Voting on Public Pensions With Hand and Feet: How Young Migrants Try to Escape From Gerontocracy

Aging changes the political power in a democracy in favor of the elder generations. Consequently, the retirees can extend the pay-as-you-go financed pensions. Under free labor mobility like within the EU, the success of gerontocracy, nevertheless, is restricted by migration of the young generations. This connection between political voting on intergenerational redistribution and voting with the feet is analyzed in a two-country model with overlapping generations. We distinguish between the case in which the young generations‘ migration decision takes its effect on future pensions into account (strategic migration) and the case in which it only reflects differentials in labor income (myopic migration). The paper also pays attention to the implications of common harmonization principles and to the consequences of price discrimination between natives and immigrants.Interregional competition on public pensions; migration; labor mobility; gerontocracy

Photomovement in plants and microorganisms: old and new questions

Photomovement, taken in its broader sense, comprises the responses of motile organisms, intracellular movement, phototropic curvature, and photonastic movement. These responses can be scalar or vectorial with respect to the light direction. For classifying scientific questions, a schematic sequence can be defined, viz. perception - signal transduction - terminal response. In this paper, the present state of knowledge is summarized for selected systems exemplifying various types of response. This is intended to provide the background for future scientific questions that appear important and promising to be investigated. Although the modern genetic and molecular approaches are most essential for progress, they have to be based on well-established and sound results from »classical« physiology

Spin transport and tunable Gilbert damping in a single-molecule magnet junction

We study time-dependent electronic and spin transport through an electronic level connected to two leads and coupled with a single-molecule magnet via exchange interaction. The molecular spin is treated as a classical variable and precesses around an external magnetic field. We derive expressions for charge and spin currents by means of the Keldysh non-equilibrium Green's functions technique in linear order with respect to the time-dependent magnetic field created by this precession. The coupling between the electronic spins and the magnetization dynamics of the molecule creates inelastic tunneling processes which contribute to the spin currents. The inelastic spin currents, in turn, generate a spin-transfer torque acting on the molecular spin. This back-action includes a contribution to the Gilbert damping and a modification of the precession frequency. The Gilbert damping coefficient can be controlled by the bias and gate voltages or via the external magnetic field and has a non-monotonic dependence on the tunneling rates.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, final version including corrections to published articl

Nonequilibrium phonon backaction on the current noise in atomic-sized junctions

We study backaction effects of phonon heating due to tunneling electrons on the current noise in atomic-sized junctions. Deriving a generalized kinetic approximation within the extended Keldysh Green's functions technique, we demonstrate the existence of a characteristic backaction contribution to the noise in case of low external phonon damping. We provide a physically intuitive interpretation of this contribution at large voltage in terms of slow fluctuations of the phonon occupation, and show that it generally gives a significant correction to the noise above the phonon emission threshold.Comment: v2 - update: 4 pages, 1 figure, minor changes in the main text nearly identical to the published version; the manuscript is supplemented by an updated Mathematica notebook and a new supplementary note in PDF, which are parts of the associated .zip bundl

Phonon-assisted current noise in molecular junctions

We investigate the effects of phonon scattering on the electronic current noise through nanojunctions using the non-equilibrium Green's functions formalism extended to include the counting field. In the case of weak electron-phonon coupling and a single broad electronic level we derive an analytic expression for the current noise at arbitrary temperature and identify physically distinct contributions based on their voltage dependence. We apply our theory to the experimentally relevant case of a deuterium molecule placed in a break-junction and predict a significant inelastic contribution to the current noise.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures; updated versio

Der Patentlebenszyklus: Methodische L�sungsans�tze der externen Technologieanalyse

Die Technologielebenszyklusanalyse stellt ein geeignetes Instrument f�r die Absch�tzung der Chancen und Risiken innerhalb eines Technologiefeldes und die Ermittlung der Technologieattraktivit�t dar. Durch die Operationalisierung des Technologielebenszyklus als Anzahl der Patentanmeldungen oder Patenterteilungen ber der Zeit kann das Instrumentarium patentstatistischer Analysen eine verl�ssliche Grundlage f�r die externe Technologieanalyse bilden. Die zentrale Problemstellung in der Analysepraxis ist die Abgrenzung des Technologiefeldes, die die Anwendbarkeit der Patentlebenszyklusanalyse bisher einschr�nkt. Der vorliegende Beitrag verdeutlicht am Beispiel des Herzschrittmachers, wie die Abgrenzungsprobleme des Technologiefeldes und der Lebenszyklusphasen gel�st werden k�nnen. Summary: The technology life cycle analysis is an ideal method for estimating the opportunities and threats within a technology field and for determining the attractiveness of a technology. By defining the technology life cycle as the number of patent applications or patents granted over time, the patent analysis tool provides a reliable basis for the external technology forecasting. The main issue in practical analyses is the isolation of the technology field, which limits the way in which patent life cycle analysis can be applied. By discussing the example of the cardiac pacemaker, this paper explains the manner in which a technology field can be isolated and in which the life cycle phases can be identified.Technologielebenszyklus, Patentlebenszyklus, Technologielebenszyklusanalyse, Patentlebenszyklusanalyse, Technologiefeldabgrenzung, Patentanmeldungen, Patenterteilungen

Von Reallaboren zu urbanen Experimenten: Deutsche und internationale Debatten zu Skalierung und urbanen Nachhaltigkeitstransformationen

In den letzten Jahren sind Reallabore zu einem wichtigen Bestandteil der anwendungsbezogenen Nachhaltigkeitsforschung geworden. In Deutschland wurde die Forschung zu Reallaboren durch entsprechende Forschungsprogramme gefördert (z.B. "Leitinitiative Zukunftsstadt" des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung), während die EU die Entwicklung von "Urban Living Labs" finanziell förderte (z.B. "Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe"). Derzeit verlagert sich die internationale wissenschaftliche Debatte mehr und mehr auf die Untersuchung von lokalen Experimenten. Vor diesem Hintergrund soll dieser Artikel vor allem dem Zweck dienen, die deutschsprachige Forschung zu Reallaboren innerhalb der europäischen und internationalen Debatten zu verorten und systematisch mit den Debatten zu "Urban Living Labs" und Experimenten zu vergleichen. In diesem Zusammenhang konzentrieren wir uns vor allem auf die Grundannahmen dieser drei Ansätze, ihre Entstehung und Anwendungsbereiche sowie die Bedeutung von Lernprozessen. Obwohl alle drei Ansätze auf urbane Nachhaltigkeitstransformationen abzielen, ist nur wenig über die mittel- und langfristigen Wirkungen solcher Initiativen bekannt. Deren zeitliche und räumliche Skalierung, die hier entscheidend ist, wurde zwar als Problem erkannt, aber bislang kaum systematisch untersucht. Der Artikel zielt darauf ab, die deutsche Debatte zu Reallaboren zu bereichern und sie mit der internationalen Diskussion zu verbinden.In recent years, real-world labs have become an important part of application-related sustainability research in Germany and Europe. Currently, the international academic debate is shifting more and more towards research on local experiments. Against this backdrop, this paper serves in particular the purpose of placing the German-speaking research on real-world labs within international debates, and of comparing it systematically with debates on urban living labs and experiments. In this context, we concentrate especially on the basic assumptions of these three approaches, their origins and areas of application as well as the importance of learning processes. Although all three approaches aim at urban sustainability transformations, not much is known about their medium- and long-term impacts. Their temporal and spatial scaling, which is critical here, was recognized as problem but has barely become object of systematic research. This paper follows the purpose to enrich the German debate on real-world labs and to link it to the international discussion

Cultural Heritage, Sustainable Development, and Climate Policy: Comparing the UNESCO World Heritage Cities of Potsdam and Bern

Developing sustainable, carbon-neutral, and climate-resilient districts seems to be particularly challenging with respect to historic city centers. However, barriers posed by legal requirements for historical buildings are counterbalanced by opportunities because historic cities have not undergone urban modernization and did not embrace the concept of functional cities, which nowadays impedes urban sustainability transformations. Thus, this paper focuses on the relationship between cultural heritage, urban sustainable development, and climate policy. We study continuity and change in the mid-sized UNESCO World Heritage cities Potsdam (Germany) and Bern (Switzerland). These matching forerunner cities share many characteristics, which enables them to transfer policies and jointly create new solutions for common problems. We find that national context matters, but we also identify functional equivalents like referenda and active citizen participation. Despite many similarities, Potsdam is ahead of Bern with respect to the institutionalization and integration of climate mitigation and adaptation. The comparative analysis (interviews and document analysis) identifies innovations that can be transferred between the two cities (e.g., Potsdam’s integrative climate policy or Bern’s efforts to become a role model for stakeholders and citizens). Moreover, the challenge to coordinate heritage management and climate governance offers chances for cooperation between matching cities like Bern and Potsda