Technological Progress and Market Growth : An Empirical Study Based on the Quality-Ladder Approach

This paper develops an extended version of the quality-ladder model by allowing for heterogeneous markets. Based on this model, it presents an empirical analysis of innovation-based growth at the market level using a technometric measurement concept. It can be shown that a growth-promoting effect due to technological progress in a particular, single year is observed after between two and up to seven years. This is true not only for highly innovative markets, but also for those in which fewer R&D resources are invested. --Innovative Activities,Quality Ladders,Endogenous Market Growth,Technometrics

Palladium and silver abundances in stars with [Fe/H] > -2.6

Palladium (Pd) and silver (Ag) are the key elements for probing the weak component in the rapid neutron-capture process (r-process) of stellar nucleosynthesis. We performed a detailed analysis of the high-resolution and high signal-to-noise ratio near-UV spectra from the archive of HIRES on the Keck telescope, UVES on the VLT, and HDS on the Subaru Telescope, to determine the Pd and Ag abundances of 95 stars. This sample covers a wide metallicity range with -2.6 $\lesssim$ [Fe/H] $\lesssim$ +0.1, and most of them are dwarfs. The plane-parallel LTE MAFAGS-OS model atmosphere was adopted, and the spectral synthesis method was used to derive the Pd and Ag abundances from Pd I {\lambda} 3404 {\AA} and Ag I {\lambda} 3280/3382 {\AA} lines. We found that both elements are enhanced in metal-poor stars, and their ratios to iron show flat trends at -0.6 < [Fe/H] < +0.1. The abundance ratios of [Ag/H] and [Pd/H] are well correlated over the whole abundance range. This implies that Pd and Ag have similar formation mechanisms during the Galactic evolution.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures, accepted to A&

Prozessuale Probleme bei Beschlussmängelstreitigkeiten in Personengesellschaften

1. Bis in die 80er Jahre des 20. Jahrhunderts war das Verhältnis der Gesellschafter untereinander im Gesetz (vgl. § 109 HGB; § 45 GmbHG) ausschließlich vom Grundsatz der Vertragsfreiheit geprägt. Das schloss ein: Wer die Macht, d.h. die Mehrheit hat, hat das Recht. Sieht man von den seltenen Fällen der Sittenwidrigkeit ab, gab es von daher keine Notwendigkeit, Beschlüsse der Gesellschafter einer gerichtlichen Überprüfung zu unterziehen. 2. Die Rechtsprechung insbesondere die des zweiten Senats des Bundesgerichtshofes hat in den letzten Jahren ein Instrumentarium entwickelt, das dem Minderheitsgesellschafter Rechte zuspricht, auch wenn er formal überstimmt wurde. In erster Linie wurde die Treuepflicht der Gesellschafter untereinander, die Pflicht der gegenseitigen Rücksichtnahme und die Pflicht eigene Interessen hinter denen der Gesellschaft zu stellen in vielen Fallkonstellationen konkretisiert. Es folgte die sog. 'Kernbereichslehre', die besagt, dass Kernrechte eines Gesellschafters nicht angetastet werden dürfen. Daraus entwickelte sich z.B. das Verbot einen Gesellschafter ohne Grund durch Beschluss auszuschließen oder nur minimale Abfindungen im Falle des Ausscheidens zu gewähren. 3. Zu den materiellen Rechten musste die Grundlage geschaffen werden, damit diese Rechte auch prozessual durchgesetzt werden können. Die Personengesellschaften haben dabei eine wegen ihrer personalistischen Struktur andere Behandlung erfahren als die Kapitalgesellschaften. Die beanstandeten Gesellschafterbeschlüsse müssen mit Feststellungsklage angegriffen werden. Klagegegner sind die übrigen Gesellschafter, eine Frist zur Klageerhebung gibt es grundsätzlich nicht, die Entscheidungen sind auch vor Schiedsgerichten möglich. 4. Die Rechtsentwicklung ist noch nicht abgeschlossen, insbesondere im Hinblick darauf, inwieweit gesellschaftsvertraglich andere Regelungen eingeführt werden können. Die hoch umstrittene, aber nicht mehr rückgängig zu machende grundsätzliche Zulässigkeit von einstweiligen Verfügungen in Beschlussmängelstreitigkeiten öffnet eine neue Rechtsentwicklung. Roman Herzog, der frühere Bundespräsident und Präsident des Bundesverfassungsgerichtes hat ein-mal gesagt: Gerechtigkeit bedeutet auch und besonders die effektive Rechtsgewährung. Gerade diese Forderung scheint in Beschlussstreitigkeiten durch die Zulässigkeit einer einstweiligen Verfügung verwirklicht zu werden.1. Up until the 80s of the 20th century, shareholder relationships in law were exclusively based on the principle of contractual freedom. This included: he who has the power, i.e. the majority, is right. Apart from a few cases impropriety, there was never a need for a judicial review of a motion passed by shareholders. 2. In the last few years, legal decisions especially that of the second Senate of the Federal Court have developed instruments granting minority shareholders rights even when they have been formally outvoted. Established were the primary duty of shareholders to one another, the reciprocal duty of consideration and the duty of subordinating self-interest below that of the company in several judgements. What followed was the so-called 'Core Area Doctrine' which states that the core rights of a shareholder may not be infringed upon. From this developed e.g. the prohibition against the expulsion of a shareholder without cause via a motion, or granting a shareholder only minimum compensation in case of departing the company. 3. The material laws had to have a basis created so that these laws could be used in a court of law. Partnerships, due to their structural nature, have had different experiences than corporations. The shareholder resolution in question must be attacked using an action for declaratory judgement. Defendants are the rest of the shareholders as a rule there is no statute of limita-tions and a decision from a court of arbitration is also possible. 4. The development of these laws has not been finalized especially regarding how far in share-holder contracts other regulations can be introduced. Roman Herzog, the previous Federal President and President of the Federal Constitutional Court, once said, 'Justice means also and especially effective protection under the law'. Precisely this challenge seems to have become reality in judgements allowing these legal instruments

Fe I/Fe II ionization equilibrium in cool stars: NLTE versus LTE

Non-local thermodynamic equilibrium (NLTE) line formation for neutral and singly-ionized iron is considered through a range of stellar parameters characteristic of cool stars. A comprehensive model atom for Fe I and Fe II is presented. Our NLTE calculations support the earlier conclusions that the statistical equilibrium (SE) of Fe I shows an underpopulation of Fe I terms. However, the inclusion of the predicted high-excitation levels of Fe I in our model atom leads to a substantial decrease in the departures from LTE. As a test and first application of the Fe I/II model atom, iron abundances are determined for the Sun and four selected stars with well determined stellar parameters and high-quality observed spectra. Within the error bars, lines of Fe I and Fe II give consistent abundances for the Sun and two metal-poor stars when inelastic collisions with hydrogen atoms are taken into account in the SE calculations. For the close-to-solar metallicity stars Procyon and $\beta$ Vir, the difference (Fe II - Fe I) is about 0.1 dex independent of the line formation model, either NLTE or LTE. We evaluate the influence of departures from LTE on Fe abundance and surface gravity determination for cool stars.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in the proceedings of IAU Symposium 265, Chemical Abundances in the Universe: Connecting First Stars to Planets, K. Cunha, M. Spite & B. Barbuy, ed

A non-LTE study of neutral and singly-ionized iron line spectra in 1D models of the Sun and selected late-type stars

A comprehensive model atom for Fe with more than 3000 energy levels is presented. As a test and first application of this model atom, Fe abundances are determined for the Sun and five stars with well determined stellar parameters and high-quality observed spectra. Non-LTE leads to systematically depleted total absorption in the Fe I lines and to positive abundance corrections in agreement with the previous studies, however, the magnitude of non-LTE effect is smaller compared to the earlier results. Non-LTE corrections do not exceed 0.1 dex for the solar metallicity and mildly metal-deficient stars, and they vary within 0.21 dex and 0.35 dex in the very metal-poor stars HD 84937 and HD 122563, respectively, depending on the assumed efficiency of collisions with hydrogen atoms. Based on the analysis of the Fe I/Fe II ionization equilibrium in these two stars, we recommend to apply the Drawin formalism in non-LTE studies of Fe with a scaling factor of 0.1. For the Fe II lines, non-LTE corrections do not exceed 0.01 dex in absolute value. The solar non-LTE abundance obtained from 54 Fe I lines is 7.56+-0.09 and the abundance from 18 Fe II lines varies between 7.41+-0.11 and 7.56+-0.05 depending on the source of the gf-values. Thus, gf-values available for the iron lines are not accurate enough to pursue high-accuracy absolute abundance determinations. Lines of Fe I give, on average, a 0.1 dex lower abundance compared to those of Fe II lines for HD 61421 and HD 102870, even when applying a differential analysis relative to the Sun. A disparity between Fe I and Fe II points to problems of stellar atmosphere modelling or/and effective temperature determination.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, online material, accepted by A&

Calibrating the {\alpha} parameter of convective efficiency using observed stellar properties

Context. Synthetic model atmosphere calculations are still the most commonly used tool when determining precise stellar parameters and stellar chemical compositions. Besides three-dimensional models that consistently solve for hydrodynamic processes, one-dimensional models that use an approximation for convective energy transport play the major role. Aims. We use modern Balmer-line formation theory as well as spectral energy distribution (SED) measurements for the Sun and Procyon to calibrate the model parameter {\alpha} that describes the efficiency of convection in our 1D models. Convection was calibrated over a significant range in parameter space, reaching from F-K along the main sequence and sampling the turnoff and giant branch over a wide range of metallicities. This calibration was compared to theoretical evaluations and allowed an accurate modeling of stellar atmospheres. Methods. We used Balmer-line fitting and SED fits to determine the convective efficiency parameter {\alpha}. Both methods are sensitive to the structure and temperature stratification of the deeper photosphere. Results. While SED fits do not allow a precise determination of the convective parameter for the Sun and Procyon, they both favor values significantly higher than 1.0. Balmer-line fitting, which we find to be more sensitive, suggests that the convective efficiency parameter {\alpha} is $\approx$ 2.0 for the main sequence and quickly decreases to $\approx$ 1.0 for evolved stars. These results are highly consistent with predictions from 3D models. While the values on the main sequence fit predictions very well, measurements suggest that the decrease of convective efficiency as stars evolve to the giant branch is more dramatic than predicted by models.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in A&

Gender-specific patterns in patenting and publishing

It is the core argument of this paper that technological development in China is not suffering from a lack of innovative capacity or human resources, but from a mismatch of research supply and demand. It is suggested that the expansion of successful domestic knowledge generation beyond a limited number of highly publicised S&T 'mega projects' depends on an improved management system for the interface between public applied research and technological development. The empirical analy-sis brings together data on the Chinese innovation system with evidence from the electronics industry in Guangdong province. --