ETH Zurich

About: ETH Zurich is a education organization based out in Zurich, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Computer science. The organization has 48393 authors who have published 122408 publications receiving 5111383 citations. The organization is also known as: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich & Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich.

The KOF Globalisation Index – revisited

Abstract: We introduce the revised version of the KOF Globalisation Index, a composite index measuring globalization for every country in the world along the economic, social and political dimension. The original index was introduced by Dreher (Applied Economics, 38(10):1091–1110, 2006) and updated in Dreher et al. (2008). This second revision of the index distinguishes between de facto and de jure measures along the different dimensions of globalization. We also disentangle trade and financial globalization within the economic dimension of globalization and use time-varying weighting of the variables. The new index is based on 43 instead of 23 variables in the previous version. Following Dreher (Applied Economics, 38(10):1091–1110, 2006), we use the new index to examine the effect of globalization on economic growth. The results suggest that de facto and de jure globalization influence economic growth differently. Future research should use the new KOF Globalisation Index to re-examine other important consequences of globalization and why globalization was proceeding rapidly in some countries, such as South Korea, but less so in others. The KOF Globalisation Index can be downloaded from http://www.kof.ethz.ch/globalisation/ .

Lasing in direct-bandgap GeSn alloy grown on Si

Abstract: Lasing is experimentally demonstrated in a direct bandgap GeSn alloy, grown directly onto Si(001). The authors observe a clear lasing threshold as well as linewidth narrowing at low temperatures.

Diversity meets decomposition

Abstract: Over 100 gigatons of terrestrial plant biomass are produced globally each year. Ninety percent of this biomass escapes herbivory and enters the dead organic matter pool, thus supporting complex detritus-based food webs that determine the critical balance between carbon mineralization and sequestration. How will changes in biodiversity affect this vital component of ecosystem functioning? Based on our analysis of concepts and experiments of leaf decomposition in forest floors and streams, we suggest that changes in species diversity within and across trophic levels can significantly alter decomposition. This happens through various mechanisms that are broadly similar in forest floors and streams. Differences in diversity effects between these systems relate to divergent habitat conditions and evolutionary trajectories of aquatic and terrestrial decomposers.

Sixteen years of change in the global terrestrial human footprint and implications for biodiversity conservation

Abstract: Human pressures on the environment are changing spatially and temporally, with profound implications for the planet’s biodiversity and human economies. Here we use recently available data on infrastructure, land cover and human access into natural areas to construct a globally standardized measure of the cumulative human footprint on the terrestrial environment at 1 km2 resolution from 1993 to 2009. We note that while the human population has increased by 23% and the world economy has grown 153%, the human footprint has increased by just 9%. Still, 75% the planet’s land surface is experiencing measurable human pressures. Moreover, pressures are perversely intense, widespread and rapidly intensifying in places with high biodiversity. Encouragingly, we discover decreases in environmental pressures in the wealthiest countries and those with strong control of corruption. Clearly the human footprint on Earth is changing, yet there are still opportunities for conservation gains. Habitat loss and urbanization are primary components of human impact on the environment. Here, Venter et al.use global data on infrastructure, agriculture, and urbanization to show that the human footprint is growing slower than the human population, but footprints are increasing in biodiverse regions.

zCOSMOS: A Large VLT/VIMOS Redshift Survey Covering 0 < z < 3 in the COSMOS Field*

Abstract: zCOSMOS is a large-redshift survey that is being undertaken in the COSMOS field using 600 hr of observation with the VIMOS spectrograph on the 8 m VLT. The survey is designed to characterize the environments of COSMOS galaxies from the 100 kpc scales of galaxy groups up to the 100 Mpc scale of the cosmic web and to produce diagnostic information on galaxies and active galactic nuclei. The zCOSMOS survey consists of two parts: (1) zCOSMOSbright, a magnitude-limited I-band I_(AB) < 22.5 sample of about 20,000 galaxies with 0.1 < z < 1.2 covering the whole 1.7 deg^2 COSMOS ACS field, for which the survey parameters at z ~ 0.7 are designed to be directly comparable to those of the 2dFGRS at z ~ 0.1; and (2) zCOSMOS-deep, a survey of approximately 10,000 galaxies selected through color-selection criteria to have 1.4 < z < 3.0, within the central 1 deg^2. This paper describes the survey design and the construction of the target catalogs and briefly outlines the observational program and the data pipeline. In the first observing season, spectra of 1303 zCOSMOS-bright targets and 977 zCOSMOS-deep targets have been obtained. These are briefly analyzed to demonstrate the characteristics that may be expected from zCOSMOS, and particularly zCOSMOS-bright, when it is finally completed between 2008 and 2009. The power of combining spectroscopic and photometric redshifts is demonstrated, especially in correctly identifying the emission line in single-line spectra and in determining which of the less reliable spectroscopic redshifts are correct and which are incorrect. These techniques bring the overall success rate in the zCOSMOS-bright so far to almost 90% and to above 97% in the 0.5 < z < 0.8 redshift range. Our zCOSMOS-deep spectra demonstrate the power of our selection techniques to isolate high-redshift galaxies at 1.4 < z < 3.0 and of VIMOS to measure their redshifts using ultraviolet absorption lines.