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Educational institutions have increasing needs for professional digital communication. When selecting suitable communication tools, there is a need for appropriate information as a basis for decision-making. Messenger communication in particular is strongly integrated into people's private everyday lives. While needs for extensive data-secure communication in educational contexts are increasing, there is a lack of concepts for data-protected and privacy-preserving support of educational processes through software (Karaboga et al 2014; Digitalcourage e.V. n.d.) , as well as for mandatory training for professionals (Zorn, Tillmann, and Kaminski 2014; Imort and Niesyto 2014), and reliable information for viable software alternatives. This paper outlines the specific requirements of educational institutions when selecting suitable software, using messenger communication as an example. From these requirements, criteria for needed information are presented as a basis for software selection decisions in three categories: data protection/privacy, accessibility/low-barrier, practicability. Since no criteria and good practice suggestions were available so far, a study was conducted to elicit the characteristics of potentially suitable messenger software. To this end, the necessary criteria for the three categories mentioned were first defined and then German and well-known international messengers were tested for data protection criteria. Based on the results for conformity with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as an inclusion criterion, the messengers in question were subjected to a practical test. In the process, additional practicality criteria were developed, in part iteratively.
In addition to institution-internal messengers, six services were identified among the freely available provider-dependent messengers that can be used in a GDPR-compliant manner, at least for users over the age of 16. At the time of publication, this leaves only five: Threema, Wire, SID, Ginlo, Chiffry. Furthermore, provider-independent messenger systems that adhere to the international standard protocol for the exchange of chat messages (XMPP) appear to be a viable option for educational institutions. In-house or commissioned server hosting would then be possible and a corresponding agreement for commissioned data processing can be concluded with an IT service provider.
The decisions to use "Wire" and "Threema Work" in the IDiT project context are explained and justified. The context was vocational training for prospective office management clerks at vocational schools and vocational training centers. Although the underlying considerations are tailored to the project context (application in the Berufsförderungswerk Köln), they can be generalized.
This thesis is aimed for finding a solution for non-gaming application of Virtual Reality technology in data visualization and analysis. Starting by reconstructing the concept of Virtual Reality, the paper then describes the principles, concepts and techniques of designing a Virtual Reality application. In the last part of the thesis, a detailed description of how a prototype implemented is presented to provide a preview of how data visualization and analysis and Virtual Reality technology can be combined together in order to enable users to perceive and comprehend data in a possibly better way.
Configuration of energy transition factors in Inner Mongolia: A qualitative fuzzy logic approach
(2022)
Transitioning towards a low-carbon society is now increasingly becoming a global concern. The goal of successfully achieving this energy transition has become one of most pressing challenge, both among government decision makers and academia. Energy transition has raised up and become one of the top action priorities in China. Inner Mongolia, as the study area in this research, is significant in China's energy transition as one of leading provinces in terms of energy resources and electricity outward transmission.
The main goal of this dissertation is to identify configurations that influence on the energy transition in IMAR. On the basis of a multilevel perspective (MLP) framework, the method of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is applied within the thesis, taking 8 Chinese municipalities or leagues as study cases. A qualitative comparative study is carried out of configurations of diversified factors, which affect China’s energy transition. Eight antecedent conditions extracted from landscape level, regime level and niche level respectively.
It is shown that different transition trajectories can have a similar energy transition outcome. Energy transition itself is induced by multiple factors collaboratively. Coal resource curse does not always have negative effects on energy transition in Inner Mongolia. Within this work, two main energy transition modes (supply and demand balance reversed mode in western IMAR and energy technological transformation mode in eastern IMAR) are constructed based on regional differences and yearly dynamics, illustrating the trajectories with different municipal characteristics. The transition pattern also shows different geographical characteristics. Different east-west distribution of the electricity market distributes differently in eastern and western Inner Mongolia, however, the difference in distinct forms of electricity market does not show enough impact on the energy transition trajectory in this dissertation. Overall, this study shows that the local response and its effects on the process of energy transition, in the light of the encouragement and advocacy by the central government. Meanwhile, this study offers a deeper understanding in the feasibility of the application with a methodological combination of MLP and fsQCA in provincial level for future research.
The synthesis of 17-hydroxy-oleic acid based oligomeric esters was investigated with immobilized Pseudozyma antarctica Lipase B and hexanediol as co-substrate. The effects of different reaction parameters on velocity and product composition at equilibrium conditions were analyzed. The synthesis of oleic acid esters was used as a reference system for initial evaluation of reaction parameters. The reaction with oleic acid and hexanediol was fastest at an enzyme concentration of 5% at 60 °C and high conversions of > 90 % were achieved in non-polar solvents in the presence of molecular sieves. In heptane an oleic acid conversion of 96 % was reached with a final diester to monoester ratio of > 4:1. In syntheses trials with 17-hydroxy-oleic acid the formation of oligomers was verified with GPC, however; conversion was generally lower than with oleic acid. Removal of hydroxyl fatty acid monomers and dimers and the formation ester functionalities could be verified by GC analysis. An increase of the degree of oligomerization was observed simultaneously by GPC analysis. The number-average molecular weight was around 1400 in the best trials corresponding to a degree of oligomerization of around 4 units of hydroxyl-fatty acid attached to a hexanediol core. Though transformations were not complete, the final oligomer size was in the lower range of polyester diols used for polyurethane manufacturing.
Starmerella bombicola is known to produce sub‐terminally hydroxylated lactonic sophorolipids (SLs), while Candida kuoi synthesizes acidic open chain SLs with terminally hydroxylated fatty acids. Upon feeding glucose and fatty alcohols both strains form long‐chain nonionic SLs. According to structure elucidation the SLs consist of a hydroxylated fatty acid esterified with fatty alcohol and linked via a glycoside bond to the diacetylated sophorose unit. Palmityl, stearyl, and oleyl alcohols lead to products with lipid chain lengths of C32 or C36. Oleyl alcohol is the preferred substrate leading to 45 g L−1 of the double unsaturated C36 SL with S. bombicola and 20 g L−1 with C. kuoi. Scale up from shake flask to 1.5 L fermentations is possible and 65 g L−1 long‐chain SLs are obtained with S. bombicola within 7 days. Mixed feeding of oleic acid and a variety of fatty alcohols leads to new long‐chain SLs. In the presence of oleic acid the yeasts do not oxidize the fatty alcohol and thus the production of biosurfactants with tailored chain length is possible. The long‐chain SLs show good emulsification ability of water/paraffin oil mixtures at low energy input and reduced interfacial tension significantly.
Practical Applications: Sophorolipids are produced by fermentation on industrial scale focusing on cleaning and detergent applications. Mainly lactonic or anionic open‐chain forms are used today. The new long‐chain SLs presented in this manuscript are accessible with existing production technology and can be produced with high titers from cost‐efficient renewable raw materials. In contrast to the commercial products the long‐chain SLs are more hydrophobic and exhibit a strong emulsification behavior. Therefore they have the potential to broaden the application range of SLs in future. They may be useful as novel emulsifiers for cosmetic creams and lotions, pharmaceutical ointments and food products or may find application in oil spill remediation.
Development of renewable energy projects within photovoltaic energy sector has reached unrestrainable pace in recent years and thus the investors are more vigilantly considering the further business deployment towards this sector. Underpinned with clear support from KfW Development Bank, the company MACS Energy & Water GmbH decided to facilitate future verification of credit lines towards these projects by deploying special eSaveTM software which would include technical and financial appraisals specially designed for their clients. Hereof this thesis comprises the initial phase development of this software within the MS Excel and endeavors to provide a proper guideline for the software engineers included in this task in the company. In order to simplify the explanation process this report sticks to 50 kW power plant project in Prokuplje. It is anticipated that this model would enhance, improve and expedite the feasibility analysis between the cooperatives by delivering the projections of energy yield, payback periods and sensitivity analysis of the loan conditions specified for the target country and PV projects in the same. However, besides this main task this report aims to fulfill all the other necessary prerequisites for accomplishing a good due diligence practice. Therefore the thesis places its focus to Republic of Serbia where exceptional due diligence reports were made, among which the Prokuplje project, and compiles the assessments in terms of legal, environmental and risk into one general framework for PV projects in this country. By doing so, the desktop-based model and results obtained with this user-friendly tool can lean on the full due diligence assessment and provide the reader a clear comprehensive overview of possibility to invest into this renewable energy sector in Republic of Serbia.
Keywords: PV, Due diligence, Serbia, eSaveTM, feasibility, model
This is the fifth time that TH Köln has conducted this study to examine the local XR industry´on behalf of Mediencluster NRW GmbH, a subsidiary of Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. Aside from the two surveys on the North Rhine-Westphalian sector, there have now been three studies on the nationwide XR (extended or cross reality) sector in Germany. By this we mean all companies that create products and services in the field of virtual, mixed or augmented reality (but not firms that employ XR as users).
In this work, we propose a novel data-driven approach to recover missing or corrupted motion capture data, either in the form of 3D skeleton joints or 3D marker trajectories. We construct a knowledge-base that contains prior existing knowledge, which helps us to make it possible to infer missing or corrupted information of the motion capture data. We then build a kd-tree in parallel fashion on the GPU for fast search and retrieval of this already available knowledge in the form of nearest neighbors from the knowledge-base efficiently. We exploit the concept of histograms to organize the data and use an off-the-shelf radix sort algorithm to sort the keys within a single processor of GPU. We query the motion missing joints or markers, and as a result, we fetch a fixed number of nearest neighbors for the given input query motion. We employ an objective function with multiple error terms that substantially recover 3D joints or marker trajectories in parallel on the GPU. We perform comprehensive experiments to evaluate our approach quantitatively and qualitatively on publicly available motion capture datasets, namely CMU and HDM05. From the results, it is observed that the recovery of boxing, jumptwist, run, martial arts, salsa, and acrobatic motion sequences works best, while the recovery of motion sequences of kicking and jumping results in slightly larger errors. However, on average, our approach executes outstanding results. Generally, our approach outperforms all the competing state-of-the-art methods in the most test cases with different action sequences and executes reliable results with minimal errors and without any user interaction.
Online-measurement systems for agricultural and industrial AD plants – A review and practice test
(2014)
Online-measurement systems for AD plants in general are crucial to allow for detailed and comprehensive process monitoring and provide a basis for the development and practical application of process optimisation and control strategies.
Nevertheless, the online measurement of key process variables such as Volatile Fatty Acids (VFA) and Total Alkalinity (TA) has proven to be difficult due to extreme process conditions. High Total Solids (TS) concentrations and extraneous material often damage the sensors or have a strong negative impact on measurement quality and long-term behaviour.
Consequently, there is a need for new robust and accurate online-measurement systems.
The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of existing online-measurement systems, to present the current state of research and to show the results of practice tests at an agricultural and industrial AD plant. It becomes obvious that a broad variety of measurement solutions have been developed over the past few years, but that the main problem is the upscaling from lab-scale to practical application at full-scale AD plants. Results from the practice tests show that an online-measurement of pH, ORP, TS is possible.
Diskussionen über Gleichwertigkeitsbeschlüsse und bilateral ausgehandelte Abkommen wie z. B. das Covered Agreement zur Regelung des Betriebs von Rückversicherungsgeschäft zwischen der EU und den Vereinigten Staaten könnten für international tätige Versicherungsgruppen zukünftig der Vergangenheit angehören. Als Vereinigung von Versicherungsbehörden aus über 200 Ländern arbeitet die International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS) seit 2013 an der Entwicklung eines risikobasierten, global anwendbaren Kapitalstandards (Insurance Capital Standard – ICS). Übergeordnetes Ziel ist die Schaffung eines übergreifenden Regulierungsrahmens für große international tätige Versicherungsgruppen mit Mindeststandards für die Bewertung von Risiken und daraus resultierenden Anforderungen an die Kapitalausstattung.
Es liegt in der Natur der Sache, dass bei der Entwicklung eines globalen Kapitalstandards die Interessen aus vielen verschiedenen Jurisdiktionen mit unterschiedlichen Systemen aufeinandertreffen (insbesondere trifft die verschiedenen Aufsichtsregime aus Europa und den Vereinigten Staaten aufeinander). Das IAIS hat sich zum Ziel gesetzt, die Interessengruppen zusammen zu bringen und ohne die lokalen Aufsichtsregime in den Jurisdiktionen auszuklammern, einen globalen Mindestkapitalstandard für international tätige Versicherungsgruppen zu entwickeln.
Der ICS wird im Rahmen der Konsolidierungsmethode berechnet und weist daher viele Ähnlichkeiten mit Solvency II auf. Der US Alternativansatz wird im Rahmen der Aggregationsmethode berechnet und soll ähnliche Ergebnisse zur Konsolidierungsmethode liefern.
Am Ende stellt sich für die europäischen (Rück-)Versicherungsunternehmen die Frage, ob man akzeptiert, dass US Ansatz äquivalent zum ICS ist, um das Ziel eines globalen Kapitalstandards als Level Playing Field zu etablieren.
In its Renewables 2022 Report, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects that the share of renewable energies in the global energy mix will increase from 22.8% in 2015 to 38.1% in 2027. This trend goes hand-in-hand with increasing construction of plants for the generation of renewable energies, leading to increased demand for (re)insurance. Comparable to the development of traditional energy sources, the hedging of current risks is a key element in the further development of renewable energies. According to projections by the IEA, by 2027 most of the energy from renewable sources will be generated using photovoltaics or solar as well as onshore and offshore wind.
Due to the present developments of the Internet and its technical components, the skills of the web experts have to be more and more complex and specific. The Internet experts in the creative field are located distributedly around the whole world. As a result, many companies have problems to find the needed experts on site and are dependent on creative cooperations and virtual teams with the help of technical tools. The virtual working place is an important issue, particularly in modern times and the market offers more and more cooperation systems for exactly this purpose: Creative cooperation in distributed working situations. This thesis examines the approaches of creative cooperation and cooperation technologies with an analysis about existing cooperation systems with a creative context. It spans a wide range of tools. On the one hand, there are approaches which offer only straightforward solutions for single design tasks. On the other hand, there are providers which recognised the great need of creative cooperation systems and working at full speed to extend their systems. The examined areas of this work lead to a design process oriented approach with flexible frames and enough space for the creative development of every single user. The cooperation in a creative context stays in the foreground and is the base for future approaches for the web design sector.
Urbanization processes are one of the main factors for habitat loss and fragmentation, driving global biodiversity loss and species extinction. The neotropical Atlantic forest in Brazil is considered a global key biodiversity hotspot and used to be one of the most extensive forests of the Americas. Due to substantial deforestation over centuries, its landscape was transformed into a mosaic of small forest fragments surrounded by a predominantly agricultural matrix. Urban expansion and rural urbanization have created peri-urban zones, which still can harbor natural habitat remnants,
contributing to biological diversity and thus providing essential ecosystem services to urban and rural areas. The maintenance of such ecosystem services requires an understanding of the ecological processes in the ecosystem. A prerequisite for such an in-depth insight is the quantification of the underlying ecosystem functions. The ecosystem function pest control, a trophic interaction between insectivorous birds and herbivorous arthropods, was quantified in an empirical study using artificial caterpillars as prey models. This technique allows the identification of predator groups and the assessment of their predation rates. A total of 888 plasticine caterpillars were distributed at eight sites in secondary forest fragments surrounding the university campus of the federal university of São Carlos (UFScar) in peri-urban Sorocaba, southeastern Brazil. In sixteen point counts, 72 insect-eating birds, belonging to 19 species, were identified as possible artificial caterpillar attackers. Local habitat variables were measured to describe the forest vegetation structure and the landscape context. The study aimed to assess which structural components of the
forest fragments, together with the recorded bird community variables (abundance, richness, αdiversity), best explain the estimated predation rates by birds. The mean predation rate for birds was 8.25 ± 6.3 % for a reference period of eight days, representing the first quantification of the ecosystem function pest control for the study area. The three treatments of caterpillar placement heights (ground, stem: 0.5 -1.0 m, leaf: 1.5 - 2.0 m) were the best and only estimator to explain bird
predation rates. The little dense understory and ground vegetation might have facilitated the accessibility of artificial caterpillars, especially for carnivorous arthropods and birds. The detected contrast in their foraging and predation patterns suggests that arthropods and birds complement each other in their function of pest control. Bird predation rates were found to be negatively related to the vegetation structure. Thus, more open habitats, with less understory and low tree density, but high canopy cover and including dead trees were correlated with the highest predation rates and also exhibited more specialized forest-dependent bird species. This study confirms the importance of the maintenance of forest fragments in peri-urban areas, even if they are small, to preserve forest-associated birds, to contribute to the biological diversity on a broader scale, and to prevent the loss of ecosystem functions and services, mitigating some of the adverse effects of urbanization. Further investigation of the effect among the three treatments of caterpillar
placement on the predation rates is encouraged, including comparative studies among different habitat types. For future studies, it is recommended to model the avian community variables with the vegetation structure measures to predict habitat preferences of insectivorous birds. Therefore, the sampling of more units and on a bigger scale, including over a more extended period, is necessary to improve the robustness of the results, which could provide the basis for a monetary analysis of the ecosystem service pest control by birds.
Risk-based authentication (RBA) is an adaptive security measure to strengthen password-based authentication. RBA monitors additional implicit features during password entry such as device or geolocation information, and requests additional authentication factors if a certain risk level is detected. RBA is recommended by the NIST digital identity guidelines, is used by several large online services, and offers protection against security risks such as password database leaks, credential stuffing, insecure passwords and large-scale guessing attacks. Despite its relevance, the procedures used by RBA-instrumented online services are currently not disclosed. Consequently, there is little scientific research about RBA, slowing down progress and deeper understanding, making it harder for end users to understand the security provided by the services they use and trust, and hindering the widespread adoption of RBA.
In this paper, with a series of studies on eight popular online services, we (i) analyze which features and combinations/classifiers are used and are useful in practical instances, (ii) develop a framework and a methodology to measure RBA in the wild, and (iii) survey and discuss the differences in the user interface for RBA. Following this, our work provides a first deeper understanding of practical RBA deployments and helps fostering further research in this direction.
Online services such as social networks, online shops, and search engines deliver different content to users depending on their location, browsing history, or client device. Since these services have a major influence on opinion forming, understanding their behavior from a social science perspective is of greatest importance. In addition, technical aspects of services such as security or privacy are becoming more and more relevant for users, providers, and researchers. Due to the lack of essential data sets, automatic black box testing of online services is currently the only way for researchers to investigate these services in a methodical and reproducible manner. However, automatic black box testing of online services is difficult since many of them try to detect and block automated requests to prevent bots from accessing them.
In this paper, we introduce a testing tool that allows researchers to create and automatically run experiments for exploratory studies of online services. The testing tool performs programmed user interactions in such a manner that it can hardly be distinguished from a human user. To evaluate our tool, we conducted - among other things - a large-scale research study on Risk-based Authentication (RBA), which required human-like behavior from the client. We were able to circumvent the bot detection of the investigated online services with the experiments. As this demonstrates the potential of the presented testing tool, it remains to the responsibility of its users to balance the conflicting interests between researchers and service providers as well as to check whether their research programs remain undetected.
The southeast of Córdoba province used to be originally covered by hundreds of wetlands that got heavily modified or drained in the last few decades. Since wetlands provide various important ecosystem services (ESS) for human well-being, their degradation created several problems in La Picasa basin, among which floods are the most obvious one. The wise use of wetlands is increasingly acknowledged to be part of nature-based solution approaches reducing disaster risk. However, in the study area these approaches remain a relatively new concept to decision makers and the lack of knowledge on their effectiveness and implementation process poses a serious barrier to their adoption.
To overcome this obstacle, this dissertation applies an ESS perspective on the current problems of La Picasa basin and sets it in a context of socio-ecological system (SES) theory. A comprehensive analysis of (1) the role wetlands have played in the historic development of the SES, (2) important stakeholder dynamics that create opportunities or restrictions for the conservation of wetlands and (3) possible management approaches to inverse negative ESS trade-offs and feedback loops, was performed.
Results demonstrate that the current problems of floods have both natural and anthropogenic causes. In this regard, wetlands hold a vital role in the complex historic interactions between the social and ecological drivers of changes in the water balance. Although a social network between stakeholders exists, several conflicts prevent a proper functioning of a basin-wide integrated management concept based on wetland restoration. Nature-based solution approaches, putting wetlands in the center of attention of future management strategies, were found to hold a high potential to reduce the risk of floods and, as a side-effect boost biodiversity and habitat quality in the study area.
Circular economy (CE) has received considerable interest in recent years as a strategy to resolve some of our modern urban resource challenges, and circular city models often incorporate systems of urban agriculture in their design. Much work has analyzed the benefits of urban agriculture for creating a resilient food system and as a strategy for supporting urban green space and social cohesion, however, the contributions from business models that operate within urban agriculture have not been thoroughly studied. Many urban agriculture businesses often claim high levels of resource recycling and material circularity, though whether a resource efficiency throughout the entire product lifetime (including energy and material footprint for the cultivation equipment) in comparison to current industrial strategies is truly feasible or even possible is still to be debated. This thesis builds upon work that incorporates social dimensions of CE definitions and begins to research whether the potential resource efficiency contradiction can be justified as to make urban agriculture a valid approach for circular city design. This study examined an urban mushroom farm that implements a circular business model. A qualitative summary of the business operations and resource flows were unpacked and sorted into 24 socio-economic contributions based on their interpreted relevance. The interpreted data shows that an urban agriculture business model can contribute to the building blocks of a CE through economic, ecological, social, and spatial contributions. While these contributions can contribute positively to the operationalization of CE, potential trade-offs regarding resource efficiency, use of urban space, and investment priorities need to be considered and addressed to avoid a possible watering down or greenwashing of the CE concept.
Feasibility Study of Wheel Torque Prediction with a Recurrent Neural Network Using Vehicle Data
(2023)
In this paper, we present a feasibility study on predicting the torque signal of a passenger car with the help of a neural network. In addition, we analyze the possibility of using the proposed model structure for temperature prediction. This was carried out with a neural network, specifically a three-layer long short-term memory (LSTM) network. The data used were real road load data from a Jaguar Land Rover Evoque with a Twinster gearbox from GKN. The torque prediction generated good results with an accuracy of 55% and a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 49 Nm, considering that the data were not generated under laboratory conditions. However, the performance of predicting the temperature signal was not satisfying with a coefficient of determination (R2) score of −1.396 and an RMSE score of 69.4 °C. The prediction of the torque signal with the three-layer LSTM network was successful but the transferability of the network to another signal (temperature) was not proven. The knowledge gained from this investigation can be of importance for the development of virtual sensor technology.
Grasping and manipulation with anthropomorphic robotic and prosthetic hands presents a scientific challenge regarding mechanical design, sensor system, and control. Apart from the mechanical design of such hands, embedding sensors needed for closed-loop control of grasping tasks remains a hard problem due to limited space and required high level of integration of different components. In this paper we present a scalable design model of artificial fingers, which combines mechanical design and embedded electronics with a sophisticated multi-modal sensor system consisting of sensors for sensing normal and shear force, distance, acceleration, temperature, and joint angles. The design is fully parametric, allowing automated scaling of the fingers to arbitrary dimensions in the human hand spectrum. To this end, the electronic parts are composed of interchangeable modules that facilitate the echanical scaling of the fingers and are fully enclosed by the mechanical parts of the finger. The resulting design model allows deriving freely scalable and multimodally sensorised fingers for robotic and prosthetic hands. Four physical demonstrators are assembled and tested to evaluate the approach.
Due to the global phenomenon of climate change the region of Mara Siana is projected to increasingly face extreme weather events that particularly comprise prolonged droughts and
heavier rainfalls. To be able to adequately adapt to these changing circumstances and maintain their livelihoods communities need to build respective capacities. As the main objective, this research aims at determining landowners’ climate change adaptative capacity (CCAC) across different villages in Mara Siana. Accordingly, a semi-quantitative approach was carried out including qualitative interviews and the subsequent quantitative calculation of CCAC based on a multidimensional indicator set and a respective coding
system. In addition to predominantly positive results of socio-cultural characteristics and the quality of natural resources, this work reveals clear weaknesses and potential for improvement in the areas of income security and financial stability, the expansion and resilience of infrastructure, and the relationship between communities and local authorities. Moreover, differences in capacity results are not only identified between the investigated villages as well as between individual households but also systemic disadvantage in capacity building affecting female landowners and community members can be indicated from the obtained interview data. Therefore, this research gives concrete recommendations for the implementation and verification of suitable adaptive measures that are particularly tailored for the improvement of low-performance indicators while following a gendertransformative approach and thus hold the potential to increase CCAC in the long-term.
Lihong Wang reported on the rapid expansion of Chinese Online Insurance. With the ongoing lifestyle and demographic changes, online insurance is becoming one of China's key distributional and operational business models. More than 140 Chinese insurance companies had launched an online business by 2021, with a total premium of 298 billion Yuan (US$45 billion) or 6% of the industry total. Over 7741 enterprises are registered and involved in online insurance. Despite ongoing pandemic issues and lockdowns, online insurance became the accelerators for premium growth in China, especially in the life and health insurance sectors. While the opportunities are enormous, online insurers are facing a number of challenges, such as tightening regulations, a shortage of competent advisors, rising fraud and global recessions. With over 900 million mobile users in China and a population that is ageing and witnessing a reduction in fertility, online insurance will keep growing.
This presentation briefly introduces my research project: The Covid-19 impact on the Chinese insurance and reinsurance industry. In the following, I will give you some background information, an overview of the macro implications and some details on the impact on each line of business. Finally, I will end with an outlook for the industry following COVID-19.
The prolonged US-China trade tension, initiated in 2017, has led to significant consequences, impacting global supply chains and causing economic tension between the two largest economies. Particularly affecting the automotive sector, the trade war has influenced motor insurance premiums in China, contributing to a declining trend in non-life insurance growth rates from 2017 to 2021. However, a positive outlook is projected for 2023-2026, indicating potential recovery opportunities. The trade war's short-term impacts on the Chinese motor insurance market include increased costs, low premium growth, and economic challenges. In the long term, transformative changes, including market diversification, innovative products, data-driven pricing, and technology-enabled risk prevention, are expected to shape a dynamic and competitive motor insurance landscape in China, offering growth potential despite initial challenges.
Air-blast loading is a serious threat to military and civil vehicles, buildings, containers, and cargo. Applications of sandwich-structured composites have attracted increasing interest in modern lightweight design and in the construction of dynamic loading regimes due to their high resistance against blast and ballistic impacts. The functional properties of such composites are determined by the interplay of their face sheet material and the employed core topology. The core topology is the most important parameter affecting the structural behavior of sandwich composites. Therefore, this contribution presents a thorough numerical investigation of different core topologies in sandwich-structured composites subjected to blast loading. Special emphasis is put on prismatic and lattice core topologies displaying auxetic and classical non-auxetic deformation characteristics in order to illustrate the beneficial properties of auxetic core topologies. Their dynamic responses, elastic and plastic deformations, failure mechanisms, and energy absorption capabilities are numerically analyzed and compared. The numerical studies are performed by means of the commercial finite element code ABAQUS/Explicit, including a model for structural failure.
In the last decade, the utilization of waste by-product apple pomace has been extensively researched (due to its difficult disposal) and currently finds beneficial usage in various industries; as substrate for microbial growth or recovery of pectin, xyloglucan and polyphenols. In this research apple juice was produced at pilot scale. Furthermore, apple pomace was employed as substrate for the production of pectin, biofuel (pellets) and concentrated apple pomace extract. Extensive mass and heat balances were conducted to evaluate the feasibility of this approach on industrial scale. The produced pellets had very similar characteristics to wood pellets (net calorific value of 20.3 MJ/kg). Dried apple pomace contained 11.9% of pectin. Fed-batch cultivation of baker´s yeast with apple pomace extract demonstrated a potential for partial substitution of molasses in industrial bioprocesses. This concept shows how a zero discharge biorefinery process converts waste from apple juice production into three valuable products enabling connections between different industries.
The effects of global warming, the depletion of non-renewable resources, the loss of biodiversity and a growing population, has affected nature and humanity over the past decades. Unless we change course in how we produce and consume, severe consequences for life on this Planet in the future are likely to follow. Based on that background, this paper looks at one area of consumption, namely food, and analyses a particular market within this area which causes high environmental pressures, i.e. the meat market. After having laid the theoretical foundation of sustainable consumption, an overview of the problems arising in the food sector in general and the meat market in particular is given. An in-depth analysis of the consumption of meat in one country, namely Germany, follows. Germany has been chosen as an exemplary for a country showing an excessive consumption of meat. This contributes to the problems linked to the meat market. The past development of the consumption of meat is evaluated and forms the basis for predicting a possible development of meat consumption in Germany until 2025. Based on the findings, conclusions are drawn about a possible trend towards sustainable consumption in the German meat market.
This paper gives a practical approach to the area of business ethics, in particular to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), via analyzing how the retail chain REWE shows its commitment to its social responsibilities as defined by the four-part model of CSR. As Fairtrade offers one way for fulfilling social responsibilities, in particular the ethical and philanthropic responsibilities of CSR, REWE’s participation in selling Fairtrade products is analyzed. This analysis is conducted by applying the criteria for receiving the Fairtrade Award to REWE which allows drawing conclusions about REWE’s commitment to Fairtrade. Information for this assessment is taken from publicly available sources as well as from personal communication with the Fairtrade organization TransFair. The paper further gives an indication about the match between REWE’s communication – as the selling of Fairtrade products is communicated via REWE’s sustainability program – and REWE’s action concerning social responsibility, expressed by its commitment to Fairtrade. Implementing a sustainability program is one way for companies to exercise CSR and thus the analysis conducted concerning REWE’s commitment to Fairtrade is an attempt to answer the question whether companies’ communication about their CSR efforts matches their actions.
This contribution deals with the topic of the consistent further development of a wheel hub motor for battery electric vehicles (BEV) based on the principle of an outer rotor switched reluctance machine (SRM). The research work presented in this paper was founded by the ERDF.NRW program, Investment for Growth and Employment and the European Regional Development Fund. The R&D project was named Switched - Reluctance fo(u)r wheel (SR4Wheel). Based on the experience made by first prototype Evolution 0 (EVO 0), developed in the Laboratory for Automation Engineering, Power Electronics and Electrical Drives of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS), the test results of EVO 1, as well as the redesign, EVO 2 is presented in this paper.
The prototype EVO 0, a first proof of concept leads to several optimizations and lessons learned for the predecessor model EVO 1. The overall target of developing such a gearless outer rotor wheel hub motor is the full integration of the complete machine including its power electronics into the given space between the original friction brake and the rim. Furthermore, due to the additional integration of the power electronics, great opportunities in terms of new vehicle design as well as retrofitting capabilities of already existing vehicle platforms can be achieved. Thereby, further drive train assembly space like the engine compartment is no longer necessary. The SRM does not require magnets for torque production which leads to independence from the changeable commodity prices on the rare earth element markets. This paper presents the developing process, testing, and verification of the innovative drive train concept starting with the final CAD of EVO 1. During the testing and verification process a machine characteristic mapping is performed on a drive train test bench and subsequently the results of a finite element analysis (FEA) are plausibility checked by the test bench results. The process continues with energy conversion test scenarios of the project demonstrator vehicle on a roller test bench focused on noise vibrationharshness (NVH) behavior and efficiency. As a conclusion, the gained knowledge by evaluating two EVO 1 prototypes on the rear axle of the test vehicle, and the design for the front axle drive train EVO 2 will be presented. As a major task on the front axle, the limited space due to the large disc brake can be identified and solved.
The increasing public awareness of business related impacts on environmental and social well-being, be it positive or negative, are nowadays key drivers of corporate success. Internal and external business environments exert pressure and force transparency as well as responsible action in terms of resolving environmental and social impacts. In line with this, Porter and Kramer regard business behaviour that addresses societal needs and challenges, as the “new way to achieve economic success”.
However, whereas some companies “remain trapped in an out-dated approach to value creation” and restrict their CSR commitment to the compliance with governmental regulation, others proactively address stakeholder needs. By addressing these needs, companies can benefit from grasping the opportunity of enhanced cost efficiency and lowered risk or gaining competitive advantages through establishing unique value propositions, in a way that meets stakeholder demands. Apart from that, CSR performance can be seen as powerful tool to successfully influence stakeholder perceptions in terms of reputation, and thus an exceptional source of value creation. In addition to this, organisations can profit from win-win-win situations related to syncretic value creation by means of partnering with stakeholders. This, however, implies expanding the focus of cost- and risk-reduction towards increasing competitiveness through creating mutual benefits for environment, society and the economy alike.
Although a growing number of companies have recognised the advantages coming along with Corporate Social Responsibility engagement, the accompanying efforts have not been sufficiently mature yet. Due to the fact that many organizations apply a rather narrow and out-dated approach to value creation, they fail to achieve a balance between environmental, social and economic objectives. This, in turn, implies a restriction in their ability to exploit the full value creation potential that is related to CSR engagement. But even organisations applying a broader perspective of value creation, struggle to internalise the opportunities. This is mainly due the challenge of balancing and integrating economic and non-economic criteria. At the same time, organizations are facing the challenge of getting support from senior management and staff. Thus, in order to profit from adopting a ‘broad perspective’, firms must build a deep understanding of the benefits resulting from mutual value creation. However, the main challenge remains the systematic and strategy related integration of Corporate Social Responsibility strategies into core business processes. In respect to this, organizations have to take into account that “social and environment performance are almost certainly unique to each organization”. Thus, value creation in terms of CSR has to be understood as a highly complex set of cause-an-effect relationships among mediating variables and situational contingencies, which is too specific to rely on poorly structured and generic approaches.
In brief, organisations seem to struggle establishing an understanding that does not consider environmental, social and economic benefits as mutually exclusive. Notwithstanding, that such an understanding is established the complexity of factors influencing Corporate Social Responsibility impedes to balance between economic and non-economic criteria. Furthermore, organisations have difficulties to strategically integrate, manage and measure environmental and social performance drivers as well as outcome measures.
Country rankings with respect to a country’s business environment draw strong international attention. Methods of business environment assessment differ; two competing methods will be described and compared with respect to their results for Rwanda in the years 2008-2010. They do not come to the same results regarding regulatory deficits and hence the demand for regulatory reform. When regulatory cost is considered, demand and supply of reforms are more in line than without cost considerations. The effectiveness of reforms undertaken in Rwanda varies. Based on interviews in late 2010, not all reforms were having the expected impact “on the ground”.
Country rankings with respect to a country’s business environment draw strong international attention. Methods of business environment assessment differ, two competing methods will be described and compared with respect to their results for Rwanda in the years 2008-2010. They do not come to the same results regarding regulatory deficits and hence the demand for regulatory reform. When regulatory cost is considered, demand and supply of reforms are more in line than without cost considerations. The effectiveness of reforms undertaken in Rwanda varies. Based on interviews in late 2010, not all reforms were having the expected impact “on the ground”.
Since the development of eGovernment systems is gaining worldwide momentum, the European Union is constantly increasing its efforts to induce the development of eGovernment systems in its member states. The currently running strategy is the ’eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020’, which understands itself as a catalyst for developments in the member states.
Despite these ongoing efforts by the European Union regarding eGovernment, stud- ies are repeatedly revealing that the quality and acceptance by the citizens of dig- ital public services are varying heavily within the EU. Being based on the same political guidelines provided by the EU, the national strategies implemented the core principles to different degrees. These different implementation rates, analyzed for Germany, the United Kingdom and Estonia, supplement the holistic analysis of the eGovernment policies, applications and usage in each member state. This gets proven by the connection of this indicator with related studies in the field of eGov- ernment applications and usage within the European Union.
The aim of this thesis is, on the one hand, to quantify differences in the implementa- tion of the ’eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020’ into national policies in Germany, the UK and Estonia and, on the other hand, establish this indicator as a valuable asset for evaluating and monitoring the eGovernment efforts by the EU member states.
Different mechanisms mediate the toxicity of RNA. Genomic retroviral mRNA hijacks infected host cell factors to enable virus replication. The viral genomic RNA of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) encompasses nine genes encoding in less than 10 kb all proteins needed for replication in susceptible host cells. To do so, the genomic RNA undergoes complex alternative splicing to facilitate the synthesis of the structural, accessory, and regulatory proteins. However, HIV strongly relies on the host cell machinery recruiting cellular factors to complete its replication cycle. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) targets different steps in the cycle, preventing disease progression to the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). The comprehension of the host immune system interaction with the virus has fostered the development of a variety of vaccine platforms. Despite encouraging provisional results in vaccine trials, no effective vaccine has been developed, yet. However, novel promising vaccine platforms are currently under investigation.
To date, the establishment of high-titer stable viral packaging cells (VPCs) at large scale for gene therapeutic applications is very time- and cost-intensive. Here we report the establishment of three human suspension 293-F-derived ecotropic MLV-based VPCs. The classic stable transfection of an EGFP-expressing transfer vector resulted in a polyclonal VPC pool that facilitated cultivation in shake flasks of 100 mL volumes and yielded high functional titers of more than 1 × 106 transducing units/mL (TU/mL). When the transfer vector was flanked by transposon terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) and upon co-transfection of a plasmid encoding for the transposase, productivities could be slightly elevated to more than 3 × 106 TU/mL. In contrast and using mRNA encoding for the transposase, as a proof of concept, productivities were drastically improved by more than ten-fold exceeding 5 × 107 TU/mL. In addition, these VPC pools were generated within only 3 weeks. The production volume was successfully scaled up to 500 mL employing a stirred-tank bioreactor (STR). We anticipate that the stable transposition of transfer vectors employing transposase transcripts will be of utility for the future establishment of high-yield VPCs producing pseudotype vector particles with a broader host tropism on a large scale.
To date, the establishment of high-titer stable viral packaging cells (VPCs) at large scale for gene therapeutic applications is very time- and cost-intensive. Here we report the establishment of three human suspension 293-F-derived ecotropic MLV-based VPCs. The classic stable transfection of an EGFP-expressing transfer vector resulted in a polyclonal VPC pool that facilitated cultivation in shake flasks of 100 mL volumes and yielded high functional titers of more than 1 × 106 transducing units/mL (TU/mL). When the transfer vector was flanked by transposon terminal inverted repeats (TIRs) and upon co-transfection of a plasmid encoding for the transposase, productivities could be slightly elevated to more than 3 × 106 TU/mL. In contrast and using mRNA encoding for the transposase, as a proof of concept, productivities were drastically improved by more than ten-fold exceeding 5 × 107 TU/mL. In addition, these VPC pools were generated within only 3 weeks. The production volume was successfully scaled up to 500 mL employing a stirred-tank bioreactor (STR). We anticipate that the stable transposition of transfer vectors employing transposase transcripts will be of utility for the future establishment of high-yield VPCs producing pseudotype vector particles with a broader host tropism on a large scale.
Maximising Distribution Grid Utilisation by Optimising E-Car Charging Using Smart Meter Gateway Data
(2023)
The transition towards climate neutrality will result in an increase in electrical vehicles, as well as other electric loads, leading to higher loads on electrical distribution grids. This paper presents an optimisation algorithm that enables the integration of more loads into distribution grid infrastructure using information from smart meters and/or smart meter gateways. To achieve this, a mathematical programming formulation was developed and implemented. The algorithm determines the optimal charging schedule for all electric vehicles connected to the distribution grid, taking into account various criteria to avoid violating physical grid limitations and ensuring non-discriminatory charging of all electric vehicles on the grid while also optimising grid operation. Additionally, the expandability of the infrastructure and fail-safe operation are considered through the decentralisation of all components. Various scenarios are modelled and evaluated in a simulation environment. The results demonstrate that the developed optimisation algorithm allows for higher transformer loads compared to a P(U) control approach, without causing grid overload as observed in scenarios without optimisation or P(U) control.
Stable recombinant mammalian cells are of growing importance in pharmaceutical biotechnology production scenarios for biologics such as monoclonal antibodies, growth and blood factors, cytokines and subunit vaccines. However, the establishment of recombinant producer cells using classical stable transfection of plasmid DNA is hampered by low stable gene transfer efficiencies. Consequently, subsequent selection of transgenic cells and the screening of clonal cell populations are time- and thus cost-intensive. To overcome these limitations, expression cassettes were embedded into transposon-derived donor vectors. Upon the co-transfection with transposase-encoding constructs, elevated vector copy numbers stably integrated into the genomes of the host cells are readily achieved facilitating under stringent selection pressure the establishment of cell pools characterized by sustained and high-yield recombinant protein production. Here, we discuss some aspects of transposon vector technologies, which render these vectors promising candidates for their further utilization in the production of biologics.
Carbon Sequestration under different land uses and soils in the State of Quintana Roo, Mexico
(2017)
Rising in global temperature is evidently related to atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) concentrations; this has become an environmental problem. The use of renewable energy, the development of eco-friendly merchandise and the enforcement of biomass management have been proposed to mitigate the issue. In the ecosphere, the pedosphere stores 1,500 to 2,500 PgC, which is four times more than the carbon stored in biomass; hence, it is very important to carry out soil carbon studies because of more long-term stability of such storage. In the study, soil carbon quantification was applied to the entire state of Quintana Roo, using a purpose oriented sampling, to observe the dynamic between land uses and soils, relating all relevant characteristics and properties of the landscape. To study the carbon content stored in soils, total carbon was estimated through loss-on-ignition, organic carbon by Walkley-Black method and inorganic carbon by calcium carbonate determination. The result portrays that the coastal dune vegetation-Arenosol (1,256 Mg C ha-1) is the combination with the highest soil carbon density, while Leptosol is the soil type with the highest storage capacity (852 MtC). Consequently, the soil carbon storage not only relates to soil properties but also associates with the surface area occupied by the specific soil type. In addition, the characteristics of the landscape play an important role in the storage of soil carbon. Due to that, soil carbon storage can be explained by biogeomorphoedaphic factors.
Effects on the combustion properties of wheat straw after different thermobiological pretreatments
(2022)
Wheat straw could be used for pellet production and therefore as solid fuel. However, it presents challenges due to its inferior combustion properties such as high ash content, low gross calorific value (GCV), and low ash melting temperature.
To evaluate its combustion properties and based on recent work that improved methane production, wheat straw was subjected to thermobiological pretreatments. Nine pretreated samples based on wheat straw and nine pretreated samples based on compost-wheat straw mixture were produced. In addition, due to the ability to remove minerals and decrease the ash content, a washing process with water as a solvent was used. Ash content, net calorific value (NCV) and ash melting temperatures were evaluated.
For the pretreated wheat straw (SW) samples, a 5,8% reduction in ash content was obtained due to the pretreatments when compared to untreated wheat straw. A 55% decrease in ash content was obtained when comparing the same materials before and after the washing process. No statistically significant changes in GCV were found. As for the ash melting temperatures, due to the incubation pretreatment, an average increase in the shrinkage starting temperature (SST) of 4,4% was obtained for anaerobic conditions and a decrease of 2,5% for aerobic conditions, compared to the same material without heat treatment. In addition, an increase in all ash melting temperatures was observed because of the washing process. It was possible to obtain a pellet complying with standard ISO 17225-6 that can be used in medium or large burners and significantly reduces the effort during combustion.
For samples pretreated with a homogeneous compost-wheat straw (SKW) mixture, an average ash content decrease of 27% was obtained after using autoclave pretreatment at 140°C, compared to the same material without thermal pretreatment. The biggest decrease was due to the washing process, reducing the ash content on average by 43% when comparing the same materials before and after washing. GCV were 13% lower than samples pretreated with wheat straw, due to the low calorific value and high ash content of the compost. During ash melting temperature tests, an average 60% increase in SST was observed compared to pretreated SW ashes due to the high melting temperature of compost. Results are considered satisfactory since pellets based on this mixture would not cause ash sintering or slagging. However, counter effects were observed as the addition of compost increased the ash content and decreased the GCV, not complying with ISO 17225-6 for non-woody pellets. To achieve a pellet based on a compost-wheat straw mixture that complies with the standards, it is recommended for future research to control the percentage of compost added to the mixture.
In child–robot interaction (cHRI) research, many studies pursue the goal to develop interactive systems that can be applied in everyday settings. For early education, increasingly, the setting of a kindergarten is targeted. However, when cHRI and research are brought into a kindergarten, a range of ethical and related procedural aspects have to be considered and dealt with. While ethical models elaborated within other human–robot interaction settings, e.g., assisted living contexts, can provide some important indicators for relevant issues, we argue that it is important to start developing a systematic approach to identify and tackle those ethical issues which rise with cHRI in kindergarten settings on a more global level and address the impact of the technology from a macroperspective beyond the effects on the individual. Based on our experience in conducting studies with children in general and pedagogical considerations on the role of the institution of kindergarten in specific, in this paper, we enfold some relevant aspects that have barely been addressed in an explicit way in current cHRI research. Four areas are analyzed and key ethical issues are identified in each area: (1) the institutional setting of a kindergarten, (2) children as a vulnerable group, (3) the caregivers’ role, and (4) pedagogical concepts. With our considerations, we aim at (i) broadening the methodology of the current studies within the area of cHRI, (ii) revalidate it based on our comprehensive empirical experience with research in kindergarten settings, both laboratory and real-world contexts, and (iii) provide a framework for the development of a more systematic approach to address the ethical issues in cHRI research within kindergarten settings.
A novel approach to manufacture components with integrated conductor paths involves embedding and sintering an isotropic conductive adhesive (ICA) during fused filament fabrication (FFF). However, the molten plastic is deposited directly onto the adhesive path which causes an inhomogeneous displacement of the uncured ICA. This paper presents a 3D printing strategy to achieve a homogeneous cross-section of the conductor path. The approach involves embedding the ICA into a printed groove and sealing it with a wide extruded plastic strand. Three parameter studies are conducted to obtain a consistent cavity for uniform formation of the ICA path. Specimens made of polylactic acid (PLA) with embedded ICA paths are printed and evaluated. The optimal parameters include a groove printed with a layer height of 0.1 mm, depth of 0.4 mm, and sealed with a PLA strand of 700 µm diameter. This resulted in a conductor path with a homogeneous cross-section, measuring 660 µm ± 22 µm in width (relative standard deviation: 3.3%) and a cross-sectional area of 0.108 mm2 ± 0.008 mm2 (relative standard deviation 7.2%). This is the first study to demonstrate the successful implementation of a printing strategy for embedding conductive traces with a homogeneous cross-sectional area in FFF 3D printing.
Concept for Combining LCA and Hazardous Building Material Assessment for Decision Support Using BIM
(2022)
AbstractThe construction and building sector is responsible for a large part of the world’s resource and energy consumption and is considered the largest global emitter of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Hazardous and toxic substances in building materials affect indoor air quality as well as the environment and thus have a high impact on human health, as we spend around 90 percent of our lives in buildings. Life cycle assessment (LCA) and hazardous building material requirements of green building certification systems allow to reduce the environmental and health impacts of building products and materials. However, they are usually very complex and time-consuming to perform and require expert knowledge to use the results for decision support. Digital approaches to support the simplified application of these methods and intuitive visualization of results are becoming increasingly important. Especially Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers a high potential for this purpose, as the integration and linking of geometric and semantic information in 3D-models for LCA and hazardous building material assessment can be done much more efficiently and intuitively. Within the scope of this work, the following three objectives were pursued (1) development of a method for combining LCA and hazardous building material assessment, (2) simplification of the results by converting them into comprehensible indicators for decision support, and (3) implementation of the method in a BIM-based digital assistant for intuitive visualization and communication. The preliminary results show a concept for combined use of LCA and hazardous building material assessment in Germany with differentiation in six use cases. A prototypical implementation as BIM-integrated digital assistant was developed for one of these use cases. For the first time, this prototype provides understandable feedback in real time of LCA and hazardous building material requirements. This research project contributes to the awareness in the context of embodied impacts and low emitting materials in buildings and advances the current digitalization potentials.
Aerobic microbial cultivations are industrially important group of processes and pose challenges for the reactor design. In particular, estimation of industrial scale conditions is difficult from laboratory and pilot scale data. Due to complex interaction of gas/liquid phase hydrodynamics, mass transfer parameters and microbial metabolism, both improvement of modelling tools and reactor design are desired. We present an approach to estimate growth conditions in industrial scale reactor by combining black-box metabolic models with CFD-model.
The reactor type used here is Outotec OKTOP9000®, which is used in the industrial hydrometallurgical processes at 900 m3 scale. It is adopted to a laboratory setting and compared to stirred tank reactor (STR) in gas dispersion, mass transfer and yeast cultivation experiments. In addition, a kinetic model for the yeast growth is developed based on literature sources and validated by the laboratory scale batch cultivations. This kinetic model is used along with CFD-model that is developed to describe the flow and mass transfer conditions in the industrial scale reactor.
The laboratory scale experiments show the feasibility of OKTOP9000® reactor when compared to STR, particularly with improved gas handling capacity. The modelling approach shows qualitatively similar behavior in the large scale simulations when compared to laboratory scale cultivations.
Food insecurity, poor nutrition and poverty are closely linked and entail adverse consequences for the health and well-being of children and adults. They constitute major constraints to development efforts as they can imply lifelong negative effects on human development with impairments on physical and mental capacities of a population, resulting in an overall lower productivity and economic growth potential.
Urban agriculture has been advocated as a strategy to improve food security. This paper exemplifies an urban gardening project that addresses food security and economic resilience of the Syrian refugees and vulnerable Lebanese host communities executed in the suburbs of Beirut. The hypothesis underpinning this study is that urban agriculture holds the potential to contribute to increased food security and reduced urban poverty, by increasing the availability and accessibility to a variety of fresh foods that are rich in vital nutrients and by functioning as a source of livelihoods and income.
The brutality of the Syrian Civil War, it’s massive damage and destruction of housing and persecutions for ethnic cleansing led more than a quarter of its originally 24 million inhabitants to seek safety in neighboring countries and Europe. The war has severely hampered the stability and development throughout the region as hundreds of thousands of refugees have fled to neighboring countries where they often compete with host communities over housing, labor, water, food and land. In relative numbers the biggest burden fell on the riparian country Lebanon, currently holding the highest ratio of refugees to nationals in the world. The small Arab country has already been suffering from many pre-existing challenges as food insecurity and widespread poverty.
The high dependence on food assistance, limited access to income and uncertainties on the amount of food aid provided in each upcoming year, all contribute to an unstable and low food security status of Syrian refugee households in Lebanon with spill overs to vulnerable host communities. In 2017, 91% of Syrian families residing in Lebanon remained food insecure to some degree and the share of household’s falling into severe food insecurity keeps increasing with every year.
These numbers provide clear evidence that current efforts of providing food assistance are not sufficient to combat the repercussions of the crisis and get the situation under control.
The paper displays the impact of the urban gardening project on the food security and economic resilience of participating household’s, as well as lessons learned on the project design during and after the implementation phase. The sampling frame is comprised of Syrian and Lebanese families participating in the project. Primary data were derived from a survey using a questionnaire with a sample size of 41 households. The findings aim to enable stakeholders to improve the performance of similar projects in the future and support relevant government authorities, international aid institutions, non-profits and the civic society towards creating sustainable long-term solutions to increase the self-reliance of refugees by providing insights of the suitability of UA for multiple objectives and by highlighting potential challenges and risks.
This paper presents the cognitive module of the Cognitive Architecture for Artificial Intelligence (CAAI) in cyber-physical production systems (CPPS). The goal of this architecture is to reduce the implementation effort of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in CPPS. Declarative user goals and the provided algorithm-knowledge base allow the dynamic pipeline orchestration and configuration. A big data platform (BDP) instantiates the pipelines and monitors the CPPS performance for further evaluation through the cognitive module. Thus, the cognitive module is able to select feasible and robust configurations for process pipelines in varying use cases. Furthermore, it automatically adapts the models and algorithms based on model quality and resource consumption. The cognitive module also instantiates additional pipelines to evaluate algorithms from different classes on test functions. CAAI relies on well-defined interfaces to enable the integration of additional modules and reduce implementation effort. Finally, an implementation based on Docker, Kubernetes, and Kafka for the virtualization and orchestration of the individual modules and as messaging technology for module communication is used to evaluate a real-world use case.
During spaceflight, humans experience a variety of physiological changes due to deviations from familiar earth conditions. Specifically, the lack of gravity is responsible for many effects observed in returning astronauts. These impairments can include structural as well as functional changes of the brain and a decline in cognitive performance. However, the underlying physiological mechanisms remain elusive. Alterations in neuronal activity play a central role in mental disorders and altered neuronal transmission may also lead to diminished human performance in space. Thus, understanding the influence of altered gravity at the cellular and network level is of high importance. Previous electrophysiological experiments using patch clamp techniques and calcium indicators have shown that neuronal activity is influenced by altered gravity. By using multi-electrode array (MEA) technology, we advanced the electrophysiological investigation covering single-cell to network level responses during exposure to decreased (micro-) or increased (hyper-) gravity conditions. We continuously recorded in real-time the spontaneous activity of human induced pluripotent stem cell (hiPSC)-derived neural networks in vitro. The MEA device was integrated into a custom-built environmental chamber to expose the system with neuronal cultures to up to 6 g of hypergravity on the Short-Arm Human Centrifuge at the DLR Cologne, Germany. The flexibility of the experimental hardware set-up facilitated additional MEA electrophysiology experiments under 4.7 s of high-quality microgravity (10–6 to 10–5 g) in the Bremen drop tower, Germany. Hypergravity led to significant changes in activity. During the microgravity phase, the mean action potential frequency across the neural networks was significantly enhanced, whereas different subgroups of neurons showed distinct behaviors, such as increased or decreased firing activity. Our data clearly demonstrate that gravity as an environmental stimulus triggers changes in neuronal activity. Neuronal networks especially reacted to acute changes in mechanical loading (hypergravity) or de-loading (microgravity). The current study clearly shows the gravity-dependent response of neuronal networks endorsing the importance of further investigations of neuronal activity and its adaptive responses to micro- and hypergravity. Our approach provided the basis for the identification of responsible mechanisms and the development of countermeasures with potential implications on manned space missions.
Surrogate-based optimization, nature-inspired metaheuristics, and hybrid combinations have become state of the art in algorithm design for solving real-world optimization problems. Still, it is difficult for practitioners to get an overview that explains their advantages in comparison to a large number of available methods in the scope of optimization. Available taxonomies lack the embedding of current approaches in the larger context of this broad field. This article presents a taxonomy of the field, which explores and matches algorithm strategies by extracting similarities and differences in their search strategies. A particular focus lies on algorithms using surrogates, nature-inspired designs, and those created by automatic algorithm generation. The extracted features of algorithms, their main concepts, and search operators, allow us to create a set of classification indicators to distinguish between a small number of classes. The features allow a deeper understanding of components of the search strategies and further indicate the close connections between the different algorithm designs. We present intuitive analogies to explain the basic principles of the search algorithms, particularly useful for novices in this research field. Furthermore, this taxonomy allows recommendations for the applicability of the corresponding algorithms.
For audio signals, we use the sign of the coefficients of the redundant discrete wavelet transform to generate primary hash vectors assigning bit 1 to positive or zero coefficients and bit 0 in the negative case. Discarding the highest frequency band and using a 6 step transform we get for each sample a 6 bit primary hash value which we may save as an integer. We then select a possible primary hash value (in our experiments we chose 0 or 63) and take the time indices where this primary hash value occurs as the secondary hash vector which is attributed to the whole audio signal. Comparing two audio signals, the number of elements in the intersection of the corresponding time indices are called "number of matches", a high number may indicate a similarity between the files. This secondary hash vector turns out to be robust against addition of noise, GSM-, G.726-, MP3 coding and packet loss. It may therefore be useful to detect spam telephone calls without analyzing the semantic content by the similarity of the corresponding signals. An algorithm is given to detect similar but shifted signals. Results of experiments are reported using a test corpus of 5 000 audio files of regular calls and 200 audio files of different versions of 20 original spam recordings augmented by a set of 45 files of different versions of 9 "special spam" signals.
In the degradation of ammonia (NH4+) to gaseous nitrogen (N2), the nitrification is one of the two reaction steps. The nitrification itself is divided in two steps and is performed by two different types of bacteria. Current literature has shown that there are types of bacteria, which have the genetic equipment to perform both steps in one bacteria. Nevertheless, in wastewater and landfill leachate treatment, ammonia-oxidizing organisms (AOO) and nitrite-oxidizing organisms (NOO) occur as a symbiosis. The intermediate of the two consecutive reaction steps (NO2-, nitrite) is toxic. For this reason, both steps are necessary for the two bacterial groups. To determine the ratio of AOO, NOO and heterotrophic bacteria (which use organic compounds as carbon and energy source) the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) with selective inhibition with N-allylthiourea (ATU) and azide is used. In the inflow of a pilot plant in one street a step by step increased amount of a process water out of a fermentation plant was added to the landfill leachate. For comparison, the other street was supplied only with landfill leachate with the same amount of nitrogen. As a result, comparable values for the different bacterial groups and reproducible results were measured and lead to a better understanding of the analysed nitrification sludge. Deeper understanding of the behavior of the different groups will result in a reduce risk of malfunctions and a more stable operation in the wastewater or landfill leachate treatment plant.
This study paper introduces different tools, i.e. analytical methods and visualizations, in business intelligence environments. It especially emphasizes the use of OLAP-based technologies as a tradtional kind of data analysis in contrast to as graph analysis and formal concept analysis as rather new approaches in the area of visual analytics.
The amount of data produced and stored in multiple types of distributed data sources is growing steadily. A crucial factor that determines whether data can be analyzed efficiently is the use of adequate visualizations. Almost simultaneously with the ongoing availability of data numerous types of visualization techniques have emerged. Since ordinary business intelligence users typically lack expert visualization knowledge, the selection and creation of visualizations can be a very time- and knowledge-consuming task. To encounter these problems an architecture that aims at supporting ordinary BI users in the selection of adequate visualizations is developed in this thesis. The basic idea is to automatically provide visualization recommendations based on the concrete BI scenario and formalized visualization knowledge. Ontologies that formalize all relevant knowledge play an important role in the developed architecture and are the key to make the knowledge machine-processable.
Reducing the carbon emissions from hotels on non-interconnected islands (NII) is essential in the context of a low carbon future for the Mediterranean region. Maritime tourism is the major source of income for Greece and many other countries in the region, as well as hot-temperate and tropical regions worldwide. Like many NIIs, Rhodes attracts a high influx of tourists every summer, doubling the island’s energy demand and, given the high proportion of fossil fuels in the Rhodian energy supply, increasing carbon emissions. Using the theoretical framework ‘FINE’, this paper presents the optimisation of a medium-sized hotel’s energy system with the aim of reducing both cost and carbon emissions. By introducing a Photovoltaic (PV) net metering system, it was found that the carbon emissions associated with an NII hotel’s energy system could be reduced by 31% at an optimised cost. It is suggested that large-scale deployment of PV or alternative renewable energy sources (RES) in NII hotels could significantly reduce carbon emissions associated with the accommodation sector in Greece and help mitigate climate change.
Ground tire rubber (GTR) is a product obtained by grinding worn tire treads before retreading them or via the cryogenic or ambient temperature milling of end-of-life tires (ELTs). The aim of this study is to evaluate if calcium carbonate can be substituted by GTR and, if so, to what extent. Different types of ground tire rubber are incorporated in an EPDM (ethylene–propylene–diene–rubber) model compound as partial or complete substitutes of calcium carbonate. The raw compounds and the vulcanizates are characterized to identify the limits. In general, it is apparent that increasing amounts of GTR and larger particles degrade the mechanical properties. The GTR also influences the vulcanization kinetics by reducing the scorch time up to 50% and vulcanization time up to nearly 80%. This is significant for production processes. The compounds with one-third substitution with the smaller-particle-size GTR show mostly similar or even better properties than the reference.
Due to the worldwide shortage of petrochemical based resources, the usage of renewable bio-based raw materials for established and novel products becomes increasingly important.[1] Such bio-based resources are already used for the fabrication of a variety of products, e. g. paper, lubricants, detergents or cosmetics. In the future they are expected to emerge in many more applications in industry and household.[1]
A very promising approach relies on the use of glycolipids as a source of hydroxy-oleic acid.[2] Microbial glycolipids are produced for instance via fermentation from natural resources such as plant oils and sugar.[3] After fermentation complex product mixtures are obtained with the composition depending on the microorganism, substrate and fermentation time.[3] The successful use of microbial glycolipids and hydroxy-oleic acid (HOA) derived therefrom as bio-based intermediates requires reliable analytical methods as well as robust manufacturing processes for the synthesis and cleavage of bio-based molecules. In order to obtain hydroxy-oleic acids as bio-based intermediates, the acidic cleavage of microbial derived sophorolipid was investigated. In addition the implementation of HOA in polyurethane (PU) systems was explored.
Due to reasons of sustainability and conservation of resources, polyurethane (PU)-based systems with preferably neutral carbon footprints are in increased focus of research and development. The proper design and development of bio-based polyols are of particular interest since such polyols may have special property profiles that allow the novel products to enter new applications. Sophorolipids (SL) represent a bio-based toolbox for polyol building blocks to yield diverse chemical products. For a reasonable evaluation of the potential for PU chemistry, however, further investigations in terms of synthesis, derivatization, reproducibility, and reactivity towards isocyanates are required. It was demonstrated that SL can act as crosslinker or as plasticizer in PU systems depending on employed stoichiometry. (ω-1)-hydroxyl fatty acids can be derived from SL and converted successively to polyester polyols and PU. Additionally, (ω-1)-hydroxyl fatty acid azides can be prepared indirectly from SL and converted to A/B type PU by Curtius rearrangement.
For sustainable climate, an exponential growth in renewable heating and cooling is compulsory to reduce consumption of the fossil fuels for production of heat. An essential step from European Commission as an introduction of the strategy for renewable heat has
given a platform to the solar thermal market to tap the highest possible potential. To grab the opportunity given, capacity of the production is to be increased as well as reduction in cost of solar thermal product is to be achieved by any suitable alternate means. Polymer
based hybrid collector, named as OPVT collector, is the innovation from Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy Systems to break the road blocks for the solar thermal market. A polymer solar cell and a polymer solar thermal collector, both, technologies have tendency
of high initial investments and extremely low running cost in business. The aims of this study were to develop a calculation tool for determination of production cost of different OPVT collector concepts and evaluate their potential with reference to market size. The tool was expected to be uniform for all possible concepts of OPVT collector and flexible in
usage during the early stage of technological development. In this study, “Microsoft Excel” software based calculation tool is developed for estimation of production cost for different concepts. A Car washing station for water based OPVT collector and a bus station for air based OPVT collector are found be most suitable for start-up of the business. The analysis of results has highlighted that the minimum cost of OPVT collector can be referenced as its material cost. The OPVT collector business has huge potential and
possibility of early break-even point in the
production. As production costs are sensitive to
material costs, input values to the tool must be accurate. Presence of dominance of the material cost
is due to high cost of OPV. In industry, OPV is still being considered as the technological product instead the commodity product. This market potential study for
OPVT collector technology has been the important step in giving the confidence to solar thermal, polymer and plastic processing industries for business investment.
Keywords – OPVT collector, production cost, calculation tool, market size
In the Mesoamerican forest Selva Maya, multiple driving forces create an imbalance in the sensitive human-nature relation and demand for innovative management strategies for its re-establishment. Within the Guatemalan Maya Biosphere Reserve (MBR), core areas are under strict protective legislation and agricultural activity is permitted only within a bordering buffer zone (BZ), which covers great part of the Guatemalan department Petén. Here, the implementation of agroecological practices by multiple stakeholders aims at tackling the principle driving forces of environmental degradation and thus at reducing the pressure on Central America’s largest tropical forest area. Since 2011, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) has assisted local stakeholders by carrying out the project “Conservation and sustainable use of the Selva Maya”. This project has offered technical support, cooperated with national institutions, and assisted multiple target groups to nudge agroecological transitions at the household and community level. As the establishment of agroecological systems face main obstacles stemming from the socio-ecological setting of the respective area, the following work presents a context specific analysis for the adaption of established strategies in the MBR BZ. Therefore, it raises the following research questions: What are the current properties of the socio-ecological system that describes the BZ? How has the GIZ’s project nudged and guided agroecological transitions? Which factors have favored or limited the turn to agroecological farming? And finally: Which recommendations derive for the navigation of agroecological transitions? The overall research approach is orientated on the framework of ecosystem stewardship1 and incorporates elements of system theory and resilience science. The framework has been adapted by combining two approaches on different management levels. The social-ecological system approach2 is used to describe the socio-ecological system of the BZ, while the evaluation of the pilot groups‘ AESs follows the Mexican MESMIS3 approach for sustainability assessments. By the integration of both approaches, it is revealed that the socio-economic context impedes or hinders the implementation of agroecological strategies for the majority of farmers. The application of the MESMIS framework has revealed that the installed monitoring mechanism is dysfunctional. Findings further indicate that there is potential for transitions of individual AESs, but they demand investments and support with the current circumstances of reducing farmers’ vulnerability. The rapidly decreasing social and environmental conditions for family farmers in the BZ are most likely not addressed by solutions that the agroecological approach tackles. Recommendations for the immediate improvement of the strategy include adjustments of the project’s proceedings as well as fundamental changes in conservation paradigm and governance to maintain the necessary functionality of the socio-ecological system.
The paper structure of historical prints is sort of a unique fingerprint. Paper with the same origin shows similar chain line distances. As the manual measurement of chain line distances is time consuming, the automatic detection of chain lines is beneficial. We propose an end-to-end trainable deep learning method for segmentation and parameterization of chain lines in transmitted light images of German prints from the 16th Century. We trained a conditional generative adversarial network with a multitask loss for line segmentation and line parameterization. We formulated a fully differentiable pipeline for line coordinates’ estimation that consists of line segmentation, horizontal line alignment, and 2D Fourier filtering of line segments, line region proposals, and differentiable line fitting. We created a dataset of high-resolution transmitted light images of historical prints with manual line coordinate annotations. Our method shows superior qualitative and quantitative chain line detection results with high accuracy and reliability on our historical dataset in comparison to competing methods. Further, we demonstrated that our method achieves a low error of less than 0.7 mm in comparison to manually measured chain line distances.
Human civilization has a great history of managing Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WaSH) services. But such services in rural areas have been neglected throughout our history. Numerous multimillion dollars WaSH interventions have been implemented in rural areas to eradicate open defecation, but most of them failed to create a demand for sanitation. Lack of equity and fair participation in approaches to change behavior and mindset, rather than habits, has made it hard for governments to achieve their WaSH related targets. Participatory rural sanitation approaches that focus on behavior change and ownership building among the community members have helped in the transition to open defecation free (ODF) societies. A justice-focused sanitation approach shows potential in fast-tracking this transition. Just transition is a concept that has not been endured in the sanitation discussion yet but shows the potential of sustainable WaSH solutions. This social empirical research has explored the feasibility of a justice-based sanitation approach guiding a transition towards societies with universal access to sanitation services. A just sanitation transition framework was adapted from the considered theoretical foundations and was used to map the capability and justice dimensions of two rural sanitation approaches being implemented in schools in the Mukuyu community in Trans-Nzoia county, Kenya. The adapted framework has been able to compute both sanitation approaches on a scoring tool, quantitatively assessing the productivity and justice dimensions of both approaches. This research has helped in establishing the viability of a just sanitation transition framework to produce an informed understanding of the potential of rural sanitation approaches to produce desired results while being just. Study findings help in filling research gaps and laying the foundation to the just transition debate in the sanitation sector and opens a window to further researches on the same, in the future.
Ecosystems provide a wide range of goods, services or ecosystem services (ES) to society. Estimating the impact of land use and land cover (LULC) changes on ES values (ESV) is an important tool to support decision making. This study used remote sensing and GIS tools to analyze LULC change and transitions from 2001 to 2016 and assess its impact on ESV in a tropical forested landscape in the southern plains of Nepal. The total ESV of the landscape for the year 2016 is estimated at USD 1264 million year−1. As forests are the dominant land cover class and have high ES value per hectare, they have the highest contribution in total ESV. However, as a result of LULC change (loss of forests, water bodies, and agricultural land), the total ESV of the landscape has declined by USD 11 million year−1. Major reductions come from the loss in values of climate regulation, water supply, provision of raw materials and food production. To halt the ongoing loss of ES and maintain the supply and balance of different ES in the landscape, it is important to properly monitor, manage and utilize ecosystems. We believe this study will inform policymakers, environmental managers, and the general public on the ongoing changes and contribute to developing effective land use policy in the region.
Mental illnesses in adolescence and young adulthood are steadily increasing. Thus,mental disorders represent an individual and societal challenge and an enormous health economicburden, creating an urgent need for research and action. Mental health problems are omnipresent inthe life of young people and the internet is the first resource, which helps them to understand theirsituation. Young people with migration background often have more difficulties accessing health careservices. Digital technologies offer an ideal opportunity for a low-threshold platform that addressesthe needs of young people. The current project “GeKo:mental” aims to design a multilingual websitefor Cologne-based adolescents and young adults that will enable them to obtain comprehensiveinformation about mental illness and health, treatment options and first contact points. To designthis website, this study aims to find out what kind of health information is needed and how itshould best be presented. Nine focus group discussions with adolescents and young adults withand without migration background (N = 68) were conducted; the focus group discussions took placeat schools, in an association for social youth work and in an cultural association, which is linkedto a mosque in Cologne, Germany. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the gatheredmaterial. The participants reported concrete challenges and needs. The results will form the basis forthe development and design of a website.
Remote rural populations do not often have the luxury of viable multisource electricity generation systems. Considering fossil fuels for remote populated areas is not often a viable option due to the fuel transportation costs and the population’s socioeconomic status. Extending the grid is often economically prohibitive. This paper proposes possible ways in which Mali could increase the rate of population with access to electricity by 2050 using Low Emission Analysis Platform (LEAP) and geographical information tools. The current energy situation is assessed, and multiple demand and supply scenarios are created to find the most viable option in environmental and economic dimensions. A minimum of 50% reduction of biomass consumption in the residential sector and a maximum of 71% was achieved through the combination of grid extension and decentralized solar PV. Solar PV becomes the preferable option when enough time for the effects of electricity on income is given. When these effects are not present, solar PV is still a better option, as the amount of biomass replaced with electricity is reduced.
The European heating sector is currently heavily dominated by fossil fuels. Composting is a naturally occurring process in which heat is liberated from the composting substrate at a higher rate than the process needs to support itself. This difference could be harnessed for low-heat applications such as residential consumption, alleviating some of the impacts fossil fuel emissions represent. In this study, the composting heat recovery reported in the literature was compared to the energy demand for space and water heating in four European countries. A review of potential heat production from the waste representative of the residential sector was performed. We found that the theoretically recoverable composting heat does not significantly reduce the need for district heating. However, it can significantly reduce the energy demand for water heating, being able to supply countries such as Greece with between 36% and 100% of the yearly hot water demand, or 12% to 53% of the yearly hot water of countries such as Switzerland, depending on the efficiency of heat recovery.
STEPsCON 2018 was jointly organized by the Faculty of Applied Natural Sciences of TH Köln (Germany) and the University of Oulu (Finland) on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Leverkusen – Oulu town twinning. The conference focused on sustainability issues and covered the current state of research in four key topics:
1. Sustainable Medicine and Pharmaceuticals
2. Resources and Bioremediation
3. Sustainable Chemistry & Industrial Biotechnology
4. Innovative Materials & Formulations
For use in a landfill, a laboratory reactor for safe and environmentally friendly biological utilization of low-concentration methane gas will be further developed. The current principle of denitrification-coupled aerobic methane oxidation will be replaced by methane oxidation under anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic methane oxidation offers the advantage that, in addition to methane, nitrate also undergoes biodegradation. Another advantage is that the oxygen content can be significantly lower. This reduces the risk of the formation of an explosive atmosphere in the reactor. Currently, the principle of anaerobic methane oxidation is known. However, organisms capable of doing so are not yet available as a pure culture. Therefore, several biomasses were probed for the ability of anaerobic methane oxidation. It was found that moor-heavy sediment, activated sludge from the leachate treatment plant and biomass from the local biogas plant oxidize methane after the natural carbon source (C source) was been removed.
State of the art browser games are increasingly complex pieces of software with extensive code basis. With increasing complexity, a software becomes harder to maintain. Automated regression testing can simplify these maintenance processes and thereby enable developers as well as testers to spend their workforce more efficiently.
This thesis addresses the utilization of automated tests in web applications. As a use case test automation is applied to an online-based strategy game for the browser. The introduction presents the general conditions for a software project that makes use of automated tests and different approaches of test automation. The main section introduces a specific solution of test automation applied on the game “Forge of Empires”, produced by Innogames GmbH. The created framework of the company is presented. It implements different software frameworks. The conclusion consists of a comparison and analysis about the presented methods and technologies.
Amboseli-Tsavo Ecosystem is a unique landscape in Kenya’s semi-arid rangelands to the border of Tanzania. It is characterized by high abundances of wildlife which frequently disperses between three National Parks, namely Amboseli, Tsavo West and Chyulu Hills. Due to an increased population and a land-use change from prior nomadic pastoralism to sedentary farming activities, the land became highly fragmented and transformed into a human-dominated area. Increasingly wildlife migration routes are becoming blocked, leading to isolation of the National Parks and multiplied human-wildlife conflicts. The African elephant (Loxodonta africana) is sadly famous as the most common conflict animal causing damage to properties, cropland and injuring or killing livestock and, in the worst case, people. However, elephants are at the same time a flagship species and represent the backbone for tourism activities around Amboseli. Therefore, the elephant is both a very valuable and problematic asset in the area. Unfortunately, wildlife conservation practices over the last decades, favoring animals over humans, have led to a negative perception of wildlife among the population in the ecosystem which challenges appropriate conservation mechanisms.
To maintain the tourism attraction of viewing elephants and to minimise the conflicts between local communities and animals, migration routes should remain open. The concept of landscape connectivity ensures biodiversity conservation, particularly for far-distance migration animals such as elephants. The elephant was therefore chosen as a keystone species in this study on which the analysis is based.
Using a least-cost path analysis (LCP) in ArcGIS, “cheapest” travel routes of Loxodonta africana between the three National Parks were identified. Factors included were selected and weighted by information gathered in expert interviews. Satellite imagery were classified using ESA SNAP toolbox to obtain vegetation covers and waterbodies for two different seasons (dry and wet), aiming to illustrate the temporal variability of potential connectivity paths. Additionally, key informant interviews and interviews of Group Ranch members around Amboseli National Park were conducted to gather information regarding the current state of management in the ecosystem and perceptions about wildlife management. A subsequent SWOT Analysis on three optimum routes obtained through LCP, takes the social-political factors and information obtained into account to discuss the different options for their conflict solving potential.
On the one hand, recommendations resulting from this study identify possible elephant migration routes that should be maintained by using a participatory conservation approach to secure landscape connectivity in long-term. On the other hand, management recommendations include a design for improved relationships between Group Ranch members and the responsible governmental institutions by equally distributing benefits, implementing financial benefits and establishing a functioning and adequate compensation scheme. By ensuring peoples’ active participation in conservation and wildlife management, a more positive attitude towards wildlife might be induced, which will positively influence the wildlife conflict in long run.
This paper is grounded in the emerging field of web science and shall contribute to its further classification and demarcation by illustrating the current state of »web-native research methods«. It builds upon an initial arraying work of Richard Rogers, who coined the term »Digital Methods« for research with methods that were »born« in the web, and illustrated and organized them in his eponymous book in 2013. This paper attempts to develop a more appropriate illustration of the Digital Methods by following the web’s very own, hypertextual, network-like nature, in particular by construing an ontological representation on the base of the Web Ontology Language (OWL). By virtue of decomposing the book into granular information units and their subsequent reassembly into OWL entities, immediate access to the entire knowledge domain can be provided, and coherencies, interrelations and distinctions between concepts become apparent. The ontology’s structure was induced narrowly along the provided examples of research projects and subsequently clustered in topic groups, of which the three most important ones were (a) the Digital Methods as an arraying space of web-native methodology, (b) a collection of concrete applications of these Digital Methods in research projects, and (c) a hierarchical scheme of traditional sciences with a distinct interest in answering research questions with help of Digital Methods. Subsequently, the ontology was evaluated in three general dimensions: Deriving user stories and scenarios provided means to validate the utilization quality; the accuracy and reliability of the resulting structure was validated with help of a control group of web-native research projects; and process control instruments served as a validator for the ontology’s correctness. Despite the ontology itself, this paper also resulted in a first interpretation of the produced information: Statements about research practise in social science, politics and philosophy were as possible as findings about commonly applied varieties of methods. Concluding, the present paper proposes a process of ontology engineering, an evaluation of the ontology’s value, and an interpretation of the ontology’s content.
This thesis proposes four different Augmented Reality (AR) display techniques that can overcome the problem of uncertain tracking errors. Where most other papers focus on limiting the amount of error that a user tracking system generates, this paper pro-poses visualizations that limit their impact instead. For this, four different display techniques have been developed and evaluated using criteria found in related literate. Two of the four proposed solutions consistently ranked better within these criteria. The first, Bending Words, uses a mix between spatially registered information and turn instructions to achieve that result. The second, WIM, mostly relies on context infor-mation of the building instead.
In water electrolyzers, polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) such as Nafion can accumulate cations stemming from salt impurities in the water supply, which leads to severe cell voltage increases. This combined experimental and computational study discusses the influence of sodium ion poisoning on the ionic conductivity of Nafion membranes and the ion transport in a thereon based water electrolysis cell. Conductivities of Nafion and aqueous solutions with the same amount of dissolved cations are measured with impedance spectroscopy and compared with respect to Nafion’s microstructure. The dynamic behavior of the voltage of a water electrolysis cell is characterized as a function of the sodium ion content and current density, showing the differences of the ion transport at alternating and direct currents. These experimental results are elucidated with a physical ion transport model for sodium ion poisoned Nafion membranes, which describes a proton depletion and sodium ion accumulation at the cathode. During proton depletion, the cathodic hydrogen evolution is maintained by the water reduction that forms hydroxide ions. Together with sodium ions from the membrane, the formed hydroxide ions can diffuse pairwise into the water supply, so that the membrane’s sodium ions can be at least partly be replaced with anodically formed protons.
Academic search systems aid users in finding information covering specific topics of scientific interest and have evolved from early catalog-based library systems to modern web-scale systems. However, evaluating the performance of the underlying retrieval approaches remains a challenge. An increasing amount of requirements for producing accurate retrieval results have to be considered, e.g., close integration of the system’s users. Due to these requirements, small to mid-size academic search systems cannot evaluate their retrieval system in-house. Evaluation infrastructures for shared tasks alleviate this situation. They allow researchers to experiment with retrieval approaches in specific search and recommendation scenarios without building their own infrastructure. In this paper, we elaborate on the benefits and shortcomings of four state-of-the-art evaluation infrastructures on search and recommendation tasks concerning the following requirements: support for online and offline evaluations, domain specificity of shared tasks, and reproducibility of experiments and results. In addition, we introduce an evaluation infrastructure concept design aiming at reducing the shortcomings in shared tasks for search and recommender systems.
Polyimides rank among the most heat-resistant polymers and find application in a variety of fields, including transportation, electronics, and membrane technology. The aim of this work is to study the structural, thermal, mechanical, and gas permeation properties of polyimide based nanocomposite membranes in flat sheet configuration. For this purpose, numerous advanced techniques such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), SEM, TEM, TGA, FT-IR, tensile strength, elongation test, and gas permeability measurements were carried out. In particular, BTDA–TDI/MDI (P84) co-polyimide was used as the matrix of the studied membranes, whereas multi-wall carbon nanotubes were employed as filler material at concentrations of up to 5 wt.% All studied films were prepared by the dry-cast process resulting in non-porous films of about 30–50 μm of thickness. An optimum filler concentration of 2 wt.% was estimated. At this concentration, both thermal and mechanical properties of the prepared membranes were improved, and the highest gas permeability values were also obtained. Finally, gas permeability experiments were carried out at 25, 50, and 100 ◦C with seven different pure gases. The results revealed that the uniform carbon nanotubes dispersion lead to enhanced gas permeation properties.
On 25 May 2011, the OECD launched a "Green Growth Strategy" and proposed a "Green Growth Diagnostics" approach to identify the binding constraints on green growth. This paper discusses the potential use and usefulness of this approach as a means to identify those binding constraints. It is argued that the approach is best used at the meso level for industries and certain environmental challenges. The paper proposes a modified green growth diagnostics approach for eco-innovations at the meso level that can be useful for informing and organising a rational policy dialogue amongst all stakeholders.
Worldwide there is a big need for affordable livingspace. Globalization leads to a connection of development and ideas in the field of building. Open Source communities could improve and accelerate this development. The potential of theses communities lies in the connection of different diciplines. Especially for building projects with a small budget and a willingness to participate in the work process open source do-it-yourself constructions are a great opportunity to help cover the need of affordable work and living space. Renewable materials such as wood offer great potential here. New, standardised technologies make a decentralised production possible.
La Picasa basin, an interjurisdictional endorreic basin of 5282 km2 located in the “Central Pampa” in Argentina, has suffered repeated flooding caused by an increasing water level of La Picasa lagoon, affecting livelihoods, infrastructure, transportation and agriculture. Although water infrastructure has been built to regulate water excesses, it has not been effective in reducing the flood risk.
To improve the knowledge of the hydrological system, the master’s thesis aimed to develop a water balance model of La Picasa lagoon at a monthly time step between the hydrological years 2007/2008 and 2016/2017. Specifically, the objectives were to identify and quantify the most important components and processes determining its water level, area and volume and to propose hypothetical simulation scenarios based on different pumping operation schemes.
The description of the conceptual model and implementation of a sensitivity analysis allowed to identify the inflow and outflow components of the water balance and quantify their relative contributions, namely precipitation, water discharge from channels, surface runoff from surrounding sub-basins of the lagoon, evaporation and pumping. The performance tests applied to the model during the calibration and validation showed a very good performance. Additionally, two simulation scenarios were proposed, namely potential pumping and adjusted pumping, which reflected different trajectories of the water balance.
The master’s thesis concluded that precipitation and evaporation were the most determinant inflow and outflow components in the water balance of La Picasa lagoon respectively. However, the flooding event in 2016/2017 was caused by a simultaneous reduction of net evaporation and an increase in water discharge, surface runoff and intermittent pumping. The simulation scenarios suggested that an optimal operation of the pumping stations could have been effective to increase the storage capacity of the lagoon. However, during longer humid periods, it might not be enough to outweigh additional inflows.
Multidrug resistance (MDR) in tumors and pathogens remains a major problem in the efficacious treatment of patients by reduction of therapy options and subsequent treatment failure. Various mechanisms are described to be involved in the development of MDR with overexpression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters reflecting the most extensively studied. These membrane transporters translocate a wide variety of substrates utilizing energy from ATP hydrolysis leading to decreased intracellular drug accumulation and impaired drug efficacy. One treatment strategy might be inhibition of transporter-mediated efflux by small molecules. Isocoumarins and 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins are a large group of natural products derived from various sources with great structural and functional variety, but have so far not been in the focus as potential MDR reversing agents. Thus, three natural products and nine novel 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins were designed and analyzed regarding cytotoxicity induction and inhibition of human ABC transporters P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in a variety of human cancer cell lines as well as the yeast ABC transporter Pdr5 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Dual inhibitors of P-gp and BCRP and inhibitors of Pdr5 were identified, and distinct structure-activity relationships for transporter inhibition were revealed. The strongest inhibitor of P-gp and BCRP, which inhibited the transporters up to 80 to 90% compared to the respective positive controls, demonstrated the ability to reverse chemotherapy resistance in resistant cancer cell lines up to 5.6-fold. In the case of Pdr5, inhibitors were identified that prevented substrate transport and/or ATPase activity with IC50 values in the low micromolar range. However, cell toxicity was not observed. Molecular docking of the test compounds to P-gp revealed that differences in inhibition capacity were based on different binding affinities to the transporter. Thus, these small molecules provide novel lead structures for further optimization.
The importance of lithium as a raw material is steadily increasing, especially in the growing markets of grid energy and e-mobility. Today, brines are the most important lithium sources. The rising lithium demand raises concerns over the expandability and the environmental impact of common mining techniques, which are mainly based on the evaporation of brine solutions (Salars) in arid and semiarid areas. In this case, much of the water contained in the brine is lost. Purification processes lead to further water losses of the ecosystems. This calls for new and improved processes for lithium production; one of them is electrodialysis (ED). Electrodialysis offers great potential in accessing lithium from brines in a more environmentally friendly way; furthermore, for the recovery of lithium from spent lithium-ion batteries (LIB), electrodialysis may become a vital technology. The following study focused on investigating the effect of varying brine compositions, different ED operation modes, and limiting factors on the use of ED for concentrating lithium-containing brine solutions. Synthetic lithium salt solutions (LiCl, LiOH) were concentrated using conventional ED in batch-wise operation. While the diluate solution was exchanged once a defined minimum concentration was reached, the concentrate solution was concentrated to the respective maximum. The experiments were conducted using a lab-scale ED-plant (BED1-3 from PCCell GmbH, Germany). The ion-exchange membranes used were PCSK and PCSA. The treated solutions varied in concentration and composition. Parameters such as current density, current efficiency, and energy requirements were evaluated. ED proved highly effective in the concentration of lithium salt solutions. Lithium chloride solutions were concentrated up to approximately 18-fold of the initial concentration. Current efficiencies and current densities depended on voltage, concentration, and the composition of the brine. Overall, the current efficiencies reached maximum values of around 70%. Furthermore, the experiments revealed a water transport of about 0.05 to 0.075% per gram of LiCl transferred from the diluate solution to the concentrate solution.
The Production of Isophorone
(2023)
Isophorone is a technically important compound used as a high-boiling-point solvent for coatings, adhesives, etc., and it is used as a starting material for various valuable compounds, including isophorone diisocyanate, a precursor for polyurethanes. For over 80 years, isophorone has been synthesized via base-catalyzed self-condensation of acetone. This reaction has a complex reaction mechanism with numerous possible reaction steps including the formation of isophorone, triacetone dialcohol, and ketonic resins. This review provides an overview of the different production processes of isophorone in liquid- and vapor-phase and reviews the literature-reported selectivity toward isophorone achieved using different reaction parameters and catalysts.
Emergency management services, such as firefighting, rescue teams and ambulances,are all heavily reliant on road networks. However, even for highly industrialised countries such asGermany, and even for large cities, spatial planning tools are lacking for road network interruptionsof emergency services. Moreover, dependencies of emergency management expand not only onroads but on many other systemic interrelations, such as blockages of bridges. The first challenge thispaper addresses is the development of a novel assessment that captures systemic interrelations ofcritical services and their dependencies explicitly designed to the needs of the emergency services.This aligns with a second challenge: capturing system nodes and areas around road networksand their geographical interrelation. System nodes, road links and city areas are integrated into aspatial grid of tessellated hexagons (also referred to as tiles) with geographical information systems.The hexagonal grid is designed to provide a simple map visualisation for emergency planners andfire brigades. Travel time planning is then optimised for accessing city areas in need by weighingimpaired areas of past events based on operational incidents. The model is developed and testedwith official incident data for the city of Cologne, Germany, and will help emergency managers tobetter device planning of resources based on this novel identification method of critical areas.
Habitat loss due to land use and land cover change (LUCC) has been identified as the main cause of global environmental change, responsible for biodiversity decline and the deterioration of ecological processes. Habitat loss and fragmentation have been driven by
processes of LUCC such as deforestation, agricultural expansion and intensification, urbanization, and globalization. The objective of this research was to determine the effects of LUCC on the process of habitat loss and the patterns of fragmentation in the surrounding landscape of the Pacuare Reserve (PR) in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica. The PR is a protected area of 800 ha surrounded by an agricultural landscape with a history of over 150 years of bananas monocultures. Landsat satellite images from 1978 to 2020 were used to conduct a temporal analysis of LUCC around the PR. Patterns of change were explored using landscape metrics from the land classification images. To explore potential connectivity routes, the least cost path analysis was used to connect the PR to other protected areas. Overall, forest cover decreased in the study area at a rate of -4.8% per year during the period of 1992-1997. In the year 2001 it reached its lowest cover and then increased at a mean annual rate of 1.6%. A mean overall accuracy of 92% was obtained for the land classification process. A clear fragmentation process was observed, as shown by a decreased in forest mean patch area and largest patch index and by the increase in patch density. Although forest cover increased in the last decade, fragmentation metrics suggest this recover happened in a spatially scattered manner, due to agricultural land abandonment. Connectivity maps showed the importance of forest fragments and of the already established biological corridors for the movement of species to and from the PR, however it also evidenced the lack of connectivity between the coastal forest fragments and further inside the country located protected areas, as well as the need to promote reforestation projects, particularly between fragments of the corridors identified.
Potential analyses identify possible locations for renewable energy installations, such as wind turbines and photovoltaic arrays. The results of previous potential studies for Germany, however, are not consistent due to different assumptions, methods, and datasets being used. For example, different land-use datasets are applied in the literature to identify suitable areas for technologies requiring open land. For the first time, commonly used datasets are compared regarding the area and position of identified features to analyze their impact on potential analyses. It is shown that the use of Corine Land Cover is not recommended as it leads to potential area overestimation in a typical wind potential analyses by a factor of 4.7 and 5.2 in comparison to Basis-DLM and Open Street Map, respectively. Furthermore, we develop scenarios for onshore wind, offshore wind, and open-field photovoltaic potential estimations based on land-eligibility analyses using the land-use datasets that were proven to be best by our pre-analysis. Moreover, we calculate the rooftop photovoltaic potential using 3D building data nationwide for the first time. The potentials have a high sensitivity towards exclusion conditions, which are also currently discussed in public. For example, if restrictive exclusions are chosen for the onshore wind analysis the necessary potential for climate neutrality cannot be met. The potential capacities and possible locations are published for all administrative levels in Germany in the freely accessible database (Tool for Renewable Energy Potentials—Database), for example, to be incorporated into energy system models.
Campylobacter spp. are one of the most important food-borne pathogens, which are quite susceptible to environmental or technological stressors compared to other zoonotic bacteria. This might be due to the lack of many stress response mechanisms described in other bacteria. Nevertheless, Campylobacter is able to survive in the environment and food products. Although some aspects of the heat stress response in Campylobacter jejuni are already known, information about the stress response in other Campylobacter species are still scarce. In this study, the stress response of Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter lari to elevated temperatures (46°C) was investigated by survival assays and whole transcriptome analysis. None of the strains survived at 46°C for more than 8 h and approximately 20% of the genes of C. coli RM2228 and C. lari RM2100 were differentially expressed. The transcriptomic profiles showed enhanced gene expression of several chaperones like dnaK, groES, groEL, and clpB in both strains, indicating a general involvement in the heat stress response within the Campylobacter species. However, the pronounced differences in the expression pattern between C. coli and C. lari suggest that stress response mechanisms described for one Campylobacter species might be not necessarily transferable to other Campylobacter species.
The post-conflict setting in Colombia resulted after the signing of the peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the national Government at the end of 2016, faces two main problems. On one hand, the environmental degradation and the pressure over the ecosystems now exposed to the economic and socio-demographic dynamics of the country; and on the other hand, the increase of violence in rural areas characterized by the abundance of natural resources. These two problems can be linked through the complex dynamics of natural resources appropriation. Among the natural resources affecting the course of the post-conflict in Colombia, gold appears as one of the most relevant sources of violence and environmental degradation. This condition makes it crucial to understand the complex local dynamics of mining regions in order to propose alternatives for consolidating a sustaining peace. The armed groups, the state, the private companies, and traditional gold mining communities are all stakeholders involved in gold mining and the conflicts around this activity. Nevertheless, communities have been denied as a formal actor.
This work aims to give voice to those communities, understanding them as a key actor for peacebuilding. This research seeks to understand the relationship between gold mining and the social-armed conflict in Colombia, to identify which are the drivers for the increasing of this activity during the post-conflict, as well as which strategies developed by traditional gold mining communities can contribute to peacebuilding. Thus, an integrative analytical framework is developed. This theoretical framework integrates 1) environmental peacebuilding to evaluate the possibilities of natural resources to becoming tools for cooperation, and 2) political ecology to clarify, from a multi-scalar approach, the socio-political context in which the conflict takes place. Hence, from a qualitative approach that involves several ethnographic methods is found that artisanal-ancestral miners and traditional miners organized to remain in their territories in a context of dispossession, have developed socio-ecological systems and natural resources management strategies relevant to implement initiatives of environmental peacebuilding that can be sustained over time and aimed to overcome the structural causes of violence and environmental degradation.
This paper presents a series of flow and temperature measurements on the principal heat network of :metabolon in Lindlar, Germany. These measurements intend to show the behaviour of the system on specific production areas of :metabolon for future monitoring and optimisation purposes. Such measurements allow the analysis of the system’s heat flow through the network, which showed that losses exist, some areas. The results demonstrate successfully that the temperature and flow changes deserve more detailed and fixed monitoring in specific areas to help the user decide the optimum measuring point.
Anaerobic digestion plants have the potential to produce biogas on demand to help balance renewable energy production and energy demand by consumers. A proportional integral (PI) controller is constructed and tuned with a novel tuning method to control biogas production in an optimal manner. In this approach, the proportional part of the controller is a function of the feeding rate and system's degree of stability. To estimate the degree of stability, a simulation‐based soft sensor is developed. By means of the PI controller, the requirement for gas storage capacity of the digester is reduced by approximately 30 % compared to a constant, continuous feeding regime of the digester.
3d printing is capable of providing dose individualization for pediatric medicines and translating the precision medicine approach into practical application. In pediatrics, dose individualization and preparation of small dosage forms is a requirement for successful therapy, which is frequently not possible due to the lack of suitable dosage forms. For precision medicine, individual characteristics of patients are considered for the selection of the best possible API in the most suitable dose with the most effective release profile to improve therapeutic outcome. 3d printing is inherently suitable for manufacturing of individualized medicines with varying dosages, sizes, release profiles and drug combinations in small batch sizes, which cannot be manufactured with traditional technologies. However, understanding of critical quality attributes and process parameters still needs to be significantly improved for this new technology. To ensure health and safety of patients, cleaning and process validation needs to be established. Additionally, adequate analytical methods for the in-process control of intermediates, regarding their printability as well as control of the final 3d printed tablets considering any risk of this new technology will be required. The PolyPrint consortium is actively working on developing novel polymers for fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3d printing, filament formulation and manufacturing development as well as optimization of the printing process, and the design of a GMP-capable FDM 3d printer. In this manuscript, the consortium shares its views on quality aspects and measures for 3d printing from drug-loaded filaments, including formulation development, the printing process, and the printed dosage forms. Additionally, engineering approaches for quality assurance during the printing process and for the final dosage form will be presented together with considerations for a GMP-capable printer design.
This research analyzes the effects that eco-labels have on the demand for organic (Bio) and Fairtrade (FT) food products. The thesis also discusses the individual determinants and motivations behind those effects. The analysis builds on data obtained from a self-programmed and self-conducted survey, with a sample of 869 students from different universities of Cologne, Germany. The Bio/FT preference is measured experimentally by randomly assigning individuals to treatment and control groups. The experiment simulates life decisions using actual pictures and prices of four products: packed and processed spaghetti, fresh tomatoes, packed raw meat, and packed orange juice.
The existence, size, and direction of statistically significant eco-label effects were obtained with two sample tests of proportions. The results prove that the FT label has a positive differential effect on consumer’s demand. The presence of the FT label makes the purchase of this juice 9.1% higher than other juices not labeled as FT. This finding confirms the hypothesis that eco-labels have a positive effect on sustainable consumption. A surprising finding is that the presence of the Bio label lowers the purchase of organic pasta and tomatoes 7.7% and 9.4% respectively. This finding is interesting because it suggests that Bio labels are not driving the demand for sustainable tomatoes or pasta for this population. Regional and cheaper alternatives are preferred by consumers in this cases.
The motivations behind consumer choices of different options were thoroughly analyzed. Binomial logistic regressions and qualitative text analysis show that the variance in the intention to consume eco-labeled food is explained mainly by price concerns and attitudes about value for money, but also by the influence of life partners as shopping referents, and the perceived behavioral controls of time and ability to monitor compliance of label standards, thus trust them.
The final remarks support the use of the Fairtrade eco-label as a market-based instrument to guide sustainable food consumption among young adults in this context, and propose changes that could make the Bio label more attractive for the targeted population. The thesis demonstrates which individual factors should be inevitably considered when implementing labeling to foster sustainable consumption. Hence, it is useful for evaluations of public and private certification schemes, and for companies that support sustainable food markets. Projects looking to understand and drive sustainable production and consumption decisions should consider this reading.
We examine the impact of the existence on an explicit deposit insurance (DI) scheme and its design features on bilateral cross‐border deposits (CBD) in a gravity model setting. We find that both the absolute quality of a country's DI and its relative quality vis‐à‐vis other countries' DI generally affect depositor behavior. However, during systemic banking crises, cross‐border depositors primarily seek countries with the best DI schemes. Similarly, during the 2008–2009 great financial crisis, the emergency actions taken by the governments, which supply and maintain these safe havens, have led to substantial relocations of CBD. (JEL F34, G18)
The brief lecture addresses reinsurance-relevant aspects of ecosystems in the automotive and mobility field. Specifically, the following aspects will be considered:
• Definition and description of the roles within an ecosystem, paying particular
attention to the role of insurance companies;
• Status and potential drivers of evolving automotive and mobility ecosystems;
• Opportunities for the strategic positioning of reinsurance companies.
This project is focused on the generation of hardware independent code for PLCs and the comparison for energy consumption patterns of hydraulic and electric drive unit. This works is dedicated to MLC (mould level control) in a continuous casting machine, which is used to cast steel slabs continuously. The code generation is done with the help of the PLC coder which is present in the software Simulink. The programming is done entirely in MATLAB. The application of the generated code is tested on the Siemens S7-1500 PLC. For executing the code and the development of the HMI (human machine
interface) Siemens software TIA Portal V15 has been used. Moreover, for further analysis of signals and testing the code, a PDA or process data acquisition system, IBA system is used. For energy analysis also the IBA system is used.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, river restoration projects are increasing, but many lack strategic planning and monitoring. We tested the applicability of a rapid visual social–ecological stream assessment method for restoration planning, complemented by a citizen survey on perceptions and uses of blue and green infrastructure. We applied the method at three urban streams in Jarabacoa (Dominican Republic) to identify and prioritize preferred areas for nature-based solutions. The method provides spatially explicit information for strategic river restoration planning, and its efficiency makes it suitable for use in data-poor contexts. It identifies well-preserved, moderately altered, and critically impaired areas regarding their hydromorphological and socio-cultural conditions, as well as demands on green and blue infrastructure. The transferability of the method can be improved by defining reference states for assessing the hydromorphology of tropical rivers, refining socio-cultural parameters to better address river services and widespread urban challenges, and balancing trade-offs between ecological and social restoration goals.
Austria is committed to the net-zero climate goal along with the European Union. This requires all sectors to be decarbonized. Hereby, hydrogen plays a vital role as stated in the national hydrogen strategy. A report commissioned by the Austrian government predicts a minimum hydrogen demand of 16 TWh per year in Austria in 2040. Besides hydrogen imports, domestic production can ensure supply. Hence, this study analyses the levelized cost of hydrogen for an off-grid production plant including a proton exchange membrane electrolyzer, wind power and solar photovoltaics in Austria. In the first step, the capacity factors of the renewable electricity sources are determined by conducting a geographic information system analysis. Secondly, the levelized cost of electricity for wind power and solarphotovoltaics plants in Austria is calculated. Thirdly, the most cost-efficient portfolio of wind power and solar photovoltaics plants is determined using electricity generation profiles with a 10-min granularity. The modelled system variants differ among location, capacity factors of the renewable electricity sources and the full load hours of the electrolyzer. Finally, selected variables are tested for their sensitivities. With the applied model, the hydrogen production cost for decentralized production plants can be calculated for any specific location. The levelized cost of hydrogen estimates range from 3.08 EUR/kg to 13.12 EUR/kg of hydrogen, whereas it was found that the costs are most sensitive to the capacity factors of the renewable electricity sources and the full load hours of the electrolyzer. The novelty of the paper stems from the model applied that calculates the levelized cost of renewable hydrogen in an off-grid hydrogen production system. The model finds a cost-efficient portfolio of directly coupled wind power and solar photovoltaics systems for 80 different variants in an Austria-specific context.
Wetlands offer different ecosystem services that contribute to human well-being (Kovács et al., 2015). According to the Ramsar Convention Secretariat (2018) wetland located in urban areas have been threatened by several activities such as drainage, pollution, encroachment, agriculture, among others. On the other hand, wetland degradation reduces the resilience of hazards like floods and storm surges (Kumar et al., 2017). For that reason, ecosystem-based disaster risk reduction (Eco-DRR) is an important strategy which enhances the conservation and restoration of ecosystems to reduce disaster risk aiming to sustainable development and resilience (Estrella & Saalismaa, 2013). Despite international recognition of the importance of wetlands, urban wetlands have diminished their capacity to cope with flood threats (Boyer and Polasky, 2006) due to the aforementioned human impacts.
That is why this thesis aimed to identify the role of urban wetlands in Bogota, Colombia, that has an urban wetland complex that is recognised as a Ramsar site in 2018. However, wetlands in the city reduced its area from 50.000 hectares to less than 800, approximately, in less than 40 years, mainly because of urban expansion and encroachment (IDIGER, 2018). To achieve this objective, an analysis of the city’s risk management framework was conducted, as well as a stakeholder analysis based on semi-structured interviews and a spatial-temporal analysis for the period 1998-2017, for which the Jaboque wetland was used as a case study. This wetland is located near the Bogotá River and is in the area threatened by flooding.
It was possible to determine that national and district policies on wetlands, biodiversity, and climate change adaptation address some ecosystem functions. Still, disaster risk reduction is not strongly linked to them. Thus, based on the case study, the wetlands in Bogota have not played a decisive role in flood risk management in the city.
An empirical evaluation of using the Swift language as the underlying technology of RESTful APIs
(2016)
The purpose of the current thesis is to determine the appropriateness of using the Swift language as the underlying technology for the development of RESTful APIs in a Linux environment. The current paper describes the process of designing, implementing and testing individual RESTful API components based on Node.js, PHP, Python and Swift and seeks to determine whether Swift is a viable alternative.
The thesis begins by defining a methodology for implementing and testing individual RESTful API components based on Node.js, PHP, Python and Swift. It then proceeds to detail the implementation and testing processes, following with an analytic discussion regarding the advantages and drawbacks of using the Swift language as the underlying technology for RESTful APIs and server-side Linux-based applications in general.
Based on the implementation process and on the results of the previously mentioned evaluation phase, it can be stated that the Swift language is not yet ready to be used in a production environment. However, its rapid evolution and potential for surpassing its competitors in the foreseeable future make it an ideal candidate for implementing RESTful APIs to be used in development environments.
Urban settlements demand the highest levels of resource consumption and waste management.
It has been accepted that cities should be considered organisms. Through Urban Energy Metabolism the planning and management of energy that flows across cities achieves important developments towards sustainability. Energy Efficiency is one of the primary tools used to produce sustainable development. Cities worldwide are developing action plans that implement the teachings of holism and eco-friendly practices. Systems Theory is a field developed with the intention of managing systems based on interdisciplinarity and a holistic approach. Fundamental practices of systems thinking are applicable to the study of cities as sustainable organisms/complex systems. Planning for Energy Efficient Cities (PLEEC) is an European project that was executed by a group of participants from the public, private, and education sectors, with the purpose of designing energy efficiency action plans to meet the targets of 2020. This work introduces, based on a literature review, several systems theories. A critique of the characteristics of PLEEC’s framework is performed to assess the level of systemic consideration into holism and sustainability. The evaluation of the process or success of the energy efficiency plans elaborated is not in the scope of the research. Using a modified version of Michael C.
Jackson’s Total Systems Intervention and a table that summarizes the principles of systems thinking, it is concluded that the plan lacks systemic consideration of cities as complex systems. The framework includes several concepts attributed to the field, such as interconnection of elements exchanging information and resources, but fails in defining self-organizing feedback based structures and function-driven behavior. It is of paramount importance that system thinking basics be at the core of all planning.
The climate is changing and this increases the risk of climate threats, which is affecting the most vulnerable populations, mainly peasant farmers. In order to minimize impacts on these populations, interest has been aroused to develop strategies that increase their resilience to climate-related risks. This issue has been little addressed in Ecuador, despite the increased frequency and intensity of climate-related risks, which are directly affecting agroecosystems and farmers' livelihoods. This research addresses the resilience of farmers to climate risks in the canton of Pedro Carbo, an area located on the Ecuadorian coast of Guayas Province characterized by a high rate of poverty and dedicated mainly to agriculture.
The overall objective of this research was to carry out an analysis of the resilience of small farmers to climate risks, as well as to recommend adaptation/transformation strategies to increase their resilience to climate. For this, farmers' perceptions were considered, as well as the opinion of experts on the subject. Multiple methods were applied such as: literature review, map generation, household surveys, participatory workshops with farmers and interviews with experts. In addition, a multidimensional matrix was developed to analyze quantitative and qualitative data through indicators that measure resilience in the study area. The main findings in this research reflect that farmers have very low resilience due to their socioeconomic characteristics, agricultural practices, lack of infrastructure and technologies, weak community organizations, limited access to credit and insurance, as well as lack of capacity building and technical assistance. Finally, recommendations for strategies to support planning and decision-making were developed.
Keywords: climate-related risks, peasant family farming, resilience, resilience assessment, climate resilience, farmers perceptions, Pedro Carbo
Researchers are always looking for innovative ways to collect the environmental data and ease the process of data collection on the field. Advancement in sensor technologies and drones has led to easy technological access to design custom solutions even with basic electronics and technical knowledge. This paper documents, construction and working of “ITT Smart Sense”, which is a low power, easy to use and cost effective environment monitoring system using wireless sensor network that runs autonomously on battery power for an extended period of time. Along with that, a UAV based platform, titled “ITT Smart Sense Fly”, focused on environmental monitoring and scientific research and is tailored to the needs of researchers has been proposed in this paper. This platform is comprised of an autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)/Drone with a camera sensor, an autopilot mobile app for mission planning and other required Photogrammetry tools. The drone navigates over the area of interest based on a pre-programmed flight plan and captures a series of photographs using the on-board camera. The collected image data set is processed to create orthomosaics, high resolution maps and 3D point cloud. The proposed solutions were demonstrated with three distinct case studies.
The use of nematic liquid crystal (LC) mixtures for microwave frequency applicationspresents a fundamental drawback: many of these mixtures have not been properly characterizedat these frequencies, and researchers do not have an a priori clear idea of which behavior they canexpect. This work is focused on developing a new procedure for the extraction of the main parametersof a nematic liquid crystal: dielectric permittivity and loss tangent at 11 GHz under differentpolarization voltages; splay elastic constantK11, which allows calculation of the threshold voltage(Vth); and rotational viscosityγ11, which allows calculating the response time of any arbitrary device.These properties will be calculated by using a resonator-based method, which is implementedwith a new topology of substrate integrated transmission line. The LC molecules should be rotated(polarized) by applying an electric field in order to extract the characteristic parameters; thus,the transmission line needs to have two conductors and low electric losses in order to preserve theintegrity of the measurements. This method was applied to a well-known liquid crystal mixture(GT3-23002 from MERCK) obtaining the permittivity and loss tangent versus bias voltage curves,the splay elastic constant, and the rotational viscosity of the mixture. The results validate the viabilityof the proposed method.
Comparative analysis of non-natural acceptor glucosylation with sucrase enzymes of family GH 70
(2019)
Mutan- and alternansucrase were analyzed for their non-natural glucosylation potential with catecholic compounds caffeic acid and nordihydroguaiaretic acid (NDGA) as well as with non-catecolic p-coumaric acid and umbellic acid. Mutansucrase accepted both catecholic substrates and high glucosylation yields of 92 % with caffeic acid and 81 % with NDGA were obtained. The enzyme showed a clear regio-preference for the catechol 4-OH, which corresponds to findings from our previous work with Leuconostoc and Weissella derived glucansucrases. The substrate spectrum of the alternansucrase was broader and all substrates were successfully glucosylated with a preference for the catechols. Interestingly alternansucrase possessed a different regio-specificity. With caffeic acid the 3-O-α-D-glucoside was the major product. A similar substrate spectrum and regioselectivity pattern was observed in previous glucansucrase screenings only with glucansucrase from strain Weissella beninensis DSM 22752. Therefore it may be concluded that the W. beninensis enzyme is an alternansucrase type enzyme as well.