Types and Systems of Actors in Regional Development: Their Function and Regulatory Potential

Differentiation of actors derives primarily from the distribution of power and wealth in a society, and thus it has always played an exceptionally significant role. However, as a consequence of the hierarchical organisation of the society this differentiation was noticeably asymmetrical. The non-equivalence of partial subjects/actors of regional development has led to the understandable domination of ‘deterministic’ relations and the plurality of interests and then to the dominance of ‘competitive’ relations. Only gradually do interactions of a cooperative kind successively break through the growth of mutual interconnections, linkages and necessity of social elements and partial systems, and thus the increasing of organic nature of (geo)societal systems. This will be finally illustrated through the difference between ‘symmetric’ systems of actors in developed countries and the ‘asymmetric’ global system

Share of open access journal articles published by Berlin authors from 2018: data

The publication output from nine research institutions from Berlin (Germany) was analysed and the share of open access for journal articles published in 2018 was determined. Journal articles whose authors are affiliated with at least one of the nine institutions were analysed. The data description includes: description of provided files and respective sheets, list of data fields and their source, data re-use cases. The data described here were retrieved from multiple bibliographic databases. Due to license terms raw data from individual databases cannot be provided for download. Data was aggregated, normalised and analysed with a Python script which is available at https://github.com/tuub/oa-eval (code documentation in English). For a detailed description of the retrieval process and the analysis steps see the report (https://doi.org/10.14279/depositonce-9606). Search queries and the respective download settings for these databases are included in the data file

Regionální diferenciace současného socioekonomického vývoje v České republice

The social transformation in post- totalitarian countries is characterized by extraordinarily dynamic differentiation tendencies. With respect to social groups & territorial communities, these tendencies differ or are even contradictory, resulting in an internal social & territorial polarization in the national systems concerned. These polarization processes are, on the one hand, a reaction to the equalizing tendencies in communist countries, and, on the other hand, are the result of the need for qualitative changes to social structures. One such structure is the regional organization of society, which owing to the heterogeneous nature of the conditions it exists in has very specific features. Essentially it is the environmental organization of society, where the effects of social & natural factors are combined. Consequently, there is typically a higher level of territorial inequality in the distribution of economic activities than in social distribution, and, by contrast, less variability of geographical differentiation than social differentiation. These features are demonstrated in an empirical analysis of the current development in the Czech Republic, wherein a distinction is made between two ways of assessing regional distribution. First, there is the assessment of differentiation of the territorial intensity of economic activities (economic aggregate/km2). Second, there is the assessment of relative economic & social development (economic aggregate/inhabitant). Despite the differences in the level & variability of the two types of regional differentiation, there are similar trends in their development, heading towards greater inequalities

Spatial Division of Optical Beams

Disertační práce se zabývá optickými bezkabelovým spoji, především se soustředí přímo na přenosový optický svazek. Je zde popsán vliv okolních podmínek jako turbulence v atmosféře, pohyb budov a vliv vibrací na optický svazek. Jako možnost omezení těchto nežádoucích vlivů je zde navrženo generování optického přenosového svazku dvoumodovým optickým vláknem. Je zde popsána možnost tvarování výsledného přenosového svazku změnou výkonového poměru mezi vedenými mody. Koherentní vlastnosti přenosového optického svazku jsou zde analyzovány vzhledem k možnosti potlačení vlivu turbulentní atmosféry na přenosový svazek. Jsou zde zavedeny kvalitativní parametry optického svazku vhodné k posouzení do jaké míry je svazek vhodný pro použití v optických bezkabelových spojích. Tyto parametry dávají do souvislosti tvar optického svazku s výkonovou bilancí a také se statistickým hodnocením optického spoje.The dissertation thesis deals with a free space optical links, especially is focused directly to the transmission optical beams. The influence of environmental conditions like atmospheric turbulence, buildings movement and vibration is described. As a possibility to reduce these undesirable influences, the generation of the transmission beam by the help of the two-mode optical fiber is proposed. A possibility to drive the shape of the resulting transmission beam by means of the change of power ration of individual modes in fiber is described. The coherence features of the proposed beam are analyzed considering the possibility to reduce the influence of atmospheric turbulence. In the thesis there are introduced beam quality parameters that enable to evaluate the quality of the optical beam for the free space optical link. These parameters give the relationship between the shape of the optical beam and the power balance of the optical link and the statistical evaluation of the optical link.

Assessing the Disruptiveness of New Energy Technologies - An Ex-Ante Perspective

For those organizations that experience disruption, they usually understand the situation when it is already too late. The real challenge to any theory, especially if it is of high relevance for managers, is how it performs predictively. Can the theory of disruptive technologies be used not only to analyze cases ex post but to predict the potential disruptive technologies ex ante? Established companies are skeptical of the idea of disruptiveness, because of the difficulty of making predictions given the ex post nature of the theory. In this regard the goal of this report is to provide a general measure of disruptiveness and develop a framework that can assess technologies whether they have the potential to be proven disruptive. The developed assessment framework captures the essential characteristic and holistic success factors for disruptive technologies based on the theory of Christensen and a number of clarifications as seen in the literature. The framework is applied and validated by assessing the disruptive potential of five renewable energy technologies (wind energy, solar energy, biomass, hydro power, geothermal) in the power generation, heating and transportation sectors of four European countries (Austria, Bulgaria, Germany and Romania). The results show the applicability of the framework and give insights into technology and country specific determinants of energy market sector disruptions. (authors' abstract)Series: Working Papers / Institute for Strategic Management / Energy & Strategy Think Tan

Molecular phylogeny of diplomonads and enteromonads based on SSU rRNA, alpha-tubulin and HSP90 genes: Implications for the evolutionary history of the double karyomastigont of diplomonads

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Fornicata is a relatively recently established group of protists that includes the diplokaryotic diplomonads (which have two similar nuclei per cell), and the monokaryotic enteromonads, retortamonads and <it>Carpediemonas</it>, with the more typical one nucleus per cell. The monophyly of the group was confirmed by molecular phylogenetic studies, but neither the internal phylogeny nor its position on the eukaryotic tree has been clearly resolved.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here we have introduced data for three genes (SSU rRNA, α-tubulin and HSP90) with a wide taxonomic sampling of Fornicata, including ten isolates of enteromonads, representing the genera <it>Trimitus </it>and <it>Enteromonas</it>, and a new undescribed enteromonad genus. The diplomonad sequences formed two main clades in individual gene and combined gene analyses, with <it>Giardia </it>(and <it>Octomitus</it>) on one side of the basal divergence and <it>Spironucleus</it>, <it>Hexamita </it>and <it>Trepomonas </it>on the other. Contrary to earlier evolutionary scenarios, none of the studied enteromonads appeared basal to diplokaryotic diplomonads. Instead, the enteromonad isolates were all robustly situated within the second of the two diplomonad clades. Furthermore, our analyses suggested that enteromonads do not constitute a monophyletic group, and enteromonad monophyly was statistically rejected in 'approximately unbiased' tests of the combined gene data.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We suggest that all higher taxa intended to unite multiple enteromonad genera be abandoned, that <it>Trimitus </it>and <it>Enteromonas </it>be considered as part of Hexamitinae, and that the term 'enteromonads' be used in a strictly utilitarian sense. Our result suggests either that the diplokaryotic condition characteristic of diplomonads arose several times independently, or that the monokaryotic cell of enteromonads originated several times independently by secondary reduction from the diplokaryotic state. Both scenarios are evolutionarily complex. More comparative data on the similarity of the genomes of the two nuclei of diplomonads will be necessary to resolve which evolutionary scenario is more probable.</p

Automated analysis of acetaminophen toxicity on 3D HepaRG cell culture in microbioreactor

Real-time monitoring of bioanalytes in organotypic cell cultivation devices is a major research challenge in establishing stand-alone diagnostic systems. Presently, no general technical facility is available that offers a plug-in system for bioanalytics in diversely available organotypic culture models. Therefore, each analytical device has to be tuned according to the microfluidic and interface environment of the 3D in vitro system. Herein, we report the design and function of a 3D automated culture and analysis device (3D-ACAD) which actively perfuses a custom-made 3D microbioreactor, samples the culture medium and simultaneously performs capillary-based flow ELISA. A microstructured MatriGrid ® has been explored as a 3D scaffold for culturing HepaRG cells, with albumin investigated as a bioanalytical marker using flow ELISA. We investigated the effect of acetaminophen (APAP) on the albumin secretion of HepaRG cells over 96 h and compared this with the albumin secretion of 2D monolayer HepaRG cultures. Automated on-line monitoring of albumin secretion in the 3D in vitro mode revealed that the application of hepatotoxic drug-like APAP results in decreased albumin secretion. Furthermore, a higher sensitivity of the HepaRG cell culture in the automated 3D-ACAD system to APAP was observed compared to HepaRG cells cultivated as a monolayer. The results support the use of the 3D-ACAD model as a stand-alone device, working in real time and capable of analyzing the condition of the cell culture by measuring a functional analyte. Information obtained from our system is compared with conventional cell culture and plate ELISA, the results of which are presented herein

Conception of an implantable RF-transmitter with self-sufficient power supply for intraocular pressure monitoring

Für die Glaukomfrühdiagnostik sollte der intraokulare Druck (IOP) bei Risikogruppen regelmäßig erfasst werden. Es soll ein intraokularer Mikrodrucksensor konzipiert werden, welcher eine periodische Aufzeichnung ermöglicht. Insbesondere bei Organen wie dem Auge ist die Implantatgröße stark limitiert. Mit Verzicht auf eine perkutane Verbindung durch einen Sensor mit RF-Transmitter (Frequenzmodulation) kann das Infektionsrisiko deutlich verringert werden. Vorbereitende Untersuchungen an repräsentativen Gewebetypen gaben Aufschluss über das Dämpfungsverhalten für die RF-Strecke. Neben der Signalübertragung stellt auch die autonome Energiegewinnung und Energiespeicherung zur dauerhaften Versorgung des Implantats eine der Hauptaufgaben dar. Auf Basis mikromechanischer Resonatorstrukturen (Biegewandler) sollen Mikrogeneratoren entwickelt werden, mit denen im menschlichen Körper vorhandene mechanische Energie (Vibrationen) in elektrische Energie umgesetzt werden kann. Für die Energiewandlung wurden piezoaktive (c-Achsen orientierte) Aluminiumnitrid (AlN)-Dünnschichten (d = 200 nm) in einem RF-Magnetron Sputterprozess abgeschieden und mittels Röntgen-Diffraktometrie charakterisiert. Zudem erfolgte eine Untersuchung der Resonanzfrequenzen von Mikrostrukturen. Die Anwendung piezoelektrischer AlN-Cantilever für das „Energy Harvesting“ zeigte dabei vielversprechende Ergebnisse