Behavioral determinants of home bias: Theory and experiment

We study portfolio diversification in an experimental decision task, where asset returns depend on a draw from an ambiguous urn. Holding other information identical and controlling for the level of ambiguity, we find that labeling assets as being familiar or from the homeland of subjects increases portfolio weights by around 25%, respectively; although the return-generating process remains unaffected. Importantly, we only find these effects when the returns of assets are highly ambiguous. Our ambiguity robust mean-variance model accurately predicts benchmark portfolio weights of the experimental control group, where assets are not labeled: subjects allocate more wealth to assets with low ambiguity. For treatment group portfolios, which show a bias towards assets with a familiar or homeland label, the model does not hold. This misdiversification against the benchmark portfolio can be rationalized via the concept of source dependence of uncertainty attitudes

Essentials of Health Promotion in Children and Adolescents

Dargestellt werden die theoretischen Grundlagen für die Gesundheitsförderung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. Ausgehend von einer kurzen Einbettung in die Rahmendisziplinen der Gesundheitspsychologie, Entwicklungspsychologie und Pädagogischen Psychologie, werden epidemiologische Befunde vorgestellt. Vor dem Hintergrund der Schwierigkeiten, die mit der Diagnostik gesundheitsrelevanter Aspekte bei Kindern und Jugendlichen verknüpft sind, werden Daten zum Gesundheitszustand, zum Gesundheitsverhalten, zu gesundheitsbezogenen Kognitionen und zu Belastungen und Ressourcen im Kindes- und Jugendalter dargestellt. Danach wird die Frage der Anwendung von Gesundheitsförderungsmaßnahmen in der Praxis behandelt, wobei zunächst auf die entscheidenden Institutionen und Settings, sodann auf Methoden und Strategien eingegangen wird. Abschließend werden Möglichkeiten und Grenzen der Gesundheitsförderung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen kritisch und zukunftsgerichtet diskutiert. (DIPF/Orig.

Early warning system for economic and financial risks in Kazakhstan

This paper proposes a macro-prudential financial soundness analysis that can be used by most developing and transformation countries with or without crisis experience as well as by developed countries with limited data. The objective is to detect economic and financial sector vulnerability, design appropriate remedial policy responses and undertake preventing actions to address vulnerabilities. The paper also discusses a process for identifying and compiling a set of leading macro-prudential indicators. The system will be tested using a case study referring to Kazakhstan. The main novelty of the study lies in designing composite indicators for the real economy, the banking sector, the overall financial sector and finally the international economic environment of Kazakhstan and in studying the interaction of these composite indicators. An additional innovation is the relatively extensive use of qualitative business survey data to monitor vulnerability or crises; these surveys are data which until now have not been used much in this area of research

Ernährungs-Qualitäts-Studie (Klosterstudie): Auswirkungen einer vorübergehenden, konsequenten Ernährung mit biologisch-dynamischen Lebensmitteln auf das Befinden und das Ernährungsverhalten von Menschen

In this pilotstudy the role was investigated whether switching from conventional to biodynamic food had any influence on eating behaviour, physical and psychological well-being, and objective parameters. For this purpose, 17 sisters belonging to a religious order participated in a prospective study involving a period of conventional and biodynamic food. The results shows that biodynamic food in daily nutrition can help to enhance both physiological and psychological well-being

Allele identification for transcriptome-based population genomics in the invasive plant Centaurea solstitialis

Transcriptome sequences are becoming more broadly available for multiple individuals of the same species, providing opportunities to derive population genomic information from these datasets. Using the 454 Life Science Genome Sequencer FLX and FLX-Titanium next-generation platforms, we generated 11−430 Mbp of sequence for normalized cDNA for 40 wild genotypes of the invasive plant Centaurea solstitialis, yellow starthistle, from across its worldwide distribution. We examined the impact of sequencing effort on transcriptome recovery and overlap among individuals. To do this, we developed two novel publicly available software pipelines: SnoWhite for read cleaning before assembly, and AllelePipe for clustering of loci and allele identification in assembled datasets with or without a reference genome. AllelePipe is designed specifically for cases in which read depth information is not appropriate or available to assist with disentangling closely related paralogs from allelic variation, as in transcriptome or previously assembled libraries. We find that modest applications of sequencing effort recover most of the novel sequences present in the transcriptome of this species, including single-copy loci and a representative distribution of functional groups. In contrast, the coverage of variable sites, observation of heterozygosity, and overlap among different libraries are all highly dependent on sequencing effort. Nevertheless, the information gained from overlapping regions was informative regarding coarse population structure and variation across our small number of population samples, providing the first genetic evidence in support of hypothesized invasion scenarios.Fil: Dlugosch, Katrina M.. University of British Columbia; CanadáFil: Lai, Zhao. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Bonin, Auélie. Indiana University; Estados UnidosFil: Hierro, Jose Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ciencias de la Tierra y Ambientales de La Pampa; ArgentinaFil: Rieseberg, Loren H.. University of British Columbia; Canadá. Indiana University; Estados Unido

New light on Bergman complexes by decomposing matroid types

Bergman complexes are polyhedral complexes associated to matroids. Faces of these complexes are certain matroids, called matroid types, too. In order to understand the structure of these faces we decompose matroid types into direct summands. Ardila/Klivans proved that the Bergman Complex of a matroid can be subdivided into the order complex of the proper part of its lattice of flats. Beyond that Feichtner/Sturmfels showed that the Bergman complex can even be subdivided to the even coarser nested set complex. We will give a much shorter and more general proof of this fact. Generalizing formulas proposed by Ardila/Klivans and Feichtner/Sturmfels for special cases, we present a decomposition into direct sums working for faces of any of these complexes. Additionally we show that it is the finest possible decomposition for faces of the Bergman complex.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figure, based on my diploma thesi

Invasion of Europe by the western corn rootworm, Diabrotica virgifera virgifera: multiple transatlantic introductions with various reductions of genetic diversity

The early stages of invasion involve demographic bottlenecks that may result in lower genetic variation in introduced populations as compared to source population/s. Low genetic variability may decrease the adaptive potential of such populations in their new environments. Previous population genetic studies of invasive species have reported varying levels of losses of genetic variability in comparisons of source and invasive populations. However, intraspecific comparisons are required to assess more thoroughly the repeatability of genetic consequences of colonization events. Descriptions of invasive species for which multiple introductions from a single source population have been demonstrated may be particularly informative. The western corn rootworm (WCR), Diabrotica virgifera virgifera, native to North America and invasive in Europe, offers us an opportunity to analyse multiple introduction events within a single species. We investigated within- and between-population variation at eight microsatellite markers in WCR in North America and Europe to investigate the routes by which WCR was introduced into Europe, and to assess the effect of introduction events on genetic variation. We detected five independent introduction events from the northern USA into Europe. The diversity loss following these introductions differed considerably between events, suggesting substantial variation in introduction, foundation and/or establishment conditions. Genetic variability at evolutionarily neutral loci does not seem to underlie the invasive success of WCR in Europe. We also showed that the introduction of WCR into Europe resulted in the redistribution of genetic variance from the intra- to the interpopulational level contrary to most examples of multiple introductions

Cross-Coupling Chemistry as a Tool for the Synthesis of Diverse Heterocyclic Systems and Natural Products

My thesis consists of six publications. The first publication is a review article with the title 'The Palladium-catalysed Ullmann Cross-coupling Reaction: A Modern Variant on a Time-honored Process'. The second publication has the title 'Palladium-Catalyzed Ullmann Cross-Coupling of beta-Iodoenones and beta-Iodoacrylates with o-Halonitroarenes or o-Iodobenzonitriles and Reductive Cyclization of the Resulting Products To Give Diverse Heterocyclic Systems'. The third publication has the title 'Reductive Cyclization of o-Nitroarylated-alpha,beta-Unsaturated Aldehydes and Ketones with TiCl3/HCl or Fe/HCl Leading to 1,2,3,9-Tetrahydro-4H-carbazol-4-ones and Related Heterocycles'. The fourth publication has the title 'Synthesis of a Highly Functionalised and Homochiral 2-Iodocyclohexenone Related to the C-Ring of the Polycyclic, Indole Alkaloids Aspidophytine and Haplophytine'. The fifth publication has the title 'Syntheses of Structurally and Stereochemically Varied Forms of C7N Aminocyclitol Derivatives from Enzymatically-derived and Homochiral cis-1,2-Dihydrocatechols' and the last publication is a review article with the title 'Chemical Syntheses of the Cochliomycins and Certain Related Resorcylic Acid Lactones'

Is procrastination related to sleep quality? Testing an application of the procrastination-health model

Despite a growing body of research on the consequences of procrastination for health and well-being, there is little research focused on testing or explaining the potential links between procrastination and sleep quality. Using the procrastination-health model as our guiding conceptual lens, we addressed this gap by examining how and why trait procrastination may be linked to various dimensions of sleep quality across two student samples. In Study 1, procrastination was associated with feeling unrested, but not sleep disturbance frequency, in a sample of Greek undergraduate students (N = 141). In Study 2, bootstrapping analysis of the indirect effects of procrastination on an index of sleep quality through perceived stress in a sample of Canadian students (N = 339) was significant supporting an extended procrastination-health model view of how chronic self-regulation failure may compromise sleep quality. Given the potential for dynamic and reciprocal relations among procrastination, stress, and sleep quality suggested by the current and other research, the ways in which procrastination may contribute to and be influenced by poor sleep quality warrants further investigation