POWER2GAS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

Because of the climate change and new laws to reduce the carbon dioxide emission, the automotive industry has a major potential. With alternative actuations and new ways to make fuels accessible, like Power2Gas, it is possible to drive nearly CO2 neutral. This examination considers especial passenger cars and lorries in Germany in terms of costs, different fuels and emission exhaust

Living in liminality: an osteoarchaeological investigation into the use of avian resources in North Atlantic Island environments

This thesis explores the use of avian resources within the Scottish and wider North Atlantic Island environment via archaeological bone and eggshell. Birds can provide a range of products including meat, eggs and feathers, however their archaeological investigation has frequently been both overlooked, and limited in its extent and application. By collating pre-existing avian data and combining it with new, in-depth analyses this thesis investigates bird use though time and space; firstly in the Scottish Islands (the primary area of study), and then contextualises this within the wider tradition of fowling archaeologically and historically in Iceland and the Faroe Islands. Mesolithic to Norse Scottish Island bird bone is used to develop our understanding of diet, wild resource exploitation, seasonal fowling activities, habitat use, and movement around the landscape. South Uist in the Outer Hebrides forms a major case study incorporating substantial primary bone analyses from Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age Cladh Hallan, Norse Bornais and Norse Cille Pheadair. The full Scottish Island dataset is used to consider trends in bird use by period and location. Species presence, juveniles, medullary bone and SEM analysis of eggshell are used to investigate resource acquisition by season and location. The material reveals that seabirds played an enduring role, with key birds such as the gannet, auks, shag, cormorant and gulls being repeatedly exploited. Fowling is focused and diverse, often incorporating targeted species and several opportunistically caught taxa. Birds were acquired both locally and in fowling trips further afield. Variations in avian populations are observed; determining the resources available to human fowlers and investigating the impact of such exploitation. Analysing, integrating and interpreting the archaeological bird remains on this wide temporal and geographical scale has enabled a greater understanding of past bird use and role within North Atlantic Island diet, economy and life

Selling the object of strategy:How frontline workers realize strategy through their daily work

This paper explores how frontline workers contribute to an organization’s realized strategy. Using a workplace studies approach, we analyse the work of museum tour guides as a salient example of workers engaged in frontline work. Our findings demonstrate the subtle and intricate nature of the embodied work of frontline workers as they ‘bring into being’ the strategic aims of an organization. We identified five elements as central to this process: (1) the situated physical context; (2) audience composition; (3) the moral order; (4) the talk, actions and gestures of the guide; and (5) the corresponding talk, actions and gestures of the audience. Drawing on these categories, we find frontline workers to demonstrate ‘interactional competence’: assessing and making use of the physical, spatial and material specifics of the context and those they are interacting with, and enlisting interactional resources to uphold a moral order that brings these others in as a working audience, encouraging them to respond in particular ways. Frontline workers thus skilfully combine language, material and bodily expressions in the flow of their work. Demonstrating these dynamics gives a more central role to material in the realization of strategy than previously recognized; demonstrates that ‘outsiders’ have an important part to play in realizing strategy; and highlights the importance of frontline workers and their skilled work in bringing strategy into being

Voluntary Wheel Running in Old C57BL/6 Mice Reduces Age-Related Inflammation in the Colon but Not in the Brain

Inflammation is considered a possible cause of cognitive decline during aging. This study investigates the influence of physical activity and social isolation in old mice on their cognitive functions and inflammation. The Barnes maze task was performed to assess spatial learning and memory in 3, 9, 15, 24, and 28 months old male C57BL/6 mice as well as following voluntary wheel running (VWR) and social isolation (SI) in 20 months old mice. Inflammatory gene expression was analyzed in hippocampal and colonic samples by qPCR. Cognitive decline occurs in mice between 15 and 24 months of age. VWR improved cognitive functions while SI had negative effects. Expression of inflammatory markers changed during aging in the hippocampus ( Il1a / Il6 / S100b / Iba1 / Adgre1 / Cd68 / Itgam ) and colon ( Tnf / Il6 / Il1ra / P2rx7 ). VWR attenuates inflammaging specifically in the colon ( Ifng / Il10 / Ccl2 / S100b / Iba1 ), while SI regulates intestinal Il1b and Gfap . Inflammatory markers in the hippocampus were not altered following VWR and SI. The main finding of our study is that both the hippocampus and colon exhibit an increase in inflammatory markers during aging, and that voluntary wheel running in old age exclusively attenuates intestinal inflammation. Based on the existence of the gut-brain axis, our results extend therapeutic approaches preserving cognitive functions in the elderly to the colon