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The main aim of presented in this manuscript research is to compare the results of objective and subjective measurement of sleep quality for older adults (65+) in the home environment. A total amount of 73 nights was evaluated in this study. Placing under the mattress device was used to obtain objective measurement data, and a common question on perceived sleep quality was asked to collect the subjective sleep quality level. The achieved results confirm the correlation between objective and subjective measurement of sleep quality with the average standard deviation equal to 2 of 10 possible quality points.
Introduction. Despite its high accuracy, polysomnography (PSG) has several drawbacks for diagnosing obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Consequently, multiple portable monitors (PMs) have been proposed. Objective. This systematic review aims to investigate the current literature to analyze the sets of physiological parameters captured by a PM to select the minimum number of such physiological signals while maintaining accurate results in OSA detection. Methods. Inclusion and exclusion criteria for the selection of publications were established prior to the search. The evaluation of the publications was made based on one central question and several specific questions. Results. The abilities to detect hypopneas, sleep time, or awakenings were some of the features studied to investigate the full functionality of the PMs to select the most relevant set of physiological signals. Based on the physiological parameters collected (one to six), the PMs were classified into sets according to the level of evidence. The advantages and the disadvantages of each possible set of signals were explained by answering the research questions proposed in the methods. Conclusions. The minimum number of physiological signals detected by PMs for the detection of OSA depends mainly on the purpose and context of the sleep study. The set of three physiological signals showed the best results in the detection of OSA.
The McEliece cryptosystem is a promising candidate for post-quantum public-key encryption. In this work, we propose q-ary codes over Gaussian integers for the McEliece system and a new channel model. With this one Mannheim error channel, errors are limited to weight one. We investigate the channel capacity of this channel and discuss its relation to the McEliece system. The proposed codes are based on a simple product code construction and have a low complexity decoding algorithm. For the one Mannheim error channel, these codes achieve a higher error correction capability than maximum distance separable codes with bounded minimum distance decoding. This improves the work factor regarding decoding attacks based on information-set decoding.
Twenty-first century infrastructure needs to respond to changing demographics, becoming climate neutral, resilient and economically affordable, while remaining a driver for development and shared prosperity. However, the infrastructure sector remains one of the least innovative and digitalised, plagued by delays, cost overruns and benefit shortfalls (Cantarelli et al. 2008; Flyvbjerg, 2007; Flyvbjerg et al., 2003; Flyvbjerg et al., 2004). The root cause is the prevailing fragmentation of the infrastructure sector (Fellows and Liu, 2012). To help overcome these challenges, integration of the value chain is needed. This could be achieved through a use-case-based creation of federated ecosystems connecting open and trusted data spaces and advanced services applied to infrastructure projects. Such digital platforms enable full-lifecycle participation and responsible governance guided by a shared infrastructure vision. Digital federation enables secure and sovereign data exchange and thus collaboration across the silos within the infrastructure sector and between industries as well as within and between countries. Such an approach to infrastructure technology policy would not rely on technological solutionism but proposes the development of open and trusted data alliances. Federated data spaces provide access to the emerging data economy, especially for SMEs, and can foster the innovation of new digital services. Such responsible digital governance can help make the infrastructure sector more resilient, efficient and aligned with the realisation of ambitious decarbonisation and environmental protection targets. The European Union and the United States have already developed architectures for sovereign and secure data exchange.
Nowadays, the inexpensive memory space promotes an accelerating growth of stored image data. To exploit the data using supervised Machine or Deep Learning, it needs to be labeled. Manually labeling the vast amount of data is time-consuming and expensive, especially if human experts with specific domain knowledge are indispensable. Active learning addresses this shortcoming by querying the user the labels of the most informative images first. One way to obtain the ‘informativeness’ is by using uncertainty sampling as a query strategy, where the system queries those images it is most uncertain about how to classify. In this paper, we present a web-based active learning framework that helps to accelerate the labeling process. After manually labeling some images, the user gets recommendations of further candidates that could potentially be labeled equally (bulk image folder shift). We aim to explore the most efficient ‘uncertainty’ measure to improve the quality of the recommendations such that all images are sorted with a minimum number of user interactions (clicks). We conducted experiments using a manually labeled reference dataset to evaluate different combinations of classifiers and uncertainty measures. The results clearly show the effectiveness of an uncertainty sampling with bulk image shift recommendations (our novel method), which can reduce the number of required clicks to only around 20% compared to manual labeling.
Acoustic Echo Cancellation (AEC) plays a crucial role in speech communication devices to enable full-duplex communication. AEC algorithms have been studied extensively in the literature. However, device specific details like microphone or loudspeaker configurations are often neglected, despite their impact on the echo attenuation or near-end speech quality. In this work, we propose a method to investigate different loudspeaker-microphone configurations with respect to their contribution to the overall AEC performance. A generic AEC system consisting of an adaptive filter and a Wiener post filter is used for a fair comparison between different setups. We propose the near-end-to-residual-echo ratio (NRER) and the attenuation-of-near-end (AON) as quality measures for the full-duplex AEC performance.
Algorithms and Architectures for Cryptography and Source Coding in Non-Volatile Flash Memories
(2021)
In this work, algorithms and architectures for cryptography and source coding are developed, which are suitable for many resource-constrained embedded systems such as non-volatile flash memories. A new concept for elliptic curve cryptography is presented, which uses an arithmetic over Gaussian integers. Gaussian integers are a subset of the complex numbers with integers as real and imaginary parts. Ordinary modular arithmetic over Gaussian integers is computational expensive. To reduce the complexity, a new arithmetic based on the Montgomery reduction is presented. For the elliptic curve point multiplication, this arithmetic over Gaussian integers improves the computational efficiency, the resistance against side channel attacks, and reduces the memory requirements. Furthermore, an efficient variant of the Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) algorithm for universal lossless data compression is investigated. Instead of one LZW dictionary, this algorithm applies several dictionaries to speed up the encoding process. Two dictionary partitioning techniques are introduced that improve the compression rate and reduce the memory size of this parallel dictionary LZW algorithm.
Kapitel 2 der vorliegenden Arbeit beschreibt die theoretischen Grundlagen optimaler Regelung und die unterschiedlichen Methoden des Pfadintegral Frameworks zur Reglersynthese. Zudem wird ein Ansatz zur Erweiterung des stochastischen NMPC dargestellt, sodass eine Adaption an eine real vorliegende Systemdynamik erfolgt. Weiter wird eine Methode entwickelt und beschrieben, welche die Effizienz des Algorithmus stark erhöht.
In Kapitel 3 wird aufgezeigt, wie die Pfadintegral Regelung dazu genutzt wird ein Furuta Pendel aufzuschwingen.
In Kapitel 4 werden die Algorithmen zur Lösung unterschiedlicher Problemstellungen im Kontext eines Forschungsboot appliziert. So wird unter anderem gezeigt, wie ein Pfadintegral Regelungsalgorithmus genutzt werden kann, um autonom mit dem Forschungsboot Solgenia am Steg der HTWG Konstanz anzulegen.
Abschließend wird in Kapitel 5 ein Fazit aus den Ergebnissen gezogen, diese eingeordnet und ein Ausblick auf weitere mögliche Arbeiten gegeben.
Die vorgestellte analytische Berechnungsmethode führt, unter Berücksichtigung desKraftschlusses, der Radsatzdimensionierungund der Dämpfungseigenschaft des Antriebssystems, zu einem konservativ berechnetendynamischen Torsionsmoment.Die ermittelten Abweichungen zeigenleicht gröβere Werte gegenüber der Messungund über einen breiten Parameterbereichtendenziell gröβere Werte gegenüber der Simulation. Demnach stellt die Methodeeinen pragmatischen Ansatz dar, dasmaximale, dynamische Torsionsmomentfür die Auslegung von Radsatzwelle ausreichendkonservativ zu berechnen.
Specific climate adaptation and resilience measures can be efficiently designed and implemented at regional and local levels. Climate and environmental databases are critical for achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and for efficiently planning and implementing appropriate adaptation measures. Available federated and distributed databases can serve as necessary starting points for municipalities to identify needs, prioritize resources, and allocate investments, taking into account often tight budget constraints. High-quality geospatial, climate, and environmental data are now broadly available and remote sensing data, e.g., Copernicus services, will be critical. There are forward-looking approaches to use these datasets to derive forecasts for optimizing urban planning processes for local governments. On the municipal level, however, the existing data have only been used to a limited extent. There are no adequate tools for urban planning with which remote sensing data can be merged and meaningfully combined with local data and further processed and applied in municipal planning and decision-making. Therefore, our project CoKLIMAx aims at the development of new digital products, advanced urban services, and procedures, such as the development of practical technical tools that capture different remote sensing and in-situ data sets for validation and further processing. CoKLIMAx will be used to develop a scalable toolbox for urban planning to increase climate resilience. Focus areas of the project will be water (e.g., soil sealing, stormwater drainage, retention, and flood protection), urban (micro)climate (e.g., heat islands and air flows), and vegetation (e.g., greening strategy, vegetation monitoring/vitality). To this end, new digital process structures will be embedded in local government to enable better policy decisions for the future.
Text produced by entrepreneurs represents a data source in entrepreneurship research on venture performance and fund-raising success. Manual text coding of single variables is increasingly assisted or replaced by computer-aided text analysis. Yet, for the development of prediction models with several variables, such dictionary-based text analysis methods are less suitable. Natural language processing techniques are an alternative; however, the implementation is more complex and requires substantial programming skills. More work is required to understand how text analytics can advance entrepreneurship research. This study hence experiments with different artificial intelligence methods rooted in Natural Language Processing and deep learning. It uses 766 business plans to train a model for the automated measurement of transaction relations, a construct which is an indicator for new technology-based firm survival. Empirical findings show that the accuracy of construct measurement can be significantly increased with automated methods and improves with larger amounts of training data. Language complexity sets limits to the precision of automated construct measurement though. We therefore recommend a hybrid approach: making use of the inherent advantages of combining automated with human coding until the amount of training data is sufficiently large to substitute the human coding completely. The study provides insights into the applicability of different text analytics methods in entrepreneurship research and points at future research potential.
Auslegung von Radsatzwellen unter Berücksichtigung des maximalen, dynamischen Torsionsmoments
(2021)
Der vorgestellte Bericht verdeutlicht denEinfluss des dynamischen Torsionsmomentsinfolge von selbsterregten Radsatz-Torsionsschwingungen auf den Festigkeitsnachweisvon Radsatzwellen. Durch dieanalytische Berechnung des maximalen,dynamischen Torsionsmoments werdenkausale Zusammenhänge erkennbar, diebei der Dimensionierung von Radsätzenhilfreich sind. So führt eine Vergröβerungdes Radsatzwellendurchmessers aufgrundder zunehmenden Torsionssteifigkeitzwar zu höheren Momenten, bewirktaber gleichzeitig eine deutlich niedrigereVergleichsspannung. Durch gröβereDurchmesser der Radsatzwelle ist, infolgegeringerer Fugendrücke, allerdings auchmit einer Schwächung der Pressverbändezu rechnen. In jedem Fall sind im Hinblickauf den Festigkeitsnachweis kleine Radradienvorteilhaft. Sollten Radradius undRadsatzwellendurchmesser nicht optimiertwerden können, kann zur weiteren Absicherungdes Festigkeitsnachweises derWerkstoff EA4T verwendet werden.
Der Inhalt dieser Arbeit befasst sich mit der Verwendung von regionalen Ressourcen in Form von Erde. Diese soll als Baumaterial unter Anwendung der Stampflehmbauweise für
ökologischeres Bauen dienen. Damit der Baustoff den Ansprüchen heutiger Bauaufgaben gerecht wird, wird untersucht, mit welchen nachhaltigen Methoden die Erde stabilisiert werden kann. Darüber hinaus wird nach einem zukunftsweisenden Fertigungsverfahren
für den Stampflehmbau gesucht. Die Nutzung und Kombination dieser Aspekte bezeichnen wir als Erdbau 4.0, welcher unter anderem für das Maun Sciene Park Projekt in Botswana infrage kommen könnte.
Bittamo
(2021)
The Ethiopian state increasingly seeks to enlist putative ‘traditional authorities’ to lend legitimacy to policies and interventions in the southwestern peripheries of the country. The underlying assumptions do not accord with the perceptions of the local populations: among the Kara in the South Omo region, legitimacy is predicated upon duty and accountability, and higher degrees of public legitimacy are disconnected from authority and direct command over other people’s conduct. The office of the Kara bitti, the highest spiritual leader, thus proves intractable to such attempts at enlistment and has been little affected by the radical transformation of the Kara’s lives through increasing integration into the Ethiopian state over recent decades. But even as the office has changed little, the lives of those expected to assume the role of bitti has, and the duties of a bitti strongly constrain the office holder and limit their personal ambitions and participation in politics at the local, regional and national level.
Background:
One of the most promising health care development areas is introducing telemedicine services and creating solutions based on blockchain technology. The study of systems combining both these domains indicates the ongoing expansion of digital technologies in this market segment.
Objective:
This paper aims to review the feasibility of blockchain technology for telemedicine.
Methods:
The authors identified relevant studies via systematic searches of databases including PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar. The suitability of each for inclusion in this review was assessed independently. Owing to the lack of publications, available blockchain-based tokens were discovered via conventional web search engines (Google, Yahoo, and Yandex).
Results:
Of the 40 discovered projects, only 18 met the selection criteria. The 5 most prevalent features of the available solutions (N=18) were medical data access (14/18, 78%), medical service processing (14/18, 78%), diagnostic support (10/18, 56%), payment transactions (10/18, 56%), and fundraising for telemedical instrument development (5/18, 28%).
Conclusions:
These different features (eg, medical data access, medical service processing, epidemiology reporting, diagnostic support, and treatment support) allow us to discuss the possibilities for integration of blockchain technology into telemedicine and health care on different levels. In this area, a wide range of tasks can be identified that could be accomplished based on digital technologies using blockchains.
Matrix methods for the computation of bounds for the range of a complex polynomial and its modulus over a rectangular region in the complex plane are presented. The approach relies on the expansion of the given polynomial into Bernstein polynomials. The results are extended to multivariate complex polynomials and rational functions.
The class of square matrices of order n having a negative determinant and all their minors up to order n-1 nonnegative is considered. A characterization of these matrices is presented which provides an easy test based on the Cauchon algorithm for their recognition. Furthermore, the maximum allowable perturbation of the entry in position (2,2) such that the perturbed matrix remains in this class is given. Finally, it is shown that all matrices lying between two matrices of this class with respect to the checkerboard ordering are contained in this class, too.
In this paper, a systematic comparison of three different advanced control strategies for automated docking of a vessel is presented. The controllers are automatically tuned offline by applying an optimization process using simulations of the whole system including trajectory planner and state and disturbance observer. Then investigations are conducted subject to performance and robustness using Monte Carlos simulation with varying model parameters and disturbances. The control strategies have also been tested in full scale experiments using the solar research vessel Solgenia. The investigated control strategies all have demonstrated very good performance in both, simulation and real world experiments. Videos are available under https://www.htwg-konstanz.de/forschung-und-transfer/institute-und-labore/isd/regelungstechnik/videos/
The encoding of antenna patterns with generalized spatial modulation as well as other index modulation techniques require w-out-of-n encoding where all binary vectors of length n have the same weight w. This constant-weight property cannot be obtained by conventional linear coding schemes. In this work, we propose a new class of constant-weight codes that result from the concatenation of convolutional codes with constant-weight block codes. These constant-weight convolutional codes are nonlinear binary trellis codes that can be decoded with the Viterbi algorithm. Some constructed constant-weight convolutional codes are optimum free distance codes. Simulation results demonstrate that the decoding performance with Viterbi decoding is close to the performance of the best-known linear codes. Similarly, simulation results for spatial modulation with a simple on-off keying show a significant coding gain with the proposed coded index modulation scheme.
Electricity generation from renewable energies often fluctuates due to weather and other natural effects. The instrument of control energy (balancing energy) can compensate for these fluctuations and thus guarantee the system and supply security of the electricity grid. Luxury hotels on tourist islands could react to fluctuations in electricity generation and provide balancing energy. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the electricity consumption of luxury hotels to assess their potential as a source for providing control energy.
This paper describes the rationale and the development of a structured digital approach for measuring corporate environmental sustainability using performance metrics.
It is impossible to imagine today's age without the preservation of our environment, not even in the corporate environment. Currently, sustainability is mostly only rudimentarily considered in companies, mostly only with written down phrases on the website. This will no longer be sufficient in the future, which is why companies should record sustainability on a numerical basis. Based on the development of a workable concept for companies, a small empirical study was carried out, which can be used to numerically measure the sustainability performance of companies. Two utility analyses were completed.
One of them was supplemented by expert interviews. Well-known practitioners from the business world were interviewed and asked for their assessment of ecological performance indicators. The result of the research is an indicator-based concept that can be applied in corporate practice to determine ecological sustainability performance.
Cultural Mapping 4.0
(2021)
Die Bodenseeregion gehört zu einer der ältesten Kulturlandschaften Europas. Ihre regionale kulturelle Identität trägt zum Image sowie Identifikation seitens der Bevölkerung mit der Bodenseeregion bei. Dennoch mangelt es an einer ganzheitlichen, die gesamte Bodenseeregion umfassende Betrachtung der Frage, was die kulturelle Identität der Bodenseeregion ausmacht. Das Forschungsprojekt «CultMap4.0» hat daher zum Ziel, aus einer räumlichen Perspektive die Wechselwirkung zwischen regionaler Identität, Kultur und Mobilität zu untersuchen. Neben der Leitfrage, was kulturelle Identität in einer grenzüberschreitenden und diversen Region wie dem Bodensee zu sein und leisten vermag, werden im Rahmen von vier Themenschwerpunkten folgende Forschungsfragen untersucht: Wie nehmen einheimische Bevölkerung, Unternehmen und TouristInnen die regionale kulturelle Identität (Eigenbild) und das Image (Fremdbild) der Bodenseeregion wahr? Wie kann der Ansatz des “Cultural Mappings” durch partizipative Kartierung digital transformiert werden, und wie können kulturelle Identität und Mobilität mit digitalem Storytelling in Storymaps visualisiert werden? Welchen Beitrag kann “Cultural Mapping 4.0” als partizipatives Werkzeug zur Regionalplanung und zur Kommunikation mit Stakeholdern in der Bodenseeregion und anderenorts leisten? Die dabei entstehenden Storymaps – interaktive Webinhalte aus Texten, Karten und weiteren Medien – zur kulturellen Identität der Bodenseeregion sollen auf der Plattform “Cultural Mapping” Project Lake Constance” veröffentlicht werden, um so von den Stakeholdern als Planungs- und Entscheidungstool sowie fürs Standortmarketing genutzt werden zu können.
Cultural Mapping 4.0
(2021)
Cultural mapping aims to capture and visualize tangible and intangible cultural assets. This extend abstract proposes the consequent extension of analogue forms of cultural mapping using digital technologies, and its contribution is two-fold. First, the necessary theoretical basis is provided by a literature review of the still-young field of cultural mapping and the complementary disciplines of participatory mapping and digital story-mapping. Second, we propose a digitally enhanced Cultural Mapping 4.0 vision based on a case study from an ongoing research project in the Lake Constance region. Digital participatory mapping approaches are applied to capture data, and to validate and disseminate the results, story-mapping - a spatial form of digital storytelling - is used.
Deep transformation models
(2021)
We present a deep transformation model for probabilistic regression. Deep learning is known for outstandingly accurate predictions on complex data but in regression tasks it is predominantly used to just predict a single number. This ignores the non-deterministic character of most tasks. Especially if crucial decisions are based on the predictions, like in medical applications, it is essential to quantify the prediction uncertainty. The presented deep learning transformation model estimates the whole conditional probability distribution, which is the most thorough way to capture uncertainty about the outcome. We combine ideas from a statistical transformation model (most likely transformation) with recent transformation models from deep learning (normalizing flows) to predict complex outcome distributions. The core of the method is a parameterized transformation function which can be trained with the usual maximum likelihood framework using gradient descent. The method can be combined with existing deep learning architectures. For small machine learning benchmark datasets, we report state of the art performance for most dataset and partly even outperform it. Our method works for complex input data, which we demonstrate by employing a CNN architecture on image data.
Diese Bachelorarbeit befasst sich mit einem Kooperationsprojekt in Botswana, welches durch Lehrende und Studierende der Hochschule für Technik Wirtschaft und Gestaltung in Konstanz und einigen Experten aus aller Welt umgesetzt werden soll. Außerdem geht sie der Frage nach, was der Unterschied vom klassischen zum hybriden Projektmanagement, welches hier angewendet wird ist und wie es möglich ist eine Supply-Chain für dieses Projekt zu erstellen.
Normal breathing during sleep is essential for people’s health and well-being. Therefore, it is crucial to diagnose apnoea events at an early stage and apply appropriate therapy. Detection of sleep apnoea is a central goal of the system design described in this article. To develop a correctly functioning system, it is first necessary to define the requirements outlined in this manuscript clearly. Furthermore, the selection of appropriate technology for the measurement of respiration is of great importance. Therefore, after performing initial literature research, we have analysed in detail three different methods and made a selection of a proper one according to determined requirements. After considering all the advantages and disadvantages of the three approaches, we decided to use the impedance measurement-based one. As a next step, an initial conceptual design of the algorithm for detecting apnoea events was created. As a result, we developed an activity diagram on which the main system components and data flows are visually represented.
Botswana is a country in southern Africa with rich mineral resources, which has built its economy on mining. Due to challenges in the upcoming years caused by climate and demographic change, it aims to move away from a resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy in the long term. In order to support the
process, the Maun Science Park, a centre for research and development is planned to be created in Maun, a town on the edge of the Okavango Delta. The project is initiated by the “International Resilience and Sustainability Partnership” (inRES), a non-governmental organization. The project is currently in the initiation phase.
The purpose of this thesis is to determine a cost framework with exemplary developer calculation and sensitivity analysis for the Maun Science Park Project in Botswana. Therefor, a source research was performed in a first step. Based on this, interviews were conducted with members of the inRES. Based on the data
obtained and further assumptions, a cost framework for the different project phases of the MSP project was established. Subsequently, a developer calculation
was exemplarily carried out on the basis of the project phase 2 and a sensitivity analysis was performed.
During the interviews, data was collected on the different project phases. It became clear that the interview partners had partly inconsistent perceptions
about different project phases. The calculation can be used as a basis for further calculation at the time of concretization of the planning data.
In Maun, Botswana, a self-sufficient, sustainable and future-oriented district will be created, the Maun Science Park. Within this project, several 5-8 storey smart homes shall be built in sustainable construction. The aim of this thesis is to develop a sustainable structural concept for those homes of the Maun Science Park. In a first step, the general basics for tall building structures and sustainable construction were established. Based on those fundamentals, criteria for the structural requirements, the ecological as well as the social sustainability of a structural design could be defined. Subsequently, four structural systems were drafted: a concrete core structure, a steel shear frame structure, a rammed earth shear wall structure and a wooden diagrid structure. In addition to the pre-dimensioning of the systems, a life cycle assessment was set up to evaluate the ecological sustainability of the designs. With the help of a utility value analysis, the wooden diagrid structure was determined as the preferred variant. The comparison of the designs also allows to draw general conclusions for the development of sustainable tall building structures. The results of the life cycle assessment show the advantage of wood as an ecological building material over industrially manufactured building materials, such as steel and concrete. Whereas rammed earth, a likewise ecological building material, is not convincing due to its low strength. In general, a balance is created in the life cycle assessment between ecological and industrially manufactured products in regard of strength and environmental impact. In terms of social sustainability, the design of the structure system can significantly influence the flexibility and use of local resources. However, due to the diversity of sustainable construction, the development of a structural system should be linked to an overarching sustainability concept that takes architecture and stakeholders into account.
Health monitoring in a home environment can have broader use since it may provide continuous control of health parameters with relatively minor intrusiveness into regular life. This work aims to verify if it is possible to replace the typical in some sleep medicine areas subjective questioning by an objective measurement using electronic devices. For this purpose, a study was conducted with ten subjects, in which objective and subjective measurement of relevant sleep parameters took place. The results of both measurement methods were evaluated and analyzed. The results showed that while for some measures, such as Total Time in Bed, there is a high agreement between objective and subjective measurements, for others, such as sleep quality, there are significant differences. For this reason, currently, a combination of both measurement methods may be beneficial and provide the most detailed results, while a partial replacement can already reduce the number of questions at the subjective measurement by measurement through electronic devices.
This paper examines how varying antidumping methodologies applied within the World Trade Organization differ in the extent to which they reduce targeted exports. We show that antidumping duties, on average, hit Chinese exporters harder than those of other targeted countries. This difference can be traced back in part to China's non-market economy status, which affects the way antidumping duties are calculated. Furthermore, we show that the type of imposed duty matters, as ad-valorem duties affect exports differently compared to specific duties or duties conditional on the export price. Overall, however, antidumping duties remain effective in reducing imports independent of market economy status.
We compared vulnerable and fixed versions of the source code of 50 different PHP open source projects based on CVE reports for SQL injection vulnerabilities. We scanned the source code with commercial and open source tools for static code analysis. Our results show that five current state-of-the-art tools have issues correctly marking vulnerable and safe code. We identify 25 code patterns that are not detected as a vulnerability by at least one of the tools and 6 code patterns that are mistakenly reported as a vulnerability that cannot be confirmed by manual code inspection. Knowledge of the patterns could help vendors of static code analysis tools, and software developers could be instructed to avoid patterns that confuse automated tools.
Sustainable technologies are being increasingly used in various areas of human life. While they have a multitude of benefits, they are especially useful in health monitoring, especially for certain groups of people, such as the elderly. However, there are still several issues that need to be addressed before its use becomes widespread. This work aims to clarify the aspects that are of great importance for increasing the acceptance of the use of this type of technology in the elderly. In addition, we aim to clarify whether the technologies that are already available are able to ensure acceptable accuracy and whether they could replace some of the manual approaches that are currently being used. A two-week study with people 65 years of age and over was conducted to address the questions posed here, and the results were evaluated. It was demonstrated that simplicity of use and automatic functioning play a crucial role. It was also concluded that technology cannot yet completely replace traditional methods such as questionnaires in some areas. Although the technologies that were tested were classified as being “easy to use”, the elderly population in the current study indicated that they were not sure that they would use these technologies regularly in the long term because the added value is not always clear, among other issues. Therefore, awareness-raising must take place in parallel with the development of technologies and services.
The last decades have shown that the volume of tourism, in general, is constantly increasing (with some justified exceptions). To offer a possibility of travel for all groups of people, it is necessary to pay attention to accessibility. One of the possibilities for increasing accessibility is digital technologies, which could assist in planning and the implementation and completion of trips. To make a selection of technologies, first, a study of barriers was conducted, which was then analyzed, and finally, some technologies were made available in a test setup. A focus on two technologies was made: 360°-Tours and mobile app with the travel information. The two technologies were implemented and presented to the test subjects.
The evaluation results showed that both technologies could increase accessibility if some essential aspects (such as usability, completeness, relevance, etc.) are considered during the implementation.
Im Zuge zunehmender Effizienzbestrebungen in produzierenden Unternehmen spielt auch die Optimierung von indirekten Wertschöpfungsprozessen eine immer größere Rolle. Neben einer ansteigenden Aufgabenvielfalt stellt ein parallel wachsender Kostendruck eine doppelte Herausforderung dar. Dies gilt insbesondere für Einkaufsbereiche entsprechender Organisationen, welche an der Schnittstelle zwischen der unternehmensinternen und -externen Wertschöpfungskette operieren und an dieser einen essenziellen Beitrag auch im Sinne des Informationsflusses zur Unterstützung eines integrierten Supply Chain Managements darstellen. Um diesen zu begegnen, ist es notwendig, die relevanten Kernprozesse der Einkaufsbereiche stetig im Blick zu halten und Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten zu identifizieren und umzusetzen. Dieser Beitrag will zu einem Überblick für die Prozessoptimierung mithilfe des Einsatzes digitaler Technologien speziell in Einkaufsbereichen beitragen. Es werden die Spezifika des Einkaufs vorgestellt, relevante Kernaufgaben beschrieben und exemplarisch technologische Ansätze zur Prozessoptimierung anhand von Process Mining, Robotic Process Automation und künstlicher Intelligenz aufgezeigt.
Das produzierende Gewerbe in Deutschland erlebt aufgrund von Technologiewandel im Automobilbau, der Anpassung von Lieferketten und der digitalen Transformation grundlegende Veränderungen. Diese als Chance für künftiges Wachstum zu begreifen ist essenziell und eine zwingende Voraussetzung für den Wirtschaftsstandort Deutschland. Anhand eines konkreten Unternehmensbeispiels werden hierfür zentrale Aspekte für Transformation eines mittelständischen produzierenden Blechbearbeitungsunternehmens hin zu einem netzwerkbasierten Geschäftsmodell betrachtet. Auf Basis der Analyse von Referenzbeispielen webbasierter Vertriebsplattformen in der Blechbearbeitung werden erfolgsrelevante Aspekte für die Ausgestaltung und die Umsetzung für ein Onlineplattformmodell beschrieben. Hierbei wird exemplarisch dargelegt, wie mittels digitaler Vertriebsplattformen in Verbindung mit digitalen Auftragsmanagementprozessen neue Wege für Wachstum ermöglicht werden können.
Discourse Ethics
(2021)
Positive systems play an important role in systems and control theory and have found applications in multiagent systems, neural networks, systems biology, and more. Positive systems map the nonnegative orthant to itself (and also the non-positive orthant to itself). In other words, they map the set of vectors with zero sign variation to itself. In this article, discrete-time linear systems that map the set of vectors with up to k-1 sign variations to itself are introduced. For the special case k = 1 these reduce to discrete-time positive linear systems. Properties of these systems are analyzed using tools from the theory of sign-regular matrices. In particular, it is shown that almost every solution of such systems converges to the set of vectors with up to k-1 sign variations. It is also shown that these systems induce a positive dynamics of k-dimensional parallelotopes.
For decades now, exports and import have grown more rapidly than domestic production. This is a strong indication that, besides the rapid growth of foreign trade in final goods, trade in intermediates is becoming increasingly important. For this reason, an input-output ap-proach is more appropriate for any analysis of diversification than a traditional approach based purely on macroeconomic data.
This article analyses economic diversification in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries using data from input-output tables which are an integral part of the national accounts. We compare the performance of the GCC economies with that of a reference case, Norway, which is considered to have successfully diversified its economy despite having a large oil resource base. It also assesses these countries’ relative progress on sustainable development using a measure of the World Bank, adjusted net savings, which evaluates the true rate of savings in an economy after accounting for investments in physical and human capital, de-pletion of natural resources, and damage from environmental pollution.
The article concludes that GCC countries have, contrary to expectation, collectively per-formed relatively well on diversification, but their performance on sustainable development varies.
Einsatz von Bankettbeton bei schmalen und stark beanspruchten Ortsverbindungs- und Kreisstraßen
(2021)
Die Entwicklung der Elektromobilität, als alternative Fortbewegungsform ist seit geraumer Zeit eine nicht nur regional, sondern weltweit und unter den verschiedensten Aspekten (Technik, Umwelt, Wirtschaft, Energiewende etc.) intensiv betrachtete und untersuchte Thematik. Hierbei spielt der mögliche positive Effekt auf die Umwelt und die Energiewende hin zu nicht fossilen Energieträgern eine zentrale Rolle für Politik und Forschung bei der Förderung dieser Technologie. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Elektromobilität im Bodenseetourismus. Ziel der Arbeit ist es, die Potenziale für die Integration der Elektromobilität im Bodenseetourismus darzustellen. Hierfür wird die Elektromobilität im Bodenseetourismus als innovative Mobilitätsform postuliert, verstanden und untersucht. Die Betrachtung der Diffusion der Innovation wird vor dem Hintergrund heterogener Akteursgruppen im Dreiländereck D-A-CH untersucht.
Energiewende in Deutschland
(2021)
Das Buch thematisiert die Energiewende in Deutschland aus unterschiedlichen Blick-winkeln. Im Zentrum stehen Anwendungen verschiedener ökonomischer Ansätze (traditionelle industrie- und institutionenökonomische und neuere, insbesondere evolutorisch-systemische). Nach einem historischen Abriss und einem Blick auf die Governance-Herausforderungen werden wesentliche aktuelle Aspekte der Energie-wende diskutiert sowie die vielfältigen Herausforderungen und potentielle Lösungs-optionen aufgezeigt. Auf dieser Basis erfolgt eine Darlegung der aktuellen Phase mit der Sektorkopplung im Mittelpunkt und ein Ausblick auf zukünftige Phasen. Abschließend werden die Möglichkeiten und Grenzen einer deutschen Vorreiterrolle bei der Energiewende diskutiert.
This paper presents a generic method to enhance performance and incorporate temporal information for cardiorespiratory-based sleep stage classification with a limited feature set and limited data. The classification algorithm relies on random forests and a feature set extracted from long-time home monitoring for sleep analysis. Employing temporal feature stacking, the system could be significantly improved in terms of Cohen’s κ and accuracy. The detection performance could be improved for three classes of sleep stages (Wake, REM, Non-REM sleep), four classes (Wake, Non-REM-Light sleep, Non-REM Deep sleep, REM sleep), and five classes (Wake, N1, N2, N3/4, REM sleep) from a κ of 0.44 to 0.58, 0.33 to 0.51, and 0.28 to 0.44 respectively by stacking features before and after the epoch to be classified. Further analysis was done for the optimal length and combination method for this stacking approach. Overall, three methods and a variable duration between 30 s and 30 min have been analyzed. Overnight recordings of 36 healthy subjects from the Interdisciplinary Center for Sleep Medicine at Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Leave-One-Out-Cross-Validation on a patient-level have been used to validate the method.
Im Rahmen des KONTEC Kongresses 2021 in Dresden wurden sowohl ein Poster als auch ein Paper des Forschungsprojekts EKont veröffentlicht. Neben der Schilderung des Versuchsaufbaus werden neuartige Schneidprozesse und Abtragsprinzipien vorgestellt. Im Anschluss daran werden vier Prototypen (gleichsinniger Stufenfräser, gegenläufiger Stufenfräser, mittig gegenläufiger Stufenfräser - Getriebe und oszillierender Werkzeugaufsatz) beschrieben.
Die fortschreitende Urbanisierung sowie die voranschreitende digitale Transformation stellen viele Städte vor großen Herausforderungen. Um den wirtschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Veränderungsprozessen gerecht zu werden, braucht es innovative Lösungen. Die Nutzung digitaler Technologien und Daten eröffnen Städten neue Möglichkeiten, um sich zukunftsfähig zu gestalten. So wird die Stadt der Zukunft eine Stadt der Daten sein. Sie ist smart, vernetzt und entwickelt intelligente, digitale Lösungen für sich und ihre Bürger. Digitale, offene föderierte Plattformen bilden hierbei das Herzstück. Als zentraler Zugangspunkt zu Daten schaffen sie eine grenzenlose Vernetzung und generieren einen Mehrwert für Stadt, Bürger und Wirtschaft. Sie vereinen smarte Dienste und Services, verbessern die digitale Teilhabe und erhöhen die Lebensqualität in einer Stadt.
Das Ziel in der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Entwicklung von Anwendungsfällen aus dem Bereich der Bauwirtschaft für offene, föderierte digitale Plattformen. Der Fokus liegt hierbei auf der Online-Plattform für sogenannte digitale Zwillinge, die ein virtuelles Abbild der Realität erschaffen. Der virtuelle Stadtzwilling bildet das Fundament zahlreicher Smart City-Konzepte. Er ist ein Smart City-Werkzeug, das aufgrund seiner vielfältigen Einsatzfähigkeit für Städte großes Potenzial bietet.
Der Stadt Konstanz eröffnen sich mit der Etablierung eines digitalen Stadtzwillings neue Möglichkeiten für eine resiliente und umweltschonende Gestaltung ihres urbanen Raums. Der digitale Zwilling findet in den unterschiedlichsten Feldern Anwendung. So kann er beispielsweise für die Entwicklung klimaoptimierter Bebauungsszenarien eingesetzt oder für intelligent vorausschauende Verkehrsleitsysteme genutzt werden. Darüber hinaus ermöglicht er neue Formen mit der Öffentlichkeit zu interagieren, indem er geplante Bauvorhaben und deren Auswirkungen realitätsgetreu abbildet. Dennoch stellt die Etablierung und die vollumfängliche Nutzung des digitalen Zwillings die Stadt Konstanz vor großen Herausforderungen. So setzt die Anwendung smarter städtischer Lösungen einen ausreichenden Datenschutz voraus. Darüber hinaus ist die digitale Transformation ein zeitintensiver und kostenaufwendiger Prozess, für den entsprechende Ressourcen benötigt werden. Zudem bedarf es einen gesellschaftsübergreifenden Paradigmenwechsel, der bislang nur langsam voranschreitet. Dennoch ist es unerlässlich, dass die Stadt Konstanz die Herausforderungen annimmt und die Chancen ergreift, um zu einer zukunftsfähigen und digitalen Stadt zu werden. Denn der digitale Zwilling bildet einen zentralen Baustein auf dem Weg zu einer Smart City.
In der Nachhaltigkeits-Diskussion spielen anthropogene Treibhausgasemissionen durch den von ihnen hervorgerufenen Klimawandel eine entscheidende Rolle. Im Zuge dessen entscheidet sich die Hochschule Technik, Wirtschaft und Gestaltung in Konstanz (HTWG), eine jährliche Treibhausgasbilanzierung zu erstellen. Durch die jährliche Erfassung der hochschulbezogenen Emissionen erfolgt das Monitoring (dt.: Überwachung).
Die Bilanzierung und Überwachung der durch die Hochschule und ihren Betrieb verursachten Treibhausgasemissionen (THG-Emissionen) dienen als Ausgangspunkt für lokalen Klima-schutz. Die wesentlichen Handlungsfelder werden durch das Identifizieren der Hauptursachen für Treibhausgasemissionen ermittelt und setzen den Startpunkt für die Planung, Auswahl und Umsetzung von Klimaschutzaktivitäten. Durch eine langfristige und regelmäßige Überwachung der Emissionen trägt die HTWG auch über ihre lokalen Systemgrenzen hinaus zum gesellschaftlichen Umweltbewusstsein bei.
Um das Erreichen dieses Ziels zu unterstützen, wird im Rahmen der vorliegenden Abschlussarbeit ein Pflichtenheft erstellt. Dieses enthält eine Ausarbeitung über die erforderlichen Organisations- und Arbeitsstrukturen für das Monitoring der THG-Emissionen. Des Weiteren erfolgt mit der Status-Quo-Abschätzung der THG-Emissionen des festgelegten Basisjahres 2019 die erste exemplarische Praxisanwendung des Pflichtenheftes. Das Monitoring wird mit der Zielsetzung einer maßnahmen- und umsetzungsorientierten Anwendung konzeptioniert, dessen jährliche Erhebung mit einem vertretbaren Aufwand zu realisieren ist.
Experimentelle Untersuchung einer Kontaktverbindung für die Anwendung im konstruktiven Holzbau
(2021)
Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde eine Holz-Holz-Kontaktverbindung aus Brettschichtholz ohne mechanische Verbindungsmittel hinsichtlich ihrer Steifigkeit experimentell untersucht. Eine Druckstrebe wurde mit Hilfe eines versteckten Treppenversatzes unter einem Winkel von 30° bzw. 60° an einen Gurt angeschlossen. Insgesamt wurden in den zwei Prüfreihen 20 Prüfkörper untersucht.
Das für die Versuche verwendete Brettschichtholz wurde von vier verschiedenen Firmen und Ingenieurbüros in Deutschland zur Verfügung gestellt. Für die experimentellen Untersuchungen in dieser privatfinanzierten Masterthesis standen so immerhin ca. 50 Meter Brettschichtholz zur Verfügung.
Die Versuche wurden in der Öffentlichen Prüfstelle für Baustoffe und Geotechnik an der HTWG durchgeführt.
Die Auswertung der Versuchsergebnisse soll Aufschluss über die Steifigkeit, die Tragfähigkeit und das mechanische Verhalten eines solchen modifizierten Versatzes geben. Diese Erkenntnisse sollen eine Grundlage für die computergestützte Modellierung von Verbindungen schaffen, um lokale Effekte in Anschlussbereichen besser zu verstehen und möglichst realitätsnah implementieren zu können.
Many countries offer state credit guarantees to support credit-constrained exporters. The policy instrument is commonly justified by governments as a means to mitigating adverse outcomes of financial market frictions for exporting firms. Accumulated returns to the German state credit guarantee scheme deriving from risk-compensating premia have outweighed accumulated losses over the past 60 years. Why do private financial agents not step in and provide insurance given that the state-run program yields positive returns? We argue that costs of risk diversification, liquidity management, and coordination among creditors limit the ability of private financial agents to offer comparable insurance products. Moreover, we suggest that the government’s greater effectiveness in recovering claims in foreign countries endows the state with a cost advantage in dealing with the risks involved in large export projects. We test these hypotheses using monthly firm-level data combined with official transaction-level data on covered exports of German firms and find suggestive evidence that positive effects on trade are due to mitigated financial constraints: State credit guarantees benefit firms that are dependent on external finance, if the value at risk which they seek to cover is large, and at times when refinancing conditions on the private financial market are tight.
Im modernen Automobilbau spielen Fussgängerschutzsysteme eine immer stärker werdende Rolle, um Verletzungen und Todesfälle bei Verkehrsunfällen mit Fussgängerbeteiligung zu reduzieren. Eines dieser Sicherheitssysteme ist die aktive Motorhaube. Durch die Verwendung von Formgedächtnislegierungen (FGL) als Aktoren können die bestehenden Systeme vereinfacht werden, wobei die gleiche Funktion durch neue Mechanismen bei reduzierter Grösse und Gewicht sowie verringerten Kosten ausgeführt werden kann. In diesem Beitrag werden nach einer Einleitung zu existierenden Systemen zur Motorhauben-Anhebung FG-Aktoren und deren potenzielle Einsatzmöglichkeiten in Automobilbau kurz vorgestellt.
Twenty-first century infrastructure needs to respond to changing demographics, becoming climate neutral, resilient, and economically affordable, while remaining a driver for development and shared prosperity. However, the infrastructure sector remains one of the least innovative and digitalized, plagued by delays, cost overruns, and benefit shortfalls. The authors assessed trends and barriers in the planning and delivery of infrastructure based on secondary research, qualitative
interviews with internationally leading experts, and expert workshops. The analysis concludes that the root-cause of the industry’s problems is the prevailing fragmentation of the infrastructure value chain and a lacking long-term vision for infrastructure. To help overcome these challenges, an integration of the value chain is needed. The authors propose that this could be achieved through a use-case-based, as well as vision and governance-driven creation of federated digital platforms applied to infrastructure projects and outline a concept. Digital platforms enable full-lifecycle participation and responsible governance guided by a shared infrastructure vision. This paper has contributed as policy recommendation to the Group of Twenty (G20) in 2021.
Four-Dimensional Hurwitz Signal Constellations, Set Partitioning, Detection, and Multilevel Coding
(2021)
The Hurwitz lattice provides the densest four-dimensional packing. This fact has motivated research on four-dimensional Hurwitz signal constellations for optical and wireless communications. This work presents a new algebraic construction of finite sets of Hurwitz integers that is inherently accompanied by a respective modulo operation. These signal constellations are investigated for transmission over the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel. It is shown that these signal constellations have a better constellation figure of merit and hence a better asymptotic performance over an AWGN channel when compared with conventional signal constellations with algebraic structure, e.g., two-dimensional Gaussian-integer constellations or four-dimensional Lipschitz-integer constellations. We introduce two concepts for set partitioning of the Hurwitz integers. The first method is useful to reduce the computational complexity of the symbol detection. This suboptimum detection approach achieves near-maximum-likelihood performance. In the second case, the partitioning exploits the algebraic structure of the Hurwitz signal constellations. We partition the Hurwitz integers into additive subgroups in a manner that the minimum Euclidean distance of each subgroup is larger than in the original set. This enables multilevel code constructions for the new signal constellations.
In this article, the collection of classes of matrices presented in [J. Garloff, M. Adm, ad J. Titi, A survey of classes of matrices possessing the interval property and related properties, Reliab. Comput. 22:1-14, 2016] is continued. That is, given an interval of matrices with respect to a certain partial order, it is desired to know whether a special property of the entire matrix interval can be inferred from some of its element matrices lying on the vertices of the matrix interval. The interval property of some matrix classes found in the literature is presented, and the interval property of further matrix classes including the ultrametric, the conditionally positive semidefinite, and the infinitely divisible matrices is given for the first time. For the inverse M-matrices the cardinality of the required set of vertex matrices known so far is significantly reduced.
Compliance wirkt, wenn sie in den Köpfen der Menschen ankommt – und wenn sie adaptiv die Themen der Zeit aufgreift.
Eine Führungskräftebefragung der Kommunikationsagentur A&B One, unterstützt vom Zentrum für Wirtschaftsethik (ZfW), zeichnet hierzu ein aktuelles Bild der wichtigen Zielgruppe “Management”. Der Beitrag skizziert die Sicht von Führungsverantwortlichen aller Ebenen auf die viel diskutierte unternehmerische Verantwortung, auf die Wirksamkeit von Compliance-Maßnahmen und auf Compliance-Risiken im Homeoffice. Er gibt Impulse für die Praxis: von Synergien zwischen Purpose und Integrität bis hin zur Förderung von Regelbewusstsein beim (coronabedingten) Remote Working.
Generalized Concatenated Codes over Gaussian and Eisenstein Integers for Code-Based Cryptography
(2021)
The code-based McEliece and Niederreiter cryptosystems are promising candidates for post-quantum public-key encryption. Recently, q-ary concatenated codes over Gaussian integers were proposed for the McEliece cryptosystem together with the one-Mannheim error channel, where the error values are limited to Mannheim weight one. Due to the limited error values, the codes over Gaussian integers achieve a higher error correction capability than maximum distance separable (MDS) codes with bounded minimum distance decoding. This higher error correction capability improves the work factor regarding decoding attacks based on information-set decoding. The codes also enable a low complexity decoding algorithm for decoding beyond the guaranteed error correction capability. In this work, we extend this coding scheme to codes over Eisenstein integers. These codes have advantages for the Niederreiter system. Additionally, we propose an improved code construction based on generalized concatenated codes. These codes extent the rate region where the work factor is beneficial compared to MDS codes. Moreover, generalized concatenated codes are more robust against structural attacks than ordinary concatenated codes.
Female Entrepreneurship has gained interest over the last 20 years. Therefore, this paper analyses 7,320 articles of the research field ‘women in entrepreneurial context’ published in 885 journals. The sample is analyzed by using a machine learning and text mining based methodological approach. Aiming to provide a broad overview over the research literature, 41 clusters and 11 superordinate topics were identified. Major developments of research attention are outlined by analyzing bibliometric data of the period from 2000 to 2020. Overall growth in terms of research attention measured by the development of yearly citations per article is best noticeable in clusters ‘corporate social responsibility’, ‘brand’, and ‘corporate (-governance)’, and in superordinate topics ‘performance’, ‘education’, and ‘corporate (board/ management)’. There are also indicators for an overall increase of research attention and cluster variety. The synthesis provides an insight into most trending superordinate topics. Therefore, this literature review gives a comprehensive and descriptive overview as well as an insight into thematic trend developments of the research field.
Guiding through the Fog
(2021)
Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) programs are formalized efforts to realize entrepreneurial activities in established companies. Despite the growing and evolving landscape of CE programs, effectively managing them remains a challenging endeavor which results in disappointing outcomes and oftentimes leads to the early termination of such programs. We unmask the differences in goal setting of CE programs and highlight that setting appropriate goals is imperative for their desired outcomes. In practice, companies seem to struggle with the goal setting, and scholars have not yet fully solved the puzzle of goals setting in the context of CE programs either. Therefore, we set out to explore the current state of goal setting in the context of CE programs building upon 61 semi-structured interviews with CE program executives from cross-industry companies with different sizes. Our study contributes to a better understanding of goal setting in the context of CE programs by (1) characterizing the goal setting of CE programs based on goal attributes and goal types and (2) identifying differences among the goal setting of CE programs. We provide implications to practice for a more effective management of CE programs and conclude with a discussion for future research on the impact of the different goal settings.
The development of home health systems can provide continuous and user-friendly monitoring of key health parameters. This project aims to create a concept for such a system, implement it on a test basis, and evaluate it. Three health areas were selected for this purpose:
Sleep, Stress, and Rehabilitation. Appropriate devices were installed in the homes of test subjects and used by them for two weeks. Besides, relevant questionnaires were completed to obtain a complete picture. Finally, the implemented system was evaluated, and the results of the conducted study showed that home health systems have great potential. However, it is necessary to consider some points to increase the usability of the system and the motivation of the users. Among others, ease of use of the equipment is of extreme importance.
Identifikation von Schlaf- und Wachzuständen durch die Auswertung von Atem- und Bewegungssignalen
(2021)
With the increasing challenges of the 21st century, such as a rapidly growing population, increasing hunger and the destruction of the environment, the demand for sustainable and future-oriented ways of living is growing. To meet this demand, a residential district named Maun Science Park is being built in Botswana to develop a resilient society. In addition to the application of modern technology to optimise the use of resources, the environmentally friendly construction of the buildings is another goal of the project. This thesis investigates the prefabrication of rammed earth in terms of implementation and profitability for the Maun Science Park.
For this purpose, the specific properties, handling, as well as the application of the building material in prefabrication are first discussed.
This is followed by an investigation of how the work processes of prefabrication can be implemented in the Maun Science Park. Based on this, a profitability test is carried out using a break-even and sensitivity analysis.
The analyses showed that the investment in prefabrication is not profitable within the assumed production volume, which is due to the high fixed costs. These are primarily generated by the two main cost drivers, consisting of the new construction of the production hall and the rental of heavy construction equipment.
Lastly, recommendations for action were formulated that provide for a cost reduction in both the two main cost drivers as well as for other decisive factors.
inno4regio
(2021)
Unternehmen stehen häufig unter einem Innovationsdruck, um ihre langfristige Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu sichern. Vor allem kleine und mittelständische Unternehmen sind hier besonders gefordert, da ihnen vielfach die erforderlichen Ressourcen oder Kompetenzträger fehlen und das tägliche operative Geschäft häufig eine intensive Auseinandersetzung mit dem Thema nicht zulässt.
Diese Unternehmen sind auf externe Ressourcen angewiesen. Hinzu kommt die Unsicherheit vieler Unternehmer hinsichtlich Kooperationsmöglichkeiten mit öffentlichen Forschungseinrichtungen sowie organisatorische Bedenken mit dem damit verbundenen Koordinationsaufwand.
Das Innovationsportal inno4regio kann genau hier Abhilfe schaffen. Mittels standardisierter Prozesse soll den Unternehmern eine Möglichkeit geboten werden, externe Innovationsvorhaben durch eine Problemanalyse anzustoßen und die notwendigen Partner aus der Hochschulwelt einzubinden. Der Zugriff über einen Knotenpunkt auf das fachliche sowie kreative Personal von rund dreißig Hochschulen im Verbund der Internationalen Bodensee-Hochschule ist dabei ein Alleinstellungsmerkmal, welches in dieser Form bisher noch nicht am Markt existiert.
InnoCrowd, a Product Classification System for Design Decision in a Crowdsourced Product Innovation
(2021)
System engineering focuses on how to design and manage complex systems. Meanwhile, in the era of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things (IoT), systems are getting more complex. Contributors to higher complexity include the usage of modern components (e.g. mechatronics), new manufacturing technologies (e.g. 3D Print) and new engineering product development processes, e.g. open innovation. Open innovation is enabled by IoT, where people and devices are easily connected, and it supports development of more innovative products through ideas gained from predecessors and collaborators world wide. Some researchers suggest this approach is up to three times faster and five times cheaper than conventional approaches [Gassmann, 2012], [Howe, 2008], [Kusumah, 2018]. Because open innovation is relatively new, many managers do not know how to employ it effectively in some phases of product development [Schenk, 2009], [Afuah, 2017], including requirements definition, design and engineering processes (task assignment) through quality assurance. Also, they have trouble estimating and controlling development time and cost [Nevo, 2020], [Thanh, 2015]. As a consequence, the acceptance of this new approach in the industry is limited. Research activities addressing this new approach mainly address high-level and qualitive issues. Few effective methods are available to estimate project risk and to decide whether to initiate a project.
We propose InnoCrowd, a decision support system that uses an improved method to support these tasks and make decisions about crowdsourced engineering product development.
InnoCrowd uses natural language processing and machine learning to build a knowledgebase of crowdsourced product developments. InnoCrowd presents a manager with results of similar projects to show which practices led to good results. A manager of a new project can use this guidance to employ best practices for product requirements definition, project schedule, and other aspects, thereby reducing risk and increasing chances for success.
Innovation Labs
(2021)
Today's increasing pace of change and intense competition places demands on organizations to use a different approach to innovation, going beyond the incremental innovation that is typically developed within the core of the organization. As an option to escape the existing beliefs of the core organization, innovation labs are used to develop more discontinuous innovation. Despite the abundance of these so-called innovation labs in practice, researchers have devoted little effort to scrutinizing the concept and to provide managers with a framework for exploiting this form of innovation. In this paper, we aim to perform an empirical investigation and to create a consensus around the concept of innovation labs. To do so, we conducted a multiple case study in large international organizations with a total of 31 interviews of an average length of 70 minutes. We offer a framework by identifying four innovation lab types and consider when each is most appropriate. Furthermore, we highlight the importance for managers and their organizations to align the strategic intent with the innovation lab type as well as the interface between the innovation lab and the core business.
Integrity Management
(2021)
Established compliance management systems are not sufficient to guarantee that employees act in a law-abiding and ethical manner. In fact, modern compliance management systems rather require complementary initiatives such as an integrity management which expands the focus which is often only limited to legal content, by considering business decisions also from a moral, social, societal, and ecological perspective. The goal of integrity management is not simply having employees strictly following the rules, but instead promoting moral conduct. Therefore, integrity management particularly pays attention to the ethical behavior of the individual employee, as well as the company and management culture. The company culture can be understood as the sum of the organization’s collective values, convictions, attitudes, and mindsets. The authors point out possibilities and limitation on how companies can influence their culture by setting up targets, incentive and sanctions schemes, in addition to the already-existing control measures.
Ferromagnetism is of increasing importance in the growing field of electromobility and data storage. In stable austenitic steels, the occurrence of ferromagnetism is not expected and would also interfere with many applications. However, ferromagnetism in austenitic stainless steels after low-temperature nitriding has already been shown in the past. Herein, the presence of ferromagnetism in austenitic steels is discovered after low-temperature carburization (Kolsterizing), which represents a novel and unique finding. A zone of expanded austenite is established on various austenitic stainless steels by low-temperature carburization and the respective ferromagnetism is investigated in relation to the alloy composition. The ferromagnetism occurring is determined by means of a commercial magnetoinductive sensor (Feritscope). Ferromagnetic domains are visualized by magnetic force microscopy and a ferrofluid. X-ray diffraction measurements indicate a clear difference in the lattice expansion of the different alloys. Furthermore, a different appearance of the magnetizable microstructure regions (magnetic domain structure) is detected depending on the grain orientation determined by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). Strongly pronounced magnetic domains show no linear lattice defects, whereas in small magnetizable areas linear lattice defects are detected by electron channeling contrast imaging and EBSD.
This article discusses the ISO 19600, an international cross-industry standard that contains directives for the use of compliance management systems. The standard is designed as a guideline and is based on the principles of good governance, proportionality, transparency, and sustainability. It covers all forms of corporate and organizational structures and aims to support managers and employees in avoiding unethical conduct. The authors describe the principles of the ISO 19600 standard and in this context examine in more detail the three core elements that form a successful compliance management system: a high-level structure, a risk-based approach, and a plan-do-check-act model. In addition, compliance culture and the role of management are discussed.
ISO 37001:2016 is an international management system standard against bribery, issued by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). The aim of the standard is to support companies and organizations in combating bribery risks in their own operations and in their global value chains to prevent and detect bribery and to create international comparability in anti-corruption management.
ISO itself is the international association of more than 160 national standardization bodies that work together in ISO technical committees to develop international standards. ISO Standard 37001 was published for the first time on 15 October 2016 under the title “Anti-bribery management systems – Requirements with guidance for use”. ISO 37001 is based on the British standard 10500 and refers to international anti-corruption principles and guidelines. The standard is open to all types of organizations, regardless of their size, legal form, or geographical location. ISO 37001 has the usual “high-level structure” of an ISO standard, which simplifies setting up and operating the system alongside other management systems in an organization. As a Type-A standard, ISO 37001 is approved for certification. Companies can ask to be certified by accredited third parties; thus proving that their anti-bribery management system meets the criteria of the ISO 37001 standard. However, neither appropriate certification nor basic conformity to ISO 37001 can guarantee that bribery does not occur. Instead, the certification of a management system indicates that the company has taken all appropriate and required measures to tackle the issue of bribery.
Jahresbericht 2021
(2021)
In multi-extended object tracking, parameters (e.g., extent) and trajectory are often determined independently. In this paper, we propose a joint parameter and trajectory (JPT) state and its integration into the Bayesian framework. This allows processing measurements that contain information about parameters and states. Examples of such measurements are bounding boxes given from an image processing algorithm. It is shown that this approach can consider correlations between states and parameters. In this paper, we present the JPT Bernoulli filter. Since parameters and state elements are considered in the weighting of the measurement data assignment hypotheses, the performance is higher than with the conventional Bernoulli filter. The JPT approach can be also used for other Bayes filters.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Konzeption eines untergeordneten Stadtbusnetzes der Stadt Konstanz. Dabei wurde auf einem bereits entwickelten Entwurf eines übergeordneten Netzes aufgesetzt. Durch die Kombination dieser beiden entstand ein Gesamtbusnetz.
Im ersten Schritt wurde eine breit gefächerte Bestandsanalyse durchgeführt, inbegriffen war dabei eine Analyse des übergeordneten Busnetzes. Die gebündelten Ergebnisse gaben den Rahmen für die Konzeption vor. Danach folgte der schrittweise Entwurf der einzelnen Linien des untergeordneten Netzes. Im letzten Schritt der Konzeption wurden die Linien an wichtigen Umsteigeknoten und Parkräumen aufeinander abgestimmt.
Aus der genannten Analyse resultierten diverse Anforderungen für die Konzeption eines neuen Busnetzes. Hierbei konnte die Anbindung an die Bahn und das neu entstehende Mobilitätszentrum besonders hervorgehoben werden. Das Ergebnis der Konzeption waren elf Buslinien, die dem untergeordneten Netz zugewiesen werden können. Gemeinsam mit den fünf Linien des übergeordneten Entwurfs bilden sie ein Gesamtstadtbusnetz. Dabei wurden die Streckenverläufe der Linien aufeinander abgestimmt, sodass ein breitgefächertes Netz an Direktverbindungen entstehen konnte. Mithilfe der Abstimmung an Umsteigeknoten konnten sinnvolle Umsteigerelationen geschaffen werden, wodurch die Direktverbindungen zu einer flächendeckenden Anbindung der Stadtteile an relevante Ziele im Stadtgebiet erweitert wurden.
Auf theoretischer Ebene wurde hier aufgezeigt, wie ein neues Buskonzept der Stadt Konstanz gestaltet sein kann. Das vorliegende Konzept sollte in einer separaten Arbeit auf eine tatsächliche Umsetzbarkeit geprüft werden.
Beim data-driven learning (DDL) werden Lernerinnen und Lerner angeleitet, sprachliche Muster mit Hilfe von Korpuswerkzeugen zu entdecken und eigene Korpusabfragen durchzuführen. Am Beispiel einer Unterrichtseinheit für den Wirtschaftsdeutsch-Unterricht wird der Einsatz von DDL erläutert. Es wird deutlich, welche Chancen korpuslinguistische Verfahren bieten, aber auch, welche Probleme beim DDL auftreten können. Vor allem für die Planung des Fachsprachenunter-richts können korpuslinguistische Analysen hilfreich sein: Zu nennen sind die Bedarfsermittlung, die Auswahl von Materialien, die Identifizierung von typischem Wortschatz und häufigen Mustern sowie die Erstellung von Übungsmaterialien. Das Praxisbeispiel, das auf andere Kontexte übertragen werden kann, illustriert, wie sich korpuslinguistische Verfahren und DDL auf die Unterrichtsplanung und -durchführung auswirken: Sprache wird als Datenmenge betrachtet; der Fokus liegt auf sprachlichen Mustern; Fragen nach der Korrektheit bzw. der Angemessenheit werden thematisiert.
Kritische Analyse des Geschäftsmodells von Amazon mit einem Fokus auf wettbewerbsrechtliche Aspekte
(2021)
Als Grundlage für die im Zuge der Verkehrswende anfallenden Planungs- und Entscheidungsprozesse werden aktuelle und digitale Daten des Straßenraums benötigt. Mobile-Mapping-Systeme sind in der Lage, solche raumbezogenen Daten schnell, genau und flächendeckend zu erfassen. Die anfallenden Datenmengen sind dabei jedoch erheblich und der Zeitaufwand für eine manuelle Analyse durch Personen mit entsprechender Expertise immens. Daher ist eine Automatisierung wünschenswert. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen praxisbezogenen Überblick über Anwendungsmöglichkeiten für Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) im Themenbereich Straßenraumerfassung. Aufbauend auf einer thematischen Einführung in Mobile Mapping und KI werden ausgewählte Anwendungen vorgestellt, bei denen KI-Ansätze typische Prozesse der Straßenraumdatenverarbeitung unterstützen und beschleunigen können.
Anthropologists’ arrival stories have long served to justify, naturalize, and domesticate—often through humor—the fraught moment of entering unasked into other people's lives. This textual convention has been thoroughly critiqued, but no comparable attention has been paid to the analogous moment of departure from the field. The digital age enables both sides to maintain contact, a shift that negates the finality of earlier departures. This article engages the changes wrought by digital media that allow us to remain connected to the field. While this seems a humane affordance, it also means that it is no longer feasible to cleanly sever ties established ‘there’. When anthropologists leave the field, the field will likely follow them—on Facebook or Instagram.
List decoding for concatenated codes based on the Plotkin construction with BCH component codes
(2021)
Reed-Muller codes are a popular code family based on the Plotkin construction. Recently, these codes have regained some interest due to their close relation to polar codes and their low-complexity decoding. We consider a similar code family, i.e., the Plotkin concatenation with binary BCH component codes. This construction is more flexible regarding the attainable code parameters. In this work, we consider a list-based decoding algorithm for the Plotkin concatenation with BCH component codes. The proposed list decoding leads to a significant coding gain with only a small increase in computational complexity. Simulation results demonstrate that the Plotkin concatenation with the proposed decoding achieves near maximum likelihood decoding performance. This coding scheme can outperform polar codes for moderate code lengths.