This paper presents a 4 kW GaN-based galvanically isolated bidirectional DC/DC converter suitable for on-board auxiliary power supply systems, interconnecting the HV battery with the LV power system. To enable the trend towards higher levels of electrification, a second LV level of 48 V is introduced to supply the high-power consumers, relieving the 12 V grid on the one hand and/or avoiding using additional costly isolated converters connected to the HV batteries on the other. The built converter prototypes aim to ...

Magnetic devices are an important part of electronic converters. They can be used to control some properties of the converters. There are three different control methods using an auxiliary bias-winding. In the presented paper, the impact of the implementation of the auxiliary bias-winding was studied for mixed biasing. Seven different designs were investigated in small signal measurements and 3D-FEM-simulations. The results were proven by calculated results of equivalent diagram circuits, which have been developed. ...

Trust is one of the most important factors driving the adoption and use of information systems. The goal of this paper is to provide a first evaluation of a conceptual piece claiming a) that users distinguish between their trust in an IS and the provider of this IS and b) that both kinds of trust are important for the success sustainable success of IS providers. To evaluate the claims, a research model is developed and evaluated using data of 234 students during the introduction of a new IS at an European university. ...

In name-informing constructions like "The phenomenon is called a “sun halo”", the noun mentioned in the quotation (a “sun halo”) adopts a referring interpretation, as indicated by the determiner. As an account, we claim predicates like call to introduce a copular relation, which is the source of referring uses of nominals in name-informing quotation: To call y “n” entails that y is an n. Two copula types are argued to be covertly contained in name-informing constructions, an identificational copula and an equative ...

Recent advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) bear the opportunity to design new forms of human-computer interaction with conversational interfaces. We hypothesize that these interfaces can interactively engage students to increase response quality of course evaluations in education compared to the common standard of web surveys. Past research indicates that web surveys come with disadvantages, such as poor response quality caused by inattention, survey fatigue or satisficing behavior. To test if conversational ...

Recent advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP) bear the opportunity to design new forms of human-computer interaction with conversational interfaces. However, little is known about how these interfaces change the way users respond in online course evaluations. We aim to explore the effects of conversational agents (CAs) on the response quality of online course evaluations in education compared to the common standard of web surveys. Past research indicates that web surveys come with disadvantages, such as poor ...

Information technology capabilities are growing at an impressive pace and increasingly overstrain the cognitive abilities of users. User assistance systems such as online manuals try to help the user in handling these systems. However, there is strong evidence that traditional user assistance systems are not as effective as intended. With the rise of smart personal assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa, user assistance systems are becoming more sophisticated by offering a higher degree of interaction and intelligence. ...

Despite a growing body of research about the design and use of Smart Personal Assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa or Google’s Assistant, little is known about their ability to help educators offering individual support in large-scale learning environments. Smart Personal Assistant ecosystems empower educators to develop their own agents without deep technological knowledge. The objective of this paper is to design and validate a method that helps educators to create Smart Personal Assistants as learning tutors. Using ...

Collaboration Engineering (CE) is an approach for the design and deployment of repeatable collaborative work practices that can be executed by practitioners themselves without the ongoing support of external collaboration professionals. A key design activity in CE concerns modeling current and future collaborative work practices. CE researchers and practitioners have used the Facilitation Process Model (FPM) technique. However, this modeling technique suffers from a number of shortcomings to model contemporary ...

The Application of reclaimed asphalt is becoming increasingly important in the European Road Network. Beside the conventional recycling options (i. e. hot asphalt mixtures), cold recycling has been successfully applied in numerous road structures within the secondary and the main road network. However, the standard design procedures for common pavement materials as well as the approaches for cold recycling differ from one country to another. The comparison of five national pavement design procedures shows, that ...