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Mit dem Projekt NiB-Scout soll die ausbildungsorientierte Verankerung von Nachhaltigkeitsaspekten im Bäckerhandwerk geleistet werden. In dem Beitrag werden das domänenspezifische Nachhaltigkeitsverständnis, der damit verbundene Kompetenzansatz sowie der methodisch-didaktische Ansatz anhand eines Best Practice Beispiels vorgestellt. (DIPF/Orig.) The NiB-Scout project aims to anchor sustainability aspects in the bakery trade in a training-orientated manner. In this paper, the domain-specific understanding of sustainability, the associated competence approach, and the methodological-didactical approach are presented using a best practice example. (DIPF/Orig.)

Energy transitions cannot be fully grasped without appreciating their spatial implications. This paper takes up the idea of conceptualizing the socio-spatial dimensions of energy transitions and examines the respective value of the Territory, Place, Scale, and Network (TPSN) framework. The fundamental contribution of this framework is to move the focus of the debate away from whether one ontology of the socio-spatial is ‘better’ than another. By applying the TPSN framework to emblematic cases of regional energy spaces in Germany, we realized that the dynamics of different fields of action within an energy transition are characterized in each case by a specific pattern of the four socio-spatial dimensions and related strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the benefits and the shortcomings of the framework as it relates to understanding energy transitions. The fundamental role of place-making at a nexus with territorializations, as well as the additional importance of networking and rescaling strategies, are to be understood with the additional factors of the role of governance spaces, the upscaling of local experiments, powerful space-related discourses, and the socio-materiality of spaces.

Die Energiewende hat zu einer Dezentralisierung der Energieinfrastrukturen und damit zu einem Landschaftswandel gefuhrt, der mit Akzeptanzproblemen verbunden ist. Im Beitrag wird thematisiert, inwieweit Handlungsraume der Energiewende durch intendiertes place-making zu einer regional angepassten Entwicklung erneuerbarer Energien beitragen konnen. Am Beispiel von Bioenergie-Regionen und Bioenergiedorfern werden Place-making-Strategien dargestellt, die sich auf die physisch-materielle Energielandschaftsgestaltung, auf die symbolische Inwertsetzung von Energielandschaft sowie auf die Entwicklung des Energielandschaftsverstandnisses richten und auf diese Weise zur Herausbildung von place attachment und place identity in Bezug auf Energielandschaften beitragen. Abschliesend werden Schlussfolgerungen hinsichtlich der Moglichkeiten von Handlungsraumen der Energiewende in Bezug auf die Gestaltung der Energielandschaft und die Entwicklung des Energielandschaftsverstandnisses gezogen.

Die Energiewende führte zur Herausbildung einer Vielzahl neuer dezentraler Handlungsräume erneuerbarer Energien wie Bioenergieregionen, 100%-Erneuerbare-Energie-Regionen und andere Modellregionen. Sie sind durch unterschiedliche regionale Rahmenbedingungen und Akteursstrukturen geprägt und auf verschiedene Zielstellungen und Handlungsfelder gerichtet. Die Konstituierung dieser neuen Handlungsräume der Energiewende wird oft durch zeitlich begrenzte monetäre und ideelle staatliche Anreize ausgelöst, ist jedoch weitgehend von der Initiative dezentraler Akteure abhängig. Zur Untersuchung und Erklärung dieser Prozesse können pfadtheoretische Ansätze beitragen. Deshalb wird die Konstituierung neuer Handlungsräume in diesem Beitrag als intendierte Pfadkreation interpretiert, deren längerfristige Stabilisierung durch die Herausbildung von positiven Rückkopplungen erfolgt. So bieten dezentrale Handlungsräume die Möglichkeit, die mit der Ubiquität erneuerbarer Energieressourcen gegebene Dezentralisierung der Energieerzeugung als Potenzial für die regionale Entwicklung zu erschließen. Dabei geht es um die Erhöhung der regionalen Wertschöpfung und um Teilhabe, aber auch um Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten für eine regional angepasste Entwicklung erneuerbarer Energien. The German Energy Transition led to the constitution of a diversity of decentral action arenas of renewable energies like Bioenergy regions, 100% Renewable Energy Regions and other pilot regions. They are characterised by different regional conditions and actor constellations aiming at diverse goals and activities. The constitution of these new action arenas of energy transition has often been triggered by temporal limited financial and ideal public incentives. But it is depending to a large extent on the initiatives of decentral actors. To the analysis and explanation of these processes approaches of path dependency can contribute. In this article the constitution of new action arenas will be interpreted as an intended path creation stabilised by the development of positive feedbacks. In face of the ubiquity of renewable energies decentral action arenas offer new opportunities to tap the decentralisation of energy production as a potential for regional development. The enhancement of regional economic participation but also the regional adaptation of the development of renewable energies can contribute to this strategy.

This paper calls into question a main assumption of governance research that the success of regional energy transitions depends to a large extent on collaborative governance structures. The role of network-based governance in two regions, Luchow-Dannenberg and Prignitz, is analysed. Alternative ways of understanding the success of energy transitions are discussed with the help of three strands of critical governance literature: debates about ‘socio-materiality’, the often neglected role of power and key individuals. Especially power and the ‘material’ dimension of energy regions may help to explain interregional differences in the success of energy governance.

Introduction Global metabolomics analyses using body fluids provide valuable results for the understanding and prediction of diseases. However, the mechanism of a disease is often tissue-based and it is advantageous to analyze metabolomic changes directly in the tissue. Metabolomics from tissue samples faces many challenges like tissue collection, homogenization, and metabolite extraction. Objectives We aimed to establish a metabolite extraction protocol optimized for tissue metabolite quantification by the targeted metabolomics AbsoluteIDQ™ p180 Kit (Biocrates). The extraction method should be non-selective, applicable to different kinds and amounts of tissues, monophasic, reproducible, and amenable to high throughput. Methods We quantified metabolites in samples of eleven murine tissues after extraction with three solvents (methanol, phosphate buffer, ethanol/phosphate buffer mixture) in two tissue to solvent ratios and analyzed the extraction yield, ionization efficiency, and reproducibility. Results We found methanol and ethanol/phosphate buffer to be superior to phosphate buffer in regard to extraction yield, reproducibility, and ionization efficiency for all metabolites measured. Phosphate buffer, however, outperformed both organic solvents for amino acids and biogenic amines but yielded unsatisfactory results for lipids. The observed matrix effects of tissue extracts were smaller or in a similar range compared to those of human plasma. Conclusion We provide for each murine tissue type an optimized high-throughput metabolite extraction protocol, which yields the best results for extraction, reproducibility, and quantification of metabolites in the p180 kit. Although the performance of the extraction protocol was monitored by the p180 kit, the protocol can be applicable to other targeted metabolomics assays. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s11306-017-1312-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Germany’s energy transition (Energiewende) is highly instructive on how the shift from nuclear to renewable energy can reconfigure the institutional arrangements, power relations, socio-materiality and spatial structures of an energy system. This brief chapter sets the scene for subsequent empirical illustrations by characterizing the institutional framework of the German Energiewende, in terms of EU policy on liberalization and privatization, economic incentives for private investment in renewable energies and national government planning initiatives for grid development. From this, we identify the spatial dimensions of the Energiewende, drawing attention to processes of rescaling and decentralizing Germany’s electricity system. The chapter concludes by summarizing the principal research challenges for social scientists working in this under-theorized field.

This first conceptual chapter focuses on the analysis of institutional change and what this can reveal about Germany’s energy transition. The authors begin with a critique of the understanding of structure and agency as defined by Anthony Giddens which has underpinned much transitions research in the past. Reflecting on recent developments in institutional theory, they draw on historical institutionalism, discursive institutionalism and the strategic-relational approach in order to discuss the importance of path dependencies, meaning contexts and strategic or structural selectivities in unpacking issues of agency behind institutional change. These three institutionalist approaches are compared and their explanatory powers for energy transitions illustrated, using the case of a recent remunicipalization process in Hamburg’s energy sector as an exemplar.

Reproducible quantification of metabolites in tissue samples is of high importance for characterization of animal models and identification of metabolic changes that occur in different tissue types in specific diseases. However, the extraction of metabolites from tissue is often the most labor-intensive and error-prone step in metabolomics studies. Here, we report the development of a standardized high-throughput method for rapid and reproducible extraction of metabolites from multiple tissue samples from different organs of several species. The method involves a bead-based homogenizer in combination with a simple extraction protocol and is compatible with state-of-the-art metabolomics kit technology for quantitative and targeted flow injection tandem mass spectrometry. We analyzed different extraction solvents for both reproducibility as well as suppression effects for a range of different animal tissue types including liver, kidney, muscle, brain, and fat tissue from mouse and bovine. In this study, we show that for most metabolites a simple methanolic extraction is best suited for reliable results. An additional extraction step with phosphate buffer can be used to improve the extraction yields for a few more polar metabolites. We provide a verified tissue extraction setup to be used with different indications. Our results demonstrate that this high-throughput procedure provides a basis for metabolomic assays with a wide spectrum of metabolites. The developed method can be used for tissue extraction setup for different indications like studies of metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes or cardiovascular disorders and nutrient transformation in livestock.