Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences

Deviations from thermally activated and from exponential response are typical features of the vitrification phenomenon and previously have been studied using viscoelastic, dielectric, calorimetric, optical, and other techniques. Linear response data from literature on about 70 covalent glass formers, ionic melts, supercooled liquids, amorphous polymers, and glassy crystals are surveyed. Except for orientational glasses and monohydric aliphatic alcohols a distinct but broad correlation of non-Debye behavior with non-Arrhenius relaxations is found. Within the broad trend several groups of materials, distinguished by their respective molecular complexity, can be identified and are shown to exhibit narrow correlations. At a given degree of deviation from Arrhenius behavior externally imposed stresses are relaxed with a departure from exponential behavior which is stronger the more the molecular or atomic subunits of the glassforming material are interconnected with each other.

A comparison was made between four low-temperature properties of La${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ and Ce${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$. Whereas La${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ behaves like a normal metal, Ce${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}$${\mathrm{Si}}_{2}$ shows (i) low-temperature anomalies typical of "unstable $4f$ shell" behavior and (ii) a transition into a superconducting state at ${T}_{c}\ensuremath{\simeq}0.5$ K. Our experiments demonstrate for the first time that superconductivity can exist in a metal in which many-body interactions, probably magnetic in origin, have strongly renormalized the properties of the conduction-electron gas.

A classic reference and text, this book introduces the foundations used to create an accurate computer screen image using mathematical tools. This comprehensive guide is a handbook for students and practitioners and includes an extensive bibliography for further study.

In order to elucidate the mechanism of cavitation erosion, the dynamics of a single laser-generated cavitation bubble in water and the resulting surface damage on a flat metal specimen are investigated in detail. The characteristic effects of bubble dynamics, in particular the formation of a high-speed liquid jet and the emission of shock waves at the moment of collapse are recorded with high-speed photography with framing rates of up to one million frames/s. Damage is observed when the bubble is generated at a distance less than twice its maximum radius from a solid boundary (γ=2, where γ= s / R max , s is the distance between the boundary and the bubble centre at the moment of formation and R max is the maximum bubble radius). The impact of the jet contributes to the damage only at small initial distances (γ[les ]0.7). In this region, the impact velocity rises to 83 m s −1 , corresponding to a water hammer pressure of about 0.1 GPa, whereas at γ>1, the impact velocity is smaller than 25 m s −1 . The largest erosive force is caused by the collapse of a bubble in direct contact with the boundary, where pressures of up to several GPa act on the material surface. Therefore, it is essential for the damaging effect that bubbles are accelerated towards the boundary during the collapse phases due to Bjerknes forces. The bubble touches the boundary at the moment of second collapse when γ<2 and at the moment of first collapse when γ<1. Indentations on an aluminium specimen are found at the contact locations of the collapsing bubble. In the range γ=1.7 to 2, where the bubble collapses mainly down to a single point, one pit below the bubble centre is observed. At γ[les ]1.7, the bubble shape has become toroidal, induced by the jet flow through the bubble centre. Corresponding to the decay of this bubble torus into multiple tiny bubbles each collapsing separately along the circumference of the torus, the observed damage is circular as well. Bubbles in the ranges γ[les ]0.3 and γ=1.2 to 1.4 caused the greatest damage. The overall diameter of the damaged area is found to scale with the maximum bubble radius. Owing to the possibility of generating thousands of nearly identical bubbles, the cavitation resistance of even hard steel specimens can be tested.

Nonradiating current configurations attract attention of physicists for many years as possible models of stable atoms. One intriguing example of such a nonradiating source is known as 'anapole'. An anapole mode can be viewed as a composition of electric and toroidal dipole moments, resulting in destructive interference of the radiation fields due to similarity of their far-field scattering patterns. Here we demonstrate experimentally that dielectric nanoparticles can exhibit a radiationless anapole mode in visible. We achieve the spectral overlap of the toroidal and electric dipole modes through a geometry tuning, and observe a highly pronounced dip in the far-field scattering accompanied by the specific near-field distribution associated with the anapole mode. The anapole physics provides a unique playground for the study of electromagnetic properties of nontrivial excitations of complex fields, reciprocity violation and Aharonov-Bohm like phenomena at optical frequencies.

For a large set of major world rivers we established the empirical relations existing between the observed organic carbon fluxes and the climatic, biologic, and geomorphologic patterns characterizing the river basins. These characteristics were extracted from various ecological databases. The corresponding carbon fluxes were taken from the literature. Dissolved organic carbon fluxes are mainly related to drainage intensity, basin slope, and the amount of carbon stored in soils. Particulate organic carbon fluxes are calculated as a function of sediment fluxes, which depend principally upon drainage intensity, rainfall intensity, and basin slope. Although the drainage intensity is mainly related to the amount of precipitation and to mean temperature in the basin, slope is also retained as one of the controlling factors. Our empirical models result in a total organic carbon flux to the oceans of about 0.38 Gt per year globally. About 0.21 Gt carbon (Gt C) enter the oceans in dissolved form and about 0.17 Gt C in particulate form. We further regionalize fluxes with respect to major climates, different continents, and different ocean basins. About 45 % of the organic carbon is discharged from tropical wet regions. The major part of the dissolved organic carbon is discharged into the Atlantic Ocean, while the bulk of the particulate organic carbon is discharged into the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The microscopic mechanisms responsible for both the formation and coupling of magnetic moments in Heusler alloys (${X}_{2}\mathrm{Mn}Y$) are identified. We find that the $X$ atoms (e.g., Cu, Pd) serve primarily to determine the lattice constant, while the $Y$ atoms (e.g., Al, In, Sb) mediate the interaction between the $\mathrm{Mn}d$ states. There is no significant direct interaction between the Mn atoms, but the occupied $d$ states of Mn are delocalized by their strong interaction with the $X$-atom $d$ states. The localized character of the magnetization results from the exclusion of minority-spin (defined locally) electrons from the $\mathrm{Mn}3d$ shell. The coupling between the localized magnetic Mn moments can be described with the Heisenberg Hamiltonian and the sign of the exchange constants results from a competition between the intra-atomic magnetic energy and interatomic $Y$-atom mediated covalent interactions between the the $\mathrm{Mn}d$ states. These effects compete because the covalent mechanism is possible only for antiferromagnetic alignments, but necessarily reduces the magnitude of the local moments. The sensitive dependence of magnetic order on the occupation of the mediating $p\ensuremath{-}d$ hybrid states accounts well for experiments by Webster in which this occupation is varied by alloying. Our analysis is based on self-consistent, spin-polarized energy-band calculations for ${\mathrm{Co}}_{2}$MnAl, ${\mathrm{Co}}_{2}$MnSn, ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{2}$MnSn, ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}$MnAl, ${\mathrm{Cu}}_{2}$MnSn, ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{2}$MnIn, ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{2}$MnSn, and ${\mathrm{Pd}}_{2}$MnSb, for both ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin alignments.

Abstract There are many reactions in which CC bonds are formed by addition of free radicals to alkenes. Information about the mechanism is important for the synthesis of specific target molecules. The rate of addition of alkyl radicals to alkenes is controlled by steric and polar effects. The stabilities of the educts and products are of only limited importance, since the transition states for these exothermic reactions occur very early on the reaction coordinate. Variations in reactivity and selectivity can be described using frontier orbital theory: for nucleophilic radicals the dominant interactions are those between SOMO's and LUMO's, and for electrophilic radicals those between SOMO's and HOMO's. The large differences in the steric effects of α ‐ and β‐ substituents of alkenes can be explained by postulating an unsymmetrical transition state— the radical approaches one of the C atoms preferentially. Regioand stereoselectivities can be predicted and are determined, in general, by steric effects.

Ant System is a general purpose algorithm inspired by the study of the behavior of ant colonies. It is based on a cooperative search paradigm that is applicable to the solution of combinatorial optimization problems. We introduce MAX-MIN Ant System, an improved version of basic Ant System, and report our results for its application to symmetric and asymmetric instances of the well known traveling salesman problem. We show how MAX-MIN Ant System can be significantly improved, extending it with local search heuristics. Our results clearly show that MAX-MIN Ant System has the property of effectively guiding the local search heuristics towards promising regions of the search space by generating good initial tours.

Program families are defined (analogously to hardware families) as sets of programs whose common properties are so extensive that it is advantageous to study the common properties of the programs before analyzing individual members. The assumption that, if one is to develop a set of similar programs over a period of time, one should consider the set as a whole while developing the first three approaches to the development, is discussed. A conventional approach called "sequential development" is compared to "stepwise refinement" and "specification of information hiding modules." A more detailed comparison of the two methods is then made. By means of several examples it is demonstrated that the two methods are based on the same concepts but bring complementary advantages.

Abstract Contrary to widely held opinion, for many reactions in organic and organometallic chemistry it is possible to define nucleophilicity and electrophilicity parameters that are independent of the reaction partners. This phenomenon, discovered by Ritchie during the early 1970s for reactions of highly stabilized carbenium and diazonium ions with n‐nucleophiles, also occurs with reactions of carbenium ions with aliphatic and aromatic π‐electron systems and in hydride transfer reactions. With the aid of the scales of nucleophilicity and electrophilicity set out here, which extend over eighteen orders of magnitude, forecasts can be made about the feasibility and rate of a given CC bond formation, ionic reduction, or diazo coupling. Linkage with the reactivity scales of Ritchie and Sweigart/Kane‐Maguire enables a unified treatment of a large number of polar reactions.

The solution of Maxwell's equations in the time domain has now been in use for almost three decades and has had great success in many different applications. The main attraction of the time domain approach, originating in a paper by Yee (1966), is its simplicity. Compared with conventional frequency domain methods it takes only marginal effort to write a computer code for solving a simple scattering problem. However, when applying the time domain approach in a general way to arbitrarily complex problems, many seemingly simple additional problems add up. We describe a theoretical framework for solving Maxwell's equations in integral form, resulting in a set of matrix equations, each of which is the discrete analogue to one of the original Maxwell equations. This approach is called Finite Integration Theory and was first developed for frequency domain problems starting about two decades ago. The key point in this formulation is that it can be applied to static, harmonic and time dependent fields, mainly because it is nothing but a computer-compatible reformulation of Maxwell's equations in integral form. When specialised to time domain fields, the method actualy contains Yee's algorithm as a subset. Further additions include lossy materials and fields of moving charges, even including fully relativistic analysis. For amny practical problems the pure time domain algorithm is not sufficient. For instance a waveguide transition analysis requires knowledge of the incoming and outgoing mode patterns for proper excitation in the time domain. This is a typical example where both frequency and time domian analysis are essential and only the combinatin yields the successful result. Typical engineers may wonder why at all one should apply time domain analysis to basically monochromatic field problems. The answer is simple: it is much faster, needs less computer memory, is more general nad typically more accurate. Speed-up factors of over 200 have been reached for realistic problems in filter and waveguide design. The small core space requirement makes time domain methods applicable on desktop computers using milions of cells, and six unknowns per cell—a dimension that has not yet been reached by frequency domain approaches. This enormous amount of mesh cells is absolutely neceesary when complex structures or structures with spacial dimensions of many wavelengths are to be studied. Our personal recod so far is a waveguide problem in which we used 72,000,000 unknowns.

The dynamics of laser-produced cavitation bubbles near a solid boundary and its dependence on the distance between bubble and wall are investigated experimentally. It is shown by means of high-speed photography with up to 1 million frames/s that jet and counterjet formation and the development of a ring vortex resulting from the jet flow are general features of the bubble dynamics near solid boundaries. The fluid velocity field in the vicinity of the cavitation bubble is determined with time-resolved particle image velocimetry. A comparison of path lines deduced from successive measurements shows good agreement with the results of numerical calculations by Kucera & Blake (1988). The pressure amplitude, the profile and the energy of the acoustic transients emitted during spherical bubble collapse and the collapse near a rigid boundary are measured with a hydrophone and an optical detection technique. Sound emission is the main damping mechanism in spherical bubble collapse, whereas it plays a minor part in the damping of aspherical collapse. The duration of the acoustic transients is 20-30 ns. The highest pressure amplitudes at the solid boundary have been found for bubbles attached to the boundary. The pressure inside the bubble and at the boundary reaches about 2.5 kbar when the maximum bubble radius is 3.5 mm. The results are discussed with respect to the mechanism of cavitation erosion.

The ideas of thermodynamics have proved fruitful in the setting of quantum information theory, in particular the notion that when the allowed transformations of a system are restricted, certain states of the system become useful resources with which one can prepare previously inaccessible states. The theory of entanglement is perhaps the best-known and most well-understood resource theory in this sense. Here, we return to the basic questions of thermodynamics using the formalism of resource theories developed in quantum information theory and show that the free energy of thermodynamics emerges naturally from the resource theory of energy-preserving transformations. Specifically, the free energy quantifies the amount of useful work which can be extracted from asymptotically many copies of a quantum system when using only reversible energy-preserving transformations and a thermal bath at fixed temperature. The free energy also quantifies the rate at which resource states can be reversibly interconverted asymptotically, provided that a sublinear amount of coherent superposition over energy levels is available, a situation analogous to the sublinear amount of classical communication required for entanglement dilution.

We advocate the use of point sets to represent shapes. We provide a definition of a smooth manifold surface from a set of points close to the original surface. The definition is based on local maps from differential geometry, which are approximated by the method of moving least squares (MLS). We present tools to increase or decrease the density of the points, thus, allowing an adjustment of the spacing among the points to control the fidelity of the representation. To display the point set surface, we introduce a novel point rendering technique. The idea is to evaluate the local maps according to the image resolution. This results in high quality shading effects and smooth silhouettes at interactive frame rates.

This study explored the correlates of climate anxiety in a diverse range of national contexts. We analysed cross-sectional data gathered in 32 countries (N = 12,246). Our results show that climate anxiety is positively related to rate of exposure to information about climate change impacts, the amount of attention people pay to climate change information, and perceived descriptive norms about emotional responding to climate change. Climate anxiety was also positively linked to pro-environmental behaviours and negatively linked to mental wellbeing. Notably, climate anxiety had a significant inverse association with mental wellbeing in 31 out of 32 countries. In contrast, it had a significant association with pro-environmental behaviour in 24 countries, and with environmental activism in 12 countries. Our findings highlight contextual boundaries to engagement in environmental action as an antidote to climate anxiety, and the broad international significance of considering negative climate-related emotions as a plausible threat to wellbeing.

Today cancer treatment is not only a question of eliminating cancer cells by induction of cell death. New therapeutic strategies also include targeting the tumour microenvironment, avoiding angiogenesis, modulating the immune response or the chronic inflammation that is often associated with cancer. Furthermore, the induction of redifferentiation of dedifferentiated cancer cells is an interesting aspect in developing new therapy strategies. Plants provide a broad spectrum of potential drug substances for cancer therapy with multifaceted effects and targets. Pentacyclic triterpenes are one group of promising secondary plant metabolites. This review summarizes the potential of triterpenes belonging to the lupane, oleanane or ursane group, to treat cancer by different modes of action. Since Pisha et al. reported in 1995 that betulinic acid is a highly promising anticancer drug after inducing apoptosis in melanoma cell lines in vitro and in vivo, experimental work focused on the apoptosis inducing mechanisms of betulinic acid and other triterpenes. The antitumour effects were subsequently confirmed in a series of cancer cell lines from other origins, for example breast, colon, lung and neuroblastoma. In addition, in the last decade many studies have shown further effects that justify the expectation that triterpenes are useful to treat cancer by several modes of action. Thus, triterpene acids are known mainly for their antiangiogenic effects as well as their differentiation inducing effects. In particular, lupane-type triterpenes, such as betulin, betulinic acid and lupeol, display anti-inflammatory activities which often accompany immune modulation. Triterpene acids as well as triterpene monoalcohols and diols also show an antioxidative potential. The pharmacological potential of triterpenes of the lupane, oleanane or ursane type for cancer treatment seems high; although up to now no clinical trial has been published using these triterpenes in cancer therapy. They provide a multitarget potential for coping with new cancer strategies. Whether this is an effective approach for cancer treatment has to be proven. Because various triterpenes are an increasingly promising group of plant metabolites, the utilisation of different plants as their sources is of interest. Parts of plants, for example birch bark, rosemary leaves, apple peel and mistletoe shoots are rich in triterpenes and provide different triterpene compositions.

Abstract Experimental studies on compounds of alkali and alkaline earth metals with semi‐ and metametals have considerably broadened the basis for a discussion of the transition from metallic to ionic bonding. Current interest is focused mainly upon the elucidation of the principles governing the structure of such compounds which are subject to a wide range of variation within this class of materials. A new definition of the term Zintl phase is proposed after consideration of available findings.

Abstract In der Übergangsmetallchemie gibt es eine Klasse von Komplexverbindungen, bei denen eine Temperaturerniedrigung einen Wechsel im Spinzustand des Zentralatoms vom High‐Spin‐ in den Low‐Spin‐Zustand bewirkt. Dabei ändern sich die magnetischen und optischen Eigenschaften, über die der thermische Spinübergang (auch Spincrossover genannt) sehr gut verfolgt werden kann. Dieses Phänomen tritt sowohl in flüssiger Phase als auch im Festkörper auf. Eine herausragende Stellung nehmen Eisen(II) — Spincrossover — Verbindungen ein, in denen der Spinübergang im Festkörper auf sehr unterschiedliche Weise — graduell, abrupt, mit Hysterese oder stufenweise — verlaufen kann und mit Mößbauer‐ und optischer Spektroskopie, mit magnetischen Suszeptibilitäts‐ und Wärmekapazitätsmessungen sowie durch Kristallstrukturanalyse intensiv untersucht worden ist. Die kooperative Wechselwirkung zwischen den einzelnen Komplexmolekülen kann befriedigend durch elastische Eigenschaften und durch die Änderung von Gestalt und Volumen der Komplexmoleküle beim Spinübergang erklärt werden. Bei Untersuchungen an Eisen(II)‐Spincrossover‐Verbindungen konnte man beobachten, daß sich der Low‐Spin‐Zustand mit grünem Licht in den High‐Spin‐Zustand umschalten läßt, der bei tiefen Temperaturen eine nahezu unendlich lange Lebensdauer haben kann (LIESST = Light‐Induced Excited Spin State Trapping). Mit rotem Licht läßt sich der metastabile High‐Spin‐ wieder in den Low‐Spin‐Zustand zurückschalten. Der Mechanismus des LIESST‐Effekts ist aufgeklärt, die Zerfallskinetik im Detail untersucht und im Rahmen der Theorie strahlungsloser Übergänge verstanden. Anwendungen des LIESST‐Effekts in der optischen Informationstechnik sind denkbar.

A review of the physical properties of polyvinylidenefluoride (PVDF) with particular emphasis on its piezoelectric activity is given and the applications of this material are discussed. PVDF is a semicrystalline polymer whose crystalline domains appear in four different forms. These forms may be interconverted by the application of heat, electrical fields, and pressure. Thermal poling or corona poling will orient the molecular dipoles in the crystalline parts and thus yield a permanent polarization. This polarization causes, by means of differences in the dielectric and elastic properties of the amorphous and crystalline parts, the piezoelectricity of PVDF. The piezoelectric constant d31 reaches values of about 35 pC/N at room temperature. At decreasing temperatures a drop of d31 and d33 is observed. Compared to other piezoelectric materials, PVDF has such unique properties as flexibility, ruggedness, availability as thin films, and low acoustic impedance, but a somewhat smaller electromechanical coupling factor. Applications of PVDF are in transducers for audiofrequency, ultrasonic, underwater, and electromechanical use and in pyroelectric and optical devices.