Article
Refine
Year of publication
- 2023 (53) (remove)
Institute
- Fachbereich Medizintechnik und Technomathematik (17)
- Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften (10)
- Fachbereich Luft- und Raumfahrttechnik (9)
- ECSM European Center for Sustainable Mobility (8)
- Fachbereich Chemie und Biotechnologie (8)
- IfB - Institut für Bioengineering (6)
- Fachbereich Maschinenbau und Mechatronik (4)
- INB - Institut für Nano- und Biotechnologien (4)
- Fachbereich Energietechnik (3)
- Fachbereich Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik (2)
Has Fulltext
- no (53) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (53) (remove)
Keywords
- ultrasound (2)
- 197m/gHg (1)
- 60er Jahre (1)
- Antibias (1)
- Bacillus atrophaeus spores (1)
- Bragg peak (1)
- Brake set-up (1)
- Braking curves (1)
- Brands (1)
- CO2 emission reduction targets (1)
Kartellrecht vs. Datenschutzrecht: Rechtsgrundlagen für die Datenverarbeitung in sozialen Netzwerken
(2023)
Throughout the last decade, and particularly in 2022, water scarcity has become a critical concern in Morocco and other Mediterranean countries. The lack of rainfall during spring was worsened by a succession of heat waves during the summer. To address this drought, innovative solutions, including the use of new technologies such as hydrogels, will be essential to transform agriculture. This paper presents the findings of a study that evaluated the impact of hydrogel application on onion (Allium cepa) cultivation in Meknes, Morocco. The treatments investigated in this study comprised two different types of hydrogel-based soil additives (Arbovit® polyacrylate and Huminsorb® polyacrylate), applied at two rates (30 and 20 kg/ha), and irrigated at two levels of water supply (100% and 50% of daily crop evapotranspiration; ETc). Two control treatments were included, without hydrogel application and with both water amounts. The experiment was conducted in an open field using a completely randomized design. The results indicated a significant impact of both hydrogel-type dose and water dose on onion plant growth, as evidenced by various vegetation parameters. Among the hydrogels tested, Huminsorb® Polyacrylate produced the most favorable outcomes, with treatment T9 (100%, HP, 30 kg/ha) yielding 70.55 t/ha; this represented an increase of 11 t/ha as compared to the 100% ETc treatment without hydrogel application. Moreover, the combination of hydrogel application with 50% ETc water stress showed promising results, with treatment T4 (HP, 30 kg, 50%) producing almost the same yield as the 100% ETc treatment without hydrogel while saving 208 mm of water.
Influence of slab deflection on the out-of-plane capacity of unreinforced masonry partition walls
(2023)
Severe damage of non-structural elements is noticed in previous earthquakes, causing high economic losses and posing a life threat for the people. Masonry partition walls are one of the most commonly used non-structural elements. Therefore, their behaviour under earthquake loading in out-of-plane (OOP) direction is investigated by several researches in the past years. However, none of the existing experimental campaigns or analytical approaches consider the influence of prior slab deflection on OOP response of partition walls. Moreover, none of the existing construction techniques for the connection of partition walls with surrounding reinforced concrete (RC) is investigated for the combined slab deflection and OOP loading. However, the inevitable time-dependent behaviour of RC slabs leads to high values of final slab deflections which can further influence boundary conditions of partition walls. Therefore, a comprehensive study on the influence of slab deflection on the OOP capacity of masonry partitions is conducted. In the first step, experimental tests are carried out. Results of experimental tests are further used for the calibration of the numerical model employed for a parametric study. Based on the results, behaviour under combined loading for different construction techniques is explained. The results show that slab deflection leads either to severe damage or to a high reduction of OOP capacity. Existing practical solutions do not account for these effects. In this contribution, recommendations to overcome the problems of combined slab deflection and OOP loading on masonry partition walls are given. Possible interaction of in-plane (IP) loading, with the combined slab deflection and OOP loading on partition walls, is not investigated in this study.
Today’s society is undergoing a paradigm shift driven by the megatrend of sustainability. This undeniably affects all areas of Western life. This paper aims to find out how the luxury industry is dealing with this change and what adjustments are made by the companies. For this purpose, interviews were conducted with managers from the luxury industry, in which they were asked about specific measures taken by their companies as well as trends in the industry. In a subsequent evaluation, the trends in the luxury industry were summarized for the areas of ecological, social, and economic sustainability. It was found that the area of environmental sustainability is significantly more focused than the other sub-areas. Furthermore, the need for a customer survey to validate the industry-based measures was identified.
Umsatzbasierte Bußgelder – wie sonst nur aus dem Kartellrecht bekannt – waren einer der Gründe, warum die Datenschutz-Grundverordnung (DSGVO) vor ihrem Inkrafttreten für erhebliches Aufsehen sorgte. Die vielfach relevanteren Schadensersatzansprüche, die, wie bei „Dieselgate“, aufgrund der Vielzahl von betroffenen Personen und der aus Sicht von Rechtsdienstleistern bestehenden Skalierbarkeit mit weitaus höheren Einbußen für Unternehmen einhergehen können, blieben zunächst unbeachtet. Inzwischen ist der Schadensersatzanspruch gem. Art. 82 DSGVO die Vorschrift, die die meisten Vorlagen zum Europäischen Gerichtshof (EuGH) der letzten Jahre hervorgerufen hat. Am 4.5.2023 hat nun der EuGH (Urteil v. 4.5.2023 - Rs. C-300/21, NWB GAAAJ-41389) in einem Grundsatzurteil über zentrale Fragen rund um den Ersatz immaterieller Schäden als Folge von Datenschutzverstößen entschieden.
Melting probes are a proven tool for the exploration of thick ice layers and clean sampling of subglacial water on Earth. Their compact size and ease of operation also make them a key technology for the future exploration of icy moons in our Solar System, most prominently Europa and Enceladus. For both mission planning and hardware engineering, metrics such as efficiency and expected performance in terms of achievable speed, power requirements, and necessary heating power have to be known.
Theoretical studies aim at describing thermal losses on the one hand, while laboratory experiments and field tests allow an empirical investigation of the true performance on the other hand. To investigate the practical value of a performance model for the operational performance in extraterrestrial environments, we first contrast measured data from terrestrial field tests on temperate and polythermal glaciers with results from basic heat loss models and a melt trajectory model. For this purpose, we propose conventions for the determination of two different efficiencies that can be applied to both measured data and models. One definition of efficiency is related to the melting head only, while the other definition considers the melting probe as a whole. We also present methods to combine several sources of heat loss for probes with a circular cross-section, and to translate the geometry of probes with a non-circular cross-section to analyse them in the same way. The models were selected in a way that minimizes the need to make assumptions about unknown parameters of the probe or the ice environment.
The results indicate that currently used models do not yet reliably reproduce the performance of a probe under realistic conditions. Melting velocities and efficiencies are constantly overestimated by 15 to 50 % in the models, but qualitatively agree with the field test data. Hence, losses are observed, that are not yet covered and quantified by the available loss models. We find that the deviation increases with decreasing ice temperature. We suspect that this mismatch is mainly due to the too restrictive idealization of the probe model and the fact that the probe was not operated in an efficiency-optimized manner during the field tests. With respect to space mission engineering, we find that performance and efficiency models must be used with caution in unknown ice environments, as various ice parameters have a significant effect on the melting process. Some of these are difficult to estimate from afar.
Subglacial environments on Earth offer important analogs to Ocean World targets in our solar system. These unique microbial ecosystems remain understudied due to the challenges of access through thick glacial ice (tens to hundreds of meters). Additionally, sub-ice collections must be conducted in a clean manner to ensure sample integrity for downstream microbiological and geochemical analyses. We describe the field-based cleaning of a melt probe that was used to collect brine samples from within a glacier conduit at Blood Falls, Antarctica, for geomicrobiological studies. We used a thermoelectric melting probe called the IceMole that was designed to be minimally invasive in that the logistical requirements in support of drilling operations were small and the probe could be cleaned, even in a remote field setting, so as to minimize potential contamination. In our study, the exterior bioburden on the IceMole was reduced to levels measured in most clean rooms, and below that of the ice surrounding our sampling target. Potential microbial contaminants were identified during the cleaning process; however, very few were detected in the final englacial sample collected with the IceMole and were present in extremely low abundances (∼0.063% of 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequences). This cleaning protocol can help minimize contamination when working in remote field locations, support microbiological sampling of terrestrial subglacial environments using melting probes, and help inform planetary protection challenges for Ocean World analog mission concepts.
Immunosorbent turnip vein clearing virus (TVCV) particles displaying the IgG-binding domains D and E of Staphylococcus aureus protein A (PA) on every coat protein (CP) subunit (TVCVPA) were purified from plants via optimized and new protocols. The latter used polyethylene glycol (PEG) raw precipitates, from which virions were selectively re-solubilized in reverse PEG concentration gradients. This procedure improved the integrity of both TVCVPA and the wild-type subgroup 3 tobamovirus. TVCVPA could be loaded with more than 500 IgGs per virion, which mediated the immunocapture of fluorescent dyes, GFP, and active enzymes. Bi-enzyme ensembles of cooperating glucose oxidase and horseradish peroxidase were tethered together on the TVCVPA carriers via a single antibody type, with one enzyme conjugated chemically to its Fc region, and the other one bound as a target, yielding synthetic multi-enzyme complexes. In microtiter plates, the TVCVPA-displayed sugar-sensing system possessed a considerably increased reusability upon repeated testing, compared to the IgG-bound enzyme pair in the absence of the virus. A high coverage of the viral adapters was also achieved on Ta2O5 sensor chip surfaces coated with a polyelectrolyte interlayer, as a prerequisite for durable TVCVPA-assisted electrochemical biosensing via modularly IgG-assembled sensor enzymes.
Die Erbringung einer Leistung in der irrigen Vorstellung einer Bestellung (Zu BGH, MDR 2023, 1439)
(2023)
Density reduction effects on the production of [11C]CO2 in Nb-body targets on a medical cyclotron
(2023)
Medical isotope production of 11C is commonly performed in gaseous targets. The power deposition of the proton beam during the irradiation decreases the target density due to thermodynamic mixing and can cause an increase of penetration depth and divergence of the proton beam. In order to investigate the difference how the target-body length influences the operation conditions and the production yield, a 12 cm and a 22 cm Nb-target body containing N2/O2 gas were irradiated using a 13 MeV proton cyclotron. It was found that the density reduction has a large influence on the pressure rise during irradiation and the achievable radioactive yield. The saturation activity of [11C]CO2 for the long target (0.083 Ci/μA) is about 10% higher than in the short target geometry (0.075 Ci/μA).
Datenschutz & Datenrecht – ein Ausblick auf 2023: Nationale Entwicklungen, EuGH-Vorlagen & Aufsicht
(2023)
Die Verfasser vermitteln einen Überblick über die nationalen Gesetzgebungsverfahren und wesentliche EuGH-Vorlagefragen betreffend den Datenschutz und das Datenrecht für das Jahr 2023. Zunächst folgen u.a. Hinweise in Bezug auf den Hinweisgeberschutz, die Verabschiedung der Einwilligungsverwaltungs-Verordnung zur Konkretisierung des § 26 TTDSG und das Mobilitätsdatengesetz. Anschließend werden Vorlagefragen deutscher Gerichte, die dem EuGH vorgelegt und bereits am 12.01.2023 beantwortet wurden, wie etwa C-154/21 und C-132/21 und die EuGH-Entscheidung vom 9.2.2023 (C-453/21), thematisiert. Überdies führen die Autoren wesentliche Entscheidungen des EuGH an, die im Jahr 2023 aus dem Bereich Datenrecht und Datenschutz zu erwarten seien. Auch Aktivitäten der Datenschutzaufsicht auf nationaler und europäischer Ebene finden Erwähnung. Die Verfasser machen abschließend auf besonders interessante Entscheidungen, die 2023 erwartet werden, wie etwa das EuGH-Urteil zum Auskunftsanspruch, sowie auf das Verhältnis des der Whistleblowing-RL umzusetzende Hinweisgeberschutzgesetz einerseits und Vorgaben des Datenschutzes andererseits, aufmerksam. Sie empfehlen, die künftige Rechtsprechung des EuGH im Blick zu behalten.
Die Verfasser stellen in ihrem Beitrag die künftig in Kraft tretenden oder schon in Kraft getretenen Gesetzesvorhaben der europäischen Union vor. Vorab werde auf die abgelaufene Frist zur Anpassung von Standardvertragsklausel hingewiesen. Die Anpassung könne ggf. durch den Data Privacy Act der Kommission bewirkt werden, da dieser eine Angemessenheit suggeriere. Neben dem Digital Markets Act, der die Wahrung der Diskriminierungsfreiheit den Gatekeeper-Plattformen bezüglich der Bewerbung von Waren Dritter vorschreibt, sind ebenfalls der Digital Service Act und der Data Governance Act in Kraft getreten und werden künftig wirksam. Letzteres bezweckt den Datenaustausch von nicht-personenbezogenen Daten öffentlich-rechtlicher Datensätze, wobei anders als bei DSA, der die Verbraucherrechte durchsetzen möchte, mangels Verpflichtung die praktische Umsetzung ausbleiben werde. In der Entwurfsphase stecken der Artificial Intelligence Act, der Data Act, sowie der Cyber Resilience Act. Allen drei sei wegen dem weiten Anwendungsspielraum, der Bußgeldandrohung oder der Cyber-Bedrohungslage besondere praktische Relevanz beizumessen. Die Kommission weite durch diese Gesetzesvorhaben ihre Regelungsabsicht auch auf nicht-personenbezogene Daten und dem Datentransfer aus. Im Ergebnis werden die Unternehmen mit mehr Verpflichtungen konfrontiert, zu dessen Umsetzung ein funktionierendes Compliance-Management-System unabdingbar sei.
The steel prefabricated family house ›Quelle-Fertighaus‹ designed and constructed by the German company Quelle, is an innovative modular system commercialised in 1962. All aspects of the Quelle-Fertighaus are planned on the principle of minimal effort for maximal flexibility. The clever design of the ground plan based on a 4 m × 7 m module offers the flexibility for either one to three additional modules.
The steel construction is innovative and unique, consisting of load-bearing portal frames acting as braces. The house design is furthermore characterised by a simple metrical grid layout and the practical placement of the foundation and basement, which allowed the very cost-effective production and the lowest price for a prefabricated family house in Germany during the postwar era. Nowadays its portal-frame-construction offers an interesting approach for its renovation and transformation according to present building demands.
It has been shown that muscle fascicle curvature increases with increasing contraction level and decreasing muscle–tendon complex length. The analyses were done with limited examination windows concerning contraction level, muscle–tendon complex length, and/or intramuscular position of ultrasound imaging. With this study we aimed to investigate the correlation between fascicle arching and contraction, muscle–tendon complex length and their associated architectural parameters in gastrocnemius muscles to develop hypotheses concerning the fundamental mechanism of fascicle curving. Twelve participants were tested in five different positions (90°/105°*, 90°/90°*, 135°/90°*, 170°/90°*, and 170°/75°*; *knee/ankle angle). They performed isometric contractions at four different contraction levels (5%, 25%, 50%, and 75% of maximum voluntary contraction) in each position. Panoramic ultrasound images of gastrocnemius muscles were collected at rest and during constant contraction. Aponeuroses and fascicles were tracked in all ultrasound images and the parameters fascicle curvature, muscle–tendon complex strain, contraction level, pennation angle, fascicle length, fascicle strain, intramuscular position, sex and age group were analyzed by linear mixed effect models. Mean fascicle curvature of the medial gastrocnemius increased with contraction level (+5 m−1 from 0% to 100%; p = 0.006). Muscle–tendon complex length had no significant impact on mean fascicle curvature. Mean pennation angle (2.2 m−1 per 10°; p < 0.001), inverse mean fascicle length (20 m−1 per cm−1; p = 0.003), and mean fascicle strain (−0.07 m−1 per +10%; p = 0.004) correlated with mean fascicle curvature. Evidence has also been found for intermuscular, intramuscular, and sex-specific intramuscular differences of fascicle curving. Pennation angle and the inverse fascicle length show the highest predictive capacities for fascicle curving. Due to the strong correlations between pennation angle and fascicle curvature and the intramuscular pattern of curving we suggest for future studies to examine correlations between fascicle curvature and intramuscular fluid pressure.
Ambitious climate targets affect the competitiveness of industries in the international market. To prevent such industries from moving to other countries in the wake of increased climate protection efforts, cost adjustments may become necessary. Their design requires knowledge of country-specific production costs. Here, we present country-specific cost figures for different production routes of steel, paying particular attention to transportation costs. The data can be used in floor price models aiming to assess the competitiveness of different steel production routes in different countries (Rübbelke, 2022).
The Cramér-von-Mises distance is applied to the distribution of the excess over a confidence level. Asymptotics of related statistics are investigated, and it is seen that the obtained limit distributions differ from the classical ones. For that reason, quantiles of the new limit distributions are given and new bootstrap techniques for approximation purposes are introduced and justified. The results motivate new one-sample goodness-of-fit tests for the distribution of the excess over a confidence level and a new confidence interval for the related fitting error. Simulation studies investigate size and power of the tests as well as coverage probabilities of the confidence interval in the finite sample case. A practice-oriented application of the Cramér-von-Mises tests is the determination of an appropriate confidence level for the fitting approach. The adoption of the idea to the well-known problem of threshold detection in the context of peaks over threshold modelling is sketched and illustrated by data examples.
Aspergillus oryzae is an industrially relevant organism for the secretory production of heterologous enzymes, especially amylases. The activities of potential heterologous amylases, however, cannot be quantified directly from the supernatant due to the high background activity of native α-amylase. This activity is caused by the gene products of amyA, amyB, and amyC. In this study, an in vitro CRISPR/Cas9 system was established in A. oryzae to delete these genes simultaneously. First, pyrG of A. oryzae NSAR1 was mutated by exploiting NHEJ to generate a counter-selection marker. Next, all amylase genes were deleted simultaneously by co-transforming a repair template carrying pyrG of Aspergillus nidulans and flanking sequences of amylase gene loci. The rate of obtained triple knock-outs was 47%. We showed that triple knockouts do not retain any amylase activity in the supernatant. The established in vitro CRISPR/Cas9 system was used to achieve sequence-specific knock-in of target genes. The system was intended to incorporate a single copy of the gene of interest into the desired host for the development of screening methods. Therefore, an integration cassette for the heterologous Fpi amylase was designed to specifically target the amyB locus. The site-specific integration rate of the plasmid was 78%, with exceptional additional integrations. Integration frequency was assessed via qPCR and directly correlated with heterologous amylase activity. Hence, we could compare the efficiency between two different signal peptides. In summary, we present a strategy to exploit CRISPR/Cas9 for gene mutation, multiplex knock-out, and the targeted knock-in of an expression cassette in A. oryzae. Our system provides straightforward strain engineering and paves the way for development of fungal screening systems.
Deammonification for nitrogen removal in municipal wastewater in temperate and cold climate zones is currently limited to the side stream of municipal wastewater treatment plants (MWWTP). This study developed a conceptual model of a mainstream deammonification plant, designed for 30,000 P.E., considering possible solutions corresponding to the challenging mainstream conditions in Germany. In addition, the energy-saving potential, nitrogen elimination performance and construction-related costs of mainstream deammonification were compared to a conventional plant model, having a single-stage activated sludge process with upstream denitrification. The results revealed that an additional treatment step by combining chemical precipitation and ultra-fine screening is advantageous prior the mainstream deammonification. Hereby chemical oxygen demand (COD) can be reduced by 80% so that the COD:N ratio can be reduced from 12 to 2.5. Laboratory experiments testing mainstream conditions of temperature (8–20°C), pH (6–9) and COD:N ratio (1–6) showed an achievable volumetric nitrogen removal rate (VNRR) of at least 50 gN/(m3∙d) for various deammonifying sludges from side stream deammonification systems in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, where m3 denotes reactor volume. Assuming a retained Norganic content of 0.0035 kgNorg./(P.E.∙d) from the daily loads of N at carbon removal stage and a VNRR of 50 gN/(m3∙d) under mainstream conditions, a resident-specific reactor volume of 0.115 m3/(P.E.) is required for mainstream deammonification. This is in the same order of magnitude as the conventional activated sludge process, i.e., 0.173 m3/(P.E.) for an MWWTP of size class of 4. The conventional plant model yielded a total specific electricity demand of 35 kWh/(P.E.∙a) for the operation of the whole MWWTP and an energy recovery potential of 15.8 kWh/(P.E.∙a) through anaerobic digestion. In contrast, the developed mainstream deammonification model plant would require only a 21.5 kWh/(P.E.∙a) energy demand and result in 24 kWh/(P.E.∙a) energy recovery potential, enabling the mainstream deammonification model plant to be self-sufficient. The retrofitting costs for the implementation of mainstream deammonification in existing conventional MWWTPs are nearly negligible as the existing units like activated sludge reactors, aerators and monitoring technology are reusable. However, the mainstream deammonification must meet the performance requirement of VNRR of about 50 gN/(m3∙d) in this case.
This study evaluates neuromechanical control and muscle-tendon interaction during energy storage and dissipation tasks in hypergravity. During parabolic flights, while 17 subjects performed drop jumps (DJs) and drop landings (DLs), electromyography (EMG) of the lower limb muscles was combined with in vivo fascicle dynamics of the gastrocnemius medialis, two-dimensional (2D) kinematics, and kinetics to measure and analyze changes in energy management. Comparisons were made between movement modalities executed in hypergravity (1.8 G) and gravity on ground (1 G). In 1.8 G, ankle dorsiflexion, knee joint flexion, and vertical center of mass (COM) displacement are lower in DJs than in DLs; within each movement modality, joint flexion amplitudes and COM displacement demonstrate higher values in 1.8 G than in 1 G. Concomitantly, negative peak ankle joint power, vertical ground reaction forces, and leg stiffness are similar between both movement modalities (1.8 G). In DJs, EMG activity in 1.8 G is lower during the COM deceleration phase than in 1 G, thus impairing quasi-isometric fascicle behavior. In DLs, EMG activity before and during the COM deceleration phase is higher, and fascicles are stretched less in 1.8 G than in 1 G. Compared with the situation in 1 G, highly task-specific neuromuscular activity is diminished in 1.8 G, resulting in fascicle lengthening in both movement modalities. Specifically, in DJs, a high magnitude of neuromuscular activity is impaired, resulting in altered energy storage. In contrast, in DLs, linear stiffening of the system due to higher neuromuscular activity combined with lower fascicle stretch enhances the buffering function of the tendon, and thus the capacity to safely dissipate energy.