Comprehensive energy demand and usage data for building automation.

Buildings are essential in satisfying our daily need for comfort (privacy, protection from weather, etc.) and are responsible for almost half of the world's total energy consumption. Research at the interface of room comfort and energy efficiency is of critical societal importance.

Analyzing linguistic variation and change using gamification web apps: The case of German-speaking Europe.

Research on regional linguistic variation typically involves data collection in the field. This process itself can take up several months if not years. In the present study we demonstrate how we can use web interactives in collaboration with media outlets for a fast gathering of regional, sociolinguistic data.

Environmental factors drive language density more in food-producing than in hunter-gatherer populations.

Linguistic diversity is a key aspect of human population diversity and shapes much of our social and cognitive lives. To a considerable extent, the distribution of this diversity is driven by environmental factors such as climate or coast access. An unresolved question is whether the relevant factors have remained constant over time.

Soil attributes and microclimate are important drivers of initial deadwood decay in sub-alpine Norway spruce forests.

Deadwood is known to significantly contribute to global terrestrial carbon stocks and carbon cycling, but its decay dynamics are still not thoroughly understood. Although the chemistry of deadwood has been studied as a function of decay stage in temperate to subalpine environments, it has generally not been related to time. We therefore studied the decay (mass of deadwood, cellulose and lignin) of equal-sized blocks of Picea abies wood in soil-mesocosms over two years in the Italian Alps.