Culture Shock in Travel Literature The literary works of Tiziano Terzani and Nicolas Bouvier

The dissertation discusses elements of culture shock and re-entry culture shock in travel literature. The study is specifically concerned with the comparison of the effect of culture shock reflected in the works of two authors: Nicolas Bouvier and Tiziano Terzani. After a short presentation of their biographies, including their motivation to travel and the meaning of leading a nomadic life, the thesis focusses on Terzani and Bouvier as writers and discusses the emergence of culture shock in chosen passages of their texts. Some important topics in this research regard the authors’ identity, their understanding of being at home and the meaning of being the Other. It was possible to conclude that the two writers suffered from culture shock during their journeys; Terzani mostly during his stay in Japan and Bouvier particularly in Ceylon. The result of the analysis shows that culture shock is not a short event, but a long process that has an enormous impact on the individual’s life

In Draghi we trust: how unorthodox monetary policy weakened the anti-austerity movement in Europe

Soon after the sovereign debt crisis started taking a toll on European economies, several strikes and mass protests spread acoss the continent. Yet, while the crisis continued lingering on in some European countries, the mobilisation quickly ebbed away. Federica Genovese, Gerald Schneider and Pia Wassmann argue that one reason why people stopped going to the streets is that the Europan Central Bank decided to adopt a new unconventional policy to ease the problems in Europe’s economies and reduce public discontent

Ein Blick auf die Bedeutung der Selbstbestimmung im Medienwandel in Hinsicht auf Deepfake Pornografie

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die zentrale Frage, inwiefern Medienkonsumriende ihre Selbstbestimmung in einer von Deepfake Pornografie beeinträchtigten Medienlandschaft wahren können. Der theoretische Teil der Arbeit setzt sich mit den Hintergründen, der aktuellen Lage und den Auswirkungen von Deepfake Pornografie auseinander. Die Antworten der durchgeführten Umfrage werden mit den Ergebnissen der Literaturrecherche verglichen. Anschließend werden Maßnahmen für Medienkonsumierende erarbeitet, die zur Wahrung der Selbstbestimmung beitragen können. Im praktischen Teil der Arbeit wird die Erstellung einer Reihe an Filmplakaten dokumentiert, die sich an der Gestaltung von Postern des Porno Chics der 1970er Jahre orientieren. Die zentralen Fokuspunkte dieser Plakate bilden berühmte Menschenrechtler*innen, denen die Gesichter bekannter Pornodarstellerinnen aufgesetzt sind. Das Projekt dient dazu, der einfachen Erstellung von generierten Bildern, im Kontext pornografischer Inhalte Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken

Boon or Bane? Advance Tax Rulings as a Measure to Mitigate Tax Uncertainty and Foster Investment

Politicians and tax practitioners often claim that tax uncertainty negatively affects investment. In many countries, firms can request fee-based Advance Tax Rulings (ATRs) to mitigate tax uncertainty. We analyze theoretically the circumstances under which investors request ATRs, how tax authorities should price them and how they can affect investment. We assume that tax authorities integrate investors' reasoning into their decisions. We find that it is often optimal for tax authorities to charge prohibitively high fees to discourage firms from requesting an ATR. However, we find that revenue-maximizing tax authorities offer ATRs if the ruling enables them either to significantly reduce their tax audit costs or to increase the probability of detecting ambiguous tax issues. Under certain circumstances, ATRs may effectively foster investment and potentially benefit both the tax authorities and taxpayers. Our results provide new explanations for why taxpayers that face high levels of tax uncertainty often do not request ATRs, even when the fee is rather low. Our results also hold when the tax authority maximizes social wealth instead of its revenues. Regulatory changes in ATR requirements might serve as a natural quasi-experiment for an empirical study of our predictions regarding investment decisions. (authors' abstract)Series: WU International Taxation Research Paper Serie

Utilizing Activity Theory as a Framework to Evaluate Globally Dispersed Teamwork in a Retail Interior Design Studio

Design projects are becoming global, and utilizing digital technology for communication among team members is important (Bender, 2005). Providing authentic learning experiences for interior design students helps prepare them for real world challenges in the workplace, where design firms have multiple offices around the world. In this study we employ activity theory (Choi & Kang, 2010) as a framework to evaluate a team’s communication activities and how these activities predict the team’s success

Transgenic potato plants expressing oxalate oxidase have increased resistance to oomycete and bacterial pathogens

Summary: Potato (cv. Bintje) was transformed with a gene encoding an oxalate oxidase from wheat under the control of the CaMV35S promoter. Transgenic potato plants produced high constitutive levels of H2O2 as visualized by 4-chloro-l-naphtol staining. The resistance of these plants was tested againstPhytophthora infestans. An increased level of resistance to the disease was marked by a reduced number of lesions as well as by a decreased number of sporangia formed per lesion. In addition, oxalate oxidase overexpressing plants also exhibited improved resistance toStreptomyces reticuliscabiei, the causal agent of netted scab. Increased expression of oxalate oxidase had no effect on the interaction withErwinia carotovora. These experiments show that overexpression of oxalate oxidase represents a potentially interesting approach for protection of potato to pathogen

Production of a Recombinant Non-Hydroxylated Gelatin Mimetic in Pichia pastoris for Biomedical Applications

Proteins derived from the natural extracellular matrix like collagen or gelatin are common in clinical research, where they are prized for their biocompatibility and bioactivity. Cells are able to adhere, grow and remodel scaffolds based on these materials. Usually, collagen and gelatin are sourced from animal material, risking pathogenic transmission and inconsistent batch-to-batch product quality. A recombinant production in yeast circumvents these disadvantages by ensuring production with a reproducible quality in animal-component-free media. A gelatin mimetic protein, based on the alpha chain of human collagen I, was cloned in Pichia pastoris under the control of the methanol-inducible alcohol oxidase (AOX1) promoter. A producing clone was selected and cultivated at the 30 L scale. The protein was secreted into the cultivation medium and the final yield was 3.4 g·L−1. Purification of the target was performed directly from the cell-free medium by size exclusion chromatography. The gelatin mimetic protein was tested in cell culture for biocompatibility and for promoting cell adhesion. It supported cell growth and its performance was indistinguishable from animal-derived gelatin. The gelatin-mimetic protein represents a swift strategy to produce recombinant and human-based extracellular matrix proteins for various biomedical applications