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Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions is the first comprehensive analysis of the role and impact of informal collaborations in the UN human rights treaty bodies. Issues as central to international human rights as the right to water, abortion, torture, and hate speech are often only clarified through the instrument of treaty interpretations. This book dives beneath the surface of the formal access, procedures, and actors of the UN treaty body system to reveal how the experts and external collaborators play a key role in the development of human rights. Nina Reiners introduces the concept of 'Transnational Lawmaking Coalitions' within a novel theoretical framework and draws on a number of detailed case studies and original data. This study makes a significant contribution to the scholarship on human rights, transnational actors, and international organizations, and contributes to broader debates in international relations and international law
This study offers a view into Buber's conception of the social role of the “person of spirit” – the individual who, in other contexts, would be called philosopher, thinker, or intellectual.A key element of the person of spirit's role, according to Buber, is the evaluation of social reality – judging the public's ability to be guided by the realm of the spirit at any given hour while responding to the challenges that this particular hour may present. The person of spirit is required to constantly mediate between “heaven” and “earth” – between the ideal and reality – even if in a particular situation the moral action which has to be taken can only be partial, and will fall short of the absolute demand of the spirit.Buber emphasizes that the influence of the spirit on reality always begins with an effort of the “person of spirit” to transform him or herself from a monological to a dialogical person. Without a dialogical affinity between the person of spirit and their community, there can be no real effect of the spirit on reality.The person of spirit is, therefore, according to Buber, fully involved in the social life of the community. Our study shows that Buber shaped this figure of the “person of spirit” by combining the model of the biblical prophet, who is sent to the people, with the model of the Hasidic leader who acts according to the principle of the “Descent of the Zaddik.” The person of spirit is required to live their life in a “Thou” relationship with their community, and is therefore frequently descending from an elevated spiritual level to the level of the people, in order to empathetically share their mundane worries, fears, and afflictions.By comparing the models of the biblical prophet and the Hassidic Zaddik to the model of the Greek prophetes and Plato's philosopher-king, we can, according to Buber, reflect on the role of the person of spirit in society in our time as well.
Under the in vivo condition, a cell is continually interacting with its surrounding microenvironment, which is composed of its neighboring cells and the extracellular matrix (ECM). These components generate and transmit the microenvironmental signals to regulate the fate and function of the target cells. Except the signals from the microenvironment, stimuli from the ambient environment, such as temperature changes, also play an important in modulating the cell behaviors, which are considered as regulators from the macroenvironment. In this regard, recapitulation of these environmental factors to steer cell function will be of crucial importance for therapeutic purposes and tissue regeneration. Although the role of a variety of environmental factors has been evaluated, it is still challenging to identify and provide the appropriate factors, which are required for optimizing the survival of cells and for ensuring effective cell functions.
Thus, in vitro recreating the environmental factors that are present in the extracellular environment would help to understand the mechanism of how cells sense and process those environmental signals. In this context, this thesis is aimed to harness these environmental parameters to guide cell responses. Here, human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and human keratinocytes (KTCs), HaCaT cells, were used to investigate the impact of signals from the microenvironment or stimuli from the macroenvironment.
Firstly, polydopamine (PDA) or chitosan (CS) modifications were applied to generate different substrate surfaces for hiPSCs and KTCs (Chapter 4 to Chapter 6). Our results showed that the PDA modification was efficient to increase the cell-substrate adhesion and consequently promoted cell spreading. While CS modification was able to decrease the cell-substrate adhesion and enhance the cell-cell interaction, which enabled the morphology shift from monolayered cells to multicellular spheroids. The quantitative result was acquired using the atomic force microscopy (AFM)-based single-cell force spectroscopy. The balance between the cell-substrate and cell-cell adhesion yielded a net force, which determined the preference of the cell to adhere to its neighboring cells or to the substrate. The difference in the adhesive behaviors further affected the cellular function, such as the proliferation and differentiation potential of both hiPSCs and HaCaT cells.
Next, the cyclic temperature changes (ΔT) were selected here to study the influence of macroenvironmental stimuli on hiPSCs and KTCs (Chapter 7 and Chapter 8). The macroenvironmental temperature ranging from 10.0 ± 0.1 °C to 37.0 ± 0.1 °C was achieved using a thermal chamber equipped with a temperature controller. This temperature range was selected to explore the responses of hiPSCs to the extreme environments, while a temperature variation between 25.0 ± 0.1 °C and 37.0 ± 0.1 °C was applied to mimic the ambient temperature variations experienced by the skin epithelial KTCs. The ΔT led to cell stiffening in both hiPSCs and HaCaT cells in a cytoskeleton-dependent manner, which was measured by AFM. Specifically, in hiPSCs, the cell stiffening was resulted from the rearrangement of the actin skeleton; in HaCaT cells, was due to the difference of the Keratin (KRT) filaments. Except for inducing cell hardening, ΔT also caused differences in the protein expression profiles in hiPSCs or HaCaT cells, compared to those without ΔT treatment, which might be attributed to the alterations in their cytoskeleton structures.
To sum up, the results of the thesis demonstrated how individual factors from the micro-/macro-environment can be harnessed to modulate the behaviors of hiPSCs and HaCaT cells. Engineering the microenvironmental cues using surface modification and exploiting the macroenvironmental stimuli through temperature control were identified as precise and potent approaches to steer hiPSC and HaCaT cell behaviors. The application of AFM served as a non-invasive and real-time monitoring platform to trace the change in cell topography and mechanics induced by the environmental signals, which provide novel insights into the cell-environment interactions.
Dynamic resource management is an essential requirement for private and public cloud computing environments. With dynamic resource management, the physical resources assignment to the cloud virtual resources depends on the actual need of the applications or the running services, which enhances the cloud physical resources utilization and reduces the offered services cost. In addition, the virtual resources can be moved across different physical resources in the cloud environment without an obvious impact on the running applications or services production. This means that the availability of the running services and applications in the cloud is independent on the hardware resources including the servers, switches and storage failures. This increases the reliability of using cloud services compared to the classical data-centers environments.
In this thesis we briefly discuss the dynamic resource management topic and then deeply focus on live migration as the definition of the compute resource dynamic management. Live migration is a commonly used and an essential feature in cloud and virtual data-centers environments. Cloud computing load balance, power saving and fault tolerance features are all dependent on live migration to optimize the virtual and physical resources usage. As we will discuss in this thesis, live migration shows many benefits to cloud and virtual data-centers environments, however the cost of live migration can not be ignored. Live migration cost includes the migration time, downtime, network overhead, power consumption increases and CPU overhead.
IT admins run virtual machines live migrations without an idea about the migration cost. So, resources bottlenecks, higher migration cost and migration failures might happen. The first problem that we discuss in this thesis is how to model the cost of the virtual machines live migration. Secondly, we investigate how to make use of machine learning techniques to help the cloud admins getting an estimation of this cost before initiating the migration for one of multiple virtual machines. Also, we discuss the optimal timing for a specific virtual machine before live migration to another server. Finally, we propose practical solutions that can be used by the cloud admins to be integrated with the cloud administration portals to answer the raised research questions above.
Our research methodology to achieve the project objectives is to propose empirical models based on using VMware test-beds with different benchmarks tools. Then we make use of the machine learning techniques to propose a prediction approach for virtual machines live migration cost. Timing optimization for live migration is also proposed in this thesis based on using the cost prediction and data-centers network utilization prediction. Live migration with persistent memory clusters is also discussed at the end of the thesis. The cost prediction and timing optimization techniques proposed in this thesis could be practically integrated with VMware vSphere cluster portal such that the IT admins can now use the cost prediction feature and timing optimization option before proceeding with a virtual machine live migration.
Testing results show that our proposed approach for VMs live migration cost prediction shows acceptable results with less than 20% prediction error and can be easily implemented and integrated with VMware vSphere as an example of a commonly used resource management portal for virtual data-centers and private cloud environments. The results show that using our proposed VMs migration timing optimization technique also could save up to 51% of migration time of the VMs migration time for memory intensive workloads and up to 27% of the migration time for network intensive workloads. This timing optimization technique can be useful for network admins to save migration time with utilizing higher network rate and higher probability of success.
At the end of this thesis, we discuss the persistent memory technology as a new trend in servers memory technology. Persistent memory modes of operation and configurations are discussed in detail to explain how live migration works between servers with different memory configuration set up. Then, we build a VMware cluster with persistent memory inside server and also with DRAM only servers to show the live migration cost difference between the VMs with DRAM only versus the VMs with persistent memory inside.
Das Führen eines Fahrzeugs wird seit jeher als ein menschengesteuerter Vorgang angesehen. Entsprechend etablierte sich in der Gesetzgebung das Dogma der menschlichen Fahrzeugführung, welches sich jedoch seit der Existenz von hoch- und vollautomatisierten Fahrerassistenzsystemen auf dem Prüfstand befindet. Der Autor nimmt sich dem in strafrechtlicher Hinsicht mit Blick auf die Führungsdelikte des StGB unter reflektierender Betrachtung der Regelungen des StVG an. Rechtlicher Ausgangspunkt ist die Auswertung der uneinheitlichen und kasuistischen Rechtsprechung zum Fahrzeugführen. Die daraus abgeleitete Notwendigkeit einer analytischen Betrachtung der Arbeitsaufgabe der Fahrzeugführung mündete schließlich in die Entwicklung eines neuen Definitionsvorschlags. Dessen Mehrwert wird anschließend an der Strafrechtsdogmatik, insbesondere am Eigenhändigkeitsdogma und der unechten Unterlassungsstrafbarkeit, gemessen und durch die Bezugnahme von sog. Use-Cases des automatisierten Fahrens verdeutlicht.
The world energy consumption has constantly increased every year due to economic development and population growth. This inevitably caused vast amount of CO2 emission, and the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere keeps increasing with economic growth. To reduce CO2 emission, various methods have been developed but there are still many bottlenecks to be solved. Solvents easily absorbing CO2 such as monoethanol-amine (MEA) and diethanolamine, for example, have limitations of solvent loss, amine degradation, vulnerability to heat and toxicity, and the high cost of regeneration which is especially caused due to chemisorption process. Though some of these drawbacks can be compensated through physisorption with zeolites and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) by displaying significant adsorption selectivity and capacity even in ambient conditions, limitations for these materials still exist. Zeolites demand relatively high regeneration energy and have limited adsorption kinetics due to the exceptionally narrow pore structure. MOFs have low stability against heat and moisture and high manufacturing cost.
Nanoporous carbons have recently received attention as an attractive functional porous material due to their unique properties. These materials are crucial in many applications of modern science and industry such as water and air purification, catalysis, gas separation, and energy storage/conversion due to their high chemical and thermal stability, and in particular electronic conductivity in combination with high specific surface areas. Nanoporous carbons can be used to adsorb environmental pollutants or small gas molecules such as CO2 and to power electrochemical energy storage devices such as batteries and fuel cells. In all fields, their pore structure or electrical properties can be modified depending on their purposes.
This thesis provides an in-depth look at novel nanoporous carbons from the synthetic and the application point of view. The interplay between pore structure, atomic construction, and the adsorption properties of nanoporous carbon materials are investigated. Novel nanoporous carbon materials are synthesized by using simple precursor molecules containing heteroatoms through a facile
templating method. The affinity, and in turn the adsorption capacity, of carbon materials toward polar gas molecules (CO2 and H2O) is enhanced by the modification of their chemical construction. It is also shown that these properties are important in electrochemical energy storage, here especially for supercapacitors with aqueous electrolytes which are basically based on the physisorption of ions on carbon surfaces. This shows that nanoporous carbons can be a “functional” material with specific physical or chemical interactions with guest species just like zeolites and MOFs.
The synthesis of sp2-conjugated materials with high heteroatom content from a mixture of citrazinic acid and melamine in which heteroatoms are already bonded in specific motives is illustrated. By controlling the removal procedure of the salt-template and the condensation temperature, the role of salts in the formation of porosity and as coordination sites for the stabilization of heteroatoms is proven. A high amount of nitrogen of up to 20 wt. %, oxygen contents of up to 19 wt.%, and a high CO2/N2 selectivity with maximum CO2 uptake at 273 K of 5.31 mmol g–1 are achieved. Besides, the further controlled thermal condensation of precursor molecules and advanced functional properties on applications of the synthesized porous carbons are described. The materials have different porosity and atomic construction exhibiting a high nitrogen content up to 25 wt. % as well as a high porosity with a specific surface area of more than 1800 m2 g−1, and a high performance in selective CO2 gas adsorption of 62.7. These pore structure as well as properties of surface affect to water adsorption with a remarkably high Qst of over 100 kJ mol−1 even higher than that of zeolites or CaCl2 well known as adsorbents. In addition to that, the pore structure of HAT-CN-derived carbon materials during condensation in vacuum is fundamentally understood which is essential to maximize the utilization of porous system in materials showing significant difference in their pore volume of 0.5 cm3 g−1 and 0.25 cm3 g−1 without and with vacuum, respectively.
The molecular designs of heteroatom containing porous carbon derived from abundant and simple molecules are introduced in the presented thesis. Abundant precursors that already containing high amount of nitrogen or oxygen are beneficial to achieve enhanced interaction with adsorptives. The physical and chemical properties of these heteroatom-doped porous carbons are affected by mainly two parameters, that is, the porosity from the pore structure and the polarity from the atomic composition on the surface. In other words, controlling the porosity as well as the polarity of the carbon materials is studied to understand interactions with different guest species which is a fundamental knowledge for the utilization on various applications.
Novel algorithms for prediction of protein complexes from protein-protein interacton networks
(2022)
Für ein besseres Miteinander
(2022)
We provide the first estimates of the impact of managers’ risk preferences on their training allocation decisions. Our conceptual framework links managers’ risk preferences to firms’ training decisions through the bonuses they expect to receive. Risk-averse managers are expected to select workers with low turnover risk and invest in specific rather than general training. Empirical evidence supporting these predictions is provided using a novel vignette study embedded in a nationally representative survey of firm managers. Risk-tolerant and risk-averse decision makers have significantly different training preferences. Risk aversion results in increased sensitivity to turnover risk. Managers who are risk-averse offer significantly less general training and, in some cases, are more reluctant to train workers with a history of job mobility. All managers, irrespective of their risk preferences, are sensitive to the investment risk associated with training, avoiding training that is more costly or targets those with less occupational expertise or nearing retirement. This suggests the risks of training are primarily due to the risk that trained workers will leave the firm (turnover risk) rather than the risk that the benefits of training do not outweigh the costs (investment risk).
Is Vienna still a just city?
(2022)
The negative impact of crude oil on the environment has led to a necessary transition toward alternative, renewable, and sustainable resources. In this regard, lignocellulosic biomass (LCB) is a promising renewable and sustainable alternative to crude oil for the production of fine chemicals and fuels in a so-called biorefinery process. LCB is composed of polysaccharides (cellulose and hemicellulose), as well as aromatics (lignin). The development of a sustainable and economically advantageous biorefinery depends on the complete and efficient valorization of all components. Therefore, in the new generation of biorefinery, the so-called biorefinery of type III, the LCB feedstocks are selectively deconstructed and catalytically transformed into platform chemicals. For this purpose, the development of highly stable and efficient catalysts is crucial for progress toward viability in biorefinery. Furthermore, a modern and integrated biorefinery relies on process and reactor design, toward more efficient and cost-effective methodologies that minimize waste. In this context, the usage of continuous flow systems has the potential to provide safe, sustainable, and innovative transformations with simple process integration and scalability for biorefinery schemes.
This thesis addresses three main challenges for future biorefinery: catalyst synthesis, waste feedstock valorization, and usage of continuous flow technology. Firstly, a cheap, scalable, and sustainable approach is presented for the synthesis of an efficient and stable 35 wt.-% Ni catalyst on highly porous nitrogen-doped carbon support (35Ni/NDC) in pellet shape. Initially, the performance of this catalyst was evaluated for the aqueous phase hydrogenation of LCB-derived compounds such as glucose, xylose, and vanillin in continuous flow systems. The 35Ni/NDC catalyst exhibited high catalytic performances in three tested hydrogenation reactions, i.e., sorbitol, xylitol, and 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol with yields of 82 mol%, 62 mol%, and 100 mol% respectively. In addition, the 35Ni/NDC catalyst exhibited remarkable stability over a long time on stream in continuous flow (40 h). Furthermore, the 35Ni/NDC catalyst was combined with commercially available Beta zeolite in a dual–column integrated process for isosorbide production from glucose (yield 83 mol%).
Finally, 35Ni/NDC was applied for the valorization of industrial waste products, namely sodium lignosulfonate (LS) and beech wood sawdust (BWS) in continuous flow systems. The LS depolymerization was conducted combining solvothermal fragmentation of water/alcohol mixtures (i.e.,methanol/water and ethanol/water) with catalytic hydrogenolysis/hydrogenation (SHF). The depolymerization was found to occur thermally in absence of catalyst with a tunable molecular weight according to temperature. Furthermore, the SHF generated an optimized cumulative yield of lignin-derived phenolic monomers of 42 mg gLS-1. Similarly, a solvothermal and reductive catalytic fragmentation (SF-RCF) of BWS was conducted using MeOH and MeTHF as a solvent. In this case, the optimized total lignin-derived phenolic monomers yield was found of 247 mg gKL-1.
Mundart und Umgangssprache
(2022)
Fünf gegen einen Atomkrieg
(2022)
In the automotive industry, suppliers from the consumer electronics and high-tech industry are becoming increasingly relevant, for example in the context of automated vehicles. The carmakers’ purchasing organizations need to understand the power constellation in negotiations with these new suppliers, since negotiating power is the greatest lever for influencing the outcome of negotiations. This study analyzes the importance of organizational sources of power and their interplay with the products’ degree of innovation.
Kontrafaktik der Gegenwart
(2022)
Nicht-realistisches Erzählen ist hochpopulär, wurde aber häufig des politischen Eskapismus verdächtigt. Diese Studie bietet einen fiktionstheoretischen Zugang zum Erzählverfahren der Kontrafaktik und zeigt dessen Nähe zum politischen Schreiben auf. Analysen kontrafaktischer Werke von Christian Kracht, Kathrin Röggla, Juli Zeh und Leif Randt demonstrieren die Vielfalt und Relevanz politischer Realitätsvariationen in der Gegenwartsliteratur.
Carbon dioxide removal (CDR) moves atmospheric carbon to geological or land-based sinks. In a first-best setting, the optimal use of CDR is achieved by a removal subsidy that equals the optimal carbon tax and marginal damages. We derive second-best subsidies for CDR when no global carbon price exists but a national government implements a unilateral climate policy. We find that the optimal carbon tax differs from an optimal CDR subsidy because of carbon leakage, terms-of-trade and fossil resource rent dynamics. First, the optimal removal subsidy tends to be larger than the carbon tax because of lower supply-side leakage on fossil resource markets. Second, terms-of-trade effects exacerbate this wedge for net resource exporters, implying even larger removal subsidies. Third, the optimal removal subsidy may fall below the carbon tax for resource-poor countries when marginal environmental damages are small.
Objective: The behaviors of endothelial cells or mesenchymal stem cells are remarkably influenced by the mechanical properties of their surrounding microenvironments. Here, electrospun fiber meshes containing various mechanical characteristics were developed from polyetheresterurethane (PEEU) copolymers. The goal of this study was to explore how fiber mesh stiffness affected endothelial cell shape, growth, migration, and angiogenic potential of endothelial cells. Furthermore, the effects of the E-modulus of fiber meshes on human adipose-derived stem cells (hADSCs) osteogenic potential was investigated.
Methods: Polyesteretherurethane (PEEU) polymers with various poly(p-dioxanone) (PPDO) to poly (ε-caprolactone) (PCL) weight percentages (40 wt.%, 50 wt.%, 60 wt.%, and 70 wt.%) were synthesized, termed PEEU40, PEEU50, PEEU60, and PEEU70, accordingly. The electrospinning method was used for the preparation of PEEU fiber meshes. The effects of PEEU fiber meshes with varying elasticities on the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) shape, growth, migration and angiogenic potential were characterized. To determine how the E-modulus of fiber meshes affects the osteogenic potential of hADSCs, the cellular and nuclear morphologies and osteogenic differentiation abilities were evaluated.
Results: With the increasing stiffness of PEEU fiber meshes, the aspect ratios of HUVECs cultivated on PEEU materials increased. HUVECs cultivated on high stiffness fiber meshes (4.5 ± 0.8 MPa) displayed a considerably greater proliferation rate and migratory velocity, in addition demonstrating increased tube formation capability, compared with those of the cells cultivated on lower stiffness fiber meshes (2.6 ± 0.8 MPa). Furthermore, in comparison to those cultivated on lower stiffness fiber meshes, hADSCs adhered to the highest stiffness fiber meshes PEEU70 had an elongated shape. The hADSCs grown on the softer PEEU40 fiber meshes showed a reduced nuclear aspect ratio (width to height) than those cultivated on the stiffer fiber meshes. Culturing hADSCs on stiffer fibers improved their osteogenic differentiation potential. Compared with cells cultured on PEEU40, osteocalcin expression and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) activity increased by 73 ± 10% and 43 ± 16%, respectively, in cells cultured on PEEU70.
Conclusion: The mechanical characteristics of the substrate are crucial in the modulation of cell behaviors. These findings indicate that adjusting the elasticity of fiber meshes might be a useful method for controlling the blood vessels development and regeneration. Furthermore, the mechanical characteristics of PEEU fiber meshes might be modified to control the osteogenic potential of hADSCs.
While estimated numbers of past and future climate migrants are alarming, the growing empirical evidence suggests that the association between adverse climate-related events and migration is not universally positive. This dissertation seeks to advance our understanding of when and how climate migration emerges by analyzing heterogeneous climatic influences on migration in low- and middle-income countries. To this end, it draws on established economic theories of migration, datasets from physical and social sciences, causal inference techniques and approaches from systematic literature review. In three of its five chapters, I estimate causal effects of processes of climate change on inequality and migration in India and Sub-Saharan Africa. By employing interaction terms and by analyzing sub-samples of data, I explore how these relationships differ for various segments of the population. In the remaining two chapters, I present two systematic literature reviews. First, I undertake a comprehensive meta-regression analysis of the econometric climate migration literature to summarize general climate migration patterns and explain the conflicting findings. Second, motivated by the broad range of approaches in the field, I examine the literature from a methodological perspective to provide best practice guidelines for studying climate migration empirically. Overall, the evidence from this dissertation shows that climatic influences on human migration are highly heterogeneous. Whether adverse climate-related impacts materialize in migration depends on the socio-economic characteristics of the individual households, such as wealth, level of education, agricultural dependence or access to adaptation technologies and insurance. For instance, I show that while adverse climatic shocks are generally associated with an increase in migration in rural India, they reduce migration in the agricultural context of Sub-Saharan Africa, where the average wealth levels are much lower so that households largely cannot afford the upfront costs of moving. I find that unlike local climatic shocks which primarily enhance internal migration to cities and hence accelerate urbanization, shocks transmitted via agricultural producer prices increase migration to neighboring countries, likely due to the simultaneous decrease in real income in nearby urban areas. These findings advance our current understanding by showing when and how economic agents respond to climatic events, thus providing explicit contexts and mechanisms of climate change effects on migration in the future. The resulting collection of findings can guide policy interventions to avoid or mitigate any present and future welfare losses from climate change-related migration choices.
Vermögen vererben
(2022)
Die politische Regulierung der Vermögensweitergabe und individuelle Erbregelungen in der zweiten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts.
Das Vererben von Vermögen stabilisiert die Gesellschaftsordnung. Erbregelungen können soziale Ungleichheitsverhältnisse in die Zukunft fortschreiben oder zu Enttäuschungen übergangener Familienmitglieder führen. Da das Vererben soziale Gerechtigkeits- und Familienvorstellungen berührt, ist seine Regulierung politisch höchst umstritten. Obwohl die jährlich vererbten Vermögen in den letzten Jahren immer neue Rekordhöhen erreichten, ist die Vorgeschichte dieser gegenwärtigen Entwicklung bisher kaum erforscht.
Ronny Grundig untersucht den Wandel der Vermögensvererbung vom Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs bis zum Ende der 1980er Jahre. Er blickt auf politische Regulierungen,
die Praktiken des Vererbens und die Aneignung des Erbes durch die Hinterbliebenen. Der Autor analysiert die Steuervermeidung Vermögender sowie Konflikte zwischen Erben und Erbinnen. Ebenso zeigt er den Wandel von Paar- und Familienbeziehungen beim Vererben, die sich in den Testamenten niederschlagen und die Verteilung der hinterlassenen Vermögen beeinflussen.
Ausblick
(2022)
Einleitung
(2022)
Zionism and Cosmopolitanism
(2022)
Die Studie analysiert das brandenburgisch-preußische Gesandtschaftszeremoniell um 1700. Der Untersuchungszeitraum, von 1648 bis 1740, umfasst die Regentschaft dreier Hohenzollern, veranschaulicht vorhandene Kontinuitäten und erläutert den Einfluss einzelner Personen auf das Zeremoniell. Zugleich wird die Entwicklung des Gesandtschaftszeremoniells an sich über einen längeren Zeitraum verfolgt. Hier offenbart sich, die Vorgänge am und das Vorgehen des Berliner Hofes muten geradezu exemplarisch an. Die Hohenzollern waren Vertreter der allgemein vorherrschenden zeremoniellen Konjunkturen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden wiederkehrende Muster und Mechanismen des Gesandtschaftszeremoniells, sei es das Aufeinderbeziehen von Forderungen, der beständige Vergleich mit den übrigen Mächten oder die Darstellung von Abhängigkeiten, aufgezeigt. Es wird analysiert, welche Elemente einander bedingten, wie diese zusammenwirkten und welche Bestandteile häufig zu Diskussionen führten.
Transitional Justice
(2022)
This publication deals with the topic of transitional justice. In six case studies, the authors link theoretical and practical implications in order to develop some innovative approaches. Their proposals might help to deal more effectively with the transition of societies, legal orders and political systems.
Young academics from various backgrounds provide fresh insights and demonstrate the relevance of the topic. The chapters analyse transitions and conflicts in Sierra Leone, Argentina, Nicaragua, Nepal, and South Sudan as well as Germany’s colonial genocide in Namibia. Thus, the book provides the reader with new insights and contributes to the ongoing debate about transitional justice.
Modality refers to the attitudes a speaker can adopt toward the propositional content of an utterance including, among others, possibility and necessity. After introducing different theoretical perspectives on this concept, this manual presents the markers of modality (moods, modal verbs, adverbs) in Romance languages. It also addresses diachronic questions and the overlaps between modality and other grammatical categories.
Aldehyde oxidases (AOXs) (E.C. 1.2.3.1) are molybdoflavo-enzymes belonging to the xanthine oxidase (XO) family. AOXs in mammals contain one molybdenum cofactor (Moco), one flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD) and two [2Fe-2S] clusters, the presence of which is essential for the activity of the enzyme. Human aldehyde oxidase (hAOX1) is a cytosolic enzyme mainly expressed in the liver. hAOX1is involved in the metabolism of xenobiotics. It oxidizes aldehydes to their corresponding carboxylic acids and hydroxylates N-heterocyclic compounds. Since these functional groups are widely present in therapeutics, understanding the behaviour of hAOX1 has important implications in medicine. During the catalytic cycle of hAOX1, the substrate is oxidized at Moco and electrons are internally transferred to FAD via the FeS clusters. An electron acceptor juxtaposed to the FAD receives the electrons and re-oxidizes the enzyme for the next catalytic cycle. Molecular oxygen is the endogenous electron acceptor of hAOX1 and in doing so it is reduced and produces reactive oxygen species (ROS) including hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide (O2.-). The production of ROS has patho-physiological importance, as ROS can have a wide range of effects on cell components including the enzyme itself.
In this thesis, we have shown that hAOX1 loses its activity over multiple cycles of catalysis due to endogenous ROS production and have identified a cysteine rich motif that protects hAOX1 from the ROS damaging effects. We have also shown that a sulfido ligand, which is bound at Moco and is essential for the catalytic activity of the enzyme, is vulnerable during turnover. The ROS produced during the course of the reaction are also able to remove this sulfido ligand from Moco. ROS, in addition, oxidize particular cysteine residues. The combined effects of ROS on the sulfido ligand and on specific cysteine residues in the enzyme result in its inactivation. Furthermore, we report that small reducing agents containing reactive sulfhydryl groups, in a selective manner, inactivate some of the mammalian AOXs by modifying the sulfido ligand at Moco. The mechanism of ROS production by hAOX1 is another scope that has been investigated as part of the work in this thesis. We have shown that the ratio of type of ROS, i.e. hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and superoxide (O2.-), produced by hAOX1 is determined by a particular position on a flexible loop that locates in close proximity of FAD. The size of the cavity at the ROS producing site, i.e. the N5 position of the FAD isoalloxazine ring, kinetically affects the amount of each type of ROS generated by hAOX1. Taken together, hAOX1 is an enzyme with emerging importance in pharmacological and medical studies, not only due to its involvement in drug metabolism, but also due to ROS production which has physiological and pathological implications.
Jenseits überkommener Deutungsmuster schildert Dominik Geppert in diesem anschaulich geschriebenen Band die Geschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart. Er zeichnet den Weg vom Frontstaat im Kalten Krieg bis zur heutigen Macht in der Mitte Europas nach und legt dabei ein besonderes Augenmerk auf die sich verstärkt seit der Wiedervereinigung stellende Frage nach der staatlichen und gesellschaftlichen Identität Deutschlands. Gerade die Jahre nach 1989/1991 mit ihren neuen Herausforderungen finden hier eine ebenso fundierte wie manche vertrauten Narrative kritisch hinterfragende Darstellung.
Subsidizing the geographical mobility of unemployed workers may improve welfare by relaxing their financial constraints and allowing them to find jobs in more prosperous regions. We exploit regional variation in the promotion of mobility programs along administrative borders of German employment agency districts to investigate the causal effect of offering such financial incentives on the job search behavior and labor market integration of unemployed workers. We show that promoting mobility – as intended – causes job seekers to increase their search radius, apply for and accept distant jobs. At the same time, local job search is reduced with adverse consequences for reemployment and earnings. These unintended negative effects are provoked by spatial search frictions. Overall, the unconditional provision of mobility programs harms the welfare of unemployed job seekers.
Die Rechtsfigur der fehlerhaften Personengesellschaft blickt sowohl im deutschen als auch im französischen Recht auf eine lange Tradition zurück, wobei sich das deutsche Recht in seinen Anfangszeiten am französischen Vorbild orientierte. Auch mit Blick auf die heutige gesetzliche Regelung in Frankreich lohnt sich daher eine rechtsvergleichende Untersuchung der Lehre von der fehlerhaften Personengesellschaft in beiden Ländern.
Trotz der unterschiedlichen dogmatischen Herangehensweise offenbaren sich wichtige Vergleichsmöglichkeiten. Besonders bei der konstruktiven Einordnung des Phänomens von Faktizität im Zivilrecht kann sich die Perspektive des französischen Rechts als ausgesprochen fruchtbar für die deutsche Dogmatik erweisen.
Die internationale Schifffahrt erhofft sich mit der Entwicklung unbemannter Schiffe, die nur noch von Kontrollzentren an Land durch Personal überwacht werden und sonst durch Elektromotoren und Solarenergie betrieben und mit selbstlernenden Navigationsprogrammen ausgestattet weitgehend autark agieren, eine Einsparung von Transportkosten von über 20 %. Diese voranschreitende technische Entwicklung wird insbesondere das internationale Seerecht in Zukunft vor Herausforderungen stellen. Das Werk untersucht vor diesem Hintergrund primär die Kompatibilität dieser Schiffe mit dem Seerechtsübereinkommen. Zunächst wird eine Schiffsdefinition für den Vertrag entwickelt und eine Anwendung des Regelwerks auf autonome Schiffe überprüft. Dann wird auf Problemfelder wie die Einhaltung von Pflichten durch die Schiffe, die Notwendigkeit besonderer Schutzrechte vor allem in Bezug auf Zwangsmaßnahmen durch die Küstenstaaten an Bord und die Anwendbarkeit der bestehenden Piraterievorschriften auf diese Schiffe eingegangen. Weiter wirft die Arbeit die Frage auf, ob die Staatengemeinschaft, besonders mit Hinblick auf den maritimen Umweltschutz, nach dem Seerechtsübereinkommen eine Pflicht zur Förderung unbemannter Schiffe hat. Abschließend wird auf erforderliche Cyber Security Maßnahmen für diesen besonderen Schiffstyp eingegangen. Insgesamt zeigt sich nach dieser Analyse, dass das Seerechtsübereinkommen, mit überschaubaren Anpassungen, gut Anwendung auf autonome Schiffe finden kann.
Lateinische Deklamationen
(2022)
Die vorliegende Publikation bietet einen Überblick über die lateinische Deklamatorik mit einer Unterrichtsreihe für die Oberstufe im Umfang von 13 Unterrichtsstunden. Deklamationen waren im antiken Rom Übungs- und Konzertreden und bildeten Gegenstand und Ziel der höheren Bildung. Dass sie im heutigen Lateinunterricht und auch im Lateinstudium kaum behandelt werden, steht in einem deutlichen Missverhältnis zu ihrer damaligen Bedeutung. Diese Lücke zu schließen ist das Anliegen der vorliegenden Masterarbeit mit dem darin enthaltenen Schülermaterial. Bei dessen Bearbeitung werden die Schüler die thematische Vielfalt der Deklamationen kennenlernen, aber auch bemerkenswerte Parallelen zum gegenwärtigen Populismus feststellen und das Macht- und Verführungspotential von Rhetorik selbst erfahren. Das Material wurde auf der Basis der aktuellen fachwissenschaftlichen Diskussion erstellt. Der Anhang enthält zwei tabellarische Übersichten zu den Deklamationsthemen. Diese sind für eigene Fortentwicklungen der Reihe gedacht.
Turnschuhdiplomatie
(2022)
Auch wenn der Sport der DDR mit seinen Rekorden und Medaillen als eines ihrer weltweiten Aushängeschilder galt, fehlte bisher eine detaillierte Unter- suchung ihrer internationalen Sportbeziehungen. Der vorliegende Band holt dies in Form einer erstmaligen außen- und sportpolitischen Kontinentalstudie am Beispiel Afrikas nach und erörtert, welche Rolle die vielfältigen Facetten des Sports in der Afrikapolitik der DDR spielten und mit welchen Interessen diese u.a. in den Bereichen der Diplomatie, der kulturellen Auslandsarbeit, des Leistungssports oder des Außenhandels verknüpft waren. Die 610 Seiten starke Schrift beleuchtet die Zeit von 1955 bis 1990 und stützt sich dabei u.a. auf über 2200 (teils erstmals recherchierte) Quellen- und Literaturnachweise. Schwerpunkte bilden hierbei u.a. ausführliche Länder- und Regional- studien für Nordafrika (Ägypten, Algerien), Westafrika (Ghana, Mali, Guinea) sowie zu Äthiopien und Mosambik.
The COVID-19 pandemic created the largest experiment in working from home. We study how persistent telework may change energy and transport consumption and costs in Germany to assess the distributional and environmental implications when working from home will stick. Based on data from the German Microcensus and available classifications of working-from-home feasibility for different occupations, we calculate the change in energy consumption and travel to work when 15% of employees work full time from home. Our findings suggest that telework translates into an annual increase in heating energy expenditure of 110 euros per worker and a decrease in transport expenditure of 840 euros per worker. All income groups would gain from telework but high-income workers gain twice as much as low-income workers. The value of time saving is between 1.3 and 6 times greater than the savings from reduced travel costs and almost 9 times higher for high-income workers than low-income workers. The direct effects on CO₂ emissions due to reduced car commuting amount to 4.5 millions tons of CO₂, representing around 3 percent of carbon emissions in the transport sector.
Hier geblieben?
(2022)
Die historische Forschung hat seit längerem herausgearbeitet, dass Migration nichts von einer Norm Abweichendes ist, sondern vielmehr ein »konstitutives Element der Menschheitsgeschichte« (J. Oltmer), der Mensch mithin stets ein »homo migrans« (K.-J. Bade) war. Auch die Geschichte Brandenburgs wurde seit jeher von Einwanderungsprozessen geprägt. Von »Toleranz« im modernen Sinne kann freilich keine Rede sein, sondern meistens ging es um ökonomisch nutzbringende Aufnahme bestimmter Gruppen. Sehr oft waren die Ansiedlungen aber auch das Ergebnis von Flucht, Vertreibung und kriegerischer Gewalt. Der vorliegende Band zeigt anhand von Beispielen vom frühen Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart die Bedeutung der Zuwanderung für Brandenburg auf. Der Bogen reicht von der slawischen Einwanderung des 8./9. Jahrhunderts bis zur Ankunft russisch-jüdischer »Kontingentflüchtlinge« im Gefolge der deutschen Wiedervereinigung, von Niederländern, Juden, Hugenotten, Revolutionsflüchtlingen in der Frühen Neuzeit bis hin zu Muslimen, Zwangsarbeitern, Vertriebenen und DDR-»Fremdarbeitern« im 20. Jahrhundert – eine Geschichte der Vielfalt des brandenburgischen Raumes und seiner Bevölkerung im Spiegel der Zuwanderung.
Dass das Wohlergehen künftig lebender Individuen moralische Berücksichtigung verdient, ist unbestritten. Sowohl im Rahmen des öffentlichen Diskurses als auch in der akademischen Umwelt- oder Zukunftsethik wird diese Ansicht vertreten.Durch das Problem der Nicht-Identität wird sie jedoch auf empfindliche Weise in Frage gestellt: Wie kann eine Handlung wie die Verschwendung begrenzt verfügbarer Ressourcen falsch sein, wenn die faktisch davon betroffenen künftig lebenden Individuen nur durch sie in die Existenz gelangen konnten? Gilt dann nicht, dass diese Handlung für niemanden schlecht ist und keine Schädigung darstellt? Dieses Buch verfolgt das Ziel zu verdeutlichen, wie das moralische Unrecht, das künftig lebende Individuen durch Handlungen gegenwärtig lebender Akteur:innen erfahren – trotz des Faktums der Nicht-Identität – mithilfe eines nicht-personenbezogenen Prinzips identifiziert und das Problem der Nicht-Identität somit gelöst werden kann.
Moving mountains?
(2022)
Introduction
(2022)
Classical liberal democratic theory has provided crucial ideas for a still dominant and hegemonic discourse that rests on ideological conceptions of freedom, equality, peacefulness, inclusive democratic participation, and tolerance. While this may have held some truth for citizens in Western liberal-capitalist societies, such liberal ideals have never been realized in colonial, postcolonial and settler colonial contexts. Liberal democracies are not simply forms of rule in domestic national contexts but also geo-political actors. As such, they have been the drivers of processes of global oppression, colonizing and occupying countries and people, appropriating indigenous land, annihilating people with eliminatory politics right up to genocides. There can be no doubt that the West – with its civilizational Judeo-Christian idea and divine mission ‘to subdue the world’ – has destroyed other civilizations, countries, trading systems, and traditional ways of life and is responsible for the death of hundreds of millions of human beings in the course of colonizing the world from its Empires of trade through colonialism to settler colonialism and today’s politics of regime change. The book discusses the settler colonial regime that Israel has established in Palestine while still claiming to be a democracy. It discusses the failures of liberal democracy to overcome the structural and racist inequalities in post-Apartheid South Africa, and it presents hopeful outlooks on new ideas and forms of democracy in social movements in the MENA region.
Contesting citizenship
(2022)
Democracy and citizenship are conceptually and empirically contested. Against the backdrop of recent and current profound transformations in and of democratic societies, this volume presents and discusses acute contestations, within and beyond national borders and boundaries. Democracy’s crucial relationships, between state and citizenry as well as amongst citizens, are rearranged and re-ordered in various spheres and arenas, impacting on core democratic principles such as accountability, legitimacy, participation and trust. This volume addresses these refigurations by bringing together empirical analyses and conceptual considerations regarding the access to and exclusion from citizenship rights in the face of migration regulation and institutional transformation, and the role of violence in maintaining or undermining social order. With its critical reflection on the consequences and repercussions of such processes for citizens’ everyday lives and for the meaning of citizenship altogether, this book transgresses disciplinary boundaries and puts into dialogue the perspectives of political theory and sociology.
Democracy and citizenship are conceptually and empirically contested. Against the backdrop of recent and current profound transformations in and of democratic societies, this volume presents and discusses acute contestations, within and beyond national borders and boundaries. Democracy's crucial relationships, between state and citizenry as well as amongst citizens, are rearranged and re-ordered in various spheres and arenas, impacting on core democratic principles such as accountability, legitimacy, participation and trust. This volume addresses these refigurations by bringing together empirical analyses and conceptual considerations regarding the access to and exclusion from citizenship rights in the face of migration regulation and institutional transformation, and the role of violence in maintaining or undermining social order. With its critical reflection on the consequences and repercussions of such processes for citizens' everyday lives and for the meaning of citizenship altogether, this book transgresses disciplinary boundaries and puts into dialogue the perspectives of political theory and sociology
East and South
(2022)
"What is 'Europe' in academic discourse? While Europe tends to be used as shorthand, often interchangeable with the 'West', neither the 'West' nor 'Europe' are homogeneous spaces. Though postcolonial studies have long been debunking Eurocentrism in its multiple guises, there is still work to do in fully comprehending how its imaginations and discursive legacies conceive the figure of Europe, as not all who live on European soil are understood as equally 'European'. This volume explores this immediate need to rethink the axis of postcolonial cultural productions, to disarticulate Eurocentrism, to recognise Europe as a more diverse, plural and fluid space, to draw forward cultural exchanges and dialogues within the Global South. Through analyses of literary texts from East-Central Europe and beyond, this volume sheds light on alternative literary cartographies - the multiplicity of Europes and being European which exist both as they are viewed from the different geographies of the global South, and within the continent itself. Covering a wide spatial and temporal terrain in postcolonial and European cultural productions, this volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of literature and literary criticism, cultural studies, post-colonial studies, Global South studies and European studies"