Influence of management practices on quality and biodiversity of tomatoes in Germany

Four old and endangered tomato cultivars were cultivated under greenhouse conditions with different levels of organic N-fertilisation and harvest at different maturity stages in order to develop a conclusive concept to preserve the diversity of old, endangered and multicolour cultivars. First results of several physio-chemical and sensory parameters were analysed to describe product quality. In order to assess consumer acceptance, 550 consumers were interviewed. The individual attributes of the cultivars, which differ in size, shape, colour, taste and health-related, beneficial physio-chemicals, are promoted by optimal harvest time. A combination of these cultivars distributed in regional markets is considered as a suitable concept for saving these endangered cultivars

Molecular gas in blue compact dwarf galaxies

Blue compact dwarf galaxies (BCDGs) are currently undergoing strong bursts of star formation. Nevertheless, only a few of them have been clearly detected in CO, which is thought to trace the "fuel" of star formation: H_2. In this paper, we present a deep search for CO J=1-->0 and J=2-->1 emission lines in a sample of 8 BCDGs and two companions. Only 2 of them (Haro 2 and UM 465) are detected. For the other galaxies we have obtained more stringent upper limits on the CO luminosity than published values. We could not confirm the previously reported ``detection'' of CO for the galaxies UM 456 and UM 462. We analyze a possible relation between metallicity, CO luminosity, and absolute blue magnitude of the galaxies. We use previously determined relations between X = N(H_2)/I_CO and the metallicity to derive molecular cloud masses or upper limits for them. With these ``global'' X_CO values we find that for those galaxies which we detect in CO, the molecular gas mass is similar to the HI mass, whereas for the non-detections, the upper limits on the molecular gas masses are significantly lower than the HI mass. Using an LVG (Large Velocity Gradient) model we show that X_CO depends not only on metallicity, but also on other physical parameters such as volume density and kinetic temperature, which rises the question on the validity of ``global'' X_CO factors.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, to be published on MNRA

Editorial

This issue of the Journal of Façade Design and Engineering is a result of the second façade conference, PowerSkin, held on January 17th 2019, in the context of the building trade fair ‘BAU’ in Munich. The conference was organized collaboratively by TU Munich, TU Darmstadt, and TU Delft. All three universities conduct high-impact research and education in the field of building envelopes. The conference featured a mix of practice and education experiences, as well as scientific contributions, and aimed to answer the key question of the 2019 conference: How can digital tools and methods promote changes that aim towards the decarbonisation of the built environment and the improvement of well-being? The 2019 conference focused on the envelope as an integral part of the building and its energy system, as well as the main driver to create comfort. Thus, the envelope is understood in its condition of being a complex interface to the social, economic, and climatic environment in which we build our cities. The interaction between these topics, the influences they create, and the digital tools that have been developed and used to design and engineer building envelopes are the main focus points of each of the papers published in this issue. We thank our guest editors Thomas Auer (TU Munich) and Jens Schneider (TU Darmstadt), and their respective teams, who have been key partners in creating this special issue

Little Boxes: A Dynamic Optimization Approach for Enhanced Cloud Infrastructures

The increasing demand for diverse, mobile applications with various degrees of Quality of Service requirements meets the increasing elasticity of on-demand resource provisioning in virtualized cloud computing infrastructures. This paper provides a dynamic optimization approach for enhanced cloud infrastructures, based on the concept of cloudlets, which are located at hotspot areas throughout a metropolitan area. In conjunction, we consider classical remote data centers that are rigid with respect to QoS but provide nearly abundant computation resources. Given fluctuating user demands, we optimize the cloudlet placement over a finite time horizon from a cloud infrastructure provider's perspective. By the means of a custom tailed heuristic approach, we are able to reduce the computational effort compared to the exact approach by at least three orders of magnitude, while maintaining a high solution quality with a moderate cost increase of 5.8% or less

Imagine: Deflateables

Pneumatic structures are thoroughly investigated and developed during the 1960s. However, the energy crisis and aesthetic developments impeded the use of these structures as a mainstream construction method. Nowadays, they are typically used in special areas of architecture and design. Deflateables concentrates on the very limited knowledge of vacuum constructions and develops a range of aesthetic, technical and functional design possibilities. However, very few designs that use pressurised constructions have actually been realised, even right down to the present day - despite the fact that this technology offers simple, positive aspects: the air pressure of the earth can be used as a stabilising and form-giving parameter, creating a specific and inspiring shape. In addition, the very nature of this technology provides varying degrees of thermal and acoustic insulation. Of course, there are weak points such as potential leakage and the need for high pressurisation of the construction; but new material technologies and specific structural concepts will bring solutions to such issues. Exploiting the possibilities of extremely light and energetically active constructions, deflateables are one of the promising fields of architectural and design developments. The chance to create structures that can move and react to requests such as user and climate requirements, as well as formative demands, lifts this topic onto the level of a realistic and usable technology for as-yet unknown design possibilities.&nbsp