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Nanoparticles (NPs) and other engineered nanomaterials have great potential as nanodrugs or nanomedical devices for biomedical applications. However, the adsorption of proteins in blood circulation or similar physiological fluids can significantly alter the surface properties and therapeutic response induced by most nanomaterials. For example, interaction with proteins can change the bloodstream circulation time and availability of therapeutic NPs or hinder the accumulation in their desired target organs. Proteins can also trigger or prevent agglomeration. By combining experimental and computational approaches, we have developed NPs carrying polyethylene glycol (PEG) polymeric coatings that mimic the surface charge distribution of proteins typically found in blood, which are known to show low aggregation under normal blood conditions. Here, we show that NPs with coatings based on apoferritin or human serum albumin display better antifouling properties and weaker protein interaction compared to similar NPs carrying conventional PEG polymeric coatings.

Objective: To review the empirical literature on family antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict. Background: Over the last decades, family living and working life have changed profoundly, affecting families’ needs and expectations towards reconciliation, as well as perceptions of work-family conflict. Previous reviews of the relevant literature in this flourishing field of research have predominantly focused on the work side of sources and consequences of these conflicts. A review of the family side of work-family conflict, however, is still missing. Method: The review of the existing literature followed the guidelines of “PRISMA – Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses”. 100 quantitative empirical studies were identified by relevant keywords, including research between 1988–2021. Results: The review of international and interdisciplinary empirical evidence remarkably shows the heterogeneity in research on family antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict in the directions of family-to-work and work-to-family. In addition, the findings of existing studies are inconsistent if not ambivalent. However, the review also demonstrates a growing body of literature that considers or even focuses on the family side of work-family conflict. Conclusion: The family plays an important role in the process of reconciling the private and the working life, as it is a source of conflict and a resource for dealing with conflicts at the same time.

Objective: To examine how the perception of work-family conflict relates to the share of parents in women's and men's direct coworking environments. Background: The idea of relational demography posits that individuals' relative positions within their coworking environments have an impact on their wellbeing. Depending on women's and men's parenthood status and the corresponding (dis-)similarity compared to their colleagues, this idea was applied to the perception of work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts. Method: Time-based and strain-based work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts were analyzed by gender and parenthood with random effects panel regression models using longitudinal data from the LEEP-B3-survey, a large-scale linked employer-employee survey from Germany (2012/2013 and 2014/2015; 2,228 women and 2,656 men). The composition of the respondents’ working groups was included as a moderating variable. Results: Mothers and fathers of children aged 0-11 years reported higher work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts than parents of older children and childless women and men. For mothers of children aged 0-11 years, a higher share of parents in their working groups was associated with less time-based family-to-work conflict. For fathers of children aged 0-11 years, the same associations were found for overall work-to-family conflict, strain-based work-to-family conflict as well as for all dimensions of family-to-work conflict. Conclusion: Similarity between the team members regarding parenthood seemed to reduce mothers' and fathers' perceptions of work-family conflict beyond several other characteristics of the individuals and the workplaces.

This paper shows that standard disaster risk models are inconsistent with movements in stock market volatility and credit spreads during disasters. We resolve this shortcoming by incorporating persistent macroeconomic crises into a structural credit risk model. The model successfully captures the joint dynamics of aggregate consumption, financial leverage, and asset market risks, both unconditionally and during crises. Leverage strongly amplifies fundamental shocks by continuing to rise while crises endure. We structurally estimate the model and show that it replicates the firm-level implied volatility curve and its cross-sectional relation with observable proxies of default risk.

Objective: To examine how young adult women and men change their time for routine housework when moving out of the parental household.Background: From a life-course perspective, establishing an own household is one of the key markers of the transition to adulthood. Leaving home is associated with new liabilities concerning the organization of everyday life, including housework, and provides a new context for doing gender.Methods: Changes in routine housework hours were estimated with longitudinal fixed effects regression and growth curve models, using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1991–2020) on 1,914 young adult women and men experiencing the transition to an own household.Results: Young adult women and men increase their time for routine housework by 25 and 21 minutes, respectively, during the transition to an own household. The gender gap widens even further in couple compared to single-person households, and when the mothers were lowly educated.Conclusion: Young adult women and men follow traditional gendered patterns when leaving home. This increases gender inequality in housework time in early adulthood rather than sustaining processes of gender convergence.

Knowledge about gender convergence in housework time is confined to changes studied across repeated cross-sections of data. This study adds a dynamic view that links broader social shifts in men’s and women’s housework time to individual life-course profiles. Using panel data from the German Socio-Economic Panel Study (1985–2015), our analysis is the first to trace changes in housework time across the entire adult life course (ages 20–90) and across a large range of cohorts (1920–1990). The results revealed two types of gender convergence in housework time. First, the gender gap converged across the life course, narrowing by more than 50 percent from age 35 until age 70. Life-course profiles of housework time were strongly gendered, as women's housework time peaked in younger adulthood and declined thereafter, whereas men’s housework time remained stably low for decades and increased only in older age. Second, the gender gap converged across cohorts, narrowing by 40 percent from cohorts 1940 until 1960. Cohort profiles of housework time showed strong declines in women and moderate increases in men. Both cohort trends were linear and extended to the most recently born, supporting the notion of continued convergence in housework time.

Although German mothers’ labor force participation has increased in recent decades, German men’s participation in domestic labor has not increased proportionally. Thus, mothers still face a “double burden.” We analyzed the total time parents spent on childcare and on various particular activities, such as learning with children, playing with children, basic childcare, talking with children, managing children’s activities, and reading with children. We identified a very slow gender convergence in childcare patterns in Germany over the last two decades. However, as in other Western countries, German parents’ division of childcare remains unequal; mothers do much more routine care and spend more time overall on care than fathers.

Journal of synchrotron radiation 28(3), 812-823 (2021). doi:10.1107/S1600577521003404, Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) is an established method for studyingnanostructured systems and in particular biological macromolecules in solution.To obtain element-specific information about the sample, anomalous SAXS(ASAXS) exploits changes of the scattering properties of selected atoms whenthe energy of the incident X-rays is close to the binding energy of their electrons.While ASAXS is widely applied to condensed matter and inorganic systems, itsuse for biological macromolecules is challenging because of the weak anomalouseffect. Biological objects are often only available in small quantities and areprone to radiation damage, which makes biological ASAXS measurements verychallenging. The BioSAXS beamline P12 operated by the European MolecularBiology Laboratory (EMBL) at the PETRA III storage ring (DESY, Hamburg)is dedicated to studies of weakly scattering objects. Here, recent developmentsat P12 allowing for ASAXS measurements are presented. The beamline control,data acquisition and data reduction pipeline of the beamline were adaptedto conduct ASAXS experiments. Modelling tools were developed to computeASAXS patterns from atomic models, which can be used to analyze the data andto help designing appropriate data collection strategies. These developments areillustrated with ASAXS experiments on different model systems performed atthe P12 beamline., Published by Wiley-Blackwell, [S.l.]

Metals and metal compounds are essential in daily life. Besides particulate materials nanofibrous material (nanowires) gain importance in innovative processes like optoelectronics. Toxicological data to assess the hazard is often available only for granular metals while data on nanowires is sparse. The project MetalSafety funded by the German BMBF aims at the development of an in vitro model to allow the grouping of different metal compounds with different bioavailability according to their toxicological hazard. Ex vivo and in vivo investigations are used to analyse the predictivity of the in vitro results and the underlying mode-of-action and dose-response relationship. Within this contribution the study concept is introduced. Silver and copper, both in particulate and nanofibrous form, are used across all examinations in vitro, ex vivo and in vivo. To allow an interspecies comparison cell lines derived from human and rat lung are used. Exposure to the materials can be investigated either submerse or with air-liquid-interface (ALI) conditions. The correlation between both species can also be examined ex vivo using precision-cut lung slices (PCLS) derived from human and rat lung tissue. Application in vivo by intratracheal instillation in rats is conducted to enable a validation of the in vitro and ex vivo screening models in a best case scenario under physiological conditions. Comparable endpoints in vitro, ex vivo as well as in vivo are measured during the study. This includes cytotoxicity endpoints and cytokine measurements as well as gene expression analyses. The lung tissue is also subjected to a histopathological examination.

The risk of COVID-19 infection from virulent aerosols is particularly high indoors. This is especially true for classrooms, which often do not have pre-installed ventilation and are occupied by a large number of students at the same time. It has been found that precautionary measures, such as the use of air purifiers (AP), physical distancing, and the wearing of masks, can reduce the risk of infection. To quantify the actual effect of precautions, it is not possible in experimental studies to expose subjects to virulent aerosols. Therefore, in this study, we develop a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model to evaluate the impact of applying the aforementioned precautions in classrooms on reducing aerosol concentration and potential exposure in the presence of index or infected patients. A CFD-coupled Wells–Riley model is used to quantify the infection probability (IP) in the presence of index patients. Different cases are simulated by varying the occupancy of the room (half/full), the volumetric flow rate of the AP, two different locations of the AP, and the effect of wearing masks. The results suggest that using an AP reduces the spread of virulent aerosols and thereby reduces the risk of infection. However, the risk of the person sitting adjacent to the index patient is only marginally reduced and can be avoided with the half capacity of the class (physical distancing method) or by wearing face masks of high efficiencies.

Hot electrons in metal nanoparticles thermalize with the lattice via electron–phonon coupling. Size dependency is controversially discussed in literature. Here we investigate poly- and monocrystall...

Women in Middle Eastern and North African countries continue to report low levels of agency, despite their increasing educational attainment and declining fertility rates. We address this paradox by considering how women’s agency is linked to parenthood in Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia and how this association is moderated by their level of education. We study three dimensions of instrumental agency: involvement in decision-making, financial autonomy, and freedom of movement using data for married women aged 18–49 from the Integrated Labor Market Panel Surveys: Egypt 2012 (n = 7622), Jordan 2016 (n = 4550), Tunisia 2014 (n = 1480). Results from multivariate regression models of these different dimensions demonstrate that married women who are mothers generally exhibit higher levels of agency than their counterparts who are childless, though this does not hold for every dimension and the strength of the association between parenthood and agency differs by dimension and country. We find a notable exception to this pattern of positive association in the Egyptian sample: parenthood decreases agency among Egyptian women with post-secondary education. Our results suggest that parenthood may only increase women’s agency in settings with deeply entrenched patriarchal norms that imply little education for women.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117(39), 1-7 (2020). doi:10.1073/pnas.2003337117, Dynamics and kinetics in soft matter physics, biology, and nanoscience frequently occur on fast (sub)microsecond but not ultrafast timescales which are difficult to probe experimentally. The European X-ray Free-Electron Laser (European XFEL), a megahertz hard X-ray Free-Electron Laser source, enables such experiments via taking series of diffraction patterns at repetition rates of up to 4.5 MHz. Here, we demonstrate X-ray photon correlation spectroscopy (XPCS) with submicrosecond time resolution of soft matter samples at the European XFEL. We show that the XFEL driven by a superconducting accelerator provides unprecedented beam stability within a pulse train. We performed microsecond sequential XPCS experiments probing equilibrium and nonequilibrium diffusion dynamics in water. We find nonlinear heating on microsecond timescales with dynamics beyond hot Brownian motion and superheated water states persisting up to 100 μs at high fluences. At short times up to 20 μs we observe that the dynamics do not obey the Stokes–Einstein predictions., Published by National Acad. of Sciences, Washington, DC

Photocatalysis based on plasmonic nanoparticles has emerged as a promising approach to facilitate light-driven reactions under far milder conditions than thermal catalysis. Several effects, such as strong local electromagnetic fields, increased electron and lattice temperatures, or the transfer of nonthermal charge carriers, could contribute to the reaction rate enhancement. In order to understand plasmon-enhanced catalysis and to enable plasmonic platforms, a distinction between the different underlying effects is required. We investigate the electrochemical model reactions oxidative hydroxide adsorption and glucose oxidation and deconvolve the enhancement processes via their dependence on the excitation wavelength. We observe that nonthermal effects contribute significantly to the plasmonic enhancement.

16 pags., 7 figs., 1 tab., Goldnanostars are among the most efficient plasmonic nano-materials for optical sensing with surface enhanced Ramans cattering. In recent years,goldnanostars have increased relevance in physics,analytical chemistry, environmental science,biology and medicine,and in particularin sensing and therapy. These colloid scan sustain ultra strong electromagnetic fields which allow their use as single particles optical enhancers;are colloidally stable and may have a marked catalytical activity. Due to their exotic shape,these colloids present characteristic optical and reactive behaviors. Here,we briefly discuss the optical properties, the synthetic routes and the analytical applications of these nanoparticles., This work is supportedby the Ministeriode Ciencia Innovacion/AEI and the European Union Next Generation /PRTR(PID2020-120306RB-I00 and PDC2021-121787-I00),the AGAUR (2017SGR883),the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (2021PFR-URV-B2-02), the Cluster of Excellence’ Advanced Imaging of Matter’of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)– EXC 2056 – project ID390715994and the ENSEMBLE3 project(GA No. MAB/2020/14) Foundation for Polish Science-European Union (GA.No.857543)

Most studies about the interaction of nanoparticles (NPs) with cells have focused on how the physicochemical properties of NPs will influence their uptake by cells. However, much less is known about their potential excretion from cells. However, to control and manipulate the number of NPs in a cell, both cellular uptake and excretion must be studied quantitatively. Monitoring the intracellular and extracellular amount of NPs over time (after residual noninternalized NPs have been removed) enables one to disentangle the influences of cell proliferation and exocytosis, the major pathways for the reduction of NPs per cell. Proliferation depends on the type of cells, while exocytosis depends in addition on properties of the NPs, such as their size. Examples are given herein on the role of these two different processes for different cells and NPs.

Objective: To introduce the readers to the Journal of Family Research's Special Issue (4/2022) about "work-family conflict from the perspective of the family". Background: Research on work-family conflict rooted in family research and with an explicit focus on family issues has been comparatively rare compared to a more work-centered view. Method: Except for the review article, all contributions of this Special Issue are quantitative analyses of large-scale data from Germany, i.e., the "pairfam"-study, the "LEEP-B3"-study, and the "Growing up in Germany"-survey. Results: The seven studies are innately heterogeneous and show the range in which family research may contribute to the understanding of work-family conflict, and vice versa. Work-family conflict was studied in the context of the transition to parenthood, parenting practices, the composition of working environments, scaling back, mental health, and fertility preferences. Conclusion: Explicitly discussing family issues and their implications for work-family conflict is necessary to understand the interdependencies between family and work, and to pave the way towards a much broader understanding of the antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict in the context of family living. Fragestellung: Zur Einleitung in das Schwerpunktheft des Journal of Family Research (4/2022) über Vereinbarkeitskonflikte zwischen Familie und Arbeit. Hintergrund: Bisher gibt es nur verhältnismäßig wenige Forschungsarbeiten, die sich aus einer Familienperspektive mit Konflikten zwischen Arbeit und Familie befassen. Methode: Abgesehen von der einführenden Überblicksarbeit handelt es sich bei allen Beiträgen dieses Schwerpunkthefts um quantitative Analysen großer Datensätze, nämlich "pairfam", "LEEP-B3" und „Aufwachsen in Deutschland“. Ergebnisse: Die sieben Studien dieses Schwerpunktheftes untersuchen Vereinbarkeitskonflikte zwischen Arbeit und Familie im Kontext des Übergangs zur Elternschaft, von Erziehungspraktiken, der Zusammensetzung des direkten Arbeitsumfeldes, von Reduzierung der Arbeitsanforderungen, von mentaler Gesundheit und von Fertilitätspräferenzen. Damit zeigen sie das heterogene Spektrum an Fragestellungen auf, das von einer Familienperspektive auf Vereinbarkeitskonflikte profitieren kann. Schlussfolgerung: Die Forschung zu Vereinbarkeitskonflikten zwischen Arbeit und Familie kann stark von einer Familienperspektive profitieren, die nicht nur relevante Variablen kontrolliert, sondern ausdrücklich die Interdependenzen zwischen Familien- und Arbeitsleben thematisiert.

IUCrJ 9(2), 1-11 (2022). doi:10.1107/S2052252521012707, One of the outstanding analytical problems in X-ray single-particle imaging (SPI) is the classification of structural heterogeneity, which is especially difficult given the low signal-to-noise ratios of individual patterns and the fact that even identical objects can yield patterns that vary greatly when orientation is taken into consideration. Proposed here are two methods which explicitly account for this orientation-induced variation and can robustly determine the structural landscape of a sample ensemble. The first, termed common-line principal component analysis (PCA), provides a rough classification which is essentially parameter free and can be run automatically on any SPI dataset. The second method, utilizing variation auto-encoders (VAEs), can generate 3D structures of the objects at any point in the structural landscape. Both these methods are implemented in combination with the noise-tolerant expand���maximize���compress (EMC) algorithm and its utility is demonstrated by applying it to an experimental dataset from gold nanoparticles with only a few thousand photons per pattern. Both discrete structural classes and continuous deformations are recovered. These developments diverge from previous approaches of extracting reproducible subsets of patterns from a dataset and open up the possibility of moving beyond the study of homogeneous sample sets to addressing open questions on topics such as nanocrystal growth and dynamics, as well as phase transitions which have not been externally triggered., Published by Chester

Objective: To examine how the perception of work-family conflict relates to the share of parents in women’s and men’s direct coworking environments.Background: The framework of supplementary and complementary person-team fit posits that individuals’ relative positions within their coworking environments have an impact on their wellbeing. Depending on women’s and men’s parenthood status and the corresponding (dis-)similarity compared to their colleagues, this idea was applied to the perception of work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts.Method: Time-based and strain-based work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts were analyzed by gender and parenthood with random effects panel regression models using longitudinal data from the LEEP-B3-survey, a large-scale linked employer-employee survey from Germany (2012/2013 and 2014/2015; 2,228 women and 2,656 men). The composition of the respondents’ working groups was included as a moderating interaction variable.Results: Mothers and fathers of children aged 0–11 years reported higher work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts than parents of older children and childless women and men. For mothers of children aged 0–11 years, a higher share of parents in their working groups was associated with less time-based family-to-work conflict. For fathers of children aged 0–11 years, the same associations were found for overall work-to-family conflict, strain-based work-to-family conflict as well as for all dimensions of family-to-work conflict.Conclusion: Similarity between the team members regarding parenthood seemed to reduce mothers’ and fathers’ perceptions of work-family conflict beyond several other situational characteristics of the individuals and the workplaces.

The journal of chemical physics 157(18), 184901 (2022). doi:10.1063/5.0123118, The gelation of PEGylated gold nanoparticles dispersed in a glycerol–water mixture is probed in situ by x-ray photon correlation spectroscopy. Following the evolution of structure and dynamics over 10$^4$ s, a three-step gelation process is found. First, a simultaneous increase of the Ornstein–Zernike length $ξ$ and slowdown of dynamics is characterized by an anomalous q-dependence of the relaxation times of $τ ∝ q^{−6}$ and strongly stretched intermediate scattering functions. After the structure of the gel network has been established, evidenced by a constant $ξ$, the dynamics show aging during the second gelation step accompanied by a change toward ballistic dynamics with $τ ∝ q^{−1}$ and compressed correlation functions. In the third step, aging continues after the arrest of particle motion. Our observations further suggest that gelation is characterized by stress release as evidenced by anisotropic dynamics once gelation sets in., Published by American Institute of Physics, Melville, NY

Multi-nozzle spraying tools are applied in numerous industrial applications, one of the most common being die-casting. To ensure the quality of a cast product and to avoid production downtimes proper functioning is required, e.g. in terms of spray targeting, mass flow, or reproducibility. To enable regular functional controls of a spraying tool, we have developed a specific measuring principle based on monitoring the spray impact on a heated plate using infrared thermography. In this paper, the performance of the developed measuring principle is examined. The study is performed with a typical spraying tool from foundries, it has nine external mixing air–water nozzles, which are freely adjustable in their orientation. During an injection, the spray impacts a heated plate positioned in front of the spraying tool and creates a wetting pattern that is individual to each spraying tool, like a fingerprint. The recorded cooling pattern can be used to determine the position of the individual spray impact areas, the size of the spray impact areas, and the intensity of the cooling. Based on these parameters, conclusions can be drawn about the functionality of the water-bearing lines and the air-bearing lines—as well as the correct alignment of the individual nozzles. The result shows that the presented measuring principle leads to very high precision and reproducibility of the evaluated parameters. Thus, the developed measuring system enables detailed functional tests of complex spraying tools.

Objective: To examine how mothers’ and fathers’ time allocation for housework changes during the transition to postparenthood, i.e. when the last child moves out of their family households. Background: When the last child moves out, parental households are sized back to the situation before parenthood. Mothers and fathers are released from their direct parenting roles and parental time binds. This transition creates a context in which individual and coupled time allocation are likely to be rearranged. Methods: Changes in mothers’ and fathers’ housework time and mothers’ shares of total housework time were estimated using longitudinal fixed effects regression models, using data from the German Socio-economic Panel Study (1985-2019) on 1,004 households experiencing the transition to postparenthood. Results: Mothers’ time for housework declined by 11 minutes in the years before and by further 7 minutes per day at the transition to postparenthood, whereas fathers’ time declined by 6 minutes in the year after the last child has moved out of the parental household. Mothers’ share of total housework time remained constant around 72-75 percent around postparenthood. Analyses for different groups and specific tasks revealed no variations in the gendered trajectories of housework time. In general, mothers continued to do the majority of housework despite some slight convergence. Conclusion: The transition to postparenthood contributes slightly to the life-course convergence of housework time and thus, similar to all major life-course transitions following the birth of children, tends to reduce housework inequality in couples.

Like their parents, children are productive members of their households and may contribute to housework. This study is the first to examine trends in children’s housework behavior in Germany. Using data from the German Time Use Study, 12–17-year-old boys’ and girls’ participation in and time use for housework activities are tracked between 1991 and 2013. The analytical focus is on the relation between the time spent on housework by parents and children and its development over time. It is shown that there is no change in children’s overall participation in housework, but that girls and boys spent fewer days on housework in 2012/2013 than 20 years ago. Furthermore, children’s average time spent on housework decreased in the observed timeframe, but remained constant on days on which children actually do housework. Moreover, children’s time use is positively related to parents’ time use, especially for same-sex parent-child-dyads. In conclusion, trends in children’s time use resemble developments in parental housework behavior, especially concerning the decline of total housework time and gender convergence.

Journal of applied crystallography 52(4), 777 - 782 (2019). doi:10.1107/S1600576719007568, An X-ray cross-correlation study of the local orientational order in self-assembled films made from PEGylated gold nanoparticles is presented. The local structure of this model system is dominated by four- and sixfold order. Coadsorption of shorter ligands in the particle's ligand layer and variation of salt concentration in the suspension prior to self-assembly result in a change of local orientational order. The degree of sixfold order is reduced after salt addition. This decrease of order is less pronounced for the fourfold symmetry. The results presented here suggest complex symmetry-selective order formation upon ligand exchange and salt addition and demonstrate the versatility of X-ray cross-correlation methods for nanoparticle superlattices., Published by IUCr, Chester

The new European Emission Standard Euro 6d will limit the particulate number emissions under real driving conditions for gasoline engines, and meeting these new requirements will be quite challenging for modern direct-injection spark ignition (DISI) engines. In these engines, the source of soot particles are fuel rich zones above fuel films resulting from spray impingement onto the piston and the cylinder wall. To reduce these exhaust emissions, the deposition of fuel wall films must be minimized, or ideally avoided. In order to do this, the formation behaviour of fuel films has to be studied and understood. The present paper aims at providing a broad overview over factors influencing the fuel wall film formation, this paper merges the results of four fuel wall film measurement campaigns. This way it is possible to present the influence of different important parameters on film formation, including ambient pressure and temperature, rail pressure, fuel temperature, nozzle/wall distance and spray impingement angle. To measure the wall film patterns, masses and areas the method of laser-induced fluorescence was applied. The measurements were performed using iso-octane, with 3-pentanone dissolved as fluorescence tracer. For the spray generating a high-pressure, six-hole nozzle was used. The acquired results show that with increasing initial fuel temperature, surrounding temperature, rail pressure and nozzle/wall distance, the wall film mass decreases. Increasing ambient pressure – up to values representative for turbo- or super charging – was found to increase the film mass. Additionally, flatter impingement angles increase the wall film area but decreases the total fuel film mass. With the results provided in this paper, the effects of several major engine operating parameters on fuel wall film formation are quantified.

In this study, a highly responsive humidity sensor is developed by printing gold nanoparticles (GNPs) grafted with a hygroscopic polymer. These GNPs are inkjet-printed to form a uniform thin film over an interdigitated electrode with a controllable thickness by adjusting the printing parameters. The resistance of the printed GNP thin film decreases significantly upon exposure to water vapor and exhibits a semi-log relationship with relative humidity (RH). The sensor can detect RH variations from 1.8 to 95% with large resistance changes up to 4 orders of magnitude with no hysteresis and small temperature dependence. In addition, with a small thickness, the sensor can reach absorption equilibrium quickly with response and recovery times of ≤1.2 and ≤3 s, respectively. The fast response to humidity changes also allows the GNP thin-film sensor to distinguish signals from intermittent humidification/dehumidification cycles with a frequency up to 2.5 Hz. The printed sensors on flexible substrates show little sensitivity to bending deformation and can be embedded in a mask for human respiratory detection. In summary, this study demonstrates the feasibility of applying printing technology for the fabrication of thin-film humidity sensors, and the methodology developed can be further applied to fabricate many other types of nanoparticle-based sensor devices.

BackgroundPatients with cancer and their relatives often suffer from psychosocial burdens following a cancer diagnosis. Psychosocial cancer support services offer support for cancer patients and their relatives. Only a few studies have focused on associations of psychological factors within patient-relative dyads. This study aims to assess associations between the patients’ or relatives’ self-efficacy and their levels of distress and anxiety who seek help together at psychosocial cancer support centres.MethodsParticipants were recruited at two psychosocial cancer support centres in a major city in Germany. Patients with cancer and their relatives seeking support together received the questionnaire before their first support session. Self-efficacy was assessed with the Pearlin sense of mastery scale, distress with the distress thermometer and anxiety with the General Anxiety Disorder questionnaire (GAD-7). For the analysis, the actor-partner interdependence model was applied.ResultsThe data analysis was based on 41 patient-relative dyads (patients: 39% women, mean age 53.5; relatives: 66% women, mean age 52.16). A significant actor effect from self-efficacy to distress was found for patients (r= -0.47) but not for relatives (r= -0.15). Partner effects from self-efficacy to distress were not significant (r= -0.03,r= -0.001). The actor effect from self-efficacy to anxiety for patients (r= -0.61) as well as relatives was significant (r= -0.62), whereas the partner effect was significant for patients (r= 0.16) but not for relatives (r= -0.46).ConclusionThe results suggest that patients’ and relatives’ self-efficacy is associated with their distress and anxiety. Partner effects were visible for patients’ self-efficacy and relatives’ anxiety. These findings suggest that self-efficacy is an important factor for the psychological well-being of patients and relatives and that it may additionally be associated with the partners’ well-being. Longitudinal research with larger samples is needed to support the findings.

International journal of molecular sciences 22(7), 3691 (2021). doi:10.3390/ijms22073691, Quantitative cellular in vitro nanoparticle uptake measurements are possible with a large number of different techniques, however, all have their respective restrictions. Here, we demonstrate the application of synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence imaging (XFI) on prostate tumor cells, which have internalized differently functionalized gold nanoparticles. Total nanoparticle uptake on the order of a few hundred picograms could be conveniently observed with microsamples consisting of only a few hundreds of cells. A comparison with mass spectroscopy quantification is provided, experimental results are both supported and sensitivity limits of this XFI approach extrapolated by Monte-Carlo simulations, yielding a minimum detectable nanoparticle mass of just 5 pg. This study demonstrates the high sensitivity level of XFI, allowing non-destructive uptake measurements with very small microsamples within just seconds of irradiation time., Published by Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel

Objective: To investigate time use of housework for all members of shared family households with a special focus on how time allocation varied by siblings’ sex-composition. Background: Two knowledge gaps were addressed: first, young people’s contribution to housework, since studying children in their primary socialization environment adds to the understanding of the foundations of gender inequality in unpaid work times over the life course and in society; second, the allocation of housework time between all family members, as there is yet no study that includes every household member in the analysis of housework time allocation within family households. Methods: 1,263 four-person-households were sampled from the German Time Use Study (pooled data from 1991/1992, 2001/2002 and 2012/2013). Using information from 13,525 time diaries, the absolute and relative time use for several housework activities was analyzed for weekdays and weekends by siblings’ sex-composition, applying linear regression. Results: Mothers and daughters spent more time for housework and routine chores than fathers and sons in shared family households. Total housework time was lowest in households with two sons and highest in households with two daughters. In households with opposite-sex siblings, daughters and sons performed a division of housework that closely resembled the traditional model of gender inequality. Conclusion: Even in times of gender convergence, traditional housework behavior is transmitted from parents to their children.

Spray tools with multi-nozzle-arrays are used in a wide variety of applications. Monitoring the functionality of complex spraying tools with a large number of individual nozzles is a great challenge. For this purpose, we have developed a measurement technique based on the wetting pattern, which forms on a surface during spray impingement. To investigate the performance of this measurement technique we applied a spraying tool with nine external mixing air-water nozzles, the geometric alignment of which can be freely adjusted. In the first test series, the precision of the evaluation of the nozzle alignment is determined. The second test series focuses on the individual sizes of the wetted areas. Here the reproducibility, the influences of the operating modes and the nozzle type were evaluated. Subsequently, the functionality is tested in an exemplary test case in which two of nine nozzles were readjusted in a defined manner. Finally, the wetting pattern resulting from injecting a full spray is discussed and the necessary image processing steps are provided. In summary, this measuring system allows efficient, fast and cost-effective control and documentation of the alignment and functionality of spraying tools, thereby avoiding production downtime and related costs.

Optica 8(1), 15 - 23 (2021). doi:10.1364/OPTICA.410851, Single particle imaging at x-ray free electron lasers (XFELs) has the potential to determine the structure and dynamics of single biomolecules at room temperature. Two major hurdles have prevented this potential from being reached, namely, the collection of sufficient high-quality diffraction patterns and robust computational purification to overcome structural heterogeneity. We report the breaking of both of these barriers using gold nanoparticle test samples, recording around 10 million diffraction patterns at the European XFEL and structurally and orientationally sorting the patterns to obtain better than 3-nm-resolution 3D reconstructions for each of four samples. With these new developments, integrating advancements in x-ray sources, fast-framing detectors, efficient sample delivery, and data analysis algorithms, we illuminate the path towards sub-nanometer biomolecular imaging. The methods developed here can also be extended to characterize ensembles that are inherently diverse to obtain their full structural landscape., Published by OSA, Washington, DC

One important parameter influencing mixture formation and spray/wall interaction within engines is the geometry of the nozzle. In contrast to Diesel nozzles, the influence of the orifice geometry on spray formation has hardly be investigated for gasoline nozzles. In order to demonstrate the potential of adjusting the nozzle geometry of a modern GDI nozzle, we compare two six-hole, high-pressure nozzles with an identical structure, but different rounding radius of the orifice hole-inlet and different orifice hole-geometries: nozzle A with a rounded inlet and an orifice length to diameter ratio of 3/2 and nozzle B with a sharp inlet and an orifice length to diameter ratio of 1. In a first measurement campaign the spray formation is visualized using high-speed shadowgraphy imaging. The results show differences in spray angle and penetration depth. In a second measurement campaign we examine the spray/wall interaction and wall film formation by means of infrared thermography. The thermography measurements indicate that the geometry of nozzle B produces sprays with beneficial characteristics. This is very important for a clean combustion process and a decrease of soot emissions.

The variety of fuels used in GDI engines is constantly increasing. This affects the combustion process because the spray formation and the mixture preparation is greatly influenced by the fuel properties. In particular, the reduction of the saturation temperature is promoting the so-called flash-boiling effect, when the bulk liquid or a component of the fuel mixture becomes superheated during the injection into the low-pressure combustion chamber. This study reveals the enormous influence of flash-boiling on the spray/wall interaction and the consequent deposition of fuel wall films. This is of major importance because the formation of wall films must be avoided, since they are the main route to soot particle emissions. In order to increase the understanding of the wall film formation the spray/wall interaction is investigated under conditions representative of a homogeneously charged gasoline engine. Gasoline and iso-octane are injected using a modern six-hole nozzle. Emphasis is placed on the influence of the initial fuel temperature. Using high-speed imaging and infrared thermography, the spray propagation, the spray-targeting and the evaporation duration of the wall films are analysed. It is found that increasing the fuel temperature does not lead to a constant reduction of the wall film problem. Rather, the flash-boiling-induced ‘contraction’ of the spray leads to an accumulation of the wall film mass in a small area. This delays the evaporation process to a great extent and can lead to increased soot particle emissions. From the results, a critical value of the degree of superheat is identified and the findings transferred to various single component fuels, in order to avoid undesired fuel film accumulation.

The decay of a plasmon leads to a hot electron distribution in metallic nanoparticles. Depending on the processes involved in the excitation, different distributions are obtained, which thermalize differently. We experimentally investigate excitation-wavelength and size-dependences on the generation and thermalization of the hot-electrons. We can confirm the absence of size-dependences, and we clearly observe two regimes with significantly different relaxation dynamics depending on the photon energy. The hot electron generation is more efficient when exciting with light that enables interband transitions.

Zusammenfassung Die anhaltende Niedrigzinsphase setzt Bausparkassen mit ihrem spezifischen Geschäftsmodell und der damit verbundenen Abhängigkeit vom Einlagen- und Kreditgeschäft zunehmend unter Druck. Darauf hat der Gesetzgeber im Jahr 2015 im Rahmen der Bausparkassengesetzesnovelle reagiert, indem die Ertragsmöglichkeiten erweitert werden, um die Risikotragfähigkeit dieser Institute zu stärken. Eine Neuerung der Gesetzesnovelle, die zum 1. 1. 2017 in Kraft getreten ist, räumt den Bausparkassen das Recht ein, bis zu 5 % ihrer freien Mittel in Aktien zu investieren, um eine größere Anlagediversifikation zu erzielen und Ertragschancen zu steigern. Diese Maßnahme wird in Bezug auf die potenzielle Risikosteigerung auch kritisch reflektiert. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht unter Kreditrisikoaspekten die Hinzunahme von Aktien in die Anlageportefeuilles der Bausparkassen gemäß der von der Europäischen Bankenaufsichtsbehörde (EBA) vorgegebenen Stresstestsystematik.