Kapazit?t der verschiedenen Teile des Verdauungsapparates des Rothirsches (Cervus elaphus L.)

Zusammenfassung An drei Hirschen wurden die Gewichte und Volumina des Verdauungstraktes festgestellt. Die absolute und relative Kaparität, das Verhältnis der Kapazität zum Körpergewicht sowie die Länge und Gewichte der einzelnen Verdauungsabschnitte und deren Inhalt sind in Tabellen angegeben.

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Summary In case of three red deer weights and volumes of the digestive tract were stated. Absolute and relative capacity, the relation of capacity to body weights as well as length and weights of different digestive sections and their contents have been stated in tables.

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Résumé Sur trios cerfs on déterminait les poids et les volumes de l'appareil de la digestion. La capacité absolue et relative, la rélation de la capacité au poids du corps, ainsi que la longueur et les poids des diffrentes sections digestives et leur contenu sont présentés en tableaux.

     

Influence of flexible segment length on the phase structure and properties of poly(hexamethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate)-block-biopolytetrahydrofuran copolymers

Two series of biobased poly(ether-ester)s comprised of poly(hexamethylene 2,5-furandicarboxylate) (PHF) as the rigid segments and biopolytetrahydrofuran (pTHF) with different molecular masses (1000 and 2000 g/mol) as the flexible segments were synthesized employing polycondensation in the molten state. The study mainly focuses on comparing these two series in terms of the length of the flexible segment. The content of pTHF segments in the copolymer chains varied from 25 to 75 wt.%. The molecular structure and composition, phase structure, and thermal and mechanical properties were characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H NMR) and Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopies, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), and positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS). In addition, mechanical performance and thermo-oxidative and thermal stability have been investigated. Moreover, cyclic tensile properties were studied to evaluate the elastic properties. ¹H NMR and FTIR spectroscopies demonstrate that the syntheses were correctly carried out, which made it possible to obtain the desired compositions of the block copolymers with high molecular masses. The decrease in T_m1, T_c1, and X_cPHF values was visible, along with the increase in the flexible segment content. Moreover, the characteristic properties measured by PALS and the values of temperatures designated from TGA (inert and oxidizing atmosphere) did not vary between copolymer series PHF-b-F-pTHF1000 and PHF-b-F-pTHF2000. In turn, along with an increase in flexible segment content and the length of the pTHF, the values of tensile modulus, stress at break, and hardness decrease, while the value of elongation at break increases.     

River Floods in the Changing Climate—Observations and Projections

River flood damages, worldwide, have increased dynamically in the last few decades, so that it is necessary to interpret this change. River flooding is a complex phenomenon which can be affected by changes coupled to terrestrial, socio-economic and climate systems. The climate track in the observed changes is likely, even if human encroaching into the harm’s way and increase in the damage potential in floodplains can be the dominating factors in many river basins. Increase in intense precipitation has already been observed, with consequences to increasing risk of rain-induced flooding. Projections for the future, based on climate model simulations, indicate increase of flood risks in many areas, globally. Over large areas, a 100-year flood in the control period is projected to become much more frequent in the future time horizon. Despite the fact that the degree of uncertainty in model-based projections is considerable and difficult to quantify, the change in design flood frequency has obvious relevance to flood risk management practice. The number of flood-affected people is projected to increase with the amount of warming. For a 4°C warming the number of flood-affected people is over 2.5 times higher than for a 2°C warming. The present contribution addresses the climate track in an integrated way, tackling issues related to multiple factors, change detection, projections, and adaptation to floods.     

Unique very low-frequency heart rate variability during deep sleep in humans

We investigate heart rate variability (HRV) in the very low-frequency (VLF) range (0.003-0.04 Hz) during deep sleep in good sleepers. Spectral analysis of HRV during deep sleep reveals consistent peaks at <0.04 Hz. By using wavelet analysis, we find both stationary and nonstationary periodic patterns in the VLF range, the presence of which has been discussed but has not been fully established to date. Although the mechanism(s) behind the unique VLF oscillations remain to be fully explored, we conjecture that there is an endogenous rhythmic component in human HRV in the VLF range. Further, our results also suggest a need for caution in the interpretation of the VLF spectral power in HRV during deep sleep.     

Multiscale probability density function analysis: non-Gaussian and scale-invariant fluctuations of healthy human heart rate

For a detailed characterization of intermittency and non-Gaussianity of human heart rate, we introduce an analysis method to investigate the deformation process of the probability density function (PDF) of detrended increments when going from fine to coarse scales. To characterize the scale dependence of the multiscale PDF, we use two methods: 1) calculation of Kullback-Leibler relative entropy; 2) parameter estimation based on Castaing's equation (B. Castaing et al, 1990). We compare scale-dependence of the increment PDFs between actual heart rate fluctuations and artificially generated Gaussian and non-Gaussian noise, including a widely used autoregressive model and a recently proposed multifractal model based on a random cascade process. Our analysis highlights an essential difference between heart rate fluctuations and those generated by other models. The outstanding feature of human heart rate is the robust scale-invariance of the non-Gaussian PDF, which is preserved not only in a quiescent condition, but also in a dynamic state during waking hours, in which the mean level of heart rate is dramatically changing. Our results strongly suggest the need for revising existing models of heart rate variability to incorporate the scale-invariance in the PDF.     

Coping with Hydrological Extremes

Abstract

Coping with hydrological extremes, floods, and droughts has been a major concern since the dawn of human civilization. Freshwater, a necessary condition of life and a raw material used in very high volumes in virtually every human activity, is becoming increasingly scarce. Water use has risen considerably in the last hundred years at a pace exceeding the population growth. Therefore, societies are increasingly vulnerable to droughts and water deficits. Although the 21st century is heralded as the age of water scarcity, flood losses continue to grow. Increasing global vulnerability results to a large extent from soaring anthropopressure: settlements in hazardous locations and adverse land use changes. Deforestation and urbanization lead to reduction of the storage volume and higher values of runoff coefficient. In more wealthy countries, it is the material flood losses that continue to grow, while the number of fatalities goes down. Advanced flood preparedness systems can save lives and reduce human suffering. In some regions of the world, long-term forecasts (e.g., ENSO) help improve the preparedness for hydrological extremes, both floods and droughts, and hopefully will even more so in the future. Scenarios for future climate indicate the possibility of sharpening the extremes and changes of their seasonality. For instance, in Western Scotland and Norway, an increase of winter floods has already been observed. According to recent assessments, there is a growing risk of summer droughts in the Mediterranean region: less precipitation in summer and higher temperature will coincide, causing higher evapo-transpiration and less runoff. Fighting with floods and droughts has not been quite successful. Humans have to get used to the fact that extreme hydrological events are natural phenomena that will continue to occur. While doing one's best to improve the preparedness systems, it is necessary to learn to live with hydrological extremes.     

Evolutionary algorithms for constrained engineering problems

Evolutionary computation techniques have been receiving increasing attention regarding their potential as optimization techniques for complex problems. Recently these techniques were applied in the area of industrial engineering; the most-known applications include scheduling and sequencing in manufacturing systems, computer-aided design, facility layout and location problems, distribution and transportation problems, and many others. Industrial engineering problems usually are quite hard to solve due to a high complexity of the objective functions and a significant number of problem-specific constraints; often an algorithm to solve such problems requires incorporation of some heuristic methods. In this paper we concentrate on constraint handling heuristics for evolutionary computation techniques. This general discussion is followed by three test case studies: truss structure optimization problem, design of a composite laminated plate, and the unit commitment problem. These are typical highly constrained engineering problems and the methods discussed here are directly transferrable to industrial engineering problems.     

Palladium(II) complexes adsorption from the chloride solutions with macrocomponent addition using strongly basic anion exchange resins, type 1

The use of the strongly basic anion exchange resins, type 1 such as Lewatit MP-500 and Lewatit MP-500A for palladium(II) complexes adsorption has been investigated. The adsorption process was carried out from the chloride solutions with macrocomponent (sodium chloride) addition (x M HCl–1.0 M NaCl; x M HCl–2.0 M NaCl) where the concentration of hydrochloric acid was constant and equal to x = 0; 0.1; 0.5; 1.0; and 2.0 M, respectively. The breakthrough curves of Pd(II) were determined and the sorption parameters (weight and bed distribution coefficients, working anion exchange capacity) were calculated. The pseudo-second kinetic order was applied in kinetic studies as well as to calculate the kinetic parameters. The values of the working anion exchange capacities (0.029 g/cm³; 0.028 g/cm³) for Lewatit MP-500 and Lewatit MP-500A (0.028 g/cm³; 0.027 g/cm³) in the 1.0 M NaCl and 0.1 M HCl–1.0 M NaCl solutions, respectively are really close and in other solutions under discussion Lewatit MP-500 possess slightly higher values of capacities, and therefore is insignificantly more efficient in the adsorption process of palladium(II) ions than Lewatit MP-500A. The equilibrium adsorption capacities changed in the range 8.84–9.99 and 8.40–9.38 mg/g for Lewatit MP-500 as well as 8.12–9.57 and 7.26–8.85 mg/g for Lewatit MP-500A in the chloride x M HCl-1.0 M NaCl and x M HCl-2.0 M NaCl solutions, respectively. The adsorption process proceeds according to the pseudo-second kinetic order.     

Image correlation technique for strain measurement of polycrystalline microstructures

An image processing technique is proposed to measure the deformation of polycrystalline materials based on correlating the grains in reference and deformed SEM images. The advantage of this technique compared to the conventional subset-based Digital Image Correlation (DIC) is that it can be applied when speckle patterning is not efficient or when studying boundary-related mechanics is the objective. The technique is based on correlating grains by defining their boundaries rather than just subsets of image pixels. It reveals the anisotropy inherent in the polycrystals since it allows the analysis to specify each grain separately without averaging the results. The technique is applied by detecting the approximate grain boundaries edges and then refining their location with high accuracy. The correlation is performed between points calculated from each grain in the reference and deformed images as a Point Set Registration (PSR) problem. Finally, the displacements and strains are calculated from the resulting transformation matrix. A benchmark problem was developed to discuss the error over a strain range of 0.02 to 0.2 and showed that the resulting strains are reasonably accurate. Also, an in situ experiment was conducted to demonstrate the implementation of the technique using a specimen with fine-grained Zirconia polycrystals. The technique successfully revealed the crack tip plastic zone, and strain mismatch between grains.