Interest rates, distribution and capital accumulation – A Post-Kaleckian perspective on the US and Germany

We analyse the effects of interest rate variations on the rates of capacity utilisation, capital accumulation and profit in a simple post-Kaleckian distribution and growth model. This model gives rise to different potential accumulation regimes depending on the values of the parameters in the investment, saving and distribution function. Estimating these core behavioural equations for the US and Germany in the period 1960-2007, we find significant and robust effects of interest payments with the expected sign in each of the equations. Our estimation results imply, both for the US and for Germany, that the effects of changes in the real long-term rate of interest on the equilibrium rates of capacity utilisation, capital accumulation and profits are characterised by the ‘normal regime’: Rising long-term real rates of interest cause falling rates of capacity utilisation, capital accumulation and profits, as well as redistribution at the expense of labour income and hence an increasing profit share in both countries.Interest rate; distribution; demand; capital accumulation; Kaleckian model

Humanitarian Logistics: Empirical Investigations of Influences on Logistical Activities of Humanitarian Organizations

To write the motivation of a thesis in the context of humanitarian relief while keeping up to date is like a Sisyphean task. Again, and again new disasters occur on our earth, which gives this topic its particular relevance. This becomes clear just by examining the most devastating natural disasters of the last five years (roughly the period of time in which this dissertation was written): 2015 earthquake in Nepal (8.831 deaths, 5.6 million people affected), Hurricane Matthew in 2016 (595 deaths, 2.4 million affected), 2017 Landslide in Sierra Leone (1.102 deaths, 12.000 affected), 2018 earthquake in Indonesia (4.340 deaths, 209.000 affected), and 2019 Measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo (5.400 deaths, 250.000 affected) (CRED and UCLouvain, 2020). In addition, disasters that occurred even longer ago cast their long shadows on the work of humanitarian actors. The earthquake in Haiti in 2010 with more than 220,000 deaths is exemplary here (CRED and UCLouvain, 2020). Even today, there are still over a hundred different organizations with humanitarian and development activities onsite

On the Adversarial Robustness of Multi-Modal Foundation Models

Multi-modal foundation models combining vision and language models such as Flamingo or GPT-4 have recently gained enormous interest. Alignment of foundation models is used to prevent models from providing toxic or harmful output. While malicious users have successfully tried to jailbreak foundation models, an equally important question is if honest users could be harmed by malicious third-party content. In this paper we show that imperceivable attacks on images in order to change the caption output of a multi-modal foundation model can be used by malicious content providers to harm honest users e.g. by guiding them to malicious websites or broadcast fake information. This indicates that countermeasures to adversarial attacks should be used by any deployed multi-modal foundation model.Comment: ICCV AROW 202

Thermal conductance and noise of Majorana modes along interfaced ν=5/2\nu=5/2 fractional quantum Hall states

We study transport along interfaced edge segments of fractional quantum Hall states hosting non-Abelian Majorana modes. With an incoherent model approach, we compute, for edge segments based on Pfaffian, anti-Pfaffian, and particle-hole-Pfaffian topological orders, thermal conductances, voltage biased noise, and delta-$T$ noise. We determine how the thermal equilibration of edge modes impacts these observables and identify the temperature scalings of transitions between regimes of differently quantized thermal conductances. In combination with recent experimental data, we use our results to estimate thermal and charge equilibration lengths in real devices. We also propose an experimental setup which permits measuring several transport observables for interfaced fractional quantum Hall edges in a single device. It can, e.g., be used to rule out edge reconstruction effects. In this context, we further point out some subtleties in two-terminal thermal conductance measurements and how to remedy them. Our findings are consistent with recent experimental results pointing towards a particle-hole-Pfaffian topological order at filling $\nu=5/2$ in GaAs/AlGaAs, and provide further means to pin-point the edge structure at this filling and possibly also other exotic fractional quantum Hall states.Comment: 17+10 pages; 12+2 figures; Updated Sec. VII and Fig. 12. References adde

AIDS, Access to Medicines, and the Different Roles of the Brazilian and South African Governments in Global Health Governance

The present article illustrates how the main actors in global health governance (GHG)— governments, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), intergovernmental organizations (IOs), and transnational pharmaceutical companies (TNPCs)—have been interacting and, as a result, modifying the global health architecture in general and AIDS treatment in particular. Using the concept of “power types” (Keohane/Martin) and “interfaces” (Norman Long), the authors examine the conflicts among major GHG actors that have arisen surrounding the limited access to medicines for fighting HIV/AIDS basically as a result of the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), in force since 1995. They then analyze the efforts of Brazil and South Africa to obtain fast and low-cost access to antiretroviral medication against AIDS. They conclude that while policy makers in the two countries have used different approaches to tackle the AIDS problem, they have been able, with the support of NGOs, to modify TRIPS and change some WTO rules at the global level along legal interfaces. At the national level the results of the fight against AIDS have been encouraging for Brazil, but not for South Africa, where authorities denied the challenge for a prolonged period of time. The authors see the different outcomes as a consequence of Brazil’s ability to combine discoursive, legal, administrative, and resource-based interfaces.global health governance; HIV/AIDS in Brazil and South Africa; discoursive, legal, organizational and resource-based interfaces; WTO; transnational pharmaceutical companies; NGOs

An Experimental Study of the Effects of Selected Roller Settings on the Ink Transfer Capabilities of a Polyurethane Roller

The basic mechanics of the printing operation are the controlled transferring of ink to paper. It seems obvious, therefore, that performing this operation at peak efficiency is essential to competitive success. In letterpress printing this basic mechanical operation takes place in three steps: one, breaking the ink down into a thin, even film, two, depositing the ink film on the raised surface from which the print is to be made; and three, transferring the ink from the raised surface to the paper or substance being printed upon. Deficiencies in any of these three critical areas may result in a product of unacceptable quality. In letterpress printing, the second step, that of depositing the ink film on the raised surface from which the print will be made, is accomplished by means of an inking roller. It is with this aspect of the printing operation that this thesis is concerned. The ink roller is essentially a cylindrical object which must possess the following properties: (1) Inking rollers must be soft: this is necessary to insure that the roller can mold itself easily to small irregularities in the type surface and exert a uniform pressure on each part. (2) They must not swell or shrink when brought into contact with printing ink or cleaning solvents so as to avoid any change in pressure over the form during a long run. (3) They must have surface tack, i.e., the roller surface must have a high degree of affinity for the ink, which enables it to produce a very smooth film on the roller which is then transferred to the type surface. (4) They must be capable of being easily cleaned. Lack of any of these properties in a roller may result in breakdown of the entire operation, because the roller plays such an important part in the printing process. It has been estimated that as much as 70% of press down time may be caused by the rollers. The best presses and pressmen can be no better than their rollers, which actually perform the critical transfer function