The 100 most recently published documents
The concept of molecular scaffolds as defining core structures of organic molecules is utilised in many areas of chemistry and cheminformatics, e.g. drug design, chemical classification, or the analysis of high-throughput screening data. Here, we present Scaffold Generator, a comprehensive open library for the generation, handling, and display of molecular scaffolds, scaffold trees and networks. The new library is based on the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK) and highly customisable through multiple settings, e.g. five different structural framework definitions are available. For display of scaffold hierarchies, the open GraphStream Java library is utilised. Performance snapshots with natural products (NP) from the COCONUT (COlleCtion of Open Natural prodUcTs) database and drug molecules from DrugBank are reported. The generation of a scaffold network from more than 450,000 NP can be achieved within a single day.
This chapter describes a new concept and experiences of a distributed interdisciplinary learning program for students across continents. The aim is to provide students with a truly Global Intercultural Project Experience (GIPE) by working together with peers from around the world and solving real-life client’s problems. We have received seed-funding for four annual projects to engage students from Germany (Europe), Namibia (Africa), Indonesia (Asia), and Peru (South America). In 2020 and 2021, 28 and 44 students from four continents engaged in a one-semester distributed interdisciplinary project for a Namibian and Indonesian client, respectively. Despite Covid-19 they successfully completed the project expressing deep appreciation for the learning opportunities overcoming challenges of working across widespread time zones, cultures, changing requirements, and various technical difficulties. Considering the vast learning benefits, we suggest incorporating such projects in all tertiary education curricula across the globe, while streamlining organizational efforts based on lessons learned.
Die Ergebnispublikation aus dem Projekt Next Level Sports zeigt anhand der im Forschungsprojekt entwickelter Software-Konzepte auf, wie der Einsatz immersiver, digitaler Technologien zu einer aktiveren und gesünderen Lebensweise beitragen kann.
Durch ihre soziale Integrationskraft und ihre positive Wirkung auf Gesundheit und Wohlbefinden stellen Sport und Bewegung wichtige Handlungsfelder der kommunalen Daseinsvorsorge dar. Dabei nimmt die Bereitschaft, sich ausreichend zu bewegen, in den letzten Jahren in Deutschland geradezu dramatisch ab. Für die Sportförderung von Städten und Gemeinden bedeutet das, sich neuen Entwicklungen offensiv zu stellen und dabei auch die Chancen der Digitalisierung zu erschließen, um schließlich eine Trendumkehr gegen den Bewegungsmangel einleiten zu können.
In Rahmen des Forschungsprojektes Next Level Sports wurden vielfältige Ansätze identifiziert, wie immersive XR-Technologien (Virtuelle und Erweiterte Realität) eingesetzt werden können, um sportliche Aktivitäten anzuregen, Gesundheitsvorsorge zu fördern und damit die Aktivität und das Wohlbefinden zu steigern. Die entwickelten Konzepte werden in der Broschüre steckbriefartig vorgestellt und erlauben eine vertiefende Diskussion um die die Einsatzmöglichkeiten von XR-Bewegungsangeboten im kommunalen Kontext.
Die im Projekt entwickelten Software-Komponenten stehen als Open-Source-Ressourcen über GitHub zur Verfügung und können über QR-Codes in der Broschüre abgerufen werden.
Air Handling units (AHU) are designed to guarantee a high indoor air quality for any time and outdoor condition all over the year. To do so, the AHU removes particle matter like dust or pollen and adapts the thermophysical properties of air to the desired, seasonal indoor comfort conditions. AHU have a robust design and thus operate for more than fifteen years, sometimes even for decades. An AHU designed today must consider and anticipate the change of user needs as well as outdoor air conditions for the next twenty years. To anticipate the outdoor air condition of coming decades, scientific models exist, which allow the design of peak performance and capacities of the air treatment components. It is most likely, that the ongoing climate change will lead to higher temperatures as well as higher humidity, while the comfort zone of human beings will remain at today’s values. Next to the impact of global warming with average rise of mean air temperature local effects will influence the operation of AHU. On effect investigated here is the steep temperature increase in city centres called urban heat islands. Heating and cooling capacities as well as water consumption for humidification are investigated for a reference AHU for fifteen regional locations in Germany. These regions represent all climate zones within the country. Additionally, the urban heat island effect was investigated for Berlin Alexanderplatz compared a rural area close by. The AHU was chosen to operate in an intensive care unit of a hospital. The set-up leads to 24/7 operation with 8760 hours per year. The article presents the modelling of current and future weather data as well as the unit set up. The calculated hourly performance and capacity parameters for current (reference year 2012) and future weather data (reference year 2045) yield energy consumption and peak loads of the unit for heating, cooling and humidification. The results are displayed by relative comparisons of each performance value.
Media Brand Management
(2022)
The management of media brands faces challenges. In order to be able to point out possible solutions, this article first explains the concept and the nature of “media brands.” Subsequently, various theoretical approaches to the explanation of media brands and their management are presented. Regardless of theoretical preferences, it is important to keep in mind the brand-strategic complexity of media management that is subsequently described. Due to their specificity, special attention is paid to the basic strategic positioning options and to the communication management of media brands. In this way, the special features of media brand management become clear in comparison with other products and services.
Hintergrund
Während der SARS-CoV-2-Pandemie ist es vorrangig, die Mitarbeiter vor Infektionsrisiken zu schützen und die Geschäftstätigkeit zu sichern. Neue Virusvarianten mit erhöhter Ansteckungsgefahr erfordern eine weiterentwickelte Risikostrategie.
Material und Methoden
Mehrere Standardmaßnahmen wie Tests, Isolierung und Quarantäne werden zu einer neuartigen Risikostrategie kombiniert. Epidemiologische Modellrechnungen und wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse über den Verlauf der SARS-CoV-2-Infektiosität werden zur Optimierung dieser Strategie herangezogen. Das Verfahren ist in einem einfach zu bedienenden Rechner auf Excel-Basis implementiert.
Aufbau in der Praxis und Ergebnisse
Alternative Maßnahmenkombinationen und praktische Aspekte werden erörtert. Anhand von Beispielrechnungen wird die Wirkung der diskutierten Maßnahmen demonstriert.
Schlussfolgerung
Der aus diesen Grundlagen abgeleitete Quarantäne-Rechner ermöglicht es auch Nicht-Fachleuten, eine differenzierte Risikoanalyse durchzuführen und optimierte Maßnahmen einzuleiten. Gezielte Prüfroutinen und alternative Maßnahmen sichern die Personalverfügbarkeit.
Krankenhäuser in Deutschland befinden sich seit vielen Jahren in einer schwierigen finanziellen Lage, weshalb bei nicht wenigen von ihnen ein konkretes Insolvenzrisiko zu beobachten ist. Diese Entwicklung verstärkt den Druck auf die Krankenhäuser, noch intensiver als bisher eine Verbesserung ihrer Liquiditätssituation zu erreichen. Ein optimiertes Working Capital kann die Verbesserung der Liquidität wirksam unterstützen. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt die zentralen Komponenten des Working Capitals bzw. des Cash Conversion Cycle in Krankenhäusern auf, erläutert wichtige Gestaltungsbereiche zur Verbesserung des Working Capitals und zeigt zudem auf der Basis aktueller Untersuchungsergebnisse die Ist-Situation auf.
The concept of molecular scaffolds as defining core structures of organic molecules is utilised in many areas of chemistry and cheminformatics, e.g. drug design, chemical classification, or the analysis of high-throughput screening data. Here, we present Scaffold Generator, a comprehensive open library for the generation, handling, and display of molecular scaffolds, scaffold trees and networks. The new library is based on the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK) and highly customisable through multiple settings, e.g. five different structural framework definitions are available. For display of scaffold hierarchies, the open GraphStream Java library is utilised. Performance snapshots with natural products (NP) from the COCONUT database and drug molecules from DrugBank are reported. The generation of a scaffold network from more than 450,000 NP can be achieved within a single day.
The development of deep learning-based optical chemical structure recognition (OCSR) systems has led to a need for datasets of chemical structure depictions. The diversity of the features in the training data is an important factor for the generation of deep learning systems that generalise well and are not overfit to a specific type of input. In the case of chemical structure depictions, these features are defined by the depiction parameters such as bond length, line thickness, label font style and many others. Here we present RanDepict, a toolkit for the creation of diverse sets of chemical structure depictions. The diversity of the image features is generated by making use of all available depiction parameters in the depiction functionalities of the CDK, RDKit, and Indigo. Furthermore, there is the option to enhance and augment the image with features such as curved arrows, chemical labels around the structure, or other kinds of distortions. Using depiction feature fingerprints, RanDepict ensures diversely picked image features. Here, the depiction and augmentation features are summarised in binary vectors and the MaxMin algorithm is used to pick diverse samples out of all valid options. By making all resources described herein publicly available, we hope to contribute to the development of deep learning-based OCSR systems.
Die Ukrainekrise und coronabedingte Lieferkettenprobleme treiben derzeitdie Rohstoff-, Material- und Lebensmittelpreise hoch. Auch die Inflationser-wartungen steigen; es drohen Zweitrundeneffekte imGefolge höhererLohnforderungen und Lohnabschlüsse. Langfristig könnten in der Eurozoneweitere Faktoren die Inflation treiben, z.B. angebotsseitig der Fachkräfte-mangel sowie globale Nahrungsmittelknappheiten und politikseitig diegewollten Effekte der Klimapolitik. Der Beitrag diskutiert vor diesemHinter-grund geldpolitische Implikationen.
Planung bzw. Budgetierung bilden ein zentrales Element des Controlling. Aussagekräftige Ergebnisse der Budgetierung sind unverzichtbar für die Steuerung der im Unternehmen verfügbaren Ressourcen. Entsprechend der hohen Bedeutung der Budgetierung ist eine intensive methodische Innovationsbereitschaft bei den Planungsinstrumenten in den letzten Jahren zu beobachten. Zwischenzeitlich werden auch die Einsatzbereiche des Zero-Based-Budgeting wieder intensiver diskutiert (= reloaded), wobei hier die Besonderheit darin besteht, dass dieses Instrument bereits in den 80er Jahren für einige Jahre eine stärkere Beachtung in der betriebswirtschaftlichen Theorie und Praxis gefunden hatte.
The use of molecular string representations for deep learning in chemistry has been steadily increasing in recent years. The complexity of existing string representations, and the difficulty in creating meaningful tokens from them, lead to the development of new string representations for chemical structures. In this study, the translation of chemical structure depictions in the form of bitmap images to corresponding molecular string representations was examined. An analysis of the recently developed DeepSMILES and SELFIES representations in comparison with the most commonly used SMILES representation is presented where the ability to translate image features into string representations with transformer models was specifically tested. The SMILES representation exhibits the best overall performance whereas SELFIES guarantee valid chemical structures. DeepSMILES perform in between SMILES and SELFIES, InChIs are not appropriate for the learning task. All investigations were performed using publicly available datasets and the code used to train and evaluate the models has been made available to the public.
Ein größerer Anteil der in den letzten Jahren vorgenommenen Unternehmensakquisitionen wurde maßgeblich mit attraktiven Synergieerwartungen begründet. Bei näherer Betrachtung können diese Synergien oft nur wenig präzise quantifiziert und der Zeitpunkt ihrer Realisierung nur ungenau eingeordnet werden. Der vorliegende Beitrag zeigt die Bedeutung von Synergien in Verbindung mit dem Goodwill, grenzt die Kosten- und Umsatzsynergien inhaltlich ab und befasst sich auf der Basis zahlreicher Studien mit dem aktuellen Erkenntnisstand in Verbindung mit der Vorbereitung und Realisierung von Kosten- und Umsatzsynergien.
Das Phänomen des Shareholder Activismbzw. der aktivistischen Investorenwar bis vor wenigen Jahren primär aus demangloamerikanischen Raumbekannt. Seit einiger Zeit sind verstärkt auch europäische und deutscheUnternehmen das Ziel von aktivistischen Aktionären. Der vorliegendeBeitrag zeigt die Zielsetzungen dieser Investorengruppe und die hierbeiverfolgten Strategien bzw. eingesetzten Maßnahmen auf, womit paralleleine Beschreibung des Geschäftsmodells des finanziell geprägten Share-holder Activismvorgelegt wird.
Dieses Buch betrachtet die grundlegenden logistischen Bereiche zur Beschaffung, Produktion, Distribution und Entsorgung und zeigt, welche Themen und Aspekte das Logistikmanagement umfassen. In der Logistik geht es vor allem um die Optimierung des Materialflusses, der Kapazitätsauslastung, der Transportstrecke oder der Maschinenbelegung. Für den Bereich des Supply Chain Management wird die Funktionsweise, Koordination und Resilienz der Supply Chain auch vor dem Hintergrund aktueller Lieferkettenstörungen und der Einführung des Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetzes beschrieben.
Das Buch ermöglicht, anhand von zahlreichen Anwendungs- und quantitativen Übungsbeispielen, das im Studium benötigte Wissen leicht nachvollziehbar zu erlangen und zu vertiefen.
The translation of images of chemical structures into machine-readable representations of the depicted molecules is known as optical chemical structure recognition (OCSR). There has been a lot of progress over the last three decades in this field, but the development of systems for the recognition of complex hand-drawn structure depictions is still at the beginning. Currently, there is no data for the systematic evaluation of OCSR methods on hand-drawn structures available. Here we present DECIMER — Hand-drawn molecule images, a standardised, openly available benchmark dataset of 5088 hand-drawn depictions of diversely picked chemical structures. Every structure depiction in the dataset is mapped to a machine-readable representation of the underlying molecule. The dataset is openly available and published under the CC-BY 4.0 licence which applies very few limitations. We hope that it will contribute to the further development of the field.
The translation of images of chemical structures into machine-readable representations of the depicted molecules is known as optical chemical structure recognition (OCSR). There has been a lot of progress over the last three decades in this field, but the development of systems for the recognition of complex hand-drawn structure depictions is still at the beginning. Currently, there is no data for the systematic evaluation of OCSR methods on hand-drawn structures available. Here we present DECIMER - Hand-drawn molecule images, a standardised, openly available benchmark dataset of 5088 hand-drawn depictions of diversely picked chemical structures. Every structure depiction in the dataset is mapped to a machine-readable representation of the underlying molecule. The dataset is openly available and published under the CC-BY 4.0 licence which applies very few limitations. We hope that it will contribute to the further development of the field.
Betriebliches Talentmanagement als Rekrutierungsstrategie wird in der jüngeren Literatur (auch) unter ethischen Gesichtspunkten kritisch diskutiert. Ich suche daher nach soziologisch und wirtschaftswissenschaftlich fundierten Konzepten für ein nicht-elitäres, inkludierendes Talentmanagement, das auch der sozialen Verantwortung von Unternehmen und Bildungseinrichtungen gerecht wird. Dazu wird der „Capability-Ansatz“ herangezogen, und es werden die Beziehungen zwischen (nicht-elitärem) Talentmanagement und Diversity-Management (DiM) dargelegt. Ein Praxisfall aus der Hochschullandschaft wird präsentiert und aus Sicht der Entwicklung von „Capabilities“ untersucht.
We investigated the formation of Artemia franciscana swarms of freshly hatched instar I nauplii larvae. Nauplii were released into light gradients but then interrupted by light-direction changes, small obstacles, or long barriers. All experiments were carried out horizontally. Each experiment used independent replicates. Freshly produced Artemia broods were harvested from independent incubators thus providing true replicate cohorts of Artemia subjected as replicates to the experimental treatments.
We discovered that Artemia nauplii swarms can: 1. repeatedly react to non-obstructed light gradients that undergo repeated direction-changes and do so in a consistent way, 2. find their way to a light source within maze-like arrangements made from small transparent obstacles, 3. move as a swarm around extended transparent barriers, following a light gradient. This paper focuses on the recognition of whole-swarm behaviors, the description thereof and the recognition of differences in whole-swarm movements comparing non-obstructed swarming with swarms encountering obstacles. Investigations of the within-swarm behaviors of individual Artemia nauplii and their interactions with neighboring nauplii are in progress, e.g. in order to discover the underlying swarming algorithms and differences
thereof comparing non-obstructed vs. obstructed pathways.
Wie wählen Nachrichtenmedien aus, worüber sie berichten? Dieser Frage versuchen Nachrichtenwertforschende seit vielen Jahren auf den Grund zu gehen. Die Nachrichtenwertforschung ist eine der traditionsreichsten Forschungsrichtungen der Journalismusforschung, die bis zum heutigen Tag aktuell ist. Begründet wurde sie bereits in den 1920er-Jahren von Walter Lippmann, internationale Bekanntheit erfuhr sie durch Johan Galtung und Mari Holmboe Ruge, die 1965 eine Liste von Nachrichtenfaktoren entwickelten und diese empirisch überprüften. Es folgten unzählige empirische Untersuchungen zu diesem Thema, die sich an einer Weiterentwicklung der Theorie versuchten. Der vorliegende Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über die Entwicklungsgeschichte der Nachrichtenwertforschung und skizziert, was Forschende heutzutage an der Thematik interessiert.
Different charge treatment approaches are examined for cyclotide-induced plasma membrane disruption by lipid extraction studied with dissipative particle dynamics. A pure Coulomb approach with truncated forces tuned to avoid individual strong ion pairing still reveals hidden statistical pairing effects that may lead to artificial membrane stabilization or distortion of cyclotide activity depending on the cyclotide’s charge state. While qualitative behavior is not affected in an apparent manner, more sensitive quantitative evaluations can be systematically biased. The findings suggest a charge smearing of point charges by an adequate charge distribution. For large mesoscopic simulation boxes, approximations for the Ewald sum to account for mirror charges due to periodic boundary conditions are of negligible influence.
Interkulturelle Kompetenz
(2021)
„Digital gestützte Lehrveranstaltungen“ im Sinne von § 1a Abs. 2 LVV (NRW) – eine erste Annäherung
(2022)
Journalism and Advertising. On the Separation of Editorial Content and Commercial Communication
(2022)
The principle of separation between editorial content and commercial communication protects both the democratic and the commercial function of mass media. This article compiles all available statutory and professional regulations in Germany as an example of the various aspects of the principle of separation, such as the labeling obligation, the prohibition of paid content and tying transactions, as well as the handling of numerous forms of presentation of editorial advertising. Subsequently, the state of research is reported for the individual aspects of the principle of separation, in particular with regard to description and effect. Finally, proposed solutions for current application and desiderata are compiled.
Journalismus und Werbung. Zur Trennung von redaktionellen Inhalten und kommerzieller Kommunikation
(2022)
Der Trennungsgrundsatz zwischen redaktionellen Inhalten und kommerzieller Kommunikation schützt sowohl die Demokratie- wie auch die Werbeträgerfunktion von Massenmedien. Dieser Beitrag stellt für die diversen Aspekte des Trennungsgrundsatzes wie die Kennzeichnungspflicht, das Verbot von bezahlten Inhalten und Kopplungsgeschäften sowie die Handhabung zahlreicher Darstellungsformen redaktioneller Werbung alle verfügbaren gesetzlichen und standesrechtlichen Regelungen zusammen. Anschließend wird für die einzelnen Aspekte des Trennungsgrundsatzes der Stand der Forschung insbesondere hinsichtlich Beschreibung und Wirkung referiert. Schließlich werden Lösungsvorschläge für die aktuelle Anwendung und Desiderata zusammengetragen.
Kompensationsgeschäfte sind als Kopplungsgeschäfte medienrechtlich verboten. Laut Berichten von Praktiker*innen sind sie jedoch alltägliches Werkzeug im Austausch zwischen Journalist*innen und Verlagen einerseits sowie PR-Akteur*innen und Werbungtreibenden andererseits. Auf Grundlage kommunikationswissenschaftlicher, medienrechtlicher und betriebswirtschaftlicher Literatur sowie einer Befragung von 37 Expert*innen aus der Kommunikationsbranche wird untersucht, welche Formen von Kompensationsgeschäften in der Praxis existieren und welche Rolle Kompensationsgeschäfte im Wechselverhältnis von Öffentlichkeitsarbeit und Journalismus spielen. In der alltäglichen Berufspraxis mancher Branchen und Redaktionen werden im Ergebnis mit großer Selbstverständlichkeit Kompensationsgeschäfte genutzt. Daher wird nach einem definitorischen Abgleich von Induktionen, Adaptionen und Kompensationen eine Erweiterung des Intereffikationsmodells vorgeschlagen.
Der Datenjournalismus wird gleichermaßen stark in der Nachrichtenbranche beobachtet und in der Journalismusforschung reflektiert. Dieser Beitrag beschreibt das Phänomen zunächst im Kontext des Megatrends der Automatisierung des Journalismus. Anschließend wird die erste Trendstudie zum Da-tenjournalismus in Deutschland vorgestellt: Die Berufsfeldstudie war 2012 und 2019 im Feld. Die ge-wählten Items ermöglichen einen Längsschnitt-Vergleich der Entwicklung des Datenjournalismus. Bei einem Vergleich mit den nationalen Daten der „Worlds of Journalism Study“ werden weitere Gemein-samkeiten und Unterschiede deutlich. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass sich der Datenjournalismus in Deutschland zunehmend institutionalisiert hat und Datenjournalist:innen sich stark einem investigati-ven politischen Journalismus verpflichtet fühlen.
Biomimetics is a well-known approach for technical innovation. However, most of its influence remains in the academic field. One option for increasing its application in the practice of technical design is to enhance the use of the biomimetic process with a step-by-step standard, building a bridge to common engineering procedures. This article presents the endeavor of an interdisciplinary expert panel from the fields of biology, engineering science, and industry to develop a standard that links biomimetics to the classical processes of product development and engineering design. This new standard, VDI 6220 Part 2, proposes a process description that is compatible and connectable to classical approaches in engineering design. The standard encompasses both the solution-based and the problem-driven process of biomimetics. It is intended to be used in any product development process for more biomimetic applications in the future.
Fruits (follicles) of Hakea salicifolia and Hakea sericea (Proteaceae) are characterised by pronounced lignification and open via a ventral suture and the dorsal side. The opening along both sides is unique within the Proteaceae. Both serotinous species are obligate seeders, whose spreading benefits from bush fire events. The different tissues and the course of the vascular bundles must allow the opening mechanism. While their 2D-arrangements are known to some extent from light-microscopy images of cross-sections, this work presents their three-dimensional structures and discusses their contribution to the opening of Hakea fruits. For this purpose, 3D greyscale images, reconstructed from µCT-projection data of both fruits are segmented, assisted by a deep learning algorithm (AI algorithm). 3D renderings from these segmentations show strongly interconnected vascular bundles that build a double-dome shaped network in each valve of H. salicifolia and a dome shaped honeycomb-structure in each valve of H. sericea. However, the vascular bundles of both species show no interconnection between the two lateral valves of the fruit but leave gaps for predetermined fracture tissues on the ventral and dorsal side. The opening of the fruits after a fire or after separation from the mother plant can be explained by the anisotropic shrinkage in the two valves of the fruit.
Im zweiten Corona-Winter sollen die Schulen offenbleiben. Neben Fenster- und mechanischer Lüftung werden mobile Raumluftreiniger als sinnvolle Maßnahmen angesehen, um das Infektionsrisiko zu reduzieren. Dabei stellt sich die Frage, wie deren sicherer und zuverlässiger Betrieb gestalten sein muss. Gibt es bevorzugte Aufstellpositionen im Raum und wie wirkt sich die Luftbewegung auf die Behaglichkeit aus? Die Datenlage hierzu ist noch unzureichend (vgl. HLH-Interview mit Dr. Gommel, HLH 10/2021). Diese Fragen werden für einen typischen Seminar- und Klassenraum näher beleuchtet.
Der Aufsatz untersucht die Frage des Vorrangverhältnisses zwischen Europäischem und nationalem Recht sowie daraus folgend der Kontrolle der Kompetenzausübung der Union durch nationale Gerichte anhand der unterschiedlichen Auffassungen des BVerfG und des EuGH und diskutiert den Lösungsansatz durch ein Kompetenzgericht
Robot arms are one of many assistive technologies used by people with motor impairments. Assistive robot arms can allow people to perform activities of daily living (ADL) involving grasping and manipulating objects in their environment without the assistance of caregivers. Suitable input devices (e.g., joysticks) mostly have two Degrees of Freedom (DoF), while most assistive robot arms have six or more. This results in time-consuming and cognitively demanding mode switches to change the mapping of DoFs to control the robot. One option to decrease the difficulty of controlling a high-DoF assistive robot arm using a low-DoF input device is to assign different combinations of movement-DoFs to the device’s input DoFs depending on the current situation (adaptive control). To explore this method of control, we designed two adaptive control methods for a realistic virtual 3D environment. We evaluated our methods against a commonly used non-adaptive control method that requires the user to switch controls manually. This was conducted in a simulated remote study that used Virtual Reality and involved 39 non-disabled participants. Our results show that the number of mode switches necessary to complete a simple pick-and-place task decreases significantl when using an adaptive control type. In contrast, the task completion time and workload stay the same. A thematic analysis of qualitative feedback of our participants suggests that a longer period of training could further improve the performance of adaptive control methods.
Gerechter Zufall per Gesetz?
(2022)
Grundkurs C++
(2022)
Das gesamte Grundwissen zu C++ im praktischen Taschenbuchformat – zum Lernen und Nachschlagen. Vom ersten einfachen Programm bis zu komplexen Anwendungen. Übungen am Ende jedes Kapitels helfen Ihnen bei der Lernkontrolle. Sämtliche Grundlagen (Klassen, Vererbung, Polymorphie, Templates usw.) werden kurz und übersichtlich dargestellt. Diese dritte Auflage berücksichtigt aktuelle Standars bis C++20.
Nowadays, robots are found in a growing number of areas where they collaborate closely with humans. Enabled by lightweight materials and safety sensors, these cobots are gaining increasing popularity in domestic care, where they support people with physical impairments in their everyday lives. However, when cobots perform actions autonomously, it remains challenging for human collaborators to understand and predict their behavior, which is crucial for achieving trust and user acceptance. One significant aspect of predicting cobot behavior is understanding their perception and comprehending how they “see” the world. To tackle this challenge, we compared three different visualization techniques for Spatial Augmented Reality. All of these communicate cobot perception by visually indicating which objects in the cobot’s surrounding have been identified by their sensors. We compared the well-established visualizations Wedge and Halo against our proposed visualization Line in a remote user experiment with participants suffering from physical impairments. In a second remote experiment, we validated these findings with a broader non-specific user base. Our findings show that Line, a lower complexity visualization, results in significantly faster reaction times compared to Halo, and lower task load compared to both Wedge and Halo. Overall, users prefer Line as a more straightforward visualization. In Spatial Augmented Reality, with its known disadvantage of limited projection area size, established off-screen visualizations are not effective in communicating cobot perception and Line presents an easy-to-understand alternative.
This paper describes a new concept and experiences of a distributed interdisciplinary learning programme for students across continents. The aim is to provide students with a truly Global Intercultural Project Experience (GIPE) by working together with peers from around the world, and solving real-life client’s problems. We have received seed-funding for four annual projects to engage students from Germany (Europe), Namibia (Africa), Indonesia (Asia), and Peru (Latin-America). In 2020, 30 students from four continents engaged in a one-semester distributed software development project for a Namibian client. Despite Covid-19 they successfully completed the project expressing deep appreciation for the learning opportunities overcoming challenges of working across wide-spread time zones, cultures, changing requirements, and various technical challenges. Considering the vast learning benefits, we suggest to incorporate such projects in all tertiary education curricula across the globe.
Competency-oriented exams offer a wide range of advantages, especially where the use and mastery of third-party applications and tools play an important role. Therefore, we developed a competency-oriented setup for both our programming classes and exams ensuring their constructive alignment.
Exams were moved to the computer lab and designed to test both conceptional skills as well as the use of state-of-the-art programming tools. At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, when exams had to be moved from lab to online, we needed to design an online setup for our practical programming exams preserving the competency-oriented approach and its constructive alignment as well as the validity, reliability and fairness of the exams. The key was to use the same online tools that have been introduced
for running lectures and practical classes offering almost the same learning experience as before the pandemic. However, to ensure the validity and fairness of the exams, some kind of online supervision needed to be implemented as technical solutions were found to be either unusable or not working
properly in our case. This paper discusses the driving factors, the resulting technical and organizational setup as well as students’ feedback and lessons learned for further improvements. Therefore, COVID-19 has not been able to ruin our competency-oriented programming exams.
We study the nonequilibrium dynamics of a quantum system under the influence of two noncommuting fluctuation sources, i.e., purely dephasing fluctuations and relaxational fluctuations. We find that increasing purely dephasing fluctuations suppress increasing relaxation in the quantum system. This effect is further enhanced when both fluctuation sources are fully correlated. These effects arise for medium to strong primary fluctuations already when the secondary fluctuations are weak due to their noncommuting coupling to the quantum system. Dephasing, in contrast, is increased by increasing any of the two fluctuations. Fully correlated fluctuations result in overdamping at much lower system-bath coupling than uncorrelated noncommuting fluctuations. In total, we observe that treating subdominant secondary environmental fluctuations perturbatively leads, as neglecting them, to erroneous conclusions.
360° UAV Flight in a collapse test setup at the German Resuce Robotik Center
360° Camera at a small UAV
(2021)
Durch Panoramen in Kombination mit dem ORB-SLAM ist ein schnelles Tracking möglich, liefert jedoch ausschließlich spärliche Daten. Durch die Kombination mit einem neuronalen Netz soll der SLAM Algorithmus zu einem RGBD-SLAM erweitert werden, um ein besseres Tracking und eine dichtere Punktwolke zu gewährleisten.
At the beginning of the pandemic in Feb. 2020 I had a little time and wanted to do something new i.e. bring my 3D printer, AI and computer science together somehow. The result is a printed portrait with a lot of computer science. Using style transfer I transferred the etching style of a Göthe portrait to a young girl I call Carolin. By means of image processing I made a black and white picture out of it. Then, using the problem of the traveling salesman, each black point in the picture is interpreted as a city and the whole picture is drawn by only one line. Since this line is very long, it is optimized and shortened by a so-called simulated annealing algorithm. The result is printed in 5 layers on a 3D printer.
This technical report is about the architecture and integration of very small commercial UAVs (< 40 cm diagonal) in indoor Search and Rescue missions. One UAV is manually controlled by only one single human operator delivering live video streams and image series for later 3D scene modelling and inspection. In order to assist the operator who has to simultaneously observe the environment and navigate through it we use multiple deep neural networks to provide guided autonomy, automatic object detection and classification and local 3D scene modelling. Our methods help to reduce the cognitive load of the operator. We describe a framework for quick integration of new methods from the field of Deep Learning, enabling for rapid evaluation in real scenarios, including the interaction of methods.
