Mass and Mission: Enacting God\u27s Mission in the Christian Assembly Today

(Excerpt) I doubt that I need to underscore the ferment surrounding the matters that are the theme of this year\u27s Institute: worship and mission. The practice of worship in our congregations has become fragmented by multiple and competing proposals for what should happen when we gather. As a teacher of worship, the questions and discussions I encounter day by day reveal a general distrust of conventional liturgical practice and a genuine hunger for something-anything-that will engage and enliven people at worship in our time and place. There is no simple and direct approach to matters of worship-this is what we do, this is where it comes from, this is what is means, this is how to do it-with people lining up to receive authoritative pronouncements. There is real engagement with fundamental questions and a willingness to consider the value of our historic liturgical inheritance, but there is less and less common practice or shared experience of worship to draw on and little consensus about which direction to head

Prozessentwicklung und Charakterisierung einer anodisch-keramisierten Al-Zylinderlaufbahn unter tribologischen Aspekten zur Reduzierung der CO2 - Emissionen

Die Anforderungen an die Verbrennungsmotoren im Hinblick auf Emissionen, Kraftstoffverbrauch und Leistungspotentiale sind in den letzten Jahren stark gestiegen. Die zunehmende Leistungsdichte, aufgrund eingesetzter Konzepte wie Downsizing und Aufladung, führt gerade an der Zylinderlaufbahn zu ansteigenden thermischen und mechanischen Belastungen. Aktuelle Konzepte, wie z.B. Aluminium-Silizium-Legierungen erreichen dabei ihre Belastungsgrenzen, so dass zur Absicherung der Funktion Grauguss - Legierungen in Buchsenform eingesetzt werden. Dies führt jedoch wiederum zu einem Motormehrgewicht mit direkter Auswirkung auf den Kraftstoffverbrauch und damit auch Emissionen. Die Umsetzung von alternativen Laufbahnkonzepten, die diesen Anforderungen gewachsen sind und dabei optimales Reibungs- und Verschleißverhalten zeigen, steht daher im Fokus aktueller Entwicklungsarbeiten. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde die anodische Oxidation von Aluminiumoberflächen als potentielles Zylinderlaufbahnkonzept untersucht. Es wurden Laufbahnen aus der Druckgusslegierung AlSi9Cu3 mit zwei unterschiedlichen Keramik-Schichten erzeugt. Die Kepla-Coat R-Schicht basierend auf dem Gleichstromprozess der Firma AHC Oberflächentechnik GmbH, ein Unternehmen der AIMT Holding, und die G2 - Schicht auf Basis des Wechselstromprozesses der Firma Keronite. Die Schichtcharakterisierung hat gezeigt, dass sich die Schichtzusammensetzungen und -strukturen in Abhängigkeit von Prozessparameter und Elektrolyt unterscheiden. Nach einer mechanischen Nachbearbeitung zur Glättung der Oberfläche und Freilegung der prozessbedingten Porosität, erfolgte die tribologische Bewertung sowohl in Tribometer-Modellversuchen mit oszillierender und rotierender Kinematik als auch unter realen Betriebsbedingungen an einem befeuerten Einzylindermotor. Untersucht wurden Fresslasten sowie das Reibungs- und Verschleißverhalten. Verwendet wurden unterschiedliche Kolbenring - Laufbahn -Paarungen in Kombination mit unterschiedlichen Ölen. Als Kolbenringe kamen nitrierte, CKS-, CrN-, ta-C- und GG-Kolbenringe zum Einsatz. Im Rahmen der Fresslastuntersuchungen konnte gezeigt werden, dass die maximale Belastung der G2 - Schicht bei ca. 500 N und die der Kepla-Coat R-Schicht bei ca. 200 N liegt. Auf dem gleichen Niveau wie Aluminium - Silizium - Legierungen liegend, war letztere für den motorischen Einsatz ungeeignet. Die G2 - Schicht erfüllte dahingegen die Anforderungen sowohl im Rotationstribometer, in dem die kritischen Verhältnisse des Zwickelbereichs stationär nachgebildet wurden, als auch diejenigen in den motorischen Untersuchungen. In den untersuchten Systemen konnte in Abhängigkeit von unterschiedlichen Kolbenringen und Ölen jedoch kein Reibungsvorteil zum Seriensystem bestimmt werden. Während die Kolbenringbeschichtung im Modellversuch zu unterschiedlichen Reibzahlen führte, konnte im realen Ring / Laufbahn - System nur ein untergeordneter Einfluss auf die Reibung festgestellt werden. Im Rahmen der Verschleißbetrachtung der Kolbenringe konnte für den Modelltest und den Einzylindermotor ein gleiches Ranking festgestellt werden. Der Verschleiß zeigte dabei eine Abhängigkeit zur Ringoberflächenhärte. Von den untersuchten Ringen zeigt der ta-C - beschichtete Kolbenring den geringsten Verschleiß. In den Untersuchungen hinsichtlich Laufbahnverschleiß konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Keronite - Laufbahnen bis zu Kontaktpressungen von 200 bar eine maximale Verschleißgeschwindigkeit von 10 nm/h aufweisen. Eine höhere Verschleißgeschwindigkeit wurde bei 150 und 200 bar mit 5 m/s Gleitgeschwindigkeit gemessen. Sie lagen bei ca. 16 nm/h. Im Vergleich mit Serienbauteilen sind das nur wenige Prozent

Modelling geomagnetically induced currents in midlatitude Central Europe using a thin-sheet approach

Geomagnetically induced currents (GICs) in power systems, which can lead to transformer damage over the short and the long term, are a result of space weather events and geomagnetic variations. For a long time, only high-latitude areas were considered to be at risk from these currents, but recent studies show that considerable GICs also appear in midlatitude and equatorial countries. In this paper, we present initial results from a GIC model using a thin-sheet approach with detailed surface and subsurface conductivity models to compute the induced geoelectric field. The results are compared to measurements of direct currents in a transformer neutral and show very good agreement for short-period variations such as geomagnetic storms. Long-period signals such as quiet-day diurnal variations are not represented accurately, and we examine the cause of this misfit. The modelling of GICs from regionally varying geoelectric fields is discussed and shown to be an important factor contributing to overall model accuracy. We demonstrate that the Austrian power grid is susceptible to large GICs in the range of tens of amperes, particularly from strong geomagnetic variations in the east–west direction

Machine learning sparse tight-binding parameters for defects

We employ machine learning to derive tight-binding parametrizations for the electronic structure of defects. We test several machine learning methods that map the atomic and electronic structure of a defect onto a sparse tight-binding parameterization. Since Multi-layer perceptrons (i.e., feed-forward neural networks) perform best we adopt them for our further investigations. We demonstrate the accuracy of our parameterizations for a range of important electronic structure properties such as band structure, local density of states, transport and level spacing simulations for two common defects in single layer graphene. Our machine learning approach achieves results comparable to maximally localized Wannier functions (i.e., DFT accuracy) without prior knowledge about the electronic structure of the defects while also allowing for a reduced interaction range which substantially reduces calculation time. It is general and can be applied to a wide range of other materials, enabling accurate large-scale simulations of material properties in the presence of different defects

Strain control of hybridization between dark and localized excitons in a 2D semiconductor

The interface between a ferro- or ferrimagnetic insulator and a normal metal can support spin currents polarized collinear with and perpendicular to the magnetization direction. The flow of angular momentum perpendicular to the magnetization direction (“transverse” spin current) takes place via spin torque and spin pumping. The flow of angular momentum collinear with the magnetization (“longitudinal” spin current) requires the excitation of magnons. In this article we extend the existing theory of longitudinal spin transport [Bender and Tserkovnyak, Phys. Rev. B 91, 140402(R) (2015)] in the zero-frequency weak-coupling limit in two directions: We calculate the longitudinal spin conductance nonperturbatively (but in the low-frequency limit) and at finite frequency (but in the limit of low interface transparency). For the paradigmatic spintronic material system YIG|Pt, we find that nonperturbative effects lead to a longitudinal spin conductance that is ca. 40% smaller than the perturbative limit, whereas finite-frequency corrections are relevant at low temperatures ≲100K only, when only few magnon modes are thermally occupied

Strain control of hybridization between dark and localized excitons in a 2D semiconductor

Mechanical strain is a powerful tuning knob for excitons, Coulomb-bound electron-hole complexes dominating optical properties of two-dimensional semiconductors. While the strain response of bright free excitons is broadly understood, the behavior of dark free excitons (long-lived excitations that generally do not couple to light due to spin and momentum conservation) or localized excitons related to defects remains mostly unexplored. Here, we develop a technique capable of straining pristine suspended WSe2 kept at cryogenic temperatures up to 3\% to study the strain behavior of these fragile many-body states. We find that under the application of strain, dark and localized excitons in monolayer WSe2 - a prototypical 2D semiconductor - are brought into energetic resonance, forming a new hybrid state that inherits the properties of the constituent species. The characteristics of the hybridized state, including an order-of-magnitude enhanced light/matter coupling, avoided-crossing energy shifts, and strain tunability of many-body interactions, are all supported by first-principles calculations. The hybridized exciton reported here may play a critical role in the operation of single quantum emitters based on WSe2. Furthermore, the techniques we developed may be used to fingerprint unidentified excitonic statesComment: 15 pages, 5 figure

EU Agro Biogas Project

EU-AGRO-BIOGAS is a European Biogas initiative to improve the yield of agricultural biogas plants in Europe, to optimise biogas technology and processes and to improve the efficiency in all parts of the production chain from feedstock to biogas utilisation. Leading European research institutions and universities are cooperating with key industry partners in order to work towards a sustainable Europe. Fourteen partners from eight European countries are involved. EU-AGRO-BIOGAS aims at the development and optimisation of the entire value chain – to range from the production of raw materials, the production and refining of biogas to the utilisation of heat and electricity

J Neurosci

The endogenous dynorphin-kappa opioid receptor (KOR) system encodes the dysphoric component of the stress response and controls the risk of depression-like and addiction behaviors; however, the molecular and neural circuit mechanisms are not understood. In this study, we report that KOR activation of p38alpha MAPK in ventral tegmental (VTA) dopaminergic neurons was required for conditioned place aversion (CPA) in mice. Conditional genetic deletion of floxed KOR or floxed p38alpha MAPK by Cre recombinase expression in dopaminergic neurons blocked place aversion to the KOR agonist U50,488. Selective viral rescue by wild-type KOR expression in dopaminergic neurons of KOR(-/-) mice restored U50,488-CPA, whereas expression of a mutated form of KOR that could not initiate p38alpha MAPK activation did not. Surprisingly, while p38alpha MAPK inactivation blocked U50,488-CPA, p38alpha MAPK was not required for KOR inhibition of evoked dopamine release measured by fast scan cyclic voltammetry in the nucleus accumbens. In contrast, KOR activation acutely inhibited VTA dopaminergic neuron firing, and repeated exposure attenuated the opioid response. This adaptation to repeated exposure was blocked by conditional deletion of p38alpha MAPK, which also blocked KOR-induced tyrosine phosphorylation of the inwardly rectifying potassium channel (GIRK) subunit Kir3.1 in VTA dopaminergic neurons. Consistent with the reduced response, GIRK phosphorylation at this amino terminal tyrosine residue (Y12) enhances channel deactivation. Thus, contrary to prevailing expectations, these results suggest that kappa opioid-induced aversion requires regulation of VTA dopaminergic neuron somatic excitability through a p38alpha MAPK effect on GIRK deactivation kinetics rather than by presynaptically inhibiting dopamine release. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: Kappa opioid receptor (KOR) agonists have the potential to be effective, nonaddictive analgesics, but their therapeutic utility is greatly limited by adverse effects on mood. Understanding how KOR activation produces dysphoria is key to the development of better analgesics and to defining how the endogenous dynorphin opioids produce their depression-like effects. Results in this study show that the aversive effects of kappa receptor activation required arrestin-dependent p38alpha MAPK activation in dopamine neurons but did not require inhibition of dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Thus, contrary to the prevailing view, inhibition of mesolimbic dopamine release does not mediate the aversive effects of KOR activation and functionally selective kappa opioids that do not activate arrestin signaling may be effective analgesics lacking dysphoric effects

Human native kappa opioid receptor functions not predicted by recombinant receptors: Implications for drug design

International audienc