A case for redistribution? Income inequality and wealth concentration in the recent crisis

Several Nobel laureates economists have called for redistributive policies. This paper shows that there is a strong case for redistributive policies because the global increase of income inequality and wealth concentration was an important driver for the financial and Eurozone crisis. The high levels of income inequality resulted in balance of payment imbalances and rising debt levels. Rising wealth concentration contributed to the crisis because the increasing asset demand from the rich played a key role in the rise of the structured credit market and enabled poor and middle-income households to accumulate increasing amounts of debt. To tame the inherent instability of the current mode of capitalism it is necessary to reduce inequality

Distributed rate-distortion optimization for rateless coded scalable video

ABSTRACT Recent advances in forward error correction and scalable video coding enable new approaches for robust, distributed streaming in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs). This work presents an approach for distribution of real time video by different uncoordinated peerto-peer relay or source nodes in an overlay network on top of a MANET. The approach proposed here allows for distributed, ratedistortion optimized transmission-rate allocation for competing scalable video streams at relay nodes in the overlay network. Furthermore the approach has the desirable feature of path/source diversity for enhancing reliability in connectivity to serving nodes. Signaling overhead within the overlay network is kept at a minimum, since optimizations are done at relay nodes and clients rather than at servers

Comparative analysis of prognostic histopathologic parameters in subtypes of epithelioid pleural mesothelioma

Aims: Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a rare malignancy with a dismal prognosis. While the epithelioid type is associated with a more favourable outcome, additional factors are needed to further stratify prognosis and to identify patients who can benefit from multimodal treatment. As epithelioid MPM shows remarkable morphological variability, the prognostic role of the five defined morphologies, the impact of the nuclear grading system and the mitosis-necrosis score were investigated in this study. Methods and results: Tumour specimens of 192 patients with epithelioid MPM from five European centres were histologically subtyped. Nuclear grading and mitosis-necrosis score were determined and correlated with clinicopathological parameters and overall survival (OS). Digital slides of 55 independent cases from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database were evaluated for external validation. Histological subtypes were collapsed into three groups based on their overlapping survival curves. The tubulopapillary/microcystic group had a significantly longer OS than the solid/trabecular group (732 days versus 397 days, P = 0.0013). Pleomorphic tumours had the shortest OS (173 days). The solid/trabecular variants showed a significant association with high nuclear grade and mitosis-necrosis score. The mitosis-necrosis score was a robust and independent prognostic factor in our patient cohort. The prognostic significance of all three parameters was externally validated in the TCGA cohort. Patients with tubulopapillary or microcystic tumours showed a greater improvement in OS after receiving multimodal therapy than those with solid or trabecular tumours. Conclusions: Histological subtypes of epithelioid MPM have a prognostic impact, and might help to select patients for intensive multimodal treatment approaches

Identification of diagnostic serum protein profiles of glioblastoma patients

Diagnosis of a glioblastoma (GBM) is triggered by the onset of symptoms and is based on cerebral imaging and histological examination. Serum-based biomarkers may support detection of GBM. Here, we explored serum protein concentrations of GBM patients and used data mining to explore profiles of biomarkers and determine whether these are associated with the clinical status of the patients. Gene and protein expression data for astrocytoma and GBM were used to identify secreted proteins differently expressed in tumors and in normal brain tissues. Tumor expression and serum concentrations of 14 candidate proteins were analyzed for 23 GBM patients and nine healthy subjects. Data-mining methods involving all 14 proteins were used as an initial evaluation step to find clinically informative profiles. Data mining identified a serum protein profile formed by BMP2, HSP70, and CXCL10 that enabled correct assignment to the GBM group with specificity and sensitivity of 89 and 96%, respectively (p < 0.0001, Fischer’s exact test). Survival for more than 15 months after tumor resection was associated with a profile formed by TSP1, HSP70, and IGFBP3, enabling correct assignment in all cases (p < 0.0001, Fischer’s exact test). No correlation was found with tumor size or age of the patient. This study shows that robust serum profiles for GBM may be identified by data mining on the basis of a relatively small study cohort. Profiles of more than one biomarker enable more specific assignment to the GBM and survival group than those based on single proteins, confirming earlier attempts to correlate single markers with cancer. These conceptual findings will be a basis for validation in a larger sample size

The Beaker phenomenon and the genomic transformation of northwest Europe

From around 2750 to 2500 bc, Bell Beaker pottery became widespread across western and central Europe, before it disappeared between 2200 and 1800 bc. The forces that propelled its expansion are a matter of long-standing debate, and there is support for both cultural diffusion and migration having a role in this process. Here we present genome-wide data from 400 Neolithic, Copper Age and Bronze Age Europeans, including 226 individuals associated with Beaker-complex artefacts. We detected limited genetic affinity between Beaker-complex-associated individuals from Iberia and central Europe, and thus exclude migration as an important mechanism of spread between these two regions. However, migration had a key role in the further dissemination of the Beaker complex. We document this phenomenon most clearly in Britain, where the spread of the Beaker complex introduced high levels of steppe-related ancestry and was associated with the replacement of approximately 90% of Britain’s gene pool within a few hundred years, continuing the east-to-west expansion that had brought steppe-related ancestry into central and northern Europe over the previous centuries