Sociology's Potential to Improve Forest Management and Inform Forest Policy

Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

Beschäftigungs- und Lohnperspektiven nach einer Berufslehre

Eine Berufslehre erleichtert den Einstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt. Wir analysieren, ob der sich daraus ergebende kurzfristige Vorteil auch im weiteren Lebenslauf erhalten bleibt. Eine Lehre bereitet Jugendliche gut auf den Beginn ihres Berufslaufbahn vor. Doch vor dem 20 Altersjahr erworbene, mit einem bestimmten Beruf verbundene Kompetenzen können sich bei einem 45jährigen als obsolet erweisen. Wir vergleichen deshalb die Entwicklung der Erwerbsbeteilung und der Löhne nach einer Berufslehre mit derjenigen nach einer Matura. Unsere Ergebnisse beruhen auf der Schweizerischen Arbeitskräfteerhebung 1991-2014 und zeigen, dass Personen mit einer Berufslehre nicht vom technologischen Wandel überrollt werden. In allen Altersgruppen sind die Arbeitslosenquote und der Anteil der Nichterwerbstätigen unter den Personen mit einem Lehrabschluss niedrig. Weniger rosig sieht die Bilanz jedoch bei den Löhnen aus. Zwar erleichtert eine Lehre den Einstieg in den Arbeitsmarkt, aber eine Matura führt zu einem deutlich stärkeren Lohnanstieg im Lauf des Erwerbskarriere. Vom 30. Altersjahr an verdienen Beschäftigte, die nur über eine Matura - und somit über keine tertiäre Ausbildung - verfügen, höhere Jahreslöhne als diejenigen, welche eine Berufslehre absolviert haben. Dieser Lohnvorteil für die Maturität zeigt sich besonders stark bei Frauen

Quelles perspectives d'emploi et de salaire après un apprentissage

Nous analysons si les avantages d'un apprentissage à court terme, dus à une bonne intégration dans le marché du travail, se maintiennent au long du parcours de vie. Un apprentissage prépare bien les jeunes pour le début de leur carrière. Cependant, les compétences liées à un métier spécifique, apprises avant l'âge de 20 ans, peuvent se révéler obsolètes à l'âge de 45 ans. Nous comparons ainsi l'évolution de l'emploi et des salaires pour un apprentissage avec celle pour une maturité. Nos résultats se basent sur l'Enquête suisse sur la population active 1991-2014 et montrent que les travailleurs au bénéfice d'un apprentissage ne sont pas pris de vitesse par le changement technologique. Pour tous les âges, les taux de chômage et d'inactivité sont bas parmi les personnes avec un apprentissage - et leur taux d'emploi reste élevé au-delà de l'âge de 50 ans. Le bilan est toutefois moins rose au niveau des salaires. Si un apprentissage facilite le départ sur le marché du travail, une maturité donne lieu à une progression salariale au long du parcours de vie nettement supérieure. A partir de l'âge de 30 ans, les travailleurs n'ayant qu'une maturité - et donc pas de formation tertiaire - gagnent des salaires annuels plus élevés que ceux ayant effectué un apprentissage. L'avantage salarial en faveur de la maturité est particulièrement marqué pour les femmes

Canopy Catalysts for Alkyne Metathesis: Investigations into a Bimolecular Decomposition Pathway and the Stability of the Podand Cap

Molybdenum alkylidyne complexes with a trisilanolate podand ligand framework (“canopy catalysts”) are the arguably most selective catalysts for alkyne metathesis known to date. Among them, complex 1a endowed with a fence of lateral methyl substituents on the silicon linkers is most reactive, although fairly high loadings are required in certain applications. It is now shown that this catalyst decomposes readily via a bimolecular pathway, which engages the Mo≡CR entities in a stoichiometric triple bond metathesis event to furnish RC≡CR and the corresponding dinuclear complex 8 with a Mo≡Mo core. In addition to the regular analytical techniques, 95Mo NMR was used to confirm this unusual outcome. This rapid degradation mechanism is largely avoided by increasing the size of the peripheral substituents on silicon, without unduly compromising the activity of the resulting complexes. When chemically challenged, however, canopy catalysts can open the apparently somewhat strained tripodal ligand cages; this reorganization leads to the formation of cyclo-tetrameric arrays composed of four metal alkylidyne units linked together via one silanol arm of the ligand backbone. The analogous tungsten alkylidyne complex 6 endowed with a tripodal tris-alkoxide (rather than siloxide) ligand framework is even more susceptible to such a controlled and reversible cyclo-oligomerization. The structures of the resulting giant macrocyclic ensembles were established by single crystal X-ray diffraction

Identification of synergistic interactions among microorganisms in biofilms by digital image analysis

Digital image analysis showed that reductions in biofilm plating efficiency were due to the loss of protection provided by two benzoate-degrading strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens. This loss in protection was due to the spatial separation of the protective organisms from benzoate-sensitive organisms during the dilution process. Communities were cultivated in flow cells irrigated with trypticase soy broth. When the effluent from these flow cells was plated on 0.15% benzoic acid, satellite colonies formed only in the vicinity of primary colonies. A digital image analysis procedure was developed to measure the size and spatial distribution of these satellites as a function of distance from the primary colony. The size of satellites served as a measure of growth, and the number per unit area served as a measure of survival. At the three dilutions tested, the size and concentration of satellite colonies varied inversely with distance from the primary colonies. When these measurements were plotted, the slopes were used to quantify the effect of bacterial association on the growth and survivability of the satellites. In the absence of the primary colonies, satellites grew in axenic culture only at low benzoate concentrations. Thus benzoate-degrading organisms are capable of creating a protective microenvironment for other members of biofilm communities

[ A ([18]crown‐6)] 2 [Pt(CO) 3 ] ⋅ 10 NH 3 ( A =K, Rb) – A crystal structure containing the long postulated [Pt(CO) 3 ] 2−

The compound [A([18]crown-6]2[Pt(CO)3] ⋅ 10 NH3 (A=K, Rb, [18]crown- 6=1,4,7,10,13,16-Hexaoxacyclooctadecane) containing the anion [Pt(CO)3]2− was the unexpected result of a reaction between K6Rb6Ge17, Pt(CO)2(PPh3)2, [18]crown-6 and [2.2.2]-crypt. This compound represents the first example of a mononuclear carbonyl platinate and expands the list of known group 10 carbonyl metallates. The central anion has a trigonal planar shape with an approximate D3h symmetry. Theoretical investigations confirm the trigonal planar structure of the carbonylate and give insight into the electronic structure. The calculations reveal a strong charge density at the central platinum atom, while the HOMO shows a dispersion of the residual electrons under and over the carbonyl plane

Development of Pan-filovirus vaccine against Ebola and Marburg virus challenges

Filoviruses such as Ebola (EBOV) and Marburg (MARV) viruses cause deadly viral hemorrhagic fever in humans with high case fatality rates. To date, no licenced therapeutic or vaccine has been clinically approved to prevent infection. Several vaccine candidates are under development against the few most common filoviruses targeting the virus glycoprotein (GP). However, protective antibodies induced by such GP vaccines are usually limited to the same species. In contrast, T-cell vaccines offer an opportunity to design a single pan-filovirus vaccine protecting against all members of the Filoviridae family. In this study FILOcepX vaccines were constructed targeting the four most conserved regions among the viral proteomes with the aim to induce protective T-cell responses against different filoviruses. BALB/c mice were immunized with FILOcep 1 and 2 vaccines vectored by non-replicating engineered simian adenovirus and poxvirus MVA. Groups of 20 BALB/c mice were primed and boosted with either the FILOcep1 and FILOcep2 vaccines or control ChAdOx1- and MVA-vectored vaccines. Four animals in each group were sacrificed after 1 week of boosting to detect T-cell response for the FILOcepX antigen. High frequency T cells specific responses were detected in mice receiving the test vaccines by IFN-γ ELISPOT kits. Of the remaining 16 animals in each group, 8 were challenged with mouse-adapted EBOV and 8 were challenged with mouse adapted MARV in Containment Level 4 laboratory. All the mice in the control group either died or had to be euthanized between 4 and 6 days post challenge. On the other hand all the FILOcepX vaccinated mice maintained their normal body mass and survived till the end of the scheduled protocol on day 29 post challenge. These FILOcepX vaccines provided 100% protection against the lethal challenges with filoviruses of two different genera. Further evaluation the efficacy of this vaccine in non-human primates (NHPs) is warranted

Ruler elements in chromatin remodelers set nucleosome array spacing and phasing

Arrays of regularly spaced nucleosomes dominate chromatin and are often phased by alignment to reference sites like active promoters. How the distances between nucleosomes (spacing), and between phasing sites and nucleosomes are determined remains unclear, and specifically, how ATP-dependent chromatin remodelers impact these features. Here, we used genome-wide reconstitution to probe how Saccharomyces cerevisiae ATP-dependent remodelers generate phased arrays of regularly spaced nucleosomes. We find that remodelers bear a functional element named the ‘ruler’ that determines spacing and phasing in a remodeler-specific way. We use structure-based mutagenesis to identify and tune the ruler element residing in the Nhp10 and Arp8 modules of the INO80 remodeler complex. Generally, we propose that a remodeler ruler regulates nucleosome sliding direction bias in response to (epi)genetic information. This finally conceptualizes how remodeler-mediated nucleosome dynamics determine stable steady-state nucleosome positioning relative to other nucleosomes, DNA bound factors, DNA ends and DNA sequence elements