FDZ annual report 2007

"Following the two evaluations by the German Council for Social and Economic Data in 2006 and by the German Council of Science and Humanities in 2007, the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research plans to report on its activities regularly in future. We are beginning with this FDZ Annual Report 2007, which is intended to summarise the main events of the past 12 or 24 months in a few pages. The Annual Report also serves to provide transparency for our users, who after all justify the existence of the FDZ. This Report is divided into the following chapters: 'General Function', 'Basic Information', 'The Service-Oriented FDZ', 'The International FDZ' and, as an apt conclusion, 'Research at the FDZ'. Parts of the appendices (for Example Publications or Presentations in German) are not translated into English." (Text excerpt, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Here you can find the German version of the report.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe

The functional role of GABA and glycine in monaural and binaural processing in the inferior colliculus of horseshoe bats

The functional role of GABA and glycine in monaural and binaural signal analysis was studied in single unit recordings from the central nucleus of the inferior colliculus (IC) of horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus rouxi) employing microiontophoresis of the putative neurotransmitters and their antagonists bicuculline and strychnine. Most neurons were inhibited by GABA (98%; N= 107) and glycine (92%; N = 118). Both neurotransmitters appear involved in several functional contexts, but to different degrees. Bicuculline-induced increases of discharge activity (99% of cells; N= 191) were accompanied by changes of temporal response patterns in 35 % of neurons distributed throughout the IC. Strychnine enhanced activity in only 53% of neurons (N= 147); cells exhibiting response pattern changes were rare (9%) and confined to greater recording depths. In individual cells, the effects of both antagonists could markedly differ, suggesting a differential supply by GABAergic and glycinergic networks. Bicuculline changed the shape of the excitatory tuning curve by antagonizing lateral inhibition at neighboring frequencies and/or inhibition at high stimulation levels. Such effects were rarely observed with strychnine. Binaural response properties of single units were influenced either by antagonization of inhibition mediated by ipsilateral stimulation (bicuculline) or by changing the strength of the main excitatory input (bicuculline and strychnine)

Metadata Hub - One for All

The Metadata Hub provides a generic service for metadata repositories. Based on this, different kinds of metadata repositories can be accessed with uniform tools without the researchers having to deal with the complex details. In the domain of research data management, there are a variety of repositories that offer metadata management services to researchers. This poses the challenge that these repositories usually have different interfaces and in nature are not very interoperable with each other, violating one of the FAIR Principles. Our work aims to build a bridge between these repositories as a generic service for metadata repositories, the Metadata Hub. It’s accessible via the Turntable API, which defines a uniform interface for metadata repositories. To validate metadata documents, a definition of the document structure has to be available. For JSON/XML, there is JSON/XML Schema for this purpose. In case of JSON-LD, JSON Schema is not sufficient. Therefore, so-called application profiles are used, which are defined by using Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL). In general, the Turntable API is split in two parts: The first part is about managing (CRUD) ‘schemas/application profiles’ which are describing the structure of metadata documents, extended by the ability to validate a metadata document against a registered ‘schema/application profile/…’. The second part is about managing the metadata documents itself based on one of registered ‘schemas/application profiles’. Currently, we build the Metadata Hub as a Demonstrator mapping two completely different repositories (Coscine, MetaStore) as a showcase. The Metadata Hub is powered by the Metadata Hub Framework and provides a web interface to make the service available to a broad mass. This work has been supported by the research program ‘Engineering Digital Futures’ of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers, the Helmholtz Metadata Collaboration Platform and the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI)

FDZ Annual Report 2008

"Following the exceedingly positive response to our Annual Report 2007, you now have the Annual Report 2008 of the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency at the Institute for Employment Research in this FDZ Methodenreport. Like last year, the FDZ Annual Report 2008 is not a glossy brochure full of photos but summarises the main events of the past 12 months in a few pages. The Annual Report 2008 is mainly based on key figures which the FDZ made available to the German Council for Social and Economic Data for their evaluation in 2009. The Annual Report also serves to provide transparency for our users, who after all justify the existence of the FDZ. The Report is divided into the following chapters: 'General function', 'Basic information', 'The service-oriented FDZ', 'The international FDZ' and, as an apt conclusion, 'Research at the FDZ'." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en)) Additional Information Here you can find the German version of the report.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe, BA-Beschäftigtenpanel, Befragung, IAB-Querschnittsbefragung, IAB-Haushaltspanel, IAB-kombinierte Firmendaten, IAB-Weiterbildungspanel

FDZ-Jahresbericht 2007

"Nach den beiden Evaluationen 2006 durch den Rat für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsdaten und 2007 durch den Wissenschaftsrat möchte das Forschungsdatenzentrum der Bundesagentur für Arbeit im Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung (FDZ) in Zukunft regelmäßig über seine Aktivitäten berichten. Wir starten mit diesem FDZ-Jahresbericht 2007, der ... auf wenigen Seiten die wesentlichen Ereignisse der letzten 12 bzw. 24 Monate zusammenfassen soll. Der Jahresbericht dient auch der Transparenz für unsere Nutzer, die die Existenzberechtigung des FDZ begründen... Der Bericht teilt sich in die Kapitel 'Allgemeine Aufgaben', 'Basisinformationen', 'Das serviceorientierte FDZ', 'Das internationale FDZ' und zum guten Schluss 'Das forschende FDZ'." (Textauszug, IAB-Doku) Additional Information Hier finden Sie die englische Version des Reports.Forschungsdatenzentrum - Bericht, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, amtliche Statistik, Datenzugang, Datenschutz, Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB-Beschäftigtenstichprobe, IAB-Betriebspanel, IAB-Betriebs-Historik-Panel, IAB-Linked-Employer-Employee-Datensatz, Integrierte Erwerbsbiografien, Datenaufbereitung, Datenausgabe

Two-sided Bogoliubov inequality to estimate finite size effects in quantum molecular simulations

We generalise the two-sided Bogoliubov inequality for classical particles (Delle Site et al. in J Stat Mech Theory Exp 083201, 2017 to systems of quantum particles. As in the classical set-up, the inequality leads to upper and lower bounds for the free energy difference associated with the partitioning of a large system into smaller, independent subsystems. From a thermodynamic modelling point of view, the free energy difference determines the finite size correction needed to consistently treat a small system as a representation of a large system. Applications of the bounds to quantify finite size effects are ubiquitous in physics, chemistry, material science, or biology, to name just a few; in particular, it is relevant for molecular dynamics simulations in which a small portion of a system is usually taken as representative of the idealized large system

FDZ-Jahresbericht 2009/2010

"The annual report 2009/10 gives an overview of functions and activities of the Research Data Centre (FDZ) of the Federal Employment Agency (BA) at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). The general function of the FDZ - to prepare individual datasets and make them available for research purposes - is illustrated by key figures of data use. These figures show that the FDZ has established itself as a provider of high quality individual data in the research landscape. Special attention was also given to the task of making the data available internationally and an increasing engagement in third-party funded research projects. Furthermore, the annual report 2009/10 documents the way in which the FDZ activities took the form of numerous publications, scientific presentations and events." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Forschungsdatenzentrum, Bundesagentur für Arbeit, IAB, Jahrbuch

Disentangling coastal groundwater level dynamics on a global data set

This study aims to identify common hydrogeological patterns and to gain a deeper understanding of the underlying similarities and their link to physiographic, climatic, and anthropogenic controls of coastal groundwater. The most striking aspects of GWL dynamics and their controls were identified through a combination of statistical metrics, calculated from about 8,000 groundwater hydrographs, and pattern recognition, classification, and explanation using machine learning techniques and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP). Overall, four different GWL dynamics patterns emerge, independent of the different seasons, time series lengths, and periods. We show in this study that similar GWL dynamics can be observed around the world with different combinations of site characteristics, but also that the main factors differentiating these patterns can be identified. Three of the identified patterns exhibit high short-term and interannual variability and are most common in regions with low terrain elevation and shallow groundwater depth. Climate and soil characteristics are most important in differentiating these patterns. This study provides new insights into the hydrogeological behavior of groundwater in coastal regions and guides systematic and holistic groundwater monitoring and modelling, motivating to consider various aspects of GWL dynamics when, for example, estimating climate-driven GWL changes &ndash; especially when information on potential controls is limited.</p

Finite-size effects and thermodynamic accuracy in many-particle systems

Finite-size effects arise when a sample of particles is not sufficient to provide a statistically satisfactory description of the bulk environment of a physical system. As a consequence, a reliable estimate of finite-size effects in many-particle systems is key to judge the validity of a theoretical model or the accuracy of a numerical simulation. In this context, we propose the use of a theorem on the free-energy cost for separating a system into smaller independent subsystems [J. Stat. Mech.: Theory Exp. (2017) 083201; Lett. Math. Phys. 112, 97 (2022)] to estimate the relevance of finite-size effects in thermodynamic quantities from computer simulations. The key aspect of this study is that for two-body potentials, as mostly occurring in physics, the method requires only two-body distribution functions and the particle number density. The calculation of the involved physical quantities can be done numerically on a three-dimensional grid. In some cases even analytical estimates are possible and as an example the uniform interacting electron gas in the ground state is considered; we derive an approximating scaling law for the finite-size effects

Gaseous Mediators and Mitochondrial Function: The Future of Pharmacologically Induced Suspended Animation?

The role of nitric oxide (NO), carbon monoxide (CO), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) as poisonous gases is well-established. However, they are not only endogenously produced but also, at low concentrations, exert beneficial effects, such as anti-inflammation, and cytoprotection. This knowledge initiated the ongoing debate, as to whether these molecules, also referred to as “gaseous mediators” or “gasotransmitters,” could serve as novel therapeutic agents. In this context, it is noteworthy, that all gasotransmitters specifically target the mitochondria, and that this interaction may modulate mitochondrial bioenergetics, thereby subsequently affecting metabolic function. This feature is of crucial interest for the possible induction of “suspended animation.” Suspended animation, similar to mammalian hibernation (and/or estivation), refers to an externally induced hypometabolic state, with the intention to preserve organ function in order to survive otherwise life-threatening conditions. This hypometabolic state is usually linked to therapeutic hypothermia, which, however, comes along with adverse effects (e.g., coagulopathy, impaired host defense). Therefore, inducing an on-demand hypometabolic state by directly lowering the energy metabolism would be an attractive alternative. Theoretically, gasotransmitters should reversibly interact and inhibit the mitochondrial respiratory chain during pharmacologically induced suspended animation. However, it has to be kept in mind that this effect also bears the risk of cytotoxicity resulting from the blockade of the mitochondrial respiratory chain. Therefore, this review summarizes the current knowledge of the impact of gasotransmitters on modulating mitochondrial function. Further, we will discuss their role as potential candidates in inducing a suspended animation