Environmental Management in the Transport and Logistics Sector: Findings from a Qualitative Study

There is an increasing importance of sustainability in the development of companies' business strategies. Due to its impact on the environment, this is particularly essential for companies of the transport and logistics sector. The paper explores several factors that influence the environmental behaviour of transport and logistics companies in Austria. It discusses the importance of the economic impact on environmental management decision in detail and analyses the sector's specific characteristics in terms of environmental behaviour. A case-based approach involving multiple field studies with face-to-face expert interviews and secondary data analysis was used to evaluate environmental performance and specific practices. Due to various factors like a lack of end-user contact and high levels of competition, the transport and logistics sector does not show much environmentally friendly behaviour. We can confirm that the economic factor is crucial for companies' decisions on the implementation of environmental practices. Using selected cases, we will demonstrate how environmental measures contribute to overall business performance. Furthermore, suggestions are given as to how the government can further support transport and logistics companies in this regard. Because there is little evidence of tangible environmental practices in the sector of transport and logistics and their impact on the business performance, this study is both exploratory and explanatory in its nature. (authors' abstract

Finite-size prethermalization at the chaos-to-integrable crossover

We investigate the infinite temperature dynamics of the complex Sachdev-Ye-Kitaev model (SYK$_4$) complimented with a single particle hopping term (SYK$_2$), leading to the chaos-to-integrable crossover of the many-body eigenstates. Due to the presence of the all-to-all connected SYK$_2$ term, a non-equilibrium prethermal state emerges for a finite time window $t_{th}\propto 2^{a/\sqrt{\lambda}}$ that scales with the relative interaction strength $\lambda$, between the SYK terms before eventually exhibiting thermalization for all $\lambda$. The scaling of the plateau with $\lambda$ is consistent with the many-body Fock space structure of the time-evolved wave function. In the integrable limit, the wavefunction in the Fock space has a stretched exponential dependence on distance. On the contrary, in the SYK$_4$ limit, it is distributed equally over the Fock space points characterizing the ergodic phase at long times.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figure

Influence of hydroxyethyl starch (6% HES 130/0.4) administration on hematology and clinical chemistry parameters

Background: The chemical inertness of hydroxyethyl starch (HES) might cause interferences of the colloid with a variety of laboratory tests. We aimed to evaluate potential influences of HES 130/0.4, the newest HES type, on several common hematology and clinical chemistry parameters. Methods and results: A convenient sample of 25 patients scheduled for rheological therapy with 500 mL 6% HES 130/0.4 was evaluated. Blood samples were drawn before and after colloid application. Comparing pre- and post-infusion values of a battery of laboratory tests (i.e., hematology and hemostasis parameters, electrolytes, enzymes, kidney and metabolic parameters, lipids, etc.) in time course, a median difference greater than the reference change value for a specific parameter was considered clinically relevant. Among all parameters tested, only serum amylase activity displayed a clinically relevant difference between pre- and post-infusion values (median increase of 85% due to HES administration). By applying in vitro experiments, we demonstrated that serum amylase values obtained in the samples diluted in a 1:1 ratio with HES 130/0.4 and in samples diluted in a 1:1 ratio with 0.9% NaCl displayed a negligible median difference of 3%. Conclusions: The in vivo effect of HES 130/0.4 administration on serum amylase activity observed in our study was pharmacological (real) in nature. With the exception of the influence of HES 130/0.4 on amylase activity, the effects of HES 130/0.4 on other parameters tested in this study can be interpreted as having no clinical relevance

Topological quantum criticality of the disordered Chern insulator

We consider the two-dimensional topological Chern insulator in the presence of static disorder. Generic quantum states in this system are Anderson localized. However, topology requires the presence of a subset of critical states, with diverging localization length (the Chern insulator analog of the `center of the Landau band states' of the quantum Hall insulator.) We discuss geometric criteria for the identification of these states at weak disorder, and their extension into the regime of strong disorder by analytical methods. In this way, we chart a critical surface embedded in a phase space spanned by energy, topological control parameter, and disorder strength. Our analytical predictions are supplemented by a numerical analysis of the position of the critical states, and their multifractal properties.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Tricritical point in the quantum Hamiltonian mean-field model

Engineering long-range interactions in experimental platforms has been achieved with great success in a large variety of quantum systems in recent years. Inspired by this progress, we propose a generalization of the classical Hamiltonian mean-field model to fermionic particles. We study the phase diagram and thermodynamic properties of the model in the canonical ensemble for ferromagnetic interactions as a function of temperature and hopping. At zero temperature, small charge fluctuations drive the many-body system through a first-order quantum phase transition from an ordered to a disordered phase. At higher temperatures, the fluctuation-induced phase transition remains first order initially and switches to second-order only at a tricritical point. Our results offer an intriguing example of tricriticality in a quantum system with long-range couplings, which bears direct experimental relevance. The analysis is performed by exact diagonalization and mean-field theory

Association of the biomarkers soluble ST2, galectin-3 and growth-differentiation factor-15 with heart failure and other non-cardiac diseases

AbstractBackgroundThe biomarkers soluble ST2 (sST2), galectin-3, and growth-differentiation factor-15 (GDF-15) provide prognostic information in patients with heart failure (HF). The aim of this study was to evaluate to which extent plasma concentrations of these biomarkers are increased in HF compared with diverse non-cardiac conditions such as infectious disease or chronic kidney disease.MethodsWe recruited 15 patients in each of the following clinical categories: HF without co-morbidity, pneumonia without co-morbidity, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without co-morbidity, HF and a co-morbidity of pneumonia, renal disease without co-morbidity, and sepsis. We used 22 healthy individuals as control group. In each of the 112 study participants, we measured plasma concentrations of sST2 (Presage assay), galectin-3 (Abbott assay) and GDF-15 (Roche assay).ResultsCompared to controls, the median sST2 concentration was ~2.5-fold increased in HF, ~3.5-fold in pneumonia, ~5.0-fold in COPD, ~5.8-fold in HF+pneumonia, and ~70-fold in sepsis (p<0.001 for all). sST2 was not significantly increased in renal disease. Compared to controls, the median galectin-3 concentration was ~1.5-fold increased in HF, ~1.4-fold in pneumonia, ~2.4-fold in HF+pneumonia, ~2.5-fold in renal disease, and ~2.7-fold in sepsis (p<0.001 for all). Galectin-3 was not significantly increased in COPD. Compared to controls, the median GDF-15 concentration was ~4.4-fold increased in HF, ~5.4-fold in pneumonia, ~2.1-fold in COPD, ~8.3-fold in HF+pneumonia, ~5.1-fold in renal disease, and ~27-fold in sepsis (p<0.001). In the 112 study participants, correlation analyses revealed a relatively strong association between galectin-3 and GDF-15 (correlation coefficient, 0.739; p<0.001).ConclusionBecause increased plasma concentrations of sST2, galectin-3, and GDF-15 are not specific for a distinct disease group, the three biomarkers are not useful for diagnostic purposes. The results of our study are novel with respect to sST2, galectin-3 and GDF-15 as markers of inflammatory diseases and should encourage further studies

Fragility of spectral flow for topological phases in non-Wigner-Dyson classes

Topological insulators and superconductors support extended surface states protected against the otherwise localizing effects of static disorder. Specifically, in the Wigner-Dyson insulators belonging to the symmetry classes A, AI, and AII, a band of extended surface states is continuously connected to a likewise extended set of bulk states forming a ``bridge'' between different surfaces via the mechanism of spectral flow. In this work we show that this principle becomes \emph{fragile} in the majority of non-Wigner-Dyson topological superconductors and chiral topological insulators. In these systems, there is precisely one point with granted extended states, the center of the band, $E=0$. Away from it, states are spatially localized, or can be made so by the addition of spatially local potentials. Considering the three-dimensional insulator in class AIII and winding number $\nu=1$ as a paradigmatic case study, we discuss the physical principles behind this phenomenon, and its methodological and applied consequences. In particular, we show that low-energy Dirac approximations in the description of surface states can be treacherous in that they tend to conceal the localizability phenomenon. We also identify markers defined in terms of Berry curvature as measures for the degree of state localization in lattice models, and back our analytical predictions by extensive numerical simulations. A main conclusion of this work is that the surface phenomenology of non-Wigner-Dyson topological insulators is a lot richer than that of their Wigner-Dyson siblings, extreme limits being spectrum wide quantum critical delocalization of all states vs. full localization except at the $E=0$ critical point. As part of our study we identify possible experimental signatures distinguishing between these different alternatives in transport or tunnel spectroscopy.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figure

Serum total 8-iso-prostaglandin F2α: A new and independent predictor of peripheral arterial disease

ObjectiveCirculating 8-iso-prostaglandin F2α (8-iso-PGF2α) has been proposed as new indicator of oxidative stress, which is involved in the pathophysiologic changes of atherosclerosis. We proposed to test the hypothesis that 8-iso-PGF2α is an independent predictor of symptomatic peripheral arterial disease (PAD).MethodsA case-control study in 100 patients with symptomatic PAD and 100 control subjects matched for age, sex, and diabetes mellitus was conducted. Smokers and subjects using lipid-lowering drugs were excluded. Serum total 8-iso-PGF2α was quantified with an enzyme immunoassay.ResultsMedian 8-iso-PGF2α was higher in patients with PAD than in control subjects (63 vs 42 pg/mL; P = .001). Logistic regression with hypertension, body mass index, and creatinine, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, triglyceride, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), 8-iso-PGF2α, and total homocysteine concentrations as independent variables and case-control status as dependent variable revealed significant odds ratios (OR) for hypertension (OR, 3.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.85-7.53), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (OR, 1.16, for an increment of 10 mg/dL; 95% CI, 1.07-1.27), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (OR, 1.02, for an increment of 1 mg/L; 95% CI, 1.00-1.03), and 8-iso-PGF2α (OR, 1.11, for an increment of 10 pg/mL; 95% CI, 1.03-1.20).ConclusionsSerum total 8-iso-PGF2α was an independent predictor of PAD in the population studied. This finding supports the hypothesis that 8-iso-PGF2α is a risk marker for PAD. Our results indicate increased systemic oxidative stress in patients with PAD