Crisis communication in politics, using the example of the coverage about the MD thesis of the formr german minster of defence, Karl-Theodorzu Guttenberg

Der erste Teil dieser Arbeit beschreibt das Thema Krise zunächst vom theoretischen Standpunkt aus. Es werden unter anderem Arten, Ursachen und Verlauf von Krisen beschrieben und auf Krisenkommunikation eingegangen Außerdem erfolgt eine Abgrenzung von Krisen in der Politik als eine besondere Art der Krise. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit, wird eine konkrete Krisensituation innerhalb der deutschen Politik beobachtet und untersucht. Es handelt sich um die sogenannte "Guttenberg-Affäre“. Verteidigungsminister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg soll in seiner Doktorarbeit von anderen Autoren und aus einigen deutschen Zeitungen abgeschrieben haben. Innerhalb dieser Arbeit wird der Zusammenhang zwischen der Berichterstattung und der Kommunikation zu Guttenbergs während der Krise untersucht und der Frage nachgegangen, ob und in wie weit Leitmedien in Deutschland Einfluss auf diesen Fall genommen haben. Analysegegenstand sind die Medien „Tagesschau“ und „Süddeutsche Zeitung“. Ziel der Analyse ist, die Zusammenhänge zwischen Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und Berichterstattung herauszustellen, sowie eine Krisendynamik am konkreten Beispiel aufzuzeigen

Arrhythmogenic actions of the Ca2+ channel agonist FPL-64716 in Langendorff-perfused murine hearts

The experiments explored the extent to which alterations in L-type Ca2+ channel-mediated Ca2+ entry triggers Ca2+-mediated arrhythmogenesis in Langendorff-perfused murine hearts through use of the specific L-type Ca2+ channel modulator FPL-64716 (FPL). Introduction of FPL (1 μm) resulted in a gradual development (>10 min) of diastolic electrical events and alternans in spontaneously beating hearts from which monophasic action potentials were recorded. In regularly paced hearts, they additionally led to non-sustained and sustained ventricular tachycardia (nsVT and sVT). Programmed electrical stimulation (PES) resulted in nsVT and sVT after 5–10 and >10 min perfusion, respectively. Pretreatments with nifedipine, diltiazem and cyclopiazonic acid abolished arrhythmogenic tendency induced by subsequent introduction of FPL, consistent with its dependence upon both extracellular Ca2+ entry and the degree of filling of the sarcoplasmic reticular Ca2+ store. Values for action potential duration at 90% repolarization when any of these agents were applied to FPL-treated hearts became indistinguishable from those shown by untreated control hearts, in contrast to earlier reports of their altering in long QT syndrome type 3 and hypokalaemic murine models for re-entrant arrhythmogenesis. These arrhythmic effects instead correlated with alterations in Ca2+ homeostasis at the single-cell level found in investigations of the effects of both FPL and the same agents in regularly stimulated fluo−3 loaded myocytes. These findings are compatible with a prolonged extracellular Ca2+ entry that potentially results in an intracellular Ca2+ overload and produces the cardiac arrhythmogenecity following addition of FPL

Decision Support for the Planning of Production Systems for Renewable Resources

For the substitution of fossil fuels with renewables, the use of biomass in production processes is often considered ambivalent regarding economic viability and other sustainability criteria. To address the sustainability and efficiency concerns associated with biomass conversion, concepts for multi-input and multi-output biorefineries have been discussed and tested. However, lacking economic viability, none have been realized on an industrial scale until today. Instead, biogas plants, mostly used for combined heat and power generation, have become the most prevalent biomass conversion process in Germany. Incentivized by feed-in tariffs and other subsidies, almost 10,000 biogas plants operate in Germany in 2019. These and other biomass-fueled plants can produce power flexibly, but at higher cost than most other renewable and fossil power plants. In order to make sound decisions for production systems for renewable resources, comprehensive decision support is needed. The choices of capacity, configuration and location are among the major challenges for the planning of such production systems. This habilitation elaborates decision support by considering relevant strategic and operational aspects of production systems for renewable resources. The covered strategic aspects concentrate on the interdependent choices of plant capacity, configuration and location, which are addressed with nonlinear programming and geographic information systems. For plants for the conversion of biomass, large plant capacities lead to both economies of scale and rising specific transportation cost, which plays a major role for their economic viability. The operational aspect of scheduling flexible and programmable power generation and consumption is investigated as well because of its rising importance due to the increasing share of intermittent power generation from photovoltaic cells and wind turbines. Optimization models, application programming interfaces and available data sources are combined to offer the aspired decision support.2022-10-0

Estimating the revenue potential of flexible biogas plants in the power sector

The expansion of intermittent renewable power poses new challenges: Balancing fluctuations in power supply and demand requires additional flexibility. In this work, we model a unit commitment optimization problem to investigate the economic feasibility of concepts for flexible power generation from biogas. Because the economics of flexible power generation also depend on the availability of other flexibility options, we compared flexible biogas plants in power markets with different characteristics, namely Germany, northern Italy, and the islands of Sardinia and Sicily. Using an algorithm to optimize the constrained mixed-integer unit commitment of biogas plants, we determine hourly optimal production schedules in each region based on the prices from 2008 to 2017. The algorithm helps to assess whether the investment for equipment that required for flexible electricity production, such as a larger generator and storage facilities, would have been justified by the likely additional revenue in the investigated period. Our results show that the premium that flexible biogas plants can earn over non-flexible ones has decreased significantly between 2008 and 2017 in all investigated regions. Since 2015, additional incentives have been indispensable in all four investigated regions to make the concept of producing power from biogas flexibly economically viable

Ecological Assessment of Port Equipment for Container Terminals

Environmental protection and energy efficiency are important topics for sea port management, which is characterized by long-term investments. To assess the environmental impact of port equipment, we investigate different equipment types with fossil, hybrid and electric drive technologies, in cooperation with our project partner Hamburg Port Consulting (HPC). An ecological assessment of port equipment will support terminal operators who aim to make sustainable investment decisions. We conduct a comparative life cycle assessment (LCA) of different port equipment types including the three above-mentioned drive technologies. Various LCA impact categories, such as climate change, terrestrial acidification and particulate matter formation, were calculated and compared. Thus, we aim to foster a more comprehensive understanding of the environmental performance of port equipment. The results show the contribution of each life cycle phase to the environmental performance of an equipment type within each impact category and thus allow for a comparison of different port equipment types. So far, little comprehensive research exists regarding sustainable port operations. Especially, port operators often lack knowledge about the environmental impact of port processes, whereof it is necessary to provide a good basis to fill in this gap