http://hdl.handle.net/10993/79 Search this channel search http://orbilu.uni.lu/simple-search http://hdl.handle.net/10993/40636 Title: Die ‚Circular Economy‘ als Ausweg aus der Wachstumsfalle? Diskussionsbeitrag <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Schulz, Christian http://hdl.handle.net/10993/40635 Title: Scientific misconduct and accountability in teams <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Hussinger, Katrin; Pellens, Maikel http://hdl.handle.net/10993/40050 Title: Practising circles: Studying institutional change and circular economy practice <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Schulz, Christian; Hjaltadottir, Rannveig Edda; Hild, Paula http://hdl.handle.net/10993/40006 Title: The Effect of Rating Scale on Response Style: Experimental Evidence for Job Satisfaction <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Joxhe, Majlinda; Corrado, Luisa <br/> <br/>Abstract: This paper explores the relationship between rating scales and response style using experimental data from a sample of 1500 households of the Innovation Panel (2008) which is part of the Understanding Society database. Two random groups of individuals are being asked about their level of job satisfaction using a self-assessment questionnaire through two (7 and 11 points) rating options. By comparing the two groups, we explore the effects of the different rating scales on Extreme Response Style (ERS). The experimental design of the data enables us to show that both high and low Extreme Response Style (ERS) are correlated with personal and demographic characteristics. In addition, when comparing the shorter to a longer scale, we show that the survey design may generates tendency to choose responses at the extreme values of the distribution. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/39977 Title: Mathematical Histopathology and Systems Pharmacology of Melanoma <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Albrecht, Marco <br/> <br/>Abstract: Treated metastatic melanoma often becomes resistant and relapses whereby resistance mechanisms can be found at the level of biochemical, histological, and pharmacological data. By using this data in a mathematical form, an integrative understanding of tumour progression can be gained that reveal the functionality of more complex and hidden recurrence mechanisms. The aims of this thesis were - to investigate how a new engineering concept on tumour growth, based on porous media theory, can be leveraged to support medicine and cancer biology research, - to identify suitable tests for cancer growth model validation, - to study how elements of biochemical cancer pathways are linked to the elements of physical growth, and - to establish a pharmacokinetics module for the melanoma cancer drug dabrafenib. The studied engineering concept is qualitatively suitable to represent late-stage metastatic melanoma in irregular fibrous tissue types, whereby all equations are tested for biological relevance and parametrisation. The framework allows modelling of tissue-specific growth, and the thesis shows that the simulated tumour can shift between compact growth with ECM displacement and invasive growth with ECM circumvention as a consequence of cell plasticity/viscosity change. This is unique among continuous models of tumour growth. However, the investigation also shows that the pressure-saturation relationships are not biologically motivated and can be replaced by a swelling polymer model which captures the water absorbing effect of glycans. The thesis addresses a biologically and computationally reasonable strategy to validate the tumour growth model as complete as possible. A suitable way to validate a part of the tumour growth model is using time course data of spheroid growth in hydrogels of different stiffness values. Spheroids generated from the LU451 melanoma cell line mainly grow due to ECM degradation, have a time-variant growth rate increasing with gel rigidity, and the confined environment renders the melanoma cell line drug-resistant upon dabrafenib dose escalation. This setting reveals the interplay between mechanical and biochemical development over time. The dependency between biological elements of cancer pathways and the mechanical elements of the engineering concept on tumour growth were clarified. Therefore, the literature on mechanoregulation has been reviewed and serves as a computational link between systems biology and physical oncology. Finally, the thesis provides preliminary steps and a concept toward a serious interdisciplinary methodology to understand tumour growth, although this cannot be considered a final model for any of the known melanoma growth settings. Additionally, the thesis provides a novel quantitative systems pharmacology approach to consider liver-enzyme-induction and drug-drug-interaction. The finding is that the potent dabrafenib metabolite desmethyl-dabrafenib accumulates with consequential efficacy loss in a confined tumour environment. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/39676 Title: The Paradoxical Case Against Interest Rate Caps for Microfinance – And: How FinTech and RegTech Resolve the Dilemma <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Zetzsche, Dirk Andreas; Dewi, Tsany Ratna http://hdl.handle.net/10993/39075 Title: Technology-Powered Strategies to Rethink the Pedagogy of History and Cultural Heritage through Symmetries and Narratives <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Lopez-Nores, Martin; Gustavo Bravo-Quezada, Omar; Bassani, Maddalena; Antoniou, Angeliki; Lykourentzou, Ioanna; Jones, Catherine; Kontiza, Kalliopi; González-Soutelo, Silvia; Reboreda-Morillo, Susana; Naudet, Yannick; Vlachidis, Andreas; Bikakis, Antonis; Pazos-Arias, José Juan <br/> <br/>Abstract: Recent advances in semantic web and deep learning technologies enable new means for the computational analysis of vast amounts of information from the field of digital humanities. We discuss how some of the techniques can be used to identify historical and cultural symmetries between different characters, locations, events or venues, and how these can be harnessed to develop new strategies to promote intercultural and cross-border aspects that support the teaching and learning of history and heritage. The strategies have been put to the test in the context of the European project CrossCult, revealing enormous potential to encourage curiosity to discover new information and increase retention of learned information http://hdl.handle.net/10993/37296 Title: Disambiguation of Researcher Careers: Shifting the Perspective from Documents to Authors <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Doherr, Thorsten <br/> <br/>Abstract: The thesis describes an algorithm that disambiguates the namespaces of inventors and researchers, spawned by their patents and publications, into career paths. A probabilistic theory to assess the risk of erroneously linking documents of namesakes, different individuals with a mutual name, into one career bypasses the need for training datasets, thereby avoiding a namesake bias caused by the inherent underestimation of namesakes in training/benchmark data. The economic relevance of identified careers is illustrated by two applications. The first one outlines the impact of inter-regional inventor mobility in Italy on the total factor productivity of the sending and receiving regions. We show that an inflow of high skilled labor has a significant positive effect on TFP, while outflow decreases it. We further separate mobility in firm-internal relocation and job switches to find a more pronounced effect for the latter mobility. The second application observes the reaction of German university researchers to an exogenous change in federal law pertaining the property rights of their inventions equivalent to the Bayh Dole Act. Being able to trace their careers along with the careers of an unaffected control group allows us to evaluate the efficacy of technology transfer offices replacing the former informal activities of the university professors in regard of academic entrepreneurship. We find that an overall decrease of university patenting neutralizes any institutionalized efforts of spurring entrepreneurship at the expense of informal faculty-firm networks as channels for knowledge transfer. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/36954 Title: Economies of scale in recoverable robust maintenance location routing for rolling stock <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Arts, Joachim; Tönissen, Denise <br/> <br/>Abstract: We consider the problem of locating maintenance facilities in a railway setting. Different facility sizes can be chosen for each candidate location and for each size there is an associated annual facility costs that can capture economies of scale in facility size. Because of the strategic nature of facility location, the opened facilities should be able to handle the current maintenance demand, but also the demand for any of the scenarios that can occur in the future. These scenarios capture changes such as changes to the line plan and the introduction of new rolling stock types. We allow recovery in the form of opening additional facilities, closing facilities, and increasing the facility size for each scenario. We provide a two-stage robust programming formulation. In the first-stage, we decide where to open what size of facility. In the second-stage, we solve a NP-hard maintenance location routing problem. We reformulate the problem as a mixed integer program that can be used to make an efficient column-and-constraint generation algorithm. To show that our algorithm works on practical sized instances, and to gain managerial insights, we perform a case study with instances from the Netherlands Railways. A counter intuitive insight is that economies of scale only play a limited role and that it is more important to reduce the transportation cost by building many small facilities, rather than a few large ones to profit from economies of scale. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35729 Title: Diverse alternatives empirical evidence from German speaking scholarship <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Schulz, Christian; Krueger, Robert http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35717 Title: Postwachstum in den Raumwissenschaften <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Schulz, Christian http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35656 Title: Environmental economic geography and environmental inequality: challenges and new research prospects <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Braun, Boris; Oßenbrügge; Schulz, Christian <br/> <br/>Abstract: The environmental dimension and sustainability- related issues have increasingly gained momentum in Economic Geography. This paper argues that integrating the inequality perspective into Environmental Economic Geography (EEG) and trying to disentangle the manifold interrelationships between economic, social, and environmental disadvantage could be worthwhile efforts. Based on three case studies – the debate on urban environmental justice in German cities, the spread of alternative food systems and food-sharing initiatives in Germany, and the socially selective migration in hazard prone areas in rural coastal Bangladesh – we demonstrate that aspects of social inequality indeed matter for EEG thinking. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35388 Title: Thinking and Shaping the architecture of EMU <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Danescu, Elena http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35382 Title: Principles, Values and Challenges for a Europe Built through Currency <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Danescu, Elena <br/> <br/>Abstract: At the Hague Summit (1–2 December 1969), the decision was taken to explore the possibilities of progress towards an economic and monetary union. An ad hoc committee of experts was set up and, at the request of the EC Council, Pierre Werner (Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Luxembourg) was chosen as chairman. The work of this committee began on 20 March 1970 and resulted in the Werner Report - presented on 8 October in Luxembourg. The Werner Report offered a full definition of EMU, which was to be established in three stages over a decade (1971–80). The ultimate aim was to achieve irreversible convertibility between the currencies of the Member States, the complete liberalization of capital movements, the irrevocable fixing of exchange rates, and even potentially the replacement of national currencies by a single currency as a natural and desirable further development of monetary union. From an institutional viewpoint, the report called for the creation of two new steering bodies: a ‘centre of decision for economic policy’, independent of governments and placed under the democratic control of the European Parliament, to be elected by universal suffrage; and a ‘Community system for the central banks’. Also, EMU would serve as a ‘leaven’ for the development of a political union. Two main principles underpinned the Werner Report: gradual realization of EMU (a step-by-step approach); and parallelism between economic convergence and transfer of powers to the supranational level. The Report ran into a series of international crises (which led to the collapse of the IMS), culminating to its de facto suspension in 1974. Three decades later, the Delors Report was to give the Werner Report the credit due to it, by appropriating its overall philosophy and structure. Both reports define monetary union in almost identical terms, but in some respects the Werner Report goes further and is more clear cut than the Delors Report. This paper aims to analyze why the Werner Report marked a crucial stage in the process of European integration and was offered, through its principles, values and ideas, a blueprint of EMU in the EU. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35334 Title: « La double démocratie. Une Europe politique pour la croissance » (Michel Aglietta et Nicolas Leron, 2017) <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Danescu, Elena <br/> <br/>Abstract: Ce texte receille des notes de lecture critiques relatives à l'analyse interdisciplinaire réalisée par Michel Aglietta et Nicolas Lerron dans leur ouvrage « La double démocratie. Une Europe politique pour la croissance », récemment publié aux Éditions du Seuil. Les auteurs placent leur analyse dans une perspective historique, avec l’objectif d’expliquer pourquoi l’Europe est plus vulnérable que les autres région du monde et d’identifier les moyens de donner de nouvelles impulsions au projet européen. Le constat des auteurs est sans appel : l’Union européenne et la zone euro sont aujourd’hui en impasse. Parmi les principales causes, ils identifient l’impuissance publique, les interdépendances négatives entre les États membres et le caractère incomplet de l’UEM. Ils mettent également en lumière une crise de la méthode de l’intégration européenne, vu que le postulat de l’engrenage, ou encore celui des petits pas prôné par Jean Monnet semblent avoir épuisé toutes leurs potentialités. <br/> <br/>Commentary: Référence bibliographique: AGLIETTA, Michel et LERON, Nicolas, « La double démocratie. Une Europe politique pour la croissance », Le Seuil, Paris, 2017, 206 p. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35333 Title: Pierre Werner and Europe: The Family Archives Behind the Werner Report. Foreword by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and Foreword by Professor Harold James (Princeton University) <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Danescu, Elena <br/> <br/>Abstract: This book - which features a foreword by Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, and a Preface by Professor Harold James (Princeton Unviersity) -examines the European vocation and achievements of Pierre Werner (1913–2002),former Prime Minister, Finance Minister and Foreign Minister of Luxembourg, unanimously recognized as one of the architects of the Economic and Monetary Union. The author makes extensive use of Pierre Werner’s previously unpublished archives belonging to the Werner family, opened for the first time for research purposes. The book analyses the Werner Report, negotiations within the Werner Committee, the emergence of the Committee’s views on EMU, their political commitment to a European currency, the similarities and differences between their ideas, their personal networks, the influence of the states they represented, their theoretical and methodological input and their contribution to the political consensus. Chapters shed new light on various aspects of the European integration process and also on the role of Luxembourg and its European policy. In addition, the author has carried out a series of original interviews with Luxembourg and European figures who share their memories and thoughts concerning Pierre Werner, his achievements and his views on the European integration process, and also other topics such as the Economic and Monetary Union and Luxembourg‘s European policy. This book will be of interest and value to researchers, EU policy makers and students in the fields of political economy, political science, economic history and history of economic thought. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35332 Title: Through a century of change: portrait of a pragmatic visionary <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Danescu, Elena <br/> <br/>Abstract: As Prime Minister and Finance Minister of Luxembourg over several decades, Pierre Werner shaped the future of his country and was one of the rare statesmen to play a part in the progress of European integration until the mid-1980s. He played a major role in regional integration (BLEU, Benelux) and in EEC policy-making and gained a strong reputation for forging a political consensus between larger powers (Germany and France)and between diametrically opposed positions (‘economists’ vs ‘monetarists’). In this way he succeeded in defending Luxembourg’s vital interests, from the financial centre to the seats of the European institutions. Werner was involved in the major ideological debates of the time. Although initially in favour of a monetary approach, Werner was one of the first to develop arguments for a symmetrical economic and monetary union. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35180 Title: Towards Europe 2020 out of the Economic Crisis: Is the Project Bond iniative a means to financial stability and integration? <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Kavvadia, Helen <br/> <br/>Abstract: Since the establishment of the single monetary policy and introduction of the euro, it is pertinent to investigate the link between financial stability and integration. Is there a complementarity between the two or are financial stability and integration a contradiction in terms? In other words, isn't a search for a highly integrated financial system that would strengthen stability a bit like a search for the Holy Grail? Investment has been the cementing element of EU integration, institutions and policies - in brief, in creating more Europe. More concretely, investment in people, in knowledge and in physical assets, to ensure that Europe preserves its role and position in the world. The current crisis transcends national, even continental borders. Europe is reminded of its severity on a daily basis. Record unemployment is one of the consequences; shrinking public budgets and financial austerity another. In the run-up to the current recession investment grew by 5- 6% a years. Exporters and home buyers drove this expansion, which ended in 2008. Since then, the lack of investment has been a main source of demand weakness in the European Union. A collapse of investment activity of this magnitude has inevitable repercussions for economic expansion in the longer term. If productive capital stocks do not grow - indeed, if they are not even maintained - EU growth potential will inevitably shrink. A revival of investment activity is therefore is crucial to the long-term growth prospects of Europe. One precondition for such an investment revival is access to reasonably priced funding for long-term projects. The process of fiscal consolidation at national and European level has already placed a severe restriction on public budgets - and will continue to do so in the medium term. This pressure means that the EU has to find ways to achieve more with less. In particular, at European level, one needs to ensure that a limited EU budget is used to maximum effect. The newly established EU project bond initiative is seen as a means to go ahead in the current circumstances. As it does not impose an additional burden on domestic budgets, sovereign debt or contingent liabilities. The review looks into the type of investment that can be catered by the project bond initiative and the sectors selected for magnifying the growth potential. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35179 Title: International Trade and Business Practices: A comparative attempt in the apparel market <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Kavvadia, Helen <br/> <br/>Abstract: The apparel industry is an important branch of Greek manufacturing, with a significant contribution to production, employment and exports. According to data from the Chamber of Commerce in the apparel industry in Greece includes some 437 companies. It employs 14,257 workers, i.e. 8.1% of the annual average employment of the aggregate Greek industry employment. During 1995-2002, the industrial production sector decay rate of 3.2% annually. Estimated, however, that the index of industrial production in 2003 was a much smaller decline of 0.7 %. It is worth noting that a significant share of the production industry has a system of outward processing (outsourcing), estimated that about 12% of the production is done with this method. In recent years, there is a significant reduction in the number of businesses operating in the production of clothing. More specifically, in 2002, companies reduced to 470. A similar trend followed the average annual employment, recording rate reduction of 8.3% annually. Despite the decline in employment, average wage in this sector increased by 8.7% per year on average, offsetting to some extent the general downturn in the industry. Globalization has greatly influenced the clothing industry, and led to the development of subcontracting (façon), method by which the business units of the developed countries split the stages of their production process and outsource labor-intensive stages in companies operating in developing countries where labor costs are low. Under pressure from labor costs, the Greek garment industry had since early 2000 to make moves that would allow it to maintain its competitive position. A path followed by quite a number of Greek companies was to establish production facilities in the Balkan countries. This offered a large production base at low cost. To date, a significant number of Greek companies have implemented all the labor-intensive activities (sewing-box) in the neighboring Balkan countries and their number is growing. It is estimated that today, more than 200 Greek businesses active clothing in the Balkans. To increase competitiveness, Greek apparel companies consolidated their activities both in terms of geographic location, as well as the object of their work. Greece is a country with a tradition of producing knitted garments, whereas constant wear has a rather limited activity. The overwhelming proportion of the apparel business is located in Northern Greece and especially in the area of Thessaloniki. The concentration of industry in northern Greece is also due to the incentives provided by the Greek government in the framework of the Development Laws, geographic proximity to the Balkan countries and availability of skilled work force. The Greek apparel is a tough arena for Greek companies among themselves, but moreover, the industry as a whole faces fierce competition from multinational brands (brand name) with high recognition. The strategies followed are based mainly on product differentiation through pricing and advertising. Distribution network enlargement plays also a significant role in strengthening individual company’s positioning in the industry. A number of companies expanded through branching and others through franchising. Some of them sought also cooperations with major international companies. The sales network expansion was both within the country, as well as in other Balkan countries. The main problem hindering this evolution is that the industry is fragmented in many small businesses, mainly family owned with poor and inefficient administration (organization, planning, etc.), production plants are small and cannot develop scale advantages, and in some cases production lines do not consist of state-of-the-art equipment, due to poor investment rates. Still, there is room for growth in the sector, even in this crisis period. Lessons can be taken from established international brands. http://hdl.handle.net/10993/35178 Title: European Integration and Peripheral Disparities in Greece. The way ahead <br/> <br/>Author, co-author: Kavvadia, Helen <br/> <br/>Abstract: As the main initiatives in economic and regional policy in Greece focuses on creating favourable conditions for general economic growth and innovation rather than regional redistribution and cohesion, the future of the peripheral areas is largely a local concern and to an increasingly degree depending upon European co-operation and initiatives.