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Wage differentials and government corruption
No full textLe Van Ha onderzocht de invloed van het beloningsbeleid van ambtenaren op corruptie. Op basis van een steekproef van 76 landen toont Le aan dat het effect van ambtelijke lonen op corruptie wordt beïnvloed door het inkomen per capita. Als het inkomen per capita relatief laag is, leidt een toename van ambtelijke lonen tot minder corruptie. Dit negatieve effect wordt kleiner naarmate het inkomensniveau stijgt.
De intuïtie is dat onbeduidende corruptie (‘petty corruption’) gangbaarder is in arme landen en dat goedbetaalde ambtenaren hiervan afzien. Naarmate het inkomensniveau stijgt, neemt corruptie ook een meer omvangrijke vorm aan. Deze zogenaamde ‘grand corruption’ leidt tot opbrengsten waartegen, in de ogen van de corrupte ambtenaar, een hoger salaris niet opwegen. Grand corruption is ook moeilijker om op te sporen. Het verhogen van ambtelijke lonen is dan geen efficiënte maatregel om deze vorm van corruptie tegen te gaan.
This thesis presents new evidence on the empirical relationship
between government wages and corruption. Data
on government wages are limited in both availability and
quality. The mixed fi ndings—in the past decades—on the
impact of government wages on corruption may partly be
due to the low quality of the underlying data. To deal with
such a challenge, we construct a new database of industrial
wages using micro survey data from a large number
of developing and developed countries. The database is
employed to investigate the relationship between government
wages and corruption in a comprehensive manner.
A database of about 1,500 observations from 126 countries
over a period of (on average) 12 years has been constructed
and will be updated and expanded regularly in
the future. Such data are better than the previously used
data that were obtained from macro data sources, such
as national accounts and government fi nance statistics.
This is because the micro-based survey data yield unbiased
estimates of the true wages. Applying the new
database, it is shown that government wages do have
a negative impact on corruption, but the impact is signifi
cant only when the country’s income level is relatively
low. Moreover, government bureaucrats in poor countries
manipulate the level of red tape in high-wage industries
to extract bribes. Monitoring, detection and punishment of
corruption should be focused on bureaucrats responsible
for regulating high-wage fi rms.
Essay: The life cycle of Pex5p: the role of PTS1 receptor Pex5p in the import of proteins into the peroxisome
No full textThe import of proteins into peroxisomes is a peculiar process in which folded and even oligomeric proteins can be translocated across the peroxisomal membrane. Here we provide a review of the role of the receptor of peroxisome targeting signal 1, Pex5p. Pex5p plays an important role in the import of proteins into peroxisomes, as it is involved in the binding of the targeted proteins, it recruits the cargo the peroxisomal membrane, it binds to the import machinery or can even be part of it. The mechanics of the translocation are still largely unknown, but the major hypothesis is the formation of transient pores with Pex5p as a constituent of the pore complex or driver of the pore complex formation. Pex5p is recycled after translocation by monoubiquitination and subsequent removal from the membrane by the Pex1p and Pex6p, comprising the only energy dependency in the import process. Concluding, we propose an extension to transient pore model.
Educated Intuitions
No full textWat zijn de psychologische grondslagen van morele oordelen en moreel redeneren? Recent onderzoek laat zien dat emotie en intuïtie van essentieel belang zijn voor de menselijke morele cognitie: onderzoek naar psychopathie en hersenbeschadigingen tonen aan dat emoties noodzakelijk zijn voor morele oordelen, experimenten met het manipuleren van emoties lijken aan te tonen dat emoties ook voldoende zijn voor morele oordelen en bewijsmateriaal uit de neurowetenschappen toont aan dat vele van onze morele oordelen voortgebracht worden door snelle, automatische en emotioneel beladen processen. De post-hoc aard van moreel redeneren doet ons vermoeden dat dergelijk redeneren niet de werkelijke oorzaak is van onze morele oordelen maar dat moreel redeneren bestaat uit achteraf-rationalisaties van overtuigingen die men intuïtief heeft.
Hanno Sauer heeft een model ontwikkeld waarin automatische, emotioneel beladen morele intuïties ontwikkeld kunnen worden: zij zijn ingesleten intuïtieve reacties op situaties die moreel van belang zijn. Als zodanig zijn zij niet alleen het product van een proces van rationele vorming maar zijn zij ook onderhevig aan rationele reflectie en andere kritische praktijken waardoor onze intuïtieve oordelen in de loop der tijd gevormd en verbeterd kunnen worden.
In zijn proefschrift neemt Sauer een gematigd rationalistisch standpunt in, nadat hij het meest recente empirische bewijsmateriaal voor de aard van morele oordelen en moreel redeneren in ogenschouw genomen heeft. Sauer gaat in op de normatieve implicaties van dit model en vindt bevestiging voor het model in een schat aan empirische bevindingen.
What are the psychological foundations of moral judgment and reasoning? Recent research suggests that emotion and intuition are essential to human moral cognition: studies on psychopathy and brain lesions show that emotions are necessary for moral judgment; emotion manipulation experiments seem to demonstrate that emotions are also sufficient for moral judgment; neuroscientific evidence suggests that many of our moral judgments are produced by quick, automatic, and emotionally charged processes, and the post hoc nature of moral reasoning raises the suspicion that such reasoning is not the genuine cause of our moral judgments, but consists of after the fact rationalizations of intuitively held beliefs.
Hanno Sauer developed a model according to which automatic, emotionally charged moral intuitions can be educated: they are habitualized intuitive responses to morally salient situations. As such, they are not only the upshot of a process of rational upbringing; they are also open to episodes of rational reflection and other critical practices, which feed back into our intuitive judgments and help shape and improve them over time.
The dissertation ties together a normative case for a moderately rationalist position with an assessment of the latest empirical evidence concerning the nature of moral judgment and reasoning. Sauer explores the normative implications of this model and backs it up with a wealth of empirical findings.
Essay : Interaction of the serotonergic and glutamatergic system in mediating the antidepressant efficacy of 5-HT1A agonists
No full textDe begeleider en/of auteur heeft geen toestemming gegeven tot het openbaar maken van de scriptie.
The supervisor and/or the author did not authorize public publication of the thesis.
Interpretation of Singular Personal Pronouns in Direct and Indirect Speech. A comparison between Dutch and Dutch-Frisian speakers
No full textIn Dutch, two ways of reporting speech exist: direct speech and indirect speech. The closely related language Frisian has a third reporting clause: Embedded V2 (EV2). The EV2 clause is syntactically similar to direct speech, but pronouns in EV2 must be interpreted like they should in indirect speech. This leads to the hypothesis that Dutch-Frisian (bilingual) speakers should make more mistakes whilst interpreting singular personal pronouns in Dutch direct speech than Dutch speakers. Thus there is negative language transfer for Dutch on Frisian. An experiment is done with both Dutch-Frisian and Dutch speakers to verify this hypothesis. Results confirmed Dutch-Frisian speakers make more mistakes whilst interpreting singular personal pronouns in Dutch direct speech than Dutch monolingual speakers. However, Dutch-Frisian speakers also make more - although less significant - mistakes whilst interpreting singular personal pronouns in Dutch indirect speech than Dutch! monolingual speakers. This could be due to general confusion of Dutch-Frisian speakers in the experiment.
Following the Global Structural Changes of an Ion Channel During its Gating by using a Novel Mass Spectrometry Approach
No full text
Seasonal changes in mollusc abundance in a tropical intertidal ecosystem, Banc d’Arguin (Mauritania): Testing the ‘depletion by shorebirds’ hypothesis
No full textAt temperate latitudes densities and biomass of intertidal molluscs tend to be strongly seasonal. Here we provide a comparative study on seasonality of bivalves and gastropods in the tropical intertidal seagrass-covered soft sediment environment of Banc d’Arguin, Mauritania (20°N, 16°W). In this system, benthivorous shorebirds exert considerable predation pressure with strong seasonal variations. It has been proposed that during the period when (adult) shorebirds are absent (May–August) benthic biomass would be able to recover, but a first test was inconclusive. Over a full year (March 2011–February 2012), each month we sampled benthic invertebrates at sixteen permanent sites. The total of 3763 specimens comprised 20 species, representing eight orders and 19 families. Bivalves were much more common than gastropods. The bivalve Loripes lucinalis dominated the assemblage throughout the year (58% of total number), followed by Dosinia isocardia (10%), Senilia senilis (8%) and the gastropod Gibbula umbilicalis (6%). Average biomass amounted to 32 g AFDM/m2, of which the large West-African bloody cockle Senilia made up three-quarter, Loripes 16%, Gibbula 2% and Dosinia 1%. Across the 20 species, lowest densities were reached in late spring (May) and summer (Aug.), whereas highest densities occurred in autumn (Oct.). The lowest overall density of 676 specimens/m2 in August more than doubled to a peak density of 1538 specimens/m2 in October, most of the increase being due to strong recruitment in both Loripes (densities increasing from 322 specimens/m2 in Sept. to 785 specimens/m2 in Oct.) and Dosinia (densities increasing from 18 specimens/m2 in Aug. to 265 specimens/m2 in Sept.). Our results suggest that by the time the feathered molluscivore predators returned in high numbers to Banc d’Arguin (after their summer breeding season in the Arctic), benthic animals were at a peak. In order to quantitatively understand the seasonal changes in mollusc abundance, we build upon a recently published optimal diet model in which the most abundant molluscivore shorebird, the red knot (Calidris canutus), could choose between Loripes and Dosinia. Observed changes in densities of these two bivalves closely match depletion trajectories predicted by the model. We conclude that molluscivore shorebirds are able to deplete their food stocks in the course of their ‘winter’ in a tropical intertidal area.