Draft bill on German corporate sanctions act

After long discussions about the introduction of corporate criminal liability, the German Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection presented a first draft bill for a new Corporate Sanctions Act in August 2019. The act introduces a major shift in German Criminal law by proposing severe sanctions on companies for corporate criminal offenses. It includes regulations on internal investigations, compliance management systems and legal privilege. Since it was published, the act is discussed intensely among legal experts, politicians and the public. The following article presents the most important provisions of the draft bill. In addition, the authors compare the act to further jurisdiction’s legislation, discuss potential impacts on companies, and provide proposals for improvements for the further legislative proces

МЕХАНІЗМ ІННОВАЦІЙНОГО РОЗВИТКУ РЕГІОНУ

Доценко О.Ю. Механізм інноваційного розвитку регіону / Економічний вісник НГУ № 3 Дніпропетровськ. 2012. – С.Розглянута структура механізму інноваційного розвитку регіону. Проаналізований сучасний стан фінансування інновацій в Україні та регіону. Уточнена класифікація джерел фінансування інноваційного розвитку регіон

Requirements Engineering für Communities of Practice: Aufbau der ReqMan Community

Eine der Herausforderungen des Requirements Engineering (RE) ist, dass bei der Entwicklung eines Software-Systems sowohl die technischen Einzelheiten als auch der Kontext des Einsatzes berücksichtigt werden müssen. Wie schon andere Autoren bemerkt haben, ist RE ein sozio-technisches Unterfangen. Bei der Entwicklung von Desktop-Software zum Beispiel ist zu berücksichtigen, wie der einzelne Benutzer die Anwendung einsetzen wird. Im Bereich Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) ist der Einsatzkontext komplizierter, da Kommunikation und Interaktion zwischen Benutzern ebenfalls berücksichtigt werden müssen. Bei der Entwicklung einer Community of Practice (CoP) muss der Kontext noch weiter ausgedehnt werden, da Dinge wie Kooperation, Gruppenbildung bzw. Bildung von Netzwerken, Lernen etc. auch in die Anforderungen einfließen

Engineering Betalain Biosynthesis in Tomato for High Level Betanin Production in Fruits

Betalains are pigments found in plants of the Caryophyllales order, and include the red-purple betacyanins and the yellow-orange betaxanthins. The red pigment from red beets, betanin, is made from tyrosine by a biosynthetic pathway that consists of a cytochrome P450, a L-DOPA dioxygenase, and a glucosyltransferase. The entire pathway was recently reconstituted in plants that do not make betalains naturally including potato and tomato plants. The amount of betanin produced in these plants was however not as high as in red beets. It was recently shown that a plastidic arogenate dehydrogenase gene involved in biosynthesis of tyrosine in plants is duplicated in Beta vulgaris and other betalain-producing plants, and that one of the two encoded enzymes, BvADHα, has relaxed feedback inhibition by tyrosine, contributing to the high amount of betanin found in red beets. We have reconstituted the complete betanin biosynthetic pathway in tomato plants with or without a BvADHα gene, and with all genes expressed under control of a fruit-specific promoter. The plants obtained with a construct containing BvADHα produced betanin at a higher level than plants obtained with a construct lacking this gene. These results show that use of BvADHα can be useful for high level production of betalains in heterologous hosts. Unlike red beets that produce both betacyanins and betaxanthins, the transformed tomatoes produced betacyanins only, conferring a bright purple-fuschia color to the tomato juice

IODP workshop: developing scientific drilling proposals for the Argentina Passive Volcanic Continental Margin (APVCM) – basin evolution, deep biosphere, hydrates, sediment dynamics and ocean evolution

The Argentine margin contains important sedimentological, paleontological and chemical records of regional and local tectonic evolution, sea level, climate evolution and ocean circulation since the opening of the South Atlantic in the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous as well as the present-day results of post-depositional chemical and biological alteration. Despite its important location, which underlies the exchange of southern- and northern-sourced water masses, the Argentine margin has not been investigated in detail using scientific drilling techniques, perhaps because the margin has the reputation of being erosional. However, a number of papers published since 2009 have reported new high-resolution and/or multichannel seismic surveys, often combined with multi-beam bathymetric data, which show the common occurrence of layered sediments and prominent sediment drifts on the Argentine and adjacent Uruguayan margins. There has also been significant progress in studying the climatic records in surficial and near-surface sediments recovered in sediment cores from the Argentine margin. Encouraged by these recent results, our 3.5-day IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) workshop in Buenos Aires (8–11 September 2015) focused on opportunities for scientific drilling on the Atlantic margin of Argentina, which lies beneath a key portion of the global ocean conveyor belt of thermohaline circulation. Significant opportunities exist to study the tectonic evolution, paleoceanography and stratigraphy, sedimentology, and biosphere and geochemistry of this margin.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

IODP workshop: developing scientific drilling proposals for the Argentina Passive Volcanic Continental Margin (APVCM) – basin evolution, deep biosphere, hydrates, sediment dynamics and ocean evolution

The Argentine margin contains important sedimentological, paleontological and chemical records of regional and local tectonic evolution, sea level, climate evolution and ocean circulation since the opening of the South Atlantic in the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous as well as the present-day results of post-depositional chemical and biological alteration. Despite its important location, which underlies the exchange of southern- and northern-sourced water masses, the Argentine margin has not been investigated in detail using scientific drilling techniques, perhaps because the margin has the reputation of being erosional. However, a number of papers published since 2009 have reported new high-resolution and/or multichannel seismic surveys, often combined with multi-beam bathymetric data, which show the common occurrence of layered sediments and prominent sediment drifts on the Argentine and adjacent Uruguayan margins. There has also been significant progress in studying the climatic records in surficial and near-surface sediments recovered in sediment cores from the Argentine margin. Encouraged by these recent results, our 3.5-day IODP (International Ocean Discovery Program) workshop in Buenos Aires (8–11 September 2015) focused on opportunities for scientific drilling on the Atlantic margin of Argentina, which lies beneath a key portion of the global ocean conveyor belt of thermohaline circulation. Significant opportunities exist to study the tectonic evolution, paleoceanography and stratigraphy, sedimentology, and biosphere and geochemistry of this margin.Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Muse

Newfoundland Neogene sediment drifts: transition from the Paleogene greenhouse to the modern icehouse

This workshop brought together specialists from various fields to develop a drilling proposal to fill the "Oligo-Miocene Gap" that exists in our understanding of the functions of Earth's systems. We propose to establish the first continuous high-deposition record of the Oligo-Miocene through new International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) drilling in the North Atlantic to allow the development of a continuous Neogene cyclostratigraphy and to enhance our knowledge of Oligo-Miocene ocean–ice–climate dynamics. The workshop was held in Heidelberg from 15 to 17 September 2014 funded by ESF (EARTHTIME EU), NSF, and the ECORD MagellanPlus Workshop Series Program. A total of 24 participants from six different countries (Australia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, and United States) attended the workshop, including several early career stage researchers. We discussed certain aspects of Cenozoic paleoceanography and paleoclimate and how the gaps in the Oligo-Miocene could be filled using scientific drilling. The ultimate goal of the workshop (to submit a pre-proposal to IODP) was achieved (IODP Proposal 874-pre was submitted 1 October 2014). Our workshop consisted of overview presentations followed by self-selected breakout groups that discussed different topics and produced text and figures for the proposal. Here, we give a short overview of the major topics discussed during the workshop and the scientific goals presented in the resulting IODP pre-proposal

Impact of diets with a high content of greaves-meal protein or carbohydrates on faecal characteristics, volatile fatty acids and faecal calprotectin concentrations in healthy dogs

BACKGROUND: Research suggests that dietary composition influences gastrointestinal function and bacteria-derived metabolic products in the dog colon. We previously reported that dietary composition impacts upon the faecal microbiota of healthy dogs. This study aims at evaluating the dietary influences on bacteria-derived metabolic products associated with the changes in faecal microbiota that we had previously reported. We fed high-carbohydrate starch based (HCS), [crude protein: 194 g/kg, starch: 438 g/kg], high-protein greaves-meal (HPGM), [crude protein: 609 g/kg, starch: 54 g/kg] and dry commercial (DC), [crude protein: 264 g/kg, starch: 277 g/kg] diets, and studied their effects on the metabolism of the colonic microbiota and faecal calprotectin concentrations in five Beagle dogs, allocated according to the Graeco-Latin square design. Each dietary period lasted for three weeks and was crossed-over with washout periods. Food intake, body weight, and faecal consistency scores, dry matter, pH, ammonia, volatile fatty acids (VFAs), and faecal canine calprotectin concentrations were determined. RESULTS: Faecal ammonia concentrations decreased with the HCS diet. All dogs fed the HPGM diet developed diarrhoea, which led to differences in faecal consistency scores between the diets. Faecal pH was higher with the HPGM diet. Moreover, decreases in propionic and acetic acids coupled with increases in branched-chain fatty acids and valeric acid caused changes in faecal total VFAs in dogs on the HPGM diet. Faecal canine calprotectin concentration was higher with the HPGM diet and correlated positively with valeric acid concentration. CONCLUSIONS: The HPGM diet led to diarrhoea in all dogs, and there were differences in faecal VFA profiles and faecal canine calprotectin concentrations

Special Issue “Progress in Thermal Process Engineering”

The Special Issue “Progress in Thermal Process Engineering” contains a total of eight articles, seven research papers and a review article. The topics of the individual articles reflect the variety of current research in the field of thermal process engineering. The contributions address important issues such as modularization, digitization, new equipment and simulation techniques. It becomes clear that efficiency efforts are an essential feature of current research in the mentioned field. Efficiency in the sense of energy efficiency as well as in the sense of more efficient, i.e., more flexible, production. The authors of the articles originate from the USA, Russia, Switzerland and Germany