Ecological holistic assessment for production technologies

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.): Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 213–218.Treating the natural environment in a responsible manner is becoming a key challenge for manufacturing companies. This challenge also regards the planning, implementation and modernization of production technologies. In this case, a new technology should not only have economic advantages, such as higher productivity or flexibility, but should address ecological aspects as well. Many existing approaches only focus on air pollution, measured in CO2, and therefore consider only one ecological dimension. So these approaches disregard other effects on the natural environment, such as water and soil pollution. Only through a holistic approach, the influences of a production technology on the environment can be considered completely and comprehensively. The following article describes a holistic ecological assessment approach and illustrates this with an example. This approach enables manufacturing companies to ecologically assess production technologies in a holistic way

Ecological analysis of manufacturing systems focusing on the identification of variety-induced non value adding emissions

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.): Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 66-71Today manufacturing companies need to raise their awareness about emissions (e.g. CO2 equivalents) and their origins within a manufacturing system. The identification of origins of emissions becomes progressively difficult because of the customer and competition driven increase in product and process variants and the corresponding high level of complexity. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the ecological transparency in manufacturing systems. This paper introduces an assessment methodology which increases the ecological transparency through the identification of variety-induced ecological effects. Furthermore, the developed methodology enables the user to detect starting points for an ecological optimization of a manufacturing system by the use of organizational measures. The effects of influencing variables are presented on the basis of a case study. The obtained results allow manufacturing companies to reveal and reduce variety-induced non value adding emissions

Modularization in material flow simulation for managing production releases in remanufacturing

Remanufacturing is recognized as a major circular economy option to recover and upgrade functions from post-use products. However, the inefficiencies associated with operations, mainly due to the uncertainty and variability of material flows and product conditions, undermine the growth of remanufacturing. With the objective of supporting the design and management of more proficient and robust remanufacturing processes, this paper proposes a generic and reconfigurable simulation model of remanufacturing systems. The developed model relies upon a modular framework that enables the user to handle multiple process settings and production control policies, among which token-based policies. Customizable to the characteristics of the process under analysis, this model can support logistics performance evaluation of different production control policies, thus enabling the selection of the optimal policy in specific business contexts. The proposed model is applied to a real remanufacturing environment in order to validate and demonstrate its applicability and benefits in the industrial settings

Contentious subjects : spatial and relational perspectives on forced migrant mobilizations in Berlin and Paris

Political mobilizations by \u2018forced migrants\u2019 for rights and recognition have proliferated worldwide in the last two decades. Yet, these contentious practices have rarely received widespread public attention. They contrast with a dominant portrayal of marginalized migrants as either passive, needy and ideally grateful objects of government or civil society humanitarianism or stigmatized outsiders and intruders in a national order. Also the academic reflection on the issue has started only relatively recently, particularly in critical migration and citizenship studies, and far less so in social movement studies. According to dominant movement theories, (forced) migrants are unlikely subjects of mobilization due to legal obstacles (including \u2018deportability\u2019), limited economic and social capital and closed political and discursive opportunities. Against this background, my thesis explores diverse processes of political mobilization by forced migrants with a view to provide theoretical refinements and empirical complements to the body of literature in social movement studies. Given the volatile and fragmented nature of forced migrant mobilizations, the research draws from recent innovations in contentious politics, highlighting \u2018micro-interactions\u2019 in specific arenas, as well the concrete spatial underpinnings of such practices. The key guiding interest evolves around the question of how protest by forced migrants emerges and unfolds through interactions among diverse players in specific arenas. I analyse the making and unmaking of social ties by forced migrants, as well as the spaces they enact and embody in processes of mobilization. With a view to integrate knowledge obtained in other disciplines, the research is furthemore informed by critical migration studies, particularly the notions of \u2018acts of citizenship\u2019 under precarious conditions in exclusive migration regimes. Designed in the tradition of \u2018political ethnography\u2019, the project both homes in on specific interactions in deleneated arenas and adds a comparative element by contrasting various arenas. The project investigates four protest arenas in two European capitals, Berlin and Paris. It therefore scrutinizes and contrasts processes of mobilization in two distinct legal, relational and spatial contexts. In adding a diachronic comparison in each location, the research aims at the tentative identification of relational and spatial patterns in forced migrant mobilizations. The research shows how marginalized actors temporarily overcome structural obstacles through interactions with more powerful actors and by appropriating spaces with avantageous relational qualities. Moreover, the research documents the fragility of ties that are made and unmade both among forced migrants and with pro-beneficiaries in concrete contentious interactions

Migrant Protest

Migrant protest has proliferated worldwide in the last two decades, explicitly posing questions of identity, rights, and equality in a globalized world. Nonetheless, such mobilizations are considered anomalies in social movement studies, and political sociology more broadly, due to 'weak interests' and a particularly disadvantageous position of 'outsiders' to claim rights connected to citizenship. In an attempt to address this seeming paradox, this book explores the interactions and spaces shaping the emergence, trajectory, and fragmentation of migrant protest in unfavourable contexts of marginalization. Such a perspective unveils both the odds of precarious mobilizations, and the ways they can be temporarily overcome. While adopting the encompassing terminology of 'migrant', the book focusses on precarious migrants, including both asylum seekers and 'illegalized' migrants

The myth of apolitical volunteering for refugees: German welcome culture and a new dispositif of helping

During the so-called “refugee crisis”, the notion of an unparalleled German hospitality toward asylum seekers circulated within the (inter)national public sphere, often encapsulated by the blurry buzzword “Welcome Culture”. In this article, we scrutinize these developments and suggest that the image of the so-called “crisis” has activated an unprecedented number of German citizens to engage in practices of “apolitical” helping. We argue that this trend has contributed to the emergence of what we term a new dispositif of helping, which embeds refugee solidarity in humanitarian parameters and often avoids an explicit political, spatial, and historical contextualization. This shift has activated individuals from the socio-political centre of society, well beyond the previously committed radical-left, antiracist, and faith-based groups. However, we aim to unmask forms of “apolitical” volunteering for refugees as a powerful myth: the new dispositif of helping comes with ambivalent and contradictory effects that range from forms of antipolitics to transformative political possibilities within the European border regime.During the so-called "refugee crisis", the notion of an unparalleled German hospitality toward asylum seekers circulated within the (inter) national public sphere, often encapsulated by the blurry buzzword "Welcome Culture". In this article, we scrutinize these developments and suggest that the image of the so-called "crisis" has activated an unprecedented number of German citizens to engage in practices of "apolitical" helping. We argue that this trend has contributed to the emergence of what we term a new dispositif of helping, which embeds refugee solidarity in humanitarian parameters and often avoids an explicit political, spatial, and historical contextualization. This shift has activated individuals from the socio-political centre of society, well beyond the previously committed radical-left, antiracist, and faith-based groups. However, we aim to unmask forms of "apolitical" volunteering for refugees as a powerful myth: the new dispositif of helping comes with ambivalent and contradictory effects that range from forms of antipolitics to transformative political possibilities within the European border regime

Introduction : solidarities in motion : hybridity and change in migrant support practices

The so-called ‘Eurozone’ and ‘migration’ crises mark critical moments in Europe’s recent political history and share similarities to the extent that they both have increased political conflict, mobilised large parts of civil society, and put renewed attention upon the notion of ‘solidarity’. Focusing on the specific case of solidarity with migrants, this articles argues that times of crises have increasingly blurred the lines between contentious and non-contentious forms of civil society engagement. Scrutinising these dynamics of hybridisation, we bridge diverse, yet largely disconnected literatures, including social movement, civil society and humanitarian studies. In particular, we suggest that the disciplinary and analytical distinction between volunteering and non-profit activities on the one hand and social movements and political activism on the other is too rigid and does obscure parts of a complex phenomenon, which is characterised by activities that often intersect between humanitarian practices and contentious politics

Against the Odds: On the Arduous Production of Linking Social Capital in Local Refugee Reception

This article scrutinizes linking social capital formation between informal civil society and local administrations during and after the 2015 European refugee reception crisis. Drawing from 61 semi-structured interviews with members of civil society organizations and local administrations in two German cities, this study documents that the production of linking social capital is by no means guaranteed. Structural power asymmetries and different logics of action between volunteers and local administrative officials regularly create tensions that can serve as relational breaking points. Accepting these inherent tensions and creating platforms to work things out against the odds are essential to produce trustful and responsive relationships

Structure of the membrane-bound formate hydrogenlyase complex from Escherichia coli

The prototypical hydrogen-producing enzyme, the membrane-bound formate hydrogenlyase (FHL) complex from Escherichia coli, links formate oxidation at a molybdopterin-containing formate dehydrogenase to proton reduction at a [NiFe] hydrogenase. It is of intense interest due to its ability to efficiently produce H2 during fermentation, its reversibility, allowing H2-dependent CO2 reduction, and its evolutionary link to respiratory complex I. FHL has been studied for over a century, but its atomic structure remains unknown. Here we report cryo-EM structures of FHL in its aerobically and anaerobically isolated forms at resolutions reaching 2.6 Å. This includes well-resolved density for conserved loops linking the soluble and membrane arms believed to be essential in coupling enzymatic turnover to ion translocation across the membrane in the complex I superfamily. We evaluate possible structural determinants of the bias toward hydrogen production over its oxidation and describe an unpredicted metal-binding site near the interface of FdhF and HycF subunits that may play a role in redox-dependent regulation of FdhF interaction with the complex