Labor Market Signaling and Unemployment Duration: Evidence from Germany

The aim of the paper is to examine the consequences of displacement on unemployment duration. Due to ex-ante asymmetric information about the productivity of unemployed applicants, prospective employers use the type of displacement as a costless signal about the ability of the worker when making hiring decisions. While individual layoffs might be caused by workers low productivity, plant closures can be considered as exogenous. Consequently, individual layoffs might attach a negative productivity signal to the worker resulting in longer unemployment duration. To test this hypothesis we use administrative linked employer-employee data for Germany which not only contain daily information on unemployment duration but also allows us to control for the type of displacement. We show that workers displaced due to plant closures and downsizings find indeed significantly faster a new job. We also find the strengths of the signaling value to be proportional to the share of displaced workers

Intracellular Transport and Processing of the Marburg Virus Surface Protein in Vertebrate and Insect Cells

AbstractThe surface protein (GP) of Marburg virus (MBG) is synthesized as a 90-kDa precursor protein which is cotranslationally modified by the addition of high-mannose sugars (140 kDa). This step is followed by the conversion of the N-linked sugars to endoglycosidase H (endo H)-resistant species and the addition of O-linked oligosaccharides leading to a mature protein of 170–200 kDa approximately 30 min after pulse labeling. The mature form of GP is efficiently transported to the plasma membrane. GP synthesized using the T7 polymerase-driven vaccinia virus expression system was transported with essentially the same kinetics as the authentic GP. However, the protein that is shown to appear 30 min after pulse labeling at the plasma membrane was slightly smaller (160 kDa) than GP incorporated into the virions (170 kDa). Using a recombinant baculovirus, GP was expressed at high levels in insect cells. Three different species could be identified: a 90-kDa unglycosylated GP localized in the cytoplasm and two 140-kDa glycosylated proteins. Characterization of the glycosylated GPs revealed that processing of the oligosaccharides of GP was less efficient in insect cells than in mammalian cells. The majority of GP remained endo H sensitive containing high-mannose type N-linked glycans, whereas only a small fraction became endo H resistant carrying processed N-glycans and O-glycans. Tunicamycin treatment of the GP-expressing cells demonstrated that N-glycosylation is essential for the transport of the MBG surface protein

Klimaschutz im Verkehr – Paradigmenwechsel!: Klimaschutz im Verkehr – Paradigmenwechsel!

Anhand der aktuellen und prognostizierten verkehrlichen Treibhausgasemissionen wird einleitend die Bedeutung des Verkehrsbereiches für einen wirksamen Klimaschutz herausgestellt. Anschließend wird aus langfristigen Tragfähigkeitsbetrachtungen (ca. 1 – 2 t CO2- Äq./Person und Jahr) ein maximal denkbares Nutzungsniveau fossiler Energie für Verkehr abgeleitet, das deutlich unter den heutigen Verbräuchen liegt. Die Diskussion der sich daraus ergebenden Implikationen führt zu folgender Hauptschlussfolgerung: Es wird zukünftig weniger Verkehr geben (müssen), dies führt aber nicht zu weniger Mobilität, eher im Gegenteil. Veränderte Raumplanung, Nähe, Nutzenmischung usw. erlauben es, Mobilitätsbedürfnisse sauberer, leiser und gesünder zu erfüllen.The paper highlights the importance of the factor “traffic” in any effective climate protection regime. Based on long-term sustainability studies, a maximum acceptable level of individual annual CO2 emissions from fossil fuels is determined. The figure proposed is far below present-day levels. Implications are discussed and the following main conclusion is derived: Future societies will have to make do with considerably less traffic: However, this will not necessarily lead to less mobility. On the contrary, different patterns of land use, multi-functional urban structures, new pricing regimes, altered travel patterns and technical improvements will actually permit greater mobility (e.g. among groups socially excluded today) with less traffic

Stickoxide, Partikel und Kohlendioxid: Grenzwerte, Konflikte und Handlungsmöglichkeiten kommunaler Luftreinhaltung im Verkehrsbereich: Informationen und Empfehlungen für Mitarbeiter deutscher Kommunen

Die ab dem 1.1.2010 geltenden erweiterten Luftqualitätsgrenzwerte stellen die Kom-munen vor allem in verkehrlich belasteten Gebieten vor Probleme. Zum einen haben die Kommunen sicherzustellen, dass die Immissionsgrenzwerte eingehalten werden, zum anderen stehen ihnen aber nur eine Reihe beschränkt wirkungsvoller Maßnahmen zur Verfügung. Wie können die (Groß-) Städte darauf reagieren? Zunächst kann festgehalten werden, dass der Verkehrsbereich zukünftig den Schwerpunkt von Maßnahmen zu Klimaschutz und Luftreinhaltung bilden muss. Die wesentlichen urbanen Problemfelder werden durch den Verkehr bestimmt; bei den relevanten Luftschadstoffen stellen Fahrzeuge mit Dieselmotoren die Hauptemittenten dar und zur Reduktion der CO2-Emissionen müssen alle Fahrzeuge deutlich mehr beitragen als bisher. In der Vergangenheit war die Reduktion von Verkehrsemissionen vorrangig als Frage der Weiterentwicklung der Fahrzeugtechnik interpretiert worden. Da die technischen Weiterentwicklungen allein für die Problemlösung nicht ausreichen, sind grundsätzliche Änderungen von Verkehrsverhalten und Verkehrssystemen unumgänglich. Eine Verbesserung der Raumordnung, weniger Zersiedelung, eine multifunktionale Stadt der kurzen Wege und ein anderes Mobilitätsverhalten der Bevölkerung weisen die höchsten Reduktionspotentiale auf, wirken aber vor allem langfristig. Eine Übersicht mit denkbaren Maßnahmengruppen zur Erreichung der Luftqualitäts- und Klimaschutzziele wurde erarbeitet, die zur Entwicklung spezifischer Pakete von Kommunen genutzt werden kann

Rainfall estimates on a gridded network (REGEN) – a global land-based gridded dataset of daily precipitation from 1950 to 2016

We present a new global land-based daily precipitation dataset from 1950 using an interpolated network of in situ data called Rainfall Estimates on a Gridded Network – REGEN. We merged multiple archives of in situ data including two of the largest archives, the Global Historical Climatology Network – Daily (GHCN-Daily) hosted by National Centres of Environmental Information (NCEI), USA, and one hosted by the Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC) operated by Deutscher Wetterdienst (DWD). This resulted in an unprecedented station density compared to existing datasets. The station time series were quality-controlled using strict criteria and flagged values were removed. Remaining values were interpolated to create area-average estimates of daily precipitation for global land areas on a 1∘ × 1∘ latitude–longitude resolution. Besides the daily precipitation amounts, fields of standard deviation, kriging error and number of stations are also provided. We also provide a quality mask based on these uncertainty measures. For those interested in a dataset with lower station network variability we also provide a related dataset based on a network of long-term stations which interpolates stations with a record length of at least 40 years. The REGEN datasets are expected to contribute to the advancement of hydrological science and practice by facilitating studies aiming to understand changes and variability in several aspects of daily precipitation distributions, extremes and measures of hydrological intensity. Here we document the development of the dataset and guidelines for best practices for users with regards to the two datasets.This research has been supported by the Australian Research Council (grant nos. DP160103439, CE110001028 and DE150100456) and the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation (grant no. RYC-2017-22964)Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version