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Extracting workflow nets from textual descriptions can be used to simplify guidelines or formalize textual descriptions of formal processes like business processes and algorithms. The task of manually extracting processes, however, requires domain expertise and effort. While automatic process model extraction is desirable, annotating texts with formalized process models is expensive. Therefore, there are only a few machine-learning-based extraction approaches. Rule-based approaches, in turn, require domain specificity to work well and can rarely distinguish relevant and irrelevant information in textual descriptions. In this paper, we present GUIDO, a hybrid approach to the process model extraction task that first, classifies sentences regarding their relevance to the process model, using a BERT-based sentence classifier, and second, extracts a process model from the sentences classified as relevant, using dependency parsing. The presented approach achieves significantly better resul ts than a pure rule-based approach. GUIDO achieves an average behavioral similarity score of 0.93. Still, in comparison to purely machine-learning-based approaches, the annotation costs stay low.
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.
Preprint: Studies on the enzymatic reduction of levulinic acid using Chiralidon-R and Chiralidon-S
(2023)
The enzymatic reduction of levulinic acid by the chiral catalysts Chiralidon-R and Chiralidon-S which are commercially available superabsorbed alcohol dehydrogenases is described. The Chiralidon®-R/S reduces the levulinic acid to the (R,S)-4-hydroxy valeric acid and the (R)- or (S)- gamma-valerolactone.
Background
Post-COVID-19 syndrome (PCS) is a lingering disease with ongoing symptoms such as fatigue and cognitive impairment resulting in a high impact on the daily life of patients. Understanding the pathophysiology of PCS is a public health priority, as it still poses a diagnostic and treatment challenge for physicians.
Methods
In this prospective observational cohort study, we analyzed the retinal microcirculation using Retinal Vessel Analysis (RVA) in a cohort of patients with PCS and compared it to an age- and gender-matched healthy cohort (n = 41, matched out of n = 204).
Measurements and main results
PCS patients exhibit persistent endothelial dysfunction (ED), as indicated by significantly lower venular flicker-induced dilation (vFID; 3.42% ± 1.77% vs. 4.64% ± 2.59%; p = 0.02), narrower central retinal artery equivalent (CRAE; 178.1 [167.5–190.2] vs. 189.1 [179.4–197.2], p = 0.01) and lower arteriolar-venular ratio (AVR; (0.84 [0.8–0.9] vs. 0.88 [0.8–0.9], p = 0.007). When combining AVR and vFID, predicted scores reached good ability to discriminate groups (area under the curve: 0.75). Higher PCS severity scores correlated with lower AVR (R = − 0.37 p = 0.017). The association of microvascular changes with PCS severity were amplified in PCS patients exhibiting higher levels of inflammatory parameters.
Conclusion
Our results demonstrate that prolonged endothelial dysfunction is a hallmark of PCS, and impairments of the microcirculation seem to explain ongoing symptoms in patients. As potential therapies for PCS emerge, RVA parameters may become relevant as clinical biomarkers for diagnosis and therapy management.
This work proposes a hybrid algorithm combining an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) with a conventional local path planner to navigate UAVs efficiently in various unknown urban environments. The proposed method of a Hybrid Artificial Neural Network Avoidance System is called HANNAS. The ANN analyses a video stream and classifies the current environment. This information about the current Environment is used to set several control parameters of a conventional local path planner, the 3DVFH*. The local path planner then plans the path toward a specific goal point based on distance data from a depth camera. We trained and tested a state-of-the-art image segmentation algorithm, PP-LiteSeg. The proposed HANNAS method reaches a failure probability of 17%, which is less than half the failure probability of the baseline and around half the failure probability of an improved, bio-inspired version of the 3DVFH*. The proposed HANNAS method does not show any disadvantages regarding flight time or flight distance.
Rocket engine test facilities and launch pads are typically equipped with a guide tube. Its purpose is to ensure the controlled and safe routing of the hot exhaust gases. In addition, the guide tube induces a suction that effects the nozzle flow, namely the flow separation during transient start-up and shut-down of the engine. A cold flow subscale nozzle in combination with a set of guide tubes was studied experimentally
to determine the main influencing parameters.
This paper introduces an inexpensive Wiegand-sensor-based rotary encoder that avoids rotating magnets and is suitable for electrical-drive applications. So far, Wiegand-sensor-based encoders usually include a magnetic pole wheel with rotating permanent magnets. These encoders combine the disadvantages of an increased magnet demand and a limited maximal speed due to the centripetal force acting on the rotating magnets. The proposed approach reduces the total demand of permanent magnets drastically. Moreover, the rotating part is manufacturable from a single piece of steel, which makes it very robust and cheap. This work presents the theoretical operating principle of the proposed approach and validates its benefits on a hardware prototype. The presented proof-of-concept prototype achieves a mechanical resolution of 4.5 ° by using only 4 permanent magnets, 2Wiegand sensors and a rotating steel gear wheel with 20 teeth.
We consider time-dependent portfolios and discuss the allocation of changes in the risk of a portfolio to changes in the portfolio’s components. For this purpose we adopt established allocation principles. We also use our approach to obtain forecasts for changes in the risk of the portfolio’s components. To put the approach into practice we present an implementation based on the output of a simulation. Allocation is illustrated with an example portfolio in the context of Solvency II. The quality of the forecasts is investigated with an empirical study.
On the applicability of several tests to models with not identically distributed random effects
(2023)
We consider Kolmogorov–Smirnov and Cramér–von-Mises type tests for testing central symmetry, exchangeability, and independence. In the standard case, the tests are intended for the application to independent and identically distributed data with unknown distribution. The tests are available for multivariate data and bootstrap procedures are suitable to obtain critical values. We discuss the applicability of the tests to random effects models, where the random effects are independent but not necessarily identically distributed and with possibly unknown distributions. Theoretical results show the adequacy of the tests in this situation. The quality of the tests in models with random effects is investigated by simulations. Empirical results obtained confirm the theoretical findings. A real data example illustrates the application.
The Cramér-von-Mises distance is applied to the distribution of the excess over a confidence level. Asymptotics of related statistics are investigated, and it is seen that the obtained limit distributions differ from the classical ones. For that reason, quantiles of the new limit distributions are given and new bootstrap techniques for approximation purposes are introduced and justified. The results motivate new one-sample goodness-of-fit tests for the distribution of the excess over a confidence level and a new confidence interval for the related fitting error. Simulation studies investigate size and power of the tests as well as coverage probabilities of the confidence interval in the finite sample case. A practice-oriented application of the Cramér-von-Mises tests is the determination of an appropriate confidence level for the fitting approach. The adoption of the idea to the well-known problem of threshold detection in the context of peaks over threshold modelling is sketched and illustrated by data examples.
Based on the European Space Agency (ESA) Science in Space Environment (SciSpacE) community White Paper “Human Physiology – Musculoskeletal system”, this perspective highlights unmet needs and suggests new avenues for future studies in musculoskeletal research to enable crewed exploration missions. The musculoskeletal system is essential for sustaining physical function and energy metabolism, and the maintenance of health during exploration missions, and consequently mission success, will be tightly linked to musculoskeletal function. Data collection from current space missions from pre-, during-, and post-flight periods would provide important information to understand and ultimately offset musculoskeletal alterations during long-term spaceflight. In addition, understanding the kinetics of the different components of the musculoskeletal system in parallel with a detailed description of the molecular mechanisms driving these alterations appears to be the best approach to address potential musculoskeletal problems that future exploratory-mission crew will face. These research efforts should be accompanied by technical advances in molecular and phenotypic monitoring tools to provide in-flight real-time feedback.
Ice melting probes
(2023)
The exploration of icy environments in the solar system, such as the poles of Mars and the icy moons (a.k.a. ocean worlds), is a key aspect for understanding their astrobiological potential as well as for extraterrestrial resource inspection. On these worlds, ice melting probes are considered to be well suited for the robotic clean execution of such missions. In this chapter, we describe ice melting probes and their applications, the physics of ice melting and how the melting behavior can be modeled and simulated numerically, the challenges for ice melting, and the required key technologies to deal with those challenges. We also give an overview of existing ice melting probes and report some results and lessons learned from laboratory and field tests.
Due to the increasing complexity of software projects, software development is becoming more and more dependent on teams. The quality of this teamwork can vary depending on the team composition, as teams are always a combination of different skills and personality types. This paper aims to answer the question of how to describe a software development team and what influence the personality of the team members has on the team dynamics. For this purpose, a systematic literature review (n=48) and a literature search with the AI research assistant Elicit (n=20) were conducted. Result: A person’s personality significantly shapes his or her thinking and actions, which in turn influences his or her behavior in software development teams. It has been shown that team performance and satisfaction can be strongly influenced by personality. The quality of communication and the likelihood of conflict can also be attributed to personality.
Autonomous agents require rich environment models for fulfilling their missions. High-definition maps are a well-established map format which allows for representing semantic information besides the usual geometric information of the environment. These are, for instance, road shapes, road markings, traffic signs or barriers. The geometric resolution of HD maps can be as precise as of centimetre level. In this paper, we report on our approach of using HD maps as a map representation for autonomous load-haul-dump vehicles in open-pit mining operations. As the mine undergoes constant change, we also need to constantly update the map. Therefore, we follow a lifelong mapping approach for updating the HD maps based on camera-based object detection and GPS data. We show our mapping algorithm based on the Lanelet 2 map format and show our integration with the navigation stack of the Robot Operating System. We present experimental results on our lifelong mapping approach from a real open-pit mine.
The RoboCup Logistics League (RCLL) is a robotics competition in a production logistics scenario in the context of a Smart Factory. In the competition, a team of three robots needs to assemble products to fulfill various orders that are requested online during the game. This year, the Carologistics team was able to win the competition with a new approach to multi-agent coordination as well as significant changes to the robot’s perception unit and a pragmatic network setup using the cellular network instead of WiFi. In this paper, we describe the major components of our approach with a focus on the changes compared to the last physical competition in 2019.
The work in modern open-pit and underground mines requires the transportation of large amounts of resources between fixed points. The navigation to these fixed points is a repetitive task that can be automated. The challenge in automating the navigation of vehicles commonly used in mines is the systemic properties of such vehicles. Many mining vehicles, such as the one we have used in the research for this paper, use steering systems with an articulated joint bending the vehicle’s drive axis to change its course and a hydraulic drive system to actuate axial drive components or the movements of tippers if available. To address the difficulties of controlling such a vehicle, we present a model-predictive approach for controlling the vehicle. While the control optimisation based on a parallel error minimisation of the predicted state has already been established in the past, we provide insight into the design and implementation of an MPC for an articulated mining vehicle and show the results of real-world experiments in an open-pit mine environment.
Influence of slab deflection on the out-of-plane capacity of unreinforced masonry partition walls
(2023)
Severe damage of non-structural elements is noticed in previous earthquakes, causing high economic losses and posing a life threat for the people. Masonry partition walls are one of the most commonly used non-structural elements. Therefore, their behaviour under earthquake loading in out-of-plane (OOP) direction is investigated by several researches in the past years. However, none of the existing experimental campaigns or analytical approaches consider the influence of prior slab deflection on OOP response of partition walls. Moreover, none of the existing construction techniques for the connection of partition walls with surrounding reinforced concrete (RC) is investigated for the combined slab deflection and OOP loading. However, the inevitable time-dependent behaviour of RC slabs leads to high values of final slab deflections which can further influence boundary conditions of partition walls. Therefore, a comprehensive study on the influence of slab deflection on the OOP capacity of masonry partitions is conducted. In the first step, experimental tests are carried out. Results of experimental tests are further used for the calibration of the numerical model employed for a parametric study. Based on the results, behaviour under combined loading for different construction techniques is explained. The results show that slab deflection leads either to severe damage or to a high reduction of OOP capacity. Existing practical solutions do not account for these effects. In this contribution, recommendations to overcome the problems of combined slab deflection and OOP loading on masonry partition walls are given. Possible interaction of in-plane (IP) loading, with the combined slab deflection and OOP loading on partition walls, is not investigated in this study.
In this paper, we provide an analytical study of the transmission eigenvalue problem with two conductivity parameters. We will assume that the underlying physical model is given by the scattering of a plane wave for an isotropic scatterer. In previous studies, this eigenvalue problem was analyzed with one conductive boundary parameter whereas we will consider the case of two parameters. We prove the existence and discreteness of the transmission eigenvalues as well as study the dependence on the physical parameters. We are able to prove monotonicity of the first transmission eigenvalue with respect to the parameters and consider the limiting procedure as the second boundary parameter vanishes. Lastly, we provide extensive numerical experiments to validate the theoretical work.
This paper presents an approach for reducing the cognitive load for humans working in quality control (QC) for production processes that adhere to the 6σ -methodology. While 100% QC requires every part to be inspected, this task can be reduced when a human-in-the-loop QC process gets supported by an anomaly detection system that only presents those parts for manual inspection that have a significant likelihood of being defective. This approach shows good results when applied to image-based QC for metal textile products.
Existing residential buildings have an average lifetime of 100 years. Many of these buildings will exist for at least another 50 years. To increase the efficiency of these buildings while keeping costs at reasonable rates, they can be retrofitted with sensors that deliver information to central control units for heating, ventilation and electricity. This retrofitting process should happen with minimal intervention into existing infrastructure and requires new approaches for sensor design and data transmission. At FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences, students of different disciplines work together to learn how to design, build, deploy and operate such sensors. The presented teaching project already created a low power design for a combined CO2, temperature and humidity measurement device that can be easily integrated into most home automation systems
The integration of high temperature thermal energy storages into existing conventional power plants can help to reduce the CO2 emissions of those plants and lead to lower capital expenditures for building energy storage systems, due to the use of synergy effects [1]. One possibility to implement that, is a molten salt storage system with a powerful power-to-heat unit. This paper presents two possible control concepts for the startup of the charging system of such a facility. The procedures are implemented in a detailed dynamic process model. The performance and safety regarding the film temperatures at heat transmitting surfaces are investigated in the process simulations. To improve the accuracy in predicting the film temperatures, CFD simulations of the electrical heater are carried out and the results are merged with the dynamic model. The results show that both investigated control concepts are safe regarding the temperature limits. The gradient controlled startup performed better than the temperature-controlled startup. Nevertheless, there are several uncertainties that need to be investigated further.
Digital forensics of smartphones is of utmost importance in many criminal cases. As modern smartphones store chats, photos, videos etc. that can be relevant for investigations and as they can have storage capacities of hundreds of gigabytes, they are a primary target for forensic investigators. However, it is exactly this large amount of data that is causing problems: extracting and examining the data from multiple phones seized in the context of a case is taking more and more time. This bears the risk of wasting a lot of time with irrelevant phones while there is not enough time left to analyze a phone which is worth examination. Forensic triage can help in this case: Such a triage is a preselection step based on a subset of data and is performed before fully extracting all the data from the smartphone. Triage can accelerate subsequent investigations and is especially useful in cases where time is essential. The aim of this paper is to determine which and how much data from an Android smartphone can be made directly accessible to the forensic investigator – without tedious investigations. For this purpose, an app has been developed that can be used with extremely limited storage of data in the handset and which outputs the extracted data immediately to the forensic workstation in a human- and machine-readable format.
Meitner-Auger-electron emitters have a promising potential for targeted radionuclide therapy of cancer because of their short range and the high linear energy transfer of Meitner-Auger-electrons (MAE). One promising MAE candidate is 197m/gHg with its half-life of 23.8 h and 64.1 h, respectively, and high MAE yield. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) that are labelled with 197m/gHg could be a helpful tool for radiation treatment of glioblastoma multiforme when infused into the surgical cavity after resection to prevent recurrence. To produce such AuNPs, 197m/gHg was embedded into pristine AuNPs. Two different syntheses were tested starting from irradiated gold containing trace amounts of 197m/gHg. When sodium citrate was used as reducing agent, no 197m/gHg labelled AuNPs were formed, but with tannic acid, 197m/gHg labeled AuNPs were produced. The method was optimized by neutralizing the pH (pH = 7) of the Au/197m/gHg solution, which led to labelled AuNPs with a size of 12.3 ± 2.0 nm as measured by transmission electron microscopy. The labelled AuNPs had a concentration of 50 μg (gold)/mL with an activity of 151 ± 93 kBq/mL (197gHg, time corrected to the end of bombardment).
Density reduction effects on the production of [11C]CO2 in Nb-body targets on a medical cyclotron
(2023)
Medical isotope production of 11C is commonly performed in gaseous targets. The power deposition of the proton beam during the irradiation decreases the target density due to thermodynamic mixing and can cause an increase of penetration depth and divergence of the proton beam. In order to investigate the difference how the target-body length influences the operation conditions and the production yield, a 12 cm and a 22 cm Nb-target body containing N2/O2 gas were irradiated using a 13 MeV proton cyclotron. It was found that the density reduction has a large influence on the pressure rise during irradiation and the achievable radioactive yield. The saturation activity of [11C]CO2 for the long target (0.083 Ci/μA) is about 10% higher than in the short target geometry (0.075 Ci/μA).
We present the production of 58mCo on a small, 13 MeV medical cyclotron utilizing a siphon style liquid target system. Different concentrated iron(III)-nitrate solutions of natural isotopic distribution were irradiated at varying initial pressures and subsequently separated by solid phase extraction chromatography. The radio cobalt (58m/gCo and 56Co) was successfully produced with saturation activities of (0.35 ± 0.03) MBq μA−1 for 58mCo with a separation recovery of (75 ± 2) % of cobalt after one separation step utilizing LN-resin.
KNX is a protocol for smart building automation, e.g., for automated heating, air conditioning, or lighting. This paper analyses and evaluates state-of-the-art KNX devices from manufacturers Merten, Gira and Siemens with respect to security. On the one hand, it is investigated if publicly known vulnerabilities like insecure storage of passwords in software, unencrypted communication, or denialof-service attacks, can be reproduced in new devices. On the other hand, the security is analyzed in general, leading to the discovery of a previously unknown and high risk vulnerability related to so-called BCU (authentication) keys.
The popularity of social media and particularly Instagram grows steadily. People use the different platforms to share pictures as well as videos and to communicate with friends. The potential of social media platforms is also being used for marketing purposes and for selling products. While for Facebook and other online social media platforms the purchase decision factors are investigated several times, Instagram stores remain mainly unattended so far. The present research work closes this gap and sheds light into decisive factors for purchasing products offered in Instagram stores. A theoretical research model, which contains selected constructs that are assumed to have a significant influence on Instagram user´s purchase intention, is developed. The hypotheses are evaluated by applying structural equation modelling on survey data containing 127 relevant participants. The results of the study reveal that ‘trust’, ‘personal recommendation’, and ‘usability’ significantly influences user’s buying intention in Instagram stores.
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.
Effective government services rely on accurate population numbers to allocate resources. In Colombia and globally, census enumeration is challenging in remote regions and where armed conflict is occurring. During census preparations, the Colombian National Administrative Department of Statistics conducted social cartography workshops, where community representatives estimated numbers of dwellings and people throughout their regions. We repurposed this information, combining it with remotely sensed buildings data and other geospatial data. To estimate building counts and population sizes, we developed hierarchical Bayesian models, trained using nearby full-coverage census enumerations and assessed using 10-fold cross-validation. We compared models to assess the relative contributions of community knowledge, remotely sensed buildings, and their combination to model fit. The Community model was unbiased but imprecise; the Satellite model was more precise but biased; and the Combination model was best for overall accuracy. Results reaffirmed the power of remotely sensed buildings data for population estimation and highlighted the value of incorporating local knowledge.
The major advantage of labyrinth weirs over linear weirs is hydraulic efficiency. In hydraulic modeling efforts, this strength contrasts with limited pump capacity as well as limited computational power for CFD simulations. For the latter, reducing the number of investigated cycles can significantly reduce necessary computational time. In this study, a labyrinth weir with different cycle numbers was investigated. The simulations were conducted in FLOW-3D HYDRO as a Large Eddy Simulation. With a mean deviation of 1.75 % between simulated discharge coefficients and literature design equations, a reasonable agreement was found. For downstream conditions, overall consistent results were observed as well. However, the orientation of labyrinth weirs with a single cycle should be chosen carefully under consideration of the individual research purpose.
Research on robotic lunar exploration has seen a broad revival, especially since the Google Lunar X-Prize increasingly brought private endeavors into play. This development is supported by national agencies with the aim of enabling long-term lunar infrastructure for in-situ operations and the establishment of a moon village. One challenge for effective exploration missions is developing a compact and lightweight robotic rover to reduce launch costs and open the possibility for secondary payload options. Existing micro rovers for exploration missions are clearly limited by their design for one day of sunlight and their low level of autonomy. For expanding the potential mission applications and range of use, an extension of lifetime could be reached by surviving the lunar night and providing a higher level of autonomy. To address this objective, the paper presents a system design concept for a lightweight micro rover with long-term mission duration capabilities, derived from a multi-day lunar mission scenario at equatorial regions. Technical solution approaches are described, analyzed, and evaluated, with emphasis put on the harmonization of hardware selection due to a strictly limited budget in dimensions and power.
The concept of energy conversion into platform chemicals using bioelectrochemical systems (BES) has gained increasing attention in recent years, as the technology simultaneously provides an opportunity for sustainable chemical production and tackles the challenge of Power-to-X technologies. There are many approaches to realize the industrial scale of BES. One concept is to equip standard bioreactors with static electrodes. However, large installations resulted in a negative influence on various reactor parameters. In this study, we present a new single-chamber BES based on a stirred tank reactor in which the stirrer was replaced by a carbon fiber brush, performing the functions of the working electrode and the stirrer. The reactor is characterized in abiotic studies and electro-fermentations with Clostridium acetobutylicum. Compared to standard reactors an increase in butanol production of 20.14±3.66 % shows that the new BES can be efficiently used for bioelectrochemical processes.
Like all preceding transformations of the manufacturing industry, the large-scale usage of production data will reshape the role of humans within the sociotechnical production ecosystem. To ensure that this transformation creates work systems in which employees are empowered, productive, healthy, and motivated, the transformation must be guided by principles of and research on human-centered work design. Specifically, measures must be taken at all levels of work design, ranging from (1) the work tasks to (2) the working conditions to (3) the organizational level and (4) the supra-organizational level. We present selected research across all four levels that showcase the opportunities and requirements that surface when striving for human-centered work design for the Internet of Production (IoP). (1) On the work task level, we illustrate the user-centered design of human-robot collaboration (HRC) and process planning in the composite industry as well as user-centered design factors for cognitive assistance systems. (2) On the working conditions level, we present a newly developed framework for the classification of HRC workplaces. (3) Moving to the organizational level, we show how corporate data can be used to facilitate best practice sharing in production networks, and we discuss the implications of the IoP for new leadership models. Finally, (4) on the supra-organizational level, we examine overarching ethical dimensions, investigating, e.g., how the new work contexts affect our understanding of responsibility and normative values such as autonomy and privacy. Overall, these interdisciplinary research perspectives highlight the importance and necessary scope of considering the human factor in the IoP.
In addition to the technical content, modern courses at university should also teach professional skills to enhance the competencies of students towards their future work. The competency driven approach including technical as well as professional skills makes it necessary to find a suitable way for the integration into the corresponding module in a scalable and flexible manner. Agile development, for example, is essential for the development of modern systems and applications and makes use of dedicated professional skills of the team members, like structured group dynamics and communication, to enable the fast and reliable development. This paper presents an easy to integrate and flexible approach to integrate Scrum, an agile development method, into the lab of an existing module. Due to the different role models of Scrum the students have an individual learning success, gain valuable insight into modern system development and strengthen their communication and organization skills. The approach is implemented and evaluated in the module Vehicle Systems, but it can be transferred easily to other technical courses as well. The evaluation of the implementation considers feedback of all stakeholders, students, supervisor and lecturers, and monitors the observations during project lifetime.
Throughout the last decade, and particularly in 2022, water scarcity has become a critical concern in Morocco and other Mediterranean countries. The lack of rainfall during spring was worsened by a succession of heat waves during the summer. To address this drought, innovative solutions, including the use of new technologies such as hydrogels, will be essential to transform agriculture. This paper presents the findings of a study that evaluated the impact of hydrogel application on onion (Allium cepa) cultivation in Meknes, Morocco. The treatments investigated in this study comprised two different types of hydrogel-based soil additives (Arbovit® polyacrylate and Huminsorb® polyacrylate), applied at two rates (30 and 20 kg/ha), and irrigated at two levels of water supply (100% and 50% of daily crop evapotranspiration; ETc). Two control treatments were included, without hydrogel application and with both water amounts. The experiment was conducted in an open field using a completely randomized design. The results indicated a significant impact of both hydrogel-type dose and water dose on onion plant growth, as evidenced by various vegetation parameters. Among the hydrogels tested, Huminsorb® Polyacrylate produced the most favorable outcomes, with treatment T9 (100%, HP, 30 kg/ha) yielding 70.55 t/ha; this represented an increase of 11 t/ha as compared to the 100% ETc treatment without hydrogel application. Moreover, the combination of hydrogel application with 50% ETc water stress showed promising results, with treatment T4 (HP, 30 kg, 50%) producing almost the same yield as the 100% ETc treatment without hydrogel while saving 208 mm of water.
Achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 requires global collaboration between different stakeholders. Industry, and in particular engineers who shape industrial developments, have a special role to play as they are confronted with the responsibility to holistically reflect sustainability in industrial processes. This means that, in addition to the technical specifications, engineers must also question the effects of their own actions on an ecological, economic and social level in order to ensure sustainable action and contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. However, this requires competencies that enable engineers to apply all three pillars of sustainability to their own field of activity and to understand the global impact of industrial processes. In this context, it is relevant to understand how industry already reflects sustainability and to identify competences needed for sustainable development.
Traditional vulcanization mold manufacturing is complex, costly, and under pressure due to shorter product lifecycles and diverse variations. Additive manufacturing using Fused Filament Fabrication and high-performance polymers like PEEK offer a promising future in this industry. This study assesses the compressive strength of various infill structures (honeycomb, grid, triangle, cubic, and gyroid) when considering two distinct build directions (Z, XY) to enhance PEEK’s economic and resource efficiency in rapid tooling. A comparison with PETG samples shows the behavior of the infill strategies. Additionally, a proof of concept illustrates the application of a PEEK mold in vulcanization. A peak compressive strength of 135.6 MPa was attained in specimens that were 100% solid and subjected to thermal post-treatment. This corresponds to a 20% strength improvement in the Z direction. In terms of time and mechanical properties, the anisotropic grid and isotropic cubic infill have emerged for use in rapid tooling. Furthermore, the study highlights that reducing the layer thickness from 0.15 mm to 0.1 mm can result in a 15% strength increase. The study unveils the successful utilization of a room-temperature FFF-printed PEEK mold in vulcanization injection molding. The parameters and infill strategies identified in this research enable the resource-efficient FFF printing of PEEK without compromising its strength properties. Using PEEK in rapid tooling allows a cost reduction of up to 70% in tool production.
Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂), a strong oxidizer, is a commonly used sterilization agent employed during aseptic food processing and medical applications. To assess the sterilization efficiency with H₂O₂, bacterial spores are common microbial systems due to their remarkable robustness against a wide variety of decontamination strategies. Despite their widespread use, there is, however, only little information about the detailed time-resolved mechanism underlying the oxidative spore death by H₂O₂. In this work, we investigate chemical and morphological changes of individual Bacillus atrophaeus spores undergoing oxidative damage using optical sensing with trapping Raman microscopy in real-time. The time-resolved experiments reveal that spore death involves two distinct phases: (i) an initial phase dominated by the fast release of dipicolinic acid (DPA), a major spore biomarker, which indicates the rupture of the spore’s core; and (ii) the oxidation of the remaining spore material resulting in the subsequent fragmentation of the spores’ coat. Simultaneous observation of the spore morphology by optical microscopy corroborates these mechanisms. The dependence of the onset of DPA release and the time constant of spore fragmentation on H₂O₂ shows that the formation of reactive oxygen species from H₂O₂ is the rate-limiting factor of oxidative spore death.
Manufacturing companies across multiple industries face an increasingly dynamic and unpredictable environment. This development can be seen on both the market and supply side. To respond to these challenges, manufacturing companies must implement smart manufacturing systems and become more flexible and agile. The flexibility in operational planning regarding the scheduling and sequencing of customer orders needs to be increased and new structures must be implemented in manufacturing systems’ fundamental design as they constitute much of the operational flexibility available. To this end, smart and more flexible solutions for production planning and control (PPC) are developed. However, scheduling or sequencing is often only considered isolated in a predefined stable environment. Moreover, their orientation on the fundamental logic of the existing IT solutions and their applicability in a dynamic environment is limited. This paper presents a conceptual model for a task-based description logic that can be applied to factory planning, technology planning, and operational control. By using service-oriented architectures, the goal is to generate smart manufacturing systems. The logic is designed to allow for easy and automated maintenance. It is compatible with the existing resource and process allocation logic across operational and strategic factory and production planning.
In order to reduce energy consumption of homes, it is important to make transparent which devices consume how much energy. However, power consumption is often only monitored aggregated at the house energy meter. Disaggregating this power consumption into the contributions of individual devices can be achieved using Machine Learning. Our work aims at making state of the art disaggregation algorithms accessibe for users of the open source home automation platform Home Assistant.
Immunosorbent turnip vein clearing virus (TVCV) particles displaying the IgG-binding domains D and E of Staphylococcus aureus protein A (PA) on every coat protein (CP) subunit (TVCVPA) were purified from plants via optimized and new protocols. The latter used polyethylene glycol (PEG) raw precipitates, from which virions were selectively re-solubilized in reverse PEG concentration gradients. This procedure improved the integrity of both TVCVPA and the wild-type subgroup 3 tobamovirus. TVCVPA could be loaded with more than 500 IgGs per virion, which mediated the immunocapture of fluorescent dyes, GFP, and active enzymes. Bi-enzyme ensembles of cooperating glucose oxidase and horseradish peroxidase were tethered together on the TVCVPA carriers via a single antibody type, with one enzyme conjugated chemically to its Fc region, and the other one bound as a target, yielding synthetic multi-enzyme complexes. In microtiter plates, the TVCVPA-displayed sugar-sensing system possessed a considerably increased reusability upon repeated testing, compared to the IgG-bound enzyme pair in the absence of the virus. A high coverage of the viral adapters was also achieved on Ta2O5 sensor chip surfaces coated with a polyelectrolyte interlayer, as a prerequisite for durable TVCVPA-assisted electrochemical biosensing via modularly IgG-assembled sensor enzymes.
This study describes the development of a new combined polysaccharide-matrix-based technology for the immobilization of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (LGG) bacteria in biofilm form. The new composition allows for delivering the bacteria to the digestive tract in a manner that improves their robustness compared with planktonic cells and released biofilm cells. Granules consisting of a polysaccharide matrix with probiotic biofilms (PMPB) with high cell density (>9 log CFU/g) were obtained by immobilization in the optimized nutrient medium. Successful probiotic loading was confirmed by fluorescence microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The developed prebiotic polysaccharide matrix significantly enhanced LGG viability under acidic (pH 2.0) and bile salt (0.3%) stress conditions. Enzymatic extract of feces, mimicking colon fluid in terms of cellulase activity, was used to evaluate the intestinal release of probiotics. PMPB granules showed the ability to gradually release a large number of viable LGG cells in the model colon fluid. In vivo, the oral administration of PMPB granules in rats resulted in the successful release of probiotics in the colon environment. The biofilm-forming incubation method of immobilization on a complex polysaccharide matrix tested in this study has shown high efficacy and promising potential for the development of innovative biotechnologies.
Environmental emissions, global warming, and energy-related concerns have accelerated the advancements in conventional vehicles that primarily use internal combustion engines. Among the existing technologies, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles may have minimal contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and thus are the prime choices for environmental concerns. However, energy management in fuel cell electric vehicles and fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles is a major challenge. Appropriate control strategies should be used for effective energy management in these vehicles. On the other hand, there has been significant progress in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and designing data-driven intelligent controllers. These techniques have found much attention within the community, and state-of-the-art energy management technologies have been developed based on them. This manuscript reviews the application of machine learning and intelligent controllers for prediction, control, energy management, and vehicle to everything (V2X) in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The effectiveness of data-driven control and optimization systems are investigated to evolve, classify, and compare, and future trends and directions for sustainability are discussed.
Anti-bias trainings are increasingly demanded and practiced in academia and industry to increase employees’ sensitivity to discrimination, racism, and diversity. Under the heading of “Diversity Management”, anti-bias trainings are mainly offered as one-off workshops intending to raise awareness of unconscious biases, create a diversity-affirming corporate culture, awake awareness of the potential of diversity, and ultimately enable the reflection of diversity in development processes. However, coming from childhood education, research and scientific articles on the sustainable effectiveness of anti-bias in adulthood, especially in academia, are very scarce. In order to fill this research gap, the paper explores how sustainable the effects of individual anti-bias trainings on the behavior of participants are. In order to investigate this, participant observation in a qualitative pre-post setting was conducted, analyzing anti-bias trainings in an academic context. Two observers actively participated in the training sessions and documented the activities and reflection processes of the participants. Overall, the results question the effectiveness of single anti-bias trainings and show that a target-group adaptive approach is mandatory due to the background of the approach in early childhood education. Therefore, it can be concluded that anti-bias work needs to be adapted to the target group’s needs and reality of life. Furthermore, the study reveals that single anti-bias trainings must be embedded in a holistic diversity management approach to stimulate sustainable reflection processes among the target group. This paper is one of the first to scientifically evaluate anti-bias training effectiveness, especially in engineering sciences and the university context.
Software development projects often fail because of insufficient code quality. It is now well documented that the task of testing software, for example, is perceived as uninteresting and rather boring, leading to poor software quality and major challenges to software development companies. One promising approach to increase the motivation for considering software quality is the use of gamification. Initial research works already investigated the effects of gamification on software developers and come to promising. Nevertheless, a lack of results from field experiments exists, which motivates the chapter at hand. By conducting a gamification experiment with five student software projects and by interviewing the project members, the chapter provides insights into the changing programming behavior of information systems students when confronted with a leaderboard. The results reveal a motivational effect as well as a reduction of code smells.
Melting probes are a proven tool for the exploration of thick ice layers and clean sampling of subglacial water on Earth. Their compact size and ease of operation also make them a key technology for the future exploration of icy moons in our Solar System, most prominently Europa and Enceladus. For both mission planning and hardware engineering, metrics such as efficiency and expected performance in terms of achievable speed, power requirements, and necessary heating power have to be known.
Theoretical studies aim at describing thermal losses on the one hand, while laboratory experiments and field tests allow an empirical investigation of the true performance on the other hand. To investigate the practical value of a performance model for the operational performance in extraterrestrial environments, we first contrast measured data from terrestrial field tests on temperate and polythermal glaciers with results from basic heat loss models and a melt trajectory model. For this purpose, we propose conventions for the determination of two different efficiencies that can be applied to both measured data and models. One definition of efficiency is related to the melting head only, while the other definition considers the melting probe as a whole. We also present methods to combine several sources of heat loss for probes with a circular cross-section, and to translate the geometry of probes with a non-circular cross-section to analyse them in the same way. The models were selected in a way that minimizes the need to make assumptions about unknown parameters of the probe or the ice environment.
The results indicate that currently used models do not yet reliably reproduce the performance of a probe under realistic conditions. Melting velocities and efficiencies are constantly overestimated by 15 to 50 % in the models, but qualitatively agree with the field test data. Hence, losses are observed, that are not yet covered and quantified by the available loss models. We find that the deviation increases with decreasing ice temperature. We suspect that this mismatch is mainly due to the too restrictive idealization of the probe model and the fact that the probe was not operated in an efficiency-optimized manner during the field tests. With respect to space mission engineering, we find that performance and efficiency models must be used with caution in unknown ice environments, as various ice parameters have a significant effect on the melting process. Some of these are difficult to estimate from afar.
Germany is a frontrunner in setting frameworks for the transition to a low-carbon system. The mobility sector plays a significant role in this shift, affecting different people and groups on multiple levels. Without acceptance from these stakeholders, emission targets are out of reach. This research analyzes how the heterogeneous preferences of various stakeholders align with the transformation of the mobility sector, looking at the extent to which the German transformation paths are supported and where stakeholders are located.
Under the research objective of comparing stakeholders' preferences to identify which car segments require additional support for a successful climate transition, a status quo of stakeholders and car performance criteria is the foundation for the analysis. Stakeholders' hidden preferences hinder the derivation of criteria weightings from stakeholders; therefore, a ranking from observed preferences is used. This study's inverse multi-criteria decision analysis means that weightings can be predicted and used together with a recalibrated performance matrix to explore future preferences toward car segments.
Results show that stakeholders prefer medium-sized cars, with the trend pointing towards the increased potential for alternative propulsion technologies and electrified vehicles. These insights can guide the improved targeting of policy supporting the energy and mobility transformation. Additionally, the method proposed in this work can fully handle subjective approaches while incorporating a priori information. A software implementation of the proposed method completes this work and is made publicly available.