Environmental Innovations: Institutional Impacts on Co-operations for Sustainable Development

A suitable strategy for achieving sustainable development is to foster environmental innovations. Environmental innovations, however, suffer from so-called "double externalities", because apart from innovation spillovers they also improve the quality of public environmental goods, which can be used without cost by free riders. Those innovation spillovers can be avoided through co-operation. Furthermore co-operations can be considered as advantageous because environmental innovations often depend on interaction in research and development, production, selling and disposal. This paper analyzes as to what extent institutional factors impact co-operative arrangements of innovative organizations in the development of new environmental technologies. It applies a multi-dimensional institutional analysis focusing not only on institutional arrangements which exist among organizations but also on opportunities and constraints provided by the institutional environment in which these organizations are embedded. Expanding the existing research we will conclude what kind of policy measure may support the success within networks of environmental oriented innovators.Environmental innovation, Co-operation, Sustainability, Institutional analysis, Policy measures

Regional Industrial Policies in Germany

WP 09/2003; The working paper presents an overview to the system of industrial policy in Germany. Special focus is directed to the relationships between federal and regional (Länder) policies. As German industrial policy is distributed across various policy fields, objectives, strategies and instruments of the main fields – innovation, SME, and regional economic policy – are discussed against the background of recent structural challenges to the German economy. Case studies for two Länder – Northrhine-Westphalia as typical West-German old-industrial heartland and Saxony as the main industrial location in the Eastern Länder – reveal the complexity and diversity of institutional approaches and the main challenges for future regional industrial policies in Germany

Динамика физико-механических свойств многокомпонентных углеводородных газовых сред при термобарических условиях процессов сепарации, характерных для аппаратов подготовки нефти

В работе проведено исследование особенностей изменений критериев подобия в газообразных сплошных средах, характеризующих процессы переноса импульса, тепла и массы. Изучены особенности и закономерности изменений компонентного состава и теплофизических свойств выходящего потока газа в отдельных режимах изменений поля температуры и давления, характерных для функционирования аппаратов подготовки нефти. Установлено, что данные расчета изменений критериев успешны для прогноза процессов в реальных газах. Отмечается, что рассчитанные значения чисел Прандтля, Шмидта и Льюиса для однокомпонентных химически однородных систем достаточно хорошо согласуются с экспериментальной информацией.The scientific qualification work analyzes the peculiarities of variations in the dimensionless numbers for continuous media. These dimensionless numbers are characteristic features of impulse, heat, and mass transfer. Precisely, it reveals the peculiarities and regularities of variation in composition and thermophysical properties of outlet gas flow within the various temperature and pressure ranges which are peculiar to oil separating vessels. It is proved that the results of dimensionless number calculation are effective in predicting the transfer processes in real gases. In addition, it is revealed that the calculated values of the Prandtl number, the Schmidt number, and the Lewis number for single-component chemically homogeneous systems correlate with the experimental data

X-ray Based Visualization of the Electrolyte Filling Process of Lithium Ion Batteries

The electrolyte filling process constitutes the interface between cell assembly and formation of lithium ion batteries. Electrolyte filling is known as a quality critical and also time consuming process step. To avoid limitations in battery quality a homogeneous electrolyte distribution is necessary. Therefore, especially large sized cells are stored for hours. To accelerate filling and wetting processes the effect of materials- and process parameters on electrolyte distribution needs to be investigated. Unfortunately, in situ methods to characterize the filling and wetting state are still rare, limited in availability or even time-consuming in preparation. To overcome these drawbacks this paper introduces X-ray as an innovative method to visualize the electrolyte filling process in large scaled lithium ion batteries. Therefore, an experimental setup was developed to enable in situ X-ray measurements during the filling process of large scaled cells. Additionally, an evaluation process for the optical data was proposed. Based on these images the suitability of X-ray as visualization method is shown considering three exemplary filling parameters.BMBF, 03XP0069A, Cell-Fi - Beschleunigung der Elektrolytaufnahme durch optimierte Befüllungs- und Wettingprozess

ADPβS evokes microglia activation in the rabbit retina in vivo

To investigate whether stimulation of purinergic P2Y1 receptors modulates the activation of microglial and Müller glial cells in the rabbit retina in vivo, adenosine 5-O-(2-thiodiphosphate) (ADPβS; 2 mM in 100 μl saline), a non-hydrolyzable ADP analogue, was intravitreadly applied into control eyes or onto retinas that were experimentally detached from the pigment epithelium. Both retinal detachment and application of ADPßS onto control retinas induced phenotype alterations of the microglial cells (decrease of soma size, retraction of cell processes) and had no influence on microglial cell density. ADPßS application onto detached retinas accelerated the process retraction and resulted in a strongly decreased density of microglial cells. The effects of ADPßS on microglia density and phenotype in detached retinas were partially reversed by co-application of the selective inhibitor of P2Y1 receptors, MRS-2317 (3 mM in 100 μl saline). ADPßS apparently did not influence Müller cell gliosis, as determined by electrophysiological and calcium imaging records. It is concluded that rabbit retinal microglial cells express functional P2Y1 receptors in vivo, and that activation of these receptors stimulates phenotype alterations that are characteristical for microglia activation

Wissenschaftliche Grundlagen zum Strategiediskurs für einen nachhaltigen Pflanzenbau

Für den rationalen gesellschaftlichen Diskurs zur Lösung der vielfältigen Zielkonflikte auf dem Weg zu einem nachhaltigen Pflanzenbausind wissenschaftliche Fakten über die Beziehungen zwischen den Zielen unabdingbar. Daher hat die Gesellschaft für Pflanzenbauwissen-schaften wissenschaftliche Befunde zu den Themenbereichen Biodiversität, Klimarelevanz und Klimaresilienz, Nährstoffmanagement,Pflanzenschutz, Bodenschutz und Produktion nachwachsender Rohstoffe zusammengestellt und den bestehenden Forschungsbedarfidentifiziert. Nach einem Executive Summary, das die Befunde schlaglichtartig darstellt, werden die Themenbereiche im Einzelnen ausgeführt. Ziel dieses Papiers ist nicht, Empfehlungen für die politische Entscheidungsfindung abzugeben, sondern die öffentliche Diskussiondurch Bereitstellung von Sachinformationen zu unterstützen.Scientific facts about the relationships between the goals are indispensable for the rational social discourse on solving the various conflict-ing goals on the way to sustainable crop production. Therefore, the German Society for Agronomy has compiled scientific findings on thetopics of biodiversity, climate relevance and climate resilience, nutrient management, crop protection, soil protection and production ofrenewable raw materials, and identified the existing need for research. After an executive summary that highlights the findings, the subjectareas are explained in detail. The purpose of this paper is not to make recommendations for policy-making, but to support the publicdebate by providing factual information

Minimal information for studies of extracellular vesicles 2018 (MISEV2018):a position statement of the International Society for Extracellular Vesicles and update of the MISEV2014 guidelines

The last decade has seen a sharp increase in the number of scientific publications describing physiological and pathological functions of extracellular vesicles (EVs), a collective term covering various subtypes of cell-released, membranous structures, called exosomes, microvesicles, microparticles, ectosomes, oncosomes, apoptotic bodies, and many other names. However, specific issues arise when working with these entities, whose size and amount often make them difficult to obtain as relatively pure preparations, and to characterize properly. The International Society for Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV) proposed Minimal Information for Studies of Extracellular Vesicles (“MISEV”) guidelines for the field in 2014. We now update these “MISEV2014” guidelines based on evolution of the collective knowledge in the last four years. An important point to consider is that ascribing a specific function to EVs in general, or to subtypes of EVs, requires reporting of specific information beyond mere description of function in a crude, potentially contaminated, and heterogeneous preparation. For example, claims that exosomes are endowed with exquisite and specific activities remain difficult to support experimentally, given our still limited knowledge of their specific molecular machineries of biogenesis and release, as compared with other biophysically similar EVs. The MISEV2018 guidelines include tables and outlines of suggested protocols and steps to follow to document specific EV-associated functional activities. Finally, a checklist is provided with summaries of key points

Regional Industrial Policies in Germany

WP 09/2003; The working paper presents an overview to the system of industrial policy in Germany. Special focus is directed to the relationships between federal and regional (Länder) policies. As German industrial policy is distributed across various policy fields, objectives, strategies and instruments of the main fields – innovation, SME, and regional economic policy – are discussed against the background of recent structural challenges to the German economy. Case studies for two Länder – Northrhine-Westphalia as typical West-German old-industrial heartland and Saxony as the main industrial location in the Eastern Länder – reveal the complexity and diversity of institutional approaches and the main challenges for future regional industrial policies in Germany