Column-beam joints are one of the most critical zones of concrete structures, especially under unpredicted heavy loads and lateral loads such as seismic. Failure of the joints can even lead to failure of structures in their entirety. The low strength capacity of concrete is a reason of sensitivity of the region. Shape memory alloy (SMA) plates can be employed in order to overcome this weakness and increase the stiffness of joints in existing structures. SMA is a smart material whose functiona...

Microtubules are hollow cylindrical filaments that are part of the cytoskeleton. During their growth, they exhibit “dynamic instability”, i.e., they can suddenly switch from growing to shrinking (catastrophe) and vice versa (rescue). Obtaining a microscopic understanding of this dynamic instability will also provide a better insight into basic cell functions like cell division and can provide a pathway to manipulate such processes. We introduce and parameterize a microtubule model that combi...

With high certainty, extreme weather events will intensify in their impact within the next 10 years due to climate change-induced increases in hazard probability of occurrence and simultaneous increases in socio-economic vulnerability. Data from previous mega-disasters show that losses from disruptions of critical services surpass the value of direct damages in the exposed areas because critical infrastructures [CI] are increasingly (inter-) dependent. Local events may have global impacts. Sy...

Selective laser melting (SLM) has gained large interest due to advanced manufacturing possibilities. However, the growing potential also necessitates reliable predictions of structures in particular regarding their long-term behaviour. The constitutive and structural response is thereby challenging to reproduce, due to the complex material behaviour. This motivates the aims of this contribution: To establish a material model that accounts for the behaviour of the different phases occurring du...

The possibility of accurately identifying thermal material parameters on the basis of a simple tension test is presented, using a parameter identification framework for thermo-mechanically coupled material models on the basis of full field displacement and temperature field measurements. Main objective is to show the impact of the material model formulation on the results of such an identification with respect to accuracy and uniqueness of the result. To do so, and as a proof of concept, the ...

In the present work a novel process for energy generation from natural gas without concomitant CO2 emissions, namely the Bromination-Oxidation (BrOx) cycle, is proposed and studied. This process consists of two exothermic reactions and an internal brominere cycle. Methane and bromine react in the first reaction step to yield solid carbon, that is separated by means of a cyclone or a filter, and hydrogen bromide. The latter is oxidised with oxygen in a second reactor yielding water and bromine...

Purpose: The programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) has become a promising target in cancer immunotherapy. PD-1 expression of CD8+ T-cells may be increased via the exploitation of aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) signaling with kynurenine (KYN) as a ligand. Since exercise affects KYN metabolism, we exploratory investigated the influence of acute exercise bouts on AhR and PD-1 levels of CD8+ T-cells. Method: In this study, 24 healthy males (age: 24.6 ± 3.9 years; weight 83.9 ± 10.5 kg; h...

Das Streben nach Nachhaltigkeit ist seit einigen Jahren auch im Bereich der Wohnungswirtschaft angekommen. Bei der Durchsicht publizierter Nachhaltigkeitsberichte wird deutlich, dass jeder Nachhaltigkeitsbericht einer eigenen Definition von Nachhaltigkeit folgt, scheinbar kein einheitlicher Standard vorliegt und daher auch kein Benchmarking der einzelnen Unternehmen möglich ist. Ebenso ist fragwürdig, ob und wie der Strategietransfer „von der Strategie bis ins Quartier“ gewährleistet werden k...

The inorganic compound BiCu2PO6 contains tubelike structures, which are described magnetically by weakly coupled frustrated spin ladders with a finite energy gap. The elementary excitations are triplons of which the degeneracy is lifted due to Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions. In certain regions of the Brillouin zone the lifetime of the triplon excitation modes becomes finite due to the hybridization of the single-triplon with the two-triplon states. In addition, the dispersions of thes...

Repairing and strengthening of existing aged steel-reinforced concrete structures is a major challenge. Today, much of the repair work completed is insufficient and brittle. A promising new solution for repair and strengthening tasks is the use of iron-based shape memory alloy (Fe-SMA). The pre-strained Fe-SMA components enable the pre-stressing of existing building components due to the heat-triggered contraction of the steel. Thus, deflections can be reduced or even recovered. In addition, ...

Interdisciplinarity broadens urban planning praxis and simultaneously deepens how urban research unfurls. Indeed, this breadth and depth diverges and converges the understanding of current and popular concepts such as temporary use (TU)—also recognized as short-term or temporally undefined use of space. Through a meta-research, or research about research approach employing socio-semiotics and bibliometric analyses for the first time in relation to TU, I clarify the increasing scholarly attent...

In inclusive dance settings, where people with different abilities and talents come together, the role of facilitators is essential in guiding the process of inclusion. Their behavior gives sensitive information to the individual about one’s status within the own-group affiliation (De Cremer, 2002, p. 1336). Even today, very little research on the motivation for facilitating inclusivity in dance contexts exists. This case study will examine the facilitator’s motivation by juxtaposing current ...

A definition of the Laplacian on Cartesian products with mixed boundary conditions using quadratic forms is proposed. Its consistency with the standard definition for homogeneous and certain mixed boundary conditions is proved and, as a consequence, tensor representations of the corresponding Sobolev spaces of first order are derived. Moreover, a criterion for the domain to belong to the Sobolev space of second order is proved.

Lightweight design is one of the current key drivers to reduce the energy consumption of vehicles. Design methodologies for lightweight components, strategies utilizing materials with favorable specific properties and hybrid materials are used to increase the performance of parts for automotive applications. In this paper, various forming processes to produce light parts are described. Material lightweight design is discussed, covering the manufacturing processes to produce hybrid components ...

Stochastic shortest path problems (SSPPs) have many applications in practice and are subject of ongoing research for many years. This paper considers a variant of SSPPs where times or costs to pass an edge in a graph are, possibly correlated, random variables. There are two general goals one can aim for, the minimization of the expected costs to reach the destination or the maximization of the probability to reach the destination within a given budget. Often one is interested in policies that...

Hintergrund und Ziele: Die Qualität medizinjournalistischer Beiträge spielt bei informierten Entscheidungen von Patienten, von politischen, wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Akteuren sowie für die allgemeine Gesundheitskompetenz (Health Literacy) eine zentrale Rolle. Daher erscheinen Qualitätsstandards notwendig, die wissenschaftliche und journalistische Prinzipien berücksichtigen, aber auch flexibel auf Besonderheiten spezieller gesundheitsrelevanter Themenfelder (Medizin, Ernährung...