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Steigende Mieten?
(2022)
Vor dem Hintergrund rasant steigender Mieten in deutschen Großstädten untersuchen wir in einer neuen Studie die Auswirkungen von Gentrifizierung sowie von politischen Gegenmaßnahmen auf unterschiedliche Einkommensgruppen anhand eines quantitativen Modells für Berlin. Wir finden, dass eine Mietpreisbindung (wie der „Mietendeckel“) allen Haushalten, vor allem aber den ärmeren Haushalten, schadet. Andere Maßnahmen wie Neubau oder direkte Subventionen schneiden besser ab.
Sharing marketplaces emerged as the new Holy Grail of value creation by enabling exchanges between strangers. Identity reveal, encouraged by platforms, cuts both ways: While inducing pre-transaction confidence, it is suspected of backfiring on the information senders with its discriminative potential. This study employs a discrete choice experiment to explore the role of names as signifiers of discriminative peculiarities and the importance of accompanying cues in peer choices of a ridesharing offer. We quantify users' preferences for quality signals in monetary terms and evidence comparative disadvantage of Middle Eastern descent male names for drivers and co-travelers. It translates into a lower willingness to accept and pay for an offer. Market simulations confirm the robustness of the findings. Further, we discover that females are choosier and include more signifiers of involuntary personal attributes in their decision-making. Price discounts and positive information only partly compensate for the initial disadvantage, and identity concealment is perceived negatively.
Nowadays, production planning and control must cope with mass customization, increased fluctuations in demand, and high competition pressures. Despite prevailing market risks, planning accuracy and increased adaptability in the event of disruptions or failures must be ensured, while simultaneously optimizing key process indicators. To manage that complex task, neural networks that can process large quantities of high-dimensional data in real time have been widely adopted in recent years. Although these are already extensively deployed in production systems, a systematic review of applications and implemented agent embeddings and architectures has not yet been conducted. The main contribution of this paper is to provide researchers and practitioners with an overview of applications and applied embeddings and to motivate further research in neural agent-based production. Findings indicate that neural agents are not only deployed in diverse applications, but are also increasingly implemented in multi-agent environments or in combination with conventional methods — leveraging performances compared to benchmarks and reducing dependence on human experience. This not only implies a more sophisticated focus on distributed production resources, but also broadening the perspective from a local to a global scale. Nevertheless, future research must further increase scalability and reproducibility to guarantee a simplified transfer of results to reality.
Algorithmic management
(2022)
Major international organizations (IOs) are heavily contested, but they are rarely dissolved. Scholars have focused on their longevity, making institutional arguments about replacement costs and institutional assets as well as IO agency to adapt and resist challenges. This article analyzes the limits of institutional stickiness by focusing on outlier cases. While major IOs are dissolved at considerably lower rates than minor IOs, the article nevertheless identifies twenty-one cases where major IOs have died since 1815. These are tough cases as they do not conform to our institutionalist expectations. To better understand these rare but important events, the article provides case illustrations from the League of Nations and International Refugee Organization, which were dissolved due to their perceived underperformance and a disappearing demand for cooperation. These cases show the limits of the institutional theories of IO stickiness: sometimes member states find high replacement costs justified or consider assets as sunk costs, and IOs may lack agency to strategically respond. This article refines theories of institutional stickiness and contributes to the institutional theory of the life and death of IOs.
Les principales organisations internationales (OI) sont fortement contestées, mais rarement dissoutes. Pour expliquer leur longévité, les chercheurs ont avancé des arguments institutionnels concernant les coûts de remplacement et les actifs de l'institution, mais aussi la capacité des OI à s'adapter et à résister aux défis. Cet article analyse les limites de la persistance des institutions en se concentrant sur des cas particuliers. Tandis que les principales OI sont dissoutes bien moins fréquemment que des OI moins importantes, cet article identifie néanmoins 21 cas de disparition d'OI principales depuis 1815. Ces derniers sont particulièrement difficiles, car ils ne correspondent pas à nos attentes en termes d'institutions. Afin de mieux comprendre ces événements rares, mais non moins importants, l'article propose comme illustrations de cas la Société des Nations et l'Organisation internationale pour les réfugiés, qui ont été dissoutes à cause de leur manque apparent de résultats et de la disparition de la demande de coopération. Ces cas mettent en évidence les limites des théories institutionnelles de persistance des OI : parfois, les États membres considèrent les coûts de remplacement élevés justifiés ou les actifs comme des coûts irrécupérables, et les OI n'ont peut-être pas la capacité de leur répondre de manière stratégique. Le présent article affine les théories de persistance institutionnelle et contribue à la théorie institutionnelle de vie et de mort des OI.
Las organizaciones internacionales (OI) más importantes son muy cuestionadas, pero rara vez se disuelven. Los investigadores se han centrado en la longevidad de las IO, formulando argumentos institucionales sobre los costes de sustitución y los activos institucionales, así como sobre la capacidad de adaptación y resistencia de las organizaciones internacionales. Este artículo analiza los límites de la rigidez institucional centrándose en casos atípicos. Aunque las OI más importantes se disuelven en proporciones considerablemente menores que las OI de menor importancia, el artículo identifica 21 casos en los que OI más importantes desaparecieron desde 1815. Se trata de casos difíciles, ya que no se ajustan a nuestras expectativas institucionalistas. Para comprender mejor estos raros pero importantes acontecimientos, el artículo ofrece ejemplos de casos de la Sociedad de Naciones y de la, Organización Internacional para los Refugiados que se disolvieron debido a su bajo desempeño percibido y a la desaparición de la demanda de cooperación. Estos casos muestran los límites de las teorías institucionales sobre la rigidez de las OI: En ocasiones, los Estados miembros consideran justificados los elevados costes de sustitución o consideran que los activos son costes irrecuperables, y las OI pueden no disponer de capacidad de respuesta estratégica. Este artículo profundiza en las teorías de la rigidez institucional y contribuye a la teoría institucional de la vida y la muerte de las organizaciones internacionales.
AUKUS und die strukturellen Veränderungen der sicherheitspolitischen Lage im indo-pazifischen Raum
(2022)
We study a heterogeneous diffusion process (HDP) with position-dependent diffusion coefficient and Poissonian stochastic resetting.
We find exact results for the mean squared displacement and the probability density function. The nonequilibrium steady state reached in the long time limit is studied.
We also analyse the transition to the non-equilibrium steady state by finding the large deviation function.
We found that similarly to the case of the normal diffusion process where the diffusion length grows like t (1/2) while the length scale xi(t) of the inner core region of the nonequilibrium steady state grows linearly with time t, in the HDP with diffusion length increasing like t ( p/2) the length scale xi(t) grows like t ( p ).
The obtained results are verified by numerical solutions of the corresponding Langevin equation.
Here we show that microgels trapped at a solid wall can issue liquid flow and transport over distances several times larger than the particle size.
The microgel consists of cross-linked poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PNIPAM-AA) polymer chains loaded with cationic azobenzene-containing surfactant, which can assume either a trans-or a cis-state depending on the wavelength of the applied irradiation. The microgel, being a selective absorber of trans-isomers, responds by changing its volume under irradiation with light of appropriate wavelength at which the cis-isomers of the surfactant molecules diffuse out of the particle interior.
Together with the change in particle size, the expelled cis-isomers form an excess of the concentration and subsequent gradient in osmotic pressure generating a halo of local light-driven diffusioosmotic (l-LDDO) flow. The direction and the strength of the l-LDDO depends on the intensity and irradiation wavelength, as well as on the amount of surfactant absorbed by the microgel.
The flow pattern around a microgel is directed radially outward and can be maintained quasi-indefinitely under exposure to blue light when the trans-/cis-ratio is 2/1, establishing a photostationary state.
Irradiation with UV light, on the other hand, generates a radially transient flow pattern, which inverts from inward to outward over time at low intensities.
By measuring the displacement of tracer particles around neutral microgels during a temperature-induced collapse, we can exclude that a change in particle shape itself causes the flow, i.e., just by expulsion or uptake of water.
Ultimately, it is its ability to selectively absorb two isomers of photosensitive surfactant under different irradiation conditions that leads to an effective pumping caused by a self-induced diffusioosmotic flow.
Extracting information about past tectonic or climatic environmental changes from sedimentary records is a key objective of provenance research. Interpreting the imprint of such changes remains challenging as signals might be altered in the sediment-routing system.
We investigate the sedimentary provenance of the Oligocene/Miocene Upper Austrian Northern Alpine Foreland Basin and its response to the tectonically driven exhumation of the Tauern Window metamorphic dome (28 +/- 1 Ma) in the Eastern European Alps by using the unprecedented combination of Nd isotopic composition of bulk-rock clay-sized samples and partly previously published multi-proxy (Nd isotopic composition, trace-element geochemistry, U-Pb dating) sand-sized apatite single-grain analysis.
The basin offers an excellent opportunity to investigate environmental signal propagation into the sedimentary record because comprehensive stratigraphic and seismic datasets can be combined with present research results. The bulk-rock clay-sized fraction epsilon Nd values of well-cutting samples from one well on the northern basin slope remained stable at similar to-9.7 from 27 to 19 Ma but increased after 19 Ma to similar to-9.1. In contrast, apatite single-grain distributions, which were extracted from 22 drill-core samples, changed significantly around 23.3 Ma from apatites dominantly from low-grade (<upper amphibolite-facies) metamorphic sources with Permo-Mesozoic and late Variscan U-Pb ages and epsilon Nd values of -4.4 to dominantly high-grade metamorphic apatites with late Variscan U-Pb ages and epsilon Nd values of -2.2.
The change in apatite single-grain distributions at 23.3 Ma is interpreted to result from the exposure of a new Upper Austroalpine source nappe with less negative epsilon Nd values triggered by the ongoing Tauern Window exhumation. Combining these data with the clay-sized bulk-rock epsilon Nd values reveals that the provenance changed 4-5 Myrs later at 19 Ma in the clay-sized fraction.
Reasons for the delayed provenance-change recording are rooted in the characteristics of the applied methods.
Whereas single-grain distributions of orogen-wide sediment-routing systems can be dominated by geographically small areas with high erosion and mineral fertility rates, bulk-rock methods integrate over the entire drainage basin, thus diminishing extreme values. Hence, by combining these two methods, spatial information are uncovered, enabling a previously unattained understanding of the underlying environmental change.
Jurisdiction
(2022)
The transversal hypergraph problem asks to enumerate the minimal hitting sets of a hypergraph. If the solutions have bounded size, Eiter and Gottlob [SICOMP'95] gave an algorithm running in output-polynomial time, but whose space requirement also scales with the output. We improve this to polynomial delay and space. Central to our approach is the extension problem, deciding for a set X of vertices whether it is contained in any minimal hitting set. We show that this is one of the first natural problems to be W[3]-complete. We give an algorithm for the extension problem running in time O(m(vertical bar X vertical bar+1) n) and prove a SETH-lower bound showing that this is close to optimal. We apply our enumeration method to the discovery problem of minimal unique column combinations from data profiling. Our empirical evaluation suggests that the algorithm outperforms its worst-case guarantees on hypergraphs stemming from real-world databases.
The Devonian Las Chacras-Potrerillos batholith comprises six nested monzonitic to granitic intrusions with metaluminous to weakly peraluminous composition and a Sr-Nd isotopic signature indicating a dominantly juvenile mantle-derived source. The chemically most evolved units in the southern batholith contain a large number of intra-granitic, pod-shaped tourmaline-bearing pegmatites. This study uses in situ chemical and boron isotopic analyses of tourmaline from nine of these pegmatites to discuss their relationship to the respective host intrusions and the implications of their B-isotope composition for the source and evolution of the magmas. The tourmalines reveal a diversity in element composition (e.g., FeO, MgO, TiO2, CaO, MnO, F) which distinguishes individual pegmatites from one another. However, all have a narrow 5 11 B range of -13.7 to -10.5%0 (n = 100) which indicates a relatively uniform magmatic system and similar temperature conditions during tourmaline crystallization. The average delta(11) B value of -11.7%0 is typical for S-type granites and is within the range reported for peraluminous granites. pegmatites, and metamorphic units of the Ordovician basement into which the Las Chacras-Potrerillos batholith intruded. The B-isotope evidence argues for a crustal boron source like that of the Ordovician basement, in contrast to the metaluminous to weakly peraluminous composition and juvenile initial Sr and Nd isotope ratios of the Las Chacras-Potrerillos batholith magmas. We propose that the boron was not derived from the magma source region but was incorporated from dehydration melting of elastic metasedimentary rocks higher up in the crustal column.
Purpose UK guidelines recommend dietary saturated fatty acids (SFAs) should not exceed 10% total energy (%TE) for cardiovascular disease prevention, with benefits observed when SFAs are replaced with unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs). This study aimed to assess the efficacy of a dietary exchange model using commercially available foods to replace SFAs with UFAs. Methods Healthy men (n = 109, age 48, SD 11 year) recruited to the Reading, Imperial, Surrey, Saturated fat Cholesterol Intervention-1 (RISSCI-1) study (ClinicalTrials.Gov n degrees NCT03270527) followed two sequential 4-week isoenergetic moderate-fat (34%TE) diets: high-SFA (18%TE SFAs, 16%TE UFAs) and low-SFA (10%TE SFAs, 24%TE UFAs). Dietary intakes were assessed using 4-day weighed diet diaries. Nutrient intakes were analysed using paired t-tests, fasting plasma phospholipid fatty acid (PL-FA) profiles and dietary patterns were analysed using orthogonal partial least square discriminant analyses. Results Participants exchanged 10.2%TE (SD 4.1) SFAs for 9.7%TE (SD 3.9) UFAs between the high and low-SFA diets, reaching target intakes with minimal effect on other nutrients or energy intakes. Analyses of dietary patterns confirmed successful incorporation of recommended foods from commercially available sources (e.g. dairy products, snacks, oils, and fats), without affecting participants' overall dietary intakes. Analyses of plasma PL-FAs indicated good compliance to the dietary intervention and foods of varying SFA content. Conclusions RISSCI-1 dietary exchange model successfully replaced dietary SFAs with UFAs in free-living healthy men using commercially available foods, and without altering their dietary patterns. Further intervention studies are required to confirm utility and feasibility of such food-based dietary fat replacement models at a population level.
This paper studies cosmic-ray (CR) transport in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. CR transport is strongly dependent on the properties of the magnetic turbulence.
We perform test particle simulations to study the interactions of CR with both total MHD turbulence and decomposed MHD modes.
The spatial diffusion coefficients and the pitch angle scattering diffusion coefficients are calculated from the test particle trajectories in turbulence.
Our results confirm that the fast modes dominate the CR propagation, whereas Alfven and slow modes are much less efficient and have shown similar pitch-angle scattering rates.
We investigate the cross field transport on large and small scales. On large/global scales, normal diffusion is observed and the diffusion coefficient is suppressed by M-A(zeta) compared to the parallel diffusion coefficients, with zeta closer to 4 in Alfven modes than that in total turbulence, as theoretically expected.
For the CR transport on scales smaller than the turbulence injection scale, both the local and global magnetic reference frames are adopted. Superdiffusion is observed on such small scales in all the cases. Particularly, CR transport in Alfven modes show clear Richardson diffusion in the local reference frame. The diffusion transitions smoothly from the Richardson's one with index 1.5 to normal diffusion as the particle mean free path decreases from lambda(parallel to) >> L to lambda(parallel to) << L, where L is the injection/coherence length of turbulence.
Our results have broad applications to CRs in various astrophysical environments.
Active matter broadly covers the dynamics of self-propelled particles.
While the onset of collective behavior in homogenous active systems is relatively well understood, the effect of inhomogeneities such as obstacles and traps lacks overall clarity.
Here, we study how interacting, self-propelled particles become trapped and released from a trap.
We have found that captured particles aggregate into an orbiting condensate with a crystalline structure. As more particles are added, the trapped condensates escape as a whole.
Our results shed light on the effects of confinement and quenched disorder in active matter.
Quantification of reaction fluxes of metabolic networks can help us understand how the integration of different metabolic pathways determines cellular functions. Yet, intracellular fluxes cannot be measured directly but are estimated with metabolic flux analysis (MFA), which relies on the patterns of isotope labeling of metabolites in the network. The application of MFA also requires a stoichiometric model with atom mappings that are currently not available for the majority of large-scale metabolic network models, particularly of plants. While automated approaches such as the Reaction Decoder Toolkit (RDT) can produce atom mappings for individual reactions, tracing the flow of individual atoms of the entire reactions across a metabolic model remains challenging. Here we establish an automated workflow to obtain reliable atom mappings for large-scale metabolic models by refining the outcome of RDT, and apply the workflow to metabolic models of Arabidopsis thaliana. We demonstrate the accuracy of RDT through a comparative analysis with atom mappings from a large database of biochemical reactions, MetaCyc. We further show the utility of our automated workflow by simulating N-15 isotope enrichment and identifying nitrogen (N)-containing metabolites which show enrichment patterns that are informative for flux estimation in future N-15-MFA studies of A. thaliana. The automated workflow established in this study can be readily expanded to other species for which metabolic models have been established and the resulting atom mappings will facilitate MFA and graph-theoretic structural analyses with large-scale metabolic networks.
Tacitus' Wonders
(2022)
This volume approaches the broad topic of wonder in the works of Tacitus, encompassing paradox, the marvellous and the admirable. Recent scholarship on these themes in Roman literature has tended to focus on poetic genres, with comparatively little attention paid to historiography: Tacitus, whose own judgments on what is worthy of note have often differed in interesting ways from the preoccupations of his readers, is a fascinating focal point for this complementary perspective.
Scholarship on Tacitus has to date remained largely marked by a divide between the search for veracity – as validated by modern historiographical standards – and literary approaches, and as a result wonders have either been ignored as unfit for an account of history or have been deprived of their force by being interpreted as valid only within the text. While the modern ideal of historiographical objectivity tends to result in striving for consistent heuristic and methodological frameworks, works as varied as Tacitus' Histories, Annals and opera minora can hardly be prefaced with a statement of methodology broad enough to escape misrepresenting their diversity. In our age of specialization a streamlined methodological framework is a virtue, but it should not be assumed that Tacitus had similar priorities, and indeed the Histories and Annals deserve to be approached with openness towards the variety of perspectives that a tradition as rich as Latin historiographical prose can include within its scope. This collection proposes ways to reconcile the divide between history and historiography by exploring contestable moments in the text that challenge readers to judge and interpret for themselves, with individual chapters drawing on a range of interpretive approaches that mirror the wealth of authorial and reader-specific responses in play.
Successful conservation efforts have led to recent increases of large mammals such as European bison Bison bonasus, moose Alces alces and grey wolf Canis lupus and their return to former habitats in central Europe.
While embraced by some, the recovery of these species is a controversial topic and holds potential for human-wildlife conflicts.
Involving the public has been suggested to be an effective method for monitoring wildlife and mitigating associated conflicts.
To assess two interrelated prerequisites for engaging people in Citizen Science (CS)-knowledge of returning species and respondents' readiness to participate in CS activities for monitoring and managing these species-we conducted a survey (questionnaire) in two wildlife parks located in different states of Germany.
Based on 472 complete questionnaires, we developed generalized linear models to understand how sociodemographic variables and exposure to the species affected visitors' knowledge of each species, and to investigate if sociodemographic variables and knowledge influenced the likelihood of visitors to participate in CS activities.
Almost all visitors were aware of the returning wolf population, while knowledge and awareness about bison and moose were significantly lower.
Knowledge of the two herbivores differed geographically (higher knowledge of moose in the north-eastern state), possibly indicating a positive association between exposure to the species and knowledge.
However, models generally performed poorly in predicting knowledge about wildlife, suggesting that such specific knowledge is insufficiently explained by sociodemographic variables. Our model, which explained stated willingness in CS indicated that younger participants and those with higher knowledge scores in the survey were more willing to engage in CS activities.
Overall, our analyses highlight how exposure to large mammals, knowledge about wildlife and human demographics are interrelated-insights that are helpful for effectively recruiting citizen scientists for wildlife conservation.
Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.
MALDI-TOF-MS-based identification of monoclonal murine Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies within one hour
(2022)
During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, many virus-binding monoclonal antibodies have been developed for clinical and diagnostic purposes. This underlines the importance of antibodies as universal bioanalytical reagents. However, little attention is given to the reproducibility crisis that scientific studies are still facing to date. In a recent study, not even half of all research antibodies mentioned in publications could be identified at all. This should spark more efforts in the search for practical solutions for the traceability of antibodies. For this purpose, we used 35 monoclonal antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 to demonstrate how sequence-independent antibody identification can be achieved by simple means applied to the protein. First, we examined the intact and light chain masses of the antibodies relative to the reference material NIST-mAb 8671. Already half of the antibodies could be identified based solely on these two parameters. In addition, we developed two complementary peptide mass fingerprinting methods with MALDI-TOF-MS that can be performed in 60 min and had a combined sequence coverage of over 80%. One method is based on the partial acidic hydrolysis of the protein by 5 mM of sulfuric acid at 99 degrees C. Furthermore, we established a fast way for a tryptic digest without an alkylation step. We were able to show that the distinction of clones is possible simply by a brief visual comparison of the mass spectra. In this work, two clones originating from the same immunization gave the same fingerprints. Later, a hybridoma sequencing confirmed the sequence identity of these sister clones. In order to automate the spectral comparison for larger libraries of antibodies, we developed the online software ABID 2.0. This open-source software determines the number of matching peptides in the fingerprint spectra. We propose that publications and other documents critically relying on monoclonal antibodies with unknown amino acid sequences should include at least one antibody fingerprint. By fingerprinting an antibody in question, its identity can be confirmed by comparison with a library spectrum at any time and context.
Supergenes are nonrecombining genomic regions ensuring the coinheritance of multiple, coadapted genes. Despite the importance of supergenes in adaptation, little is known on how they originate. A classic example of supergene is the S locus controlling heterostyly, a floral heteromorphism occurring in 28 angiosperm families. In Primula, heterostyly is characterized by the cooccurrence of two complementary, self-incompatible floral morphs and is controlled by five genes clustered in the hemizygous, ca. 300-kb S locus. Here, we present the first chromosome-scale genome assembly of any heterostylous species, that of Primula veris (cowslip). By leveraging the high contiguity of the P. veris assembly and comparative genomic analyses, we demonstrated that the S-locus evolved via multiple, asynchronous gene duplications and independent gene translocations. Furthermore, we discovered a new whole-genome duplication in Ericales that is specific to the Primula lineage. We also propose a mechanism for the origin of S-locus hemizygosity via nonhomologous recombination involving the newly discovered two pairs of CFB genes flanking the S locus. Finally, we detected only weak signatures of degeneration in the S locus, as predicted for hemizygous supergenes. The present study provides a useful resource for future research addressing key questions on the evolution of supergenes in general and the S locus in particular: How do supergenes arise? What is the role of genome architecture in the evolution of complex adaptations? Is the molecular architecture of heterostyly supergenes across angiosperms similar to that of Primula?
N-of-1 trials are the gold standard study design to evaluate individual treatment effects and derive personalized treatment strategies. Digital tools have the potential to initiate a new era of N-of-1 trials in terms of scale and scope, but fully functional platforms are not yet available.
Here, we present the open source StudyU platform, which includes the StudyU Designer and StudyU app.
With the StudyU Designer, scientists are given a collaborative web application to digitally specify, publish, and conduct N-of-1 trials.
The StudyU app is a smartphone app with innovative user-centric elements for participants to partake in trials published through the StudyU Designer to assess the effects of different interventions on their health.
Thereby, the StudyU platform allows clinicians and researchers worldwide to easily design and conduct digital N-of-1 trials in a safe manner.
We envision that StudyU can change the landscape of personalized treatments both for patients and healthy individuals, democratize and personalize evidence generation for self-optimization and medicine, and can be integrated in clinical practice.
Ancient genome provides insights into the history of Eurasian lynx in Iberia and Western Europe
(2022)
The Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx) is one of the most widely distributed felids in the world. However, most of its populations started to decline a few millennia ago. Historical declines have been especially severe in Europe, and particularly in Western Europe, from where the species disappeared in the last few centuries. Here, we analyze the genome of an Eurasian lynx inhabiting the Iberian Peninsula 2500 ya, to gain insights into the phylogeographic position and genetic status of this extinct population. Also, we contextualize previous ancient data in the light of new phylogeographic studies of the species. Our results suggest that the Iberian population is part of an extinct European lineage closely related to the current Carpathian-Baltic lineages. Also, this sample holds the lowest diversity reported for the species so far, and similar to that of the highly endangered Iberian lynx. A combination of historical factors, such as a founder effect while colonizing the peninsula, together with intensified human impacts during the Holocene in the Cantabrian strip, could have led to a genetic impoverishment of the population and precipitated its extinction. Mitogenomic lineages distribution in space and time support the long-term coexistence of several lineages of Eurasian lynx in Western Europe with fluctuating ranges. While mitochondrial sequences related to the lineages currently found in Balkans and Caucasus were predominant during the Pleistocene, those more closely related to the lineage currently distributed in Central Europe prevailed during the Holocene. The use of ancient genomics has proven to be a useful tool to understand the biogeographic pattern of the Eurasian lynx in the past.
The understanding of bidimensional materials dynamics and its electrolyte interface equilibrium, such as graphene oxide (GO), is critical for the development of a capacitive biosensing platform. The interfacial capacitance (C-i) of graphene-based materials may be tuned by experimental conditions such as pH optimization and cation size playing key roles at the enhancement of their capacitive properties allowing their application as novel capacitive biosensors. Here we reported a systematic study of C-i of multilayer GO films in different aqueous electrolytes employing electrochemical impedance spectroscopy for the application in a capacitive detection system. We demonstrated that the presence of ionizable oxygen-containing functional groups within multilayer GO film favors the interactions and the accumulation of cations in the structure of the electrodes enhancing the GO C-i in aqueous solutions, where at pH 7.0 (the best condition) the C-i was 340 mu F mg(-1) at -0.01 V vs Ag/AgCl. We also established that the hydrated cation radius affects the mobility and interaction with GO functional groups and it plays a critical role in the Ci, as demonstrated in the presence of different cations Na+=640 mu F mg(-1), Li+=575 mu F mg(-1) and TMA(+)=477 mu F mg(-1). As a proof-of-concept, the capacitive behaviour of GO was explored as biosensing platform for standard streptavidin-biotin systems. For this system, the C-i varied linearly with the log of the concentration of the targeting analyte in the range from 10 pg mL(-1) to 100 ng mL(-1), showing the promising applicability of capacitive GO based sensors for label-free biosensing.
Der vorliegende Beitrag informiert über 14 deutschsprachige Programme zur Prävention und Intervention bei Hatespeech unter Kindern und Jugendlichen (Jahrgangsstufen 5–12). Inhalte und Durchführungsmodalitäten der Programme sowie Ergebnisse einer kriteriengeleiteten Qualitätseinschätzung anhand von fünf Kriterien werden im Hinblick auf deren Anwendung in der schulischen Praxis beschrieben und erörtert. Der Überblick über Schwerpunkte, Stärken und Entwicklungspotentiale schulbezogener Hatespeech-Programme ermöglicht Leser*innen eine informierte Entscheidung über den Einsatz der Programme in der Schule sowie in der offenen Kinder- und Jugendarbeit.
Strafbares Heldentum?
(2022)
Heldentum ist kein Straftatbestand. Dennoch kann ein Verhalten, das man ethisch als „heldenhaft“ bewerten würde, straftatbestandsmäßig sein. Leonidas und seine Mitstreiter waren Helden, obwohl sie vorsätzlich viele Perser getötet haben. Strafbar allerdings ist solches Heldentum nicht, sofern es gerechtfertigt oder wenigstens entschuldigt ist. Eine Tat, die nicht gerechtfertigt oder entschuldigt ist, würde man wahrscheinlich auch nicht „heldenhaft“ nennen. Diese Auszeichnung verdienen vor allem Menschen, die ohne Rücksicht auf eigene Sicherheit viel riskieren, sich selbst in Gefahr begeben oder sogar darin „umkommen“, weil sie jemanden, der in Gefahr ist, retten wollen. Dass ein zusätzliches Risiko einer solchen Aktion die Begründung eigener Strafbarkeit sein könnte, überrascht vielleicht. Jedoch besteht das Risiko des Bestraftwerdens, wenn das Strafrecht falsch angewendet wird. Abstrakt gibt es dieses Risiko immer. Strafrechtsanwendende sind nicht unfehlbar, Strafgesetzgebende auch nicht. Aber das Risiko ist verringerbar. Wo der Gesetzgeber keine oder ausfüllungsbedürftige Normen geschaffen hat, sollte die Strafrechtslehre falschen Strafentscheidungen entgegenwirken, indem sie den Gerichten klare Handlungsanweisungen gibt. Die richtige konkrete Einzelfallentscheidung muss sich idealerweise abstrakt bereits in den strafrechtlichen Regeln abzeichnen. Der Held in spe sollte schon anhand des Gesetzes und seiner Erläuterungen durch die wissenschaftliche Literatur erkennen können, wo seine mutige Selbstaufopferung de lege lata in strafbaren Aktionismus umzuschlagen droht. Das kann ihm gegenwärtig noch nicht garantiert werden. Denn bei den Themen, die Gegenstand dieser Abhandlung sind, existiert noch erheblicher Normsetzungs- und Normerläuterungsbedarf.
Der Fall thematisiert klassische und neuartige Probleme der Rechtfertigungsdogmatik im Strafrecht. Neben dem Fehlen eines subjektiven Rechtfertigungselements sind Probleme des § 32 StGB zu bewältigen, die darauf beruhen, dass (scheinbar) weder auf der Seite des Angreifers noch auf der Seite des Angegriffenen ein Mensch unmittelbar am Konflikt beteiligt ist.
Rspr. und Strafrechtswissenschaft tun sich schwer mit der Behandlung von Taten, deren Akteure als „Lebensmittelerpresser“ bezeichnet werden. Das hat der Fall gezeigt, über den der 1. Strafsenat des BGH am BGH 5.6.2019 nach Revision des Angekl. gegen die Verurteilung durch das LG Ravensburg entschieden hat. Sowohl das Gericht als auch die Kommentatoren der BGH-Entscheidung beschäftigen sich ausführlich mit den Problemen des Rücktritts vom Versuch (§ STGB § 24 StGB). Die Tatbestandsmerkmale der (versuchten) qualifizierten räuberischen Erpressung werden hingegen fast gänzlich außer Acht gelassen. Bei genauerem Hinsehen erkennt man, dass schon die Erfüllung des Grundtatbestandes „versuchte Erpressung“ (§§ STGB § 253, STGB § 22 StGB) zweifelhaft ist und einer nicht ganz unkomplizierten Begründung bedarf. Erst recht problematisch sind sodann sämtliche Qualifikationsstufen, also §§ STGB § 255, STGB § 250 und STGB § 251 StGB. Der BGH und die Literatur – so hat es den Anschein − erachten dies als weitgehend unproblematisch. Am Beispiel des Friedrichshafener Falles soll aufgezeigt werden, was gegen eine Strafbarkeit des Täters aus §§ STGB § 253, STGB § 255, STGB § 250, STGB § 251, STGB § 22 StGB sprechen könnte und wie sich die Bedenken – teilweise − überwinden lassen.
We use the prolonged Greek crisis as a case study to understand how a lasting economic shock affects the innovation strategies of firms in economies with moderate innovation activities. Adopting the 3-stage CDM model, we explore the link between R&D, innovation, and productivity for different size groups of Greek manufacturing firms during the prolonged crisis. At the first stage, we find that the continuation of the crisis is harmful for the R&D engagement of smaller firms while it increased the willingness for R&D activities among the larger ones. At the second stage, among smaller firms the knowledge production remains unaffected by R&D investments, while among larger firms the R&D decision is positively correlated with the probability of producing innovation, albeit the relationship is weakened as the crisis continues. At the third stage, innovation output benefits only larger firms in terms of labor productivity, while the innovation-productivity nexus is insignificant for smaller firms during the lasting crisis.
Many animals form aggregations with individuals of the same species (single-species aggregations, SSA). Less frequently, individuals may also aggregate with individuals of other species (mixed-species aggregations, MSA). Although the benefits and costs of SSA have been intensively studied, the same is not true for MSA. Here, we first review the cases of MSA in harvestmen, an arachnid order in which the records of MSA are more frequent than other arthropod orders. We then propose several benefits and costs of MSA in harvestmen, and contrast them with those of SSA. Second, using field-gathered data we describe gregariousness in seven species of Prionostemma harvestmen from Costa Rica. These species form MSA, but individuals are also found solitarily or in SSA. We tested one possible benefit and one possible cost of gregariousness in Prionostemma harvestmen. Regarding the benefit, we hypothesized that individuals missing legs would be more exposed to predation than eight-legged individuals and thus they should be found preferentially in aggregations, where they would be more protected from predators. Our data, however, do not support this hypothesis. Regarding the cost, we hypothesized that gregariousness increases the chances of parasitism. We found no support for this hypothesis either because both mite prevalence and infestation intensity did not differ between solitary or aggregated individuals. Additionally, the type of aggregation (SSA or MSA) was not associated with the benefit or the cost we explored. This lack of effect may be explained by the fluid membership of the aggregations, as we found high turnover over time in the number of individuals and species composition of the aggregations. In conclusion, we hope our review and empirical data stimulate further studies on MSA, which remains one of the most elusive forms of group living in animals.
The purpose of this study was to examine the longitudinal relationship between problematic online gaming and subjective health complaints and depressive symptoms, and the moderation of console-gaming aggression (i.e. verbal aggression, camping, trolling) in this relationship. Participants were 202 adolescents (86% boys; M age = 12.99 years) in the 7(th) or 8(th) grade who played first-person shooter games. They completed questionnaires on problematic online gaming, console-gaming aggression, subjective health complaints, and depressive symptoms. Six months later (Time 2), they completed questionnaires on subjective health complaints and depressive symptoms again. Findings revealed that problematic online gaming and console-gaming aggression were positive predictors of Time 2 subjective health complaints and depressive symptoms, while controlling for Time 1 levels and gender. Moderating effects were found as well, indicating that high levels of console-gaming aggression increased the positive relationship between problematic online gaming and depressive symptoms. These effects were also replicated for verbal aggression, problematic online gaming, and subjective health complaints. These findings suggest the importance of considering the implications of console-gaming aggression and problematic online gaming for the physical and mental health of adolescents.
IMPACT SUMMARY
Prior State of Knowledge. Problematic online gaming and aggressive behaviors are linked to negative outcomes, including depression and subjective health complaints. Longitudinal research further supports this connection for depression, but not for subjective health complaints or various types of aggression via console games.
Novel Contributions. Few studies have focused on various types of aggression and the longitudinal associations among problematic online gaming, depression, and subjective health complaints, while controlling for previous levels of depression and subjective health complaints. The present research addresses these gaps.
Practical Implications. Findings of the present research has implications for clinicians and researchers concerned with identifying adolescents who might be at risk for negative outcomes.
Hidden semi-Markov models generalise hidden Markov models by explicitly modelling the time spent in a given state, the so-called dwell time, using some distribution defined on the natural numbers. While the (shifted) Poisson and negative binomial distribution provide natural choices for such distributions, in practice, parametric distributions can lack the flexibility to adequately model the dwell times. To overcome this problem, a penalised maximum likelihood approach is proposed that allows for a flexible and data-driven estimation of the dwell-time distributions without the need to make any distributional assumption. This approach is suitable for direct modelling purposes or as an exploratory tool to investigate the latent state dynamics. The feasibility and potential of the suggested approach is illustrated in a simulation study and by modelling muskox movements in northeast Greenland using GPS tracking data. The proposed method is implemented in the R-package PHSMM which is available on CRAN.
Online hate speech has become a widespread problem in the daily life of adolescents. Despite growing societal and academic interest in this online risk, not much is known about the relationship between online hate speech victimization (OHSV) and adolescents' mental well-being.
In addition, potential factors influencing the magnitude of this relationship remain unclear. To address these gaps in the literature, this study investigated the relationship between OHSV and depressive symptoms and the buffering effects of resilience in this relationship. The sample consists of 1,632 adolescents (49.1% girls) between 12 and 18 years old (M-age = 13.83, SDage = 1.23), recruited from nine schools across Spain.
Self-report questionnaires were administered to assess OHSV, depressive symptoms, and resilience. Regression analyses revealed that OHSV was positively linked to depressive symptoms.
In addition, victims of online hate speech were less likely to report depressive symptoms when they reported average or high levels of resilience (i.e., social competence, personal competence, structured style, social resources, and family cohesion) compared with those with low levels of resilience.
Our findings highlight the need for the development of intervention programs and the relevance of focusing on internal and external developmental assets to mitigate negative outcomes for victims of online hate speech.
Deciphering chemical mediators regulating specialized metabolism in a symbiotic cyanobacterium
(2022)
Genomes of cyanobacteria feature a variety of cryptic biosynthetic pathways for complex natural products, but the peculiarities limiting the discovery and exploitation of the metabolic dark matter are not well understood. Here we describe the discovery of two cell density-dependent chemical mediators, nostoclide and nostovalerolactone, in the symbiotic model strain Nostoc punctiforme, and demonstrate their pronounced impact on the regulation of specialized metabolism. Through transcriptional, bioinformatic and labeling studies we assigned two adjacent biosynthetic gene clusters to the biosynthesis of the two polyketide mediators. Our findings provide insight into the orchestration of specialized metabolite production and give lessons for the genomic mining and high-titer production of cyanobacterial bioactive compounds.
Krisenvorstellungen
(2022)
Der Beitrag stellt zentrale Ergebnisse der qualitativen Untersuchung zum Thema „Gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen im sozialen und im schulischen Raum“ dar. Dabei wird zunächst nur der erste Teil und damit das Erfahrungswissen im sozialen Raum beleuchtet. Neben einer kurzen Darstellung des theoretischen und methodischen Zugangs werden unterschiedliche Krisenverständnisse von Lehrer/-innen herausgestellt und auf sozialwissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zurückgeführt. Der Rekurs auf die Krise(n) wird als Zugang genutzt, um gesellschaftliche He-rausforderungen zu identifizieren und Einschätzungen zu explizieren. In einem zweiten Schritt werden zwei Typen präsentiert, durch die exemplarisch konträre Vorstellungen zu unterschiedlichen gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen und Krisen herausgestellt werden können. Durch die zwei Typen „progressive“ und „konservative Kritiker/-innen“ kann ein Spannungsfeld aufgemacht werden, auf dem die untersuchten Fälle verortet werden. Ziel ist es, Erfahrungswissen und die gesellschaftlichen Sichtweisen wie auch politischen Überzeugungen sichtbar und vergleichbar werden zu lassen. Diese bilden die Grundlage, um anschließend zu untersuchen, wie sich Vorstellungen und Überzeugungen auch im schulischen Raum wiederfinden lassen. Ein erster Einblick wird am Ende des Beitrags durch die Darstellung eines exemplarischen Falls gewährt.
Across continental Europe, educational research samples are often divided by 'migrant background', a binary variable criticized for masking participant heterogeneity and reinforcing exclusionary norms of belonging.
This study endorses more meaningful, representative, and precise research by offering four guiding questions for selecting relevant, social justice oriented, and feasible social categories for collecting and analysing data in psychological and educational research. Using a preregistered empirical example, we first compare selected social categories ('migrant background', family heritage, religion, citizenship, cultural identification, and generation status) in their potential to reveal participant heterogeneity.
Second, we investigate differences in means and relations between variables (discrimination experiences, perceived societal Islamophobia, and national identity) and academic motivation among 1335 adolescents in Germany (48% female, M-age = 14.69). Regression analyses and multigroup SEM revealed differential experiences with and implications of discrimination for academic motivation.
Results highlight the need for a deliberate, transparent use of social categories to make discrimination visible and centre participants' subjective experiences.
#Gesellschaftslehre 7/8
(2022)
Despite public discourses highlighting the negative consequences of time spent online (TSO) for children's well-being, Norwegian children (aged 9-16 years) use the Internet more than other European children and score higher on self-reported life satisfaction (SRLS).
To explore the possibility that TSO might contribute to high life satisfaction or other underlying explanatory factors, we investigate the relationship between TSO and SRLS in Norway while also accounting for how individual, family, school, and broader social circumstances influence this relationship.
Countering prevailing discourses, we find a positive relationship between TSO and SRLS, which remains positive and significant even after a wider range of variables are accounted for.
By explaining the circumstances under which TSO has a positive effect on SRLS, this article provides evidence of the complex role that digital technology plays in the lives of children.
It also provides a critique of the often simplistic arguments found in public discourses around children's digital media use.
States, in their conflicts with militant groups embedded in civilian populations, often resort to policies of collective punishment to erode civilian support for the militants. We attempt to evaluate the efficacy of such policies in the context of the Gaza Strip, where Israel's blockade and military interventions, purportedly intended to erode support for Hamas, have inflicted hardship on the civilian population.
We combine Palestinian public opinion data, Palestinian labor force surveys, and Palestinian fatalities data, to understand the relationship between exposure to Israeli policies and Palestinian support for militant factions.
Our baseline strategy is a difference-in-differences specification that compares the gap in public opinion between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank during periods of intense punishment with the gap during periods when punishment is eased. Consistent with previous research, we find that Palestinian fatalities are associated with Palestinian support for more militant political factions. The effect is short-lived, however, dissipating after merely one quarter.
Moreover, the blockade of Gaza itself appears to be only weakly associated with support for militant factions. Overall, we find little evidence to suggest that Israeli security policies toward the Gaza Strip have any substantial lasting effect on Gazan support for militant factions, neither deterring nor provoking them relative to their West Bank counterparts.
Our findings therefore call into question the logic of Israel's continued security policies toward Gaza, while prompting a wider re-examination of the efficacy of deterrence strategies in other asymmetric conflicts.
Sporadic E or Es is a transient phenomenon where thin layers of enhanced electron density appear in the ionospheric E region (90-120 km altitude). The neutral wind shear caused by atmospheric tides can lead ions to converge vertically at E-region heights and form the Es layer. This research aims to determine the role of atmospheric solar and lunar tides in Es occurrence. For this purpose, radio occultation data of FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC have been used, which provide complete global coverage of Es events. Moreover, GAIA model simulations have been employed to evaluate the vertical ion convergence induced by solar tides. The results show both migrating and non-migrating solar tidal signatures and the semidiurnal migrating lunar tidal signature mainly in low and mid-latitude Es occurrence. The seasonal variation of the migrating solar tidal components of Es is in good agreement with those in the vertical ion convergence derived from GAIA at higher altitudes. Furthermore, some non-migrating components of solar tides, including semidiurnal westward wavenumbers 1 and 3 and diurnal eastward wavenumbers 2 and 3, also significantly affect the Es occurrence rate.
We present a chronology framework named LegacyAge 1.0 containing harmonized chronologies for 2831 pollen records (downloaded from the Neotoma Paleoecology Database and the supplementary Asian datasets) together with their age control points and metadata in machine-readable data formats.
All chronologies use the Bayesian framework implemented in Bacon version 2.5.3. Optimal parameter settings of priors (accumulation.shape, memory.strength, memory.mean, accumulation.rate, and thickness) were identified based on information in the original publication or iteratively after preliminary model inspection.
The most common control points for the chronologies are radiocarbon dates (86.1 %), calibrated by the latest calibration curves (IntCal20 and SHCal20 for the terrestrial radiocarbon dates in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere and Marine20 for marine materials).
The original publications were consulted when dealing with outliers and inconsistencies. Several major challenges when setting up the chronologies included the waterline issue (18.8% of records), reservoir effect (4.9 %), and sediment deposition discontinuity (4.4 %).
Finally, we numerically compare the LegacyAge 1.0 chronologies to those published in the original publications and show that the reliability of the chronologies of 95.4% of records could be improved according to our assessment.
Our chronology framework and revised chronologies provide the opportunity to make use of the ages and age uncertainties in synthesis studies of, for example, pollen-based vegetation and climate change.
The LegacyAge 1.0 dataset, including metadata, datings, harmonized chronologies, and R code used, is openaccess and available at PANGAEA (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.933132; Li et al., 2021) and Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5815192; Li et al., 2022), respectively.
Extreme-right terrorism is a threat that is often underestimated by the public at large. As this paper argues, this is partly due to a concept of terrorism utilized by policymakers, intelligence agents, and police investigators that is based on experience of international terrorism perpetrated by leftists or jihadists as opposed to domestic extreme-right violence. This was one reason why investigators failed to identify the crimes committed by the National Socialist Underground (NSU) in Germany (2000–2011) as extreme-right terrorism, for example. While scholarly debate focused on the Red Army Faction and Al Qaeda, terrorist tendencies among those perpetrating racist and extreme-right violence tended to be disregarded. Influential researchers in the field of “extremism” denied that terrorist acts were committed by right-wingers. By mapping the specifics regarding the strategic use of violence, target selection, addressing of different audiences etc., this paper proposes a more accurate definition of extreme-right terrorism. In comparing it to other forms of terrorism, extreme-right terrorism is distinguished by its specific framework of ideologies and practices, with the underlying idea of an essential inequality that is compensated for through the affirmation of violence. It can be differentiated from other forms of extreme-right violence based on its use of strategic, premeditated and planned attacks against targets of a symbolic nature.
Warten auf den Tag X
(2022)
Predicting the electron population of Earth's ring current during geomagnetic storms still remains a challenging task.
In this work, we investigate the sensitivity of 10 keV ring current electrons to different driving processes, parameterised by the Kp index, during several moderate and intense storms.
Results are validated against measurements from the Van Allen Probes satellites. Perturbing the Kp index allows us to identify the most dominant processes for moderate and intense storms respectively.
We find that during moderate storms (Kp < 6) the drift velocities mostly control the behaviour of low energy electrons, while loss from wave-particle interactions is the most critical parameter for quantifying the evolution of intense storms (Kp > 6). Perturbations of the Kp index used to drive the boundary conditions at GEO and set the plasmapause location only show a minimal effect on simulation results over a limited L range.
It is further shown that the flux at L & SIM; 3 is more sensitive to changes in the Kp index compared to higher L shells, making it a good proxy for validating the source-loss balance of a ring current model.
Motivated by recent epidemic outbreaks, including those of COVID-19, we solve the canonical problem of calculating the dynamics and likelihood of extensive outbreaks in a population within a large class of stochastic epidemic models with demographic noise, including the susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) model and its general extensions.
In the limit of large populations, we compute the probability distribution for all extensive outbreaks, including those that entail unusually large or small (extreme) proportions of the population infected.
Our approach reveals that, unlike other well-known examples of rare events occurring in discrete-state stochastic systems, the statistics of extreme outbreaks emanate from a full continuum of Hamiltonian paths, each satisfying unique boundary conditions with a conserved probability flux.
The water swelling and subsequent solvent exchange including co-nonsolvency behavior of thin films of a doubly thermo-responsive diblock copolymer (DBC) are studied viaspectral reflectance, time-of-flight neutron reflectometry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
The DBC consists of a thermo-responsive zwitterionic (poly(4-((3-methacrylamidopropyl) dimethylammonio) butane-1-sulfonate)) (PSBP) block, featuring an upper critical solution temperature transition in aqueous media but being insoluble in acetone, and a nonionic poly(N-isopropylmethacrylamide) (PNIPMAM) block, featuring a lower critical solution temperature transition in water, while being soluble in acetone.
Homogeneous DBC films of 50-100 nm thickness are first swollen in saturated water vapor (H2OorD2O), before they are subjected to a contraction process by exposure to mixed saturated water/acetone vapor (H2OorD2O/acetone-d6 = 9:1 v/v).
The affinity of the DBC film toward H2O is stronger than for D2O, as inferred from the higher film thickness in the swollen state and the higher absorbed water content, thus revealing a pronounced isotope sensitivity.
During the co-solvent-induced switching by mixed water/acetone vapor, a two-step film contraction is observed, which is attributed to the delayed expulsion of water molecules and uptake of acetone molecules.
The swelling kinetics are compared for both mixed vapors (H2O/acetone-d6 and D2O/acetone-d6) and with those of the related homopolymer films.
Moreover, the concomitant variations of the local environment around the hydrophilic groups located in the PSBP and PNIPMAM blocks are followed.
The first contraction step turns out to be dominated by the behavior of the PSBP block, where as the second one is dominated by the PNIPMAM block.
The unusual swelling and contraction behavior of the latter block is attributed to its co-nonsolvency behavior.
Furthermore, we observe cooperative hydration effects in the DBC films, that is, both polymer blocks influence each other's solvation behavior.
The Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) is a model organism that has been increasingly used in health and environmental toxicity assessments. The quantification of such elements in vivo can assist in studies that seek to relate the exposure concentration to possible biological effects.
Therefore, this study is the first to propose a method of quantitative analysis of 21 ions by ion chromatography (IC), which can be applied in different toxicity studies in C. elegans.
The developed method was validated for 12 anionic species (fluoride, acetate, chloride, nitrite, bromide, nitrate, sulfate, oxalate, molybdate, dichromate, phosphate, and perchlorate), and 9 cationic species (lithium, sodium, ammonium, thallium, potassium, magnesium, manganese, calcium, and barium).
The method did not present the presence of interfering species, with R2 varying between 0.9991 and 0.9999, with a linear range from 1 to 100 mu g L-1.
Limits of detection (LOD) and limits of quantification (LOQ) values ranged from 0.2319 mu g L-1 to 1.7160 mu g L-1 and 0.7028 mu g L-1 to 5.1999 mu g L-1, respectively.
The intraday and interday precision tests showed an Relative Standard Deviation (RSD) below 10.0 % and recovery ranging from 71.0 % to 118.0 % with a maximum RSD of 5.5 %.
The method was applied to real samples of C. elegans treated with 200 uM of thallium acetate solution, determining the uptake and bioaccumulated Tl+ content during acute exposure.
Since 2013, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights can examine individual communications under the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). This opens up the possibility to interpret Covenant provisions in a thorough manner. With regard to forced evictions and the right to housing under Article 11 ICESCR, one can discern a fast-developing approach concerning the proportionality analysis of evictions, entailing the establishment of specific criteria that may guide such analysis. This paper seeks to delineate these developments and will also shed light on possible general trends on the topic of limitations within the Committee’s emerging jurisprudence. In doing so, the paper will address if, and how, the developing proportionality analysis under the individual complaints procedure takes into consideration multi-discriminatory dimensions of State measures and how it specifically relates to or incorporates other ICESCR-concepts, such as minimum core obligations or the reasonableness review under Article 8(4) OP ICESCR.