A System for Incubations at High Gas Partial Pressure

High-pressure is a key feature of deep subsurface environments. High partial pressure of dissolved gasses plays an important role in microbial metabolism, because thermodynamic feasibility of many reactions depends on the concentration of reactants. For gases, this is controlled by their partial pressure, which can exceed 1 MPa at in situ conditions. Therefore, high hydrostatic pressure alone is not sufficient to recreate true deep subsurface in situ conditions, but the partial pressure of dissolved gasses has to be controlled as well. We developed an incubation system that allows for incubations at hydrostatic pressure up to 60 MPa, temperatures up to 120°C, and at high gas partial pressure. The composition and partial pressure of gasses can be manipulated during the experiment. To keep costs low, the system is mainly made from off-the-shelf components with only very few custom-made parts. A flexible and inert PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) incubator sleeve, which is almost impermeable for gases, holds the sample and separates it from the pressure fluid. The flexibility of the incubator sleeve allows for sub-sampling of the medium without loss of pressure. Experiments can be run in both static and flow-through mode. The incubation system described here is usable for versatile purposes, not only the incubation of microorganisms and determination of growth rates, but also for chemical degradation or extraction experiments under high gas saturation, e.g., fluid–gas–rock-interactions in relation to carbon dioxide sequestration. As an application of the system we extracted organic compounds from sub-bituminous coal using H2O as well as a H2O–CO2 mixture at elevated temperature (90°C) and pressure (5 MPa). Subsamples were taken at different time points during the incubation and analyzed by ion chromatography. Furthermore we demonstrated the applicability of the system for studies of microbial activity, using samples from the Isis mud volcano. We could detect an increase in sulfate reduction rate upon the addition of methane to the sample

Case Management - professionelle Teilhabebegleitung von Menschen mit Behinderung beim Übergang von der Schule in die Soziale Landwirtschaft

Mit der Einführung des Bundesteilhabegesetzes wird es neben den Werkstätten für Menschen mit Behinderung für sogenannte „andere Anbieter“ ermöglicht in der Sozialen Landwirtschaft Arbeitsplätze für Menschen mit Behinderung auf ihrem Betrieb anzubieten. Dadurch entsteht der Bedarf nach einer Qualitätssicherung. Während die Bedeutung und das Ausüben von Inklusion mehr und mehr verfeinert wird, gibt es nach wie vor Problemstellungen, welche Aufmerksamkeit benötigen. Die offizielle Zuständigkeit junge Menschen mit Benachteiligung und individuellen Beeinträchtigungen im Übergang von der Schule in den Beruf zu unterstützen und zu begleiten ist bisher nicht geregelt. Das Case-Management Konzept, welches im Rahmen des EU-Projekts PROFARM entwickelt und erprobt wurde, bietet an dieser Stelle eine individuelle und professionelle Entwicklungsbegleitung, um junge Menschen mit individuellen Beeinträchtigungen auf ihrem persönlichen sowie beruflichen Weg nach der Schule zu unterstützen

Arc-Flags Meet Trip-Based Public Transit Routing

We present Arc-Flag TB, a journey planning algorithm for public transit networks which combines Trip-Based Public Transit Routing (TB) with the Arc-Flags speedup technique. Compared to previous attempts to apply Arc-Flags to public transit networks, which saw limited success, our approach uses stronger pruning rules to reduce the search space. Our experiments show that Arc-Flag TB achieves a speedup of up to two orders of magnitude over TB, offering query times of less than a millisecond even on large countrywide networks. Compared to the state-of-the-art speedup technique Trip-Based Public Transit Routing Using Condensed Search Trees (TB-CST), our algorithm achieves similar query times but requires significantly less additional memory. Other state-of-the-art algorithms which achieve even faster query times, e.g., Public Transit Labeling, require enormous memory usage. In contrast, Arc-Flag TB offers a tradeoff between query performance and memory usage due to the fact that the number of regions in the network partition required by our algorithm is a configurable parameter. We also identify an issue in the transfer precomputation of TB that affects both TB-CST and Arc-Flag TB, leading to incorrect answers for some queries. This has not been previously recognized by the author of TB-CST. We provide discussion on how to resolve this issue in the future. Currently, Arc-Flag TB answers 1-6% of queries incorrectly, compared to over 20% for TB-CST on some networks

Relative blood loss in forensic medicine-do we need a change in doctrine?

In forensic medicine, blood loss is encountered frequently, either as a cause of death or as a contributing factor. Here, risk to life and lethality assessment is based on the concept of relative blood loss (absolute loss out of total volume). In emergency medicine, the Advanced Trauma Life Support (ATLS) classification also refers to relative blood loss. We tested the validity of relative blood loss benchmarks with reference to lethality. Depending on the quality of the total blood volume (TBV) estimation formula, relative blood loss rates should be reflected in the case cohort as significantly higher absolute blood loss in heavier individuals since all TBV estimation formulas positively correlate body weight with TBV. Method: 80 autopsy cases with sudden, quantifiable, exclusively internal blood loss were retrospectively analyzed and a total of 8 different formulas for TBV estimation were applied. Results: No statistical correlation between body weight and absolute blood loss was found for any of the tested TBV estimation algorithms. All cases showed a wide spread of both absolute and relative blood loss. Discussion: The principle of relative blood loss is of very limited use in casework. It opens the forensic expert opinion to unnecessary criticism and possible negative legal implications. Conclusion: We challenge the use of relative blood loss benchmarks in textbooks and practical casework and advocate for its elimination from the ATLS’s grading system. If necessary, we recommend the use of BMI-adjusted algorithms for TBV estimation

BIM, Augmented and Virtual Reality empowering Lean Construction Management: a project simulation game

Abstract During the last decades, Lean Management methodologies established in the manufacturing environment have been applied and adapted to the construction industry under the term "Lean Construction". Currently, concepts and technologies from Industry 4.0 are mainly transforming the manufacturing industry and only few applications have been implemented to construction and its connected supply chains. This paper shows how new technologies like Building Information Modeling connected with Virtual and Augmented Reality could empower Lean Construction methodologies to increase efficiency during the building execution process. The approach was tested by using the project simulation game Villego® with students from the course "Project Management" of the master degree LM-33 "Industrial Mechanical Engineering" of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano

Paradoxical tensions in sustainable supply chain management: insights from the electronics multi-tier supply chain context

PurposeManaging supply chains (SCs) for sustainability often results in conflicting demands, which can be conceptualized as sustainability tensions. This paper studies sustainability tensions in electronics SC contexts and the related management responses by applying a paradox perspective.Design/methodology/approachA single case study on the electronics SC is conducted with companies and third-party organizations as embedded units of analysis, using semi-structured interviews that are triangulated with publicly available data.FindingsThe study identifies tension elements (learning, belonging, organizing and economic performing) conflicting with general social–ecological objectives in the electronics SC. The results indicate a hierarchal structure among the sustainability tensions in SC contexts. The management responses of contextualization and resolution are assigned to the identified tensions.Practical implicationsFraming social–ecological objectives with their conflicting elements as paradoxical tensions enables organizations and SCs to develop better strategies for responding to complex sustainability issues in SC contexts.Originality/valueThe study contributes toward filling the gap on paradoxical sustainability tensions in SCs. Empirical insights are gained from different actors in the electronics SC. The level of emergence and interconnectedness of sustainability tensions in a larger SC context is explored through an outside-in perspective

On the identification of weather avoidance routes in the terminal maneuvering area of Hong Kong International Airport

The safety and efficiency of air traffic are significantly affected by adverse weather. This holds especially in terminal maneuvering areas (TMA) where, in addition to the impact of weather itself, potential weather avoidance routes are strongly restricted by air traffic regulations. A weather avoidance model DIVMET has been developed which proposes a route through a field of developing thunderstorms. Air traffic control regulations have not been included in it at this stage. DIVMET was applied to the TMA of Hong Kong International Airport as air traffic control (ATC) there has become interested in improving the controller’s work load, especially for managing incoming traffic by avoidance route simulations. Although visual inspection of simulated avoidance routes by ATC was satisfactory, a quantitative validation of simulated with real observed routes was also carried out. Two real adverse weather situations with thunderstorms within the TMA of Hong Kong and with heavily distorted traffic were chosen. The main objective prior to any validation, however, was to identify routes which are solely impacted by weather but do not show any signs of regulation. Route selection was done on the base of flight position data. Landing flights were selected and deviations from standard approach routes were analyzed. As a result, the majority of 272 flights were found to be affected by both weather and regulations (60%), highlighting the challenge for air traffic controllers to manage landing traffic under adverse weather conditions safely and efficiently. Only a few weather-affected flights (7%) were not regulated and could be used for validation. DIVMET simulation routes were presented to local air traffic controllers who confirmed them as potential and realistic avoidance routes. DIVMET weather avoidance route simulations within a TMA appear to be helpful but further model development has to incorporate traffic regulations, to include holdings, short-cuts, and slow-downs. © 2016, Zhejiang University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg