187 research outputs found
Complex Societies and the Growth of the Law
While a large number of informal factors influence how people interact,
modern societies rely upon law as a primary mechanism to formally control human
behaviour. How legal rules impact societal development depends on the interplay
between two types of actors: the people who create the rules and the people to
which the rules potentially apply. We hypothesise that an increasingly diverse
and interconnected society might create increasingly diverse and interconnected
rules, and assert that legal networks provide a useful lens through which to
observe the interaction between law and society. To evaluate these
propositions, we present a novel and generalizable model of statutory materials
as multidimensional, time-evolving document networks. Applying this model to
the federal legislation of the United States and Germany, we find impressive
expansion in the size and complexity of laws over the past two and a half
decades. We investigate the sources of this development using methods from
network science and natural language processing. To allow for cross-country
comparisons over time, we algorithmically reorganise the legislative materials
of the United States and Germany into cluster families that reflect legal
topics. This reorganisation reveals that the main driver behind the growth of
the law in both jurisdictions is the expansion of the welfare state, backed by
an expansion of the tax state.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures (main paper); 28 pages, 11 figures (supplementary
information
Measuring Law Over Time: A Network Analytical Framework with an Application to Statutes and Regulations in the United States and Germany
How do complex social systems evolve in the modern world? This question lies
at the heart of social physics, and network analysis has proven critical in
providing answers to it. In recent years, network analysis has also been used
to gain a quantitative understanding of law as a complex adaptive system, but
most research has focused on legal documents of a single type, and there exists
no unified framework for quantitative legal document analysis using network
analytical tools. Against this background, we present a comprehensive framework
for analyzing legal documents as multi-dimensional, dynamic document networks.
We demonstrate the utility of this framework by applying it to an original
dataset of statutes and regulations from two different countries, the United
States and Germany, spanning more than twenty years (1998-2019). Our framework
provides tools for assessing the size and connectivity of the legal system as
viewed through the lens of specific document collections as well as for
tracking the evolution of individual legal documents over time. Implementing
the framework for our dataset, we find that at the federal level, the United
States legal system is increasingly dominated by regulations, whereas the
German legal system remains governed by statutes. This holds regardless of
whether we measure the systems at the macro, the meso, or the micro level.Comment: 32 pages, 13 figures (main paper); 32 pages, 14 figures
(supplementary information
Bildungssystem und Beschäftigungssystem: zum Verhältnis von Bildungssoziologie und gesellschaftlicher Entwicklung
Shiga Toxin–producing Escherichia coli Serogroups in Food and Patients, Germany
We compared 61 Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serogroups from 448 food isolates with 71 STEC serogroups from 1,447 isolates from patients in Germany. Two thirds (41/61), representing 72% of food isolates, were also found in patients. Serogroups typically isolated from patients with hemolytic uremic syndrome were rarely found in food
Lattice meets lattice: Application of lattice cubature to models in lattice gauge theory
High dimensional integrals are abundant in many fields of research including
quantum physics. The aim of this paper is to develop efficient recursive
strategies to tackle a class of high dimensional integrals having a special
product structure with low order couplings, motivated by models in lattice
gauge theory from quantum field theory. A novel element of this work is the
potential benefit in using lattice cubature rules. The group structure within
lattice rules combined with the special structure in the physics integrands may
allow efficient computations based on Fast Fourier Transforms. Applications to
the quantum mechanical rotor and compact lattice gauge theory in two and
three dimensions are considered
Noise Fingerprints of Fiber Supercontinuum Sources
We present a novel technique for measuring unique ”noise fingerprints” of fiber supercontinuum (SC) sources, revealing a strong dependence of SC relative intensity noise not only on the dispersion of the fiber, but also on its cross-sectional geometry
Glatiramer Acetate Treatment in Multiple Sclerosis-Associated Fatigue—Beneficial Effects on Self-Assessment Scales But Not on Molecular Markers
Although fatigue is a common symptom in multiple sclerosis (MS), its pathomechanisms are incompletely understood. Glatiramer acetate (GA), an immunomodulatory agent approved for treatment of relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), possesses unique mechanisms of action and has been shown to exhibit beneficial effects on MS fatigue. The objective of this study was to correlate clinical, neuropsychological, and immunological parameters in RRMS patients with fatigue before and during treatment with GA. In a prospective, open-label, multicenter trial, 30 patients with RRMS and fatigue were treated with GA for 12 months. Inclusion criterion was the presence of fatigue as one of the most frequent and disabling symptoms. Before and during treatment, fatigue was assessed using the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), the MS-FSS, and the Modified Fatigue Impact Scale (MFIS). In addition, fatigue and quality of life were assessed using the Visual Analog Scales (VAS). Laboratory assessments included screening of 188 parameters using real-time PCR microarrays followed by further analysis of several cytokines, chemokines, and neurotrophic factors. Fatigue self-assessments were completed in 25 patients. After 12 months of treatment with GA, 13 of these patients improved in all three scales (with the most prominent effects on the MFIS), whereas 5 patients had deteriorated. The remaining 7 patients exhibited inconsistent effects within the three scales. Fatigue and overall quality of life had improved, as assessed via VAS. Laboratory assessments revealed heterogeneous mRNA levels of cytokines, chemokines, and neurotrophic factors. In conclusion, we were not able to correlate clinical and molecular effects of GA in patients with RRMS and fatigue
Reassessment of Blood Gene Expression Markers for the Prognosis of Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis
Despite considerable advances in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, current drugs are only partially effective. Most patients show reduced disease activity with therapy, but still experience relapses, increasing disability, and new brain lesions. Since there are no reliable clinical or biological markers of disease progression, long-term prognosis is difficult to predict for individual patients. We identified 18 studies that suggested genes expressed in blood as predictive biomarkers. We validated the prognostic value of those genes with three different microarray data sets comprising 148 patients in total. Using these data, we tested whether the genes were significantly differentially expressed between patients with good and poor courses of the disease. Poor progression was defined by relapses and/or increase of disability during a two-year follow-up, independent of the administered therapy. Of 110 genes that have been proposed as predictive biomarkers, most could not be confirmed in our analysis. However, the G protein-coupled membrane receptor GPR3 was expressed at significantly lower levels in patients with poor disease progression in all data sets. GPR3 has therefore a high potential to be a biomarker for predicting future disease activity. In addition, we examined the IL17 cytokines and receptors in more detail and propose IL17RC as a new, promising, transcript-based biomarker candidate. Further studies are needed to better understand the roles of these receptors in multiple sclerosis and its treatment and to clarify the utility of GPR3 and IL17RC expression levels in the blood as markers of long-term prognosis
Continuing Legal Education - Ambition and Reality
The education of lawyers does not end with the law degree. Continuing legal education is of central importance for legal professionals and the whole of legal industry. Both the education sector and the legal sector are undergoing profound change due to new business models and information technology. Providers of continuing legal education and universities in particular are therefore confronted with various questions and challenges. The Faculty of Law at the University of Zurich, as the leading provider in Switzerland, therefore held a conference on February 15 and 16, on the occasion of which these questions and challenges were discussed. The conference featured speakers from universities, law firms and associations as well as companies from Switzerland, Germany, the UK and the US. The individual presentations provided insight into the state of continuing legal education in the respective countries and addressed topics such as legal innovation, digitization, the role of law schools, and expectations from legal practice regarding continuing legal education
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