In this paper, an approach for diagnostics and stage estimation of the postmastectomy lymphedema of the upper limb is presented. Our method is based on segmental bioimpedance spectroscopy of patients’ upper limbs. With this method measurements of the impedance amplitudes and phases are done in the beta-dispersion frequency range of biological tissues, from 1 kHz to 1 MHz. Cole equivalent electrical model for biological bodies is used to determine the electrical resistances of the cellular and extracellular liquid compartment. These values are further combined with Hanai emulsion model of dielectric particles in the conductive liquid was used to derive the ratios of the volumes of the cellular and extracellular liquids. Comparison of the estimated properties between the affected and unaffected limbs or changes of these properties in the affected limb over time is summed up by the lymphedema index. This index reflects the proportions of liquid compartment volumes ratios. We also present results of a preliminary study on volunteers for the viability testing of the method. We compare the lymphedema indexes of the healthy female subject and female subject with diagnosed second stage lymphedema after mastectomy.

We study the reduced time-evolution of general open quantum systemsby combining insights from quantum-information and statistical field theory.Inspired by prior work [Eur. Phys. Lett.~102, 60001 (2013) and Phys. Rev. Lett.~111, 050402 (2013)]we establish the explicit structure guaranteeing the complete positivity (CP) and trace-preservation (TP)of the real-time evolution expansion in terms of the microscopic system-environment coupling.This reveals a fundamental two-stage structure of the coupling expansion:Whereas the first stage naturally defines the dissipative timescales of the system-before having integrated out the environment completely-the second stage sums up elementary physical processes, each described by a CP superoperator.This allows us to establish the highly nontrivial functional relation between the (Nakajima-Zwanzig) memory-kernel superoperatorfor the reduced density operatorand novel memory-kernel operators that generate the Kraus operators of an operator-sum.We illustrate the physically different roles of the two emerging coupling-expansion parameters for a simple solvable model.Importantly, this operational approach can be implemented in the existing Keldysh real-time techniqueand allows approximations for general time-nonlocal quantum master equationsto be systematically compared and developed while keeping the CP and TP structure explicit.Our considerations build on the result that a Kraus operator for a physical measurement process on the environmentcan be obtained by `cutting' a group of Keldysh real-time diagrams `in half'.This naturally leads to Kraus operators lifted to the system plus environment whichhave a diagrammatic expansion in terms of time-nonlocal memory-kernel operators.These lifted Kraus operators obey coupled time-evolution equations which constitute an unraveling of the original Schroedinger equation for system plus environment.Whereas both equations lead to the same reduced dynamics,only the former explicitly encodes the operator-sum structure of the coupling expansion.

To extend the classical concept of Markovianity to an open quantum system, different notions of the divisibility of its dynamics have been introduced. Here, we analyze this issue by five complementary approaches: equations of motion, real-time diagrammatics, Kraus-operator sums, as well as time-local and nonlocal (Nakajima-Zwanzig) quantum master equations. As a case study featuring several types of divisible dynamics, we examine in detail an exactly solvable noninteracting fermionic resonant level coupled arbitrarily strongly to a fermionic bath at an arbitrary temperature in the wideband limit. In particular, the impact of divisibility on the time-dependence of the observable level occupation is investigated and compared with typical Markovian approximations. We find that the loss of semigroup-divisibility is accompanied by a prominent reentrant behavior: Counter to intuition, the level occupation may temporarily increase significantly in order to reach a stationary state with smaller occupation, implying a reversal of the measurable transport current. In contrast, the loss of the so-called completely positive divisibility is more subtly signaled by the prohibition of such current reversals in specific time-intervals. Experimentally, it can be detected in the family of transient currents obtained by varying the initial occupation. To quantify the nonzero footprint left by the system in its effective environment, we determine the exact time-dependent state of the latter as well as related information measures such as entropy, exchange entropy, and coherent information.

We present a general method to calculate the periodic steady state of a driven-dissipative system coupled to a transmission line (and more generally, to a reservoir) under periodic modulation of its parameters. Using Floquet's theorem, we formulate the differential equation for the system's density operator which has to be solved for a single period of modulation. On this basis we also provide systematic expansions in both the adiabatic and high-frequency regime. Applying our method to three different systems-two- and three-level models as well as the driven nonlinear cavity-we propose periodic modulation protocols of parameters leading to a temporary suppression of effective dissipation rates, and study the arising nonadiabatic features in the response of these systems.

Designing manufacturing systems requires a profound understanding of the manufacturing process and its challenges to meet final customer requirements. Considering future objectives already at an early design stage increases the flexibility of the manufacturing system and its robustness regarding changed boundary conditions. Today’s manufacturing systems rather control machine settings than process variables or even product quality. The major barrier for quality control is that in most manufacturing processes, quality cannot be measured on-line. Model-based self-sptimization (MBSO) has been developed to overcome this limitation. A combination of embedded process knowledge and tailored sensor integration enables for on-line quality estimation. The overall objective is to control key characteristics of product quality in a broad manufacturing landscape. This work describes a guideline of how to design an MBSO system with examples at each stage of the development process.

Automobile Strukturbauteile werden zunehmend aus faserverstarkten Kunststoffen (FVK) hergestellt. Neben dem Potenzial Gewicht einzusparen, weisen Crashstrukturen aus geflochtenen FVK ein hoheres Energieabsorptionsvermogen im Vergleich zu metallischen Strukturen auf. Dabei ermoglichen moderne Flechttechnologien eine schnelle automatisierte Produktion von komplexen, endkonturnahen textilen Vorformlingen, sogenannten Preforms, in nur einem Prozessschritt. Erganzt durch das Harzinjektionsverfahren ist mithilfe der Flechttechnologie eine serientaugliche Fertigung von rohrformigen Hohlkorpern moglich.