Open Access

This dataset contains all source data for the article "The evolutionary path of the epithelial sodium channel δ-subunit in Cetartiodactyla points to a role in sodium sensing". Each Source Data contains a "Read Me" file with detailed description of the available files.

Dieses Lehrbuch schlägt die Brücke zwischen den betriebswirtschaftlich-organisatorischen Methoden und deren digitaler Umsetzung, denn Prozessmanagement heißt zunehmend Gestaltung betrieblicher Aufgaben. Neben methodischen Grundlagen bietet das Werk viele Praxisbeispiele und Übungen. Das Buch von Prof. Gadatsch gilt mittlerweile als der "aktuelle Klassiker", DAS maßgebliche Standardwerk zur IT-gestützten Gestaltung von Geschäftsprozessen. (Verlagsangaben)

The working group “Air Analyses” of the German Senate Commission for the Investigation of Health Hazards of Chemical Compounds in the Work Area (MAK Commission) developed and verified the presented analytical method. It is used to determine the levels of 4-methyl-3-penten-2-one [141-79-7] that occur in the workplace air. The method covers concentrations in the range from one tenth up to twice the current occupational exposure limit value (OELV) of 8.1 mg/m3. The method is also suitable for verifying the short-term exposure limit (STEL; excursion factor 2). Samples are collected by drawing a defined volume of air through a sampling tube filled with silica gel using a flow regulated pump at a volumetric flow rate of 0.5 l/min. Exposure during the shift is measured with a sampling period of 2 hours and the short-term exposure with a period of 15 minutes. The 4-methyl-3-penten-2-one adsorbed to the silica gel is extracted by liquid extraction with methanol and analysed by high-performance liquid chromatography using diode array detection. The quantitative determination is based on multiple-point calibrations with external standards. A relative limit of quantification (LOQ) of 0.06 mg/m3 is obtained for an air sample volume of 60 litres. As the LOQ for a sample volume of 30 litres is 0.03 mg/m3, the STEL can also be measured. The recovery is approx. 100% and the expanded uncertainty is 14% for a sampling period of 2 hours and below 16% for a period of 15 minutes.

Background: Transdermal therapeutic systems use substance transport through the skin to provide an active pharmaceutical ingredient. To ensure a reliable supply, adhesion to skin must be guaranteed. In practice in vivo studies as well as in vitro studies on steel (ISO-standard for self-adhesive tapes) are used. As in vitro—in vivo correlation is poor, extensive in vivo studies are applied during industrial product performance tests. Hence, a specialized skin substitute material for in vitro adhesion testing is needed. Materials and Methods: Synthetic leather (polyurethane), silicone (Dragon Skin), gelatines, and VitroSkin are used as skin substitute materials. For topographical analysis, reflected light microscopy and confocal light microscopy are applied. Infrared spectroscopy is performed for analysis of functional groups. Dermatological skin probe systems are used to analyze friction, surface pH, and elasticity. To bundle all data with regards to skin similarity, mid-level data fusion is applied. Results: For all substitute materials, common topographic characteristics compared to human skin can be observed. However, all materials show limitations regarding their topography. Gelatine and VitroSkin feature comparable surface functionality compared to human skin. All materials show significant deficits in their mechanical properties. All characteristics can be summarized as the Skin Similarity Index to give a comprehensive overview regarding substitutes similarity to skin. Conclusions: A comprehensive evaluation of topography, chemical functionality, and mechanical properties regarding a skin substitutes similarity to human skin was performed. This data should be considered as a baseline for further research in the field of adhesion to skin. By adding further characteristics and materials, it is a versatile approach that can be implemented in a variety of areas.

The transition to sustainable energy systems does not only entail changes to existing technologies or infrastructure. It also involves significant changes in a country's institutional frameworks that are rarely examined. Anchored in institutional analysis, this paper analyses the political economy factors influencing institutional change towards a sustainable energy transition in Ghana, with a particular focus on solar photovoltaics (PVs). The findings indicate that even though progress has been slow moving and incremental, the process of institutional change is cumulative and constitutes a fundamental third-order change. Institutional legacies within the energy sector present strong but not prohibitive barriers to renewable energy adoption. Initially, the relatively homogenous nature of preferences among key actors facilitated the introduction of solar PV. However, conflicting interests among policymakers, who simultaneously support solar PVs and fossil-fuel agendas emerged during a later phase and undermined progress. The declining cost of solar PV systems over time has, nonetheless, provided new momentum for change. Environmental conditions or shocks exogeneous to the reform domain have had mixed effects on Solar PV adoption. While Ghana's numerous power crisis exposed the inadequacies of hydro and thermal sources and created an opportunity for solar PVs, the discovery of oil and gas resources in 2007 significantly slowed change. Although international concerns about climate change and sustainable development have provided some momentum for policy change, perceived injustices in international relations between countries in the Global South and those in the Global North tend to slow the transition process down.

For cosmopolitan communication studies, media development is a field of utmost relevance. Whenever organizations—traditionally from the Global North—intervene in the media systems and journalism cultures of transformation or (post-)conflict societies, different concepts and norms of news and news making collide. Mostly “Western” actors—state- or privately funded, from major global actors like the NGO Internews to small but highly visible foundations like the Swiss-based Fondation Hirondelle—address media practitioners and newsrooms that act in profoundly different political and economic contexts—even if they share normative concepts of journalism with donors.

Toxic and environmentally harmful components of pyrotechnic compositions require to be substituted with alternative substances. Therefore, the subject of this work was the burning rate investigation of the Al/SrO2 and Si/CaO2 pyrotechnic delay compositions. The delay elements were prepared by pressing the compositions into pellets and transferring them into delay tubes. However, the Al/SrO2 pellets were also placed into the delay tube and post-pressed to determine if any differences in the burning rate were measurable. The dependency of the burning rate in relation to the pellet diameter, binder content, delay tube material, and artificial aging of the compositions was investigated. Further, the impact of the aging as well as of the binder content on the ignition temperature of the compositions was determined. The used silicon powders were characterized by means of Raman spectroscopy, particle size analysis, and BET surface area analysis. Raman spectroscopy was also used to investigate differences between the freshly prepared and artificially aged pyrotechnic compositions. The investigation of friction and impact sensitivity of the compositions, with and without use of the binder, resulted in the classification of both compositions as insensitive. In addition, the mechanical pellet stability in dependency of the binder content was determined, which increased with the binder content.

This dataset supports the dissertation "Balancing Biodiversity and Economic Viability: Farmers' Motivation and Challenges in Nature-Protected Areas".The study explores the potential transfer of farmers' motivations to adopt biodiversity-friendly practices to Maslow's Hierachy of Needs. This investigation employs a multifacetd approach, including qualitative focus group interviews with farmers operating within nature-protected areas and a structured content anaylsis guided by Mayring's methodology.Data collection and Implementation:The focus group interviews were conducted in April 2022 by the policy research institue "dimap", commissioned within the framework of the dissertaion project. The study design and focus group guiede were developed by the author in close collaboration with dimap. While dimap moderated, recorded and transcribed the interviews, the coding and analysis were carried out by the author using ATLAS.ti.

The accurate treatment of outflow boundary conditions remains a critical challenge in computational fluid dynamics when predicting aerodynamic forces and/or acoustic emissions. This is particularly evident when employing the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) as the numerical solution technique, which often suffers from inaccuracies induced by artificial reflections from outflow boundaries. This paper investigates the use of neural networks (NN) to mitigate these adverse boundary effects and enable truncated domain requirements. Two distinct NN-based approaches are proposed: (1) direct reconstruction of unknown particle distribution functions at the outflow boundary; and (2) enhancement of established characteristic boundary conditions (CBC) by dynamically tuning their parameters. The direct reconstruction model was trained on data generated from a 2D flow over a cylindrical obstruction. The drag, lift, and Strouhal number were used to test the new boundary condition. We analyzed results for various Reynolds numbers and restricted domain sizes where it demonstrated significantly improved predictions when compared with the traditional Zou & He boundary condition. To examine the robustness of the NN-based reconstruction, the same condition was applied to the simulation of a NACA0012 airfoil, again providing accurate aerodynamic performance predictions. The neural-enhanced CBC were evaluated on a 2D convected vortex benchmark and showed superior performance in minimizing density errors compared to CBCs with fixed parameters. These findings highlight the potential of NN-integrated boundary conditions to improve accuracy and reduce computational expense of aerodynamic and acoustic emissions simulations with the LBM.

Polyphenols, a diverse group of phytochemicals, are an indispensable component of the antioxidant defense system, given their capacity to neutralize free radicals and modulate redox reactions. This review examines the chemical diversity and antioxidant potential of polyphenols derived from viticultural byproducts, including grape skins, seeds, pomace, and stems. These biomass sources provide a sustainable reservoir of bioactive compounds with potential applications in the development of functional and biobased materials. This review also addresses the methodological challenges inherent to this field, such as the variability of extraction procedures and test conditions. This study critically examines the influence of the structural characteristics of polyphenols, including the number, nature, and distribution of hydroxyl groups as well as molecular size, on antioxidant activity. Additionally, innovative extraction techniques that enhance yield and bioactivity are presented and evaluated. Besides conventional monomeric and oligomeric polyphenolic compounds, lignins, a class of high-molecular-weight polyphenols of industrial importance and stability in oxidative environments, are addressed. The results underscore the necessity for standardized multiassay approaches to precisely assess antioxidant capacity and facilitate targeted polyphenol application in diverse fields. Future research should address the intricate interplay between biomass composition, extraction parameters, and polyphenol functionality to tailor their utilization.

Hepatic insulin resistance is an important pathophysiology in type 2 diabetes, and the mechanisms by which high-caloric diets induce insulin resistance are unclear. Among vertebrate animals, mammals have retained a unique molecular change that allows an intracellular arrestin domain-containing protein called Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein (TXNIP) to bind covalently to thioredoxin, allowing TXNIP to "sense" oxidative stress(1). Here, we show that a single cysteine in TXNIP mediates the development of hepatic insulin resistance in the setting of a high-fat diet (HFD). Mice with an exchange of TXNIP Cysteine 247 for Serine (C247S) showed improved whole-body and hepatic insulin sensitivity compared to wild-type (WT) controls following an 8-week HFD. HFD-fed TXNIP C247S mouse livers also showed improved insulin signaling. The Transmembrane 7 superfamily member 2 (Tm7sf2) gene encodes for a sterol reductase involved in the process of cholesterol biosynthesis (2). We identified TM7SF2 as a potential mediator of enhanced insulin signaling in HFD-fed TXNIP C247S mouse livers. TM7SF2 increased Akt phosphorylation and suppressed gluconeogenic markers PCK1 and G6Pc specifically under oxidative-stress-induced conditions in HepG2 cells. We also present data suggesting that a heterozygous variant of TXNIP C247 is well-tolerated in humans. Thus, mammals have a single redox-sensitive amino acid in TXNIP that mediates insulin resistance in the setting of a HFD. Our results reveal an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for hepatic insulin resistance in obesity. Hepatic insulin resistance is an important pathophysiology in type 2 diabetes, and the mechanisms by which high-caloric diets induce insulin resistance are unclear. Among vertebrate animals, mammals have retained a unique molecular change that allows an intracellular arrestin domain-containing protein called Thioredoxin-Interacting Protein (TXNIP) to bind covalently to thioredoxin, allowing TXNIP to "sense" oxidative stress. Here, we show that a single cysteine in TXNIP mediates the development of hepatic insulin resistance in the setting of a high-fat diet (HFD). Mice with an exchange of TXNIP Cysteine 247 for Serine (C247S) showed improved whole-body and hepatic insulin sensitivity compared with WT controls following an 8-week HFD. HFD-fed TXNIP C247S mouse livers also showed improved insulin signaling. The Transmembrane 7 Superfamily Member 2 (Tm7sf2) gene encodes for a sterol reductase involved in the process of cholesterol biosynthesis. We identified TM7SF2 as a potential mediator of enhanced insulin signaling in HFD-fed TXNIP C247S mouse livers. TM7SF2 increased Akt phosphorylation and suppressed gluconeogenic markers PCK1 and G6Pc specifically under oxidative stress-induced conditions in HepG2 cells. We also present data suggesting that a heterozygous variant of TXNIP C247 is well tolerated in humans. Thus, mammals have a single redox-sensitive amino acid in TXNIP that mediates insulin resistance in the setting of an HFD. Our results reveal an evolutionarily conserved mechanism for hepatic insulin resistance in obesity.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die nematischen Flüssigkristallgemische (E7 und E8) zum Zwecke der Gassensorik mit einer reaktiven, optisch aktiven Substanz dotiert. Die Dotierung verursacht die Ausbildung einer chiral-nematischen Phase, die einen eindimensionalen photonischen Kristall mit Reflexionsmaxima im sichtbaren Bereich des elektromagnetischen Spektrums erzeugt. Infolge einer chemischen Reaktion des Dotiermittels mit dem einem Analyten, ändert sich mit seiner chemischen Zusammensetzung auch dessen helical twisting power (HTP). Diese Änderung verursacht eine Verschiebung des reflektierten Wellenlängenbereichs, was als Änderung der farblichen Erscheinung mit dem bloßen Auge wahrgenommen werden kann. In dieser Arbeit wird das koaxiale Elektrospinnen verwendet, um Flüssigkristalle in Polymerfasern von wenigen Mikrometern Durchmesser einzukapseln. Der Vergleich zwischen eingekapseltem und nicht eingekapseltem dotierten Flüssigkristall wird mit einer dafür entwickelten Reaktionskammer UV/VIS-spektroskopisch durchgeführt. Die ablaufenden Reaktionen werden mittels FTIR-Spektroskopie untersucht. Die Fasern und die verwendeten Flüssigkristalle werden lichtmikroskopisch charakterisiert. Es werden zusätzlich Möglichkeiten untersucht die Wasserbeständigkeit der hergestellten Fasern zu verbessern, um ihre Eignung für künftige technische Anwendungen zu steigern. Hierzu wird das triaxiale Elektrospinnen verwendet, um die Fasern mit einer zusätzlichen wasserbeständigen Polymerhülle zu überziehen. Es wird zudem die Möglichkeit untersucht koaxial gesponnene Fasern nachträglich zu vernetzen, um so eine Wasserfestigkeit zu erzielen.

The electrolytic in situ generation of oxidants is an increasingly widespread technique for producing sanitized and thus safe process water in ultrapure water distribution systems. In particular, the anodic production of ozone on functionalized electrodes is a commercially available option for providing pharmaceutical-grade water. The present work therefore investigates the use of a newly developed electrolyzer with a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) and lead dioxide (PbO2) electrodes for drinking and ultrapure water treatment. The selective analysis of electrolytically generated oxidizing agents or reactive oxygen species such as ozone (O3), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and hydroxyl radicals (·OH) is often impeded by cross-sensitivities of commonly used photometric assays. To account for these imperfections, a step-by-step procedure to consolidate different analytical methods was developed. Depending on the applied current density, different electrolytically generated species can be detected selectively and enable the observation that the electrolytic generation of ozone only increases significantly for current densities above 0.5 A cm-2. In addition, the evolution of H2O2 only occurs in significant amounts in the presence of an organic impurity. The resulting, rapid decomposition of ozone via the peroxone process requires several equivalents of H2O2, depending on the present amount of dissolved O3. In order to provide a sensitive in- or on-line detection for ozone in ultrapure water, electrode materials based on Pt-functionalized ionomers were developed using a modified impregnation-reduction process. The metal loading on the sensor material was determined satisfactorily using a non-destructive approach by means of computed tomography (CT). Different synthesis conditions led to different sensor properties in terms of sensitivity and applicable concentration range. After evaluation of different models by an objective information criterion, the potentiometric sensor behavior is best described by a Langmuir pseudo-isotherm. On average, 2.9 μg L-1 of dissolved ozone was found as the detection limit for all sensor materials produced, which is comparable to complex reference analysis. Extending the application range for PEM electrolysis to the drinking water sector was evaluated by exposing the analytic feed to different water hardness levels. The electroosmosis of water is a direct function of the current density and can be estimated at 95 ± 2 mmol A-1 h-1. The transport rates of sodium, potassium, calcium and magnesium ions were modeled as a function of the current density and water hardness and were directly related to the ion mobility, independent of the water quality. Permeation leads to higher pH values of the catholyte within a few minutes and consequently to insoluble hydroxides and carbonates of the formerly dissolved hardeners. The introduction of an auxiliary cathode in the anode compartment was able to reduce tap water cation permeation indiscriminately by 18 ± 4 %. The results show that the selected methods are suitable and directly applicable for the sensitive and selective detection of in situ produced disinfectants, in particular electrolytically generated ozone in the aqueous phase. An initial transfer of this PEM electrolyzer into the tap and drinking water environment is showcased the example of temporarily stagnant water with a constructive solution for suppressing unwanted ion crossover.