@phdthesis{AbdelwahabHusseinAbdelwahabElsayed2019, author = {Abdelwahab Hussein Abdelwahab Elsayed, Ahmed}, title = {Probabilistic, deep, and metric learning for biometric identification from eye movements}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-46798}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-467980}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vi, 65}, year = {2019}, abstract = {A central insight from psychological studies on human eye movements is that eye movement patterns are highly individually characteristic. They can, therefore, be used as a biometric feature, that is, subjects can be identified based on their eye movements. This thesis introduces new machine learning methods to identify subjects based on their eye movements while viewing arbitrary content. The thesis focuses on probabilistic modeling of the problem, which has yielded the best results in the most recent literature. The thesis studies the problem in three phases by proposing a purely probabilistic, probabilistic deep learning, and probabilistic deep metric learning approach. In the first phase, the thesis studies models that rely on psychological concepts about eye movements. Recent literature illustrates that individual-specific distributions of gaze patterns can be used to accurately identify individuals. In these studies, models were based on a simple parametric family of distributions. Such simple parametric models can be robustly estimated from sparse data, but have limited flexibility to capture the differences between individuals. Therefore, this thesis proposes a semiparametric model of gaze patterns that is flexible yet robust for individual identification. These patterns can be understood as domain knowledge derived from psychological literature. Fixations and saccades are examples of simple gaze patterns. The proposed semiparametric densities are drawn under a Gaussian process prior centered at a simple parametric distribution. Thus, the model will stay close to the parametric class of densities if little data is available, but it can also deviate from this class if enough data is available, increasing the flexibility of the model. The proposed method is evaluated on a large-scale dataset, showing significant improvements over the state-of-the-art. Later, the thesis replaces the model based on gaze patterns derived from psychological concepts with a deep neural network that can learn more informative and complex patterns from raw eye movement data. As previous work has shown that the distribution of these patterns across a sequence is informative, a novel statistical aggregation layer called the quantile layer is introduced. It explicitly fits the distribution of deep patterns learned directly from the raw eye movement data. The proposed deep learning approach is end-to-end learnable, such that the deep model learns to extract informative, short local patterns while the quantile layer learns to approximate the distributions of these patterns. Quantile layers are a generic approach that can converge to standard pooling layers or have a more detailed description of the features being pooled, depending on the problem. The proposed model is evaluated in a large-scale study using the eye movements of subjects viewing arbitrary visual input. The model improves upon the standard pooling layers and other statistical aggregation layers proposed in the literature. It also improves upon the state-of-the-art eye movement biometrics by a wide margin. Finally, for the model to identify any subject — not just the set of subjects it is trained on — a metric learning approach is developed. Metric learning learns a distance function over instances. The metric learning model maps the instances into a metric space, where sequences of the same individual are close, and sequences of different individuals are further apart. This thesis introduces a deep metric learning approach with distributional embeddings. The approach represents sequences as a set of continuous distributions in a metric space; to achieve this, a new loss function based on Wasserstein distances is introduced. The proposed method is evaluated on multiple domains besides eye movement biometrics. This approach outperforms the state of the art in deep metric learning in several domains while also outperforming the state of the art in eye movement biometrics.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Adam2019, author = {Adam, Maurits}, title = {Action-goal predictions in infancy}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {137}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{AlNakeeb2019, author = {Al Nakeeb, Noah}, title = {Self-assembly and crosslinking approaches of double hydrophilic linear-brush block copolymers}, pages = {133}, year = {2019}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{AlHalbouni2019, author = {Al-Halbouni, Djamil}, title = {Photogrammetry and distinct element geomechanical modelling of sinkholes and large-scale karstic depressions}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43215}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-432159}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {137}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Sinkholes and depressions are typical landforms of karst regions. They pose a considerable natural hazard to infrastructure, agriculture, economy and human life in affected areas worldwide. The physio-chemical processes of sinkholes and depression formation are manifold, ranging from dissolution and material erosion in the subsurface to mechanical subsidence/failure of the overburden. This thesis addresses the mechanisms leading to the development of sinkholes and depressions by using complementary methods: remote sensing, distinct element modelling and near-surface geophysics. In the first part, detailed information about the (hydro)-geological background, ground structures, morphologies and spatio-temporal development of sinkholes and depressions at a very active karst area at the Dead Sea are derived from satellite image analysis, photogrammetry and geologic field surveys. There, clusters of an increasing number of sinkholes have been developing since the 1980s within large-scale depressions and are distributed over different kinds of surface materials: clayey mud, sandy-gravel alluvium and lacustrine evaporites (salt). The morphology of sinkholes differs depending in which material they form: Sinkholes in sandy-gravel alluvium and salt are generally deeper and narrower than sinkholes in the interbedded evaporite and mud deposits. From repeated aerial surveys, collapse precursory features like small-scale subsidence, individual holes and cracks are identified in all materials. The analysis sheds light on the ongoing hazardous subsidence process, which is driven by the base-level fall of the Dead Sea and by the dynamic formation of subsurface water channels. In the second part of this thesis, a novel, 2D distinct element geomechanical modelling approach with the software PFC2D-V5 to simulating individual and multiple cavity growth and sinkhole and large-scale depression development is presented. The approach involves a stepwise material removal technique in void spaces of arbitrarily shaped geometries and is benchmarked by analytical and boundary element method solutions for circular cavities. Simulated compression and tension tests are used to calibrate model parameters with bulk rock properties for the materials of the field site. The simulations show that cavity and sinkhole evolution is controlled by material strength of both overburden and cavity host material, the depth and relative speed of the cavity growth and the developed stress pattern in the subsurface. Major findings are: (1) A progressively deepening differential subrosion with variable growth speed yields a more fragmented stress pattern with stress interaction between the cavities. It favours multiple sinkhole collapses and nesting within large-scale depressions. (2) Low-strength materials do not support large cavities in the material removal zone, and subsidence is mainly characterised by gradual sagging into the material removal zone with synclinal bending. (3) High-strength materials support large cavity formation, leading to sinkhole formation by sudden collapse of the overburden. (4) Large-scale depression formation happens either by coalescence of collapsing holes, block-wise brittle failure, or gradual sagging and lateral widening. The distinct element based approach is compared to results from remote sensing and geophysics at the field site. The numerical simulation outcomes are generally in good agreement with derived morphometrics, documented surface and subsurface structures as well as seismic velocities. Complementary findings on the subrosion process are provided from electric and seismic measurements in the area. Based on the novel combination of methods in this thesis, a generic model of karst landform evolution with focus on sinkhole and depression formation is developed. A deepening subrosion system related to preferential flow paths evolves and creates void spaces and subsurface conduits. This subsequently leads to hazardous subsidence, and the formation of sinkholes within large-scale depressions. Finally, a monitoring system for shallow natural hazard phenomena consisting of geodetic and geophysical observations is proposed for similarly affected areas.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Amirkhanyan2019, author = {Amirkhanyan, Aragats}, title = {Methods and frameworks for GeoSpatioTemporal data analytics}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44168}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-441685}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxiv, 133}, year = {2019}, abstract = {In the era of social networks, internet of things and location-based services, many online services produce a huge amount of data that have valuable objective information, such as geographic coordinates and date time. These characteristics (parameters) in the combination with a textual parameter bring the challenge for the discovery of geospatiotemporal knowledge. This challenge requires efficient methods for clustering and pattern mining in spatial, temporal and textual spaces. In this thesis, we address the challenge of providing methods and frameworks for geospatiotemporal data analytics. As an initial step, we address the challenges of geospatial data processing: data gathering, normalization, geolocation, and storage. That initial step is the basement to tackle the next challenge -- geospatial clustering challenge. The first step of this challenge is to design the method for online clustering of georeferenced data. This algorithm can be used as a server-side clustering algorithm for online maps that visualize massive georeferenced data. As the second step, we develop the extension of this method that considers, additionally, the temporal aspect of data. For that, we propose the density and intensity-based geospatiotemporal clustering algorithm with fixed distance and time radius. Each version of the clustering algorithm has its own use case that we show in the thesis. In the next chapter of the thesis, we look at the spatiotemporal analytics from the perspective of the sequential rule mining challenge. We design and implement the framework that transfers data into textual geospatiotemporal data - data that contain geographic coordinates, time and textual parameters. By this way, we address the challenge of applying pattern/rule mining algorithms in geospatiotemporal space. As the applicable use case study, we propose spatiotemporal crime analytics -- discovery spatiotemporal patterns of crimes in publicly available crime data. The second part of the thesis, we dedicate to the application part and use case studies. We design and implement the application that uses the proposed clustering algorithms to discover knowledge in data. Jointly with the application, we propose the use case studies for analysis of georeferenced data in terms of situational and public safety awareness.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Angwenyi2019, author = {Angwenyi, David}, title = {Time-continuous state and parameter estimation with application to hyperbolic SPDEs}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43654}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-436542}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 101}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Data assimilation has been an active area of research in recent years, owing to its wide utility. At the core of data assimilation are filtering, prediction, and smoothing procedures. Filtering entails incorporation of measurements' information into the model to gain more insight into a given state governed by a noisy state space model. Most natural laws are governed by time-continuous nonlinear models. For the most part, the knowledge available about a model is incomplete; and hence uncertainties are approximated by means of probabilities. Time-continuous filtering, therefore, holds promise for wider usefulness, for it offers a means of combining noisy measurements with imperfect model to provide more insight on a given state. The solution to time-continuous nonlinear Gaussian filtering problem is provided for by the Kushner-Stratonovich equation. Unfortunately, the Kushner-Stratonovich equation lacks a closed-form solution. Moreover, the numerical approximations based on Taylor expansion above third order are fraught with computational complications. For this reason, numerical methods based on Monte Carlo methods have been resorted to. Chief among these methods are sequential Monte-Carlo methods (or particle filters), for they allow for online assimilation of data. Particle filters are not without challenges: they suffer from particle degeneracy, sample impoverishment, and computational costs arising from resampling. The goal of this thesis is to:— i) Review the derivation of Kushner-Stratonovich equation from first principles and its extant numerical approximation methods, ii) Study the feedback particle filters as a way of avoiding resampling in particle filters, iii) Study joint state and parameter estimation in time-continuous settings, iv) Apply the notions studied to linear hyperbolic stochastic differential equations. The interconnection between It{\^o} integrals and stochastic partial differential equations and those of Stratonovich is introduced in anticipation of feedback particle filters. With these ideas and motivated by the variants of ensemble Kalman-Bucy filters founded on the structure of the innovation process, a feedback particle filter with randomly perturbed innovation is proposed. Moreover, feedback particle filters based on coupling of prediction and analysis measures are proposed. They register a better performance than the bootstrap particle filter at lower ensemble sizes. We study joint state and parameter estimation, both by means of extended state spaces and by use of dual filters. Feedback particle filters seem to perform well in both cases. Finally, we apply joint state and parameter estimation in the advection and wave equation, whose velocity is spatially varying. Two methods are employed: Metropolis Hastings with filter likelihood and a dual filter comprising of Kalman-Bucy filter and ensemble Kalman-Bucy filter. The former performs better than the latter.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Apostolow2019, author = {Apostolow, Markus}, title = {Der "immerw{\"a}hrende Staatssekret{\"a}r"}, series = {Die Rosenburg : Schriften zur Geschichte des BMJ und der Justiz in der fr{\"u}hen Bundesrepublik}, journal = {Die Rosenburg : Schriften zur Geschichte des BMJ und der Justiz in der fr{\"u}hen Bundesrepublik}, number = {1}, publisher = {Vandenhoeck \& Ruprecht}, address = {G{\"o}ttingen}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {366}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Als erster Staatssekret{\"a}r des 1949 gegr{\"u}ndeten Bundesministeriums der Justiz war Walter Strauß maßgeblich f{\"u}r dessen personellen Aufbau verantwortlich. W{\"a}hrend seiner Amtszeit, die erst 1963 endete, diente Strauß unter f{\"u}nf verschiedenen Ministern. Damit verk{\"o}rperte er die Kontinuit{\"a}t der Arbeit und galt nicht von ungef{\"a}hr als der eigentliche 'Herrscher der Rosenburg', dem Bonner Amtssitz des Ministeriums. Durch seinen F{\"u}hrungsstil, der die Forderung nach Qualit{\"a}t mit einem geradezu paternalistischen Verantwortungsgef{\"u}hl verband, pr{\"a}gte der Gr{\"u}ndungsstaatssekret{\"a}r den Geist des Hauses f{\"u}r lange Zeit. Obwohl er j{\"u}discher Herkunft war und im Nationalsozialismus zum Kreis der rassisch Verfolgten geh{\"o}rt hatte, griff Strauß bei der Auswahl des Personals allerdings in hohem Maße auf die Mitarbeit von Personen zur{\"u}ck, die durch ihre T{\"a}tigkeit im 'Dritten Reich' belastet waren. Warum dies so war, sucht der Autor nicht nur anhand biografischer Pr{\"a}gungen, die Strauß im Kaiserreich, in der Weimarer Republik, dem Nationalsozialismus und der Besatzungszeit erfahren hatte, sondern auch durch eine umfassende Darstellung der wesentlichen Merkmale und Kennzeichen seiner Personalpolitik zu ergr{\"u}nden: Wie weit reichte sein Einfluss Welche Rolle spielte er bei Auswahl und Bef{\"o}rderungen, in erster Linie der Beamten des h{\"o}heren Dienstes, in Abgrenzung zu anderen Akteuren Und in welchem Maße war er bei seinen Entscheidungen durch institutionelle Rahmenbedingungen eingeschr{\"a}nkt 366 pp}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{AppiahDwomoh2019, author = {Appiah-Dwomoh, Edem Korkor}, title = {Postural control and back pain in adolescent athletes}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-44269}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-442692}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VI, 77, X}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Back pain is a problem in adolescent athletes affecting postural control which is an important requirement for physical and daily activities whether under static or dynamic conditions. One leg stance and star excursion balance postural control tests are effective in measuring static and dynamic postural control respectively. These tests have been used in individuals with back pain, athletes and non-athletes without first establishing their reliabilities. In addition to this, there is no published literature investigating dynamic posture in adolescent athletes with back pain using the star excursion balance test. Therefore, the aim of the thesis was to assess deficit in postural control in adolescent athletes with and without back pain using static (one leg stance test) and dynamic postural (SEBT) control tests. Adolescent athletes with and without back pain participated in the study. Static and dynamic postural control tests were performed using one leg stance and SEBT respectively. The reproducibility of both tests was established. Afterwards, it was determined whether there was an association between static and dynamic posture using the measure of displacement of the centre pressure and reach distance respectively. Finally, it was investigated whether there was a difference in postural control in adolescent athletes with and without back pain using the one leg stance test and the SEBT. Fair to excellent reliabilities was recorded for the static (one leg stance) and dynamic (star excursion balance) postural control tests in the subjects of interest. No association was found between variables of the static and dynamic tests for the adolescent athletes with and without back pain. Also, no statistically significant difference was obtained between adolescent athletics with and without back pain using the static and dynamic postural control test. One leg stance test and SEBT can be used as measures of postural control in adolescent athletes with and without back pain. Although static and dynamic postural control might be related, adolescent athletes with and without back pain might be using different mechanisms in controlling their static and dynamic posture. Consequently, static and dynamic postural control in adolescent athletes with back pain was not different from those without back pain. These outcome measures might not be challenging enough to detect deficit in postural control in our study group of interest.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Aretz2019, author = {Aretz, Sarah}, title = {Entwicklung und Evaluation eines Testinstruments zur Untersuchung von Vorkenntnissen und Pr{\"a}konzepten in der Kosmologie}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-42542}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-425421}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {x, 133}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Kosmologie beschreibt die Entwicklung des Universums als Ganzes. Kosmologische Entdeckungen in Theorie und Praxis haben daher unser modernes wissenschaftliches Weltbild entscheidend ge­pr{\"a}gt. Die Vermittlung eines modernen Weltbildes durch Unterricht ist ein h{\"a}ufiger Wunsch in der naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungsdiskussion. Dennoch exis­tieren weiterhin Forschungs- und Entwicklungsbedarfe. Kosmologische Themen finden sich h{\"a}ufig in den Medien und sind gleichzeitig weiter vom Alltag entfernt, so dass sich hier besonders leicht wissenschaftlich inkorrekte Vorstellungen entwickeln k{\"o}nnen, die zu Problemen im Unterricht f{\"u}hren k{\"o}nnen. Das Ziel dieser wissenschaftlichen Arbeit ist es, zu diesem Forschungsgebiet beizutragen und die Voraussetzungen hinsichtlich vorhandener Vorkenntnisse und Pr{\"a}konzepte in Kosmologie, mit denen Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}ler in den Unterricht kommen, zu untersuchen und anschließend mit denen anderer L{\"a}nder zu vergleichen. Dies erfolgt anhand einer qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse eines offenen Fragebogens. Auf dieser Grundlage wird schließlich ein Multiple-Choice Frage­bogen entwickelt, angewendet und evaluiert. Die Ergebnisse zeigen große Wissensl{\"u}cken im Bereich der Kosmologie auf und geben erste Hin­weise auf vorhandene Unterschiede zwischen den L{\"a}ndern. Es existieren ebenfalls einige teils weit verbreitete wissenschaftlich inkorrekte Vorstellungen wie beispiels­weise die Assoziation des Urknalls mit einer Explosion, der Urknall verursacht durch eine Kollision von Teilchen oder gr{\"o}ßeren Objekten, oder die Vorstellung der Ausdehnung des Universums als neue Entdeckungen und/oder Wissen. Des Weiteren gab nur etwa jeder F{\"u}nfte das korrekte Alter des Universums oder die Ausdehnung des Universums als einen der drei Belege der Urknalltheorie an, w{\"a}hrend fast 40\% keinen einzigen Beleg nennen konn­ten. F{\"u}r den geschlossenen Fragebogen konnten gute Hinweise f{\"u}r verschiedene Validit{\"a}tsa­spekte herausgearbeitet werden und es existieren erste Hinweise darauf, dass der Fragebogen Wissenszu­wachs messen kann und damit wahrscheinlich zur Unter­suchung der Wirksamkeit von Lerneinhei­ten eingesetzt werden kann. Auch ein entsprechendes Modell zur Verst{\"a}ndnisentwicklung der Aus­dehnung des Universums zeigte sich vielversprechend. Diese Arbeit liefert insgesamt einen Forschungsbeitrag zum Sch{\"u}lervorwissen und Vorstellungen in der Kosmologie und deren Large Scale Assessment. Dies er{\"o}ffnet die M{\"o}glichkeit zuk{\"u}nftiger For­schungen im Bereich von Gruppenvergleichen insbesondere hinsichtlich objektiver L{\"a}nderverglei­che sowie der Untersuchungen der Wirksamkeit von einzelnen Ler­neinheiten als auch Vergleiche verschiedener Lerneinheiten untereinander.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Arf2019, author = {Arf, Shelan Ali}, title = {Women's everyday reality of social insecurity}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-43433}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-434333}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {334}, year = {2019}, abstract = {Since 1980 Iraq passed through various wars and conflicts including Iraq-Iran war, Saddam Hussein's the Anfals and Halabja campaigns against the Kurds and the killing campaigns against Shiite in 1986, Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, the Gulf war in 1990, Iraq war in 2003 and the fall of Saddam, the conflicts and chaos in the transmission of power after the death of Saddam, and the war against ISIS . All these wars left severe impacts in most households in Iraq; on women and children in particular. The consequences of such long wars could be observed in all sectors including economic, social, cultural and religious sectors. The social structure, norms and attitudes are intensely affected. Many women specifically divorced women found them-selves in challenging different difficulties such as social as well as economic situations. Thus the divorced women in Iraqi Kurdistan are the focus of this research. Considering the fact that there is very few empirical researches on this topic, a constructivist grounded theory methodology (CGT) is viewed as reliable in order to come up with a comprehensive picture about the everyday life of divorced women in Iraqi Kurdistan. Data collected in Sulaimani city in Iraqi Kurdistan. The work of Kathy Charmaz was chosen to be the main methodological context of the research and the main data collection method was individual intensive narrative interviews with divorced women. Women generally and divorced women specifically in Iraqi Kurdistan are living in a patriarchal society that passing through many changes due to the above mentioned wars among many other factors. This research is trying to study the everyday life of divorced women in such situations and the forms of social insecurity they are experiencing. The social institutions starting from the family as a very significant institution for women to the governmental and non-governmental institutions that are working to support women, and the copying strategies, are in focus in this research. The main research argument is that the family is playing ambivalent roles in divorced women's life. For instance, on one side families are revealed to be an essential source of security to most respondents, on the other side families posed also many threats and restrictions on those women. This argument supported by what called by Suad joseph "the paradox of support and suppression" . Another important finding is that the stat institution(laws , constitutions ,Offices of combating violence against woman and family) are supporting women somehow and offering them protection from the insecurities but it is clear that the existence of the laws does not stop the violence against women in Iraqi Kurdistan, As explained by Pateman because the laws /the contract is a sexual-social contract that upholds the sex rights of males and grants them more privileges than females. The political instability, Tribal social norms also play a major role in influencing the rule of law. It is noteworthy to refer that analyzing the interviews in this research showed that in spite that divorced women living in insecurities and facing difficulties but most of the respondents try to find a coping strategies to tackle difficult situations and to deal with the violence they face; these strategies are bargaining, sometimes compromising or resisting …etc. Different theories used to explain these coping strategies such as bargaining with patriarchy. Kandiyoti who stated that women living under certain restraints struggle to find way and strategies to enhance their situations. The research finding also revealed that the western liberal feminist view of agency is limited this is agree with Saba Mahmood and what she explained about Muslim women agency. For my respondents, who are divorced women, their agency reveals itself in different ways, in resisting or compromising with or even obeying the power of male relatives, and the normative system in the society. Agency is also explained the behavior of women contacting formal state institutions in cases of violence like the police or Offices of combating violence against woman and family.}, language = {en} }