Beyond technology: A research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe

This article enriches the existing literature on the importance and role of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in renewable energy sources research by providing a novel approach to instigating the future research agenda in this field. Employing a series of in-depth interviews, deliberative focus group workshops and a systematic horizon scanning process, which utilised the expert knowledge of 85 researchers from the field with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and expertise, the paper develops a set of 100 priority questions for future research within SSH scholarship on renewable energy sources. These questions were aggregated into four main directions: (i) deep transformations and connections to the broader economic system (i.e. radical ways of (re)arranging socio-technical, political and economic relations), (ii) cultural and geographical diversity (i.e. contextual cultural, historical, political and socio-economic factors influencing citizen support for energy transitions), (iii) complexifying energy governance (i.e. understanding energy systems from a systems dynamics perspective) and (iv) shifting from instrumental acceptance to value-based objectives (i.e. public support for energy transitions as a normative notion linked to trust-building and citizen engagement). While this agenda is not intended to be—and cannot be—exhaustive or exclusive, we argue that it advances the understanding of SSH research on renewable energy sources and may have important value in the prioritisation of SSH themes needed to enrich dialogues between policymakers, funding institutions and researchers. SSH scholarship should not be treated as instrumental to other research on renewable energy but as intrinsic and of the same hierarchical importance.acceptedVersio

Asymptotic behaviour of oscillatory solutions of a fourth-order nonlinear differential equation

summary:Asymptotic behaviour of oscillatory solutions of the fourth-order nonlinear differential equation with quasiderivates $y^{[4]}+r(t)f(y)=0$ is studied

Beyond technology: A research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe

This article enriches the existing literature on the importance and role of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in renewable energy sources research by providing a novel approach to instigating the future research agenda in this field. Employing a series of in-depth interviews, deliberative focus group workshops and a systematic horizon scanning process, which utilised the expert knowledge of 85 researchers from the field with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and expertise, the paper develops a set of 100 priority questions for future research within SSH scholarship on renewable energy sources. These questions were aggregated into four main directions: (i) deep transformations and connections to the broader economic system (i.e. radical ways of (re)arranging socio-technical, political and economic relations), (ii) cultural and geographical diversity (i.e. contextual cultural, historical, political and socio-economic factors influencing citizen support for energy transitions), (iii) complexifying energy governance (i.e. understanding energy systems from a systems dynamics perspective) and (iv) shifting from instrumental acceptance to value-based objectives (i.e. public support for energy transitions as a normative notion linked to trust-building and citizen engagement). While this agenda is not intended to be—and cannot be—exhaustive or exclusive, we argue that it advances the understanding of SSH research on renewable energy sources and may have important value in the prioritisation of SSH themes needed to enrich dialogues between policymakers, funding institutions and researchers. SSH scholarship should not be treated as instrumental to other research on renewable energy but as intrinsic and of the same hierarchical importance

Characterization of the Self-Cleaving Effector Protein NopE1 of Bradyrhizobium japonicum ▿

NopE1 is a type III-secreted protein of the symbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum which is expressed in nodules. In vitro it exhibits self-cleavage in a duplicated domain of unknown function (DUF1521) but only in the presence of calcium. Here we show that either domain is self-sufficient for cleavage. An exchange of the aspartic acid residue at the cleavage site with asparagine prevented cleavage; however, cleavage was still observed with glutamic acid at the same position, indicating that a negative charge at the cleavage site is sufficient. Close to each cleavage site, an EF-hand-like motif is present. A replacement of one of the conserved aspartic acid residues with alanine prevented cleavage at the neighboring site. Except for EDTA, none of several protease inhibitors blocked cleavage, suggesting that a known protease-like mechanism is not involved in the reaction. In line with this, the reaction takes place within a broad pH and temperature range. Interestingly, magnesium, manganese, and several other divalent cations did not induce cleavage, indicating a highly specific calcium-binding site. Based on results obtained by blue-native gel electrophoresis, it is likely that the uncleaved protein forms a dimer and that the fragments of the cleaved protein oligomerize. A database search reveals that the DUF1521 domain is present in proteins encoded by Burkholderia phytofirmans PsNJ (a plant growth-promoting betaproteobacterium) and Vibrio coralliilyticus ATCC BAA450 (a pathogenic gammaproteobacterium). Obviously, this domain is more widespread in proteobacteria, and it might contribute to the interaction with hosts

Beyond technology: A research agenda for social sciences and humanities research on renewable energy in Europe

This article enriches the existing literature on the importance and role of the social sciences and humanities (SSH) in renewable energy sources research by providing a novel approach to instigating the future research agenda in this field. Employing a series of in-depth interviews, deliberative focus group workshops and a systematic horizon scanning process, which utilised the expert knowledge of 85 researchers from the field with diverse disciplinary backgrounds and expertise, the paper develops a set of 100 priority questions for future research within SSH scholarship on renewable energy sources. These questions were aggregated into four main directions: (i) deep transformations and connections to the broader economic system (i.e. radical ways of (re)arranging socio-technical, political and economic relations), (ii) cultural and geographical diversity (i.e. contextual cultural, historical, political and socio-economic factors influencing citizen support for energy transitions), (iii) complexifying energy governance (i.e. understanding energy systems from a systems dynamics perspective) and (iv) shifting from instrumental acceptance to value-based objectives (i.e. public support for energy transitions as a normative notion linked to trust-building and citizen engagement). While this agenda is not intended to be—and cannot be—exhaustive or exclusive, we argue that it advances the understanding of SSH research on renewable energy sources and may have important value in the prioritisation of SSH themes needed to enrich dialogues between policymakers, funding institutions and researchers. SSH scholarship should not be treated as instrumental to other research on renewable energy but as intrinsic and of the same hierarchical importance