Der Schau- und Lehrstollen Arzberg/Steiermark: Beispiel für eine intelligente Nachnutzung eines Altbergbaus

Touristic mines are by far not only of public interest. During guided tours the importance of mining and mineral resources for society can be explained in a proper way. Mineral deposits, for long time not accessible and only known from old literature can now be studied in detail by scientists. Old underground mines can be used for different purposes. With respect to Arzberg the different possibilities of utilization of old underground workings are described in detail: A touristic mine serves not only as an attraction, but also as a training centre for underground geological mapping, geochemistry and geophysics research laboratory of universities. For many years the ZAMG (Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics) has been operating a seismic station, and parts of the old mine workings have been used for cheese refinery since 2006. Furthermore, the mine water is utilized for extracting geothermal energy and serves the cooling chambers. The combined use of the old mine workings by different parties permits sharing the substantial maintenance costs.     

White-light interferometric method for secure key distribution

A protocol for secure key distribution using classical light is proposed. The method relies on white-light interferometric measurements by one of the communicating parties and the random choice of delays by the other party. In this way, securely shared random keys are created, thereby enabling secure data transmission. In contrast to quantum key distribution, only classical waves are used. Single photons (and the practical problems associated with them) are avoided. The security of the method cannot be proven at the moment but different attacks are described and briefly analyzed.     

Measurement of Micro Kinetics of Hydrogenation in Liquid Phase Using Raman Spectroscopy

Hydrogenation of liquid organic hydrogen carriers is usually carried out in liquid phase. To measure the kinetics of this hydrogenation, an experimental setup using in situ Raman spectroscopy for analysis of the reaction mixture is proposed. With this setup it is possible to perform hydrogenation reactions at temperatures of up to 573 K and pressures up to 25 MPa. For validation of the experimental setup the hydrogenation of 1‐octene was measured in liquid phase. The reaction progress can be monitored in detail by Raman spectroscopy. To determine kinetic parameters from the experimental data, two modeling approaches were applied: a classic kinetic model and a thermodynamic kinetic model. The results were compared to literature data.     

Mismatch discrimination in oligonucleotide hybridization reactions using single strand binding protein. A surface plasmon fluorescence study

We describe the use of surface plasmon- and surface plasmon fieldenhanced fluorescence spectroscopy for the detection of hybridization reactions between surface-attached probe oligonucleotides and complement strands binding from solution. These targets, exhibiting different base mismatches relative to the probe 15-mer sequences, carry a fluorophore at their 5'-end thus allowing for sensitive detection and quantification of association, k_on, and dissociation, k_off, rate constants, as well as affinity constants, K_a. We demonstrate that by the competitive binding / replacement of single strand binding proteins the mismatch discrimination can be further enhanced.