31325 research outputs found
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Legal status and refugees' perceptions of institutional justice: The role of communication quality
No full textWhat factors influence refugees' perceptions of justice in bureaucratic institutions? As global migration movements draw increasing attention, migrants' experiences as constituents in destination countries merit further research. Drawing evidence from the 2018 survey of refugees participating in the German Socio‐Economic Panel, this article examines the role of legal status in shaping perceptions of justice at government offices. Our findings highlight a stark contrast: refugees with unstable legal statuses often perceive bureaucratic proceedings as less just compared to those with firmer legal standings. However, refugees' perceptions of a more positive encounter their encounters with street‐level bureaucrats can act as a buffer against the negative effects of legal status on perceptions of justice at government offices. These insights underscore a pressing policy implication: asylum procedures, currently marked by ambiguity and delays, could benefit significantly from enhanced communication quality on the part of street‐level bureaucrats.Peer Reviewe
Review and experimental benchmarking of machine learning algorithms for efficient optimization of cold atom experiments
No full textThe generation of cold atom clouds is a complex process which involves the optimization of noisy data in high dimensional parameter spaces. Optimization can be challenging both in and especially outside of the lab due to lack of time, expertise, or access for lengthy manual optimization. In recent years, it was demonstrated that machine learning offers a solution since it can optimize high dimensional problems quickly, without knowledge of the experiment itself. In this paper we present results showing the benchmarking of nine different optimization techniques and implementations, alongside their ability to optimize a rubidium (Rb) cold atom experiment. The investigations are performed on a 3D 87Rb molasses with 10 and 18 adjustable parameters, respectively, where the atom number obtained by absorption imaging was chosen as the test problem. We further compare the best performing optimizers under different effective noise conditions by reducing the signal-to-noise ratio of the images via adapting the atomic vapor pressure in the 2D+ magneto-optical trap and the detection laser frequency stability.Peer Reviewe
Novel assembly of the SF370 strain of the important human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes serotype M1
No full textThe important human pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes causes a wide range of diseases. Strain SF370 was the first fully sequenced strain of S. pyogenes, providing essential insights into the molecular mechanisms of disease. We present an improved genome assembly of strain SF370 from ATCC, which corrects long-standing errors in its genome.Peer Reviewe
Automated W7-X sawtooth crashes detection and characterization
No full textSawtooth crashes are observed during ECCD experiments at the superconducting optimized stellarator Wendelstein 7-X. The study and the characterization are necessary in order to understand under which condition ECCD can be driven without posing a risk to experimental operations. The development of automatic tools is crucial to speed up the analysis of extensive datasets. In this work, we report on the first attempt of using a data-driven approach to automatically characterize the sawtooth crashes. Cluster algorithms are applied to the dataset, confirming the existence of two distinct types of crashes. This approach allows to study the two groups separately and underlines the different plasma parameters that influence the sawtooth crash parameters, for instance crash amplitude and period.Peer Reviewe
Bioethics and the Human Body
No full textThe article processing charge was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 491192747 and the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.We discuss the concept of a ‘body’, the individual body as the lived experience of the body, the social body, shaped by the tensions between the demands of a social/moral order and the egocentric drives, and the body politic, as an institutionalized and disciplined body. We describe the body as it was perceived in Classical Greek Antiquity at the time when the Hippocratic Oath was first conceived, and any changes that may have occurred by Late Antiquity, using the concept of a body-world as represented by everyday life, the arts, politics, philosophy, and religion. This ‘recreated’ body-world elucidates how a person of Classical or Late Antiquity perceived her/his body via their ‘lived-in’ world and relates it to medical and philosophical thinking about the body as well as to concepts of health and disease. We demonstrate how the institutional structures of the Roman Empire and the Church influenced the way a body was understood, how the administrative and governmental needs led to the first developments of Public Health, and how the Christian understanding of the body as the body and spirit of Christ changed the attitude towards suicide, euthanasia, and abortion. These changes are reflected in the understanding of bioethical thinking and affected the interpretation of the Hippocratic Oath.Peer Reviewe
Silver Thiophosphate (Ag3PS4) as a Multielectron Reaction Active Material for Lithium Solid‐State Batteries
No full textBeyond its Li‐ion conductivity, the solid electrolyte lithium thiophosphate (β‐Li3PS4) exhibits redox activity when its electrochemical stability window is exceeded. As this redox activity can be (partially) reversible, thiophosphates may be used as cathode active materials (CAM). Silver thiophosphate (Ag3PS4) is a well‐known Ag‐ion conductor, which has the same crystal structure and similar chemical composition as β‐Li3PS4. Here, Ag3PS4 is selected and studied as the CAM for Li solid‐state batteries (Li‐SSBs) with the configuration (In/InLi| β‐Li3PS4| Ag3PS4: β‐Li3PS4: C65 = 40: 50: 10 wt%). The cells provide a discharge capacity of 325 mAh g−1 at 10 mA g−1, but suffer from continuous capacity fading during cycling with an average Coulomb efficiency of 97% at 50 mA g−1. The reaction mechanism is studied using X‐ray diffraction, X‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, and impedance spectroscopy. Overall, the reaction of Li with Ag3PS4 is found to be initially partially reversible, but over cycling Ag2S and S8 become the active materials along with the formation of other byproducts such as Ag2P2S6 and Li2P2S6.Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (BMBF)China Scholarship Council http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004543Peer Reviewe
Bestandserhaltung analog und digital. Ein Praxisbericht aus der Zentralbibliothek Zürich
No full textFür die Zentralbibliothek Zürich (ZB) hat die Erhaltung des Bestandes eine hohe Bedeutung. Eine eigene Abteilung ist für die Konservierung und Restaurierung der wertvollen analogen Bestände verantwortlich. Neben Arbeiten am konkreten Objekt befasst sie sich auch mit allgemeinen bestandserhaltenden Maßnahmen wie zum Beispiel dem gebäudeübergreifenden Klimamonitoring. Im Rahmen der Schutzdigitalisierung bereitet sie die Objekte auf verschiedene Arten für das Scannen vor, so dass diese im Digitalisierungsprozess keine Schäden nehmen. Dies gilt auch für Digitalisierungsprojekte mit anderer Zielstellung. Ein zunehmend größeres Arbeitsfeld ist die Erhaltung der verschiedenen digitalen ZB-Bestände, wozu neben Retrodigitalisaten auch «born-digital»-Objekte gehören. Hierfür hat die ZB neue Infrastrukturen aufgebaut und betreibt seit 2023 ein digitales Langzeitarchiv nach OAIS-Standard.For the Zurich Central Library (ZB), the preservation of its collection is of great importance. A dedicated department is responsible for the conservation and restoration of valuable analogue materials. In addition to working on specific objects, it also focuses on general preservation measures, such as cross-building climate monitoring. As part of digitization projects, this department prepares objects in various ways for scanning, ensuring that they do not incur damage during the digitization process. An increasingly significant area of work is the preservation of the various digital ZB collections, which include both retro-digitized materials and "born-digital" objects. To support this, the ZB has established new infrastructures and has been operating a digital long-term archive based on the OAIS standard since 2023.Peer Reviewe
Purification and Electron Transfer from Soluble c-Type Cytochrome TorC to TorA for Trimethylamine N-Oxide Reduction
No full textThe enterobacterium Escherichia coli present in the human gut can reduce trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) to trimethylamine during anaerobic respiration. The TMAO reductase TorA is a monomeric, bis-molybdopterin guanine dinucleotide (bis-MGD) cofactor-containing enzyme that belongs to the dimethyl sulfoxide reductase family of molybdoenzymes. TorA is anchored to the membrane via TorC, a pentahemic c-type cytochrome which receives the electrons from the menaquinol pool. Here, we designed an expression system for the production of a stable soluble form of multiheme-containing TorC, providing, for the first time, the purification of a soluble pentahemic cytochrome-c from E. coli. Our focus was to investigate the interaction between TorA and soluble TorC to establish the electron transfer pathway. We solved the X-ray structure of E. coli TorA and performed chemical crosslinking of TorA and TorC. Another goal was to establish an activity assay that used the physiological electron transfer pathway instead of the commonly used unphysiological electron donors methylviologen or benzylviologen. An AlphaFold model including the crosslinking sites provided insights into the electron transfer between TorCC and the active site of TorA.The project was funded by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Germany Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy EXC 2008-390540038 (UniSysCat), the Aix–Marseille Université, supporting an invited professor, and DFG-SPP1927, supporting S.L. (LE1171/15-3). We acknowledge access to beamlines of the BESSY II storage ring (Berlin) through the Joint Berlin MX-Laboratory, sponsored by Hemholtz Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie, Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Max-Delbrück-Centrum, and the Leibniz-Institut für Molekulare Pharmakologie.Deutsche ForschungsgemeinschaftPeer Reviewe
A taxonomy to map evidence on the co-benefits, challenges, and limits of carbon dioxide removal
No full textThe article processing charge was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) – 491192747 and the Open Access Publication Fund of Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.Carbon dioxide removal is key to climate change mitigation, yet implications of its deployment remain unclear. Recent exponential growth in literature is rapidly filling this gap but makes the synthesis of the evidence on carbon dioxide removal side effects increasingly challenging. Here we address this issue by mapping this literature and proposing a taxonomy to synthesize and compare evidence on carbon dioxide removal side effects. The expansive evidence warrants the use of machine learning to systematically select relevant research and provide an inventory of nearly 400 co-benefits, challenges, and limits. We find rich evidence in Europe but little information for Africa, South America, and Oceania, where large-scale carbon dioxide removal is nevertheless projected. There is a predominance of articles discussing negative effects compared to positive ones. Starting from the limitations of our analysis and literature gaps, we provide entry points for future studies that can build on our literature-based taxonomy.Peer Reviewe