Refine
Departments, institutes and facilities
- Fachbereich Wirtschaftswissenschaften (1309)
- Fachbereich Informatik (1231)
- Fachbereich Angewandte Naturwissenschaften (814)
- Fachbereich Ingenieurwissenschaften und Kommunikation (720)
- Institut für funktionale Gen-Analytik (IFGA) (595)
- Institut für Technik, Ressourcenschonung und Energieeffizienz (TREE) (557)
- Präsidium (544)
- Fachbereich Sozialpolitik und Soziale Sicherung (437)
- Institute of Visual Computing (IVC) (328)
- Institut für Cyber Security & Privacy (ICSP) (318)
Document Type
- Article (2539)
- Conference Object (1892)
- Part of a Book (984)
- Part of Periodical (553)
- Book (monograph, edited volume) (465)
- Report (207)
- Contribution to a Periodical (118)
- Doctoral Thesis (110)
- Preprint (105)
- Working Paper (102)
Year of publication
Keywords
- Lehrbuch (88)
- Deutschland (36)
- Nachhaltigkeit (33)
- Controlling (26)
- Unternehmen (26)
- Virtual Reality (22)
- Management (20)
- Betriebswirtschaftslehre (19)
- Digitalisierung (19)
- Corporate Social Responsibility (18)
Amide synthases catalyze the formation of macrolactam rings from aniline-containing polyketide-derived seco-acids as found in the important class of ansamycin antibiotics. One of these amide synthases is the geldanamycin amide synthase GdmF, which we recombinantly expressed, purified and studied in detail both functionally as well as structurally. Here we show that purified GdmF catalyzes the amide formation using synthetically derived substrates. The atomic structures of the ligand-free enzyme and in complex with simplified substrates reveal distinct structural features of the substrate binding site and a putative role of the flexible interdomain region for the catalysis reaction.
Zusammenfassung Fragestellung: Trotz hoher Attraktivität bleibt der Begriff der Resilienz unscharf. Aktuelle Definitionen beinhalten zwar einen Prozessgedanken, dennoch erfassen Resilienzskalen meist statische Personenmerkmale. Ziel dieser Arbeit ist, zur Erschließung eines prozessbezogenen Resilienzmodells implizite Konzepte der Forscher:innen einer interdisziplinären Forschungsgruppe zu Resilienz zu erfassen. Methode: Mit neun erfahrenen Forscher:innen ausTheologie,Medizin und Philosophie wurden Experteninterviews durchgeführt und mittels qualitativer Inhaltsanalyse ausgewertet. Ergebnisse: Es wird zwischen prädiktiven, prozessbezogenen und ergebnisbezogenen Resilienzkategorien unterschieden. Zentrale Elemente im erstellten Prozessmodell sind die Artikulation und Akzeptanz auch von negativen Erfahrungen sowie eine Narrativierung und sinnhafte Einordnung des Erlebten. Diskussion: Auf Basis der gefundenen Kategorien wird eine erste Arbeitsdefinition für ein prozessorientiertes Resilienzmodell erstellt. Inhaltlich findet sich viel Nähe zu bekannten Elementen und Zielen von Psychotherapie. Die Umdeutung von Resilienz als Prozess des bewussten „moving forward“ (Yahuda) anstelle eines unerreichbaren „Heldenideals“ kann für Psychotherapiepatient:innen hilfreich sein.
BACKGROUND
Thousands of Eastern Europeans find employment caring for older individuals as transmigrating live-in home care workers in private households in Germany. Studies have shown that the stressors threatening their well-being are multifaceted and include inequalities and a high practical and emotional workload, but research on protective factors is still scarce.
AIM & METHODS
This qualitative descriptive study focuses on both the stressors and factors that promote care workers' well-being and contribute to their psychological resilience. In guideline-based interviews, 14 female and one male care workers were asked about their stressors and the factors that help them cope.
RESULTS
Identified stressors included separation from their own family, strained relationship with either or both the care recipient (dementia) and their relatives (violation of worker´s rights and devaluation of care work), and permanent availability and lack of free time due to a 24-h care schedule. Resilience factors were both external and internal and included positive social relationships, self-determination, experience in care work, and intrinsic job motivation.
CONCLUSION
Live-ins reside in an ambiguous setting, exposed to both structural and individual strains. However, external and internal resilience factors contribute to a generally positive attitude toward their job and indicate the agency of this precariously employed group. A socially anchored appreciation of their work and an officially controlled expansion of free time are mandatory to improve the working conditions of live-in care workers.
Using Citizen Science to examine health and access to health care of uninsured patients in Germany
(2022)
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic generated a significant burden on the German health care system, affecting the mental health of health care workers (HCW) in particular. Resilience may serve as an essential protective factor for individuals' well-being. Objective: Our objective was to identify demographic and work-related correlates of individual resilience and to investigate the association between pandemic-related stress, resilience and mental health using different resilience models. Methods: Our sample comprised 1034 German HCW in different medical professions who completed an online survey from 20 April to 1 July 2020. Resilience was assessed using the Resilience Scale-5 (RS-5). The pandemic-related self-reported stress burden was captured by a single item, while depression and anxiety symptoms were measured with the PHQ-2 and GAD-2, respectively. Additionally, various sociodemographic and work-related factors were assessed. Results: Overall, we found high levels of resilience in the sample compared to a German sample before the pandemic, which were significantly associated only with the older age of participants and having children in both univariate and multivariate analyses. Regarding mechanisms of resilience, moderation analysis revealed that low individual resilience and high pandemic-related stress burden independently contributed to both anxiety and depression symptoms while resilience additionally moderated the relationship between stress burden and anxiety symptoms. The link between self-reported stress burden and mental health symptoms was also partially mediated by individual resilience. Conclusion: Taken together, the findings based on the present sample during the COVID-19 pandemic suggest that resilience plays a central role in the mental health of healthcare workers and that resilience-building interventions should be expanded, especially with a focus on younger employees.
Objective: The present study aimed to investigate the correlation between moral distress and mental health symptoms, socio-demographic, occupational, and COVID-19-related variables, and to determine differences in healthcare workers' (HCW) moral distress during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Method: Data from 3,293 HCW from a web-based survey conducted between the 20th of April and the 5th of July 2020 were analyzed. We focused on moral distress (Moral Distress Thermometer, MDT), depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-2, PHQ-2), anxiety symptoms (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-2, GAD-2), and increased general distress of nurses, physicians, medical-technical assistants (MTA), psychologists/psychotherapists, and pastoral counselors working in German hospitals. Results: The strongest correlations for moral distress were found with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, occupancy rate at current work section, and contact with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Nurses and MTA experienced significantly higher moral distress than physicians, psychologists/psychotherapists, and pastoral counselors. The average level of moral distress reported by nurses from all work areas was similar to levels which before the pandemic were only experienced by nurses in intensive or critical care units. Conclusion: Results indicate that moral distress is a relevant phenomenon among HCW in hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic, regardless of whether they work at the frontline or not and requires urgent attention.
BACKGROUND
Thus far, there is no instrument available measuring COVID-19 related health literacy of healthcare professionals. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop an instrument assessing COVID-19 related health literacy in healthcare professionals (HL-COV-HP) and evaluate its psychometric properties.
METHODS
An exploratory factor analysis, a confirmatory factor analysis, and descriptive analyses were conducted using data from n = 965 healthcare professionals. Health literacy related to COVID-19 was measured with 12 items, which were adapted from the validated HLS-EU-Q16 instrument measuring general health literacy.
RESULTS
Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated that 12 items loaded on one component. After removing one item due to its high standardized residual covariance, the confirmatory factor analysis of a one-factor model with 11 items showed satisfactory model fit (χ2 = 199.340, df = 41, χ2/df = 4.862, p < 0.001, RMSEA = 0.063, CFI = 0.963 and TLI = 0.951). The HL-COV-HP instrument showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.87) and acceptable construct reliability.
CONCLUSIONS
The HL-COV-HP is a reliable, valid, and feasible instrument to assess the COVID-19 related health literacy in healthcare professionals. It can be used in hospitals or other healt hcare settings to assess the motivation and ability of healthcare professionals to find, understand, evaluate, and use COVID-19 information.
Understanding the interactions between the cervico-vaginal microbiome, immune responses, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) is crucial for developing targeted diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Although microbiome analyses are not yet standard practice, integrating them into routine diagnostics could enhance personalized medicine and therapies. We investigated the extent to which partial 16S short-read amplicon microbiome analyses could inform on the presence of six commonly encountered STI-causing pathogens in a patient cohort referred for colposcopy, and whether relevant taxonomic or diagnostic discrepancies occur when using vaginal rather than cervical swabs. The study cohort included cervical and vaginal samples collected from women referred for colposcopy at the University Hospital Bonn between November 2021 and February 2022, due to an abnormal PAP smear or positive hrHPV results. 16S rRNA gene sequencing libraries were prepared targeting the V1–V2 and V4 regions of the 16S RNA gene and sequenced on the Illumina MiSeq. PCR diagnostics for common STI-causing pathogens were conducted using the Allplex STI Essential Assay Kit (Seegene, Seoul, Republic of Korea). Concerning the bacterial microbiome, no significant differences were found between vaginal and cervical samples in terms of prevalence of taxa present or diversity. A total of 95 patients and 171 samples tested positive for at least one among Ureaplasma parvum, Ureaplasma urealyticum, Mycoplasma hominis, Mycoplasma genitalium, Chlamydophila trachomatis or Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Sequencing the V1–V2 region enabled detection of one-third to half of the PCR-positive samples, with the detection likelihood increasing at lower cycle threshold (Ct) values. In contrast, sequencing the V4 region was less effective overall, yielding fewer species-level identifications and a higher proportion of undetermined taxa. We demonstrate that the vaginal microbiome closely mirrors the cervical microbiome, a relationship that has not been explored previously, but which broadens the possibilities for microbiome analysis and pathogen detection and establishes vaginal swabs as a reliable method for detecting the investigated pathogens, with sensitivities comparable with or superior to endocervical swabs. On the other hand, the sensitivity of partial 16S amplicon sequencing appears insufficient for effective STI diagnostics, as it fails to reliably identify or even detect pathogens at higher Ct values.
Unattended luggage or containers in public areas, such as railway stations and buildings, like airports, may trigger bomb disposal operations. While these instances frequently involve harmless forgotten bags, they can also signal the presence of unconventional explosives and incendiary devices, which may include chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, and explosive (CBRNe) elements. Research aspects of this work include the development of a mobile laser cutting system (LCS) to enhance the capabilities of police bomb disposal units in neutralizing improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and forensic evidence collection, thereby improving the safety of the public and defusing experts. This article presents the results of the development of a breakthrough detection system using an appropriate sensor technology. Parameters are determined by means of sensory monitoring to cut through various materials without interacting with the layer behind them. The investigation includes real cutting tests with the mobile LCS on various materials. For example, breakthrough times for polystyrene ranged from 75 to 250 s depending on geometry, while sensor accuracy in detecting cutting progress exceeded 90%. Additionally, explosive residues as low as 10 ng were successfully detected post-cutting, highlighting the system’s forensic compatibility. The results show that sensor-based breakthrough detection is feasible for the laser cutting of IED-relevant objects.
Wenn Kulturelle Bildung sozial innovativ ist, flößen dann endlich mehr Mittel in die Kulturelle Bildung in ländlichen Räumen? Der Begriff „Soziale Innovation“ ist in unterschiedlichen Politikfeldern, Wirtschaftsund Wissenschaftszweigen mit hohen Erwartungen und Hoffnungen verbunden. Als Containerbegriff verspricht er, diverse soziale Probleme unserer Zeit auf neue Weise anzugehen und zu lösen. Die Bedeutung, die beispielsweise die Bundesregierung Sozialen Innovationen zuschreibt, wird in der „Nationalen Strategie für Soziale Innovationen und Gemeinwohlorientierte Unternehmen“ (2023) sichtbar. Was genau der Begriff aber meint, bleibt häufig diffus. Im Forschungsprojekt SIKUL nutzen wir seine Offenheit und stellen ihn in Bezug zu unterschiedlichen Orten Kultureller Bildung in ländlichen Räumen. Auf Basis unserer empirischen Untersuchung von vier Kulturinitiativen stellen wir eine Definition von Sozialen Innovationen in Kunst und Kultur vor, die zum einen herausstellt, dass diese in hohem Maße auf das Engagement der Zivilgesellschaft angewiesen sind, ihr Gelingen und langfristiges Bestehen zum anderen aber politisch gewährleistete Strukturen wie öffentliche Räume und langfristig angelegte Förderungen braucht. Diese Definition kann anderen Forscher*innen und Praxisakteuren Kultureller Bildung dienen, gemeinsame Entstehungsursachen und -bedingungen sowie damit verbundene Schwierigkeiten (Ehrenamt, Förderlogiken, kulturelle Infrastrukturen etc.) unterschiedlicher Formen Kultureller Bildung sichtbar zu machen und bereits bestehendes Wissen unter einem Term zu bündeln, der es ermöglicht, den vagen politischen Erklärung, Soziale Innovationen fördern zu wollen, mit konkreten Handlungsaufforderungen zu begegnen. Denn Einsparmaßnahmen bedrohen heute im besonderen Maße Kultur und Soziales; Soziale Innovationen hingegen erleben einen Aufwind, den Akteure Kultureller Bildung nutzen könnten.
Die Thesis befasst sich mit der Darstellung der Systemtheorie Niklas Luhmanns als theoretisches Fundament zur Erforschung von Informationssicherheitsmanagementsystemen (ISMS). Anhand von verschiedenen Anwendungsfällen stellt diese Arbeit die Vorzüge der Theorie Luhmanns gegenüber Keiner oder anderen Theorien dar.
Implementation of the 3D Face Recognition algorithm described in M. Jribi, S. Mathlouthi, and F. Ghorbel, "A geodesic multipolar parameterization-based representation for 3D face recognition," Signal Processing: Image Communication, vol. 99, 2021.
There is a C++ implementation and a python wrapper (Attention, this underlies BSD-3 Clause licensing) available.
As the Code was only tested with a single STL Face Image yet, it's currently only a Beta. Should you find any bugs, please report them back to me via mail: alexandra.mielke@smail.emt.h-brs.de or add issues in Github.
If you use this software, please cite it as below.
Performance Characterization of seven Imaging 3D Measurement Systems. Four iToF-cameras, one structured light camera and one active stereo camera. Namely Basler Blaze 101, pmd Picoflexx 2, Schmersal AM-T100, Melexis MLX75027, Microsoft Azure Kinect, Microsoft Kinect for Xbox360 (Kinect V1), and Intel Realsense D455.
To ensure reliable performance of Question Answering (QA) systems, evaluation of robustness is crucial. Common evaluation benchmarks commonly only include performance metrics, such as Exact Match (EM) and the F1 score. However, these benchmarks overlook critical factors for the deployment of QA systems. This oversight can result in systems vulnerable to minor perturbations in the input such as typographical errors. While several methods have been proposed to test the robustness of QA models, there has been minimal exploration of these approaches for languages other than English. This study focuses on the robustness evaluation of German language QA models, extending methodologies previously applied primarily to English. The objective is to nurture the development of robust models by defining an evaluation method specifically tailored to the German language. We assess the applicability of perturbations used in English QA models for German and perform a comprehensive experimental evaluation with eight models. The results show that all models are vulnerable to character-level perturbations. Additionally, the comparison of monolingual and multilingual models suggest that the former are less affected by character and word-level perturbations.
This paper presents dCTIDH, a CSIDH implementation that combines two recent developments into a novel state-of-the-art deterministic implementation. We combine the approach of deterministic variants of CSIDH with the batching strategy of CTIDH, which shows that the full potential of this key space has not yet been explored. This high-level adjustment in itself leads to a significant speed-up. To achieve an effective deterministic evaluation in constant time, we introduce Wombats, a new approach to performing isogenies in batches, specifically tailored to the behavior required for deterministic CSIDH using CTIDH batching.
Furthermore, we explore the two-dimensional space of optimal primes for dCTIDH, with regard to both the performance of dCTIDH in terms of finite-field operations per prime and the efficiency of finite-field operations, determined by the prime shape, in terms of cycles. This allows us to optimize both for choice of prime and scheme parameters simultaneously. Lastly, we implement and benchmark constant-time, deterministic dCTIDH. Our results show that dCTIDH not only outperforms state-of-the-art deterministic CSIDH, but even non-deterministic CTIDH: dCTIDH-2048 is faster than CTIDH-2048 by 17 percent, and is almost five times faster than dCSIDH-2048.
Transmembrane protein 175 (TMEM175) is an endolysosomal cation channel, which has attracted much attention recently from academics and the pharmaceutical industry alike since human mutations in TMEM175 were found to be associated with the development of Parkinson's disease (PD). Thus, gain-of-function mutations were identified, which reduce and loss-of-function mutations, which increase the risk of developing PD. After having been characterized as an endolysosomal potassium channel initially, soon after TMEM175 was claimed to act as a proton channel. In fact, recent evidence suggests that depending on the conditions, TMEM175 can act as either a potassium or proton channel, without acting as an antiporter or exchanger. A recent work has now identified amino acid H57 to be directly involved in gating, increasing proton conductance of the channel while leaving the potassium conductance unaffected. We review here the current knowledge of TMEM175 function, pharmacology, physiology, and pathophysiology. We discuss the potential of this ion channel as a novel drug target for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as PD, and we discuss the discovery of H57 as proton sensor.
Aligning Students’ Foreknowledge: A Practice Report From Third Year Elective "Laser Technology"
(2025)
This article introduces a model-based design, implementation, deployment, and execution methodology, with tools supporting the systematic composition of algorithms from generic and domain-specific computational building blocks that prevent code duplication and enable robots to adapt their software themselves. The envisaged algorithms are numerical solvers based on graph structures. In this article, we focus on kinematics and dynamics algorithms, but examples such as message passing on probabilistic networks and factor graphs or cascade control diagrams fall under the same pattern. The tools rely on mature standards from the Semantic Web. They first synthesize algorithms symbolically, from which they then generate efficient code. The use case is an overactuated mobile robot with two redundant arms.
Explosives trace residues on surfaces are utilized for forensic investigations and to check suspicious objects using technical and non-technical detection procedures. Data about expected trace contaminations after the handling of explosives and how they relate to a potential chemical background help to determine requirements and limitations of detection procedures. Often swab sampling is used for the analysis of surface contaminations. A wet swab sampling procedure was optimized for PETN, TNT and ammonium nitrate. Good results were achieved using PU-foam swabs wetted with a mixture of acetonitrile/water (90/10). The swabs were subsequently solvent extracted and analysed using LC-triple-quad-MS and ion-chromatography. The swabs were applied for the determination of explosives residues in a mock-up car scenario simulating one person loading the car with explosives followed by a short car travel by the same person. As test substances an ANFO, TNT and plasticized PETN were used. Additional samples were taken from indoor installations regularly used for the training of explosive detection dogs as well as other objects and buildings close by. The surface contaminations found in the investigated scenario ranged from the ng to the µg scale. The results indicate that simple cleaning procedures might not sufficient to remove explosives contaminations in training settings for explosives detection dogs. A significant spreading of explosive traces beyond direct contact with the person handling the explosive or with the explosive itself was not observed.
Cybersecurity und aktuelle Desinformation zählen zu den derzeit kritischen Bereichen im Kon text der Nutzung des Internets. Die hier dargestellte Forschung ist Teil der wertegebundenen Entwicklung zweier technischer Online-Assistenzsysteme, die vulnerablen Gruppen konkret helfen sollen. Die Forschung ist im technikethischen Kontext des Value Sensitive Design verortet und daher durch qualitativ-explorative Begleitforschung flankiert, deren Ergebnisse in Bezug auf Migrant:innen hier in Teilen präsentiert werden. Dabei stehen die Bedarfe und Erwartungen der Proband:innen sowie ihre Aussagen zu Vertrauen in Technologie, Institutionen und Medien im Zentrum.
An intelligent battery management system (BMS) with end-edge-cloud connectivity – a perspective
(2025)
The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and large-scale energy storage has necessitated advancements in battery management systems (BMSs) so that the complex dynamics of batteries under various operational conditions are optimised for their efficiency, safety, and reliability. This paper addresses the challenges and drawbacks of conventional BMS architectures and proposes an intelligent battery management system (IBMS). Leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, digital twin, blockchain, and internet-of-things (IoT), the proposed IBMS integrates complex sensing, advanced embedded systems, and robust communication protocols. The IBMS adopts a multilayer parallel computing architecture, incorporating end-edge-cloud platforms, each dedicated to specific vital functions. Furthermore, the scalable and commercially viable nature of the IBMS technology makes it a promising solution for ensuring the safety and reliability of lithium-ion batteries in EVs. This paper also identifies and discusses crucial challenges and complexities across technical, commercial, and social domains inherent in the transition to advanced end-edge-cloud-based technology.
