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This dissertation analyzes tax policy, corporations, and capital market effects. First, the Savings Directive, which has left a loophole by providing grandfathering for some securities, is examined. It can be shown that investors are not willing to pay a premium for bonds that are exempt from the withholding rate, so it may be concluded that the supply of existing loopholes is large enough to allow tax evaders to continue evasion at no additional cost. Second, tax neutrality towards alternative financing instruments for corporate investment is a ubiquitous demand in the political debate. However, the magnitude of possible efficiency costs of a departure from tax neutrality is hardly discussed. Against this background, this dissertation discusses the theory of capital structure and provides back-ofthe-envelope calculations of the possible efficiency cost of a tax distortion of the debt-equity decision. Third, the ex-dividend-day effect in relation to the Gennan tax reform of 2000/2001 is discussed. The abolishment of the imputation system allows reinvestigating the size of the exdividend- day effect. I find no structural break in the size of the German ex-dividend-day effect and no evidence of an ex-dividend-day price drop that exceeds the dividend paid. Fourth, an account of the quantitative development of tax legislation in post-war Germany is presented. It can be shown that the legislative output did not increase over the decades and is not affected by a split majority in the upper and lower houses. Finally, it turns out that an increasing fraction of this legislation is passed in December.
The Tetragonoderus (Peronoscelis) quadriguttatus assemblage is a postulated monophyletic part of the intersectus complex. This assemblage is characterized against a background that includes review of a classification of the genus and comparison, in the form of a key, to other unrelated Western Hemisphere genera that share elongate tibial spurs with Tetragonoderus Dejean. The principal, easily observed feature that unites the three members (T. laevigatus Chaudoir, 1876; T. deuvei, new species (type locality: Cuijaba, Mato Grosso, Brazil), and T. quadriguttatus Dejean) of the quadriguttatus assemblage is the four-spotted elytra (two spots per elytron). These species are treated in detail, including key, synonymy (as required), comparisons, description (external and male genitalic features), habitat (if known), locality data, and geographical range map. Also, T. subfasciatus Putzeys, 1846, the elytral color pattern of whose members may be confused with the spotted pattern of the quadriguttatus assemblage, is treated similarly. The following new synonymies were established: T. quadriguttatus Dejean 1829 = T. columbicus Steinheil 1875 = T. lacordairei Chaudoir 1876 = T. tetragrammus Chaudoir 1876; and T. laevigatus Chaudoir 1876 = T. chaudoiri Liebke 1928 (replacement name for the junior homonym, T. unicolor Chaudoir, 1876). Lectotypes are designated for T. unicolor Chaudoir, T. lacordairei Chaudoir, and T. subfasciatus Putzeys. A neotype is designated for T. quadriguttatus Dejean. New distribution records in the West Indies for T. quadriguttatus are recorded for the islands of Grand Cayman, Jamaica and Hispaniola. These records may be the result of recent natural overseas dispersal from northern South America, or they may be the result of human-mediated accidental introduction, or a combination of both. The southern Floridian (Nearctic) records for T. laevigatus probably represent a recent accidental introduction through commerce, followed by dispersal through flights of adults.
Both, gas and particle scavenging contribute to the transport of organic compounds by ice crystals in the troposphere. To simulate these processes an experimental setup was developed to form airborne ice crystals under atmospheric conditions. Experiments were performed in a wall independent reactor (WIR) installed in a walk-in cold chamber maintained constantly at -20°C. Aerosol particles were added to the carrier gas of ambient air by an aerosol generator to allow heterogeneous ice formation. Temperature variations and hydrodynamic conditions of the WIR were investigated to determine the conditions for ice crystal formation and crystal growth by vapour deposition. In detail, the dependence of temperature variations from flow rate and temperature of the physical wall as well as temperature variations with an increasing reactor depth were studied. The conditions to provide a stable aerosol concentration in the carrier gas flow were also studied. The temperature distribution inside the reactor was strongly dependent on flow rate and physical wall temperature. At an inlet temperature of -20°C, a flow rate of 30 L•min exp -1 and a physical wall temperature of +5°C turned out to provide ideal conditions for ice formation. At these conditions a sharp and stable laminar down draft "jet stream" of cold air in the centre of the reactor was produced. Temperatures measured at the chamber outlet were kept well below the freezing point in the whole reactor depth of 1.0 m. Thus, melting did not affect ice formation and crystal growth. The maximum residence time for airborne ice crystals was calculated to at 40 s. Ice crystal growth rates increased also with increasing reactor depth. The maximum ice crystal growth rate was calculated at 2.82 mg• exp -1. Further, the removal efficiency of the cleaning device for aerosol particles was 99.8% after 10 min. A reliable particle supply was attained after a preliminary lead time of 15 min. Thus, the minimum lead time was determined at 25 min. Several test runs revealed that the WIR is suitable to perform experiments with airborne ice crystals.
Im EU-Vogelschutzgebiet Düsterdieker Niederung (Kreis Steinfurt, Nordrhein-Westfalen) wurden in den Jahren 2005 und 2006 telemetrische Untersuchungen an Küken von Wiesenlimikolen durchgeführt. In den beiden Jahren wurden 34 Kiebitzküken von 14 Familien und 58 Küken des Großen Brachvogels aus 20 Familien mit 0,8 schweren Sendern der Firma Biotrack (Dorset, UK) versehen, die auf den Rücken aufgeklebt wurden. Große Brachvögel wurden im Alter von 1-2 Tagen, Kiebitze auch noch in älteren Stadien besendert. Die Sender wurden in einem Abstand von höchstens drei Tagen geortet und das Schicksal der Küken bis zu einem Alter von etwa 30 Tagen verfolgt. Die Besenderung der Küken hatte keinen negativen Einfluss auf die Überlebenschancen der Küken, Die Überlebenschancen unbesenderter Küken waren nicht höher als von besenderten Küken. Dies wurde auch durch Verhaltensbeobachtungen bestätigt. 35 % der besenderten Küken des Kiebitzes und 28 % der Großen Brachvögel wurden flügge. Prädationsverluste machten beim Kiebitz mindestens 38 % und beim Großen Brachvogel mindestens 24 % aus. Beim Großen Brachvogel waren die festgestellten Prädatoren zu höheren Anteilen Raubsäuger, beim Kiebitz etwas häufiger Vögel. Als Prädatoren wurden sicher nachgewiesen: Mäusebussard (5), Turmfalke (1), Steinkauz (1), unbekannte Vögel (4), Fuchs (1), Marderartige (11), unbekannte Raubsäuger (3), weitere unbekannte (1). 20 % der Sender beim Kiebitz und 46 % beim Großen Brachvogel konnten nicht wieder gefunden werden, wobei die Küken mit Sicherheit nicht flügge wurden. Die Ursachen werden diskutiert. Ein hoher Anteil der nicht aufgefundenen Sender ist vermutlich ebenfalls Prädationsverlusten zuzurechnen. Nur ein Küken (Kiebitz) ging durch landwirtschaftliche Arbeiten verloren, je ein Küken beider Arten ertrank in einem Graben. Beim Großen Brachvogel lagen etwa 70 % der Kükenverluste in den ersten 14 Lebenstagen. Die Ergebnisse werden auch vor dem Hintergrund der Schutzmaßnahmen im EU-Vogelschutzgebiet diskutiert. Die geringen Verluste durch landwirtschaftliche Arbeiten können als Erfolg der Schutzbemühungen betrachtet werden. Die Kükenprädation wird im Untersuchungsgebiet als kein besonders auffälliges Problem bewertet. Zur Vermeidung von Kükenverlusten wurden an einigen Gräben bereits Verbesserungen vorgenommen.
The correspondence between the terminology used for querying and the one used in content objects to be retrieved, is a crucial prerequisite for effective retrieval technology. However, as terminology is evolving over time, a growing gap opens up between older documents in (long-term) archives and the active language used for querying such archives. Thus, technologies for detecting and systematically handling terminology evolution are required to ensure "semantic" accessibility of (Web) archive content on the long run. As a starting point for dealing with terminology evolution this paper formalizes the problem and discusses issues, first ideas and relevant technologies.
Als Terrence Malicks Kinodebüt BADLANDS im Oktober 1973 Premiere auf dem New Yorker Filmfest feierte, saß auch Vincent Canby, Kritiker der New York Times, im Kinosaal. Canby schrieb eine überaus positive Rezension über dieses Drama um ein junges Paar auf der Flucht (1973/1). Wenige Tage später war BADLANDS für ihn „The Movie that Made the Festival Memorable“ – so die Überschrift seines abschließenden Festivalberichts (1973/2). Doch über die in dem Film verwendete Musik verlor er kein Wort. Pauline Kael, Kritikerin des New Yorker, erwähnte die Musik in ihrer Rezension des Films zum US-Kinostart wenige Monate später nur am Rande (vgl. Kael 1974). Und auch in einem Interview, das Michel Ciment, Herausgeber des französischen Filmmagazins Positif, im März 1975 in Los Angeles mit Malick führte, wird nur kurz auf die musikalische Ebene eingegangen (1975, 32). Dabei ist der Soundtrack eine ganz zentrale Dimension dieses Films. Umso dringlicher erscheint es, BADLANDS mit Blick auf die Musik genauer zu untersuchen.
Wir haben das Feld der sozialen Situationen sondiert und die spektatorische Situation als eine spezifische Zeichensituation und Verkehrsform erörtert. Darüber hinaus sind problemgeschichtliche Aspekte der Figur des Zuschauers zur Sprache gekommen; gleichsam als Bestandteil konzeptioneller Vorarbeiten zur konkreten kultursemiotischen Untersuchung historischer Modelle von Spectatorship in ihrer funktionellen Typenvielfalt.
Editionen separieren Texte von den Kontexten, in denen sie bei ihrem Entstehungsprozess mit der Hand und technischen Schreibwerkzeugen unterschiedlichster Art geschrieben, als Erstdruck publiziert und von den Zeitgenossen ursprünglich rezipiert worden sind. Zugleich generieren sie, je nach ihren editorischen Prämissen, für die späteren Leser durch die von ihnen vollzogene Selektion, die Anordnung nach Textsorten oder die Anwendung anderer Strukturierungsregeln sowie durch die dabei vorgenommene Hierarchisierung, Kommentierung oder auch Nicht-Kommentierung ihrerseits neue Kontexte und konstruieren so ein bestimmtes, die Rezeption lenkendes Profil von Autor und Werk. Das ist, wie bei anderen prominenten Autoren, auch in der Wirkungsgeschichte Walter Benjamins der Fall. Ich möchte diesem Spannungsverhältnis von Dekontextualisierung und Rekontextualisierung im Folgenden am Beispiel der sogenannten 'kleineren' literaturkritischen Arbeiten - schon das Epitheton ist ein Beispiel für den erwähnten Selektions- und Hierarchisierungsprozess - nachgehen, also anhand der 'Kritiken und Rezensionen', die Benjamin seit der zweiten Hälfte der 1920er Jahre in der 'Frankfurter Zeitung', der 'Literarischen Welt' und an anderer Stelle veröffentlicht hat und deren Korpus im Wesentlichen in dem 1972 publizierten dritten Band der 'Gesammelten Schriften' publiziert worden ist. Ich werde mich dabei, in Blick auf den für diesen Beitrag zur Verfügung stehenden Raum, auf die Skizze zentraler Grundprobleme, auf pointierte Thesen und exemplarische Beispiele beschränken – in der Hoffnung, gerade durch solche Verknappung und Pointierung Impulse für eine weiterführende Diskussion der angesprochenen Probleme zu liefern. Einleitend werde ich zunächst einige grundsätzliche Fragen der Benjamin-Edition skizzieren. Im Anschluss daran werde ich die aktuelle Editionslage von Benjamins Arbeiten zur Literaturkritik im Hinblick auf die Leitfrage meines Beitrags, also auf das Spannungsverhältnis von Text(en) und Kontext(en), kritisch analysieren. Schließlich soll anhand einiger ausgewählter Rezensionen exemplarisch gezeigt werden, welche Bedeutung die in der bisherigen Editionspraxis meist ausgeblendeten Kontexte (z.B. Publikations-, Medien-, Wissenschaftskontexte, biografisch-soziale Kontexte, historische und politische Kontexte etc.) für ein Verständnis des Literaturkritikers Benjamin gewinnen können, sofern man ihnen editorisch die gebührende Beachtung schenkt. Dabei werden Umrisse eines neuen und anderen Benjamin-Bildes sichtbar, das sich von dem bisher verbreiteten nicht nur in Nuancen unterscheidet.
This article parts from an interdisciplinary point of view. Its main interest lies in the rich and complex interaction between the literary text and the image. These relations are understood as a “reciprocal illumination between the arts”, according to a publication of Oskar Walzel (Berlin, 1917). It will first investigate two historical landmarks in relation to literature and the image: first, the social differentiation around 1800 and its imposition of a purely textual literature and second, the avant-garde with its intense interaction between the various forms of artistic communication. The paper will then approach two contemporary examples of novels which combine visual and textual material.
' The United Nations-organised plebiscite on 11 February 1961 was one of the most significant events in the history of the southern and northern parts of the British-administered trust territory in Cameroon. John Percival was sent by the then Colonial Office as part of the team to oversee the process. This book captures the story of the plebiscite in all its dimensions and intricacies and celebrates the author's admiration for things African through a series of reminiscences of what life was like in the 1960s, both for the Africans themselves and for John Percival as a very young man. The complex story is also a series of reflections about the effect of the modern world on Africa. It is a thorough, insightful, rich and enlightening first-hand source on a political landmark that has never been told before in this way. In a vivid style with a great sense of humour, Percival's witty, cogent, eyewitness and active-participant account deconstructs the rumours and misrepresentations about the February 1961 Plebiscite which was a prelude to reunification and to the present day politics of 'belonging' in Cameroon. ''One of the major merits of this book is to provide us with a deeper insight into the role of those actors who have never been the subject of plebiscite studies, namely the Plebiscite Supervisory Officers.'' - Piet Konings, African Studies Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands John Percival-Anthropologist, Writer, Television Broadcaster of many innovative BBC series on the environment, history and anthropology. As a young graduate he was recruited and sent to serve in the Southern Cameroons as a Plesbiscite Supervisory Officer in 1961. He died in 2005 after a recent return visit to Cameroon with Nigel Wenban-Smith who writes an epilogue. This posthumous memoir has been edited by his wife, Lalage Neal.'
We perform a detailed study of the adjoint static potential in the pseudoparticle approach, which is a model for SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. We find agreement with the Casimir scaling hypothesis and there is clear evidence for string breaking. At the same time the potential in the fundamental representation is linear for large separations. Our results are in qualitative agreement with results from lattice computations.
Naturalness is one of the most important criteria in nature conservation. This paper examines the fundamental concepts underlying the definition and assessment of naturalness. Its role in nature conservation and forest management under conditions of global change is also discussed. The degree of naturalness may be defined in ordinal classes. The “static” concept of the potential natural vegetation (pnV), developed in the 1950ies, is mostly used as the reference state. In other cases, its reversed concept, the hemeroby (degree of articifiality) is assessed, based on the intensity and frequency of human impacts. Since the 1970ies, more attention has been given to natural dynamics than in earlier approaches, e.g. in forest succession models. At the end of the 1980ies, the previous importance was increasingly stressed of natural browsing by large herbivores and the role of predators. These large herbivors are extinct today in most cultural European landscapes. It is assumed, that they open up the canopy, and create park-like forest structures which contain a diversity of habitats for other types of organism (birds, insects). Changed and permanently changing environments and altering patterns of competition between species continue to modify natural processes today. Some of the more conspicuous effects are the extinction of native species and immigration of species to new regions. Long-lived ecosystems like forests are however not able to adapt quickly to such changes and may be unable to find a new balance with the environment. Today, such changes occur very rapidly, and are reducing the original naturalness of ecosystems. Because of this, the criterion “naturalness” must be downweighted. Conversely, more importance should be attached to other criteria: particularly originality (= original naturalness) and restorability. Forestry is contributing to this accelerated change of biocoenoses by increasing disturbances and introducing exotic tree species. Naturalisation of some exotic tree species modifies the natural processes and creates a “new allochthonous naturalness”. Because of this, forest planning should try to preserve or restore stands with attributes of the “original forest”. Exotic species should not be planted, or only in a very restricted way.
The Barn
(2008)
As a veteran playwright and actor, Kwo Victor Elame Musinga is more than just a pioneer in popular theatre. His simple but profound messages demonstrate a depth of understanding and insight into human nature and the nature of society. The texts he crafts are universal and timeless in their content and appeal, even as the themes and situations that inspire them are localized in specific places, experiences and histories. The Barn is a collection of three topical plays. Njema captures the predicament of love in a context where innocence and trust are preyed upon by deceit, dishonesty, promiscuity, waywardness, callous indifference to human life, the reckless abandon of parental authority and wisdom by youth in a hurry to celebrate sexuality, irresponsible manhood with or without the connivance of girls/women, and HIV/AIDS and its terror. Invitation to God addresses elitism and fair-weather friendship even among believers. In Moka, the theme of friendship is explored through the simple act of dishonesty and greed, especially to those with whom one should be nothing but virtuous, open, generous and kind. In these plays Kwo Victor Elame Musinga explores the virtues of being human, while addressing the dark side of humanity.
The bee fauna of the Greater Puerto Rico area was studied. A review of the previous relevant studies is presented. An annotated catalog and information about the origin and distributional patterns are also provided. Thirty-nine species of bees occur in Puerto Rico and adjacent islands. This fauna is composed of four elements: exclusive Puerto Rican endemics (26.5%); Antillean endemics occurring on multiple islands (76.5%); continental species that have also colonized the Antilles (23.5%); and species introduced through human activity (12.8%). The bee fauna was both low in its diversity and showed the highest level of disharmony in relation to other faunas of the Greater Antilles. A lectotype is here designated for Agapostemon krugii Wolcott, 1936.
Cellular metabolism can be envisaged by fluorescence lifetime imaging of fluorophores sensitive to specific intracellular factors such as [H+], [Ca2+], [O2], membrane potential, temperature, polarity of the probe environment, and alterations in the conformation and interactions of macromolecules. Lifetime measurements of the probes allow the quantitative determination of the intracellular factors. Fluorescence microscopy taking advantage of time-correlated single photon counting is a novel method that outperforms all other techniques with its single photon sensitivity and picoseconds time resolution. In this work, a time- and space-correlated single photon counting system was established to investigate the behavior of 2-(4-(dimethylamino)styryl)-1-methylpyridinium iodide (DASPMI) in living cells. DASPMI is known to selectively stain mitochondria in living cells. The uptake and fluorescence intensity of DASPMI in mitochondria is a dynamic measure of membrane potential. Hence, an endeavour was made to elucidate the mechanism of DASPMI fluorescence by obtaining spectrally-resolved fluorescence decays in different solvents. A bi-exponential decay model was sufficient to globally describe the wavelength dependent fluorescence in ethanol and chloroform. While in glycerol, a three-exponential decay model was necessary for global analysis. In the polar low-viscous solvent water, a mono-exponential decay model fitted the decay data. The sensitivity of DASPMI fluorescence to solvent viscosity was analysed using various proportions of glycerol/ethanol mixtures. The lifetimes were found to increase with increasing solvent viscosity. The negative amplitudes of the short lifetime component found in chloroform and glycerol at the longer wavelengths validated the formation of new excited state species from the initially excited state. Time-resolved emission spectra in chloroform and glycerol showed a biphasic increase of spectral width and emission maxima. The spectral width had an initial fast increase within 150 ps and a near constant thereafter. A two-state model based on solvation of the initially excited state and further formation of TICT state has been proposed to explain the excited state kinetics and has been substantiated by the de-composition of time-resolved spectra. The knowledge of DASPMI photophysics in a variety of solvents now provides the means of deducing complex physiological parameters of mitochondria from its behavior in living cells. Spatially-resolved fluorescence decays from single mitochondria or only very few organelles of XTH2 cells signified distinctive three-exponential decay kinetics of viscous environment. Based on DASPMI photophysics in a variety of solvents, these lifetimes have been attributed to the fluorescence from locally excited state (LE), intramolecular charge transfer state (ICT) and twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) state. A considerable variation in lifetime among mitochondria of different morphology and within single cell was evident corresponding to the high physiological variations within single cells. Considerable shortening of the short lifetime component (τ1) under high membrane potential condition, such as in the presence of ATP and/or substrate, was similar to quenching and dramatic decrease of lifetime in polar solvents. Under these conditions τ2 and τ3 increased with decreasing contribution. Upon treatment with ionophore nigericin, hyperpolarization of mitochondria resulted in remarkable shortening of τ1 from 159 ps to 38 ps. Inhibiting respiration by cyanide resulted in notable increase of mean lifetime and decrease of mitochondrial fluorescence. Increase of DASPMI fluorescence on conditions elevating mitochondrial membrane potential has been attributed to uptake according Nernst distributions, to de-localisation of π electrons, quenching processes of the methyl pyridinium moiety and restricted torsional dynamics at the mitochondrial inner membrane. Accordingly, determination of anisotropy in DASPMI stained mitochondria in living XTH2 cells, revealed dependence of anisotropy on membrane potential. Such changes in anisotropy attributed to restriction of the torsional dynamics about the flexible single bonds neighboring the olefinic double bond revealed the previously known sub-mitochondrial zones with higher membrane potential along its length. Membrane-potential-dependent changes in anisotropy have further been demonstrated in senescent chick embryo fibroblasts. In conclusion, spectroscopic observations of excited-state kinetics of DASPMI in solvents and its behavior in living cells had revealed for the first time its localisation, mechanism of voltage sensitive fluorescence and its membrane-potential-dependent anisotropy in living cells. The simultaneous dependence of DASPMI photophysics on mitochondrial inner membrane viscosity and transmembrane potential has been highlighted.
A list of all liverworts and mosses reported from the Maltese Islands with references has been compiled from the literature, which includes 23 species of liverworts and hornworts as well as 96 taxa of mosses. The list is completed by the results of a bryological fieldtrip in March 2008. During this trip, 14 species of liverworts and 40 species of mosses were collected, of which Cephaloziella baumgartneri, Didymodon luridus, Fissidens gracilifolius, Fossombronia echinata, Funaria pulchella, Riccia cavernosa and Weissia fallax are new to Malta. This raises the number of species known from the Maltese Islands to 23 horn- and liverworts and 100 mosses.