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Technological development made it possible to store and process data on a scale not imaginable decades ago — a development that also includes network data. A particular characteristic of network data is that, unlike standard data, the objects of interest, called nodes, have relationships to (possibly all) other objects in the network. Collecting empirical data is often complicated and cumbersome, hence, the observed data are typically incomplete and might also contain other types of errors. Because of the interdependent structure of network data, these errors have a severe impact on network analysis methods. This cumulative dissertation is about the impact of erroneous network data on centrality measures, which are methods to assess the position of an object, for example a person, with respect to all other objects in a network. Existing studies have shown that even small errors can substantially alter these positions. The impact of errors on centrality measures is typically quantified using a concept called robustness. The articles included in this dissertation contribute to a better understanding of the robustness of centrality measures in several aspects. It is argued why the robustness needs to be estimated and a new method is proposed. This method allows researchers to estimate the robustness of a centrality measure in a specific network and can be used as a basis for decision making. The relationship between network properties and the robustness of centrality measures is analyzed. Experimental and analytical approaches show that centrality measures are often more robust in networks with a larger average degree. The study of the impact of non-random errors on the robustness suggests that centrality measures are often more robust if missing nodes are more likely to belong to the same community compared to missingness completely at random. For the development of imputation procedures based on machine learning techniques, a process for the evaluation of node embedding methods is proposed.
In dieser Studie wurde untersucht, ab welcher Größe die statistische Effektstärke Cohen's d klinisch relevant wird. In einer durch halbstandardisierte Interviews ergänzten Online-Studie wurden den 69 Teilnehmern jeweils vier Szenarien gezeigt, in denen sich Zwillinge in ihren depressiven Beschwerden mit einem d = .5, .8, 1.1 oder 1.4 unterschiedlich stark voneinander unterschieden. Diese Effektstärken wurden durch unterschiedliche Testausprägungen im Depressivitätstest PHQ-9 generiert und lassen sich in Punktunterschiede in den Beschwerdebildern übertragen. Die Beschwerden der Zwillinge wurden jeweils auf Intervallskalen eingeschätzt. Die Zwillinge unterschieden sich zum einen im Ausmaß ihrer Beschwerden, zum anderen entschieden sie sich für unterschiedliche Behandlungsansätze, um Verbesserungen ihrer Beschwerden zu erzielen. Der eine Zwilling wählte eine Psychotherapie, der andere bevorzugte es, zu beobachten und abzuwarten. Eine rmANOVA zeigt, dass die Teilnehmer ab einer Effektstärke von d = .8 verlässlich unterscheiden können, welchem Zwilling es besser geht und in welchem Ausmaß. Diese Effektstärke entspricht einer Punktdifferenz im PHQ-9 von 5 Punkten. Die vorliegende Studie wagt einen ersten Versuch, die klinische Relevanz der Effektstärke Cohen's d durch subjektive Einschätzungen darzustellen und einen Schwellenwert zu identifizieren. Dieser kann in weiterführender Forschung näher untersucht, optimiert und weiterentwickelt werden.
Existing institutions no longer appear to be sufficiently capable to deal with the complexity and uncertainty associated with the wicked problem of sustainability. Achieving the required sustainability transformation will thus require purposeful reform of existing institutional frameworks. However, existing research on the governance of sustainability of sustainability transformations has strongly focused on innovation and the more "creative" aspects of these processes, blinding our view to the fact that they go hand with the failure, decline or dismantling of institutions that are no longer considered functional or desirable. This doctoral dissertation thus seeks to better understand how institutional failure and decline can contribute productively to sustainability transformations and how such dynamics in institutional arrangements can serve to restructure existing institutional systems. A systematic review of the conceptual literature served to provide a concise synthesis of the research on "failure" and "decline" in the institutional literature, providing important first insights into their potentially productive functions. This was followed up by an archetype analysis of the productive functions of failure and decline, drawing on a wide range of literatures. This research identified five archetypical pathways: (1) crises triggering institutional adaptations toward sustainability, (2) systematic learning from failure and breakdown, (3) the purposeful destabilisation of unsustainable institutions, (4) making a virtue of inevitable decline, and (5) active and reflective decision making in the face of decline instead of leaving it to chance. Empirical case studies looking at the German energy transition and efforts to phase out coal in the Powering Past Coal Alliance served to provide more insights on (a) how to effectively harness "windows of opportunity" for change, and (b) the governance mechanisms used by governments to actively remove institutions. Results indicate that the lock-in of existing technologies, regulations and practices can throw up important obstacles for sustainability transformations. The intentional or unintentional destabilisation of the status quo may thus be required to enable healthy renewal within a system. This process required active and reflective management to avoid the irreversible loss of desirable institutional elements. Instruments such as "sunset clauses" and "experimental legislation" may serve as important tools to learn through "trial and error", whilst limiting the possible damage done by failure. Focusing on the subject of scale, this analysis finds that the level at which failure occurs is likely to determine the degree of change that can be achieved. Failures at the policy-level are most likely to merely lead to changes to the tools and instruments used by policy makers. This research thus suggests that failures on the polity- and political level may be required to achieve transformative changes to existing power structures, belief-systems and paradigms. Finally, this research briefly touches on the role of actor and agency in the governance of sustainabilitytransformations through failure and decline. It finds that actors may play an important role in causing a system or one of its elements to fail and in shaping the way events are come to be perceived.
Bestrebungen, tertiäre Ausbildungsgänge im Bereich Populärer Musik zu innovieren, sollten auf einem vertieften Verständnis des Berufsfelds basieren. Diese Prämisse setzt wiederum empirische Befunde zu den vorherrschenden Tätigkeitsprofilen sowie den entsprechenden Herausforderungen und maßgeblichen beruflichen Kompetenzbeständen voraus. Im Rahmen dieser Dissertationsschrift wurden daher zunächst die zentralen Aspekte berufsvorbereitender Popausbildungsprogramme und des Berufsmusikerarbeitsmarkts in Deutschland betrachtet, um im Anschluss Erkenntnisse zu prototypischen berufsfeldspezifischen Anforderungen zu präsentieren. Zentrale Forschungsfrage der Arbeit war dabei, an welchen Parametern eine berufspropädeutische Ausbildung im Bereich Populärer Musik ausgerichtet sein sollte, um angehenden Berufsmusikern den Erwerb einer zukunftsfähigen Kompetenzarchitektur zu ermöglichen. Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage kam ein methodenintegratives Verfahren zum Einsatz, wobei zunächst eine quantitative Vorstudie (Online-Fragebogen) durchgeführt wurde. Die Stichprobe (n=159) enthielt Alumni von künstlerischen bzw. künstlerisch-pädagogischen Ausbildungsgängen in Deutschland. Darauf folgte eine qualitative Hauptstudie, im Zuge derer halbstrukturierte Experteninterviews durchgeführt wurden. Das Sample umfasste Alumni von unterschiedlichen tertiären Ausbildungsgängen (n=9) sowie Experten aus dem Bereich Ausbildung (n=5) und Arbeitsmarkt (n=4). Die Daten wurden mittels qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse ausgewertet. Es zeigte sich zunächst, dass Ausbildungsgänge im Bereich Popmusik, insbesondere solche an musikhochschulischen Einrichtungen, einen starken Fokus auf musikalisch-künstlerische Inhalte legen, während sie Defizite im Bereich Professionalisierung und Berufsfeldorientierung aufweisen. Dies ist insofern im Hinblick auf die Berufspropädeutik problematisch, als die empirischen Daten deutlich machen, dass es gerade auch außermusikalische Kompetenzen sind, die von den Probanden als überaus bedeutsam für den Erfolg im Berufsfeld erachtet werden. Des Weiteren sind die Lernwege von Popmusikern im Vergleich zu Kollegen im Bereich europäischer Kunstmusik sehr heterogen. So zeigt sich eine Kombination aus informellem und formellem Lernen in mehr oder weniger formalen Lernsettings. Informelles Lernen geschieht dabei häufig in Form von Peer-Learning und autodidaktischem Lernen. Auch die Tätigkeitsportfolios der Befragten sind vielschichtig. Sie umfassen neben diversen musikalisch-künstlerischen vor allem pädagogische sowie musiknahe administrative und unternehmerische berufliche Aktivitäten. In einzelnen Fällen werden diese durch außermusikalische Tätigkeiten ergänzt. Ziel ist nicht die fortwährende Erwerbstätigkeit an einem bestimmten Arbeitsplatz, sondern die fortwährende Erwerbsfähigkeit in verschiedenen Teilbereichen des Berufsfelds. Ein wiederkehrendes Motiv in den Aussagen der Befragten sind die vielschichtigen Herausforderungen auf dem Musikerarbeitsmarkt. Darüber hinaus berichten die Probanden generell von fordernden Rahmenbedingungen wie u. a. einer häufig prekären Einkommenssituation, einer hohen Arbeitsbelastung sowie Schwierigkeiten eine nachhaltige Künstlerkarriere aufzubauen. Im Zuge der qualitativen Erhebung zeigt sich darüber hinaus, dass einige der Befragten über eine hohe Stressbelastung klagen, die in manchen Fällen zu psychischen Erkrankungen geführt hat. Dementsprechend scheint es wichtig Aspekte der physischen und mentalen Selbstfürsorge in die Ausbildung angehender Berufsmusikern zu implementieren. Die Kultivierung von Achtsamkeit wird in diesem Kontext als möglicher Weg zur Stressprophylaxe und Salutogenese präsentiert. Auf den Ergebnissen der Untersuchungen fußend wird am Ende der Arbeit ein achtsamkeitsbasiertes, integriertes Modell zur curricularen Gestaltung von Popmusikausbildungsgängen vorgestellt. Dieses berücksichtigt die Dimensionen Ganzheitlichkeit, Individualisierung, Berufsfeld- und Praxisorientierung, Vernetzung sowie Selbstfürsorge und kann als Matrix in Hinblick auf ein holistisch orientiertes und berufsfeldoptimiertes Ausbildungsgeschehen herangezogen werden. Es ist davon auszugehen, dass dessen praktische Umsetzung aufgrund der Berücksichtigung aktueller Tätigkeitsprofile und berufsfeldspezifischer Herausforderungen sowie der individuellen Dispositionen, Lernwege und Bedürfnisse der Akteure das Potenzial besitzt, den Absolventen zu einer verbesserten Erwerbsfähigkeit und beruflichen sowie persönlichen Zufriedenheit zu verhelfen.
This cumulative dissertation embraces four empirical papers addressing socio-economic issues relevant to policy-makers and society as a whole. These papers cover important aspects of human life including health at birth, life satisfaction, unemployment periods and retirement decisions. The analyses are carried out applying advanced econometric methods and are based on data sets consisting of survey data as well as administrative records. The first joint paper investigates the causal impact of prenatal exposure to air pollution on neonatal health in Italy in the 2000s combining detailed information on mother's residential location from birth certificates with PM10 concentrations from air pollution monitors. Variation in local weekly rainfall is exploited as an instrumental variable for non-random air pollution exposure. Using quasi-experimental variation in rainfall shocks allows to identify the effect of PM10, ruling out potential bias due to confounder pollutants. The paper estimates the effect of exposure for both the entire pregnancy period and separately for each trimester to test whether the neonatal health effects are driven by pollution exposure during a particular gestation period. This information enhances our understanding of the mechanisms at work and help prevent pregnant mothers from most dangerous exposure periods. Additionally, the effects of prenatal exposure to PM10 are estimated by maternal labor market status and maternal education level to understand how the pollution burden is shared across different population groups. This decomposition allows to identify possible mechanisms through which environmental inequality reinforces the negative impact of early-life exposure to air pollution. This study finds that average PM10 and days with PM10 level above the hazard limit reduce birth weight, gestational age, and measures of overall newborn health. Effects are largest for third trimester exposure and for low-income and less educated mothers. The second joint paper updates previous findings on the total East-West gap in overall life satisfaction and its trend by using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for the years 1992 to 2013. Additionally, the effects are separately analyzed for men and women as well as for four birth cohorts. The results indicate that reported life satisfaction is, on average, significantly lower in East than in West German federal states and that part of the raw East-West gap is due to differences in household income and unemployment status. The conditional East-West gap decreased in the first years after the German reunification and remained quite stable and sizable since the mid-nineties. The results further indicate that gender differences are small. Finally, the East-West gap is significantly smaller and shows a trend towards convergence for younger birth cohorts. The third joint paper explores the effects of a major reform of unemployment benefits in Germany on the labor market outcomes of individuals with some health impairment. The reform induced a substantial reduction in the potential duration of regular unemployment benefits for older workers. This work analyzes the reform in a wider framework of institutional interactions, which allows to distinguish between its intended and unintended effects. The results based on routine data collected by the German Statutory Pension Insurance and a Difference-in-Differences design provide causal evidence for a significant decrease in the number of days in unemployment benefits and increase in the number of days in employment. However, they also suggest a significant increase in the number of days in unemployment assistance, granted upon exhaustion of unemployment benefits. Transitions to unemployment assistance represent an unintended effect, limiting the success of a policy change that aims to increase labor supply via reductions in the generosity of the unemployment insurance system. The fourth, single-authored paper explores how an increase in the early retirement age affects labor force participation of older workers. The analysis is based on a social security reform in Germany, which raised the early retirement age over several birth cohorts to boost employment of older people and ultimately alleviate the burden on the public pension system. Detailed administrative data from the Federal Employment Agency allow to distinguish between employment and unemployment as well as disability pensions and retirement benefits claims. Using a Regression Kink design in a quasi-experimental framework, the author shows that the raised early retirement age had positive employment effects and negative effects on retirement benefits claims. The results also show that some population groups are more sensitive to a reduction in retirement options and more likely to seek benefits from other government programs. In this respect, the author finds that workers in manufacturing sector respond to the raised early retirement age by claiming benefits from the disability insurance program designed to compensate for reduced earnings capacity due to severe health problems. The treatment heterogeneity analysis further suggests that high-wage workers are more likely to delay exits from employment, which is in line with incentives but might also indicate an increased inequality within the affected birth cohorts induced by the reform. Finally, women seem to rely on alternative sources of income such as retirement benefits for women, or spouse's or partner's income not observed in the data. All things considered, workers did not adjust to the increased early retirement age by substituting early retirement with other government programs but rather responded to the reform in line with the policy intent. At the same time, the findings point to heterogeneous behavioral responses across different population groups. This implies that raising the early retirement age is an effective policy tool to increase employment only among older people who have the real choice to delay employment exits. Therefore, reforms that raise statutory ages should ensure social support for workers only marginally attached to the labor market or not able to work longer due to potential health problems or other circumstances.
Die vorliegende Dissertationsschrift orientiert sich an dem soziologischen Verständnis von Zeit als Gestaltungsprinzip (Elias 1984) und der damit verbundenen Bedeutung für institutionell-pädagogische Zeitgestaltungen. Im Rahmen einer qualitativen - und ethnografisch orientierten - Fallstudie wird herausgearbeitet, wie sich die kindlichen Zeitpraktiken in unterschiedlichen Institutionen der frühen Bildung und im Übergang zur Grundschule mit ihren je besonderen institutionellen Zeitordnungen ausprägen. Die empirischen Befunde zeigen, dass die Fach- und Lehrkräfte auf normierte Ablaufmuster und Vorgaben zur Zeitnutzung zurückgreifen und sich spezifischer Disziplinierungspraktiken bedienen, um die Kinder in die vorherrschende soziale Zeitordnung und das darin verwobene generationale Arrangement einzupassen. Verstärkt durch die zeitlichen Anforderungen des institutionellen Alltags verengen sich die erwachsenen Zeitpraktiken immer wieder zu den gleichen Handlungsweisen; insbesondere die Tendenzen zur Beschleunigung und Verdichtung sind als Gestaltungsmodi beobachtbar. Ungeachtet dessen verdeutlichen die Erkenntnisse weiterhin, dass sich die kindlichen Zeitpraktiken in Formen ausprägen, die häufig nicht den sozial vorherrschenden Handlungspraktiken und Handlungslogiken folgen, sondern vielmehr auf einer eigenen Sinngebung beruhen. Im Vergleich zu den Erwachsenen kommt diese zeitliche Eigenart dadurch zum Ausdruck, dass Kinder Gegenständen andere Bedeutungen und Funktionen beimessen, andere Formen des Handlungsvollzuges praktizieren und sich auch in je besonderen Geschwindigkeitsmodi bewegen. In ihrem spezifischen zeitlichen Handeln lassen sich die Kinder bewusst nicht von den Vorgaben zur Zeitnutzung stören bzw. unterwandern diese immer wieder auch zielgerichtet. Angesichts der divergierenden Handlungspraktiken von Erwachsenen und Kindern geht der Alltag mit regelhaften Zeitkonflikten einher, die sich zulasten der kindlichen Persönlichkeitsentwicklung, des Erwerbs von Zeitkompetenz wie auch der Arbeitsbedingungen des Personals auswirken können, weshalb eine weitere Intensivierung einschlägiger Zeitforschungen bedeutsam erscheint.
Durch die Neufassung des § 68f Abs.1 Satz 1 StGB tritt die Führungsaufsicht bei vollverbüßter Strafe von zwei Jahren oder bei schwerwiegenden Taten gemäß § 181b StGB nach einem Jahr kraft Gesetzes ein. Diese Reform im Jahr 2007 hat zu einem enormen Anstieg von Führungsaufsichten nach vollverbüßter Jugendstrafe geführt. Die Regelungen und Aufgaben der Verantwortlichen der Führungsaufsicht nach Jugendstrafe sind vielfältig und anders als beispielsweise bei der Führungsaufsicht nach einer Maßregel der Besserung und Sicherung (gem. §§ 63f). Für die Arbeit mit straffälligen Jugendlichen und Heranwachsenden unter Führungsaufsicht nach vollverbüßter Jugendstrafe gibt es für die Justizsozialarbeitenden keine explizite Handreichung. Im Vordergrund der Arbeit liegt die Frage: Welche Faktoren können, aus Sicht der beteiligten Akteure, die Legalbewährung jugendlicher und heranwachsender Vollverbüßer unter Führungsaufsicht begünstigen? Die Praxisforschung wird anhand von 15 Interviews mit den Verantwortlichen der Führungsaufsicht dargestellt und nimmt Bezug auf das in der Praxis erprobte Modellprojekt RESI und das Lebenslagenkonzept.
This doctoral thesis contains four empirical studies analysing the personal accountability of prime ministers and the electoral presidentialisation of parliamentary elections in European democracies. It develops the concept of presidentialised prime ministerial accountability as a behavioural element in the chain of accountability in parliamentary systems. The ongoing presidentialisation of parliamentary elections, driven by changes in mass communication and erosion of societal cleavages, that fosters an increasing influence of prime ministers' and other leading candidates' personalities on vote choices, has called performance voting – and the resulting accountability mechanism of electoral punishment and reward of governing parties – into question. This thesis analyses whether performance voting can be extended to the personal level of parliamentary governments and asks whether voters hold prime ministers personally accountable for the performance of their government. Furthermore, it explores how voters change their opinion of prime ministers and how differences in party system stability and media freedom between Western and Central Eastern Europe contribute to higher electoral presidentialization in Central Eastern European parliamentary elections. This thesis relies on several national data sources: the "British Election Study", the "German Longitudinal Election Study" and other German election surveys, the "Danish Election Study", as well as, data from the "Forschungsgruppe Wahlen". In addition, it utilises cross-national data from the "Comparative Study of Electoral Systems".
Panic disorder is a common anxiety disorder, which is associated with high subjective burden as well as a high cost for the health economy. According to the National Treatment Guideline S3, cognitive behavior therapy is recommended as the most effective psychological treatment. However, many people in need do not have access to cognitive behavior therapy. Internet-based interventions have proven to be an effective way to provide access to evidence-based treatment to those affected. For anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder and agoraphobia, a good effectiveness of internet-based interventions has been proven in numerous international studies. However, the internet has changed over the last few years: mobile technologies have considerable potential to further improve the adherence and effectiveness of internet-based interventions. Against this background, the authors developed the hybrid online training "GET.ON Panic". In this training, an app has been integrated into a browser-based online training. The app consists of a mobile diary for self-monitoring as well as a mobile exposure-guide that supports participants in self-exposure exercises in their everyday lives.In an initial exploratory feasibility study, qualitative interview data and quantitative measurements were collected in a pre-post design of 10 participants. Usage, user friendliness, user satisfaction and acceptance of the app were generally considered high. The use of interoceptive exposure exercises and daily summaries of anxiety and mood were the most widely performed and rated the best, while in vivo exposure exercises and the monitoring of acute panic symptoms were found to be difficult.In the efficacy study, 92 participants with mild to moderate panic symptoms were randomized into two parallel groups. After eight weeks, the intervention group showed a significant improvement in the severity of panic symptoms compared to the waiting control group. Using the intention-to-treat approach, a covariance analysis with baseline values as a covariate yielded a mean effect of Cohen's d=0.66 in reducing the panic symptoms in favor of the intervention group. This effect increased to d=0.89 after three months and stayed at d=0.81 at the 6-month measurement point. Response and remission rates were also significantly higher in the intervention group. This positive effect was also shown for secondary outcomes such as depressive symptoms and quality of life. A correlation between app usage and clinical outcomes could not be found. This work was the first to demonstrate that a hybrid online training based on cognitive behavior therapy is effective in reducing panic symptoms as well as panic disorder. In addition, this work contributes to a deeper understanding of the potential of mobile technologies in the field of e-mental health.
Thermal energy storage systems have a high potential for a sustainable energy management. Low temperature thermochemical energy stores based on gas-solid reactions represent appealing alternative options to sensible and latent storage technologies, in particular for heating and cooling purposes. They convert heat energy provided from renewable energy and waste heat sources into chemical energy and can effectively contribute to load balancing and CO2 mitigation. At present, several obstacles are associated with the implementation in full-scale reactors. Notably, the mass and heat transfer must be optimized. Limitations in the heat transport and diffusions resistances are mainly related to physical stability issues, adsorption/desorption hysteresis and volume expansion and can impact the reversibility of gas-solid reactions. The aim of this thesis was to examine the energy storage and cooling efficiency of CaCl2, MgCl2, and their physical salt mixtures as adsorbents paired with water, ethanol and methanol as adsorbates for utilization in a closed, low level energy store. Two-component composite adsorbents were engineered using a representative set of different host matrices (activated carbon, binderless zeolite NaX, expanded natural graphite, expanded vermiculite, natural clinoptiolite, and silica gel). The energetic characteristics and sorption behavior of the parent salts and modified thermochemical materials were analyzed employing TGA/DSC, TG-MS, Raman spectroscopy, and XRD. Successive discharging/charging cycles were conducted to determine the cycle stability of the storage materials. The overall performance was strongly dependent on the material combination. Increase in the partial pressure of the adsorbate accelerated the overall adsorbate uptake. From energetic perspectives the CaCl2-H2O system exhibited higher energy storage densities than the CaCl2 and MgCl2 alcoholates studied. The latter were prone to irreversible decomposition. Ethyl chloride formation was observed for MgCl2 at room and elevated temperatures. TG-MS measurements confirmed the evolution of alkyl chloride from MgCl2 ethanolates and methanolates upon heating. However, CaCl2 and its ethanolates and methanolates proved reversible and cyclable in the temperature range between 25°C and 500°C. All composite adsorbents achieved intermediate energy storage densities between the salt and the matrix. The use of carbonaceous matrices had a heat and mass transfer promoting effect on the reaction system CaCl2-H2O. Expanded graphite affected only moderately the adsorption/desorption of methanol onto CaCl2. CaCl2 dispersed inside zeolite 13X showed excellent adsorption kinetics towards ethanol. However, main drawback of the molecular sieve used as supporting structure was the apparent high charging temperature. Despite variations in the reactivity over thermal cycling caused by structural deterioration, composite adsorbents based on CaCl2 have a good potential as thermochemical energy storage materials for heating and cooling applications. Further research is required so that the storage media tested can meet all necessary technical requirements.