The sources of profitability

This paper is built around a theorem proved analytically and exemplified empirically in Flaschel, Franke and Veneziani (2010) which states that profitable capital-using labor-saving technical change is under mild conditions always reducing the labor content of commodities. This type of technical change therefore increases Marx’s value rate of profit in a systematic way. Against this background the paper studies the relationship between the actual value and price rate of profit and derives expressions that show that the deviation between them may be of a secondary and unsystematic nature. This result is then exemplified empirically using flow as well as stock matrix data for the German economy. The paper argues on this basis that prices of production are in fact of a questionable nature and an unnecessary detour in the input-output oriented analysis of the profitability nexus between total labor costs and the actual prices of the considered commodities.Labor values, profit rates, input-output models

The sources of profitability

This paper is built around a theorem proved analytically and exemplified empirically in Flaschel, Franke and Veneziani (2010) which states that profitable capital-using labor-saving technical change is under mild conditions always reducing the labor content of commodities. This type of technical change therefore increases Marx’s value rate of profit in a systematic way. Against this background the paper studies the relationship between the actual value and price rate of profit and derives expressions that show that the deviation between them may be of a secondary and unsystematic nature. This result is then exemplified empirically using flow as well as stock matrix data for the German economy. The paper argues on this basis that prices of production are in fact of a questionable nature and an unnecessary detour in the input-output oriented analysis of the profitability nexus between total labor costs and the actual prices of the considered commodities

The sources of profitability

This paper is built around a theorem proved analytically and exemplified empirically in Flaschel, Franke and Veneziani (2010) which states that profitable capital-using labor-saving technical change is under mild conditions always reducing the labor content of commodities. This type of technical change therefore increases Marx’s value rate of profit in a systematic way. Against this background the paper studies the relationship between the actual value and price rate of profit and derives expressions that show that the deviation between them may be of a secondary and unsystematic nature. This result is then exemplified empirically using flow as well as stock matrix data for the German economy. The paper argues on this basis that prices of production are in fact of a questionable nature and an unnecessary detour in the input-output oriented analysis of the profitability nexus between total labor costs and the actual prices of the considered commodities

Thermal and hydrodynamic studies for micro-channel cooling for large area silicon sensors in high energy physics experiments

Micro-channel cooling initially aiming at small-sized high-power integrated circuits is being transferred to the field of high energy physics. Today`s prospects of micro-fabricating silicon opens a door to a more direct cooling of detector modules. The challenge in high energy physics is to save material in the detector construction and to cool large areas. In this paper, we are investigating micro-channel cooling as a candidate for a future cooling system for silicon detectors in a generic research and development approach. The work presented in this paper includes the production and the hydrodynamic and thermal testing of a micro-channel equipped prototype optimized to achieve a homogeneous flow distribution. Furthermore, the device was simulated using finite element methods.Comment: 10 pages, submitted to NIMA (accepted

Fully automated preoperative liver volumetry incorporating the anatomical location of the central hepatic vein

The precise preoperative calculation of functional liver volumes is essential prior major liver resections, as well as for the evaluation of a suitable donor for living donor liver transplantation. The aim of this study was to develop a fully automated, reproducible, and quantitative 3D volumetry of the liver from standard CT examinations of the abdomen as part of routine clinical imaging. Therefore, an in-house dataset of 100 venous phase CT examinations for training and 30 venous phase ex-house CT examinations with a slice thickness of 5 mm for testing and validating were fully annotated with right and left liver lobe. Multi-Resolution U-Net 3D neural networks were employed for segmenting these liver regions. The Sorensen-Dice coefficient was greater than 0.9726 +/- 0.0058, 0.9639 +/- 0.0088, and 0.9223 +/- 0.0187 and a mean volume difference of 32.12 +/- 19.40 ml, 22.68 +/- 21.67 ml, and 9.44 +/- 27.08 ml compared to the standard of reference (SoR) liver, right lobe, and left lobe annotation was achieved. Our results show that fully automated 3D volumetry of the liver on routine CT imaging can provide reproducible, quantitative, fast and accurate results without needing any examiner in the preoperative work-up for hepatobiliary surgery and especially for living donor liver transplantation.Projekt DEA

Search for dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks in √s = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for weakly interacting massive particle dark matter produced in association with bottom or top quarks is presented. Final states containing third-generation quarks and miss- ing transverse momentum are considered. The analysis uses 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at √s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess of events above the estimated backgrounds is observed. The results are in- terpreted in the framework of simplified models of spin-0 dark-matter mediators. For colour- neutral spin-0 mediators produced in association with top quarks and decaying into a pair of dark-matter particles, mediator masses below 50 GeV are excluded assuming a dark-matter candidate mass of 1 GeV and unitary couplings. For scalar and pseudoscalar mediators produced in association with bottom quarks, the search sets limits on the production cross- section of 300 times the predicted rate for mediators with masses between 10 and 50 GeV and assuming a dark-matter mass of 1 GeV and unitary coupling. Constraints on colour- charged scalar simplified models are also presented. Assuming a dark-matter particle mass of 35 GeV, mediator particles with mass below 1.1 TeV are excluded for couplings yielding a dark-matter relic density consistent with measurements