Enabling Automated Integration Testing of Smart Farming Applications via Digital Twin Prototypes

Industry 4.0 represents a major technological shift that has the potential to transform the manufacturing industry, making it more efficient, productive, and sustainable. Smart farming is a concept that involves the use of advanced technologies to improve the efficiency and sustainability of agricultural practices. Industry 4.0 and smart farming are closely related, as many of the technologies used in smart farming are also used in Industry 4.0. Digital twins have the potential for cost-effective software development of such applications. With our Digital Twin Prototype approach, all sensor interfaces are integrated into the development process, and their inputs and outputs of the emulated hardware match those of the real hardware. The emulators respond to the same commands and return identically formatted data packages as their real counterparts, making the Digital Twin Prototype a valid source of a digital shadow, i.e. the Digital Twin Prototype is a prototype of the physical twin and can replace it for automated testing of the digital twin software. In this paper, we present a case study for employing our Digital Twin Prototype approach to automated testing of software for improving the making of silage with a smart farming application. Besides automated testing with continuous integration, we also discuss continuous deployment of modular Docker containers in this context.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, 1 table, conference, In the Proceedings Of The 2023 IEEE International Conference on Digital Twin (Digital Twin 2023

Photochemical Water Oxidation at Dynamic Self-Assembled Interfaces

Within the scope of this thesis, different approaches towards photochemical and chemical water oxidations have been investigated. Metal-complex-functionalized vesicles catalyzed visible light-driven water oxidation. A replacement of the single molecule photosensitizers by quantum dots was investigated and an photochemical recycling of Ce(IV) was studied. Chapter 1 reviews the development of chemical and photochemical systems for artificial photosynthesis at dynamic self-assembled interfaces. The chapter highlights the most important reports on water oxidation, photocatalytic hydrogen production, overall water splitting systems and photocatalytic CO2 reduction in vesicular and micellar systems, respectively. The role of the interface such as charge separation, back electron transfer suppression, solubilization or protection of sensitive intermediates is discussed for every mentioned system and a short outlook is provided. Chapter 2 deals with the development of functionalized phospholipid bilayer vesicles for visible light-driven water oxidation. Molecular water oxidation catalysts and photosensitizers were modified with alkyl chains and co-embedded into phospholipid membranes to prepare functionalized small unilamellar vesicles. These aggregates photocatalytically produced molecular oxygen when irradiated with blue light from LEDs in phosphate buffer. The two dimensional assembly of photosensitizers and catalysts at the vesicle-water interface allowed photocatalytic water oxidation at very low overall catalyst concentrations of 500 nM, which are inoperable in homogeneous solutions. Functionalized, rigid gel phase membranes obtained the highest TONs. This indicates that phase separation enhances the photocatalytic activity of the assembly by clustering and limited dynamics of the embedded compounds. The concept of membrane co-embedding can be applied to various combinations, ratios and concentrations of photosensitizers and water oxidizing catalysts, providing a new approach to artificial photosynthesis. Chapter 3 describes the attempt to use colloidal quantum dots as photosensitizers in photochemical water oxidation. Differently-sized CdSe quantum dots with several ligand environments were synthesized and characterized. Vesicular and homogeneous systems for photochemical water oxidation with quantum dots and homogeneous water oxidation catalysts have been prepared. Different combinations and ratios of quantum dots and catalysts were investigated towards oxygen evolution. A fluorescence quenching study revealed a charge transfer from quantum dots to methyl viologen and to a water oxidation catalyst, respectively. Regardless of the combinations and ratios of different quantum dots and water oxidation catalysts, no working photocatalytic water oxidation system was achieved. Chapter 4 deals with the photocatalytic regeneration of the chemical oxidant Ce(IV), a commonly used agent for the chemical oxidation of water. Typical water oxidation catalysts reach higher catalytic activities under chemical water oxidation conditions. Therefore, the photochemical recycling of Ce(IV) could enhance visible light-driven water oxidation reaction. Different approaches to detect the generation of Ce(IV) by UV/Vis spectroscopy under photochemical water oxidation conditions were examined. Unfortunately, no system could fulfill the requirements due to unwanted side-reactions during the irradiation. The photochemical regeneration of ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) with the photocatalysts triphenyl pyrylium (TPP) or 9-mesityl-10-methylacridinium (Acr+-Mes) was investigated. The system utilizing TPP proved to be not suitable due to the interaction of CAN and the light of 400 nm wavelength. The Acr+-Mes containing solutions also decreased the turnover of the water oxidation catalyst. In conclusion, the photochemical recycling of Ce(IV) could not be realized

Explosion Loading on Equipment from CFD Simulations

PresentationExplosion studies using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) are performed on daily basis among safety consultants all over the world. The purpose of the explosion studies is usually to give guidance on required design strength of equipment, piping, blast walls or buildings. One key element is to translate the results from an explosion simulation, into actual forces on equipment. Major weaknesses exist in the current approaches for estimation of loads on small and medium sized equipment. Hansen et al. (2014) demonstrated how loads on rectangular equipment could be estimated by combining free field form drag and pressure gradient. In the current work it is discussed how best to estimate loads onto other types of equipment including cylindrical pipes, pipe bundles and other shapes, and some comparisons and validation against large scale experiments are also included. The main findings of this work are the more accurate guidance on how best to extract explosion loads from simulations, including discussons on appropriate drag coefficients

Die Bedeutung der Klimafinanzierung für den Pariser Klimagipfel 2015

In der Klimafinanzierung spiegeln sich grundlegende Fragen der globalen Klimapolitik wider. Dabei steht nicht nur die Verteilung von Geldern im Mittelpunkt. Viel wichtiger ist die Frage, ob und wie es gelingen kann, die Schwellenländer an Maßnahmen und an der Finanzierung zur Milderung des Klimawandels zu beteiligen. Der Erfolg der Klimakonferenz in Paris 2015 wird in hohem Maß von der Klärung dieser Frage abhängen. Im Dezember 2015 wird die Staatengemeinschaft auf der 21. UN-Klimakonferenz in Paris zur Verhandlung eines globalen Klimaabkommens zusammentreffen. Um das 2-Grad Ziel zu erreichen, sind neben den Industriestaaten besonders die aufstrebenden BASIC-Staaten (Brasilien, Südafrika, Indien und China) aufgefordert, ihren CO2-Ausstoß zu senken. Das neue Abkommen muss daher die veränderten globalen Kräfteverhältnisse berücksichtigen. Ein globaler Erfolg ist maßgeblich von der Bereitstellung umfangreicher Finanzmittel durch die Industriestaaten abhängig. Auf der 21. UN-Klimakonferenz im Dezember 2015 in Paris sollen die Verhandlungen eines globalen Klimaabkommens abgeschlossen werden. Aufgrund des Misstrauens zwischen den Verhandlungskoalitionen sind die Erfolgserwartungen allerdings gedämpft. Wegen des gestiegenen Ausstoßes von Treibhausgasen durch die Schwellenländer kann der Klimawandel nur gemeinsam mit ihnen bekämpft werden. Das dadurch entstehende Spannungsverhältnis zwischen dem Recht auf Wachstum und der Verantwortung, eine globale Reduktion von Treibhausgasen (Mitigation) zu erreichen, prägt die aktuellen Verhandlungen. Ob sich die Staatengemeinschaft in Paris auf ein international verbindliches Abkommen einigen wird, ist daher vor allem von einer für alle zufriedenstellenden Lösung der Klimafinanzierung abhängig. Obgleich mit der Gründung und Kapitalisierung des Green Climate Fund Fortschritte gemacht wurden, bleiben wichtige Fragen ungeklärt. Mit der Bereitstellung von nachhaltigen Finanzmitteln können die Industriestaaten die BASIC zur Übernahme von globaler Verantwortung bewegen. Verlässliche Klimafinanzierung kann als vertrauensbildende Maßnahme wirken

Fitness effects of 10-month frequent low-volume ball game training or interval running for 8-10-year-old school children

We investigated the exercise intensity and fitness effects of frequent school-based low-volume high-intensity training for 10 months in 8–10-year-old children. 239 Danish 3rd-grade school children from four schools were cluster-randomised into a control group (CON, n=116) or two training groups performing either 5×12 min/wk small-sided football plus other ball games (SSG, n=62) or interval running (IR, n=61). Whole-body DXA scans, flamingo balance, standing long-jump, 20 m sprint, and Yo-Yo IR1 children’s tests (YYIR1C) were performed before and after the intervention. Mean running velocity was higher (p<0.05) in SSG than in IR (0.88±0.14 versus 0.63±0.20 m/s), while more time (p<0.05) was spent in the highest player load zone (>2; 5.6±3.4 versus 3.7±3.4%) and highest HR zone (>90% HRmax; 12.4±8.9 versus 8.4±8.0%) in IR compared to SSG. After 10 months, no significant between-group differences were observed for YYIR1C performance and HR after 2 min of YYIR1C (HRsubmax), but median-split analyses showed that HRsubmax was reduced (p<0.05) in both training groups compared to CON for those with the lowest aerobic fitness (SSG versus CON: 3.2%  HRmax [95% CI: 0.8–5.5]; IR versus CON: 2.6%  HRmax [95% CI: 1.1–5.2]). After 10 months, IR had improved (p<0.05) 20 m sprint performance (IR versus CON: 154 ms [95% CI: 61–241]). No between-group differences (p>0.05) were observed for whole-body or leg aBMD, lean mass, postural balance, or jump length. In conclusion, frequent low-volume ball games and interval running can be conducted over a full school year with high intensity rate but has limited positive fitness effects in 8–10-year-old children