Abfallwirtschaft und Stoffstrommanagement : ökonomische Instrumente der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der EU ; Tagungsband

In den letzten Jahren wurden unterschiedliche Erfahrungen im Rahmen der Abfallpolitik. gesammelt, die eine vergleichende Bewertung der Wirkungsweise und der Treffsicherheit verschiedener ökonomischer Anreize (Abgaben, Steuern, Lizenzen) in der Praxis erlauben. Diese Erkenntnisse sind eine wichtige Grundlage für die zukünftige Gestaltung der Abfallwirtschaft, deren erklärtes Ziel es ist, den Wandel von der Wegwerfgesellschaft zu einer Kreislaufwirtschaft zu ermöglichen. Diese Entwicklung fordert zu einer kritischen Auseinandersetzung mit den bisherigen Leitbildern der Abfallwirtschaft insgesamt und speziell ihrem konventionellen abfallpolitischen Instrumentarium heraus. In diesem Zusammenhang muß die bisher kaum wahrgenommene europäische Dimension der Problematik berücksichtigt werden. Das Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) hat deshalb am 22. März 1994 eine Veranstaltung zum Thema: "Abfallwirtschaft und Stoffstrommanagement - Ökonomische Instrumente in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und in der EU" durchgeführt. Das Seminar sollte zum Wissensaustausch im internationalen Rahmen beitragen und zur Diskussion über die neuen Perspektiven der Abfallpolitik als Teilbereich der Stoffpolitik anregen. Wegen der regen Nachfrage nach den Tagungsunterlagen haben wir beschlossen, eine Dokumentation zu diesem Thema zusammenzustellen

Population genomic analysis of elongated skulls reveals extensive female-biased immigration in Early Medieval Bavaria

Modern European genetic structure demonstrates strong correlations with geography, while genetic analysis of prehistoric humans has indicated at least two major waves of immigration from outside the continent during periods of cultural change. However, population-level genome data that could shed light on the demographic processes occurring during the intervening periods have been absent. Therefore, we generated genomic data from 41 individuals dating mostly to the late 5th/early 6th century AD from present-day Bavaria in southern Germany, including 11 whole genomes (mean depth 5.56×). In addition we developed a capture array to sequence neutral regions spanning a total of 5 Mb and 486 functional polymorphic sites to high depth (mean 72×) in all individuals. Our data indicate that while men generally had ancestry that closely resembles modern northern and central Europeans, women exhibit a very high genetic heterogeneity; this includes signals of genetic ancestry ranging from western Europe to East Asia. Particularly striking are women with artificial skull deformations; the analysis of their collective genetic ancestry suggests an origin in southeastern Europe. In addition, functional variants indicate that they also differed in visible characteristics. This example of female-biased migration indicates that complex demographic processes during the Early Medieval period may have contributed in an unexpected way to shape the modern European genetic landscape. Examination of the panel of functional loci also revealed that many alleles associated with recent positive selection were already at modern-like frequencies in European populations ∼1,500 years ago

The Added Value of Large-Eddy and Storm-Resolving Models for Simulating Clouds and Precipitation

More than one hundred days were simulated over very large domains with fine (0.156 km to 2.5 km) grid spacing for realistic conditions to test the hypothesis that storm (kilometer) and large-eddy (hectometer) resolving simulations would provide an improved representation of clouds and precipitation in atmospheric simulations. At scales that resolve convective storms (storm-resolving for short), the vertical velocity variance becomes resolved and a better physical basis is achieved for representing clouds and precipitation. Similarly to past studies we found an improved representation of precipitation at kilometer scales, as compared to models with parameterized convection. The main precipitation features (location, diurnal cycle and spatial propagation) are well captured already at kilometer scales, and refining resolution to hectometer scales does not substantially change the simulations in these respects. It does, however, lead to a reduction in the precipitation on the time-scales considered – most notably over the ocean in the tropics. Changes in the distribution of precipitation, with less frequent extremes are also found in simulations incorporating hectometer scales. Hectometer scales appear to be more important for the representation of clouds, and make it possible to capture many important aspects of the cloud field, from the vertical distribution of cloud cover, to the distribution of cloud sizes, and to the diel (daily) cycle. Qualitative improvements, particularly in the ability to differentiate cumulus from stratiform clouds, are seen when one reduces the grid spacing from kilometer to hectometer scales. At the hectometer scale new challenges arise, but the similarity of observed and simulated scales, and the more direct connection between the circulation and the unconstrained degrees of freedom make these challenges less daunting. This quality, combined with already improved simulation as compared to more parameterized models, underpins our conviction that the use and further development of storm-resolving models offers exciting opportunities for advancing understanding of climate and climate change

An international multi-center investigation on the accuracy of radionuclide calibrators in nuclear medicine theragnostics

Background: Personalized molecular radiotherapy based on theragnostics requires accurate quantification of the amount of radiopharmaceutical activity administered to patients both in diagnostic and therapeutic applications. This international multi-center study aims to investigate the clinical measurement accuracy of radionuclide calibrators for 7 radionuclides used in theragnostics: 99mTc, 111In, 123I, 124I, 131I, 177Lu, and 90Y. Methods: In total, 32 radionuclide calibrators from 8 hospitals located in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany were tested. For each radio

Neuromatch Academy: a 3-week, online summer school in computational neuroscience

Neuromatch Academy (https://academy.neuromatch.io; (van Viegen et al., 2021)) was designed as an online summer school to cover the basics of computational neuroscience in three weeks. The materials cover dominant and emerging computational neuroscience tools, how they complement one another, and specifically focus on how they can help us to better understand how the brain functions. An original component of the materials is its focus on modeling choices, i.e. how do we choose the right approach, how do we build models, and how can we evaluate models to determine if they provide real (meaningful) insight. This meta-modeling component of the instructional materials asks what questions can be answered by different techniques, and how to apply them meaningfully to get insight about brain function

Multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of 21,000 cases and 95,000 controls identifies new risk loci for atopic dermatitis

Genetic association studies have identified 21 loci associated with atopic dermatitis risk predominantly in populations of European ancestry. To identify further susceptibility loci for this common, complex skin disease, we performed a meta-analysis of >15 million genetic variants in 21,399 cases and 95,464 controls from populations of European, African, Japanese and Latino ancestry, followed by replication in 32,059 cases and 228,628 controls from 18 studies. We identified ten new risk loci, bringing the total number of known atopic dermatitis risk loci to 31 (with new secondary signals at four of these loci). Notably, the new loci include candidate genes with roles in the regulation of innate host defenses and T cell function, underscoring the important contribution of (auto)immune mechanisms to atopic dermatitis pathogenesis