Quantitative fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) is a molecular genetic method based on the amplification of microsatellites (Short tandem repeats, STR) and measurement of the peak heights of amplicons in the electropherogram. Currently, the QF-PCR deemed reliable, fast, and inexpensive method that is gradually replacing conventional cytogenetic analysis of aneuploidy (examination of long-term cultures of amniotic fluid). However, in certain cases it is impossible to determine the parental origin and meiotic aneuploidy by QF-PCR. The aim of this work was to verify the new dinucleotide STR markers on chromozomes 13, 16, 18, 21, and 22 and further increase the diagnostic efficiency of QF-PCR retaining other STR markers on chromozome 15, 16, 22 and to determine the population and the analytical characteristics of these markers. For all dinucleotide STR markers stutter occurred in high frequency and therefore there were found not to be suitable for routine diagnostics. STR markers for chromozomes 15, 16 and 22 were tested on 100 patients. We selected four informative markers for both chromozome 16 and 22, and three markers for chromozome 15. Thus, I expanded set of diagnostic STR markers in this thesis.

Quantitative fluorescence polymerase chain reaction (QF-PCR) is a molecular genetic method based on the amplification of microsatellites (Short tandem repeats, STR) and measurement of the peak heights of amplicons in the electropherogram. Currently, the QF- PCR deemed reliable, fast, and inexpensive method that is gradually replacing conventional cytogenetic analysis of aneuploidy (examination of long-term cultures of amniotic fluid). However, in certain cases it is impossible to determine the parental origin and meiotic aneuploidy by QF-PCR. The aim of this work was to verify the new dinucleotide STR markers on chromosomes 13, 16, 18, 21, and 22 and further increase the diagnostic efficiency of QF-PCR retaining other STR markers on chromosome 15, 16, 22 and to determine the population and the analytical characteristics of these markers. For all dinucleotide STR markers stutter occurred in high frequency and therefore there were found not to be suitable for routine diagnostics. STR markers for chromosomes 15, 16 and 22 were tested on 100 patients. We selected four informative markers for both chromosome 16 and 22, and three markers for chromosome 15. Thus, I expanded set of diagnostic STR markers in this thesis. Key words: QF-PCR, STR markers, prenatal diagnosis, trisomy.

The paper investigates the determinants of internal migration within late imperial Austria. In contrast to the modernization paradigm which studies onedirectional migration flows from rural to urban areas, our approach highlights that spatial mobility consisted of movements in both directions. Using data on all districts of the Austrian part of the Hapsburg Monarchy, we find that in- and outmigration rates are positively correlated, and that the modernization paradigm in migration research is consistent with our results for net-migration rates, but inconsistent with those for out-migration. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Implicit feedback is usually data that comes from users’ clicks, search queries and text highlights. It exists in abun- dance, but it is riddled with much noise and requires advanced algorithms to properly make good use of it. Several findings suggest that factors such as click-through data and reading time could be used to create user behaviour models in order to predict the users’ information need. This Master’s thesis aims to use click-through data and search queries together with heuristics to create a model that prioritises metadata-fields of the documents in order to predict the information need of a user. Simply put, implicit feedback will be used to improve the precision of a search engine. The Master’s thesis was carried out at Findwise AB - a search engine consultancy firm. Documents from the benchmark dataset INEX were indexed into a search engine. Two different heuristics were proposed that increment the priority of different metadata-fields based on the users’ search queries and clicks. It was assumed that the heuristics would be able to change the listing order of the search results. Evaluations were carried out for the two heuristics and the unmodified search engine was used as the baseline for the experiment. The evaluations were based on simulating a user that searches queries and clicks on documents. The queries and documents, with manually tagged relevance, used in the evaluation came from a data set given by INEX. It was expected that listing order would change in a way that was favourable for the user; the top-ranking results would be documents that truly were in the interest of the user. The evaluations revealed that the behaviour of the heuristics and the baseline have erratic behaviours and metrics never converged to any specific mean-relevance. A statistical test revealed that there is no difference in accuracy between the heuristics and the baseline. These results mean that the proposed heuristics do not improve the precision of the search engine and several factors, such as the indexing of too redundant metadata, could have been responsible for this outcome. / Implicit feedback är oftast data som kommer från användarnas klick, sökfrågor och textmarkeringar. Denna data finns i överflöd, men har för mycket brus och kräver avancerade algoritmer för att man ska kunna dra nytta av den. Flera rön föreslår att faktorer som klickdata och läsningstid kan användas för att skapa beteendemodeller för att förutse användarens informationsbehov. Detta examensarbete ämnar att använda klickdata och sökfrågor tillsammans med heuristiker för att skapa en modell som prioriterar metadata-fält i dokument så att användarens informationsbehov kan förutses. Alltså ska implicit feedback användas för att förbättra en sökmotors precision. Examensarbetet utfördes hos Findwise AB - en konsultfirma som specialiserar sig på söklösningar. Dokument från utvärderingsdatamängden INEX indexerades i en sökmotor. Två olika heuristiker skapades för att ändra prioriteten av metadata-fälten utifrån användarnas sök- och klickdata. Det antogs att heuristikerna skulle kunna förändra ordningen av sökresultaten. Evalueringar utfördes för båda heuristiker och den omodifierade sökmotorn användes som måttstock för experimentet. Evalueringarna gick ut på att simulera en användare som söker på frågor och klickar på dokument. Dessa frågor och dokument, med manuellt taggad relevansdata, kom från en datamängd som tillhandahölls av INEX. Evalueringarna visade att beteendet av heuristikerna och måttstocket är slumpmässiga och oberäkneliga. Ingen av heuristikerna konvergerar mot någon specifik medelrelevans. Ett statistiskt test visar att det inte är någon signifikant skillnad på uppmätt träffsäkerhet mellan heuristikerna och måttstocket. Dessa resultat innebär att heuristikerna inte förbättrar sökmotorns precision. Detta utfall kan bero på flera faktorer som t.ex. indexering av överflödig meta-data.

Power business is a somewhat special business¡CIt has no stocks. Because of this, power business is classified into inherent monopoly business for a very long time before. Nowadays, most governments of developed countries changed their point of view; they modified the relevant law and began to allow more than two power companies to run on the same power supply area since few years ago. Taiwan's government is affected by this thinking and doing in 1990 and adopted it later since 1994. Firstly, they permitted private power stations built by private enterprises in1995. Since then, domestic power business is treated as a ¡§step by step open¡¨ business. Different from what other Independent Power Station (So called I.P.P.)has done, Taiwan Power Company has adopted the policy of allocating their maintenance crew in each nuclear and fire power station instead of establishing a dependent sub-maintenance company or outsourcing maintenance job to other power station maintenance contractor as the other I.P.P.s. has done¡C This is indeed a quite controversy policy even inside the Taiwan Power Company. But most of the members and representatives of workers Union are against any relocating crew or changing policy and even stronger. The policy of privatizing Taiwan Power Company and open competition of electricity-providing is determined definitely by R.O.C. government, still the progress of it is not very clear to the relevant stakeholder. However, the competence of Taiwan Power Company will be needed much more than ever. And the operation cost and management performance is therefore a major and important factor to the position of Taiwan Power Company in the future electricity market. This research is intended to study only benefit of cost-down and efficiency-rising element of the electricity power company and its nuclear and power station, it concerns nothing to do with any social topics such as working right of the crew , opinion and attitude of the work union and the like.

Kap. 1 schätzt den Effekt sozial gemischten Wohnens auf Resilienz gegenüber epidemischen Schocks. Anhand von Gesundheitsberichten und Berufsdaten aus Stadtverzeichnissen assoziiere ich die Verbreitung der Cholera während der 1866er Epidemie mit einem Maß für soziale Diversität für ca. 12200 Häuser Berlins. Diversere Häuser erleben mit höherer Wahrscheinlichkeit mindestens einen Fall, sind aber auch erfolgreicher bei der Eindämmung weiterer Fälle. Zur kausalem Interpretation nutze ich exogene Variation, die sich aus den geometrischen Eigenschaften der Gebäude ergibt. Ich zeige, dass Exposition gegenüber Außenkontakten und gemeinsamer Zugang zu Leitungswasser in gemischten Mietergemeinschaften die Inzidenzeffekte teilweise erklären. Kap. 2 evaluiert, ob die Cholera als Katalysator für städtische Was¬ser-infrastrukturreformen fungierte. In einer Fallstudie Berlins im 19. Jahrhundert zeige ich, dass die Interpretation der Cholera durch Miasma- und proto-epidemiologische Theorien der prä-bakteriologischen Ära ineffiziente, kontraproduktive Wasserwirtschaftsreformen inspirierten, was die Sterblichkeit für einige Zeit erhöhte. Das gängige Narrativ eines durch epidemische Schocks „erzwungenen“ sanitären Aufbruchs vermittelt ein irreführendes Bild der westlichen Volksgesundheitsgeschichte. Kap. 3 zeigt, dass Leitungswassernetze ohne Kanalisation geringen gesundheitlichen Nutzen stiften. Mittels Wasserspülung schwemmen Individuen Krankheitserreger in Rinnsteine, Grundwasserleiter, Straßen und offene Gewässer. Entlang dieser Abwasserströme lebende Nachbarn werden zusätzlichen Gesundheitsrisiken ausgesetzt, die durch den Anschluss der Abfallverursacher an eine Kanalisation neutralisiert werden. Mittels eines Flussrichtungsmodells schätze ich die Abwasser-Exposition für alle Gebäude Berlins in 1875/1880. In einer Differenz-in-Differenzen-Regression zeige ich, dass die negativen externen Effekte der Leitungswassernutzung dessen direkte Vorteile im Aggregat teilweise aufheben. / Chapter 1 estimates the causal effect of mixed-income housing on resilience to epidemic shocks. Using detailed health reports and occupational data from town directories, I relate cholera incidence to a social diversity measure at the level of Berlin’s roughly 12,200 buildings during the 1866 pandemic. Mixed tenant communities are more likely to experience an initial case, but also more successful in containing further in-house spread. To establish causality, I exploit exogenous variation from building lots’ geometric properties in an instrumental variable approach. I find that increased exposure to outside contacts and shared tap water access partly explain the effects. Chapter 2 evaluates whether cholera functioned as catalysts for the efficient reform of urban water infrastructure. Studying 19th century Berlin, I find that cholera’s conception through miasmatist frameworks and the proto-epidemiological tools of the pre-bacteriological era inspired inefficient and counterproductive approaches to water management and potentially deepened the mortality penalty for a certain time. This suggests that the popular interpretation of a sanitary awakening enforced by epidemic shocks paints a misleading picture of Western public health history. Chapter 3 tests a mechanism explaining why cities yield little health benefits from tap water if they do not simultaneously construct sewers. Individuals use the pressurized water supply to flush pathogens from their local environment, thus feeding additional waste to gutters, groundwater acquirers, streets and open water bodies. Neighbors living along the resulting waste flows bear indirect costs, only neutralized once waste emitters connect to sewers. Using a flow direction model based on Berlin’s elevation profile, I estimate waste flow trajectories and exposure for all buildings in Berlin in 1875/1880. In a difference-in- differences approach, I find that tap water’s negative external effects partly offset its direct benefits.

Die vorliegende Dissertation setzt sich mit dem Einfluß ökonomischer Geographie auf die Geschichte des Heiligen Römischen Reichs deutscher Nation bis zum Deutschen Zollverein auseinander. Die Dissertation besteht aus drei Kapiteln. Im ersten Kapitel werden die Effekte von Heterogenität in der Beobachtbarkeit der Bodenqualität auf Besteuerung und politischen Institutionen erläutert, theoretisch betrachtet und empirisch anhand von Kartendaten analysiert. Es wird ein statistischer Zusammenhang zwischen Beobachtbarkeit der Bodenqualität und Größe und Überlebenswahrschenlichkeit von mittelalterlichen Staaten hergestelt. Das zweite Kapitel befasst sich mit dem Einfluß dieses Mechanismus auf die spezielle Geschichte Brandenburg-Preußens, und erläutert die Rolle der Beobachtbarkeut der Bodenqualität auf die Entwicklung zentraler Institutionen nach dem Dreißigjährigen Krieg. Im empirischen Teil wird anhand von Daten zu Provinzkontributionen ein statistisch signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen Bodenqualität und Besteuerug erst im Laufe des siebzehnten Jahrhundert deutlich. Das dritte Kapitel befasst sich mit dem Einfluß relativer Geographie auf die Gründung des Deutschen Zollvereins als Folge des Wiener Kongresses. Durch Analyse der Handelsströme und potentieller Zolleinnahmen wird ein Zusammenhang zwischen Geographischer Lage und der Entscheidung, dem Zollverein anzugehören deutlich. Dies erklärt in Teilen, wie einnahmemaximierende Staaten dem Zollverein aus Eigeninteresse beitreten konnten. / This dissertation features three essays on the influence of Economic Geography on the development of the Holy Roman Empire until the German Zollverein. The dissertation consists of three essays. The first analyzes the effect of geographically induced heterogeneity of soil quality, which has knock on effects on the development of taxation and political institutions. These ideas are analyzed both theoretically and empirically, using a novel dataset of GIS maps. Results indicate a relationship between observability and states' geographic sizes and survival probability. The second chapter employs these ideas in the context of Brandenburg-Prussia, striving to create a centralized state after the Thirty Years War. Empirics indicate a relationship between observability and provincial contribution during the decades following the Thirty Years War. The third chapter analyzes the influence of geography on the foundation of the German Zollverein as a consequence of the Congress of Vienna. By analyzing trade flows and potential tariff revenues, a relationship between a state's geographic location and its decision to join the Zollverein is revealed. In parts, this explains how revenue-maximizing states could join the Zollverein, for their own interest.

Als "Coolie" gilt gemeinhin der "ungelernte" Arbeiter. Das Anbieten von Leiharbeit hatte diverse präkoloniale Vorläufer. Im 19. Jahrhundert wurde der Versuch unternommen, den Begriff des "Coolies" durch diskursive Auslegungen und die Methoden einer "flexiblen-inflexiblen" Arbeit neu zu prägen. "Coolie"-Arbeit galt meist als ein Kompromiss zwischen der Vergangenheit (Sklavenarbeit) und der Zukunft (freie Arbeit/Lohnarbeit) und als Spagat zwischen beiden Systemen. Sie wurde als ein Übergangsstadium und Teil eines versprochenen Wandels dargestellt. Die Teeplantagen Assams nahmen wie viele andere tropische Plantagen in Südasien auch im 19. Jahrhundert offiziell ihren Betrieb auf. Ursprünglich wurden sie von lokalen Arbeitern betrieben. Erst in den späten 1850er-Jahren wurden die lokalen Arbeiter durch von außerhalb der Provinz importierten Arbeitskräften ersetzt, die in der historischen Literatur gemeinhin unproblematisch mit dem Begriff "Coolies" belegt werden. Durch eine Analyse des Übergangs von der lokal rekrutiert für "Kuli" Arbeit und durch eine Analyse seiner Einführung die Studie argumentiert, dass "Kuli" Arbeit wurde "produziert" in den Kolonialkapitalistischen Plantagen in Assam. Mein Anliegen besteht dabei ausdrücklich nicht darin, einen zügellosen kolonialen Kapitalismus nahezulegen, dessen Strategie es ist, "Coolies" zu definieren und hervorzubringen oder die historischen Umstände, Verhandlungen, Streitfragen und Krisen zu betonen. Ich versuche vielmehr, die Erzählungen vom plötzlichen Auftauchen des archetypischen Teeplantagen-"Coolies" (d.i. als importierter und unfreier Lohnarbeiter) zu hinterfragen und sein Erscheinen, sein Bestehen und seine Verlagerungen mehr im Sinne grundlegender und diskursiver Prozesse auszulegen. / “Coolie” is a generic category for the “unskilled” manual labour. The offering of services for hire had various pre-colonial lineages. In the nineteenth century there was an attempt to recast the term in discursive constructions and material practices for “mobilized-immobilized” labour. Coolie labour was often proclaimed as a deliberate compromise straddling the regimes of the past (slave labour) and the future (free labour). It was portrayed as a stage in a promised transition. The tea plantations of Assam, like many other tropical plantations in South Asia, were inaugurated and formalized during this period. They were initially worked by the locals. In the late 1850s, the locals were replaced by labourers imported from outside the province who were unquestioningly designated “coolies” in the historical literature. Qualifying this framework of transition (local to coolie labour) and introduction (of coolie labour), this study makes a case for the “production” of coolie labour in the history of the colonial-capitalist plantations in Assam. The intention of the research is not to suggest an unfettered agency of colonial-capitalism in defining and “producing” coolies, with an emphasis on the attendant contingencies, negotiations, contestations and crises. The study intervenes in the narratives of an abrupt appearance of the archetypical coolie of the tea gardens (i.e., imported and indentured) and situates this archetype’s emergence, sustenance and shifts in the context of material and discursive processes.

The point of departure of this study is that in the 1930s Oskar Morgenstern, well-known as the co-founder of game theory, was preoccupied by his activities in Austrian economic policy, possibly even more so than with his project to revolutionize economic theory. The main questions to be examined in this regard are, first, to what extent Morgenstern's advice did conform to the teachings of the Austrian school and, second, if he really exerted an influence on economic policy-making in Austria during this period. In order to answer this question the paper draws to a large part on unpublished sources from the Oskar Morgenstern Papers and uses them as a basis for determining Morgenstern's role in a few critical episodes of Austrian economic policy-making. (author's abstract) / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

Nous avons caractérisé différents cristaux piézoélectriques de Langatate La3Ga5.5Ta0.5O14 (LGT), de différentes couleurs afin d’évaluer l’influence des défauts sur la qualité de dispositifs du domaine Temps-Fréquence (résonateurs acoustiques).Nous avons étudié la composition de ces cristaux dont les variations autour de la composition stoechiométrique sont surtout dues à l’évaporation du Ga2O au cours de la croissance compensée par un excès de Ga2O3 dans le mélange initial. Pour déterminer cette composition, la technique ICP-AES, précédée par une mise en solution par fusion alcaline, est la plus fiable.La présence d’impuretés chimiques, telles que les éléments métalliques ou les terres rares, liée à la pureté des oxydes de base, au frittage de la charge dans un creuset alumine… est étudiée. Nous expliquons ainsi la nature des centres colorés qui évolue selon l’atmosphère de tirage ou lors d’un recuit particulier.C’est ainsi que nous avons déterminé certaines propriétés de LGT permettant l’obtention de dispositifs comme les résonateurs à ondes de volume dont le produit Q.f est supérieur à celui des résonateurs à quartz. Pour cela, nous montrons notamment qu’il est nécessaire que :- la composition du cristal soit la plus proche possible de la stoechiométrie,- la résistivité électrique soit la plus grande possible,- l’étude spectroscopique ne révèle aucune absorption dans le domaine du visible.Dans ces conditions, le facteur de qualité Q d’une résonance à 10 MHz peut être de 1.44 million au point d’inversion de la courbe fréquence-température (1.35 pour le quartz) mais qu’il diminue notablement pour atteindre 0.35 million si nous pratiquons un recuit sous air à 1000°C pendant 48 h. / We have characterized Langatate piezoelectric crystals La3Ga5.5Ta0.5O14 (LGT), differently colored in order to evaluate the defects influence on the quality of Bulk Acoustic Waves resonators for the Time and Frequency domain.We have analyzed the composition of crystals whose variations around stoichiometric composition are mainly due to the evaporation of the Ga2O during growth compensated by adding an excess of Ga2O3 in the initial mixture. Among different techniques, the ICP-AES spectrometry, preceded by a dissolution by alkaline fusion seems to be the most accurate technique to determine the composition.The inevitable presence of chemical impurities, such as metallic elements, rare earth… linked to the purities of the raw materials, to the sintering of the load in an alumina crucible… is also studied. We try to explain in particular the nature of the color centers that evolve according to the growth atmosphere or during a particular annealing.So, we conclude by a list of necessary properties to obtain BAW resonators exhibiting a Q.f product higher than quartz. For this, we establish that it is necessary that:- the crystal composition is as close as possible to the stoichiometric composition,- the electrical resistivity is the highest possible,- the spectroscopic study does not reveal any absorption band in the visible domain.In these conditions, we were able to highlight that the quality factor of a 10 MHz resonance is of 1.44 million at the inversion temperature of the frequency-temperature curve (1.35 for the quartz crystal in the same conditions), but that this one decreases significantly to reach 0.35 million if we perform an annealing under air at 1000 °C during 48 hours.