Determinants of Further Training: Evidence for Germany

Based on a German representative sample of employees we explore the relevance and development of further training in private sector firms. We focus on formal training and explore possible individual and job-based determinants of its incidence. We also show changes over time during a 20 year observation period from 1989 to 2008. Most hypotheses are supported by the empirical evidence. Job status and firm size are the most relevant characteristics for training participation. Furthermore, our analyses reveal a general trend of rising training rates from 1989 to 2008 indicating an increased importance in the German labor market.further training, GSOEP, human capital, panel data

Neural correlates of conscious and unconscious somatosensory processing

Every day there are somatosensory stimuli on our skin that we perceive one moment and the next not, despite their unchanged physical presence (e.g., insects, wind, clothing). Yet, which are the physiological determinants and neural correlates that accompany external stimuli to enter consciousness or not? To address this question and inform theories of consciousness, this dissertation presents three empirical studies that used weak electrical finger-nerve stimulation which led - despite being physically identical - to subjective experiences of stimulus presence and absence. The first two studies investigated the interaction of tactile conscious perception with two dominant body rhythms: the cardiac and respiratory cycle. The third study investigated the configuration of neural networks being involved in this near-threshold phenomenon. Tactile conscious perception changed over the course of the cardiac cycle (increased detection during diastole) and respiration was tuned such that stimuli occurred more likely during late inspiration / early expiration, resulting in increased detection during early expiration. On the neural level, conscious perception was accompanied by global broadcasting of sensory content across the brain without substantial reconfiguration of the whole-brain functional network in terms of graph metrics. The cardiac cycle effect on conscious tactile perception is a result of cognitive processes which model and predict our body’s internal state to inform perception and guide behavior (e.g., tuning respiration). This perceptual integration of interoceptive and exteroceptive 'beliefs' is also an explanation for widely distributed brain activity differences without whole-brain functional network changes when a tactile stimulus is perceived

The Entity Registry System: Implementing 5-Star Linked Data Without the Web

Linked Data applications often assume that connectivity to data repositories and entity resolution services are always available. This may not be a valid assumption in many cases. Indeed, there are about 4.5 billion people in the world who have no or limited Web access. Many data-driven applications may have a critical impact on the life of those people, but are inaccessible to those populations due to the architecture of today's data registries. In this paper, we propose and evaluate a new open-source system that can be used as a general-purpose entity registry suitable for deployment in poorly-connected or ad-hoc environments.Comment: 16 pages, authors are listed in alphabetical orde

Zuckmücken (Chironomidae) und ihre Syninklusen in Dominikanischem Bernstein : Eine Analyse der Diversität, Biogeographie, Paläoökologie und Stabilität der fossilen Fauna und Vergleich mit der heutigen Lebewelt

Die vorliegende Arbeit ist eine paläobiologische Studie über die Chironomidae (Zuckmücken) des Dominikanischen Bernsteins und ihrer Syninklusen aus dem frühen bis mittleren Miozän (15-20 Millionen Jahre) von Hispaniola. Die Analyse und Auswertung der fossilen Chironomidenfauna erlaubt einen detaillierten und tiefen Einblick in die Ökologie der damaligen Lebewelt. Die hier gebotene Interpretation liefert ein einzigartiges Bild einer stabilen Einheit von Habitat, Ökologie und Zusammensetzung dieser tropischen Chironomidenfauna über einen Zeitraum von mindestens 15 Millionen Jahren. Die begleitende Syninklusenfauna der Chironomiden liefert zusätzliche Hinweise zur Beschaffenheit des Bernsteinwaldes, den Wandel der Lebewelt auf der Karibischen Insel und zur Taphonomie der Bernsteinfossilien

Learning from weather and climate science to prepare for a future pandemic

Established pandemic models have yielded mixed results to track and forecast the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. To prepare for future outbreaks, the disease-modeling community can improve their modeling capabilities by learning from the methods and insights from another arena where accurate modeling is paramount: the weather and climate research field. To prepare for future outbreaks, the disease-modeling community should draw on the methods and insights of the weather and climate research field. Image credit: Shutterstock/NASA Images. We argue that these improvements fall into four categories: model development, international comparisons, data exchange, and risk communication. A proper quantification of uncertainties in observations and models—including model assumptions, tail risks, and appropriate communication using probabilistic, Bayesian-based approaches—did not receive enough attention during the pandemic. Standardized testing and international comparison of model results is routine in climate modeling. No equivalent currently exists for pandemic models. Sharing of data is urgently needed. The homogenized real-time international data exchange, as organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) since the 1960s, can serve as a role model for a global (privacy-preserving) data exchange by the World Health Organization. Lastly, researchers can look to climate change and high-impact weather forecasting to glean lessons about risk communication and the role of science in decision-making, in order to avoid common pitfalls and guide communication. Each of the four improvements is detailed here.publishedVersio

Distinction of subtype-specific antibodies against European porcine influenza viruses by indirect ELISA based on recombinant hemagglutinin protein fragment-1

BACKGROUND: Serological investigations of swine influenza virus infections and epidemiological conclusions thereof are challenging due to the complex and regionally variable pattern of co-circulating viral subtypes and lineages and varying vaccination regimes. Detection of subtype-specific antibodies currently depends on hemagglutination inhibition (HI) assays which are difficult to standardize and unsuitable for large scale investigations. METHODS: The nucleocapsid protein (NP) and HA1 fragments of the hemagglutinin protein (HA) of five different lineages (H1N1av, H1N1pdm, H1pdmN2, H1N2, H3N2) of swine influenza viruses were bacterially expressed and used as diagnostic antigens in indirect ELISA. RESULTS: Proteins were co-translationally mono-biotinylated and refolded in vitro into an antigenically authentic conformation. Western blotting and indirect ELISA revealed highly subtype-specific antigenic characteristics of the recombinant HA1 proteins although some cross reactivity especially among antigens of the H1 subtype were evident. Discrimination of antibodies directed against four swine influenza virus subtypes co-circulating in Germany was feasible using the indirect ELISA format. CONCLUSIONS: Bacterially expressed recombinant NP and HA1 swine influenza virus proteins served as antigens in indirect ELISAs and provided an alternative to commercial blocking NP ELISA and HI assays concerning generic (NP-specific) and HA subtype-specific sero-diagnostics, respectively, on a herd basis

Monoclonal antibodies specific for the hemagglutinin-neuraminidase protein define neutralizing epitopes specific for Newcastle disease virus genotype 2.VII from Egypt

Background Newcastle disease is a devastating disease in poultry caused by virulent Newcastle disease virus (NDV), a paramyxovirus endemic in many regions of the world despite intensive vaccination. Phylogenetic analyses reveal ongoing evolution of the predominant circulating genotype 2.VII, and the relevance of potential antigenic drift is under discussion. To investigate variation within neutralization-sensitive epitopes within the protein responsible for receptor binding, i.e. the Hemagglutinin-Neuraminidase (HN) spike protein, we were interested in establishing genotype-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Methods An HN-enriched fraction of a gradient-purified NDV genotype 2.VII was prepared and successfully employed to induce antibodies in BalbC mice that recognize conformationally intact sites reactive by haemagglutination inhibition (HI). For subsequent screening of mouse hybridoma cultures, an NDV-ELISA was established that utilizes Concanavalin A (ConA-ELISA) coupled glycoproteins proven to present conformation-dependent epitopes. Results Six out of nine selected MAbs were able to block receptor binding as demonstrated by HI activity. One MAb recognized an epitope only present in the homologue virus, while four other MAbs showed weak reactivity to selected other genotypes. On the other hand, one broadly cross-reacting MAb reacted with all genotypes tested and resembled the reactivity profile of genotype-specific polyclonal antibody preparations that point to minor antigenic differences between tested NDV genotpyes. Conclusions These results point to the concurrent presence of variable and conserved epitopes within the HN molecule of NDV. The described protocol should help to generate MAbs against a variety of NDV strains and to enable in depth analysis of the antigenic profiles of different genotypes

Requirement of plakophilin 2 for heart morphogenesis and cardiac junction formation

Plakophilins are proteins of the armadillo family that function in embryonic development and in the adult, and when mutated can cause disease. We have ablated the plakophilin 2 gene in mice. The resulting mutant mice exhibit lethal alterations in heart morphogenesis and stability at mid-gestation (E10.5–E11), characterized by reduced trabeculation, disarrayed cytoskeleton, ruptures of cardiac walls, and blood leakage into the pericardiac cavity. In the absence of plakophilin 2, the cytoskeletal linker protein desmoplakin dissociates from the plaques of the adhering junctions that connect the cardiomyocytes and forms granular aggregates in the cytoplasm. By contrast, embryonic epithelia show normal junctions. Thus, we conclude that plakophilin 2 is important for the assembly of junctional proteins and represents an essential morphogenic factor and architectural component of the heart

Cavity Polariton Condensate in a Disordered Environment

We report on the influence of disorder on an exciton-polariton condensate in a ZnO based bulk planar microcavity and compare experimental results with a theoretical model for a non-equilibrium condensate. Experimentally, we detect intensity fluctuations within the far-field emission pattern even at high condensate densities which indicates a significant impact of disorder. We show that these effects rely on the driven dissipative nature of the condensate and argue that they can be accounted for by spatial phase inhomogeneities induced by disorder, which occur even for increasing condensate densities realized in the regime of high excitation power. Thus, non-equilibrium effects strongly suppress the stabilization of the condensate against disorder, contrarily to what is expected for equilibrium condensates in the high density limit. Numerical simulations based on our theoretical model reproduce the experimental data.Comment: main article and supplementary, 13 pages, 8 figures (main article