Towards the Greater Good? EU Commissioners’ Nationality and Budget Allocation in the European Union

We analyse whether there is a relationship between EU Commissioners’ national origin and political outcomes. For this purpose, we argue that examining the Commissioner for Agriculture allows the most precise empirical identification: there is a specific budget for agriculture which accounts for the largest share of the overall EU budget and gives significant leeway to the Commissioner. On average, providing the Commissioners is associated with increases in the share of the overall EU budget that is allocated to their country of origin of about one percentage point. This increase corresponds to half a billion Euro per year, a significant change in particular for smaller member states. Alternative explanations are considered using country-specific time trends, examining pre- and post-treatment trends and modeling endogenous treatment-selection. There are no significant differences in trend behavior between treated and non-treated countries both before and after providing the Commissioner. We demonstrate that our results are not driven by individual countries and show that selection-on-unobservables would have to be implausibly high to account for the estimated coefficient

The evolution of protostome GATA factors: Molecular phylogenetics, synteny, and intron/exon structure reveal orthologous relationships

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Invertebrate and vertebrate GATA transcription factors play important roles in ectoderm and mesendoderm development, as well as in cardiovascular and blood cell fate specification. However, the assignment of evolutionarily conserved roles to GATA homologs requires a detailed framework of orthologous relationships. Although two distinct classes, GATA123 and GATA456, have been unambiguously recognized among deuterostome GATA genes, it has been difficult to resolve exact orthologous relationships among protostome homologs. Protostome GATA genes are often present in multiple copies within any one genome, and rapidly evolving gene sequences have obscured orthology among arthropod and nematode GATA homologs. In addition, a lack of taxonomic sampling has prevented a stepwise reconstruction of protostome GATA gene family evolution.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have identified the complete GATA complement (53 genes) from a diverse sampling of protostome genomes, including six arthropods, three lophotrochozoans, and two nematodes. Reciprocal best hit BLAST analysis suggested orthology of these GATA genes to either the ancestral bilaterian GATA123 or the GATA456 class. Using molecular phylogenetic analyses of gene sequences, together with conserved synteny and comparisons of intron/exon structure, we inferred the evolutionary relationships among these 53 protostome GATA homologs. In particular, we resolved the orthology and evolutionary birth order of all arthropod GATA homologs including the highly divergent <it>Drosophila </it>GATA genes.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our combined analyses confirm that all protostome GATA transcription factor genes are members of either the GATA123 or GATA456 class, and indicate that there have been multiple protostome-specific duplications of GATA456 homologs. Three GATA456 genes exhibit linkage in multiple protostome species, suggesting that this gene cluster arose by tandem duplications from an ancestral GATA456 gene. Within arthropods this GATA456 cluster appears orthologous and widely conserved. Furthermore, the intron/exon structures of the arthropod GATA456 orthologs suggest a distinct order of gene duplication events. At present, however, the evolutionary relationship to similarly linked GATA456 paralogs in lophotrochozoans remains unclear. Our study shows how sampling of additional genomic data, especially from less derived and interspersed protostome taxa, can be used to resolve the orthologous relationships within more divergent gene families.</p

Influence of static electric fields on an optical ion trap

We recently reported on a proof-of-principle experiment demonstrating optical trapping of an ion in a single-beam dipole trap superimposed by a static electric potential [Nat. Photonics 4, 772--775 (2010)]. Here, we first discuss the experimental procedures focussing on the influence and consequences of the static electric potential. These potentials can easily prevent successful optical trapping, if their configuration is not chosen carefully. Afterwards, we analyse the dipole trap experiments with different analytic models, in which different approximations are applied. According to these models the experimental results agree with recoil heating as the relevant heating effect. In addition, a Monte-Carlo simulation has been developed to refine the analysis. It reveals a large impact of the static electric potential on the dipole trap experiments in general. While it supports the results of the analytic models for the parameters used in the experiments, the analytic models cease their validity for significantly different parameters. Finally, we propose technical improvements for future realizations of experiments with optically trapped ions.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figure

Seroprevalence of Yersinia, Hepatitis E and Trichinella among migrant and nonmigrant populations in Berlin and Brandenburg (Germany)

Pork is a potential source of infection for Yersinia, Hepatitis E virus and Trichinella. In 2014, 2484 cases of yersiniosis, 671 hepatitis E cases and 1 trichinellosis case were reported in Germany. Although migrants represent 27% of Berlin inhabitants, data is lacking on subpopulation-specific exposure risks to zoonotic diseases. We aimed to estimate the seroprevalence and to identify potential risk factors for Yersinia, Hepatitis E and Trichinella in migrants and non-migrants in Berlin/Brandenburg

Searching in HI for Massive Low Surface Brightness Galaxies: Samples from HyperLeda and the UGC

A search has been made for 21 cm HI line emission in a total of 350 unique galaxies from two samples whose optical properties indicate they may be massive The first consists of 241 low surface brightness (LSB) galaxies of morphological type Sb and later selected from the HyperLeda database and the the second consists of 119 LSB galaxies from the UGC with morphological types Sd-m and later. Of the 350 unique galaxies, 239 were observed at the Nancay Radio Telescope, 161 at the Green Bank Telescope, and 66 at the Arecibo telescope. A total of 295 (84.3%) were detected, of which 253 (72.3%) appear to be uncontaminated by any other galaxies within the telescope beam. Finally, of the total detected, uncontaminated galaxies, at least 31 appear to be massive LSB galaxies, with a total HI mass $\ge$ 10$^{10}$ M$_{sol}$, for H$_0$ = 70 km/s/Mpc. If we expand the definition to also include galaxies with significant total (rather than just gas) mass, i.e., those with inclination-corrected HI line width W$_{50}$,cor > 500 km/s, this bring the total number of massive LSB galaxies to 41. There are no obvious trends between the various measured global galaxy properties, particularly between mean surface brightness and galaxy mass.Comment: 71 pages, including all tables and figures; Accepted by A

LncRNA RUS shapes the gene expression program towards neurogenesis

The evolution of brain complexity correlates with an increased expression of long, noncoding (lnc) RNAs in neural tissues. Although prominent examples illustrate the potential of lncRNAs to scaffold and target epigenetic regulators to chromatin loci, only few cases have been described to function during brain development. We present a first functional characterization of the lncRNA LINC01322, which we term RUS for RNA upstream of Slitrk3. The RUS gene is well conserved in mammals by sequence and synteny next to the neurodevelopmental gene Slitrk3. RUS is exclusively expressed in neural cells and its expression increases during neuronal differentiation of mouse embryonic cortical neural stem cells. Depletion of RUS locks neuronal precursors in an intermediate state towards neuronal differentiation resulting in arrested cell cycle and increased apoptosis. RUS associates with chromatin in the vicinity of genes involved in neurogenesis, most of which change their expression upon RUS depletion. The identification of a range of epigenetic regulators as specific RUS interactors suggests that the lncRNA may mediate gene activation and repression in a highly context-dependent manner