Impact of Service Station Networks on Purchase Decisions of Alternative-fuel Vehicles

In this paper we analyze the impact of service station availability on the demand for alternative-fuel vehicles and the consumers' willingness to pay for an enlarged fueling infrastructure. We examine a stated preferences choice experiment conducted as a CAPI survey with about 600 interviews of potential car buyers in Germany and estimate the coefficients of a discrete choice model. We simulate different scenarios and analyze how individual choice probabilities for alternative fuel-types are changing with a modified fueling infrastructure. In our scenarios hybrids, LPG/CNG and hydrogen will be real alternatives to the existing conventional technologies. However, biofuels and electric power trains are well behind even in a situation where their infrastructure is equally developed. Moreover, on the basis of our model we compute what increases in fixed or variable costs consumers of different income groups are willing to accept for an increasing station density. --Fueling Infrastructure,Alternative Fuels,Automobile Market,Stated Preferences,Discrete Choice,Network Effects

Impact of service station networks on purchase decisions of alternative-fuel vehicles

In this paper we analyze the impact of service station availability on the demand for alternative-fuel vehicles and the consumers’ willingness to pay for an enlarged fueling infrastructure. We examine a stated preferences choice experiment conducted as a CAPI survey with about 600 interviews of potential car buyers in Germany and estimate the coefficients of a discrete choice model. We simulate different scenarios and analyze how individual choice probabilities for alternative fuel-types are changing with a modified fueling infrastructure. In our scenarios hybrids, LPG/CNG and hydrogen will be real alternatives to the existing conventional technologies. However, biofuels and electric power trains are well behind even in a situation where their infrastructure is equally developed. Moreover, on the basis of our model we compute what increases in fixed or variable costs consumers of different income groups are willing to accept for an increasing station density

Impact of service station networks on purchase decisions of alternative-fuel vehicles

In this paper we analyze the impact of service station availability on the demand for alternative-fuel vehicles and the consumers’ willingness to pay for an enlarged fueling infrastructure. We examine a stated preferences choice experiment conducted as a CAPI survey with about 600 interviews of potential car buyers in Germany and estimate the coefficients of a discrete choice model. We simulate different scenarios and analyze how individual choice probabilities for alternative fuel-types are changing with a modified fueling infrastructure. In our scenarios hybrids, LPG/CNG and hydrogen will be real alternatives to the existing conventional technologies. However, biofuels and electric power trains are well behind even in a situation where their infrastructure is equally developed. Moreover, on the basis of our model we compute what increases in fixed or variable costs consumers of different income groups are willing to accept for an increasing station density

Chromatin-associated ncRNA activities

RNA transcripts that do not code for proteins have been long known to lie at the heart of many biological processes, such as splicing and translation. Yet their full potential has only been appreciated recently and non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are now attracting increasing attention. Pioneering work in yeast and plant systems has revealed that non-coding RNAs can have a major influence on the deposition of histone and DNA modifications. This can introduce heritable variation into gene expression and, thus, be the basis of epigenetic phenomena. Mechanistically, such processes have been studied extensively in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, providing an important conceptual framework for possible modes of action of ncRNAs also in other organisms. In this review, we highlight mechanistic insights into chromatin-associated ncRNA activities gained from work with fission yeast, and we draw parallels to studies in other eukaryotes that indicate evolutionary conservatio

Störungen als interaktive Ereignisse im Mehrebenenkontext

Claudia Schuchart und Doris Bühler-Niederberger gehen möglichen Gründen für ein chronisch regelbrechendes Verhalten von Schüler*innen nach. Dabei verfolgen die Autorinnen einen erweiterten interaktionistischen Ansatz, der neben dem Blick auf Zuschreibungen (Labelling) durch Lehrkräfte auch weitere Faktoren, die regelbrechendem Verhalten zugrunde liegen können – z. B. familiäre, demografische und institutionelle Kontexte –, berücksichtigt. Identitätsentwicklung aus dieser Perspektive betrachtet, wird durch das Interagieren der Akteur*innen bestimmt und festigt sich fortschreitend in den weiteren Interaktionen. So werden, wie im Beitrag aufgezeigt wird, aus zunächst vielleicht nur sporadisch auftretenden Regelbrüchen deviante Karrieren, die durch wiederholtes negatives soziales Feedback zu einer Negativspirale führen können. Dabei würden auch bestimmte „mindsets“ der Lehrkraft eine Rolle spielen, ebenso wie die soziale und ethnische Zusammensetzung der Schulklassen oder die zum Teil durch soziale, kulturelle und ethnische Zuschreibungen beeinflusste schulische Sanktionspraxis. Die dargestellte Problemlage verdeutlicht die Relevanz der Thematik, die in der Lehrer*innenbildung verstärkt aufzugreifen wäre. (DIPF/Orig.

All-weather avalanche activity monitoring from space?

Information on avalanche activity or on non-activity on local and regional scale is of great value for avalanche warning services, traffic authorities and experts responsible for safety in communities or ski resorts. In particular during bad weather condition, such information is available only very limited or not at all. The aim of ESA IAP feasibility study "Improved Alpine Avalanche Forecast Service" was to investigate existing technology to overcome this gap. Of particular interest were radar-based techniques that have the potential to operate independently of daylight and weather conditions

Prospective, observational practice survey of applied skin care and management of cetuximab-related skin reactions: PROSKIN study.

PURPOSE The study aimed to investigate strategies to prevent and treat cetuximab-induced skin reactions and their perceived effectiveness in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) and recurrent/metastatic squamous cell cancer of the head and neck (SCCHN). METHODS This open-label, prospective observational study was conducted in Switzerland. RESULTS A total of 125 patients were included (n = 91 mCRC, n = 34 SCCHN; mean age 63.3 years; 73.6% males). The frequency of acneiform rash grade ≥ 2 increased from 12.6% at week 2 to 21.7% at week 16. The proportion of patients who reported no skin reaction decreased from 75.6% at week 2 to 43.3% at week 16. The most frequently used skin products at any time of observation were moisturizing (77.6%), lipid-regenerating (56.8%) or urea-containing products (52%), systemic antibiotics (49.6%), and vitamin K1 cream (43.2%). There was no clear effectiveness pattern for all product classes: in given patients, either the product showed no effect at all or a moderate/strong effect, consistently over time. CONCLUSIONS A great variety of low-cost general skin care products were commonly used. According to physician's preference, systemic antibiotics and vitamin K1 cream are an appropriate approach to prevent or treat cetuximab-related skin toxicity

A 3D MR-acquisition scheme for nonrigid bulk motion correction in simultaneous PET-MR.

PURPOSE: Positron emission tomography (PET) is a highly sensitive medical imaging technique commonly used to detect and assess tumor lesions. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provides high resolution anatomical images with different contrasts and a range of additional information important for cancer diagnosis. Recently, simultaneous PET-MR systems have been released with the promise to provide complementary information from both modalities in a single examination. Due to long scan times, subject nonrigid bulk motion, i.e., changes of the patient's position on the scanner table leading to nonrigid changes of the patient's anatomy, during data acquisition can negatively impair image quality and tracer uptake quantification. A 3D MR-acquisition scheme is proposed to detect and correct for nonrigid bulk motion in simultaneously acquired PET-MR data. METHODS: A respiratory navigated three dimensional (3D) MR-acquisition with Radial Phase Encoding (RPE) is used to obtain T1- and T2-weighted data with an isotropic resolution of 1.5 mm. Healthy volunteers are asked to move the abdomen two to three times during data acquisition resulting in overall 19 movements at arbitrary time points. The acquisition scheme is used to retrospectively reconstruct dynamic 3D MR images with different temporal resolutions. Nonrigid bulk motion is detected and corrected in this image data. A simultaneous PET acquisition is simulated and the effect of motion correction is assessed on image quality and standardized uptake values (SUV) for lesions with different diameters. RESULTS: Six respiratory gated 3D data sets with T1- and T2-weighted contrast have been obtained in healthy volunteers. All bulk motion shifts have successfully been detected and motion fields describing the transformation between the different motion states could be obtained with an accuracy of 1.71 ± 0.29 mm. The PET simulation showed errors of up to 67% in measured SUV due to bulk motion which could be reduced to less than 10% with the proposed motion compensation approach. CONCLUSIONS: A MR acquisition scheme which yields both high resolution 3D anatomical data and highly accurate nonrigid motion information without an increase in scan time is presented. The proposed method leads to a strong improvement in both MR and PET image quality and ensures an accurate assessment of tracer uptake