Consultations citoyennes et réformes constitutionnelles

Report (2015)

The report was commissioned by the Chamber of Deputies for preparing the campaign around the constitutional referendum that was held in June 2015. It has two objectives. The first is to assess the ... [more ▼]

The report was commissioned by the Chamber of Deputies for preparing the campaign around the constitutional referendum that was held in June 2015. It has two objectives. The first is to assess the citizens’ opinion and awareness on the four referendum issues. The evaluation was made on the basis of four citizen consultations composed by a representative panel of citizens resident in Luxembourg. In addition of providing an overview of the state of citizens’ knowledge and opinions (and their evolution), that analysis allows to assess how participants perceive the consultation process itself. The second objective is to present and discuss concrete proposals to include citizen’s in the process of the constitutional reform and the referendum. This last part is based on the teachings of the consultation carried out in Luxembourg as well as three case studies where people were fully involved in the constitutional reform process: the case of Iceland, Ireland and the State of Oregon (USA). [less ▲]

Phantomgrenzen im Kontext grenzüberschreitender Wohnmigration. Das Beispiel des deutsch-luxemburgischen Grenzraums

in Europa Regional (2015), 22(3-4), 114-128

The Schengen Agreement have opened many European borders and allowed border controls to virtually disappear. The effect of this opening can be illustrated especially well with the example of the German ... [more ▼]

The Schengen Agreement have opened many European borders and allowed border controls to virtually disappear. The effect of this opening can be illustrated especially well with the example of the German-Luxembourgish border region. Here, national borders have largely lost their dividing effect, which is reflected, amongst other things, in the very intensive daily mobility and residential mobility. This article shows that the diversity of the cross-border practices has relativised the national borders, which, however, persist in the form of new demarcations. This relationship of dissolvement and simultaneous continuity, as it is concisely described with the figure of thought “phantom borders”, will be examined by using example of cross-border residential migration. The number of Luxembourgers who recolate their residence to the German federal states of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate has risen significantly in recent years. This article is based on data from four different empirical studies, which, using a variety of methods, were concerned with the developments of residential mobility in the border regions of Saarland and Rhineland-Palatinate. The results are fundamentally in agreement that the massive residential migration has brought with it spatial differentiations and social demarcations on a local as well as on a regional level. These materialise and manifest themselves in different ways: easily accessible by public or private transport vs. not easily accessible; new residential developments vs. town and village centres, autochthonous vs. allochthonous, Luxembourgers vs. non-Luxembourgers. In all of these demarcation processes, the persistence of national categories is expressed, and they thus refer to the phantom-like continuity of territorial borders in general, as well as a clear incongruity of territorial borders and social demarcations in the context of residential migration in particular. [less ▲]

Contact-State Modelling in Force-Controlled Robotic Peg-in-Hole Assembly Processes of Flexible Objects Using Optimised Gaussian Mixtures

in Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part B: Journal of Engineering Manufacture (2015)

This article proposes the distribution similarity measure–based Gaussian mixtures model for the contact-state (CS) modelling in force-guided robotic assembly processes of flexible rubber parts. The wrench ... [more ▼]

This article proposes the distribution similarity measure–based Gaussian mixtures model for the contact-state (CS) modelling in force-guided robotic assembly processes of flexible rubber parts. The wrench (Cartesian force and torque) signals of the manipulated object are captured for different states of the given assembly process. The distribution similarity measure–based Gaussian mixtures model CS modelling scheme is employed in modelling the captured wrench signals for different CSs. The proposed distribution similarity measure–based Gaussian mixtures model CS modelling scheme uses the Gaussian mixtures model in modelling the captured signals. The parameters of the Gaussian mixtures models are computed using expectation maximisation. The optimal number of Gaussian mixtures model components for each CS model is determined by considering the classification success rate as an index for the similarity measure between the distribution of the captured signals and the developed models. The optimal number of Gaussian mixtures model components corresponds to the highest classification success rate; hence, object elasticity variation would be accommodated by properly choosing the optimal number of Gaussian mixtures model components. The performance of the proposed distribution similarity measure–based Gaussian mixtures model CS modelling strategy is evaluated by a test stand composed of a KUKA lightweight robot doing peg-in-hole assembly processes for flexible rubber objects. Two rubber objects with different elasticity are considered for two experiments; in the first experiment, an elastic peg of 30 Shore A hardness is considered and that of the second experiment has hardness of 6 Shore A which is even softer than the one used in experiment 1. Employing the proposed distribution similarity measure–based Gaussian mixtures model CS modelling strategy excellent classification success rate was obtained for both experiments. However, more Gaussian mixtures model components are required for the softer one that gives a strong impression of the non-stationarity behaviour increment for softer materials. Comparison is performed with the available CS modelling schemes and the distribution similarity measure–based Gaussian mixtures model is shown to provide the best classification success rate performance with a reduced computational time. [less ▲]

Bessere Gesundheitsversorgung

Article for general public (2015)

Activity tracking: A new attack on location privacy

in Proceedings of the 3rd IEEE Conference on Communications and Network Security (CNS'15) (2015)

Formalizing provable anonymity in Isabelle/HOL

in Formal Aspects of Computing (2015), 27(2), 255-282

Les structures non-conventionnées d'éducation et d'accueil des enfants de moins de 12 ans au Luxembourg. Un état des lieux.

Report (2015)

Eine black box wird geöffnet. Einblicke in Organisation und Praxis privatwirtschaftlicher Kindertagesbetreuung in Luxemburg

Report (2015)

Safe and Automated Assembly Process using Vision assisted Robot Manipulator

in Procedia CIRP (2015)

Many manufacturing industries especially small and medium size (SMEs) industries are reluctant to automatize their production using robots. This is due to the fact that mostly industrial robots are not ... [more ▼]

Many manufacturing industries especially small and medium size (SMEs) industries are reluctant to automatize their production using robots. This is due to the fact that mostly industrial robots are not properly equipped to recognize their surrounding and take intelligent decisions regarding path planning especially for low volume, flexible production with versatile production lines. The proposed idea is that a robot manipulator performing assembly or disassembly tasks should be able to predict potential collisions even with unknown obstacles and must be able to prevent i.e. react automatically for safe detour around obstacle. Currently, industrial robots have tactile sensing abilities, which detect collisions after a real contact but the existing proposals for its avoidance are either computationally expensive, need prior information about the obstacles or not very well adapted to the safety standards. Therefore, this paper introduces a ToF sensor based information collection and intelligent decision methodology in order to localize the un-known, un-programmed obstacles and propose a safe peg-in-hole automated assembly process. In the case of collisions, the proposed method will provide various solutions and decides for the best solution according to the scenario on-hand. The proposed solution is quick and robust and currently applied for static environment, whereas dynamic obstacles will be treated in future. [less ▲]

Life Satisfaction between Non-Luxembourgish and Native Luxembourgish Postgraduate Students

in Sociology Migration and Integration (2015)

Life satisfaction (LS) is a potential key to social progress and contributes to the functioning of individuals. In Luxembourg, the postgraduates who receive financial aid from the government are ... [more ▼]

Life satisfaction (LS) is a potential key to social progress and contributes to the functioning of individuals. In Luxembourg, the postgraduates who receive financial aid from the government are registered at the Centre for Documentation and Information on Higher Education. In order to obtain the financial aid, one of the criteria dictates that one of the parents of foreign students should have been working in Luxembourg for at least 5 years. In this country, which is built on migration (46% of the resident population consists of foreigners), is the basis on which our scientific questions are raised: (1) between non-Luxembourgish and native Luxembourgish students is the LS different? (2) What respective relationships exist with mental health-related factors, career attributes, socio-economic characteristics, and LS? (3) What are their associations of mental health (health satisfaction, psychological quality of life, worry), perception of financial situation and career attributes (adaptability, optimism, knowledge, planning) on LS? Between 2012 and 2013, 644 postgraduates were contacted by post to complete an online questionnaire in English or French. Foreign postgraduates who are settled in Luxembourg (born in Luxembourg and did not have the Luxembourgish citizenship, N=147) and native students (born in Luxembourg and had the nationality, N=284), were compared. Postgraduates who were born in Luxembourg but did not have the citizenship or were not born in Luxembourg and had the Luxembourgish citizenship were excluded. A single item measured LS (1 = not at all satisfied to 10 = very satisfied) same as in the European quality of life survey. Bivariate tests, correlations and multiple linear models were used, in which only significant relationships (p< 0.05) were integrated. Between the two groups, no differences exist between LS’ indicators (7.8/10 non-Luxembourgish; 8.0/10 natives), both of which is higher than the European indicator 7.2/10 (for 25-34 years). However, non-Luxembourgish students are older than natives are (29.3 years vs. 26.3 years), perceive their financial situation as more difficult, and a higher percentage of their parents have an education level higher than a Bachelor's degree (father 59.2% vs 44.6% for natives; mother 51.4% vs 33.7% for natives). In addition, father’s education is related to postgraduates’ LS and the higher is their level, the greater is their contribution to LS. Whereas for the native students, the better their health satisfaction, and career optimism is, the higher their LS are. For the both group, mental health-related factors, perception of their financial situation, career optimism, adaptability, and planning are linked to LS. The higher their psychological quality of life is, the better is their LS. Good health and favourable attitudes related to the job market enhance their LS. [less ▲]