Open Access

Durch die Initiative des Medienhauses Burda in Südbaden laufen seit 1994 intensive Bemühungen, eine den Anforderungen der Informations-/Medientechnik adäquate Aus- und Weiterbildungskonzeption zu entwickeln. In Zusammenarbeit mit der FH Offenburg, mit der IHK, dem DIHT, dem Bundesverband Druck und dem Verband Papierverarbeitung und Druck Südbaden wurden die von Burda Druck konzipierten schulischen und betrieblichen Ausbildungsinhalte und -ziele zur Ausbildungsordnung 'Medienoperator' abgestimmt. Das förmliche Genehmigungsverfahren dazu läuft über den DIHT bei den zuständigen Ministerien in Bonn - eine Verabschiedung wird für Herbst '95 erwartet. Prinzipiell wird diese Ausbildung zielgerichtet die Weiterbildung zum 'Medien-Fachwirt' (etwa wie der bisherige Meister) und einen direkten Übergang zu einem FH-Studium (Medientechnik, bzw. Dipl. Ing. Medien) ermöglichen. Der Referent infomiert näher über die Konzeption und Ziele dieser neuen Ausbildungsordnung

This paper treats the interaction between acoustic modes and light (Brillouin scattering) in a single mode optical fibre. Different observed spectra of the Brillouin backscattering in several fibres have been already reported. In order to have a clear idea of the process, we made a simulation to be able to `draw' the theoretical Brillouin spectrum of an optical fibre and to identify the origin of the observed backscattered lines. First, the model and the computation method used in our simulation are described. Second, the experimentally observed spectra of two real fibres are compared with their computed spectra. Real spectra and simulated spectra are in good agreement. Our work provides an interesting tool to investigate the changes in the Brillouin spectrum when the input parameters (characteristics of an optical fibre) vary. This should give useful indications to people working on systems which use Brillouin backscattering.

Formal verification (FV) is considered by many to be complicated and to require considerable mathematical knowledge for successful application. We have developed a methodology in which we have added formal verification to the verification process without requiring any knowledge of formal verification languages. We use only finite-state machine notation, which is familiar and intuitive to designers. Another problem associated with formal verification is state-space explosion. If that occurs, no result is returned; our method switches to random simulation after one hour without results, and no effort is lost. We have compared FV against random simulation with respect to development time, and our results indicate that FV is at least as fast as random simulation. FV is superior in terms of verification quality, however, because it is exhaustive.

Der Beitrag beschreibt wichtige Eckdaten und Ergebnisse der Kraftschlußregelung, die in der Lokomotive 12X auf internationalen Strecken erprobt wurde, und mit der auch zukünftige Projekte ausgestattet werden. Diese werden nicht nur von weiteren technischen Verbesserungen profitieren, sondern auch von geringerem Aufwand für die Inbetriebsetzung.

In dieser Arbeit wurde eine USB-Schnittstelle für ein bestehendes Mikrocontroller System FHOP realisiert. Im aktuellen Stand funktioniert das Design zuverlässig in Low Speed Konfiguration. Im Full Speed gibt es noch einige Schwierigkeiten, denn die Kommunikation bricht nach einigen Paket-Transfers zusammen. Durch das Emulieren des Designs auf FPGA wurde die Funktion nachgewiesen. Die nächste Aufgabe wird sein, die Hardware zu optimieren, damit das USB-Modul auch im Full Speed zuverlässig funktioniert. Zusätzlich wird die Software auf der PC Seite optimiert, um höhere Übertragungsraten zu erzielen.

Ziel dieses Projektes ist es, unter Verwendung von VHDL ein Modul zum Betrieb des I²C-Busses zu realisieren. In Zusammenspiel mit dem Mikrokontrollersystem FHOP soll die I²C-Schnittstelle ansteuerbar sein und seriell Daten mit einem EEPROM austauschen.

Praseodymium was investigated by Raman spectroscopy under pressure. A negative pressure shift of the E2g mode is observed in the dhcp phase, which indicates that the initial structural sequence hcp→Sm−type→dhcp→fcc as a whole in the regular lanthanides is associated with a softening of this mode. The pressure response of the phonon modes, observed in the monoclinic and α-uranium phases, where 4f bonding becomes important, is characteristic for anisotropic bonding properties.

The Division Industrial Chemistry of the Swiss Chemical Society organizes periodically a two-day event for the post-graduate education of its members. This event is known as the Freiburger Symposium. This year it focussed on sustainable chemical production. The twelve talks covered the following aspects: ethical needs for sustainability standards, the required, attained, and yet to be attained sustainability goals in chemical industry. Diverse case studies showed the highly developed awareness about the sustainability issue within the chemical community.

Um Simulationen schnell und kostengünstig sowie ergebnisträchtig durchzuführen, bedarf es einer sorgfältigen Vorbereitung. Der Artikel befaßt sich mit dem automatischen Ablauf einer Simulationstudie zum Materilafluß und erläutert die im Ablauf notwendigen Beiträge der Anwender. In den Einzelheiten wird über die automatische Vorgehensweise und Anwendung der Standard-Simulationsmodelle (SSM) sowie spezieller Simulationsmodule (SimDBC) berichtet. Entscheidend für eine breitere Anwendung von Simulationswerkzeugen ist die einfache Handhabung und leicht verständliche Definition der zu untersuchenden Szenarien.

Im Rahmen dieses Projekts wurde im Labor Telekommunikationstechnik der Hochschule Offenburg ein flexibel konfigurierbares Funknetz nach dem ZigBee-Standard aufgebaut. Mit Hilfe diverser Messgeräte und Analyse-Tools wurden die wesentlichen Performance Parameter dieses Funknetzes unter realen Betriebsbedingungen evaluiert. So wurden z.B. Erkenntnisse über die Empfängerempfindlichkeit, die effektiv erreichbare Datenrate sowie das Interferenzpotential gewonnen, die Voraussetzungen für die optimale Nutzung dieser neuen Funktechnologie sind.

This article presents an innovative code-division multiple access system architecture that is based on orthogonal complementary spreading codes and time-frequency domain spreading. The architecture has several advantages compared to conventional CDMA systems. Specifically, it offers multiple-access-interference-free operation in AWGN channels, reduces co-channel interference significantly, and has the potential for higher capacity and spectral efficiency than conventional CDMA systems. This is accomplished by using an "offset stacked" spreading modulation technique followed by quadrature amplitude modulation, which optimizes performance in a fading environment. This new spreading modulation scheme also simplifies the rate matching algorithms relevant for multimedia services and IP-based applications.

A new approach of continuous phase QPSK Band-Pass modulation technique is being developed as enhancement to the QPSK modulation scheme for inductive data transmission (NFC). The modulation is based on Gaussian filtering of the phase transition from one state to the other rather than discontinuity in phase shift. The carrier is based on low frequency 115 KHz suitable for human body energy penetration due to its large skin-depth and lower inductive power attenuation. The complete signal processing is done digitally, external coil and capacitor is used for transceiver interface. The telemetry assists a smart pill swallowed by human being to trigger an actuator for drug delivery, record temperature, or perform diagnostic task inside the body. The smart pill includes 32bit processor, 16 Kbyte memory, temperature sensor, telemetry unit, and additional external peripheries. The complete system is designed, embedded in one SoC, and realized on ASIC with chip-area less than 14 mm².

Im Rahmen eines Forschungsprojekts im Institut für Angewandte Forschung der Hochschule entstand ein RFID- Frontend- Baustein. Dieser unterstützt die physikalische Ebene des Standards ISO 15693 „Vicinity Card“.

A theoretical description is given for the propagation of surface acoustic wave pulses in anisotropic elastic media subject to the influence of nonlinearity. On the basis of nonlinear elasticity theory, an evolution equation is presented for the surface slope or the longitudinal surface velocity associated with an acoustic pulse. It contains a non-local nonlinearity, characterized by a kernel that strongly varies from one propagation geometry to another due to the anisotropy of the substrate. It governs pulse shape evolution in homogeneous halfspaces and the shapes of solitary surface pulses that exist in coated substrates. The theory describing nonlinear Rayleigh-type surface acoustic waves is extended in a straightforward way to surface waves that are localized at a one-dimensional acoustic waveguide like elastic wedges.

Der Cache-Speicher für den Softprozessor SIRIUS ist ein 4-fach assoziativer Cache-Speicher, der mit einem DDR-Interface auf einen externen Speicher zugreifen kann. Er verwaltet und beschleunigt Zugriffe vom Prozessor auf diesen Speicher. Der Cache-Speicher arbeitet intern mit 32 Bit und der doppelten Prozessortaktfrequenz und ermöglicht Systeme mit größeren Speicheranforderungen ohne signifikante Performanceverluste. Der Cache-Speicher wurde mit der Hardwarebeschreibungssprache VHDL erstellt und mit dem bestehenden Mikrocontrollersystem verbunden. Das Gesamtsystem wurde zunächst simuliert und anschließend mit dem Cyclone III FPGA Starter Kit von Altera, welches ein 32 MB DDR-RAM-Modul zur Verfügung stellt, durch Ausführen eines Testprogramms erfolgreich verifiziert. Für den kompletten Cache-Speicher werden inklusive der Pins für den externen Oszillator und des Reset-Tasters 3805 Logik-Zellen, 27 M9K-Blöcke, 44 Pins und eine PLL benötigt.

There are some existing Java benchmarks, application benchmarks as well as micro benchmarks or mixture both of them,such as: Java Grande, Spec98, CaffeMark, HBech, etc. But none of them deal with behaviors of multi tasks operating systems. As a result, the achieved outputs are not satisfied for performance evaluation engineers. Behaviors of multi tasks operating systems are based on a schedule management which is employed in these systems. Different processes can have different priority to share the same resources. The time is measured by estimating from applications started to it is finished does not reflect the real time value which the system need for running those programs. New approach to this problem should be done. Having said that, in this paper we present a new Java benchmark, named FHOJ benchmark, which directly deals with multi tasks behaviors of a system. Our study shows that in some cases, results from FHOJ benchmark are far more reliable in comparison with some existing Java benchmarks.

Mit dem Übergang zu immer komplexeren Designs an der Hochschule Offenburg werden DFT-Strukturen wie „Boundary Scan“ und „Scan“ in ASIC-Designs notwendig. Die DFT-Struktur Scan wird hierbei zukünftig bei Implementierung eines speziellen Scan Chain der Core Logic des ASIC-Designs verwendet und danach in der Boundary Scan Architektur integriert. Zunächst werden die Strukturen im recht einfachen ASIC-Design „Rolling Dice“, entwickelt am IAF der Hochschule Offenburg, implementiert. Nach Verifizierung der Funktionalität der Strukturen durch Emulation erfolgt die Einführung in komplexere ASIC-Design wie Front-End ASIC DQPSK sowie Prozessor-ASIC PDA V.2 (beide ebenfalls entwickelt am IAF der Hochschule Offenburg). Eine Verifizierung der mit DFT-Strukturen ausgestatteten komplexeren ASIC-Design erfolgt im Rahmen dieser Ausarbeitung nicht, Bezug genommen wird hauptsächlich auf die Einführung der DFT-Strukturen in das ASIC-Design des „Rolling Dice“. Ein Vergleich von Aufwand gegenüber Nutzen bei Implementierung von DFT-Strukturen in „kleine“ gegenüber „große“ ASIC-Design bildet ein wichtiges Fazit.

Das Ingenieurbüro Evomotiv GmbH und die University of Applied Sciences Offenburg entwickeln seit Ende 2008 ein Antriebskonzept für leichte Stadtfahrzeuge. Ziel des Elektroantriebs ist die Serientauglichkeit der hochintegrierten, getriebelosen und eisenfreien Radnabenmotoren. Das Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi) unterstützt das Projekt. Das Konzept des Radnabenmotors erhielt 2006 den Bosch—Innovationspreis und gewann 2008 den Shell-Eco-Marathon. Im Jahr 2011 wird Evomotiv mit seinen Partnern erste Prototypen auf der Straße testen.

We present a novel fabrication route yielding Raney-platinum film electrodes intended as glucose oxidation anodes for potentially implantable fuel cells. Fabrication roots on thermal alloying of an extractable metal with bulk platinum at 200 °C for 48 h. In contrast to earlier works using carcinogenic nickel, we employ zinc as potentially biocompatible alloying partner. Microstructure analysis indicates that after removal of extractable zinc the porous Raney-platinum film (roughness factor ∼2700) consists predominantly of the Pt3Zn phase. Release of zinc during electrode operation can be expected to have no significant effect on physiological normal levels in blood and serum, which promises good biocompatibility. In contrast to previous anodes based on hydrogel-bound catalyst particles the novel anodes exhibit excellent resistance against hydrolytic and oxidative attack. Furthermore, they exhibit significantly lower polarization with up to approximately 100 mV more negative electrode potentials in the current density range relevant for fuel cell operation. The anodes’ amenability to surface modification with protective polymers is demonstrated by the exemplary application of an approximately 300 nm thin Nafion coating. This had only a marginal effect on the anode long-term stability and amino acid tolerance. While in physiological glucose solution after approximately 100 h of operation gradually increasing performance degradation occurs, rapid electrode polarization within 24 h is observed in artificial tissue fluid. Optimization approaches may include catalyst enhancement by adatom surface modification and the application of specifically designed protective polymers with controlled charge and mesh size.

Dieses Buch beschreibt die regelungstechnische Modellbildung und die darauf basierende Regelung der gebräuchlichsten, in industriellen Anwendungen eingesetzten elektrischen Maschinen. Hinsichtlich des Reglerentwurfs wird eine sehr leistungsfähige Methodik angewendet, mit der alle analysierten Beispiele einheitlich behandelt werden können. Sie basiert auf der zeitdiskreten Zustandsraumbeschreibung stromrichtergespeister elektrischer Antriebe. Durch die leicht verständliche einführende Beschreibung der Methodik wird es auch Lesern, denen die Zustandsraummethodik nicht geläufig ist, möglich, dynamisch sehr hochwertige Regelungen zu implementieren. Eine weitere Besonderheit ist die Einbeziehung von rückspeisefähigen Netzstromrichtern in die Betrachtungen.

Using guideline parameters for indication of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), only about two thirds of the patients improve clinically. Unfortunately both, surface ECG and echo are uncertain to predict CRT response. To better characterize cardiac desynchronization in heart failure, interventricular (IVCD) and intra-leftventricular conduction delays (ILVCD) were measured by esophageal left ventricular electrogram (LVE). Recordings in 43 CRT patients (34m, 9f, age: 64.7 ± 9.5yrs) evidenced only weak correlation between IVCD and QRS of 0.53 and between ILVCD and QRS of 0.33. This demonstrated that QRS duration is not a reliable indicator of desynchronization. Therefore, the study resulted into development of LVE feature for a programmer with implant support device. It can be used interoperatively to guide the left ventricular electrode location in order to increase responder rate in CRT.

Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) with biventricular pacing (BV) is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients with interventricular conduction delay (IVCD). The aim of the study was to evaluate transesophageal IVCD and left ventricular (LV) pacing with directed electrical pacing field (EPF) in HF patients. Methods: HF patients were analysed with bipolar transesophageal LV electrocardiogram recording and LV pacing with constant voltage stimulus output, 4 ms stimulus duration, distal cylindrical electrode (CE) and seven 6 mm hemispherical electrodes (HE) with 15 mm electrode distance (TO, Dr. Osypka, Rheinfelden, Germany). Results: LV electrocardiogram recording with HE-HE and CE-HE evaluated a mean IVCD of 79.9 ± 36.7 ms. Directed EPF with CE-HE and HE-HE allowed LV VAT (n=12) and LV D00 pacing (n=5) with a mean effective capture output of 97.35 ± 6.64 V. In 15 responders with IVCD of 87 ± 33 ms arterial pulse pressure (PP) increased from 65 ± 24 mmHg to 79 ± 27 mmHg (p < 0.001). EPF was simulated with finite element method. Conclusions: Transesophageal LV electrocardiography and directed EPF pacing with CE and HE allowed the evaluation of IVCD and PP to select patients for BV pacing.

AV delay (AVD) optimization is mandatory in cardiac resynchronization (CRT) for heart failure. Several time consuming methods exist. We initialized development of left-atrial electrogram (LAE) feature for Biotronik ICS3000 programmer. It can be utilized to approximate optimal AV delay in CRT patients with pacing systems irrespective of make and model. Using this feature, we studied the share of interatrial conduction intervals (IACT) on individual echo AVD in 45 CRT patients (34m, 11f, mean age 69±6yrs.). The percentage of IACT on optimal echo AVD resulted in44.5±22.1% for VDD and 70.7±10.9% for DDD operation. In all patients, optimal echo AVDs exceeded the individual IACT by a duration of 52.5±33.3ms (p<0.001), at mean. Therefore, if AV delay optimization is not possible or not practicable in CRT patients, AVD should be approximated by individually measuring IACT and adding about 50ms.

Das Institut für Angewandte Forschung (IAF) der Hochschule Offenburg ist seit mehr als 3 Jahren an der Entwicklung einer elektronischen Pille engagiert, die die bisher übliche chemische Freisetzung von Medikamenten im Darm durch eine gesteuerte, über Telemetrie ausgelöste Freisetzung ersetzen soll Damit lassen sich Therapien durchführen und Medikamente verwenden, die in der klassischen Form nicht möglich sind.

We report the fabrication and characterization of glucose-tolerant Raney-platinum cathodes for oxygen reduction in potentially implantable glucose fuel. Fabricated by extraction of aluminum from 1 μm thin platinum–aluminum bi-layers annealed at 300 °C, the novel cathodes show excellent resistance against hydrolytic and oxidative attack. This renders them superior over previous cathodes fabricated from hydrogel-bound catalyst particles. Annealing times of 60, 120, and 240 min result in approximately 400–550 nm thin porous films (roughness factors ∼100–150), which contain platinum and aluminum in a ratio of ∼9:1. Aluminum release during electrode operation can be expected to have no significant effect on physiological normal levels, which promises good biocompatibility. Annealing time has a distinct influence on the density of trenches formed in the cathode. Higher trench densities lead to lower electrode potentials in the presence of glucose. This suggests that glucose sensitivity is governed by mixed potential formation resulting from oxygen depletion within the trenches. During performance characterization the diffusion resistance to be expected from tissue capsule formation upon electrode implantation was taken into account by placing a membrane in front of the cathode. Despite the resulting limited oxygen supply, cathodes prepared by annealing for 60 min show more positive electrode potentials than previous cathodes fabricated from hydrogel-bound activated carbon. Compared to operation in phosphate buffered saline containing 3.0 mM glucose, a potential loss of approximately 120 mV occurs in artificial tissue fluid. This can be reduced to approximately 90 mV with a protective Nafion layer that is easily electro-coated onto the Raney-platinum film.

Im Institut für Angewandte Forschung (IAF) der Hochschule Offenburg, im ASIC-Design-Center wird seit Jahren an einem Softcore, genannt SIRIUS (Small Imprint Risc for ubi quitions System), entwickelt, der sich inzwischen in drei Familienmitglieder aufteilt: SIRIUS-TINY mit einer internen 16-bit-Struktur und einem 16-bit-Adressraum als kleinen Bruder, dem SIRIUS-JANUS mit einer internen 32-bit-Struktur, aber einem 16-bit-Bus-System, das es erlaubt den 32-bit-Adressraum zu nutzen, und dem großen Bruder, dem SIRIUS-HULK der sowohl intern als auch extern über eine 32-bit-Struktur verfügt, zusätzlich einen 32-bit-Divider enthält und auf den Speicher über einen dualen Cache zugreift.

Under a grant of the German ProInno program („Erhöhung der Innovationskompetenz mittelständischer Unternehmen“)the Hochschule Offenburg participated during the past 2 years in an industry project prototyping a new type of service for modern Air Traffic Control (ATC) applications.<br> Objective of the project has been the joint development of hardware and software components for a so-called TIS-B (Traffic Information System - Broadcast) support infrastructure to enable new cockpit applications increasing the air situation awareness for pilots of commercial airliners [1]. At the core of the project is a space-time-scheduler, controlling a battery of TIS-B groundstations over a Wide Area Surveillance Network [4].<br> The project has been successfully concluded and is currently in its evaluation phase. Industry partner was the Karlsruhe-located company COMSOFT, international market leader in ATC sensor networks.

This Master's Thesis discusses intelligent sensor networks considering autonomous sensor placement strategies and system health management. Sensor networks for an intelligent system design process have been researched recently. These networks consist of a distributed collective of sensing units, each with the abilities of individual sensing and computation. Such systems can be capable of self-deployment and must be scalable, long-lived and robust. With distributed sensor networks, intelligent sensor placement for system design and online system health management are attractive areas of research. Distributed sensor networks also cause optimization problems, such as decentralized control, system robustness and maximization of coverage in a distributed system. This also includes the discovery and analysis of points of interest within an environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate a method to control sensor placement in a world with several sources and multiple types of information autonomously. This includes both controlling the movement of sensor units and filtering of the gathered information depending on individual properties to increase system performance, defined as a good coverage. Additionally, online system health management was examined in this study regarding the case of agent failures and autonomous policy reconfiguration if sensors are added to or removed from the system. Two different solution strategies were devised, one where the environment was fully observable, and one with only partial observability. Both strategies use evolutionary algorithms based on artificial neural networks for developing control policies. For performance measurement and policy evaluation, different multiagent objective functions were investigated. The results of the study show that in the case of a world with multiple types of information, individual control strategies performed best because of their abilities to control the movement of a sensor entity and to filter the sensed information. This also includes system robustness in case of sensor failures where other sensing units must recover system performance. Additionally, autonomous policy reconfiguration after adding or removing of sensor agents was successful. This highlights that intelligent sensor agents are able to adapt their individual control policies considering new circumstances.

Routine nuclear cardiology examinations indicate heart rate, cardiac rhythm, the height of cardiac pulse and respiration rhythm. It would be of interest to study whether these data, especially if the same tests are repeated, can indicate patients’ well being in the future and perhaps patients’ life span, other factors being equal. Related old theories and suggestions are mentioned. Furthermore, some drugs like I-f channel antagonists and stress tests testing cardiac reserves could support such a study.

Deutschland hat nicht zuletzt durch seine zentrale Lage eine führende Rolle im Bereich der Transportlogistik in Europa übernommen. Allerdings stehen die großen Logistikunternehmen in den letzten Jahren zunehmend vor neuen Herausforderungen. Zum einen steigt die Menge zu transportierender Güter jährlich, zum anderen entstanden durch Verschmelzungen großer Logistikunternehmen wie z. B. Deutsche Post, Danzas und Exel, UPS und Fritz riesige Fahrzeugflotten, deren effiziente Planung die Unternehmen vor enorme Probleme stellt. Die einzige Möglichkeit, diese meist heterogenen, also aus vielen verschiedenen Verkehrsmitteln bestehenden Flotten mit herkömmlichen Mitteln effizient zu planen, ist die Aufteilung in (regionale) Geschäftsbereiche. Dadurch können viele Synergieeffekte nicht genutzt werden, was unter anderem zu unnötig hohen Transportkilometerleistungen und Leerfahrten führt. Mit Hilfe agentenbasierter Systeme können heute schon Kosteneinsparungen von 3 – 6 % bei homogenen Verkehrsmitteln erzielt werden. Das Einsparpotenzial dürfte bei heterogenen Flotten ähnlich hoch, wenn nicht noch etwas höher sein. Allerdings liefern derzeit agentenbasierte Systeme für heterogene Flotten noch keine zufriedenstellenden Ergebnisse. Durch die Kombination der beiden vorrangig für die Transportoptimierung eingesetzten Techniken agentenbasierte (bottomup) Optimierung und der klassischen (topdown)Optimierung soll auch das Einsparpotenzial von heterogenen Flotten realisiert werden. Diese Optimierung ist Gegenstand des Attractive Forschungsprojekts, das von August 2009 bis Juli 2012 im Rahmen des Programms ingenieurNachwuchs gefördert wird.

Das Institut für Angewandte Forschung (IAF) der Hochschule Offenburg arbeitet seit mehreren Jahren an der Entwicklung der elektronischen Pille, mit der Medikamente im Darm telemetrisch gesteuert auf Kommando freigesetzt werden können. Das System benötigt dazu eine hochminiaturisierte Elektronik, die in Form eines integrierten Schaltkreises (ASIC) entwickelt wurde.

The idea of this game is to use a flashcard system to create a short story in a foreign language. The story is developed by a group of participants by exchanging sentences via a flashcard system. This way the participants can learn from each other by knowledge sharing without fear of making mistakes because the group members are anonymous. Moreover they do not need a constant support from a teacher.

The separation of nitrogen and methane from hydrogen-rich mixtures is systematically investigated on a recently developed binder-free zeolite 5A. For this adsorbent, the present work provides a series of experimental data on adsorption isotherms and breakthrough curves of nitrogen and methane, as well as their mixtures in hydrogen. Isotherms were measured at temperatures of 283–313 K and pressures of up to 1.0 MPa. Breakthrough curves of CH4, N2, and CH4/N2 in H2 were obtained at temperatures of 300–305 K and pressures ranging from 0.1 to 6.05 MPa with different feed concentrations. An LDF-based model was developed to predict breakthrough curves using measured and calculated data as inputs. The number of parameters and the use of correlations were restricted to focus on the importance of measured values. For the given assumptions, the results show that the model predictions agree satisfactorily with the experiments under the different operating conditions applied.

Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular (BV) pacing is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients with ventricular desynchronisation and reduced left ventricular (LV) function. The aim of this study was to evaluate preejection period (PEP) and left ventricular ejection time (LVET) with transthoracic signal averaging impedance and electrocardiography in HF patients with and without BV pacing. Methods: 10 HF patients (age 68.9 ± 8 years; 2 females, 9 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 2,9 ± 0.5, 30.9 ± 10.5 % LV ejection fraction and 159.4 ± 22.9 ms QRS duration were analysed with transthoracic impedance and electrocardiography (Cardioscreen Medis, Ilmenau, Germany) and novel National Intruments LabView 2009 signal averaging software. One day after BV pacing device implantation, AV and VV delays were optimized by transthoracic impedance cardiography and stroke volume (SV) and cardiac output (CO) were gained by Cardioscreen. Results: Transthoracic impedance and electrocardiography AV and VV delay opimization was possible in all HF patients with BV pacing devices (n= 10). PEP was 154 ± 24ms without BV pacing and measured between onset of QRS in the surface electrocardiogram and onset of ventricular deflection in the impedance cardiogram. LVET was 342 ± 65ms without BV pacing and measured between onset and offset of ventricular deflection in the impedance cardiogram. The use of optimal AV and VV delay BV pacing resulted in improvement of SV from 64.1 ± 26.5 ml to 94.1 ± 33.96 ml (P < 0.05) and CO from 4.05 ± 1.36 l/min to 6.44 ± 1.56 l/min (P < 0.05). Conclusion: PEP and LVET may be useful parameters of ventricular Desynchronisation. AV and VV delay optimized BV pacing improve SV and CO. Impedance and electrocardiography with LabView 2009 signal averaging may be a simple and useful technique to optimize CRT.

Introduction: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) with biventricular pacing (BV) is an established therapy for heart failure (HF) patients (P) with ventricular desynchronisation, but not all patients improved clinically. Aim of this study was to evaluate electrical intra-left ventricular conduction delay (LVCD) and interventricular conduction delay (IVCD), to better select patients for CRT. Methods: 65 HF patients (age 63.4 ± 10.6 years; 7 females, 58 males) with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class 3 ± 0.2, 24.4 ± 6.7 % left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction and 167.4 ± 35.6 ms QRSD were included. Esophageal TO Osypka focused hemispherical electrodes catheter was perorally applied in position of maximum LV deflection to measure LVCD between onset and offset of LV deflection and IVCD between earliest onset of QRS in the 12-channel surface ECG and onset of LV deflection in the focused bipolar transesophageal LV electrogram. Results: There were 50 responders with LVCD of 76.5 ± 20.4 ms, IVCD of 80.5 ± 26.1 ms (P=0.34) and QRSD of 171 ± 37.7 ms. 15 non-responders had longer LVCD of 90 ± 28.5 ms (P = 0.045), shorter IVCD of 50.1 ± 29.1 ms (P < 0.001) and QRSD of 155.3 ± 25 ms (P=0.14). During 21.3 ± 20.3 month BV pacing follow-up, the responder`s NYHA classes improved from 3 ± 0.2 to 2. ± 0.3 (P < 0.001) whereas the non-responders NYHA classes did not improve from 3 ± 0.2 to 2.9 ± 0.3 (P = 0.43) during 15.7 ± 13.9 month BV pacing follow-up (53 Boston, 10 Medtronic and 2 St. Jude CRT devices). Conclusion: Determination of electrical LVCD and IVCD by focused bipolar transesophageal LV electrogram recording may be an additional useful technique to improve patient selection for CRT.

The efficient support of Hardwae-In-theLoop (HIL) in the design process of hardwaresoftware-co-designed systems is an ongoing challenge. This paper presents a network-based integration of hardware elements into the softwarebased image processing tool „ADTF“, based on a high-performance Gigabit Ethernet MAC and a highly-efficient TCP/IP-stack. The MAC has been designed in VHDL. It was verified in a SystemCsimulation environment and tested on several Altera FPGAs.