TU Wien

This article is based on the theory that John Ruskin (1819‑1900) attributed a male gaze to decaying architecture in his writings and described it with feminine characteristics. Decaying architecture symbolizes ideal virginity, which can only be destroyed by a falsifying restoration. This reading of Ruskin’s writings will be linked to a critical history of architecture that examines architecture in its patriarchal normativity. Building on this link, a feminist reading of the history of monument conservation will be formulated.

Interband cascade lasers (ICLs) are becoming increasingly valuable in mid-infrared applications due to their low power consumption and compatibility with silicon photonic integration, particularly for trace gas sensing. ICLs have demonstrated room-temperature continuous-wave operation in the 3–6 μm range, with excellent performance around 3.3 μm. A key factor limiting ICL performance at longer wavelengths is optical loss, i.e., caused by the intervalence band transitions. These losses increase with hole concentration in the active region, leading to a pronounced current-dependence of the optical losses in ICLs. Conventional methods that infer optical losses from length-dependent variations in parameters such as slope efficiency or threshold current require the assumption of constant optical loss. In this study, we present a direct optical transmission measurement technique to determine waveguide losses. Our experiments confirm strongly increasing waveguide losses with current density, directly impacting the quantum efficiency of ICLs. This approach offers a precise evaluation of optical losses and bears a functional alternative compared to traditional methods, addressing the limitations of assuming constant losses and providing enhanced insight into ICL performance across various wavelengths.

The present work reports the synthesis, structure, and magnetic properties of a one-dimensional coordination polymer made of copper(II) chloride and 1,2,4- triazole. The coordination polymer is synthesized in hydrochloric acid at room temperature. The structure determination by single crystal X-ray diffraction reveals an array of copper atoms bridged via two chlorine and a triazole. Magnetisation data show no hysteresis at temperatures down to 2 K, but suggest antisymmetric exchange and antiferromagnetic coupling between the neighbouring spins of Cu(II) ions. This work gives impetus for the synthesis of large crystals of coordination polymers based on which magnetic properties can be studied in depth.

Magnetic track brakes (MTBs) are additional brake systems for railway vehicles used in low-adhesion and emergency conditions. In particular, the frame of this brake may exhibit self-sustained vibrations. To study the underlying mechanisms of these oscillations, a nonlinear mathematical model of the MTB is derived that consists of two submodels: a mathematical model of the mechanical subsystem and a model of the coupled electro-magnetic subsystem. Mechanical vibrations of the brake-frame are described by four degrees of freedom. Nonlinear dry friction, which is observed between the rail and the frame, is accounted for in the mechanical model. The coupled electromagnetic subsystem is modelled by a lumped parameter approach, describing the oscillating magnetic fluxes due to the mechanical motion of each electromagnet. The self-sustained vibrations are studied numerically for different vehicle velocities. The Neimark–Sacker bifurcation is observed. As a result of this bifurcation, the self-sustained quasi-periodic vibrations are originated. The stick–slip motions of the frame are observed, caused by the dry friction between the rail and the magnet.

Understanding how people effectively perform actions together is fundamental when designing Collaborative Mixed Reality (CMR) applications. While most of the studies on CMR mostly considered either how users are immersed in the CMR (e.g., in virtual or augmented reality) or how the physical workspace is shared by users (i.e., distributed or collocated), little is known about how their combination could influence user’s interaction in CMR. In this paper, we present a user study (n = 46, 23 pairs) that investigates the effect of the mixed reality setup on the user’s immersion and spatial interaction during a joint-action task. Groups of two participants had to perform two types of joint actions while carrying a virtual rope to maintain a certain distance: (1) Gate, where participants had to pass through a virtual aperture together, and (2) Fruit, where participants had to use a rope to slice a virtual fruit moving in the CMR. Users were either in a distributed or collocated setup and either immersed in virtual or augmented reality. Our results showed that the immersion type and location setup altered users’ proxemics as well as the users’ subjective experience. In particular, we noticed better task performance when users were in augmented reality and more considerable distances between players while interacting in a distributed setup. These results contribute to the understanding of joint action in CMR and are discussed to improve the design of CMR applications.

Effect algebras were introduced in order to describe the structure of effects, i.e. events in quantum mechanics. They are partial algebras describing the logic behind the corresponding events. It is natural to ask how to introduce the logical connective implication in effect algebras. For lattice-ordered effect algebras this task was already solved by several authors, including the present ones. We concentrate on effect algebras that need not be lattice-ordered since these can better describe the events occurring in the quantum physical system. Although an effect algebra is only partial, we try to find a logical connective implication which is everywhere defined. But such a connective can be “unsharp” or “inexact” because its outputs for given pairs of entries need not be elements of the underlying effect algebra, but may be subsets of (mutually incomparable) maximal elements. We introduce such an implication together with its adjoint functor representing conjunction. Then we consider so-called tense operators on effect algebras. Of course, also these operators turn out to be “unsharp” in the aforementioned sense, but they are in a certain relation with the operators implication and conjunction. Finally, for given tense operators and given time set T , we describe two methods how to construct a time preference relation R on T such that the given tense operators are either comparable with or equivalent to those induced by the time frame ( T , R ).

A search is reported for charge-parity CP CP violation in ${{{\textrm{D}}}^{{0}}} \rightarrow {{\textrm{K}} _{\text {S}}^{{0}}} {{\textrm{K}} _{\text {S}}^{{0}}}$ D 0 → K S 0 K S 0 decays, using data collected in proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13\,\text {Te}\hspace{-.08em}\text {V}$ s = 13 Te V recorded by the CMS experiment in 2018. The analysis uses a dedicated data set that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 41.6 $\,\text {fb}^{-1}$ fb - 1 , which consists of about 10 billion events containing a pair of b hadrons, nearly all of which decay to charm hadrons. The flavor of the neutral D meson is determined by the pion charge in the reconstructed decays {{{\textrm{D}}}^{{*+}}} \rightarrow {{{\textrm{D}}}^{{0}}} {{{\mathrm{\uppi }}}^{{+}}} D ∗ + → D 0 π + and {{{\textrm{D}}}^{{*-}}} \rightarrow {\overline{{\textrm{D}}}^{{0}}} {{{\mathrm{\uppi }}}^{{-}}} D ∗ - → D ¯ 0 π - . The CP CP asymmetry in ${{{\textrm{D}}}^{{0}}} \rightarrow {{\textrm{K}} _{\text {S}}^{{0}}} {{\textrm{K}} _{\text {S}}^{{0}}}$ D 0 → K S 0 K S 0 is measured to be $A_{CP} ({{\textrm{K}} _{\text {S}}^{{0}}} {{\textrm{K}} _{\text {S}}^{{0}}} ) = (6.2 \pm 3.0 \pm 0.2 \pm 0.8)\%$ A CP ( K S 0 K S 0 ) = ( 6.2 ± 3.0 ± 0.2 ± 0.8 ) % , where the three uncertainties represent the statistical uncertainty, the systematic uncertainty, and the uncertainty in the measurement of the CP CP asymmetry in the {{{\textrm{D}}}^{{0}}} \rightarrow {{\textrm{K}} _{\text {S}}^{{0}}} {{{\mathrm{\uppi }}}^{{+}}} {{{\mathrm{\uppi }}}^{{-}}} D 0 → K S 0 π + π - decay. This is the first CP CP asymmetry measurement by CMS in the charm sector as well as the first to utilize a fully hadronic final state.

The Italian Po Valley is one of the most polluted regions in Europe. During winter, meteorological conditions favor long and dense fogs, which strongly affect visibility and human health. In spring, the frequency of nighttime fogs reduces while daytime new particle formation events become more common. This transition is likely caused by a reduction in PM 2.5 , leading to a decrease in the relevant condensation sink. The physics and chemistry of fog and aerosol have been studied at the San Pietro Capofiume site since the 1980s, but the detailed processes driving the observed trends are not fully understood. Hence, during winter and spring 2021/22, the Fog and Aerosol InteRAction Research Italy (FAIRARI) campaign was carried out, using a wide spectrum of approaches, including in-situ measurements, outdoor chamber experiments, and remote sensing. Atmospheric constituents and their properties were measured ranging from gas molecules and molecular clusters to fog droplets. One unique aspect of this study is the direct measurement of the aerosol composition in- and outside of fog, showing a slightly greater dominance of organic compounds in the interstitial compared to the droplet phase. Satellite observations of fog provided a spatial context and agreed well with in-situ measurements of droplet size. They were complemented with in-situ chamber experiments, providing insights into oxidative processes and revealing a large secondary organic aerosol forming potential of ambient air upon chemical aging. The oxidative potential of aerosol and fog water inferred the impact of aerosol-fog interactions on particle toxicity.

We modify the restraining bolt technique, originally designed for safe reinforcement learning, to regulate agent behavior in alignment with social, ethical, and legal norms. Rather than maximizing rewards for norm compliance, our approach minimizes penalties for norm violations. We demonstrate in case studies the effectiveness of our approach in capturing benchmark challenges in normative reasoning like contrary-to-duty obligations, exceptions, and temporal obligations.

Judicial discretion is a central question in both the theory and the practice of law, but it received very little explicit attention from AI&Law yet. What is more, it is often considered as the limitation of what can be formalized in law, which might have serious implications for the future of computational law. In this paper, we introduce a deontic logic extended with nuanced permissions pursuing to grasp the characteristics, normative framework of and reasoning process in the discretionary decision-making of the judge. We illustrate the modeling capacity of the Discretionary Judicial Decision Logic (DJDL) by formalizing examples from an area of law where discretion plays an openly crucial role: family law, more precisely child custody cases.

Consistency of case bases is a way to avoid the problem of retrieving conflicting constraining precedents for new cases to be decided. However, in legal practice the consistency requirements for cases bases may not be satisfied. As pointedout in [6], a model of precedential constraint should take into account the hierarchical structure of the specific legal system under consideration and the temporaldimension of cases. This article continues the research initiated in [18,9], whichestablished a connection between Boolean classifiers and legal case-based reasoning. On this basis, we enrich the classifier models with an organisational structurethat takes into account both the hierarchy of courts and which courts issue decisions that are binding/constraining on subsequent cases. We focus on common lawsystems. We also introduce a temporal relation between cases. Within this enrichedframework, we can formalise the notions of overruled cases and cases decided perincuriam: such cases are not to be considered binding on later cases. Finally, weshow under which condition principles based on the hierarchical structure and onthe temporal dimension can provide an unambiguous decision-making process fornew cases in the presence of conflicting binding precedents.

Four novel fluorescence active ligands (1–4) consisting of a 1H‐tetrazol‐1‐yl moiety as coordinating unit and a 4,4‐difluoro‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene (BODIPY) derivative as fluorophore, bridged via alkyl (‐(CH2)n‐, n=1–3) or benzyl (‐CH2‐C6H4‐) spacers were designed. Successful synthesis is demonstrated by multinuclear NMR spectroscopy, as well as powder and single crystal XRD analysis. The methylene bridged ligand 2 (4,4‐difluoro‐1,3,5,7‐tetramethyl‐8‐[(1H‐tetrazol‐1‐yl)methyl]‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene) crystallizes in different polymorphs and solvatomorphs, in contrast to the other three ligands, which show no polymorphism under identical conditions. Photophysical studies revealed high fluorescence quantum yields (69 – 95 %) in solution for the ‐(CH2)2‐ bridged ligand 3 (4,4‐difluoro‐1,3,5,7‐tetramethyl‐8‐[(1H‐tetrazol‐1‐yl)ethyl]‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene) and the ‐(CH2)3‐ bridged ligand 4 (4,4‐difluoro‐1,3,5,7‐tetramethyl‐8‐[(1H‐tetrazol‐1‐yl)propyl]‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene). Non‐radiative decay due to rotational motion of the 1H‐tetrazol‐1‐yl‐ and/or ‐CH2‐C6H4‐ moiety for 2 and 1 (4,4‐difluoro‐1,3,5,7‐tetramethyl‐8‐[4‐((1H‐tetrazol‐1‐yl)methyl)phenyl]‐4‐bora‐3a,4a‐diaza‐s‐indacene) respectively leads to reduced quantum yields of ≥35 %. Complete fluorescence quenching upon aggregation is prevented by installation of the sterically demanding 1H‐tetrazol‐1‐yl moiety and a spacer in meso‐position of the BODIPY core to elongate the intermolecular distances between two adjacent BODIPY cores. Detailed photophysical and crystallographic investigations are supported by theoretical calculations.

Objective. Microdosimetry is gaining increasing interest in particle therapy. Thanks to the advancements in microdosimeter technologies and the increasing number of experimental studies carried out in hadron therapy frameworks, it is proving to be a reliable experimental technique for radiation quality characterisation, quality assurance, and radiobiology studies. However, considering the variety of detectors used for microdosimetry, it is important to ensure the consistency of microdosimetric results measured with different types of microdosimeters. Approach. This work presents a novel multi-thickness microdosimeter and a methodology to characterise the radiation quality of a clinical carbon-ion beam. The novel device is a diamond detector made of three sensitive volumes (SVs) of different thicknesses: 2, 6 and 12 µm. The SVs, which operate simultaneously, were accurately aligned and laterally positioned within 3 mm. This alignment allowed for a comparison of the results with a negligible impact of the SVs alignment and their lateral positioning, ensuring the homogeneity of the measured radiation quality. An experimental campaign was carried out at MedAustron using a carbon-ion beam of typical clinical energy (284.7 MeV u⁻¹). Main results. The measurement results allowed for a meticulous interpretation of its radiation quality, highlighting the effect of the SV thickness. The consistency of the microdosimetric spectra measured by detectors of different thicknesses is discussed by critically analysing the spectra and the differences observed. Significance. The methodology presented will be highly valuable for future experiments investigating the effects of the target volume size in radiobiology and could be easily adapted to the other particles employed in hadron therapy for clinical (i.e. protons) and for research purposes (e.g. helium, lithium and oxygen ions).

While defects are undesirable for the reliability of electronic devices, particularly in scaled microelectronics, they have proven beneficial in numerous quantum and energy-harvesting applications. However, their potential for new computational paradigms, such as neuromorphic and brain-inspired computing, remains largely untapped. In this study, we harness defects in aggressively scaled field-effect transistors based on two-dimensional semiconductors to accelerate a stochastic inference engine that offers remarkable noise resilience. We use atomistic imaging, density functional theory calculations, device modeling, and low-temperature transport experiments to offer comprehensive insight into point defects in WSe2 FETs and their impact on random telegraph noise. We then use random telegraph noise to construct a stochastic encoder and demonstrate enhanced inference accuracy for noise-inflicted medical-MNIST images compared to a deterministic encoder, utilizing a pre-trained spiking neural network. Our investigation underscores the importance of leveraging intrinsic point defects in 2D materials as opportunities for neuromorphic computing.

A bstract We construct and discuss generic $\mathcal{N}$ N = 1 and $\mathcal{N}$ N = 2 Carroll dilaton supergravity in two dimensions. We apply our general results to the supersymmetric Carroll-Jackiw-Teitelboim model, including a discussion of specific boundary conditions. For $\mathcal{N}$ N = 2 Carroll dilaton supergravity, we find two versions, dubbed “democratic” and “despotic”.