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The aim of this dissertation is to explain processes in recruitment by gaining a better understanding of how perceptions evolve and how recruitment outcomes and perceptions are influenced. To do so, this dissertation takes a closer look at the formation of fit perceptions, the effects of top employer awards on pre-hire recruitment outcomes, and on how perceptions about external sources are influenced.
Matter-wave Optics of Dark-state Polaritons: Applications to Interferometry and Quantum Information
(2006)
The present work "Materwave Optics with Dark-state Polaritons: Applications to Interferometry and Quantum Information" deals in a broad sense with the subject of dark-states and in particular with the so-called dark-state polaritons introduced by M. Fleischhauer and M. D. Lukin. The dark-state polaritons can be regarded as a combined excitation of electromagnetic fields and spin/matter-waves. Within the framework of this thesis the special optical properties of the combined excitation are studied. On one hand a new procedure to spatially manipulate and to increase the excitation density of stored photons is described and on the other hand the properties are used to construct a new type of Sagnac Hybrid interferometer. The thesis is devided into four parts. In the introduction all notions necessary to understand the work are described, e.g.: electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), dark-state polaritons and the Sagnac effect. The second chapter considers the method developed by A. Andre and M. D. Lukin to create stationary light pulses in specially dressed EIT-media. In a first step a set of field equations is derived and simplified by introducing a new set of normal modes. The absorption of one of the normal modes leads to the phenomenon of pulse-matching for the other mode and thereby to a diffusive spreading of its field envelope. All these considerations are based on a homogeneous field setup of the EIT preparation laser. If this restriction is dismissed one finds that a drift motion is superimposed to the diffusive spreading. By choosing a special laser configuration the drift motion can be tailored such that an effective force is created that counteracts the spreading. Moreover, the force can not only be strong enough to compensate the diffusive spreading but also to exceed this dynamics and hence to compress the field envelope of the excitation. The compression can be discribed using a Fokker-Planck equation of the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck type. The investigations show that the compression leads to an excitation of higher-order modes which decay very fast. In the last section of the chapter this exciation will be discussed in more detail and conditions will be given how the excitation of higher-order modes can be avoided or even suppressed. All results given in the chapter are supported by numerical simulatons. In the third chapter the matterwave optical properties of the dark-state polaritons will be studied. They will be used to construct a light-matterwave hybrid Sagnac interferometer. First the principle setup of such an interferometer will be sketched and the relevant equations of motion of light-matter interaction in a rotating frame will be derived. These form the basis of the following considerations of the dark-state polariton dynamics with and without the influence of external trapping potentials on the matterwave part of the polariton. It will be shown that a sensitivity enhancement compared to a passive laser gyroscope can be anticipated if the gaseous medium is initially in a superfluid quantum state in a ring-trap configuration. To achieve this enhancement a simultaneous coherence and momentum transfer is furthermore necessary. In the last part of the chapter the quantum sensitivity limit of the hybrid interferometer is derived using the one-particle density matrix equations incorporating the motion of the particles. To this end the Maxwell-Bloch equations are considered perturbatively in the rotation rate of the noninertial frame of reference and the susceptibility of the considered 3-level \(\Lambda\)-type system is derived in arbitrary order of the probe-field. This is done to determine the optimum operation point. With its help the anticipated quantum sensitivity of the light-matterwave hybrid Sagnac interferometer is calculated at the shot-noise limit and the results are compared to state-of-the-art laser and matterwave Sagnac interferometers. The last chapter of the thesis originates from a joint theoretical and experimental project with the AG Bergmann. This chapter does no longer consider the dark-state polaritons of the last two chapters but deals with the more general concept of dark states and in particular with the transient velocity selective dark states as introduced by E. Arimondo et al. In the experiment we could for the first time measure these states. The chapter starts with an introduction into the concept of velocity selective dark states as they occur in a \(\Lambda\)-configuration. Then we introduce the transient velocity selective dark-states as they occur in an particular extension of the \(\Lambda\)-system. For later use in the simulations the relevant equations of motion are derived in detail. The simulations are based on the solution of the generalized optical Bloch equations. Finally the experimental setup and procedure are explained and the theoretical and experimental results are compared.
A series of (oligo)phenthiazines, thiazolium salts and sulfonic acid functionalized organic/inorganic hybrid materials were synthesized. The organic groups were covalently bound on the inorganic surface through reactions of organosilane precursors with TEOS or with the silanol groups of material surface. These synthetic methods are called the co-condensation process and the post grafting. The structures and the textural parameters of the generated hybrid materials were characterized by XRD, N2 adsorption-desorption measurements, SEM and TEM. The incorporations of the organic groups were verified by elemental analysis, thermogravimetric analysis, FT-IR, UV-Vis, EPR, CV, as well as by 13C CP-MAS NMR and 29Si CP-MAS NMR spectroscopy. Introduction of various organic groups endow different phsysical, chemical properties to these hybrid materials. The (oligo)phenothiazines provide a group of novel redox acitive hybrid materials with special electronic and optic properties. The thiazolium salts modified materials were applied as heterogenized organo catalysts for the benzoin condensation and the cross-coupling of aldehydes with acylimines to yield a-amido ketones. The sulfonic acid containing materials can not only be used as Broensted acid catalysts, but also can serve as ion exchangable supports for further modifications and applications.
Nanoparticle-Filled Thermoplastics and Thermoplastic Elastomer: Structure-Property Relationships
(2012)
The present work focuses on the structure-property relationships of
particulate-filled thermoplastics and thermoplastic elastomer (TPE). In this work
two thermoplastics and one TPE were used as polymer matrices, i.e. amorphous
bisphenol-A polycarbonate (PC), semi-crystalline isotactic polypropylene (iPP),
and a block copolymer poly(butylene terephthalate)-block-poly(tetramethylene
glycol) TPE(PBT-PTMG). For PC, a selected type of various Aerosil® nano-SiO2
types was used as filler to improve the thermal and mechanical properties by
maintaining the transparency of PC matrix. Different types of SiO2 and TiO2
nanoparticles with different surface polarity were used for iPP. The goal was to
examine the influence of surface polarity and chemical nature of nanoparticles on
the thermal, mechanical and morphological properties of iPP composites. For
TPE(PBT-PTMG), three TiO2 particles were used, i.e. one grade with hydroxyl
groups on the particle surface and the other two grades are surface-modified with
metal and metal oxides, respectively. The influence of primary size and dispersion
quality of TiO2 particles on the properties of TPE(PBT-PTMG)/TiO2 composites
were determined and discussed.
All polymer composites were produced by direct melt blending in a twin-screw
extruder via masterbatch technique. The dispersion of particles was examined by
using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and micro-computerized tomography
(μCT). The thermal and crystalline properties of polymer composites were characterized by using thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential
scanning calorimetry (DSC). The mechanical and thermomechanical properties
were determined by using mechanical tensile testing, compact tension and
Charpy impact as well as dynamic-mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA).
The SEM results show that the unpolar-surface modified nanoparticles are better
dispersed in polymer matrices as iPP than polar-surface nanoparticles, especially
in case of using Aeroxide® TiO2 nanoparticles. The Aeroxide® TiO2 nanoparticles
with a polar surface due to Ti-OH groups result in a very high degree of
agglomeration in both iPP and TPE matrices because of strong van der Waals
interactions among particles (hydrogen bonding). Compared to unmodified
Aeroxide® TiO2 nanoparticles, the other grades of surface modified TiO2 particles
are very homogenously dispersed in used iPP and TPE(PBT-PTMG). The
incorporation of SiO2 nanoparticles into bisphenol-A PC significantly increases
the mechanical properties of PC/SiO2 nanocomposites, particularly the resistance
against environmental stress crazing (ESC). However, the transparency of
PC/SiO2 nanocomposites decreases with increasing nanoparticle content and
size due to a mismatch of infractive indices of PC and SiO2 particles. The different
surface polarity of nanoparticles in iPP shows evident influence on properties of
iPP composites. Among iPP/SiO2 nanocomposites, the nanocomposite
containing SiO2 nanoparticles with a higher degree of hydrophobicity shows
improved fracture and impact toughness compared to the other iPP/SiO2
composites. The TPE(PBT-PTMG)/TiO2 composites show much better thermal and mechanical properties than neat TPE(PBT-PTMG) due to strong chemical
interactions between polymer matrix and TiO2 particles. In addition, better
dispersion quality of TiO2 particles in used TPE(PBT-PTMG) leads to dramatically
improved mechanical properties of TPE(PBT-PTMG)/TiO2 composites.
Planar force or pressure is a fundamental physical aspect during any people-vs-people and people-vs-environment activities and interactions. It is as significant as the more established linear and angular acceleration (usually acquired by inertial measurement units). There have been several studies involving planar pressure in the discipline of activity recognition, as reviewed in the first chapter. These studies have shown that planar pressure is a promising sensing modality for activity recognition. However, they still take a niche part in the entire discipline, using ad hoc systems and data analysis methods. Mostly these studies were not followed by further elaborative works. The situation calls for a general framework that can help push planar pressure sensing into the mainstream.
This dissertation systematically investigates using planar pressure distribution sensing technology for ubiquitous and wearable activity recognition purposes. We propose a generic Textile Pressure Mapping (TPM) Framework, which encapsulates (1) design knowledge and guidelines, (2) a multi-layered tool including hardware, software and algorithms, and (3) an ensemble of empirical study examples. Through validation with various empirical studies, the unified TPM framework covers the full scope of application recognition, including the ambient, object, and wearable subspaces.
The hardware part constructs a general architecture and implementations in the large-scale and mobile directions separately. The software toolkit consists of four heterogeneous tiers: driver, data processing, machine learning, visualization/feedback. The algorithm chapter describes generic data processing techniques and a unified TPM feature set. The TPM framework offers a universal solution for other researchers and developers to evaluate TPM sensing modality in their application scenarios.
The significant findings from the empirical studies have shown that TPM is a versatile sensing modality. Specifically, in the ambient subspace, a sports mat or carpet with TPM sensors embedded underneath can distinguish different sports activities or different people's gait based on the dynamic change of body-print; a pressure sensitive tablecloth can detect various dining actions by the force propagated from the cutlery through the plates to the tabletop. In the object subspace, swirl office chairs with TPM sensors under the cover can be used to detect the seater's real-time posture; TPM can be used to detect emotion-related touch interactions for smart objects, toys or robots. In the wearable subspace, TPM sensors can be used to perform pressure-based mechanomyography to detect muscle and body movement; it can also be tailored to cover the surface of a soccer shoe to distinguish different kicking angles and intensities.
All the empirical evaluations have resulted in accuracies well-above the chance level of the corresponding number of classes, e.g., the `swirl chair' study has classification accuracy of 79.5% out of 10 posture classes and in the `soccer shoe' study the accuracy is 98.8% among 17 combinations of angle and intensity.
Whole-body vibrations (WBV) have adverse effects on ride comfort and human health. Suspension seats have an important influence on the WBV severity. In this study, WBV were measured on a medium-sized compact wheel loader (CWL) in its typical operations. The effect of short-term exposure to the WBV on the ride comfort was evaluated according to ISO 2631-1:1985 and ISO 2631-1:1997. ISO 2631-1:1997 and ISO 2631-5:2004 were adopted to evaluate the effect of long-term exposure to the WBV on the human health. Reasons for the different evaluation results obtained according to ISO 2631-1:1997 and ISO 2631-5:2004 were explained in this study. The WBV measurements were carried out in cases where the driver wore a lap belt or a four-point seat harness and in the case where the driver did not wear any safety belt. The seat effective amplitude transmissibility (SEAT) and the seat transmissibility in the frequency domain in these three cases were analyzed to investigate the effect of a safety belt on the seat transmissibility. Seat tests were performed on a multi-axis shaking table in laboratory to study the dynamic behavior of a suspension seat under the vibration excitations measured on the CWL. The WBV intensity was reduced by optimizing the vertical and the longitudinal seat suspension systems with the help of computational simulations. For the optimization multi-body models of the seat-dummy system in the laboratory seat tests and the seat-driver system in the field vibration measurements were built and validated.
The main purpose of the study was to improve the physical properties of the modelling of compressed materials, especially fibrous materials. Fibrous materials are finding increasing application in the industries. And most of the materials are compressed for different applications. For such situation, we are interested in how the fibre arranged, e.g. with which distribution. For given materials it is possible to obtain a three-dimensional image via micro computed tomography. Since some physical parameters, e.g. the fibre lengths or the directions for points in the fibre, can be checked under some other methods from image, it is beneficial to improve the physical properties by changing the parameters in the image.
In this thesis, we present a new maximum-likelihood approach for the estimation of parameters of a parametric distribution on the unit sphere, which is various as some well known distributions, e.g. the von-Mises Fisher distribution or the Watson distribution, and for some models better fit. The consistency and asymptotic normality of the maximum-likelihood estimator are proven. As the second main part of this thesis, a general model of mixtures of these distributions on a hypersphere is discussed. We derive numerical approximations of the parameters in an Expectation Maximization setting. Furthermore we introduce a non-parametric estimation of the EM algorithm for the mixture model. Finally, we present some applications to the statistical analysis of fibre composites.
In recent years, nanofiller-reinforced polymer composites have attracted considerable
interest from numerous researchers, since they can offer unique mechanical,
electrical, optical and thermal properties compared to the conventional polymer
composites filled with micron-sized particles or short fibers. With this background, the
main objective of the present work was to investigate the various mechanical
properties of polymer matrices filled with different inorganic rigid nanofillers, including
SiOB2B, TiOB2B, AlB2BOB3B and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNT). Further, special
attention was paid to the fracture behaviours of the polymer nanocomposites. The
polymer matrices used in this work contained two types of epoxy resin (cycloaliphatic
and bisphenol-F) and two types of thermoplastic polymer (polyamide 66 and isotactic
polypropylene).
The epoxy-based nanocomposites (filled with nano-SiOB2B) were formed in situ by a
special sol-gel technique supplied by nanoresins AG. Excellent nanoparticle
dispersion was achieved even at rather high particle loading. The almost
homogeneously distributed nanoparticles can improve the elastic modulus and
fracture toughness (characterized by KBICB and GBICB) simultaneously. According to
dynamic mechanical and thermal analysis (DMTA), the nanosilica particles in epoxy
resins possessed considerable "effective volume fraction" in comparison with their
actual volume fraction, due to the presence of the interphase. Moreover, AFM and
high-resolution SEM observations also suggested that the nanosilica particles were
coated with a polymer layer and therefore a core-shell structure of particle-matrix was
expected. Furthermore, based on SEM fractography, several toughening
mechanisms were considered to be responsible for the improvement in toughness,
which included crack deflection, crack pinning/bowing and plastic deformation of
matrix induced by nanoparticles.
The PA66 or iPP-based nanocomposites were fabricated by a conventional meltextrusion
technique. Here, the nanofiller content was set constant as 1 vol.%. Relatively good particle dispersion was found, though some small aggregates still
existed. The elastic modulus of both PA66 and iPP was moderately improved after
incorporation of the nanofillers. The fracture behaviours of these materials were
characterized by an essential work fracture (EWF) approach. In the case of PA66
system, the EWF experiments were carried out over a broad temperature range
(23~120 °C). It was found that the EWF parameters exhibited high temperature
dependence. At most testing temperatures, a small amount of nanoparticles could
produce obvious toughening effects at the cost of reduction in plastic deformation of
the matrix. In light of SEM fractographs and crack opening tip (COD) analysis, the
crack blunting induced by nanoparticles might be the major source of this toughening.
The fracture behaviours of PP filled with MWNTs were investigated over a broad
temperature range (-196~80 °C) in terms of notched impact resistance. It was found
that MWNTs could enhance the notched impact resistance of PP matrix significantly
once the testing temperature was higher than the glass transition temperature (TBgB) of
neat PP. At the relevant temperature range, the longer the MWNTs, the better was
the impact resistance. SEM observation revealed three failure modes of nanotubes:
nanotube bridging, debonding/pullout and fracture. All of them would contribute to
impact toughness to a degree. Moreover, the nanotube fracture was considered as
the major failure mode. In addition, the smaller spherulites induced by the nanotubes
would also benefit toughness.
Nowadays, accounting, charging and billing users' network resource consumption are commonly used for the purpose of facilitating reasonable network usage, controlling congestion, allocating cost, gaining revenue, etc. In traditional IP traffic accounting systems, IP addresses are used to identify the corresponding consumers of the network resources. However, there are some situations in which IP addresses cannot be used to identify users uniquely, for example, in multi-user systems. In these cases, network resource consumption can only be ascribed to the owners of these hosts instead of corresponding real users who have consumed the network resources. Therefore, accurate accountability in these systems is practically impossible. This is a flaw of the traditional IP address based IP traffic accounting technique. This dissertation proposes a user based IP traffic accounting model which can facilitate collecting network resource usage information on the basis of users. With user based IP traffic accounting, IP traffic can be distinguished not only by IP addresses but also by users. In this dissertation, three different schemes, which can achieve the user based IP traffic accounting mechanism, are discussed in detail. The inband scheme utilizes the IP header to convey the user information of the corresponding IP packet. The Accounting Agent residing in the measured host intercepts IP packets passing through it. Then it identifies the users of these IP packets and inserts user information into the IP packets. With this mechanism, a meter located in a key position of the network can intercept the IP packets tagged with user information, extract not only statistic information, but also IP addresses and user information from the IP packets to generate accounting records with user information. The out-of-band scheme is a contrast scheme to the in-band scheme. It also uses an Accounting Agent to intercept IP packets and identify the users of IP traffic. However, the user information is transferred through a separated channel, which is different from the corresponding IP packets' transmission. The Multi-IP scheme provides a different solution for identifying users of IP traffic. It assigns each user in a measured host a unique IP address. Through that, an IP address can be used to identify a user uniquely without ambiguity. This way, traditional IP address based accounting techniques can be applied to achieve the goal of user based IP traffic accounting. In this dissertation, a user based IP traffic accounting prototype system developed according to the out-of-band scheme is also introduced. The application of user based IP traffic accounting model in the distributed computing environment is also discussed.
This thesis is devoted to deal with the stochastic optimization problems in various situations with the aid of the Martingale method. Chapter 2 discusses the Martingale method and its applications to the basic optimization problems, which are well addressed in the literature (for example, [15], [23] and [24]). In Chapter 3, we study the problem of maximizing expected utility of real terminal wealth in the presence of an index bond. Chapter 4, which is a modification of the original research paper joint with Korn and Ewald [39], investigates an optimization problem faced by a DC pension fund manager under inflationary risk. Although the problem is addressed in the context of a pension fund, it presents a way of how to deal with the optimization problem, in the case there is a (positive) endowment. In Chapter 5, we turn to a situation where the additional income, other than the income from returns on investment, is gained by supplying labor. Chapter 6 concerns a situation where the market considered is incomplete. A trick of completing an incomplete market is presented there. The general theory which supports the discussion followed is summarized in the first chapter.
Automata theory has given rise to a variety of automata models that consist
of a finite-state control and an infinite-state storage mechanism. The aim
of this work is to provide insights into how the structure of the storage
mechanism influences the expressiveness and the analyzability of the
resulting model. To this end, it presents generalizations of results about
individual storage mechanisms to larger classes. These generalizations
characterize those storage mechanisms for which the given result remains
true and for which it fails.
In order to speak of classes of storage mechanisms, we need an overarching
framework that accommodates each of the concrete storage mechanisms we wish
to address. Such a framework is provided by the model of valence automata,
in which the storage mechanism is represented by a monoid. Since the monoid
serves as a parameter to specifying the storage mechanism, our aim
translates into the question: For which monoids does the given
(automata-theoretic) result hold?
As a first result, we present an algebraic characterization of those monoids
over which valence automata accept only regular languages. In addition, it
turns out that for each monoid, this is the case if and only if valence
grammars, an analogous grammar model, can generate only context-free
languages.
Furthermore, we are concerned with closure properties: We study which
monoids result in a Boolean closed language class. For every language class
that is closed under rational transductions (in particular, those induced by
valence automata), we show: If the class is Boolean closed and contains any
non-regular language, then it already includes the whole arithmetical
hierarchy.
This work also introduces the class of graph monoids, which are defined by
finite graphs. By choosing appropriate graphs, one can realize a number of
prominent storage mechanisms, but also combinations and variants thereof.
Examples are pushdowns, counters, and Turing tapes. We can therefore relate
the structure of the graphs to computational properties of the resulting
storage mechanisms.
In the case of graph monoids, we study (i) the decidability of the emptiness
problem, (ii) which storage mechanisms guarantee semilinear Parikh images,
(iii) when silent transitions (i.e. those that read no input) can be
avoided, and (iv) which storage mechanisms permit the computation of
downward closures.
Continuum Mechanical Modeling of Dry Granular Systems: From Dilute Flow to Solid-Like Behavior
(2014)
In this thesis, we develop a granular hydrodynamic model which covers the three principal regimes observed in granular systems, i.e. the dilute flow, the dense flow and the solid-like regime. We start from a kinetic model valid at low density and extend its validity to the granular solid-like behavior. Analytical and numerical results show that this model reproduces a lot of complex phenomena like for instance slow viscoplastic motion, critical states and the pressure dip in sand piles. Finally we formulate a 1D version of the full model and develop a numerical method to solve it. We present two numerical examples, a filling simulation and the flow on an inclined plane where the three regimes are included.
Today, information systems are often distributed to achieve high availability and low latency.
These systems can be realized by building on a highly available database to manage the distribution of data.
However, it is well known that high availability and low latency are not compatible with strong consistency guarantees.
For application developers, the lack of strong consistency on the database layer can make it difficult to reason about their programs and ensure that applications work as intended.
We address this problem from the perspective of formal verification.
We present a specification technique, which allows specifying functional properties of the application.
In addition to data invariants, we support history properties.
These let us express relations between events, including invocations of the application API and operations on the database.
To address the verification problem, we have developed a proof technique that handles concurrency using invariants and thereby reduces the problem to sequential verification.
The underlying system semantics, technique and its soundness proof are all formalized in the interactive theorem prover Isabelle/HOL.
Additionally, we have developed a tool named Repliss which uses the proof technique to enable partially automated verification and testing of applications.
For verification, Repliss generates verification conditions via symbolic execution and then uses an SMT solver to discharge them.
Fucoidan is a class of biopolymers mainly found in brown seaweeds. Due to its diverse medical importance, homogenous supply as well as a GMP-compliant product is of a special interest. Therefore, in addition to optimization of its extraction and purification from classical resources, other techniques were tried (e.g., marine tissue culture and heterologous expression of enzymes involved in its biosynthesis). Results showed that 17.5% (w/w) crude fucoidan after pre-treatment and extraction was obtained from the brown macroalgae F. vesiculosus. Purification by affinity chromatography improved purity relative to the commercial purified product. Furthermore, biological investigations revealed improved anti-coagulant and anti-viral activities compared with crude fucoidan. Furthermore, callus-like and protoplast cultures as well as bioreactor cultivation were developed from F. vesiculosus representing a new horizon to produce fucoidan biotechnologically. Moreover, heterologous expression of several enzymes involved in its biosynthesis by E. coli (e.g., FucTs and STs) demonstrated the possibility to obtain active enzymes that could be utilized in enzymatic in vitro synthesis of fucoidan. All these competitive techniques could provide the global demands from fucoidan.
The fifth generation mobile networks (5G) will incorporate novel technologies such as network programmability and virtualization enabled by Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV) paradigms, which have recently attracted major
interest from both academic and industrial stakeholders.
Building on these concepts, Network Slicing raised as the main driver of a novel business model where mobile operators may open, i.e., “slice”, their infrastructure to new business players and offer independent, isolated and self-contained sets of network functions
and physical/virtual resources tailored to specific services requirements. While Network Slicing has the potential to increase the revenue sources of service providers, it involves a number of technical challenges that must be carefully addressed.
End-to-end (E2E) network slices encompass time and spectrum resources in the radio access network (RAN), transport resources on the fronthauling/backhauling links, and computing and storage resources at core and edge data centers. Additionally, the vertical service requirements’ heterogeneity (e.g., high throughput, low latency, high reliability) exacerbates the need for novel orchestration solutions able to manage end-to-end network slice resources across different domains, while satisfying stringent service level agreements and specific traffic requirements. An end-to-end network slicing orchestration solution shall i) admit network slice requests
such that the overall system revenues are maximized, ii) provide the required resources across different network domains to fulfill the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) iii) dynamically adapt the resource allocation based on the real-time traffic load, endusers’ mobility and instantaneous wireless channel statistics. Certainly, a mobile network represents a fast-changing scenario characterized by complex
spatio-temporal relationship connecting end-users’ traffic demand with social activities and economy. Legacy models that aim at providing dynamic resource allocation based on traditional traffic demand forecasting techniques fail to capture these important aspects.
To close this gap, machine learning-aided solutions are quickly arising as promising technologies to sustain, in a scalable manner, the set of operations required by the network slicing context. How to implement such resource allocation schemes among slices, while
trying to make the most efficient use of the networking resources composing the mobile infrastructure, are key problems underlying the network slicing paradigm, which will be addressed in this thesis.
On the Extended Finite Element Method for the Elasto-Plastic Deformation of Heterogeneous Materials
(2015)
This thesis is concerned with the extended finite element method (XFEM) for deformation analysis of three-dimensional heterogeneous materials. Using the "enhanced abs enrichment" the XFEM is able to reproduce kinks in the displacements and therewith jumps in the strains within elements of the underlying tetrahedral finite element mesh. A complex model for the micro structure reconstruction of aluminum matrix composite AMC225xe and the modeling of its macroscopic thermo-mechanical plastic deformation behavior is presented, using the XFEM. Additionally, a novel stabilization algorithm is introduced for the XFEM. This algorithm requires preprocessing only.
With the technological advancement in the field of robotics, it is now quite practical to acknowledge the actuality of social robots being a part of human's daily life in the next decades. Concerning HRI, the basic expectations from a social robot are to perceive words, emotions, and behaviours, in order to draw several conclusions and adapt its behaviour to realize natural HRI. Henceforth, assessment of human personality traits is essential to bring a sense of appeal and acceptance towards the robot during interaction.
Knowledge of human personality is highly relevant as far as natural and efficient HRI is concerned. The idea is taken from human behaviourism, with humans behaving differently based on the personality trait of the communicating partners. This thesis contributes to the development of personality trait assessment system for intelligent human-robot interaction.
The personality trait assessment system is organized in three separate levels. The first level, known as perceptual level, is responsible for enabling the robot to perceive, recognize and understand human actions in the surrounding environment in order to make sense of the situation. Using psychological concepts and theories, several percepts have been extracted. A study has been conducted to validate the significance of these percepts towards personality traits.
The second level, known as affective level, helps the robot to connect the knowledge acquired in the first level to make higher order evaluations such as assessment of human personality traits. The affective system of the robot is responsible for analysing human personality traits. To the best of our knowledge, this thesis is the first work in the field of human-robot interaction that presents an automatic assessment of human personality traits in real-time using visual information. Using psychology and cognitive studies, many theories has been studied. Two theories have been been used to build the personality trait assessment system: Big Five personality traits assessment and temperament framework for personality traits assessment.
By using the information from the perceptual and affective level, the last level, known as behavioural level, enables the robot to synthesize an appropriate behaviour adapted to human personality traits. Multiple experiments have been conducted with different scenarios. It has been shown that the robot, ROBIN, assesses personality traits correctly during interaction and uses the similarity-attraction principle to behave with similar personality type. For example, if the person is found out to be extrovert, the robot also behaves like an extrovert. However, it also uses the complementary attraction theory to adapt its behaviour and complement the personality of the interaction partner. For example, if the person is found out to be self-centred, the robot behaves like an agreeable in order to flourish human-robot interaction.
This thesis focuses on novel methods to establish the utility of wearable devices along with machine learning and pattern recognition methods for formal education and address the open research questions posed by existing methods. Firstly, state-of-the-art methods are proposed to analyse the cognitive activities in the learning process, i.e., reading, writing, and their correlation. Furthermore, this thesis presents real-time applications in wearable space as an experimental tool in Physics education, and an air-writing system.
There are two critical components in analysing the reading behaviour, i.e., WHERE a person looks at (gaze analysis) and WHAT a person looks at (content analysis). This thesis proposes novel methods to classify the reading content to address the WHAT AT component. The proposed methods are based on a hybrid approach, which fuses the traditional computer vision methods with deep neural networks. These methods, when evaluated on publicly available datasets, yield state-of-the-art results to define the structure of the document images. Moreover, extensive efforts were made to refine and correct ICDAR2017-POD dataset along with a completely new FFD dataset.
Traditionally, handwriting research focuses on character and number recognition without looking into the type of writing, i.e. text, math, and drawing. This thesis reports multiple contributions for on-line handwriting classification. First, it presents a public dataset for on-line handwriting classification OnTabWriter, collected using iPen and an iPad. In addition, a new feature set is introduced for on-line handwriting classification to establish the benchmark on the proposed dataset to classify handwriting as plain text, mathematical expression, and plot/graph. An ablation study is made to evaluate the performance of the proposed feature set in comparison to existing feature sets. Lastly, this thesis evaluates the importance of context for on-line handwriting classification.
Analysing reading and writing activities individually is not enough to provide insights to identify the student's expertise unless their correlations are analysed. This thesis presents a study where reading data from wearable eye-trackers and writing data from sensor pen are analysed together in correlation to correlate the expertise of the users in Physics education with their actual knowledge. Initial results show a strong correlation between individual's expertise and understanding of the subject.
Augmented reality & virtual applications can play a vital role in making classroom environments more interactive and engaging both for teachers and learners. To validate the hypothesis, different applications are developed and evaluated. First, smart glasses are used as an experimental tool in Physics education to help the learners perform experiments by providing assistance and feedback on head mounted display in understanding acoustics concepts. Second, a real-time application of air-writing with the finger on an imaginary canvas using a single IMU as the FAirWrite system is also presented. FAirWrite system is further equipped with DL methods to classify the air-written characters.