Regionale Betroffenheit in informellen Beteiligungsverfahren bei Infrastrukturprojekten

Bei Infrastrukturprojekten in den Politikfeldern Verkehr und Energie machen Verwaltung und Vorhabenträger auf der Grundlage von § 25 Abs. 3 VwVfG zunehmend von dem Instrument informeller und frühzeitiger Beteiligung Gebrauch, um Konflikte zu minimieren und Planungen zu optimieren. In vielen dieser Partizipationsverfahren haben auch regional betroffene Akteure die Möglichkeit der Interessenartikulation. Insbesondere in Verteilungsfragen, zum Beispiel bei einer Trassierung von Schienenwegen oder Stromleitungen, könnten jedoch kollektiv suboptimale Politikergebnisse produziert werden. Auf der Grundlage einer Tiefenanalyse informeller Beteiligung im Rahmen des Ausbaus der Schienenverkehrshinterlandanbindung in Norddeutschland adressiert die Studie den Forschungsbedarf zur Frage, ob und wie räumliche Betroffenheit ihren Ausdruck im Kontext informeller Beteiligungsverfahren findet. Im Gegensatz zur Behandlung in parlamentarisch-repräsentativen Institutionen ist unklar, wie divergierende Interessen in diesen Arenen verarbeitet werden. Mithilfe statistischer Analysen untersucht der Beitrag die beschriebene Distanzhypothese in Anwendung auf die Entscheidungsfindung in informellen Verfahren. Alternativ testet er die parteipolitische Zugehörigkeit kommunaler Akteure als Faktor für Abstimmungsverhalten. Prozessanalysen unterstützen die fallbezogene Untersuchung. Im Ergebnis wird regionale Betroffenheit anders wirksam als erwartet. Die Zustimmung der Beteiligten zu einer Realisierungsvariante mit vergleichsweise hohen objektiven Betroffenheiten erklärt sich insbesondere über die Organisationsfähigkeit einzelner lokaler Gruppen. Bei einer großen Gruppe schwach Betroffener kann die Kollektivgutproblematik eine politische Umsetzung von NIMBY-Motiven verhindern.Public administration and project proponents increasingly make use of the instrument of early and informal participation (§ 25 paragraph 3, German administrative procedures law (VwVfG)) in the sectors of transport and energy in order to minimise conflict and to optimise planning. These participation procedures also empower various regionally concerned actors to articulate their positions. However, in particular in distributive matters, for instance the alignment of railway or power supply lines, suboptimal policy outcomes may result. Based on an in-depth analysis of informal participation processes in the context of the development of backcountry railroads in Northern Germany the present study addresses the research requirement of the question if and how regional concern manifests itself during informal participation. Contrary to decision-making in representative parliamentary institutions it remains unclear how divergent interests are accommodated in these arenas. By means of statistical analyses, the paper examines the aforementioned distance hypothesis in application to informal procedures. Additionally, the study tests partisan affiliation of local actors as a factor of voting behaviour. Process analyses complement the case-based design. As a result, regional concern comes about differently than expected. The organisational capacity of individual local groups can explain the approval of the concerned for a railroad variant with comparatively high levels of objective concern, and vice versa, the large group of diffusedly concerned lacked the capacity to jointly produce collective goods

Impact of the Transition Metal Dopant in Zinc Oxide Lithium-Ion Anodes on the Solid Electrolyte Interphase Formation

Conversion/alloying materials (CAMs) provide substantially higher specific capacities than graphite, the state‐of‐the‐art lithium‐ion battery anode material. The ability to host much more lithium per unit weight and volume is, however, accompanied by significant volume changes, which challenges the realization of a stable solid electrolyte interphase (SEI). Herein, the comprehensive characterization of the composition and evolution of the SEI on transition metal (TM) doped zinc oxide as CAM model compound, is reported, with a particular focus on the impact of the TM dopant (Fe or Co). The results unveil that the presence of iron specifically triggers the electrolyte decomposition. However, this detrimental effect can be avoided by stabilizing the interface with the electrolyte by a carbonaceous coating. These findings provide a great leap forward toward the enhanced understanding of such doped materials and (transition) metal oxide active materials in general

Towards a generalized vision of oxides: disclosing the role of cations and anions in determining unit-cell dimensions

Theoretical calculations of the electron-localization function show that, at the volumes of the two CaO phases (rocksalt and CsCl type), the parent Ca structures (fcc: face-centred cubic; sc: simple cubic) exhibit charge-concentration zones which coincide with the positions occupied by the O atoms in their oxides. For the first time, the structure type, dimension and topology of CaO and BaSnO3 are explained in univocal physical terms

xCT (SLC7A11) expression confers intrinsic resistance to physical plasma treatment in tumor cells

Cold physical plasma is a partially ionized gas investigated as a new anticancer tool in selectively targeting cancer cells in monotherapy or in combination with therapeutic agents. Here, we investigated the intrinsic resistance mechanisms of tumor cells towards physical plasma treatment. When analyzing the dose-response relationship to cold plasma-derived oxidants in 11 human cancer cell lines, we identified four 'resistant' and seven 'sensitive' cell lines. We observed stable intracellular glutathione levels following plasma treatment only in the 'resistant' cell lines indicative of altered antioxidant mechanisms. Assessment of proteins involved in GSH metabolism revealed cystine-glutamate antiporter xCT (SLC7A11) to be significantly more abundant in the 'resistant' cell lines as compared to 'sensitive' cell lines. This decisive role of xCT was confirmed by pharmacological and genetic inhibition, followed by cold physical plasma treatment. Finally, microscopy analysis of ex vivo plasma-treated human melanoma punch biopsies suggested a correlation between apoptosis and basal xCT protein abundance. Taken together, our results demonstrate that xCT holds the potential as a biomarker predicting the sensitivity of tumor cells towards plasma treatment

Toward the Potential Scale-Up of Sn0.9_{0.9}Mn0.1_{0.1}O2_{2}||LiNi0.6_{0.6}Mn0.2_{0.2}Co0.2_{0.2}O2_{2} Li-Ion Batteries – Powering a RemoteControlled Vehicle and Life Cycle Assessment

Academic research in the battery field frequently remains limited to small coin or pouch cells, especially for new materials that are still rather far from commercialization, which renders a meaningful evaluation at an early stage of development challenging. Here, the realization of large lab-scale pouch cells comprising Sn$_{0.9}$Mn$_{0.1}$O$_{2}$ (SMO), prepared via an easily scalable hydrothermal synthesis method, as an alternative active material for the negative electrode and LiNi$_{0.6}$Mn$_{0.2}$Co$_{0.2}$O$_{2}$ (NMC$_{622}$) as a commercially available active material for the positive electrode is reported. Nine double-layer pouch cells are connected in series and parallel, suitable for powering a remote-controlled vehicle. Subsequently, these SMO‖NMC$_{622}$ cells are critically evaluated by means of an early-stage life cycle assessment and compared to graphite‖NMC$_{622}$ cells, in order to get first insights into the potential advantages and challenges of such lithium-ion chemistry

Rpv3–1 mediated resistance to grapevine downy mildew is associated with specific host transcriptional responses and the accumulation of stilbenes

Background: European grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera spp.) are highly susceptible to the downy mildew pathogen Plasmopara viticola. Breeding of resistant V. vinifera cultivars is a promising strategy to reduce the impact of disease management. Most cultivars that have been bred for resistance to downy mildew, rely on resistance mediated by the Rpv3 (Resistance to P. viticola) locus. However, despite the extensive use of this locus, little is known about the mechanism of Rpv3-mediated resistance. Results: In this study, Rpv3-mediated defense responses were investigated in Rpv3+ and Rpv3ˉ grapevine cultivars following inoculation with two distinct P. viticola isolates avrRpv3+ and avrRpv3ˉ, with the latter being able to overcome Rpv3 resistance. Based on comparative microscopic, metabolomic and transcriptomic analyses, our results show that the Rpv3–1-mediated resistance is associated with a defense mechanism that triggers synthesis of fungi-toxic stilbenes and programmed cell death (PCD), resulting in reduced but not suppressed pathogen growth and development. Functional annotation of the encoded protein sequence of genes significantly upregulated during the Rpv3–1-mediated defense response revealed putative roles in pathogen recognition, signal transduction and defense responses. Conclusion: This study used histochemical, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses of Rpv3+ and susceptible cultivars inoculated with avirulent and virulent P. viticola isolates to investigate mechanism underlying the Rpv3–1-mediated resistance response. We demonstrated a strong correlation between the expressions of stilbene biosynthesis related genes, the accumulation of fungi-toxic stilbenes, pathogen growth inhibition and PCD

Systematic Evaluation of Tyrosine Kinase Inhibitors as OATP1B1 Substrates Using a Competitive Counterflow Screen

Although the primary elimination pathway for most tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) involves CYP3A4-mediated metabolism, the mechanism by which these agents are brought into hepatocytes remains unclear. In this study, we optimized and validated a competitive counterflow (CCF) assay to examine TKIs as substrates of the hepatic uptake transporter OATP1B1. The CCF method was based on the stimulated efflux of radiolabeled estradiol-17β-glucuronide under steady-state conditions in HEK293 cells engineered to overexpress OATP1B1. Of the 62 approved TKIs examined, 13 agents were identified as putative substrates of OATP1B1, and pazopanib was selected as a representative hit for further validation studies. The transport of pazopanib by OATP1B1 was confirmed by decreased activity of its target VEGFR2 in OATP1B1-overexpressing cells, but not cells lacking OATP1B1, consistent with molecular docking analyses indicating an overlapping binding orientation on OATP1B1 with the known substrate estrone-3-sulfate. In addition, the liver-to-plasma ratio of pazopanib in vivo was decreased in mice with a deficiency of the orthologous transporters, and this was accompanied by diminished pazopanib-induced hepatotoxicity, as determined by changes in the levels of liver transaminases. Our study supports the utility of CCF assays to assess substrate affinity for OATP1B1 within a large set of agents in the class of TKIs and sheds light on the mechanism by which these agents are taken up into hepatocytes in advance of metabolism.</p