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- ItemWhen redistribution makes personalized pricing of externalities useless(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2021) Fleurbaey, Marc; Kornek, UlrikeWe consider a standard optimal taxation framework in which consumers' preferences are separable in consumption and labor and identical over consumption, but are affected by consumption externalities. For every nonlinear, income-dependent pricing of goods there is a linear pricing scheme, combined with an adjusted income tax schedule, that leaves all consumers equally well-off and weakly increases the government's budget. The result depends on whether a linear pricing scheme exists that keeps the aggregate amount of consumption at its initial level observed under nonlinear pricing. We provide sufficient conditions for the assumption to hold. If adjusting the income tax rate is not available, personalized prices for an externality can enhance social welfare if they are redistributive, that is, favor consumers with a larger marginal social value of income.
- ItemBioenergy for climate change mitigation: Scale and sustainability(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2021) Calvin, Katherine; Cowie, Annette; Berndes, Göran; Arneth, Almut; Cherubini, Francesco; Portugal‐Pereira, Joana; Grassi, Giacomo; House, Jo; Johnson, Francis X.; Popp, Alexander; Rounsevell, Mark; Slade, Raphael; Smith, PeteMany global climate change mitigation pathways presented in IPCC assessment reports rely heavily on the deployment of bioenergy, often used in conjunction with carbon capture and storage. We review the literature on bioenergy use for climate change mitigation, including studies that use top-down integrated assessment models or bottom-up modelling, and studies that do not rely on modelling. We summarize the state of knowledge concerning potential co-benefits and adverse side effects of bioenergy systems and discuss limitations of modelling studies used to analyse consequences of bioenergy expansion. The implications of bioenergy supply on mitigation and other sustainability criteria are context dependent and influenced by feedstock, management regime, climatic region, scale of deployment and how bioenergy alters energy systems and land use. Depending on previous land use, widespread deployment of monoculture plantations may contribute to mitigation but can cause negative impacts across a range of other sustainability criteria. Strategic integration of new biomass supply systems into existing agriculture and forest landscapes may result in less mitigation but can contribute positively to other sustainability objectives. There is considerable variation in evaluations of how sustainability challenges evolve as the scale of bioenergy deployment increases, due to limitations of existing models, and uncertainty over the future context with respect to the many variables that influence alternative uses of biomass and land. Integrative policies, coordinated institutions and improved governance mechanisms to enhance co-benefits and minimize adverse side effects can reduce the risks of large-scale deployment of bioenergy. Further, conservation and efficiency measures for energy, land and biomass can support greater flexibility in achieving climate change mitigation and adaptation.
- ItemRegional income and wave energy deployment in Ireland(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Farrell, Niall; O'Donoghue, Cathal; Morrissey, KarynAlongside environmental benefits, renewable energy deployment is often evaluated on grounds of regional development. Focusing on wave energy deployment in Ireland, this paper quantifies employment-related welfare change net of associated subsidy costs. Although the added employment reduces inter-regional inequality, certain subsidies increase total income inequality by a greater extent. Total inequality increases by 0.25% in the preferred scenario. This pattern of incidence persists under an optimistic scenario where all manufacturing activity is carried out locally. This finding highlights that policies of regional development should consider the spatial distribution of associated subsidy costs.
- ItemAirborne bacterial emission fluxes from manure-fertilized agricultural soil(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Thiel, Nadine; Münch, Steffen; Behrens, Wiebke; Junker, Vera; Faust, Matthias; Biniasch, Oliver; Kabelitz, Tina; Siller, Paul; Boedeker, Christian; Schumann, Peter; Roesler, Uwe; Amon, Thomas; Schepanski, Kerstin; Funk, Roger; Nübel, UlrichThis is the first study to quantify the dependence on wind velocity of airborne bacterial emission fluxes from soil. It demonstrates that manure bacteria get aerosolized from fertilized soil more easily than soil bacteria, and it applies bacterial genomic sequencing for the first time to trace environmental faecal contamination back to its source in the chicken barn. We report quantitative, airborne emission fluxes of bacteria during and following the fertilization of agricultural soil with manure from broiler chickens. During the fertilization process, the concentration of airborne bacteria culturable on blood agar medium increased more than 600 000-fold, and 1 m3 of air carried 2.9 × 105 viable enterococci, i.e. indicators of faecal contamination which had been undetectable in background air samples. Trajectory modelling suggested that atmospheric residence times and dispersion pathways were dependent on the time of day at which fertilization was performed. Measurements in a wind tunnel indicated that airborne bacterial emission fluxes from freshly fertilized soil under local climatic conditions on average were 100-fold higher than a previous estimate of average emissions from land. Faecal bacteria collected from soil and dust up to seven weeks after fertilization could be traced to their origins in the poultry barn by genomic sequencing. Comparative analyses of 16S rRNA gene sequences from manure, soil and dust showed that manure bacteria got aerosolized preferably, likely due to their attachment to low-density manure particles. Our data show that fertilization with manure may cause substantial increases of bacterial emissions from agricultural land. After mechanical incorporation of manure into soil, however, the associated risk of airborne infection is low.
- ItemParticle number emission rates of aerosol sources in 40 German households and their contributions to ultrafine and fine particle exposure(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2020) Zhao, Jiangyue; Birmili, Wolfram; Hussein, Tareq; Wehner, Birgit; Wiedensohler, AlfredMore representative data on source-specific particle number emission rates and associated exposure in European households are needed. In this study, indoor and outdoor particle number size distributions (10–800 nm) were measured in 40 German households under real-use conditions in over 500 days. Particle number emission rates were derived for around 800 reported indoor source events. The highest emission rate was caused by burning candles (5.3 × 1013 h−1). Data were analyzed by the single-parameter approach (SPA) and the indoor aerosol dynamics model approach (IAM). Due to the consideration of particle deposition, coagulation, and time-dependent ventilation rates, the emission rates of the IAM approach were about twice as high as those of the SPA. Correction factors are proposed to convert the emission rates obtained from the SPA approach into more realistic values. Overall, indoor sources contributed ~ 56% of the daily-integrated particle number exposure in households under study. Burning candles and opening the window leads to seasonal differences in the contributions of indoor sources to residential exposure (70% and 40% in the cold and warm season, respectively). Application of the IAM approach allowed to attribute the contributions of outdoor particles to the penetration through building shell and entry through open windows (26% and 15%, respectively). © 2020 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd
- ItemReal-time monitoring of cell surface protein arrival with split luciferases(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2023) Fischer, Alexandra A. M.; Schatz, Larissa; Baaske, Julia; Römer, Winfried; Weber, Wilfried; Thuenauer, RolandEach cell in a multicellular organism permanently adjusts the concentration of its cell surface proteins. In particular, epithelial cells tightly control the number of carriers, transporters and cell adhesion proteins at their plasma membrane. However, sensitively measuring the cell surface concentration of a particular protein of interest in live cells and in real time represents a considerable challenge. Here, we introduce a novel approach based on split luciferases, which uses one luciferase fragment as a tag on the protein of interest and the second fragment as a supplement to the extracellular medium. Once the protein of interest arrives at the cell surface, the luciferase fragments complement and generate luminescence. We compared the performance of split Gaussia luciferase and split Nanoluciferase by using a system to synchronize biosynthetic trafficking with conditional aggregation domains. The best results were achieved with split Nanoluciferase, for which luminescence increased more than 6000-fold upon recombination. Furthermore, we showed that our approach can separately detect and quantify the arrival of membrane proteins at the apical and basolateral plasma membrane in single polarized epithelial cells by detecting the luminescence signals with a microscope, thus opening novel avenues for characterizing the variations in trafficking in individual epithelial cells.
- ItemNovel genetic modules encoding high-level antibiotic-free protein expression in probiotic lactobacilli(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2023) Dey, Sourik; Blanch‐Asensio, Marc; Balaji Kuttae, Sanjana; Sankaran, ShrikrishnanLactobacilli are ubiquitous in nature, often beneficially associated with animals as commensals and probiotics, and are extensively used in food fermentation. Due to this close-knit association, there is considerable interest to engineer them for healthcare applications in both humans and animals, for which high-performance and versatile genetic parts are greatly desired. For the first time, we describe two genetic modules in Lactiplantibacillus plantarum that achieve high-level gene expression using plasmids that can be retained without antibiotics, bacteriocins or genomic manipulations. These include (i) a promoter, PtlpA, from a phylogenetically distant bacterium, Salmonella typhimurium, which drives up to 5-fold higher level of gene expression compared to previously reported promoters and (ii) multiple toxin-antitoxin systems as a self-contained and easy-to-implement plasmid retention strategy that facilitates the engineering of tuneable transient genetically modified organisms. These modules and the fundamental factors underlying their functionality that are described in this work will greatly contribute to expanding the genetic programmability of lactobacilli for healthcare applications.
- ItemExpanding the genetic programmability of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2024) Blanch‐Asensio, Marc; Dey, Sourik; Tadimarri, Varun Sai; Sankaran, ShrikrishnanLactobacilli are ubiquitous in nature and symbiotically provide health benefits for countless organisms including humans, animals and plants. They are vital for the fermented food industry and are being extensively explored for healthcare applications. For all these reasons, there is considerable interest in enhancing and controlling their capabilities through the engineering of genetic modules and circuits. One of the most robust and reliable microbial chassis for these synthetic biology applications is the widely used Lactiplantibacillus plantarum species. However, the genetic toolkit needed to advance its applicability remains poorly equipped. This mini-review highlights the genetic parts that have been discovered to achieve food-grade recombinant protein production and speculates on lessons learned from these studies for L. plantarum engineering. Furthermore, strategies to identify, create and optimize genetic parts for real-time regulation of gene expression and enhancement of biosafety are also suggested.
- ItemThe geodynamic and limnological evolution of Balkan Lake Ohrid, possibly the oldest extant lake in Europe(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2022) Wagner, Bernd; Tauber, Paul; Francke, Alexander; Leicher, Niklas; Binnie, Steven A.; Cvetkoska, Aleksandra; Jovanovska, Elena; Just, Janna; Lacey, Jack H.; Levkov, Zlatko; Lindhorst, Katja; Kouli, Katerina; Krastel, Sebastian; Panagiotopoulos, Konstantinos; Ulfers, Arne; Zaova, Dušica; Donders, Timme H.; Grazhdani, Andon; Koutsodendris, Andreas; Leng, Melanie J.; Sadori, Laura; Scheinert, Mirko; Vogel, Hendrik; Wonik, Thomas; Zanchetta, Giovanni; Wilke, ThomasStudies of the upper 447 m of the DEEP site sediment succession from central Lake Ohrid, Balkan Peninsula, North Macedonia and Albania provided important insights into the regional climate history and evolutionary dynamics since permanent lacustrine conditions established at 1.36 million years ago (Ma). This paper focuses on the entire 584-m-long DEEP sediment succession and a comparison to a 197-m-long sediment succession from the Pestani site ~5 km to the east in the lake, where drilling ended close to the bedrock, to unravel the earliest history of Lake Ohrid and its basin development. 26Al/10Be dating of clasts from the base of the DEEP sediment succession implies that the sedimentation in the modern basin started at c. 2 Ma. Geophysical, sedimentological and micropalaeontological data allow for chronological information to be transposed from the DEEP to the Pestani succession. Fluvial conditions, slack water conditions, peat formation and/or complete desiccation prevailed at the DEEP and Pestani sites until 1.36 and 1.21 Ma, respectively, before a larger lake extended over both sites. Activation of karst aquifers to the east probably by tectonic activity and a potential existence of neighbouring Lake Prespa supported filling of Lake Ohrid. The lake deepened gradually, with a relatively constant vertical displacement rate of ~0.2 mm a−1 between the central and the eastern lateral basin and with greater water depth presumably during interglacial periods. Although the dynamic environment characterized by local processes and the fragmentary chronology of the basal sediment successions from both sites hamper palaeoclimatic significance prior to the existence of a larger lake, the new data provide an unprecedented and detailed picture of the geodynamic evolution of the basin and lake that is Europe’s presumed oldest extant freshwater lake.
- ItemVisualization of Tensor Fields in Mechanics(Oxford : Wiley-Blackwell, 2021) Hergl, Chiara; Blecha, Christian; Kretzschmar, Vanessa; Raith, Felix; Günther, Fabian; Stommel, Markus; Jankowai, Jochen; Hotz, Ingrid; Nagel, Thomas; Scheuermann, GerikTensors are used to describe complex physical processes in many applications. Examples include the distribution of stresses in technical materials, acting forces during seismic events, or remodeling of biological tissues. While tensors encode such complex information mathematically precisely, the semantic interpretation of a tensor is challenging. Visualization can be beneficial here and is frequently used by domain experts. Typical strategies include the use of glyphs, color plots, lines, and isosurfaces. However, data complexity is nowadays accompanied by the sheer amount of data produced by large-scale simulations and adds another level of obstruction between user and data. Given the limitations of traditional methods, and the extra cognitive effort of simple methods, more advanced tensor field visualization approaches have been the focus of this work. This survey aims to provide an overview of recent research results with a strong application-oriented focus, targeting applications based on continuum mechanics, namely the fields of structural, bio-, and geomechanics. As such, the survey is complementing and extending previously published surveys. Its utility is twofold: (i) It serves as basis for the visualization community to get an overview of recent visualization techniques. (ii) It emphasizes and explains the necessity for further research for visualizations in this context.