Monetary policy implementation: common goals but different practices

While the goals that guide monetary policy in different countries are very similar, central banks diverge in their methods of implementing policy. This study of the policy frameworks of four central banks—the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the Bank of England, and the Swiss National Bank—focuses on two notable areas of difference. The first is the choice of an interest rate target, a standard feature of conventional monetary policy. The second is the choice of instruments for managing the central banks’ expanded balance sheets—a decision made necessary by the banks’ unconventional practice of acquiring large quantities of assets during the financial crisis.Banks and banking, Central ; Monetary policy ; European Central Bank ; Federal Reserve System ; Bank of England ; Swiss National Bank ; Interest rates ; Assets (Accounting)

Online civic intervention: A new form of political participation under conditions of a disruptive online discourse

In the everyday practice of online communication, we observe users deliberately reporting abusive content or opposing hate speech through counterspeech, while at the same time, online platforms are increasingly relying on and supporting this kind of user action to fight disruptive online behavior. We refer to this type of user engagement as online civic intervention (OCI) and regard it as a new form of user-based political participation in the digital sphere that contributes to an accessible and reasoned public discourse. Because OCI has received little scholarly attention thus far, this article conceptualizes low- and high-threshold types of OCI as different kinds of user responses to common disruptive online behavior such as hate speech or hostility toward the media. Against the background of participation research, we propose a theoretically grounded individual-level model that serves to explain OCI

Bio-Landbau als Chance für Osteuropa

Zahlreiche Länder Osteuropas haben auf der Suche nach neuen Strategien für ihre Landwirtschaft den biologischen Landbau als Chance entdeckt. Der Bio-Landbau bietet nachhaltige Produktion und Anschluss an attraktive Märkte

Mediennutzung durch Flüchtlinge vor, während und nach der Flucht

Gegenwärtige Fluchtbewegungen stehen unübersehbar im Zeichen des digitalen Zeitalters: Mobiltelefone sind zu zentralen Werkzeugen der Schutzsuchenden geworden, WLANHotspots so notwendig wie Wasserstellen. Doch trotz der offenbar großen Bedeutung digitaler mobiler Geräte für Flüchtlinge lagen zu den tatsächlichen Nutzungsmustern sowie deren Auswirkungen auf das Informationsverhalten von Flüchtlingen und ihr Deutschlandbild bisher kaum repräsentative, verallgemeinerbare Daten vor. Das Forschungsprojekt „Flucht 2.0“ will diese Wissenslücke schließen. Das Projekt wurde gefördert mit Mitteln des Auswärtigen Amtes

Genomic GC-content affects the accuracy of 16S rRNA gene sequencing bsed microbial profiling due to PCR bias

Profiling of microbial community composition is frequently performed by partial 16S rRNA gene sequencing on benchtop platforms following PCR amplification of specific hypervariable regions within this gene. Accuracy and reproducibility of this strategy are two key parameters to consider, which may be influenced during all processes from sample collection and storage, through DNA extraction and PCR based library preparation to the final sequencing. In order to evaluate both the reproducibility and accuracy of 16S rRNA gene based microbial profiling using the Ion Torrent PGM platform, we prepared libraries and performed sequencing of a well-defined and validated 20-member bacterial DNA mock community on five separate occasions and compared results with the expected even distribution. In general the applied method had a median coefficient of variance of 11.8% (range 5.5–73.7%) for all 20 included strains in the mock community across five separate sequencing runs, with underrepresented strains generally showing the largest degree of variation. In terms of accuracy, mock community species belonging to Proteobacteria were underestimated, whereas those belonging to Firmicutes were mostly overestimated. This could be explained partly by premature read truncation, but to larger degree their genomic GC-content, which correlated negatively with the observed relative abundances, suggesting a PCR bias against GC-rich species during library preparation. Increasing the initial denaturation time during the PCR amplification from 30 to 120 s resulted in an increased average relative abundance of the three mock community members with the highest genomic GC%, but did not significantly change the overall evenness of the community distribution. Therefore, efforts should be made to optimize the PCR conditions prior to sequencing in order to maximize accuracy

Information seeking and communication during forced migration: An empirical analysis of refugees' digital media use and its effects on their perceptions of Germany as their target country

The recent refugee movements to Europe occur in the digital age. While there is a common perception that 'every refugee carries a smartphone', research on this new phenomenon is limited. To fill this academic gap, we have conducted a representative survey of more than 400 refugees living in Berlin which provides insight into the use of digital media in preparation for and during forced migration. We also asked whether digital media shaped images of and expectations about the refugees' target country Germany. The data confirm that digital media are important tools for refugees but also show that refugees are not a homogenous group and that usage patterns depend on regional origins. Moreover, we found that refugees who frequently accessed the Internet before they fled were better informed than others. Whereas Internet use also contributed to a positively-biased perception of Germany, the respective effect of traditional media use was stronger

NFAT5 genes are part of the osmotic regulatory system in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

Acknowledgements This study was supported by a grant from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC, BB/H008063/1), UK to DGH and SAM. Funding also came from Research Council Norway for project number 241016 for DGH and EJ. This work was carried out as part of a PhD thesis funded by the Marine Alliance of Science and Technology Scotland (MASTS).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Stratification of the Information Space in Web Based Information Systems

Web-based Information Systems (WIS) are used for diffusing and processing information over the Internet. Because of the large amounts of information they manage, it is crucial to adapt the delivered information to users and to give them a progressive access to information. For this purpose, we propose to stratify the Information Space of a WIS by decomposing it into personalized sub- Information Spaces. Multimedia data can also be stratified into multiple formats used for their presentation. These stratifications are described through a Progressive Access Model (PAM) written in UML. In order to personalize the progressive access, the PAM is linked to both the data model of the application domain and to a Generic User Model describing the rights and preferences of users. We also show that, based on these stratifications, navigation mechanisms allow users to access first some minimum and essential information, and then larger and/or smaller personalized Information Spaces

Measuring Liquidity in Agricultural Land Markets

This paper contributes to the sparse empirical literature on measuring liquidity in agricultural land markets. Using data from Lower Saxony (Germany), we inspect the spatial and temporal variability of various liquidity indicators. We apply a panel vector autoregression (VAR) and Granger causality tests to examine the relationship between liquidity and prices and to identify further determinants of land market liquidity, such as supply shocks and clientele effects. Unlike in housing markets, no positive relationship between prices and market liquidity exists. We conclude that in agricultural land markets, a high demand from expanding farms absorbs supply shocks regardless of prevailing prices