Curved Glass – Quality and Application

The desire of modern architecture for free form structures opens a large market forcurved glass. Compared to flat glass, the production of curved glass is much moredifficult because of additional parameters through the bending process. Since thereis no standard available for curved glass in construction so far, at present the rulesfor flat glass are being considered. However, several cases of damage show that theapplication of curved glass needs own regulations to avoid glass breakage on theconstruction site. Therefore, the Munich University of Applied Sciences and theRWTH Aachen University have performed a research program [1] concerning thequality control and criteria of curved glass

Assessment of neuroactive steroids in cerebrospinal fluid comparing acute relapse and stable disease in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

Previous studies have reported an involvement of neuroactive steroids as neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory agents in neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis (MS); an analysis of their profile during a specific clinical phase of MS is largely unknown. The pregnenolone (PREG), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and allopregnanolone (ALLO) profile was evaluated in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RR-MS) patients as well as those in patients affected by non-inflammatory neurological (control group I) and without neurological disorders (control group II). An increase of PREG and DHEA values was shown in CSF of male and female RR-MS patients compared to those observed in both control groups. The ALLO values were significantly lower in female RR-MS patients than those found in male RR-MS patients and in female without neurological disorder. During the clinical relapse, we observed female RR-MS patients showing significantly increased PREG values compared to female RR-MS patients in stable phase, while their ALLO values showed a significant decrease compared to male RR-MS patients of the same group. Male RR-MS patients with gadolinium-enhanced lesions showed PREG and DHEA values higher than those found in female RR-MS patients with gadolinium-enhanced lesions. Similary, male RR-MS patients with gadolinium-enhanced lesions showed PREG and DHEA values higher than male without gadolinium-enhanced lesions. Female RR-MS patients with gadolinium-enhanced lesions showed DHEA values higher than those found in female RR-MS patients with gadolinium-enhanced lesions. Male and female RR-MS patients with gadolinium-enhanced lesions showed ALLO values higher than those found in respective gender groups without gadolinium-enhanced lesions. ALLO values were lower in male than in female RR-MS patients without gadolinium-enhanced lesions. Considering the pharmacological properties of neuroactive steroids and the observation that neurological disorders influence their concentrations, these endogenous compounds may have an important role as prognostic factors of the disease and used as markers of MS activity such as relapses

Managing maize under pest species competition: is Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) maize the solution?

Transgenic crops that contain Cry genes from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) have been adopted by farmers over the last 17 years. Unlike traditional broad spectrum chemical insecticides, Bt's toxicity spectrum is relatively narrow and selective, which may indirectly benefit secondary insects that may become important pests. The economic damage caused by the rise of secondary pests could offset some or all of the benefits associated with the use of Bt varieties. We develop a bioeconomic model to analyze the interactions between primary and secondary insect populations and the impact of different management options on insecticide use and economic impact over time. Results indicate that some of the benefits associated with the adoption of genetically engineered insect resistant crops may be eroded when taking into account ecological dynamics. It is suggested that secondary pests could easily become key insect pests requiring additional measures - such as insecticide applications or stacked traits – to keep their populations under the economic threshold

Digital technologies, legal design and the future of the legal profession

Legal Technology – or “Legal Tech” – is disrupting the traditional operations and self-understanding of the legal profession. This chapter introduces the central claim of this book, namely that these developments are having and will continue to have a disruptive effect on the work of lawyers and that adapting to this new operating environment is crucial for legal professionals remaining relevant in an increasingly technology-driven world. This introductory chapter outlines some of the main features of this on-going transformation process, introduces some of the pressures it is creating for lawyers, and provides short summaries of the chapters that comprise this collection.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Beam mask and sliding window-facilitated deep learning-based accurate and efficient dose prediction for pencil beam scanning proton therapy

Purpose: To develop a DL-based PBSPT dose prediction workflow with high accuracy and balanced complexity to support on-line adaptive proton therapy clinical decision and subsequent replanning. Methods: PBSPT plans of 103 prostate cancer patients and 83 lung cancer patients previously treated at our institution were included in the study, each with CTs, structure sets, and plan doses calculated by the in-house developed Monte-Carlo dose engine. For the ablation study, we designed three experiments corresponding to the following three methods: 1) Experiment 1, the conventional region of interest (ROI) method. 2) Experiment 2, the beam mask (generated by raytracing of proton beams) method to improve proton dose prediction. 3) Experiment 3, the sliding window method for the model to focus on local details to further improve proton dose prediction. A fully connected 3D-Unet was adopted as the backbone. Dose volume histogram (DVH) indices, 3D Gamma passing rates, and dice coefficients for the structures enclosed by the iso-dose lines between the predicted and the ground truth doses were used as the evaluation metrics. The calculation time for each proton dose prediction was recorded to evaluate the method's efficiency. Results: Compared to the conventional ROI method, the beam mask method improved the agreement of DVH indices for both targets and OARs and the sliding window method further improved the agreement of the DVH indices. For the 3D Gamma passing rates in the target, OARs, and BODY (outside target and OARs), the beam mask method can improve the passing rates in these regions and the sliding window method further improved them. A similar trend was also observed for the dice coefficients. In fact, this trend was especially remarkable for relatively low prescription isodose lines. The dose predictions for all the testing cases were completed within 0.25s

The influence of the viewpoint in a self-avatar on body part and self-localization

The goal of this study is to determine how a self-avatar in virtual reality, experienced from different viewpoints on the body (at eye- or chest-height), might influence body part localization, as well as self-localization within the body. Previous literature shows that people do not locate themselves in only one location, but rather primarily in the face and the upper torso. Therefore, we aimed to determine if manipulating the viewpoint to either the height of the eyes or to the height of the chest would influence self-location estimates towards these commonly identified locations of self. In a virtual reality (VR) headset, participants were asked to point at sev- eral of their body parts (body part localization) as well as "directly at you" (self-localization) with a virtual pointer. Both pointing tasks were performed before and after a self-avatar adaptation phase where participants explored a co-located, scaled, gender-matched, and animated self-avatar. We hypothesized that experiencing a self-avatar might reduce inaccuracies in body part localization, and that viewpoint would influence pointing responses for both body part and self-localization. Participants overall pointed relatively accurately to some of their body parts (shoulders, chin, and eyes), but very inaccurately to others, with large undershooting for the hips, knees, and feet, and large overshooting for the top of the head. Self-localization was spread across the body (as well as above the head) with the following distribution: the upper face (25%), the up- per torso (25%), above the head (15%) and below the torso (12%). We only found an influence of viewpoint (eye- vs chest-height) during the self-avatar adaptation phase for body part localization and not for self-localization. The overall change in error distance for body part localization for the viewpoint at eye-height was small (M = –2.8 cm), while the overall change in error distance for the viewpoint at chest-height was significantly larger, and in the upwards direction relative to the body parts (M = 21.1 cm). In a post-questionnaire, there was no significant difference in embodiment scores between the viewpoint conditions. Most interestingly, having a self-avatar did not change the results on the self-localization pointing task, even with a novel viewpoint (chest-height). Possibly, body-based cues, or memory, ground the self when in VR. However, the present results caution the use of altered viewpoints in applications where veridical position sense of body parts is required

Long term aging of Selenide glasses: Evidence of sub-Tg endotherms and pre-Tg exotherms

Long term aging is studied on several families of chalcogenide glasses including the Ge-Se, As-Se, Ge-P-Se and Ge-As-Se systems. Special attention is given to the As-Se binary, a system that displays a rich variety of aging behavior intimately tied to sample synthesis conditions and the ambient environment in which samples are aged. Calorimetric (Modulated DSC) and Raman scattering experiments are undertaken. Our results show all samples display a sub-Tg endotherm below Tg in glassy networks possessing a mean coordination number r in the 2.25 < r < 2.45 range. Two sets of AsxSe1-x samples aged for 8 years were compared, set A consisted of slow cooled samples aged in the dark, and set B consisted of melt quenched samples aged at laboratory environment. Samples of set B in the As concentration range, 35% < x < 60%, display a pre-Tg exotherm, but the feature is not observed in samples of set A. The aging behavior of set A presumably represents intrinsic aging in these glasses, while that of set B is extrinsic due to presence of light. The reversibility window persists in both sets of samples but is less well defined in set B. These findings contrast with a recent study by Golovchak et al., which finds the onset of the reversibility window moved up to the stoichiometric composition (x = 40%). Here we show that the upshifted window is better understood as resulting due to demixing of As4Se4 and As4Se3 molecules from the backbone, i.e., Nanoscale phase separation (NSPS). We attribute sub-Tg endotherms to compaction of the flexible part of networks upon long term aging, while the pre-Tg exotherm to NSPS. Finally, the narrowing and sharpening of the reversibility window upon aging is interpreted as the slow 'self-organizing' stress relaxation of the phases just outside the Intermediate phase.Comment: In press - J. of Physics: Condensed Matte