Refine
Year of publication
Document Type
- Master's Thesis (323)
- Article (149)
- Bachelor Thesis (142)
- Conference Proceeding (65)
- Report (53)
- Study Thesis (47)
- Working Paper (47)
- Book (29)
- Part of a Book (27)
- Other (11)
Language
- German (586)
- English (315)
- Multiple languages (2)
- Spanish (1)
Keywords
- Rückversicherung (66)
- Reinsurance (55)
- Versicherung (52)
- Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung (47)
- Versicherungswirtschaft (44)
- Sozialarbeit (24)
- Soziale Arbeit (20)
- Deutschland (19)
- Germany (19)
- Bibliothek (17)
Faculty
- Fakultät 10 / Institut für Informatik (154)
- Fakultät 03 / Institut für Informationswissenschaft (104)
- Fakultät 04 / Institut für Versicherungswesen (78)
- Fakultät 12 / Institut für Technologie und Ressourcenmanagement in den Tropen und Subtropen (72)
- Fakultät 07 / Institut für Medien- und Phototechnik (68)
- Fakultät 04 / Schmalenbach Institut für Wirtschaftswissenschaften (53)
- Angewandte Naturwissenschaften (F11) (45)
- Fakultät 10 / Advanced Media Institute (35)
- Fakultät 09 / Institut für Rettungsingenieurwesen und Gefahrenabwehr (30)
- Fakultät 07 / Institut für Nachrichtentechnik (26)
In dieser Arbeit wurde eine Machbarkeitsstudie zur Speicherung von Wasserstoff in Liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) anhand eines gewählten Stoffsystems, Dibenzyltoluen, durchgeführt. Die Arbeit umfasst Bilanzierungen und Auslegungen für eine reversible Hydrierung und Dehydrierung in zwei getrennten Anlagen. Eine class 4-Kostenschätzung bildet die Grundlage für eine Wirtschaftlichkeitsberechnung. So konnten die Technologieziele hinsichtlich der Speicherfähigkeiten nicht realisiert werden. Dennoch zeigen die ermittelten Produktionskosten die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit dieses Ansatzes.
Kontakt: Fabian.Piehl@outlook.com
Multidrug resistance (MDR) in tumors and pathogens remains a major problem in the efficacious treatment of patients by reduction of therapy options and subsequent treatment failure. Various mechanisms are described to be involved in the development of MDR with overexpression of ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters reflecting the most extensively studied. These membrane transporters translocate a wide variety of substrates utilizing energy from ATP hydrolysis leading to decreased intracellular drug accumulation and impaired drug efficacy. One treatment strategy might be inhibition of transporter-mediated efflux by small molecules. Isocoumarins and 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins are a large group of natural products derived from various sources with great structural and functional variety, but have so far not been in the focus as potential MDR reversing agents. Thus, three natural products and nine novel 3,4-dihydroisocoumarins were designed and analyzed regarding cytotoxicity induction and inhibition of human ABC transporters P-glycoprotein (P-gp), multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1) and breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) in a variety of human cancer cell lines as well as the yeast ABC transporter Pdr5 in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Dual inhibitors of P-gp and BCRP and inhibitors of Pdr5 were identified, and distinct structure-activity relationships for transporter inhibition were revealed. The strongest inhibitor of P-gp and BCRP, which inhibited the transporters up to 80 to 90% compared to the respective positive controls, demonstrated the ability to reverse chemotherapy resistance in resistant cancer cell lines up to 5.6-fold. In the case of Pdr5, inhibitors were identified that prevented substrate transport and/or ATPase activity with IC50 values in the low micromolar range. However, cell toxicity was not observed. Molecular docking of the test compounds to P-gp revealed that differences in inhibition capacity were based on different binding affinities to the transporter. Thus, these small molecules provide novel lead structures for further optimization.
The introduction of Feed-in tariffs in the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) fuelled the growth of anaerobic digestion (AD) industry making Germany the country with highest number of operational AD plants. However, the rapid expansion of AD industry resulted in some unwanted side-effects such as food vs fuel debate, increased prices for electricity and the temporal mismatch between supply and demand of electricity grid. Subsequent amendments in EEG has tried to address some of these issues by reduction in Feed-in tariffs, introduction of a cap on cereal based feedstocks and providing premium for energy production in accordance with market demand. Furthermore, the Feed-in tariffs which were introduced for 20 years are soon going to expire. The changes in legal and political discourse is soon going to introduce some new challanges to the AD industry. This paper has discussed some of these challanges and their potential solutions.
In the last few decades raw material molasses, used in large scale fermentations in the production of bioethanol, citric acid, (baker´s) yeast and yeast extracts, has become more and more expensive. That is why agro-industrial wastes have become an interesting alternative. They are being produced in large volumes every day and represent a serious environmental problem considering its high organic content. The present contribution aims to demonstrate how waste products of wine production can be employed as substrate in bioethanol production. Cultivation of yeast and bioethanol production on molasses and grape pomace extract was studied in flasks in laboratory scale. This work should be regarded as an example of integrated sustainability which demonstrates how the waste from one industrial process is used as feedstock for another.
Der Rückversicherungsmarkt steht auch weiterhin vor großen Herausforderungen –
an dieser Stelle sollen nur zwei von diesen kurz angerissen werden.
Während die Erneuerung der Rückversicherungsverträge zum 1. Januar 2019 weitestgehend ‚risk adjusted flat‘ verlief, erfolgte die Erneuerung der Retrozessionsverträge ausgesprochen spät. Zum Zeitpunkt der Drucklegung dieses Jahresberichts 2018 (2. Januar 2019) ist der schlussendliche Trend noch nicht erkennbar. Es gibt jedoch Anzeichen für eine substantielle Preis- und Bedingungsverhärtung im Retrozessionsbereich. Dies würde dann die Rückversicherer, die von der Ressource Retrozessionskapazität abhängen, in die noch schwierigere Lage bringen, dass sich die
Retrozessionsnahme verteuert, diese Mehrkosten jedoch an die Zedenten unter ihren aktiven Rückversicherungsverträgen nicht weitergegeben werden können. Nicht zuletzt die BaFin wird sich in der für 2019 angekündigten Analyse des herrschenden
Rückversicherungspreisniveaus sicherlich auch diesem Aspekt widmen. Von Interesse wäre bezüglich der etwaigen Feststellung von insuffizienten Marktverhältnissen
insbesondere auch die daraus abgeleitete Reaktion der BaFin (und auf welcher Basis diese erfolgen würde).
Ausschlaggebend für eine mögliche Verhärtung des Retrozessionsmarktes wäre eine geänderte Haltung des Alternative Capitals, das in den letzten Jahren über ILS
Funds und andere Mechanismen bereits 50-70 % der Retrozessionskapazität – mit jeweils steigender Tendenz – zur Verfügung gestellt hat. Im Gegensatz zu den traditionellen Rückversicherern zeigten sich die ‚Innocent Investors‘ wie Pension Funds infolge der hohen Anzahl von Schäden auch in 2018 – insbesondere der California Wildfires in Q4-2018 – sowie des Verfalls des Fund Share Price zahlreicher ILS Funds vor der Erneuerung zum 1. Januar 2019 zunehmend nervös.
Eine weitere substantielle Belastung des Geschäftsklimas liegt in der völligen Unklarheit hinsichtlich der Modalitäten des Brexits am 29. März 2019 begründet. Ein
No-Deal Brexit erscheint eine reale – wenn nicht sogar wahrscheinliche – Alternative.
Dieser würde durch den Wegfall vieler EU-UK Verträge und Vereinbarungen ein großes Vakuum hinsichtlich Rechtssicherheit entstehen lassen.
Die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung analysiert die aktuellen Entwicklungen des Rückversicherungsmarktes und begleitet diese gegebenenfalls durch Forschungsprojekte. Dabei verbindet die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung ihre Forschungsaktivitäten mit der Rückversicherungspraxis. Hiermit und mit Hilfe der Durchführung des jährlichen Kölner Rückversicherungs-Symposiums und der
Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung wird ein bidirektionaler Wissenstransfer zwischen Theorie und Praxis betrieben.
- 5 -
Die Inhalte dieser beiden wissenschaftlichen Veranstaltungen sowie die bearbeiteten
Forschungsprojekte fließen in die Lehre an dem Institut für Versicherungswesen ein und komplettieren so die praxisorientierte Ausbildung in dem Bereich der Rückversicherung. In der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung sind derzeit neun forschende und
zwei für das Wissenschaftsmanagement zuständige Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter beschäftigt. Dabei werden sämtliche Personal-, Sach- und Reisekosten vollständig aus Drittmitteln des Förderkreises Rückversicherung finanziert. Dem Förderkreis Rückversicherung, der Hochschulleitung und –verwaltung, ivwKöln sowie den Mitarbeitern der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung gilt unser Dank
für die Unterstützung der Forschungsprojekte und Veranstaltungen im vergangenen Jahr.
Aufgrund ihrer aktuellen Bedeutung im Zusammenhang des Internet of Things werden in der vorliegenden Arbeit Time Series Databases und Event Stores miteinander vergli-chen. Ziel ist, die Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der beiden Arten von Datenbank Management Systemen herauszustellen.
Der erste, theoretische Teil des Vergleichs erfolgt anhand der funktionalen Kriterien Speichersystem, Performance und Funktionen sowie der nicht-funktionalen Kriterien Usability und Support. Im zweiten Teil des Vergleichs wird anhand eines konkreten An-wendungsfalls untersucht, ob sich Time Series Databases und Event Stores gleicher-maßen für die Speicherung und in einem zweiten Schritt für die Abfrage von Zeitreihen-daten eignen.
Zumal der theoretische Vergleich Unterschiede zwischen einzelnen Time Series Data-bases und Event Stores in Bezug auf die betrachteten Kriterien erkennen lässt, wird für den praktischen Vergleich unter Berücksichtigung der im konkreten Anwendungsfall gegebenen Anforderungen nur die am besten geeignetste Time Series Database (In-fluxDB) und der am besten geeignetste Event Store (Event Store) ausgewählt. Der prak-tische Vergleich zeigt, dass die Zeitreihendaten im konkreten Anwendungsfall zwar in beiden Arten von Datenbank Management Systemen gespeichert werden können, die Nutzung der auf Zeitreihendaten spezialisierten Time Series Database InfluxDB jedoch offensichtliche Vorteile gegenüber dem Event Store aufweist.
Water shortage and a rising water demand are prevalent issues on the political agenda worldwide. Available water resources must not only be provided to ensure a domestic and drinking water supply for a steadily increasing population but also for the growing industrial and agricultural sectors. This work outlines how the use of the innovative vacuum multi‐effect membrane distillation contributes to improve the water management efficiency in the following key industry sectors: desalination, drinking water and beverage industry, pharmaceutical, agro and chemical as well as oil and gas industry.
Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) und Mixed Reality (MR) stoßen als innovative Technologien inzwischen auf breites öffentliches Interesse. Unter dem neuen Oberbegriff Cross Reality (XR) erreichen Anwendungen von VR, AR als auch MR dabei zusehends eine größere Zielgruppe – sowohl im B2B als auch im B2C-Segment. XR-Technologie ist nicht mehr nur Spezialisten vorbehalten, sondern hält Einzug in Industrie, Kreation und Entertainment: mit 360-Grad-Videos und VR-Games, beim Produktdesign, als Hilfe bei Orientierung im Raum, für Trainingssimulationen und virtuelle Konferenzen. Die Struktur und Entwicklung dieser noch jungen, sich dynamisch entwickelnden Branche untersucht diese Studie. Die XR-Branche in NRW besteht aus 134 Akteuren. Die meisten Unternehmen haben Ihren Sitz in Köln und die wichtigsten Zielbranchen sind Medien/Information/Kommunikation und das Verarbeitende Gewerbe. In der Branche herrscht eine positive Stimmung und eine schnelle Internetverbindung sowie die Verfügbarkeit von technischen Mitarbeitern sind die wichtigsten Standortfaktoren.
Resilience in relation to flood risk management (FRM) is not a new concept, yet parts of the FRM community are still struggling to apply it. The main challenge this study addresses is the question as to whether parts of the FRM community should still adopt, or rather “leap‐frog,” resilience. The main purpose is to evaluate whether resilience is a still on‐going trend or, already subsiding. Research suggests that resilience is an on‐going trend that connects research and policy and has gained international recognition as expressed by international guidelines and bodies promoting its research but also its operationalization. Academic literature in the area of FRM also shows a significant continuing development. Resilience enables to analyze dynamics and transformations of riverine areas, or coastal zones in connection to an integrated social‐environmental system approach with more emphasis and conceptual basis than previous concepts. Resilience is more than a short‐lived notion and it appears that FRM researchers cannot avoid addressing it. Resilience often is a convergence of ideas and mainstreaming of efforts, which in many venues is absolutely necessary and can help, for example, to decrease silo‐thinking. But as academics, we have a mandate to remain skeptical and remain on the look‐out for novel ideas, too.
This article is categorized under:
Engineering Water > Planning Water
The electricity network is undergoing a change due to reducing costs for renewable energy sources. Subsidy programs for renewable energy sources are changing and the funding available is being reduced. This will have an impact on anaerobic digestion which in some cases may struggle financially. Overfeeding is one of the most common mechanisms of inhibition in the process, and by shifting to intermittent feeding for on-demand production, this change will provide more information about the digestion process and could be used to detect the beginning of inhibition due to overfeeding. This paper discusses the shift towards intermittent production and how this change can be used to monitor the anaerobic digestion process.
Die vorliegende Masterarbeit behandelt die Bewertung der eingegangenen Unternehmensrisiken im Rahmen der Lebensversicherung und die hiervon abgeleiteten Auswirkungen zur Unternehmenssteuerung.
Dabei wird einerseits die Angemessenheit der sog. „Standardformel“ nach Solvency II überprüft, die in den europäischen Mitgliedsstaaten einen weitestgehend einheitlichen Ansatz bei der Bewertung der Risiken von Versicherungsunternehmen verwendet. Andererseits werden unter ökonomischen Überlegungen versicherungsmathematische Methoden vorgestellt, wie ein Lebensversicherer seine Risiken unternehmensindividueller ermitteln und damit seinen tatsächlichen Risikokapitalbedarf bestimmen kann.
Zur Quantifizierung der Ergebnisse werden die Berechnungsvorgaben der Standardformel für ausgewählte Risikomodule nachgebildet und mit den in dieser Arbeit vorgestellten unternehmensindividuellen Berechnungen verglichen und analysiert. Es zeigt sich, dass trotz der Komplexität des Solvency II-Modells eine noch differenziertere Herangehensweise notwendig ist, damit ein einzelnes Unternehmen seine Risiken adäquat und möglichst individuell bestimmen kann. Zur Gewährleistung einer nicht bestandsgefährdenden Unternehmensfortführung müssen die Versicherungsunternehmen bei Betrachtung ihrer Risiken mithilfe des EU-weiten Aufsichtssystems Solvency II in der Lage sein, die korrekten Rückschlüsse zur Unternehmenssteuerung zu ziehen. Die in dieser Arbeit vorgestellten versicherungsmathematischen Ansätze können dabei den Prozess zur unternehmenseigenen Risiko- und Solvabilitätsbeurteilung (ORSA) unterstützen.
The reinsurance market continues to face major challenges – at this point we would like to outline just two of these. While renewal of the reinsurance contracts as at 1st January 2019 was largely ‘riskadjusted flat’, renewal of the retrocession contracts was decidedly late. As at the date when this Annual Report 2018 went to press (2nd January 2019), the final trend is still not yet discernible. However, there are signs of a substantial hardening in prices and conditions in the retrocession area. Reinsurers, which are depend on the resource of retrocession capacity, would then be placed in an even more difficult position of increasing the price of retrocession, yet these additional costs cannot be passed on to the assignors under their active reinsurance contracts. Not least the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority [BaFin] is also certain to set its sights on this aspect in its analysis of the prevailing reinsurance price level, which has been announced for 2019. Of particular interest with regard to a potential determination of insufficient market conditions would also be the resulting reaction by BaFin (and the basis on which this would occur). A decisive factor for a possible strengthening of the retrocession market would be a changed attitude on the part of alternative capital, which in recent years already provided 50-70% of the retrocession capacity – and rising – via ILS funds and other mechanisms. Unlike traditional reinsurers, ‘innocent investors’ such as pension funds were increasingly nervous as a result of the high number of claims again in 2018 – particularly the California wildfires in Q4 2018 – as well as the drop in the fund share price of numerous ILS funds prior to the renewal at 1st January 2019.
A further substantial burden on the business climate lies in the utter ambiguity with regard to the modalities of Brexit on 29th March 2019. A no-deal Brexit would seem to be a real – and perhaps even a probable – alternative. This would create a large vacuum
in legal certainty by eliminating many EU-UK contracts and agreements. 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 [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.
- 5 -
Currently, there are nine researchers and two employees responsible for science management 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, ivwKöln [the Institute of Insurance 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.
Life cycle assessment is a crucial tool in evaluating systems performances for sustainability and decision-making. This paper provided environmental impact of integrating renewable energy systems to the utility-grid based on a baseline optimized energy production data from “HOMER” for renewable systems modelling of a site in northern Nigeria. The ultimate goal was to ascertain the best hybrid option(s) in sustaining the environment. Different assumptions and scenarios were modelled and simulated using Ganzleitlichen Bilanz (GaBi). Uncertainty analysis was ensured to the impact data based on pedigree-matrix and Excel-program, as well as overall policy relevance. The results of the impact categories revealed first scenario (i.e., conventional path-based) with the highest impacts on global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), human toxicity potential (HTP), and abiotic depletion potential (ADP fossils). The lowest impacts arise in
the renewable-based scenarios for all the considered categories except the Ozone-layer depletion potential Category where the highest contribution falls in the third scenario (i.e., photovoltaic (PV)/biomass-biogas system) although all values being infinitesimal. In quantitative terms, the reduction in the GWP from the highest being the first scenario to the lowest being the fourth scenario (i.e., wind/biomass-biogas system) was 96.5%. Hence, with the outstanding contributions of the hybrid renewable systems, adopting them especially the lowest impact scenarios with expansions is relevant for environmental sustainability.
For use in a landfill, a laboratory reactor for safe and environmentally friendly biological utilization of low-concentration methane gas will be further developed. The current principle of denitrification-coupled aerobic methane oxidation will be replaced by methane oxidation under anaerobic conditions. Anaerobic methane oxidation offers the advantage that, in addition to methane, nitrate also undergoes biodegradation. Another advantage is that the oxygen content can be significantly lower. This reduces the risk of the formation of an explosive atmosphere in the reactor. Currently, the principle of anaerobic methane oxidation is known. However, organisms capable of doing so are not yet available as a pure culture. Therefore, several biomasses were probed for the ability of anaerobic methane oxidation. It was found that moor-heavy sediment, activated sludge from the leachate treatment plant and biomass from the local biogas plant oxidize methane after the natural carbon source (C source) was been removed.
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.
In dieser Arbeit wird die Frage nach der Zusammensetzung einer aus konservatorischer Sicht unbedenklichen Stempelfarbe untersucht. Es konnten vier Kategorien von Stempelfarben ermittelt werden: die leinölhaltigen, die mineralölhaltigen, die glykol-/glycerolhaltigen und die harzhaltigen. Neun Stempelfarben aus diesen vier Kategorien wurden in einer umfangreichen Testreihe auf ihre Licht- und Klimabeständigkeit, ihre Löse- und Bleichmittelfestigkeit, ihre Wischfestigkeit und ihr Durchschlagvermögen überprüft. Drei rein pigmenthaltige Stempelfarben haben diese Tests bestanden. Von diesen hatte nur die leinölhaltige Stempelfarbe eine gute Dokumentenechtheit. Zudem werden im letzten Kapitel Möglichkeiten zur Entfernung von Stempelfarben auf Papier vorgestellt.
Im Blickpunkt stehen ältere Menschen, die in ihrer privaten Lebensführung zurückgezogen leben, wenig in lokale Beziehungsnetzwerke involviert sind und die von Informationen und Angeboten der Altenhilfeträger bisher nicht erreicht werden. Für diese Menschen wurde die Idee einer „kommunikativen Informationsinfrastruktur“ im Sozialraum des Wohnviertels und Stadtteils entwickelt. Mit dem Infrastrukturmodell soll vermieden werden, dass solche Personen unerkannt in Notsituationen geraten, aber auch sichergestellt werden, dass sie kontinuierlich über Gelegenheiten zur erfolgreichen Bewältigung ihrer Lebenssituation informiert werden. Das Buch beschreibt das entwickelte Modell und die Erfahrungen mit der praktischen Umsetzung. Das Modell zeigt Perspektiven für die Sozialplanung auf, dass zwischen privater Lebensführung im Alter und öffentlicher Daseinsvorsorge der Altenhilfe wirkungsvoll vermittelt werden kann. Zurückgezogen lebende ältere Menschen werden aus dem lokalen Umfeld unterstützt, sich umfassend zu informieren und Chancen zur Mitgestaltung von Angeboten gemäß ihren Bedürfnissen wahrzunehmen.
The 12th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung] was held 5th July 2019 in Niederkassel, near Cologne. Some 80
representatives of the (re)insurance companies involved in the Sponsoring Group took part in the meeting, along with guests. Offered for the fifth time as part of the
Annual Meeting, the Researchers’ Corner gave eight members of academic staff at the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance an opportunity to deliver a presentation on their respective current research projects. In three sessions – each featuring 2-3 parallel lectures with posters – the most important results of the scientific studies by the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance were presented and discussed. The heterogeneity of the topics presented by academic staff reflects the dovetailing of Cologne Research Centre with reinsurance practice.
Session 1
a) Manuel Dietmann (M.Sc.): The increasing importance of the riskmanagement function in insurance companies
b) Robert Joniec (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): How is the reinsurance cycle doing?
c) Wolfgang Koch (M.Sc., FCII): Information asymmetries between reinsurance brokers and assignors
Session 2
a) Jörg Dirks (M.Sc., FCII): Unmanned aircraft – Evolution of the market for aviation (re-)insurance
b) Fabian Lassen (M.Sc., FCII): Reducing volatility through use of an insurance swap
c) Fabian Pütz (M.Sc., cand. PhD): Transferring cat risks from emerging markets from a macroeconomic perspective Session 3
a) Kai-Olaf Knocks (M.A., FCII): The ILS market in 2019 – discouragement or wait-and-see?
b) Lihong Wang (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): China InsurTech development
With the publication series, ‘Proceedings of the Researchers’ Corner’, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance meets the desire for publication of the research results of our scholars together with the accompanying posters and discussions. The titles are reproduced in keeping with the above agenda of the Researchers’ Corner for the 12th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. As part of the event, Prof. Materne also conducted an interview with Mr Ingo Wichelhaus (Senior Director, Mount Street) on the topic of risk management and portfolio management. Particular attention was devoted to the broad spectrum of risk for financing in the shipping sector.
Pseudozyma antarctica Lipase B catalyzed esterification and transesterification in deep eutectic solvents (DES) was investigated in reaction systems with alcohols of different polarity. Coconut oil and crude biodiesel were deacidified successfully with non-immobilized CALBL and final acid values of 1.2 for biodiesel and 0.5 for coconut oil were obtained, while no esterification with ethanol was observed without DES. Water depletion of the lipid phase in the presence of water adsorbing DES causes this difference. Analysis of water contents revealed a 10 fold lower water content of the lipid phase in the presence of a second DES phase than in trials without utilization of DES. In contrast reactions of hydrophilic polyols are suppressed in the presence of DES. While the esterification of fructose and the transesterification with glycerol worked well in the polar solvent 2-methyl-2-butanol, almost no fructose esterification and a decreased transesterification with glycerol were observed in the presence of DES. Analysis of logP values of the substrates explains the substrate dependent differences in reactivity. The polar alcohols are probably bound strongly in the hydrogen-bonding network of the DES phase and are thus not available for lipase catalyzed reactions.
Before transporting the landfill leachate to municipal wastewater treatment plant it has to be treated in a landfill leachate treatment plant, as it comprises high concentrations of ammonium. The elimination of ammonium load in the leachate is usually done by the combined processes of nitrification and denitrification with a specially adapted biocenosis in the activated sludge (AS). For each of the steps, specialized bacteria such as Nitrosomonas, Nitrobacter and Paracoccus are used to transfer the ammonia to gaseous nitrogen. The aim of this investigation was to find suitable process parameters for a complementary treatment of fermentation water from a biogas plant together with landfill leachate. The processed water of the biogas plant consists of a higher concentration of ammonium and carbon sources or easily degradable volatile fatty acids. It can save the usage of external carbon source (acetic acid) and additionally it could also compensate the missing volumes of leachate in times of low rain and low leachate flows. To maintain the high workload for the existing leachate treatment pilot plant (LTPP), a combined treatment of landfill leachate and process water is also of economic and of ecological interest. The long-term adaption process of the biocenosis needs to be done step-by-step. Innovative process monitoring is needed to prevent biocenosis collapse. In our study, we present our set-up, a closer look at the ongoing experiment and the long-term changes in the biocenosis.
In the degradation of ammonia (NH4+) to gaseous nitrogen (N2), the nitrification is one of the two reaction steps. The nitrification itself is divided in two steps and is performed by two different types of bacteria. Current literature has shown that there are types of bacteria, which have the genetic equipment to perform both steps in one bacteria. Nevertheless, in wastewater and landfill leachate treatment, ammonia-oxidizing organisms (AOO) and nitrite-oxidizing organisms (NOO) occur as a symbiosis. The intermediate of the two consecutive reaction steps (NO2-, nitrite) is toxic. For this reason, both steps are necessary for the two bacterial groups. To determine the ratio of AOO, NOO and heterotrophic bacteria (which use organic compounds as carbon and energy source) the oxygen uptake rate (OUR) with selective inhibition with N-allylthiourea (ATU) and azide is used. In the inflow of a pilot plant in one street a step by step increased amount of a process water out of a fermentation plant was added to the landfill leachate. For comparison, the other street was supplied only with landfill leachate with the same amount of nitrogen. As a result, comparable values for the different bacterial groups and reproducible results were measured and lead to a better understanding of the analysed nitrification sludge. Deeper understanding of the behavior of the different groups will result in a reduce risk of malfunctions and a more stable operation in the wastewater or landfill leachate treatment plant.
This contribution deals with the topic of the consistent further development of a wheel hub motor for battery electric vehicles (BEV) based on the principle of an outer rotor switched reluctance machine (SRM). The research work presented in this paper was founded by the ERDF.NRW program, Investment for Growth and Employment and the European Regional Development Fund. The R&D project was named Switched - Reluctance fo(u)r wheel (SR4Wheel). Based on the experience made by first prototype Evolution 0 (EVO 0), developed in the Laboratory for Automation Engineering, Power Electronics and Electrical Drives of the Cologne University of Applied Sciences (CUAS), the test results of EVO 1, as well as the redesign, EVO 2 is presented in this paper.
The prototype EVO 0, a first proof of concept leads to several optimizations and lessons learned for the predecessor model EVO 1. The overall target of developing such a gearless outer rotor wheel hub motor is the full integration of the complete machine including its power electronics into the given space between the original friction brake and the rim. Furthermore, due to the additional integration of the power electronics, great opportunities in terms of new vehicle design as well as retrofitting capabilities of already existing vehicle platforms can be achieved. Thereby, further drive train assembly space like the engine compartment is no longer necessary. The SRM does not require magnets for torque production which leads to independence from the changeable commodity prices on the rare earth element markets. This paper presents the developing process, testing, and verification of the innovative drive train concept starting with the final CAD of EVO 1. During the testing and verification process a machine characteristic mapping is performed on a drive train test bench and subsequently the results of a finite element analysis (FEA) are plausibility checked by the test bench results. The process continues with energy conversion test scenarios of the project demonstrator vehicle on a roller test bench focused on noise vibrationharshness (NVH) behavior and efficiency. As a conclusion, the gained knowledge by evaluating two EVO 1 prototypes on the rear axle of the test vehicle, and the design for the front axle drive train EVO 2 will be presented. As a major task on the front axle, the limited space due to the large disc brake can be identified and solved.
The synthesis of 17-hydroxy-oleic acid based oligomeric esters was investigated with immobilized Pseudozyma antarctica Lipase B and hexanediol as co-substrate. The effects of different reaction parameters on velocity and product composition at equilibrium conditions were analyzed. The synthesis of oleic acid esters was used as a reference system for initial evaluation of reaction parameters. The reaction with oleic acid and hexanediol was fastest at an enzyme concentration of 5% at 60 °C and high conversions of > 90 % were achieved in non-polar solvents in the presence of molecular sieves. In heptane an oleic acid conversion of 96 % was reached with a final diester to monoester ratio of > 4:1. In syntheses trials with 17-hydroxy-oleic acid the formation of oligomers was verified with GPC, however; conversion was generally lower than with oleic acid. Removal of hydroxyl fatty acid monomers and dimers and the formation ester functionalities could be verified by GC analysis. An increase of the degree of oligomerization was observed simultaneously by GPC analysis. The number-average molecular weight was around 1400 in the best trials corresponding to a degree of oligomerization of around 4 units of hydroxyl-fatty acid attached to a hexanediol core. Though transformations were not complete, the final oligomer size was in the lower range of polyester diols used for polyurethane manufacturing.
REST became the go to approach when it comes to large scale distributed systems on, or outside the World Wide Web. This paper aims to give a brief overview of what REST is and what its main draws and benefits are. Secondly, I will showcase the implementation of REST using HTTP and why this approach became as popular as it is today. Based on my research I concluded that REST’s advantages in scalability, coupling, performance and its seamless integration with HTTP enabled it to rightfully overtake classic RPC based approaches.
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.
The quantification of greenhouse gas emissions from aquatic ecosystems requires knowledge about the spatial and temporal dynamics of free gas in sediments. Freezing the sediment in situ offers a promising method for obtaining gas‐bearing sediment samples, unaffected by changes in hydrostatic pressure and sample temperature during core withdrawal and subsequent analysis. This article presents a novel freeze coring technique to preserve the in situ stratigraphy and gas bubble characteristics. Nondestructive X‐ray computed tomography (CT) scans were used to identify and characterize coring disturbances of gravity and freeze cores associated with gassy sediment, as well as the effect of the freezing process on the gas bubble characteristics. Real‐time X‐ray CT scans were conducted to visualize the progression of the freezing process. Additional experiments were conducted to determine the freezing rate to assess the probability of sediment particle/bubble migration, and gas bubble nucleation at the phase transition of pore water to ice. The performance of the freeze coring technique was evaluated under field conditions in Olsberg and Urft Reservoir (Germany). The results demonstrate the capability of the freeze coring technique for the preservation of gas‐bearing sediments and the analysis of gas bubble distribution pattern in both reservoirs. Nevertheless, the obtained cores showed that nearly all gravity and freeze cores show some degree of coring disturbances.
Über Ludwig Mies van der Rohe ist alles gesagt, oder? 1886 in Aachen geboren, entwickelte er sich zu einem der renommiertesten und bekanntesten Architekten weltweit – mit ikonischen Bauten wie der Neuen Nationalgalerie in Berlin oder Bauten wie dem Seagram Building in New York. Viele Publikationen sind zu seinem Leben und seinen Arbeiten erschienen. Jedoch finden die nordrhein-westfälischen Projekte, mit Ausnahme der Krefelder Villen Lange und Esters, darin erstaunlich wenig Beachtung.
Erstaunlich deshalb, weil sich besonders an diesen Projekten sehr eindrucksvoll sein Lebensweg aufzeigen lässt – vom rheinischen Handwerkslehrling über den Bauhausdirektor bis hin zum weltweit agierenden Architekten. Innerhalb der Baukunst des 20. Jahrhunderts spiegeln seine Arbeiten im heutigen Nordrhein-Westfalen die Entwicklung vom Jugendstil zum International Style.
Der Erforschung dieser vielfältigen Spuren widmen sich mittlerweile seit vielen Jahren Studentinnen und Studenten sowie Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftler unterschiedlicher westdeutscher Architektur-Hochschulen. Unter der Leitung der beiden Herausgeber, Prof. Dr. Daniel Lohmann und Prof. Norbert Hanenberg, dieses Architekturführers wurden die Projekte dokumentiert, Spuren gelesen, Quellen ausgewertet, und die Geschichte von „Mies im Westen“ wurde nachvollzogen.
Die vorliegende Publikation ist in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Museum für Architektur und Ingenieurkunst NRW im Rahmen der Lehrveranstaltungen der TH Köln und der TH Mittelhessen (Gießen) mit Studierenden entstanden.
Zivile unbemannte Luftfahrtsysteme in der Akutphase internationaler humanitärer Hilfseinsätze
(2019)
Diese Arbeit konstruiert Einsatzbereiche ziviler unbemannter Luftfahrtsysteme in humanitären Hilfseinsätzen unmittelbar nach einer Katastrophe. Die Auswertung der Schnittmenge der technischen Fähigkeitsanalyse mit der – unter Verwendung von Experteninterviews durchgeführten – operativen Bedarfsanalyse des humanitären Sektors stellt die Basis für die Konstruktion der neun Anwendungsbereiche dar. Abschließend werden diese vor einem technischen, rechtlichen sowie ethischen Hintergrund diskutiert und bewertet.
Durch das permanente Wachstum der Weltbevölkerung wird der Bedarf von Textilien stetig steigen. Die Produktvielfalt sowie der Konsum der Textilien werden immer größer. Die aktuellen Recyclingtechniken ermöglichen es nicht, den Rohstoffkreislauf für Textilien zu schließen. Dies liegt auch darin begründet, dass derzeit große Mengen der Textilien aus Mischgeweben zwischen Baumwolle und PET bestehen. Die Trennung dieser Komponenten ist jedoch eine Grundvoraussetzung für die Entwicklung eines geschlossenen Rohstoffkreislaufs und stellt gleichzeitig eine große Herausforderung für das Recycling dar. Durch chemische Recyclingverfahren können die Rohstoffe getrennt, aufbereitet und in die Textilproduktion zurückgeführt werden. In dieser Arbeit wird aufgezeigt, wie ein chemischer Recyclingprozess, der einen geschlossenen Rohstoffkreislauf erlaubt, technisch realisiert werden kann. Der Prozess erzeugt eine PET-Fraktion und eine Celluloselösung, die in weiteren Verarbeitungsschritten zu einer Regeneratfaser versponnen wird. In dieser frühen Projektphase werden in dieser Arbeit ebenfalls die Investitionsausgaben und die Herstellungskosten für das Verfahren abgeschätzt.
Metallic tubular micro-components play an important role in a broad range of products,
from industrial microsystem technology, such as medical engineering, electronics and optoelectronics, to sensor technology or microfluidics. The demand for such components is increasing, and forming processes can present a number of advantages for industrial manufacturing. These include, for example, a high productivity, enhanced shaping possibilities, applicability of a wide spectrum of materials and the possibility to produce parts with a high stiffness and strength. However, certain difficulties arise as a result of scaling down conventional tube forming processes to the microscale. These include not only the influence of the known size effects on material and friction behavior, but also constraints in the feasible miniaturization of forming tools. Extensive research work has been conducted over the past few years on micro-tube forming techniques, which deal with the development of novel and optimized processes, to counteract these restrictions. This paper reviews the relevant advances in micro-tube fabrication and shaping. A particular focus is enhancement in forming possibilities, accuracy and obtained component characteristics, presented in the reviewed research work. Furthermore, achievements in severe plastic deformation for micro-tube generation and in micro-tube testing methods are discussed.
Anaerobic digestion plants have the potential to produce biogas on demand to help balance renewable energy production and energy demand by consumers. A proportional integral (PI) controller is constructed and tuned with a novel tuning method to control biogas production in an optimal manner. In this approach, the proportional part of the controller is a function of the feeding rate and system's degree of stability. To estimate the degree of stability, a simulation‐based soft sensor is developed. By means of the PI controller, the requirement for gas storage capacity of the digester is reduced by approximately 30 % compared to a constant, continuous feeding regime of the digester.
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
The post-conflict setting in Colombia resulted after the signing of the peace agreement between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the national Government at the end of 2016, faces two main problems. On one hand, the environmental degradation and the pressure over the ecosystems now exposed to the economic and socio-demographic dynamics of the country; and on the other hand, the increase of violence in rural areas characterized by the abundance of natural resources. These two problems can be linked through the complex dynamics of natural resources appropriation. Among the natural resources affecting the course of the post-conflict in Colombia, gold appears as one of the most relevant sources of violence and environmental degradation. This condition makes it crucial to understand the complex local dynamics of mining regions in order to propose alternatives for consolidating a sustaining peace. The armed groups, the state, the private companies, and traditional gold mining communities are all stakeholders involved in gold mining and the conflicts around this activity. Nevertheless, communities have been denied as a formal actor.
This work aims to give voice to those communities, understanding them as a key actor for peacebuilding. This research seeks to understand the relationship between gold mining and the social-armed conflict in Colombia, to identify which are the drivers for the increasing of this activity during the post-conflict, as well as which strategies developed by traditional gold mining communities can contribute to peacebuilding. Thus, an integrative analytical framework is developed. This theoretical framework integrates 1) environmental peacebuilding to evaluate the possibilities of natural resources to becoming tools for cooperation, and 2) political ecology to clarify, from a multi-scalar approach, the socio-political context in which the conflict takes place. Hence, from a qualitative approach that involves several ethnographic methods is found that artisanal-ancestral miners and traditional miners organized to remain in their territories in a context of dispossession, have developed socio-ecological systems and natural resources management strategies relevant to implement initiatives of environmental peacebuilding that can be sustained over time and aimed to overcome the structural causes of violence and environmental degradation.
Neben den großen Anbietern digitaler Comics mit elektronischem Kopierschutz (DRM) haben sich auch Anbieter für DRM-freie Comics etabliert. Als Open Source-Alternative zu den Plattformen Ersterer wurde im Rahmen des Praxisprojekts die Software ComicLib als Web-App zur Verwaltung digitaler Comicsammlungen geschaffen. Diese ermöglicht die gemeinsame Verwaltung DRM-geschützter sowie -freier Comics. Letz-tere sind außerdem im Webbrowser lesbar. Die im Rahmen dieser Arbeit entstandene And-roid-App soll eine Open Source-Alternative zu den mobilen Apps der Plattformen der gro-ßen Anbieter sein und ComicLib um eine mobile App zur Offline-Nutzung der Comics erwei-tern. Der erste Prototyp wird im Nachgang des Projekts weiter getestet und verbessert, be-vor die erste stabile Version veröffentlicht wird.
Bei Low-Code Entwicklungsplattformen handelt es sich um Lösungen zur Entwicklung und Bereitstellung von Software mit geringerem Anteil von Quelltext als in der Anwendungsentwicklung sonst erforderlich. Die Forschungsarbeit prüft, ob Low-Code Entwicklungsplattformen dazu geeignet sind, moderne webbasierte Geschäftsanwendungen umzusetzen. Dabei zeigt die Arbeit auf, wie Programmierparadigmen, Methoden der modellgetriebenen Softwareentwicklung (MDSD) und des Rappid Application Developments (RAD) als Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) Lösungen zur Anwendungsentwicklung durch Anbieter kombiniert werden. Aktuell offerierte Lösungen werden in einem Marktüberblick hinsichtlich ihrer Funktionalität und Anwendungszielgruppe eingeordnet.
Zur Klärung der Forschungsfrage werden gängige Anforderungen an eine Geschäftsanwendung gesammelt und deren Implementierung durch die prototypische Realisierung eines Anwendungsfalls mit der Low-Code Entwicklungsplattform Oracle Application Express (APEX) validiert. Auf dieser Basis zeigt die Arbeit den tatsächlich erforderlichen Quelltextanteil auf. Dabei werden jedoch auch funktionelle Einschränkungen sowie möglicheorganisatorische Risiken, z.B. durch Vendor Lock-In Effekte, dargestellt.
This market research paper has been prepared under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Veit of TH Köln and Prof. Dr. Carol Scovotti of University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the course of the inter-university cross-border collaboration student research project “Export Opportunity Surveys (EOS)”. This study explores organic lipstick export opportunities to the German and US markets.
Das vorliegende Paper fasst die Erkenntnisse zum Einsatz von Kundenbeziehungs-management (engl. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)) und geeignete Tools für junge Unternehmen zusammen.
Es basiert auf der Bachelorarbeit von Herrn Enes Zafer, die von August bis Oktober 2019 von Prof. Dr. Monika Engelen betreut wurde. Neben einer Recherche der grundle-genden Theorie zu Customer Relationship Management wurden zehn CRM Tools an-hand Ihrer Funktionen beurteilt und verglichen.
Der Kerninhalt dieses Papers ist, sowohl ein Verständnis für Kundenbeziehungsma-nagement zu schaffen als auch einen Überblick und Empfehlung von CRM Tools für junge Unternehmen abzuleiten.
The southeast of Córdoba province used to be originally covered by hundreds of wetlands that got heavily modified or drained in the last few decades. Since wetlands provide various important ecosystem services (ESS) for human well-being, their degradation created several problems in La Picasa basin, among which floods are the most obvious one. The wise use of wetlands is increasingly acknowledged to be part of nature-based solution approaches reducing disaster risk. However, in the study area these approaches remain a relatively new concept to decision makers and the lack of knowledge on their effectiveness and implementation process poses a serious barrier to their adoption.
To overcome this obstacle, this dissertation applies an ESS perspective on the current problems of La Picasa basin and sets it in a context of socio-ecological system (SES) theory. A comprehensive analysis of (1) the role wetlands have played in the historic development of the SES, (2) important stakeholder dynamics that create opportunities or restrictions for the conservation of wetlands and (3) possible management approaches to inverse negative ESS trade-offs and feedback loops, was performed.
Results demonstrate that the current problems of floods have both natural and anthropogenic causes. In this regard, wetlands hold a vital role in the complex historic interactions between the social and ecological drivers of changes in the water balance. Although a social network between stakeholders exists, several conflicts prevent a proper functioning of a basin-wide integrated management concept based on wetland restoration. Nature-based solution approaches, putting wetlands in the center of attention of future management strategies, were found to hold a high potential to reduce the risk of floods and, as a side-effect boost biodiversity and habitat quality in the study area.
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.
As the number and intensity of environmental challenges increase, more faiths have initiated religiously motivated change within their communities or have been involved in cooperation projects with NGOs or GOs dedicated to conservation. Even though a lot of quantitative research had been done on the correlation of religiosity and concern for the environment, no scientific study dealt about the argumentation lines that drive or discourage believers to get involved in environmental conversation. As a basis for the research the Theory of Planned Behavior of Ajzen was modified into a model. By the means of Semi-Standardized Interview guidelines 15 members and leaders of different church communities in Amman were interrogated to retrieve meaning of and cause-effect-chains between the different components of the model. Their answers were coded and analyzed with cross tables to identify interconnections and their tendencies.
The results show that interviewees’ religious convictions about God and the world were the strongest influencer, whereas the community and leaders rarely gave a reason for people to adapt water saving measures. External factors such as governmental, societal, political or economic mostly discouraged people to adapt environmentfriendly behaviors. Approaches by the GIZ have already started catering to those challenges and potentials, however the range of impact did not reach until most of the interviewees.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich im übergeordneten Kontext mit den Bounding Volume Hierarchies zur Veinfachung des Intersection Testings beim Raytracing. Die derzeitige Problematik besteht vor allem in der immer noch zu optimierenden Laufzeit. Dementsprechend wird trotz der bereits bestehenden Beschleunigungsdatenstrukturen wie unter anderem der Bounding Volume Hierarchy versucht, effizientere Strukturen oder Erstellungsprozeduren zu entwickeln. Für die Bounding Volume Hierarchy bedeutet dies, dass vor allem hinsichtlich verschiedener Splitting-Methoden und Möglichkeiten für die Baumoptimierung geforscht wird. Explizit wird daher innerhalb dieser Arbeit untersucht, wie die Bounding Volume Hierarchy durch die Verwendung der Hauptkomponentenanalyse bei der Erstellung optimiert werden kann und wie effizient der daraus resultierende Ansatz gegenüber der klassischen Bounding Volume Hierarchy sowie deren Splitting-Methoden ist. Eine Evaluation anhand 12 verschiedener Szenen zeigte, dass der vorliegende Ansatz unter Verwendung der SAH-Methode wie auch mit der Middle-Methode 17.70% respektive 13.14% geringere Renderlaufzeiten als der distanzbasierte Ansatz aufweist. Des Weiteren konnte mittels der kombinierten Verwendung aus klassischer SAH-Methode und PCA-basierter SAH-Methode eine weitere Verbesserung um 6.65% gegenüber der SAH-Methode der PCA-BVH erreicht werden.
Soils are complex, evolving systems that simultaneously shape and are shaped by numerous biotic and abiotic factors in a vast web of interactions that creates the conditions for the propagation of life and the maintenance of human societies. Yet, land use and land use change (LULUC) and anthropogenic climate change (CC) are forcing substantial and rapid alterations into soil’s properties and processes, thus affecting the functions and services derived from it. The resulting land degradation (LD) is now spread, according to recent estimates, over nearly 30 % of the world’s total land, mostly on the population dense and impoverished tropics, a zone predicted to withstand the worst impacts of CC. The Atlantic Forest in Brazil is a particularly vulnerable environment, and the unusual drought of 2014-2017 that hit its Southeastern region is likely the harbinger of a progressively drier future.
The way the prelude of what might be an increasingly frequent hazard affected farmers’ livelihoods and natural resources, and the manner in which they reacted to those impacts can thus reveal points of strength and fragility that could be respectively harnessed or addressed to develop a more sustainable agriculture and climate resilience. This master thesis focused on characterizing those impacts and reactions on distinct dairy production systems in two municipalities in Northwestern Rio de Janeiro: Santo Antônio de Pádua and Cambuci. Through interviews and in loci observations, the researcher collected data concerning environmental services (erosion prevention, soil cover and water provision), production variables (inputs and outputs), socio-economic information, farm system management and farmers’ future perspectives. The results show that dairy production systems in the region are heterogeneous and, although they may share common characteristics, drought outcomes were closely tied to the specificities of each farm. Ultimately, outcomes originated from differences in water supply, water demand, and feed availability, their subsequent change by the drought and farmers’ reaction to those changes at each property.
Achieving urban water security is a major challenge for many countries. While several studies have assessed water security at a regional level, many studies have also emphasized the lack of assessment of water security and application of measures to achieve it at the urban level.
Recent studies that have focused on measuring urban water security are not holistic, and there is still no agreed-upon understanding of how to operationalize and identify an assessment framework to measure the current state and dynamics of water security. At present, there is also no clearly defined and widely endorsed definition of urban water security. To address this challenge, this study provides a systematic approach to better understand urban water security, with a working definition and an assessment framework to be applied in peri-urban and urban areas. The proposed working definition of urban water security is based on the United Nations (UN) sustainable development goal on water and sanitation and the human rights on water and sanitation. It captures issues of urban-level technical, environmental, and socio-economic indicators that emphasize credibility, legitimacy, and salience.
The assessment framework depends on four main dimensions to achieve urban water security: Drinking water and human beings, ecosystem, climate change and water-related hazards, and socio-economic factors (DECS). The framework further enables the analysis of relationships and trade-off between urbanization and water security, as well as between DECS indicators. Applying this framework will help governments, policy-makers, and water stakeholders to target scant resources more eff ectively and sustainably. The study reveals that achieving urban water security requires a holistic and integrated approach with collaborative stakeholders to provide a meaningful way to improve understanding and managing urban water security.
Ecosystems provide a wide range of goods, services or ecosystem services (ES) to society. Estimating the impact of land use and land cover (LULC) changes on ES values (ESV) is an important tool to support decision making. This study used remote sensing and GIS tools to analyze LULC change and transitions from 2001 to 2016 and assess its impact on ESV in a tropical forested landscape in the southern plains of Nepal. The total ESV of the landscape for the year 2016 is estimated at USD 1264 million year−1. As forests are the dominant land cover class and have high ES value per hectare, they have the highest contribution in total ESV. However, as a result of LULC change (loss of forests, water bodies, and agricultural land), the total ESV of the landscape has declined by USD 11 million year−1. Major reductions come from the loss in values of climate regulation, water supply, provision of raw materials and food production. To halt the ongoing loss of ES and maintain the supply and balance of different ES in the landscape, it is important to properly monitor, manage and utilize ecosystems. We believe this study will inform policymakers, environmental managers, and the general public on the ongoing changes and contribute to developing effective land use policy in the region.
The climate is changing and this increases the risk of climate threats, which is affecting the most vulnerable populations, mainly peasant farmers. In order to minimize impacts on these populations, interest has been aroused to develop strategies that increase their resilience to climate-related risks. This issue has been little addressed in Ecuador, despite the increased frequency and intensity of climate-related risks, which are directly affecting agroecosystems and farmers' livelihoods. This research addresses the resilience of farmers to climate risks in the canton of Pedro Carbo, an area located on the Ecuadorian coast of Guayas Province characterized by a high rate of poverty and dedicated mainly to agriculture.
The overall objective of this research was to carry out an analysis of the resilience of small farmers to climate risks, as well as to recommend adaptation/transformation strategies to increase their resilience to climate. For this, farmers' perceptions were considered, as well as the opinion of experts on the subject. Multiple methods were applied such as: literature review, map generation, household surveys, participatory workshops with farmers and interviews with experts. In addition, a multidimensional matrix was developed to analyze quantitative and qualitative data through indicators that measure resilience in the study area. The main findings in this research reflect that farmers have very low resilience due to their socioeconomic characteristics, agricultural practices, lack of infrastructure and technologies, weak community organizations, limited access to credit and insurance, as well as lack of capacity building and technical assistance. Finally, recommendations for strategies to support planning and decision-making were developed.
Keywords: climate-related risks, peasant family farming, resilience, resilience assessment, climate resilience, farmers perceptions, Pedro Carbo
While global food production greatly exceeds dietary energy demand, undernutrition remains, and diets largely fail to ensure the health of the population. Agricultural biodiversity is crucial for the world’s food security, but genetic diversity has been degraded. In Mexico, the dietary transition towards processed foods has contributed to malnutrition and a rise of diet-related chronic diseases. Mexico’s indigenous people are conserving and creating valuable plant genetic resources in their swidden milpas and traditional agroforestry systems but remain the country’s most vulnerable population group. The Teenek (or Huastec), an indigenous group that habitat the Huasteca Potosina, a region in north-eastern Mexico cultivate a high diversity of edible plants in their home gardens (solar), milpas, and agroforestry systems (te’lom, or finca). However, migration has been leading to the abandonment of traditional farming in the region.
The objective of this study was to analyse if the managed agricultural biodiversity of the different traditional land use systems contributes to the food security of the farming households in the community of Jol Mom. Food availability and access were investigated. In total, 40 households were surveyed. Dietary patterns were identified through principal component analysis. Informal interviews, semi-structured interviews and participant observation allowed to account for the people’s own perceptions and provided additional insights. Findings showed that traditional Teenek farming systems are the source of a variety of nutritious foods and resulted to be the most important provider of fruits and vegetables. The average production diversity was 34 out of 56 crops, farmers cultivating more than one or two farming systems showed an increase of four and 11 produced species respectively. Production diversity was strongly correlated with food variety in a household’s diet, with an increment of one per 0.85 produced crop. Two main diverging dietary patterns were revealed, a westernized diet relying largely on purchased foods, to which the younger generation was more inclined, and a traditional diet characterized by a high consumption of cultivated products, mostly observed in the older households.
In conclusion, farming households in Jol Mom profit from the agricultural diversity of their production systems, either through the consumption of nutritious foods or by the sale of agricultural products. However, a tendency towards nutrient-poor diets was observed. Increasing agricultural diversity and consumption of locally produced foods might help to fight this trend but would require a valorisation of traditional foods and an appreciation of the contribution of indigenous people’s traditional agriculture to food security.
Proceedings des Researchers‘ Corner zur 12. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung 2019
(2019)
Am 5. Juli 2019 fand die 12. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung in Niederkassel bei Köln statt. Etwa 80 Repräsentanten der in dem Förderkreis mitwirkenden (Rück-) Versicherungsunternehmen und Gäste nahmen daran teil. Im Rahmen der Jahrestagung wurde zum fünften Mal der Researchers‘ Corner durchgeführt, in dessen Verlauf acht der in der Kölner Forschungsstelle
Rückversicherung beschäftigten wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter*innen einen Vortrag zu dem jeweilig aktuell bearbeiteten Forschungsprojekt hielten.
In drei Sessions – mit je 2-3 parallel gehaltenen Vorträgen mit Poster – wurden die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen der Kölner
Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung präsentiert und diskutiert. Die Heterogenität der vorgetragenen Themen der wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter*innen spiegelt die
Verzahnung der Kölner Forschungsstelle mit der Rückversicherungspraxis wider.
Session 1
a) Manuel Dietmann (M.Sc.): Zunehmende Bedeutung der
Risikomanagementfunktion in Versicherungsunternehmen
b) Robert Joniec (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): Wie geht es dem Rückversicherungs-Zyklus?
c) Wolfgang Koch (M.Sc., FCII): Informationsasymmetrien
zwischen Rückversicherungsmaklern und Zedenten
Session 2
a) Jörg Dirks (M.Sc., FCII): Unbemannte Fluggeräte
– Evolution des Luftfahrt-(Rück-)Versicherungsmarktes
b) Fabian Lassen (M.Sc., FCII): Senkung der Volatilität durch Einsatz eines versicherungstechnischen Swaps
c) Fabian Pütz (M.Sc., cand. PhD): Transfer von Cat-Risiken von Schwellenländern aus volkswirtschaftlicher Perspektive
Session 3
a) Kai-Olaf Knocks (M.A., FCII): Der ILS-Markt 2019 – abgeschreckt oder abwartend?
b) Lihong Wang (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): China InsurTech Development
Mit der Veröffentlichungsreihe „Proceedings des Researchers‘ Corner“ entspricht die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung dem Wunsch, die
Forschungsergebnisse unserer Wissenschaftler*innen sowie die entsprechenden Poster und Diskussionen zu publizieren. Dabei werden die Titel gemäß der oben
aufgeführten Agenda des Researchers‘ Corner der 12. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung wiedergegeben. Im Rahmen der Veranstaltung führte Herr Prof. Materne des Weiteren ein Interview mit Herrn Ingo Wichelhaus (Senior Director, Mount Street) zum Thema Risiko- und Portfoliomanagement. Hierbei wurde insbesondere auf das breite Risikospektrum von Finanzierungen im Schifffahrtssektor eingegangen.
Unser Dank gilt den Fördermittelgebern, die sowohl diese Veranstaltung als auch die Forschung der Wissenschaftler*innen erst ermöglichen.
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.
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.
Web browsers use HTTP caches to reduce the amount of data to be transferred over the network and allow Web pages to load faster. Content such as scripts, images, and style sheets, which are static most of the time or shared across multiple websites, are stored and loaded locally when recurring requests ask for cached resources. This behaviour can be exploited if the cache is based on a naive implementation. This paper summarises possible attacks on the browser cache and shows through extensive experiments that even modern web browsers still do not provide enough safeguards to protect their users. Moreover, the available built-in as well as addable cache controls offer rather limited functionality in terms of protection and ease of use. Due to the volatile and inhomogeneous APIs for controlling the cache in modern browsers, the development of enhanced user-centric cache controls remains -until further notice- in the hands of browser manufacturers.
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.
Die 11. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung zum Thema Rückversicherung fand am 13. Juli 2018 in Niederkassel bei Köln statt. Etwa 85 eingeladene Repräsentanten aus dem Förderkreis unterstützenden (Rück-)Versicherungsunternehmen und Gäste nahmen daran teil.
Im Rahmen der Jahrestagung wurde zum vierten Mal der Researchers‘ Corner durchgeführt, in dessen Verlauf acht der in der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung beschäftigten Wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter einen Vortrag zu dem jeweilig individuell bearbeiteten Forschungsprojekt hielten. Des Weiteren wurden von Prof. Materne Interviews mit den Herren Dr. Falk Niehörster (Climate Risk Innovations) und Dr. Magnus Kobel (YAS.life) geführt. Dr. Niehörster berichtete über seine Forschungen und Beratungstätigkeit hinsichtlich der maritimen Klimaveränderung und Dr. Kobel über das Geschäftsmodell seines InsurTecs YAS.life und seine allgemeinen Erfahrungen bei Gründung und Entwicklungen von Start-ups.
In drei Sessions – mit je 2-3 jeweils drei parallel laufenden Vorträgen mit Poster – wurden die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung präsentiert und diskutiert. Die Heterogenität in den vorgetragenen Themen der wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter spiegelt die Verzahnung der Forschungstheorie mit der Praxistätigkeit wider.
This project is focused on the generation of hardware independent code for PLCs and the comparison for energy consumption patterns of hydraulic and electric drive unit. This works is dedicated to MLC (mould level control) in a continuous casting machine, which is used to cast steel slabs continuously. The code generation is done with the help of the PLC coder which is present in the software Simulink. The programming is done entirely in MATLAB. The application of the generated code is tested on the Siemens S7-1500 PLC. For executing the code and the development of the HMI (human machine
interface) Siemens software TIA Portal V15 has been used. Moreover, for further analysis of signals and testing the code, a PDA or process data acquisition system, IBA system is used. For energy analysis also the IBA system is used.
La Picasa basin, an interjurisdictional endorreic basin of 5282 km2 located in the “Central Pampa” in Argentina, has suffered repeated flooding caused by an increasing water level of La Picasa lagoon, affecting livelihoods, infrastructure, transportation and agriculture. Although water infrastructure has been built to regulate water excesses, it has not been effective in reducing the flood risk.
To improve the knowledge of the hydrological system, the master’s thesis aimed to develop a water balance model of La Picasa lagoon at a monthly time step between the hydrological years 2007/2008 and 2016/2017. Specifically, the objectives were to identify and quantify the most important components and processes determining its water level, area and volume and to propose hypothetical simulation scenarios based on different pumping operation schemes.
The description of the conceptual model and implementation of a sensitivity analysis allowed to identify the inflow and outflow components of the water balance and quantify their relative contributions, namely precipitation, water discharge from channels, surface runoff from surrounding sub-basins of the lagoon, evaporation and pumping. The performance tests applied to the model during the calibration and validation showed a very good performance. Additionally, two simulation scenarios were proposed, namely potential pumping and adjusted pumping, which reflected different trajectories of the water balance.
The master’s thesis concluded that precipitation and evaporation were the most determinant inflow and outflow components in the water balance of La Picasa lagoon respectively. However, the flooding event in 2016/2017 was caused by a simultaneous reduction of net evaporation and an increase in water discharge, surface runoff and intermittent pumping. The simulation scenarios suggested that an optimal operation of the pumping stations could have been effective to increase the storage capacity of the lagoon. However, during longer humid periods, it might not be enough to outweigh additional inflows.
Editorial
(2020)
One-step preparation of bilayered films from kraft lignin and cellulose acetate to mimic tree bark
(2020)
This contribution presents the development of a dry-cast method for the one-step preparation of bio-based films from wood polymers that mimic the bilayered structure of tree bark, the natural protective layer of the tree. In a simplified view, natural bark can be considered as the superposition of an external homogeneous and non-porous layer (outer bark) and a porous substructure layer (inner bark). This work is a first step for the future development of bio-based biomimetic wood coatings. The film had a bark-like appearance and its total density, bulk density and porosity were similar to values measured in natural bark. Furthermore, the structural characteristics of the studied film, namely specific surface area (BET) and pore size distribution, as well as the performance of the water adsorption ability were investigated and discussed.
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.
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.
Stable recombinant mammalian cells are of growing importance in pharmaceutical biotechnology production scenarios for biologics such as monoclonal antibodies, growth and blood factors, cytokines and subunit vaccines. However, the establishment of recombinant producer cells using classical stable transfection of plasmid DNA is hampered by low stable gene transfer efficiencies. Consequently, subsequent selection of transgenic cells and the screening of clonal cell populations are time- and thus cost-intensive. To overcome these limitations, expression cassettes were embedded into transposon-derived donor vectors. Upon the co-transfection with transposase-encoding constructs, elevated vector copy numbers stably integrated into the genomes of the host cells are readily achieved facilitating under stringent selection pressure the establishment of cell pools characterized by sustained and high-yield recombinant protein production. Here, we discuss some aspects of transposon vector technologies, which render these vectors promising candidates for their further utilization in the production of biologics.
Academic search systems aid users in finding information covering specific topics of scientific interest and have evolved from early catalog-based library systems to modern web-scale systems. However, evaluating the performance of the underlying retrieval approaches remains a challenge. An increasing amount of requirements for producing accurate retrieval results have to be considered, e.g., close integration of the system’s users. Due to these requirements, small to mid-size academic search systems cannot evaluate their retrieval system in-house. Evaluation infrastructures for shared tasks alleviate this situation. They allow researchers to experiment with retrieval approaches in specific search and recommendation scenarios without building their own infrastructure. In this paper, we elaborate on the benefits and shortcomings of four state-of-the-art evaluation infrastructures on search and recommendation tasks concerning the following requirements: support for online and offline evaluations, domain specificity of shared tasks, and reproducibility of experiments and results. In addition, we introduce an evaluation infrastructure concept design aiming at reducing the shortcomings in shared tasks for search and recommender systems.
The 13th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance was held 26 June 2020. Due to COVID-19, the event was held online this year. Some 80 representatives of the (re)insurance companies involved in the Sponsoring Group took part in the meeting, along with guests. Offered for the sixth time as part of the Annual Meeting, the Researchers’ Corner gave the seven academic researchers at the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance an opportunity to deliver a presentation on the research project each in which each is involved in 2020.
In three sessions – each featuring 2-3 parallel lectures with posters – the most important results of the scientific studies by the Cologne Research Centre for
Reinsurance were presented and discussed. The heterogeneity of the topics
presented by academic staff reflects the dovetailing of Cologne Research Centre with reinsurance practice.
Session 1
a) Manuel Dietmann (M.Sc.): Preventive recovery planning for insurance companies
b) Robert Joniec (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): Capital is fungible, the market is
growing more efficient – But how valid are research results?
c) Jörg Dirks (M.Sc., FCII): Cyber risks in reinsurance – Insurable on a parametric basis through AI?
Session 2
a) Wolfgang Koch (M.Sc., FCII): Trend in sovereign cat pools in emerging and developing economies
b) Fabian Lassen (M.Sc., FCII): Environmental social governance – A look at reinsurers
Session 3
a) Fabian Pütz (M.Sc., PhD): Reinsurance aspects of product recalls in the automobile sector
b) Lihong Wang (M.Sc., FCII): China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – Its impact
on the global (re)insurance industry
Poster session
a) Fabian Lassen (M.Sc., FCII): Private-public partnership – The solution for the insurability of pandemics?
b) Christian Serries (B.Sc.): Silent Cyber as a challenge for the (re-)
insurance industry
c) Frank Cremer (B.Sc. / FCII): Digital ecosystems – Relevance for reinsurance?
d) Harald Kurtze (B.Sc.): Sharing economy – Impacts for reinsurance?
With the publication series, ‘Proceedings of the Researchers’ Corner’, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance meets the desire for publication of the research results of our scholars together with the accompanying posters and discussions. The titles are reproduced in keeping with the above agenda of the Researchers’ Corner
for the 13th Annual Meeting of the Förderkreis Rückversicherung [Sponsoring Group Reinsurance].
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.
Emergency management services, such as firefighting, rescue teams and ambulances,are all heavily reliant on road networks. However, even for highly industrialised countries such asGermany, and even for large cities, spatial planning tools are lacking for road network interruptionsof emergency services. Moreover, dependencies of emergency management expand not only onroads but on many other systemic interrelations, such as blockages of bridges. The first challenge thispaper addresses is the development of a novel assessment that captures systemic interrelations ofcritical services and their dependencies explicitly designed to the needs of the emergency services.This aligns with a second challenge: capturing system nodes and areas around road networksand their geographical interrelation. System nodes, road links and city areas are integrated into aspatial grid of tessellated hexagons (also referred to as tiles) with geographical information systems.The hexagonal grid is designed to provide a simple map visualisation for emergency planners andfire brigades. Travel time planning is then optimised for accessing city areas in need by weighingimpaired areas of past events based on operational incidents. The model is developed and testedwith official incident data for the city of Cologne, Germany, and will help emergency managers tobetter device planning of resources based on this novel identification method of critical areas.
In this paper we describe traffic sign recognition with neural networks in the frequency domain. Traffic signs exist in all countries to regulate the traffic of vehicles and pedestrians. Each country has its own set of traffic signs that are more or less similar. They consist of a set of abstract forms, symbols, numbers and letters, which are combined into different signs. Automatic traffic sign recognition is important for driver assistance systems and for autonomous driving. Traffic sign recognition is a subtype of image recognition. The traffic signs are usually recorded by a camera and must be recognized in real time, i.e. assigned to a class. We use neural networks for traffic sign recognition. The special feature of our method is that the traffic sign recognition does not take place in the spatial domain but in the frequency domain. This has advantages because it is possible to significantly reduce the number of neurons and thus the computing effort of the neural network compared to a conventional neural network.
This investigation attempts to understand the eco‐hydrology of, and accordingly suggest an option to manage floodwater for agriculture in, the understudied and data‐sparse ephemeral Baraka River Basin within the hyper‐arid region of Sudan. Reference is made to the major feature of the basin, that is, the Toker Delta spate irrigation scheme. A point‐to‐pixel comparison of gridded and ground‐based data sets is performed to enhance the estimates of rainfall. Analysis of remotely sensed land use/cover data is performed. The results show a significant reduction of the grassland and barren areas explained by a significant expansion of the cropland and open shrubland (invasive mesquite trees) areas in the delta. The cotton sown area is highly dependent on the flooded area and the discharge volume in the delta. However, the area of this major crop has declined since the early 1990s in favour of cultivation of more profitable food crops. Expansion of mesquite in the delta is problematic, taking hold under increased floodwater, and can only be manged by clearance to provide crop cultivation area. There is a great potential for floodwater harvesting during the rainfall season (June to September). A total seasonal runoff volume of around 4.6 and 10.8 billion cubic metres is estimated at 90 and 50% probabilities of exceedance (reliabilities), respectively. Rather than leaving the runoff generated from rainfall events to pass to the Red Sea or be consumed by mesquite trees, a location for runoff harvesting structure in a highly suitable area is proposed. Such a structure will support any policy shifts towards planning and managing the basin water resources for use in irrigating the agricultural scheme.
Die Lebensweltorientierung nach Hans Thiersch stellt wohl eines der geläufigsten Theoriekonzepte im gegen- wärtigen Diskurs der Sozialen Arbeit dar. Mit ihr werden die (primär) bezugswissenschaftlich-entschlüsselten Termini ‚Lebenswelt‘ und ‚Alltag‘ als Orientierungspunkte für die Praxis sowie als Gegenstand für die wissenschaftliche Disziplin Sozialer Arbeit konstatiert; genauer noch: systemintern normativ aufgeladen. Insbe-sondere stützt sich das Theoriekonzept auf gesellschaftskritische Modernisierungserzählungen hinsichtlich spätkapitalistischer Entwicklungslinien und deren Einfluss auf das Individuum, die Gesellschaft und die vermeintlich dazwischenliegende Soziale Arbeit. Die angestrebte UmOrientierung soll die Soziale Arbeit aus ihren über-bürokratisierten und ökonomisierten Methoden- zwängen befreien, eine „ganzheitlichere“, also „professionell richtige“ Begegnung mit den Klient*innen ermöglichen und, im Zuge dessen, das Großprojekt sozialer Gerechtigkeit befördern. Die durchaus weitgefasste Argumentations- und Legitimationsstruktur, welche dem Theoriekonzept innewohnt, geht aus solch einer umfangreichen Integration von (vorerst) fach- fremden Begrifflichkeiten und Sinnzusammenhängen hervor, so dass der Versuch einen gänzlichen Überblick dessen zugewinnen, in diffuser Desorientierung enden kann. So pointiert Thiersch selbst, dass es notwendig sei, die Lebensweltorientierung „schwierig, kantig und sperrig“ zu halten (Thiersch 2015, S. 314). Will sich jene Soziale Arbeit jedoch auf einem dermaßen breiten
Theorieboden begründen, ist es unabdingbar systematisch zu identifizieren, wo sich thematische Schnittmengen, Divergenzen oder Spannungen ergeben. Darüber hinaus
muss sie ersichtlich machen, auf welche Weise diese entsprechend bearbeitet, entkoppelt oder weitergedacht werden. Hält sie Untersuchungen dieser Art nicht Stand, lässt dies semantische Verkürzungen, selbstaffirmative Positionsbestimmungen und ideologische Programmatik ver- muten, welche den wissenschaftlichen Gehalt des Theorie-konzepts in Frage stellen lassen würden. Die vorliegende Arbeit soll als ein kritischer explorations-versuch gelten, welcher das Ziel verfolgt, mögliche Diffusitäten herauszustellen und zu beleuchten. So wird sich insbe-sondere mit dem systematischen Weg auseinandergesetzt, welchen Thiersch einschlägt, um einen vermeintlichen Konnex bezugswissenschaftlicher Theoriebestandteile anzubieten, diesen im Diskurs Sozialen Arbeit brauchbar zu machen und ferner als grundlegendes, ‚orientierungs-würdiges‘ (normativ-aufgeladenes) Zentrum zu setzen.
We examine the impact of the existence on an explicit deposit insurance (DI) scheme and its design features on bilateral cross‐border deposits (CBD) in a gravity model setting. We find that both the absolute quality of a country's DI and its relative quality vis‐à‐vis other countries' DI generally affect depositor behavior. However, during systemic banking crises, cross‐border depositors primarily seek countries with the best DI schemes. Similarly, during the 2008–2009 great financial crisis, the emergency actions taken by the governments, which supply and maintain these safe havens, have led to substantial relocations of CBD. (JEL F34, G18)
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.
Aufbauend auf einer vorherigen Arbeit, die sich mit der Implementierung einer Komponentezum Auslesen mdizinischer Sensordaten mithilfe eines Arduino und eines Raspberry Pi befasst hat, beschäftigt sich diese Arbeit mit der Visualisierung sowie Auswertung der durch das System gesammelten Daten. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, über einen Zeitraum von etwa drei Monaten mithilfe der Komponente Daten zu sammeln und diese Daten in einem sinnvollen Kontext visuell darzustellen. Zudem sollen diese Daten mithilfe unterschiedlicher Algorithmen des Maschinellen Lernens ausgewertet werden,
um mögliche Muster und Zusammenhänge erkennen zu können. In diesem Kontext konnte die Hypothese aufgestellt werden, dass ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Körpertemperatur und der Sauerstoffsättigung im Blut besteht.
To realize a reliable and cost-effective application of high-temperature superconductive (HTS) equipment at high-voltage (HV) levels, the influence of thermally induced gas bubbles on the dielectric strength of different solid insulating materials in liquid nitrogen (LN2) was investigated. A heatable copper tape electrode arrangement was developed simulating HTS tapes with insulation in between. AC breakdown measurements were performed without and with forced boiling on insulating papers, polypropylene laminated paper (PPLP) and polyimide (PI) films. Under nucleate boiling the influence of bubbles on the dielectric strength of all materials was not significant. However under film boiling the dielectric strength of the insulating papers decreased to a level comparable to their dielectric strength in air, demonstrating the insufficient impregnation of porous materials under film boiling. For PI there was no degradation at all. PPLP retained about 70% of its basic dielectric strength in LN2.
Eine gängige Form der Qualitätskontrolle von Quellcode sind Code Reviews. Der Fokus von Code Reviews liegt allerdings oft auf syntaktischer Analyse, wodurch weniger Zeit für eine semantische Überprüfung bleibt und zusätzliche Kosten verursacht werden. Code Reviews lassen sich zwar teilweise durch "Linter" automatisieren, dennoch können sie nur syntaktische Fehlermuster identifizieren, welche vorher definiert wurden. Zudem kann ein Linter nur darauf hinweisen, dass möglicherweise ein Fehler vorliegt, da die Fehler nicht durch logische Inferenz ermittelt werden. Die vorliegende Arbeit prüft, ob ein Deep Learning Modell den regelbasierten Ansatz von Lintern ablösen und die semantische Ebene erschließen kann. Dazu wurde eine Stichprobe von Java Methoden zusammengestellt und im Anschluss mit einem Supervised Learning Ansatz binär klassifiziert. Da die Analyse von Quellcode der Textanalyse stark ähnelt wird ein gängiger Ansatz für Textklassifikation verwendet. Dadurch kann gezeigt werden, dass eine Präzision von 85% bei der Erkennung von Quellcodeproblemen durch Deep Learning möglich ist.
In den letzten Jahren haben sich weltweit drei Sovereign Catastrophe Risk Pools entwickelt, welche Klimaversicherungen gegen Naturkatastrophen in Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländern anbieten:
• Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) in der Karibik
• African Risk Capacity (ARC) in Afrika
• Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company (PCRIC) im pazifischen Raum
Hintergrund für die Entwicklung dieser Pools ist der geringe fiskalpolitische Spielraum in Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländern. So sind Erhöhungen von Steuereinnahmen oder Kapitalallokationen kaum möglich. Außerdem endet eine
Verschuldung am Kapitalmarkt häufig im Schuldenerlass, wodurch eine Refinanzierung gefährdet werden kann. Schließlich bleiben nur noch Spenden und Hilfsgelder als Maßnahme übrig, welche u.a. durch die G7-Staaten, die Weltbank oder die Weltgesundheitsorganisation zur Verfügung gestellt werden können.
Pelleted biomass has a low, uniform moisture content and can be handled and stored cheaply and safely. Pellets can be made of industrial waste, food waste, agricultural residues, energy crops, and virgin lumber. Despite their many desirable attributes, they cannot compete with fossil fuel sources because the process of densifying the biomass and the price of the raw materials make pellet production costly.
Leaves collected from street sweeping are generally discarded in landfills, but they can potentially be valorized as a biofuel if they are pelleted. However, the lignin content in leaves is not high enough to ensure the physical stability of the pellets, so they break easily during storage and transportation. In this study, the use of eucalyptus kraft lignin as an additive in tree-leaf pellet production was studied. Results showed that when 2% lignin is added the abrasion resistance can be increased to an acceptable value. Pellets with added lignin fulfilled all requirements of European standards for certification except for ash content. However, as the raw material has no cost, this method can add value or contribute to financing continued sweeping and is an example of a circular economy scenario.
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.
Risikobasierte Authentifizierung (RBA) ist eine adaptive Sicherheitsmaßnahme zur Stärkung passwortbasierter Authentifizierung. Sie zeichnet Merkmale während des Logins auf und fordert zusätzliche Authentifizierung an, wenn sich Ausprägungen dieser Merkmale signifikant von den bisher bekannten unterscheiden. RBA bietet das Potenzial für gebrauchstauglichere Sicherheit. Bisher jedoch wurde RBA noch nicht ausreichend im Bezug auf Usability, Sicherheit und Privatsphäre untersucht. Dieser Extended Abstract legt das geplante Dissertationsvorhaben zur Erforschung von RBA dar. Innerhalb des Vorhabens konnte bereits eine Grundlagenstudie und eine darauf aufbauende Laborstudie durchgeführt werden. Wir präsentieren erste Ergebnisse dieser Studien und geben einen Ausblick auf weitere Schritte.
Usage of smart home solutions implies generation, processing, and storage of machine and personal data. Recently made public cases of data breaches and misuse increased peoples’ concerns of data security and decreased the trust in secure data handling and smart home technologies. Hence potential benefits are not exploited. It is therefore necessary to analyse how manufacturers can increase their online trust perception.
Requirements of (potential) customers of web based services for HVAC systems are identified using thematic analysis for 23 conducted interviews using online trust perception literature as basis. Manufacturer independent websites are derived as the most important online touch point for customers with manufacturers and products. Determined content and structure measures for online touch points managed by manufacturers derived to positively influence the manufacturer and manufacturer independent touch points regarding perception of trust. The derived trust concept must be evaluated in the following using the defined evaluation plan.
With Google’s Flutter framework continuing to grow in popularity for companies and developers alike, the need for an understanding of how to utilize the framework in a large-scale context has become more relevant than ever. The purpose of this thesis is to document the crucial steps most development teams using Flutter in a large-scale application will face. Additionally, a fully documented, large-scale reference application was generated so that other developers may use it as an aid when creating their own Flutter projects on a similar scale. Multiple steps were taken to ensure that optimal solutions were chosen for each aspect of the development process. For each of those aspects, a wide range of possible solutions were explored, compared and analysed. Finally, one of the possible solutions was chosen based on a wide range of scientific papers and community-generated sources. Additionally, an interview with an expert in the field was conducted to further validate those decisions. After the application was fully implemented, ten crucial aspects of the development process were identified. Those ten aspects are now explained in detail in this thesis. Ultimately, the knowledge provided by this thesis can act as a map for peers using Flutter in a large-scale context and help them overcome the crossroads they will most likely come to face.
Enhancing DPCD in Liquid Products by Mechanical Inactivation Effects: Assessment of Feasibility
(2020)
The enhancement of standard dense phase carbon dioxide (DPCD) pasteurization by additional mechanical effects was assessed in this work. These effects were induced during pasteurization by the sudden depressurization in a narrow minitube. The high flow velocities, moderate pressures (40–80 bar) and low temperatures (25–45 °C) lead to intense degasification and shear stress. The inactivation of the test microorganism Escherichia coli DH5α (E. coli DH5α) was determined before and after depressurization in the minitube, representing entirely chemical DPCD via dissolved CO2 and total inactivation comprising the effects of dissolved CO2 and mechanical effects, respectively. Compared to conventional DPCD pasteurization, which is mostly attributed to chemical effects, the additional mechanical effects increased the inactivation efficiency considerably.
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.
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.
Energiesprong (niederländisch für Energiesprung) ist ein innovatives Konzept für die energetische Sanierung von Wohngebäuden, das schnelle Umsetzung, Kostenreduktion, Nachhaltigkeit und Mieterfreundlichkeit verspricht. Energiesprong setzt auf industrielle Vorfertigung von Fassaden- und Dachelementen (serielle Sanierung) und den Einsatz von regenerativen Energien, um den sogenannten NetZero-Standard (entspricht dem Nullenergiehaus) zu erreichen. Ziel ist es, eine für alle Beteiligten attraktive Sanierung zu ermöglichen. Dies wird unter anderem über erheblich verkürzte Montagezeiten und warmmietenneutrale Refinanzierung angestrebt. Die dafür erforderlichen Kostensenkungen werden beim seriellen Sanieren durch die Automatisierung in der Produktion und Skaleneffekte in der Massenfertigung erreicht.
Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit soll das Konzept Energiesprong hinsichtlich der Anwendung auf Mehrfamilienhäuser betrachtet und kritisch hinterfragt werden. Dazu werden zuvorderst die politischen und praktischen Gründe umrissen, die die Notwendigkeit und das Potenzial von innovativen Ansätzen darstellen. Im zweiten Kapitel wird das Energiesprong-Konzept detailliert erläutert; neben den Innovationen im Plan und Bauverfahren werden die Besonderheiten der Gebäudehülle, der Anlagentechnik und des Energiekonzepts beschrieben. Darüber hinaus werden wirtschaftliche Aspekte und die Rolle der verschiedenen Akteure umrissen. Aus der Beschreibung gehen eine Vielzahl an Vorteilen hervor, die Energiesprong gegenüber konventionellen Sanierungsverfahren verspricht. Anschließend werden einige Punkte dieser zentralen Versprechen diskutiert und eine Grundlage für die Entwicklung von Kriterien zukünftiger Evaluationen entwickelt.
Proper satellite-based crop monitoring applications at the farm-level often require near-daily imagery at medium to high spatial resolution. The combination of data from different ongoing satellite missions Sentinel 2 (ESA) and Landsat 7/8 (NASA) provides this unprecedented opportunity at a global scale; however, this is rarely implemented because these procedures are data demanding and computationally intensive. This study developed a robust stream processing for the harmonization of Landsat 7, Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 in the Google Earth Engine cloud platform, connecting the benefit of coherent data structure, built-in functions and computational power in the Google Cloud. The harmonized surface reflectance images were generated for two agricultural schemes in Bekaa (Lebanon) and Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) during 2018–2019. We evaluated the performance of several pre-processing steps needed for the harmonization including the image co-registration,
Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions correction, topographic correction, and band adjustment. We found that the misregistration between Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 images varied from 10 m in Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) to 32 m in Bekaa (Lebanon), and posed a great impact on the quality of the final harmonized data set if not treated. Analysis of a pair of overlapped L8-S2 images over the Bekaa region showed that, after the harmonization, all band-to-band spatial correlations were greatly improved. Finally, we demonstrated an application of the dense harmonized data set for crop mapping and monitoring. An harmonic (Fourier) analysis was applied to fit the detected unimodal, bimodal and trimodal shapes in the temporal NDVI patterns during one crop year in Ninh Thuan province. The derived phase and amplitude values of the crop cycles were combined with max-NDVI as an R-G-B false composite image. The final image was able to highlight croplands in bright colors (high phase and amplitude), while the non-crop areas were shown with grey/dark (low phase and amplitude). The harmonized data sets (with 30 m spatial resolution) along with the Google Earth Engine scripts used are provided for public use.
Kollektive Interessensvertretung in der Sozialen Arbeit: Eine Analyse nach dem Machtressourcenansatz
(2020)
Ausgangspunkt der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Beobachtung, dass es durch Prozesse der Ökonomisierung und De-Professionalisierung im Sozialsektor zu einer wahrgenommenen Abwertung der professionseigenen Kompetenzen kommt und sich die Arbeitsbedingungen verschlechtern. Es fehlt jedoch die wahrnehmbare Gegenwehr durch die betroffenen Fachkräfte der Sozialen Arbeit. Diesem Widerspruch wird nachgespürt, indem auf ein Analyseinstrument der Gewerkschaftsforschung, den Machtressourcenansatz, zurückgegriffen wird. Mit der Untersuchung der strukturellen, organisatorischen, institutionellen und gesellschaftlichen Machtressourcen - als Grundlage für die kollektive Interessenvertretung von lohnabhängig Beschäftigten - sollen mögliche Besonderheiten aufgedeckt werden, die den beschriebenen Widerspruch erklärbar machen. Hierzu wird im ersten Kapitel der Begriff der kollektiven Interessenvertretung erläutert, indem unterschiedliche Formen von Interessen dargestellt und für die Soziale Arbeit spezifiziert werden. Interessenverbände, und im speziellen Gewerkschaften, werden als Zusammenschlüsse von Interessenträger*innen vorgestellt. Im zweiten Kapitel folgen die Beschreibung der Entwicklung des Machtressourcenansatzes und seiner Heuristik, sowie die Darstellung der vier Dimensionen von Lohnabhängigenmacht. Im dritten Kapitel werden die vier Dimensionen als Analyse-Schema auf die Kontexte Sozialer Arbeit übertragen.
Wohnungslosigkeit erweist sich in Deutschland als ein wachsendes soziales Problem. Nicht zuletzt aufgrund der zunehmenden Wohnungsknappheit vor allem in den Ballungszentren stellt dies das aktuelle Hilfesystem vor große Herausforderungen. Die wohnräumliche Exklusion führt für die Betroffenen nicht selten zu gesellschaftlicher bzw. sozialer Exklusion. Dies äußert sich auf verschiedenen Ebenen, beispielsweise durch abwertende oder kriminalisierende Betrachtungsweisen in der medialen Berichterstattung, anderen Formen der Diskriminierung bis hin zu verschiedenen Formen der Gewalt. Würdevoller Wohnraum besitzt eine zentrale Bedeutung als Schutz- und Rückzugsraum sowie als Ort, an dem Autonomie und Identität gelebt werden können. Das in den Menschenrechten verankerte Recht auf Wohnen wird jedoch häufig nur unzureichend oder gar nicht gewährleistet. In dieser Arbeit wird beleuchtet, wie sich die Folgen von Wohnungslosigkeit multidimensional auf die Betreffenden auswirken und welche vielfältigen Bedingungen und Faktoren dies beeinflussen. Die daraus resultierenden Aufgaben für Profession und Disziplin Soziale Arbeit werden in diesem Zusammenhang herausgearbeitet. Es wird diskutiert, inwiefern auch Professions-angehörige durch handlungsleitende Prinzipien zum Teil dazu beitragen, dass das Recht auf Wohnen nur unzureichend gewährleistet wird. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird der ursprünglich aus den USA stammende Housing-First-Ansatz samt seinen Herausforderungen vorgestellt und die Potenziale für die Adressat*innen und nicht zuletzt für die Umsetzung des Rechts auf Wohnen analysiert.
In nahezu jedem Rettungsdienstbereich lässt sich ein Anstieg an Notfalleinsätzen und damit einhergehend ein höherer Bedarf an Rettungsmitteln beobachten. Daraus resultieren Einsatzspitzen, die durch den Regelrettungsdienst nicht abgedeckt werden können, und es entsteht eine Unterdeckung. Dies wird auch als Risikofall bezeichnet und birgt die Gefahr, dass ein Rettungsmittel nicht innerhalb der vorgeschriebenen Hilfsfrist am Notfallort eintreffen kann. Um einen potenziellen Risikofall im Vorfeld absehen und einsatztaktische Ausgleichsmaßnahmen innerhalb eines Rettungsdienstbereiches ergreifen zu können, soll deshalb die Einsatznachfrage in stündlicher Auflösung prognostiziert werden. Dazu wurde die Einsatz-Zeit-Reihe 2017 der hochfrequentierten Feuer- und Rettungswache 1 in der Kölner Innenstadt analysiert und ein saisonales ARIMA-Modell sowie ein Erwartungswert-Modell auf die Einsatz-Zeit-Reihe des Folgejahres 2018 angewandt. Gezeigt werden konnte, dass sich die Einsatz-Zeit-Reihe mit einer mittleren absoluten Abweichung von etwas mehr als einem Einsatz prognostizieren lässt. Außerdem konnte mit einer Skalierung der Prognose über die Anzahl einsatzbereiter Rettungs-wagen jeder Risikofall in einem einwöchigen Anwendungstest vorhergesagt werden. Dabei zeigte sich, dass nicht die Prognosegüte in der Stunde der Einsatzspitze relevant ist, sondern die Prognosegüte in der Folgestunde. Die Prognosen haben somit, wenn sie skaliert werden, eine hohe einsatztaktische Relevanz und ermöglichen kurz-fristige Ausgleichsmaßnahmen im Tagesgang.
Die Nutzung von Gamification zur Verbesserung der User Experience - Marktanalyse & Designfaktoren
(2020)
User Experience beschreibt die Wahrnehmungen und Reaktionen Benutzender zu einem System. Es umfasst die Gedanken und Emotionen, die Benutzende vor, während und nach der Nutzung eines Systems erfahren. In einer Zeit in der es zahlreiche digitale Systeme und Alternativen auf dem Markt zur Verfügung stehen, können sich voranging Systeme mit einer guten User Experience durchsetzen. Demnach kann User Experience als messbarer Erfolgsfaktor gesehen werden und dieses Verständnis darüber ist erforderlich für das Treffen von Designentscheidungen. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es Aspekte aus Gamification, die zu einer Verbesserung der User Experience eines Systems beitragen, zu identifizieren und darzustellen. Bei Gamification handelt es sich um einen Gestaltungsprozess, der auf den Erfahrungen und Techniken des Game Designs basiert und die Gefühle und Motivationen von Menschen anspricht. Zur Ermittlung dieser Faktoren wurden mittels Literatur von, unter anderem, Huizinga und Chou relevante Aspekte spielerischen Verhaltens und grundlegende menschliche Motivationen betrachtet. Diese Erkenntnisse wurden zur Analyse der auf, dem Markt befindlichen, Systeme KptnCook und TooGoodToGo angewandt um relevante Design Faktoren zu ermitteln und darzustellen. Es wurde festgestellt, dass User Experience ein dreidimensionales Konstrukt bestehend aus den Faktoren ease-of-use, joy-of-use und purpose-of-use darstellt. Durch die Einbringung von Aspekten aus Gamification in ein System kann dieses gezielt auf die Vermittlung der Faktoren joy-of-use und purpose-of-use gestaltet und optimiert werden. Auf dieser Grundlage ist es empfehlenswert Gamification bei der Gestaltung von Systemen zu beachten um menschlichen Motivationen zur Nutzung eines Systems anzusprechen. Durch die Gestaltung mit Gamification können Benutzererlebnisse angefertigt werden, die unterhaltsam sind und Benutzende zu einer langfristigen Verwendung des Systems motivieren.
Campylobacter spp. are one of the most important food-borne pathogens, which are quite susceptible to environmental or technological stressors compared to other zoonotic bacteria. This might be due to the lack of many stress response mechanisms described in other bacteria. Nevertheless, Campylobacter is able to survive in the environment and food products. Although some aspects of the heat stress response in Campylobacter jejuni are already known, information about the stress response in other Campylobacter species are still scarce. In this study, the stress response of Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter lari to elevated temperatures (46°C) was investigated by survival assays and whole transcriptome analysis. None of the strains survived at 46°C for more than 8 h and approximately 20% of the genes of C. coli RM2228 and C. lari RM2100 were differentially expressed. The transcriptomic profiles showed enhanced gene expression of several chaperones like dnaK, groES, groEL, and clpB in both strains, indicating a general involvement in the heat stress response within the Campylobacter species. However, the pronounced differences in the expression pattern between C. coli and C. lari suggest that stress response mechanisms described for one Campylobacter species might be not necessarily transferable to other Campylobacter species.
As Digital Twins gain more traction and their adoption in industry increases, there is a need to integrate such technology with machine learning features to enhance functionality and enable decision making tasks. This has lead to the emergence of a concept known as Digital Triplet; an enhancement of Digital Twin technology through the addition of an ’intelligent activity layer’. This is a relatively new technology in Industrie 4.0 and research efforts are geared towards exploring its applicability, development and testing of means for implementation and quick adoption. This paper presents the design and implementation of a Digital Triplet for a three-floor elevator system. It demonstrates the integration of a machine learning (ML) object detection model and the system Digital Twin. This was done to introduce an additional security feature that enabled the system to make a decision, based on objects detected and take preliminary security measures. The virtual model was designed in Siemens NX and programmed via Total Integrated Automation (TIA) portal software. The corresponding physical model was fabricated and controlled using a Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) S7 1200. A control program was developed to mimic the general operations of a typical elevator system used in a commercial building setting. Communication, between the physical and virtual models, was enabled using the OPC-Unified Architecture (OPC-UA) protocol. Object recognition using “You only look once” (YOLOV3) based machine learning algorithm was incorporated. The Digital Triplet’s functionality was tested, ensuring the virtual system duplicated actual operations of the physical counterpart through the use of sensor data. Performance testing was done to determine the impact of the ML module on the real-time functionality aspect of the system. Experiment results showed the object recognition contributed an average of 1.083s to an overall signal travel time of 1.338 s.
Der Rückversicherungsmarkt steht auch weiterhin vor großen Herausforderungen – an dieser Stelle soll hiervon nur eine exemplarisch angerissen werden.
Die Erneuerung der Rückversicherungsverträge zum 1. Januar 2020 scheint für die Rückversicherung abermals enttäuschend zu verlaufen. Diese Entwicklung überrascht insofern, als dass sowohl im Retrozessionsbereich als auch auf dem (Industrie-)Erstversicherungsmarkt eine substantielle Preis- und Bedingungsverhärtung zu verzeichnen sind.
Im Regelfall folgt auf eine Preissteigerung im Retrozessionsbereich zunächst eine Preiserhöhung in der Rückversicherungsbranche, die dann letztendlich auch auf dem (Industrie-)Erstversicherungsmarkt eintritt. Allerdings scheint die derzeitige Entwicklung die Rückversicherer übersprungen zu haben. Somit steht der Rückversicherungsmarkt vor der Frage, ob und falls ja wann, die Preisanpassungen auch bei den Rückversicherungsverträgen wirksam werden.
Die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung analysiert die aktuellen Entwicklungen des Rückversicherungsmarktes und begleitet diese gegebenenfalls durch Forschungsprojekte. Dabei verbindet die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung ihre Forschungsaktivitäten mit der Rückversicherungspraxis. Hiermit und mit Hilfe der Durchführung des jährlichen Kölner Rückversicherungs-Symposiums und der Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung wird ein bidirektionaler Wissenstransfer zwischen Theorie und Praxis betrieben.
Die Inhalte dieser beiden wissenschaftlichen Veranstaltungen sowie die bearbeiteten Forschungsprojekte fließen in die Lehre an dem Institut für Versicherungswesen ein und komplettieren so die praxisorientierte Ausbildung in dem Bereich der Rückversicherung.
In der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung sind derzeit sieben forschende, zwei für das Wissenschaftsmanagement zuständige Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter und eine administrative Mitarbeiterin beschäftigt. Dabei werden sämtliche Personal-, Sach- und Reisekosten vollständig aus Drittmitteln des Förderkreises Rückversicherung finanziert.
In diesem Jahr hat sich die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung im Rahmen ihrer sozialen und ökologischen Verantwortung mit den Themen Klimaschutz, Nachhaltigkeit und Gleichberechtigung auseinandergesetzt. Da diese Themen sowohl globale, nationale als auch individuelle Aufgaben sind, hat die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung Ideen entwickelt und Maßnahmen ergriffen, um Klimaschutz, Nachhaltigkeit und Gleichberechtigung aktiv zu leben. Große Bedeutung wurde dabei der Wahrung des Qualitätsniveaus bei gleichzeitiger Verfolgung der selbstgesteckten Ziele in oben genannten Bereichen beigemessen. Unsere – noch am Anfang stehende – Initiative in Sachen Klimaschutz und Nachhaltigkeit äußert sich insbesondere in einem möglichst nachhaltigen Ressourcen- und Reisemanagement.
Dem Förderkreis Rückversicherung, der Hochschulleitung und -verwaltung, dem ivwKöln sowie den Mitarbeitern der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung gilt unser Dank für die Unterstützung der Forschungsprojekte und Veranstaltungen im vergangenen Jahr.
Der Rückversicherungsmarkt steht auch weiterhin vor großen Herausforderungen – an dieser Stelle soll hiervon nur eine exemplarisch angerissen werden. Die Erneuerung der Rückversicherungsverträge zum 1. Januar 2020 scheint für die Rückversicherung abermals enttäuschend zu verlaufen. Diese Entwicklung überrascht insofern, als dass sowohl im Retrozessionsbereich als auch auf dem (Industrie-)Erstversicherungsmarkt eine substantielle Preis- und Bedingungsverhärtung zu verzeichnen sind.
Im Regelfall folgt auf eine Preissteigerung im Retrozessionsbereich zunächst eine Preiserhöhung in der Rückversicherungsbranche, die dann letztendlich auch auf dem (Industrie-)Erstversicherungsmarkt eintritt. Allerdings scheint die derzeitige Entwicklung die Rückversicherer übersprungen zu haben. Somit steht der Rückver-sicherungsmarkt vor der Frage, ob und falls ja wann, die Preisanpassungen auch bei den Rückversicherungsverträgen wirksam werden. Die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung analysiert die aktuellen Entwicklungen des Rückversicherungsmarktes und begleitet diese gegebenenfalls durch Forschungsprojekte. Dabei verbindet die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung ihre Forschungsaktivitäten mit der Rückversicherungspraxis. Hiermit und mit Hilfe der Durchführung des jährlichen Kölner Rückversicherungs-Symposiums und der Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung wird ein bidirektionaler Wissen-stransfer zwischen Theorie und Praxis betrieben. Die Inhalte dieser beiden wissenschaftlichen Veranstaltungen sowie die bearbeiteten Forschungsprojekte fließen in die Lehre an dem Institut für Versicherungswesen ein und komplettieren so die praxisorientierte Ausbildung in dem Bereich der Rückversicherung.
In der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung sind derzeit sieben forschende, zwei für das Wissenschaftsmanagement zuständige Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter und eine administrative Mitarbeiterin beschäftigt. Dabei werden sämtliche Personal-, Sach- und Reisekosten vollständig aus Drittmitteln des Förderkreises Rückversicherung finanziert. In diesem Jahr hat sich die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung im Rahmen ihrer sozialen und ökologischen Verantwortung mit den Themen Klimaschutz, Nachhaltigkeit und Gleichberechtigung auseinandergesetzt. Da diese Themen sowohl globale, nationale als auch individuelle Aufgaben sind, hat die Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung Ideen entwickelt und Maßnahmen ergriffen, um Klimaschutz, Nachhaltigkeit und Gleichberechtigung aktiv zu leben. Große Bedeutung wurde dabei der Wahrung des Qualitätsniveaus bei gleichzeitiger Verfolgung der
selbstgesteckten Ziele in oben genannten Bereichen beigemessen. Unsere – noch am Anfang stehende – Initiative in Sachen Klimaschutz und Nachhaltigkeit äußert sich insbesondere in einem möglichst nachhaltigen Ressourcen- und Reisemanagement. Dem Förderkreis Rückversicherung, der Hochschulleitung und -verwaltung, dem ivwKöln sowie den Mitarbeitern der Kölner Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung gilt unser Dank für die Unterstützung der Forschungsprojekte und Veranstaltungen im vergangenen Jahr.
Ausgangspunkt dieser Untersuchung ist die Analyse des Wissenstransfers von der Wissenschaft in die Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit am Beispiel des Netzwerkbegriffs. Durch die Analyse des Verständnisses von Netzwerken sowie der Nutzung von Netzwerkmetaphern soll der Wissenstransfer nachgezeichnet werden. Die Analyse schließt an den Diskurs der Verwendungsforschung an und versteht Wissenstransfer systemtheoretisch als strukturelle Kopplung zwischen den gesellschaftlichen Funktionssystemen der Sozialen Arbeit und der Wissenschaft. Wissenstransfer ist demnach die Irritation des Hilfesystems durch das Wissenschaftssystem, um Veränderungsprozesse zu initiieren. Dazu wird der wissenschaftliche Diskurs in Hand- und Wörterbüchern zum Thema Netzwerke analysiert und Ergebnissen aus leitfadengestützten Interviews in den Bereichen der Jugendhilfe und Gemeinwesenarbeit gegenübergestellt. Neben der Verwendung des Netzwerkbegriffes werden Netzwerkmetaphern in Wissenschaft und Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit untersucht. Es wird davon ausgegangen, dass Wissenstransfer sich auch in Metaphern manifestiert und Metaphern als Indikator für den Wissenstransfer dienen können.
Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass sich die Verwendung des Netzwerkbegriffs in Wissenschaft und Praxis deutlich unterscheidet. Während in der Wissenschaft ein breites Spektrum von unterschiedlichen theoretischen Ansätzen und Begründungszusammenhängen zur Erklärung der Wirkungsweisen von Netzwerken vorliegt, zeigt sich in der Praxis der Sozialen Arbeit eine rudimentäre Rezeption dieser Erkenntnisse.
Starmerella bombicola is known to produce sub‐terminally hydroxylated lactonic sophorolipids (SLs), while Candida kuoi synthesizes acidic open chain SLs with terminally hydroxylated fatty acids. Upon feeding glucose and fatty alcohols both strains form long‐chain nonionic SLs. According to structure elucidation the SLs consist of a hydroxylated fatty acid esterified with fatty alcohol and linked via a glycoside bond to the diacetylated sophorose unit. Palmityl, stearyl, and oleyl alcohols lead to products with lipid chain lengths of C32 or C36. Oleyl alcohol is the preferred substrate leading to 45 g L−1 of the double unsaturated C36 SL with S. bombicola and 20 g L−1 with C. kuoi. Scale up from shake flask to 1.5 L fermentations is possible and 65 g L−1 long‐chain SLs are obtained with S. bombicola within 7 days. Mixed feeding of oleic acid and a variety of fatty alcohols leads to new long‐chain SLs. In the presence of oleic acid the yeasts do not oxidize the fatty alcohol and thus the production of biosurfactants with tailored chain length is possible. The long‐chain SLs show good emulsification ability of water/paraffin oil mixtures at low energy input and reduced interfacial tension significantly.
Practical Applications: Sophorolipids are produced by fermentation on industrial scale focusing on cleaning and detergent applications. Mainly lactonic or anionic open‐chain forms are used today. The new long‐chain SLs presented in this manuscript are accessible with existing production technology and can be produced with high titers from cost‐efficient renewable raw materials. In contrast to the commercial products the long‐chain SLs are more hydrophobic and exhibit a strong emulsification behavior. Therefore they have the potential to broaden the application range of SLs in future. They may be useful as novel emulsifiers for cosmetic creams and lotions, pharmaceutical ointments and food products or may find application in oil spill remediation.
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.
Mental illnesses in adolescence and young adulthood are steadily increasing. Thus,mental disorders represent an individual and societal challenge and an enormous health economicburden, creating an urgent need for research and action. Mental health problems are omnipresent inthe life of young people and the internet is the first resource, which helps them to understand theirsituation. Young people with migration background often have more difficulties accessing health careservices. Digital technologies offer an ideal opportunity for a low-threshold platform that addressesthe needs of young people. The current project “GeKo:mental” aims to design a multilingual websitefor Cologne-based adolescents and young adults that will enable them to obtain comprehensiveinformation about mental illness and health, treatment options and first contact points. To designthis website, this study aims to find out what kind of health information is needed and how itshould best be presented. Nine focus group discussions with adolescents and young adults withand without migration background (N = 68) were conducted; the focus group discussions took placeat schools, in an association for social youth work and in an cultural association, which is linkedto a mosque in Cologne, Germany. A qualitative content analysis was conducted on the gatheredmaterial. The participants reported concrete challenges and needs. The results will form the basis forthe development and design of a website.
Projects in universities challenge the students in terms of organizing the project progress and coordinating team members. In order to cover the content of the courses in more depth and to prepare the students for their future employment the technical university of cologne (Campus Gummersbach) includes various team projects into its curriculum. Procedure models are helpful ways to structure the project tasks and ensure the communication between team members and stakeholders. The course Projectmanagement presents procedure models such as Waterfall Model, V-Model and Scrum that are mostly used in business context and software engineering. An agile procedure model that is not part of the curriculum is called Design Thinking. It is a suitable approach for student projects as it combines the requirement of an open mindset, a creative, experimental working method and an interdisciplinary toolbox. The objective of this thesis is to design a concept for a procedure model that is customized to students' needs. The growing practice of the design thinking method and other agile procedures within the business world, also increases the
importance for students to apply of such models in preperation for professional work. To define the requirements for the recommended procedure model, the first step is to elaborate on the processes and challenges that are currently used in student projects. Then the procedure models Waterfall Model, V-Model and Scrum are presented and evaluated taking into account the students' preferences. Next, Design Thinking is presented structured into three parts: mindset, process and toolbox. The most suitable projects to apply this method are identified in the subsequent analysis. Finally, the most appropriate aspects of the presented procedure models as well as the Design Thinking processes are detected, framed and combined into a new procedure model. The new model is illustrated using a graphical representation and a corresponding explanation. It is clustered into the three fundamental project phases: Planning, Execution and Closure. The Planning phase forms the foundation for a well functioning team and successful project progress. Execution is based on the Design Thinking approach and integrates an iteration-loop formed by the subphases Exploration, Idea Generation, Prototyping, Test and Implementation. The final phase Closure is an incentive for a more creative approach to create final presentations. This model can be developed further and be used for example as a didactic instrument and as a link between the diverse disciplines in interdisciplinary projects across different universities. In this way students learn to apply agile procedures and work in interdisciplinary teams.
Wärme‐ und Kältespeicher von Gebäuden beruhen auf verschiedenen Konzepten der Wärmeübertragung. Bei thermischen Hybridspeichern befindet sich das Phasen-wechselmaterial (PCM) makroverkapselt in PCM‐Objekten, die im Speicherbehälter positioniert sind und vom Wärmeträgerfluid umströmt werden. Die experimentellen Untersuchungen widmen sich den Belade‐ und Entladeeigenschaften des in Kugeln makroverkapselten PCM. Es wird gezeigt, dass die spezifische Wärmeübertragungs-leistung eines Hybridspeichers unmittelbar von der Größe der Kugeln als auch von der spezifischen Wärmeleitfähigkeit des PCM abhängt.
Das vorliegende Paper beschreibt die im Rahmen von Industrie 4.0 als Einkauf 4.0 be-zeichnete Digitalisierung der Einkaufsfunktion. Neben einer grundlegenden Einführung zu Industrie 4.0 und den Haupttreiber stellt das Paper die Auswirkungen der Digitalisie-rung auf den Einkauf vor.
Es werden generell die Möglichkeiten, Einkaufsfunktionen zu digitalisieren, eine Aus-wahl an Studien zu Kosteneinsparungen und der aktuelle Stand der Umsetzung bei Un-ternehmen dargestellt sowie die Erkenntnisse zum Einsatz von Digitalisierung im Ein-kauf zusammengefasst.
Das Praxis Paper basiert auf der Bachelorarbeit von Johannes Blechmann, die von No-vember 2019 bis Februar 2020 von Prof. Dr. Monika Engelen (TH Köln) und Sven Düs-ter (VOSS Automotive GmbH) betreut wurde.
Das vorliegende Paper fasst die Erkenntnisse zum Einsatz von Influencer Marketing generell und besonders für Startups zusammen.
Es basiert auf der Bachelorarbeit von Herr Bilel Mestiri, der von November 2019 bis Februar 2020 von Prof. Dr. Monika Engelen und Prof. Dr. Christina Werner betreut wurde. Neben einer Recherche der grundlegenden Theorie und den daraus gewonnen Erkenntnissen wurde unter Literaturbezug ein Leitfaden erstellt.
Dieses Paper soll als Einstieg in das Thema Influencer Marketing sowie als Orientierungshilfe für den Einsatz von Influencer Marketing für Startups dienen.