In Stadt und Stadt: Berlin und Ruhrgebiet im Vergleich

The largest and most important urban centres in Germany, Berlin and the Ruhr metropolitan area, share a very similar socio-historical and linguistic past. The vernaculars spoken in these regions are both High German varieties that have developed on Low German substratum. Thus, both varieties have emerged from a language-shift situation and have preserved a number of Low German features. Moreover, both varieties have lost in prestige during the process of massive immigration during the period of industrialisation in the second half of the 19th century. In such contexts, processes of “dialect levelling” are to be expected. Then as now both the Ruhr area and Berlin are hotspots of urban multilingualism and national and international mobility. This lends both linguistic settings a special dynamics and innovative potential. In the light of these parallels it is promising to compare linguistic structures of these varieties in order to gauge whether similar conditions yield similar linguistic developments. In this paper we investigate two syntactic phenomena which are highly salient both in the Berlin dialect and in Ruhr German. Using corpus data of spoken language we compare frequencies and formal features of (i) preposition-determiner cliticisation, and (ii) split pronominal adverbs in both varieties. As an overall result it can be stated that both phenomena show up more pronouncedly and more straigtforwardly in Ruhr German than in the Berlin dialect; thus it can be surmised that the latter follows the same path as the former, but has not yet reached the “final destination”.

Impact of Psychiatric and Related Somatic Medications on the Duration and Severity of COVID-19: A Retrospective Explorative Multi-center Study from the German Metropolitan Ruhr-area

Introduction Several psychiatric and somatic medications are assumed to improve COVID-19-symptoms. These include antidepressants, antipsychotics, and anticonvulsants as well as anticoagulants, statins, and renin-angiotensin-aldosterone-system (RAAS)-inhibitors for somatic comorbid conditions. All these agents may reduce the hyperinflammatory response to SARS/CoV-2 or the related negative cardio-cerebrovascular outcomes. Methods In a retrospective longitudinal, multi-center inpatient study, we sought to explore the influence of psychiatric medications on COVID-19, comprising the period from diagnosing SARS/CoV-2-infection via PCR (nasopharyngeal swab) up to the next 21 days. Ninety-six psychiatric inpatients (mean age [SD] 65.5 (20.1), 54% females) were included. The primary outcome was the COVID-19-duration. Secondary outcomes included symptom severity and the presence of residual symptoms. Results COVID-19-related symptoms emerged in 60 (62.5%) patients, lasting 6.5 days on average. Six (6.3%) 56–95 years old patients died from or with COVID-19. COVID-19-duration and residual symptom-presence (n=22, 18%) were not significantly related to any substance. Respiratory and neuro-psychiatric symptom-load was significantly and negatively related to prescription of antidepressants and anticoagulants, respectively. Fatigue was negatively and positively related to RAAS-inhibitors and proton-pump-inhibitors, respectively. These significant relationships disappeared with p-value adjustment owed to multiple testing. The mean total psychiatric burden was not worsened across the study. Discussion None of the tested medications was significantly associated with the COVID-19-duration and -severity up to the end of post-diagnosing week 3. However, there were a few biologically plausible and promising relationships with antidepressants, anticoagulants, and RAAS-inhibitors before p-value adjustment. These should encourage larger and prospective studies to re-evaluate the influence of somatic and psychiatric routine medications on COVID-19-related health outcomes.

Environmental Justice and Green Infrastructure in the Ruhr. From Distributive to Institutional Conceptions of Justice

Over the last 50 years, the Ruhr region experienced a remarkable transformation from an industrial to a post-industrial region. With regard to the rehabilitation of the environmental damages of more than 100 years of coal mining and steel production, investment in green infrastructure, and the creation of regional landscape parks constituted one of the main pillars of the economic and physical transformation of the region. However, little is known about the social effects of this green transformation. Many observers state that the Ruhr area is sharply divided by an east–west line (the A40 Highway) and in fact the Emscher zone was hit most by environmental degradation. We argue that environmental justice is a question of scale. While on the regional scale, the investments made in the Emscher zone can be seen as a trial to balance and repair a long-standing unequal provision with environmental qualities (not least parks), on a smaller scale (i.e., cities and neighbourhoods) we can demonstrate that in the cities of the Emscher zone environmental inequality is still observable. Some neighbourhoods benefit stronger from investment in regional parks and green infrastructure than others. The paper will describe the Emscher green regeneration programme and will give detailed insights into two cities of the Ruhr (including maps and data analysis).

Family aggregation of sleep characteristics: Results of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall and the Multi-Generation Study

Introduction Poor sleep is a risk factor for adverse health events. For health prevention, it may be helpful to know whether poor sleep or sleep disorders in individuals are associated with sleep problems in their partners or children. Methods In the MultiGeneration Study (MGS, conducted from 2013 to 2016), 1237 partners (aged 27 to 90 years) and 1660 adult children (aged 18 to 66 years) of index persons were recruited. Index persons are participants of the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study, a population-based cohort study in the Ruhr area (study start 1999–2001, 4841 participants aged 45–75 years). We used two analysis populations: one with 1181 index persons whose partners were in MGS, and one with 1083 index persons with at least one adult child in MGS. Sleep characteristics were assessed using questionnaires (including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index). The exposure was the presence of a sleep characteristic of the index subject. Results Children showed the investigated sleep characteristics more often if these were also present in their parent (e.g., RR (relative risk) = 1.28 (95% CI: 1.06–1.55) for poor sleep quality). In partners, strong associations were observed for rising times and napping, but only weak associations for snoring, poor sleep quality and sleep disorders. Snoring of the bed partner is a risk factor for poor sleep (e.g., RR = 1.67 (0.91–3.07) for difficulties falling asleep). Conclusion Aggregation is observed for many sleep characteristics in people living in partnerships as well as in parents and their adult children.

Access to Government Support for Innovation — Empirical Evidence From the Ruhr Area in Germany

Governments all over the world support innovation activities in private companies with several different programs. Typical measures are R&D subsidies, consulting services, incubator facilities, opportunities for networking, and subsidized loans. From an economic perspective, public support for innovations may help to compensate for market failure. But government support encounters the risk of being neither effective nor efficient. Furthermore, the ability of a company to successfully apply for public innovation support programs depends on the amount of administrative resources it already is equipped with, i.e. its size and its existing relationships with research institutions. In this paper, we look at public support for private companies in one specific German region, the Ruhr area. We use a sample of 74 companies, all of which engage in R&D activities and have already filed patents. Our findings show that firms need a minimum company size to be able to successfully apply for public innovation support. Furthermore, we show that an existing cooperation with research institutions makes access to public support measures easier. We also find that public innovation support indeed improves the patent position of companies.

Impact of the COVID-19 Lockdown Measures on Noise Levels in Urban Areas—A Pre/during Comparison of Long-Term Sound Pressure Measurements in the Ruhr Area, Germany

Background: A major source of noise pollution is traffic. In Germany, the SARS-CoV-2 lockdown caused a substantial decrease in mobility, possibly affecting noise levels. The aim is to analyze the effects of the lockdown measures on noise levels in the densely populated Ruhr Area. We focus on the analysis of noise levels before and during lockdown considering different land use types, weekdays, and time of day. Methods: We used data from 22 automatic sound devices of the SALVE (Acoustic Quality and Health in Urban Environments) project, running since 2019 in Bochum, Germany. We performed a pre/during lockdown comparison of A-weighted equivalent continuous sound pressure levels. The study period includes five weeks before and five weeks during the SARS-CoV-2 induced administrative lockdown measures starting on 16 March 2020. We stratified our data by land use category (LUC), days of the week, and daytime. Results: We observed highest noise levels pre-lockdown in the ‘main street’ and ‘commercial areas’ (68.4 ± 6.7 dB resp. 61.0 ± 8.0 dB), while in ‘urban forests’ they were lowest (50.9 ± 6.6 dB). A distinct mean overall noise reduction of 5.1 dB took place, with noise reductions occurring in each LUC. However, the magnitude of noise levels differed considerably between the categories. Weakest noise reductions were found in the ‘main street’ (3.9 dB), and strongest in the ‘urban forest’, ‘green space’, and ‘residential area’ (5.9 dB each). Conclusions: Our results are in line with studies from European cities. Strikingly, all studies report noise reductions of about 5 dB. Aiming at a transformation to a health-promoting urban mobility can be a promising approach to mitigating health risks of noise in cities. Overall, the experiences currently generated by the pandemic offer data for best practices and policies for the development of healthy urban transportation—the effects of a lower traffic and more tranquil world were experienced firsthand by people during this time.

Greening the Brownfields of Thermal Power Plants in Rural Areas, an Example from Romania, Set in the Context of Developments in the Industrialized Country of Germany

This paper describes the greening of ash dumps from two thermal power plants located in Romania, in the villages of Mintia and Doicești, two rural areas neighboring middle-sized cities, both with architectural, archaeological and landscape heritage. Currently, the two Romanian villages have different fates in the context of shrinking cities, and solutions from the industrialized country of Germany that are more advanced in closing polluting thermal power plants are examples of this. Thus, the greening of industrial waste is one of the current challenges of the energy shift towards renewable energy. Nature-based solutions such as the proposed use of the biodegradable geo-textile in the greening is one of the current trends. The development of the biodegradable geo-textile was contemporary with the creation of the International Building Exhibition (Internationale Bauaaustellung—IBA) Emscher Park in the ancient industrial coal mining Ruhr area, in Germany; later research, around 10 years ago, explored soil pollution at these two Romanian thermal power plants. A recent research study investigated the conversion of the industrial buildings of the thermal power plant in Doicești, however, these buildings were demolished at the end of last year. Mintia thermal power plant continues to function. This paper explores the current challenges of industrial brownfields, energy shift, ecology, the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) in Paris and “Laudato si”, spanning 30 years of history and the legacy of the research over this time.

Validation of Sentinel-5P TROPOMI tropospheric NO2 with airborne imaging, ground-based stationary, and mobile DOAS measurements from the S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign

<p>Airborne imaging DOAS and ground-based stationary and mobile DOAS measurements were conducted during the ESA funded S5P-VAL-DE-Ruhr campaign in September 2020 in the Ruhr area. The Ruhr area is located in Western Germany and is a pollution hotspot in Europe with urban character as well as large industrial emitters. The measurements are used to validate data from the Sentinel-5P TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI) with focus on the NO<sub>2</sub> tropospheric vertical column product.</p><p>Seven flights were performed with the airborne imaging DOAS instrument, AirMAP, providing continuous maps of NO<sub>2</sub> in the layers below the aircraft. These flights cover many S5P ground pixels within an area of about 40 km side length and were accompanied by ground-based stationary measurements and three mobile car DOAS instruments. Stationary measurements were conducted by two Pandora, two zenith-sky and two MAX-DOAS instruments distributed over three target areas, partly as long-term measurements over a one-year period.</p><p>Airborne and ground-based measurements were compared to evaluate the representativeness of the measurements in time and space. With a resolution of about 100 x 30 m<sup>2</sup>, the AirMAP data creates a link between the ground-based and the TROPOMI measurements with a resolution of 3.5 x 5.5 km<sup>2</sup> and is therefore well suited to validate TROPOMI's tropospheric NO<sub>2</sub> vertical column.</p><p>The measurements on the seven flight days show strong variability depending on the different target areas, the weekday and meteorological conditions. We found an overall low bias of the TROPOMI operational NO<sub>2</sub> data for all three target areas but with varying magnitude for different days. The campaign data set is compared to custom TROPOMI NO<sub>2</sub> products, using different auxiliary data, such as albedo or a priori vertical profiles to evaluate the influence on the TROPOMI data product. Analyzing and comparing the different data sets provides more insight into the high spatial and temporal heterogeneity in NO<sub>2</sub> and its impact on satellite observations and their validation.</p>

UAS measurements for the investigation of emissions of air pollutants at the Duesseldorf airport and industrial sites in the Rhine-Ruhr area, Germany

<p>Instrumented UAS (unmanned aerial systems, drones) can substantially enhance the capabilities for the investigation of air pollutants, when equipped with the appropriate and customized air pollution measurement systems. Important advantages can be found in the exploration of vertical and horizontal pollutant profiles as well as in the determination of fugitive emissions. The HSD Laboratory for Environmental Measurement Techniques (UMT) has developed a series of different multicopter UAS for various measurement tasks and payloads. Additionally, different commercial UAS are used by UMT. The multicopter UAS are equipped, depending on the measurement task, with different specifically adopted lightweight measurement systems for aerosols (PM10, PM2.5, PM1, UFP, PNC, number size distributions) or gases like O<sub>3</sub>, SO<sub>2</sub>, NO<sub>X</sub>, CO<sub>2</sub> and VOCs. All measurement systems were intercompared with certified standard measurement equipment before use to assure the quality of the measurement results. Moreover, physical samples of aerosols can be taken during the flight, which enables a chemical or REM analysis after the flight.</p><p>Additionally, UMT developed an on-line data transmission system, which allows the transmission of measurement data during the flights from the UAS to the ground for continuous monitoring. In this way concentration plumes can be tracked and hotspots can be pinpointed during the flight. This online data transmission system is independent of commercial platforms, can work on different radio frequencies in a push mode (presently on 2.4 GHz) and communicates with RS232 and I<sup>2</sup>C interfaces. Within several intercomparison studies this online data transmission proved a high reliability and correctness of transmitted data.</p><p>In addition to technical details of the UAS and instrumentation we present in this contribution the results of different measurement campaigns based on our UAS measurements:</p><ul><li>Investigations of emissions from the Duesseldorf airport combining upwind and downwind UAS measurements. These investigations became of special interest, as due to the reduced air traffic caused by the Corona pandemia now single aircraft starts and landings could be monitored with their emissions at elevated altitudes.</li> <li>Investigations of vertical concentration profiles above the city of Duesseldorf, which could be influenced by industrial sites in the north of Duesseldorf as well as by the Duesseldorf airport.</li> <li>Investigations of vertical and horizontal pollution distributions near, at and around industrial sites in the Rhine Ruhr area, especially of metal industry plants and chemical plants.</li> </ul><p>These examples highlight the capabilities of UAS measurements, which will be further enhanced by planned simultaneous use of several UAS in parallel and joint tasks.</p>