Gyro spring augmentation system

Spring-loaded piston with provision for hydraulic control of spring action varies the stiffness of hydraulic control systems

Afterburner Performance of Circular V-Gutters and a Sector of Parallel V-Gutters for a Range of Inlet Temperatures to 1255 K (1800 F)

Combustion tests of two V-gutter types were conducted in a 19.25-in. diameter duct using vitiated air. Fuel spraybars were mounted in line with the V-gutters. Combustor length was set by flame-quench water sprays which were part of a calorimeter for measuring combustion efficiency. Although the levels of performance of the parallel and circular array afterburners were different, the trends with geometry variations were consistent. Therefore, parallel arrays can be used for evaluating V-gutter geometry effects on combustion performance. For both arrays, the highest inlet temperature produced combustion efficiencies near 100 percent. A 5-in. spraybar - to - V-gutter spacing gave higher efficiency and better lean blowout performance than a spacing twice as large. Gutter durability was good

Do Corporate Tax Cuts Reduce International Profit Shifting?

This paper analyzes whether a corporate tax cut reduces profit shifting to low-tax countries. I use firm-level data of 2,812 German corporations around the Business Tax Reform in 2008. Applying a difference-in-differences framework with a one-on-one matching strategy, which compares earnings of multinational and domestic corporations, I do not find empirical evidence that even a 10 percentage points cut in the business tax rate leads to a reduction of profit shifting activities

Teaching Intercultural Business English: Interkulturelles Wirtschaftsenglisch lehren

In unserer digitalisierten, vernetzten und mobilen Welt muss ein didaktisches Konzept zur Vermittlung von interkulturellem Wirtschaftsenglisch für die heutige Generation von Studierenden mit ihren diversen Hintergründen neu gedacht werden. Es gilt, soziales Lernen und Selbstmanagement mit zu integrieren. Gemäß der Aufgliederung von Macke/Hanke/Viehmann-Schweizer/Raether (Hrsg.) (32016: 88ff.) von Kompetenzen in einem handlungsorientierten Ansatz in Kompetenzfacetten – fachliches Wissen, Zuständigkeit, individuelle Wertvorstellung, gesellschaftliche Normen – auf verschiedenen Handlungsstufen – verstehen, anwenden, analysieren, bewerten, entscheiden, begründen – werden die verschiedenen Lernziele zugeordnet und didaktisch aufbereitet, um soziale und fremdsprachliche Kompetenzen als individuellen Lernprozess hin zu interpersoneller und interkultureller Bildung zu lehren. Eine eigens durchgeführte Befragung über mehrere Semester belegt, dass das Konzept den gewünschten Lernerfolg hervorbringt.In our world that is highly influenced by digitalisation, interconnectedness and mobility, didactic concepts on teaching intercultural business English to students with their diverse backgrounds have to be reconsidered and newly designed. Social learning and self-management have to be integrated. Hence, in the presented concept, the learning objectives are categorised according to the action-oriented systematization of Macke/Hanke/Viehmann-Schweizer/Raether (Hrsg.) (32016: 88ff.), in which competencies in are broken down into facets of competencies – knowledge, responsibility, value concept, norms – on various levels of complexity – understanding, applying, analysing, evaluating, deciding, justifying. Didactic concepts are designed to match this categorisation of learning objectives in order to teach social and language competence as an individual learning process to also gain interpersonal and intercultural competence. The evaluation of the concept by the means of a multi-level survey has shown that the concept produces the requested success

Decay of dark and bright plasmonic modes in a metallic nanoparticle dimer

We develop a general quantum theory of the coupled plasmonic modes resulting from the near-field interaction between localized surface plasmons in a heterogeneous metallic nanoparticle dimer. In particular, we provide analytical expressions for the frequencies and decay rates of the bright and dark plasmonic modes. We show that, for sufficiently small nanoparticles, the main decay channel for the dark plasmonic mode, which is weakly coupled to light and, hence, immune to radiation damping, is of nonradiative origin and corresponds to Landau damping, i.e., decay into electron-hole pairs.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures; published versio

Representations of Otherness – How Literature Reflects Implications of Digitalization and Artificial Intelligence on Humaneness and Societies

Fictional narratives concerning science and technology, and specifically science fictionnarratives, are centred upon questions of difference, alterity and Otherness. Thoughnot representing classical science fiction texts, the analyzed novels display a key roleattributed to technological advancement and thus incorporate and discuss that centralquestion of Otherness in external and internal representation. Firstly, Ian McEwan’snovel Machines Like Me (2019) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun (2021)superficially deal with human-machine interaction, but also more subtly mirrorhumaneness in contrast to a perfectionist Machine Otherness that, in turn, questionshuman morality. Secondly, Juli Zeh’s novel Leere Herzen (Empty Hearts) (2017) andJulia von Lucadou’s novel Die Hochhausspringerin (The High Rise Diver) (2018)subconsciously display the more disruptive influences of Artificial Intelligence onsocieties. The conception of Otherness is thus not rooted in the opposition betweenmachines and human beings, but in a steady process of self-alienation.Fictional narratives concerning science and technology, and specifically science fiction narratives, are centred upon questions of difference, alterity and Otherness. Though not representing classical science fiction texts, the analyzed novels display a key role attributed to technological advancement and thus incorporate and discuss that central question of Otherness in external and internal representation. Firstly, Ian McEwan’s novel Machines Like Me (2019) and Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun (2021) superficially deal with human-machine interaction, but also more subtly mirror humaneness in contrast to a perfectionist Machine Otherness that, in turn, questions human morality. Secondly, Juli Zeh’s novel Leere Herzen (Empty Hearts) (2017) and Julia von Lucadou’s novel Die Hochhausspringerin (The High Rise Diver) (2018) subconsciously display the more disruptive influences of Artificial Intelligence on societies. The conception of Otherness is thus not rooted in the opposition between machines and human beings, but in a steady process of self-alienation

Investigating the 3D chromatin architecture with fluorescence microscopy

Chromatin is an assembly of DNA and nuclear proteins, which on the one hand has the function to properly store the 2 meters of DNA of a diploid human nucleus in a small volume and on the other hand regulates the accessibility of specific DNA segments for proteins. Many cellular processes like gene expression and DNA repair are affected by the three-dimensional architecture of chromatin. Cohesin is an important and well-studied protein that affects three-dimensional chromatin organization. One of the functions of this motor protein is the active generation of specific domain structures (topologically associating domains (TADs)) by the process of loop extrusion. Studies of cohesin depleted cells showed that TAD structures were lost on a population average. Due to this finding, the question arose, to what extent the functional nuclear architecture, that can be detected by confocal and structured illumination microscopy, is impaired when cells were cohesin depleted. The work presented in this thesis could show that the structuring of the nucleus in areas with different chromatin densities including the localization of important nuclear proteins as well as replication patterns was retained. Interestingly, cohesin depleted cells proceeded through an endomitosis leading to the formation of multilobulated nuclei. Obviously, important structural features of chromatin can form even in the absence of cohesin. In the here presented work, fluorescence microscopic methods were used throughout, and an innovative technique was developed, that allows flexible labeling of proteins with different fluorophores in fixed cells. With this technique DNA as well as peptide nucleic acid (PNA) oligonucleotides can be site-specifically coupled to antibodies via the Tub-tag technology and visualized by complementary fluorescently labeled oligonucleotides. The advantages and disadvantages of PNAs as docking strands are discussed in this thesis as well as the use of PNAs in fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). In the next study, which is part of this work, a combination of FISH and super-resolution microscopy was used. There it could be shown that DNA segments of 5 kb can form both compact and elongated configurations in regulatory active as well as inactive chromatin. Coarse-grained modeling of these microscopic data, in agreement with published data from other groups, has suggested that elongated configurations occur more frequently in DNA segments in which the occupancy of nucleosomes is reduced. The microscopically measured distance distributions could only be simulated with models that assume different densities of nucleosomes in the population. Another result of this study was that inactive chromatin - as expected - shows a high level of compaction, which can hardly be explained with common coarse-grained models. It is possible that environmental effects that are difficult to simulate play a role here. Chromatin is a highly dynamic structure, and its architecture is constantly changing, be it through active processes such as the effect of cohesin investigated here or through thermodynamic interactions of nucleosomes as they are simulated in coarse-grained models. It will take a long time until we adequately understand these dynamic processes and their interplay

The Substantive Scope of Double Tax Treaties - a Study of Article 2 of the OECD Model Conventions

Tax treaty protection from international double taxation only goes as far as the treaty's substantive scope. Nations worldwide have adopted the text of Article 2 of the OECD Model Double Taxation Conventions (headed Taxes covered) in concluding bilateral treaties to prevent double taxation in the area of taxes on income and capital and taxes on estates, inheritances, and on gifts. The wording and structure of Article 2 give rise to a host of ambiguities, creating uncertainty for taxpayers regarding the taxes that come within treaty scope. A research strategy that draws on historic materials documenting the development of Article 2 throughout the League of Nations, OEEC, and OECD seeks to shed light on a provision that has retained its basic format and wording since the 1920s. Recent case law and academic literature are analyzed to gain a clearer picture of the common international concepts expressed in tax treaties that use the formulations proposed in the OECD Model Conventions. The research strategy, conceptual models, and proposed results aim to contribute to the understanding of the "taxes covered" and to guide subsequent research and heighten awareness of problems in the interpretation and application of the provision on substantive scope in tax treaties.(author's abstract

Effect of Extrusion Parameters on Properties of Powder Coatings Determined by Infrared Spectroscopy

In polymer extrusion, compounding is a continuous mixing process that is also used to produce highly reactive powder coatings. A premixed batch of powder coating is added to the feeding section and extruded, preferably by a co-rotating twin-screw extruder. One essential parameter in the processing of highly reactive materials is the melt temperature: If it is too high, pre-reactions occur during the extrusion process, which may cause high rejection rates. We studied the melt temperature of an epoxy/carboxyl-based powder coating using a retractable thermocouple at 3 different axial positions along the barrel of a ZSK34 co-rotating twin-screw extruder. The influence of different processing conditions on the reactivity of a highly reactive powder coating was examined by infrared spectroscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Furthermore, the specific energy input and the color change in the finished powder coating at different processing points were investigated. Multivariate data analysis was used to correlate mid-infrared spectra, melt temperatures, specific energy inputs, enthalpies of reaction and changes in color

Nonradiative limitations to plasmon propagation in chains of metallic nanoparticles

We investigate the collective plasmonic modes in a chain of metallic nanoparticles that are coupled by near-field interactions. The size- and momentum-dependent nonradiative Landau damping and radiative decay rates are calculated analytically within an open quantum system approach. These decay rates determine the excitation propagation along the chain. In particular, the behavior of the radiative decay rate as a function of the plasmon wavelength leads to a transition from an exponential decay of the collective excitation for short distances to an algebraic decay for large distances. Importantly, we show that the exponential decay is of a purely nonradiative origin. Our transparent model enables us to provide analytical expressions for the polarization-dependent plasmon excitation profile along the chain and for the associated propagation length. Our theoretical analysis constitutes an important step in the quest for the optimal conditions for plasmonic propagation in nanoparticle chains.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; v2: published versio