Following Snyderman and Rothman (1987, 1988), we surveyed expert opinions on the current state of intelligence research. This report examines expert opinions on causes of international differences in student assessment and psychometric IQ test results. Experts were surveyed about the importance of culture, genes, education (quantity and quality), wealth, health, geography, climate, politics, modernization, sampling error, test knowledge, discrimination, test bias, and migration. The importance of these factors was evaluated for diverse countries, regions, and groups including Finland, East Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Europe, the Arabian-Muslim world, Latin America, Israel, Jews in the West, Roma (gypsies), and Muslim immigrants. Education was rated by N = 71 experts as the most important cause of international ability differences. Genes were rated as the second most relevant factor but also had the highest variability in ratings. Culture, health, wealth, modernization, and politics were the next most important factors, whereas other factors such as geography, climate, test bias, and sampling error were less important. The paper concludes with a discussion of limitations of the survey (e.g., response rates and validity of expert opinions).

Optimal control problems for finite-strain elasticity are considered. An inner pressure or an inner fiber tension is acting as a driving force. Such internal forces are typical, for instance, for the motion of heliotropic plants, and for muscle tissue. Non-standard objective functions relevant for elasticity problems are introduced. Optimality conditions are derived on a formal basis, and a limited-memory quasi-Newton algorithm for their solution is formulated in function space. Numerical experiments confirm the expected mesh-independent performance.

The computation of the Coulomb potentials and forces in charged particle systems under 3d-periodic boundary conditions is possible in an efficient way by utilizing the Ewald summation formulas and applying the fast Fourier transform (FFT). In this paper we consider the particle-particle NFFT (P2NFFT) approach, which is based on the fast Fourier transform for nonequispaced data (NFFT) and compare the error behaviors regarding different window functions, which are used in order to approximate the given continuous charge distribution by a mesh based charge density. Typically B-splines are applied in the scope of particle mesh methods, as for instance within the well-known particle-particle particle-mesh (P3M) algorithm. The publicly available P2NFFT algorithm allows the application of an oversampled FFT as well as the usage of different window functions. We consider for the first time also an approximation by Bessel functions and show how the resulting root mean square errors in the forces can be predicted precisely and efficiently. The results show that, if the parameters are tuned appropriately, the Bessel window function is in many cases even the better choice in terms of computational costs. Moreover, the results indicate that it is often advantageous in terms of efficiency to spend some oversampling within the NFFT while using a window function with a smaller support.

Die Universitätsbibliothek Chemnitz – als zentrale Informations-Service-Einrichtung der TU – stellt sich der wandelnden Entwicklung in der Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologie durch die Möglichkeiten des Internets. Der Anteil der im Open Access veröffentlichten Artikel steigt weltweit. An der TU Chemnitz waren es 2014 bereits 10% des Gesamtartikelaufkommens. Das Open-Access-Team unterstützt die Wissenschaftler bei der Auswahl geeigneter Journale bzw. Verlage, berät bei der Klärung rechtlicher Fragen und bei der Finanzierung von Veröffentlichungen. Einfache Workflows, transparente Verfahren und standardisierte Softwareumgebungen kennzeichnen die Dienstleistung. Das Beratungs- und Marketingkonzept auf Basis der Qualitätssicherung, beinhaltet verschiedenste Kommunikationswege und vertieft damit das Verständnis und die Akzeptanz für die freie Verfügbarkeit wissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse. / The University Library Chemnitz, as the central provider of information services at the TU Chemnitz, embraces the possibilities of the world wide web in changing the nature of information and communication patterns. The digital transformation is accompanied by the growth of Open Access publishing in the global scientific community. At the TU Chemnitz, 10 per cent of all research papers published in 2014 were immediately made available through Open Access. The Open Access Team of the University Library supports scientists and scholars by helping with the selection of suitable Open Access journals for publication, by funding Open Access publications and by providing guidance on licensing and legal technicalities. Clear and simple workflows, transparent procedures and standardised software platforms characterise the services activities. The consulting and marketing concept, through a distinct focus on quality assurance, serves to foster the comprehension and the acceptance for the free distribution of scientific knowledge among all members of the TU Chemnitz.