Abstieg trotz Aufwind? Zur Entwicklung der umweltpolitischen Öffentlichkeitsbeteiligung in Bremen, Hamburg und Niedersachsen seit 2003

"Die Beteiligung der Öffentlichkeit an umweltrelevanten Entscheidungen und Verfahren wird in den letzten Jahren verstärkt vom EU- und Völkerrecht eingefordert. Populärster Ausdruck dieser Bemühungen ist die Aarhus-Konvention von 1998. Trotz durch EU-Umweltrichtlinien verbindlich gewordener Implementationsvorgaben kann eine Fallstudie der Bundesländer Niedersachsen, Hamburg und Bremen ein Durchschlagen des internationalen Beteiligungsausbaus auf regionale Ebene jedoch nicht bestätigen. Während Hamburg und Niedersachsen die umweltrechtlichen Partizipationsvorgaben im Untersuchungszeitraum seit 2003 sehr restriktiv umsetzten und ihr Beteiligungsnivau sogar abbauten, erweiterte alleine Bremen bedingt richtlinienkonform die Beteiligung in Umweltbelangen. Als Ursachen dieser überraschenden Entwicklung auf Landesebene können im Sinne der Misfit-These eine von den internationalen Vorstellungen abweichende deutsche Beteiligungskultur und die parteipolitische Abhängigkeit der Beteiligungspolitik ausgemacht werden. Hinzu kommt möglicherweise eine auch regional differenzierte Beteiligungskultur, die in Bremen vergleichsweise positiv ausfällt." (Autorenreferat)"In the last years, international law has increased the demands to enhance the participation of the public in environmental decisions and procedures. A popular expression of this engagement is the Aarhus-Convention of 1998. Although the implementation of participatory law has become partly obligational by EU-directions, some German federal states seem not to care. During the research period since 2003 the examined states Lower Saxony and Hamburg have implemented the participatory, environmental law in a very restrictive way. In addition, they reduced the rights in environmental participation. Only Bremen as third examined state shows an enlarging development and relatively adequate implementation of the procedural rights. The reasons of these surprising results lie probably in three points. Firstly, according to the 'Misfit Thesis', the internationally demanded participation culture and the German one don't fit together. Secondly, the party constellation of the federal governments has strong influence on the participatory policies of their states. Finally, there are not only nationally different, but also regionally different participatory cultures, with positive characteristics in Bremen." (author's abstract

Impaired modulation of quadriceps tendon jerk reflex during spastic gait: differences between spinal and cerebral lesions

In healthy subjects, functionally appropriate modulation of short latency leg muscle reflexes occurs during gait. This modulation has been ascribed, in part, to changes in presynaptic inhibition of Ia afferents. The changes in modulation of quadriceps tendon jerk reflexes during gait of healthy subjects were compared with those of hemi- or paraparetic spastic patients. The spasticity was due to unilateral cerebral infarction or traumatic spinal cord injury, respectively. The modulation of the quadriceps femoris tendon jerk reflex at 16 phases of the step cycle was studied. The reflex responses obtained during treadmill walking were compared with control values obtained during gait-mimicking standing postures with corresponding levels of voluntary muscle contraction and knee angles. In healthy subjects the size of the reflexes was profoundly modulated and was generally depressed throughout the step cycle. In patients with spinal lesion the reflex depression during gait was almost removed and was associated with weak or no modulation during the step cycle. In patients with cerebral lesion there was less depression of the reflex size associated with a reduced reflex modulation on the affected side compared with healthy subjects. On the 'sunaffected' side of these patients reflex modulation was similar to that of healthy subjects, but the reflex size during gait was not significantly different from standing control values. These observations suggest that the mechanisms responsible for the depression of reflex size and the modulation normally seen during gait in healthy subjects are impaired to different extents in spasticity of spinal or cerebral origin, possibly due to the unilateral preservation of fibre tracts in hemiparesi

Detecting molecular fingerprints in single molecule force spectroscopy using pattern recognition

Single molecule force spectroscopy has given experimental access to the mechanical properties of protein molecules. Typically, less than 1% of the experimental recordings reflect true single molecule events due to abundant surface and multiple-molecule interactions. A key issue in single molecule force spectroscopy is thus to identify the characteristic mechanical ''fingerprint'' of a specific protein in noisy data sets. Here, we present an objective pattern recognition algorithm that is able to identify fingerprints in such noisy data sets

Biodiesel in India: value chain organisation and policy options for rural development

"This study aims to contribute to knowledge about biodiesel in India and to inform policy-makers about development impacts and appropriate policy choices. Its focus is on the potentials and risks for rural development. The study starts with an overall assessment of the economic viability of biodiesel. To date, biodiesel production is not a lucrative business, except for some niche markets. However, this may change in the future, depending on fossil fuel prices, government pricing policies, and progress on agricultural yields. Furthermore, the study contributes two novel aspects to the discussion on the Indian biodiesel sector: 1. It takes stock of the variety of existing ways of organising the value chain in India and assesses their pros and cons from a comprehensive development perspective; 2. It identifies, describes and assesses the appropriateness of a broad range of federal and state policies and support programmes. Given the diversity of value chain organization, many different policies are taken into account. Whether a state government chooses for example to promote social forestry, large-scale leasing contracts with corporations, or contract farming, and how effectively these policies are implemented, has a bearing on the development outcomes." (author's abstract

Der Ausstieg aus der Atomenergie: Diskursnetzwerkanalyse als Beitrag zur Erklärung einer radikalen Politikwende

Im März 2011 erfolgte in Deutschland innerhalb von nur einer Woche nach dem Reaktorunglück im japanischen Fukushima eine radikale Politikwende hin zum Ausstieg aus der Atom- energie. Die erst im Herbst 2010 beschlossene Laufzeitverlängerung wurde wieder zurückgenommen, der endgültige Ausstieg aus der Atomenergie bis zum Jahre 2022 beschlossen. Ein solch plötzlicher und umfassender Politikwandel ist erklärungsbedürftig. Während traditionelle politikwissenschaftliche Theorien an einer plausiblen Erklärung scheitern, ist eine solche aus diskursanalytischer Perspektive jedoch möglich. Im vorliegenden Artikel nutzen wir die Methode der Diskursnetzwerkanalyse, um den diskursiven Stabilisierungsprozess von politischen Forderungen zur Atom- und Energiepolitik in der medialen Öffentlichkeit zwischen März und Juli 2011 zu untersuchen. Wir argumentieren, dass die schnelle Durchsetzung der Ausstiegsforderung sich mit Hilfe der drei Faktoren Akteurszentralität, Konsistenz und Zusammenhalt der Diskurskoalition sowie diskursive Schwäche der Opposition erklären lässt

Perspectives on Large Language Models for Relevance Judgment

When asked, current large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT claim that they can assist us with relevance judgments. Many researchers think this would not lead to credible IR research. In this perspective paper, we discuss possible ways for LLMs to assist human experts along with concerns and issues that arise. We devise a human-machine collaboration spectrum that allows categorizing different relevance judgment strategies, based on how much the human relies on the machine. For the extreme point of "fully automated assessment", we further include a pilot experiment on whether LLM-based relevance judgments correlate with judgments from trained human assessors. We conclude the paper by providing two opposing perspectives - for and against the use of LLMs for automatic relevance judgments - and a compromise perspective, informed by our analyses of the literature, our preliminary experimental evidence, and our experience as IR researchers. We hope to start a constructive discussion within the community to avoid a stale-mate during review, where work is dammed if is uses LLMs for evaluation and dammed if it doesn't

Chronische posttraumatische Schulterinstabilität

Chronic posttraumatic shoulder instability is characterized by trauma-associated, recurrent dislocations. Surgical treatment is indicated in most cases but it remains controversial how risk factors should be weighted to decide between arthroscopic Bankart repair (ABR), Latarjet or alternative procedures. Known risk factors for recurrence are patient age, hyperlaxity, sports profile and bone loss. Surgical techniques are discussed in detail. The ABR leads to high patient satisfaction and return to sports; however, in association with risk factors, recurrent dislocations are seen even several years later. Latarjet or bone block procedures lead to high patient satisfaction, sustainable stability as a revision procedure, but can also be primarily indicated for chronic instability depending on risk factors. Early complications are more frequent but of a minor nature in most cases. All techniques are known for a serious learning curve. If performed well, they do not seem to increase the risk of arthritis, which is most affected by the number of lifetime dislocations and higher energy trauma