Border Tax Adjustments: A feasible way to address nonparticipation in Emission Trading

CO2 emission certificates internalise effects of fossil fuel consumption on global climate and sea levels. If they are only implemented in some countries, then their effectiveness is limited; Consumption, production and investment decisions do not reach the optimal allocation, production with inefficient technologies in non-participating countries can even be increased. Furthermore industry lobbying might result in limited application of CO2 emission certificates or less ambitious reduction targets. Border tax adjustment at the level of additional costs incurred for procurement of CO2 emission permits during production of processed materials using best available technology limits the distortions. We show that it can be compatible with WTO constraints. Crucial features of a practicable implementation are simplicity achieved by a focus on the CO2 emissions caused by processed materials and a separate treatment of electric energy input to take account of regionally varying fuel mixes

Border Tax Adjustments: A feasible way to address nonparticipation in Emission Trading

CO2 emission certificates internalise effects of fossil fuel consumption on global climate and sea levels. If they are only implemented in some countries, then their effectiveness is limited; Consumption, production and investment decisions do not reach the optimal allocation, production with inefficient technologies in non-participating countries can even be increased. Furthermore industry lobbying might result in limited application of CO2 emission certificates or less ambitious reduction targets. Border tax adjustment at the level of additional costs incurred for procurement of CO2 emission permits during production of processed materials using best available technology limits the distortions. We show that it can be compatible with WTO constraints. Crucial features of a practicable implementation are simplicity achieved by a focus on the CO2 emissions caused by processed materials and a separate treatment of electric energy input to take account of regionally varying fuel mixes.Border Tax, Emission Trading, WTO law, International trade

Dynamical spin susceptibility and the resonance peak in the pseudogap region of the underdoped cuprate superconductors

We present a study of the dynamical spin susceptibility in the pseudogap region of the high-T$_c$ cuprate superconductors. We analyze and compare the formation of the so-called resonance peak, in three different ordered states: the $d_{x^2-y^2}$-wave superconducting (DSC) phase, the $d$-density wave (DDW) state, and a phase with coexisting DDW and DSC order. An analysis of the resonance's frequency and momentum dependence in all three states reveals significant differences between them. In particular, in the DDW state, we find that a nearly dispersionless resonance excitation exists only in a narrow region around ${\bf Q}=(\pi,\pi)$. At the same time, in the coexisting DDW and DSC state, the dispersion of the resonance peak near ${\bf Q}$ is significantly changed from that in the pure DSC state. Away from $(\pi,\pi)$, however, we find that the form and dispersion of the resonance excitation in the coexisting DDW and DSC state and pure DSC state are quite similar. Our results demonstrate that a detailed experimental measurement of the resonance's dispersion allows one to distinguish between the underlying phases - a DDW state, a DSC state, or a coexisting DDW and DSC state - in which the resonance peak emerges.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Multiband Superconductivity in Spin Density Wave Metals

We study the emergence of multiband superconductivity with $s$- and $d-$wave symmetry on the background of spin density wave (SDW). We show that the SDW coherence factors renormalize the momentum dependence of the superconducting (SC) gap, yielding a SC state with an \emph{unconventional} s-wave symmetry. Interband Cooper pair scattering stabilizes superconductivity in both symmetries. With increasing SDW order, the s-wave state is more strongly suppressed than the d-wave state. Our results are universally applicable to two-dimensional systems with a commensurate SDW.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Nuclear imaging and semi-invasive electrocardiography in CRT

Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is a promising treatment option in patients with chronic heart failure. In this article the roles of semi-invasive esophageal left-heart electrocardiography and functional cardiac nuclear imaging in the field of CRT are highlighted, as the combination of both could be a favourable diagnostic approach in special cardiac situations. Also original esophageal left heart electrogram data of exemplary CRT patients is presented

Diseño y construcción de un prototipo domótico controlado a través de internet.

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Novel gene fusions identified as new drug targets in paediatric glioma and their pre-clinical characterisation

Gliomas are the most common paediatric brain tumours, accounting for about 50% of all brain tumours in children. They are typically classified by the putative cell type they arise from based on morphology, the location they are found and malignancy grade. The most common glioma found in adults is glioblastoma, which is a WHO grade IV tumour with an average survival of less than 15 months. Extensive work has gone into characterising, modelling and treating this tumour in vivo and in vitro, but it is now clear that glioblastoma in children is biologically very different from that in adults. Paediatric high-grade gliomas do, however, share their aggressiveness with their adult counterparts, with few patients achieving long-term survival - dictating an urgency to find more precise therapies for these patients. Additionally, relatively little work has focused on low-grade gliomas to date. Nevertheless, these tumours also deserve a lot of attention, because low-grade gliomas make up 30-50% of all paediatric brain tumours and more than half of all paediatric gliomas. Although the tumour itself does not necessarily lead to a massively reduced life span and should rather be considered a chronic disease, the impact on the patients’ and families’ lives caused by the therapy load and possible recurrences remains a major clinical burden. Unlike high-grade gliomas, which are very heterogeneous with multiple oncogenic drivers, most low-grade gliomas are driven by alterations in the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathway through different mechanisms. Examples are BRAF alterations, FGFR1 mutations, and NTRK or MYB fusions. After analysing around 200 paediatric glioma samples by whole-genome/whole-exome and RNA sequencing within the ICGC PedBrain Tumour Project and the INFORM personalised medicine study, fusions involving an additional candidate gene (ALK) were found to be of interest in terms of their pattern of occurrence and availability of targeted inhibitors. Clinically these fusions arose in an interesting patient population, affecting infants (<2 years old) with histologically malignant tumours that however showed outcomes more similar to low-grade glioma than glioblastoma. PPP1CB:ALK was the most common gene fusion found in this context, which was then modelled in vivo using two different state-of-the-art methodologies: in utero electroporation and p0 injection using the RCAS-tva system. Through in utero electroporation, a novel mouse model was generated that nicely recapitulates the human tumours. Different ALK-specific inhibitors already used in clinical trials for other tumours, like non-small cell lung cancer or neuroblastoma, were tested on the tumour cells in an in vitro sphere culture setting and in addition also in vivo on allografted tumour cells. The results show a promising effect of the third-line, blood-brain-barrier penetrant ALK inhibitor lorlatinib, with IC50 values below 1.3nM and a significant increase in lifespan with a decrease in tumour signal, respectively. Thus, the project led from the genomic discovery of a novel driving event in paediatric glioma through to its modelling and identification of a promising new option for therapy. Further proof-of-concept application with other oncogenic combinations leads to the conclusion that the mouse model strategy and the methodology behind this can be further applied to test other candidate genes and specific inhibitor therapies. The overall aim is thus to accelerate the approval of targeted drugs by authorities after running a stratified clinical trial on a small infant patient population carrying the gene of interest, to enable patients to get the most potent therapy with the fewest side effects

Plug-in circuit board for the Raspberry-Pi microcomputer to reproduce multi-channel original electrocardiograms

Commercial simulators can only reproduce electrocardiograms (ECG) of the normal and diseased heart rhythm in a simplified waveform and with a low number of channels. With the presented project, the variety of digitally archived ECGs, recorded during electrophysiological examinations, should be made usable as original analogue signals for research and teaching purposes by the development of a special printed circuit board for the mini-computer “Raspberry-Pi “

a multidimensional Scale Based on a Three-Country Study

We develop and test a multidimensional scale measuring national identification. Drawing on the extant literature on nations and national identity, we propose national identification as an understanding of how individuals subjectively and dynamically relate to different characteristics of nations that we operationalize as the dimensions of symbolic, civic, and solidary identification. We discuss the development of a number of questionnaire items representing each of these dimensions and report results of various validity and reliability tests using data from three surveys we conducted in England, Germany, and Poland. Results in general confirm the three-dimensional structure of the overall construct while at the same time suggesting country-specific adaptations to the scale