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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an analytical framework toward facilitating the quantitative measurement of interdisciplinary understanding regarding sustainable energy systems with an application in the area of capacity-building projects in higher education. Design/methodology/approach The analytical framework is developed using the portfolio representation measurement approach in combination with a survey questionnaire. The subsequent assessment is carried out using the statistical measure of mean signed deviation to capture variation from an established baseline across the project group and visualized via radar diagrams. Findings The results provide a quantitative assessment framework for evaluating the degree of interdisciplinary understanding in the project groups. The application of the framework to the DESIRE project indicates the most significant degree of variation across economic and regulatory dimensions of sustainability. Discrepancies in general and educational contexts are observed. Research limitations/implications The exploitable value of the results is sensitive to the derivation of composite indicators of the dimensions defined as well as the survey design. The case study was carried out on an ex-post basis, potentially biasing the results reported and limiting their interpretability and theoretical value. Practical implications The analytical framework can be used as a basis for assessing and engaging in discussions on interdisciplinarity understanding at the outset of capacity-building projects. Originality/value The contribution of this paper is practical in scope and entails the development of a quantitative framework for measuring interdisciplinarity in the specific context of capacity-building projects in the field of sustainability research in higher education institutions.

Climate change and biodiversity loss trigger policies targeting and impacting local communities worldwide. However, research and policy implementation often fail to sufficiently consider and involve them. Therefore, we present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for eight case studies of communications regarding climate change or biodiversity loss between project teams and local communities. We develop eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, reflecting the scope of Verran (2002)'s concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. We demonstrate that applying our indicators enhances communication, although we discover a divergence between timing, complexity, and (introspective) effort. Three cases qualify for postcolonial moments , but scrutinising power relations and genuine knowledge co-production remain rare. While we verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science, their sophistication cannot substitute trust-building and epistemic/transdisciplinary awareness. Lastly, we consider that reforming inadequate funding policies helps improving the work in and with local communities.

Power-to-Gas gilt als vielversprechende Zukunftstechnologie. Neben der Bereitstellung von Flexibilitat im Stromsystem stellt Power-to-Gas eine Alternative zur konventionellen Gasforderung dar und kann einen Beitrag zur Versorgungssicherheit, Importunabhangigkeit und Defossilisierung des Energiesystems leisten. Wahrend Energiesystemanalysen zur Bestimmung des Bedarfs an Power-to-Gas die Forschungslandschaft dominieren, stellt eine bundesweite raumliche Potentialanalyse fur Deutschland eine Forschungslucke dar, obwohl Standortfaktoren, wie die Nahe zu einer (moglichst erneuerbaren) Stromquelle oder zu einer Absatzinfrastruktur, die Wirtschaftlichkeit von Power-to-Gas wesentlich beeinflussen. Zunachst werden anhand von Potentialflachen zur Windenergienutzung aktuelle und potentielle Windenenergieanlagen-Standorte lokalisiert. Anschliesend wird das technische Potential an Power-to-Gas-Anlagen ermittelt sowie Standorte fur Power-to-Gas-Anlagen in Deutschland ausgewiesen. Darauf aufbauend werden unter Einbezug von regulatorischen, gesetzlichen und okonomischen Faktoren standortspezifische, durchschnittliche Gasgestehungskosten errechnet, welche als Anhaltspunkt fur das okonomische Potential von Power-to-Gas dienen. Es zeigt sich, dass die gegenwartig hohen Letztverbraucherabgaben eine wirtschaftliche Umwandlung von Uberschussstrom in erneuerbares Gas bei Einspeisung in das Gasnetz verhindern. Die Erzeugung von regenerativem Gas aus fur diesen Zweck installierten Windenergieanlagen ist kostengunstiger und hat das Potential, unter optimistischen Rahmenbedingungen und unter Vernachlassigung von konkurrierenden Nutzungspfaden mehr als den deutschen Gasbedarf zu decken. Unter Vernachlassigung einer Gasflussberechnung ubersteigt das berechnete Power-to-Gas Erzeugungspotential fur H2 bzw. CH4 die derzeitig Einspeisekapazitaten des deutschen Fernleitungsnetzes. Bei einer detaillierteren Modellierung der Gasflusse ist zu erwarten, dass technische Restriktionen die Einspeisung insbesondere von H2 noch weiter beschranken.

License information: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This research was partially funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research BMBF (FoReSee, grant no. 01LA1811B, Economics of the Climate Change II programme; COMTESS, grant no. 01LL0911A-G, Sustainable Land Management programme; Carbiocial, grant no. 01LL0902F, Sustainable Land Management programme, ECAS-BALTIC, grant no. 03F0860G, Küno Küstenforschung Nordsee / Ostsee), the European Commission (DESIRE, project number 561638-EPP-1-2015-1-JO-EPP KA2-CBHE-JP, grant agreement number: 2012-3324/001-001), the Flemish Interuniversity Council – University Development Cooperation VLIR-UOS (North South South Cooperation Programme ZIUS2015VOA3106), the Belgian Directorate-General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid (CEBioS programme), the Special Research Fund of Hasselt University (BOF20TT06), the Belgian Science Policy BELSPO (EVAMAB of CEBioS programme), the Luc Hoffmann Institute, and the German Research Foundation DFG (Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2037 'CLICCS - Climate, Climatic Change, and Society', project no 390683824).

Climate change and biodiversity loss trigger policies worldwide, many of which target or impact local communities. Although research, international development, and policy implementation (and, thus, success in fighting both threats) require thoughtful consideration and communication of the underlying concepts, field work encounters a cascade of tangible barriers. Technoscientific representations of quantifiable causes and effects often remain alien to local perspectives, and failure to involve communities constantly and genuinely creates gaps that may ultimately prevent research and policy success. Therefore, in this article, we present the results of a collective self-assessment exercise for a panel of eight case studies (covering four continents) of communications between project teams and local communities within the context of climate change or biodiversity loss. Our analysis develops eight indicators of good stakeholder communication, which we construct from the literature, in addition to Verran (2002) 's concept of postcolonial moments as a communicative utopia. Our study contributes to the (analytical) understanding of such communications, while also providing tangible insights for field work and policy recommendations. We demonstrate that applying our indicators can foster a more successful communication, although we find an apparent divergence between timing, complexity, and (introspective) effort of the project teams. While three case studies qualify for postcolonial moments, our findings show that especially the scrutiny of power relations and genuine knowledge co-production are still rare. We verify the potency of various instruments for deconstructing science; however, we also show that their sophistication cannot substitute other crucial factors. Instead, simple deconstruction efforts may suffice, while trust-building, proper time management, and an advanced awareness of the scientists are crucial. Lastly, we consider that reforming rigid and inadequate funding policies will help overcome significant barriers and improve the work in and with local communities.

Covid-19 affects the personal lives of millions and led to an economic crisis. Changed behavioral patterns and a reduction of industrial activity result in a reduction in power demand, and thus Covid-19 impacts the power systems around the world. Bottom-up mapping of the effect of Covid-19 on the energy demand is challenging, if not impossible. In order to analyze the impact of the pandemic on power demand, we instead propose a simplified approach based on an econometric analysis that quantifies the country-wide load reduction of Covid-19, using the number of active cases as well as the specific lockdown period as proxies. The time span covered is from 1 January 2016 to 31 August 2020. This long time span allows us to investigate the effect of Covid-19 on the power demand. We find that in Germany (DE) and Great Britain (GB) the power demand is reduced by about 1–1.7 MW per case, while in France the demand increased by 1 MW per case during times outside of the lockdown. On the other hand, in France the lockdown itself has a much higher load reduction effect in France than in GB and DE. Based on the elasticity of power demand regarding Covid-19 cases, we calculate the impact of Covid-19 on the power prices through reduced loads. We find that Covid-19 reduced power prices by 3 to 6 EUR per MWh. The effect of Covid-19 on carbon emissions in the power sector is likely to be small. In Germany, the country with the highest absolute level, emissions in the power sector were reduced by approximately 2% (4 Mio. t CO2).

The energy system is facing changes across Europe, motivated by CO2 emission reduction targets and driven by the expansion of renewable energy sources (RES). Germany is carrying out efforts to reshape its future energy system to be mainly based on RES. Nonetheless, flexible generation capacities like natural gas (NG) power plants will still be needed in the coming decades. Recent developments in the NG market have been characterised by uncertainties on the supply side as plans have been put forth for new pipelines to facilitate Russian or Caspian NG towards Europe as well as increasing volumes of liquefied natural gas entering the market. This paper aims to show the interdependence between infrastructure developments and primary NG demand in the German energy system. The authors analyse impacts for the German ‘Energiewende’ on a time horizon from 2010 to 2050. Coupling a European NG model with a German energy system model, we develop six scenarios regarding climate policy in Germany and European diversification strategies in infrastructure expansion. The results show, that NG prices influence sectoral changes especially in the residential sector. Further strategies to reduce CO2 emissions in the entire energy system should also consider NG as part of the solution.

The paper investigates investments in gas infrastructure considering uncertainties in European gas markets. Furthermore, the study addresses the question of whether (more) diversification provides a (better) security of supply improvement. Thus, a stochastic optimization approach is introduced. The uncertainties focus on 2030 and 2045 in three dimensions, namely the Ukraine gas transit, future LNG prices, and the expected gas demand. Considering three diversification strategies, the model GAMAMOD-EU.sto optimizes investments in pipelines, LNG import terminals and gas storages as well as the gas dispatch. Results illustrate trade-offs between optimal gas supply and diversification strategies. Investments in pipelines to North African suppliers are made across all strategies, while the building of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline depend on the respective diversification strategy. Diversification through LNG quota changes the dispatch results significantly. Investments in storages are almost not necessary over all strategies, however, storages provide flexibility to prevent supply shortages, when diversification strategies are applied. Conclusion for policy makers regarding what is needed for preventing malinvestments and high costs in the European gas market are: an enhanced relationship between Russia and the EU and a clear vision on the role of gas in the future European energy system that reduces demand uncertainty.

European countries are currently exploring strategies to ensure a strong level of security of energy supply while decreasing its reliance on natural gas imports. With the strong surge in shale gas developments in the USA, similar ambitions have been the ongoing subject of inquiry in Europe. Detailed knowledge about extraction costs is a key issue in determining future shale gas investments in Europe. The paper at hand analyses the potential of European shale gas resources, highlighting their competitiveness against conventional natural gas. It examines the current volume of shale gas resources in Europe and performs a detailed cost calculation to provide an estimation of shale gas production costs. The results indicate that under current market conditions the repetition of the US shale gas boom is by all measures improbable in Europe. Furthermore, in the case that natural prices were to return to historically higher levels, only a few highly productive shale gas formations would be economically competitive.

The German “Energiewende” aims at fostering a de-carbonisation of the entire energy system. In the electricity sector, a shift from traditionally nuclear and coal-based production towards renewable energies and lower carbon intensive gas power plants can be expected. Additionally, heat production from gas fuels will play a more dominant role. This results in a stronger dependence of the electrical power and heat sector on a reliable and secure operation of the underlying natural gas (NG) provision infrastructure. Growing uncertainties in the electricity and NG systems have in and of themselves been widely analysed. With this paper, we question how uncertainties in power and heat production development compromise the NG supply and thereby endanger energy security. We introduce a NG pipeline model with a detailed grid representation of northeast Germany. We utilise two representative days to model the NG demand differentiated by heat, industry and power sector consumption. Using a cost minimisation approach, we investigate possible congestions in the gas grid to assess if and to what extent NG pipelines can be seen as a crucial bottleneck for future energy security. Our results show the resilience of the NG system during a scenario of a MILD winter day. However, simultaneous NG demand peaks in the heat and power sector in the COLD scenario might lead to congestions in some regions.

In this paper, we compile and analyse the most important determinants of natural gas prices. We provide a short overview of different methods used for studying natural gas prices. Afterwards, we classify the most important determinants for gas prices based on literature. Thereby, we describe the impact of the components on gas prices as well as the strength of the respective influences. On the demand side, we consider economic growth, energy policy and seasonal effects. Regarding the supply side, we focus on infrastructure, domestic resource constraints and LNG growth as well as storage capacity. The discussion of the determinants is embedded in an analysis of the market-structure in Europe, which focuses on the influence of oil-indexed contracts versus gas-on-gas competition. Based on this analysis we propose a framework for classifying the most important determinants based on the temporal effect and strength of impact on natural gas prices. We conclude that in the long-term the extent of oil-price indexation, infrastructure development and volumes of NG reserves constitute the main drivers of natural gas price formation. The potential impact of climate policy remains large but uncertain.

The US production of unconventional gas has grown drastically in recent years and is proved to be a case of success. In former years the US imported natural gas in order to meet their high demand and, therefore, invested in LNG import terminals. Since then, production of shale gas is considered to have a potential to change the world natural gas market, as both scientific community and policy makers started to discuss a transition of the US from a net importer to a net exporter country by the year 2020. This change requires new natural gas infrastructure, as regasification capacity which was already built will not be utilized and new liquefaction investments are expected instead. This paper estimates the perspective of US natural gas infrastructure using the MCP approach, and indicates that, rather than Europe or China, the young markets in Asia, supplied mostly by LNG, will be the targets of the US exports.

In this article the impact of liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports and shale gas exploitation on a European dependency from main gas suppliers is analysed. For this purpose we introduce the “Gas Market Model (GaMaMod)” that represents the European natural gas market within a bottom-up approach. In order to analyse the European gas supply, we look at two main scenarios for the year 2025 with regard to an extension of LNG import capacities and an increased exploitation of European shale gas. Within the scenarios, we modify the basic conditions with respect to the level of demand and present the supply mix in the European gas market. Our results show that LNG and shale gas have an effect on the diversification of gas supply, but the effect is quite limited and main European gas suppliers, especially Norway and Russia, will still remain dominantly in the European gas supply.

Transverse nuclear spin relaxation measurements employing Carr−Purcell (CP) pulse sequences have been used to determine the viscoelastic properties of quasi-spherical membrane vesicles with controlled radii R0. The observed relaxation rates, (ω), exhibit a linear dependence on the inverse pulse frequency over a wide frequency range in the kHz regime and then level off to a constant “plateau” value independent of ω. Within the linear dispersion regime, the same relaxation rates are detected for unilamellar and oligolamellar vesicles, indicating that the interbilayer coupling is weak and has no effect on the measured relaxation curves. Analysis of the experimental dispersion profiles is performed using a slow-motional model in which two different relaxation processes are considered (i.e., vesicle shape fluctuations and molecular translational diffusion). It is shown that for vesicle radii R0 ≥ 200 nm lateral diffusion across the vesicle shell is too slow to contribute significantly to transverse spin relaxa...

Em julho de 2011 a Junta Executiva da United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) aprovou uma guia revisada para taxas de retorno por grupos de indústrias e países que poderiam vir a ser utilizadas como valores de benchmark para a análise de adicionalidade de projetos de Mecanismo de Desenvolvimento Limpo (MDL), os quais se configuram como um importante incentivo para as energias renováveis no Brasil. Para o setor de energia renovável no Brasil, foi proposta uma taxa de 11,75% ao ano (a.a.) em termos reais para o custo do capital próprio. Entretanto, a UNFCCC abre possibilidade para a proposição de outros valores, incluindo a metodologia de Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) desde que tenham sua análise econômico-financeira baseada nas melhores práticas de financeiras internacionais e em fontes que possam ser validadas além de propriamente justificadas. Neste contexto, o objetivo deste trabalho é contribuir ao debate da adequação do MDL como mecanismo capaz de incentivar a implementação de projetos de energia renovável através da estimação de parâmetros representativos para Taxa de Retorno do Setor de Energia Renovável no Brasil. Através de extensa pesquisa referenciada nas melhores práticas metodológicas e em estimações já utilizadas por agências reguladoras internacionais e brasileiras, conclui-se que a taxa de retorno proposta pela UNFCCC para o Brasil se encontra abaixo do esperado. Caso optemos por uma ótica conservadora de forma a subsidiar esse segmento no país, poderíamos atingir um valor real e plausível de 15,60% a.a. Essa análise é de suma importância, uma vez que o Plano Decenal de Expansão de Energia 2020 (PDE 2020) prioriza fortemente uma maior participação de energia limpa, com 39% de aumento para hidrelétricas e 198% de aumento para fontes renováveis como Pequenas Centrais Hidrelétricas (PCHs), biomassa e eólicas, que se constituem, atualmente, nas opções apontadas como as mais promissoras para o Brasil, sendo capazes de atender a critérios ambientais e promover a necessária complementação ao atual parque hídrico brasileiro. Podemos concluir, de forma tentativa, que seria necessária a criação de outros instrumentos para estimular a implementação de projetos de energia renovável em linha com as diretrizes propostas pelo governo brasileiro.

Verletzungen des Schultergurtels sind haufig und ereignen sich von der Geburt bis in das hohe Alter. Dabei andern sich in Abhangigkeit zum Alter des Patienten Lokalisation und Art der Verletzung. Die Diagnose einer akuten traumatischen ossaren Schulterlasion kann zumeist auf Basis der Anamnese und einer exakten klinischen Untersuchung sowie mit Hilfe konventioneller Rontgenbilder gestellt werden und erfordert nur in bestimmten Fallen weiterfuhrende bildgebende Methoden. Basis jeder bildgebenden Abklarung traumatischer Schulterlasionen ist die so genannte Traumaserie, die aus zumindest 2–3 Aufnahmen in unterschiedlichen Ebenen, anteriorposterior (Grashey-Aufnahme), lateral (Y-Aufnahme) sowie axillar, besteht. Wesentlich ist die weitgehend uberlagerungsfreie Darstellung aller Komponenten des Schultergelenks. Die Kenntnis der gangigen klinischen Klassifikationssysteme ist unerlasslich fur eine adaquate Befunderstellung, auf deren Basis die Entscheidung bzgl. eines konservativen oder operativen Vorgehens getroffen wird.

Traumatic injuries to the shoulder girdle are common lesions and occur from birth on through the whole life. Depending on the patient's age, localization and type of injury change. Diagnosis of acute osseous traumatic lesions to the shoulder is based on evaluation of trauma mechanism, patient's examination and, as for the most cases, conventional radiographs. Only in certain cases additional radiological examinations are necessary. As a minimum, two to three images in different planes, anteriorposterior, lateral and axillary, are recommended in order to display all components of the shoulder girdle without superposition. Knowledge of common clinical classifications systems is necessary for exact diagnosis in order to permit decision on conservative or operative treatment of injury.