Results of special mechanical analyses of Luna 16 material

The studies carried out on the Luna 16 regolith have confirmed the data that were already published internationally. By means of activation analysis under irradiation in the reactor, activation analysis with a 14 MeV U-generator, and mass spectroscopy on samples of 10 or 20 mg, six main and 63 trace elements were quantitatively determined and compared with known data

The almost alternating diagrams of the trivial knot

Bankwitz characterized an alternating diagram representing the trivial knot. A non-alternating diagram is called almost alternating if one crossing change makes the diagram alternating. We characterize an almost alternaing diagram representing the trivial knot. As a corollary we determine an unknotting number one alternating knot with a property that the unknotting operation can be done on its alternating diagram.Comment: 29 pages, 18 figure

Kunststoffgleitlager mit intelligenter Verschleißüberwachung

Die Zustandsüberwachung (Condition Monitoring) und die vorausschauende Wartung (Predicted Maintenance) gelten als Schlüsselinnovationen der Industrie 4.0. Im Zuge dessen arbeiten Forscher der Professur Intelligente Maschinensysteme an der Hochschule Mittweida an einem Kunststoffgleitlager, welches eine integrierte Sensorik besitzt, die dem Anwender die Überwachung von Betriebsdaten ermöglichen soll. Die aus einem elektrisch leitfähigen Kunststoff hergestellte Sensorik trägt dazu bei, dass in Echtzeit sowohl eine Aussage zur Lagertemperatur als auch zum Verschleißgrad des Lagers getroffen werden kann. Damit lassen sich Wartungsintervalle besser planen und ein prophylaktischer Austausch von noch gebrauchsfähigen Lagern kann vermieden und damit Kosten gesenkt werden. Dafür sind umfangreiche numerische Untersuchungen zum mechanischen, thermischen und elektrischen Verhalten der Sensorik bzw. des Gleitlagers mit Interaktion der Welle durchgeführt worden. Dies beinhaltet auch eine Auswahl möglicher Werkstoffe. Außerdem ist die Auswerteelektronik (Messwertverstärkung, Datenverarbeitung und Datenübermittlung) entsprechend den Anforderungen der Sensorik entwickelt wurden. In einem weiteren Schritt wurde ein Funktionsmuster des Kunststoffgleitlagers mittels FDM-Drucks hergestellt

Multifunktionale Führungsschienen zur integrierten Verschleißmessung an Tragkettenförderern

In industriellen Anwendungen sind Tragkettenförderer weit verbreitet, wobei die Kunststoffführungsschienen als wesentliche Komponenten des Fördersystems dienen und als primäre Verschleißteile dienen. Aktuell erfolgt die Verschleißüberwachung entweder visuell durch menschliche Inspektion, was höhere Kosten und Ausfallzeiten verursacht, oder durch die Integration externer Sensorik, die spezielles Fachwissen bei Installation, Wartung und Auswertung erfordert und mit hohen Installationskosten verbunden ist. In einem aktuellen Forschungsprojekt wird eine neuartige Lösung entwickelt, bei der die Verschleißsensoren direkt in die Führungsschienen integriert werden. Diese Sensoren sollen nicht nur den Verschleiß überwachen, sondern auch als tragende multifunktionale Strukturen fungieren. Der Vortrag konzentriert sich auf die Entwicklung des Sensordesigns, die Materialentwicklung des Sensors sowie Demonstration der Funktionalität mittels numerischer Simulationen. Die Integration von Verschleißsensoren in die Führungsschienen verspricht, den Überwachungsprozess zu optimieren, indem manuelle Inspektionen und die Integration externer Sensoren vermieden werden. Die Herausforderung besteht darin, Materialien und Sensoren zu entwickeln, die den Anforderungen industrieller Umgebungen gerecht werden und gleichzeitig eine präzise Verschleißüberwachung ermöglichen. Numerische Simulationen spielen eine entscheidende Rolle bei der Bewertung und Optimierung der Leistungsfähigkeit der Sensoren unter verschiedenen Betriebsbedingungen. Mit dem neuartigen Lösungsansatz können sowohl zukünftige als auch Bestandsanlagen ausgerüstet und die Überwachung kostengünstig automatisiert werden. Dies kann zu einer verbesserten Effizienz, Zuverlässigkeit und Lebensdauer der Anlagen führen

Neutralizing antibodies and pathogenesis of hepatitis C virus infection.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a major cause of chronic liver disease worldwide. The interplay between the virus and host innate and adaptive immune responses determines the outcome of infection. There is increasing evidence that host neutralizing responses play a relevant role in the resulting pathogenesis. Furthermore, viral evasion from host neutralizing antibodies has been revealed to be an important contributor in leading both to viral persistence in acute liver graft infection following liver transplantation, and to chronic viral infection. The development of novel model systems to study HCV entry and neutralization has allowed a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms of virus-host interactions during antibody-mediated neutralization. The understanding of these mechanisms will ultimately contribute to the development of novel antiviral preventive strategies for liver graft infection and an urgently needed vaccine. This review summarizes recent concepts of the role of neutralizing antibodies in viral clearance and protection, and highlights consequences of viral escape from neutralizing antibodies in the pathogenesis of HCV infection

Hepatitis C virus quasispecies and pseudotype analysis from acute infection to chronicity in HIV-1 co-infected individuals

HIV-1 infected patients who acquire HCV infection have higher rates of chronicity and liver disease progression than patients with HCV mono-infection. Understanding early events in this pathogenic process is important. We applied single genome sequencing of the E1 to NS3 regions and viral pseudotype neutralization assays to explore the consequences of viral quasispecies evolution from pre-seroconversion to chronicity in four co-infected individuals (mean follow up 566 days). We observed that one to three founder viruses were transmitted. Relatively low viral sequence diversity, possibly related to an impaired immune response, due to HIV infection was observed in three patients. However, the fourth patient, after an early purifying selection displayed increasing E2 sequence evolution, possibly related to being on suppressive antiretroviral therapy. Viral pseudotypes generated from HCV variants showed relative resistance to neutralization by autologous plasma but not to plasma collected from later time points, confirming ongoing virus escape from antibody neutralization

Autism spectrum disorders in adults and the autonomic nervous system: Heart rate variability markers in the diagnostic procedure

The diagnostic assessment of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in adults is a challenging and time-consuming procedure. In order to address the lack of specialised health-care professionals and improve the waiting time, we aimed to identify specific electrocardiogram (ECG) derived Heart Rate Variability (HRV) parameters that could be used for diagnostic purposes. 152 patients were diagnosed based on a standardised clinical procedure and assigned to one of three groups: ASD (n = 56), any other psychiatric disorder (OD) (n = 72), and patients with no diagnosis (ND) (n = 24). Groups were compared using ANOVA. Discriminative power of biological parameters and the clinical assessment were compared using receiver operating characteristic curves (ROCs). Patients with ASD showed reduced parasympathetic and increased sympathetic activity compared to ND. The accuracy determined by the area under the curve (AUC) of the biological parameters for discrimination between ASD vs. pooled OD/ND was 0.736 (95% CI = 0.652-0.820), compared to .856 (95% CI = 0.795-0.917) for the extensive clinical assessment. Our results confirmed the dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system in ASD with reduced parasympathetic and increased sympathetic activity as compared to ND. The discriminative power of biological markers including HRV was considerable and could supplement less sophisticated clinical assessments

New perspectives for preventing hepatitis C virus liver graft infection

publisher: Elsevier articletitle: New perspectives for preventing hepatitis C virus liver graft infection journaltitle: The Lancet Infectious Diseases articlelink: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(16)00120-1 content_type: article copyright: © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Toward integrated tantalum pentoxide optical parametric oscillators

We present a hybrid waveguide-fiber optical parametric oscillator (OPO) exploiting degenerate four-wave mixing in tantalum pentoxide. The OPO, pumped with ultrashort pulses at 1.55 $\mu$m wavelength, generated tunable idler pulses with up to 4.1 pJ energy tunable between 1.63 $\mu$m and 1.68 $\mu$m center wavelength. An upper bound for the total tolerable cavity loss of 32 dB was found, rendering a chip-integrated OPO feasible as a compact and robust light source.Comment: 5 pages and 5 figures, submitted to Optics Letter

EEG source functional connectivity in patients after a recent suicide attempt

Objective Electroencephalogram (EEG) based frequency measures within the alpha frequency range (AFR), including functional connectivity, show potential in assessing the underlying pathophysiology of depression and suicide-related outcomes. We investigated the association between AFR connectivity, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and depression in a transdiagnostic sample of patients after a recent suicide attempt (SA). Methods Lagged source-based measures of linear and nonlinear whole-brain connectivity within the standard AFR ([sAFR], 8–12 Hz) and the individually referenced AFR (iAFR) were applied to 70 15-minute resting-state EEGs from patients after a SA and 70 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HC). Hypotheses were tested using network-based statistics and multiple regression models. Results Results showed no significant differences between patients after a SA and HC in any of the assessed connectivity modalities. However, a subgroup analysis revealed significantly increased nonlinear connectivity within the sAFR for patients after a SA with a depressive disorder or episode ([DD], n = 53) compared to matched HC. Furthermore, a multiple regression model, including significant main effects for group and global nonlinear connectivity within the sAFR outperformed all other models in explaining variance in depressive symptom severity