Efficiency and effectiveness of promotion systems for electricity generation from renewable energy sources - Lessons from EU countries

Currently, a wide range of strategies is implemented in different countries to increase the share of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E). A still controversial discussion is whether quantity-driven (like Tradable Green Certificates (TGCs) based on quotas) or price-driven (like feed-in-tariffs (FIT)) instruments lead to preferable solutions for society. The core objective of this paper is to compare the perspectives of quota-based certificate trading systems for an efficient and effective increase of RES-E with FIT. The major results of this analysis are: (i) The success stories of growth in RES-E in EU member states in recent years has been triggered by FIT implemented in a technology-specific manner at modest costs for European citizens; (ii) At present, TGC systems in most countries applied show a low effectiveness with respect to RES-E deployment of less mature technologies such as solar PV (with improving tendencies in e.g. the UK or Italy with respect to certain technologies); (iii) Compared to short term trading in TGC markets the intrinsic stability of FIT systems appears to be a key element for success; (iv) Hence, currently a well-designed (dynamic) FIT system provides a certain deployment of RES-E in the shortest time and at lowest costs for society.     

Response of Building Adjacent to Stiff Excavation Support System in Soft Clay

A three-story school supported by shallow foundations was affected by an adjacent 12.2-m-deep excavation in soft clay in which the excavation support system was a 0.9-m-wide secant pile wall braced by both cross-lot struts and tiebacks. The school is a reinforced concrete frame structure with exterior reinforced concrete foundation walls. This paper summarizes the conditions at the site and presents correlations among construction activities, measured deformations and distortions, and attendant damage in the school. The lateral ground movements associated with the excavation were monitored with four inclinometers placed around the school. The building movements were monitored with optical survey points established on interior columns, exterior walls and on the roof, and with tiltmeters installed on the exterior foundation walls. The damage to the school mainly consisted of 300 to 500-mm-long hairline cracks in nonload bearing walls. Only a few cracks had widths greater than 6 mm. The school deformed such that the portion closest to the excavation sagged and the remainder hogged. Damage was first observed in the area of sagging when angular distortions reached 1/940 and the excavation was approximately 5.5-m deep. Angular distortions as large as 1/300 were observed at the end of the project. The data suggest that angular distortions had to be less than 1/1000 to preclude any damage to the school.     

Relative rotation number for stochastic systems: dynamical and topological applications

We introduce a concept of relative rotation number to unify many different approaches of rotation number in non-linear dynamical systems. We present an ergodic result of existence a.s. for stochastic systems. In higher dimension, we show that the natural idea of projecting into a plane does work well a.s. for any plane (different from deterministic systems where projections may be degenerate). A number of further properties (invariance by homotopy and by conjugacy) and applications are presented.     

Zertifizierungskriterien für das Datenschutzgütesiegel EuroPriSe

Qualitativ hochwertige Zertifizierungskriterien sind eine fundamentale Voraussetzung für den Erfolg und die Reputation eines Gütesiegels. Dies gilt auch und gerade für das zurzeit im Rahmen des Projekts EuroPriSe (European Privacy Seal) konzipierte und erprobte europ?ische Datenschutzgütesiegel. Der Beitrag beschreibt, wie bei der Entwicklung der EuroPriSe-Kriterien vorgegangen worden ist, und stellt die einschl?gigen Zertifizierungskriterien in einem überblick vor.     

The underlying electrode causes the reported ‘electro-catalysis’ observed at C60-modified glassy carbon electrodes in the case of N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethanamide and salbutamol

The reported ‘electro-catalysis’ of C₆₀-film-modified electrodes for the electrochemical oxidation of N-(4-hydroxyphenyl)ethanamide and salbutamol has been explored at boron-doped diamond and glassy carbon electrodes. Using both C₆₀-film-modified boron-doped diamond and glassy carbon as underlying electrode substrates no electro-catalytic response is observed using the target analytes but rather the C₆₀ serves to block the electrode surface.A common experimental protocol used by researchers in this field is to electrochemically pre-treat the C₆₀-film-modified electrode. The response of employing this electrochemical pre-treatment at both bare glassy carbon and boron-doped diamond electrodes using the target analytes reveals that no effect on the electrochemical responses obtained at the boron-doped diamond electrode whereas a slight but significant effect occurs on glassy carbon which is attributed to the likely introduction of surface oxygenated species.Consequently the previously reported ‘electro-catalysis’ using C₆₀-film-modified electrode is not due to C₆₀ itself being catalytic, but rather that substrate activation through electrode pre-treatment is responsible for the observed ‘electro-catalysis’ likely through the introduction of surface oxygenated species.This work clearly shows that substrate activation is an important parameter which researchers studying C₆₀-film-modified electrodes, especially in electro-analysis needs to be considered.     

An outer shell of positively charged poly(ethyleneimine) strongly increases the transfection efficiency of calcium phosphate/DNA nanoparticles

Nanoparticles with an inner core of calcium phosphate, followed by layers of DNA and calcium phosphate and an outer layer of poly(ethyleneimine) (PEI) were prepared, characterized, and tested on different cell lines (HeLa, T24, and NIH3T3). A considerable increase in transfection efficiency was found for such nanoparticles, compared to the commercial reagent Polyfect^® (a cationic dendrimer). The DNA is incorporated into the nanoparticles and protected from the attack by enzymes (nucleases) inside the cytoplasm of cells. The outer layer of PEI leads to electrosteric colloidal stabilization and gives a positive charge to the nanoparticle, which is helpful for the penetration through the negatively charged cell membrane.     

Hierarchical representation of problem-solving knowledge in a frame-based process planning system

In most frame-based reasoning systems, the information being manipulated is represetned using frames, but the problem-solving knowledge that manipulates the frames is represented as production rules. One problem with this approach is that rules are not always a natrual way to represent knowledge; another is that systems containing lots of rules may suffer from problems with “exponetial blowup” in the amount of computation required. This paper describes a way to address these problems by organizing the problem-solving knowledge not as rules, but in a particular kind of frame hierarchy. the approach described in this paper has been implemented in a problem-solving system called SIPP (Semi-Intelligent Process Planner), which produces plans of action for the manufacture of metal parts. the paper gives an overview of SIPP, compares its knowledge representation and problem solving methods to approaches used in other knowledge-based systems, and describes goals for further research.     

Parameter estimation and optimization techniques for discrete-time semi-Markov models of H.264/AVC video traffic

We investigate a variety of known and new approaches for the estimation of the parameters of discrete-time semi-Markovian traffic models. We focus on modeling video traffic, since the accurate representation of its long-term autocorrelation is a challenge to the parameter estimation methods. The modeling techniques are applied to sample H.264/AVC-encoded video traces. We study their ability to reflect the autocorrelation and variability of the original traffic and also the delay probabilities of a resulting SMP/GI/1 queueing system. The delay probabilities are determined both by simulation and verified analysis of the queue.