Dezentrale Aufbereitung und Lagerung von Speiseresten – Neue Wege zur Ressourcen- und Energiespeicherung

Organic waste, especially kitchen and canteen waste, is produced in large quantities and is subject to considerable fluctuations, both in terms of its composition and quantity, due in part to changing seasonal factors. Kitchen waste commonly undergoes biological and primarily anaerobic waste treatment (fermentation), producing both material (digestate, fertilizers and soil conditioners) and energy resources (biogas, electrical and thermal energy). The introduction of decentral collection and treatment systems promises to offer new solutions with regard to resource and energy storage, and with regard to compensating for the previously mentioned fluctuations. Within this study kitchen waste was initially pretreated and processed at laboratory scale. Subsequently, the influence of storage at 5, 20 and 30?°C for a period of 28 days was investigated. It was determined that, when stored, acidification and a corresponding drop in pH value promptly set in. The higher the temperature, the higher the level of acidification and the higher the concentration of organic acids became. In order to analyze the effects of storage on kitchen waste as an energy source, its biogas potential was measured in correlation with storage duration and temperature. Neither factor proved to have any significant influence on gas yield. Due to acidification, which can be seen as a chemical decomposition process, stored substrates produced up to 20?% higher gas yield compared to the original substrate. Accordingly, unavoidable kitchen and canteen waste can be considered valuable energy sources, which can contribute to efficient and needs-oriented energy production.     

Supporting retailers to exploit online settings for internationalization: The different role of trust and compensation

The development of virtual technologies discloses two main opportunities for retailers, namely the possibility of complementing their offer through a multi-channel strategy in the marketplace they operate, and of extending their business in foreign countries. The online internationalization strategy requires retailers to overcome customers' privacy concern facilitating their information sharing with the firm so as to conclude the online transaction.This paper aims at helping retailers in reaching this goal by investigating the effect on behavioural information sharing in online settings of two variables emerged as relevant in literature: trust and compensation (as a form of incentive). The results of an experimental study show the key role of trust on increasing online information sharing.     

Vision 2014: DPR heißt Bundespflegekammer

Kongress „Pflege 2011“ – Zur Er?ffnung des von Springer Medizin und Heilberufe organisierten Kongresses schlug die „bayrische Bombe“ ein: An jenem Morgen des 28. Januar wurde bekannt, dass Bayern als erstes Bundesland eine Pflegekammer einrichten will. Dafür haben die Pflegeverb?nde seit vielen Jahren gek?mpft, denn nur durch eine Pflegekammer sind Pflegekr?fte den Berufsvertretungen von Apothekern und ?rzten gleichgestellt.     

Openness, Investment and Growth

In the empirical growth literature both investment and opennessto international trade have been identified as important determinantsof growth. These relationships appear to be robust in a numberof specifications. However, Sachs and Warner claim that opennessis such an important determinant of investment that the coefficienton investment will be insignificant in growth regressions, whichalready account for openness. I re-examine this result and canonly support it if I use their model specification and estimationmethod. I suggest that their ordinary least squares estimationsuffers from both endogeneity and omitted variable bias. Usingpanel data analysis, I show that ignoring unobserved country-specificeffects and endogeneity problems cause investment to be insignificant.Estimating the model with the Blundell and Bond system generalmethod of moments estimator, which allows me to address theomitted variable as well as the endogeneity bias, I find thatinvestment is significant in the Sachs–Warner model despitecontrolling for openness. Thus, my regressions confirm thatopenness has a significant, positive effect on income. However,this variable is not so important that it drives investmentout of the model. My re-examination of the Sachs–Warnermodel shows that results from single cross-country growth regressionscan be misleading when unobserved country-specific effects andendogeneity problems are ignored.     

Produktion von Milchsäure durch die kaskadische Nutzung von Bioabfall

Cascading usage of organic waste can efficiently produce secondary raw materials and energy sources. Following the separation of solids and liquids, the solids are fermented and the liquid phase is used for the production of lactic acid. Subsequent treatment of the liquid produced from the organic waste can be used to make PLA (polylactic acid) and other organic products (e.g. bio-additives for fuel). The “BioKasEn” project currently being carried out at the Environmental Technology Department, part of the University of Innsbruck’s Institute for Infrastructure, is investigating the energy influences of cascading organic waste (particularly municipally collected organic waste) on the fermentation and production of renewable energy (biogas). In addition, the use of the fluid phase of organic waste to produce lactic acid is being researched, along with further processing and quality improvements. The microbiological research on the production of lactic acid from organic waste and on its further processing to pure lactic acid as the basis for PLA and other organic products is a joint effort together with the Institute of Microbiology at the University of Innsbruck.     

Property rights on First Nations reserve land

This paper examines the economic effects of existing private property rights on First Nations reserves. We focus on three regimes of land tenure: lawful possession, designated land and permits. These land regimes have been used to create individual landholdings and grant secure and transferable rights of use of reserve land. Using confidential census microdata and rich administrative data, we find evidence of a positive relationship between the use of these tenure regimes and homeownership rates, housing conditions and band's public spending. We also observe a positive relationship with average income. However, this last result is driven by the inflow of a non-Indigenous population not by improvements in Indigenous households’ income or on-reserve employment. Our findings thus suggest that while reforms to individual property rights on reserve have some positive effects, their scope remains limited and they are unlikely to constitute a transformative tool to alleviate poverty on reserve.     

Europeanization in Cypriot Borderscapes: Experiencing the Green Line in Everyday Life

ABSTRACT

Despite the EU accession of the Republic of Cyprus in 2004, the “Green Line” dividing Cyprus that was added as a border in 1974 remains an external EU-border between the Republic of Cyprus (RoC) and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), a self-proclaimed state internationally recognized exclusively by Turkey. Pro- and con European attitudes on Cyprus are therefore not recent phenomena, but date back to the start of EU accession negotiations in 1998 and the Annan-Plan for reunification in 2004. These aspects, however, refer to the Turkish-Greek antagonism on the island and the ongoing national tensions that have resulted in violent conflicts since independence in 1960, the establishment of a demilitarized UN Buffer Zone in 1964 and the division of the island in 1974, also cutting through the island’s capital Nikosia/Lefko?a. Drawing on fieldwork from 2004/2005 and 2014/2015 regarding the border’s shifting meanings and pointing to the border as a place where pro- and con-EU-articulations converge, emphasis is placed on the borderscape in Nikosia/Lefko?a that impedes and increases the movement of people and goods. After all, the border is a dividing line that both shapes and exhibits identities. Moreover, it serves as an individual economic resource whilst border-crossings likewise offer benefits. Nevertheless, the border also stands as painful emotional remembrances for people on both sides. The pro- and con-EU attitudes that were dominant when the RoC joined the EU in 2004 have thus been blurred on both sides of the Green Line. The empirical research for this paper has been framed by the question of how this blurring is intertwined with the division of Cyprus and how people are affected by the Green Line as a socio-material and symbolic artefact on the micro-scale of personal feelings, identities and practices.