The Impact of Foreign Trade on the Development of Germany’s Energy Intensity during the Industrialization Phase

The development of Germany’s energy intensity of the 19th and 20th century shows a clear inverted U-shaped trend, which supports the hypothesis of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) of energy intensity. In this article this development will be analyzed from a consumption perspective and investigate the impact of international trade on the upswing phase of Germany’s EKC of energy intensity. It is assumed that Germany’s foreign trade played a vital role for its industrial energy consumption and that trade reinforced the rising trend of the energy intensity throughout the industrialization. The relative changes of the energy balance of trade indicate if foreign trade might have increased Germany’s energy consumption between 1880 and 1913. The increase of this balance after 1898 supports the hypothesis that trade impacted the EKC of energy intensity and that the peak might have been reached at lower levels without the reinforcing effect of foreign trade. A deeper analysis of the industrial sub-sectors indicates that the net exports of energy intensive industries influenced Germany’s rising energy intensity in the late 19th and early 20th century positively

From Trade-Off to Win-Win! Prudent Policy or Coincidental Conditions for Latin American economies

Many Latin American economies benefited greatly from increasing international trade and an unprecedented commodity boom in the dawn of the 21st century. At the same time the region successfully reduced the prevailing income inequality, apparently without compromising economic growth. These events seem to challenge the common belief of economists, who proclaim the mutual exclusiveness of growth promoting measures and inequality reducing policies. They also contrast the trends of rising income disparities in the western world, as famously expressed by Thomas Piketty (2014). Given Latin America’s long and burdensome history of high income inequality, the recent changes are untypical, which made the region a popular subject for research of economic inequality. While, numerous scholars tried to explain the relationship between economic growth and income inequality, this study primarily focuses on the impact of international trade on this very relationship. The contemporary case of Latin America fits this purpose greatly and is above all fascinating due to its historical properties in respect to income inequality. Moreover recent events in Latin America may indicate the beginning of a “win-win scenario” in which economic growth and reduced income inequality do not necessarily exclude each other. Admittedly the scenario is yet hypothetical as only the future will show if a sustained “win-win” trend occurs. However, with descriptive statistics and panel data regressions this study investigates if the increased commodity trade may have triggered the alleged regime change to a “win-win scenario”. The impact of changes in the commodity terms of trade on the ratio between social expenditures and GDP are analyzed in detail to get a better understanding of trade’s impact on income disparity. The results show that an increase in international trade is unlikely to be the sole culprit for reduced income inequality in Latin America. For the alleged change in the relationship between income inequality and economic growth, international trade cannot be held responsible either

Non-Gaussian behaviour of a self-propelled particle on a substrate

The overdamped Brownian motion of a self-propelled particle which is driven by a projected internal force is studied by solving the Langevin equation analytically. The "active" particle under study is restricted to move along a linear channel. The direction of its internal force is orientationally diffusing on a unit circle in a plane perpendicular to the substrate. An additional time-dependent torque is acting on the internal force orientation. The model is relevant for active particles like catalytically driven Janus particles and bacteria moving on a substrate. Analytical results for the first four time-dependent displacement moments are presented and analysed for several special situations. For vanishing torque, there is a significant dynamical non-Gaussian behaviour at finite times t as signalled by a non-vanishing normalized kurtosis in the particle displacement which approaches zero for long time with a 1/t long-time tail.Comment: 20 pages, 10 figure

Sarcopenia Is a Negative Prognostic Factor in Patients Undergoing Transarterial Chemoembolization (TACE) for Hepatic Malignancies

Background and Aims: While transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) represents a standard of therapy for intermediate-stage hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and is also routinely performed in patients with liver metastases, it is still debated which patients represent the ideal candidates for TACE therapy in terms of overall survival. Sarcopenia, the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, has been associated with an adverse outcome for various malignancies, but its role in the context of TACE has largely remained unknown. Here, we evaluated the role of sarcopenia on the outcome of patients undergoing TACE for primary and secondary liver cancer. Methods: The patients’ psoas muscle size was measured on axial computed tomography (CT) scans and normalized for the patients’ height squared. This value was referred to as the psoas muscle index (PMI). The PMI was correlated with clinical and laboratory markers. Results: While pre-interventional sarcopenia had no impact on the direct tumor response to TACE, sarcopenic patients with a pre-interventional PMI below our ideal cut-o value of 13.39 mm/m2 had a significantly impaired long-term outcome with a median overall survival of 491 days compared to 1291 days for patients with a high PMI. This finding was confirmed by uni- and multivariate Cox-regression analyses. Moreover, a progressive rapid decline in muscle mass after TACE was a predictor for an unfavorable prognosis. Conclusion: Our data suggest that sarcopenia represents a previously unrecognized prognostic factor for patients undergoing TACE therapy which might yield important information on the patients’ post-interventional outcome and should therefore be implemented into clinical stratification algorithms

Proteomic fingerprinting enables quantitative biodiversity assessments of species and ontogenetic stages in Calanus congeners (Copepoda, Crustacea) from the Arctic Ocean

Species identification is pivotal in biodiversity assessments and proteomic fingerprinting by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry has already been shown to reliably identify calanoid copepods to species level. However, MALDI-TOF data may contain more information beyond mere species identification. In this study, we investigated different ontogenetic stages (copepodids C1–C6 females) of three co-occurring Calanus species from the Arctic Fram Strait, which cannot be identified to species level based on morphological characters alone. Differentiation of the three species based on mass spectrometry data was without any error. In addition, a clear stage-specific signal was detected in all species, supported by clustering approaches as well as machine learning using Random Forest. More complex mass spectra in later ontogenetic stages as well as relative intensities of certain mass peaks were found as the main drivers of stage distinction in these species. Through a dilution series, we were able to show that this did not result from the higher amount of biomass that was used in tissue processing of the larger stages. Finally, the data were tested in a simulation for application in a real biodiversity assessment by using Random Forest for stage classification of specimens absent from the training data. This resulted in a successful stage-identification rate of almost 90%, making proteomic fingerprinting a promising tool to investigate polewards shifts of Atlantic Calanus species and, in general, to assess stage compositions in biodiversity assessments of Calanoida, which can be notoriously difficult using conventional identification methods

Characterization of Salmonella enterica from invasive bloodstream infections and water sources in rural Ghana.

BACKGROUND: Non-typhoidal Salmonella (NTS) cause the majority of bloodstream infections in Ghana, however the mode of transmission and source of invasive NTS in Africa are poorly understood. This study compares NTS from water sources and invasive bloodstream infections in rural Ghana. METHODS: Blood from hospitalised, febrile children and samples from drinking water sources were analysed for Salmonella spp. Strains were serotyped to trace possible epidemiological links between human and water-derived isolates.. Antibiotic susceptibility testing was performed, RESULTS: In 2720 blood culture samples, 165 (6%) NTS were isolated. S. Typhimurium (70%) was the most common serovar followed by S. Enteritidis (8%) and S. Dublin (8%). Multidrug resistance (MDR) was found in 95 (58%) NTS isolates, including five S. Enteritidis. One S. Typhimurium showed reduced fluroquinolone susceptibility. In 511 water samples, 19 (4%) tested positive for S. enterica with two isolates being resistant to ampicillin and one isolate being resistant to cotrimoxazole. Serovars from water samples were not encountered in any of the clinical specimens. CONCLUSION: Water analyses demonstrated that common drinking water sources were contaminated with S. enterica posing a potential risk for transmission. However, a link between S. enterica from water sources and patients could not be established, questioning the ability of water-derived serovars to cause invasive bloodstream infections