Guide for the microscopical identification of ore and gangue minerals

Reflected-light microscopy is an essential method in earth and materials sciences for the observation of opaque minerals in rocks, metallic ores, coals, and of synthetic phases in slags, cements, metalls/alloys and coal. In contrast to other analytic investigations, ore microscopy does not only allow for the identification of many minerals but also enables the user to characterise their intergrowths and fabrics, resulting in the interpretation of their genesis and of the subsequent transformation processes, like alteration, replacement, exsolution and deformation. This guide is intended to serve as an introduction and helpful resource for geosciences students and professionals in the industry for identifying important opaque minerals and some synthetic phases. It includes the optical properties of 130 ore and gangue minerals as well as at least four photomicrographs of their typical appearances, textures, and assemblages.Publishe

Guide for the microscopical identification of ore and gangue minerals

Reflected-light microscopy is an essential method in earth and materials sciences for the observation of opaque minerals in rocks, metallic ores, coals, and of synthetic phases in slags, cements, metalls/alloys and coal. In contrast to other analytic investigations, ore microscopy does not only allow for the identification of many minerals but also enables the user to characterise their intergrowths and fabrics, resulting in the interpretation of their genesis and of the subsequent transformation processes, like alteration, replacement, exsolution and deformation. This guide is intended to serve as an introduction and helpful resource for geosciences students and professionals in the industry for identifying important opaque minerals and some synthetic phases. It includes the optical properties of 130 ore and gangue minerals as well as at least four photomicrographs of their typical appearances, textures, and assemblages.Die überarb. 2. Aufl. kann unter: http://hdl.handle.net/10900/97483 aufgerufen werden

Menschen in extremer Armut: im Auftrag des Bundesministeriums für Gesundheit und Soziale Sicherung

"Im Rahmen einer qualitativ explorativen Studie werden extreme Formen der Armut in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland untersucht. Dazu wird anhand biographischer Interviews mit Menschen in prekären Versorgungslagen eine operationale Definition 'extrem Armer' entwickelt, die es erlaubt, extrem Arme zu identifizieren und umfassend zu erforschen. In dieser Untersuchung gilt als extrem arm ein in Deutschland lebender Mensch, der den minimalen Lebensstandard eines in Deutschland Lebenden deutlich unterschreitet und diese Lebenslage nicht aus eigener Kraft verlassen kann. Die Studie arbeitet danach mit einer Armutskonzeption, in der sowohl die 'Lebenslage' als auch die 'Ressourcen' des Einzelnen maßgebend sind. Der Begriff der Ressource wird dabei weit gefasst - viel weiter als im Ressourcenansatz der etablierten Armutsforschung: Er beinhaltet Vermögenswerte, Qualifikationen und Erfahrungen, den Zugang zu Leistungen sozialer Netzwerke, die Möglichkeit des Zugriffs auf Leistungen des sozialen Hilfesystems der Bundesrepublik Deutschland - um die wichtigsten Teilgrößen zu nennen. Der Eintritt in extreme Armut wird - da das Hilfesystem der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Anspruchsberechtigten in Notlagen Hilfen bereitstellt, mit denen sie den minimalen Lebensstandard nicht oder allenfalls kurzzeitig unterschreiten müssen - in engem Zusammenhang mit dem Hilfesystem gesehen: Wird eine Person extrem arm, so hat dies damit zu tun, dass es in einer Notsituation bzw. bei drohendem Eintritt einer solchen Notsituation zwischen ihr und dem sozialen Hilfesystem nicht zu einer fruchtbaren Kooperation kommt, aufgrund derer mit Unterstützung des Hilfesystems der Schritt in extreme Armut verhindert würde. Die Studie präsentiert als zentrale Ergebnisse zwei Typologien, die dieser Überlegung Rechnung tragen: 'Der Schritt in die extreme Armut und das soziale Hilfesystem' (fünf Typen) und 'Extrem Arme und ihre Perspektive' (vier Typen). Im Anschluss an diese explorative Studie wird im Rahmen einer quantitativen Machbarkeitsstudie geprüft, auf welche Weise mit dem Instrument einer standardisierten Befragung die Gesamtzahl der extrem Armen in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland ermittelt werden kann. Es werden ein Screeninginstrument, ein Stichprobendesign sowie ein statistisches Verfahren vorgestellt, die es zusammen erlauben, die Zahl der bundesweit extrem Armen zu schätzen. Eine entsprechende Untersuchung ist sowohl erhebungstechnisch durchführbar als auch mit vertretbarem finanziellen Aufwand realisierbar." (Autorenreferat

Visual backward masking: Modeling spatial and temporal aspects

In modeling visual backward masking, the focus has been on temporal effects. More specifically, an explanation has been sought as to why strongest masking can occur when the mask is delayed with respect to the target. Although interesting effects of the spatial layout of the mask have been found, only a few attempts have been made to model these phenomena. Here, we elaborate a structurally simple model which employs lateral excitation and inhibition together with different neural time scales to explain many spatial and temporal aspects of backward masking. We argue that for better understanding of visual masking, it is vitally important to consider the interplay of spatial and temporal factors together in one single model

Seroma after simple mastectomy in breast cancer — the role of CD4+ T helper cells and the evidence as a oossible specific immune process

Seroma development after breast cancer surgery is the most common postoperative complication seen after mastectomy but neither its origin nor its cellular composition is known. To investigate the assumption of immunological significance, one of the first aims of this pilot study is to describe the cellular content of collected seroma fluids and its corresponding serum in patients with simple mastectomy after needle aspiration, as well as the serum of healthy controls. The content of red blood cells (RBC) was measured by haemato-counter analyses, and the lymphocyte identification/quantification was conducted by flow cytometry analyses in seroma fluid (SFl) and the sera of patients (PBp) as well as controls (PBc). Significantly lower numbers of RBCs were measured in SFl. Cytotoxic T cells are significantly reduced in SFl, whereas T helper (Th) cells are significantly enriched compared to PBp. Significantly higher numbers of Th2 cells were found in SFl and PBp compared to PBc. The exact same pattern is seen when analyzing the Th17 subgroup. In conclusion, in contrast to healthy controls, significantly higher Th2 and Th17 cell subgroup-mediated immune responses were measured in seroma formations and were further confirmed in the peripheral blood of breast cancer (including DCIS) patients after simple mastectomy. This could lead to the assumption of a possible immunological cause for the origin of a seroma

Modeling asymmetric dependences among multivariate soil data for the geotechnical analysis - The asymmetric copula approach

Multivariate information of soil parameters is quite important for the design and risk assessment of geotechnical engineering problems. It is necessary to have an accurate and realistic statistical multivariate model for representing the soil properties and thus evaluating the soil conditions. Thus, advanced multivariate modeling of soil parameters could help to improve the geotechnical engineering practice. In this paper, the asymmetric copulas are introduced to model the geotechnical soil data. Compared to extensive previous research on the use of symmetric copulas on the modeling of engineering data, this study is focusing on capturing asymmetric dependencies among the natural soil parameters, which are critical for engineering design. A copula-based multivariate probabilistic model is built based on a set of collected samples from a granite residual soil from Portugal. Several asymmetric copula functions, capable of capturing nonlinear asymmetric dependence structures, are tested and analyzed. The fundamental information on tail dependencies and measures of asymmetric dependencies are also exploited. To demonstrate the advantages of asymmetric copulas, its concept is compared with the traditional copula approaches for modeling site soil data. The performance of these asymmetric copulas is discussed and compared based on data fitting and extreme value characterizations

Near-infrared wavefront sensing for the VLT interferometer

The very large telescope (VLT) interferometer (VLTI) in its current operating state is equipped with high-order adaptive optics (MACAO) working in the visible spectrum. A low-order near-infrared wavefront sensor (IRIS) is available to measure non-common path tilt aberrations downstream the high-order deformable mirror. For the next generation of VLTI instrumentation, in particular for the designated GRAVITY instrument, we have examined various designs of a four channel high-order near-infrared wavefront sensor. Particular objectives of our study were the specification of the near-infrared detector in combination with a standard wavefront sensing system. In this paper we present the preliminary design of a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor operating in the near-infrared wavelength range, which is capable of measuring the wavefronts of four telescopes simultaneously. We further present results of our design study, which aimed at providing a first instrumental concept for GRAVITY.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, to appear in "Ground-based and Airborne Instrumentation for Astronomy II" SPIE conference, Marseille, 23-28 June 200