From local to global: The role of knowledge, transfer, and capacity building for successful energy transitions

Germany has set the challenging goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by the year 2020 as compared to 1990 (BMUB 2014). This German Energiewende (energy transition) has led to significant changes in the electricity sector, such as a continuously increasing percentage of renewable energies, supported by corresponding governance and political efforts. However, despite these political and economic efforts, the 2020 goal will most likely only be reached due to the tremendous unplanned effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on energy usage for transport and mobility (Agora Energiewende 2020). In addition to technological advances, a change in individual and collective behavior seems highly necessary to achieve future transition goals. The aim of this discussion paper is to summarize the state of research on how people's behavior in the context of climate change and energy transitions is shaped, and to put forward potential avenues for further research and action. The paper departs at a local level by looking at factors that guide citizens' individual energy-related actions and thus impact their energy-saving behavior. Knowledge about climate change and energy is generally believed to influence a person's energyrelated behavior, although its measured effects vary significantly in different studies examining it. This may partly be due to the fact that knowledge is often assessed in a declarative way in these studies, instead of looking at knowledge-in-use (i.e. applying that knowledge to solve a problem in a meaningful way instead of simply stating that knowledge). This working paper thus argues for moving from climate and energy knowledge towards climate and energy literacy, with literacy involving knowledge, skills, and attitudes. With a climate and energy literacy perspective, as well as existing frameworks for how energy-related behavior can be modelled and explained, it theorizes how individual climate-friendly behavior can lead to collective action regarding energy transitions. As knowledge transfer and capacity building play a big role when scaling local solutions to a global level, the discussion paper advocates for concentrated efforts in interdisciplinary capacity building and lays out potential directions for future research

Nature of science in physics education

Neben der Vermittlung von Fachwissen wird – insbesondere im internationalen Kontext – viel darüber diskutiert, ob naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht auch Vorstellungen über das Wesen, den Status und den Nutzen naturwissenschaftlichen Wissens vermitteln soll ("Nature of Science", NOS). Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der mögliche Zusammenhang zwischen NOS-Verständnis und konzeptuellem Verständnis in den Naturwissenschaften von verschiedenen Seiten beleuchtet. Nach einem Überblick über das Themenfeld NOS und die Argumente, die für eine Thematisierung von NOS im Unterricht vorgebracht werden, werden vier zu diesem Promotionsprojekt zugehörige Publikationen vorgestellt. In der ersten dieser Publikationen wurde eine Synopse der bisherigen theoretischen Argumentation und der empirischen Untermauerung des lernpsychologischen Arguments (Driver et al., 1996) für eine Vermittlung von NOS erarbeitet. In einer darauf aufbauenden Interventionsstudie mit 82 Schülerinnen und Schülern der sechsten und siebten Jahrgangsstufe wurde zunächst der Zusammenhang zwischen NOS-Verständnis und der Entwicklung konzeptuellen Verständnisses während einer Einheit zum Energiekonzept untersucht (Publikation 2). Hierbei wurde zwischen Lernzuwächsen bzgl. fachlicher und epistemologischer Aspekte des Energiekonzepts unterschieden, wobei letztere nur implizit in der Unterrichtseinheit enthalten waren. Für eine zweite Studie wurden schließlich Aktivitäten entwickelt, in denen NOS-Aspekte und fachliche Aspekte des Energiekonzepts so miteinander verknüpft wurden, dass die epistemologischen Aspekte des Konzepts explizit thematisiert werden (Publikation 3). Die Wirkung einer entsprechenden integrierten Unterrichtseinheit wurde schließlich in einer zweiten Interventionsstudie mit 191 Schülerinnen und Schülern der Oberstufe mit der Wirkung einer konventionellen Einheit zum Energiekonzept verglichen (Publikation 4).Besides conveying an adequate understanding of science content knowledge, many scholars advocate that science education should also take views and beliefs about the nature, status, and value of scientific knowledge into account ("nature of science", NOS). In the dissertation at hand, the potential relation between NOS understanding and conceptual understanding in science is examined taking from different perspectives. After providing an overview on what constitutes NOS and which arguments are provided in the literature for an implementation of NOS in science teaching, four publications are presented, which are associated to this dissertation. The first of these publications presents a synopsis of the theoretical grounding and empirical substantiation of the science learning argument (Driver et al., 1996), which has been provided in the literature so far. Building on the findings, an intervention study with 82 middle school students was conducted to investigate the connection between NOS understanding and the development of conceptual understanding during a teaching unit on the energy concept (publication 2). To this end, learning gains regarding disciplinary content knowledge, as well as understanding of the epistemological aspects of energy (EAE), were examined, with the latter being only implicitly included in the teaching unit. Eventually, for a second empirical study, learning activities were designed that integrate both NOS and science content aspects in a way, in which they are thought to mutually promote each other, while at the same time explicitly focusing on EAE (publication 3). The effect of a respective integrated teaching unit – in comparison to a conventional unit on energy – was then investigated in an intervention study with 191 upper secondary school students (publication 4)

Automotive LiDAR performance verification in fog and rain

This article focuses on testing and investigating further development needs for LiDARs in self-driving cars in adverse weather. The article compares two different LiDARs (Ibeo Lux and Velodyne PUCK), which both use the 905 nm wavelengths, which are used in more than 95% of currently available LiDARs. The performance was tested and estimated in stabilized fog conditions at Cerema fog chamber facilities. This provides a good basis for repeating the same validation procedure multiple times and ensuring the right development decisions. However, performance of the LiDARs suffers when the weather conditions become adverse and visibility range decreases. A 50% reduction in target detection performance was observed over the exhaustive tests. Therefore, changing to higher wavelengths (1550 nm) was considered using redesigned 'pre-prototype LiDAR'. The preliminary results indicate that there is no reason to not use 1550 nm wavelength, which due to eye safety regulations gives an opportunity to use 20 times more power compared to the traditional 905 nm. In order to clarify the expected benefits, additional feasibility studies are still needed

Comparative analysis of Erk phosphorylation suggests a mixed strategy for measuring phospho-form distributions.

The functional impact of multisite protein phosphorylation can depend on both the numbers and the positions of phosphorylated sites-the global pattern of phosphorylation or 'phospho-form'-giving biological systems profound capabilities for dynamic information processing. A central problem in quantitative systems biology, therefore, is to measure the 'phospho-form distribution': the relative amount of each of the 2(n) phospho-forms of a protein with n-phosphorylation sites. We compared four potential methods-western blots with phospho-specific antibodies, peptide-based liquid chromatography (LC) and mass spectrometry (MS; pepMS), protein-based LC/MS (proMS) and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR)-on differentially phosphorylated samples of the well-studied mitogen-activated protein kinase Erk2, with two phosphorylation sites. The MS methods were quantitatively consistent with each other and with NMR to within 10%, but western blots, while highly sensitive, showed significant discrepancies with MS. NMR also uncovered two additional phosphorylations, for which a combination of pepMS and proMS yielded an estimate of the 16-member phospho-form distribution. This combined MS strategy provides an optimal mixture of accuracy and coverage for quantifying distributions, but positional isomers remain a challenging problem

Anthropogenic Influence on Tropospheric Reactive Bromine Since the Pre‐industrial: Implications for Arctic Ice‐Core Bromine Trends

Tropospheric reactive bromine (Bry) influences the oxidation capacity of the atmosphere by acting as a sink for ozone and nitrogen oxides. Aerosol acidity plays a crucial role in Bry abundances through acid-catalyzed debromination from sea-salt-aerosol, the largest global source. Bromine concentrations in a Russian Arctic ice-core, Akademii Nauk, show a 3.5-fold increase from pre-industrial (PI) to the 1970s (peak acidity, PA), and decreased by half to 1999 (present day, PD). Ice-core acidity mirrors this trend, showing robust correlation with bromine, especially after 1940 (r = 0.9). Model simulations considering anthropogenic emission changes alone show that atmospheric acidity is the main driver of Bry changes, consistent with the observed relationship between acidity and bromine. The influence of atmospheric acidity on Bry should be considered in interpretation of ice-core bromine trends

Protocol for a systematic review of guidelines for rigour in the design, conduct and analysis of biomedical experiments involving laboratory animals

Objective: Within the last years, there has been growing awareness of the negative repercussions of unstandardized planning, conduct and reporting of preclinical and biomedical research. Several initiatives have set the aim of increasing validity and reliability in reporting of studies and publications, and publishers have formed similar groups. Additionally, several groups of experts across the biomedical spectrum have published experience and opinion-based guidelines and guidance on potential standardized reporting. While all these guidelines cover reporting of experiments, an important step prior to this should be rigours planning and conduction of studies. The aim of this systematic review is to identify and harmonize existing experimental design, conduct and analysis guidelines relating to internal validity and reproducibility of preclinical animal research. The review will also identify literature describing risks of bias pertaining to the design, conduct and analysis of preclinical biomedical research. Search strategy: PubMed, Embase and Web of Science will be searched systematically to identify guidelines published in English language in peer-reviewed journals before January 2018 (box 1). All articles or systematic reviews in English language that describe or review guidelines on the internal validity and reproducibility of animal studies will be included. Google search for guidelines published on the websites of major funders and professional organisations can be found in (Box 2). Screening and annotation: Unique references will be screened in two phases: screening for eligibility based on title and abstract, followed by screening for definitive inclusion based on full text. Screening will be performed in SyRF (http://syrf.org.uk). Each reference will be randomly presented to two independent reviewers. Disagreements between reviewers will be resolved by additional screening of the reference by a third, senior researcher. Data management and reporting: All data, including extracted text and guidelines, will be stored in the SyRF platform. Elements of the included guidelines will be identified using a standardized extraction form. Reporting will follow the PRISMA guidelines as far as applicable

Halorhabdus tiamatea: Proteogenomics and glycosidase activity measurements identify the first cultivated euryarchaeon from a deep-sea anoxic brine lake as potential polysaccharide degrader

Summary: Euryarchaea from the genus Halorhabdus have been found in hypersaline habitats worldwide, yet are represented by only two isolates: Halorhabdus utahensisAX-2T from the shallow Great Salt Lake of Utah, and Halorhabdus tiamateaSARL4BT from the Shaban deep-sea hypersaline anoxic lake (DHAL) in the Red Sea. We sequenced the H.tiamatea genome to elucidate its niche adaptations. Among sequenced archaea, H.tiamatea features the highest number of glycoside hydrolases, the majority of which were expressed in proteome experiments. Annotations and glycosidase activity measurements suggested an adaptation towards recalcitrant algal and plant-derived hemicelluloses. Glycosidase activities were higher at 2% than at 0% or 5% oxygen, supporting a preference for low-oxygen conditions. Likewise, proteomics indicated quinone-mediated electron transport at 2% oxygen, but a notable stress response at 5% oxygen. Halorhabdus tiamatea furthermore encodes proteins characteristic for thermophiles and light-dependent enzymes (e.g. bacteriorhodopsin), suggesting that H.tiamatea evolution was mostly not governed by a cold, dark, anoxic deep-sea habitat. Using enrichment and metagenomics, we could demonstrate presence of similar glycoside hydrolase-rich Halorhabdus members in the Mediterranean DHAL Medee, which supports that Halorhabdus species can occupy a distinct niche as polysaccharide degraders in hypersaline environments.This study was supported by the EU FP7 project MAMBA (‘Marine Metagenomics for New Biotechnological Applications’, FP7‐KBBE‐2008–226977, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (grant BIO2011–25012) and the Max Planck Society. H.T., O.V.G. and P.N.G. acknowledge the support of EU FP7 for the project MicroB3 (OCEAN‐2011‐287589).Peer Reviewe

Halorhabdus tiamatea: Proteogenomics and glycosidase activity measurements identify the first cultivated euryarchaeon from a deep-sea anoxic brine lake as potential polysaccharide degrader.

Euryarchaea from the genus Halorhabdus have been found in hypersaline habitats worldwide, yet are represented by only two isolates: Halorhabdus utahensis AX-2T from the shallow Great Salt Lake of Utah, and Halorhabdus tiamatea SARL4BT from the Shaban deep-sea hypersaline anoxic lake (DHAL) in the Red Sea. We sequenced the H. tiamatea genome to elucidate its niche adaptations. Among sequenced archaea, H. tiamatea features the highest number of glycoside hydrolases, the majority of which were expressed in proteome experiments. Annotations and glycosidase activity measurements suggested an adaptation towards recalcitrant algal and plant-derived hemicelluloses. Glycosidase activities were higher at 2% than at 0% or 5% oxygen, supporting a preference for low-oxygen conditions. Likewise, proteomics indicated quinone-mediated electron transport at 2% oxygen, but a notable stress response at 5% oxygen. Halorhabdus tiamatea furthermore encodes proteins characteristic for thermophiles and light-dependent enzymes (e.g. bacteriorhodopsin), suggesting that H. tiamatea evolution was mostly not governed by a cold, dark, anoxic deep-sea habitat. Using enrichment and metagenomics, we could demonstrate presence of similar glycoside hydrolase-rich Halorhabdus members in the Mediterranean DHAL Medee, which supports that Halorhabdus species can occupy a distinct niche as polysaccharide degraders in hypersaline environments

Varieties of Capitalism and the Learning Firm: Contemporary Developments in EU and German Company Law - A Comment on the Strine-Bainbridge Debate About Shared Values of Corporate Management and Labor

Research in corporate governance and in labour law has been characterized by a disjuncture in the way that scholars in each field are addressing organizational questions related to the business enterprise. While labour has eventually begun to shift perspectives from aspirations to direct employee involvement in firm management, as has been the case in Germany, to a combination of \u27exit\u27 and \u27voice\u27 strategies involving pension fund management and securities litigation, it remains to be seen whether this new stream will unfold as a viable challenge to an otherwise exclusionary shareholder value paradigm. At the same time, recent suggestions made by Delaware Chancery Court Vice Chancellor Strine, to dare think about potentially shared commitments between management and labor - and UCLA\u27s Stephen Bainbridge\u27s response - underline the viability - and, the contestedness - of attempts at moving the corporate governance debate beyond the confines of corporate law proper. While such a wider view had already famously been encouraged by Dean Clarke in his 1986 treatise on Corporate Law (p. 32), mainstream corporate law does not seem to have endorsed this perspective. This paper takes the questionable divide between management and labor within the framework of a limiting corporate governance concept as starting point to explore the institutional dynamics of the corporation, hereby building on the theory of the innovative enterprise, as developed by management theorists Mary O\u27Sullivan and William Lazonick. Largely due to the sustained distance between corporate and labour law scholars, neither group has effectively addressed their common blind spot: a better understanding of the business enterprise itself. In midst of an unceasing flow of affirmations of the finance paradigm of the corporation on the one hand and \u27voice\u27 strategies by labour on the other, it seems to fall to management theorists to draw lessons from the continuing co-existence of different forms of market organization, in which companies appear to thrive. Exploring the conundrum of \u27risky\u27 business decisions within the firm, management theorists have been arguing for the need to adopt a more sophisticated organizational perspective on companies operating on locally, regionally and transnationally shaped, often highly volatile market segments. Research by comparative political economists has revealed a high degree of connectivity between corporate governance and economic performance without, however, arriving at such favourable results only for shareholder value regimes. Such findings support the view that corporate governance regimes are embedded in differently shaped regulatory frameworks, characterized by distinct institutions, both formal and informal, and enforcement processes. As a result of these findings, arguments to disassociate issues of corporate governance from those of the firm\u27s (social) responsibility [CSR] have been losing ground. Instead, CSR can be taken to be an essential part of understanding a particular business enterprise. It is the merging of a comparative political economy perspective on the corporation with one on the organizational features, structures and processes of the corporation, which can help us better understand the distribution of power and knowledge within the \u27learning firm\u27