Berry Phenolics of Grapevine under Challenging Environments

Plant phenolics have been for many years a theme of major scientific and applied interest. Grape berry phenolics contribute to organoleptic properties, color and protection against environmental challenges. Climate change has already caused significant warming in most grape-growing areas of the world, and the climatic conditions determine, to a large degree, the grape varieties that can be cultivated as well as wine quality. In particular, heat, drought and light/UV intensity severely affect phenolic metabolism and, thus, grape composition and development. In the variety Chardonnay, water stress increases the content of flavonols and decreases the expression of genes involved in biosynthesis of stilbene precursors. Also, polyphenolic profile is greatly dependent on genotype and environmental interactions. This review deals with the diversity and biosynthesis of phenolic compounds in the grape berry, from a general overview to a more detailed level, where the influence of environmental challenges on key phenolic metabolism pathways is approached. The full understanding of how and when specific phenolic compounds accumulate in the berry, and how the varietal grape berry metabolism responds to the environment is of utmost importance to adjust agricultural practices and thus, modify wine profile.     

Benzoic Acid Derivatives in a Hypogastrurid Collembolan: Temperature-Dependent Formation and Biological Significance as Deterrents

Two phenolic acids were identified in the collembolan Ceratophysella denticulata: 3-hydroxy-4,5 dimethoxy benzoic acid and 4-hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxybenzoic acid (syringic acid). These are localized on or in the integument of the springtail, in field-collected animals, in a ratio of 47:100 (v/v). Springtails kept under different temperature regimes showed differences in production and ratio of the benzoic acid derivatives. At 20 degrees C, C. denticulata produced only syringic acid, whereas at 10 degrees C both isomers in a ratio of 100:61 (v/v) were detected. Bioassays with C. denticulata as well as with the specialized collembolan predator Stenus comma (Staphylinidae) were carried out. Staphylinid beetles topically treated with the acids try to clean their mouthparts by rubbing them on the ground significantly more often than do control beetles. Both compounds individually and as a natural mixture have deterrent effects towards the predator S. comma.     

Geschichtliche Entwicklung und aktuelle Praxis der Probebelastung — Teil 2: Entwicklung von Normen und heutige Anwendung

Im Zuge des massenhaften Einsatzes von Probebelastungen im 19. und zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts zeigte sich die Notwendigkeit, deren Planung, Durchführung und Auswertung durch allgemeine Richtlinien und Normen zu stützen. Im Beitrag wird das Ringen um erste zaghafte Festlegungen beschrieben, die im Laufe der Jahre immer konkreter zu einer verwendbaren Handlungsgrundlage ausgearbeitet wurden. Unter Kritikern blieb jedoch immer die Frage über die Sicherheit und vor allem die Aussagekraft von Belastungsversuchen auf der Grundlage der verwendeten Bewertungskriterien offen. Mit der Weiterentwicklung der Berechnungsverfahren auch durch den Einsatz von Computertechnik wurden Probebelastungen von Neubauten ab den 1970‐er Jahren entbehrlich. Für auffällig gewordene bestehende Tragwerke stellt die Probebelastung jedoch auch heute noch eine — und manchmal die einzige — Methode zum Nachweis einer ausreichenden Tragfähigkeit dar. Die hierfür angewendete moderne Belastungs‐ und Messtechnologie bietet jedoch im Unterschied zur traditionellen Vorgehensweise ein hohes Maß an Sicherheit und Informationsgewinn. Historical Development and current practise of load tests in situ — Part 2: Development of standards and current practise. Because of the large demand and use of load testing in the 19th and at the beginning of the 20th century, there was the necessity to standardise the planning, execution and analysis in general guidelines and codes. This article describes the struggling and first tentative specification, which were more and more specified to an useful basis in the following years. The used criterions for the assessment have often been a reason for critics on the value and the safety of loading tests. The further development of calculation methods especially the computer technology made the load testing of new structures superfluous in the 1970s. But for existing structures loading tests are today often a — and sometimes the only — method to proof a sufficient load bearing capacity. The today used modern loading‐ and measuring technology provides, in contrast to the traditional method, a high degree of safety and structural information.     

Optimization of platinum dispersion in Pt–PEM electrodes: application to the electrooxidation of ethanol

Nafion® can be used as a solid polymer electrolyte in a PEM fuel cell. Direct platinization of the membrane was realized by chemical reduction of a platinum compound. The platinization procedure was modified to enhance the roughness factor and thus to improve the electrocatalytic activity towards ethanol electrooxidation. The Pt–PEM electrodes were characterized by TEM, atomic absorption analysis, cyclic voltammetry and their polarization curves for ethanol electrooxidation.     

Water Sorption and Diffusion in (Reduced) Graphene Oxide‐Alginate Biopolymer Nanocomposites

The water sorption and diffusion in (reduced) graphene oxide‐alginate composites of various compositions is analyzed. Water sorption of sodium alginate can be significantly reduced by the inclusion of graphene oxide sheets due to the formation of an extensive hydrogen bonding network between oxygenated groups. Crosslinking alginate with divalent metal ions and the presence of reduced graphene oxide can further improve the swelling resistance due to the strong interactions between metal ions, alginate, and filler sheets. Depending on conditions and composition, the overall water barrier properties of alginate composites improve upon (reduced) graphene oxide filling, making them attractive for moisture barrier coating applications. Water sorption kinetics in all alginate composites indicate a non‐Fickian diffusion process that can be accurately described by the Variable Surface Concentration model. In addition, the water barrier properties of sodium alginate‐graphene oxide composites can be adequately predicted using a simple model that takes the orientational order of filler sheets and their effective aspect ratio into account.

     

Paul Feyerabend und die Softwaretechnologie

Zusammenfassung   Der folgende Beitrag ist ein Pl?doyer für st?rkere methodische Standards in der Softwaretechnologie. Nicht immer werden wissenschaftstheoretischen Grunds?tze beachtet wie das Prinzip, da? Aussagen falsifizierbar sein sollten. Dies scheint die These der sog. Konstruktivisten zu best?tigen, da? n?mlich „objektive Wahrheiten“ in Wirklichkeit soziale Konstrukte seien. Der Beitrag pl?diert deshalb für eine st?rkere empirische Fundierung der Softwaretechnologie. Eingegangen in überarbeiteter Form am 07.09.1998     

A multi-objective approach to the application of real-world production scheduling

An initiative was introduced in one of the production facilities of Germany’s E.G.O. Group in order to enhance its SAP information system with a custom-made application for production-scheduling optimization. The goal of the optimization is to find a production schedule that satisfies different, contradictory production and business constraints. We show the challenges faced in the application of the multi-objective optimization approach, which is gaining influence in the management of production scheduling. We implement a memetic version of the Indicator-Based Evolutionary Algorithm with customized reproduction operators and local search procedures to find a set of feasible, non-dominated solutions. Such a memetic algorithm was applied to two real order lists from the production company. Additionally, we also lay out an efficient presentation of the multi-objective results for an expert’s support in decision making. This provides the management with the possibility to gain additional insights into how the production schedule dynamically reacts to changes in the decision criteria. We show that the multi-objective approach is able to find high-quality solutions, which enables flexibility when it comes to quickly adapting to specific business conditions.     

User-Sensitive Inclusive Design

Although “User-Centred”, “Participatory”, and other similar design approaches have proved to be very valuable for mainstream design, their principles are more difficult to apply successfully when the user group contains, or is composed of, older and/or disabled users. In the field of design for older and disabled people, the “Universal Design”, “Inclusive Design” and “Design for All” movements have encouraged designers to extend their design briefs to include older and disabled people. The downside of these approaches is that they can tend to encourage designers to follow a traditional design path to produce a prototype design, and only then investigate how to modify their interfaces and systems to cope with older and/or disabled users. This can lead to an inefficient design process and sometimes an inappropriate design, which may be “accessible” to people with disabilities, but in practice unusable. This paper reviews the concept that the authors have called “User-Sensitive Inclusive Design”, which suggests a different approach to designing for marginalised groups of people. Rather than suggesting that designers rely on standards and guidelines, it is suggested that designers need to develop a real empathy with their user groups. A number of ways to achieve this are recommended, including the use of ethnography and techniques derived from professional theatre both for requirements gathering and for improving designers’ empathy for marginalised groups of users, such as older and disabled people.     

The calculus of context relations

We present the theory of context relations. Context relations are a method for incremental semantic analysis in language-specific editors, which is able to handle incomplete program fragments. The algorithm is generated from the definition of a language's static semantics and is based on inference rules and order-sorted unification. The paper presents the underlying mathematical theory, optimal incremental analysis algorithms, handling of user-defined polymorphism and overloading, and implementation issues. It is intended as the concluding report on a by now mature concept, which has successfully been used to generate efficient incremental type inferencers for languages like ADA and Fortran 8x.