“We don’t want it changed, do we?” - Gender and Sexuality in Role Playing Games

Video games in virtual worlds serve as reference points in negotiations of socially efficacious meanings. Therefore they entail the potential either to reproduce and affirm or to challenge traditional concepts of identity. This article presents findings of an in-depth content analysis of three role playing games with a male avatar belonging to the Gothic-series that was published between 2001 and 2006. Focal points of the examination were issues of gender and sexuality, how they are incorporated in narrative, interactions and rules of the game series, and how they are being discussed on fan sites and player forums

The Development of Environmental Productivity: the Case of Danish Energy Plants

The Danish “Klima 2020” plan sets an ambitious target for the complete phasing-out of fossil fuels by 2050. The Danish energy sector currently accounts for 40% of national CO 2 emissions. Based on an extended Farrell input distance function that accounts for CO 2 as an undesirable output, we estimate the environmental productivity of individual generator units based on a panel data set for the period 1998 to 2011 that includes virtually all fuel-fired generator units in Denmark. We further decompose total environmental energy conversion productivity into conversion efficiency, best conversion practice ratio, and conversion scale efficiency and use a global Malmquist index to calculate the yearly changes. By applying time series clustering, we can identify high, middle, and low performance groups of generator units in a dynamic setting. Our results indicate that the sectoral productivity only slightly increased over the fourteen years. Furthermore, we find that there is no overall high achiever group, but that the ranking, although time consistent, varies between the different productivity measures. However, we identify steam turbines and combustion engines for combined heat and power production as potential high performers, while combustion engines that only produce electricity are clearly low performers

Cyanamide route to calcium-manganese oxide foams for water oxidation

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.In nature, photosynthetic water oxidation is efficiently catalysed at a protein-bound μ-oxido Mn4Ca cluster. This cluster consists of earth abundant, non-toxic elements and serves as a paragon for development of synthetic catalysts. In this study we developed porous calcium–manganese oxides with a unique foam-like nanostructure prepared via a facile and robust synthetic route using cyanamide as a porogen. A series of such oxide foams annealed at different temperatures was characterized by TEM, SEM, XRD, N2 physisorption, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) in order to correlate crystallinity, atomic structure, surface area and oxidation state of the materials with catalytic activity. Some of the resulting Ca–Mn oxides show high activity as catalysts for water oxidation in the presence of cerium(IV) ammonium nitrate as a non-oxo transfer oxidant. An amorphous calcium–manganese-oxide foam with 130 m2 g−1 surface area and Mn oxidation state of +3.6 was identified to be most active; its activity is superior to previously reported Ca–Mn oxides. At the atomic level, this material shares structural motifs with the biological paragon as revealed by dual-edge XAS at the Mn and Ca K-edge. Rather than nanostructure and surface area, the atomic structure of the Ca–Mn oxide and the extent of structural order appear to be crucial determinants of catalytic activity. Fully disordered low-valent Mn materials as well as high-valent but crystalline Mn–Ca oxides are unreactive. Highly disordered variants of layered manganese oxide with Ca and water molecules interfacing layer fragments are most reactive.DFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in Catalysi

Quantification of photocatalytic hydrogen evolution

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.A new photoreactor with defined irradiation geometry was developed and tested for the water reduction reaction using carbon nitride (“C3N4”) as a photocatalyst. The hydrogen evolution rate was investigated with a sun simulator (I = 1000 W m−2) in two different operation modes: circulation and stirring of the catalyst dispersion. Only in the stirred mode, where shear stress is lower, a stable hydrogen evolution rate of about 0.41 L m−2 h−1 is obtained. It is confirmed by experiments with D2O that hydrogen is obtained from the water splitting process and not by dehydrogenation of the sacrificial agent. The obtained rate results in an efficiency of <0.1% based on a reference experiment with a photovoltaic-powered electrolysis setup. The change from distilled water to tap or simulated sea water results in a lower hydrogen evolution rate of about 50%.BMBF, 03IS2071D, Light2Hydroge

Impact of Temporal Macropore Dynamics on Infiltration : Field Experiments and Model Simulations

Macropores greatly affect water and solute transport in soils. Most macropores are of biogenic origin; however, the resulting seasonal dynamics are often neglected. Our study aimed to examine temporal changes in biopore networks and the resulting infiltration patterns. We performed infiltration experiments with Brilliant Blue on pastureland in the Luxembourgian Attert catchment (spring, summer, and autumn 2015). We developed an image-processing scheme to identify and quantify changes in biopores and infiltration patterns. Subsequently, we used image-derived biopore metrics to parameterize the ecohydrological model echoRD (ecohydrological particle model based on representative domains), which includes explicit macropore flow and interaction with the soil matrix. We used the model simulations to check whether biopore dynamics affect infiltration. The observed infiltration patterns revealed variations in both biopore numbers and biopore–matrix interaction. The field-observed biopore numbers varied over time, mainly in the topsoil, with the largest biopore numbers in spring and the smallest in summer. The number of hydrologically effective biopores in the topsoil seems to determine the number and thereby the fraction of effective biopores in the subsoil. In summer, a strong biopore–matrix interaction was observed. In spring, the dominant process was rapid drainage, whereas in summer and autumn, most of the irrigated water was stored in the examined profiles. The model successfully simulated infiltration patterns for spring, summer, and autumn using temporally different macropore setups. Using a static macropore parameterization the model output deviated from the observed infiltration patterns, which emphasizes the need to consider macropores and their temporal dynamics in soil hydrological modeling

Effiziente Simulation der Einkopplung statistischer Felder in Leitungsstrukturen mit der Momentenmethode

Die Berechnung der Einkopplung externer Felder in Kabel und Leitungen stellt einen wichtigen Aspekt der elektromagnetischen Verträglichkeit (EMV) dar. Die Störquelle befindet sich dabei häufig in einem größeren Abstand zur Leitung, so dass das externe Feld durch eine ebene Welle angenähert werden kann, deren Einfallsrichtung und Polarisation in vielen praktischen Anwendungsfällen aber unbekannt ist. Von Interesse ist dann die mittlere oder maximale Einkopplung über alle möglichen Einfallsrichtungen und Polarisationen in Abhängigkeit von der Frequenz und den Abmessungen der Leitungsstruktur. Auch in elektromagnetischen Modenverwirbelungskammern (MVKn) oder elektrisch großen und geometrisch komplexen Resonatoren kann das Feld durch eine Überlagerung von ebenen Wellen [4] angenähert werden. Solche Feldbedingungen werden als statistische Felder zusammengefasst. Auch dort ist für Anwendungen innerhalb der EMV häufig die mittlere oder maximale Einkopplung über ein Ensemble von elektromagnetischen Randbedingungen, z. B. verschiedener Rührerpositionen, von Interesse. In diesem Beitrag wird ein bekanntes und effizientes Simulationsverfahren für die Einkopplung statistischer Felder in Leitungsstrukturen [5] in die Momentenmethode implementiert. Dieses Verfahren wird in Abschnitt 2 beschrieben und gegenüber anderen Methoden abgegrenzt. Um die Anwendbarkeit des Simulationsverfahrens zu demonstrieren, werden zwei beispielhafte Leitungsstrukturen untersucht: eine verdrillte Doppelleitung im Freiraum und eine ungleichförmige Einfachleitung über einer leitfähigen Ebene. Beide Strukturen werden im Abschnitt 3 näher beschrieben. Zur Validierung des Simulationsverfahrens wurden Messungen in MVKn durchgeführt, deren Details in Abschnitt 4 angegeben sind. Ein Vergleich und eine Diskussion der Mess- und Simulationsergebnisse erfolgen in Abschnitt 5

A systematic review of necrotising fasciitis in children from its first description in 1930 to 2018

Necrotising fasciitis is a rapidly progressing soft-tissue infection with a low incidence that carries a relevant risk of morbidity and mortality. Although necrotising fasciitis is often fatal in adults, its case fatality rate seems to be lower in children. A highly variable clinical presentation makes the diagnosis challenging, which often results in misdiagnosis and time-delay to therapy

Nickel as a co-catalyst for photocatalytic hydrogen evolution on graphitic-carbon nitride (sg-CN): what is the nature of the active species?

Dieser Beitrag ist mit Zustimmung des Rechteinhabers aufgrund einer (DFG geförderten) Allianz- bzw. Nationallizenz frei zugänglich.This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.The nature of a nickel-based co-catalyst deposited on a sol-gel prepared porous graphitic-carbon nitride (sg-CN), for photocatalytic H-2 production from water, has been investigated. The formation of the active catalytic species, charge separation and recombination of the photogenerated electrons and holes during photochemical H-2 evolution has been determined for the first time using in situ EPR spectroscopy.DFG, EXC 314, Unifying Concepts in CatalysisBMBF, 03IS2071D, Light2Hydroge

N fertilization strategies for the use of P-rich organic amendments in the restoration of soil productivity—short-term responses in two soils

To facilitate nutrient management and the use of manure as a feedstock for biogas production, manure is often separated into a solid and a liquid fraction. The former fraction is usually high in P and low in N, so when incorporated in the soil as fertilizer, it needs to be supplemented by N from, e.g., mineral fertilizers or nitrogen-fixing species. To explore strategies to manage N with solid-separated manure, we examined how the amount of digestate and the N:P ratio of pig digestate, i.e., manure that had partially undergone anaerobic digestion, affected the productivity of Westerwolds ryegrass and red clover in a pot experiment with one soil which was rich and another which was poor in plant nutrients. The soil and plant species treatments were combined with four doses of digestate, which gave plant available phosphorus (P) concentrations of 2, 4, 8, or 16 mg P100 g−1 soil. Ammonium nitrate was dosed to obtain factorial combinations of digestate amount and N:P ratios of 1.8, 4, 8, and 16. Clover was harvested once at the beginning of flowering (15 weeks after seeding), while Westerwolds ryegrass was allowed to regrow three times after being cut at the shooting stage (in total, 4 cuts, 6, 9, 12, and 15 weeks after seeding). Ryegrass yield increased by up to 2.9 times with digestate dosage. Interactions with the N:P ratio and soil type were weak. Hence, the effect of increasing the N:P ratio was additive across digestate dosages. Red clover biomass also increased by up to 39% with digestate dosage. Residual nutrients in the soil after red clover cultivation were affected by the initial differences in soil characteristics but not by digestate treatment or biomass of harvested red clover. A targeted N management is required to benefit from the P-rich digestate in grass cultivation, while the long-term effects of red clover culture on N input need further investigation