Geothermie Neubrandenburg (Germany)

Fatigue is a prevalent and debilitating symptom in patients with liver cirrhosis (LC), characterized by persistent exhaustion that impairs both physical and mental function. Despite its significant impact fatigue is often overlooked in clinical practice due to its complex and subjective nature. Emerging evidence suggests central mechanisms underlying fatigue in LC, with potential links to malnutrition and sarcopenia. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of fatigue in LC patients, investigate its associations with malnutrition and sarcopenia, and identify independent indicators to aid in recognizing high-risk individuals. Additionally, the study explored the trajectory of fatigue in a structured nutritional intervention in malnourished LC patients. In a multicentric cross-sectional study, 91 LC patients and 92 matched healthy controls were recruited. Analysis focused on 56 LC patients, assessing both central and peripheral fatigue with the Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS), along with anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, HADS), and loneliness (De Jong Gierveld Scale). Body composition, malnutrition, and sarcopenia were evaluated using bioelectrical impedance, Global Leadership Initiative on Malnutrition (GLIM) and European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People (EWGSOP) II criteria. Laboratory parameters and waist circumference as indicator for ascites were assessed. Functional status was measured via handgrip strength (Jamar Dynamometer) and gait speed, and physical activity levels were assessed using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire short form (IPAQ SF). Dietary intake was evaluated with a validated Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ). The course of fatigue was investigated in a single-arm exploratory, intensified three-month nutritional intervention study with a 6-month follow-up in malnourished LC patients. Fatigue, affecting 68 % of LC patients, was more common than in controls and linked to both central and peripheral symptoms. LC patients also experienced higher rates of anxiety, depression, and mild loneliness. While 59 % had malnutrition and 23 % sarcopenia, neither were related to fatigue, nor anemia markers like hemoglobin or hematocrit. Fatigue was linked to increased use of proton pump inhibitors and antibiotics. Fatigue severity was correlated with increased anxiety, depression, loneliness, increased waist circumference, and lower gait speed and physical activity. Regression analysis showed increased waist circumference and reduced gait speed as independent predictors of fatigue. Nutritional intervention in malnourished LC patients led to improvements in fatigue, anxiety, and depression. Ascites and gait speed are practical clinical indicators of fatigue in LC patients. Nutritional therapy shows promise in alleviating fatigue and malnutrition in LC patients, offering a potential therapeutic approach. DRKS00021124, DRKS00021181.

Landscape management, agricultural sciences and geoinformatics are inseparable nowadays, and this should also be reflected in teaching.  For example, green areas provide an important biodiversity, are positively associated with mental well-being and play a critical role in mitigating the impacts of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide, reducing heat islands in urban areas, and providing shade and cooling. However, climate change is also affecting green areas.On the other hand, geoinformatics offers powerful tools for assessing, monitoring and sustainable planning for all types of landscapes such as urban, rural and natural areas, and deserts. It relates to all data with a spatial reference with the focus on data acquisition, management, analysis, visualization and dissemination. Geographic information systems and remote sensing (aerial photography, satellite and radar images) play a major role for the use of geoinformatics in the geosciences, such as geography, geology, agricultural sciences, and ecology.Prior to this, the Tunisian GEOMAG project was able to identify a lack of education in geomatics in the center of Tunisia, the Sahel region, which includes the governorates of Sousse, Mahdia, Monastir and Kairouan. This project included in particular an evaluation phase consisting of a self-assessment of 11 Tunisian universities (i.e. 51 “institutional” components) and a national survey of 66 public or private companies active in the geomatics sector.To address this proven problem, an intensive exchange has been taking place between the Institut supèrieur agronomique de Chott Mariem (ISA CM ) in Tunisia and the Neubrandenburg University of Applied Sciences (HSNB). So far, the Tunisian students have attended the HSNB's Master's program “Geomatics” with a focus on spatial data analysis, landscape and risk management and remote sensing. The curricula are strongly oriented towards the use of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), open data and open standards. Thanks to the high degree of interdisciplinarity, graduates are offered excellent and exciting career opportunities.The exchange is guaranteed by a contract between the two universities and is supported by the Erasmus program of the European Union. Various theses have been successfully completed to date. The main objectives of these efforts are:Promoting an interdisciplinary education that brings together the perspectives and skills of different disciplines; Integrating geospatial information technologies into land use planning; Fostering innovation and research and encouraging students to explore new approaches; Promote international cooperation between universities and organizations, including opportunities for students to study and work with colleagues from different countries. These objectives reflect the European Commission's priorities for interdisciplinary training, the integration of geoinformation technologies, innovation and research, and international cooperation in the field of territorial planning, agricultural sciences and in the European Green Deal strategy. In the future, these activities are to be expanded and a double Master's degree is to be targeted.The existing and planned activities in the field of higher education can be seen as a pilot project that can be extended to countries such as Morocco, with which there is also very close cooperation, or even beyond.

ToPoTown analyzes the feasibility of using precarious housing conditions for sustainable tourism in the “Katatura” township in Windhoek, Namibia. The focus is on economic feasibility, environmental relevance and acceptability among the population. Tourism should lead to an improvement in living conditions, which in turn has a positive impact on environmental conditions. With GIS-supported inventories, surveys of new data and their spatial analyses, the feasibility and environmental situation is being researched and at the same time a database is being created that can be used as a starting point for a web-based portal solution for structured resource management.With just under 500,000 inhabitants, Windhoek is home to almost 20% of Namibia's total population. The city is experiencing rapid growth due to people whose hopes for work and a better life are based on its proximity to the capital. As a result, the urban area continues to expand. Overall, the living conditions of around 60% of Windhoek's inhabitants can be described as extremely precarious. Katatura is Windhoek's best-known and oldest suburb. It was created in the 1950s during apartheid in order to forced relocate the colored population from the city center according to ethnic groups. The City of Windhoek's pilot program to encourage the owners of historic houses in Katutura, which were built between 1959 and 1960, to exchange them for new, modern houses represents a unique opportunity to preserve Windhoek's cultural heritage and at the same time boost the local economy through tourism. Based on these buildings - which are very important for the people's consciousness - tourism could develop, which would help to improve the precarious situation of the inhabitants. This would also have very strong environmental aspects, as the disastrous pollution and land degradation resulting from this living situation could be significantly mitigated.The aim of ToPoTown is to assess the feasibility of sustainable tourism, research the environmental conditions and thus create a database on the country's socio-cultural and natural resources. The content focus relates to the following points:Inventory (socio-cultural and natural parameters) Perspective of the residents Environmental aspects (e.g. land use, pollution, degradation) Designation of potential tourist centres In terms of methodology, the focus is on analyzing remote sensing data in order to obtain information about relevant natural (e.g. climate, soils, terrain morphology, water) and technical parameters (e.g. water supply, health, infrastructure, electricity). On the other hand, socio-cultural parameters are collected through extensive qualitative and quantitative surveys. The results lead to the realization of a GIS with emotional aspects (“emotional GIS”). Finally, based on these principles, a site location analysis is developed as a generic model for a multi-criteria analysis to identify potential tourist centers.ToPoTown provides an excellent starting point for conducting similar studies in other regions of Namibia and southern Africa, focusing on the following specific aspects of the regions:Cultural-historical parameters, Natural resources and environmental conditions, Colonial historical parameters.

The Klaipeda Geothermal Demonstration Plant (KGDP), Lithuania, exploits a hypersaline sodium-chloride (salinity c. 90 g/L) groundwater from a 1100 m deep Devonian sandstone/siltstone reservoir. The hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope composition is relatively undepleted (δ18O=c. -4.5‰), while the δ34S is relatively “heavy” at +18.9‰. Hydrochemical and isotopic data support the existing hypothesis that the groundwater is dominated by a hypersaline brine derived from evapoconcentrated seawater, modified by water-rock interaction and admixed with smaller quantities of more recent glacial meltwater and/or interglacial recharge. The injectivity of the two injection boreholes has declined dramatically during the operational lifetime of the KGDP. Initially, precipitation of crystalline gypsum led to a program of rehabilitation and the introduction of sodium polyphosphonate dosing of the abstracted brine, which has prevented visible gypsum precipitation but has failed to halt the injectivity decline. While physical or bacteriological causes of clogging are plausible, evidence suggests that chemical causes cannot be excluded. Gypsum and barite precipitation could still occur in the formation, as could clogging with iron/manganese oxyhydroxides. One can also speculate that inhibitor dosing could cause clogging of pore throats with needles of calcium polyphosphonate precipitate.

Abstract The majority of running geothermal plants worldwide are located in geological settings with convection- or advection-dominant heat transport. In Germany as in most regions in Europe, conduction is the dominating heat transport mechanism, with a resulting average geothermal gradient. The geothermal play type concept is a modern methodology to group geothermal resources according to their geological setting, and characteristic heat transport mechanisms. In particular, the quantity of heat transport is related to fluid flow in natural or engineered geothermal reservoirs. Hence, the permeability structure is a key element for geothermal play typing. Following the existing geothermal play type catalogue, four major geothermal play types can be identified for Germany: intracratonic basins, foreland basins and basement/crystalline rock provinces as conduction-dominated play types, and extensional terrains as the convection-dominated play type. The installed capacity of geothermal facilities sums up to 397.1 MWthby the end of 2018. District heating plants accounted for the largest portion, with about 337.0 MWth. The majority of these installations are located in the play type ‘foreland basin’, namely the Molasse Basin in southern Germany. The stratigraphic unit for geothermal use is the Upper Jurassic, also known as ‘Malm’ formation, a carbonate reservoir with high variability in porosity and permeability. Recently drilled wells in the southernmost Molasse Basin indicate the Upper Jurassic as a tight, fracture-controlled reservoir, not usable for conventional hydrothermal well doublets. Our new data compilation including the recently drilled deep geothermal well Geretsried reveals the relation of porosity and permeability to depth. The results suggest that obviously diagenetic processes control permeability with depth in carbonate rock, diminishing the predictability of reservoir porosity and permeability. The play type concept helps to delineate these property variations in play type levels because it is based on geological constraints, common for exploration geology. Following the general idea of play typing, the results from this play analysis can be transferred to geological analogues as carbonate rock play levels in varying depth.

In the Early Jurassic, the epicontinental Central European Basin (CEB), including the North German Basin (NGB), was covered with a semi-enclosed inland sea that was in the late Middle Jurassic transferred to a continental shelf sea connected with the Boreal and the Tethyan oceans. The pronounced facies architectures of Lower to Middle Jurassic coastal-deltaic and basinal deposits challenged many workers to apply sequence stratigraphic methods. However, resulting regional schemes are in places contradicting, which is caused by both common problems with precise dating and processes of regional to local scale obliterating the sea-level signal, such as tectonically enhanced subsidence, enhanced sediment supply, thermal doming, or salt diapirism.This paper proposes a Lower to Middle Jurassic sequence stratigraphic framework of the NGB. The application of a multi-method approach, including intensive macro- and micropalaeontological dating as well as mapping of biofacies and lithofacies architecture to an extensive data set of cored and logged wells resulted in a hierarchical framework of 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-order epicontinental sequences. This approach enabled the identification and exclusion of areas and locations where subordinated controls, such as salt diapirism, superimposed the signature of sea-level fluctuations within stratal pattern architectures. The proposed sequence stratigraphic framework correlates well with the Boreal Standard but to much lesser extent with the Tethyan Standard and, thus, demonstrates the principle control of Boreal cycles on epicontinental stratal pattern architectures of the NGB. This coincides with more significant faunal exchanges between the Boreal and Subboreal provinces. In particular, the opening of a marine strait via the Russian Platform in the late Middle Jurassic enabled the immigration of Boreal ammonites and ostracods into the NGB and the northern CEB and illustrates the change from a semi-enclosed inland sea to a continental shelf sea. Furthermore, the recognition of Lower and Middle Jurassic 4th-order sequences supports suggestions of glacio-eustatic sea-level changes in the Jurassic.

Abstract Enhanced process understanding of engineered geothermal systems is a prerequisite to optimize plant reliability and economy. We investigated microbial, geochemical and mineralogical aspects of a geothermal groundwater system located in the Molasse Basin by fluid analysis. Fluids are characterized by temperatures ranging from 61°C to 103°C, salinities from 600 to 900 mg/l and a dissolved organic carbon content (DOC) between 6.4 to 19.3 mg C/l. The microbial population of fluid samples was analyzed by genetic fingerprinting techniques based on PCR-amplified 16S rRNA- and dissimilatory sulfite reductase genes. Despite of the high temperatures, microbes were detected in all investigated fluids. Fingerprinting and DNA sequencing enabled a correlation to metabolic classes and biogeochemical processes. The analysis revealed a broad diversity of sulfate-reducing bacteria. Overall, the detection of microbes known to be involved in biocorrosion and mineral precipitation indicates that microorganisms could play an important role for the understanding of processes in engineered geothermal systems.

Wie geochemisch-thermodynamische Modellierungen gezeigt haben, konnen wahrend des Betriebs einer geothermischen Heizanlage durch Druck- und Temperaturveranderungen Baryt, Anhydrit/Gips oder Colestin ausfallen. Das Fallungsverhalten der Erdalkalisulfate wurde unter In-situ-Bedingungen (Druck, Temperatur, Salinitat 216 g/l) in einem Durchstromungsversuch bestimmt. Es wird eine Durchstromungsanlage vorgestellt, die Drucke bis zu 250 bar und hohe Temperaturen bei der Durchstromung eines Sandsteinkerns zulast. Erganzende Fallungsexperimente bestatigen eine zu erwartende Reaktion zweiter Ordnung bei der Kristallisation von Baryt mit einer mittleren Geschwindigkeitskonstanten von 2,5 · 10 −4 l · mg −1 · h −1 . Die real losliche Menge Baryt (2,5 mg/l Ba und 450 mg/ISO 4 ) ist hoher als das thermodynamische Gleichgewicht vorhersagt. Colestin und Anhydrit oder Gipsausfallungen konnten nicht nachgewiesen werden. Bei der Durchstromung des Sandsteinkerns unter In-situ-Bedingungen findet keine Ausfallung von Baryt, Anhydrit/Gips oder Colestin statt. Obwohl Kristallisationskeime im Sandstein vorhanden sind, erfolgt keine Fallung aus den metastabilen Losungen.