Marshall or Jacobs? Answers to an unsuitable question from an interaction model

This paper investigates whether localization economies as brought forward by Marshall(1890) or urbanization economies as mentioned by Jacobs (1970) are more decisive forregional gross value added per capita. Our novel approach is to explicitly allow forinterdependencies between these two theories and to take into account that the initiallevels of specialization and diversification might play a role. We therefore deploy amodel with interaction terms and find that these two theories are not mutually exclusivein most of our sectors. In addition, the empirical results show that the initial levels ofspecialization and diversification do matter as well.Localization and urbanization economies, interaction models, regional gross valued added

Potential of an ionic impurityin a large 4^4He cluster

This paper presents an analysis of the motion of an impurity ion in a nanometer scale $^4$He cluster. Due to induction forces, ions are strongly localized near the center of the cluster, with a root mean squared thermal displacements of only a few \AA. The trapping potential is found to be nearly harmonic, with a frequency of 2.3(1.0) GHz for a positive (negative) ion in a He cluster of radius 5 nm. The anharmonicity is small and positive (energy increases slightly faster than linear with quantum number). It is suggested that by using frequency sweep microwave radiation, it should be possible to drive the ion center of mass motion up to high quantum numbers, allowing the study of the critical velocity as a function of cluster size.Comment: 14 pages, 0 figures, To be published in Molecular Physic

Individual differences in children’s early strategy behavior in arithmetic tasks

As demonstrated by the Overlapping Waves Model (Siegler, 1996), children’s strategy use in arithmetic tasks is variable, adaptive, and changes gradually with age and experience. In this study, first grade elementary school children (n = 73), who scored high, middle, or low in a standardized scholastic mathematic achievement test, were confronted with different arithmetic tasks (simple addition, e.g., 3 + 2, simple subtraction, e.g., 7 – 2, and more advanced addition, e.g., 7 + 9) to evoke different calculation strategies. Video analysis and children’s self-report were used to identify individual strategy behavior. In accordance with the Overlapping Waves Model, children in all achievement groups showed variable and multiple strategy usage and adapted their behavior to the tasks of the different categories. We demonstrated that not only low achievers differed from normal achievers but also that high achievers exhibited a unique pattern of strategy behavior in early mathematics

Offerings That are ‘‘Ever-in-the-Making’’

Digital ventures are entrepreneurial young firms that introduce new digital artifacts that are “ever-incomplete” and “perpetually-in-the-making” onto the market. The study examines how six digital ventures continued to develop their digital market offerings post launch. Three key designing mechanisms are identified that explain continuous post-launch product development in digital ventures: deploying complementary digital objects, architectural amplification, and porting. The study discusses how these mechanisms advance our understanding of how digital technologies change entrepreneurial processes and outcomes

Sustainable Value: an application to the Swiss dairy farms of the mountainous area

The improvement of the sustainable performance of the agricultural sector is a priority of the Swiss agricultural policy. The sustainability of Swiss dairy farms located in the mountainous area might be critical as many of them show a weak performance in the use of their economic and/or social resources, and sometimes also of their environmental resources. An improvement of the sustainability of these farms prerequisites to better know on a large scale their sustainable performance and its determinants. For a representative sample of 480 dairy farms, we perform an assessment of their sustainable efficiency with the “sustainable value”, an approach to assess corporate sustainability based on the capital and opportunity cost theories. Using a linear regression, we analyze the determinants of the sustainable efficiency. The results show a tight positive relationship between sustainable performance and pure economic performance. The intensity of the use of intermediate consumptions is found to be the most important determinant of the sustainable efficiency. Farms with a high sustainable efficiency are those that use their intermediate consumptions in the most efficient way. The part of direct payments in the gross profit is shown to negatively affect the sustainable efficiency. The structural characteristics of the farms and the sociologic characteristics of the farmer managers are shown to hardly influence the sustainable efficiency.corporate sustainable performance, dairy farms, Switzerland, Farm Management, Livestock Production/Industries,

Optimal federal co-regulation of renewable energy deployment

In federal countries the allocation of renewable energy (RE) deployment is simultaneously regulated by national and subnational governments. We analyze the efficiency of federal coregulation when different types of policy instruments - price and quantity - are assigned to government levels. Using an analytical model with two regulatory levels, we specify conditions that ensure first-best allocation of RE deployment in equilibrium. These efficiency conditions refer to how the financial burden of the national RE support scheme should be shared among subnational jurisdictions. Under realistic assumptions national price-based regulation is efficient if burden shares are proportional to population shares, regardless of the subnational policy instrument. Contrary, under national quantity-based regulation efficiency conditions depend on the subnational policy instrument. While with subnational price-based regulation burden shares should be oriented towards first-best RE deployment shares, with subnational quantity-based regulation burden shares should be oriented towards population shares

The response of the general circulation of the Baltic Sea to climate variability

The warming trend for the entire globe is 0.04°C per decade for the period 1850-2005. Furthermore, from around 1980 to present, a specifi c warming period started, with a temperature increase of about 0.17°C per decade, especially on the northern hemisphere. For the Baltic Sea catchment, which is located between maritime temperate and continental sub-Arctic climate zones, an even stronger warming of about 0.4°C per decade was observed since 1980. Changes in the atmospheric conditions cause corresponding changes in the Baltic Sea, not only for temperature and salinity, but also for currents and circulation patterns. The analysis of the winter (DJFM) circulation patterns for the period 1970-2008 reveals changes in the general circulation of the Baltic Sea. While it is diffi cult to clearly link individual winter circulation patterns to one of the four dominant atmospheric climate regimes for the North Atlantic domain, the comparison of mean winter circulation patterns for 20- year periods (1970-1988 and 1989-2008) highlights that for the later 20-year period an intensifi ed cyclonic circulation exists in the central Baltic Sea. This intensifi ed circulation results from stronger westerly and north-westerly winds and is most likely connected to changes in the large-scale atmospheric circulation

Nse2, a component of the Smc5-6 complex, is a SUMO ligase required for the response to DNA damage

The Schizosaccharomyces pombe SMC proteins Rad18 (Smc6) and Spr18 (Smc5) exist in a high-M(r) complex which also contains the non-SMC proteins Nse1, Nse2, Nse3, and Rad62. The Smc5-6 complex, which is essential for viability, is required for several aspects of DNA metabolism, including recombinational repair and maintenance of the DNA damage checkpoint. We have characterized Nse2 and show here that it is a SUMO ligase. Smc6 (Rad18) and Nse3, but not Smc5 (Spr18) or Nse1, are sumoylated in vitro in an Nse2-dependent manner, and Nse2 is itself autosumoylated, predominantly on the C-terminal part of the protein. Mutations of C195 and H197 in the Nse2 RING-finger-like motif abolish Nse2-dependent sumoylation. nse2.SA mutant cells, in which nse2.C195S-H197A is integrated as the sole copy of nse2, are viable, whereas the deletion of nse2 is lethal. Smc6 (Rad18) is sumoylated in vivo: the sumoylation level is increased upon exposure to DNA damage and is drastically reduced in the nse2.SA strain. Since nse2.SA cells are sensitive to DNA-damaging agents and to exposure to hydroxyurea, this implicates the Nse2-dependent sumoylation activity in DNA damage responses but not in the essential function of the Smc5-6 complex

Design and Evaluation of an IT-based Peer Assessment to Increase Learner Performance in Large-Scale Lectures

In this study, we propose an IT-based peer assessment (ITPA) for enhancing interaction and feedback in universities’ large-scale lectures. These lectures often lack interaction and feedback, and focus on mainly imparting factual knowledge. Hence, these formats often cannot go beyond the basic cognitive levels of educational objectives. Using the ITPA within the learning process helps integrating assignments focusing on high cognitive levels to comprehensively acquire the learning content. We follow a design science research approach to develop and evaluate the ITPA. Thus, we first identify requirements from theory and derive a set of design elements afterwards. A pre-test shows that the ITPA is seen as useful and learners intend to use it. The subsequent quasi-experiment in a large-scale lecture shows that learners who participated in the ITPA performed better in the part of the final exam trained by the ITPA, whereas they did not perform better in the others parts

A Literature Review on Indicators for the Measurement of Technology Mediated Learning Productivity: 2000 to 2011

Measuring Technology Mediated Learning (TML) success has been and is of great interest to both researchers and practitioners. This article examines multidimensional approaches to measuring learning success, considering IT- and non-IT-supported learning scenarios, examined by researchers from various research disciplines. We explore the current state of research on TML success through a literature review by classifying empirically-oriented articles that were published between 2000 and 2011. Based on a total of 91 articles published in academic journal publications, this paper identifies the relevant research carried out, categorizes and consolidates the research results, and discusses them. The results show that those approaches are most dominant which empirically analyze the impact of a certain type of educational service on a student / participant by means of surveys and structural equation modeling to capture users’ responses. No main theoretical basis of the reviewed studies could be identified. Furthermore, opportunities for additional development are identified and future research directions suggested