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Measured impedance spectra of Li-ion battery cells are often reproduced with equivalent circuits or physical models to determine losses due to charge transfer processes at the electrodes. The identified model parameters can usually not readily or unambiguously be assigned to the anode and the cathode. A new measurement method is presented that enables the assignment of features of impedance spectra of full cells to single electrodes. To this end, temperature gradients are imprinted perpendicular to the electrode layers of a single-layered Li-ion battery cell while impedance spectra are measured. The method exploits different dependences of the charge transfer processes at the electrodes on temperature. An equivalent circuit model of RC-elements and the effect of temperature on the related electrode properties is discussed to demonstrate the feasibility of the method. A reliable assignment of the change of impedance spectra to the electrode processes is shown to be possible. The assignment can be used to identify if changes in an impedance spectrum originate from the anode or the cathode.

The last decade identified cytokines as one group of major local cell signaling molecules related to bladder dysfunction like interstitial cystitis (IC) and overactive bladder syndrome (OAB). Gap junctional intercellular communication (GJIC) is essential for the coordination of normal bladder function and has been found to be altered in bladder dysfunction. Connexin (Cx) 43 and Cx45 are the most important gap junction proteins in bladder smooth muscle cells (hBSMC) and suburothelial myofibroblasts (hsMF). Modulation of connexin expression by cytokines has been demonstrated in various tissues. Therefore, we investigate the effect of interleukin (IL) 4, IL6, IL10, tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGFβ1) on GJIC, and Cx43 and Cx45 expression in cultured human bladder smooth muscle cells (hBSMC) and human suburothelial myofibroblasts (hsMF). HBSMC and hsMF cultures were set up from bladder tissue of patients undergoing cystectomy. In cytokine stimulated cultured hBSMC and hsMF GJIC was analyzed via Fluorescence Recovery after Photo-bleaching (FRAP). Cx43 and Cx45 expression was assessed by quantitative PCR and confocal immunofluorescence. Membrane protein fraction of Cx43 and Cx45 was quantified by Dot Blot. Upregulation of cell-cell-communication was found after IL6 stimulation in both cell types. In hBSMC IL4 and TGFβ1 decreased both, GJIC and Cx43 protein expression, while TNFα did not alter communication in FRAP-experiments but increased Cx43 expression. GJ plaques size correlated with coupling efficacy measured, while Cx45 expression did not correlate with modulation of GJIC. Our finding of specific cytokine effects on GJIC support the notion that cytokines play a pivotal role for pathophysiology of OAB and IC. Interestingly, the effects were independent from the classical definition of pro- and antiinflammatory cytokines. We conclude, that connexin regulation involves genomic and/or post-translational events, and that GJIC in hBSMC and hsMF depend of Cx43 rather than on Cx45.

Diabetic voiding dysfunction has been reported in epidemiological dimension of individuals with diabetes mellitus. Animal models might provide new insights into the molecular mechanisms of this dysfunction to facilitate early diagnosis and to identify new drug targets for therapeutic interventions. Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats received either chow or high-fat diet for eleven weeks. Proteomic alterations were comparatively monitored in both groups to discover a molecular fingerprinting of the urinary bladder remodelling/dysfunction. Results were validated by ELISA, Western blotting and immunohistology. In the proteome analysis 383 proteins were identified and canonical pathway analysis revealed a significant up-regulation of acute phase reaction, hypoxia, glycolysis, β-oxidation, and proteins related to mitochondrial dysfunction in high-fat diet rats. In contrast, calcium signalling, cytoskeletal proteins, calpain, 14-3-3η and eNOS signalling were down-regulated in this group. Interestingly, we found increased ubiquitin proteasome activity in the high-fat diet group that might explain the significant down-regulation of eNOS, 14-3-3η and calpain. Thus, high-fat diet is sufficient to induce significant remodelling of the urinary bladder and alterations of the molecular fingerprint. Our findings give new insights into obesity related bladder dysfunction and identified proteins that may indicate novel pathophysiological mechanisms and therefore constitute new drug targets.

Incidence of urinary tract infections is elevated in patients with diabetes mellitus. Those patients show increased levels of the saturated free fatty acid palmitate. As recently shown metabolic alterations induced by palmitate include production and secretion of the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukine-6 (IL-6) in cultured human bladder smooth muscle cells (hBSMC). Here we studied the influence of palmitate on vital cell properties, for example, regulation of cell proliferation, mitochondrial enzyme activity and antioxidant capacity in hBSMC, and analyzed the involvement of major cytokine signaling pathways. HBSMC cultures were set up from bladder tissue of patients undergoing cystectomy and stimulated with palmitate. We analyzed cell proliferation, mitochondrial enzyme activity, and antioxidant capacity by ELISA and confocal immunofluorescence. In signal transduction inhibition experiments we evaluated the involvement of NF-κB, JAK/STAT, MEK1, PI3K, and JNK in major cytokine signaling pathway regulation. We found: (i) palmitate decreased cell proliferation, increased mitochondrial enzyme activity and antioxidant capacity; (ii) direct inhibition of cytokine receptor by AG490 even more strongly suppressed cell proliferation in palmitate-stimulated cells, while counteracting palmitate-induced increase of antioxidant capacity; (iii) in contrast knockdown of the STAT3 inhibitor SOCS3 increased cell proliferation and antioxidant capacity; (iv) further downstream JAK/STAT3 signaling cascade the inhibition of PI3K or JNK enhanced palmitate induced suppression of cell proliferation; (v) increase of mitochondrial enzyme activity by palmitate was enhanced by inhibition of PI3K but counteracted by inhibition of MEK1. Saturated free fatty acids (e.g., palmitate) cause massive alterations in vital cell functions of cultured hBSMC involving distinct major cytokine signaling pathways. Thereby, certain cytokines might counteract the palmitate-induced downregulation of cell proliferation and vitality. This could be an important link to clinical findings of increased risk of metabolic related bladder diseases such as overactive bladder (OAB) and bladder pain syndrome/interstitial cystitis (BPS/IC).

The global food system faces the challenge of food waste, which has significant environmental, social, and economic implications. In line with Sustainable Development Goal 12.3, the German food wholesale and retail sector has recognised the urgency of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030. However, limited scientific research exists on food waste in this sector. This study presents the implementation of a Discussion Forum as a three year project aiming to measure and reduce food waste in the German food wholesale and retail sectors. Collaboration among stakeholders played a crucial role, leading to the development of a voluntary agreement and ambitious reduction targets. The findings highlight the success of the Discussion Forum in generating high-quality data, fostering collaboration, and guiding reduction actions. Lessons learned include the practicality of data collection methods, the importance of data security and confidentiality, and the value of open discussions. The research contributes to filling the research gap in food waste studies and provides valuable insights for achieving SDG 12.3 in the wholesale and retail sectors.

Der derzeitige gesellschaftliche Bearbeitungsmodus von urbaner Wohnungs- und Obdachlosigkeit führt dazu, dass Menschen ohne Wohnung ausgegrenzt werden und ihre gesellschaftlichen Teilhabemöglichkeiten begrenzt sind. Damit gehen Prozesse des Othering einher, durch die sich Stereotype der fremden Anderen ohne Wohnung in Relation zur eigenen, bürgerlichen Mehrheitsgesellschaft etablieren. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass wohnungslose Menschen die dichotomischen Konstruktionen in ihren Selbstpositionierungen übernehmen. Zudem entwickeln sie Praktiken des Umgangs mit den vorherrschenden Fremdkonstruktionen über wohnungslose Andere, die sich als Praktiken des Verbergens, der Abgrenzung und der Anpassung charakterisieren lassen. The current social mode of dealing with homelessness leads to people without housing being excluded and their social participation opportunities being limited. This is accompanied by processes of othering, through which stereotypes of the foreign other without housing are established to one's own, middle-class majority society. The article shows that homeless people adopt dichotomous constructions in their self-positionings. In addition, they develop practices of dealing with the prevailing foreign constructions about homeless others, which can be characterized as practices of concealment, demarcation, and adaptation.

Sensing instrumentation plays an important role in measuring both the performance and the condition of the railway track. Data on how the various components of a railway track respond to a passing train in terms of acceleration, displacement, and loading are necessary for condition monitoring of the railway track. Measuring these parameters from within a rail pad can enable a new condition monitoring system for wheel defects and provide information about the wheel load distribution on the track structure.In this study, a smart rail pad was fabricated utilising 3D printing technology and instrumented with low-cost sensing instrumentation. Initial material testing was conducted to determine the best suited 3D printing material, considering Polylactic Acid (PLA), Polyethylene Terephthalate modified with Glycol (PETG) and Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU), to protect the instrumentation and to withstand the typical forces of a real rail pad. The material testing results showed that the best suited material was PETG, and it was subsequently used for the final design. Various laboratory tests were done using a hydraulic actuator on two different prototypes to determine the response within a 3D printed rail pad. Similar laboratory tests were done on the final designed smart rail pad before it was tested in the field on a railway line to determine its performance in operational conditions.The developed smart pad system was able to automatically detect an oncoming train and turn the Razor microcontroller on to start logging the data from the smart rail pad. The smart rail pad was able to identify more than 60 % of the wheel defects on average. This was not as accurate as expected because of the major limiting factor being the low sampling rate of the system when all three instruments are logging data. The strain gauge could also be used to detect wheel defects as do the accelerometers. The smart rail pad showed excellent signal response to the variations in the loading magnitude of the tested trains. The measured wheel loads were in good agreement with the control wheel load measurements. The smart rail pad can therefore be used for wheel load sensing measurements and act as an axle counter.

Der derzeitige gesellschaftliche Bearbeitungsmodus von urbaner Wohnungs- und Obdachlosigkeit führt dazu, dass Menschen ohne Wohnung ausgegrenzt werden und ihre gesellschaftlichen Teilhabemöglichkeiten begrenzt sind. Damit gehen Prozesse des Othering einher, durch die sich Stereotype der fremden Anderen ohne Wohnung in Relation zur eigenen, bürgerlichen Mehrheitsgesellschaft etablieren. Der Beitrag zeigt, dass wohnungslose Menschen die dichotomischen Konstruktionen in ihren Selbstpositionierungen übernehmen. Zudem entwickeln sie Praktiken des Umgangs mit den vorherrschenden Fremdkonstruktionen über wohnungslose Andere, die sich als Praktiken des Verbergens, der Abgrenzung und der Anpassung charakterisieren lassen. The current social mode of dealing with homelessness leads to people without housing being excluded and their social participation opportunities being limited. This is accompanied by processes of othering, through which stereotypes of the foreign other without housing are established to one's own, middle-class majority society. The article shows that homeless people adopt dichotomous constructions in their self-positionings. In addition, they develop practices of dealing with the prevailing foreign constructions about homeless others, which can be characterized as practices of concealment, demarcation, and adaptation.

This report compares the sales losses in form of markdowns of the companies participating in the Dialogue Forum Wholesale and Retail to Reduce Food Waste with each other and between 2019 and 2020. In addition, the fractions food waste and redistribution of food are stressed in order to derive political and corporate options for action. The calculations are based on voluntarily provided data on markdowns from 16 food retail and cash & carry companies, which together are represented by about 16,000 sales outlets, as well as data from five food wholesale companies. These markdowns include food waste as well as food redistribution, e.g. to food banks. Due to a lack of accounting data, an expert estimate of 30 % is used as the redistribution rate for human consumption. The analysed markdown rates for food retail and cash & carry companies were 1.76 % in 2019 and only 1.54 % in 2020. These markdown rates in monetary terms were then converted into physical units, which in 2020 corresponded to approximately 246 thousand tonnes. For 15 out of 16, the markdown rates are below 3%. The participating companies in the food wholesale trade were able to reduce the markdown rates in individual commodity groups from 2019 to 2020. More than half of the companies have markdown rates below 1 % in the various product groups. However, sales-averaged depreciation rose from 0.23 % (2019) to 0.35 % (2020) across all commodity groups. The increase is mainly due to a few outliers in the product groups fruit and vegetables, bread and bakery products and meat, fish and poultry with depreciation rates greater than 5 %. Model projects of the Thünen Institute with four companies of the Dialogue Forum to improve the pass-on data have shown that there is still potential here to significantly increase the pass-on share and thus reduce food waste (cf. also Chapter 4). This applies in particular to the product groups with the highest rates of write-off in the eLEH (fruit and vegetables and bread and ba

Dieser Bericht vergleicht die Abschreibungsdaten der am Dialogforum Groß- und Einzelhandel zur Reduzierung von Lebensmittelverschwendung teilnehmenden Unternehmen untereinander und zwischen 2019 und 2020. Darüber hinaus werden die Fraktionen Lebensmittelabfälle und Weitergabe von Lebensmitteln thematisiert, um daraus politische und unternehmerische Handlungsoptionen abzuleiten. Die Berechnungen basieren auf freiwillig bereitgestellten Daten zu Abschreibungen aus 16 Unternehmen des Lebensmitteleinzelhandels (LEH) sowie Cash&Carry-Unternehmen die zusammen durch etwa 16.000 Verkaufsstellen repräsentiert werden, sowie auf Daten von fünf Unternehmen des Lebensmittelgroßhandels (LGH). Diese Abschreibungen enthalten sowohl Lebensmittelabfälle, als auch die Lebensmittelweitergaben, z.B. an die Tafeln. Aus Mangel an Buchungsdaten, dient eine Expertenschätzung von 30 % als Weitergabe-Anteil für den menschlichen Verzehr. Die analysierten Abschreibungsraten für den Lebensmitteleinzelhandel1 sowie Cash&Carry-Unternehmen lagen in 2019 bei 1,76 % und in 2020 nur noch bei 1,54 %. Diese Abschreibungen in monetären Angaben wurden anschließend in physische Einheiten umgerechnet, die im Jahr 2020 etwa 246 Tausend Tonnen entsprachen. Bei 15 von 16 liegen die Abschreibungsraten unter 3 %. Die beteiligten Unternehmen des Lebensmittelgroßhandels konnten die Abschreibungsraten in einzelnen Warengruppen von 2019 auf 2020 reduzierten. Mehr als die Hälfte der Unternehmen liegt mit den Abschreibungsraten in den verschiedenen Warengruppen unter 1 %. Allerdings stiegen über alle Warengruppen die umsatzgemittelten Abschreibungen von 0,23 % (2019) auf 0,35 % (2020) an. Der Anstieg resultiert maßgeblich aus wenigen Ausreißern in den Warengruppen Obst und Gemüse, Brot und Backwaren und Fleisch, Fisch und Geflügel mit Abschreibungsraten größer 5 %. Modellvorhaben des Thünen-Instituts mit vier Unternehmen des Dialogforums zur Verbesserung der Weitergabe-Daten haben gezeigt, dass hier noch Potential zur