Economic Resilience of German Lignite Regions in Transition

This paper recalls the development of the German lignite regions Rhineland and Lusatia since 1945 to allow for a better understanding of their situation in 2019. We analyze their economic resilience, defined as adaptive capacity, using Holling’s adaptive cycle model. We find that the Rhineland is currently in the conservation phase, while Lusatia experiences a reorganization phase following the economic shock of the German reunification. Key policy recommendations for the upcoming coal phase-out are to foster innovation within the Rhineland’s infrastructures to avoid overconnection, and to expand digital and transportation infrastructure in Lusatia so that the structurally weak region can enter the exploitation phase. Future policymaking should take into consideration the differences between the two regions in order to enable a just and timely transition during which lasting adaptive capacity can be built.BMBF, 01LN1704A, Nachwuchsgruppe Globaler Wandel: CoalExit - Die Ökonomie des Kohleausstiegs - Identifikation von Bausteinen für Rahmenpläne zukünftiger regionaler StrukturwandelDFG, 414044773, Open Access Publizieren 2019 - 2020 / Technische Universität Berli

Climate change and the cost-effective governance mode for biodiversity conservation

Optimal planning of biodiversity conservation and habitat location is paramount for the cost-effective implementation of nature and biodiversity conservation measures. Established approaches for land use planning and conservation site selection however might not be optimal in a world with changing climatic conditions. Generally, conservation organizations can choose one of two main governance modes: (1) buy land to implement conservation measures themselves on their land, or (2) compensate landowners for their voluntary provision of conservation measures on their land. We analyse in a conceptual ecological-economic simulation four different conservation site selection strategies in either of the two governance modes. Afterwards, we investigate the ecological and economic effectiveness of each governance-mode-strategy combination in a climatically changing environment, and in particular the influence of climate change characteristics. We show that the choice of the two governance modes and four patch selection strategies influences the cost-effectiveness of the implementation, generally suggesting that buying land, combined with the a species targeting patch selection strategy generates the highest cost-effectiveness

Vitamin D status and epigenetic-based mortality risk score: strong independent and joint prediction of all-cause mortality in a population-based cohort study

Background: Vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency have been established to be strongly associated with increased overall mortality and deaths from specific aging-related diseases. Recently, an epigenetic “mortality risk score” (MS) based on whole blood DNA methylation at the 10 most prominent mortality-related cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites has also been found to be highly related to all-cause mortality. This study aimed to explore whether vitamin D status, defined by serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] concentrations, is associated with the MS and to what extent both indicators are individually and jointly capable of predicting all-cause mortality in a general population sample of older adults. Results: The MS was derived from the blood DNA methylation profiles measured by Illumina Human Methylation 450K Beadchip, and serum 25(OH)D concentration was measured among 1467 participants aged 50–75 of the German ESTHER cohort study. There was no association between vitamin D status and the MS at baseline, but both metrics were prominently and independently associated with all-cause mortality during a median follow-up of 15.2 years. The combination of both indicators showed the potential to be a particularly strong prognostic index for all-cause mortality. Participants with vitamin D deficiency (< 30 nmol/L) and high MS (> 5 CpG sites with aberrant methylation) had almost sixfold mortality (hazard ratio 5.79, 95% CI 3.06–10.94) compared with participants with sufficient vitamin D (≥ 50 nmol/L) and a low MS (0–1 CpG site with aberrant methylation). Conclusions: This study suggests that vitamin D and the MS are strong independent predictors of all-cause mortality in older adults

História de vida como história do mundo - Walter Benjamin reescreve A Crônica da Rua dos Pardais, de Wilhelm Raabe

PARTE DO PREÂMBULO AO ARTIGO:O presente artigo mostra de modo sutil como o fato aparentemente secundário e muitas vezes esquecido de que um autor tenha atuado ele mesmo como tradutor pode determinar o próprio modo de apropriação do acervo da tradição literária, sobretudo por parte de um escritor moderno. De fato, é graças também à experiência de traduzir a obra de Marcel Proust em colaboração com Franz Hessel que Walter Benjamin se torna cada vez mais consciente de seu método da incorporação velada da obra de escritores do passado. Trata-se certamente de uma espécie de memória interna da literatura que opera, tanto na obra das Passagens, quanto na Crônica Berlinense e na Infância em Berlim por volta de 1900, com a apropriação benjaminiana de elementos, entre outros,  da obra de Wilhelm Raabe, A Crônica da Rua dos Pardais, uma obra considerada por Otto Maria Carpeaux como verdadeiro idílio urbano alemão - uma evidente contradição em termos, naturalmente. Em tempos de uma pós-modernidade que se apresenta como renovada e insistentemente tardia, é urgente o exame de tais sutis mecanismos de reescrita e reelaboração literária para desvendar seu nexo com operações de caráter  fundamentalmente translatício

Cost-effectiveness of buying land for conservation versus paying land-users for conservation measures – the case of preserving an oligotrophic lake in a Natura 2000 area in North Germany

Cost-effective implementation of measures to conserve biodiversity is often a major target of conservation organisations, and choosing the correct mode of governance can be important in this context. Nature conservation organisations can, in principle, choose between two distinct modes of governance to implement conservation activities: they can (1) buy desired areas of interest and implement conservation measures themselves (buy option), or (2) offer payments to landowners to incentivize them to voluntarily preserve or create habitat on their land (compensation option). In this paper we analyse the cost-effectiveness of these two modes of governance in a case study on a conservation project in a Natura 2000 area in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The actual costs of the buying option are compared with the potential costs of implementing the compensation option. We developed a costing framework to compare the costs of both options over time, given they generate the same ecological results on an identical project area. We find that the cost-effective solution depends, among other things, on the conservation timeframe considered and on cost components such as transaction costs, leasehold rent and land prices

Longitudinal Associations of Body Mass Index, Waist Circumference, and Waist-to-Hip Ratio with Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress in Older Adults: Results of a Large Cohort Study

Background: In the literature, obesity is discussed as a determinant of high oxidative stress (OS). Hence, prevention or reduction of obesity could prevent high OS and subsequently serve as a target for “healthy aging.” Methods: Diacron’s reactive oxygen metabolites test (D-ROM) and total thiol levels (TTL), a marker of antioxidant defense capacity, were measured in 1,734 participants of a population-based cohort study of older adults (age range: 57–83 years) at 2 time points 3 years apart. The longitudinal associations of body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, and waist circumference with D-ROM and TTL were assessed with multivariable adjusted generalized linear models. Dose-response analyses were conducted with restricted cubic splines. Results: D-ROM was not significantly associated with any of the weight measures. On the contrary, TTL showed statistically significant, inverse linear associations with all weight measures. Conclusion: A healthy body weight seems to be highly relevant for the antioxidative defense capacity of human beings. In contrast, D-ROM levels were independent of the study participant’s weight. Clinical trials are needed to corroborate if loss of weight by obese individuals can effectively increase TTL and subsequently also life expectancy

The climate adaptation problem in biodiversity conservation: the role of reversible conservation investments in optimal reserve design under climate change

Climate change causes range shifts of species and habitats, thus making existing reserve networks less suitable in the future. Climate change hence changes the comparative advantage of some sites over others with respect to "producing" habitat. In order to maintain cost-effectiveness, reserve networks therefore have to be adapted. In principle, reserve networks may be adapted to climate change in two ways: by providing additional funds and/or allowing for the sale of sites to liquidate funds for new purchases. However, due to negative ecological consequences, selling is often regulated, thus rendering the optimal reserve design a problem of irreversible investment decisions. Respectively, allowing for sale may be interpreted as an investment with costly reversibility, as transaction costs do not allow for full recovery of the initial investment. Here, we assess the gains in terms of cost-effectiveness achieved when allowing for sale as well as the costs of this flexibility in terms of habitat turnover given climate change-induced changes in comparative advantages. To do so, we develop a conceptual climate-ecological-economic model to find the optimal time series for the reserve design problem under changing climatic conditions and different policy scenarios. These scenarios differ in the size of additional funds for climate adaptations and whether selling is allowed. Our results show that the advantage of selling is large when no additional funds are available and decreases as the amount of additional capital increases. Moreover, we find that due to climate change, habitat turnover occurs even in a static reserve network, but the loss in habitat permanence when allowing for sale is smallest for the most threatened habitat type. We hence identify a new trade-off in the evaluation of land purchase to adapt biodiversity conservation to climate change: while not allowing for sale mainly benefits the habitat permanence of the expanding habitat type, allowing for sale mainly benefits the outcome for the contracting habitat type

Irreversible and partly reversible investments in the optimal reserve design problem: the role of flexibility under climate change

Climate change causes range shifts of species and habitats, thus making existing reserve networks less suitable in the future. In principle, reserve networks may be adapted to climate change in two ways: by providing additional funds and / or by allowing for the sale of sites to liquidate funds for new purchases. However, due to general negative ecological consequences, selling is often strongly regulated, thus rendering the optimal reserve design a problem of irreversible investment decisions. On the other hand, allowing for sale may be interpreted as an investment with costly reversibility, as involved transaction costs do not allow for full recovery of the initial investment. Whether allowing for the sale of sites to increase flexibility under climate change outweighs the costs of this increased flexibility remains an open question. We develop a conceptual climate-ecological-economic model to find the optimal solution for the reserve design problem under changing climatic conditions and different policy scenarios. These scenarios differ in terms of whether and when additional funds are provided, and whether selling of reserve sites is allowed. Our results show that the advantage of allowing for sales is large when no additional funds are available and decreases as the amount of additional capital provided for adaptation increases. Finally, providing a one-off payment initially instead of regular payments throughout the runtime of the model leads to higher habitat protection

Novel non-viral method for transfection of primary leukemia cells and cell lines

BACKGROUND: Tumor cells such as leukemia and lymphoma cells are possible targets for gene therapy. However, previously leukemia and lymphoma cells have been demonstrated to be resistant to most of non-viral gene transfer methods. METHODS: The aim of this study was to analyze various methods for transfection of primary leukemia cells and leukemia cell lines and to improve the efficiency of gene delivery. Here, we evaluated a novel electroporation based technique called nucleofection. This novel technique uses a combination of special electrical parameters and specific solutions to deliver the DNA directly to the cell nucleus under mild conditions. RESULTS: Using this technique for gene transfer up to 75% of primary cells derived from three acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients and K562 cells were transfected with the green flourescent protein (GFP) reporter gene with low cytotoxicity. In addition, 49(+/- 9.7%) of HL60 leukemia cells showed expression of GFP. CONCLUSION: The non-viral transfection method described here may have an impact on the use of primary leukemia cells and leukemia cell lines in cancer gene therapy