Unique reactivity of nanoporous cellulosic materials mediated by surface-confined water

The remarkable efficiency of chemical reactions is the result of biological evolution, often involving confined water. Meanwhile, developments of bio-inspired systems, which exploit the potential of such water, have been so far rather complex and cumbersome. Here we show that surface-confined water, inherently present in widely abundant and renewable cellulosic fibres can be utilised as nanomedium to endow a singular chemical reactivity. Compared to surface acetylation in the dry state, confined water increases the reaction rate and efficiency by 8 times and 30%, respectively. Moreover, confined water enables control over chemical accessibility of selected hydroxyl groups through the extent of hydration, allowing regioselective reactions, a major challenge in cellulose modification. The reactions mediated by surface-confined water are sustainable and largely outperform those occurring in organic solvents in terms of efficiency and environmental compatibility. Our results demonstrate the unexploited potential of water bound to cellulosic nanostructures in surface esterifications, which can be extended to a wide range of other nanoporous polymeric structures and reactions. The efficiency of chemical reactions in biological systems is often connected to the properties of confined water, but the developments and applications of artificial mimicking systems are impeded by the complexity of the biological systems. Here, the authors show how surface bound water in nanoporous cellulosic fibers can increase the reaction rate of surface acetylation reactions and enable regioselectivity of the reactionPeer reviewe

Infrared and Raman spectra of lignin substructures : Dibenzodioxocin

Vibrational spectroscopy is a very suitable tool for investigating the plant cell wall in situ with almost no sample preparation. The structural information of all different constituents is contained in a single spectrum. Interpretation therefore heavily relies on reference spectra and understanding of the vibrational behavior of the components under study. For the first time, we show infrared (IR) and Raman spectra of dibenzodioxocin (DBDO), an important lignin substructure. A detailed vibrational assignment of the molecule, based on quantum chemical computations, is given in the Supporting Information; the main results are found in the paper. Furthermore, we show IR and Raman spectra of synthetic guaiacyl lignin (dehydrogenation polymer-G-DHP). Raman spectra of DBDO and G-DHP both differ with respect to the excitation wavelength and therefore reveal different features of the substructure/polymer. This study confirms the idea previously put forward that Raman at 532 nm selectively probes end groups of lignin, whereas Raman at 785 nm and IR seem to represent the majority of lignin substructures.Peer reviewe

Post-processing and visualisation of large-scale DEM simulation data with the open-source VELaSSCo platform

Regardless of its origin, in the near future the challenge will not be how to generate data, but rather how to manage big and highly distributed data to make it more easily handled and more accessible by users on their personal devices. VELaSSCo (Visualization for Extremely Large-Scale Scientific Computing) is a platform developed to provide new visual analysis methods for large-scale simulations serving the petabyte era. The platform adopts Big Data tools/architectures to enable in-situ processing for analytics of engineering and scientific data and hardware-accelerated interactive visualization. In large-scale simulations, the domain is partitioned across several thousand nodes, and the data (mesh and results) are stored on those nodes in a distributed manner. The VELaSSCo platform accesses this distributed information, processes the raw data, and returns the results to the users for local visualization by their specific visualization clients and tools. The global goal of VELaSSCo is to provide Big Data tools for the engineering and scientific community, in order to better manipulate simulations with billions of distributed records. The ability to easily handle large amounts of data will also enable larger, higher resolution simulations, which will allow the scientific and engineering communities to garner new knowledge from simulations previously considered too large to handle. This paper shows, by means of selected Discrete Element Method (DEM) simulation use cases, that the VELaSSCo platform facilitates distributed post-processing and visualization of large engineering datasets

IMPROVE: Advanced displays and interaction techniques for collaborative design review

In this paper we present evaluation results of an innovative application designed to make collaborative design review in the architectural and automotive domain more effective. Within IMPROVE, a European research project in the area of advanced displays, we are combining high resolution multi-tile displays, TabletPCs and head-mounted displays with innovative 2D and 3D Interaction Paradigms to better support collaborative mobile mixed reality design reviews. Our research and development is motivated by application scenarios in the automotive domain involving FIAT Elasis from Naples, Italy and in the architectural domain involving Page/Park architects from Glasgow, Scotland. User evaluation took place at Glasgow (UK), Naples (ITA) and Darmstadt (GER), where we tested the integrated IMPROVE prototype application. The tests were conducted based on several heuristics such as ergonomics and psychomotorial factors and they were conducted based on guidelines recommended by ISO 9241 to verify whether the developed interfaces were suitable for the applications scenarios. Evaluation results show that there is a strong demand for more interactive design review systems, allowing users greater flexibility and greater choice of input and visualization modalities as well as their combination

IMPROVE: collaborative design review in mobile mixed reality

In this paper we introduce an innovative application designed to make collaborative design review in the architectural and automotive domain more effective. For this purpose we present a system architecture which combines variety of visualization displays such as high resolution multi-tile displays, TabletPCs and head-mounted displays with innovative 2D and 3D Interaction Paradigms to better support collaborative mobile mixed reality design reviews. Our research and development is motivated by two use scenarios: automotive and architectural design review involving real users from Page\Park architects and FIAT Elasis. Our activities are supported by the EU IST project IMPROVE aimed at developing advanced display techniques, fostering activities in the areas of: optical see-through HMD development using unique OLED technology, marker-less optical tracking, mixed reality rendering, image calibration for large tiled displays, collaborative tablet-based and projection wall oriented interaction and stereoscopic video streaming for mobile users. The paper gives an overview of the hardware and software developments within IMPROVE and concludes with results from first user tests

Die Einstellung und projektierte Wiedereröffnung der "Salzkammergut-Lokalbahn" : eine Diskursgeschichte

eingereicht von: Thomas Benjamin GierlingerLiteraturverzeichnis: Seite 131-139Universität Salzburg, Diplomarbeit, 2019(VLID)505469

The more the merrier – revisiting CLIL-based vocabulary growth in secondary education

1 documento en pdfUn aspecto relevante del aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera basado en AICLE en contextos instruccionales es el incremento del vocabulario. En consecuencia, la investigación debería interesarse en la promoción del aprendizaje de vocabulario en AICLE. Es alarmante observar una aparente falta de investigación del incremento del vocabulario basada en datos cuantitativos. El presente artículo da cuenta de los hallazgos de un estudio mixto del incremento del vocabulario en un colegio austriaco de bachillerato de educación básica en un contexto AICLE, en el cual se emplea el inglés como lengua de instrucción y de aprendizaje. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar cómo el uso de AICLE en el salón de clase pudo beneficiar a los aprendices en cuanto a la adquisición de vocabulario en lengua extranjera. En primer lugar, a través de repetidas mediciones con el grupo experimental y de control, se aplicó una prueba estandarizada del tamaño de vocabulario. Luego, se empleó un cuestionario de datos de los estudiantes, y mediante un perfil de vocabulario del aporte lingüístico de los profesores de AICLE, se exploraron las posibles co-variables de las pruebas de vocabulario. Se encontró que los efectos relacionados con AICLE estuvieron co-determinados por la frecuencia, mientras que los factores extramurales no tuvieron un rol preponderante en este estudio. En consecuencia, las expectativas demasiado optimistas relacionadas con el impacto de AICLE en un contexto de habilidades mixtas guiadas predominantemente por un enfoque de enseñanza implícita de la lengua deben reevaluarse seriamente

Entre más mejor- una revisión del incremento del vocabulario en un contexto AICLE de Bachillerato

One crucial aspect of CLIL-based foreign language learning in instructional settingsis vocabulary growth. As a consequence, research should be interested inhow CLIL fosters vocabulary learning. Noticing an apparent shortage of data-drivenquantitative research on vocabulary growth in this field of CLIL is, therefore,problematic. The present paper reports findings from a mixed-methods studyof vocabulary growth in an Austrian lower secondary school CLIL setting, withEnglish as the language of instruction and learning. The aim of the study was toanalyse how the use of CLIL in the English classroom could benefit learners in theiracquisition of vocabulary in the target language. First, a repeated-measure-designwith experimental and control groups assessed receptive vocabulary growth bymeans of a standardized vocabulary size test. Second, students’ questionnaire dataas well as vocabulary profiling of the CLIL teachers’ linguistic input explored possiblecovariates for the vocabulary test scores. We found that CLIL-related effectswere only co-determined by input frequency, while extra-mural factors did notplay any role in this study. As a consequence, overly optimistic expectations regardingthe linguistic impact of CLIL in a mixed-ability setting guided by a predominantlyimplicit language teaching approach need to be re-evaluated critically.doi:10.5294/laclil.2016.9.1.3Un aspecto relevante del aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera basado en AICLE en contextos instruccionales es el incremento del vocabulario. En consecuencia, la investigación debería interesarse en la promoción del aprendizaje de vocabulario en AICLE. Es alarmante observar una aparente falta de investigación del incremento del vocabulario basada en datos cuantitativos. El presente artículo da cuenta de los hallazgos de un estudio mixto del incremento del vocabulario en un colegio Austriaco de bachillerato de educación básica en un contexto AICLE, en el cual se emplea el inglés como lengua de instrucción y de aprendizaje. El objetivo de este estudio fue analizar cómo el uso de AICLE en el salón de clase pudo beneficiar a los aprendices en cuanto a la adquisición de vocabulario en lengua extranjera. En primer lugar, a través de repetidas mediciones con el grupo experimental y de control, se aplicó una prueba estandarizada del tamaño de vocabulario. Luego, se empleó un cuestionario de datos de los estudiantes y mediante un perfil de vocabulario del aporte lingüístico de los profesores de AICLE se exploraron las posibles co-variables de las pruebas de vocabulario. Se encontró que los efectos relacionados con AICLE estuvieron co-determinados por la frecuencia, mientras que los factores extra murales no tuvieron un rol preponderante en este estudio. En consecuencia, las expectativas demasiado optimistas relacionadas con el impacto de AICLE en un contexto de habilidades mixtas guiadas predominantemente por un enfoque de enseñanza implícita de la lengua deben reevaluarse seriamente