The 25 most recently reported publications
Lässt sich das erforderliche zeitlich begrenzte, von außen auf den Körper einwirkende Ereignis nicht im Vollbeweis sichern, fehlt es an der erforderlichen haftungsbegründenden Kausalität – mit der Folge, dass das geltend gemachte Unfallereignis nicht als Arbeitsunfall anzuerkennen ist. Bleibt unklar, welche Handlungen der Versicherte zum Zeitpunkt des Unfallereignisses vorgenommen hat, sind auch die Grundsätze des so genannten Anscheinsbeweises unanwendbar, weil ein typischer Geschehensablauf nicht nachweisbar ist.
Ereignet sich ein Unfall auf dem Heimweg vom Arbeitsplatz, während die betroffene Arbeitnehmerin mit einem Mobiltelefon telefoniert (sogenannte „gemischte Tätigkeit“), so scheidet ein Wegeunfall dann aus, wenn die Unfallentstehung überwiegend dem Telefonieren zuzurechnen ist und dieses damit für die Unfallentstehung wesentlich war.
An essential measure of autonomy in assistive service robots is adaptivity to the various contexts of human-oriented tasks, which are subject to subtle variations in task parameters that determine optimal behaviour. In this work, we propose an apprenticeship learning approach to achieving context-aware action generalization on the task of robot-to-human object hand-over. The procedure combines learning from demonstration and reinforcement learning: a robot first imitates a demonstrator’s execution of the task and then learns contextualized variants of the demonstrated action through experience. We use dynamic movement primitives as compact motion representations, and a model-based C-REPS algorithm for learning policies that can specify hand-over position, conditioned on context variables. Policies are learned using simulated task executions, before transferring them to the robot and evaluating emergent behaviours. We additionally conduct a user study involving participants assuming different postures and receiving an object from a robot, which executes hand-overs by either imitating a demonstrated motion, or adapting its motion to hand-over positions suggested by the learned policy. The results confirm the hypothesized improvements in the robot’s perceived behaviour when it is context-aware and adaptive, and provide useful insights that can inform future developments.
Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Entwicklung eines, für die kontrollierte Freisetzung hydrophiler Wirkstoffe geeigneten, Verkapselungssystems mit dem Ziel die Freisetzung osteospezifischer P2-Liganden zu verzögern, um bei der Behandlung von Knochendefekten kritischer Größe die Bildung neuen Knochengewebes zu gewährleisten. Hierfür werden, unter Anwendung der immersiven Layer-by-Layer-Beschichtung, mit den Modell-Substanzen Adenosintriphosphat und Suramin versetzte, Alginat sowie κ-Carrageen-Kapseln mit Chitosan und Lignosulfonat beschichtet und auf ihr Freisetzungsverhalten hin untersucht.
The Symposium on Virtual and Augmented Reality (SVR) is the premier conference on Virtual and Augmented Reality in Brazil. Traditionally sponsored by the Brazilian Computer Society (SBC), SVR is in its 21th edition and has established itself as an international scientific forum for the exchange of experience and knowledge among researchers, professionals, practitioners, students and developers concerned with research and development of human-computer interfaces focused on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Realities.
The special section in Computers & Graphics Journal (CAG) is an alternative track for paper submission. All accepted papers are scheduled for oral presentation at SVR. The paper presentation instructions and the no show policy are the same as those of full papers accepted in the main conference track; please, see the website for full instructions.
Gefährdet die Nutzung von Gesundheits-Apps und Wearables die solidarische Krankenversicherung?
(2019)
Blutdruck messen, Schrittzahl verfolgen, Schlaf kontrollieren, Zuckerwerte im Blick haben und sogar die Durchführung von EKGs – dies sind nur einige der Anwendungen, die ein gängiges Mobiltelefon oder eine Smartwatch mit entsprechender Software durchführen können. Apps und Wearables (so werden am Körper getragene Computertechnologien genannt) werden in ihren Einsatzmöglichkeiten immer vielfältiger.
Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurde Kraft-Lignin mit Natriumsulfit demethyliert, um den Gehalt an aromatischen Hydroxygruppen zu erhöhen und damit die Reaktivität des Lignins in Bezug auf Polyurethan-Synthesen zu erhöhen. Variiert wurden die Demethylierungstemperatur (72°C, 90°C) sowie der pH-Wert zur Isolierung des Kraft-Lignins (pH 2, 3, 4 und 5). Die Analyse der demethylierten Proben erfolgte mittels differentieller UV-Spektroskopie und der OH-Gehaltbestimmung via automatischer Titration (angelehnt an ISO 14900:2001(E)). Weitere Untersuchungen umfassten Löslichkeitstests sowie Strukturanalysen via FTIR- und UV/Vis-Spektroskopie.
2-methylacetoacetyl-coenzyme A thiolase (beta-ketothiolase) deficiency: one disease - two pathways
(2019)
Background: 2-methylacetoacetyl-coenzyme A thiolase deficiency (MATD; deficiency of mitochondrial acetoacetyl-coenzyme A thiolase T2/ “beta-ketothiolase”) is an autosomal recessive disorder of ketone body utilization and isoleucine degradation due to mutations in ACAT1.
Methods: We performed a systematic literature search for all available clinical descriptions of patients with MATD. 244 patients were identified and included in this analysis. Clinical course and biochemical data are presented and discussed.
Results: For 89.6 % of patients at least one acute metabolic decompensation was reported. Age at first symptoms ranged from 2 days to 8 years (median 12 months). More than 82% of patients presented in the first two years of life, while manifestation in the neonatal period was the exception (3.4%). 77.0% (157 of 204 patients) of patients showed normal psychomotor development without neurologic abnormalities.
Conclusion: This comprehensive data analysis provides a systematic overview on all cases with MATD identified in the literature. It demonstrates that MATD is a rather benign disorder with often favourable outcome, when compared with many other organic acidurias.
Background 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A lyase deficiency (HMGCLD) is an autosomal recessive disorder of ketogenesis and leucine degradation due to mutations in HMGCL .
Method We performed a systematic literature search to identify all published cases. 211 patients of whom relevant clinical data were available were included in this analysis. Clinical course, biochemical findings and mutation data are highlighted and discussed. An overview on all published HMGCL variants is provided.
Results More than 95% of patients presented with acute metabolic decompensation. Most patients manifested within the first year of life, 42.4% already neonatally. Very few individuals remained asymptomatic. The neurologic long-term outcome was favorable with 62.6% of patients showing normal development.
Conclusion This comprehensive data analysis provides a systematic overview on all published cases with HMGCLD including a list of all known HMGCL mutations.
Pozzolanic properties of Pennisetum purpureum grass ash were tested on Portland cement. Results show that the ash can be blended with cements without compromising binding strength of the cement. It was found that Portland cement could be blended with Pennisetum purpureum up to a ratio of 3:2 compromising compressive strength of mortar.Mortar with lower cement replacement took longer to set as evidenced by lower compressive strength within the 28-day aging time. Mortar with higher cement replacement had lower water absorption capacity, an indication that the test pozzolan was of smaller particulate size. XRF analysis and the FTIR spectrum showed that the ash has a higher content of silica. The XRD pattern of the ash showed that the ash was predominantly amorphous. SEM images showed that the ash produced at 600 o C had residual carbon material.
Mesenchymal Stem Cells
(2020)
This chapter focuses on mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), a multipotent stem cell type that has been found in a variety of tissues and organs of the human body since their discovery in 1970. Their main function is to maintain and repair the respective tissue in vivo. Mesenchymal stem cells can be easily isolated from different tissues and can undergo extensive self-proliferation prior to differentiation into various mesodermal cell types such as osteoblasts, chondrocytes, adipocytes, tenocytes, myocytes, and fibroblasts. Because of this vast differentiation potential, mesenchymal stem cells are a promising tool for regenerative medicine approaches. They could play an important role in cellular therapy, tissue replacement and regeneration in the future. Mesenchymal stem cells will be compared for their application and differentiation potential to embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem cells and the limitations and challenges using scaffolds for tissue repair will be presented. In addition, legal and ethical aspects of the use of mesenchymal stem cells will be discussed. Moreover, isolation protocols for mesenchymal stem cells from the most common sources namely bone marrow, adipose tissue and umbilical cord are included.
Modern Monte-Carlo-based rendering systems still suffer from the computational complexity involved in the generation of noise-free images, making it challenging to synthesize interactive previews. We present a framework suited for rendering such previews ofstatic scenes using a caching technique that builds upon a linkless octree. Our approach allows for memory-efficient storage and constant-time lookup to cache diffuse illumination at multiple hitpoints along the traced paths. Non-diffuse surfaces are dealt with in a hybrid way in order to reconstruct view-dependent illumination while maintaining interactive frame rates. By evaluating the visual fidelity against ground truth sequences and by benchmarking, we show that our approach compares well to low-noise path traced results, but with a greatly reduced computational complexity allowing for interactive frame rates. This way, our caching technique provides a useful tool for global illumination previews and multi-view rendering.
We present the development and evaluation of a basic building block for a future wireless sensor network for agriculture monitoring in Argentina. The module consists of a compact battery-powered wireless sensor node capable of monitoring the ambient air parameters of temperature, humidity, gas and air pressure in the agriculture industry of Argentina's Pampa region. Further in-and outputs allow the system to be extended flexibly by adding more sensors. Throughout the development, a simple, low-cost and open-source-based approach together with a lightweight communication protocol was pursued. The sensor nodes cover ranges of over 400 metres and can be operated on two AAA alkaline batteries for several years. Detailed current consumption values, range limits and battery life estimates are presented.
Poland
(2018)
Poland belongs to the first wave of pension reformers in Central and Eastern Europe. The Polish pension reform of the late 1990s can serve as a case study for the challenges faced when implementing a radical paradigmatic pension reform towards a privatized DC scheme. This report analyses the background of the original reform, discusses its political, social and economic impact and explains the reasons for later reform reversals. The report stresses that the two re-reform waves, which took place in 2011 and 2013, were mainly driven by fiscal considerations. Since the current system maintains the DC scheme applied to both public and private tiers, the recent reversal of privatization will not improve benefit levels.
