the example of resource use in ICT products

Information and communication technology (ICT) products are one telling example for increasingly globalized production and consumption patterns and resulting distributional effects on a global scale. Consumption, which still takes place primarily in ‘Northern’ countries, is connected to a flow of valuable resources from developing countries to the industrialized world and at the same time leads to increasing environmental and social pressures mostly in developing states, where environmental costs are not internalized. For example, the mining of rare materials that are crucial for the production of electronic devices often involves poor working conditions and high environmental impacts; or an increasing quantity of electronic waste is exported to developing states where disposal and recycling takes place under dire working and health conditions. Both phenomena imply shifts of environmental burdens into developing countries. Therefore, the paper touches issues of international justice and equity. It deals with the questions how ‘Northern’ countries can cope with the issue of transboundary environmental problems, which are caused by their domestic consumption, but which appear outside their own territory and outside their authoritative reach. It will be argued that achieving a more resource efficient society and economy would be one way to deal with this problem. Drawing on an analysis of the main obstacles on the way towards higher resource efficiency, and using the example of ICT-products, the paper offers concrete policy proposals. In order to gain better knowledge about global material flows and the material input (incl. 'ecological rucksacks') per product, the implementation of information obligations following the 'No Data, No Market' principle could be a promising approach. On this information basis, dynamic standards and green public procurement could foster the production and consumption of resource efficient ICT-products. This policy mix of both supply- and demand-side instruments would have the potential to minimize translocated environmental burdens

Croatian as a second language in Germany: German with Croatian words?

U ovome se radu govori o nekim obilježjima u jeziku potomaka hrvatskih iseljenika koji su rođeni i odrasli u Njemačkoj. Oni su hrvatski naučili od roditelja i vrlo raznoliko njime vladaju. Međutim, u njihovu se govoru usprkos različitim stupnjevima ovladanosti hrvatskim pojavljuju zajednička obilježja. U pisanim tekstovima redovito se pojavljuju rečenice koji su doslovni prijevodi njemačkih istoznačnih rečenica. Moglo bi se reći da su to primjeri njemačkoga jezika s hrvatskim riječima. Međutim, pitanje je kako se događa da se u hrvatski jezik tih dvojezičnih govornika unosi njemački red riječi i zadržavanje zamjenica, dok morfologija u pravilu zadržava hrvatska obilježja. U radu će se pokazati da drugačiji pristup tome problemu, koji uključuje i svojevrsnu promjenu u pogledu na sam jezik, može dati jednostavan odgovor.In the last three decades, a group of young people, whose parents emigrated from Croatia, have grown up in Germany. Their knowledge of their parents’ language is extensive, but there are some peculiarities in their speech that they all have in common. In their essays written in Croatian, appearing regularly are sentences such as `Kad ja prošle godine u Hrvatskoj bio...\u27 or `Ja sam je pitala, što ona poslije predavanja radi\u27. They are word for word translations or transformations of the German equivalents: ``Als ich voriges Jahr in Kroatien war, and \u27Ich habe sie gefragt, was sie nach der Vorlesung macht\u27\u27. One could say they look like examples of German with Croatian words. However, on closer examination two questions arise: why is the German word order imitated, while morphology as a rule is not affected. What is the reason that the pronouns are not dropped? It is often said that language learning is based on imitating the speech of the parents, but why do then young Croatians born and raised in Germany imitate only the words and morphology in the speech of their parents, and not the pronoun dropping or word order

Die neue Leichtigkeit des Seins in der russischen Werbung - Zwischen Turbo-slim und Slim-line

Zweitveröffentlichun

das Beispiel einer Strategie zur Schonung natürlicher Ressourcen

Das Bundesumweltministerium (BMU beabsichtigt die Erarbeitung einer thematischen Strategie zur Ressourcenschonung („Deutsches Ressourceneffizienzprogramm“; ProgRess). Die vorliegende Arbeit zeigt politikwissenschaftlich basierte Optionen zur Gestaltung einer solchen Strategie auf. Die Arbeit kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass die bisher vom BMU (mit-)entwickelten Umweltstrategien das Governancepotenzial thematischer Umweltstrategien bisher bei weitem nicht ausschöpfen

Anwendungen des Programmsystem COSAR im Pumpen- und Verdichterbau

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Politikintegration Fehlanzeige

Die neue Rohstoffstrategie der Bundesregierung soll dazu dienen, die Versorgung der deutschen, stark importabhängigen Wirtschaft mit mineralischen Rohstoffen zu sichern. Aus politik- und strategieanalytischer Perspektive weist sie erhebliche Defizite auf und verfehlt insbesondere das Ziel einer nachhaltigen Rohstoffwirtschaft

Odor Sensitivity After Intranasal Insulin Application Is Modulated by Gender

Obesity constitutes a global health care problem, and often eating habits are to blame. For intervention, a thorough understanding of energy intake and expenditure is needed. In recent years, the pivotal role of insulin in connection to energy intake was established. Olfactory sensitivity may be a target of cerebral insulin action to maintain body weight. With this experiment, we aimed to explore the influence of intranasal insulin on olfactory sensitivity for the odors n-butanol and peanut in a placebo-controlled, double-blind setting in a within-subject design. All subjects participated in two experimental sessions on separate days and received either intranasal insulin or placebo in a pseudorandomized order. Application was followed by two olfactory threshold tests for n-butanol and peanut in a pseudorandomized order. After a single dose of intranasal insulin (40 IU) or placebo (0.4 ml), olfactory sensitivity for the odorants n-butanol and peanut were examined in 30 healthy normosmic participants (14 females). Measured blood parameters revealed no decrease in plasma glucose, however, insulin, leptin and cortisol levels were affected following intranasal application. Females' but not males' olfactory sensitivity for n-butanol was lower after intranasal insulin administration vs. placebo. In contrast, olfactory sensitivity for peanut was not influenced by intranasal insulin application. Our results indicate that the effects of cortical insulin levels on processing of specific odors is likely modulated by gender, as central increase of insulin concentration led to a reduced olfactory sensitivity for n-butanol in women only, which might be due to differentially regulated insulin and leptin signaling in men and women

Fællesskaber mellem kommune og civilsamfund: de fem vigtigste barrierer – og det fælles håb

På trods af stærke traditioner for frivilligt arbejde i foreninger og fritidsklubber er der mennesker i Danmark, som aldrig eller sjældent er en del af disse fællesskaber, og som måske oveni står uden for uddannelses- eller arbejdsfællesskaber. Ofte mennesker, som er i en sårbar situation fysisk eller psykisk. Vi har en stærk offentlig sektor, som har et særligt ansvar for disse mennesker. Men det er også en offentlig sektor under pres: borgere og familier har komplekse og multiple problemer, opgaverne skal løses inden for en stram økonomistyring og det er vanskeligt at rekruttere arbejdskraft. Opbygning af fællesskaber er fortsat et spørgsmål om, hvordan det offentlige rækker ud over sig selv, og om, hvordan civilsamfundsaktører rækker ud mod kommuner og andre. Mindst fem barrierer spænder ben for fællesskabelse – dem sætter artiklen til debat