MIGRANT AS A WORLD CITIZEN: (IM)POSSIBLE POLITICAL PERSPECTIVES

In one of its many forms, migrations are an intrinsic characteristic of human civilization from its very beginnings until today, when they even exceed the limits of the habitat of their subject. Even with the already established laws of migration processes, it is very perilous to predict their outcome in an increasingly complex and unpredictable modern world that requires a comprehensive approach, usually empirically unverifiable. One such outcome is the model of a post-national global world whose World Government creates its extraterritorial population in a virtual state, providing it with identity and rights in reality.

The role of marbling as an intrinsic characteristic at the point of meat purchase–the Taguchi approach

Meat quality is considered a complex concept depending on many characteristics that could be intrinsic or extrinsic. At the same time, intrinsic and extrinsic quality cues affect consumers’ purchasing decisions. The importance of each quality cue was analysed and discussed in previous literature. Thus, colour and level of marbling of fresh meat were defined as key quality cues at the point of meat purchase. These characteristics are mostly related to pork and beef. The aim of this study was to identify quality characteristics that most closely match the consumer’s preferences and at the same time could be related to quality losses. For that purpose, this paper gives a novel approach of the potential application of Taguchi loss function associated with quality characteristics and related losses for colour and level of marbling. This application can be implemented by providing a quality characteristic’s proper target values and limits, which would make the meat production process more consistent.

Changing Cross-Reactivity for Different Immunoassays Using the Same Antibodies: Theoretical Description and Experimental Confirmation

Many applications of immunoassays involve the possible presence of structurally similar compounds that bind with antibodies, but with different affinities. In this regard, an important characteristic of an immunoassay is its cross-reactivity: the possibility of detecting various compounds in comparison with a certain standard. Based on cross-reactivity, analytical systems are assessed as either high-selective (responding strictly to a specific compound) or low-selective (responding to a number of similar compounds). The present study demonstrates that cross-reactivity is not an intrinsic characteristic of antibodies but can vary for different formats of competitive immunoassays using the same antibodies. Assays with sensitive detection of markers and, accordingly, implementation at low concentrations of antibodies and modified (competing) antigens are characterized by lower cross-reactivities and are, thus, more specific than assays requiring high concentrations of markers and interacting reagents. This effect was confirmed by both mathematical modeling and experimental comparison of an enzyme immunoassay and a fluorescence polarization immunoassay of sulfonamides and fluoroquinolones. Thus, shifting to lower concentrations of reagents decreases cross-reactivities by up to five-fold. Moreover, the cross-reactivities are changed even in the same assay format by varying the ratio of immunoreactants’ concentrations and shifting from the kinetic or equilibrium mode of the antigen-antibody reaction. The described patterns demonstrate the possibility of modulating immunodetection selectivity without searching for new binding reactants.

Middle Verbs and Their Acquisition

The ultimate goal of this paper is to provide an in-depth analysis of the L2 learners’ acquisition of middle constructions. One of the properties of middle constructions is that the subject of middle verbs must be a definite NP. Middle verbs can occur by revealing an intrinsic characteristic or property of the definite NP. In addition, middle verbs can only occur along with short adverbs such as well and easily. In this paper, we conduct a survey and evaluate the L2 learners’ responses to middle verbs. More specifically, we have examined how the L2 learners acquired the abstract constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint. It is worth noting that 45% of the adult subjects acquired the definite condition, 32.5% of the L2 learners acquired the middle construction condition, 50% of the adult subjects acquired the abstract noun constraint, and 20% of the L2 learners acquired the adverb constraint. This in turn indicates that that the abstract noun constraint was first acquired by the adult subjects, followed by the definite DP condition, the middle construction condition, and the adverb constraint, in that order. With regard to middle verbs, it is significant to note that English are subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, the definite DP condition, and the adverb constraint, whereas Korean is not subject to the abstract noun constraint, the middle construction condition, and the definite DP condition. This in turn suggests that Korean is a superset language, compared to English. Thus, learning difficulty arises. Finally, this paper argues that unlike Chomsky’s UG hypothesis (Chomsky 1981, 1982, 2019a, 2019b), the L2 learners looked for similarities between L1 and L2 and thus relied on their L1.

The Structure of Millennial Scale Glacial Climate Variability

<p>The Dansgaard-Oeschger (D-O) oscillation recorded in isotopic analyses of Greenland ice cores is a climate oscillation with millennial scale variability alternating between cold stadial climate and warm interstadial climate states. Using a series of long comprehensive climate model integrations of the glacial climate system under different levels of radiative forcing, we formulate a simple heuristic model to emulate the D-O oscillation. We demonstrate that the D-O oscillation has properties that are consistent with an internal unforced oscillation as well as displaying interesting behaviour that is consistent with noise induced transitions. Therefore, the D-O oscillation is more aptly characterized as a stochastic oscillator with stadial and interstadial durations that are more dependent upon a control parameter and internal climate variability rather than an intrinsic characteristic timescale.</p>

A Theory of ICOs: Diversification, Agency, and Information Asymmetry

This paper develops a theory of financing of entrepreneurial ventures via crypto tokens, which is not limited to platform-based ventures. We compare token financing with traditional equity financing, focusing on agency problems and information asymmetry frictions associated with the two financing methods, as well as on risk sharing between entrepreneurs and investors. Token financing introduces an agency problem not present under equity financing (underproduction), while mitigating an agency problem often associated with equity financing (entrepreneurial effort underprovision). Our theory abstracts from all institutional and potentially transient differences between tokens and equity and is based on a single intrinsic characteristic of tokens: they represent claims to a venture’s output. We show that tokens are likely to dominate equity for ventures developing goods or services that involve low marginal production costs, those for which entrepreneurial effort is crucial, and/or those with relatively low payoff volatility. In addition, tokens can have an advantage over equity in signaling venture quality to outside investors. This paper was accepted by Kay Giesecke, finance.

Fleet Resilience: Evaluating Maintenance Strategies in Critical Equipment

Resilience is an intrinsic characteristic of systems. Through it, the capacity of a system to react to the existence of disruptive events is expressed. A series of metrics to represent systems’ resilience have been proposed, however, only one indicator relates the availability of the system to this characteristic. With such a metric, it is possible to relate the topological aspects of a system and the resources available in order to be able to promptly respond to the loss of performance as a result of unexpected events. This work proposes the adaptation and application of such a resilience index to assess the influence of different maintenance strategies and topologies in fleets’ resilience. In addition, an application study considering an actual mining fleet is provided. A set of critical assets was identified and represented using reliability block diagrams. Monte Carlo simulation experiments were conducted and the system availability data were extracted. Resilience indexes were obtained in order to carry out the definition of the best maintenance policies in critical equipment and the assessment of the impact of modifying system redundancies. The main results of this work lead to the overall conclusion that redundancy is an important system attribute in order to improve resiliency along time.

Plant resistome profiling in evolutionary old bog vegetation provides new clues to understand emergence of multi-resistance

The expanding antibiotic resistance crisis calls for a more in depth understanding of the importance of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in pristine environments. We, therefore, studied the microbiome associated with Sphagnum moss forming the main vegetation in undomesticated, evolutionary old bog ecosystems. In our complementary analysis of culture collections, metagenomic data and a fosmid library from different geographic sites in Europe, we identified a low abundant but highly diverse pool of resistance determinants, which targets an unexpectedly broad range of 29 antibiotics including natural and synthetic compounds. This derives both, from the extraordinarily high abundance of efflux pumps (up to 96%), and the unexpectedly versatile set of ARGs underlying all major resistance mechanisms. Multi-resistance was frequently observed among bacterial isolates, e.g. in Serratia, Rouxiella, Pandoraea, Paraburkholderia and Pseudomonas. In a search for novel ARGs, we identified the new class A β-lactamase Mm3. The native Sphagnum resistome comprising a highly diversified and partially novel set of ARGs contributes to the bog ecosystem´s plasticity. Our results reinforce the ecological link between natural and clinically relevant resistomes and thereby shed light onto this link from the aspect of pristine plants. Moreover, they underline that diverse resistomes are an intrinsic characteristic of plant-associated microbial communities, they naturally harbour many resistances including genes with potential clinical relevance.

Comparison of the deep atmospheric dynamics of Jupiter and Saturn in light of the Juno and Cassini gravity measurements

<p>The nature and structure of the observed east-west flows on Jupiter and Saturn has been a long-standing mystery in planetary science. This mystery has been recently unraveled by the accurate gravity measurements provided by the Juno mission to Jupiter and the Grand Finale of the Cassini mission to Saturn. These two experiments, which coincidentally happened around the same time, allowed the determination of the overall vertical and meridional profiles of the zonal flows on both planets. In this talk, we discuss what has been learned about the zonal jets on the gas giants in light of the new data from these two experiments. The gravity measurements not only allow the depth of the jets to be constrained, yielding the inference that the jets extend to roughly 3000 and 9000 km below the observed clouds on Jupiter and Saturn, respectively, but also provide insights into the mechanisms controlling these zonal flows. Specifically, for both planets this depth corresponds to the depth where electrical conductivity is within an order of magnitude of 1 S/m, implying that the magnetic field likely plays a key role in damping the zonal flows. An intrinsic characteristic of any gravity inversion, as discussed here, is that the solutions might not be unique. We analyze the robustness of the solutions and present several independent lines of evidence supporting the inference that the jets reach these depths.</p>

Dynamics of Mechanical Oscillator Mechanism for Stratospheric Gravity Waves Generated by Convection

The mechanical oscillator mechanism (MOM) for stratospheric gravity waves generated by convection is investigated with a dynamics model using the two-dimensional, nonhydrostatic and linear governing equations based on the Boussinesq approximation. The model is solved analytically with a fixed buoyancy oscillation (BO) at the tropopause as the boundary conditions. Results show that this BO is the source of stratospheric gravity waves and the MOM is the generation mechanism. The characteristics of the stratospheric gravity waves not only depend on the BO, but also rely on the stratospheric state, such as the background wind and the buoyancy frequency. When the vertical wavenumbers of the stratospheric gravity waves are close to those of the intrinsic characteristic waves (ICWs), which are the model solution without BO forcing at the tropopause, resonance occurs. Under the resonance conditions, the amplitudes of the stratospheric gravity waves increase significantly, even for low BO intensity. The background wind in the stratosphere has a large effect on wave resonance. Finally, numerical simulation results of a low-vortex system also verify that the MOM is the generation mechanism of stratospheric gravity waves generated by convection.