Posibles consecuencias del cambio climático global en bosques de Lago Puelo

p.79-87Se caracteriza topoclimáticamente los habitats del bosque mixto de coihue (Nothofagus dom beyi) y ciprés (Austrocedrus chilensis), del mixto con especies valdivianas y del de lenga (Nothofagus pumilio) en el Parque Nacional y Reserva Estricta Lago Puelo. Se analiza la posible consecuencia del cambio climático en la distribución y composición de dichos bosques. De mantenerse las tendencias que en la actualidad se observan para la temperatura y la precipitación, el clima en el año 2030 sería más húmedo, más frío en el invierno y más caluroso en el verano. La vegetación debería sufrir cambios para alcanzar un nuevo equilibrio, el cual tentativamente favorecería a la lenga y a especies higrófilas como Pilgerodendron uviferum, Fitzroya cupressoides, Lama apiculata y Myrceugenia exsucca

Monitoring microstructural evolution in-situ during cyclic deformation by high resolution reciprocal space mapping

The recently developed synchrotron technique High Resolution Reciprocal Space Mapping (HRRSM) is used to characterize the deformation structures evolving during cyclic deformation of commercially pure, polycrystalline aluminium AA1050. Insight into the structural reorganization within single grains is gained by in-situ monitoring of the microstructural evolution during cyclic deformation. By HRRSM, a large number of individual subgrains can be resolved within individual grains in the bulk of polycrystalline specimens and their fate, their individual orientation and elastic stresses, tracked during different loading regimes as tension and compression. With this technique, the evolution of dislocation structures in selected grains was followed during an individual load cycle

Retrieving wind statistics from average spectrum of continuous-wave lidar

The aim of this study is to experimentally demonstrate that the time-average Doppler spectrum of a continuous-wave (cw) lidar is proportional to the probability density function of the line-of-sight velocities. This would open the possibility of using cw lidars for the determination of the second-order atmospheric turbulence statistics. An atmospheric field campaign and a wind tunnel experiment are carried out to show that the use of an average Doppler spectrum instead of a time series of velocities determined from individual Doppler spectra significantly reduces the differences with the standard deviation measured using ordinary anemometers, such as ultra-sonic anemometers or hotwires. The proposed method essentially removes the spatial averaging effect intrinsic to the cw lidar systems

The makers get it all? The coalitional welfare politics of Populist Radical Right Parties in Europe. The case studies of Austria and Italy

The article investigates whether and to what extent the welfare policies of Populist Radical Right Parties (PRRPs) vary in diverse government coalitions. Relying on a multidimensional framework differentiating coalitional politics along the welfare size and deservingness dimension, we conduct a comparative case study analysing welfare reforms of the ‘standard’ centre-right/PRRP government coalition ÖVP-FPÖ in Austria and the ‘new’ populist government coalition M5S-Lega in Italy. We find that both PRRPs do not promote pro-welfare policies in general, but rather opt for selective expansion of benefits for ‘mak- ers’, while aiming at retrenching benefits for ‘takers’. This welfare strategy includes pensioners and male breadwinner families but excludes migrants or long-term unemployed. The analysis furthermore shows that the central line of conflict with the centre-right ÖVP is mostly about the size of welfare policies, espe- cially for ‘deserving’ citizens, while with the socially more left-leaning M5S it is rather centred around the deservingness dimension, e.g., benefits for takers. These results offer a more fine-grained understanding of the PRRPs’ welfare agenda and their coalitional welfare politics in office

New shades of conflict? Theorising the multi-dimensional politics of eco-social policies

This article presents a novel framework for analysing the politics of eco-social policies, focusing on the political conflicts surrounding this third generation of social risks. We distinguish two key dimensions of conflict: an ideational approach dimension, which focuses on conflicts among political actors over the possible synergies and trade-offs between social and ecological goals and their potential integration through eco-social policies, and a design dimension with several sub-dimensions related to the formulation and implementation of eco- social policies. To illustrate the merit of this analytical framework, we apply it to the analysis of party manifestos for the 2021 German federal election. Our findings reveal a striking divergence in the first dimension: While most parties emphasise the synergy potential of eco- social policies, albeit to varying degrees, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) stands out by opposing this narrative. The second dimension largely reflects established welfare positions, with centre-left and left-wing parties advocating state involvement and social consumption (the Social Democratic Party of Germany [SPD], the Greens, and The Left) and selective/needs-oriented measures (SPD and The Left) to a greater extent than centre-right parties (Christian Democratic Union of Germany [CDU]/Christian Social Union in Bavaria [CSU] and Free Democratic Party [FDP]). Furthermore, pro-growth approaches dominate, but there are signs that positions on degrowth policies may emerge as a significant conflict line in the future. Our analysis shows that eco-social policy conflicts are multidimensional, partly reshaping the political landscape around welfare policies, and are about not only how eco- social policies should be designed but whether they can and should be pursued at all

Fundamental Properties of Kepler Planet-Candidate Host Stars using Asteroseismology

We have used asteroseismology to determine fundamental properties for 66 Kepler planet-candidate host stars, with typical uncertainties of 3% and 7% in radius and mass, respectively. The results include new asteroseismic solutions for four host stars with confirmed planets (Kepler-4, Kepler-14, Kepler-23 and Kepler-25) and increase the total number of Kepler host stars with asteroseismic solutions to 77. A comparison with stellar properties in the planet-candidate catalog by Batalha et al. shows that radii for subgiants and giants obtained from spectroscopic follow-up are systematically too low by up to a factor of 1.5, while the properties for unevolved stars are in good agreement. We furthermore apply asteroseismology to confirm that a large majority of cool main-sequence hosts are indeed dwarfs and not misclassified giants. Using the revised stellar properties, we recalculate the radii for 107 planet candidates in our sample, and comment on candidates for which the radii change from a previously giant-planet/brown-dwarf/stellar regime to a sub-Jupiter size, or vice versa. A comparison of stellar densities from asteroseismology with densities derived from transit models in Batalha et al. assuming circular orbits shows significant disagreement for more than half of the sample due to systematics in the modeled impact parameters, or due to planet candidates which may be in eccentric orbits. Finally, we investigate tentative correlations between host-star masses and planet candidate radii, orbital periods, and multiplicity, but caution that these results may be influenced by the small sample size and detection biases.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figures, 4 tables; accepted for publication in ApJ; machine-readable versions of tables 1-3 are available as ancillary files or in the source code; v2: minor changes to match published versio

Essays on development economics

This dissertation consists of three self-contained chapters. The unifying theme of these chapters is their focus on understanding rural households’ decision making with regards to the adoption of innovative technologies. In chapter 1, we study small-holder farmers’ adoption of improved agri- cultural inputs in response to receiving access to such inputs. In chapters 2 and 3, we investigate important demand and supply side factors in the provision of voluntary health insurance policies. In chapter 2, I study the role of households’ social network in their demand decision. In chapter 3, we investigate the presence of adverse selection in a low-income health insurance market, its potential welfare effects, and provide measures to mitigate such adverse effects. The following paragraphs provide a brief summary of these chapters

Modellprädiktive Regelung eines innovativen Thermomanagement-Systems für batterieelektrische Fahrzeuge

Im Zuge der fortschreitenden Elektrifizierung der Fahrzeuge fällt mit steigender Effizienz die zur Verfügung stehende Abwärme des Antriebsstrangs zur Deckung des Wärmebedarfs des Innenraums. Um der dadurch reduzierten elektrischen Reichweite entgegenzuwirken, befasst sich diese Arbeit mit der Entwicklung eines ganzheitlichen energieeffizienten Thermomanagement-Systems auf Basis einer umkehrbaren Wärmepumpe, welches mit einer nichtlinearen modellprädiktiven Regelung geregelt wird

Modellprädiktive Regelung eines innovativen Thermomanagement-Systems für batterieelektrische Fahrzeuge

Im Zuge der fortschreitenden Elektrifizierung der Fahrzeuge fällt mit steigender Effizienz die zur Verfügung stehende Abwärme der Antriebsstrangs zur Deckung des Wärmebedarfs des Innenraums. Die zusätzlich notwendigen Maßnahmen zur thermischen Konditionierung des Innenraums äußern sich in einem rein elektrischen Betrieb bei kalten Umgebungstemperaturen in einer signifikant reduzierten Reichweite. Um diesem Problem entgegenzuwirken, befasst sich diese Dissertation mit der Entwicklung eines ganzheitlichen energieeffizienten Thermomanagement-Systems auf Basis einer umkehrbarenWärmepumpe. Die Nutzung der Umgebungswärme senkt den elektrischen Energiebedarf des Thermomanagement-Systems im Vergleich zu herkömmlichen Systemen basierend auf elektrischen Zuheizern bereits deutlich. Die anfallende Abwärme der elektrischen Komponenten kann zusätzlich eingebracht werden und trägt zu einer weiteren Reduktion des elektrischen Energiebedarfs durch Drosselung des Kompressors bei. Um das Potenzial dieses Mehrgrößensystems vollständig zu nutzen, wird eine nichtlineare modellprädiktive Regelung (NMPC) entwickelt. Dieser fortschrittliche Regelungsansatz bedient sich eines mathematischen Modells des Systems und optimiert die Stellgrößen in einem definierten Zeithorizont auf Basis aktueller Messdaten. Es wird gezeigt, dass bei Kenntnis des zu erwartenden Geschwindigkeitsprofils und damit der zukünftig im Antriebsstrang entstehenden Abwärme eine hochpräzise Regelung möglich ist. Ein experimenteller Machbarkeitsnachweis wird gezeigt, welcher eine echtzeitfähige NMPC-Regelung einer Wärmepumpe in einem Fahrzeug-Demonstrator darstellt