Engineering design in a different way: cognitive perspective on the contact and channel model approach

Engineering design often involves the integration of new design ideas into existing products, requiring designers to think simultaneously about abstract properties and functions as well as concrete solution constraints. Often designers struggle to reason with functional descriptions, while not fixating on existing solutions. This paper introduces the Contact & Channel Model (C&CM) approach, which combines abstract functional models of technical systems with the concrete geometric descriptions that many designers are familiar with. By locating functions at working surface pairs, they receive a concrete location in mental models. The C&CM approach can be applied to analyze existing product descriptions and synthesize creative new solutions for parts of the system or for entire new systems. At the moment the approach is being developed into an complete modeling and problem solving approach. C&CM has been used for several years in undergraduate engineering teaching at the University of Karlsruhe (TH) and is increasingly being introduced into industry by its use in research and development projects, by its students and its alumni

Α multi-method characterization of borosilicate glasses doped with 1 up to 10 mol% of Fe, Ti and Sb

The model glasses NBS1 and NBS2 are sodium borosilicate glasses of high intrinsic UV transmission. Although both glasses have an SiO2 content of 74 mol%, they possess different matrix structures due to varied Na2O / B2O3 ratios. Nonbridging oxygens occur in the NBS1 but not in the NBS2 glass. Fe, Ti and Sb oxides were added at concentrations of 1 and 10mol% to study valence, coordination and site distribution. XANES, Mössbauer, optical absorption, photoluminescence and EPR spectroscopy provided an insight into the structures and near range environments of the dopants. Large differences were found for the two Fe doped glasses. The presence of nonbridging oxygens in NBS1 glass leads to a higher solubility of the Fe ions and a higher ratio of tetrahedral over octahedral Fe3+ coordination while a clustering of Fe ions resulting in a lowered UV and VIS transmission is observed in NBS2 glass. In Ti doped glasses EPR and XANES spectroscopy shows that most Ti occurs as Ti4+, in four-, five- and sixfold coordination. Optical spectra of Ti4+ display high intensity charge transfer transitions in the UV region. Ti4+ photoluminescence in the visible range is of low intensity. Optical absorption, XANES and Mössbauer spectroscopy could only detect Sb3+ in the antimony doped glasses. The photoluminescence of Sb3+ is much stronger in the NBS1 than in the NBS2 glass

Conversion of Anergic T Cells Into Foxp3−^- IL-10+^+ Regulatory T Cells by a Second Antigen Stimulus In Vivo

T cell anergy is a common mechanism of T cell tolerance. However, although anergic T cells are retained for longer time periods in their hosts, they remain functionally passive. Here, we describe the induction of anergic CD4$^+$ T cells in vivo by intravenous application of high doses of antigen and their subsequent conversion into suppressive Foxp3$^-$ IL-10$^+$ Tr1 cells but not Foxp3$^+$ Tregs. We describe the kinetics of up-regulation of several memory-, anergy- and suppression-related markers such as CD44, CD73, FR4, CD25, CD28, PD-1, Egr-2, Foxp3 and CTLA-4 in this process. The conversion into suppressive Tr1 cells correlates with the transient intracellular CTLA-4 expression and required the restimulation of anergic cells in a short-term time window. Restimulation after longer time periods, when CTLA-4 is down-regulated again retains the anergic state but does not lead to the induction of suppressor function. Our data require further functional investigations but at this stage may suggest a role for anergic T cells as a circulating pool of passive cells that may be re-activated into Tr1 cells upon short-term restimulation with high and systemic doses of antigen. It is tentative to speculate that such a scenario may represent cases of allergen responses in non-allergic individuals

Coordination Polymers Based on [Cp*FeACHTUNGTRENUNG(h5-P5)]:\ud MAS NMR Studies

Slow diffusion reactions of the pentaphosphaferrocene ['CP AST'FE'('eta POT. 5-'P IND. 5')] ('CP AST'='eta POT. 5'- 'C IND. 5''ME IND. 5'. (1)) with 'CU'X (X='CL', 'BR', I) in different stoichiometric ratios and solvent mixtures result in the formation of one- and two-dimensional polymeric compounds 2-6 with molecular formula '[{'CU'('mü'-X)}-{'CP AST''FE'('mü IND.3','eta POT. 5':'eta POT. 1':'eta POT. 1'-'P IND. 5')}] IND. n' (X='CL' (2a), I (2'c)), '[{'CU'('mü'-I)}-{'CP AST''FE'('mü IND.3','eta POT. 5':'eta POT. 1':'eta POT. 1'-'P IND. 5')}] IND. n'(3), '[{'CU'('mü'-X)}-{'CP AST''FE'('mü IND.4','eta POT. 5':'eta POT. 1':'eta POT. 1'-'P IND. 5')}] IND. n' (X='CL' (4a), 'BR' (4b), I (4c), 'BR' (4'b), I (4'c)), '[{'CU IND.3''('mü'-I) IND. 2'('mü IND. 3'-I)}- {'CP AST''FE'('mü IND. 5','eta POT. 5':'eta POT. 1':'eta POT. 1':'eta POT. 1''P IND. 5')}] IND n' (5) and '[{'CU IND. 4''('mü'-X) IND. 4'(C'H IND. 3'CN)}- {'CP AST''FE'('mü IND. 7','eta POT. 5':'eta POT. 2':'eta POT. 1':'eta POT 1':'eta POT. 1'-'P IND. 5')}] IND n'(X='CL' (6a), 'BR' (6b)), respectively. The polymeric compounds have been characterised by single-crystal X-ray diffraction analyses and, for selected examples, by magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectroscopy. The solidstate structures demonstrate the versatile coordination modes of the cyclo-'P IND. 5' ligand of 1, extending from two to five coordinating phosphorus atoms in either 'sigma' or 'sigma'-and-'pi' fashion. In compounds 2a, 2'c and 3, two phosphorus atoms of 1 coordinate to copper atoms in a 1,2 coordination mode (2a, 2'c) and an unprecedented 1,3 coordination mode (3) to form one-dimensional polymers. Compounds 4a-c, 4'b, 4'c and 5 represent two-dimensional coordination polymers. In compounds 4, three phosphorus atoms coordinate to copper atoms in a 1,2,4 coordination mode, whereas in 5 the cyclo-'P IND. 5' ligand binds in an unprecedented 1,2,3,4 coordination mode. The crystal structures of 6a,b display a tilted tube, in which all P atoms of the cyclo-'P IND. 5' ligand are coordinated to copper atoms in 'sigma'- and 'pi'-bonding modes.Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (projects Sche 384/26- 1 and Ec168/10, “Supramolecular Aggregations

Jungkurth, Lisa/Otterbein, Jutta: Energieeffizienzklasse A. Nachhaltiger Berufsschulunterricht mithilfe der Themenzentrierten Interaktion. Hamburg: Diplomica-Verlag 2013. [Rezension]

Rezension von: Lisa Jungkurth / Jutta Otterbein Energieeffizienzklasse A. Nachhaltiger Berufsschulunterricht mithilfe der Themenzentrierten Interaktion. Hamburg: Diplomica-Verlag 2013, 90 S. ISBN 978-3-8428-4679-

The German Financial Market : An Empirical investigation into the Natural Stackelberg situation and initial public offering

Chapter two examines empirically which kind of competition serves the German Financial Market best.  Empirical results from unique time series data sets suggest three important findings:  First, trades offered in the stock exchanges under investigation can be seen as differentiated goods.  Second, playing a sequential game is most beneficial for all stock exchanges in Germany, and third, given the facts, the degree of information revelation is greater in the case of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.  Given a huge gap in existing literature I contribute in this paper by applying industrial organization (IO) theory to the securities industry and testing it by the mentioned data sets which have not been used in any empirical investigation so far.  As not all desired data was available, I constructed so-called “proxies” representing the missing data sets. Chapter three examines the listing decision of German initial public offerings (IPOs).  Results from cross-sectional data of the German financial market suggest 5 important findings:  First, smaller and riskier firms list in a dealer market.  Second, younger firms are more likely to list in a dealer market.  Third, IPO listings weakly cluster by industry, i.e., software and technology firms are more likely to list on the Neuer Markt segment than other firms.  Fourth, follow-on strategies and other included qualitative variables do not play an important part in the listing decision of German IPOs, the fifth, the German dealer market was created not as a competitor for the auction market but to provide market maker sponsorship.  I contribute by defining qualitative and quantitative variables that describe the German market best, receiving thus a unique data set and using it for empirical investigation. Chapter four investigates different cost components IPOs are faced with.  There are three findings: First, in the dealer market benefits are higher than costs for young and small IPOs.  Second, there exists no real competition in the considered segments, and third, well known IPOs will be guided straight into the auction market, the 1st market segment.  I contribute again by defining variables that describe the German Financial Market in analysing financial statements, balance sheets, profit and loss accounts, etc., constructing unique data sets which are non-existing so far.  Different variables to the ones used in Chapter Three are the different Cost Components, Underwriter Market Share, Venture Backed Capital, and dummies called 1st Segment and NM.</p

The German financial market : an empirical investigation into the natural Stackelberg situation and initial public offering

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Farmer objectives and livestock functions

This publication has been made possible as a result of generous financial support from the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Ottawa.In order to properly describe livestock functions in the Communal Lands of Zimbabwe, and to understand farmers' objectives with respect to livestock, a close look at the farming systems and the environment in which these systems have developed is necessary.A position paper on livestock production and management in rural Zimbabwe