Das Nebennierenrindenkarzinom (ACC) ist eine sehr seltene maligne Erkrankung, die mit einer infausten Prognose vergesellschaftet ist. In Zeiten apparativ geprägter Medizin treten suspekte Befunde der Nebenniere gehäufter auf als je zuvor. Diese Nebennierenraumforderungen, die zumeist bei Bildgebungen auffallen, die aus anderen Gründen indiziert waren, werden Nebenniereninzidentalome genannt und sind meist benigne Befunde. Dennoch wird es angesichts dieser steigenden Zahl an Inzidentalomen immer wichtiger, die Entität der gefundenen Raumforderung schnell zu sichern, um die entsprechende Therapie einleiten zu können. Somit sollen das Zeitfenster bis zur Krebstherapie verkleinert und gleichsam unnötige chirurgische Eingriffe bei Patient*innen mit benignen Nebennierentumoren vermieden werden. Um die diagnostischen Schritte weiter zu verbessern, wurde in der vorliegenden Arbeit eine bioinformatische Regressionsanalyse an Steroidhormonkonzentrationen von ACC-Patient*innen und Kontrollen durchgeführt und der diagnostische Wert der berechneten Steroidsignaturen untersucht. Dabei zeigte sich im geschlechtsspezifischen Modell jeweils eine 6-Steroid-Signatur mit bester Trennschärfe zwischen benignen und malignen NN-Befunden. So konnte mit der 6-Steroid-Signatur in der männlichen Patientengruppe mit einer Sensitivität von 80% und Spezifität von 97%, in der weiblichen Patientinnengruppe mit einer Sensitivität von 78% und Spezifität von 97% die Diagnose richtig zugewiesen werden. Im Rahmen der targeted Metabolomics Untersuchung konnten Tumor-assoziierte Stoffwechselalterationen aufgezeigt werden. Eine Plasma-Metabolit-Signatur zur Differenzierung von ACCs und Nebennierenadenomen, welche die gängige Diagnostik bei der Abklärung von unklaren Nebennierentumoren erleichtern könnte, erscheint jedoch angesichts der großen Anzahl an zu bestimmenden Metaboliten - auch unter ökonomischen Gesichtspunkten - zu diesem Zeitpunkt noch nicht mit der Routine-Patient*innenversorgung vereinbar. / Adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) is a very rare malignant disease and is associated with poor prognosis. Suspicious findings of the adrenal gland occur more frequently than ever before. Adrenal mass which is detected on imaging that is not performed for suspected adrenal disease is called adrenal incidentaloma. In most cases adrenal incidentalomas reveal benign findings. Malignancy is rare. Nevertheless, in view of this increasing number of incidentalomas diagnostic tools are needed to be able to initiate the appropriate therapy. In order to further improve the diagnostic steps, a bioinformatic regression analysis of steroid hormone concentrations of ACC patients and controls was carried out in the present work and the diagnostic value of the calculated steroid signatures was examined. The gender-specific model revealed a 6-steroid signature to be most discriminative between benign and malignant adrenocortical tumors. Thus, by applying the 6-steroid signature in the male patient group diagnosis could be correctly assigned with a sensitivity of 80% and specificity of 97%, in the female patient group with a sensitivity of 78% and specificity of 97%. As part of the targeted metabolomics examination, tumor-associated metabolic alterations were detected. However, a plasma metabolite signature for the differential diagnosis of adrenocortical tumors does not yet seem compatible with routine patient care regarding the large number of metabolites to be determined - also from an economic point of view.

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The flow over a set of tandem cylinders at a moderate Reynolds numbers (Re), and with different separation lengths has been studied. Two dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) plasma actuators were used to control the flow over the leading cylinder to change the vortex shedding, and subsequently the flow on the second cylinder. The 3D plasma actuator was segmented along the length of the cylinder with a spacing of λ = 4 while the 2D actuator simply ran straight down the span of the cylinder. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were used to investigate the flow along the central plane in the wake of the cylinders. The image pairs were processed into velocity grids which were then averaged. Plots of the shear, vorticity, and turbulent kinetic energy were created. These plots are used to understand how the character of vortex shedding from the upstream cylinder changes the same from the downstream one.

The utilization of steady state flow of air over tandem circular cylinders has several applications in engineering systems. Incompressible flow over circular cylinders in tandem at different spacing with and without plasma actuation on the leading cylinder will be investigated in this paper to understand the effects of plasma actuation on flow properties and wake region of the two cylinders in cross flow. The principal focus of the research is on the use of experimental and computational methods to study and provide valid results, the research will analyze the wake region, the effect of Reynolds number and the longitudinal spacing between cylinder on vortex shedding, aerodynamic parameters i.e. lift, drag, pressure differential, etc. The research will be conducted for steady flow at Reynold number, Re = U∞ L/v between 5000 and 8000 for air. The turbulence of the wake and dynamic instability of the experimental is characterized by the Strouhal number, St = fL/U∞ frequency of the vortex shedding in the wake which is directly proportional to the spacing, λ from center to center of cylinders between 3 to 5 inches. The dependencies on critical values of Re and St in symmetric flow over cylinders to show the instability of the flow regime in previous research. At Re = 5000 the vortex co-shedding on the second cylinder would occur at critical spacing, λccharacterized by the Re - St relationship at 3 ≤ λ ≤ 5 in the flow regime. The use of plasma actuation in fluid dynamics to control flow velocity by generating momentum to force atmospheric pressure and velocity in external flow with Single- Dielectric Barrier Discharge(SDBD) for both two and three-dimensional, 2D and 3D actuator (straight and segmented actuator). The SDBD actuators are mounted spanwise on the leading cylinder for both 2D and 3D to impact momentum, therefore, forcing the wake regime. Computational Analysis is utilized for result and data pre-processing. The steady three-dimensional flow of tandem cylinders can be studied through Large Eddy Simulation (LES) using a subgrid-scale model to compare numerical and experimental results for the same setup and physical conditions. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is used to resolve time series images from flow visualization of the experiment, the images are processed to visualize velocity vectors of the flow regimes. The velocity profile of the flow can be averaged and plotted for all instantaneous time-series images processed in PIV by Dynamic Mode Decomposition (DMD) or Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) to generate common eigenvalues and eigenvector of the large dimension PIV data which shows the average properties of the flow properties.

Tandem cylinder flow control in the form of dielectric barrier discharge, DBD, plasma actuation on the upstream cylinder is used to control the wake and flow around the downstream cylinder. Twin spanwise-oriented plasma actuators are mounted at ± 80 degrees from the forward stagnation point of the upstream cylinder. The actuators are powered with two different AC voltage levels, low-power forcing and high-power forcing. Flow control experiments are performed at Reynolds number 4,700, and cylinder spacing range 3 > L/D > 5. Results include pressure measurements on the downstream cylinder and wake surveys using Particle Image Velocimetry, PIV. High-power forcing reduces the height between vorticity peaks behind upstream cylinder and, in the case of L=3D, restricts upstream wake from impinging on downstream cylinder.

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