Modular Production with Bio-Based Resources in a Decentral Production Network

The change in process industry from fossil resources to alternative feedstock is indispensable due to the scarcity of resources and global warming. This leads to new challenges for the production systems. On the market side, rapid innovation is accompanied by shorter product life cycles leading to an increasing uncertainty of demand in terms of product type, volume and location. Therefore, the following five elements are combined into a concept to address these challenges: transformable production systems, local bio-based resources, CO₂ as feedstock, renewable energy and decentral production network with local economies.     

Fluorophore-Labeled Cyclic Nucleotides as Potent Agonists of Cyclic Nucleotide-Regulated Ion Channels

High-affinity fluorescent derivatives of cyclic adenosine and guanosine monophosphate are powerful tools for investigating their natural targets. Cyclic nucleotide-regulated ion channels belong to these targets and are vital for many signal transduction processes, such as vision and olfaction. The relation of ligand binding to activation gating is still challenging, and there is a need for fluorescent probes that enable the process to be broken down to the single-molecule level. This inspired us to prepare fluorophore-labeled cyclic nucleotides, which are composed of a bright dye and a nucleotide derivative with a thiophenol motif at position 8 that has already been shown to enable superior binding affinity. These bioconjugates were prepared by a novel cross-linking strategy that involves substitution of the nucleobase with a modified thiophenolate in good yield. Both fluorescent nucleotides are potent activators of different cyclic nucleotide-regulated ion channels with respect to the natural ligand and previously reported substances. Molecular docking of the probes excluding the fluorophore reveals that the high potency can be attributed to additional hydrophobic and cation-π interactions between the ligand and the protein. Moreover, the introduced substances have the potential to investigate related target proteins, such as cAMP- and cGMP-dependent protein kinases, exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP or phosphodiesterases.     

Handling high-dimensional problems with multi-objective continuation methods via successive approximation of the tangent space

In many applications, several conflicting objectives have to be optimized concurrently leading to a multi-objective optimization problem. Since the set of solutions, the so-called Pareto set, typically forms a (k?1)-dimensional manifold, where k is the number of objectives considered in the model, continuation methods such as predictor–corrector (PC) methods are in certain cases very efficient tools for rapidly computing a finite size representation of the set of interest. However, their classical implementation leads to trouble when considering higher-dimensional models (i.e. for dimension n>1000 of the parameter space). In this work, it is proposed to perform a successive approximation of the tangent space which allows one to find promising predictor points with less effort in particular for high-dimensional models since no Hessians of the objectives have to be calculated. The applicability of the resulting PC variant is demonstrated on a benchmark model for up to n=100, 000 parameters.     

Selective binding of dye molecules and CdSe nanocrystals on nanostructures generated by AFM lithography of silicon surfaces

Anchoring optically active molecules or semiconductor nanocrystals on nanostructured surfaces is one of the first steps for building complex structures with variable properties and functions. Electrostatic interactions have been used for selective binding of cationic molecular species on lithographically generated and negatively charged nanostructures. Semiconductor nanocrystals, covered by amphiphilic molecules, have been bound via hydrophobic interactions. Selective binding of cationic Rhodamin 6G molecules to freshly prepared silicon oxide nanostructures as well as the CdSe/ZnS nanocrystals to the surrounding hydrophobic alkyl monolayer could be identified both by optical methods and by atomic force microscopy. The adsorption of CdSe/ZnS nanoparticles was accompanied by self-organization phenomena of the surfactant tri octyl phosphine oxide (TOPO).     

CFD‐Simulation der Feststoffeinbindung in einen Sprühstrahl

Sound‐absorbing mats consisting of cross‐linked Polyurethane (PUR) foam and metal reinforcements, door panels and centre consoles for the interior of vehicles became important products for automotive component suppliers. The leading technology for the production of foam on the base of PUR with noise absorbing properties is the application of powder insertion (e.g. metal) in the PUR spray. The numerical simulation (CFD) of the spray including the particle‐droplet interaction is presented. The theoretical background of the implemented models is explained and the experimental results achieved with a pilot plant are compared with the numerical results. The presented simulation offers the possibility to suitably predict the metal powder distribution in a PUR spray.     

Fast kd‐tree‐based hierarchical radiosity for radiative heat transport problems

In this paper we present a new efficient approach for radiative heat transfer simulations for various applications in engineering, combining existing approaches from different fields of computer science and heat transfer. For these application fields we assume radiative exchange between gray, diffuse surfaces in a radiatively nonparticipating medium. To solve the complex space–time behavior of radiation in 3D domains we use the hierarchical radiosity method. Here, the basic idea is to hierarchically subdivide surfaces forming a quad‐tree structure until a refinement criterion is reached. The fundamental underlying operation of the radiosity method is visibility detection which can be solved efficiently by using a space partitioning approach for the input surfaces. For this reason we choose a kd‐tree which is the best known acceleration structure for visibility detection on irregularly distributed surfaces. These approaches dramatically decrease the complexity of the radiation problem from n³ to O((k² + n)logk), where k is the number of input surfaces and n is the number of refined surfaces. We validate the approach for several non‐trivial examples and demonstrate that the scheme is second‐order accurate. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis of δ- and ε-Cyanoesters by Zinc-Catalyzed Ring-Opening of Cyclic Ethers with Acid Chlorides and Subsequent Cyanation

Abstract  

In the present study, the zinc-catalyzed cleavage of cyclic ethers with acid halides as nucleophiles to yield chloroesters with different chain length has been investigated in detail. In the presence of straightforward and commercially available zinc salts as pre-catalysts excellent yields and selectivities were feasible. After studying the reaction conditions and the scope of the method, several efforts were carried out to understand the reaction mechanism. The obtained chloroesters were subsequently converted to δ- and ε-cyano esters, which are useful precursors in natural product synthesis.     

High resolution supply chain management: optimized processes based on self-optimizing control loops and real time data

The efficient dealing with the dynamic environment of production industries is one of the most challenging tasks of Supply Chain Management in high-wage countries. Relevant and current information are still not used sufficiently, to handle the influence of the dynamic environment on intra- and inter-company order processing adequately. Among other things, the problem is caused by missing or delayed feedback of relevant data. As a consequence of that, planning results differ from the actual situation of production. High Resolution Supply Chain Management describes an approach aiming on high information transparency in supply chains in combination with decentralized, self-optimizing control loops for Production Planning and Control. The final objective is to enable manufacturing companies to produce efficiently and to be able to react to order-variations at any time, requiring process structures to be most flexible.