Controlling inertial focussing using rotational motion

In inertial microfluidics lift forces cause a particle to migrate across streamlines to specific positions in the cross section of a microchannel. We control the rotational motion of a particle and demonstrate that this allows to manipulate the lift-force profile and thereby the particle's equilibrium positions. We perform two-dimensional simulation studies using the method of multi-particle collision dynamics. Particles with unconstrained rotational motion occupy stable equilibrium positions in both halfs of the channel while the center is unstable. When an external torque is applied to the particle, two equilibrium positions annihilate by passing a saddle-node bifurcation and only one stable fixpoint remains so that all particles move to one side of the channel. In contrast, non-rotating particles accumulate in the center and are pushed into one half of the channel when the angular velocity is fixed to a non-zero value

Change-over within little scope: On the decision neutrality of recent tax reform proposals

Political economy aspects make progressive income taxation and taxation of capital income imperative in practise. International tax competition and profit shifting, in turn, put pressure on corporate and capital taxes. Hence, the scope for a politically feasible change-over to a status of improved taxation is little. We provide an extended dynamic general equilibrium model and analyze politically feasible recent reform proposals referring neutrality. We then propose an alternative tax reform that, in contrast to these proposals, guarantees even growth neutrality, without necessarily jeopardizing political feasibility.Dynamic general equilibrium models; taxation; tax reform; decision neutrality; ACE; dual income tax

Familial thrombophilia : Resistance to activated protein C and protein S deficiency

Inherited resistance to activated protein C (APC-resistance) and protein S deficiency are associated with functional impairment of the protein C anticoagulant system, resulting in lifelong hypercoagulability andincreased risk of thrombosis. APC-resistance is the most common genetic cause of thrombosis being present in 20% to 60% of thrombosis patients.A linkage study was performed in a large thrombophilic family with independent inheritance of APCresistance and protein S deficiency. APC-resistance was found to co-segregate with two neutral polymorphisms in the factor V gene. A point mutation changing Arg506 to a Gln in the factor V gene was the cause of APC-resistance in the family. The mutation (FV:Q506) is localised in one of the APC-cleavage sites of factor V, rendering mutated factor Va resistant to cleavage by activated protein C (APC). The factor V mutation was analysed in 308 members from 50 thrombosis-prone families with inherited APC-resistance.In 94% (47/50) of APC-resistant families the same factor V gene mutation was identified. The magnitude of thrombotic risk was dependent on the factor V genotype. We investigated 327 individuals in 18 thrombosis-prone families with inherited deficiency of free protein S. Deficiency of free protein S was caused by equimolar relationship between total protein S and B-chain containing isoforms of C4BP. Moreover, type I deficiency (low free and total protein S) and type IIIdeficiency (low free but normal total protein S) coexisted in 14 out of 18 families, demonstrating the twotypes to be phenotypic variants of the same genetic disease. Deficiency of free protein S was a strong riskfactor for thrombosis in these families. However, thrombophilia penetrance was highly variable. TheFV:Q506 mutation causing APC-resistance was identified as an additional genetic risk factor in 39% (7/18)of the families. Thus, familial thrombophilia isa multiple genetic disorder.Biochemically affected family members had higher levels of prothrombin fragment Fl +2 than their normalrelatives. The results demonstrate that individuals with APC-resistance or protein S deficiency have animbalance between pro- and anti-coagulant forces, resulting in increased thrombin generation andhypercoagulability

In vivo manipulation of interleukin-2 expression by a retroviral tetracycline (tet)-regulated system

We have used the tetracycline (tet)-regulated system as described previously to evaluate the applicability of controlled gene expression in cancer gene therapy. As a model gene, we used the human interleukin-2 (IL-2) gene, which has been placed under the transcriptional control of the tetO/promoter. Human melanoma cells were transduced by two modified retroviral tet vectors containing the transactivator regulatory unit and the IL-2 gene driven by the tetO/promoter, respectively. In the absence of tet, IL-2 expression in the target cells was stable over several months. IL-2 production was in the range of 40 U/106 cells/24 hours. A fine tuning of IL-2 expression could be achieved by culturing the transduced cells with increasing doses of tet, whereby a concentration of 500 ng/mL tet in the culture medium abrogated IL-2 expression. Most importantly for clinical application, IL-2 expression by the transduced melanoma cells could also be regulated in vivo. When nu/nu mice were inoculated with the transduced tumor cells, they failed to develop tumors. Instead, the inhibition of IL-2 expression in the transduced tumor cells by oral administration of tet led to subcutaneous tumor growth; this growth rate was comparable with the growth rate of subcutaneously inoculated untransduced parental cells. The finding demonstrates the applicability of the tet-regulated system in cancer gene therapy

Between assimilation and separation: American catholicism as a testcase

"Der Vortrag soll zu dem Vorhaben der Sektion Religionssoziologie beitragen, 'die religiöse Lage in den USA im Vergleich zu Deutschland' darzustellen und dabei das Generalthema 'Differenz und Integration' aufnehmen. Daher empfiehlt es sich, mit einem kurzen Überblick über diejenigen Besonderheiten der amerikanischen Religionskultur zu beginnen, die sich im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert herausgebildet haben. (Stichworte: Neu-Englands mißlungene Theokratie, Amerikas Revolution und die Religion, Disestablishment, Voluntarismus). Dabei werden amerikanische Organisationsformen der Religion und religiöse Bestandteile der amerikanischen Selbstinterpretation sichtbar, die verständlich machen, weshalb andersartige religiöse Traditionen nur unter Schwierigkeiten in diese Kultur integriert werden konnten. Als Beispiel dafür eignen sich das Judentum und der Katholizismus. In beiden Fällen verläuft die Geschichte der Assimilierung weitgehend gleich, der amerikanische Katholizismus (nach Santayana eine 'kulturelle Unwahrscheinlichkeit') wird jedoch im Vordergrund stehen, weil die Masseneinwanderung von Katholiken früher beginnt, und sowohl mit höherer Organisiertheit wie auch mit ausgeprägterer ethnischer Spannung einhergeht. Der Hauptteil des Vortrages wird in seiner Gliederung den beiden deutlich erkennbaren Abschnitten der zunächst konfliktreichen Eingliederung entsprechen. In der ersten Phase kämpfen die Anhänger einer als unamerikanisch etikettierten Religion in teils gewaltsamen Auseinandersetzungen um Anerkennung und Gleichstellung. Schon dabei werden innerhalb der Einwanderergruppe unterschiedliche Meinungen über das rechte Maß an Nähe und Abstand zur amerikanischen Kultur deutlich, die bei abnehmendem Außendruck und entsprechend geringerem Solidarisierungszwang in einer zweiten Phase zu einem heftigen Binnenkonflikt führen. In jüngster Zeit hat die Diskussion über Anpassung und Distanz sich weitgehend von ethnischen Zuordnungen gelöst, dafür steht sie nun im Mittelpunkt eines kulturpolitischen Konfliktes, der quer durch Protestantismus, Katholizismus und Judentum hindurchreicht." (Autorenreferat

Liberty and Freedom. Hegel on Civil Society and the Political State

The contribution places Hegel‘s political philosophy, chieflypresented in Elementsof the Philosophy of Right from 1820 but already adumbrated in The GermanConstitution from 1799-1802, intothe context of the quarrel between the ancients and the moderns about the relation between thecitizen andthe stateand the corresponding differentiation of political freedom and civil liberty. In particular, the contribution attributes to Hegel a third, conciliatory position beyond the establishedopposition between the ancient republican ideal of civic commitment and service and the modern emphasis on individual choiceand personal self-fulfillment

Shape and Topology Constrained Image Segmentation with Stochastic Models

The central theme of this thesis has been to develop robust algorithms for the task of image segmentation. All segmentation techniques that have been proposed in this thesis are based on the sound modeling of the image formation process. This approach to image partition enables the derivation of objective functions, which make all modeling assumptions explicit. Based on the Parametric Distributional Clustering (PDC) technique, improved variants have been derived, which explicitly incorporate topological assumptions in the corresponding cost functions. In this thesis, the questions of robustness and generalizability of segmentation solutions have been addressed in an empirical manner, giving comprehensive example sets for both problems. It has been shown, that the PDC framework is indeed capable of producing highly robust image partitions. In the context of PDC-based segmentation, a probabilistic representation of shape has been constructed. Furthermore, likelihood maps for given objects of interest were derived from the PDC cost function. Interpreting the shape information as a prior for the segmentation task, it has been combined with the likelihoods in a Bayesian setting. The resulting posterior probability for the occurrence of an object of a specified semantic category has been demonstrated to achieve excellent segmentation quality on very hard testbeds of images from the Corel gallery