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In this paper, we discuss the ethical concerns that may arise from the synthesis of human DNA. To date, only small stretches of DNA have been constructed, but the prospect of generating human genomes is becoming feasible. At the same time, the significance of genes for identity, health and reproduction is coming under increased scrutiny. We examine the implications of DNA synthesis and its impact
Digital contact tracing substantially improves the identification of high-risk contacts during pandemics. Despite several attempts to encourage people to use digital contact-tracing applications by developing and rolling out decentralized privacy-preserving protocols (broadcasting pseudo-random IDs over Bluetooth Low Energy-BLE), the adoption of digital contact tracing mobile applications has been
The spread of global multistakeholder partnerships (MSPs) for the2030 Agenda for sustainable development has generatedsignificant expectations on policy synergies and transformativegovernance. This article contributes to the study of the currentgeneration of MSPs by focusing on the self-legitimation attemptsthat MSPs undertake to justify their authority. We compare theself-legitimation claims of a
Background: There is a long-standing debate about the role of spacing and stopping in the fertility transition, fueled by a lack of methods to appropriately model spacing and stopping. Traditional event-history analysis cannot distinguish between the two processes in analyzing the determinants of birth risks, and attempts to separately model spacing and stopping have been criticized from a methodo
The ACMG/AMP guidelines include five categories of which variants of uncertain significance (VUSs) have received increasing attention. Recently, Fowler and Rehm claimed that all or most VUSs could be reclassified as pathogenic or benign within few years. To test this claim, we collected validated benign, pathogenic, VUS and conflicting variants from ClinVar and LOVD and investigated differences at
This paper presents a methodology for the assessment of time-dependent reliability of post-tensioned (PT) girders. As possible lack of consistent maintenance efforts and the constraints of economic and temporal resources become increasingly apparent, there is a need to comprehend their remaining service life, intricately tied to the gradual evolution of their reliability over time. In this study,
The service life of infrastructures is of high relevance for the provision of societal and industrial functionality and sustainability. Despite this high relevance, the service life is not explicitly considered of the design and operation procedures. Towards an efficient and sustainable service life management, this paper contains a description of approaches for service life limit quantification a
Warm Jupiters are ideal laboratories for testing the limitations of current tools for atmospheric studies. The cross-correlation technique is a commonly used method to investigate the atmospheres of close-in planets, leveraging their large orbital velocities to separate the spectrum of the planet from that of the star. Warm Jupiter atmospheres predominantly consist of molecular species, notably wa
Polymer gears are becoming more and more interesting parts of various machines; they are used in ever-more-demanding operating conditions. Due to their good mechanical properties, lightweight, and low noise during operation, they tend to substitute metallic gears in some traditional applications, and they also enter new applications such as e-bikes. A reliable design of polymer gears remains, to d
We present high spectral resolution observations of the hot Jupiter WASP-94 A b using the HARPS instrument on ESO’s 3.6-m telescope in La Silla, Chile. We probed for Na absorption in its atmosphere as well as constrained the previously reported misaligned retrograde orbit using the Rossiter–McLaughlin effect. Additionally, we undertook a combined atmospheric retrieval analysis with previously publ
Context. The spectra of fast-rotating A-type stars have strongly broadened absorption lines. This effect causes blending of the absorption lines, hindering the measurement of the abundances of the elements that are in the stellar photosphere.Aims. As the exoplanet transits across its host star, it obscures the stellar spectrum that is emitted from directly behind the planet. We aim to extract this
Context. Ultra-hot Jupiters (UHJ) have emerged as ideal testbeds for new techniques for studying exoplanet atmospheres. Only a limited number of them are currently well studied, however.Aims. We search for atmospheric constituents for the UHJ WASP-178 b with two ESPRESSO transits. Additionally, we show parallel photometry that we used to obtain updated and precise stellar, planetary, and orbital p
