Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Article (135)
- Master's Thesis (67)
- Conference Proceeding (34)
- Part of a Book (18)
- Study Thesis (16)
- Working Paper (16)
- Report (11)
- Bachelor Thesis (10)
- Other (5)
- Preprint (2)
Language
- English (315) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (315)
Keywords
- Rückversicherung (30)
- Reinsurance (29)
- Versicherung (25)
- Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung (22)
- Versicherungswirtschaft (21)
- Germany (17)
- USA (13)
- Market Research (12)
- Export Opportunities (10)
- EOS (9)
- Erneuerbare Energien (7)
- Forschungsbericht (6)
- Biogas (5)
- Resilienz (5)
- Risikomanagement (5)
- Sonnenenergie (5)
- Sustainability (5)
- Ecosystem services (4)
- Klimaänderung (4)
- Nachhaltigkeit (4)
- Optimization (4)
- Digitaler Zwilling (3)
- FPGA (3)
- Fair Trade (3)
- Field programmable gate array (3)
- Geoinformationssystem (3)
- Ghana (3)
- HIV (3)
- Heterogeneous Catalysis (3)
- Katastrophenmanagement (3)
- Katastrophenrisiko (3)
- Kreislaufwirtschaft (3)
- Lipase (3)
- Nitrification (3)
- Ontologie (3)
- Pellet (3)
- Process Analytical Technology (PAT) (3)
- Renewable energy (3)
- Semantic Web (3)
- Umweltbilanz (3)
- Virus-like Particles (VLPs) (3)
- Ökosystem (3)
- 3D Printing (2)
- :metabolon (2)
- Advanced Process Control (APC) (2)
- Agricultural Farms (2)
- Analytical Solution (2)
- Anpassung (2)
- Assessment (2)
- Augmented Reality (2)
- Automation (2)
- Bank (2)
- Bewältigung (2)
- Bifacial Photovoltaic (2)
- Big Data Platform (2)
- Bioenergie (2)
- Biogenic Residues (2)
- Biomasse (2)
- Browser (2)
- Building Information Modeling (2)
- Business Intelligence (2)
- CALB (2)
- CO (2)
- CPPS (2)
- Cognition (2)
- Colombia (2)
- Compost (2)
- Cumene Hydroperoxide (2)
- Denitrification (2)
- Diabetes mellitus Typ 1 (2)
- Digital Twin (2)
- Digital Twin (DT) (2)
- Disaster risk management (2)
- Disaster risk reduction (2)
- Ecuador (2)
- Elektroantrieb (2)
- Energiepflanzen (2)
- Energy Crops (2)
- Entwicklungsländer (2)
- Ernte (2)
- Erweiterte Realität <Informatik> (2)
- Esterification (2)
- European Union (2)
- Evaluation (2)
- Export Opportunity Survey (2)
- Export opportunity survey (2)
- Feuchtgebiet (2)
- Food security (2)
- Fotovoltaik (2)
- GIS (2)
- Gene Therapy (2)
- Heterogene Katalyse (2)
- Hochwasserschutz (2)
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) (2)
- Industrial biogas plant (2)
- Industry 4.0 (2)
- Insurance (2)
- Integration (2)
- Investitionsklima (2)
- Jordan (2)
- Kinetics (2)
- Kognition (2)
- Künstliche Intelligenz (2)
- LSTM (2)
- Life cycle assessment (2)
- Lithium-Ionen-Akkumulator (2)
- Load shifting (2)
- Market Study (2)
- Market research (2)
- Market study (2)
- Mobility (2)
- Murine Leukemia Virus (MLV) (2)
- Naturgefahr (2)
- Neural Network (2)
- Neuronales Netz (2)
- On-demand production (2)
- Optimierung (2)
- Optimisation (2)
- Peacebuilding (2)
- Pellets (2)
- Photovoltaic Systems (2)
- Polyurethane (2)
- Power System Simulation (2)
- Privacy (2)
- Quality-by-Design (QbD) (2)
- Real-Time-Release Testing (RTRT) (2)
- Recycling (2)
- Regulierung (2)
- Remote sensing (2)
- Renewable Energy Simulation (2)
- Resilience (2)
- Reststoff (2)
- Retroviral Vector (2)
- Rio de Janeiro (2)
- Scholarly Communication (2)
- Self-sufficiency (2)
- Sendai Framework (2)
- Sensors (2)
- Sleeping Beauty Transposon (2)
- Smart Meter (2)
- Solar Energy (2)
- Solid Biofuels (2)
- Sozialökologie (2)
- Stirred-Tank Bioreactor (2)
- Suspension Cell (2)
- Torus (2)
- Urban water security (2)
- Virtuelle Realität (2)
- Virus-like particles (2)
- Visualisierung (2)
- Wasser (2)
- Water-scarce cities (2)
- Webdesign (2)
- Wärmeübertragung (2)
- Zivilschutz (2)
- mRNA Transfection (2)
- 11M41 (1)
- 11S80 (1)
- 3D (1)
- 3D Building Models (1)
- 3D Printed Electronics (1)
- 3D Recovery (1)
- 3D reconstruction (1)
- 3D-Druck (1)
- 3D-Rekonstruktion (1)
- 4-dihydroisocoumarin (1)
- 60J10 (1)
- 60K30 (1)
- AGMD (1)
- AMHG (1)
- API (1)
- Abwasserbeseitigung (1)
- Acceptance (1)
- Acceptor reaction (1)
- Accesibility (1)
- Accessibility (1)
- Activity Recognition (1)
- Adaptation (1)
- Additive (1)
- Adolescents (1)
- Aerial Image (1)
- Aerial survey (1)
- Affordability (1)
- Africa (1)
- Afrika (1)
- Agile organisation (1)
- Agile workforce (1)
- Agrarökologie (1)
- Agricultural business (1)
- Agrivoltaic (1)
- Agrobiodiversity (1)
- Agroecology (1)
- Akzeptanz (1)
- Albedo (1)
- Aldol Reaction (1)
- Algorithm (1)
- Algorithm Selection (1)
- All-Wheel Drive (1)
- Alternansucrase (1)
- Alternative feedstock (1)
- Ambisonics (1)
- Ameisenalgorithmus (1)
- Amino Acids (1)
- Aminosäuren (1)
- Anaerobic Digestion (1)
- Analytic hierarchy process (1)
- Analytical Method (1)
- Angewandte Mathematik (1)
- Anorganischer Kohlenstoff (1)
- Anthropomorphic robotic hands (1)
- Antimicrobial Activity (1)
- Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) (1)
- Antiretrovirale Substanz (1)
- Análisis de actores interesados (1)
- Apfelsaft (1)
- Apple Juice (1)
- Apple Pomace (1)
- Applied Mathematics (1)
- Artificial Intelligence (1)
- Artificial caterpillars (1)
- Artificial intelligence (1)
- Arzneimittelresistenz (1)
- Assistive Technologies (1)
- Asymmetric Catalysis (1)
- Atmospheric emissions (1)
- Atomkrieg (1)
- Auctions (1)
- Audio Hashing (1)
- Aufzug <Fördermittel> (1)
- Authentication (1)
- Authenticity (1)
- Authentifikation (1)
- Authentizität (1)
- AutoML (1)
- Autoclave (1)
- Autoklav (1)
- Automotive (1)
- Auxetic (1)
- Awareness (1)
- Azraq Basin (1)
- BEV (battery electric vehicle) (1)
- BLoC Pattern (1)
- Bacterial groups (1)
- Banking Market Integration (1)
- Banking market integration (1)
- Baraka River Basin (1)
- Barrierefreiheit (1)
- Base-Catalyzed (1)
- Beamforming (1)
- Beamforming <Signalverarbeitung> (1)
- Bedarfsplanung (1)
- Behavioral research (1)
- Bellman Equation (1)
- Bellman-Gleichung (1)
- Bending Words (1)
- Benefit-Cost Ratio (1)
- Benutzererlebnis (1)
- Benutzerfreundlichkeit (1)
- Beschäftigung (1)
- Bestärkendes Lernen <Künstliche Intelligenz> (1)
- Bewässerung (1)
- Bibliometric Analysis (1)
- Big Data (1)
- Binaural Rendering (1)
- Binaural Reproduction (1)
- Bio-Based Surfactants (1)
- Bio-based (1)
- BioTrade (1)
- Biodiversity conservation (1)
- Bioethanol production (1)
- Biofuel (1)
- Biogas yield potential (1)
- Biogasgewinnung (1)
- Biological corridor (1)
- Bioreactor (1)
- Biosurfactants (1)
- Biotensid (1)
- Black box testing (1)
- Blackbox (1)
- Blast Impact (1)
- Blatt (1)
- Blind (1)
- Blinder Mensch (1)
- Blog readers (1)
- Blogging (1)
- Blue Carbon Potential Index (1)
- Blue and Green Infrastructure (1)
- Blue carbon (1)
- Bodeneigenschaften (1)
- Bogotá (1)
- Boiling (1)
- Bono orgánico (1)
- Brain wearables (1)
- Brand (1)
- Brasilien (1)
- Brazilian Atlantic forest (1)
- Breast cancer resistance protein (1)
- Brennstoffzellenfahrzeug (1)
- Brine Recovery (1)
- Browser Cache (1)
- Brustkrebs (1)
- Building Information Modeling (BIM) (1)
- Burning (1)
- Business Cycle Dating (1)
- Business Cycle Synchronization (1)
- Business Environment (1)
- Business model (1)
- Business regulation and business law (1)
- C/N Ratio (1)
- C14 (1)
- C82 (1)
- CERN (1)
- CFD (1)
- CHIRPS (1)
- CNT Dispersion (1)
- CO<sub>2</sub> emissions (1)
- CO<sub>2</sub> separation (1)
- COVID-19 Pandemic (1)
- CSR (1)
- Caffeic acid (1)
- Camera calibration (1)
- Cancer chemotherapy (1)
- Canned Corn (1)
- Capacity Factor of Wind Power (1)
- Capacity Gactor of Dolar Photovoltaics (1)
- Capital Injections (1)
- Carbon nanotubes (1)
- Carbon source (1)
- Carbono inorgánico (1)
- Caro orgánico (1)
- Cascading Impacts (1)
- Cascading Style Sheets (1)
- Catalase (1)
- Catalysis (1)
- Catalyst Deactivation (1)
- Cationic Cyclization (1)
- Ccrop monitoring (1)
- Cellulose Acetate (1)
- Cellulose acetate (1)
- Celluloseacetat (1)
- Ceramics, Glass, Composites, Natural Materials (1)
- Chain Lines (1)
- Change Detection (1)
- Characterization and Analytical Techniques (1)
- Chatbots (1)
- Chemotherapie (1)
- Child–Robot Interaction (1)
- Chinese motor insurance market (1)
- Chitin Deacetylase (1)
- Christians (1)
- Circular Economy (1)
- Circular economy (1)
- Circular economy, (1)
- City expansion (1)
- Civil Engineering (1)
- Civil Protection (1)
- Clasificación de la cobertura de suelo (1)
- Classical and Continuum Physics (1)
- Client-Server-Konzept (1)
- Climate Change (1)
- Climate Change Adaptation (1)
- Climate Change Adaptive Capacity (1)
- Climate Variability (1)
- Climate change (1)
- Climate change adaptation (1)
- Climate finance (1)
- Climate resilience, (1)
- Climate-related risks (1)
- Clinical Trials (1)
- Closed-Loop (1)
- Co-Authorship Network (1)
- Cobalt Catalysis (1)
- Cognitive Demands (1)
- Combustion (1)
- Combustion plant (1)
- Compounding Event (1)
- Comprehensive Index for School Resilience (1)
- Computer Science (1)
- Computer Supported Cooperative Work (1)
- Computeranimation (1)
- Computerspiel (1)
- Conductivity (1)
- Confocal Microscopy (1)
- Connectivity (1)
- Connectivity conservation (1)
- Conservación de la conectividad (1)
- Constraint <Künstliche Intelligenz> (1)
- Constraint Satisfaction Problem (1)
- Consumo sustentable de alimentos (1)
- Content monetisation (1)
- Contingency planning (1)
- Control (1)
- Cooperation System (1)
- Coping (1)
- Coping strategies (1)
- Cork (1)
- Corporate Social Responsibility (1)
- Corporate social responsibility (1)
- Corredor biológico (1)
- Correlation (1)
- Costa Rica (1)
- Costs of water risks (1)
- Creative Cooperation (1)
- Credibility (1)
- Critical infrastructure (1)
- Criticality assessment (1)
- Cross-border deposits (1)
- Cross-border loans (1)
- Cultural awareness (1)
- Cultural production (1)
- Culture (1)
- Customer Engagement (1)
- Customer Participation Stress (1)
- Customer Relationship Marketing (1)
- Cyber-physical system (1)
- Cybernetics (1)
- Cybersecurity (1)
- Cybersicherheit (1)
- Cyproconazole (1)
- DRR (1)
- DSC (1)
- Dairy systems (1)
- Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer Approximation (1)
- Darlehen (1)
- Data Mining (1)
- Data Ware House (1)
- Data collection (1)
- Data usability (1)
- Data-Warehouse-Konzept (1)
- Database (1)
- Datenschutz (1)
- Decentralized Solar PV (1)
- Decile thresholding (1)
- Decision Tree (1)
- Decision-Support (1)
- Decision-making (1)
- Deep Learning (1)
- Deep eutectic solvents (1)
- Deforestation and forest degradation (1)
- Deforestationst (1)
- Degradation (1)
- Delf-Condensation (1)
- Demanda de comercio justo (1)
- Demanda de comida orgánica (1)
- Denitrifikation (1)
- Dense phase carbon dioxide (1)
- Depositen (1)
- Deregulation of employment (1)
- Desalination (1)
- Design Process (1)
- Design systems (1)
- Deutschland (1)
- Development (1)
- Development economics (1)
- Diabetes Typ 1 (1)
- Dielektrizitätszahl (1)
- Dietary patterns (1)
- Differentiable Line Fitting (1)
- Digital Design and Construction (1)
- Digital Humanities (1)
- Digital Triplet (1)
- Digital competences (1)
- Digital games (1)
- Digital methods (1)
- Digitalisierung (1)
- Digitalkamera (1)
- Digitaltechnik (1)
- Dirichlet Characters (1)
- Dirichlet Series (1)
- Disaster Management (1)
- Disaster Resilience (1)
- Disaster Risk Management (1)
- Disaster Risk Reduction (1)
- Disaster risk (1)
- Discharge modeling (1)
- Discrete Risk Model (1)
- Disintegration (1)
- Display Techniques (1)
- Distributed Working Situation (1)
- Diterpene (1)
- Diterpenes (1)
- Domain-Specific Academic Search (1)
- Dosieren (1)
- Drahtloses Sensorsystem (1)
- Dreidimensionale Rekonstruktion (1)
- Drinking water (1)
- Drop Tower (1)
- Drought (1)
- Drought impacts (1)
- Drug Resistance (1)
- Drug Safety and Pharmacovigilance (1)
- Dry spent grains (1)
- Due diligence (1)
- Dürre (1)
- E-Learning (1)
- E-commerce fraud investigation (1)
- E32 (1)
- E65 (1)
- EEG (1)
- EPDM (1)
- EV (electric vehicle) (1)
- Early Childhood Education (1)
- Eater User Sssociation (1)
- Eco-DRR (1)
- Eco-labeling experiment (1)
- Economic Integration (1)
- Economy (1)
- Ecosystem (1)
- Ecosystem goods (1)
- Ecosystem service valuation (1)
- Ecosystem services trade-offs (1)
- Ecosystem-based reduction (Eco-DRR) (1)
- Education (1)
- Education Continuity (1)
- Efficient water management (1)
- Egypt (1)
- Ehrenamtlicher Mitarbeiter (1)
- Elastische Konstante (1)
- Elearning (1)
- Electric Vehicle (1)
- Electric drive (1)
- Electric vehicles (1)
- Electricity (1)
- Electricity prices (1)
- Electricity supply (1)
- Electricity theft (1)
- Electrodialysis (1)
- Electrolysis (1)
- Electrolyte Recovery (1)
- Electrophysiology (1)
- Electroplating (1)
- Elektrifizierung (1)
- Elektrizität (1)
- Elektrizitätsversorgung (1)
- Elektrodialyse (1)
- Elektrofahrzeug (1)
- Elektrolyse (1)
- Elektrophoretisches Beschichten (1)
- Elevator systems (1)
- Embedded Matlab (1)
- Emergency Management (1)
- Emergency management (1)
- Employer attractiveness (1)
- Employment (1)
- Emulgator (1)
- Emulsifiers (1)
- End-of-Life-Tires (1)
- Energieverbrauch (1)
- Energy Absorption (1)
- Energy System Modeling (1)
- Energy System Optimisation (1)
- Energy indicators (1)
- Energy supply (1)
- Energy transition (1)
- Energy-efficiency (1)
- Entrepreneurship (1)
- Entsaltzung (1)
- Entscheidungsbaum (1)
- Entscheidungsfindung (1)
- Entscheidungsunterstützung (1)
- Entwaldung (1)
- Entwicklungsökonomie (1)
- Environmental (1)
- Environmental flow (1)
- Environmental governance (1)
- Environmental monitoring (1)
- Environmental protection (1)
- Environmental risks (1)
- Enzyme Cascade (1)
- Equation (1)
- Equiangular (1)
- Equilateral (1)
- Estland (1)
- Estonia (1)
- Estudio de comportamiento (1)
- Ethiopian (1)
- Ethnische Minderheit (1)
- Eucalyptus kraft lignin (1)
- Euler Factors (1)
- Euro (1)
- Europe (1)
- European single market (1)
- Europäische Union (1)
- Evakuierung (1)
- Evaluation Infrastructures (1)
- Evolutionary Computation (1)
- Evolutionärer Algorithmus (1)
- Excess air (1)
- Experimental Characterization (1)
- Experimento con eco-etiquetas (1)
- Expertise (1)
- Explainable AI (1)
- Explainable Artificial Intelligence (1)
- Export Opportunity Survey; Germany; Market Research; Market Study; USA; Organic Oats (1)
- Externalities (1)
- Externer Effekt (1)
- Extra-Framework Aluminum (1)
- Extracurricular learning (1)
- Extremal radial graphs (1)
- Extreme Precipitation Index (EPI) (1)
- EyeTech (1)
- F. oxysporum (1)
- FHIR (1)
- Fairer Handel (1)
- Fairtrade demand (1)
- Farmers perceptions, (1)
- Fatty alcohols (1)
- Favela (1)
- Feasibility (1)
- Feed-in tariff (1)
- Fermentation wastewater (1)
- Fester Brennstoff (1)
- Fettalkohole (1)
- Filler dispersion (1)
- Finite element calculation (1)
- Fixed-Angle (1)
- Flame image (1)
- Flash Flood (1)
- Flexible biogas production (1)
- Flexible work organisation (1)
- Flood Germany (1)
- Flood defense (1)
- Flood risk management (1)
- Flood risk reduction (1)
- Flooding (1)
- Fluid Flow (1)
- Fluid flow (1)
- Fluidpartikelströmung (1)
- Flutter (1)
- Focus group discussions (1)
- Food-Energy Nexus (1)
- Forest fragments (1)
- Forest management (1)
- Formale Begriffsanalyse (1)
- Formalisierung (1)
- Formgebung (1)
- Fortbewegung (1)
- Foundation (1)
- Fourier Transform (1)
- Fragmentación del hábitat (1)
- Frau (1)
- Frauen (1)
- Freie Konvektion (1)
- Friedenssicherung (1)
- Frontline Employees (1)
- Fused Filament Fabrication (1)
- GIS for Rural Electrification (1)
- GPU (1)
- Game design (1)
- Game-based learning (1)
- Gameplay loop (1)
- Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta (1)
- Gas Separation (1)
- Gas permeability (1)
- Gaseous hydrogen (1)
- Gaspermeation (1)
- Generative Adversarial Networks (1)
- Geographic Information System (1)
- Geographic information system (1)
- Geography education research (1)
- Geospatial Analysis (1)
- Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences (1)
- Gerechtigkeit (1)
- German Economy (1)
- German education system (1)
- Geschwindigkeitsverteilung (1)
- Geschäftsmodell (1)
- Gesundheitsgefährdung (1)
- Ghanaian health sector (1)
- Gitter-Boltzmann-Methode (1)
- Glaubwürdigkeit (1)
- Glioblastom (1)
- Glioblastoma (1)
- Glycosides (1)
- Glykoside (1)
- Gold mining (1)
- Goldabbau (1)
- Goldbergbau (1)
- Google Earth Engine (1)
- Grape pomace (1)
- Graph Theory (1)
- Gravity model (1)
- Great Britain (1)
- Green Chemistry (1)
- Green growth (1)
- Green-blue interventions (1)
- Grid Load (1)
- Grid-integration (1)
- Ground Tire Rubber (1)
- Groupware (1)
- Growth diagnostics (1)
- Großbritannien (1)
- Gruppeninterview (1)
- HIV Vaccines (1)
- HOMER Pro (1)
- HPODE (1)
- HRTF (1)
- HTTP (1)
- HVAC (1)
- Habitat fragmentation (1)
- Hand prostheses (1)
- Handprothese (1)
- Handschrift <Grafologie> (1)
- Handwriting (1)
- Haptic (1)
- Haptische Feedback-Technologie (1)
- Harmonization (1)
- Harvest (1)
- Hash-Algorithmus (1)
- Hazardous Building Materials (1)
- Health Assessment (1)
- Health Care (1)
- Health Monitoring (1)
- Health literacy (1)
- Healthy Ageing (1)
- Heat (1)
- Heat Transfer (1)
- Heat stress response (1)
- Heat transfer (1)
- Heating network (1)
- Heilpflanzen (1)
- Heranwachsender (1)
- Herstellung (1)
- Higher Education (1)
- High‐Pressure Reverse Osmosis (1)
- Historical Prints (1)
- Hochschulbildung (1)
- Hock Cleavage (1)
- Hock cleavage (1)
- Holzhaus (1)
- Household (1)
- Human Embryonic Kidney 293 (HEK293) (1)
- Human Embryonic Kidney 293 Cells (HEK293) (1)
- Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (hiPSC)-Derived Neurons (1)
- Human Motion Capture (1)
- Humedal urbano (1)
- Hurricane (1)
- Hybrid Optimization (1)
- Hybrid renewable energy system (1)
- Hybrides System (1)
- Hybridfahrzeug (1)
- Hydraulischer Antrieb (1)
- Hydrogen sorption curves (1)
- Hydrogen uptake (1)
- Hydrogeologie (1)
- Hydrogeology (1)
- Hydrological modelling (1)
- Hydrology/Water Resources (1)
- Hydrolyse (1)
- Hydrolysis (1)
- Hydrometeorological hazard reduction (1)
- Hydroperoxides (1)
- Hydrovinylation (1)
- Hydroxyacids (1)
- Hymexazol (1)
- Hypergravity (1)
- Hypermedia (1)
- IFC (1)
- Ice-storage-system (1)
- Illicit coca crops (1)
- Image acquisition (1)
- Image interpretation (1)
- Image processing (1)
- Immersive Teaching (1)
- Impakt (1)
- Impedance spectroscopy (1)
- Implementation Challenges (1)
- In-Situ Oxygen Generation (1)
- Inclusion (1)
- Index (1)
- Indigenous communities (1)
- Individual Psychological and Social Coping Resources (1)
- Industrial Chemistry (1)
- Industrial Chemistry/Chemical Engineering (1)
- Industrial water management (1)
- Industrie 4.0 (1)
- Informatik (1)
- Information Behavior (1)
- Informationsverhalten (1)
- Inorganic carbon (1)
- Institutional Work (1)
- Integrated Management (1)
- Intercultural communication (1)
- Intercultural work (1)
- Interessenverband (1)
- Interest Rate Pass-Through (1)
- Interkulturalität (1)
- Interkulturelle Arbeit (1)
- Interkulturelle Kommunikation (1)
- International computer and information literacy study (1)
- Internationale Verflechtung (1)
- Internationality (1)
- Internationalität (1)
- Internet (1)
- Internet/web information (1)
- Interoperability (1)
- Interpolation (1)
- Invertibility (1)
- Ion Exchange Resin (1)
- Ion Transport (1)
- Irrigation Advisory Dervice (1)
- Isophorone (1)
- Isotropic Conductive Adhesive (1)
- Java Media Framework API (1)
- Jordanien (1)
- Just Sanitation Transition Framework (1)
- Just Transition (1)
- K-nearest Neighbors (1)
- Kalibrieren <Messtechnik> (1)
- Kamerakalibrierung (1)
- Katalase (1)
- Katalyse (1)
- Katastrophe (1)
- Kd-Tree (1)
- Kenia (1)
- Kindergarten Settings (1)
- Kinetic model (1)
- Kleinkindpädagogik (1)
- Klima (1)
- Klimakatastrophe (1)
- Knoten (1)
- Knowledge transfer (1)
- Kolumbien (1)
- Kommunikation (1)
- Kompost (1)
- Konfigurationsraum (1)
- Konfokale Mikroskopie (1)
- Konzentrator (1)
- Kooperation (1)
- Kritische Infrastruktur (1)
- Kulturarbeit (1)
- Kulturbewusstsein (1)
- Kulturkontakt (1)
- Kulturpädagogik (1)
- Kunde (1)
- Kundenmanagement (1)
- LCA (1)
- LOX (1)
- La Picasa Lagoon (1)
- Labor market (1)
- Land Equivalent Ratio (1)
- Land cover change (1)
- Land cover classification (1)
- Land degradation (1)
- Land grabbing (1)
- Land use and land cover change (1)
- Land use change (1)
- Land-Use Change (1)
- Land-use Data (1)
- Landfill Leachate (1)
- Landfill leachate (1)
- Landfill leachate treatment (1)
- Landnahme (1)
- Landnutzung (1)
- Landsat (1)
- Landwirt (1)
- Langton’s ant (1)
- Laser assisted (1)
- Latin America and the Caribbean (1)
- Lattice Boltzmann Method (1)
- Layered Architecture (1)
- Lead concentrations (1)
- Learning Analytics (1)
- Lebensunterhalt (1)
- Legitimation (1)
- Lens Diseases (1)
- Lernspiel (1)
- Levelized Cost of Tenewable Hydrogen (1)
- Libanon (1)
- Lightweight Structures (1)
- Line Detection (1)
- Line Parameterization (1)
- Line Segmentation (1)
- Linear Programming (1)
- Linoleic Acid (1)
- Linolsäure (1)
- Lipasen (1)
- Lipoxygenase (1)
- Liquid Fractions of Anaerobic Digestate (1)
- Lithium (1)
- Lithium-Ion Batteries (1)
- Livelihood (1)
- Load forecasting (1)
- Locomotion (1)
- Logic Cell Placement (1)
- Lokales Wissen (1)
- Long-Term Change (1)
- Loss and Damage (1)
- Loss tangent (1)
- Luftbild (1)
- MABIA (1)
- MATLAB (1)
- MESMIS (1)
- MSW (1)
- Maasai Mara (1)
- Machine Learning (1)
- Mammalian Cells (1)
- Management (1)
- Mangrove (1)
- Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon Test (1)
- Manual visual image interpretation (1)
- Manufacturing, Machines, Tools, Processes (1)
- Mapping (1)
- Marine Natural Products (1)
- Marker recognition (1)
- Marker-Erkennung (1)
- Marketing (1)
- Marketing Automation (1)
- Markt (1)
- Martensitic stainless steel (1)
- Maschinelles Lernen (1)
- Mass transfer (1)
- Mastery (1)
- Material Lifetime (1)
- Matina (1)
- Maya Forest (1)
- Meaning (1)
- Measuring Corporate Social Responsibility (1)
- Meat market, Germany (1)
- Mechanical effects (1)
- Mechanical properties (1)
- Mechatronic Systems (1)
- Medical Knowledge (1)
- Medicinal plants (1)
- Medizinische Einrichtung (1)
- Medizinische Informatik (1)
- Mehrwandige Kohlenstoff-Nanoröhre (1)
- Mekong River (1)
- Membran (1)
- Membrane Bioreactor (1)
- Membrane Distillation (1)
- Membrane Formation (1)
- Membrane Technology (1)
- Mental illness (1)
- Menthol (1)
- Mesquite (1)
- Messenger (1)
- Metadata Analysis (1)
- Metaheuristics (1)
- Metaheuristik (1)
- Metaverse (1)
- Methane (1)
- Methane production (1)
- Methanproduktion (1)
- Metric Suite (1)
- Micro frontends (1)
- Micro-hydroforming (1)
- Micro-tube drawing (1)
- Micro-tube testing (1)
- Micro-tubes (1)
- Microchannel (1)
- Microgravity (1)
- Microgrid (1)
- Microphone Arrays (1)
- Microwave (1)
- Migrant background (1)
- Migrationshintergrund (1)
- Mikrodosierung (1)
- Mikroelektronik (1)
- Mikrosystemtechnik (1)
- Mikrowelle (1)
- Milcherzeuger (1)
- Minimal non-planarity (1)
- Missing Joints or Markers (1)
- Mitigation (1)
- Mixed Matrix Membranes (MMMs) (1)
- Mixed matrix membranes (1)
- Mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) (1)
- Mobile (1)
- Mobilität (1)
- Model (1)
- Model Reduction (1)
- Modeling (1)
- Modeling and Simulation (1)
- Modellierung (1)
- Modularization (1)
- Monetary Integration (1)
- Multi Objective Optimisation (1)
- Multi-Electrode Array (MEA) (1)
- Multi-Level Perspective (1)
- Multi-Material Printing (1)
- Multi-Risk (1)
- Multi-objective optimization (1)
- Multidimensional (1)
- Multidisciplinarity (1)
- Multidrug resistance (1)
- Multidrug-Resistenz (1)
- Multimodal Data (1)
- Multimodal data (1)
- Muster <Struktur> (1)
- Mutansucrase (1)
- NDCs (1)
- Nachhaltigkeit im Lebensmittelhandel (1)
- Nafion (1)
- Nationale Minderheit (1)
- Natural convection (1)
- Natural hazard (1)
- Nature based solutions (1)
- Nature-Based Solutions (1)
- Nature-based Solutions (1)
- Navigation (1)
- Needs Assessment (1)
- Nematic liquid crystal (1)
- Nematische Phase (1)
- Neue Medien (1)
- Neural Networks (1)
- Neural network (1)
- New Urban Agenda (1)
- Nichtstaatliche Organisation (1)
- Nigeria (Nord) (1)
- Nil (1)
- Nile river (1)
- Nitrifikation (1)
- Noise (1)
- Noisereduction (1)
- Non‐thermal microbial inactivation (1)
- Nordihydroguaiaretic acid (1)
- Nusselt number (1)
- Nusselt-Zahl (1)
- Nutzfahrzeug (1)
- OFDM (1)
- OPC-UA (1)
- OPVT collector (1)
- Oberflächenspannung (1)
- Object recognition (1)
- Older Adults (1)
- Oligomers (1)
- Online Spiele (1)
- Online trust (1)
- Online-Forschung (1)
- Online-measurement (1)
- Online/Offline Evaluation (1)
- Ontology (1)
- Open BIM (1)
- Open Source (1)
- Operational Resources (1)
- Ophelia (1)
- Optical motion capture (1)
- Optimal Dividend Problem (1)
- Optisches Motion Capture (1)
- Organic Black Tea (1)
- Organic Chickpeas (1)
- Organic Coconut Oil (1)
- Organic Coffee (1)
- Organic Oranges (1)
- Organic Tofu (1)
- Organic carbon (1)
- Organic cotton (1)
- Organic demand (1)
- Organic rye (1)
- Organischer Kohlenstoff (1)
- Orientation (1)
- Orientierung (1)
- Orthomosaic (1)
- Ortsauflösung (1)
- Oxidation of methane (1)
- Oxygen uptake rate (1)
- P-Glykoprotein (1)
- P-glycoprotein (1)
- P. Infestans (1)
- PCB Design (1)
- PI-Regler (1)
- PLC (1)
- PV (1)
- PV microgrid (1)
- PVGIS (1)
- PVT Solar thermal collector (1)
- PVWatts (1)
- PX-12 (1)
- Paper Structure (1)
- Parametric model (1)
- Paranormality (1)
- Partnerstadt (1)
- Password (1)
- Passwort (1)
- Pasteurization (1)
- Pdr5 (1)
- Peasant family farming, (1)
- Pectin (1)
- Pedro Carbo (1)
- Peer Exclusion (1)
- Pektine (1)
- People (1)
- Perception (1)
- Perceptual Evaluation (1)
- Permeate‐Sided Pressure Drop (1)
- Permittivity (1)
- Pest control (1)
- Pharmaceutical-Grade Water (1)
- Pharmacotherapy (1)
- Pharmacy (1)
- Pharmazie (1)
- Phase Inversion (1)
- Phase dependency (1)
- Photogrammetry (1)
- Photovoltaic systems (1)
- Phytoremediator (1)
- Pilze (1)
- Plant Simulation (1)
- Plasma Treatment (1)
- Plastische Deformation (1)
- Policy Comparison (1)
- Policy dialogue (1)
- Policy relevance (1)
- Polyamide 6.6 Reinforced with 30% w/w Glass Fibres (1)
- Polyesterpolyols (1)
- Polygonal Chain (1)
- Polygonzug (1)
- Polyimide (1)
- Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (1)
- Polymer nanocomposite materials (1)
- Polynomial cancellation coding (1)
- Polyol (1)
- Polyole (1)
- Polytelic conflicts (1)
- Porous Media (1)
- Porous Polymer Membranes (1)
- Portal <Internet> (1)
- Potential Analysis (1)
- Potenzialanalyse (1)
- Power (1)
- Powertrain (1)
- Prediction (1)
- Pretreatment (1)
- Primary 91B30 (1)
- Primary: 11R23 (1)
- Principal Component Analysis (1)
- Privatheit (1)
- Probemlösen (1)
- Problem-solving (1)
- Proceedings (1)
- Process Optimization (1)
- Production cost (1)
- Production yield (1)
- Professional Dervices (1)
- Programmiersprachen (1)
- Propiedades de suelo (1)
- Proportional integral controllers (1)
- Prosthetic fingers (1)
- Protein Production (1)
- Proteine (1)
- Prozessoptimierung (1)
- Prävention (1)
- Pseudo-randomness (1)
- Psychische Störung (1)
- Psychomotor Learning (1)
- Pure Water (1)
- PyPSA (1)
- Python (1)
- Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse (1)
- Qualitative content analysis (1)
- Qualitative research (1)
- Quantentechnologie (1)
- Quantification of noise (1)
- Quantum Annealing (1)
- Quantum Computing (1)
- Q’eqchi’ Maya (1)
- REST (1)
- REST <Informatik> (1)
- RESTful (1)
- RNA-seq (1)
- Radial graphs (1)
- Radnabenmotor (1)
- Rapid Stream Assessment (1)
- Raumauflösung (1)
- Rauschquantifizierung (1)
- Rauschreduktion (1)
- Rauschunterdrückung (1)
- Reaktionskinetik (1)
- Recession (1)
- Recovery (1)
- Red Soil (1)
- Red Tape (1)
- Reducción de riesgo de desastres (Eco-DRR) (1)
- Reducción de riesgo de inundación (1)
- Reference Architecture (1)
- Regional development (1)
- Regressionsanalyse (1)
- Regularized Bernoulli Distributions (1)
- Reinforcement Learning (1)
- Reluktanzmaschine (1)
- Renewable Energy (1)
- Renewable Energy Penetration (1)
- Renewable Technologies (1)
- Reproducibility (1)
- Research Gap (1)
- Research Protocols (1)
- Resilience assessment (1)
- Resources (1)
- Response (1)
- Retroviren (1)
- Retroviruses (1)
- Reverse Osmosis (1)
- Rezession (1)
- Rhodes (1)
- Rice yield (1)
- Risikofaktor (1)
- Risk Communication (1)
- Risk Monitoring (1)
- Risk Perception (1)
- Risk assessment (1)
- Risk management (1)
- Risk-based Authentication (1)
- River Restoration (1)
- River width (1)
- Road network (1)
- Road-side-green-cuttings (1)
- Robot Ethics (1)
- Roboterhand (1)
- Robotic fingers (1)
- Rohr (1)
- Rotational viscosity (1)
- Rotor-Stator System (RS) (1)
- Rotor-stator system (RS) (1)
- Rule Learning (1)
- Rural Electrification (1)
- Rural Sanitation Approaches (1)
- Rural electrification (1)
- Rwanda (1)
- Räumliche Statistik (1)
- SAR (1)
- SARIMA (1)
- SDG7 (1)
- SDI (1)
- SFR_Edge (1)
- SFR_Siemens (1)
- SIMULINK (1)
- SMBO (1)
- SOAP (1)
- SPI (1)
- STEM – Science Technology Engineering Mathematics (1)
- STEPsCON 2018 (1)
- Sacred plants (1)
- Sandwich-Structured Composites (1)
- Sanitation (1)
- Satellit (1)
- Satellite Imagery (1)
- Satellite Precipitation Estimate (SPE) (1)
- Satellitenbild (1)
- Scetone (1)
- Schleuderbeschichten (1)
- Schnittstelle (1)
- School Resilience (1)
- School WaSH (1)
- Schule (1)
- Scientific Events (1)
- Secondary 60G42 (1)
- Secondary: 11R42 (1)
- Sector Coupling (1)
- Security (1)
- Security+-Zertifikat (1)
- Sektorkopplung (1)
- Selbstbau (1)
- Selbstwirksamkeit (1)
- Selective Oxygen Uptake Rate (1)
- Selective inhibition (1)
- Self (1)
- Self-Efficacy (1)
- Selva Maya (1)
- Senegal (1)
- Sensor (1)
- Sensorised fingers (1)
- Sentinel 2 (1)
- Sentinel-1 (1)
- Serbia (1)
- Serbien (1)
- Servicios ecosistémicos (1)
- Severe plastic deformation (1)
- Shared Information Spaces (1)
- Shear stress (1)
- Shelter planning (1)
- Simulation (1)
- Sister-Cities (1)
- Slantlet Transform (1)
- Slum (1)
- Smart Meter Gateway (1)
- Smart home (1)
- Social Network Analysis (1)
- Social Robotics (1)
- Social network analysis (1)
- Societal resilience (1)
- Socio-ecological system (1)
- Socio-ecological systems (1)
- Socio-economic (1)
- Socio-economic contributions (1)
- Soft sensor (1)
- Software (1)
- Software Radio (1)
- Softwareentwicklung (1)
- Soil properties (1)
- Solar PV (1)
- Solar Power (1)
- Solar energy (1)
- Solar panel detection (1)
- Solar-Photovoltaics (1)
- Solar-Powered Irrigation (1)
- Sonnenergie (1)
- Sophorolipid (1)
- Sophorolipids (1)
- South Africa (1)
- Southern African Development Community (1)
- Sozialarbeit (1)
- Soziale Arbeit (1)
- Soziale Robotik (1)
- Spatial Analysis (1)
- Spatial Audio Reproduction (1)
- Spatial distribution (1)
- Spatial multicriteria analysis (1)
- Speedrun (1)
- Spherical Microphone Arrays (1)
- Spin Coating (1)
- Spiral‐Wound Element (1)
- Splay elastic constant (1)
- Stadt (1)
- Stakeholders (1)
- Start-up (1)
- Startup success (1)
- State-Management (1)
- Steer-by-Wire Systems (1)
- Steer-by-wire (1)
- Steuer (1)
- Storage (1)
- Strawberries (1)
- Straßennetz (1)
- Stress (1)
- Stroh (1)
- Studie (1)
- Study (1)
- Städtische Landwirtschaft (1)
- Success factors (1)
- Sugarcane (1)
- Supported Thin Films (1)
- Surface Tension (1)
- Surrogate (1)
- Sustainability Transition (1)
- Sustainability assessment (1)
- Sustainability in food retailing (1)
- Sustainable Urban Planning (1)
- Sustainable business (1)
- Sustainable consumption (1)
- Sustainable development (1)
- Sustainable food consumption (1)
- Svelte (1)
- Switched reluctance machine (1)
- Synergie (1)
- Synergism (1)
- Syntax (1)
- Südafrika <Staat> (1)
- TMR (1)
- TXNIP (1)
- Table Tennis (1)
- Tacrolimus (1)
- Tactile Vision Sensory Substitution (1)
- Tactile sensors (1)
- Tailwind CSS (1)
- Taktiler Sensor (1)
- Tax (1)
- Taxonomie (1)
- Taxonomy (1)
- Teaching (1)
- Technological Innovation System (1)
- Telephone Spam Detection (1)
- Temperature (1)
- Temperature profiles (1)
- Temperaturverteilung (1)
- Tensile Strain‐at‐Break (1)
- Test Automatisierung (1)
- Testing framework (1)
- Teterogeneous Catalysis (1)
- Therapie (1)
- Thermal desorption spectroscopy (1)
- Thermal properties (1)
- Thermische Desorptionsspektroskopie (1)
- Thioredoxin (1)
- Thioredoxine (1)
- Three-Roll-Mill (TRM) (1)
- Tidal River Management (1)
- Tiered Electrification (1)
- Time Series Prediction (1)
- Time series (1)
- Tischtennis (1)
- Toker Delta (1)
- Tomatoes (1)
- Total alkalinity (1)
- Tourism (1)
- Tourismus (1)
- Traditional Teenek agriculture (1)
- Traditional knowledge (1)
- Training (1)
- Transactional Stress Theory (1)
- Transcriptome sequencing (1)
- Transesterification (1)
- Transformation (1)
- Transhumanism (1)
- Transposon Vector (1)
- Treated wastewater (1)
- Tree leaf (1)
- Trend Analysis (1)
- Trendanalyse (1)
- Triebstrang (1)
- Trinkwasser (1)
- Tropical forests (1)
- Tropischer Wald (1)
- Trust perception (1)
- Turbulence Decay (1)
- Twinster (1)
- Two Barrier Strategy (1)
- Typ 1 Diabetes (1)
- UAV (1)
- USA Organic Lipstick (1)
- Ultrasonic sonotrode (USS) (1)
- Umgekehrte Osmose (1)
- Umwandlung (1)
- Umweltschutz (1)
- Umweltüberwachung (1)
- Uncertainty (1)
- Uncertainty analyses (1)
- Unternehmensgründung (1)
- Urban Sprawl (1)
- Urban agriculture (1)
- Urban sprawl (1)
- Urban wetlands (1)
- Usability (1)
- User Experience (1)
- VIPV (1)
- VMD (1)
- Vacuum multi‐effect membrane distillation (1)
- Value creating (1)
- Van der Waals gas (1)
- Vanilla (1)
- Varbon Dioxide Reduction (1)
- Variables (1)
- Vehicle Dynamic Systems (1)
- Velocity Slip (1)
- Velocity profiles (1)
- Verbrennung (1)
- Vergleichende Soziale Arbeit (1)
- Verstärkung (1)
- Videospiel (1)
- Vietnam (1)
- Virtual Acoustics (1)
- Virtual Reality (1)
- Virtual Sensor (1)
- Virtueller Sensor (1)
- Virus Replication (1)
- Virus-like Particles (1)
- Visual Analytics (1)
- Visually Impaired (1)
- Vitamins (1)
- Volatile fatty acids (1)
- Voluntary Helpers (1)
- Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) (1)
- Volunteers (1)
- Wachstum (1)
- Wahrnehmung (1)
- Walnuts (1)
- Wassergüte (1)
- Wasserhaushalt (1)
- Wassermangel (1)
- Wassersicherstellung (1)
- Wasserstoffaufnahme (1)
- Wasserwirtschaft (1)
- Wastewater Treatment (1)
- Water (1)
- Water Circularity (1)
- Water Electrolysis (1)
- Water Governance (1)
- Water Mmanagement (1)
- Water Recycling (1)
- Water Strategy (1)
- Water balance (1)
- Water reuse (1)
- Water risks (1)
- Water saving behaviors (1)
- Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (1)
- Wavelet Transform (1)
- Wavelet-Transformation (1)
- Wearable (1)
- Web Layouts (1)
- Web Science (1)
- Web science (1)
- Weblog (1)
- Webwissenschaft (1)
- Weissagung (1)
- Wertschöpfung (1)
- West Africa (1)
- Westafrika (1)
- Wet spent grains (1)
- Wetlands (1)
- Wheat straw (1)
- Wheel hub motor (1)
- Wiederverwendung (1)
- Wind (1)
- Wireless Sensor Network (1)
- Wirtschaftliche Integration (1)
- Wood Science & Technology (1)
- Wupper Basin hydrology (1)
- Young adults (1)
- Zarqa <Fluss> (1)
- Zarqa River (1)
- Zeolites (1)
- Zeolith (1)
- Zuckerrohr (1)
- Zwischenfruchtbau (1)
- bio-based (1)
- calibration (1)
- catch crops (1)
- civil contingency planning (1)
- civil defense (1)
- contingency planning (1)
- cumulative root-length (1)
- de Finetti Model (1)
- disaster management (1)
- disaster risk (1)
- disaster risk management (1)
- disaster risk reduction (1)
- eGovernment (1)
- eGovernment Action Plan 2016-2020 (1)
- eSaveTM (1)
- eco‐hydrology (1)
- evacuation (1)
- fallout (1)
- floodwater harvesting (1)
- flow (1)
- gated recurrent unit neural network (GRU NN) (1)
- grid modeling (1)
- head-related transfer function (1)
- human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (1)
- hydroxyl fatty acid based polyols (1)
- iNGN (1)
- individual HRTFs (1)
- interpolation (1)
- irregular sampling (1)
- land‐cover classification (1)
- lithium-ion batteries (1)
- mRNA Splicing (1)
- mapping of hazard and risk (1)
- narrative synthesis (1)
- nuclear war (1)
- p-adic L-Functions (1)
- p-adic Measures (1)
- platform chemicals (1)
- polyol (1)
- polyurethane (1)
- pressure injury (1)
- prevention (1)
- real-world data (1)
- reduction (1)
- regression analysis (1)
- remaining-useful-life (RUL) (1)
- risk factors (1)
- risk geographies (1)
- root distribution (1)
- software defined radio (1)
- sophorolipid-based polyols (1)
- spatial audio (1)
- spherical harmonics (1)
- systematic review (1)
- treatment (1)
- viability analysis (1)
- {2-(3-R-1 (1)
- Ägypten (1)
- Äthiopien (1)
- Überschwemmung (1)
- Überwachung (1)
- Überwachungstechnik (1)
- 土壤性質 (1)
- 有機碳 (1)
- 無機碳 (1)
Faculty
- Fakultät 12 / Institut für Technologie und Ressourcenmanagement in den Tropen und Subtropen (69)
- Angewandte Naturwissenschaften (F11) (40)
- Fakultät 04 / Institut für Versicherungswesen (35)
- Fakultät 04 / Schmalenbach Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften (30)
- Fakultät 07 / Institut für Nachrichtentechnik (14)
- Fakultät 09 / Cologne Institute for Renewable Energy (13)
- Fakultät 09 / Institut für Rettungsingenieurwesen und Gefahrenabwehr (12)
- Fakultät 10 / Advanced Media Institute (12)
- Fakultät 07 / Institut für Medien- und Phototechnik (11)
- Fakultät 10 / Institut Allgemeiner Maschinenbau (10)
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.
Electroplating generates high volumes of rinse water that is contaminated with heavy metals. This study presents an approach for direct metal recovery and recycling from simulated rinse water, made up of an electroplating electrolyte used in industry, using reverse osmosis (RO). To simulate the real industrial application, the process was examined at various permeate fluxes, ranging from 3.75 to 30 L·m−2·h−1 and hydraulic pressures up to 80 bar. Although permeance decreased significantly with increasing water recovery, rejections of up to 93.8% for boric acid, >99.9% for chromium and 99.6% for sulfate were observed. The final RO retentate contained 8.40 g/L chromium and was directly used in Hull cell electroplating tests. It was possible to deposit cold-hued chromium layers under a wide range of relevant current densities, demonstrating the reusability of the concentrate of the rinsing water obtained by RO.
A level graph G = (V,E,λ) is a graph with a mapping λ : V → {1,...,k}, k ≥ 1, that partitions the vertex set V as V = V1 ∪...∪ Vk, Vj = λ-1(j), Vi ∩ Vj = ∅ for i ≠ j, such that λ(v) = λ(u) + 1 for each edge (u, v) ∈ E. Thus a level planar graph can be drawn with the vertices of every Vj, 1 ≤ j ≤ k, placed on a horizontal line, representing the level lj , and without crossings of edges, which can be drawn as straight line segments between the levels. Healy, Kuusik and Leipert gave a complete characterization of minimal forbidden subgraphs for level planar graphs (MLNP patterns) for hierarchies [4]. Minimal in terms of deleting an ar- bitrary edge leads to level planarity. A radial graph partitions the vertex set on radii, which can be pictured as concentric circles, instead of levels, lj = (j cos(α), j sin(α)), α ∈ [0,2π), mapped around a shared center, where j, 1 ≤ j ≤ k indicates the concentric circles’ radius. Comparing embeddings of radial graphs with that of level graphs we gain a further possibility to place an edge and eventually avoid edge crossings which we wish to prevent for planarity reasons. This offers a new set of minimal radial non planar subgraphs (MRNP patterns). Some of the MLNP pat- terns can be adopted as MRNP patterns while some turn out to be radial planar. But based on the radial planar MLNP patterns and the use of augmentation we can build additional MRNP patterns that did not occur in the level case. Furthermore we point out a new upper bound for the number of edges of radial planar graphs. It depends on the subgraphs in- duced between two radii. Because of the MRNP patterns these subgraphs can either consist of a forest or a cycle with several branches. Applying the bound we are able to characterize extremal radial planar graphs. Keywords: radial graphs, minimal non-planarity, extremal radial planar
This paper gives an overview of the development of Fair Trade in six European countries: Austria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. After the description of the food retail industry and its market structures in these countries, the main European Fair Trade organizations are analyzed regarding their role within the Fair Trade system. The following part deals with the development of Fair Trade sales in general and with respect to the products coffee, tea, bananas, fruit juice and sugar. An overview of the main activities of national Fair Trade organizations, e.g. public relation activities, completes the analysis. This study shows the enormous upswing of Fair Trade during the last decade and the reasons for this development. Nevertheless, it comes to the conclusion that Fair Trade is still far away from being an essential part of the food retail industry in Europe.
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.
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.
Resilience in the urban context can be described as a continuum of absorptive, adaptive, and transformative capacities. The need to move toward a sustainable future and bounce forward after any disruption has led recent urban resilience initiatives to engage with the concept of transformative resilience when and where conventional and top-down resilience initiatives are less likely to deliver effective strategies, plans, and implementable actions. Transformative resilience pathways emphasize the importance of reflexive governance, inclusive co-creation of knowledge, innovative and collaborative learning, and self-organizing processes. To support these transformative pathways, considering techno-social co-evolution and digital transformation, using new data sources such as Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI) and crowdsourcing are being promoted. However, a literature review on VGI and transformative resilience reveals that a comprehensive understanding of the complexities and capacities of utilizing VGI for transformative resilience is lacking. Therefore, based on a qualitative content analysis of available resources, this paper explores the key aspects of using VGI for transformative resilience and proposes a comprehensive framework structured around the identified legal, institutional, social, economic, and technical aspects to formalize the process of adopting VGI in transformative resilience initiatives.
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.
Water scarcity drives governments in arid and semi-arid regions to promote strategies for improving water use efficiency. Water-related research generally also plays an important role in the same countries and for the same reason. However, it remains unclear how to link the implementation of new government strategies and water-related research. This article’s principal objective is to present a novel approach that defines water-related research gaps from the point of view of a government strategy. The proposed methodology is based on an extensive literature review, followed by a systematic evaluation of the topics covered both in grey and peer-reviewed literature. Finally, we assess if and how the different literature sources contribute to the goals of the water strategy. The methodology was tested by investigating the impact of the water strategy of Jordan’s government (2008–2022) on the research conducted in the Azraq Basin, considering 99 grey and peer-reviewed documents. The results showed an increase in the number of water-related research documents from 37 published between 1985 and 2007 to 62 published between 2008 and 2018. This increase should not, however, be seen as a positive impact of increased research activity from the development of Jordan’s water strategy. In fact, the increase in water-related research activity matches the increasing trend in research production in Jordan generally. Moreover, the results showed that only about 80% of the documents align with the goals identified in the water strategy. In addition, the distribution of the documents among the different goals of the strategy is heterogeneous; hence, research gaps can be identified, i.e., goals of the water-strategy that are not addressed by any of the documents sourced. To foster innovative and demand-based research in the future, a matrix was developed that linked basin-specific research focus areas (RFAs) with the MWI strategy topics. In doing so, the goals that are not covered by a particular RFA are highlighted. This analysis can inspire researchers to develop and apply new topics in the Azraq Basin to address the research gaps and strengthen the connection between the RFAs and the strategy topics and goals. Moreover, the application of the proposed methodology can motivate future research to become demand-driven, innovative, and contribute to solving societal challenges.
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.
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.
With a rapidly growing population and urbanization, most modern slums (favelas) also proliferated in Brazil since the 1950s when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved into the cities. Rio de Janeiro is one of those cities having a vast amount of favelas with poor living conditions. One of the main problems of electricity supply in favelas is illegal electricity use, called ‘Gato’ in Portuguese. Recent unexpected severe drought, economic crisis, and rapidly increased electricity price in Brazil affected the reliable supply of affordable electricity in favelas.
Considering abundant solar radiation of the country and the government’s willingness trying to shift the framework of energy supply from hydropower to renewable energy, this study analyzes the solar PV potentials to ensure a reliable supply of affordable electricity in favelas in Rio de Janeiro.
Literature reviews regarding solar PV development in Brazil, energy policy analysis in Brazil and electricity issues in favelas are revised. As a case study, the chosen favela ‘Babilônia’ is presented. The survey analysis about electricity consumption situation with social dimension targeting residences in Babilônia is implemented. Lastly, through economic analyses with cost-benefit calculation such as Internal Rate of Return (IRR), Net Present Value (NPV), Discounted Cash Flow, Payback period, Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) and Weighted-Average Cost of Capital (WACC) models, this study develops the possible financing alternatives to implement a solar PV project with different scenario analyses in the current solar PV market and solar energy policy of Brazil.
The results of this study can be used as an aid to comprehend the electricity supply issue of the most vulnerable class in Brazil and the solar PV as a solution.
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.
Folgende Aspekte lassen sich im Rahmen dieser Forschung festhalten:
• Im ORSA Bericht 2022 dient eine Anlehnung an die Klimawandelszenarien des „Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS)“ (ein Zusammenschluss der Aufsichtsbehörden und Zentralbanken) als erste Orientierung.
• In Anlehnung an das NGFS sind zwei langfristige (mind. 30 Jahre) Temperaturanstiegsszenarien (< 2°C und ≥ 2°C) zur weiteren Analyse auszuwählen.
• Hierfür bietet sich ein Szenario mit hohem Transitionsrisiko (z.B. „Delayed Transition“) und ein Szenario mit hohem physischen Risiko (z.B. „Current Policies“) an.
• Im ORSA 2022 dienen einfach gehaltene, quantitative Analysen als Basis, um daraus qualitative Aussagen abzuleiten, z.B.:
o Neubewertung per heute (Sensitivitätsanalyse)
o Stresstest mit instantanen Schocks („Zeitreise“)
o Projektion (statisch oder mit Managementregeln)
• Schließlich sind bei der Ableitung von Ergebnissen die Besonderheiten der verschiedenen Bereiche/Sparten zu berücksichtigen:
o die Kapitalanlagen könnten beispielsweise langfristig durch Transitionsrisiken geprägt sein (z.B. steigende Energiepreise)
o die Schaden/Unfallversicherung ist geprägt durch das reformierte Baurecht (klimabewusstes Bauen)
o die Personenversicherung ist geprägt durch lange Vertragslaufzeiten.
Start-ups operate in dynamic seed stage, start-up stage and growth stage in an uncertain and volatile environment. An analysis of 59 start-ups shows that companies have special characteristics in terms of the organisational characteristics of employer attractiveness and flexible work organisation. The effects of the two organisational characteristics on an agile workforce are proven by a literature study. The study concludes with a theoretical-conceptual model that illustrates the factors influencing employer attractiveness and flexible work organisation. The results of the survey are brought together with the current state of literature and an approach to organisational agility is developed that takes deregulation tendencies into account.
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.
An Analytical Investigation of Natural Convection of a Van Der Waals Gas over a Vertical Plate
(2021)
The study focused on a theoretical study of natural convection in a van der Waals gasnear a vertical plate. A novel simplified form of the van der Waals equation derived in the studyenabled analytical modeling of fluid flow and heat transfer. Analytical solutions were obtained forthe velocity and temperature profiles, as well as the Nusselt numbers. It was revealed that nonlineareffects considered by the van der Waals equation of state contribute to acceleration or decelerationof the flow. This caused respective enhancement or deterioration of heat transfer. Results for a vander Waals gas were compared with respective computations using an ideal gas model. Limits of theapplicability of the simplified van der Waals equations were pinpointed.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Changing our unsustainable linear water management pattern is necessary to face growing global water challenges. This article proposes an integrated framework to analyse and understand the role of different contextual conditions in the possible transition towards water circularity. Our framework combines a systematic multi-level perspective to explore the water system and the institutional work theory for technology legitimation. The framework consists of the following stages: (1) describing and understanding the water context, (2) assessment of the selected technologies’ circularity level, (3) assessment of the alternative circular technologies’ legitimacy, and (4) identification of the legitimation actions to support the upscale of alternative circular technologies. The practical applicability of the integrated assessment framework and its four assessment stages was demonstrated in the exploration of circular water technologies for the horticulture sector in Westland, the Netherlands. The results revealed the conditions that hinder or enable the legitimation of the circular water technologies, such as political environmentalism, trust in water governing authorities, and technical, financial, and knowledge capabilities.
The utilization of roadside-green-cuttings (grass) for anaerobic digestion increases provides an additional possible source of organic waste for use as a renewable energy source. Grass can be used as a substrate to increase biogas yield. Nevertheless, the anaerobic digestion of this kind of waste can be limited due to the fact that it could be contaminated with heavy metals, in particular from traffic emissions and industrial activity. For this reason the biogas production of grass from a busy road was assessed. Samples of roadside-grass were washed with an organosulphide, which is used for the removal of heavy metals from wastewater.
A comparison of the anaerobic digestion of washed and unwashed roadside grass was performed. Results showed that the anaerobic digestion of the unwashed grass was much more effective than the washed grass. A second experiment was carried out and co-fermentation of manure and farm-grass was prepared for anaerobic digestion. Lead was added in the concentrations 500, 1000 and 2000 mg Pb2+/kg. The results showed that the higher the lead concentration, the lower the inhibition of the biogas yield. The grass could be acting as phytoremediator for high lead concentrations. The grass could contain organic compounds, which can as-similate heavy metals.
Anaerobic Digestion of spent grains: Potential use in small-scale Biogas Digesters in Jos, Nigeria
(2014)
In order to ascertain biogas yield potential and applicability of spent grains (SG)1 in small-scale biogas production, laboratory batch fermentation was performed with various masses of dry and wet SG using sewage sludge (SS)2 and digested maize silage (DMs) 3 as inoculums. Different volumes of biogas and CH4 were measured with higher volumes observed for batch fermentation with DMs in com-parison to those produced by SS. Results from the study reveals minimum biogas yield of 118.10 L/kg
VS and maximum yields of 769.46 L/kg VS, which are indicative of the possible use of SG for domestic biogas production in Jos, Nigeria. The study established the fact that the use of both dry and wet SG results in the yield of a useful amount of biogas having 40 - 60 % CH4 content depending on the inoculum and amount of volatile solids present. Using the parameters of dry matter and volatile solids contents analysed for SG and DMs, it was estimated that a reactor volume of 6.47 m3 would be capable of meeting the daily cooking needs of rural households in Jos, Nigeria.
The publish or perish culture of scholarly communication results in quality and relevance to be are subordinate to quantity. Scientific events such as conferences play an important role in scholarly communication and knowledge exchange. Researchers in many fields, such as computer science, often need to search for events to publish their research results, establish connections for collaborations with other researchers and stay up to date with recent works. Researchers need to have a meta-research understanding of the quality of scientific events to publish in high-quality venues. However, there are many diverse and complex criteria to be explored for the evaluation of events. Thus, finding events with quality-related criteria becomes a time-consuming task for researchers and often results in an experience-based subjective evaluation. OpenResearch.org is a crowd-sourcing platform that provides features to explore previous and upcoming events of computer science, based on a knowledge graph. In this paper, we devise an ontology representing scientific events metadata. Furthermore, we introduce an analytical study of the evolution of Computer Science events leveraging the OpenResearch.org knowledge graph. We identify common characteristics of these events, formalize them, and combine them as a group of metrics. These metrics can be used by potential authors to identify high-quality events. On top of the improved ontology, we analyzed the metadata of renowned conferences in various computer science communities, such as VLDB, ISWC, ESWC, WIMS, and SEMANTiCS, in order to inspect their potential as event metrics.
Ghana’s timber industries have traditionally focussed on certifying international demand (exports) to the detriment of domestic wood consumption. The legal wood supply to the domestic market has become insufficient to satisfy the growing needs of the local population. This research aims at gaining greater insight into the sources of wood supply to Ghana’s domestic wood markets focusing on the contribution of legal wood by the mainstream timber companies.
The study used random and purposive sampling techniques for selecting the respondents in the domestic wood market, wood producers as well as consumers. Additionally, the views of the respondents were sought through well semi-structured questionnaires. On the other hand, views from key informants, mostly experts, and regulators in Ghana’s wood industry were solicited through interviews.
The result indicates that the formal timber processors supply 73% of their processed lumber to the export market and 27% to the domestic market. The destination of the 27% is both the domestic market and other lumber demanded sectors especially large scale construction and furniture companies. The carving industry on other hand obtains wood directly from the farmers and not necessary from the domestic wood market. At the domestic timber market, dealers receive lumber supply from both formal (16. 7%) and informal (83.3%) sources.
The domestic wood sector provides livelihood support to both wood dealers, consumers as well as artisans. About 70% of respondents (wood dealers) used in the survey have no other source of livelihood for existence except wood business.
Owing to the immense contribution of the domestic wood market to the country’s economy and developmental agenda, a calls for policy review especially 20% supply of formal processed lumber to the domestic market is timely. Additionally, looking at the various interventions to curtail illegal chain saw and the continued market demand, the study believes more regulated measures will better help the nation to grasped huge revenue lost as a result of illegalities to embark on vigorous afforestation programs to sustain the domestic wood market.
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.
Climate change includes the change of the long-term average values and the change of the tails of probability density functions, where the extreme events are located. However, obtaining average values are more straightforward than the high temporal resolution information necessary to catch the extreme events on those tails. Such information is difficult to get in areas lacking sufficient rain stations. Thanks to the development of Satellite Precipitation Estimates with a daily resolution, this problem has been overcome, so Extreme Precipitation Indices (EPI) can be calculated for the entire Colombian territory. However, Colombia is strongly affected by the ENSO (El Niño—Southern Oscillation) phenomenon. Therefore, it is pertinent to ask if the EPI’s long-term change due to climate change is more critical than the anomalies due to climate variability induced by the warm and cold phases of ENSO (El Niño and La Niña, respectively). In this work, we built EPI annual time series at each grid-point of the selected Satellite Precipitation Estimate (CHIRPSv2) over Colombia to answer the previous question. Then, the Mann-Whitney-Wilcoxon test was used to compare the samples drawn in each case (i.e., change tests due to both long-term and climatic variability). After performing the analyses, we realized that the importance of the change depends on the region analyzed and the considered EPI. However, some general conclusions became evident: during El Niño years (La Niña), EPI’s anomaly follows the general trend of reduction -drier conditions- (increase; -wetter conditions-) observed in Colombian annual precipitation amount, but only on the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Andean region. In the Eastern plains of Colombia (Orinoquía and Amazonian region), EPI show a certain insensitivity to change due to climatic variability. On the other hand, EPI’s long-term changes in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Andean region are spatially scattered. Still, long-term changes in the eastern plains have a moderate spatial consistency with statistical significance.
The ‘Energy Crisis’ has become the talk of the town in pretty much every developing and lower developing countries in today’s world. It is characterized by a state where the country’s locally available energy resources are being depleted and it is dependent on imported fuel. The problem is considered as although not parallel, but a descendant of the food crisis in terms of the seriousness of the problems in developing nations essentially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Ethiopia is one such country which nevertheless going through a rapid scale of development (nearly 11 % annual growth rate as of 2017 according to the World Bank) and also is endowed with an enormous amount of natural resources such as hydro, wind, solar, geothermal energy potential. The Ethiopian power sector is heavily dependent on the country’s hydropower resources. However, it needs to diversify its energy sector and integrate new and other renewable energy sources because, in the longer term, its extreme hydropower dependence may put its power sector vulnerable to natural risks like droughts which are very likely scenarios due to the climate change. Since the lack of access to modern forms of energy services left no choice for the Ethiopians than to continue their traditional biomass use, and it results in unsustainable environmental harm with deforestation, soil erosion, and many others. To address this issue, Ethiopia is taking necessary steps towards climate-friendly industrialization of the economy.
In order to understand this transition, a socio-technical analysis of Ethiopian ambitious transformation from an agrarian society to a climate resilient green society has been presented in this paper. An analytical framework will be formulated as a prerequisite for the study by introducing the theory of Multilevel Perspective (MLP). This theory enables the understanding of three different levels of socio-technical environment namely niches, regime, and landscape in which the respective actors interact with each other to facilitate the process of transition. As a part of laying the groundwork, this thorough analysis constitutes all the country’s energy-related activities and associated energy demands, conversion technologies, current fuel mix, primary energy resources, and energy policies in the Ethiopian energy system. The LEAP analysis results from Mr. Md Alam Mondal and group are summarized to obtain an understanding of the country’s total energy demand scenarios.
Consequently, the actors from each socio-technical level have been identified in the context of Ethiopia and their dynamics of interaction have been explained in order to understand the process of energy system transition of Ethiopia in the direction of diversification of its energy system and hence result in the expansion of new renewable energy sector. Most importantly the assessment suggests that the transition process is majorly driven by top-down forces and intra-level reconfiguration of regime actors. There are no bottom-up forces acting as only a little research and development work takes place in the country to develop new radical changes/technological niches. A developing country like Ethiopia has undoubtedly a bright future ahead with all systems in place and the nature-gifted natural resource potential. The ambitious goals set by the country and the international help from developed allies are definitely working in tandem to ensure their accomplishment. With its guiding vision towards development and the global climate change movement, Ethiopia surely has the potential to lead by example.
The increase in greenhouse gas emissions, mainly due to the burning of fossil fuels and land use change, has led to changes in the global climate. Agriculture is one of the economic sectors most vulnerable to the impacts generated by climate change. For this reason, the challenge facing humanity today is to develop innovative solutions to address the complexity of agricultural sustainability.
On the other hand, sugarcane is one of the crops that emits the most pollutants into the atmosphere, mainly due to the burning of sugarcane before and after harvesting. Most of these atmospheric pollutants are precursors of climate change and have an impact on the health and quality of life of communities. Moreover, this agricultural practice causes the gradual deterioration of the soil, directly affecting sugarcane production. Consequently, several sugarcane-producing countries have established regulations or dispositions to eliminate this agricultural practice, and one option to eliminate it is the mechanization of harvesting. However, its implementation implies social, environmental, and economic impacts that must be analyzed systemically to avoid potential failures during the technological transition process. It is for this reason that this research, through the MICMAC method, focused on identifying the variables associated with the reduction of sugarcane burning in Campos dos Goytacazes and Tamasopo, to subsequently analyze their direct and indirect interrelationship, and, thus, determine the opportunities and limitations of each locality for the reduction of sugarcane burning.
Through this analysis, it became evident that although the technological transition is an imminent step for the sustainability of sugarcane cultivation, certain factors such as legislation, technological innovation, and the perception of the stakeholders regarding the consequences of sugarcane burning, is what defines in the study sites the speed and subsequent success of this process of change towards green harvesting.
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.
The reinsurance market is currently faced with great challenges and profound changes. Even after the large NatCat claims in Q3-2017, the substantial hardening of the reinsurance market for which reinsurers had hoped failed to materialise in the year-end renewal. Interest is now focussed on the renewal of retrocession agreements as at 1st April 2018. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research projects.
In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through organisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance. Currently, there are seven researchers and two coordinating employees on the staff of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, and the employees of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.
The reinsurance market continues to face major challenges – at this point we would like to outline just one of these, by way of example. The renewal of reinsurance contracts effective 1st January 2020 seems to present an-other disappointment for the reinsurance sector. This development is surprising for a substantial hardening of prices and conditions, not only in the retrocession area but also in the primary (corporate) insurance market. As a rule, a price increase in the retrocession sector is initially followed by a price rise in the reinsurance industry, which then ultimately also occurs in the primary (corporate) insurance market. Yet the trend we are currently witnessing seems to have skipped over the reinsurers. This confronts the reinsurance market with the question of whether – and, if so, when – the price adjustments will also take effect in the case of reinsurance contracts. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research pro-jects. In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through or-ganisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung], a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance. There are seven researchers, two employees responsible for research management and one administrative employee currently on the staff of the Cologne Research Cen-tre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. Within the scope of its social and environmental responsibility, this year the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance dealt with the topics of climate protection, sustaina-bility and equality. Because these topics are at once global, national and individual missions, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance developed ideas and took measures to actively practice climate protection, sustainability and equality. In this ef-fort, great importance was attached to maintaining the level of quality while at the same time pursuing the objectives the Research Centre had set for itself in the above-men-tioned areas. While it is still in its beginnings, our initiative in the field of climate protec-tion and sustainability is manifested particularly in the most sustainable management of resources and travel we can achieve.
We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, ivwKöln [the Institute of Insurance Studies Cologne] and the employees of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.
The reinsurance market continues to face major challenges – at this point we would like to outline just one of these, by way of example. The renewal of reinsurance contracts effective 1st January 2020 seems to present an-other disappointment for the reinsurance sector. This development is surprising for a substantial hardening of prices and conditions, not only in the retrocession area but also in the primary (corporate) insurance market. As a rule, a price increase in the retrocession sector is initially followed by a price rise in the reinsurance industry, which then ultimately also occurs in the primary (corporate) insurance market. Yet the trend we are currently witnessing seems to have skipped over the reinsurers. This confronts the reinsurance market with the question of whether – and, if so, when – the price adjustments will also take effect in the case of reinsurance contracts. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research pro-jects. In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through or-ganisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung], a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance. There are seven researchers, two employees responsible for research management and one administrative employee currently on the staff of the Cologne Research Cen-tre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. Within the scope of its social and environmental responsibility, this year the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance dealt with the topics of climate protection, sustaina-bility and equality. Because these topics are at once global, national and individual missions, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance developed ideas and took measures to actively practice climate protection, sustainability and equality. In this ef-fort, great importance was attached to maintaining the level of quality while at the same time pursuing the objectives the Research Centre had set for itself in the above-men-tioned areas. While it is still in its beginnings, our initiative in the field of climate protec-tion and sustainability is manifested particularly in the most sustainable management of resources and travel we can achieve.
We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, ivwKöln [the Institute of Insurance Studies Cologne] and the employees of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.
The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research projects. In the process, the Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. The year 2020 was dominated by the global COVID-19 pandemic. There were numerous substantial challenges that arose not just in general but also for the (re-)insurance industry in particular. Naturally, interaction and practical, bidirectional knowledge transfer at the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance was also hard-hit by the many event cancellations and their makeshift relocation to online formats. We particularly regretted the cancellation of the 17th Cologne Reinsurance Symposium. The 13th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance was quite a success in the chosen online format – but of course we would like to return to the traditional event format at Clostermannshof as soon as possible. A complete success, on the other hand, with 178 participants, was the webinar series hosted by the Research Centre for Reinsurance on the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) initiative on risk mitigation techniques that could alter the effects of reinsurance under Solvency II.
There are twelve people currently employed at the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance. All of the personnel, material and travel costs for the Research Centre for Reinsurance are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. The special circumstances were scarcely an impediment to the research, communication and cooperation among the employees of the Research Centre for Reinsurance. As most employees do not live and work in Cologne, anyway, working from home and online had been the rule for them even before the coronavirus crisis hit. The transition to a setting working from home was (nearly) a smooth one for the other employees as well. As every year, we would like to express our appreciation to the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, and the Institute of Insurance Studies for their support of our research work.
The challenges facing the reinsurance industry remain considerable. For the reinsurance sector, 2021 was marked by claims for natural disasters (Hurricane Ida, flooding in Europe, etc.) and the coronavirus pandemic.
The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research projects. In the process, the Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through organisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung], a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued.
The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance.
There are ten researchers and four professors currently on the staff of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. This funding helped facilitate the doctorate of Mr Frank Cremer, among other things.
At the 14th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance held in 2021, a decision was taken to provide financial support to the non-profit organisation ‘Hilfe für Guinea e.V.’ The donation will benefit the La Lumière Scolaire project. This project finances the construction and operation of schools for the children of disabled and homeless people in Guinea.
The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance is accredited as an official research focus of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.
The challenges facing the reinsurance industry remain considerable. For the reinsurance sector, 2022 was marked not only by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and claims due to natural disasters but also by the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis and inflation.
The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research projects. In the process, the Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through organisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung], a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. Unfortunately the Cologne Reinsurance Symposium for 2022 had to be cancelled due to COVID-19.
The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance.
There are eight researchers and four professors currently on the staff of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. This funding helped facilitate the doctorate of Mr Frank Cremer, among other things.
At the 14th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance held in 2021, the decision was taken to continue to provide financial support to the non-profit organisation ‘Hilfe für Guinea e.V.’ Through its annual donation to this project, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance fulfils the criterion of ‘social commitment’ required of an official research focus. The donation will benefit the La Lumière Scolaire project. This project finances the construction and operation of schools for the children of disabled and homeless people in Guinea.
The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance is accredited as an official research focus of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences.
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.
Aim: European cities are facing heighten hydrological risks as a result of climate change at the same time as ecological degradation has reduced the environmental capacity to absorb and regulate such fluctuations. Climate forecasts predict more intense convective rainfall and winter flood events in the Wupper Basin in Germany, against a background trend of reduced mean rainfall during the summer months. On 14 July 2021 intense convective rainfall fell at points across Western Germany and led to flash floods in the Wupper Basin, many sites were inundated and the Wupper and Dhünn rivers rose to new record highs. Green-blue infrastructure offers strategies to reduce the impacts of hazards at the same time as providing a range of co-benefits. A study was undertaken to find which green-blue interventions will be most effective at reducing the impacts of hydrometeorological hazards for a study area in the west of the Wupper basin. Furthermore, as landscape features are highly influential in hydrology, the study sought to establish which sites within the landscape can provide maximum results from green-blue interventions, with a minimum of change to current land uses.
Region: Europe, peri-urban and rural, undulating, low mountainous landscapes
Methods: Literature findings on observed and projected climate data are summarised and long-term rainfall data from the study area is analysed to confirm rainfall trends. A state-of-the-art review is conducted and summarised to form a toolbox of potential interventions. The most recent hazardous hydrometeorological event is analysed to inform the locational priorities of potential interventions. Landscape features that have the most influence on basin hydrology are identified from the literature. These sites are paired with green-blue interventions that are shown to have the highest potential impact on interception, infiltration, runoff and flooding. A series of spatial analyses are carried out to produce maps detailing location and intervention with high potential to reduce the impact of hydrometeorological hazards in the study area. All of the evidence gathered from the literature analysis is combined in an implementation guide for green-blue interventions in the Wupper Basin.
Results: The hazards caused by the hydrometeorological extremes of flooding and drought are addressed or minimised through the green-blue interventions that increase interception and infiltration and reduce runoff and flooding. Priority locations are identified as the riparian zone with slope ≤15%, hilltop, lower slope and toe slope, all locations with a slope ≥30% and areas with a high topographic wetness index (TWI). A series of spatial analyses were carried out and suggestions made including potential locations for retention or detention areas and ponds, sites for revegetation and potential locations for implementation of shelterbelts/hedgerows, buffer strips, conservation tillage or strip tillage, reduced mowing intensity or frequency and biochar additions. An implementation guide is created that provides a summary of the highest potential green-blue interventions and landscape locations, and a description of the mechanisms involved in addressing the hydrometeorological hazards.
Keywords: Green-blue interventions, hydrometeorological hazard reduction, Wupper Basin hydrology
Water security is a major concern for water-scarce cities that face dynamic water challenges due to limited water supply, climate change and increasing water demand. Framing urban water security is challenging due to the complexity and uncertainties of the definitions and assessment frameworks concerning urban water security. Several studies have assessed water security by granting priority indicators equal weight without considering or adapting to the local conditions. This study develops a new urban water security assessment framework with application to the water-scarce city
of Madaba, Jordan. The study applies the new assessment framework on the study area and measures urban water security using the integrated urban water security index (IUWSI) and the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) as a decision management tool to prioritise and distinguish indicators that affect the four dimensions of urban water security: drinking water, ecosystems, climate change and water-related hazards, and socioeconomic aspects (DECS). The integrated urban water security index (IUWSI) highlights the state of water security and intervention strategies in Madaba. The study reveals that urban water security in Madaba is satisfactory to meet basic needs, with shortcomings in some aspects of the DECS. However, Madaba faces poor security in terms of managing climate- and water-related risks. The IUWSI framework assists with a rational and evidence-based decision-making process, which is important for enhancing water resources management in water-scarce cities.
Mangrove forests have been studied broadly in the recent three decades for their outstanding ability to sequester carbon in the beneath soil and other beneficial ecosystem services. Endeavors to conserve and regenerate mangrove cover are still increasing worldwide as a mechanism to include them in NDCs and carbon markets. Therefore, decision-makers in the private and public sectors require identify possible areas for conservation and restoration prior to blue carbon project investment. Thus, an integral assessment of potential mangrove carbon reservoirs in a landscape scale, considering environmental and socioeconomic factors was performed. This study was aimed to determine areas with the highest blue carbon sequestration potential in the Gulf of Guayaquil through the construction of a Blue Carbon Potential Index (BCPI) based on Spatial Multicriteria Analysis (SMCA). A narrative integrative literature review was employed to select indicators of mangrove carbon sequestration gains and losses. These indicators were pondered following the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) with the judgments of two experts and reclassified in four potential categories based on their thresholds. Since no consensus was achieved in the indicator importance hierarchization, a comparative of equal weighting method and AHP weighting was implemented. The linear combination rule was used to integrate these factors into a unique-scaled index supported by a geographic Information System (GIS). The results showed that 15.82% and 16.21% of the study area belonged to high and moderate potential of blue carbon sequestration respectively. Moreover, no significant differences were found between the two weighting methods applied. The BCPI provides a comprehensive understanding of spatial distribution of blue carbon potential reservoirs and grants a quantification of this potential to prioritize conservation and restoration areas.
Assessment of the BaFin Guidance Notice on Dealing with Sustainability Risks in Risk Management
(2021)
The elaboration of research addressed the sustainability risks identified in the BaFin Guidance Notice with regard to risk management. Sustainability risks (ESG risks) must be
divided into the three areas: ‘Environment’, ‘Social’ and ‘Governance’. ‘Environment’, which is potentially the largest area of the three, is divided again into physical risks
and transition risks. Physical risks describe the possible impacts of extreme weather events, and transition risks are those that can arise as a result of the transition to a
low-carbon economy (through political decisions or technological developments, for example). According to the BaFin, the Guidance Notice is a ‘compendium of non-binding procedures’ and the measures to be taken by the companies should be based on the type, magnitude and complexity of the risks involved (principle of proportionality).
Acknowledging the ways in which design (as practices, forms of knowledge, and sets of objects) is accountable for ongoing social and environmental injustices, this anthology contains contributions that envision alternative ways of exploring and designing more livable futures. Attending to these futures requires a reckoning with a multiplicity of actors and contexts, from institutional norms and regulations, to pedagogies, curricula, programs, digital tools, infrastructures, and architectural environments. Last but not least, attention is drawn to the mechanisms and protocols by which these futures are imagined and shaped. This includes critically examining the ways in which design is talked about, taught, and learned in order to empower future designers to engage with the political issues, cultural conditions, and social and environmental implications of their work.
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.
To compensate the shortage of cyber risk data and offer some indication of the status quo on the data available on cyber risks, the researchers prepared a systematic overview to offer cyber risk stakeholders a database of publicly accessible data on cyber risks and cybersecurity. The study focussed on the data sets used in the academic literature.
This paper investigates the state, development and drivers of banking market integration in the member countries of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by employing interest rate data. We first conduct a principal component analysis and find evidence for both increasing monetary integration and banking integration in loan and deposit markets. These integration processes are not developing uniformly and we can identify a convergence club. As banking market integration can be a genuine process or simply be driven by monetary integration, we also investigate the interest rate pass through from national and South African Central bank interest rates onto national retail rates. With respect to the convergence club we find both, genuine and monetary-integration driven processes though the latter dominate. We conclude that a selective expansion of the Common Monetary Area is possible but needs to be complement by efficient financial development policies.
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
Bridging Gaps in Minimum Humanitarian Standards and Shelter Planning by Critical Infrastructures
(2021)
Current agendas such as the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction or the Sustain-able Development Goals are demanding more integration of disaster risk management into otherthematic fields and relevant sectors. However, certain thematic fields such as shelter planning andcritical infrastructure have not been integrated yet. This article provides an analysis of minimumhumanitarian standards contained in the well-known Sphere handbook. Gaps are identified forseveral critical infrastructure services. Moreover, guidance on how to derive infrastructure or lifelineneeds has been found missing. This article analyses the missing service supply and infrastructureidentification items and procedures. The main innovation is a more integrative perspective on infras-tructure that can improve existing minimum humanitarian standards. It can guide the provision ofinfrastructure services to various types for different hazard scenarios, hence make humanitarian aidand shelter planning more sustainable in terms of avoiding infrastructure or lifeline shortages.
This paper introduces CAAI, a novel cognitive architecture for artificial intelligence in cyber-physical production systems. The goal of the architecture is to reduce the implementation effort for the usage of artificial intelligence algorithms. The core of the CAAI is a cognitive module that processes the user’s declarative goals, selects suitable models and algorithms, and creates a configuration for the execution of a processing pipeline on a big data platform. Constant observation and evaluation against performance criteria assess the performance of pipelines for many and different use cases. Based on these evaluations, the pipelines are automatically adapted if necessary. The modular design with well-defined interfaces enables the reusability and extensibility of pipeline components. A big data platform implements this modular design supported by technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Kafka for virtualization and orchestration of the individual components and their communication. The implementation of the architecture is evaluated using a real-world use case. The prototypic implementation is accessible on GitHub and contains a demonstration.
Sensors can monitor physical attributes and record multimodal data in order to provide feedback. The application calligraphy trainer, exploits these affordances in the context of handwriting learning. It records the expert’s handwriting performance to compute an expert model. The application then uses the expert model to provide guidance and feedback to the learners.
However, new learners can be overwhelmed by the feedback as handwriting learning is a tedious task. This paper presents the pilot study done with the calligraphy trainer to evaluate the mental effort induced by various types of feedback provided by the application. Ten participants, five in the control group and five in the treatment group, who were Ph.D. students in the technology-enhanced learning domain, took part in the study. The participants used the application to learn three characters from the Devanagari script. The results show higher mental effort in the treatment group when all types of feedback are provided simultaneously. The mental efforts for individual feedback were similar to the control group. In conclusion, the feedback provided by the calligraphy trainer does not impose high mental effort and, therefore, the design considerations of the calligraphy trainer can be insightful for multimodal feedback designers.
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.
Catastrophe insurance without premium payment – The concept of contigent liability in Switzerland
(2023)
No later than with the heavy rainfalls of 2021, discussions in Germany have resumed around the introduction of compulsory insurance for natural hazards. Natural hazards exhibit a high potential for loss, and insurance is a building block with which to bolster resilience. In practice, there are already a host of functioning solution concepts to provide cover for natural hazards, including insurance pools and state guarantees. All of the concepts, however, are predicated on payment of an ongoing insurance premium.
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.
Due to its location at the south-west coast of Ireland County (Co.) Cork is frequently affected by post tropical cyclones (PTCs). There have been several records of these post hurricanes in the past with the last severe PTC being Hurricane Ophelia in 2017. It caused severe disruption in the whole country, especially in Co. Cork with several thousand people without water, power and mobile service for up to 10 days and thousands of uprooted trees which blocked roads. PTCs, like Ophelia, will become more frequent under climate change conditions due to warmer sea surface temperatures and decreased vertical wind shear. Hence, hurricanes can reach northern latitudes more easily and have a higher chance of making landfall in Co. Cork. This thesis assesses the risk perception towards natural hazards (NHs) and the perception of the risk communication of hurricane Ophelia by the citizens of Co. Cork and suggests improvements in communication based on the people’s perception. This was achieved by conducting a standardised survey to analyse the perception. The risk communication chain, its content and media involved were evaluated with interviews with professionals involved in risk management in Ireland. Improvement suggestions were extracted of the survey and the expert interviews as well and have been ranked by the participating experts according to their importance. The people of Co. Cork are not overly concerned about being affected by NHs. The three hazards they feel threatened by most, after Ophelia hit the country, are storms, river floodings and hurricanes. Before Ophelia made landfall, they only ranked hurricanes in the 8th place (out of 8). Ergo, after experiencing Ophelia people are much more aware of hurricane risk in Ireland. People were very satisfied with the information they received during Ophelia. The improvements they wished for are: 1) information on how to deal with and how to prepare for impacts of the storm, 2) the impacts that can be expected locally and 3) information where to go to in case of severe impact to property. These are mostly in line with the improvements the experts ranked as most important for Cork. Experts voted the suggestion to include information on behavioural advice into risk communication before the NH hits and advice on how to organise for impacts afterwards as their number one priority. Their second rank is to have education and training for the citizens in Cork. On third place they voted for a change to impact forecasting. Even there are no central buildings or shelters available in Co. Cork, this improvement suggestion was only voted on rank 13 by the experts (out of 14). Having a participatory approach in risk communication can overcome the discrepancies between the wishes of the population and the ones of the experts and would lead to a better understanding of all stakeholders involved in risk communication and can reduce vulnerability of the people in Co. Cork to the impacts of NHs. The implementation of these activities would be in line with best practice examples and would support the guidelines of the Irish Framework for Major Emergency Management.
Multifocal intraocular lenses incorporate a variety of design considerations, including dimensioning of the base monofocal shape and the diffraction grating. While studying three different lens models, we present a practical approach for mathematical modelling and evaluation of these geometries. Contrary to typical lens measurement methods, non-contact measurements were performed on the Alcon SN6AD1, HumanOptics MS 612 DAY and the AMO ZMA00 lenses using a confocal microscope. Subsequent data processing includes centering, tilting correction, filtering and an algorithmic decomposition into a conic and polynomial part and the diffraction grating. Lastly, evaluation of fitting parameters and grating shape is done to allow for inferences about further optical properties. Results and analysis show the confocal microscope to be a suitable imaging method for lens measurements. The processing of this data enables the reconstruction of the annular diffraction grating over the complete lens diameter. Apodization, near addition and diffraction efficiency characteristics are found utilizing the grating shape. Additionally, near-optical axis curvature, asphericity and higher order polynomials are identified qualitatively from the reconstruction of the monofocal base form. Derived properties also include the lens optical base and addition power. By making use of the surface geometries, as well as the lens’ material and thickness, a full lens model can be created for further studies. In summary, our analytical approach enables the insight to various intraocular lens design decisions. Furthermore, this procedure is suitable for lens model creation for research and simulation.
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.
Am Beispiel von Naturkatastrophen (NatKat) Rückversicherung lässt sich erkennen, dass wesentliche Elemente klassischer Rückversiche¬rungs-transaktionen darauf abzielen, Informationsprobleme zwischen Erst- und Rückversicherer zu reduzieren. Aktuell gibt es in der Rückversicherungs¬literatur keinerlei Hinweise auf ein Verständnis darüber, wie sich der klassische Transaktionsprozess auf Ergebnisse auswirkt, noch darauf wie sich Auktionen in ihrer Wirkung unterscheiden / wie sich diese auf Ergebnisse auswirken. Ein wichtiges Ziel ist somit die Grundlagenschaffung für die zukünftige Entwicklung einer Marktdesign Diskussion im Rückversicherungskontext.
Anhand bestehender Erkenntnisse in der Auktionstheorie ist nicht eindeutig, ob und in welchen Fällen Einheitspreise oder individuelle Preise zu besseren Ergebnissen für die Verkäufer (Versicherer) führen würden. Weiterhin ist nicht klar, ob öffentliche Auktionen oder verdeckte Auktionen bessere Ergebnisse liefern würden.
Ein Auktionsdesign, das der klassischen Brokerplatzierung nahekommt, ist die Ausubel Auktion (Ausubel, 2004). Dennoch lassen sich keine generellen Aussagen darüber treffen, ob die klassische Platzierung oder Auktionen bessere Allokations¬mechanismen darstellen (vgl. Bulow and Klemperer 1996).
Unter Berücksichtigung von klimatischen und sozioökonomischen Trends ist ein besseres Verständnis der beschriebenen Zusammenhänge für die Stärkung des Rückversicherungsmarktes zunehmend dringend.
The management of the liquid fraction of digestate produced from the anaerobic digestion of biodegradable municipal solid waste is a difficult affair, as its land application is limited due to high ammonium concentrations and the municipal waste that water treatment plants struggle to treat due to high pollutant loads. The amount of leachate and the pollutant load in the leachate produced by landfills usually decreases with the time, which increases the capacity of landfill leachate treatment plants (LLTPs) to treat additional wastewater. In order to solve the above two challenges, the co-treatment of landfill leachate and the liquid fraction of anaerobic digestate in an industrial-scale LLTP was investigated along with the long-term impacts of the liquid fraction of anaerobic digestate on biocoenosis and its impact on LLTP operational expenses. The co-treatment of landfill leachate and liquid fraction of anaerobic digestate was compared to conventional leachate treatment in an industrial-scale LLTP, which included the use of two parallel lanes (Lane-1 and Lane-2). The average nitrogen removal efficiencies in Lane-1 (co-treatment) were 93.4%, 95%, and 92%, respectively, for C/N ratios of 8.7, 8.9, and 9.4. The average nitrogen removal efficiency in Lane-2 (conventional landfill leachate treatment), meanwhile, was 88%, with a C/N ratio of 6.5. The LLTP’s average chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiencies were 63.5%, 81%, and 78% during phases one, two, and three, respectively. As the volume ratios of the liquid fraction of anaerobic digestate increased, selective oxygen uptake rate experiments demonstrated the dominance of heterotrophic bacteria over ammonium and nitrite-oxidising organisms. The inclusion of the liquid fraction of anaerobic digestate during co-treatment did not cause a significant increase in operational resources, i.e., oxygen, the external carbon source, activated carbon, and energy.
The main scope of this work is to develop nano-carbon-based mixed matrix celluloseacetate membranes (MMMs) for the potential use in both gas and liquid separation processes. Forthis purpose, a variety of mixed matrix membranes, consisting of cellulose acetate (CA) polymerand carbon nanotubes as additive material were prepared, characterized, and tested. Multi-walledcarbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) were used as filler material and diacetone alcohol (DAA) as solvent.The first main objective towards highly efficient composite membranes was the proper preparationof agglomerate-free MWCNTs dispersions. Rotor-stator system (RS) and ultrasonic sonotrode (USS)were used to achieve the nanofillers’ dispersion. In addition, the first results of the application of thethree-roll mill (TRM) technology in the filler dispersion achieved were promising. The filler material,MWCNTs, was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and liquid nitrogen (LN2)adsorption-desorption isotherms at 77 K. The derivatives CA-based mixed matrix membranes werecharacterized by tensile strength and water contact angle measurements, impedance spectroscopy,gas permeability/selectivity measurements, and water permeability tests. The studied membranesprovide remarkable water permeation properties, 12–109 L/m2/h/bar, and also good separationfactors of carbon dioxide and helium separations. Specifically, a separation factor of 87 for 10%He/N2feed concentration and a selectivity value of 55.4 for 10% CO2/CH4feed concentrationwere achieved.
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.
Agents with antifungal activity play a vital role as therapeutics in health care, as do fungicides in agriculture. Effectiveness, toxicological profile, and eco-friendliness are among the properties used to select suitable substances. Furthermore, a steady supply of new agents with different modes of action is required to counter the well-known potential of human and phyto-pathogenic fungi to develop resistance against established antifungals. Here, we use an in vitro growth assay to investigate the activity of the calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus in combination with the commercial fungicides cyproconazole and hymexazol, as well as with two earlier reported novel {2-(3-R-1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)phenyl}amines, against the fungi Aspergillus niger, Colletotrichum higginsianum, Fusarium oxysporum and the oomycete Phytophthora infestans, which are notoriously harmful in agriculture. When tacrolimus was added in a concentration range from 0.25 to 25 mg/L to the tested antifungals (at a fixed concentration of 25 or 50 mg/L), the inhibitory activities were distinctly enhanced. Molecular docking calculations revealed triazole derivative 5, (2-(3-adamantan-1-yl)-1H-1,2,4-triazol-5-yl)-4-chloroaniline), as a potent inhibitor of chitin deacetylases (CDA) of Aspergillus nidulans and A. niger (AnCDA and AngCDA, respectively), which was stronger than the previously reported polyoxorin D, J075-4187, and chitotriose. The results are discussed in the context of potential synergism and molecular mode of action.
Current changes in environmental legislation and customer demands set an urge for the development of more sustainable surfactants. Thus, the objective of this work was the development of novel environmentally friendly amino acid surfactants. Combining Diels–Alder cyclization of myrcene with maleic or citraconic anhydride followed by ring opening with amino acids enabled a synthesis route with a principal 100% atom economy. Variation of amino acids resulted in a large structural variety of anionic and amphoteric surfactants. Lysine gave access to either a mono-acylated product bearing a cationic side chain or a bi-acylated gemini surfactant. First, anhydride precursors were synthesized in yields of >90% in a Diels–Alder reaction under microwave radiation and subsequent amino acid coupling in aqueous environment gave fully bio-based surfactants in good yields and purity. Physicochemical characterization showed an enhanced decrease in surface tension upon addition of amino acids to the myrcene–anhydride backbone, resulting in a minimal value of 31 mN·m−1 for gemini–lysine. Foamabilitiy and foam stability were significantly increased at skin-friendly pH 5.5 by incorporation of amino acids. The carboxylic groups of surfactants with arginine were esterified with ethanol to access cationic compounds. Comparative analysis revealed moderate antimicrobial effects against yeast, Gram-positive bacteria, and Gram-negative bacteria.
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.
Policy measures are essential tools for the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources in the electricity generation. Feed-in tariffs (FITs) are the most used policy for support of renewable technologies globally. Nevertheless, Ecuador phased-out FITs in 2016 and adopted auctions in 2015. Ecuador’s implementation of auctions reflects an approach with little relation to practices in other countries and without a technology-specific design. On the other hand, Germany demonstrates a long trajectory in policy-making with vast experience in FITs. Moreover, in 2017 Germany adopted auctions as the official policy to support renewable projects with a scope larger than 750 kW. However, FITs are still in use and complement auctions.
This thesis analyses and compares the country-specific contexts where these policies are implemented through the lens of a multi-level perspective framework. As a result, the most important success factors in Germany have been identified: long-term planning, institutional continuity, legislative stability and principally an actively participating society, which is environmentally aware. Obstacles for the transition in Ecuador are institutional discontinuity, legislative inconsistency, the lack of long-term planning and absence of society as actors of the transition. Due to Germany’s pioneering role plus the successful growth of renewable sources during the last twenty years, their policy implementations appear desirable to adopt in other contexts. Therefore, a prospective transferability of the auction policy from Germany to Ecuador is additionally analyzed.
The paper focuses on a study of turbulence decay in flow with streamwise gradient. For the first time, an analytical solution of this problem was obtained based on the k‐ε model of turbulence in one‐dimensional (1D) approximation, as well as on the symmetry properties of the system of differential equations. Lie group technique enabled reducing the problem to a linear differential equation. The analytical solution enabled parametric studies, which are computationally cheap in comparison to CFD based simulations. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) in two‐dimensional approximation (2D) was used to validate the analytical results. Large eddy simulation (LES) Smagorinsky approach was used to close the LBM model. Computations revealed that the rate of turbulence decay is significantly different for the cases of positive and negative streamwise pressure gradient. The further comparisons showed that the analytical solution underpredicts the predictions by the numerical methodology, which can be attributed to the simplified problem statement used to derive the closed‐form analytical solution. Comparisons of calculations with experiments revealed that the theoretical models used in the study underpredict the measurements for flows with a positive pressure gradient. Hence it can be concluded that the LBM technique combined with the LES Smagorinsky model requires the further modification.
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”.
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.
The goal of the ComProSol project is the mobilization of currently unused biogenic contingents such as residual and waste material for bioenergy feedstocks. Another budding option is the reactivation of fallow land to grow energy crops and short rotation coppice for energy recovery.
In the course of Germany’s bioeconomy program, which will switch the economy from a petro-based to a bio-based society, the prioritized utilization of bio-based resources should always be the hierarchically most valuable. Food and forage production are given preference over material recycling and extracting raw materials. Another driver is the growing consciousness of environmental issues and nature conservation which limits the available cultivatable area by law. As a result, there is a supply bottleneck of economically competitive feedstock for bioenergy. In this context, the interdisciplinary project is based on the systematic interconnection of applications to create utilization cascades.
Methodical corrective measures of ComProSol focus on influencing fuel properties by preconditioning through substrate and additive compound blending, sieving and compacting, and integrating process optimization. Collaboration with other subprojects that deal with bio- or thermal-chemical conversion will provide additional impetus for developing utilization applications.
The initial work package of ComProSol, which recently started, defines the scope by dint of a regional potential feedstock cadaster in order to specify the further roadmap.
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.
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.
Abstract
The paper represents an analysis of convective instability in a vertical cylindrical porous microchannel performed using the Galerkin method. The dependence of the critical Rayleigh number on the Darcy, Knudsen, and Prandtl numbers, as well as on the ratio of the thermal conductivities of the fluid and the wall, was obtained. It was shown that a decrease in permeability of the porous medium (in other words, increase in its porosity) causes an increase in flow stability. This effect is substantially nonlinear. Under the condition Da > 0.1, the effect of the porosity on the critical Rayleigh number practically vanishes. Strengthening of the slippage effects leads to an increase in the instability of the entire system. The slippage effect on the critical Rayleigh number is nonlinear. The level of nonlinearity depends on the Prandtl number. With an increase in the Prandtl number, the effect of slippage on the onset of convection weakens. With an increase in the ratio of the thermal conductivities of the fluid and the wall, the influence of the Prandtl number decreases. At high values of the Prandtl numbers (Pr > 10), its influence practically vanishes.
The Enhancement of standard dense phase carbon dioxide (DPCD) pasteurization by additional mechanical effects wasassessed in this work. These effects were induced during pasteurization by the sudden depressurization in a narrow mini-tube. The high flow velocities, moderate pressures (40–80 bar) and low temperatures (25–45°C) lead to intense degasifica-tion and shear stress. The inactivation of the test microorganismEscherichia coliDH5a(E. coliDH5a) was determinedbefore and after depressurization in the minitube, representing entirely chemical DPCD via dissolved CO2and total inacti-vation comprising the effects of dissolved CO2and mechanical effects, respectively. Compared to conventional DPCDpasteurization, which is mostly attributed to chemical effects, the additional mechanical effects increased the inactivationefficiency considerably.
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.
Water risk assessment is becoming an essential part of any decision-making process in the business sector. In the world where freshwater resources are becoming scarcer, water risks are growing and causing high costs to businesses. Therefore, numerous frameworks, guidelines, methodologies, tools, and other approaches were developed during the last century. Various scholars have appeared to give an economic value or price for environment goods in order to understand trade-offs better. Nowadays, the corporate world tends to use different approaches to convert sustainability management data to the financial language of decision-makers. This study explores the possible ways for a company to measure the costs of water related risks. It examines how to convert water risks to financial risks using a Peruvian agricultural company. The results show, that from all today’s available frameworks, guidelines or tools there is no one commonly accepted and recognised as the best for water risk assessment and monetising. It was learned, that available tools could provide just a simple overview of possible water related risks and calculate their costs in a very general way. The work also highlights the importance of regular and appropriate data collection on the company level in order to be able to assess water risk related costs for the business.
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.
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.
At the case study of the city of Cologne and the neighbouring Rhein‐Erft‐Kreis (a county), selected resilience aspects of critical infrastructure (CI) and cascading effects are analysed concerning major river floods. Using a Geographic Information System, the applicability of the approach is demonstrated using open source software and data, augmented by manual entries. This study demonstrates the feasibility and limitations of analysing lifeline features of interest for disaster risk and emergency management such as roads, bridges and electricity supply. By highlighting interdependencies of emergency services with CI such as roads, cascading effects of interconnected paths are shown. The findings indicate that in an extreme event flood scenario over 2,000 km of roads and eight bridges will be exposed to floods in the area of the rivers Rhine and Erft. This places huge demands on disaster and emergency management institutions and people affected and limits their resiliency.
Remote sensing applications of change detection are increasingly in demand for many areas of land use and urbanization, and disaster risk reduction. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the New Urban Agenda by the United Nations call for risk monitoring. This study maps and assesses the urban area changes of 23 Mexican-USA border cities with a remote sensing-based approach. A literature study on existing studies on hazard mapping and social vulnerability in those cities reveals a need for further studies on urban growth. Using a multi-modal combination of aerial, declassified (CORONA, GAMBIT, HEXAGON programs), and recent (Sentinel-2) satellite imagery, this study expands existing land cover change assessments by capturing urban growth back to the 1940s. A Geographic Information System and census data assessment results reveal that massive urban growth has occurred on both sides of the national border. On the Mexican side, population and area growth exceeds the US cities in many cases. In addition, flood hazard exposure has grown along with growing city sizes, despite structural river training. These findings indicate a need for more risk monitoring that includes remote sensing data. It has socio-economic implications, too, as the social vulnerability on Mexican and US sides differ. This study calls for the maintenance and expansion of open data repositories to enable such transboundary risk comparisons. Common vulnerability variable sets could be helpful to enable better comparisons as well as comparable flood zonation mapping techniques. To enable risk monitoring, basic data such as urban boundaries should be mapped per decade and provided on open data platforms in GIS formats and not just in map viewers.
Today, IT infrastructure represents the central nervous system of every company. Many of the activities of our daily lives are handled via the Internet. There is a lack of an adequately sustainable awareness of the cyber risks to which companies are exposed due to advanced digital networking. This is partly due to the fact that the danger of so-called ‘cyber attacks’ is only partially palpable to many, with attacks going unnoticed in some cases. As a result of major incidents, such as WannaCry and Petya in 2017, or Emotet in 2019, awareness of these risks should be keen, and yet vulnerability remains high due to the often insufficient protections against cyber crime.
Due to their unpredictable nature and sweeping impacts make cyber risks, including cyber warfare and state-sponsored cyber-attacks, present a considerable challenge to many areas of our daily lives. In today’s connected world, the threat of cyber risk is omnipresent. Cyber warfare and state-sponsored cyber-attacks are of particular concern, as they are initiated or supported by governments or state actors. Often, the purpose of such attacks is to compromise critical infrastructure, government systems, businesses, or citizens’ privacy. The impacts can be devastating. They range from financial losses for businesses to theft of intellectual property, disruptions of public order and threats to national security.
The paper presents results of the modelling of heat transfer at film boiling of a liquid in a porous medium on a vertical heated wall bordering with the porous medium. Such processes are observed at cooling of high-temperature surfaces of heat pipes, microstructural radiators etc. Heating conditions at the wall were the constant wall temperature or heat flux. The outer boundary of the vapor film was in contact with moving or stationary liquid inside the porous medium. An analytical solution was obtained for the problem of fluid flow and heat transfer using the porous medium model in the Darcy–Brinkman and Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer approximation. It was shown that heat transfer at film boiling in a porous medium was less intensive than in the absence of a porous medium (free fluid flow) and further decreased with the decreasing permeability of the porous medium. Significant differences were observed in frames of both models: 20% for small Darcy numbers at Da < 2 for the Darcy–Brinkman model, and 80% for the Darcy–Brinkman–Forchheimer model. In the Darcy–Brinkman model, depending on the interaction conditions at the vapor–liquid interface (no mechanical interaction or stationary fluid), a sharp decrease in heat transfer was observed for the Darcy numbers lower than five. The analytical predictions of heat transfer coefficients qualitatively agreed with the data of Cheng and Verma (Int J Heat Mass Transf 24:1151–1160, 1981) though demonstrated lower values of heat transfer coefficients for the conditions of the constant wall temperature and constant wall heat flux.
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.
Ghana suffers from frequent power outages, which can be compensated by off-grid energysolutions. Photovoltaic-hybrid systems become more and more important for rural electrificationdue to their potential to offer a clean and cost-effective energy supply. However, uncertainties relatedto the prediction of electrical loads and solar irradiance result in inefficient system control and canlead to an unstable electricity supply, which is vital for the high reliability required for applicationswithin the health sector. Model predictive control (MPC) algorithms present a viable option to tacklethose uncertainties compared to rule-based methods, but strongly rely on the quality of the forecasts.This study tests and evaluates (a) a seasonal autoregressive integrated moving average (SARIMA)algorithm, (b) an incremental linear regression (ILR) algorithm, (c) a long short-term memory (LSTM)model, and (d) a customized statistical approach for electrical load forecasting on real load data of aGhanaian health facility, considering initially limited knowledge of load and pattern changes throughthe implementation of incremental learning. The correlation of the electrical load with exogenousvariables was determined to map out possible enhancements within the algorithms. Results showthat all algorithms show high accuracies with a median normalized root mean square error (nRMSE)<0.1 and differing robustness towards load-shifting events, gradients, and noise. While the SARIMAalgorithm and the linear regression model show extreme error outliers of nRMSE >1, methods viathe LSTM model and the customized statistical approaches perform better with a median nRMSE of0.061 and stable error distribution with a maximum nRMSE of <0.255. The conclusion of this study isa favoring towards the LSTM model and the statistical approach, with regard to MPC applicationswithin photovoltaic-hybrid system solutions in the Ghanaian health sector.
This paper presents the design procedure and implementation results of a proposed software defined radio (SDR) using Altera Cyclone II family board. The implementation uses Matlab/SimulinkTM, Embedded MatlabTM blocks, and Cyclone II development and educational board. The design has first implemented in Matlab/SimulinkTM environment. It is then converted to VHDL level using Simulink HDL coder. The design is synthesized and fitted with Quartus II 9.0 Web Edition® software, and downloaded to Altera Cyclone II board. The results show that it is easy to develop and understand the implementation of SDR using programmable logic tools. The paper also presents an efficient design flow of the procedure followed to obtain VHDL netlists that can be downloaded to FPGA boards.
Motion capturing plays an important role in computer animation and combines many different fields of research in media engineering, such as camera calibration, marker detection via image processing and 3D reconstruction. Most professional motion capture systems are distributed proprietarily by a handful of companies and do not grant much insight into detailed workflows. The motivation for the project this thesis is based on was to autonomously develop a simpler, yet similar system, which would capture static poses of a puppet. This thesis points out the designing steps of this system and illustrates how many of the aforementioned aspects of motion capturing are answered using the example of the stop-motion capture system, thus building a basis for the comprehension of more complex systems.
This project was done in collaboration with CERN and is part of the detector control system of the ATLAS experiment. The primary goal foresaw the development and testing of the FPGA card for the MOPS-HUB crate with the focus on radiation tolerance. This was accomplished with the approach of designing two different PCBs. The first PCB was created as a fast prototype with the use of a commercial SOM-board. This was also beneficial for confirming that the chosen FPGA is suitable for the MOPS-HUB application. After the successful assembly and test, a second, more complex and foremost radiation tolerant PCB was designed. This was achieved by solely using components of the CERN radiation database.
The second part of this thesis focuses on increasing the distance of TMR registers with a Python script. A method was created for extracting and later parsing a design’s placement
information from Vivado. Furthermore, were system designed and implemented to recognize TMR cells, to find and validate free cells and to finally create a new placement for import into Vivado. These algorithms were tested with a multitude of configurations and the quality, based on the maximum possible frequency of a design, determined.
This bachelor thesis deals with framework-agnostic design systems in the environment of micro frontends. The properties of micro frontends and design systems are developed individually, to finally get combined. Important disciplines of this research are in particular cybernetics and system thinking, whereby further properties in the relationships between the stakeholders and the design system are highlighted and defined. In addition, based on the highlighted properties, a practically oriented evaluation is prepared, which demonstratively verifies how framework-agnostic design systems can be realized using Svelte and Tailwind CSS. The insights gained from this work can be used for further considerations in other works within the domain, or similar domains. In particular the cybernetic view of systematic design offers potential for further investigations.
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.
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
Steer-by-wire systems represent a key technology for highly automated and autonomous driving. In this context, robust steering control is a fundamental precondition for automated vehicle lateral control. However, there is a need for improvement due to degrees of freedom, signal delays, and nonlinear characteristics of the plant which are unconsidered in the design models for the design of current steering controls. To be able to design an extremely robust steering control, suitable optimal models of a steer-by-wire system are required. Therefore, this paper presents an innovative nonlinear detail model of a steer-by-wire system. The detail model represents all characteristics of a real steer-by-wire system. In the context of a dominance analysis of the detail model, all dominant characteristics of a steer-by-wire system, including parameter dependencies, are identified. Through model reduction, a reduced model of the steer-by-wire system is then developed that can be used for a subsequent robust control design. Furthermore, this paper compares the steer-by-wire system with a conventional electromechanical power steering and shows similarities as well as differences.
Modern industrial biomass combustion plants are regulated by the power and/or combustion control. In this process, the implemented sensors collect the relevant measured data. The aim is to achieve ideal combustion with optimum efficiency and to minimize gas emissions. For this purpose, a group within the research project Metabolon developed new regulatory procedures in order to record the combustion process of a biomass combustion plant using a webcam. The recordings were evaluated automatically and were used for a better monitoring of the process. In addition, the webcam-based method aims, among other things, to provide private homes with a cost-effective variant as an alternative to industrial system solutions.
In 2015, the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the Paris Agreement provided a basis for considerable optimism for the fight against climate change and efforts to promote sustainable development, but their implementation remains an enormous challenge. Finance, in turn, plays a key role in implementation. This thesis thus seeks to provide new insights into the challenge of implementing the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda by examining pertinent financial flows while taking into considering that making use of thematic overlaps between these two agendas can help to leverage synergies, especially if financial flows take adequate account of these overlaps. Since energy plays an essential role in both the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda (in SDG 7 and beyond it), this thesis focuses on countries’ energy-related national commitments. Against this background, this thesis investigates the question which role energy plays in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement and to what extent climate finance is considered in the context of the energy system transition. The key finding is that financial flow for renewable energy and energy efficiency improves globally with an unchanged track of non-renewable energy in the post-NDC period.
Remaining-useful-life (RUL) prediction of Li-ion batteries is used to provide an early indication of the expected lifetime of the battery, thereby reducing the risk of failure and increasing safety. In this paper, a detailed method is presented to make long-term predictions for the RUL based on a combination of gated recurrent unit neural network (GRU NN) and soft-sensing method. Firstly, an indirect health indicator (HI) was extracted from the charging processes using a soft-sensing method that can accurately describe power degradation instead of capacity. Then, a GRU NN with a sliding window was applied to learn the long-term performance development. The method also uses a dropout and early stopping method to prevent overfitting. To build the models and validate the effectiveness of the proposed method, a real-world NASA battery data set with various battery measurements was used. The results show that the method can produce a long-term and accurate RUL prediction at each position of the degradation progression based on several historical battery data sets.
This thesis presents the perspective and basis for modeling of retail electricity price components in Germany. Detailed Python models are developed to provide predictions for yearly development of average network charges, EEG, StromNEV-19 and KWK surcharges for the period 2015-2035. For network charges and EEG surcharge, scenario-B (2035) from NEP2015 has been chosen as the model scenario. For KWK surcharge, the 2025 KWK share target, set by KWKG-2016, has been chosen as the model scenario. Individual component model results are validated against available academic literature and institutional reports. Model results for EEG surcharge, indicate an increasing yearly EEG costs till 2024, after which the expiring EEG plants of past will unburden the related high costs and EEG surcharge will drop but still be around 99% of 2015 level in 2035. Model results for network charges indicate a consistently increasing yearly trend owing to high grid investments needed for reaching the target RE share of 57%. KWK model results also indicate a growing KWK surcharge until 2020 which then would remain stagnant at that level onwards. All model results are collected under three consumption categories, namely, households, privileged and nonprivileged industries. The final results indicate that the average German household will face an overall increase of around 3.37 Cents/kWh in retail electricity prices (excluding VAT) till 2028, after which the retail prices will drop a little due to dropping EEG surcharge. The similar but slightly reduced trend can be seen for nonprivileged industrial consumption. The increment effect, however, is only minute for privileged industrial consumption due to high exemptions in EEG & KWK surcharges and reduced individual network charges.
This bachelor thesis addresses the issue of how school resilience can be measured and assessed quantitatively. Schools as social infrastructures have a significant value for society. Yet, on a global scale, they, and therefore the respective community as well, are continuously endangered by a variety of threats such as natural disasters or violence and mental abuse affecting students, parents and school staff. However, these threats differ greatly depending on climatic and geographical conditions as well as on the socio-cultural context of the corresponding community. To strengthen school resilience against potential threats and to ensure education continuity despite the occurrence of these disruptions, a methodology is developed to measure and assess school resilience in conjunction with its specific circumstances. Initially, qualitative and quantitative (composite) indicators are identified and categorised with the help of a Systematic Literature Review and Mayring's Qualitative Content Analysis. These are subsequently developed into a Comprehensive Index for School Resilience (CISR). Building on this, a pre-existing assessment methodology, which uses Likert-Scales arranged in questionnaires to assign quantitative values to the composite indicators, is adapted to operationalise the CISR and by an exemplary application at Europaschule Troisdorf, the methodology is adapted to the socio-cultural conditions in Germany using an expert’s operational and contextual knowledge. The results obtained show that the methodologies and techniques described in current international research can, after an appropriate adaptation, successfully be applied to schools in Germany as well. Nevertheless, by identifying research limitations and errors as well as potential improvements, it is evident that further research and development is needed to provide stakeholders with a decision-making tool to strengthen the resilience of schools in the future, such as an exhaustive supplement to the CISR or the integration of more precise quantification methodologies and techniques.