FH Campus Wien

Abstract Including renewable energy sources into contemporary power systems has greatly added unpredictability and presented problems including harmonic distortion, voltage instability, and degraded power quality. In response, we provide a new deep learning-enabled framework for the real-time adaptive control and optimal allocation of hybrid Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS), specifically the Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC) and Static VAR Compensator (SVC), in renewable-rich transmission networks. For multi-objective planning, the suggested method combines a Two-Point Estimation Method (2PEM)-based probabilistic load flow model with a hybrid Grey Wolf Optimization–Particle Swarm Optimization (GWO–PSO) algorithm. Trained offline on a scenario-rich dataset, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural controller inferences control set-points in real time with sub-15 ms latency. Under operational contingency and changeable photovoltaic (PV) generation, this integration of offline probabilistic optimization with online artificial intelligence-driven control enables dynamic stabilization of voltage, harmonic mitigation, and power loss minimization. Application to the Southern Interconnected Grid of Cameroon shows compliance with IEEE-519 harmonic thresholds, a 47% increase in voltage stability index, and a 30.9% reduction in active power loss. These findings support the scalability and efficiency of the framework in improving power system resilience and quality by means of intelligent control, so fitting for both advanced and developing energy infrastructures. Graphical abstract

2023 wurde in Chemie in unserer Zeit ein Beitrag über TiO 2 , das weltweit meistverwendete Weißpigment für unterschiedlichste Einsatzbereiche, publiziert [1]. Darin wurden auch mögliche Gesundheitsrisiken thematisiert. In dieser Angelegenheit gibt es durch ein Urteil des Europäischen Gerichtshofs (EuGH) neue Entwicklungen.

• Nudging grounded in Evolutionary Psychology was applied to promote carbon neutrality. • The effects were analyzed using >15,000 responses from four countries. • Moderating perceived risks of climate change was successful in most cases. • Only Canada, recently hit by wildfires, showed a positive effect in willingness to pay. Climate change countermeasures require monetary investment for implementation through regulations, often in the form of public taxes. Therefore, public opinion on climate change is an important factor in achieving carbon neutrality (CN). How public perception is formed, leading to motivation to fund measures for CN, needs to be identified. This study aimed to identify the causal structures of attitude change leading to financial investment through two surveys in multiple countries using nudging messages emphasizing familial support (familial nudging), which is effective in promoting pro-environmental attitudes. Study 1 (2023) examined how familial nudging moderates risk-averse attitudes toward climate change. Despite successful overall nudging effects, no increase in willingness to pay for CN was observed. Causality analysis showed that willingness to pay for CN was influenced by perceived risks to oneself and future generations. Based on these findings, Study 2 (2024) introduced modified familial nudging, emphasizing milder climate risks for the current generation, but more severe climate risks for future generations, such as wildfires. The new nudging message unexpectedly increased the perceived risks to the current generation, and no positive impact on willingness to pay was observed. The exception was Canada, as respondents showed non-negative responses and significant increases compared to the other messages. The Canadian wildfire in 2023 may have influenced the perceived necessity of CN countermeasures. These findings highlight the challenge of nudging perceived impacts on current and future generations, separately simultaneously. Meanwhile, recent natural disasters may effectively moderate the decreased financial motivation for CN, regardless of familial support.

Abstract Our study investigates how individuals counteract societal negative attitudes towards aging by striving to maintain a youthful self-image, either by feeling younger than their actual age or by redefining what they consider “old age”. Based on the dual-process theory of developmental regulation, feeling younger is the result of an assimilative strategy, while adjusting the concept of old age is an accommodative strategy. We examined these strategies across different life domains, such as family, friendships, and work, hypothesizing that people emphasize youth-preserving strategies in areas critical to their identity. We focused on whether older adults more commonly adjust their definition of old age in important life domains (accommodative response), versus younger adults preferring to feel younger in domains that are deemed important (assimilative response). Analyzing data from 768 participants aged between 30 to 80 years through multilevel analysis, our research confirmed these hypotheses. Findings reveal that individuals indeed work to maintain a youthful identity in domains they find important. Younger participants felt younger in crucial life domains, whereas older participants adjusted their old age threshold in personally relevant domains. This behavior suggests a societal tendency to value youth, with individuals using both old age perception adjustment and feelings of youthfulness to protect their self-image and avoid the stigma of being old.

Abstract BACKGROUND Cellular senescence is a complex stress response characterized by permanent cell cycle arrest and secretion of pro-inflammatory factors (SASP). In glioblastoma, senescent cells may arise due to intrinsic oncogenic cell stress and/or in response to therapy-induced damage. They are supposed to contribute to tumor recurrence. Yet, their frequency, spatial distribution and impact on survival remain incompletely understood, especially in relation to patient age and related comorbidities such as Alzheimer’s disease neuropathological change (ADNC). Herein, we aimed at characterizing senescent tumor and microenvironmental cells in a representative cohort of glioblastoma-patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS We analyzed 364 FFPE primary, pre-treatment glioblastoma samples of 163 patients using single- and multiplex immunohistochemistry (IHC). Since senescence is a complex, hard-to-measure cell state, we used two key markers (p16, p21) in addition to cell-type specific markers covering neurons, microglia and endothelial cells (NeuN, Iba1, CD34) and ADNC comorbidity (β-A4, tau-AT8). Stainings were scanned at the Vectra Polaris platform, and quantified by HALO software and R. RESULTS Upon single-plex IHCs, p16 was expressed in either sparse (67%), moderate (21%), and abundant (12%) cell fractions. In contrast to p21, whose expression was less variable and less abundant (range: 0.02% to 54%, median: 3.5%). They did not correlate with each other (R=0.08). Upon multiplex IHC p16+p21+ senescent cells comprised 1.8% of all detected cells, being enriched for microglia (16.8%) and endothelial cells (17.3%). Senescence was reported in 0-4% of tumor cells (median: 1.1%). No significant differences in the extent of senescence were observed between the tumor core and the tumor-infiltrated cortex (p-value=0.86). Senescent endothelial cells increased with age (p-value=0.0023). Notably, a higher fraction of senescent endothelial and neuronal cells was found in the presence of ADNC, with 89.5% of neurofibrillary tangles being in senescent neurons. CONCLUSION In primary glioblastoma tumors, 1.8% of cells show p16+p21+ double labeling as putative marker for senescence, which involves neoplastic and microenvironmental cells alike, prominently including microglial, endothelial and neuronal cells. Senescent cells increase with age and presence of Alzheimer-type comorbidity.

Plastic packaging waste is currently steadily increasing and its circular treatment is of importance. This study examines the composition of rigid PO and PS packaging waste (PW) in the Austrian separate waste collection system, particularly focusing on waste composition, packaging characteristics, including packaging format, colouration, food/non-food, type of labelling and closures, and the design-for-recycling potential. The findings indicate that 13 m-% of separate waste collection is comprised of rigid PO and PS PW. High-density polyethylene PW comprises primarily non-food hollow bodies, whereas PS is comprised of food cups. Polypropylene PW is composed of food trays, cups and non-food hollow bodies. The targeted PW is predominantly white (40 m-%) and natural (35 m-%). Food cups are primarily directly printed. The design-for-recycling evaluation of labelling identified 54 m-% as “good”, 24 m-% as “limited”, and 22 m-% as “poor”. This study provides new insights concerning PW composition to strive for increased circularity.

Abstract COVID-19 Health Certificates represented a key policy in Europe during the COVID-19 pandemic and were introduced globally by the World Health Organization to strengthen pandemic preparedness. This article undertakes a comparative analysis of COVID-19 Health Certificate policies, and their underlying narratives and framings in nine European countries. Policies differed across European nations in timing, scope, and stringency of the measures entailed and were often subject to major controversies and heated public debates. By tracing their distinct policy narratives (providing emergency response, restoring social and economic activities, and incentivizing vaccination), we suggest that Certificates also served as a proxy for other, highly controversial measures (such as vaccine mandates). When this happened, they were met with intense pushbacks from citizens. Additionally, we show that scientific evidence was differently appropriated in national policy narratives, and that concerns commonly associated with novel digital health technologies (e.g. privacy) did not rise to prominence in public debates.

Abstract The discrete Laplacian on Euclidean triangulated surfaces is a well‐established notion. We introduce discrete Laplacians on spherical and hyperbolic triangulated surfaces. On the one hand, our definitions are close to the Euclidean one in that the edge weights contain the cotangents of certain combinations of angles and are non‐negative if and only if the triangulation is Delaunay. On the other hand, these discretizations are structure‐preserving in several respects. We prove that the area of a convex polyhedron can be written in terms of the discrete spherical Laplacian of the support function, whose expression is the same as the area of a smooth convex body in terms of the usual spherical Laplacian. We show that the conformal factors of discrete conformal vector fields on a triangulated surface of curvature are ‐eigenfunctions of our discrete Laplacians, exactly as in the smooth setting. The discrete conformality can be understood here both in the sense of the vertex scaling and in the sense of circle patterns. Finally, we connect the ‐eigenfunctions to infinitesimal isometric deformations of a polyhedron inscribed into corresponding quadrics.

In recent decades, photosensitive materials have been used for the development of optical devices not only for light, but also for cold and very cold neutrons. We show that holographically recorded gratings in nanodiamond-polymer composites (nDPC) form ideal diffraction elements for very cold neutrons. Their advantage of high diffraction efficiency, combined with low angular selectivity as a two-port beam splitter, meets the necessary conditions for application in a very cold neutron interferometer. We provide an overview of the latest achievements in the construction of such a triple Laue interferometer. A first operational test of the interferometer is planned immediately after this conference in May 2025.