Reciprocity and Workers' Tastes for Representation

Using unique survey data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, this study examines the influence of reciprocal inclinations on workers' sorting into codetermined firms. Employees with strong negative reciprocal inclinations are more likely to work in firms with a works council while employees with strong positive reciprocal inclinations are less likely to work in such firms. We argue that these findings conform to hypotheses derived from the experimental literature. Moreover, the results showstriking gender differences in the relationship between reciprocity and taste for representation. These differences can be partially explained by gender-specific differences in the average degree of labor force attachment.Works council, negative reciprocity, positive reciprocity, sorting, gender

The eDAL Suite: Tools and Concepts for Primary Data Citation

Retrieval and citation of primary data is the important factor in the approaching age of “data science”. Digital data are easily shared, and just as easily wiped or lost. The problem of keeping on-line data accessible and
retrievable is especially difficult for SME like plant breeders plant biotech companies as well as research projects in this domain.
Intension of eDAL is the provisioning of an information retrieval and data citation infrastructure that meets the requirements of the “data science” age and implements a re-usable platform for data retrieval, data
citation, and data publication. Like a shopping cart, the idea is to combine a search engine and a data cart, which retrieves, rank and collect query relevant data from crop plant data centers

Oxidation protection of Mo-Si-B alloys by magnetron-sputtered coatings

Mo-Si-B alloys with melting temperature above 2000 °C are attractive high temperature materials offering significantly enhanced operating temperatures compared to those of the currently used Ni-based superalloys. However, their oxidation behavior is poor at temperatures below 1000 °C, suffering from evaporation of MoO3. Above 1000 °C oxidation is characterized by a transient state showing considerable mass loss followed by a steady state condition with reduced mass change. To mitigate this degradation by oxidation, application of coatings is an appropriate method ensuring the formation of slowly growing protective scales. The presentation summarizes recent results on overlay coatings that were deposited on coupons of a Mo-9Si-8B (in at.%) alloy using magnetron sputtering. A double layer design was applied: a 2 µm thick intermediate Mo5SiB2 layer to prevent interdiffusion and approximately 5 µm thick protective topcoats with different chemical compositions: Mo-45Si-25B, Mo-55Si-10B, Mo-29Si-15B, Mo-48Si-24Al, Mo-71Si-8Al (all in at.%). The amorphous as-deposited coatings were annealed in a vacuum furnace. In the boron containing Mo-Si topcoats, the MoSi2 and MoB phases formed as well as the Mo5Si3 phase in the Mo-29Si-15B coating. In the annealed Mo-48Si-24Al and Mo-71Si-8Al topcoats, the C40-Mo(Si,Al)2 and C11b-MoSi2 phases were observed, respectively. The oxidation behavior of the coated samples was investigated at 800, 1100 and 1300 °C under cyclic condition in laboratory air. The dwell time at high temperature was 10 or 20 h and the samples were tested for up to 10 cycles. Microstructural examinations of the coated samples were carried out using scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction measurements. Please click Additional Files below to see the full abstract

The LAILAPS Search Engine: A Feature Model for Relevance Ranking in Life Science Databases

Efficient and effective information retrieval in life sciences is one of the most pressing challenge in bioinformatics. The incredible growth of life science databases to a vast network of interconnected information systems is to the same extent a big challenge and a great chance for life science research. The knowledge found in the Web, in particular in life-science databases, are a valuable major resource. In order to bring it to the scientist desktop, it is essential to have well performing search engines. Thereby, not the response time nor the number of results is important. The most crucial factor for millions of query results is the relevance ranking. In this paper, we present a feature model for relevance ranking in life science databases and its implementation in the LAILAPS search engine. Motivated by the observation of user behavior during their inspection of search engine result, we condensed a set of 9 relevance discriminating features. These features are intuitively used by scientists, who briefly screen database entries for potential relevance. The features are both sufficient to estimate the potential relevance, and efficiently quantifiable. The derivation of a relevance prediction function that computes the relevance from this features constitutes a regression problem. To solve this problem, we used artificial neural networks that have been trained with a reference set of relevant database entries for 19 protein queries. Supporting a flexible text index and a simple data import format, this concepts are implemented in the LAILAPS search engine. It can easily be used both as search engine for comprehensive integrated life science databases and for small in-house project databases. LAILAPS is publicly available for SWISSPROT data at http://lailaps.ipk-gatersleben.d

Cardiovascular risk management in patients with inflammatory arthritis: what is good for the joint is good for the heart and vice versa!

Owing to the prominent long-term systemic inflammatory reaction in patients with arthritides and a growing body of data illustrating that this inflammatory reaction imposes a considerable risk for the development or aggravation of cardiovascular (CV) disease or overall CV risk, numerous researchers and clinicians have put enormous effort into the analysis of the effects of risk factors on the course of CV disease in these patients and the therapeutic options to antagonize progressive atherosclerosis. To achieve this challenging goal, investigators have shown that all treatment strategies must include the ‘non-rheumatic’ approaches, such as lowering blood pressure, stopping smoking, and improving metabolic status, in tight association with lowering the overall disease activity of the underlying rheumatic entity using antiphlogistic drugs and conventional as well as biologic disease-modifying drugs

Lifetime of environmental/thermal barrier coatings deposited on an Nb/Nb5Si3- based alloy with FeB-Modified M7Si6-based bond coat

To enhance the performance of aircraft engines, high temperature materials are required being capable to operate at temperatures significantly higher than the temperature limit of about 1150°C approached for Ni-based superalloys currently employed. Nb/Nb5Si3-based composites are promising candidates for turbine engine applications at temperatures up to 1300°C, exhibiting balanced mechanical properties and reduced density compared to Ni-based superalloys [1]. To use these composites in gas turbine combustion atmosphere, environmental/thermal barrier coatings (E/TBCs) are required to protect them against heat, degradation in flowing water vapour and chemical attack of calcium-magnesium-alumino-silicate (CMAS)

KOOPERATIVE BRANDSCHUTZPLANUNG MIT SOFTWARE-AGENTEN

Die effektive Kooperation aller beteiligten Fachplaner im Bauplanungsprozess ist die Voraussetzung für wirtschaftliches und qualitativ hochwertiges Bauen. Bauprojektorganisationen bestehen in der Regel aus zahlreichen unabhängigen Planungspartnern, die örtlich verteilt spezifische Planungsaufgaben bearbeiten und die Ergebnisse in Teilproduktmodellen ablegen. Da Planungsprozesse im Bauwesen stark arbeitsteilig ablaufen, sind die Teilproduktmodelle der einzelnen Fachplanungen in hohem Maße voneinander abhängig. Ziel des hier vorgestellten Ansatzes ist die Integration der Teilproduktmodelle der Gebäudeplanung in einem netzwerkbasierten Modellverbund am Beispiel der Brandschutzplanung. Im Beitrag werden die Probleme der Verteiltheit und insbesondere der semantischen Heterogenität der involvierten Teilproduktmodelle betrachtet. Der verteilte Zugriff wird mithilfe mobiler Software-Agenten realisiert. Die Agenten können sich dabei frei im netzwerkbasierten Planungsverbund bewegen und agieren als Vertreter der Fachplaner. Das Problem der semantischen Heterogenität der Teilproduktmodelle wird auf der Basis von Ontologien gelöst. Dazu werden erstens Domänenontologien entwickelt, die Objekte der realen Welt einer abgeschlossenen Domäne, hier des Brandschutzes, abbilden. Zweitens werden Applikationsontologien entwickelt, die die einzelnen proprietären Datenhaltungen (im Sinne von Teilproduktmodellen) der jeweiligen Fachplanungen repräsentieren. Beide Ontologien werden mit einem regelbasierten Ansatz verknüpft. Im vorgestellten Anwendungsfall Brandschutz dient die Domänenontologie als einheitliche Schnittstelle für den Zugriff auf die verteilten Modelle und abstrahiert dabei von deren Datenbankspezifika und proprietären Schemata. Mithilfe von mobilen Agenten und semantischen Technologien kann so eine Plattform zur Verfügung gestellt werden, die erstens die dynamische Integration von Ressourcen in den Planungsverbund erlaubt und zweitens auf deren Basis unabhängig von der Verteiltheit und Heterogenität der eingebundenen Ressourcen ingenieurgerechte Verarbeitungsmethoden realisiert werden können