Carrier Aggregation in Multi-Beam High Throughput Satellite Systems

in Carrier Aggregation in Multi-Beam High Throughput Satellite Systems (2019, December 10)

Carrier Aggregation (CA) is an integral part of current terrestrial networks. Its ability to enhance the peak data rate, to efficiently utilize the limited available spectrum resources and to satisfy the ... [more ▼]

Carrier Aggregation (CA) is an integral part of current terrestrial networks. Its ability to enhance the peak data rate, to efficiently utilize the limited available spectrum resources and to satisfy the demand for data-hungry applications has drawn large attention from different wireless network communities. Given the benefits of CA in the terrestrial wireless environment, it is of great interest to analyze and evaluate the potential impact of CA in the satellite domain. In this paper, we study CA in multi-beam high throughput satellite systems. We consider both inter-transponder and intra-transponder CA at the satellite payload level of the communication stack, and we address the problem of carrier-user assignment assuming that multiple users can be multiplexed in each carrier. The transmission parameters of different carriers are generated considering the transmission characteristics of carriers in different transponders. In particular, we propose a flexible carrier allocation approach for a CA enabled multi-beam satellite system targeting a proportionally fair user demand satisfaction. Simulation results and analysis shed some light on this rather unexplored scenario and demonstrate the feasibility of the CA in satellite communication systems. [less ▲]

The Future of Asset Management Law - Financial Operating Systems

Presentation (2019, December 09)

Reduced Order Model : Proper Generalized Decomposition

Speeches/Talks (2019)

Mechanical parameters identification of keloid and surrounding healthy skin using Digital Image Correlation measurements in vivo

Scientific Conference (2019, December 09)

The human skin behaves as an elastic membrane initially prestressed but not uniformly. The presence of anatomical sites favorable to the appearance of some tumors, a keloid in our case, while other sites ... [more ▼]

The human skin behaves as an elastic membrane initially prestressed but not uniformly. The presence of anatomical sites favorable to the appearance of some tumors, a keloid in our case, while other sites never develop them attests to the importance of the mechanical environment of the tissue. Thus, a mechanical characterization of the tumored skin is necessary to understand the keloid expansion from a mechanical point of view. Our case study consists in modeling a bi-material structure composed of a keloid skin surrounded by healthy skin located on upper left arm of a young female. From the experimental measurements in vivo, by combining force sensor, displacement sensor and Digital Image Correlation techniques, we perform a mechanical analysis to characterize the mechanical stress fields over the entire area and on the interface ‘healthy skin/keloid skin’. Since the mechanical behavior of the tumorous skin is unknown, many physical models can be implemented and assessed very easily inside the specific digital software to fit with the real data. Once a set of mechanical parameters for both the healthy skin and the keloid skin are identified, the stress fields around the keloid are calculated. Next steps consist in determining matching preferential directions in order to define as precisely as possible the specifications of a device for preventing the growth of keloids. [less ▲]

La grande-duchesse Marie-Adélaïde en version non falsifiée

Article for general public (2019)

Psychiatric knowledge dissimination at international conferences (1860-1914): 'those who have the interest of science at heart, don't distinguish between nationalities'

Scientific Conference (2019, December 06)

The amount of international conferences that were organised over the nineteenth century increased rapidly, and formed an ideal environment for discussions amongst peers and establishing knowledge ... [more ▼]

The amount of international conferences that were organised over the nineteenth century increased rapidly, and formed an ideal environment for discussions amongst peers and establishing knowledge transfers. Medical and psychiatric conferences were no exception. However, a study into psychiatric conferences on a larger scale has not yet been conducted. Adopting a transnational perspective is essential, and while this approach is gaining more attention from historians more generally, it is only slowly reaching the history of psychiatry. To gain insights into the (inter)national knowledge dissemination that happened within psychiatry, we will examine different organisational aspects such as the locations where conferences were held, its organisation and the subjects and questions that were included in the conference program, as well as studying the mutual connections between congresses and the connections between the participants. This will help to discover the key players and whether it was well-known psychiatrists that were most involved in these international conferences. These interwoven sub-questions will help to establish in how far an international community existed within psychiatry and thus if such international congresses were an epicentre of transnational knowledge dissemination or if they were rather a manifestation of national encounters. This research is based on the minutes and membership lists found within conference proceedings of the “Congrès internationale médecine mentale”, “Congrès international de neurologie, psychiatrie et de physiologie”, “Congrès international de l’assistance aux aliéné” and the “Congrès international de médecine” that also often included a section dedicated to psychiatry. These all took place between the 1860’s and the first decade of the twentieth century. [less ▲]

Assessment of Fundamental Motives

Doctoral thesis (2019)

Motivation, that is, the orientation of the momentary execution of life towards a positively evaluated target state (Rheinberg & Vollmeyer, 2012), is one of the most important psychological constructs ... [more ▼]

Motivation, that is, the orientation of the momentary execution of life towards a positively evaluated target state (Rheinberg & Vollmeyer, 2012), is one of the most important psychological constructs related to success in various life domains such as school, work or family life (Pellegrino & Hilton, 2013). To be able to provide guidance to people and to support them in achieving success in these life domains, it is essential to identify those motivational aspects that are relevant for the respective life domain and to make them assessable. Here, motivational aspects that are inherent in a person, such as motives or goals, are promising candidates. Both constructs can be defined as explicit cognitive representations of desirable end states (Brandstätter, Schüler, Puca, & Lozo, 2013; Karoly, 1999). However, motives and goals are distinguished at the level of abstraction, that is, goals are a concrete representation of more abstract motives (Elliot & Church, 1997). In order to broaden our understanding in the assessment of motives and goals that are of relevance for education and work as two of the most important life domains, three studies were conducted in the context of the presented dissertation. In Paper 1, we revised the theory of Fundamental Motives (Havercamp, 1998; Reiss & Havercamp, 1998) and developed a time- and cost-efficient questionnaire to assess them in research settings. Fundamental Motives are a self-contained framework of 16 motives considered to be relevant for people in their everyday lives. The framework is appealing as it provides an approach to narrow down the plethora of motives to those relevant in a variety of life domains. In addition, the framework is already used extensively in coaching for work and other areas of life (Reyss & Birkhahn, 2009). First, an initial item pool was successively refined into 16 scales with three items each (named 16 motives research scales; 16mrs) across two samples with a total sample size of N = 569 representative for the German population with respect to age, sex and education. Second, we used another representative sample (N = 999) to validate the questionnaire and explore its nomological network. Results support the reliability and validity of the 16mrs for the assessment of Fundamental Motives. Investigations of the nomological network indicate, that Fundamental Motives represent aspects of personality that are different from the Big Five personality traits (e.g., Costa & McCrae, 1992) and cover motivational aspects beyond the well-established Power, Achievement, Affiliation, Intimacy, and Fear motives (Heckhausen & Heckhausen, 2010). Paper 2 was based on the results of Study 1, since we applied the framework of Fundamental Motives, as measured by the 16mrs constructed in Study 1, to the life domain of work. In coaching in work contexts, Fundamental Motives have been used extensively, not least because of their fine-grained level of abstraction that allows for a straightforward interpretation by the client. By investigating how the satisfaction of fine-grained motives supplied by characteristics of the workplace (i.e., need-supply fit) contribute to job satisfaction, we further validated the framework itself. At the same time were able to gain more detailed insights into how need-supply fit impacts job satisfaction, compared to broader motive or value clusters. To this end, we used the representative sample from Study 1 (N = 999) and selected all working people (n = 723). We applied polynomial regression in combination with response surface analysis (e.g., Edwards & Parry, 1993), which allows to simultaneously investigate how different levels of Fundamental Motives on the one hand and different levels of supply to satisfy these motives at the workplace on the other contribute to job satisfaction. We found that job satisfaction was highest when the level of supply by the workplace exceeded the level of the motive for Social Acceptance, Status, Autonomy, Sex, and Retention motives. When a high level of the motive and a high level of supply met, job satisfaction was highest for Curiosity, Idealism, and Social Participation motives. When the supplies fell short compared to the level of the motive, job satisfaction was negatively affected by the need-supply fit of Social Acceptance, Status, Sex, Retention, Curiosity, and Idealism motives. The results can be used in coaching and career development to uncover potential causes of low job satisfaction and provide guidance to clients on how to enhance their job satisfaction. In Paper 3, we shifted the focus to education as another major life domain. Here, achievement motivation has been identified as one of the major driving forces for progression and success (Schiefele & Schaffner, 2015). On a more concrete level compared to achievement motivation, Achievement Goals have been established as students’ cognitive representations of desired and undesired end states in educational achievement contexts (Elliot & Thrash, 2002; Hulleman, Schrager, Bodmann, & Harackiewicz, 2010). These goals typically focus on mastery, that is learning as much as possible, and performance, that is outperforming others or avoiding being outperformed. So far, Achievement Goals have been mostly conceptualized as domain-specific (Bong, 2001). Although this assumption is supported by previous studies, research on the processes operating behind the domain- specificity is scarce. The dimensional comparisons theory (Möller & Marsh, 2013) has introduced dimensional comparisons as a potential process operating behind the domain- specificity. Dimensional comparisons describe intrapersonal comparisons of characteristics in a domain with characteristics in another domain for the sake of self-evaluation. Previous investigations indicated that dimensional comparison processes are involved in the formation of the domain-specificity of important educational constructs, such as Self-Concept or Test Anxiety. Consequently, our aim in study 3 was to investigate, if dimensional comparison processes operate in the formation of the domain-specificity of Achievement Goals. To this end, we used a sample of N = 381 German ninth and tenth grade students in six German highest-track schools. Results indicate that dimensional comparison processes impact the domain specificity of Achievement Goals. Thus, the results extend our understanding of the domain specificity of Achievement Goals and simultaneously add to the validity of the dimensional comparison theory. In conclusion, the presented scientific work adds to the assessment of motives and goals that are crucially important in various life domains, but especially in work and educational settings. The contributions of this dissertation to the existing literature include (1) the revision of a comprehensive motivational framework (Paper 1), (2) the development and validation of a questionnaire based on this revised framework (Papers 1 & 2), (3) important assessment related insights concerning Achievement Goals in educational settings (Paper 3), and (4) practical implications for coaching and interventions in work and educational settings as two of the most important life domains (Papers 2 & 3). [less ▲]

Scaling of urban heat island & NO2 with urban population: a meta-analysis

Scientific Conference (2019, December 05)

Accommodation of non-nationals in Luxembourg

Scientific Conference (2019, December 05)

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg within its current borders was established in the end of 19th century. In the space of less than 150 years the population of this state more than doubled - largely ... [more ▼]

The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg within its current borders was established in the end of 19th century. In the space of less than 150 years the population of this state more than doubled - largely attributable to immigration. Today, 48% of the population are foreigners. We would like to argue that the current immigration policy of Luxembourg is based on the strategy of accommodation. We can identify three major pillars of this strategy. The first pillar creates welcome conditions to adaptation within the host society. The second pillar brings liberal provisions for naturalization and the third pillar offers open and generous admission of refugees. [less ▲]

DAISY: A Data Information System for accountability under the General Data Protection Regulation

in GigaScience (2019), 8(12),

The new European legislation on data protection, namely, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has introduced comprehensive requirements for the documentation about the processing of personal ... [more ▼]

The new European legislation on data protection, namely, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), has introduced comprehensive requirements for the documentation about the processing of personal data as well as informing the data subjects of its use. GDPR’s accountability principle requires institutions, projects, and data hubs to document their data processings and demonstrate compliance with the GDPR. In response to this requirement, we see the emergence of commercial data-mapping tools, and institutions creating GDPR data register with such tools. One shortcoming of this approach is the genericity of tools, and their process-based model not capturing the project-based, collaborative nature of data processing in biomedical research.We have developed a software tool to allow research institutions to comply with the GDPR accountability requirement and map the sometimes very complex data flows in biomedical research. By analysing the transparency and record-keeping obligations of each GDPR principle, we observe that our tool effectively meets the accountability requirement.The GDPR is bringing data protection to center stage in research data management, necessitating dedicated tools, personnel, and processes. Our tool, DAISY, is tailored specifically for biomedical research and can help institutions in tackling the documentation challenge brought about by the GDPR. DAISY is made available as a free and open source tool on Github. DAISY is actively being used at the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine and the ELIXIR-Luxembourg data hub. [less ▲]