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Die im Folgenden dargestellten wichtigsten Ergebnisse des Teilprojektes 5 "Mathematische Beschreibung der relevanten physikalischen Prozesse und numerische Simulation von Wasseraufbereitung und -verteilung" beziehen sich auf die Arbeitspakete 2 "Daten und Methoden zum Modellaufbau, zur Zustandsschätzung, Prognose und Bewertung" und 3 "Physikalische Modelle und Numerische Verfahren".
For many practical problems an efficient solution of the one-dimensional shallow water equations (Saint-Venant equations) is important, especially when large networks of rivers, channels or pipes are considered. In order to test and develop numerical methods four test problems are formulated. These tests include the well known dam break and hydraulic jump problems and two steady state problems with varying channel bottom, channel width and friction.
The detection of human skin in images is a very desirable feature for applications such as biometric face recognition, which is becoming more frequently used for, e.g., automated border or access control. However, distinguishing real skin from other materials based on imagery captured in the visual spectrum alone and in spite of varying skin types and lighting conditions can be dicult and unreliable. Therefore, spoofing attacks with facial disguises or masks are still a serious problem for state of the art face recognition algorithms. This dissertation presents a novel approach for reliable skin detection based on spectral remission properties in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectrum and proposes a cross-modal method that enhances existing solutions for face verification to ensure the authenticity of a face even in the presence of partial disguises or masks. Furthermore, it presents a reference design and the necessary building blocks for an active multispectral camera system that implements this approach, as well as an in-depth evaluation. The system acquires four-band multispectral images within T = 50ms. Using a machine-learning-based classifier, it achieves unprecedented skin detection accuracy, even in the presence of skin-like materials used for spoofing attacks. Paired with a commercial face recognition software, the system successfully rejected all evaluated attempts to counterfeit a foreign face.
Microcontroller-based sensor systems offer great opportunities for the implementation of safety features for potentially dangerous machinery. However, in general they are difficult to assess with regard to their reliability and failure rate. This paper describes the safety assessment of hardware and software of a new and innovative sensor system. The hardware is assessed by standardized methods according to norm EN ISO 13849-1, while the use of model checking is presented as an approach to solve the problem of validating the software.
This paper presents recent research on an active multispectral scanning sensor capable of classifying an object's surface material in order to distinguish between different kinds of materials and human skin. The sensor itself has already been presented in previous work and can be used in conjunction with safeguarding equipment at manually-fed machines or robot workplaces, for example. This work shows how an extended sensor system with advanced material classifiers can be used to provide additional value by distinguishing different materials of work pieces in order to suggest different tools or parameters for the machine (e.g. the use of a different saw blade or rotation speed at table saws). Additionally, a first implementation and evaluation of an active multispectral camera system addressing new safety applications is described. Both approaches intend to increase the productivity and the user's acceptance of the sensor technology.
At previous SIAS conferences, we presented a novel opto-electronic safety sensor system for skin detection at circular saws jointly developed with the Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance (IFA). This work now presents the development results of our consecutive research on a prototype of a sensor system for more general production machine applications including robot workplaces. The system uses offthe shelf LEDs and photodiodes in combination with dedicated optics and a microcontroller system to implement a so-called spectral light curtain.
Design of an Active Multispectral SWIR Camera System for Skin Detection and Face Verification
(2016)
Biometric face recognition is becoming more frequently used in different application scenarios. However, spoofing attacks with facial disguises are still a serious problem for state of the art face recognition algorithms. This work proposes an approach to face verification based on spectral signatures of material surfaces in the short wave infrared (SWIR) range. They allow distinguishing authentic human skin reliably from other materials, independent of the skin type. We present the design of an active SWIR imaging system that acquires four-band multispectral image stacks in real-time. The system uses pulsed small band illumination, which allows for fast image acquisition and high spectral resolution and renders it widely independent of ambient light. After extracting the spectral signatures from the acquired images, detected faces can be verified or rejected by classifying the material as "skin" or "no-skin". The approach is extensively evaluated with respect to both acquisition and classification performance. In addition, we present a database containing RGB and multispectral SWIR face images, as well as spectrometer measurements of a variety of subjects, which is used to evaluate our approach and will be made available to the research community by the time this work is published.
In this doctoral thesis the curing process of visible light-curing (VLC) dental composites and 3D printing rapid prototyping (RP) materials are investigated with the focus on dielectric analysis (DEA). This method is able to monitor the curing of resins in an alternating electric fringe field with adjustable frequencies and is often used for cure control of composites manufacturing in the aviation and automotive industry but hardly established in dental science or RP method development. It is capable of investigating very fast initiation and primary curing processes using high frequencies in the kHz-range. The aim of the Thesis is a better understanding of the curing processes with respect to curing parameters such as resin composition, viscosity, temperature, and for light-curing composites also light intensity and irradiation depth. Due to the nature of both dental and RP systems an application of specific experimental set-up had to be designed allowing for the generation of reproducible and valid results. Subsequently, different evaluation methods were developed to characterize the curing behavior of both material types. A special focus was paid to the determination of kinetic parameters from DEA measurements. Reaction rates of the curing of the corresponding thermosets were calculated and applied to the ion viscosity curves measured by DEA to evaluate reaction kinetic parameters. For the dental composites it could be clearly shown that the initial curing rate is directly proportional to light intensity and not to its square root as proposed by many others authors. A good description of the curing behaviour of 3DP RP materials was also achieved assuming a reaction order smaller than one. This data provides the base for the kinetic modeling of polymerization and curing processes proposed within the Thesis.
The analytical pyrolysis technique hyphenated to gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) has extended the range of possible tools for the characterization of synthetic polymers and copolymers. Pyrolysis involves thermal fragmentation of the analytical sample at temperatures of 500–1400 °C. In the presence of an inert gas, reproducible decomposition products characteristic for the original polymer or copolymer sample are formed. The pyrolysis products are chromatographically separated using a fused-silica capillary column and are subsequently identified by interpretation of the obtained mass spectra or by using mass spectra libraries. The analytical technique eliminates the need for pretreatment by performing analyses directly on the solid or liquid polymer sample. In this article, application examples of analytical pyrolysis hyphenated to GC–MS for the identification of different polymeric materials in the plastic and automotive industry, dentistry, and occupational safety are demonstrated. For the first time, results of identification of commercial light-curing dental filling material and a car wrapping foil by pyrolysis–GC–MS are presented.
It is challenging to provide users with a haptic weight sensation of virtual objects in VR since current consumer VR controllers and software-based approaches such as pseudo-haptics cannot render appropriate haptic stimuli. To overcome these limitations, we developed a haptic VR controller named Triggermuscle that adjusts its trigger resistance according to the weight of a virtual object. Therefore, users need to adapt their index finger force to grab objects of different virtual weights. Dynamic and continuous adjustment is enabled by a spring mechanism inside the casing of an HTC Vive controller. In two user studies, we explored the effect on weight perception and found large differences between participants for sensing change in trigger resistance and thus for discriminating virtual weights. The variations were easily distinguished and associated with weight by some participants while others did not notice them at all. We discuss possible limitations, confounding factors, how to overcome them in future research and the pros and cons of this novel technology.
50 Jahre: Von der FH zur HAW
(2022)
Vor Gericht werden Einsätze geruchsdifferenzierender Hunde derzeit nur unter bestimmten Voraussetzungen als Indizien-Beweis zugelassen (dokumentierter, ausreichender Ausbildungsstand des Hundes, Bestätigung der Suche durch zweiten Hund). Oft sind Leistungsgrenzen der Hunde hinsichtlich Alter der Geruchsspur, Einfluss bestimmter Witterungsbedingungen (Temperatur, Feuchtigkeit, etc.) auf die Detektierbarkeit menschlicher Geruchsspuren unklar und umstritten. Auch ist bis heute nicht wissenschaftlich untersucht, welche Bestandteile und Einzelsubstanzen des humanen Geruchs für die Hunde tatsächlich wahrnehmbar und wichtig zur Personensuche und -identifikation sind. Daher widmet sich ein aktuelles Promotionsprojekt im Institut für Detektionstechnologien der Erforschung dieser Fragen.
Marketing und Recht kompakt
(2016)
"Marketing und Recht - was soll das denn?" So oder ähnlich wird der eine oder andere auf den Titel des vorliegenden Buches spontan reagieren. Das verwundert nicht, ist die Buch-Landschaft doch vor allem dadurch geprägt, dass Marketing-Werke und Abhandlungen zu marketingrelevanten Rechtsthemen am Büchermarkt stets "getrennt marschieren". Wer Marketingkonzepte entwirft, Vorhaben im Rahmen der Marketingforschung durchführen will oder beabsichtigt, Entscheidungen im Rahmen des Marketings zu treffen, sollte unseres Erachtens möglichst frühzeitig die gängigen "juristischen Fallstricke" erkennen und in seinen Überlegungen berücksichtigen.
Marketing und Recht kompakt
(2013)
Multiple myeloma is the second most common hematological malignancy. Despite all the progress made in treating multiple myeloma, it still remains an incurable disease. Patients are left with a median survival of 4-5 years. The combined treatment of multiple myeloma with histone deacetylase inhibitors and cytokine-induced killer cells provides a promising targeted treatment option for patients. This study investigated the impact of a combined treatment compared to treatment with histone deacetylase inhibitors. The experiments revealed that a treatment with histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors could reduce cell viability to 59% for KMS 18 cell line and 46% for the U-266 cell line. The combined treatment led to a decrease of cell viability to 33% for KMS 18 and 27% for the U-266 cell line, thus showing a significantly better efficacy than the single treatment.
While 14 % of the world's working-age population currently lives in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), this figure will predictably be higher than the rest of the world combined by 2036. If this demographic group finds meaningful employment, Africa experiences an economic and social upswing. To tap this potential, the paper intends to answer the research question, "What are the prerequisites and how are they defined for the successful implementation of sustainable business model ideas in SSA?", by developing a top ten ranking consisting of previously identified sustainable business model ideas best suited for productive use. This achieves a novel approach to implementing future-oriented business models and contributes to current research on sustainable models. Since the geographical scope of SSA is pervasive, this paper focuses on Namibia, Rwanda, Senegal, and Uganda. An extensive literature review on these countries was conducted to gain a broader understanding of the situation in SSA. Additionally, research was carried out on the agricultural, energy, and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors to identify the most promising ideas. To contribute to current knowledge, experts were interviewed, and panel discussions were analyzed. Furthermore, the Business Model Canvas (BMC) was combined with the circular economy concept, which served as a framework for the business model ideas. Experts evaluated these ideas, which were subsequently ranked using fuzzy logic with artificial intelligence, based on the system for exploring country risks (CRISK-Explorer). The paper shows that skipping individual development processes opens up promising opportunities, such as the ICT-based business model e-crowd logistics or the renewable energy-based model e-Boda-Boda. Seven prerequisites for the successful implementation of these ideas were identified and defined: value delivery, promising customers, sufficient capital, presence of key resources, possibility to perform the key activities, sustainability, and profitability. The paper concludes by identifying limitations and suggesting avenues for future research.
Intelligentes Carsharing zur Förderung der urbanen Mobilität - Einfach Teilen : Schlussbericht
(2019)
Der technische Fortschritt im Bereich der Erhebung, Speicherung und Verarbeitung von Daten macht es erforderlich, neue Fragen zu sozialverträglichen Datenmärkten aufzuwerfen. So gibt es sowohl eine Tendenz zur vereinfachten Datenteilung als auch die Forderung, die informationelle Selbstbestimmung besser zu schützen. Innerhalb dieses Spannungsfeldes bewegt sich die Idee von Datentreuhändern. Ziel des Beitrags ist darzulegen, dass zwischen verschiedenen Formen der Datentreuhänderschaft unterschieden werden sollte, um der Komplexität des Themas gerecht zu werden. Insbesondere bedarf es neben der mehrseitigen Treuhänderschaft, mit dem Treuhänder als neutraler Instanz, auch der einseitigen Treuhänderschaft, bei dem der Treuhänder als Anwalt der Verbraucherinteressen fungiert. Aus dieser Perspektive wird das Modell der Datentreuhänderschaft als stellvertretende Deutung der Interessen individueller und kollektiver Identitäten systematisch entwickelt.
The technological development of the digital computer and new options to collect, store and transfer mass data have changed the world in the last 40 years. Moreover, due to the ongoing progress of computer power, the establishment of the Internet as critical infrastructure and the options of ubiquitous sensor systems will have a dramatic impact on economies and societies in the future. We give a brief overview about the technological basics especially with regard to the exponential growth of big data and current turn towards sensor-based data collection. From this stance, we reconsider the various dimensions of personal data and and market mechanisms that have an impact of data usage and protection.
Who do you trust: Peers or Technology? A conjoint analysis about computational reputation mechanisms
(2020)
Peer-to-peer sharing platforms are taking over an increasingly important role in the platform economy due to their sustainable business model. By sharing private goods and services, the challenge arises to build trust between peers online mostly without any kind of physical presence. Peer rating has been proven as an important mechanism. In this paper, we explore the concept called Trust Score, a computational rating mechanism adopted from car telematics, which can play a similar role in carsharing. For this purpose, we conducted a conjoint analysis where 77 car owners chose between fictitious user profiles. Our results show that in our experiment the telemetric-based score slightly outperforms the peer rating in the decision process, while the participants perceived the peer rating more helpful in retrospect. Further, we discuss potential benefits with regard to existing shortcomings of user rating, but also various concerns that should be considered in concepts like telemetric-based reputation mechanism that supplements existing trust factors such as user ratings.
Traditionally automotive UI focusses on the ergonomic design of controls and the user experience in the car. Bringing networked sensors into the car, connected cars can provide additional information to car drivers and owners, for and beyond the driving task. While there already are technological solutions, such as mobile applications commercially available, research on users’ information demands in such applications is scarce. We conducted four focus groups to uncover what kind of information users might be interested in to see on a second dashboard. Our findings show that besides control screens of todays’ dashboards, people are also interested in connected car services providing context information for a current driving situation and allowing strategic planning of driving safety or supporting car management when not driving. Our use cases inform the design of content for secondary dashboards for and especially beyond the driving context with a user perspective.
Vertrauen ist das Schmiermittel der Shareconomy. Einen zentralen Mechanismus hierfür stellen Crowd-basierte Reputationssysteme dar, bei denen Informationen und Bewertungen anderer Nutzer dazu dienen Vertrauen aufzubauen. Die Vernetzung zu teilender Gegenstände bietet hierbei neue Potentiale, um die Reputation eines Anbieters oder Nachfragers zu bewerten und einzuschätzen. In diesem Beitrag untersu-chen wir daher das Potential eines IoT-basierten Reputationssystems im Kontext von Peer-to-Peer Car-sharing, bei dem Informationen und Bewertungen mittels Sensorik während der Nutzung des Fahrzeugs erhoben und ausgewertet werden. Hierzu wurden zwei Fokusgruppen mit insgesamt 12 Personen durch-geführt. Die Ergebnisse deuten an, dass datenbasierte Reputationssysteme das Vertrauen nicht nur vor, sondern auch während der Vermietung und in der Nachkontrolle für Ver- und Entleiher steigern können. Jedoch sollten bei der Gestaltung solcher Systeme die Prinzipien der mehrseitigen Sicherheit wie Spar-samkeit, Verhältnismäßigkeit, Transparenz und Reziprozität beachtet werden.
The alternative use of travel time is one of the widely discussed benefits of driverless cars. We therefore conducted 14 co-design sessions to examine how people manage their time, to determine how they perceive the value of time in driverless cars and to derive design implications. Our findings suggest that driverless mobility will affect both people’s use of travel time as well as their time management in general. The participants repeatedly stated the desire of completing tasks while traveling to save time for activities that are normally neglected in their everyday life. Using travel time efficiently requires using car space efficiently, too. We found out that the design concept of tiny houses could serve as common design pattern to deal with the limited space within cars and support diverse needs.
Within qualitative interviews we examine attitudes towards driverless cars in order to investigate new mobility services and explore the impact of such services on everyday mobility. We identified three main issues that we would like to discuss in the workshop: (I) Designing beyond a driver-centric approach; (II) Developing mobility services for cars which drive themselves; and (III) Exploring self-driving practices.
The design of self-driving cars is one of the most exciting and ambitious challenges of our days and every day, new research work is published. In order to give an orientation, this article will present an overview of various methods used to study the human side of autonomous driving. Simplifying roughly, you can distinguish between design science-oriented methods (such as Research through Design, Wizard of Oz or driving simulator ) and behavioral science methods (such as survey, interview, and observation). We show how these methods are adopted in the context of autonomous driving research and dis-cuss their strengths and weaknesses. Due to the complexity of the topic, we will show that mixed method approaches will be suitable to explore the impact of autonomous driving on different levels: the individual, the social interaction and society.
Honeypots und Honeynets
(2004)
Kostenmanagement
(2009)
Marktentwicklungen und technischer Fortschritt haben zu veränderten Kosten und Leistungsstrukturen geführt. In deutschen Industrieunternehmen sind mittlerweile zwischen 50 und 90 % aller Beschäftigten in indirekten Leistungsbereichen tätig. Die Gemeinkosten sind aufgrund dieser Entwicklung in Relation zu den Gesamtkosten stark angestiegen. Daneben hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren die globale Wettbewerbssituation verschärft. Die Verlagerung von einfachen und in zunehmendem Maße qualitativ hochwertigen Dienstleistungen in sog. Niedriglohnländer bedeutet für viele Unternehmen eine erhebliche Kostenentlastung und ist häufig der einzige Weg zur Sicherung der Unternehmensexistenz. Die Konzentration auf Kernleistungen und weltweiter Kostendruck charakterisieren die Marktsituation der meisten deutschen Industrieunternehmen.
CSR-Erfolgssteuerung
(2019)
Das Lehrbuch behandelt den CSR-Reformprozess, der Unternehmen zur globalen Sorgfaltspflicht (Due Diligence) auffordert. Die CSR-Berichterstattungpflicht, die Vergaberechtsreform und die Aufforderung zur Implementierung von Risikomanagementsystemen treffen dabei nicht nur große, sondern insbesondere auch mittlere und kleine Unternehmen (KMU). Das Buch soll daher die CSR-Relevanz für Unternehmen aller Größen transparent machen und Umsetzungsblockaden und -hemmnisse abbauen.
Das Buch beschreibt den seit 2012 bereits eingeleiteten Agenda-2030-Konsultationsprozess, der insbesondere in Europa bis zum Jahr 2020 zu einer Umgestaltung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft führen wird. Erstmalig in der Geschichte kommt ab Mitte des Jahres 2016 ein globales Managementsystem zum Einsatz, das zur Fortschrittsüberwachung der 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) und den 169 globalen Unterzielen weltweit eingesetzt wird. Ein Screening der relevanten politischen Strategien und Beschlüsse verdeutlicht, dass Europa und Deutschland gut auf die Umsetzung der neuen Agenda vorbereitet sind und sich im Zuge der neuen Rechenschaftspflicht zur Umsetzung der SDGs verpflichtet haben. Traditionelle Footprint-Indikatoren, neue Ergänzungsindikatoren sowie standardisierte Richt- und Leitlinien kommen im vorstehenden Zusammenhang zukünftig zum Einsatz. Die zielorientierte globale Steuerung der SDGs fällt in das Aufgabenfeld der Koordinationsfunktion des Life-Cycle-Controllings, das beschrieben wird. Unternehmen tragen maßgeblich zur Umsetzung der SDGs bei und sind daher zunehmend verpflichtet, die negativen Auswirkungen ihres unternehmerischen Handelns transparent zu machen. Dies geschieht mithilfe von Product-Footprints und Footprints für Transportdienstleistungen, die bezüglich ihrer aktuellen und zukünftigen Praxisrelevanz ebenfalls vorgestellt werden. Zahlreiche Praxisbeispiele zeigen zudem, wie Unternehmen schon heute über den Einsatz von SDG- und CSR-Fortschrittsindikatoren ihrer globalen Sorgfaltspflicht in den Lieferantenketten nachkommen.
Seit der Einführung der Fallpauschalen im Jahr 2004 herrscht ein sich rapide verschärfender Wettbewerb im deutschen Krankenhausmarkt. Über alle Bettengrößen-Klassen hinweg ist die Zahl der Krankenhäuser mit wirtschaftlichen Problemen gestiegen. Laut Krankenhaus- Barometer hat jedes vierte Krankenhaus das Jahr 2009 mit Verlusten abgeschlossen. Am erfolgreichsten wirtschafteten Krankenhäuser mittlerer Größe (300 bis 599 Betten), sie verbuchten am häufigsten einen Jahresüberschuss (67,8 Prozent) und am seltensten einen Jahresfehlbetrag (9,9 Prozent). Kleine Krankenhäuser (50 bis 299 Betten) schreiben tendenziell häufiger rote Zahlen (23,5 Prozent) und erzielen seltener Gewinne (59,2 Prozent) oder ausgeglichene Ergebnisse (15,3 Prozent). Eine klare strategische Positionierung im Wettbewerb wird somit insbesondere für sie immer wichtiger, um langfristig Marktanteile zu sichern. Ein geeignetes Instrument zur Schaffung von Transparenz und Klarheit im Hinblick auf die regionalen aktuellen und langfristigen Marktbedingungen ist die geografische Marktanalyse auf der Basis der Geocodierung, die im Rahmen eines Pilotprojektes im Dreifaltigkeits-Krankenhaus Wesseling analysiert und eingesetzt wurde.
Corporate Social Responsibility ist freiwillig, aber keineswegs beliebig. Um sich als CSR-Unternehmen zu qualifizieren, muss ein systematisches und geplantes Engagement als nachhaltiges Unternehmen nachgewiesen und auch dokumentiert werden. Dies wird auch für Unternehmen der Immobilienwirtschaft zunehmend wichtiger, weil die Anforderungen vonseiten der Stakeholder der Unternehmen wachsen. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die deutschen Immobilienunternehmen im internationalen Vergleich gut dastehen. Ihr Anteil an allen nach der Global Reporting Initiative berichtenden Immobilienunternehmen lag im Jahr 2012 bei 15 Prozent. Von den betrachteten 135 Unternehmen in Deutschland klassifiziert sich jedoch nur ein kleiner Teil als CSR-Unternehmen. Durch eine bessere Dokumentation des Engagements kann die Anzahl an Unternehmen rasch vergrößert werden.
Purpose – The aim of the study is to investigate the implementation of corporate sustainability (CS) in the German real estate sector.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors begin by outlining the framework set by the European Union and the German Federal Government for companies wanting to be classified as sustainable. After this, the relevance of sustainability for German real estate companies is discussed. Their empirical section contains an international comparison. Finally, they present an analysis checking the implementation of CS for the main 135 German real estate companies.
Findings – The present analysis shows that German real estate companies compare well with their international counterparts, in 2012 representing 15 per cent of all real estate firms reporting on the basis of the Global Reporting Initiative. However, of the 135 companies in Germany surveyed, only a small proportion classify themselves as CS and CSR (corporate social responsibility) enterprises. This number could be rapidly increased by better documentation of companies’ commitment to sustainability.
Practical implications – The study’s importance lies in the overview it provides of CS activities in the German real estate industry. In addition, it provides hints on how companies can improve their documentation to classify as CSR enterprises. Although the analysis concentrates on Germany, the results are also relevant for companies in other European countries.
GRI4-Guidelines
(2014)
In diesem Beitrag wird gezeigt, dass das Corporate Social Responsibility-Controlling (CSR-Controlling) im Zuge der neuen Berichterstattungsvorgaben der Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) vor neuen Herausforderungen steht. Die neue GRI-4-Version fordert über erweiterte und neue Pflichtstandardangaben die CSR-Umsetzung in höchster Niveauausprägung ein und setzt neue Maßstäbe an die CSR-Gütekriterien „Transparenz“ und „Rechenschaftslegung“ in der gesamten Supply Chain. In der Analyse werden die für den zukünftigen GRI-4-Berichtseinstieg erforderlichen Anpassungsschritte dargestellt und in einem GRI-3.1-versus-GRI-4-Vergleich indikatorenbezogen erläutert.
The Latest Modeling and Implementation Techniques for an Extended Production Management System
(1998)
Die Vorteile, Nutzer aktiv, früh und langfristig in ntwicklungsprozesse zu integrieren, um Fehlentwicklungen zu vermeiden und Nutzerbedürfnisse zu adressieren, sind nicht nur in der akademischen Forschung bekannt. Prozesse und Strukturen in Unternehmen der IKT-Branche sind bereits häufig agil implementiert. Dennoch schaffen es kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) oftmals nicht, die Potentiale einer Nutzerintegration konsequent auszuschöpfen. In Fallstudien wurden drei unterschiedliche KMU analysiert, wie sie die Stimme des Nutzers im Entwicklungsprozess berücksichtigen. Unterschiedliche Strategien der Nutzerintegration, die sich in Rollen und Werkzeugen, in Anforderungen und Problemen an das Nutzersample, Methoden und Datenaufbereitung widerspiegeln, werden beleuchtet. Unser Beitrag soll helfen, Herausforderungen und Probleme von KMU auf der Suche nach angemessenen und passgenauen Wegen der Nutzerintegration zu verstehen und Lösungen zu gestalten.
The biological effects of bilirubin, still poorly understood, are concentration-dependent ranging from cell protection to toxicity. Here we present data that at high nontoxic physiological concentrations, bilirubin inhibits growth of proliferating human coronary artery smooth muscle cells by three events. It impairs the activation of Raf/ERK/MAPK pathway and the cellular Raf and cyclin D1 content that results in retinoblastoma protein hypophosphorylation on amino acids S608 and S780. These events impede the release of YY1 to the nuclei and its availability to regulate the expression of genes and to support cellular proliferation. Moreover, altered calcium influx and calpain II protease activation leads to proteolytical degradation of transcription factor YY1. We conclude that in the serum-stimulated human vascular smooth muscle primary cell cultures, bilirubin favors growth arrest, and we propose that this activity is regulated by its interaction with the Raf/ERK/MAPK pathway, effect on cyclin D1 and Raf content, altered retinoblastoma protein profile of hypophosphorylation, calcium influx, and YY1 proteolysis. We propose that these activities together culminate in diminished 5 S and 45 S ribosomal RNA synthesis and cell growth arrest. The observations provide important mechanistic insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying the transition of human vascular smooth muscle cells from proliferative to contractile phenotype and the role of bilirubin in this transition.
In den letzten Jahren ist das Thema Nachhaltigkeit zu einem Schlüsselthema in vielen wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Diskursen geworden. Ausgehend von natur-, technik-, politik- und zunehmend wirtschaftswissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung mit Fragestellungen im Kontext von Nachhaltigkeit, sind diese in den Mittelpunkt gesellschaftlicher und politischer Wahrnehmung gerückt.
In Robot-Assisted Therapy for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, the therapists’ workload is increased due to the necessity of controlling the robot manually. The solution for this problem is to increase the level of autonomy of the system, namely the robot should interpret and adapt to the behaviour of the child under therapy. The problem that we are adressing is to develop a behaviour model that will be used for the robot decision-making process, which will learn how to adequately react to certain child reactions. We propose the use of the reinforcement learning technique for this task, where feedback for learning is obtained from the therapist’s evaluation of a robot’s behaviour.
In robot-assisted therapy for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder, the workload of therapists during a therapeutic session is increased if they have to control the robot manually. To allow therapists to focus on the interaction with the person instead, the robot should be more autonomous, namely it should be able to interpret the person's state and continuously adapt its actions according to their behaviour. In this paper, we develop a personalised robot behaviour model that can be used in the robot decision-making process during an activity; this behaviour model is trained with the help of a user model that has been learned from real interaction data. We use Q-learning for this task, such that the results demonstrate that the policy requires about 10,000 iterations to converge. We thus investigate policy transfer for improving the convergence speed; we show that this is a feasible solution, but an inappropriate initial policy can lead to a suboptimal final return.
During robot-assisted therapy, a robot typically needs to be partially or fully controlled by therapists, for instance using a Wizard-of-Oz protocol; this makes therapeutic sessions tedious to conduct, as therapists cannot fully focus on the interaction with the person under therapy. In this work, we develop a learning-based behaviour model that can be used to increase the autonomy of a robot’s decision-making process. We investigate reinforcement learning as a model training technique and compare different reward functions that consider a user’s engagement and activity performance. We also analyse various strategies that aim to make the learning process more tractable, namely i) behaviour model training with a learned user model, ii) policy transfer between user groups, and iii) policy learning from expert feedback. We demonstrate that policy transfer can significantly speed up the policy learning process, although the reward function has an important effect on the actions that a robot can choose. Although the main focus of this paper is the personalisation pipeline itself, we further evaluate the learned behaviour models in a small-scale real-world feasibility study in which six users participated in a sequence learning game with an assistive robot. The results of this study seem to suggest that learning from guidance may result in the most adequate policies in terms of increasing the engagement and game performance of users, but a large-scale user study is needed to verify the validity of that observation.
PosturePairsDB19
(2019)
Motion capture, often abbreviated mocap, generally aims at recording any kind of motion -- be it from a person or an object -- and to transform it to a computer-readable format. Especially the data recorded from (professional and non-professional) human actors are typically used for analysis in e.g. medicine, sport sciences, or biomechanics for evaluation of human motion across various factors. Motion capture is also widely used in the entertainment industry: In video games and films realistic motion sequences and animations are generated through data-driven motion synthesis based on recorded motion (capture) data.
Although the amount of publicly available full-body-motion capture data is growing, the research community still lacks a comparable corpus of specialty motion data such as, e.g. prehensile movements for everyday actions. On the one hand, such data can be used to enrich (hand-over animation) full-body motion capture data - usually captured without hand motion data due to the drastic dimensional difference in articulation detail. On the other hand, it provides means to classify and analyse prehensile movements with or without respect to the concrete object manipulated and to transfer the acquired knowledge to other fields of research (e.g. from 'pure' motion analysis to robotics or biomechanics).
Therefore, the objective of this motion capture database is to provide well-documented, free motion capture data for research purposes.
The presented database GraspDB14 in sum contains over 2000 prehensile movements of ten different non-professional actors interacting with 15 different objects. Each grasp was realised five times by each actor. The motions are systematically named containing an (anonymous) identifier for each actor as well as one for the object grasped or interacted with.
The data were recorded as joint angles (and raw 8-bit sensor data) which can be transformed into positional 3D data (3D trajectories of each joint).
In this document, we provide a detailed description on the GraspDB14-database as well as on its creation (for reproducibility).
Chapter 2 gives a brief overview of motion capture techniques, freely available motion capture databases for both, full body motions and hand motions, and a short section on how such data is made useful and re-used. Chapter 3 describes the database recording process and details the recording setup and the recorded scenarios. It includes a list of objects and performed types of interaction. Chapter 4 covers used file formats, contents, and naming patterns. We provide various tools for parsing, conversion, and visualisation of the recorded motion sequences and document their usage in chapter 5.
Lower back pain is one of the most prevalent diseases in Western societies. A large percentage of European and American populations suffer from back pain at some point in their lives. One successful approach to address lower back pain is postural training, which can be supported by wearable devices, providing real-time feedback about the user’s posture. In this work, we analyze the changes in posture induced by postural training. To this end, we compare snapshots before and after training, as measured by the Gokhale SpineTracker™. Considering pairs of before and after snapshots in different positions (standing, sitting, and bending), we introduce a feature space, that allows for unsupervised clustering. We show that resulting clusters represent certain groups of postural changes, which are meaningful to professional posture trainers.
The work at hand outlines a recording setup for capturing hand and finger movements of musicians. The focus is on a series of baseline experiments on the detectability of coloured markers under different lighting conditions. With the goal of capturing and recording hand and finger movements of musicians in mind, requirements for such a system and existing approaches are analysed and compared. The results of the experiments and the analysis of related work show that the envisioned setup is suited for the expected scenario.
The French–Italian Concordia Research Station, situated on the Antarctic Polar Plateau at an elevation of 3233 m above sea level, offers a unique opportunity to study the presence and variation of microbes introduced by abiotic or biotic vectors and, consequently, appraise the amplitude of human impact in such a pristine environment. This research built upon a previous work, which explored microbial diversity in the surface snow surrounding the Concordia Research Station. While that study successfully characterized the bacterial assemblage, detecting fungal diversity was hampered by the low DNA content. To address this knowledge gap, in the present study, we optimized the sampling by increasing ice/snow collected to leverage the final DNA yield. The V4 variable region of the 16S rDNA and Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS1) rDNA was used to evaluate bacterial and fungal diversity. From the sequencing, we obtained 3,352,661 and 4,433,595 reads clustered in 930 and 3182 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) for fungi and bacteria, respectively. Amplicon sequencing revealed a predominance of Basidiomycota (49%) and Ascomycota (42%) in the fungal component; Bacteroidota (65.8%) is the main representative among the bacterial phyla. Basidiomycetes are almost exclusively represented by yeast-like fungi. Our findings provide the first comprehensive overview of both fungal and bacterial diversity in the Antarctic Polar Plateau’s surface snow/ice near Concordia Station and to identify seasonality as the main driver of microbial diversity; we also detected the most sensitive microorganisms to these factors, which could serve as indicators of human impact in this pristine environment and aid in planetary protection for future exploration missions.
The Olig3 gene encodes a bHLH factor that is expressed in the ventricular zone of the dorsal alar plate of the hindbrain. We found that the Olig3(+) progenitor domain encompassed subdomains that co-expressed Math1, Ngn1, Mash1 and Ptf1a. Olig3(+) cells give rise to neuronal types in the dorsal alar plate that we denote as class A neurons. We used genetic lineage tracing to demonstrate that class A neurons contribute to the nucleus of the solitary tract and to precerebellar nuclei. The fate of class A neurons was not correctly determined in Olig3 mutant mice. As a consequence, the nucleus of the solitary tract did not form, and precerebellar nuclei, such as the inferior olivary nucleus, were absent or small. At the expense of class A neurons, ectopic Lbx1(+) neurons appeared in the alar plate in Olig3 mutant mice. By contrast, electroporation of an Olig3 expression vector in the chick hindbrain suppressed the emergence of Lbx1(+) neurons. Climbing fiber neurons of the inferior olivary nucleus express Foxd3 and require Olig3 as well as Ptf1a for the determination of their fate. We observed that electroporation of Olig3 and Ptf1a expression vectors, but not either alone, induced Foxd3. We therefore propose that Olig3 can cooperate with Ptf1a to determine the fate of climbing fiber neurons of the inferior olivary nucleus.