Food Security, Fertility Differentials and Land Degradation in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Dynamic Framework

We study the impact of differential fertility levels for the food-insecure and food-secure population on the long-run values of the population distribution and resources in a descriptive model where the food security states are determined by a historically given food distribution and the endogenous food production with resources and labour as inputs. Furthermore, we assume that the resource stock is reduced by poverty-driven environmental degradation. Moreover, we incorporate nutritional effects on labour productivity and mortality. By applying local bifurcation theory, we show that the model may exhibit multiple equilibria. Furthermore, the orbits of resources and the population distribution may be characterised by quasi-periodic behaviour. Sustainable development in terms of approaching a steady state with positive values of resources and food-secure population is only promoted by low fertility levels of the food-insecure and food-secure population.

The New EEC Block Exemption Regulation on Franchising

This article discusses regulation of franchising within the European Community and its effect on competition policy. In part I the author gives a general presentation of the regulation, in part II the author discusses the scope of the regulation, in Part III the author discusses the substantive provisions of the regulation, and in the Conclusion the author suggests potential solutions

On the age dynamics of learned societies - taking the example of the Austrian Academy Sciences

In a hierarchical organisation of stable size the annual intake is strictly determined by the number of deaths and a statutory retirement age (if there is one). In this paper we reconstruct the population of the Austrian Academy of Sciences from 1847 to 2005. For the Austrian Academy of Sciences we observe a shift of its age distribution towards older ages, which on the one hand is due to rising life expectancy, i.e., a rising age at death, as well as to an increased age at entry on the other hand. Therefore the number of new entrants has been fluctuating considerably - especially reflecting several statutory changes - and the length of tenure before reaching the age limit has declined during the second half of the last century. Based on alternative scenarios of the age distribution of incoming members - including a young, an old, the 'current' and a mixed-age model - we then project the population of the Austrian Academy and its ageing forward in time. Our results indicate that the 'optimum policy' would be to elect either young or old aged new members.

Monthly Estimates of the Quantum of Fertility: Towards a Fertility Monitoring System in Austria

Short-term variations in fertility and seasonal patterns of childbearing have been of interest to demographers for a long time. Presenting our detailed study of period fertility in Austria since 1984, we discuss the problems and advantages of constructing and analysing monthly series of various period fertility indicators that reflect real exposure and potentially minimise the distortions caused by changes in fertility timing. We correct monthly birth data for calendar and seasonal factors and show that seasonality of births in Austria varies by birth order. Our study suggests that most of the timing distortions can be eliminated when using an indicator derived from the period parity progression ratios based on birth interval distributions, termed the "period average parity" (PAP). We illustrate the insights gained with the PAP and compare this with the commonly used total fertility rates in an analysis of the recent upswing in period fertility, starting in the late 2001. This investigation will be useful in establishing a monitoring of monthly fertility rates in Austria.

On SGGS and Horn clauses

SGGS (Semantically-Guided Goal-Sensitive reasoning) is a refutationally complete theorem-proving method that offers first-order conflict-driven reasoning and is model complete in the limit. This paper investigates the behavior of SGGS on Horn clauses, which are widely used in declarative programming, knowledge representation, and verification. We show that SGGS generates the least Herbrand model of a set of definite clauses, and that SGGS terminates on Horn clauses if and only if hyperresolution does, with the advantage that SGGS builds a model. We report on experiments applying the SGGS prototype prover Koala to Horn problems, with promising performances especially on satisfiable inputs

Semantically-guided goal-sensitive reasoning: decision procedures and the Koala prover

The main topic of this article are SGGS decision procedures for fragments of first-order logic without equality. SGGS (Semantically-Guided Goal-Sensitive reasoning) is an attractive basis for decision procedures, because it generalizes to first-order logic the Conflict-Driven Clause Learning (CDCL) procedure for propositional satisfiability. As SGGS is both refutationally complete and model-complete in the limit, SGGS decision procedures are model-constructing. We investigate the termination of SGGS with both positive and negative results: for example, SGGS decides Datalog and the stratified fragment (including Effectively PRopositional logic) that are relevant to many applications. Then we discover several new decidable fragments, by showing that SGGS decides them. These fragments have the small model property, as the cardinality of their SGGS-generated models can be upper bounded, and for most of them termination tools can be applied to test a set of clauses for membership. We also present the first implementation of SGGS - the Koala theorem prover - and we report on experiments with Koala

Transitional probabilities are prioritized over stimulus/pattern probabilities in auditory deviance detection: Memory basis for predictive sound processing

Representations encoding the probabilities of auditory events do not directly support predictive processing. In contrast, information about the probability with which a given sound follows another (transitional probability) allows predictions of upcoming sounds. We tested whether behavioral and cortical auditory deviance detection (the latter indexed by the mismatch negativity event-related potential) relies on probabilities of sound patterns or on transitional probabilities. We presented healthy adult volunteers with three types of rare tone-triplets among frequent standard triplets of High-Low-High (HLH) or LHL pitch structure: proximity deviant (HHH/LLL), reversal deviant (LHL/HLH), and first-tone deviant (LLH/HHL). If deviance detection was based on pattern probability, reversal and first-tone deviants should be detected with similar latency because both differ from the standard at the first pattern position. If deviance detection was based on transitional probabilities, then reversal deviants should be the most difficult to detect, because, unlike the other two deviants, they contain no low-probability pitch transitions. The data clearly showed that both behavioral and cortical auditory deviance detection utilizes transitional probabilities. Thus the memory traces underlying cortical deviance detection may provide a link between stimulus-probability based change/novelty detectors operating at lower levels of the auditory system and higher auditory cognitive functions that involve predictive processing

Contribution of the Rise in Cohabiting Parenthood to Family Instability: Cohort Change in Italy, Great Britain, and Scandinavia

In this study, we investigate through microsimulation the link between cohabiting parenthood and family instability. We identify mechanisms through which increases in cohabiting parenthood may contribute to overall increases in separation among parents, linking micro-level processes to macro-level outcomes. Analyses are based on representative surveys in Italy, Great Britain, and Scandinavia (represented by Norway and Sweden), with full histories of women's unions and births. We first generate parameters for the risk of first and higher-order birth and union events by woman's birth cohort and country. The estimated parameters are used to generate country- and cohort-specific populations of women with stochastically predicted family life courses. We use the hypothetical populations to decompose changes in the percentage of mothers who separate/divorce across maternal birth cohorts (1940s to 1950s, 1950s to 1960s, 1960s to 1970s), identifying how much of the change can be attributed to shifts in union status at first birth and how much is due to change in separation rates for each union type. We find that when cohabiting births were uncommon, increases in parents' separation were driven primarily by increases in divorce among married parents. When cohabiting parenthood became more visible, it also became a larger component, but continued increases in parents' divorce also contributed to increasing parental separation. When cohabiting births became quite common, the higher separation rates of cohabiting parents began to play a greater role than married parents' divorce. When most couples had their first birth in cohabitation, those having children in marriage were increasingly selected from the most stable relationships, and their decreasing divorce rates offset the fact that increasing proportions of children were born in somewhat less stable cohabiting unions

Forced Degradation Testing as Complementary Tool for Biosimilarity Assessment

Oxidation of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can impact their efficacy and may therefore represent critical quality attributes (CQA) that require evaluation. To complement classical CQA, bevacizumab and infliximab were subjected to oxidative stress by H2O2 for 24, 48, or 72 h to probe their oxidation susceptibility. For investigation, a middle-up approach was used utilizing liquid chromatography hyphenated with mass spectrometry (LC-QTOF-MS). In both mAbs, the Fc/2 subunit was completely oxidized. Additional oxidations were found in the light chain (LC) and in the Fd’ subunit of infliximab, but not in bevacizumab. By direct comparison of methionine positions, the oxidized residues in infliximab were assigned to M55 in LC and M18 in Fd’. The forced oxidation approach was further exploited for comparison of respective biosimilar products. Both for bevacizumab and infliximab, comparison of posttranslational modification profiles demonstrated high similarity of the unstressed reference product (RP) and the biosimilar (BS). However, for bevacizumab, comparison after forced oxidation revealed a higher susceptibility of the BS compared to the RP. It may thus be considered a useful tool for biopharmaceutical engineering, biosimilarity assessment, as well as for quality control of protein drugs

Phonaesthetics and personality—Why we do not only prefer Romance languages

Introduction: Previous aesthetic research has set its main focus on visual and auditory, primarily music, stimuli with only a handful of studies exploring the aesthetic potential of linguistic stimuli. In the present study, we investigate for the first time the effects of personality traits on phonaesthetic language ratings. Methods: Twenty-three under-researched, “rarer” (less learned and therefore less known as a foreign language or L2) and minority languages were evaluated by 145 participants in terms of eroticism, beauty, status, and orderliness, subjectively perceived based on language sound. Results: Overall, Romance languages (Catalan, Portuguese, Romanian) were still among the top six erotic languages of the experiment together with “Romance-sounding,” but less known languages like Breton and Basque. Catalan and Portuguese were also placed among the top six most beautiful languages. The Germanic languages (Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, and Icelandic) were perceived as more prestigious/higher in terms of status, however to some degree conditioned by their recognition/familiarity. Thus, we partly replicated the results of our earlier studies on the Romance language preferences (the so-called Latin Lover effect) and the perceived higher status of the Germanic languages and scrutinized again the effects of familiarity/language recognition, thereby calling into question the above mentioned concepts of the Latin Lover effect and the status of Germanic languages. We also found significant effects of personality traits (neuroticism, extraversion, and conscientiousness) on phonaesthetic ratings. Different personality types appreciated different aspects of languages: e.g., whereas neurotics had strong opinions about languages' eroticism, more conscientious participants gave significantly different ratings for status. Introverts were more generous in their ratings overall in comparison to extroverts. We did not find strong connections between personality types and specific languages or linguistic features (sonority, speech rate). Overall, personality traits were largely overridden by other individual differences: familiarity with languages (socio-cultural construals, the Romanization effect—perceiving a particular language as a Romance language) and participants' native language/L1. Discussion: For language education in the global context, our results mean that introducing greater linguistic diversity in school and universities might result in greater appreciation and motivation to learn lesser-known and minority languages. Even though we generally prefer Romance languages to listen to and to study, different personality types are attracted to different language families and thus make potentially successful learners of these languages