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Magnetic Resonance (MR) elastography is a method for measuring tissue elasticity via phase images acquired with an MR scanner. The propagation of periodic mechanical waves through the tissue can be captured by means of a modified phase contrast sequence. These waves are generated with a mechanical oscillator (actuator) and coupled into the tissue through the skin. The actuator must be capable of generating a sinusoidal excitation with excellent phase and amplitude stability, while not disturbing the MR imaging process. In this work, an actuator based on a piezoelectric principle was developed. Based on the imaging evaluation of several material samples, the housing for the piezoelectric ceramic was constructed of aluminum. Smaller parts of the housing were manufactured from brass and titanium to fulfill the mechanical constraints. A lever was used to transfer the oscillation generated by the piezoelectric ceramic to the point of excitation. The lever amplifies the piezoelectric motion, allowing for a more compact design. Three different lever designs were characterized by an acceleration sensor both outside and inside the magnet. It was shown that the rigidity of the lever, as determined by its material and form, was decisive in determining the resonant frequency of the system and therefore the maximum practical frequency of operation. It was also shown that the motion of the oscillator is unaffected by the electromagnetic fields of the MR imager. The final design can be placed directly in the magnet bore within a few centimeters of the tissue volume to be imaged without generating significant artifacts. An amplitude range of 0–1 mm in the frequency range from 0 to over 300 Hz was achieved, sufficient for performing most MR elastography applications. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Concepts in Magnetic Resonance (Magn Reson Engineering) 15: 239–254, 2002
Men afflicted with hypogonadism have reduced fat-free mass and in some cases a loss in muscle strength. We hypothesize that muscle elasticity of the lower extremities differs between patients with hypogonadism and healthy controls. The shear modulus of the soleus muscle was measured non-invasively using MR elastography (MRE) at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of the subject’s maximum applied force. The results from this study showed statistical differences between the patients and controls, even though there were no statistical differences in applied force.
Men afflicted with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) show signs of muscle dysfunction, such as increased muscle fatigue and acidosis during exercise. We hypothesize that muscle elasticity of the lower extremities differs between patients with COPD and age-related controls. The shear modulus of the soleus muscle was measured non-invasively using MR elastography (MRE) at 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of the subject’s maximum applied force. The results from this study showed statistical differences between the patients and controls, even though there were no statistical differences in the maximum applied force.
The Chylla–Haase polymerization reactor is widely accepted as a benchmark process for the evaluation of control strategies for batch reactors. In this contribution a control concept based on Exact I/O-Linearization is proposed and compared to a conventional cascade control structure. In order to adapt the exact linearization control strategy to various polymerization products and batch conditions, an advanced probabilistic inference algorithm (Sigma-Point Kalman Filter) is applied and investigated. Sigma-Point Kalman Filters have the major improvement of simplified implementation compared to local linearization methods (i.e. Extended Kalman Filter) because no analytical Jacobians are required. Stochastic simulation studies are introduced and show the effectiveness, accuracy and benefit of the control concept. Within several scenarios a satisfying robustness against structural errors in the underlying model equations for the nonlinear control law and the inference algorithm is demonstrated. Furthermore it is pointed out, that with little effort in reassembling the plant design, control performance can be improved significantly.
Stability and cost optimality of power generation and supply systems must not be considered independently from one another. Simple examples show that optimizing cost without considering stability may result in modes of operation that, while economically optimal, are unstable. We demonstrate that stability, robustness, and optimality can be considered systematically and simultaneously by combining bifurcation theory and nonlinear optimization. Essentially, the proposed method enforces a backoff distance between the optimal point of operation and operational or stability boundaries in the space of the optimization variables, where bifurcation theory is used to describe nonlinear stability boundaries.
We present a control scheme for a parabolic trough power plant that is equipped with a molten salt thermal energy storage system. We show that the multivariable control problem for the solar field can be decoupled by controlling the three way valve that splits the heat transfer fluid between the storage system and the steam generator. The steam generation cycle is regulated with inlet pressure control. The subsystems of the plant are modeled based on first principles, where we focus on the steam generation cycle. A multi-group extraction turbine with pre- and reheater is considered, which is suitable for solar power plants. We demonstrate the benefits of the proposed control scheme with a day-to-day simulation.
We derive a nonlinear model of the steam cycle of a solar power plant, estimate its unknown parameters with measured data, and design a linear model predictive controller based on the resulting model. Simulations show that the linear model predictive controller is able to regulate the electrical power of the nonlinear steam process of the plant to a given reference trajectory very well. Moreover, it results in very good disturbance rejection.
With the increasing capabilities of machine learning systems and their potential use in safety-critical systems, ensuring high-quality data is becoming increasingly important. In this paper, we present a novel approach for the assurance of data quality. For this purpose, the mathematical basics are first discussed and the approach is presented using multiple examples. This results in the detection of data points with potentially harmful properties for the use in safety-critical systems.
Die höhere Schule. Eine Woche auf Südtiroler Bergbauernhöfen (Erfahrungsbericht HeisenBergBauern)
(2012)
Großstadt-Gärtnern Urban Gardening zwischen Subsistenz, urbaner Agrikultur und kreativer Stadtpraxis
(2016)
Wechselwirkungen zwischen Druckluftspeichern und Netzengpässen in zukünftigen Energiesystemen
(2013)
An der Schnittstelle: Deutsche und internationale Perspektiven auf Community Music in Musikschulen
(2020)
Editorial
(2016)
Gender in the making: An empirical approach to understand gender relations in the maker movement
(2021)
Individual addressing of trapped ions and coupling of motional and spin states using RF radiation
(2009)
Individual electrodynamically trapped and laser cooled ions are addressed in frequency space using radio-frequency radiation in the presence of a static magnetic field gradient. In addition, an interaction between motional and spin states induced by an rf field is demonstrated employing rf optical double resonance spectroscopy. These are two essential experimental steps towards realizing a novel concept for implementing quantum simulations and quantum computing with trapped ions.
We present an experimental technique that allows the simultaneous spatial imaging and spectral analysis of falling droplets that exhibit lasing. Single droplet investigations serve as, among other purposes, a preliminary study for spray and combustion researchers. The described setup provides a valuable tool for the evaluation of microdroplet investigations with laser-spectroscopic techniques that rely on laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) or similar spectroscopical phenomena. The emphasis is that both spatial and spectral information are obtained from single-shot images of a falling droplet. Furthermore, combining spatial imaging and a spatially resolving optical multichannel analyzer makes a pointwise rastering of the droplets spectrum possible. This allows for the (almost) unambiguous determination of sources of influence on the spectrum of these droplets-such as geometrical distortion and lasing, nondissolved tracer lumps, and similar phenomena. Although the focus is on the experimental technique itself, we supplement detailed studies of lasing in falling microdroplets. These results were obtained with the aim of developing a system for measuring temperature distributions in droplets and sprays. In the light of these results the practice of calibrating a droplets spectrum by use of a bulk liquid sample needs to be critically reviewed.
Cell migration is associated with the dynamic protrusion of a thin actin-based cytoskeletal extension at the cell front, which has been shown to consist of two different substructures, the leading lamellipodium and the subsequent lamellum. While the formation of the lamellipodium is increasingly well understood, organizational principles underlying the emergence of the lamellum are just beginning to be unraveled. We report here on a 1D mathematical model which describes the reaction-diffusion processes of a polarized actin network in steady state, and reproduces essential characteristics of the lamellipodium-lamellum system. We observe a steep gradient in filament lengths at the protruding edge, a local depolymerization maximum a few microns behind the edge, as well as a differential dominance of the network destabilizer ADF/cofilin and the stabilizer tropomyosin. We identify simple and robust organizational principles giving rise to the derived network characteristics, uncoupled from the specifics of any molecular implementation, and thus plausibly valid across cell types. An analysis of network length dependence on physico-chemical system parameters implies that to limit array treadmilling to cellular dimensions, network growth has to be truncated by mechanisms other than aging-induced depolymerization, e.g., by myosin-associated network dissociation at the transition to the cell body. Our work contributes to the analytical understanding of the cytoskeletal extension's bisection into lamellipodium and lamellum and sheds light on how cells organize their molecular machinery to achieve motility.
To power dynamic processes in cells, the actin and microtubule cytoskeletons organize into complex structures. Although it is known that cytoskeletal coordination is vital for cell function, the mechanisms by which cross-linking proteins coordinate actin and microtubule activities remain poorly understood. In particular, it is unknown how the distinct mechanical properties of different actin architectures modulate the outcome of actin-microtubule interactions. To address this question, we engineered the protein TipAct, which links growing microtubule ends via end-binding proteins to actin filaments. We show that growing microtubules can be captured and guided by stiff actin bundles, leading to global actin-microtubule alignment. Conversely, growing microtubule ends can transport, stretch and bundle individual actin filaments, thereby globally defining actin filament organization. Our results provide a physical basis to understand actin-microtubule cross-talk, and reveal that a simple cross-linker can enable a mechanical feedback between actin and microtubule organization that is relevant to diverse biological contexts.
Mass spectrometry data is one of the key sources of information in many workflows in medicine and across the life sciences. Mass fragmentation spectra are generally considered to be characteristic signatures of the chemical compound they originate from, yet the chemical structure itself usually cannot be easily deduced from the spectrum. Often, spectral similarity measures are used as a proxy for structural similarity but this approach is strongly limited by a generally poor correlation between both metrics. Here, we propose MS2DeepScore: a novel Siamese neural network to predict the structural similarity between two chemical structures solely based on their MS/MS fragmentation spectra. Using a cleaned dataset of > 100,000 mass spectra of about 15,000 unique known compounds, we trained MS2DeepScore to predict structural similarity scores for spectrum pairs with high accuracy. In addition, sampling different model varieties through Monte-Carlo Dropout is used to further improve the predictions and assess the model's prediction uncertainty. On 3600 spectra of 500 unseen compounds, MS2DeepScore is able to identify highly-reliable structural matches and to predict Tanimoto scores for pairs of molecules based on their fragment spectra with a root mean squared error of about 0.15. Furthermore, the prediction uncertainty estimate can be used to select a subset of predictions with a root mean squared error of about 0.1. Furthermore, we demonstrate that MS2DeepScore outperforms classical spectral similarity measures in retrieving chemically related compound pairs from large mass spectral datasets, thereby illustrating its potential for spectral library matching. Finally, MS2DeepScore can also be used to create chemically meaningful mass spectral embeddings that could be used to cluster large numbers of spectra. Added to the recently introduced unsupervised Spec2Vec metric, we believe that machine learning-supported mass spectral similarity measures have great potential for a range of metabolomics data processing pipelines.
Despite their overwhelming complexity, living cells display a high degree of internal mechanical and functional organization which can largely be attributed to the intracellular biopolymer scaffold, the cytoskeleton. Being a very complex system far from thermodynamic equilibrium, the cytoskeleton's ability to organize is at the same time challenging and fascinating. The extensive amounts of frequently interacting cellular building blocks and their inherent multifunctionality permits highly adaptive behavior and obstructs a purely reductionist approach. Nevertheless (and despite the field's relative novelty), the physics approach has already proved to be extremely successful in revealing very fundamental concepts of cytoskeleton organization and behavior. This review aims at introducing the physics of the cytoskeleton ranging from single biopolymer filaments to multicellular organisms. Throughout this wide range of phenomena, the focus is set on the intertwined nature of the different physical scales (levels of complexity) that give rise to numerous emergent properties by means of self-organization or self-assembly.
Many different cell types are able to migrate by formation of a thin actin-based cytoskeletal extension. Recently, it became evident that this extension consists of two distinct substructures, designated lamellipodium and lamellum, which differ significantly in their kinetic and kinematic properties as well as their biochemical composition. We developed a stochastic two-dimensional computer simulation that includes chemical reaction kinetics, G-actin diffusion, and filament transport to investigate the formation of growing actin networks in migrating cells. Model parameters were chosen based on experimental data or theoretical considerations. In this work, we demonstrate the system's ability to form two distinct networks by self-organization. We found a characteristic transition in mean filament length as well as a distinct maximum in depolymerization flux, both within the first 1-2 microm. The separation into two distinct substructures was found to be extremely robust with respect to initial conditions and variation of model parameters. We quantitatively investigated the complex interplay between ADF/cofilin and tropomyosin and propose a plausible mechanism that leads to spatial separation of, respectively, ADF/cofilin- or tropomyosin-dominated compartments. Tropomyosin was found to play an important role in stabilizing the lamellar actin network. Furthermore, the influence of filament severing and annealing on the network properties is explored, and simulation data are compared to existing experimental data.
Despite its impressive complexity the cytoskeleton succeeds to persistently organize itself and thus the cells' interior. In contrast to classical man-made machines, much of the cellular organization originates from inherent self-assembly and self-organization allowing a high degree of autonomy for various functional units. Recent experimental and theoretical studies revealed numerous examples of cytoskeleton components that arrange and organize in a self-regulative way. In the present review we want to shortly summarize some of the principle mechanisms that are able to inherently trigger and regulate the cytoskeleton organization. Although taken individually most of these regulative principles are rather simple with intuitively predictable consequences, combinations of two or more of these mechanisms can quickly give rise to very complex, unexpected behavior and might even be able to explain the formation of different functional units out of a common pool of available building blocks.
Spec2Vec: Improved mass spectral similarity scoring through learning of structural relationships
(2021)
Spectral similarity is used as a proxy for structural similarity in many tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) based metabolomics analyses such as library matching and molecular networking. Although weaknesses in the relationship between spectral similarity scores and the true structural similarities have been described, little development of alternative scores has been undertaken. Here, we introduce Spec2Vec, a novel spectral similarity score inspired by a natural language processing algorithm-Word2Vec. Spec2Vec learns fragmental relationships within a large set of spectral data to derive abstract spectral embeddings that can be used to assess spectral similarities. Using data derived from GNPS MS/MS libraries including spectra for nearly 13,000 unique molecules, we show how Spec2Vec scores correlate better with structural similarity than cosine-based scores. We demonstrate the advantages of Spec2Vec in library matching and molecular networking. Spec2Vec is computationally more scalable allowing structural analogue searches in large databases within seconds.
Actin droplet machine
(2019)
The actin droplet machine is a computer model of a three-dimensional network of actin bundles developed in a droplet of a physiological solution, which implements mappings of sets of binary strings. The actin bundle network is conductive to travelling excitations, i.e. impulses. The machine is interfaced with an arbitrary selected set of k electrodes through which stimuli, binary strings of length k represented by impulses generated on the electrodes, are applied and responses are recorded. The responses are recorded in a form of impulses and then converted to binary strings. The machine's state is a binary string of length k: if there is an impulse recorded on the ith electrode, there is a '1' in the ith position of the string, and '0' otherwise. We present a design of the machine and analyse its state transition graphs. We envisage that actin droplet machines could form an elementary processor of future massive parallel computers made from biopolymers.
Actin filaments are conductive to ionic currents, mechanical and voltage solitons. These travelling localisations can be utilised to generate computing circuits from actin networks. The propagation of localisations on a single actin filament is experimentally unfeasible to control. Therefore, we consider excitation waves propagating on bundles of actin filaments. In computational experiments with a two-dimensional slice of an actin bundle network we show that by using an arbitrary arrangement of electrodes, it is possible to implement two-inputs-one-output circuits.
The synthesis of Nb-doped TiO2 nanoparticles by spray drying: an efficient and scalable method
(2011)
The rock material pentlandite with the composition Fe4.5Ni4.5S8 was synthesized via high temperature synthesis from the elements. The structure and composition of the material was characterized via powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Mössbauer spectroscopy (MB), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Two preparation methods of pentlandite bulk electrodes are presented. In the first approach a piece of synthetic pentlandite rock is directly contacted via a wire ferrule. The second approach utilizes pentlandite pellets, pressed from finely ground powder, which is immobilized in a Teflon casing. Both electrodes, whilst being prepared by an additive-free method, reveal high durability during electrocatalytic conversions in comparison to common drop-coating methods. We herein showcase the striking performance of such electrodes to accomplish the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and present a standardized method to evaluate the electrocatalytic performance by electrochemical and gas chromatographic methods. Furthermore, we report stability tests via potentiostatic methods at an overpotential of 0.6 V to explore the material limitations of the electrodes during electrolysis under industrial relevant conditions.
Designing core ontologies
(2011)
Aktienrückkauf
(2005)
Solvenztest
(2006)
Solvenztest
(2007)