Production Rate‐Dependent Key Performance Indicators for a Systematic Design of Biochemical Downstream Processes

Key performance indicators have become a common tool in bioprocess development, as they allow an objective and independent rating and ranking of process alternatives screened. A disadvantage of all key performance indicators developed so far is their strong focus on costs, which makes them neglect the influence of the production rate on the profit of the process. But, since both production costs and production rate have an equally strong impact, both should be considered when decisions have to be made. Therefore, two new key performance indicators are introduced in this work, one for batch and one for continuous processing. They combine product yield, purity performance, variable manufacturing costs, and production rate to one objective. Thereby, misguided trade‐offs between these four individual measures can be replaced by one key performance indicator. This ensures a systematic development of biochemical downstream processes.     

SkaSim – Skalierbare HPC‐Software für molekulare Simulationen in der chemischen Industrie

This article outlines advances in molecular modeling and simulation using massively parallel high‐performance computers (HPC). In the SkaSim project, partners from the HPC community collaborated with users from science and industry. The aim was to optimize the prediction of thermodynamic property data in terms of efficiency, quality and reliability using HPC methods. In this context, various topics were dealt with: atomistic simulation of homogeneous gas bubble formation, surface tension of classical fluids and ionic liquids, multicriteria optimization of molecular models, the development of the molecular simulation codes ls1 mardyn and ms2, atomistic simulation of gas separation processes, molecular membrane structure generators, transport resistors and the evaluation of predictive property data models based on specific mixture types.     

A new approach for mapping of Biological Soil Crusts in semidesert areas with hyperspectral imagery

Biological Soil Crusts (BSCs), consisting of cyanobacteria, algae, microfungi, lichens and bryophytes in varying proportions, live within or immediately on top of the uppermost millimeters of soil, where they form a more or less firm aggregation of soil particles and organisms. They mainly occur in soils of arid and semi-arid regions, which cover more than 35% of the earth's land surface and are assumed to play a major role as primary producers, C- and N-sinks and soil stabilizers.

In order to establish a methodology for mapping of BSCs, their spectral characteristics with respect to different crust types were analyzed. The resulting reflectance spectra of different crust types had a shallow absorption feature centered around 680 nm in common, in which they differed from the spectra of bare soil.

In October 2004, hyperspectral CASI data with a spatial resolution of 1 m were recorded in conjunction with field spectroscopic measurements in the Succulent Karoo, South Africa. Available spectral indices for Biological Soil Crusts were tested on the image but did not produce satisfying classifications. Therefore, an alternative approach was established based on spectral field data, field observations and the hyperspectral dataset. The newly developed Continuum Removal Crust Identification Algorithm (CRCIA) is based on small and narrow spectral characteristics, that were extracted by continuum removal and subsequently expressed as a set of logical conditions. Using this method, 16.2% of the area which covers 12 km² of gently sloping hills with some granite outcrops were classified as BSCs. Validation of the classification resulted in a Kappa index of 0.831.

In a next step, the methodology will be tested with regard to scale-dependent effects and applied to images covering areas with additional types of BSCs and soil to develop a robust and generally applicable method.     

MALDI-TOF MS: an upcoming tool for rapid detection of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms

MALDI-TOF MS profiling for microorganism detection has already been demonstrated in the 1990s, but has evolved to the first-line identification method in many laboratories just during the past five years. While this application of MALDI-TOF MS has proven its broad applicability, accuracy, robustness, and cost-effectiveness it is of particular interest to expand the capabilities of the mass spectrometric platform. Resistance detection is the most desirable further application of MALDI-TOF MS in microbiology, but maybe also the most challenging. Different approaches have been published regarding diverse antibiotic drugs and distinct microorganism classes. The current review shall give an overview about the developments of the recent years and their potential to get transformed in clinical useful assays in the future.     

Tone sequences with conflicting fundamental pitch and timbre changes are heard differently by musicians and nonmusicians.

An Auditory Ambiguity Test (AAT) was taken twice by nonmusicians, musical amateurs, and professional musicians. The AAT comprised different tone pairs, presented in both within-pair orders, in which overtone spectra rising in pitch were associated with missing fundamental frequencies (F0) falling in pitch, and vice versa. The F0 interval ranged from 2 to 9 semitones. The participants were instructed to decide whether the perceived pitch went up or down; no information was provided on the ambiguity of the stimuli. The majority of professionals classified the pitch changes according to F0, even at the smallest interval. By contrast, most nonmusicians classified according to the overtone spectra, except in the case of the largest interval. Amateurs ranged in between. A plausible explanation for the systematic group differences is that musical practice systematically shifted the perceptual focus from spectral toward missing-F0 pitch, although alternative explanations such as different genetic dispositions of musicians and nonmusicians cannot be ruled out. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Standardized code quality benchmarking for improving software maintainability

We provide an overview of the approach developed by the Software Improvement Group for code analysis and quality consulting focused on software maintainability. The approach uses a standardized measurement model based on the ISO/IEC 9126 definition of maintainability and source code metrics. Procedural standardization in evaluation projects further enhances the comparability of results. Individual assessments are stored in a repository that allows any system at hand to be compared to the industry-wide state of the art in code quality and maintainability. When a minimum level of software maintainability is reached, the certification body of TüV Informationstechnik GmbH issues a Trusted Product Maintainability certificate for the software product.     

CSCL for intellectually disabled pupils: Stimulating interaction by using a floor control mechanism

Computer-supported collaborative learning has an unexploited potential of becoming an effective learning method for pupils with intellectual disabilities. This paper aims at showing how some specific requirements of this target group may be met by structuring a learning situation with the help of floor control, which restricts the opportunities of a learning dyad to act simultaneously within the learning environment. It was expected that floor control could improve communication between pupils with intellectual disabilities by explicitly structuring and restricting activities in the learning environment and making it necessary for the pupils to communicate. To examine if floor control really supports the collaboration process in the hypothesized way, two different versions of a CSCL environment were implemented and compared. The results revealed improved task-related communication and a higher quality of interaction outcomes.     

The influence of user expertise and prototype fidelity in usability tests

An empirical study examined the impact of user expertise and prototype fidelity on the outcomes of a usability test. User expertise (expert vs. novice) and prototype fidelity (paper prototype, 3D mock-up, and fully operational appliance) were manipulated as independent variables in a 2 × 3 between-subjects design. Employing a floor scrubber as a model product, 48 users carried out several cleaning tasks. Usability problems identified by participants were recorded. Furthermore, performance, system management strategies and perceived usability were measured. The results showed that experts reported more usability problems than novices but these were considered to be less severe than those reported by novices. Reduced fidelity prototypes were generally suitable to predict product usability of the real appliance. The implications for the running of usability tests are specific to the fidelity of the prototype.     

Equivalence Problems for Circuits over Sets of Natural Numbers

We investigate the complexity of equivalence problems for {∪,∩,⁻,+,×}-circuits computing sets of natural numbers. These problems were first introduced by Stockmeyer and Meyer (1973). We continue this line of research and give a systematic characterization of the complexity of equivalence problems over sets of natural numbers. Our work shows that equivalence problems capture a wide range of complexity classes like NL, C ₌ L, P,Π₂^P, PSPACE, NEXP, and beyond. McKenzie and Wagner (2003) studied related membership problems for circuits over sets of natural numbers. Our results also have consequences for these membership problems: We provide an improved upper bound for the case of {∪,∩,⁻,+,×}-circuits.     

Situated Innovation of e-Social Science: Integrating Infrastructure, Collaboration, and Knowledge in Developing e-Social Science

This article explores the relationships between academic knowledge and the practice of research in the construction of new computer-supported research tools for e-social science. The article draws on a U.K. e-social science pilot demonstrator project, "Collaborative Analysis of Offenders' Personal and Area-based Social Exclusion," that explores the relative impact of individual and neighborhood effects on geographical crime patterns. Three main dimensions of e-social science are addressed by the project: (1) identification of new social research foci, (2) adapting research processes, and (3) developing Grid-related research tools. The integration of these dimensions shows that research-driven and user-led development of computer-mediated research using the Grid can produce relevant and innovative tools for the social sciences.