Are Suburban Firms More Likely to Discriminate Against African Americans?

This paper presents a test of the hypothesis that employers in suburban locations are more likely to discriminate against African Americans than are employers located in central cities. Using a difference-in-difference framework, we compare central-city/suburban differences in racial hiring outcomes for firms where a white person is in charge of hiring (white employers, for short) to similar geographic differences in outcomes for firms where a black person is in charge of hiring (black employers). We find that both suburban black and white employers hire fewer blacks than their central-city counterparts. Moreover, the central-city/suburban hiring gap among black employers is as large as, or larger than, that of white employers. Suburban black employers, however, receive many more applications from blacks and hire more blacks than do white firms in either location.

Border adjustment measures as instruments to reduce emissions leakage

We analyze carbon-related BAMs (focused on imports) as potential instruments to reduce emissions leakage. We combine an approach from international trade law with an economic approach. For the legal aspect we discuss the elements needed to include carbon-related BAMs within the current GATT and WTO frameworks. For the economic aspect, we assess the effects of leakage and of BAMs to tackle it within an optimal climate policy model and a general equilibrium model. We find that the design and implementation of these BAMs would be difficult to bring in compliance with current international trade law and it may entail high transaction costs. Moreover, we observe that the severity of leakage may be amplified by international trade and that BAMs help in reducing it. Finally, we find that welfare effects of introducing carbon-related BAMs are ambiguous and thus they may not represent a credible threat to involve other actors in the international climate regime

Bauen in Brasilien

Im Herbst 2014 fand die große Exkursion 2014 der Fakultät Bauingenieurwesen der HTWG Konstanz nach Brasilien unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Horst Werkle und Prof. Dr. Peter Hirschmann statt. Auf dem Programm stand der Besuch der Städte Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro und Iguacu. Der Bericht schildert den Besuch interessanter Baustellen und großer Bauprojekte wie des im Bau befindlichen futuristisch anmutenden „Museum of Tomorrow“, des Maracana-Stadions mit seiner neuen Membrandachkonstruktion sowie des zweitgrößten Wasserkraftwerks der Welt

The German National Registry of Primary Immunodeficiencies (2012-2017)

Introduction: The German PID-NET registry was founded in 2009, serving as the first national registry of patients with primary immunodeficiencies (PID) in Germany. It is part of the European Society for Immunodeficiencies (ESID) registry. The primary purpose of the registry is to gather data on the epidemiology, diagnostic delay, diagnosis, and treatment of PIDs. Methods: Clinical and laboratory data was collected from 2,453 patients from 36 German PID centres in an online registry. Data was analysed with the software Stata® and Excel. Results: The minimum prevalence of PID in Germany is 2.72 per 100,000 inhabitants. Among patients aged 1–25, there was a clear predominance of males. The median age of living patients ranged between 7 and 40 years, depending on the respective PID. Predominantly antibody disorders were the most prevalent group with 57% of all 2,453 PID patients (including 728 CVID patients). A gene defect was identified in 36% of patients. Familial cases were observed in 21% of patients. The age of onset for presenting symptoms ranged from birth to late adulthood (range 0–88 years). Presenting symptoms comprised infections (74%) and immune dysregulation (22%). Ninety-three patients were diagnosed without prior clinical symptoms. Regarding the general and clinical diagnostic delay, no PID had undergone a slight decrease within the last decade. However, both, SCID and hyper IgE- syndrome showed a substantial improvement in shortening the time between onset of symptoms and genetic diagnosis. Regarding treatment, 49% of all patients received immunoglobulin G (IgG) substitution (70%—subcutaneous; 29%—intravenous; 1%—unknown). Three-hundred patients underwent at least one hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Five patients had gene therapy. Conclusion: The German PID-NET registry is a precious tool for physicians, researchers, the pharmaceutical industry, politicians, and ultimately the patients, for whom the outcomes will eventually lead to a more timely diagnosis and better treatment

Polyimide-based microfluidic devices

This paper describes the development of polyimide-based microfluidic devices. A layer transfer and lamination technique is used to fabricate flexible microfluidic channels in various shapes and with a wide range of dimensions. High bond strengths can be achieved by cure cycle adaptation and surface treatment of the polyimide layers prior to bonding. The polyimide microchannels can be combined with metallization layers to fabricate electrodes inside and outside channels. The resulting devices can be used for flexible fluidic and electrical connectors, implantable fluid delivery devices, microelectrodes with embedded fluidic channels, chip-based flow cytometry and for a great variety of other applications in medical, chemical or biological research