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Business rules have become an important tool to warrant compliance at their business processes. But the collection of these business rules can have various conflicting elements. This can lead to a violation of the compliance to be achieved. This conflicting elements are therefore a kind of inconsistencies, or quasi incon- sistencies in the business rule base. The target for this thesis is to investigate how those quasi inconsistencies in business rules can be detected and analyzed. To this aim, we develop a comprehensive library which allows to apply results from the scientific field of inconsistency measurement to business rule formalisms that are actually used in practice.
The mitral valve is one of four human heart valves. It is located in the left heart and acts as a unidirectional passageway for blood between the left atrium and the left ventricle. A correctly functioning mitral valve prevents a backflow of blood into the pulmonary circulation (lungs) and thus constitutes a vital part of the cardiac cycle. Pathologies of the mitral valve can manifest in a variety of symptoms with severity ranging from chest pain and fatigue to pulmonary edema (fluid accumulation in the tissue and air space of lungs), which may ultimately cause respiratory failure.
Malfunctioning mitral valves can be restored through complex surgical interventions, which greatly benefit from intensive planning and pre-operative analysis. Visualization techniques provide a possibility to enhance such preparation processes and can also facilitate post-operative evaluation. The work at hand extends current research in this field, building upon patient-specific mitral valve segmentations developed at the German Cancer Research Center, which result in triangulated 3D models of the valve surface. The core of this work will be the construction of a 2D-view of these models through global parameterization, a method that can be used to establish a bijective mapping between a planar parameter domain and a surface embedded in higher dimensions.
A flat representation of the mitral valve provides physicians with a view of the whole surface at once, similar to a map. This allows assessment of the valve's area and shape without the need for different viewing angles. Parts of the valve that are occluded by geometry in 3D become visible in 2D.
An additional contribution of this work will be the exploration of different visualizations of the 3D and 2D mitral valve representations. Features of the valve can be highlighted by associating them with specified colors, which can for instance directly convey pathology indicators.
Quality and effectiveness of the proposed methods were evaluated through a survey conducted at the Heidelberg University Hospital.
The Internet of Things is still one of the most relevant topics in the field of economics and research powered by the increasing demand of innovative services. Cost reductions in manufacturing of IoT hardware and the development of completely new communication ways has led to the point of bil-lions of devices connected to the internet. But in order to rule this new IoT landscape a standardized solution to conquer these challenges must be developed, the IoT Architecture.
This thesis examines the structure, purpose and requirements of IoT Architecture Models in the global IoT landscape and proposes an overview across the selected ones. For that purpose, a struc-tured literature analysis on this topic is conducted within this thesis, including an analysis on three existing research approaches trying to frame this topic and a tool supported evaluation of IoT Archi-tecture literature with over 200 accessed documents.
Furthermore, a coding of literature with the help of the specialised coding tool ATLAS.ti 8 is conduct-ed on 30 different IoT Architecture Models. In a final step these Architecture Models are categorized and compared to each other showing that the environment of IoT and its Architectures gets even more complex the further the research goes.
Absicherung der analytischen Interpretation von Geolokalisierungsdaten in der Mobilfunkforensik
(2019)
Abstract
Location based services maybe are within one of the most outstanding features of modern mobile devices. Despite the fact, that cached geolocation data could be used to reconstruct motion profiles, the amount of devices capable to provide these information in the field of criminal investigations is growing.
Motivation
The aim of this work is to generate in-depth knowledge to questions concerning geolocation in the field of mobile forensics, making especially somehow cached geolocation data forensically valuable. On top, tools meeting the specific requirements of law enforcement personnel shall be developed.
Problems
Geolocation processes within smartphones are quite complex. For the device to locate its position, different reference systems like GPS, cell towers or WiFi hot\-spots are used in a variety of ways. The whole mobile geolocation mechanism is proprietary to the device manufacturer and not build with forensic needs in mind. One major problem regarding forensic investigations is, that mainly reference points are being extracted and processed instead of real life device location data. In addition, these geolocation information only consist of bits and bytes or numeric values that have to be securely assigned to their intended meaning. The location data recovered are full of gaps providing only a part of the process or device usage. This possible loss of data has to be determined deriving a reliable measurement for the completeness, integrity and accuracy of data. Last but not least, as for every evidence within a criminal investigation, it has to be assured, that manipulations of the data or errors in position estimation have no disadvantageous effect on the analysis.
Research Questions
In the context of localisation services in modern smartphones, it always comes back to similar questions during forensic everyday life:
* Can locations be determined at any time?
* How accurate is the location of a smartphone?
* Can location data from smartphones endure in court?
Approach
For a better understanding of geolocation processes in modern smartphones and to evaluate the quality and reliability of the geolocation artefacts, information from different platforms shall be theoretically analysed as well as observed in-place during the geolocation process. The connection between data points and localisation context will be examined in predefined live experiments as well as desktop- and native applications on smartphones.
Results
Within the scope of this thesis self developed tools have been used for forensic investigations as well as analytical interpretation of geodata from modern smartphones. Hereby a generic model for assessing the quality of location data has emerged, which can be generally applied to geodata from mobile devices.
Despite the inception of new technologies at a breakneck pace, many analytics projects fail mainly due to the use of incompatible development methodologies. As big data analytics projects are different from software development projects, the methodologies used in software development projects could not be applied in the same fashion to analytics projects. The traditional agile project management approaches to the projects do not consider the complexities involved in the analytics. In this thesis, the challenges involved in generalizing the application of agile methodologies will be evaluated, and some suitable agile frameworks which are more compatible with the analytics project will be explored and recommended. The standard practices and approaches which are currently applied in the industry for analytics projects will be discussed concerning enablers and success factors for agile adaption. In the end, after the comprehensive discussion and analysis of the problem and complexities, a framework will be recommended that copes best with the discussed challenges and complexities and is generally well suited for the most data-intensive analytics projects.
The loss of biodiversity is recognised on a global scale and also in the anthropogenic landscapes used for agriculture, now covering almost 50% of the global terrestrial land surface. In agriculture pesticides, biologically active chemicals are deliberately distributed to control pests, disease and weeds in the cropped areas. The quantification of remaining semi-naturals structures such as field margins and hedges is a prerequisite to understand the impact of pesticides on biodiversity, since these structures represent habitats for many organisms in agricultural landscapes. The presence of organisms in these habitats and crops is required to obtain an estimate of their potential pesticide exposure. In this text I provide studies on animal groups so far not addressed in risk assessment procedures for the regulation of pesticides such as amphibians, moths and bats. For all groups it becomes apparent that they are present in agricultural landscapes and potentially coincide with pesticide applications indicating a risk. Risk quantification also requires data on the sensitivity of organisms and here data for plants, amphibians and bees are presented. Effects translating to community level were studied for herbicide, insecticide and fertiliser effects in a natural system. After three years the treatments resulted in simplified plant communities with lower species numbers and a reduction in flowering plants. This reduction of flowers is used as an example for an indirect effect and was especially obvious for the effect of an herbicide on the common buttercup. Sublethal herbicide effects for a plant translated in an impact on feeding caterpillars, indicating a reduction in food quality. Insecticide inputs realistic for field margins also reduced moth pollination of white champion flowers by 30%. These indirect effects by distortions of food web characteristics are playing a critical role to understand declines in organism groups, however so far are not accounted for in pesticide risk assessment schemes. The current intense use of pesticides in agriculture and their inherent toxicity may lead to a chemical landscape fragmentation, where populations may not be connected anymore. Source-sink dynamics are important ecological processes and as a final result not only population size but also genetic population structure might be affected. Including potential pesticide impacts as costs in a model for amphibians migrating to breeding ponds in vineyards in Rhineland-Palatinate indicated the isolation of investigated populations. A first validation by analyzing the population structure of the European common frog confirmed the model prediction for some sites. For the regulation of pesticides in Europe a risk assessment is required and for the organisms of the terrestrial habitat a multitude of guidance documents is in place or is recently developed or improved. The results of the presented research indicate that wild plants and especially their reproductive flower stage are highly sensitive and risks are underestimated. Population recovery of arthropods needs a reevaluation at landscape scale and the addition of amphibian risk assessment in regulation procedures is suggested. However, developing or adopting risk assessment procedures and test systems is a time consuming task and therefore the establishment of risk management options is a pragmatic alternative with immediate effects. Artificial wetlands in the agricultural landscape proved to be important foraging sites for bats and their creation could mitigate negative pesticide effects. The integration of direct and indirect effects in a risk assessment scheme for all organism groups addressing also landscape scale and pesticide mixtures requires a long developing time. The establishment of model landscapes where management options and integrated pest management are applied on a larger scale would allow us to study pesticide effects in a realistic scenario and to develop an approach for the agriculture of the future.
The erosion of the closed innovation paradigm in conjunction with increasing competitive pressure has boosted the interest of both researchers and organizations in open innovation. Despite such rising interest, several companies remain reluctant to open their organizational boundaries to practice open innovation. Among the many reasons for such reservation are the pertinent complexity of transitioning toward open innovation and a lack of understanding of the procedures required for such endeavors. Hence, this thesis sets out to investigate how organizations can open their boundaries to successfully transition from closed to open innovation by analyzing the current literature on open innovation. In doing so, the transitional procedures are structured and classified into a model comprising three phases, namely unfreezing, moving, and institutionalizing of changes. Procedures of the unfreezing phase lay the foundation for a successful transition to open innovation, while procedures of the moving phase depict how the change occurs. Finally, procedures of the institutionalizing phase contribute to the sustainability of the transition by employing governance mechanisms and performance measures. Additionally, the individual procedures are characterized along with their corresponding barriers and critical success factors. As a result of this structured depiction of the transition process, a guideline is derived. This guideline includes the commonly employed actions of successful practitioners of open innovation, which may serve as a baseline for interested parties of the paradigm. With the derivation of the guideline and concise depiction of the individual transitional phases, this thesis consequently reduces the overall complexity and increases the comprehensibility of the transition and its implications for organizations.
Die Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung kann als ein zentrales Element einer konsequenten Unternehmensstrategie zur Umsetzung der gesellschaftlichen Verantwortung (Corporate Social Responsibility) angesehen werden. Um die Unternehmen bei dieser Aufgabe zu unterstützen stellt die Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) mit ihren G4 Leitlinien einen Orientierungsrahmen bereit, dessen Anwendung sich allerdings für Klein und Mittelunternehmen sehr komplex gestaltet. Ein branchenspezifisches Sector Supplement für den Weinbau existiert derzeit noch nicht.
Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, diese Forschungslücke durch die Entwicklung weinbauspezifischer Nachhaltigkeitsaspekte und Indikatoren zu schließen, um den Betrieben eine selbstständige GRI-konforme Berichterstattung zu ermöglichen.
Der Prozess zur Identifikation wesentlicher Nachhaltigkeitsaspekte und -indikatoren erfolgt mittels Erhebungs- und Auswertungsmethoden der qualitativen Sozialforschung in Form
von Workshops, betrieblichen Vorortanalysen und Experteninterviews.
Parallel dazu erfolgt eine umfassende Analyse der weinbaulichen Wertschöpfungskette in Form einer Internet- und Literaturrecherche. Diese umfasst vorrangig die ökologischen Nachhaltigkeitsaspekte als diejenigen Bestandteile weinbaulicher Tätigkeiten, die sich sowohl positiv als auch negativ auf die Umwelt auswirken können. Anschließend erfolgt die zentrale Priorisierung der identifizieren Handlungsfelder und Nachhaltigkeitsthemen durch die Stakeholder. Zur Visualisierung der bewerteten Handlungsfelder dient das Instrument der Wesentlichkeitsanalyse.
Auf dieser Basis erfolgt die Entwicklung eines Handlungsleitfadens zur Erstellung von Nachhaltigkeitsberichten in der Weinwirtschaft. Hiermit erlangen Weingüter die praktische Kompetenz ein eigenes Nachhaltigkeitsreporting anzugehen.
Im Rahmen der Arbeit wurde auch ein elektronisches Tool entwickelt, das den Betrieben die Möglichkeit eröffnet, betriebliche Umweltaspekte zu erfassen und zu bewerten. Gleichzeitig wird den Anwendern damit die Generierung eines überbetrieblichen Vergleichs der Umweltleistung ermöglicht (Benchmarking).
Eine weitere Forschungsfrage der vorliegenden Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Biodiversitätserfassung und -bewertung für Rebland. Hintergrund sind die bisher nur geringen Funde auf der durch das Bundesamt für Naturschutz festgelegten Kennartenlisten bzw. den HNV-Stichprobenflächen (High nature value farmland-Indikator) für Rebland.
Hierzu wurde mittels Geoinformationssystemen das Artenvorkommen in rheinland-pfälzischen Weinanbaugebieten analysiert und 30 Pflanzenarten als Indikatorarten für den Weinbau abgeleitet. Ergänzend wurden weinbergstypische, geschützte Tierarten als „Bonusarten“ identifiziert. Die Indikatorarten werden den Winzern als ein Instrument zur eigenständigen Erfassung der Biodiversität in den Weinbergen dienen und im Rahmen einer Nachhaltigkeitsberichterstattung herangezogen werden können.
Streams are coupled with their riparian area. Emerging insects from streams can be an important prey in the riparian area. Such aquatic subsidies can cause predators to switch prey or increase predator abundances. This can impact the whole terrestrial food web. Stressors associated with agricultural land use can alter insect communities in water and on land, resulting in complex response patterns of terrestrial predators that rely on prey from both systems.
This thesis comprises studies on the impact of aquatic nsects on a terrestrial model ecosystem (Objective 1, hapter 2), the influence of agricultural land use on riparian spiders’ traits and community (Objective 2, Chapter 3), and on the impact of agricultural land use on the contribution of different prey to spider diet (Objective 3, Chapter 4).
In chapter 2, I present a study where we conducted a mesocosm experiment to examine the effects of aquatic subsidies on a simplified terrestrial food web consisting of two types of herbivores (leafhoppers and weevils), plants and predators (spiders). I focused on the prey choice of the spiders by excluding predator immigration and reproduction. In accordance with predator switching, survival of leafhoppers increased in the presence of aquatic subsidies. By contrast, the presence of aquatic subsidies indirectly reduced weevils and herbivory.
In chapter 3, I present the results on the taxonomic and trait response of riparian spider communities to gradients of agricultural stressors and environmental variables, with a particular emphasis on pesticides. To capture spiders with different traits and survival strategies, we used multiple collection methods. Spider community composition was best explained by in-stream pesticide toxicity and shading of the stream bank, a proxy for the quality of the habitat. Species richness and the number of spider individuals, as well as community ballooning ability, were negatively associated with in-stream pesticide toxicity. In contrast, mean body size and shading preference of spider communities responded strongest to shading,
whereas mean niche width (habitat preference for moisture and shading) responded strongest to other environmental variables.
In chapter 4, I describe aquatic-terrestrial predator-prey relations with gradients of agricultural stressors and environmental variables. I sampled spiders, as well as their aquatic and terrestrial prey along streams with an assumed pesticide pollution gradient and determined their stable carbon and nitrogen signals. Potential aquatic prey biomass correlated positively with an increasing aquatic prey contribution of T. montana. The contribution of aquatic prey to the diet of P. amentata showed a positive relationship with increasing toxicity in streams.
Overall, this thesis contributes to the emerging discipline of cross-ecosystem ecology and shows that aquatic-terrestrial linkages and riparian food webs can be influenced by land use related stressors. Future manipulative field studies on aquatic-terrestrial linkages are required that consider the quality of prey organisms, fostering mechanistic understanding of such crossecosystem effects. Knowledge on these linkages is important to improve understanding of consequences of anthropogenic stressors and to prevent further losses of ecosystems and their biodiversity.
Groundwater is essential for the provision of drinking water in many areas around the world. The ecosystem services provided by groundwater-related organisms are crucial for the quality of groundwater-bearing aquifers. Therefore, if remediation of contaminated groundwater is necessary, the remediation method has to be carefully selected to avoid risk-risk trade-offs that might impact these valuable ecosystems. In the present thesis, the ecotoxicity of the in situ remediation agent Carbo-Iron (a composite of zero valent nano-iron and active carbon) was investigated, an estimation of its environmental risk was performed, and the risk and benefit of a groundwater remediation with Carbo-Iron were comprehensively analysed.
At the beginning of the work on the present thesis, a sound assessment of the environmental risks of nanomaterials was impeded by a lack of guidance documents, resulting in many uncertainties on selection of suitable test methods and a low comparability of test results from different studies with similar nanomaterials. The reasons for the low comparability were based on methodological aspects of the testing procedures before and during the toxicity testing. Therefore, decision trees were developed as a tool to systematically decide on ecotoxicity test procedures for nanomaterials. Potential effects of Carbo-Iron on embryonic, juvenile and adult life stages of zebrafish (Danio rerio) and the amphipod Hyalella azteca were investigated in acute and chronic tests. These tests were based on existing OECD and EPA test guidelines (OECD, 1992a, 2013a, 2013b; US EPA, 2000) to facilitate the use of the obtained effect data in the risk assessment. Additionally, the uptake of particles into the test organisms was investigated using microscopic methods. In zebrafish embryos, effects of Carbo-Iron on gene expression were investigated. The obtained ecotoxicity data were complemented by studies with the waterflea Daphnia magna, the algae Scenedesmus vacuolatus, larvae of the insect species Chironomus riparius and nitrifying soil microorganisms.
In the fish embryo test, no passage of Carbo-Iron particles into the perivitelline space or the embryo was observed. In D. rerio and H. azteca, Carbo-Iron was detected in the gut at the end of exposure, but no passage into the surrounding tissue was detected. Carbo-Iron had no significant effect on soil microorganisms and on survival and growth of fish. However, it had significant effects on the growth, feeding rate and reproduction of H. azteca and on survival and reproduction in D. magna. Additionally, the development rate of C. riparius and the cell volume of S. vacuolatus were negatively influenced.
A predicted no effect concentration of 0.1 mg/L was derived from the ecotoxicity studies based on the no-effect level determined in the reproduction test with D. magna and an assessment factor of 10. It was compared to measured and modelled environmental concentrations for Carbo-Iron after application to an aquifer contaminated with chlorohydrocarbons in a field study. Based on these concentrations, risk quotients were derived. Additionally, the overall environmental risk before and after Carbo-Iron application was assessed to verify whether the chances for a risk-risk trade-off by the remediation of the contaminated site could be minimized. With the data used in the present study, a reduced environmental risk was identified after the application of Carbo-Iron. Thus, the benefit of remediation with Carbo-Iron outweighs potential negative effects on the environment.
In this thesis, I present the results of my studies on taxonomy, systematics, and biogeography of Impatiens (Balsaminaceae) in Madagascar and the Comoro islands.
In Chapter 1 I reviewed the literature on taxonomy and classification of Balsaminaceae, on habitat, world distribution, morphology, molecular phylogenetics and infrageneric classification of the genus Impatiens. In Chapters 2-15 (Fischer & Rahelivololona 2002, 2003, 2004, 2007, 2015a, 2015b, 2015c, 2016, Fischer et al. 2004. 2017, 2018a, b submitted, Rahelivololona et al. 2003) I presented the first results of a revision of Balsaminaceae of Madagascar and the Comoro islands including the description of 78 new species. In Chapter 16 (Yuan et al. 2004) we worked on the phylogeny and biogeography of Balsaminaceae inferred from ITS sequences using combined results from molecular phylogenetic and morphological analyses. In Chapter 17 (Rahelivololona et al. 2018) we conducted a phylogeny and assessment of the infrageneric classification of species in the Malagasy Impatiens (Balsaminaceae) with a particular emphasis on taxa collected from Marojejy.
Below I summarise the most important findings of each chapter and provide an outlook for future studies.
How many species of Impatiens occur in Madagascar and the Comoro islands?
To provide additional information on the taxonomic revision of Impatiens in Madagascar and the Comoro islands, the identification of already described species as well as the description of new species was conducted. Based on herbarium specimens from BR, G, K, NEU, P, TAN and on living plants collected during several field trips, 78 new species and 6 nomina nova have been published and another 70 new taxa are already identified. Actually more than 260 species occur in Madagascar and the Comoro islands and all of them are endemic. For each species, a description of the morphology, phenology, ecology and known distribution range was provided. Apart from new taxa, the delimitation of already described species like Impatiens firmula Baker and Impatiens hildebrandtii Baill. could be clarified by studying the types and by observing the variability in the field.
Are the groups of Impatiens in Madagascar monophyletic, and what is the systematic position of Trimorphopetalum?
Yuan & al. (2004) conducted a molecular phylogenetic study to examine the morphological and karyological evolution, and the historical biogeography of the Balsaminaceae family by using nucleotide sequence data of internal transcribed spacer regions of nuclear ribosomal DNA. The results support the monophyly of the Malagasy endemic section Trimorphopetalum and show that the cleistogamous Impatiens inaperta should be included in the sect. Trimorphopetalum which is the most derived within Impatiens. Therefore, the section Preimpatiens proposed by Perrier de la Bâthie (1934) is paraphyletic.
Rahelivololona & al. (2018) provided a phylogenetic study focused on three subdivisions (based on macromorphological characters) proposed by Perrier de la Bâthie (1934). The analysis was done using two nuclear AP3/DEF homologues (ImpDEF1 and ImpDEF2) and the plastid atpB-rbcL spacer to reassess or assess the monophyly of the Malagasy Impatiens, of the sections Preimpatiens (Humblotianae and Vulgare groups) and Trimorphopetalum. A focus was on the species of Impatiens from the Marojejy National Park and of the morphologically variable species I. elatostemmoides, I. “hammarbyoides”, I. inaperta and I. manaharensis, using monophyly as the primary criterion.
As results the Malagasy Impatiens are paraphyletic and the section Preimpatiens sensu Perrier de la Bâthie (1934) (= subgen. Impatiens sensu Fischer & Rahelivololona 2002) was not resolved as a monophyletic group. The section Trimorphopetalum sensu Perrier de la Bâthie (1934) (= subgen. Trimorphopetalum sensu Fischer & Rahelivololona 2002), however, was strongly confirmed as a monophyletic lineage (BS: 92; BPP: 1). Neither the Humblotianae group nor the Vulgare group was supported as monophyletic. None of the morphologically variable species appeared to be monophyletic and the sampled species of Impatiens from the Marojejy National Park do also not form a monophyletic group.
What are the biogeographical position and the distribution patterns of Impatiens in Madagascar and the Comoro islands?
Investigation of the geographical affinities and species distribution of section Impatiens (including Humblotianae group and Vulgare group) and section Trimorphopetalum were conducted and the origin and evolution as well as species richness and endemism were discussed.
The isolation, the climate and the complex topography of Madagascar have generated the microhabitats and ecological niches favourable to the diversification of Impatiens species. Impatiens of Madagascar with 260 endemic species is actually the largest genus in Madagascar. Therefore, Madagascar and the Comoro islands are among the most species-rich regions in the world for Impatiens.
Future studies
In Impatiens on Madagascar, there remain numerous unresolved questions that need to be adressed:
• A further study based on a much larger molecular data set and sampling from the entire geographic ranges of Impatiens in Madagascar is needed to retest the monophyly of the different subgenera and sections, as well as a molecular dating of the Malagasy Impatiens.
• The study of pollinators as a key for understanding the radiation and species richness is required: Within Impatiens the different shapes of spur are related to pollinators (bees, birds, butterflies and moths). Therefore pollinator observation of specific species need to be done to understand the radiation of species by adaptation and coevolution with these pollinators. A pollination study with a large number of species within section Trimorphopetalum will help to understand the mechanism of complete disappearance of the spur, the shift of pollinators and the evolution of species richness.
• The destruction of the natural habitats of Impatiens and the subsequent reduction of humidity in logged area constitute a severe threat for the survival of many species. The conservation and reforestation of vulnerable areas such as Ankaratra, Daraina, Mandraka and Col des Tapia near Antsirabe is required.
• In terms of conservation and to mitigate the threat on the genus, a study on the ex-situ-conservation of Malagasy Impatiens species is very important as long as some species are suitable for horticultural purposes (e.g. Impatiens mayae-valeriae, Impatiens emiliae and species with broad red spur).
• Finally, the publication of the revision of Impatiens of Madagascar and the Comoro islands will help other botanists to identify the species and will thus increase our knowledge on the group.
Bildsynthese durch Raytracing gewinnt durch Hardware-Unterstützung in Verbraucher-Grafikkarten eine immer größer werdende Relevanz. Der Linespace dient dabei als eine neue, vielversprechende Beschleunigungsstruktur. Durch seine richtungsbasierte Natur ist es sinnvoll, ihn in andere Datenstrukturen zu integrieren. Bisher wurde er in ein Uniform-Grid integriert. Problematisch werden einheitlich große Voxel allerdings bei Szenen mit variierbarem Detailgrad. Diese Arbeit führt den adaptiven Linespace ein, eine Kombination aus Octree und Linespace. Die Struktur wird hinsichtlich ihrer Beschleunigungsfähigkeit untersucht und mit dem bisherigen Grid-Ansatz verglichen. Es wird gezeigt, dass der adaptive Linespace für hohe Grid-Auflösungen besser skaliert, durch eine ineffiziente GPU-Nutzung allerdings keine optimalen Werte erzielt.
Wenn es um die Vermittlung und Förderung von Kompetenzen geht, die für die Transformation zu einer nachhaltigen Gesellschaft notwendig sind, nehmen angehende Lehrpersonen eine Schlüsselrolle ein. Mit der modellhaften Einführung des Zertifikatsstudiums „Bildung – Transformation – Nachhaltigkeit“ (BTN) an der Universität Koblenz-Landau bietet sich Lehramtsstudierenden aller Fächer und Schulformen die Möglichkeit, sich in verschiedenen Modulen – begleitend zum regulären Studium – wissenschaftlich fundiert, multiperspektivisch und praxisorientiert mit Aspekten nachhaltiger Entwicklung auseinanderzusetzen. Ziel ist es, Lehramtsstudierende mit relevanten Nachhaltigkeitskompetenzen auszustatten, sie für ihre Rolle in Bezug auf die notwendige Transformation hin zu einer nachhaltigen Gesellschaft zu sensibilisieren und sie zu befähigen, in ihrem zukünftigen Berufsleben an Schulen, Hochschulen oder außerschulischen Bildungseinrichtungen inklusive und systemische Nachhaltigkeitskonzepte zu implementieren. Ein besonderer Schwerpunkt des Zertifikats liegt auf der Förderung der Reflexionsfähigkeit der Studierenden. Das Zertifikat BTN ist ein Projekt des Zentrums für Bildung und Forschung an Außerschulischen Lernorten (ZentrAL) der Universität Koblenz-Landau und wurde durch die Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU) als Pilotvorhaben gefördert.
Thesis is devoted to the topic of challenges and solutions for human resources management (HRM) in international organizations. The aim is to investigate methodological approaches to assessment of HRM challenges and solutions, and to apply them on practice, to develop ways of improvement of HRM of a particular enterprise. The practical research question investigated is “Is the Ongoing Professional Development – Strategic HRM (OPD-SHRM) model a better solution for HRM system of PrJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine”?”
To achieve the aim of this work and to answer the research question, we have studied theoretical approaches to explaining and assessing HRM in section 1, analyzed HRM system of an international enterprise in section 2, and then synthesized theory and practice to find intersection points in section 3.
Research findings indicate that the main challenge of HRM is to balance between individual and organizational interests. Implementation of OPD-SHRM is one of the solutions. Switching focus from satisfaction towards success will bring both tangible and intangible benefits for individuals and organization. In case of PrJSC “Philip Morris Ukraine”, the maximum forecasted increase is 330% in net profit, 350% in labor productivity, and 26% in Employee Development and Engagement Index.
Sediment transport contributes to the movement of inorganic and organic material in rivers. The construction of a dam interrupts the continuity of this sediment transport through rivers, causing sediments to accumulate within the reservoir. Reservoirs can also act as carbon sinks and methane can be released when organic matter in the sediment is degraded under anoxic conditions. Reservoir sedimentation poses a great threat to the sustainability of reservoirs worldwide, and can emit the potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere. Sediment management measures to rehabilitate silted reservoirs are required to achieve both better water quantity and quality, as well as to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.
This thesis aims at the improvement of sediment sampling techniques to characterize sediment deposits as a basis for accurate and efficient water jet dredging and to monitor the dredging efficiency by measuring the sediment concentration. To achieve this, we investigated freeze coring as a method to sample (gas-bearing) sediment in situ. The freeze cores from three reservoirs obtained were scanned using a non-destructive X-Ray CT scan technique. This allows the determination of sediment stratification and character-ization of gas bubbles to quantify methane emissions and serve as a basis for the identi-fication of specific (i.e. contaminated) sediment layers to be dredged. The results demon-strate the capability of freeze coring as a method for the characterization of (gas-bearing) sediment and overcomes certain limitations of commonly used gravity cores. Even though the core’s structure showed coring disturbances related to the freezing process, the general core integrity seems to not have been disturbed. For dredging purposes, we analyzed the impact pressure distribution and spray pattern of submerged cavitating wa-ter jets and determined the effects of impinging distances and angles, pump pressures and spray angles. We used an adapted Pressure Measurement Sensing technique to enhance the spatial distribution, which proved to be a comparatively easy-to-use meas-urement method for an improved understanding of the governing factors on the erosional capacity of cavitating water jets. Based on this data, the multiple linear regression model can be used to predict the impact pressure distribution of those water jets to achieve higher dredging accuracy and efficiency. To determine the dredging operational efficien-cy, we developed a semi-continuous automated measurement device to measure the sediment concentration of the slurry. This simple and robust device has lower costs, compared to traditional and surrogate sediment concentration measurement technolo-gies, and can be monitored and controlled remotely under a wide range of concentrations and grain-sizes, unaffected by entrained gas bubbles
Commonsense reasoning can be seen as a process of identifying dependencies amongst events and actions. Understanding the circumstances surrounding these events requires background knowledge with sufficient breadth to cover a wide variety of domains. In the recent decades, there has been a lot of work in extracting commonsense knowledge, a number of these projects provide their collected data as semantic networks such as ConceptNet and CausalNet. In this thesis, we attempt to undertake the Choice Of Plausible Alternatives (COPA) challenge, a problem set with 1000 questions written in multiple-choice format with a premise and two alternative choices for each question. Our approach differs from previous work by using shortest paths between concepts in a causal graph with the edge weight as causality metric. We use CausalNet as primary network and implement a few design choices to explore the strengths and drawbacks of this approach, and propose an extension using ConceptNet by leveraging its commonsense knowledge base.
Recently the workflow control as well as compliance analysis of the Enterprise Resource Planning systems are of a high demand. In this direction, this thesis presents the potential of developing a Workflow Management System upon a large Enterprise Resource Planning system by involving business rule extraction, business process discovery, design of the process, integration and compliance analysis of the system. Towards this, usability, limitations and challenges of every applied approach are deeply explained in the case of an existing system named SHD ECORO.
While the existing literature on cooperative R&D projects between firms and public research institutes (PRI) has made valuable contributions by examining various factors and their influence on different outcome measures, there has been no investigation of cooperative R&D project success between firms and PRI from a product competitive advantage perspective. However, insights into the development of a meaningful and superior product (i.e., product competitive advantage) are particularly important in the context of cooperative R&D projects between PRI and (mainly small and medium-sized) firms in the biotechnology industry in response to increasing competition to raise capital funds necessary for survival.
The objectives of this thesis are: (1) to elaborate the theoretical foundations which explain the achievement of a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI, (2) to identify and empirically evaluate the determining factors for achieving a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI, and (3) to show how cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI should be designed and executed to support the achievement of a product competitive advantage.
To accomplish these objectives, a model of determinants of product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI is developed by drawing from the theoretical foundations of resource-based theory and information-processing theory. The model is evaluated using data from 517 questionnaires on cooperative R&D projects between at least one biotechnology firm and one PRI. The data are analyzed using variance-based structural equation modeling (i.e., PLS-SEM) in order to conduct hypotheses testing. The evaluation of the empirical data includes an additional mediation analysis and the comparison of effects in subsamples.
The results demonstrate the importance of available resources and skills, as well as the proficient execution of marketing-related and technical activities for the achievement of a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI. By identifying project-related and process-related factors affecting product competitive advantage and empirically testing their relationships, the research findings should be valuable for both researchers and practitioners. After discussing contributions and implications for research and practice, the present thesis concludes with limitations and avenues for future research.