The Inflammatory Profile of Obesity and the Role on Pulmonary Bacterial and Viral Infections

Obesity is a globally increasing health problem, entailing diverse comorbidities such as infectious diseases. An obese weight status has marked effects on lung function that can be attributed to mechanical dysfunctions. Moreover, the alterations of adipocyte-derived signal mediators strongly influence the regulation of inflammation, resulting in chronic low-grade inflammation. Our review summarizes the known effects regarding pulmonary bacterial and viral infections. For this, we discuss model systems that allow mechanistic investigation of the interplay between obesity and lung infections. Overall, obesity gives rise to a higher susceptibility to infectious pathogens, but the pathogenetic process is not clearly defined. Whereas, viral infections often show a more severe course in obese patients, the same patients seem to have a survival benefit during bacterial infections. In particular, we summarize the main mechanical impairments in the pulmonary tract caused by obesity. Moreover, we outline the main secretory changes within the expanded adipose tissue mass, resulting in chronic low-grade inflammation. Finally, we connect these altered host factors to the influence of obesity on the development of lung infection by summarizing observations from clinical and experimental data.     

Modeling of a Methanol Synthesis Reactor for Storage of Renewable Energy and Conversion of CO2 – Comparison of Two Kinetic Models

The storage of renewable energy over a long time period, via methanol synthesis, will become very important to reach a greenhouse gas‐free energy supply. A steady‐state methanol synthesis flowsheet, containing a 2D pseudo‐homogeneous reactor, flash, and recycle, is modeled in MATLAB. With the kinetic models of Graaf and Bussche & Froment, two frequently used kinetic models for conventional methanol synthesis are compared and evaluated for applicability regarding methanol synthesis from CO₂/H₂. The results are presented for different cases of synthesis gas compositions. Both kinetic models produce similar results when the system is limited by thermodynamic equilibrium. However, differences in reaction rates are observable from the reactor axial molar component profiles of the reaction products.     

High quality gate dielectrics formed by rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition of silane and nitrous oxide

In the present study, we have performed electrical characterization of oxides deposited via rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition using SiH₄ and N₂O. We have investigated the effect of temperature, pressure, and SiH₄ to N₂O ratio on the electrical and material properties of as-deposited films. We have found that as-deposited oxides deposited at low temperatures, low pressures, and with a low silane to nitrous oxide ratio of ～0.5% give good material and electrical properties. The as-deposited films are stoichiometric in nature and have high deposition rates. As-deposited films had very low D_it values, high breakdown fields, and excellent subthreshold swing. The leakage currents and metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor current drive, although lower than thermal oxides, were found to be quite acceptable. We have also investigated the thickness dependence of the films and found that as the film thickness is reduced below 50Å, the reliability improves for all oxides including the silicon-rich deposited oxides.     

In Situ X-ray Diffraction and Young's Modulus Measurement during Heat Treatment of High-Alumina Cement Castables

In situ Young's modulus measurements and synchrotron radiation-energy dispersive diffraction have been used to study changes in high-alumina castables subjected to heat treatment from room temperature to 1600°C. Particular attention was paid to the hydrate conversion process and the effects of high temperature.     

OctoMap: an efficient probabilistic 3D mapping framework based on octrees

Three-dimensional models provide a volumetric representation of space which is important for a variety of robotic applications including flying robots and robots that are equipped with manipulators. In this paper, we present an open-source framework to generate volumetric 3D environment models. Our mapping approach is based on octrees and uses probabilistic occupancy estimation. It explicitly represents not only occupied space, but also free and unknown areas. Furthermore, we propose an octree map compression method that keeps the 3D models compact. Our framework is available as an open-source C++ library and has already been successfully applied in several robotics projects. We present a series of experimental results carried out with real robots and on publicly available real-world datasets. The results demonstrate that our approach is able to update the representation efficiently and models the data consistently while keeping the memory requirement at a minimum.     

De-Mail und Bürgerportale

Trotz der wachsenden Bedeutung des Internet für die Kommunikation zwischen Bürgern, Beh?rden und Unternehmen sind die Sicherheit, Vertraulichkeit und Rechtsverbindlichkeit des elektronischen Rechts- und Gesch?ftsverkehrs bislang nicht gew?hrleistet. Die geplanten Bürgerportale sind ein wichtiges Instrument zur L?sung der bestehenden Probleme.     

On the question of universality of imploding shock waves

For the case of initially infinitesimally weak spherically and cylindrically imploding shocks, Ponchaut et al. (J. Fluid Mech., 560:102–122, 2006) recently obtained universal solutions. We study the effect of starting the shock with an initially finite strength on the trajectory of the shock by performing numerical calculations for the incoming shock imploding spherically into a diatomic perfect gas. Deviations from the universal solution are extremely small. A solution for the initially infinitesimally weak shock obtained by using Whitham’s (Linear and nonlinear waves, Wiley, New York, 1974) Shock Dynamics is virtually indistinguishable from the Ponchaut solution.     

Molecular Mechanism of the Hydration of Candida antarctica Lipase B in the Gas Phase: Water Adsorption Isotherms and Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Hydration is a major determinant of activity and selectivity of enzymes in organic solvents or in gas phase. The molecular mechanism of the hydration of Candida antarctica lipase B (CALB) and its dependence on the thermodynamic activity of water (a_w) was studied by molecular dynamics simulations and compared to experimentally determined water sorption isotherms. Hydration occurred in two phases. At low water activity, single water molecules bound to specific water binding sites at the protein surface. As the water activity increased, water networks gradually developed. The number of protein‐bound water molecules increased linearly with a_w, until at a_w=0.5 a spanning water network was formed consisting of 311 water molecules, which covered the hydrophilic surface of CALB, with the exception of the hydrophobic substrate‐binding site. At higher water activity, the thickness of the hydration shell increased up to 10 Å close to a_w=1. Above a limit of 1600 protein‐bound water molecules the hydration shell becomes unstable and the formation of pure water droplets occurs in these oversaturated simulation conditions. While the structure and the overall flexibility of CALB was independent of the hydration state, the flexibility of individual loops was sensitive to hydration: some loops, such as those part of the substrate‐binding site, became more flexible, while other parts of the protein became more rigid upon hydration. However, the molecular mechanism of how flexibility is related to activity and selectivity is still elusive.