34711 research outputs found
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Staatsschulden : ist Hidden Debt auch in der Schweiz ein Problem?
No full textViele Staaten haben sich in den letzten Jahren stark verschuldet. Der Internationale Währungsfonds und die Weltbank warnen deshalb vor sogenannten versteckten Staatsschulden, welche die makroökonomischen Risiken erhöhen. Hat auch die Schweiz solche Schulden
Conditioned biochar in agriculture : a curse or a blessing for earthworms?
No full textBiochar as a slow-release fertilizer is gaining increasing attention in agriculture due to its potential to improve soil characteristics and soil fertility, to retain nutrients and therefore reduce leaching into other ecosystems and to sequestrate carbon for climate mitigation. However, its impact on soil fauna, particularly earthworms as key soil engineers, remains unclear. Previous studies have observed varying effects, influenced by several factors like worm species, biochar properties, soil characteristics, and application practices such as conditioning. This study investigates the effects of conditioned, untreated biochar on earthworm vitality. 8t/ha of biochar, pre-conditioned with either cattle slurry (CS), fermentation slurry (FS) or human urine (AU), was introduced into microcosms containing five juvenile endogeic earthworms. The small-scale terrestrial ecosystem (STEM) was kept under controlled climate chamber conditions for seven weeks. Changes in weight and feeding activity over this time were measured. Additionally, two leaching experiments were conducted to assess biochar’s nitrate retention capacity. No negative changes in earthworm weight were observed across treatments, while feeding activity, measured using bait-lamina test strips, was significantly lower in the FS treatment, independent of time. Given the contradictory findings of these two endpoints, further studies with the same setup, along with additional endpoints, should be conducted to draw definitive conclusions about the effects of 8 t/ha of biochar on earthworm vitality. Nitrate retention by biochar could not be confirmed
Square kilometre array science data challenge 3a : foreground removal for an EoR experiment
No full textWe present and analyse the results of the Science data challenge 3a (SDC3a, https://sdc3.skao.int/challenges/foregrounds), an EoR foreground-removal exercise organised by the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) on SKA simulated data. The challenge ran for 8 months, from March to October 2023. Participants were provided with realistic simulations of SKA-Low data between 106 MHz and 196 MHz, including foreground contamination from extragalactic and Galactic emission, instrumental and systematic effects. They were asked to deliver cylindrical power spectra of the EoR signal, cleaned from all corruptions, and the corresponding confidence levels. Here we describe the approaches taken by the 17 teams that completed the challenge, and we assess their performance using different metrics. The challenge results provide a positive outlook on the capabilities of current foreground-mitigation approaches to recover the faint EoR signal from SKA-Low observations. The median error committed in the EoR power spectrum recovery is below the true signal for seven teams, although in some cases there are some significant outliers. The smallest residual overall is cMpc3 across all considered scales and frequencies. The estimation of confidence levels provided by the teams is overall less accurate, with the true error being typically under-estimated, sometimes very significantly. The most accurate error bars account for 60 ± 20% of the true errors committed. The challenge results provide a means for all teams to understand and improve their performance. This challenge indicates that the comparison between independent pipelines could be a powerful tool to assess residual biases and improve error estimation
Vergleichende Analyse der Outcomes in digitalen und klassischen Exkursionsformaten : eine Fallstudie zu Schulführungen im Proteingarten der ZHAW Wädenswil
No full textThis master's thesis focuses on the use of digital tools in environmental education. It compares the outcomes of a digital and an analog garden tour in the Protein Garden of ZHAW Wädenswil, with a particular focus on the outcomes of knowledge, motivation to act, learning motivation, and attitude towards research. The aim of the work was to compare the results of both formats and in particular to investigate the influence of digital guidance using the app Actionbound on the students.
A mixed-methods approach with a quasi-experimental design was used. All school classes were surveyed both quantitatively through pre- and post-tests, whereby the analog and digital classes were additionally supplemented qualitatively through semi-structured interviews and participant observations. A control class took part in the pre- and post-tests.
The garden tours focus on the topic of nutrition, in particular on plant proteins and their importance in the context of sustainable agriculture and food production. The topic of sustainable nutrition is of great relevance in view of global environmental problems as the current food system contributes significantly to exceeding planetary boundaries (Fesenfeld et al., 2023).
The results of the study show that the analog and digital excursion formats contributed to a comparable increase in knowledge. However, the intervention had almost no influence on the intention to act and the attitude towards research. The digital garden tour also contributed to increased motivation to learn. Overall, the study proves that digital formats in environmental education have the potential to promote motivation to learn without sacrificing content delivery or without the smartphone leading to a significant distraction from the surrounding environment.Diese Masterarbeit widmet sich schwerpunktmässig dem Einsatz digitaler Tools in der Umweltbildung. Sie vergleicht die Outcomes einer digitalen und einer analogen Gartenführung im Proteingarten der ZHAW Wädenswil mit besonderem Fokus auf die Outcomes Wissen, Wollen, die Lernmotivation sowie die Einstellung zur Forschung. Das Outcome Wollen wurde durch Handlungsabsichten operationalisiert. Ziel der Arbeit war es die Ergebnisse beider Formate zu vergleichen und insbesondere den Einfluss der digitalen Führung mithilfe der App Actionbound auf die Schüler:innen zu untersuchen.
Ein Mixed-Methods-Ansatz mit quasi-experimentellem Design kam zum Einsatz. Alle Schulklassen wurden sowohl quantitativ durch Prä- und Posttests befragt, wobei die analogen und digitalen Klassen zusätzlich durch halbstrukturierte Interviews und teilnehmende Beobachtungen qualitativ ergänzt wurden. Eine Kontrollklasse nahm an den Prä- und Posttests teil.
Die Gartenführungen konzentrieren sich auf das Thema Ernährung, insbesondere auf pflanzliche Proteine und deren Bedeutung im Kontext einer nachhaltigen Land- und Lebensmittelwirtschaft. Das Thema nachhaltige Ernährung ist angesichts der globalen Umweltprobleme von grosser Relevanz, da das gegenwärtige Ernährungssystem massgeblich zur Überschreitung planetarer Belastungsgrenzen beiträgt (Fesenfeld et al., 2023).
Die Ergebnisse der Studie zeigen, dass die Exkursionsformate analog und digital zu einem vergleichbaren Wissenszuwachs beitrugen. Auf die Handlungsabsichten und die Einstellung zur Forschung hatte die Intervention jedoch nahezu keinen Einfluss. Die digitale Gartenführung trug zusätzlich zu einer gesteigerten Lernmotivation bei. Insgesamt belegt die Studie, dass digitale Formate in der Umweltbildung das Potenzial besitzen, die Lernmotivation zu fördern, ohne dass es zu Einbussen in der Inhaltsvermittlung kommt oder das Smartphone zu einer erheblichen Ablenkung von der umgebenden Umwelt führt
Social robots : a challenge for technology design
No full textThe aim of this paper is to examine which design guidelines and features can improve the acceptance of social robots as personal assistants for people in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. To answer this question, a design science approach was chosen. Based on a literature review of the current state of technology, an online survey was conducted in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. The results were analyzed using a quantitative content analysis. Based on the literature review and the survey results, a meta-model was created, illustrating various aspects and characteristics of social robot design. The findings indicate that the acceptance of social robots is influenced by human-like characteristics, although it should remain clear to users that they are interacting with a social robot
Positiv in die Nachsportkarriere mit Life Design Thinking : ein Workflow für die Beratung von Athlet:innen in der Transition vom Leistungssport in die Nachsportkarriere.
No full textDiese Arbeit befasst sich mit der Beratung von Athlet:innen in der Transition in die Nachsportkarriere und verknüpft diesen Prozess mit dem Ansatz des Life Design Thinking. Ziel war es, zu untersuchen, inwiefern ein Workflow, die Athlet:innen bei diesem Übergang unterstützen kann.
Alle Karrieren im Leistungssport haben gemein, dass sie einmal zu Ende gehen. Dieses Ende bringt vielschichtige Herausforderungen für die Athlet:innen mit sich. Fragen zu Ausbildung, Beruf oder Identität stellen sich. Der Athlete Hub von Swiss Olympic, wie auch Sportverbände haben Interesse daran, dass Athlet:innen in dieser Lebensphase begleitet und unterstützt werden. Moderne Beratungsansätze wie das Life Design Thinking haben Einzug in die Beratung von Athlet:innen gefunden.
Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurde ein strukturierter Workflow entwickelt, welcher Methoden des Life Design Thinking integriert. Dieser wurde in der Beratung von Athlet:innen in der Transition in die Nachsportkarriere angewendet. Mittels qualitativer Interviews wurde eine Auswertung der Beratungen erstellt.
Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass der Workflow die Athlet:innen dabei unterstützt, sich ihren Fähigkeiten, Interessen und Werten bewusster zu werden. Durch die geführte Reflexion wurden die Athlet:innen motiviert, ihre Zukunft aktiv zu gestalten. Bei der Mehrzahl der Athlet:innen konnte eine Steigerung der Selbstwirksamkeit festgestellt werden.
Insgesamt ist zu erkennen, dass die angeleitete und strukturierte Reflexion der Vergangenheit und Gegenwart einen positiven Einfluss auf die Transition in die Nachsportkarriere haben kann
Transdisciplinarity through the arts
No full textArtistic practices provide a fertile ground for transdisciplinary engagement between people from different backgrounds. They open up thinking through affective processes that, contrary to classical disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, enable a transcending of collective and individual stances. The focus here is not on the possible artworks, but on the appropriation and use of artistic practices and the resulting basis for discussion of affective ways of thinking. This allows for the individual and collective situatedness to be revealed and put up for negotiation without judgement, and opens up not exclusively thinking about overlaps, but thinking about possibilities. In this, new and implicitly different ways can be found and explored. A stance to face social and ecological crises collectively and individually in a different, more reflective and inclusive way
Dependable AI inference : a work-in-progress on CPU, co-processor and FPGA approaches
No full textCurrent approaches to dependable AI inference in EdgeAI systems are problematic. The massive parallelization implied by GPUs and NPUs does not lend itself to traditional, that is redundant, forms of execution for integrity checking. State of the art inference-runtimes use a data streaming approach to accelerate inference under conditions of low available memory and, implemented in a lock-free manner, exhibit high orchestration efficiency in the face of low computational power. Under these conditions the actual mathematical operations act as a bottleneck. In low-power operations, imperative for the target domain of Space and indeed any battery-operated system, increasing the clock rate simply isn’t an option. Radiation-hardened circuitry, despite its high cost, may offer an alternative. We propose the application of the High-Performance Data Processor (HPDP) as a dedicated mathematical backend integrated in the data streaming pipeline of the Klepsydra AI-inference orchestration framework. Our results, comparing the performance of the HPDP against well-known radiation-hardened CPUs, confirm the validity of the approach. Given the architectural features of the HPDP and lessons-learned we then propose an FPGA architecture for which first experimental results indicate comparable performance estimates