Mobility in the Advent of Autonomous Driving – Toward an Understanding of User Acceptance and Quality Perception Factors

Recent advancements in intelligent technologies and sensor-based data collections pave the way for autonomous driving and facilitate a radical transformation of today’s mobility. Based on auspicious market projections, traditional automotive manufacturers and technology companies invest heavily in the development of autonomous vehicles (AVs). In addition to the profits that the industry expects from self-driving vehicles, this new type of mobility should also solve societal issues like reducing traffic accidents and fatalities by eliminating human driving errors. More efficient autonomous driving is expected to bring improvements in terms of fewer congestions and less fuel consumption, thereby reducing greenhouse emissions. Besides, AVs pledge to entail advantages for their users. Specifically, they increase mobility for the disabled and the older generation. In contrast, younger passengers associate autonomous driving with improved productivity and an enhanced hedonic experience as non-driving activities, such as working or watching a movie, are made possible. Contrary to the above expectations, people also raise concerns regarding self-driving vehicles. They are worried about whether the sensors and systems can correctly interpret complex environmental conditions. Above all, there are doubts whether the technology, even being intelligent, can react appropriately in critical traffic situations made up of humans who sometimes behave unpredictably. In case of unavoidable traffic accidents, ethical questions come into play regarding how the vehicle makes decisions that could result in a person being injured or killed. Finally, the new and sophisticated technology could have vulnerabilities that can be exploited by cybercriminals or allow unauthorized third parties to obtain passenger data. Motivated by the anticipated improvements that AVs entail and the breadth of factors that might influence their adoption, a large body of research investigating relevant adoption factors has accumulated. In order to collect, organize, and combine extant findings, research paper A conducts a structured literature review on the acceptance of autonomous vehicles. Based on 58 articles, it develops an AV acceptance framework consisting of individual user characteristics, vehicle characteristics, and political/societal elements. The framework indicates for each factor whether available research results identify the effect as either positively or negatively significant. Thereby, the paper also sheds light on diverging construct operationalizations, aiming to support researchers in comparing available findings. Eventually, paper A proposes future research avenues across various themes and methods, which build a foundation for further research pursued in this dissertation’s subsequent papers. However, solely balancing significant against non-significant results can come to wrong conclusions since the sample size alone can lead to varying significance levels. Because of this, paper B builds on the literature review and conducts a meta-analysis to include further quantitative analyses. It calculates the mean effect sizes for each AV acceptance factor based on published research results. By doing so, the paper identifies attitude, perceived usefulness, efficiency, trust in AVs, safety, and subjective norms to correlate most strongly with the behavioral intention to use an automated car. A subsequent moderator-analysis shows that almost all acceptance factors are influenced by the study’s methodology and location, the AV’s level of automation, and the examined ownership model, i.e., private cars, car sharing, or public transport. In doing so, paper B observes that most of the available research is on privately owned AVs and hence lacks to assess public as well as shared automated mobility. To fill this gap, paper C investigates characteristics relevant for automated mobility as a service (AMaaS). Based on 23 exploratory interviews with the general public, the paper derives a set of AMaaS requirements. Mobility experts sort these requirements based on commonalities so that a cluster analysis can conceptualize the expected AMaaS characteristics from a practitioner’s view. The paper identifies traffic safety, information privacy, cybersecurity, regulations, flexibility, accessibility, efficiency, and convenience to be relevant service characteristics. It discusses each required characteristic and thereby delineates the constructs’ scopes so that subsequent research can build appropriate measurement instruments. Besides, paper C discovers strongly diverging priorities regarding the respective service characteristics when comparing the potential users’ conversation shares with the experts’ relevance ratings. Paper D builds on the qualitative results of paper C as it develops and validates a hierarchical quality scale for AMaaS. The paper proposes a theoretical model and operationalizes the previously identified service characteristics. Throughout multiple empirical studies with 1,431 participants, the proposed quality scale is refined iteratively until satisfactory psychometric properties are achieved. Nomological validity ensures the scale’s predictability. Paper D progresses research from focussing on the mere acceptance of autonomous driving to the user’s quality perception, which significantly influences user satisfaction and the success of AMaaS. This, in turn, is necessary to realize the promised benefits of autonomous driving in a sustainable manner

Digitalization: The New Digital Consumer and the Change of Companies Value Chain

The world has changed dramatically within the last 10 years; it has changed much more in the past decade than in the last 70 years all together. The Internethype in the years 2000/ 2001 has already been a sign for a fundamental change and the impact of new media on our lives. Anyway the Internet exploded as the time has not been ready. Today companies are faced with a completely different environment: global competition, global communication, and global information transparency and last but not least: an end consumer that behaves completely different than 10 years ago which basically impacts on all companies, if operating globally or locally. Digital media and channels are dominating the search behavior and even online purchase is becoming much more important, depending on the product category. This should be the topic of the thesis: Digitalization: Chances and Risks for multinational companies with B2B focu

Antenatal oligohydramnios of renal origin: long-term outcome

Background. Prognosis of fetuses with renal oligohydramnios (ROH) is often still regarded as poor. Neonatal complications and the long-term follow-up of fetuses with ROH in two pediatric centres are described. Method. 23 fetuses (16 males, 7 females) were included as patients. Primary diseases included congenital anomalies of the kidney and urinary tract (n = 16), autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (n = 4) and renal tubular dysgenesis (n = 3). The analysis includes retrospective chart review. Results. Seven children died (30%), the majority (n = 4, 17%) within the neonatal period due to pulmonary hypoplasia and renal insufficiency. Fourteen patients (61%) required postnatal mechanical ventilation for a median of 4 (range 1-60) days; 11 infants had an associated pneumothorax. All 16 surviving children have chronic kidney disease (CKD) at a current median age of 5.7 years (range 0.5-14.5), managed conservatively in eight patients [median glomerular filtration rate 51 (range 20-78) ml/min/1.73 m2]. Eight patients reached end-stage renal disease at a median age of 0.3 years (range 2 days to 8.3 years), including one patient with pre-emptive kidney transplantation. Five of the patients requiring dialysis underwent successful renal transplantation at a median age of 3.5 years (range 2.5-4). Growth was impaired in seven children requiring growth hormone treatment. Cognitive and motor development was normal in 12 (75%) of the 16 patients and showed a delay in four children, including two with associated syndromal features. Conclusion. ROH is not always associated with a poor prognosis and long-term outcome in survivors is encouraging. The high incidence of neonatal complications and long-term morbidity due to CKD requires a multidisciplinary management of these childre

Recurrence of severe steroid dependency in cyclosporin A-treated childhood idiopathic nephrotic syndrome

Background. In patients with steroid-dependent nephrotic syndrome (SDNS), long-term remission (LTR) can usually be achieved with cyclosporin A (CSA), after alternative treatment with cytotoxic drugs or levamisole has failed. Nevertheless, severe SDNS recurs in some patients despite CSA maintenance therapy. Few data are available on the clinical course and treatment strategies in these patients. Methods. We carried out a retrospective chart analysis of 46 patients with SDNS treated with CSA, after failure of cyctotoxic treatment with cyclophosphamide (CPO). Median age at primary manifestation was 3.0 years (range 0.8-6.9) and median current age is 20.4 years (range 8.6-29.1). Patients were recruited from three centres caring for a total of 186 patients with steroid-sensitive nephrotic syndrome. Results. In 14 of the 46 patients (30%; 10 male), severe SDNS recurred again despite CSA maintenance therapy. Seven patients relapsed beyond the age of 18 years. Nine of 14 patients received a further course of cytotoxic treatment as first intervention: six were treated with chlorambucil (CLA) and three with CPO. Four of the CLA-treated patients remained in LTR in contrast to none after CPO. Five patients received levamisole after CSA: only one went into LTR, while in one other CSA could be discontinued although further relapses occurred. One further patient was switched to CLA after levamisole, finally inducing LTR. Overall, six patients required two or more drugs, and in four of these CSA maintenance ultimately had to be restarted. Conclusion. We conclude that SDNS can recur in patients despite CSA maintenance therapy. Treatment strategies for this subgroup of patients are complex and should be standardized to optimize long-term outcome. A subgroup of patients with childhood SDNS continues to relapse into adulthoo

Enteropathisches hämolytisch-urämisches Syndrom: Sporadischer Einzelfall oder Teil eines Krankheitsausbruchs?

Das hämolytisch-urämische Syndrom (HUS) ist ein lebensbedrohlicher Zustand, charakterisiert durch akutes Nierenversagen, hämolytische Anämie und Thrombozytopenie. In >80% der Fälle liegen gastrointestinale Infektionen mit enterohämorrhagischen Escherichia coli (EHEC) zugrunde. Diese enterisch-infektiöse (enteropathische) Form des HUS tritt meist bei Kindern unter 6 Jahren auf. Da u. U. rasch eine Blutreinigung eingeleitet werden muss, sollten die Betroffenen in spezialisierten Kinderdialysezentren behandelt werden. Aufgrund der überwiegend enterisch-infektiösen Ätiologie können vereinzelt auftretende Fälle wichtige Hinweise auf Erkrankungshäufungen liefern. In Deutschland treten Infektionen mit einer seltenen Sorbitol fermentierenden Variante von EHEC O157 auf, die schon mehrfach in HUS-Krankheitsausbrüchen mit Todesfällen resultierten. Bereits der Verdacht sowie die Erkrankung oder der Tod an enteropathischem HUS sind durch den feststellenden Arzt unverzüglich an das zuständige Gesundheitsamt zu melden. Dadurch können zeitnah Maßnahmen zur Verhinderung der Ausbreitung der Infektion getroffen werden. Die epidemischen Aspekte des EHEC-assoziierten HUS werden dargestellt, und Kinderärzten Hilfestellungen im Hinblick auf eine frühzeitige Diagnose und Meldung gegeben.Hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is a life-threatening condition characterized by acute renal failure, hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia. More than 80% of pediatric HUS is caused by infection with enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). EHEC-associated HUS mainly affects children under six years of age. HUS patients should be treated in specialized clinics, which are able to provide dialysis. Importantly, sporadic cases of HUS can signalize outbreaks of EHEC infections. In Germany, a rare sorbitol-fermenting variant of EHEC O157 caused several large HUS outbreaks with fatal cases. Physicians are required to notify every suspected, confirmed or fatal case of HUS to their local health department, thereby enabling public health authorities to intervene promptly. This article describes the epidemic aspects of EHEC-associated HUS and assists physicians and pediatricians in terms of timely diagnosis and notification

Chitin Modulates Innate Immune Responses of Keratinocytes

Chitin, after cellulose the second most abundant polysaccharide in nature, is an essential component of exoskeletons of crabs, shrimps and insects and protects these organisms from harsh conditions in their environment. Unexpectedly, chitin has been found to activate innate immune cells and to elicit murine airway inflammation. The skin represents the outer barrier of the human host defense and is in frequent contact with chitin-bearing organisms, such as house-dust mites or flies. The effects of chitin on keratinocytes, however, are poorly understood. We hypothesized that chitin stimulates keratinocytes and thereby modulates the innate immune response of the skin. Here we show that chitin is bioactive on primary and immortalized keratinocytes by triggering production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines. Chitin stimulation further induced the expression of the Toll-like receptor (TLR) TLR4 on keratinocytes at mRNA and protein level. Chitin-induced effects were mainly abrogated when TLR2 was blocked, suggesting that TLR2 senses chitin on keratinocytes. We speculate that chitin-bearing organisms modulate the innate immune response towards pathogens by upregulating secretion of cytokines and chemokines and expression of MyD88-associated TLRs, two major components of innate immunity. The clinical relevance of this mechanism remains to be defined

Dialysis-associated peritonitis in children

Peritonitis remains a frequent complication of peritoneal dialysis in children and is the most common reason for technique failure. The microbiology is characterized by a predominance of Gram-positive organisms, with fungi responsible for less than 5% of episodes. Data collected by the International Pediatric Peritonitis Registry have revealed a worldwide variation in the bacterial etiology of peritonitis, as well as in the rate of culture-negative peritonitis. Risk factors for infection include young age, the absence of prophylactic antibiotics at catheter placement, spiking of dialysis bags, and the presence of a catheter exit-site or tunnel infection. Clinical symptoms at presentation are somewhat organism specific and can be objectively assessed with a Disease Severity Score. Whereas recommendations for empiric antibiotic therapy in children have been published by the International Society of Peritoneal Dialysis, epidemiologic data and antibiotic susceptibility data suggest that it may be desirable to take the patient- and center-specific history of microorganisms and their sensitivity patterns into account when prescribing initial therapy. The vast majority of patients are treated successfully and continue peritoneal dialysis, with the poorest outcome noted in patients with peritonitis secondary to Gram-negative organisms or fungi and in those with a relapsing infection

Cell penetration, herbicidal activity, and in-vivo-toxicity of oligo-arginine derivatives and of novel guanidinium-rich compounds derived from the biopolymer cyanophycin Grogg, Marcel and Hilvert, Donald and Ebert, Marc-Olivier and Beck, Albert K. and Seebach, Dieter and Kurth, Felix and Dittrich, Petra S. and Sparr, C. and Wittlin, Sergio and Rottmann, Matthias and Mäser, Pascal

Oligo‐arginines are thoroughly studied cell‐penetrating peptides (CPPs, Figures 1 and 2). Previous in‐vitro investigations with the octaarginine salt of the phosphonate fosmidomycin (herbicide and anti‐malaria drug) have shown a 40‐fold parasitaemia inhibition with P. falciparum, compared to fosmidomycin alone (Figure 3). We have now tested this salt, as well as the corresponding phosphinate salt of the herbicide glufosinate, for herbicidal activity with whole plants by spray application, hoping for increased activities, i.e. decreased doses. However, both salts showed low herbicidal activity, indicating poor foliar uptake (Table 1). Another pronounced difference between in‐vitro and in‐vivo activity was demonstrated with various cell‐penetrating octaarginine salts of fosmidomycin: intravenous injection to mice caused exitus of the animals within minutes, even at doses as low as 1.4 μmol/kg (Table 2). The results show that use of CPPs for drug delivery, for instance to cancer cells and tissues, must be considered with due care. The biopolymer cyanophycin is a poly‐aspartic acid containing argininylated side chains (Figure 4); its building block is the dipeptide H‐βAsp‐αArg‐OH (H‐Adp‐OH). To test and compare the biological properties with those of octaarginines we synthesized Adp8‐derivatives (Figure 5). Intravenouse injection of H‐Adp8‐NH2 into the tail vein of mice with doses as high as 45 μmol/kg causes no symptoms whatsoever (Table 3), but H‐Adp8‐NH2 is not cell penetrating (HEK293 and MCF‐7 cells, Figure 6). On the other hand, the fluorescently labeled octamers FAM‐(Adp(OMe))8‐NH2 and FAM‐(Adp(NMe2))8‐NH2 with ester and amide groups in the side chains exhibit mediocre to high cell‐wall permeability (Figure 6), and are toxic (Table 3). Possible reasons for this behavior are discussed (Figure 7) and corresponding NMR spectra are presented (Figure 8)

Mutation analysis of 18 nephronophthisis associated ciliopathy disease genes using a DNA pooling and next generation sequencing strategy

Background Nephronophthisis associated ciliopathies (NPHP-AC) comprise a group of autosomal recessive cystic kidney diseases that includes nephronophthisis (NPHP), Senior-Loken syndrome (SLS), Joubert syndrome (JBTS), and Meckel-Gruber syndrome (MKS). To date, causative mutations in NPHP-AC have been described for 18 different genes, rendering mutation analysis tedious and expensive. To overcome the broad genetic locus heterogeneity, a strategy of DNA pooling with consecutive massively parallel resequencing (MPR) was devised.Methods In 120 patients with severe NPHP-AC phenotypes, five pools of genomic DNA with 24 patients each were prepared which were used as templates in order to PCR amplify all 376 exons of 18 NPHP-AC genes (NPHP1, INVS, NPHP3, NPHP4, IQCB1, CEP290, GLIS2, RPGRIP1L, NEK8, TMEM67, INPP5E, TMEM216, AHI1, ARL13B, CC2D2A, TTC21B, MKS1, and XPNPEP3). PCR products were then subjected to MPR on an Illumina Genome-Analyser and mutations were subsequently assigned to their respective mutation carrier via CEL I endonuclease based heteroduplex screening and confirmed by Sanger sequencing.Results For proof of principle, DNA from patients with known mutations was used and detection of 22 out of 24 different alleles (92% sensitivity) was demonstrated. MPR led to the molecular diagnosis in 30/120 patients (25%) and 54 pathogenic mutations (27 novel) were identified in seven different NPHP-AC genes. Additionally, in 24 patients only single heterozygous variants of unknown significance were found.Conclusions The combined approach of DNA pooling followed by MPR strongly facilitates mutation analysis in broadly heterogeneous single gene disorders. The lack of mutations in 75% of patients in this cohort indicates further extensive heterogeneity in NPHP-AC