Going Dutch? Firm exports and FDI in the wake of the 2014 EU-Russia sanctions

We examine the 2014 European Union economic sanctions on exports to Russia and the Russian retaliatory measures on imports from several Western countries. Using the universe of highly disaggregated international trade and taxation data for firms in the Netherlands, we systematically analyze the impact of these economic sanctions on Dutch firms' exports and foreign direct investment. Our analyses account for the product-specific EU restrictions on arms, equipment used for oil exploration and extraction, and dual-use products suitable for civilian and military use, as well as the Russian import ban on various primary commodities. Our empirical findings highlight the overall negative impact of sanctions on the intensive margin of exports. However, having a foreign affiliate in Russia helps to mitigate the otherwise negative impact of sanctions on the extensive margin of exports. We also show that exporters do not circumvent sanctions by setting up a local affiliate in Russia. In fact, exposure to Russian countersanctions may even force firms to close their Russian affiliates

An RNA-dependent RNA polymerase gene in bat genomes derived from an ancient negative-strand RNA virus

Endogenous bornavirus-like L (EBLL) elements are inheritable sequences derived from ancient bornavirus L genes that encode a viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) in many eukaryotic genomes. Here, we demonstrate that bats of the genus Eptesicus have preserved for more than 11.8 million years an EBLL element named eEBLL-1, which has an intact open reading frame of 1,718 codons. The eEBLL-1 coding sequence revealed that functional motifs essential for mononegaviral RdRp activity are well conserved in the EBLL-1 genes. Genetic analyses showed that natural selection operated on eEBLL-1 during the evolution of Eptesicus. Notably, we detected efficient transcription of eEBLL-1 in tissues from Eptesicus bats. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first report showing that the eukaryotic genome has gained a riboviral polymerase gene from an ancient virus that has the potential to encode a functional RdRp

The greater incidence of small for gestational age newborns after gonadotropin-stimulated in vitro fertilization with a supra-physiological estradiol level on ovulation trigger day.

INTRODUCTION Reproductive scientists have postulated various risk factors for lower birthweight following conventional gonadotropin stimulated in vitro fertilization compared to spontaneously conceived children: parental factors (age, health, duration of subfertility, and smoking habits); ovarian stimulation; laboratory procedures; the number of oocytes retrieved; and the number of embryos transferred. Our aim was to investigate the impact of gonadotropin stimulation and serum estradiol level on the risk of a newborn's being small for gestational age. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a cohort study (2010-2016) of singletons (n = 155) born either after conventional gonadotropin stimulated in vitro fertilization (using ≥150 IU/d human gonadotropin for stimulation) or after natural cycle in vitro fertilization without any stimulation. We analyzed perinatal outcomes using birthweight percentiles, as they adjust for gestational age and sex. RESULTS The proportion of small for gestational age was 11.8% following conventional gonadotropin stimulated in vitro fertilization, and 2.9% after natural-cycle in vitro fertilization (P = 0.058). The odds of small for gestational age were significantly higher with supra-physiological estradiol levels in maternal serum on ovulation trigger day (unadjusted odds ratio 4.58; 95% confidence interval 1.35 to 15.55; P = 0.015). It remained significant after adjusting for maternal height, age, and body mass index (adjusted odds ratio 3.83; 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 13.82; P = 0.041). CONCLUSIONS We found an associated risk of children being born small for gestational age after conventional gonadotropin stimulated in vitro fertilization compared to natural-cycle in vitro fertilization. This higher risk is significantly associated with supra-physiological estradiol levels. We propose a reduction in the dosage of gonadotropin to minimize the risk of small for gestational age and future health consequences. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

The challenges of research data management in cardiovascular science: a DGK and DZHK position paper-executive summary

The sharing and documentation of cardiovascular research data are essential for efficient use and reuse of data, thereby aiding scientific transparency, accelerating the progress of cardiovascular research and healthcare, and contributing to the reproducibility of research results. However, challenges remain. This position paper, written on behalf of and approved by the German Cardiac Society and German Centre for Cardiovascular Research, summarizes our current understanding of the challenges in cardiovascular research data management (RDM). These challenges include lack of time, awareness, incentives, and funding for implementing effective RDM; lack of standardization in RDM processes; a need to better identify meaningful and actionable data among the increasing volume and complexity of data being acquired; and a lack of understanding of the legal aspects of data sharing. While several tools exist to increase the degree to which data are findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR), more work is needed to lower the threshold for effective RDM not just in cardiovascular research but in all biomedical research, with data sharing and reuse being factored in at every stage of the scientific process. A culture of open science with FAIR research data should be fostered through education and training of early-career and established research professionals. Ultimately, FAIR RDM requires permanent, long-term effort at all levels. If outcomes can be shown to be superior and to promote better (and better value) science, modern RDM will make a positive difference to cardiovascular science and practice. The full position paper is available in the supplementary materials

Numerical simulation of the impact of COVID-19 lockdown on tropospheric composition and aerosol radiative forcing in Europe

Aerosols influence the Earth\u27s energy balance directly by modifying the radiation transfer and indirectly by altering the cloud microphysics. Anthropogenic aerosol emissions dropped considerably when the global COVID-19 pandemic resulted in severe restraints on mobility, production, and public life in spring 2020. We assess the effects of these reduced emissions on direct and indirect aerosol radiative forcing over Europe, excluding contributions from contrails. We simulate the atmospheric composition with the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model in a baseline (business-as-usual) and a reduced emission scenario. The model results are compared to aircraft observations from the BLUESKY aircraft campaign performed in May–June 2020 over Europe. The model agrees well with most of the observations, except for sulfur dioxide, particulate sulfate, and nitrate in the upper troposphere, likely due to a biased representation of stratospheric aerosol chemistry and missing information about volcanic eruptions. The comparison with a baseline scenario shows that the largest relative differences for tracers and aerosols are found in the upper troposphere, around the aircraft cruise altitude, due to the reduced aircraft emissions, while the largest absolute changes are present at the surface. We also find an increase in all-sky shortwave radiation of 0.21 ± 0.05 W m⁻² at the surface in Europe for May 2020, solely attributable to the direct aerosol effect, which is dominated by decreased aerosol scattering of sunlight, followed by reduced aerosol absorption caused by lower concentrations of inorganic and black carbon aerosols in the troposphere. A further increase in shortwave radiation from aerosol indirect effects was found to be much smaller than its variability. Impacts on ice crystal concentrations, cloud droplet number concentrations, and effective crystal radii are found to be negligible

Impact of reduced emissions on direct and indirect aerosol radiative forcing during COVID-19 lockdown in Europe

Aerosols influence the Earth’s energy balance through direct radiative effects and indirectly by altering the cloud microphysics. Anthropogenic aerosol emissions dropped considerably when the global COVID–19 pandemic resulted in severe restraints on mobility, production, and public life in spring 2020. Here we assess the effects of these reduced emissions on direct and indirect aerosol radiative forcing over Europe, excluding contributions from contrails. We simulate the atmospheric composition with the ECHAM5/MESSy Atmospheric Chemistry (EMAC) model in a baseline (business as usual) and a reduced emission scenario. The model results are compared to aircraft observations from the BLUESKY aircraft campaign performed in May June 2020 over Europe

The Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LiTS)

In this work, we report the set-up and results of the Liver Tumor Segmentation Benchmark (LITS) organized in conjunction with the IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI) 2016 and International Conference On Medical Image Computing Computer Assisted Intervention (MICCAI) 2017. Twenty four valid state-of-the-art liver and liver tumor segmentation algorithms were applied to a set of 131 computed tomography (CT) volumes with different types of tumor contrast levels (hyper-/hypo-intense), abnormalities in tissues (metastasectomie) size and varying amount of lesions. The submitted algorithms have been tested on 70 undisclosed volumes. The dataset is created in collaboration with seven hospitals and research institutions and manually reviewed by independent three radiologists. We found that not a single algorithm performed best for liver and tumors. The best liver segmentation algorithm achieved a Dice score of 0.96(MICCAI) whereas for tumor segmentation the best algorithm evaluated at 0.67(ISBI) and 0.70(MICCAI). The LITS image data and manual annotations continue to be publicly available through an online evaluation system as an ongoing benchmarking resource.Comment: conferenc