The effect of blood flow restriction training with the QuadMill on peak isometric knee extensor strength 2017

Traditional training methodologies that improve muscular strength use loads as low as 75% of a person’s one-repetition maximum and as high as 110% of a person’s one repetition maximum. With these high loads comes a greater risk for injury. Blood flow restriction (BFR) training is a potential solution to this problem. BFR training originated in Japan, where it was called Kaatsu. With this method of training, a trainee ties a tourniquet around the proximal end of a limb to reduce blood flow to and from the limb’s muscles. The purpose of this study was to determine whether three-weeks of BFR training on the QuadMill™ was more effective at increasing peak isometric knee extensor torque than three-weeks of non-blood flow restricted training on the QuadMill™. Twelve college-aged participants began the study and nine, five males and four females, completed the study. Each participant performed three one minute sets on the QuadMill™ three times per week for three-weeks. Blood flow to the one leg was restricted at the upper thigh during exercise sessions. The same leg was blood flow restricted at each exercise session. Peak isometric knee extensor strength was measured with a hand held dynamometer before and after the three-weeks of training. Peak isometric knee extensor torques were calculated as the product of the force measured by the hand held dynamometer and the moment arm of the limb (the perpendicular distance from the knee joint center to the line of action of the dynamometer force. The left or right limb of each subject was randomly chosen as the blood flow restricted limb throughout the study. A 2x2 (limb, time) ANOVA with repeated measures found significant differences in torque from pre-test to post-test in both limbs (p = .016), significant differences in torque between limbs (p = .022), and a significant limb by time interaction (p = .034). A paired sample t-test compared the changes in peak isometric knee extensor strength from pre-training to post-training for both the BFR limb and non-BFR limb. There was a significant difference between the changes in the BFR limb and the non- BFR limb from pre-training to post-training (p = .016). This study shows that both BFR training and QuadMill™ training are effective training modalities for the lower extremities

Translation of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) upon liver and lung targeted delivery of optimized chemically modified mRNA

Changes in lifestyle and environmental conditions give rise to increasing prevalence of liver and lung fibrosis, both having poor prognosis. Investigations about the underlying mechanisms of fibrosis revealed a dysbalance of the local renin angiotensin system (RAS) actively contributing to inflammation and fibrosis. The carboxypeptidase angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a family member of the RAS showing high potential to reestablish RAS balance leading to resolution of inflammation and fibrosis. So far, first promising results in experimental liver and lung fibrosis have been reported upon administration of recombinant ACE2 protein or ACE2 gene therapy. However, recombinant protein and gene therapy struggle with hurdles such as organ-targeted delivery, limited or challenging control of protein expression and immunogenicity among others. These obstacles may be overcome with latest advances in RNA transcript therapy (RTT). The goal of this project was to establish strong and sustained ACE2 protein expression selectively in healthy and fibrotic liver and lung tissues. Special attention was paid on the protein being stably integrated into the cell membrane, a prerequisite for local enzymatic activity. For this purpose, in vitro transcribed chemically modified ACE2 mRNA (cmRNA) was designed and profound in vitro cmRNA transfection efficiency, protein expression and activity was shown. With the aim of organ targeted ACE2 protein expression, close investigations about protein maturation were performed indicating full glycosylation and correct folding of protein leading to trafficking and correct protein integration in the cell membrane. In parallel, several ACE2 cmRNA sequences were screened for strong and sustained protein expression in liver and lung cells and the best performing sequence was used for the following in vivo studies. For organ targeted delivery, the optimal combination of carrier and application route was determined by application of reporter protein cmRNA and evaluation of resulting protein expression. For liver targeted cmRNA delivery, systemic application of lipidoid based formulations led to selective protein expression in the liver. For lung targeted cmRNA expression, polymer and lipidoid based formulations were investigated for nebulization, intratracheal microspray or systemic application. In the context of ACE2 expression in fibrotic lungs and based on the results achieved by intravenous administration, systemic application was identified as the optimal administration route. In a next step, both liver and lung specific delivery agents were formulated with ACE2 cmRNA and intravenously applied leading to liver or lung targeted translation of significant amounts of ACE2 protein. Finally, these formulations were applied in two experimental models of liver and lung fibrosis and could show successful delivery of ACE2 cmRNA to liver or lung respectively. In addition, first data about protein kinetics as well as requirements for dosing and carrier selection in future preclinical studies could be collected. In summary, an optimized ACE2 cmRNA sequence for liver and lung targeted ACE2 expression could be identified in this thesis. In vivo application in liver and lung targeted formulations led to strong protein expression in these organs, providing evidence that RTT is a promising approach for ACE2 based treatment of liver and lung fibrosis to be further explored in fibrotic disease models.Ungesunder Lebensstil und Umwelteinflüsse führen zu kontinuierlich steigender Prävalenz von Leber- und Lungenfibrose, beide mit schlechten bis nicht vorhandenen Heilungsaussichten für die Patienten. Untersuchungen über die zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen fibrotischer Krankheiten zeigten ein deutliches Ungleichgewicht im lokalen Renin-Angiotensin-Systems (RAS) der betroffenen Organe, was erheblich zu Entzündungsreaktionen und daraus resultierender Fibrose beiträgt. In diesem Kontext nimmt ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2) – eine Carboxypeptidase innerhalb des RAS - eine spezielle Rolle ein, da sie durch ihre Funktionalität über großes Potential zur Auflösung von Entzündung und Fibrose verfügt. Dies wurde durch erste vielversprechende Daten in experimentellen Leber- und Lungenfibrosemodellen nach Behandlung mit rekombinantem ACE2 Protein oder ACE2 Gentherapie belegt. Für beide Therapieformen gibt es jedoch eine Reihe ungelöster Problemstellungen, wie organspezifische Verabreichung, Kontrollierbarkeit der Proteinexpression und Immunogenität. Durch die aktuellen Entwicklungen in der RNA Transkripttherapie (RTT) erschließen sich dafür nun neue Lösungsansätze. Zielsetzung dieser Arbeit war die Etablierung von profunder und selektiver ACE2 Proteinexpression sowohl in gesundem als auch fibrotischem Leber- und Lungengewebe. Dabei wurde besonderes Augenmerk auf korrekte Proteinintegration in die Zellmembran gelegt, da es sich dabei um eine unabdingbare Voraussetzung für die lokale Enzymaktivität handelt. Zu diesem Zweck wurde im ersten Schritt in vitro transkribierte chemisch modifizierte ACE2 mRNA (cmRNA) entwickelt und einer umfassenden in vitro Analyse bestehend aus Evaluation der Transfektionseffizienz, Proteinexpression und Proteinaktivität unterzogen. Um eine organspezifische lokale ACE2 Proteinexpression zu garantieren wurden weiterführende Analysen der Proteinreifung durchgeführt. Damit konnte sowohl die vollständige Glycosylierung als auch korrekte Faltung des Proteins bestätigt werden, was zur korrekten Proteinintegration in die Zellmembrane führte. Gleichzeitig wurden mehrere ACE2 cmRNA Sequenzen einem Screening zur Bestimmung von Proteinexpressionsstärke und –dauer unterzogen und daraus die optimale Sequenz für weiterführende in vivo Analysen identifiziert. Im nächsten Schritt wurde mittels Reporterprotein cmRNA und daraus resultierender Proteinexpression die optimale Kombination von Carrier und Applikationsroute für die organspezifische Proteinexpression ermittelt. In der Leber konnte selektive und organspezifische Proteinexpression durch systemischer Applikation lipidoidbasierter Formulierungen erzielt werden. Für lungenspezifische Proteinexpression wurden polymer- und lipidoidbasierte Formulierungen für Nebulisierung, intratrachealer Mikrosprayapplikation oder systemischer Applikation untersucht. Dabei wurde basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen und im Kontext der ACE2 Expression in fibrotischen Lungen die systemischen Applikation als optimale Route identifiziert. Im nächsten Schritt wurde in den Formulierungen die Reporterprotein cmRNA mit ACE2 cmRNA ersetzt, womit nach intravenöser Verabreichung sowohl in der Leber als auch der Lunge starke ACE2 Proteinexpression nachweisbar war. Diese Formulierungen wurden anschließend in zwei experimentellen Modellen der Leber- und Lungenfibrose angewandt, wobei die erfolgreiche Anreicherung von ACE2 cmRNA in Leber beziehungsweise Lunge nachgewiesen werden konnte. Zusätzlich konnten erste Daten zur Proteinkinetik als auch cmRNA Dosierung und Carrierauswahl für zukünftige präklinische Studien erhoben werden. Zusammenfassend konnte in der vorliegenden Arbeit eine optimierte ACE2 cmRNA Sequenz zur leber- und lungenspezifischen ACE2 Expression etabliert werden. Leber- und lungenspezifischer Formulierungen und anschließende in vivo Applikation dieser cmRNA führten zu signifikanter Proteinexpression in den Zielorganen. Damit erweist sich die RTT als vielversprechender Ansatz für die ACE2 basierte Behandlung von Leber- und Lungenfibrose, was es nun in fibrotischen Krankheitsmodellen weiter zu entwickeln gilt

Domain Adaptation in Context of Visual Factors

The number of application areas of deep neural networks for image classification is continuously growing. A general desired attribute of these networks is to generalize well to test data that visually differs from the training data, but still shows the relevant features of the classes to be discriminated. Reasons for such a difference in data could be related to a change in background, illumination, or camera properties. The research area of Domain Adaptation (DA) deals with the transferability of classification models between such datasets, called domains, with the target to maximize the transferability. Typically, the differences and similarities of domains are described by the notion of general data distributions. This method, however, does not allow to identify and describe sufficiently the actual cause of a reduced performance on a new domain. To tackle this, in this thesis a novel description of domains, based on a theory of visual factors that describes the characteristics of domains will be introduced. As it will be shown, it can also be used to explain the targets and effects of existing DA approaches more understandable, which ultimately can be used to improve those even further. When it comes to the application of classification models in context of domains, several generalization cases can occur. In literature the most relevant ones are the cases where the application domain is the same domain as the training domain or the application domain is a completely new domain. The case that the application domain was one of multiple training domains is usually neglected, but will be investigated in this thesis as well, since it has high relevance for the usage of pre-trained classification models on own image data. As it will be shown further, the awareness about the domains for all three generalization cases is important for a well performing classification model in the application domain. The novel investigations in this context will be introduced under the term Effects of Domain Awareness. Different cases of domain awareness are investigated in combination with different domain constellations within the training and test data using the simple DA method of RGB mean normalization. The results on a road segmentation task show the importance to treat a domain during training and test always in the same way, since otherwise a significantly reduced performance can be observed. A typical assumption in current DA research is that each training domain includes samples for all classes that should be discriminated. However, thinking of distributed camera systems with a shared classification model, where each system potentially represents a domain, this assumption is too restricted. The more realistic assumption here is that not all classes are covered by samples from each domain during training of the classifier. The aforementioned scenario, which is overlooked in literature, will be extensively investigated under the term Domain Mixture scenario in this thesis. The experiments on MNIST and real-world object classification data show that, given the Domain Mixture scenario, the application of an approach from DA is essential, since otherwise the classification model is not capable to perform well on domain-class combinations that were not represented by supervised samples during training. A common DA approach to obtain a classification model that performs invariant of a domain well, is to remove all factors from the internal class feature representation that allow a discrimination of domains. This, however, can be harmful if at the same time task-informative factors are removed. To prevent this negative effect, the novel approach of Factor-Preserving DA (FP-DA) will be introduced which allows to preserve a selected factor during training with an adversarial DA approach. The experiments in this context will first show on real-world data that this negative effect exists and afterwards how factors worth preserving can be identified and subsequently be preserved through FP-DA in a multi-domain setting. The results show that FP-DA is capable to achieve the highest average and minimum performance in such a setting compared to the used baseline method. In summary, this thesis introduces a novel description of domains and based on that, investigates multiple highly relevant constellations for DA and additionally proposes a novel DA approach

Translation of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) upon liver and lung targeted delivery of optimized chemically modified mRNA

Changes in lifestyle and environmental conditions give rise to increasing prevalence of liver and lung fibrosis, both having poor prognosis. Investigations about the underlying mechanisms of fibrosis revealed a dysbalance of the local renin angiotensin system (RAS) actively contributing to inflammation and fibrosis. The carboxypeptidase angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a family member of the RAS showing high potential to reestablish RAS balance leading to resolution of inflammation and fibrosis. So far, first promising results in experimental liver and lung fibrosis have been reported upon administration of recombinant ACE2 protein or ACE2 gene therapy. However, recombinant protein and gene therapy struggle with hurdles such as organ-targeted delivery, limited or challenging control of protein expression and immunogenicity among others. These obstacles may be overcome with latest advances in RNA transcript therapy (RTT). The goal of this project was to establish strong and sustained ACE2 protein expression selectively in healthy and fibrotic liver and lung tissues. Special attention was paid on the protein being stably integrated into the cell membrane, a prerequisite for local enzymatic activity. For this purpose, in vitro transcribed chemically modified ACE2 mRNA (cmRNA) was designed and profound in vitro cmRNA transfection efficiency, protein expression and activity was shown. With the aim of organ targeted ACE2 protein expression, close investigations about protein maturation were performed indicating full glycosylation and correct folding of protein leading to trafficking and correct protein integration in the cell membrane. In parallel, several ACE2 cmRNA sequences were screened for strong and sustained protein expression in liver and lung cells and the best performing sequence was used for the following in vivo studies. For organ targeted delivery, the optimal combination of carrier and application route was determined by application of reporter protein cmRNA and evaluation of resulting protein expression. For liver targeted cmRNA delivery, systemic application of lipidoid based formulations led to selective protein expression in the liver. For lung targeted cmRNA expression, polymer and lipidoid based formulations were investigated for nebulization, intratracheal microspray or systemic application. In the context of ACE2 expression in fibrotic lungs and based on the results achieved by intravenous administration, systemic application was identified as the optimal administration route. In a next step, both liver and lung specific delivery agents were formulated with ACE2 cmRNA and intravenously applied leading to liver or lung targeted translation of significant amounts of ACE2 protein. Finally, these formulations were applied in two experimental models of liver and lung fibrosis and could show successful delivery of ACE2 cmRNA to liver or lung respectively. In addition, first data about protein kinetics as well as requirements for dosing and carrier selection in future preclinical studies could be collected. In summary, an optimized ACE2 cmRNA sequence for liver and lung targeted ACE2 expression could be identified in this thesis. In vivo application in liver and lung targeted formulations led to strong protein expression in these organs, providing evidence that RTT is a promising approach for ACE2 based treatment of liver and lung fibrosis to be further explored in fibrotic disease models.Ungesunder Lebensstil und Umwelteinflüsse führen zu kontinuierlich steigender Prävalenz von Leber- und Lungenfibrose, beide mit schlechten bis nicht vorhandenen Heilungsaussichten für die Patienten. Untersuchungen über die zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen fibrotischer Krankheiten zeigten ein deutliches Ungleichgewicht im lokalen Renin-Angiotensin-Systems (RAS) der betroffenen Organe, was erheblich zu Entzündungsreaktionen und daraus resultierender Fibrose beiträgt. In diesem Kontext nimmt ACE2 (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2) – eine Carboxypeptidase innerhalb des RAS - eine spezielle Rolle ein, da sie durch ihre Funktionalität über großes Potential zur Auflösung von Entzündung und Fibrose verfügt. Dies wurde durch erste vielversprechende Daten in experimentellen Leber- und Lungenfibrosemodellen nach Behandlung mit rekombinantem ACE2 Protein oder ACE2 Gentherapie belegt. Für beide Therapieformen gibt es jedoch eine Reihe ungelöster Problemstellungen, wie organspezifische Verabreichung, Kontrollierbarkeit der Proteinexpression und Immunogenität. Durch die aktuellen Entwicklungen in der RNA Transkripttherapie (RTT) erschließen sich dafür nun neue Lösungsansätze. Zielsetzung dieser Arbeit war die Etablierung von profunder und selektiver ACE2 Proteinexpression sowohl in gesundem als auch fibrotischem Leber- und Lungengewebe. Dabei wurde besonderes Augenmerk auf korrekte Proteinintegration in die Zellmembran gelegt, da es sich dabei um eine unabdingbare Voraussetzung für die lokale Enzymaktivität handelt. Zu diesem Zweck wurde im ersten Schritt in vitro transkribierte chemisch modifizierte ACE2 mRNA (cmRNA) entwickelt und einer umfassenden in vitro Analyse bestehend aus Evaluation der Transfektionseffizienz, Proteinexpression und Proteinaktivität unterzogen. Um eine organspezifische lokale ACE2 Proteinexpression zu garantieren wurden weiterführende Analysen der Proteinreifung durchgeführt. Damit konnte sowohl die vollständige Glycosylierung als auch korrekte Faltung des Proteins bestätigt werden, was zur korrekten Proteinintegration in die Zellmembrane führte. Gleichzeitig wurden mehrere ACE2 cmRNA Sequenzen einem Screening zur Bestimmung von Proteinexpressionsstärke und –dauer unterzogen und daraus die optimale Sequenz für weiterführende in vivo Analysen identifiziert. Im nächsten Schritt wurde mittels Reporterprotein cmRNA und daraus resultierender Proteinexpression die optimale Kombination von Carrier und Applikationsroute für die organspezifische Proteinexpression ermittelt. In der Leber konnte selektive und organspezifische Proteinexpression durch systemischer Applikation lipidoidbasierter Formulierungen erzielt werden. Für lungenspezifische Proteinexpression wurden polymer- und lipidoidbasierte Formulierungen für Nebulisierung, intratrachealer Mikrosprayapplikation oder systemischer Applikation untersucht. Dabei wurde basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen und im Kontext der ACE2 Expression in fibrotischen Lungen die systemischen Applikation als optimale Route identifiziert. Im nächsten Schritt wurde in den Formulierungen die Reporterprotein cmRNA mit ACE2 cmRNA ersetzt, womit nach intravenöser Verabreichung sowohl in der Leber als auch der Lunge starke ACE2 Proteinexpression nachweisbar war. Diese Formulierungen wurden anschließend in zwei experimentellen Modellen der Leber- und Lungenfibrose angewandt, wobei die erfolgreiche Anreicherung von ACE2 cmRNA in Leber beziehungsweise Lunge nachgewiesen werden konnte. Zusätzlich konnten erste Daten zur Proteinkinetik als auch cmRNA Dosierung und Carrierauswahl für zukünftige präklinische Studien erhoben werden. Zusammenfassend konnte in der vorliegenden Arbeit eine optimierte ACE2 cmRNA Sequenz zur leber- und lungenspezifischen ACE2 Expression etabliert werden. Leber- und lungenspezifischer Formulierungen und anschließende in vivo Applikation dieser cmRNA führten zu signifikanter Proteinexpression in den Zielorganen. Damit erweist sich die RTT als vielversprechender Ansatz für die ACE2 basierte Behandlung von Leber- und Lungenfibrose, was es nun in fibrotischen Krankheitsmodellen weiter zu entwickeln gilt

Influence of Respiratory Physiotherapy on the Performance in Endurance-based Sports

Bakalářská práce se zabývá vlivem rezistentního tréninku inspiračních svalů a hypopresivního způsobu dýchání na ventilační parametry sportovce. Sleduje respirační parametry a hodnoty VO2 max na začátku a konci terapie. V práci je popsána kineziologie dýchání, řízení dýchání a biomechanika dýchání. Dále jsou v bakalářské práci popsány a rozděleny svaly, které se účastní dechového cyklu. Následně je v práci popsáno téma vytrvalosti a výkonnosti z obecného pohledu, ale i konkrétně se vztažením k vytrvalecké disciplíně - sportovní chůze. Probandi jsou sportovní chodci, proto práce seznamuje se specifiky dané disciplíny z pohledu biomechaniky a energetické náročnosti. V poslední teoretické části práce je popsána respirační fyzioterapie, spolu s dechovými trenažery a hypopresivní metodou dýchání. Následuje metodická část práce a speciální část. Speciální část práce se zabývá kineziologickými rozbory sledovaných probandů a je zde popsán konkrétní tréninkově - terapeutický plán probandů, který je vyhodnocen ve výsledkové části. V poslední části práce je popsána diskuze a závěr na základě zjištěných výsledků. Práce hodnotí vliv zmíněných metod na výkonnost, na zlepšení dechových parametrů, na posturu sportovce a efektivitu pohybu. Hodnocení probíhá na základě získaných dat a subjektivních pocitů sledovaných probandů.This bachelor thesis adresses the influence of resistant training of aspiration muscles and hypopressive breathing method on ventilation parametrs of an athlete. It tracks respiration parameters and values of VO2 max at the start and at the end of the therapy. Further it describes the kinesiology of respiration, controlling the respiration and the biomechanics of respiration. The work also describes and divides muscles, which are a part of the respiration cycle.The thesis looks into topics of endurance and performance from a general perspective, but also specifically from a racewalking perspective. Test subjects were racewalkers, this is also why the work introduces the specifics of the discipline from the perspective of biomechanics and energetic demands.In the last section of the theoretical part, it describes respirational physiotherapy together with respiratory-exercisers and hypopressive respiration method. After that we get to the methodical and special part of the thesis. The methodical part pursues kinesiological analysis of tracked test subjects, then we breakdown the specific training-therapy plan of the test subjects which is evaluated in the result section. In the end the discussion and conlusion are described based on the discovered results.The thesis evaluates the impact of the mentioned methods on performance, on improving aspiration parameters, on the posture of an athlete and his efectivity of movement. Evaluation is based on obtained results and subjectives feelings of the test subjects

Techniques for the Synthesis of Reversible Toffoli Networks

This paper presents novel techniques for the synthesis of reversible networks of Toffoli gates, as well as improvements to previous methods. Gate count and technology oriented cost metrics are used. Our synthesis techniques are independent of the cost metrics. Two new iterative synthesis procedure employing Reed-Muller spectra are introduced and shown to complement earlier synthesis approaches. The template simplification suggested in earlier work is enhanced through introduction of a faster and more efficient template application algorithm, updated (shorter) classification of the templates, and presentation of the new templates of sizes 7 and 9. A novel ``resynthesis'' approach is introduced wherein a sequence of gates is chosen from a network, and the reversible specification it realizes is resynthesized as an independent problem in hopes of reducing the network cost. Empirical results are presented to show that the methods are effective both in terms of the realization of all 3x3 reversible functions and larger reversible benchmark specifications.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Realisierung eines optimierten Feldbussystems und Modellierung mit Petrinetzen

Eine unüberschaubare Anzahl von Feldbussystemen wird derzeit in der industriellen Automatisierungstechnik eingesetzt und drängt verstärkt in neue Anwendungsfelder wie Gebäude- und Fahrzeugautomatisierung. Haupthindernis für eine schnelle Verbreitung sind hohe Kosten, die aus der Komplexität und Vielfalt der Systeme entstehen. Die Arbeit stellt methodische Grundlagen der strukturierten Systementwicklung vor und führt in die Nutzung von Petrinetzen als Beschreibungsmittel ein. Neben der Softwaremodellierung wird dabei der Zusammenhang zwischen struktureller- und Verhaltensmodellierung dargestellt. Nach Betrachtung der Übertragungstechniken im Feldbereich werden Zugriffsstrategien mit Petrinetzen modelliert und marktübliche Systeme verglichen. Eine Definition von Zielen und Anforderungen zeigt anschließend den Weg zu einem optimierten Feldbussystem auf. Zu diesem Zweck wird ein System entworfen, welches jedem Interessenten ein einfaches aber effektives und universelles System großer räumlicher Ausdehnung unter Nutzung preiswerter, robuster Bauteile und Übertragungsmedien bereit stellt. Die Softwarestrukturen werden mit Hilfe von Petrinetzen modelliert und insbesondere die Möglichkeiten der Nutzung eines Petrinetztools zur Dokumentation sowie einer zukünftigen direkten Codegenerierung für ressourcenoptimierte Mikrocontrollersysteme aufgezeigt. Abschließend wird eine Validation anhand der Realisierung des optimierten Feldbussystems mit Messungen am realen System durchgeführt.An immense number of field bus systems is currently used in industrial automation and is expanding more and more into new application fields as facility management and vehicle automation. Main obstacle for a fast spreading are high costs, which result from the complexity and variety of the systems. The thesis describes methodical foundation of the structured system development and introduces to the use of Petrinets as description technique. Apart from the software modelling also the interrelation between structural and behavioural modelling is presented. After a closer examination of the transmission techniques within the field range, medium access strategies are modelled with Petrinets and usual market systems are compared. A definition of goals and requirements shows afterwards the way to an optimised field bus system. For this purpose a system is designed, which makes available a simple however effective and universal system of large spatial expansion to each prospective under use of inexpensive, durable components and transmitting media. The software structures are modelled with Petrinets. In particular the possibilities of the use of a Petrinet tool for the documentation as well as a future direct generation of program code for resource optimised microcontroller systems are presented. Finally the realisation of the optimised field bus system is validated with measurements of the material system

Empirical Findings from an Ascending Stair Evacuation Exercise in a Subway Station

Crowd simulations have proven to be a valuable numerical tool for evacuation analysis. There is series of research and empirical evacuation studies for infrastructures and buildings. In contrast to research on evacuation via descending stairs, little attention has been given to ascending stairs, but they are an important criterion, especially in subway stations with high passenger frequencies. In this paper, we present the findings from an evacuation exercise in a subway station with long ascending stairs. The empirical findings showed an increasing walking time on the ascending stairs during evacuation. Also, the flow rate differs with higher flow rates at the beginning of the stairs and lower values at the end of the stairs. The mechanism behind these results has still to be investigated, but the findings already provide an interesting basis for modelling and validating evacuation simulations over long ascending stairs