004 Datenverarbeitung; Informatik
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Graph-based data formats are flexible in representing data. In particular semantic data models, where the schema is part of the data, gained traction and commercial success in recent years. Semantic data models are also the basis for the Semantic Web - a Web of data governed by open standards in which computer programs can freely access the provided data. This thesis is concerned with the correctness of programs that access semantic data. While the flexibility of semantic data models is one of their biggest strengths, it can easily lead to programmers accidentally not accounting for unintuitive edge cases. Often, such exceptions surface during program execution as run-time errors or unintended side-effects. Depending on the exact condition, a program may run for a long time before the error occurs and the program crashes.
This thesis defines type systems that can detect and avoid such run-time errors based on schema languages available for the Semantic Web. In particular, this thesis uses the Web Ontology Language (OWL) and its theoretic underpinnings, i.e., description logics, as well as the Shapes Constraint Language (SHACL) to define type systems that provide type-safe data access to semantic data graphs. Providing a safe type system is an established methodology for proving the absence of run-time errors in programs without requiring execution. Both schema languages are based on possible world semantics but differ in the treatment of incomplete knowledge. While OWL allows for modelling incomplete knowledge through an open-world semantics, SHACL relies on a fixed domain and closed-world semantics. We provide the formal underpinnings for type systems based on each of the two schema languages. In particular, we base our notion of types on sets of values which allows us to specify a subtype relation based on subset semantics. In case of description logics, subsumption is a routine problem. For
the type system based on SHACL, we are able to translate it into a description
logic subsumption problem.
In the context of augmented reality we define tracking as a collection of methods to obtain the position and orientation (pose) of a user. By means of various displaying techniques, this ensures a correct visual overlay of graphical information onto the reality perceived. Precise results for calculation of the camera pose are gained by methods of image processing, usually analyzing the pixels of an image and extracing features, which can be recognized over the image sequence. However, these methods do not regard the process of image synthesis or at least in a very simplyfied way. In contrast, the class of model-based methods assumes a given 3D model of the observed scene. Based on the model data features can be identified to establish correspondences in the camera image. From these feature correspondences the camera pose is calculated. An interesting approach is the strategy of analysis-by-synthesis, regarding the computer graphics rendering process for extending the knowledge about the model by information from image synthesis and other environment variables.
In this thesis the components of a tracking system are identified and further it is analyzed, to what extend information about the model, the rendering process and the environment can contribute to the components for improvement of the tracking process using analysis-by-synthesis. In particular, by using knowledge as topological information, lighting or perspective, the feature synthesis and correspondence finding should lead to visually unambiguous features that can be predicted and evaluated to be suitable for stable tracking of the camera pose.
Social media platforms such as Twitter or Reddit allow users almost unrestricted access to publish their opinions on recent events or discuss trending topics. While the majority of users approach these platforms innocently, some groups have set their mind on spreading misinformation and influencing or manipulating public opinion. These groups disguise as native users from various countries to spread frequently manufactured articles, strong polarizing opinions in the political spectrum and possibly become providers of hate-speech or extremely political positions. This thesis aims to implement an AutoML pipeline for identifying second language speakers from English social media texts. We investigate style differences of text in different topics and across the platforms Reddit and Twitter, and analyse linguistic features. We employ feature-based models with datasets from Reddit, which include mostly English conversation from European users, and Twitter, which was newly created by collecting English tweets from selected trending topics in different countries. The pipeline classifies language family, native language and origin (Native or non-Native English speakers) of a given textual input. We evaluate the resulting classifications by comparing prediction accuracy, precision and F1 scores of our classification pipeline to traditional machine learning processes. Lastly, we compare the results from each dataset and find differences in language use for topics and platforms. We obtained high prediction accuracy for all categories on the Twitter dataset and observed high variance in features such as average text length especially for Balto-Slavic countries.
Data-minimization and fairness are fundamental data protection requirements to avoid privacy threats and discrimination. Violations of data protection requirements often result from: First, conflicts between security, data-minimization and fairness requirements. Second, data protection requirements for the organizational and technical aspects of a system that are currently dealt with separately, giving rise to misconceptions and errors. Third, hidden data correlations that might lead to influence biases against protected characteristics of individuals such as ethnicity in decision-making software. For the effective assurance of data protection needs,
it is important to avoid sources of violations right from the design modeling phase. However, a model-based approach that addresses the issues above is missing.
To handle the issues above, this thesis introduces a model-based methodology called MoPrivFair (Model-based Privacy & Fairness). MoPrivFair comprises three sub-frameworks: First, a framework that extends the SecBPMN2 approach to allow detecting conflicts between security, data-minimization and fairness requirements. Second, a framework for enforcing an integrated data-protection management throughout the development process based on a business processes model (i.e., SecBPMN2 model) and a software architecture model (i.e., UMLsec model) annotated with data protection requirements while establishing traceability. Third, the UML extension UMLfair to support individual fairness analysis and reporting discriminatory behaviors. Each of the proposed frameworks is supported by automated tool support.
We validated the applicability and usability of our conflict detection technique based on a health care management case study, and an experimental user study, respectively. Based on an air traffic management case study, we reported on the applicability of our technique for enforcing an integrated data-protection management. We validated the applicability of our individual fairness analysis technique using three case studies featuring a school management system, a delivery management system and a loan management system. The results show a promising outlook on the applicability of our proposed frameworks in real-world settings.
Nowadays, almost any IT system involves personal data processing. In
such systems, many privacy risks arise when privacy concerns are not
properly addressed from the early phases of the system design. The
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prescribes the Privacy by
Design (PbD) principle. As its core, PbD obliges protecting personal
data from the onset of the system development, by effectively
integrating appropriate privacy controls into the design. To
operationalize the concept of PbD, a set of challenges emerges: First, we need a basis to define privacy concerns. Without such a basis, we are not able to verify whether personal data processing is authorized. Second, we need to identify where precisely in a system, the controls have to be applied. This calls for system analysis concerning privacy concerns. Third, with a view to selecting and integrating appropriate controls, based on the results of system analysis, a mechanism to identify the privacy risks is required. Mitigating privacy risks is at the core of the PbD principle. Fourth, choosing and integrating appropriate controls into a system are complex tasks that besides risks, have to consider potential interrelations among privacy controls and the costs of the controls.
This thesis introduces a model-based privacy by design methodology to handle the above challenges. Our methodology relies on a precise definition of privacy concerns and comprises three sub-methodologies: model-based privacy analysis, modelbased privacy impact assessment and privacy-enhanced system design modeling. First, we introduce a definition of privacy preferences, which provides a basis to specify privacy concerns and to verify whether personal data processing is authorized. Second, we present a model-based methodology to analyze a system model. The results of this analysis denote a set of privacy design violations. Third, taking into account the results of privacy analysis, we introduce a model-based privacy impact assessment methodology to identify concrete privacy risks in a system model. Fourth, concerning the risks, and taking into account the interrelations and the costs of the controls, we propose a methodology to select appropriate controls and integrate them into a system design. Using various practical case studies, we evaluate our concepts, showing a promising outlook on the applicability of our methodology in real-world settings.
Current political issues are often reflected in social media discussions, gathering politicians and voters on common platforms. As these can affect the public perception of politics, the inner dynamics and backgrounds of such debates are of great scientific interest. This thesis takes user generated messages from an up-to-date dataset of considerable relevance as Time Series, and applies a topic-based analysis of inspiration and agenda setting to it. The Institute for Web Science and Technologies of the University Koblenz-Landau has collected Twitter data generated beforehand by candidates of the European Parliament Election 2019. This work processes and analyzes the dataset for various properties, while focusing on the influence of politicians and media on online debates. An algorithm to cluster tweets into topical threads is introduced. Subsequently, Sequential Association Rules are mined, yielding wide array of potential influence relations between both actors and topics. The elaborated methodology can be configured with different parameters and is extensible in functionality and scope of application.
Software systems have an increasing impact on our daily lives. Many systems process sensitive data or control critical infrastructure. Providing secure software is therefore inevitable. Such systems are rarely being renewed regularly due to the high costs and effort. Oftentimes, systems that were planned and implemented to be secure, become insecure because their context evolves. These systems are connected to the Internet and therefore also constantly subject to new types of attacks. The security requirements of these systems remain unchanged, while, for example, discovery of a vulnerability of an encryption algorithm previously assumed to be secure requires a change of the system design. Some security requirements cannot be checked by the system’s design but only at run time. Furthermore, the sudden discovery of a security violation requires an immediate reaction to prevent a system shutdown. Knowledge regarding security best practices, attacks, and mitigations is generally available, yet rarely integrated part of software development or covering evolution.
This thesis examines how the security of long-living software systems can be preserved taking into account the influence of context evolutions. The goal of the proposed approach, S²EC²O, is to recover the security of model-based software systems using co-evolution.
An ontology-based knowledge base is introduced, capable of managing common, as well as system-specific knowledge relevant to security. A transformation achieves the connection of the knowledge base to the UML system model. By using semantic differences, knowledge inference, and the detection of inconsistencies in the knowledge base, context knowledge evolutions are detected.
A catalog containing rules to manage and recover security requirements uses detected context evolutions to propose potential co-evolutions to the system model which reestablish the compliance with security requirements.
S²EC²O uses security annotations to link models and executable code and provides support for run-time monitoring. The adaptation of running systems is being considered as is round-trip engineering, which integrates insights from the run time into the system model.
S²EC²O is amended by prototypical tool support. This tool is used to show S²EC²O’s applicability based on a case study targeting the medical information system iTrust.
This thesis at hand contributes to the development and maintenance of long-living software systems, regarding their security. The proposed approach will aid security experts: It detects security-relevant changes to the system context, determines the impact on the system’s security and facilitates co-evolutions to recover the compliance with the security requirements.
Abstract
This bachelor thesis delivers a comprehensive overview of the topic Internet of Things (IoT). With the help of a first literature review, important characteristics, architectures, and properties have been identified. The main aim of this bachelor thesis is to determine whether the use of IoT in the transport of food, considering the compliance with the cold chain, can provide advantages for companies to reduce food waste. For this purpose, a second literature review has been carried out with food transport systems without the use, as well as with the use of IoT. Based on the literature review, it is possible at the end to determine a theoretical ‘ideal’ system for food transport in refrigerated trucks. The respective used technologies are also mentioned. The findings of several authors have shown that often significant improvements can be achieved in surveillance, transport in general, or traceability of food, and ultimately food waste can be reduced. However, benefits can also be gained using new non-IoT-based technologies. Thus, the main knowledge of this bachelor thesis is that a theoretical ‘ideal’ transport system contains a sensible combination of technologies with and without IoT. This system includes the use of a Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) for real-time food monitoring, as well as an alarm function when the temperature exceeds a maximum. Real-time monitoring with GPS coupled with a monitoring center to prevent traffic jams is another task. Smart and energy-efficient packaging, and finally the use of the new supercooling-technology, make the system significantly more efficient in reducing food waste. These highlights, that when choosing a transport system, which is as efficient and profitable as possible for food with refrigerated transport, companies need not just rely on the use of IoT. On this basis, it is advisable to combine the systems and technologies used so far with IoT in order to avoid as much food waste as possible.
Data flow models in the literature are often very fine-grained, which transfers to the data flow analysis performed on them and thus leads to a decrease in the analysis' understandability. Since a data flow model, which abstracts from the majority of implementation details of the program modeled, allows for potentially easier to understand data flow analyses, this master thesis deals with the specification and construction of a highly abstracted data flow model and the application of data flow analyses on this model. The model and the analyses performed on it have been developed in a test-driven manner, so that a wide range of possible data flow scenarios could be covered. As a concrete data flow analysis, a static security check in the form of a detection of insufficient user input sanitization has been performed. To date, there's no data flow model on a similarly high level of abstraction. The proposed solution is therefore unique and facilitates developers without expertise in data flow analysis to perform such analyses.
Diese Arbeit soll das von Dietz und Oppermann entwickelte Planspiel „Datenschutz 2.0“ an den heutigen Alltag der Schüler anpassen, die Benutzung in der Sekundarstufe II ermöglichen und die technischen und gesetzlichen Problematiken des Planspiels beheben. Das mit dem Planspiel aufgegriffene Thema Datenschutz ist im rheinland-pfälzischen Informatik-Lehrplan für die Sekundarstufe II verankert. Hier wird der Begriff Datenschutz in der Reihe „Datenerhebung unter dem Aspekt Datenschutz beurteilen“ genannt. Jedoch werden in dem Planspiel keine Daten erhoben, sondern die selbst hinterlassenen Datenspuren untersucht. Diese Form des Datenschutzes ist im Grundkurs in der vorgeschlagenen Reihe „Datensicherheit unter der Berücksichtigung kryptologischer Verfahren erklären und beachten“ unter dem Thema Kommunikation in Rechnernetzen zu finden. Im Leistungskurs steht die Datensicherheit in gleichbenannter Reihe und Thema und in der Reihe „Datenerhebung unter dem Aspekt Datenschutz beurteilen“ im Thema Wechselwirkung zwischen Informatiksysteme, Individuum und Gesellschaft.
The goal of this thesis is to create a recommender system (RS) for business processes, based on the existing ProM plugin RegPFA. To accomplish this task, firstly an interface must be created that sets up and expands a database receiving probabilistic finite automata (PFA) created by RegPFA in tsml format as input. Secondly, a Java program must be designed that uses said database to recommend the process elements that are most likely to follow a given sequence of process elements.
The mitral valve is one of four human heart valves. It is located in the left heart and acts as a unidirectional passageway for blood between the left atrium and the left ventricle. A correctly functioning mitral valve prevents a backflow of blood into the pulmonary circulation (lungs) and thus constitutes a vital part of the cardiac cycle. Pathologies of the mitral valve can manifest in a variety of symptoms with severity ranging from chest pain and fatigue to pulmonary edema (fluid accumulation in the tissue and air space of lungs), which may ultimately cause respiratory failure.
Malfunctioning mitral valves can be restored through complex surgical interventions, which greatly benefit from intensive planning and pre-operative analysis. Visualization techniques provide a possibility to enhance such preparation processes and can also facilitate post-operative evaluation. The work at hand extends current research in this field, building upon patient-specific mitral valve segmentations developed at the German Cancer Research Center, which result in triangulated 3D models of the valve surface. The core of this work will be the construction of a 2D-view of these models through global parameterization, a method that can be used to establish a bijective mapping between a planar parameter domain and a surface embedded in higher dimensions.
A flat representation of the mitral valve provides physicians with a view of the whole surface at once, similar to a map. This allows assessment of the valve's area and shape without the need for different viewing angles. Parts of the valve that are occluded by geometry in 3D become visible in 2D.
An additional contribution of this work will be the exploration of different visualizations of the 3D and 2D mitral valve representations. Features of the valve can be highlighted by associating them with specified colors, which can for instance directly convey pathology indicators.
Quality and effectiveness of the proposed methods were evaluated through a survey conducted at the Heidelberg University Hospital.
Retrospektive Analyse der Ausbreitung und dynamische Erkennung von Web-Tracking durch Sandboxing
(2018)
Aktuelle quantitative Analysen von Web-Tracking bieten keinen umfassenden Überblick über dessen Entstehung, Ausbreitung und Entwicklung. Diese Arbeit ermöglicht durch Auswertung archivierter Webseiten eine rückblickende Erfassung der Entstehungsgeschichte des Web-Trackings zwischen den Jahren 2000 und 2015. Zu diesem Zweck wurde ein geeignetes Werkzeug entworfen, implementiert, evaluiert und zur Analyse von 10000 Webseiten eingesetzt. Während im Jahr 2005 durchschnittlich 1,17 Ressourcen von Drittparteien eingebettet wurden, zeigt sich ein Anstieg auf 6,61 in den darauffolgenden 10 Jahren. Netzwerkdiagramme visualisieren den Trend zu einer monopolisierten Netzstruktur, in der bereits ein einzelnes Unternehmen 80 % der Internetnutzung überwachen kann.
Trotz vielfältiger Versuche, dieser Entwicklung durch technische Maßnahmen entgegenzuwirken, erweisen sich nur wenige Selbst- und Systemschutzmaßnahmen als wirkungsvoll. Diese gehen häufig mit einem Verlust der Funktionsfähigkeit einer Webseite oder mit einer Einschränkung der Nutzbarkeit des Browsers einher. Mit der vorgestellten Studie wird belegt, dass rechtliche Vorschriften ebenfalls keinen hinreichenden Schutz bieten. An Webauftritten von Bildungseinrichtungen werden Mängel bei Erfüllung der datenschutzrechtlichen Pflichten festgestellt. Diese zeigen sich durch fehlende, fehlerhafte oder unvollständige Datenschutzerklärungen, deren Bereitstellung zu den Informationspflichten eines Diensteanbieters gehören.
Die alleinige Berücksichtigung klassischer Tracker ist nicht ausreichend, wie mit einer weiteren Studie nachgewiesen wird. Durch die offene Bereitstellung funktionaler Webseitenbestandteile kann ein Tracking-Unternehmen die Abdeckung von 38 % auf 61 % erhöhen. Diese Situation wird durch Messungen von Webseiten aus dem Gesundheitswesen belegt und aus technischer sowie rechtlicher Perspektive bewertet.
Bestehende systemische Werkzeuge zum Erfassen von Web-Tracking verwenden für ihre Messung die Schnittstellen der Browser. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird mit DisTrack ein Framework zur Web-Tracking-Analyse vorgestellt, welches eine Sandbox-basierte Messmethodik verfolgt. Dies ist eine Vorgehensweise, die in der dynamischen Schadsoftwareanalyse erfolgreich eingesetzt wird und sich auf das Erkennen von Seiteneffekten auf das umliegende System spezialisiert. Durch diese Verhaltensanalyse, die unabhängig von den Schnittstellen des Browsers operiert, wird eine ganzheitliche Untersuchung des Browsers ermöglicht. Auf diese Weise können systemische Schwachstellen im Browser aufgezeigt werden, die für speicherbasierte Web-Tracking-Verfahren nutzbar sind.
This thesis addresses the automated identification and localization of a time-varying number of objects in a stream of sensor data. The problem is challenging due to its combinatorial nature: If the number of objects is unknown, the number of possible object trajectories grows exponentially with the number of observations. Random finite sets are a relatively new theory that has been developed to derive at principled and efficient approximations. It is based around set-valued random variables that contain an unknown number of elements which appear in arbitrary order and are themselves random. While extensively studied in theory, random finite sets have not yet become a leading paradigm in practical computer vision and robotics applications. This thesis explores random finite sets in visual tracking applications. The first method developed in this thesis combines set-valued recursive filtering with global optimization. The problem is approached in a min-cost flow network formulation, which has become a standard inference framework for multiple object tracking due to its efficiency and optimality. A main limitation of this formulation is a restriction to unary and pairwise cost terms. This circumstance makes integration of higher-order motion models challenging. The method developed in this thesis approaches this limitation by application of a Probability Hypothesis Density filter. The Probability Hypothesis Density filter was the first practically implemented state estimator based on random finite sets. It circumvents the combinatorial nature of data association itself by propagation of an object density measure that can be computed efficiently, without maintaining explicit trajectory hypotheses. In this work, the filter recursion is used to augment measurements with an additional hidden kinematic state to be used for construction of more informed flow network cost terms, e.g., based on linear motion models. The method is evaluated on public benchmarks where a considerate improvement is achieved compared to network flow formulations that are based on static features alone, such as distance between detections and appearance similarity. A second part of this thesis focuses on the related task of detecting and tracking a single robot operator in crowded environments. Different from the conventional multiple object tracking scenario, the tracked individual can leave the scene and later reappear after a longer period of absence. Therefore, a re-identification component is required that picks up the track on reentrance. Based on random finite sets, the Bernoulli filter is an optimal Bayes filter that provides a natural representation for this type of problem. In this work, it is shown how the Bernoulli filter can be combined with a Probability Hypothesis Density filter to track operator and non-operators simultaneously. The method is evaluated on a publicly available multiple object tracking dataset as well as on custom sequences that are specific to the targeted application. Experiments show reliable tracking in crowded scenes and robust re-identification after long term occlusion. Finally, a third part of this thesis focuses on appearance modeling as an essential aspect of any method that is applied to visual object tracking scenarios. Therefore, a feature representation that is robust to pose variations and changing lighting conditions is learned offline, before the actual tracking application. This thesis proposes a joint classification and metric learning objective where a deep convolutional neural network is trained to identify the individuals in the training set. At test time, the final classification layer can be stripped from the network and appearance similarity can be queried using cosine distance in representation space. This framework represents an alternative to direct metric learning objectives that have required sophisticated pair or triplet sampling strategies in the past. The method is evaluated on two large scale person re-identification datasets where competitive results are achieved overall. In particular, the proposed method better generalizes to the test set compared to a network trained with the well-established triplet loss.
The content aggregator platform Reddit has established itself as one of the most popular websites in the world. However, scientific research on Reddit is hindered as Reddit allows (and even encourages) user anonymity, i.e., user profiles do not contain personal information such as the gender. Inferring the gender of users in large-scale could enable the analysis of gender-specific areas of interest, reactions to events, and behavioral patterns. In this direction, this thesis suggests a machine learning approach of estimating the gender of Reddit users. By exploiting specific conventions in parts of the website, we obtain a ground truth for more than 190 million comments of labeled users. This data is then used to train machine learning classifiers to use them to gain insights about the gender balance of particular subreddits and the platform in general. By comparing a variety of different approaches for classification algorithm, we find that character-level convolutional neural network achieves performance with an 82.3% F1 score on a task of predicting a gender of a user based on his/her comments. The score surpasses 85% mark for frequent users with more than 50 comments. Furthermore, we discover that female users are less active on Reddit platform, they write fewer comments and post in fewer subreddits on average, when compared to male users.
This paper describes the robot Lisa used by team
homer@UniKoblenz of the University of Koblenz Landau, Germany, for the participation at the RoboCup@Home 2016 in Leipzig, Germany. A special focus is put on novel system components and the open source contributions of our team. We have released packages for object recognition, a robot face including speech synthesis, mapping and navigation, speech recognition interface via android and a GUI. The packages are available (and new packages will be released) on http://wiki.ros.org/agas-ros-pkg.
Der Fachbereich 4 (Informatik) besteht aus fünfundzwanzig Arbeitsgruppen unter der Leitung von Professorinnen und Professoren, die für die Forschung und Lehre in sechs Instituten zusammenarbeiten.
In jedem Jahresbericht stellen sich die Arbeitsgruppen nach einem einheitlichen Muster dar, welche personelle Zusammensetzung sie haben, welche Projekte in den Berichtszeitraum fallen und welche wissenschaftlichen Leistungen erbracht wurden. In den folgenden Kapiteln werden einzelne Parameter aufgeführt, die den Fachbereich in quantitativer Hinsicht, was Drittmitteleinwerbungen, Abdeckung der Lehre, Absolventen oder Veröffentlichungen angeht, beschreiben.
Der Fachbereich 4 (Informatik) besteht aus fünfundzwanzig Arbeitsgruppen unter der Leitung von Professorinnen und Professoren, die für die Forschung und Lehre in sechs Instituten zusammenarbeiten.
In jedem Jahresbericht stellen sich die Arbeitsgruppen nach einem einheitlichen Muster dar, welche personelle Zusammensetzung sie haben, welche Projekte in den Berichtszeitraum fallen und welche wissenschaftlichen Leistungen erbracht wurden. In den folgenden Kapiteln werden einzelne Parameter aufgeführt, die den Fachbereich in quantitativer Hinsicht, was Drittmitteleinwerbungen, Abdeckung der Lehre, Absolventen oder Veröffentlichungen angeht, beschreiben.
“Did I say something wrong?” A word-level analysis of Wikipedia articles for deletion discussions
(2016)
This thesis focuses on gaining linguistic insights into textual discussions on a word level. It was of special interest to distinguish messages that constructively contribute to a discussion from those that are detrimental to them. Thereby, we wanted to determine whether “I”- and “You”-messages are indicators for either of the two discussion styles. These messages are nowadays often used in guidelines for successful communication. Although their effects have been successfully evaluated multiple times, a large-scale analysis has never been conducted. Thus, we used Wikipedia Articles for Deletion (short: AfD) discussions together with the records of blocked users and developed a fully automated creation of an annotated data set. In this data set, messages were labelled either constructive or disruptive. We applied binary classifiers to the data to determine characteristic words for both discussion styles. Thereby, we also investigated whether function words like pronouns and conjunctions play an important role in distinguishing the two. We found that “You”-messages were a strong indicator for disruptive messages which matches their attributed effects on communication. However, we found “I”-messages to be indicative for disruptive messages as well which is contrary to their attributed effects. The importance of function words could neither be confirmed nor refuted. Other characteristic words for either communication style were not found. Yet, the results suggest that a different model might represent disruptive and constructive messages in textual discussions better.
This thesis presents an approach to optimizing the computation of soft shadows from area lights. The light source is sampled uniformly by traversing shadow rays as packets through an N-tree. This data structure stores an additional line space for every node. A line space stores precomputed information about geometry inside of shafts from one to another side of the node. This visibility information is used to terminate a ray. Additionally the graphics processing unit (short GPU) is used to speed up the computations through parallelism. The scene is rendered with OpenGL and the shadow value is computed on the GPU for each pixel. Evaluating the implementation shows a performance gain of 86% by comparison to the CPU, if using the GPU implementation. Using the line space instead of triangle intersections also increases the performance. The implementation provides good scaling with an increasing amount of triangles and has no visual disadvantages for many rays.
Proceedings des FWS 2015
(2016)
Die Aufnahme, Verarbeitung und Analyse farbiger bzw. mehrkanaliger Bilder gewinnt seit Jahren ständig an Bedeutung. Diese Entwicklung wird durch die verbesserten technischen Möglichkeiten und die stetig steigenden Ansprüche aus den vielfältigen Anwendungsfeldern in Industrie, Medizin, Umwelt und Medien befördert. Diesem Trend folgend wurde in Koblenz 1995 erstmals der Workshop Farbbildverarbeitung durchgeführt und hat sich seitdem als jährlich stattfindende Veranstaltung etabliert. Als Veranstaltung der German ColorGroup bietet der Workshop ein Diskussionsforum für Forscher, Entwickler und Anwender, das sich den Problemen der Farbtheorie, Farbmessung, Farbbildaufnahme und spektralen Bildgewinnung ("hyper-spectral imaging") genauso wie der Entwicklung von neuen Methoden und Algorithmen zur Verarbeitung und Analyse von Farbbildern und mehrkanaligen (spektroskopischen) Bilddaten widmet. Ebenso nehmen Fragestellungen der farbtreuen Bildreproduktion auf verschiedenen Ausgabemedien wie auch die Nutzung von Methoden und Verfahren der Farbbildverarbeitung im Rahmen der industriellen Qualitätskontrolle sowie in Robotik und Automatisierung gebührenden Platz ein.
This habilitation thesis collects works addressing several challenges on handling uncertainty and inconsistency in knowledge representation. In particular, this thesis contains works which introduce quantitative uncertainty based on probability theory into abstract argumentation frameworks. The formal semantics of this extension is investigated and its application for strategic argumentation in agent dialogues is discussed. Moreover, both the computational as well as the meaningfulness of approaches to analyze inconsistencies, both in classical logics as well as logics for uncertain reasoning is investigated. Finally, this thesis addresses the implementation challenges for various kinds of knowledge representation formalisms employing any notion of inconsistency tolerance or uncertainty.
The goal of this thesis is to create and develop a concept for a mobile city guide combined with game-based contents.
The application is intented to support flexible and independent exploration of the city of Koblenz.
Based on the geographical data, historical information for and interesting stories of various places were provided in this application. These informations are combined with playful elements in order to create a motivating concept.
Therefore, related approaches were examined and, combined with own ideas, a new concept has been developed. This concept has been prototypically implemented as an Android application and afterwards evaluated by 15 test persons. A questionnaire was used to examine the operability, the motivation of game patterns and the additional value of the application.
Simulation von Schnee
(2015)
Physic simulations allow the creation of dynamic scenes on the computer. Computer generated images become lively and find use in movies, games and engineering applications. GPGPU techniques make use of the graphics card to simulate physics. The simulation of dynamic snow is still little researched. The Material Point Method is the first technique which is capable of showing the dynamics andrncharacteristics of snow.
The hybrid use of Lagrangian particles and a regular cartesian grid enables solving of partial differential equations. Therefore articles are transformed to the grid. The grid velocities can then be updated with the calculation of gradients in an FEM-manner (finite element method). Finally grid node velocities are weight back to the particles to move them across the scene. This method is coupled with a constitutive model to cover the dynamic nature of snow. This include collisions and breaking.
This bachelor thesis connects the recent developments in GPGPU techniques of OpenGL with the Material Point Method to efficiently simulate visually compelling, dynamic snow scenes.
This thesis shows an interaction of primitives in a three-dimensional space which is done by gestures. Functions which are difficult to do by gestures without any absolute feeling of the position are implemented with a touchscreen. Besides the touchscreen a second input device, a Leap-Motion, is used to obtain data of the motion of the hand. To get its data the Leap-Motion uses two CCD-cameras and three infrared LEDs. The interactions that can be done without any feedback of the absolute position are the translation, rotation and scale. These three and the movement through space are implemented as gestures in this thesis. This is done in Blender with the BlenderrnGame Engine and Python. The only function which has been implemented for the touchscreen is to select an object. Later on, a comparative control of the mouse was invented to contrast it with the control of the gestures. There are two big differences between these two controls. On the one hand, the gesture controls can be done in a three-dimensional space but most people aren't used to it yet. On the other hand, there is just a two-dimensional input possibility with the mouse control. Otherwise it is familiar to most persons. The evaluation should reveal if people prefer interaction by mouse control or by gestures. The result shows that the prefered control is done by the mouse. However in some categories of the tests the gestures are quite close to the result of the mouse.
Virtueller Konsum - Warenkörbe, Wägungsschemata und Verbraucherpreisindizes in virtuellen Welten
(2015)
Virtual worlds have been investigated by several academic disciplines for several years, e.g. sociology, psychology, law and education. Since the developers of virtual worlds have implemented aspects like scarcity and needs, even economic research has become interested in these virtual environments. Exploring virtual economies mainly deals with the research of trade regarding the virtual goods used to supply the emerged needs. On the one hand, economics analyzes the meaning of virtual trade according to the overall interpretation of the economical characteristics of virtual worlds. As some virtual worlds allow the change of virtual world money with real money and vice versa, virtual goods are traded by the users for real money, researchers on the other hand, study the impact of the interdependencies between virtual economies and the real world. The presented thesis mainly focuses on the trade within virtual worlds in the context of virtual consumption and the observation of consumer prices. Therefore, the four virtual worlds World of Warcraft, RuneScape, Entropia Universe and Second Life have been selected. There are several components required to calculate consumer price indices. First, a market basket, which contains the relevant consumed goods existing in virtual worlds, must be developed. Second, a weighting scheme has to be established, which shows the dispersion of consumer tendencies. Third, prices of relevant consumer goods have to be taken. Following real world methods, it is the challenge to apply those methods within virtual worlds. Therefore, this dissertation contains three corresponding investigation parts. Within a first analysis, it will be evaluated, in how far virtual worlds can be explored to identify consumable goods. As a next step, the consumption expenditures of the avatars will be examined based on an online survey. At last, prices of consumable goods will be recorded. Finally, it will be possible to calculate consumer price indices. While investigating those components, the thesis focuses not only on the general findings themselves, but also on methodological issues arising, like limited access to relevant data, missing legal legitimation or security concerns of the users. Beside these aspects, the used methods also allow the examination of several other economic aspects like the consumption habits of the avatars. At the end of the thesis, it will be considered to what extent virtual world economic characteristics can be compared with the real world.
Aspects like the important role of weapons or the different usage of food show significant differences to the real world, caused by the business models of virtual worlds.
Die Arbeitsgruppe Echtzeitsysteme an der Universität Koblenz beschäftigt sich seit mehreren Jahren mit der Thematik autonomes und assistiertes Fahren. Eine große Herausforderung stellen in diesem Zusammenhang mehrgliedrige Fahrzeuge dar, deren Steuerung für den Fahrer während der Rückwärtsfahrt sehr anspruchsvoll ist. Um präzise Manöver zu ermöglichen, können elektronische Fahrerassistenzsysteme zum Einsatz kommen. Im Rahmen vorhergehender Arbeiten sind bereits einige Prototypen entstanden, von denen jedoch keiner eine geeignete Lösung für moderne, zweiachsige Anhänger darstellt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde ein prototypisches Fahrerassistenzsystem entwickelt, wobei es noch weiterer Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeit bedarf, um das System straßentauglich zu machen.
Traditional Driver Assistance Systems (DAS) like for example Lane Departure Warning Systems or the well-known Electronic Stability Program have in common that their system and software architecture is static. This means that neither the number and topology of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) nor the presence and functionality of software modules changes after the vehicles leave the factory.
However, some future DAS do face changes at runtime. This is true for example for truck and trailer DAS as their hardware components and software entities are spread over both parts of the combination. These new requirements cannot be faced by state-of-the-art approaches of automotive software systems. Instead, a different technique of designing such Distributed Driver Assistance Systems (DDAS) needs to be developed. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a novel software and system architecture for dynamically changing DAS using the example of driving assistance for truck and trailer. This architecture has to be able to autonomously detect and handle changes within the topology. In order to do so, the system decides which degree of assistance and which types of HMI can be offered every time a trailer is connected or disconnected. Therefore an analysis of the available software and hardware components as well as a determination of possible assistance functionality and a re-configuration of the system take place. Such adaptation can be granted by the principles of Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). In this architectural style all functionality is encapsulated in self-contained units, so-called Services. These Services offer the functionality through well-defined interfaces whose behavior is described in contracts. Using these Services, large-scale applications can be built and adapted at runtime. This thesis describes the research conducted in achieving the goals described by introducing Service-oriented Architectures into the automotive domain. SOA deals with the high degree of distribution, the demand for re-usability and the heterogeneity of the needed components.
It also applies automatic re-configuration in the event of a system change. Instead of adapting one of the frameworks available to this scenario, the main principles of Service-orientation are picked up and tailored. This leads to the development of the Service-oriented Driver Assistance (SODA) framework, which implements the benefits of Service-orientation while ensuring compatibility and compliance to automotive requirements, best-practices and standards. Within this thesis several state-of-the-art Service-oriented frameworks are analyzed and compared. Furthermore, the SODA framework as well as all its different aspects regarding the automotive software domain are described in detail. These aspects include a well-defined reference model that introduces and relates terms and concepts and defines an architectural blueprint. Furthermore, some of the modules of this blueprint such as the re-configuration module and the Communication Model are presented in full detail. In order to prove the compliance of the framework regarding state-of-the-art automotive software systems, a development process respecting today's best practices in automotive design procedures as well as the integration of SODA into the AUTOSAR standard are discussed. Finally, the SODA framework is used to build a full-scale demonstrator in order to evaluate its performance and efficiency.
101worker is the modular knowledge engineering component of the 101companies project. It has developed maintainability and performance problems due to growing organically, rather than following best software design practices. This thesis lays out these problems, drafts a set of requirements for refactoring the system and then describes and analyzes the resulting implementation. The solution involves collation of scattered and redundant information, setup of unit and functional test suites and incrementalization of the bus architecture of 101worker.
This thesis deals with the development of an interactive Android card game. As an example, the Hebrew game Yaniv was implemented. Focus is the elaboration of required background components and the corresponding implementation in that application. Required game processes will be screened and a possible solution will be identified.
Ray Tracing enables a close to reality rendering implementation of a modelled scene. Because of its functioning, it is able to display optical phenomena and complex lighting. Though, numerous computations per pixel have to be done. In practice implementations can not achieve computer graphics" aim of real-time rendering close to 60 frames per second. Current Graphics Processing Units (GPU) allows high execution parallelism of general-purpose computations. By using the graphics-API OpenGL this parallelism can be achieved and it is possible to design and realize a Ray-Tracer, which operates entirely on the GPU. The developed approach will be extended by an Uniform Grid - a Ray-Tracing acceleration structure. Hence, a speed-up is expected.
This thesis` purpose is the implementation of Ray-Tracer, which operates completely on the GPU, and its expansion by integrating an Uniform Grid. Afterwards, the evaluation of maximum achievable performance takes place. Possible problems regarding GPU-programming will be identified and analysed.
Proceedings of the 9th Open German-Russian Workshop on Pattern Recognition and Image Understanding
(2015)
The Proceedings of the 9th Open German-Russian Workshop on Pattern Recognition and Image Understanding include publications (extended abstracts), that cover but are not limited to the following topics: - Mathematical Theory of Pattern Recognition, Image and Speech Processing, Analysis, Recognition and Understanding. - Cognitive Technologies, Information Technologies, Automated Systems and Software for Pattern Recognition, Image, Speech and Signal Processing, Analysis and Understanding - Databases, Knowledge Bases, and Linguistic Tools - Special-Purpose Architectures, Software and Hardware Tools - Vision and Sensor Data Interpretation for Robotics - Industrial, Medical, Multimedia and Other Applications - Algorithms, Software, Automated Systems and Information Technologies in Bioinformatics and Medical Informatics. The workshop took place from December 1st-5th, 2014, at the University of Koblenz-Landau in Koblenz, Germany.
The mitral valve is one of the four valves in the human heart. It is located in the left heart chamber and its function is to control the blood flow from the left atrium to the left ventricle. Pathologies can lead to malfunctions of the valve so that blood can flow back to the atrium. Patients with a faulty mitral valve function may suffer from fatigue and chest pain. The functionality can be surgically restored, which is often a long and exhaustive intervention. Thorough planning is necessary to ensure a safe and effective surgery. This can be supported by creating pre-operative segmentations of the mitral valve. A post-operative analysis can determine the success of an intervention. This work will combine existing and new ideas to propose a new approach to (semi-)automatically create such valve models. The manual part can guarantee a high quality model and reliability, whereas the automatic part contributes to saving valuable labour time.
The main contributions of the automatic algorithm are an estimated semantic separation of the two leaflets of the mitral valve and an optimization process that is capable of finding a coaptation-line and -area between the leaflets. The segmentation method can perform a fully automatic segmentation of the mitral leaflets if the annulus ring is already given. The intermediate steps of this process will be integrated into a manual segmentation method so a user can guide the whole procedure. The quality of the valve models generated by the method proposed in this work will be measured by comparing them to completely manually segmented models. This will show that commonly used methods to measure the quality of a segmentation are too general and do not suffice to reflect the real quality of a model. Consequently the work at hand will introduce a set of measurements that can qualify a mitral valve segmentation in more detail and with respect to anatomical landmarks. Besides the intra-operative support for a surgeon, a segmented mitral valve provides additional benefits. The ability to patient-specifically obtain and objectively describe the valve anatomy may be the base for future medical research in this field and automation allows to process large data sets with reduced expert dependency. Further, simulation methods that use the segmented models as input may predict the outcome of a surgery.
In this thesis, an interactive application is developed for Android OS. The application is about a virtual-reality game. The game is settled in the genre of first-person shooters and takes place in a space scenario. By using a stereo renderer, it is possible to play the game combined with virtual-reality glasses.
For definite isolation and classification of important features in 3D multi-attribute volume data, multidimensional transfer functions are inalienable. Yet, when using multiple dimensions, the comprehension of the data and the interaction with it become a challenge. That- because neither the control of the versatile input parameters nor the visualization in a higher dimensional space are straightforward.
The goal of this thesis is the implementation of a transfer function editor which supports the creation of a multidimensional transfer function. Therefore different visualization and interaction techniques, like Parallel Coordinates, are used. Furthermore it will be possible to choose and combine the used dimensions interactively and the rendered volume will be adapted to the user interaction in real time.
Web application testing is an active research area. Garousi et al. did a systematic mapping study and classified 79 papers published between 2000-2011. However, there seems to be a lack of information exchange between the scientific community and tool developers.
This thesis systematically analyzes the field of functional, system level web application testing tools. 194 candidate tools were collected in the tool search and screened, with 23 tools being selected as foundation of this thesis. These 23 tools were systematically used to generate a feature model of the domain. The methodology to support this is an additional contribution of this thesis. It processes end user documentation of tools belonging to an examined domain and creates a feature model. The feature model gives an overview over the existing features, their alternatives and their distribution. It can be used to identify trends and problems, extraordinary features, help decision making of tool purchase or guide scientists how to focus research.
Thematik dieser Arbeit ist das dreidimensionale Image-Warping für diffuse und reflektierende Oberflächen. Das Warpingverfahren für den reflektierenden Fall gibt es erst seit 2014. Bei diesem neuen Algorithmus treten Artefakte auf, sobald ein Bild für einen alternativen Blickwinkel auf eine sehr unebene Fläche berechnet werden soll.
In dieser Arbeit wird der Weg von einem Raytracer, der die Eingabetexturen erzeugt, über das Warpingverfahren für beide Arten der Oberflächen, bis zur Optimierung des Reflective-Warping-Verfahrens erarbeitet. Schließlich werden die Ergebnisse der Optimierung bewertet und in den aktuellen sowie zukünftigen Stand der Technik eingeordnet.
Information systems research has started to use crowdsourcing platforms such as Amazon Mechanical Turks (MTurk) for scientific research, recently. In particular, MTurk provides a scalable, cheap work-force that can also be used as a pool of potential respondents for online survey research. In light of the increasing use of crowdsourcing platforms for survey research, the authors aim to contribute to the understanding of its appropriate usage. Therefore, they assess if samples drawn from MTurk deviate from those drawn via conventional online surveys (COS) in terms of answers in relation to relevant e-commerce variables and test the data in a nomological network for assessing differences in effects.
The authors compare responses from 138 MTurk workers with those of 150 German shoppers recruited via COS. The findings indicate, inter alia, that MTurk workers tend to exhibit more positive word-of mouth, perceived risk, customer orientation and commitment to the focal company. The authors discuss the study- results, point to limitations, and provide avenues for further research.
This research examines information audit methodologies and information capturing methods for enterprise social software which are an elementary part of the audit process. Information auditing is lacking of a standardized definition and methodology because the scope of the audit process is diversified and dependent on the organization undertaking the audit. The benefits of information auditing and potential challenges of Enterprise 2.0 the audit can overcome are comprehensive and provide a major incentive for managers to conduct an audit. Information asset registers as a starting point for information auditing are not specifically focusing on social software assets. Therefore this research pro-ject combines asset registers from different areas to create a new register suitable for the requirements of Enterprise 2.0. The necssary adaptations caused by the new character of the assets are minor. The case study applying the asset register for the first time however reveals several problematic areas for information auditors completing the register. Rounding up the thesis a template is developed for setting up new work spaces on enterprise social software systems with appropriate metadata taking into account the meaningful metadata discovered in the asset register.
One task of executives and project managers in IT companies or departments is to hire suitable developers and to assign them to suitable problems. In this paper, we propose a new technique that directly leverages previous work experience of developers in a systematic manner. Existing evidence for developer expertise based on the version history of existing projects is analyzed. More specifically, we analyze the commits to a repository in terms of affected API usage. On these grounds, we associate APIs with developers and thus we assess API experience of developers. In transitive closure, we also assess programming domain experience.
Geographic cluster based routing in ad-hoc wireless sensor networks is a current field of research. Various algorithms to route in wireless ad-hoc networks based on position information already exist. Among them algorithms that use the traditional beaconing approach as well as algorithms that work beaconless (no information about the environment is required besides the own position and the destination). Geographic cluster based routing with guaranteed message delivery can be carried out on overlay graphs as well. Until now the required planar overlay graphs are not being constructed reactively.
This thesis proposes a reactive algorithm, the Beaconless Cluster Based Planarization (BCBP) algorithm, which constructs a planar overlay graph and noticeably reduces the number of messages required for that. Based on an algorithm for cluster based planarization it beaconlessly constructs a planar overlay graph in an unit disk graph (UDG). An UDG is a model for a wireless network in which every participant has the same sending radius. Evaluation of the algorithm shows it to be more efficient than the non beaconless variant. Another result of this thesis is the Beaconless LLRAP (BLLRAP) algorithm, for which planarity but not continued connectivity could be proven.
Nutzung von Big Data im Marketing : theoretische Grundlagen, Anwendungsfelder und Best-Practices
(2015)
Die zunehmende Digitalisierung des Alltags und die damit verbundene omnipräsente Datengenerierung bieten für Unternehmen und insbesondere Marketingabteilungen die Chance, Informationen in bisher ungekannter Fülle über ihre Kunden und Produkte zu erhalten. Die Gewinnung solcher Informationen aus riesigen Datenmengen, die durch neue Technologien ermöglicht wird, hat sich dabei unter dem Begriff Big Data etabliert.
Die vorliegende Arbeit analysiert diese Entwicklung im Hinblick auf das Potenzial für die unternehmerische Disziplin des Marketings. Dazu werden die theoretischen Grundlagen des Einsatzes von Big Data im Marketing identifiziert und daraus Anwendungsfelder und Best-Practice-Lösungen abgeleitet. Die Untersuchung basiert auf einer Literaturanalyse zu dem Thema Big Data Marketing, welche neben verschiedenen Studien und Befragungen auch Expertenmeinungen und Zukunftsprognosen einschließt. Die Literatur wird dabei zunächst auf die theoretischen Grundlagen des Konstrukts Big Data analysiert.
Anschließend wird die Eignung von Big Data Lösungen für den Einsatz in Unternehmen geprüft, bevor die Anwendung im Bereich des Marketings konkretisiert und analysiert wird. Es wurde dabei festgestellt, dass anhand der theoretischen Aspekte von Big Data eine starke Eignung für den Einsatz im Rahmen des Marketings besteht. Diese zeichnet sich vor allem durch die detaillierten Informationen über Verhaltensmuster von Kunden und ihre Kaufentscheidungen aus. Weiterhin wurden potenzielle Anwendungsfelder identifiziert, welche besonders im Bereich der Kundenorientierung und der Marktforschung liegen. Im Hinblick auf Best-Practice-Lösungen konnte ein grober Leitfaden für die Integration von Big Data in die Unternehmensorganisation entwickelt werden. Abschließend wurde festgehalten, dass das Thema Big Data eine hohe Relevanz für das Marketing aufweist und dies in der Zukunft maßgeblich mitbestimmen wird.
This thesis conducts a text and network analysis of criminological files. The specific focus during the research is the field money laundering. The analysis showed the most important concepts present in the text which were classified in eleven different classes. The relationships of those concepts were analysed using ego networks, key entity identification and clustering. Some of the statements given about money laundering could be validated by the findings of this analysis and their interpretation. Specific concepts like banks and organizations as well as foreign subsidiaries were identified. Aggregating these concepts with the statements in chapter 1.4.3 on the circular process of money laundering it can be stated that different organizations and individuals, present in the criminological files, were placing money through different banks, organizations and investments in the legal financial market. At last this thesis tries to validate the benefits of the used tools for the kind of conducted research process. An estimation on ORA's and Automap's applicability for this kind of research is given in the end.
In this thesis we present an approach to track a RGB-D camera in 6DOF andconstruct 3D maps. We first acquire, register and synchronize RGB and depth images. After preprocessing we extract FAST features and match them between two consecutive frames. By depth projection we regain the z-value for the inlier correspondences. Afterwards we estimate the camera motion by 3D point set alignment between the correspondence set using least-squares. This local motion estimate is incrementally applied to a global transformation. Additionally wernpresent methods to build maps based on point cloud data acquired by a RGB-D camera. For map creation we use the OctoMap framework and optionally create a colored point cloud map. The system is evaluated with the widespread RGB-D benchmark.
In this work a framework is developed that is used to create an evaluation scheme for the evaluation of text processing tools. The evaluation scheme is developed using a model-dependent software evaluation approach and the focus of the model-dependent part is the text-processing process which is derived from the Conceptual Analysis Process developed in the GLODERS project. As input data a German court document is used containing two incidents of extortion racketeering which happened in 2011 and 2012. The evaluation of six different tools shows that one tool offers great results for the given dataset when it is compared to manual results. It is able to identify and visualize relations between concepts without any additional manual work. Other tools also offer good results with minor drawbacks. The biggest drawback for some tools is the unavailability of models for the German language. They can perform automated tasks only on English documents. Nonetheless some tools can be enhanced by self-written code which allows users with development experience to apply additional methods.
In current research of the autonomous mobile robots, path planning is still a very important issue.
This master's thesis deals with various path planning algorithms for the navigation of such mobile systems. This is not only to determine a collision-free trajectory from one point to another. The path should still be optimal and comply with all vehicle-given constraints. Especially the autonomous driving in an unknown and dynamic environment poses a major challenge, because a closed-loop control is necessary and thus a certain dynamic of the planner is demanded.
In this paper, two types of algorithms are presented. First, the path planner, based on A*, which is a common graph search algorithm: A*, Anytime Repairing A*, Lifelong Planning A*, D* Lite, Field D*, hybrid A*. Second, the algorithms which are based on the probabilistic planning algorithm Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (Rapidly-exploring Random Tree, RRT*, Lifelong Planning RRT*), as well as some extensions and heuristics. In addition, methods for collision avoidance and path smoothing are presented. Finally, these different algorithms are evaluated and compared with each other.
Code package managers like Cabal track dependencies between packages. But packages rarely use the functionality that their dependencies provide. This leads to unnecessary compilation of unused parts and to speculative conflicts between package versions where there are no conflicts. In two case studies we show how relevant these two problems are. We then describe how we could avoid them by tracking dependencies not between packages but between individual code fragments.
This master- thesis investigates the topic of intercultural web design. Two websites from different countries are exemplarily compared. On the basis of cultural dimensions, cultural differences are presented on each respective website. The analysis particularly focuses on how detailed the respective website-designer and -operator regards their users" cultural differences and the creation of a cross-cultural web design. The analysis illustrates which cultural - and particularly intercultural - aspects of countries were taken into consideration in the design of the web sites. The investigation led to the conclusion that their implementation was not consequently executed for all web sites. Hence, this thesis offers suggestions for the improvement of aspects which are most important in intercultural web design.
The lasting hype around the mobile internet and the related technology of the mobile applications seem not to drop off. The immense economic potential of this market leads the businesses and ventures to continuously find new ways of monetization. The underlying causes of that phenomenon are rarely challenged. Scientific research in the field of "ubiquitous mobile" has not yet developed a clear overall picture of the causes and effect chains. Attempts of deriving causes by studies in related mass media such as the computer or the internet have been discussed controversially. By combining the research streams of media motive usage and the customer retention, this paper will present a new research model. Based on a quantitative survey in the German speaking the gained data proves the motives for mobility, information gathering and entertainment purposed to be the most important drivers of customer satisfaction in mobile applications. The paper also highlights a significant correlation between the customer satisfaction and the other determinants of customer retention.
Software systems are often developed as a set of variants to meet diverse requirements. Two common approaches to this are "clone-and-owning" and software product lines. Both approaches have advantages and disadvantages. In previous work we and collaborators proposed an idea which combines both approaches to manage variants, similarities, and cloning by using a virtual platform and cloning-related operators.
In this thesis, we present an approach for aggregating essential metadata to enable a propagate operator, which implements a form of change propagation. For this we have developed a system to annotate code similarities which were extracted throughout the history of a software repository. The annotations express similarity maintenance tasks, which can then either be executed automatically by propagate or have to be performed manually by the user. In this work we outline the automated metadata extraction process and the system for annotating similarities; we explain how the implemented system can be integrated into the workflow of an existing version control system (Git); and, finally, we present a case study using the 101haskell corpus of variants.