Drohnen als Partner im Luftraum

In unserem Beitrag fassen wir drei Themen einer jüngst veröffentlichten Studie zur Technikfolgenabschätzung ziviler Drohnen zusammen. Erstens legen wir dar, dass der Rechtsbegriff der Drohne unklar geregelt ist und dass eine technische Definition des Begriffs „Drohne“ der falsche Weg ist. Wir präsentieren eine alternative Einbindung des Drohnenbegriffs in das europäische Luftfahrtrecht. Zweitens beschreiben wir die Komplexität der technisch zu regelnden Aspekte, um eine Einbindung von Drohnen in das Luftraumsystem ohne direkten Sichtkontakt zu ermöglichen. Wir beschreiben das Problem der technischen Sicherheit und die Komponenten eines Verkehrsmanagementsystems für Drohnen. Drittens verdeutlichen wir, dass bei der Bewältigung der ethischen, rechtlichen und sozialen Herausforderungen von Drohnen eine Vollzugslücke besteht, insbesondere im Datenschutz

Best Practices and Methodological Guidelines for Conducting Gas Risk Assessments

The EC Regulation concerning measures to safeguard security of gas supply (EC/994/2010) requires member states to make a full assessment of the risks affecting the security of gas supply. According to Article 9, this risk assessment must: (a) use the infrastructure and supply standards (articles 6 and 8); (b) take into account all relevant national and regional circumstances; (c) run various disruption scenarios; (d) identify the interaction and correlation of risks with other Member States. (e) take into account the maximal interconnection capacity of each border entry and exit point. The objective of this report is to provide guidance and advice for performing risk assessments. It will do so by first providing a literature review, and then by proposing a basic structure for undertaking a gas security risk assessment, in accordance with best practices and standard procedures found in risk management.JRC.F.3-Energy securit

A model for control of HIV/AIDS with parental care

In this study we investigate the HIV/AIDS epidemic in a population which experiences a significant flow of immigrants. We derive and analyze a mathematical model that describes the dynamics of HIV infection among the immigrant youths and how parental care can minimize or prevent the spread of the disease in the population. We analyze the model with both screening control and parental care, then investigate its stability and sensitivity behavior. We also conduct both qualitative and quantitative analyses. It is observed that in the absence of infected youths, disease-free equilibrium is achievable and is globally asymptotically stable. We establish optimal strategies for the control of the disease with screening and parental care, and provide numerical simulations to illustrate the analytic results.Web of Scienc

Drones as partners in the airspace: Framework conditions for regulation of civilian drones

In unserem Beitrag fassen wir drei Themen einer jüngst veröffentlichten Studie zur Technikfolgenabschätzung ziviler Drohnen zusammen. Erstens legen wir dar, dass der Rechtsbegriff der Drohne unklar geregelt ist und dass eine technische Definition des Begriffs „Drohne“ der falsche Weg ist. Wir präsentieren eine alternative Einbindung des Drohnenbegriffs in das europäische Luftfahrtrecht. Zweitens beschreiben wir die Komplexität der technisch zu regelnden Aspekte, um eine Einbindung von Drohnen in das Luftraumsystem ohne direkten Sichtkontakt zu ermöglichen. Wir beschreiben das Problem der technischen Sicherheit und die Komponenten eines Verkehrsmanagementsystems für Drohnen. Drittens verdeutlichen wir, dass bei der Bewältigung der ethischen, rechtlichen und sozialen Herausforderungen von Drohnen eine Vollzugslücke besteht, insbesondere im Datenschutz.In our article, we summarize three topics of a recently published study on technology assessment of civilian drones. First, we explain that the legal concept of drones is unclear and that a technical definition of the term "drone" would be the wrong way to go. We present an alternative approach to integrate the concept of drones into European aviation law. Second, we describe the complexity of the technical aspects to be regulated in order to enable the integration of drones into the airspace system beyond visual line of sight. We describe the problem of technical safety and the components of a drone traffic management system. Third, we point to an enforcement gap in coping with the ethical, legal, and social challenges of drones, particularly in data protection

The Borrelia afzelii outer membrane protein BAPKO_0422 binds human Factor-H and is predicted to form a membrane-spanning beta-barrel

The deep evolutionary history of the Spirochetes places their branch point early in the evolution of the diderms, before the divergence of the present day Proteobacteria. As a Spirochete, the morphology of the Borrelia cell envelope shares characteristics of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. A thin layer of peptidoglycan, tightly associated with the cytoplasmic membrane is surrounded by a more labile outer membrane (OM). This OM is rich in lipoproteins but with few known integral membrane proteins. The OmpA domain is an eight-stranded membrane-spanning β-barrel, highly conserved among the Proteobacteria but so far unknown in the Spirochetes. In the present work we describe the identification of four novel OmpA-like β-barrels from Borrelia afzelii, the most common cause of erythema migrans rash in Europe. Structural characterisation of one these proteins (BAPKO_0422) by small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and circular dichroism indicate a compact globular structure rich in β-strand consistent with a monomeric β-barrel. Ab initio molecular envelopes calculated from the scattering profile are consistent with homology models and demonstrate that BAPKO_0422 adopts a peanut shape with dimensions 25 x 45 Å. Deviations from the standard C-terminal signature sequence are apparent; in particular the C-terminal Phe residue commonly found in Proteobacterial OM proteins is replaced by Ile/Leu or Asn. BAPKO_0422 is demonstrated to bind human factor-H and therefore may contribute to immune evasion by inhibition of the complement response. Encoded by chromosomal genes, these proteins are highly conserved between Borrelia subspecies and may be of diagnostic or therapeutic value

The LabTogo-Project

A joint project between West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL), the University of Lomé and the German Biomass Research Center (Deutsches Biomasseforschungszentrum; DBFZ) was initiated in 2020. The project aims at evaluating alternative and regenerative energy sources for rural areas and creating the basis for successful implementation. In three different work packages, therefore, biomass potentials should be quantified, technologies should be examined with regard to their suitability and - in the case of biogas application - a research structure, pilot biogas laboratory, should be created that is necessary to enable the sustainable implementation of technologies

Assessing Causality in the Relationship Between Adolescents’ Risky Sexual Online Behavior and Their Perceptions of this Behavior

The main aim of this study was to investigate the causal nature of the relationship between adolescents’ risky sexual behavior on the internet and their perceptions of this behavior. Engagement in the following online behaviors was assessed: searching online for someone to talk about sex, searching online for someone to have sex, sending intimate photos or videos to someone online, and sending one’s telephone number and address to someone exclusively known online. The relationship between these behaviors and adolescents’ perceptions of peer involvement, personal invulnerability, and risks and benefits was investigated. A two-wave longitudinal study among a representative sample of 1,445 Dutch adolescents aged 12–17 was conducted (49% females). Autoregressive cross-lagged structural equation models revealed that perceived peer involvement, perceived vulnerability, and perceived risks were all significant predictors of risky sexual online behavior 6 months later. No reverse causal paths were found. When the relationships between perceptions and risky sexual online behavior were modeled simultaneously, only perceived peer involvement was a determinant of risky sexual online behavior. Findings highlight the importance of addressing peer involvement in future interventions to reduce adolescents’ risky sexual online behavior