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Do Chinese individuals believe in global climate change and why? An econometric analysis
No full textThis paper examines the extent and the determinants of individual global climate change be-liefs. In contrast to former studies, it is focused on China due to its crucial role in global cli-mate policy and its responsibility as the worldwide biggest producer of CO2 emissions. The empirical analysis is based on unique data from a survey among more than 1000 individuals from five cities in China, namely Beijing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Wuhan, and Shenyang. In line with previous studies in other countries, our results suggest that the vast majority of al-most 90% of the Chinese respondents believe in the existence of global climate change, which seems to be a convenient basis for ambitious climate policy in China. Our econometric analy-sis reveals that the personal experience with extreme weather events (and particularly heat-waves) alone is already sufficient to increase global climate change beliefs, although conse-quential personal physical or financial damages lead to stronger effects. A rising number of extreme weather events and consequential personal damages in the future might thus further decrease climate change skepticism. Our estimation results additionally reveal that females as well as people in medium ages, with higher household incomes, a lower education, and from Chengdu or Shenyang are more skeptical with respect to global climate change
On the Interdependence of Illegal and Legal Immigration
No full textThis paper accounts for the interdependency between illegal and legal immigration and its effects on average migrant productivity as well as on the fiscal budget. I present a simple model which proposes that the host country's government can reduce the required skill level for legal entry in order to maximize the immigrant's average pro- ductivity. With regard to the fiscal surplus that is achieved by immigration, the model presumes that the government is encouraged to substitute illegal workers by legal ones if the former are characterized by lower tax benefit ratios or if over-qualification among unauthorized aliens is widespread
Identifying and Counting Avian Blood Cells in Whole Slide Images via Deep Learning
No full textThis dataset contains research data as presented in: Vogelbacher, M.; Strehmann, F.; Bellafkir, H.; Mühling, M.; Korfhage, N.; Schneider, D.; Rösner, S.; Schabo, D. G.; Farwig, N.; Freisleben, B. Identifying and Counting Avian Blood Cells in Whole Slide Images via Deep Learning. Submitted for publication. 2024.
In this article, we present a novel approach to automatically quantify avian red and white blood cells in whole slide images. Our approach is based on two deep neural network models. The first model determines image regions that are suitable for counting blood cells, and the second model is an instance segmentation model that detects the cells in the determined image regions. The region selection model achieves up to 97.3% in terms of the F1 score, and the instance segmentation model achieves up to 90.7% in terms of mean average precision. Our approach helps ornithologists to acquire hematological data from avian blood smears more precisely and efficiently.
The data published here include the raw annotated data as well as the trained models for the automated counting of blood cells in avian blood smears. Our code is publicly available at https://github.com/umr-ds/avibloodcount.Hessian State Ministry for Higher Education, Research and the Arts (HMWK) (LOEWE Natur 4.0 and hessian.AI Connectom AI4Birds, AI4BirdsDemo
Awareness and intention-to-use of digital health applications, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology in breast cancer care
No full textEmerging digital technologies promise to improve breast cancer care, however
lack of awareness among clinicians often prevents timely adoption. This
study aims to investigate current awareness and intention-to-use of three
technologies among breast cancer healthcare professionals (HCP): (1) digital
health applications (DHA), (2) artificial intelligence (AI), and (3) blockchain
technology (BC). A 22-item questionnaire was designed and administered
before and after a 30 min educational presentation highlighting technology
implementation examples. Technology awareness and intention-to-use were
measured using 7-point Likert scales. Correlations between demographics,
technology awareness, intention-to-use, and eHealth literacy (GR-eHEALS
scale) were analyzed. 45 HCP completed the questionnaire, of whom 26
(57.8%) were female. Age ranged from 24 to 67 {mean age (SD): 44.93 ± 12.62}.
Awareness was highest for DHA (68.9%) followed by AI (66.7%) and BC (24.4%).
The presentation led to a non-significant increase of intention-to-use AI {5.37
(±1.81) to 5.83 (±1.64)}. HCPs´ intention-to-use BC after the presentation
increased significantly {4.30 (±2.04) to 5.90 (±1.67), p < 0.01}. Mean accumulated
score for GR-eHEALS averaged 33.04 (± 6.61). HCPs´ intended use of AI
significantly correlated with eHealth literacy (ρ = 0.383; p < 0.01), intention-touse
BC (ρ = 0.591; p < 0.01) and participants´ age (ρ = −0.438; p < 0.01). This study
demonstrates the effect that even a short practical presentation can have
on HCPs´ intention-to-use emerging digital technologies. Training potential
professional users should be addressed alongside the development of new
information technologies and is crucial to increase HCPs´ corresponding
awareness and intended use.Gefördert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der UB Marburg
Should We Trust Math Preparatory Courses? Am Empirical Analysis on the Impact of Students’ Participation and Attendance on Short- and Medium-Term Effects
No full textRemedial courses, particularly in math, have become indispensable in today's higher education landscape. However, large scale evaluation studies investigating the effectiveness of such courses find mixed results which is only one reason why remedial courses should not be trusted as a functional instrument in general. Besides the unclear impact on students' skills, research mostly does not control properly for the students' attendance in these courses. This study gives an insight into the differences in students' participation, attendance and the resulting consequences for short-, and medium term effects. Therefore, over three periods of time, data on several variables and standardized skill-test outcomes was raised, leading to a sample of N=1,236 students enrolled in subjects of economics to investigate short term effects, while a sub- sample of N=501 students could be matched to measure a medium term effect using a fixed-effects approach
Sectoral FDI and the Real Exchange Rate: The Role of Financial Development
No full textIncreasing FDI inflows into a booming sector resulting in an appreciation of the real exchange rate may entail further capital inflows and greater appreciation pressure on the real exchange rate up to an abrupt reversal of the capital (Botta, 2015). The macroeconomic instability of such boom-and-bust cycles is detrimental to economic growth, as is the appreciated real exchange rate. This paper applies dynamic system generalized methods of moments (GMM) estimation techniques to empirically find different effects of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into the main economic sectors on the real exchange rate in a panel of 66 developing and developed economies. While the effect of FDI in the primary sector appears to be insignificant, FDI in the manufacturing and in the service sector lead to a real depreciation and a real appreciation respectively. Furthermore, evidence suggests that financial sector development may help in dampening the real exchange rate movements induced by FDI in the latter two sectors, as well as distinctly attenuates the real appreciation effect of other capital inflows. Hence, deep financial markets seem to contribute to the mitigation of macroeconomic instability in consequence of capital inflows
Interaction kinetics between p115-RhoGEF and Gα13 are determined by unique molecular interactions affecting agonist sensitivity
No full textThe three RH-RhoGEFs (Guanine nucleotide exchange factors) p115-RhoGEF, LARG (leukemia-associated RhoGEF) and PDZ-RhoGEF link G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) with RhoA signaling through activation of Gα12/13. In order to find functional differences in signaling between the different RH-RhoGEFs we examined their interaction with Gα13 in high spatial and temporal resolution, utilizing a FRET-based single cell assay. We found that p115-RhoGEF interacts significantly shorter with Gα13 than LARG and PDZ-RhoGEF, while narrowing the structural basis for these differences down to a single amino acid in the rgRGS domain of p115-RhoGEF. The mutation of this amino acid led to an increased interaction time with Gα13 and an enhanced agonist sensitivity, comparable to LARG, while mutating the corresponding amino acid in Gα13 the same effect could be achieved. While the rgRGS domains of RH-RhoGEFs showed GAP (GTPase-activating protein) activity towards Gα13 in vitro, our approach suggests higher GAP activity of p115-RhoGEF in intact cells.Gefördert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der UB Marburg
Compliance Programs, Signaling and Firms’ International Coordination
No full textFines imposed on firms for corporate infringements such as cartels re-
duce these infringement's profitability. When a manager knows when
a violation is unprofitable he can prevent violations committed by an
uninformed employee by investing in compliance programs (CPs). In-
vestments can be interpreted as signals. The paper shows that there
exists a separating equilibrium where high investments in CPs induce
the employee to obey the law. However, if CPs are too expensive the
signal is not credible. The manager can also show personal commit-
ment to compliance ('tone-at-the-top'). Coordination on an efficient
outcome will then be achievable if commitment is costly. Imposing
high, individual sanctions on the manager disturbs a firm's internal
coordination because he is unable to credibly signal that an infringe-
ment does not pay off for the firm. However, imposing sanctions on
the employee unambiguously deters violation
Professional Cycling and the Fight against Doping
No full textDoping seems to be well-organized and inherent in the system of
professional cycling. This paper provides a theoretical approach, by
using a multi-task (training and doping) principal-agent (team manager
and cyclist) model, to illustrate the information asymmetry and
conflicting objectives between both actors. Three settings are used to
represent different situations in which the fight against doping takes
place with varying intensity. The comparison of the equilibria in each
setting reveals the influence of the fight against doping on the team
members’ behaviour. The analysis shows that team managers are interested
in doping, and that current anti-doping institutions cannot
suppress the abuse of forbidden drugs
Interrelated effects of age and parenthood on whole-brain controllability: protective effects of parenthood in mothers
No full textBackground: Controllability is a measure of the brain’s ability to orchestrate neural activity which can be quantified in terms of properties of the brain’s network connectivity. Evidence from the literature suggests that aging can exert a general effect on whole-brain controllability. Mounting evidence, on the other hand, suggests that parenthood and motherhood in particular lead to long-lasting changes in brain architecture that effectively slow down brain aging. We hypothesize that parenthood might preserve brain controllability properties from aging.
Methods: In a sample of 814 healthy individuals (aged 33.9 ± 12.7 years, 522 females), we estimate whole-brain controllability and compare the aging effects in subjects with vs. those without children. We use diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to estimate the brain structural connectome. The level of brain control is then calculated from the connectomic properties of the brain structure. Specifically, we measure the network control over many low-energy state transitions (average controllability) and the network control over difficult-to-reach states (modal controllability).
Results and conclusion: In nulliparous females, whole-brain average controllability increases, and modal controllability decreases with age, a trend that we do not observe in parous females. Statistical comparison of the controllability metrics shows that modal controllability is higher and average controllability is lower in parous females compared to nulliparous females. In men, we observed the same trend, but the difference between nulliparous and parous males do not reach statistical significance. Our results provide strong evidence that parenthood contradicts aging effects on brain controllability and the effect is stronger in mothers.Gefördert durch den Open-Access-Publikationsfonds der UB Marburg