Over the last few decades, the systematic approach of knowledge transfer from biological concept generators to technical applications has received increasing attention, particularly because marketable bio-derived developments are often described as sustainable. The objective of this paper is to rationalize and refine the discussion about bio-derived developments also with respect to sustainability by taking descriptive, normative and emotional aspects into consideration. In the framework of supervised learning, a dataset of 70 biology-derived and technology-derived developments characterised by 9 different attributes together with their respective values and assigned to one of 17 classes was created. On the basis of the dataset a decision tree was generated which can be used as a straightforward classification tool to identify biology-derived and technology-derived developments. The validation of the applied learning procedure achieved an average accuracy of 90.0%. Additional extraordinary qualities of technical applications are generally discussed by means of selected biology-derived and technology-derived examples with reference to normative (contribution to sustainability) and emotional aspects (aesthetics and symbolic character). In the context of a case study from the building sector, all aspects are critically discussed.

In buildings growing conditions for mould fungi can occur and cause fungus infestation. The danger for the occupants of dwellings lies in the production and spreading of pathogens (disease causing agents). Therefore, consequent measures have to be taken to avoid health dangers that come from mould fungi in buildings. In order to avoid the mould fungus formation, a strategy has to be set up that focuses on the growth conditions for mould fungi and also considers the complex transient processes of building physics. The boundary conditions for the growth of fungi are temperature, humidity and substrate conditions which have to be simultaneously available over a certain period of time. In [15] a biohygrothermal procedure is developed, which allows the prediction of mould growth under transient boundary conditions. The assessment results from a comparison of the water content in a modelled mould spore determined by transient calculations, with the critical water content, above which the spore germinates and grows. This means that long-term humidity values exceeding this critical water content indicate mould growth. This new method is described in this article and the functions are shown within an example.

Brückenbauwerke stellen einen unentbehrlichen Bestandteil der Infrastruktur dar und umfassen ein großes öffentliches Investitionsvolumen. Im Vergleich zum Hochbau handelt es sich bei Brücken um besonders langlebige Bauwerke mit einer planmäßigen Nutzungsdauer von 100 Jahren. Es ist daher ersichtlich, dass der Nachhaltigkeit im Brückenbau ein besonderes Augenmerk geschenkt werden muss. In dem zum Titel des Artikels gleichnamigen Forschungsprojekt P843 wird eine ganzheitliche Bewertung von Stahl und Verbundbrücken durch die Analyse der drei Aspekte der ökologischen Qualität, der ökonomischen Qualität und der sozialen und funktionalen Qualität durchgeführt. Drei unterschiedliche Typen von Referenzbrücken werden in diesem Forschungsvorhaben über den gesamten Lebenszyklus untersucht und brückenbauspezifische Besonderheiten für die Nachhaltigkeitsbewertung herausgestellt. Durch die Erfassung von Degradationsprozessen kann eine möglichst präzise Vorhersage des Lebenszyklus und somit der erforderlichen Unterhaltungsmaßnahmen erfolgen. Die Erarbeitung einer ganzheitlichen Datenbasis für den Brückenbau soll hier Grundlagen zur Entscheidungsunterstützung bei Planung und Ausschreibung von Brücken und ihrer Beurteilung nach Kriterien der Nachhaltigkeit geben

No abstract

Two different methods for sampling of primary, secondary, and tertiary aliphatic and aromatic amines in air have been developed for improving amine analysis in air. The aim was to have a quick method for direct sampling of amines at defined times, for example, for material testing as well as for long-term measurements of amines by diffusive sampling during field studies without sampling instrumentation. The goal of the study was chemical analysis of amines, especially focusing on an analytical method suitable for tertiary amines besides primary and secondary amines. For both direct and diffusive sampling, samplers working with phosphoric acid impregnated glass wool for trapping of amines by formation of quaternary ammonium salts have been designed and tested. Direct sampling was applied for in-car emission measurement and for polyurethane exhalation monitoring by drawing air from 1 m3 test chambers through amine sampling devices. Diffusive sampling was applied for the same in-car measurement and for field measurement at a landfill leachate uptake with an obnoxious smell. Quantification of sampled analytes was achieved by LCMS/MS analysis.