Gilg U. H. Seeber

Stage T1, Grade 3 Transitional Cell Carcinoma of the Bladder: An Unfavorable Tumor?

Transurethral resection only was performed in 172 patients with initial stage Ta, T1 transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder. Additional treatment during the course of disease was given to 9 patients with carcinoma in situ and to 8 patients with tumor progression. The mean followup was 106 months. The 10-year survival rates were 95 per cent for patients with stage Ta, grade 1 disease, 89 per cent for stage Ta, grade 2, 84 per cent for stage Ta, grade 3, 78 per cent for stage T1, grade 2 and 50 per cent for stage T1, grade 3. The percentage of first tumor recurrence at the same site increased with tumor grade (stage T1, grade 3 was 74 per cent). The recurrence rate in stage T1, grade 3 tumors (4.08) differed significantly from the other groups of superficial tumors. The tumor progression rate for stage T1, grade 3 tumors (32.5 per cent) was significantly higher as well. The characteristics of stage T1, grade 3 tumors with and without progression were different in regard to multiplicity, recurrence rate, mean interval to recurrence and type of tumor invasion. Of the 13 patients who died of progressive neoplastic disease 11 presented initially with stage T1, grade 3 tumors. When these results are considered it is obvious that a patient with a stage T1, grade 3 tumor deserves additional therapy, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy or phototherapy.

Colonization of experimentally created gaps along an alpine successional gradient

The colonization of artificially created gaps was analyzed along an alpine successional gradient from pioneer to early, late, and old successional stages. The presence/absence of species and the abundances of seedlings and adults in the gaps were recorded and compared with those of the surrounding areas. We hypothesized that in the older successional stages, the gaps were likely to be colonized by clonal ingrowth of the surrounding species. In the younger stages, we expected to find a high presence of seedlings and adults recruited by seeds. Micro-succession in the gaps occurred at each successional stage, with all life forms among the colonizers. The abundance of seedlings was significantly higher in the gaps compared with the surrounding area. At the early and late successional stages, the surrounding areas provided safe sites for seedling establishment, with the abundance of adults recruited by seeds higher at the gap edges than in the gap centers. We can confirm the first hypothesis of a higher clonal ingrowth in the old successional stage. Clonal ingrowth also occurred in the younger successional stages. Despite the lower species richness in the gaps, a positive correlation was found between gap and surrounding species frequencies, which were the highest in the pioneer and the lowest in the old successional stage. We conclude that gaps are relevant for seedling recruitment along the entire primary succession gradient. New species invasions from greater distances were not observed in the gaps. The dominant species on each site were identified to be successful gap colonizers.

On the negative value of information in informationally inefficient markets : Calculations for large number of traders

In informationally inefficient markets, classical decision theory assumes the value of information to be positive. Recent developments, however, contradict this paradigm. Schredelseker [Schredelseker, K., 2001. Is the usefulness approach useful? Some reflections on the utility of public information. In: McLeay, S., Riccaboni, A. (Eds.), Contemporary Issues in Accounting Regulation, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, pp. 135-153] proposed a simulation model wherein a single security is traded among non-cooperating and asymetrically informed traders. One of the main results was the fact that badly informed traders could expect higher returns than traders with more information. But Schredelseker was able to give exact results for a small number of traders only. The aim of this paper is to give reliable results for a sufficiently large number of traders for both the expected gain and the probability of gain larger than zero. We are using combinatorial methods in order to get exact results for badly informed traders and simulation techniques for results of traders with higher level of information. The exact results are used (error between exact results and simulation results for the first traders) to determine the number of samples which have to be drawn with the simulation algorithm. As a result it was possible to verify the negative value of information on gain for a sufficient large number of traders. Furthermore a partition of expected gain is given. Traders with less information seem to be in advantage because of that part of information which is unknown to them.

Sourcing the News: Comparing Source Use and Media Framing of the 2009 European Parliamentary Elections

The relationship between journalists and their sources has been described as an interdependent relationship where each part needs the other. For political actors, this relationship is particularly important during election campaigns, when their need to reach voters through the media is even more urgent than usual. This is particularly true with respect to European Parliamentary election campaigns, as these are often less salient and as peoples need for orientation is greater than in national elections. However, there is only limited cross-national research on the medias use of news sources and whether there are associations between the use of news sources and media framing. This holds true for research on election campaigns in general and on European Parliamentary election campaigns in particular. Against this background, this study investigates cross-national differences and similarities in the medias use of news sources in their coverage of the 2009 European Parliamentary election campaigns and the extent to which the use of news sources is associated with the medias framing of politics and the EU. The study draws upon a quantitative content analysis of the media coverage in twelve countries. Findings suggest that there are both important similarities and differences across countries with respect to the use of news sources and that there are cases when the use of news sources is related to the framing of politics and the EU.

SEMI-MARKOV AND COMPETING RISKS MODELS WITH APPLICATIONS TO OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY

Publisher Summary This chapter presents two approaches of stochastic modeling of social processes, namely, semi Markov processes and competing risks models, with applications to occupational mobility. Models of competing risks are developed by biostatisticians and can be interpreted as mechanisms governing special semi Markov processes. However, most of the competing risks literature uses the concept of latent sojour times, each associated with a specific cause of termination of the actual, observable sojourn time. A semi Markov process is completely characterized either by the matrix of transition probabilities and the vector of its initial distribution or by the conditional distributions of the sojourn times, the probabilities of transitions. The chapter discusses a few generalizations of concepts used in the statistical analysis of single sojourn times. The dependent and the independent model are indistinguishable by means of the observable quantities.

Effects of Alpine land-use changes: Soil macrofauna community revisited

Abstract Although soil invertebrates play a decisive role in maintaining ecosystem functioning, little is known about their structural composition in Alpine soils and how their abundances are affected by the currently ongoing land‐use changes. In this study, we re‐assessed the soil macrofauna community structure of managed and abandoned Alpine pastureland, which has already been evaluated 14 years earlier. Our results confirm clear shifts in the community composition after abandonment, in that (1) Chilopoda and Diplopoda were recorded almost exclusively on the abandoned sites, (2) Coleoptera larvae and Diptera larvae were more abundant on the abandoned than on the managed sites, whereas (3) Lumbricidae dominated on the managed sites. By revisiting managed and abandoned sites, we infer community patterns caused by abandonment such as changes in the epigeic earthworm community structure, and we discuss seasonal and sampling effects. Our case study improves the still limited understanding of spatio‐temporal biodiversity patterns of Alpine soil communities.

Three Worlds of Representation: A Linkage-Based Typology of Parties in Western and Eastern Europe:

This article is part of the special cluster titled Parties and Democratic Linkage in Post-Communist Europe, guest edited by Lori Thorlakson, and will be published in the August 2018 issue of EEPS Have Eastern European democracies developed patterns of accountability similar to those existent in their established counterparts? While most accounts of convergence are confined to the world of programmatic reasoning and policy representation, we use a unique data set to cover the wealth of instrumental and emotional modes of linkage building. We apply advanced techniques of model-based cluster analysis to establish a linkage-based typology of political parties. In the East, the contrast of programmatic and clientelistic parties is most essential in the absence of strong regional subdivisions. In the West, the structure of linkage building is characterized by an all-encompassing divide that separates mainstream and challenger parties. Parties in Southern Europe form a distinct Mediterranean type of “machine politics.” The results for affluent post-industrial societies both support and contradict premises of the cartel party hypothesis. For third-wave democracies in the East, our results suggest the persistence of legacies of pre-communist and communist rule against the weight of cumulative democratic experience. In sum, patterns of accountability remained markedly different in the two regions on the eve of the economic crisis in 2008–2009.

Die österreichische Nationalratswahl vom 29. September 2013: Das Ende Großer Koalitionen in Sicht

Das Ergebnis der letzten österreichischen Nationalratswahl wirkt auf den ersten Blick unspektakulär: Die Rangfolge der etablierten Parteien blieb erhalten; die Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ) verteidigte den ersten Platz vor ihrem Koalitionspartner ÖVP (Österreichische Volkspartei); die Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs (FPÖ) hielt sich vor den Grünen . Lediglich das Bündnis Zukunft Österreich (BZÖ) verfehlte den Wiedereinzug in den Nationalrat, in dem nunmehr erstmals in der Geschichte der Zweiten Republik als Folge einer Wahl sechs Fraktionen vertreten sind . Die einst dominanten Staatsparteien SPÖ und ÖVP konnten allerdings nur knapp mehr als die Hälfte aller gültigen Stimmen auf sich vereinen . Das Ausmaß der seit Mitte der 1980er Jahre beobachtbaren Dekonzentrationsprozesse im Parteiensystem wird im westeuropäischen Vergleich lediglich vom – ungleich spektakuläreren – italienischen Fall übertroffen . Welche Faktoren ermöglichten den jüngsten Einzug neuer Parteien – der rechtspopulistischen Bewegung des austrokanadischen Industrietycoons Frank Stronach (Team Stronach [TS] beziehungsweise Liste FRANK1) und der liberalen NEOS (Das Neue Österreich)? Das Neue Österreich und Liberales Forum waren erst im Herbst 2012 und damit rund ein Jahr vor dem Urnengang gegründet worden . Welche Facetten des Wählerwillens kommen in der Verbreiterung des Parteiensystems im Kern und an den Rändern zum Ausdruck? Welche Folgen drängen sich für den Parteienwettbewerb auf?