Process Parameter Screening for the Microalga Chlamydomonas asymmetrica in Batch and Turbidostat Cultivations

Algae offer tremendous potential for the production of various high-value products (HVPs). Besides the light quantity and quality, factors such as temperature, medium composition, pH, and aeration are important algae-specific process parameters that influence growth behavior and their chemical composition. Screenings for algae and their HVPs are ongoing, but the available data for their cultivability and suitability as production organisms are limited. Turbidostat processes enable a simple and fast screening for light-specific influences, as constant biomass concentrations will result in constant self-shading. Here, the microalgae Chlamydomonas asymmetrica was cultivated in cylindrical photobioreactor screening modules. A detailed characterization the light and temperature dependency of the organisms' HVPs is provided.     

A Test Platform for Dependability Analysis of SoCs Exposed to EMI and Radiation

With the IEC 62.132 proposal, the roadmap for standardization of Electromagnetic (EM) immunity measurement methods has reached a high degree of success. The same understanding can be taken from the MIL-STD-883?H for Total Ionizing Dose (TID) radiation. However, no effort has been made to measure the behavior of electronics operating under the combined effects of both, EM noise and TID radiation. For the reasons pointed out, the combined-effect measurements should be mandatory when dealing with Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) devoted to critical applications. In this paper, we present a configurable platform devoted to perform combined tests of EM immunity and TID radiation of SoCs according to the international standards.     

A Semi-automated Electrophysiology System for Recording from Xenopus Oocytes Under Microgravity Conditions

We describe a custom-made two electrode voltage clamp (TEVC) system suitable for real-time recording from Xenopus laevis oocytes in microgravity research applications. This miniaturized version of a standard laboratory TEVC, has proven to be reliable and robust. It allows the recording of membrane currents of comparable quality to ground-based TEVC measurements. The data presented were obtained during an ESA parabolic flight campaign (Bordeaux, France) and suggests that differing gravity conditions can reversibly modulate transmembrane ionic current in Xenopus laevis oocytes.     

Learning morphological maps of galaxies with unsupervised regression

Hubble’s morphological classification of galaxies has found broad acceptance in astronomy since decades. Numerous extensions have been proposed in the past, mostly based on galaxy prototypes. In this work, we automatically learn morphological maps of galaxies with unsupervised machine learning methods that preserve neighborhood relations and data space distances. For this sake, we focus on a stochastic variant of unsupervised nearest neighbors (UNN) for arranging galaxy prototypes on a two-dimensional map. UNN regression is the unsupervised counterpart of nearest neighbor regression for dimensionally reduction. In the experimental part of this article, we visualize the embeddings and compare the learning results achieved by various UNN parameterizations and related dimensionality reduction methods.     

Novel moving-magnet electrodynamic feed units for small machine tools

Small feed motions in the mm and cm range today are mostly realised with miniaturised leadscrew motor systems, piezo stages and moving-coil actuators. A short survey on typical properties of those existing feed units for small machine tools is given first. A simple yet powerful complement or alternative to the above-mentioned small drives are single-phase linear direct drives with moving magnets. Especially motor designs with slotted stator winding offer high force densities and good dynamics. Combination of those short-stroke motors with ball or flexure guides and with embedded position or force control resp. leads to particular compact feed units. Such modules are currently being developed at Technische Universität Dresden for applications in future small machine tools and in automation. Two different prototypes of those feed modules are presented in this paper. With travel ranges of 11 and 14 mm, resp., peak forces of 39 and 112 N resp., linear force characteristics and speeds up to 1.6 m/s they feature attractive properties. A first module with ball-guided slide already contains an integrated low-cost position sensor and embedded state space position control. A second module with flexure-guided mover is currently being extended with latter embedded control components. Due to their high compactness, force density, dynamics and modularity, the developed feed units can widely be used in future small machine tools and in automation.     

High-Precision Differential-Input Buffered and External Transconductance Amplifier for Low-Voltage Low-Power Applications

Recently, the demand for low-voltage low-power integrated circuits design has grown dramatically. For battery-operated devices both the supply voltage and the power consumption have to be lowered in order to prolong the battery life. This paper presents an attractive approach to designing a low-voltage low-power high-precision differential-input buffered and external transconductance amplifier, DBeTA, based on the bulk-driven technique. The proposed DBeTA possesses rail-to-rail voltage swing capability at a low supply voltage of ±400 mV and consumes merely 62 μW. The proposed circuit is a universal active element that offers more freedom during the design of current-, voltage-, or mixed-mode applications. The proposed circuit is particularly interesting for biomedical applications requiring low-voltage low-power operation capability where the processing signal frequency is limited to a few kilohertz. An oscillator circuit employing a minimum number of active and passive components has been described in this paper as one of many possible applications. The circuit contains only a single active element DBeTA, two capacitors, and one resistor, which is very attractive for integrated circuit implementation. PSpice simulation results using the 0.18 μm CMOS technology from TSMC are included to prove the unique results.     

High resolution supply chain management: optimized processes based on self-optimizing control loops and real time data

The efficient dealing with the dynamic environment of production industries is one of the most challenging tasks of Supply Chain Management in high-wage countries. Relevant and current information are still not used sufficiently, to handle the influence of the dynamic environment on intra- and inter-company order processing adequately. Among other things, the problem is caused by missing or delayed feedback of relevant data. As a consequence of that, planning results differ from the actual situation of production. High Resolution Supply Chain Management describes an approach aiming on high information transparency in supply chains in combination with decentralized, self-optimizing control loops for Production Planning and Control. The final objective is to enable manufacturing companies to produce efficiently and to be able to react to order-variations at any time, requiring process structures to be most flexible.     

I'm home: Defining and evaluating a gesture set for smart-home control

Mobile phones seem to present the perfect user interface for interacting with smart environments, e.g. smart-home systems, as they are nowadays ubiquitous and equipped with an increasing amount of sensors and interface components, such as multi-touch screens. After giving an overview on related work this paper presents the adapted design methodology proposed by Wobbrock et al. (2009) for the development of a gesture-based user interface to a smart-home system. The findings for the new domain, device and gesture space are presented and compared to findings by Wobbrock et al. (2009). Three additional steps are described: A small pre-test survey, a mapping and a memory test and a performance test of the implemented system.This paper shows the adaptability of the approach described by Wobbrock et al. (2009) for three-dimensional gestures in the smart-home domain. Elicited gestures are described and a first implementation of a user interface based on these gestures is presented.