Books published by Cuvillier

The present volume is the productive result of multilateral academic collaboration between institutions of higher education from Germany (Chemnitz), Macedonia (Ohrid, Bitola), Albania (Vlora) and Serbia (NiS). The collaboration, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), was set up to establish a West-East Dialogue and a better understanding and processing of the crises in Europe through the deconstruction and construction of media texts. The contributions in this volume illustrate how 'crises' are constructed by the media discursively, with attention paid to the linguistic elements of media texts, and in some cases accompanying images. The authors in this volume are students and established scholars that come from different but intersecting disciplines. They each focus on different 'crises' in different (national) media outlets, offering new perspectives on how social, political and geographical events may be shaped by the media, and how these mediatised portrayals may in turn influence public perspectives on a range of issues.

In this work, a holistic approach is used to develop a multi-physical model of the Vanadium Redox Flow Battery on a system level. The model is validated with experimental data from three flow battery manufacturers and is then deployed in an extensive parameter study for designing a flow battery cell. Using finite element analysis (FEA), twenty-four different cell designs are derived, which vary in electrode area and the design of the electrolyte inlet and outlet supply channels. The performance of the designs is then simulated in a single-stack and a three-stack string system.The presented model is also deployed in a flow rate optimization study. Here, a novel strategy involving the model-based optimization of operation-points defined by state-of-charge and charging or discharging current is presented and compared to conventional flow rate control strategies. Finally, a stack voltage controller is introduced, which prevents the violation of cell voltage limits as long as the pump capacity is not fully utilized.

In chemical biology, the fluorescent labeling of molecules and usage of fluorescence-based imaging techniques for visualizing molecular interactions at a subcellular level is a key feature and contributes significantly to the elucidation of disease mechanisms. Furthermore, potential drug target sites can be identified, drugs acting on such sites can be developed, and by their labeling, the interactions of drugs and targets can be uncovered. In this work, innovative approaches for the fluorescent labeling of proteins, nucleic acids, and drugs are presented. A novel methodology for the facile synthesis of a versatile, functionalized, water-soluble, and tunable fluorescent probe has been developed. As a class of promising drug candidates, oligonucleotides were labeled in a dual-color readout DNA/RNA ¿Traffic Lights¿ concept that allows reliable tracking of cellular delivery, target binding, and structural integrity of nucleic acids. To ensure efficient early detection of diseases, a melanocyte-specific compound has been synthesized with the goal of enabling melanoma detection via non-invasive fluorescence microscopy. Once a cancerous disease with a solid tumor is detected, the efficient transport of a drug to the tumor site and local accumulation is of meaningful impact. A polymeric nanocarrier system for targeted tumor transport and triggered drug release has been developed.

The separation of isotopes has always been a challenge because of their identical size, shape and thermodynamic properties. Nowadays, the extraction of deuterium is performed e.g. by the Girdler Sulfid process or cryogenic distillation, which lead to low separation factors (below 2.5) in combination with high energy costs. The standard way to produce helium-3 is to skim it as a byproduct of the radioactive tritium decay.In this thesis, two alternative approaches have been investigated for the separation of light isotopes, Quantum Sieving and Chemical Affinity Sieving . While Quantum Sieving is based on confinement in small pores, Chemical Affinity Sieving relies on strong adsorption sites. Both methods use the mass difference of the isotopes, which is related to their zero-point energy.The microporous metal-organic frameworks are excellent candidates for studying these quantum effects due to their well-defined pore structure and the possibility to introduce strong adsorption sites directly into the framework. The samples have been exposed to an isotope mixture and the adsorbed quantity of each isotope was detected by low-temperature thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). The ratio of the desorbed amount of the isotopes leads directly to the selectivity (separation factor). The selectivity is determined as a function of exposure time and temperature and exhibits the highest value of 25 observed for hydrogen isotopes at temperatures well above the boiling point of liquid nitrogen.