Advanced Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM) of SiSiC Ceramics

Carbon sheets were used as a starting material for fabrication of SiSiC composites by advanced LOM. This approach consists of three steps: First a preform was fabricated form phenolic resin coated carbon paper with a LOM-device. Second the preform was turned into a carbon preform by pyrolysis in N2-atmosphere. Third pressureless reactive melt infiltration of silicon into the as fabricated carbon preform, which finally yielded a dense SiSiC composite. SEM analysis revealed a microstructure consisting of uniformly dispersed β-SiC grains in a matrix of silicon. The LOM fabricated material exhibited an average four point bending strength and Youngs modulus of 115 MPa and 165 GPa, respectively.Mechanical Engineerin

Chiral extrapolation of baryon mass ratios

We analyze lattice data for octet baryon masses from the QCDSF collaboration employing manifestly covariant Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory. It is shown that certain combinations of low-energy constants can be fixed more accurately than before from this data. We also examine the impact of this analysis on the pion-nucleon sigma term, and on the convergence properties of baryon mass expansions in the SU(3) symmetry limit.Comment: Updated version, to be published in Phys. Rev.

The Biological Standard of Living in the two Germanies.

Physical stature is used as a proxy for the biological standard of living in the two Germanies before and after unification in an analysis of a cross-sectional sample (1998) of adult heights, as well as among military recruits of the 1990s. West Germans tended to be taller than East Germans throughout the period under consideration. Contrary to official proclamations of a classless society, there were substantial social differences in physical stature in East-Germany. Social differences in height were greater in the East among females, and less among males than in the West. The difficulties experienced by the East-German population after 1961 is evident in the increase in social inequality of physical stature thereafter, as well as in the increasing gap relative to the height of the West-German population. After unification, however, there is a tendency for East-German males, but not of females, to catch up with their West-German counterparts

Finite volume corrections to the electromagnetic current of the nucleon

We compute corrections to both the isovector anomalous magnetic moment and the isovector electromagnetic current of the nucleon to $O(p^3)$ in the framework of covariant two-flavor Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory. We then apply these corrections to lattice data for the anomalous magnetic moment from the LHPC, RBC & UKQCD and QCDSF collaborations

Optical study of the band structure of wurtzite GaP nanowires

We investigated the optical properties of wurtzite (WZ) GaP nanowires by performing photoluminescence (PL) and time-resolved PL measurements in the temperature range from 4 K to 300 K, together with atom probe tomography to identify residual impurities in the nanowires. At low temperature, the WZ GaP luminescence shows donor-acceptor pair emission at 2.115 eV and 2.088 eV, and Burstein-Moss band-filling continuum between 2.180 and 2.253 eV, resulting in a direct band gap above 2.170 eV. Sharp exciton α-β-γ lines are observed at 2.140-2.164-2.252 eV, respectively, showing clear differences in lifetime, presence of phonon replicas, and temperature- dependence. The excitonic nature of those peaks is critically discussed, leading to a direct band gap o

Perspectives on long-term bee vitality monitoring

Bienen sind essentielle Bestäuber und daher ist ihr Schutz von zentraler Bedeutung für die Sicherung der biologischen Vielfalt und der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion. Innerhalb des Projekts MonViA werden viele Partner zusammen­arbeiten, um wirksame Strategien zur Förderung der biologischen Vielfalt zu entwickeln. Wir präsentieren eine Langzeit-Fallstudie wie sich Klima auf die Leistungsfähigkeit von Honigbienenvölkern auswirkt. Veränderungen des mitteleuropäischen Honigertrags haben wir in Bezug auf die Änderung von Temperatur und Niederschlag modelliert. Eine + 1°C Temperaturänderung steigert den jährlichen Honigertrag um + 0,9 kg pro Volk, während + 100 mm Niederschlag den Ertrag um – 0,4 kg verringert. Basierend auf Klimawandelprognosen im Zeitraum 2020–2050, schätzen wir eine potenzielle Ertragssteigerung von + 0,4 bis + 0,8 kg Honig pro Volk. Wir schließen daraus, dass die Honigbienenpopulation in Deutschland von steigenden Temperaturen profitieren könnte. Weiterhin diskutieren wir, wie die Bienenleistung mit dem Wetter zusammenhängt und wie unsere Analysen durch die Einbeziehung weiterer Daten, mit einer höhe­ren zeitlichen und räumlichen Auflösung, gestärkt werden könnten. Die Einflüsse extremer Wetterbedingungen, imkerlicher Praxis, Krankheitsbelastung, Verfügbarkeit von Nahrungsressourcen, Landnutzung und auch Landschaftsstrukturen sollten im Rahmen des Monitorings der Bienenvitalität miterfasst werden.Bees are essential pollinators and their protection is relevant to secure biodiversity and agricultural production. MonViA-project members and partners collaborate in monitoring projects to develop effective policies to support biodiversity in Germany. In the current case-study, the impact of climate on honey bee population performance was assessed. We modeled year-to-year Central-European honey yield changes and found + 1°C temperature change to stimulate annual honey yield by + 0.9 kg per colony, and + 100 mm precipitation to reduce honey yields – 0.4 kg. In regard to different climate change scenarios for Germany, our modelling suggests a potential + 0.4 to + 0.8 kg honey yield gain per colony in 2050, as compared to 2020. We conclude that the German honey bee population may benefit by rising temperatures. We discuss how bee performance is linked to weather and how our analysis would be strengthened by including more data, with a higher temporal and spatial resolution, i.e., intra-annually and -nationally. Pollinator trend monitoring should be extended with analyses that include e.g., extreme weather conditions, disease loads, availability of floral resource, beekeeping practice, land use and landscape structure

Solid Freeform Fabrication of Ceramic Parts from Filler Loaded Preceramic Polymers

Manufacturing of ceramic parts was achieved by selective laser treatment of a preceramic polymer (polysiloxane) loaded with ceramic filler powder (alumina). Thin layers of polymer/filler powder mixture were sequentially cured with a CO2-laser (λ=10.6 µm) thereby generating the geometrical shape of the part. Subsequently, the cured thermoset part was annealed in nitrogen atmosphere at 600 to 1000 °C to convert the compact into a Si-OC/Al2O3 micro-composite material. Dimensional changes upon pyrolysis (∆l/l0 ≈ 3 %) can be controlled by adjusting the polymer-to-filler ratio and the heat treatment conditions. The new process is called Selective Laser Curing (SLC).Financial support of Fonds der Chemischen Industrie and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft is gratefully acknowledged.Mechanical Engineerin

Indications for cardiovascular magnetic resonance in children with congenital and acquired heart disease: an expert consensus paper of the Imaging Working Group of the AEPC and the Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Section of the EACVI

This article provides expert opinion on the use of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) in young patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) and in specific clinical situations. As peculiar challenges apply to imaging children, paediatric aspects are repeatedly discussed. The first section of the paper addresses settings and techniques, including the basic sequences used in paediatric CMR, safety, and sedation. In the second section, the indication, application, and clinical relevance of CMR in the most frequent CHD are discussed in detail. In the current era of multimodality imaging, the strengths of CMR are compared with other imaging modalities. At the end of each chapter, a brief summary with expert consensus key points is provided. The recommendations provided are strongly clinically oriented. The paper addresses not only imagers performing CMR, but also clinical cardiologists who want to know which information can be obtained by CMR and how to integrate it in clinical decision-makin

ZFP36L1 negatively regulates plasmacytoid differentiation of BCL1 cells by targeting BLIMP1 mRNA

The ZFP36/Tis11 family of zinc-finger proteins regulate cellular processes by binding to adenine uridine rich elements in the 3′ untranslated regions of various mRNAs and promoting their degradation. We show here that ZFP36L1 expression is largely extinguished during the transition from B cells to plasma cells, in a reciprocal pattern to that of ZFP36 and the plasma cell transcription factor, BLIMP1. Enforced expression of ZFP36L1 in the mouse BCL1 cell line blocked cytokine-induced differentiation while shRNA-mediated knock-down enhanced differentiation. Reconstruction of regulatory networks from microarray gene expression data using the ARACNe algorithm identified candidate mRNA targets for ZFP36L1 including BLIMP1. Genes that displayed down-regulation in plasma cells were significantly over-represented (P = <0.0001) in a set of previously validated ZFP36 targets suggesting that ZFP36L1 and ZFP36 target distinct sets of mRNAs during plasmacytoid differentiation. ShRNA-mediated knock-down of ZFP36L1 in BCL1 cells led to an increase in levels of BLIMP1 mRNA and protein, but not for mRNAs of other transcription factors that regulate plasmacytoid differentiation (xbp1, irf4, bcl6). Finally, ZFP36L1 significantly reduced the activity of a BLIMP1 3′ untranslated region-driven luciferase reporter. Taken together, these findings suggest that ZFP36L1 negatively regulates plasmacytoid differentiation, at least in part, by targeting the expression of BLIMP1