cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Diversity, patronage and parties: parties and party system change in Indonesia
Creators: name: Allen, Nathan Wallace
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2012

description: The dissertation asks why some political systems have many parties and others only a few. Existing research on regime survival confirms that an excess of parties can generate regime instability. Because party systems affect key political outcomes, institutional engineers have sought to tweak electoral systems in order to produce favourable patterns of political competition. In particular, institutional designers in diverse states have attempted to curtail party system expansion by banning ethnically-based parties. Despite the growing popularity of such techniques, analysts know little about how these institutions work in practice. To address this issue, the dissertation explores a puzzle from the Indonesian case: the number of effective political parties in an electoral district strongly correlates with ethnic diversity, yet there is a de-facto prohibition of ethnic parties. Established theories linking ethnic diversity and party system size assume both the existence of ethnic parties and clear patterns of ethnic voting. However, neither one is present in the Indonesian case. The dissertation demonstrates that ethnic diversity has an indirect effect on party systems. It generates sub-national rent-seeking opportunities, a combination of high state involvement in the economy and weak constraints prohibiting the abuse of state resources for personal and political gain. In diverse electoral districts, the livelihoods of voters and elites are tightly linked to the control of the state. Elites have more opportunities to engage in rent-seeking behavior, affecting the way they participate in the political sphere. First, the opportunity to manipulate state resources draws elites into the electoral arena, increasing the number of viable candidates. Second, the intense focus on local goods distribution diminishes the value of national party platforms, allowing candidates to pursue political office under minor party labels. Third, voter demands for particularistic goods distribution lead them to disregard party labels and form tight patron-client linkages with candidates. The electoral consequence of these three phenomena is the expansion of the vote attained by minor parties, which act as vehicles of convenience for locally oriented rent-seeking networks. In high diversity / high rent electoral districts, the expansion of the vote attained by the minor parties fragments the party system.
The Government and Cybersecurity
Creators: name: Bellovin, Steven Michael
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2009
Subjects: Computer science

description: We all realize that computer security is a serious problem. But who should solve it? More precisely, who should be responsible for coping with computer insecurityâ€”governments or the private sector? To some extent, the answer depends on how we view the problem. This installment of ClearText aims to get to the bottom of it.
title: Höheres Haushaltseinkommen geht bei Frauen und Männern mit höherer Lebenserwartung einher
Creators: name: Geyer, Johannes
name: Haan, Peter
name: Tréguier, Julie
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: I14 Health and Inequality
subject: J38 Wages, Compensation, and Labor Costs: Public Policy
subject: life expectancy
subject: gender
subject: income distribution

description: Besser gebildete Menschen oder Menschen mit höherem Einkommen haben eine bessere Gesundheit und eine höhere Lebenserwartung. In diesem Wochenbericht werden anhand aktueller Daten frühere Studien zu diesem Thema aktualisiert und gezeigt, dass dieser Zusammenhang unter Männern besonders stark ausgeprägt ist. Da Frauen aufgrund von Sorgearbeit häufiger ihre Karriere unterbrechen oder in Teilzeit arbeiten, gibt es kein klares Muster zwischen ihrem individuellen Einkommen und ihrer Lebenserwartung. Dieser Wochenbericht berücksichtigt daher das Haushaltseinkommen. Er zeigt: Menschen mit höheren Haushaltseinkommen haben ein geringeres Sterberisiko im Alter von 55 und 76 Jahren. Dies gilt für Männer wie für Frauen. Auch das Risiko für eine psychische oder physische Erkrankung ist deutlich geringer, wenn das Haushaltseinkommen hoch ist. Wenn Menschen mit niedrigen Renten, diese kürzere Zeit beziehen, weil sie systematisch früher sterben, widerspricht dies dem Äquivalenzprinzip der Rentenversicherung. Es legt zudem eher mehr als weniger Umverteilung in der Rente nahe. Argumente gegen eine Aufwertung geringer Rentenansprüche gelten nur, wenn eine durchschnittliche Lebenserwartung angenommen wird, was hier empirisch widerlegt wird. Auch eine Reform bei der Kranken- und Pflegeversicherung könnte gesundheitsbezogene Einkommensungleichheit adressieren.
description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 25, S. 395-400
Criteria for shear banding in time-dependent flows of complex fluids
Creators: name: Moorcroft, Robyn L.
name: Fielding, Suzanne M.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: Within a highly generalised theoretical framework for the flow properties of complex fluids, we study the onset of shear banding in the three most common time-dependent experimental protocols: step stress, step strain and shear startup. By means of a linear stability analysis we derive a fluid-universal criterion for the onset of banding, separately for each protocol, that depends only on the shape of the experimentally measured time-dependent rheological response function, independent of the constitutive law and internal state variables of the particular fluid in question. Our predictions thus have the same status, in these time-dependent flows, as the widely known criterion for banding in steady state (of negatively sloping shear stress vs. shear rate). We support them with simulations of the rolie-poly model of polymeric fluids, the soft glassy rheology model, and a fluidity model.
description: 4.5 pages, 5 figures, 2 pages supplemental material
title: Detlev Clüver
title: An entry in the LCA Online Dictionary of Leibniz’s Correspondents and Acquaintances
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: (:Tba)
Publisher: name: LCA Project
Year: 2018

description: Detlev Clüver as a personal relation of Leibniz’s: The resource presents biographical information on a correspondent of Leibniz's
A novel curcumin-based vaginal cream Vacurin selectively eliminates apposed human cervical cancer cells
Creators: name: Ranjan Debata, Priya
name: Castellanos, Mario R.
name: Fata, Jimmie E.
name: Baggett, Sarah
name: Rajupet, Sritha
name: Szerszen, Anita
name: Begum, Sultana
name: Mata, Anita
name: Vundavalli, Murty V.
name: Opitz, Lynne M.
name: Banerjee, Probal
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2013
Subjects: Cervix uteri--Cancer
Cervix uteri--Cancer--Treatment
Cancer--Treatment--Research
Papillomaviruses
Curcumin
Pathology

description: Objective. Human papillomavirus (HPV) infections remain a leading cause of mortality worldwide. In the U.S. strategies via screening and vaccination prevent HPV-associated cervical neoplasms, but consume im- mense healthcare costs. The spice component curcumin has potent anticancer and antiviral properties, which have been difficult to harness as a treatment, due to its poor systemic bioavailability. This project tests the possibility of developing a curcumin-based therapy for cervical cancer. Methods. Using four HPV(+) cervical cancer cell lines and normal fibroblasts we first tested the selectivity and potency of curcumin in eliminating HPV(+) cells. Subsequently, we developed a curcumin-based cervical cream and tested its efficacy in eliminating apposed HPV(+) cells and also its possible side effects on the vaginal epithelium of healthy mice. Results. Curcumin selectively eliminates a variety of HPV(+) cervical cancer cells (HeLa, ME-180, SiHa, and SW756), suppresses the transforming antigen E6, dramatically inhibits the expression of the pro-cancer protein epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), and concomitantly induces p53. Additionally, Vacurin, a uniform colloidal solution of curcumin in a clinically used amphipathic vaginal cream, eliminates apposed HeLa cells while suppressing the expression of EGFR. In mice, daily intravaginal application of Vacurin for three weeks produced no change in body weight and when the mice were sacrificed, the vaginal tract epithelium showed no Vacurin-evoked adverse effects. Conclusion. We have developed a curcumin-based vaginal cream, which effectively eradicates HPV(+) cancer cells and does not affect non-cancerous tissue. Our preclinical data support a novel approach for the treatment of cervical HPV infection.
Clathria (Clathria) foliacea Topsent 1889
Creators: name: Ugalde, Diana
name: Fernandez, Julio C. C.
name: Gómez, Patricia
name: Lôbo-Hajdu, Gisele
name: Simões, Nuno
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Porifera
Demospongiae
Poecilosclerida
Microcionidae
Clathria
Clathria foliacea

description: Clathria (Clathria) foliacea Topsent, 1889 Tables 6, 7; Figs. 41A–G, 45H Synonymy and references: Clathria foliacea Topsent (1889: 39), Hooper (1996: 173), and Gómez (2014: 53); Clathria (Clathria) foliacea , and Thalyseurypon foliacea: see references compiled in Hooper (1996: 173), and Gómez (2014: 53). Type locality. Campeche Bank, Mexico. Material examined. CNPGG-2172, Cayo Arcas reef (20.199083°N, 91.96380°W), 10 m depth, coll. Diana Ugalde, 25 April 2018. Distribution. Mexico (Topsent 1889; Gómez 2014; current records), US (Florida) (de Laubenfels 1936 as Thalyseurypon foliacea). Remarks. Clathria (C.) foliacea is a shrub shaped sponge, pedunculate or not, the branchlets mainly flabellated, similar in shape to C. (C.) carteri (not represented in this study). Therefore, light microscopy for spicule definitions is necessary to confirm the proper identification. Clathria (C.) foliacea has been reported and described for both the SGoM (Gómez 2014) and northern Gulf (de Laubenfels 1936, as Thalyseurypon foliacea).
description: Published as part of Ugalde, Diana, Fernandez, Julio C. C., Gómez, Patricia, Lôbo-Hajdu, Gisele & Simões, Nuno, 2021, An update on the diversity of marine sponges in the southern Gulf of Mexico coral reefs, pp. 1-112 in Zootaxa 5031 (1) on pages 47-48, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5031.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5454380
description: {"references": ["Topsent, E. (1889) Quelques spongiaires du Banc de Campeche et de la Pointe-a-Pitre. Memoires de la Societe zoologique de France, 2, 30 - 52.", "Hooper, J. N. A. (1996) Revision of Microcionidae (Porifera: Poecilosclerida: Demospongiae), with description of Australian species. Memoir of the Queensland Museum, 40, 1 - 626.", "Gomez, P. (2014) The genus Clathria from the Gulf of Mexico and Mexican Caribbean, with redescription and resurrection of Clathria carteri (Poecilosclerida: Microcionidae). Zootaxa, 3790 (1), 51 - 85. https: // doi. org / 10.11646 / zootaxa. 3790.1.3", "Laubenfels, M. W. de (1936) A Discussion of the Sponge Fauna of the Dry Tortugas in Particular and the West Indies in General, with Material for a Revision of the Families and Orders of the Porifera. Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1936, 1 - 225."]}
Search for Neutrinoless Double-Beta Decay in $^{136}$Xe with EXO-200
Creators: name: Auger, M.
name: Auty, D. J.
name: Barbeau, P. S.
name: Beauchamp, E.
name: Belov, V.
name: Benitez-Medina, C.
name: Breidenbach, M.
name: Brunner, T.
name: Burenkov, A.
name: Cleveland, B.
name: Cook, S.
name: Daniels, T.
name: Danilov, M.
name: Davis, C. G.
name: Delaquis, S.
name: deVoe, R.
name: Dobi, A.
name: Dolinski, M. J.
name: Dolgolenko, A.
name: Dunford, M.
name: Fairbank, W.
name: Farine, J.
name: Feldmeier, W.
name: Fierlinger, P.
name: Franco, D.
name: Giroux, G.
name: Gornea, R.
name: Graham, K.
name: Gratta, G.
name: Hall, C.
name: Hall, K.
name: Hargrove, C.
name: Herrin, S.
name: Hughes, M.
name: Johnson, A.
name: Johnson, T. N.
name: Karelin, A.
name: Kaufman, L. J.
name: Kuchenkov, A.
name: Kumar, K. S.
name: Leonard, D. S.
name: Leonard, F.
name: Mackay, D.
name: MacLellan, R.
name: Marino, M.
name: Mong, B.
name: Diez, M. Montero
name: Muller, A. R.
name: Neilson, R.
name: Nelson, R.
name: Odian, A.
name: Ostrovskiy, I.
name: O'Sullivan, K.
name: Ouellet, C.
name: Piepke, A.
name: Pocar, A.
name: Prescott, C. Y.
name: Pushkin, K.
name: Rowson, P. C.
name: Russell, J. J.
name: Sabourov, A.
name: Sinclair, D.
name: Slutsky, S.
name: Stekhanov, V.
name: Tolba, T.
name: Tosi, D.
name: Twelker, K.
name: Vogel, P.
name: Vuilleumier, J. -L.
name: Waite, A.
name: Walton, T.
name: Weber, M.
name: Wichoski, U.
name: Wodin, J.
name: Wright, J. D.
name: Yang, L.
name: Yen, Y. -R.
name: Zeldovich, O. Ya.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: High Energy Physics - Experiment (hep-ex)
subject: Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We report on a search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of $^{136}$Xe with EXO-200. No signal is observed for an exposure of 32.5 kg-yr, with a background of ~1.5 x 10^{-3} /(kg yr keV) in the $\pm 1σ$ region of interest. This sets a lower limit on the half-life of the neutrinoless double-beta decay $T_{1/2}^{0νββ}$($^{136}$Xe) > 1.6 x 10$^{25}$ yr (90% CL), corresponding to effective Majorana masses of less than 140-380 meV, depending on the matrix element calculation.
Worm propagation strategies in an IPv6 Internet
Creators: name: Bellovin, Steven Michael
name: Cheswick, Bill
name: Keromytis, Angelos D.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2006
Subjects: Computer science

description: In recent years, the Internet has been plagued by a number of worms. One popular mechanism that worms use to detect vulnerable targets is random IP address-space probing. This is feasible in the current Internet due to the use of 32-bit addresses, which allow fast-operating worms to scan the entire address space in a matter of a few hours. The question has arisen whether or not their spread will be affected by the deployment of IPv6. In particular, it has been suggested that the 128-bit IPv6 address space (relative to the current 32-bit IPv4 address space) will make life harder for the worm writers: assuming that the total number of hosts on the Internet does not suddenly increase by a similar factor, the work factor for finding a target in an IPv6 Internet will increase by approximately 296, rendering random scanning seemingly prohibitively expensive.
Beyond the speed of light on Finsler spacetimes
Creators: name: Pfeifer, Christian
name: Wohlfarth, Mattias N. R.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th)
subject: Mathematical Physics (math-ph)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: As a prototypical massive field theory we study the scalar field on the recently introduced Finsler spacetimes. We show that particle excitations exist that propagate faster than the speed of light recognized as the boundary velocity of observers. This effect appears already in Finsler spacetime geometries with very small departures from Lorentzian metric geometry. It switches on for a sufficiently large ratio of the particle four-momentum and mass, and is the consequence of a modified version of the Coleman-Glashow velocity dispersion relation. The momentum dispersion relation on Finsler spacetimes is shown to be the same as on metric spacetimes, which differs from many quantum gravity models. If similar relations resulted for fermions on Finsler spacetimes, these generalized geometries could explain the potential observation of superluminal neutrinos claimed by the Opera Collaboration.
description: 5 pages, 1 figure, new discussion of observers and velocity measurements, extensive improvements in the interpretation section, discussion of modified dispersion relations extended
Real-time PCR-based analysis of BRAF V600E mutation in low and intermediate grade lymphomas confirms frequent occurrence in hairy cell leukaemia
Creators: name: Ewalt, Mark
name: Nandula, Subhadra
name: Phillips, Adrienne
name: Alobeid, Bachir
name: Vundavalli, Murty V.
name: Mansukhani, Mahesh M.
name: Bhagat, Govind
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2012
Subjects: Lymphomas
Lymphomas--Diagnosis
Leukemia, Hairy cell
Carcinogenesis
Pathology

description: Hairy cell leukaemia (HCL) is a rare type of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (B-NHL), which is not known to be associated with any characteristic recurrent karyotypic abnormality. A recent study that used massively parallel whole exome sequencing identified an activating V600E mutation in BRAF, which appeared specific for HCL. Here, we confirm the specificity of BRAF V600E for HCL among low and intermediate grade B-NHL and describe a real-time polymerase chain reaction method for detecting this mutation in cases with low tumour burden. The V600E mutation does not appear to be associated with microsatellite instability, unlike the case in colorectal cancer. Thus, in conjunction with prior data, our results suggest incorporation of BRAF V600E mutation analysis in the diagnostic workup of HCL cases. Additionally, targeting the Ras-Raf-Mek-Erk-Map kinase pathway should be investigated as a potential therapeutic strategy for patients with this disease.
A chemical imaging and Nano-ARPES study of well-ordered thermally reduced SrTiO3(100)
Creators: name: Frantzeskakis, Emmanouil
name: Avila, Jose
name: Asensio, Maria C.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Materials Science (cond-mat.mtrl-sci)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The structural and electronic properties of thermally reduced SrTiO3(100) single crystals have been investigated using a probe with real- and reciprocal-space sensitivity: a synchrotron radiation microsopic setup which offers the possibility of Scanning Photoemission Microscopy and Angle Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy (ARPES) down to the nanometric scale. We have spectroscopically imaged the chemical composition of samples which present reproducible and suitable low-energy electron diffraction patterns after following well-established thermal reduction protocols. At the micrometric scale, Ca-rich areas have been directly imaged using high-energy resolution core level photoemission. Moreover, we have monitored the effect of Ca segregation on different features of the SrTiO3(100) electronic band structure, measuring ARPES inside, outside and at the interface of surface inhomogeneities with the identified Ca-rich areas. In particular, the interaction of Ca with the well-known intragap localized state, previously attributed to oxygen vacancies, has been investigated. Moreover, the combination of direct imaging and spectroscopic techniques with high spatial resolution has clarified the long-standing dilemma related to the bulk or surface character of Ca segregation in SrTiO3. Our results present solid evidence that the penetration depth of Ca segregation is very small. In contrast to what has been previously proposed, the origin of long-range surface reconstructions can unlikely be associated to Ca due to strong local variations of its surface concentration.
description: 7 pages, 6 figures
U.S. Trade with Developing Countries and Wage Inequality
Creators: name: Sachs, Jeffrey D.
name: Shatz, Howard J.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 1996
Subjects: Managerial economics
Labor economics

description: Since the mid-to-late 1970's, wage inequality between low- and highly educated workers has widened markedly. The wage premium to a college education compared with a high-school education has increased by some 20 percentage points (see George J. Borjas and Valerie A. Ramey [1994] for recent estimates). Part of the explanation seems to lie with a slowdown in the growth of supply of highly educated workers in the 1980's. Another part seems to lie with a demand shift toward educated workers. Two hypotheses have been advanced to account for the alleged demand shift. The first holds that technological change has been biased in favor of high-education workers. The second holds that growing international trade with low-wage countries has shifted labor-market demand in the United States away from low-educated workers, as the United States increasingly imports goods produced by such workers from low-wage countries.
title: Signale für Aufschwung der deutschen Wirtschaft stehen auf Grün: Interview
Creators: name: Dany-Knedlik, Geraldine
name: Wittenberg, Erich
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024

description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 24, S. 388
Observation of flat band for terahertz spoof plasmon in metallic kagomé lattice
Creators: name: Nakata, Yosuke
name: Okada, Takanori
name: Nakanishi, Toshihiro
name: Kitano, Masao
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Optics (physics.optics)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We study the dispersion relation of a metamaterial composed of metallic disks and bars arranged to have kagome symmetry and find that a plasmonic flat band is formed by the topological nature of the kagome lattice. To confirm the flat-band formation, we fabricate the metamaterial and make transmission measurements in the terahertz regime. Two bands formed by transmission minima that depend on the polarization of the incident terahertz beams are observed. One of the bands corresponds to the flat band, as confirmed by the fact that the resonant frequency is almost independent of the incident angle.
description: 5pages, 5figures
Novel biomarkers for early cancer detection and screening
Creators: name: Li, Gerald
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2012

description: Early detection and screening have reduced mortality from many cancers, but there remains a need for improved biomarkers of risk. Cytometric DNA ploidy analysis has been used for the detection, treatment, and management of many cancers, but greater clinical utility would come with increased accuracy. Improvements to ploidy-based screening might come from adding complementary biological information. The first aim combined ploidy with the additional biological information provided by malignancy associated changes as detected by automated nuclear morphometry. In 2249 sputum samples, the resultant biomarker, the Combined Score (CS), correlated with lung cancer risk factors like dysplasia grade, age, smoking status, and p53 and Ki-67 immunostaining. CS is a minimally invasive tool for risk assessment for the presence of precancerous lung lesions and could enrich chemoprevention trials with subjects likely to have high-risk dysplasias. The second aim complemented ploidy with biological information provided by immunocytochemistry in a double staining procedure. Testing 49 cervical cytology brushings showed addition of Ki-67 immunostaining to distinguish abnormal cells from normal cycling cells did not improve ploidy’s ability to separate high- and low-grade dysplasias. Nevertheless, double staining with Feulgen thionin and immunocytochemistry was shown to be technically feasible, even with antigen retrieval, and might be applicable to other immunocytochemical stains. Motivated by the ability to combine ploidy with immunocytochemistry, the third aim investigated techniques for biomarker discovery pertinent to cervical dysplasia development. Cervical squamous epithelium consists of a continuum of differentiating cells and carcinogenesis disrupts this cell maturation program. Gene expression differences between the basal and superficial epithelial layers and across various grades of dysplasia could catalyze the discovery of novel biomarkers through a better understanding of carcinogenesis. Microdissection and expression microarray analysis of molecular fixative preserved cervical biopsies resulted in the immunohistochemistry validation of four candidate targets showing correlation with dysplasia grade. This work underscores the importance and potential of accounting for heterogeneity within stratified squamous epithelium and constitutes the first report of successful gene expression microarray analysis of microdissected epithelial layers from molecular fixative preserved paraffin-embedded cervical specimens. Ploidy combined with digital morphometry and immunocytochemistry can generate useful biomarkers of early squamous cell carcinomas.
title: Erfolg einer Zuckersteuer hängt stark von der konkreten Ausgestaltung ab: Interview
Creators: name: Schmacker, Renke
name: Wittenberg, Erich
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024

description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 23, S. 342
The impact of climate change on the epidemiology and control of Rift Valley fever
Creators: name: Martin, Vincent
name: Chevalier, VÃ©Ronique
name: Ceccato, Pietro N.
name: Anyamba, Assaf
name: De Simone, Lorenzo
name: Lubroth, Juan
name: La Rocque, SteÌ Phane De
name: Domenech, Joseph
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2008
Subjects: Epidemiology
Climatic changes
Rift Valley fever
Vector control

description: Climate change is likely to change the frequency of extreme weather events, such as tropical cyclones, floods, droughts and hurricanes, and may destabilize and weaken the ecosystem services upon which human society depends. Climate change is also expected to affect animal, human and plant health via indirect pathways: it is likely that the geography of infectious diseases and pests will be altered, including the distribution of vector-borne diseases, such as Rift Valley fever, yellow fever, malaria and dengue, which are highly sensitive to climatic conditions. Extreme weather events might then create the necessary conditions for Rift Valley fever to expand its geographical range northwards and cross the Mediterranean and Arabian seas, with an unexpected impact on the animal and human health of newly affected countries. Strengthening global, regional and national early warning systems is crucial, as are co-ordinated research programmes and subsequent prevention and intervention measures.
title: Zuckersteuer: Reaktion der Konsument*innen hängt stark von deren Selbstkontrolle ab
Creators: name: Schmacker, Renke
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
subject: I18 Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
subject: H20 Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue: General
subject: self-control
subject: soft drink tax
subject: internality

description: Steuern auf ungesunde Lebensmittel, zum Beispiel zuckergesüßte Getränke, sollen Verbraucher*innen einen Anreiz geben, sich gesünder zu ernähren. Im Fokus dieser Politik stehen besonders Menschen mit niedriger Selbstkontrolle, die ihren Zuckerkonsum weniger unter Kontrolle haben. Dieser Wochenbericht untersucht anhand der dänischen Steuer auf zuckerhaltige Getränke, ob Konsument*innen mit niedriger und hoher Selbstkontrolle unterschiedlich auf Preisveränderungen reagieren. Als die Steuer 2012 stark erhöht und dies über die Produktpreise an die Konsument*innen weitergegeben wurde, haben Menschen mit hoher Selbstkontrolle ihren Konsum merklich reduziert, solche mit niedriger Selbstkontrolle hingegen nur unwesentlich. Als die Steuer 2014 abgeschafft wurde, haben jedoch beide Gruppen ihren Konsum deutlich erhöht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Zielgruppe einer solchen Maßnahme nicht zwingend auf höhere Preise reagiert. Um Menschen mit niedriger Selbstkontrolle zu helfen, braucht es Instrumente, die Herstellern Anreize geben, ihre Produkte gesünder zu machen. Dafür empfiehlt sich eine gestaffelte Zuckersteuer, wie das Beispiel der Zuckersteuer im Vereinigten Königreich zeigt. Gleichzeitig sollte die Vermittlung von Wissen über gesundheitsrelevantes Verhalten verbessert werden, um die Ursache für zu starken Zuckerkonsum anzugehen.
description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 23, S. 335-341
Dynamical Friction around Supermassive Black Holes
Creators: name: Antonini, Fabio
name: Merritt, David
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
subject: Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics (astro-ph.CO)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: The density of stars in galactic bulges is often observed to be flat or slowly rising inside the influence radius of the supermassive black hole (SMBH). Attributing the dynamical friction force to stars moving more slowly than the test body, as is commonly done, is likely to be a poor approximation in such a core since there are no stars moving more slowly than the local circular velocity. We have tested this prediction using large-scale N-body experiments. The rate of orbital decay never drops precisely to zero, because stars moving faster than the test body also contribute to the frictional force. When the contribution from the fast-moving stars is included in the expression for the dynamical friction force, and the changes induced by the massive body on the stellar distribution are taken into account, Chandrasekhar's theory is found to reproduce the rate of orbital decay remarkably well. However, this rate is still substantially smaller than the rate predicted by Chandrasekhar's formula in its most widely-used forms, implying longer time scales for inspiral. Motivated by recent observations that suggest a parsec-scale core around the Galactic center SMBH, we investigate the evolution of a population of stellar-mass black holes (BHs) as they spiral in to the center of the Galaxy. After ~10Gyr, we find that the density of BHs can remain substantially less than the density in stars at all radii; we conclude that it would be unjustified to assume that the spatial distribution of BHs at the Galactic center is well described by steady-state models. One consequence is that rates of capture of BHs by the SMBH at the Galactic center (EMRIs) may be much lower than in standard models. We finally study the orbital decay of satellite galaxies into the central region of giant ellipticals and discuss the formation of multiple nuclei and multiplet of black holes in such systems.
description: 27 pages, 24 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal
Creativity as a Matter of Choice: Prior Experience and Task Instruction as Boundary Conditions for the Positive Effect of Choice on Creativity
Creators: name: Chua, Roy Yong-Joo
name: Iyengar, Sheena Sethi
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2008
Subjects: Managerial economics

description: This study investigates the effects of prior experience, task instruction, and choice on creative performance. Although extant research suggests that giving people choice in how they approach a task could enhance creative performance, we propose that this view needs to be circumscribed. Specifically, we argue that when choice is administered during problem solving by varying the number of available resources, the high combinatorial flexibility conferred by a large choice set of resources can be overwhelming. Through two experiments, we found that only individuals with high prior experience in the task domain and given explicit instruction to be creative produced more creative outcomes when given more choice. When either of these two conditions is not met (i.e., low prior experience or given non-creativity instruction), more choice did not lead to more creative performance. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Canonical Partition function of Loop Black Holes
Creators: name: Lochan, Kinjalk
name: Vaz, Cenalo
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology (gr-qc)
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We compute the canonical partition for quantum black holes in the approach of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG). We argue that any quantum theory of gravity in which the horizon area is built of non-interacting constituents cannot yield qualitative corrections to the Bekenstein-Hawking (B-H) area law, but corrections to the area law can arise as a consequence additional constraints inducing interactions between the constituents. In LQG this is implemented by requiring spherical horizons. The canonical approach for LQG favours a logarithmic correction to the B-H law with a coefficient of -1/2, independently of the area spectrum. Our initial calculation of the partition function uses certain approximations that, we show, do not qualitatively affect the expression for the black hole entropy. We later discuss the quantitative corrections to these results when the simplifying approximations are relaxed and the full LQG spectrum is dealt with. We show how these corrections can be recovered to all orders in perturbation theory. However, the convergence properties of the perturbative series remains unknown.
description: 16 pages, 1 figure. Some clarifications and references added. To appear in Phys. Rev. D
Depolarizing effect of neocortical chandelier neurons
Creators: name: Woodruff, Alan
name: Xu, Qing
name: Anderson, Stewart A.
name: Yuste, Rafael
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Biology
subject: Medicine
subject: Neurosciences
subject: FOS: Clinical medicine

description: Chandelier (or axo-axonic) cells are one of the most distinctive types of GABAergic interneurons in the cortex. Although they have traditionally been considered inhibitory neurons, data from rat and human neocortical preparations suggest that chandelier cells have a depolarizing effect on pyramidal neurons at resting membrane potential, and could even activate synaptic chains of neurons. At the same time, recent results from rat hippocampal chandeliers indicate a predominantly inhibitory effect on their postsynaptic targets. To better understand the function of chandelier neurons, we generated Nkx2.1Cre MADM mice, a strain of genetically engineered animals that, by expressing GFP in a subset of neocortical interneurons, enable the identification and targeting of chandelier cells in living brain slices. Using these mice, we characterized the basic electrophysiological properties of a homogeneous population of chandelier neurons from upper layers of somatosensory cortical slices. These chandelier cells have characteristic axon cartridges and stereotypical electrophysiological features, distinguishable from basket cells. To investigate the effect of chandelier cells on target neurons, we performed paired recordings from chandeliers and postsynaptic pyramidal cells. In both perforated patch and cell-attached configurations, chandelier PSPs consistently have a reversal potential that is depolarized from rest. Our results support the idea that chandelier cells depolarize pyramidal neurons and could potentially have an excitatory effect on the network at rest.
Molecular thermodynamics of the stability of natural, sugar and base-modified DNA duplexes and its application to the design of probes and primers for sensitive detection of somatic point mutations
Creators: name: Hughesman, Curtis
Publisher: name: University of British Columbia
Year: 2013

description: Cancer is characterized as a genetic disease associated with acquired somatic mutations, a majority of which consist of only a single base change and are commonly referred to as somatic point mutations (SPM). Real-time quantitative polymerase-chain reaction (qPCR) techniques using allele specific (AS) probes or primers are widely used in genotyping assays to detect commonly known single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), and also have the potential to detect SPMs, provided the required analytical sensitivity and specificity can be realized. One strategy to establish the necessary performance is to introduce nucleotide analogs such as Locked Nucleic Acids (LNAs) into AS probes or primers; however the successful design requires a fundamental understanding of both the thermodynamics and kinetics of LNA-DNA heteroduplexes. Melting thermodynamic studies of DNA duplexes and LNA-DNA heteroduplexes were therefore carried out using both ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to quantify the thermodynamics (ΔH⁰, ΔS⁰, ΔCp and Tm) associated with the helix-to-coil transition. Data collected on DNA duplexes and DNA-LNA heteroduplexes were used to introduce improvements in the “unified” nearest-neighbor model, and for the development of a new model, referred to as the Single Base Thermodynamic (SBT) model that accurately predicts the Tm for the melting of LNA-DNA heteroduplexes. The SBT model was extended and applied to PCR conditions to design LNA-bearing AS probes for qPCR assays to detect the clinically important SPMs KIT c.1799t>a (D816V) and JAK2 c.1849g>t (V617F), and were found to significantly outperform standard AS probes containing only DNA. The interaction of Taq polymerase with heteroduplexes formed between an LNA-bearing primer and a target template were also studied and results used to generate general rules for designing LNA-bearing AS primers capable of unequivocal detection of a rare mutant allele bearing a SPM. The method was then extended to allow qPCR detection by Plexor™ technology and applied to create an AS primer directed against the JAK2 V617F SPM that can detect one mutation in a background of more than 100,000 copies of the wild-type allele and which is now used by the Cancer Genetics Laboratory of the British Columbia Cancer Agency (BCCA) to analyze patient samples.
title: In der Fusionskontrolle Verhandlungsmacht von Unternehmen beachten: Interview
Creators: name: Guignard, Morgane
name: Wittenberg, Erich
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024

description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 22, S. 329
On the ER(2) cohomology of some odd dimensional projective spaces
Creators: name: Banerjee, Romie
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2012
Subjects: subject: Algebraic Topology (math.AT)
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: Kitchloo and Wilson have used the homotopy fixed points spectrum ER(2) of the classical complex-oriented Johnson-Wilson spectrum E(2) to deduce certain non-immmersion results for real projective spaces. ER(n) is a $2^{n+2}(2^n-1)$-periodic spectrum. The key result to use is the existence of a stable cofibration $Σ^{λ(n)}ER(n) \rightarrow ER(n) \rightarrow E(n)$ connecting the real Johnson-Wilson spectrum with the classical one. The value of $λ(n)$ is $2^{2n+1}-2^{n+2}+1$. We extend Kitchloo-Wilson's results on non-immersions of real projective spaces by computing the second real Johnson-Wilson cohomology ER(2) of the odd-dimensional real projective spaces $RP^{16K+9}$. This enables us to solve certain non-immersion problems of projective spaces using obstructions in ER(2)-cohomology.
Bayes, Jeffreys, Prior Distributions and the Philosophy of Statistics
Creators: name: Gelman, Andrew E.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2009
Subjects: subject: Political science
subject: FOS: Political science
subject: Mathematical statistics
subject: Statistics
subject: FOS: Mathematics

description: I actually own a copy of Harold Jeffreys's Theory of Probability but have only read small bits of it, most recently over a decade ago to confirm that, indeed, Jeffreys was not too proud to use a classical chi-squared p-value when he wanted to check the misfit of a model to data (Gelman, Meng and Stern, 2006). I do, however, feel that it is important to understand where our probability models come from, and I welcome the opportunity to use the present article by Robert, Chopin and Rousseau as a platform for further discussion of foundational issues. In this brief discussion I will argue the following: (1) in thinking about prior distributions, we should go beyond Jeffreys's principles and move toward weakly informative priors; (2) it is natural for those of us who work in social and computational sciences to favor complex models, contra Jeffreys's preference for simplicity; and (3) a key generalization of Jeffreys's ideas is to explicitly include model checking in the process of data analysis.
title: Fusionskontrolle muss Verhandlungsmacht in Wertschöpfungsketten beachten
Creators: name: Delaprez, Yann
name: Guignard, Morgane
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: D12 Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
subject: L11 Production, Pricing, and Market Structure; Size Distribution of Firms
subject: L51 Economics of Regulation
subject: L40 Antitrust Issues and Policies: General
subject: Bargaining Power
subject: Merger
subject: Competition Authority
subject: Consumer Surplus

description: Im Rahmen der Wettbewerbspolitik spielt neben dem Kartellverbot und der Missbrauchsaufsicht die Fusionskontrolle eine zentrale Rolle. Fusionen zwischen großen Herstellern beeinflussen typischerweise den Wettbewerb und müssen daher von den Wettbewerbsbehörden genehmigt werden. Dabei sind Entflechtungen, bei denen die fusionierenden Unternehmen Unternehmensbeteiligungen oder Marken abgeben müssen, eine häufige Auflage. In diesem Bericht wird untersucht, wie wirksam Entflechtungen für die Verbraucherpreise sind, wenn Verhandlungen zwischen Herstellern und Einzelhändlern eine wichtige Rolle spielen. Betrachtet wird ein Joint Venture zwischen DEMB und Mondelez (zwei großen Kaffeeherstellern), das von der Europäischen Kommission im Mai 2015 unter der Auflage einer teilweisen Entflechtung genehmigt wurde. Dabei mussten die Unternehmen eine ihrer Marken an einen konkurrierenden Hersteller verkaufen. Simulationen zeigen, dass die Entflechtung tatsächlich dazu beitrug, die negativen Auswirkungen des Joint Ventures für die Verbraucher*innen zu verringern. Aus Sicht der Verbraucher* innen sollten Entflechtungen zugunsten von Herstellern mit geringer Verhandlungsmacht erfolgen.
description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 22, S. 323-328
CISTEM  Communication and public engagement plan Deliverable.D3.4
Creators: name: Dubourg Georges
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019
Subjects: H2020‐MSCA‐RISE‐2017
Communication
Public engagement
Organ-on-a-Chip

description: This CISTEM communication and public engagement plan (CPEP)  provides an overview of the strategy, activities and materials that CISTEM intends to use in order to improve communication, dissemination and public engagement over the course of the project.
Additional file 1: of Histone acetyltransferase CBP-related H3K23 acetylation contributes to courtship learning in Drosophila
Creators: name: Li, Kai-Le
name: Zhang, Lei
name: Yang, Xiao-Mei
name: Fang, Qiang
name: Yin, Xue-Fang
name: Wei, Hui-Min
name: Zhou, Ting
name: Li, Ya-Bin
name: Chen, Xue-Lin
name: Tang, Fan
name: Li, Yong-Hao
name: Chang, Jian-Feng
name: Li, Wei
name: Sun, Feng
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2018
Subjects: subject: Biochemistry
subject: Cell Biology
subject: Genetics
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Molecular Biology
subject: Developmental Biology

description: Histone mutants are incorporated into the chromatin. Salivary gland immunostaining was performed in histone H3 mutant flies with anti-GFP. The overexpression of Histone mutants was driven by SG-GAL4. Scale bars: 50 Îźm. (DOCX 440 kb)
title: Alle EU-Länder haben verstanden, dass sie die Erdgasquellen deutlich diversifizieren müssen: Interview
Creators: name: Holz, Franziska
name: Wittenberg, Erich
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024

description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 21, S. 316
Identifying supersingular elliptic curves
Creators: name: Sutherland, Andrew V.
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2011
Subjects: subject: Number Theory (math.NT)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: 11G07 (Primary) 11Y16, 11G20, 14H52 (Secondary)

description: Given an elliptic curve E over a field of positive characteristic p, we consider how to efficiently determine whether E is ordinary or supersingular. We analyze the complexity of several existing algorithms and then present a new approach that exploits structural differences between ordinary and supersingular isogeny graphs. This yields a simple algorithm that, given E and a suitable non-residue in F_p^2, determines the supersingularity of E in O(n^3 log^2 n) time and O(n) space, where n=O(log p). Both these complexity bounds are significant improvements over existing methods, as we demonstrate with some practical computations.
description: corrected a typo, 10 pages
title: Sanktionen gegen russisches Erdgas würden Versorgung in EU und Deutschland nicht gefährden
Creators: name: Holz, Franziska
name: Barner, Lukas
name: Kemfert, Claudia
name: Hirschhausen, Christian Von
Publisher: name: DIW - Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: C61 Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
subject: L71 Mining, Extraction, and Refining: Hydrocarbon Fuels
subject: L95 Gas Utilities; Pipelines; Water Utilities
subject: Q34 Natural Resources and Domestic and International Conflicts
subject: global gas markets
subject: Europe
subject: Russia
subject: energy security

description: In Folge des russischen Angriffs auf die Ukraine sind die Preise für Erdgas im Jahr 2022 in immense Höhen geschnellt und haben gerade Deutschland die Folgen seiner starken Abhängigkeit von Russland spüren lassen. Die Preisspitzen sind inzwischen zwar abgeklungen, die europäische Erdgaswirtschaft hat die Unsicherheit des Energiekrisenjahres 2022 überwunden und den Einbruch der russischen Erdgasimporte ohne Versorgungsunterbrechung verkraftet. Russland bleibt jedoch Exporteur von Flüssiggas nach Europa und hat auch noch einige Länder Mittel- und Osteuropas energiepolitisch im Griff, die bisher EU-Sanktionen auf russische Erdgasexporte verhindert haben. Die Erdgasversorgung von Deutschland und Europa wäre auch langfristig ohne Importe aus Russland sicher. Dies zeigen Modellrechnungen mit dem Global-Gas- Modell, das die weltweite Erdgaswirtschaft in hohem Detailgrad abbildet. Die Versorgungssicherheit steht also weiteren EU-Sanktionen gegen Russland nicht im Weg. Verstärkte Einsparbemühungen und ein zeitnaher Erdgasausstieg würden die Abhängigkeit von Gasimporten darüber hinaus verringern und wären auch klimapolitisch sinnvoll.
description: DIW Wochenbericht, 91 (2024), 21, S. 307-315
Web-based climate information resources for malaria control in Africa
Creators: name: Grover-Kopec, Emily K.
name: Blumenthal, Martin Benno
name: Ceccato, Pietro N.
name: Dinku, Tufa
name: Connor, Stephen J.
Publisher: name: Columbia University
Year: 2006
Subjects: Science--Social aspects
Epidemiology

description: Malaria remains a major public health threat to more than 600 million Africans and its control is recognized as critical to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The greatest burden of malaria in Africa occurs in the endemic regions where the disease pathogen is continuously present in the community. These regions are characterized by an environment that is conducive to interactions between the Anopheles mosquito, malaria parasites and human hosts, as well as housing of generally poor quality, which offers little protection from mosquito-human contact. Epidemic malaria tends to occur along the geographical margins of endemic regions, when the equilibrium between the human, parasite and mosquito vector populations is occasionally disturbed and a sharp but temporary increase in disease incidence results. When malaria control measures are inadequate, as is the case in much of sub-Saharan Africa, the disease distribution is closely linked with seasonal patterns of the climate and local environment. In the absence of good epidemiological data on malaria distribution in Africa, climate information has long been used to develop malaria risk maps that illustrate the boundaries of 'climatic suitability for endemic transmission.' The best known of these are produced by the Pan-African-based MARA Collaboration. This paper describes the development of additional malaria suitability maps which have been produced in an online, interactive format to enable temporal information (i.e., seasonality of climate conditions) to be queried and displayed along with spatial information. These maps and the seasonal information that they contain should be useful to the malaria control and health service communities for their planning and operational activities.