@phdthesis{Reinhardt2022, author = {Reinhardt, Susanne}, title = {Assessing interactional competence}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-61942}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-619423}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {304}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The development of speaking competence is widely regarded as a central aspect of second language (L2) learning. It may be questioned, however, if the currently predominant ways of conceptualising the term fully satisfy the complexity of the construct: Although there is growing recognition that language primarily constitutes a tool for communication and participation in social life, as yet it is rare for conceptualisations of speaking competence to incorporate the ability to inter-act and co-construct meaning with co-participants. Accordingly, skills allowing for the successful accomplishment of interactional tasks (such as orderly speaker change, and resolving hearing and understanding trouble) also remain largely unrepresented in language teaching and assessment. As fostering the ability to successfully use the L2 within social interaction should arguably be a main objective of language teaching, it appears pertinent to broaden the construct of speaking competence by incorporating interactional competence (IC). Despite there being a growing research interest in the conceptualisation and development of (L2) IC, much of the materials and instruments required for its teaching and assessment, and thus for fostering a broader understanding of speaking competence in the L2 classroom, still await development. This book introduces an approach to the identification of candidate criterial features for the assessment of EFL learners' L2 repair skills. Based on a corpus of video-recorded interaction between EFL learners, and following conversation-analytic and interactional-linguistic methodology as well as drawing on basic premises of research in the framework of Conversation Analysis for Second Language Acquisition, differences between (groups of) learners in terms of their L2 repair conduct are investigated through qualitative and inductive analyses. Candidate criterial features are derived from the analysis results. This book does not only contribute to the operationalisation of L2 IC (and of L2 repair skills in particular), but also lays groundwork for the construction of assessment scales and rubrics geared towards the evaluation of EFL learners' L2 interactional skills.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jain2022, author = {Jain, Nitisha}, title = {Representation and curation of knowledge graphs with embeddings}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-61224}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-612240}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ii, 104}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Knowledge graphs are structured repositories of knowledge that store facts about the general world or a particular domain in terms of entities and their relationships. Owing to the heterogeneity of use cases that are served by them, there arises a need for the automated construction of domain- specific knowledge graphs from texts. While there have been many research efforts towards open information extraction for automated knowledge graph construction, these techniques do not perform well in domain-specific settings. Furthermore, regardless of whether they are constructed automatically from specific texts or based on real-world facts that are constantly evolving, all knowledge graphs inherently suffer from incompleteness as well as errors in the information they hold. This thesis investigates the challenges encountered during knowledge graph construction and proposes techniques for their curation (a.k.a. refinement) including the correction of semantic ambiguities and the completion of missing facts. Firstly, we leverage existing approaches for the automatic construction of a knowledge graph in the art domain with open information extraction techniques and analyse their limitations. In particular, we focus on the challenging task of named entity recognition for artwork titles and show empirical evidence of performance improvement with our proposed solution for the generation of annotated training data. Towards the curation of existing knowledge graphs, we identify the issue of polysemous relations that represent different semantics based on the context. Having concrete semantics for relations is important for downstream appli- cations (e.g. question answering) that are supported by knowledge graphs. Therefore, we define the novel task of finding fine-grained relation semantics in knowledge graphs and propose FineGReS, a data-driven technique that discovers potential sub-relations with fine-grained meaning from existing pol- ysemous relations. We leverage knowledge representation learning methods that generate low-dimensional vectors (or embeddings) for knowledge graphs to capture their semantics and structure. The efficacy and utility of the proposed technique are demonstrated by comparing it with several baselines on the entity classification use case. Further, we explore the semantic representations in knowledge graph embed- ding models. In the past decade, these models have shown state-of-the-art results for the task of link prediction in the context of knowledge graph comple- tion. In view of the popularity and widespread application of the embedding techniques not only for link prediction but also for different semantic tasks, this thesis presents a critical analysis of the embeddings by quantitatively measuring their semantic capabilities. We investigate and discuss the reasons for the shortcomings of embeddings in terms of the characteristics of the underlying knowledge graph datasets and the training techniques used by popular models. Following up on this, we propose ReasonKGE, a novel method for generating semantically enriched knowledge graph embeddings by taking into account the semantics of the facts that are encapsulated by an ontology accompanying the knowledge graph. With a targeted, reasoning-based method for generating negative samples during the training of the models, ReasonKGE is able to not only enhance the link prediction performance, but also reduce the number of semantically inconsistent predictions made by the resultant embeddings, thus improving the quality of knowledge graphs.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ziemann2022, author = {Ziemann, Niklas}, title = {Four essays on the role of distance for economic decision-making}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-59107}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-591073}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xii, 128}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Distances affect economic decision-making in numerous situations. The time at which we make a decision about future consumption has an impact on our consumption behavior. The spatial distance to employer, school or university impacts the place where we live and vice versa. The emotional closeness to other individuals influences our willingness to give money to them. This cumulative thesis aims to enrich the literature on the role of distance for economic decision-making. Thereby, each of my research projects sheds light on the impact of one kind of distance for efficient decision-making.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schlemm2022, author = {Schlemm, Tanja}, title = {The marine ice cliff instability of the Antarctic ice sheet}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58633}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-586333}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {107}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The Antarctic ice sheet is the largest freshwater reservoir worldwide. If it were to melt completely, global sea levels would rise by about 58 m. Calculation of projections of the Antarctic contribution to sea level rise under global warming conditions is an ongoing effort which yields large ranges in predictions. Among the reasons for this are uncertainties related to the physics of ice sheet modeling. These uncertainties include two processes that could lead to runaway ice retreat: the Marine Ice Sheet Instability (MISI), which causes rapid grounding line retreat on retrograde bedrock, and the Marine Ice Cliff Instability (MICI), in which tall ice cliffs become unstable and calve off, exposing even taller ice cliffs. In my thesis, I investigated both marine instabilities (MISI and MICI) using the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM), with a focus on MICI.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Gerling2022, author = {Gerling, Marten Tobias}, title = {A microfluidic system for high-precision image-based live cell sorting using dielectrophoretic forces}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58742}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-587421}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 87, VI}, year = {2022}, abstract = {An important goal in biotechnology and (bio-) medical research is the isolation of single cells from a heterogeneous cell population. These specialised cells are of great interest for bioproduction, diagnostics, drug development, (cancer) therapy and research. To tackle emerging questions, an ever finer differentiation between target cells and non-target cells is required. This precise differentiation is a challenge for a growing number of available methods. Since the physiological properties of the cells are closely linked to their morphology, it is beneficial to include their appearance in the sorting decision. For established methods, this represents a non addressable parameter, requiring new methods for the identification and isolation of target cells. Consequently, a variety of new flow-based methods have been developed and presented in recent years utilising 2D imaging data to identify target cells within a sample. As these methods aim for high throughput, the devices developed typically require highly complex fluid handling techniques, making them expensive while offering limited image quality. In this work, a new continuous flow system for image-based cell sorting was developed that uses dielectrophoresis to precisely handle cells in a microchannel. Dielectrophoretic forces are exerted by inhomogeneous alternating electric fields on polarisable particles (here: cells). In the present system, the electric fields can be switched on and off precisely and quickly by a signal generator. In addition to the resulting simple and effective cell handling, the system is characterised by the outstanding quality of the image data generated and its compatibility with standard microscopes. These aspects result in low complexity, making it both affordable and user-friendly. With the developed cell sorting system, cells could be sorted reliably and efficiently according to their cytosolic staining as well as morphological properties at different optical magnifications. The achieved purity of the target cell population was up to 95\% and about 85\% of the sorted cells could be recovered from the system. Good agreement was achieved between the results obtained and theoretical considerations. The achieved throughput of the system was up to 12,000 cells per hour. Cell viability studies indicated a high biocompatibility of the system. The results presented demonstrate the potential of image-based cell sorting using dielectrophoresis. The outstanding image quality and highly precise yet gentle handling of the cells set the system apart from other technologies. This results in enormous potential for processing valuable and sensitive cell samples.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Boeken2022, author = {B{\"o}ken, Bj{\"o}rn}, title = {Improving prediction accuracy using dynamic information}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58512}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-585125}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xii, 160}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Accurately solving classification problems nowadays is likely to be the most relevant machine learning task. Binary classification separating two classes only is algorithmically simpler but has fewer potential applications as many real-world problems are multi-class. On the reverse, separating only a subset of classes simplifies the classification task. Even though existing multi-class machine learning algorithms are very flexible regarding the number of classes, they assume that the target set Y is fixed and cannot be restricted once the training is finished. On the other hand, existing state-of-the-art production environments are becoming increasingly interconnected with the advance of Industry 4.0 and related technologies such that additional information can simplify the respective classification problems. In light of this, the main aim of this thesis is to introduce dynamic classification that generalizes multi-class classification such that the target class set can be restricted arbitrarily to a non-empty class subset M of Y at any time between two consecutive predictions. This task is solved by a combination of two algorithmic approaches. First, classifier calibration, which transforms predictions into posterior probability estimates that are intended to be well calibrated. The analysis provided focuses on monotonic calibration and in particular corrects wrong statements that appeared in the literature. It also reveals that bin-based evaluation metrics, which became popular in recent years, are unjustified and should not be used at all. Next, the validity of Platt scaling, which is the most relevant parametric calibration approach, is analyzed in depth. In particular, its optimality for classifier predictions distributed according to four different families of probability distributions as well its equivalence with Beta calibration up to a sigmoidal preprocessing are proven. For non-monotonic calibration, extended variants on kernel density estimation and the ensemble method EKDE are introduced. Finally, the calibration techniques are evaluated using a simulation study with complete information as well as on a selection of 46 real-world data sets. Building on this, classifier calibration is applied as part of decomposition-based classification that aims to reduce multi-class problems to simpler (usually binary) prediction tasks. For the involved fusing step performed at prediction time, a new approach based on evidence theory is presented that uses classifier calibration to model mass functions. This allows the analysis of decomposition-based classification against a strictly formal background and to prove closed-form equations for the overall combinations. Furthermore, the same formalism leads to a consistent integration of dynamic class information, yielding a theoretically justified and computationally tractable dynamic classification model. The insights gained from this modeling are combined with pairwise coupling, which is one of the most relevant reduction-based classification approaches, such that all individual predictions are combined with a weight. This not only generalizes existing works on pairwise coupling but also enables the integration of dynamic class information. Lastly, a thorough empirical study is performed that compares all newly introduced approaches to existing state-of-the-art techniques. For this, evaluation metrics for dynamic classification are introduced that depend on corresponding sampling strategies. Thereafter, these are applied during a three-part evaluation. First, support vector machines and random forests are applied on 26 data sets from the UCI Machine Learning Repository. Second, two state-of-the-art deep neural networks are evaluated on five benchmark data sets from a relatively recent reference work. Here, computationally feasible strategies to apply the presented algorithms in combination with large-scale models are particularly relevant because a naive application is computationally intractable. Finally, reference data from a real-world process allowing the inclusion of dynamic class information are collected and evaluated. The results show that in combination with support vector machines and random forests, pairwise coupling approaches yield the best results, while in combination with deep neural networks, differences between the different approaches are mostly small to negligible. Most importantly, all results empirically confirm that dynamic classification succeeds in improving the respective prediction accuracies. Therefore, it is crucial to pass dynamic class information in respective applications, which requires an appropriate digital infrastructure.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schrauth2022, author = {Schrauth, Philipp}, title = {Agglomerations, air quality and urban transformation}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58608}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-586087}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {253}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Die vorliegende Dissertation stellt empirische Untersuchungen {\"u}ber den Zusammenhang von st{\"a}dtischem Leben und dessen {\"o}konomische Kosten, insbesondere f{\"u}r die Umwelt, an. Dabei werden zum einen bestehende Forschungsl{\"u}cken des Einflusses von Bev{\"o}lkerungsdichte auf die Luftqualit{\"a}t geschlossen und zum anderen innovative Politikmaßnahmen im Verkehrsbereich untersucht, die Ballungsr{\"a}ume nachhaltiger gestalten sollen. Im Zentrum der Betrachtungen stehen Luftverschmutzung, Staus und Verkehrsunf{\"a}lle, die f{\"u}r Fragen der allgemeinen Wohlfahrt bedeutend sind und erhebliche Kostenfaktoren f{\"u}r urbanes Leben darstellen. Von ihnen ist ein betr{\"a}chtlicher Anteil der Weltbev{\"o}lkerung betroffen. W{\"a}hrend im Jahr 2018 bereits 55\% der Menschen weltweit in St{\"a}dten lebten, soll dieser Anteil bis zum Jahr 2050 ungef{\"a}hr 68\% betragen. Die vier in sich geschlossenen Kapitel dieser Arbeit lassen sich in zwei Abschnitte aufteilen: In den Kapiteln 2 und 3 werden neue kausale Erkenntnisse {\"u}ber das komplexe Zusammenspiel von st{\"a}dtischen Strukturen und Luftverschmutzung erbracht. Kapitel 4 und 5 untersuchen anschließend politische Maßnahmen zur F{\"o}rderung nicht-motorisierter Verkehrsmittel und deren Einfluss auf Luftqualit{\"a}t sowie Staugeschehen und Verkehrsunf{\"a}lle.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Galetzka2022, author = {Galetzka, Fabian}, title = {Investigating and improving background context consistency in neural conversation models}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58463}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-584637}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 173}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Neural conversation models aim to predict appropriate contributions to a (given) conversation by using neural networks trained on dialogue data. A specific strand focuses on non-goal driven dialogues, first proposed by Ritter et al. (2011): They investigated the task of transforming an utterance into an appropriate reply. Then, this strand evolved into dialogue system approaches using long dialogue histories and additional background context. Contributing meaningful and appropriate to a conversation is a complex task, and therefore research in this area has been very diverse: Serban et al. (2016), for example, looked into utilizing variable length dialogue histories, Zhang et al. (2018) added additional context to the dialogue history, Wolf et al. (2019) proposed a model based on pre-trained Self-Attention neural networks (Vasvani et al., 2017), and Dinan et al. (2021) investigated safety issues of these approaches. This trend can be seen as a transformation from trying to somehow carry on a conversation to generating appropriate replies in a controlled and reliable way. In this thesis, we first elaborate the meaning of appropriateness in the context of neural conversation models by drawing inspiration from the Cooperative Principle (Grice, 1975). We first define what an appropriate contribution has to be by operationalizing these maxims as demands on conversation models: being fluent, informative, consistent towards given context, coherent and following a social norm. Then, we identify different targets (or intervention points) to achieve the conversational appropriateness by investigating recent research in that field. In this thesis, we investigate the aspect of consistency towards context in greater detail, being one aspect of our interpretation of appropriateness. During the research, we developed a new context-based dialogue dataset (KOMODIS) that combines factual and opinionated context to dialogues. The KOMODIS dataset is publicly available and we use the data in this thesis to gather new insights in context-augmented dialogue generation. We further introduced a new way of encoding context within Self-Attention based neural networks. For that, we elaborate the issue of space complexity from knowledge graphs, and propose a concise encoding strategy for structured context inspired from graph neural networks (Gilmer et al., 2017) to reduce the space complexity of the additional context. We discuss limitations of context-augmentation for neural conversation models, explore the characteristics of knowledge graphs, and explain how we create and augment knowledge graphs for our experiments. Lastly, we analyzed the potential of reinforcement and transfer learning to improve context-consistency for neural conversation models. We find that current reward functions need to be more precise to enable the potential of reinforcement learning, and that sequential transfer learning can improve the subjective quality of generated dialogues.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Pellegrino2022, author = {Pellegrino, Antonio}, title = {miRNA profiling for diagnosis of chronic pain in polyneuropathy}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-58385}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-583858}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 97, xi}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This dissertation aimed to determine differential expressed miRNAs in the context of chronic pain in polyneuropathy. For this purpose, patients with chronic painful polyneuropathy were compared with age matched healthy patients. Taken together, all miRNA pre library preparation quality controls were successful and none of the samples was identified as an outlier or excluded for library preparation. Pre sequencing quality control showed that library preparation worked for all samples as well as that all samples were free of adapter dimers after BluePippin size selection and reached the minimum molarity for further processing. Thus, all samples were subjected to sequencing. The sequencing control parameters were in their optimal range and resulted in valid sequencing results with strong sample to sample correlation for all samples. The resulting FASTQ file of each miRNA library was analyzed and used to perform a differential expression analysis. The differentially expressed and filtered miRNAs were subjected to miRDB to perform a target prediction. Three of those four miRNAs were downregulated: hsa-miR-3135b, hsa-miR-584-5p and hsa-miR-12136, while one was upregulated: hsa-miR-550a-3p. miRNA target prediction showed that chronic pain in polyneuropathy might be the result of a combination of miRNA mediated high blood flow/pressure and neural activity dysregulations/disbalances. Thus, leading to the promising conclusion that these four miRNAs could serve as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis of chronic pain in polyneuropathy. Since TRPV1 seems to be one of the major contributors of nociception and is associated with neuropathic pain, the influence of PKA phosphorylated ARMS on the sensitivity of TRPV1 as well as the part of AKAP79 during PKA phosphorylation of ARMS was characterized. Therefore, possible PKA-sites in the sequence of ARMS were identified. This revealed five canonical PKA-sites: S882, T903, S1251/52, S1439/40 and S1526/27. The single PKA-site mutants of ARMS revealed that PKA-mediated ARMS phosphorylation seems not to influence the interaction rate of TRPV1/ARMS. While phosphorylation of ARMST903 does not increase the interaction rate with TRPV1, ARMSS1526/27 is probably not phosphorylated and leads to an increased interaction rate. The calcium flux measurements indicated that the higher the interaction rate of TRPV1/ARMS, the lower the EC50 for capsaicin of TRPV1, independent of the PKA phosphorylation status of ARMS. In addition, the western blot analysis confirmed the previously observed TRPV1/ARMS interaction. More importantly, AKAP79 seems to be involved in the TRPV1/ARMS/PKA signaling complex. To overcome the problem of ARMS-mediated TRPV1 sensitization by interaction, ARMS was silenced by shRNA. ARMS silencing resulted in a restored TRPV1 desensitization without affecting the TRPV1 expression and therefore could be used as new topical therapeutic analgesic alternative to stop ARMS mediated TRPV1 sensitization.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mayer2022, author = {Mayer, Dennis}, title = {Time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy of 2-thiouracil}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57163}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571636}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiv, 169}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In this thesis, I present my contributions to the field of ultrafast molecular spectroscopy. Using the molecule 2-thiouracil as an example, I use ultrashort x-ray pulses from free- electron lasers to study the relaxation dynamics of gas-phase molecular samples. Taking advantage of the x-ray typical element- and site-selectivity, I investigate the charge flow and geometrical changes in the excited states of 2-thiouracil. In order to understand the photoinduced dynamics of molecules, knowledge about the ground-state structure and the relaxation after photoexcitation is crucial. Therefore, a part of this thesis covers the electronic ground-state spectroscopy of mainly 2-thiouracil to provide the basis for the time-resolved experiments. Many of the previously published studies that focused on the gas-phase time-resolved dynamics of thionated uracils after UV excitation relied on information from solution phase spectroscopy to determine the excitation energies. This is not an optimal strategy as solvents alter the absorption spec- trum and, hence, there is no guarantee that liquid-phase spectra resemble the gas-phase spectra. Therefore, I measured the UV-absorption spectra of all three thionated uracils to provide a gas-phase reference and, in combination with calculations, we determined the excited states involved in the transitions. In contrast to the UV absorption, the literature on the x-ray spectroscopy of thionated uracil is sparse. Thus, we measured static photoelectron, Auger-Meitner and x-ray absorption spectra on the sulfur L edge before or parallel to the time-resolved experiments we performed at FLASH (DESY, Hamburg). In addition, (so far unpublished) measurements were performed at the synchrotron SOLEIL (France) which have been included in this thesis and show the spin-orbit splitting of the S 2p photoline and its satellite which was not observed at the free-electron laser. The relaxation of 2-thiouracil has been studied extensively in recent years with ultrafast visible and ultraviolet methods showing the ultrafast nature of the molecular process after photoexcitation. Ultrafast spectroscopy probing the core-level electrons provides a complementary approach to common optical ultrafast techniques. The method inherits its local sensitivity from the strongly localised core electrons. The core energies and core-valence transitions are strongly affected by local valence charge and geometry changes, and past studies have utilised this sensitivity to investigate the molecular process reflected by the ultrafast dynamics. We have built an apparatus that provides the requirements to perform time-resolved x-ray spectroscopy on molecules in the gas phase. With the apparatus, we performed UV-pump x-ray-probe electron spectroscopy on the S 2p edge of 2-thiouracil using the free-electron laser FLASH2. While the UV triggers the relaxation dynamics, the x-ray probes the single sulfur atom inside the molecule. I implemented photoline self-referencing for the photoelectron spectral analysis. This minimises the spectral jitter of the FEL, which is due to the underlying self-amplified spontaneous emission (SASE) process. With this approach, we were not only able to study dynamical changes in the binding energy of the electrons but also to detect an oscillatory behaviour in the shift of the observed photoline, which we associate with non-adiabatic dynamics involving several electronic states. Moreover, we were able to link the UV-induced shift in binding energy to the local charge flow at the sulfur which is directly connected to the electronic state. Furthermore, the analysis of the Auger-Meitner electrons shows that energy shifts observed at early stages of the photoinduced relaxation are related to the geometry change in the molecule. More specifically, the observed increase in kinetic energy of the Auger-Meitner electrons correlates with a previously predicted C=S bond stretch.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Molinengo2022, author = {Molinengo, Giulia}, title = {The micropolitics of collaborative governance}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57712}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-577123}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {x, 128}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Why do exercises in collaborative governance often witness more impasse than advantage? This cumulative dissertation undertakes a micro-level analysis of collaborative governance to tackle this research puzzle. It situates micropolitics at the very center of analysis: a wide range of activities, interventions, and tactics used by actors - be they conveners, facilitators, or participants - to shape the collaborative exercise. It is by focusing on these daily minutiae, and on the consequences that they bring along, the study argues, that we can better understand why and how collaboration can become stuck or unproductive. To do so, the foundational part of this dissertation (Article 1) uses power as a sensitizing concept to investigate the micro-dynamics that shape collaboration. It develops an analytical approach to advance the study of collaborative governance at the empirical level under a power-sensitive and process-oriented perspective. The subsequent articles follow the dissertation's red thread of investigating the micropolitics of collaborative governance by showing facilitation artefacts' interrelatedness and contribution to the potential success or failure of collaborative arrangements (Article 2); and by examining the specialized knowledge, skills and practices mobilized when designing a collaborative process (Article 3). The work is based on an abductive research approach, tacking back and forth between empirical data and theory, and offers a repertoire of concepts - from analytical terms (designed and emerging interaction orders, flows of power, arenas for power), to facilitation practices (scripting, situating, and supervising) and types of knowledge (process expertise) - to illustrate and study the detailed and constant work (and rework) that surrounds collaborative arrangements. These concepts sharpen the way researchers can look at, observe, and understand collaborative processes at a micro level. The thesis thereby elucidates the subtleties of power, which may be overlooked if we focus only on outcomes rather than the processes that engender them, and supports efforts to identify potential sources of impasse.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Klein2022, author = {Klein, Konstantin Paul}, title = {Remote Sensing of Suspended Sediment Dynamics in the Arctic Nearshore Zone}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57603}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-576032}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvi, 85, xvii}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The Arctic nearshore zone plays a key role in the carbon cycle. Organic-rich sediments get eroded off permafrost affected coastlines and can be directly transferred to the nearshore zone. Permafrost in the Arctic stores a high amount of organic matter and is vulnerable to thermo-erosion, which is expected to increase due to climate change. This will likely result in higher sediment loads in nearshore waters and has the potential to alter local ecosystems by limiting light transmission into the water column, thus limiting primary production to the top-most part of it, and increasing nutrient export from coastal erosion. Greater organic matter input could result in the release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Climate change also acts upon the fluvial system, leading to greater discharge to the nearshore zone. It leads to decreasing sea-ice cover as well, which will both increase wave energy and lengthen the open-water season. Yet, knowledge on these processes and the resulting impact on the nearshore zone is scarce, because access to and instrument deployment in the nearshore zone is challenging. Remote sensing can alleviate these issues in providing rapid data delivery in otherwise non-accessible areas. However, the waters in the Arctic nearshore zone are optically complex, with multiple influencing factors, such as organic rich suspended sediments, colored dissolved organic matter (cDOM), and phytoplankton. The goal of this dissertation was to use remotely sensed imagery to monitor processes related to turbidity caused by suspended sediments in the Arctic nearshore zone. In-situ measurements of water-leaving reflectance and surface water turbidity were used to calibrate a semi-empirical algorithm which relates turbidity from satellite imagery. Based on this algorithm and ancillary ocean and climate variables, the mechanisms underpinning nearshore turbidity in the Arctic were identified at a resolution not achieved before. The calibration of the Arctic Nearshore Turbidity Algorithm (ANTA) was based on in-situ measurements from the coastal and inner-shelf waters around Herschel Island Qikiqtaruk (HIQ) in the western Canadian Arctic from the summer seasons 2018 and 2019. It performed better than existing algorithms, developed for global applications, in relating turbidity from remotely sensed imagery. These existing algorithms were lacking validation data from permafrost affected waters, and were thus not able to reflect the complexity of Arctic nearshore waters. The ANTA has a higher sensitivity towards the lowest turbidity values, which is an asset for identifying sediment pathways in the nearshore zone. Its transferability to areas beyond HIQ was successfully demonstrated using turbidity measurements matching satellite image recordings from Adventfjorden, Svalbard. The ANTA is a powerful tool that provides robust turbidity estimations in a variety of Arctic nearshore environments. Drivers of nearshore turbidity in the Arctic were analyzed by combining ANTA results from the summer season 2019 from HIQ with ocean and climate variables obtained from the weather station at HIQ, the ERA5 reanalysis database, and the Mackenzie River discharge. ERA5 reanalysis data were obtained as domain averages over the Canadian Beaufort Shelf. Nearshore turbidity was linearly correlated to wind speed, significant wave height and wave period. Interestingly, nearshore turbidity was only correlated to wind speed at the shelf, but not to the in-situ measurements from the weather station at HIQ. This shows that nearshore turbidity, albeit being of limited spatial extent, gets influenced by the weather conditions multiple kilometers away, rather than in its direct vicinity. The large influence of wave energy on nearshore turbidity indicates that freshly eroded material off the coast is a major contributor to the nearshore sediment load. This contrasts results from the temperate and tropical oceans, where tides and currents are the major drivers of nearshore turbidity. The Mackenzie River discharge was not identified as a driver of nearshore turbidity in 2019, however, the analysis of 30 years of Landsat archive imagery from 1986 to 2016 suggests a direct link between the prevailing wind direction, which heavily influences the Mackenzie River plume extent, and nearshore turbidity around HIQ. This discrepancy could be caused by the abnormal discharge behavior of the Mackenzie River in 2019. This dissertation has substantially advanced the understanding of suspended sediment processes in the Arctic nearshore zone and provided new monitoring tools for future studies. The presented results will help to understand the role of the Arctic nearshore zone in the carbon cycle under a changing climate.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Patyniak2022, author = {Patyniak, Magda}, title = {Seismotectonic segmentation, paleoearthquakes and style of deformation along the Northern Pamir thrust system, South Kyrgyzstan}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57714}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-577141}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxii, 165}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The Pamir Frontal Thrust (PFT) located in the Trans Alai range in Central Asia is the principal active fault of the intracontinental India-Eurasia convergence zone and constitutes the northernmost boundary of the Pamir orogen at the NW edge of this collision zone. Frequent seismic activity and ongoing crustal shortening reflect the northward propagation of the Pamir into the intermontane Alai Valley. Quaternary deposits are being deformed and uplifted by the advancing thrust front of the Trans Alai range. The Alai Valley separates the Pamir range front from the Tien Shan mountains in the north; the Alai Valley is the vestige of a formerly contiguous basin that linked the Tadjik Depression in the west with the Tarim Basin in the east. GNSS measurements across the Central Pamir document a shortening rate of ~25 mm/yr, with a dramatic decrease of ~10-15 mm over a short distance across the northernmost Trans Alai range. This suggests that almost half of the shortening in the greater Pamir - Tien Shan collision zone is absorbed along the PFT. The short-term (geodetic) and long-term (geologic) shortening rates across the northern Pamir appear to be at odds with an apparent slip-rate discrepancy along the frontal fault system of the Pamir. Moreover, the present-day seismicity and historical records have not revealed great Mw > 7 earthquakes that might be expected with such a significant slip accommodation. In contrast, recent and historic earthquakes exhibit complex rupture patterns within and across seismotectonic segments bounding the Pamir mountain front, challenging our understanding of fault interaction and the seismogenic potential of this area, and leaving the relationships between seismicity and the geometry of the thrust front not well understood. In this dissertation I employ different approaches to assess the seismogenic behavior along the PFT. Firstly, I provide paleoseismic data from five trenches across the central PFT segment (cPFT) and compute a segment-wide earthquake chronology over the past 16 kyr. This novel dataset provides important insights into the recurrence, magnitude, and rupture extent of past earthquakes along the cPFT. I interpret five, possibly six paleoearthquakes that have ruptured the Pamir mountain front since ∼7 ka and 16 ka, respectively. My results indicate that at least three major earthquakes ruptured the full-segment length and possibly crossed segment boundaries with a recurrence interval of ∼1.9 kyr and potential magnitudes of up to Mw 7.4. Importantly, I did not find evidence for great (i.e., Mw ≥8) earthquakes. Secondly, I combine my paleoseimic results with morphometric analyses to establish a segment-wide distribution of the cumulative vertical separation along offset fluvial terraces and I model a long-term slip rate for the cPFT. My investigations reveal discrepancies between the extents of slip and rupture during apparent partial segment ruptures in the western half of the cPFT. Combined with significantly higher fault scarp offsets in this sector of the cPFT, the observations indicate a more mature fault section with a potential for future fault linkage. I estimate an average rate of horizontal motion for the cPFT of 4.1 ± 1.5 mm/yr during the past ∼5 kyr, which does not fully match the GNSS-derived present-day shortening rate of ∼10 mm/yr. This suggests a complex distribution of strain accumulation and potential slip partitioning between the cPFT and additional faults and folds within the Pamir that may be associated with a partially locked regional d{\´e}collement. The third part of the thesis provides new insights regarding the surface rupture of the 2008 Mw 6.6 Nura earthquake that ruptured along the eastern PFT sector. I explore this rupture in the context of its structural complexity by combining extensive field observations with high-resolution digital surface models. I provide a map of the rupture extent, net slip measurements, and updated regional geological observations. Based on this data I propose a tectonic model in this area associated with secondary flexural-slip faulting along steeply dipping bedding of folded Paleogene sedimentary strata that is related to deformation along a deeper blind thrust. Here, the strain release seems to be transferred from the PFT towards older inherited basement structures within the area of advanced Pamir-Tien Shan collision zone. The extensive research of my dissertation results in a paleoseismic database of the past 16 ~kyr, which contributes to the understanding of the seismogenic behavior of the PFT, but also to that of segmented thrust-fault systems in active collisional settings. My observations underscore the importance of combining different methodological approaches in the geosciences, especially in structurally complex tectonic settings like the northern Pamir. Discrepancy between GNSS-derived present-day deformation rates and those from different geological archives in the central part, as well as the widespread distribution of the deformation due to earthquake triggered strain transfer in the eastern part reveals the complexity of this collision zone and calls for future studies involving multi-temporal and interdisciplinary approaches.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Chea2022, author = {Chea, Sany}, title = {Glycomaterials: From synthesis of glycoconjugates to potential biomedical applications}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57424}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-574240}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XVII, 217}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The importance of carbohydrate structures is enormous due to their ubiquitousness in our lives. The development of so-called glycomaterials is the result of this tremendous significance. These are not exclusively used for research into fundamental biological processes, but also, among other things, as inhibitors of pathogens or as drug delivery systems. This work describes the development of glycomaterials involving the synthesis of glycoderivatives, -monomers and -polymers. Glycosylamines were synthesized as precursors in a single synthesis step under microwave irradiation to significantly shorten the usual reaction time. Derivatization at the anomeric position was carried out according to the methods developed by Kochetkov and Likhorshetov, which do not require the introduction of protecting groups. Aminated saccharide structures formed the basis for the synthesis of glycomonomers in β-configuration by methacrylation. In order to obtain α-Man-based monomers for interactions with certain α-Man-binding lectins, a monomer synthesis by Staudinger ligation was developed in this work, which also does not require protective groups. Modification of the primary hydroxyl group of a saccharide was accomplished by enzyme-catalyzed synthesis. Ribose-containing cytidine was transesterified using the lipase Novozym 435 and microwave irradiation. The resulting monomer synthesis was optimized by varying the reaction partners. To create an amide bond instead of an ester bond, protected cytidine was modified by oxidation followed by amide coupling to form the monomer. This synthetic route was also used to isolate the monomer from its counterpart guanosine. After obtaining the nucleoside-based monomers, they were block copolymerized using the RAFT method. Pre-synthesized pHPMA served as macroCTA to yield cytidine- or guanosine-containing block copolymer. These isolated block copolymers were then investigated for their self-assembly behavior using UV-Vis, DLS and SEM to serve as a potential thermoresponsive drug delivery system.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Polemiti2022, author = {Polemiti, Elli}, title = {Identifying risk of microvascular and macrovascular complications of type 2 diabetes}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57103}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571038}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xii, 292}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Diabetes is hallmarked by high blood glucose levels, which cause progressive generalised vascular damage, leading to microvascular and macrovascular complications. Diabetes-related complications cause severe and prolonged morbidity and are a major cause of mortality among people with diabetes. Despite increasing attention to risk factors of type 2 diabetes, existing evidence is scarce or inconclusive regarding vascular complications and research investigating both micro- and macrovascular complications is lacking. This thesis aims to contribute to current knowledge by identifying risk factors - mainly related to lifestyle - of vascular complications, addressing methodological limitations of previous literature and providing comparative data between micro- and macrovascular complications. To address this overall aim, three specific objectives were set. The first was to investigate the effects of diabetes complication burden and lifestyle-related risk factors on the incidence of (further) complications. Studies suggest that diabetes complications are interrelated. However, they have been studied mainly independently of individuals' complication burden. A five-state time-to-event model was constructed to examine the longitudinal patterns of micro- (kidney disease, neuropathy and retinopathy) and macrovascular complications (myocardial infarction and stroke) and their association with the occurrence of subsequent complications. Applying the same model, the effect of modifiable lifestyle factors, assessed alone and in combination with complication load, on the incidence of diabetes complications was studied. The selected lifestyle factors were body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, smoking status, physical activity, and intake of coffee, red meat, whole grains, and alcohol. Analyses were conducted in a cohort of 1199 participants with incident type 2 diabetes from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam, who were free of vascular complications at diabetes diagnosis. During a median follow-up time of 11.6 years, 96 cases of macrovascular complications (myocardial infarction and stroke) and 383 microvascular complications (kidney disease, neuropathy and retinopathy) were identified. In multivariable-adjusted models, the occurrence of a microvascular complication was associated with a higher incidence of further micro- (Hazard ratio [HR] 1.90; 95\% Confidence interval [CI] 0.90, 3.98) and macrovascular complications (HR 4.72; 95\% CI 1.25, 17.68), compared with persons without a complication burden. In addition, participants who developed a macrovascular event had a twofold higher risk of future microvascular complications (HR 2.26; 95\% CI 1.05, 4.86). The models were adjusted for age, sex, state duration, education, lifestyle, glucose-lowering medication, and pre-existing conditions of hypertension and dyslipidaemia. Smoking was positively associated with macrovascular disease, while an inverse association was observed with higher coffee intake. Whole grain and alcohol intake were inversely associated with microvascular complications, and a U-shaped association was observed for red meat intake. BMI and waist circumference were positively associated with microvascular events. The associations between lifestyle factors and incidence of complications were not modified by concurrent complication burden, except for red meat intake and smoking status, where the associations were attenuated among individuals with a previous complication. The second objective was to perform an in-depth investigation of the association between BMI and BMI change and risk of micro- and macrovascular complications. There is an ongoing debate on the association between obesity and risk of macrovascular and microvascular outcomes in type 2 diabetes, with studies suggesting a protective effect among people with overweight or obesity. These findings, however, might be limited due to suboptimal control for smoking, pre-existing chronic disease, or short-follow-up. After additional exclusion of persons with cancer history at diabetes onset, the associations between pre-diagnosis BMI and relative annual change between pre- and post-diagnosis BMI and incidence of complications were evaluated in multivariable-adjusted Cox models. The analyses were adjusted for age, sex, education, smoking status and duration, physical activity, alcohol consumption, adherence to the Mediterranean diet, and family history of diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Among 1083 EPIC-Potsdam participants, 85 macrovascular and 347 microvascular complications were identified during a median follow-up period of 10.8 years. Higher pre-diagnosis BMI was associated with an increased risk of total microvascular complications (HR per 5 kg/m2 1.21; 95\% CI 1.07, 1.36), kidney disease (HR 1.39; 95\% CI 1.21, 1.60) and neuropathy (HR 1.12; 95\% CI 0.96, 1.31); but no association was observed for macrovascular complications (HR 1.05; 95\% CI 0.81, 1.36). Effect modification was not evident by sex, smoking status, or age groups. In analyses according to BMI change categories, BMI loss of more than 1\% indicated a decreased risk of total microvascular complications (HR 0.62; 95\% CI 0.47, 0.80), kidney disease (HR 0.57; 95\% CI 0.40, 0.81) and neuropathy (HR 0.73; 95\% CI 0.52, 1.03), compared with participants with a stable BMI. No clear association was observed for macrovascular complications (HR 1.04; 95\% CI 0.62, 1.74). The impact of BMI gain on diabetes-related vascular disease was less evident. Associations were consistent across strata of age, sex, pre-diagnosis BMI, or medication but appeared stronger among never-smokers than current or former smokers. The last objective was to evaluate whether individuals with a high-risk profile for diabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) also have a greater risk of complications. Within the EPIC-Potsdam study, two accurate prognostic tools were developed, the German Diabetes Risk Score (GDRS) and the CVD Risk Score (CVDRS), which predict the 5-year type 2 diabetes risk and 10-year CVD risk, respectively. Both scores provide a non-clinical and clinical version. Components of the risk scores include age, sex, waist circumference, prevalence of hypertension, family history of diabetes or CVD, lifestyle factors, and clinical factors (only in clinical versions). The association of the risk scores with diabetes complications and their discriminatory performance for complications were assessed. In crude Cox models, both versions of GDRS and CVDRS were positively associated with macrovascular complications and total microvascular complications, kidney disease and neuropathy. Higher GDRS was also associated with an elevated risk of retinopathy. The discrimination of the scores (clinical and non-clinical) was poor for all complications, with the C-index ranging from 0.58 to 0.66 for macrovascular complications and from 0.60 to 0.62 for microvascular complications. In conclusion, this work illustrates that the risk of complication development among individuals with type 2 diabetes is related to the existing complication load, and attention should be given to regular monitoring for future complications. It underlines the importance of weight management and adherence to healthy lifestyle behaviours, including high intake of whole grains, moderation in red meat and alcohol consumption and avoidance of smoking to prevent major diabetes-associated complications, regardless of complication burden. Risk scores predictive for type 2 diabetes and CVD were related to elevated risks of complications. By optimising several lifestyle and clinical factors, the risk score can be improved and may assist in lowering complication risk.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Siegmund2022, author = {Siegmund, Nicole}, title = {Wind driven soil particle uptake Quantifying drivers of wind erosion across the particle size spectrum}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57489}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-574897}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ix, 56}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Among the multitude of geomorphological processes, aeolian shaping processes are of special character, Pedogenic dust is one of the most important sources of atmospheric aerosols and therefore regarded as a key player for atmospheric processes. Soil dust emissions, being complex in composition and properties, influence atmospheric processes and air quality and has impacts on other ecosystems. In this because even though their immediate impact can be considered low (exceptions exist), their constant and large-scale force makes them a powerful player in the earth system. dissertation, we unravel a novel scientific understanding of this complex system based on a holistic dataset acquired during a series of field experiments on arable land in La Pampa, Argentina. The field experiments as well as the generated data provide information about topography, various soil parameters, the atmospheric dynamics in the very lower atmosphere (4m height) as well as measurements regarding aeolian particle movement across a wide range of particle size classes between 0.2μm up to the coarse sand. The investigations focus on three topics: (a) the effects of low-scale landscape structures on aeolian transport processes of the coarse particle fraction, (b) the horizontal and vertical fluxes of the very fine particles and (c) the impact of wind gusts on particle emissions. Among other considerations presented in this thesis, it could in particular be shown, that even though the small-scale topology does have a clear impact on erosion and deposition patterns, also physical soil parameters need to be taken into account for a robust statistical modelling of the latter. Furthermore, specifically the vertical fluxes of particulate matter have different characteristics for the particle size classes. Finally, a novel statistical measure was introduced to quantify the impact of wind gusts on the particle uptake and its application on the provided data set. The aforementioned measure shows significantly increased particle concentrations during points in time defined as gust event. With its holistic approach, this thesis further contributes to the fundamental understanding of how atmosphere and pedosphere are intertwined and affect each other.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Simsek2022, author = {Simsek, Ibrahim}, title = {Ink-based preparation of chalcogenide perovskites as thin films for PV applications}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57271}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-572711}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {iv, 113}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The increasing demand for energy in the current technological era and the recent political decisions about giving up on nuclear energy diverted humanity to focus on alternative environmentally friendly energy sources like solar energy. Although silicon solar cells are the product of a matured technology, the search for highly efficient and easily applicable materials is still ongoing. These properties made the efficiency of halide perovskites comparable with silicon solar cells for single junctions within a decade of research. However, the downside of halide perovskites are poor stability and lead toxicity for the most stable ones. On the other hand, chalcogenide perovskites are one of the most promising absorber materials for the photovoltaic market, due to their elemental abundance and chemical stability against moisture and oxygen. In the search of the ultimate solar absorber material, combining the good optoelectronic properties of halide perovskites with the stability of chalcogenides could be the promising candidate. Thus, this work investigates new techniques for the synthesis and design of these novel chalcogenide perovskites, that contain transition metals as cations, e.g., BaZrS3, BaHfS3, EuZrS3, EuHfS3 and SrHfS3. There are two stages in the deposition techniques of this study: In the first stage, the binary compounds are deposited via a solution processing method. In the second stage, the deposited materials are annealed in a chalcogenide atmosphere to form the perovskite structure by using solid-state reactions. The research also focuses on the optimization of a generalized recipe for a molecular ink to deposit precursors of chalcogenide perovskites with different binaries. The implementation of the precursor sulfurization resulted in either binaries without perovskite formation or distorted perovskite structures, whereas some of these materials are reported in the literature as they are more favorable in the needle-like non-perovskite configuration. Lastly, there are two categories for the evaluation of the produced materials: The first category is about the determination of the physical properties of the deposited layer, e.g., crystal structure, secondary phase formation, impurities, etc. For the second category, optoelectronic properties are measured and compared to an ideal absorber layer, e.g., band gap, conductivity, surface photovoltage, etc.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Steppert2022, author = {Steppert, Isabel}, title = {Entwicklung einer nichtinvasiven Diagnostikmethode zum Nachweis von Infektionserregern}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57544}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-575441}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XIV, 101, LVIII}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Die aktuelle COVID-19-Pandemie zeigt deutlich, wie sich Infektionskrankheiten weltweit verbreiten k{\"o}nnen. Neben Viruserkrankungen breiten sich auch multiresistente bakterielle Erreger weltweit aus. Dementsprechend besteht ein hoher Bedarf, durch fr{\"u}hzeitige Erkennung Erkrankte zu finden und Infektionswege zu unterbrechen. Herk{\"o}mmliche kulturelle Verfahren ben{\"o}tigen minimalinvasive bzw. invasive Proben und dauern f{\"u}r Screeningmaßnahmen zu lange. Deshalb werden schnelle, nichtinvasive Verfahren ben{\"o}tigt. Im klassischen Griechenland verließen sich die {\"A}rzte unter anderem auf ihren Geruchssinn, um Infektionen und andere Krankheiten zu differenzieren. Diese charakteristischen Ger{\"u}che sind fl{\"u}chtige organische Substanzen (VOC), die im Rahmen des Metabolismus eines Organismus entstehen. Tiere, die einen besseren Geruchssinn haben, werden trainiert, bestimmte Krankheitserreger am Geruch zu unterscheiden. Allerdings ist der Einsatz von Tieren im klinischen Alltag nicht praktikabel. Es bietet sich an, auf technischem Weg diese VOCs zu analysieren. Ein technisches Verfahren, diese VOCs zu unterscheiden, ist die Ionenmobilit{\"a}tsspektrometrie gekoppelt mit einer multikapillaren Gaschromatographies{\"a}ule (MCC-IMS). Hier zeigte sich, dass es sich bei dem Verfahren um eine schnelle, sensitive und verl{\"a}ssliche Methode handelt. Es ist bekannt, dass verschiedene Bakterien aufgrund des Metabolismus unterschiedliche VOCs und damit eigene spezifische Ger{\"u}che produzieren. Im ersten Schritt dieser Arbeit konnte gezeigt werden, dass die verschiedenen Bakterien in-vitro nach einer kurzen Inkubationszeitzeit von 90 Minuten anhand der VOCs differenziert werden k{\"o}nnen. Hier konnte analog zur Diagnose in biochemischen Testreihen eine hierarchische Klassifikation der Bakterien erfolgen. Im Gegensatz zu Bakterien haben Viren keinen eigenen Stoffwechsel. Ob virusinfizierte Zellen andere VOCs als nicht-infizierte Zellen freisetzen, wurde an Zellkulturen {\"u}berpr{\"u}ft. Hier konnte gezeigt werden, dass sich die Fingerprints der VOCs in Zellkulturen infizierter Zellen mit Respiratorischen Synzytial-Viren (RSV) von nicht-infizierten Zellen unterscheiden. Virusinfektionen im intakten Organismus unterscheiden sich von den Zellkulturen dadurch, dass hier neben Ver{\"a}nderungen im Zellstoffwechsel auch durch Abwehrmechanismen VOCs freigesetzt werden k{\"o}nnen. Zur {\"U}berpr{\"u}fung, inwiefern sich Infektionen im intakten Organismus ebenfalls anhand VOCs unterscheiden lassen, wurde bei Patienten mit und ohne Nachweis einer Influenza A Infektion als auch bei Patienten mit Verdacht auf SARS-CoV-2 (Schweres-akutes-Atemwegssyndrom-Coronavirus Typ 2) Infektion die Atemluft untersucht. Sowohl Influenza-infizierte als auch SARS-CoV-2 infizierte Patienten konnten untereinander und von nicht-infizierten Patienten mittels MCC-IMS Analyse der Atemluft unterschieden werden. Zusammenfassend erbringt die MCC-IMS ermutigende Resultate in der schnellen nichtinvasiven Erkennung von Infektionen sowohl in vitro als auch in vivo.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Gunold2022, author = {Gunold, Sascha}, title = {Abzug unter Beobachtung}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57197}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571977}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {391}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Mehr als vier Jahrzehnte lang beobachteten die Streitkr{\"a}fte und Milit{\"a}rnachrichtendienste der NATO-Staaten die sowjetischen Truppen in der DDR. Hierf{\"u}r {\"u}bernahm in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland der Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) die milit{\"a}rische Auslandsaufkl{\"a}rung unter Anwendung nachrichtendienstlicher Mittel und Methoden. Die Bundeswehr betrieb dagegen taktische Fernmelde- und elektronische Aufkl{\"a}rung und h{\"o}rte vor allem den Funkverkehr der „Gruppe der sowjetischen Streitkr{\"a}fte in Deutschland" (GSSD) ab. Mit der Aufstellung einer zentralen Dienststelle f{\"u}r das milit{\"a}rische Nachrichtenwesen, dem Amt f{\"u}r Nachrichtenwesen der Bundeswehr, b{\"u}ndelte und erweiterte zugleich das Bundesministerium f{\"u}r Verteidigung in den 1980er Jahren seine analytischen Kapazit{\"a}ten. Das Monopol des BND in der milit{\"a}rischen Auslandsaufkl{\"a}rung wurde von der Bundeswehr dadurch zunehmend infrage gestellt. Nach der deutschen Wiedervereinigung am 3. Oktober 1990 befanden sich immer noch mehr als 300.000 sowjetische Soldaten auf deutschem Territorium. Die 1989 in Westgruppe der Truppen (WGT) umbenannte GSSD sollte - so der Zwei-plus-Vier-Vertrag - bis 1994 vollst{\"a}ndig abziehen. Der Vertrag verbot auch den drei Westm{\"a}chten, in den neuen Bundesl{\"a}ndern milit{\"a}risch t{\"a}tig zu sein. Die f{\"u}r die Milit{\"a}raufkl{\"a}rung bis dahin unverzichtbaren Milit{\"a}rverbindungsmissionen der Westm{\"a}chte mussten ihre Dienste einstellen. Doch was geschah mit diesem „alliierten Erbe"? Wer {\"u}bernahm auf deutscher Seite die Aufkl{\"a}rung der sowjetischen Truppen und wer kontrollierte den Truppenabzug?  Die Studie untersucht die Rolle von Bundeswehr und BND beim Abzug der WGT zwischen 1990 und 1994 und fragt dabei nach Kooperation und Konkurrenz zwischen Streitkr{\"a}ften und Nachrichtendiensten. Welche milit{\"a}rischen und nachrichtendienstlichen Mittel und F{\"a}higkeiten stellte die Bundesregierung zur Bew{\"a}ltigung des Truppenabzugs zur Verf{\"u}gung, nachdem die westlichen Milit{\"a}rverbindungsmissionen aufgel{\"o}st wurden? Wie ver{\"a}nderten sich die Anforderungen an die milit{\"a}rische Auslandsaufkl{\"a}rung des BND? Inwieweit setzten sich Konkurrenz und Kooperation von Bundeswehr und BNDbeim Truppenabzug fort? Welche Rolle spielten dabei die einstigen Westm{\"a}chte? Die Arbeit versteht sich nicht nur als Beitrag zur Milit{\"a}rgeschichte, sondern auch zur deutschen Nachrichtendienstgeschichte.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Gandhi2022, author = {Gandhi, Nilima}, title = {Visionary leadership and job satisfaction}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57269}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-572691}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {154}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Current business organizations want to be more efficient and constantly evolving to find ways to retain talent. It is well established that visionary leadership plays a vital role in organizational success and contributes to a better working environment. This study aims to determine the effect of visionary leadership on employees' perceived job satisfaction. Specifically, it investigates whether the mediators meaningfulness at work and commitment to the leader impact the relationship. I take support from job demand resource theory to explain the overarching model used in this study and broaden-and-build theory to leverage the use of mediators. To test the hypotheses, evidence was collected in a multi-source, time-lagged design field study of 95 leader-follower dyads. The data was collected in a three-wave study, each survey appearing after one month. Data on employee perception of visionary leadership was collected in T1, data for both mediators were collected in T2, and employee perception of job satisfaction was collected in T3. The findings display that meaningfulness at work and commitment to the leader play positive intervening roles (in the form of a chain) in the indirect influence of visionary leadership on employee perceptions regarding job satisfaction. This research offers contributions to literature and theory by first broadening the existing knowledge on the effects of visionary leadership on employees. Second, it contributes to the literature on constructs meaningfulness at work, commitment to the leader, and job satisfaction. Third, it sheds light on the mediation mechanism dealing with study variables in line with the proposed model. Fourth, it integrates two theories, job demand resource theory and broaden-and-build theory providing further evidence. Additionally, the study provides practical implications for business leaders and HR practitioners. Overall, my study discusses the potential of visionary leadership behavior to elevate employee outcomes. The study aligns with previous research and answers several calls for further research on visionary leadership, job satisfaction, and mediation mechanism with meaningfulness at work and commitment to the leader.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Brinkmann2022, author = {Brinkmann, Pia}, title = {Laserinduzierte Breakdownspektroskopie zur qualitativen und quantitativen Bestimmung von Elementgehalten in geologischen Proben mittels multivariater Analysemethoden am Beispiel von Kupfer und ausgew{\"a}hlten Seltenen Erden}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57212}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-572128}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {148}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Ein schonender Umgang mit den Ressourcen und der Umwelt ist wesentlicher Bestandteil des modernen Bergbaus sowie der zuk{\"u}nftigen Versorgung unserer Gesellschaft mit essentiellen Rohstoffen. Die vorliegende Arbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit der Entwicklung analytischer Strategien, die durch eine exakte und schnelle Vor-Ort-Analyse den technisch-praktischen Anforderungen des Bergbauprozesses gerecht werden und somit zu einer gezielten und nachhaltigen Nutzung von Rohstofflagerst{\"a}tten beitragen. Die Analysen basieren auf den spektroskopischen Daten, die mittels der laserinduzierten Breakdownspektroskopie (LIBS) erhalten und mittels multivariater Datenanalyse ausgewertet werden. Die LIB-Spektroskopie ist eine vielversprechende Technik f{\"u}r diese Aufgabe. Ihre Attraktivit{\"a}t machen insbesondere die M{\"o}glichkeiten aus, Feldproben vor Ort ohne Probennahme oder ‑vorbereitung messen zu k{\"o}nnen, aber auch die Detektierbarkeit s{\"a}mtlicher Elemente des Periodensystems und die Unabh{\"a}ngigkeit vom Aggregatzustand. In Kombination mit multivariater Datenanalyse kann eine schnelle Datenverarbeitung erfolgen, die Aussagen zur qualitativen Elementzusammensetzung der untersuchten Proben erlaubt. Mit dem Ziel die Verteilung der Elementgehalte in einer Lagerst{\"a}tte zu ermitteln, werden in dieser Arbeit Kalibrierungs- und Quantifizierungsstrategien evaluiert. F{\"u}r die Charakterisierung von Matrixeffekten und zur Klassifizierung von Mineralen werden explorative Datenanalysemethoden angewendet. Die spektroskopischen Untersuchungen erfolgen an B{\"o}den und Gesteinen sowie an Mineralen, die Kupfer oder Seltene Erdelemente beinhalten und aus verschiedenen Lagerst{\"a}tten bzw. von unterschiedlichen Agrarfl{\"a}chen stammen. F{\"u}r die Entwicklung einer Kalibrierungsstrategie wurden sowohl synthetische als auch Feldproben von zwei verschiedenen Agrarfl{\"a}chen mittels LIBS analysiert. Anhand der Beispielanalyten Calcium, Eisen und Magnesium erfolgte die auf uni- und multivariaten Methoden beruhende Evaluierung verschiedener Kalibrierungsmethoden. Grundlagen der Quantifizierungsstrategien sind die multivariaten Analysemethoden der partiellen Regression der kleinsten Quadrate (PLSR, von engl.: partial least squares regression) und der Intervall PLSR (iPLSR, von engl.: interval PLSR), die das gesamte detektierte Spektrum oder Teilspektren in der Analyse ber{\"u}cksichtigen. Der Untersuchung liegen synthetische sowie Feldproben von Kupfermineralen zugrunde als auch solche die Seltene Erdelemente beinhalten. Die Proben stammen aus verschiedenen Lagerst{\"a}tten und weisen unterschiedliche Begleitmatrices auf. Mittels der explorativen Datenanalyse erfolgte die Charakterisierung dieser Begleitmatrices. Die daf{\"u}r angewendete Hauptkomponentenanalyse gruppiert Daten anhand von Unterschieden und Regelm{\"a}ßigkeiten. Dies erlaubt Aussagen {\"u}ber Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede der untersuchten Proben im Bezug auf ihre Herkunft, chemische Zusammensetzung oder lokal bedingte Auspr{\"a}gungen. Abschließend erfolgte die Klassifizierung kupferhaltiger Minerale auf Basis der nicht-negativen Tensorfaktorisierung. Diese Methode wurde mit dem Ziel verwendet, unbekannte Proben aufgrund ihrer Eigenschaften in Klassen einzuteilen. Die Verkn{\"u}pfung von LIBS und multivariater Datenanalyse bietet die M{\"o}glichkeit durch eine Analyse vor Ort auf eine Probennahme und die entsprechende Laboranalytik weitestgehend zu verzichten und kann somit zum Umweltschutz sowie einer Schonung der nat{\"u}rlichen Ressourcen bei der Prospektion und Exploration von neuen Erzg{\"a}ngen und Lagerst{\"a}tten beitragen. Die Verteilung von Elementgehalten der untersuchten Gebiete erm{\"o}glicht zudem einen gezielten Abbau und damit eine effiziente Nutzung der mineralischen Rohstoffe.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Drago2022, author = {Drago, Claudia}, title = {Microplastics in the environment: Assessing the ingestion and effect of microplastics on freshwater rotifers in an environmental scenario}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57335}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-573356}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xv, 116}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Microplastics in the environments are estimated to increase in the near future due to increasing consumption of plastic product and also due to further fragmentation in small pieces. The fate and effects of MP once released into the freshwater environment are still scarcely studied, compared to the marine environment. In order to understand possible effect and interaction of MPs in freshwater environment, planktonic zooplankton organisms are very useful for their crucial trophic role. In particular freshwater rotifers are one of the most abundant organisms and they are the interface between primary producers and secondary consumers. The aim of my thesis was to investigate the ingestion and the effect of MPs in rotifers from a more natural scenario and to individuate processes such as the aggregation of MPs, the food dilution effect and the increasing concentrations of MPs that could influence the final outcome of MPs in the environment. In fact, in a near natural scenario MPs interaction with bacteria and algae, aggregations together with the size and concentration are considered drivers of ingestion and effect. The aggregation of MPs makes smaller MPs more available for rotifers and larger MPs less ingested. The negative effect caused by the ingestion of MPs was modulated by their size but also by the quantity and the quality of food that cause variable responses. In fact, rotifers in the environment are subjected to food limitation and the presence of MPs could exacerbate this condition and decrease the population and the reproduction input. Finally, in a scenario incorporating an entire zooplanktonic community, MPs were ingested by most individuals taking into account their feeding mode but also the concentration of MPs, which was found to be essential for the availability of MPs. This study highlights the importance to investigate MPs from a more environmental perspective, this in fact could provide an alternative and realistic view of effect of MPs in the ecosystem.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Sojka2022, author = {S{\´o}jka, Pia}, title = {Writing travel, writing life}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-537-8}, issn = {2629-2548}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55879}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558799}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {319}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The book compares the texts of three Swiss authors: Ella Maillart, Annemarie Schwarzenbach and Nicolas Bouvier. The focus is on their trip from Gen{\`e}ve to Kabul that Ella Maillart and Annemarie Schwarzenbach made together in 1939/1940 and Nicolas Bouvier 1953/1954 with the artist Thierry Vernet. The comparison shows the strong connection between the journey and life and between ars vivendi and travel literature. This book also gives an overview of and organises the numerous terms, genres, and categories that already exist to describe various travel texts and proposes the new term travelling narration. The travelling narration looks at the text from a narratological perspective that distinguishes the author, narrator, and protagonist within the narration. In the examination, ten motifs could be found to characterise the travelling narration: Culture, Crossing Borders, Freedom, Time and Space, the Aesthetics of Landscapes, Writing and Reading, the Self and/as the Other, Home, Religion and Spirituality as well as the Journey. The importance of each individual motif does not only apply in the 1930s or 1950s but also transmits important findings for living together today and in the future.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Baeckemo2022, author = {B{\"a}ckemo, Johan Dag Valentin}, title = {Digital tools and bioinspiration for the implementation in science and medicine}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57145}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571458}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiv, 108}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Diese Doktorarbeit untersucht anhand dreier Beispiele, wie digitale Werkzeuge wie Programmierung, Modellierung, 3D-Konstruktions-Werkzeuge und additive Fertigung in Verbindung mit einer auf Biomimetik basierenden Design\-strategie zu neuen Analysemethoden und Produkten f{\"u}hren k{\"o}nnen, die in Wissenschaft und Medizin Anwendung finden. Das Verfahren der Funkenerosion (EDM) wird h{\"a}ufig angewandt, um harte Metalle zu verformen oder zu formen, die mit normalen Maschinen nur schwer zu bearbeiten sind. In dieser Arbeit wird eine neuartige Kr{\"u}mmungsanalysemethode als Alternative zur Rauheitsanalyse vorgestellt. Um besser zu verstehen, wie sich die Oberfl{\"a}che w{\"a}hrend der Bearbeitungszeit des EDM-Prozesses ver{\"a}ndert, wurde außerdem ein digitales Schlagmodell erstellt, das auf einem urspr{\"u}nglich flachen Substrat Krater auf Erhebungen erzeugte. Es wurde festgestellt, dass ein Substrat bei etwa 10.000 St{\"o}ßen ein Gleichgewicht erreicht. Die vorgeschlagene Kr{\"u}mmungsanalysemethode hat das Potenzial, bei der Entwicklung neuer Zellkultursubstrate f{\"u}r die Stammzellenforschung eingesetzt zu werden. Zwei Arten, die in dieser Arbeit aufgrund ihrer interessanten Mechanismen analysiert wurden, sind die Venusfliegenfalle und der Bandwurm. Die Venusfliegenfalle kann ihr Maul mit einer erstaunlichen Geschwindigkeit schließen. Der Schließmechanismus kann f{\"u}r die Wissenschaft interessant sein und ist ein Beispiel f{\"u}r ein so genanntes mechanisch bi-stabiles System - es gibt zwei stabile Zust{\"a}nde. Der Bandwurm ist bei S{\"a}ugetieren meist im unteren Darm zu finden und heftet sich mit seinen Saugn{\"a}pfen an die Darmw{\"a}nde. Wenn der Bandwurm eine geeignete Stelle gefunden hat, st{\"o}ßt er seine Haken aus und heftet sich dauerhaft an die Wand. Diese Funktion k{\"o}nnte in der minimalinvasiven Medizin genutzt werden, um eine bessere Kontrolle der Implantate w{\"a}hrend des Implantationsprozesses zu erm{\"o}glichen. F{\"u}r beide Projekte wurde ein mathematisches Modell, das so genannte Chained Beam Constraint Model (CBCM), verwendet, um das nichtlineare Biegeverhalten zu modellieren und somit vorherzusagen, welche Strukturen ein mechanisch bi-stabiles Verhalten aufweisen k{\"o}nnten. Daraufhin konnten zwei Prototypen mit einem 3D-Drucker gedruckt und durch Experimente veranschaulicht werden, dass sie beide ein bi-stabiles Verhalten aufweisen. Diese Arbeit verdeutlicht das hohe Anwendungspotenzial f{\"u}r neue Analysenmethoden in der Wissenschaft und f{\"u}r neue Medizinprodukte in der minimalinvasiven Medizin.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Tegtmeier2022, author = {Tegtmeier, Laura}, title = {Functional analysis of ENTH domain proteins}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57004}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-570049}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {106}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In plant cells, subcellular transport of cargo proteins relies to a large extent on post-Golgi transport pathways, many of which are mediated by clathrin-coated vesicles (CCVs). Vesicle formation is facilitated by different factors like accessory proteins and adaptor protein complexes (APs), the latter serving as a bridge between cargo proteins and the coat protein clathrin. One type of accessory proteins is defined by a conserved EPSIN N-TERMINAL HOMOLOGY (ENTH) domain and interacts with APs and clathrin via motifs in the C-terminal part. In Arabidopsis thaliana, there are three closely related ENTH domain proteins (EPSIN1, 2 and 3) and one highly conserved but phylogenetically distant outlier, termed MODIFIED TRANSPORT TO THE VACUOLE1 (MTV1). In case of the trans-Golgi network (TGN) located MTV1, clathrin association and a role in vacuolar transport have been shown previously (Sauer et al. 2013). In contrast, for EPSIN1 and EPSIN2 limited functional and localization data were available; and EPSIN3 remained completely uncharacterized prior to this study (Song et al. 2006; Lee et al. 2007). The molecular details of ENTH domain proteins in plants are still unknown. In order to systematically characterize all four ENTH proteins in planta, we first investigated expression and subcellular localization by analysis of stable reporter lines under their endogenous promotors. Although all four genes are ubiquitously expressed, their subcellular distribution differs markedly. EPSIN1 and MTV1 are located at the TGN, whereas EPSIN2 and EPSIN3 are associated with the plasma membrane (PM) and the cell plate. To examine potential functional redundancy, we isolated knockout T-DNA mutant lines and created all higher order mutant combinations. The clearest evidence for functional redundancy was observed in the epsin1 mtv1 double mutant, which is a dwarf displaying overall growth reduction. These findings are in line with the TGN localization of both MTV1 and EPS1. In contrast, loss of EPSIN2 and EPSIN3 does not result in a growth phenotype compared to wild type, however, a triple knockout of EPSIN1, EPSIN2 and EPSIN3 shows partially sterile plants. We focused mainly on the epsin1 mtv1 double mutant and addressed the functional role of these two genes in clathrin-mediated vesicle transport by comprehensive molecular, biochemical, and genetic analyses. Our results demonstrate that EPSIN1 and MTV1 promote vacuolar transport and secretion of a subset of cargo. However, they do not seem to be involved in endocytosis and recycling. Importantly, employing high-resolution imaging, genetic and biochemical experiments probing the relationship of the AP complexes, we found that EPSIN1/AP1 and MTV1/AP4 define two spatially and molecularly distinct subdomains of the TGN. The AP4 complex is essential for MTV1 recruitment to the TGN, whereas EPSIN1 is independent of AP4 but presumably acts in an AP1-dependent framework. Our findings suggest that this ENTH/AP pairing preference is conserved between animals and plants.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Oberkofler2022, author = {Oberkofler, Vicky}, title = {Molecular basis of HS memory in Arabidopsis thaliana}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56954}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-569544}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {181}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Plants can be primed to survive the exposure to a severe heat stress (HS) by prior exposure to a mild HS. The information about the priming stimulus is maintained by the plant for several days. This maintenance of acquired thermotolerance, or HS memory, is genetically separable from the acquisition of thermotolerance itself and several specific regulatory factors have been identified in recent years. On the molecular level, HS memory correlates with two types of transcriptional memory, type I and type II, that characterize a partially overlapping subset of HS-inducible genes. Type I transcriptional memory or sustained induction refers to the sustained transcriptional induction above non-stressed expression levels of a gene for a prolonged time period after the end of the stress exposure. Type II transcriptional memory refers to an altered transcriptional response of a gene after repeated exposure to a stress of similar duration and intensity. In particular, enhanced re-induction refers to a transcriptional pattern in which a gene is induced to a significantly higher degree after the second stress exposure than after the first. This thesis describes the functional characterization of a novel positive transcriptional regulator of type I transcriptional memory, the heat shock transcription factor HSFA3, and compares it to HSFA2, a known positive regulator of type I and type II transcriptional memory. It investigates type I transcriptional memory and its dependence on HSFA2 and HSFA3 for the first time on a genome-wide level, and gives insight on the formation of heteromeric HSF complexes in response to HS. This thesis confirms the tight correlation between transcriptional memory and H3K4 hyper-methylation, reported here in a case study that aimed to reduce H3K4 hyper-methylation of the type II transcriptional memory gene APX2 by CRISPR/dCas9-mediated epigenome editing. Finally, this thesis gives insight into the requirements for a heat shock transcription factor to function as a positive regulator of transcriptional memory, both in terms of its expression profile and protein abundance after HS and the contribution of individual functional domains. In summary, this thesis contributes to a more detailed understanding of the molecular processes underlying transcriptional memory and therefore HS memory, in Arabidopsis thaliana.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Draisbach2022, author = {Draisbach, Uwe}, title = {Efficient duplicate detection and the impact of transitivity}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57214}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-572140}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {x, 150}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Duplicate detection describes the process of finding multiple representations of the same real-world entity in the absence of a unique identifier, and has many application areas, such as customer relationship management, genealogy and social sciences, or online shopping. Due to the increasing amount of data in recent years, the problem has become even more challenging on the one hand, but has led to a renaissance in duplicate detection research on the other hand. This thesis examines the effects and opportunities of transitive relationships on the duplicate detection process. Transitivity implies that if record pairs ⟨ri,rj⟩ and ⟨rj,rk⟩ are classified as duplicates, then also record pair ⟨ri,rk⟩ has to be a duplicate. However, this reasoning might contradict with the pairwise classification, which is usually based on the similarity of objects. An essential property of similarity, in contrast to equivalence, is that similarity is not necessarily transitive. First, we experimentally evaluate the effect of an increasing data volume on the threshold selection to classify whether a record pair is a duplicate or non-duplicate. Our experiments show that independently of the pair selection algorithm and the used similarity measure, selecting a suitable threshold becomes more difficult with an increasing number of records due to an increased probability of adding a false duplicate to an existing cluster. Thus, the best threshold changes with the dataset size, and a good threshold for a small (possibly sampled) dataset is not necessarily a good threshold for a larger (possibly complete) dataset. As data grows over time, earlier selected thresholds are no longer a suitable choice, and the problem becomes worse for datasets with larger clusters. Second, we present with the Duplicate Count Strategy (DCS) and its enhancement DCS++ two alternatives to the standard Sorted Neighborhood Method (SNM) for the selection of candidate record pairs. DCS adapts SNMs window size based on the number of detected duplicates and DCS++ uses transitive dependencies to save complex comparisons for finding duplicates in larger clusters. We prove that with a proper (domain- and data-independent!) threshold, DCS++ is more efficient than SNM without loss of effectiveness. Third, we tackle the problem of contradicting pairwise classifications. Usually, the transitive closure is used for pairwise classifications to obtain a transitively closed result set. However, the transitive closure disregards negative classifications. We present three new and several existing clustering algorithms and experimentally evaluate them on various datasets and under various algorithm configurations. The results show that the commonly used transitive closure is inferior to most other clustering algorithms, especially for the precision of results. In scenarios with larger clusters, our proposed EMCC algorithm is, together with Markov Clustering, the best performing clustering approach for duplicate detection, although its runtime is longer than Markov Clustering due to the subexponential time complexity. EMCC especially outperforms Markov Clustering regarding the precision of the results and additionally has the advantage that it can also be used in scenarios where edge weights are not available.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Dech2022, author = {Dech, Silas}, title = {Isometric muscle function}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57126}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571265}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {127}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The cumulative dissertation consists of four original articles. These considered isometric muscle ac-tions in healthy humans from a basic physiological view (oxygen and blood supply) as well as possibilities of their distinction. It includes a novel approach to measure a specific form of isometric hold-ing function which has not been considered in motor science so far. This function is characterized by an adaptation to varying external forces with particular importance in daily activities and sports. The first part of the research program analyzed how the biceps brachii muscle is supplied with oxygen and blood by adapting to a moderate constant load until task failure (publication 1). In this regard, regulative mechanisms were investigated in relation to the issue of presumably compressed capillaries due to high intramuscular pressures (publication 2). Furthermore, it was examined if oxygenation and time to task failure (TTF) differs compared to an-other isometric muscle function (publication 3). This function is mainly of diagnostic interest by measuring the maximal voluntary isometric contraction (MVIC) as a gold standard. For that, a person pulls on or pushes against an insurmountable resistance. However, the underlying pulling or pushing form of isometric muscle action (PIMA) differs compared to the holding one (HIMA). HIMAs have mainly been examined by using constant loads. In order to quantify the adaptability to varying external forces, a new approach was necessary and considered in the second part of the research program. A device was constructed based on a previously developed pneumatic measurement system. The device should have been able to measure the Adaptive Force (AF) of elbow ex-tensor muscles. The AF determines the adaptability to increasing external forces under isometric (AFiso) and eccentric (AFecc) conditions. At first, it was questioned if these parameters can be relia-bly assessed by use of the new device (publication 4). Subsequently, the main research question was investigated: Is the maximal AFiso a specific and independent variable of muscle function in comparison to the MVIC? Furthermore, both research parts contained a sub-question of how results can be influenced. Parameters of local oxygen saturation (SvO2) and capillary blood filling (rHb) were non-invasively recorded by a spectrophotometer during maximal and submaximal HIMAs and PIMAs. These were the main findings: Under load, SvO2 and rHb always adjusted into a steady state after an initial decrease. Nevertheless, their behavior could roughly be categorized into two types. In type I, both parameters behaved nearly parallel to each other. In contrast, their progression over time was partly inverse in type II. The inverse behavior probably depends on the level of deoxygenation since rHb increased reliably at a suggested threshold of about 59\% SvO2. This triggered mechanism and the found homeostatic steady states seem to be in conflict with the concept of mechanically compressed capillaries and consequently with a restricted blood flow. Anatomical configuration of blood vessels might provide one hypothetical explanation of how blood flow might be maintained. HIMA and PIMA did not differ regarding oxygenation and allocation to the described types. The TTF tended to be longer during PIMA. As a sub-question, oxygenation and TTF were compared between (HIMA) and intermittent voluntary muscle twitches during a weight holding task. TTF but not oxygenation differed significantly (Twitch > HIMA). A changed neuromuscular control might serve as a speculative explanation of how the results can be explained. This is supported by the finding that the TTF did not correlate significantly with the extent of deoxygenation irrespective of the performed task (HIMA, PIMA or Twitch). Other neuromuscular aspects of muscle function were considered in second part of the re-search program. The new device mentioned above detected different force capacities within four trials at two days each. Among AF measurements, the functional counterpart of a concentric muscle action merging into an isometric one was analyzed in comparison to the MVIC. Based on the results, it can be assumed that a prior concentric muscle action does not influence the MVIC. However, the results were inconsistent and possibly influenced by systematic errors. In con-trast, maximal variables of the AF (AFisomax and AFeccmax) could be measured in a reliable way which is indicated by a high test-retest reliability. Despite substantial correlations between force variables, the AFisomax differed significantly from MVIC and AFmax, which was identical with AFeccmax in almost all cases. Moreover, AFisomax revealed the highest variability between trials. These results indicate that maximal force capacities should be assessed separately. The adaptive holding capacity of a muscle can be lower compared to a commonly determined MVIC. This is of relevance since muscles frequently need to respond adequately to external forces. If their response does not correspond to the external impact, the muscle is forced to lengthen. In this scenario, joints are not completely stabilized and an injury may occur. This outlined issue should be addressed in future research in the field of sport and health sciences. At last, the dissertation presents another possibility to quantify the AFisomax by use of a handheld device applied in combination with a manual muscle test. This assessment delivers a more practical way for clinical purposes.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Folikumah2022, author = {Folikumah, Makafui Yao}, title = {Stimuli-promoted in situ formation of hydrogels with thiol/thioester containing peptide precursors}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56971}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-569713}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {159}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Hydrogels are potential synthetic ECM-like substitutes since they provide functional and structural similarities compared to soft tissues. They can be prepared by crosslinking of macromolecules or by polymerizing suitable precursors. The crosslinks are not necessarily covalent bonds, but could also be formed by physical interactions such as π-π interactions, hydrophobic interactions, or H-bonding. On demand in situ forming hydrogels have garnered increased interest especially for biomedical applications over preformed gels due to the relative ease of in vivo delivery and filling of cavities. The thiol-Michael addition reaction provides a straightforward and robust strategy for in situ gel formation with its fast reaction kinetics and ability to proceed under physiological conditions. The incorporation of a trigger function into a crosslinking system becomes even more interesting since gelling can be controlled with stimulus of choice. The use of small molar mass crosslinker precursors with active groups orthogonal to thiol-Michael reaction type electrophile provides the opportunity to implement an on-demand in situ crosslinking without compromising the fast reaction kinetics. It was postulated that short peptide sequences due to the broad range structural-function relations available with the different constituent amino acids, can be exploited for the realisation of stimuli-promoted in situ covalent crosslinking and gelation applications. The advantages of this system over conventional polymer-polymer hydrogel systems are the ability tune and predict material property at the molecular level. The main aim of this work was to develop a simplified and biologically-friendly stimuli-promoted in situ crosslinking and hydrogelation system using peptide mimetics as latent crosslinkers. The approach aims at using a single thiodepsipeptide sequence to achieve separate pH- and enzyme-promoted gelation systems with little modification to the thiodepsipeptide sequence. The realization of this aim required the completion of three milestones. In the first place, after deciding on the thiol-Michael reaction as an effective in situ crosslinking strategy, a thiodepsipeptide, Ac-Pro-Leu-Gly-SLeu-Leu-Gly-NEtSH (TDP) with expected propensity towards pH-dependent thiol-thioester exchange (TTE) activation, was proposed as a suitable crosslinker precursor for pH-promoted gelation system. Prior to the synthesis of the proposed peptide-mimetic, knowledge of the thiol-Michael reactivity of the would-be activated thiol moiety SH-Leu, which is internally embedded in the thiodepsipeptide was required. In line with pKa requirements for a successful TTE, the reactivity of a more acidic thiol, SH-Phe was also investigated to aid the selection of the best thiol to be incorporated in the thioester bearing peptide based crosslinker precursor. Using 'pseudo' 2D-NMR investigations, it was found that only reactions involving SH-Leu yielded the expected thiol-Michael product, an observation that was attributed to the steric hindrance of the bulkier nature of SH-Phe. The fast reaction rates and complete acrylate/maleimide conversion obtained with SH-Leu at pH 7.2 and higher aided the direct elimination of SH-Phe as a potential thiol for the synthesis of the peptide mimetic. Based on the initial studies, for the pH-promoted gelation system, the proposed Ac-Pro-Leu-Gly-SLeu-Leu-Gly-NEtSH was kept unmodified. The subtle difference in pKa values between SH-Leu (thioester thiol) and the terminal cysteamine thiol from theoretical conditions should be enough to effect a 'pseudo' intramolecular TTE. In polar protic solvents and under basic aqueous conditions, TDP successfully undergoes a 'pseudo' intramolecular TTE reaction to yield an α,ω-dithiol tripeptide, HSLeu-Leu-Gly-NEtSH. The pH dependence of thiolate ion generation by the cysteamine thiol aided the incorporation of the needed stimulus (pH) for the overall success of TTE (activation step) - thiol-Michael addition (crosslinking) strategy. Secondly, with potential biomedical applications in focus, the susceptibility of TDP, like other thioesters, to intermolecular TTE reaction was probed with a group of thiols of varying thiol pKa values, since biological milieu characteristically contain peptide/protein thiols. L-cysteine, which is a biologically relevant thiol, and a small molecular weight thiol, methylthioglycolate both with relatively similar thiol pKa, values, led to an increase concentration of the dithiol crosslinker when reacted with TDP. In the presence of acidic thiols (p-NTP and 4MBA), a decrease in the dithiol concentration was observed, an observation that can be attributed to the inability of the TTE tetrahedral intermediate to dissociate into exchange products and is in line with pKa requirements for successful TTE reaction. These results additionally makes TDP more attractive and the potentially the first crosslinker precursor for applications in biologically relevant media. Finally, the ability of TDP to promote pH-sensitive in situ gel formation was probed with maleimide functionalized 4-arm polyethylene glycol polymers in tris-buffered media of varying pHs. When a 1:1 thiol: maleimide molar ratio was used, TDP-PEG4MAL hydrogels formed within 3, 12 and 24 hours at pH values of 8.5, 8.0 and 7.5 respectively. However, gelation times of 3, 5 and 30 mins were observed for the same pH trend when the thiol: maleimide molar was increased to 2:1. A direct correlation of thiol content with G' of the gels at each pH could also be drawn by comparing gels with thiol: maleimide ratios of 1:1 to those with 2:1 thiol: maleimide mole ratios. This is supported by the fact that the storage modulus (G') is linearly dependent on the crosslinking density of the polymer. The values of initial G′ for all gels ranged between (200 - 5000 Pa), which falls in the range of elasticities of certain tissue microenvironments for example brain tissue 200 - 1000 Pa and adipose tissue (2500 - 3500 Pa). Knowledge so far gained from the study on the ability to design and tune the exchange reaction of thioester containing peptide mimetic will give those working in the field further insight into the development of new sequences tailored towards specific applications. TTE substrate design using peptide mimetic as presented in this work has revealed interesting new insights considering the state-of-the-art. Using the results obtained as reference, the strategy provides a possibility to extend the concept to the controlled delivery of active molecules needed for other robust and high yielding crosslinking reactions for biomedical applications. Application for this sequentially coupled functional system could be seen e.g. in the treatment of inflamed tissues associated with urinary tract like bladder infections for which pH levels above 7 were reported. By the inclusion of cell adhesion peptide motifs, the hydrogel network formed at this pH could act as a new support layer for the healing of damage epithelium as shown in interfacial gel formation experiments using TDP and PEG4MAL droplets. The versatility of the thiodepsipeptide sequence, Ac-Pro-Leu-Gly-SLeu-Leu-Gly-(TDPo) was extended for the design and synthesis of a MMP-sensitive 4-arm PEG-TDPo conjugate. The purported cleavage of TDPo at the Gly-SLeu bond yields active thiol units for subsequent reaction of orthogonal Michael acceptor moieties. One of the advantages of stimuli-promoted in situ crosslinking systems using short peptides should be the ease of design of required peptide molecules due to the predictability of peptide functions their sequence structure. Consequently the functionalisation of a 4-arm PEG core with the collagenase active TDPo sequence yielded an MMP-sensitive 4-arm thiodepsipeptide-PEG conjugate (PEG4TDPo) substrate. Cleavage studies using thiol flourometric assay in the presence of MMPs -2 and -9 confirmed the susceptibility of PEG4TDPo towards these enzymes. The resulting time-dependent increase in fluorescence intensity in the presence of thiol assay signifies the successful cleavage of TDPo at the Gly-SLeu bond as expected. It was observed that the cleavage studies with thiol flourometric assay introduces a sigmoid non-Michaelis-Menten type kinetic profile, hence making it difficult to accurately determine the enzyme cycling parameters, kcat and KM . Gelation studies with PEG4MAL at 10 \% wt. concentrations revealed faster gelation with MMP-2 than MMP-9 with 28 and 40 min gelation times respectively. Possible contributions by hydrolytic cleavage of PEG4TDPo has resulted in the gelation of PEG4MAL blank samples but only after 60 minutes of reaction. From theoretical considerations, the simultaneous gelation reaction would be expected to more negatively impact the enzymatic than hydrolytic cleavage. The exact contributions from hydrolytic cleavage of PEG4TDPo would however require additional studies. In summary this new and simplified in situ crosslinking system using peptide-based crosslinker precursors with tuneable properties exhibited in situ crosslinking gelation kinetics on similar levels with already active dithiols reported. The advantageous on-demand functionality associated with its pH-sensitivity and physiological compatibility makes it a strong candidate worth further research as biomedical applications in general and on-demand material synthesis is concerned. Results from MMP-promoted gelation system unveils a simple but unexplored approach for in situ synthesis of covalently crosslinked soft materials, that could lead to the development of an alternative pathway in addressing cancer metastasis by making use of MMP overexpression as a trigger. This goal has so far not being reach with MMP inhibitors despite the extensive work this regard.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hussner2022, author = {Hußner, Isabell}, title = {Self-efficacy beliefs of student teachers in the context of teachingrelated practical experiences in schools}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57162}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571627}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {165}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Self-efficacy beliefs play a significant role in teachers' professional behavior in class (Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998) and students' achievement and behavior (Mojavezi \& Tamiz, 2012). Teacher self-efficacy beliefs are defined as teachers' own beliefs about their capability to achieve certain goals in a specific situation (Dellinger et al., 2008; Tschannen-Moran \& Hoy, 2001). Due to the essential role of teachers in the educational system and society, supporting teachers' well-being, productivity, and efficiency is important (Kasalak \& Dagyar, 2020). Empirical evidence highlights the positive effects of teacher self-efficacy beliefs on their wellbeing (Perera \& John, 2020) and on students' learning and performance (Zee \& Koomen, 2016), but there is a lack of empirical research focusing on the importance of self-efficacy beliefs for student teachers in teacher education programs (Yurekli et al., 2020), especially during practical training periods. Based on the importance of teachers' own teaching experiences, which have been described as mastery experiences, i.e. the strongest source of self-efficacy beliefs for student teachers (Pfitzner-Eden, 2016b), this dissertation examines practical experiences as a source of (student) teacher self-efficacy beliefs and, relatedly, the development of and changes in student teachers' self-efficacy during teacher education. Therefore, Study 1 focuses on changes in student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs during shortterm practical experiences compared to online teaching without teaching experiences. Due to inconsistent findings of reciprocal relations between teacher self-efficacy beliefs and teaching quality (Holzberger et al., 2013; Lazarides et al., 2022), Study 2 examines the interrelation of student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and their teaching behavior during teacher education. Feedback can be an important source of self-efficacy beliefs, serving as verbal persuasion that enhances feelings of competence (Pfitzner-Eden, 2016b). In this context, Study 2 also focuses on the relation between changes in student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and the perceived quality of peer feedback in terms of short-term practical experiences in teacher education. Moreover, for the investigation of the development of student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs, it is important to examine individual personality aspects and specific conditions of the learning environment in teacher education (Bach, 2022). Based on the assumption that the support of reflective processes in teacher education (Menon \& Azam, 2021) and the use of innovative learning settings such as VR videos (Nissim \& Weissblueth, 2017) foster the development of student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs, Studies 3 and 4 investigate student teachers' reflection processes regarding their own experiences in teaching and the teaching experiences of others observed during teacher education. Against the background of inconsistent findings and a lack of empirical research on the relations between self-efficacy beliefs of student teachers and different circumstances pertaining to the learning environment or personal characteristics, further empirical research is needed that investigates different sources and relations of student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs during teacher education. In this context, this dissertation examines which individual characteristics and learning environments enhance student teachers' self-efficacy beliefs, especially during short-term practical experiences in teacher education. In addition, the dissertation concludes with a discussion of the findings of the four studies by summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of each study. Limitations and implications for further research are discussed as well.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Niephaus2022, author = {Niephaus, Fabio}, title = {Exploratory tool-building platforms for polyglot virtual machines}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-57177}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-571776}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxi, 249}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Polyglot programming allows developers to use multiple programming languages within the same software project. While it is common to use more than one language in certain programming domains, developers also apply polyglot programming for other purposes such as to re-use software written in other languages. Although established approaches to polyglot programming come with significant limitations, for example, in terms of performance and tool support, developers still use them to be able to combine languages. Polyglot virtual machines (VMs) such as GraalVM provide a new level of polyglot programming, allowing languages to directly interact with each other. This reduces the amount of glue code needed to combine languages, results in better performance, and enables tools such as debuggers to work across languages. However, only a little research has focused on novel tools that are designed to support developers in building software with polyglot VMs. One reason is that tool-building is often an expensive activity, another one is that polyglot VMs are still a moving target as their use cases and requirements are not yet well understood. In this thesis, we present an approach that builds on existing self-sustaining programming systems such as Squeak/Smalltalk to enable exploratory programming, a practice for exploring and gathering software requirements, and re-use their extensive tool-building capabilities in the context of polyglot VMs. Based on TruffleSqueak, our implementation for the GraalVM, we further present five case studies that demonstrate how our approach helps tool developers to design and build tools for polyglot programming. We further show that TruffleSqueak can also be used by application developers to build and evolve polyglot applications at run-time and by language and runtime developers to understand the dynamic behavior of GraalVM languages and internals. Since our platform allows all these developers to apply polyglot programming, it can further help to better understand the advantages, use cases, requirements, and challenges of polyglot VMs. Moreover, we demonstrate that our approach can also be applied to other polyglot VMs and that insights gained through it are transferable to other programming systems. We conclude that our research on tools for polyglot programming is an important step toward making polyglot VMs more approachable for developers in practice. With good tool support, we believe polyglot VMs can make it much more common for developers to take advantage of multiple languages and their ecosystems when building software.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Fischer2022, author = {Fischer, Melanie}, title = {Outburst floods in the Greater Himalayas}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56997}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-569972}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xviii, 155}, year = {2022}, abstract = {High-mountain regions provide valuable ecosystem services, including food, water, and energy production, to more than 900 million people worldwide. Projections hold, that this population number will rapidly increase in the next decades, accompanied by a continued urbanisation of cities located in mountain valleys. One of the manifestations of this ongoing socio-economic change of mountain societies is a rise in settlement areas and transportation infrastructure while an increased power need fuels the construction of hydropower plants along rivers in the high-mountain regions of the world. However, physical processes governing the cryosphere of these regions are highly sensitive to changes in climate and a global warming will likely alter the conditions in the headwaters of high-mountain rivers. One of the potential implications of this change is an increase in frequency and magnitude of outburst floods - highly dynamic flows capable of carrying large amounts of water and sediments. Sudden outbursts from lakes formed behind natural dams are complex geomorphological processes and are often part of a hazard cascade. In contrast to other types of natural hazards in high-alpine areas, for example landslides or avalanches, outburst floods are highly infrequent. Therefore, observations and data describing for example the mode of outburst or the hydraulic properties of the downstream propagating flow are very limited, which is a major challenge in contemporary (glacial) lake outburst flood research. Although glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and landslide-dammed lake outburst floods (LLOFs) are rare, a number of documented events caused high fatality counts and damage. The highest documented losses due to outburst floods since the start of the 20th century were induced by only a few high-discharge events. Thus, outburst floods can be a significant hazard to downvalley communities and infrastructure in high-mountain regions worldwide. This thesis focuses on the Greater Himalayan region, a vast mountain belt stretching across 0.89 million km2. Although potentially hundreds of outburst floods have occurred there since the beginning of the 20th century, data on these events is still scarce. Projections of cryospheric change, including glacier-mass wastage and permafrost degradation, will likely result in an overall increase of the water volume stored in meltwater lakes as well as the destabilisation of mountain slopes in the Greater Himalayan region. Thus, the potential for outburst floods to affect the increasingly more densely populated valleys of this mountain belt is also likely to increase in the future. A prime example of one of these valleys is the Pokhara valley in Nepal, which is drained by the Seti Khola, a river crossing one of the steepest topographic gradients in the Himalayas. This valley is also home to Nepal's second largest, rapidly growing city, Pokhara, which currently has a population of more than half a million people - some of which live in informal settlements within the floodplain of the Seti Khola. Although there is ample evidence for past outburst floods along this river in recent and historic times, these events have hardly been quantified. The main motivation of my thesis is to address the data scarcity on past and potential future outburst floods in the Greater Himalayan region, both at a regional and at a local scale. For the former, I compiled an inventory of >3,000 moraine-dammed lakes, of which about 1\% had a documented sudden failure in the past four decades. I used this data to test whether a number of predictors that have been widely applied in previous GLOF assessments are statistically relevant when estimating past GLOF susceptibility. For this, I set up four Bayesian multi-level logistic regression models, in which I explored the credibility of the predictors lake area, lake-area dynamics, lake elevation, parent-glacier-mass balance, and monsoonality. By using a hierarchical approach consisting of two levels, this probabilistic framework also allowed for spatial variability on GLOF susceptibility across the vast study area, which until now had not been considered in studies of this scale. The model results suggest that in the Nyainqentanglha and Eastern Himalayas - regions with strong negative glacier-mass balances - lakes have been more prone to release GLOFs than in regions with less negative or even stable glacier-mass balances. Similarly, larger lakes in larger catchments had, on average, a higher probability to have had a GLOF in the past four decades. Yet, monsoonality, lake elevation, and lake-area dynamics were more ambiguous. This challenges the credibility of a lake's rapid growth in surface area as an indicator of a pending outburst; a metric that has been applied to regional GLOF assessments worldwide. At a local scale, my thesis aims to overcome data scarcity concerning the flow characteristics of the catastrophic May 2012 flood along the Seti Khola, which caused 72 fatalities, as well as potentially much larger predecessors, which deposited >1 km³ of sediment in the Pokhara valley between the 12th and 14th century CE. To reconstruct peak discharges, flow depths, and flow velocities of the 2012 flood, I mapped the extents of flood sediments from RapidEye satellite imagery and used these as a proxy for inundation limits. To constrain the latter for the Mediaeval events, I utilised outcrops of slackwater deposits in the fills of tributary valleys. Using steady-state hydrodynamic modelling for a wide range of plausible scenarios, from meteorological (1,000 m³ s-1) to cataclysmic outburst floods (600,000 m³ s-1), I assessed the likely initial discharges of the recent and the Mediaeval floods based on the lowest mismatch between sedimentary evidence and simulated flood limits. One-dimensional HEC-RAS simulations suggest, that the 2012 flood most likely had a peak discharge of 3,700 m³ s-1 in the upper Seti Khola and attenuated to 500 m³ s-1 when arriving in Pokhara's suburbs some 15 km downstream. Simulations of flow in two-dimensions with orders of magnitude higher peak discharges in ANUGA show extensive backwater effects in the main tributary valleys. These backwater effects match the locations of slackwater deposits and, hence, attest for the flood character of Mediaeval sediment pulses. This thesis provides first quantitative proof for the hypothesis, that the latter were linked to earthquake-triggered outbursts of large former lakes in the headwaters of the Seti Khola - producing floods with peak discharges of >50,000 m³ s-1. Building on this improved understanding of past floods along the Seti Khola, my thesis continues with an analysis of the impacts of potential future outburst floods on land cover, including built-up areas and infrastructure mapped from high-resolution satellite and OpenStreetMap data. HEC-RAS simulations of ten flood scenarios, with peak discharges ranging from 1,000 to 10,000 m³ s-1, show that the relative inundation hazard is highest in Pokhara's north-western suburbs. There, the potential effects of hydraulic ponding upstream of narrow gorges might locally sustain higher flow depths. Yet, along this reach, informal settlements and gravel mining activities are close to the active channel. By tracing the construction dynamics in two of these potentially affected informal settlements on multi-temporal RapidEye, PlanetScope, and Google Earth imagery, I found that exposure increased locally between three- to twentyfold in just over a decade (2008 to 2021). In conclusion, this thesis provides new quantitative insights into the past controls on the susceptibility of glacial lakes to sudden outburst at a regional scale and the flow dynamics of propagating flood waves released by past events at a local scale, which can aid future hazard assessments on transient scales in the Greater Himalayan region. My subsequent exploration of the impacts of potential future outburst floods to exposed infrastructure and (informal) settlements might provide valuable inputs to anticipatory assessments of multiple risks in the Pokhara valley.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Zeitz2022, author = {Zeitz, Maria}, title = {Modeling the future resilience of the Greenland Ice Sheet}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56883}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-568839}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {x, 189}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The Greenland Ice Sheet is the second-largest mass of ice on Earth. Being almost 2000 km long, more than 700 km wide, and more than 3 km thick at the summit, it holds enough ice to raise global sea levels by 7m if melted completely. Despite its massive size, it is particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic climate change: temperatures over the Greenland Ice Sheet have increased by more than 2.7◦C in the past 30 years, twice as much as the global mean temperature. Consequently, the ice sheet has been significantly losing mass since the 1980s and the rate of loss has increased sixfold since then. Moreover, it is one of the potential tipping elements of the Earth System, which might undergo irreversible change once a warming threshold is exceeded. This thesis aims at extending the understanding of the resilience of the Greenland Ice Sheet against global warming by analyzing processes and feedbacks relevant to its centennial to multi-millennial stability using ice sheet modeling. One of these feedbacks, the melt-elevation-feedback is driven by the temperature rise with decreasing altitudes: As the ice sheet melts, its thickness and surface elevation decrease, exposing the ice surface to warmer air and thus increasing the melt rates even further. The glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) can partly mitigate this melt-elevation feedback as the bedrock lifts in response to an ice load decrease, forming the negative GIA feedback. In my thesis, I show that the interaction between these two competing feedbacks can lead to qualitatively different dynamical responses of the Greenland Ice Sheet to warming - from permanent loss to incomplete recovery, depending on the feedback parameters. My research shows that the interaction of those feedbacks can initiate self-sustained oscillations of the ice volume while the climate forcing remains constant. Furthermore, the increased surface melt changes the optical properties of the snow or ice surface, e.g. by lowering their albedo, which in turn enhances melt rates - a process known as the melt-albedo feedback. Process-based ice sheet models often neglect this melt-albedo feedback. To close this gap, I implemented a simplified version of the diurnal Energy Balance Model, a computationally efficient approach that can capture the first-order effects of the melt-albedo feedback, into the Parallel Ice Sheet Model (PISM). Using the coupled model, I show in warming experiments that the melt-albedo feedback almost doubles the ice loss until the year 2300 under the low greenhouse gas emission scenario RCP2.6, compared to simulations where the melt-albedo feedback is neglected, and adds up to 58\% additional ice loss under the high emission scenario RCP8.5. Moreover, I find that the melt-albedo feedback dominates the ice loss until 2300, compared to the melt-elevation feedback. Another process that could influence the resilience of the Greenland Ice Sheet is the warming induced softening of the ice and the resulting increase in flow. In my thesis, I show with PISM how the uncertainty in Glen's flow law impacts the simulated response to warming. In a flow line setup at fixed climatic mass balance, the uncertainty in flow parameters leads to a range of ice loss comparable to the range caused by different warming levels. While I focus on fundamental processes, feedbacks, and their interactions in the first three projects of my thesis, I also explore the impact of specific climate scenarios on the sea level rise contribution of the Greenland Ice Sheet. To increase the carbon budget flexibility, some warming scenarios - while still staying within the limits of the Paris Agreement - include a temporal overshoot of global warming. I show that an overshoot by 0.4◦C increases the short-term and long-term ice loss from Greenland by several centimeters. The long-term increase is driven by the warming at high latitudes, which persists even when global warming is reversed. This leads to a substantial long-term commitment of the sea level rise contribution from the Greenland Ice Sheet. Overall, in my thesis I show that the melt-albedo feedback is most relevant for the ice loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet on centennial timescales. In contrast, the melt-elevation feedback and its interplay with the GIA feedback become increasingly relevant on millennial timescales. All of these influence the resilience of the Greenland Ice Sheet against global warming, in the near future and on the long term.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Burgold2022, author = {Burgold, Julia}, title = {Erfahrung und Reflexion von Obdachlosigkeit}, series = {Potsdamer Geographische Praxis}, journal = {Potsdamer Geographische Praxis}, number = {18}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-541-5}, issn = {2194-1599}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55393}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-553932}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {342}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Die Arbeit gibt einen Einblick in die Verst{\"a}ndigungspraxen bei Stadtf{\"u}hrungen mit (ehemaligen) Obdachlosen, die in ihrem Selbstverst{\"a}ndnis auf die Herstellung von Verst{\"a}ndnis, Toleranz und Anerkennung f{\"u}r von Obdachlosigkeit betroffene Personen zielen. Zun{\"a}chst wird in den Diskurs des Slumtourismus eingef{\"u}hrt und, angesichts der Vielfalt der damit verbundenen Erscheinungsformen, Slumming als organisierte Begegnung mit sozialer Ungleichheit definiert. Die zentralen Diskurslinien und die darin eingewobenen moralischen Positionen werden nachvollzogen und im Rahmen der eigenommenen wissenssoziologischen Perspektive als Ausdruck einer per se polykontexturalen Praxis re-interpretiert. Slumming erscheint dann als eine organisierte Begegnung von Lebensformen, die sich in einer Weise fremd sind, als dass ein unmittelbares Verstehen unwahrscheinlich erscheint und genau aus diesem Grund auf der Basis von g{\"a}ngigen Interpretationen des Common Sense ausgehandelt werden muss. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht die vorliegende Arbeit, wie sich Teilnehmer und Stadtf{\"u}hrer {\"u}ber die Erfahrung der Obdachlosigkeit praktisch verst{\"a}ndigen und welcher Art das hier{\"u}ber erzeugte Verst{\"a}ndnis f{\"u}r die im {\"o}ffentlichen Diskurs mit vielf{\"a}ltigen stigmatisierenden Zuschreibungen versehenen Obdachlosen ist. Dabei interessiert besonders, in Bezug auf welche Aspekte der Erfahrung von Obdachlosigkeit ein gemeinsames Verst{\"a}ndnis m{\"o}glich wird und an welchen Stellen dieses an Grenzen ger{\"a}t. Dazu wurden die Gespr{\"a}chsverl{\"a}ufe auf neun Stadtf{\"u}hrungen mit (ehemaligen) obdachlosen Stadtf{\"u}hrern unterschiedlicher Anbieter im deutschsprachigen Raum verschriftlicht und mit dem Verfahren der Dokumentarischen Methode ausgewertet. Die vergleichende Betrachtung der Verst{\"a}ndigungspraxen er{\"o}ffnet nicht zuletzt eine differenzierte Perspektive auf die in den Prozessen der Verst{\"a}ndigung immer schon eingewobenen Anerkennungspraktiken. Mit Blick auf die moralische Debatte um organisierte Begegnungen mit sozialer Ungleichheit wird dadurch eine ethische Perspektive angeregt, in deren Zentrum Fragen zur Vermittlungsarbeit stehen.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Eckert2022, author = {Eckert, Silvia}, title = {Trait variation in changing environments: Assessing the role of DNA methylation in non-native plant species}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56884}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-568844}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VIII, 134, CXXX}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The increasing introduction of non-native plant species may pose a threat to local biodiversity. However, the basis of successful plant invasion is not conclusively understood, especially since these plant species can adapt to the new range within a short period of time despite impoverished genetic diversity of the starting populations. In this context, DNA methylation is considered promising to explain successful adaptation mechanisms in the new habitat. DNA methylation is a heritable variation in gene expression without changing the underlying genetic information. Thus, DNA methylation is considered a so-called epigenetic mechanism, but has been studied in mainly clonally reproducing plant species or genetic model plants. An understanding of this epigenetic mechanism in the context of non-native, predominantly sexually reproducing plant species might help to expand knowledge in biodiversity research on the interaction between plants and their habitats and, based on this, may enable more precise measures in conservation biology. For my studies, I combined chemical DNA demethylation of field-collected seed material from predominantly sexually reproducing species and rearing offsping under common climatic conditions to examine DNA methylation in an ecological-evolutionary context. The contrast of chemically treated (demethylated) plants, whose variation in DNA methylation was artificially reduced, and untreated control plants of the same species allowed me to study the impact of this mechanism on adaptive trait differentiation and local adaptation. With this experimental background, I conducted three studies examining the effect of DNA methylation in non-native species along a climatic gradient and also between climatically divergent regions. The first study focused on adaptive trait differentiation in two invasive perennial goldenrod species, Solidago canadensis sensu latu and S. gigantea AITON, along a climate gradient of more than 1000 km in length in Central Europe. I found population differences in flowering timing, plant height, and biomass in the temporally longer-established S. canadensis, but only in the number of regrowing shoots for S. gigantea. While S. canadensis did not show any population structure, I was able to identify three genetic groups along this climatic gradient in S. gigantea. Surprisingly, demethylated plants of both species showed no change in the majority of traits studied. In the subsequent second study, I focused on the longer-established goldenrod species S. canadensis and used molecular analyses to infer spatial epigenetic and genetic population differences in the same specimens from the previous study. I found weak genetic but no epigenetic spatial variation between populations. Additionally, I was able to identify one genetic marker and one epigenetic marker putatively susceptible to selection. However, the results of this study reconfirmed that the epigenetic mechanism of DNA methylation appears to be hardly involved in adaptive processes within the new range in S. canadensis. Finally, I conducted a third study in which I reciprocally transplanted short-lived plant species between two climatically divergent regions in Germany to investigate local adaptation at the plant family level. For this purpose, I used four plant families (Amaranthaceae, Asteraceae, Plantaginaceae, Solanaceae) and here I additionally compared between non-native and native plant species. Seeds were transplanted to regions with a distance of more than 600 kilometers and had either a temperate-oceanic or a temperate-continental climate. In this study, some species were found to be maladapted to their own local conditions, both in non-native and native plant species alike. In demethylated individuals of the plant species studied, DNA methylation had inconsistent but species-specific effects on survival and biomass production. The results of this study highlight that DNA methylation did not make a substantial contribution to local adaptation in the non-native as well as native species studied. In summary, my work showed that DNA methylation plays a negligible role in both adaptive trait variation along climatic gradients and local adaptation in non-native plant species that either exhibit a high degree of genetic variation or rely mainly on sexual reproduction with low clonal propagation. I was able to show that the adaptive success of these non-native plant species can hardly be explained by DNA methylation, but could be a possible consequence of multiple introductions, dispersal corridors and meta-population dynamics. Similarly, my results illustrate that the use of plant species that do not predominantly reproduce clonally and are not model plants is essential to characterize the effect size of epigenetic mechanisms in an ecological-evolutionary context.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kuschel2022, author = {Kuschel, Jenny}, title = {Steuerung im Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildungssystem in Deutschland}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56216}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-562168}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {208}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildungen bieten in Deutschland im Rahmen der dritten Phase der Lehrkr{\"a}ftebildung eine zentrale Lerngelegenheit f{\"u}r die Kompetenzentwicklung der Lehr-kr{\"a}fte (Avalos, 2011; Guskey \& Yoon, 2009). In dieser Phase k{\"o}nnen Lehrkr{\"a}fte aus einem Angebot an berufsbegleitenden Lerngelegenheiten w{\"a}hlen, die auf die Anpassung und Weiterentwicklung ihrer professionellen Kompetenzen abzielen. Im Rahmen dieser Professionalisierungsmaßnahmen haben Lehrkr{\"a}fte Gelegenheit zur Reflexion und Weiterentwicklung ihrer Unterrichtspraxis. Deshalb sind Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildungen auch f{\"u}r die Entwicklung von Unterrichtsqualit{\"a}t und das Lernen der Sch{\"u}ler:innen bedeutsam (Lipowsky, 2014). Ergebnisse der Nutzungsforschung zeigen jedoch, dass das Fortbildungsangebot nicht von allen Lehrkr{\"a}ften im vollen Umfang genutzt wird und sich Lehrkr{\"a}fte in dem Nutzungsumfang dieser beruflichen Lerngelegenheiten unterscheiden (Hoffmann \& Richter, 2016). Das hat zur Folge, dass das Wirkpotenzial des Fortbildungsangebots nicht voll ausgesch{\"o}pft werden kann. Um die Nutzung von Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildungen zu f{\"o}rdern, werden auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen verschiedene Steuerungsinstrumente von Akteuren eingesetzt. Die Frage nach der Steuerungsm{\"o}glichkeit im Rahmen der dritten Phase der Lehrkr{\"a}ftebildung ist bislang jedoch weitestgehend unbearbeitet geblieben. Die vorliegende Arbeit kn{\"u}pft an die bestehende Forschung zur Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildung an und nutzt die theoretische Perspektive der Educational Governance, um im Rahmen von vier Teilstudien der Frage nachzugehen, welche Instrumente und Potenziale der Steue-rung auf den unterschiedlichen Ebenen des Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildungssystems bestehen und wie diese durch die verschiedenen politischen und schulischen Akteure umgesetzt werden. Außerdem soll der Frage nachgegangen werden, wie wirksam die genutzten Steuerungsinstrumente im Hinblick auf die Nutzung von Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildungen sind. Die {\"u}bergeordnete Fragestellung wird vor dem Hintergrund eines f{\"u}r das Lehrkr{\"a}ftefortbildungssystem abgelei-teten theoretischen Rahmenmodells in Form eines Mehrebenenmodells bearbeitet, welches als Grundlage f{\"u}r die theoretische Verortung der nachfolgenden empirischen Untersuchungen zur Fortbildungsnutzung und der Wirksamkeit verschiedener Steuerungsinstrumente dient. Studie I nimmt vor diesem Hintergrund die Ebene der politischen Akteure in den Blick und geht der Frage nach, wie bedeutsam die gesetzliche Fortbildungspflicht f{\"u}r die Fortbildungsbeteiligung von Lehrkr{\"a}ften ist. Hierzu wurde untersucht, inwiefern Zusammenh{\"a}nge zwischen der Fortbildungsteilnahme von Lehrkr{\"a}ften und der Zugeh{\"o}rigkeit zu Bundesl{\"a}ndern mit und ohne konkreter Fortbildungsverpflichtung sowie zu Bundesl{\"a}ndern mit und ohne Nachweispflicht absolvierter Fortbildungen bestehen. Dazu wurden Daten aus dem IQB-L{\"a}ndervergleich 2011 und 2012 sowie dem IQB-Bildungstrend 2015 mittels logistischer und linearer Regressionsmodelle analysiert. Studie II und Studie III widmen sich den Rahmenbedingungen f{\"u}r schulinterne Fortbildungen. Studie II befasst sich zun{\"a}chst mit schulformspezifischen Unterschieden bei der Wahl der Fortbildungsthemen. Studie III untersucht das schulinterne Fortbildungsangebot hinsichtlich des Nutzungsumfangs und des Zusammenhangs zwischen Schulmerkmalen und der Nutzung unterschiedlicher Fortbildungsthemen. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus wird ein Vergleich zwi-schen den beiden Angebotsformaten hinsichtlich des jeweiligen Anteils an thematischen Fortbildungsveranstaltungen vorgenommen. Hierzu wurden Daten der Fortbildungsdatenbank des Landes Brandenburg ausgewertet. Neben der Untersuchung der Fortbildungsteilnahme im Zusammenhang mit administrativen Vorgaben und der Nutzung des schulinternen Fortbildungsangebots auf Schulebene wurde zur Bearbeitung der {\"u}bergeordneten Forschungsfrage der vorliegenden Arbeit in der Studie IV dar{\"u}ber hinaus eine Untersuchung des Einsatzes von Professionalisierungsmaßnahmen im Rahmen schulischer Personalentwicklung durchgef{\"u}hrt. Durch die qualitative Studie IV wurde ein vertiefender Einblick in die schulische Praxis erm{\"o}glicht, um die Kenntnisse aus den quantitativen Studien I bis III zu erg{\"a}nzen. Im Rahmen einer qualitati-ven Interviewstudie wurde der Frage nachgegangen werden, wie Schulleitungen ausgezeichneter Schulen Personalentwicklung auffassen, welche Informationsquellen sie hierbei mit einbeziehen und welche Maßnahmen sie nutzen und in diesem Sinne Personalentwicklung als ein Instrument f{\"u}r Organisationsentwicklung einsetzen. Im abschließenden Kapitel der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die zentralen Ergebnisse der durchgef{\"u}hrten Studien zusammenfassend diskutiert. Die Ergebnisse der Arbeit deuten insgesamt darauf hin, dass Akteure auf den jeweiligen Ebenen direkte und indirekete Steuerungsinstrumente mit dem Ziel einsetzen, die Nutzung des zur Verf{\"u}gung stehenden Angebots zu erh{\"o}hen, allerdings erzielen sie mit den genutzten Instrumenten nicht die gew{\"u}nschte Steuerungswirkung. Da sie weder mit beruflichen Sanktionen noch mit Anreizen verkn{\"u}pft sind, fehlt es den bestehenden Steuerungsinstrumenten an Durchsetzungsmacht. Außerdem wird das Repertoire an m{\"o}glichen Steuerungsinstrumenten von den beteiligten Akteuren nicht ausgesch{\"o}pft. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit bieten somit die Grundlage f{\"u}r ankn{\"u}pfende Forschungsarbeiten und geben Anreize f{\"u}r m{\"o}gliche Implikationen in der Praxis des Fortbildungssystems und der Bildungspolitik.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Milles2022, author = {Milles, Alexander}, title = {Sources and consequences of intraspecific trait variation in movement behaviour}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56501}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-565011}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvi, 225}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Variation in traits permeates and affects all levels of biological organisation, from within individuals to between species. Yet, intraspecific trait variation (ITV) is not sufficiently represented in many ecological theories. Instead, species averages are often assumed. Especially ITV in behaviour has only recently attracted more attention as its pervasiveness and magnitude became evident. The surge in interest in ITV in behaviour was accompanied by a methodological and technological leap in the field of movement ecology. Many aspects of behaviour become visible via movement, allowing us to observe inter-individual differences in fundamental processes such as foraging, mate searching, predation or migration. ITV in movement behaviour may result from within-individual variability and consistent, repeatable among-individual differences. Yet, questions on why such among-individual differences occur in the first place and how they are integrated with life-history have remained open. Furthermore, consequences of ITV, especially of among-individual differences in movement behaviour, on populations and species communities are not sufficiently understood. In my thesis, I approach timely questions on the sources and consequences of ITV, particularly, in movement behaviour. After outlining fundamental concepts and the current state of knowledge, I approach these questions by using agent-based models to integrate concepts from behavioural and movement ecology and to develop novel perspectives. Modern coexistence theory is a central pillar of community ecology, yet, insufficiently considers ITV in behaviour. In chapter 2, I model a competitive two-species system of ground-dwelling, central-place foragers to investigate the consequences of among-individual differences in movement behaviour on species coexistence. I show that the simulated among-individual differences, which matched with empirical data, reduce fitness differences betweem species, i.e. provide an equalising coexistence mechanism. Furthermore, I explain this result mechanistically and, thus, resolve an apparent ambiguity of the consequences of ITV on species coexistence described in previous studies. In chapter 3, I turn the focus to sources of among-individual differences in movement behaviour and their potential integration with life-history. The pace-of-life syndrome (POLS) theory predicts that the covariation between among-individual differences in behaviour and life-history is mediated by a trade-off between early and late reproduction. This theory has generated attention but is also currently scrutinised. In chapter 3, I present a model which supports a recent conceptual development that suggests fluctuating density-dependent selection as a cause of the POLS. Yet, I also identified processes that may alter the association between movement behaviour and life-history across levels of biological organization. ITV can buffer populations, i.e. reduce their extinction risk. For instance, among-individual differences can mediate portfolio effects or increase evolvability and, thereby, facilitate rapid evolution which can alleviate extinction risk. In chapter 4, I review ITV, environmental heterogeneity, and density-dependent processes which constitute local buffer mechanisms. In the light of habitat isolation, which reduces connectivity between populations, local buffer mechanisms may become more relevant compared to dispersal-related regional buffer mechanisms. In this chapter, I argue that capacities, latencies, and interactions of local buffer mechanisms should motivate more process-based and holistic integration of local buffer mechanisms in theoretical and empirical studies. Recent perspectives propose to apply principles from movement and community ecology to study filamentous fungi. It is an open question whether and how the arrangement and geometry of microstructures select for certain movement traits, and, thus, facilitate coexistence-stabilising niche partitioning. As a coauthor of chapter 5, I developed an agent-based model of hyphal tips navigating in soil-like microstructures along a gradient of soil porosity. By measuring network properties, we identified changes in the optimal movement behaviours along the gradient. Our findings suggest that the soil architecture facilitates niche partitioning. The core chapters are framed by a general introduction and discussion. In the general introduction, I outline fundamental concepts of movement ecology and describe theory and open questions on sources and consequences of ITV in movement behaviour. In the general discussion, I consolidate the findings of the core chapters and critically discuss their respective value and, if applicable, their impact. Furthermore, I emphasise promising avenues for further research.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Villamizar2022, author = {Villamizar, Natalia}, title = {Heimat}, number = {4}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-530-9}, issn = {2629-2548}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-54108}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-541086}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {191}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Esta investigaci{\´o}n propone un estudio transareal de las series autoficcionales del escritor austriaco Thomas Bernhard y el colombiano Fernando Vallejo, dos autores cuya obra se caracteriza por una dura cr{\´i}tica a sus pa{\´i}ses de origen, a sus Heimaten, pero tambi{\´e}n por un complejo arraigamiento. Los an{\´a}lisis interpretativos demuestran que en Die Autobiographie y El r{\´i}o del tiempo la Heimat se presenta como un constructo que abarca no solamente elementos dichosos, sino que presenta tambi{\´e}n elementos negativos, disolutivos, destructivos, con lo cual ambos autores de distancian de una concepci{\´o}n tradicional de Heimat como territorio necesariamente arm{\´o}nico al que el sujeto se siente positivamente vinculado. En cambio, ella se concibe como un conjunto dis{\´i}mil, frente al cual el sujeto se relaciona, necesariamente, de modo ambivalente y problem{\´a}tico. En ambos autores la narraci{\´o}n literaria se configura como un acto en el que no simplemente se representa esa ambivalencia, sino en el que, sobre todo, se impugnan las formas de hostilidad que le confieren a la Heimat su car{\´a}cter inh{\´o}spito. Para ello, ambos autores recurren a la implementaci{\´o}n de dos recursos fundamentales: la m{\´i}mesis y el movimiento. La investigaci{\´o}n muestra de qu{\´e} manera las obras estudiadas la Heimat se presenta como un espacio de continuos movimientos, intercambios e interacciones, en el que act{\´u}an mecanismos de opresi{\´o}n, pero tambi{\´e}n dispositivos de oposici{\´o}n, pr{\´a}cticas de apertura intersubjetiva y aspiraciones de integraci{\´o}n comunitaria.}, language = {es} } @phdthesis{Gruener2022, author = {Gr{\"u}ner, Andreas}, title = {Towards practical and trust-enhancing attribute aggregation for self-sovereign identity}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56745}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-567450}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvii, 175}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Identity management is at the forefront of applications' security posture. It separates the unauthorised user from the legitimate individual. Identity management models have evolved from the isolated to the centralised paradigm and identity federations. Within this advancement, the identity provider emerged as a trusted third party that holds a powerful position. Allen postulated the novel self-sovereign identity paradigm to establish a new balance. Thus, extensive research is required to comprehend its virtues and limitations. Analysing the new paradigm, initially, we investigate the blockchain-based self-sovereign identity concept structurally. Moreover, we examine trust requirements in this context by reference to patterns. These shapes comprise major entities linked by a decentralised identity provider. By comparison to the traditional models, we conclude that trust in credential management and authentication is removed. Trust-enhancing attribute aggregation based on multiple attribute providers provokes a further trust shift. Subsequently, we formalise attribute assurance trust modelling by a metaframework. It encompasses the attestation and trust network as well as the trust decision process, including the trust function, as central components. A secure attribute assurance trust model depends on the security of the trust function. The trust function should consider high trust values and several attribute authorities. Furthermore, we evaluate classification, conceptual study, practical analysis and simulation as assessment strategies of trust models. For realising trust-enhancing attribute aggregation, we propose a probabilistic approach. The method exerts the principle characteristics of correctness and validity. These values are combined for one provider and subsequently for multiple issuers. We embed this trust function in a model within the self-sovereign identity ecosystem. To practically apply the trust function and solve several challenges for the service provider that arise from adopting self-sovereign identity solutions, we conceptualise and implement an identity broker. The mediator applies a component-based architecture to abstract from a single solution. Standard identity and access management protocols build the interface for applications. We can conclude that the broker's usage at the side of the service provider does not undermine self-sovereign principles, but fosters the advancement of the ecosystem. The identity broker is applied to sample web applications with distinct attribute requirements to showcase usefulness for authentication and attribute-based access control within a case study.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schuster2022, author = {Schuster, Valerian}, title = {Mechanical and hydraulic properties of Opalinus Clay}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56678}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566786}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Deep geological repositories represent a promising solution for the final disposal of nuclear waste. Due to its low permeability, high sorption capacity and self-sealing potential, Opalinus Clay (OPA) is considered a suitable host rock formation for the long-term storage of nuclear waste in Switzerland and Germany. However, the clay formation is characterized by compositional and structural variabilities including the occurrence of carbonate- and quartz-rich layers, pronounced bedding planes as well as tectonic elements such as pre-existing fault zones and fractures, suggesting heterogeneous rock mass properties. Characterizing the heterogeneity of host rock properties is therefore essential for safety predictions of future repositories. This includes a detailed understanding of the mechanical and hydraulic properties, deformation behavior and the underlying deformation processes for an improved assessment of the sealing integrity and long-term safety of a deep repository in OPA. Against this background, this thesis presents the results of deformation experiments performed on intact and artificially fractured specimens of the quartz-rich, sandy and clay-rich, shaly facies of OPA. The experiments focus on the influence of mineralogical composition on the deformation behavior as well as the reactivation and sealing properties of pre-existing faults and fractures at different boundary conditions (e.g., pressure, temperature, strain rate). The anisotropic mechanical properties of the sandy facies of OPA are presented in the first section, which were determined from triaxial deformation experiments using dried and resaturated samples loaded at 0°, 45° and 90° to the bedding plane orientation. A Paterson-type deformation apparatus was used that allowed to investigate how the deformation behavior is influenced by the variation of confining pressure (50 - 100 MPa), temperature (25 - 200 °C), and strain rate (1 × 10-3 - 5 × 10-6 s-1). Constant strain rate experiments revealed brittle to semi-brittle deformation behavior of the sandy facies at the applied conditions. Deformation behavior showed a strong dependence on confining pressure, degree of water saturation as well as bedding orientation, whereas the variation of temperature and strain rate had no significant effect on deformation. Furthermore, the sandy facies displays higher strength and stiffness compared to the clay-rich shaly facies deformed at similar conditions by N{\"u}esch (1991). From the obtained results it can be concluded that cataclastic mechanisms dominate the short-term deformation behavior of dried samples from both facies up to elevated pressure (<200 MPa) and temperature (<200 °C) conditions. The second part presents triaxial deformation tests that were performed to investigate how structural discontinuities affect the deformation behavior of OPA and how the reactivation of preexisting faults is influenced by mineral composition and confining pressure. To this end, dried cylindrical samples of the sandy and shaly facies of OPA were used, which contained a saw-cut fracture oriented at 30° to the long axis. After hydrostatic pre-compaction at 50 MPa, constant strain rate deformation tests were performed at confining pressures of 5, 20 or 35 MPa. With increasing confinement, a gradual transition from brittle, highly localized fault slip including a stress drop at fault reactivation to semi-brittle deformation behavior, characterized by increasing delocalization and non-linear strain hardening without dynamic fault reactivation, can be observed. Brittle localization was limited by the confining pressure at which the fault strength exceeded the matrix yield strength, above which strain partitioning between localized fault slip and distributed matrix deformation occurred. The sandy facies displayed a slightly higher friction coefficient (≈0.48) compared to the shaly facies (≈0.4). In addition, slide-hold-slide tests were conducted, revealing negative or negligible frictional strengthening, which suggests stable creep and long-term weakness of faults in both facies of OPA. The conducted experiments demonstrate that dilatant brittle fault reactivation in OPA may be favored at high overconsolidation ratios and shallow depths, increasing the risk of seismic hazard and the creation of fluid pathways. The final section illustrates how the sealing capacity of fractures in OPA is affected by mineral composition. Triaxial flow-through experiments using Argon-gas were performed with dried samples from the sandy and shaly facies of OPA containing a roughened, artificial fracture. Slate, graywacke, quartzite, natural fault gouge, and granite samples were also tested to highlight the influence of normal stress, mineralogy and diagenesis on the sustainability of fracture transmissivity. With increasing normal stress, a non-linear decrease of fracture transmissivity can be observed that resulted in a permanent reduction of transmissivity after stress release. The transmissivity of rocks with a high portion of strong minerals (e.g., quartz) and high unconfined compressive strength was less sensitive to stress changes. In accordance with this, the sandy facies of OPA displayed a higher initial transmissivity that was less sensitive to stress changes compared to the shaly facies. However, transmissivity of rigid slate was less sensitive to stress changes than the sandy facies of OPA, although the slate is characterized by a higher phyllosilicate content. This demonstrates that in addition to mineral composition, other factors such as the degree of metamorphism, cementation and consolidation have to be considered when evaluating the sealing capacity of phyllosilicate-rich rocks. The results of this thesis highlighted the role of confining pressure on the failure behavior of intact and artificially fractured OPA. Although the quartz-rich sandy facies may be considered as being more favorable for underground constructions due to its higher shear strength and stiffness than the shaly facies, the results indicate that when fractures develop in the sandy facies, they are more conductive and remain more permeable compared to fractures in the clay-dominated shaly facies at a given stress. The results may provide the basis for constitutive models to predict the integrity and evolution of a future repository. Clearly, the influence of composition and consolidation, e.g., by geological burial and uplift, on the mechanical sealing behavior of OPA highlights the need for a detailed site-specific material characterization for a future repository.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Fischer2022, author = {Fischer, Eric Wolfgang}, title = {Quantum vibrational dynamics in complex environments: from vibrational strong coupling in molecular cavity QED to phonon-induced adsorbate relaxation}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56721}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-567214}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 171}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Molecules are often naturally embedded in a complex environment. As a consequence, characteristic properties of a molecular subsystem can be substantially altered or new properties emerge due to interactions between molecular and environmental degrees of freedom. The present thesis is concerned with the numerical study of quantum dynamical and stationary properties of molecular vibrational systems embedded in selected complex environments. In the first part, we discuss "strong-coupling" model scenarios for molecular vibrations interacting with few quantized electromagnetic field modes of an optical Fabry-P{\´e}rot cavity. We thoroughly elaborate on properties of emerging "vibrational polariton" light-matter hybrid states and examine the relevance of the dipole self-energy. Further, we identify cavity-induced quantum effects and an emergent dynamical resonance in a cavity-altered thermal isomerization model, which lead to significant suppression of thermal reaction rates. Moreover, for a single rovibrating diatomic molecule in an optical cavity, we observe non-adiabatic signatures in dynamics due to "vibro-polaritonic conical intersections" and discuss spectroscopically accessible "rovibro-polaritonic" light-matter hybrid states. In the second part, we study a weakly coupled but numerically challenging quantum mechanical adsorbate-surface model system comprising a few thousand surface modes. We introduce an efficient construction scheme for a "hierarchical effective mode" approach to reduce the number of surface modes in a controlled manner. In combination with the multilayer multiconfigurational time-dependent Hartree (ML-MCTDH) method, we examine the vibrational adsorbate relaxation dynamics from different excited adsorbate states by solving the full non-Markovian system-bath dynamics for the characteristic relaxation time scale. We examine half-lifetime scaling laws from vibrational populations and identify prominent non-Markovian signatures as deviations from Markovian reduced system density matrix theory in vibrational coherences, system-bath entanglement and energy transfer dynamics. In the final part of this thesis, we approach the dynamics and spectroscopy of vibronic model systems at finite temperature by formulating the ML-MCTDH method in the non-stochastic framework of thermofield dynamics. We apply our method to thermally-altered ultrafast internal conversion in the well-known vibronic coupling model of pyrazine. Numerically beneficial representations of multilayer wave functions ("ML-trees") are identified for different temperature regimes, which allow us to access thermal effects on both electronic and vibrational dynamics as well as spectroscopic properties for several pyrazine models.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Buczkowski2022, author = {Buczkowski, Agnes Johanna}, title = {Vergleichende Untersuchungen von Schl{\"u}sselkomponenten aus D{\"a}mpfen der E-Zigarette}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56561}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-565617}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {181}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Respiratorische Erkrankungen stellen zunehmend eine relevante globale Problematik dar. Die Erweiterung bzw. Modifizierung von Applikationswegen m{\"o}glicher Arzneimittel f{\"u}r gezielte topische Anwendungen ist dabei von gr{\"o}ßter Bedeutung. Die Variation eines bekannten Applikationsweges durch unterschiedliche technologische Umsetzungen kann die Vielfalt der Anwendungsm{\"o}glichkeiten, aber auch die Patienten-Compliance erh{\"o}hen. Die einfache und flexible Verfahrensweise durch schnelle Verf{\"u}gbarkeit und eine handliche Technologie sind heutzutage wichtige Eigenschaften im Entwicklungsprozess eines Produktes. Eine direkte topische Behandlung von Atemwegserkrankungen am Wirkort in Form einer inhalativen Applikation bietet dabei viele Vorteile gegen{\"u}ber einer systemischen Therapie. Die medizinische Inhalation von Wirkstoffen {\"u}ber die Lunge ist jedoch eine komplexe Herausforderung. Inhalatoren geh{\"o}ren zu den erkl{\"a}rungsbed{\"u}rftigen Applikationsformen, die zur Erh{\"o}hung der konsequenten Einhaltung der Verordnung so einfach, wie m{\"o}glich gestaltet werden m{\"u}ssen. Parallel besitzen und nutzen weltweit ann{\"a}hernd 68 Millionen Menschen die Technologie eines inhalativen Applikators zur bewussten Sch{\"a}digung ihrer Gesundheit in Form einer elektronischen Zigarette. Diese bekannte Anwendung bietet die potentielle M{\"o}glichkeit einer verf{\"u}gbaren, kosteng{\"u}nstigen und qualit{\"a}tsgepr{\"u}ften Gesundheitsmaßnahme zur Kontrolle, Pr{\"a}vention und Heilung von Atemwegserkrankungen. Sie erzeugt ein Aerosol durch elektrothermische Erw{\"a}rmung eines sogenannten Liquids, das durch Kapillarkr{\"a}fte eines Tr{\"a}germaterials an ein Heizelement gelangt und verdampft. Ihr Bekanntheitsgrad zeigt, dass eine beabsichtigte Wirkung in den Atemwegen eintritt. Diese Wirkung k{\"o}nnte jedoch auch auf potentielle pharmazeutische Einsatzgebiete {\"u}bertragbar sein. Die Vorteile der pulmonalen Verabreichung sind dabei vielf{\"a}ltig. Im Vergleich zur peroralen Applikation gelangt der Wirkstoff gezielt zum Wirkort. Wenn eine systemische Applikation zu Arzneimittelkonzentrationen unterhalb der therapeutischen Wirksamkeit in der Lunge f{\"u}hrt, k{\"o}nnte eine inhalative Darreichung bereits bei niedriger Dosierung die gew{\"u}nschten h{\"o}heren Konzentrationen am Wirkort hervorrufen. Aufgrund der großen Resorptionsfl{\"a}che der Lunge sind eine h{\"o}here Bioverf{\"u}gbarkeit und ein schnellerer Wirkungseintritt infolge des fehlenden First-Pass-Effektes m{\"o}glich. Es kommt ebenfalls zu minimalen systemischen Nebenwirkungen. Die elektronische Zigarette erzeugt wie die medizinischen Inhalatoren lungeng{\"a}ngige Partikel. Die atemzuggesteuerte Technik erm{\"o}glicht eine unkomplizierte und intuitive Anwendung. Der prinzipielle Aufbau besteht aus einer elektrisch beheizten Wendel und einem Akku. Die Heizwendel ist von einem sogenannten Liquid in einem Tank umgeben und erzeugt das Aerosol. Das Liquid beinhaltet eine Basismischung bestehend aus Propylenglycol, Glycerin und reinem Wasser in unterschiedlichen prozentualen Anteilen. Es besteht die Annahme, dass das Basisliquid auch mit pharmazeutischen Wirkstoffen f{\"u}r die pulmonale Applikation beladen werden kann. Aufgrund der thermischen Belastung durch die e-Zigarette m{\"u}ssen potentielle Wirkstoffe sowie das Vehikel eine thermische Stabilit{\"a}t aufweisen. Die potentielle medizinische Anwendung der Technologie einer handels{\"u}blichen e-Zigarette wurde anhand von drei Schwerpunkten an vier Wirkstoffen untersucht. Die drei {\"a}therischen {\"O}le Eucalyptus{\"o}l, Minz{\"o}l und Nelken{\"o}l wurden aufgrund ihrer leichten Fl{\"u}chtigkeit und der historischen pharmazeutischen Anwendung anhand von Inhalationen bei Erk{\"a}ltungssymptomen bzw. im zahnmedizinischen Bereich gew{\"a}hlt. Das eingesetzte Cannabinoid Cannabidiol (CBD) hat einen aktuellen Bezug zu dem pharmazeutischen Markt Deutschlands zur Legalisierung von cannabishaltigen Produkten und der medizinischen Forschung zum inhalativen Konsum. Es wurden relevante wirkstoffhaltige Fl{\"u}ssigformulierungen entwickelt und hinsichtlich ihrer Verdampfbarkeit zu Aerosolen bewertet. In den quantitativen und qualitativen chromatographischen Untersuchungen konnten spezifische Verdampfungsprofile der Wirkstoffe erfasst und bewertet werden. Dabei stieg die verdampfte Masse der Leitsubstanzen 1,8-Cineol (Eucalyptus{\"o}l), Menthol (Minz{\"o}l) und Eugenol (Nelken{\"o}l) zwischen 33,6 µg und 156,2 µg pro Zug proportional zur Konzentration im Liquid im Bereich zwischen 0,5\% und 1,5\% bei einer Leistung von 20 Watt. Die Freisetzungsrate von Cannabidiol hingegen schien unabh{\"a}ngig von der Konzentration im Liquid im Mittelwert bei 13,3 µg pro Zug zu liegen. Dieses konnte an f{\"u}nf CBD-haltigen Liquids im Konzentrationsbereich zwischen 31 µg/g und 5120 µg/g Liquid gezeigt werden. Außerdem konnte eine Steigerung der verdampften Massen mit Zunahme der Leistung der e-Zigarette festgestellt werden. Die Interaktion der Liquids bzw. Aerosole mit den Bestandteilen des Speichels sowie weiterer gastrointestinaler Fl{\"u}ssigkeiten wurde {\"u}ber die Anwendung von zugeh{\"o}rigen in vitro Modellen und Einsatz von Enzymaktivit{\"a}ts-Assays gepr{\"u}ft. In den Untersuchungen wurden {\"A}nderungen von Enzymaktivit{\"a}ten anhand des oralen Schl{\"u}sselenzyms α-Amylase sowie von Proteasen ermittelt. Damit sollte exemplarisch ein m{\"o}glicher Einfluss auf physiologische bzw. metabolische Prozesse im humanen Organismus gepr{\"u}ft werden. Das Bedampfen von biologischen Suspensionen f{\"u}hrte bei niedriger Leistung der e-Zigarette (20 Watt) zu keiner bzw. einer leichten {\"A}nderung der Enzymaktivit{\"a}t. Die Anwendung einer hohen Leistung (80 Watt) bewirkte tendenziell das Herabsetzen der Enzymaktivit{\"a}ten. Die Erh{\"o}hung der Enzymaktivit{\"a}ten k{\"o}nnte zu einem enzymatischen Abbau von Schleimstoffen wie Mucinen f{\"u}hren, was wiederum die effektive, mechanische Abwehr gegen{\"u}ber bakteriellen Infektionen zur Folge h{\"a}tte. Da eine Anwendung der Applikation insbesondere bei bakteriellen Atemwegserkrankungen denkbar w{\"a}re, folgten abschließend Untersuchungen der antibakteriellen Eigenschaften der Liquids bzw. Aerosole in vitro. Es wurden sechs klinisch relevante bakterielle Krankheitserreger ausgew{\"a}hlt, die nach zwei Charakteristika gruppiert werden k{\"o}nnen. Die drei multiresistenten Bakterien Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae und Methicillin-resistenter Staphylococcus aureus k{\"o}nnen mithilfe von {\"u}blichen Therapien mit Antibiotika nicht abget{\"o}tet werden und haben vor allem eine nosokomiale Relevanz. Die zweite Gruppe weist Eigenschaften auf, die vordergr{\"u}ndig assoziiert sind mit respiratorischen Erkrankungen. Die Bakterien Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis und Haemophilus influenzae sind repr{\"a}sentativ beteiligt an Atemwegserkrankungen mit diverser Symptomatik. Die Bakterienarten wurden mit den jeweiligen Liquids behandelt bzw. bedampft und deren grundlegende Dosis-Wirkungsbeziehung charakterisiert. Dabei konnte eine antibakterielle Aktivit{\"a}t der Formulierungen ermittelt werden, die durch Zugabe eines Wirkstoffes die bereits antibakterielle Wirkung der Bestandteile Glycerin und Propylenglycol verst{\"a}rkte. Die hygroskopischen Eigenschaften dieser Substanzen sind vermutlich f{\"u}r eine Wirkung in aerosolierter Form verantwortlich. Sie entziehen die Feuchtigkeit aus der Luft und haben einen austrocknenden Effekt auf die Bakterien. Das Bedampfen der Bakterienarten Streptococcus pneumoniae, Moraxella catarrhalis und Haemophilus influenzae hatte einen antibakteriellen Effekt, der zeitlich abh{\"a}ngig von der Leistung der e-Zigarette war. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen f{\"u}hren zu dem Schluss, dass jeder Wirkstoff bzw. jede Substanzklasse individuell zu bewerten ist und somit Inhalator und Formulierung aufeinander abgestimmt werden m{\"u}ssen. Der Einsatz der e-Zigarette als Medizinprodukt zur Applikation von Arzneimitteln setzt stets Pr{\"u}fungen nach Europ{\"a}ischem Arzneibuch voraus. Durch Modifizierungen k{\"o}nnte eine Dosierung gut kontrollierbar gemacht werden, aber auch die Partikelgr{\"o}ßenverteilung kann insoweit reguliert werden, dass die Wirkstoffe je nach Partikelgr{\"o}ße zu einem geeigneten Applikationsort wie Mund, Rachen oder Bronchien transportiert werden. Der Vergleich mit den Eigenschaften anderer medizinischer Inhalatoren f{\"u}hrt zu dem Schluss, dass die Technologie der e-Zigarette durchaus eine gleichartige oder bessere Performance f{\"u}r thermisch stabile Wirkstoffe bieten k{\"o}nnte. Dieses fiktive Medizinprodukt k{\"o}nnte aus einer hersteller-unspezifisch produzierten, wieder aufladbaren Energiequelle mit Universalgewinde zum mehrfachen Gebrauch und einer hersteller- und wirkstoffspezifisch produzierten Einheit aus Verdampfer und Arzneimittel bestehen. Das Arzneimittel, ein medizinisches Liquid (Vehikel und Wirkstoff) kann in dem Tank des Verdampfers mit konstanten, nicht variablen Parametern patientenindividuell produziert werden. Inhalative Anwendungen werden perspektivisch wohl nicht zuletzt aufgrund der aktuellen COVID-19-Pandemie eine zunehmende Rolle spielen. Der Bedarf nach alternativen Therapieoptionen wird weiter ansteigen. Diese Arbeit liefert einen Beitrag zum Einsatz der Technologie der elektronischen Zigarette als electronic nicotin delivery system (ENDS) nach Modifizierung zu einem potentiellen pulmonalen Applikationssystem als electronic drug delivery system (EDDS) von inhalativen, thermisch stabilen Arzneimitteln in Form eines Medizinproduktes.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Chemeta2022, author = {Chemeta, David}, title = {Nation, migration, narration}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-51830}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-518308}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {496}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In France and in Germany, immigration as become one of the main issues in the past decades. In this context rose also the rap music. It has a huge popularity for young people with migration background. However rappers do write a lot about their French or German identity. The goal of this work is to explain the paradox : how can people with migration background, expressing critics against the racism they regard as omnipresent, still feel fully French/German? We divided the work between following chapters: Context, methodology and theories (I); analysis of different identity forms within the text corpus (II); analysis of the way rappers see their society in three chronological steps (III-V); case studies of Kery James in France and Samy Deluxe in Germany (VI).}, language = {fr} } @phdthesis{Heinsohn2022, author = {Heinsohn, Natascha}, title = {Development of a fiber-based sensor for the molecular detection of pathogens using Legionella as an example}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56683}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566833}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {X, 175}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Fiber-based microfluidics has undergone many innovative developments in recent years, with exciting examples of portable, cost-effective and easy-to-use detection systems already being used in diagnostic and analytical applications. In water samples, Legionella are a serious risk as human pathogens. Infection occurs through inhalation of aerosols containing Legionella cells and can cause severe pneumonia and may even be fatal. In case of Legionella contamination of water-bearing systems or Legionella infection, it is essential to find the source of the contamination as quickly as possible to prevent further infections. In drinking, industrial and wastewater monitoring, the culture-based method is still the most commonly used technique to detect Legionella contamination. In order to improve the laboratory-dependent determination, the long analysis times of 10-14 days as well as the inaccuracy of the measured values in colony forming units (CFU), new innovative ideas are needed. In all areas of application, for example in public, commercial or private facilities, rapid and precise analysis is required, ideally on site. In this PhD thesis, all necessary single steps for a rapid DNA-based detection of Legionella were developed and characterized on a fiber-based miniaturized platform. In the first step, a fast, simple and device-independent chemical lysis of the bacteria and extraction of genomic DNA was established. Subsequently, different materials were investigated with respect to their non-specific DNA retention. Glass fiber filters proved to be particularly suitable, as they allow recovery of the DNA sample from the fiber material in combination with dedicated buffers and exhibit low autofluorescence, which was important for fluorescence-based readout. A fiber-based electrophoresis unit was developed to migrate different oligonucleotides within a fiber matrix by application of an electric field. A particular advantage over lateral flow assays is the targeted movement, even after the fiber is saturated with liquid. For this purpose, the entire process of fiber selection, fiber chip patterning, combination with printed electrodes, and testing of retention and migration of different DNA samples (single-stranded, double-stranded and genomic DNA) was performed. DNA could be pulled across the fiber chip in an electric field of 24 V/cm within 5 minutes, remained intact and could be used for subsequent detection assays e.g., polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Fiber electrophoresis could also be used to separate DNA from other components e.g., proteins or cell lysates or to pull DNA through multiple layers of the glass microfiber. In this way, different fragments experienced a moderate, size-dependent separation. Furthermore, this arrangement offers the possibility that different detection reactions could take place in different layers at a later time. Electric current and potential measurements were collected to investigate the local distribution of the sample during migration. While an increase in current signal at high concentrations indicated the presence of DNA samples, initial experiments with methylene blue stained DNA showed a temporal sequence of signals, indicating sample migration along the chip. For the specific detection of a Legionella DNA, a FISH-based detection with a molecular beacon probe was tested on the glass microfiber. A specific region within the 16S rRNA gene of Legionella spp. served as a target. For this detection, suitable reaction conditions and a readout unit had to be set up first. Subsequently, the sensitivity of the probe was tested with the reverse complementary target sequence and the specificity with several DNA fragments that differed from the target sequence. Compared to other DNA sequences of similar length also found in Legionella pneumophila, only the target DNA was specifically detected on the glass microfiber. If a single base exchange is present or if two bases are changed, the probe can no longer distinguish between the DNA targets and non-targets. An analysis with this specificity can be achieved with other methods such as melting point determination, as was also briefly indicated here. The molecular beacon probe could be dried on the glass microfiber and stored at room temperature for more than three months, after which it was still capable of detecting the target sequence. Finally, the feasibility of fiber-based FISH detection for genomic Legionella DNA was tested. Without further processing, the probe was unable to detect its target sequence in the complex genomic DNA. However, after selecting and application of appropriate restriction enzymes, specific detection of Legionella DNA against other aquatic pathogens with similar fragment patterns as Acinetobacter haemolyticus was possible.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hesse2022, author = {Hesse, G{\"u}nter}, title = {A benchmark for enterprise stream processing architectures}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56600}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566000}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ix, 148}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Data stream processing systems (DSPSs) are a key enabler to integrate continuously generated data, such as sensor measurements, into enterprise applications. DSPSs allow to steadily analyze information from data streams, e.g., to monitor manufacturing processes and enable fast reactions to anomalous behavior. Moreover, DSPSs continuously filter, sample, and aggregate incoming streams of data, which reduces the data size, and thus data storage costs. The growing volumes of generated data have increased the demand for high-performance DSPSs, leading to a higher interest in these systems and to the development of new DSPSs. While having more DSPSs is favorable for users as it allows choosing the system that satisfies their requirements the most, it also introduces the challenge of identifying the most suitable DSPS regarding current needs as well as future demands. Having a solution to this challenge is important because replacements of DSPSs require the costly re-writing of applications if no abstraction layer is used for application development. However, quantifying performance differences between DSPSs is a difficult task. Existing benchmarks fail to integrate all core functionalities of DSPSs and lack tool support, which hinders objective result comparisons. Moreover, no current benchmark covers the combination of streaming data with existing structured business data, which is particularly relevant for companies. This thesis proposes a performance benchmark for enterprise stream processing called ESPBench. With enterprise stream processing, we refer to the combination of streaming and structured business data. Our benchmark design represents real-world scenarios and allows for an objective result comparison as well as scaling of data. The defined benchmark query set covers all core functionalities of DSPSs. The benchmark toolkit automates the entire benchmark process and provides important features, such as query result validation and a configurable data ingestion rate. To validate ESPBench and to ease the use of the benchmark, we propose an example implementation of the ESPBench queries leveraging the Apache Beam software development kit (SDK). The Apache Beam SDK is an abstraction layer designed for developing stream processing applications that is applied in academia as well as enterprise contexts. It allows to run the defined applications on any of the supported DSPSs. The performance impact of Apache Beam is studied in this dissertation as well. The results show that there is a significant influence that differs among DSPSs and stream processing applications. For validating ESPBench, we use the example implementation of the ESPBench queries developed using the Apache Beam SDK. We benchmark the implemented queries executed on three modern DSPSs: Apache Flink, Apache Spark Streaming, and Hazelcast Jet. The results of the study prove the functioning of ESPBench and its toolkit. ESPBench is capable of quantifying performance characteristics of DSPSs and of unveiling differences among systems. The benchmark proposed in this thesis covers all requirements to be applied in enterprise stream processing settings, and thus represents an improvement over the current state-of-the-art.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jiang2022, author = {Jiang, Lan}, title = {Discovering metadata in data files}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56620}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-566204}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {x, ii, 117}, year = {2022}, abstract = {It is estimated that data scientists spend up to 80\% of the time exploring, cleaning, and transforming their data. A major reason for that expenditure is the lack of knowledge about the used data, which are often from different sources and have heterogeneous structures. As a means to describe various properties of data, metadata can help data scientists understand and prepare their data, saving time for innovative and valuable data analytics. However, metadata do not always exist: some data file formats are not capable of storing them; metadata were deleted for privacy concerns; legacy data may have been produced by systems that were not designed to store and handle meta- data. As data are being produced at an unprecedentedly fast pace and stored in diverse formats, manually creating metadata is not only impractical but also error-prone, demanding automatic approaches for metadata detection. In this thesis, we are focused on detecting metadata in CSV files - a type of plain-text file that, similar to spreadsheets, may contain different types of content at arbitrary positions. We propose a taxonomy of metadata in CSV files and specifically address the discovery of three different metadata: line and cell type, aggregations, and primary keys and foreign keys. Data are organized in an ad-hoc manner in CSV files, and do not follow a fixed structure, which is assumed by common data processing tools. Detecting the structure of such files is a prerequisite of extracting information from them, which can be addressed by detecting the semantic type, such as header, data, derived, or footnote, of each line or each cell. We propose the supervised- learning approach Strudel to detect the type of lines and cells. CSV files may also include aggregations. An aggregation represents the arithmetic relationship between a numeric cell and a set of other numeric cells. Our proposed AggreCol algorithm is capable of detecting aggregations of five arithmetic functions in CSV files. Note that stylistic features, such as font style and cell background color, do not exist in CSV files. Our proposed algorithms address the respective problems by using only content, contextual, and computational features. Storing a relational table is also a common usage of CSV files. Primary keys and foreign keys are important metadata for relational databases, which are usually not present for database instances dumped as plain-text files. We propose the HoPF algorithm to holistically detect both constraints in relational databases. Our approach is capable of distinguishing true primary and foreign keys from a great amount of spurious unique column combinations and inclusion dependencies, which can be detected by state-of-the-art data profiling algorithms.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Brinkmann2022, author = {Brinkmann, Maik}, title = {Towards a joint public service delivery? The effects of blockchain on the relationship of public administrations with external stakeholders}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56449}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-564499}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {X, 126, CCLXVIII}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Public administrations confront fundamental challenges, including globalization, digitalization, and an eroding level of trust from society. By developing joint public service delivery with other stakeholders, public administrations can respond to these challenges. This increases the importance of inter-organizational governance—a development often referred to as New Public Governance, which to date has not been realized because public administrations focus on intra-organizational practices and follow the traditional "governmental chain." E-government initiatives, which can lead to high levels of interconnected public services, are currently perceived as insufficient to meet this goal. They are not designed holistically and merely affect the interactions of public and non-public stakeholders. A fundamental shift toward a joint public service delivery would require scrutiny of established processes, roles, and interactions between stakeholders. Various scientists and practitioners within the public sector assume that the use of blockchain institutional technology could fundamentally change the relationship between public and non-public stakeholders. At first glance, inter-organizational, joint public service delivery could benefit from the use of blockchain. This dissertation aims to shed light on this widespread assumption. Hence, the objective of this dissertation is to substantiate the effect of blockchain on the relationship between public administrations and non-public stakeholders. This objective is pursued by defining three major areas of interest. First, this dissertation strives to answer the question of whether or not blockchain is suited to enable New Public Governance and to identify instances where blockchain may not be the proper solution. The second area aims to understand empirically the status quo of existing blockchain implementations in the public sector and whether they comply with the major theoretical conclusions. The third area investigates the changing role of public administrations, as the blockchain ecosystem can significantly increase the number of stakeholders. Corresponding research is conducted to provide insights into these areas, for example, combining theoretical concepts with empirical actualities, conducting interviews with subject matter experts and key stakeholders of leading blockchain implementations, and performing a comprehensive stakeholder analysis, followed by visualization of its results. The results of this dissertation demonstrate that blockchain can support New Public Governance in many ways while having a minor impact on certain aspects (e.g., decentralized control), which account for this public service paradigm. Furthermore, the existing projects indicate changes to relationships between public administrations and non-public stakeholders, although not necessarily the fundamental shift proposed by New Public Governance. Lastly, the results suggest that power relations are shifting, including the decreasing influence of public administrations within the blockchain ecosystem. The results raise questions about the governance models and regulations required to support mature solutions and the further diffusion of blockchain for public service delivery.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Jongejans2022, author = {Jongejans, Loeka Laura}, title = {Organic matter stored in ice-rich permafrost}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56491}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-564911}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxiii, 178}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The Arctic is changing rapidly and permafrost is thawing. Especially ice-rich permafrost, such as the late Pleistocene Yedoma, is vulnerable to rapid and deep thaw processes such as surface subsidence after the melting of ground ice. Due to permafrost thaw, the permafrost carbon pool is becoming increasingly accessible to microbes, leading to increased greenhouse gas emissions, which enhances the climate warming. The assessment of the molecular structure and biodegradability of permafrost organic matter (OM) is highly needed. My research revolves around the question "how does permafrost thaw affect its OM storage?" More specifically, I assessed (1) how molecular biomarkers can be applied to characterize permafrost OM, (2) greenhouse gas production rates from thawing permafrost, and (3) the quality of OM of frozen and (previously) thawed sediments. I studied deep (max. 55 m) Yedoma and thawed Yedoma permafrost sediments from Yakutia (Sakha Republic). I analyzed sediment cores taken below thermokarst lakes on the Bykovsky Peninsula (southeast of the Lena Delta) and in the Yukechi Alas (Central Yakutia), and headwall samples from the permafrost cliff Sobo-Sise (Lena Delta) and the retrogressive thaw slump Batagay (Yana Uplands). I measured biomarker concentrations of all sediment samples. Furthermore, I carried out incubation experiments to quantify greenhouse gas production in thawing permafrost. I showed that the biomarker proxies are useful to assess the source of the OM and to distinguish between OM derived from terrestrial higher plants, aquatic plants and microbial activity. In addition, I showed that some proxies help to assess the degree of degradation of permafrost OM, especially when combined with sedimentological data in a multi-proxy approach. The OM of Yedoma is generally better preserved than that of thawed Yedoma sediments. The greenhouse gas production was highest in the permafrost sediments that thawed for the first time, meaning that the frozen Yedoma sediments contained most labile OM. Furthermore, I showed that the methanogenic communities had established in the recently thawed sediments, but not yet in the still-frozen sediments. My research provided the first molecular biomarker distributions and organic carbon turnover data as well as insights in the state and processes in deep frozen and thawed Yedoma sediments. These findings show the relevance of studying OM in deep permafrost sediments.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Trautmann2022, author = {Trautmann, Tina}, title = {Understanding global water storage variations using model-data integration}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56595}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-565954}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {VIII, 141}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Climate change is one of the greatest challenges to humanity in this century, and most noticeable consequences are expected to be impacts on the water cycle - in particular the distribution and availability of water, which is fundamental for all life on Earth. In this context, it is essential to better understand where and when water is available and what processes influence variations in water storages. While estimates of the overall terrestrial water storage (TWS) variations are available from the GRACE satellites, these represent the vertically integrated signal over all water stored in ice, snow, soil moisture, groundwater and surface water bodies. Therefore, complementary observational data and hydrological models are still required to determine the partitioning of the measured signal among different water storages and to understand the underlying processes. However, the application of large-scale observational data is limited by their specific uncertainties and the incapacity to measure certain water fluxes and storages. Hydrological models, on the other hand, vary widely in their structure and process-representation, and rarely incorporate additional observational data to minimize uncertainties that arise from their simplified representation of the complex hydrologic cycle. In this context, this thesis aims to contribute to improving the understanding of global water storage variability by combining simple hydrological models with a variety of complementary Earth observation-based data. To this end, a model-data integration approach is developed, in which the parameters of a parsimonious hydrological model are calibrated against several observational constraints, inducing GRACE TWS, simultaneously, while taking into account each data's specific strengths and uncertainties. This approach is used to investigate 3 specific aspects that are relevant for modelling and understanding the composition of large-scale TWS variations. The first study focusses on Northern latitudes, where snow and cold-region processes define the hydrological cycle. While the study confirms previous findings that seasonal dynamics of TWS are dominated by the cyclic accumulation and melt of snow, it reveals that inter-annual TWS variations on the contrary, are determined by variations in liquid water storages. Additionally, it is found to be important to consider the impact of compensatory effects of spatially heterogeneous hydrological variables when aggregating the contribution of different storage components over large areas. Hence, the determinants of TWS variations are scale-dependent and underlying driving mechanism cannot be simply transferred between spatial and temporal scales. These findings are supported by the second study for the global land areas beyond the Northern latitudes as well. This second study further identifies the considerable impact of how vegetation is represented in hydrological models on the partitioning of TWS variations. Using spatio-temporal varying fields of Earth observation-based data to parameterize vegetation activity not only significantly improves model performance, but also reduces parameter equifinality and process uncertainties. Moreover, the representation of vegetation drastically changes the contribution of different water storages to overall TWS variability, emphasizing the key role of vegetation for water allocation, especially between sub-surface and delayed water storages. However, the study also identifies parameter equifinality regarding the decay of sub-surface and delayed water storages by either evapotranspiration or runoff, and thus emphasizes the need for further constraints hereof. The third study focuses on the role of river water storage, in particular whether it is necessary to include computationally expensive river routing for model calibration and validation against the integrated GRACE TWS. The results suggest that river routing is not required for model calibration in such a global model-data integration approach, due to the larger influence other observational constraints, and the determinability of certain model parameters and associated processes are identified as issues of greater relevance. In contrast to model calibration, considering river water storage derived from routing schemes can already significantly improve modelled TWS compared to GRACE observations, and thus should be considered for model evaluation against GRACE data. Beyond these specific findings that contribute to improved understanding and modelling of large-scale TWS variations, this thesis demonstrates the potential of combining simple modeling approaches with diverse Earth observational data to improve model simulations, overcome inconsistencies of different observational data sets, and identify areas that require further research. These findings encourage future efforts to take advantage of the increasing number of diverse global observational data.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ilin2022, author = {Ilin, Ekaterina}, title = {High lights: stellar flares as probes of magnetism in stars and star-planet systems}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56356}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-563565}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {x, 168}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Flares are magnetically driven explosions that occur in the atmospheres of all main sequence stars that possess an outer convection zone. Flaring activity is rooted in the magnetic dynamo that operates deep in the stellar interior, propagates through all layers of the atmosphere from the corona to the photosphere, and emits electromagnetic radiation from radio bands to X-ray. Eventually, this radiation, and associated eruptions of energetic particles, are ejected out into interplanetary space, where they impact planetary atmospheres, and dominate the space weather environments of young star-planet systems. Thanks to the Kepler and the Transit Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) missions, flare observations have become accessible for millions of stars and star-planet systems. The goal of this thesis is to use these flares as multifaceted messengers to understand stellar magnetism across the main sequence, investigate planetary habitability, and explore how close-in planets can affect the host star. Using space based observations obtained by the Kepler/K2 mission, I found that flaring activity declines with stellar age, but this decline crucially depends on stellar mass and rotation. I calibrated the age of the stars in my sample using their membership in open clusters from zero age main sequence to solar age. This allowed me to reveal the rapid transition from an active, saturated flaring state to a more quiescent, inactive flaring behavior in early M dwarfs at about 600-800 Myr. This result is an important observational constraint on stellar activity evolution that I was able to de-bias using open clusters as an activity-independent age indicator. The TESS mission quickly superseded Kepler and K2 as the main source of flares in low mass M dwarfs. Using TESS 2-minute cadence light curves, I developed a new technique for flare localization and discovered, against the commonly held belief, that flares do not occur uniformly across their stellar surface: In fast rotating fully convective stars, giant flares are preferably located at high latitudes. This bears implications for both our understanding of magnetic field emergence in these stars, and the impact on the exoplanet atmospheres: A planet that orbits in the equatorial plane of its host may be spared from the destructive effects of these poleward emitting flares. AU Mic is an early M dwarf, and the most actively flaring planet host detected to date. Its innermost companion, AU Mic b is one of the most promising targets for a first observation of flaring star-planet interactions. In these interactions, the planet influences the star, as opposed to space weather, where the planet is always on the receiving side. The effect reflects the properties of the magnetosphere shared by planet and star, as well as the so far inaccessible magnetic properties of planets. In the about 50 days of TESS monitoring data of AU Mic, I searched for statistically robust signs of flaring interactions with AU Mic b as flares that occur in surplus of the star's intrinsic activity. I found the strongest yet still marginal signal in recurring excess flaring in phase with the orbital period of AU Mic b. If it reflects true signal, I estimate that extending the observing time by a factor of 2-3 will yield a statistically significant detection. Well within the reach of future TESS observations, this additional data may bring us closer to robustly detecting this effect than we have ever been. This thesis demonstrates the immense scientific value of space based, long baseline flare monitoring, and the versatility of flares as a carrier of information about the magnetism of star-planet systems. Many discoveries still lay in wait in the vast archives that Kepler and TESS have produced over the years. Flares are intense spotlights into the magnetic structures in star-planet systems that are otherwise far below our resolution limits. The ongoing TESS mission, and soon PLATO, will further open the door to in-depth understanding of small and dynamic scale magnetic fields on low mass stars, and the space weather environment they effect.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{PerezChaparro2022, author = {P{\´e}rez Chaparro, Camilo Germ{\´a}n Alberto}, title = {Non-HIV comorbidities and exercise in German people living with HIV}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56084}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-560842}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {149}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The post-antiretroviral therapy era has transformed HIV into a chronic disease and non-HIV comorbidities (i.e., cardiovascular and mental diseases) are more prevalent in PLWH. The source of these non-HIV comorbidities aside from traditional risk factor include HIV infection, inflammation, distorted immune activation, burden of chronic diseases, and unhealthy lifestyle like sedentarism. Exercise is known for its beneficial effects in mental and physical health; reasons why exercise is recommended to prevent and treat difference cardiovascular and mental diseases in the general population. This cumulative thesis aimed to comprehend the relation exercise has to non-HIV comorbidities in German PLWH. Four studies were conducted to 1) understand exercise effects in cardiorespiratory fitness and muscle strength on PLWH through a systematic review and meta-analyses and 2) determine the likelihood of German PLWH developing non-HIV comorbidities, in a cross-sectional study. Meta-analytic examination indicates PLWH cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max SMD = 0.61 ml·kg·min-1, 95\% CI: 0.35-0.88, z = 4.47, p < 0.001, I2 = 50\%) and strength (of remark lowerbody strength by 16.8 kg, 95\% CI: 13-20.6, p< 0.001) improves after an exercise intervention in comparison to a control group. Cross-sectional data suggest exercise has a positive effect on German PLWH mental health (less anxiety and depressive symptoms) and protects against the development of anxiety (PR: 0.57, 95\%IC: 0.36 - 0.91, p = 0.01) and depression (PR: 0.62, 95\%IC: 0.41 - 0.94, p = 0.01). Likewise, exercise duration is related to a lower likelihood of reporting heart arrhythmias (PR: 0.20, 95\%IC: 0.10 - 0.60, p < 0.01) and exercise frequency to a lower likelihood of reporting diabetes mellitus (PR: 0.40, 95\%IC: 0.10 - 1, p < 0.01) in German PLWH. A preliminary recommendation for German PLWH who want to engage in exercise can be to exercise ≥ 1 time per week, at an intensity of 5 METs per session or > 103 MET·min·day-1, with a duration ≥ 150 minutes per week. Nevertheless, further research is needed to comprehend exercise dose response and protective effect for cardiovascular diseases, anxiety, and depression in German PLWH.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Thomas2022, author = {Thomas, Timon}, title = {Cosmic-ray hydrodynamics: theory, numerics, applications}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56384}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-563843}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {334}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Cosmic rays (CRs) are a ubiquitous and an important component of astrophysical environments such as the interstellar medium (ISM) and intracluster medium (ICM). Their plasma physical interactions with electromagnetic fields strongly influence their transport properties. Effective models which incorporate the microphysics of CR transport are needed to study the effects of CRs on their surrounding macrophysical media. Developing such models is challenging because of the conceptional, length-scale, and time-scale separation between the microscales of plasma physics and the macroscales of the environment. Hydrodynamical theories of CR transport achieve this by capturing the evolution of CR population in terms of statistical moments. In the well-established one-moment hydrodynamical model for CR transport, the dynamics of the entire CR population are described by a single statistical quantity such as the commonly used CR energy density. In this work, I develop a new hydrodynamical two-moment theory for CR transport that expands the well-established hydrodynamical model by including the CR energy flux as a second independent hydrodynamical quantity. I detail how this model accounts for the interaction between CRs and gyroresonant Alfv{\´e}n waves. The small-scale magnetic fields associated with these Alfv{\´e}n waves scatter CRs which fundamentally alters CR transport along large-scale magnetic field lines. This leads to the effects of CR streaming and diffusion which are both captured within the presented hydrodynamical theory. I use an Eddington-like approximation to close the hydrodynamical equations and investigate the accuracy of this closure-relation by comparing it to high-order approximations of CR transport. In addition, I develop a finite-volume scheme for the new hydrodynamical model and adapt it to the moving-mesh code Arepo. This scheme is applied using a simulation of a CR-driven galactic wind. I investigate how CRs launch the wind and perform a statistical analysis of CR transport properties inside the simulated circumgalactic medium (CGM). I show that the new hydrodynamical model can be used to explain the morphological appearance of a particular type of radio filamentary structures found inside the central molecular zone (CMZ). I argue that these harp-like features are synchrotron-radiating CRs which are injected into braided magnetic field lines by a point-like source such as a stellar wind of a massive star or a pulsar. Lastly, I present the finite-volume code Blinc that uses adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) techniques to perform simulations of radiation and magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The mesh of Blinc is block-structured and represented in computer memory using a graph-based approach. I describe the implementation of the mesh graph and how a diffusion process is employed to achieve load balancing in parallel computing environments. Various test problems are used to verify the accuracy and robustness of the employed numerical algorithms.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ziege2022, author = {Ziege, Ricardo}, title = {Growth dynamics and mechanical properties of E. coli biofilms}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55986}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559869}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 123}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Biofilms are complex living materials that form as bacteria get embedded in a matrix of self-produced protein and polysaccharide fibres. The formation of a network of extracellular biopolymer fibres contributes to the cohesion of the biofilm by promoting cell-cell attachment and by mediating biofilm-substrate interactions. This sessile mode of bacteria growth has been well studied by microbiologists to prevent the detrimental effects of biofilms in medical and industrial settings. Indeed, biofilms are associated with increased antibiotic resistance in bacterial infections, and they can also cause clogging of pipelines or promote bio-corrosion. However, biofilms also gained interest from biophysics due to their ability to form complex morphological patterns during growth. Recently, the emerging field of engineered living materials investigates biofilm mechanical properties at multiple length scales and leverages the tools of synthetic biology to tune the functions of their constitutive biopolymers. This doctoral thesis aims at clarifying how the morphogenesis of Escherichia coli (E. coli) biofilms is influenced by their growth dynamics and mechanical properties. To address this question, I used methods from cell mechanics and materials science. I first studied how biological activity in biofilms gives rise to non-uniform growth patterns. In a second study, I investigated how E. coli biofilm morphogenesis and its mechanical properties adapt to an environmental stimulus, namely the water content of their substrate. Finally, I estimated how the mechanical properties of E. coli biofilms are altered when the bacteria express different extracellular biopolymers. On nutritive hydrogels, micron-sized E. coli cells can build centimetre-large biofilms. During this process, bacterial proliferation and matrix production introduce mechanical stresses in the biofilm, which release through the formation of macroscopic wrinkles and delaminated buckles. To relate these biological and mechanical phenomena, I used time-lapse fluorescence imaging to track cell and matrix surface densities through the early and late stages of E. coli biofilm growth. Colocalization of high cell and matrix densities at the periphery precede the onset of mechanical instabilities at this annular region. Early growth is detected at this outer annulus, which was analysed by adding fluorescent microspheres to the bacterial inoculum. But only when high rates of matrix production are present in the biofilm centre, does overall biofilm spreading initiate along the solid-air interface. By tracking larger fluorescent particles for a long time, I could distinguish several kinematic stages of E. coli biofilm expansion and observed a transition from non-linear to linear velocity profiles, which precedes the emergence of wrinkles at the biofilm periphery. Decomposing particle velocities to their radial and circumferential components revealed a last kinematic stage, where biofilm movement is mostly directed towards the radial delaminated buckles, which verticalize. The resulting compressive strains computed in these regions were observed to substantially deform the underlying agar substrates. The co-localization of higher cell and matrix densities towards an annular region and the succession of several kinematic stages are thus expected to promote the emergence of mechanical instabilities at the biofilm periphery. These experimental findings are predicted to advance future modelling approaches of biofilm morphogenesis. E. coli biofilm morphogenesis is further anticipated to depend on external stimuli from the environment. To clarify how the water could be used to tune biofilm material properties, we quantified E. coli biofilm growth, wrinkling dynamics and rigidity as a function of the water content of the nutritive substrates. Time-lapse microscopy and computational image analysis revealed that substrates with high water content promote biofilm spreading kinetics, while substrates with low water content promote biofilm wrinkling. The wrinkles observed on biofilm cross-sections appeared more bent on substrates with high water content, while they tended to be more vertical on substrates with low water content. Both wet and dry biomass, accumulated over 4 days of culture, were larger in biofilms cultured on substrates with high water content, despite extra porosity within the matrix layer. Finally, the micro-indentation analysis revealed that substrates with low water content supported the formation of stiffer biofilms. This study shows that E. coli biofilms respond to the water content of their substrate, which might be used for tuning their material properties in view of further applications. Biofilm material properties further depend on the composition and structure of the matrix of extracellular proteins and polysaccharides. In particular, E. coli biofilms were suggested to present tissue-like elasticity due to a dense fibre network consisting of amyloid curli and phosphoethanolamine-modified cellulose. To understand the contribution of these components to the emergent mechanical properties of E. coli biofilms, we performed micro-indentation on biofilms grown from bacteria of several strains. Besides showing higher dry masses, larger spreading diameters and slightly reduced water contents, biofilms expressing both main matrix components also presented high rigidities in the range of several hundred kPa, similar to biofilms containing only curli fibres. In contrast, a lack of amyloid curli fibres provides much higher adhesive energies and more viscoelastic fluid-like material behaviour. Therefore, the combination of amyloid curli and phosphoethanolamine-modified cellulose fibres implies the formation of a composite material whereby the amyloid curli fibres provide rigidity to E. coli biofilms, whereas the phosphoethanolamine-modified cellulose rather acts as a glue. These findings motivate further studies involving purified versions of these protein and polysaccharide components to better understand how their interactions benefit biofilm functions. All three studies depict different aspects of biofilm morphogenesis, which are interrelated. The first work reveals the correlation between non-uniform biological activities and the emergence of mechanical instabilities in the biofilm. The second work acknowledges the adaptive nature of E. coli biofilm morphogenesis and its mechanical properties to an environmental stimulus, namely water. Finally, the last study reveals the complementary role of the individual matrix components in the formation of a stable biofilm material, which not only forms complex morphologies but also functions as a protective shield for the bacteria it contains. Our experimental findings on E. coli biofilm morphogenesis and their mechanical properties can have further implications for fundamental and applied biofilm research fields.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kuerschner2022, author = {K{\"u}rschner, Tobias}, title = {Disease transmission and persistence in dynamic landscapes}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56468}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-564689}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {120, LXXIII}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Infectious diseases are an increasing threat to biodiversity and human health. Therefore, developing a general understanding of the drivers shaping host-pathogen dynamics is of key importance in both ecological and epidemiological research. Disease dynamics are driven by a variety of interacting processes such as individual host behaviour, spatiotemporal resource availability or pathogen traits like virulence and transmission. External drivers such as global change may modify the system conditions and, thus, the disease dynamics. Despite their importance, many of these drivers are often simplified and aggregated in epidemiological models and the interactions among multiple drivers are neglected. In my thesis, I investigate disease dynamics using a mechanistic approach that includes both bottom-up effects - from landscape dynamics to individual movement behaviour - as well as top-down effects - from pathogen virulence on host density and contact rates. To this end, I extended an established spatially explicit individual-based model that simulates epidemiological and ecological processes stochastically, to incorporate a dynamic resource landscape that can be shifted away from the timing of host population-dynamics (chapter 2). I also added the evolution of pathogen virulence along a theoretical virulence-transmission trade-off (chapter 3). In chapter 2, I focus on bottom-up effects, specifically how a temporal shift of resource availability away from the timing of biological events of host-species - as expected under global change - scales up to host-pathogen interactions and disease dynamics. My results show that the formation of temporary disease hotspots in combination with directed individual movement acted as key drivers for pathogen persistence even under highly unfavourable conditions for the host. Even with drivers like global change further increasing the likelihood of unfavourable interactions between host species and their environment, pathogens can continue to persist with heir hosts. In chapter 3, I demonstrate that the top-down effect caused by pathogen-associated mortality on its host population can be mitigated by selection for lower virulent pathogen strains when host densities are reduced through mismatches between seasonal resource availability and host life-history events. I chapter 4, I combined parts of both theoretical models into a new model that includes individual host movement decisions and the evolution of pathogenic virulence to simulate pathogen outbreaks in realistic landscapes. I was able to match simulated patterns of pathogen spread to observed patterns from long-term outbreak data of classical swine fever in wild boar in Northern Germany. The observed disease course was best explained by a simulated high virulent strain, whereas sampling schemes and vaccination campaigns could explain differences in the age-distribution of infected hosts. My model helps to understand and disentangle how the combination of individual decision making and evolution of virulence can act as important drivers of pathogen spread and persistence. As I show across the chapters of this thesis, the interplay of both bottom-up and top-down processes is a key driver of disease dynamics in spatially structured host populations, as they ultimately shape host densities and contact rates among moving individuals. My findings are an important step towards a paradigm shift in disease ecology away from simplified assumptions towards the inclusion of mechanisms, such as complex multi-trophic interactions, and their feedbacks on pathogen spread and disease persistence. The mechanisms presented here should be at the core of realistic predictive and preventive epidemiological models.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Obst2022, author = {Obst, Cosima}, title = {Essays in labor economics}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56379}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-563794}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {272}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This thesis offers insights into the process of workers decisions to invest into work-related training. Specifically, the role of personality traits and attitudes is analysed. The aim is to understand whether such traits contribute to an under-investment into training. Importantly, general and specific training are distinguished, where the worker's productivity increases in many firms in the former and only in the current firm in the latter case. Additionally, this thesis contributes to the evaluation of the German minimum wage introduction in 2015, identifying causal effects on wages and working hours. Chapters two to four focus on the work-related training decision. First, individuals with an internal locus of control see a direct link between their own actions and their labor market success, while external individuals connect their outcomes to fate, luck, and other people. Consequently, it can be expected that internal individuals expect higher returns to training and are, thus, more willing to participate. The results reflect this hypothesis with internal individuals being more likely to participate in general (but not specific) training. Second, training can be viewed either as a risky investment or as an insurance against negative labor income shocks. In both cases, risk attitudes are expected to play a role in the decision process. The data point towards risk seeking individuals being more likely to participate in general (but not specific) training, and thus, training being viewed on average as a risky investment. Third, job satisfaction influences behavioral decisions in the job context, where dissatisfied workers may react by neglecting their duties, improving the situation or quitting the job. In the first case, dissatisfied workers are expected to invest less in training, while the latter two reactions could lead to higher participation rates amongst dissatisfied workers. The results suggest that on average dissatisfied workers are less likely to invest into training than satisfied workers. However, closer inspections of quit intentions and different sources of dissatisfaction paint less clear pictures, pointing towards the complexity of the job satisfaction construct. Chapters five and six evaluate the introduction of the minimum wage in Germany in 2015. First, in 2015 an increase in the growth of hourly wages can be identified as a causal effect of the minimum wage introduction. However, at the same time, a reduction in the weekly working hours results in an overall unchanged growth in monthly earnings. When considering the effects in 2016, the decrease in weekly working hours disappears, resulting in a significant increase in the growth of monthly earnings due to the minimum wage. Importantly, the analysis suggests that the increase in hourly wages was not sufficient to ensure all workers receiving the minimum wage. This points to non-compliance being an issue in the first years after the minimum wage introduction.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Nwosu2022, author = {Nwosu, Ebuka Canisius}, title = {Sedimentary DNA-based reconstruction of cyanobacterial communities from Lake Tiefer See, NE Germany, for the last 11,000 years}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56359}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-563590}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxvi, 214}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Climate change and human-driven eutrophication promote the spread of harmful cyanobacteria blooms in lakes worldwide, which affects water quality and impairs the aquatic food chain. In recent times, sedimentary ancient DNA-based (sedaDNA) studies were used to probe how centuries of climate and environmental changes have affected cyanobacterial assemblages in temperate lakes. However, there is a lack of information on the consistency between sediment-deposited cyanobacteria communities versus those of the water column, and on the individual role of natural climatic changes versus human pressure on cyanobacteria community dynamics over multi-millennia time scales. Therefore, this thesis uses sedimentary ancient DNA of Lake Tiefer See in northeastern Germany to trace the deposition of cyanobacteria along the water column into the sediment, and to reconstruct cyanobacteria communities spanning the last 11,000 years using a set of molecular techniques including quantitative PCR, biomarkers, metabarcoding, and metagenome sequence analyses. The results of this thesis proved that cyanobacterial composition and species richness did not significantly differ among different water depths, sediment traps, and surface sediments. This means that the cyanobacterial community composition from the sediments reflects the water column communities. However, there is a skewed sediment deposition of different cyanobacteria groups because of DNA alteration and/or deterioration during transport along the water column to the sediment. Specifically, single filament taxa, such as Planktothrix, are poorly represented in sediments despite being abundant in the water column as shown by an additional study of the thesis on cyanobacteria seasonality. In contrast, aggregate-forming taxa, like Aphanizomenon, are relatively overrepresented in sediment although they are not abundant in the water column. These different deposition patterns of cyanobacteria taxa should be considered in future DNA-based paleolimnological investigations. The thesis also reveals a substantial increase in total cyanobacteria abundance during the Bronze Age which is not apparent in prior phases of the early to middle Holocene and is suggested to be caused by human farming, deforestation, and excessive nutrient addition to the lake. Not only cyanobacterial abundance was influenced by human activity but also cyanobacteria community composition differed significantly between phases of no, moderate, and intense human impact. The data presented in this thesis are the first on sedimentary cyanobacteria DNA since the early Holocene in a temperate lake. The results bring together archaeological, historical climatic, and limnological data with deep DNA-sequencing and paleoecology to reveal a legacy impact of human pressure on lake cyanobacteria populations dating back to approximately 4000 years.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Tang2022, author = {Tang, Jo Sing Julia}, title = {Biofunctional polymers for medical applications}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56363}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-563639}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {III, 150, V}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Carbohydrates are found in every living organism, where they are responsible for numerous, essential biological functions and processes. Synthetic polymers with pendant saccharides, called glycopolymers, mimic natural glycoconjugates in their special properties and functions. Employing such biomimetics furthers the understanding and controlling of biological processes. Hence, glycopolymers are valuable and interesting for applications in the medical and biological field. However, the synthesis of carbohydrate-based materials can be very challenging. In this thesis, the synthesis of biofunctional glycopolymers is presented, with the focus on aqueous-based, protecting group free and short synthesis routes to further advance in the field of glycopolymer synthesis. A practical and versatile precursor for glycopolymers are glycosylamines. To maintain biofunctionality of the saccharides after their amination, regioselective functionalization was performed. This frequently performed synthesis was optimized for different sugars. The optimization was facilitated using a design of experiment (DoE) approach to enable a reduced number of necessary experiments and efficient procedure. Here, the utility of using DoE for optimizing the synthesis of glycosylamines is discussed. The glycosylamines were converted to glycomonomers which were then polymerized to yield biofunctional glycopolymers. Here, the glycopolymers were aimed to be applicable as layer-by-layer (LbL) thin film coatings for drug delivery systems. To enable the LbL technique, complimentary glycopolymer electrolytes were synthesized by polymerization of the glycomonomers and subsequent modification or by post-polymerization modification. For drug delivery, liposomes were embedded into the glycopolymer coating as potential cargo carriers. The stability as well as the integrity of the glycopolymer layers and liposomes were investigated at physiological pH range. Different glycopolymers were also synthesized to be applicable as anti-adhesion therapeutics by providing advanced architectures with multivalent presentations of saccharides, which can inhibit the binding of pathogene lectins. Here, the synthesis of glycopolymer hydrogel particles based on biocompatible poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (NiPAm) was established using the free-radical precipitation polymerization technique. The influence of synthesis parameters on the sugar content in the gels and on the hydrogel morphology is discussed. The accessibility of the saccharides to model lectins and their enhanced, multivalent interaction were investigated. At the end of this work, the synthesis strategies for the glycopolymers are generally discussed as well as their potential application in medicine.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Neuendorf2022, author = {Neuendorf, Claudia}, title = {Leistungsstarke Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}ler in Deutschland}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56470}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-564702}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {203}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Die vorliegende kumulative Promotionsarbeit besch{\"a}ftigt sich mit leistungsstarken Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}lern, die seit 2015 in der deutschen Bildungspolitik, zum Beispiel im Rahmen von F{\"o}rderprogrammen wieder mehr Raum einnehmen, nachdem in Folge des „PISA-Schocks" im Jahr 2000 zun{\"a}chst der Fokus st{\"a}rker auf den Risikogruppen lag. W{\"a}hrend leistungsst{\"a}rkere Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}ler in der {\"o}ffentlichen Wahrnehmung h{\"a}ufig mit „(Hoch-)Begabten" identifiziert werden, geht die Arbeit {\"u}ber die traditionelle Begabungsforschung, die eine generelle Intelligenz als Grundlage f{\"u}r Leistungsf{\"a}higkeit von Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}lern begreift und beforscht, hinaus. Stattdessen l{\"a}sst sich eher in den Bereich der Talentforschung einordnen, die den Fokus weg von allgemeinen Begabungen auf spezifische Pr{\"a}diktoren und Outcomes im individuellen Entwicklungsverlauf legt. Der Fokus der Arbeit liegt daher nicht auf Intelligenz als Potenzial, sondern auf der aktuellen schulischen Leistung, die als Ergebnis und Ausgangspunkt von Entwicklungsprozessen in einer Leistungsdom{\"a}ne doppelte Bedeutung erh{\"a}lt. Die Arbeit erkennt die Vielgestaltigkeit des Leistungsbegriffs an und ist bestrebt, neue Anl{\"a}sse zu schaffen, {\"u}ber den Leistungsbegriff und seine Operationalisierung in der Forschung zu diskutieren. Hierf{\"u}r wird im ersten Teil ein systematisches Review zur Operationalisierung von Leistungsst{\"a}rke durchgef{\"u}hrt (Artikel I). Es werden Faktoren herausgearbeitet, auf welchen sich die Operationalisierungen unterscheiden k{\"o}nnen. Weiterhin wird ein {\"U}berblick gegeben, wie Studien zu Leistungsstarken sich seit dem Jahr 2000 auf diesen Dimensionen verorten lassen. Es zeigt sich, dass eindeutige Konventionen zur Definition schulischer Leistungsst{\"a}rke noch nicht existieren, woraus folgt, dass Ergebnisse aus Studien, die sich mit leistungsstarken Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}lern besch{\"a}ftigen, nur bedingt miteinander vergleichbar sind. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird im Rahmen zwei weiterer Artikel, welche sich mit der Leistungsentwicklung (Artikel II) und der sozialen Einbindung (Artikel III) von leistungsstarken Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}lern befassen, darauf aufbauend der Ansatz verfolgt, die Variabilit{\"a}t von Ergebnissen {\"u}ber verschiedene Operationalisierungen von Leistungsst{\"a}rke deutlich zu machen. Damit wird unter anderem auch die k{\"u}nftige Vergleichbarkeit mit anderen Studien erleichtert. Genutzt wird dabei das Konzept der Multiversumsanalyse (Steegen et al., 2016), bei welcher viele parallele Spezifikationen, die zugleich sinnvolle Alternativen f{\"u}r die Operationalisierung darstellen, nebeneinandergestellt und in ihrem Effekt verglichen werden (Jansen et al., 2021). Die Multiversumsanalyse kn{\"u}pft konzeptuell an das bereits vor l{\"a}ngerem entwickelte Forschungsprogramm des kritischen Multiplismus an (Patry, 2013; Shadish, 1986, 1993), erh{\"a}lt aber als spezifische Methode aktuell im Rahmen der Replizierbarkeitskrise in der Psychologie eine besondere Bedeutung. Dabei st{\"u}tzt sich die vorliegende Arbeit auf die Sekund{\"a}ranalyse großangelegter Schulleistungsstudien, welche den Vorteil besitzen, dass eine große Zahl an Datenpunkten (Variablen und Personen) zur Verf{\"u}gung steht, um Effekte unterschiedlicher Operationalisierungen zu vergleichen. Inhaltlich greifen Artikel II und III Themen auf, die in der wissenschaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Diskussion zu Leistungsstarken und ihrer Wahrnehmung in der {\"O}ffentlichkeit immer wieder aufscheinen: In Artikel II wird zun{\"a}chst die Frage gestellt, ob Leistungsstarke bereits im aktuellen Regelunterricht einen kumulativen Vorteil gegen{\"u}ber ihren weniger leistungsstarken Mitsch{\"u}lerinnen und Mitsch{\"u}lern haben (Matth{\"a}us-Effekt). Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass an Gymnasien keineswegs von sich vergr{\"o}ßernden Unterschieden gesprochen werden kann. Im Gegenteil, es verringerte sich im Laufe der Sekundarstufe der Abstand zwischen den Gruppen, indem die Lernraten bei leistungsschw{\"a}cheren Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}lern h{\"o}her waren. Artikel III hingegen betrifft die soziale Wahrnehmung von leistungsstarken Sch{\"u}lerinnen und Sch{\"u}lern. Auch hier h{\"a}lt sich in der {\"o}ffentlichen Diskussion die Annahme, dass h{\"o}here Leistungen mit Nachteilen in der sozialen Integration einhergehen k{\"o}nnten, was sich auch in Studien widerspiegelt, die sich mit Geschlechterstereotypen Jugendlicher in Bezug auf Schulleistung besch{\"a}ftigen. In Artikel III wird unter anderem erneut das Potenzial der Multiversumsanalyse genutzt, um die Variation des Zusammenhangs {\"u}ber Operationalisierungen von Leistungsst{\"a}rke zu beschreiben. Es zeigt sich unter unterschiedlichen Operationalisierungen von Leistungsst{\"a}rke und {\"u}ber verschiedene Facetten sozialer Integration hinweg, dass die Zusammenh{\"a}nge zwischen Leistung und sozialer Integration insgesamt leicht positiv ausfallen. Annahmen, die auf differenzielle Effekte f{\"u}r Jungen und M{\"a}dchen oder f{\"u}r unterschiedliche F{\"a}cher abzielen, finden in diesen Analysen keine Best{\"a}tigung. Die Dissertation zeigt, dass der Vergleich unterschiedlicher Ans{\"a}tze zur Operationalisierung von Leistungsst{\"a}rke — eingesetzt im Rahmen eines kritischen Multiplismus — das Verst{\"a}ndnis von Ph{\"a}nomenen vertiefen kann und auch das Potenzial hat, Theorieentwicklung voranzubringen.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Foster2022, author = {Foster, Mary Grace}, title = {X-Ray studies of exoplanet systems}, publisher = {xiii, 92}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56215}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-562152}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {108}, year = {2022}, abstract = {X-rays are integral to furthering our knowledge of exoplanetary systems. In this work we discuss the use of X-ray observations to understand star-planet interac- tions, mass-loss rates of an exoplanet's atmosphere and the study of an exoplanet's atmospheric components using future X-ray spectroscopy. The low-mass star GJ 1151 was reported to display variable low-frequency radio emission, which is an indication of coronal star-planet interactions with an unseen exoplanet. In chapter 5 we report the first X-ray detection of GJ 1151's corona based on XMM-Newton data. Averaged over the observation, we detect the star with a low coronal temperature of 1.6 MK and an X-ray luminosity of LX = 5.5 × 1026 erg/s. This is compatible with the coronal assumptions for a sub-Alfv{\´e}nic star- planet interaction origin of the observed radio signals from this star. In chapter 6, we aim to characterise the high-energy environment of known ex- oplanets and estimate their mass-loss rates. This work is based on the soft X-ray instrument on board the Spectrum Roentgen Gamma (SRG) mission, eROSITA, along with archival data from ROSAT, XMM-Newton, and Chandra. We use these four X-ray source catalogues to derive X-ray luminosities of exoplanet host stars in the 0.2-2 keV energy band. A catalogue of the mass-loss rates of 287 exoplan- ets is presented, with 96 of these planets characterised for the first time using new eROSITA detections. Of these first time detections, 14 are of transiting exoplanets that undergo irradiation from their host stars that is of a level known to cause ob- servable evaporation signals in other systems, making them suitable for follow-up observations. In the next generation of space observatories, X-ray transmission spectroscopy of an exoplanet's atmosphere will be possible, allowing for a detailed look into the atmospheric composition of these planets. In chapter 7, we model sample spectra using a toy model of an exoplanetary atmosphere to predict what exoplanet transit observations with future X-ray missions such as Athena will look like. We then estimate the observable X-ray transmission spectrum for a typical Hot Jupiter-type exoplanet, giving us insights into the advances in X-ray observations of exoplanets in the decades to come.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Heuberger2022, author = {Heuberger, Moritz}, title = {Coordinating digital government}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56269}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-562691}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiii, 136}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This thesis is analyzing multiple coordination challenges which arise with the digital transformation of public administration in federal systems, illustrated by four case studies in Germany. I make various observations within a multi-level system and provide an in-depth analysis. Theoretical explanations from both federalism research and neo-institutionalism are utilized to explain the findings of the empirical driven work. The four articles evince a holistic picture of the German case and elucidate its role as a digital government laggard. Their foci range from macro, over meso to micro level of public administration, differentiating between the governance and the tool dimension of digital government. The first article shows how multi-level negotiations lead to expensive but eventually satisfying solutions for the involved actors, creating a subtle balance between centralization and decentralization. The second article identifies legal, technical, and organizational barriers for cross-organizational service provision, highlighting the importance of inter-organizational and inter-disciplinary exchange and both a common language and trust. Institutional change and its effects on the micro level, on citizens and the employees in local one-stop shops, mark the focus of the third article, bridging the gap between reforms and the administrative reality on the local level. The fourth article looks at the citizens' perspective on digital government reforms, their expectations, use and satisfaction. In this vein, this thesis provides a detailed account of the importance of understanding the digital divide and therefore the necessity of reaching out to different recipients of digital government reforms. I draw conclusions from the factors identified as causes for Germany's shortcomings for other federal systems where feasible and derive reform potential therefrom. This allows to gain a new perspective on digital government and its coordination challenges in federal contexts.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Repke2022, author = {Repke, Tim}, title = {Machine-learning-assisted corpus exploration and visualisation}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56263}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-562636}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xii, 131}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Text collections, such as corpora of books, research articles, news, or business documents are an important resource for knowledge discovery. Exploring large document collections by hand is a cumbersome but necessary task to gain new insights and find relevant information. Our digitised society allows us to utilise algorithms to support the information seeking process, for example with the help of retrieval or recommender systems. However, these systems only provide selective views of the data and require some prior knowledge to issue meaningful queries and asses a system's response. The advancements of machine learning allow us to reduce this gap and better assist the information seeking process. For example, instead of sighting countless business documents by hand, journalists and investigator scan employ natural language processing techniques, such as named entity recognition. Al-though this greatly improves the capabilities of a data exploration platform, the wealth of information is still overwhelming. An overview of the entirety of a dataset in the form of a two-dimensional map-like visualisation may help to circumvent this issue. Such overviews enable novel interaction paradigms for users, which are similar to the exploration of digital geographical maps. In particular, they can provide valuable context by indicating how apiece of information fits into the bigger picture.This thesis proposes algorithms that appropriately pre-process heterogeneous documents and compute the layout for datasets of all kinds. Traditionally, given high-dimensional semantic representations of the data, so-called dimensionality reduction algorithms are usedto compute a layout of the data on a two-dimensional canvas. In this thesis, we focus on text corpora and go beyond only projecting the inherent semantic structure itself. Therefore,we propose three dimensionality reduction approaches that incorporate additional information into the layout process: (1) a multi-objective dimensionality reduction algorithm to jointly visualise semantic information with inherent network information derived from the underlying data; (2) a comparison of initialisation strategies for different dimensionality reduction algorithms to generate a series of layouts for corpora that grow and evolve overtime; (3) and an algorithm that updates existing layouts by incorporating user feedback provided by pointwise drag-and-drop edits. This thesis also contains system prototypes to demonstrate the proposed technologies, including pre-processing and layout of the data and presentation in interactive user interfaces.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Spallanzani2022, author = {Spallanzani, Roberta}, title = {Li and B in ascending magmas: an experimental study on their mobility and isotopic fractionation}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56061}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-560619}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiv, 131}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This research study focuses on the behaviour of Li and B during magmatic ascent, and decompression-driven degassing related to volcanic systems. The main objective of this dissertation is to determine whether it is possible to use the diffusion properties of the two trace elements as a tool to trace magmatic ascent rate. With this objective, diffusion-couple and decompression experiments have been performed in order to study Li and B mobility in intra-melt conditions first, and then in an evolving system during decompression-driven degassing. Synthetic glasses were prepared with rhyolitic composition and an initial water content of 4.2 wt\%, and all the experiments were performed using an internally heated pressure vessel, in order to ensure a precise control on the experimental parameters such as temperature and pressure. Diffusion-couple experiments were performed with a fix pressure 300 MPa. The temperature was varied in the range of 700-1250 °C with durations between 0 seconds and 24 hours. The diffusion-couple results show that Li diffusivity is very fast and starts already at very low temperature. Significant isotopic fractionation occurs due to the faster mobility of 6Li compared to 7Li. Boron diffusion is also accelerated by the presence of water, but the results of the isotopic ratios are unclear, and further investigation would be necessary to well constrain the isotopic fractionation process of boron in hydrous silicate melts. The isotopic ratios results show that boron isotopic fractionation might be affected by the speciation of boron in the silicate melt structure, as 10B and 11B tend to have tetrahedral and trigonal coordination, respectively. Several decompression experiments were performed at 900 °C and 1000 °C, with pressures going from 300 MPa to 71-77 MPa and durations of 30 minutes, two, five and ten hours, in order to trigger water exsolution and the formation of vesicles in the sample. Textural observations and the calculation of the bubble number density confirmed that the bubble size and distribution after decompression is directly proportional to the decompression rate. The overall SIMS results of Li and B show that the two trace elements tend to progressively decrease their concentration with decreasing decompression rates. This is explained because for longer decompression times, the diffusion of Li and B into the bubbles has more time to progress and the melt continuously loses volatiles as the bubbles expand their volumes. For fast decompression, Li and B results show a concentration increase with a δ7Li and δ11B decrease close to the bubble interface, related to the sudden formation of the gas bubble, and the occurrence of a diffusion process in the opposite direction, from the bubble meniscus to the unaltered melt. When the bubble growth becomes dominant and Li and B start to exsolve into the gas phase, the silicate melt close to the bubble gets depleted in Li and B, because of a stronger diffusion of the trace elements into the bubble. Our data are being applied to different models, aiming to combine the dynamics of bubble nucleation and growth with the evolution of trace elements concentration and isotopic ratios. Here, first considerations on these models will be presented, giving concluding remarks on this research study. All in all, the final remarks constitute a good starting point for further investigations. These results are a promising base to continue to study this process, and Li and B can indeed show clear dependences on decompression-related magma ascent rates in volcanic systems.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Vu2022, author = {Vu, Nils Leif}, title = {A task-based parallel elliptic solver for numerical relativity with discontinuous Galerkin methods}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56226}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-562265}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {172}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Elliptic partial differential equations are ubiquitous in physics. In numerical relativity---the study of computational solutions to the Einstein field equations of general relativity---elliptic equations govern the initial data that seed every simulation of merging black holes and neutron stars. In the quest to produce detailed numerical simulations of these most cataclysmic astrophysical events in our Universe, numerical relativists resort to the vast computing power offered by current and future supercomputers. To leverage these computational resources, numerical codes for the time evolution of general-relativistic initial value problems are being developed with a renewed focus on parallelization and computational efficiency. Their capability to solve elliptic problems for accurate initial data must keep pace with the increasing detail of the simulations, but elliptic problems are traditionally hard to parallelize effectively. In this thesis, I develop new numerical methods to solve elliptic partial differential equations on computing clusters, with a focus on initial data for orbiting black holes and neutron stars. I develop a discontinuous Galerkin scheme for a wide range of elliptic equations, and a stack of task-based parallel algorithms for their iterative solution. The resulting multigrid-Schwarz preconditioned Newton-Krylov elliptic solver proves capable of parallelizing over 200 million degrees of freedom to at least a few thousand cores, and already solves initial data for a black hole binary about ten times faster than the numerical relativity code SpEC. I also demonstrate the applicability of the new elliptic solver across physical disciplines, simulating the thermal noise in thin mirror coatings of interferometric gravitational-wave detectors to unprecedented accuracy. The elliptic solver is implemented in the new open-source SpECTRE numerical relativity code, and set up to support simulations of astrophysical scenarios for the emerging era of gravitational-wave and multimessenger astronomy.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kovacs2022, author = {Kov{\´a}cs, R{\´o}bert}, title = {Human-scale personal fabrication}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55539}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-555398}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {139}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The availability of commercial 3D printers and matching 3D design software has allowed a wide range of users to create physical prototypes - as long as these objects are not larger than hand size. However, when attempting to create larger, "human-scale" objects, such as furniture, not only are these machines too small, but also the commonly used 3D design software is not equipped to design with forces in mind — since forces increase disproportionately with scale. In this thesis, we present a series of end-to-end fabrication software systems that support users in creating human-scale objects. They achieve this by providing three main functions that regular "small-scale" 3D printing software does not offer: (1) subdivision of the object into small printable components combined with ready-made objects, (2) editing based on predefined elements sturdy enough for larger scale, i.e., trusses, and (3) functionality for analyzing, detecting, and fixing structural weaknesses. The presented software systems also assist the fabrication process based on either 3D printing or steel welding technology. The presented systems focus on three levels of engineering challenges: (1) fabricating static load-bearing objects, (2) creating mechanisms that involve motion, such as kinematic installations, and finally (3) designing mechanisms with dynamic repetitive movement where power and energy play an important role. We demonstrate and verify the versatility of our systems by building and testing human-scale prototypes, ranging from furniture pieces, pavilions, to animatronic installations and playground equipment. We have also shared our system with schools, fablabs, and fabrication enthusiasts, who have successfully created human-scale objects that can withstand with human-scale forces.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bournot2022, author = {Bournot, Estefan{\´i}a}, title = {Giros Topogr{\´a}ficos}, number = {6}, publisher = {Universit{\"a}tsverlag Potsdam}, address = {Potsdam}, isbn = {978-3-86956-534-7}, issn = {2629-2548}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-54842}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-548422}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {192}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Giros topogr{\´a}ficos explora las producciones simb{\´o}licas del espacio en una serie de textos narrativos publicados desde el cambio de milenio en Am{\´e}rica Latina. Retomando los planteos te{\´o}ricos del spatial turn y de la geocr{\´i}tica, el estudio aborda las topograf{\´i}as literarias desde cuatro {\´a}ngulos que exceden y transforman los l{\´i}mites territoriales y nacionales: din{\´a}micas de hiperconectividad medi{\´a}tica y movilidad acelerada; genealog{\´i}as afectivas; ecolog{\´i}as urbanas; y representaciones de la alteridad. A partir del an{\´a}lisis de obras de Lina Meruane, Guillermo Fadanelli, Andr{\´e}s Neuman, Andrea Jeftanovic, Sergio Chejfech y Bernardo Carvalho, entre otros, el libro se{\~n}ala los flujos, ambig{\"u}edades y tensiones proyectadas por las nuevas comunidades imaginadas del s.XXI. Con ello, el ensayo busca ofrecer un aporte para repensar el estatus de la literatura latinoamericana en el marco de su globalizaci{\´o}n avanzada y la consecuente consolidaci{\´o}n de espacios de enunciaci{\´o}n translocalizados.}, language = {es} } @phdthesis{Tranter2022, author = {Tranter, Morgan Alan}, title = {Numerical quantification of barite reservoir scaling and the resulting injectivity loss in geothermal systems}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56113}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561139}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {131}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Due to the major role of greenhouse gas emissions in global climate change, the development of non-fossil energy technologies is essential. Deep geothermal energy represents such an alternative, which offers promising properties such as a high base load capability and a large untapped potential. The present work addresses barite precipitation within geothermal systems and the associated reduction in rock permeability, which is a major obstacle to maintaining high efficiency. In this context, hydro-geochemical models are essential to quantify and predict the effects of precipitation on the efficiency of a system. The objective of the present work is to quantify the induced injectivity loss using numerical and analytical reactive transport simulations. For the calculations, the fractured-porous reservoirs of the German geothermal regions North German Basin (NGB) and Upper Rhine Graben (URG) are considered. Similar depth-dependent precipitation potentials could be determined for both investigated regions (2.8-20.2 g/m3 fluid). However, the reservoir simulations indicate that the injectivity loss due to barite deposition in the NGB is significant (1.8\%-6.4\% per year) and the longevity of the system is affected as a result; this is especially true for deeper reservoirs (3000 m). In contrast, simulations of URG sites indicate a minor role of barite (< 0.1\%-1.2\% injectivity loss per year). The key differences between the investigated regions are reservoir thicknesses and the presence of fractures in the rock, as well as the ionic strength of the fluids. The URG generally has fractured-porous reservoirs with much higher thicknesses, resulting in a greater distribution of precipitates in the subsurface. Furthermore, ionic strengths are higher in the NGB, which accelerates barite precipitation, causing it to occur more concentrated around the wellbore. The more concentrated the precipitates occur around the wellbore, the higher the injectivity loss. In this work, a workflow was developed within which numerical and analytical models can be used to estimate and quantify the risk of barite precipitation within the reservoir of geothermal systems. A key element is a newly developed analytical scaling score that provides a reliable estimate of induced injectivity loss. The key advantage of the presented approach compared to fully coupled reservoir simulations is its simplicity, which makes it more accessible to plant operators and decision makers. Thus, in particular, the scaling score can find wide application within geothermal energy, e.g., in the search for potential plant sites and the estimation of long-term efficiency.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Doering2022, author = {Doering, Ulrike}, title = {Preparation, characterization and modification of oil loaded protein microcapsules and composite protein-mineral microcapsules}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55958}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559589}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 115}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Diese Doktorarbeit behandelt die Synthese von Protein- und kompositen Protein-Mineral-Mikrokapseln durch die Anwendung von hochintensivem Ultraschall an der {\"O}l-Wasser-Grenzfl{\"a}che. W{\"a}hrend ein System durch BSA-Molek{\"u}le stabilisiert wird, wird das andere System durch verschiedene mit BSA modifizierten Nanopartikeln stabilisiert. Sowohl von allen Synthesestufen als auch von den resultierenden Kapseln wurden umfassende Untersuchungen durchgef{\"u}hrt und eine plausible Erkl{\"a}rung f{\"u}r den Mechanismus der Kapselbildung wurde vorgestellt. W{\"a}hrend der Bildung der BSA-Mikrokapseln adsorbieren die Proteinmolek{\"u}le als Erstes an der O/W-Grenzfl{\"a}che, entfalten sich dort und bilden ein Netzwerk, das durch hydrophobe Wechselwirkungen und Wasserstoffbr{\"u}ckenbindungen zwischen den benachbarten Molek{\"u}len stabilisiert wird. Gleichzeitig bewirkt die Ultraschallbehandlung die Quervernetzung der BSA-Molek{\"u}le {\"u}ber die Bildung von intermolekularen Disulfidbindungen. In dieser Doktorarbeit werden die experimentellen Nachweise f{\"u}r die durch Ultraschall induzierte Quervernetzung von BSA in den Schalen der proteinbasierten Mikrokapseln aufgezeigt. Deshalb wurde das Konzept, das vor vielen Jahren von Suslick und seinen Mitarbeitern vorgestellt wurde, zum ersten Mal durch experimentelle Nachweise best{\"a}tigt. Außerdem wurde ein konsistenter Mechanismus f{\"u}r die Bildung der intermolekularen Disulfidbindungen in der Kapselschale vorgestellt, der auf der Neuverteilung der Thiol- und Disulfidgruppen in BSA unter der Wirkung von hochenergetischem Ultraschall basiert. Auch die Bildung von kompositen Protein-Mineral-Mikrokapseln, die mit drei verschiedenen {\"O}len gef{\"u}llt wurden und deren Schalen aus Nanopartikeln bestehen, war erfolgreich. Die Beschaffenheit des {\"O}ls und die Art der Nanopartikel in der Schale hatten Einfluss auf die Gr{\"o}ße und Form der Mikrokapseln. Die Untersuchung der kompositen Kapseln zeigte, dass die BSA-Molek{\"u}le, die an der Oberfl{\"a}che der Nanopartikel in der Kapselschale adsorbiert sind, nicht durch intermolekulare Disulfidbindungen quervernetzt sind. Stattdessen findet die Bildung einer Pickering-Emulsion statt. Die Oberfl{\"a}chenmodifizierung der kompositen Mikrokapseln durch Vormodifizierung der Hauptbestandteile und auch durch Postmodifizierung der Oberfl{\"a}che der fertigen kompositen Mikrokapseln wurde erfolgreich demonstriert. Zus{\"a}tzlich wurden die mechanischen Eigenschaften beider Kapselarten verglichen. Dabei erwiesen sich die Protein-Mikrokapseln widerstandsf{\"a}higer gegen{\"u}ber elastischer Deformation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bishop2022, author = {Bishop, Christopher Allen}, title = {Influence of dairy intake on odd-chain fatty acids and energy metabolism}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56154}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561541}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xii, 104, xv}, year = {2022}, abstract = {As of late, epidemiological studies have highlighted a strong association of dairy intake with lower disease risk, and similarly with an increased amount of odd-chain fatty acids (OCFA). While the OCFA also demonstrate inverse associations with disease incidence, the direct dietary sources and mode of action of the OCFA remain poorly understood. The overall aim of this thesis was to determine the impact of two main fractions of dairy, milk fat and milk protein, on OCFA levels and their influence on health outcomes under high-fat (HF) diet conditions. Both fractions represent viable sources of OCFA, as milk fats contain a significant amount of OCFA and milk proteins are high in branched chain amino acids (BCAA), namely valine (Val) and isoleucine (Ile), which can produce propionyl-CoA (Pr-CoA), a precursor for endogenous OCFA synthesis, while leucine (Leu) does not. Additionally, this project sought to clarify the specific metabolic effects of the OCFA heptadecanoic acid (C17:0). Both short-term and long-term feeding studies were performed using male C57BL/6JRj mice fed HF diets supplemented with milk fat or C17:0, as well as milk protein or individual BCAA (Val; Leu) to determine their influences on OCFA and metabolic health. Short-term feeding revealed that both milk fractions induce OCFA in vivo, and the increases elicited by milk protein could be, in part, explained by Val intake. In vitro studies using primary hepatocytes further showed an induction of OCFA after Val treatment via de novo lipogenesis and increased α-oxidation. In the long-term studies, both milk fat and milk protein increased hepatic and circulating OCFA levels; however, only milk protein elicited protective effects on adiposity and hepatic fat accumulation—likely mediated by the anti-obesogenic effects of an increased Leu intake. In contrast, Val feeding did not increase OCFA levels nor improve obesity, but rather resulted in glucotoxicity-induced insulin resistance in skeletal muscle mediated by its metabolite 3-hydroxyisobutyrate (3-HIB). Finally, while OCFA levels correlated with improved health outcomes, C17:0 produced negligible effects in preventing HF-diet induced health impairments. The results presented herein demonstrate that the beneficial health outcomes associated with dairy intake are likely mediated through the effects of milk protein, while OCFA levels are likely a mere association and do not play a significant causal role in metabolic health under HF conditions. Furthermore, the highly divergent metabolic effects of the two BCAA, Leu and Val, unraveled herein highlight the importance of protein quality.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Pruefert2022, author = {Pr{\"u}fert, Christian}, title = {Laser ablation and matter sizing}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55974}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559745}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {IX, 96}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The doctoral thesis presented provides a comprehensive view of laser-based ablation techniques promoted to new fields of operation, including, but not limited to, size, composition, and concentration analyses. It covers various applications of laser ablation techniques over a wide range of sizes, from single molecules all the way to aerosol particles. The research for this thesis started with broadening and deepening the field of application and the fundamental understanding of liquid-phase IR-MALDI. Here, the hybridization of ion mobility spectrometry and microfluidics was realized by using IR-MALDI as the coupling technique for the first time. The setup was used for monitoring the photocatalytic performance of the E-Z isomerization of olefins. Using this hybrid, measurement times were so drastically reduced that such photocatalyst screenings became a matter of minutes rather than hours. With this on hand, triple measurements screenings could not only be performed within ten minutes, but also with a minimum amount of resources highlighting its potential as a green chemistry alternative to batch-sized reactions. Along the optimizing process of the IR-MALDI source for microfluidics came its application for another liquid sample supply method, the hanging drop. This demarcated one of the first applications of IR-MALDI for the charging of sub-micron particles directly from suspensions via their gas-phase transfer, followed by their characterization with differential mobility analysis. Given the high spectral quality of the data up to octuply charged particles became experimentally accessible, this laid the foundation for deriving a new charge distribution model for IR-MALDI in that size regime. Moving on to even larger analyte sizes, LIBS and LII were employed as ablation techniques for the solid phase, namely the aerosol particles themselves. Both techniques produce light-emitting events and were used to quantify and classify different aerosols. The unique configuration of stroboscopic imaging, photoacoustics, LII, and LIBS measurements opened new realms for analytical synergies and their potential application in industry. The concept of using low fluences, below 100 J/cm2, and high repetition rates of up to 500 Hz for LIBS makes for an excellent phase-selective LIBS setup. This concept was combined with a new approach to the photoacoustic normalization of LIBS. Also, it was possible to acquire statistically relevant amounts of data in a matter of seconds, showing its potential as a real-time optimization technique. On the same time axis, but at much lower fluences, LII was used with a similar methodology to quickly quantify and classify airborne particles of different compositions. For the first time, aerosol particles were evaluated on their LII susceptibility by using a fluence screening approach.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Ramm2022, author = {Ramm, Timo}, title = {Entwicklung von Multiplex-Methoden zur Antik{\"o}rper-Charakterisierung und Validierung}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56153}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561531}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XIV, 138}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Antik{\"o}rper werden in verschiedensten Bereichen, sowohl zu therapeutischen als auch zu diagnostischen und forschungsorientierten Zwecken verwendet. Vor der Verwendung des Antik{\"o}rpers bedarf es der Charakterisierung seiner Eigenschaften, in Bezug auf sein Epitop und sein Bindeverhalten gegen{\"u}ber dem Paratop. Gleichzeitig muss, in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit des Einsatzes, der Antik{\"o}rper, f{\"u}r den gew{\"u}nschten Gebrauch, validiert werden. Zu diesem Zweck wurden in der vorliegenden Arbeit Bead-basierte, multiplexe Testsysteme entworfen, ausgetestet und etabliert mit dem Ziel, eine einfache Screeningmethode zu entwickeln, um eine hohe Anzahl an Proben beziehungsweise Analyten gleichzeitig bestimmen zu k{\"o}nnen. Daf{\"u}r wurden drei verschiedene Herangehensweisen etabliert. So wurden ein phospho-PKA-Substrat Antik{\"o}rper, welcher phosphorylierte Bindemotive der PKA der Form RRxpS erkennt, gleichzeitig mit einer Reihe an Peptide getestet, welche Punktmutationen im Vergleich zur Konsensussequenz enthielten, um den Einfluss einzelner Aminos{\"a}uren auf die Bindung des Antik{\"o}rpers zu untersuchen. Es konnte im Multiplex gezeigt werden, dass die Unterschiede im Antik{\"o}rperbindungsverhalten in Abh{\"a}ngigkeit der Aminos{\"a}ure an verschiedenen P-Positionen detektierbar waren. Mit dem Bead-basierten Multiplexansatz konnten, durch Messungen von Konzentrationsreihen des Antik{\"o}rpers, Bindungskinetiken aufgenommen und diese mit bereits etablierten Methoden verglichen werden. Des Weiteren wurden verschiedene Antik{\"o}rper, welche essenzielle Bestandteile von Bead-basierten Testsystemen darstellten, validiert. Es wurden dabei verschiedene Antik{\"o}rper, welche spezifisch THC und CBD erkennen ausgetestet und anschließend ein kompetitiver Assay zur Detektion von THC und CBD in humanem Serum etabliert, und die Nachweisgrenzen bestimmt. Ferner sollten Pferdeseren von Tieren, welche am Sommerekzem leiden, auf ihren IgE-Gehalt hin bestimmt werden. Daf{\"u}r wurden relevante Proteine rekombinant hergestellt und durch Immobilisierung an Beads im Multiplex mit Serum inkubiert. Die spezifische Bindung des IgE an die Allergen sollte damit messbar gemacht werden k{\"o}nnen. F{\"u}r die Gesamtvalidierung des Testsystems wurden zuvor s{\"a}mtliche Einzelschritte einzeln validiert, um im Anschluss im multiplexen Screening zu vermessen. Die Nutzung von Bead-basierten Multiplexmessungen als eine Plattformtechnologie erleichtert die Charakterisierung von Antik{\"o}rpern sowie ihre Validierung f{\"u}r verschiedene Testsysteme.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{Schemenz2022, author = {Schemenz, Victoria}, title = {Correlations between osteocyte lacuno-canalicular network and material characteristics in bone adaptation and regeneration}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55959}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559593}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {3, xii, 146}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The complex hierarchical structure of bone undergoes a lifelong remodeling process, where it adapts to mechanical needs. Hereby, bone resorption by osteoclasts and bone formation by osteoblasts have to be balanced to sustain a healthy and stable organ. Osteocytes orchestrate this interplay by sensing mechanical strains and translating them into biochemical signals. The osteocytes are located in lacunae and are connected to one another and other bone cells via cell processes through small channels, the canaliculi. Lacunae and canaliculi form a network (LCN) of extracellular spaces that is able to transport ions and enables cell-to-cell communication. Osteocytes might also contribute to mineral homeostasis by direct interactions with the surrounding matrix. If the LCN is acting as a transport system, this should be reflected in the mineralization pattern. The central hypothesis of this thesis is that osteocytes are actively changing their material environment. Characterization methods of material science are used to achieve the aim of detecting traces of this interaction between osteocytes and the extracellular matrix. First, healthy murine bones were characterized. The properties analyzed were then compared with three murine model systems: 1) a loading model, where a bone of the mouse was loaded during its life time; 2) a healing model, where a bone of the mouse was cut to induce a healing response; and 3) a disease model, where the Fbn1 gene is dysfunctional causing defects in the formation of the extracellular tissue. The measurement strategy included routines that make it possible to analyze the organization of the LCN and the material components (i.e., the organic collagen matrix and the mineral particles) in the same bone volumes and compare the spatial distribution of different data sets. The three-dimensional network architecture of the LCN is visualized by confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) after rhodamine staining and is then subsequently quantified. The calcium content is determined via quantitative backscattered electron imaging (qBEI), while small- and wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS) are employed to determine the thickness and length of local mineral particles. First, tibiae cortices of healthy mice were characterized to investigate how changes in LCN architecture can be attributed to interactions of osteocytes with the surrounding bone matrix. The tibial mid-shaft cross-sections showed two main regions, consisting of a band with unordered LCN surrounded by a region with ordered LCN. The unordered region is a remnant of early bone formation and exhibited short and thin mineral particles. The surrounding, more aligned bone showed ordered and dense LCN as well as thicker and longer mineral particles. The calcium content was unchanged between the two regions. In the mouse loading model, the left tibia underwent two weeks of mechanical stimulation, which results in increased bone formation and decreased resorption in skeletally mature mice. Here the specific research question addressed was how do bone material characteristics change at (re)modeling sites? The new bone formed in response to mechanical stimulation showed similar properties in terms of the mineral particles, like the ordered calcium region but lower calcium content compared to the right, non-loaded control bone of the same mice. There was a clear, recognizable border between mature and newly formed bone. Nevertheless, some canaliculi went through this border connecting the LCN of mature and newly formed bone. Additionally, the question should be answered whether the LCN topology and the bone matrix material properties adapt to loading. Although, mechanically stimulated bones did not show differences in calcium content compared to controls, different correlations were found between the local LCN density and the local Ca content depending on whether the bone was loaded or not. These results suggest that the LCN may serve as a mineral reservoir. For the healing model, the femurs of mice underwent an osteotomy, stabilized with an external fixator and were allowed to heal for 21 days. Thus, the spatial variations in the LCN topology with mineral properties within different tissue types and their interfaces, namely calcified cartilage, bony callus and cortex, could be simultaneously visualized and compared in this model. All tissue types showed structural differences across multiple length scales. Calcium content increased and became more homogeneous from calcified cartilage to bony callus to lamellar cortical bone. The degree of LCN organization increased as well, while the lacunae became smaller, as did the lacunar density between these different tissue types that make up the callus. In the calcified cartilage, the mineral particles were short and thin. The newly formed callus exhibited thicker mineral particles, which still had a low degree of orientation. While most of the callus had a woven-like structure, it also served as a scaffold for more lamellar tissue at the edges. The lamelar bone callus showed thinner mineral particles, but a higher degree of alignment in both, mineral particles and the LCN. The cortex showed the highest values for mineral length, thickness and degree of orientation. At the same time, the lacunae number density was 34\% lower and the lacunar volume 40\% smaller compared to bony callus. The transition zone between cortical and callus regions showed a continuous convergence of bone mineral properties and lacunae shape. Although only a few canaliculi connected callus and the cortical region, this indicates that communication between osteocytes of both tissues should be possible. The presented correlations between LCN architecture and mineral properties across tissue types may suggest that osteocytes have an active role in mineralization processes of healing. A mouse model for the disease marfan syndrome, which includes a genetic defect in the fibrillin-1 gene, was investigated. In humans, Marfan syndrome is characterized by a range of clinical symptoms such as long bone overgrowth, loose joints, reduced bone mineral density, compromised bone microarchitecture, and increased fracture rates. Thus, fibrillin-1 seems to play a role in the skeletal homeostasis. Therefore, the present work studied how marfan syndrome alters LCN architecture and the surrounding bone matrix. The mice with marfan syndrome showed longer tibiae than their healthy littermates from an age of seven weeks onwards. In contrast, the cortical development appeared retarded, which was observed across all measured characteristics, i. e. lower endocortical bone formation, looser and less organized lacuno-canalicular network, less collagen orientation, thinner and shorter mineral particles. In each of the three model systems, this study found that changes in the LCN architecture spatially correlated with bone matrix material parameters. While not knowing the exact mechanism, these results provide indications that osteocytes can actively manipulate a mineral reservoir located around the canaliculi to make a quickly accessible contribution to mineral homeostasis. However, this interaction is most likely not one-sided, but could be understood as an interplay between osteocytes and extra-cellular matrix, since the bone matrix contains biochemical signaling molecules (e.g. non-collagenous proteins) that can change osteocyte behavior. Bone (re)modeling can therefore not only be understood as a method for removing defects or adapting to external mechanical stimuli, but also for increasing the efficiency of possible osteocyte-mineral interactions during bone homeostasis. With these findings, it seems reasonable to consider osteocytes as a target for drug development related to bone diseases that cause changes in bone composition and mechanical properties. It will most likely require the combined effort of materials scientists, cell biologists, and molecular biologists to gain a deeper understanding of how bone cells respond to their material environment.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Zeuschner2022, author = {Zeuschner, Steffen Peer}, title = {Magnetoacoustics observed with ultrafast x-ray diffraction}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56109}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-561098}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {V, 128, IX}, year = {2022}, abstract = {In the present thesis I investigate the lattice dynamics of thin film hetero structures of magnetically ordered materials upon femtosecond laser excitation as a probing and manipulation scheme for the spin system. The quantitative assessment of laser induced thermal dynamics as well as generated picosecond acoustic pulses and their respective impact on the magnetization dynamics of thin films is a challenging endeavor. All the more, the development and implementation of effective experimental tools and comprehensive models are paramount to propel future academic and technological progress. In all experiments in the scope of this cumulative dissertation, I examine the crystal lattice of nanoscale thin films upon the excitation with femtosecond laser pulses. The relative change of the lattice constant due to thermal expansion or picosecond strain pulses is directly monitored by an ultrafast X-ray diffraction (UXRD) setup with a femtosecond laser-driven plasma X-ray source (PXS). Phonons and spins alike exert stress on the lattice, which responds according to the elastic properties of the material, rendering the lattice a versatile sensor for all sorts of ultrafast interactions. On the one hand, I investigate materials with strong magneto-elastic properties; The highly magnetostrictive rare-earth compound TbFe2, elemental Dysprosium or the technological relevant Invar material FePt. On the other hand I conduct a comprehensive study on the lattice dynamics of Bi1Y2Fe5O12 (Bi:YIG), which exhibits high-frequency coherent spin dynamics upon femtosecond laser excitation according to the literature. Higher order standing spinwaves (SSWs) are triggered by coherent and incoherent motion of atoms, in other words phonons, which I quantified with UXRD. We are able to unite the experimental observations of the lattice and magnetization dynamics qualitatively and quantitatively. This is done with a combination of multi-temperature, elastic, magneto-elastic, anisotropy and micro-magnetic modeling. The collective data from UXRD, to probe the lattice, and time-resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect (tr-MOKE) measurements, to monitor the magnetization, were previously collected at different experimental setups. To improve the precision of the quantitative assessment of lattice and magnetization dynamics alike, our group implemented a combination of UXRD and tr-MOKE in a singular experimental setup, which is to my knowledge, the first of its kind. I helped with the conception and commissioning of this novel experimental station, which allows the simultaneous observation of lattice and magnetization dynamics on an ultrafast timescale under identical excitation conditions. Furthermore, I developed a new X-ray diffraction measurement routine which significantly reduces the measurement time of UXRD experiments by up to an order of magnitude. It is called reciprocal space slicing (RSS) and utilizes an area detector to monitor the angular motion of X-ray diffraction peaks, which is associated with lattice constant changes, without a time-consuming scan of the diffraction angles with the goniometer. RSS is particularly useful for ultrafast diffraction experiments, since measurement time at large scale facilities like synchrotrons and free electron lasers is a scarce and expensive resource. However, RSS is not limited to ultrafast experiments and can even be extended to other diffraction techniques with neutrons or electrons.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Demin2022, author = {Demin, Paul}, title = {Blaulicht-aktivierbares Proteinexpressionssystem in Saccharomyces cerevisiae}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55969}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559696}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {127}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Synthetische Transkriptionsfaktoren bestehen wie nat{\"u}rliche Transkriptionsfaktoren aus einer DNA-Bindedom{\"a}ne, die sich spezifisch an die Bindestellensequenz vor dem Ziel-Gen anlagert, und einer Aktivierungsdom{\"a}ne, die die Transkriptionsmaschinerie rekrutiert, sodass das Zielgen exprimiert wird. Der Unterschied zu den nat{\"u}rlichen Transkriptionsfaktoren ist, sowohl dass die DNA-Bindedom{\"a}ne als auch die Aktivierungsdom{\"a}ne wirtsfremd sein k{\"o}nnen und dadurch k{\"u}nstliche Stoffwechselwege im Wirt, gr{\"o}ßtenteils chemisch, induziert werden k{\"o}nnen. Optogenetische synthetische Transkriptionsfaktoren, die hier entwickelt wurden, gehen einen Schritt weiter. Dabei ist die DNA-Bindedom{\"a}ne nicht mehr an die Aktivierungsdom{\"a}ne, sondern mit dem Blaulicht-Photorezeptor CRY2 gekoppelt. Die Aktivierungsdom{\"a}ne wurde mit dem Interaktionspartner CIB1 fusioniert. Unter Blaulichtbestrahlung dimerisieren CRY2 und CIB1 und damit einhergehend die beiden Dom{\"a}nen, sodass ein funktionsf{\"a}higer Transkriptionsfaktor entsteht. Dieses System wurde in die Saccharomyces cerevisiae genomisch integriert. Verifiziert wurde das konstruierte System mit Hilfe des Reporters yEGFP, welcher durchflusszytometrisch detektiert werden konnte. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die yEGFP Expression variabel gestaltet werden kann, indem unterschiedlich lange Blaulichtimpulse ausgesendet wurden, die DNA-Bindedom{\"a}ne, die Aktivierungsdom{\"a}ne oder die Anzahl der Bindestellen, an dem sich die DNA-Bindedom{\"a}ne anlagert, ver{\"a}ndert wurden. Um das System f{\"u}r industrielle Anwendungen attraktiv zu gestalten, wurde das System vom Deepwell-Maßstab auf Photobioreaktor-Maßstab hochskaliert. Außerdem erwies sich das Blaulichtsystem sowohl im Laborstamm YPH500 als auch im industriell oft verwendeten Hefestamm CEN.PK als funktional. Des Weiteren konnte ein industrierelevante Protein ebenso mit Hilfe des verifizierten Systems exprimiert werden. Schlussendlich konnte in dieser Arbeit das etablierte Blaulicht-System erfolgreich mit einem Rotlichtsystem kombiniert werden, was zuvor noch nicht beschrieben wurde.}, language = {de} } @phdthesis{KranjcHorvat2022, author = {Kranjc Horvat, Anja}, title = {Particle physics in high-school education}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-56026}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-560260}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {137}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Elementary particle physics is a contemporary topic in science that is slowly being integrated into high-school education. These new implementations are challenging teachers' professional knowledge worldwide. Therefore, physics education research is faced with two important questions, namely, how can particle physics be integrated in high-school physics curricula and how best to support teachers in enhancing their professional knowledge on particle physics. This doctoral research project set up to provide better guidelines for answering these two questions by conducting three studies on high-school particle physics education. First, an expert concept mapping study was conducted to elicit experts' expectations on what high-school students should learn about particle physics. Overall, 13 experts in particle physics, computing, and physics education participated in 9 concept mapping rounds. The broad knowledge base of the experts ensured that the final expert concept map covers all major particle physics aspects. Specifically, the final expert concept map includes 180 concepts and examples, connected with 266 links and crosslinks. Among them are also several links to students' prior knowledge in topics such as mechanics and thermodynamics. The high interconnectedness of the concepts shows possible opportunities for including particle physics as a context for other curricular topics. As such, the resulting expert concept map is showcased as a well-suited tool for teachers to scaffold their instructional practice. Second, a review of 27 high-school physics curricula was conducted. The review uncovered which concepts related to particle physics can be identified in most curricula. Each curriculum was reviewed by two reviewers that followed a codebook with 60 concepts related to particle physics. The analysis showed that most curricula mention cosmology, elementary particles, and charges, all of which are considered theoretical particle physics concepts. None of the experimental particle physics concepts appeared in more than half of the reviewed curricula. Additional analysis was done on two curricular subsets, namely curricula with and curricula without an explicit particle physics chapter. Curricula with an explicit particle physics chapter mention several additional explicit particle physics concepts, namely the Standard Model of particle physics, fundamental interactions, antimatter research, and particle accelerators. The latter is an example of experimental particle physics concepts. Additionally, the analysis revealed that, overall, most curricula include Nature of Science and history of physics, albeit both are typically used as context or as a tool for teaching, respectively. Third, a Delphi study was conducted to investigate stakeholders' expectations regarding what teachers should learn in particle physics professional development programmes. Over 100 stakeholders from 41 countries represented four stakeholder groups, namely physics education researchers, research scientists, government representatives, and high-school teachers. The study resulted in a ranked list of the 13 most important topics to be included in particle physics professional development programmes. The highest-ranked topics are cosmology, the Standard Model, and real-life applications of particle physics. All stakeholder groups agreed on the overall ranking of the topics. While the highest-ranked topics are again more theoretical, stakeholders also expect teachers to learn about experimental particle physics topics, which are ranked as medium importance topics. The three studies addressed two research aims of this doctoral project. The first research aim was to explore to what extent particle physics is featured in high-school physics curricula. The comparison of the outcomes of the curricular review and the expert concept map showed that curricula cover significantly less than what experts expect high-school students to learn about particle physics. For example, most curricula do not include concepts that could be classified as experimental particle physics. However, the strong connections between the different concept show that experimental particle physics can be used as context for theoretical particle physics concepts, Nature of Science, and other curricular topics. In doing so, particle physics can be introduced in classrooms even though it is not (yet) explicitly mentioned in the respective curriculum. The second research aim was to identify which aspects of content knowledge teachers are expected to learn about particle physics. The comparison of the Delphi study results to the outcomes of the curricular review and the expert concept map showed that stakeholders generally expect teachers to enhance their school knowledge as defined by the curricula. Furthermore, teachers are also expected to enhance their deeper school knowledge by learning how to connect concepts from their school knowledge to other concepts in particle physics and beyond. As such, professional development programmes that focus on enhancing teachers' school knowledge and deeper school knowledge best support teachers in building relevant context in their instruction. Overall, this doctoral research project reviewed the current state of high-school particle physics education and provided guidelines for future enhancements of the particle physics content in high-school student and teacher education. The outcomes of the project support further implementations of particle physics in high-school education both as explicit content and as context for other curricular topics. Furthermore, the mixed-methods approach and the outcomes of this research project lead to several implications for professional development programmes and science education research, that are discussed in the final chapters of this dissertation.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Banerjee2022, author = {Banerjee, Abhirup}, title = {Characterizing the spatio-temporal patterns of extreme events}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55983}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559839}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiv, 91}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Over the past decades, there has been a growing interest in 'extreme events' owing to the increasing threats that climate-related extremes such as floods, heatwaves, droughts, etc., pose to society. While extreme events have diverse definitions across various disciplines, ranging from earth science to neuroscience, they are characterized mainly as dynamic occurrences within a limited time frame that impedes the normal functioning of a system. Although extreme events are rare in occurrence, it has been found in various hydro-meteorological and physiological time series (e.g., river flows, temperatures, heartbeat intervals) that they may exhibit recurrent behavior, i.e., do not end the lifetime of the system. The aim of this thesis to develop some sophisticated methods to study various properties of extreme events. One of the main challenges in analyzing such extreme event-like time series is that they have large temporal gaps due to the paucity of the number of observations of extreme events. As a result, existing time series analysis tools are usually not helpful to decode the underlying information. I use the edit distance (ED) method to analyze extreme event-like time series in their unaltered form. ED is a specific distance metric, mainly designed to measure the similarity/dissimilarity between point process-like data. I combine ED with recurrence plot techniques to identify the recurrence property of flood events in the Mississippi River in the United States. I also use recurrence quantification analysis to show the deterministic properties and serial dependency in flood events. After that, I use this non-linear similarity measure (ED) to compute the pairwise dependency in extreme precipitation event series. I incorporate the similarity measure within the framework of complex network theory to study the collective behavior of climate extremes. Under this architecture, the nodes are defined by the spatial grid points of the given spatio-temporal climate dataset. Each node is associated with a time series corresponding to the temporal evolution of the climate observation at that grid point. Finally, the network links are functions of the pairwise statistical interdependence between the nodes. Various network measures, such as degree, betweenness centrality, clustering coefficient, etc., can be used to quantify the network's topology. We apply the methodology mentioned above to study the spatio-temporal coherence pattern of extreme rainfall events in the United States and the Ganga River basin, which reveals its relation to various climate processes and the orography of the region. The identification of precursors associated with the occurrence of extreme events in the near future is extremely important to prepare the masses for an upcoming disaster and mitigate the potential risks associated with such events. Under this motivation, I propose an in-data prediction recipe for predicting the data structures that typically occur prior to extreme events using the Echo state network, a type of Recurrent Neural Network which is a part of the reservoir computing framework. However, unlike previous works that identify precursory structures in the same variable in which extreme events are manifested (active variable), I try to predict these structures by using data from another dynamic variable (passive variable) which does not show large excursions from the nominal condition but carries imprints of these extreme events. Furthermore, my results demonstrate that the quality of prediction depends on the magnitude of events, i.e., the higher the magnitude of the extreme, the better is its predictability skill. I show quantitatively that this is because the input signals collectively form a more coherent pattern for an extreme event of higher magnitude, which enhances the efficiency of the machine to predict the forthcoming extreme events.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kwesiga2022, author = {Kwesiga, George}, title = {Synthesis of isoflavonoids from African medicinal plants with activity against tropical infectious diseases}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55906}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559069}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxi, 175}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Two approaches for the synthesis of prenylated isoflavones were explored: the 2,3-oxidative rearrangement/cross metathesis approach, using hypervalent iodine reagents as oxidants and the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling/cross metathesis approach. Three natural prenylated isoflavones: 5-deoxy-3′-prenylbiochanin A (59), erysubin F (61) and 7-methoxyebenosin (64), and non-natural analogues: 7,4′-dimethoxy-8,3′-diprenylisoflavone (126j) and 4′-hydroxy-7-methoxy-8,3′-diprenylisoflavone (128) were synthesized for the first time via the 2,3-oxidative rearrangement/cross metathesis approach, using mono- or diallylated flavanones as key intermediates. The reaction of flavanones with hypervalent iodine reagents afforded isoflavones via a 2,3-oxidative rearrangement and the corresponding flavone isomers via a 2,3-dehydrogenation. This afforded the synthesis of 7,4′-dimethoxy-8-prenylflavone (127g), 7,4′-dimethoxy-8,3′-diprenylflavone (127j), 7,4′-dihydroxy-8,3′-diprenylflavone (129) and 4′-hydroxy-7-methoxy-8,3′-diprenylflavone (130), the non-natural regioisomers of 7-methoxyebenosin, 126j, erysubin F and 128 respectively. Three natural prenylated isoflavones: 3′-prenylbiochanin A (58), neobavaisoflavone (66) and 7-methoxyneobavaisoflavone (137) were synthesized for the first time using the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling/cross metathesis approach. The structures of 3′-prenylbiochanin A (58) and 5-deoxy-3′-prenylbiochanin A (59) were confirmed by single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The 2,3-oxidative rearrangement approach appears to be limited to the substitution pattern on both rings A and B of the flavanone while the Suzuki-Miyaura cross-coupling approach appears to be the most suitable for the synthesis of simple isoflavones or prenylated isoflavones whose prenyl substituents or allyl groups, the substituents that are essential precursors for the prenyl side chains, can be regioselectively introduced after the construction of the isoflavone core. The chalcone-flavanone hybrids 146, 147 and 148, hybrids of the naturally occurring bioactive flavanones liquiritigenin-7-methyl ether, liquiritigenin and liquiritigenin-4′-methyl ether respectively were also synthesized for the first time, using Matsuda-Heck arylation and allylic/benzylic oxidation as key steps. The intermolecular interactions of 5-deoxy-3′-prenylbiochanin A (59) and its two closely related precursors 106a and 106b was investigated by single crystal and Hirshfeld surface analyses to comprehend their different physicochemical properties. The results indicate that the presence of strong intermolecular O-H···O hydrogen bonds and an increase in the number of π-stacking interactions increases the melting point and lowers the solubility of isoflavone derivatives. However, the strong intermolecular O-H···O hydrogen bonds have a greater effect than the π-stacking interactions. 5-Deoxy-3′-prenylbiochanin A (59), erysubin F (61) and 7,4′-dihydroxy-8,3′-diprenylflavone (129), were tested against three bacterial strains and one fungal pathogen. All the three compounds were inactive against Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica (NCTC 13349), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), and Candida albicans (ATCC 90028), with MIC values greater than 80.0 μM. The diprenylated isoflavone erysubin F (61) and its flavone isomer 129 showed in vitro activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA, ATCC 43300) at MIC values of 15.4 and 20.5 μM, respectively. 5-Deoxy-3′-prenylbiochanin A (59) was inactive against this MRSA strain. Erysubin F (61) and its flavone isomer 129 could serve as lead compounds for the development of new alternative drugs for the treatment of MRSA infections.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Krummenauer2022, author = {Krummenauer, Linda}, title = {Global heat adaptation among urban populations and its evolution under different climate futures}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55929}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559294}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xix, 161}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Heat and increasing ambient temperatures under climate change represent a serious threat to human health in cities. Heat exposure has been studied extensively at a global scale. Studies comparing a defined temperature threshold with the future daytime temperature during a certain period of time, had concluded an increase in threat to human health. Such findings however do not explicitly account for possible changes in future human heat adaptation and might even overestimate heat exposure. Thus, heat adaptation and its development is still unclear. Human heat adaptation refers to the local temperature to which populations are adjusted to. It can be inferred from the lowest point of the U- or V-shaped heat-mortality relationship (HMR), the Minimum Mortality Temperature (MMT). While epidemiological studies inform on the MMT at the city scale for case studies, a general model applicable at the global scale to infer on temporal change in MMTs had not yet been realised. The conventional approach depends on data availability, their robustness, and on the access to daily mortality records at the city scale. Thorough analysis however must account for future changes in the MMT as heat adaptation happens partially passively. Human heat adaptation consists of two aspects: (1) the intensity of the heat hazard that is still tolerated by human populations, meaning the heat burden they can bear and (2) the wealth-induced technological, social and behavioural measures that can be employed to avoid heat exposure. The objective of this thesis is to investigate and quantify human heat adaptation among urban populations at a global scale under the current climate and to project future adaptation under climate change until the end of the century. To date, this has not yet been accomplished. The evaluation of global heat adaptation among urban populations and its evolution under climate change comprises three levels of analysis. First, using the example of Germany, the MMT is calculated at the city level by applying the conventional method. Second, this thesis compiles a data pool of 400 urban MMTs to develop and train a new model capable of estimating MMTs on the basis of physical and socio-economic city characteristics using multivariate non-linear multivariate regression. The MMT is successfully described as a function of the current climate, the topography and the socio-economic standard, independently of daily mortality data for cities around the world. The city-specific MMT estimates represents a measure of human heat adaptation among the urban population. In a final third analysis, the model to derive human heat adaptation was adjusted to be driven by projected climate and socio-economic variables for the future. This allowed for estimation of the MMT and its change for 3 820 cities worldwide for different combinations of climate trajectories and socio-economic pathways until 2100. The knowledge on the evolution of heat adaptation in the future is a novelty as mostly heat exposure and its future development had been researched. In this work, changes in heat adaptation and exposure were analysed jointly. A wide range of possible health-related outcomes up to 2100 was the result, of which two scenarios with the highest socio-economic developments but opposing strong warming levels were highlighted for comparison. Strong economic growth based upon fossil fuel exploitation is associated with a high gain in heat adaptation, but may not be able to compensate for the associated negative health effects due to increased heat exposure in 30\% to 40\% of the cities investigated caused by severe climate change. A slightly less strong, but sustainable growth brings moderate gains in heat adaptation but a lower heat exposure and exposure reductions in 80\% to 84\% of the cities in terms of frequency (number of days exceeding the MMT) and intensity (magnitude of the MMT exceedance) due to a milder global warming. Choosing a 2 ° C compatible development by 2100 would therefore lower the risk of heat-related mortality at the end of the century. In summary, this thesis makes diverse and multidisciplinary contributions to a deeper understanding of human adaptation to heat under the current and the future climate. It is one of the first studies to carry out a systematic and statistical analysis of urban characteristics which are useful as MMT drivers to establish a generalised model of human heat adaptation, applicable at the global level. A broad range of possible heat-related health options for various future scenarios was shown for the first time. This work is of relevance for the assessment of heat-health impacts in regions where mortality data are not accessible or missing. The results are useful for health care planning at the meso- and macro-level and to urban- and climate change adaptation planning. Lastly, beyond having met the posed objective, this thesis advances research towards a global future impact assessment of heat on human health by providing an alternative method of MMT estimation, that is spatially and temporally flexible in its application.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kutter2022, author = {Kutter, Denny}, title = {Three essays on misconduct and reporting outcomes}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55933}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-559333}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {II, 186}, year = {2022}, abstract = {This cumulative doctoral thesis consists of three empirical studies that examine the role of top-level executives in shaping adverse financial reporting outcomes and other forms of corporate misconduct. The first study examines CEO effects on a wide range of offenses. Using data from enforcement actions by more than 50 U.S. federal agencies, regression re-sults show CEO effects on the likelihood, frequency, and severity of corporate misconduct. The findings hold for financial, labor-related, and environmental offenses; however, CEO effects are more pronounced for non-financial misconduct. Further results show a positive relation between CEO ability and non-financial misconduct, but no relation with financial misconduct, suggesting that higher CEO ability can have adverse consequences for employee welfare and society and public health. The second study focuses on CEO and CFO effects on financial misreporting. Using data on restatements and public enforcement actions, regression results show that the incremental effect of CFOs is economically larger than that of CEOs. This greater economic impact of CFOs is particularly pronounced for fraudulent misreporting. The findings remain consistent across different samples, methods, misreporting measures, and specification choices for the underlying conceptual mechanism, highlighting the important role of the CFO as a key player in the beyond-GAAP setting. The third study reexamines the relation between equity incentives and different reporting outcomes. The literature review reveals large variation in the empirical measures for firm size as standard control variable, equity incentives as key explanatory variables, and the reporting outcome of interest. Regres-sion results show that these design choices have a direct bearing on empirical results, with changes in t-statistics that often exceed typical thresholds for statistical significance. The find-ings hold for aggressive accrual management, earnings management through discretionary accruals, and material misstatements, suggesting that common design choices can have a large impact on whether equity incentives effects are considered significant or not.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{FigueroaCampos2022, author = {Figueroa Campos, Gustavo Adolfo}, title = {Wet-coffee processing production wastes}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55882}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558828}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {X, 159}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Countries processing raw coffee beans are burdened with low economical incomes to fight the serious environmental problems caused by the by-products and wastewater that is generated during the wet-coffee processing. The aim of this work was to develop alternative methods of improving the waste by-product quality and thus making the process economically more attractive with valorization options that can be brought to the coffee producers. The type of processing influences not only the constitution of green coffee but also of by-products and wastewater. Therefore, coffee bean samples as well as by-products and wastewater collected at different production steps of were analyzed. Results show that the composition of wastewater is dependent on how much and how often the wastewater is recycled in the processing. Considering the coffee beans, results indicate that the proteins might be affected during processing and a positive effect of the fermentation on the solubility and accessibility of proteins seems to be probable. The steps of coffee processing influence the different constituents of green coffee beans which, during roasting, give rise to aroma compounds and express the characteristics of roasted coffee beans. Knowing that this group of compounds is involved in the Maillard reaction during roasting, this possibility could be utilized for the coffee producers to improve the quality of green coffee beans and finally the coffee cup quality. The valorization of coffee wastes through modification to activated carbon has been considered as a low-cost option creating an adsorbent with prospective to compete with commercial carbons. Activation protocol using spent coffee and parchment was developed and prepared to assess their adsorption capacity for organic compounds. Spent coffee grounds and parchment proved to have similar adsorption efficiency to commercial activated carbon. The results of this study document a significant information originating from the processing of the de-pulped to green coffee beans. Furthermore, it showed that coffee parchment and spent coffee grounds can be valorized as low-cost option to produce activated carbons. Further work needs to be directed to the optimization of the activation methods to improve the quality of the materials produced and the viability of applying such experiments in-situ to bring the coffee producer further valorization opportunities with environmental perspectives. Coffee producers would profit in establishing appropriate simple technologies to improve green coffee quality, re-use coffee by-products, and wastewater valorization.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Nayak2022, author = {Nayak, Abani Shankar}, title = {Design, Characterization and On-sky Testing of an Integrated Optics Device for Stellar Interferometry: from Pupil Remappers to Discrete Beam Combiner}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55874}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558743}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xl, 175}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Stellar interferometry is the only method in observational astronomy for obtaining the highest resolution images of astronomical targets. This method is based on combining light from two or more separate telescopes to obtain the complex visibility that contains information about the brightness distribution of an astronomical source. The applications of stellar interferometry have made significant contributions in the exciting research areas of astronomy and astrophysics, including the precise measurement of stellar diameters, imaging of stellar surfaces, observations of circumstellar disks around young stellar objects, predictions of Einstein's General relativity at the galactic center, and the direct search for exoplanets to name a few. One important related technique is aperture masking interferometry, pioneered in the 1960s, which uses a mask with holes at the re-imaged pupil of the telescope, where the light from the holes is combined using the principle of stellar interferometry. While this can increase the resolution, it comes with a disadvantage. Due to the finite size of the holes, the majority of the starlight (typically > 80 \%) is lost at the mask, thus limiting the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the output images. This restriction of aperture masking only to the bright targets can be avoided using pupil remapping interferometry - a technique combining aperture masking interferometry and advances in photonic technologies using single-mode fibers. Due to the inherent spatial filtering properties, the single-mode fibers can be placed at the focal plane of the re-imaged pupil, allowing the utilization of the whole pupil of the telescope to produce a high-dynamic range along with high-resolution images. Thus, pupil remapping interferometry is one of the most promising application areas in the emerging field of astrophotonics. At the heart of an interferometric facility, a beam combiner exists whose primary function is to combine light to obtain high-contrast fringes. A beam combiner can be as simple as a beam splitter or an anamorphic lens to combine light from 2 apertures (or telescopes) or as complex as a cascade of beam splitters and lenses to combine light for > 2 apertures. However, with the field of astrophotonics, interferometric facilities across the globe are increasingly employing some form of photonics technologies by using single-mode fibers or integrated optics (IO) chips as an efficient way to combine light from several apertures. The state-of-the-art instrument - GRAVITY at the very large telescope interferometer (VLTI) facility uses an IO-based beam combiner device reaching visibilities accuracy of better than < 0.25 \%, which is roughly 50× as precise as a few decades back. Therefore, in the context of IO-based components for applications in stellar interferometry, this Thesis describes the work towards the development of a 3-dimensional (3-D) IO device - a monolithic astrophotonics component containing both the pupil remappers and a discrete beam combiner (DBC). In this work, the pupil remappers are 3-D single-mode waveguides in a glass substrate collecting light from the re-imaged pupil of the telescope and feeding the light to a DBC, where the combination takes place. The DBC is a lattice of 3-D single-mode waveguides, which interact through evanescent coupling. By observing the output power of single-mode waveguides of the DBC, the visibilities are retrieved by using a calibrated transfer matrix ({U}) of the device. The feasibility of the DBC in retrieving the visibilities theoretically and experimentally had already been studied in the literature but was only limited to laboratory tests with monochromatic light sources. Thus, a part of this work extends these studies by investigating the response of a 4-input DBC to a broad-band light source. Hence, the objectives of this Thesis are the following: 1) Design an IO device for broad-band light operation such that accurate and precise visibilities could be retrieved experimentally at astronomical H-band (1.5-1.65 μm), and 2) Validation of the DBC as a possible beam combination scheme for future interferometric facilities through on-sky testing at the William Herschel Telescope (WHT). This work consisted of designing three different 3-D IO devices. One of the popular methods for fabricating 3-D photonic components in a glass substrate is ultra-fast laser inscription (ULI). Thus, manufacturing of the designed devices was outsourced to Politecnico di Milano as part of an iterative fabrication process using their state-of-the-art ULI facility. The devices were then characterized using a 2-beam Michelson interferometric setup obtaining both the monochromatic and polychromatic visibilities. The retrieved visibilities for all devices were in good agreement as predicted by the simulation results of a DBC, which confirms both the repeatability of the ULI process and the stability of the Michelson setup, thus fulfilling the first objective. The best-performing device was then selected for the pupil-remapping of the WHT using a different optical setup consisting of a deformable mirror and a microlens array. The device successfully collected stellar photons from Vega and Altair. The visibilities were retrieved using a previously calibrated {U} but showed significant deviations from the expected results. Based on the analysis of comparable simulations, it was found that such deviations were primarily caused by the limited SNR of the stellar observations, thus constituting a first step towards the fulfillment of the second objective.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kemter2022, author = {Kemter, Matthias}, title = {River floods in a changing world}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55856}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558564}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvii, 120}, year = {2022}, abstract = {River floods are among the most devastating natural hazards worldwide. As their generation is highly dependent on climatic conditions, their magnitude and frequency are projected to be affected by future climate change. Therefore, it is crucial to study the ways in which a changing climate will, and already has, influenced flood generation, and thereby flood hazard. Additionally, it is important to understand how other human influences - specifically altered land cover - affect flood hazard at the catchment scale. The ways in which flood generation is influenced by climatic and land cover conditions differ substantially in different regions. The spatial variability of these effects needs to be taken into account by using consistent datasets across large scales as well as applying methods that can reflect this heterogeneity. Therefore, in the first study of this cumulative thesis a complex network approach is used to find 10 clusters of similar flood behavior among 4390 catchments in the conterminous United States. By using a consistent set of 31 hydro-climatological and land cover variables, and training a separate Random Forest model for each of the clusters, the regional controls on flood magnitude trends between 1960-2010 are detected. It is shown that changes in rainfall are the most important drivers of these trends, while they are regionally controlled by land cover conditions. While climate change is most commonly associated with flood magnitude trends, it has been shown to also influence flood timing. This can lead to trends in the size of the area across which floods occur simultaneously, the flood synchrony scale. The second study is an analysis of data from 3872 European streamflow gauges and shows that flood synchrony scales have increased in Western Europe and decreased in Eastern Europe. These changes are attributed to changes in flood generation, especially a decreasing relevance of snowmelt. Additionally, the analysis shows that both the absolute values and the trends of flood magnitudes and flood synchrony scales are positively correlated. If these trends persist in the future and are not accounted for, the combined increases of flood magnitudes and flood synchrony scales can exceed the capacities of disaster relief organizations and insurers. Hazard cascades are an additional way through which climate change can influence different aspects of flood hazard. The 2019/2020 wildfires in Australia, which were preceded by an unprecedented drought and extinguished by extreme rainfall that led to local flooding, present an opportunity to study the effects of multiple preceding hazards on flood hazard. All these hazards are individually affected by climate change, additionally complicating the interactions within the cascade. By estimating and analyzing the burn severity, rainfall magnitude, soil erosion and stream turbidity in differently affected tributaries of the Manning River catchment, the third study shows that even low magnitude floods can pose a substantial hazard within a cascade. This thesis shows that humanity is affecting flood hazard in multiple ways with spatially and temporarily varying consequences, many of which were previously neglected (e.g. flood synchrony scale, hazard cascades). To allow for informed decision making in risk management and climate change adaptation, it will be crucial to study these aspects across the globe and to project their trajectories into the future. The presented methods can depict the complex interactions of different flood drivers and their spatial variability, providing a basis for the assessment of future flood hazard changes. The role of land cover should be considered more in future flood risk modelling and management studies, while holistic, transferable frameworks for hazard cascade assessment will need to be designed.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schulte2022, author = {Schulte, Luise}, title = {Dynamics of Larix (Mill.) species in Siberia during the last 50,000 years inferred from sedimentary ancient DNA}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55878}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558782}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xi, 121}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The deciduous needle tree larch (Larix Mill.) covers more than 80\% of the Asian boreal forests. Only a few Larix species constitute the vast forests and these species differ markedly in their ecological traits, most importantly in their ability to grow on and stabilize underlying permafrost. The pronounced dominance of the summergreen larches makes the Asian boreal forests unique, as the rest of the northern hemisphere boreal forests is almost exclusively dominated by evergreen needle-leaf forests. Global warming is impacting the whole world but is especially pronounced in the arctic and boreal regions. Although adapted to extreme climatic conditions, larch forests are sensitive to varying climatic conditions. By their sheer size, changes in Asian larch forests as range shifts or changes in species composition and the resulting vegetation-climate feedbacks are of global relevance. It is however still uncertain if larch forests will persist under the ongoing warming climate or if they will be replaced by evergreen forests. It is therefore of great importance to understand how these ecosystems will react to future climate warmings and if they will maintain their dominance. One step in the better understanding of larch dynamics is to study how the vast dominant forests developed and why they only established in northern Asia. A second step is to study how the species reacted to past changes in the climate. The first objective of this thesis was to review and identify factors promoting Asian larch dominance. I achieved this by synthesizing and comparing reported larch occurrences and influencing components on the northern hemisphere continents in the present and in the past. The second objective was to find a possibility to directly study past Larix populations in Siberia and specifically their genetic variation, enabling the study of geographic movements. For this, I established chloroplast enrichment by hybridization capture from sedimentary ancient DNA (sedaDNA) isolated from lake sediment records. The third objective was to use the established method to track past larch populations, their glacial refugia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) around 21,000 years before present (ka BP), and their post-glacial migration patterns. To study larch promoting factors, I compared the present state of larch species ranges, areas of dominance, their bioclimatic niches, and the distribution on different extents and thaw depths of permafrost. The species comparison showed that the bioclimatic niches greatly overlap between the American and Asian species and that it is only in the extremely continental climates in which only the Asian larch species can persist. I revealed that the area of dominance is strongly connected to permafrost extent but less linked to permafrost seasonal thaw depths. Comparisons of the paleorecord of larch between the continents suggest differences in the recolonization history. Outside of northern Asia and Alaska, glacial refugial populations of larch were confined to the southern regions and thus recolonization could only occur as migration from south to north. Alaskan larch populations could not establish wide-range dominant forest which could be related to their own genetically depletion as separated refugial population. In Asia, it is still unclear whether or not the northern refugial populations contributed and enhanced the postglacial colonization or whether they were replaced by populations invading from the south in the course of climate warming. Asian larch dominance is thus promoted partly by adaptions to extremely continental climates and by adaptations to grow on continuous permafrost but could be also connected to differences in glacial survival and recolonization history of Larix species. Except for extremely rare macrofossil findings of fossilized cones, traditional methods to study past vegetation are not able to distinguish between larch species or populations. Within the scope of this thesis, I therefore established a method to retrieve genetic information of past larch populations to distinguish between species. Using the Larix chloroplast genome as target, I successfully applied the method of DNA target enrichment by hybridization capture on sedaDNA samples from lake records and showed that it is able to distinguish between larch species. I then used the method on samples from lake records from across Siberia dating back up to 50 ka BP. The results allowed me to address the question of glacial survival and post-glacial recolonization mode in Siberian larch species. The analyzed pattern showed that LGM refugia were almost exclusively constituted by L. gmelinii, even in sites of current L. sibirica distribution. For included study sites, L. sibirica migrated into its extant northern distribution area only in the Holocene. Consequently, the post-glacial recolonization of L. sibirica was not enhanced by northern glacial refugia. In case of sites in extant distribution area of L. gmelinii, the absence of a genetic turn-over point to a continuous population rather than an invasion of southern refugia. The results suggest that climate has a strong influence on the distribution of Larix species and that species may also respond differently to future climate warming. Because species differ in their ecological characteristics, species distribution is also relevant with respect to further feedbacks between vegetation and climate. With this thesis, I give an overview of present and past larch occurrences and evaluate which factors promote their dominance. Furthermore, I provide the tools to study past Larix species and give first important insights into the glacial history of Larix populations.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{LissonHernandez2022, author = {Liss{\´o}n Hern{\´a}ndez, Paula J.}, title = {Computational models of sentence comprehension in aphasia}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55548}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-555487}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vi, 159}, year = {2022}, abstract = {It is well-known that individuals with aphasia (IWA) have difficulties understanding sentences that involve non-adjacent dependencies, such as object relative clauses or passives (Caplan, Baker, \& Dehaut, 1985; Caramazza \& Zurif, 1976). A large body of research supports the view that IWA's grammatical system is intact, and that comprehension difficulties in aphasia are caused by a processing deficit, such as a delay in lexical access and/or in syntactic structure building (e.g., Burkhardt, Pi{\~n}ango, \& Wong, 2003; Caplan, Michaud, \& Hufford, 2015; Caplan, Waters, DeDe, Michaud, \& Reddy, 2007; Ferrill, Love, Walenski, \& Shapiro, 2012; Hanne, Burchert, De Bleser, \& Vasishth, 2015; Love, Swinney, Walenski, \& Zurif, 2008). The main goal of this dissertation is to computationally investigate the processing sources of comprehension impairments in sentence processing in aphasia. In this work, prominent theories of processing deficits coming from the aphasia literature are implemented within two cognitive models of sentence processing -the activation-based model (Lewis \& Vasishth, 2005) and the direct-access model (McEl- ree, 2000)-. These models are two different expressions of the cue-based retrieval theory (Lewis, Vasishth, \& Van Dyke, 2006), which posits that sentence processing is the result of a series of iterative retrievals from memory. These two models have been widely used to account for sentence processing in unimpaired populations in multiple languages and linguistic constructions, sometimes interchangeably (Parker, Shvarts- man, \& Van Dyke, 2017). However, Nicenboim and Vasishth (2018) showed that when both models are implemented in the same framework and fitted to the same data, the models yield different results, because the models assume different data- generating processes. Specifically, the models hold different assumptions regarding the retrieval latencies. The second goal of this dissertation is to compare these two models of cue-based retrieval, using data from individuals with aphasia and control participants. We seek to answer the following question: Which retrieval mechanism is more likely to mediate sentence comprehension? We model 4 subsets of existing data: Relative clauses in English and German; and control structures and pronoun resolution in German. The online data come from either self-paced listening experiments, or visual-world eye-tracking experiments. The offline data come from a complementary sentence-picture matching task performed at the end of the trial in both types of experiments. The two competing models of retrieval are implemented in the Bayesian framework, following Nicenboim and Vasishth (2018). In addition, we present a modified version of the direct-acess model that - we argue - is more suitable for individuals with aphasia. This dissertation presents a systematic approach to implement and test verbally- stated theories of comprehension deficits in aphasia within cognitive models of sen- tence processing. The conclusions drawn from this work are that (a) the original direct-access model (as implemented here) cannot account for the full pattern of data from individuals with aphasia because it cannot account for slow misinterpretations; and (b) an activation-based model of retrieval can account for sentence comprehension deficits in individuals with aphasia by assuming a delay in syntactic structure building, and noise in the processing system. The overall pattern of results support an activation-based mechanism of memory retrieval, in which a combination of processing deficits, namely slow syntax and intermittent deficiencies, cause comprehension difficulties in individuals with aphasia.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Hain2022, author = {Hain, Tobias Martin}, title = {Structure formation and identification in geometrically driven soft matter systems}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55880}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558808}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xviii, 171}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Subdividing space through interfaces leads to many space partitions that are relevant to soft matter self-assembly. Prominent examples include cellular media, e.g. soap froths, which are bubbles of air separated by interfaces of soap and water, but also more complex partitions such as bicontinuous minimal surfaces. Using computer simulations, this thesis analyses soft matter systems in terms of the relationship between the physical forces between the system's constituents and the structure of the resulting interfaces or partitions. The focus is on two systems, copolymeric self-assembly and the so-called Quantizer problem, where the driving force of structure formation, the minimisation of the free-energy, is an interplay of surface area minimisation and stretching contributions, favouring cells of uniform thickness. In the first part of the thesis we address copolymeric phase formation with sharp interfaces. We analyse a columnar copolymer system "forced" to assemble on a spherical surface, where the perfect solution, the hexagonal tiling, is topologically prohibited. For a system of three-armed copolymers, the resulting structure is described by solutions of the so-called Thomson problem, the search of minimal energy configurations of repelling charges on a sphere. We find three intertwined Thomson problem solutions on a single sphere, occurring at a probability depending on the radius of the substrate. We then investigate the formation of amorphous and crystalline structures in the Quantizer system, a particulate model with an energy functional without surface tension that favours spherical cells of equal size. We find that quasi-static equilibrium cooling allows the Quantizer system to crystallise into a BCC ground state, whereas quenching and non-equilibrium cooling, i.e. cooling at slower rates then quenching, leads to an approximately hyperuniform, amorphous state. The assumed universality of the latter, i.e. independence of energy minimisation method or initial configuration, is strengthened by our results. We expand the Quantizer system by introducing interface tension, creating a model that we find to mimic polymeric micelle systems: An order-disorder phase transition is observed with a stable Frank-Caspar phase. The second part considers bicontinuous partitions of space into two network-like domains, and introduces an open-source tool for the identification of structures in electron microscopy images. We expand a method of matching experimentally accessible projections with computed projections of potential structures, introduced by Deng and Mieczkowski (1998). The computed structures are modelled using nodal representations of constant-mean-curvature surfaces. A case study conducted on etioplast cell membranes in chloroplast precursors establishes the double Diamond surface structure to be dominant in these plant cells. We automate the matching process employing deep-learning methods, which manage to identify structures with excellent accuracy.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Wittbrodt2022, author = {Wittbrodt, Linda}, title = {Minimum wage effects in Germany and Europe - four essays}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55697}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-556977}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {viii, 184}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Am 1. Januar 2015 wurde in Deutschland ein allgemeiner gesetzlicher Mindestlohn in H{\"o}he von 8,50 € brutto pro Stunde eingef{\"u}hrt. Diese Dissertation widmet sich den Auswirkungen der Mindestlohneinf{\"u}hrung in Deutschland sowie Lohnuntergrenzen im Europ{\"a}ischen Kontext und tr{\"a}gt damit zur nationalen und internationalen Forschung bei. Das zweite Kapitel dieser Arbeit fasst die in bisherigen Studien herausgearbeiteten kurzfristigen Effekte der Mindestlohnreform in einem {\"U}berblick zusammen. Es zeigt sich, dass die Mindestlohneinf{\"u}hrung einen deutlich positiven Effekt auf die L{\"o}hne am unteren Ende der Verteilung hatte. Allerdings wies kurz nach der Reform noch ein nicht unerheblicher Anteil der Besch{\"a}ftigungsverh{\"a}ltnisse L{\"o}hne unter 8,50 € auf. Weiterhin deutet die Evidenz auf geringe negative Besch{\"a}ftigungseffekte hin, welche durch eine Reduktion von Minijobs getrieben ist. Entgegen der Erwartungen konnten jedoch in der kurzen Frist keine Effekte auf Armut und allgemeine Ungleichheit gefunden werden. Dies h{\"a}ngt insbesondere mit der Tatsache zusammen, dass Arbeitsstunden reduziert wurden und sich die Stundenlohnerh{\"o}hung daher nicht auf die Monatsl{\"o}hne niederschlug. Das dritte Kapitel geht der Frage nach, ob die im Vorfeld prognostizierten Arbeitsplatzverluste im Zuge der Reform kurzfristig eingetreten sind und welche Art der Besch{\"a}ftigung davon gegebenenfalls st{\"a}rker betroffen war. Zur empirischen Identifikation der Effekte wird in diesem (sowie im vierten Kapitel) ein regionaler Differenzen-von-Differenzen-Ansatz verwendet, mit dem die Auswirkungen auf regul{\"a}re Besch{\"a}ftigung (Teil- und Vollzeit) sowie Minijobs gesch{\"a}tzt werden. Unsere Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass der Mindestlohn die Gesamtbesch{\"a}ftigung leicht reduziert hat, was im Wesentlichen auf einen R{\"u}ckgang von Minijobs zur{\"u}ckzuf{\"u}hren ist. Das vierte Kapitel schließt methodisch an das vorige an. Seine Motivation ergibt sich aus der Beobachtung, dass Frauen unter den Niedriglohnempf{\"a}nger:innen h{\"a}ufig {\"u}berrepr{\"a}sentiert sind. Die prim{\"a}re Forschungsfrage in diesem Kapitel ist daher, ob der Mindestlohn zu einer Verringerung der geschlechterspezifischen Lohnl{\"u}cke gef{\"u}hrt hat. Dazu identifizieren wir die Effekte auf die Lohnl{\"u}cke am 10. und 25. Perzentil sowie beim Mittelwert der zugrundeliegenden geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnverteilungen. Unsere Ergebnisse zeigen, dass - verglichen mit Regionen mit niedriger Eingriffstiefe - die geschlechtsspezifische Lohnl{\"u}cke am 10. Perzentil f{\"u}r mindestlohnberechtigte Besch{\"a}ftigte in Regionen mit hoher Eingriffstiefe um 4,6 Prozentpunkte gesunken ist. Wir sch{\"a}tzen, dass dies eine Reduktion um 32\\% im Vergleich zu 2014 bedeutet. Am 25. Perzentil und am Mittelwert sind die Auswirkungen geringer und nicht gleichermaßen robust. Das f{\"u}nfte Kapitel beh{\"a}lt den geschlechterspezifischen Fokus auf die Mindestlohneffekte bei. Im Vergleich zum Rest der Dissertation weitet es jedoch den Blick auf andere L{\"a}nder der Europ{\"a}ischen Union. Gem{\"a}ß der f{\"u}r das vorangegangene Kapitel dargelegten {\"U}berlegungen, k{\"o}nnten Frauen potenziell besonders von einem Mindestlohn profitieren. Dies k{\"o}nnte jedoch auch bedeuten, dass sie dadurch auch {\"o}fter von Arbeitsplatzverlusten oder Arbeitszeitverk{\"u}rzungen betroffen sind. Dieses Kapitel res{\"u}miert daher einerseits vorhandene Evidenz aus EU-Staaten, die sich auf den Zusammenhang zwischen Lohnuntergrenzen und der geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnl{\"u}cke bezieht. Dar{\"u}ber hinaus enth{\"a}lt es eine systematische Zusammenfassung von Studien, die den Einfluss von Mindestl{\"o}hnen auf Besch{\"a}ftigungsverluste oder Arbeitszeitver{\"a}nderungen untersuchen, von denen insbesondere Frauen betroffen sind. Es zeigen sich Hinweise, dass h{\"o}here Lohnuntergrenzen mit einer geringeren geschlechtsspezifischen Lohnl{\"u}cke verbunden sind. Hinsichtlich der Besch{\"a}ftigung scheinen Frauen nicht per se gr{\"o}ßere Besch{\"a}ftigungsverluste zu erleiden als M{\"a}nner. Allerdings zeigen Studien, dass sich der Mindestlohn hier besonders auf Teilzeitbesch{\"a}ftigte auswirkt. Es ist daher nicht auszuschließen, dass der negative Zusammenhang zwischen dem Mindestlohn und dem geschlechtsspezifischen Lohngef{\"a}lle mit den Arbeitsplatzverlusten dieser schlechter bezahlten, oft weiblichen Teilzeitbesch{\"a}ftigten zusammenh{\"a}ngt. Diese spezifische Form der Arbeit sollte daher im Zusammenhang mit dem Mindestlohn besondere Beachtung finden.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mueller2022, author = {M{\"u}ller, Daniela}, title = {Abrupt climate changes and extreme events in two different varved lake sediment records}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55833}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558331}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XVIII, 209}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Different lake systems might reflect different climate elements of climate changes, while the responses of lake systems are also divers, and are not completely understood so far. Therefore, a comparison of lakes in different climate zones, during the high-amplitude and abrupt climate fluctuations of the Last Glacial to Holocene transition provides an exceptional opportunity to investigate distinct natural lake system responses to different abrupt climate changes. The aim of this doctoral thesis was to reconstruct climatic and environmental fluctuations down to (sub-) annual resolution from two different lake systems during the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition (~17 and 11 ka). Lake Gościąż, situated in the temperate central Poland, developed in the Aller{\o}d after recession of the Last Glacial ice sheets. The Dead Sea is located in the Levant (eastern Mediterranean) within a steep gradient from sub-humid to hyper-arid climate, and formed in the mid-Miocene. Despite their differences in sedimentation processes, both lakes form annual laminations (varves), which are crucial for studies of abrupt climate fluctuations. This doctoral thesis was carried out within the DFG project PALEX-II (Paleohydrology and Extreme Floods from the Dead Sea ICDP Core) that investigates extreme hydro-meteorological events in the ICDP core in relation to climate changes, and ICLEA (Virtual Institute of Integrated Climate and Landscape Evolution Analyses) that intends to better the understanding of climate dynamics and landscape evolutions in north-central Europe since the Last Glacial. Further, it contributes to the Helmholtz Climate Initiative REKLIM (Regional Climate Change and Humans) Research Theme 3 "Extreme events across temporal and spatial scales" that investigates extreme events using climate data, paleo-records and model-based simulations. The three main aims were to (1) establish robust chronologies of the lakes, (2) investigate how major and abrupt climate changes affect the lake systems, and (3) to compare the responses of the two varved lakes to these hemispheric-scale climate changes. Robust chronologies are a prerequisite for high-resolved climate and environmental reconstructions, as well as for archive comparisons. Thus, addressing the first aim, the novel chronology of Lake Gościąż was established by microscopic varve counting and Bayesian age-depth modelling in Bacon for a non-varved section, and was corroborated by independent age constrains from 137Cs activity concentration measurements, AMS radiocarbon dating and pollen analysis. The varve chronology reaches from the late Aller{\o}d until AD 2015, revealing more Holocene varves than a previous study of Lake Gościąż suggested. Varve formation throughout the complete Younger Dryas (YD) even allowed the identification of annually- to decadal-resolved leads and lags in proxy responses at the YD transitions. The lateglacial chronology of the Dead Sea (DS) was thus far mainly based on radiocarbon and U/Th-dating. In the unique ICDP core from the deep lake centre, continuous search for cryptotephra has been carried out in lateglacial sediments between two prominent gypsum deposits - the Upper and Additional Gypsum Units (UGU and AGU, respectively). Two cryptotephras were identified with glass analyses that correlate with tephra deposits from the S{\"u}phan and Nemrut volcanoes indicating that the AGU is ~1000 years younger than previously assumed, shifting it into the YD, and the underlying varved interval into the B{\o}lling/Aller{\o}d, contradicting previous assumptions. Using microfacies analyses, stable isotopes and temperature reconstructions, the second aim was achieved at Lake Gościąż. The YD lake system was dynamic, characterized by higher aquatic bioproductivity, more re-suspended material and less anoxia than during the Aller{\o}d and Early Holocene, mainly influenced by stronger water circulation and catchment erosion due to stronger westerly winds and less lake sheltering. Cooling at the YD onset was ~100 years longer than the final warming, while environmental proxies lagged the onset of cooling by ~90 years, but occurred contemporaneously during the termination of the YD. Chironomid-based temperature reconstructions support recent studies indicating mild YD summer temperatures. Such a comparison of annually-resolved proxy responses to both abrupt YD transitions is rare, because most European lake archives do not preserve varves during the YD. To accomplish the second aim at the DS, microfacies analyses were performed between the UGU (~17 ka) and Holocene onset (~11 ka) in shallow- (Masada) and deep-water (ICDP core) environments. This time interval is marked by a huge but fluctuating lake level drop and therefore the complete transition into the Holocene is only recorded in the deep-basin ICDP core. In this thesis, this transition was investigated for the first time continuously and in detail. The final two pronounced lake level drops recorded by deposition of the UGU and AGU, were interrupted by one millennium of relative depositional stability and a positive water budget as recorded by aragonite varve deposition interrupted by only a few event layers. Further, intercalation of aragonite varves between the gypsum beds of the UGU and AGU shows that these generally dry intervals were also marked by decadal- to centennial-long rises in lake level. While continuous aragonite varves indicate decadal-long stable phases, the occurrence of thicker and more frequent event layers suggests general more instability during the gypsum units. These results suggest a pattern of complex and variable hydroclimate at different time scales during the Lateglacial at the DS. The third aim was accomplished based on the individual studies above that jointly provide an integrated picture of different lake responses to different climate elements of hemispheric-scale abrupt climate changes during the Last Glacial-Interglacial transition. In general, climatically-driven facies changes are more dramatic in the DS than at Lake Gościąż. Further, Lake Gościąż is characterized by continuous varve formation nearly throughout the complete profile, whereas the DS record is widely characterized by extreme event layers, hampering the establishment of a continuous varve chronology. The lateglacial sedimentation in Lake Gościąż is mainly influenced by westerly winds and minor by changes in catchment vegetation, whereas the DS is primarily influenced by changes in winter precipitation, which are caused by temperature variations in the Mediterranean. Interestingly, sedimentation in both archives is more stable during the B{\o}lling/Aller{\o}d and more dynamic during the YD, even when sedimentation processes are different. In summary, this doctoral thesis presents seasonally-resolved records from two lake archives during the Lateglacial (ca 17-11 ka) to investigate the impact of abrupt climate changes in different lake systems. New age constrains from the identification of volcanic glass shards in the lateglacial sediments of the DS allowed the first lithology-based interpretation of the YD in the DS record and its comparison to Lake Gościąż. This highlights the importance of the construction of a robust chronology, and provides a first step for synchronization of the DS with other eastern Mediterranean archives. Further, climate reconstructions from the lake sediments showed variability on different time scales in the different archives, i.e. decadal- to millennial fluctuations in the lateglacial DS, and even annual variations and sub-decadal leads and lags in proxy responses during the rapid YD transitions in Lake Gościąż. This showed the importance of a comparison of different lake archives to better understand the regional and local impacts of hemispheric-scale climate variability. An unprecedented example is demonstrated here of how different lake systems show different lake responses and also react to different climate elements of abrupt climate changes. This further highlights the importance of the understanding of the respective lake system for climate reconstructions.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{MichalikOnichimowska2022, author = {Michalik-Onichimowska, Aleksandra}, title = {Real-time monitoring of (photo)chemical reactions in micro flow reactors and levitated droplets by IR-MALDI ion mobility and mass spectrometry}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55729}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-557298}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {v, 68}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Eine nachhaltigere chemische Industrie erfordert eine Minimierung der L{\"o}sungsmittel und Chemikalien. Daher werden Optimierung und Entwicklung chemischer Prozesse vor einer Produktion in großem Maßstab in kleinen Chargen durchgef{\"u}hrt. Der entscheidende Schritt bei diesem Ansatz ist die Skalierbarkeit von kleinen Reaktionssystemen auf große, kosteneffiziente Reaktoren. Die Vergr{\"o}ßerung des Volumens des Reaktionsmediums geht immer mit der Vergr{\"o}ßerung der Oberfl{\"a}che einher, die mit dem begrenzenden Gef{\"a}ß in Kontakt steht. Da das Volumen kubisch, w{\"a}hrend die Oberfl{\"a}che quadratisch mit zunehmendem Radius skaliert, nimmt ihr Verh{\"a}ltnis nicht linear zu. Viele an der Grenzfl{\"a}che zwischen Oberfl{\"a}che und Fl{\"u}ssigkeit auftretende Ph{\"a}nomene k{\"o}nnen die Reaktionsgeschwindigkeiten und Ausbeuten beeinflussen, was zu falschen Prognosen aufgrund der kleinskaligen Optimierung f{\"u}hrt. Die Anwendung von schwebenden Tropfen als beh{\"a}lterlose Reaktionsgef{\"a}ße bietet eine vielversprechende M{\"o}glichkeit, die oben genannten Probleme zu vermeiden. In der vorgestellten Arbeit wurde eine effiziente Kopplung von akustisch schwebenden Tropfen und IM Spektrometer f{\"u}r die Echtzeit{\"u}berwachung chemischer Reaktionen entwickelt, bei denen akustisch schwebende Tropfen als Reaktionsgef{\"a}ße fungieren. Das Design des Systems umfasst die ber{\"u}hrungslose Probenahme und Ionisierung, die durch Laserdesorption und -ionisation bei 2,94 µm realisiert wird. Der Umfang der Arbeit umfasst grundlegende Studien zum Verst{\"a}ndnis der Laserbestrahlung von Tropfen im akustischen Feld. Das Verst{\"a}ndnis dieses Ph{\"a}nomens ist entscheidend, um den Effekt der zeitlichen und r{\"a}umlichen Aufl{\"o}sung der erzeugten Ionenwolke zu verstehen, die die Aufl{\"o}sung des Systems beeinflusst. Der Aufbau umfasst eine akustische Falle, Laserbestrahlung und elektrostatische Linsen, die bei hoher Spannung unter Umgebungsdruck arbeiten. Ein effektiver Ionentransfer im Grenzfl{\"a}chenbereich zwischen dem schwebenden Tropfen und dem IMS muss daher elektrostatische und akustische Felder vollst{\"a}ndig ber{\"u}cksichtigen. F{\"u}r die Probenahme und Ionisation wurden zwei unterschiedliche Laserpulsl{\"a}ngen untersucht, n{\"a}mlich im ns- und µs-Bereich. Die Bestrahlung {\"u}ber µs-Laserpulse bietet gegen{\"u}ber ns-Pulse mehrere Vorteile: i) das Tropfenvolumen wird nicht stark beeinflusst, was es erm{\"o}glichet, nur ein kleines Volumen des Tropfens abzutasten; ii) die geringere Fluenz f{\"u}hrt zu weniger ausgepr{\"a}gten Schwingungen des im akustischen Feld eingeschlossenen Tropfens und der Tropfen wird nicht aus dem akustischen Feld r{\"u}ckgeschlagen, was zum Verlust der Probe f{\"u}hren w{\"u}rde; iii) die milde Laserbestrahlung f{\"u}hrt zu einer besseren r{\"a}umlichen und zeitlichen Begrenzung der Ionenwolken, was zu einer besseren Aufl{\"o}sung der detektierten Ionenpakete f{\"u}hrt. Schließlich erm{\"o}glicht dieses Wissen die Anwendung der Ionenoptik, die erforderlich ist, um den Ionenfluss zwischen dem im akustischen Feld suspendierten Tropfen und dem IM Spektrometer zu induzieren. Die Ionenoptik aus 2 elektrostatischen Linsen in der N{\"a}he des Tropfens erm{\"o}glicht es, die Ionenwolke effektiv zu fokussieren und direkt zum IM Spektrometer-Eingang zu f{\"u}hren. Diese neuartige Kopplung hat sich beim Nachweis einiger basischer Molek{\"u}le als erfolgreich erwiesen. Um die Anwendbarkeit des Systems zu belegen, wurde die Reaktion zwischen N-Boc Cysteine Methylester und Allylalkohol in einem Chargenreaktor durchgef{\"u}hrt und online {\"u}berwacht. F{\"u}r eine Kalibrierung wurde der Reaktionsfortschritt parallel mittels 1H-NMR verfolgt. Der beobachtete Reaktionsumsatz von mehr als 50\% innerhalb der ersten 20 Minuten demonstrierte die Eignung der Reaktion, um die Einsatzpotentiale des entwickelten Systems zu bewerten.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Lever2022, author = {Lever, Fabiano}, title = {Probing the ultrafast dynamics of 2-Thiouracil with soft x-rays}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55523}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-555230}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {129}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Understanding the changes that follow UV-excitation in thionucleobases is of great importance for the study of light-induced DNA lesions and, in a broader context, for their applications in medicine and biochemistry. Their ultrafast photophysical reactions can alter the chemical structure of DNA - leading to damages to the genetic code - as proven by the increased skin cancer risk observed for patients treated with thiouracil for its immunosuppressant properties. In this thesis, I present four research papers that result from an investigation of the ultrafast dynamics of 2-thiouracil by means of ultrafast x-ray probing combined with electron spectroscopy. A molecular jet in the gas phase is excited with a uv pulse and then ionized with x-ray radiation from a Free Electron Laser. The kinetic energy of the emitted electrons is measured in a magnetic bottle spectrometer. The spectra of the measured photo and Auger electrons are used to derive a picture of the changes in the geometrical and electronic configurations. The results allow us to look at the dynamical processes from a new perspective, thanks to the element- and site- sensitivity of x-rays. The custom-built URSA-PQ apparatus used in the experiment is described. It has been commissioned and used at the FL24 beamline of the FLASH2 FEL, showing an electron kinetic energy resolution of ∆E/E ~ 40 and a pump-probe timing resolution of 190 f s. X-ray only photoelectron and Auger spectra of 2-thiouracil are extracted from the data and used as reference. Photoelectrons following the formation a 2p core hole are identified, as well as resonant and non-resonant Auger electrons. At the L 1 edge, Coster-Kronig decay is observed from the 2s core hole. The UV-induced changes in the 2p photoline allow the study the electronic-state dynamics. With the use of an Excited-State Chemical Shift (ESCS) model, we observe a ultrafast ground-state relaxation within 250 f s. Furthermore, an oscillation with a 250 f s period is observed in the 2p binding energy, showing a coherent population exchange between electronic states. Auger electrons from the 2p core hole are analyzed and used to deduce a ultrafast C -S bond expansion on a sub 100 f s scale. A simple Coulomb-model, coupled to quantum chemical calculations, can be used to infer the geometrical changes in the molecular structure.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{PerdigonToro2022, author = {Perdig{\´o}n-Toro, Lorena}, title = {On the Generation and Fate of Free Carriers in Non-Fullerene Acceptor Organic Solar Cells}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55807}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558072}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ix, 191}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Organic solar cells offer an efficient and cost-effective alternative for solar energy harvesting. This type of photovoltaic cell typically consists of a blend of two organic semiconductors, an electron donating polymer and a low molecular weight electron acceptor to create what is known as a bulk heterojunction (BHJ) morphology. Traditionally, fullerene-based acceptors have been used for this purpose. In recent years, the development of new acceptor molecules, so-called non-fullerene acceptors (NFA), has breathed new life into organic solar cell research, enabling record efficiencies close to 19\%. Today, NFA-based solar cells are approaching their inorganic competitors in terms of photocurrent generation, but lag in terms of open circuit voltage (V_OC). Interestingly, the V_OC of these cells benefits from small offsets of orbital energies at the donor-NFA interface, although previous knowledge considered large energy offsets to be critical for efficient charge carrier generation. In addition, there are several other electronic and structural features that distinguish NFAs from fullerenes. My thesis focuses on understanding the interplay between the unique attributes of NFAs and the physical processes occurring in solar cells. By combining various experimental techniques with drift-diffusion simulations, the generation of free charge carriers as well as their recombination in state-of-the-art NFA-based solar cells is characterized. For this purpose, solar cells based on the donor polymer PM6 and the NFA Y6 have been investigated. The generation of free charge carriers in PM6:Y6 is efficient and independent of electric field and excitation energy. Temperature-dependent measurements show a very low activation energy for photocurrent generation (about 6 meV), indicating barrierless charge carrier separation. Theoretical modeling suggests that Y6 molecules have large quadrupole moments, leading to band bending at the donor-acceptor interface and thereby reducing the electrostatic Coulomb dissociation barrier. In this regard, this work identifies poor extraction of free charges in competition with nongeminate recombination as a dominant loss process in PM6:Y6 devices. Subsequently, the spectral characteristics of PM6:Y6 solar cells were investigated with respect to the dominant process of charge carrier recombination. It was found that the photon emission under open-circuit conditions can be almost entirely attributed to the occupation and recombination of Y6 singlet excitons. Nevertheless, the recombination pathway via the singlet state contributes only 1\% to the total recombination, which is dominated by the charge transfer state (CT-state) at the donor-acceptor interface. Further V_OC gains can therefore only be expected if the density and/or recombination rate of these CT-states can be significantly reduced. Finally, the role of energetic disorder in NFA solar cells is investigated by comparing Y6 with a structurally related derivative, named N4. Layer morphology studies combined with temperature-dependent charge transport experiments show significantly lower structural and energetic disorder in the case of the PM6:Y6 blend. For both PM6:Y6 and PM6:N4, disorder determines the maximum achievable V_OC, with PM6:Y6 benefiting from improved morphological order. Overall, the obtained findings point to avenues for the realization of NFA-based solar cells with even smaller V_OC losses. Further reduction of nongeminate recombination and energetic disorder should result in organic solar cells with efficiencies above 20\% in the future.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Pan2022, author = {Pan, Mengdi}, title = {Systematic studies on the thermodynamic properties of gas hydrates and their formation/dissociation/transformation behaviors}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55476}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-554760}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XX, 192}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Gas hydrates are ice-like crystalline compounds made of water cavities that retain various types of guest molecules. Natural gas hydrates are CH4-rich but also contain higher hydrocarbons as well as CO2, H2S, etc. They are highly dependent of local pressure and temperature conditions. Considering the high energy content, natural gas hydrates are artificially dissociated for the production of methane gas. Besides, they may also dissociate in response to global warming. It is therefore crucial to investigate the hydrate nucleation and growth process at a molecular level. The understanding of how guest molecules in the hydrate cavities respond to warming climate or gas injection is also of great importance. This thesis is concerned with a systematic investigation of simple and mixed gas hydrates at conditions relevant to the natural hydrate reservoir in Qilian Mountain permafrost, China. A high-pressure cell that integrated into the confocal Raman spectroscopy ensured a precise and continuous characterization of the hydrate phase during formation/dissociation/transformation processes with a high special and spectral resolution. By applying laboratory experiments, the formation of mixed gas hydrates containing other hydrocarbons besides methane was simulated in consideration of the effects from gas supply conditions and sediments. The results revealed a preferential enclathration of different guest molecules in hydrate cavities and further refute the common hypothesis of the coexistence of hydrate phases due to a changing feed gas phase. However, the presence of specific minerals and organic compounds in sediments may have significant impacts on the coexisting solid phases. With regard to the dissociation, the formation damage caused by fines mobilization and migration during hydrate decomposition was reported for the first time, illustrating the complex interactions between fine grains and hydrate particles. Gas hydrates, starting from simple CH4 hydrates to binary CH4—C3H8 hydrates and multi-component mixed hydrates were decomposed by thermal stimulation mimicking global warming. The mechanisms of guest substitution in hydrate structures were studied through the experimental data obtained from CH4—CO2, CH4—mixed gas hydrates and mixed gas hydrates—CO2 systems. For the first time, a second transformation behavior was documented during the transformation process from CH4 hydrates to CO2-rich mixed hydrates. Most of the crystals grew or maintained when exposed to CO2 gas while some others decreased in sizes and even disappeared over time. The highlight of the two last experimental simulations was to visualize and characterize the hydrate crystals which were at different structural transition stages. These experimental simulations enhanced our knowledge about the mixed gas hydrates in natural reservoirs and improved our capability to assess the response to global warming.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schirneck2022, author = {Schirneck, Friedrich Martin}, title = {Enumeration algorithms in data profiling}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55672}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-556726}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xiv, 192}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Data profiling is the extraction of metadata from relational databases. An important class of metadata are multi-column dependencies. They come associated with two computational tasks. The detection problem is to decide whether a dependency of a given type and size holds in a database. The discovery problem instead asks to enumerate all valid dependencies of that type. We investigate the two problems for three types of dependencies: unique column combinations (UCCs), functional dependencies (FDs), and inclusion dependencies (INDs). We first treat the parameterized complexity of the detection variants. We prove that the detection of UCCs and FDs, respectively, is W[2]-complete when parameterized by the size of the dependency. The detection of INDs is shown to be one of the first natural W[3]-complete problems. We further settle the enumeration complexity of the three discovery problems by presenting parsimonious equivalences with well-known enumeration problems. Namely, the discovery of UCCs is equivalent to the famous transversal hypergraph problem of enumerating the hitting sets of a hypergraph. The discovery of FDs is equivalent to the simultaneous enumeration of the hitting sets of multiple input hypergraphs. Finally, the discovery of INDs is shown to be equivalent to enumerating the satisfying assignments of antimonotone, 3-normalized Boolean formulas. In the remainder of the thesis, we design and analyze discovery algorithms for unique column combinations. Since this is as hard as the general transversal hypergraph problem, it is an open question whether the UCCs of a database can be computed in output-polynomial time in the worst case. For the analysis, we therefore focus on instances that are structurally close to databases in practice, most notably, inputs that have small solutions. The equivalence between UCCs and hitting sets transfers the computational hardness, but also allows us to apply ideas from hypergraph theory to data profiling. We devise an discovery algorithm that runs in polynomial space on arbitrary inputs and achieves polynomial delay whenever the maximum size of any minimal UCC is bounded. Central to our approach is the extension problem for minimal hitting sets, that is, to decide for a set of vertices whether they are contained in any minimal solution. We prove that this is yet another problem that is complete for the complexity class W[3], when parameterized by the size of the set that is to be extended. We also give several conditional lower bounds under popular hardness conjectures such as the Strong Exponential Time Hypothesis (SETH). The lower bounds suggest that the running time of our algorithm for the extension problem is close to optimal. We further conduct an empirical analysis of our discovery algorithm on real-world databases to confirm that the hitting set perspective on data profiling has merits also in practice. We show that the resulting enumeration times undercut their theoretical worst-case bounds on practical data, and that the memory consumption of our method is much smaller than that of previous solutions. During the analysis we make two observations about the connection between databases and their corresponding hypergraphs. On the one hand, the hypergraph representations containing all relevant information are usually significantly smaller than the original inputs. On the other hand, obtaining those hypergraphs is the actual bottleneck of any practical application. The latter often takes much longer than enumerating the solutions, which is in stark contrast to the fact that the preprocessing is guaranteed to be polynomial while the enumeration may take exponential time. To make the first observation rigorous, we introduce a maximum-entropy model for non-uniform random hypergraphs and prove that their expected number of minimal hyperedges undergoes a phase transition with respect to the total number of edges. The result also explains why larger databases may have smaller hypergraphs. Motivated by the second observation, we present a new kind of UCC discovery algorithm called Hitting Set Enumeration with Partial Information and Validation (HPIValid). It utilizes the fast enumeration times in practice in order to speed up the computation of the corresponding hypergraph. This way, we sidestep the bottleneck while maintaining the advantages of the hitting set perspective. An exhaustive empirical evaluation shows that HPIValid outperforms the current state of the art in UCC discovery. It is capable of processing databases that were previously out of reach for data profiling.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Bartz2022, author = {Bartz, Christian}, title = {Reducing the annotation burden: deep learning for optical character recognition using less manual annotations}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55540}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-555407}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xxiv, 183}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Text is a ubiquitous entity in our world and daily life. We encounter it nearly everywhere in shops, on the street, or in our flats. Nowadays, more and more text is contained in digital images. These images are either taken using cameras, e.g., smartphone cameras, or taken using scanning devices such as document scanners. The sheer amount of available data, e.g., millions of images taken by Google Streetview, prohibits manual analysis and metadata extraction. Although much progress was made in the area of optical character recognition (OCR) for printed text in documents, broad areas of OCR are still not fully explored and hold many research challenges. With the mainstream usage of machine learning and especially deep learning, one of the most pressing problems is the availability and acquisition of annotated ground truth for the training of machine learning models because obtaining annotated training data using manual annotation mechanisms is time-consuming and costly. In this thesis, we address of how we can reduce the costs of acquiring ground truth annotations for the application of state-of-the-art machine learning methods to optical character recognition pipelines. To this end, we investigate how we can reduce the annotation cost by using only a fraction of the typically required ground truth annotations, e.g., for scene text recognition systems. We also investigate how we can use synthetic data to reduce the need of manual annotation work, e.g., in the area of document analysis for archival material. In the area of scene text recognition, we have developed a novel end-to-end scene text recognition system that can be trained using inexact supervision and shows competitive/state-of-the-art performance on standard benchmark datasets for scene text recognition. Our method consists of two independent neural networks, combined using spatial transformer networks. Both networks learn together to perform text localization and text recognition at the same time while only using annotations for the recognition task. We apply our model to end-to-end scene text recognition (meaning localization and recognition of words) and pure scene text recognition without any changes in the network architecture. In the second part of this thesis, we introduce novel approaches for using and generating synthetic data to analyze handwriting in archival data. First, we propose a novel preprocessing method to determine whether a given document page contains any handwriting. We propose a novel data synthesis strategy to train a classification model and show that our data synthesis strategy is viable by evaluating the trained model on real images from an archive. Second, we introduce the new analysis task of handwriting classification. Handwriting classification entails classifying a given handwritten word image into classes such as date, word, or number. Such an analysis step allows us to select the best fitting recognition model for subsequent text recognition; it also allows us to reason about the semantic content of a given document page without the need for fine-grained text recognition and further analysis steps, such as Named Entity Recognition. We show that our proposed approaches work well when trained on synthetic data. Further, we propose a flexible metric learning approach to allow zero-shot classification of classes unseen during the network's training. Last, we propose a novel data synthesis algorithm to train off-the-shelf pixel-wise semantic segmentation networks for documents. Our data synthesis pipeline is based on the famous Style-GAN architecture and can synthesize realistic document images with their corresponding segmentation annotation without the need for any annotated data!}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{SamprognaMohor2022, author = {Samprogna Mohor, Guilherme}, title = {Exploring the transferability of flood loss models across flood types}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55714}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-557141}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {XXIV, 182}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The estimation of financial losses is an integral part of flood risk assessment. The application of existing flood loss models on locations or events different from the ones used to train the models has led to low performance, showing that characteristics of the flood damaging process have not been sufficiently well represented yet. To improve flood loss model transferability, I explore various model structures aiming at incorporating different (inland water) flood types and pathways. That is based on a large survey dataset of approximately 6000 flood-affected households which addresses several aspects of the flood event, not only the hazard characteristics but also information on the affected building, socioeconomic factors, the household's preparedness level, early warning, and impacts. Moreover, the dataset reports the coincidence of different flood pathways. Whilst flood types are a classification of flood events reflecting their generating process (e.g. fluvial, pluvial), flood pathways represent the route the water takes to reach the receptors (e.g. buildings). In this work, the following flood pathways are considered: levee breaches, river floods, surface water floods, and groundwater floods. The coincidence of several hazard processes at the same time and place characterises a compound event. In fact, many flood events develop through several pathways, such as the ones addressed in the survey dataset used. Earlier loss models, although developed with one or multiple predictor variables, commonly use loss data from a single flood event which is attributed to a single flood type, disregarding specific flood pathways or the coincidence of multiple pathways. This gap is addressed by this thesis through the following research questions: 1. In which aspects do flood pathways of the same (compound inland) flood event differ? 2. How much do factors which contribute to the overall flood loss in a building differ in various settings, specifically across different flood pathways? 3. How well can Bayesian loss models learn from different settings? 4. Do compound, that is, coinciding flood pathways result in higher losses than a single pathway, and what does the outcome imply for future loss modelling? Statistical analysis has found that households affected by different flood pathways also show, in general, differing characteristics of the affected building, preparedness, and early warning, besides the hazard characteristics. Forecasting and early warning capabilities and the preparedness of the population are dominated by the general flood type, but characteristics of the hazard at the object-level, the impacts, and the recovery are more related to specific flood pathways, indicating that risk communication and loss models could benefit from the inclusion of flood-pathway-specific information. For the development of the loss model, several potentially relevant predictors are analysed: water depth, duration, velocity, contamination, early warning lead time, perceived knowledge about self-protection, warning information, warning source, gap between warning and action, emergency measures, implementation of property-level precautionary measures (PLPMs), perceived efficacy of PLPMs, previous flood experience, awareness of flood risk, ownership, building type, number of flats, building quality, building value, house/flat area, building area, cellar, age, household size, number of children, number of elderly residents, income class, socioeconomic status, and insurance against floods. After a variable selection, descriptors of the hazard, building, and preparedness were deemed significant, namely: water depth, contamination, duration, velocity, building area, building quality, cellar, PLPMs, perceived efficacy of PLPMs, emergency measures, insurance, and previous flood experience. The inclusion of the indicators of preparedness is relevant, as they are rarely involved in loss datasets and in loss modelling, although previous studies have shown their potential in reducing losses. In addition, the linear model fit indicates that the explanatory factors are, in several cases, differently relevant across flood pathways. Next, Bayesian multilevel models were trained, which intrinsically incorporate uncertainties and allow for partial pooling (i.e. different groups of data, such as households affected by different flood pathways, can learn from each other), increasing the statistical power of the model. A new variable selection was performed for this new model approach, reducing the number of predictors from twelve to seven variables but keeping factors of the hazard, building, and preparedness, namely: water depth, contamination, duration, building area, PLPMs, insurance, and previous flood experience. The new model was trained not only across flood pathways but also across regions of Germany, divided according to general socioeconomic factors and insurance policies, and across flood events. The distinction across regions and flood events did not improve loss modelling and led to a large overlap of regression coefficients, with no clear trend or pattern. The distinction of flood pathways showed credibly distinct regression coefficients, leading to a better understanding of flood loss modelling and indicating one potential reason why model transferability has been challenging. Finally, new model structures were trained to include the possibility of compound inland floods (i.e. when multiple flood pathways coincide on the same affected asset). The dataset does not allow for verifying in which sequence the flood pathway waves occurred and predictor variables reflect only their mixed or combined outcome. Thus, two Bayesian models were trained: 1. a multi-membership model, a structure which learns the regression coefficients for multiple flood pathways at the same time, and 2. a multilevel model wherein the combination of coinciding flood pathways makes individual categories. The multi-membership model resulted in credibly different coefficients across flood pathways but did not improve model performance in comparison to the model assuming only a single dominant flood pathway. The model with combined categories signals an increase in impacts after compound floods, but due to the uncertainty in model coefficients and estimates, it is not possible to ascertain such an increase as credible. That is, with the current level of uncertainty in differentiating the flood pathways, the loss estimates are not credibly distinct from individual flood pathways. To overcome the challenges faced, non-linear or mixed models could be explored in the future. Interactions, moderation, and mediation effects, as well as non-linear effects, should also be further studied. Loss data collection should regularly include preparedness indicators, and either data collection or hydraulic modelling should focus on the distinction of coinciding flood pathways, which could inform loss models and further improve estimates. Flood pathways show distinct (financial) impacts, and their inclusion in loss modelling proves relevant, for it helps in clarifying the different contribution of influencing factors to the final loss, improving understanding of the damaging process, and indicating future lines of research.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Schanner2022, author = {Schanner, Maximilian Arthus}, title = {Correlation based modeling of the archeomagnetic field}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55587}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-555875}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 146}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The geomagnetic main field is vital for live on Earth, as it shields our habitat against the solar wind and cosmic rays. It is generated by the geodynamo in the Earth's outer core and has a rich dynamic on various timescales. Global models of the field are used to study the interaction of the field and incoming charged particles, but also to infer core dynamics and to feed numerical simulations of the geodynamo. Modern satellite missions, such as the SWARM or the CHAMP mission, support high resolution reconstructions of the global field. From the 19 th century on, a global network of magnetic observatories has been established. It is growing ever since and global models can be constructed from the data it provides. Geomagnetic field models that extend further back in time rely on indirect observations of the field, i.e. thermoremanent records such as burnt clay or volcanic rocks and sediment records from lakes and seas. These indirect records come with (partially very large) uncertainties, introduced by the complex measurement methods and the dating procedure. Focusing on thermoremanent records only, the aim of this thesis is the development of a new modeling strategy for the global geomagnetic field during the Holocene, which takes the uncertainties into account and produces realistic estimates of the reliability of the model. This aim is approached by first considering snapshot models, in order to address the irregular spatial distribution of the records and the non-linear relation of the indirect observations to the field itself. In a Bayesian setting, a modeling algorithm based on Gaussian process regression is developed and applied to binned data. The modeling algorithm is then extended to the temporal domain and expanded to incorporate dating uncertainties. Finally, the algorithm is sequentialized to deal with numerical challenges arising from the size of the Holocene dataset. The central result of this thesis, including all of the aspects mentioned, is a new global geomagnetic field model. It covers the whole Holocene, back until 12000 BCE, and we call it ArchKalmag14k. When considering the uncertainties that are produced together with the model, it is evident that before 6000 BCE the thermoremanent database is not sufficient to support global models. For times more recent, ArchKalmag14k can be used to analyze features of the field under consideration of posterior uncertainties. The algorithm for generating ArchKalmag14k can be applied to different datasets and is provided to the community as an open source python package.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Dreseler2022, author = {Dreseler, Markus}, title = {Automatic tiering for in-memory database systems}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55825}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558253}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {vii, 143}, year = {2022}, abstract = {A decade ago, it became feasible to store multi-terabyte databases in main memory. These in-memory databases (IMDBs) profit from DRAM's low latency and high throughput as well as from the removal of costly abstractions used in disk-based systems, such as the buffer cache. However, as the DRAM technology approaches physical limits, scaling these databases becomes difficult. Non-volatile memory (NVM) addresses this challenge. This new type of memory is persistent, has more capacity than DRAM (4x), and does not suffer from its density-inhibiting limitations. Yet, as NVM has a higher latency (5-15x) and a lower throughput (0.35x), it cannot fully replace DRAM. IMDBs thus need to navigate the trade-off between the two memory tiers. We present a solution to this optimization problem. Leveraging information about access frequencies and patterns, our solution utilizes NVM's additional capacity while minimizing the associated access costs. Unlike buffer cache-based implementations, our tiering abstraction does not add any costs when reading data from DRAM. As such, it can act as a drop-in replacement for existing IMDBs. Our contributions are as follows: (1) As the foundation for our research, we present Hyrise, an open-source, columnar IMDB that we re-engineered and re-wrote from scratch. Hyrise enables realistic end-to-end benchmarks of SQL workloads and offers query performance which is competitive with other research and commercial systems. At the same time, Hyrise is easy to understand and modify as repeatedly demonstrated by its uses in research and teaching. (2) We present a novel memory management framework for different memory and storage tiers. By encapsulating the allocation and access methods of these tiers, we enable existing data structures to be stored on different tiers with no modifications to their implementation. Besides DRAM and NVM, we also support and evaluate SSDs and have made provisions for upcoming technologies such as disaggregated memory. (3) To identify the parts of the data that can be moved to (s)lower tiers with little performance impact, we present a tracking method that identifies access skew both in the row and column dimensions and that detects patterns within consecutive accesses. Unlike existing methods that have substantial associated costs, our access counters exhibit no identifiable overhead in standard benchmarks despite their increased accuracy. (4) Finally, we introduce a tiering algorithm that optimizes the data placement for a given memory budget. In the TPC-H benchmark, this allows us to move 90\% of the data to NVM while the throughput is reduced by only 10.8\% and the query latency is increased by 11.6\%. With this, we outperform approaches that ignore the workload's access skew and access patterns and increase the query latency by 20\% or more. Individually, our contributions provide novel approaches to current challenges in systems engineering and database research. Combining them allows IMDBs to scale past the limits of DRAM while continuing to profit from the benefits of in-memory computing.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Plauth2022, author = {Plauth, Max Frederik}, title = {Improving the Accessibility of Heterogeneous System Resources for Application Developers using Programming Abstractions}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55811}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-558118}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {ix, 133}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The heterogeneity of today's state-of-the-art computer architectures is confronting application developers with an immense degree of complexity which results from two major challenges. First, developers need to acquire profound knowledge about the programming models or the interaction models associated with each type of heterogeneous system resource to make efficient use thereof. Second, developers must take into account that heterogeneous system resources always need to exchange data with each other in order to work on a problem together. However, this data exchange is always associated with a certain amount of overhead, which is why the amounts of data exchanged should be kept as low as possible. This thesis proposes three programming abstractions to lessen the burdens imposed by these major challenges with the goal of making heterogeneous system resources accessible to a wider range of application developers. The lib842 compression library provides the first method for accessing the compression and decompression facilities of the NX-842 on-chip compression accelerator available in IBM Power CPUs from user space applications running on Linux. Addressing application development of scale-out GPU workloads, the CloudCL framework makes the resources of GPU clusters more accessible by hiding many aspects of distributed computing while enabling application developers to focus on the aspects of the data parallel programming model associated with GPUs. Furthermore, CloudCL is augmented with transparent data compression facilities based on the lib842 library in order to improve the efficiency of data transfers among cluster nodes. The improved data transfer efficiency provided by the integration of transparent data compression yields performance improvements ranging between 1.11x and 2.07x across four data-intensive scale-out GPU workloads. To investigate the impact of programming abstractions for data placement in NUMA systems, a comprehensive evaluation of the PGASUS framework for NUMA-aware C++ application development is conducted. On a wide range of test systems, the evaluation demonstrates that PGASUS does not only improve the developer experience across all workloads, but that it is also capable of outperforming NUMA-agnostic implementations with average performance improvements of 1.56x. Based on these programming abstractions, this thesis demonstrates that by providing a sufficient degree of abstraction, the accessibility of heterogeneous system resources can be improved for application developers without occluding performance-critical properties of the underlying hardware.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Tattarini2022, author = {Tattarini, Giulia}, title = {A job is good, but is a good job healthier?}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-53672}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-536723}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {182}, year = {2022}, abstract = {What are the consequences of unemployment and precarious employment for individuals' health in Europe? What are the moderating factors that may offset (or increase) the health consequences of labor-market risks? How do the effects of these risks vary across different contexts, which differ in their institutional and cultural settings? Does gender, regarded as a social structure, play a role, and how? To answer these questions is the aim of my cumulative thesis. This study aims to advance our knowledge about the health consequences that unemployment and precariousness cause over the life course. In particular, I investigate how several moderating factors, such as gender, the family, and the broader cultural and institutional context, may offset or increase the impact of employment instability and insecurity on individual health. In my first paper, 'The buffering role of the family in the relationship between job loss and self-perceived health: Longitudinal results from Europe, 2004-2011', I and my co-authors measure the causal effect of job loss on health and the role of the family and welfare states (regimes) as moderating factors. Using EU-SILC longitudinal data (2004-2011), we estimate the probability of experiencing 'bad health' following a transition to unemployment by applying linear probability models and undertake separate analyses for men and women. Firstly, we measure whether changes in the independent variable 'job loss' lead to changes in the dependent variable 'self-rated health' for men and women separately. Then, by adding into the model different interaction terms, we measure the moderating effect of the family, both in terms of emotional and economic support, and how much it varies across different welfare regimes. As an identification strategy, we first implement static fixed-effect panel models, which control for time-varying observables and indirect health selection—i.e., constant unobserved heterogeneity. Secondly, to control for reverse causality and path dependency, we implement dynamic fixed-effect panel models, adding a lagged dependent variable to the model. We explore the role of the family by focusing on close ties within households: we consider the presence of a stable partner and his/her working status as a source of social and economic support. According to previous literature, having a partner should reduce the stress from adverse events, thanks to the symbolic and emotional dimensions that such a relationship entails, regardless of any economic benefits. Our results, however, suggest that benefits linked to the presence of a (female) partner also come from the financial stability that (s)he can provide in terms of a second income. Furthermore, we find partners' employment to be at least as important as the mere presence of the partner in reducing the negative effect of job loss on the individual's health by maintaining the household's standard of living and decreasing economic strain on the family. Our results are in line with previous research, which has highlighted that some people cope better than others with adverse life circumstances, and the support provided by the family is a crucial resource in that regard. We also reported an important interaction between the family and the welfare state in moderating the health consequences of unemployment, showing how the compensation effect of the family varies across welfare regimes. The family plays a decisive role in cushioning the adverse consequences of labor market risks in Southern and Eastern welfare states, characterized by less developed social protection systems and -especially the Southern - high level of familialism. The first paper also found important gender differences concerning job loss, family and welfare effects. Of particular interest is the evidence suggesting that health selection works differently for men and women, playing a more prominent role for women than for men in explaining the relationship between job loss and self-perceived health. The second paper, 'Gender roles and selection mechanisms across contexts: A comparative analysis of the relationship between unemployment, self-perceived health, and gender.' investigates more in-depth the gender differential in health driven by unemployment. Being a highly contested issue in literature, we aim to study whether men are more penalized than women or the other way around and the mechanisms that may explain the gender difference. To do that, we rely on two theoretical arguments: the availability of alternative roles and social selection. The first argument builds on the idea that men and women may compensate for the detrimental health consequences of unemployment through the commitment to 'alternative roles,' which can provide for the resources needed to fulfill people's socially constructed needs. Notably, the availability of alternative options depends on the different positions that men and women have in society. Further, we merge the availability of the 'alternative roles' argument with the health selection argument. We assume that health selection could be contingent on people's social position as defined by gender and, thus, explain the gender differential in the relationship between unemployment and health. Ill people might be less reluctant to fall or remain (i.e., self-select) in unemployment if they have alternative roles. In Western societies, women generally have more alternative roles than men and thus more discretion in their labor market attachment. Therefore, health selection should be stronger for them, explaining why unemployment is less menace for women than for their male counterparts. Finally, relying on the idea of different gender regimes, we extended these arguments to comparison across contexts. For example, in contexts where being a caregiver is assumed to be women's traditional and primary roles and the primary breadwinner role is reserved to men, unemployment is less stigmatized, and taking up alternative roles is more socially accepted for women than for men (Hp.1). Accordingly, social (self)selection should be stronger for women than for men in traditional contexts, where, in the case of ill-health, the separation from work is eased by the availability of alternative roles (Hp.2). By focusing on contexts that are representative of different gender regimes, we implement a multiple-step comparative approach. Firstly, by using EU-SILC longitudinal data (2004-2015), our analysis tests gender roles and selection mechanisms for Sweden and Italy, representing radically different gender regimes, thus providing institutional and cultural variation. Then, we limit institutional heterogeneity by focusing on Germany and comparing East- and West-Germany and older and younger cohorts—for West-Germany (SOEP data 1995-2017). Next, to assess the differential impact of unemployment for men and women, we compared (unemployed and employed) men with (unemployed and employed) women. To do so, we calculate predicted probabilities and average marginal effect from two distinct random-effects probit models. Our first step is estimating random-effects models that assess the association between unemployment and self-perceived health, controlling for observable characteristics. In the second step, our fully adjusted model controls for both direct and indirect selection. We do this using dynamic correlated random-effects (CRE) models. Further, based on the fully adjusted model, we test our hypotheses on alternative roles (Hp.1) by comparing several contexts - models are estimated separately for each context. For this hypothesis, we pool men and women and include an interaction term between unemployment and gender, which has the advantage to allow for directly testing whether gender differences in the effect of unemployment exist and are statistically significant. Finally, we test the role of selection mechanisms (Hp.2), using the KHB method to compare coefficients across nested nonlinear models. Specifically, we test the role of selection for the relationship between unemployment and health by comparing the partially-adjusted and fully-adjusted models. To allow selection mechanisms to operate differently between genders, we estimate separate models for men and women. We found support to our first hypotheses—the context where people are embedded structures the relationship between unemployment, health, and gender. We found no gendered effect of unemployment on health in the egalitarian context of Sweden. Conversely, in the traditional context of Italy, we observed substantive and statistically significant gender differences in the effect of unemployment on bad health, with women suffering less than men. We found the same pattern for comparing East and West Germany and younger and older cohorts in West Germany. On the contrary, our results did not support our theoretical argument on social selection. We found that in Sweden, women are more selected out of employment than men. In contrast, in Italy, health selection does not seem to be the primary mechanism behind the gender differential—Italian men and women seem to be selected out of employment to the same extent. Namely, we do not find any evidence that health selection is stronger for women in more traditional countries (Hp2), despite the fact that the institutional and the cultural context would offer them a more comprehensive range of 'alternative roles' relative to men. Moreover, our second hypothesis is also rejected in the second and third comparisons, where the cross-country heterogeneity is reduced to maximize cultural differences within the same institutional context. Further research that addresses selection into inactivity is needed to evaluate the interplay between selection and social roles across gender regimes. While the health consequences of unemployment have been on the research agenda for a pretty long time, the interest in precarious employment—defined as the linking of the vulnerable worker to work that is characterized by uncertainty and insecurity concerning pay, the stability of the work arrangement, limited access to social benefits, and statutory protections—has emerged only later. Since the 80s, scholars from different disciplines have raised concerns about the social consequences of de-standardization of employment relationships. However, while work has become undoubtedly more precarious, very little is known about its causal effect on individual health and the role of gender as a moderator. These questions are at the core of my third paper : 'Bad job, bad health? A longitudinal analysis of the interaction between precariousness, gender and self-perceived health in Germany'. Herein, I investigate the multidimensional nature of precarious employment and its causal effect on health, particularly focusing on gender differences. With this paper, I aim at overcoming three major shortcomings of earlier studies: The first one regards the cross-sectional nature of data that prevents the authors from ruling out unobserved heterogeneity as a mechanism for the association between precarious employment and health. Indeed, several unmeasured individual characteristics—such as cognitive abilities—may confound the relationship between precarious work and health, leading to biased results. Secondly, only a few studies have directly addressed the role of gender in shaping the relationship. Moreover, available results on the gender differential are mixed and inconsistent: some found precarious employment being more detrimental for women's health, while others found no gender differences or stronger negative association for men. Finally, previous attempts to an empirical translation of the employment precariousness (EP) concept have not always been coherent with their theoretical framework. EP is usually assumed to be a multidimensional and continuous phenomenon; it is characterized by different dimensions of insecurity that may overlap in the same job and lead to different "degrees of precariousness." However, researchers have predominantly focused on one-dimensional indicators—e.g., temporary employment, subjective job insecurity—to measure EP and study the association with health. Besides the fact that this approach partially grasps the phenomenon's complexity, the major problem is the inconsistency of evidence that it has produced. Indeed, this line of inquiry generally reveals an ambiguous picture, with some studies finding substantial adverse effects of temporary over permanent employment, while others report only minor differences. To measure the (causal) effect of precarious work on self-rated health and its variation by gender, I focus on Germany and use four waves from SOEP data (2003, 2007, 2011, and 2015). Germany is a suitable context for my study. Indeed, since the 1980s, the labor market and welfare system have been restructured in many ways to increase the German economy's competitiveness in the global market. As a result, the (standard) employment relationship has been de-standardized: non-standard and atypical employment arrangements—i.e., part-time work, fixed-term contracts, mini-jobs, and work agencies—have increased over time while wages have lowered, even among workers with standard work. In addition, the power of unions has also fallen over the last three decades, leaving a large share of workers without collective protection. Because of this process of de-standardization, the link between wage employment and strong social rights has eroded, making workers more powerless and more vulnerable to labor market risks than in the past. EP refers to this uneven distribution of power in the employment relationship, which can be detrimental to workers' health. Indeed, by affecting individuals' access to power and other resources, EP puts precarious workers at risk of experiencing health shocks and influences their ability to gain and accumulate health advantages (Hp.1). Further, the focus on Germany allows me to investigate my second research question on the gender differential. Germany is usually regarded as a traditionalist gender regime: a context characterized by a configuration of roles. Here, being a caregiver is assumed to be women's primary role, whereas the primary breadwinner role is reserved for men. Although many signs of progress have been made over the last decades towards a greater equalization of opportunities and more egalitarianism, the breadwinner model has barely changed towards a modified version. Thus, women usually take on the double role of workers (the so-called secondary earner) and caregivers, and men still devote most of their time to paid work activities. Moreover, the overall upward trend towards more egalitarian gender ideologies has leveled off over the last decades, moving notably towards more traditional gender ideologies. In this setting, two alternative hypotheses are possible. Firstly, I assume that the negative relationship between EP and health is stronger for women than for men. This is because women are systematically more disadvantaged than men in the public and private spheres of life, having less access to formal and informal sources of power. These gender-related power asymmetries may interact with EP-related power asymmetries resulting in a stronger effect of EP on women's health than on men's health (Hp.2). An alternative way of looking at the gender differential is to consider the interaction that precariousness might have with men's and women's gender identities. According to this view, the negative relationship between EP and health is weaker for women than for men (Hp.2a). In a society with a gendered division of labor and a strong link between masculine identities and stable and well-rewarded job—i.e., a job that confers the role of primary family provider—a male worker with precarious employment might violate the traditional male gender role. Men in precarious jobs may perceive themselves (and by others) as possessing a socially undesirable characteristic, which conflicts with the stereotypical idea of themselves as the male breadwinner. Engaging in behaviors that contradict stereotypical gender identity may decrease self-esteem and foster feelings of inferiority, helplessness, and jealousy, leading to poor health. I develop a new indicator of EP that empirically translates a definition of EP as a multidimensional and continuous phenomenon. I assume that EP is a latent construct composed of seven dimensions of insecurity chosen according to the theory and previous empirical research: Income insecurity, social insecurity, legal insecurity, employment insecurity, working-time insecurity, representation insecurity, worker's vulnerability. The seven dimensions are proxied by eight indicators available in the four waves of the SOEP dataset. The EP composite indicator is obtained by performing a multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) on the eight indicators. This approach aims to construct a summary scale in which all dimensions contribute jointly to the measured experience of precariousness and its health impact. Further, the relationship between EP and 'general self-perceived health' is estimated by applying ordered probit random-effects estimators and calculating average marginal effect (further AME). Then, to control for unobserved heterogeneity, I implement correlated random-effects models that add to the model the within-individual means of the time-varying independent variables. To test the significance of the gender differential, I add an interaction term between EP and gender in the fully adjusted model in the pooled sample. My correlated random-effects models showed EP's negative and substantial 'effect' on self-perceived health for both men and women. Although nonsignificant, the evidence seems in line with previous cross-sectional literature. It supports the hypothesis that employment precariousness could be detrimental to workers' health. Further, my results showed the crucial role of unobserved heterogeneity in shaping the health consequences of precarious employment. This is particularly important as evidence accumulates, yet it is still mostly descriptive. Moreover, my results revealed a substantial difference among men and women in the relationship between EP and health: when EP increases, the risk of experiencing poor health increases much more for men than for women. This evidence falsifies previous theory according to whom the gender differential is contingent on the structurally disadvantaged position of women in western societies. In contrast, they seem to confirm the idea that men in precarious work could experience role conflict to a larger extent than women, as their self-standard is supposed to be the stereotypical breadwinner worker with a good and well-rewarded job. Finally, results from the multiple correspondence analysis contribute to the methodological debate on precariousness, showing that a multidimensional and continuous indicator can express a latent variable of EP. All in all, complementarities are revealed in the results of unemployment and employment precariousness, which have two implications: Policy-makers need to be aware that the total costs of unemployment and precariousness go far beyond the economic and material realm penetrating other fundamental life domains such as individual health. Moreover, they need to balance the trade-off between protecting adequately unemployed people and fostering high-quality employment in reaction to the highlighted market pressures. In this sense, the further development of a (universalistic) welfare state certainly helps mitigate the adverse health effects of unemployment and, therefore, the future costs of both individuals' health and welfare spending. In addition, the presence of a working partner is crucial for reducing the health consequences of employment instability. Therefore, policies aiming to increase female labor market participation should be promoted, especially in those contexts where the welfare state is less developed. Moreover, my results support the significance of taking account of a gender perspective in health research. The findings of the three articles show that job loss, unemployment, and precarious employment, in general, have adverse effects on men's health but less or absent consequences for women's health. Indeed, this suggests the importance of labor and health policies that consider and further distinguish the specific needs of the male and female labor force in Europe. Nevertheless, a further implication emerges: the health consequences of employment instability and de-standardization need to be investigated in light of the gender arrangements and the transforming gender relationships in specific cultural and institutional contexts. My results indeed seem to suggest that women's health advantage may be a transitory phenomenon, contingent on the predominant gendered institutional and cultural context. As the structural difference between men's and women's position in society is eroded, egalitarianism becomes the dominant normative status, so will probably be the gender difference in the health consequences of job loss and precariousness. Therefore, while gender equality in opportunities and roles is a desirable aspect for contemporary societies and a political goal that cannot be postponed further, this thesis raises a further and maybe more crucial question: What kind of equality should be pursued to provide men and women with both good life quality and equal chances in the public and private spheres? In this sense, I believe that social and labor policies aiming to reduce gender inequality in society should focus on improving women's integration into the labor market, implementing policies targeting men, and facilitating their involvement in the private sphere of life. Equal redistribution of social roles could activate a crucial transformation of gender roles and the cultural models that sustain and still legitimate gender inequality in Western societies.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Kahl2022, author = {Kahl, Sandra}, title = {Evolutionary adaptive responses to rapid climate change in plants}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55648}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-556483}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {127}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The ongoing climate change is altering the living conditions for many organisms on this planet at an unprecedented pace. Hence, it is crucial for the survival of species to adapt to these changing conditions. In this dissertation Silene vulgaris is used as a model organism to understand the adaption strategies of widely distributed plant species to the current climate change. Especially plant species that possess a wide geographic range are expected to have a high phenotypic plasticity or to show genetic differentiation in response to the different climate conditions they grow in. However, they are often underrepresented in research. In the greenhouse experiment presented in this thesis, I examined the phenotypic responses and plasticity in S. vulgaris to estimate its' adaptation potential. Seeds from 25 wild European populations were collected along a latitudinal gradient and grown in a greenhouse under three different precipitation (65 mm, 75 mm, 90 mm) and two different temperature regimes (18°C, 21°C) that resembled a possible climate change scenario for central Europe. Afterwards different biomass and fecundity-related plant traits were measured. The treatments significantly influenced the plants but did not reveal a latitudinal difference in response to climate treatments for most plant traits. The number of flowers per individual however, showed a stronger plasticity in northern European populations (e.g., Swedish populations) where numbers decreased more drastically with increased temperature and decreased precipitation. To gain an even deeper understanding of the adaptation of S. vulgaris to climate change it is also important to reveal the underlying phylogeny of the sampled populations. Therefore, I analysed their population genetic structure through whole genome sequencing via ddRAD. The sequencing revealed three major genetic clusters in the S. vulgaris populations sampled in Europe: one cluster comprised Southern European populations, one cluster Western European populations and another cluster contained central European populations. A following analysis of experimental trait responses among the clusters to the climate-change scenario showed that the genetic clusters significantly differed in biomass-related traits and in the days to flowering. However, half of the traits showed parallel response patterns to the experimental climate-change scenario. In addition to the potential geographic and genetic adaptation differences to climate change this dissertation also deals with the response differences between the sexes in S. vulgaris. As a gynodioecious species populations of S. vulgaris consist of female and hermaphrodite individuals and the sexes can differ in their morphological traits which is known as sexual dimorphism. As climate change is becoming an important factor influencing plant morphology it remains unclear if and how different sexes may respond in sexually dimorphic species. To examine this question the sex of each individual plant was determined during the greenhouse experiment and the measured plant traits were analysed accordingly. In general, hermaphrodites had a higher number of flowers but a lower number of leaves than females. With regards to the climate change treatment, I found that hermaphrodites showed a milder negative response to higher temperatures in the number of flowers produced and in specific leaf area (SLA) compared to females. Synthesis - The significant treatment response in Silene vulgaris, independent of population origin in most traits suggests a high degree of universal phenotypic plasticity. Also, the three European intraspecific genetic lineages detected showed comparable parallel response patterns in half of the traits suggesting considerable phenotypic plasticity. Hence, plasticity might represent a possible adaptation strategy of this widely distributed species during ongoing and future climatic changes. The results on sexual dimorphism show that females and hermaphrodites are differing mainly in their number of flowers and females are affected more strongly by the experimental climate-change scenario. These results provide a solid knowledge basis on the sexual dimorphism in S. vulgaris under climate change, but further research is needed to determine the long-term impact on the breeding system for the species. In summary this dissertation provides a comprehensive insight into the adaptation mechanisms and consequences of a widely distributed and gynodioecious plant species and leverages our understanding of the impact of anthropogenic climate change on plants.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Mertzen2022, author = {Mertzen, Daniela}, title = {A cross-linguistic investigation of similarity-based interference in sentence comprehension}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55668}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-556685}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xvii, 129}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The aim of this dissertation was to conduct a larger-scale cross-linguistic empirical investigation of similarity-based interference effects in sentence comprehension. Interference studies can offer valuable insights into the mechanisms that are involved in long-distance dependency completion. Many studies have investigated similarity-based interference effects, showing that syntactic and semantic information are employed during long-distance dependency formation (e.g., Arnett \& Wagers, 2017; Cunnings \& Sturt, 2018; Van Dyke, 2007, Van Dyke \& Lewis, 2003; Van Dyke \& McElree, 2011). Nevertheless, there are some important open questions in the interference literature that are critical to our understanding of the constraints involved in dependency resolution. The first research question concerns the relative timing of syntactic and semantic interference in online sentence comprehension. Only few interference studies have investigated this question, and, to date, there is not enough data to draw conclusions with regard to their time course (Van Dyke, 2007; Van Dyke \& McElree, 2011). Our first cross-linguistic study explores the relative timing of syntactic and semantic interference in two eye-tracking reading experiments that implement the study design used in Van Dyke (2007). The first experiment tests English sentences. The second, larger-sample experiment investigates the two interference types in German. Overall, the data suggest that syntactic and semantic interference can arise simultaneously during retrieval. The second research question concerns a special case of semantic interference: We investigate whether cue-based retrieval interference can be caused by semantically similar items which are not embedded in a syntactic structure. This second interference study builds on a landmark study by Van Dyke \& McElree (2006). The study design used in their study is unique in that it is able to pin down the source of interference as a consequence of cue overload during retrieval, when semantic retrieval cues do not uniquely match the retrieval target. Unlike most other interference studies, this design is able to rule out encoding interference as an alternative explanation. Encoding accounts postulate that it is not cue overload at the retrieval site but the erroneous encoding of similar linguistic items in memory that leads to interference (Lewandowsky et al., 2008; Oberauer \& Kliegl, 2006). While Van Dyke \& McElree (2006) reported cue-based retrieval interference from sentence-external distractors, the evidence for this effect was weak. A subsequent study did not show interference of this type (Van Dyke et al., 2014). Given these inconclusive findings, further research is necessary to investigate semantic cue-based retrieval interference. The second study in this dissertation provides a larger-scale cross-linguistic investigation of cue-based retrieval interference from sentence-external items. Three larger-sample eye-tracking studies in English, German, and Russian tested cue-based interference in the online processing of filler-gap dependencies. This study further extends the previous research by investigating interference in each language under varying task demands (Logačev \& Vasishth, 2016; Swets et al., 2008). Overall, we see some very modest support for proactive cue-based retrieval interference in English. Unexpectedly, this was observed only under a low task demand. In German and Russian, there is some evidence against the interference effect. It is possible that interference is attenuated in languages with richer case marking. In sum, the cross-linguistic experiments on the time course of syntactic and semantic interference from sentence-internal distractors support existing evidence of syntactic and semantic interference during sentence comprehension. Our data further show that both types of interference effects can arise simultaneously. Our cross-linguistic experiments investigating semantic cue-based retrieval interference from sentence-external distractors suggest that this type of interference may arise only in specific linguistic contexts.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Brill2022, author = {Brill, Fabio Alexander}, title = {Applications of machine learning and open geospatial data in flood risk modelling}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-55594}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-555943}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, pages = {xix, 124}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Der technologische Fortschritt erlaubt es, zunehmend komplexe Vorhersagemodelle auf Basis immer gr{\"o}ßerer Datens{\"a}tze zu produzieren. F{\"u}r das Risikomanagement von Naturgefahren sind eine Vielzahl von Modellen als Entscheidungsgrundlage notwendig, z.B. in der Auswertung von Beobachtungsdaten, f{\"u}r die Vorhersage von Gefahrenszenarien, oder zur statistischen Absch{\"a}tzung der zu erwartenden Sch{\"a}den. Es stellt sich also die Frage, inwiefern moderne Modellierungsans{\"a}tze wie das maschinelle Lernen oder Data-Mining in diesem Themenbereich sinnvoll eingesetzt werden k{\"o}nnen. Zus{\"a}tzlich ist im Hinblick auf die Datenverf{\"u}gbarkeit und -zug{\"a}nglichkeit ein Trend zur {\"O}ffnung (open data) zu beobachten. Thema dieser Arbeit ist daher, die M{\"o}glichkeiten und Grenzen des maschinellen Lernens und frei verf{\"u}gbarer Geodaten auf dem Gebiet der Hochwasserrisikomodellierung im weiteren Sinne zu untersuchen. Da dieses {\"u}bergeordnete Thema sehr breit ist, werden einzelne relevante Aspekte herausgearbeitet und detailliert betrachtet. Eine prominente Datenquelle im Bereich Hochwasser ist die satellitenbasierte Kartierung von {\"U}berflutungsfl{\"a}chen, die z.B. {\"u}ber den Copernicus Service der Europ{\"a}ischen Union frei zur Verf{\"u}gung gestellt werden. Große Hoffnungen werden in der wissenschaftlichen Literatur in diese Produkte gesetzt, sowohl f{\"u}r die akute Unterst{\"u}tzung der Einsatzkr{\"a}fte im Katastrophenfall, als auch in der Modellierung mittels hydrodynamischer Modelle oder zur Schadensabsch{\"a}tzung. Daher wurde ein Fokus in dieser Arbeit auf die Untersuchung dieser Flutmasken gelegt. Aus der Beobachtung, dass die Qualit{\"a}t dieser Produkte in bewaldeten und urbanen Gebieten unzureichend ist, wurde ein Verfahren zur nachtr{\"a}glichenVerbesserung mittels maschinellem Lernen entwickelt. Das Verfahren basiert auf einem Klassifikationsalgorithmus der nur Trainingsdaten von einer vorherzusagenden Klasse ben{\"o}tigt, im konkreten Fall also Daten von {\"U}berflutungsfl{\"a}chen, nicht jedoch von der negativen Klasse (trockene Gebiete). Die Anwendung f{\"u}r Hurricane Harvey in Houston zeigt großes Potenzial der Methode, abh{\"a}ngig von der Qualit{\"a}t der urspr{\"u}nglichen Flutmaske. Anschließend wird anhand einer prozessbasierten Modellkette untersucht, welchen Einfluss implementierte physikalische Prozessdetails auf das vorhergesagte statistische Risiko haben. Es wird anschaulich gezeigt, was eine Risikostudie basierend auf etablierten Modellen leisten kann. Solche Modellketten sind allerdings bereits f{\"u}r Flusshochwasser sehr komplex, und f{\"u}r zusammengesetzte oder kaskadierende Ereignisse mit Starkregen, Sturzfluten, und weiteren Prozessen, kaum vorhanden. Im vierten Kapitel dieser Arbeit wird daher getestet, ob maschinelles Lernen auf Basis von vollst{\"a}ndigen Schadensdaten einen direkteren Weg zur Schadensmodellierung erm{\"o}glicht, der die explizite Konzeption einer solchen Modellkette umgeht. Dazu wird ein staatlich erhobener Datensatz der gesch{\"a}digten Geb{\"a}ude w{\"a}hrend des schweren El Ni{\~n}o Ereignisses 2017 in Peru verwendet. In diesem Kontext werden auch die M{\"o}glichkeiten des Data-Mining zur Extraktion von Prozessverst{\"a}ndnis ausgelotet. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass diverse frei verf{\"u}gbare Geodaten n{\"u}tzliche Informationen f{\"u}r die Gefahren- und Schadensmodellierung von komplexen Flutereignissen liefern, z.B. satellitenbasierte Regenmessungen, topographische und hydrographische Information, kartierte Siedlungsfl{\"a}chen, sowie Indikatoren aus Spektraldaten. Zudem zeigen sich Erkenntnisse zu den Sch{\"a}digungsprozessen, die im Wesentlichen mit den vorherigen Erwartungen in Einklang stehen. Die maximale Regenintensit{\"a}t wirkt beispielsweise in St{\"a}dten und steilen Schluchten st{\"a}rker sch{\"a}digend, w{\"a}hrend die Niederschlagssumme in tiefliegenden Flussgebieten und bewaldeten Regionen als aussagekr{\"a}ftiger befunden wurde. L{\"a}ndliche Gebiete in Peru weisen in der pr{\"a}sentierten Studie eine h{\"o}here Vulnerabilit{\"a}t als die Stadtgebiete auf. Jedoch werden auch die grunds{\"a}tzlichen Grenzen der Methodik und die Abh{\"a}ngigkeit von spezifischen Datens{\"a}tzen and Algorithmen offenkundig. In der {\"u}bergreifenden Diskussion werden schließlich die verschiedenen Methoden - prozessbasierte Modellierung, pr{\"a}diktives maschinelles Lernen, und Data-Mining - mit Blick auf die Gesamtfragestellungen evaluiert. Im Bereich der Gefahrenbeobachtung scheint eine Fokussierung auf neue Algorithmen sinnvoll. Im Bereich der Gefahrenmodellierung, insbesondere f{\"u}r Flusshochwasser, wird eher die Verbesserung von physikalischen Modellen, oder die Integration von prozessbasierten und statistischen Verfahren angeraten. In der Schadensmodellierung fehlen nach wie vor die großen repr{\"a}sentativen Datens{\"a}tze, die f{\"u}r eine breite Anwendung von maschinellem Lernen Voraussetzung ist. Daher ist die Verbesserung der Datengrundlage im Bereich der Sch{\"a}den derzeit als wichtiger einzustufen als die Auswahl der Algorithmen.}, language = {en} }