Cb-TRAM: Tracking and monitoring severe convection from onset over rapid development to mature phase using multi-channel Meteosat-8 SEVIRI data

Cb-TRAM is a new fully automated tracking and nowcasting algorithm. Intense convective cells are detected, tracked and discriminated with respect to onset, rapid development, and mature phase. Finally, short range forecasts are provided. The detection is based on Meteosat-8 SEVIRI (Spinning Enhanced Visible and Infra-Red Imager) data from the broad band high resolution visible, infra-red 6.2 micrometer (water vapour), and the infra-red 10.8 micrometer channels. Areas of convection initiation, of rapid vertical development, and mature thunderstorm cells (cumulonimbus Cb) are identified. For the latter, tropopause temperature data from ECMWF operational model analyses is utilised as an adaptive detection criterion. The tracking is based on geographical overlap between current detections and first guess patterns of cells detected in preceeding time steps. The first guess patterns as well as the short range forecasts are obtained with the aid of a new image matching algorithm providing complete fields of approximate differential cloud motion. Based on the so called pyramid matcher an interpolation and extrapolation technique is presented which can also be used to generate synthetic intermediate data fields between two known fields as well as nowcasts of motion and development of detected areas. Examples of application are presented for thunderstorm tracks over the Mediterranean

Shifting vertical power relations. Four empirical studies on the fiscal effects of the Swiss federal reform 2008 and the Belgian federalisation 1993

The dissertation deals with the research question of how the Swiss federal reform 2008 (NFA) has changed vertical fiscal power relations in Switzerland and what can be learned from these findings for institutional design in federations in general. The main part of this cumulative dissertation is composed of four empirical studies, each of them contributing to the overall research question. The first study in chapter 2 takes a macro-perspective and focuses on the impact of the NFA on subnational fiscal autonomy. In the second study in chapter 3, I extend the perspective by taking into account the role of municipalities. Using a cross-cantonal comparison and focusing on the policy area of special schools, I assess the impact of local authorities sitting in the cantonal parliament on the cost distribution formula between the cantons and the municipalities. In the third study in chapter 4, I examine whether the effects found for the particular policy area examined in chapter 3 can be identified throughout all policy areas in Switzerland. Finally, in a fourth empirical study in chapter 5, I include the 1993 Belgian federalisation as a second case to allow for a systematic comparison of the empirical findings. The findings can be summarised as follows: First, there is indeed an effect of the NFA on subnational fiscal power, albeit rather negative, given that the increase of subnational expenditure is not matched by a corresponding increase of revenue. Second, chapters 3 and 4 point to the phenomenon of “state capture from below”, i.e. the efforts of municipalities to shift expenditure to the cantonal level. As chapter 3 shows, the effect of the NFA in the policy area of special schools is contingent on the number of local authorities sitting in the cantonal parliament. Chapter 4 finds empirical evidence for the “state capture from below” beyond individual policy areas. Finally, the comparison with Belgium in chapter 5 leads to the conclusion that the de/centralization of the tax system is an important moderating variable: While a centralised tax system in Belgium allows top-down steering of expenditure through intergovernmental grants, the reform capacity in Switzerland is lower, at least if the principle of cantonal tax autonomy should not be weakened. All in all, the findings of the dissertation contribute to both the current public discussion on a possible NFA II and the academic discussion on institutional (re-)design in federal systems

A Donatello for Rome, a Memling for Florence

This article deals with the maritime transports of a little known but not unimportant Florentine merchant family. On the basis of previously unknown archival source material, we address questions of family history, mercantile networks, maritime trade connections, and merchandise (including some famous artworks), shedding new light not only on the Florentine merchant navy, but also on the history of maritime trade between the Mediterranean and the North in the Renaissance. In particular, we show what impact factors like bankruptcy and exile had on Florentine merchant families conducting in longdistance trade, and of how setbacks in Medicean Florence could be mastered. After establishing a business enterprise between Venice, Apulia and Poland, the Sermattei were disfavoured by the regime Cosimo de’ Medici established in Florence, struck by bankruptcy, exiled and murdered. In order to overcome this existential crisis and to re-establish the bonds with the Medici, the Sermattei moved to Pisa and started trading. The story of the Sermattei illustrates what the exile and return of the Medici meant for Italian merchant families and their businesses, and how it was possible for them to overcome a business failure via mare transporting a specialised assortment of goods and artworks for the Medici

Sickness absence and works councils: Evidence from German individual and linked employer-employee data

Using both household and linked employer-employee data for Germany, we assess the effects of non-union representation in the form of works councils on (1) individual sickness absence rates and (2) a subjective measure of personnel problems due to sickness absence as perceived by a firm's management. We find that the existence of a works council is positively correlated with the incidence and the annual duration of absence. We observe a more pronounced correlation in western Germany which can also be interpreted causally. Further, personnel problems due to absence are more likely to occur in plants with a works council

Sickness Absence, Works Councils, and Personnel Problems. Evidence from German Individual and Linked Employer-Employee Data

Using both household and linked-employer-employee data we study the effects of works councils on individual sickness absence rates and a subjective measure of personnel problems due to absenteeism in Germany. We find that the existence of a works council is positively correlated with the incidence of absence and the amount of days being absent. Further, personnel problems due to absenteeism are more likely in plants in which there is a works council. We cannot reject the hypothesis, however, that self-selection of employees or firms gives rise to this relationship between absenteeism and works councils

Sharp Decay of the Fisher Information for Degenerate Fokker-Planck Equations

The goal of this work is to find the sharp rate of convergence to equilibrium under the quadratic Fisher information functional for solutions to Fokker-Planck equations governed by a constant drift term and a constant, yet possibly degenerate, diffusion matrix. A key ingredient in our investigation is a recent work of Arnold, Signorello, and Schmeiser, where the $L^2$-propagator norm of such Fokker-Planck equations was shown to be identical to the propagator norm of a finite dimensional ODE which is determined by matrices that are intimately connected to those appearing in the associated Fokker-Planck equations

Biosynthesis of novel carotenoid families based on unnatural carbon backbones: A model for diversification of natural product pathways

We show that the C_(40) carotenoid desaturase CrtI from Pantoea ananatis (Erwinia uredovora) is capable of desaturating unnaturally long C_(45) and C_(50) carotenoid backbones in recombinant E. coli. Desaturation step number in these pathways is not very specific, and at least ten new C_(45) and C_(50) carotenoids were synthesized. We also present evidence for a novel asymmetric C_(40) backbone formed by the condensation of farnesyl diphosphate (C_(15)PP) with farnesylgeranyl diphosphate (C_(25)PP), and the subsequent desaturation of this backbone by CrtI in an atypical manner. Under some conditions, the C_(40), C_(45), and C_(50) carotenoid backbones synthesized in E. coli were monohydroxylated; their desaturation by CrtI in vitro led to yet more novel carotenoids. Challenging CrtI with larger-than-natural substrates in vivo has allowed us to show that this enzyme regulates desaturation step number by sensing the end groups of its substrate. Analysis of the mechanisms by which chemical diversity is generated and propagated through the nascent pathways provides insight into how natural product diversification occurs in nature

Pb2+ uptake by magnesite: The competition between thermodynamic driving force and reaction kinetics

The thermodynamic properties of carbonate minerals suggest a possibility for the use of the abundant materials (e.g., magnesite) for removing harmful divalent heavy metals (e.g., Pb2+). Despite the favourable thermodynamic condition for such transformation, batch experiments performed in this work indicate that the kinetic of the magnesite dissolution at room temperature is very slow. Another set of co‐precipitation experiments from homogenous solution in the Mg‐PbII‐ CO2‐H2O system reveal that the solids formed can be grouped into two categories depending on the Pb/Mg ratio. The atomic ratio Pb/Mg is about 1 and 10 in the Mg‐rich and Pb‐rich phases, respectively. Both phases show a significant enrichment in Pb if compared with the initial stoichiometry of the aqueous solutions (Pb/Mg initial = 1∙10−2–1∙10−4). Finally, the growth of {10.4} magnesite surfaces in the absence and in the presence of Pb2+ was studied by in situ atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. In the presence of the foreign ion, a ten‐fold increase in the spreading rate of the obtuse steps was observed. Further, the effect of solution ageing was also tested. We observed the nucleation of a secondary phase that quickly grows on the {10.4} surfaces of magnesite. The preferential incorporation of Pb2+ into the solid phase observed during precipitation and the catalytic effect of Pb2+ on magnesite growth are promising results for the development of environmental remediation processes. These processes, different from the transformation of magnesite into cerussite, are not limited by the slow dissolution rate of magnesite. Precipitation and growth require an external carbon source, thus they could be combined with carbon sequestration techniques