Changed temporal processing in the human auditory cortex by transcranial direct current stimulation

von M. Sc. Kai Heimrat

Optimizing Reinforcement: Structural Analysis, Challenges and Strategies

The combination of parametric modelling with structural analysis prompted new synergies between designing and engineering. The connection of structural calculation models such as Karamba3d to algorithmic modelling platforms such as Grasshopper3d allowed to embed tools for analysis and simulation into the environment of creative design processes. This way structural analysis advanced from its single sided calculation “duty” towards participation in design language of articulated structural expression.  3d-concrete-printing serves as a great new territory to apply the potential of real-time parametric structural analysis in the built environment of rapid prototyping and robotic fabrication. While 3d-printed-concrete rapidly advanced in technology and empiric know-how, so also grew the ambition to utilize them for larger purposes and bigger building projects. Known requirements such as structural integrity according to building code, interfaces for construction or waterproofing pose clear challenges for further realizations. In order to develop 3d-concrete-printing to its full potential all challenges must serve as opportunities to dissect and rethink established norms and practices, and to construct a new interdisciplinary rule book for an emerging building technology. In this field working through challenges via prototypes serve as great basis for development and allows for an applied discourse within the wider community. Furthermore to address challenges a flexible toolbox for structural analysis such as Karamba3d offers the potential to serve as an open instrument for structural analysis and to promote 3d-concrete-printing within that interdisciplinary effort to its next level. On the one hand the tool enables to suggest customized and optimized rebar layouts which could support the development of 3D-concrete-printing further. By enabling this more customizable calculation and tailored real time feedback for complex structures, solutions can develop more structurally informed. On the other hand, recent developments with Karamba3D within our office of Bollinger+Grohmann have shown the possibility of real time feedback loops between the physical printing process and the digital calculation model. Both developments show the potential that material systems can be optimized towards specific patterns or values of forces, or structures can be evaluated in real time for their load bearing capacity while hardening during printing

Landeskundeunterricht zum Nationalsozialismus. Ein Praxisbericht aus der Mongolei

In einer Umfrage bei den fortgeschrittenen Studierenden an der Deutschen Abteilung der Nationaluniversität der Mo n- golei wurde festgestellt, dass der Name Hitler sehr bekannt und mit e iner positiven Konnotation verbunden ist. Dagegen gab es keine Kenntnisse über die Zeit des Nationalsozialismus in Deutschland. Mehrere weitere Beobachtungen lassen darüber hinaus in der Mongolei und in anderen Ländern eine bestimmte Hitler - Verehrung erken nen. Vor diesem Hintergrund wurde im Jahr 2012 an der Deutschen Abteilung der Nationaluniversität der Mongolei eine Unterricht s- sequenz zum Thema Nationalsozialismus in Deutschland durchgeführt. Die wichtigsten Themen sind dabei die Persönlichkeit des Dikt ators, der Werdegang der NSDAP während der Weimarer Republik und das Schicksal der jüdischen Bevölkerung in Deutschland vor und insbesondere nach der Machtergreifung Hitlers. Die Sequenz dient der Relativierung des Hitler - Bildes im Bewusstsein der Studiere nden und der Vermittlung von Kenntnissen zur Geschichte des 20. Jahrhunderts als Grundlage einer Entwicklung, die zu zwei deutschen Staaten und ihrer späteren Vereinigung führte. Die Sequenz ist auf vergleichbare Unterrichtssituationen in anderen Ländern übertragbar

Lubomir Tyllner (Hg.), Thomas Anton Kunz. Böhmische Nationalgesänge und Tänze. Ceske narodní zpěvy a tance, 2 Bände, Prag 1995 [Rezension]

Die Ende des Jahres 1995 in Prag mit Unterstützung durch das Kulturministerium der tschechischen Republik, das Bayerische Staatsministerium für Arbeit und Sozialordnung und das Sudetendeutsche Musikinstitut in Regensburg erschienene Publikation gehört zweifellos zu den wichtigsten Arbeiten der böhmischen Musikethnographie der letzten Jahre

Potential Performance Enhancement of a Solar Combisystem with an Intelligent Controller

Solar thermal systems in residential buildings are generally controlled by two-level controllers, which activate solar thermal or at times with low solar radiation auxiliary energy supply into a thermal storage. Simple controllers do not have any information on actual or expected solar radiation. This leads to interference of auxiliary- and solar heat supply, which reduces the share of solar thermal energy fed into the thermal storage. Increasing accuracy of weather forecast data suggests incorporation of this information in the control algorithm. This work analyzes the maximum potential performance enhancement when applying such an intelligent predictive control. Two solar thermal systems with one auxiliary source respectively are designed in TRNSYS - these systems represent the base case. Further, a number of simulations are conducted with minor variations for the plant parameters - this gives generic results for different system configurations. In addition, each system configuration is altered to mimic the behavior of a plant with intelligent predictive control. Comparison of results indicates an improvement potential up to 10% for annual solar fractions and up to 30% for monthly solar fractions. The performance bound with respect to the annual auxiliary energy savings is approximately 8%

Behavioral and Electrophysiological Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Parietal Cortex in a Visuo-Spatial Working Memory Task

Impairments of working memory (WM) performance are frequent concomitant symptoms in several psychiatric and neurologic diseases. Despite the great advance in treating the reduced WM abilities in patients suffering from, e.g., Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease by means of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), the exact neurophysiological underpinning subserving these therapeutic tDCS-effects are still unknown. In the present study we investigated the impact of tDCS on performance in a visuo-spatial WM task and its underlying neural activity. In three experimental sessions, participants performed a delayed matching-to-sample WM task after sham, anodal, and cathodal tDCS over the right parietal cortex. The results showed that tDCS modulated WM performance and its underlying electrophysiological brain activity in a polarity-specific way. Parietal tDCS altered event-related potentials and oscillatory power in the alpha band at posterior electrode sites. The present study demonstrates that posterior tDCS can alter visuo-spatial WM performance by modulating the underlying neural activity. This result can be considered an important step toward a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in tDCS-induced modulations of cognitive processing. This is of particular importance for the application of electrical brain stimulation as a therapeutic treatment of neuropsychiatric deficits in clinical populations

Beiträge zur Geschichte des Landkreises Regensburg 44

Altbayerisches Weinland an der Donau - Der Baierwein in der Umgebung Regensburgs; darin: Heimrath, Margarete: Das Biethaus in Bach, ein historisches Denkmal zum Weinbau (S. 5-13); Heimrath, Margarete: Das Arbeitsjahr des Winzers (S. 14-16); Naumann, Günter: Das Biethaus in Bach an der Donau - Baugeschichte und bauliches Konzept (S. 17-21); Häußler, Theodor, Die Baumpresse (S. 22-27); Häußler, Theodor: Der Baierwein einst und jetzt (S. 28-44