TY - JOUR A1 - Uysal, Karya A1 - Creutz, Till A1 - Firat, Ipek Seda A1 - Artmann, Gerhard A1 - Teusch, Nicole A1 - Temiz Artmann, Aysegül T1 - Bio-functionalized ultra-thin, large-area and waterproof silicone membranes for biomechanical cellular loading and compliance experiments JF - Polymers N2 - Biocompatibility, flexibility and durability make polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membranes top candidates in biomedical applications. CellDrum technology uses large area, <10 µm thin membranes as mechanical stress sensors of thin cell layers. For this to be successful, the properties (thickness, temperature, dust, wrinkles, etc.) must be precisely controlled. The following parameters of membrane fabrication by means of the Floating-on-Water (FoW) method were investigated: (1) PDMS volume, (2) ambient temperature, (3) membrane deflection and (4) membrane mechanical compliance. Significant differences were found between all PDMS volumes and thicknesses tested (p < 0.01). They also differed from the calculated values. At room temperatures between 22 and 26 °C, significant differences in average thickness values were found, as well as a continuous decrease in thicknesses within a 4 °C temperature elevation. No correlation was found between the membrane thickness groups (between 3–4 µm) in terms of deflection and compliance. We successfully present a fabrication method for thin bio-functionalized membranes in conjunction with a four-step quality management system. The results highlight the importance of tight regulation of production parameters through quality control. The use of membranes described here could also become the basis for material testing on thin, viscous layers such as polymers, dyes and adhesives, which goes far beyond biological applications. Y1 - 2022 SN - 2073-4360 VL - 14 IS - 11 SP - 2213 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Kaulen, Lars A1 - Schwabedal, Justus T. C. A1 - Schneider, Jules A1 - Ritter, Philipp A1 - Bialonski, Stephan T1 - Advanced sleep spindle identification with neural networks JF - Scientific Reports N2 - Sleep spindles are neurophysiological phenomena that appear to be linked to memory formation and other functions of the central nervous system, and that can be observed in electroencephalographic recordings (EEG) during sleep. Manually identified spindle annotations in EEG recordings suffer from substantial intra- and inter-rater variability, even if raters have been highly trained, which reduces the reliability of spindle measures as a research and diagnostic tool. The Massive Online Data Annotation (MODA) project has recently addressed this problem by forming a consensus from multiple such rating experts, thus providing a corpus of spindle annotations of enhanced quality. Based on this dataset, we present a U-Net-type deep neural network model to automatically detect sleep spindles. Our model’s performance exceeds that of the state-of-the-art detector and of most experts in the MODA dataset. We observed improved detection accuracy in subjects of all ages, including older individuals whose spindles are particularly challenging to detect reliably. Our results underline the potential of automated methods to do repetitive cumbersome tasks with super-human performance. Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11210-y SN - 2045-2322 N1 - Corresponding author: Stephan Bialonski VL - 12 IS - Article number: 7686 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - Springer Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Hein, Andreas M. A1 - Eubanks, T. Marshall A1 - Lingam, Manasvi A1 - Hibberd, Adam A1 - Fries, Dan A1 - Schneider, Jean A1 - Kervella, Pierre A1 - Kennedy, Robert A1 - Perakis, Nikolaos A1 - Dachwald, Bernd T1 - Interstellar now! Missions to explore nearby interstellar objects JF - Advances in Space Research N2 - The recently discovered first hyperbolic objects passing through the Solar System, 1I/’Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov, have raised the question about near term missions to Interstellar Objects. In situ spacecraft exploration of these objects will allow the direct determination of both their structure and their chemical and isotopic composition, enabling an entirely new way of studying small bodies from outside our solar system. In this paper, we map various Interstellar Object classes to mission types, demonstrating that missions to a range of Interstellar Object classes are feasible, using existing or near-term technology. We describe flyby, rendezvous and sample return missions to interstellar objects, showing various ways to explore these bodies characterizing their surface, dynamics, structure and composition. Their direct exploration will constrain their formation and history, situating them within the dynamical and chemical evolution of the Galaxy. These mission types also provide the opportunity to explore solar system bodies and perform measurements in the far outer solar system. KW - Interstellar objects KW - Trajectories KW - Missions Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2021.06.052 SN - 0273-1177 VL - 69 IS - 1 SP - 402 EP - 414 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - von Häfen, Hajo A1 - Krautwald, Clemens A1 - Stolle, Jacob A1 - Bung, Daniel Bernhard A1 - Goseberg, Nils T1 - Overland flow of broken solitary waves over a two-dimensional coastal plane JF - Coastal Engineering N2 - Landslides, rock falls or related subaerial and subaqueous mass slides can generate devastating impulse waves in adjacent waterbodies. Such waves can occur in lakes and fjords, or due to glacier calving in bays or at steep ocean coastlines. Infrastructure and residential houses along coastlines of those waterbodies are often situated on low elevation terrain, and are potentially at risk from inundation. Impulse waves, running up a uniform slope and generating an overland flow over an initially dry adjacent horizontal plane, represent a frequently found scenario, which needs to be better understood for disaster planning and mitigation. This study presents a novel set of large-scale flume test focusing on solitary waves propagating over a 1:14.5 slope and breaking onto a horizontal section. Examining the characteristics of overland flow, this study gives, for the first time, insight into the fundamental process of overland flow of a broken solitary wave: its shape and celerity, as well as its momentum when wave breaking has taken place beforehand. KW - Landslide tsunamis KW - Hazard assessment KW - Large scale tests KW - Overland flow KW - Solitary waves Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coastaleng.2022.104125 SN - 1872-7379 VL - 175 IS - August PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Falkenberg, Fabian A1 - Rahba, Jade A1 - Fischer, David A1 - Bott, Michael A1 - Bongaerts, Johannes A1 - Siegert, Petra T1 - Biochemical characterization of a novel oxidatively stable, halotolerant, and high-alkaline subtilisin from Alkalihalobacillus okhensis Kh10-101T JF - FEBS Open Bio N2 - Halophilic and halotolerant microorganisms represent a promising source of salt-tolerant enzymes suitable for various biotechnological applications where high salt concentrations would otherwise limit enzymatic activity. Considering the current growing enzyme market and the need for more efficient and new biocatalysts, the present study aimed at the characterization of a high-alkaline subtilisin from Alkalihalobacillus okhensis Kh10-101T. The protease gene was cloned and expressed in Bacillus subtilis DB104. The recombinant protease SPAO with 269 amino acids belongs to the subfamily of high-alkaline subtilisins. The biochemical characteristics of purified SPAO were analyzed in comparison with subtilisin Carlsberg, Savinase, and BPN'. SPAO, a monomer with a molecular mass of 27.1 kDa, was active over a wide range of pH 6.0–12.0 and temperature 20–80 °C, optimally at pH 9.0–9.5 and 55 °C. The protease is highly oxidatively stable to hydrogen peroxide and retained 58% of residual activity when incubated at 10 °C with 5% (v/v) H2O2 for 1 h while stimulated at 1% (v/v) H2O2. Furthermore, SPAO was very stable and active at NaCl concentrations up to 5.0 m. This study demonstrates the potential of SPAO for biotechnological applications in the future. KW - Alkalihalobacillus okhensis KW - detergent protease KW - halotolerant protease KW - high-alkaline subtilisin KW - oxidative stable protease Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2211-5463.13457 SN - 2211-5463 N1 - Corresponding author: Petra Siegert VL - 12 IS - 10 SP - 1729 EP - 1746 PB - Wiley CY - Hoboken, NJ ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Topçu, Murat A1 - Madabhushi, Gopal S.P. A1 - Staat, Manfred T1 - A generalized shear-lag theory for elastic stress transfer between matrix and fibres having a variable radius JF - International Journal of Solids and Structures N2 - A generalized shear-lag theory for fibres with variable radius is developed to analyse elastic fibre/matrix stress transfer. The theory accounts for the reinforcement of biological composites, such as soft tissue and bone tissue, as well as for the reinforcement of technical composite materials, such as fibre-reinforced polymers (FRP). The original shear-lag theory proposed by Cox in 1952 is generalized for fibres with variable radius and with symmetric and asymmetric ends. Analytical solutions are derived for the distribution of axial and interfacial shear stress in cylindrical and elliptical fibres, as well as conical and paraboloidal fibres with asymmetric ends. Additionally, the distribution of axial and interfacial shear stress for conical and paraboloidal fibres with symmetric ends are numerically predicted. The results are compared with solutions from axisymmetric finite element models. A parameter study is performed, to investigate the suitability of alternative fibre geometries for use in FRP. KW - Natural fibres KW - Polymer-matrix composites KW - Biocomposites KW - Stress concentrations KW - Finite element analysis Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2022.111464 SN - 0020-7683 VL - 239–240 IS - Art. No. 111464 PB - Elsevier CY - New York, NY ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bhattarai, Aroj A1 - Horbach, Andreas A1 - Staat, Manfred A1 - Kowalczyk, Wojciech A1 - Tran, Thanh Ngoc T1 - Virgin passive colon biomechanics and a literature review of active contraction constitutive models JF - Biomechanics N2 - The objective of this paper is to present our findings on the biomechanical aspects of the virgin passive anisotropic hyperelasticity of the porcine colon based on equibiaxial tensile experiments. Firstly, the characterization of the intestine tissues is discussed for a nearly incompressible hyperelastic fiber-reinforced Holzapfel–Gasser–Ogden constitutive model in virgin passive loading conditions. The stability of the evaluated material parameters is checked for the polyconvexity of the adopted strain energy function using positive eigenvalue constraints of the Hessian matrix with MATLAB. The constitutive material description of the intestine with two collagen fibers in the submucosal and muscular layer each has been implemented in the FORTRAN platform of the commercial finite element software LS-DYNA, and two equibiaxial tensile simulations are presented to validate the results with the optical strain images obtained from the experiments. Furthermore, this paper also reviews the existing models of the active smooth muscle cells, but these models have not been computationally studied here. The review part shows that the constitutive models originally developed for the active contraction of skeletal muscle based on Hill’s three-element model, Murphy’s four-state cross-bridge chemical kinetic model and Huxley’s sliding-filament hypothesis, which are mainly used for arteries, are appropriate for numerical contraction numerical analysis of the large intestine. KW - virgin passive KW - strain energy function KW - smooth muscle contraction KW - viscoelasticity KW - damage Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/biomechanics2020013 SN - 2673-7078 VL - 2 IS - 2 SP - 138 EP - 157 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Marinković, Marko A1 - Butenweg, Christoph ED - Ford, Michael C. T1 - Experimental testing of decoupled masonry infills with steel anchors for out-of-plane support under combined in-plane and out-of-plane seismic loading JF - Construction and Building Materials N2 - Because of simple construction process, high energy efficiency, significant fire resistance and excellent sound isolation, masonry infilled reinforced concrete (RC) frame structures are very popular in most of the countries in the world, as well as in seismic active areas. However, many RC frame structures with masonry infills were seriously damaged during earthquake events, as the traditional infills are generally constructed with direct contact to the RC frame which brings undesirable infill/frame interaction. This interaction leads to the activation of the equivalent diagonal strut in the infill panel, due to the RC frame deformation, and combined with seismically induced loads perpendicular to the infill panel often causes total collapses of the masonry infills and heavy damages to the RC frames. This fact was the motivation for developing different approaches for improving the behaviour of masonry infills, where infill isolation (decoupling) from the frame has been more intensively studied in the last decade. In-plane isolation of the infill wall reduces infill activation, but causes the need for additional measures to restrain out-of-plane movements. This can be provided by installing steel anchors, as proposed by some researchers. Within the framework of European research project INSYSME (Innovative Systems for Earthquake Resistant Masonry Enclosures in Reinforced Concrete Buildings) the system based on a use of elastomers for in-plane decoupling and steel anchors for out-of-plane restrain was tested. This constructive solution was tested and deeply investigated during the experimental campaign where traditional and decoupled masonry infilled RC frames with anchors were subjected to separate and combined in-plane ‬and out-of-plane loading. Based on a detailed evaluation and comparison of the test results, the performance and effectiveness of the developed system are illustrated. KW - Masonry infill KW - Reinforced concrete frame KW - Earthquake KW - INSYSME KW - Decoupling Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.126041 SN - 1879-0526 SN - 0950-0618 VL - 318 IS - 1 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Tran, Ngoc Trinh A1 - Trinh, Tu Luc A1 - Dao, Ngoc Tien A1 - Giap, Van Tan A1 - Truong, Manh Khuyen A1 - Dinh, Thuy Ha A1 - Staat, Manfred T1 - FEM shakedown analysis of structures under random strength with chance constrained programming JF - Vietnam Journal of Mechanics N2 - Direct methods, comprising limit and shakedown analysis, are a branch of computational mechanics. They play a significant role in mechanical and civil engineering design. The concept of direct methods aims to determine the ultimate load carrying capacity of structures beyond the elastic range. In practical problems, the direct methods lead to nonlinear convex optimization problems with a large number of variables and constraints. If strength and loading are random quantities, the shakedown analysis can be formulated as stochastic programming problem. In this paper, a method called chance constrained programming is presented, which is an effective method of stochastic programming to solve shakedown analysis problems under random conditions of strength. In this study, the loading is deterministic, and the strength is a normally or lognormally distributed variable. KW - limit analysis KW - shakedown analysis KW - chance constrained programming KW - stochastic programming KW - reliability of structures Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.15625/0866-7136/17943 SN - 0866-7136 SN - 2815-5882 VL - 44 IS - 4 SP - 459 EP - 473 PB - Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Molinnus, Denise A1 - Iken, Heiko A1 - Johnen, Anna Lynn A1 - Richstein, Benjamin A1 - Hellmich, Lena A1 - Poghossian, Arshak A1 - Knoch, Joachim A1 - Schöning, Michael Josef T1 - Miniaturized pH-Sensitive Field-Effect Capacitors with Ultrathin Ta₂O₅ Films Prepared by Atomic Layer Deposition JF - physica status solidi (a) applications and materials science N2 - Miniaturized electrolyte–insulator–semiconductor capacitors (EISCAPs) with ultrathin gate insulators have been studied in terms of their pH-sensitive sensor characteristics: three different EISCAP systems consisting of Al–p-Si–Ta2O5(5 nm), Al–p-Si–Si3N4(1 or 2 nm)–Ta2O5 (5 nm), and Al–p-Si–SiO2(3.6 nm)–Ta2O5(5 nm) layer structures are characterized in buffer solution with different pH values by means of capacitance–voltage and constant capacitance method. The SiO2 and Si3N4 gate insulators are deposited by rapid thermal oxidation and rapid thermal nitridation, respectively, whereas the Ta2O5 film is prepared by atomic layer deposition. All EISCAP systems have a clear pH response, favoring the stacked gate insulators SiO2–Ta2O5 when considering the overall sensor characteristics, while the Si3N4(1 nm)–Ta2O5 stack delivers the largest accumulation capacitance (due to the lower equivalent oxide thickness) and a higher steepness in the slope of the capacitance–voltage curve among the studied stacked gate insulator systems. KW - atomic layer deposition KW - capacitive field-effect sensors KW - pH sensors KW - ultrathin gate insulators Y1 - 2022 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/pssa.202100660 SN - 1862-6319 N1 - Corresponding author: Michael J. Schöning VL - 219 IS - 8 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -