Encounters between social work and STS

From the introduction: This special issue was motivated by a series of productive ‘encounters’ between a diverse group of researchers and practitioners working in and between the fields of social work and STS - most notably the ‘Introducing STS and Social Work’ sessions at the Danish STS conference in 2016

Schnelle Spurengasretrieval für das Satellitenexperiment Envisat MIPAS

Um die komplexen dynamischen und chemischen Vorgänge in der Erdatmosphäre zu verstehen sind mit Fernerkundungsmethoden gewonnene Meßdaten von großer Bedeutung. Einen kontinuierlichen, globalen Überblick über den Atmosphärenzustand verschaffen hierbei nur Satellitenexperimente. Deren umfangreiche und genaue Meßdaten werden zwingend benötigt zur Validierung und Verbesserung von Atmosphärenmodellen, in denen das tatsächlich vorhandene Wissen über viele Vorgänge innerhalb der Erdatmosphäre zusammengefaßt ist. Seit März 2002 befindet sich der europäische Umweltforschungssatellit Envisat im All. Ein Instrument an Bord der Plattform ist MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding), das die am Erdhorizont entstehenden thermischen Eigenemissionen von atmosphärischen Bestandteilen wie Spurengasen, Aerosolen und Wolken vermißt. Aus den von MIPAS gemessenen Infrarot-Strahlungsspektren werden im sogenannten Retrievalprozeß die tatsächlich interessierenden Atmosphärenparameter wie Druck, Temperatur und Spurengaskonzentrationen abgeleitet. Kennzeichen von MIPAS ist das hohe spektrale Auflösungsvermögen, das die Auswertung besonders vieler verschiedener Spurengase ermöglicht. Die Auswertung von Satellitendaten ist bereits aufgrund von deren Umfang ein sehr aufwendiger Vorgang. Allein während einer Erdumrundung liefert Envisat MIPAS etwa 300 Megabyte an Meßdaten. Bei zukünftigen Experimenten, wie dem von den Forschungszentren Jülich und Karlsruhe vorgeschlagenen Instrument GLORIA (Global Limb Radiance Imager for the Atmosphere), werden die anfallenden Datenmengen noch um mehrere Größenordnungen anwachsen. Eine wichtige Komponente in der Datenauswertung atmosphärischer Fernerkundungsmessungen ist das Vorwärtsmodell, mit dem die Messungen eines Instruments für einen gegebenen Atmosphärenzustand simuliert werden. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde das besonders schnelle und flexible Vorwärtsmodell JURASSIC (Juelich Rapid Spectral Simulation Code) entwickelt. Darauf aufbauend wurde ein innovatives Retrievalsystem entworfen, das außer zur Auswertung konventioneller Satellitenmessungen, wie denen von Envisat MIPAS, auch ein Grundbaustein bei der Auswertung zukünftiger Experimente wie GLORIA sein kann. Die Beschreibung von Aufbau und Anwendungsmöglichkeiten von JURASSIC und des darauf aufbauenden Retrievalsystems sind Gegenstand dieser Arbeit. Das JURASSIC Retrievalsystem wurde eingesetzt, um die globale Verteilung der Fluorchlorkohlenwasserstoffe CFC-11 und CFC-12 aus Envisat MIPAS Strahlungsmessungen abzuleiten. Diese Gase werden im operationellen ESA Retrieval nicht ausgewertet. Die wissenschaftlichen Retrieval anderer Arbeitsgruppen umfassen meist nur einen kleinen Teil aller vorhandenen Messungen. Im Gegensatz dazu deckt die hier durchgeführte Ableitung den Zeitraum von Juli 2002 bis März 2004 vollständig ab. Möglich wird dies überhaupt erst, weil JURASSIC eine sehr schnelle Vorwärtsmodellierung erlaubt. Die abgeleiteten Daten wurden mit externen MIPAS Auswertungen verglichen sowie mittels unabhängiger Messungen validiert und sind damit für die weitere wissenschaftliche Auswertung geeignet. CFC-11 und CFC-12 sind langlebige Spurengase, die besonders für dynamische Studien im Bereich der oberen Troposphäre und unteren Stratosphäre nützlich sind. Im Rahmen der Arbeit werden zonale Mittelwerte und Standardabweichungen analysiert, die wesentlich durch die mittlere residuale Zirkulation der Stratosphäre und die Aktivität planetarer Wellen beeinflußt sind. Die MIPAS Datensätze sind besonders hilfreich, da sie das Studium des saisonalen Verlaufs dieser Prozesse ermöglichen. Zusätzlich sind die im Rahmen der Arbeit abgeleiteten CFC-11 und CFC-12 Datensätze sehr gut geeignet, um Einzelereignisse mit außergewöhnlichen dynamischen Verhältnissen zu untersuchen. Exemplarisch betrachtet wird hier das antarktische Major Warming Event im September 2002, bei dem erstmalig eine Aufspaltung des Südpolarwirbels in zwei Teilwirbel beobachtet wurde. CFC-11 und CFC-12 Messungen während dieses Zeitraums werden mit einer Simulation des Atmosphärenmodells CLaMS (Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere) verglichen, mit dem derartige Vorgänge besonders detailliert untersucht werden können.Remote sensing measurements are most important to understand the complicated dynamical and chemical processes occurring in the Earth's atmosphere. Only the measurements made by space-borne experiments can give a continuous and global overview of the atmospheric state. Most exact and comprehensive measurements made by such experiments are necessary to validate and improve atmospheric models which combine the knowledge on numerous mechanisms in the atmosphere. Since March 2002 the instrument MIPAS (Michelson Interferometer for Passive Atmospheric Sounding) is operating aboard Envisat, which is the largest and most ambitious satellite ever built by the European Space Agency. MIPAS measures the thermal emissions of atmospheric constituents like trace gases, aerosols and clouds arising from the atmospheric limb. Within the retrieval process geophysical parameters like pressure, temperature, and trace gas concentrations are derived from these measurements. A special feature of MIPAS is its high spectral resolution which allows to gather information on a large number of atmospheric trace species. The analysis of remote sensing measurements made by satellite experiments is an extensive task as time-consuming radiative transfer calculations and substantial amounts of data are typically involved. Envisat MIPAS provides 300 megabyte of measurement data during a single orbit. For future experiments, e. g. the GLORIA instrument (Global Limb Radiance Imager for the Atmosphere) recently proposed by the research centers Juelich and Karlsruhe, the amount of data may even increase by several orders of magnitude. A very important component in the analysis of atmospheric remote sensing measurements is the forward model. It is used to simulate the measurements of an instrument for a given atmospheric state. The rapid and flexible forward model JURASSIC (Juelich Rapid Spectral Simulation Code) was developed as part of this thesis. An innovative retrieval processor was created based on JURASSIC that allows for the analysis of current satellite measurements, as e. g. made by Envisat MIPAS, but is also suited to be a basic module in the analysis of future experiments. The description of structure and possible applications of JURASSIC and the retrieval system are a principal topic of this thesis. The JURASSIC retrieval system has been applied to derive the global distribution of the chlorofluorocarbons CFC-11 and CFC-12 from Envisat MIPAS measurements. These trace species are not part of the ESA operational retrieval at all. Scientific retrievals carried out by other working groups cover only rather limited sets of CFC-11 and CFC-12 data. Here, in contrast, the full measurement period from July 2002 to March 2004 is analyzed comprehensively. This could only be done, since the JURASSIC retrieval system allows for a very rapid processing of all these measurements. The derived CFC-11 and CFC-12 data are compared to external MIPAS retrievals and successfully validated using independent measurements. Hence, they are suited for further scientific analysis. Being long-lived trace species, CFC-11 and CFC-12 are most useful for dynamical studies in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere region. Zonal means and variances of these species have been analyzed. They are mainly influenced by the residual mean circulation of the stratosphere and the activity of planetary waves. MIPAS measurements are most useful as they allow to study the seasonal behavior of these processes. In addition, the derived CFC-11 and CFC-12 distributions are ideally suited to investigate strongly disturbed dynamical situations. An example is the antarctic major warming in September 2002, which led to a split of the antarctic polar vortex. Such an event has never been observed before. CFC-11 and CFC-12 measurements during this period compare well to simulations made by the atmospheric model CLaMS (Chemical Lagrangian Model of the Stratosphere), which allows to study the processes occurring in such events in great detail

Modelling friction characteristics in turbine blade vibrations using a fourier series expansion of a real friction hysteresis

A new contact model is proposed to simulate the forced response of a two degree of freedom mechanical model which resembles the simplest form of a friction damped turbine blade. The model scales a measured friction hysteresis to the current state of the mechanical model to obtain the contact force. The equations of motion are solved iteratively with a Newton-Raphson method using an analytical Jacobian. Furthermore the nonlinear system is linearised by using the Monoharmonic Balance Method. Based on experiments functions are found that scale a single hysteresis in such a way that a wide range of contact states can be predicted sufficiently well. The forced response of the mechanical model using the proposed contact model shows good agreement with the forced response using an Elastic Coulomb Friction Model

PlantDB – a versatile database for managing plant research

Background Research in plant science laboratories often involves usage of many different species, cultivars, ecotypes, mutants, alleles or transgenic lines. This creates a great challenge to keep track of the identity of experimental plants and stored samples or seeds. Results Here, we describe PlantDB – a Microsoft® Office Access database – with a user-friendly front-end for managing information relevant for experimental plants. PlantDB can hold information about plants of different species, cultivars or genetic composition. Introduction of a concise identifier system allows easy generation of pedigree trees. In addition, all information about any experimental plant – from growth conditions and dates over extracted samples such as RNA to files containing images of the plants – can be linked unequivocally. Conclusion We have been using PlantDB for several years in our laboratory and found that it greatly facilitates access to relevant information.ISSN:1746-481

Methylprednisolone blocks interleukin 1 beta induced calcitonin gene related peptide release in trigeminal ganglia cells

Background Methylprednisolone (MPD) is a rapid acting highly effective cluster headache preventive and also suppresses the recurrence of migraine attacks. Previously, we could demonstrate that elevated CGRP plasma levels in a cluster headache bout are normalized after a course of high dose corticosteroids. Here we assess whether MPD suppresses interleukin-1β (IL-1β)- and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)-induced CGRP release in a cell culture model of trigeminal ganglia cells, which could account for the preventive effect in migraine and cluster headache. Metoprolol(MTP), a migraine preventive with a slow onset of action, was used for comparison. Methods Primary cultures of rat trigeminal ganglia were stimulated for 24 h with 10 ng/ml IL-1β or for 4 h with 10 μM PGE2 following the exposure to 10 or 100 μM MPD or 100 nM or 10 µM MTP for 45 min or 24 h. CGRP was determined by using a commercial enzyme immunoassay. Results MPD but not MTP blocked IL-1β-induced CGRP release from cultured trigeminal cells. PGE2-stimulated CGRP release from trigeminal ganglia cell culture was not affected by pre-stimulation whether with MPD or MTP. Conclusion MPD but not MTP suppresses cytokine (IL-1β)-induced CGRP release from trigeminal ganglia cells. We propose that blockade of cytokine mediated trigeminal activation may represent a potential mechanism of action that mediates the preventive effect of MTP on cluster headache and recurrent migraine attacks

Construction and Test of a Cryocatcher Prototype for SIS100

The main accelerator SIS100 of the FAIR-complex will provide heavy ion beams of highest intensities. Beam loss due to ionization is the most demanding loss mechanism at operation with high intensity, intermediate charge state heavy ions. A special synchrotron design has been devel- oped for SIS100, aiming for hundred percent control of ion- ization beam loss by means of a dedicated cryogenic ion catcher system. To suppress dynamic vacuum effects, the cryo catcher system shall provide a significantly reduced effective desorption yield. The construction and test of a prototype cryocatcher is a task of the EU-FP-7 workpack- age COLMAT. A prototype test setup, including cryostat has been constructed, manufactured and tested under real- istic conditions with beams from the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18. The design and results are presented

Methylprednisolone blocks interleukin 1 beta induced calcitonin gene related peptide release in trigeminal ganglia cells

Background Methylprednisolone (MPD) is a rapid acting highly effective cluster headache preventive and also suppresses the recurrence of migraine attacks. Previously, we could demonstrate that elevated CGRP plasma levels in a cluster headache bout are normalized after a course of high dose corticosteroids. Here we assess whether MPD suppresses interleukin-1β (IL-1β)- and prostaglandin E2 (PGE2)-induced CGRP release in a cell culture model of trigeminal ganglia cells, which could account for the preventive effect in migraine and cluster headache. Metoprolol(MTP), a migraine preventive with a slow onset of action, was used for comparison. Methods Primary cultures of rat trigeminal ganglia were stimulated for 24 h with 10 ng/ml IL-1β or for 4 h with 10 μM PGE2 following the exposure to 10 or 100 μM MPD or 100 nM or 10 µM MTP for 45 min or 24 h. CGRP was determined by using a commercial enzyme immunoassay. Results MPD but not MTP blocked IL-1β-induced CGRP release from cultured trigeminal cells. PGE2-stimulated CGRP release from trigeminal ganglia cell culture was not affected by pre-stimulation whether with MPD or MTP. Conclusion MPD but not MTP suppresses cytokine (IL-1β)-induced CGRP release from trigeminal ganglia cells. We propose that blockade of cytokine mediated trigeminal activation may represent a potential mechanism of action that mediates the preventive effect of MTP on cluster headache and recurrent migraine attacks

Lysis with Saponin improves detection of the response through CD203c and CD63 in the basophil activation test after crosslinking of the high affinity IgE receptor FcεRI

BACKGROUND: The basophil activation test (BAT), in which translocation of markers to the surface of blood basophils is measured in response to allergen by flow cytometry, is a rapid assay that is gaining popularity. Two markers are currently being evaluated for the BAT; CD63 and the lineage-specific CD203c. In a recent report, detection of CD203c after lysis with Saponin was shown to be superior to detection of CD63 after lysis with formic acid. We wanted to compare a) lysis with formic acid and lysis with Saponin, b) the response through CD203c and CD63, and c) the definition 10% activated cells above background with the probability binning metric T(χ) > 4, on sets of data generated with blood basophils stimulated with varying concentrations of anti-FcεRI antibody. METHODS: Blood from volunteers was incubated with serial logarithmic dilutions of anti-FcεRI and subsequently with antibodies to CD203c PE and CD63 FITC. Sets of samples set up in parallel were lysed with either Saponin based Whole Blood Lysing reagent or with formic acid based Immunoprep/Q-prep. Samples were acquired on a FACS Calibur, but were compensated and analysed offline. Responders were defined as persons who had 10% or more activated basophils above background, or a T(χ) > 4, for two consecutive dilutions of anti-FcεRI antibody. RESULTS: More basophils (median 1164 vs. median 397) and better discrimination of upregulated CD203c and CD63 amongst responders were obtained after lysis with Saponin than after lysis with formic acid. We suggest that CD203c may be a more sensitive marker for the BAT than CD63, as 6/11 responders were found with CD203c, compared with 3/11 with CD63. Most responders (7/11) were identified with probability binning. CONCLUSION: A combination of lysis with Saponin and the markers CD203c and CD63 computed by probability binning may be the most sensitive method of detecting activation of basophils after stimulation through FcεRI