Tracing the income-fertility nexus: Nonparametric Estimates for a Panel of Countries

We apply the a nonparametric method of kernel regression on a dataset for 109 countries to estimate the income fertility nexus in demo-economic transition. The results suggest the existence of a critical level of per capita income above which fertility decreases exponentially with rising income. For income levels below fertility stays on a high level and its relation to income is of minor significance. The critical income threshold changes over time and is lower for more recent periods, which gives evidence of major structural shifts in the relationship under investigation.

Query-guided End-to-End Person Search

Person search has recently gained attention as the novel task of finding a person, provided as a cropped sample, from a gallery of non-cropped images, whereby several other people are also visible. We believe that i. person detection and re-identification should be pursued in a joint optimization framework and that ii. the person search should leverage the query image extensively (e.g. emphasizing unique query patterns). However, so far, no prior art realizes this. We introduce a novel query-guided end-to-end person search network (QEEPS) to address both aspects. We leverage a most recent joint detector and re-identification work, OIM [37]. We extend this with i. a query-guided Siamese squeeze-and-excitation network (QSSE-Net) that uses global context from both the query and gallery images, ii. a query-guided region proposal network (QRPN) to produce query-relevant proposals, and iii. a query-guided similarity subnetwork (QSimNet), to learn a query-guided reidentification score. QEEPS is the first end-to-end query-guided detection and re-id network. On both the most recent CUHK-SYSU [37] and PRW [46] datasets, we outperform the previous state-of-the-art by a large margin.Comment: Accepted as poster in CVPR 201

John Dewey and His Philosophy of Education

This review paper on John Dewey, the pioneering educationist of the 20th century, discusses his educational thoughts, and writings, which gave a new direction to education at the turn of the century. Dewey’s contributions are immense and overwhelming in the fields of education, politics, humanism, logic, and aesthetics. This discussion will focus on Dewey and his philosophy related to educational approaches, pedagogical issues, and the linkages that he made between education, democracy, experience, and society. At the heart of his educational thought is the child. Dewey’s idea on humanism springs from his democratic bent and his quest for freedom, equity, and the value of child’s experiences

Making and breaking antibiotics – structural studies of Bottromycin biosynthesis and a mechanism of Albicidin resistance

The emergence of antibacterial resistance is a major public health threat that warrants urgent attention. The discovery of new antibacterial natural products and unravelling of their biosynthesis, coupled with the study of resistance mechanisms employed by bacteria to evade antibiotics will be vital in ensuring that we maintain a viable antibiotic development pipeline. This thesis covers two aspects of antibiotic research: deciphering bottromycin biosynthesis and AlbA mediated antibiotic resistance. Bottromycins are potent antibacterial peptides that bind a novel bacterial target: The A-site of the ribosome. Bottromycin biosynthesis is still not fully understood, especially the role of two hydrolases, BotAH and BotH. The in-depth functional and structural characterization studies presented here demonstrate that BotAH is responsible for a key proteolytic step, whereas BotH is an atypical hydrolase-like enzyme responsible for the post-translational epimerization of L-Asp to D-Asp in bottromycin biosynthesis. AlbA is a resistance protein that had previously been reported to neutralize a potent antibacterial compound, albicidin. The structural and functional studies of AlbA presented here not only reveal the mode of albicidin binding, but also the underlying mechanism of its modification by AlbA, resulting in loss of potency. The data also demonstrate that AlbA constitutes an autoregulated antibiotic resistance system, present in a wide variety of pathogenic bacteria.Die Entstehung von Antibiotikaresistenzen ist eine ernste Gefahr für die Gesundheit der Weltbevölkerung und bedarf dringender Aufmerksamkeit. Die Entdeckung neuer Naturstoffe mit antibiotischer Wirkung und ein Entschlüsseln ihrer Biosynthese zusammen mit einem besseren Verständnis der Resistenzmechanismen, die Bakterien entwickeln um sich zur Wehr zu setzen, ist essentiell um sicherzustellen, dass wir eine Tragfähige Strategie zur Entwicklung neuer Antibiotika haben. Diese Doktorarbeit beschäftigt sich mit zwei Aspekten der Antibiotikaforschung: Einem besseren Verständnis der Bottromycin Biosynthese und dem Resistenzprotein AlbA. Bottromycine sind potente antibakterielle Peptide und ihre Biosynthese ist noch nicht vollständig erforscht, besonders die Rolle der beiden Hydrolasen BotAH und BotH. Die detaillierte funktionelle und strukturelle Charakterisierung der beiden Proteine ist Teil dieser Arbeit. BotAH ist für einen wichtigen proteolytischen Schritt in der Biosynthese verantwortlich, wohingegen BotH eine sehr atypische Hydrolase ist und die post-translationale Umwandlung von l-Asp in d-Asp katalysiert. AlbA neutralisiert den potenten antibiotischen Naturstoff Albicidin. Die strukturelle und funktionelle Untersuchung von AlbA zeigte nicht nur auf wie AlbA Albicidin bindet und es dabei modifiziert, sondern auch das AlbA ein autoinduzierbares antibiotisches Resistenzprotein ist, das in vielen pathogenen Bakterien zu finden ist

Temperature Dependence of a Sub-wavelength Compact Graphene Plasmon-Slot Modulator

We investigate a plasmonic electro-optic modulator with an extinction ratio exceeding 1 dB/um by engineering the optical mode to be in-plane with the graphene layer, and show how lowering the operating temperature enables steeper switching. We show how cooling Graphene enables steeping thus improving dynamic energy consumption. Further, we show that multi-layer Graphene integrated with a plasmonic slot waveguide allows for in-plane electric field components, and 3-dB device lengths as short as several hundred nanometers only. Compact modulators approaching electronic length-scales pave a way for ultra-dense photonic integrated circuits with smallest footprint

Ethics and fiqh for daily life: an Islamic outline

Islam is a religion at the core of which lies belief and it blossoms and perpetually grows through a code of practice consisting of legal rules and moral principles. Iman will fade if it is not sustained by ethical values and moral ideals and reinforced by legal code pf practices. This book presents some of the pertinent aspects of ethics and fiqh for everyday life which benefits non-specialists in religious studies

A comparative study of various strategies used for the mitigation of global warming

The global temperature has risen yearly by a bit more than 1 degree Celsius during the industrial revolution. Many experts believe that if current greenhouse gas emissions continue, the planet will become hotter, ocean level will rise and climatic conditions will change excessively. Temperatures are expected to rise faster in the coming decades than they have in the previous 10,000 years, according to some scientists. Greenhouse gases are thought to be the most important factor causing climate change. CO2 is by far the most important anthropogenic greenhouse gas, with concentration in the atmosphere rising by more than 80% between 1970 and 2021. About 91 percent of total CO2 emissions from human sources come from fossil fuels. Controlling greenhouse gas emissions and preparing human settlements to withstand extreme climate change have emerged as two of our age\u27s most daunting challenges. The purpose of this study is to discuss and compare various strategies that can be used for reducing or eliminating carbon dioxide emissions. Various CO2 reduction approaches have been investigated, including the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources, carbon dioxide capture and storage, and carbon dioxide capture and utilization. The goal of this research is to look at several options for meeting energy needs for long-term development without causing negative climate change i.e. renewable energy sources, carbon dioxide capture and storage, carbon dioxide capture and utilization