Rezension: Muers, Stephen (2020): Culture and Values at the Heart of Policy Making - An Insider's Guide

This book is a forceful and entertaining argument why culture and values should be taken much more seriously, both by policy makers, but also in the curricula of modern Public Policy and Public Administration programs. The author is not a fundamental sceptic of managerial politics and administration, but he shows the inherent limits, contradictions, and blind spots of this kind of policy making. He succeeds particularly well because he can draw on many years of experience as a civil servant in different British ministries, in the Cabinet Office and the Prime Minister's Strategy Unit. The book adds little to the conceptual and theoretical discussions of cultural factors in policy making, but it does provide many interesting examples of their significance and why it is dangerous to ignore them. It should be read by students in advanced public policy and public administration programs, who should find it helpful to see the technical solutions to all sorts of policy problems in a somewhat more realistic light

Microwave photon-mediated interactions between semiconductor qubits

The realization of a coherent interface between distant charge or spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots is an open challenge for quantum information processing. Here we demonstrate both resonant and non-resonant photon-mediated coherent interactions between double quantum dot charge qubits separated by several tens of micrometers. We present clear spectroscopic evidence of the collective enhancement of the resonant coupling of two qubits. With both qubits detuned from the resonator we observe exchange coupling between the qubits mediated by virtual photons. In both instances pronounced bright and dark states governed by the symmetry of the qubit-field interaction are found. Our observations are in excellent quantitative agreement with master-equation simulations. The extracted two-qubit coupling strengths significantly exceed the linewidths of the combined resonator-qubit system. This indicates that this approach is viable for creating photon-mediated two-qubit gates in quantum dot based systems.Comment: 14 pages, 10 figures and 6 table

Static and Dynamic Characteristics of Cerebral Blood Flow During the Resting State in Schizophrenia

Background: The cerebral network that is active during rest and is deactivated during goal-oriented activity is called the default mode network (DMN). It appears to be involved in self-referential mental activity. Atypical functional connectivity in the DMN has been observed in schizophrenia. One hypothesis suggests that pathologically increased DMN connectivity in schizophrenia is linked with a main symptom of psychosis, namely, misattribution of thoughts. Methods: A resting-state pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (ASL) study was conducted to measure absolute cerebral blood flow (CBF) in 34 schizophrenia patients and 27 healthy controls. Using independent component analysis (ICA), the DMN was extracted from ASL data. Mean CBF and DMN connectivity were compared between groups using a 2-sample t test. Results: Schizophrenia patients showed decreased mean CBF in the frontal and temporal regions (P < .001). ICA demonstrated significantly increased DMN connectivity in the precuneus (x/y/z = −16/−64/38) in patients than in controls (P < .001). CBF was not elevated in the respective regions. DMN connectivity in the precuneus was significantly correlated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale scores (P < .01). Conclusions: In schizophrenia patients, the posterior hub—which is considered the strongest part of the DMN—showed increased DMN connectivity. We hypothesize that this increase hinders the deactivation of the DMN and, thus, the translation of cognitive processes from an internal to an external focus. This might explain symptoms related to defective self-monitoring, such as auditory verbal hallucinations or ego disturbance

"Der Wandel als das einzige Stabile in Organisationen." Die Rationalität des Organisationswandels und ihre Grenzen

Kühl S. "Der Wandel als das einzige Stabile in Organisationen." Die Rationalität des Organisationswandels und ihre Grenzen. In: Edeling T, Jann W, Wagner D, eds. Reorganisationsstrategien in Wirtschaft und Verwaltung. Interdisziplinäre Organisations- und Verwaltungsforschung. Vol 5. Opladen: Leske und Budrich; 2001: 73-90

Joint practice guidelines for radionuclide lymphoscintigraphy for sentinel node localization in oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma

Involvement of the cervical lymph nodes is the most important prognostic factor for patients with oral/oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), and the decision whether to electively treat patients with clinically negative necks remains a controversial topic. Sentinel node biopsy (SNB) provides a minimally invasive method of determining the disease status of the cervical node basin, without the need for a formal neck dissection. This technique potentially improves the accuracy of histological nodal staging and avoids over-treating three-quarters of this patient population, minimizing associated morbidity. The technique has been validated for patients with OSCC, and larger-scale studies are in progress to determine its exact role in the management of this patient population. This article was designed to outline the current best practice guidelines for the provision of SNB in patients with early-stage OSCC, and to provide a framework for the currently evolving recommendations for its use. These guidelines were prepared by a multidisciplinary surgical/nuclear medicine/pathology expert panel under the joint auspices of the European Association of Nuclear Medicine (EANM) Oncology Committee and the Sentinel European Node Trial Committee

Role of NADPH Oxidase versus Neutrophil Proteases in Antimicrobial Host Defense

NADPH oxidase is a crucial enzyme in mediating antimicrobial host defense and in regulating inflammation. Patients with chronic granulomatous disease, an inherited disorder of NADPH oxidase in which phagocytes are defective in generation of reactive oxidant intermediates (ROIs), suffer from life-threatening bacterial and fungal infections. The mechanisms by which NADPH oxidase mediate host defense are unclear. In addition to ROI generation, neutrophil NADPH oxidase activation is linked to the release of sequestered proteases that are posited to be critical effectors of host defense. To definitively determine the contribution of NADPH oxidase versus neutrophil serine proteases, we evaluated susceptibility to fungal and bacterial infection in mice with engineered disruptions of these pathways. NADPH oxidase-deficient mice (p47phox−/−) were highly susceptible to pulmonary infection with Aspergillus fumigatus. In contrast, double knockout neutrophil elastase (NE)−/−×cathepsin G (CG)−/− mice and lysosomal cysteine protease cathepsin C/dipeptidyl peptidase I (DPPI)-deficient mice that are defective in neutrophil serine protease activation demonstrated no impairment in antifungal host defense. In separate studies of systemic Burkholderia cepacia infection, uniform fatality occurred in p47phox−/− mice, whereas NE−/−×CG−/− mice cleared infection. Together, these results show a critical role for NADPH oxidase in antimicrobial host defense against A. fumigatus and B. cepacia, whereas the proteases we evaluated were dispensable. Our results indicate that NADPH oxidase dependent pathways separate from neutrophil serine protease activation are required for host defense against specific pathogens

Re-visiting Meltsner: Policy Advice Systems and the Multi-Dimensional Nature of Professional Policy Analysis

10.2139/ssrn.15462511-2