The space of metrics of positive scalar curvature

We study the topology of the space of positive scalar curvature metrics on high dimensional spheres and other spin manifolds. Our main result provides elements of infinite order in higher homotopy and homology groups of these spaces, which, in contrast to previous approaches, are of infinite order and survive in the (observer) moduli space of such metrics. Along the way we construct smooth fiber bundles over spheres whose total spaces have non-vanishing A-hat-genera, thus establishing the non-multiplicativity of the A-hat-genus in fibre bundles with simply connected base.Comment: 24 pages, v2: minor additions and corrections, based in particular on comments of referees, v3: minor corrections, final version, to appear in Publ.Math. IHE

Prä- und postoperative neuropsychiatrische Befunde bei Patienten mit primärem Hyperparathyreoidismus

Fragestellung vorliegender Untersuchung ist die Häufigkeit und die Veränderung neuropsychiatrischer Symptome bei Patienten mit primärem Hyperparathyreoidismus vor und nach Parathyreoidektomie. Es wurden die folgenden zwei Hypothesen überprüft und bestätigt. Erstens: Patienten mit pHPT zeigen mehr und stärkere neuropsychiatrische Symptome als nicht-pHPT-Patienten, die ebenfalls operativen Stressoren ausgesetzt sind und zweitens: pHPT-Patienten zeigen bereits wenige Tage nach Parathyreoidektomie eine Reduktion neuropsychiatrischer Befunde in Häufigkeit und Schweregrad. Untersucht wurden 39 zufällig ausgewählte pHPT-Patienten im mittleren Alter von 63 Jahren (Mittelwert 62,7; SD 9,9) und eine Kontrollgruppe aus 22 Patienten mit euthyreoter Struma im mittleren Alter von 52 Jahren (Mittelwert 51,8; SD 14,6) der Klinik für Allgemeinchirurgie des Zentrums für Operative Medizin I im Klinikum der Phillipps-Universität Marburg. Alle Studienteilnehmer wurden am Tage vor und drei Tage nach ihrer Operation mit Selbst- und Fremdbeurteilungsverfahren der Depressivität (HAMD, MADRS, BDI), der psychischen Beeinträchtigung (SCL-90-R) und kognitiven Leistungstests (Benton-Test, d2, KAI) in einer standardisierten Testsituation untersucht. Patienten mit pHPT zeigen präoperativ insgesamt mehr depressive Symptome in der Fremdbeurteilung (MADRS, HAMD), eine höhere psychische Beeinträchtigung (SCL-90-R) und geringere kognitive Leistungsfähigkeit (d2, KAI, Benton-Test) als Patienten mit euthyreoter Struma. Obwohl die Patienten mit pHPT postoperativ eine signifikante Reduktion auffälliger Befunde zeigen, bestehen weiterhin signifikante Unterschiede zu den Struma-Patienten in der psychischen Beeinträchtigung (SCL-90-R) und der kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit (d2, KAI, Benton-Test)

Towards a real-time capable plug & produce environment for adaptable factories

Industrial manufacturing is currently undergoing a transformation from mass production with inflexible production systems to individual production with adaptable cells. In order to ensure this adaptability of these systems, technologies such as plug & produce are needed, to integrate, modify and remove devices at runtime. Therefor an exact description of the system, the products and the capabilities / skills of the devices is essential as well as a network for communication between the devices. Deterministic data transmission is particularly important for distributed control systems. We propose an architecture for plug & produce mechanisms with hard real-time capable communication paths between the cyber-physical components using OPC UA PubSub over TSN and the ability to load and execute real-time critical tasks at runtime

RealCaPP: Real-time capable Plug & Produce communication platform with OPC UA over TSN for distributed industrial robot control

The industry of tomorrow is changing from central hierarchical industrial and robot controls to distributed controls on the industrial shop floor. These fundamental changes in network structure make it possible to implement technologies such as Plug & Produce. In other words, to integrate, change and remove devices without much effort at runtime. In order to achieve this goal, a uniform architecture with defined interfaces is necessary to establish real-time communication between the varying devices. Therefore, we propose an approach to use the combination of OPC UA and TSN to automatically configure real-time capable communication paths between robots and other cyber-physical components and execute real-time critical tasks in the distributed control system

Software-defined testing facility for component testing with industrial robots

A key aspect of industry 4.0 is the transition of production to batch size one and consequently unique dimensions and structures of components for each product. Since many components are only available in small quantities it is not feasible to design expensive test benches for each of these components, however it is still important to test them to ensure the quality of each individual component. Therefore, we propose an approach for a flexibly programmable robotic test bench for destructive component testing of various components. This includes a concept for planning and execution of different test movements in a component test on robotic test benches and a unified data platform for controlling sensor-based motions as well as the recording of test data

CASP: Computer Aided Specimen Placement for robot-based component testing

The manufacturing industry is undergoing a significant transformation in the context of Industry 4.0, and production is shifting from mass products to individual products of batch size one. Moreover, the increasing complexity of components, e.g., due to additive manufacturing, makes the testing setups of components even more complex. Due to the low quantities of the components, it is not profitable to build test benches for each individual component to test a large number of different forces and torsions to ensure the needed product quality. In order to be able to test various components flexibly through different motions, we developed a concept to perform robot-based destructive component testing with industrial robots. The six degrees of freedom and the broad working range of an industrial robot make it possible to apply forces and torques to different products. Since industrial robots cannot apply the same forces and torques in all axis positions, a position must be calculated whe re the specimen can be tested. Therefore, we propose an approach for automatic specimen placement, which includes a format to map applicable forces and torques of industrial robots. Furthermore, we present an algorithmic approach to execute an automatic feasibility check for the required test motions and an automatic specimen placement using an exemplary robot-based component testing bench

Sensor-guided motions for robot-based component testing

This paper presents the use of sensor-guided motions for robot-based component testing to compensate the robot’s path deviations under load. We implemented two different sensor-guided motions consisting of a 3D camera system to minimize the absolute deviation and a force/torque sensor mounted directly to the robot’s end effector to minimize occurring transverse forces and torques. We evaluated these two sensor-guided motions in our testing facility with a classical tensile test and a heavy-duty industrial robot. From the obtained results, it can be stated, that transverse forces as well as the absolute deviation were significantly reduced

Macroscopic Self-Organized Electrochemical Patterns in Excitable Tissue and Irreversible Thermodynamics

Abstract In this paper we make the assertion that the key to understand the emergent properties of excitable tissue (brain and heart) lies in the application of irreversible thermodynamics. We support this assertion by pointing out where symmetry break, phase transitions both in structure of membranes as well as in the dynamic of interactions between membranes occur in excitable tissue and how they create emergent low dimensional electrochemical patterns. These patterns are expressed as physiological or physiopathological concomitants of the organ or organism behavior. We propose that a set of beliefs about the nature of biological membranes and their interactions are hampering progress in the physiology of excitable tissue. We will argue that while there is no direct evidence to justify the belief that quantum mechanics has anything to do with macroscopic patterns expressed in excitable tissue, there is plenty of evidence in favor of irreversible thermodynamics. Some key predictions have been fulfilled long time ago and they have been ignored by the mainstream literature. Dissipative structures and phase transitions appear to be a better conceptual context to discuss biological self-organization. The central role of time as a global coupling agent is emphasized in the interpretation of the presented results