Refine
Year of publication
- 2008 (768) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (301)
- Working Paper (100)
- Book (95)
- Doctoral Thesis (85)
- Part of Periodical (81)
- Conference Proceeding (31)
- Part of a Book (25)
- Preprint (18)
- Report (14)
- Other (10)
Language
- English (768) (remove)
Keywords
- Deutsch (10)
- Metapher (9)
- USA (7)
- Bank (6)
- Englisch (6)
- Phonetik (6)
- Phonologie (6)
- Bedeutung (5)
- Geldpolitik (5)
- Grammatik (5)
Institute
- Medizin (82)
- Center for Financial Studies (CFS) (59)
- Biochemie und Chemie (55)
- Physik (36)
- Geowissenschaften (35)
- Biowissenschaften (32)
- Extern (26)
- E-Finance Lab e.V. (20)
- Informatik (18)
- Wirtschaftswissenschaften (16)
When a spot market monopolist participates in a derivatives market, she has an incentive to deviate from the spot market monopoly optimum to make her derivatives market position more profitable. When contracts can only be written contingent on the spot price, a risk-averse monopolist chooses to participate in the derivatives market to hedge her risk, and she reduces expected profits by doing so. However, eliminating all risk is impossible. These results are independent of the shape of the demand function, the distribution of demand shocks, the nature of preferences or the set of derivatives contracts.
The focus of this thesis has been to further advance and develop existing NMR techniques for the study of protein folding. In order to do so, experimental as well as theoretical approaches have been pursued. From the theoretical side, a successful attempt to the development of a general theory for the treatment of residual dipolar couplings in the case of unfolded proteins has been undertaken. Information contained in residual dipolar couplings is especially valuable due to its long-range nature. The dynamic character of unfolded states of proteins, which may be composed of distinct subsets of conformations, renders reliable interpretation of data a non-trivial task. Statistical-coil-based approaches have been shown to be powerful in data interpretation. A consistent theory based on fundamental polymer physics, however, had not been presented so far. The herein presented model addresses this problem building on the original work by Annila and co-workers. In this work, several shortcomings have been identified. These shortcomings have been corrected here leading to a general approach for the treatment of residual dipolar couplings of unfolded proteins. More specifically, it is shown that, in the case of fully unfolded proteins aligned by a steric mechanism, basic dependencies of dipolar couplings such as on chain length and location with in the chain can be analysed in simple analytical terms. The main predictions of the model are compared to experimental data showing reasonable agreement. The presented mathematical framework is principally suited for various improvements which could include the treatment of long-range interactions and of the actual geometry of the given aligment medium. From the experimental side, bovine alpha-lactalbumin has been chosen as a model system for the development of improved time-resolved 1D NMR methods aiming at the observation of conformational transitions by kinetic means. The presented results show that high-quality data can now be obtained at protein concentrations as low as 100uM. Rate constants characterising distinct conformational transitions of up to 8/s have been measured. These are the fastest rate constants which have been reported so far for protein folding events. The NMR data supplemented by complementary biophysical data furthermore demonstrate that the folding of bovine alpha-lactalbumin is more complex than has been anticipated. All data are consistent with a triangular folding mechanism involving parallel pathways of folding for formation of the native state of the protein. Interestingly, such a folding mechanism has also been found for the highly structurally homologous protein lysoyzme from hen egg white. Evidence is presented that the guiding role of long-range interactions in the unfolded state of lysoyzme for mediating intersubdomain interactions during folding is replaced in the case of bovine alpha-lactalbumin by the Ca2+ binding site.
Since independence from British colonial rule, Uganda has had a turbulent political history characterised by putsches, dictatorship, contested electoral outcomes, civil wars and a military invasion. There were eight changes of government within a period of twenty-four years (from 1962-1986), five of which were violent and unconstitutional. This paper identifies factors that account for these recurrent episodes of political violence and state collapse. While colonialism bequeathed the country a negative legacy including a weak state apparatus, ethnic division, skewed development, elite polarisation and a narrow economic base, post-colonial leaders have on the whole exacerbated rather than reversed these trends. Factors such as ethnic rivalry, political exclusion, militarisation of politics, weak state institutions, and unequal access to opportunities for self-advancement help to account for the recurrent cycles of violence and state failure prior to 1986. External factors have also been important, particularly the country’s politically turbulent neighbourhood, the outcome of political instability and civil conflict in surrounding countries. Neighbourhood turbulence stemming from such factors as civil wars in Congo and Sudan has had spill-over effects in that it has allowed insurgent groups geographical space within which to operate as well as provided opportunities for the acquisition of instruments of war with which to destabilise the country. Critical to these processes have been the porosity of post-colonial borders and the inability by the Ugandan state to exercise effective control over its entire territory. By demonstrating the interplay between internal and external factors in shaping Uganda’s postcolonial experience, the paper makes an important shift away from conventional explanations that have focused disproportionately on internal processes. Lastly, the paper provides pointers to areas of further research such as the economic foundations of conflict that should ultimately strengthen our understanding of factors that combine to make state-making fail or succeed.
The animated statues, robots and monsters in German Romantic narratives, as I will argue throughout, tell us something about the Romantic conception of the mutually embedded relationship between art and life. In the works of the German Romantics, the theme of artificial humans thus has an essentially autopoetic, or selfreflexive, function (cf. Schmitz-Emans 1993, 168f). It corresponds in exemplary fashion with Friedrich Schlegel´s idea of transcendental poetry, which should always be “poetry and simultaneously the poetry of poetry” (Schlegel [1985], 50). In the theme of artificial life as well as in transcendental poetry, the observation of the world is integrally bound up with the observation of art and the self (cf. Kremer [1996], 8ff).
The timing of feedback to early visual cortex in the perception of long-range apparent motion
(2008)
When 2 visual stimuli are presented one after another in different locations, they are often perceived as one, but moving object. Feedback from area human motion complex hMT/V5+ to V1 has been hypothesized to play an important role in this illusory perception of motion. We measured event-related responses to illusory motion stimuli of varying apparent motion (AM) content and retinal location using Electroencephalography. Detectable cortical stimulus processing started around 60-ms poststimulus in area V1. This component was insensitive to AM content and sequential stimulus presentation. Sensitivity to AM content was observed starting around 90 ms post the second stimulus of a sequence and most likely originated in area hMT/V5+. This AM sensitive response was insensitive to retinal stimulus position. The stimulus sequence related response started to be sensitive to retinal stimulus position at a longer latency of 110 ms. We interpret our findings as evidence for feedback from area hMT/V5+ or a related motion processing area to early visual cortices (V1, V2, V3).
This paper is one of the first to analyse political influence on state-owned savings banks in a developed country with an established financial market: Germany. Combining a large dataset with financial and operating figures of all 457 German savings banks from 1994 to 2006 and information on over 1,250 local elections during this period we investigate the change in business behavior around elections. We find strong indications for political inflence: the probability that savings banks close branches, lay-off employees or engage in merger activities is significantly reduced around elections. At the same time they tend to increase their extraordinary spendings, which include support for social and cultural events in the area, on average by over 15%. Finally, we find that savings banks extend significantly more loans to their corporate and private customers in the run-up to an election. In further analyses, we show that the magnitude of political influence depends on bank specific, economical and political circumstances in the city or county: political influence seems to be facilitated by weak political majorities and profitable banks. Banks in economically weak areas seem to be less prone to political influence.
In this paper, we investigate how bank mergers affect bank revenues and present empirical evidence that mergers among banks have a substantial and persistent negative impact on merging banks’ revenues. We refer to merger related negative effects on banks’ revenues as dissynergies and suggest that they are a result of organizational diseconomies, the loss of customers and the temporary distraction of management from day-to-day operations by effecting the merger. For our analyses we draw on a proprietary data set with detailed financials of all 457 regional savings banks in Germany, which have been involved in 212 mergers between 1994 and 2006. We find that the negative impact of a merger on net operating revenues amounts to 3% of pro-forma consolidated banks’ operating profits and persists not only for the year of the merger but for up to four years post-merger. Only thereafter mergers exhibit a significantly superior performance compared to their respective pre-merger performance or the performance of their non-merging peers. The magnitude and persistence of merger related revenue dissynergies highlight their economic relevance. Previous research on post-merger performance mainly focuses on the effects from mergers on banks’ (cost) efficiency and profitability but fails to provide clear and consistent results. We are the first, to our knowledge, to examine the post-merger performance of banks’ net operating revenues and to empirically verify significant negative implications of mergers for banks’ net operating revenues. We propose that our finding of negative merger related effects on banks’ operating revenues is the reason why previous research fails to show merger related gains.
Background The successful use of zirconia ceramics in orthopedic surgery led to a demand for dental zirconium-based implant systems. Because of its excellent biomechanical characteristics, biocompatibility, and bright tooth-like color, zirconia (zirconium dioxide, ZrO2) has the potential to become a substitute for titanium as dental implant material. The present study aimed at investigating the osseointegration of zirconia implants with modified ablative surface at an ultrastructural level. Methods A total of 24 zirconia implants with modified ablative surfaces and 24 titanium implants all of similar shape and surface structure were inserted into the tibia of 12 Gottinger minipigs. Block biopsies were harvested 1 week, 4 weeks or 12 weeks (four animals each) after surgery. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis was performed at the bone implant interface. Results Remarkable bone attachment was already seen after 1 week which increased further to intimate bone contact after 4 weeks, observed on both zirconia and titanium implant surfaces. After 12 weeks, osseointegration without interposition of an interfacial layer was detected. At the ultrastructural level, there was no obvious difference between the osseointegration of zirconia implants with modified ablative surfaces and titanium implants with a similar surface topography. Conclusion The results of this study indicate similar osseointegration of zirconia and titanium implants at the ultrastructural level.
The "quiet life hypothesis (QLH)" posits that banks enjoy the advantages of market power in terms of foregone revenues or cost savings. We suggest a unified approach to measure competition and efficiency simultaneously to test this hypothesis. We estimate bank-specific Lerner indices as measures of competition and test if cost and profit efficiency are negatively related to market power in the case of German savings banks.We find that both market power and average revenues declined among these banks between 1996 and 2006. While we find clear evidence supporting the QLH, estimated effects of the QLH are small from an economical perspective.