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Animal-source foods are a major component of global diets and are increasingly criticised because of their adverse impacts on environment, climate and health. A shift in diets towards plant-based foods is a discussed option to overcome these problems. Much of the scientific emphasis so far has been on estimating the potential of such a dietary change to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health outcomes while less attention has been attracted on studies analysing the impacts on agricultural markets. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive overview and, therefore, summarizes existing studies on the effects of a reduced consumption of animal-source foods on agricultural markets, greenhouse gas emissions, food security and health. In addition, available studies on the so‑called rebound effect are presented. The identified studies suggest that a reduction in the consumption of meat in the EU or OECD would lead to a 1‑10% decrease in meat world market prices, depending on the magnitude and particularities of the assumed dietary changes. This would translate to a 3‑10% reduction in production. The lower domestic demand for meat could also negatively affect welfare outcomes and GDP. However, it has to be mentioned that these studies do not take into account the consequences of improved environmental and health conditions. In fact, our review indicates that reductions in greenhouse gas emissions could generally be proportional to the magnitude of plant-based diets. The maximum reduction potentials of 60-70% could be found for global vegetarian or vegan diets. However, some studies indicate that a shift in food expenditure towards other resource-intensive goods could lead to a rebound effect. Further, this overview suggests that environmental and public health objectives might be in alignment as all identified studies indicate that a reduction in meat consumption in high‑income countries could be associated with lower rates of mortality and non-communicable diseases. This overview reveals the complex relationships between food demand, agricultural supply, international trade, environment, health and food security.

About a quarter of all food produced for human consumption is internationally traded, including foods with important public health implications such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and red meat. Food trade is generally perceived to increase the availability and diversity of foods available to consumers, but there is little empirical evidence on its implications for human health. Here we show that food trade has a substantial impact on dietary risks and mortality worldwide, and that whether impacts are positive or negative depends on the types of foods traded. Using bilateral trade data for 2019, together with food-specific risk-disease relationships, we estimate that international trade in fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts improved dietary risks in the importing countries and was associated with a reduction in mortality from non-communicable diseases of ~ 1.4 million deaths globally. In contrast, trade in red meat aggravated dietary risks in the importing countries and was associated with an increase of ~ 150,000 deaths. We identified European countries as the greatest importers of health-promoting foods, and countries in the Americas as the greatest exporters, whilst Germany, the USA, Spain, Brazil, and Australia were leading exporters of foods that increase dietary risks. The magnitude of our findings suggests that safeguarding the trade in health-promoting foods from disruptions, whilst limiting those of unhealthy ones can make substantial contribution to maintaining and improving population health. We anticipate that considering impacts on dietary risks will become important aspects for health-sensitive trade and agriculture policies, and for policy responses to disruptions in food chains.

The United Kingdom’s food system will be greatly impacted by Brexit-related trade deals and policy developments—with implications for dietary risk factors and public health. Here we use an integrated economic–health modelling framework to analyse the impacts of different policy approaches to Brexit. A ‘soft Brexit’ that is in line with the EU–UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement increases diet-related mortality in the United Kingdom as costs for health-promoting and import-dependent foods increase and their consumption decreases. Negotiating free-trade agreements with the United States and Commonwealth countries as part of a ‘global Britain’ approach could triple the negative health impacts of Brexit as greater availability of energy-dense foods increases weight-related risks without meaningfully reducing dietary risks. Eliminating import tariffs on health-sensitive horticultural products could mitigate the negative health impacts of Brexit, and reforming agricultural subsidies to incentivize greater domestic horticultural production could lead to net health gains. Combining these health-sensitive approaches to trade policy and subsidy reform doubled the health gains, offering a promising approach for mitigating the detrimental impacts Brexit could have on dietary health in the United Kingdom. Post-Brexit free-trade agreements could increase diet-related health risks—but tariff and subsidy reforms could mitigate these risks.

Developing countries coalitions form an integral part of tariff negotiations that take place under the aegis of the World Trade Organization. While there was only a single coalition in the 70s, their number increased to 31 in the year 2005. Despite the apparent proliferation of coalitions in tariff negotiations, little research on their theoretical and empirical implications has been produced. In particular, we lack an understanding of efficiency and equity effects of coalitions. By exploring this equity-efficiency nexus, the study finds that developing countries coalitions like the G-90 and the Least Developed Countries Group – while benefiting member countries – lead to less efficiency and less equity overall. Forming the Cairns Group, however, leads to a more efficient and equal distribution of the gains from trade.

International audience; When modelling medium and long-term challenges we need a reference path of economic development (the so-called baseline). Because sectoral models often offer a more fundamental understanding of future developments for specific sectors, many CGE modeling teams have adopted different kinds of linking approaches to sectoral models to generate baselines. We systematically compare and discuss approaches of linking CGE models for the baseline calibration procedure, and discuss best practices and pitfalls. We identify different types of linking approaches which we divide into a) links with partial equilibrium models, and b) links with non-economic models. These two types of linking approaches are then analyzed with respect to e.g. the degree of linkage, information exchanged, as well as compromises in aggregations and definitions. Based on this, we discuss potential drawbacks and conclude with suggestions for best practices and research recommendations.

Brexit is expected to have significant impacts on the UK food system, which has implications for dietary risk factors and public health. Here we use an integrated economic-health modelling framework to analyse the impacts of different policy approaches to Brexit. According to our analysis, a “Hard Brexit” could increase diet-related mortality in the UK as costs for health-promoting and import-dependent foods, such as fruits and vegetables, increase and their consumption decreases. Negotiating free-trade agreements with the USA and Commonwealth countries as part of a “Global Britain” approach led to relative increases in food availability, but not of health-promoting foods, resulting in further increases in diet and weight-related mortality. Negotiating a free-trade agreement with the EU addressed both food availability and fruit and vegetable intake, which halved the increases in mortality. Combining this “Soft Brexit” approach with an agricultural subsidy reform that incentivises greater production of fruits and vegetables mitigated the Brexit-related increases in risk factors and led to net improvements in diet-related mortality.

In this research paper, we present a system for named entity recognition and automatic document classification in an innovative knowledge management system for Applied Gaming. The objective of this project is to facilitate the management of machine learning-based named entity recognition models, that can be used for both: extracting different types of named entities and classifying text documents from different sources on the Web. We present real-world use case scenarios and derive features for training and managing NER models with the Stanford NLP machine learning API. Then, the integration of our developed NER system with an expert rule-based system is presented, which allows an automatic classification of text documents into different taxonomy categories available in the knowledge management system. Finally, we present the results of two evaluations. First, a functional evaluation that demonstrates the portability of our NER system using a standard text corpus in the medical area. Second, a qualitative evaluation that was conducted to optimize the overall user interface of our system and enable a suitable integration into the target environment.

We use the unexpected partial repeal of a tax break for commuters in Germany to examine the distribution of benefits from commuting subsidies between workers and firms. Drawing on a large set of geo-referenced employer-employee data, we use exact route distances between place of work and place of residence to calculate individual net wage benefits from commuting subsidies. In line with urban efficiency wage theories, we find robust evidence that employers compensate workers on average for about one third of the net wage loss caused by the reform if wages are individually negotiated. We find no comparable effect for workers covered by collective wage agreements. The subsequent existence of two common subsidy regimes within an otherwise stable institutional environment allows to draw inference on how each regime redistributes income between wage groups and between regions. We find that the introduction of a lower bound for commuting distances leads to a more equal distribution of net wage benefits between wage groups and regions compared to a regime without a lower bound.

Increasing heterogeneity of participants that form the basis of WTO trade negotiations has raised concerns about unfair treatment of weak countries due to their lack of bargaining power. The WTO responds to these concerns by arguing that the institutional design with its specific rules such as the principle of reciprocity serves to reduce inequalities in bargaining power by giving smaller (weaker) countries more voice. A recent study has challenged this result for a particular type of reciprocity, namely the volume approach. Given the wide discretion of how reciprocal concessions are conducted, I give a more complete picture of how different kinds of reciprocity affect the bargaining outcome of asymmetric countries. It turns out that, while the volume approach amplifies the negative effects of power asymmetries, a tariff formula approach has the ability to reverse this effect. For low symmetries, the Swiss formula does the best job, whereas for larger power differences, a linear formula is best suited to reduce the impact of power asymmetries.

Thorough mixing of the starting materials is the first step of a crystal growth procedure. This holds true for almost any standard technique, whereas the intentional separation of educts is considered to be restricted to a very limited number of cases. A noticeable exception is the crystal growth in gels that allows for a better control of the nucleation by limiting the diffusion. The successful application of this principle to open systems, however, has remained elusive. Here we show that single crystals of {\alpha}-Li2IrO3 can be grown from separated educts in an open crucible in air. Elemental lithium and iridium are oxidized and transported over a distance of typically one centimeter in an isothermal process. Single crystals grow from an exposed condensation point placed in between the educts. The method has also been applied to the growth of Li2RuO3, Li2PtO3 and {\beta}-Li2IrO3 and a successful use for various other materials is anticipated., Comment: Published in Nature Scientific Reports, reference added, minor changes

The wage-dependence of the Public Health Insurance (PHI) as well as the somewhat inconsistent parallel coverage via PHI and private health insurance constitute drawbacks of the present health care revenue system, leading to undesirable distributional and allocative patterns and disadvantages in the course of demographic and economic change. Two conflicting approaches, the “Buergerversicherung” (“Citizens’ Health Insurance”) and the “Gesundheitsprämie” (“Flat Rate Health Insurance”) try to remedy these by way of different methods – the former with a statutory health insurance for all and a comprehensive income basis for proportionate health insurance contributions, the latter with a flat rate contribution for the present PHI including a massive tax subsidy for the contributions for low-income groups and children. The paper presents simulations of the distributional effects. Differing effects become evident. Moreover these patterns also reflect different “philosophies” of social welfare and public revenue regimes. The “Bürgerversicherung” reduces payments by wage and wage-replacement earners and generally by low income groups, the “Gesundheitspraemie” favors higher-income individuals and particularly two-earner married couples.

The law for the Modernisation of the Social Health Insurance System 2003 ("GKV-Modernisierungsgesetz – GMG" 2003) provides, among other measures, for a noticeable increase in co-payments and also for a reduction of possibilities for claiming exemptions from co-payments. Against this backdrop, the authors of the paper present, at the start, the varying news on co-insurance payments held by different political groups. Thereafter, the theoretical foundations of co-payments are described. Finally, on the basis of extensive empirically founded computations, the effects of the new co-payment rules (together with relevant new exemptions) are compared with the effects of the rules still in force.

Bis heute geistert der Mythos von den sogenannten „Wunderwaffen“ durch die Kopfe vieler Menschen. Zahlreiche und durch nichts begrundete Spekulationen uber die Gewinnbarkeit des Krieges fur Nazideutschland, wenn nur die „Wunderwaffen“ rechtzeitig zur Verfugung gestanden waren, wurden seit 1945 angestellt. Gleichzeitig wurde versucht, die Entwicklung von Raketen durch Nazideutschland zu idealisieren und von ihren politischen, okonomischen und militarischen Implikationen zu befreien.