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Following a request from EFSA, the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues developed an opinion on the science to support the potential development of a risk assessment scheme of plant protection products for amphibians and reptiles. The coverage of the risk to amphibians and reptiles by current risk assessments for other vertebrate groups was investigated. Available test methods and exposure models were reviewed with regard to their applicability to amphibians and reptiles. Proposals were made for specific protection goals aiming to protect important ecosystem services and taking into consideration the regulatory framework and existing protection goals for other vertebrates. Uncertainties, knowledge gaps and research needs were highlighted.

This EFSA Guidance Document provides guidance for the exposure assessment of soil organisms to plant protection products (PPPs) and their transformation products in accordance with Regulation (EC) No. 1107/20091 of the European Parliament and the Council. This guidance was produced by EFSA in response to a question posed by the European Commission according to Article 31 of Regulation (EC) No. 178/20022 of the European Parliament and of the Council. Guidance is provided for all types of concentrations that are potentially needed for assessing ecotoxicological effects, i.e. the concentration in total soil and the concentration in pore water, both averaged over various depths and time windows. The current guidance considers both permanent crops and annual crops. The recommended exposure assessment procedure consists of four tiers. To facilitate efficient use of the tiered approach in regulatory practice, user-friendly software tools have been developed. In higher tiers of the exposure assessment, crop interception and subsequent dissipation at the crop canopy may be included. The models that simulate these processes were harmonised. In addition, easy-to-use tables for the fraction of the dose intercepted by the canopy that is washed off have been developed, which should be used in combination with the simple analytical model. With respect to substance-specific model inputs, this guidance generally follows earlier documents; however, new guidance is included for some specific substance parameters.

Holokratie - wenn alle mitreden und mitbestimmen und trotzdem etwas Gescheites dabei herauskommt? Die zukünftige Organisationsform der digital transformierten Welt? Oder nur eine Sternschnuppe am Consulting-Himmel, die über kurz oder lang verglüht?

The subject of this doctoral thesis deals with the analysis of regional unemployment heterogeneity and dynamics, the response of economic growth to negative shocks and the link between financial development and growth on a firm and country level. Chapter 1 shows the distributional dynamics of European regional unemployment. In this joint work with Robert Beyer, we study the behavior of regional unemployment rates with respect to the introduction of the Euro and the Global Financial Crisis and analyze European and country contributions to relative changes over time. Chapter 2 provides an empirical analysis into growth convergence of western European and transition countries after negative shocks. A collaboration with Olivier Damette and Mathilde Maurel, we study the rebound capacity, the speed of convergence to the normal growth path as well as nonlinearities along the process. Chapter 3 takes a closer look at internal financial constraints of firm growth in Serbia. A joint work with Milos Markovic, we show how much Serbian firms depend on cash flow for their expansionary activities and compare our sensitivity results with Belgium, a country with an advanced financial sector. Finally, in chapter 4 I explore the relationship between financial development and economic growth in transition countries. Through a panel Granger causality framework different financial indicators and their effects on per capita GDP as well as opposite causalities are assessed., Le sujet de cette thèse porte sur l’analyse de l’hétérogénéité et des dynamiques du chômage régional, des conséquences de chocs négatifs sur la croissance économique et du lien entre le développement financier et la croissance au niveau des entreprises et des pays. Le chapitre 1 montre les dynamiques distributionnelles du chômage régional Européen. Conjointement avec Robert Beyer, nous étudions le comportement des taux de chômage régionaux autour de l’introduction de l’Euro et la crise financière mondiale. En plus, nous examinons les contributions européennes et nationales aux changements relatives dans le temps. Le chapitre 2 propose une analyse empirique de la convergence de la croissance économique de l’Europe de l’Ouest et des pays en transition. Dans ce travail en collaboration avec Olivier Damette et Mathilde Maurel, nous étudions la capacité à sortir d’une période de récession. En plus, nous analysons une non linéarité potentielle dans le processus de sortie. Le chapitre 3 centre son analyse sur l’étude des contraintes financières internes de la croissance des entreprises en Serbie. Conjointement avec Milos Markovic, nous étudions le degré de dépendance aux flux de liquidité des entreprises serbes pour leurs activités d’expansion et les comparons avec ceux des firmes belges. Enfin, dans le chapitre 4, j’explore la relation entre le développement financier et la croissance économique dans les pays en transition. Dans un cadre de causalité Granger en panel, j’analyse les effets de différents indicateurs financiers sur le PIB par tête et inversement.

Das Kompetenzzentrum ÖFIT greift das Thema Standardisierung für die öffentliche IT auf. Thematisiert werden vor allem Zweck, Nutzen, Probleme und Risiken von Standardisierungsprozessen sowie Lösungsansätze für die öffentliche Hand. Das Whitepaper untersucht, ob die vorhandenen Standards in der öffentlichen IT den digitalen Herausforderungen gewachsen sind und soll als Grundlage für weiterführende Diskussionen im Bereich Standardisierung dienen.

Normen und offene Standards, aber auch proprietäre De-facto-Standards, spielen im Bereich der Informationstechnik (IT) eine wichtige Rolle. Aber wer bestimmt nun Standards - Wer entscheidet über ihre Verbindlichkeit - Wie bindet man europäische Aktivitäten ein, beachtet Normungsorganisationen wie DIN und ISO und wie beteiligt man alle politischen Ebenen sinnvoll und gleichberechtigt

In a period where Western donors and economic powers are occupied with own domestic issues, China intensifies its economic ties with Africa. This paper sheds light on this engagement by evaluating the influence of financial capital flows from China on the debt sustainability and country risk of selected African countries. As such, sovereign bond ratings are estimated on several macroeconomic variables and included in a yield spread panel data framework in order to evaluate the external impact.

Spatially distributed leaching modelling (SDLM) of pesticides is a methodology to estimate the leaching potential of plant protection products over an extensive spatial scale such as national or European. It is described as a higher tier in the current European Guidance for groundwater risk assessment. Whereas this option is an integral part of the tiered assessment scheme only little guidance is provided on how to conduct such spatial assessments with SDLM. Guidance on how to perform such leaching assessments is therefore needed, as well as version control for high-resolution spatial databases for the EU. It was therefore decided to establish a working group under the umbrella of the SETAC Environmental Monitoring Advisory Group on Pesticides (SETAC EMAG-PEST). This document describes the aim and scope of the work to be performed by this working group.The main products of the working group will be a harmonised modelling framework including the data needed to run these models, and documents describing the use of the framework in regulatory assessments. The framework will serve two different Tiers of the groundwater risk assessment scheme, i.e. Tier-3b and Tier-4. At Tier-3b, the framework will deliver the same exposure assessment goal as currently used in FOCUS groundwater, i.e. the 80th-spatial and temporal percentiles of the leaching concentration at 1-m depth. This exposure assessment goal is considered a conservative estimate of the real groundwater concentration. To ensure consistency of the tiered approach, the modelling framework will support all parameter refinements carried out at Tier-2. At Tier-4, the measured groundwater concentration in groundwater wells is assessed. The modelling framework plays a crucial role for the selection of vulnerable regions in which to install monitoring wells. It can also be used to demonstrate whether existing groundwater monitoring studies have been carried out at locations that are sufficiently vulnerable in view of the existing FOCUS exposure assessment goal. The modelling framework will, however, not simulate the actual concentration in the groundwater wells, because additional processes occur between 1-m depth and the position of the groundwater wells.The Working Group will consist of member from academia, regulators and industry. It will consist of a Steering Committee, a subgroup on spatial data and a subgroup on modelling. The Working Group will deliver two years after the start of the project.

Die organisatorische Gestaltung von Unternehmen und die softwaretechnische Gestaltung der in den Unternehmen eingesetzten Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien erfolgt in der betrieblichen Praxis noch weitgehend getrennt, von unterschiedlichen Personengruppen, zu unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten und nach unterschiedlichen Methoden. Es existiert zwar eine Reihe von Konzepten, die zur Integration organisatorischer und softwaretechnischer Modellbildung genutzt werden können, diese weisen aber noch erhebliche Defizite auf. Ein Kernproblem besteht in der Formulierung eines geeigneten Betrachtungsgegenstands, dessen Gestaltung, Lenkung, Bewertung und Verbesserung für moderne, wissensintensive Organisationsstrukturen bestimmend ist. Ausgehend von einer vormals vorherrschenden Strukturierung von Organisationen nach betrieblichen Einzelfunktionen und von Software nach technischen Einzelfunktionen, setzt sich mittlerweile immer stärker eine prozess- und wissensorientierte Strukturierung von Organisationen und eine objekt- und komponentenorientierte Strukturierung von Software durch. In dieser Arbeit wird ein Konzept entwickelt, das diese Entwicklungen weiterführt und zu einem integrierten Gestaltungsansatz für wissensintensive Organisationssysteme verbindet. Dieser ermöglicht es, Tätigkeiten organisatorischer Arbeit und Tätigkeiten zur Entwicklung und zum Einsatz von Softwaresystemen auf der Grundlage einer gemeinsamen konzeptuellen Basis in integrierter Weise durchzuführen. Ziel dieses ganzheitlichen Systemgestaltungsansatzes ist es, die Organisations- und Softwarestrukturen von Unternehmen gleichberechtigt und über lange Zeiträume hinweg kongruent fortentwickeln zu können. Zu diesem Zweck werden die Basiskonzepte einer integrativen, holonbasierten Modellbildung erarbeitet, konkrete Diagramm- und Spezifikationstechniken entwickelt und Auswirkungen auf die Entwicklung und das Management organisatorischer und softwaretechnischer Systeme skizziert. Im Zentrum der Arbeiten stehen eine Ontologie und ein zugehöriges Referenz-Metamodell für die holonbasierte Modellierung und Spezifikation (RM-HMS), welche einen gemeinsamen semantischen Kern definieren, der je nach Bedarf für die unterschiedlichen organisatorischen und softwaretechnischen Domänen durch geeignete Sprachprofile spezialisiert werden kann. Da die hierbei entstehenden Sprachen auf einer gemeinsamen semantischen Grundlage stehen, kann auch sprachübergreifend eine durchgängige und kongruente Modellbildung gewährleistet werden. In today s business practice, the organizational engineering of enterprises and the software-technological engineering of the deployed information and communication technologies in these enterprises are still separated and largely conducted by different teams at different points in time and by different means and methods. There are of course a lot of concepts, which can be used for the integration of building organizational and software-technological models, but they still contain serious deficiencies with respect to this goal. A key issue is the definition of an appropriate entity, which design, control, evaluation and improvement of is decisive for modern, knowledge-intensive organizational structures. Starting from former prevailing organizations structured by business functions and software structured by technical functions nowadays more and more a process and knowledge oriented manner of structuring organizations and an object- and component oriented manner of structuring software becomes reality. In this thesis a concept is been worked out, that carries these developments further and connects them towards an integrated design and engineering approach for knowledge-intensive organizational systems. This new approach enables to perform the activities of organizational work and the activities of the development and deployment of software systems in an integrated manner and on the foundation of a common conceptual basis. The main objective of this holistic systems engineering approach is to enable the continuous and congruent development of the organization and software structures of enterprises over a long period of time. For this purpose basic concepts of an integrative, holon-based model-building philosophy are introduced, concrete diagram and specification techniques are been developed and effects on the development and management of integrated knowledge-intensive organization and software systems are outlined. In the centre of this thesis stands an ontology and a related reference meta-model for the holon-based modeling and specification (RM-HMS), which define a common semantic kernel, that could be specialized as needed for the different organizational and software-technological domains by appropriate language profiles. Because the individually created languages are based on a common semantic foundation also a continuous and congruent language-embracing model-building could be achieved.