Location of charging stations in electric car sharing systems

Electric vehicles are prime candidates for use within urban car sharing systems, both from economic and environmental perspectives. However, their relatively short range necessitates frequent and rather time-consuming recharging throughout the day. Thus, charging stations must be built throughout the system's operational area where cars can be charged between uses. In this work, we introduce and study an optimization problem that models the task of finding optimal locations and sizes for charging stations, using the number of expected trips that can be accepted (or their resulting revenue) as a gauge of quality. Integer linear programming formulations and construction heuristics are introduced, and the resulting algorithms are tested on grid-graph-based instances, as well as on real-world instances from Vienna. The results of our computational study show that the best-performing exact algorithm solves most of the benchmark instances to optimality and usually provides small optimality gaps for the remaining ones, whereas our heuristics provide high-quality solutions very quickly. Our algorithms also provide better solutions than a sequential approach that considers strategic and operational decisions separately. A cross-validation study analyzes the algorithms' performance in cases where demand is uncertain and shows the advantage of combining individual solutions into a single consensus solution, and a simulation study investigates their behavior in car sharing systems that provide their customers with more flexibility regarding vehicle selection

Austrian Startup Monitor

Der Austrian Startup Monitor 2018 ist der erste umfassende Bericht über den Status, die Perspektiven und das Umfeld österreichischer Startups. Der Bericht basiert auf einer im Frühjahr 2018 durchgeführten Befragung von 512 GründerInnen oder GeschäftsführerInnen. Um Startups für die Befragung zu identifizieren, wurden mithilfe von unterschiedlichen Quellen insgesamt mehr als 1.500 Startup- Gründungen seit 2004 recherchiert

Primjena oksidoreduktaza iz gljiva roda Trametes spp. u biotehnologiji – obilje katalitičkog djelovanja

Those oxidoreductases that are part of the ligninolytic complex of basidiomycete and ascomycete fungi have played an increasingly important role in biotechnological applications during the last decade. The stability of these extracellular enzymes, their good solubility, and a multitude of catalyzed reactions contribute to this trend. This review focuses on a single genus of white-rot basidiomycetes, Trametes, to highlight the numerous possibilities for the application of this microorganism as well as three of its enzymes: laccase, cellobiose dehydrogenase, and pyranose 2-oxidase. Whereas laccase is without doubt a major player in biotechnology, the two other enzymes are less well known, but represent emerging biocatalysts with potential. Both cellobiose dehydrogenase and pyranose 2-oxidase are presumed to participate in lignin breakdown and will be used to exemplify the potential of less prominent oxidoreductases from this genus.Posljednjih deset godina oksidoreduktaze koje sudjeluju u procesu razgradnje lignina gljiva stapčara i mješinarki imaju sve važniju ulogu u biotehnološkoj primjeni. Tomu trendu je pridonijela stabilnost tih ekstracelularnih enzima, njihova dobra topljivost i mogućnost primjene u raznim katalitičkim procesima. U ovom je revijalnom prikazu osobito opisana jedna vrsta gljive stapčare koja uzrokuje bijelu trulež, Trametes, i istaknute razne mogućnosti primjene toga mikroorganizma i njegovih triju enzima: lakaze, celobioza-dehidrogenaze i piranoza-2-oksidaze. Dok lakaza bez sumnje ima glavnu ulogu u biotehnologiji, druga su dva enzima manje poznata, ali sve se više koriste kao biokatalizatori. Pretpostavlja se da celobioza-dehidrogenaza i piranoza-2-oksidaza sudjeluju u razgradnji lignina te se pomoću njih mogu objasniti mogućnosti manje poznatih oksidoreduktaza toga roda gljiva

Ex-post-Evaluierung der Pilotförderungaktion für Inkubatoren JumpStart Phase 1 und Phase 2

Start-up Inkubatoren bzw. Akzeleratoren nehmen am Innovationsstandort Österreich eine wachsende Rolle ein. Junge, dynamisch wachsende Unternehmen fragen zunehmend Arbeitsumgebungen nach, in denen sie Infrastruktur und Dienstleistungen aus einer Hand erhalten, um sich besser auf die Entwicklung des Unternehmens bzw. des Produkts fokussieren zu können. Obwohl es in Österreich bereits eine Reihe von Inkubatoren/Akzeleratoren gibt, so fehlen sehr oft die Mittel, um auch im internationalen Vergleich professionelle Dienstleistungen inkubierten Firmen anbieten zu können. Um diese Hindernisse zu überwinden, wurde im Jahr 2015 das Pilot-Programm "JumpStart" gestartet. Bisher wurden 2 Ausschreibungsrunden 2015/2016 für das Modul 1 erfolgreich abgeschlossen und die besten 10 Konzepte von Inkubatoren/Akzeleratoren ausgewählt und gefördert. Im Rahmen des Moduls 2 werden jeweils bis zu fünf Unternehmen, die in den unter Modul 1 geförderten Inkubatoren/Akzeleratoren betreut werden, für eine Förderung ausgewählt. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht diese Studie das Programmdesign, die Programmumsetzung sowie die Programmwirkung (Outputs, Outcomes und Impacts) des JumpStart-Programms. Darauf aufbauend werden Vorschläge für die Weiterentwicklung des Programms formuliert. Dazu wurden 25 Interviews mit den LeiterInnen der geförderten Inkubatoren, mit inkubierten Startups und weiteren Stakeholdern durchgeführt. Ferner wurde im Frühjahr 2021 eine Online-Befragung an Startups, die an JumpStart-Inkubatoren ansässig waren oder sind bzw. deren Dienstleistungen in Anspruch genommen haben, durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Befragung werden mit Daten von Startups aus dem ASM (Kontrollgruppe) vergleichend analysiert

The impact of ABO blood type on the prevalence of portal vein thrombosis in patients with advanced chronic liver disease

Background and aimsNon-O blood type (BT) is a risk factor for thromboses, which has been attributed to its effects on von Willebrand factor (VWF)/factor VIII (FVIII) levels. Although high VWF/FVIII may be risk factors for portal vein thrombosis (PVT) in patients with advanced chronic liver disease (ACLD), the impact of BT on PVT is unknown. We aimed to assess (I) whether non-O-BT is a risk factor for PVT and (II) whether non-O-BT impacts VWF/factor VIII in patients with ACLD. MethodsRetrospective analysis comprising two cohorts: (I) "US" including all adult liver transplantations in the US in the MELD era and (II) "Vienna" comprising patients with a hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG) >= 6 mmHg. Results(I) The "US cohort" included 84 947 patients (non-O: 55.43%). The prevalence of PVT at the time of listing (4.37% vs 4.56%; P = .1762) and at liver transplantation (9.56% vs 9.33%; P = .2546) was similar in patients with O- and non-O-BT. (II) 411 patients were included in the "Vienna cohort" (non-O: 64%). Mean HVPG was 18(9) mmHg and 90% had an HVPG >= 10 mmHg. Patients with non-O-BT had slightly increased VWF levels (318(164)% vs 309(176)%; P = .048; increase of 23.8%-23.9% in adjusted analyses), but this difference was driven by patients with less advanced disease. However, non-O-BT explained only 1% of the variation in VWF and had no effect on FVIII. ConclusionsAlthough non-O-BT impacts VWF in patients with early stage ACLD, its contribution to VWF variation is considerably smaller than in the general population. Moreover, non-O-BT had no impact on FVIII. These findings may explain the absence of an association between non-O-BT and PVT in patients with advanced cirrhosis