TY - JOUR A1 - Kloiber, Jessica A1 - Schultheiß, Ulrich A1 - Sotelo, Lamborghini A1 - Sarau, George A1 - Christiansen, Silke H. A1 - Gavras, Sarkis A1 - Hort, Norbert A1 - Hornberger, Helga T1 - Corrosion behaviour of electropolished magnesium materials JF - Materials Today Communications N2 - Although magnesium and its alloys are promising candidates as biodegradable implant materials, the tendency for localized corrosion mechanism in physiological environment limit their biomedical application. Electropolishing is an attractive strategy for improving the corrosion behaviour of metals, but it is still largely unexplored in magnesium materials. In this study, the characterization of electropolished surfaces of AM50 and pure magnesium was performed, focussing on their in vitro degradation behaviour in cell medium. Corrosion rates were evaluated using potentiodynamic polarisation. The surface morphology before and after the onset of corrosion was investigated by scanning electron microscopy and confocal laser scanning microscopy. The presented electropolishing process led to improved surface performances, observable by significantly lower corrosion rates (0.08 mm·year-1 in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium), lower arithmetical mean height (0.05 µm), lower water contact angle (25-35°) and lower micro hardness (35-50 HV 0.1) compared to mechanically and chemically treated surfaces. MgO/Mg(OH)2 could be detected on electropolished surfaces. The localized corrosion mode could be reduced, but not entirely prevented. Electropolishing shows great potential as post-treatment of magnesium-based components, but detailed tests of the long-term corrosion behaviour are an important area of future research. KW - biomedical application KW - corrosion behaviour KW - electropolishing KW - magnesium alloy KW - pure magnesium KW - surface characterization Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-68254 N1 - Corresponding author: Helga Hornberger PB - Elsevier ET - Journal Pre-proof ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Förstl, Nikolas A1 - Süß, Franz A1 - Englert, Carsten A1 - Dendorfer, Sebastian T1 - Design of a reverse shoulder implant to measure shoulder stiffness during implant component positioning JF - Medical Engineering & Physics N2 - To avoid dislocation of the shoulder joint after reverse total shoulder arthroplasty, it is important to achieve sufficient shoulder stability when placing the implant components during surgery. One parameter for assessing shoulder stability can be shoulder stiffness. The aim of this research was to develop a temporary reverse shoulder implant prototype that would allow intraoperative measurement of shoulder stiffness while varying the position of the implant components. Joint angle and torque measurement techniques were developed to determine shoulder stiffness. Hall sensors were used to measure the joint angles by converting the magnetic flux densities into angles. The accuracy of the joint angle measurements was tested using a test bench. Torques were determined by using thin-film pressure sensors. Various mechanical mechanisms for variable positioning of the implant components were integrated into the prototype. The results of the joint angle measurements showed measurement errors of less than 5° in a deflection range of ±15° adduction/abduction combined with ±45° flexion/extension. The proposed design provides a first approach for intra-operative assessment of shoulder stiffness. The findings can be used as a technological basis for further developments. Y1 - 2023 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.medengphy.2023.104059 N1 - Corresponding author: Sebstian Dendorfer VL - 121 PB - Elsevier ET - Journal Pre-proof ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Bartsch, Alexander A1 - Burger, Moritz A1 - Grad, Marius A1 - Esper, Lukas A1 - Schultheiß, Ulrich A1 - Noster, Ulf A1 - Schratzenstaller, Thomas T1 - Enhancement of laser cut edge quality of ultra-thin titanium grade 2 sheets by applying an in-process approach using modulated Yb:YAG continuous wave fiber laser JF - Discover Mechanical Engineering N2 - Titanium is used in many areas due to its excellent mechanical, biological and corrosion-resistant properties. Implants often have thin and filigree structures, providing an ideal application for fine cutting with laser. In the literature, the main focus is primarily on investigating and optimizing the parameters for titanium sheets with thicknesses greater than 1 mm. Hence, in this study, the basic manufacturing parameters of laser power, cutting speed and laser pulse of a 200 W modulated fiber laser are investigated for 0.15 mm thick grade 2 titanium sheets. A reproducible, continuous cut could be achieved using 90 W laser-power and 2 mm/s cutting-speed. Pulse pause variations between 85 and 335 μs in 50 μs steps and a fixed pulse width of 50 μs show that a minimum kerf width of 23.4 μm, as well as a minimum cut edge roughness Rz of 3.59 μm, is achieved at the lowest pulse pause duration. An increase in roughness towards the laser exit side, independent of the laser pulse pause duration, was found and discussed. The results provide initial process parameters for cutting thin titanium sheets and thus provide the basis for further investigations, such as the influence of cutting gas pressure and composition on the cut edge. KW - Laser cutting KW - Titanium sheet KW - Kerf Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-65647 N1 - Corresponding author: Alexander Bartsch IS - 10 PB - Springer ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Käss, Sebastian A1 - Strahringer, Susanne A1 - Westner, Markus T1 - A Multiple Mini Case Study on the Adoption of Low Code Development Platforms in Work Systems JF - IEEE Access N2 - Although adopting Low Code Development Platforms (LCDPs) promises significant efficiency and effectiveness improvements for application development, its adoption still needs further empirical research. This paper uses a combinatorial approach to research LCDP adoption and presents the results of a multiple mini case study with 36 cases on LCDP adoption. A combination of the Socio-Technical Systems theory and the Technology-Organisational-Environment model is used as a theoretical lens. In this paper, we show that LCDP adoption is a multifaceted phenomenon and identify three archetypes for LCDP adoption (i.e., IT Resource Shortage Mitigators, Application Development Democratisers, and Synergy Realisers) and one archetype for LCDP non-adoption (i.e., Intricacy Adversaries). Each archetype can be interpreted as an individual path towards LCDP (non-)adoption. Based on these archetypes, we derive seven starting points for practitioners to adopt LCDPs in work systems. Moreover, by using the theoretical lenses, the paper shows that for an LCDP adoption to occur, an optimisation of the social and technical sub-systems is required. KW - Low Code Development Platform KW - Adoption KW - Case study Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-65634 SN - 2169-3536 N1 - Corresponding author: Markus Westner SP - 118762 EP - 118786 PB - IEEE ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mikhaeil, Makram A1 - Nowak, Sebastian A1 - Palomba, Valeria A1 - Frazzica, Andrea A1 - Gaderer, Matthias A1 - Dawoud, Belal T1 - Experimental and analytical investigation of applying an asymmetric plate heat exchanger as an evaporator in a thermally driven adsorption appliance JF - Applied Thermal Engineering N2 - This communication presents an experimental and analytical study on the evaporation mechanism in a closed-structured asymmetric plate heat exchanger (PHE) employed as a stagnant water evaporator for the application in an adsorption heat transformation appliance. To this aim, an experimental unit is constructed, which comprises two identical PHEs, one acting as an vaporator/condenser and the second, as an adsorber/desorber. Two endoscopes are mounted inside the investigated evaporator to visualize the evaporation mechanism when performing adsorption-evaporation processes under different boundary conditions. It turned out that the evaporation mechanism is a partially covered, thin film evaporation. A heat transfer analysis is performed to evaluate the heat transfer coefficient of the thin film evaporation () inside the investigated evaporator, resulting in -values between 1330 and 160 [W∙m−2∙K−1] over the investigated adsorption-evaporation time. Correlating the obtained () to the film thickness and the wetted area results in -values between 0.34 and 0.78 [mm] and wetted to total area ratios of 0.78 to 0.16. Besides, an analytical model has been developed and introduced to correlate the overall evaporator heat transfer coefficient with the adsorption potential and the time rate of change of the water uptake. KW - Adsorption-evaporation KW - Evaporator KW - Plate heat exchanger KW - Thin film evaporation Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-61115 N1 - Corresponding author: Belal Dawoud IS - 228 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Franke, Markus A1 - Wagner, Marcus A1 - Krause, Tom Janis T1 - Data-driven model order reduction with surrogate elements for transient simulations JF - Engineering Computations : International journal for computer-aided engineering and software N2 - Purpose – The purpose of this study is to introduce surrogate elements for static and transient finite element simulations. These elements are designed to replace regions of several conventional solid elements with a single artificial element that possesses a reduced number of degrees of freedoms (dofs). A notable advantage of our surrogate elements is their seamless integration into standard finite element meshes. Design/methodology/approach – The construction of the surrogate elements stiffness and mass matrices is achieved through an optimization process wherein displacements serve as the optimization objective. Moreover, the matrices are designed to possess properties analogous to those of standard finite elements. A particular focus is placed on ensuring that the artificial stiffness matrices are positive semi-definite. Furthermore, artificial degrees of freedom are introduced. Findings – The efficacy of the proposed technique is demonstrated through its application to two different use cases. It is demonstrated that, despite being trained on examples comprising a single surrogate element, the surrogate elements can be employed multiple times within complex and practical models. The degree of accuracy achieved in these applications is noteworthy. Moreover, the proposed method is considerably faster than the fully discretized models. Originality/value – The study expands the field of substructuring and model order reduction by incorporating artificial surrogate elements built by neural networks, which enables seamless integration with standard finite element analysis via positive semi-definite matrices. Furthermore, the introduction of artificial degrees of freedom, which are detached from the computational domain, is proposed. Once trained, the surrogate elements can be utilised in load and support independent scenarios. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1108/EC-06-2024-0511 VL - 2025 PB - Emerald Publishing CY - Leeds ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schuhegger, Lukas A1 - Kara, Sinan A1 - Galka, Stefan A1 - Dünnweber, Jan A1 - Meißner, Sebastian T1 - Umzugsplanung mit Fabrikdatenmodellen und Virtual Reality JF - Zeitschrift für wirtschaftlichen Fabrikbetrieb N2 - Angesichts eines dynamischen industriellen Umfelds müssen produzierende Unternehmen flexibel bleiben und sich kontinuierlich anpassen, um ihre Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu erhalten. Eine effektive Planung von Restrukturierungen in Produktionssystemen, oft als Umzugsplanung bezeichnet, ist entscheidend, um Verzögerungen zu vermeiden und Stillstandszeiten zu minimieren. Die Identifikation von Umzugsfällen, welche den Umfang umzuziehender Ressourcen wie Maschinen, Anlagen, Ausrüstungen und Arbeitsplätzen beschreiben und die Definition zugehöriger Aufgaben sind essenzielle Schritte der Umzugsplanung. Dieser Beitrag stellt eine Vorgehensweise zur Bestimmung von Umzugsfällen mittels eines Fabrikdatenmodells vor, ergänzt durch eine Visualisierung in Virtual Reality, um Planende bei der Umzugsplanung zu unterstützen. N2 - Given a dynamic industrial environment, manufacturing companies must remain flexible and continuously adapt to maintain their competitiveness. Effective planning of restructuring efforts in production systems, often referred to as reconfiguration planning, is crucial to avoid delays and minimize downtime. Identifying reconfiguration cases, which describe the scope of resources to be relocated, such as machines, equipment, and workstations, and defining the associated tasks are essential steps in reconfiguration planning. This paper presents an approach for determining reconfiguration cases using a factory data model, complemented by visualization in virtual reality, to support planners in the reconfiguration process. KW - Fabrikdatenmodel KW - Virtual Reality KW - Umzugsplanung KW - Restrukturierung KW - Umstellung KW - Factory Data Model KW - Reconfiguration Planning KW - Restructuring KW - Relocation KW - Virtual Reality Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1515/zwf-2024-1154 SN - 2511-0896 SN - 0947-0085 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Lukas Schuhegger VL - 119 IS - 11 SP - 799 EP - 804 PB - de Gruyter ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmidbauer, Simon A1 - Becker, Maria A1 - Haug, Sonja T1 - Online Political Participation of Refugees in Germany: Analysis of a Survey in Bavaria JF - Sage Online N2 - New media are an important resource for the political participation of marginalized groups. However, there is still a lack of knowledge about the factors that influence whether this opportunity is used. Influencing factors emerge from both the Civic Voluntarism Model and previous research on migrants’ political activity. Using data collected in 2019/2020 from 486 refugees living in Bavaria, we estimate linear probability models to investigate facilitating factors for the use of new media for political participation. The analysis shows that refugees in Germany who inform themselves about politics online tend to be predominantly male, higher educated, and politically involved. Language skills and the duration of stay also appear to be important. For the expression of one’s political opinion online, gender and language skills have an impact, but informing oneself about German politics, political interest, and offline political activity in Germany are the most relevant factors. This indicates that there is a close link between on- und offline activity. However, using the internet requires particular resources, so that people with lower language skills, for example, are particularly disadvantaged. KW - political participation KW - internet use KW - refugees KW - political online participation Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-77671 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Sonja Haug PB - Sage CY - Thousand Oaks ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Grad, Marius A1 - Schultheiß, Ulrich A1 - Diemar, Andreas A1 - Spieß, Lothar A1 - Noster, Ulf T1 - Preparation methodology for the microstructural characterization of diffusion layers in a titanium/steel composite JF - Practical Metallography N2 - Hot pressing of titanium and carbon steel leads to the formation of a diffusion layer at the interface. Depending on the carbon content of the steel used, it either exclusively contains TiC or additional other phases. In the case of steel with a medium carbon concentration (0.67 wt.% C), a pure TiC layer forms. A preparation methodology was developed to make statements about functional and microstructural properties of the respective layers such as layer thickness, porosity, or grain size. However, apart from the diffusion layer’s microstructure, it also reveals the microstructure of the two base substrates. A comparison based on electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) examinations yields similar results in terms of microstructure. A micrograph analysis based on the new preparation methodology also allows confirming the element distribution measurement by glow discharge optical emission spectroscopy (GDOES). The methodology therefore provides a way of quickly and reliably controlling the layer formation during the hot pressing process of titanium and carbon steel. N2 - Beim Heißpressen von Titan und Kohlenstoffstahl entsteht an der Grenzfläche eine Diffusionsschicht, welche abhängig vom Kohlenstoffgehalt des verwendeten Stahls entweder ausschließlich TiC oder zusätzliche andere Phasen enthält. Im Fall eines Stahls mit mittlerer Kohlenstoffkonzentration (0,67 wt.-% C) bildet sich eine reine TiC-Schicht. Um eine Aussage über die funktionalen und mikrostrukturellen Eigenschaften, wie Schichtdicke, Porosität oder Korngröße, entsprechender Schichten treffen zu können, wurde eine Präparationsmethodik entwickelt. Hierbei wird jedoch nicht nur das Gefüge der Diffusionsschicht, sondern auch das der beiden Grundsubstrate entwickelt. Ein Vergleich mit Elektronenrückstreubeugungs-Untersuchungen (EBSD) liefert hinsichtlich der Mikrostruktur vergleichbare Ergebnisse. Auch die Messung der Elementverteilung durch Glimmentladungsspektroskopie (GDOES) kann durch eine Schliffbildanalyse unter Anwendung der neuen Präparationsmethodik belegt werden. Die Methodik stellt also eine Möglichkeit zur schnellen und sicheren Kontrolle der Schichtbildung beim Heißpressen von Titan und Kohlenstoffstahl dar. T2 - Präparationsmethodik zur mikrostrukturellen Charakterisierung von Diffusionsschichten eines Titan-Stahl-Verbunds KW - Diffusion layers KW - TiC KW - microstructure KW - preparation methodology KW - EBSD KW - GDOES Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-78346 SN - 2195-8599 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Marius Grad VL - 61 IS - 12 SP - 938 EP - 946 PB - Walter de Gruyter GmbH ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Rauch, Johannes A1 - Brückl, Oliver T1 - Achieving Optimal Reactive Power Compensation in Distribution Grids by Using Industrial Compensation Systems JF - Electricity N2 - This paper presents a method for integrating industrial consumers owning compensation systems as alternative reactive power sources into grid operating processes. In remuneration, they receive a market-based provision of reactive power. The aim is to analyze the potential of reactive power compensation systems of industrial companies connected to medium-voltage (10 kV–30 kV) AC grids in order to increase the reactive power ability of distribution grids. Measurement methods and reactive power potential results of six industrial companies are presented to characterize the amount and temporal availability of their reactive power potential. The presented approach for using the decentralized reactive power potential is a centralized reactive power control method and is based on optimal power flow (OPF) calculations. An optimization algorithm based on linear programming is used to coordinate a reactive power retrieval tuned to the actual demand. The influencing quantities are the current grid status (voltage and load flow capacity reserves at grid nodes and power lines) and the current reactive power potential of the reactive power sources. The compensation impact of six measured industrial companies on an exemplary medium-voltage grid is shown by an application example. KW - Blindleistung KW - Blindleistungsmanagement KW - Industriebetriebe KW - Optimal Power Flow KW - Reactive Power Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-59139 N1 - Corresponding author: Johannes Rauch VL - 4 IS - 1 SP - 78 EP - 95 PB - MDPI CY - Basel ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Röhrl, Simon A1 - Staufer, Susanne A1 - Bugert, Flemming A1 - Nadimpalli, Vamsi Krishna A1 - Hauser, Florian A1 - Grabinger, Lisa A1 - Bittner, Dominik A1 - Ezer, Timur A1 - Altweck, Ricardo A1 - Graf, Sabine A1 - Kriza, Thomas A1 - Mottok, Jürgen T1 - Ethical Considerations of AI in Education: A Case Study based on Pythia Learning Enhancement System JF - IEEE Access N2 - As the use of AI in education increases, addressing ethical concerns is essential for its responsible use and implementation. This study explores the ethical considerations of AI in education by analyzing a concrete application, the Pythia Learning Enhancement System, which enables personalized and adaptive educational experiences. In this case study, the concrete implementation of Pythia, contrary to high-level abstract analyses, provides practical insights into these ethical issues. To achieve this goal, we first define Pythia and outline its implementation. Using the various topics covered by Pythia, the ethical issues associated with each of these topics are outlined, resulting in a list of ten distinct ethical issues. Because there is overlap in issues covered by similar applications, they can benefit from this identification. An ethical (human rights) and didactic (constructivism) theoretical background is then provided as a basis for further discussion. This is used to build the arguments used in the main study. This consists of analyzing each of the issues and providing recommendations to mitigate potential harm arising from these issues. This helps to provide guidelines for future applications. In the analysis, the ethical discussion is mainly based on the human rights of the stakeholders involved, emphasizing human dignity. After the analysis, each of the issues is contextualized with the recent AI Act of the European Union, providing a novel mapping of the issues of AI in education to the AI Act. Finally, the limitations of the study are stated and a plan for future research is presented. KW - Ethics KW - Artificial intelligence KW - Education KW - Stakeholders KW - Psychology KW - Privacy KW - Search problems KW - Guidelines KW - Focusing KW - Europe Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-83403 SN - 2169-3536 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Simon Röhrl VL - 11 SP - 1 EP - 25 PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Knödler, Leonard A1 - Dean, Jillian A1 - Knoedler, Samuel A1 - Kauke-Navarro, Martin A1 - Hollmann, Katharina A1 - Alfertshofer, Michael A1 - Helm, Sabrina A1 - Prantl, Lukas A1 - Schliermann, Rainer T1 - Hard shell, soft core? Multi-disciplinary and multi-national insights into mental toughness among surgeons JF - Frontiers in Surgery N2 - Background: With the prevalence of burnout among surgeons posing a significant threat to healthcare outcomes, the mental toughness of medical professionals has come to the fore. Mental toughness is pivotal for surgical performance and patient safety, yet research into its dynamics within a global and multi-specialty context remains scarce. This study aims to elucidate the factors contributing to mental toughness among surgeons and to understand how it correlates with surgical outcomes and personal well-being. Methods: Utilizing a cross-sectional design, this study surveyed 104 surgeons from English and German-speaking countries using the Mental Toughness Questionnaire (MTQ-18) along with additional queries about their surgical practice and general life satisfaction. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were applied to investigate the variations in mental toughness across different surgical domains and its correlation with professional and personal factors. Results: The study found a statistically significant higher level of mental toughness in micro-surgeons compared to macro-surgeons and a positive correlation between mental toughness and surgeons' intent to continue their careers. A strong association was also observed between general life satisfaction and mental toughness. No significant correlations were found between the application of psychological skills and mental toughness. Conclusion: Mental toughness varies significantly among surgeons from different specialties and is influenced by professional dedication and personal life satisfaction. These findings suggest the need for targeted interventions to foster mental toughness in the surgical community, potentially enhancing surgical performance and reducing burnout. Future research should continue to explore these correlations, with an emphasis on longitudinal data and the development of resilience-building programs. KW - mental toughness KW - mental health KW - resilience KW - robustness KW - psychology KW - surgery Y1 - 2024 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2024.1361406 N1 - Correspondign author der OTH Regensburg: Rainer Schliermann (und Leonard Knoedler) VL - 11 PB - Frontiers ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Gebhardt, Jakob A1 - Schlamp, Matthias A1 - Ehrlich, Ingo A1 - Hiermaier, Stefan T1 - Low-velocity impact behavior of elliptic curved composite structures JF - International Journal of Impact Engineering N2 - Although many composite structures are inconsistently curved, such as the leading edges of aircraft wings, the variety of research in impact engineering is almost limited to the impact performance of plates or cylindrically curved specimens. It is not known whether the findings obtained from standardized tests can be transferred to curved structures or which adaptions are required. Therefore, a deeper understanding of the deformation and damage behavior of inconsistently curved structures is essential to transfer the observed impact behavior of flat specimens to general curved structures and therefore to utilize the full lightweight potential of a load-specific design. An accurate description of the procedure as well as the results of the experimental and numerical study of the low-velocity impact behavior of differently single-curved elliptic specimens is presented. To close the research gap of the impact behavior of geometries with curvatures between the plates and simplified leading edges, novel specimens geometries have been derived from established impact test standards. Glassfiber-reinforced specimens are subjected to an instrumented impact test at constant impact energy. This is numerically investigated by a stacked-layer model, which used cohesive zone modeling to enable the simulation of matrix cracking, fiber fracture and delamination. The resulting projected damage areas, as well as the force and deflection histories, were evaluated and section cuts were examined to discuss the damage morphology, formation and propagation process. Significant effects on maximum deflection, compliance and dynamic behavior on the size and morphology of damage were found. KW - Impact damage KW - Impact behavior KW - Curved composite KW - Numerical model KW - GFRP Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-59304 N1 - Corrsponding author: Jakob Gebhardt VL - 180 PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Markov-Glazer, Alon A1 - Elbe, Anne-Marie A1 - Schliermann, Rainer T1 - From their eyes: Deaflympic athletes' and coaches' perspectives on mental training JF - Frontiers in sports and active living N2 - INTRODUCTION Sport psychology research has largely overlooked athletes with hearing impairments competing in Deaflympic sports, the designated elite sporting movement for this population. This study therefore explored Deaflympic athletes' and coaches' perspectives on mental training in the elite Deaf sports. METHODS A qualitative approach was used, involving six focus group interviews with 23 athletes (Mage = 33.09; 26.1% female) and four coaches from individual and team Deaf sports. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. RESULTS Three themes emerged: sport psychology consultation, the influence of visual orientation on psychological skills and demands, and Deaf sport culture and communication. While participants expressed strong interest in sport psychology, engagement with professionals was limited by accessibility issues, lack of sign language-fluent consultants, and structural barriers. Deaf athletes reported adapting some techniques to match their visual-spatial orientation and both advantages and challenges of visual reliance in sports. Distinct communication dynamics between native signers and spoken-language users within Deaf teams were also revealed. DISCUSSION These findings highlight the importance of culturally sensitive sport psychology frameworks that support the needs and preferences of Deaflympic athletes and promote equitable access to effective mental training resources. Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-84183 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Alon Markov-Glazer VL - 7 PB - Frontiers ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mendel, Robert A1 - Rauber, David A1 - Souza Jr., Luis Antonio de A1 - Papa, João Paulo A1 - Palm, Christoph T1 - Error-Correcting Mean-Teacher: Corrections instead of consistency-targets applied to semi-supervised medical image segmentation JF - Computers in Biology and Medicine N2 - Semantic segmentation is an essential task in medical imaging research. Many powerful deep-learning-based approaches can be employed for this problem, but they are dependent on the availability of an expansive labeled dataset. In this work, we augment such supervised segmentation models to be suitable for learning from unlabeled data. Our semi-supervised approach, termed Error-Correcting Mean-Teacher, uses an exponential moving average model like the original Mean Teacher but introduces our new paradigm of error correction. The original segmentation network is augmented to handle this secondary correction task. Both tasks build upon the core feature extraction layers of the model. For the correction task, features detected in the input image are fused with features detected in the predicted segmentation and further processed with task-specific decoder layers. The combination of image and segmentation features allows the model to correct present mistakes in the given input pair. The correction task is trained jointly on the labeled data. On unlabeled data, the exponential moving average of the original network corrects the student’s prediction. The combined outputs of the students’ prediction with the teachers’ correction form the basis for the semi-supervised update. We evaluate our method with the 2017 and 2018 Robotic Scene Segmentation data, the ISIC 2017 and the BraTS 2020 Challenges, a proprietary Endoscopic Submucosal Dissection dataset, Cityscapes, and Pascal VOC 2012. Additionally, we analyze the impact of the individual components and examine the behavior when the amount of labeled data varies, with experiments performed on two distinct segmentation architectures. Our method shows improvements in terms of the mean Intersection over Union over the supervised baseline and competing methods. Code is available at https://github.com/CloneRob/ECMT. KW - Semi-supervised Segmentation KW - Mean-Teacher KW - Pseudo-labels KW - Medical Imaging Y1 - 2023 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-57790 SN - 0010-4825 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Robert Mendel VL - 154 IS - March PB - Elsevier ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Diachkova, Yana A1 - Nikolaeva, Sofiya A1 - Guertler, Katherine T1 - Communication in International Humanitarian Relief: Profiling Ukrainian Boundary Spanners JF - Journal of Intercultural Communication N2 - Boundary spanning—the actions and roles individuals or organizations undertake to bridge differences and facilitate communication, collaboration, and understanding across diverse cultural, organizational, or geographical divisions—is an essential element of international cooperation. Set against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war, The purpose of this study is to explore the type of boundary spanning in this uncertain context, the linguistic characteristics of boundary spanners, the necessary skills and competencies required to navigate the complex socio-political landscape, and the role of boundary spanners in humanitarian assistance. This study employs a qualitative research approach, using semi-structured interviews with informants actively engaged in relief efforts and cross-cultural collaboration. The findings emphasized the significance of English as the primary language of communication, the importance of cultural sensitivity and awareness, and the need for intercultural competence in effective boundary spanning. The study concludes with insights from the ongoing Ukrainian experience of bridging geodemographic boundaries and the role of boundary spanners in this process, highlighting key aspects of boundary spanning. Overall, the study contributes to the theoretical background of boundary spanning and enhances the understanding of how linguistic and cultural boundary spanning can drive positive change and improve outcomes in humanitarian aid. The implications of this study suggest that underscore the critical need for collaboration with experienced boundary spanners in educational settings. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v25i1.1019 SN - 1404-1634 N1 - Corresponding author der Partnerhochschule aus Kiew: Yana Diachkova VL - 25 IS - 1 SP - 98 EP - 106 PB - ICR Publications ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmid, Michael T. A1 - Thiel, Charlotte T1 - Is it worth it? Potential for reducing the environmental impact of bitumen roofing membrane production JF - Recycling N2 - Between 51% and 72% of a bituminous roofing membrane used for structural water-proofing consists of organic material, predominantly bitumen - a derivative of crude oil refining - highlighting the strong dependence of this product on fossil resources. Considering that several tonnes of these membranes must be replaced every 30 to 50 years, substantial potential exists for emission reduction through the establishment of circular material systems. This study investigates this potential by analysing 26 Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) and life cycle datasets from across Europe covering the period from 2007 to 2023. To ensure comparability, all data were normalised to a declared unit of 1 kg of roofing membrane. The reinforcement layers were categorised into glass and polyester & glass composites, and their differences were examined using Welch’s t-tests. Correlative analyses and linear as well as multiple regression models were then applied to explore relationships between environmental indicators and the shares of organic and mineral mass fractions. The findings reveal that renewable energy sources, although currently representing only a small share of total production energy, provide a major lever for reducing nearly all environmental impact categories. The type of reinforcement layer was also found to influence the demand for fossil resources, both materially and energetically. For most environmental indicators, only multiple regression models can explain at least 30% of the variance based on the proportions of organic and mineral inputs. Overall, the study underscores the crucial importance of high-quality, transparently documented product data for accurately assessing the sustainability of building products. It further demonstrates that substituting fossil energy carriers with renewable sources and optimising material efficiency can substantially reduce environmental burdens, provided that methodological consistency and clarity of indicator definitions are maintained. KW - bitumen sealing KW - bitumen recycling KW - circular construction KW - correlation analysis KW - LCA Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-86873 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Michael Schmid VL - 10 IS - 6 PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schumm, Leon A1 - Brown, Tom A1 - Abdel-Khalek, Hazem A1 - Ueckerdt, Falko A1 - Sterner, Michael A1 - Fioriti, David A1 - Parzen, Max T1 - The impact of temporal hydrogen regulation on hydrogen exporters and their domestic energy transition JF - Nature Communications N2 - As global demand for green hydrogen rises, potential hydrogen exporters move into the spotlight. While exports can bring countries revenue, large-scale on-grid hydrogen electrolysis for export can profoundly impact domestic energy prices and energy-related emissions. Our investigation explores the interplay of hydrogen exports, domestic energy transition and temporal hydrogen regulation, employing a sector-coupled energy model in Morocco. We find substantial co-benefits of domestic carbon dioxide mitigation and hydrogen exports, whereby exports can reduce market-based costs for domestic electricity consumers while mitigation reduces costs for hydrogen exporters. However, increasing hydrogen exports in a fossil-dominated system can substantially raise market-based costs for domestic electricity consumers, but surprisingly, temporal matching of hydrogen production can lower these costs by up to 31% with minimal impact on exporters. Here, we show that this policy instrument can steer the welfare (re-)distribution between hydrogen exporting firms, hydrogen importers, and domestic electricity consumers and hereby increases acceptance among actors. KW - Energy Transition KW - Hydrogen regulation Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-84857 N1 - Die Preprint-Version ist ebenfalls in diesem Repositorium verzeichnet unter: https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-oth-regensburg/7272 VL - 16 PB - Nature CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schmiedt, Anja B. A1 - Empacher, Christina A1 - Kamps, Udo T1 - One- and two-sided prediction intervals for future Pareto record values with applications JF - Journal of Statistical Theory and Applications N2 - Based on upper record values in a series of observations over time from a Pareto distribution, an exact and several approximate one-sided and two-sided prediction intervals for the next record value (or for another future record value) to appear are studied and compared by means of an extensive simulation study. The performances of the prediction intervals are evaluated and recommendations are proposed for what method should be used in a given situation with respect to the form of the prediction interval on the one hand and to the tail behaviour on the other. The proposed methods are applied to insurance, environmental and sports data, where the respectively fitted Pareto distributions show a different tail behaviour. As a result, it is seen that although the number of observed record values in the presented real data applications is rather small, as it is usually the case, the selected prediction intervals are of practical use. KW - Interval prediction KW - Pareto distribution KW - Real data analyses KW - Record values KW - Simulation study Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-81605 SN - 2214-1766 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Anja B. Schmiedt PB - Springer ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dotter, Caroline A1 - Haug, Sonja A1 - Schnell, Rainer A1 - Raptis, Georgios A1 - Weber, Karsten T1 - Sharing health data for research purposes: results of a population survey in Germany JF - BMC health services research N2 - BACKGROUND: Increased use of health data has the potential to improve both health care and health policies. Several recent policy initiatives at the European and German legislative levels aim to increase the primary and secondary use of health data. However, little is known about general population views on health data access for research. Most studies are based on subsets defined by specific illnesses. METHODS: We commissioned a national computer-assisted dual-frame telephone survey (landline and mobile). Logit estimation models were used to identify predictors of willingness to provide access to health data to different organizations (universities in Germany, universities worldwide, German government organizations, pharmaceutical companies). RESULTS: A high willingness to share health data for research purposes is observed, depending on the specific data recipient. The willingness is highest for research at universities in Germany and German governmental organizations, and lowest regarding research by pharmaceutical companies. The main drivers for sharing health data are the level of trust in public institutions, the respondents' assessment of the seriousness and likelihood of data misuse, and the level of digital literacy. Age, gender, and level of education have small effects and do not determine the willingness to share health data for all organizations. CONCLUSION: We present evidence from a random sample of the German population. The results indicate widespread support among the population for providing access to health data for research purposes. Similar to findings in other countries, the willingness depends strongly on the recipient of the data. This paper evaluates the impact of various determinants - identified in previous qualitative and quantitative research - on the willingness of the German population to share health data. While previous studies have found that patients are generally more willing to share health data, we found that the presence of a medical precondition does not translate into respondents' unequivocal support for health data sharing. We identify privacy concerns, general trust, and digital literacy as key factors influencing the willingness to share health data. Therefore, policymakers and stakeholders need to ensure and communicate the necessary privacy protection measures to increase the willingness of the German population to share health data. Y1 - 2025 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-81622 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Caroline Dotter VL - 25 PB - BMC ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Franz, Maja A1 - Winker, Tobias A1 - Groppe, Sven A1 - Mauerer, Wolfgang T1 - Hype or Heuristic? Quantum Reinforcement Learning for Join Order Optimisation T2 - 2024 IEEE International Conference on Quantum Computing and Engineering (QCE), 15-20 September 2024, Montreal, QC, Canada N2 - Identifying optimal join orders (JOs) stands out as a key challenge in database research and engineering. Owing to the large search space, established classical methods rely on approximations and heuristics. Recent efforts have successfully explored reinforcement learning (RL) for JO. Likewise, quantum versions of RL have received considerable scientific attention. Yet, it is an open question if they can achieve sustainable, overall practical advantages with improved quantum processors. In this paper, we present a novel approach that uses quantum reinforcement learning (QRL) for JO based on a hybrid variational quantum ansatz. It is able to handle general bushy join trees instead of resorting to simpler left-deep variants as compared to approaches based on quantum(-inspired) optimisation, yet requires multiple orders of magnitudes fewer qubits, which is a scarce resource even for post-NISQ systems. Despite moderate circuit depth, the ansatz exceeds current NISQ capabilities, which requires an evaluation by numerical simulations. While QRL may not significantly outperform classical approaches in solving the JO problem with respect to result quality (albeit we see parity), we find a drastic reduction in required trainable parameters. This benefits practically relevant aspects ranging from shorter training times compared to classical RL, less involved classical optimisation passes, or better use of available training data, and fits data-stream and low-latency processing scenarios. Our comprehensive evaluation and careful discussion delivers a balanced perspective on possible practical quantum advantage, provides insights for future systemic approaches, and allows for quantitatively assessing trade-offs of quantum approaches for one of the most crucial problems of database management systems. Y1 - 2024 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:898-opus4-76877 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Maja Franz SP - 409 EP - 420 PB - IEEE ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Qiao, Yu A1 - Grad, Marius A1 - Nonn, Aida T1 - Toward an Efficient and Robust Process–Structure Prediction Framework for Filigree L-PBF 316L Stainless Steel Structures JF - Metals N2 - Additive manufacturing (AM), particularly laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF), provides unmatched design flexibility for creating intricate steel structures with minimal post-processing. However, adopting L-PBF for high-performance applications is difficult due to the challenge of predicting microstructure evolution. This is because the process is sensitive to many parameters and has a complex thermal history. Thin-walled geometries present an added challenge because their dimensions often approach the scale of individual grains. Thus, microstructure becomes a critical factor in the overall integrity of the component. This study focuses on applying cellular automata (CA) modeling to establish robust and efficient process–structure relationships in L-PBF of 316L stainless steel. The CA framework simulates solidification-driven grain evolution and texture development across various processing conditions. Model predictions are evaluated against experimental electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) data, with additional quantitative comparisons based on texture and morphology metrics. The results demonstrate that CA simulations calibrated with relevant process parameters can effectively reproduce key microstructural features, including grain size distributions, aspect ratios, and texture components, observed in thin-walled L-PBF structures. This work highlights the strengths and limitations of CA-based modeling and supports its role in reliably designing and optimizing complex L-PBF components. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.3390/met15070812 SN - 2075-4701 VL - 15 IS - 7 PB - MDPI ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schiek, Roland A1 - Solntsev, Alexander S. A1 - Neshev, Dragomir N. T1 - Measurement of the cubic nonlinear susceptibility in lithium niobate JF - Optical Materials Express N2 - We measured the cubic nonlinear susceptibility tensor elements ( χ(3)) for polarization along the primary crystallographic axis in titanium-indiffused lithium niobate waveguides, assessed through self-phase modulation using picosecond-duration pulses at telecommunication wavelengths. A dominant, highly temperature- and wavelength-dependent contribution from a cascaded second-order nonlinearity is observed. Through careful extraction of the cascaded effect, we quantify the intrinsic third-order susceptibility tensor elements as χ(3) zzzz(ω; ω, ω, −ω) = (5.2 ± 1.3) × 10−21 m2 V2 and χ(3) xxxx(ω; ω, ω, −ω) = χ(3) yyyy(ω; ω, ω, −ω) = (3.6 ± 0.8) × 10−21 m2 V2 . These measurements underscore the substantial impact of the cascaded nonlinearity in enhancing the effective cubic nonlinearity in lithium niobate and offer precise values essential for the design of nonlinear photonic devices. Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.557516 SN - 2159-3930 N1 - Corresponding author der OTH Regensburg: Schiek, Roland VL - 15 IS - 5 SP - 1100 EP - 1117 PB - Optica Publishing Group ER -