Blauer Brief und seine Folgen: Ist eine Politik des Nulldefizits realisierbar?

Im vergangenen Jahr wies Deutschland mit 2,7% die mit Abstand größte Defizitquote in der EU auf. Vor diesem Hintergrund empfahl die EU-Kommission, dass der Ecofin-Rat im Rahmen des Haushaltsüberwachungsverfahrens eine Frühwarnung aussprechen sollte. Da sich die Bundesregierung daraufhin verpflichtete, sicherzustellen, dass die 3%-Grenze nicht überschritten und ein annähernd ausgeglichener Haushalt im Jahr 2004 erreicht wird, sah der Ecofin-Rat hiervon ab. Für Wolfgang Gerhards, Finanzminister von Sachsen-Anhalt, ist dieses Ziel »nicht nur möglich, sondern auch nötig«. Dazu bedarf es allerdings, »dass Bund und Länder auf gleicher Augenhöhe agieren. Dies muss notwendigerweise eine starke Rückkoppelung der Bundesebene mit der Länderebene bedeuten, insbesondere wenn es um internationale Absprachen und Verpflichtungen geht.« Auch für Dr. Jürgen Stark, Vizepräsident der Deutschen Bundesbank, »kann dieses Ziel erreicht werden. Im Hinblick auf die Bedeutung der Glaubwürdigkeit der für die Währungsunion beschlossenen Haushaltsregeln, aber auch unter Berücksichtigung der voraussichtlichen gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung und der finanzpolitischen Herausforderungen der Zukunft ist eine solche Politik nicht nur realisierbar, sondern sie ist im nationalen Eigeninteresse auch sachgerecht und notwendig.« Prof. Dr. Helmut Frisch, TU Wien und Präsident des Staatsschuldenausschusses, beschreibt in seinem Beitrag den Weg Österreichs zu einem »Nulldefizit«.Haushaltsdefizit, Öffentliche Finanzkontrolle, Wirtschaftslage, Finanzpolitik, Deutschland, Europäische Wirtschafts- und Währungsunion

Dissociating memory networks in early Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal lobar degeneration - a combined study of hypometabolism and atrophy

Introduction: We aimed at dissociating the neural correlates of memory disorders in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Methods: We included patients with AD (n = 19, 11 female, mean age 61 years) and FTLD (n = 11, 5 female, mean age 61 years) in early stages of their diseases. Memory performance was assessed by means of verbal and visual memory subtests from the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS-R), including forgetting rates. Brain glucose utilization was measured by [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) and brain atrophy by voxel-based morphometry (VBM) of T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. Using a whole brain approach, correlations between test performance and imaging data were computed separately in each dementia group, including a group of control subjects (n = 13, 6 female, mean age 54 years) in both analyses. The three groups did not differ with respect to education and gender. Results: Patients in both dementia groups generally performed worse than controls, but AD and FTLD patients did not differ from each other in any of the test parameters. However, memory performance was associated with different brain regions in the patient groups, with respect to both hypometabolism and atrophy: Whereas in AD patients test performance was mainly correlated with changes in the parieto-mesial cortex, performance in FTLD patients was correlated with changes in frontal cortical as well as subcortical regions. There were practically no overlapping regions associated with memory disorders in AD and FTLD as revealed by a conjunction analysis. Conclusion: Memory test performance may not distinguish between both dementia syndromes. In clinical practice, this may lead to misdiagnosis of FTLD patients with poor memory performance. Nevertheless, memory problems are associated with almost completely different neural correlates in both dementia syndromes. Obviously, memory functions are carried out by distributed networks which break down in brain degeneration

Chancen und Risiken der Digitalisierung in der Landwirtschaft

Die Landwirtschaft setzt – wie auch andere Branchen – bereits eine Vielzahl an digitalen Technologien ein, was einen maßgeblichen Einfluss auf die Arbeitsgestaltung hat. Dies wird dann als Arbeit 4.0 bezeichnet. Ziel dieses Beitrages ist es, das Arbeitssystem in der Landwirtschaft zu charakterisieren und aufzuzeigen, inwieweit sich Arbeitsinhalte und –bedingungen infolge von Digitalisierungsprozessen verändern und welche Auswirkungen dies auf die Arbeitspersonen hat. Darauf basierend wird ein aktueller Überblick über die mit dem digitalen Wandel verbundenen Chancen und Potenziale gegeben. Ebenso werden Spannungsfelder und Risiken analysiert. Das Arbeitssystem verändert sich insofern, dass mit „Big Data“ Informationen neuer Qualität zur Verfügung stehen. Durch den Informationszuwachs und die Vernetzung von Systemen – sowohl im Stall als auch auf dem Feld – ergeben sich erweiterte Handlungsspielräume. Arbeitsabläufe können zunehmend digitalisiert ausgeführt werden. Die Arbeitspersonen sind vermehrt mit Planungs- und Kontrollaufgaben sowie der Reflektion von Produktionsprozessen konfrontiert. Bei der Durchführung von Aufgaben können Assistenz- und autonome Systeme unterstützen und die Personen bei verschiedenen Funktionen ergänzen oder ersetzen. Die neuen Arbeitsstrukturen sind insbesondere durch Prozesse der Flexibilisierung, Entgrenzung, neue Formen der Zusammenarbeit und zunehmende Relevanz von Wissensarbeit geprägt. Das Volumen der Daten (in Echtzeit) und die Vielfalt an Informationen erhöhen die Anforderungen an die Fähigkeiten, die Fertigkeiten und die Kompetenzen der Arbeitspersonen. Wesentliche Herausforderungen bei der Umsetzung digitaler Lösungen liegen unter anderem in der fortschreitenden Komplexität der Systeme, in der IT-Sicherheit und in der Investitionsbereitschaft. Daraus folgt, dass Kompetenzen und Qualifikationen ständig den Erfordernissen der digitalen Transformation anzupassen sind

Stochastic energy-cascade model for 1+1 dimensional fully developed turbulence

Geometrical random multiplicative cascade processes are often used to model positive-valued multifractal fields such as the energy dissipation in fully developed turbulence. We propose a dynamical generalization describing the energy dissipation in terms of a continuous and homogeneous stochastic field in one space and one time dimension. In the model, correlations originate in the overlap of the respective spacetime histories of field amplitudes. The theoretical two- and three-point correlation functions are found to be in good agreement with their equal-time counterparts extracted from wind tunnel turbulent shear flow data

Local Interstellar Neutral Hydrogen sampled in-situ by IBEX

Hydrogen gas is the dominant component of the local interstellar medium. However, due to ionization and interaction with the heliosphere, direct sampling of neutral hydrogen in the inner heliosphere is more difficult than sampling the local interstellar neutral helium, which penetrates deep into the heliosphere. In this paper we report on the first detailed analysis of the direct sampling of neutral hydrogen from the local interstellar medium. We confirm that the arrival direction of hydrogen is offset from that of the local Helium component. We further report the discovery of a variation of the penetrating Hydrogen over the first two years of IBEX observations. Observations are consistent with hydrogen experiencing an effective ratio of outward solar radiation pressure to inward gravitational force greater than unity ({\mu}>1); the temporal change observed in the local interstellar hydrogen flux can be explained with solar variability

Forces between a single atom and its distant mirror image

An excited-state atom whose emitted light is back-reflected by a distant mirror can experience trapping forces, because the presence of the mirror modifies both the electromagnetic vacuum field and the atom's own radiation reaction field. We demonstrate this mechanical action using a single trapped barium ion. We observe the trapping conditions to be notably altered when the distant mirror is shifted by an optical wavelength. The well-localised barium ion enables the spatial dependence of the forces to be measured explicitly. The experiment has implications for quantum information processing and may be regarded as the most elementary optical tweezers.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, published versio

Presence of Equine and Bovine Coronaviruses, Endoparasites, and Bacteria in Fecal Samples of Horses with Colic

Acute abdominal pain (colic) is one of the major equine health threats worldwide and often necessitates intensive veterinary medical care and surgical intervention. Equine coronavirus (ECoV) infections can cause colic in horses but are rarely considered as a differential diagnosis. To determine the frequency of otherwise undetected ECoV infections in horses with acute colic, fresh fecal samples of 105 horses with acute colic and 36 healthy control horses were screened for viruses belonging to the Betacoronavirus 1 species by RT-PCR as well as for gastrointestinal helminths and bacteria commonly associated with colic. Horses with colic excreted significantly fewer strongyle eggs than horses without colic. The prevalence of anaerobic, spore-forming, gram-positive bacteria (Clostridium perfringens and Clostridioides difficile) was significantly higher in the feces of horses with colic. Six horses with colic (5.7%) and one horse from the control group (2.8%) tested positive for Betacoronaviruses. Coronavirus-positive samples were sequenced to classify the virus by molecular phylogeny (N gene). Interestingly, in three out of six coronavirus-positive horses with colic, sequences closely related to bovine coronaviruses (BCoV) were found. The pathogenic potential of BCoV in horses remains unclear and warrants further investigation

A highly specific and sensitive serological assay detects SARS‑CoV‑2 antibody levels in COVID‑19 patients that correlate with neutralization

Objective The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic challenges national health systems and the global economy. Monitoring of infection rates and seroprevalence can guide public health measures to combat the pandemic. This depends on reliable tests on active and former infections. Here, we set out to develop and validate a specific and sensitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for detection of anti SARS-CoV-2 antibody levels. Methods In our ELISA, we used SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) and a stabilized version of the spike (S) ectodomain as antigens. We assessed sera from patients infected with seasonal coronaviruses, SARS-CoV-2 and controls. We determined and monitored IgM-, IgA- and IgG-antibody responses towards these antigens. In addition, for a panel of 22 sera, virus neutralization and ELISA parameters were measured and correlated. Results The RBD-based ELISA detected SARS-CoV-2-directed antibodies, did not cross-react with seasonal coronavirus antibodies and correlated with virus neutralization (R2 = 0.89). Seroconversion started at 5 days after symptom onset and led to robust antibody levels at 10 days after symptom onset. We demonstrate high specificity (99.3%; N = 1000) and sensitivity (92% for IgA, 96% for IgG and 98% for IgM; > 10 days after PCR-proven infection; N = 53) in serum. Conclusions With the described RBD-based ELISA protocol, we provide a reliable test for seroepidemiological surveys. Due to high specificity and strong correlation with virus neutralization, the RBD ELISA holds great potential to become a preferred tool to assess thresholds of protective immunity after infection and vaccination

Oxidation of Reduced Sulfur Species: Carbon Disulfide

Article on the oxidation of reduced sulfur species and carbon disulfide

Discutindo a educação ambiental no cotidiano escolar: desenvolvimento de projetos na escola formação inicial e continuada de professores

A presente pesquisa buscou discutir como a Educação Ambiental (EA) vem sendo trabalhada, no Ensino Fundamental e como os docentes desta escola compreendem e vem inserindo a EA no cotidiano escolar., em uma escola estadual do município de Tangará da Serra/MT, Brasil. Para tanto, realizou-se entrevistas com os professores que fazem parte de um projeto interdisciplinar de EA na escola pesquisada. Verificou-se que o projeto da escola não vem conseguindo alcançar os objetivos propostos por: desconhecimento do mesmo, pelos professores; formação deficiente dos professores, não entendimento da EA como processo de ensino-aprendizagem, falta de recursos didáticos, planejamento inadequado das atividades. A partir dessa constatação, procurou-se debater a impossibilidade de tratar do tema fora do trabalho interdisciplinar, bem como, e principalmente, a importância de um estudo mais aprofundado de EA, vinculando teoria e prática, tanto na formação docente, como em projetos escolares, a fim de fugir do tradicional vínculo “EA e ecologia, lixo e horta”.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació