Introduction to tailored forming

In recent years, the requirements for technical components have been increasing steadily. This development is intensified by the desire for products with lower weight, smaller size and extended functionality, but at the same time higher resistance against specific loads. Mono-material components manufactured according to established processes reach their limits regarding conflicting requirements. It is, for example, hardly possible to combine excellent mechanical properties with lightweight construction using mono-materials. Thus, a significant increase in production quality, lightweight design, functionality and efficiency can only be reached by combining different materials in one component. The superior aim of the Collaborative Research Centre (CRC) 1153 is to develop novel process chains for the production of hybrid solid components. In contrast to existing process chains in bulk metal forming, in which the joining process takes place during forming or at the end of the process chain, the CRC 1153 uses tailored semi-finished workpieces which are joined before the forming process. This results in a geometric and thermomechanical influence on the joining zone during the forming process which cannot be created by conventional joining techniques. The present work gives an overview of the CRC and the Tailored Forming approach including the applied joining, forming and finishing processes as well as a short summary of the accompanying design and evaluation methods

Cloud Computing for Climate Modelling: Evaluation, Challenges and Benefits

Cloud computing is a mature technology that has already shown benefits for a wide range of academic research domains that, in turn, utilize a wide range of application design models. In this paper, we discuss the use of cloud computing as a tool to improve the range of resources available for climate science, presenting the evaluation of two different climate models. Each was customized in a different way to run in public cloud computing environments (hereafter cloud computing) provided by three different public vendors: Amazon, Google and Microsoft. The adaptations and procedures necessary to run the models in these environments are described. The computational performance and cost of each model within this new type of environment are discussed, and an assessment is given in qualitative terms. Finally, we discuss how cloud computing can be used for geoscientific modelling, including issues related to the allocation of resources by funding bodies. We also discuss problems related to computing security, reliability and scientific reproducibilityS

Optically pure, structural and fluorescent analogues of a dimeric Y4 receptor agonist derived by an olefin metathesis approach

The dimeric peptide 1 (BVD-74D, as a diastereomeric mixture) is a potent and selective Neuropeptide Y Y4 receptor agonist. It represents a valuable candidate in developing traceable ligands for pharmacological studies of Y4 receptors, and as a lead compound for anti-obesity drugs. Its optically pure stereoisomers along with analogues and fluorescently labelled variants were prepared by exploiting alkene metathesis reactions. The (2R,7R)- diaminosuberoyl containing peptide, (R,R)-1 had markedly higher affinity and agonist efficacy than its (S,S)-counterpart. Furthermore the sulfo-Cy5 labelled (R,R)-14 retained high agonist potency as a novel fluorescent ligand for imaging Y4 receptors

Combination of Cladding Processes with Subsequent Hot Forming as a New Approach for the Production of Hybrid Components

A new process chain for the manufacturing of load-adapted hybrid components is presented. The "Tailored Forming” process chain consists of a deposition welding process, hot forming, machining and an optional heat treatment. This paper focuses on the combination of laser hot-wire cladding with subsequent hot forming to produce hybrid components. The applicability is investigated for different material combinations and component geometries, e.g. a shaft with a bearing seat or a bevel gear. Austenitic stainless steel AISI 316L and martensitic valve steel AISI HNV3 are used as cladding materials, mild steel AISI 1022M and case hardening steel AISI 5120 are used as base materials. The resulting component properties after laser hot-wire cladding and hot forming such as hardness, microstructure and residual stress state are presented. In the cladding and the heat-affected zone, the hot forming process causes a transformation from a welding microstructure to a fine-grained forming microstructure. Hot forming significantly affects the residual stress state in the cladding the resulting residual stress state depends on the material combination.Mechanical Engineerin

Enhanced flood risk with 1.5 °c global warming in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna basin

Flood hazard is a global problem, but regions such as south Asia, where people’s livelihoods are highly dependent on water resources, can be affected disproportionally. The 2017 monsoon flooding in the Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) basin, with record river levels observed, resulted in ∼1200 deaths, and dramatic loss of crops and infrastructure. The recent Paris Agreement called for research into impacts avoided by stabilizing climate at 1.5 °C over 2 °C global warming above pre-industrial conditions. Climate model scenarios representing these warming levels were combined with a high-resolution flood hazard model over the GBM region. The simulations of 1.5 °C and 2 °C warming indicate an increase in extreme precipitation and corresponding flood hazard over the GBM basin compared to the current climate. So, for example, even with global warming limited to 1.5 °C, for extreme precipitation events such as the south Asian crisis in 2017 there is a detectable increase in the likelihood in flooding. The additional ∼0.6 °C warming needed to take us from current climate to 1.5 °C highlights the changed flood risk even with low levels of warming

Dietary soy and meat proteins induce distinct physiological and gene expression changes in rats

This study reports on a comprehensive comparison of the effects of soy and meat proteins given at the recommended level on physiological markers of metabolic syndrome and the hepatic transcriptome. Male rats were fed semi-synthetic diets for 1 wk that differed only regarding protein source, with casein serving as reference. Body weight gain and adipose tissue mass were significantly reduced by soy but not meat proteins. The insulin resistance index was improved by soy, and to a lesser extent by meat proteins. Liver triacylglycerol contents were reduced by both protein sources, which coincided with increased plasma triacylglycerol concentrations. Both soy and meat proteins changed plasma amino acid patterns. The expression of 1571 and 1369 genes were altered by soy and meat proteins respectively. Functional classification revealed that lipid, energy and amino acid metabolic pathways, as well as insulin signaling pathways were regulated differently by soy and meat proteins. Several transcriptional regulators, including NFE2L2, ATF4, Srebf1 and Rictor were identified as potential key upstream regulators. These results suggest that soy and meat proteins induce distinct physiological and gene expression responses in rats and provide novel evidence and suggestions for the health effects of different protein sources in human diets

Half a degree additional warming, prognosis and projected impacts (HAPPI): Background and experimental design

Abstract. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has accepted the invitation from the UNFCCC to provide a special report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels and on related global greenhouse-gas emission pathways. Many current experiments in, for example, the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP), are not specifically designed for informing this report. Here, we document the design of the half a degree additional warming, projections, prognosis and impacts (HAPPI) experiment. HAPPI provides a framework for the generation of climate data describing how the climate, and in particular extreme weather, might differ from the present day in worlds that are 1.5 and 2.0 °C warmer than pre-industrial conditions. Output from participating climate models includes variables frequently used by a range of impact models. The key challenge is to separate the impact of an additional approximately half degree of warming from uncertainty in climate model responses and internal climate variability that dominate CMIP-style experiments under low-emission scenarios.Large ensembles of simulations (&gt;  50 members) of atmosphere-only models for three time slices are proposed, each a decade in length: the first being the most recent observed 10-year period (2006–2015), the second two being estimates of a similar decade but under 1.5 and 2 °C conditions a century in the future. We use the representative concentration pathway 2.6 (RCP2.6) to provide the model boundary conditions for the 1.5 °C scenario, and a weighted combination of RCP2.6 and RCP4.5 for the 2 °C scenario. </jats:p

Enhanced and effective conformational sampling of protein molecular systems for their free energy landscapes

Protein folding and protein–ligand docking have long persisted as important subjects in biophysics. Using multicanonical molecular dynamics (McMD) simulations with realistic expressions, i.e., all-atom protein models and an explicit solvent, free-energy landscapes have been computed for several systems, such as the folding of peptides/proteins composed of a few amino acids up to nearly 60 amino-acid residues, protein–ligand interactions, and coupled folding and binding of intrinsically disordered proteins. Recent progress in conformational sampling and its applications to biophysical systems are reviewed in this report, including descriptions of several outstanding studies. In addition, an algorithm and detailed procedures used for multicanonical sampling are presented along with the methodology of adaptive umbrella sampling. Both methods control the simulation so that low-probability regions along a reaction coordinate are sampled frequently. The reaction coordinate is the potential energy for multicanonical sampling and is a structural identifier for adaptive umbrella sampling. One might imagine that this probability control invariably enhances conformational transitions among distinct stable states, but this study examines the enhanced conformational sampling of a simple system and shows that reasonably well-controlled sampling slows the transitions. This slowing is induced by a rapid change of entropy along the reaction coordinate. We then provide a recipe to speed up the sampling by loosening the rapid change of entropy. Finally, we report all-atom McMD simulation results of various biophysical systems in an explicit solvent

The possibility of evidence-based psychiatry: depression as a case

Considering psychiatry as a medical discipline, a diagnosis identifying a disorder should lead to an effective therapy. Such presumed causality is the basis of evidence-based psychiatry. We examined the strengths and weaknesses of research onto the causality of relationship between diagnosis and therapy of major depressive disorder and suggest what could be done to strengthen eventual claims on causality. Four obstacles for a rational evidence-based psychiatry were recognised. First, current classification systems are scientifically nonfalsifiable. Second, cerebral processes are—at least to some extent—nondeterministic, i.e. they are random, stochastic and/or chaotic. Third, the vague or lack of relationship between therapeutic regimens and suspected pathogenesis. Fourth, the inadequacy of tools to diagnose and delineate a functional disorder. We suggest a strategy to identify diagnostic prototypes that are characterised by a limited number of parameters (symptoms, markers and other characteristics). A prototypical diagnosis that may either support or reject particular elements of current diagnostic systems. Nevertheless, one faces the possibility that psychiatry will remain a relatively weak evidence-based medical discipline