The Advocate

Birnbaum Wins Keefe Award; Favors Moot Court Board; The Return of the Death Penaltyhttps://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/student_the_advocate/1057/thumbnail.jp

Workforce Rostering for Tomorrow's Industry: The Workforce Scheduling Dilemma in Decentrally Controlled Production Systems

The workforce rostering for tomorrow’s industry needs to be reconsidered. The development of new types of production control mechanisms, like decentralized production control, impacts the effectivity and efficiency of workforce rostering methods, too. Simultaneously, social trends, like the growing demand of flexible working time models and labor shortages, take their influence on the rostering process. We are facing these requirements by developing a new rostering method which is appropriate for decentrally controlled production systems, the consideration of individual preferred working times independent of rigid shift systems and the simultaneous targeting of production-related performance variables. Therefore, we apply a simulation-based optimization approach which is based on a genetic algorithm

DEVELOPMENT OF THE DIRECT ROVING PLACEMENT TECHNOLOGY (DRP)

The Direct Roving Placement (DRP) technology is in development at the Institute of Composite Structures and Adaptive Systems of the German Aerospace Center (DLR). A fully functional robotic unit that is able to produce dry glass or carbon fiber preforms has been set up at the Center for Lightweight Production Technology (ZLP) in Stade. All relevant process and material parameters that have an influence on the mechanical properties of parts being built with the DRP technology, are investigated. The main advantages of this new fiber placement technology are low material costs and high productivity. The core of the technology, the end-effector, is able to process raw carbon fibers as well as glass fiber rovings. The biggest difference compared to other placement technologies is the integrated online binder application system. The binder system is used to keep the fiber rovings fixed in position, after they have been applied onto a three-dimensional tooling surface. In addition, the online application of a binder provides multiple options of individually tuning the mechanical properties of the preform or the final part

Automatisierte Generierung und Simulation von Hyper-Heuristiken für stochastische Multi-Modus-Multi-Projekt-ressourcenbeschränkte Projekt- und Systemplanungsprobleme mit Umrüstzeiten

A simulation framework is presented which covers both generation and simulation of production planning and control problems which include transfer times and stochastic influences and therefore extend classical multi-mode multi-project RCPSPs. This allows for systematic and in-depth investigations of the quality and the behaviour of heuristics. In addition, the automated design of heuristics based on Boolean operators applied to relations of problem specific quantities leads on average to better results than a manual selection and adjustment of heuristic strategies

First-principles many-body study of the electronic and optical properties of CsK2Sb, a semiconducting material for ultra-bright electron sources

We present a comprehensive first-principles investigation of the electronic and optical properties of CsK2Sb, a semiconducting material for ultra-bright electron sources for particle accelerators. Our study, based on density-functional theory and many-body perturbation theory, provides all the ingredients to model the emission of this material as a photocathode, including band gap, band dispersion, and optical absorption. An accurate description of these properties beyond the mean-field picture is relevant to take into account many-body effects. We discuss our results in the context of state-of-the-art electron sources for particle accelerators to set the stage towards improved modeling of quantum efficiency, intrinsic emittance, and other relevant quantities determining the macroscopic characteristics of photocathodes for ultra-bright beams.Peer Reviewe

Forschendes Lernen im industriellen Projektmanagement

Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die systematische Entwicklung, experimentelle Durchführung und die lernzielgesteuerte Evaluation der hochschuldidaktischen Konzeption Forschendes Lernen am Beispiel der Lehr-Lern-Veranstaltung Industrielles Projektmanagement im Ingenieurstudium der Technischen Universität Dortmund untersucht und dokumentiert. Ausgangspunkt der Konzeption und dieses Beitrags ist die Motivation der Autoren, ein Thema wie Projektmanagement in einem Format zu vermitteln, das sich durch Orientierung an fachlichen und überfachlichen Kompetenzen als Lernziele auszeichnet und zudem Formen des aktives Lernen vorsieht, die nicht nur den Lernerfolg deutlich unterstützen, sondern auch mit der Praxis des Projektmanagement kompatibel sind. Auf Grundlage der Evaluationsergebnisse werden die Wirkung sowie erste Schritte zur Verbesserung der Konzeption diskutiert. 13.12.2010 | Thorsten Jungmann (Dortmund), Frank Kühn (Dortmund), Christopher Nimsch (Wetter

Real de-escalation or escalation in disguise?

The past two decades have seen an unprecedented trend towards de-escalation of surgical therapy in the setting of early BC, the most prominent examples being the reduction of re-excision rates for close surgical margins after breast-conserving surgery and replacing axillary lymph node dissection by less radical procedures such as sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB). Numerous studies confirmed that reducing the extent of surgery in the upfront surgery setting does not impact locoregional recurrences and overall outcome. In the setting of primary systemic treatment, there is an increased use of less invasive staging strategies reaching from SLNB and targeted lymph node biopsy (TLNB) to targeted axillary dissection (TAD). Omission of any axillary surgery in the presence of pathological complete response in the breast is currently being investigated in clinical trials. On the other hand, concerns have been raised that surgical de-escalation might induce an escalation of other treatment modalities such as radiation therapy. Since most trials on surgical de-escalation did not include standardized protocols for adjuvant radiotherapy, it remains unclear, whether the effect of surgical de-escalation was valid in itself or if radiotherapy compensated for the decreased surgical extent. Uncertainties in scientific evidence may therefore lead to escalation of radiotherapy in some settings of surgical de-escalation. Further, the increasing rate of mastectomies including contralateral procedures in patients without genetic risk is alarming. Future studies of locoregional treatment strategies need to include an interdisciplinary approach to integrate de-escalation approaches combining surgery and radiotherapy in a way that promotes optimal quality of life and shared decision-making

Liegen die Ursachen für den Lehrkräftemangel schon in der universitären Lehrkräftebildung? Erste Antworten auf Basis des Projekts "Wege aus dem Lehramtsstudium"

Die Zahl der Lehramtsstudierenden, die ihr Studium abbrechen und die Universität ohne Abschluss verlassen, ist seit Jahren weitgehend unverändert – so reduziert sich die Zahl potenzieller Lehrkräfte, die dem System Schule nicht zur Verfügung stehen, bereits recht früh, was zur weiteren Verschärfung des Lehrkräftemangels beiträgt. Die Frage nach Gründen für solche Abbrüche beantwortet die Forschung mit Hinweisen auf die multikausale Bedingtheit und Prozesshaftigkeit des Phänomens. Während es einige Studien zu allgemeinen Ursachen und Bedingungskonstellationen für den Abbruch des Lehramtsstudiums gibt, mangelt es bis dato jedoch an Arbeiten, die den Verlauf des Abbruchs in einem biographischen Gesamtzusammenhang betrachten. In diesem Beitrag werden erste Ergebnisse einer qualitativen Studie mit (ehemaligen) Lehramtsstudierenden vorgestellt, die den Abbruch bereits vollzogen haben. Auf der Basis von narrativ-autobiographischen Interviews erfolgt eine rekonstruktive Analyse von Anlässen, Verläufen und Bedingungskonstellationen des Studienabbruchs, und es wird Stellung zur Frage genommen, ob bzw. inwiefern die universitäre Lehrkräftebildung Ursachen des Lehrkräftemangels bedingt. Eine Diskussion möglicher Ansatzpunkte zur Verminderung des Lehrkräftemangels rundet den Beitrag ab. (DIPF/Orig.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa lectin LecB inhibits tissue repair processes by triggering β-catenin degradation

AbstractPseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic pathogen that induces severe lung infections such as ventilator-associated pneumonia and acute lung injury. Under these conditions, the bacterium diminishes epithelial integrity and inhibits tissue repair mechanisms, leading to persistent infections. Understanding the involved bacterial virulence factors and their mode of action is essential for the development of new therapeutic approaches.In our study we discovered a so far unknown effect of the P. aeruginosa lectin LecB on host cell physiology. LecB alone was sufficient to attenuate migration and proliferation of human lung epithelial cells and to induce transcriptional activity of NF-κB. These effects are characteristic of impaired tissue repair. Moreover, we found a strong degradation of β-catenin, which was partially recovered by the proteasome inhibitor lactacystin. In addition, LecB induced loss of cell–cell contacts and reduced expression of the β-catenin targets c-myc and cyclin D1. Blocking of LecB binding to host cell plasma membrane receptors by soluble l-fucose prevented these changes in host cell behavior and signaling, and thereby provides a powerful strategy to suppress LecB function.Our findings suggest that P. aeruginosa employs LecB as a virulence factor to induce β-catenin degradation, which then represses processes that are directly linked to tissue recovery