A Systematic Approach to Study Electoral Fraud

Integrity of elections relies on fair procedures at di?erent stages of the election process, and fraud can occur in many instances and di?erent forms. This paper provides a general approach for the detection of fraud. While most existing contributions focus on a single instance and form of fraud, we propose a more encompassing approach, testing for several empirical implications of di?erent possible forms of fraud. To illustrate this approach we rely on a case of electoral irregularities in one of the oldest democracies: In a Swiss referendum in 2011, one in twelve municipalities irregularly destroyed the ballots, rendering a recount impossible. We do not know whether this happened due to sloppiness, or to cover possible fraudulent actions. However, one of our statistical tests leads to results, which points to irregularities in some of the municipalities, which lost their ballots: they reported significantly fewer empty ballots than the other municipalities. Relying on several tests leads to the well known multiple comparisons problem. We show two strategies and illustrate strengths and weaknesses of each potential way to deal with multiple tests

Pathways and bioenergetics of anaerobic carbon monoxide fermentation

Carbon monoxide can act as a substrate for different modes of fermentative anaerobic metabolism. The trait of utilizing CO is spread among a diverse group of microorganisms, including members of bacteria as well as archaea. Over the last decade this metabolism has gained interest due to the potential of converting CO-rich gas, such as synthesis gas, into bio-based products. Three main types of fermentative CO metabolism can be distinguished: hydrogenogenesis, methanogenesis, and acetogenesis, generating hydrogen, methane and acetate, respectively. Here, we review the current knowledge on these three variants of microbial CO metabolism with an emphasis on the potential enzymatic routes and bio-energetics involved.The authors involved were financially supported by an ERC grant (project 323009) and the Gravitation grant (project 024.002.002) of the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Netherlands Science Foundation (NWO)

Synthetical engineering of supramolecular properties of large polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

An important property for devices is the charge-carrier mobility values for discotic organic materials like hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronenes. A close relation exists between the degree of their columnar self-arrangement of the molecules and their mobilities. Within this first step an induction of a higher order via hydrogen-bonding was considered, which mainly pointed towards the improvement of the intracolumnar stacking of the materials. For the analytics a broad range of methods was used including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), wide-angle X-ray diffractometry (WAXS), solid-state NMR spectroscopy and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Indeed, a specific influence of the hydrogen-bonds could be identified, although in several cases by the cost of a severe reduction of solubility and processability. This effect was dampened by the addition of a long alkyl chain next to the hydrogen-bond exerting functional group, which resulted in an improved columnar arrangement by retention of processability. In contrast to the before mentioned example of inducing a higher intracolumnar order by hydrogen-bonding, the focus was also be set upon larger aromatic systems. The charge-carrier mobility is also in close relation to the size of the aromatic core and larger π-areas are expected to lead to improved mobilities. For photovoltaic applications a high extinction coefficient over a broad range of the spectrum is favorable, which can also be achieved by enlarging the aromatic core component. In addition the stronger π-interactions between the aromatic core components should yield an improved columnar stability and order. However the strengthening of the π-interactions between the aromatic core components led to a reduction of the solubility and the processability due to the stronger aggregation of the molecules. This required the introduction of efficiently solubilizing features in terms of long alkyl chains in the corona of the aromatic entity, in combination of a distortion of the aromatic core moiety by bulky tert-butyl groups. By this approach not only the processing and cleaning of the materials with standard laboratory techniques became possible, but moreover the first structure-rich UV/vis and a resolved 1H-NMR spectra for an aromatic system two times larger than hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene were recorded. The bulk properties in an extruded fiber as well as on the surface showed a columnar self-assembly including a phase in which a homeotropic alignment on a substrate was observed, which turns the material into an interesting candidate for future applications in electronic devices.Eine wichtige Eigenschaft für zukünftige Applikationen auf dem Gebiet der organischen elektronischen Schaltkreise ist die Mobilität von Ladungsträgern innerhalb des eingesetzten Materials. Bei diskotischen Materialien besteht eine enge Beziehung zwischen der intrakolumnaren Ordnung und den Mobilitäten. Im ersten Schritt wurden funktionelle Gruppen am Rand der starren aromatischen Scheibe, um mittels der unterstützenden Wirkung der H-Brückenbildung die kolumnare Ordnung zu erhöhen. Die Auswirkungen der H-Brückenbildung wurde mithilfe von Differentialkalorimetrie (DSC), Weitwinkel X-ray Diffraktometrie (WWXD), Festphasen-NMR und Rastertunnelmikroskopie (STM) untersucht. Es wurde ein nachhaltiger Effekt auf die supramolekularen Eigenschaften der Materialien festgestellt. Leider gingen diese Effekte in den meisten Fällen einher mit einer starken Reduktion der Prozessierbarkeit. Um die Prozessierbarkeit wiederzuerlangen, verringerte man den starken Einfluss der H-Brücken, indem man an die funktionelle Gruppe zusätzlich eine lange Alkylkette anfügte. Anstelle einer Verstärkung der Ordnung durch die Einführung von H-Brücken bei diskotischen Materialien, ist es unter anderem möglich die aromatische Kernstruktur zu vergrössern. Die Ladungsträgermobilitäten sind auch abhängig von der Grösse dieses aromatischen Kerns. Zudem führt dies zu einer Verstärkung der intermolekularen -Wechselwirkungen und somit zu einer verbesserten intrakolumnaren Ordnung. Dies geht aber wiederum einher mit einer Reduktion der Prozessierbarkeit. Aus diesem Grund wurden für ein grosses aromatisches System diverse löslichkeitsvermittelnde Konzepte eingeführt. Dies beinhaltete den Einsatz von langen Alkylketten am Rand des starren aromatischen Grundgerüsts, sowie dessen Verformung durch sterisch anspruchsvolle tert-Butylgruppen. Dieses Material ermöglichte die Aufnahme eines differenzierten UV/vis Spektrums sowie des ersten aufgelösten 1H NMR für ein aromatisches System solcher Grösse. Die Untersuchungen zu den Festkörper-Eigenschaften ergaben eine kolumnare Anordnung der Scheiben in einer extrudierten Faser, sowie eine thermische Phase, in der sich das Material homöotrop zu der Substratoberfläche ausrichtete. Aufgrund dieser Eigenschaften ist dieses Material ein interessanter Kandidat für einen zukünftigen Einsatz in elektronischen Bauelementen

Underpricing of Newly Issued Bonds: Evidence from the Swiss Capital Market.

The pricing of newly issued bonds on the Swiss capital market is investigated over the years 1980-82. The results reveal a slight underpricing of new bonds at the issue date that is roughly equal to the difference in transactions costs between the markets for new and seasoned bonds. Underpricing is no longer observed when the new bonds start to be traded on the stock exchange, that is, after about two days. Tests of several hypothesis show that unexpected changes in interest rates over the offering period explain part of the underpricing. Copyright 1988 by American Finance Association.

Die Preisbildung von neu emittierten Obligationen in der Schweiz

None

Is trauma in Switzerland any different? epidemiology and patterns of injury in major trauma - a 5-year review from a Swiss trauma centre.

Switzerland, the country with the highest health expenditure per capita, is lacking data on trauma care and system planning. Recently, 12 trauma centres were designated to be reassessed through a future national trauma registry by 2015. Lausanne University Hospital launched the first Swiss trauma registry in 2008, which contains the largest database on trauma activity nationwide. Prospective analysis of data from consecutively admitted shock room patients from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2012. Shock room admission is based on physiology and mechanism of injury, assessed by prehospital physicians. Management follows a surgeon-led multidisciplinary approach. Injuries are coded by Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM) certified coders. Over the 5 years, 1,599 trauma patients were admitted, predominantly males with a median age of 41.4 years and median injury severity score (ISS) of 13. Rate of ISS >15 was 42%. Principal mechanisms of injury were road traffic (40.4%) and falls (34.4%), with 91.5% blunt trauma. Principal patterns were brain (64.4%), chest (59.8%) and extremity/pelvic girdle (52.9%) injuries. Severe (abbreviated injury scale [AIS] score ≥ 3) orthopaedic injuries, defined as extremity and spine injuries together, accounted for 67.1%. Overall, 29.1% underwent immediate intervention, mainly by orthopaedics (27.3%), neurosurgeons (26.3 %) and visceral surgeons (13.9%); 43.8% underwent a surgical intervention within the first 24 hours and 59.1% during their hospitalisation. In-hospital mortality for patients with ISS >15 was 26.2%. This is the first 5-year report on trauma in Switzerland. Trauma workload was similar to other European countries. Despite high levels of healthcare, mortality exceeds published rates by >50%. Regardless of the importance of a multidisciplinary approach, trauma remains a surgical disease and needs dedicated surgical resources

From macro- to nanoscopic templating with nanographenes

A hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene carrying six long, branched alkyl chains has been processed in nano- and macroscopic pore templates. An extraordinary self-organization of this material was observed within macroscopically large glass capillaries after cooling from the isotropic phase. Thereby, the columnar structures were long-range aligned along the capillary axis over several centimeters. This behavior was explained by the pronounced directional self-assembly of the molecules, whereby the curvature effect of the capillary was negligible. The processing in nanoscopic pores of an inorganic membrane yielded an improved supramolecular organization. It was possible to remove the inorganic template and to obtain bundles and single nanorods. The templating over different dimensions opens a variety of potential applications. Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society.financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Schwerpunktprogramm: Organische Feldeffekt-Transistoren) and the EU project NAIMO (Integrated Project Number NMP4-CT-2004-500355). Fonds der Chemischen IndustriePeer Reviewe