@phdthesis{Kamprath2014, author = {Kamprath, Martin}, title = {A microfoundations perspectives on fresight and business models}, pages = {224}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Supaporn2014, author = {Supaporn, Worakrit}, title = {Categorical equivalence of clones}, pages = {89}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Faber2014, author = {Faber, Eike}, title = {Von Ulfila bis Rekkared}, series = {Potsdamer altertumswissenschaftliche Beitr{\"a}ge ; Bd. 51}, journal = {Potsdamer altertumswissenschaftliche Beitr{\"a}ge ; Bd. 51}, publisher = {Steiner}, address = {Stuttgart}, isbn = {978-3-515-10929-1}, doi = {10.25162/9783515109291}, pages = {300}, year = {2014}, abstract = {F{\"u}r etwa 200 Jahre, vom Ende des 4. Jahrhunderts bis 589 n. Chr., geh{\"o}ren die Westgoten einem von der Orthodoxie der Reichskirche abweichenden christlichen Bekenntnis an. Auf dem 3. Konzil von Toledo beendet K{\"o}nig Rekkared diesen Zustand religi{\"o}ser Alterit{\"a}t durch die Konversion zum Katholizismus. Die antiken Berichte zeichnen nur vordergr{\"u}ndig ein koh{\"a}rentes Bild des Christentums der Goten. Dagegen weist Eike Faber Widerspr{\"u}che und Fehler in der {\"U}berlieferung nach und bietet eine Reihe neuer Interpretationen an. Die genauere Betrachtung vermag dabei sowohl den dogmatischen Gehalt des Christentums der Goten sch{\"a}rfer zu konturieren als auch die Beweggr{\"u}nde f{\"u}r die Annahme des neuen Glaubens herauszustellen und die traditionelle Datierung dieses Vorgangs zu widerlegen. Schließlich wird deutlich, welche Funktion das fortgesetzte Festhalten an einer demonstrativ anderen religi{\"o}sen {\"U}berzeugung f{\"u}r die Goten hatte. Pr{\"a}gnante Wegmarken der gotischen Geschichte, wie die Bibel{\"u}bersetzung Ulfilas, die Eroberung und Pl{\"u}nderung Roms 410 n. Chr. oder die demonstrative Aufgabe der religi{\"o}sen Differenz durch K{\"o}nig Rekkared, werden erst durch diesen neuen, umfassenden Kontext verst{\"a}ndlich.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Orgis2014, author = {Orgis, Thomas}, title = {Unstetige Galerkin-Diskretisierung niedriger Ordnung in einem atmosph{\"a}rischen Multiskalenmodell}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70687}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Die Dynamik der Atmosph{\"a}re der Erde umfasst einen Bereich von mikrophysikalischer Turbulenz {\"u}ber konvektive Prozesse und Wolkenbildung bis zu planetaren Wellenmustern. F{\"u}r Wettervorhersage und zur Betrachtung des Klimas {\"u}ber Jahrzehnte und Jahrhunderte ist diese Gegenstand der Modellierung mit numerischen Verfahren. Mit voranschreitender Entwicklung der Rechentechnik sind Neuentwicklungen der dynamischen Kerne von Klimamodellen, die mit der feiner werdenden Aufl{\"o}sung auch entsprechende Prozesse aufl{\"o}sen k{\"o}nnen, notwendig. Der dynamische Kern eines Modells besteht in der Umsetzung (Diskretisierung) der grundlegenden dynamischen Gleichungen f{\"u}r die Entwicklung von Masse, Energie und Impuls, so dass sie mit Computern numerisch gel{\"o}st werden k{\"o}nnen. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Eignung eines unstetigen Galerkin-Verfahrens niedriger Ordnung f{\"u}r atmosph{\"a}rische Anwendungen. Diese Eignung f{\"u}r Gleichungen mit Wirkungen von externen Kr{\"a}ften wie Erdanziehungskraft und Corioliskraft ist aus der Theorie nicht selbstverst{\"a}ndlich. Es werden n{\"o}tige Anpassungen beschrieben, die das Verfahren stabilisieren, ohne sogenannte „slope limiter" einzusetzen. F{\"u}r das unmodifizierte Verfahren wird belegt, dass es nicht geeignet ist, atmosph{\"a}rische Gleichgewichte stabil darzustellen. Das entwickelte stabilisierte Modell reproduziert eine Reihe von Standard-Testf{\"a}llen der atmosph{\"a}rischen Dynamik mit Euler- und Flachwassergleichungen in einem weiten Bereich von r{\"a}umlichen und zeitlichen Skalen. Die L{\"o}sung der thermischen Windgleichung entlang der mit den Isobaren identischen charakteristischen Kurven liefert atmosph{\"a}rische Gleichgewichtszust{\"a}nde mit durch vorgegebenem Grundstrom einstellbarer Neigung zu(barotropen und baroklinen)Instabilit{\"a}ten, die f{\"u}r die Entwicklung von Zyklonen wesentlich sind. Im Gegensatz zu fr{\"u}heren Arbeiten sind diese Zust{\"a}nde direkt im z-System(H{\"o}he in Metern)definiert und m{\"u}ssen nicht aus Druckkoordinaten {\"u}bertragen werden.Mit diesen Zust{\"a}nden, sowohl als Referenzzustand, von dem lediglich die Abweichungen numerisch betrachtet werden, und insbesondere auch als Startzustand, der einer kleinen St{\"o}rung unterliegt, werden verschiedene Studien der Simulation von barotroper und barokliner Instabilit{\"a}t durchgef{\"u}hrt. Hervorzuheben ist dabei die durch die Formulierung von Grundstr{\"o}men mit einstellbarer Baroklinit{\"a}t erm{\"o}glichte simulationsgest{\"u}tzte Studie des Grades der baroklinen Instabilit{\"a}t verschiedener Wellenl{\"a}ngen in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit von statischer Stabilit{\"a}t und vertikalem Windgradient als Entsprechung zu Stabilit{\"a}tskarten aus theoretischen Betrachtungen in der Literatur.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Herenz2014, author = {Herenz, Peter}, title = {A study of the absorption characteristics of gaseous galaxy halos in the local Universe}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70513}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Today, it is well known that galaxies like the Milky Way consist not only of stars but also of gas and dust. The galactic halo, a sphere of gas that surrounds the stellar disk of a galaxy, is especially interesting. It provides a wealth of information about in and outflowing gaseous material towards and away from galaxies and their hierarchical evolution. For the Milky Way, the so-called high-velocity clouds (HVCs), fast moving neutral gas complexes in the halo that can be traced by absorption-line measurements, are believed to play a crucial role in the overall matter cycle in our Galaxy. Over the last decades, the properties of these halo structures and their connection to the local circumgalactic and intergalactic medium (CGM and IGM, respectively) have been investigated in great detail by many different groups. So far it remains unclear, however, to what extent the results of these studies can be transferred to other galaxies in the local Universe. In this thesis, we study the absorption properties of Galactic HVCs and compare the HVC absorption characteristics with those of intervening QSO absorption-line systems at low redshift. The goal of this project is to improve our understanding of the spatial extent and physical conditions of gaseous galaxy halos in the local Universe. In the first part of the thesis we use HST /STIS ultraviolet spectra of more than 40 extragalactic background sources to statistically analyze the absorption properties of the HVCs in the Galactic halo. We determine fundamental absorption line parameters including covering fractions of different weakly/intermediately/highly ionized metals with a particular focus on SiII and MgII. Due to the similarity in the ionization properties of SiII and MgII, we are able to estimate the contribution of HVC-like halo structures to the cross section of intervening strong MgII absorbers at z = 0. Our study implies that only the most massive HVCs would be regarded as strong MgII absorbers, if the Milky Way halo would be seen as a QSO absorption line system from an exterior vantage point. Combining the observed absorption-cross section of Galactic HVCs with the well-known number density of intervening strong MgII absorbers at z = 0, we conclude that the contribution of infalling gas clouds (i.e., HVC analogs) in the halos of Milky Way-type galaxies to the cross section of strong MgII absorbers is 34\%. This result indicates that only about one third of the strong MgII absorption can be associated with HVC analogs around other galaxies, while the majority of the strong MgII systems possibly is related to galaxy outflows and winds. The second part of this thesis focuses on the properties of intervening metal absorbers at low redshift. The analysis of the frequency and physical conditions of intervening metal systems in QSO spectra and their relation to nearby galaxies offers new insights into the typical conditions of gaseous galaxy halos. One major aspect in our study was to regard intervening metal systems as possible HVC analogs. We perform a detailed analysis of absorption line properties and line statistics for 57 metal absorbers along 78 QSO sightlines using newly-obtained ultraviolet spectra obtained with HST /COS. We find clear evidence for bimodal distribution in the HI column density in the absorbers, a trend that we interpret as sign for two different classes of absorption systems (with HVC analogs at the high-column density end). With the help of the strong transitions of SiII λ1260, SiIII λ1206, and CIII λ977 we have set up Cloudy photoionization models to estimate the local ionization conditions, gas densities, and metallicities. We find that the intervening absorption systems studied by us have, on average, similar physical conditions as Galactic HVC absorbers, providing evidence that many of them represent HVC analogs in the vicinity of other galaxies. We therefore determine typical halo sizes for SiII, SiIII, and CIII for L = 0.01L∗ and L = 0.05L∗ galaxies. Based on the covering fractions of the different ions in the Galactic halo, we find that, for example, the typical halo size for SiIII is ∼ 160 kpc for L = 0.05L∗ galaxies. We test the plausibility of this result by searching for known galaxies close to the QSO sightlines and at similar redshifts as the absorbers. We find that more than 34\% of the measured SiIII absorbers have galaxies associated with them, with the majority of the absorbers indeed being at impact parameters ρ ≤160 kpc.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Raiser2014, author = {Raiser, Christoph}, title = {Kompromisse im Europ{\"a}ischen Parlament : eine kultursoziologische Analyse von Entscheidungsprozessen in einer supranationalen Institution}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-283-4}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-69560}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxiii, 313}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Das Europ{\"a}ische Parlament ist zweifelsohne die m{\"a}chtigste parlamentarische Versammlung auf supranationaler Ebene. Das provoziert die Frage, wie Entscheidungen in diesem Parlament gef{\"a}llt werden und wie sie begr{\"u}ndet werden k{\"o}nnen. Darin liegt das Hauptanliegen dieser Arbeit, die zur Beantwortung dieser Frage auf soziologische Ans{\"a}tze der Erkl{\"a}rung sozialen Handelns zur{\"u}ckgreift und damit einen neuen Zugang zur Beobachtung parlamentarischen Handelns schafft. Dabei arbeitet sie heraus, wie wichtig es ist, bei der Analyse politischer Entscheidungsprozesse zu beachten, wie politische Probleme von Akteuren interpretiert und gegen{\"u}ber Verhandlungspartnern dargestellt werden. An den Fallbeispielen der Entscheidungsprozesse zur Dienstleistungsrichtlinie, zur Chemikalien-Verordnung REACH und dem TDIP (CIA)-Ausschuss in der Legislaturperiode 2004-2009, wird der soziale Mechanismus dargestellt, der hinter Einigungen im Europ{\"a}ischen Parlament steckt. Kultur als Interpretation der Welt wird so zum Schl{\"u}ssel des Verst{\"a}ndnisses politischer Entscheidungen auf supranationaler Ebene.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{RoggeSolti2014, author = {Rogge-Solti, Andreas}, title = {Probabilistic Estimation of Unobserved Process Events}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70426}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Organizations try to gain competitive advantages, and to increase customer satisfaction. To ensure the quality and efficiency of their business processes, they perform business process management. An important part of process management that happens on the daily operational level is process controlling. A prerequisite of controlling is process monitoring, i.e., keeping track of the performed activities in running process instances. Only by process monitoring can business analysts detect delays and react to deviations from the expected or guaranteed performance of a process instance. To enable monitoring, process events need to be collected from the process environment. When a business process is orchestrated by a process execution engine, monitoring is available for all orchestrated process activities. Many business processes, however, do not lend themselves to automatic orchestration, e.g., because of required freedom of action. This situation is often encountered in hospitals, where most business processes are manually enacted. Hence, in practice it is often inefficient or infeasible to document and monitor every process activity. Additionally, manual process execution and documentation is prone to errors, e.g., documentation of activities can be forgotten. Thus, organizations face the challenge of process events that occur, but are not observed by the monitoring environment. These unobserved process events can serve as basis for operational process decisions, even without exact knowledge of when they happened or when they will happen. An exemplary decision is whether to invest more resources to manage timely completion of a case, anticipating that the process end event will occur too late. This thesis offers means to reason about unobserved process events in a probabilistic way. We address decisive questions of process managers (e.g., "when will the case be finished?", or "when did we perform the activity that we forgot to document?") in this thesis. As main contribution, we introduce an advanced probabilistic model to business process management that is based on a stochastic variant of Petri nets. We present a holistic approach to use the model effectively along the business process lifecycle. Therefore, we provide techniques to discover such models from historical observations, to predict the termination time of processes, and to ensure quality by missing data management. We propose mechanisms to optimize configuration for monitoring and prediction, i.e., to offer guidance in selecting important activities to monitor. An implementation is provided as a proof of concept. For evaluation, we compare the accuracy of the approach with that of state-of-the-art approaches using real process data of a hospital. Additionally, we show its more general applicability in other domains by applying the approach on process data from logistics and finance.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ahmad2014, author = {Ahmad, Nadeem}, title = {People centered HMI's for deaf and functionally illiterate users}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70391}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The objective and motivation behind this research is to provide applications with easy-to-use interfaces to communities of deaf and functionally illiterate users, which enables them to work without any human assistance. Although recent years have witnessed technological advancements, the availability of technology does not ensure accessibility to information and communication technologies (ICT). Extensive use of text from menus to document contents means that deaf or functionally illiterate can not access services implemented on most computer software. Consequently, most existing computer applications pose an accessibility barrier to those who are unable to read fluently. Online technologies intended for such groups should be developed in continuous partnership with primary users and include a thorough investigation into their limitations, requirements and usability barriers. In this research, I investigated existing tools in voice, web and other multimedia technologies to identify learning gaps and explored ways to enhance the information literacy for deaf and functionally illiterate users. I worked on the development of user-centered interfaces to increase the capabilities of deaf and low literacy users by enhancing lexical resources and by evaluating several multimedia interfaces for them. The interface of the platform-independent Italian Sign Language (LIS) Dictionary has been developed to enhance the lexical resources for deaf users. The Sign Language Dictionary accepts Italian lemmas as input and provides their representation in the Italian Sign Language as output. The Sign Language dictionary has 3082 signs as set of Avatar animations in which each sign is linked to a corresponding Italian lemma. I integrated the LIS lexical resources with MultiWordNet (MWN) database to form the first LIS MultiWordNet(LMWN). LMWN contains information about lexical relations between words, semantic relations between lexical concepts (synsets), correspondences between Italian and sign language lexical concepts and semantic fields (domains). The approach enhances the deaf users' understanding of written Italian language and shows that a relatively small set of lexicon can cover a significant portion of MWN. Integration of LIS signs with MWN made it useful tool for computational linguistics and natural language processing. The rule-based translation process from written Italian text to LIS has been transformed into service-oriented system. The translation process is composed of various modules including parser, semantic interpreter, generator, and spatial allocation planner. This translation procedure has been implemented in the Java Application Building Center (jABC), which is a framework for extreme model driven design (XMDD). The XMDD approach focuses on bringing software development closer to conceptual design, so that the functionality of a software solution could be understood by someone who is unfamiliar with programming concepts. The transformation addresses the heterogeneity challenge and enhances the re-usability of the system. For enhancing the e-participation of functionally illiterate users, two detailed studies were conducted in the Republic of Rwanda. In the first study, the traditional (textual) interface was compared with the virtual character-based interactive interface. The study helped to identify usability barriers and users evaluated these interfaces according to three fundamental areas of usability, i.e. effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. In another study, we developed four different interfaces to analyze the usability and effects of online assistance (consistent help) for functionally illiterate users and compared different help modes including textual, vocal and virtual character on the performance of semi-literate users. In our newly designed interfaces the instructions were automatically translated in Swahili language. All the interfaces were evaluated on the basis of task accomplishment, time consumption, System Usability Scale (SUS) rating and number of times the help was acquired. The results show that the performance of semi-literate users improved significantly when using the online assistance. The dissertation thus introduces a new development approach in which virtual characters are used as additional support for barely literate or naturally challenged users. Such components enhanced the application utility by offering a variety of services like translating contents in local language, providing additional vocal information, and performing automatic translation from text to sign language. Obviously, there is no such thing as one design solution that fits for all in the underlying domain. Context sensitivity, literacy and mental abilities are key factors on which I concentrated and the results emphasize that computer interfaces must be based on a thoughtful definition of target groups, purposes and objectives.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Tenenboim2014, author = {Tenenboim, Yehezkel}, title = {Characterization of a Chlamydomonas protein involved in cell division and autophagy}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-70650}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The contractile vacuole (CV) is an osmoregulatory organelle found exclusively in algae and protists. In addition to expelling excessive water out of the cell, it also expels ions and other metabolites and thereby contributes to the cell's metabolic homeostasis. The interest in the CV reaches beyond its immediate cellular roles. The CV's function is tightly related to basic cellular processes such as membrane dynamics and vesicle budding and fusion; several physiological processes in animals, such as synaptic neurotransmission and blood filtration in the kidney, are related to the CV's function; and several pathogens, such as the causative agents of sleeping sickness, possess CVs, which may serve as pharmacological targets. The green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii has two CVs. They are the smallest known CVs in nature, and they remain relatively untouched in the CV-related literature. Many genes that have been shown to be related to the CV in other organisms have close homologues in C. reinhardtii. We attempted to silence some of these genes and observe the effect on the CV. One of our genes, VMP1, caused striking, severe phenotypes when silenced. Cells exhibited defective cytokinesis and aberrant morphologies. The CV, incidentally, remained unscathed. In addition, mutant cells showed some evidence of disrupted autophagy. Several important regulators of the cell cycle as well as autophagy were found to be underexpressed in the mutant. Lipidomic analysis revealed many meaningful changes between wild-type and mutant cells, reinforcing the compromised-autophagy observation. VMP1 is a singular protein, with homologues in numerous eukaryotic organisms (aside from fungi), but usually with no relatives in each particular genome. Since its first characterization in 2002 it has been associated with several cellular processes and functions, namely autophagy, programmed cell-death, secretion, cell adhesion, and organelle biogenesis. It has been implicated in several human diseases: pancreatitis, diabetes, and several types of cancer. Our results reiterate some of the observations in VMP1's six reported homologues, but, importantly, show for the first time an involvement of this protein in cell division. The mechanisms underlying this involvement in Chlamydomonas, as well as other key aspects, such as VMP1's subcellular localization and interaction partners, still await elucidation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Cao2014, author = {Cao, Xianyong}, title = {Vegetation and climate change in eastern continental Asia during the last 22 ka inferred from pollen data synthesis}, pages = {156}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schmidt2014, author = {Schmidt, Lukas}, title = {Aerosols and boundary layer structure over Arctic sea ice based on airborne lidar and dropsonde measurements}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-75076}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 98, xiii}, year = {2014}, abstract = {The atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean is strongly influenced by the distribution of sea ice and open water. Leads in the sea ice produce strong convective fluxes of sensible and latent heat and release aerosol particles into the atmosphere. They increase the occurrence of clouds and modify the structure and characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and thereby influence the Arctic climate. In the course of this study aircraft measurements were performed over the western Arctic Ocean as part of the campaign PAMARCMIP 2012 of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Backscatter from aerosols and clouds within the lower troposphere and the ABL were measured with the nadir pointing Airborne Mobile Aerosol Lidar (AMALi) and dropsondes were launched to obtain profiles of meteorological variables. Furthermore, in situ measurements of aerosol properties, meteorological variables and turbulence were part of the campaign. The measurements covered a broad range of atmospheric and sea ice conditions. In this thesis, properties of the ABL over Arctic sea ice with a focus on the influence of open leads are studied based on the data from the PAMARCMIP campaign. The height of the ABL is determined by different methods that are applied to dropsonde and AMALi backscatter profiles. ABL heights are compared for different flights representing different conditions of the atmosphere and of sea ice and open water influence. The different criteria for ABL height that are applied show large variation in terms of agreement among each other, depending on the characteristics of the ABL and its history. It is shown that ABL height determination from lidar backscatter by methods commonly used under mid-latitude conditions is applicable to the Arctic ABL only under certain conditions. Aerosol or clouds within the ABL are needed as a tracer for ABL height detection from backscatter. Hence an aerosol source close to the surface is necessary, that is typically found under the present influence of open water and therefore convective conditions. However it is not always possible to distinguish residual layers from the actual ABL. Stable boundary layers are generally difficult to detect. To illustrate the complexity of the Arctic ABL and processes therein, four case studies are analyzed each of which represents a snapshot of the interplay between atmosphere and underlying sea ice or water surface. Influences of leads and open water on the aerosol and clouds within the ABL are identified and discussed. Leads are observed to cause the formation of fog and cloud layers within the ABL by humidity emission. Furthermore they decrease the stability and increase the height of the ABL and consequently facilitate entrainment of air and aerosol layers from the free troposphere.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Meissner2014, author = {Meissner, Sven}, title = {Implications of Microcystin Production in Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-75199}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VII, 141}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Cyanobacteria produce about 40 percent of the world's primary biomass, but also a variety of often toxic peptides such as microcystin. Mass developments, so called blooms, can pose a real threat to the drinking water supply in many parts of the world. This study aimed at characterizing the biological function of microcystin production in one of the most common bloom-forming cyanobacterium Microcystis aeruginosa. In a first attempt, the effect of elevated light intensity on microcystin production and its binding to cellular proteins was studied. Therefore, conventional microcystin quantification techniques were combined with protein-biochemical methods. RubisCO, the key enzyme for primary carbon fixation was a major microcystin interaction partner. High light exposition strongly stimulated microcystin-protein interactions. Up to 60 percent of the total cellular microcystin was detected bound to proteins, i.e. inaccessible for standard quantification procedures. Underestimation of total microcystin contents when neglecting the protein fraction was also demonstrated in field samples. Finally, an immuno-fluorescence based method was developed to identify microcystin producing cyanobacteria in mixed populations. The high light induced microcystin interaction with proteins suggested an impact of the secondary metabolite on the primary metabolism of Microcystis by e.g. modulating the activity of enzymes. For addressing that question, a comprehensive GC/MS-based approach was conducted to compare the accumulation of metabolites in the wild-type of Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806 and the microcystin deficient ΔmcyB mutant. From all 501 detected non-redundant metabolites 85 (17 percent) accumulated significantly different in either of both genotypes upon high light exposition. Accumulation of compatible solutes in the ΔmcyB mutant suggests a role of microcystin in fine-tuning the metabolic flow to prevent stress related to excess light, high oxygen concentration and carbon limitation. Co-analysis of the widely used model cyanobacterium Synechocystis PCC 6803 revealed profound metabolic differences between species of cyanobacteria. Whereas Microcystis channeled more resources towards carbohydrate synthesis, Synechocystis invested more in amino acids. These findings were supported by electron microscopy of high light treated cells and the quantification of storage compounds. While Microcystis accumulated mainly glycogen to about 8.5 percent of its fresh weight within three hours, Synechocystis produced higher amounts of cyanophycin. The results showed that the characterization of species-specific metabolic features should gain more attention with regard to the biotechnological use of cyanobacteria.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schmitt2014, author = {Schmitt, Clemens Nikolaus Zeno}, title = {The role of protein metal complexes in the mechanics of Mytilus californianus byssal threads}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-74216}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VIII, 93}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Protein-metal coordination complexes are well known as active centers in enzymatic catalysis, and to contribute to signal transduction, gas transport, and to hormone function. Additionally, they are now known to contribute as load-bearing cross-links to the mechanical properties of several biological materials, including the jaws of Nereis worms and the byssal threads of marine mussels. The primary aim of this thesis work is to better understand the role of protein-metal cross-links in the mechanical properties of biological materials, using the mussel byssus as a model system. Specifically, the focus is on histidine-metal cross-links as sacrificial bonds in the fibrous core of the byssal thread (Chapter 4) and L-3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA)-metal bonds in the protective thread cuticle (Chapter 5). Byssal threads are protein fibers, which mussels use to attach to various substrates at the seashore. These relatively stiff fibers have the ability to extend up to about 100 \% strain, dissipating large amounts of mechanical energy from crashing waves, for example. Remarkably, following damage from cyclic loading, initial mechanical properties are subsequently recovered by a material-intrinsic self-healing capability. Histidine residues coordinated to transition metal ions in the proteins comprising the fibrous thread core have been suggested as reversible sacrificial bonds that contribute to self-healing; however, this remains to be substantiated in situ. In the first part of this thesis, the role of metal coordination bonds in the thread core was investigated using several spectroscopic methods. In particular, X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was applied to probe the coordination environment of zinc in Mytilus californianus threads at various stages during stretching and subsequent healing. Analysis of the extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) suggests that tensile deformation of threads is correlated with the rupture of Zn-coordination bonds and that self-healing is connected with the reorganization of Zn-coordination bond topologies rather than the mere reformation of Zn-coordination bonds. These findings have interesting implications for the design of self-healing metallopolymers. The byssus cuticle is a protective coating surrounding the fibrous thread core that is both as hard as an epoxy and extensible up to 100 \% strain before cracking. It was shown previously that cuticle stiffness and hardness largely depend on the presence of Fe-DOPA coordination bonds. However, the byssus is known to concentrate a large variety of metals from seawater, some of which are also capable of binding DOPA (e.g. V). Therefore, the question arises whether natural variation of metal composition can affect the mechanical performance of the byssal thread cuticle. To investigate this hypothesis, nanoindentation and confocal Raman spectroscopy were applied to the cuticle of native threads, threads with metals removed (EDTA treated), and threads in which the metal ions in the native tissue were replaced by either Fe or V. Interestingly, replacement of metal ions with either Fe or V leads to the full recovery of native mechanical properties with no statistical difference between each other or the native properties. This likely indicates that a fixed number of metal coordination sites are maintained within the byssal thread cuticle - possibly achieved during thread formation - which may provide an evolutionarily relevant mechanism for maintaining reliable mechanics in an unpredictable environment. While the dynamic exchange of bonds plays a vital role in the mechanical behavior and self-healing in the thread core by allowing them to act as reversible sacrificial bonds, the compatibility of DOPA with other metals allows an inherent adaptability of the thread cuticle to changing circumstances. The requirements to both of these materials can be met by the dynamic nature of the protein-metal cross-links, whereas covalent cross-linking would fail to provide the adaptability of the cuticle and the self-healing of the core. In summary, these studies of the thread core and the thread cuticle serve to underline the important and dynamic roles of protein-metal coordination in the mechanical function of load-bearing protein fibers, such as the mussel byssus.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sachse2014, author = {Sachse, Rita}, title = {Biological membranes in cell-free systems}, pages = {111, XIX}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Eggers2014, author = {Eggers, Ute}, title = {Environmental impacts on white stork (Ciconia ciconia) breeding success}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {164}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gassmoeller2014, author = {Gaßm{\"o}ller, Ren{\´e}}, title = {The interaction of subducted slabs and plume generation zones in geodynamic models}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {158}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Soja2014, author = {Soja, Aleksandra Maria}, title = {Transcriptomic and metabolomic analysis of Arabidopsis thaliana during abiotic stress}, pages = {134}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Brem2014, author = {Brem, Patrick}, title = {Compact objects in dense astrophysical environments}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {173}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mueller2014, author = {M{\"u}ller, J{\"o}rg}, title = {Response of bryophyte diversity to land-use and management in forest and grassland habitats}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {133}, year = {2014}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Dirakis2014, author = {Dirakis, Alexis}, title = {Grundlagen und Grenzen des Sozialen}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {476}, year = {2014}, abstract = {Cette recherche a pour objet l'articulation entre les dimensions anthropologiques et sociologiques de l'anthropologie philosophique de Helmuth Plessner (1892-1985). Elles procèdent selon trois axes. Je m'efforce (1) d'offrir une synthèse de l'anthropologie philosophique plessnerienne afin (2) de reconstituer les conditions de possibilité du social au stade humain de l'organique. Le troisième axe (3) correspond, enfin, à l'analyse des limites structurelles du social à partir de ses deux dimensions constitutives : l'individuel (limites ontogénétiques, comportementales et inter-personnelles) et le collectif (limites culturelles, intra- et inter-culturelles).}, language = {fr} }