High quality political institutions are a precondition for a strong civil society

Strengthening civil society is often assumed to be a mechanism for promoting improved governance. Thilo Bodenstein assesses this perspective using comparative data on the strength of civil society across different regions. He finds that the single biggest factor leading to a strong civil society is the presence of high quality political institutions within a given country. Crucially, however, this effect only appears to operate in one direction: high quality political institutions help create a strong civil society, but a strong civil society alone is unlikely to lead to significant improvements in the quality of a country’s institutions

Einfluss von Ozeanversauerung und Temperatur auf Chloridzellen der Embryonen und Larven des Atlantischen Herings (Clupea harengus) - Effects of ocean acidification and temperature on chloride cells in Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus) embryos and larvae

With climate change carbon dioxide and temperature is predicted to increase in the ocean surfaces. The oceans have the ability to slow down global warming by taking up CO₂ which hydrates in water producing carbonic acid and lowering the pH. This reaction is called ocean acidification and the research of its impacts on marine organisms is of global interest in science. Additional to this problem is the speed of the climate change, since industrial revolution pH has already decreased by 0.1 to a current value of about 8.1 in the surface ocean and calculations estimate a decrease in pH in the upper water layers of between 0.14 and 0.35 units until the end of this century. The aim of this study is to investigate the consequences according to ocean acidification on the early life stage of the Atlantic herring (Clupea harengus), since these stages are predicted to be highly vulnerable due to predation and environmental changes. Additionally the development of organs and physiological pathways is not yet completed which will gradually be functional in the weeks after hatching. Organs important for acidbase regulation are absent in embryos and larvae and thus challenging the larvae to cope with acidified waters. Specialized cells in the skin of fish larvae called chloride cells are identified to take over the function of ion regulatory organs until formation of gills is completed. In laboratory based experiments the effects of ocean acidification and temperature on the distribution, size and number of chloride cells as well as on the early ontogeny of embryos and larvae were investigated. Therefore two experiments were conducted firstly using four treatments of elevated pCO₂ concentrations (380, 1120, 2400, 4000 ppm) at constant temperature and secondly examining the synergistic effects of three temperatures a cold (6.5°C), a median (8.6°C) and a warm (12.3°C) treatment combined with three pCO₂ concentrations (380, 1120, 4000 ppm). CO₂ levels were chosen according to today´s value of 380 ppm as a control and to the predicted value until the end of this century. For the Baltic Sea even higher values are calculated due to areas with unmixed water bodies and oxygen minimum zones. Temperatures were chosen according to natural spawning behaviour of herring starting at 4°C as a control and to predicted warming of the oceans. Results showed a negative impact of ocean acidification on the survival of herring larvae with decreased fertilization (2nd experiment) and increased mortality rates at hatch (1st and 2nd experiment). Furthermore decreased length at higher CO₂ levels were detected in embryos. The effects on chloride cells were variable, showing no significant change in cell number. There was found one effect in higher cell sizes on the trunk and one in the pericardial region with increasing CO₂ levels. First appearance of chloride cells of herring embryos was visible at 20-somite stage on the epidermis of the yolk sac at 3dpf

Documenting Cordage Impressions on Archaeological Ceramics: A Methodological Comparison of Casting and Digital Representation

The analysis of cordage and fabrics from the impressions and markings on pottery has traditionally been conducted by casting the pottery sherds with a plastic or liquid media to make a positive. This positive is then analyzed by measuring attributes under a low-power microscope with calipers. Original Sculpey® is one casting media that has been popular because of its price, accessibility, detail of cast, and permanency of the casts after curing. However, it has been found to impart an organic chemical signature on the sherds, which would bias residue analyses. Further, the plasticizer in Original Sculpey® can soften certain plastics, notably Paraloid B-72, which is often used on pottery as a consolidant. 3D scanning, then, theoretically can be used to create digital representations of the impressions and markings in pottery, while avoiding damage to the sherds and other conservation concerns. The NextEngine 3D laser scanner was tested in the analysis of seven sherds with varying qualities of impressions and markings. Results revealed that the method one uses depends not only on the quality desired and the conservation of the sherd, but also cost, time, and expertise available to the researcher. While the NextEngine itself may not be able to achieve the level of detail needed to match casting methods, the technology can be nonetheless useful for impressed sherd documentation in the near future

EVALUATING SCHEDULING METHODS FOR ENERGY COST REDUCTION IN A HETEROGENEOUS DATA CENTER ENVIRONMENT

Over the past two decades the rise of information technologies (IT) has enabled businesses to communicate, coordinate, and cooperate in unprecedented ways. However, this did not come without a price. Today, IT infrastructure accounts for a substantial fraction of the national energy consumption in most advanced countries. Subsequently, research turned to finding ways of making IT more sustainable and lessening the environmental impact of IT infrastructure. In our previous work we developed LINFIX, an innovative method for handling the scheduling problem in data centers, which substantially reduced the total energy consumption compared to commonly used practices. Due to the computational complexity of the scheduling problem, we were, however, unable to estimate the cost reduction of LINFIX compared to what is theoretically possible. In this work we employ a genetic algorithm to provide a benchmark to better assess the quality of the LINFIX solutions. While the genetic algorithm frequently finds better solutions, the additional average cost reduction when compared to LINFIX is less than 0.1 percent. Taking the computational speed into account, this confirms our hypothesis that LINFIX provides very energy efficient scheduling plans in short time