@article{MeintrupBorgmannSeidletal.2021, author = {Meintrup, David and Borgmann, Stefan and Seidl, Karlheinz and Stecher, Melanie and Jakob, Carolin E. M. and Pilgram, Lisa and Spinner, Christoph D. and Rieg, Siegbert and Isberner, Nora and Hower, Martin and Vehreschild, Maria and G{\"o}pel, Siri and Hanses, Frank and Nowak-Machen, Martina}, title = {Specific Risk Factors for Fatal Outcome in Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients}, volume = {10}, pages = {3855}, journal = {Journal of Clinical Medicine}, subtitle = {Results from a European Multicenter Study}, number = {17}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2077-0383}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10173855}, year = {2021}, abstract = {(1) Background: The aim of our study was to identify specific risk factors for fatal outcome in critically ill COVID-19 patients. (2) Methods: Our data set consisted of 840 patients enclosed in the LEOSS registry. Using lasso regression for variable selection, a multifactorial logistic regression model was fitted to the response variable survival. Specific risk factors and their odds ratios were derived. A nomogram was developed as a graphical representation of the model. (3) Results: 14 variables were identified as independent factors contributing to the risk of death for critically ill COVID-19 patients: age (OR 1.08, CI 1.06-1.10), cardiovascular disease (OR 1.64, CI 1.06-2.55), pulmonary disease (OR 1.87, CI 1.16-3.03), baseline Statin treatment (0.54, CI 0.33-0.87), oxygen saturation (unit = 1\%, OR 0.94, CI 0.92-0.96), leukocytes (unit 1000/μL, OR 1.04, CI 1.01-1.07), lymphocytes (unit 100/μL, OR 0.96, CI 0.94-0.99), platelets (unit 100,000/μL, OR 0.70, CI 0.62-0.80), procalcitonin (unit ng/mL, OR 1.11, CI 1.05-1.18), kidney failure (OR 1.68, CI 1.05-2.70), congestive heart failure (OR 2.62, CI 1.11-6.21), severe liver failure (OR 4.93, CI 1.94-12.52), and a quick SOFA score of 3 (OR 1.78, CI 1.14-2.78). The nomogram graphically displays the importance of these 14 factors for mortality. (4) Conclusions: There are risk factors that are specific to the subpopulation of critically ill COVID-19 patients.}, language = {en} } @article{MeintrupNowakMachenBorgmann2021, author = {Meintrup, David and Nowak-Machen, Martina and Borgmann, Stefan}, title = {Nine months of COVID-19 pandemic in Europe}, volume = {18}, pages = {6680}, journal = {International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health}, subtitle = {a comparative time series analysis of cases and fatalities in 35 countries}, number = {12}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {1660-4601}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18126680}, year = {2021}, abstract = {(1) Background: to describe the dynamic of the pandemic across 35 European countries over a period of 9 months. (2) Methods: a three-phase time series model was fitted for 35 European countries, predicting deaths based on SARS-CoV-2 incidences. Hierarchical clustering resulted in three clusters of countries. A multiple regression model was developed predicting thresholds for COVID-19 incidences, coupled to death numbers. (3) Results: The model showed strongly connected deaths and incidences during the waves in spring and fall. The corrected case-fatality rates ranged from 2\% to 20.7\% in the first wave, and from 0.5\% to 4.2\% in the second wave. If the incidences stay below a threshold, predicted by the regression model (R2=85.0\%), COVID-19 related deaths and incidences were not necessarily coupled. The clusters represented different regions in Europe, and the corrected case-fatality rates in each cluster flipped from high to low or vice versa. Severely and less severely affected countries flipped between the first and second wave. (4) Conclusions: COVID-19 incidences and related deaths were uncoupled during the summer but coupled during two waves. Once a country-specific threshold of infections is reached, death numbers will start to rise, allowing health care systems and countries to prepare.}, language = {en} } @article{BorgmannRiessMeintrupetal.2020, author = {Borgmann, Stefan and Rieß, Beate and Meintrup, David and Klare, Ingo and Werner, Guido}, title = {Long-Lasting Decrease of the Acquisition of Enterococcus faecium and Gram-Negative Bacteria Producing Extended Spectrum Beta-Lactamase (ESBL) by Transient Application of Probiotics}, volume = {17}, pages = {6100}, journal = {International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH)}, number = {17}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {1660-4601}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17176100}, year = {2020}, abstract = {Previously it was shown that application of probiotics stopped the acquisition of vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium (VRE) by patients in an early rehabilitation ward. Once the application of probiotics ended, we examined whether acquisition of VRE reoccurred. Furthermore, we examined whether probiotics altered prevalence of vancomycin-susceptible E. faecium (VSE) and Gram-negative bacteria, which produce extended spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL). Although probiotic application ceased in April 2018, VRE-colonized patients rarely presented on that ward until 2019. Probiotic treatment also resulted in a decreased number of patients with VSE and ESBL. While decreased incidence of VRE occurred immediately, decreased VSE and ESBL numbers occurred months later. A probiotic-mediated decrease of VSE and ESBL incidence cannot be explained when assuming bacterial transmission exclusively as a linear cause and effect event. The decrease is better understood by considering bacterial transmissions to be stochastic events, which depend on various driving forces similar to an electric current. We hypothesize that VRE, VSE and ESBL uptake by patients and by staff members mutually reinforced each other, leading staff members to form a bacterial reservoir, similar to a condenser that stores electrical energy. Probiotic treatment then inhibited regeneration of that store, resulting in a breakdown of the driving force.}, language = {en} } @article{BorgmannMeintrupReimeretal.2021, author = {Borgmann, Stefan and Meintrup, David and Reimer, Kerstin and Schels, Helmut and Nowak-Machen, Martina}, title = {Incidence and Death Rates from COVID-19 Are Not Always Coupled: An Analysis of Temporal Data on Local, Federal, and National Levels}, volume = {9}, pages = {338}, journal = {Healthcare}, number = {3}, publisher = {MDPI}, address = {Basel}, issn = {2227-9032}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9030338}, year = {2021}, abstract = {SARS-CoV-2 has caused a deadly pandemic worldwide, placing a burden on local health care systems and economies. Infection rates with SARS-CoV-2 and the related mortality of COVID-19 are not equal among countries or even neighboring regions. Based on data from official German health authorities since the beginning of the pandemic, we developed a case-fatality prediction model that correctly predicts COVID-19-related death rates based on local geographical developments of infection rates in Germany, Bavaria, and a local community district city within Upper Bavaria. Our data point towards the proposal that local individual infection thresholds, when reached, could lead to increasing mortality. Restrictive measures to minimize the spread of the virus could be applied locally based on the risk of reaching the individual threshold. Being able to predict the necessity for increasing hospitalization of COVID-19 patients could help local health care authorities to prepare for increasing patient numbers.}, language = {en} } @article{SchoenhoferKomonenSchwarzetal.2026, author = {Sch{\"o}nhofer, Gerhard and Komonen, Pauli and Schwarz, Jan Oliver and Bechthold, Laura}, title = {Futures of Everyday Life: A Qualitative Content Analysis of Future Personas in Scenarios}, volume = {8}, pages = {e70030}, journal = {Futures \& Foresight Science}, number = {1}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {2573-5152}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1002/ffo2.70030}, year = {2026}, abstract = {Scenario reports, holding a long-standing tradition in foresight and futures studies, act as an essential document for organizations to prepare for possible, plausible, and alternative futures. Focusing on descriptions and representations of everyday life, we examined 29 future persona narratives from six publications—covering a wide field from public to private sector—through qualitative content analysis. Our guiding question is: How can anthropological perspectives such as cultural relativism or postcolonial discourses contribute to an in-depth, qualitative interpretation depictions of future everyday life? Acknowledging anthropology's colonial origins and its growing commitment to the interests of indigenous and other marginalized groups, we offer alternative readings of prominent scenario reports. Our findings suggest that scenario reports, in addition to anticipating possible futures, construct certain futures based on a systematic analysis of empirical data but also speculative interpretation. The results of these interpretative acts often appear elitist, stereotypical, and technocratic, often replicating dominant societal narratives rather than fostering substantive shifts in how the future is imagined. We therefore call for a more polyphonic representation of futures in scenario writing and foresight work that can produce more discontinuous and transformative images of the future. We understand polyphonic representations as coined by various independent, predominant as well as subaltern perspectives on the same issue at stake while being offered the same amount of space. Therefore, as we will indicate in our analysis, most of the reports referred to are rather monophonic and do not offer discuptive perspectives on the future of everyday life. As an avenue of methodological development, we propose a more nuanced and comprehensive perception of culture and social structures in scenario narrative writing. In addition, ethnographic methods could increase our understanding of how futures are collaboratively constructed and produced by different actors and their respective backgrounds and knowledge in scenario processes.}, language = {en} } @article{SchwerdSchulte2024, author = {Schwerd, Simon and Schulte, Axel}, title = {Triggering Cockpit Alerts Using an Eye-Tracking-Based Measure of Monitoring Performance}, volume = {14}, journal = {Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors}, number = {1}, publisher = {Hogrefe}, address = {G{\"o}ttingen}, issn = {2192-0931}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1027/2192-0923/a000263}, pages = {22 -- 37}, year = {2024}, abstract = {This study explored the potential for enhancing pilot performance via an alerting system that adapts according to an eye-tracking-based measure of monitoring. The novel measure combines gaze analysis with system state assessment to estimate the pilot's understanding of the current system state. On this basis, an alerting system was developed to direct pilot attention to unnoticed system state changes, thereby improving system state monitoring. In a flight simulator study involving 10 participants in a generic jet cockpit, we compared the adaptive alerting system with a no-assistance condition. Although alerting improved the participants' performance in two tracking tasks, it adversely impacted performance in a third task. Nonetheless, alerting resulted in a decrease in both variance and mean detection time of critical changes. Participants' subjective ratings were generally positive, yet they criticized the lack of transparency of the alerting mechanism. Alerts triggered based on eye-tracking and system state show potential for improving operator task performance. Nonetheless, for the system to reach its full performance potential, it is critical that the operator understand the principles underlying the alert triggers. False positives and alert design were identified as key areas for improvement to maintain user trust and task flow.}, language = {en} } @article{MaksimovskiFestagFacchi2026, author = {Maksimovski, Daniel and Festag, Andreas and Facchi, Christian}, title = {Adaptive Message Generation Rules for V2X Maneuver Coordination Service}, volume = {14}, journal = {IEEE Access}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {New York}, issn = {2169-3536}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2026.3652364}, pages = {6417 -- 6437}, year = {2026}, abstract = {Maneuver coordination enables connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) to collaboratively plan, negotiate, and execute driving maneuvers, aiming to enhance safety, traffic flow, and energy efficiency. As part of the Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) communication system, it operates as a dedicated service that relies on detailed, bidirectional interactions between vehicles, unlike traditional broadcast-based V2X services. While maneuver coordination is the focus of ongoing research and standardization, the rules that govern when and how vehicles generate Maneuver Coordination Messages (MCMs) within the Maneuver Coordination Service (MCS) are still not fully defined. These rules are essential for ensuring timely and reliable coordination. This paper proposes three adaptive MCM generation strategies based on the operation mode of the MCS, maneuver priority, and current channel load. The first approach defines MCM rules for intent sharing, maneuver negotiation, and execution phases, factoring in maneuver importance. The second adjusts the frequency of intent MCMs when a negotiation message is received from another vehicle. The third adapts frequency based on real-time channel load during intent sharing. For comparison, two baseline strategies are also evaluated. The proposed rules are tested for highway merging and lane change use cases in traffic scenarios with increasing vehicle density and high channel loads. A comprehensive evaluation is conducted using metrics related to the network, message generation frequency, congestion control, and maneuver coordination. The results demonstrate significantly enhanced channel efficiency and communication reliability across all metrics. For example, under the final approach, maneuver negotiation time is reduced by a factor of five in congested V2X environments.}, language = {en} } @article{ReuthlingerSinha2025, author = {Reuthlinger, Eva and Sinha, Tanja}, title = {Impact Investing from an European Perspective - Do Good and Earn Money?}, volume = {14}, journal = {Copernican Journal of Finance \& Accounting}, number = {1}, publisher = {Nicolaus Copernicus University}, address = {Toruń}, issn = {2300-3065}, doi = {http://dx.doi. org/10.12775/CJFA.2025.005}, pages = {87 -- 109}, year = {2025}, abstract = {Impact Investing provides a promising way to fund sustainable development while balancing financial, social, and environmental goals. This study compares the performance of Impact, Conventional, and ESG Portfolios in the European stock market over more than 10 years, using Markowitz Optimization and Naive Diversification. The findings show that Impact Portfolios yield the highest returns, without sacrificing financial performance when integrating sustainability criteria that go beyond the classical ESG investing.}, language = {en} } @article{ZieherOlcayKefferpuetzetal.2024, author = {Zieher, Simon and Olcay, Ertug and Kefferp{\"u}tz, Klaus and Salamat, Babak and Olzem, Sebastian-Sven and Elsbacher, Gerhard and Meeß, Henri}, title = {Drones for automated parcel delivery: Use case identification and derivation of technical requirements}, volume = {2024}, pages = {101253}, journal = {Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives}, number = {28}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {2590-1982}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2024.101253}, year = {2024}, abstract = {Drone-based parcel delivery is a rapidly growing domain posing many technological and operational challenges. Drone technologies have been under increasing levels of investigation and development over the past years. Since the realization of drone-based delivery can only be economically feasible at large scales, it requires processes that address the outstanding challenges holistically. However, the majority of research focuses on individual aspects such as environmental perception, route planning, operational design, and business models without addressing the challenges in the overall system. This paper conducts a quantitative analysis of the requirements for identified use cases that are considered relevant for the upcoming future. We provide a comprehensive technology overview and derive requirements and specifications for the targeted use cases that are not fulfilled by the current state-of-the-art. The use cases are not only related to last-mile delivery but also long-distance (hub-to-hub) logistics as well as courier and express delivery.}, language = {en} } @article{SalamatElsbacherTonelloetal.2023, author = {Salamat, Babak and Elsbacher, Gerhard and Tonello, Andrea M. and Belzner, Lenz}, title = {Model-Free Distributed Reinforcement Learning State Estimation of a Dynamical System Using Integral Value Functions}, volume = {2}, journal = {IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems}, publisher = {IEEE}, address = {Piscataway}, issn = {2694-085X}, doi = {https://doi.org/10.1109/OJCSYS.2023.3250089}, pages = {70 -- 78}, year = {2023}, language = {en} }