7,360 research outputs found

    Proceedings of the 10th International congress on architectural technology (ICAT 2024): architectural technology transformation.

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    The profession of architectural technology is influential in the transformation of the built environment regionally, nationally, and internationally. The congress provides a platform for industry, educators, researchers, and the next generation of built environment students and professionals to showcase where their influence is transforming the built environment through novel ideas, businesses, leadership, innovation, digital transformation, research and development, and sustainable forward-thinking technological and construction assembly design

    Beam scanning by liquid-crystal biasing in a modified SIW structure

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    A fixed-frequency beam-scanning 1D antenna based on Liquid Crystals (LCs) is designed for application in 2D scanning with lateral alignment. The 2D array environment imposes full decoupling of adjacent 1D antennas, which often conflicts with the LC requirement of DC biasing: the proposed design accommodates both. The LC medium is placed inside a Substrate Integrated Waveguide (SIW) modified to work as a Groove Gap Waveguide, with radiating slots etched on the upper broad wall, that radiates as a Leaky-Wave Antenna (LWA). This allows effective application of the DC bias voltage needed for tuning the LCs. At the same time, the RF field remains laterally confined, enabling the possibility to lay several antennas in parallel and achieve 2D beam scanning. The design is validated by simulation employing the actual properties of a commercial LC medium

    A view of colonial life in South Australia: An osteological investigation of the health status among 19th-century migrant settlers

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    Studies of human skeletal remains contribute to understanding the extent to which conditions prevailing in various past communities were detrimental to health. Few of these studies have evaluated the situation in which the first European colonists of South Australia lived. Colonial Australian skeletal collections are scarce, especially for research purposes. This makes the 19th-century skeletal remains of individuals, excavated from St Mary’s Cemetery, South Australia, a rare and valuable collection. The overarching aim of this thesis was to investigate the general and oral health of this specific group of 19th-century settlers, through the examination of their skeletons and dentitions. Four research papers in this thesis address this overarching aim. The first two papers determine the general skeletal health of the settlers, with a focus on pathological manifestations on bones associated with metabolic deficiencies and the demands of establishing an industrial society. Paper 3 investigated whether Large Volume Micro- Computed Tomography (LV Micro-CT) could be used as a single technique for the analysis of the in situ dentoalveolar complex of individuals from St Mary’s. This led to a detailed investigation of the dentitions of the St Mary’s sample, in paper 4, with the aims of determining the oral health status of these individuals, and understanding how oral conditions may have influenced their general health. The skeletal remains of 65 individuals (20 adults and 45 subadults) from St Mary’s sample were available for the four component investigations using non-destructive techniques - macroscopic, radiographic and micro-CT methods. Signs of nutritional deficiencies (vitamin C and iron) were identified in Paper 1. The findings of paper 2 showed joint diseases and traumatic fractures were seen and that gastrointestinal and pulmonary conditions were the leading causes of death in subadults and adults respectively. Paper 3 found that the LV Micro-CT technique was the only method able to generate images that allowed the full range of detailed measurements across all the oral health categories studied. A combination of macroscopic and radiographic techniques covered a number of these categories, but was more time-consuming, and did not provide the same level of accuracy or include all measurements. Results for paper 4 confirmed that extensive carious lesions, antemortem tooth loss and evidence of periodontal disease were present in the St Mary’s sample. Developmental defects of enamel (EH) and areas of interglobular dentine (IGD) were identified. Many individuals with dental defects also had skeletal signs of co-morbidities. St Mary’s individuals had a similar percentage of carious lesions as the British sample, which was more than other historic Australian samples, but less than a contemporary New Zealand sample. The 19th-century migrants to the colony of South Australia were faced with multiple challenges such as adapting to local environmental conditions as well as participating in the development of settlements, infrastructure and new industries. Evidence of joint diseases, traumatic injuries and health insults, seen as pathological changes and/ or abnormalities on the bone and/or teeth, confirmed that the settlers' health had been affected. The number of burials in the ‘free ground’ area between the 1840s -1870s was greater than the number in the leased plots, reflecting the economic problems of the colony during these early years. Validation of the reliability and accuracy of the LV Micro-CT system for the analysis of the dentoalveolar complex, in situ within archaeological human skull samples, provided a microanalytical approach for the in-depth investigations of the St Mary’s dentition. Extensive carious lesions, antemortem tooth loss and periodontal disease seen in this group would have affected their general health status. The presence of developmental defects (EH and IGD) indicated that many of the settlers had suffered health insults in childhood to young adulthood. Contemporaneous Australian, New Zealand and British samples had comparable findings suggesting that little improvement had occurred in their oral health since arriving in South Australia. In conclusion, the findings of this investigation largely fulfilled the initial aims. Our understanding of the extent to which conditions prevailing in the new colony were detrimental to human health has increased, as has our knowledge of why pathological manifestations and/or abnormalities were seen on the bones and teeth of individuals from the St Mary’s sample. A multiple-method approach, to derive enhanced information has been shown to be effective, whilst establishing a new methodology (LV Micro-CT) for the analysis of dentition in situ in human archaeological skulls. Further, this investigation has digitally preserved data relating to this historical group of individuals for future comparisons.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Biomedicine, 202

    Підвищення продуктивності низькоенергетичних безпроводових каналів зв’язку сенсорних телекомунікаційних систем

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    Шмігель Б. О. Підвищення продуктивності низькоенергетичних безпроводових каналів зв’язку сенсорних телекомунікаційних систем. – Кваліфікаційна наукова праця на правах рукопису. Дисертація на здобуття наукового ступеня доктора філософії за спеціальністю 172 – Телекомунікації та радіотехніка. – Національний технічний університет України «Київський політехнічний інститут імені Ігоря Сікорського», Київ, 2022. В сучасному світі, життя людини нерозривно пов’язане з обміном інформацією. Надзвичайно швидкими темпами зростають і вимоги користувачів до якості, швидкості і безпеки прийому та передачі даних, зберігаючи при цьому можливість вільного пересування. Задовольняти ці потреби – власне і є ціллю безпроводових мереж. Сенсорні мережі займають ключову роль у разі необхідності оперативного розгортання, мобільності, гнучкості організації мережі і широті можливих додатків, у багатьох випадках будучи єдиним економічно виправданим рішенням. Однією із ключових задач забезпечення функціонування сенсорної мережі є забезпечення надійного та продуктивного передавання інформації в умовах обмежених ресурсів, зокрема, енергетичних. Враховуючи розмір сенсора, основною вимогою до сенсорних мереж – є забезпечення низького енергоспоживання та достовірного прийому. Автономність роботи залежить від енергії, що споживається вузлами системи. Для досягнення достовірного зв’язку, мають місце наступні компоненти: - достатня енергетика (обмежена для сенсорних мереж) - мала швидкість передачі (обмежена вимогами до сенсорних мереж) - інструменти для підтримання достовірності (завадостійке кодування) Під низькою енергетикою будемо вважати відношення сигнал-шум h 2 <10. Параметр h 2 є результатом взаємодії трьох незалежних параметрів: - потужністю сигналу в точці прийому - спектральної щільності шуму - швидкості передачі символів Продуктивність – це фактична швидкість передачі інформації джерела. Ключ до вирішення задачі отримання максимальної продуктивності лежить у площині теорії інформації, засновником якої є К. Шеннон. Інструментом досягнення максимальної продуктивності, як міри наближення швидкості передачі повідомлень джерела до границі Шеннона є вибір оптимальних сигнально-кодових конструкцій, які дозволяють передавати повідомлення з максимально можливою швидкістю і заданою якістю. Міра наближення продуктивності каналу зв’язку до його пропускної здатності характеризує інформаційну ефективність системи передачі інформації. Метою роботи є синтез сигналів, що максимально наближають продуктивність каналу зв’язку до пропускної здатності при обмежених ресурсах каналу. У роботі досліджена актуальна задача підвищення продуктивності низькоенергетичних безпроводових каналів зв’язку. На відміну від традиційних систем безпроводового зв’язку, сенсорна мережа включає велику кількість пристроїв, які повинні передавати інформацію до базової станції. Сенсорні вузли можуть встановлюватися стаціонарно або мати можливість довільно пересуватися в певному просторі, тому вони повинні бути автономними, самоорганізованими та не потребують установки. Область покриття такої мережі вкрай обмежена і може досягати десятки та сотні метрів. Тому однією з головних умов до такої мережі – це забезпечення мінімального енергоспоживання та достовірного прийому в умовах низької енергетики. Основною задачею при побудови сенсорної мережі є достовірна оцінка енергетичних характеристик безпроводового каналу зв’язку. Виходячи із вищесказаного, для розгортання сенсорних мереж актуальним питанням є ефективне проектування сенсорної мережі: необхідна кількість пристроїв, їх характеристики, розміщення, енергетичні характеристики каналів, траси розповсюдження, тощо. Для вирішення обмежень ресурсу каналу зв’язку, перспективним являється пошук нових методів передачі інформації, вибору ефективного виду модуляції та завадостійкого кодування. Основним інструментом для передачі інформації є сигнали багатопозиційної маніпуляції. Вибір поєднання типу модуляції і швидкості завадостійкого коду, забезпечує максимально можливу ефективність, забезпечуючи відповідну надійність каналу зв’язку. В якості розглянутих сигналів обрано сигнали багатопозиційної маніпуляції BPSK, QPSK, QAM16. Високошвидкісні види модуляції не розглядаються, так як сенсорна мережа не передбачує передачу великих масивів інформації, а також має обмежену енергію сигналу. Широкосмугові сигнали є одним з відомих методів для підвищення завадостійкості каналу, але властивості таких сигналів в умовах обмеженого ресурсу та енергії сигналу не досліджені. Для визначення найбільш оптимального способу передачі сигналів в умовах низької енергетики, проведено дослідження властивостей ШСС на основі моделей оцінки якості каналів зв’язку, а також порівняння характеристики завадостійкості з ВСС та еквівалентною енергією сигналу. Для визначення максимальної продуктивності передачі в безпроводових низькоенергетичних каналах зв’язку, необхідно дослідити показники продуктивності використання сигналів заданого виду модуляції та порівняти їх з широкосмуговими сигналами з різними значеннями бази сигналу B. Виявилося, що широкосмугові сигнали не забезпечують кращої достовірності в порівнянні з вузькосмуговими при однаковій потужності випромінювання та способі обробки. Класичні формули для оцінки завадостійкості багатопозиційних сигналів достовірні для високої енергетики, однак для h 2 - 0 не є точними. Тому для точного визначення точної достовірності прийому для таких умов, пропонується використання векторно-фазового методу. Векторно-фазовий метод дозволяє отримати точні розрахунки при будь-якій енергетиці, на відміну від формул Прокіса, що можуть використовуватись тільки для високої енергетики. Загальним підсумком дослідження є оцінка продуктивності СКК, яка дозволяє в каналі з заданими частотно-енергетичними параметрами визначити ефективність використання визначеного виду модуляції та кодування за критерієм наближення до границі Шеннона, або максимуму інформаційної ефективності при заданій достовірності сигналу в точці прийому. Методика дозволяє оцінити ефективність використання ресурсів каналів зв’язку з багатопозиційною маніпуляцією та завадостійким кодуванням, а також кількісно оцінити витрати на реалізацію заходів щодо підвищення достовірності або продуктивності у вимірі запропонованих показників. Дослідження питань підвищення продуктивності низькоенергетичних безпроводових каналів зв’язку забезпечить побудову сенсорних телекомунікаційних систем для успішного виконання поставлених завдань. Новими в дисертації є наступні результати: 1. Вдосконалено використання векторно-фазового методу для визначення завадостійкості багатопозиційних сигналів в умовах низької енергетики. Класичні формули Прокіса не є точними для низької енергетики. 2. Вдосконалено методику синтезу сигналу, яка дозволяє знайти екстремум продуктивності каналу зв’язку та наблизити до його пропускної здатності – границі Шеннона. 3. Вдосконалено методику оцінки ефективності використання ресурсів каналу зв’язку.Shmihel B. Increasing the performance of low-power wireless communication channels of sensor telecommunication systems – Scientific qualification work on the rights of the manuscript. Dissertation for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in technical sciences, specialty 172 - Telecommunications and radio engineering. – National Technical University of Ukraine "Igor Sikorsky Kyiv Polytechnic Institute", Kyiv, 2022. In the modern world, human life is inextricably connected with the exchange of information. User requirements for the quality, speed, and security of receiving and transmitting data are also growing extremely fast while maintaining the possibility of mobility. Satisfying these needs is the purpose of wireless networks. Sensor networks play a key role in the need for rapid deployment, mobility, networking flexibility and a variety of possible applications, in many cases being the only cost-effective solution. One of the key tasks of functioning in the sensor network is to ensure reliable and efficient data transmission in conditions of limited resources. Given the size of the sensor, the main requirement for sensor networks is to provide low power consumption and reliable reception. Their autonomy depends on the energy consumed by the nodes of the system. To achieve the necessary reliability, the following components take place: - sufficient energy (limited for sensor networks) - low transmission rate (limited by requirements for sensor networks) - tools for maintaining reliability (noise-correcting coding) By low energy, we will consider the signal-to-noise ratio h 2 <10. Parameter h 2 is the result of the interaction of three independent parameters: - signal strength at the receiving point - noise spectral density - symbol rate Performance is the actual speed of information transfer of the source. The key to solving the problem of obtaining maximum performance lies in the plane of the theory of information, founded by K. Shannon. The tool for achieving maximum performance, as the approach of the channel performance to its bandwidth, is the choice of optimal signal-code constructions that allow messages to be transmitted at the highest possible speed and with a given quality. The approach of the channel performance to its bandwidth characterizes the information efficiency of the information transmission system. The research aims to synthesize signals that bring the channel performance as close as possible to the throughput with limited channel resources. The research contains the actual problem of increasing productivity in lowenergy wireless communication channels. Unlike traditional wireless communication systems, a sensor network includes many devices that should transmit information to a base station. Sensor nodes can be placed permanently or be able to move in a certain space, so they must be autonomous, self-organized and do not require installation. The coverage area of such a network is extremely limited and can reach tens and hundreds of meters. The main task in building a sensor network is a reliable assessment of the energy characteristics of a wireless communication channel. Based on the foregoing, for the deployment of sensor networks, an important issue is the effective design of a sensor network: the required number of devices, their characteristics, placement, energy characteristics of channels, propagation paths, etc. To solve the limitations of the communication channel, it is promising to search for new methods for transmitting information, choosing an effective type of modulation and error-correcting coding. The basic tool for transmitting information is the signals of multi-position modulation. The choice of a combination of modulation type and error code rate provides the highest possible efficiency while providing adequate reliability to the communication channel. The multi-position modulation signals BPSK, QPSK and QAM16 were chosen as the considered signals. High-speed modulation types are not considered, since the sensor network does not involve the transmission of large amounts of information and has limited signal energy. Broadband signals are one of the well-known methods for improving the noise immunity of a channel, but the properties of such signals under conditions of limited resources and signal energy have not been studied. To determine the most optimal method of signal transmission in low energy conditions, research on the properties of the narrowband signals was carried out based on models for assessing the quality of communication channels and comparing the noise immunity characteristic of wideband signals with equivalent signal energy. To determine the maximum transmission performance in wireless low-energy communication channels, it is necessary to investigate the performance indicators of a given type of modulation signals and compare them with wideband signals with different values of the signal base B. It turned out that wideband signals do not provide better reliability compared to narrowband signals with the same transmission power and processing method. The classical formulas for estimating the noise immunity of multi-position signals are accurate for high energy, but for h2 - 0 they are not accurate. Therefore, to determine the exact reliability for such conditions, it is proposed to use the vectorphase method. The vector-phase method helps to obtain accurate calculations for any energy, in contrast to the Prokis formulas, which can only be used for high energy. The overall result of the research is performance evaluation of signal-code construction, that allows determining the efficiency of using a certain type of modulation and coding in a channel with given frequency and energy parameters according to the criterion of maximum approach to the Shannon bound, or the maximum of information efficiency for given signal reliability. Using this technique, it possible to evaluate the efficiency of using the resources of communication channels with multi-position modulation and error-correcting coding and calculate the costs of implementing measures to improve the reliability or performance of the proposed indicators. Research on improving the performance of low-energy wireless communication channels will help to build sensor telecommunication systems for the successful completion of tasks. Research contains the following new results: 1. The use of the vector-phase method for determining the noise immunity of multi-position signals under low energy conditions has been improved. The classic Prokis formulas are not accurate for low energy. 2. The method of signal synthesis has been improved, which makes it is possible to find the extremum of the communication channel performance and bring it closer to its capacity – the Shannon bounds. 3. The methodology for evaluating the effectiveness of the communication channel resources has been improved

    Soundscape in Urban Forests

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    This Special Issue of Forests explores the role of soundscapes in urban forested areas. It is comprised of 11 papers involving soundscape studies conducted in urban forests from Asia and Africa. This collection contains six research fields: (1) the ecological patterns and processes of forest soundscapes; (2) the boundary effects and perceptual topology; (3) natural soundscapes and human health; (4) the experience of multi-sensory interactions; (5) environmental behavior and cognitive disposition; and (6) soundscape resource management in forests

    Seamless Multimodal Biometrics for Continuous Personalised Wellbeing Monitoring

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    Artificially intelligent perception is increasingly present in the lives of every one of us. Vehicles are no exception, (...) In the near future, pattern recognition will have an even stronger role in vehicles, as self-driving cars will require automated ways to understand what is happening around (and within) them and act accordingly. (...) This doctoral work focused on advancing in-vehicle sensing through the research of novel computer vision and pattern recognition methodologies for both biometrics and wellbeing monitoring. The main focus has been on electrocardiogram (ECG) biometrics, a trait well-known for its potential for seamless driver monitoring. Major efforts were devoted to achieving improved performance in identification and identity verification in off-the-person scenarios, well-known for increased noise and variability. Here, end-to-end deep learning ECG biometric solutions were proposed and important topics were addressed such as cross-database and long-term performance, waveform relevance through explainability, and interlead conversion. Face biometrics, a natural complement to the ECG in seamless unconstrained scenarios, was also studied in this work. The open challenges of masked face recognition and interpretability in biometrics were tackled in an effort to evolve towards algorithms that are more transparent, trustworthy, and robust to significant occlusions. Within the topic of wellbeing monitoring, improved solutions to multimodal emotion recognition in groups of people and activity/violence recognition in in-vehicle scenarios were proposed. At last, we also proposed a novel way to learn template security within end-to-end models, dismissing additional separate encryption processes, and a self-supervised learning approach tailored to sequential data, in order to ensure data security and optimal performance. (...)Comment: Doctoral thesis presented and approved on the 21st of December 2022 to the University of Port

    Harnessing energy for wearables: a review of radio frequency energy harvesting technologies

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    Wireless energy harvesting enables the conversion of ambient energy into electrical power for small wireless electronic devices. This technology offers numerous advantages, including availability, ease of implementation, wireless functionality, and cost-effectiveness. Radio frequency energy harvesting (RFEH) is a specific type of wireless energy harvesting that enables wireless power transfer by utilizing RF signals. RFEH holds immense potential for extending the lifespan of wireless sensors and wearable electronics that require low-power operation. However, despite significant advancements in RFEH technology for self-sustainable wearable devices, numerous challenges persist. This literature review focuses on three key areas: materials, antenna design, and power management, to delve into the research challenges of RFEH comprehensively. By providing an up-to-date review of research findings on RFEH, this review aims to shed light on the critical challenges, potential opportunities, and existing limitations. Moreover, it emphasizes the importance of further research and development in RFEH to advance its state-of-the-art and offer a vision for future trends in this technology

    A Taxonomy of Freehand Grasping Patterns in Virtual Reality

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    Grasping is the most natural and primary interaction paradigm people perform every day, which allows us to pick up and manipulate objects around us such as drinking a cup of coffee or writing with a pen. Grasping has been highly explored in real environments, to understand and structure the way people grasp and interact with objects by presenting categories, models and theories for grasping approach. Due to the complexity of the human hand, classifying grasping knowledge to provide meaningful insights is a challenging task, which led to researchers developing grasp taxonomies to provide guidelines for emerging grasping work (such as in anthropology, robotics and hand surgery) in a systematic way. While this body of work exists for real grasping, the nuances of grasping transfer in virtual environments is unexplored. The emerging development of robust hand tracking sensors for virtual devices now allow the development of grasp models that enable VR to simulate real grasping interactions. However, present work has not yet explored the differences and nuances that are present in virtual grasping compared to real object grasping, which means that virtual systems that create grasping models based on real grasping knowledge, might make assumptions which are yet to be proven true or untrue around the way users intuitively grasp and interact with virtual objects. To address this, this thesis presents the first user elicitation studies to explore grasping patterns directly in VR. The first study presents main similarities and differences between real and virtual object grasping, the second study furthers this by exploring how virtual object shape influences grasping patterns, the third study focuses on visual thermal cues and how this influences grasp metrics, and the fourth study focuses on understanding other object characteristics such as stability and complexity and how they influence grasps in VR. To provide structured insights on grasping interactions in VR, the results are synthesized in the first VR Taxonomy of Grasp Types, developed following current methods for developing grasping and HCI taxonomies and re-iterated to present an updated and more complete taxonomy. Results show that users appear to mimic real grasping behaviour in VR, however they also illustrate that users present issues around object size estimation and generally a lower variability in grasp types is used. The taxonomy shows that only five grasps account for the majority of grasp data in VR, which can be used for computer systems aiming to achieve natural and intuitive interactions at lower computational cost. Further, findings show that virtual object characteristics such as shape, stability and complexity as well as visual cues for temperature influence grasp metrics such as aperture, category, type, location and dimension. These changes in grasping patterns together with virtual object categorisation methods can be used to inform design decisions when developing intuitive interactions and virtual objects and environments and therefore taking a step forward in achieving natural grasping interaction in VR

    Adaptive vehicular networking with Deep Learning

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    Vehicular networks have been identified as a key enabler for future smart traffic applications aiming to improve on-road safety, increase road traffic efficiency, or provide advanced infotainment services to improve on-board comfort. However, the requirements of smart traffic applications also place demands on vehicular networks’ quality in terms of high data rates, low latency, and reliability, while simultaneously meeting the challenges of sustainability, green network development goals and energy efficiency. The advances in vehicular communication technologies combined with the peculiar characteristics of vehicular networks have brought challenges to traditional networking solutions designed around fixed parameters using complex mathematical optimisation. These challenges necessitate greater intelligence to be embedded in vehicular networks to realise adaptive network optimisation. As such, one promising solution is the use of Machine Learning (ML) algorithms to extract hidden patterns from collected data thus formulating adaptive network optimisation solutions with strong generalisation capabilities. In this thesis, an overview of the underlying technologies, applications, and characteristics of vehicular networks is presented, followed by the motivation of using ML and a general introduction of ML background. Additionally, a literature review of ML applications in vehicular networks is also presented drawing on the state-of-the-art of ML technology adoption. Three key challenging research topics have been identified centred around network optimisation and ML deployment aspects. The first research question and contribution focus on mobile Handover (HO) optimisation as vehicles pass between base stations; a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) handover algorithm is proposed and evaluated against the currently deployed method. Simulation results suggest that the proposed algorithm can guarantee optimal HO decision in a realistic simulation setup. The second contribution explores distributed radio resource management optimisation. Two versions of a Federated Learning (FL) enhanced DRL algorithm are proposed and evaluated against other state-of-the-art ML solutions. Simulation results suggest that the proposed solution outperformed other benchmarks in overall resource utilisation efficiency, especially in generalisation scenarios. The third contribution looks at energy efficiency optimisation on the network side considering a backdrop of sustainability and green networking. A cell switching algorithm was developed based on a Graph Neural Network (GNN) model and the proposed energy efficiency scheme is able to achieve almost 95% of the metric normalised energy efficiency compared against the “ideal” optimal energy efficiency benchmark and is capable of being applied in many more general network configurations compared with the state-of-the-art ML benchmark

    Volume 45: Full Issue

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    Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 50th Anniversary Edition: Becoming a Polytechni
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