Behavioral and Network Origins of Wealth Inequality: Insights from a Virtual World

Almost universally, wealth is not distributed uniformly within societies or economies. Even though wealth data have been collected in various forms for centuries, the origins for the observed wealth-disparity and social inequality are not yet fully understood. Especially the impact and connections of human behavior on wealth could so far not be inferred from data. Here we study wealth data from the virtual economy of the massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) Pardus. This data not only contains every player's wealth at every point in time, but also all actions of every player over a timespan of almost a decade. We find that wealth distributions in the virtual world are very similar to those in western countries. In particular we find an approximate exponential for low wealth and a power-law tail. The Gini index is found to be $g=0.65$, which is close to the indices of many Western countries. We find that wealth-increase rates depend on the time when players entered the game. Players that entered the game early on tend to have remarkably higher wealth-increase rates than those who joined later. Studying the players' positions within their social networks, we find that the local position in the trade network is most relevant for wealth. Wealthy people have high in- and out-degree in the trade network, relatively low nearest-neighbor degree and a low clustering coefficient. Wealthy players have many mutual friendships and are socially well respected by others, but spend more time on business than on socializing. We find that players that are not organized within social groups with at least three members are significantly poorer on average. We observe that high `political' status and high wealth go hand in hand. Wealthy players have few personal enemies, but show animosity towards players that behave as public enemies.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures, 8 pages S

Detection of the elite structure in a virtual multiplex social system by means of a generalized KK-core

Elites are subgroups of individuals within a society that have the ability and means to influence, lead, govern, and shape societies. Members of elites are often well connected individuals, which enables them to impose their influence to many and to quickly gather, process, and spread information. Here we argue that elites are not only composed of highly connected individuals, but also of intermediaries connecting hubs to form a cohesive and structured elite-subgroup at the core of a social network. For this purpose we present a generalization of the $K$-core algorithm that allows to identify a social core that is composed of well-connected hubs together with their `connectors'. We show the validity of the idea in the framework of a virtual world defined by a massive multiplayer online game, on which we have complete information of various social networks. Exploiting this multiplex structure, we find that the hubs of the generalized $K$-core identify those individuals that are high social performers in terms of a series of indicators that are available in the game. In addition, using a combined strategy which involves the generalized $K$-core and the recently introduced $M$-core, the elites of the different 'nations' present in the game are perfectly identified as modules of the generalized $K$-core. Interesting sudden shifts in the composition of the elite cores are observed at deep levels. We show that elite detection with the traditional $K$-core is not possible in a reliable way. The proposed method might be useful in a series of more general applications, such as community detection.Comment: 13 figures, 3 tables, 19 pages. Accepted for publication in PLoS ON

Die politischen Haltungen im Leben und im Werk von Thomas Bernhard

Der Staat Österreich hat in den Werken des Autors Thomas Bernhard eine große Rolle gespielt. Folglich sind auch die politischen Aussagen und Statements von Bernhard zum Staat Österreich nicht zu kurz gekommen. Das bekannteste Beispiel hierfür ist das späte Stück Heldenplatz, das einen der größten Theaterskandale in der Zweiten Republik ausgelöst hat. Häufig hat sich Bernhard in seinen Werken mit den Auswirkungen des Nationalsozialismus auf das österreichische Volk und die Gesellschaft beschäftigt. Doch wie politisch war Thomas Bernhard tatsächlich? War er ein politischer Autor und welche Rolle hat die Politik in Bernhards Privatleben gespielt? Mit diesen zentralen Fragen setzt sich die vorliegende Arbeit auseinander. Thomas Bernhard war Mitglied beider österreichischer Großparteien, wenn auch die Mitgliedschaft bei der SPÖ eher ungewollt war und nur wenige Stunden gedauert hat. Bernhard wurde in seiner schriftstellerischen Anfangszeit beim Demokratischen Volksblatt in Salzburg vom damaligen Chefredakteur Josef Kaut zur SPÖ gebracht. Dieser Schritt war Bernhard jedoch zu viel. Nachdem er sich im Parteibuch eingetragen hatte, folgte einen Tag später die Kündigung dieser Mitgliedschaft. Bernhard ist daraufhin nie wieder in der Redaktion des Demokratischen Volksblatts erschienen. Das war aber nicht das Ende der Parteimitgliedschaften in Bernhards Leben. Als er einige Jahre später einen Vierkanthof in Oberösterreich erworben hat, ist er dem Bauernbund, einer ÖVP-Teilorganisation, beigetreten. Diese Mitgliedschaft wehrte immerhin 14 Jahre lang und wurde erst nach dem Tod Bernhards bekannt. Heftige öffentliche Debatten, die in dieser Arbeit Niederschlag finden, waren die Folge. Kern der Arbeit ist die Analyse unterschiedlicher, teilweise auch widersprüchlicher Positionen Bernhards hinsichtlich seiner politischen Gesinnungen, Einstellungen und Erfahrungen. Die Entwicklung der politischen Haltungen des Schriftstellers ist nicht geradlinig verlaufen. Sehr wichtig war der Einfluss des konservativen und gleichzeitig rebellischen Großvaters Johannes Freumbichler. Die aktuelle Forschungslage zeigt, dass sich die wissenschaftliche Analyse auf den politischen Gehalt des Dramas Heldenplatz konzentriert. Deshalb wurden in dieser Arbeit andere Werke und Texte Bernhards herangezogen, um eine deutlichere Aussagekraft über die politischen Haltungen Bernhards zu bekommen. Einige in der Wissenschaft bislang eher unbeachtete Zeitungstexte des Autors setzen sich insbesondere kritisch mit der Sozialdemokratie und sozialdemokratischen Persönlichkeiten auseinander. Außerdem werden die politischen Dramen Die Jagdgesellschaft, Der Präsident und Vor dem Ruhestand untersucht. Das Hauptaugenmerk liegt auf diesen Stücken, da in allen drei Werken politische Amtsträger vorkommen. In den drei Stücken lässt sich eine Entwicklung autoritärer Systeme, die dem Untergang geweiht sind, nachlesen. Thomas Bernhard ist resümierend zu jener Gruppe von Autoren zu zählen, die sich nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg mit den Auswirkungen des Nationalsozialismus auseinandergesetzt haben. Aber nicht nur das Werk Bernhards hat politisiert, auch in seinem eigenen Leben hat die Politik, wenn auch nicht immer gewollt, eine große Rolle gespielt. Er kann keiner politischen Ideologie zugeordnet werden, weil seine Haltungen als ambivalent anzusehen sind. Trotz seiner jahrelangen Mitgliedschaft beim Bauernbund, hat er Vereinigungen und Parteien strikt abgelehnt. Die ÖVP-Teilorganisation war für Bernhard eine reine Interessensgemeinschaft, denn durch den Erwerb des Vierkanthofs wollte er Teil der Bauerngesellschaft sein. Auch wenn die Politik aus dem Werk Bernhards nicht wegzudenken ist, war er kein politischer Autor. Er hat politische Ideologien, die sein Leben traumatisch beeinflusst haben, kritisiert. Bernhards Großvater war ein konservativer Rebell und diese Haltung hat Bernhard weitergeführt. Sozialutopische Ideen, die schon der Großvater vertreten hat, waren in den Werken Bernhards allgegenwärtig. Bernhard hat keine politischen Allgemeinheiten beschrieben, sondern persönliche und österreichische Spezifika. Meistens hat er eine antifaschistische Haltung eingenommen

Anomalous magneto-transport in disordered structures: classical edge-state percolation

By event-driven molecular dynamics simulations we investigate magneto-transport in a two-dimensional model with randomly distributed scatterers close to the field-induced localization transition. This transition is generated by percolating skipping orbits along the edges of obstacle clusters. The dynamic exponents differ significantly from those of the conventional transport problem on percolating systems, thus establishing a new dynamic universality class. This difference is tentatively attributed to a weak-link scenario, which emerges naturally due to barely overlapping edge trajectories. We make predictions for the frequency-dependent conductivity and discuss implications for active colloidal circle swimmers in a heterogeneous environment.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2 both show similarly reduced disease severity of COVID-19 compared to Delta, Germany, 2021 to 2022

German national surveillance data analysis shows that hospitalisation odds associated with Omicron lineage BA.1 or BA.2 infections are up to 80% lower than with Delta infection, primarily in ≥ 35-year-olds. Hospitalised vaccinated Omicron cases’ proportions (2.3% for both lineages) seemed lower than those of the unvaccinated (4.4% for both lineages). Independent of vaccination status, the hospitalisation frequency among cases with Delta seemed nearly threefold higher (8.3%) than with Omicron (3.0% for both lineages), suggesting that Omicron inherently causes less severe disease.Peer Reviewe

Steam gasification of sewage sludge for synthesis processes

The paper presents measurement results of a gasification test run. Municipal sewage sludge from a digestion tower is gasified in an advanced dual fluidized bed reactor system. Steam is used as gasification agent and an olivine-limestone mixture as bed material. The fuel analysis shows a very high ash content and a low heating value of the dried sewage sludge. In addition, a significant amount of nitrogen in the fuel is present, leading to a high ammonia content in the product gas.Sintering effects caused by the high ash content do not occur. Thus, a gasification process without limitation is achieved. The fuel input is located in the lower gasification reactor operating as bubbling fluidized bed, whereas the upper gasification reactor is designed as a column of turbulent fluidized zones for tar cracking. The results show an efficient in-situ tar reduction. With a look on the product gas composition a comparatively high carbon dioxide and a low carbon monoxide content is surprising. It is obvious that an iron oxide reduction of the initial fuel ash occur in the gasification reactor. In addition, it is assumed that the significant iron content in the fuel ash also leads to a transport of oxygen from the combustion reactor to the gasification reactor. Thus, carbon monoxide and hydrogen are oxidized in the gasification reactor by the circulating iron-rich ash particles (chemical looping effect).FFG - Österr. Forschungsförderungs- gesellschaft mbH4351

Measurement of the cosmic ray spectrum above 4×10184{\times}10^{18} eV using inclined events detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory

A measurement of the cosmic-ray spectrum for energies exceeding $4{\times}10^{18}$ eV is presented, which is based on the analysis of showers with zenith angles greater than $60^{\circ}$ detected with the Pierre Auger Observatory between 1 January 2004 and 31 December 2013. The measured spectrum confirms a flux suppression at the highest energies. Above $5.3{\times}10^{18}$ eV, the "ankle", the flux can be described by a power law $E^{-\gamma}$ with index $\gamma=2.70 \pm 0.02 \,\text{(stat)} \pm 0.1\,\text{(sys)}$ followed by a smooth suppression region. For the energy ($E_\text{s}$) at which the spectral flux has fallen to one-half of its extrapolated value in the absence of suppression, we find $E_\text{s}=(5.12\pm0.25\,\text{(stat)}^{+1.0}_{-1.2}\,\text{(sys)}){\times}10^{19}$ eV.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

High incidence of metastatic disease in primary high grade and large extremity soft tissue sarcomas treated without chemotherapy

BACKGROUND: The risk of metastasis and the survival in patients with primary extremity soft tissue sarcomas is worse when tumour size is large and the grade of malignancy is high. Such tumours may receive chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy (RTX) for optimising local control. Irradiation can either be applied preoperatively or after tumour resection. The question arises if the kind of RTX in the absence of chemotherapy influences the outcome concerning local control, metastatic disease, survival and complications. METHODS: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical outcome of 233 patients with a primary extremity soft tissue sarcoma treated between 1990 – 2000 with a mean follow-up of 35.8 (4–120) months in our institute. 41 patients had high grade, deep and large tumours (>8 cm), an AJCC stage III (no evidence of metastasis prior to treatment) and were treated with limb salvage surgery and irradiation but stayed without additional chemotherapy. Two groups of patients were compared: the first group received postoperative RTX after tumour resection (n = 33); the second group was treated with preoperative RTX (n = 8). Both groups did not differ concerning clinical parameters. We analysed primary and secondary outcomes. RESULTS: 56% (23/41) of the population developed metastatic disease, 24% (10/41) local recurrence. The risk of metastasis was higher in the group with preoperative irradiation (p = 0.046). The overall (p = 0.0248) and relapse free survival (p = 0.104) were worse in this group. The delay to tumour resection amounted 8 weeks on average in the preoperative group. Local control was not different (p = 0.38) in both study groups. Wound infections and other combined therapy related complications were equally distributed (p = 0.22). CONCLUSION: Without chemotherapy there remains a high risk of metastasis in AJCC grade 3 patients. In high risk patients treated without chemotherapy the elapsed time to tumour resection after preoperative radiation might contribute to the development of metastasis. This outcome may support the thesis that a combination of RTX and offensive multimodal treatment protocols is advantageous in such a subset of patient