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By a simple femtosecond laser process, we fabricated metal-oxide/gold composite films for electrical and optical gas sensors. We designed a dripple wavelength AWG-spectrometer, matched to the plasma absorption wavelength region of the composite films. H2/CO absorptions fit well with the AWG design for multi gas detection sensor arrays
Why do some countries assign a major role to wind energy in decarbonizing their electricity systems, while others are much less committed to this technology? We argue that processes of (de-)legitimation, driven by discourse coalitions who strategically employ certain storylines in public debates, provide part of the answer. To illustrate our approach, we comparatively investigate public discourses surrounding wind energy in Austria and Switzerland, two countries that differ strongly in wind energy deployment. By combining a qualitative content analysis and a discourse network analysis of 808 newspaper articles published 2010–2020, we identify four distinct sets of storylines used to either delegitimize or legitimize the technology. Our study indicates that low deployment rates in Switzerland can be related to the prominence of delegitimizing storylines in the public discourse, which result in a rather low socio-political acceptance of wind energy. In Austria, by contrast, there is more consistent support for wind energy by discourse coalitions using a broad set of legitimizing storylines. By bridging the related but separate literatures of technology legitimacy and social acceptance, our study contributes to a better understanding of socio-political conflict and divergence in low-carbon technological pathways.
Long-Term outcome of infantile onset pompe disease patients treated with enzyme replacement therapy
(2024)
Background: Enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) with recombinant human alglucosidase alfa (rhGAA) was approved in Europe in 2006. Nevertheless, data on the long-term outcome of infantile onset Pompe disease (IOPD) patients at school age is still limited.
Objective: We analyzed in detail cardiac, respiratory, motor, and cognitive function of 15 German-speaking patients aged 7 and older who started ERT at a median age of 5 months.
Results: Starting dose was 20 mg/kg biweekly in 12 patients, 20 mg/kg weekly in 2, and 40 mg/kg weekly in one patient. CRIM-status was positive in 13 patients (86.7%) and negative or unknown in one patient each (6.7%). Three patients (20%) received immunomodulation. Median age at last assessment was 9.1 (7.0–19.5) years. At last follow-up 1 patient (6.7%) had mild cardiac hypertrophy, 6 (42.9%) had cardiac arrhythmias, and 7 (46.7%) required assisted ventilation. Seven patients (46.7%) achieved the ability to walk independently and 5 (33.3%) were still ambulatory at last follow-up. Six patients (40%) were able to sit without support, while the remaining 4 (26.7%) were tetraplegic. Eleven patients underwent cognitive testing (Culture Fair Intelligence Test), while 4 were unable to meet the requirements for cognitive testing. Intelligence quotients (IQs) ranged from normal (IQ 117, 102, 96, 94) in 4 patients (36.4%) to mild developmental delay (IQ 81) in one patient (9.1%) to intellectual disability (IQ 69, 63, 61, 3x < 55) in 6 patients (54.5%). White matter abnormalities were present in 10 out of 12 cerebral MRIs from 7 patients.
Objectives: The MetabQoL 1.0 is the first disease-specific health related quality of life (HrQoL) questionnaire for patients with intoxication-type inherited metabolic disorders. Our aim was to assess the validity and reliability of the MetabQoL 1.0, and to investigate neuropsychiatric burden in our patient population. Methods: Data from 29 patients followed at a single center, aged between 8 and 18 years with the diagnosis of methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), propionic acidemia (PA) or isovaleric acidemia (IVA), and their parents were included. The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQoL) was used to evaluate the validity and reliability of MetabQoL 1.0.
Results: The MetabQoL 1.0 was shown to be valid and reliable (Cronbach's alpha: 0.64–0.9). Fourteen out of the 22 patients (63.6%) formally evaluated had neurological findings. Of note, 17 out of 20 patients (85%) had a psychiatric disorder when evaluated formally by a child and adolescent psychiatrist. The median mental scores of the MetabQoL 1.0 proxy report were significantly higher than those of the self report (p = 0.023). Patients with neonatal-onset disease had higher MetabQoL 1.0 proxy physical (p = 0.008), mental (p = 0.042), total scores (p = 0.022); and self report social (p = 0.007) and total scores (p = 0.043) than those with later onset disease.
Conclusions: This study continues to prove that the MetabQoL 1.0 is an effective tool to measure what matters in intoxication-type inherited metabolic disorders. Our results highlight the importance of clinical assessment complemented by patient reported outcomes which further expands the evaluation toolbox of inherited metabolic diseases.
In this paper, we consider the question of data aggregation using the practical example of emissions data for economic activities for the sustainability assessment of regional bank clients. Given the current scarcity of company-specific emission data, an approximation relies on using available public data. These data are reported in different standards in different sources. To determine a mapping between the different standards, an adaptation to the Covariance Matrix Self-Adaptation Evolution Strategy is proposed. The obtained results show that high-quality mappings are found. Nevertheless, our approach is transferable to other data compatibility problems. These can be found in the merging of emissions data for other countries, or in bridging the gap between completely different data sets.
This study presents different approaches to increase the sensing area of NiO based semiconducting metal oxide gas sensors. Micro- and nanopatterned laser induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) are generated on silicon and Si/SiO2 substrates. The surface morphologies of the fabricated samples are examined by FE SEM. We select the silicon samples with an intermediate Si3N4 layer due to its superior isolation quality over the thermal oxide for evaluating the hydrogen and acetone sensitivity of a NiO based test sensor.
The utilization of lasers in dentistry expands greatly in recent years. For instance, fs-lasers are effective for both drilling and caries prevention, while cw-lasers are useful for adhesive hardening. A cutting-edge application of lasers in dentistry is the debonding of veneers. While there are pre-existing tools for this purpose, there is still potential for improvement. Initial efforts to investigate laser assisted debonding mechanisms with measurements of the optical and mechanical properties of teeth and prosthetic ceramics are presented. Preliminary tests conducted with a laser system used for debonding that is commercially available showed differences in the output power set at the systems console to that at specified distances from the handpiece. Furthermore, the optical properties of the samples (human teeth and ceramics) were characterised. The optical properties of the ceramics should closely resemble those of teeth in terms of look and feel, but they also influence the laser assisted debonding technique and thus must be taken into account. In addition first attempts were performed to investigate the mechanical properties of the samples by means of pump-probe-elastography under a microscope. By analyzing the sample surface up to 20 ns after a fs-laser pulse impact, pressure and shock waves could be detected, which can be utilized to determine the elastic constants of specific materials. Together such investigations are needed to shape the basis for a purely optical approach of debonding of veneers utilizing acoustic waves.
This thesis investigates the role of leadership behaviours of C-level executives in the context of post-M&A integration processes. The primary focus is on understanding the impact of specific leadership behaviours on inspiring desirable follower effects and facilitating emotional acceptance during organizational change. Drawing on the frameworks presented in “Six- Dimension Integrative Model of Leadership” and "The Six Domains of Leadership" developed by Sitkin et al., the study conducts expert interviews with managers from middle management who have recently experienced M&A integration. The answers are analysed in depth to identify the most effective leadership behaviours, highlighting those mentioned most frequently and those capable of triggering multiple follower effects simultaneously. The result is a list of behaviours that can serve as a guideline for C-level executives who want to foster desirable follower effects throughout the M&A integration journey.
This study aims to address the research gap surrounding the role of leadership in the formation of high-performance teams within startup companies. While there is existing research on high-performing teams, limited attention has been given to leadership in this environment. To bridge this gap, the study combines a literature review and qualitative analysis through semi-structured interviews with diverse stakeholders in startups, with the goal of providing practical guidance for startup executives based on the research findings. The study uncovers key aspects of leadership in high-performance teams, emphasizing the importance of skills such as motivation and support for team members, fostering psychological safety and trust, and effectively managing uncertainty. In addition to resource constraints and high expectations, the study sheds light on the challenges faced by leaders in startup and high-performance team environments, particularly the blurring of traditional leadership roles as team members seek autonomy and decision-making authority. These findings present opportunities for future research to explore this progressive leadership style. Overall, this study contributes to our understanding of leadership dynamics within high-performance teams operating in the context of startups. It offers valuable insights that can help startup executives navigate the complexities of leadership and foster the development of successful and high-performing teams.
Effective lead management
(2023)
In the last few years the global interest on lead management has increased. This classic topic for marketing and sales departments is aimed at converting potential customers into sales. The following thesis identifies the challenges and solutions for marketing and sales departments in order to process effective lead management. Using data from a literature review and qualitative empirical research, conducted with representatives of marketing and sales departments, the results showed overall and task specific challenges and solutions. The research indicates that overall challenges and solutions regarding the gap between marketing and sales, new processes and data management including data quality, software and silos emerge. In addition task specific challenges and solutions concerning lead generation including purchased leads, lead qualification, lead nurturing and sales specific challenges and solutions conclusively the focus on existing customers, time famine and lead routing were identified. This thesis provides a framework for further studies regarding the challenges and solutions for marketing and sales departments processing lead management.
This thesis focuses on implementing and testing communication over a private 5G standalone network in an industrial environment, with a specific emphasis on communication between two articulated robots. The main objective is to examine machine-to-machine communication behavior in various test scenarios. Initially, the 5G core and radio access network components are described, along with their associated interfaces, to establish foundational knowledge. Subsequently, a use case involving two articulated robots is implemented, and essential metrics are defined for testing, including round-trip time, packet and inter-packet delay, and packet error rate. The tests investigate the impact of 5G quality of service, packet size, and transmission interval on communication between the robots, focusing on the effects of network traffic. The results highlight the significance of prioritizing network resources based on the assigned quality of service identifier (5QI), demonstrate the influence of packet sizes on communication performance, and underscore the importance of transmission intervals for automation purposes. Additionally, the study examines how network disturbances influence the movements of a robot controlled via 5G, establishing a direct relationship between network metrics and the resulting deviations in the robot’s trajectory. The work concludes that while machine-to-machine communication can be successfully implemented with 5G SA, tradeoffs must be carefully considered, especially concerning packet error rate, and emphasizes the importance of understanding the required resources before implementation to ensure feasibility. Future research directions include investigating network slicing, secure remote control of robots, and exploring the use of higher frequency bands. The study highlights the significance of aligning theoretical standards with practical implementation options in the evolving landscape of 5G Networks.
In an oversaturated market, companies are required to use innovative and, above all, creative advertising methods to capture their customers’ attention, and thus differentiate themselves from rival businesses. To this end, companies have been increasingly relying on the use of humor, a phenomenon that remains highly subjective and is perceived differently by each individual. This master’s thesis, which was completed as part of the International Marketing and Sales program at the FH Vorarlberg, focuses on this phenomenon of humor as well as its impact on advertising perception. With the aid of three different theories, the term “humor” is defined. Furthermore, this study explains and researches the so-called vampire effect, wherein various factors (in this case humor) draw attention away from the actual advertising message. In addition, this thesis takes a closer look at involvement, as a person’s involvement or interest in a brand or product can influence brand and product recall and recognition. An online survey was conducted to determine whether the vampire effect caused by humor is able to influence brand and product recall. In other words, this concerns whether the viewer can still remember the brand and product afterward or whether the humor employed triggers the vampire effect. Furthermore, this thesis explored whether the vampire effect caused by humor is able to influence brand and product recognition. Recall is the retrieval of information from memory without direct cues, whereas recognition refers to the recognition of information when it is presented again. Furthermore, within this context, it was discovered that brand and product recall varies with low and high involvement viewers of the advertisement. In other words, this means that the strength of the vampire effect caused by humor changes depending on the strength of the viewer’s involvement. During the course of this research, it was further observed that the humor employed significantly affects the perception of the advertising message, thus confirming the existence of the vampire effect. This effect also influences both brand as well as product recall and recognition. In both cases, participants in the survey were less able to remember the product and brand in the humorous advertising. Furthermore, it was proven that people with low involvement in the advertised product group are more heavily affected by the vampire effect. As such, they are more likely to not remember the product or brand after seeing the advertisement.
Alleviating the curse of dimensionality in minkowski sum approximations of storage flexibility
(2023)
Many real-world applications require the joint optimization of a large number of flexible devices over some time horizon. The flexibility of multiple batteries, thermostatically controlled loads, or electric vehicles, e.g., can be used to support grid operations and to reduce operation costs. Using piecewise constant power values, the flexibility of each device over d time periods can be described as a polytopic subset in power space. The aggregated flexibility is given by the Minkowski sum of these polytopes. As the computation of Minkowski sums is in general demanding, several approximations have been proposed in the literature. Yet, their application potential is often objective-dependent and limited by the curse of dimensionality. In this paper, we show that up to 2d vertices of each polytope can be computed efficiently and that the convex hull of their sums provides a computationally efficient inner approximation of the Minkowski sum. Via an extensive simulation study, we illustrate that our approach outperforms ten state-of-the-art inner approximations in terms of computational complexity and accuracy for different objectives. Moreover, we propose an efficient disaggregation method applicable to any vertex-based approximation. The proposed methods provide an efficient means to aggregate and to disaggregate typical battery storages in quarter-hourly periods over an entire day with reasonable accuracy for aggregated cost and for peak power optimization.
Whether at the intramolecular or cellular scale in organisms, cell-cell adhesion adapt to external mechanical cues arising from the static environment of cells and from dynamic interactions between neighboring cells. Cell-cell adhesions need to resist detachment forces to secure the integrity and internal organization of organisms. In the past, various techniques have been developed to characterize adhesion properties of molecules and cells in vitro, and to understand how cells sense and probe their environment. Atomic force microscopy and dual-pipette aspiration, where cells are mainly present in suspension, are common methods for studying detachment forces of cell-cell adhesions. How cell-cell adhesion forces are developed for adherent and environment-adapted cells, however, is less clear. Here, we designed the Cell-Cell Separation Device (CC-SD), a microstructured substrate that measures both intercellular forces and external stresses of cells towards the matrix. The design is based on micropillar arrays originally designed for cell traction-force measurements. We designed PDMS micropillar-blocks, to which cells could adhere and be able to connect to each other across the gap. Controlled stretching of the whole substrate changed the distance between blocks and increased gap size. That allowed us to apply strains to cell-cell contacts, eventually leading to cell-cell adhesion detachment, which was measured by pillar deflections. The CC-SD provided an increase of the gap between the blocks of up to 2.4-fold, which was sufficient to separate substrate-attached cells with fully developed F-actin network. Simultaneously measured pillar deflections allowed us to address cellular response to the intercellular strain applied. The CC-SD thus opens up possibilities for the analysis of intercellular force detachments and sheds light on the robustness of cell-cell adhesions in dynamic processes in tissue development.
Open tracing tools
(2023)
Background: Coping with the rapid growing complexity in contemporary software architecture, tracing has become an increasingly critical practice and been adopted widely by software engineers. By adopting tracing tools, practitioners are able to monitor, debug, and optimize distributed software architectures easily. However, with excessive number of valid candidates, researchers and practitioners have a hard time finding and selecting the suitable tracing tools by systematically considering their features and advantages. Objective: To such a purpose, this paper aims to provide an overview of popular Open tracing tools via comparison. Methods: Herein, we first identified 30 tools in an objective, systematic, and reproducible manner adopting the Systematic Multivocal Literature Review protocol. Then, we characterized each tool looking at the 1) measured features, 2) popularity both in peer-reviewed literature and online media, and 3) benefits and issues. We used topic modeling and sentiment analysis to extract and summarize the benefits and issues. Specially, we adopted ChatGPT to support the topic interpretation. Results: As a result, this paper presents a systematic comparison amongst the selected tracing tools in terms of their features, popularity, benefits and issues. Conclusion: The result mainly shows that each tracing tool provides a unique combination of features with also different pros and cons. The contribution of this paper is to provide the practitioners better understanding of the tracing tools facilitating their adoption.
Creating a schedule to perform certain actions in a realworld environment typically involves multiple types of uncertainties. To create a plan which is robust towards uncertainties, it must stay flexible while attempting to be reliable and as close to optimal as possible. A plan is reliable if an adjustment to accommodate for a new requirement causes only a few disruptions. The system needs to be able to adapt to the schedule if unforeseen circumstances make planned actions impossible, or if an unlikely event would enable the system to follow a better path. To handle uncertainties, the used methods need to be dynamic and adaptive. The planning algorithms must be able to re-schedule planned actions and need to adapt the previously created plan to accommodate new requirements without causing critical disruptions to other required actions.
Coupling is one of the most frequently mentioned metric in software systems. However, to measure logical coupling between microservices, runtime information is needed or the availability of service-log files to analyze the calls between services is required. This work presents our emerging results, in which we propose a metric to statically calculate logical coupling between microservices based on commits to versioning systems. We performed an initial validation of the proposed metric with a dataset containing 145 open-source microservices projects. The results illustrate how logical coupling affects every system and increases overtime. However, we did not find a correlation between the number of commits or the number of developers and the introduction of logical coupling. In future, we investigate why, how, and when logical coupling is introduced in a system.
This paper presents design, simulation, and optimization of the three-dimensional 1×4 optical multimode interference splitter using IP-Dip polymer as a core and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Sylgard 184 as a cladding. The splitter was simulated by using beam propagation method in BeamPROP simulation engine of RSoft photonic tool and optimized for an operating wavelength of 1.55 µm. According to the minimum insertion loss, the dimensions of the MMI coupler and the length of the whole MMI splitter structure were optimized applying a waveguide with a core size of 4×4 µm2. The objective of the study is to create a design for fabrication by three-dimensional direct laser writing optical lithography.
Design, simulation, and optimization of the 1×4 optical three-dimensional multimode interference splitter using IP-Dip polymer as a core and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) Sylgard 184 as a cladding is demonstrated. The splitter was simulated by using beam propagation method in BeamPROP simulation module of RSoft photonic tool and optimized for an operating wavelength of 1.55 μm . According to the minimum insertion loss, the dimensions of the splitter were optimized for a waveguide with a core size of 4×4 μm2 . The objective of the study is to create the design for fabrication by three-dimensional direct laser writing optical lithography.