Functional regulatory spaces

This article develops the concept of “Functional Regulatory Space” (FRS) in order to analyze the new forms of State action addressing (super) wicked problems. A FRS simultaneously spans several policy sectors, institutional territories and levels of government. It suggests integrating previous policy theories that focused on “boundary-spanning regime,” “territorial institutionalism” or multi-level governance. The FRS concept is envisaged as a Weberian “ideal-type” of State action and is applied to the empirical study of two European cases of potential FRS: the integrated management of water basins and the regulation of the European sky through functional airspace blocks. It will be concluded that the current airspace regulation does match the ideal-type of FRS any better than the water resource regulation does. The next research step consists in analyzing the genesis and institutionalization of potential FRS addressing other (super) wicked problems such as climate change and economic, security, health and immigration issues in different institutional contexts as well as at various levels of governance.

Dimension Distortion by Sobolev Mappings in Foliated Metric Spaces

We quantify the extent to which a supercritical Sobolev mapping can increase the dimension of subsets of its domain, in the setting of metric measure spaces supporting a Poincaré inequality. We show that the set of mappings that distort the dimensions of sets by the maximum possible amount is a prevalent subset of the relevant function space. For foliations of a metric space X defined by a David–Semmes regular mapping Π : X → W, we quantitatively estimate, in terms of Hausdorff dimension in W, the size of the set of leaves of the foliation that are mapped onto sets of higher dimension. We discuss key examples of such foliations, including foliations of the Heisenberg group by left and right cosets of horizontal subgroups.

Topological lattice actions for the 2d XY model

We consider the 2d XY Model with topological lattice actions, which are invariant against small deformations of the field configuration. These actions constrain the angle between neighbouring spins by an upper bound, or they explicitly suppress vortices (and anti-vortices). Although topological actions do not have a classical limit, they still lead to the universal behaviour of the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) phase transition — at least up to moderate vortex suppression. In the massive phase, the analytically known Step Scaling Function (SSF) is reproduced in numerical simulations. However, deviations from the expected universal behaviour of the lattice artifacts are observed. In the massless phase, the BKT value of the critical exponent ηc is confirmed. Hence, even though for some topological actions vortices cost zero energy, they still drive the standard BKT transition. In addition we identify a vortex-free transition point, which deviates from the BKT behaviour.

Prometheus Framework for Fuzzy Information Retrieval in Semantic Spaces

This paper introduces a novel vision for further enhanced Internet of Things services. Based on a variety of data (such as location data, ontology-backed search queries, in- and outdoor conditions) the Prometheus framework is intended to support users with helpful recommendations and information preceding a search for context-aware data. Adapted from artificial intelligence concepts, Prometheus proposes user-readjusted answers on umpteen conditions. A number of potential Prometheus framework applications are illustrated. Added value and possible future studies are discussed in the conclusion.

High resolution immunoelectron microscopic localization of functional domains of laminin, nidogen, and heparan sulfate proteoglycan in epithelial basement membrane of mouse cornea reveals different topological orientations

Thin and ultrathin cryosections of mouse cornea were labeled with affinity-purified antibodies directed against either laminin, its central segments (domain 1), the end of its long arm (domain 3), the end of one of its short arms (domain 4), nidogen, or low density heparan sulfate proteoglycan. All basement membrane proteins are detected by indirect immunofluorescence exclusively in the epithelial basement membrane, in Descemet's membrane, and in small amorphous plaques located in the stroma. Immunoelectron microscopy using the protein A-gold technique demonstrated laminin domain 1 and nidogen in a narrow segment of the lamina densa at the junction to the lamina lucida within the epithelial basement membrane. Domain 3 shows three preferred locations at both the cellular and stromal boundaries of the epithelial basement membrane and in its center. Domain 4 is located predominantly in the lamina lucida and the adjacent half of the lamina densa. The low density heparan sulfate proteoglycan is found all across the basement membrane showing a similar uniform distribution as with antibodies against the whole laminin molecule. In Descemet's membrane an even distribution was found with all these antibodies. It is concluded that within the epithelial basement membrane the center of the laminin molecule is located near the lamina densa/lamina lucida junction and that its long arm favors three major orientations. One is close to the cell surface indicating binding to a cell receptor, while the other two are directed to internal matrix structures. The apparent codistribution of laminin domain 1 and nidogen agrees with biochemical evidence that nidogen binds to this domain.