Die Palastanlage oberhalb des Theaters von Ephesos

This volume presents the results of the first systematic research of a palatial townhouse in ancient Ephesus from an archaeological and building research perspective. The analysis of the monumental building complex provides fundamental insights into the organisation and diachronic development of the town quarter on the western slope of the Panayırdağ and into the development of palatial architecture in the late Hellenistic and Roman periods. Textband: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:1814 Tafelband: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:1819 Planmappe: http://e-book.fwf.ac.at/o:182

On application of bloom filters to iris biometrics

In this study, the application of adaptive Bloom filters to binary iris biometric feature vectors, that is, iris-codes, is proposed. Bloom filters, which have been established as a powerful tool in various fields of computer science, are applied in order to transform iris-codes to a rotation-invariant feature representation. Properties of the proposed Bloom filter-based transform concurrently enable (i) biometric template protection, (ii) compression of biometric data and (iii) acceleration of biometric identification, whereas at the same time no significant degradation of biometric performance is observed. According to these fields of application, detailed investigations are presented. Experiments are conducted on the CASIA-v3 iris database for different feature extraction algorithms. Confirming the soundness of the proposed approach, the application of adaptive Bloom filters achieves rotation-invariant cancellable templates maintaining biometric performance, a compression of templates down to 20–40% of original size and a reduction of bit-comparisons to less than 5% leading to a substantial speed-up of the biometric system in identification mode

Hard photon production rate of a quark-gluon plasma at finite quark chemical potential

We compute the photon production rate of a quark-gluon plasma (QGP) at finite quark chemical potential $\mu$ using the Braaten-Pisarski method, thus continuing the work of Kapusta, Lichard, and Seibert who did the calculation for $\mu =0$.Comment: 9 pages, revtex, no figures, error in soft part corrected, figures available at ftp://theorie.physik.uni-giessen.de/usr/users/ftp/photon

Muon pair creation from positronium in a circularly polarized laser field

We study elementary particle reactions that result from the interaction of an atomic system with a very intense laser wave of circular polarization. As a specific example, we calculate the rate for the laser-driven reaction $e^+e^- \to \mu^+\mu^-$, where the electron and positron originate from a positronium atom or, alternatively, from a nonrelativistic $e^+e^-$ plasma. We distinguish accordingly between the coherent and incoherent channels of the process. Apart from numerical calculations, we derive by analytical means compact formulas for the corresponding reaction rates. The rate for the coherent channel in a laser field of circular polarization is shown to be damped because of the destructive interference of the partial waves that constitute the positronium ground-state wave packet. Conditions for the observation of the process via the dominant incoherent channel in a circularly polarized field are pointed out

The effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on domestic violence in Germany : a comparison of three representative population surveys

Verfügbar in der Sage Public Health Emergency Collection: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9849116/The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound societal and economic effects. Concerns were raised that domestic violence might increase because of the enacted infection control measures. Previous findings on this issue have been contradictory. Since existing studies mainly rely on official reports, administrative data, helpline calls, or retrospective measures, their findings are likely to prove unreliable. Few population-based surveys include pre-pandemic data, limiting their ability to test for causality regarding increasing violence. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare findings from population-representative surveys on the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and violence against children (VAC) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the data of N = 3,639 individuals living with a romantic partner and N = 1,313 parents living with at least one of their children from three German representative population surveys, we estimated average marginal effects for the temporal trends (i.e., pre vs. post infection control measures) of domestic violence separately for males and females. To minimize bias across survey waves, inverse probability weighting was used. Results show no statistically significant increase in either physical or psychological forms of IPV or VAC as a result of the implementation of COVID measures. On the contrary, the 1-year prevalence was decreasing for certain forms of violence. Our findings suggest that the assessment of the consequences of infection control measures needs an empirical basis. Further research should be conducted using high-quality data sources. Therefore, the present study should be considered a stepping stone for ongoing research efforts to examine the consequences of pandemic-related infection control measures on the general population

Weiterentwicklung der hydrothermalen Karbonisierung zur CO2-sparenden und kosteneffizienten Trocknung von Klärschlamm im industriellen Massstab sowie der Rückgewinnung von Phosphor

In Switzerland, sewage sludge has to be burned since 2006. So far the necessary drying was done by thermal methods with high inputs of energy. In this project we investigate hydrothermal carbonisation (HTC) as CO2 saving and cost efficient alternative to dry sewage sludge on industrial scale. The focus in this applied research project is on the process water treatment, the mechanical dewatering, the potential use of HTC coal, the recycling of phosphorus and heavy metals and an assessment of environmental effects of HTC compared to current treatments. The potential for biological decomposition was investigated in HTC process water and permeat, which was gained by membrane filtration of HTC process water. A medium to high decomposition rate was shown for organic matter in HTC process water and permeat by aerobic and anaerobic processes in batch experiments. In a continuous aerobic laboratory reactor the HTC process water and permeat showed decomposition rates of 70-75% for chemical oxygen demand (COD) at a specific load of 5-10 kg COD/(m3 reactor volume*d). In the competition for a HTC-stage at the Oftringen waste water treatment plant (WWTP) an increase of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) due to the addition of HTC-permeate is limited to 3 mg/l in the effluent of the WWTP. This value can be reached by an optimised membrane filtration with no further treatment for most cases. Advantages of HTC for the mechanical dewatering were shown with a filter press on industrual scale. HTC coal was successfully burned in mono- and mixed combustion plants on industrial scale, for example at Jura Cement in Wildegg or the sludge combustion plant (SVA) in Winterthur. At SVA additional fossil fuels could be temporarily fully substituted by HTC coal. Additional experiments on industrial scale are planned. No evidence of decreased recycling capability of phosphorus or heavy metals after carbonisation was found. Compared to the currently applied sewage sludge drying process the waste heat could be reduced by up to 62% and the electricity demand by up to 69% with HTC. A detailled life cycle assessment showed little differences of HTC compared to the thermal drying process with waste heat but significant advantages compared to the thermal process of drying with fossil fuels. HTC is most promising concerning minimal environmental effects if optimizing measures are applied such as the reduction of phosphorus and nitrogen in the HTC process water, the recycling of phosphorus and the use of lost heat, renewable energy sources such as sewage gas, wood chips, green electricity on adequate sites and if the produced HTC coal is used as substitute of fossil fuels, for example in cement industry or brown coal power plants. Currently a detailled technical study is prepared by AVA-CO2 and another competitor for the first industrial HTC plant in Switzerland to dry sewage sludge at the WWTP Oftringen