Germany Archives

Sustainability asymmetries in buyer–supplier relationships

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A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. This is easy to say, but the reality is more complex. New research into sustainability and Strategic Supply Chain Management (SSCM) shows that buyer–supplier relationships are far from straightforward, and differences between buyers’ and suppliers’ approaches to sustainability can both positively and negatively affect buyers’ financial and market performance. Led […]

Climate justice: International Open Access Week 2022

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Celebrating #OAWeek2022 with our favourite articles on this year's theme of 'Open for Climate Justice '

#OAWeek…is now open! Open access to knowledge is essential for tackling the climate emergency. ‘Openness can create pathways to more equitable knowledge sharing and serve as a means to address the inequities that shape the impacts of climate change and our response to them’, says SPARC, the organisers of International Open Access Week 2022. Opening on the 24th of October […]

Waste into starting materials: Solvent-based recycling for the polymer industry

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Internal view of a processing plant in Germany where solvent-based recycling of plastic polymers promises to reduce the plastic waste streams and recycle contaminated plastics back into usable plastic granules.

Polymer manufacturing is an essential business, but it poses a number of challenges from an environmental perspective. Many chemical processes are energy intensive as they require high temperatures or pressure to occur. Finding ways of reusing and recycling waste into valuable components is therefore incredibly important. At APK AG in Germany, the team around Dominik Triebert and Hagen Hanel has […]

Durability of wood – integration of experimental and numerical approach

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A cross section of cut pieces of wood. Serene Gambarelli and Josipa Bosnjak research the tensile strength of soft- and hardwood and use a numerical model to capture the complex behaviour of wood, aiming to further our understanding of materials to be used in construction.

If a building is to have a lifetime of fifty years or more, it is important to be able to predict how the construction materials will fare in that timespan. This is particularly challenging for natural materials like wood due to natural differences in the structure. Serena Gambarelli and Josipa Bošnjak at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, employ a hygro-mechanical […]

Discovering the optimal schedule for adiabatic quantum computation

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Dr Stefan Isermann investigates the adiabatic theorem and ascertains the conditions for an optimal schedule, thus reducing the computation time for quantum computers.

Quantum computers outperform classic machines when it comes to solving complex calculations. Commercial quantum computers are now available, and these perform quantum computation via a process called ‘adiabatic evolution’. The quantum adiabatic theorem states that if a quantum mechanical system is subjected to external conditions that are gradually changing, it can adapt its configuration. Dr Stefan Isermann from T-Systems International […]

‘How well the child has fared in the infant home’

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The notion that babies and toddlers need sensitive care is accepted as common sense today, being espoused in not only parenting guidebooks, but also in the works of US bestselling author Harvey Karp, Dutch therapist Jesper Juul and Swiss paediatrician Remo Largo. Even authors who warn against ‘spoiling’ children do not extend their demands for discipline to the first months […]

Controlling heart rhythm reduces adverse outcomes in atrial fibrillation

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Around 2% of the European population suffer from atrial fibrillation, a heart condition characterised by a change in heart rhythm that increases the risk of serious health complications. Currently, therapies to directly address the arrhythmia are not used for all patients. The Atrial Fibrillation Network Association (AFNET) was the responsible organisation for the EAST-AFNET 4 trial, which set out to […]

A new concept for the treatment of brain cancer

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Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is a serious form of brain cancer with highly limited treatment options. Through extensive clinical trials, dendritic cell vaccines have been shown to prolong life in patients. However, a successful randomised controlled clinical trial (RCT) has not been carried out. Professor Stefaan Van Gool, Medical Director of the Immuno-Oncological Center (IOZK) in Cologne, aims to understand why. […]

Increasing the efficacy of monoclonal antibodies

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Dr Martina Zimmerman has used ThioFuc as part of the cell culture media in order to improve the potency of rituximab, which may in turn lead to a reduction in the number of antibody treatments required

The advent of monoclonal antibody (mAb) technology has allowed the production of antibodies that can target specific antigens on malignant tumour cells or other inflammatory molecules that are known to exacerbate diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis or Crohn’s disease. Dr Martina Zimmermann, Dr Aline Zimmer, and their team from Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, added 5-Thio-L-Fucose (ThioFuc) to the cell culture […]

Polarized fuel: A new option for sustained nuclear fusion

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The researchers are using a device named a ‘tokamak’ in hopes to trigger sustained fusion.

The journey towards sustained nuclear fusion may seem never-ending, but some physicists believe a promising step forward could come in the form of ‘polarized fuel’. In his research, Dr Ralf Engels at the Research Centre Jülich / GSI Darmstadt, Germany, together with colleagues at the Polarization Research for Fusion Experiments and Reactors (PREFER) collaboration, has identified three key challenges faced […]