Temporary measures and off-budget activities – developments in Germany

Over the first years of this century, Germany’s public finances developed very unfavourably. Significant pressures to reduce the overall budget deficit emerged. However, not least given the budgetary autonomy of the individual federal states and their influence on federal legislation, for several years central government failed to bring the German deficit ratio back below the Maastricht threshold by means of consolidation measures. Recourse to temporary measures remained limited, while Eurostat was reluctant to accept deficit-decreasing entries in the national accounts. With regard to national fiscal rules, asset sales and securitisations were used to avoid too obvious conflicts. Following the significant decrease in budget deficits experienced since the end of 2005, current European and national fiscal rules are now respected without circumventions. However, a planned tightening of national borrowing limits as well as the European aim to have a structurally balanced budgetary position might lead to a search for new sidestepping measures. Public-private partnerships – despite possible cost advantages – seem to be a part of such efforts. At the local government level, outsourcing seems to distort budgetary data, but the net effect on deficits should be negligible.borrowing limits, deficit, public private partnerships, temporary measures.

How many quasiplatonic surfaces?

We show that the number of isomorphism classes of quasiplatonic Riemann surfaces of genus <= g has o growth of typ g exp (log g). The number of non-isomorphic regular dessins of genus <= g has the same growth type

Second image reconsidered. Die parlamentarische Kontrolle von Militärinterventionen der USA in den 1990er Jahren

Im Zusammenhang mit dem Präventivkrieg der Vereinigten Staaten gegen den Irak ist von einem Versagen der parlamentarischen Kontrolle die Rede. Analog zur Tonkin-Gulf-Resolution von 1964, mit der das amerikanische Parlament Präsident Lyndon B. Johnson praktisch eine Blankovollmacht für den Vietnamkrieg erteilt hatte, sei der US-Kongress im Oktober 2002 davor zurückgeschreckt, seiner verfassungs-rechtlichen Verantwortung, welche ihm vor allem aus dem alleinigen Recht zur Kriegserklärung erwächst, auch nur in Ansätzen nachzu-kommen. Häufig wird dieses Verhalten auf die Bedrohungslage und das politische Klima nach dem 11. September zurückgeführt. Wie eine kur-sorische Durchsicht der einschlägigen Literatur zeigt, handelt es sich bei der mangelnden institutionellen Selbstbehauptung des Kongresses im Zusammenhang mit Militäreinsätzen jedoch um kein neues Phänomen: Die Interventionspolitik galt auch schon vor den Terroranschlägen von New York und Washington als ein Politikfeld, in dem es der Legislative allenfalls partiell gelungen ist, die Exekutive nach den Auswüchsen der so genannten imperialen Präsidentschaft wieder stärker zu kontrollieren. Eine Deutung, die in den vergangenen Jahren verstärkt Zulauf erfahren hat, versucht den Ausnahmecharakter der Interventionspolitik mit dem sozialkonstruktivistisch grundierten Konzept einer Kultur der Unterordnung zu erklären. Es existiert aber auch eine rationalistisch argumentie-rende These, wonach politische Kalküle und Zwänge, die aus einem medial erzeugten Wählerdruck resultieren, das Parlament veranlassen, sich dem Präsidenten in der militärischen Interventionspolitik unterzuord-nen. Die Studie will anhand von zwei Fallbeispielen aus den 1990er Jahren, dem zweiten Golfkrieg und dem Kosovokrieg, klären, welcher Stellenwert diesen beiden Faktoren für die mangelnde institutionelle Selbstbehauptung des Kongresses in der militärischen Interventionspolitik zukommt. Unser Befund deutet darauf hin, dass eine separate, besonders stark ausgeprägte Teilkultur der Unterordnung auf Seiten der Republikaner existiert, die ceteris paribus dazu führt, dass sich eine von der Grand Old Party kontrollierte Legislative in Fragen, die Krieg und Frieden betreffen, institutionell grundsätzlich weniger stark behaupten kann als ein demokratisch dominierter Kongress

The stretch-activated potassium channel TREK-1 in rat cardiac ventricular muscle

Cardiac TREK-1 like potassium channels play an important role in the function of cardiomyocytes. A novel low-conductance TREK-1 like potassium channel and a high-conductance TREK-1 like potassium channel in rat cardiomyocytes are described in this thesis. The biophysical properties of the two cardiac TREK-like channels were similar to those of TREK-1a or TREK-1b channels expressed in HEK293 cells, which both displayed a low- and a high-conductance mode. Using cell-specific RT-PCR we found strong expression of a splice variant of rat TREK-1, denoted TREK-1b, in which the N-terminus is extended by 15 amino acids compared to the 'classical' TREK-1a channel protein. Immunohistochemistry with antibodies against TREK-1 showed localization of the channel in longitudinal stripes at the external surface membrane of cardiomyocytes. When the cardio-myocytes were mechanically stretched using a glass stylus, an outwardly rectifying K+ current component could be detected in whole-cell recordings. In single-channel recordings with symmetrical high K+ solution, two TREK-like channels with 'flickery-burst' kinetics were found: a ‘high-conductance?K+ channel (132&#61617;5 pS at positive potentials) and a novel ‘low-conductance?channel (41&#61617;5 pS at positive potentials). The low-conductance channel could be activated by negative pressure in inside-out, positive pressure in outside-out patches, intracellular acidification and arachidonic acid. Its open probability was strongly increased by depolarization, due to decreased duration of gaps between bursts. The biophysical properties of the two cardiac TREK-like channels were similar to those of TREK-1a or TREK-1b channels expressed in HEK293 cells, which both displayed a low- and a high-conductance mode. Our results suggest that the TREK-like channels found in rat cardiomyocytes may reflect two different modes of TREK-1. The current flowing through these mechano-gated channels may serve to counterbalance the inward current flowing through stretch-activated non-selective cation channels during the filling phase of the cardiac cycle and thus to prevent the occurrence of ventricular extrasystoles

ABC for polynomials, dessins d'enfants, and uniformization : a survey

The main subject of this survey are Belyi functions and dessins d'enfants on Riemann surfaces. Dessins are certain bipartite graphs on 2-mainfolds defining there are conformal and even an algebraic structure. In principle, all deeper properties of the resulting Riemann surfaces or algebraic curves should be encoded in these dessins, but the decoding turns out to be difficult and leads to many open problems. We emphasize arithmetical aspects like Galois actions, the relation to the ABC theorem in function filds and arithemtic questions in uniformization theory of algebraic curves defined over number fields

Untersuchung zu Veränderungen der Lebensmittelqualität durch Vitaminierung

Since 1991, European Union law prescribes minimum vitamin contents in foods for babies and small children. The prescribed level of vitamin contents requires supplementation by synthetic or isolated vitamins. Such supplementation with synthetic or isolated substances contrasts sharply with the principles of organic farming. Experiments were carried out to investigate the effect of supplemented vitamins on food quality. These included investigation of the addition of thiamin (vitamin B1) to flour of rice and spelt and L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) to juices of carrot and apple. A set of different complementary research methods was used. Fluorescence excitation spectroscopy distinguished the treatments of carrot juice significantly. The picture forming methods found effects of the added vitamins in both juices; these effects are interpreted as a reduction of quality. Observation of formative forces revealed a reduction of quality in all samples with vitamin supplements