Power and Ownership Structures among German Companies. A Network Analysis of Financial Linkages

The literature on ownership structures has made continual use of notions such as cross-holdings and pyramids which are closely related to the vastly increasing network literature. We propose to transfer successfully applied network methods such as network graphs, the MAN-classification scheme, and centrality concepts to the corporate control and corporate governance branch as well. Given these concepts and a unique data set containing 2784 companies we can identify the most powerful German companies and their characteristics.network, ownership structure, corporate control, power, financial link

Evaluation of query expansion methods for semantic search over german legal norms

Semantic search aims at understanding the information need of a users query and thus improve the effectiveness of the search. To our knowledge, free, public search systems in the German legal domain rely on simple lexical matching for document retrieval. In this work we present a prototype for the semantic search over German legal norms. We compare vector space models (word2vec, doc2vec and SBERT) on their ability to calculate document embeddings for similarity based ranking. Furthermore, we implement two query expansion techniques. Tue first technique is based on pseudo relevance feedback in which the users initial query is expanded by terms found in the relevant results retrieved by the initial query. Tue second expansion technique is based on external knowledge found in a thesaurus. Additionally, a vector space model is used to identify a relevant document during pseudo relevance feedback and for the ward-sense disambiguation of candidate terms in both techniques. An experiment, which was conducted with a law expert, showed that semantic techniques have the potential to aid the search over German legal documents.Die semantische Suche zielt darauf ab, das Informationsbedürfnis eines Nutzers zu verstehen und so die Effektivität der Suche zu verbessern. Unseres Wissens nach nutzen freie, öffentliche Suchsysteme im deutschen Rechtsbereich eine einfache Volltextsuche für das Abrufen von Dokumenten. In dieser Arbeit stellen wir einen Prototyp für die semantische Suche über deutsche Rechtsnormen und Gesetzestexte vor. Wir vergleichen Vektorraummodelle (word2vec, doc2vec und SBERT) hinsichtlich ihrer Fähigkeit, Dokument-Embeddings für einÄhnlichkeitbasiertes Ranking zu berechnen. Darüber hinaus implementieren wir zwei Techniken zur Expansion von Suchanfragen. Die erste Technik basiert auf einem pseudo-Relevanz-FeedbackAnsatz, bei dem die ursprüngliche Suchanfrage des Benutzers mit Begriffen erweitert wird, die in den relevanten Ergebnissen der ursprünglichen Anfrage gefunden wurden. Die zweite Erweiterungstechnik nutzt externes Wissen, welches in einem Thesaurus gefunden wird. Zusätzlich wird ein Vektorraummodell verwendet, um ein relevantes Dokument während des Pseudo-Relevanz-Feedbacks zu identifizieren und für die Sinn-Disambiguierung von Begriffen in beiden Techniken. Eine Evaluation, die mit einem Rechtsexperten durchgeführt wurde, hat gezeigt, dass semantische Techniken das Potenzial haben die Suche in deutschen juristischen Dokumenten zu unterstützen

Lattice Design and Dynamic Aperture Studies for the FCC-ee Top-Up Booster Synchrotron

The Future Circular Collider (FCC) study investigates the feasibility of circular colliders in the post-LHC era. The sub-study FCC-ee is a 100 km electron positron collider in the energy range of 90-365 GeV. In order to achieve a design luminosity in the order of 1036cm−2s−1 continuous top-up injection is required. The injector chain therefore includes a 100 km booster synchrotron in the same tunnel as the collider rings. This paper presents the lattice design of this booster synchrotron and the first dynamic aperture studies based on the chromaticity correction sextupole scheme

Lattice Design and Dynamic Aperture Studies for the FCC-ee Top-Up Booster Synchrotron

The Future Circular Collider (FCC) study investigates the feasibility of circular colliders in the post-LHC era. The sub-study FCC-ee is a 100 km electron positron collider in the energy range of 90-365 GeV. In order to achieve a design luminosity in the order of 1036cm−2s−1 continuous top-up injection is required. The injector chain therefore includes a 100 km booster synchrotron in the same tunnel as the collider rings. This paper presents the lattice design of this booster synchrotron and the first dynamic aperture studies based on the chromaticity correction sextupole scheme

Spatial and topical imbalances in biodiversity research

The rapid erosion of biodiversity is among the biggest challenges human society is facing. Concurrently, major efforts are in place to quantify changes in biodiversity, to understand the consequences for ecosystem functioning and human wellbeing, and to develop sustainable management strategies. Based on comprehensive bibliometric analyses covering 134,321 publications, we report systematic spatial biases in biodiversity-related research. Research is dominated by wealthy countries, while major research deficits occur in regions with disproportionately high biodiversity as well as a high share of threatened species. Similarly, core scientists, who were assessed through their publication impact, work primarily in North America and Europe. Though they mainly exchange and collaborate across locations of these two continents, the connectivity among them has increased with time. Finally, biodiversity-related research has primarily focused on terrestrial systems, plants, and the species level, and is frequently conducted in Europe and Asia by researchers affiliated with European and North American institutions. The distinct spatial imbalances in biodiversity research, as demonstrated here, must be filled, research capacity built, particularly in the Global South, and spatially-explicit biodiversity data bases improved, curated and shared

Oases in the Sahara Desert–Linking biological and cultural diversity

The diversity of life sensu lato comprises both biological and cultural diversity, described as “biocultural diversity.” Similar to plant and animal species, cultures and languages are threatened by extinction. Since drylands are pivotal systems for nature and people alike, we use oases in the Sahara Desert as model systems for examining spatial patterns and trends of biocultural diversity. We identify both the underlying drivers of biodiversity and the potential proxies that are fundamental for understanding reciprocal linkages between biological and cultural diversity in oases. Using oases in Algeria as an example we test current indices describing and quantifying biocultural diversity and identify their limitations. Finally, we discuss follow-up research questions to better understand the underlying mechanisms that control the coupling and decoupling of biological and cultural diversity in oases

How Culture and Migration Affect Risk Assessment

We systematically linked cross-cultural literature to the Central Eight risk factors as an example of risk assessment procedures. We expected offenders with a migration background (MB) from Turkey or Arab countries to score higher on criminal history, criminal attitudes, antisocial companions, and education and employment problems in comparison to German offenders without an MB. In contrast, for offenders with an MB from Turkey or Arab countries, a reduced risk for unsatisfactory relationships with their parents, alcohol, and leisure-related factors was assumed. The Central Eight risk factors were applied retrospectively for male offenders serving a sentence length of more than 12 months. German offenders without an MB (n = 214) were compared to offenders with a Turkish (n = 135) or Arab (n = 112) MB concerning risk profiles and predictive validity. Risk profiles of offenders with an MB deviated (d = 0.25-0.56) from risk profiles of German offenders without an MB. For offenders without an MB criminal history, antisocial personality, criminal attitudes, antisocial companions, and alcohol/drug problems significantly predicted (AUC = .56-.73) different recidivism events. Similar results were found for offenders with a Turkish MB (AUC = .60-.70) except for antisocial companions (AUC = .50). Results for offenders with an Arab MB were inconclusive; only alcohol/drug problems consistently showed good predictive values (AUC = .66-.68). Findings demonstrate that a culture-sensitive approach in risk assessment is inevitable and recommendations for culture-sensitive research, risk assessment, and offender treatment are discussed

The Organization of Biological Field Stations at Fifty

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138850/1/bes21349.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/138850/2/bes21349_am.pd

Low-Emittance Tuning for Circular Colliders

The 100 km FCC-ee e⁺/e⁻ circular collider requires luminosities in the order of 10³⁵ cm⁻² s⁻¹ and very low emittances of 0.27 nm·prad for the horizontal plane and 1 pm·prad in the vertical. In order to reach these requirements, extreme focusing of the beam is needed in the interaction regions, leading to a vertical beta function of 0.8 mm at the IP. These challenges make the FCC-ee design particularly susceptible to misalignment and field errors. This paper describes the tolerance of the machine to magnet alignment errors and the effectiveness of optics and orbit correction methods that were implemented in order to bring the vertical dispersion to acceptable values, which in turn limits the vertical emittance. Thousands of misalignment and error seeds were introduced in MADX simulations and a comprehensive correction strategy, which includes macros based upon Dispersion Free Steering (DFS), linear coupling correction based on Resonant Driving Terms (RDTs) and response matrices, was implemented. The results are summarized in this paper

Professor Geoffrey Petts (1953–2018): An outstanding interdisciplinary river scientist

This paper provides an introduction and an editorial to this special issue of River Research and Applications by documenting the contributions made by Professor Geoffrey Petts to our interdisciplinary understanding of the functioning of rivers and their floodplains and their sustainable management. We outline Geoff’s career, which framed not only his research but its communication through his inspirational teaching but also included very high level and innovative contributions to the management and development of several UK universities. We then explain how and why Geoff was an outstanding interdisciplinary river scientist and how he communicated his science through both integrative books and book chapters and also research papers that developed eight complementary research themes. Lastly we introduce the papers in this special issue and show how they provide inputs to all eight of Geoff’s areas of research interest