction of certain of the muscles of the limbs. The anæmia seems to occur over the whole of the small area of cortex—pre-central and post-central—usually exposed in these experiments. It causes a sudden change in appearance from the “raw ham” look of the cortex when it is in the most favourable condition for electrical stimulation to a pale “ dead ” look. The cortex blanches; it may be surmised that it faints.