University of Mannheim

About: University of Mannheim is a education organization based out in Mannheim, Germany. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Politics. The organization has 4448 authors who have published 12918 publications receiving 446557 citations. The organization is also known as: Uni Mannheim & UMA.

EU promotion of democratic governance in the neighbourhood

Abstract: This article analyses the effectiveness of the EU's promotion of democratic governance through functional co-operation in the European neighbourhood. In a comparative study of three policy sectors in three countries (Moldova, Morocco, and Ukraine), we show that the EU is capable of inducing neighbouring countries to adopt policy-specific democratic governance provisions in the absence of accession conditionality. In line with the institutionalist hypotheses, we find that effective rule adoption can be secured by strong legal specification of democratic governance elements in the EU sectoral acquis and international conventions. However, successful rule adoption does not necessarily lead to rule application.

Scandals and the Public's Trust in Politicians: Assimilation and Contrast Effects

Abstract: Subjects either were or were not asked to recall the names of politicians who had been involved in a scandal and subsequently evaluated the trustworthiness of politicians in general and of three specific exemplars. Answering the scandal question decreased judgments of trustworthiness of politicians in general but increased perceived trustworthiness of specific exemplars. Thus, an assimilation effect was obtained when the target category 'politicians in general" invited inclusion of the scandal politicians in the temporary representation formed of the target. In contrast, the primed politicians could not be included in the representations formed of specific individuals. In this case, they were used as a standard of comparison, resulting in contrast effects. These findings are consistent with the inclusion/exclusion model of assimilation and contrast effects, which emphasizes the role of categorization processes in the construction of targets and standards.

An update on the diagnosis and treatment of sinusitis and nasal polyposis

Abstract: IntroductionTerminologySinusitis (more properly known as rhinosinusitis due tothe regular involvement of the nasal cavity) is a conditionwith a high and clearly increasing prevalence. According1to figures from IMS Health,acute sinusitis was diagnosed6.3 million times and chronic sinusitis 2.6 million times ina country like Germany over the course of one year (July2000–June 2001),resulting in 8.5 million and 3.4 millionprescriptions,respectively. The number of diagnoses of‘‘nasal polyposis’’ was approximately 221 000 (accordingto IMS Health 2001). Even though no reliable epidemi-ological studies of the incidence of sinusitis exist,thesefigures do indicate that sinusitis represents a considerablesocioeconomic problem. Alongside allergic and viralconditions of the upper airways,sinusitis thereforeconstitutes one of the most common respiratory tractconditions in humans.Similar data are reported from the USA: in 1997,sinusitis was prevalent in approximately 15% of thepopulation. In the last decade,the frequency of diagnosisin the USA rose by around 18%. The economicsignificance of sinusitis is huge: for 1992,the total cost,including costs resulting from loss of work,was estima-ted at over 6 billion dollars for the USA. In the periodfrom 1985 to 1992,the number of antibiotic prescrip-tions for sinusitis rose from 7.2 million to 13 million(1,2).Sinusitis is an inflammatory process involving themucous membranes of one or more sinuses. Generallyspeaking,the mucous lining of the nose is also involved.Even in the presence of a viral cold,a CT scan will revealthe involvement of the paranasal sinuses in 87% of cases,which is why we speak of rhinosinusitis (3). Bacterialrhinosinusitis (acute sinusitis) is generally preceded by avirus-induced inflammation of the sinuses; approximately5–10% of childhood upper airway infections develop intoacute sinusitis (4). The swelling and ‘‘immunologicalweakness’’ of the mucous membrane and the blockageof the ostia by the viral infection are today believed tocause bacterial infection of the intrinsically sterile para-nasal sinuses by local microorganisms. This gives rise toacute sinusitis,with severe inflammatory infiltration ofC.Bachert

A Bayesian Framework for Multi-cue 3D Object Tracking

Abstract: This paper presents a Bayesian framework for multi-cue 3D object tracking of deformable objects. The proposed spatio-temporal object representation involves a set of distinct linear subspace models or Dynamic Point Distribution Models (DPDMs), which can deal with both continuous and discontinuous appearance changes; the representation is learned fully automatically from training data. The representation is enriched with texture information by means of intensity histograms, which are compared using the Bhattacharyya coefficient. Direct 3D measurement is furthermore provided by a stereo system.

A Formalization of the Security Features of Physical Functions

Abstract: Physical attacks against cryptographic devices typically take advantage of information leakage (e.g., side-channels attacks) or erroneous computations (e.g., fault injection attacks). Preventing or detecting these attacks has become a challenging task in modern cryptographic research. In this context intrinsic physical properties of integrated circuits, such as Physical(ly) Unclonable Functions~(PUFs), can be used to complement classical cryptographic constructions, and to enhance the security of cryptographic devices. PUFs have recently been proposed for various applications, including anti-counterfeiting schemes, key generation algorithms, and in the design of block ciphers. However, currently only rudimentary security models for PUFs exist, limiting the confidence in the security claims of PUF-based security primitives. A useful model should at the same time (i) define the security properties of PUFs abstractly and naturally, allowing to design and formally analyze PUF-based security solutions, and (ii) provide practical quantification tools allowing engineers to evaluate PUF instantiations. In this paper, we present a formal foundation for security primitives based on PUFs. Our approach requires as little as possible from the physics and focuses more on the main properties at the heart of most published works on PUFs: robustness (generation of stable answers), unclonability (not provided by algorithmic solutions), and unpredictability. We first formally define these properties and then show that they can be achieved by previously introduced PUF instantiations. We stress that such a consolidating work allows for a meaningful security analysis of security primitives taking advantage of physical properties, becoming increasingly important in the development of the next generation secure information systems.