Hip and knee osteoarthritis are associated with functional limitations, pain and restrictions in quality of life and the ability to work. Furthermore, with growing prevalence, osteoarthritis is increasingly causing (in)direct costs. Guidelines recommend exercise therapy and education as primary treatment strategies. Available options for treatment based on physical activity promotion and lifestyle change are often insufficiently provided and used. In addition, the quality of current exercise programmes often does not meet the changing care needs of older people with comorbidities and exercise adherence is a challenge beyond personal physiotherapy. The main objective of this study is to investigate the short- and long-term (cost-)effectiveness of the SmArt-E programme in people with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis in terms of pain and physical functioning compared to usual care.
The conductivity of polyimide layers can be modified by several orders of magnitude by ion beam radiation. In order to understand the electronic structure of the pure polyimide before ion beam modification we focus in our preliminary experiments on spectroscopic investigations of thin as prepared polyimide films. The films were made by spin coating from a PMDA/ODA solution with subsequent vacuum annealing at 350°C. The layer thickness can be controlled by changing the concentration of PMDA/ODA in the solution realizing a thickness down to 3.5nm. For the characterization of the as prepared thin polyimide films the techniques NEXAFS, ResPES, XPS and CIS were applied at the U49/2-PGM2 beam line of Bessy II, Berlin. Our data including the valence band, core levels and absorption spectrum were compared with theoretical LCAO calculations. Based on these results we are able to attribute all spectral features to the specific atomic bonds in the molecule.
Ion beam modified polyimide show high conductivity. In our investigation we focus on the electronic structure and the element composition, in order to understand the mechanism of conductivity. In our experiments we use the methods NEXAFS and PES. The measurements were done at the U49/2-PGM2 beam line of BESSY II, Berlin. We find an increase of the sp2 hybridized graphite contribution, after low Ar+ ion doses bombardment while the temperature of the samples is varied from 300 K to 650 K. In addition we follow the He+ bombardment induced changes by in-situ monitoring of the O1s, N1s content in the polyimide films.
In this contribution we report on investigations of the electronic structure of Ar+ irradiated polyimide samples by using NEXAFS. The NEXAFS measurements were done at the U49/2-PGM2 beam line of BESSY II, Berlin using TEY and TFY detection.
Polyimide samples are prepared using low Ar+ dose while the temperature of the samples is varied between 300K and 700K. In the NEXAFS data at the Carbon K-edge we see substantial changes between different samples. The differences appear in particular in the more surface sensitive TEY-Signal.
The NEXFS data are consistent with the graphitization of the surface upon Ar+ bombardment as we identify the characteristic absorption bands of graphitic carbon. Its relative content increases with increasing sample temperature. In contrast, in the more bulk sensitive TFY data, the emission characteristic of polyimide is maintained.
The possibility to cover insulating polymers with a conducting layer is a great demand for many applications. Because of the relative low price of the basic materials, the irradiation with low-energy Ions will play an important roll in the microelectronic of the future.
Future regional aircraft and propulsion systems will have to address both a growing market and stricter environmental constraints. Besides the increase of component efficiencies, the technological transformation from conventional to (hybrid)-electric propulsion systems represents a paradigm shift with great potential for the aviation industry. In this context, economic, market-relevant as well as technological boundary conditions for the electrical and mechanical components are developed in this paper for a reference regional aircraft and are based on current research results from different institutions. The propulsion performance analysis of a conventional turboprop is compared and evaluated with a serial-hybrid and a fully-electric configuration (both battery-electric), status today as well as status ~2035, as an example, whereby the presented process can also be applied to other hybrid configurations too. An energy-optimised propulsion and operating concept is derived with regard to minimum resulting system weight. The results of this analysis help to define necessary boundary conditions for future subsystem investigations and identify key research items, especially in the field of the battery.
In isogeometric analysis, identical basis functions are used for geometrical representation and analysis. In this work, non‐uniform rational basis splines basis functions are applied in an isoparametric approach. An isogeometric Reissner–Mindlin shell formulation for implicit dynamic calculations using the Galerkin method is presented. A consistent as well as a lumped matrix formulation is implemented. The suitability of the developed shell formulation for natural frequency analysis is demonstrated by a numerical example. In a second set of examples, transient problems of plane and curved geometries undergoing large deformations in combination with nonlinear material behavior are investigated. Via a zero‐thickness stress algorithm for arbitrary material models, a J2‐plasticity constitutive law is implemented. In the numerical examples, the effectiveness, robustness, and superior accuracy of a continuous interpolation method of the shell director vector is compared with experimental results and alternative numerical approaches.