Rückbezüge des Mathematikunterrichts und der Methodik des Mathematikunterrichts in der DDR auf historische Vorausentwicklungen

The author discusses at some examples exemplarily, how the pedagogy of mathematics education in the GDR from curricular and educational/psychological knowledge from the time before 1945 has developed scientifically.     

Physical properties of some McVittie metrics

A class of McVittie's new nonquadratic solutions is investigated in some detail with regard to its physical properties. It is found that decreasing pressure and density are not compatible with center regularity for these perfect fluid spheres. It is further seen that for gaseous spheres (i.e., the density drops to zero at the outer boundary of the sphere together with the pressurep) oscillatory motions arenot possible. For these gaseous models the pressure and the density are both positive inside the outer surface, and their respective gradients are negative. For the outer gaseous shells models are constructed where for a certain time interval the pressure is increasing for contracting models. Without any restriction with respect to time, for these shell models it found that the density is increasing for contracting models, and the adiabatic speed of sound is less than the speed of light. It is also found that the trace of the energy-momentum tensor is positive, the total mass is negative, and for collapsing shells the rate of change of circumference as measured by an observer riding on the shell is an increasing function of time. However, all these models have the strange geometric feature that the physical radius is a decreasing function of comoving radial coordinate.     

Multiparametric microsensor chips for screening applications

The identification of drug targets for pharmaceutical screening can be greatly accelerated by gene databases and expression studies. The identification of leading compounds from growing libraries is realized by high throughput screening platforms. Subsequently, for optimization and validation of identified leading compounds studies of their functionality have to be carried out, and just these functionality tests are a limiting factor. A rigorous preselection of identified compounds by in vitro cellular screening is necessary prior to using the drug candidates for the further time consuming and expensive stage, e.g. in animal models. Our efforts are focused to the parallel development, adaptation and integration of different microelectronic sensors into miniaturized biochips for a multiparametric, functional on-line analysis of living cells in physiologically environments. Parallel and on-line acquisition of data related to different cellular targets is required for advanced stages of drug screening and for economizing animal tests.     

Analysis of functional groups on the surface of plasma-treated carbon nanofibers

Plasma chemically modified carbon nanofibers were characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy with regard to the content of carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen and the contribution of carboxylic groups or ester, carbonyl and hydroxylic groups or ether on the surface. Unfortunately, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy only provides an average value of the first 10 to 15 molecular layers. For comparison, depth profiles were measured and wet chemical methods were applied to estimate the thickness of the functionalized layer and the distribution of oxygen-containing functional groups within the near-surface layers. The results indicate that the fiber surface is covered by a monomolecular oxygen-containing layer and that plasma treatment allows a complete oxygen functionalization of the uppermost surface layer. The best conditions for plasma treatment found within the set of parameters applied to generate complete functionalization are: plasma gas O(2)/Ar ratio 1:1, gas pressure 1-1.5 hPa, plasma power 80 W, treatment time >or= 5 min. Additionally, three quick and easy methods are presented to estimate the efficiency of plasma treatment with regard to surface functionalization: pyrolysis, contact angle measurements, and light permeability measurements of aqueous carbon nanofiber suspensions.