Scarcity and Abundance Revisited: A Literature Review on Natural Resources and Conflict

Natural resources can contribute to economic growth, employment, and fiscal revenues. But many resource-rich and resource-dependent countries are, in fact, body of literature is devoted to the issue of intrastate resource conflicts. These studies can be broadly divided into two groups: studies which focus on resource characterized by disappointing growth rates, high inequality and wide-spread impoverishment, bad governance, and an increased risk of civil violence. A vast scarcity and conflict, and studies that analyse the relationship between resource abundance and conflict. While studying resources and intrastate conflict is anything but new, we show that the main findings from the literature, which are often conflicting, are difficult to compare due to a lack of adequate, and conflict, we discuss the central terminology and approaches to measuring independent and dependent variables (resources and conflict). general definitions and measurements of scarcity, abundance, and conflict. After overviews of research on resource scarcity and conflict and on resource abundance

Utilizing Fleet Data: Towards Designing a Connected Fleet Management System for the Effective Use of Multi-Brand Car Data

The connected car has recently evolved from a theoretical concept to reality. Especially in professionally managed fleets, car connectivity promises additional benefits in terms of costs, environment, and maintenance. However, many fleet managers are unaware of using connected car data and still associate telematics with retrofitting each vehicle. Thus, we aim to develop a connected fleet management system to increase fleet operations’ efficiency and effectiveness by utilizing multi-brand data from car manufacturers’ backend shared by data marketplaces. Thereby, we follow a design science research approach using inputs from the existing body of knowledge and the practical problem domain. Drawing on the theory of effective use, we propose meta-requirements and tentative design principles and instantiate them in a prototype artifact

Der Berg ruft – Eine Christologie der Alpen zwischen Materialismus und Metaphysik

The sublime experiences which one can have in the mountains are a promising point of departure for engagements with the two standard models of human world interpretation, antirealism and materialism. Particularly the critiques of these two predominant models, articulated by philosophers such as Thomas Nagel, offer theologians the opportunity to think through the uniqueness of the experience of nature in more plausible and more productive ways than in reductionist materialism. Following a similar trajectory, christology could be considered a culturally mediated interpretative framework which allows for the understanding of the meaning and mystery of human encounters with the world

Respiratory viruses interacting with cells: the importance of electrostatics

The COVID-19 pandemic has rekindled interest in the molecular mechanisms involved in the early steps of infection of cells by viruses. Compared to SARS-CoV-1 which only caused a relatively small albeit deadly outbreak, SARS-CoV-2 has led to fulminant spread and a full-scale pandemic characterized by efficient virus transmission worldwide within a very short time. Moreover, the mutations the virus acquired over the many months of virus transmission, particularly those seen in the Omicron variant, have turned out to result in an even more transmissible virus. Here, we focus on the early events of virus infection of cells. We review evidence that the first decisive step in this process is the electrostatic interaction of the spike protein with heparan sulfate chains present on the surface of target cells: Patches of cationic amino acids located on the surface of the spike protein can interact intimately with the negatively charged heparan sulfate chains, which results in the binding of the virion to the cell surface. In a second step, the specific interaction of the receptor binding domain (RBD) within the spike with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor leads to the uptake of bound virions into the cell. We show that these events can be expressed as a semi-quantitative model by calculating the surface potential of different spike proteins using the Adaptive Poison-Boltzmann-Solver (APBS). This software allows visualization of the positive surface potential caused by the cationic patches, which increased markedly from the original Wuhan strain of SARS-CoV-2 to the Omicron variant. The surface potential thus enhanced leads to a much stronger binding of the Omicron variant as compared to the original wild-type virus. At the same time, data taken from the literature demonstrate that the interaction of the RBD of the spike protein with the ACE2 receptor remains constant within the limits of error. Finally, we briefly digress to other viruses and show the usefulness of these electrostatic processes and calculations for cell-virus interactions more generally