Suchergebnisse

Der Autor beleuchtet losbasierte Demokratiekonzepte (z.B. Bürgerräte) aus juristischer Perspektive und ergänzt die Diskussion darüber so um einen neuen Blickwinkel. Im Zentrum steht der Versuch, die aus dem Demokratieprinzip (Art. 20 Abs. 1 GG) und der sog. Ewigkeitsgarantie (Art. 79 Abs. 3 GG) resultierenden zwingenden Grenzen zu bestimmen und die verbleibenden Gestaltungspielräume aufzuzeigen. Der Autor plädiert für eine Rekonstruktion des Demokratieprinzips als entwicklungsoffenes Rechtsprinzip, in dessen Lichte die Organisationsvorgaben des Art. 20 Abs. 2 GG auszulegen sind. Daraus ergibt sich eine Demokratie- und Legitimationskonzeption, die an die Stelle einer Vorfestlegung auf bestimmte Strukturelemente eine konsequente Ausrichtung am Idealbild der Freiheit und Gleichheit stellt. Daran müssen sich losbasierte Demokratiekonzepte und der organisatorische status quo gleichermaßen messen lassen, wodurch erhebliche Gestaltungsspielräume, aber auch klare Grenzen ersichtlich werden. / »Sortition and the German Constitution. A Study on the Compatibility of Random Selection and Lottery Based Democratic Institutions with the Democratic Principle of the German Basic Law«: The author analyses sortition based concepts of democracy (e.g. Citizens' Assemblies) from a constitutional perspective. Drawing from the Basic Law's 'eternity clause' (Art. 79(3)) and Democratic Principle (Art. 20(1)), he advocates for a flexible and evolving concept of democracy. Shifting focus from predefined organizational properties to the ideals of freedom and equality, this allows for a wide array of possibilities to implement sortition while determining clear cut limits at the same time.

Cryptosporidium human dose‐response data from seven species/isolates are used to investigate six models of varying complexity that estimate infection probability as a function of dose. Previous models attempt to explicitly account for virulence differences among C. parvum isolates, using three or six species/isolates. Four (two new) models assume species/isolate differences are insignificant and three of these (all but exponential) allow for variable human susceptibility. These three human‐focused models (fractional Poisson, exponential with immunity and beta‐Poisson) are relatively simple yet fit the data significantly better than the more complex isolate‐focused models. Among these three, the one‐parameter fractional Poisson model is the simplest but assumes that all Cryptosporidium oocysts used in the studies were capable of initiating infection. The exponential with immunity model does not require such an assumption and includes the fractional Poisson as a special case. The fractional Poisson model is an upper bound of the exponential with immunity model and applies when all oocysts are capable of initiating infection. The beta Poisson model does not allow an immune human subpopulation; thus infection probability approaches 100% as dose becomes huge. All three of these models predict significantly (>10x) greater risk at the low doses that consumers might receive if exposed through drinking water or other environmental exposure (e.g., 72% vs. 4% infection probability for a one oocyst dose) than previously predicted. This new insight into Cryptosporidium risk suggests additional inactivation and removal via treatment may be needed to meet any specified risk target, such as a suggested 10−4 annual risk of Cryptosporidium infection.

Der Autor beleuchtet losbasierte Demokratiekonzepte (z.B. Bürgerräte) aus juristischer Perspektive und ergänzt die Diskussion darüber so um einen neuen Blickwinkel. Im Zentrum steht der Versuch, die aus dem Demokratieprinzip (Art. 20 Abs. 1 GG) und der sog. Ewigkeitsgarantie (Art. 79 Abs. 3 GG) resultierenden zwingenden Grenzen zu bestimmen und die verbleibenden Gestaltungspielräume aufzuzeigen. Der Autor plädiert für eine Rekonstruktion des Demokratieprinzips als entwicklungsoffenes Rechtsprinzip, in dessen Lichte die Organisationsvorgaben des Art. 20 Abs. 2 GG auszulegen sind. Daraus ergibt sich eine Demokratie- und Legitimationskonzeption, die an die Stelle einer Vorfestlegung auf bestimmte Strukturelemente eine konsequente Ausrichtung am Idealbild der Freiheit und Gleichheit stellt. Daran müssen sich losbasierte Demokratiekonzepte und der organisatorische status quo gleichermaßen messen lassen, wodurch erhebliche Gestaltungsspielräume, aber auch klare Grenzen ersichtlich werden

This study utilizes old and new Norovirus (NoV) human challenge data to model the dose‐response relationship for human NoV infection. The combined data set is used to update estimates from a previously published beta‐Poisson dose‐response model that includes parameters for virus aggregation and for a beta‐distribution that describes variable susceptibility among hosts. The quality of the beta‐Poisson model is examined and a simpler model is proposed. The new model (fractional Poisson) characterizes hosts as either perfectly susceptible or perfectly immune, requiring a single parameter (the fraction of perfectly susceptible hosts) in place of the two‐parameter beta‐distribution. A second parameter is included to account for virus aggregation in the same fashion as it is added to the beta‐Poisson model. Infection probability is simply the product of the probability of nonzero exposure (at least one virus or aggregate is ingested) and the fraction of susceptible hosts. The model is computationally simple and appears to be well suited to the data from the NoV human challenge studies. The model's deviance is similar to that of the beta‐Poisson, but with one parameter, rather than two. As a result, the Akaike information criterion favors the fractional Poisson over the beta‐Poisson model. At low, environmentally relevant exposure levels (<100), estimation error is small for the fractional Poisson model; however, caution is advised because no subjects were challenged at such a low dose. New low‐dose data would be of great value to further clarify the NoV dose‐response relationship and to support improved risk assessment for environmentally relevant exposures.