Ist Deutschland der Eurogewinner?

Hat die Einführung des Euro zu einer Verbesserung oder gar zu einer Verringerung des deutschen Wohlstands geführt? Daniel Stelter, Gründer des Diskussionsforums »Beyond the Obvious« und Unternehmensberater, kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass der Euro zu einer Verringerung des deutschen Wohlstands und der langfristigen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit geführt hat, und führt dafür zehn Argumente an. Seiner Meinung nach stellt sich für den »Durchschnittsdeutschen« die Geschichte so dar: Die Einführung des Euro führte zu einer langen Phase geringen Wachstums, hoher Arbeitslosigkeit und Lohnstagnation. Der Staat hat Ausgaben für Sozialleistungen und Infrastruktur und Investitionen gekürzt. Die Wirtschaft musste sich auf den Export konzentrieren, und die Ersparnisse wurden dazu genutzt, Lieferantenkredite zu gewähren. Jetzt, wo diese Kredite nicht bezahlt werden können, müssen wiederum die deutschen Sparer und Steuerzahler für den Schaden aufkommen. Ohne den Euro hätte es die Schuldenparty im Süden nicht gegeben, aber auch nicht die großen Exportüberschüsse. Dafür einen höheren Lebensstandard und bessere Infrastruktur in Deutschland. Nach Ansicht von Karlhans Sauernheimer, Universität Mainz, profitieren in Deutschland die Exportwirtschaft, die Eigentümer der exportierenden Unternehmen sowie die dort Beschäftigten von der Euroeinführung. Die Verlierer sind die importierenden Inländer, Konsumenten, Produzenten und Arbeitnehmer, die alle höhere Importpreise zahlen müssen als bei marktgerechten realen Wechselkursen. Eine zweite Umverteilung läuft von den Beschäftigten zu den Kapitalbesitzern. Die zu hohen Exporte/zu geringeren Investitionen kommen einem Kapitalexport gleich. Der Kapitalstock ist damit im Inland geringer, die Arbeitsnachfrage zu seiner Beschäftigung geht zurück. Die Reallöhne oder die Beschäftigung werden sinken, die Kapitalrenditen steigen. Eine dritte Umverteilung findet zwischen »dem Schuldner Staat und den Gläubigern Private Haushalte« statt. Der Bundesfinanzminister ist de

Wie zorgt voor wie? : op weg naar een duurzame relatie tussen stad en platteland

Dit rapport beschrijft de ontwikkelingen naar een meer duurzame en maatschappelijk gerichte landbouw en platteland. Uit de analyse blijkt dat duurzaamheid binnen de agrarische sector en op het platteland een steeds belangrijker thema vormt. Biologische landbouw speelt hierin al lange tijd een belangrijke rol als kraamkamer voor vernieuwingen. De biologische sector is echter nog steeds klein van omvang en de stimulering van de productie en consumptie van biologische producten blijft nodig. Multifunctionele landbouw, een multifunctioneel platteland en versterking van de relatie stadplatteland krijgen steeds meer aandacht. Op het gebied van multifunctionaliteit is er dan ook veel in ontwikkeling. Zo werkt de Taskforce Multifunctionele Landbouw, die door het ministerie van LNV in 2008 is ingesteld, aan het bevorderen van kennisuitwisseling tussen kennisinstellingen en de praktijk. De versterking van de relatie stad-platteland bevindt zich nog in een relatief pril stadium in Nederland. Een aantal steden is bezig met een stedelijke voedselstrategie, maar van netwerkvorming en het vastleggen en verspreiden van praktijkkennis is nog geen sprake. ‘Duurzame catering’ staat in Nederland nog in de kinderschoenen, maar er komt hiervoor wel steeds meer aandacht al dan niet als onderdeel van een bewustwording over voedingspatronen op stedelijk niveau. In Nederland zijn enkele stadsboerderijen. Wageningen UR - PPO is momenteel bezig om de stadslandbouw in Nederland op de kaart te zetten. Hiervoor dient Almere als “proeftuin”

Optimized comb drive finger shape for shock-resistant actuation

This work presents the analytical solution, realization and measurement of a comb drive with finger shapes optimized for shock-resistant actuation. The available force for actuating an external load determines how large shock forces can be compensated for. An analytical expression is presented for the finger shape that provides a constant large available force over the actuation range. The finger shape is asymmetric, resulting in a 20% smaller unit cell width compared to a symmetric shape. This finger shape provides 4 times more available force than the standard straight finger shape

NDM-526: INVESTIGATION OF STABLE AND UNSTABLE FIBER-REINFORCED ELASTOMERIC ISOLATORS

Fiber-reinforced elastomeric isolators (FREIs) are a potentially low-cost alternative to conventional steel-reinforced elastomeric isolators. FREIs can exhibit a non-linear horizontal force-displacement relationship characterized by a softening and stiffening phase, similar to other adaptive isolation devices such as the triple friction pendulum. This non-linear relationship is a consequence of unique deformations that occur during horizontal displacement denoted as rollover, which causes softening, and full rollover, which causes stiffening. The magnitude of the softening due to rollover is primarily governed by the width-to-total height aspect ratio of the FREI. If the aspect ratio is low, below about 2.5, the isolator may be susceptible to horizontal instability where the tangential stiffness becomes negative before increasing due to full rollover. Design codes prevent the use of an isolation system susceptible to horizontal instability within the design displacement. In this paper, experimental testing is used to calibrate a numerical model of a base isolated structure using horizontally unstable and stable FREIs. The performance of the structure is evaluated based on peak displacement of the isolation layer and peak acceleration of the base isolated structure. For the isolators considered, it is shown that the horizontal instability does not have a negative impact on the performance of the structure. It is postulated that some level of horizontal instability may be allowed in the design of unbonded FREIs

Low Levels of after School-Hours Social Interaction and Physical Activity of 5-7 Year Olds

As part of a cluster randomized controlled trial (Bundy et al., 2017), the after school-hours activities of 5-7 year old children were recorded by parents and other adult carers on four consecutive weekdays between 3:30pm-7:00pm. Records of time use showed most time was spent indoors in activities involving low levels of physical activity. The most-frequently-recorded activity was screen time, accounting for approximately one quarter of all activities. Higher levels of physical activity were reported when children were outdoors (19.5% of time) and/or with peers (9.58%). If an adult was present, highest activity levels of children occurred when the child was with a teacher/carer (6.07%). Although concern is frequently raised about children spending too much time in organized activities, these structured forms of out-of-school choices accounted for only 8.09% of recordings. The results of the current study strengthen the evidence base, supporting the need to optimise out-ofschool times with more developmentally important social and physical contexts. We discuss ways in which context may support or inhibit opportunities physical activity in after school-hours activities

The importance of transport model uncertainties for the estimation of CO2 sources and sinks using satellite measurements

This study presents a synthetic model intercomparison to investigate the importance of transport model errors for estimating the sources and sinks of CO2 using satellite measurements. The experiments were designed for testing the potential performance of the proposed CO2 lidar A-SCOPE, but also apply to other space borne missions that monitor total column CO2. The participating transport models IFS, LMDZ, TM3, and TM5 were run in forward and inverse mode using common a priori CO2 fluxes and initial concentrations. Forward simulations of column averaged CO2 (xCO2) mixing ratios vary between the models by s=0.5 ppm over the continents and s=0.27 ppm over the oceans. Despite the fact that the models agree on average on the sub-ppm level, these modest differences nevertheless lead to significant discrepancies in the inverted fluxes of 0.1 PgC/yr per 106 km2 over land and 0.03 PgC/yr per 106 km2 over the ocean. These transport model induced flux uncertainties exceed the target requirement that was formulated for the A-SCOPE mission of 0.02 PgC/yr per 106 km2, and could also limit the overall performance of other CO2 missions such as GOSAT. A variable, but overall encouraging agreement is found in comparison with FTS measurements at Park Falls, Darwin, Spitsbergen, and Bremen, although systematic differences are found exceeding the 0.5 ppm level. Because of this, our estimate of the impact of transport model uncerainty is likely to be conservative. It is concluded that to make use of the remote sensing technique for quantifying the sources and sinks of CO2 not only requires highly accurate satellite instruments, but also puts stringent requirements on the performance of atmospheric transport models. Improving the accuracy of these models should receive high priority, which calls for a closer collaboration between experts in atmospheric dynamics and tracer transpor

Evaluation of time profile reconstruction from complex two-color microarray designs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>As an alternative to the frequently used "reference design" for two-channel microarrays, other designs have been proposed. These designs have been shown to be more profitable from a theoretical point of view (more replicates of the conditions of interest for the same number of arrays). However, the interpretation of the measurements is less straightforward and a reconstruction method is needed to convert the observed ratios into the genuine profile of interest (e.g. a time profile). The potential advantages of using these alternative designs thus largely depend on the success of the profile reconstruction. Therefore, we compared to what extent different linear models agree with each other in reconstructing expression ratios and corresponding time profiles from a complex design.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>On average the correlation between the estimated ratios was high, and all methods agreed with each other in predicting the same profile, especially for genes of which the expression profile showed a large variance across the different time points. Assessing the similarity in profile shape, it appears that, the more similar the underlying principles of the methods (model and input data), the more similar their results. Methods with a dye effect seemed more robust against array failure. The influence of a different normalization was not drastic and independent of the method used.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Including a dye effect such as in the methods lmbr_dye, anovaFix and anovaMix compensates for residual dye related inconsistencies in the data and renders the results more robust against array failure. Including random effects requires more parameters to be estimated and is only advised when a design is used with a sufficient number of replicates. Because of this, we believe lmbr_dye, anovaFix and anovaMix are most appropriate for practical use.</p