Compliance check of gambler and youth protection in German amusement arcades: a pilot study

German gambling operators are required to identify problem gamblers at an early stage and exclude them from gambling on their premises. The main aim of this pilot study was to investigate the compliance of staff in Bremen’s amusement arcades. While visiting 29 of 111 amusement arcades, covert gamblers simulated signs of problematic gambling behaviour, arranged self-exclusions, monitored observance of the exclusion list and made fieldnotes about the staff’s reactions. The application of age checks was also tested. The findings showed that only in six cases (5%) did the staff adequately respond to evident signs of problematic gambling behaviour. Although 18 of 29 cases (62%) eventually resulted in self-exclusions or ban-like agreements, in some instances it was necessary to overcome major obstacles that emanated from the staff’s behaviour. During 15 subsequent follow-up visits, 13 banned mystery gamblers (87%) had no problems gambling on amusement-with-prizes (AWP) machines. Finally, just 26% of the 20- to 25-year-old mystery gamblers had their ID checked. The results indicate the necessity of regular external evaluations regarding the implementation of gambling harm-minimization measures in order to identify any shortcomings. In addition, the level of staff compliance may be increased by amending current legislation (e.g. by introducing a nationwide self-exclusion programme).     

More Like Us: The Effect of Immigrant Generation on College Success in Mathematics

This article investigates the impact of immigrant generation on students performance in college calculus courses and examines the extent to which the observed patterns corroborate or contradict various assimilation theories. It goes beyond past studies of the relationship between immigrant generation and mathematics achievement that focused primarily on middle and high school students and typically excluded foreign students. Our principal finding is that foreign students and the 1.25 generation earned the highest grades, on average, even after controlling for race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status. Our findings provide partial support for the immigrant advantage theory.     

The survival of newly founded firms: a case-study into varying-coefficient models

Summary.  The success of a newly founded firm depends on various initial risk factors or start-up conditions such as the market that the business is aiming for, the experience and the age of the founder, the preparation before the launch, the financial frame and the legal form of the firm. These risk factors determine the chance of survival for the venture. However, the effects of these risk factors may change with time. Some effects may vanish whereas others remain constant. We analyse the survival of 1123 newly founded firms in the state of Bavaria, Germany. Our focus is on the investigation of time variation in the effects of risk factors. Time variation is tackled within the framework of varying-coefficient models, where time smoothly modifies the effects of risk factors. An important issue in our analysis is the separation of risk factors which have time-varying effects from those which have time constant effects. We make use of the Akaike criterion to separate these two types of risk factor.     

Emigration,Dauerreflexion und Identität

Zusammenfassung Albert Salomon, ein 1891 in Berlin geborener deutsch-jüdischer Soziologe, der 1935 in die USA emigrieren musste, wo er bis zu seinem Tode 1966 in New York an der New School for Social Research forschte und lehrte, hat ein Werk hinterlassen, das heute nahezu vergessen ist und dessen Einheit selbst die Wenigen, die sich mit ihm befassten, nicht erkannt haben. Dieses Werk stellt einen systematischen, an ideengeschichtlicher Komplexit?t kaum wieder erreichten Beitrag zur Geschichte der Soziologie dar, der von gro?er Bedeutung für die aktuelle Identit?tsbildung des Faches im Rahmen der sich etablierenden Kulturwissenschaften ist. Für Anregungen und Kritik sei Peter L. Berger, M. Rainer Lepsius, Thomas Luckmann, Peter-Ulrich Merz-Benz, Guy Oakes, Hannah Salomon-Janovsky, Ilja Srubar, Dirk T?nzler, Arthur J. Vidich und Gilbert Weiss gedankt.     

Supervisionsausbildung als Lernende Organisation oder: Wie weit ist es nach Teplá?

Zusammenfassung  Organisationen ver?ndern Menschen und Menschen ver?ndern Organisationen. SupervisorInnen bewegen sich mit ihrer Beratungsarbeit an dieser Schnittstelle. In der Supervisions-Ausbildung, die der Autor seit fast 20 Jahren praktiziert, ist deshalb Organisation ein zentrales Thema und Lernfeld, das auf verschiedenen Ebenen (systemisch-strukturell — pers?nlich-biografisch — ph?nomenologisch) bearbeitet wird. Dies geschieht nicht in Distanz zum Thema, sondern durch konkrete Ann?herungen.

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People are changed by organisations and people change organisations. Supervisors are active with their consultancy work on this interface. Organisation is therefore a central topic and learning field which is handled on different levels (systemic-structural, personal-biographic, phenomenal) in the counselling-supervision training, which the author has been practicing since 20 years. This is not done in a theoretical way but through a concrete approach.

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Jahrgang 1945, verheiratet mit Annegret Kern, vier Kinder. Seit über 30 Jahren im Rheinland t?tig, zuerst als Jugend- und Erwachsenenbildner, dann als Supervisor, Organisationsberater, Trainer, Lehrsupervisor. Gründungsmitglied DGSv, ISO Berlin und IHP. Dort langj?hriger organisatorischer Leiter, Vorstandsmitglied und Fachbereichsleiter Supervision.     

Many Chinas? The Economic Diversity of China's Provinces

This note analyzes China's provincial diversity from two perspectives. First, the regional gross domestic products of China's 31 mainland provinces are compared with the national GDP of other countries. This demonstrates that China's most advanced provinces and urban areas have per capita GDP levels comparable to those of Sweden and Singapore. On the other hand, China's least developed provinces have a standard of living similar to those of Sudan and Honduras. The second part of the analysis demonstrates that China's economic diversity is not unique. In fact, European countries exhibit almost the same degree of income diversity as do Chinese provinces.