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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.