Numerical homogenization of the Eshelby tensor at small strains

Numerical homogenization methods, such as the FE² approach, are widely used to compute the effective physical properties of microstructured materials. Thereby, the macroscopic material law is replaced by the solution of a microscopic boundary value problem on a representative volume element in conjunction with appropriate averaging techniques. This concept can be extended to configurational or material quantities, like the Eshelby stress tensor, which are associated with configurational changes of continuum bodies. In this work, the focus is on the computation of the macroscopic Eshelby stress tensor within a small-strain setting. The macroscopic Eshelby stress tensor is defined as the volume average of its microscopic counterpart. On the microscale, the Eshelby stress tensor can be computed from quantities known from the solution of the physical microscopic boundary value problem. However, in contrast to the physical quantities of interest, i.e. stress and strain, the Eshelby stress tensor is sensitive to rigid body rotations of the representative volume element. In this work, it is demonstrated how this must be taken into account in the computation of the macroscopic Eshelby stress tensor. The theoretical findings are illustrated by a benchmark simulation and further simulation results indicate the microstructural influence on the macroscopic configurational forces

Longitudinal relations between teaching-related motivations and student-reported teaching quality

Teaching-related motivations are often assumed to influence teaching quality; however, the empirical evidence regarding the directionality of such influences is scarce. The present study thus examined the reciprocal links between teaching-related motivations (self-efficacy and enthusiasm for teaching) and student-reported teaching quality (classroom management, learning support, and cognitive activation). Two-level cross-lagged panel analyses across three time points (with an initial sample of 165 secondary- level mathematics teachers and their 4273 students) revealed no significant cross-lagged effects when teachers' stable inter-individual differences are taken into account. Our findings suggest that teachers' motivations are remarkably stable over time

How deprotonation changes molecular self-assembly - an AFM study in liquid environment

Schreiber M, Eckardt M, Klassen S, et al. How deprotonation changes molecular self-assembly - an AFM study in liquid environment. Soft Matter. 2013;9(29):7145-7149.We study the influence of Alizarin Red S deprotonation on molecular self-assembly at the solid-liquid interface of the natural cleavage plane of calcite immersed in aqueous solution. To elucidate the adsorption details, we perform pH dependent high-resolution atomic force microscopy measurements. When Alizarin Red S is deposited onto calcite(10.4) in a liquid environment at an acidic pH of 5, weakly bound, ordered islands with a (3 x 3) superstructure are observed. A sharp structural transition is revealed when increasing the pH above 8. Above this pH, stable needle-like structures oriented along the [01.0] direction form on the surface. Comparing these results with potentiometric titration data allows for unambiguously assigning the two molecular structures to the single and two-fold deprotonated moieties of Alizarin Red S. Our work, thus, illustrates the decisive impact of the protonation state on molecular self-assembly

Codivergence of Mycoviruses with Their Hosts

BACKGROUND: The associations between pathogens and their hosts are complex and can result from any combination of evolutionary events such as codivergence, switching, and duplication of the pathogen. Mycoviruses are RNA viruses which infect fungi and for which natural vectors are so far unknown. Thus, lateral transfer might be improbable and codivergence their dominant mode of evolution. Accordingly, mycoviruses are a suitable target for statistical tests of virus-host codivergence, but inference of mycovirus phylogenies might be difficult because of low sequence similarity even within families. METHODOLOGY: We analyzed here the evolutionary dynamics of all mycovirus families by comparing virus and host phylogenies. Additionally, we assessed the sensitivity of the co-phylogenetic tests to the settings for inferring virus trees from their genome sequences and approximate, taxonomy-based host trees. CONCLUSIONS: While sequence alignment filtering modes affected branch support, the overall results of the co-phylogenetic tests were significantly influenced only by the number of viruses sampled per family. The trees of the two largest families, Partitiviridae and Totiviridae, were significantly more similar to those of their hosts than expected by chance, and most individual host-virus links had a significant positive impact on the global fit, indicating that codivergence is the dominant mode of virus diversification. However, in this regard mycoviruses did not differ from closely related viruses sampled from non-fungus hosts. The remaining virus families were either dominated by other evolutionary modes or lacked an apparent overall pattern. As this negative result might be caused by insufficient taxon sampling, the most parsimonious hypothesis still is that host-parasite evolution is basically the same in all mycovirus families. This is the first study of mycovirus-host codivergence, and the results shed light not only on how mycovirus biology affects their co-phylogenetic relationships, but also on their presumable host range itself

Developing Behavior Change Interventions

Peer reviewe

Changing Behavior : A Theory- and Evidence-Based Approach

Social problems in many domains, including health, education, social relationships, and the workplace, have their origins in human behavior. The documented links between behavior and social problems have sparked interest in governments and organizations to develop effective interventions to promote behavior change. The Handbook of Behavior Change provides comprehensive coverage of contemporary theory, research, and practice on behavior change. The handbook incorporates theory- and evidence-based approaches to behavior change with chapters from leading theorists, researchers, and practitioners from multiple disciplines, including psychology, sociology, behavioral science, economics, and implementation science. Chapters are organized into three parts: (1) Theory and Behavior Change; (2) Methods and Processes of Behavior Change: Intervention Development, Application, and Translation; and (3) Behavior Change Interventions: Practical Guides to Behavior Change. This chapter provides an overview of the theory- and evidence-based approaches of the handbook, introduces the content of the handbook, and provides suggestions on how the handbook may be used by different readers. The handbook aims to provide all interested in behavior change, including researchers and students, practitioners, and policy makers, with up-to-date knowledge on behavior change and guidance on how to develop effective interventions to change behavior in different populations and contexts.Peer reviewe

Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster

A wide variety of enzymatic pathways that produce specialized metabolites in bacteria, fungi and plants are known to be encoded in biosynthetic gene clusters. Information about these clusters, pathways and metabolites is currently dispersed throughout the literature, making it difficult to exploit. To facilitate consistent and systematic deposition and retrieval of data on biosynthetic gene clusters, we propose the Minimum Information about a Biosynthetic Gene cluster (MIBiG) data standard.Chemistry and Chemical Biolog