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Europe is, after Asia, the second largest producer of wheat in the world, and provides the largest share of barley. Wheat (and to a similar extent, barley) production in Europe increased by more than 6-fold during the 20th century. During the first half of the 20th century, this was driven by expanding the harvested area. This was followed, from the mid-20th century, by a massive increase in productivity that in many regions has stalled since 2000. However, it remains unclear what role climatic factors have played in these changes. Understanding the net impact of climatic trends over the past century would also aid in our understanding of the potential impact of future climate changes and in assessments of the potential for adaptation across Europe. In this study, we compiled information from several sources on winter wheat and spring barley yields and climatological data from 12 countries/regions covering the period from 1901-2012. The studied area includes the majority of climatic regions in which wheat and barley are grown (from central Italy to Finland). We hypothesized that changes in climatic conditions have led to measurable shifts in climate-yield relationships over the past 112 yr, and that presently grown wheat and barley show a more pronounced response to adverse weather conditions compared to crops from the early 20th century. The results confirm that climate-yield relationships have changed significantly over the period studied, and that in some regions, different predictors have had a greater effect on yields in recent times (between 1991 and 2012) than in previous decades. It is likely that changes in the climate-yield relationship at the local level might be more pronounced than those across the relatively large regions used in this study, as the latter represents aggregations of yields from various agroclimatic and pedoclimatic conditions that may show opposing trends.

AbstractWe develop a novel approach to analysing decarbonisation strategies by linking global resource inventories with demographic systems. Our ‘mine-town systems’ approach establishes an empirical basis for examining the spatial extent of the transition and demographic effects of changing energy systems. The research highlights an urgent need for targeted macro-level planning as global markets see a decline in thermal coal and a ramp up of other mining commodities. Our findings suggest that ramping up energy transition metals (ETM) could be more disruptive to demographic systems than ramping down coal. The data shows asymmetry in the distribution of risks: mine-town systems within the United States are most sensitive to coal phase-out, while systems in Australia and Canada are most sensitive to ETM phase-in. A complete phase-out of coal could disrupt demographic systems with a minimum of 33.5 million people, and another 115.7 million people if all available ETM projects enter production.

The response of vegetation to climate change is of special interest in regions where rapid warming is coupled with moisture deficit. This raises the question of the limits in plants’ acclimation ability and the consequent shifts of the vegetation cover. Radial growth dynamics and climatic response were studied in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Siberian larch (Larix sibirica Ledeb.), and silver birch (Betula pendula Roth.) in the forest-steppe, and for Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila L.) in the steppe of South Siberia, as indicators of vegetation state and dynamics. Climate–growth relationships were analyzed by the following two approaches: (1) correlations between tree-ring width chronologies and short-term moving climatic series, and (2) optimization of the parameters of the Vaganov–Shashkin tree growth simulation model to assess the ecophysiological characteristics of species. Regional warming was accompanied by a slower increase of the average moisture deficit, but not in the severity of droughts. In the forest-steppe, the trees demonstrated stable growth and responded to the May–July climate. In the steppe, elm was limited by moisture deficit in May–beginning of June, during the peak water deficit. The forest-steppe stands were apparently acclimated successfully to the current climatic trends. It seems that elm was able to counter the water deficit, likely through its capacity to regulate transpiration by the stomatal morphology and xylem structure, using most of the stem as a water reservoir; earlier onset; and high growth rate, and these physiological traits may provide advantages to this species, leading to its expansion in steppes.

In Deutschland genießen die Energie- und Klimapolitik und mit ihr die erneuerbaren Energien große Aufmerksamkeit. Die günstigen politischen Rahmenbedingungen sowie die guten produktionstechnischen Voraussetzungen der Landwirtschaft zur Erzeugung von Bioenergie haben in den vergangenen Jahren zu einem regelrechten Biogas-Boom auf landwirtschaftlichen Betrieben geführt. Die rasche Entwicklung des Biogassektors machte neue Geschäftsund Finanzierungsmodelle notwendig. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt in diesem Zusammenhang einen Überblick über die Organisationsund Finanzierungsstrukturen landwirtschaftlich geführter Biogasanlagen. Den Kern der Studie bildet eine Befragung von 70 Landwirten, die in eine Biogasanlage investiert haben. Aus den Ergebnissen konnten Aussagen abgeleitet werden, welche Faktoren bei der Finanzierung und dem Betrieb einer Biogasanlage von entscheidender Bedeutung sind. Darüber hinaus wurden Einstellungen der befragten Landwirte zur Finanzierung und zum Betrieb einer Biogasanlage untersucht.

To address the challenges associated with wind power integration, this paper analyzes the impact of distributed renewable energy on the voltage of the distribution network. Taking into account the fast control of photovoltaic inverters and the unique characteristics of photovoltaic arrays, we establish an active distribution network voltage reactive power-optimization model for planning the active distribution network. The model involves solving the original non-convex and non-linear power-flow-optimization problem. By introducing the second-order cone relaxation algorithm, we transform the model into a second-order cone programming model, making it easier to solve and yielding good results. The optimized parameters are then applied to the IEEE 33-node distribution system, where the phase angle of the node voltage is adjusted to optimize the reactive power of the entire power system, thereby demonstrating the effectiveness of utilizing a second-order cone programming algorithm for reactive power optimization in a comprehensive manner. Subsequently, active distribution network power quality control is implemented, resulting in a reduction in network loss from 0.41 MW to 0.02 MW. This reduces power loss rates, increases utilization efficiency by approximately 94%, optimizes power quality management, and ensures that users receive high-quality electrical energy.

For 20 years, the German DINI Certificate for Open Access Publication Services has provided transparent criteria and guidelines for building and maintaining trustworthy publication services such as repositories and Diamond Open Access journals. The community-developed, non-commercial certificate paves the way for open scholarly communication and supports the prerequisites for the free availability of scholarly information as an essential element of future-oriented research-related services. Introduced in 2004 and now in its 7th revised version, the DINI Certificate has been used in approximately 120 - mostly successful - certification processes. Since the beginning the catalogue takes into account international standards (e.g. provided by COAR, OpenAIRE). With this poster, we are reaching out to the international repository community by illustrating the key features of the well-established Certificate and its catalogue of criteria. The latest version of the Certificate has been adapted to the Austrian legal system. We hope that other countries will follow, so that repositories in more countries can benefit from the DINI Certificate.

Monitoring of sows’ health is the key to preventing and controlling diseases in sows, and it guarantees optimal rearing conditions for piglets. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the health status of sows shortly after parturition, and to analyze thermographic images of the mammary gland and the sows’ performance. Clinical examination of a total of 513 db.Viktoria hybrid sows was bundled individually using a modified score system. According to this, animals were divided into three health classes: healthy, clinically suspicious, and diseased. Simultaneously, the mammary glands were investigated by infrared thermography. Total born piglets (TBP), number of piglets born alive (NBA), and the daily weight gain of the piglets were significantly lower in the diseased group (p < 0.05). Regarding the results of the thermographic images of the mammary gland, significantly higher mean value of the warmest pixels was found in the diseased group (38.3 °C ± 0.57), while the significantly lowest value was reported in the healthy group (37.2 °C ± 0.54; p < 0.05). The results of this study show that thermography of the mammary gland at birth contains information that can help to identify diseased animals whose disease has negative effects on their piglets.