@phdthesis{Reiners2017, author = {Reiners, Nina}, title = {Transnational lawmaking coalitions for human rights}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {221, VI}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Dribbisch2017, author = {Dribbisch, Katrin}, title = {Translating innovation}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-104719}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VIII, 217}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This doctoral thesis studies the process of innovation adoption in public administrations, addressing the research question of how an innovation is translated to a local context. The study empirically explores Design Thinking as a new problem-solving approach introduced by a federal government organisation in Singapore. With a focus on user-centeredness, collaboration and iteration Design Thinking seems to offer a new way to engage recipients and other stakeholders of public services as well as to re-think the policy design process from a user's point of view. Pioneered in the private sector, early adopters of the methodology include civil services in Australia, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the United States as well as Singapore. Hitherto, there is not much evidence on how and for which purposes Design Thinking is used in the public sector. For the purpose of this study, innovation adoption is framed in an institutionalist perspective addressing how concepts are translated to local contexts. The study rejects simplistic views of the innovation adoption process, in which an idea diffuses to another setting without adaptation. The translation perspective is fruitful because it captures the multidimensionality and 'messiness' of innovation adoption. More specifically, the overall research question addressed in this study is: How has Design Thinking been translated to the local context of the public sector organisation under investigation? And from a theoretical point of view: What can we learn from translation theory about innovation adoption processes? Moreover, there are only few empirical studies of organisations adopting Design Thinking and most of them focus on private organisations. We know very little about how Design Thinking is embedded in public sector organisations. This study therefore provides further empirical evidence of how Design Thinking is used in a public sector organisation, especially with regards to its application to policy work which has so far been under-researched. An exploratory single case study approach was chosen to provide an in-depth analysis of the innovation adoption process. Based on a purposive, theory-driven sampling approach, a Singaporean Ministry was selected because it represented an organisational setting in which Design Thinking had been embedded for several years, making it a relevant case with regard to the research question. Following a qualitative research design, 28 semi-structured interviews (45-100 minutes) with employees and managers were conducted. The interview data was triangulated with observations and documents, collected during a field research research stay in Singapore. The empirical study of innovation adoption in a single organisation focused on the intra-organisational perspective, with the aim to capture the variations of translation that occur during the adoption process. In so doing, this study opened the black box often assumed in implementation studies. Second, this research advances translation studies not only by showing variance, but also by deriving explanatory factors. The main differences in the translation of Design Thinking occurred between service delivery and policy divisions, as well as between the first adopter and the rest of the organisation. For the intra-organisational translation of Design Thinking in the Singaporean Ministry the following five factors played a role: task type, mode of adoption, type of expertise, sequence of adoption, and the adoption of similar practices.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Nagel2017, author = {Nagel, Rebecca}, title = {Genetic and behavioral investigations into African weakly electric fish (Osteoglossomorpha: Mormyridae) speciation}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {121}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Shenar2017, author = {Shenar, Tomer}, title = {Comprehensive analyses of massive binaries and implications on stellar evolution}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-104857}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {187}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Via their powerful radiation, stellar winds, and supernova explosions, massive stars (Mini \& 8 M☉) bear a tremendous impact on galactic evolution. It became clear in recent decades that the majority of massive stars reside in binary systems. This thesis sets as a goal to quantify the impact of binarity (i.e., the presence of a companion star) on massive stars. For this purpose, massive binary systems in the Local Group, including OB-type binaries, high mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs), and Wolf-Rayet (WR) binaries, were investigated by means of spectral, orbital, and evolutionary analyses. The spectral analyses were performed with the non-local thermodynamic equillibrium (non-LTE) Potsdam Wolf-Rayet (PoWR) model atmosphere code. Thanks to critical updates in the calculation of the hydrostatic layers, the code became a state-of-the-art tool applicable for all types of hot massive stars (Chapter 2). The eclipsing OB-type triple system δ Ori served as an intriguing test-case for the new version of the PoWR code, and provided key insights regarding the formation of X-rays in massive stars (Chapter 3). We further analyzed two prototypical HMXBs, Vela X-1 and IGR J17544-2619, and obtained fundamental conclusions regarding the dichotomy of two basic classes of HMXBs (Chapter 4). We performed an exhaustive analysis of the binary R 145 in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), which was claimed to host the most massive stars known. We were able to disentangle the spectrum of the system, and performed an orbital, polarimetric, and spectral analysis, as well as an analysis of the wind-wind collision region. The true masses of the binary components turned out to be significantly lower than suggested, impacting our understanding of the initial mass function and stellar evolution at low metallicity (Chapter 5). Finally, all known WR binaries in the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) were analyzed. Although it was theoretical predicted that virtually all WR stars in the SMC should be formed via mass-transfer in binaries, we find that binarity was not important for the formation of the known WR stars in the SMC, implying a strong discrepancy between theory and observations (Chapter 6).}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mueller2017, author = {M{\"u}ller, Juliane}, title = {Trunk loading and back pain}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-102428}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ix, 123}, year = {2017}, abstract = {An essential function of the trunk is the compensation of external forces and loads in order to guarantee stability. Stabilising the trunk during sudden, repetitive loading in everyday tasks, as well as during performance is important in order to protect against injury. Hence, reduced trunk stability is accepted as a risk factor for the development of back pain (BP). An altered activity pattern including extended response and activation times as well as increased co-contraction of the trunk muscles as well as a reduced range of motion and increased movement variability of the trunk are evident in back pain patients (BPP). These differences to healthy controls (H) have been evaluated primarily in quasi-static test situations involving isolated loading directly to the trunk. Nevertheless, transferability to everyday, dynamic situations is under debate. Therefore, the aim of this project is to analyse 3-dimensional motion and neuromuscular reflex activity of the trunk as response to dynamic trunk loading in healthy (H) and back pain patients (BPP). A measurement tool was developed to assess trunk stability, consisting of dynamic test situations. During these tests, loading of the trunk is generated by the upper and lower limbs with and without additional perturbation. Therefore, lifting of objects and stumbling while walking are adequate represents. With the help of a 12-lead EMG, neuromuscular activity of the muscles encompassing the trunk was assessed. In addition, three-dimensional trunk motion was analysed using a newly developed multi-segmental trunk model. The set-up was checked for reproducibility as well as validity. Afterwards, the defined measurement set-up was applied to assess trunk stability in comparisons of healthy and back pain patients. Clinically acceptable to excellent reliability could be shown for the methods (EMG/kinematics) used in the test situations. No changes in trunk motion pattern could be observed in healthy adults during continuous loading (lifting of objects) of different weights. In contrast, sudden loading of the trunk through perturbations to the lower limbs during walking led to an increased neuromuscular activity and ROM of the trunk. Moreover, BPP showed a delayed muscle response time and extended duration until maximum neuromuscular activity in response to sudden walking perturbations compared to healthy controls. In addition, a reduced lateral flexion of the trunk during perturbation could be shown in BPP. It is concluded that perturbed gait seems suitable to provoke higher demands on trunk stability in adults. The altered neuromuscular and kinematic compensation pattern in back pain patients (BPP) can be interpreted as increased spine loading and reduced trunk stability in patients. Therefore, this novel assessment of trunk stability is suitable to identify deficits in BPP. Assignment of affected BPP to therapy interventions with focus on stabilisation of the trunk aiming to improve neuromuscular control in dynamic situations is implied. Hence, sensorimotor training (SMT) to enhance trunk stability and compensation of unexpected sudden loading should be preferred.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schunack2017, author = {Schunack, Silke}, title = {Processing of non-canonical word orders in an L2}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-103750}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvii, 443 Seiten}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This thesis investigates the processing of non-canonical word orders and whether non-canonical orders involving object topicalizations, midfield scrambling and particle verbs are treated the same by native (L1) and non-native (L2) speakers. The two languages investigated are Norwegian and German. 32 L1 Norwegian and 32 L1 German advanced learners of Norwegian were tested in two experiments on object topicalization in Norwegian. The results from the online self-paced reading task and the offline agent identification task show that both groups are able to identify the non-canonical word order and show a facilitatory effect of animate subjects in their reanalysis. Similarly high error rates in the agent identification task suggest that globally unambiguous object topicalizations are a challenging structure for L1 and L2 speakers alike. The same participants were also tested in two experiments on particle placement in Norwegian, again using a self-paced reading task, this time combined with an acceptability rating task. In the acceptability rating L1 and L2 speakers show the same preference for the verb-adjacent placement of the particle over the non-adjacent placement after the direct object. However, this preference for adjacency is only found in the L1 group during online processing, whereas the L2 group shows no preference for either order. Another set of experiments tested 33 L1 German and 39 L1 Slavic advanced learners of German on object scrambling in ditransitive clauses in German. Non-native speakers accept both object orders and show neither a preference for either order nor a processing advantage for the canonical order. The L1 group, in contrast, shows a small, but significant preference for the canonical dative-first order in the judgment and the reading task. The same participants were also tested in two experiments on the application of the split rule in German particle verbs. Advanced L2 speakers of German are able to identify particle verbs and can apply the split rule in V2 contexts in an acceptability judgment task in the same way as L1 speakers. However, unlike the L1 group, the L2 group is not sensitive to the grammaticality manipulation during online processing. They seem to be sensitive to the additional lexical information provided by the particle, but are unable to relate the split particle to the preceding verb and recognize the ungrammaticality in non-V2 contexts. Taken together, my findings suggest that non-canonical word orders are not per se more difficult to identify for L2 speakers than L1 speakers and can trigger the same reanalysis processes as in L1 speakers. I argue that L2 speakers' ability to identify a non-canonical word order depends on how the non-canonicity is signaled (case marking vs. surface word order), on the constituents involved (identical vs. different word types), and on the impact of the word order change on sentence meaning. Non-canonical word orders that are signaled by morphological case marking and cause no change to the sentence's content are hard to detect for L2 speakers.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weitkunat2017, author = {Weitkunat, Karolin}, title = {Dietary fibers and short-chain fatty acids in the development of diet-induced obesity}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {121}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{You2017, author = {You, Zewang}, title = {Conformational transition of peptide-functionalized cryogels enabling shape-memory capability}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {144}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Janowski2017, author = {Janowski, Marcin Andrzej}, title = {Investigating role of the essential GTPase - AtRsgA in the assembly of the small ribosomal subunit in Arabidopsis thaliana chloroplast}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {114}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Fichtner2017, author = {Fichtner, Franziska}, title = {The role of Trehalose 6-Phosphate synthase 1 and trehalose 6-phosphate in plant metabolism and development}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {225}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Moraes2017, author = {Moraes, Thiago Alexandre}, title = {Exploring the role of the circadian clock in the regulation of starch turnover in changing light conditions in Arabidopsis}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {354}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Marusch2017, author = {Marusch, Tina}, title = {Language production of inflectional verb morphology in healthy and impaired adult speakers of German and English.}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {153}, year = {2017}, abstract = {This thesis investigates the processing and representation of (ir-)regularity in inflectional verb morphology in German and English. The focus lies on the predictions from models of morphological processing about the production of subtypes of irregular verbs which are usually subsumed under the category `irregular verbs'. Thus, this dissertation presents three journal articles investigating the language production of healthy speakers and speakers with agrammatic aphasia in order to fill a gap both for the availability of language production data and systematically tested patterns of irregularity. The second Chapter set out to investigate whether regularity of a verb or its phonological complexity (measured in number of phonemes) better predict the production accuracies of German speakers with agrammatic aphasia. While regular verbs were significantly more often correct than mixed and irregular verbs, production accuracies of irregular and mixed verbs for impaired participants did not differ. Thus, no influence of phonological complexity was observed. Chapter 3 aimed at teasing apart the influence of stem changes and affix type on the production accuracies of English speaking individuals with agrammatic aphasia. The analyses revealed that the presence of stem changes but not the type of affix had a significant effect on the production accuracies. Moreover, as four different verb types were tested, results showed that production accuracies did not conform to a regular-irregular distinction but that accuracies differed by the degree of regularity. In Chapter 4, long-lag primed picture naming design was used to study if the differences found in the production accuracies of Chapter 3 were also associated with differences in production latencies of non-brain damaged speakers. A morphological priming effect was found, however, in neither experiment the effect differed of the three verb types tested. In addition to standard frequentist analysis, Bayesian analysis were performed. In this way the absence of a difference of the morphological priming effect between verb types was interpreted as actual evidence for the lack of such a difference. Hence, this thesis presents diverging results on the production of subtypes of irregular verbs in healthy and impaired adult speakers. However, at the same time these results provided evidence that the conventional regular-irregular distinction is not adequate for testing models of morphological processing.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{OseiTutu2017, author = {Osei Tutu, Anthony}, title = {Linking global mantle dynamics with lithosphere dynamics using the geoid, plate velocities and lithosphere stress state as constraints}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407057}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {108}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Lithospheric plates move over the low viscosity asthenosphere balancing several forces. The driving forces include basal shear stress exerted by mantle convection and plate boundary forces such as slab pull and ridge push, whereas the resisting forces include inter-plate friction, trench resistance, and cratonic root resistance. These generate plate motions, the lithospheric stress field and dynamic topography which are observed with different geophysical methods. The orientation and tectonic regime of the observed crustal/lithospheric stress field further contribute to our knowledge of different deformation processes occurring within the Earth's crust and lithosphere. Using numerical models previous studies were able to identify major forces generating stresses in the crust and lithosphere which also contribute to the formation of topography as well as driving lithospheric plates. They showed that the first-order stress pattern explaining about 80\,\\% of the stress field originates from a balance of forces acting at the base of the moving lithospheric plates due to convective flow in the underlying mantle. The remaining second-order stress pattern is due to lateral density variations in the crust and lithosphere in regions of pronounced topography and high gravitational potential, such as the Himalayas and mid-ocean ridges. By linking global lithosphere dynamics to deep mantle flow this study seeks to evaluate the influence of shallow and deep density heterogenities on plate motions, lithospheric stress field and dynamic topography using the geoid as a major constraint for mantle rheology. We use the global 3D lithosphere-asthenosphere model SLIM3D with visco-elasto-plastic rheology coupled at 300 km depth to a spectral model of mantle flow. The complexity of the lithosphere-asthenosphere component allows for the simulation of power-law rheology with creep parameters accounting for both diffusion and dislocation creep within the uppermost 300 km. First we investigate the influence of intra-plate friction and asthenospheric viscosity on present-day plate motions. Previous modelling studies have suggested that small friction coefficients (µ < 0.1, yield stress ~ 100 MPa) can lead to plate tectonics in models of mantle convection. Here we show that, in order to match present-day plate motions and net rotation, the frictional parameter must be less than 0.05. We are able to obtain a good fit with the magnitude and orientation of observed plate velocities (NUVEL-1A) in a no-net-rotation (NNR) reference frame with µ < 0.04 and minimum asthenosphere viscosity ~ 5*10e19 Pas to 10e20 Pas. Our estimates of net rotation (NR) of the lithosphere suggest that amplitudes ~ 0.1-0.2 °/Ma, similar to most observation-based estimates, can be obtained with asthenosphere viscosity cutoff values of ~ 10e19 Pas to 5*10e19 Pas and friction coefficient µ < 0.05. The second part of the study investigates further constraints on shallow and deep mantle heterogeneities causing plate motion by predicting lithosphere stress field and topography and validating with observations. Lithosphere stresses and dynamic topography are computed using the modelling setup and rheological parameters for prescribed plate motions. We validate our results with the World Stress Map 2016 (WSM2016) and the observed residual topography. Here we tested a number of upper mantle thermal-density structures. The one used to calculate plate motions is considered the reference thermal-density structure. This model is derived from a heat flow model combined with a sea floor age model. In addition we used three different thermal-density structures derived from global S-wave velocity models to show the influence of lateral density heterogeneities in the upper 300 km on model predictions. A large portion of the total dynamic force generating stresses in the crust/lithosphere has its origin in the deep mantle, while topography is largely influenced by shallow heterogeneities. For example, there is hardly any difference between the stress orientation patterns predicted with and without consideration of the heterogeneities in the upper mantle density structure across North America, Australia, and North Africa. However, the crust is dominant in areas of high altitude for the stress orientation compared to the all deep mantle contribution. This study explores the sensitivity of all the considered surface observables with regards to model parameters providing insights into the influence of the asthenosphere and plate boundary rheology on plate motion as we test various thermal-density structures to predict stresses and topography.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bredow2017, author = {Bredow, Eva}, title = {Geodynamic models of plume-ridge interaction}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-411732}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {104}, year = {2017}, abstract = {According to the classical plume hypothesis, mantle plumes are localized upwellings of hot, buoyant material in the Earth's mantle. They have a typical mushroom shape, consisting of a large plume head, which is associated with the formation of voluminous flood basalts (a Large Igneous Province) and a narrow plume tail, which generates a linear, age-progressive chain of volcanic edifices (a hotspot track) as the tectonic plate migrates over the relatively stationary plume. Both plume heads and tails reshape large areas of the Earth's surface over many tens of millions of years. However, not every plume has left an exemplary record that supports the classical hypothesis. The main objective of this thesis is therefore to study how specific hotspots have created the crustal thickness pattern attributed to their volcanic activities. Using regional geodynamic models, the main chapters of this thesis address the challenge of deciphering the three individual (and increasingly complex) Réunion, Iceland, and Kerguelen hotspot histories, especially focussing on the interactions between the respective plume and nearby spreading ridges. For this purpose, the mantle convection code ASPECT is used to set up three-dimensional numerical models, which consider the specific local surroundings of each plume by prescribing time-dependent boundary conditions for temperature and mantle flow. Combining reconstructed plate boundaries and plate motions, large-scale global flow velocities and an inhomogeneous lithosphere thickness distribution together with a dehydration rheology represents a novel setup for regional convection models. The model results show the crustal thickness pattern produced by the plume, which is compared to present-day topographic structures, crustal thickness estimates and age determinations of volcanic provinces associated with hotspot activity. Altogether, the model results agree well with surface observations. Moreover, the dynamic development of the plumes in the models provide explanations for the generation of smaller, yet characteristic volcanic features that were previously unexplained. Considering the present-day state of a model as a prediction for the current temperature distribution in the mantle, it cannot only be compared to observations on the surface, but also to structures in the Earth's interior as imaged by seismic tomography. More precisely, in the case of the Réunion hotspot, the model demonstrates how the distinctive gap between the Maldives and Chagos is generated due to the combination of the ridge geometry and plume-ridge interaction. Further, the Rodrigues Ridge is formed as the surface expression of a long-distance sublithospheric flow channel between the upwelling plume and the closest ridge segment, confirming the long-standing hypothesis of Morgan (1978) for the first time in a dynamic context. The Réunion plume has been studied in connection with the seismological RHUM-RUM project, which has recently provided new seismic tomography images that yield an excellent match with the geodynamic model. Regarding the Iceland plume, the numerical model shows how plume material may have accumulated in an east-west trending corridor of thin lithosphere across Greenland and resulted in simultaneous melt generation west and east of Greenland. This provides an explanation for the extremely widespread volcanic material attributed to magma production of the Iceland hotspot and demonstrates that the model setup is also able to explain more complicated hotspot histories. The Iceland model results also agree well with newly derived seismic tomographic images. The Kerguelen hotspot has an extremely complex history and previous studies concluded that the plume might be dismembered or influenced by solitary waves in its conduit to produce the reconstructed variable melt production rate. The geodynamic model, however, shows that a constant plume influx can result in a variable magma production rate if the plume interacts with nearby mid-ocean ridges. Moreover, the Ninetyeast Ridge in the model is created by on-ridge activities, while the Kerguelen plume was located beneath the Australian plate. This is also a contrast to earlier studies, which described the Ninetyeast Ridge as the result of the Indian plate passing over the plume. Furthermore, the Amsterdam-Saint Paul Plateau in the model is the result of plume material flowing from the upwelling toward the Southeast Indian Ridge, whereas previous geochemical studies attributed that volcanic province to a separate deep plume. In summary, the three case studies presented in this thesis consistently highlight the importance of plume-ridge interaction in order to reconstruct the overall volcanic hotspot record as well as specific smaller features attributed to a certain hotspot. They also demonstrate that it is not necessary to attribute highly complicated properties to a specific plume in order to account for complex observations. Thus, this thesis contributes to the general understanding of plume dynamics and extends the very specific knowledge about the Réunion, Iceland, and Kerguelen mantle plumes.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Zuo2017, author = {Zuo, Zhe}, title = {From unstructured to structured: Context-based named entity mining from text}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412576}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 112}, year = {2017}, abstract = {With recent advances in the area of information extraction, automatically extracting structured information from a vast amount of unstructured textual data becomes an important task, which is infeasible for humans to capture all information manually. Named entities (e.g., persons, organizations, and locations), which are crucial components in texts, are usually the subjects of structured information from textual documents. Therefore, the task of named entity mining receives much attention. It consists of three major subtasks, which are named entity recognition, named entity linking, and relation extraction. These three tasks build up an entire pipeline of a named entity mining system, where each of them has its challenges and can be employed for further applications. As a fundamental task in the natural language processing domain, studies on named entity recognition have a long history, and many existing approaches produce reliable results. The task is aiming to extract mentions of named entities in text and identify their types. Named entity linking recently received much attention with the development of knowledge bases that contain rich information about entities. The goal is to disambiguate mentions of named entities and to link them to the corresponding entries in a knowledge base. Relation extraction, as the final step of named entity mining, is a highly challenging task, which is to extract semantic relations between named entities, e.g., the ownership relation between two companies. In this thesis, we review the state-of-the-art of named entity mining domain in detail, including valuable features, techniques, evaluation methodologies, and so on. Furthermore, we present two of our approaches that focus on the named entity linking and relation extraction tasks separately. To solve the named entity linking task, we propose the entity linking technique, BEL, which operates on a textual range of relevant terms and aggregates decisions from an ensemble of simple classifiers. Each of the classifiers operates on a randomly sampled subset of the above range. In extensive experiments on hand-labeled and benchmark datasets, our approach outperformed state-of-the-art entity linking techniques, both in terms of quality and efficiency. For the task of relation extraction, we focus on extracting a specific group of difficult relation types, business relations between companies. These relations can be used to gain valuable insight into the interactions between companies and perform complex analytics, such as predicting risk or valuating companies. Our semi-supervised strategy can extract business relations between companies based on only a few user-provided seed company pairs. By doing so, we also provide a solution for the problem of determining the direction of asymmetric relations, such as the ownership_of relation. We improve the reliability of the extraction process by using a holistic pattern identification method, which classifies the generated extraction patterns. Our experiments show that we can accurately and reliably extract new entity pairs occurring in the target relation by using as few as five labeled seed pairs.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Beyhl2017, author = {Beyhl, Thomas}, title = {A framework for incremental view graph maintenance}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-405929}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VII, 293}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Nowadays, graph data models are employed, when relationships between entities have to be stored and are in the scope of queries. For each entity, this graph data model locally stores relationships to adjacent entities. Users employ graph queries to query and modify these entities and relationships. These graph queries employ graph patterns to lookup all subgraphs in the graph data that satisfy certain graph structures. These subgraphs are called graph pattern matches. However, this graph pattern matching is NP-complete for subgraph isomorphism. Thus, graph queries can suffer a long response time, when the number of entities and relationships in the graph data or the graph patterns increases. One possibility to improve the graph query performance is to employ graph views that keep ready graph pattern matches for complex graph queries for later retrieval. However, these graph views must be maintained by means of an incremental graph pattern matching to keep them consistent with the graph data from which they are derived, when the graph data changes. This maintenance adds subgraphs that satisfy a graph pattern to the graph views and removes subgraphs that do not satisfy a graph pattern anymore from the graph views. Current approaches for incremental graph pattern matching employ Rete networks. Rete networks are discrimination networks that enumerate and maintain all graph pattern matches of certain graph queries by employing a network of condition tests, which implement partial graph patterns that together constitute the overall graph query. Each condition test stores all subgraphs that satisfy the partial graph pattern. Thus, Rete networks suffer high memory consumptions, because they store a large number of partial graph pattern matches. But, especially these partial graph pattern matches enable Rete networks to update the stored graph pattern matches efficiently, because the network maintenance exploits the already stored partial graph pattern matches to find new graph pattern matches. However, other kinds of discrimination networks exist that can perform better in time and space than Rete networks. Currently, these other kinds of networks are not used for incremental graph pattern matching. This thesis employs generalized discrimination networks for incremental graph pattern matching. These discrimination networks permit a generalized network structure of condition tests to enable users to steer the trade-off between memory consumption and execution time for the incremental graph pattern matching. For that purpose, this thesis contributes a modeling language for the effective definition of generalized discrimination networks. Furthermore, this thesis contributes an efficient and scalable incremental maintenance algorithm, which updates the (partial) graph pattern matches that are stored by each condition test. Moreover, this thesis provides a modeling evaluation, which shows that the proposed modeling language enables the effective modeling of generalized discrimination networks. Furthermore, this thesis provides a performance evaluation, which shows that a) the incremental maintenance algorithm scales, when the graph data becomes large, and b) the generalized discrimination network structures can outperform Rete network structures in time and space at the same time for incremental graph pattern matching.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Papenbrock2017, author = {Papenbrock, Thorsten}, title = {Data profiling - efficient discovery of dependencies}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406705}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, ii, 141}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Data profiling is the computer science discipline of analyzing a given dataset for its metadata. The types of metadata range from basic statistics, such as tuple counts, column aggregations, and value distributions, to much more complex structures, in particular inclusion dependencies (INDs), unique column combinations (UCCs), and functional dependencies (FDs). If present, these statistics and structures serve to efficiently store, query, change, and understand the data. Most datasets, however, do not provide their metadata explicitly so that data scientists need to profile them. While basic statistics are relatively easy to calculate, more complex structures present difficult, mostly NP-complete discovery tasks; even with good domain knowledge, it is hardly possible to detect them manually. Therefore, various profiling algorithms have been developed to automate the discovery. None of them, however, can process datasets of typical real-world size, because their resource consumptions and/or execution times exceed effective limits. In this thesis, we propose novel profiling algorithms that automatically discover the three most popular types of complex metadata, namely INDs, UCCs, and FDs, which all describe different kinds of key dependencies. The task is to extract all valid occurrences from a given relational instance. The three algorithms build upon known techniques from related work and complement them with algorithmic paradigms, such as divide \& conquer, hybrid search, progressivity, memory sensitivity, parallelization, and additional pruning to greatly improve upon current limitations. Our experiments show that the proposed algorithms are orders of magnitude faster than related work. They are, in particular, now able to process datasets of real-world, i.e., multiple gigabytes size with reasonable memory and time consumption. Due to the importance of data profiling in practice, industry has built various profiling tools to support data scientists in their quest for metadata. These tools provide good support for basic statistics and they are also able to validate individual dependencies, but they lack real discovery features even though some fundamental discovery techniques are known for more than 15 years. To close this gap, we developed Metanome, an extensible profiling platform that incorporates not only our own algorithms but also many further algorithms from other researchers. With Metanome, we make our research accessible to all data scientists and IT-professionals that are tasked with data profiling. Besides the actual metadata discovery, the platform also offers support for the ranking and visualization of metadata result sets. Being able to discover the entire set of syntactically valid metadata naturally introduces the subsequent task of extracting only the semantically meaningful parts. This is challenge, because the complete metadata results are surprisingly large (sometimes larger than the datasets itself) and judging their use case dependent semantic relevance is difficult. To show that the completeness of these metadata sets is extremely valuable for their usage, we finally exemplify the efficient processing and effective assessment of functional dependencies for the use case of schema normalization.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{ReynaGonzalez2017, author = {Reyna Gonz{\´a}lez, Emmanuel}, title = {Engineering of the microviridin post-translational modification enzymes for the production of synthetic protease inhibitors}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406979}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XI, 91, CI}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Natural products and their derivatives have always been a source of drug leads. In particular, bacterial compounds have played an important role in drug development, for example in the field of antibiotics. A decrease in the discovery of novel leads from natural sources and the hope of finding new leads through the generation of large libraries of drug-like compounds by combinatorial chemistry aimed at specific molecular targets drove the pharmaceutical companies away from research on natural products. However, recent technological advances in genetics, bioinformatics and analytical chemistry have revived the interest in natural products. The ribosomally synthesized and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs) are a group of natural products generated by the action of post-translationally modifying enzymes on precursor peptides translated from mRNA by ribosomes. The great substrate promiscuity exhibited by many of the enzymes from RiPP biosynthetic pathways have led to the generation of hundreds of novel synthetic and semisynthetic variants, including variants carrying non-canonical amino acids (ncAAs). The microviridins are a family of RiPPs characterized by their atypical tricyclic structure composed of lactone and lactam rings, and their activity as serine protease inhibitors. The generalities of their biosynthetic pathway have already been described, however, the lack of information on details such as the protease responsible for cleaving off the leader peptide from the cyclic core peptide has impeded the fast and cheap production of novel microviridin variants. In the present work, knowledge on leader peptide activation of enzymes from other RiPP families has been extrapolated to the microviridin family, making it possible to bypass the need of a leader peptide. This feature allowed for the exploitation of the microviridin biosynthetic machinery for the production of novel variants through the establishment of an efficient one-pot in vitro platform. The relevance of this chemoenzymatic approach has been exemplified by the synthesis of novel potent serine protease inhibitors from both rationally-designed peptide libraries and bioinformatically predicted microviridins. Additionally, new structure-activity relationships (SARs) could be inferred by screening microviridin intermediates. The significance of this technique was further demonstrated by the simple incorporation of ncAAs into the microviridin scaffold.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{deAbreueLima2017, author = {de Abreu e Lima, Francisco Anastacio}, title = {Experimental validation of hybrid performance predictive models in Zea mays L.}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {127}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{deSouza2017, author = {de Souza, Leonardo Perez}, title = {Functional characterization of biosynthesis and regulation of plant secondary metabolism}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {102}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Reike2017, author = {Reike, Dennis}, title = {A look behind perceptual performance in numerical cognition}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-407821}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vi, 136}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Recognizing, understanding, and responding to quantities are considerable skills for human beings. We can easily communicate quantities, and we are extremely efficient in adapting our behavior to numerical related tasks. One usual task is to compare quantities. We also use symbols like digits in numerical-related tasks. To solve tasks including digits, we must to rely on our previously learned internal number representations. This thesis elaborates on the process of number comparison with the use of noisy mental representations of numbers, the interaction of number and size representations and how we use mental number representations strategically. For this, three studies were carried out. In the first study, participants had to decide which of two presented digits was numerically larger. They had to respond with a saccade in the direction of the anticipated answer. Using only a small set of meaningfully interpretable parameters, a variant of random walk models is described that accounts for response time, error rate, and variance of response time for the full matrix of 72 digit pairs. In addition, the used random walk model predicts a numerical distance effect even for error response times and this effect clearly occurs in the observed data. In relation to corresponding correct answers error responses were systematically faster. However, different from standard assumptions often made in random walk models, this account required that the distributions of step sizes of the induced random walks be asymmetric to account for this asymmetry between correct and incorrect responses. Furthermore, the presented model provides a well-defined framework to investigate the nature and scale (e.g., linear vs. logarithmic) of the mapping of numerical magnitude onto its internal representation. In comparison of the fits of proposed models with linear and logarithmic mapping, the logarithmic mapping is suggested to be prioritized. Finally, we discuss how our findings can help interpret complex findings (e.g., conflicting speed vs. accuracy trends) in applied studies that use number comparison as a well-established diagnostic tool. Furthermore, a novel oculomotoric effect is reported, namely the saccadic overschoot effect. The participants responded by saccadic eye movements and the amplitude of these saccadic responses decreases with numerical distance. For the second study, an experimental design was developed that allows us to apply the signal detection theory to a task where participants had to decide whether a presented digit was physically smaller or larger. A remaining question is, whether the benefit in (numerical magnitude - physical size) congruent conditions is related to a better perception than in incongruent conditions. Alternatively, the number-size congruency effect is mediated by response biases due to numbers magnitude. The signal detection theory is a perfect tool to distinguish between these two alternatives. It describes two parameters, namely sensitivity and response bias. Changes in the sensitivity are related to the actual task performance due to real differences in perception processes whereas changes in the response bias simply reflect strategic implications as a stronger preparation (activation) of an anticipated answer. Our results clearly demonstrate that the number-size congruency effect cannot be reduced to mere response bias effects, and that genuine sensitivity gains for congruent number-size pairings contribute to the number-size congruency effect. Third, participants had to perform a SNARC task - deciding whether a presented digit was odd or even. Local transition probability of irrelevant attributes (magnitude) was varied while local transition probability of relevant attributes (parity) and global probability occurrence of each stimulus were kept constantly. Participants were quite sensitive in recognizing the underlying local transition probability of irrelevant attributes. A gain in performance was observed for actual repetitions of the irrelevant attribute in relation to changes of the irrelevant attribute in high repetition conditions compared to low repetition conditions. One interpretation of these findings is that information about the irrelevant attribute (magnitude) in the previous trial is used as an informative precue, so that participants can prepare early processing stages in the current trial, with the corresponding benefits and costs typical of standard cueing studies. Finally, the results reported in this thesis are discussed in relation to recent studies in numerical cognition.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Paul2017, author = {Paul, Fabian}, title = {Markov state modeling of binding and conformational changes of proteins}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-404273}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {X, 112}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Proteins are molecules that are essential for life and carry out an enormous number of functions in organisms. To this end, they change their conformation and bind to other molecules. However, the interplay between conformational change and binding is not fully understood. In this work, this interplay is investigated with molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the protein-peptide system Mdm2-PMI and by analysis of data from relaxation experiments. The central task it to uncover the binding mechanism, which is described by the sequence of (partial) binding events and conformational change events including their probabilities. In the simplest case, the binding mechanism is described by a two-step model: binding followed by conformational change or conformational change followed by binding. In the general case, longer sequences with multiple conformational changes and partial binding events are possible as well as parallel pathways that differ in their sequences of events. The theory of Markov state models (MSMs) provides the theoretical framework in which all these cases can be modeled. For this purpose, MSMs are estimated in this work from MD data, and rate equation models, which are related to MSMs, are inferred from experimental relaxation data. The MD simulation and Markov modeling of the PMI-Mdm2 system shows that PMI and Mdm2 can bind via multiple pathways. A main result of this work is a dissociation rate on the order of one event per second, which was calculated using Markov modeling and is in agreement with experiment. So far, dissociation rates and transition rates of this magnitude have only been calculated with methods that speed up transitions by acting with time-dependent, external forces on the binding partners. The simulation technique developed in this work, in contrast, allows the estimation of dissociation rates from the combination of free energy calculation and direct MD simulation of the fast binding process. Two new statistical estimators TRAM and TRAMMBAR are developed to estimate a MSM from the joint data of both simulation types. In addition, a new analysis technique for time-series data from chemical relaxation experiments is developed in this work. It allows to identify one of the above-mentioned two-step mechanisms as the mechanism that underlays the data. The new method is valid for a broader range of concentrations than previous methods and therefore allows to choose the concentrations such that the mechanism can be uniquely identified. It is successfully tested with data for the binding of recoverin to a rhodopsin kinase peptide.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Weissenberger2017, author = {Weißenberger, Martin}, title = {Start-up subsidies for the unemployed - New evaluation approaches and insights}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-406362}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 239}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Start-up incentives targeted at unemployed individuals have become an important tool of the Active Labor Market Policy (ALMP) to fight unemployment in many countries in recent years. In contrast to traditional ALMP instruments like training measures, wage subsidies, or job creation schemes, which are aimed at reintegrating unemployed individuals into dependent employment, start-up incentives are a fundamentally different approach to ALMP, in that they intend to encourage and help unemployed individuals to exit unemployment by entering self-employment and, thus, by creating their own jobs. In this sense, start-up incentives for unemployed individuals serve not only as employment and social policy to activate job seekers and combat unemployment but also as business policy to promote entrepreneurship. The corresponding empirical literature on this topic so far has been mainly focused on the individual labor market perspective, however. The main part of the thesis at hand examines the new start-up subsidy ("Gr{\"u}ndungszuschuss") in Germany and consists of four empirical analyses that extend the existing evidence on start-up incentives for unemployed individuals from multiple perspectives and in the following directions: First, it provides the first impact evaluation of the new start-up subsidy in Germany. The results indicate that participation in the new start-up subsidy has significant positive and persistent effects on both reintegration into the labor market as well as the income profiles of participants, in line with previous evidence on comparable German and international programs, which emphasizes the general potential of start-up incentives as part of the broader ALMP toolset. Furthermore, a new innovative sensitivity analysis of the applied propensity score matching approach integrates findings from entrepreneurship and labor market research about the key role of an individual's personality on start-up decision, business performance, as well as general labor market outcomes, into the impact evaluation of start-up incentives. The sensitivity analysis with regard to the inclusion and exclusion of usually unobserved personality variables reveals that differences in the estimated treatment effects are small in magnitude and mostly insignificant. Consequently, concerns about potential overestimation of treatment effects in previous evaluation studies of similar start-up incentives due to usually unobservable personality variables are less justified, as long as the set of observed control variables is sufficiently informative (Chapter 2). Second, the thesis expands our knowledge about the longer-term business performance and potential of subsidized businesses arising from the start-up subsidy program. In absolute terms, the analysis shows that a relatively high share of subsidized founders successfully survives in the market with their original businesses in the medium to long run. The subsidy also yields a "double dividend" to a certain extent in terms of additional job creation. Compared to "regular", i.e., non-subsidized new businesses founded by non-unemployed individuals in the same quarter, however, the economic and growth-related impulses set by participants of the subsidy program are only limited with regard to employment growth, innovation activity, or investment. Further investigations of possible reasons for these differences show that differential business growth paths of subsidized founders in the longer run seem to be mainly limited by higher restrictions to access capital and by unobserved factors, such as less growth-oriented business strategies and intentions, as well as lower (subjective) entrepreneurial persistence. Taken together, the program has only limited potential as a business and entrepreneurship policy intended to induce innovation and economic growth (Chapters 3 and 4). And third, an empirical analysis on the level of German regional labor markets yields that there is a high regional variation in subsidized start-up activity relative to overall new business formation. The positive correlation between regular start-up intensity and the share among all unemployed individuals who participate in the start-up subsidy program suggests that (nascent) unemployed founders also profit from the beneficial effects of regional entrepreneurship capital. Moreover, the analysis of potential deadweight and displacement effects from an aggregated regional perspective emphasizes that the start-up subsidy for unemployed individuals represents a market intervention into existing markets, which affects incumbents and potentially produces inefficiencies and market distortions. This macro perspective deserves more attention and research in the future (Chapter 5).}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{LindbladPetersen2017, author = {Lindblad Petersen, Oliver}, title = {The Cauchy problem for the linearised Einstein equation and the Goursat problem for wave equations}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-410216}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {108}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In this thesis, we study two initial value problems arising in general relativity. The first is the Cauchy problem for the linearised Einstein equation on general globally hyperbolic spacetimes, with smooth and distributional initial data. We extend well-known results by showing that given a solution to the linearised constraint equations of arbitrary real Sobolev regularity, there is a globally defined solution, which is unique up to addition of gauge solutions. Two solutions are considered equivalent if they differ by a gauge solution. Our main result is that the equivalence class of solutions depends continuously on the corre- sponding equivalence class of initial data. We also solve the linearised constraint equations in certain cases and show that there exist arbitrarily irregular (non-gauge) solutions to the linearised Einstein equation on Minkowski spacetime and Kasner spacetime. In the second part, we study the Goursat problem (the characteristic Cauchy problem) for wave equations. We specify initial data on a smooth compact Cauchy horizon, which is a lightlike hypersurface. This problem has not been studied much, since it is an initial value problem on a non-globally hyperbolic spacetime. Our main result is that given a smooth function on a non-empty, smooth, compact, totally geodesic and non-degenerate Cauchy horizon and a so called admissible linear wave equation, there exists a unique solution that is defined on the globally hyperbolic region and restricts to the given function on the Cauchy horizon. Moreover, the solution depends continuously on the initial data. A linear wave equation is called admissible if the first order part satisfies a certain condition on the Cauchy horizon, for example if it vanishes. Interestingly, both existence of solution and uniqueness are false for general wave equations, as examples show. If we drop the non-degeneracy assumption, examples show that existence of solution fails even for the simplest wave equation. The proof requires precise energy estimates for the wave equation close to the Cauchy horizon. In case the Ricci curvature vanishes on the Cauchy horizon, we show that the energy estimates are strong enough to prove local existence and uniqueness for a class of non-linear wave equations. Our results apply in particular to the Taub-NUT spacetime and the Misner spacetime. It has recently been shown that compact Cauchy horizons in spacetimes satisfying the null energy condition are necessarily smooth and totally geodesic. Our results therefore apply if the spacetime satisfies the null energy condition and the Cauchy horizon is compact and non-degenerate.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jank2017, author = {Jank, Anne-Marie}, title = {Effects of senescence on microenvironment-progenitor cell interaction}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {156}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kretschmer2017, author = {Kretschmer, Marlene}, title = {Disentangling causal pathways of the stratospheric polar vortex}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {171}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Theuring2017, author = {Theuring, Philipp Christian}, title = {Suspended sediments in the Kharaa River, sources and impacts}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-410550}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {135}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Anthropogenically amplified erosion leads to increased fine-grained sediment input into the fluvial system in the 15.000 km2 Kharaa River catchment in northern Mongolia and constitutes a major stressing factor for the aquatic ecosystem. This study uniquely combines the application of intensive monitoring, source fingerprinting and catchment modelling techniques to allow for the comparison of the credibility and accuracy of each single method. High-resolution discharge data were used in combination with daily suspended solid measurements to calculate the suspended sediment budget and compare it with estimations of the sediment budget model SedNet. The comparison of both techniques showed that the development of an overall sediment budget with SedNet was possible, yielding results in the same order of magnitude (20.3 kt a- 1 and 16.2 kt a- 1). Radionuclide sediment tracing, using Be-7, Cs-137 and Pb-210 was applied to differentiate sediment sources for particles < 10μm from hillslope and riverbank erosion and showed that riverbank erosion generates 74.5\% of the suspended sediment load, whereas surface erosion contributes 21.7\% and gully erosion only 3.8\%. The contribution of the single subcatchments of the Kharaa to the suspended sediment load was assessed based on their variation in geochemical composition (e.g. in Ti, Sn, Mo, Mn, As, Sr, B, U, Ca and Sb). These variations were used for sediment source discrimination with geochemical composite fingerprints based on Genetic Algorithm driven Discriminant Function Analysis, the Kruskal-Wallis H-test and Principal Component Analysis. The contributions of the individual sub-catchment varied from 6.4\% to 36.2\%, generally showing higher contributions from the sub-catchments in the middle, rather than the upstream portions of the study area. The results indicate that river bank erosion generated by existing grazing practices of livestock is the main cause for elevated fine sediment input. Actions towards the protection of the headwaters and the stabilization of the river banks within the middle reaches were identified as the highest priority. Deforestation and by lodging and forest fires should be prevented to avoid increased hillslope erosion in the mountainous areas. Mining activities are of minor importance for the overall catchment sediment load but can constitute locally important point sources for particular heavy metals in the fluvial system.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Zieger2017, author = {Zieger, Tobias}, title = {Self-adaptive data quality}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-410573}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 125}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Carrying out business processes successfully is closely linked to the quality of the data inventory in an organization. Lacks in data quality lead to problems: Incorrect address data prevents (timely) shipments to customers. Erroneous orders lead to returns and thus to unnecessary effort. Wrong pricing forces companies to miss out on revenues or to impair customer satisfaction. If orders or customer records cannot be retrieved, complaint management takes longer. Due to erroneous inventories, too few or too much supplies might be reordered. A special problem with data quality and the reason for many of the issues mentioned above are duplicates in databases. Duplicates are different representations of same real-world objects in a dataset. However, these representations differ from each other and are for that reason hard to match by a computer. Moreover, the number of required comparisons to find those duplicates grows with the square of the dataset size. To cleanse the data, these duplicates must be detected and removed. Duplicate detection is a very laborious process. To achieve satisfactory results, appropriate software must be created and configured (similarity measures, partitioning keys, thresholds, etc.). Both requires much manual effort and experience. This thesis addresses automation of parameter selection for duplicate detection and presents several novel approaches that eliminate the need for human experience in parts of the duplicate detection process. A pre-processing step is introduced that analyzes the datasets in question and classifies their attributes semantically. Not only do these annotations help understanding the respective datasets, but they also facilitate subsequent steps, for example, by selecting appropriate similarity measures or normalizing the data upfront. This approach works without schema information. Following that, we show a partitioning technique that strongly reduces the number of pair comparisons for the duplicate detection process. The approach automatically finds particularly suitable partitioning keys that simultaneously allow for effective and efficient duplicate retrieval. By means of a user study, we demonstrate that this technique finds partitioning keys that outperform expert suggestions and additionally does not need manual configuration. Furthermore, this approach can be applied independently of the attribute types. To measure the success of a duplicate detection process and to execute the described partitioning approach, a gold standard is required that provides information about the actual duplicates in a training dataset. This thesis presents a technique that uses existing duplicate detection results and crowdsourcing to create a near gold standard that can be used for the purposes above. Another part of the thesis describes and evaluates strategies how to reduce these crowdsourcing costs and to achieve a consensus with less effort.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{deSouza2017, author = {de Souza, Laise Rosado}, title = {Metabolic signalling between organelles}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {112}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ghaisari2017, author = {Ghaisari, Sara}, title = {Magnetic anisotropy analysis of magnetic nanoparticles in magnetotactic bacteria}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {115}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bajdzienko2017, author = {Bajdzienko, Krzysztof}, title = {Analysis of Target of Rapamycin (Tor) induced changes of the Arabidopsis thaliana proteome using sub-cellular resolution}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {167}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kubsch2017, author = {Kubsch, Bastian}, title = {Phase-specific fusion between biomembranes using SNARE mimetics}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {95}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gorka2017, author = {G{\´o}rka, Michal Jakub}, title = {Establishing a pipeline for identification of protein- protein interactions using different native fractionation methods}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {109}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{MartinezJaime2017, author = {Mart{\´i}nez Jaime, Silvia}, title = {Towards the understanding of protein function and regulation}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {131}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Yang2017, author = {Yang, Lei}, title = {Verification of systemic mRNAs mobility and mobile functions}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {125}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Foti2017, author = {Foti, Alessandro}, title = {Characterization of the human aldehyde oxidase}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-410107}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {157}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In this work the human AOX1 was characterized and detailed aspects regarding the expression, the enzyme kinetics and the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) were investigated. The hAOX1 is a cytosolic enzyme belonging to the molybdenum hydroxylase family. Its catalytically active form is a homodimer with a molecular weight of 300 kDa. Each monomer (150 kDa) consists of three domains: a N-terminal domain (20 kDa) containing two [2Fe-2S] clusters, a 40 kDa intermediate domain containing a flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), and a C-terminal domain (85 kDa) containing the substrate binding pocket and the molybdenum cofactor (Moco). The hAOX1 has an emerging role in the metabolism and pharmacokinetics of many drugs, especially aldehydes and N- heterocyclic compounds. In this study, the hAOX1 was hetereogously expressed in E. coli TP1000 cells, using a new codon optimized gene sequence which improved the expressed protein yield of around 10-fold compared to the previous expression systems for this enzyme. To increase the catalytic activity of hAOX1, an in vitro chemical sulfuration was performed to favor the insertion of the equatorial sulfido ligand at the Moco with consequent increased enzymatic activity of around 10-fold. Steady-state kinetics and inhibition studies were performed using several substrates, electron acceptors and inhibitors. The recombinant hAOX1 showed higher catalytic activity when molecular oxygen was used as electron acceptor. The highest turn over values were obtained with phenanthridine as substrate. Inhibition studies using thioridazine (phenothiazine family), in combination with structural studies performed in the group of Prof. M.J. Rom{\~a}o, Nova Universidade de Lisboa, showed a new inhibition site located in proximity of the dimerization site of hAOX1. The inhibition mode of thioridazine resulted in a noncompetitive inhibition type. Further inhibition studies with loxapine, a thioridazine-related molecule, showed the same type of inhibition. Additional inhibition studies using DCPIP and raloxifene were carried out. Extensive studies on the FAD active site of the hAOX1 were performed. Twenty new hAOX1 variants were produced and characterized. The hAOX1 variants generated in this work were divided in three groups: I) hAOX1 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) variants; II) XOR- FAD loop hAOX1 variants; III) additional single point hAOX1 variants. The hAOX1 SNP variants G46E, G50D, G346R, R433P, A439E, K1231N showed clear alterations in their catalytic activity, indicating a crucial role of these residues into the FAD active site and in relation to the overall reactivity of hAOX1. Furthermore, residues of the bovine XOR FAD flexible loop (Q423ASRREDDIAK433) were introduced in the hAOX1. FAD loop hAOX1 variants were produced and characterized for their stability and catalytic activity. Especially the variants hAOX1 N436D/A437D/L438I, N436D/A437D/L438I/I440K and Q434R/N436D/A437D/L438I/I440K showed decreased catalytic activity and stability. hAOX1 wild type and variants were tested for reactivity toward NADH but no reaction was observed. Additionally, the hAOX1 wild type and variants were tested for the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Interestingly, one of the SNP variants, hAOX1 L438V, showed a high ratio of superoxide prodction. This result showed a critical role for the residue Leu438 in the mechanism of oxygen radicals formation by hAOX1. Subsequently, further hAOX1 variants having the mutated Leu438 residue were produced. The variants hAOX1 L438A, L438F and L438K showed superoxide overproduction of around 85\%, 65\% and 35\% of the total reducing equivalent obtained from the substrate oxidation. The results of this work show for the first time a characterization of the FAD active site of the hAOX1, revealing the importance of specific residues involved in the generation of ROS and effecting the overall enzymatic activity of hAOX1. The hAOX1 SNP variants presented here indicate that those allelic variations in humans might cause alterations ROS balancing and clearance of drugs in humans.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Firkala2017, author = {Firkala, Tam{\´a}s}, title = {Investigation of nanoparticle-molecule interactions and pharmaceutical model formulations by means of surface enhanced raman spectroscopy}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {118}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Pedeches2017, author = {P{\´e}d{\`e}ches, Laure}, title = {Stochastic models for collective motions of populations}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-405491}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {187}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Stochastisches Modell f{\"u}r kollektive Bewegung von Populationen In dieser Doktorarbeit befassen wir uns mit stochastischen Systemen, die eines der mysteri{\"o}sesten biologischen Ph{\"a}nomene als Modell darstellen: die kollektive Bewegung von Gemeinschaften. Diese werden bei V{\"o}gel- und Fischschw{\"a}rmen, aber auch bei manchen Bakterien, Viehherden oder gar bei Menschen beobachtet. Dieser Verhaltenstyp spielt ebenfalls in anderen Bereichen wie Finanzwesen, Linguistik oder auch Robotik eine Rolle. Wir nehmen uns der Dynamik einer Gruppe von N Individuen, insbesondere zweier asymptotischen Verhaltenstypen an. Einerseits befassen wir uns mit den Eigenschaften der Ergodizit{\"a}t in Langzeit: Existenz einer invarianten Wahrscheinlichkeitsverteilung durch Ljapunow-Funktionen, und Konvergenzrate der {\"U}bergangshalbgruppe gegen diese Wahrscheinlichkeit. Eine ebenfalls zentrale Thematik unserer Forschung ist der Begriff Flocking: es wird damit definiert, dass eine Gruppe von Individuen einen dynamischen Konsens ohne hierarchische Struktur erreichen kann; mathematisch gesehen entspricht dies der Aneinanderreihung der Geschwindigkeiten und dem Zusammenkommen des Schwarmes. Andererseits gehen wir das Ph{\"a}nomen der "Propagation of Chaos" an, wenn die Anzahl N der Teilchen ins Unendliche tendiert: die Bewegungen der jeweiligen Individuen werden asymptotisch unabh{\"a}ngig. Unser Ausgangspunkt ist das Cucker-Smale-Modell, ein deterministisches kinetisches Molekular-Modell f{\"u}r eine Gruppe ohne hierarchische Struktur. Die Wechselwirkung zwischen zwei Teilchen variiert gem{\"a}ß deren "Kommunikationsrate", die wiederum von deren relativen Entfernung abh{\"a}ngt und polynomisch abnimmt. Im ersten Kapitel adressieren wir das asymptotische Verhalten eines Cucker-Smale-Modells mit Rauschst{\"o}rung und dessen Varianten. Kapitel 2 stellt mehrere Definitionen des Flockings in einem Zufallsrahmen dar: diverse stochastische Systeme, die verschiedenen Rauschformen entsprechen (die eine gest{\"o}rte Umgebung, den "freien Willen" des jeweiligen Individuums oder eine unterbrochene {\"U}bertragung suggerieren) werden im Zusammenhang mit diesen Begriffen unter die Lupe genommen. Das dritte Kapitel basiert auf der "Cluster Expansion"-Methode aus der statistischen Mechanik. Wir beweisen die exponentielle Ergodizit{\"a}t von gewissen nicht-Markow-Prozessen mit nicht-glattem Drift und wenden diese Ergebnisse auf St{\"o}rungen des Ornstein-Uhlenbeck-Prozesses an. Im letzten Teil, nehmen wir uns der zweidimensionalen parabolisch-elliptischen Gleichung von Keller-Segel an. Wir beweisen die Existenz einer L{\"o}sung, welche in gewisser Hinsicht einzig ist, indem wir, mittels Vergleich mit Bessel-Prozessen und der Dirichlet Formtheorie, m{\"o}gliche Stoßtypen zwischen den Teilchen ermitteln.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Graja2017, author = {Graja, Antonia}, title = {Aging-related changes of progenitor cell function and microenvironment impair brown adipose tissue regeneration}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {152}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Richter2017, author = {Richter, Nicole}, title = {Investigating hazards and the evolution of volcanic landscapes by means of terrestrial and satellite remote sensing data and modelling}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {169}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sachse2017, author = {Sachse, Manuel}, title = {Dynamics and distribution of dust ejected from the Galilean moons of Jupiter}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {105}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{DiezCocero2017, author = {Diez Cocero, Mercedes}, title = {Analysis of Rubisco - carbonic anhydrase fusions in tobacco as an approach to reduce photorespiration}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {116}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Belkius2017, author = {Belkius, Karolina Dorota}, title = {Systems biology approach to investigate the development and degradation of the photosynthetic apparatus during leaf ontogenesis in higher plants}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {121}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Muldashev2017, author = {Muldashev, Iskander}, title = {Modeling of the great earthquake seismic cycles}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-398926}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xii, 117}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The timing and location of the two largest earthquakes of the 21st century (Sumatra, 2004 and Tohoku 2011, events) greatly surprised the scientific community, indicating that the deformation processes that precede and follow great megathrust earthquakes remain enigmatic. During these phases before and after the earthquake a combination of multi-scale complex processes are acting simultaneously: Stresses built up by long-term tectonic motions are modified by sudden jerky deformations during earthquakes, before being restored by multiple ensuing relaxation processes. This thesis details a cross-scale thermomechanical model developed with the aim of simulating the entire subduction process from earthquake (1 minute) to million years' time scale, excluding only rupture propagation. The model employs elasticity, non-linear transient viscous rheology, and rate-and-state friction. It generates spontaneous earthquake sequences, and, by using an adaptive time-step algorithm, recreates the deformation process as observed naturally over single and multiple seismic cycles. The model is thoroughly tested by comparing results to those from known high- resolution solutions of generic modeling setups widely used in modeling of rupture propagation. It is demonstrated, that while not modeling rupture propagation explicitly, the modeling procedure correctly recognizes the appearance of instability (earthquake) and correctly simulates the cumulative slip at a fault during great earthquake by means of a quasi-dynamic approximation. A set of 2D models is used to study the effects of non-linear transient rheology on the postseismic processes following great earthquakes. Our models predict that the viscosity in the mantle wedge drops by 3 to 4 orders of magnitude during a great earthquake with magnitude above 9. This drop in viscosity results in spatial scales and timings of the relaxation processes following the earthquakes that are significantly different to previous estimates. These models replicate centuries long seismic cycles exhibited by the greatest earthquakes (like the Great Chile 1960 Earthquake) and are consistent with the major features of postseismic surface displacements recorded after the Great Tohoku Earthquake. The 2D models are also applied to study key factors controlling maximum magnitudes of earthquakes in subduction zones. Even though methods of instrumentally observing earthquakes at subduction zones have rapidly improved in recent decades, the characteristic recurrence interval of giant earthquakes (Mw>8.5) is much larger than the currently available observational record and therefore the necessary conditions for giant earthquakes are not clear. Statistical studies have recognized the importance of the slab shape and its surface roughness, state of the strain of the upper plate and thickness of sediments filling the trenches. In this thesis we attempt to explain these observations and to identify key controlling parameters. We test a set of 2D models representing great earthquake seismic cycles at known subduction zones with various known geometries, megathrust friction coefficients, and convergence rates implemented. We found that low-angle subduction (large effect) and thick sediments in the subduction channel (smaller effect) are the fundamental necessary conditions for generating giant earthquakes, while the change of subduction velocity from 10 to 3.5 cm/yr has a lower effect. Modeling results also suggest that having thick sediments in the subduction channel causes low static friction, resulting in neutral or slightly compressive deformation in the overriding plate for low-angle subduction zones. These modeling results agree well with observations for the largest earthquakes. The model predicts the largest possible earthquakes for subduction zones of given dipping angles. The predicted maximum magnitudes exactly threshold magnitudes of all known giant earthquakes of 20th and 21st centuries. The clear limitation of most of the models developed in the thesis is their 2D nature. Development of 3D models with comparable resolution and complexity will require significant advances in numerical techniques. Nevertheless, we conducted a series of low-resolution 3D models to study the interaction between two large asperities at a subduction interface separated by an aseismic gap of varying width. The novelty of the model is that it considers behavior of the asperities during multiple seismic cycles. As expected, models show that an aseismic gap with a narrow width could not prevent rupture propagation from one asperity to another, and that rupture always crosses the entire model. When the gap becomes too wide, asperities do not interact anymore and rupture independently. However, an interesting mode of interaction was observed in the model with an intermediate width of the aseismic gap: In this model the asperities began to stably rupture in anti-phase following multiple seismic cycles. These 3D modeling results, while insightful, must be considered preliminary because of the limitations in resolution. The technique developed in this thesis for cross-scale modeling of seismic cycles can be used to study the effects of multiple seismic cycles on the long-term deformation of the upper plate. The technique can be also extended to the case of continental transform faults and for the advanced 3D modeling of specific subduction zones. This will require further development of numerical techniques and adaptation of the existing advanced highly scalable parallel codes like LAMEM and ASPECT.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{KianiAlibagheri2017, author = {Kiani Alibagheri, Bahareh}, title = {On structural properties of magnetosome chains}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-398849}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XIV, 117}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Magnetotaktische Bakterien besitzen eine intrazellul{\"a}re Struktur, die Magnetosomenkette genannt wird. Magnetosomenketten enthalten Nanopartikel von Eisenkristallen, die von einer Membran umschlossen und entlang eines Zytoskelettfilaments ausgerichtet sind. Dank der Magnetosomenkette ist es magnetotaktischen Bakterien m{\"o}glich sich in Magnetfeldern auszurichten und entlang magnetischer Feldlinien zu schwimmen. Die ausf{\"u}hrliche Untersuchung der strukturellen Eigenschaften der Magnetosomenkette in magnetotaktischen Bakterien sind von grundlegendem wissenschaftlichen Interesse, weil sie Einblicke in die Anordnung des Zytoskeletts von Bakterien erlauben. In dieser Studie haben wir ein neues theoretisches Modell entwickelt, dass sich dazu eignet, die strukturellen Eigenschaften der Magnetosomenketten in magnetotaktischen Bakterien zu erforschen. Zuerst wenden wir uns der Biegesteifigkeit von Magnetosomenketten zu, die von zwei Faktoren beeinflusst wird: Die magnetische Wechselwirkung der Magnetosomenpartikel und der Biegesteifigkeit des Zytoskelettfilaments auf welchem die Magnetosome verankert sind. Unsere Analyse zeigt, dass sich die lineare Konfiguration von Magnetosomenpartikeln ohne die Stabilisierung durch das Zytoskelett zu einer ring{\"o}rmigen Struktur biegen w{\"u}rde, die kein magnetisches Moment aufweist und daher nicht die Funktion eines Kompass in der zellul{\"a}ren Navigation einnehmen k{\"o}nnte. Wir schlussfolgern, dass das Zytoskelettfilament eine stabilisierende Wirkung auf die lineare Konfiguration hat und eine ringf{\"o}rmige Anordnung verhindert. Wir untersuchen weiter die Gleichgewichtskonfiguration der Magnetosomenpartikel in einer linearen Kette und in einer geschlossenen ringf{\"o}rmigen Struktur. Dabei beobachteten wir ebenfalls, dass f{\"u}r eine stabile lineare Anordnung eine Bindung an ein Zytoskelettfilament notwendig ist. In einem externen magnetischen Feld wird die Stabilit{\"a}t der Magnetosomenketten durch die Dipol-Dipol-Wechselwirkung, {\"u}ber die Steifheit und die Bindungsenergie der Proteinstruktur, die die Partikel des Magnetosomen mit dem Filament verbinden, erreicht. Durch Beobachtungen w{\"a}hrend und nach der Behandlung einer Magnetosomenkette mit einem externen magnetischen Feld, l{\"a}sst sich begr{\"u}nden, dass die Stabilisierung von Magnetosomenketten durch Zytoskelettfilamente {\"u}ber proteinhaltige Bindeglieder und die dynamischen Eigenschaften dieser Strukturen realisiert wird. Abschließend wenden wir unser Modell bei der Untersuchung von ferromagnetischen Resonanz-Spektren von Magnetosomenketten in einzelnen Zellen von magnetotaktischen Bakterien an. Wir erforschen den Effekt der magnetokristallinen Anistropie in ihrer dreifach-Symmetrie, die in ferromagnetischen Ressonanz Spektren beobachtet wurden und die Besonderheit von verschiedenen Spektren, die bei Mutanten dieser Bakterien auftreten.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hendriyana2017, author = {Hendriyana, Andri}, title = {Detection and Kirchhoff-type migration of seismic events by use of a new characteristic function}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-398879}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {v, 139}, year = {2017}, abstract = {The classical method of seismic event localization is based on the picking of body wave arrivals, ray tracing and inversion of travel time data. Travel time picks with small uncertainties are required to produce reliable and accurate results with this kind of source localization. Hence recordings, with a low Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) cannot be used in a travel time based inversion. Low SNR can be related with weak signals from distant and/or low magnitude sources as well as with a high level of ambient noise. Diffraction stacking is considered as an alternative seismic event localization method that enables also the processing of low SNR recordings by mean of stacking the amplitudes of seismograms along a travel time function. The location of seismic event and its origin time are determined based on the highest stacked amplitudes (coherency) of the image function. The method promotes an automatic processing since it does not need travel time picks as input data. However, applying diffraction stacking may require longer computation times if only limited computer resources are used. Furthermore, a simple diffraction stacking of recorded amplitudes could possibly fail to locate the seismic sources if the focal mechanism leads to complex radiation patterns which typically holds for both natural and induced seismicity. In my PhD project, I have developed a new work flow for the localization of seismic events which is based on a diffraction stacking approach. A parallelized code was implemented for the calculation of travel time tables and for the determination of an image function to reduce computation time. In order to address the effects from complex source radiation patterns, I also suggest to compute diffraction stacking from a characteristic function (CF) instead of stacking the original wave form data. A new CF, which is called in the following mAIC (modified from Akaike Information Criterion) is proposed. I demonstrate that, the performance of the mAIC does not depend on the chosen length of the analyzed time window and that both P- and S-wave onsets can be detected accurately. To avoid cross-talk between P- and S-waves due to inaccurate velocity models, I separate the P- and S-waves from the mAIC function by making use of polarization attributes. Then, eventually the final image function is represented by the largest eigenvalue as a result of the covariance analysis between P- and S-image functions. Before applying diffraction stacking, I also apply seismogram denoising by using Otsu thresholding in the time-frequency domain. Results from synthetic experiments show that the proposed diffraction stacking provides reliable results even from seismograms with low SNR=1. Tests with different presentations of the synthetic seismograms (displacement, velocity, and acceleration) shown that, acceleration seismograms deliver better results in case of high SNR, whereas displacement seismograms provide more accurate results in case of low SNR recordings. In another test, different measures (maximum amplitude, other statistical parameters) were used to determine the source location in the final image function. I found that the statistical approach is the preferred method particularly for low SNR. The work flow of my diffraction stacking method was finally applied to local earthquake data from Sumatra, Indonesia. Recordings from a temporary network of 42 stations deployed for 9 months around the Tarutung pull-apart Basin were analyzed. The seismic event locations resulting from the diffraction stacking method align along a segment of the Sumatran Fault. A more complex distribution of seismicity is imaged within and around the Tarutung Basin. Two lineaments striking N-S were found in the middle of the Tarutung Basin which support independent results from structural geology. These features are interpreted as opening fractures due to local extension. A cluster of seismic events repeatedly occurred in short time which might be related to fluid drainage since two hot springs are observed at the surface near to this cluster.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{LorenteSanchez2017, author = {Lorente S{\´a}nchez, Alejandro Jose}, title = {Synthesis of side-chain polystyrenes for all organic solution processed OLEDs}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-398006}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiv, 131}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In the present work side-chain polystyrenes were synthesized and characterized, in order to be applied in multilayer OLEDs fabricated by solution process techniques. Manufacture of optoelectronic devices by solution process techniques is meant to decrease significantly fabrication cost and allow large scale production of such devices. This dissertation focusses in three series, enveloped in two material classes. The two classes differ to each other in the type of charge transport exhibited, either ambipolar transport or electron transport. All materials were applied in all-organic solution processed green Ir-based devices. In the first part, a series of ambipolar host materials were developed to transport both charge types, holes and electrons, and be applied especially as matrix for green Ir-based emitters. It was possible to increase devices efficacy by modulating the predominant charge transport type. This was achieved by modification of molecules electron transport part with more electron-deficient heterocycles or by extending the delocalization of the LUMO. Efficiencies up to 28.9 cd/A were observed for all-organic solution-process three layer devices. In the second part, suitability of triarylboranes and tetraphenylsilanes as electron transport materials was studied. High triplet energies were obtained, up to 2.95 eV, by rational combination of both molecular structures. Although the combination of both elements had a low effect in materials electron transport properties, high efficiencies around 24 cd/A were obtained for the series in all-organic solution-processed two layer devices. In the last part, benzene and pyridine were chosen as the series electron-transport motif. By controlling the relative pyridine content (RPC) solubility into methanol was induced for polystyrenes with bulky side-chains. Materials with RPC ≥ 0.5 could be deposited orthogonally from solution without harming underlying layers. From the best of our knowledge, this is the first time such materials are applied in this architecture showing moderate efficiencies around 10 cd/A in all-organic solution processed OLEDs. Overall, the outcome of these studies will actively contribute to the current research on materials for all-solution processed OLEDs.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Zeng2017, author = {Zeng, Ting}, title = {Nanoparticles promoted biocatalysis}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {99}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Salzer2017, author = {Salzer, Jacqueline T.}, title = {Volcano dome deformation processes analysed with high resolution InSAR and camera-based techniques}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {137}, year = {2017}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Dippel2017, author = {Dippel, Sandor}, title = {Development of functional hydrogels for sensor applications}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-398252}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {127}, year = {2017}, abstract = {In this work, a sensor system based on thermoresponsive materials is developed by utilizing a modular approach. By synthesizing three different key monomers containing either a carboxyl, alkene or alkyne end group connected with a spacer to the methacrylic polymerizable unit, a flexible copolymerization strategy has been set up with oligo ethylene glycol methacrylates. This allows to tune the lower critical solution temperature (LCST) of the polymers in aqueous media. The molar masses are variable thanks to the excurse taken in polymerization in ionic liquids thus stretching molar masses from 25 to over 1000 kDa. The systems that were shown shown to be effective in aqueous solution could be immobilized on surfaces by copolymerizing photo crosslinkable units. The immobilized systems were formulated to give different layer thicknesses, swelling ratios and mesh sizes depending on the demand of the coupling reaction. The coupling of detector units or model molecules is approached via reactions of the click chemistry pool, and the reactions are evaluated on their efficiency under those aspects, too. These coupling reactions are followed by surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (SPR) to judge efficiency. With these tools at hand, Salmonella saccharides could be selectively detected by SPR. Influenza viruses were detected in solution by turbidimetry in solution as well as by a copolymerized solvatochromic dye to track binding via the changes of the polymers' fluorescence by said binding event. This effect could also be achieved by utilizing the thermoresponsive behavior. Another demonstrator consists of the detection system bound to a quartz surface, thus allowing the virus detection on a solid carrier. The experiments show the great potential of combining the concepts of thermoresponsive materials and click chemistry to develop technically simple sensors for large biomolecules and viruses.}, language = {en} }