Theoretical Lessons from EMU and Banking Union: Plus ça change

in Howarth, David; Schild, Joachim (Eds.) The Difficult Construction of European Banking Union (2020)

Why did Euro Area member state governments decide to move to Banking Union (BU) — presented by proponents as a crucial move to ‘complete’ Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) — only in 2012, over twenty ... [more ▼]

Why did Euro Area member state governments decide to move to Banking Union (BU) — presented by proponents as a crucial move to ‘complete’ Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) — only in 2012, over twenty years after the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty? Why has a certain design for BU been chosen and some elements of this design prioritised over others? This paper interrogates previous academic accounts on the move to and the design of EMU — neofunctionalist, intergovernmentalist and constructivist — evaluating their explanatory power with reference to BU. It is argued that the asymmetrical design of EMU generated a variety of spill-overs and, hence, a neofunctionalist drive to supranationalise control over bank supervision and financial support for banks as part of the so-called ‘completion’ of EMU. However, intergovernmental negotiations informed by moral hazard and domestic political economy concerns explain the asymmetrical design of BU agreed by national governments. [less ▲]

KAGB

in KAGB (2020)

Face validity evaluation of screening tools for gaming disorder: Scope, language, and overpathologizing issues.

in Journal of behavioral addictions (2020), 9(1), 1-13

Aim: Critics of gaming disorder (GD; i.e., Internet gaming disorder in the DSM-5; Gaming disorder in the ICD-11) have expressed concerns about the potential risks of misclassification (e.g., false ... [more ▼]

Aim: Critics of gaming disorder (GD; i.e., Internet gaming disorder in the DSM-5; Gaming disorder in the ICD-11) have expressed concerns about the potential risks of misclassification (e.g., false positives). An important consideration of relevance to this discussion is the extent to which commonly used screening instruments contain appropriate, sensible, and relevant items. The aim of this review was to evaluate the face validity of items within current tools for GD. Methods: A systematic review of databases identified 29 instruments. An item bank (n = 417 items) was independently evaluated by three professional raters (i.e., a senior academic in clinical psychology, a senior psychometrician, and an academic/clinical psychologist) according to guidelines for defining and measuring addiction and gaming disorder. Findings: Evaluation of the item bank identified issues related to: scope (i.e., "scope creep" or items of questionable relevance); language (i.e., confusing language, unusual wording or syntax); and overpathologizing (i.e., pathologizing typical and/or beneficial aspects or consequences of gaming). A total of 71 items across 23 tools had at least one face validity issue. Conclusions: Most items (83%) demonstrated satisfactory face validity and were consistent with either the DSM-5 or ICD-11 GD classification. However, many tests contain at least one item that may pathologize normal gaming behaviors. Such items refer to basic changes in mood when gaming, a desire to play or continue playing games, and experiencing immersion when gaming. This analysis highlights the challenges of screening for problematic behaviors that are thought to arise within the context of normal recreational activities. [less ▲]

Sustainable Finance, EuSEF and the AIFMD

in The AIFM Directive (2020)

Buchbesprechung Patrick C. Leyens, Informationsintermediäre des Kapitalmarkts

in Rabels Zeitschrift (2020)

Security and Privacy in Resource-Constrained Devices

in CEUR Workshop Proceedings (2020), 2598

Recent adversarial attacks have been shown IoT devices weaknesses due to their limited computing power. Given also their ubiquitous presence, lower costs and limitations in keeping security measures up ... [more ▼]

Recent adversarial attacks have been shown IoT devices weaknesses due to their limited computing power. Given also their ubiquitous presence, lower costs and limitations in keeping security measures up-todate, resource-constrained devices represent a growing risk for the security of IT infrastructure. The scope of the research is to investigate the weaknesses of resource-constrained IoT devices. The methodology for the investigation is the legal analysis of existing legal frameworks regulating IoT cybersecurity and data security; afterwards it will be carried out a critical evaluation of the existing best practices. This critical analysis should face the twofold challenge of increasing transparency and trust in resource-constrained systems. Users and companies are two faces of the same coin: accountability of data collectors and user awareness are crucial in the security and data protection debate. Thus, a comprehensive overview of the relevant legal frameworks and guidelines would increase the understanding of risks of the users, whilst data controllers (especially of small and medium enterprises) may have an instrument to implement properly security measures. [less ▲]

Sporthistorische Netzwerke: Anfänge – Entwicklungen – Perspektiven

in Krüger, Michael; Hofmann, Annette (Eds.) Sportgeschichte in Deutschland – Herausforderungen und internationale Perspektiven, Bildung und Sport (2020)

Netzwerke sind bekanntermaßen wichtige Instrumente des Informations- und Meinungsaustausches. Das gemeinsame Interesse an der Sportgeschichte führt auch in diesem thematischen Bereich regelmäßig Menschen ... [more ▼]

Netzwerke sind bekanntermaßen wichtige Instrumente des Informations- und Meinungsaustausches. Das gemeinsame Interesse an der Sportgeschichte führt auch in diesem thematischen Bereich regelmäßig Menschen zusammen. Ziel dieser Analyse ist es, den Status Quo der institutionalisierten Sportgeschichte weltweit aufzuzeigen. Ausgehend von dieser Situation werden die Anfänge und die Entwicklung der organisierten Sportgeschichte am Beispiel der International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport (ISHPES) und ihres Vorgängers, der International Association for the History of Physical Education and Sport (HISPA), untersucht. Der Fokus richtet sich hier auf unterschiedliche Kriterien, darunter die jeweiligen Zielsetzungen der Organisationen, die Entwicklung der Mitgliederzahlen und -strukturen sowie die geographische Verteilung der Tagungsorte. Aus den Erkenntnissen der vergangenen und aktuellen Situation werden Rückschlüsse auf die Rolle der Netzwerkbildung für die Entwicklung der akademischen Fachdisziplin Sportgeschichte gezogen und abschließend eine Empfehlung ausgesprochen, wie sporthistorische Netzwerke möglicherweise dem Verlust der akademischen Bedeutung der Geschichte als Teildisziplin der Sportwissenschaft entgegenwirken können. [less ▲]

Automated design of efficient swarming behaviours: a Q-learning hyper-heuristic approach

in GECCO '20: Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, Companion Volume, Cancún, Mexico, July 8-12, 2020 (2020)

ÆGIS: Shielding Vulnerable Smart Contracts Against Attacks

in Proceedings of the 15th ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security (ASIA CCS ’20), October 5–9, 2020, Taipei, Taiwan (2020)

In recent years, smart contracts have suffered major exploits, cost- ing millions of dollars. Unlike traditional programs, smart contracts are deployed on a blockchain. As such, they cannot be modified ... [more ▼]

In recent years, smart contracts have suffered major exploits, cost- ing millions of dollars. Unlike traditional programs, smart contracts are deployed on a blockchain. As such, they cannot be modified once deployed. Though various tools have been proposed to detect vulnerable smart contracts, the majority fails to protect vulnera- ble contracts that have already been deployed on the blockchain. Only very few solutions have been proposed so far to tackle the issue of post-deployment. However, these solutions suffer from low precision and are not generic enough to prevent any type of attack. In this work, we introduce ÆGIS, a dynamic analysis tool that protects smart contracts from being exploited during runtime. Its capability of detecting new vulnerabilities can easily be extended through so-called attack patterns. These patterns are written in a domain-specific language that is tailored to the execution model of Ethereum smart contracts. The language enables the description of malicious control and data flows. In addition, we propose a novel mechanism to streamline and speed up the process of managing attack patterns. Patterns are voted upon and stored via a smart contract, thus leveraging the benefits of tamper-resistance and transparency provided by the blockchain. We compare ÆGIS to current state-of-the-art tools and demonstrate that our solution achieves higher precision in detecting attacks. Finally, we perform a large-scale analysis on the first 4.5 million blocks of the Ethereum blockchain, thereby confirming the occurrences of well reported and yet unreported attacks in the wild. [less ▲]

A Conserved Mito-Cytosolic Translational Balance Links Two Longevity Pathways.

in Cell metabolism (2020), 31(3), 549-5637

Slowing down translation in either the cytosol or the mitochondria is a conserved longevity mechanism. Here, we found a non-interventional natural correlation of mitochondrial and cytosolic ribosomal ... [more ▼]

Slowing down translation in either the cytosol or the mitochondria is a conserved longevity mechanism. Here, we found a non-interventional natural correlation of mitochondrial and cytosolic ribosomal proteins (RPs) in mouse population genetics, suggesting a translational balance. Inhibiting mitochondrial translation in C. elegans through mrps-5 RNAi repressed cytosolic translation. Transcriptomics integrated with proteomics revealed that this inhibition specifically reduced translational efficiency of mRNAs required in growth pathways while increasing stress response mRNAs. The repression of cytosolic translation and extension of lifespan from mrps-5 RNAi were dependent on atf-5/ATF4 and independent from metabolic phenotypes. We found the translational balance to be conserved in mammalian cells upon inhibiting mitochondrial translation pharmacologically with doxycycline. Lastly, extending this in vivo, doxycycline repressed cytosolic translation in the livers of germ-free mice. These data demonstrate that inhibiting mitochondrial translation initiates an atf-5/ATF4-dependent cascade leading to coordinated repression of cytosolic translation, which could be targeted to promote longevity. [less ▲]