Assessment of pre-combustion decarbonisation schemes for polygeneration from fossil fuels

This article deals with emerging poly-generation schemes that employ pre-combustion decarbonisation of fossil fuels—eventually with options for geological storage of the CO₂. Inevitably, such schemes are highly complex, and may require new approaches and knowledge on interactions between key components in large plants, as even new technologies and features are expected to occur in due course as the experience from polygeneration matures. Reference is made to the European DYNAMIS project and the Sino-European project COACH—both conducted under the auspices of the European Commission.

How have we arrived at the present state of knowledge in process control? Is there a lesson to be learned?

The utilization of the results of control theory in the process control field has been lagging behind other application fields such as aerospace by many years. It is argued that the availability of high capacity computing at low price will change this situation and that new powerful control techniques can now be implemented in process control.     

A Shrink Wrapping Approach to Remeshing Polygonal Surfaces

Due to their simplicity and flexibility, polygonal meshes are about to become the standard representation for surface geometry in computer graphics applications. Some algorithms in the context of multiresolution representation and modeling can be performed much more efficiently and robustly if the underlying surface tesselations have the special subdivision connectivity. In this paper, we propose a new algorithm for converting a given unstructured triangle mesh into one having subdivision connectivity. The basic idea is to simulate the shrink wrapping process by adapting the deformable surface technique known from image processing. The resulting algorithm generates subdivision connectivity meshes whose base meshes only have a very small number of triangles. The iterative optimization process that distributes the mesh vertices over the given surface geometry guarantees low local distortion of the triangular faces. We show several examples and applications including the progressive transmission of subdivision surfaces.     

Fensteröffnung in Passivhäusern

Window opening in passive solar dwellings Discussions of the user influence on the heating energy consumption of buildings are often controversial. A particularly significant issue is the opening of windows. However, concrete data about user behaviour are rarely available, and the actual consequences of open windows on the heating energy consumption are not understood very well. Based on measured data, this paper discusses the duration of additional window opening in passive solar dwellings, typical behaviour patterns, influence factors and the consequences on the heating energy consumption. Window opening during the summer is also considered. The study is based on measurements carried out at the passive solar housing development in Wiesbaden‐Dotzheim [1], [2] during 2001 and 2002.     

Biegebemessung von Bauteilen aus ultrahochfestem Beton

Design for Bending and Bending with axial force of Ultra High Performance Concrete Ultra high performance concrete (UHPC) differs from normaland high strength concrete by having a more compact material structure. The UHPC components show a higher resistance against mechanical abrasions and freeze‐thaw‐stress as well as a greater impermeability for fluids and gases. Without adding steel fibres UHPC is a very brittle material, which fails abruptly. A ductile material behaviour can be reached by using steel fibres. This article describes how to design a UHPC for bending and bending with axial force by generating stress‐strain‐relation.     

Tailored Systemic Therapy for Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases

Liver metastases are the most common site of metastatic spread in colorectal cancer. Current treatment approaches involve effective systemic therapies in combination with surgical and/or interventional strategies. Multimodal strategies greatly improved clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer over the last decades. Identification of predictive and prognostic biomarkers helped to comprehensively refine individual targeted treatment approaches and resulted in median overall survival rates of 30 months or longer. Current guidelines, thus, recommend treatment selection according to patients’ performance status, tumor localization and stage as well as the tumor’s molecular and genetic status. Here, we outline the latest developments in molecular decision-making for patients with upfront resectable, potentially or initially unresectable and non/never-resectable colorectal cancer liver metastases.     

Properties of Two Broad Host Range Phages of Yersinia enterocolitica Isolated from Wild Animals

Yersinia (Y.) enterocolitica and Y. pseudotuberculosis are important zoonotic agents which can infect both humans and animals. To combat these pathogens, the application of strictly lytic phages may be a promising tool. Since only few Yersinia phages have been described yet, some of which demonstrated a high specificity for certain serotypes, we isolated two phages from game animals and characterized them in terms of their morphology, host specificity, lytic activity on two bio-/serotypes and genome composition. The T7-related podovirus vB_YenP_Rambo and the myovirus vB_YenM_P281, which is very similar to a previously described phage PY100, showed a broad host range. Together, they lysed all the 62 tested pathogenic Y. enterocolitica strains belonging to the most important bio-/serotypes in Europe. A cocktail containing these two phages strongly reduced cultures of a bio-/serotype B4/O:3 and a B2/O:9 strain, even at very low MOIs (multiplicity of infection) and different temperatures, though, lysis of bio-/serotype B2/O:9 by vB_YenM_P281 and also by the related phage PY100 only occurred at 37 °C. Both phages were additionally able to lyse various Y. pseudotuberculosis strains at 28 °C and 37 °C, but only when the growth medium was supplemented with calcium and magnesium cations.     

Iminium Salts in Solid‐State Syntheses Giving 100% Yield

Numerous reaction types in the field of iminium salts are performed in the gas‐solid and solid‐solid techniques in order to reach 100% yield. The stoichiometric runs are waste‐free and do not require costly workup. Frequently, iminium salts were avoided, as acid catalysis was dispensable. Thioureas and α‐halogenated ketones give a variety of 2‐aminothiazoles via thiuronium salts in quantitative yield. A new intramolecular solid‐state thermal condensation is reported. Enaminoketones are synthesized quantitatively from anilines and 1,3‐diketones without catalysis and those can be used for quantitative solid‐state 4‐cascade reactions. Solid paraformaldehyde is used to produce methylene imines and internally trapped methylene iminium salts. Benzoylhydrazones are produced again without catalysis in the solid state. Vacuum and ball‐mill techniques are particularly useful in the production of highly sensitive iminium salts. Hexahydro‐1,3,5‐triazines cyclorevert upon exposure to HCl gas to give solid arylmethylene iminium chlorides as new versatile reagents. These are used in arylaminomethylations of β‐naphthol and of themselves to give Troeger's bases in 3‐cascades. More direct are 4‐cascade Troeger's base syntheses by dissolving hexahydro‐1,3,5‐triaryltriazines in trifluoroacetic acid. Alkylations of imines with trimethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate and triphenylmethyl cation give highly sensitive quaternary iminium salts in the ball‐mill. The products are characterized by spectroscopic techniques and density functional theory (DFT) calculations at the B3LYP 6‐31G* level. Molecular movements in the crystal and surface passivation are investigated with atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques.     

Power output estimation and experimental validation for piezoelectric energy harvesting systems

Many modern devices especially for ubiquitous computing or wireless sensor networks need a long life energy source. Batteries or accumulators are often an insufficient solution. Low frequency vibrations can be found in the most technical facilities or even in the human movements. Even while these vibrations are neither wanted nor used in the most times, they enable us to generate electrical energy. Piezoelectric flexural transducers are a promising choice for utilizing the vibrations for energy harvesting. There are two major influences on the amount of generated energy. First there is the frequency behavior of the piezoelectric transducers, for optimal power output the transducer should be driven in resonance. Second, the energy output is highly dependent on the electrical load of the connected application. Both circumstances, working frequency and electrical load, typically are boundary conditions for the development of the generator. Therefore, it is necessary to handpick the type of piezoelectric elements. To meet the requirements of development engineers, a model based design method for energy harvesting systems is needed. As a first step towards such a method, this work proposes a model for the estimations of the power output of piezoelectric flexural transducers. For the validation of this model an experiment is described in detail. The results of the model and the experiments are compared.