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Companies worldwide and, therefore, companies from Vorarlberg face a common problem: the lack of skilled workers that led to the so-called “war for talents” in the last decades. This problem encouraged scientists to investigate the importance of many different monetary incentives and non-cash benefits to win this war for talents. This master’s thesis aims to examine if and how companies in Vorarlberg already use non-cash benefits. Furthermore, the most important benefits and their influence on the attractiveness of job advertisements are identified.
For this purpose, interviews with three HR managers from companies in Vorarlberg are carried out. Subsequently, in a quantitative survey, 21 different monetary incentives and non-cash benefits, intangible non-cash benefits, and corporate culture are evaluated by 316 participants. Furthermore, the participants ranked five different job advertisements to conceive results on the research questions.
The results clearly show that non-cash benefits are far more critical for future employees than classical monetary incentives. Although the number of international participants was lower than the number of Austrian and German participants (41 to 81 to 194), it is still obvious that independent of nationality, non-cash benefits can lead to a competitive advantage for companies in Vorarlberg. The interviews show that companies already work with such benefits in their daily business but do not strategically communicate on the topic.
To summarize, it can be concluded that a variety of non-cash benefits should be implemented within a company and also should be mentioned in job advertisements as they can help to attract more applicants not only from Austria but also from abroad and, therefore, help to win the war for talents.
In this paper, low-loss Y-branch splitters up to 128 splitting ratio are designed, simulated, and optimized by using 2D beam propagation method in OptiBPM tool by Optiwave. For an optical waveguide, a silica-on-silicon material platform is used. The splitters were designed as a planar structure for a telecommunication operating wavelength of 1.55 m. According to the minimum insertion loss and minimum non-uniformity, the optimum length for each Y-branch is determined. The influence of the pre-defined S-Bend waveguide shapes (Arc, Cosine, Sine) and of the waveguide core size reduction on the splitter performance has been also studied. The obtained simulation results of all designed splitters with different S-Bend shape waveguides together with the different waveguide core sizes are discussed and compared with each other.
If left uncontrolled, electric vehicle charging poses severe challenges to distribution grid operation. Resulting issues are expected to be mitigated by charging control. In particular, voltage-based charging control, by relying only on the local measurements of voltage at the point of connection, provides an autonomous communication-free solution. The controller, attached to the charging equipment, compares the measured voltage to a reference voltage and adapts the charging power using a droop control characteristic. We present a systematic study of the voltage-based droop control method for electric vehicles to establish the usability of the method for all the currently available residential electric vehicle charging possibilities considering a wide range of electric vehicle penetrations. Voltage limits are evaluated according to the international standard EN50160, using long-term load flow simulations based on a real distribution grid topology and real load profiles. The results achieved show that the voltage-based droop controller is able to mitigate the under voltage problems completely in distribution grids in cases either deploying low charging power levels or exhibiting low penetration rates. For high charging rates and high penetrations, the control mechanism improves the overall voltage profile, but it does not remedy the under voltage problems completely. The evaluation also shows the controller’s ability to reduce the peak power at the transformer and indicates the impact it has on users due to the reduction in the average charging rates. The outcomes of the paper provide the distribution grid operators an insight on the voltage-based droop control mechanism for the future grid planning and investments.
In recent years, ultrashort pulsed lasers have increased their applicability for industrial requirements, as reliable femtosecond and picosecond laser sources with high output power are available on the market. Compared to conventional laser sources, high quality processing of a large number of material classes with different mechanical and optical properties is possible. In the field of laser cutting, these properties enable the cutting of multilayer substrates with changing material properties. In this work, the femtosecond laser cutting of phosphor sheets is demonstrated. The substrate contains a 230 micrometer thick silicone layer filled with phosphor, which is embedded between two glass plates. Due to the softness and thermal sensitivity of the silicone layer in combination with the hard and brittle dielectric material, the separation of such a material combination is challenging for both mechanical separation processes and cutting with conventional laser sources. In our work, we show that the femtosecond laser is suitable to cut the substrate with a high cutting edge quality. In addition to the experimental results of the laser dicing process, we present a universal model that allows predicting the final cutting edge geometry of a multilayer substrate.
In this work, we present a significant step toward in vivo ophthalmic optical coherence tomography and angiography on a photonic integrated chip. The diffraction gratings used in spectral-domain optical coherence tomography can be replaced by photonic integrated circuits comprising an arrayed waveguide grating. Two arrayed waveguide grating designs with 256 channels were tested, which enabled the first chip-based optical coherence tomography and angiography in vivo three-dimensional human retinal measurements. Design 1 supports a bandwidth of 22 nm, with which a sensitivity of up to 91 dB (830 µW) and an axial resolution of 10.7 µm was measured. Design 2 supports a bandwidth of 48 nm, with which a sensitivity of 90 dB (480 µW) and an axial resolution of 6.5 µm was measured. The silicon nitride-based integrated optical waveguides were fabricated with a fully CMOS-compatible process, which allows their monolithic co-integration on top of an optoelectronic silicon chip. As a benchmark for chip-based optical coherence tomography, tomograms generated by a commercially available clinical spectral-domain optical coherence tomography system were compared to those acquired with on-chip gratings. The similarities in the tomograms demonstrate the significant clinical potential for further integration of optical coherence tomography on a chip system.
With green cosmetics becoming widely used in Germany, this research would like to fill a research gap and investigate the impact of transatlantic transportation on the willingness of German customers to purchasing the product. With growing environmental awareness this information might be decisive for companies willing to expand internationally. They can take it into consideration when creating their international expansion strategy and deciding for the mode of entry.
Current research also explores the option of targeting the customers with marketing messages to share information about the low environmental impact of the transatlantic transport. It tests different marketing messages and analyses their impact on green purchase intention.
The phenomenon of the increase of numerous widespread and common diseases, ranging from simple dental problems to obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes, is a concern which can be observed in various aspects of the entire world. Reasons for this is a combination of an unhealthy diet and insufficient physical activity. Consequently, governments across the globe are seeing the need to change consumer behaviour by introducing plain packaging regulations. From an entrepreneurial point of view, this would result in financial losses as well as various limitations in product design, branding and differentiation. Therefore, an empirical study with 232 respondents was conducted, which revealed that the use of images on packaging activates emotions in customers within a few seconds. This master thesis examines possible correlations and differences between the importance of emotionally loaded product packaging and consumer behaviour at the point of sale. The persuasive effect of images on purchase decisions is based on personal consumer experiences and validated processing in the brain which trigger specific emotions. Modern companies are able to communicate company values through emotions by using images correctly. The results of the conducted survey enable Diezano to successfully implement the communication strategy in the event of the introduction of plain packaging regulations. By using mountain graphics, Diezano conveys values such as home, regional, refreshment, tasty, memories of childhood and nostalgia, which the brand aims to convey to the market. Based on the result of this master thesis, it is concluded that the picture superiority effect is mostly underestimated, yet it is an indispensable medium for emotional differentiation and thus a company’s success.
Packaging has important functions, such as the marketing function or protecting the product from spoilage. However, the supply in the supermarket must be viewed critically, as the majority of packaging is designed for single use. The question of how producers and retailers can increase customer acceptance of sustainable packaging in supermarkets has particular relevance in terms of the environmental impact of packaging waste. Although more and more customers are interested in the topic of sustainability, a gap between their attitude and behavior is apparent. This is addressed in more detail on the basis of two product categories. Expert interviews with international producers and retailers as well as a consumer survey allow the views of these three decision-makers to be taken into account. At the end, concrete recommendations for action are presented. These show that, among other things, information and transparency are essential in order to be able to influence consumers' purchasing decisions. In addition, the responsibility of all decision-makers is seen as the key to success.