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Human civilization has a great history of managing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) services. But such services in rural areas have been neglected throughout our history. Numerous multimillion dollars WaSH interventions have been implemented in rural areas to eradicate open defecation, but most of them failed to create a demand for sanitation. Lack of equity and fair participation in approaches to change behavior and mindset, rather than habits, has made it hard for governments to achieve their WaSH related targets. Participatory rural sanitation approaches that focus on behavior change and ownership building among the community members have helped in the transition to open defecation free (ODF) societies. A justice-focused sanitation approach shows potential in fast-tracking this transition. Just transition is a concept that has not been endured in the sanitation discussion yet but shows the potential of sustainable WaSH solutions. This social empirical research has explored the feasibility of a justice-based sanitation approach guiding a transition towards societies with universal access to sanitation services. A just sanitation transition framework was adapted from the considered theoretical foundations and was used to map the capability and justice dimensions of two rural sanitation approaches being implemented in schools in the Mukuyu community in Trans-Nzoia county, Kenya. The adapted framework has been able to compute both sanitation approaches on a scoring tool, quantitatively assessing the productivity and justice dimensions of both approaches. This research has helped in establishing the viability of a just sanitation transition framework to produce an informed understanding of the potential of rural sanitation approaches to produce desired results while being just. Study findings help in filling research gaps and laying the foundation to the just transition debate in the sanitation sector and opens a window to further researches on the same, in the future.
Educational institutions have increasing needs for professional digital communication. When selecting suitable communication tools, there is a need for appropriate information as a basis for decision-making. Messenger communication in particular is strongly integrated into people's private everyday lives. While needs for extensive data-secure communication in educational contexts are increasing, there is a lack of concepts for data-protected and privacy-preserving support of educational processes through software (Karaboga et al 2014; Digitalcourage e.V. n.d.) , as well as for mandatory training for professionals (Zorn, Tillmann, and Kaminski 2014; Imort and Niesyto 2014), and reliable information for viable software alternatives. This paper outlines the specific requirements of educational institutions when selecting suitable software, using messenger communication as an example. From these requirements, criteria for needed information are presented as a basis for software selection decisions in three categories: data protection/privacy, accessibility/low-barrier, practicability. Since no criteria and good practice suggestions were available so far, a study was conducted to elicit the characteristics of potentially suitable messenger software. To this end, the necessary criteria for the three categories mentioned were first defined and then German and well-known international messengers were tested for data protection criteria. Based on the results for conformity with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an inclusion criterion, the messengers in question were subjected to a practical test. In the process, additional practicality criteria were developed, in part iteratively.
In addition to institution-internal messengers, six services were identified among the freely available provider-dependent messengers that can be used in a GDPR-compliant manner, at least for users over the age of 16. At the time of publication, this leaves only five: Threema, Wire, SID, Ginlo, Chiffry. Furthermore, provider-independent messenger systems that adhere to the international standard protocol for the exchange of chat messages (XMPP) appear to be a viable option for educational institutions. In-house or commissioned server hosting would then be possible and a corresponding agreement for commissioned data processing can be concluded with an IT service provider.
The decisions to use "Wire" and "Threema Work" in the IDiT project context are explained and justified. The context was vocational training for prospective office management clerks at vocational schools and vocational training centers. Although the underlying considerations are tailored to the project context (application in the Berufsförderungswerk Köln), they can be generalized.
A test tool for Langton's ant-based algorithms is created. Among other things, it can create test files for the NIST-Statistical-Test-Suite. The test tool is used to investigate the invertibility, ring formation and randomness of 7 created models which are extensions of Langton’s ant. The models are examined to possibly use them as pseudo-random generator (PRG) or block cipher. All models use memories which are based on tori. This property is central, because this is how rings are formed in the first place and in addition the behavior of all models at the physical boundaries of the memory is clearly defined in this way. The different models have special properties which are also investigated. These include variable color sets, discrete convolution, multidimensionality, and the use of multiple ants, which are arranged fractal hierarchically and influence each other. The extensions convolution, multidimensional scalable and multidimensional scalable fractal ant colony are presented here for the first time. It is shown that well-chosen color sets and high-dimensional tori are particularly well suited as a basis for Langton's ant based PRGs. In addition, it is shown that a block cipher can be generated on this basis.
The increasing public awareness of business related impacts on environmental and social well-being, be it positive or negative, are nowadays key drivers of corporate success. Internal and external business environments exert pressure and force transparency as well as responsible action in terms of resolving environmental and social impacts. In line with this, Porter and Kramer regard business behaviour that addresses societal needs and challenges, as the “new way to achieve economic success”.
However, whereas some companies “remain trapped in an out-dated approach to value creation” and restrict their CSR commitment to the compliance with governmental regulation, others proactively address stakeholder needs. By addressing these needs, companies can benefit from grasping the opportunity of enhanced cost efficiency and lowered risk or gaining competitive advantages through establishing unique value propositions, in a way that meets stakeholder demands. Apart from that, CSR performance can be seen as powerful tool to successfully influence stakeholder perceptions in terms of reputation, and thus an exceptional source of value creation. In addition to this, organisations can profit from win-win-win situations related to syncretic value creation by means of partnering with stakeholders. This, however, implies expanding the focus of cost- and risk-reduction towards increasing competitiveness through creating mutual benefits for environment, society and the economy alike.
Although a growing number of companies have recognised the advantages coming along with Corporate Social Responsibility engagement, the accompanying efforts have not been sufficiently mature yet. Due to the fact that many organizations apply a rather narrow and out-dated approach to value creation, they fail to achieve a balance between environmental, social and economic objectives. This, in turn, implies a restriction in their ability to exploit the full value creation potential that is related to CSR engagement. But even organisations applying a broader perspective of value creation, struggle to internalise the opportunities. This is mainly due the challenge of balancing and integrating economic and non-economic criteria. At the same time, organizations are facing the challenge of getting support from senior management and staff. Thus, in order to profit from adopting a ‘broad perspective’, firms must build a deep understanding of the benefits resulting from mutual value creation. However, the main challenge remains the systematic and strategy related integration of Corporate Social Responsibility strategies into core business processes. In respect to this, organizations have to take into account that “social and environment performance are almost certainly unique to each organization”. Thus, value creation in terms of CSR has to be understood as a highly complex set of cause-an-effect relationships among mediating variables and situational contingencies, which is too specific to rely on poorly structured and generic approaches.
In brief, organisations seem to struggle establishing an understanding that does not consider environmental, social and economic benefits as mutually exclusive. Notwithstanding, that such an understanding is established the complexity of factors influencing Corporate Social Responsibility impedes to balance between economic and non-economic criteria. Furthermore, organisations have difficulties to strategically integrate, manage and measure environmental and social performance drivers as well as outcome measures.
STEPsCON 2018 was jointly organized by the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences of TH Köln (Germany) and the University of Oulu (Finland) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Leverkusen – Oulu town twinning. The conference focused on sustainability issues and covered the current state of research in four key topics:
1. Sustainable Medicine and Pharmaceuticals
2. Resources and Bioremediation
3. Sustainable Chemistry & Industrial Biotechnology
4. Innovative Materials & Formulations
For use in a landfill, a laboratory reactor for safe and environmentally friendly biological utilization of low-concentration methane gas will be further developed. The current principle of denitrification-coupled aerobic methane oxidation will be replaced by methane oxidation under anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic methane oxidation offers the advantage that, in addition to methane, nitrate also undergoes biodegradation. Another advantage is that the oxygen content can be significantly lower. This reduces the risk of the formation of an explosive atmosphere in the reactor. Currently, the principle of anaerobic methane oxidation is known. However, organisms capable of doing so are not yet available as a pure culture. Therefore, several biomasses were probed for the ability of anaerobic methane oxidation. It was found that moor-heavy sediment, activated sludge from the leachate treatment plant and biomass from the local biogas plant oxidize methane after the natural carbon source (C source) was been removed.
The synthesis of 17-hydroxy-oleic acid based oligomeric esters was investigated with immobilized Pseudozyma antarctica Lipase B and hexanediol as co-substrate. The effects of different reaction parameters on velocity and product composition at equilibrium conditions were analyzed. The synthesis of oleic acid esters was used as a reference system for initial evaluation of reaction parameters. The reaction with oleic acid and hexanediol was fastest at an enzyme concentration of 5% at 60 °C and high conversions of > 90 % were achieved in non-polar solvents in the presence of molecular sieves. In heptane an oleic acid conversion of 96 % was reached with a final diester to monoester ratio of > 4:1. In syntheses trials with 17-hydroxy-oleic acid the formation of oligomers was verified with GPC, however; conversion was generally lower than with oleic acid. Removal of hydroxyl fatty acid monomers and dimers and the formation ester functionalities could be verified by GC analysis. An increase of the degree of oligomerization was observed simultaneously by GPC analysis. The number-average molecular weight was around 1400 in the best trials corresponding to a degree of oligomerization of around 4 units of hydroxyl-fatty acid attached to a hexanediol core. Though transformations were not complete, the final oligomer size was in the lower range of polyester diols used for polyurethane manufacturing.
Due to the worldwide shortage of petrochemical based resources, the usage of renewable bio-based raw materials for established and novel products becomes increasingly important.[1] Such bio-based resources are already used for the fabrication of a variety of products, e. g. paper, lubricants, detergents or cosmetics. In the future they are expected to emerge in many more applications in industry and household.[1]
A very promising approach relies on the use of glycolipids as a source of hydroxy-oleic acid.[2] Microbial glycolipids are produced for instance via fermentation from natural resources such as plant oils and sugar.[3] After fermentation complex product mixtures are obtained with the composition depending on the microorganism, substrate and fermentation time.[3] The successful use of microbial glycolipids and hydroxy-oleic acid (HOA) derived therefrom as bio-based intermediates requires reliable analytical methods as well as robust manufacturing processes for the synthesis and cleavage of bio-based molecules. In order to obtain hydroxy-oleic acids as bio-based intermediates, the acidic cleavage of microbial derived sophorolipid was investigated. In addition the implementation of HOA in polyurethane (PU) systems was explored.
The introduction of Feed-in tariffs in the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) fuelled the growth of anaerobic digestion (AD) industry making Germany the country with highest number of operational AD plants. However, the rapid expansion of AD industry resulted in some unwanted side-effects such as food vs fuel debate, increased prices for electricity and the temporal mismatch between supply and demand of electricity grid. Subsequent amendments in EEG has tried to address some of these issues by reduction in Feed-in tariffs, introduction of a cap on cereal based feedstocks and providing premium for energy production in accordance with market demand. Furthermore, the Feed-in tariffs which were introduced for 20 years are soon going to expire. The changes in legal and political discourse is soon going to introduce some new challanges to the AD industry. This paper has discussed some of these challanges and their potential solutions.
The electricity network is undergoing a change due to reducing costs for renewable energy sources. Subsidy programs for renewable energy sources are changing and the funding available is being reduced. This will have an impact on anaerobic digestion which in some cases may struggle financially. Overfeeding is one of the most common mechanisms of inhibition in the process, and by shifting to intermittent feeding for on-demand production, this change will provide more information about the digestion process and could be used to detect the beginning of inhibition due to overfeeding. This paper discusses the shift towards intermittent production and how this change can be used to monitor the anaerobic digestion process.