Reform of Income Splitting for Married Couples: Only Individual Taxation Significantly Increases Working Incentives

The joint taxation of married couples in Germany with full income splitting is still a major hindrance to the participation of married women in the labor market. In their current financial proposals, the SPD (Social Democratic Party) is calling for income splitting for married couples to be replaced by individual taxation with maintenance deductions, in accordance with existing schemes for divorced spouses. Simulations implemented by DIW Berlin show that such a reform would only have limited effects on distribution and labor supply. Pure individual taxation, however, would not only lead to significant additional tax revenue but would also considerably increase the number of married women participating in the labor market. If politicians take the goal of greater integration of married women in the labor market seriously, then the current income splitting for married couples would have to be replaced by individuation taxation.Working incentives, joint taxation of couples, female labor supply

Virtual Notes:Annotations on the WWW for Learning Environments

This paper describes Virtual Notes, small yellow stickers which can be freely placed on instrumented HTML-pages using standard Internet technology. In a teaching and research environment they provide a user- friendly and flexible way of improving collaboration by annotations, feedback, post-its and blackboards

RTCF: A framework for seamless and modular real-time control with ROS

Owing to the steady progress in the field of Linux kernel development, high-performance control applications are no longer a rarity on general-purpose computing platforms. However, many real-time control libraries lack important properties such as modularity, effortless integration, and encapsulation. These are key design features of the popular Robot Operating System (ROS) that is, however, not real-time capable. We aim to solve this issue by introducing the Real-Time Control Framework (RTCF), which offers high modularity, ROS-related concepts leading to seamless interoperability with ROS, and high performance. To demonstrate the capabilities of the RTCF, we provide several examples and exemplary performance data

Episcopic 3D Imaging Methods: Tools for Researching Gene Function

This work aims at describing episcopic 3D imaging methods and at discussing how these methods can contribute to researching the genetic mechanisms driving embryogenesis and tissue remodelling, and the genesis of pathologies. Several episcopic 3D imaging methods exist. The most advanced are capable of generating high-resolution volume data (voxel sizes from 0.5x0.5x1 µm upwards) of small to large embryos of model organisms and tissue samples. Beside anatomy and tissue architecture, gene expression and gene product patterns can be three dimensionally analyzed in their precise anatomical and histological context with the aid of whole mount in situ hybridization or whole mount immunohistochemical staining techniques. Episcopic 3D imaging techniques were and are employed for analyzing the precise morphological phenotype of experimentally malformed, randomly produced, or genetically engineered embryos of biomedical model organisms. It has been shown that episcopic 3D imaging also fits for describing the spatial distribution of genes and gene products during embryogenesis, and that it can be used for analyzing tissue samples of adult model animals and humans. The latter offers the possibility to use episcopic 3D imaging techniques for researching the causality and treatment of pathologies or for staging cancer. Such applications, however, are not yet routine and currently only preliminary results are available. We conclude that, although episcopic 3D imaging is in its very beginnings, it represents an upcoming methodology, which in short terms will become an indispensable tool for researching the genetic regulation of embryo development as well as the genesis of malformations and diseases

Linux Cluster in Theory and Practice: A Novel Approach in Teaching Cluster Computing Based on the Intel Atom Platform

AbstractCurrent trends and studies on future architectures show, that the complexity of parallel computer systems is increasing steadily. Hence, the industry requires skilled employees, who have in addition to the theoretical fundamentals, practical experiences in the design and administration of such systems. However, investigations have shown, that practical approaches are still missing in current curricula, especially in these areas. For this reason, the chair of Computer Architecture at the faculty of Computer Science at the Technische Universiẗat Dresden, developed and introduced the course “Linux Cluster in Theory and Practice” (LCTP). The main objectives of this course are to provide background knowledge about the design and administration of large-scale parallel computer systems and the practical implementation on the available hardware. In addition, students learn how to solve problems in a structured approach and as part of a team. This paper analyzes the current variety of courses in the area of parallel computing systems, describes the structure and implementation of LCTP and provides first conclusions and an outlook on possible further developments

Reform des Ehegattensplittings: nur eine reine Individualbesteuerung erhöht die Erwerbsanreize deutlich

Die gemeinsame Besteuerung von Ehepartnern im Rahmen des Ehegattensplittings ist nach wie vor ein großes Hemmniss der Erwerbsbeteiligung von verheirateten Frauen am Arbeitsmarkt in Deutschland. In ihrem aktuellen Finanzkonzept fordert die SPD, das Ehegattensplitting durch eine Individualbesteuerung mit Unterhaltsabzug zu ersetzen, entsprechend den bereits geltenden Regelungen für geschiedene Eheleute. Simulationsrechnungen des DIW Berlin zeigen, dass eine solche Reform nur geringe Verteilungs- und Arbeitsangebotseffekte hätte. Eine reine Individualbesteuerung dagegen würde nicht nur zu erheblichen Steuermehreinnahmen führen, sondern auch die Erwerbsbeteiligung von verheirateten Frauen deutlich erhöhen. Nimmt man das Ziel einer stärkeren Integration verheirateter Frauen in den Arbeitsmarkt ernst, müsste die Politik das derzeitige Ehegattensplitting durch eine reine Individualbesteuerung ersetzen.Working incentives, joint taxation of couples, female labor supply

Long term (2050) projections of techno-economic performance of large-scale heating and cooling in the EU

The following study provides data and projections for large-scale District Heating (DH) technologies including an outlook till 2050 and regional differences. The study complements a study for small-scale technologies applicable to residential and tertiary sector. The data set can be downloaded here http://data.jrc.cec.eu.int/dataset/jrc-etri-techno-economics-larger-heating-cooling-technologies-2017JRC.C.7-Knowledge for the Energy Unio

Maxwell's equations revisited -- mental imagery and mathematical symbols

Using Maxwell's mental imagery of a tube of fluid motion of an imaginary fluid, we derive his equations $\operatorname{curl} \mathbf{E} = -\frac{\partial \mathbf{B}}{\partial t}$, $\operatorname{curl} \mathbf{H} = \frac{\partial \mathbf{D}}{\partial t} + \mathbf{j}$, $\operatorname{div} \mathbf{D} = \varrho$, $\operatorname{div} \mathbf{B} = 0$, which together with the constituting relations $\mathbf{D} = \varepsilon_0 \mathbf{E}$, $\mathbf{B} = \mu_0 \mathbf{H}$, form what we call today Maxwell's equations. Main tools are the divergence, curl and gradient integration theorems and a version of Poincare's lemma formulated in vector calculus notation. Remarks on the history of the development of electrodynamic theory, quotations and references to original and secondary literature complement the paper

Declarative Guideline Conformance Checking of Clinical Treatments: A Case Study

Conformance checking is a process mining technique that allows verifying the conformance of process instances to a given model. Thus, this technique is predestined to be used in the medical context for the comparison of treatment cases with clinical guidelines. However, medical processes are highly variable, highly dynamic, and complex. This makes the use of imperative conformance checking approaches in the medical domain difficult. Studies show that declarative approaches can better address these characteristics. However, none of the approaches has yet gained practical acceptance. Another challenge are alignments, which usually do not add any value from a medical point of view. For this reason, we investigate in a case study the usability of the HL7 standard Arden Syntax for declarative, rule-based conformance checking and the use of manually modeled alignments. Using the approach, it was possible to check the conformance of treatment cases and create medically meaningful alignments for large parts of a medical guideline

Microstructural Parcellation of the Human Cerebral Cortex – From Brodmann's Post-Mortem Map to in vivo Mapping with High-Field Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The year 2009 marked the 100th anniversary of the publication of the famous brain map of Korbinian Brodmann. Although a “classic” guide to microanatomical parcellation of the cerebral cortex, it is – from today's state-of-the-art neuroimaging perspective – problematic to use Brodmann's map as a structural guide to functional units in the cortex. In this article we discuss some of the reasons, especially the problematic compatibility of the “post-mortem world” of microstructural brain maps with the “in vivo world” of neuroimaging. We conclude with some prospects for the future of in vivo structural brain mapping: a new approach which has the enormous potential to make direct correlations between microstructure and function in living human brains: “in vivo Brodmann mapping” with high-field magnetic resonance imaging