Lady Justice's delay : Judicial policy bargaining and the duration of senate proceedings at the German Federal Constitutional Court

How does policy bargaining at the German Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) affect the duration of senate proceedings? This study offers a new theory of dynamic policy bargaining with incomplete information. A new simulation procedure is developed to derive hypotheses. New data on FCC proceedings since 1972 is collected and linked to the extended GESTA legislation database. The event history analysis shows that bargaining duration increases with preference uncertainty. The empirical impact of policy preference heterogeneity and other bargaining-related factors on the overall duration of FCC proceedings is not strong and systematic enough to clearly stand out from other causes

Fluktuationsspektroskopie an organischen Ladungstransfersalzen

Quasi-zweidimensionale organischen Ladungstransfersalze weisen gewisse Analogien zu den Hochtemperatur-Kupratsupraleitern (HTSL) auf. Zu nennen ist einerseits der ähnliche schichtartige Aufbau, wobei sich leitfähige und isolierende Ebenen abwechseln. Zum anderen liegt der antiferromagnetische Grundzustand in direkter Nachbarschaft zur Supraleitung und bei höheren Temperaturen wird ebenfalls die Entstehung einer Pseudo-Energielücke diskutiert. Im Gegensatz zu den HTSL können die elektronischen Eigenschaften der organischen Ladungstransfersalze jedoch leicht durch äußere Parameter wie hydrostatischen bzw. chemischen Druck - die Verwendung verschiedener Anionen X läßt sich in einem verallgemeinerten Phasendiagramm ebenfalls auf die Achse W/U abbilden, siehe Abschn. 4.2 - oder moderate Temperaturen beeinflußt werden. In den quasi-zweidimensionalen K-(BEDT-TTF)2X-Salzen ist bspw. ein moderater Druck p ~ 250 bar ausreichend, um das antiferromagnetisch-isolierende System (X=Cu[N(CN)2]Cl) auf die metallische Seite des Phasendiagramms zu verschieben, wobei dann im Grundzustand Supraleitung auftritt (Tc ~ 12,8 K). Eine Dotierung wie bei den HTSL und die damit einhergehende unerwünschte Unordnung ist nicht notwendig um einen Isolator-Metall-übergang zu induzieren. Demnach sind die experimentellen Anforderungen im Vergleich zu anderen stark korrelierten Elektronensystemen auf relativ einfache Weise zu realisieren. Auch das macht die organischen Ladungstransfersalze zu idealen Modellsystemen, um fundamentale Konzepte der theoretischen Festkörperphysik zu studieren, wovon einige bislang lediglich von akademischem Interesse waren. Erstmalig wird in dieser Arbeit die Fluktuationsspektroskopie als experimentelle Methode angewendet, um die Dynamik des TT-Elektronensystems in den quasi-zweidimensionalen organischen Ladungstransfersalzen K-(BEDT-TTF)2X bei niedrigen Frequenzen zu studieren. Ziel ist es, Informationen über die Temperatur-, Druck- und Magnetfeld-Abhängigkeit der spektralen Leistungsdichte des Widerstandsrauschens und damit über die Dynamik der Ladungsfluktuationen zu gewinnen. Insbesondere in der Nähe korrelationsgetriebener Ordnungsphänomene spielt die Dynamik der Ladungsträger eine entscheidende Rolle. Auch die Kopplung des elektronischen Systems an bestimmte strukturelle Anregungen hat Einfluß auf das Widerstandsrauschen. Zu Beginn wird eine kurze Einführung in die Signalanalyse gegeben und daran anschließend werden verschiedene Arten des Rauschens in Festkörpern dargestellt (Kap. 1). Einige der für diese Arbeit relevanten Ordnungsphänomene werden in Kap. 2 in knapper Form eingeführt, wobei auf die dynamischen Eigenschaften in der Nähe eines Glasübergangs etwas ausführlicher eingegangen wird. Nach der Vorstellung der eingesetzten Meßmethoden, des Versuchsaufbaus und der Probenkontaktierung (Kap. 3) werden die experimentellen Ergebnisse an den K-(BEDT-TTF)2X-Salzen in Kap. 4 ausführlich diskutiert.Quasi-twodimensional organic charge-transfer salts show certain analogies to the High-Temperature Cuprate Superconductors (HTSC), e.g., the layered structure where conducting and insulating sheets do alternate as well as the direct proximity of the antiferromagnetic insulating ground state to the superconducting phase. At higher temperatures the formation of a pseudo-gap in the density of states is discussed also. In contrast to the HTSC the electronic properties of the organic charge-transfer salts can be easily influenced by external parameters such as hydrostatic or chemical pressure - in a generalized phase diagram the usage of different anions X can be mapped on the axis W/U as well, see Sec. 4.2 - or moderate temperatures. In the quasi-twodimensional K-(BEDT-TTF)2X salts, e.g., a moderate pressure of p ~ 250 bar is sufficient to shift the antiferromagnetic-insulating system (X=Cu[N(CN)2]Cl) to the metallic side of the phase diagram showing even superconductivity below a critical temperature of Tc ~ 12.8 K. Doping as in the HTSC and the undesirable disorder accompanied with it is not necessary to induce a metal-to-insulator transition. Therefore the experimental requirements are more easily met in this class of materials compared to other strongly correlated electron systems. All this makes the organic charge-transfer salts ideal model systems to study fundamental concepts of theoretical solid state physics some of which have been of academical interest only so far. In this work fluctuation spectroscopy has been used for the first time to investigate the low-frequency dynamics of the TT-electron system in the quasi-twodimensional organic charge-transfer salts K-(BEDT-TTF)2X with the aim to gain information about the temperature, pressure and magnetic field dependence of the power spectral density of the resistance noise and therefore about the dynamics of the charge carrier fluctuations. Especially in the vicinity of correlation driven ordering phenomena the dynamics of the charge carriers play an important role. Additionally, the coupling of the electronic system to certain structural excitations influences the resistance noise. At the beginning a short introduction to signal analysis is given, followed by a description of different kinds of noise in solids (Chap. 1). Some of the ordering phenoma relevant for this work are briefly introduced in Chap. 2 in which the dynamical properties near a glass transition are discussed in more detail. After the presentation of the applied measuring techniques, the experimental setup, and the sample contacting (Ch. 3), the experimental results on the K-(BEDT-TTF)2X salts are discussed extensively in Chap. 4

Magnetically-driven electronic phase separation in the semimetallic ferromagnet EuB6_6

From measurements of fluctuation spectroscopy and weak nonlinear transport on the semimetallic ferromagnet EuB$_6$ we find direct evidence for magnetically-driven electronic phase separation consistent with the picture of percolation of magnetic polarons (MP), which form highly conducting magnetically-ordered clusters in a paramagnetic and 'poorly conducting' background. These different parts of the conducting network are probed separately by the noise spectroscopy/nonlinear transport and the conventional linear resistivity. We suggest a comprehensive and 'universal' scenario for the MP percolation, which occurs at a critical magnetization either induced by ferromagnetic order at zero field or externally applied magnetic fields in the paramagentic region

Design and evaluation of tile selection algorithms for tiled HTTP adaptive streaming (Best paper award)

The future of digital video is envisioned to have an increase in both resolution and interactivity. New resolutions like 8k UHDTV are up to 16 times as big in number of pixels compared to current HD video. Interactivity includes the possibility to zoom and pan around in video. We examine Tiled HTTP Adaptive Streaming (TAS) as a technique for supporting these trends and allowing them to be implemented on conventional Internet infrastructure. In this article, we propose three tile selection algorithms, for different use cases (e.g., zooming, panning). A performance evaluation of these algorithms on a TAS testbed, shows that they lead to better bandwidth utilization, higher static Region of Interest (ROI) video quality and higher video quality while manipulating the ROI. We show that we can transmit video at resolutions up to four times larger than existing algorithms during bandwidth drops, which results in a higher quality viewing experience. We can also increase the video quality by up to 40 percent in interactive video, during panning or zooming

A TFIIB-like protein is indispensable for spliced leader RNA gene transcription in Trypanosoma brucei

The lack of general class II transcription factors was a hallmark of the genomic sequences of the human parasites Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania major. However, the recent identification of TFIIA as part of a protein complex essential for RNA polymerase II-mediated transcription of SLRNA genes, which encode the trans splicing-specific spliced leader RNA, suggests that trypanosomatids assemble a highly divergent set of these factors at the SLRNA promoter. Here we report the identification of a trypanosomatid TFIIB-like (TFIIB(like)) protein which has limited overall sequence homology to eukaryotic TFIIB and archaeal TFB but harbors conserved residues within the N-terminal zinc ribbon domain, the B finger and cyclin repeat I. In accordance with the function of TFIIB, T.brucei TFIIB(like) is encoded by an essential gene, localizes to the nucleus, specifically binds to the SLRNA promoter, interacts with RNA polymerase II, and is absolutely required for SLRNA transcription

Nähe und Richtung als Kriterien der Politikwahl: Probleme der empirischen Messung am Beispiel deutscher Bundestagswahlen

"Nähe und Richtung können als Kriterien der Wahlentscheidung in einem Politikraum dienen, der sich aus den wahrgenommenen Parteipositionen und der eigenen Einstellung der Wähler zu politischen Sachfragen (Issues) bilden lässt. Ist man ursprünglich allein vom Nähemodell in der Tradition von Downs (1968) ausgegangen, haben Rabinowitz und Macdonald (1989) argumentiert, die Wähler unterschieden nur grob, ob sie für oder gegen eine bestimmte Politik seien, und wählten dann die Partei, die ihre bevorzugte Politik am intensivsten vertrete. Diese verschiedenen Auffassungen des Politikraums werden zum Problem, wenn man beide Kriterien in einem gemischten Modell verbindet. In dem Beitrag wird gezeigt, dass es Verhaltenstheorien wie die Diskontierungstheorie von Grofman (1985) gibt, die Nähe und Richtung widerspruchsfrei als Wahlkriterien für einen einheitlich aufgefassten Politikraum verbinden. Am Beispiel von Sachfragen bei den Bundestagswahlen 1980, 1987, 1994 und 1998 wird gezeigt, dass die Erklärungskraft des Grofman-Modells genauso gut ist wie die eines gemischten Modells, das aber den Nachteil einer inkonsistenten Konzeption des Politikraums hat. Empirisch unterscheiden sich die Modelle in der Festlegung des Bezugspunkts für das Richtungskriterium. Bei Grofman ist dies die Position des Status quo auf den verwendeten Policyskalen, bei Rabinowitz und Macdonald ist es der mittlere Skalenwert, der als Ankerpunkt für die Präferenzrichtung dient." (Autorenreferat)"Proximity and direction can be applied as criteria for the best decision in a policy space constructed from perceived party positions and voters' preferences for a set of political issues. The mainstream assumption in the tradition of Downs (1968) has long been that voters choose the most proximate party. Rabinowitz and Macdonald (1989) have built an alternative theory based on the assumption that voters distinguish only whether they are for or against a certain policy and choose that party which is the most intensive advocate of their favored policy. These different conceptions of a policy space become problematic if the two criteria of proximity and direction are combined in a mixed model. In this paper we discuss alternative theories, termed by us as unified models, which combine the two criteria consistently, our main example being the discounting theory of Grofman (1985). We show for issues from the Bundestag elections of 1980, 1987, 1994 and 1998 that the explanatory power of the Grofman theory is as good as that of mixed models which have the disadvantage of conceptualizing the policy space inconsistently. Empirically the two theories vary with respect to the used reference point on the issue scales. Grofman uses the status quo which determines the direction of the policy output promised by the parties, Rabinowitz and Macdonald rely on the midpoint of the issue scale as the voters' anchor point for their pro or contra judgment." (author's abstract

Inflationary and phase-transitional primordial magnetic fields in galaxy clusters

Primordial magnetic fields (PMFs) are possible candidates for explaining the observed magnetic fields in galaxy clusters. Two competing scenarios of primordial magnetogenesis have been discussed in the literature: inflationary and phase-transitional. We study the amplification of both large- and small-scale correlated magnetic fields, corresponding to inflation- and phase transition-generated PMFs, in a massive galaxy cluster. We employ high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic cosmological zoom-in simulations to resolve the turbulent motions in the intracluster medium. We find that the turbulent amplification is more efficient for the large-scale inflationary models, while the phase transition-generated seed fields show moderate growth. The differences between the models are imprinted on the spectral characteristics of the field (such as the amplitude and the shape of the magnetic power spectrum) and therefore on the final correlation length. We find a one order of magnitude difference between the final strengths of the inflation- and phase transition-generated magnetic fields, and a factor of 1.5 difference between their final coherence scales. Thus, the final configuration of the magnetic field retains information about the PMF generation scenarios. Our findings have implications for future extragalactic Faraday rotation surveys with the possibility of distinguishing between different magnetogenesis scenarios.Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures, comments welcom