FDZ annual report 2007

"Following the two evaluations by the German Council for Social and Economic Data in 2006 and by the German Council of Science and Humanities in 2007, the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research plans to report on its activities regularly in future. We are beginning with this FDZ Annual Report 2007, which is intended to summarise the main events of the past 12 or 24 months in a few pages. The Annual Report also serves to provide transparency for our users, who after all justify the existence of the FDZ. This Report is divided into the following chapters: 'General Function', 'Basic Information', 'The Service-Oriented FDZ', 'The International FDZ' and, as an apt conclusion, 'Research at the FDZ'. Parts of the appendices (for Example Publications or Presentations in German) are not translated into English." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Here you can find the German version of the report.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe

What types of social policies does business want?:Examining German employer associations’ positions toward labor-protective and labor-activating social policies

Studies inspired by the varieties of capitalism (VoC) approach suggest that in coordinated market economies, some employer associations support public social policies to encourage the workforce to invest in company and industry-specific skills (VoC thesis). Yet the VoC thesis remains disputed. We present and assess an alternative thesis that builds on employers’ interest in the protection of labor supply (labor supply thesis). We test the labor supply thesis using a systematic content analysis of 370 press releases issued from 2002 to 2017 and find evidence of moderate employer support for more labor-activating social policies and less labor-protective social policies. Moreover, the analysis shows a decline in preference heterogeneity, with the positions of the four German employer associations converging toward the end of the period analyzed. Our findings have theoretical and methodological implications: First, they point to the relevance of labor supply as a source of employers’ social policy preferences. Second, they point to the need for a more systematic measurement of employer policy positions to be able to compare positions accurately

FDZ Annual Report 2008

"Following the exceedingly positive response to our Annual Report 2007, you now have the Annual Report 2008 of the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research in this FDZ Methodenreport. Like last year, the FDZ Annual Report 2008 is not a glossy brochure full of photos but summarises the main events of the past 12 months in a few pages. The Annual Report 2008 is mainly based on key figures which the FDZ made available to the German Council for Social and Economic Data for their evaluation in 2009. The Annual Report also serves to provide transparency for our users, who after all justify the existence of the FDZ. The Report is divided into the following chapters: 'General function', 'Basic information', 'The service-oriented FDZ', 'The international FDZ' and, as an apt conclusion, 'Research at the FDZ'." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Here you can find the German version of the report.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe, BA-Beschäftigtenpanel, Befragung, IAB-Querschnittsbefragung, IAB-Haushaltspanel, IAB-kombinierte Firmendaten, IAB-Weiterbildungspanel

Polnisches Puzzle: Organisation, Mitgliederentwicklung und politische Beteiligung von Gewerkschaften und Arbeitgeberverbänden aus vergleichender Perspektive

Die Gewerkschaften und Arbeitgeberverbände in Polen sind stark fragmentiert sowie durch eine geringe Mitgliederzahl charakterisiert. Begründen lässt sich dies mit dem historischen Erbe, der Organisations- und Unternehmensstruktur sowie einer nicht hinreichenden Beteiligung am politischen Prozess. Zur besseren Einordnung der Situation der Interessenverbände in Polen wird die Lage in anderen europäischen Ländern vergleichend hinzugezogen. Im Ausblick werden politische Handlungsmöglichkeiten aufgezeigt

FDZ-Jahresbericht 2007

"Nach den beiden Evaluationen 2006 durch den Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten und 2007 durch den Wissenschaftsrat möchte das Forschungsdatenzentrum der Bundesagentur für Arbeit im Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (FDZ) in Zukunft regelmäßig über seine Aktivitäten berichten. Wir starten mit diesem FDZ-Jahresbericht 2007, der ... auf wenigen Seiten die wesentlichen Ereignisse der letzten 12 bzw. 24 Monate zusammenfassen soll. Der Jahresbericht dient auch der Transparenz für unsere Nutzer, die die Existenzberechtigung des FDZ begründen... Der Bericht teilt sich in die Kapitel 'Allgemeine Aufgaben', 'Basisinformationen', 'Das serviceorientierte FDZ', 'Das internationale FDZ' und zum guten Schluss 'Das forschende FDZ'." (Textauszug, IAB-Doku) Additional Information Hier finden Sie die englische Version des Reports.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe

FDZ-Jahresbericht 2009/2010

"The annual report 2009/10 gives an overview of functions and activities of the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The general function of the FDZ - to prepare individual datasets and make them available for research purposes - is illustrated by key figures of data use. These figures show that the FDZ has established itself as a provider of high quality individual data in the research landscape. Special attention was also given to the task of making the data available internationally and an increasing engagement in third-party funded research projects. Furthermore, the annual report 2009/10 documents the way in which the FDZ activities took the form of numerous publications, scientific presentations and events." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Forschungsdatenzentrum, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, Jahrbuch

Disentangling coastal groundwater level dynamics on a global data set

This study aims to identify common hydrogeological patterns and to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying similarities and their link to physiographic, climatic, and anthropogenic controls of coastal groundwater. The most striking aspects of GWL dynamics and their controls were identified through a combination of statistical metrics, calculated from about 8,000 groundwater hydrographs, and pattern recognition, classification, and explanation using machine learning techniques and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). Overall, four different GWL dynamics patterns emerge, independent of the different seasons, time series lengths, and periods. We show in this study that similar GWL dynamics can be observed around the world with different combinations of site characteristics, but also that the main factors differentiating these patterns can be identified. Three of the identified patterns exhibit high short-term and interannual variability and are most common in regions with low terrain elevation and shallow groundwater depth. Climate and soil characteristics are most important in differentiating these patterns. This study provides new insights into the hydrogeological behavior of groundwater in coastal regions and guides systematic and holistic groundwater monitoring and modelling, motivating to consider various aspects of GWL dynamics when, for example, estimating climate-driven GWL changes &ndash; especially when information on potential controls is limited.</p

Evidence for Microchimerism in Baboon Recipients of Pig Hearts

Xenotransplantation, like allotransplantation, is usually associated with microchimerism, i.e., the presence of cells from the donor in the recipient. Microchimerism was reported in first xenotransplantation trials in humans, as well as in most preclinical trials in nonhuman primates (for review, see Denner, Viruses 2023, 15, 190). When using pigs as xenotransplantation donors, their cells contain porcine endogenous retroviruses (PERVs) in their genome. This makes it difficult to discriminate between microchimerism and PERV infection of the recipient. Here, we demonstrate the appropriate virological methods to be used for the identification of microchimerism, first by screening for porcine cellular genes, and then how to detect infection of the host. Using porcine short interspersed nuclear sequences (SINEs), which have hundreds of thousands of copies in the pig genome, significantly increased the sensitivity of the screening for pig cells. Second, absence of PERV RNA demonstrated an absence of viral genomic RNA or expression as mRNA. Lastly, absence of antibodies against PERV proteins conclusively demonstrated an absence of a PERV infection. When applying these methods for analyzing baboons after pig heart transplantation, microchimerism could be demonstrated and infection excluded in all animals. These methods can be used in future clinical trials

Uncertainty-Aware and Lesion-Specific Image Synthesis in Multiple Sclerosis Magnetic Resonance Imaging: A Multicentric Validation Study

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) can synthesize high-contrast MRI from lower-contrast input. Targeted translation of parenchymal lesions in multiple sclerosis (MS), as well as visualization of model confidence further augment their utility, provided that the GAN generalizes reliably across different scanners. We here investigate the generalizability of a refined GAN for synthesizing high-contrast double inversion recovery (DIR) images and propose the use of uncertainty maps to further enhance its clinical utility and trustworthiness. A GAN was trained to synthesize DIR from input fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and T1w of 50 MS patients (training data). In another 50 patients (test data), two blinded readers (R1 and R2) independently quantified lesions in synthetic DIR (synthDIR), acquired DIR (trueDIR) and FLAIR. Of the 50 test patients, 20 were acquired on the same scanner as training data (internal data), while 30 were scanned at different scanners with heterogeneous field strengths and protocols (external data). Lesion-to-Background ratios (LBR) for MS-lesions vs. normal appearing white matter, as well as image quality parameters were calculated. Uncertainty maps were generated to visualize model confidence. Significantly more MS-specific lesions were found in synthDIR compared to FLAIR (R1: 26.7 ± 2.6 vs. 22.5 ± 2.2 p &lt; 0.0001; R2: 22.8 ± 2.2 vs. 19.9 ± 2.0, p = 0.0005). While trueDIR remained superior to synthDIR in R1 [28.6 ± 2.9 vs. 26.7 ± 2.6 (p = 0.0021)], both sequences showed comparable lesion conspicuity in R2 [23.3 ± 2.4 vs. 22.8 ± 2.2 (p = 0.98)]. Importantly, improvements in lesion counts were similar in internal and external data. Measurements of LBR confirmed that lesion-focused GAN training significantly improved lesion conspicuity. The use of uncertainty maps furthermore helped discriminate between MS lesions and artifacts. In conclusion, this multicentric study confirms the external validity of a lesion-focused Deep-Learning tool aimed at MS imaging. When implemented, uncertainty maps are promising to increase the trustworthiness of synthetic MRI

Genome Sequencing of SHH Medulloblastoma Predicts Genotype-Related Response to Smoothened Inhibition

SummarySmoothened (SMO) inhibitors recently entered clinical trials for sonic-hedgehog-driven medulloblastoma (SHH-MB). Clinical response is highly variable. To understand the mechanism(s) of primary resistance and identify pathways cooperating with aberrant SHH signaling, we sequenced and profiled a large cohort of SHH-MBs (n = 133). SHH pathway mutations involved PTCH1 (across all age groups), SUFU (infants, including germline), and SMO (adults). Children >3 years old harbored an excess of downstream MYCN and GLI2 amplifications and frequent TP53 mutations, often in the germline, all of which were rare in infants and adults. Functional assays in different SHH-MB xenograft models demonstrated that SHH-MBs harboring a PTCH1 mutation were responsive to SMO inhibition, whereas tumors harboring an SUFU mutation or MYCN amplification were primarily resistant