Using Taylor Rules to Understand ECB Monetary Policy

Over the last decade, the simple instrument policy rule developed by Taylor (1993) has become a popular tool for evaluating monetary policy of central banks. As an extensive empirical analysis of the ECB’s past behaviour still seems to be in its infancy, we estimate several instrument policy reaction functions for the ECB which might shed some light on actual monetary policy in the euro area in the recent past and answer questions like whether the ECB has actually followed a stabilising or a destabilising rule so far?Looking at contemporaneous Taylor rules, the presented evidence suggests that the ECB is accommodating changes in inflation and hence follows a destabilising policy. However, this impression seems to be largely due to the lack of a forward-looking perspective in such specifications. Either assuming rational expectations and using a forward-looking specification, or using expectations as derived from surveys result in Taylor rules which do imply a stabilising role of the ECB. The use of real-time industrial production data does not seem to play such a significant role as in the case of the U.S.Taylor rule, European Central Bank, real-time data

Reconstructing the evolutionary history of the radiation of the land snail genus Xerocrassa on Crete based on mitochondrial sequences and AFLP markers

Sauer J, Hausdorf B. Reconstructing the evolutionary history of the radiation of the land snail genus Xerocrassa on Crete based on mitochondrial sequences and AFLP markers. BMC Evolutionary Biology. 2010;10(1): 299.Background: A non-adaptive radiation triggered by sexual selection resulted in ten endemic land snail species of the genus Xerocrassa on Crete. Only five of these species and a more widespread species are monophyletic in a mitochondrial gene tree. The reconstruction of the evolutionary history of such closely related species can be complicated by incomplete lineage sorting, introgression or inadequate taxonomy. To distinguish between the reasons for the nonmonophyly of several species in the mitochondrial gene tree we analysed nuclear AFLP markers. Results: Whereas six of the eleven morphologically delimited Xerocrassa species from Crete are monophyletic in the mitochondrial gene tree, nine of these species are monophyletic in the tree based on AFLP markers. Only two morphologically delimited species could not be distinguished with the multilocus data and might have diverged very recently or might represent extreme forms of a single species. The nonmonophyly of X. rhithymna with respect to X. kydonia is probably the result of incomplete lineage sorting, because there is no evidence for admixture in the AFLP data and the mitochondrial haplotype groups of these species coalesce deeply. The same is true for the main haplotype groups of X. mesostena. The nonmonophyly of X. franciscoi might be the result of mitochondrial introgression, because the coalescences of the haplotypes of this species with some X. mesostena haplotypes are shallow and there is admixture with neighbouring X. mesostena. Conclusion: The most likely causes for the nonmonophyly of species in the mitochondrial gene tree of the Xerocrassa radiation on Crete could be inferred using AFLP data by a combination of several criteria, namely the depth of the coalescences in the gene tree, the geographical distribution of shared genetic markers, and concordance with results of admixture analyses of nuclear multilocus markers. The strongly subdivided population structure increases the effective population size of land snail species and, thus, the likelihood of a long persistence of ancestral polymorphisms. Our study suggests that ancestral polymorphisms are a frequent cause for nonmonophyly of species with a strongly subdivided population structure in gene trees

Overexpression of the auxin binding PROTEIN1 modulates PIN-dependent auxin transport in tobacco cells

Background: Auxin binding protein 1 (ABP1) is a putative auxin receptor and its function is indispensable for plant growth and development. ABP1 has been shown to be involved in auxin-dependent regulation of cell division and expansion, in plasma-membrane-related processes such as changes in transmembrane potential, and in the regulation of clathrin-dependent endocytosis. However, the ABP1-regulated downstream pathway remains elusive. Methodology/Principal Findings: Using auxin transport assays and quantitative analysis of cellular morphology we show that ABP1 regulates auxin efflux from tobacco BY-2 cells. The overexpression of ABP1can counterbalance increased auxin efflux and auxin starvation phenotypes caused by the overexpression of PIN auxin efflux carrier. Relevant mechanism involves the ABP1-controlled vesicle trafficking processes, including positive regulation of endocytosis of PIN auxin efflux carriers, as indicated by fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) and pharmacological manipulations. Conclusions/Significance: The findings indicate the involvement of ABP1 in control of rate of auxin transport across plasma membrane emphasizing the role of ABP1 in regulation of PIN activity at the plasma membrane, and highlighting the relevance of ABP1 for the formation of developmentally important, PIN-dependent auxin gradients

A Taxonomy for Design Decisions in Software Architecture Documentation

A software system is the result of all design decisions that were made during development and maintenance. Documentation, such as software architecture documentation, captures a variety of different design decisions. Classifying the kinds of design decisions facilitates various downstream tasks by enabling more targeted analyses. In this paper, we propose a taxonomy for design decisions in software architecture documentation to primarily support consistency checking. Existing taxonomies about design decisions have different purposes and do not fit well because they are too coarse. We take an iterative approach, starting with an initial taxonomy based on literature and considerations regarding consistency checking. Then, we mine open-source repositories to extract 17 software architecture documentations that we use to refine the taxonomy. We evaluate the resulting taxonomy with regard to purpose, structure, and application. Additionally, we explore the automatic identification and classification of design decisions in software architecture documentation according to the taxonomy. We apply different machine learning techniques, such as Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Random Forests, and BERT to the 17 software architecture documentations. The evaluation yields a F1-score of up to 92.1% for identifying design decisions and a F1-score of up to 55.2% for the classification of the kind of design decision

All Things Retarded: Radiation-Reaction in Worldline Quantum Field Theory

We exhibit an initial-value formulation of the worldline quantum field theory (WQFT) approach to the classical two-body problem in general relativity. We show that the Schwinger-Keldysh (in-in) formalism leads to purely retarded propagators in the evaluation of observables in the WQFT. Integration technology for retarded master integrals is introduced at third post-Minkowskian (3PM) order. As an application we compute the complete radiation-reacted impulse and radiated four momentum for the scattering of two non-spinning neutron stars including tidal effects at 3PM order, as well as the leading (2PM) far-field gravitational waveform.Comment: 42 pages including ref

Dissipative scattering of spinning black holes at fourth post-Minkowskian order

We compute the radiation reacted momentum impulse $\Delta p_i^\mu$, spin kick $\Delta S_i^\mu$, and scattering angle $\theta$ between two scattered spinning massive bodies (black holes or neutron stars) using the $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric worldline quantum field theory formalism up to fourth post-Minkowskian (4PM) order. Our calculation confirms the state-of-the-art non-spinning results, and extends them to include spin-orbit effects. Advanced multi-loop Feynman integral technology including differential equations and the method of regions are applied and extended to deal with the retarded propagators arising in a causal description of the scattering dynamics. From these results we determine a complete set of radiative fluxes at sub-leading PM order: the 4PM radiated four-momentum and, via linear response, the 3PM radiated angular momentum, both again including spin-orbit effects.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure

Silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells Combining an a-Si:H (n) Electron-collector with a PEDOT:PSS Hole-collector

We combine PEDOT:PSS as hole-selective layer on c-Si with a well-passivating electron-selective a-Si:H(n) layer in an alternative type of silicon heterojunction solar cell. As the interface between the PEDOT:PSS and the c-Si substrate plays a crucial role in the cell performance, we examine the impact of an interfacial SiOx tunneling layer between the c-Si substrate and the PEDOT:PSS in detail. We find that a natural SiOx layer grown within a couple of minutes leads to low J0 values ranging between (80 - 130) fA/cm2, allowing for Voc values of ∼690 mV. Implementation of this PEDOT:PSS/SiOx/c-Si junctions into solar cells with phosphorus-diffused n+ front results in low series resistance values of only 0.6 Ωcm2 and good fill factors >80% leading to efficiencies >20%. We then implement the PEDOT:PSS/SiOx/c-Si junction to the back of heterojunction cells with an a-Si:H(n)/ITO front, in order to demonstrate the feasibility of this novel cell concept, which has a higher Voc potential compared to cells with a conventionally processed front side. The cell efficiencies of the first batch reach 15.2%. This relatively moderate efficiency of the first cell batch is due to technological issues with the screen-printed front metallization grid, leading to poor fill factors of only 71%, whereas the Voc values of this first batch were already above 650 mV.State of Lower SaxonyGerman Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy/0325884

Right Porto-Ovarian H-Shunt for the Surgical Treatment of Symptomatic Portal Biliopathy: A Case Report and Literature Review

Portal hypertension, especially when it is caused by extrahepatic portal vein thrombosis, is commonly followed by the development of an abnormal periportal and pericholedochal variceal network, which form a portal cavernoma. This may exert extrinsic pressure on the adjacent biliary ducts and gallblader, causing morphologic abnormalities, termed portal biliopathy, which is usually leading to asymptomatic cholestasis, while less frequently it can be associated with obstructive jaundice, gallstone formation, and cholangitis. Endoscopic stone extraction can effectively treat portal biliopathy when cholangitis is associated with common bile duct stones. Portosystemic shunts are indicated in cases of disease recurrence as they can achieve regression of portal cavernoma and usually relieve symptomatic portal biliopathy. This case describes an alternative partial portosystemic shunt that utilizes the right ovarian vein as an autologous conduit for the surgical treatment of symptomatic portal biliopathy

Conservative scattering of spinning black holes at fourth post-Minkowskian order

Using the ${\mathcal N}=1$ supersymmetric, spinning worldline quantum field theory formalism we compute the conservative spin-orbit part of the momentum impulse $\Delta p_i^\mu$, spin kick $\Delta S_i^\mu$ and scattering angle $\theta$ from the scattering of two spinning massive bodies (black holes or neutron stars) up to fourth post-Minkowskian (PM) order. These three-loop results extend the state-of-the-art for generically spinning binaries from 3PM to 4PM. They are obtained by employing recursion relations for the integrand construction and advanced multi-loop Feynman integral technology in the causal (in-in) worldline quantum field theory framework to directly produce classical observables. We focus on the conservative contribution (including tail effects) and outline the computations for the dissipative contributions as well. Our spin-orbit results agree with N$^3$LO post-Newtonian and test-body data in the respective limits. We also re-confirm the conservative 4PM non-spinning results.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figure

SoK: Gröbner Basis Algorithms for Arithmetization Oriented Ciphers

Many new ciphers target a concise algebraic description for efficient evaluation in a proof system or a multi-party computation. This new target for optimization introduces algebraic vulnerabilities, particularly involving Gröbner basis analysis. Unfortunately, the literature on Gröbner bases tends to be either purely mathematical, or focused on small fields. In this paper, we survey the most important algorithms and present them in an intuitive way. The discussion of their complexities enables researchers to assess the security of concrete arithmetization-oriented ciphers. Aside from streamlining the security analysis, this paper helps newcomers enter the field