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Background
To assess the in-field walking mechanics during downhill hiking of patients with total knee arthroplasty five to 14 months after surgery and an age-matched healthy control group and relate them to the knee flexor and extensor muscle strength.
Methods
Participants walked on a predetermined hiking trail at a self-selected, comfortable pace wearing an inertial sensor system for recording the whole-body 3D kinematics. Sagittal plane hip, knee, and ankle joint angles were evaluated over the gait cycle at level walking and two different negative slopes. The concentric and eccentric lower extremity muscle strength of the knee flexors and extensors isokinetically at 50 and 120°/s were measured.
Findings
Less knee flexion angles during stance have been measured in patients in the operated limb compared to healthy controls in all conditions (level walking, moderate downhill, steep downhill). The differences increased with steepness. Muscle strength was lower in patients for both muscle groups and all measured conditions. The functional hamstrings to quadriceps ratio at 120°/sec correlated with knee angle during level and downhill walking at the moderate slope in patients, showing higher ratios with lower peak knee flexion angles.
Interpretation
The study shows that even if rehabilitation has been completed successfully and complication-free, five to 14 months after surgery, the muscular condition was still insufficient to display a normal gait pattern during downhill hiking. The muscle balance between quadriceps and hamstring muscles seems related to the persistence of a stiff knee gait pattern after knee arthroplasty. LoE: III.
Purpose
This study aims to investigate a systematic approach to the production and use of additively manufactured injection mould inserts in product development (PD) processes. For this purpose, an evaluation of the additive tooling design method (ATDM) is performed.
Design/methodology/approach
The evaluation of the ATDM is conducted within student workshops, where students develop products and validate them using AT-prototypes. The evaluation process includes the analysis of work results as well as the use of questionnaires and participant observation.
Findings
This study shows that the ATDM can be successfully used to assist in producing and using AT mould inserts to produce valid AT prototypes. As a reference for the implementation of AT in industrial PD, extracts from the work of the student project groups and suitable process parameters for prototype production are presented.
Originality/value
This paper presents the application and evaluation of a method to support AT in PD that has not yet been scientifically evaluated.
Verfahren zum Betrieb eines batterieelektrischen Fahrzeugs mit einer elektrischen Maschine zum Antrieb des Fahrzeugs und einem Inverter (1) zum Ansteuern der elektrischen Maschine, wobei der Inverter (1) eine dreiphasige Brückenschaltung mit einer Anzahl von als Halbleiter ausgebildeten Schaltern (3) umfasst, wobei im Inverter (1) entstehende Verluste zum Heizen eines Innenraums des Fahrzeugs und/oder zum Temperieren einer Batterie und/oder zum Temperieren von Getriebeöl verwendet werden, wobei der Inverter (1) mittels Raumzeigermodulation gesteuert wird, wobei ein nicht-optimales Schaltverhalten des Inverters (1) herbeigeführt wird, indem nicht optimale Spannungs-Raumzeiger (e, eu, ev, ew, e1, e2, -e1, -e2) eingestellt werden, wobei eine Skalierung der Spannungs-Raumzeiger (e, e1, e2) über die Schaltung von Nullspannungsvektoren, die je nach zeitlichem Anteil die Spannung reduzieren, oder durch Zuhilfenahme eines jeweils gegenüberliegenden Spannungs-Raumzeigers (-e1, -e2) erfolgt, so dass eine Schaltfolge mit einer maximalen Anzahl von Schaltzyklen realisiert wird, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass in der Mitte einer Schaltperiode (Tp) keine Symmetrie erzeugt wird.
Hintergrund
In diesem Artikel wird ein Überblick und Vergleich der am häufigsten verwendeten zementierten Hüftschäfte, gruppiert in die verschiedenen Schafttypen und Zementmanteldicken, gegeben, um zu sehen, welche Kombination gut abschneidet.
Methodik
Aus dem Endoprothesenregister Deutschland wurden die Revisionsraten zementierter Schaftarten kategorisiert und die Revisionsraten von 3 und 5 Jahren erfasst und analysiert. Für die Recherche lag die Konzentration auf den Schäften Exeter, C‑Stem, MS-30, Excia, Bicontact, Charnley, Müller Geradschaft, Twinsys, Corail, Avenir, Quadra und dem Lubinus SP II. Ein wichtiger Aspekt lag darin, welcher Schaft favorisiert implantiert wird und welche Zementiertechnik in Hinblick auf die geplante Zementmanteldicke angewendet wird. Um einen Trend in der zementierten Hüftendoprothetik herauszufinden, wurden zusätzlich die Daten des dänischen, schwedischen, norwegischen, schweizerischen, neuseeländischen, englischen und australischen Endoprothesenregister verglichen.
Ergebnisse und Schlussfolgerung
Die meisten Länder nutzen zementierte Prothesen nach dem Kraftschlussprinzip (Exeter, MS30, C‑Stem etc.) oder dem Formschlussprinzip (Charnley, Excia, Bicontact), welche mit einer Zementmanteldicke von 2–4 mm implantiert werden. Jedoch hat sich in Deutschland und der Schweiz ein Trend zur Line-to-Line-Technik, mit einer geplanten Zementmanteldicke von 1 mm (Twinsys, Corail, Avenir, Quadra) aufgezeigt, dem Prinzip der Müller-Geradschaft-Prothese und der Kerboul-Charnley-Prothese folgend, auch wenn diese an sich als „french paradoxon“ postuliert werden. In den EPRD-5-Jahres-Ergebnissen scheinen die neueren Line-to-Line-Prothesen etwas schlechter abzuschneiden. Die besten Ergebnisse erzielt der „MS 30“ in Deutschland und der „Exeter“ in England. Hierbei handelt es sich um polierte Geradschäfte mit Zentraliser und Subsidence-Raum an der Spitze mit einem 2–4 mm Zementmantel in guter Zementiertechnik.
Analysing and predicting the advance rate of a tunnel boring machine (TBM) in hard rock is integral to tunnelling project planning and execution. It has been applied in the industry for several decades with varying success. Most prediction models are based on or designed for large-diameter TBMs, and much research has been conducted on related tunnelling projects. However, only a few models incorporate information from projects with an outer diameter smaller than 5 m and no penetration prediction model for pipe jacking machines exists to date. In contrast to large TBMs, small-diameter TBMs and their projects have been considered little in research. In general, they are characterised by distinctive features, including insufficient geotechnical information, sometimes rather short drive lengths, special machine designs and partially concurring lining methods like pipe jacking and segment lining. A database which covers most of the parameters mentioned above has been compiled to investigate the performance of small-diameter TBMs in hard rock. In order to provide sufficient geological and technical variance, this database contains 37 projects with 70 geotechnically homogeneous areas. Besides the technical parameters, important geotechnical data like lithological information, unconfined compressive strength, tensile strength and point load index is included and evaluated. The analysis shows that segment lining TBMs have considerably higher penetration rates in similar geological and technical settings mostly due to their design parameters. Different methodologies for predicting TBM penetration, including state-of-the-art models from the literature as well as newly derived regression and machine learning models, are discussed and deployed for backward modelling of the projects contained in the database. New ranges of application for small-diameter tunnelling in several industry-standard penetration models are presented, and new approaches for the penetration prediction of pipe jacking machines in hard rock are proposed.
This report examines exporters’ challenges and possible solutions for public intervention to promote foreign trade. Based on fieldwork conducted in Georgia, we explore which policy approaches can help to stimulate Georgian exports further. Our outcomes show that exporters face substantial barriers such as navigating complex trade regulations, lack of knowledge about target markets, trade finance gaps, as well as new export promotion programs (EPPs) in competitor countries. Other upper-middle-income countries can learn from our results that exporters can significantly benefit from a comprehensive export promotion strategy combined with an ecosystem-based “team” approach. EPPs related to awareness and capacity building in Georgia should be part of this strategy, focusing on challenges such as a lack of knowledge about trade practices and international business skills. Other EPPs must help to mitigate related market failures, as information gathering is costly, and firms have no incentive to share this information with competitors. Furthermore, targeted marketing support and customer matchmaking can answer Georgian exporters’ challenges, such as lack of market access and low sector visibility. Our results also show that public intervention through financial support and risk mitigation is essential for firms with an international orientation. The high-quality, rich outcomes provide significant value for other upper-middle-income countries by exploring the example of Georgia’s contemporary circumstances in an in-depth manner based on extensive interviews and document analysis. Limitations include that our work primarily relies on qualitative data and further research could involve a quantitative study with a diverse range of sectors.
The last decades have seen the evolution of industrial production into more sophisticated processes. The development of specialized, high-end machines has increased the importance of predictive maintenance of mechanical systems to produce high-quality goods and avoid machine breakdowns. Predictive maintenance has two main objectives: to classify the current status of a machine component and to predict the maintenance interval by estimating its remaining useful life (RUL). Nowadays, both objectives are covered by machine learning and deep learning approaches and require large training datasets that are often not available. One possible solution may be transfer learning, where the knowledge of a larger dataset is transferred to a smaller one. This thesis is primarily concerned with transfer learning for predictive maintenance for fault classification and RUL estimation. The first part presents the state-of-the-art machine learning techniques with a focus on techniques applicable to predictive maintenance tasks (Chapter 2). This is followed by a presentation of the machine tool background and current research that applies the previously explained machine learning techniques to predictive maintenance tasks (Chapter 3). One novelty of this thesis is that it introduces a new intermediate domain that represents data by focusing on the relevant information to allow the data to be used on different domains without losing relevant information (Chapter 4). The proposed solution is optimized for rotating elements. Therefore, the presented intermediate domain creates different layers by focusing on the fault frequencies of the rotating elements. Another novelty of this thesis is its semi and unsupervised transfer learning-based fault classification approach for different component types under different process conditions (Chapter 5). It is based on the intermediate domain utilized by a convolutional neural network (CNN). In addition, a novel unsupervised transfer learning loss function is presented based on the maximum mean discrepancy (MMD), one of the state-of-the-art algorithms. It extends the MMD by considering the intermediate domain layers; therefore, it is called layered maximum mean discrepancy (LMMD). Another novelty is an RUL estimation transfer learning approach for different component types based on the data of accelerometers with low sampling rates (Chapter 6). It applies the feature extraction concepts of the classification approach: the presented intermediate domain and the convolutional layers. The features are then used as input for a long short-term memory (LSTM) network. The transfer learning is based on fixed feature extraction, where the trained convolutional layers are taken over. Only the LSTM network has to be trained again. The intermediate domain supports this transfer learning type, as it should be similar for different component types. In addition, it enables the practical usage of accelerometers with low sampling rates during transfer learning, which is an absolute novelty. All presented novelties are validated in detailed case studies using the example of bearings (Chapter 7). In doing so, their superiority over state-of-the-art approaches is demonstrated.
Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) are increasingly generating attention in the field of hardware-based security for the Internet of Things (IoT). A PUF, as its name implies, is a physical element with a special and unique inherent characteristic and can act as the security anchor for authentication and cryptographic applications. Keeping in mind that the PUF outputs are prone to change in the presence of noise and environmental variations, it is critical to derive reliable keys from the PUF and to use the maximum entropy at the same time. In this work, the PUF output positioning (POP) method is proposed, which is a novel method for grouping the PUF outputs in order to maximize the extracted entropy. To achieve this, an offset data is introduced as helper data, which is used to relax the constraints considered for the grouping of PUF outputs, and deriving more entropy, while reducing the secret key error bits. To implement the method, the key enrollment and key generation algorithms are presented. Based on a theoretical analysis of the achieved entropy, it is proven that POP can maximize the achieved entropy, while respecting the constraints induced to guarantee the reliability of the secret key. Moreover, a detailed security analysis is presented, which shows the resilience of the method against cyber-security attacks. The findings of this work are evaluated by applying the method on a hybrid printed PUF, where it can be practically shown that the proposed method outperforms other existing group-based PUF key generation methods.
Socially assistive robots (SARs) are becoming more prevalent in everyday life, emphasizing the need to make them socially acceptable and aligned with users' expectations. Robots' appearance impacts users' behaviors and attitudes towards them. Therefore, product designers choose visual qualities to give the robot a character and to imply its functionality and personality. In this work, we sought to investigate the effect of cultural differences on Israeli and German designers' perceptions of SARs' roles and appearance in four different contexts: a service robot for an assisted living/retirement residence facility, a medical assistant robot for a hospital environment, a COVID-19 officer robot, and a personal assistant robot for domestic use. The key insight is that although Israeli and German designers share similar perceptions of visual qualities for most of the robotics roles, we found differences in the perception of the COVID-19 officer robot's role and, by that, its most suitable visual design. This work indicates that context and culture play a role in users' perceptions and expectations; therefore, they should be taken into account when designing new SARs for diverse contexts.
With the expansion of IoT devices in many aspects of our life, the security of such systems has become an important challenge. Unlike conventional computer systems, any IoT security solution should consider the constraints of these systems such as computational capability, memory, connectivity, and power consumption limitations. Physical Unclonable Functions (PUFs) with their special characteristics were introduced to satisfy the security needs while respecting the mentioned constraints. They exploit the uncontrollable and reproducible variations of the underlying component for security applications such as identification, authentication, and communication security. Since IoT devices are typically low cost, it is important to reuse existing elements in their hardware (for instance sensors, ADCs, etc.) instead of adding extra costs for the PUF hardware. Micro-electromechanical system (MEMS) devices are widely used in IoT systems as sensors and actuators. In this thesis, a comprehensive study of the potential application of MEMS devices as PUF primitives is provided. MEMS PUF leverages the uncontrollable variations in the parameters of MEMS elements to derive secure keys for cryptographic applications. Experimental and simulation results show that our proposed MEMS PUFs are capable of generating enough entropy for a complex key generation, while their responses show low fluctuations in different environmental conditions.
Keeping in mind that the PUF responses are prone to change in the presence of noise and environmental variations, it is critical to derive reliable keys from the PUF and to use the maximum entropy at the same time. In the second part of this thesis, we elaborate on different key generation schemes and their advantages and drawbacks. We propose the PUF output positioning (POP) and integer linear programming (ILP) methods, which are novel methods for grouping the PUF outputs in order to maximize the extracted entropy. To implement these methods, the key enrollment and key generation algorithms are presented. The proposed methods are then evaluated by applying on the responses of the MEMS PUF, where it can be practically shown that the proposed method outperforms other existing PUF key generation methods.
The final part of this thesis is dedicated to the application of the MEMS PUF as a security solution for IoT systems. We select the mutual authentication of IoT devices and their backend system, and propose two lightweight authentication protocols based on MEMS PUFs. The presented protocols undergo a comprehensive security analysis to show their eligibility to be used in IoT systems. As the result, the output of this thesis is a lightweight security solution based on MEMS PUFs, which introduces a very low overhead on the cost of the hardware.
Die pädagogische Wende
(2024)
Die Corona-Pandemie hat die Grenzen des digital gestützten Unterrichts deutlich gemacht: Gerade durch Fernunterricht, Schulclouds, Learning Analytics und Lernmanagementsysteme haben der Präsenzunterricht und das Lernen in Gemeinschaft ihre fundamentale Relevanz belegt, hat die Schule als sozialer Ort der Beziehung und Bindung an Bedeutung gewonnen. Dieses Buch versammelt praxisnahe Konzepte für Lehrkräfte und Schulen, die sich eine stärkere (Rück-)Besinnung auf das interpersonale Unterrichten wünschen, ohne deshalb auf digitale Medien verzichten zu müssen. Die zentrale Botschaft: Für Pädagoginnen und Pädagogen bleibt das Unterrichten das Kerngeschäft. Medien und Technik können Lehr- und Lernprozesse bei Bedarf unterstützen, aber nicht ersetzen. Schule und Unterricht bleiben notwendig interpersonale Prozesse. Diese Botschaft wird mit den Erkenntnissen aus der Pandemie und einem kritischen Blick auf die bisherigen Ergebnisse des Digitalpakts Schule unterfüttert.
Marketing in Kommunalverwaltungen muss sich an einige besondere Rahmenbedingungen anpassen – sei es rechtlicher, organisatorischer oder gesellschaftspolitischer Art. Dies bedeutet auch, dass das Marketinginstrument „Social Media“ bewusst und taktisch klug angewandt werden sollte. Die Relevanz dieses Instruments für die Kommunalverwaltungen ist groß. So hilft es nicht nur, Social Media strategisch einzubetten, sondern auch die Ziele klar zu setzen, sich der Zielgruppen und Rollen im Kontext Social Media bewusst zu sein und diese zielführend einzusetzen.
Ultra-low-power passive telemetry systems for industrial and biomedical applications have gained much popularity lately. The reduction of the power consumption and size of the circuits poses critical challenges in ultra-low-power circuit design. Biotelemetry applications like leakage detection in silicone breast implants require low-power-consuming small-size electronics. In this doctoral thesis, the design, simulation, and measurement of a programmable mixed-signal System-on-Chip (SoC) called General Application Passive Sensor Integrated Circuit (GAPSIC) is presented. Owing to the low power consumption, GAPSIC is capable of completely passive operation. Such a batteryless passive system has lower maintenance complexity and is also free from battery-related health hazards. With a die area of 4.92 mm² and a maximum analog power consumption of 592 µW, GAPSIC has one of the best figure-of-merits compared to similar state-of-the-art SoCs. Regarding possible applications, GAPSIC can read out and digitally transmit the signals of resistive sensors for pressure or temperature measurements. Additionally, GAPSIC can measure electrocardiogram (ECG) signals and conductivity.
The design of GAPSIC complies with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 15693/NFC (near field communication) 5 standard for radio frequency identification (RFID), corresponding to the frequency range of 13.56 MHz. A passive transponder developed with GAPSIC comprises of an external memory storage and very few other external components, like an antenna and sensors. The passive tag antenna and reader antenna use inductive coupling for communication and energy transfer, which enables passive operation. A passive tag developed with GAPSIC can communicate with an NFC compatible smart device or an ISO 15693 RFID reader. An external memory storage contains the programmable application-specific firmware.
As a mixed-signal SoC, GAPSIC includes both analog and digital circuitries. The analog block of GAPSIC includes a power management unit, an RFID/NFC communication unit, and a sensor readout unit. The digital block includes an integrated 32-bit microcontroller, developed by the Hochschule Offenburg ASIC design center, and digital peripherals. A 16-kilobyte random-access memory and a read-only 16-kilobyte memory constitute the GAPSIC internal memory. For the fabrication of GAPSIC, one poly, six-metal 0.18 µm CMOS process is used.
The design of GAPSIC includes two stages. In the first stage, a standalone RFID/NFC frontend chip with a power management unit, an RFID/NFC communication unit, a clock regenerator unit, and a field detector unit was designed. In the second stage, the rest of the functional blocks were integrated with the blocks of the RFID/NFC frontend chip for the final integration of GAPSIC. To reduce the power consumption, conventional low-power design techniques were applied extensively like multiple power supplies, and the operation of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) transistors in the sub-threshold region of operation, as well as further innovative circuit designs.
An overvoltage protection circuit, a power rectifier, a bandgap reference circuit, and two low-dropout (LDO) voltage regulators constitute the power management unit of GAPSIC. The overvoltage protection circuit uses a novel method where three stacked transistor pairs shunt the extra voltage. In the power rectifier, four rectifier units are arranged in parallel, which is a unique approach. The four parallel rectifier units provide the optimal choice in terms of voltage drop and the area required.
The communication unit is responsible for RFID/NFC communication and incorporates demodulation and load modulation circuitry. The demodulator circuit comprises of an envelope detector, a high-pass filter, and a comparator. Following a new approach, the bandgap reference circuit itself acts as the load for the envelope detector circuit, which minimizes the circuit complexity and area. For the communication between the reader and the RFID/NFC tag, amplitude-shift keying (ASK) is used to modulate signals, where the smallest modulation index can be as low as 10%. A novel technique involving a comparator with a preset offset voltage effectively demodulates the ASK signal. With an effective die area of 0.7 mm² and power consumption of 107 µW, the standalone RFID/NFC frontend chip has the best figure-of-merits compared to the state-of-the-art frontend chips reported in the relevant literature. A passive RFID/NFC tag developed with the standalone frontend chip, as well as temperature and pressure sensors demonstrate the full passive operational capability of the frontend chip. An NFC reader device using a custom-built Android-based application software reads out the sensor data from the passive tag.
The sensor readout circuit consists of a channel selector with two differential and four single-ended inputs with a programmable-gain instrumentation amplifier. The entire sensor readout part remains deactivated when not in use. The internal memory stores the measured offset voltage of the instrumentation amplifier, where a firmware code removes the offset voltage from the measured sensor signal. A 12-bit successive approximation register (SAR) type analog-to-digital-converter (ADC) based on a charge redistribution architecture converts the measured sensor data to a digital value. The digital peripherals include a serial peripheral interface, four timers, RFID/NFC interfaces, sensor readout unit interfaces, and 12-bit SAR logic.
Two sets of studies with custom-made NFC tag antennas for biomedical applications were conducted to ascertain their compatibility with GAPSIC. The first study involved the link efficiency measurements of NFC tag antennas and an NFC reader antenna with porcine tissue. In a separate experiment, the effect of a ferrite compared to air core on the antenna-coupling factor was investigated. With the ferrite core, the coupling factor increased by four times.
Among the state-of-the-art SoCs published in recent scientific articles, GAPSIC is the only passive programmable SoC with a power management unit, an RFID/NFC communication interface, a sensor readout circuit, a 12-bit SAR ADC, and an integrated 32-bit microcontroller. This doctoral research includes the preliminary study of three passive RFID tags designed with discrete components for biomedical and industrial applications like measurements of temperature, pH, conductivity, and oxygen concentration, along with leakage detection in silicone breast implants. Besides its small size and low power consumption, GAPSIC is suitable for each of the biomedical and industrial applications mentioned above due to the integrated high-performance microcontroller, the robust programmable instrumentation amplifier, and the 12-bit analog-to-digital converter. Furthermore, the simulation and measurement data show that GAPSIC is well suited for the design of a passive tag to monitor arterial blood pressure in patients experiencing Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD), which is proposed in this doctoral thesis as an exemplary application of the developed system.
In many application areas, Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) has led to breakthroughs. In Curriculum Learning, the Machine Learning algorithm is not randomly presented with examples, but in a meaningful order of increasing difficulty. This has been used in many application areas to further improve the results of learning systems or to reduce their learning time. Such approaches range from learning plans created manually by domain experts to those created automatically. The automated creation of learning plans is one of the biggest challenges.In this work, we investigate an approach in which a trainer learns in parallel and analogously to the student to automatically create a learning plan for the student during this Double Deep Reinforcement Learning (DDRL). Three Reward functions, Friendly, Adversarial, and Dynamic based on the learner’s reward are compared. The domain for evaluation is kicking with variable distance, direction and relative ball position in the SimSpark simulated soccer environment.As a result, Statistic Curriculum Learning (SCL) performs better than a random curriculum with respect to training time and result quality. DDRL reaches a comparable quality as the baseline and outperforms it significantly in shorter trainings in the distance-direction subdomain reducing the number of required training cycles by almost 50%.
Printed circuit boards (PCB) are a foundation of electronical devices in modern society. The fabrication of these boards requires various processes and machines. The utilisation of a robot with multiple tools can shorten the process chain compared to screen printing. In this paper a system is presented, which utilises an industrial six axis robot to manufacture
PCBs. The process flow and conversion process of the Gerber format into robot specific commands is presented. The advantages and challenges applying a robot to print circuits are discussed.
Injury prevention is essential in running due to the risk of overuse injury development. Tailoring running shoes to individual needs may be a promising strategy to reduce this risk. Novel manufacturing processes allow the production of individualised running shoes that incorporate features that meet individual biomechanical and experiential needs. However, specific ways to individualise footwear to reduce injury risk are poorly understood. Therefore, this scoping review provides an overview of (1) footwear design features that have the potential for individualisation; and (2) the literature on the differential responses to footwear design features between selected groups of individuals. These purposes focus exclusively on reducing the risk of overuse injuries. We included studies in the English language on adults that analysed: (1) potential interaction effects between footwear design features and subgroups of runners or covariates (e.g., age, sex) for running-related biomechanical risk factors or injury incidences; (2) footwear comfort perception for a systematically modified footwear design feature. Most of the included articles (n = 107) analysed male runners. Female runners may be more susceptible to footwear-induced changes and overuse injury development; future research should target more heterogonous sampling. Several footwear design features (e.g., midsole characteristics, upper, outsole profile) show potential for individualisation. However, the literature addressing individualised footwear solutions and the potential to reduce biomechanical risk factors is limited. Future studies should leverage more extensive data collections considering relevant covariates and subgroups while systematically modifying isolated footwear design features to inform footwear individualisation.
Plastics are used today in many areas of the automotive, aerospace and mechanical engineering industries due to their lightweight potential and ease of processing. Additive manufacturing is applied more and more frequently, as it offers a high degree of design freedom and eliminates the need for complex tools. However, the application of additively manufactured components made of plastics have so far been limited due to their comparatively low strength. For this reason, processes that offer additional reinforcement of the plastic matrix using fibers made of high-strength materials have been developed. However, these components represent a composite of different materials produced on the basis of fossil raw materials, which are difficult to recycle and generally not biodegradable.
Therefore, this paper will explore the potential for new composite materials whose matrix consists of a bio-based plastic. In this investigation, it is assumed that the matrix is reinforced with a fibrous material made of natural fiber to significantly increase the strength. This potential material should offer a lightweight yet strong structure and be biodegradable after use under controlled conditions. Therefore, the state of the art in the use of bio-based materials in 3D printing is first presented. In order to determine the economic boundary conditions, the growth potentials for bio-based materials are analyzed. Also, the recycling prospects for bio-based plastics will also be highlighted. The greenhouse gas emissions and land use to be expected when using bio-based materials are also estimated. Finally, the degradability of the composites is discussed.
The mathematical representations of data in the Spherical Harmonic (SH) domain has recently regained increasing interest in the machine learning community. This technical report gives an in-depth introduction to the theoretical foundation and practical implementation of SH representations, summarizing works on rotation invariant and equivariant features, as well as convolutions and exact correlations of signals on spheres. In extension, these methods are then generalized from scalar SH representations to Vectorial Harmonics (VH), providing the same capabilities for 3d vector fields on spheres.