Development of a new experimental method to determine critical pigment–volume–concentrations using impedance spectroscopy

The critical pigment–volume–concentration (CPVC) of a solvent-based epoxy coating with various pigment–volume–concentrations (PVC) was analyzed. It was shown that electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) is a suitable method to detect the CPVC of coatings. The CPVC can be derived from EIS Bode plots or by fitting the EIS-curves using simple equivalent circuit diagrams. The parameters pore resistance R_P, capacitance C of the constant phase element (CPE), the relative dielectric constant _R derived from C, and the exponent n of the CPE allow the determination of the CPVC.     

Development of a new experimental method to determine critical pigment-volume-concentrations using impedance spectroscopy: Part III: Water-based coatings with components typical for commercial organic anticorrosion coatings

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), which has been previously demonstrated to be a suitable method to determine the CPVC of organic coatings [R.E. Lobnig, W. Villalba, K. Goll, J. Vogelsang, I. Winkels, R. Schmidt, P. Zanger, J. Soetemann, Development of a new experimental method to determine critical pigment-volume-concentrations using impedance spectroscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. 55 (2006) 363–374], was applied to three series of coatings with components typical for water-based commercial organic anticorrosion coatings and to one with components typical for a wall paint. The new method led to CPVC-values for all four coating series, but up to 5–10% higher than those determined from cross sections with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), for one coating series to the exact reference value. The CPVC could be identified best from EIS data by visual comparison of the shape of Bode plots or from pore resistance (R_p)-time plots. The constant phase element (CPE), that characterizes the coating, was less useful for the determination of the CPVC of most water-based coatings.     

Dezentrale Energiemanagementsysteme

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Nitro-Oleic Acid (NO2-OA) Improves Systolic Function in Dilated Cardiomyopathy by Attenuating Myocardial Fibrosis

Nitro-oleic acid (NO₂-OA), a nitric oxide (NO)- and nitrite (NO₂⁻)-derived electrophilic fatty acid metabolite, displays anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic signaling actions and therapeutic benefit in murine models of ischemia-reperfusion, atrial fibrillation, and pulmonary hypertension. Muscle LIM protein-deficient mice (Mlp^−/−) develop dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), characterized by impaired left ventricular function and increased ventricular fibrosis at the age of 8 weeks. This study investigated the effects of NO₂-OA on cardiac function in Mlp^−/− mice both in vivo and in vitro. Mlp^−/− mice were treated with NO₂-OA or vehicle for 4 weeks via subcutaneous osmotic minipumps. Wildtype (WT) littermates treated with vehicle served as controls. Mlp^−/− mice exhibited enhanced TGFβ signalling, fibrosis and severely reduced left ventricular systolic function. NO₂-OA treatment attenuated interstitial myocardial fibrosis and substantially improved left ventricular systolic function in Mlp^−/− mice. In vitro studies of TGFβ-stimulated primary cardiac fibroblasts further revealed that the anti-fibrotic effects of NO₂-OA rely on its capability to attenuate fibroblast to myofibroblast transdifferentiation by inhibiting phosphorylation of TGFβ downstream targets. In conclusion, we demonstrate a substantial therapeutic benefit of NO₂-OA in a murine model of DCM, mediated by interfering with endogenously activated TGFβ signaling.     

Separating law from Geography in GIS-based eGovernment services

The Leibniz Center for Law is involved in the project Digitale Uitwisseling Ruimtelijke Plannen [DURP (); digital exchange of spatial plans] which develops a XML-based digital exchange format for spatial regulations. Involvement in the DURP project offers new possibilities to study a legal area that hasn’t yet been studied to the extent it deserves in the field of Computer Science & Law. We studied and criticised the work of the DURP project and the Dutch Ministry of internal affairs on metadata for regulatory documents, and made an inventory of issues related to legal knowledge representation that it felt were not sufficiently covered by current initiatives in the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) field. This inventory was an input to the DURP standardisation effort. In a second phase of the project we extended the ^METALex XML schema (cf. Boer et al. 2002; Boer et al. 2003) for ‚regular’ legal sources that we developed in the past for geospatial regulatory information, in order to support exchange of spatial regulations, including the associated geospatial information in the form of maps. We developed a prototype application and demonstrated how the spatial planning information in GML can be combined with XML with only minimal changes, using the Web Ontology Language (OWL). This paper describes our experiences.     

Development of a new experimental method to determine critical pigment-volume-concentrations using impedance spectroscopy : Part II: Solvent based coatings with components typical for commercial organic anticorrosion coatings or with nanoparticles

Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), which has been previously demonstrated to be a suitable method to determine the CPVC coatings [R.E. Lobnig, W. Villalba, K. Goll, J. Vogelsang, I. Winkels, R. Schmidt, P. Zanger, J. Soetemann, Development of a new experimental method to determine critical pigment-volume-concentrations using impedance spectroscopy, Prog. Org. Coat. 55 (2006) 363–374.], was applied to four series of coatings with components typical for solvent based commercial organic anticorrosion coatings, and to three series of coatings with nanopigments. For all coatings, the CPVC determined using EIS correlated very well with the CPVC determined from cross-sections with electron microscopy (SEM). The EIS method was also useful for the coatings with nanopigments, for which pores were too small to be detected by SEM-analysis of cross-sections.     

Legal Ontologies in Knowledge Engineering and Information Management

In this article we describe two core ontologies of law that specify knowledge that is common to all domains of law. The first one, FOLaw describes and explains dependencies between types of knowledge in legal reasoning; the second one, LRI-Core ontology, captures the main concepts in legal information processing. Although FOLaw has shown to be of high practical value in various applied European ICT projects, its reuse is rather limited as it is rather concerned with the structure of legal reasoning than with legal knowledge itself: as many other “legal core ontologies”, FOLaw is therefore rather an epistemological framework than an ontology. Therefore, we also developed LRI-Core. As we argue here that legal knowledge is based to a large extend on common-sense knowledge, LRI-Core is particularly inspired by research on abstract common-sense concepts. The main categories of LRI-Core are: physical, mental and abstract concepts. Roles cover in particular social worlds. Another special category are occurrences; terms that denote events and situations. We illustrate the use of LRI-Core with an ontology for Dutch criminal law, developed in the e-Court European project.