UrMo Accessibility Computer - A tool for computing contour accessibility measures

Contour accessibility measures are a set of performance indicators used to value a location by the amount of accessible activities, places, or space within certain time or distance limits. They are used for evaluating a region’s activity offers taking the connectivity to its surrounding into regard and act as input data for land use planning models and traffic demand models. With the availability of disaggregated data and sufficient computer power, accessibility measures can be computed at a very fine-grained level of single buildings, points of interest or areas. This report describes a tool that realizes this purpose

Identifying polycentricism: a review of concepts and research challenges

Assessment of polycentricism is one approach to understand the process of urban expansion and its structural changes. The assessment is important to provide knowledge as a basis for future planning and policy. This review article structures the existing concepts of polycentricism, examines the methodologies applied for polycentricism assessment at different spatial scales and across world regions. Based on this, it identifies future research challenges. The review shows that studies of polycentricism have been conducted primarily in cities across the more developed world regions while in the developing world regions, fewer studies are available and only began to emerge in the 1990s, two decades later than the West. The reviewed studies use employment distribution and travel behavior as the primary sources of data. To compensate for the lack of well-documented employment distribution and mobility data, more diverse indicators and sophisticated digital-based approaches have been applied in the latest studies that focus on cities in developing world regions. The reviewed studies demonstrate for the examined cases a general shift towards polycentric development. While in the more developed world regions polycentricism is influenced by employment decentralization, in the developing world regions this phenomenon is influenced by market forces and spatial planning policies

Ko-Automobilität. Heutige Nutzungsformen und Nutzungsmuster in Deutschland und Verbreitungspotenziale als alternatives Mobilitätsangebot

Das Projekt "Autoteilen" beschäftigt sich mit den Möglichkeiten der gemeinschaftlichen/geteilten Nutzung des Pkws. Einhergehend mit der fortschreitenden Digitalisierung und Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (KIT) entwickelt sich eine Vielfalt neuer Nutzungsformen im Bereich Peer-2-Peer-Sharing. Im Rahmen des Projekts werden die verschiedenen Formen des Pkw-P2P-Sharings untersucht, die Nutzer sowie ihre Motive und Anforderungen bzw. Nutzungsbarrieren betrachtet und eine Aussage zum künftigen Verbreitungspotenzial getroffen

Sol-gel preparation of pure and doped TiO₂ films for the photocatalytic oxidation of ethanol in air

Stable sols of TiO2 were synthesized by a non-aqueous sol-gel process using titanium (IV) isopropoxide as precursor. The microstructure, optical and morphological properties of the films obtained by spin-coating from the sol, and annealed at different temperatures, were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, diffuse reflectance spectroscopy and ellipsometry. The crystalline structure of the films was characterized by X-ray diffraction and their photocatalytic activity was evaluated for the oxidation of ethanol in air. The influence of the calcination temperature, pre-heat treatment and the number of layers was studied. Simultaneous thermo-gravimetric and differential thermal analysis measurements were carried out to ascertain the thermal decomposition behavior of the precursors. In order to obtain a higher photoresponse in the visible region, a series of vanadium-, niobium- and tantalum-doped TiO2 catalysts was synthesized by the same sol-gel method. For V doping two different precursors, a vanadium alkoxide and V2O5, were used. The effect on the crystallization and photocatalytic activity of the doped TiO2 films was investigated. Furthermore, to identify the effective composition of the samples, they were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and the surface area of the powders was measured by N-2 adsorption. The 10 wt.% doped catalysts exhibit high photocatalytic activity under visible light and among them the best performance was obtained for the sample containing Ta as dopant. The crystallite sizes are closely related to the photocatalytic activity

How sustainable are processes of social and spatial differentiation in Santiago de Chile? Current situation and future scenarios for social inclusion

This discussion paper presents a methodological approach to sustainability indicators and scenarios that evolved within the framework of the interdisciplinary and application-oriented Risk Habitat Megacity research initiative on sustainable urban development in Santiago de Chile. The aim of this discussion paper is to support regional and local planning authorities and political decision-makers in the area of housing and other urban policy fields. It will be shown how the approach was contextualized in order to contribute to the ongoing debate on methodological approaches to social sustainability and to the policy-related understanding of socio-spatial differentiation trends and their implications for social inclusion

Protein content and glucosinolates from Moringa oleifera Lam. – New insights into an auspicious commodity

Moringa  oleifera  is  considered  to  be  one  of  the  most  valuable  and  beneficial crop tree species. The great nutritiousness is assigned to its  high  leaf  protein  content,  and  its  health-promoting  effect  to  the  anti-carcinogenic  properties  of  its  genuine  glucosinolates  and  their  degradation products.From  a  plant  physiological  perception  protein  contents  of  30%  seem to be quite high. Accordingly, a reconsideration of these findings became necessary. The related inquiry unveils that also in the leaves  of  many  other  plant  species  such  high  protein  contents  are  reported, provided that they are quantified by Kjeldahl nitrogen determinations. But, it is rather likely that the nitrogen accounting for the putative high protein contents is due to insoluble cell wall bound hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins. Due to their extreme insolubility, these  compounds  cannot  be  digested  easily,  and  thus,  they  do  not  contribute to the nutritiousness of M. oleifera leaves.In contrast to classical glucosinolates, those occurring in M. oleifera are characterized by an attachment of a rhamnose to the aglycone. In consequence, the products generated during the myrosinase-cata-lysed hydrolysis correspond to non-volatile rhamnosides of isothiocyanates. Since over time, olfactorily active substances emerge, the rhamnose moiety has to be cleaved off, putatively by a corresponding rhamnosidase

An ECF-type transporter scavenges heme to overcome iron-limitation in Staphylococcus lugdunensis

Energy-coupling factor type transporters (ECF) represent trace nutrient acquisition systems. Substrate binding components of ECF-transporters are membrane proteins with extraordinary affinity, allowing them to scavenge trace amounts of ligand. A number of molecules have been described as substrates of ECF-transporters, but an involvement in iron-acquisition is unknown. Host-induced iron limitation during infection represents an effective mechanism to limit bacterial proliferation. We identified the iron-regulated ECF-transporter Lha in the opportunistic bacterial pathogen Staphylococcus lugdunensis and show that the transporter is specific for heme. The recombinant substrate-specific subunit LhaS accepted heme from diverse host-derived hemoproteins. Using isogenic mutants and recombinant expression of Lha, we demonstrate that its function is independent of the canonical heme acquisition system Isd and allows proliferation on human cells as sources of nutrient iron. Our findings reveal a unique strategy of nutritional heme acquisition and provide the first example of an ECF-transporter involved in overcoming host-induced nutritional limitation

Proteome analysis of monocytes implicates altered mitochondrial biology in adults reporting adverse childhood experiences.

The experience of adversity in childhood has been associated with poor health outcomes in adulthood. In search of the biological mechanisms underlying these effects, research so far focused on alterations of DNA methylation or shifts in transcriptomic profiles. The level of protein, however, has been largely neglected. We utilized mass spectrometry to investigate the proteome of CD14(+) monocytes in healthy adults reporting childhood adversity and a control group before and after psychosocial stress exposure. Particular proteins involved in (i) immune processes, such as neutrophil-related proteins, (ii) protein metabolism, or (iii) proteins related to mitochondrial biology, such as those involved in energy production processes, were upregulated in participants reporting exposure to adversity in childhood. This functional triad was further corroborated by protein interaction- and co-expression analyses, was independent of stress exposure, i.e. observed at both pre- and post-stress time points, and became evident especially in females. In line with the mitochondrial allostatic load model, our findings provide evidence for the long-term effects of childhood adversity on mitochondrial biology