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The need for artificial intelligence systems that are not only capable of mastering complicated tasks but also of explaining their decisions has massively gained attention over the last years. This also seems to offer opportunities for further interconnecting different approaches to artificial intelligence, such as machine learning and knowledge representation.This work considers the task of learning knowledge bases from agent behavior, with a focus on human-readability, comprehensibility and applications in games. in this context, it will be presented how knowledge can be organized and processed on multiple levels of abstraction, allowing for efficient reasoning and revision. It will be investigated how learning agents can benefit from incorporating the approaches into their learning processes.Examples and applications are provided, e.g., in the context of general video game playing. The most essential approaches are implemented in the InteKRator toolbox and show potential for being applied in other domains (e.g., in medical informatics).

Plastics are on the rise to conquer every area of modern human life but lead to increased pollution of nature, enormous oil consumption, and large-scale greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, to avoid climate change above 1.5¿C, net-zero greenhouse gas emission plastics are needed by the second half of this century. To reduce the greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastics, three circular technologies can be used: (1) chemical or mechanical recycling, (2) carbon capture and utilization, and (3) biomass utilization. However, current environmental assessments of these circular technologies focus solely on individual or partly combined circular technologies, are limited to regional scopes, and often apply inconsistent methodologies. Thus, it is currently unclear if net-zero emission plastics can actually be achieved with the current set of circular technologies. Furthermore, shifting from the linear to a circular economy is regarded as energy-intensive and costly, hindering strong policy implementation from fostering the transition to a circular economy.To assess if net-zero emission plastics can actually be achieved, this thesis builds and uses the first global, industry-wide and systematic bottom-up model for plastics production and waste treatment, representing the global life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of 90% of global plastic production. Using that model reveals that net-zero emission plastics can be achieved by combining biomass and CO2 utilization with an effective recycling rate of 70% while saving up to to 53% of energy and 288 billion USD compared to a fossil-based benchmark applying large-scale carbon capture and storage. Achieving the full potential of energy and cost savings while achieving netzero emissions requires the supply of biomass and CO2 at low cost, while cost of oil supply must be increased. To incentivize this shift, investment barriers for all available circular technologies have to be lowered by implementing consistent emission pricing schemes, using deposit systems for plastics to increase recyclability and stopping to subsidize fossil resources. Thus, this thesis shows that the greenhouse gas emission problem of plastics can be solved with technologies and solutions already available today.

Das große Interesse an der kommerziellen Anwendung von Vakuumschaltern im Mittelspannungs- und in zunehmendem Maße auch im Hochspannungsbereich führte zu umfassenden und grundlegenden Forschungen an diesem Betriebsmittel.Eine Erweiterung des Anwendungsbereichs der Vakuumschalter ist abhängig von bestimmten Anodenphänomenen, welche bei hohen Strömen auftreten und die Fähigkeit zur Stromunterbrechung limitieren.Ziel der Arbeit ist die Untersuchung dieser Hochstrom-Anodenmodi mit optischen, insbesondere spektroskopischen Methoden sowie mit elektrischen Messungen. Um die zeitliche und räumliche Verteilung der Linienstrahlung von Kuperatomen (Cu I) sowie von einfach (Cu II) und doppelt geladenen Ionen (Cu III) zu untersuchen, wird optische Emissionsspektroskopie in Kombination mit einer Hochgeschwindigkeitsvideokamera verwendet (Videospektroskopie). Es werden verschiedene Stromformen angewandt, insbesondere Wechselstrom- und Gleichstromimpulse unterschiedlicher Dauer. Darüber hinaus wird der Einfluss diverser Spezifikationen von Vakuumschaltern, wie z.B. Elektrodengeometrien, Kontaktmaterialien, Lichtbogendauer und Öffnungsgeschwindigkeit, auf die Entstehung der Hochstrom-Anodenmodi erforscht.