Ambivalences of the Creative Class: Space, reflexivity and the Restructuring of the German Advertising Industry

One of the most remarkable and successful regional science publications of the last years is certainly Richard Florida's "The Rise of the Creative Class". Based on the key idea that today's economy is increasingly "powered by human creativity" Florida holds that the presence of a non-conformist creative workforce is the crucial factor for the future competitiveness and development of cities and regions. This in turn will substantially change the subject of local economic policy in that it has to be increasingly directed towards the living conditions of this workforce. The suggested paper, despite acknowledging the vital importance of an individualistic – or 'reflexive' – labour force for the (not only) spatial organisation of the future economy, will be strongly critical with Florida's arguments, maintaining that he starts from a too self-evident and monocausal understanding of the relation between creativity/individualism and economic success. Basically it is held that the way from non-conformism to business is full of ambivalences, uncertainties, frictions etc. which have to be dealt with. The spatial dimension of the future economy is based precisely on and shaped by these 'refractions', respectively by the ways to handle them. The argument will be underpinned by highlighting the evidence of an in-depth study of the spatial structure and spatial change of the German advertising industry.

The power of creativity and the power of the city - the functioning of labour markets and its role for urban location in the restructuring of German advertising

Urban socio-economic theory today strongly focuses on the role of labour markets in shaping the structure of the urban economy and society. Particularly the strong polarisation of the urban society is often explained through the polarised structure of post-industrial service labour markets. Yet this theoretical focus, visible in a whole flood of literature, tends to disarticulate with the small number of studies which empirically attempt to unravel the structure and functioning of particular labour markets in cities. The present paper aims at filling this gap by providing insights into the predominantly urban and especially post-industrial labour market of advertising. At the same time it attempts to highlight the nexus between its structure and functioning and the spatial structure of the economic activity by examining the role of labour markets for the spatial restructuring of the German advertising industry. After giving a brief critical overview of the role of labour markets in contemporary urban theory, the restructuring of German advertising is portrayed in a more descriptive way, presenting employment data from the last twenty years. In a second empirical step a more profound qualitative approach to the sector is taken focusing on the way how different agency types attempt and succeed to manage the frequently conflicting interests of both their clients and their labour force. The paper concludes by launching two key arguments: first, it will be decisive for understanding future urban economies to get insights in just these labour markets of 'classic' post-industrial activities and, second, to understand them one has to seriously consider the way how they interact with the social relations the labour market actors are embedded in.

An efficient graph algorithm for dominance constraints

Dominance constraints are logical descriptions of trees that are widely used in computational linguistics. Their general satisfiability problem is known to be NP-complete. Here we identify normal dominance constraints and present an efficient graph algorithm for testing their satisfiablity in deterministic polynomial time. Previously, no polynomial time algorithm was known

Mannan-binding lectin and procalcitonin measurement for prediction of postoperative infection

INTRODUCTION: Postoperative infection is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. We investigated two serum markers for their ability to identify patients at risk for postoperative infection. Mannan-binding lectin (MBL) is a central molecule of the innate immune system and MBL deficiency is known to predispose to infection. Procalcitonin (PCT) is a sensitive marker for bacterial infection. METHODS: We investigated 162 patients undergoing elective surgery for cancer of the gastrointestinal tract. Patients were classified as having no complications (group A), having infection for unknown reason (group B) or having sepsis after events like aspiration or anastomotic leakage (group C). Analysis was done pre- and postoperatively for serum levels of MBL, PCT and C-reactive-protein. DNA was preoperatively sampled and stored and later analysed for genetic polymorphisms of MBL. RESULTS: The preoperative serum levels of MBL were significantly lower in group B patients than in group A patients (1332 ± 466 ng/ml versus 2523 ± 181 ng/ml). PCT measured on day one post-surgery was significantly higher in group B patients than in group A (3.33 ± 1.08 ng/ml versus 1.38 ± 0.17 ng/ml). Patients with an aberrant MBL genotype had a significantly higher risk of postoperative infections than wild-type carriers (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Preoperative MBL and early postoperative PCT measurement may help identify patients at risk for postoperative infection

Use of HLA-B27 tetramers to identify low-frequency antigen-specific T cells in Chlamydia-triggered reactive arthritis

Reports of the use of HLA-B27/peptide tetrameric complexes to study peptide-specific CD8(+ )T cells in HLA-B27(+)-related diseases are rare. To establish HLA-B27 tetramers we first compared the function of HLA-B27 tetramers with HLA-A2 tetramers by using viral epitopes. HLA-B27 and HLA-A2 tetramers loaded with immunodominant peptides from Epstein–Barr virus were generated with comparable yields and both molecules detected antigen-specific CD8(+ )T cells. The application of HLA-B27 tetramers in HLA-B27-related diseases was performed with nine recently described Chlamydia-derived peptides in synovial fluid and peripheral blood, to examine the CD8(+ )T cell response against Chlamydia trachomatis antigens in nine patients with Chlamydia-triggered reactive arthritis (Ct-ReA). Four of six HLA-B27(+ )Ct-ReA patients had specific synovial T cell binding to at least one HLA-B27/Chlamydia peptide tetramer. The HLA-B27/Chlamydia peptide 195 tetramer bound to synovial T cells from three of six patients and HLA-B27/Chlamydia peptide 133 tetramer to synovial T cells from two patients. However, the frequency of these cells was low (0.02–0.09%). Moreover, we demonstrate two methods to generate HLA-B27-restricted T cell lines. First, HLA-B27 tetramers and magnetic beads were used to sort antigen-specific CD8(+ )T cells. Second, Chlamydia-infected dendritic cells were used to stimulate CD8(+ )T cells ex vivo. Highly pure CD8 T cell lines could be generated ex vivo by magnetic sorting by using HLA-B27 tetramers loaded with an EBV peptide. The frequency of Chlamydia-specific, HLA-B27 tetramer-binding CD8(+ )T cells could be increased by stimulating CD8(+ )T cells ex vivo with Chlamydia-infected dendritic cells. We conclude that HLA-B27 tetramers are a useful tool for the detection and expansion of HLA-B27-restricted CD8(+ )T cells. T cells specific for one or more of three Chlamydia-derived peptides were found at low frequency in synovial fluid from HLA-B27(+ )patients with Ct-ReA. These cells can be expanded ex vivo, suggesting that they are immunologically functional

Transmembrane domain length of viral K+ channels is a signal for mitochondria targeting

K+ channels operate in the plasma membrane and in membranes of organelles including mitochondria. The mechanisms and topogenic information for their differential synthesis and targeting is unknown. This article describes 2 similar viral K+ channels that are differentially sorted; one protein (Kesv) is imported by the Tom complex into the mitochondria, the other (Kcv) to the plasma membrane. By creating chimeras we discovered that mitochondrial sorting of Kesv depends on a hierarchical combination of N- and C-terminal signals. Crucial is the length of the second transmembrane domain; extending its C terminus by \u3e2 hydrophobic amino acids redirects Kesv from the mitochondrial to the plasma membrane. Activity of Kesv in the plasma membrane is detected electrically or by yeast rescue assays only after this shift in sorting. Hence only minor structural alterations in a transmembrane domain are sufficient to switch sorting of a K+ channel between the plasma membrane and mitochondria

Quantum Imaging with Incoherently Scattered Light from a Free-Electron Laser

The advent of accelerator-driven free-electron lasers (FEL) has opened new avenues for high-resolution structure determination via diffraction methods that go far beyond conventional x-ray crystallography methods. These techniques rely on coherent scattering processes that require the maintenance of first-order coherence of the radiation field throughout the imaging procedure. Here we show that higher-order degrees of coherence, displayed in the intensity correlations of incoherently scattered x-rays from an FEL, can be used to image two-dimensional objects with a spatial resolution close to or even below the Abbe limit. This constitutes a new approach towards structure determination based on incoherent processes, including Compton scattering, fluorescence emission or wavefront distortions, generally considered detrimental for imaging applications. Our method is an extension of the landmark intensity correlation measurements of Hanbury Brown and Twiss to higher than second-order paving the way towards determination of structure and dynamics of matter in regimes where coherent imaging methods have intrinsic limitations