Reassessing the Puzzle of Environmental Management Systems and Their Impact on Firm Performance: A Panel Data Analysis

Companies have increasingly adopted environmental management systems (EMSs) in response to the need for improving their environmental sustainability and accountability. EMSs enable companies managing their environmental activities, supposedly leading to improved environmental performance and cost savings. However, research findings regarding the effectiveness of EMSs on key environmental and financial performance measures are inconclusive. To address this puzzle, we collected data from various sources to analyze the relationships between EMS certification, environmental performance, and financial performance for the STOXX 600 using panel data regression covering six years. With this comprehensive, large-scale approach, we account for largely neglected indirect effects and widespread validity issues of prior research, such as cross-sectional designs, perception-based performance measures, and small sample sizes. Our results show that EMS certification has a significant positive effect on environmental performance, particularly on emission reduction. We did not find a significant effect of EMS certification and environmental performance on financial performance

Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindensplanung auf österreichischen Bio-Milchviehbetrieben

Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenspläne stellen ein vielversprechendes Instrument zur kontinuierlichen Verbesserung von Tiergesundheit und Wohlergehen auf tierhaltenden Betrieben dar. Dieses Konzept wurde im Rahmen des europäischen ERANet-Projektes CORE Organic ANIPLAN auf 39 österreichischen Bio-Milchviehbetrieben angewendet. Ziel der Studie war es (1) die Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenssituation auf den Betrieben zu erfassen, (2) Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenspläne auf den Betrieben einzuführen und (3) eine Evaluierung der Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenssituation bzw. eine Effektivitätskontrolle der umgesetzten Maßnahmen nach dem Planungsprozess durchzuführen. Die Erfassung der Herdengesundheits- und Wohlbefindenssituation am Betrieb erfolgte gemäß einer leicht angepassten Version des Welfare Quality® Erhebungsprotokolls für Milchkühe. Der Prozess der Herdengesundheitsplanung folgte den sieben Prinzipien, die im Rahmen des Projektes CORE Organic ANIPLAN definiert wurden. Erste Ergebnisse ausgewählter Parameter zeigen über alle Projektbetriebe hinweg unabhängig vom Interventionsbereich und Umsetzungsgrad der Interventionsmaßnahmen keine signifikante Veränderung zwischen den Projektjahren 2008 und 2009. Auf Betrieben, die aktiv Interventionsmaßnahmen umsetzten, konnte eine signifikante Reduktion der Hautschäden und –veränderungen beobachtet werden. Die Lahmheitsprävalenz sowie die durchschnittliche Zellzahl blieben hingegen auch auf den Interventionsbetrieben unverändert

Nutrient Concentration on Skid Trails under Brush-Mats – Is a Redistribution of Nutrients Possible?

In mechanized timber harvesting, it is common practice to build brush mats from logging residues on skid trails. Protective effects of brush mats against soil compaction are documented by several studies. On the other hand, a large quantity of nutrients is concentrated on the skid trail. Fully mechanized harvesting has been criticized frequently for this reallocation of nutrients. Is there really a risk of nutrient leaching below skid trails or imbalances? Are the nutrients redistributed through nutrient uptake by roots of adjacent trees? Effects of fully mechanized thinning on soil, water and nutrient balance were examined in a seventy years old spruce stand on a nutrient poor site in Bavaria. Sections of the trails were covered with brush mats, while other sections remained uncovered. For five replications, soil physical properties, soil chemistry, matter and water balances and the density of fine roots were measured in the middle of the trail, under the tire tracks, at the transition of trail and stand and inside the stand over a period of two years. Logging operation caused soil compaction. The macropore volume decreased and both hydraulic conductivity and air permeability were severely reduced. The nutrients were largely kept in the forest ecosystem. Results of the soil moisture monitoring indicate that, within the sections covered by a brush mat, tree roots extracted water from the soil between the tracks. Without cover, the trees scarcely extracted water from this area. Hence, building a brush mat can facilitate water availability and thus enable redistribution of nutrients

Query processing on multi-core architectures

The upcoming generation of computer hardware poses several new challenges for database developers and engineers. Software in general and database management systems (DBMSs) in particular will no longer benefit from performance gains of future hardware due to increase clock speed, as it was the case for the last 35 years; instead, the number of cores per CPU will increase steadily. Today’s approach is to run each query on a single core or only a few different cores using parallel query execution. This approach suffers from several problems (e.g. contention problem) and therefore leads to poor speed up and scale up behavior. These observations open several important research questions on how to use the new multi-core CPU architecture for improving the overall performance of DBMSs. This paper outlines our approach for query processing on multi-core CPU architectures. We present an abstract architecture view for multi-core CPUs, meta operators to control and to interact with the hardware, and a new query operator model that makes use of the meta operators to control the parallel execution of a query over different cores. We illustrate how each of these parts fits in our framework for query processing on multi-core architectures

Stent-Angioplastie der Vena cava inferior nach Lebertransplantation und Leberteilresektion

Purpose: Evaluation of technical efficacy and safety of stent angioplasty of the inferior vena cava (IVC) after liver transplantation or liver resection and analysis of changes in creatinine levels and patients´weight. Methods: Between October 2004 and February 2011 16 patients (mean age 52.6 years) with symptomatic IVC stenoses after liver transplantation (n = 10) or liver resection (n = 6) were subjected to stent angioplasty. Enrollment criteria included edema and / or ascites. The smallest diameter of the IVC, serum creatinine values and patients´weight were assessed before and after stent placement and respective values were compared. Technical and clinical success, patency rates, related complications and patients´survival were analyzed. Results: Stent placement was technically successful in 16 patients (100%). Clinical success was achieved in 13 patients (81.25%) reflecting two patients with early-restenosis and one patient suffering from thrombosis distal to the stent. Mean follow-up was 372 days. Primary patencies were 75 % (n = 12). Primary assisted patencies were 93,75 % (n = 15). Serum creatinine levels decreased significantly (p = 0.01) from 1.68 mg/dl to 1.08 mg/dl after stent placement. Patients´weight decreased (mean 2.1 %). No angioplasty-related complications occurred. Conclusions: Stent angioplasty of the IVC is an effective and safe treatment of stenoses after liver transplantation and resection and has a positive effect on creatinine levels

Learning to Grasp: from Somewhere to Anywhere

Robotic grasping is still a partially solved, multidisciplinary problem where data-driven techniques play an increasing role. The sparse nature of rewards make the automatic generation of grasping datasets challenging, especially for unconventional morphologies or highly actuated end-effectors. Most approaches for obtaining large-scale datasets rely on numerous human-provided demonstrations or heavily engineered solutions that do not scale well. Recent advances in Quality-Diversity (QD) methods have investigated how to learn object grasping at a specific pose with different robot morphologies. The present work introduces a pipeline for adapting QD-generated trajectories to new object poses. Using an RGB-D data stream, the vision pipeline first detects the targeted object, predicts its 6-DOF pose, and finally tracks it. An automatically generated reach-and-grasp trajectory can then be adapted by projecting it relatively to the object frame. Hundreds of trajectories have been deployed into the real world on several objects and with different robotic setups: a Franka Research 3 with a parallel gripper and a UR5 with a dexterous SIH Schunk hand. The transfer ratio obtained when applying transformation to the object pose matches the one obtained when the object pose matches the simulation, demonstrating the efficiency of the proposed approach

Efficacy of Antibacterial Bioactive Glass S53P4 Against S. aureus Biofilms Grown on Titanium Discs In Vitro

ABSTRACT: We evaluated the effectiveness of different sizes of bioactive glass S53P4 against Staphylococcus aureus biofilms grown on metal discs in vitro. S. aureus biofilms were cultivated on titanium discs. BAG-S53P4 (0.5–0.8mm and <45 mm) were placed in contact with the discs containing biofilms. Glass beads (0.5mm) were used as a control. After each interval, the pH from each sample was measured. Colony forming units were counted for the biofilm recovery verification. In parallel, we tested the activity of bioactive glass against S. aureus planktonic cells. We found that BAG-S53P4 can suppress S. aureus biofilm formation on titanium discs in vitro. The suppression rate of biofilm cells by BAG-S53P4 <45mm was significantly higher than by BAG-S53P4 0.5–0.8mm. BAG-S53P4 has a clear growth-inhibitory effect on S. aureus biofilms. BAG-S53P4 <45mm is more efficient against biofilm growth in vitro comparing with BAG-S53P4 0.5–0.8mm. Bioactive glass S53P4 has potential to be used as bone substitute for the resolution of infection complications in joint replacement surgeries and treatment of chronic osteomyelitis. 2013 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 32:175–177, 2014

A Simplified Hard-Switching Loss Model for Fast-Switching Three-Level T-Type SiC Bridge-Legs

Hard-switching losses in three-level T-type (3LTT) bridge-legs cannot be directly estimated from datasheet energy loss curves, which are given for symmetric two-level half-bridge configurations only. The commutations in a 3LTT bridge-leg occur between semiconductors with different blocking voltages and/or current ratings, and involve a third semiconductor device in the switching transition, which contributes additional capacitive losses. This paper, therefore, describes a simplifed approach to estimate a lower bound for the hard-switching losses of 3LTT bridge-legs (note that the approach is applicable to other three-level topolgies as well). In view of the very fast switching speeds of wide-bandgap semiconductors, the model neglects voltage/current overlap losses and considers only the dominating charge-related loss contributions (semiconductor output capacitances, body diode reverse-recovery charge), thus requiring minimal information from datasheets. A direct experimental verification with an 800 V DC-link 3LTT bridge-leg (1200 V and 650 V SiC MOSFETs) operating with output currents up to 25 A confirms the good accuracy of the simplified switching-loss model

Staphylococcus aureus biofilm formation and antibiotic susceptibility tests on polystyrene and metal surfaces.

Aim:  We compared the MBEC™-HTP assay plates made of polystyrene with metal discs composed of TMZF® and CrCo as substrates for biofilm formation. Methods and Results: Staphylococcus aureus was grown on polystyrene and on metal discs made of titanium and chrome–cobalt. Antibiotic susceptibility was assessed by examining the recovery of cells after antibiotic exposure and by measuring the biofilm inhibitory concentration (BIC). The minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was assessed with planktonic cells. Bacterial growth was examined by scanning electron microscopy. The antibiotic concentration for biofilm inhibition (BIC) was higher than the MIC for all antibiotics. Microscopic images showed the biofilm structure characterized by groups of cells covered by a film. Conclusions:  All models allowed biofilm formation and testing with several antibiotics in vitro. Gentamicin and rifampicin are the most effective inhibitors of Staph. aureus biofilm-related infections. We recommend MBEC™-HTP assay for rapid testing of multiple substances and TMZF® and CrCo discs for low-throughput testing of antibiotic susceptibility and for microscopic analysis. Significance and Impact of the Study: In vitro assays can improve the understanding of biofilms and help developing methods to eliminate biofilms from implant surfaces. One advantage of the TMZF® and CrCo discs as biofilm in vitro assay is that these metals are commonly used for orthopaedic implants. These models are usable for future periprosthetic joint infection studies