A Variant of Uzawa's Theorem

Uzawa (1961) has shown that balanced growth requires technological progress to be strictly Harrod neutral (purely labor-augmenting). This paper offers a slightly more general variant of the theorem that does not require assumptions about savings behavior or factor pricing and is much easier to prove.Harrod bias technological progress

Monetary Policy and Wage Bargaining in the EMU: Restrictive ECB Policies, High Unemployment, Nominal Wage Restraint and Rising Inflation

Assessing the effects of monetary policy and wage bargaining on employment and inflation in the European Monetary Union (EMU), in the first step a Post-Keynesian competitive claims model of inflation with endogenous money is developed. In this model the NAIRU is considered to be a short-run limit to employment enforced by independent and conservative central banks. In the long run, however, the NAIRU will follow actual unemployment and is therefore also dependent on the forces determining aggregate demand, including monetary policies. But the NAIRU may also be reduced by effectively co-ordinated wage bargaining as has been shown by institutional political economists. Applying these considerations to the economic performance of the EMU, different scenarios determined by wage bargaining co-ordination and the European Central Bank’s (ECB) monetary policies are developed. It is shown that the first phase of EMU was dominated by uncoordinated wage bargaining across EMU and an “anti-growth-bias” of the ECB. Therefore, the Euro area was plagued with nominal wage restraint, high unemployment and rising inflation. Economic performance will improve if the ECB abandons its asymmetric monetary strategy. This may be facilitated by a higher degree of effective wage bargaining co-ordination across EMU.European Monetary Union, monetary policy, wage bargaining, inflation and employment

Applicability of in vivo staging of regional amyloid burden in a cognitively normal cohort with subjective memory complaints: the INSIGHT-preAD study.

BACKGROUND:Current methods of amyloid PET interpretation based on the binary classification of global amyloid signal fail to identify early phases of amyloid deposition. A recent analysis of 18F-florbetapir PET data from the Alzheimer's disease Neuroimaging Initiative cohort suggested a hierarchical four-stage model of regional amyloid deposition that resembles neuropathologic estimates and can be used to stage an individual's amyloid burden in vivo. Here, we evaluated the validity of this in vivo amyloid staging model in an independent cohort of older people with subjective memory complaints (SMC). We further examined its potential association with subtle cognitive impairments in this population at elevated risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS:The monocentric INSIGHT-preAD cohort includes 318 cognitively intact older individuals with SMC. All individuals underwent 18F-florbetapir PET scanning and extensive neuropsychological testing. We projected the regional amyloid uptake signal into the previously proposed hierarchical staging model of in vivo amyloid progression. We determined the adherence to this model across all cases and tested the association between increasing in vivo amyloid stage and cognitive performance using ANCOVA models. RESULTS:In total, 156 participants (49%) showed evidence of regional amyloid deposition, and all but 2 of these (99%) adhered to the hierarchical regional pattern implied by the in vivo amyloid progression model. According to a conventional binary classification based on global signal (SUVRCereb = 1.10), individuals in stages III and IV were classified as amyloid-positive (except one in stage III), but 99% of individuals in stage I and even 28% of individuals in stage II were classified as amyloid-negative. Neither in vivo amyloid stage nor conventional binary amyloid status was significantly associated with cognitive performance in this preclinical cohort. CONCLUSIONS:The proposed hierarchical staging scheme of PET-evidenced amyloid deposition generalizes well to data from an independent cohort of older people at elevated risk for AD. Future studies will determine the prognostic value of the staging approach for predicting longitudinal cognitive decline in older individuals at increased risk for AD

Viruserkrankungen in Möhren - gegenwärtige Probleme und verfügbare Nachweismethoden

An apparently new virus disease of carrots (Daucus carota) has gained increasing importance in Germany. The complex of symptoms consisting of leaf reddening, plant stunting, hairy and rat tailed roots is thought to be caused by viral infections. Particularly the main carrot growing areas in Lower Saxony are adversely affected. In field surveys in 2003 about 30 % symptomatic plants were observed with average weight losses of about 30 %. In severe cases symptom-related yield reduction was estimated to be 17 % on-farm, which corresponded to a monetary loss of up to 600 €/ha. In 2004 up to 6 % of the plants displayed virus like symptoms. Varietal differences in susceptibility were observed. In general, late maturing varieties for processing showed more symptoms than early maturing fresh market varietes. However, this was not consistent in all cases. At present eight different carrot viruses have been isolated and partially characterized. Antisera to Carrot yellow leaf virus (CYLV, Closterovirus), Carrot thin leaf virus (CTLV, Potyvirus), Carrot red leaf virus (CtRLV, Luteovirus), and the Anthriscus strain of Parsnip yellow fleck virus (PYFV, Sequivirus) are now commercially available for serological analysis of carrot samples. Our provisional experimental data indicate that CtRLV is highly variable and the causal agents typically associated with the carrot motley dwarf (CMD) disease complex may differ in Germany from those reported in the literature. Further analyses of single and multiple infections with their corresponding symptoms under controlled conditions will be necessary to identify the relevant environmental conditions leading to economic losses

Photophysics of Structurally Modified Flavin Derivatives in the Blue-Light Photoreceptor YtvA: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study

The light-induced processes of two flavin mononucleotide derivatives (1- and 5-deaza flavin mononucleotide, 1DFMN and 5DFMN), incorporated into the LOV domain of YtvA protein from Bacillus subtilis, were studied by a combination of experimental and computational methods. Quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) calculations were carried out in which the QM part was treated by density functional theory (DFT) using the B3LYP functional for geometry optimizations and the DFT/MRCI method for spectroscopic properties, whereas the MM part was described by the CHARMM force field. 1DFMN is incorporated into the protein binding site, yielding a red-shifted absorption band (lmax=530 nm compared to YtvA wild-type lmax=445 nm), but does not undergo any LOV-typical photoreactions such as triplet and photoadduct formation. QM/MM computations confirmed the absence of a channel for triplet formation and located a radiation-free channel (through an S1/S0 conical intersection) along a hydrogen transfer path that might allow for fast deactivation. By contrast, 5DFMN-YtvA-LOV shows a blue-shifted absorption (lmax=410 nm) and undergoes similar photochemical processes to FMN in the wild-type protein, both with regard to the photophysics and the formation of a photoadduct with a flavin-cysteinyl covalent bond. The QM/MM calculations predict a mechanism that involves hydrogen transfer in the T1 state, followed by intersystem crossing and adduct formation in the S0 state for the forward reaction. Experimentally, in contrast to wild-type YtvA, dark-state recovery in 5DFMN-YtvALOV is not thermally driven but can only be accomplished after absorption of a second photon by the photoadduct, again via the triplet state. The QM/MM calculations suggest a photochemical mechanism for dark-state recovery that is accessible only for the adduct with a C4a–S bond but not for alternative adducts with a C5–S bond

Wie viel Autonomie darf’s denn sein?

Galt Autonomie lange Zeit als nahezu unhinterfragtes Leitziel (ethischer) Erziehung, so wird diese in den letzten Jahren verstärkt hinterfragt. Gerade in Medien und Populärwissenschaften wird an die Stelle eines autonom und selbstbewusst handelnden Subjekts auf die heteronome Vermittlung eines grundlegenden Wertekanons gesetzt. Der Aufsatz sichtet angesichts dieser Problemanzeige verschiedene Modelle ethischer Erziehung und erörtert Anfragen aus Erziehungswissenschaft und Studien zur Moralentwicklung. Abschließend kommt er zu einer Bestimmung von ethischer Erziehung in Autonomie (nicht zu Autonomie) und lotet darin den Beitrag des Christentums aus

"Der schnodert in German" : examples of loan word and linguistic mixtures of German and Brazilian Portuguese in the South of Brazil (São Bento do Sul, Santa Catarina State)

The article focuses on loan words, language mixtures and the continuous code switching specifically of residents of German origin from São Bento do Sul, Federal State of Santa Catarina. It deals with loan words of Portuguese lexemes such as interjections, formulaic expressions, negations, subjunctions/conjunctions and some special cases of Portuguese constructions. Using various segments of spoken language and short analyses the special forms of German-Brazilian language contact are presented in exemplary form.Der Artikel thematisiert Entlehnungen, Sprachmischungen und den Umgang mit kontinuierlichem Sprachwechsel deutschstämmiger Bewohnerinnen und Bewohner aus São Bento do Sul, Bundesstaat Santa Catarina. Es geht hierbei sowohl um Entlehnungen einzelner portugiesischer Lexeme wie Interjektionen, formelhafte Ausdrücke, Negierungen, Subjunktionen/Konjunktionen und einige Sonderfälle als auch um Übernahmen portugiesischer Konstruktionen. Anhand verschiedener Gesprächsausschnitte und Kurzanalysen werden in exemplarischer Form die spezifischen Formen des deutsch-brasilianischen Sprachkontakts vorgestellt.O artigo tematiza empréstimos, mistura e troca contínua de código linguístico (code switching) no uso diário por descendentes de alemães de São Bento do Sul, Estado de Santa Catarina. Tratase aqui não só de empréstimos de alguns lexemas em português, como interjeições, expressões formulaicas, negações, subjunções/conjunções e de alguns 'casos especiais', como também de assimilação de formulações inteiras em português brasileiro. Com base em excertos de diálogos e análises curtas são apresentadas, em amostras exemplares, formas específicas do contato linguístico teuto-brasileiro

Superconductivity in polycrystalline pressed samples of organic metals

We report bulk superconductivity at ambient pressure in polycrystalline pressed samples of αt-(BEDT-TTF)2I3. As in single crystals of αt-(BEDT-TTF)2I3 the onset for superconductivity in the polycrystalline pressed samples lies at about 9K but the transition is broader. Zero resistivity is observed at 2.2K and the middle of the transition is found at 5K. The measurement of the ac susceptibility shows that at 2K about 50% of the sample is superconducting, but at this temperature the transition is still not saturated. The observation of bulk superconductivity in this polycrystalline pressed samples is of special interest because it demonstrates that organic superconductors can be used in principle as well for the production of electronic devices such as squids and superconducting cables. In addition the finding of bulk superconductivity in large pressed samples of crystallites of the typical diameter of 1μm of an organic metal indicates that the observation of superconductivity in organic polymers should be possible as well