Pathways to Carbon-Free Transport in Germany until 2050

The transport sector has to be widely decarbonized by 2050 to reach the targets of the Paris Agreement. This can be performed with different drive trains and energy carriers. This paper explored four pathways to a carbon-free transport sector in Germany in 2050 with foci on electricity, hydrogen, synthetic methane, or liquid synthetic fuels. We used a transport demand model for future vehicle use and a simulation model for the determination of alternative fuel vehicle market shares. We found a large share of electric vehicles in all scenarios, even in the scenarios with a focus on other fuels. In all scenarios, the final energy consumption decreased significantly, most strongly when the focus was on electricity and almost one-third lower in primary energy demand compared with the other scenarios. A further decrease of energy demand is possible with an even faster adoption of electric vehicles, yet fuel cost then has to be even higher or electricity prices lower

Enhancing electric vehicle market diffusion modeling: A German case study on environmental policy integration

In order to reduce national and global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, many countries worldwide have committed themselves to a more sustainable development of their transport sector. Promoting the use of electrical vehicles (EVs) rather than combustion engine cars is one political strategy to achieve a reduction in GHG emissions. To implement targeted and effective promotion measures governments can refer to market diffusion models for EVs. However, in our study we identify that in existing models the consideration of environmental measures is underrepresented. Hence, this paper addresses this gap in current market diffusion models for EVs by particular focusing on environmental effects as additional influencing factors of the market diffusion. Results are drawn for the German car market with a market diffusion simulation until 2050 applying the market diffusion model ALADIN considering the introduction of distinct CO2 tax trajectories. The results are analyzed based on scenarios, where (i) no CO2 tax, (ii) the current governmental plan for a CO2 tax, and (iii) a considerable high CO2 tax is applied. Additional insights when incrementally increasing the CO2 tax are provided. The scenario analysis shows that the market diffusion is highly dependent on the evolution of external factors. A CO2 tax considerably higher than the current governmental plan by 2030 (such as 150€/t, based on its monetary value by 2020) is required to have a meaningful impact on the market diffusion of EVs. Moreover, applying a considerable high CO2 tax leads to a slower growth of BEV and PHEV from 2040 onwards that is compensated by a growth in FCEV vehicles

Light quark distributions in the proton sea

We use the meson cloud model to calculate $\bar{d}(x) - \bar{u}(x)$ and $\bar{d}(x)/\bar{u}(x)$ in the proton. We show that a modification of the symmetric, perturbative part of the light quark sea provides better agreement with the ratio $ \bar{d}(x)/\bar{u}(x).Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX. Talk presented at PANIC 9

Mapping the proton unintegrated gluon distribution in dijets correlations in real and virtual photoproduction at HERA

We discuss how the dijet azimuthal correlations in DIS and real photoproduction at HERA probe the differential (unintegrated) gluon distribution in the proton. We find a strong dependence of the azimuthal correlation pattern on Bjorken-$x$, photon virtuality and the cut on the jet transverse momenta. A rise of the azimuthal decorrelations is observed with decreasing Bjorken-x due to the interplay of perturbative and nonperturbative effects. We predict a strong rise of the same-side jet rate with photon energy for real photoproduction. We discuss conditions for the correlation function to be dominated by hard perturbative gluons and ways of constraining the size of the nonperturbative soft component. We make some predictions for the THERA energy range. The analysis of the energy dependence of the isolated jet and two-jet cross sections in photoproduction would be a new way to study the not yet well constrained unintegrated gluon distributions and to explore the onset of the pQCD regime.Comment: 16 pp, 8 eps-fig

The rubber hand illusion induced by visual-thermal stimulation

Trojan J, Fuchs X, Speth S-L, Diers M. The rubber hand illusion induced by visual-thermal stimulation. Scientific Reports. 2018;8(1): 12417.In the rubber hand illusion (RHI), synchronous touch of a real hand and an artificial hand leads to the feeling of the artificial hand belonging to one’s own body. This study examined whether the RHI can be induced using visual–thermal instead of visual–tactile stimulus patterns and to which extent the congruency between temperature and colour of the visual stimulus influences the RHI. In a within-subject design, we presented cold vs. warm thermal stimuli to the participants’ hidden hand combined with red vs. blue visual stimuli presented synchronously vs. asynchronously at a fake hand. The RHI could be induced using visual–thermal stimuli, yielding RHI vividness ratings comparable to the visual-tactile variant. Congruent (warm–red, cold–blue) synchronous stimulus patterns led to higher RHI vividness than incongruent (warm–blue, cold–red) synchronous combinations; in the asynchronous conditions, an inverse effect was present. Temperature ratings mainly depended on the actual stimulus temperature and were higher with synchronous vs. asynchronous patterns; they were also slightly higher with red vs. blue light, but there were no interactions with temperature or synchrony. In conclusion, we demonstrated that the RHI can be induced via visual-thermal stimuli, opening new perspectives in research on multi-sensory integration and body representations

Wnt-mediated Down-regulation of Sp1 Target Genes by a Transcriptional Repressor Sp5

Wnt/beta-catenin signaling regulates many processes during vertebrate development. To study transcriptional targets of canonical Wnt signaling, we used the conditional Cre/loxP system in mouse to ectopically activate beta-catenin during central nervous system development. We show that the activation of Wnt/beta-catenin signaling in the embryonic mouse telencephalon results in the up-regulation of Sp5 gene, which encodes a member of the Sp1 transcription factor family. A proximal promoter of Sp5 gene is highly evolutionarily conserved and contains five TCF/LEF binding sites that mediate direct regulation of Sp5 expression by canonical Wnt signaling. We provide evidence that Sp5 works as a transcriptional repressor and has three independent repressor domains, called R1, R2, and R3, respectively. Furthermore, we show that the repression activity of R1 domain is mediated through direct interaction with a transcriptional corepressor mSin3a. Finally, our data strongly suggest that Sp5 has the same DNA binding specificity as Sp1 and represses Sp1 target genes such as p21. We conclude that Sp5 transcription factor mediates the downstream responses to Wnt/beta-catenin signaling by directly repressing Sp1 target genes

Testing the meson cloud in the nucleon in Drell-Yan processes

We discuss the present status of the \bar u-\bar d asymmetry in the nucleon and analize the quantities which are best suited to verify the asymmetry. We find that the Drell-Yan asymmetry is the quantity insensitive to the valence quark distributions and very sensitive to the flavour asymmetry of the sea. We compare the prediction of the meson cloud model with different experimental data including the Fermilab E772 data and recent data of the NA51 Collaboration at CERN and make predictions for the planned Drell-Yan experiments.Comment: written in ReVTeX, 26 pages + 10 PS-figure

Neutrophils Turn Plasma Proteins into Weapons against HIV-1

As a consequence of innate immune activation granulocytes and macrophages produce hypochlorite/hypochlorous acid (HOCl) via secretion of myeloperoxidase (MPO) to the outside of the cells, where HOCl immediately reacts with proteins. Most proteins that become altered by this system do not belong to the invading microorganism but to the host. While there is no doubt that the myeloperoxidase system is capable of directly inactivating HIV-1, we hypothesized that it may have an additional indirect mode of action. We show in this article that HOCl is able to chemically alter proteins and thus turn them into Idea-Ps (Idea-P = immune defence-altered protein), potent amyloid-like and SH-groups capturing antiviral weapons against HIV-1. HOCl-altered plasma proteins (Idea-PP) have the capacity to bind efficiently and with high affinity to the HIV-1 envelope protein gp120, and to its receptor CD4 as well as to the protein disulfide isomerase (PDI). Idea-PP was able to inhibit viral infection and replication in a cell culture system as shown by reduced number of infected cells and of syncytia, resulting in reduction of viral capsid protein p24 in the culture supernatant. The unmodified plasma protein fraction had no effect. HOCl-altered isolated proteins antithrombin III and human serum albumin, taken as representative examples of the whole pool of plasma proteins, were both able to exert the same activity of binding to gp120 and inhibition of viral proliferation. These data offer an opportunity to improve the understanding of the intricacies of host-pathogen interactions and allow the generation of the following hypothetical scheme: natural immune defense mechanisms generate by posttranslational modification of plasma proteins a potent virucidal weapon that immobilizes the virus as well as inhibits viral fusion and thus entry into the host cells. Furthermore simulation of this mechanism in vitro might provide an interesting new therapeutic approach against microorganisms

Pion Content of the Nucleon as seen in the NA51 Drell-Yan experiment

In a recent CERN Drell-Yan experiment the NA51 group found a strong asymmetry of $\bar u$ and $\bar d$ densities in the proton at $x\simeq0.18$. We interpret this result as a decisive confirmation of the pion-induced sea in the nucleon.Comment: 10 pages + 3 figures, Preprint KFA-IKP(TH)-1994-14 .tex file. After \enddocument a uu-encodeded Postscript file comprising the figures is appende

Correlated ππ\pi\pi and KKˉK\bar K exchange in the baryon-baryon interaction

A dynamical model for correlated two-pion and two-kaon exchange in the baryon- baryon interaction is presented, both in the scalar-isoscalar ($\sigma$) and the vector-isovector ($\rho$) channel. The correlations between the two pseudoscalar mesons are taken into account by means of $\pi\pi - K\bar K$ amplitudes derived from a meson-exchange model, which is in line with the empirical $\pi\pi$ data. It is found that correlated $K\bar K$ exchange plays an important role in the $\sigma$-channel for baryon-baryon states with non- vanishing strangeness. The strength of correlated $\pi\pi$ plus $K\bar K$ exchange in the $\sigma$-channel decreases with the strangeness of the baryon- baryon system becoming more negative. The results for correlated $\pi\pi$- exchange in the vector-isovector channel deviate from what is expected in the naive SU(3) picture for genuine $\rho$-exchange. Shortcomings of a simplified description in terms of sharp mass $\sigma$- and $\rho$-exchange are pointed out.Comment: 51 pages, Latex file, figures available from [email protected]