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The notion of frugal innovation or how to do more with less becomes increasingly relevant in a world which faces many severe health care challenges. In general, frugal innovations have the potential to provide low-cost, simple, and valuable solutions to these challenges. Therefore, this research aims to shed light on key success factors and patterns of frugal innovations in the Indian health care sector. For this reason, the research analyzes a sample of nine selected frugal innovations. The frugal innovation examples are examined with respect to their innovation characteristics. Further, the examination of success patterns allows to investigate the potential of reversed innovation in developed countries in order to improve global health. To sum up, the research provides profound insights on the subject of frugal innovations and conclusions on the research questions. Finally, an outlook on future developments in the health care sector and future research are given.
How will the future of business schools in Germany look like in 2035? Scenario Planning with INKA 4
(2019)
Business schools have been largely successful in attracting students and producing publications in the last few decades. Nevertheless, this success has raised several concerns. With many variables influencing business schools, it is useful to predict how the future of business schools might look like. Hence, this paper aims to detect current trends in order to forecast and examine the future of German business schools by the year 2035. With the help of the scenario software INKA 4, future scenarios were generated. In order to develop these scenarios, various areas of influence, e.g. Environment, Supply, Demand, Pedagogy, and Technology were identified and conceptualized with regard to current research and literature. The final result consists of four distinct scenarios, which reflect the potential pathway of German business schools in the future.
The German banking landscape is currently undergoing a paradigm shift of an unprecedented magnitude. As the financial world is changing, the future of German banks is highly uncertain. A multitude of present-day driving factors will shape the banking world of tomorrow. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate and analyze the future of the German banking sector until 2030. The concept of scenario planning serves as underlying method for this research. Based on current factors influencing the German banking sector, the present thesis systematically develops coherent future scenarios. The generation of these scenarios is performed with the help of the scenario software INKA 4. This enables to assess a comprehensive picture of the future environment and the interactions between external influencing factors. Based on the most consistent future scenario, implications for the strategies of German banks are derived. As a result, German incumbents can question their strategic orientation and position themselves optimally for the future.
Parylene-C is used for various biomedical devices because of its high conformity and biocompatibility. However, delamination could occur because of low adhesion between Parylene-C and other materials. For this experiment 4-inch Si-wafers are used. Parylene is deposited by chemical vapour deposition (CVD). Silane A-174 as adhesion promoter is added between Parylene-Parylene layers. The samples are soaked at different duration 1 h, 24 h and 120 h in PBS solution at 37 °C. A peel test is further performed to investigate the adhesion properties of the samples.
Vonnegut vom General Electric Research hat zusammen mit Langmuir und Schäfer in 1947 die Eigenschaft von Silberjodid (AgI) Niederschläge wie Regen, Schnee, Eis auszulösen, untersucht. Hierfür werden die Gewitterwolken im frühen Entwicklungsstadium im Bereich der Aufwindzonen angeflogen. Bei einer Höhe zwischen ein und fünf Kilometer werden die AgI-Generatoren, die an den Flugzeugtragflächen angebracht sind, eingeschaltet. Die Generatoren verbrennen die Lösung, die als Komplex zusammen mit Wasser und Aceton im Behälter vorliegt. Der entstehende Silberjodid-Rauch löst einen Niederschlag in Form von Regen, Schnee oder Graupel aus. Die Gewitterwolke verliert dadurch die erforderliche Energie, um größere Hagelkörner zu bilden. Die Effektivität von Silberjodid-Kristallen zur Bildung von Eiskristallen und Niederschlägen wird auf die hexagonale Struktur zurückgeführt, wie sie auch die Eiskristalle in der Luft haben. Die optimale Menge, mit der die Wolken geimpft werden liegt bei 11 g pro Liter Lösung. Aufgrund der geringen Löslichkeit von Silberjodid in Wasser wird die Löslichkeit in Komplexen wie z.B. im AgI-KI-Wasser-Aceton-Gemisch gesteigert. Die Impfung der Gewitterwolken ist bei Aufwinden zwischen 3 m/s und 5 m/s, also im Frühstadium effektiv. Dabei spielt jedoch auch die Partikelgröße eine entscheidende Rolle. Monodisperse Partikel mit einem Durchmesser von 10 Nanometern sind bis zu Temperaturen von -17 °C und Partikel mit 100 Nanometer Durchmesser sind bei etwa -10 °C aktiv. Die Versuche belegen eine effektive Eiskristallbildungsfähigkeit von Silberjodid ab -5 °C. Unter Laborbedingungen ist stets eine Wirksamkeit ermittelt worden. Bei Versuchen unter realen Bedingungen schwankt die effektive Temperatur ab der das Silberjodid Eiskristalle bildet. Das standardisierte Vorgehen bei der Wolkenimpfung dient daher der Vermeidung von Abweichungen bei der Ermittlung der Effektivität von Silberjodid.
This research identifies positive and negative influence factors by examining the effectiveness of digital video advertising. The objective is to discover ways of leveraging
these factors successfully through an extensive literature review. As this ad format has developed into a staple in most brands' media strategy, it is valuable to drive
understanding of effective implementation forward. Three brands that utilize digital video advertising are selected for an analysis of their recently published ads. This analysis is supported by a suggested model that was developed based on advertising literature to assess ad effectiveness. Results show that the perceived intrusiveness of an ad and the consequential ad avoidance behaviours in consumers represent a hindrance to ad effectiveness. In contrast, elements used in an advertisement that increase its value facilitated ad effectiveness. Credibility, entertainment and informativeness are ad value contributors and impact ad recall, the gateway to positive marketing outcomes such as purchasing decisions. The circumstances under which consumers are exposed to digital video advertisements play a role in if the ad message can effectively be conveyed.
While negative influence factors have their detriment, they can still be counteracted and leveraged. Advertisers and ad-supported video streaming sites like YouTube can find
ways to broadcast ads without significantly impeding the user experience and, in doing so, secure the continued profitability of this promotion format that depends on users
watching ads.
Da die Anforderungen an ein in der Autotür verbautes Türschloss aufgrund Unfallverhütung stetig steigen, muss auch der Schließbügel an der Karosseriesäule weiterentwickelt werden. Die Konstruktion und Entwicklung ist bisher sehr
kosten- und zeitintensiv. Daher soll parallel zur momentanen Abzugsprüfung durch den Zugversuch, die Simulation dieser Prüfung aufgebaut werden. Im Rahmen dieser Forschungsarbeit wird aufgezeigt, auf welche äußeren Einflussfaktoren besonderen Wert gelegt werden muss und wie detailliert die Simulation aufgebaut sein muss um ein gutes Ergebnis zu bekommen.
This study is aimed at valuing two companies in the IT services industry with different valuation approaches. Therefore, the preconditions for an accurate and meaningful business value as well as the procedure, strengths and limitations of these approaches are examined. Additionally, the accuracy of the results is determined through comparison of valuation estimates with their corresponding stock prices occurring within the three months following the business valuations.
Furthermore, it is examined if one valuation approach is superior in terms of accuracy. Finally, to verify the quality and explanatory power of the valuation results, they are compared with the outcomes of the study on the information content of equity analyst reports by Paul Asquith, Michael B. Mikhail and Andrea S. Au. The results of the business valuations show that within the three-month period, no price target was exactly achieved by the corresponding stock prices.
Furthermore, no valuation approach could be determined that is significantly more accurate than the others. It can be concluded that despite some limitations in the explanatory power of the valuations, the average percentage approximations of Mastercard’s and Visa’s stock prices to target prices were only slightly below those of the comparative study. In view of the fact that the research capacities and experience behind these business valuations are significantly lower than those of the top analysts in the comparative study, the results are considered consistent with the outcomes of the study on the information content of equity analyst reports.
An average investor trying to allocate his wealth among multiple assets ideally has nearly infinite possibilities to do so. However, asset allocation strategies try to facilitate this process. Nevertheless, no consensus exists on which strategy is ideal and yields the best performance. Therefore, this paper aims to determine an ideal asset allocation strategy for an average investor by comparing two asset allocation strategies.
The focus is on comparing the practical application of Markowitz’s Modern Portfolio Theory (MPT), a sophisticated asset allocation strategy, with an equally weighted asset allocation, namely the 1/N strategy. The past performance of these two strategies is compared with the help of a calculation example based on historical data. The quantitative analysis covers three time periods of different lengths between 1991 and 2022. Also, the strategies are applied to portfolios with different amounts of assets during these periods. Although the existing literature is very controversial concerning the performance of the two strategies, this research shows a clear result. Compared to the 1/N strategy, this study’s findings show an outperformance of the MPT strategy during every period and each portfolio combination. However, the difference in performance regarding return and risk is minimal in most scenarios and would not significantly affect an average investor who invests over a long-term horizon.
Die Firma XYZ benötigt einen neu entwickelten Tragarm für die folgende Generation der Schweißzange. Die Konzeption und Entwicklung des Tragarms findet unter den Gesichtspunkten der Fertigungs- und Montagekosten, sowie Nutzerfreundlichkeit und Design statt. Die Nutzerfreundlichkeit und das Design wird mit Hilfe des aktuellen Tragarms und einer Benchmarkanalyse optimiert. Die Benchmarkanalyse zeigt dabei die unterschiedlichen Ansätze der am Markt existierenden Produkte. Die Bewertung der Konzepte findet mit Hilfe einer Nutzwertanalyse statt. Durch die gewichteten Ergebnisse und Interviews mit den Projektbetreuern können Schwachstellen aufgedeckt und weitere Optimierungsmöglichkeiten gefunden werden. Die Konstruktion wird mit analytischen Methoden zur Berechnung und Auslegung ergänzt. Das Ergebnis ist ein Tragarm, dessen Reichweite und Arbeitsraum den Kundenbedürfnissen entspricht. Unter Berücksichtigung der Tragfähigkeit, Kippsicherheit und Nutzerfreundlichkeit weist der Tragarm ein eigenständiges Design mit Kippmechanismus auf, welches eine stufenlose Anpassung des Arbeitsraumes ermöglicht.
Cybersecurity threads are a huge problem for all sizes of businesses. The traditional way of protecting valuable resources in the IT-Industry is a perimeter based security strategy. To ensure proper access rights for resources, firewalls, and other network-based inspection tools were used. The current move to the cloud undermines classic security strategies by blurring borders. The Zero Trust approach does not rely on edges and borders to ensure network security. Instead, all connections have to be verified and authenticated individually. In this thesis, a zero trust security model in a heterogeneous open source environment was verified. The three main observations were:
A zero trust architecture is possible, but the implementation is difficult. Half of the issues discovered must be covered by organisational measures. The tools available to cover technical measures are not developed enough. This is expected to change in the near future, as varoius companies already identified this issue.
Biomedizinische Statistik
(2024)
Die klassische konfirmatorische Statistik, auch frequentistische Statistik genannt, setzt voraus, dass man theoretisch unendlich viele Stichproben ziehen kann, und dass dann die aus den Stichproben berechnete Prüf- oder Testgröße unter der Nullhypothese H0 eine bestimmte Verteilung annimmt. Meistens sind die Testgrößen so konstruiert, dass bei Ziehung der Stichproben aus immer derselben Grundgesamtheit (es gilt die Nullhypothese H0) eine Verteilung der Testgröße um den Wert null herum entsteht, z.B. in Form einer Glockenkurve, d.h., kleine Werte überwiegen. Große Werte der Prüf- oder Testgröße kommen mit geringer Wahrscheinlichkeit vor und signalisieren einen möglichen Ausnahmefall. Statt anzunehmen, dass einer der seltenen Fälle einer großen Prüfgröße eingetroffen ist, nimmt man lieber an, dass sich die Grundgesamtheiten unterscheiden (Alternativhypothese HA).
Vergleicht man ein Automatisierungssystem mit dem menschlichen Körper, dann sind die Rechner (PC, SPS, Mikro-Controller) das Gehirn, die Signalleitungen die Nervenbahnen, die Sensoren die Augen und Ohren, die Aktoren die Muskeln, die Starkstromleitungen die Adern. Alle Teile sind wichtig und müssen zueinander passen.
1. Einführung 1.1 Historie 1.2 Rechneraufbau 1.3 Speicheradressen 1.4 Dualzahlen 1.5 Datentypen hardwareseitig 1.6 Datentypen softwareseitig 1.7 Softwareschichten 1.8 Gleichungen und Anweisungen
2.Einführung in C 2.1 Compile - Link - Run 2.2 Geradeausprogramm 2.3 Grunddatentypen 2.4 Ausdrücke, Wertzuweisungen 2.5 Operatoren 2.6 Standardfunktionen 2.7 Blöcke, Verzweigungen 2.8 Schleifen (while, for) 2.9 Matrizen und Strukturen 2.10 Aufzählungstypen, Typdefinitionen 2.11 Zeiger 2.12 Funktionen 2.13 Datenfiles 2.14 Zeichenkettenfunktionen (alt) 2.15 Speicherklasse, Initialisierung, Typumwandlungen
3. C++ mit MFC 3.1 Klassen 3.2 Aufbau einer Klasse 3.3 Beispiel Klasse CNurEineZahl 3.4 Basiswissen C++
4. Einführung in Java 4.1 Grundlagen von Java 4.2 Beispiel Ticketautomat 4.3 Beispiel Sinuskurve 4.4 Numerische Lösung von DGLs
Mathematik 2 für MEB/MM
(2018)
Vektorrechnung: Darstellung von Vektoren, Komponenten, Einheitsvektor, Addition, Subtraktion, Projektion, Skalarprodukt, Kreuzprodukt, Geraden, Ebenen Lineare Algebra: Darstellung, Rechnen mit Matrizen und Vektoren, Drehmatrix, lineare Gleichungssysteme (Eliminationsverfahren GAUSS oder GAUSS-JORDAN, inverse Matrix, über- und unterbestimmte Systeme), Determinanten (Rang einer Matrix, SARRUSsche Regel, CRAMERsche Regel), Eigenwerte und Eigenvektoren einer quadratischen Matrix
Fourier-Reihen: (Fourier-Reihe, reell, komplex, beliebige Periode, punktweise Funktion), Wellen (zeitliche und räumliche Ausbreitung von Wellen, Amplitude, Frequenz, Phase)
Differentialrechnung für Funktionen von mehreren Variablen: graphische Darstellung, skalare und Vektorfelder, partielle Ableitung, Differenzial, Gradient, Kettenregeln, Fehlerfortpflanzung
Integralrechnung für Funktionen von mehreren Variablen: konstante Grenzen, Produktzerlegung, Koordinatensysteme, Polarkoordinaten, Zylinderkoordinaten, Kugelkoordinaten, Trägheitsmomente, variable Grenzen
Gewöhnliche Differentialgleichungen: Klassifikation, Anfangswerte bzw. Randbedingungen, Trennung der Veränderlichen, Variation der Konstanten, DGL mit konstanten Koeffizienten, e-Ansatz, homogene, inhomogene DGL, charakteristische Gleichung, inhomogener Lösungen, Systeme linearer DGL Laplace-Transformation: Eigenschaften, Lösung einer DGL, Korrespondenztabellen, Partialbruchzerlegung, Rücktransformation, Übertragungsfunktion
Übungsbeispiele, Beispielklausur
Einführung (Beispiel Destille)
1. RI-Diagramme ( Kennbuchstaben, Symbole, Beispiele)
2. Einführung in die Steuerung (Ablaufsteuerung, Graphen, Befehle)
3. Einführung in die Regelung 3.1. Regelkreis (Blockschaltbild, Regelstrecke, Regler, Rückführung) 3.2. 2-Punkt-Regler, Hysterese 3.3. 3-Punkt-Regler, Toleranzbereich 3.4. Regelschaltungen ( Einfachregelkreis, Aufschaltung, Kaskade, Mehrgrößenregelung) 3.5. Regelaufgaben
4. Bauteile eines Regelkreises 4.1. Messwerterfassung ( Sensoren, Messumformer, Bus, Trennverstärker) 4.2. Messwertaufzeichnung 4.3. Signalverarbeitung ( Regler, µ-Controller, SPS (speicherprogrammierte Steuerung), PC) 4.4. Aktoren ( Ventil, Klappe, Motor, Pumpe, Verdichter, Stellungsregler, S- und K-Algorithmus) 4.5. Regelstrecken ( 4 Grundtypen PT1, PTn, I, Itn)
5. Steuerung mit SPS 5.1. Einführung (Aufbau, Programmverarbeitung) 5.2. FUP-Programmierung (Logik, Flipflop, Timer, Taktkette, Melde-, Ausgabeteil, OB1) 5.3 Impuls, Zähler, Betriebsartenteil
6. Übertragungsglieder (Laplace-Transformation, Übertragungsfunktion, Ortskurve, Bode-Diagramm) 6.1. P-Glied (Verstärkung, Linearisierung) 6.2. PT1-Glied (DGL, Antwort, Identifikation) DT1-Glied (DGL, Antwort, Identifikation) I-Glied (DGL, Antwort, Identifikation) 6.3. Zusammengesetzte Übertragungsglieder PTn-Glied (DGL, Antwort, Identifikation) ITn-Glied (DGL, Antwort, Identifikation)
7. Kontinuierliche Regler 7.1. P-Regler(Regelabweichung, Proportionalbereich) 7.2. PID-Regler, PIDT1-Regler (DGL, Parameter) 7.3. Reglerauswahl, -einstellung (Ziegler-Nichols, Chien u.a.)
Anhang: Übungsblätter 1 + 2, Dictionary
Artificial First Responder
(2022)
When scaling, startups face managerial challenges and a downfall in innovation. A growing team and the resulting increased communication and organizational complexity bring issues previously not existing. Accountability Systems can assist startups overcome the mentioned issues and maintain their essence of innovation, vital for their success.
This paper discusses the relevance and benefits of implementing formal managerial systems in a growing startup. By mapping out the interdependence of culture, innovation and growth, it is demonstrated how Accountability Systems can support the preservation of an innovative culture when scaling a startup.
In a time when innovation is often disregarded due to a focus on process efficiency, Accountability Systems can provide a valuable tool for managing transition. This thesis serves as a general evaluation of Accountability Systems and their benefits. It is important to note that this paper is not intended to serve as a directly adaptable guide for startups.
An analysis of the inter-rater reliability of ESG ratings within the consumer staples industry
(2020)
The aim of this study is to gain further insights into whether ESG ratings of the same firms from different rating agencies differ. To this end, this study examines and compares in particular the ratings of the providers Bloomberg, Sustainalytics and MSCI for companies in the consumer staples industry. The study comes to the conclusion that there are in some cases significant differences between these three providers in terms of the respective ESG ratings. Furthermore, a company-size bias is shown for Bloomberg and Sustainalytics ESG ratings. It appears that these agencies rate companies with a large market capitalization better than firms with a lower market value. These large discrepancies in ESG ratings of companies within the consumer staples industry and individual rating problems, such as the company-size bias, mean that today's ESG ratings tend to be not reliable and not valid. The study shows that ESG ratings will have to change a lot in the near future in order to contribute positively to the investment selection of socially responsible investors.
With information on corporate ethical behavior now more accessible than ever, consumers have become increasingly socially and environmentally aware, which has translated into a growing demand for ethically made products. For ethically minded consumers, certification labels such as fair trade or organic are simple indicators of whether a product meets their ethical standards. For companies that wish to become certified, which is a lengthy and sometimes expensive process, there are several pertinent questions to consider, such as how much customers really value particular labels and whether multiple labels yield significant added competitive benefits. One should also consider how best to collect this information, because simply asking customers via surveys isn’t guaranteed to return results that actually reflect or predict real-life behavior (Carrington et al. 2010). For this paper, we collected information on consumers’ willingness to pay for products with the organic and fair trade labels (both individually and in combination) using two different methods: a traditional questionnaire and a reaction-time based electronic research method designed to reveal subconscious value perceptions. The factors involved were product type and number of labels. We found little evidence to suggest that additional ethical labels significantly increase willingness to pay.
Nowadays Islamic banking is relatively unknown in the Western world, but Islam has around 1,57 billion believers worldwide and is the second largest religion in the world. The number of Muslims is constantly increasing over the years. Not only for Muslims, but also for all other people this system provides a new and different way of banking.
This work gives the theoretical background which is needed to understand what self-assembling monolayers are, how they work, how and for what they can be used. A closer look is taken on the possibility to create an area selective atomic layer deposition process. In a practical experiment the foundation for this process is laid. Therefor a silicon wafer is coated with gold using a evaporation process. The gold samples are exposed to the SAMs solution to grow them. Contact angle measurements as well as Fourier transform Infrared spectroscopy are used to check the existence of SAMs on the gold samples. Also there is investigated if different exposure times make any differences.
Many entrepreneurs are still conducting business today according to the principle "the purpose of business is business". The focus here is primarily placed on the corporation’s profits while human relations within the enterprise are almost completely ignored. Humanity and business are, after all, seen as two mutually exclusive concepts. However, results of studies undertaken by well-known research institutes, such as Gallup, indicate this management style to be inefficient for businesses in the long run as the resulting low emotional bond of employees with their companies generates high costs for organizations.
For this reason, the present paper examines the extent to which humanity and business are really two mutually exclusive ideas and provides an answer to the research question of whether taking a human approach in a business is a crucial factor for its success. In addition, the possible effects resulting through the integration of humanity in business are analyzed.
To provide an answer to the research question, the currently most recent working challenges in organizations as well as their corresponding demands were first worked out. Subsequently, the human being - with a specific focus on human emotions and emotional needs – was closer examined due to its significance in the company. Finally, the possible effects achieved by taking a human approach in a business were presented on the basis of two already human-oriented corporations. All researches were predominantly based on primary sources as well as on the results of a self-conducted qualitative interview.
The results of all investigations clearly suggest that taking a human approach in an organization is a decisive factor for its success. In addition, it was established that human interactions even help enterprises in achieving astonishingly quick and long-lasting financial successes.
It is therefore plain that it is necessary for companies pursuing the goal to be successful in the long-term to break free from the common principle of "the purpose of business is business" and instead be more open to new forms of management, such as "Humanity and Business".
Open Educational Resources (OER) in der Hochschullehre - Anwendungsfall Informationssicherheit
(2016)
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, die Chancen von Open Educational Resources (OER) im Bereich Informationssicherheit festzustellen und zu fördern. Dabei liegt der Hauptfokus auf Bildungsmaterialien für die Hochschullehre. Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, wird eine analytische Bestandsaufnahme der aktuellen Quellenlage von Materialien der Informationssicherheit durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse werden in einer Datenbank festgehalten und theoretisch ausgewertet. Dies zeigt, dass aktuell nur wenige OER im Bereich Informationssicherheit verfügbar sind. Es stehen jedoch vielseitige Ausgangsmaterialien zur Verfügung. Um diese verarbeiten zu können, wird ein Handbuch für OER-Ersteller erarbeitet. Dieses bietet didaktische und lizenzrechtliche Hinweise für die OER-Erstellung. Als Beispiel zur Umsetzung dient das erstellte OER "Risikomanagement in der Informationssicherheit - Risikoidentifikation". Abschließend evaluiert diese Arbeit in theoretischer Form eine Möglichkeit, studentische Arbeiten unter einer freien Lizenz zu veröffentlichen.
Since ever humans strive for recognition and success. That could be put down to the fact that centuries in the past the rule of the survival of the fittest was valid. According to Darwinians the fittest person is therefore more successful in surviving than the other ones. This rule is still in the head of humans. For instance, the competition between women regarding beauty can be seen as its legacy. It is almost a certainty that more beautiful women are more successful than not that beautiful ones. Humans do always try to be better than others to gain prestige and recognition.
Also the American psychologist Abraham Maslow illustrated this in the “Maslow’s hierarchy of needs”. It says that humans have different kind of needs like basic needs, psychological needs and self-fulfillment needs. Within the psychological needs Maslow defined the Self-Esteem needs which include the need for prestige and the feeling of accomplishment. Driven by those needs, humans compare with each other.
Compared to relational databases, graph database systems provide a novel way of processing and analyzing highly interconnected data. Due to their unique properties, graph databases embody an interesting area of research in academic circles. For this reason, this work is fundamentally concerned with examining the state of the industry and current challenges. In this regard, we revisit the basic concepts and highlight the tremendous heterogeneity of available systems using the example of differing path semantics. Based on this insight, we explore algorithmic advancements for graph query processing regarding path finding and worst-case optimal joins. Subsequently, we discuss issues regarding performance and support for graph analytics. Finally, we provide an overview of GQL, a joint standardization effort towards unification of property graph databases.
Wikipedia is the largest free encyclopedia and one of the most popular websites worldwide. Analyzing user activity within this encyclopedic ecosystem represents unique opportunities for academic research and analysis. For this reason, this work is fundamentally concerned with obtaining and processing real-time article edit streams from Wikipedia. In this regard, we leverage the Wikimedia EventStreams API and propose a general-purpose event pipeline allowing for further processing of observed page edits. In the suggested pipeline, events are ingested and transported via an Apache Kafka cluster and inserted into a ClickHouse database for storage and analysis. Finally, we confirm the viability of our design by exploring several exemplary analytical use cases.
Differences in the perception and their effects on the implementation of organizational agility
(2021)
This thesis paper investigates the differences in organizational agility implementation and links practical approaches to complex theory. Several agile transformations have been studied to provide an overview of the common guidelines that foster agile working. In alignment with the ambivalence of agility, the results show that a symbiotic mixture of bottom- up and top-down features in the application is required. Especially in traditional organizations, where hierarchical structures prevail, the practical implementation requires the approval of managers and the active involvement of employees to be successful. Additionally, companies cannot apply a uniform approach to achieving agile but must alter practices to fit their specific needs. Consequently, this paper can be particularly beneficial to companies attempting an agile change.
In der vorliegenden Masterarbeit wurden verschiedene Ansteuerungsstrategien für den Betrieb von dreiphasigen Active-Neutral-Point-Clamped- (ANPC) Mittelspannungs-Netzumrichtern mit Siliziumkarbid (SiC) Halbleiterschaltelementen untersucht. Durch die Vielzahl an aktiven Schaltelementen können bei der ANPC-Topologie zur Modellierung des gewünschten Ausgangssignals zahlreiche unterschiedliche Ansteuerungsstrategien eingesetzt werden. Je nach gewählter Ansteuerungsstrategie können so unter anderem die Faktoren Schalt- und Durchlassverluste, Wirkungsgrad, Verlustverteilung, Schalter- und Ausgangsschaltfrequenz, der Oberschwingungsanteil des Ausgangssignals, sowie die maximale Spannungsbelastung der Halbleiter beeinflusst werden.
Neben der elektrotechnischen Beschreibung der aktuell eingesetzten Umrichter-Technologien wurden in dieser Arbeit primär aus aktuellen Veröffentlichungen und Dissertationen verschiedene Möglichkeiten für die Ansteuerung von ANPC-Umrichter zusammengetragen und insgesamt sieben Sinus-Pulsweiten-Modulationsstrategien (S-PWM) im Detail untersucht. Hierbei wurde für jede vorgestellte Modulationsstrategie das Grundfunktionsprinzip aufgezeigt und analysiert, sowie die sich daraus ergebenden Vor- und Nachteile herausgearbeitet.
Anschließend wurden alle vorgestellten S-PWM-Strategien in der Schaltungssimulationssoftware PLECS implementiert und diese in verschiedenen Betriebszuständen simuliert. Die Simulation ergab, dass sich bei der ANPC-ALD-Strategie eine bestmögliche Verlustverteilung zwischen den Halbleiterelementen einstellt, bei der ANPC-OOZS-Strategie die geringsten Durchlassverluste entstehen und bei den Strategien ANPC-DF, -12, -R2:1 und -SSLD im Bereich der Nulldurchgänge des Ausgangssignals an den inneren Halbleitern kurzzeitige kritische Überspannungen auftreten. Bei den Strategien ANPC-11-Sync, -ALD und -OOZS treten dagegen keine Überspannungen an den Halbleitern auf.
Ausgehend von diesen Simulationsergebnissen wurden die Strategien ANPC-DF, -ALD und -OOZS für den potentiellen Einsatz in Mittelspannungsumrichtern ausgewählt, auf einem FPGA-Board implementiert und damit eine geeignete Niederspannungstestplattform in Betrieb genommen. Durch praktische Messungen auf dieser Testplattform konnten die Simulationsergebnisse in einem ersten Schritt verifiziert werden. Sowohl das erstellte Simulationsmodell als auch die in Betrieb genommene Testplattform können somit zukünftig für weitere Untersuchungen im Bereich der ANPC-Umrichter-Ansteuerungsstrategien eingesetzt werden.
Bei dem seit 2019 auf dem Markt befindlichen Card-Mailing-System MAILMASTER der Firma Atlantic Zeiser GmbH, handelt es sich um eine Kleinserienmaschine zur Applizierung von Kunststoffkarten auf Briefen. Nach den ersten Kundeninstallationen soll nun die Reduktion von Montage- und Fertigungskosten erfolgen. Zur Identifizierung von Einsparpotential und bei der Ausarbeitung kostengünstigerer Alternativen werden diverse Methoden des Lean Managements genutzt.
Patient engagement is the most important element in the process of research/development of medicinal products and healthcare management in today’s times. In a country like India which has a huge population and limited state of regulatory affairs it becomes important to walk the extra mile to protect the patient lives and truly serve them. Time and again it is seen that there is no or limited focus on patient centric processes and we still tend to focus on sponsors as the key stakeholder.
The author in this thesis aims to focus on the clinical trial landscape of India and determine if there is a need to improve the clinical trial processes. If yes, then what type of change is the audience looking for.
The author tries to introduce the human element in the process and remind us all that it is the ‘patients’ who are the centre for the drug development process and serving them and alleviating their pain in the true purpose of the process.
The author along with the helping us find a definition of patient centricity in India, also proposes a model that can be used by the Indian pharmaceutical companies to focus on patient centricity at different stages of the drug development cycle within their organisations.d
In the present work, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) was pretreated with oxygen plasma to investigate the influence on the contact angle and surface energy. For this purpose, PEEK samples were fabricated over several manufacturing steps, which were used as substrates for later investigations. A series of measurements was performed at a power of 300 W for different treatment durations and the contact angle of H2O on the PEEK surface was determined. The results show that plasma pretreatment significantly affects the surface modification of PEEK disks. The best hydrophilic properties of the PEEK surfaces were measured at a treatment time of 540 s and a power of 300 W. A much longer treatment time caused the correlated values of contact angle and surface energy to increase and in this case an excessive treatment time did not contribute to a further increase in hydrophilicity.
Das Streben des Menschen nach persönlichem Wohlbefinden steigt mit dem Wohlstand – die aktuelle Pandemiezeit wirkt hier stark beschleunigend. Den Traum von einem eigenen Wellnessbereich im privaten Heim erfüllen sich immer mehr Privatpersonen.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde der Geschäftsprozess der Saunafertigung untersucht. Dabei lag der Fokus der Analyse auf den einzelnen Prozessschritten des Fertigungsprozesses hinsichtlich Zeit, Material, Maschine und Mensch. Die herausgearbeiteten Optimierungsansätze orientieren sich dabei an dem magischen Dreieck und der Digitalisierung.
Es zeigte sich, dass viele Prozessschritte noch händisch und in Papierform durchgeführt werden. Der technisch bereits mögliche Einsatz von digitalbasierten Schritten ist nicht in vollem Umfang ausgeschöpft. Für eine effiziente zukunftsorientierte Prozessgestaltung ist die weitere Digitalisierung unerlässlich.
What happens in a situation in which an individual is given a quality task for no compensation while knowing that someone else receives a reward for the same effort? If a performance drop occurs, does the individual's fairness sensitivity play a dependent role? These questions are approached theoretically and experimentally within this thesis. As a foundation, the most critical insights from the psychological investigation of extrinsic rewards and its impact on intrinsic motivation and performance are reviewed. Furthermore, relevant findings regarding fairness are introduced from varying fields of research. The conducted double-blind experiment suggests with limited confidence that the higher an individual's fairness sensitivity in a situation of perceived unfair treatment, the lower the performance.
Die vorliegende Masterarbeit analysiert die Problematiken effektiver grafischer Repräsentationen in digitalen Informationssystemen, die mit besonders hoherund dynamischer Datendichte und Datenquellen einhergehen. Anschließend an die Analyse der Problematiken erarbeitet der Autor dieser Forschungsarbeit ein konzeptuelles Modell zur Bewältigung der geschilderten Problematiken, auf Basis von semantisch beschriebenen, wiederverwendbaren grafischen Visualisierungselementen und den ebenfalls semantisch beschriebenen in die Visualisierung zu überführenden Daten. Besonders hervorzuhebende Erkenntnisse dieser Masterarbeit sind die Identifikation von Qualitätskriterien zur Zielführung einer effektiven Visualisierung gemäß der visuellenWahrnehmung des menschlichen kognitiven Systems, die Notwendigkeit zur Erweiterung der Vokabularmenge der schema.org-Ontologie zur Anwendung der identifizieren Qualitätskriterien und das Auffinden geeigneter Visualisierungselemente sowie das Zuordnen der Daten zu entsprechenden Visualisierungselementen über den Aufbau und Vergleich einer Baumstruktur für sowohl die Daten als auch die der Visualisierungselemente. Diese Forschungsarbeit ist von besonderer Relevanz für Entscheider, Projektmanager und Softwareentwickler, die digitale Informationssysteme mit einer hohen Anzahl an heterogenen Datensätzen und Datenquellen entwickeln.
Die vorliegende Arbeit gibt industriellen Entscheidern, Softwareentwicklern, Geräteherstellern und Standardisierungsgremien einen Überblick über die Problematiken bei der Entwicklung plattformübergreifender Anwendungen zum Abruf, zur Visualisierung und zur Modifizierung heterogener Informationen von unterschiedlichen Geräten über standardisierte Kommunikationstechnologien unter mit Einbezug etablierter Geräteintegrationstechnologien. Zum Aufzeigen der Problematiken wurden exemplarisch die Technologien Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture für den standardisierten Kommunikationsaustausch und Field Device Tool als etablierte Geräteintegrationstechnologie zur Umsetzung der prototypischen Implementierung verwendet. Die wichtigsten Erkenntnisse dieser Arbeit sind neben der Notwendigkeit eines auf plattformübergreifenden Plattformen lauffähigen Toolkits, die Erfordernis zur dynamischen Visualisierung der Daten asymmetrischen Typs, die aufgrund der Informationstypenvielfalt des Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture Standards bestehen. Weiterhin zeigen die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit die Möglichkeit zur Integration etablierter Geräteintegrationsstandards, sofern diese Integration von den Standardisierungsgremien der etablierten Technologien korrekt realisiert wurde.
Global warming provokes our climate and the world how we know it today to change severely. The production of food together with its consumption is responsible for 19-29% of world’s greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities and further rises are
expected. As a response to this phenomenon, the assessment of a product’s carbon footprint has awaken huge interest with the purpose of controlling food’s environmental impact during its life-cycle. In order to involve individuals in the target of reducing harmful emissions, besides governmental and business efforts, CO2 labels have been developed to communicate a product’s carbon footprint and enabling consumers to make more climate-friendly purchase decisions. However, it has been shown that a successful
implementation of CO2 labels on grocery products still confronts barriers from the consumer side.
For a better understanding of the meaning of mentioned labels, this thesis deepens the theoretical backgrounds of greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint related to the food industry. In a second step, the acceptance and effectiveness of carbon labels on
groceries will be analysed critically by using contextual literature reviews and a case study on German purchase behaviour.
Einfluss des Klimawandels auf die deutsche Weinindustrie - Zukunftsanalyse für die deutschen Winzer
(2022)
Die vorliegende Bachelorarbeit gibt einen Überblick über die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels auf die deutsche Weinindustrie. Das Ziel war es, die zukünftigen Risiken wie auch Chancen für die deutschen Winzer zu ermitteln und anhand der Ergebnisse Handlungsempfehlungen für die zukünftige Weinindustrie zu entwickeln. Um die Forschungsfragen zu beantworten, wurde eine Szenario- Analyse durchgeführt, welche sich an den deutschen Winzern orientiert. Dabei wurden die Einflüsse betrachtet und anhand dieser wurden unterschiedliche Zukunftsprojektionen erstellt. Die Szenario-Analyse zeigte, dass die deutsche Weinindustrie bei den aktuellen Entwicklungen des Klimawandels deutlich als Gewinner hervorgeht. Dennoch müssen Winzer und andere Akteure der Wein- industrie heute bereits wichtige Entscheidungen treffen und sich den Bedingun- gen anpassen um in der Zukunft die entstehen Chancen nutzen zu können.
This paper aims to evaluate the European Green Bond market's current state by analyzing the issuer countries, types, and sectors. Moreover, the impact of regulatory developments in the last two years on the market is analyzed. As a basis for discussion, both literature review and qualitative research in the form of a semi-structured interview were conducted. The interviews were held with four market experts to gain insight into the actual market's reaction to the EU Green Bond Standard and the upcoming EU Taxonomy. In detail, the following questions are answered: What is the current state of the European Green Bond Market? How many bonds are currently issued in Europe and in which countries? Which entities are the most active issuers, and to which sectors do they belong? What are the current developments with regards to regulations? How might upcoming regulations affect the market actors? The European green bond market made up 45% of the global market in 2019, dominated by Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Spain, and Italy. The market is still in its growth phase, with the amount issued nearly doubling each year. With the introduction of an EU Green Bond Standard, detailed standardization and framework is established. It will help issuers to overcome market barriers such as the risk of greenwashing and helps in identifying eligible projects. However, with the alignment of the EU GBS, an entity has to align with the extensive EU Taxonomy as well, which represents entry barriers to else willing corporations. Whether an activity counts as green or not based on thresholds is defined by the classification of economic activities. The thresholds are heavily discussed in the market as either too high and excluding whole sectors from the market or too low and not ambitious enough. The alignment with the EU GBS and thus with the EU Taxonomy is connected to various efforts. Nonetheless, it offers a great chance for the market by emphasizing the need for climate action. Through this, a strong green market can emerge and hopefully impacts the world positively.
Applications for the Internet of Things are becoming increasingly popular. Due to the large amount of available context data, such applications can be used effectively in many domains. By interlinking these data and analyzing them, it is possible to gather a lot of knowledge about a user. Therefore, these applications pose a threat to privacy. In this paper, we illustrate this threat by looking at a real-world application scenario. Current state of the art focuses on privacy mechanisms either for Smart Things or for big data processing systems. However, our studies show that for a comprehensive privacy protection a holistic view on these applications is required. Therefore, we describe how to combine two promising privacy approaches from both categories, namely AVARE and PATRON. Evaluation results confirm the thereby achieved synergy effects.
This thesis aims to ascertain whether the concept of job sharing might be a solution for organizations to adapt their company values to meet the changing principles of society. The shift in demands results from the younger generations seeking different values in their free time, which also influences the demands at work. The disbalance between organizational and individual values leads to employee dissatisfaction and increasing turnover rates. The part-time concept of job sharing is on the rise regarding new work opportunities. Therefore, subtopics including flexibility, work-life balance, gender balance, and diversity in the workforce are positively encouraged through job sharing. The data and research in this thesis are obtained from existing literature on the work concept. Most previous research has focused on the influences on individuals and less on multiple levels within a company. The findings of this paper state that job sharing can significantly impact the value shift of a company in many different facets. Nevertheless, the concept also provides a large number of requirements on several levels which need to be adjusted to benefit from the concept.
Plötzliches Unvermögen ist strategisches Thema und Meilenstein auf der Euro-NCAP Roadmap für das Jahr 2025. Diese Arbeit widmet sich der Frage nach der Umsetzbarkeit und rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen kamerabasierter Innenraumüberwachung im Hinblick auf die Erkennung plötzlichen Unvermögens durch Myokardinfarkt. Nach einleitender Definition des Terminus „Plötzliches Unvermögen/Sudden Sickness“ erfolgt eine Übersicht der NCAP Anforderungen sowie ein Überblick über den aktuellen Forschungs- und Entwicklungsstand. Im Folgenden wird auf Anforderungen aus Verbraucher- und Datenschutzsicht eingegangen. Schwerpunkt dieses Papers bildet die Erstellung, Umsetzung und Bewertung von Use Cases zur Erkennung einer Sudden Sickness durch Myokardinfarkt. Abschließend werden offene Forschungsfragen erläutert. Ein experimentelles Beispielsystem wurde exemplarisch umgesetzt und evaluiert. Die wesentlichen Erkenntnisse dieses Prototypen waren, dass besonderer Fokus/Aufmerksamkeit gelegt werden muss auf die Leistungsfähigkeit der Zielhardware, insbesondere im Hinblick auf Echtzeitanforderungen.
Digital twin as a service : Ressourcenmanagement mit Energiedaten aus cyber-physischen Systemen
(2019)
Die Energiewende führt zu einer Paradigmenänderung. Der Zeitpunkt der Energieabnahme wird sich zunehmend an dem der Energieerzeugung orientierten. Die Steuerung des Energiebedarfs kann durch energieorientierte Produktionsplanung gesteigert werden. Dies erfordert eine Vorhersage des Energiebedarfs. Hierfür wird ein System entwickelt, das eine Modellierung mittels maschinellen Lernens nutzt. Die Datenbasis wird durch eine Vorgehensweise zur Abstrahierung von Fertigungsmaschinen erzeugt. Das System besteht aus gruppierten Microservices, es berücksichtigt die unterschiedlichen Anforderungen der Modelle an die Infrastruktur. Die Modelle sind in digitalen Zwillingen integriert, die als Dienst genutzt werden. Hierdurch ist eine effiziente Adaption von ˜Äderungen an Fertigungsmaschine oder Modell-Methodik möglich. Eine exemplarische Anwendung der Abstraktionsmethode und der Modellierung mittels neuronalen Netzes demonstrieren die Umsetzbarkeit.
The topic of simplicity has drastically increased in branding in recent years, as it allows companies to conquer a competitive world dominated by growth and complexity. There are studies explaining the benefits and power of simplicity in business in general. Nevertheless, simplicity is a field that has not been explored extensively for single industries.
The bachelor thesis attempts to investigate the critical importance and power of simplicity in the customer journey of the car rental business and to provide an overview of possible improvements for the customer experience on the example of car rental company Hertz. Secondary data adopted from academic books, academic journals, study reports and press articles are used to develop a comprehensive analysis and a theoretical framework on the topic of customer experience, customer loyalty in connection with simplicity. The car rental company Hertz and its customer journey are being investigated through the lens of simplicity. Qualitative and quantitative research is adapted to cover insufficient information on Hertz and to uncover the pain points in Hertz’s customer journey. An expert interview with a Hertz executive is conducted to gather first-hand insights on Hertz's viewpoint of simplification and to what extent the company aims to use simplicity as a tool for its customer journey. A succeeding customer survey is executed to gain a better understanding of Hertz customers' perceptions and towards Hertz and to collect a broader picture of Hertz's customer journey. The conclusion drawn is used to derive possible simplification enhancements for Hertz in order to achieve various desired business results. A critical assessment for future research on the topic and limiting conditions are discussed in the conclusion.
Thermal spraying is one of the most important and most efficient methods for coating surfaces. The company "Hugo Kern und Liebers" uses atmospheric plasma spraying for various coating processes such as the metallic coating of functional surfaces to optimize electrical conductivity. In order to gain further experience in the field of thermal spraying and to get a better overview, the processes of thermal spraying were compared in this project. Therefore, in addition to the information on atmospheric plasma spraying, the properties of other processes were collected through research. An Excel table of the process properties provides a good overview and helps with comparisons. The aim of this research work was the differentiation of the processes from each other, to identify advantages and disadvantages and to define areas of application.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist es, den Einfluss von Apps und virtuellen Welten auf die Akzeptanz und die Motivation von Läufern zu ermitteln. Dafür wird der Begriff der Motivation anhand von Motivationsmodellen erklärt und auf den Laufsport angewendet. Durch den praktischen Teil der Arbeit, wurde mittels einer Studie herausgefunden wie Probanden auf virtuelle Welten während einer Laufeinheit auf einem Laufband reagieren und diese bewerten. Die Grundlage und Idee des Themas dieser Bachelorarbeit, war unter anderem eine virtuelle Laufapp. 2009 gab es an der Hochschule Furtwangen die Projektgruppe „Virtual Marathon“. Unter der Leitung von Prof. Dr. Dittler, war das Ziel des Projektes eine virtuelle Welt für den Laufsport zu erschaffen. Dafür filmte die Gruppe verschiedene Laufstrecken ab und projizierte diese Videos anschließend auf eine Leinwand, vor welcher ein Laufband installiert wurde. Heutige Apps nutzen dieselbe Technik, nur auf aktuellerem Stand und mit einer Vielzahl von mehr Strecken.
This paper aims to create a foundation for further, in-depth research of the topic Indigenous entrepreneurship in Colombia and other countries, as well as to facilitate the analysis of obstacles in Indigenous businesses. To answer the research question, seven experts are interviewed using semi-structured interview guides based on several deductive categories. The findings are then analysed through a thematic content analysis before they are presented and discussed.
The results show that there are various inter-connected obstacles impeding more success of Indigenous businesses in Colombia, which are not sufficiently studied and addressed. The most important obstacles are corruption and marginalization, as well as resulting conditions like a lack of infrastructure and education. This study emphasizes the importance of, and encourages the realization of further,
profound research regarding this and related topics.
Investigation on adhesion strength of Parylene-C coatings with different adhesion promotion methods
(2021)
Delamination of encapsulation materials (here the polymer Parylene-C) is one of the biggest failure mechanisms for active medical implants. This problem is addressed by the application of different pre-treatment and adhesion promotion methods. The methods applied in this research are oxygen and Silane A-174 solution pre-treatment and Silane A-174, titanium oxide and Trimethylsilane as adhesion promoters. The adhesion forces of these methods are quantified after different soaking times in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution to mimic environment of the human body.
Funktionsweise und Vergleich von Methoden zur Generierung von Punktwolken in einer Versandstation
(2023)
In dieser wissenschaftlichen Publikation werden verschiedene Möglichkeiten alternativer Energieträger vor allem im Automobilbereich vorgestellt und miteinander bezüglich Schadstoffausstoß, Speicherung, Gesamtwirkungsgrad und Infrastruktur verglichen. Aufgrund des hohen Potenzials von Methan als alternativem Energieträger wird genauer auf die Modifizierung des Verbrennungsmotors bei Verwendung von Methan als Kraftstoff eingegangen. Da für die Gewinnung der meisten hier vorgestellten Energieträger elektrische Energie benötigt wird, spielt die Energiequelle eine große Rolle für die Zukunft des automotiven Antriebs.
Weite Bereiche der Softwareentwicklung werden
bereits heute durch diverse Werkzeuge unterstützt und teilweise automatisiert. Eine Verbesserung dieser Automatisierung soll dazu führen, dass die Entwicklung schneller und kosteneffizienter wird und eine höhere Qualität aufweist. Durch stetig steigende Forschungsarbeit im Bereich der künstlichen Intelligenz kann auch die werkzeugunterstützte Softwareentwicklung (engl. computer-aided software engineering, CASE) profitieren, indem bereits gängige Automatisierungsschritte durch den Einsatz neuer Methoden stark verbessert werden. Auch können sich durch diese Forschung neue Möglichkeiten ergeben, weitere Aufgaben während der Entwicklung zu automatisieren. Diese Verbesserungen und neuen Möglichkeiten sollen in dieser Ausarbeitung erklärt und gegebenenfalls genauer untersucht werden. In Tests, die im Rahmen dieser Ausarbeitung durchgeführt wurden, hat sich das Potential einiger Werkzeuge gezeigt, jedoch auch, dass sich die meisten Werkzeuge auf die KI-gestützte Verbesserung bereits verbreiteterWerkzeuge beschränken und damit nur wenig zu einer Automatisierung des kompletten Prozesses beitragen. Außerdem hat sich mit dem sog. Data Poisoning neues Gefahrenpotential herausgestellt.
For the last hundred years an increasing number of women pushed into male dominated employment but today women still claim to face gender specific inequalities on many levels (Torre 2014). This shift to recruit more nontraditional work force once was generated by a mismatch of labor market demand and labor market supply as well as the economic pressure to be cost efficient. Nowadays it can be observed that employers are more sensitive to society valuation but still they are not able to prevent inequalities caused by sex distinction (Reskin 1993).
In 2013 China's President Xi Jinping announced a new project. In his vision, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) creates and opens trade routes between China and western countries, mostly the Middle East, Central Asia, Afrika, and Europe, via maritime and land routes. These trade corridors should establish and improve trade relationships often by high investments in the infrastructure.
The motivation behind the initiative is manifold. On the one hand, China wants to become more independent from the Western industrialized countries by building a new economic system. On the other hand, it wants to consolidate and expand its geopolitical influence.
China's state-owned banks have been the largest investors in the Belt and Road Initiative so far, but China has also been able to attract major EU countries such as Germany, France, the UK, and others to jointly establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and invest in BRI projects through it.
Although German companies are hoping to participate in the Belt and Road because they expect significant economic benefits, the German government is refraining from concluding an agreement with China for the time being. The EU is somewhat skeptical about the initiative, but no sanctions or interventions have been taken from its side so far. Yet, the EU is split, and countries such as Greece or Italy have already signed an agreement with China and thus received financial support for their infrastructure.
This bachelor thesis explains the Belt and Road Initiative in detail, tries to highlight the motives behind it and illustrates the impact the Belt and Road Initiative has on Germany and the EU and which implications this has for the German economy.
ALD can be used in medical technology to produce thin and stable protective coatings. For example, such coatings can be used as tarnish and oxidation protection for silver electrodes used in high-frequency surgery. For the investigation of the pretreatment method, platelets of sterling silver were used instead of silver electrodes. Three methods were used to pretreat the silver substrates. The first pretreatment method is cleaning with acetone and isopropanol. In the other two, the samples are additionally cleaned with a phosphoric acid etching mixture or citric acid. The pretreated substrates were coated using the atomic layer deposition method. 45 nm of aluminum oxide was deposited on the silver samples, followed by another 45 nm of titanium oxide. Subsequently, the samples were autoclaved in order to check the clinical routine and the reusability. The results show a significantly improved adhesion in contrast to samples that were not cleaned. The layer no longer flakes off the silver substrate. Nevertheless, small blisters appear on the protective layer after autoclaving. These indicate that the layer is weakened by the stress.
Im Rahmen dieser Master-Thesis wurden Verfahren zum Transfer eines Arrays kleiner Dies (unverkapselte Chips) mit einer Kantenlänge von 250 μm bis 300 μm untersucht. Die Dies sollten hierbei von UV-lichtempfindlicher Folie selektiv abgehoben und auf einem Zielsubstrat abgesetzt werden. Als Verfahren wurde die Stempeltechnologie gewählt. Zum Aufnehmen der Dies wurden Stempel aus Silikon gegossen. Als Substrate zum Absetzen der Dies wurden Gläser mit Zucker beschichtet. Zur Überprüfung des Verfahrens wurden Zugversuche durchgeführt. Die senkrechte Abzugskraft der verwendeten Folie und der Silikonstempel wurde ermittelt. Durch Abzugstests der Folie im belichteten und unbelichteten Zustand wurden die genutzten Belichtungsprozesse überprüft. Das Umsetzen wurde mit gesägten Stücken eines Siliziumwafers durchgeführt. Es konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass das Umsetzen mit Silikonstempeln möglich ist und die erzeugten Kräfte hierfür ausreichen. Die Herstellung und Vorbereitung der gesägten Siliziumwürfel erwies sich hierbei als kritischer Prozess, was die Reproduzierbarkeit der Umsetzung stark beeinträchtigt.
The following study examines the influence selected variables have on the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin by utilizing a multiple linear regression model. Data of 267 observations for each variable during a five-year period from 13 August 2016 to 1 October 2021 are analyzed. The results present empirical evidence on the relationship of Bitcoin and external determinants such as traditional financial assets, in particular the stock market, the bond market, domestic currencies, the real estate market, gold, and the popularity of Bitcoin, represented by a Google Trends analysis. The findings imply that only the stock market and the real estate market proxies significantly influence the price of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
This paper deals with the constructive adaptation of an existing mechanical single-jet valve meter (valve meter driven only by a water jet) for the realisation of a digital system. For this purpose, an existing mechanical single-jet valve meter system is constructively adapted in such a way that the existing mechanical counter can be replaced by an existing digital counter. Subsequently, the measuring behaviour of the newly created meter system is examined on a testing bench
New developments in decentralized ledger technologies may have a huge impact on how we perceive and use money now and in the future. Most notably, it has led to the development of cryptocurrencies and a variation thereof –stablecoins. This thesis discusses the potential impact of Proof of Work based cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin on the money market and the central bank’s ability to maintain control over the money supply. The IS-LM model is used to evaluate the effects of a private-issued digital currency. However, due to the characteristics of POW based cryptocurrencies, their impact on the money market is neglectable. In contrast, private-issued stablecoins of large international businesses with the potential of gaining enough users to overcome hindering network effects may pose a serious threat to the financial system, if there is no regulation on their usage.
As a response to this development and combined with the phenomenon of a declining cash usage in many countries, central banks have started to conduct research in their own digital currency, namely central bank digital currency (CBDC). Countries such as Sweden or The Bahamas have already started with the implementation of trial phases of their respective CBDC. However, design choices of the country’s digital currency differ due to financial, geographical, and cultural circumstances, among others. Nevertheless, many countries have utilized decentralized ledger technologies as the underlying technology for CBDC, showing its promising potential for further research and future developments.
In the light of incremental environmental degradation, social awareness and resource depletion along with high and volatile resource prices, food packaging manufacturers in Germany increasingly perceive pressure towards the implementation of circular business models. However, there does not exist any data neither about the current deployment of circular business models nor about the active efforts dedicated by manufacturers in the German food packaging industry while in many cases there is lacking expertise of how to implement circular business models. This thesis is going to close this gap by conducting a systematic observation of 41 food packaging manufacturers’ product portfolio and company policy in order to identify the current state of deployment and active efforts dedicated to the implementation. Moreover, the most applicable measures will be analysed in order to capture the level of circularity in the focal industry, while providing a step-by-step guidance of how to implement circular business models. There was found that the German food packaging industry is characterised by an open-loop approach since manufacturers focus on circular inputs but neglect the reuse and recycling of packaging materials. Besides, there could be identified six highly applicable metrics, which measure a range of different fundamental aspects of the circular economy. Finally, there was found that the process of implementing circular business models can be structured into four phases, whereas a set of key enablers permits food packaging manufacturers to overcome certain barriers and facilitates the implementation of circular business models. The conclusion was drawn that food packaging manufacturers in Germany still show noticeable potential for enhancement in order to increase circularity, especially by launching circular product designs, the reuse of certain types of food packaging and implementing a more holistic approach of circular business models.
Die Vielfalt von heutzutage auftretenden Datenstrukturen schafft Bedarf für individu-
ell abgestimmte Analyseplattformen. Dabei benötigte Ressourcen sind vom jeweiligen
Anwendungsfall abhängig. Diese Arbeit diskutiert Broker für die Virtualisierung der
verarbeitenden Anwendungen, welche durch ein abstrahiertes Dashboard bedient wer-
den. Eine Domain Specific Language ermöglicht die Generierung eines Grundgerüsts
entsprechender Komponenten, die mit individueller Logik anzureichern sind. Die be-
schriebene Architektur bezieht sich zu großen Teilen auf den Umgang mit den flexiblen
Eingangsdaten von virtualisierten Verarbeitungsplattformen.
Hubert Burda Media ist ein international agierendes Medienunternehmen, das unter anderem in den Segmenten Woman, Luxury Lifestyle, Living und Food aktiv ist. Das Unternehmen befindet sich auf Expansionskurs und ist dabei bestrebt, neben dem Ausbau weiterer Geschäftsfelder (z.B. Digital), sein Wachstumspotenzial durch Internationalisierungsaktivitäten bestehender Zeitschriftentitel in anderen Märkten auszuschöpfen.
Die Koch- und Genusszeitschrift SAVEURS wird vom Burda Verlag Editions Hubert Burda Media in Paris publiziert und wurde bereits in Russland und Deutschland lanciert. Nach der Einführung der Zeitschrift auf anderen Märkten außerhalb des Heimatmarktes, soll das Potential für eine erfolgreiche Einführung auf dem brasilianischen Markt untersucht werden.
Subject of the thesis at hand is the analysis of symmetric block ciphers with a block length of 32 bit. It is meant to give a comprising overview over the topic of 32 bit block ciphers. The topic is divided in the examination of three questions. It contains a list of state of the art block ciphers with a block length of 32 bit. The block ciphers are being described, focussing on the encryption function. An SPN-based cipher with 32 bit block length is being proposed by rescaling the AES cipher.
The 32 bit block length results in certain security issues. These so called risk factors are analysed and mitigating measures are proposed. The result of the thesis is, that 32 bit block ciphers can be implemented in a secure manner. The use of 32 bit ciphers should be limited to specific use-cases and with a profound risk analysis, to determine the protection class of the data to be encrypted.
Die derzeitige Kühlkreisregelung einer bestehenden Drehmaschinenbaureihe, welche ein kontinuierliches Erwärmen der Werkzeugspindel während der Bearbeitung nicht verhindern kann, wurde im Rahmen dieser Projektarbeit optimiert. Hierbei verkürzt die neue Kühlkreisregelung der Werkzeugspindel sowohl die Warmlaufphase und gewährleistet gleichzeitig eine gleichbleibende Temperatur der Komponenten bei der Bearbeitung der Werkstücke. Dies sorgt für eine konstante Spitzenhöhe der Spindel sowie des Reitstockes über mehrere Betriebsstunden hinweg. Auch die Kühlung des Hydrauliköls wurde optimiert, sodass dieses deutlich schneller als bisher auf Betriebstemperatur erwärmt und anschließend konstant gehalten werden kann.
Das vornehmlich visuell erscheinende Web und seine Inhalte stellen, sofern Web Accessability, die ausnahmslose Barrierefreiheit im Web, nicht priorisiert wird, für Blinde und Sehbehinderte Hürden dar und schließt sie von bedeutenden Inhalten des Webs aus.
In dieser Bachelorthesis soll verdeutlicht werden, dass Maßnahmen für Web Accessability jeglichen Nutzergruppen ausschließlich Vorteile darbieten und ohne außergewöhnliche Aufwände umzusetzen sind.
Um dies zu erreichen, werden Handlungsempfehlungen von Analysen der Ist-Zustände verschiedener Typen von Online Medien, theoretischen Konzepten zur Einhaltung von Web Accessability sowie eigenen Erhebungen abgeleitet.
Zudem wurden Gespräche mit betroffenen Nutzern im Blinden- und Sehbehindertenverein Südbaden e.V. geführt, um Einblicke in die Thematik zu erlangen, welche durch bloße Theorie und Analysen nicht in vollem Umfang ersichtlich sind.
Die Handlungsempfehlungen in der vorliegenden Bachelorarbeit stellen einen Leitfaden explizit für die Entwicklung von Online-Shops dar, um sehbehinderten und blinden Nutzern die für sie noch nicht vollends erreichbare Welt des e-Commerce adäquat zu erschließen.
Hierbei werden vor allem die notwendigsten Maßnahmen zum Abbau der folgenreichsten Barrieren für blinde und sehbehinderte Nutzer im Web herausgehoben: inhaltlich äquivalente Beschreibungen zu Grafiken, Bildern und Formularen, die Gliederung der Webseiten in Abschnitte sowie technische Maßnahmen zur Navigation der Webseite über Bildschirmleseprogramme.
Als rechtliche und ethische Grundlagen zu den in dieser Thesis erarbeiteten Empfehlungen werden allen voran die Barrierefreie-Informationstechnik-Verordnung (BITV) sowie die Web Content Accessability Guidelines der W3C (WCAG 2.0) herangezogen.
The interest in topics such as the environment, health and sustainability has increased dramatically in recent years, due to concerns about global warming and demographic change, giving way to the concept of “green branding”.
This bachelor thesis proposes the application of a green branding strategy in order to position Irish agri-food products in the German grocery retail market, and explores its potential effectiveness and current relevance. Firstly, this work intends to offer an overall understanding of the characteristics and implications of a green branding strategy. Secondly, it analyses the connection with Ireland as a country of origin for agri-food products, by putting forward the different arguments for its suitability for the respective products. Finally, the key learnings regarding the successful implementation of a green branding strategy are discussed, based on a real-life best-practice case.
This research employed previous academic and trade literature to develop a theoretical foundation for understanding the concept of green branding in a marketing context. Various forms of industry, consumer and retail insights were used to identify the extent of demand for green brands in Germany and to analyse strength and weaknesses of the Irish agri-food industry in this regard.
An expert interview with the Marketing Manager for Kerrygold in Germany was conducted to uncover points arising from the best-practice application of a green branding strategy.
The findings indicate that there is significant theoretical and practical evidence to suggest that the application of a green branding would be an effective positioning strategy for Irish agri-food in the German consumer market.
It is not a mystery that us humans want what is not necessarily good for us. The fundamental desire, want and even need for foods high in fat, salt and sugar is embedded deep within us. It is part of our evolutionary biology, that we crave these unhealthy substances, due to their original scarcity, and our physical need for them in order to survive.
The present research sought to deepen the debates about how the collector of recyclable material, a subject that has built his political resistance in the Brazilian scenario from the process of re-signification of garbage and his profession. Its empowerment observed from the end of the 20th century was concomitant with the growth of environmental discussions and the strengthening of the solidarity economy as an alternative for economic emancipation in Brazil. In this context, the individual who used to live on the margins of society established himself as a fundamental factor in the recycling chain and became an environmental agent. The question that guided the investigation was "how has the pandemic influenced waste pickers' solidarity organizations, given their challenges and opportunities?". In this context, two specific objectives were determined to be answered in the course of the research. The first sought to understand the relationship between the solidarity economy and the formation of waste picker collectives; the second aimed to identify the challenges and opportunities that could arise from these solidarity organizations' experiences. A vast theoretical analysis was conducted to understand the
foundations of the Solidarity Economy, an alternative to the informal economy and a form of economic empowerment especially considered for vulnerable populations, as a
way to include them economically. Using the case study of Belo Horizonte, a city with a history of alternative economic expressions and strengthened waste pickers' movements, we approached various actors of the recycling chain through qualitative research, using
the in-depth interviews approach.
Among other findings, the research noted that one of the greatest challenges of the post-pandemic Solidarity Economy is related to the expansion of the capitalist market to areas traditionally aggregated by the Solidarity Economy, because they were previously considered to be on the “margins of society”. However, these threats also
give room for opportunities, from responses that reinforce the legitimacy of cooperatives and associations, through their contractual adequacy with the City Hall for
the payment of the environmental service rendered, disconnected from the number of solid waste collected. We have learned that in the daily struggles and achievements of
the waste pickers, challenges and opportunities go hand in hand.
Sustainability, encompassing the economy, the environment, and society in equal parts, is an increasingly prominent topic that is gaining in importance and awareness due to the climate crisis and the resulting urgent need for action. It is essential to simultaneously focus on the global and on the local scale in order to create a paradigm shift. This study addresses the attitude-behavior gap of employees in the daily operations within companies and evaluates how nudges can be implemented to narrow this gap. A literature review was conducted to understand the separate topics of sustainability, the attitude-behavior gap, and nudging. Based on these three topics and their interrelation, exemplary nudges on habits and on infrastructure to be applied in a company and modified to its needs are developed. The method of implementation of nudges cannot be generalized because (1) attitudes and behavior and their interrelation are individual and influenceable factors and (2) the corporate context and how nudges are communicated impact the effectiveness of the interventions. Investing in internal sustainability practices in combination with indispensable external practices leads companies to a holistic, authentic, and successful approach towards becoming a sustainable business.
Keywords: Attitude-Behavior Gap, Nudging, Corporate sustainability
Der Frauenanteil in den Führungsetagen der deutschen Wirtschaft stagniert seit Jahren auf einem niedrigen Niveau und spiegelt nicht im Entferntesten den Anteil weiblicher Beschäftigter wider (vgl. Tonn 2016, S. 11). Vor allem im Top-Management sind Frauen deutlich unterrepräsentiert. Die Grundannahme dieser Bachelorarbeit besteht darin, dass Frauen grundsätzlich motiviert sind, Führung zu übernehmen und die gleichen Potentiale wie Männer besitzen. Um eine Führungsposition einzunehmen, müssen die Rahmenbedingungen passen. Aufgrund biologischer Unterschiede und der Sozialisation präferieren Frauen andere Rahmenbedingungen als Männer. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Frage untersucht, was sich aus Sicht der Frauen verändern müsste, damit sie ihr Potential entfalten können. Dazu wurden 50 weibliche Probandinnen aus unterschiedlichen Branchen befragt. Die systematische Betrachtung der Aussagen ergab im Wesentlichen folgende sieben Aspekte: Gestaltungsfreiheit, Unterstützung zu Beginn und in der Führungsposition, Vertrauen, eine gute Feedback- und Fehlerkultur, die Vereinbarkeit mit dem Privatleben, Menschlichkeit im Fokus und attraktive Anreize. Des Weiteren konnten durch die Ergebnisse Handlungsoptionen abgeleitet werden, um strukturelle und kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen zu gestalten, die talentierten und motivierten Frauen einen einfacheren Zugang zu mehr Führungsverantwortung verschaffen.
Funding is the key to success for a start-up. Since start-ups are often operating in innovative industries, they rarely receive loans from traditional debt lenders such as banks. However, start-ups do have the option of acquiring money for company growth through equity financing. One possibility for this is venture capital. In this scope, Germany is significantly behind the United States of America due to various aspects. This problem shows the relevance of the topic and justifies the critical examination of this subject. This work aims to analyze the German venture capital market, its development over the last 20 years, its advantages on the one hand and its disadvantages on the other hand as well as its future perspectives. Beyond that, the differences between the German and the American venture capital market and its success factors are presented. To answer all research questions, a broad literature review in combi-nation with several conducted expert interviews, which are evaluated on the principle of the qualitative content analysis according to Mayring, is applied. The results of the analysis indicate that there are mainly three fields that are crucial for a successful venture capital market: Political actions, attitudes of the society, and the economic situation. Within these fields, some aspects of Germany are considered worse than in the U.S. In the United States of America politics often intervenes to create better conditions for investments via venture capital. Besides, the risk affinity of society in the U.S. is a major advantage compared to the risk-averse society in Germany. This is complemented by a pronounced start-up mentality in the U.S. and the positive attitude of society towards the failure of a new start-up. In Germany, the opposite can be found in both aspects. Nevertheless, the German venture capital market has developed positively in recent years and has some advantages, such as a wide range of government grants for start-ups and the opportunity for investors to earn high returns on the initial investment. All experts that were interviewed are very confident that venture capital in Germany will continue to develop positively. They identified the reasons for this evolution in an increasing number of start-ups and better skills among the founders, which increases a start-ups' chances of success. For this reason, the experts forecast rising yield expectations, as well as an increasing number of venture capital providers, and venture capital takers. This research also indicates that the volumes of venture capital funds will rise, and the COVID-19-pandemic will accelerate the development of venture capital in Germany. The results of the research clearly show that despite some weaknesses, the German venture capital market has been on a good path for several years, and that there is a high probability that the growth will continue in the future.
Due to technical advances, multisensory technologies have gained traction in the research and development of many industries. With the launch of virtual and augmented reality systems, the potential for these technologies increased even further. The senses of vision and hearing have long been integrated into current products, leading to the assumption that olfactory stimuli are likely to be included soon to stimulate the sense of smell.
With this trend, the issue of implementation into current digital products and services arises, as odors currently cannot be captured in one place and released in another on a large scale. Therefore, this thesis deals with the nature of smell from a cognitive psychological and technological viewpoint. We show why it makes sense to stimulate the sense of smell in multisensory experiences and present early and current technical standards. In addition to this, we conducted expert interviews enabling us to provide insights into the digital scent and olfaction industry. Among other aspects, our results suggest that there are fundamental challenges that developers have to overcome and that a successful implementation depends on the business application.
Population growth, urbanization and climate change are regarded as the megatrends of today's society. This goes hand in hand with a high consumption of resources and pollution. Indeed, these megatrends are mutually reinforcing. A significant part of this is due to mobility in daily life. Technological change such as digitalization, creates innovative concepts to improve mobility and to deal with these changing circumstances. A comprehensive concept in this respect is mobility as a service. This thesis focuses on the identification of the mobility ecosystem and thus on the various stakeholders. First of all, it deals with the definition of mobility as a service in order to identify the ecosystem in particular in the second step. Mobility is classified and analyzed by working on the basis of secondary literature and a quantitative as well as qualitative methodology in expert interviews. This allows conclusions about the relationships, prerequisites and obstacles within the ecosystem and stakeholders.
The results of the thesis suggest that collaboration within the ecosystem is a prerequisite for the implementation of mobility as a service. Furthermore, that mobility as a service should ensure adaptability, since local infrastructures differ between Germany, USA and China, but also within these countries. This adaption process is iterative. The obstacles are interoperability and the willingness to cooperate. Moreover, the results imply that mobility as a service will assert itself more quickly in urban areas due to factors such as the pressure to act and the availability of mobility services as well as the number of customers.
In dieser Arbeit soll eine Motorsteuerung für einen 3-Phasen-Asynchronmotor mit Kurzschlussläufer realisiert werden. Dabei soll der Motor in einem Gleichstromnetzwerk mit einer Spannung von 325V betrieben werden. Drehzahl und Drehrichtung des Motors sollen variabel sein. Der Motor wird dabei bei konstantem Lastdrehmoment betrieben. Des Weiteren soll die Steuerung eine Drehzahl des Motors von bis zu 25000 1/min ermöglichen.
Die Arbeit behandelt dabei einführend die Funktionsweise des Asynchronmotors und leitet ein mathematisches Modell ab, das anschließend für die Erstellung des Steueralgorithmus verwendet wird. Bei der Realisierung der Schaltung wird u.a. die Problematik mit parasitären Induktivitäten und der Umgang mit motorinduzierten Spannungsspitzen behandelt. Realisiert wird die Motorsteuerung als Umrichterschaltung. Dabei finden ausschließlich N-Kanal-MOSFETs Verwendung. Für die Ansteuerung der MOSFETs kommen Gate-Treiber-ICs mit Bootstrap-Kondensatoren zum Einsatz. Angesteuert wird der Motor über einen STM32-Board. Der implementierte Steueralgorithmus realisiert dabei eine Grundfrequenztaktung. Über diesen Aufbau der Motorsteuerung können die Anforderungen erfüllt werden.
The relation between Frugal Innovation and Sustainability is a widely discussed topic in current academic literature. To assess the correlation between these two concepts, a sample of the most frequently mentioned Frugal Innovations was selected. The criteria to evaluate the sustainability potential for each of these cases was built upon the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a global reference indicator. Frugal Innovations among the banking, transport, energy, ICT, water, appliances and healthcare sectors were evaluated. The results suggested a positive contribution and impact of Frugal Innovations towards economic, social and environmental development.
The aim of this study consists oftwo main objectives: First,to investigatethe penetration and preferences of fintech solutions from the payments sector within the studied population, as well as the elaboration of a forecast for the upcoming years.Second, to examinethe main elements that influence the intention of young customers when deciding to adopt fintech-basedpayment solutions. Existing research has tested several factorsfrom which the variables of trust, transaction efficiency and ease of use are included onthis paper. Additionally,the value-added propositionfrom this studyis represented by the incorporation of sustainability-related purposes into thisanalysiswith the intention of reflecting the increasing presence of efforts to integrate this component within thefinancial industryin recent years.A research model is proposed and tested by including elements based on theTechnology Adoption Model (TAM). By exploring the results of primary data through asurvey with 463 responses from university studentsandexamining secondary sourcesof information, the findings of this study demonstratethat all four tested variables have a positive impact on the intention of using fintech-based payment solutions.Sustainability-related purposes do not play a major role in the decision of using these apps, however, even with a minimal influence, theeffect on intention is positiveand statistically significant. The findings of this study pose important implications for stakeholders within the fintech spectrum whose purposes are related to increasing the intention of young consumers towards using these productsandto provide enoughevidence of the importance of designing incentives that fuel sustainability stewardshipwithin the financial sector.
Climate change is currently one of the biggest challenges both in terms of danger to natural habitats, wildlife, and humanity. To tackle climate change, we need to reduce our carbon emissions in a fast and decisive way. This thesis studies one of the potential solutions to do so: green hydrogen. More specifically, its potential development by 2030 in Spain using INKA 4.0 scenario planning software.
Green hydrogen shows to have a wide range of applications, from transport to heating and industry with great potential to decarbonize many sectors. It does come, however with a number of important hurdles mainly related to cost, scalability and technical difficulties that will need to be addressed for it to be successful. With this, 10 descriptors were created generating three scenarios to be studied. The most consistent of them, a successful development of green hydrogen in Spain by 2030 is characterized by having all of its descriptors in a favoring state while the other two have some or all in a hindering state, making its development not successful within the established timeframe. Concluding that due to the great challenge the development of green hydrogen is, its success needs to have all factors supporting it.
A major problem in the automotive sector is dealing with used hydraulic oil. Since this oil loses its purity over time, it must be changed. In most cases, the condition of the oil is not really checked, but is changed after a certain number of kilometers. It is possible that intact hydraulic oil is wasted in the process. Until now, there is no cost-effective method to check the purity on hydraulic oils, so there is nothing left but to remove all of the oil. The purpose of this work is to develop a measuring station for a MEMS-based oil quality sensor. With the help of the oil quality sensor, deviations of aged hydraulic oils shall be investigated. An infrared light source and a Fabri-Perot spectrum sensor will be used for more accurate detection of deviations in aged hydraulic oil. The goal is to clarify whether it is possible to use wavelength spectra to detect differences in aged hydraulic oil. To do this, a suitable Fabri-Perot spectrum sensor and a light source with the appropriate wavelength range were carefully selected. Furthermore, a measurement setup for static measurements was worked out. Subsequently, measurements were carried out with and without hydraulic oil and the measured data was compared with reference data. Finally, differences in the aged hydraulic oil could be determined by means of light wave measurements.
Möglichkeiten und Grenzen von Online-Händlern im Multi-Channel-Handel – Ein analytischer Ansatz
(2017)
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit reinen Online-Händlern, die den stationären Handel als weiteren Vertriebskanal nutzen und somit im Multi-Channel-Handel tätig sind. Durch die Ausbreitung des Internets im Jahre 1990 hat sich der Handel grundlegend verändert. Eine neue Vertriebsmöglichkeit ist entstanden, die viele Vorteile mit sich bringt. Vor allem Start-Up Unternehmen haben begonnen im Online-Handel Produkte und Dienstleistungen anzubieten. Diese Chance auf mehr Umsatz haben auch stationäre Händler erkannt. Vermehrt haben sie ihre Betriebsform um Online-Shops erweitert und operieren somit im Multi-Channel-Handel. Bis heute ist Online-Shopping der schnellst wachsende Bereich der Internetnutzung, wohingegen die Umsatzzahlen im stationären Handel stagnieren. Kritiker des stationären Handels plädieren sogar zur gänzlichen Ablösung stationärer Ladenlokale durch den Online-Handel. Im Widerspruch zu dieser Kritik steht jedoch die Tatsache, dass unter anderem die erfolgreichsten Online-Pure-Player seit diesem Jahr stationäre Ladenlokale eröffnen. Demnach ist der stationäre Handel für den Konsumenten nicht gänzlich durch den Online-Handel zu ersetzen, anderenfalls weiteten Online-Pure-Player ihre Tätigkeiten nicht in den stationären Handel aus. Das Handeln erfolgreicher Unternehmen ist immer vom Kunden aus getrieben. Auch in der vorliegenden Arbeit liegt der Fokus auf dem Konsumenten. Es werden mit Hilfe der neusten Erkenntnisse des Konsumentenverhaltens, Potenziale für Online-Pure-Player im Multi-Channel-Handel erörtert. Zudem wird analysiert inwieweit soziale Determinanten, welche im Online-Handel nur passiv wahrgenommen werden können, für den Konsumenten beim Kauf von Relevanz sind. Abschließend werden die Chancen und Risiken von Online-Pure-Playern im Multi-Channel-Handel gegenübergestellt.
Change from face-to-face to online mode of lectures due to the Covid-19 pandemic affected greatly the day-to-day life of students of Hochschule Furtwangen University. Therefore, this research paper aims to find out how student productivity has been affected by switching from face-to-face lectures to online or hybrid lectures. In this context, student productivity is defined through input and output, where input is students' time invested in lectures, research, group work, learning, and participation in class, and where output comes from the knowledge that the student has acquired as a result, measured by the grades of the examination or study performance. Hypothesis that the switch from face-to-face lectures to hybrid or fully online lectures has led to an increase in student productivity was formed for this research paper and for that reason, empirical research was conducted. Interviews with several students were performed to identify dimensions affecting student productivity as the basis for the student survey. Dimensions identified are Learning Facilities, Technology Use, Interaction Process, Student Participation and Study Time. The survey was conducted with a random sample of 149 students and analysed using SPSS software. Interviews with HFU professors were carried out to present experts’ opinions on this topic. Lastly, the grade statistics of HFU programmes were analysed to identify output of productivity. Results of the student survey suggest that a total of four dimensions were identified as relevant components of the input and output of the productivity of the students at HFU in connection with the change of the lecture mode, while the dimension Learning Facilities did not show a correlation to the student productivity. Grade statistics improved in winter semester 2020/2021 compared to the winter semester 2019/2020. Expert interviews suggested that the improvement in grades could be attributed to more time spent studying or lower standards of grading. Main hypothesis cannot be completely accepted or rejected, therefore, future research on whether students’ productivity increased in the switch from face-to-face to online mode is necessary.
This thesis proposes the adoption of renewable energies as a means to foster economicdiversification in oil and gas dependent rentier states. Surprisingly, oil and gas endowment does not always imply wealth and prosperity, mirroring the on-going debate whether natural resource dependent countries are blessed or cursed by their resource abundance.
This thesis seeks to bridge this gap by focussing on rentier states and the question whether rentier states are cursed or blessed. Based on the example of Oman, the proposed approach will be closely assessed. Additionally, the Sultanate’s challenges stemming from natural resource dependence and its preparedness for a post-oil era will be investigated.
Moreover, this thesis will analyze whether a paradigm shift in Oman’s energy sector can mitigate prevailing challenges and support the country’s economic diversification.
These three research questions will be answered through surveying and analyzing literature and data pertinent to the research topic. Findings indicate that rentier states tend to be more vulnerable to the resource curse and the impending fossil fuel depletion as it could cause public outcry and political and economic turmoil. Oman as a rentier state faces a grim post-oil era, fueled by many challenges, including dwindling oil and financial reserves, productivity losses driven by labor market distortions and rapid population growth.
Finally, findings suggest that the combination of economic and energy diversification can have strong positive effects on the Omani economy, such as freeing oil and gas reserves for export revenues, job creation, and private sector strengthening. However, Oman’s renewable energy industry is still in its infancy and faces various challenges, ranging from absent policies and adequate financing to heavily subsidized fossil fuels. As of now, the proposed approach is overly ambitious as the installed renewable energy capacity is too low to create significant employment opportunities or to free oil and gas for export purposes. However, heightened volatilities and economic shocks in recent years were eyeopening for the Omani government and have resulted in stronger efforts to enforce economic development plans. Similarly, the political transition after the death of Sultan Qaboos injected new impetus into Oman’s economy, which will facilitate the diversification of economic bases.
Digitalization is invading every aspect of our lives and modern technologies are at the helm of much disruptive change in all spheres of life. Hailed as the 4th industrial revolution every company has a mind to understand the implications of the Industry 4.0 suit of technologies and their multiple innovative applications for its operations. In this paper, we explore how the industry 4.0 transformation might affect Small and Medium sized
enterprises in Germany over a 15-year horizon. We focus on SMEs because they play a significant role in ensuring the prosperity of Germany as a global industrial and economic
powerhouse. We develop alternative pictures of the possible futures using the foresight technique of Scenario planning in which the factors that shape the business environment
SMEs and indeed all companies operate in are identified and used to build the most plausible alternative realities. The outcome is four distinct scenarios that reflect the possible growth trajectories regarding the impending transformation for SMEs.
Prostate segmentation is an essential part of brachytherapy treatment planning, in order to perform the procedure with required accuracy. Nowadays, segmentation of the prostate is still carried out manually during the planning steps, therefore it is a process that can be tedious, time-consuming and prone to inter-observer error. Much effort has been made in development of an computer-based algorithm that can perform prostate segmentation automatically, but only with appearance of deep learning methods, more promising algorithms emerged. So far, convolutional neural networks demonstrated excellent results in fully automatic prostate segmentation. Development of such an algorithm and training an efficient deep learning model is a challenging task, and requires a lot of optimizations. The objective of this study is development and evaluation of an algorithm for image processing based on deep learning methods that can perform fully automatic segmentation of the prostate gland in transrectal ultrasound images. Additionally, we made an overview of the development process, along with challenges and their solutions and demonstrated an algorithm implemented using Python and Tensorflow library, consisted of preprocessing, augmentation, training and validation, postprocessing and validation steps, which is able to successfully carry out fully automatic prostate segmentation with expert level of accuracy. Finally, we presented our implementation of fully convolutional neural network model and results that are encouraging to continue with model improvements and potential clinical application.