Johannes Kepler University of Linz

About: Johannes Kepler University of Linz is a education organization based out in Linz, Oberösterreich, Austria. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Thin film & Quantum dot. The organization has 6605 authors who have published 19243 publications receiving 385667 citations.

Detection, localization, and conformational analysis of single polysaccharide molecules on live bacteria.

Abstract: The nanoscale exploration of microbes using atomic force microscopy (AFM) is an exciting, rapidly evolving research field. Here, we show that single-molecule force spectroscopy is a valuable tool for the localization and conformational analysis of individual polysaccharides on live bacteria. We focus on the clinically important probiotic bacterium Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG, demonstrating the power of AFM to reveal the coexistence of polysaccharide chains of different nature on the cell surface. Applicable to a wide variety of cells, this single molecule method offers exciting prospects for analyzing the heterogeneity and diversity of macromolecules constituting cell membranes and cell walls.

Immigration and Voting for the Far Right

Abstract: Does the presence of immigrants in one's neighbourhood affect voting for far right-wing parties? We study the case of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPO) which, under the leadership of Jorg Haider, increased its vote share from less than 5 percent in the early 1980s to 27 percent by the end of the 1990s and continued to attract more than 20 percent of voters in the 2013 national election. We find that the inflow of immigrants into a community has a significant impact on the increase in the community's voting share for the FPO, explaining roughly a tenth of the regional variation in vote changes. Our results suggest that voters worry about adverse labor market effects of immigration, as well as about the quality of their neighbourhood. In fact, we find evidence of a negative impact of immigration on "compositional amenities." In communities with larger immigration influx, Austrian children commute longer distances to school, and fewer daycare resources are provided. We do not find evidence that Austrians move out of communities with increasing immigrant presence.

What Role Does Hydrological Science Play in the Age of Machine Learning

Abstract: We suggest that there is a potential danger to the hydrological sciences community in not recognizing how transformative machine learning will be for the future of hydrological modeling. Given the recent success of machine learning applied to modeling problems, it is unclear what the role of hydrological theory might be in the future. We suggest that a central challenge in hydrology right now should be to clearly delineate where and when hydrological theory adds value to prediction systems. Lessons learned from the history of hydrological modeling motivate several clear next steps toward integrating machine learning into hydrological modeling workflows.

Molecular recognition imaging and force spectroscopy of single biomolecules.

Abstract: In recent years, considerable attention has focused on biological applications of the atomic force microscope (AFM), in particular on high-resolution imaging of individual biological molecules and on the measurement of molecular forces under near-physiological conditions. The detection of intermolecular forces in the piconewton range has paved the way to investigate details on structural parameters of the binding pockets and the energy landscapes of many biomolecular interactions. The capability of AFM to resolve nanometer-sized details, together with its force detection sensitivity, led to the development of molecular recognition imaging. By a combination of topographical imaging with force measurements, receptor sites are localized with nanometer accuracy. Topography and recognition of target molecules are thereby simultaneously mapped. Thus the AFM can identify specific components in a complex biological sample and retain its high resolution in imaging.

On the relationship of associative compensatory operators to triangular norms and conorms

Abstract: When using a t-norm for combining fuzzy sets, no compensation between small and large degrees of membership takes place. On the other hand, a t-conorm provides full compensation. Since many real situations do not fall into either one category, so-called compensatory operators have been proposed in the literature [H.-J. Zimmermann and P. Zysno, Fuzzy Sets and Systems4 (1980) 37–51] which are non-associative in nature. In this paper, associative compensatory operators (whose domain is the unit square with the exception of the two points (0, 1) and (1, 0) and whose only associative extensions to the whole unit square are the aggregative operators suggested in [J. Dombi, Europ. J. Oper. Res.10 (1982) 282–293]) are studied and their representation in terms of multiplicative generators is given. It is shown that these operators are constructed with the help of strict t-norms and t-conorms, in a way which is similar to ordinal sums. Finally, the duals of such operators are shown to be again associative compensatory operators, and a characterization of self-dual operators is given.