„Attention and Mind-Wandering in Contemporary German Children’s and Young Adult Metafiction

In this article, we draw upon cognitive sciences, narratology, and media studies to investigate the interrelation between metafiction, attention, and mind-wandering in two works of German children’s and young adult metafiction: Michael Ende’s Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story) from 1979 and Cornelia Funke’s Tintenherz (Inkheart) published in 2003. Both works are attention narratives in that they employ textual strategies such as foregrounding, metalepsis, narratorial commentary, or intermedial references to guide their readers’ attention and point them to aspects of their mediality. Moreover, we explore metafiction’s effects on mind-wandering, that is, moments in which our minds stray from the here and now to engage in introspective thought and imagination. We contend that metafiction, due to its high attentional demands, can reduce the overall frequency and duration of mind-wandering, but that it can also, on the other hand, facilitate text-related mind-wandering, as-sociated with productive, on-task reflections and meta-awareness

Der Einfluss des Magic Angle Effekts auf das Magnetisierungstransferverhältnis zur Charakterisierung von Meniskusgewebe mit Hilfe der Magnetresonanztomographie bei 9,4 Tesla

Der Hauptauslöser für Knieschmerzen ist Arthrose, die oft durch Meniskusschäden verursacht wird. In der MR-Bildgebung wird häufig die transversale Relaxationszeit T2 als Marker für degenerative Erkrankungen herangezogen, da sie sowohl von der Hydratation des Gewebes, als auch von seiner biochemischen Zusammensetzung abhängt. Allerdings ist T2 aufgrund des Magic-Angle- (MA-) Effekts von der Lage der Kollagenfasern des Meniskus relativ zum statischen Magnetfeld abhängig, was zu falsch-positiven Diagnosen von Meniskusschäden führen kann. Daher wird neben T2 in dieser Arbeit das Magnetisierungstransferverhältnis (MTR) untersucht, welches den Austausch von Magnetisierung zwischen einem gebundenen und einem freien Wasserpool beschreibt und von der Größe der beiden Pools abhängig ist. In dieser Arbeit wird der Einfluss des MA-Effekts auf T2- und MTR-Karten von isolierten Schweinemenisken bei 9,4T untersucht. Insbesondere soll dabei die Frage geklärt werden, ob mit Hilfe des MTRs degenerierte Bereiche im Meniskus lokalisiert und gleichzeitig Fehlinterpretationen und Artefakte aufgrund des MA-Effekts vermieden werden können. In gesunden Menisken steigt T2 von 8-9ms bei paralleler Ausrichtung auf 14-15ms im magischen Winkel (54,7°) an. Das MTR hingegen ist von der Orientierung der Kollagenfasern unabhängig. Mit Hilfe eines in vitro-Degenerationsmodells konnte gezeigt werden, dass T2 sich aufgrund des MA-Effektes nicht eignet, degenerierte Bereiche des Meniskus zu lokalisieren. Im Gegensatz dazu war das MTR in den degenerierten Bereichen bis zu 20% niedriger als im gesunden Meniskus, sodass eine genauere Lokalisierung des degenerierten Gewebes möglich war. Dieses Verhalten des MTRs könnte für in vivo-Studien von Vorteil sein, da es Fehlinterpretation durch den MA-Effekt verhindert und die Positionierung des Knies im MR-Tomographen flexibler macht

Attention and Mind-Wandering in Contemporary German Children’s and Young Adult Metafiction

In this article, we draw upon cognitive sciences, narratology, and media studies to investigate the interrelation between metafiction, attention, and mind-wandering in two works of German children’s and young adult metafiction: Michael Ende’s Die unendliche Geschichte (The Neverending Story) from 1979 and Cornelia Funke’s Tintenherz (Inkheart) published in 2003. Both works are attention narratives in that they employ textual strategies such as foregrounding, metalepsis, narratorial commentary, or intermedial references to guide their readers’ attention and point them to aspects of their mediality. Moreover, we explore metafiction’s effects on mind-wandering, that is, moments in which our minds stray from the here and now to engage in introspective thought and imagination. We contend that metafiction, due to its high attentional demands, can reduce the overall frequency and duration of mind-wandering, but that it can also, on the other hand, facilitate text-related mind-wandering, associated with productive, on-task reflections and meta-awareness

Progress in Autonomous Picking as Demonstrated by the Amazon Robotic Challenge

The automation of the picking process is a longheld dream in intra-logistics. while the expert judgment in recent years was, that there is no immediate applicability to be expected for applications in areas, where the variety of products is high. However, the recent advances in computer science, mechanical engineering and material handling systems design have moved the field substantially forward. In this article we want to show, how the Amazon Robotic Challenge has driven this development process and how capable the technology is. The Amazon robotic Challenge (ARC) and its increasingly difficult challenges are described first. Then the applied technology in soft- and hardware and its performance increase are described. The performance of important participants in the past is estimated and finally the approach of the team IFLpiro is presented. Finally, the impact of the results on the future implementation of material handling systems is discussed

Progress in Autonomous Picking as Demonstrated by the Amazon Robotics Challenge

Poster 1

Simultaneous sensor placement and pressure reducing valve localization for pressure control of water distribution systems

Many studies on pressure sensor (PS) placement and pressure reducing valve (PRV) localization in water distribution systems (WDSs) have been made with the objective of improving water leakage detection and pressure reduction, respectively. However, due to varying operation conditions, it is expected to realize pressure control using a number of PSs and PRVs to keep minimum operating pressure in real-time. This study aims to investigate the PS placement and PRV localization for the purpose of pressure control system design for WDSs. For such a control system, a PS should be positioned to represent the pressure patterns of a region of the WDS. Correspondingly, a PRV should be located to achieve a maximum pressure reduction between two neighboring regions. According to these considerations, an approach based on the k-means++ method for simultaneously determining the numbers and positions of both PSs and PRVs is proposed. Results from three case studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the suggested approach. It is shown that the sensors positioned have a high accuracy of pressure representation and the valves localized lead to a significant pressure reduction