Gesellschaftliche Herausforderungen durch "intelligente Umgebungen". Dunkle Szenarien als TA-Werkzeug

Mit der umfassenden drahtlosen Vernetzung und Computerisierung von Alltagsgegenständen und Umgebungen werden nicht nur neuartige Anwendungen möglich, sondern auch zahlreiche Risiken erzeugt. Soll Ambient Intelligence (AmI) ein Erfolg werden, ist es erforderlich, angemessene Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um Privatsphäre, Sicherheit oder Vertrauen in den jeweiligen Anwendungskontexten zu gewährleisten. Dabei besteht die Herausforderung darin, frühzeitig Vorkehrungen gegen Risiken zu entwickeln, die noch nicht manifest sind. Die im Rahmen des SWAMI-Projekts (Safeguards in a World of AMbient Intelligence) entwickelten "dunklen" Szenarien werden als nützliches TA-Werkzeug vorgestellt, mit dessen Hilfe potenzielle Risiken in einer frühen Phase der Technikentwicklung identifiziert werden können. Nach einer Darstellung des methodischen Konzepts der dunklen Szenarien werden im Beitrag einige Beispielsituationen aus den Szenarien und die entsprechende systematische Analyse präsentiert sowie kurz die wichtigsten Empfehlungen des Projekts vorgestellt.Ambient Intelligence, Foresight, Risikoanalyse, Technikfolgenabschätzung, Szenarien-Methode, dunkle Szenarien

Electronic Petitioning and Modernisation of Petitioning Systems in Europe. Summary

After TAB had already presented a first report on the subject of electronic petitions in 2008 (No. 127), which dealt in particular with the pilot project "Public Petitions" of the German Bundestag, TAB Working Report No. 146 focuses on the further development of the e-petitions platform of the German Bundestag as well as other national petition procedures in Europe. It examines how the functioning, use and evaluation of the German Bundestag\u27s e-petitions platform have developed after an initial fundamental modernisation in its fifth year of operation. For this purpose, among other things, extensive surveys of petitioners were conducted. In addition, it was of interest to see how the online procedure of the German Petitions Committee, which in the opinion of TAB has been successfully established, compares with corresponding activities in Europe. To this end, an extensive survey was conducted on the parliamentary petition and ombudsman bodies in the 27 member states of the EU as well as Norway and Switzerland and also a separate country study on the petition and ombudsman system in Great Britain, including Scotland and Wales. The report contains a wealth of concrete suggestions for improving the current petition system and discusses three further, medium-term development options with their advantages and disadvantages for the petition system of the German Bundestag: > the general publicity of petitions, > the introduction of a national parliamentary ombudsman for personal complaints, and > the further development of the petition system in the direction of an instrument of direct democracy

Weak disorder strongly improves the selective enhancement of diffusion in a tilted periodic potential

The diffusion of an overdamped Brownian particle in a tilted periodic potential is known to exhibit a pronounced enhancement over the free thermal diffusion within a small interval of tilt-values. Here we show that weak disorder in the form of small, time-independent deviations from a strictly spatially periodic potential may further boost this diffusion peak by orders of magnitude. Our general theoretical predictions are in excellent agreement with experimental observations.Comment: Phys. Rev. Lett., in pres

Public electronic petitions and civil participation. Summary

In the course of its long history, the petition system has been repeatedly adapted and modernised to changing conditions, including the internet as a new medium for transmitting and publishing petitions as well as for communicating about petitions. Accordingly, the German Bundestag started a two-year pilot project "Public Petitions" in 2005, in which petitions could be made public and discussed via the internet and supporters could be recruited. On the initiative of the Petitions Committee, the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag (TAB) was commissioned to carry out an evaluation of this pilot project. This was to be embedded in a more comprehensive examination of the question of what new possibilities, but also what problems, the use of the internet in petitioning could lead to. KEY FINDINGS > Even in modern democratic states governed by the rule of law, petitioning has not lost its appeal; in fact, its importance has increased in many places. E-petition systems make a particular contribution to this. > Although e-petition systems are not yet widely used, they are currently one of the central activities in the field of e-democracy and e-participation, especially in the parliamentary sphere. It is to be expected that in the next few years government agencies will increasingly introduce electronic petition systems. > The pilot project "Public Petitions" of the German Bundestag can be considered a success, despite some serious shortcomings in its implementation. With it, petitions are made publicly accessible via the internet, the petition process becomes more transparent and citizens can actively contribute with supporting signatures or contributions to discussions. > With the pilot project, the first steps towards more transparency, accessibility and participation have been taken. However, not even 2% of all petitions are currently published on the internet. It remains open whether the German Bundestag wants to continue along this path towards more transparency and publicity. > Electronic petition systems have so far not led to a general increase in the number of petitions and only to a very limited extent to a greater representativeness of those involved: Women, population groups with lower levels of education and younger age groups continue to be significantly underrepresented among petitioners. > The problem that the desired and realised greater discursiveness, as expressed in the discussion forums on petitions on the internet, is not adequately received and processed by the actual petition addressees remains largely unresolved. > Although the political effects of electronic petition systems are difficult to assess, it can be said with all due caution that the introduction of electronic petition systems has strengthened the respective petition bodies in terms of publicity and that - due to the greater publicity of petitions - it can be assumed that the political system reacts more sensitively and attentively to citizens\u27 concerns

Navigating towards responsible research and innovation

Res-AGorA Policy Note #

Medical technology innovations - challenges for research, economic an health policy. Summary

The medical technology sector is characterised by a pronounced innovative strength, high knowledge intensity and social relevance due to its contributions to the health care of the population. In Germany, the situation of this future-oriented sector can be characterised as good overall: The scientific-technical basis of medical technology research and development (R&D) is internationally outstanding in many areas. As an industry, German medical technology manufacturers are very well positioned and occupy a leading place on the world market alongside the USA and Japan. Despite this favourable starting position, the industry faces a number of challenges resulting from intensifying international competition, the internationalisation of production and distribution structures and the changing conditions in the health care sector. Subject and objective of the study The promotion of medical technology and the creation of the most favourable framework conditions possible also pose considerable challenges for the public sector: In addition to taking into account the complex requirements for the promotion of this markedly heterogeneous cross-sectional technology, it must be noted that medical technology falls within the sphere of responsibility of both research, economic and health policy. The innovation policy problem here is to coordinate the partly synergetic, but also partly divergent objectives, measures and instruments of the respective policy fields in such a way that favourable framework conditions are created for the development and clinical application of medical technology innovations. The aim of the policy benchmarking was to analyse, with regard to medical technology at the interfaces between research, economic and health policy, which demands on research policy for medical technology arise from health and economic policy objectives and strategies, through which mechanisms, procedures and instruments this situation could be taken into account in practice or is taken into account in order to create goal conflicts. To this end, to identify good practice examples of successful medical technology funding in two countries that are also successful in medical technology (Great Britain and Switzerland) and to examine the extent to which these examples can be transferred to the situation in Germany, and on this basis to develop options for action for a successful innovation policy from a research policy perspective in medical technology in Germany

Working in future. Summary

The world of work in industry is changing: globalisation, growing demand for services, new organisational models, emerging technologies (biotechnology, nanotechnology, ambient intelligence) - many factors are driving the process of change. How these drivers will develop and what work structures can be expected in five to ten years is the subject of this study conducted at Fraunhofer ISI. For this purpose, the researchers evaluated future studies and analysed in parallel which changes have already taken hold. According to the study, two critical developments will become even more acute in the future: The low-skilled will find it even more difficult to find work in the future. At the same time, the shortage of skilled workers - especially engineers, natural scientists and economists - will continue to increase as a result of the identified trends. Here, the study recommends, all options for action should be explored to counteract effectively. Further recommendations are aimed at making the range of training and further education in biotechnology and nanotechnology more application-oriented or placing more emphasis on services in training

Light intensity dependence of the kinetics of the photocatalytic oxidation of nitrogen(ii) oxide at the surface of TiO2

Air pollution by nitrogen oxides represents a serious environmental problem in urban areas where numerous sources of these pollutants are concentrated. One approach to reduce the concentration of these air pollutants is their light-induced oxidation in the presence of molecular oxygen and a photocatalytically active building material which uses titanium dioxide as the photocatalyst. Herein, results of an investigation concerning the influence of the photon flux and the pollutant concentration on the rate of the photocatalytic oxidation of nitrogen(ii) oxide in the presence of molecular oxygen and UV(A) irradiated titanium dioxide powder are presented. A Langmuir-Hinshelwood-type rate law for the photocatalytic NO oxidation inside the photoreactor comprising four kinetic parameters is derived being suitable to describe the influence of the pollutant concentration and the photon flux on the rate of the photocatalytic oxidation of nitrogen(ii) oxide. © 2013 the Owner Societies