Assigning committee seats in mixed-member systems: how important is "localness" compared to the mode of election?

"Committees are important features in legislative decision making. The question of who serves on what committee is thus an important one. This paper asks about how mixed electoral systems affect the way committee seats are allocated. Stratmann and Baur (2002) argue that German parties strategically assign nominally elected legislators to those committees that allow them to please their local constituents. Our paper questions this argument in light of the functioning of the German mixed-member system and the individual motivations of German MPs. We argue that the motivations of German legislators do not necessarily mirror their mode of election, and that German parties do not necessarily perceive winning nominal votes as a predominant goal. We hypothesize that German parties aim to increase their vote share on the list-vote (Zweitstimme) by supporting legislators with a strong local focus independent of their mode of election. We will test this argument empirically drawing from the German Candidate Study 2005 and from statistical data on committee membership for the 16th German Bundestag (2005-2009)." (author's abstract

A New Method for the Determination of Area-Averaged Turbulent Surface Fluxes from Low-Level Flights Using Inverse Models

The low-level flight method (LLF) has been combined with linear inverse models (IM) resulting in an LLF+IM method for the determination of area-averaged turbulent surface fluxes. With this combination, the vertical divergences of the turbulent latent and sensible heat fluxes were calculated from horizontal flights. The statistical errors of the derived turbulent surface fluxes were significantly reduced. The LLF+IM method was tested both in numerical and field experiments. Large-eddy simulations (LES) were performed to compare ‘true’ flux profiles with ‘measurements’ of simulated flights in an idealised convective boundary layer. Small differences between the ‘true’ and the ‘measured’ fluxes were found, but the vertical flux divergences were correctly calculated by the LLF+IM method. The LLF+IM method was then applied to data collected during two flights with the Helipod, a turbulence probe carried by a helicopter, and with the research aircraft Do128 in the LITFASS-98 field campaign. The derived surface fluxes were compared with results from eddy-covariance surface stations and with large-aperture scintillometer data. The comparison showed that the LLF+IM method worked well for the sensible heat flux at 77 and 200m flight levels, and also for the latent heat flux at the lowest level. The model quality control indicated failures for the latent heat flux at the 200m level (and higher), which were probably due to large moisture fluctuations that could not be modelled using linear assumptions. Finally the LLF+IM method was applied to more than twenty low-level flights from the LITFASS-2003 experiment. Comparison with aggregated surface flux data revealed good agreement for the sensible heat flux but larger discrepancies and a higher statistical uncertainty for the latent heat flux

Surgical Treatment of Carcinomas of the Oral Minor Salivary Glands : Oncological Outcome in Dependence of Tumor Entity and Therapeutic Strategies

The aim of this study was to analyze the clinical outcomes of three types of minor salivary gland carcinomas (adenoid-cystic carcinomas (ACC), adeno carcinomas not otherwise specified (AC-NOS), and mucoepidermoid carcinomas (MEC)) after primary surgical therapy. A retrospective cohort study was designed and patients with cancer of the minor oral salivary glands treated in our department in the years 2011 to 2022 were included. Clinicopathological data were evaluated to compare overall survival and progression-free survival between the entities. Eighty-one patients were included. The rates of cervical metastases were 38.9% for ACC, 25% for MEC, and 9.1% for AC-NOS. ACC exhibited significantly higher rates of local and systemic disease recurrence (p = 0.02), and the presence of neck node metastases was confirmed as an independent prognostic factor for progressionfree survival (p = 0.014). Treatment success in terms of oncological outcome varied significantly between the different entities and implies different treatment regimens for each tumor entity

Impact of Salvage Surgery on Health-Related Quality of Life in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Prospective Multi-Center Study

Background: Patients with recurrent oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) have limited treatment options. Salvage surgery offers potential curative therapy. The need for extensive ablative surgery together with microvascular reconstruction implies invasive and painful treatment with questionable functional outcome. To address the impact of salvage surgery on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients suffering from recurrent OSCC, a multi-center prospective analysis was initiated. Material and Methods: Patients with recurrent OSCC from 2015 to 2022 at two German cancer centers were included. Interdisciplinary tumor board decisions determined surgery as the only curative treatment modality. HRQoL, was assessed via a EORTC questionnaire (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer—EORTC: QLQ-C30 and QLQ-H&N35) in dependence of the recurrent tumor stage. Patients completed the questionnaires once before surgery (baseline) and then every 3 months during follow-up or up to the end of treatment. Results: In total, 55 patients were included. The mean follow-up period was 26.7 ± 19.3 months. Global health status showed superior mean scores after 12 months (60.83 ± 22.58) compared to baseline (53.33 ± 26.41) in stage 1 and 2 recurrent tumors. In advanced recurrent tumors’ mean scores for global health showed only minor positive differences after 12 months (55.13 ± 22.7) compared to baseline (53.2 ± 25.58). In terms of the mouth pain, mean scores were lower after salvage surgery in small recurrent tumors after 12 months (20.37 ± 17.73) compared to baseline (41.67 ± 33.07; Wilcoxon two-sample signed-rank test p = 0.028). In advanced recurrent tumors, a significant reduction in mean scores was detected 3 months after salvage surgery (29.7 ± 22.94) compared to baseline (47.76 ± 25.77; Wilcoxon two-sample signedrank test p = 0.003). Up to 12 months, swallowing function was evaluated inferior compared to baseline independent of tumor stage (Mean score recurrent stage I/II: 12-months 48.15 ± 27.57, baseline 28.7 ± 22.87; stage III/IV: 12-months 49.36.42 ± 27.53; baseline 30.13 ± 26.25). Conclusion: Improved HRQoL could be obtained in advanced recurrent OSCC after salvage surgery despite reduced swallowing function. In small recurrent tumors, overall, HRQoL was superior to baseline. Salvage surgery positively affected pain burden. For advanced recurrent tumors, important pain relieve could be observed as soon as 3 months after surgery

CRETA (Centrum fürreflektierte Textanalyse)– FachübergreifendeMethodenentwicklung in denDigital Humanities

This paper will present the concept of the newly established Stuttgart DH Center CRETA, which unites very different text-oriented disciplines such as literature, linguistics, history, political science, and philosophy, and which, on the other hand, not only applies methods and modeling techniques from machine learning, computational linguistics, and computer graphic visualization, but has begun to integrate them into a common DH methodology of deep reflective text analysis. Such a further development of the method inventory of the Digital Humanities is a long way and needs many participants. However, we can already illustrate aspects of the conception with case studies of scenarios from ongoing digital humanities projects, and it seems important to us to put the approach up for broad discussion

Macro-invertébrés du Cénomanien du Djebel Metrassi (Batna, NE Algérie): Systématique et biostratigraphie

A rich paleontological assemblage was collected in the Cenomanian deposits of the Djebel Metrassi (Batna, NE Algeria). It consists of 327 specimens assigned respectively to a single coral, 24 bivalve, 14 gastropod, 3 ammonite, and 7 echinoid species. This macrofaunal association leads us to establish an original taxonomical reference list along with several species new for the Cenomanian of this area, and supports the lithostratigraphic framework herein proposed.[fr] Un assemblage paléontologique a été récolté dans le Cénomanien du Djebel Metrassi (Batna, NE Algérie). Constitué de 327 spécimens, il comporte un corail, 24 espèces de bivalves, 14 espèces de gastéropodes, 3 espèces d’ammonites et 7 espèces d’échinides. Cet assemblage permet d’établir une liste systématique originale, avec des espèces inédites, pour le Cénomanien de ce Djebel et vient soutenir le découpage lithostratigraphique proposé

Party rules, party resources, and the politics of parliamentary democracies: how parties organize in the 21st Century

This article introduces the first findings of the Political Party Database (PPDB) project, a major survey of party organizations in parliamentary and semi-presidential democracies. The project’s first round of data covers 122 parties in 19 countries. In this paper we describe the scope of the database, then investigate what it tells us about contemporary party organization in these countries, focussing on parties’ resources, structures and internal decision-making. We examine organizational patterns by country and party family, and where possible we make temporal comparisons with older datasets. Our analyses suggest a remarkable coexistence of uniformity and diversity. In terms of the major organizational resources on which parties can draw, such as members, staff and finance, the new evidence largely confirms the continuation of trends identified in previous research: i.e., declining membership, but enhanced financial resources and more paid staff. We also find remarkable uniformity regarding the core architecture of party organizations. At the same time, however, we find substantial variation between countries and party families in terms of their internal processes, with particular regard to how internally democratic they are, and in the forms that this democratization takes