703 research outputs found
Identiteter och världsbild : "hårdkokt" skriftbruk i Thorsten Jonssons noveller
No full textidentity and worldview – “hard-boiled” writing in Thorsten Jonsson’s short storiesThis article deals with the Swedish author Thorsten Jonsson (1910–50) and his first short story collection Som det brukar vara (1939) [‘As it usually is’]. The nar- rative represents a new modernistic literary trend in Swedish prose in the 1930s. i take my starting point in Burgess & ivanič’s (2010) theories of the act of writing involving many different identities, and particularly what Burgess & ivanič iden- tify as the discursive self. By contemporary readers and critics the discursive self in the short story collection was often connected with an American hard-boiled literary ideal, often linked to ernest Hemingway’s writings. in this article i dis- cuss the common textual features of the two authors’ first collections, but also the differences that emerge when looking through the linguistic surface. The analysis shows that Thorsten Jonsson’s discursive self is based upon a northern Swedish culture, Hemingway’s on an urban American one. </p
Measures of excess liquidity
No full textThe aim of this note is to provide an overview of various measures of excess liquidity, which can be defined as the deviation of the actual stock of money from an estimated equilibrium level. Given their dynamic nature, the excess liquidity measures under review are - in the light of long and variable lags of monetary policy - very useful tools to quantify future price pressures. In addition, excess liquidity measures consider inflation as a purely monetary phenomenon: neither the output gap nor liquidity gap - although both form an integral part of the concepts - an be held responsible for inducing a persistent rise in the price level. Despite strong theoretical support, the usefulness of excess liquidity measures depends on the stability of money demand, a question which has of course to be answered in the realm of empirical research. --P-star,excess liquidity,monetary policy,ECB
Benthic protists: the under-charted majority
No full textForster, Dominik ... et al.-- 11 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, supplementary data http://femsec.oxfordjournals.org/content/suppl/2016/06/05/fiw120.DC1Marine protist diversity inventories have largely focused on planktonic environments, while benthic protists have received relatively little attention. We therefore hypothesize that current diversity surveys have only skimmed the surface of protist diversity in marine sediments, which may harbor greater diversity than planktonic environments. We tested this by analyzing sequences of the hypervariable V4 18S rRNA from benthic and planktonic protist communities sampled in European coastal regions. Despite a similar number of OTUs in both realms, richness estimations indicated that we recovered at least 70% of the diversity in planktonic protist communities, but only 33% in benthic communities. There was also little overlap of OTUs between planktonic and benthic communities, as well as between separate benthic communities. We argue that these patterns reflect the heterogeneity and diversity of benthic habitats. A comparison of all OTUs against the Protist Ribosomal Reference database showed that a higher proportion of benthic than planktonic protist diversity is missing from public databases; similar results were obtained by comparing all OTUs against environmental references from NCBI's Short Read Archive. We suggest that the benthic realm may therefore be the world's largest reservoir of marine protist diversity, with most taxa at present undescribedThis work was supported by the European Commission and is part of the EU-FP7 ERA-net program BiodivERsA, under the project BioMarKs [2008-6530]. Dominik Forster was supported by a graduate scholarship of Stipendienstiftung Rheinland-Pfalz. Micah Dunthorn and Frédéric Mahé were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [grant #DU1319/1-1]. Thorsten Stoeck was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [grant #STO414/11-1]. Daniel Vaulot was supported by the European Union [grants MicroB3/FP7-287589, MaCuMBA/FP7-KBBE-2012-6-311975]Peer Reviewe
A case for money in the ECB monetary policy strategy
No full textOne major outcome of the review of the ECBs two pillar monetary policy strategy, which was published on 8 May 2003, has been the de facto downgrading of the hitherto prominent role assigned to the stock of money. According to the authors judgement, however, there is a strong theoretical and empirical rationale for the ECB monetary policy to pay close attention to the information content of money in the form of M3. However, the authors argue the ECB should make use of the so-called price gap or real money gap concept rather than the reference value as the latter runs the risk of giving misleading policy recommendations and compromising the indicator quality of the stock of money. Making use of M3 seems all the more rational as currently no better inflation indicator appears to exist in providing inflation forecasts in the euro area. --P-star,real money gap,excess liquidity,ECB
Forster distances for fluorescence resonant energy transfer between mCherry and other visible fluorescent proteins
No full textAkrap N, Seidel T, Barisas BG. Forster distances for fluorescence resonant energy transfer between mCherry and other visible fluorescent proteins. ANALYTICAL BIOCHEMISTRY. 2010;402(1):105-106.We present, for the red fluorescent protein mCherry acting as both fluorescence resonant energy transfer (FRET) donor and acceptor, Forster critical distance (r(0)) values with five important visible fluorescent protein (VFP) variants as well as with itself. The pair EYFP-mCherry exhibits an r(0) of 5.66 nm, equaling or exceeding any combination of VFPs reported previously. Moreover, mCherry should be an excellent chromophore for homo-FRET with an r(0) of 5.10 nm for energy transfer between two mCherry moieties. Finally, mCherry exhibits higher r(0) values than does DsRed. These characteristics, combined with mCherry's rapid folding and excellent spectral properties, suggest that mCherry constitutes a valuable long-wavelength hetero-FRET acceptor and probe for homo-FRET experiments. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Why is unemployment so high in Bulgaria?
No full textThe author seeks to determine the main factors behind poor labor market outcomes in Bulgaria. Unemployment in Bulgaria is high and of long duration. The accumulation of the unemployment stock has been caused by relatively high inflows into unemployment coupled with limited outflows. These features of the Bulgarian labor market are typical of other transition economies in Central Europe and exploring their sources is of broad interest. The author focuses on determinants of and constraints to job creation. He uses data on job creation and job destruction from a survey of employment in all registered firms. He finds that the source of large inflows into unemployment is intensive enterprise restructuring associated with a high pace of job reallocation. However, job creation falls short of job destruction. Three main factors account for the limited job creation and hiring, and thus for low outflows from unemployment: a) The unfriendly business environment, reflected by a low rate of new firm formation, and a relatively small, small and medium enterprise sector. b) Labor market rigidities, including excessive hiring and firing costs. c) Skill and spatial mismatches brought about by enterprise restructuring, as well as low skills and marginalization of the long-term unemployed who cannot successfully compete for new jobs. The author recommends a three pronged strategy to improve labor market performance: (1) removing bureaucratic constraints to entry and expansion of firms; (2) enhancing labor market flexibility through lowering hiring and firing costs; and (3) improving the educational system so as to equip workers with broad and portable skills.Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Policies,Labor Markets,Public Health Promotion,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Markets,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Labor Standards,Banks&Banking Reform
Improvements to the Secure Construction and Utilization of Greedy Embeddings in Friend-to-Friend Overlays
No full textRouting based on greedy network embeddings enables efficient and privacy-preserving routing in overlays where connectivity is restricted to mutually trusted nodes. In previous works, we proposed security enhancements to the embedding and routing procedures to protect against denial-of-service attacks by malicious overlay participants. In this work, we propose an improved timeout scheme to reduce the stabilization overhead of secure tree maintenance in response to node failures and malicious behavior. Furthermore, we present an attack-resistant packet replication scheme that leverages alternative paths discovered during routing
Statistical modelling of masked gene regulatory pathway changes across microarray studies of interferon gamma activated macrophages
No full textInterferon gamma (IFN-γ) regulation of macrophages plays an essential role in innate immunity and
pathogenicity of viral infections by directing large and small genome-wide changes in the transcriptional
program of macrophages. Smaller changes at the transcriptional level are difficult to detect but can have
profound biological effects, motivating the hypothesis of this thesis that responses of macrophages to
immune activation by IFN-γ include small quantitative changes that are masked by noise but represent
meaningful transcriptional systems in pathways against infection. To test this hypothesis, statistical
meta-analysis of microarray studies is investigated as a tool to obtain the necessary increase in analysis
sensitivity. Three meta-analysis models (Effect size model, Rank Product model, Fisher’s sum of logs) and three
further modified versions were applied to a heterogeneous set of four microarray studies on the effect of
IFN-γ on murine macrophages. Performance assessments include recovery of known biology and are
followed by development of novel biological hypotheses through secondary analysis of meta-analysis
outcomes in context of independent biological data sources. A separate network analysis of a microarray
time course study investigate s if gene sets with coordinated time-dependent relationships overlap can
also identify subtle IFN-γ related transcriptional changes in macrophages that match those identified
through meta-analysis.
It was found that all meta-analysis models can identify biologically meaningful transcription at
enhanced sensitivity levels, with slightly improved performance advantages for a non-parametric model
(Rank Product meta-analysis). Meta-analysis yielded consistently regulated genes, hidden in individual
microarray studies, related to sterol biosynthesis (Stard3, Pgrmc1, Galnt6, Rab11a, Golga4, Lrp10),
implicated in cross-talk between type II and type I interferon or IL-10 signalling (Tbk1, Ikbke, Clic4,
Ptpre, Batf), and circadian rhythm (Csnk1e). Further network analysis confirms that meta-analysis
findings are highly concentrated in a distinct immune response cluster of co-expressed genes, and also
identifies global expression modularisation in IFN-γ treated macrophages, pointing to Trafd1 as a
central anti-correlated node topologically linked to interactions with down-regulated sterol biosynthesis
pathway members.
Outcomes from this thesis suggest that small transcriptional changes in IFN-γ activated macrophages
can be detected by enhancing sensitivity through combination of multiple microarray studies. Together
with use of bioinformatical resources, independent data sets and network analysis, further validation
assigns a potential role for low or variable transcription genes in linking type II interferon signalling to
type I and TLR signalling, as well as the sterol metabolic network
Living with Wolves
No full textWith their return to Germany, wolves leave their traces in personal feelings, in the atmospheres of rural landscapes and even in the sentiments and moods that govern political arenas. Thorsten Gieser explores the role of affects, emotions, moods and atmospheres in the emerging coexistence between humans and wolves. Bridging the gap between anthropology and ethology, the author literally walks in the tracks of wolves to follow their affective agency in a more-than-human society. In nuanced analyses, he shows how wolves move, irritate and excite us, offering answers to the primary question: What does it feel like to coexist with these large predators
Living with Wolves: Affects, Feelings and Sentiments in Human-Wolf-Coexistence
No full textWith their return to Germany, wolves leave their traces in personal feelings, in the atmospheres of rural landscapes and even in the sentiments and moods that govern political arenas. Thorsten Gieser explores the role of affects, emotions, moods and atmospheres in the emerging coexistence between humans and wolves. Bridging the gap between anthropology and ethology, the author literally walks in the tracks of wolves to follow their affective agency in a more-than-human society. In nuanced analyses, he shows how wolves move, irritate and excite us, offering answers to the primary question: What does it feel like to coexist with these large predators
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