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We compare four different algorithms for automatically estimating the muscle fascicle angle from ultrasonic images: the vesselness filter, the Radon transform, the projection profile method and the gray level cooccurence matrix (GLCM). The algorithm results are compared to ground truth data generated by three different experts on 425 image frames from two videos recorded during different types of motion. The best agreement with the ground truth data was achieved by a combination of pre-processing with a vesselness filter and measuring the angle with the projection profile method. The robustness of the estimation is increased by applying the algorithms to subregions with high gradients and performing a LOESS fit through these estimates.
Functional testing and characterisation of ISFETs on wafer level by means of a micro-droplet cell
(2006)
A wafer-level functionality testing and characterisation system for ISFETs (ionsensitive field-effect transistor) is realised by means of integration of a specifically designed capillary electrochemical micro-droplet cell into a commercial wafer prober-station. The developed system allows the identification and selection of “good” ISFETs at the earliest stage and to avoid expensive bonding, encapsulation and packaging processes for nonfunctioning ISFETs and thus, to decrease costs, which are wasted for bad dies. The developed system is also feasible for wafer-level characterisation of ISFETs in terms of sensitivity, hysteresis and response time. Additionally, the system might be also utilised for wafer-level testing of further electrochemical sensors.
Label-free sensing of biomolecules by their intrinsic molecular charge using field-effect devices
(2015)
Label-free Electrostatic Detection of DNA Amplification by PCR Using Capacitive Field-effect Devices
(2016)
A capacitive field-effect EIS (electrolyte-insulator-semiconductor) sensor modified with a positively charged weak polyelectrolyte of poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH)/single-stranded probe DNA (ssDNA) bilayer has been used for a label-free electrostatic detection of pathogen-specific DNA amplification via polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The sensor is able to distinguish between positive and negative PCR solutions, to detect the existence of target DNA amplicons in PCR samples and thus, can be used as tool for a quick verification of DNA amplification and the successful PCR process.
A new and simple method for nanostructuring using conventional photolithography and layer expansion or pattern-size reduction technique is presented, which can further be applied for the fabrication of different nanostructures and nano-devices. The method is based on the conversion of a photolithographically patterned metal layer to a metal-oxide mask with improved pattern-size resolution using thermal oxidation. With this technique, the pattern size can be scaled down to several nanometer dimensions. The proposed method is experimentally demonstrated by preparing nanostructures with different configurations and layouts, like circles, rectangles, trapezoids, “fluidic-channel”-, “cantilever”- and meander-type structures.
In this paper, methods of surface modification of different supports, i.e. glass and polymeric beads for enzyme immobilisation are described. The developed method of enzyme immobilisation is based on Schiff’s base formation between the amino groups on the enzyme surface and the aldehyde groups on the chemically modified surface of the supports. The surface of silicon modified by APTS and GOPS with immobilised enzyme was characterised by atomic force microscopy (AFM), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectroscopy (ToF-SIMS) and infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The supports with immobilised enzyme (urease) were also tested in combination with microreactors fabricated in silicon and Perspex, operating in a flow-through system. For microreactors filled with urease immobilised on glass beads (Sigma) and on polymeric beads (PAN), a very high and stable signal (pH change) was obtained. The developed method of urease immobilisation can be stated to be very effective.
In this paper, methods of sample preparation for potentiometric measurement of phenylalanine are presented. Basing on the spectrophotometric measurements of phenylalanine, the concentrations of reagents of the enzymatic reaction (10 mM L-Phe, 0,4 mM NAD+, 2U L-PheDH) were determined. Then, the absorption spectrum of the reaction product, NADH, was monitored (maximum peak at 340 nm). The results obtained by the spectrophotometric method were compared with the results obtained by the colourimetry, using pH indicators. The above-mentioned two methods will be used as references for potentiometric measurements of phenylalanine concentration.
In positron emission tomography improving time, energy and spatial detector resolutions and using Compton kinematics introduces the possibility to reconstruct a radioactivity distribution image from scatter coincidences, thereby enhancing image quality. The number of single scattered coincidences alone is in the same order of magnitude as true coincidences. In this work, a compact Compton camera module based on monolithic scintillation material is investigated as a detector ring module. The detector interactions are simulated with Monte Carlo package GATE. The scattering angle inside the tissue is derived from the energy of the scattered photon, which results in a set of possible scattering trajectories or broken line of response. The Compton kinematics collimation reduces the number of solutions. Additionally, the time of flight information helps localize the position of the annihilation. One of the questions of this investigation is related to how the energy, spatial and temporal resolutions help confine the possible annihilation volume. A comparison of currently technically feasible detector resolutions (under laboratory conditions) demonstrates the influence on this annihilation volume and shows that energy and coincidence time resolution have a significant impact. An enhancement of the latter from 400 ps to 100 ps leads to a smaller annihilation volume of around 50%, while a change of the energy resolution in the absorber layer from 12% to 4.5% results in a reduction of 60%. The inclusion of single tissue-scattered data has the potential to increase the sensitivity of a scanner by a factor of 2 to 3 times. The concept can be further optimized and extended for multiple scatter coincidences and subsequently validated by a reconstruction algorithm.
The absence of a general method for endotoxin removal from liquid interfaces gives an opportunity to find new methods and materials to overcome this gap. Activated nanostructured carbon is a promising material that showed good adsorption properties due to its vast pore network and high surface area. The aim of this study is to find the adsorption rates for a carboneous material produced at different temperatures, as well as to reveal possible differences between the performance of the material for each of the adsorbates used during the study (hemoglobin, serum albumin and lipopolysaccharide, LPS).
An H2O2 sensor for the application in industrial sterilisation processes has been developed. Therefore, automated sterilisation equipment at laboratory scale has been constructed using parts from industrial sterilisation facilities. In addition, a software tool has been developed for the control of the sterilisation equipment at laboratory scale. First measurements with the developed sensor set-up as part of the sterilisation equipment have been performed and the sensor has been physically characterised by optical microscopy and SEM.
Detection of Adrenaline Based on Bioelectrocatalytical System to Support Tumor Diagnostic Technology
(2017)
Quartz crystal nanobalance (QCN) sensors are considered as powerful masssensitive sensors to determine materials in the sub-nanogram level. In this study, a single piezoelectric quartz crystal nanobalance modified with polystyrene was employed to detect benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX compounds). The frequency shift of the QCN sensor was found to be linear against the BTEX compound concentrations in the range about 1-45 mg l-1. The correlation coefficients for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene were 0.991, 0.9977, 0.9946 and 0.9971, respectively. The principal component analysis was also utilized to process the frequency response data of the single piezoelectric crystal at different times, considering to the different adsorption-desorption dynamics of BTEX compounds. Using principal component analysis, it was found that over 90% of the data variance could still be explained by use of two principal components (PC1 and PC2). Subsequently, the successful identification of benzene and toluene was possible through the principal component analysis of the transient responses of the polystyrene modified QCN sensor. The results showed that the polystyrene-modified QCN had favorable identification and quantification performances for the BTEX compounds.
In the research domain of energy informatics, the importance of open datais rising rapidly. This can be seen as various new public datasets are created andpublished. Unfortunately, in many cases, the data is not available under a permissivelicense corresponding to the FAIR principles, often lacking accessibility or reusability.Furthermore, the source format often differs from the desired data format or does notmeet the demands to be queried in an efficient way. To solve this on a small scale atoolbox for ETL-processes is provided to create a local energy data server with openaccess data from different valuable sources in a structured format. So while the sourcesitself do not fully comply with the FAIR principles, the provided unique toolbox allows foran efficient processing of the data as if the FAIR principles would be met. The energydata server currently includes information of power systems, weather data, networkfrequency data, European energy and gas data for demand and generation and more.However, a solution to the core problem - missing alignment to the FAIR principles - isstill needed for the National Research Data Infrastructure.
Due to the transition to renewable energies, electricity markets need to be made fit for purpose. To enable the comparison of different energy market designs, modeling tools covering market actors and their heterogeneous behavior are needed. Agent-based models are ideally suited for this task. Such models can be used to simulate and analyze changes to market design or market mechanisms and their impact on market dynamics. In this paper, we conduct an evaluation and comparison of two actively developed open-source energy market simulation models. The two models, namely AMIRIS and ASSUME, are both designed to simulate future energy markets using an agent-based approach. The assessment encompasses modelling features and techniques, model performance, as well as a comparison of model results, which can serve as a blueprint for future comparative studies of simulation models. The main comparison dataset includes data of Germany in 2019 and simulates the Day-Ahead market and participating actors as individual agents. Both models are comparable close to the benchmark dataset with a MAE between 5.6 and 6.4 €/MWh while also modeling the actual dispatch realistically.
Market abstraction of energy markets and policies - application in an agent-based modeling toolbox
(2023)
In light of emerging challenges in energy systems, markets are prone to changing dynamics and market design. Simulation models are commonly used to understand the changing dynamics of future electricity markets. However, existing market models were often created with specific use cases in mind, which limits their flexibility and usability. This can impose challenges for using a single model to compare different market designs. This paper introduces a new method of defining market designs for energy market simulations. The proposed concept makes it easy to incorporate different market designs into electricity market models by using relevant parameters derived from analyzing existing simulation tools, morphological categorization and ontologies. These parameters are then used to derive a market abstraction and integrate it into an agent-based simulation framework, allowing for a unified analysis of diverse market designs. Furthermore, we showcase the usability of integrating new types of long-term contracts and over-the-counter trading. To validate this approach, two case studies are demonstrated: a pay-as-clear market and a pay-as-bid long-term market. These examples demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed framework.
Useful market simulations are key to the evaluation of diferent market designs existing of multiple market mechanisms or rules. Yet a simulation framework which has a comparison of diferent market mechanisms in mind was not found. The need to create an objective view on different sets of market rules while investigating meaningful agent strategies concludes that such a simulation framework is needed to advance the research on this subject. An overview of diferent existing market simulation models is given which also shows the research gap and the missing capabilities of those systems. Finally, a methodology is outlined how a novel market simulation which can answer the research questions can be developed.
The sorption of LPS toxic shock by nanoparticles on base of carbonized vegetable raw materials
(2008)
Immobilization of lactobacillus on high temperature carbonizated vegetable raw material (rice husk, grape stones) increases their physiological activity and the quantity of the antibacterial metabolits, that consequently lead to increase of the antagonistic activity of lactobacillus. It is implies that the use of the nanosorbents for the attachment of the probiotical microorganisms are highly perspective for decision the important problems, such as the probiotical preparations delivery to the right address and their attachment to intestines mucosa with the following detoxication of gastro-intestinal tract and the normalization of it’s microecology. Besides that, thus, the received carbonizated nanoparticles have peculiar properties – ability to sorption of LPS toxical shock and, hence, to the detoxication of LPS.
Conventional EEG devices cannot be used in everyday life and hence, past decade research has been focused on Ear-EEG for mobile, at-home monitoring for various applications ranging from emotion detection to sleep monitoring. As the area available for electrode contact in the ear is limited, the electrode size and location play a vital role for an Ear-EEG system. In this investigation, we present a quantitative study of ear-electrodes with two electrode sizes at different locations in a wet and dry configuration. Electrode impedance scales inversely with size and ranges from 450 kΩ to 1.29 MΩ for dry and from 22 kΩ to 42 kΩ for wet contact at 10 Hz. For any size, the location in the ear canal with the lowest impedance is ELE (Left Ear Superior), presumably due to increased contact pressure caused by the outer-ear anatomy. The results can be used to optimize signal pickup and SNR for specific applications. We demonstrate this by recording sleep spindles during sleep onset with high quality (5.27 μVrms).
This paper reports a first microbial biosensor for rapid and cost-effective determination of organophosphorus pesticides fenitrothion and EPN. The biosensor consisted of recombinant PNP-degrading/oxidizing bacteria Pseudomonas putida JS444 anchoring and displaying organophosphorus hydrolase (OPH) on its cell surface as biological sensing element and a dissolved oxygen electrode as the transducer. Surfaceexpressed OPH catalyzed the hydrolysis of fenitrothion and EPN to release 3-methyl-4-nitrophenol and p-nitrophenol, respectively, which were oxidized by the enzymatic machinery of Pseudomonas putida JS444 to carbon dioxide while consuming oxygen, which was measured and correlated to the concentration of organophosphates. Under the optimum operating conditions, the biosensor was able to measure as low as 277 ppb of fenitrothion and 1.6 ppm of EPN without interference from phenolic compounds and other commonly used pesticides such as carbamate pesticides, triazine herbicides and organophosphate pesticides without nitrophenyl substituent. The applicability of the biosensor to lake water was also demonstrated.
In energy economy forecasts of different time series are rudimentary. In this study, a prediction for the German day-ahead spot market is created with Apache Spark and R. It is just an example for many different applications in virtual power plant environments. Other examples of use as intraday price processes, load processes of machines or electric vehicles, real time energy loads of photovoltaic systems and many more time series need to be analysed and predicted.
This work gives a short introduction into the project where this study is settled. It describes the time series methods that are used in energy industry for forecasts shortly. As programming technique Apache Spark, which is a strong cluster computing technology, is utilised. Today, single time series can be predicted. The focus of this work is on developing a method to parallel forecasting, to process multiple time series simultaneously with R and Apache Spark.
An array of 50 MHz quartz microbalances (QMBs) coated with a dendronized polymer was used to detect small amounts of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the gas phase. The results were compared to those obtained with the commonly used 10 MHz QMBs. The 50 MHz QMBs proved to be a powerful tool for the detection of VOCs in the gas phase; therefore, they represent a promising alternative to the much more delicate surface acoustic wave devices (SAWs).
Proc. of the 2005 ASCE Intl. Conf. on Computing in Civil Engineering (ICCC 2005) eds. L. Soibelman und F. Pena-Mora, Seite 1-14, ASCE (CD-ROM), Cancun, Mexico, 2005 Current CAD tools are not able to support the fundamental conceptual design phase, and none of them provides consistency analyses of sketches produced by architects. To give architects a greater support at the conceptual design phase, we develop a CAD tool for conceptual design and a knowledge specification tool allowing the definition of conceptually relevant knowledge. The knowledge is specific to one class of buildings and can be reused. Based on a dynamic knowledge model, different types of design rules formalize the knowledge in a graph-based realization. An expressive visual language provides a user-friendly, human readable representation. Finally, consistency analyses enable conceptual designs to be checked against this defined knowledge. In this paper we concentrate on the knowledge specification part of our project.
In: Net-distributed Co-operation : Xth International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering, Weimar, June 02 - 04, 2004 ; proceedings / [ed. by Karl Beuke ...] . - Weimar: Bauhaus-Univ. Weimar 2004. - 1. Aufl. . Seite 1-14 ISBN 3-86068-213-X International Conference on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering <10, 2004, Weimar> Summary In our project, we develop new tools for the conceptual design phase. During conceptual design, the coarse functionality and organization of a building is more important than a detailed worked out construction. We identify two roles, first the knowledge engineer who is responsible for knowledge definition and maintenance; second the architect who elaborates the conceptual de-sign. The tool for the knowledge engineer is based on graph technology, it is specified using PROGRES and the UPGRADE framework. The tools for the architect are integrated to the in-dustrial CAD tool ArchiCAD. Consistency between knowledge and conceptual design is en-sured by the constraint checker, another extension to ArchiCAD.
In: Computer Aided Architectural Design Futures 2005 2005, Part 4, 207-216, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3698-1_19 The conceptual design at the beginning of the building construction process is essential for the success of a building project. Even if some CAD tools allow elaborating conceptual sketches, they rather focus on the shape of the building elements and not on their functionality. We introduce semantic roomobjects and roomlinks, by way of example to the CAD tool ArchiCAD. These extensions provide a basis for specifying the organisation and functionality of a building and free architects being forced to directly produce detailed constructive sketches. Furthermore, we introduce consistency analyses of the conceptual sketch, based on an ontology containing conceptual relevant knowledge, specific to one class of buildings.
In: Proc. of the 11th Intl. Conf. on Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ICCCBE-XI) ed. Hugues Rivard, Montreal, Canada, Seite 1-12, ACSE (CD-ROM), 2006 Currently, the conceptual design phase is not adequately supported by any CAD tool. Neither the support while elaborating conceptual sketches, nor the automatic proof of correctness with respect to effective restrictions is currently provided by any commercial tool. To enable domain experts to store the common as well as their personal domain knowledge, we develop a visual language for knowledge formalization. In this paper, a major extension to the already existing concepts is introduced. The possibility to define rule dependencies extends the expressiveness of the knowledge definition language and contributes to the usability of our approach.
ITCE-2003 - 4th Joint Symposium on Information Technology in Civil Engineering ed Flood, I., Seite 1-12, ASCE (CD-ROM), Nashville, USA In this paper we discussed graph based tools to support architects during the conceptual design phase. Conceptual Design is defined before constructive design; the used concepts are more abstract. We develop two graph based approaches, a topdown using the graph rewriting system PROGRES and a more industrially oriented approach, where we extend the CAD system ArchiCAD. In both approaches, knowledge can be defined by a knowledge engineer, in the top-down approach in the domain model graph, in the bottom-up approach in the in an XML file. The defined knowledge is used to incrementally check the sketch and to inform the architect about violations of the defined knowledge. Our goal is to discover design error as soon as possible and to support the architect to design buildings with consideration of conceptual knowledge.
In: Advances in intelligent computing in engineering : proceedings of the 9.International EG-ICE Workshop ; Darmstadt, (01 - 03 August) 2002 / Martina Schnellenbach-Held ... (eds.) . - Düsseldorf: VDI-Verl., 2002 .- Fortschritt-Berichte VDI, Reihe 4, Bauingenieurwesen ; 180 ; S. 1-35 The paper describes a novel way to support conceptual design in civil engineering. The designer uses semantical tools guaranteeing certain internal structures of the design result but also the fulfillment of various constraints. Two different approaches and corresponding tools are discussed: (a) Visually specified tools with automatic code generation to determine a design structure as well as fixing various constraints a design has to obey. These tools are also valuable for design knowledge specialist. (b) Extensions of existing CAD tools to provide semantical knowledge to be used by an architect. It is sketched how these different tools can be combined in the future. The main part of the paper discusses the concepts and realization of two prototypes following the two above approaches. The paper especially discusses that specific graphs and the specification of their structure are useful for both tool realization projects.
Applications of Graph Transformations with Industrial Relevance Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 2004, Volume 3062/2004, 434-439, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-25959-6_33 This paper gives a brief overview of the tools we have developed to support conceptual design in civil engineering. Based on the UPGRADE framework, two applications, one for the knowledge engineer and another for architects allow to store domain specific knowledge and to use this knowledge during conceptual design. Consistency analyses check the design against the defined knowledge and inform the architect if rules are violated.
The workflow of a high throughput screening setup for the rapid identification of new and improved sensor materials is presented. The polyol method was applied to prepare nanoparticular metal oxides as base materials, which were functionalised by surface doping. Using multi-electrode substrates and high throughput impedance spectroscopy (HT-IS) a wide range of materials could be screened in a short time. Applying HT-IS in search of new selective gas sensing materials a NO2-tolerant NO sensing material with reduced sensitivities towards other test gases was identified based on iridium doped zinc oxide. Analogous behaviour was observed for iridium doped indium oxide.
The progress in natural language processing (NLP) research over the last years, offers novel business opportunities for companies, as automated user interaction or improved data analysis. Building sophisticated NLP applications requires dealing with modern machine learning (ML) technologies, which impedes enterprises from establishing successful NLP projects. Our experience in applied NLP research projects shows that the continuous integration of research prototypes in production-like environments with quality assurance builds trust in the software and shows convenience and usefulness regarding the business goal. We introduce STAMP 4 NLP as an iterative and incremental process model for developing NLP applications. With STAMP 4 NLP, we merge software engineering principles with best practices from data science. Instantiating our process model allows efficiently creating prototypes by utilizing templates, conventions, and implementations, enabling developers and data scientists to focus on the business goals. Due to our iterative-incremental approach, businesses can deploy an enhanced version of the prototype to their software environment after every iteration, maximizing potential business value and trust early and avoiding the cost of successful yet never deployed experiments.
Supervised machine learning and deep learning require a large amount of labeled data, which data scientists obtain in a manual, and time-consuming annotation process. To mitigate this challenge, Active Learning (AL) proposes promising data points to annotators they annotate next instead of a subsequent or random sample. This method is supposed to save annotation effort while maintaining model performance.
However, practitioners face many AL strategies for different tasks and need an empirical basis to choose between them. Surveys categorize AL strategies into taxonomies without performance indications. Presentations of novel AL strategies compare the performance to a small subset of strategies. Our contribution addresses the empirical basis by introducing a reproducible active learning evaluation (ALE) framework for the comparative evaluation of AL strategies in NLP.
The framework allows the implementation of AL strategies with low effort and a fair data-driven comparison through defining and tracking experiment parameters (e.g., initial dataset size, number of data points per query step, and the budget). ALE helps practitioners to make more informed decisions, and researchers can focus on developing new, effective AL strategies and deriving best practices for specific use cases. With best practices, practitioners can lower their annotation costs. We present a case study to illustrate how to use the framework.
Multi-attribute relation extraction (MARE): simplifying the application of relation extraction
(2021)
Natural language understanding’s relation extraction makes innovative and encouraging novel business concepts possible and facilitates new digitilized decision-making processes. Current approaches allow the extraction of relations with a fixed number of entities as attributes. Extracting relations with an arbitrary amount of attributes requires complex systems and costly relation-trigger annotations to assist these systems. We introduce multi-attribute relation extraction (MARE) as an assumption-less problem formulation with two approaches, facilitating an explicit mapping from business use cases to the data annotations. Avoiding elaborated annotation constraints simplifies the application of relation extraction approaches. The evaluation compares our models to current state-of-the-art event extraction and binary relation extraction methods. Our approaches show improvement compared to these on the extraction of general multi-attribute relations.
In recent years, the development of large pretrained language models, such as BERT and GPT, significantly improved information extraction systems on various tasks, including relation classification. State-of-the-art systems are highly accurate on scientific benchmarks. A lack of explainability is currently a complicating factor in many real-world applications. Comprehensible systems are necessary to prevent biased, counterintuitive, or harmful decisions.
We introduce semantic extents, a concept to analyze decision patterns for the relation classification task. Semantic extents are the most influential parts of texts concerning classification decisions. Our definition allows similar procedures to determine semantic extents for humans and models. We provide an annotation tool and a software framework to determine semantic extents for humans and models conveniently and reproducibly. Comparing both reveals that models tend to learn shortcut patterns from data. These patterns are hard to detect with current interpretability methods, such as input reductions. Our approach can help detect and eliminate spurious decision patterns during model development. Semantic extents can increase the reliability and security of natural language processing systems. Semantic extents are an essential step in enabling applications in critical areas like healthcare or finance. Moreover, our work opens new research directions for developing methods to explain deep learning models.
Heavy metal detection with semiconductor devices based on PLD-prepared chalcogenide glass thin films
(2007)
IASSE-2004 - 13th International Conference on Intelligent and Adaptive Systems and Software Engineering eds. W. Dosch, N. Debnath, pp. 245-250, ISCA, Cary, NC, 1-3 July 2004, Nice, France We introduce a UML-based model for conceptual design support in civil engineering. Therefore, we identify required extensions to standard UML. Class diagrams are used for elaborating building typespecific knowledge: Object diagrams, implicitly contained in the architect’s sketch, are validated against the defined knowledge. To enable the use of industrial, domain-specific tools, we provide an integrated conceptual design extension. The developed tool support is based on graph rewriting. With our approach architects are enabled to deal with semantic objects during early design phase, assisted by incremental consistency checks.
Effective training requires high muscle forces potentially leading to training-induced injuries. Thus, continuous monitoring and controlling of the loadings applied to the musculoskeletal system along the motion trajectory is required. In this paper, a norm-optimal iterative learning control algorithm for the robot-assisted training is developed. The algorithm aims at minimizing the external knee joint moment, which is commonly used to quantify the loading of the medial compartment. To estimate the external knee joint moment, a musculoskeletal lower extremity model is implemented in OpenSim and coupled with a model of an industrial robot and a force plate mounted at its end-effector. The algorithm is tested in simulation for patients with varus, normal and valgus alignment of the knee. The results show that the algorithm is able to minimize the external knee joint moment in all three cases and converges after less than seven iterations.
In the presented paper data collected from the field related to damage statistics of electrical and electronic apparatus in household are reported and investigated. These damages (total number approx. 74000 cases), registered by five German insurance companies in 2005 and 2006, were adviced by customers as caused by lightning overvoltages. With the use of stochastical methods it is possible, to reasses the collected data and to distinguish between cases, which are with high probability caused by lightning overvoltages, and those, which are not. If there was an indication for a direct strike, this case was excluded, so the focus was only on indirect lightning flashes, i.e. only flashes to ground near the structure and flashes to or nearby an incoming service line were investigated. The data from the field contain the location of damaged apparatus (residence of the policy holder) and the distances of the nearest cloud-to-ground stroke to the location of the damage registered by the German lightning location network BLIDS at the date of damage. The statistical data along with some complementary numerical simulations allow to verify the correspondence of the Standards rules used for IEC 62305-2 with the field data and to define some correction needs. The results could lead to a better understanding whether a damage reported to an insurance company is really caused by indirect lightning, or not.
Hydrophobic magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) consisting of undecanoate-capped magnetite (Fe3O4, average diameter ca. 5 nm) are used to control quantized electron transfer to surface-confined redox units and metal NPs. A two-phase system consisting of an aqueous electrolyte solution and a toluene phase that includes the suspended undecanoatecapped magnetic NPs is used to control the interfacial properties of the electrode surface. The attracted magnetic NPs form a hydrophobic layer on the electrode surface resulting in the change of the mechanisms of the surface-confined electrochemical processes. A quinone-monolayer modified Au electrode demonstrates an aqueous-type of the electrochemical process (2e-+2H+ redox mechanism) for the quinone units in the absence of the hydrophobic magnetic NPs, while the attraction of the magnetic NPs to the surface results in the stepwise single-electron transfer mechanism characteristic of a dry nonaqueous medium. Also, the attraction of the hydrophobic magnetic NPs to the Au electrode surface modified with Au NPs (ca. 1.4 nm) yields a microenvironment with a low dielectric constant that results in the single-electron quantum charging of the Au NPs.
Mathematical morphology is a part of image processing that has proven to be fruitful for numerous applications. Two main operations in mathematical morphology are dilation and erosion. These are based on the construction of a supremum or infimum with respect to an order over the tonal range in a certain section of the image. The tonal ordering can easily be realised in grey-scale morphology, and some morphological methods have been proposed for colour morphology. However, all of these have certain limitations.
In this paper we present a novel approach to colour morphology extending upon previous work in the field based on the Loewner order. We propose to consider an approximation of the supremum by means of a log-sum exponentiation introduced by Maslov. We apply this to the embedding of an RGB image in a field of symmetric 2x2 matrices. In this way we obtain nearly isotropic matrices representing colours and the structural advantage of transitivity. In numerical experiments we highlight some remarkable properties of the proposed approach.
The overall objective of this study is to develop a new external fixator, which closely maps the native kinematics of the elbow to decrease the joint force resulting in reduced rehabilitation time and pain. An experimental setup was designed to determine the native kinematics of the elbow during flexion of cadaveric arms. As a preliminary study, data from literature was used to modify a published biomechanical model for the calculation of the joint and muscle forces. They were compared to the original model and the effect of the kinematic refinement was evaluated. Furthermore, the obtained muscle forces were determined in order to apply them in the experimental setup. The joint forces in the modified model differed slightly from the forces in the original model. The muscle force curves changed particularly for small flexion angles but their magnitude for larger angles was consistent.
The human arm consists of the humerus (upper arm), the medial ulna and the lateral radius (forearm). The joint between the humerus and the ulna is called humeroulnar joint and the joint between the humerus and the radius is called humeroradial joint. Lateral and medial collateral ligaments stabilize the elbow. Statistically, 2.5 out of 10,000 people suffer from radial head fractures [1]. In these fractures the cartilage is often affected. Caused by the injured cartilage, degenerative diseases like posttraumatic arthrosis may occur. The resulting pain and reduced range of motion have an impact on the patient’s quality of life. Until now, there has not been a treatment which allows typical loads in daily life activities and offers good long-term results. A new surgical approach was developed with the motivation to reduce the progress of the posttraumatic arthrosis. Here, the radius is shortened by 3 mm in the proximal part [2]. By this means, the load of the radius is intended to be reduced due to a load shift to the ulna. Since the radius is the most important stabilizer of the elbow it has to be confirmed that the stability is not affected. In the first test (Fig. 1 left), pressure distributions within the humeroulnar and humeroradial joints a native and a shortened radius were measured using resistive pressure sensors (I5076 and I5027, Tekscan, USA). The humerus was loaded axially in a tension testing machine (Z010, Zwick Roell, Germany) in 50 N steps up to 400 N. From the humerus the load is transmitted through both the radius and the ulna into the hand which is fixed on the ground. In the second test (Fig. 1 right), the joint stability was investigated using a digital image correlation system to measure the displacement of the ulna. Here, the humerus is fixed with a desired flexion angle and the unconstrained forearm lies on the ground. A rope connects the load actuator with a hook fixed in the ulna. A guide roller is used so that the rope pulls the ulna horizontally when a tensile load is applied. This creates a moment about the elbow joint with a maximum value of 7.5 Nm. Measurements were performed with varying flexion angles (0°, 30°, 60°, 90°, 120°). For both tests and each measurement, seven specimens were used. Student ́s t-test was employed to determine whether the mean values of the measurements in native specimen and operated specimens differ significantly.
Electromechanical model of hiPSC-derived ventricular cardiomyocytes cocultured with fibroblasts
(2018)
The CellDrum provides an experimental setup to study the mechanical effects of fibroblasts co-cultured with hiPSC-derived ventricular cardiomyocytes. Multi-scale computational models based on the Finite Element Method are developed. Coupled electrical cardiomyocyte-fibroblast models (cell level) are embedded into reaction-diffusion equations (tissue level) which compute the propagation of the action potential in the cardiac tissue. Electromechanical coupling is realised by an excitation-contraction model (cell level) and the active stress arising during contraction is added to the passive stress in the force balance, which determines the tissue displacement (tissue level). Tissue parameters in the model can be identified experimentally to the specific sample.
Biomechanical simulation of different prosthetic meshes for repairing uterine/vaginal vault prolapse
(2017)
The paper presents a method for the quantitative assessment of choroidal blood flow using an OCT-A system. The developed technique for processing of OCT-A scans is divided into two stages. At the first stage, the identification of the boundaries in the selected portion was performed. At the second stage, each pixel mark on the selected layer was represented as a volume unit, a voxel, which characterizes the region of moving blood. Three geometric shapes were considered to represent the voxel. On the example of one OCT-A scan, this work presents a quantitative assessment of the blood flow index. A possible modification of two-stage algorithm based on voxel scan processing is presented.
The discovery of human induced pluripotent stem cells reprogrammed from somatic cells [1] and their ability to differentiate into cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs) has provided a robust platform for drug screening [2]. Drug screenings are essential in the development of new components, particularly for evaluating the potential of drugs to induce life-threatening pro-arrhythmias. Between 1988 and 2009, 14 drugs have been removed from the market for this reason [3]. The microelectrode array (MEA) technique is a robust tool for drug screening as it detects the field potentials (FPs) for the entire cell culture. Furthermore, the propagation of the field potential can be examined on an electrode basis. To analyze MEA measurements in detail, we have developed an open-source tool.
Multi-parameter detection for supporting monitoring and control of biogas processes in agriculture
(2014)
Abstracts of the ACHEMA 2000 - International Meeting on Chemical Engineering, Environmental Protection and Biotechnology, May 22 - 27, 2000. Frankfurt am Main. Achema 2000 : special edition / Linde. [Ed.: Linde AG. Red.: Volker R. Leski]. - Wiesbaden : Linde AG, 2000. - 56 p. : Ill., . - pp: 79 - 81
An increasing number of applications target their executions on specific hardware like general purpose Graphics Processing Units. Some Cloud Computing providers offer this specific hardware so that organizations can rent such resources. However, outsourcing the whole application to the Cloud causes avoidable costs if only some parts of the application benefit from the specific expensive hardware. A partial execution of applications in the Cloud is a tradeoff between costs and efficiency. This paper addresses the demand for a consistent framework that allows for a mixture of on- and off-premise calculations by migrating only specific parts to a Cloud. It uses the concept of workflows to present how individual workflow tasks can be migrated to the Cloud whereas the remaining tasks are executed on-premise.
Inference on the basis of high-dimensional and functional data are two topics which are discussed frequently in the current statistical literature. A possibility to include both topics in a single approach is working on a very general space for the underlying observations, such as a separable Hilbert space. We propose a general method for consistently hypothesis testing on the basis of random variables with values in separable Hilbert spaces. We avoid concerns with the curse of dimensionality due to a projection idea. We apply well-known test statistics from nonparametric inference to the projected data and integrate over all projections from a specific set and with respect to suitable probability measures. In contrast to classical methods, which are applicable for real-valued random variables or random vectors of dimensions lower than the sample size, the tests can be applied to random vectors of dimensions larger than the sample size or even to functional and high-dimensional data. In general, resampling procedures such as bootstrap or permutation are suitable to determine critical values. The idea can be extended to the case of incomplete observations. Moreover, we develop an efficient algorithm for implementing the method. Examples are given for testing goodness-of-fit in a one-sample situation in [1] or for testing marginal homogeneity on the basis of a paired sample in [2]. Here, the test statistics in use can be seen as generalizations of the well-known Cramérvon-Mises test statistics in the one-sample and two-samples case. The treatment of other testing problems is possible as well. By using the theory of U-statistics, for instance, asymptotic null distributions of the test statistics are obtained as the sample size tends to infinity. Standard continuity assumptions ensure the asymptotic exactness of the tests under the null hypothesis and that the tests detect any alternative in the limit. Simulation studies demonstrate size and power of the tests in the finite sample case, confirm the theoretical findings, and are used for the comparison with concurring procedures. A possible application of the general approach is inference for stock market returns, also in high data frequencies. In the field of empirical finance, statistical inference of stock market prices usually takes place on the basis of related log-returns as data. In the classical models for stock prices, i.e., the exponential Lévy model, Black-Scholes model, and Merton model, properties such as independence and stationarity of the increments ensure an independent and identically structure of the data. Specific trends during certain periods of the stock price processes can cause complications in this regard. In fact, our approach can compensate those effects by the treatment of the log-returns as random vectors or even as functional data.
GaAs-based Gunn diodes with graded AlGaAs hot electron injector heterostructures have been developed under the special needs in automotive applications. The fabrication of the Gunn diode chips was based on total substrate removal and processing of integrated Au heat sinks. Especially, the thermal and RF behavior of the diodes have been analyzed by DC, impedance and S-parameter measurements. The electrical investigations have revealed the functionality of the hot electron injector. An optimized layer structure could fulfill the requirements in adaptive cruise control (ACC) systems at 77 GHz with typical output power between 50 and 90 mW.
Effectiveness of the edge-based smoothed finite element method applied to soft biological tissues
(2012)
Recently, the SHARP Corporation, Japan, has developed the world’s first "Plasma Cluster Ions (PCI)" air purification technology using plasma discharge to generate cluster ions. The new plasma cluster device releases positive and negative ions into the air, which are able to decompose and deactivate harmful airborne substances by chemical reactions. Because cluster ions consist of positive and negative ions that normally exist in the natural world, they are completely harmless and safe to humans. The amount of ozone generated by cluster ions is less than 0.01 ppm, which is significantly less than the 0.05-ppm standard for industrial operations and consumer electronics. This amount, thus, has no harming effects whatsoever on the human body. But particular properties and chemical processes in PCI treatment are still under study. It has been shown that PCI in most cases show strongly pronounced irreversible killing effects in respect of airborne microflora due to free-radical induced reactions and can be considered as a potent technology to disinfect both home, medical and industrial appliances.
Summary and Conclusions PCIs were clearly effective in terms of their antibacterial effects with the strains tested. This efficacy increased with the time the bacteries were exposed to PCIs. The bactericidal action has proved to be irreversible. PCIs were significantly less effective in shadowed areas. PCI exposure caused multiple protein damages as observed in SDS PAGE studies. There was no single but multiple molecular mechanism causing the bacterial death.
Recently, SHARP corporation has developed the world’s first "Plasma Cluster Ions® (PCI)" air purification technology, which uses plasma discharge to generate cluster ions. The new Plasma Cluster Device releases positive and negative ions into the air, which are harmless to humans and are able to decompose and deactivate airborne substances by chemical reactions. In the past, phenomenological tests on the efficacy of the PCI air purification technology on microbial cells have been conducted. In most cases, it has been shown that PCI demonstrated strongly pronounced killing effects on microorganisms. However, the particular mechanisms of PCI action still have to be uncovered.
Recently, SHARP corporation has developed the world’s first “Plasma Cluster Ions (PCI)” air purification technology, which uses plasma discharge to generate cluster ions. The new plasma cluster device releases into the air positive and negative ions, which are harmless to humans and are able to decompose and deactivate airborne substances by chemical reactions. A lot of phenomenological tests of the PCI air purification technology on microbial cells have been conducted. And, in most cases, it has been shown that PCI demonstrate strongly pronounced killing effect. Although, the particular mechanisms of PCI action are still not evident. We studied variations in resistance to PCI among gram-positive airborne microorganisms, as well as some dose-dependent, spatial, cultural and biochemical properties of PCI action in respect of Staphylococcus spp, Enterococcus spp, Micrococcus spp.