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Foreign Accent Syndrome
(2015)
Aminosäuren sind lebensnotwendige Moleküle für alle Organismen. Ihre Erkennung im Körper ermöglicht eine bedarfsgerechte Regulation ihrer Aufnahme und ihrer Verwertung. Welcher Chemosensor für diese Erkennung jedoch hauptverantwortlich ist, ist bisher unklar. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde die Rolle der Umamigeschmacksrezeptoruntereinheit Tas1r1 jenseits ihrer gustatorischen Bedeutung für die Aminosäuredetektion in der Mundhöhle untersucht.
In der histologischen Tas1r1-Expressionsanalyse nichtgustatorischer Gewebe der Mauslinie Tas1r1-Cre/ROSA26-tdRFP wurde über die Detektion des Reporterproteins tdRFP die Expression des Tas1r1 in allen untersuchten Geweben (Speiseröhre, Magen, Darm, Bauchspeicheldrüse, Leber, Niere, Muskel- und Fettgewebe, Milz, Thymus, Lymphknoten, Lunge sowie Hoden) nachgewiesen. Mit Ausnahme von Dünndarm und Hoden gelang hierbei der Nachweis erstmals spezifisch auf zellulärer Ebene. Caecum und Lymphknoten wurden zudem neu als Expressionsorte des Tas1r1 identifiziert.
Trotz der beobachteten weiten Verbreitung des Tas1r1 im Organismus – unter anderem auch in Geweben, die für den Proteinstoffwechsel besonders relevant sind – waren im Zuge der durchgeführten Untersuchung potentieller extraoraler Funktionen des Rezeptors durch phänotypische Charakterisierung der Mauslinie Tas1r1-BLiR nur schwache Auswirkungen auf Aminosäurestoffwechsel bzw. Stickstoffhaushalt im Falle eines Tas1r1-Knockouts detektierbar. Während sich Ernährungsverhalten, Gesamtphysiologie, Gewebemorphologie sowie Futterverdaulichkeit unverändert zeigten, war die renale Stickstoffausscheidung bei Tas1r1-Knockout-Mäusen auf eiweißarmer sowie auf eiweißreicher Diät signifikant verringert. Eine Überdeckung der Auswirkungen des Tas1r1-Knockouts aufgrund kompensatorischer Effekte durch den Aminosäuresensor CaSR oder den Peptidsensor Gpr93 war nicht nachweisbar. Es bleibt offen, ob andere Mechanismen oder andere Chemosensoren an einer Kompensation beteiligt sind oder aber Tas1r1 in extraoralem Gewebe andere Funktionen als die der Aminosäuredetektion übernimmt. Unterschiede im extraoralen Expressionsmuster der beiden Umamirezeptor-untereinheiten Tas1r1 und Tasr3 lassen Spekulationen über andere Partner, Liganden und Funktionen zu.
Synchronization of large ensembles of oscillators is an omnipresent phenomenon observed in different fields of science like physics, engineering, life sciences, etc. The most simple setup is that of globally coupled phase oscillators, where all the oscillators contribute to a global field which acts on all oscillators. This formulation of the problem was pioneered by Winfree and Kuramoto. Such a setup gives a possibility for the analysis of these systems in terms of global variables. In this work we describe nontrivial collective dynamics in oscillator populations coupled via mean fields in terms of global variables. We consider problems which cannot be directly reduced to standard Kuramoto and Winfree models.
In the first part of the thesis we adopt a method introduced by Watanabe and Strogatz. The main idea is that the system of identical oscillators of particular type can be described by a low-dimensional system of global equations. This approach enables us to perform a complete analytical analysis for a special but vast set of initial conditions. Furthermore, we show how the approach can be expanded for some nonidentical systems. We apply the Watanabe-Strogatz approach to arrays of Josephson junctions and systems of identical phase oscillators with leader-type coupling.
In the next parts of the thesis we consider the self-consistent mean-field theory method that can be applied to general nonidentical globally coupled systems of oscillators both with or without noise. For considered systems a regime, where the global field rotates uniformly, is the most important one. With the help of this approach such solutions of the self-consistency equation for an arbitrary distribution of frequencies and coupling parameters can be found analytically in the parametric form, both for noise-free and noisy cases.
We apply this method to deterministic Kuramoto-type model with generic coupling and an ensemble of spatially distributed oscillators with leader-type coupling. Furthermore, with the proposed self-consistent approach we fully characterize rotating wave solutions of noisy Kuramoto-type model with generic coupling and an ensemble of noisy oscillators with bi-harmonic coupling.
Whenever possible, a complete analysis of global dynamics is performed and compared with direct numerical simulations of large populations.
Die Tagung HDI 2014 in Freiburg zur Hochschuldidaktik der Informatik HDI wurde erneut vom Fachbereich Informatik und Ausbildung / Didaktik der Informatik (IAD) in der Gesellschaft für Informatik e. V. (GI) organisiert. Sie dient den Lehrenden der Informatik in Studiengängen an Hochschulen als Forum der Information und des Austauschs über neue didaktische Ansätze und bildungspolitische Themen im Bereich der Hochschulausbildung aus der fachlichen Perspektive der Informatik.
Die HDI 2014 ist nun bereits die sechste Ausgabe der HDI. Für sie wurde das spezielle Motto „Gestalten und Meistern von Übergängen“ gewählt. Damit soll ein besonderes Augenmerk auf die Übergänge von Schule zum Studium, vom Bachelor zum Master, vom Studium zur Promotion oder vom Studium zur Arbeitswelt gelegt werden.
Children’s poor performance on object relative clauses has been explained in terms of intervention locality. This approach predicts that object relatives with a full DP head and an embedded pronominal subject are easier than object relatives in which both the head noun and the embedded subject are full DPs. This prediction is shared by other accounts formulated to explain processing mechanisms. We conducted a visual-world study designed to test the off-line comprehension and on-line processing of object relatives in German-speaking 5-year-olds. Children were tested on three types of object relatives, all having a full DP head noun and differing with respect to the type of nominal phrase that appeared in the embedded subject position: another full DP, a 1st- or a 3rd-person pronoun. Grammatical skills and memory capacity were also assessed in order to see whether and how they affect children’s performance. Most accurately processed were object relatives with 1st-person pronoun, independently of children’s language and memory skills. Performance on object relatives with two full DPs was overall more accurate than on object relatives with 3rd-person pronoun. In the former condition, children with stronger grammatical skills accurately processed the structure and their memory abilities determined how fast they were; in the latter condition, children only processed accurately the structure if they were strong both in their grammatical skills and in their memory capacity. The results are discussed in the light of accounts that predict different pronoun effects like the ones we find, which depend on the referential properties of the pronouns. We then discuss which role language and memory abilities might have in processing object relatives with various embedded nominal phrases.
Sentences with doubly center-embedded relative clauses in which a verb phrase (VP) is missing are sometimes perceived as grammatical, thus giving rise to an illusion of grammaticality. In this paper, we provide a new account of why missing-VP sentences, which are both complex and ungrammatical, lead to an illusion of grammaticality, the so-called missing-VP effect. We propose that the missing-VP effect in particular, and processing difficulties with multiply center-embedded clauses more generally, are best understood as resulting from interference during cue-based retrieval. When processing a sentence with double center-embedding, a retrieval error due to interference can cause the verb of an embedded clause to be erroneously attached into a higher clause. This can lead to an illusion of grammaticality in the case of missing-VP sentences and to processing complexity in the case of complete sentences with double center-embedding. Evidence for an interference account of the missing-VP effect comes from experiments that have investigated the missing-VP effect in German using a speeded grammaticality judgments procedure. We review this evidence and then present two new experiments that show that the missing-VP effect can be found in German also with less restricting procedures. One experiment was a questionnaire study which required grammaticality judgments from participants without imposing any time constraints. The second experiment used a self-paced reading procedure and did not require any judgments. Both experiments confirm the prior findings of missing-VP effects in German and also show that the missing-VP effect is subject to a primacy effect as known from the memory literature. Based on this evidence, we argue that an account of missing-VP effects in terms of interference during cue-based retrieval is superior to accounts in terms of limited memory resources or in terms of experience with embedded structures.
A number of recent studies have investigated how syntactic and non-syntactic constraints combine to cue memory retrieval during anaphora resolution. In this paper we investigate how syntactic constraints and gender congruence interact to guide memory retrieval during the resolution of subject pronouns. Subject pronouns are always technically ambiguous, and the application of syntactic constraints on their interpretation depends on properties of the antecedent that is to be retrieved. While pronouns can freely corefer with non-quantified referential antecedents, linking a pronoun to a quantified antecedent is only possible in certain syntactic configurations via variable binding. We report the results from a judgment task and three online reading comprehension experiments investigating pronoun resolution with quantified and non-quantified antecedents. Results from both the judgment task and participants' eye movements during reading indicate that comprehenders freely allow pronouns to corefer with non-quantified antecedents, but that retrieval of quantified antecedents is restricted to specific syntactic environments. We interpret our findings as indicating that syntactic constraints constitute highly weighted cues to memory retrieval during anaphora resolution.
We conducted two eye-tracking experiments investigating the processing of the Mandarin reflexive ziji in order to tease apart structurally constrained accounts from standard cue-based accounts of memory retrieval. In both experiments, we tested whether structurally inaccessible distractors that fulfill the animacy requirement of ziji influence processing times at the reflexive. In Experiment 1, we manipulated animacy of the antecedent and a structurally inaccessible distractor intervening between the antecedent and the reflexive. In conditions where the accessible antecedent mismatched the animacy cue, we found inhibitory interference whereas in antecedent-match conditions, no effect of the distractor was observed. In Experiment 2, we tested only antecedent-match configurations and manipulated locality of the reflexive-antecedent binding (Mandarin allows non-local binding). Participants were asked to hold three distractors (animate vs. inanimate nouns) in memory while reading the target sentence. We found slower reading times when animate distractors were held in memory (inhibitory interference). Moreover, we replicated the locality effect reported in previous studies. These results are incompatible with structure-based accounts. However, the cue-based ACT-R model of Lewis and Vasishth (2005) cannot explain the observed pattern either. We therefore extend the original ACT-R model and show how this model not only explains the data presented in this article, but is also able to account for previously unexplained patterns in the literature on reflexive processing.
Two classes of account have been proposed to explain the memory processes subserving the processing of reflexive-antecedent dependencies. Structure-based accounts assume that the retrieval of the antecedent is guided by syntactic tree-configurational information without considering other kinds of information such as gender marking in the case of English reflexives. By contrast, unconstrained cue-based retrieval assumes that all available information is used for retrieving the antecedent. Similarity-based interference effects from structurally illicit distractors which match a non-structural retrieval cue have been interpreted as evidence favoring the unconstrained cue-based retrieval account since cue-based retrieval interference from structurally illicit distractors is incompatible with the structure-based account. However, it has been argued that the observed effects do not necessarily reflect interference occurring at the moment of retrieval but might equally well be accounted for by interference occurring already at the stage of encoding or maintaining the antecedent in memory, in which case they cannot be taken as evidence against the structure-based account. We present three experiments (self-paced reading and eye-tracking) on German reflexives and Swedish reflexive and pronominal possessives in which we pit the predictions of encoding interference and cue-based retrieval interference against each other. We could not find any indication that encoding interference affects the processing ease of the reflexive-antecedent dependency formation. Thus, there is no evidence that encoding interference might be the explanation for the interference effects observed in previous work. We therefore conclude that invoking encoding interference may not be a plausible way to reconcile interference effects with a structure-based account of reflexive processing.
Objective: Alexithymia relates to difficulties recognizing and describing emotions. It has been linked to subjectively increased interoceptive awareness (IA) and to psychiatric illnesses such as major depressive disorder (MDD) and somatization. MDD in turn is characterized by aberrant emotion processing and IA on the subjective as well as on the neural level. However, a link between neural activity in response to IA and alexithymic traits in health and depression remains unclear.
Methods: A well-established fMRI task was used to investigate neural activity during IA (heartbeat counting) and exteroceptive awareness (tone counting) in non-psychiatric controls (NC) and MDD. Firstly, comparing MDD and NC, a linear relationship between IA-related activity and scores of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) was investigated through whole-brain regression. Secondly, NC were divided by median-split of TAS scores into groups showing low (NC-low) or high (NC-high) alexithymia. MDD and NC-high showed equally high TAS scores. Subsequently, IA-related neural activity was compared on a whole-brain level between the three independent samples (MDD, NC-low, NC-high).
Results: Whole-brain regressions between MDD and NC revealed neural differences during IA as a function of TAS-DD (subscale difficulty describing feelings) in the supragenual anterior cingulate cortex (sACC; BA 24/32), which were due to negative associations between TAS-DD and IA-related activity in NC. Contrasting NC subgroups after median-split on a whole-brain level, high TAS scores were associated with decreased neural activity during IA in the sACC and increased insula activity. Though having equally high alexithymia scores, NC-high showed increased insula activity during IA compared to MDD, whilst both groups showed decreased activity in the sACC.
Conclusions: Within the context of decreased sACC activity during IA in alexithymia (NC-high and MDD), increased insula activity might mirror a compensatory mechanism in NC-high, which is disrupted in MDD.
Recent experiments show that transcription factors (TFs) indeed use the facilitated diffusion mechanism to locate their target sequences on DNA in living bacteria cells: TFs alternate between sliding motion along DNA and relocation events through the cytoplasm. From simulations and theoretical analysis we study the TF-sliding motion for a large section of the DNA-sequence of a common E. coli strain, based on the two-state TF-model with a fast-sliding search state and a recognition state enabling target detection. For the probability to detect the target before dissociating from DNA the TF-search times self-consistently depend heavily on whether or not an auxiliary operator (an accessible sequence similar to the main operator) is present in the genome section. Importantly, within our model the extent to which the interconversion rates between search and recognition states depend on the underlying nucleotide sequence is varied. A moderate dependence maximises the capability to distinguish between the main operator and similar sequences. Moreover, these auxiliary operators serve as starting points for DNA looping with the main operator, yielding a spectrum of target detection times spanning several orders of magnitude. Auxiliary operators are shown to act as funnels facilitating target detection by TFs.
Stochastic Wilson
(2015)
We consider a simple Markovian class of the stochastic Wilson–Cowan type models of neuronal network dynamics, which incorporates stochastic delay caused by the existence of a refractory period of neurons. From the point of view of the dynamics of the individual elements, we are dealing with a network of non-Markovian stochastic two-state oscillators with memory, which are coupled globally in a mean-field fashion. This interrelation of a higher-dimensional Markovian and lower-dimensional non-Markovian dynamics is discussed in its relevance to the general problem of the network dynamics of complex elements possessing memory. The simplest model of this class is provided by a three-state Markovian neuron with one refractory state, which causes firing delay with an exponentially decaying memory within the two-state reduced model. This basic model is used to study critical avalanche dynamics (the noise sustained criticality) in a balanced feedforward network consisting of the excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Such avalanches emerge due to the network size dependent noise (mesoscopic noise). Numerical simulations reveal an intermediate power law in the distribution of avalanche sizes with the critical exponent around −1.16. We show that this power law is robust upon a variation of the refractory time over several orders of magnitude. However, the avalanche time distribution is biexponential. It does not reflect any genuine power law dependence.
We define and study in detail utraslow scaled Brownian motion (USBM) characterized by a time dependent diffusion coefficient of the form . For unconfined motion the mean squared displacement (MSD) of USBM exhibits an ultraslow, logarithmic growth as function of time, in contrast to the conventional scaled Brownian motion. In a harmonic potential the MSD of USBM does not saturate but asymptotically decays inverse-proportionally to time, reflecting the highly non-stationary character of the process. We show that the process is weakly non-ergodic in the sense that the time averaged MSD does not converge to the regular MSD even at long times, and for unconfined motion combines a linear lag time dependence with a logarithmic term. The weakly non-ergodic behaviour is quantified in terms of the ergodicity breaking parameter. The USBM process is also shown to be ageing: observables of the system depend on the time gap between initiation of the test particle and start of the measurement of its motion. Our analytical results are shown to agree excellently with extensive computer simulations.
Das 8. Herbsttreffen Patholinguistik mit dem Schwerpunktthema "Besonders behandeln? Sprachtherapie im Rahmen primärer Störungsbilder" fand am 15.11.2014 in Potsdam statt. Das Herbsttreffen wird seit 2007 jährlich vom Verband für Patholinguistik e.V. (vpl) durchgeführt.
Der vorliegende Tagungsband beinhaltet die vier Hauptvorträge zum Schwerpunktthema, die vier Kurzvorträge aus dem Spektrum Patholinguisitk sowie die Beiträge der Posterpräsentationen zu weiteren Themen aus der sprachtherapeutischen Forschung und Praxis.
Electron transfer (ET) reactions play a crucial role in the metabolic pathways of all organisms. In biotechnological approaches, the redox properties of the protein cytochrome c (cyt c), which acts as an electron shuttle in the respiratory chain, was utilized to engineer ET chains on electrode surfaces. With the help of the biopolymer DNA, the redox protein assembles into electro active multilayer (ML) systems, providing a biocompatible matrix for the entrapment of proteins.
In this study the characteristics of the cyt c and DNA interaction were defined on the molecular level for the first time and the binding sites of DNA on cyt c were identified. Persistent cyt c/DNA complexes were formed in solution under the assembly conditions of ML architectures, i.e. pH 5.0 and low ionic strength. At pH 7.0, no agglomerates were formed, permitting the characterization of the NMR spectroscopy. Using transverse relaxation-optimized spectroscopy (TROSY)-heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) experiments, DNAs’ binding sites on the protein were identified. In particular, negatively charged AA residues, which are known interaction sites in cyt c/protein binding were identified as the main contact points of cyt c and DNA.
Moreover, the sophisticated task of arranging proteins on electrode surfaces to create functional ET chains was addressed. Therefore, two different enzyme types, the flavin dependent fructose dehydrogenase (FDH) and the pyrroloquinoline quinone dependent glucose dehydrogenase (PQQ-GDH), were tested as reaction partners of freely diffusing cyt c and cyt c immobilized on electrodes in mono- and MLs. The characterisation of the ET processes was performed by means of electrochemistry and the protein deposition was monitored by microgravimetric measurements. FDH and PQQ-GDH were found to be generally suitable for combination with the cyt c/DNA ML system, since both enzymes interact with cyt c in solution and in the immobilized state. The immobilization of FDH and cyt c was achieved with the enzyme on top of a cyt c monolayer electrode without the help of a polyelectrolyte. Combining FDH with the cyt c/DNA ML system did not succeed, yet. However, the basic conditions for this protein-protein interaction were defined. PQQ-GDH was successfully coupled with the ML system, demonstrating that that the cyt c/DNA ML system provides a suitable interface for enzymes and that the creation of signal chains, based on the idea of co-immobilized proteins is feasible.
Future work may be directed to the investigation of cyt c/DNA interaction under the precise conditions of ML assembly. Therefore, solid state NMR or X-ray crystallography may be required. Based on the results of this study, the combination of FDH with the ML system should be addressed. Moreover, alternative types of enzymes may be tested as catalytic component of the ML assembly, aiming on the development of innovative biosensor applications.
In this work we study reciprocal classes of Markov walks on graphs. Given a continuous time reference Markov chain on a graph, its reciprocal class is the set of all probability measures which can be represented as a mixture of the bridges of the reference walks. We characterize reciprocal classes with two different approaches. With the first approach we found it as the set of solutions to duality formulae on path space, where the differential operators have the interpretation of the addition of infinitesimal random loops to the paths of the canonical process. With the second approach we look at short time asymptotics of bridges. Both approaches allow an explicit computation of reciprocal characteristics, which are divided into two families, the loop characteristics and the arc characteristics. They are those specific functionals of the generator of the reference chain which determine its reciprocal class. We look at the specific examples such as Cayley graphs, the hypercube and planar graphs. Finally we establish the first concentration of measure results for the bridges of a continuous time Markov chain based on the reciprocal characteristics.
Mit Kinderschuhen im Gepäck
(2015)
Zu kleine Kinderschuhe zwängen ein, zu große geben keinen Halt. Liebe, Fürsorge und Mitgefühl helfen, die jeweils passenden Kinderschuhe zu finden. In ihnen lernt das Kind am besten, seine individuellen Fähigkeiten zu entfalten, sie in die Gemeinschaft einzubringen und seinen eigenen Weg zu finden.
Der Band spannt einen Bogen von neurowissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen und Grundfragen des Biografierens über Porträts von Persönlichkeiten bis hin zu gelebten menschenrechtlichen Werten.
Die Autoren und Autorinnen, Studierende der Universität Potsdam, gehen auf Spurensuche und fragen, wie die von ihnen vorgestellten Menschen zu denen wurden, die sie waren oder sind, ob und wie sie sich selbst fanden, ihre persönlichen Fähigkeiten entfalteten und anderen halfen. Sie stoßen auf kraftschenkende Kindheiten und erlebtes Glück, auf Authentizität, Verantwortung und Gleichwürdigkeit ebenso wie auf Schicksalsschläge, Ablehnung und Unrecht, auf Wünsche und Sehnsüchte, innere Zerrissenheit und Schmerz, vor allem aber auf die individuellen und sozialen Stärken dieser Persönlichkeiten.
Neuendorf, Bedeutung und Rezeption des Art. 6 Abs. 1 EMRK im deutschen und englischen Steuerrecht
(2015)
Bericht über die Tätigkeit des Menschenrechtsausschusses der Vereinten Nationen im Jahre 2013
(2015)
Aus dem Inhalt:
Belastung und Arbeitsfähigkeit des Europäischen Gerichtshofs für Menschenrechte: neuere Entwicklungen - Extraterritoriale Anwendbarkeit der Rassendiskriminierungskonvention - Globale Verantwortlichkeit oder traditionelles Souveränitätsdenken – Gründe für die Haltung zur “Responsibility to Protect” von nicht-westlichen Staaten
Every year, the Hasso Plattner Institute (HPI) invites guests from industry and academia to a collaborative scientific workshop on the topic “Operating the Cloud”. Our goal is to provide a forum for the exchange of knowledge and experience between industry and academia. Hence, HPI’s Future SOC Lab is the adequate environment to host this event which is also supported by BITKOM.
On the occasion of this workshop we called for submissions of research papers and practitioners’ reports. “Operating the Cloud” aims to be a platform for productive discussions of innovative ideas, visions, and upcoming technologies in the field of cloud operation and administration.
In this workshop proceedings the results of the second HPI cloud symposium "Operating the Cloud" 2014 are published. We thank the authors for exciting presentations and insights into their current work and research. Moreover, we look forward to more interesting submissions for the upcoming symposium in 2015.
Die Doktorarbeit behandelt die Synthese Kohlenstoffnitrid basierter Materialien in eutektischen Mischungen bivalenter Metallchloride. Der Fokus liegt dabei auf ZnCl2-, SnCl2- und CoCl2-haltigen eutektischen Mischungen, in denen die Kondensation gebräuchlicher organischer Precursoren durchgeführt wird. Im Rahmen dessen wird untersucht wie durch die Reaktionsführung in Salzschmelzen unterschiedlicher Lewis-Acidität, neben der Molekülstruktur andere charakteristische Eigenschaften, wie Morphologie, Kristallinität und spezifische Oberflächen, der Materialien kontrolliert werden können. Darüber hinaus werden die optischen Eigenschaften der Materialien erörtert und in diesem Zusammenhang die Eignung als Photokatalysatoren für den oxidativen Abbau organischer Farbstoffe und für die photokatalytische Wasserreduktion bzw. –oxidation untersucht. Zusätzlich wird gezeigt, wie im System LiCl/KCl in einem einstufigen Prozess edelmetallfreie Kohlenstoffnitrid Komposite zur photokatalytischen Wasserreduktion hergestellt werden können.
This PhD thesis is essentially a collection of six sequential articles on dynamics of accountability in the reformed employment and welfare administration in different countries. The first article examines how recent changes in the governance of employment services in three European countries (Denmark, Germany and Norway) have influenced accountability relationships from a very wide-ranging perspective. It starts from the overall assumption in the literature that accountability relationships are becoming more numerous and complex, and that these changes may lead to multiple accountability disorder. The article explores these assumptions by analyzing the different actors involved and the information requested in the new governance arrangements in all three countries. It concludes that the considerable changes in organizational arrangements and more managerial information demanded and provided have led to more shared forms of accountability. Nevertheless, a clear development towards less political or administrative accountability could not be observed.
The second article analyzes how the structure and development of reform processes affect accountability relationships and via what mechanisms. It is distinguished between an instrumental perspective and an institutional perspective and each of these perspectives takes a different view on the link between reforms and concrete action and results. By taking the welfare reforms in Norway and Germany as an example, it is shown that the reform outcomes in both countries are the result of a complex process of powering, puzzling and institutional constraints where different situational interpretations of problems, interests and administrative legacies had to be balanced. Accountability thus results not from a single process of environmental necessity or strategic choice, but from a dynamic interplay between different actors and institutional spheres.
The third article then covers a specific instrument of public sector reforms, i.e. the increasing use of performance management. The article discusses the challenges and ambiguities between performance management and different forms of accountability based on the cases of the reformed welfare administration in Norway and Germany. The findings are that the introduction of performance management creates new accountability structures which influence service delivery, but not necessarily in the direction expected by reform agents. Observed unintended consequences include target fixation, the displacement of political accountability and the predominance of control aspects of accountability.
The fourth article analyzes the accountability implications of the increasingly marketized models of welfare governance. It has often been argued that relocating powers and discretion to private contractors involve a trade-off between democratic accountability and efficiency. However, there is limited empirical evidence of how contracting out shapes accountability or is shaped by alternative democratic or administrative forms of accountability. Along these lines the article examines employment service accountability in the era of contracting out in Germany, Denmark and Great Britain. It is found that market accountability instruments are complementary instruments, not substitutes. The findings highlight the importance of administrative and political instruments in legitimizing marketized service provision and shed light on the processes that lead to the development of a hybrid accountability model.
The fifth and sixth articles focus on the diagonal accountability relationships between public agencies, supreme audit institutions (SAI) and parental ministry or parliament.
The fifth article examines the evolving role of SAIs in Denmark, Germany and Norway focusing particularly on their contribution to public accountability and their ambivalent relationship with some aspects of public sector reform in the welfare sector. The article analyzes how SAIs assess New Public Management inspired reforms in the welfare sector in the three countries. The analysis shows that all three SAIs have taken on an evaluative role when judging New Public Management instruments. At the same time their emphasis on legality and compliance can be at odds with some of the operating principles introduced by New Public Management reforms.
The sixth article focuses on the auditing activities of the German SAI in the field of labor market administration as a single in-depth case study. The purpose is to analyze how SAIs gain impact in diagonal accountability settings. The results show that the direct relationship between auditor and auditee based on cooperation and trust is of outstanding importance for SAIs to give effect to their recommendations. However, if an SAI has to rely on actors of diagonal accountability, it is in a vulnerable position as it might lose control over the interpretation of its results.
Seit den 60er Jahren gibt es im deutschsprachigen Raum Diskussionen um die Begriffe Schlüsselqualifikation und (Schlüssel-)Kompetenz, welche seit ca. 2000 auch in der Informatikdidaktik angekommen sind. Die Diskussionen der Fachdisziplinen und ihre Bedeutung für die Informatikdidaktik sind Gegenstand des ersten Teils dieser Dissertation. Es werden Rahmenmodelle zur Strukturierung und Einordnung von Kompetenzen entworfen, die für alle Fachdisziplinen nutzbar sind. Im zweiten Teil wird ein methodologischer Weg gezeigt, Schlüsselkompetenzen herzuleiten, ohne normativ vorgehen zu müssen. Hierzu wird das Verfahren der Qualitativen Inhaltsanalyse (QI) auf informatikdidaktische Ansätze angewendet. Die resultierenden Kompetenzen werden in weiteren Schritten verfeinert und in die zuvor entworfenen Rahmenmodelle eingeordnet. Das Ergebnis sind informatische Schlüsselkompetenzen, welche ein spezifisches Bild der Informatik zeichnen und zur Analyse bereits bestehender Curricula genutzt werden können. Zusätzlich zeigt das Verfahren einen Weg auf, wie Schlüsselkompetenzen auf nicht-normativem Wege generell hergeleitet werden können.
In this thesis, I study ultrafast dynamics in perovskite oxides using time resolved broadband spectroscopy. I focus on the observation of coherent phonon propagation by time resolved Brillouin scattering: following the excition of metal transducer films with a femtosecond infrared pump pulse, coherent phonon dynamics in the GHz frequency range are triggered. Their propagation is monitored using a delayed white light probe pulse. The technique is illustrated on various thin films and multilayered samples. I apply the technique to investigate the linear and nonlinear acoustic response in bulk SrTiO_3, which displays a ferroelastic phase transition from a cubic to a tetragonal structural phase at T_a=105 K. In the linear regime, I observe a coupling of the observed acoustic phonon mode to the softening optic modes describing the phase transition. In the nonlinear regime, I find a giant slowing down of the sound velocity in the low temperature phase that is only observable for a strain amplitude exceeding the tetragonality of the material. It is attributed to a coupling of the high frequency phonons to ferroelastic domain walls in the material. I propose a new mechanism for the coupling of strain waves to the domain walls that is only effective for high amplitude strain. A detailed study of the phonon attenuation across a wide temperature range shows that the phonon attenuation at low temperatures is influenced by the domain configuration, which is determined by interface strain. Preliminary measurements on magnetic-ferroelectric multilayers reveal that the excitation fluence needs to be carefully controlled when dynamics at phase transitions are studied.
The overarching goal of this dissertation is to provide a better understanding of the role of wind and water in shaping Earth’s Cenozoic orogenic plateaus - prominent high-elevation, low relief sectors in the interior of Cenozoic mountain belts. In particular, the feedbacks between surface uplift, the build-up of topography and ensuing changes in precipitation, erosion, and vegetation patterns are addressed in light of past and future climate change. Regionally, the study focuses on the two world’s largest plateaus, the Altiplano-Puna Plateau of the Andes and Tibetan Plateau, both characterized by average elevations of >4 km. Both plateaus feature high, deeply incised flanks with pronounced gradients in rainfall, vegetation, hydrology, and surface processes. These characteristics are rooted in the role of plateaus to act as efficient orographic barriers to rainfall and to force changes in atmospheric flow.
The thesis examines the complex topics of tectonic and climatic forcing of the surface-process regime on three different spatial and temporal scales: (1) bedrock wind-erosion rates are quantified in the arid Qaidam Basin of NW Tibet over millennial timescales using cosmogenic radionuclide dating; (2) present-day stable isotope composition in rainfall is examined across the south-central Andes in three transects between 22° S and 28° S; these data are modeled and assessed with remotely sensed rainfall data of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer; (3) finally, a 2.5-km-long Mio-Pliocene sedimentary record of the intermontane Angastaco Basin (25°45’ S, 66°00’ W) is presented in the context of hydrogen and carbon compositions of molecular lipid biomarker, and oxygen and carbon isotopes obtained from pedogenic carbonates; these records are compared to other environmental proxies, including hydrated volcanic glass shards from volcanic ashes intercalated in the sedimentary strata.
There are few quantitative estimates of eolian bedrock-removal rates from arid, low relief landscapes. Wind-erosion rates from the western Qaidam Basin based on cosmogenic 10Be measurements document erosion rates between 0.05 to 0.4 mm/yr. This finding indicates that in arid environments with strong winds, hyperaridity, exposure of friable strata, and ongoing rock deformation and uplift, wind erosion can outpace fluvial erosion. Large eroded sediment volumes within the Qaidam Basin and coeval dust deposition on the Chinese Loess plateau, exemplify the importance of dust production within arid plateau environments for marine and terrestrial depositional processes, but also health issues and fertilization of soils.
In the south-central Andes, the analysis of 234 stream-water samples for oxygen and hydrogen reveals that areas experiencing deep convective storms do not show the commonly observed patterns of isotopic fractionation and the expected co-varying relationships between oxygen and hydrogen with increasing elevation. These convective storms are formed over semi-arid intermontane basins in the transition between the broken foreland of the Sierras Pampeanas, the Eastern Cordillera, and the Puna Plateau in the interior of the orogen. Here, convective rainfall dominates the precipitation budget and no systematic stable isotope-elevation relationship exists. Regions to the north, in the transition between the broken foreland and the Subandean foreland fold-and-thrust belt, the impact of convection is subdued, with lower degrees of storminess and a stronger expected isotope-elevation relationship. This finding of present-day fractionation trends of meteoric water is of great importance for paleoenvironmental studies in attempts to use stable isotope relationships in the reconstruction of paleoelevations.
The third part of the thesis focuses on the paleohydrological characteristics of the Mio-Pliocene (10-2 Ma) Angastaco Basin sedimentary record, which reveals far-reaching environmental changes during Andean uplift and orographic barrier formation. A precipitation- evapotranspiration record identifies the onset of a precipitation regime related to the South American Low Level Jet at this latitude after 9 Ma. Humid foreland conditions existed until 7 Ma, followed by orographic barrier uplift to the east of the present-day Angastaco Basin. This was superseded by rapid (~0.5 Myr) aridification in an intermontane basin, highlighting the effects of eastward-directed deformation. A transition in vegetation cover from a humid C3 forest ecosystem to semi-arid C4-dominated vegetation was coeval with continued basin uplift to modern elevations.
Viele klinische Schnelltestsysteme benötigen vorpräparierte oder aufgereinigte Analyte mit frisch hergestellten Lösungen. Fernab standardisierter Laborbedingungen wie z.B. in Entwicklungsländern oder Krisengebieten sind solche Voraussetzungen oft nur unter einem hohen Aufwand herstellbar.
Zusätzlich stellt die erforderliche Sensitivität die Entwicklung einfach zu handhabender Testsysteme vor große Herausforderungen.
Autokatalytische Reaktionen, die sich mit Hilfe sehr geringer Initiatorkonzentrationen auslösen lassen, können hier eine Perspektive für Signalverstärkungsprozesse bieten.
Aus diesem Grund wird im ersten Teil der vorliegenden Arbeit das Verhalten der autokatalytischen Arsenit-Jodat-Reaktion in einem mikrofluidischen Kanal untersucht. Dabei werden insbesondere die diffusiven und konvektiven Einflüsse auf die Reaktionskinetik im Vergleich zu makroskopischen Volumenmengen betrachtet.
Im zweiten Teil werden thermoresponsive Hydrogele mit einem kanalstrukturierten Papiernetzwerk zu einem neuartigen, kapillargetriebenen, extern steuerbaren Mikrofluidik-System kombiniert. Das hier vorgestellte Konzept durch Hydrogele ein papierbasiertes LOC-System zu steuern, ermöglicht zukünftig die Herstellung von komplexeren, steuerbaren Point-Of-Care Testsystemen (POCT). Durch z.B. einen thermischen Stimulus, wird das Lösungsverhalten eines Hydrogels so verändert, dass die gespeicherte Flüssigkeit freigesetzt und durch die Kapillarkraft des Papierkanals ins System transportiert wird. Die Eigenschaften dieses Gelnetzwerks können dabei so eingestellt werden, dass eine Freisetzung von Flüssigkeiten sogar bei Körpertemperatur möglich wäre und damit eine Anwendung gänzlich ohne weitere Hilfsmittel denkbar ist. Für die Anwendung notwendige Chemikalien oder Enzyme lassen sich hierbei bequem in getrocknetem Zustand im Papiersubstrat vorlagern und bei Bedarf in Lösung bringen.
Im abschließenden dritten Teil der Arbeit wird ein durch Hydrogele betriebener, Antikörper-basierter Mikroorganismenschnelltest für Escherichia coli präsentiert. Darüber hinaus wird weiterführend eine einfache Methode zur Funktionalisierung eines Hydrogels mit Biomolekülen über EDC/NHS-Kopplung vorgestellt.
Die zwölfte Konferenz des Forschungskreises Vereinte Nationen wurde am 28. Juni 2014 an der Universität Potsdam veranstaltet und stand unter dem Thema „Konzepte für die Reform der Vereinten Nationen“. Dabei wurde das komplexe Verhältnis zwischen Reformnotwendigkeit und Machbarkeitserwartungen einerseits und ausgebliebenen weitreichenden Strukturreformen und erfolgten „kleineren“, pragmatischen Reformschritten andererseits deutlich. Mit den vier Referaten stellte die Konferenz in der Tradition der Potsdamer UNO-Konferenzen die Verbindung von Wissenschaft und Praxis unter Beteiligung unterschiedlicher Disziplinen her.
Mit der Broschüre soll allen Interessierten die Möglichkeit gegeben werden, Einblick in ausgewählte Schwerpunkte der Reformdiskussion zu erhalten:
An ein Grundsatzreferat zu bisherigen Reformprozessen im UN-System insgesamt schließen sich drei Texte an, die das Verhältnis zwischen den Vereinten Nationen und den nichtstaatlichen Akteuren in den Blick nehmen, die relativ neue Institution des Menschenrechtsrates als Teil der Reformbemühungen betrachten und schließlich Ergebnisse und Trends bei den Reformen der Arbeitsmethoden des Sicherheitsrates erörtern.
Seit Mitte der 1990er Jahre werden in Windhoektouristische Besichtigungstouren durch das ehemalige Township Katutura angeboten. Damit war der Städtetourismus in der namibischen Hauptstadt recht früh Teil eines Trends, der zu Beginn desselben Jahrzehnts – ausgehend vom Nachbarland Südafrika – einsetzte: die touristische Inwertsetzung städtischer Armutsviertel. Dieses häufig als „Slum- oder Armutstourismus“ bezeichnete Phänomen sorgt seit seiner Entstehung nicht nur für einiges mediales Aufsehen und eine öffentliche Empörung, sondern das Global Slumming wird in den letzten Jahren auch immer mehr zum Gegenstand wissenschaftlicher Forschung. Der Slumtourismus bietet den Anlass neu über das Verhältnis von Armut und Tourismus im weltgesellschaftlichen Kontext nachzudenken.
Diese Publikation ist das Ergebnis eines Studienprojekts des Instituts für Geographie der Universität Osnabrück. Sie ist die erste umfangreichere empirische Fallstudie zum Townshiptourismus in Namibia.
Internationale Freiwilligendienste (IFD) sind ein hochaktuelles wie auch umstrittenes Thema. Die Zahl der deutschen Jugendlichen, die an IFD-Programmen teilnehmen, ist in den vergangenen Jahren erheblich gestiegen und die Volunteer-Branche hat sich stark diversifiziert. Was die verschiedenen Formen staatlicher und privatwirtschaftlicher IFD eint, ist die explizite Abgrenzung vom Tourismus. Bei dieser Abgrenzung handelt es sich jedoch um eine Exklusion, die das Ausgeschlossene gerade nicht als irrelevant, sondern für den Kommunikationszusammenhang als überaus bedeutsam markiert.
Ziel dieses Buches ist es, aufzuzeigen wie Tourismus als ANDERES konstruiert und dies zur Selbstidentifikation der Freiwilligen genutzt wird. Unter Zuhilfenahme des Laclau/Mouffe’schen Theoriegebäudes werden die Selbst- und Fremdbilder von deutschsprachigen Teilnehmer(innen) verschiedener IFD-Programme in Ghana hinsichtlich ihrer Deutungsansprüche und Identifikationsmechanismen betrachtet. Der Fokus richtet sich dabei auf Prozesse der Grenzziehung, die das Sprechen der Freiwilligen in Bereiche des EIGNENEN und des ANDEREN unterteilen. Im Sinne einer dem cultural turn verpflichteten Neuen Kulturgeographie wird der Verwendung räumlicher Identitätsanker dabei besondere Aufmerksamkeit gewidmet.
Das Thema der Arbeit sind Formen wissenschaftlicher Wissensproduktion in anwendungsbezogenen Forschungsprojekten und ihre Effekte auf Technisierungsprozesse. Diese untersuche ich am Beispiel eines öffentlich geförderten Forschungsprojekts, das ein automatisiertes Videoüberwachungssystem entwickelt. Als anwendungsbezogenes Forschungsprojekt unterliegt die Entwicklung des Videoüberwachungssystems besonderen Rahmenbedingungen: Die Arbeit der Forschergruppe soll erstens auf makrosoziale Kriminalitätsprobleme reagieren, zweitens politische Hoffnungen auf einen erfolgreichen Technologietransfer erfüllen, und drittens dem innerdisziplinären Erkenntnisfortschritt dienen. Daraus ergeben sich alltagspraktische Handlungsprobleme für die Forschergruppe, da sie zwischen heterogenen und möglicherweise widersprüchlichen Erwartungshaltungen vermitteln muss. Diese Vermittlungsstrategien beeinflussen jedoch in die Entscheidungsprozesse, wie und in welchem Ausmaß Überwachungsprozesse technisiert werden.
Das Promotionsprojekt geht der Frage nach, auf welche Weise die Forschergruppe die Integration der verschiedenen Erwartungshaltungen bewältigt, und welche Auswirkungen diese besondere Form des anwendungsbezogenen Forschens auf die Entwicklung der Überwachungstechnologie hat. Auf der Grundlage einer ethnographischen Fallstudie beantworte ich die Frage durch den Nachweis, dass die präferierten Lösungen der Forschergruppe sich eher an disziplinären Fragestellungen ausrichten als an ihrer Praxistauglichkeit. Dies wird besonders darin sichtbar, dass die ursprünglichen Problemstellungen im Verlaufe des Arbeitsprozesses anhand der tatsächlich verfügbaren Instrumente umdefiniert werden. Die daraus resultierenden Konflikte mit den gesellschaftlichen Erwartungshaltungen bewältigt die Forschergruppe, indem sie lernt, die Anwendungsbezogenheit gegenüber der Förderinstitution sorgfältig zu inszenieren.
Anthropogenic activities have transformed the Earth's environment, not only on local level, but on the planetary-scale causing global change. Besides industrialization, agriculture is a major driver of global change. This change in turn impairs the agriculture sector, reducing crop yields namely due to soil degradation, water scarcity, and climate change. However, this is a more complex issue than it appears. Crop yields can be increased by use of agrochemicals and fertilizers which are mainly produced by fossil energy. This is important to meet the increasing food demand driven by global demographic change, which is further accelerated by changes in regional lifestyles. In this dissertation, we attempt to address this complex problem exploring agricultural potential globally but on a local scale. For this, we considered the influence of lifestyle changes (dietary patterns) as well as technological progress and their effects on climate change, mainly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Furthermore, we examined options for optimizing crop yields in the current cultivated land with the current cropping patterns by closing yield gaps. Using this, we investigated in a five-minute resolution the extent to which food demand can be met locally, and/or by regional and/or global trade. Globally, food consumption habits are shifting towards calorie rich diets. Due to dietary shifts combined with population growth, the global food demand is expected to increase by 60-110% between 2005 and 2050. Hence, one of the challenges to global sustainability is to meet the growing food demand, while at the same time, reducing agricultural inputs and environmental consequences. In order to address the above problem, we used several freely available datasets and applied multiple interconnected analytical approaches that include artificial neural network, scenario analysis, data aggregation and harmonization, downscaling algorithm, and cross-scale analysis.
Globally, we identified sixteen dietary patterns between 1961 and 2007 with food intakes ranging from 1,870 to 3,400 kcal/cap/day. These dietary patterns also reflected changing dietary habits to meat rich diets worldwide. Due to the large share of animal products, very high calorie diets that are common in the developed world, exhibit high total per capita emissions of 3.7-6.1 kg CO2eq./day. This is higher than total per capita emissions of 1.4-4.5 kg CO2eq./day associated with low and moderate calorie diets that are common in developing countries. Currently, 40% of the global crop calories are fed to livestock and the feed calorie use is four times the produced animal calories. However, these values vary from less than 1 kcal to greater 10 kcal around the world. On the local and national scale, we found that the local and national food production could meet demand of 1.9 and 4.4 billion people in 2000, respectively. However, 1 billion people from Asia and Africa require intercontinental agricultural trade to meet their food demand. Nevertheless, these regions can become food self-sufficient by closing yield gaps that require location specific inputs and agricultural management strategies. Such strategies include: fertilizers, pesticides, soil and land improvement, management targeted on mitigating climate induced yield variability, and improving market accessibility. However, closing yield gaps in particular requires global N-fertilizer application to increase by 45-73%, P2O5 by 22-46%, and K2O by 2-3 times compare to 2010. Considering population growth, we found that the global agricultural GHG emissions will approach 7 Gt CO2eq./yr by 2050, while the global livestock feed demand will remain similar to 2000. This changes tremendously when diet shifts are also taken into account, resulting in GHG emissions of 20 Gt CO2eq./yr and an increase of 1.3 times in the crop-based feed demand between 2000 and 2050. However, when population growth, diet shifts, and technological progress by 2050 were considered, GHG emissions can be reduced to 14 Gt CO2eq./yr and the feed demand to nearly 1.8 times compare to that in 2000. Additionally, our findings shows that based on the progress made in closing yield gaps, the number of people depending on international trade can vary between 1.5 and 6 billion by 2050. In medium term, this requires additional fossil energy. Furthermore, climate change, affecting crop yields, will increase the need for international agricultural trade by 4% to 16%.
In summary, three general conclusions are drawn from this dissertation. First, changing dietary patterns will significantly increase crop demand, agricultural GHG emissions, and international food trade in the future when compared to population growth only. Second, such increments can be reduced by technology transfer and technological progress that will enhance crop yields, decrease agricultural emission intensities, and increase livestock feed conversion efficiencies. Moreover, international trade dependency can be lowered by consuming local and regional food products, by producing diverse types of food, and by closing yield gaps. Third, location specific inputs and management options are required to close yield gaps. Sustainability of such inputs and management largely depends on which options are chosen and how they are implemented. However, while every cultivated land may not need to attain its potential yields to enable food security, closing yield gaps only may not be enough to achieve food self-sufficiency in some regions. Hence, a combination of sustainable implementations of agricultural intensification, expansion, and trade as well as shifting dietary habits towards a lower share of animal products is required to feed the growing population.
Die regelmäßige Navigation durch den Raum gehört für Studenten der Universität Potsdam zum Alltag. Man möchte, unabhängig vom Fortbewegungsmittel, schnell und sicher von zu Hause zum Hörsaal oder Seminargebäude. Eine umfassende Navigationshilfe, die alle Transportmodi verbindet, wird dafür verlangt.
Das Ziel dieser Arbeit besteht darin, ein Konzept für einen multimodalen Routenplaner zu entwickeln, der es Studenten und Gästen der Universität Potsdam ermöglicht, sich zwischen den dezentral gelegenen Campusstandorten zu bewegen – egal ob mit Bus und Bahn, dem Auto, Fahrrad oder zu Fuß. Die Implementierung erfolgt ausschließlich auf Grundlage freier Daten und freier, quelloffener Software (FOSS), die für diesen Zweck aufbereitet werden. Ergebnis ist eine webbasierte Applikation, die über eine Entwicklerschnittstelle (API) in andere Projekte eingebunden werden kann.
Ungefähr fünf Prozent der deutschen Bevölkerung sind muslimischen Glaubens. Dennoch blieb die Problematik der islamischen Bestattungsriten und ihrer Vereinbarkeit mit dem deutschen Friedhofs- und Bestattungsrecht lange weitgehend unbeachtet. Obwohl das islamische Recht vorschreibt, die Toten unverzüglich zu bestatten, wurden bis zu 95 % der muslimischen Verstorbenen in ihre „Heimatländer“ überführt. Es bestehen verbreitete Befürchtungen, auf deutschen Friedhöfen nicht nach islamischem Ritus beerdigt werden zu können.
Dieses Arbeitsheft stellt die für das deutsche Friedhofs- und Bestattungsrecht relevanten islamischen Bestattungsriten dar, erläutert die jeweilige rechtliche Situation in den Bundesländern (Stand: 1. Januar 2015), bewertet diese aus verfassungsrechtlicher Perspektive und beschreibt Erfahrungen aus der Praxis.
Es widmet sich dabei insbesondere Fragen der rituellen Waschung, des Totengebets, der Bestattung im Leichentuch, der Bestattungsfrist, der Grabaushebung, des Tragens des Leichnams, der Grabschließung, des ewigen Ruherechts, der Anlage muslimischer Grabfelder, der Ausrichtung des Grabes nach Mekka, der Grabgestaltung und Grabpflege sowie der Möglichkeit muslimischer Friedhofsträgerschaft.
Das Arbeitsheft richtet sich an PraktikerInnen in den Friedhofsverwaltungen und (kommunale) EntscheidungsträgerInnen ebenso wie an juristisch geschulte LeserInnen und interessierte Laien.
Der klassische Fernsehrundfunk genießt verfassungsrechtlich und einfachgesetzliche eine privilegierte Sonderstellung. Diese setzt sich bei der Kabelbelegung fort, wo er - insbesondere der öffentliche Rundfunk - gegenüber teemedialen Anrufangeboten bevorrechtigt wird. Hintergrund dieser Sonderstellung ist nicht zuletzt die auf den Rundfunk zentrierte Medienordnung. Die Arbeit untersucht, ob diese Medienordnung und damit die Sonderstellung des Rundfunks noch zeitgemäß ist und schlägt Anpassungen vor.
Plant cell walls are complex structures that underpin plant growth and are widely exploited in diverse human activities thus placing them with a central importance in biology. Cell walls have been a prominent area of research for a long time, but the chemical complexity and diversity of cell walls not just between species, but also within plants, between cell-types, and between cell wall micro-domains pose several challenges. Progress accelerated several-fold in cell wall biology owing to advances in sequencing technology, aided soon thereafter by advances in omics and imaging technologies. This development provides additional perspectives of cell walls across a rapidly growing number of species, highlighting a myriad of architectures, compositions, and functions.
Furthermore, rather than the component centric view, integrative analysis of the different cell wall components across system-levels help to gain a more in-depth understanding of the structure and biosynthesis of the cell envelope and its interactions with the environment.
To this end, in this work three case studies are detailed, all pertaining to the integrative analysis of heterogeneous cell wall related data arising from different system-levels and analytical techniques. A detailed account of multiblock methods is provided and in particular canonical correlation and regression methods of data integration are discussed. In the first integrative analysis, by employing canonical correlation analysis - a multivariate statistical technique to study the association between two datasets - novel insight to the relationship between glycans and phenotypic traits is gained. In addition, sparse partial least squares regression approach that adapts Lasso penalization and allows for the selection of a subset of variables was employed. The second case study focuses on an integrative analysis of images obtained from different spectroscopic techniques. By employing yet another multiblock approach - multiple co-inertia analysis, insitu biochemical composition of cell walls from different cell-types is studied thereby highlighting the common and complementary parts of the two hyperspectral imaging techniques. Finally, the third integrative analysis facilitates gene expression analysis of the Arabidopsis root transcriptome and translatome for the identification of cell wall related genes and compare expression patterns of cell wall synthesis genes. The computational analysis considered correlation and variation of expression across cell-types at both system-levels, and also provides insight into the degree of co-regulatory relationships that are preserved between the two processes.
The integrative analysis of glycan data and phenotypic traits in cotton fibers using canonical methods led to the identification of specific polysaccharides which may play a major role during fiber development for the final fiber characteristics. Furthermore, this analysis provides a base for future studies on glycan arrays in case of developing cotton fibers. The integrative analysis of images from infrared and Raman spectroscopic approaches allowed the coupling of different analytical techniques to characterize complex biological material, thereby, representing various facets of their chemical properties. Moreover, the results from the co-inertia analysis demonstrated that the study was well adapted as it is relevant for coupling data tables in a symmetric way. Several indicators are proposed to investigate how the global and block scores are related. In addition, studying the root cells of \textit{Arabidopsis thaliana} allowed positing a novel pipeline to systematically investigate and integrate the different levels of information available at the global and single-cell level. The conducted analysis also confirms that previously identified key transcriptional activators of secondary cell wall development display highly conserved patterns of transcription and translation across the investigated cell-types. Moreover, the biological processes that display conserved and divergent patterns based on the cell-type-specific expression and translation levels are identified.
„Teuerste Altern“
(2015)
Die Arbeit befasst sich zunächst mit der Analyse und Einordnung des Begriffs der Daseinsvorsorge und deren Erbringung durch den Staat. Schwerpunkt der Betrachtung bildet dabei die Energieversorgung als klassische Aufgabe staatlicher Daseinsvorsorge.
Weiterhin wird der durch die Liberalisierung der Energieversorgung im Jahr 1998 eingeleitete Wandel von sog. natürlichen Monopolen, hin zu einem wettbewerblichen System betrachtet. Dabei wird aufgezeigt, dass sich durch die Einführung des Wettbewerbs weder die damit erhofften Kostenreduzierungen, noch das von Kritikern befürchtete Sterben der kommunalen Energieversorger bewahrheitet haben. Statt einer freien Preisbildung im Wettbewerb ist es zu einer faktischen Verlagerung der früher staatlich festgesetzten Energiepreisgenehmigung auf die Gerichte gekommen, die hierfür jedoch nicht ausgelegt sind. Kommunale Stadtwerke haben sich in der wettbewerblichen Energieversorgung dagegen so gut behauptet, dass seit einiger Zeit ein Trend zur Rekommunalisierung von Energieversorgung auf kommunaler Ebene zu verzeichnen ist.
Diesem offensichtlichen Wunsch nach einer gesteigerten Einflussnahme der Gemeinden auf die örtliche Energieversorgung läuft der aktuelle Rechtsrahmen der energierechtlichen Konzessionsvergabe in Gestalt des § 46 EnWG und seiner Auslegung durch die Rechtsprechung der Zivilgerichte zuwider. Die Arbeit zeigt auf, dass von Beginn der Liberalisierung der kommunale Einfluss auf die örtliche Konzessionsvergabe schrittweise und stetig beschnitten wurde, so dass gegenwärtig ein Zustand der Aushöhlung erreicht ist, der als unzulässiger Eingriff in den geschützten Kernbereich der kommunalen Selbstverwaltungsgarantie i.S.d. Art. 28 II GG anzusehen ist.
Gespräche mit Lehrenden unterschiedlicher Hochschulen eigten einen enormen Mehrwert für die Gestaltung der Lehre mittels der Selbstreflexion und dem gemeinsamen Austausch über effektive Evaluationsmethoden. Regelmäßiges Training ist der Schlüssel für eine dialogorientierte Qualitätskultur in der eigenen Lehre. So wird die zielgerichtete Selbstreflexion zum festen Bestandteil des eigenen Habitus, des eigenen Lehrhandelns. Nachfolgende Ausführungen richten sich an Dozierende in der Erwachsenenbildung. Sie zeigen einen Einblick in die Vielfalt der Möglichkeiten, mit Hilfe der Selbstevaluation und insbesondere des Feedbacks, die eigene Lehre immer wieder lebendig zu gestalten. Selbstevaluation bietet die Möglichkeit, Informationen und Eindrücke zur Wirksamkeit der eigenen Lehre auf der Basis empirischen Datenmaterials zu gewinnen und abzusichern.
Injection of nanoscale zero-valent iron (nZVI) is an innovative technology for in situ installation of a permeable reactive barrier in the subsurface. Zerovalent iron (ZVI) is highly reactive with chlorinated hydrocarbons (CHCs) and renders them into less harmful substances. Application of nZVI instead of granular ZVI can increase rates of dechlorination of CHCs by orders of magnitude, due to its higher surface area. This approach is still difficult to apply due to fast agglomeration and sedimentation of colloidal suspensions of nZVI, which leads to very short transport distances. To overcome this issue of limited mobility, polyanionic stabilisers are added to increase surface charge and stability of suspensions. In field experiments maximum transport distances of a few metres were achieved. A new approach, which is investigated in this thesis, is enhanced mobility of nZVI by a more mobile carrier colloid. The investigated composite material consists of activated carbon, which is loaded with nZVI.
In this cumulative thesis, transport characteristics of carbon-colloid supported nZVI (c-nZVI) are investigated. Investigations started with column experiments in 40 cm columns filled with various porous media to investigate on physicochemical influences on transport characteristics. The experimental setup was enlarged to a transport experiment in a 1.2-m-sized two-dimensional aquifer tank experiment, which was filled with granular porous media. Further, a field experiment was performed in a natural aquifer system with a targeted transport distance of 5.3 m. Parallel to these investigations, alternative methods for transport observations were investigated by using noninvasive tomographic methods. Experiments using synchrotron radiation and magnetic resonance (MRI) were performed to investigate in situ transport characteristics in a non-destructive way.
Results from column experiments show potentially high mobility under environmental relevant conditions. Addition of mono-and bivalent salts, e.g. more than 0.5 mM/L CaCl2, might decrease mobility. Changes in pH to values below 6 can inhibit mobility at all. Measurements of colloid size show changes in the mean particle size by a factor of ten. Measurements of zeta potential revealed an increase of –62 mV to –82 mV. Results from the 2D-aquifer test system suggest strong particle deposition in the first centimetres and only weak straining in the further travel path and no gravitational influence on particle transport. Straining at the beginning of the travel path in the porous medium was observed with tomographic investigations of transport. MRI experiments revealed similar results to the previous experiments, and observations using synchrotron radiation suggest straining of colloids at pore throats. The potential for high transport distances, which was suggested from laboratory experiments, was confirmed in the field experiment, where the transport distance of 5.3 m was reached by at least 10% of injected nZVI. Altogether, transport distances of the investigated carbon-colloid supported nZVI are higher than published results of traditional nZVI.
Dieser Workshop wurde im Anschluss an den Workshop „Arbeiten bewerten“ im Rahmen des sqb-Weiterbildungsangebots als eintägige Veranstaltung angeboten, um die Einführung in die prozessorientierte Schreibdidaktik zu vertiefen. Ziel ist es, in der eigenen Fachlehre – sei sie noch so „schreibfern“ – Studierenden die Möglichkeit zu geben, ihre Schreibkompetenz weiter zu entwickeln. Dies geschieht durch Schreibübungen, Schreibanleitungen und Schreibimpulse, die in die Fachlehre integriert werden können.
Mit forschendem Lernen werden unterschiedliche didaktische Ansätze assoziiert, um Forschung und Lehre miteinander in Verbindung zu bringen. Bei der Entwicklung eines Lehrhandelns, das forschendes Lernen anregen soll, kommt es nicht nur auf die Kenntnis vorhandener Möglichkeiten, sondern auch auf eine reflektierende Auseinandersetzung mit den Zielen von Hochschullehre, den fachlichen und organisatorischen Gegebenheiten und didaktischen Leitbildern an.
Weiterbildungsveranstaltungen für interessierte Lehrende sollten einen begleitenden Rahmen für die systematische Entwicklung und Erprobung von eigenen Konzepten herstellen und das Bilden (überfachlicher) kollegialer Netzwerke anregen.
Lehrende aller Fächer betreuen wissenschaftliche Seminar-, Haus- oder Abschlussarbeiten. Dabei gehen viele intuitiv beziehungsweise auf der Basis eigener Schreib- und Betreuungserfahrungen vor. In dem hier dargestellten Workshop geht es darum, dieses Vorgehen vor dem Hintergrund der prozessorientierten Schreibdidaktik zu reflektieren und methodisch anzureichern. Der Workshop fand im Rahmen des sqb-Weiterbildungsprogramms statt. Er kann als ein- oder zweitägige Veranstaltung angeboten
werden.
Konzeptionsaufbereitung
(2015)
Im Rahmen der Qualitätsentwicklung von Studium und Lehre und der Veränderung von Lehr-Lernkulturen an Hochschulen wird eine bessere Beratung und Betreuung der Studierenden durch Mentoring gefordert1. Die wesentliche Frage dabei ist, wie sich Mentoring von der traditionellen Studienberatung unterscheidet und wie es organisiert werden kann?
Inhalt des Workshops sind Funktion, Inhalte, Ziele und Gestaltung von Mentoring zur Begleitung von Studierenden. Mentoring wird als Form der Prozessberatung eingeführt, wobei es darum geht, die Unterschiede zur Lehre und der Beratung aus fachlicher Expertise nachzuvollziehen und Mentoring als eine Form des ressourcenorientierten Kompetenzlernens kennenzulernen. Zudem geht es im Workshop um das Erlangen von Beratungskompetenzen als Mentor_in, die im Wesentlichen in der Auseinandersetzung mit der Rolle und Haltung von Mentor_innen und Kompetenzen im aktiven Zuhören und gekonnten Feedback geben, bestehen. Diese Beratungskompetenzen werden entlang von Übungen und Fallbeispielen geübt. Sie haben im Workshop des Weiteren die Möglichkeit, erste Ideen für ein Mentoringkonzept im eigenen Fachbereich zu entwickeln.
Das im vorliegenden Beitrag beschriebene hochschuldidaktische Format des Kolloquiums dient dem kollegialen Austausch Lehrender über typische Probleme ihres Lehralltags und über mögliche Lösungswege. Dafür wird das Erfahrungswissen der Lehrenden als Praktikerinnen und Praktiker aktiviert. Das Format wurde 2012 an der Universität Potsdam eingeführt und wurde mittlerweile auf die Universität Magdeburg übertragen. Der Artikel beschreibt die Kennzeichen des Formats und diskutiert seinen theoretischen Hintergrund.
We describe a natural construction of deformation quantisation on a compact symplectic manifold with boundary. On the algebra of quantum observables a trace functional is defined which as usual annihilates the commutators. This gives rise to an index as the trace of the unity element. We formulate the index theorem as a conjecture and examine it by the classical harmonic oscillator.
This dissertation addresses the question of how linguistic structures can be represented in working memory. We propose a memory-based computational model that derives offline and online complexity profiles in terms of a top-down parser for minimalist grammars (Stabler, 2011). The complexity metric reflects the amount of time an item is stored in memory. The presented architecture links grammatical representations stored in memory directly to the cognitive behavior by deriving predictions about sentence processing difficulty.
Results from five different sentence comprehension experiments were used to evaluate the model's assumptions about memory limitations. The predictions of the complexity metric were compared to the locality (integration and storage) cost metric of Dependency Locality Theory (Gibson, 2000). Both metrics make comparable offline and online predictions for four of the five phenomena. The key difference between the two metrics is that the proposed complexity metric accounts for the structural complexity of intervening material. In contrast, DLT's integration cost metric considers the number of discourse referents, not the syntactic structural complexity.
We conclude that the syntactic analysis plays a significant role in memory requirements of parsing. An incremental top-down parser based on a grammar formalism easily computes offline and online complexity profiles, which can be used to derive predictions about sentence processing difficulty.
Seit 1990 ist die vereinte, wieder souveräne Bundesrepublik Deutschland auf der Suche nach ihrer Rolle in der Welt. Auch die akademische Debatte um die Orientierung deutscher Außenpolitik und die ihr zugrundeliegenden Interessen hält seitdem an. In welchem Verhältnis stehen Normen und Werte einerseits und pragmatische, meist wirtschaftliche Interessen andererseits zueinander? Wie verhält sich die deutsche Außenpolitik zur europäischen? Beeinflusst oder dominiert die deutsche Position gar die europäische? Am Beispiel der deutschen Außenpolitik gegenüber den zentralasiatischen Staaten Kasachstan, Kirgisistan, Tadschikistan, Turkmenistan und Usbekistan werden diese Fragen diskutiert.
Genisa-Blätter
(2015)
Im Rahmen von zwei Workshops für Nachwuchswissenschaftler unterschiedlicher Disziplinen, die im November 2012 bzw. im Oktober 2013 in Veitshöchheim (Unterfranken) stattfanden, wurde eine Auswahl des reichhaltigen Materials der Genisa-Forschungsstelle genau unter die Lupe genommen. Erstmals war es somit möglich, das vielfältige Quellenmaterial durch eine gemeinsame fächerübergreifende Bearbeitung zu untersuchen und sich durch inhaltliche Verknüpfungen und Assoziationen der fachkundigen Teilnehmer der Komplexität des fränkischen Judentums angemessen zu nähern. Erfreulicherweise haben einige der Workshop-Teilnehmer ihre Arbeitsergebnisse für diese Publikation aufbereitet.
Die bei den Workshops untersuchten Quellenstücke wiesen keinen gemeinsamen inhaltlichen Schwerpunkt auf. Den Teilnehmern wurde eine Auswahl aus der großen Bandbreite zur Bearbeitung zur Verfügung gestellt. Untersucht wurden schriftliche und materielle Quellen unterschiedlichsten Inhalts, Sprache und Erhaltungszustands, die sich an den Sprachkenntnissen der Workshop-Teilnehmer orientierten. Hier hoffen wir auch in Zukunft, von den Spezialkenntnissen der Teilnehmer profitieren zu können.
Eine umfassende Bewertung nach der Bearbeitung des Materials an nur einem Wochenende kann nicht erfolgen. Das erklärte Ziel der Workshops und der daraus entstandenen Publikation ist es, die Genisot in ihrer Vielfalt einem interessierten Publikum bekannt zu machen. Zugleich soll Interesse für weitere und intensivere Forschungen mit dieser speziellen jüdischen Quellengattung geweckt werden. Es wird sich zeigen, in wie weit die Fortsetzung der Workshops in den nächsten Jahren unser Bild vom jüdischen Leben in Franken bereichern kann.
Así que als Diskursmarker
(2015)
The present paper discusses Spanish así que (‘so that’) as a discourse marker by means of data that are retrieved from the Corpus del Español. The synchronic study has both a quantitative and a qualitative side. From a quantitative perspective the use of así que as a discourse marker is compared with its use as a conjunction. It is shown that así que as a conjunction is far more frequent. The qualitative analysis focuses on the different procedural meanings of así que: it can be used to introduce a summary, a consequence or an inference, and, on behalf of the interlocutor, even a question. The study furthermore reveals that así que as a discourse marker can well be analysed in terms of adfunctionalization / capitalization, i.e. when an already existing means of expression becomes exploited for wider purposes. In this context, the notions of grammaticalization, lexicalization and pragmaticalization are also briefly discussed.
Design and Implementation of service-oriented architectures imposes a huge number of research questions from the fields of software engineering, system analysis and modeling, adaptability, and application integration. Component orientation and web services are two approaches for design and realization of complex web-based system. Both approaches allow for dynamic application adaptation as well as integration of enterprise application.
Commonly used technologies, such as J2EE and .NET, form de facto standards for the realization of complex distributed systems. Evolution of component systems has lead to web services and service-based architectures. This has been manifested in a multitude of industry standards and initiatives such as XML, WSDL UDDI, SOAP, etc. All these achievements lead to a new and promising paradigm in IT systems engineering which proposes to design complex software solutions as collaboration of contractually defined software services.
Service-Oriented Systems Engineering represents a symbiosis of best practices in object-orientation, component-based development, distributed computing, and business process management. It provides integration of business and IT concerns.
The annual Ph.D. Retreat of the Research School provides each member the opportunity to present his/her current state of their research and to give an outline of a prospective Ph.D. thesis. Due to the interdisciplinary structure of the Research Scholl, this technical report covers a wide range of research topics. These include but are not limited to: Self-Adaptive Service-Oriented Systems, Operating System Support for Service-Oriented Systems, Architecture and Modeling of Service-Oriented Systems, Adaptive Process Management, Services Composition and Workflow Planning, Security Engineering of Service-Based IT Systems, Quantitative Analysis and Optimization of Service-Oriented Systems, Service-Oriented Systems in 3D Computer Graphics sowie Service-Oriented Geoinformatics.
An increasing demand on functionality and flexibility leads to an integration of beforehand isolated system solutions building a so-called System of Systems (SoS). Furthermore, the overall SoS should be adaptive to react on changing requirements and environmental conditions. Due SoS are composed of different independent systems that may join or leave the overall SoS at arbitrary point in times, the SoS structure varies during the systems lifetime and the overall SoS behavior emerges from the capabilities of the contained subsystems. In such complex system ensembles new demands of understanding the interaction among subsystems, the coupling of shared system knowledge and the influence of local adaptation strategies to the overall resulting system behavior arise. In this report, we formulate research questions with the focus of modeling interactions between system parts inside a SoS. Furthermore, we define our notion of important system types and terms by retrieving the current state of the art from literature. Having a common understanding of SoS, we discuss a set of typical SoS characteristics and derive general requirements for a collaboration modeling language. Additionally, we retrieve a broad spectrum of real scenarios and frameworks from literature and discuss how these scenarios cope with different characteristics of SoS. Finally, we discuss the state of the art for existing modeling languages that cope with collaborations for different system types such as SoS.
There is a wealth of evidence showing that increasing the distance between an argument and its head leads to more processing effort, namely, locality effects; these are usually associated with constraints in working memory (DLT: Gibson, 2000; activation-based model: Lewis and Vasishth, 2005). In SOV languages, however, the opposite effect has been found: antilocality (see discussion in Levy et al., 2013). Antilocality effects can be explained by the expectation-based approach as proposed by Levy (2008) or by the activation-based model of sentence processing as proposed by Lewis and Vasishth (2005). We report an eye-tracking and a self-paced reading study with sentences in Spanish together with measures of individual differences to examine the distinction between expectation- and memory-based accounts, and within memory-based accounts the further distinction between DLT and the activation-based model. The experiments show that (i) antilocality effects as predicted by the expectation account appear only for high-capacity readers; (ii) increasing dependency length by interposing material that modifies the head of the dependency (the verb) produces stronger facilitation than increasing dependency length with material that does not modify the head; this is in agreement with the activation-based model but not with the expectation account; and (iii) a possible outcome of memory load on low-capacity readers is the increase in regressive saccades (locality effects as predicted by memory-based accounts) or, surprisingly, a speedup in the self-paced reading task; the latter consistent with good-enough parsing (Ferreira et al., 2002). In sum, the study suggests that individual differences in working memory capacity play a role in dependency resolution, and that some of the aspects of dependency resolution can be best explained with the activation-based model together with a prediction component.
ecoControl
(2015)
Eine dezentrale Energieversorgung ist ein erster Schritt in Richtung Energiewende. Dabei werden auch in Mehrfamilienhäusern vermehrt verschiedene Strom- und Wärmeerzeuger eingesetzt.
Besonders in Deutschland kommen in diesem Zusammenhang Blockheizkraftwerke immer häufiger zum Einsatz, weil sie Gas sehr effizient in Strom und Wärme umwandeln können. Außerdem ermöglichen sie, im Zusammenspiel mit anderen Energiesystemen wie beispielsweise Photovoltaik-Anlagen, eine kontinuierliche und dezentrale Energieversorgung.
Bei dem Betrieb von unterschiedlichen Energiesystemen ist es wünschenswert, dass die Systeme aufeinander abgestimmt arbeiten. Allerdings ist es bisher schwierig, heterogene Energiesysteme effizient miteinander zu betreiben. Dadurch bleiben Einsparungspotentiale ungenutzt.
Eine zentrale Steuerung kann deshalb die Effizienz des Gesamtsystems verbessern.
Mit ecoControl stellen wir einen erweiterbaren Prototypen vor, der die Kooperation von Energiesystemen optimiert und Umweltfaktoren miteinbezieht.
Dazu stellt die Software eine einheitliche Bedienungsoberfläche zur Konfiguration aller Systeme zur Verfügung. Außerdem bietet sie die Möglichkeit, Optimierungsalgorithmen mit Hilfe einer Programmierschnittstelle zu entwickeln, zu testen und auszuführen.
Innerhalb solcher Algorithmen können von ecoControl bereitgestellte Vorhersagen genutzt werden. Diese Vorhersagen basieren auf dem individuellen Verhalten von jedem Energiesystem, Wettervorhersagen und auf Prognosen des Energieverbrauchs. Mithilfe einer Simulation können Techniker unterschiedliche Konfigurationen und Optimierungen sofort ausprobieren, ohne diese über einen langen Zeitraum an realen Geräten testen zu müssen.
ecoControl hilft darüber hinaus auch Hausverwaltungen und Vermietern bei der Verwaltung und Analyse der Energiekosten.
Wir haben anhand von Fallbeispielen gezeigt, dass Optimierungsalgorithmen, welche die Nutzung von Wärmespeichern verbessern, die Effizienz des Gesamtsystems erheblich verbessern können.
Schließlich kommen wir zu dem Schluss, dass ecoControl in einem nächsten Schritt unter echten Bedingungen getestet werden muss, sobald eine geeignete Hardwarekomponente verfügbar ist. Über diese Schnittstelle werden die Messwerte an ecoControl gesendet und Steuersignale an die Geräte weitergeleitet.
Umweltbericht 2013–2014
(2015)
Aus dem Inhalt:
Vorwort
Umweltforschung
Umweltthemen in Lehre und Weiterbildung
Studienprogramme mit Umweltbezug und Lehrveranstaltungen
Umweltbezogene Weiterbildung für Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeiter
Betrieb und Verwaltung
Gebäudebewirtschaftung, Energie- und Medienverbrauch
Flächenverbrauch & Schutz der biologischen Vielfalt
Papier- und Tonerverbrauch
Entsorgung und Sicherheitswesen
Ausblick
Jahresbericht 2013
(2015)
1. Allgemeiner Überblick
2. Organisationsstruktur des MRZ
2.1 Angehörige des MRZ
2.2 Wissenschaftlicher Beirat des MRZ
2.3 Förderverein
3. Aktivitäten im Berichtszeitraum
3.1 Forschungsprojekte und wissenschaftliche Veranstaltungen
3.2 Promotionen
3.3 Lehrveranstaltungen
3.4 Publikationen – Neuerscheinungen 2013
3.5 Wissenschaftliche Vorträge, Vorlesungen, Fachgespräche u. ä.
4. Anhang
Veröffentlicht wird die Textfassung eines Vortrages, welcher am 16. April 2015 auf dem 9. Konsortialtag des Friedrich-Althoff-Konsortium e.V. in Potsdam gehalten wurde. Hintergrund des Vortrages war die aktive Auseinandersetzung der Institution mit vorhandenen Lizenzrechten. Auf dieser Basis wurde ein Workflow zur Identifizierung von Publikationen für die Zweitveröffentlichung erarbeitet. Der vorgestellte Workflow umfasst sieben Schritte, von denen fünf näher erläutert und mit Beispielen einzelner Lizenzen/Verlage unterlegt wurden.
The neurophysiological and behavioral correlates of action-related language processing have been debated for long time. A precursor in this field was the study by Buccino et al. (2005) combining transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and behavioral measures (reaction times, RTs) to study the effect of listening to hand- and foot-related sentences. In the TMS experiment, the authors showed a decrease of motor evoked potentials (MEPs) recorded from hand muscles when processing hand-related verbs as compared to foot-related verbs. Similarly, MEPs recorded from leg muscles decreased when participants processed foot-related as compared to hand-related verbs. In the behavioral experiment, using the same stimuli and a semantic decision task the authors found slower RTs when the participants used the body effector (hand or foot) involved in the actual execution of the action expressed by the presented verb to give their motor responses. These findings were interpreted as an interference effect due to a simultaneous involvement of the motor system in both a language and a motor task. Our replication aimed to enlarge the sample size and replicate the findings with higher statistical power. The TMS experiment showed a significant modulation of hand MEPs, but in the sense of a motor facilitation when processing hand-related verbs. On the contrary, the behavioral experiment did not show significant results. The results are discussed within the general debate on the time-course of the modulation of motor cortex during implicit and explicit language processing and in relation to the studies on action observation/understanding.
Background: Interoceptive awareness (iA), the awareness of stimuli originating inside the body, plays an important role in human emotions and psychopathology. The insula is particularly involved in neural processes underlying iA. However, iA-related neural activity in the insula during the acute state of major depressive disorder (MDD) and in remission from depression has not been explored.
Methods: A well-established fMRI paradigm for studying (iA; heartbeat counting) and exteroceptive awareness (eA; tone counting) was used. Study participants formed three independent groups: patients suffering from MDD, patients in remission from MDD or healthy controls. Task-induced neural activity in three functional subdivisions of the insula was compared between these groups.
Results: Depressed participants showed neural hypo-responses during iA in anterior insula regions, as compared to both healthy and remitted participants. The right dorsal anterior insula showed the strongest response to iA across all participant groups. In depressed participants there was no differentiation between different stimuli types in this region (i.e., between iA, eA and noTask). Healthy and remitted participants in contrast showed clear activity differences.
Conclusions: This is the first study comparing iA and eA-related activity in the insula in depressed participants to that in healthy and remitted individuals. The preliminary results suggest that these groups differ in there being hypo-responses across insula regions in the depressed participants, whilst non-psychiatric participants and patients in remission from MDD show the same neural activity during iA in insula subregions implying a possible state marker for MDD. The lack of activity differences between different stimulus types in the depressed group may account for their symptoms of altered external and internal focus.
Background
Previous literature mainly introduced cognitive functions to explain performance decrements in dual-task walking, i.e., changes in dual-task locomotion are attributed to limited cognitive information processing capacities. In this study, we enlarge existing literature and investigate whether leg muscular capacity plays an additional role in children’s dual-task walking performance.
Methods
To this end, we had prepubescent children (mean age: 8.7 ± 0.5 years, age range: 7–9 years) walk in single task (ST) and while concurrently conducting an arithmetic subtraction task (DT). Additionally, leg lean tissue mass was assessed.
Results
Findings show that both, boys and girls, significantly decrease their gait velocity (f = 0.73), stride length (f = 0.62) and cadence (f = 0.68) and increase the variability thereof (f = 0.20-0.63) during DT compared to ST. Furthermore, stepwise regressions indicate that leg lean tissue mass is closely associated with step time and the variability thereof during DT (R2 = 0.44, p = 0.009). These associations between gait measures and leg lean tissue mass could not be observed for ST (R2 = 0.17, p = 0.19).
Conclusion
We were able to show a potential link between leg muscular capacities and DT walking performance in children. We interpret these findings as evidence that higher leg muscle mass in children may mitigate the impact of a cognitive interference task on DT walking performance by inducing enhanced gait stability.
For the calculation of the work in an irreversible pressure-volume change, we propose approxima-tions, which in contrast to the usual representation in the literature reflect the work performed during expansion and compression symmetrically. The calculations are based on the Reversible-Share-Theorem: Is used the force to overcome for calculating the work, so it captures only the configurational reversible work share.
The origin of cosmic rays was the subject of several studies for over a century. The investigations done within this dissertation are one small step to shed some more light on this mystery.
Locating the sources of cosmic rays is not trivial due to the interstellar magnetic field. However, the Hillas criterion allows us to arrive at the conclusion that supernova remnants are our main suspect for the origin of galactic cosmic rays. The mechanism by which they are accelerating particles is found within the field of shock physics as diffusive shock acceleration. To allow particles to enter this process also known as Fermi acceleration pre-acceleration processes like shock surfing acceleration and shock drift acceleration are necessary. Investigating the processes happening in the plasma shocks of supernova remnants is possible by utilising a simplified model which can be simulated on a computer using Particle-in-Cell simulations.
We developed a new and clean setup to simulate the formation of a double shock, i.e., consisting of a forward and a reverse shock and a contact discontinuity, by the collision of two counter-streaming plasmas, in which a magnetic field can be woven into. In a previous work, we investigated the processes at unmagnetised and at magnetised parallel shocks, whereas in the current work, we move our investigation on to magnetised perpendicular shocks.
Due to a much stronger confinement of the particles to the collision region the perpendicular shock develops much faster than the parallel shock. On the other hand, this leads to much weaker turbulence. We are able to find indications for shock surfing acceleration and shock drift acceleration happening at the two shocks leading to populations of pre-accelerated particles that are suitable as a seed population to be injected into further diffusive shock acceleration to be accelerated to even higher energies. We observe the development of filamentary structures in the shock ramp of the forward shock, but not at the reverse shock. This leads to the conclusion that the development of such structures in the shock ramp of quasi-perpendicular collisionless shocks might not necessarily be determined by the existence of a critical sonic Mach number but by a critical shock speed.
The results of the investigations done within this dissertation might be useful for further studies of oblique shocks and for studies using hybrid or magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Together with more sophisticated observational methods, these studies will help to bring us closer to an answer as to how particles can be accelerated in supernova remnants and eventually become cosmic rays that can be detected on Earth.