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Critics argue that there has been a trend among Microfinance Institutions (MFI) to focus on profitability in order to stay financially sustainable. This made some institutions neglect the social mission of microfinancing. In this paper I intend to examine if empirical evidence supports this so called mission drift hypothesis as well as other claims in this context. Using the global panel data set of the MIX (Microfinance Information Exchange), which gathers from 1995 to 2010 and contains up to 1400 institutions with a high variety of organizational forms, I was able to identify a world-wide mission drift effect in their social goal of reaching out the poorest part of the population. Furthermore, I find that, on average, the outreach of an MFI has a significant negative influence on its short and long term financial performance. Despite that, I eventually proved that the probability that an MFI worsens its social performance substantially increases if its profitability has decreased in the previous years.
Historisch wie aktuell werden durch gewalttätige soziale Auseinandersetzungen bestehende gesellschaftliche Ordnungen infrage gestellt. In der Geschichtswissenschaft wie in der Soziologie waren Tumulte, Aufstände oder soziale Erhebungen immer wieder Gegenstand von Untersuchungen. Während der historische Zugriff auf diese Phänomene gewöhnlich durch detaillierte Beschreibungen historische Abläufe genau zu rekonstruieren versucht hat, um diese verstehen zu können, geht es soziologischen Arbeiten zumeist um einen viel stärker generalisierenden und erklärenden Zugriff. Zwar gab es immer wieder Anläufe, diese scheinbar unüberbrückbare Differenz zwischen den Disziplinen zu überwinden, doch alle die Versuche müssen als mehr oder weniger gescheitert angesehen werden. Nach wie vor gilt deshalb, dass mit der ausschließlichen Konzentration auf die je eigene disziplinäre Herangehensweise viel Erkenntnispotenzial verschenkt wird. Aus diesem Grund unterbreitet die vorliegende Studie einen neuen Vorschlag, Geschichtswissenschaft und Soziologie zusammenzubringen. Der Verfasser unternimmt hier den Versuch, die beiden vermeintlich so gegensätzlichen Auffassungen von Wissenschaftlichkeit über eine gemeinsame methodologische Perspektive zusammenzuführen und auf dieser Grundlage einen vereinten, erklärenden Zugriff von Geschichtswissenschaft und Soziologie zu skizzieren, der nach dem „Wie“ eines Ereignisses fragt, zugleich aber auch erklären will, „warum“ es dazu gekommen ist. Das vorliegende Buch untersucht auf dieser methodologischen Grundlage und mittels eines historisch-soziologischen Zugangs sozialen Protest im Vormärz, es schließt an Arbeiten der historischen Soziologie und Sozialgeschichte an und entwickelt dazu einen stringenten historisch-soziologischen Erklärungsansatz.
The atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean is strongly influenced by the distribution of sea ice and open water. Leads in the sea ice produce strong convective fluxes of sensible and latent heat and release aerosol particles into the atmosphere. They increase the occurrence of clouds and modify the structure and characteristics of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) and thereby influence the Arctic climate.
In the course of this study aircraft measurements were performed over the western Arctic Ocean as part of the campaign PAMARCMIP 2012 of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI). Backscatter from aerosols and clouds within the lower troposphere and the ABL were measured with the nadir pointing Airborne Mobile Aerosol Lidar (AMALi) and dropsondes were launched to obtain profiles of meteorological variables. Furthermore, in situ measurements of aerosol properties, meteorological variables and turbulence were part of the campaign. The measurements covered a broad range of atmospheric and sea ice conditions.
In this thesis, properties of the ABL over Arctic sea ice with a focus on the influence of open leads are studied based on the data from the PAMARCMIP campaign. The height of the ABL is determined by different methods that are applied to dropsonde and AMALi backscatter profiles. ABL heights are compared for different flights representing different conditions of the atmosphere and of sea ice and open water influence. The different criteria for ABL height that are applied show large variation in terms of agreement among each other, depending on the characteristics of the ABL and its history. It is shown that ABL height determination from lidar backscatter by methods commonly used under mid-latitude conditions is applicable to the Arctic ABL only under certain conditions. Aerosol or clouds within the ABL are needed as a tracer for ABL height detection from backscatter. Hence an aerosol source close to the surface is necessary, that is typically found under the present influence of open water and therefore convective conditions. However it is not always possible to distinguish residual layers from the actual ABL. Stable boundary layers are generally difficult to detect.
To illustrate the complexity of the Arctic ABL and processes therein, four case studies are analyzed each of which represents a snapshot of the interplay between atmosphere and underlying sea ice or water surface. Influences of leads and open water on the aerosol and clouds within the ABL are identified and discussed. Leads are observed to cause the formation of fog and cloud layers within the ABL by humidity emission. Furthermore they decrease the stability and increase the height of the ABL and consequently facilitate entrainment of air and aerosol layers from the free troposphere.
Polyglycolide (PGA) is a biodegradable polymer with multiple applications in the medical sector. Here the synthesis of high molecular weight polyglycolide by ring-opening polymerization of diglycolide is reported. For the first time stabilizer free supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) was used as a reaction medium. scCO2 allowed for a reduction in reaction temperature compared to conventional processes. Together with the lowering of monomer concentration and consequently reduced heat generation compared to bulk reactions thermal decomposition of the product occurring already during polymerization is strongly reduced. The reaction temperatures and pressures were varied between 120 and 150 °C and 145 to 1400 bar. Tin(II) ethyl hexanoate and 1-dodecanol were used as catalyst and initiator, respectively. The highest number average molecular weight of 31 200 g mol−1 was obtained in 5 hours from polymerization at 120 °C and 530 bar. In all cases the products were obtained as a dry white powder. Remarkably, independent of molecular weight the melting temperatures were always at (219 ± 2) °C.
Tierische und menschliche Fäkalien aus Landwirtschaft und Haushalten enthalten zahlreiche obligat und opportunistisch pathogene Mikroorganismen, deren Konzentration u. a. je nach Gesundheitszustand der betrachteten Gruppe schwankt. Neben den Krankheitserregern enthalten Fäkalien aber auch essentielle Pflanzennährstoffe (276) und dienen seit Jahrtausenden (63) als Dünger für Feldfrüchte. Mit der unbedarften Verwendung von pathogenbelastetem Fäkaldünger steigt jedoch auch das Risiko einer Infektion von Mensch und Tier. Diese Gefahr erhöht sich mit der globalen Vernetzung der Landwirtschaft, z. B. durch den Import von kontaminierten Futter- bzw. Lebensmitteln (29).
Die vorliegende Arbeit stellt die milchsaure Fermentation von Rindergülle und Klärschlamm als alternative Hygienisierungsmethode gegenüber der Pasteurisation in Biogasanlagen bzw. gebräuchlichen Kompostierung vor.
Dabei wird ein Abfall der Gram-negativen Bakterienflora sowie der Enterokokken, Schimmel- und Hefepilze unter die Nachweisgrenze von 3 log10KbE/g beobachtet, gleichzeitig steigt die Konzentration der Lactobacillaceae um das Tausendfache. Darüber hinaus wird gezeigt, dass pathogene Bakterien wie Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella spp., Listeria monocytogenes, EHEC O:157 und vegetative Clostridum perfringens-Zellen innerhalb von 3 Tagen inaktiviert werden. Die Inaktivierung von ECBO-Viren und Spulwurmeiern erfolgt innerhalb von 7 bzw. 56 Tagen. Zur Aufklärung der Ursache der beobachteten Hygienisierung wurde das fermentierte Material auf flüchtige Fettsäuren sowie pH-Wertänderungen untersucht. Es konnte festgestellt werden, dass die gemessenen Werte nicht die alleinige Ursache für das Absterben der Erreger sind, vielmehr wird eine zusätzliche bakterizide Wirkung durch eine mutmaßliche Bildung von Bakteriozinen in Betracht gezogen. Die parasitizide Wirkung wird auf die physikalischen Bedingungen der Fermentation zurückgeführt.
Die methodischen Grundlagen basieren auf Analysen mittels zahlreicher klassisch-kultureller Verfahren, wie z. B. der Lebendkeimzahlbestimmung. Darüber hinaus findet die MALDI-TOF-Massenspektrometrie und die klassische PCR in Kombination mit der Gradienten-Gelelektrophorese Anwendung, um kultivierbare Bakterienfloren zu beschreiben bzw. nicht kultivierbare Bakterienfloren stichprobenartig zu erfassen.
Neben den Aspekten der Hygienisierung wird zudem die Eignung der Methode für die landwirtschaftliche Nutzung berücksichtigt. Dies findet sich insbesondere in der Komposition des zu fermentierenden Materials wieder, welches für die verstärkte Humusakkumulation im Ackerboden optimiert wurde. Darüber hinaus wird die Masseverlustbilanz während der milchsauren Fermentation mit denen der Kompostierung sowie der Verarbeitung in der Biogasanlage verglichen und als positiv bewertet, da sie mit insgesamt 2,45 % sehr deutlich unter den bisherigen Alternativen liegt (73, 138, 458). Weniger Verluste an organischem Material während der Hygienisierung führen zu einer größeren verwendbaren Düngermenge, die auf Grund ihres organischen Ursprungs zu einer Verstärkung des Humusanteiles im Ackerboden beitragen kann (56, 132).
Background
The Amazon molly, Poecilia formosa (Teleostei: Poeciliinae) is an unisexual, all-female species. It evolved through the hybridisation of two closely related sexual species and exhibits clonal reproduction by sperm dependent parthenogenesis (or gynogenesis) where the sperm of a parental species is only used to activate embryogenesis of the apomictic, diploid eggs but does not contribute genetic material to the offspring.
Here we provide and describe the first de novo assembled transcriptome of the Amazon molly in comparison with its maternal ancestor, the Atlantic molly Poecilia mexicana. The transcriptome data were produced through sequencing of single end libraries (100 bp) with the Illumina sequencing technique.
Results
83,504,382 reads for the Amazon molly and 81,625,840 for the Atlantic molly were assembled into 127,283 and 78,961 contigs for the Amazon molly and the Atlantic molly, respectively. 63% resp. 57% of the contigs could be annotated with gene ontology terms after sequence similarity comparisons. Furthermore, we were able to identify genes normally involved in reproduction and especially in meiosis also in the transcriptome dataset of the apomictic reproducing Amazon molly.
Conclusions
We assembled and annotated the transcriptome of a non-model organism, the Amazon molly, without a reference genome (de novo). The obtained dataset is a fundamental resource for future research in functional and expression analysis. Also, the presence of 30 meiosis-specific genes within a species where no meiosis is known to take place is remarkable and raises new questions for future research.
Synchronisationsphänomene myotendinöser Oszillationen interagierender neuromuskulärer Systeme
(2014)
Muskeln oszillieren nachgewiesener Weise mit einer Frequenz um 10 Hz. Doch was geschieht mit myofaszialen Oszillationen, wenn zwei neuromuskuläre Systeme interagieren? Die Dissertation widmet sich dieser Fragestellung bei isometrischer Interaktion. Während der Testmessungen ergaben sich Hinweise für das Vorhandensein von möglicherweise zwei verschiedenen Formen der Isometrie. Arbeiten zwei Personen isometrisch gegeneinander, können subjektiv zwei Modi eingenommen werden: man kann entweder isometrisch halten – der Kraft des Partners widerstehen – oder isometrisch drücken – gegen den isometrischen Widerstand des Partners arbeiten. Daher wurde zusätzlich zu den Messungen zur Interaktion zweier Personen an einzelnen Individuen geprüft, ob möglicherweise zwei Formen der Isometrie existieren. Die Promotion besteht demnach aus zwei inhaltlich und methodisch getrennten Teilen: I „Single-Isometrie“ und II „Paar-Isometrie“. Für Teil I wurden mithilfe eines pneumatisch betriebenen Systems die hypothetischen Messmodi Halten und Drücken während isometrischer Aktion untersucht. Bei n = 10 Probanden erfolgte parallel zur Aufzeichnung des Drucksignals während der Messungen die Erfassung der Kraft (DMS) und der Beschleunigung sowie die Aufnahme der mechanischen Muskeloszillationen folgender myotendinöser Strukturen via Mechanomyo- (MMG) bzw. Mechanotendografie (MTG): M. triceps brachii (MMGtri), Trizepssehne (MTGtri), M. obliquus externus abdominis (MMGobl). Pro Proband wurden bei 80 % der MVC sowohl sechs 15-Sekunden-Messungen (jeweils drei im haltenden bzw. drückenden Modus; Pause: 1 Minute) als auch vier Ermüdungsmessungen (jeweils zwei im haltenden bzw. drückenden Modus; Pause: 2 Minuten) durchgeführt. Zum Vergleich der Messmodi Halten und Drücken wurden die Amplituden der myofaszialen Oszillationen sowie die Kraftausdauer herangezogen. Signifikante Unterschiede zwischen dem haltenden und dem drückenden Modus zeigten sich insbesondere im Bereich der Ermüdungscharakteristik. So lassen Probanden im haltenden Modus signifikant früher nach als im drückenden Modus (t(9) = 3,716; p = .005). Im drückenden Modus macht das längste isometrische Plateau durchschnittlich 59,4 % der Gesamtdauer aus, im haltenden sind es 31,6 % (t(19) = 5,265, p = .000). Die Amplituden der Single-Isometrie-Messungen unterscheiden sich nicht signifikant. Allerdings variieren die Amplituden des MMGobl zwischen den Messungen im drückenden Modus signifikant stärker als im haltenden Modus. Aufgrund dieser teils signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen den beiden Messmodi wurde dieses Setting auch im zweiten Teil „Paar-Isometrie“ berücksichtigt. Dort wurden n = 20 Probanden – eingeteilt in zehn gleichgeschlechtliche Paare – während isometrischer Interaktion untersucht. Die Sensorplatzierung erfolgte analog zu Teil I. Die Oszillationen der erfassten MTG- sowie MMG-Signale wurden u.a. mit Algorithmen der Nichtlinearen Dynamik auf ihre Kohärenz hin untersucht. Durch die Paar-Isometrie-Messungen zeigte sich, dass die Muskeln und die Sehnen beider neuromuskulärer Systeme bei Interaktion im bekannten Frequenzbereich von 10 Hz oszillieren. Außerdem waren sie in der Lage, sich bei Interaktion so aufeinander abzustimmen, dass sich eine signifikante Kohärenz entwickelte, die sich von Zufallspaarungen signifikant unterscheidet (Patchanzahl: t(29) = 3,477; p = .002; Summe der 4 längsten Patches: t(29) = 7,505; p = .000). Es wird der Schluss gezogen, dass neuromuskuläre Komplementärpartner in der Lage sind, sich im Sinne kohärenten Verhaltens zu synchronisieren. Bezüglich der Parameter zur Untersuchung der möglicherweise vorhandenen zwei Formen der Isometrie zeigte sich bei den Paar-Isometrie-Messungen zwischen Halten und Drücken ein signifikanter Unterschied bei der Ermüdungscharakteristik sowie bezüglich der Amplitude der MMGobl. Die Ergebnisse beider Teilstudien bestärken die Hypothese, dass zwei Formen der Isometrie existieren. Fraglich ist, ob man überhaupt von Isometrie sprechen kann, da jede isometrische Muskelaktion aus feinen Oszillationen besteht, die eine per Definition postulierte Isometrie ausschließen. Es wird der Vorschlag unterbreitet, die Isometrie durch den Begriff der Homöometrie auszutauschen. Die Ergebnisse der Paar-Isometrie-Messungen zeigen u.a., dass neuromuskuläre Systeme in der Lage sind, ihre myotendinösen Oszillationen so aufeinander abzustimmen, dass kohärentes Verhalten entsteht. Es wird angenommen, dass hierzu beide neuromuskulären Systeme funktionell intakt sein müssen. Das Verfahren könnte für die Diagnostik funktioneller Störungen relevant werden.
The subsurface upper Palaeozoic sedimentary successions of the Loppa High half-graben and the Finnmark platform in the Norwegian Barents Sea (southwest Barents Sea) were investigated using 2D/3D seismic datasets combined with well and core data. These sedimentary successions represent a case of mixed siliciclastic-carbonates depositional systems, which formed during the earliest phase of the Atlantic rifting between Greenland and Norway. During the Carboniferous and Permian the southwest part of the Barents Sea was located along the northern margin of Pangaea, which experienced a northward drift at a speed of ~2–3 mm per year. This gradual shift in the paleolatitudinal position is reflected by changes in regional climatic conditions: from warm-humid in the early Carboniferous, changing to warm-arid in the middle to late Carboniferous and finally to colder conditions in the late Permian. Such changes in paleolatitude and climate have resulted in major changes in the style of sedimentation including variations in the type of carbonate factories. The upper Palaeozoic sedimentary succession is composed of four major depositional units comprising chronologically the Billefjorden Group dominated by siliciclastic deposition in extensional tectonic-controlled wedges, the Gipsdalen Group dominated by warm-water carbonates, stacked buildups and evaporites, the Bjarmeland Group characterized by cool-water carbonates as well as by the presence of buildup networks, and the Tempelfjorden Group characterized by fine-grained sedimentation dominated by biological silica production. In the Loppa High, the integration of a core study with multi-attribute seismic facies classification allowed highlighting the main sedimentary unconformities and mapping the spatial extent of a buried paleokarst terrain. This geological feature is interpreted to have formed during a protracted episode of subaerial exposure occurring between the late Palaeozoic and middle Triassic. Based on seismic sequence stratigraphy analysis the palaeogeography in time and space of the Loppa High basin was furthermore reconstructed and a new and more detailed tectono-sedimentary model for this area was proposed. In the Finnmark platform area, a detailed core analysis of two main exploration wells combined with key 2D seismic sections located along the main depositional profile, allowed the evaluation of depositional scenarios for the two main lithostratigraphic units: the Ørn Formation (Gipsdalen Group) and the Isbjørn Formation (Bjarmeland Group). During the mid-Sakmarian, two major changes were observed between the two formations including (1) the variation in the type of the carbonate factories, which is interpreted to be depth-controlled and (2) the change in platform morphology, which evolved from a distally steepened ramp to a homoclinal ramp. The results of this study may help supporting future reservoirs characterization of the upper Palaeozoic units in the Barents Sea, particularly in the Loppa High half-graben and the Finmmark platform area.
The monsoon is an important component of the Earth’s climate system. It played a vital role in the development and sustenance of the largely agro-based economy in India. A better understanding of past variations in the Indian Summer Monsoon (ISM) is necessary to assess its nature under global warming scenarios. Instead, our knowledge of spatiotemporal patterns of past ISM strength, as inferred from proxy records, is limited due to the lack of high-resolution paleo-hydrological records from the core monsoon domain.
In this thesis I aim to improve our understanding of Holocene ISM variability from the core ‘monsoon zone’ (CMZ) in India. To achieve this goal, I tried to understand modern and thereafter reconstruct Holocene monsoonal hydrology, by studying surface sediments and a high-resolution sedimentary record from the saline-alkaline Lonar crater lake, central India. My approach relies on analyzing stable carbon and hydrogen isotope ratios from sedimentary lipid biomarkers to track past hydrological changes.
In order to evaluate the relationship of the modern ecosystem and hydrology of the lake I studied the distribution of lipid biomarkers in the modern ecosystem and compared it to lake surface sediments. The major plants from dry deciduous mixed forest type produced a greater amount of leaf wax n-alkanes and a greater fraction of n-C31 and n-C33 alkanes relative to n-C27 and n-C29. Relatively high average chain length (ACL) values (29.6–32.8) for these plants seem common for vegetation from an arid and warm climate. Additionally I found that human influence and subsequent nutrient supply result in increased lake primary productivity, leading to an unusually high concentration of tetrahymanol, a biomarker for salinity and water column stratification, in the nearshore sediments. Due to this inhomogeneous deposition of tetrahymanol in modern sediments, I hypothesize that lake level fluctuation may potentially affect aquatic lipid biomarker distributions in lacustrine sediments, in addition to source changes.
I reconstructed centennial-scale hydrological variability associated with changes in the intensity of the ISM based on a record of leaf wax and aquatic biomarkers and their stable carbon (δ13C) and hydrogen (δD) isotopic composition from a 10 m long sediment core from the lake. I identified three main periods of distinct hydrology over the Holocene in central India. The period between 10.1 and 6 cal. ka BP was likely the wettest during the Holocene. Lower ACL index values (29.4 to 28.6) of leaf wax n-alkanes and their negative δ13C values (–34.8‰ to –27.8‰) indicated the dominance of woody C3 vegetation in the catchment, and negative δDwax (average for leaf wax n-alkanes) values (–171‰ to –147‰) argue for a wet period due to an intensified monsoon. After 6 cal. ka BP, a gradual shift to less negative δ13C values (particularly for the grass derived n-C31) and appearance of the triterpene lipid tetrahymanol, generally considered as a marker for salinity and water column stratification, marked the onset of drier conditions. At 5.1 cal. ka BP increasing flux of leaf wax n-alkanes along with the highest flux of tetrahymanol indicated proximity of the lakeshore to the center due to a major lake level decrease. Rapid fluctuations in abundance of both terrestrial and aquatic biomarkers between 4.8 and 4 cal. ka BP indicated an unstable lake ecosystem, culminating in a transition to arid conditions. A pronounced shift to less negative δ13C values, in particular for n-C31 (–25.2‰ to –22.8‰), over this period indicated a change of dominant vegetation to C4 grasses. Along with a 40‰ increase in leaf wax n-alkane δD values, which likely resulted from less rainfall and/or higher plant evapotranspiration, I interpret this period to reflect the driest conditions in the region during the last 10.1 ka. This transition led to protracted late Holocene arid conditions and the establishment of a permanently saline lake. This is supported by the high abundance of tetrahymanol. A late Holocene peak of cyanobacterial biomarker input at 1.3 cal. ka BP might represent an event of lake eutrophication, possibly due to human impact and the onset of cattle/livestock farming in the catchment.
The most intriguing feature of the mid-Holocene driest period was the high amplitude and rapid fluctuations in δDwax values, probably due to a change in the moisture source and/or precipitation seasonality. I hypothesize that orbital induced weakening of the summer solar insolation and associated reorganization of the general atmospheric circulation were responsible for an unstable hydroclimate in the mid-Holocene in the CMZ.
My findings shed light onto the sequence of changes during mean state changes of the monsoonal system, once an insolation driven threshold has been passed, and show that small changes in solar insolation can be associated to major environmental changes and large fluctuations in moisture source, a scenario that may be relevant with respect to future changes in the ISM system.
A feasible approach to construct multilayer films of sulfonated polyanilines – PMSA1 and PABMSA1 – containing different ratios of aniline, 2-methoxyaniline-5-sulfonic acid (MAS) and 3-aminobenzoic acid (AB), with the entrapped redox enzyme pyrroloquinoline quinone-dependent glucose dehydrogenase (PQQ-GDH) on Au and ITO electrode surfaces, is described. The formation of layers has been followed and confirmed by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), which demonstrates that the multilayer assembly can be achieved in a progressive and uniform manner. The gold and ITO electrodes subsequently modified with PMSA1:PQQ-GDH and PABMSA1 films are studied by cyclic voltammetry (CV) and UV-Vis spectroscopy which show a significant direct bioelectrocatalytical response to the oxidation of the substrate glucose without any additional mediator. This response correlates linearly with the number of deposited layers. Furthermore, the constructed polymer/enzyme multilayer system exhibits a rather good long-term stability, since the catalytic current response is maintained for more than 60% of the initial value even after two weeks of storage. This verifies that a productive interaction of the enzyme embedded in the film of substituted polyaniline can be used as a basis for the construction of bioelectronic units, which are useful as indicators for processes liberating glucose and allowing optical and electrochemical transduction.
Die vorliegende Studie beschäftigte sich mit der Bedeutung der dysfunktionalen Einstellungen für die Entwicklung von depressiven Symptomen bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. Nach der kognitiven Theorie der Depression von Beck (1967, 1996) führen dysfunktionale Einstellungen in Interaktion mit Stress zu depressiven Symptomen. Es existieren allerdings nur wenige Studien, die die longitudinale Beziehung zwischen den dysfunktionalen Einstellungen und der Depressivität bei Kindern und Jugendlichen untersucht haben (Lakdawalla et al., 2007). Folglich kann noch nicht eindeutig geklärt werden, ob die dysfunktionalen Einstellungen Ursache, Begleiterscheinung oder Konsequenz der Depression sind. Als Datengrundlage diente eine Stichprobe von Kindern und Jugendlichen im Alter von 9 bis 20 Jahren, die im Rahmen der PIER-Studie zu dysfunktionalen Einstellungen, kritischen Lebensereignissen und depressiven Symptomen befragt wurden (Nt1t2 = 1.053; t1: 2011/2012, t2: 2013/2014). Querschnittliche Analysen zeigten hohe Assoziationen zwischen den dysfunktionalen Einstellungen, kritischen Lebensereignissen und depressiven Symptomen. Eine latente Moderationsanalyse wies nur bei den Jugendlichen auf signifikante Interaktion zwischen den dysfunktionalen Einstellungen und den kritischen Lebensereignissen in der Vorhersage depressiver Symptomatik hin. Im Längsschnitt zeigten latente Cross-Lagged-Panel-Analysen erwartungsgemäß, dass die dysfunktionalen Einstellungen und die Depressivität mit dem Alter immer stabilere Konstrukte darstellen, die sehr eng miteinander zusammenhängen. Eine diesem Modell hinzugefügte latente Moderationsanalyse konnte das kognitive Modell der Depression nach Beck weder bei Kindern noch bei Jugendlichen bestätigen. Die spätere depressive Symptomatik konnte lediglich durch Haupteffekte der früheren Ausprägung der Depressivität und der kritischen Lebensereignisse vorhergesagt werden. Diese Ergebnisse legen den Schluss nahe, dass es sich bei den dysfunktionalen Einstellungen eher um Begleiterscheinungen als um Risikofaktoren oder Konsequenzen der depressiven Symptomatik handelt.
This essay approaches T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets (1935–1942) from the perspectives of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s critical practice of reparative reading and of Paul Ricoeur’s poststructuralist hermeneutics. It demonstrates that Sedgwick’s and Ricoeur’s approaches can be productively combined to investigate hermeneutic processes in which the textual energy of a dissemination of meaning is redirected by a reparative or integrative impulse. In Four Quartets, this impetus induces the creation of semantic innovation through a violation of semantic pertinence, that is, through novel, tensional and provisional connections between formerly separate textual elements and semantic units.
Extreme weather events are likely to occur more often under climate change and the resulting effects on ecosystems could lead to a further acceleration of climate change. But not all extreme weather events lead to extreme ecosystem response. Here, we focus on hazardous ecosystem behaviour and identify coinciding weather conditions. We use a simple probabilistic risk assessment based on time series of ecosystem behaviour and climate conditions. Given the risk assessment terminology, vulnerability and risk for the previously defined hazard are estimated on the basis of observed hazardous ecosystem behaviour.
We apply this approach to extreme responses of terrestrial ecosystems to drought, defining the hazard as a negative net biome productivity over a 12-month period. We show an application for two selected sites using data for 1981-2010 and then apply the method to the pan-European scale for the same period, based on numerical modelling results (LPJmL for ecosystem behaviour; ERA-Interim data for climate).
Our site-specific results demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, using the SPEI to describe the climate condition. The site in Spain provides an example of vulnerability to drought because the expected value of the SPEI is 0.4 lower for hazardous than for non-hazardous ecosystem behaviour. In northern Germany, on the contrary, the site is not vulnerable to drought because the SPEI expectation values imply wetter conditions in the hazard case than in the non-hazard case.
At the pan-European scale, ecosystem vulnerability to drought is calculated in the Mediterranean and temperate region, whereas Scandinavian ecosystems are vulnerable under conditions without water shortages. These first model- based applications indicate the conceptual advantages of the proposed method by focusing on the identification of critical weather conditions for which we observe hazardous ecosystem behaviour in the analysed data set. Application of the method to empirical time series and to future climate would be important next steps to test the approach.
ANG-2 for quantitative Na+ determination in living cells by time-resolved fluorescence microscopy
(2014)
Sodium ions (Na+) play an important role in a plethora of cellular processes, which are complex and partly still unexplored. For the investigation of these processes and quantification of intracellular Na+ concentrations ([Na+]i), two-photon coupled fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (2P-FLIM) was performed in the salivary glands of the cockroach Periplaneta americana. For this, the novel Na+-sensitive fluorescent dye Asante NaTRIUM Green-2 (ANG-2) was evaluated, both in vitro and in situ. In this context, absorption coefficients, fluorescence quantum yields and 2P action cross-sections were determined for the first time. ANG-2 was 2P-excitable over a broad spectral range and displayed fluorescence in the visible spectral range. Although the fluorescence decay behaviour of ANG-2 was triexponential in vitro, its analysis indicates a Na+-sensitivity appropriate for recordings in living cells. The Na+-sensitivity was reduced in situ, but the biexponential fluorescence decay behaviour could be successfully analysed in terms of quantitative [Na+]i recordings. Thus, physiological 2P-FLIM measurements revealed a dopamine-induced [Na+]i rise in cockroach salivary gland cells, which was dependent on a Na+-K+-2Cl− cotransporter (NKCC) activity. It was concluded that ANG-2 is a promising new sodium indicator applicable for diverse biological systems.
Ziel dieser Arbeit war die Entwicklung von Methoden zur Synthese von auf Phenol basierenden Naturstoffen. Insbesondere wurde bei der Methodenentwicklung die Nachhaltigkeit in den Vordergrund gerückt. Dies bedeutet, dass durch die Zusammenfassung mehrerer Syntheseschritte zu einem (Tandem-Reaktion) beispielsweise unnötige Reaktionsschritte vermieden werden sollten. Ferner sollten im Sinne der Nachhaltigkeit möglichst ungiftige Reagenzien und Lösungmittel verwendet werden, ebenso wie mehrfach wiederverwertbare Katalysatoren zum Einsatz kommen. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden Methoden zum Aufbau von Biphenolen mittels Pd/C-katalysierten Suzuki-Miyaura-Kupplungen entwickelt. Diese Methoden sind insofern äußerst effizient, da der ansonsten gebräuchliche Syntheseweg über drei Reaktionsschritte somit auf lediglich eine Reaktionsstufe reduziert wurde. Weiterhin wurden die Reaktionsbedingungen so gestaltet, dass einfaches Wasser als vollkommen ungiftiges Lösungsmittel verwendet werden konnte. Des Weiteren wurde für diese Reaktionen ein Katalysator gewählt, der einfach durch Filtration vom Reaktionsgemisch abgetrennt und für weitere Reaktionen mehrfach wiederverwendet werden konnte. Darüber hinaus konnte durch die Synthese von mehr als 100 Verbindungen die breite Anwendbarkeit der Methoden aufgezeigt werden. Mit den entwickelten Methoden konnten 14 Naturstoffe - z. T. erstmals - synthetisiert werden. Derartige Stoffe werden u. a. von den ökonomisch bedeutenden Kernobstgewächsen (Äpfeln, Birnen) als Abwehrmittel gegenüber Schädlingen erzeugt. Folglich konnte mit Hilfe dieser Methoden ein Syntheseweg für potentielle Pflanzenschutzmittel entwickelt werden. Im zweiten Teil dieser Arbeit wurde ein Zugang zu den sich ebenfalls vom Phenol ableitenden Chromanonen, Chromonen und Cumarinen untersucht. Bei diesen Untersuchungen konnte durch die Entwicklung zweier neuer Tandem-Reaktionen ein nachhaltiger und stufenökonomischer Syntheseweg zur Darstellung substituierter Benzo(dihydro)pyrone aufgezeigt werden. Durch die erstmalige Kombination der Claisen-Umlagerung mit einer Oxa-Michael-Addition bzw. konjugierten-Addition wurden zwei vollkommen atomökonomische Reaktionen miteinander verknüpft und somit eine überaus effiente Synthese von allyl- bzw. prenylsubstituierten Chromanonen und Chromonen ermöglicht. Ferner konnten durch die Anwendung einer Claisen-Umlagerung-Wittig-Laktonisierungs-Reaktion allyl- bzw. prenylsubstituierte Cumarine erhalten werden. Herausragendes Merkmal dieser Methoden war, dass in nur einem Schritt der jeweilige Naturstoffgrundkörper aufgebaut und eine lipophile Seitenkette generiert werden konnte. Die Entwicklung dieser Methoden ist von hohem pharmazeutischem Stellenwert, da auf diesen Wegen Verbindungen synthetisiert werden können, die zum einem über das notwendige pharmakologische Grundgerüst verfügen und zum anderen über eine Seitenkette, welche die Aufnahmefähigkeit und damit die Wirksamkeit im Organismus beträchtlich erhöht. Insgesamt konnten mittels der entwickelten Methoden 15 Chromanon-, Chromon- und Cumarin-Naturstoffe z. T. erstmals synthetisiert werden.
The quantitative descriptions of the state of stress in the Earth’s crust, and spatial-temporal stress changes are of great importance in terms of scientific questions as well as applied geotechnical issues. Human activities in the underground (boreholes, tunnels, caverns, reservoir management, etc.) have a large impact on the stress state. It is important to assess, whether these activities may lead to (unpredictable) hazards, such as induced seismicity. Equally important is the understanding of the in situ stress state in the Earth’s crust, as it allows the determination of safe well paths, already during well planning. The same goes for the optimal configuration of the injection- and production wells, where stimulation for artificial fluid path ways is necessary.
The here presented cumulative dissertation consists of four separate manuscripts, which are already published, submitted or will be submitted for peer review within the next weeks. The main focus is on the investigation of the possible usage of geothermal energy in the province Alberta (Canada). A 3-D geomechanical–numerical model was designed to quantify the contemporary 3-D stress tensor in the upper crust. For the calibration of the regional model, 321 stress orientation data and 2714 stress magnitude data were collected, whereby the size and diversity of the database is unique. A calibration scheme was developed, where the model is calibrated versus the in situ stress data stepwise for each data type and gradually optimized using statistically test methods. The optimum displacement on the model boundaries can be determined by bivariate linear regression, based on only three model runs with varying deformation ratio. The best-fit model is able to predict most of the in situ stress data quite well. Thus, the model can provide the full stress tensor along any chosen virtual well paths. This can be used to optimize the orientation of horizontal wells, which e.g. can be used for reservoir stimulation. The model confirms regional deviations from the average stress orientation trend, such as in the region of the Peace River Arch and the Bow Island Arch.
In the context of data compilation for the Alberta stress model, the Canadian database of the World Stress Map (WSM) could be expanded by including 514 new data records. This publication of an update of the Canadian stress map after ~20 years with a specific focus on Alberta shows, that the maximum horizontal stress (SHmax) is oriented southwest to northeast over large areas in Northern America. The SHmax orientation in Alberta is very homogeneous, with an average of about 47°. In order to calculate the average SHmax orientation on a regular grid as well as to estimate the wave-length of stress orientation, an existing algorithm has been improved and is applied to the Canadian data. The newly introduced quasi interquartile range on the circle (QIROC) improves the variance estimation of periodic data, as it is less susceptible to its outliers.
Another geomechanical–numerical model was built to estimate the 3D stress tensor in the target area ”Nördlich Lägern” in Northern Switzerland. This location, with Opalinus clay as a host rock, is a potential repository site for high-level radioactive waste. The performed modelling aims to investigate the sensitivity of the stress tensor on tectonic shortening, topography, faults and variable rock properties within the Mesozoic sedimentary stack, according to the required stability needed for a suitable radioactive waste disposal site. The majority of the tectonic stresses caused by the far-field shortening from the South are admitted by the competent rock units in the footwall and hanging wall of the argillaceous target horizon, the Upper Malm and Upper Muschelkalk. Thus, the differential stress within the host rock remains relatively low. East-west striking faults release stresses driven by tectonic shortening. The purely gravitational influence by the topography is low; higher SHmax magnitudes below topographical depression and lower values below hills are mainly observed near the surface. A complete calibration of the model is not possible, as no stress magnitude data are available for calibration, yet. The collection of this data will begin in 2015; subsequently they will be used to adjust the geomechanical–numerical model again.
The third geomechanical–numerical model investigates the stress variation in an ultra-deep gold mine in South Africa. This reservoir model is spatially one order of magnitude smaller than the previous local model from Northern Switzerland. Here, the primary focus is to investigate the hypothesis that the Mw 1.9 earthquake on 27 December 2007 was induced by stress changes due to the mining process. The Coulomb failure stress change (DeltaCFS) was used to analyse the stress change. It confirmed that the seismic event was induced by static stress transfer due to the mining progress. The rock was brought closer to failure on the derived rupture plane by stress changes of up to 1.5–15MPa, in dependence of the DeltaCFS analysis type. A forward modelling of a generic excavation scheme reveals that with decreasing distance to the dyke the DeltaCFS values increase significantly. Hence, even small changes in the mining progress can have a significant impact on the seismic hazard risk, i.e. the change of the occurrence probability to induce a seismic event of economic concern.
Das Europäische Parlament ist zweifelsohne die mächtigste parlamentarische Versammlung auf supranationaler Ebene. Das provoziert die Frage, wie Entscheidungen in diesem Parlament gefällt werden und wie sie begründet werden können. Darin liegt das Hauptanliegen dieser Arbeit, die zur Beantwortung dieser Frage auf soziologische Ansätze der Erklärung sozialen Handelns zurückgreift und damit einen neuen Zugang zur Beobachtung parlamentarischen Handelns schafft. Dabei arbeitet sie heraus, wie wichtig es ist, bei der Analyse politischer Entscheidungsprozesse zu beachten, wie politische Probleme von Akteuren interpretiert und gegenüber Verhandlungspartnern dargestellt werden. An den Fallbeispielen der Entscheidungsprozesse zur Dienstleistungsrichtlinie, zur Chemikalien-Verordnung REACH und dem TDIP (CIA)-Ausschuss in der Legislaturperiode 2004–2009, wird der soziale Mechanismus dargestellt, der hinter Einigungen im Europäischen Parlament steckt. Kultur als Interpretation der Welt wird so zum Schlüssel des Verständnisses politischer Entscheidungen auf supranationaler Ebene.
An important contribution of geosciences to the renewable energy production portfolio is the exploration and utilization of geothermal resources. For the development of a geothermal project at great depths a detailed geological and geophysical exploration program is required in the first phase. With the help of active seismic methods high-resolution images of the geothermal reservoir can be delivered. This allows potential transport routes for fluids to be identified as well as regions with high potential of heat extraction to be mapped, which indicates favorable conditions for geothermal exploitation. The presented work investigates the extent to which an improved characterization of geothermal reservoirs can be achieved with the new methods of seismic data processing. The summations of traces (stacking) is a crucial step in the processing of seismic reflection data. The common-reflection-surface (CRS) stacking method can be applied as an alternative for the conventional normal moveout (NMO) or the dip moveout (DMO) stack. The advantages of the CRS stack beside an automatic determination of stacking operator parameters include an adequate imaging of arbitrarily curved geological boundaries, and a significant increase in signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio by stacking far more traces than used in a conventional stack. A major innovation I have shown in this work is that the quality of signal attributes that characterize the seismic images can be significantly improved by this modified type of stacking in particular. Imporoved attribute analysis facilitates the interpretation of seismic images and plays a significant role in the characterization of reservoirs. Variations of lithological and petro-physical properties are reflected by fluctuations of specific signal attributes (eg. frequency or amplitude characteristics). Its further interpretation can provide quality assessment of the geothermal reservoir with respect to the capacity of fluids within a hydrological system that can be extracted and utilized. The proposed methodological approach is demonstrated on the basis on two case studies. In the first example, I analyzed a series of 2D seismic profile sections through the Alberta sedimentary basin on the eastern edge of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. In the second application, a 3D seismic volume is characterized in the surroundings of a geothermal borehole, located in the central part of the Polish basin. Both sites were investigated with the modified and improved stacking attribute analyses. The results provide recommendations for the planning of future geothermal plants in both study areas.
This work is devoted to the convergence analysis of a modified Runge-Kutta-type iterative regularization method for solving nonlinear ill-posed problems under a priori and a posteriori stopping rules. The convergence rate results of the proposed method can be obtained under Hölder-type source-wise condition if the Fréchet derivative is properly scaled and locally Lipschitz continuous. Numerical results are achieved by using the Levenberg-Marquardt and Radau methods.
Photoinduced excitation energy transfer and accompanying charge separation are elucidated for a supramolecular system of a single fullerene covalently linked to six pyropheophorbide-a dye molecules. Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to gain an atomistic picture of the architecture and the surrounding solvent. Excitation energy transfer among the dye molecules and electron transfer from the excited dyes to the fullerene are described by a mixed quantum–classical version of the Förster rate and the semiclassical Marcus rate, respectively. The mean characteristic time of energy redistribution lies in the range of 10 ps, while electron transfer proceeds within 150 ps. In between, on a 20 to 50 ps time-scale, conformational changes take place in the system. This temporal hierarchy of processes guarantees efficient charge separation, if the structure is exposed to a solvent. The fast energy transfer can adopt the dye excitation to the actual conformation. In this sense, the probability to achieve charge separation is large enough since any dominance of unfavorable conformations that exhibit a large dye–fullerene distance is circumvented. And the slow electron transfer may realize an averaging with respect to different conformations. To confirm the reliability of our computations, ensemble measurements on the charge separation dynamics are simulated and a very good agreement with the experimental data is obtained.
In der Berufsgruppe der Lehrerinnen und Lehrer besteht eine hohe Prävalenz psychischer und psychosomatischer Erkrankungen. Aus- und Weiterbildungsangebote zur Vermittlung lehrerspezifischer sozialer Kompetenzen spielen eine wichtige Rolle bei der Förderung der Lehrergesundheit. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde das „Lehrer/innen-Coaching nach dem Freiburger Modell“ evaluiert, welches die Kompetenz von Lehrkräften stärken soll, innerhalb der Schule und insbesondere im Unterricht, schwierige interpersonelle Situationen aktiv und konstruktiv zu gestalten. Damit sollen stressbedingte gesundheitliche Belastungen abgebaut und dem Entstehen gravierender psychischer Störungen vorgebeugt werden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden zwei modifizierte Versionen dieses Programms erstmalig im Rahmen einer landesweiten Feldstudie untersucht. Die zentralen Evaluationsfragestellungen beziehen sich auf die Effektivität der Intervention als Gesundheitsförderungsmaßnahme (Akzeptanz, Wirksamkeit, Wirksamkeitsvergleich der beiden Interventionsformen im landesweiten Einsatz). Daneben strebt die Studie einen Vergleich mit den Ergebnissen einer Vorgängerstudie sowie die Generierung weiterer Erkenntnisse zum Zusammenhang zwischen Aspekten der sozialen Kompetenz von Lehrkräften und ihrer psychischen Gesundheit an. An der Maßnahme konnten alle baden-württembergischen Lehrerinnen und Lehrer mit einer Berufserfahrung von mindestens 10 Jahren teilnehmen. Für die Untersuchung der Wirksamkeit der Maßnahme und des Wirksamkeitsvergleichs der beiden unterschiedlichen Formen liegt ein quasiexperimentelles Design mit insgesamt zwei Messzeitpunkten vor. In die Auswertung zur Wirksamkeit der Intervention konnten die Daten von den 314 Teilnehmern einbezogen werden. Die Messinstrumente, die in der vorliegenden Studie zur Anwendung kamen, waren der General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12), das Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI-D) und die ins Deutsche übersetzte Jefferson Scale of Empathy (JSE) in der an Lehrer adaptierten Form. Die Evaluationsergebnisse zeigen, dass die Teilnahme am „Lehrer/innen-Coaching nach dem Freiburger Modell” mit einer signifikanten Verbesserung der gesundheitsbezogenen abhängigen Variablen einhergeht. Besonders hervorzuheben ist die ausgeprägte Verbesserung der mittels GHQ-12 erfassten psychischen Gesundheit. Das Ergebnis des Prä-Post-Vergleichs der Gesundheitswerte beider Interventionsgruppen bestätigte sich auch im Vergleich zu einer Null-Interventionsgruppe: Entsprechend der Hypothese gab es bei den Teilnehmern eine signifikant stärkere Verbesserung der psychischen Gesundheit als bei den Nicht-Teilnehmern (Null-Interventionsgruppe). Die beiden Interventionsmodi „Kompaktform” und „Kurzform” erwiesen sich im Hinblick auf die Verbesserung der Lehrergesundheit als gleichermaßen wirksam. Zudem zeigen die Ergebnisse der Teilnehmerbefragung, dass die Maßnahme Anklang bei der Zielgruppe fand. Die Akzeptanz durch die Zielgruppe ist für die Wirksamkeit einer auf Freiwilligkeit basierenden verhaltenspräventiven Maßnahme naturgemäß eine essenzielle Voraussetzung. Bei der psychischen Gesundheit der Lehrer bestehen – wie aus weiteren Befunden der Studie ersichtlich – bedeutsame Zusammenhänge zu einer intakten zwischenmenschlichen Beziehung mit den Schülern, einer gelungenen, durch gegenseitige Unterstützung gekennzeichneten Interaktion im Kollegium und einem entsprechend unterstützenden Führungsverhalten der Schulleitung. Dies macht deutlich, welches besondere Gewicht einer gelingenden Beziehungsgestaltung an Schulen und im Unterricht beizumessen ist. Bezüglich der Vorgehensweise in der vorliegenden Untersuchung werden einige methodische Limitationen hinsichtlich des Designs diskutiert. Ergänzend wird im Ausblick der Evaluationsstudie darauf hingewiesen, wie sich durch die Verknüpfung des vorliegenden Programms mit weiteren, auf den Ebenen Verhalten, Verhältnisse und Führung ansetzenden gesundheitspräventiven Maßnahmen, zukünftig die Stärkung der psychischen Gesundheit von Lehrkräften weiter ausbauen ließe.
The toxicologically most relevant mercury (Hg) species for human exposure is methylmercury (MeHg). Thiomersal is a common preservative used in some vaccine formulations. The aim of this study is to get further mechanistic insight into the yet not fully understood neurotoxic modes of action of organic Hg species. Mercury species investigated include MeHgCl and thiomersal. Additionally HgCl2 was studied, since in the brain mercuric Hg can be formed by dealkylation of the organic species. As a cellular system astrocytes were used. In vivo astrocytes provide the environment necessary for neuronal function. In the present study, cytotoxic effects of the respective mercuricals increased with rising alkylation level and correlated with their cellular bioavailability. Further experiments revealed for all species at subcytotoxic concentrations no induction of DNA strand breaks, whereas all species massively increased H2O2-induced DNA strand breaks. This co- genotoxic effect is likely due to a disturbance of the cellular DNA damage response. Thus, at nanomolar, sub-cytotoxic concentrations, all three mercury species strongly disturbed poly(ADP-ribosyl)ation, a signalling reaction induced by DNA strand breaks. Interestingly, the molecular mechanism behind this inhibition seems to be different for the species. Since chronic PARP-1 inhibition is also discussed to sacrifice neurogenesis and learning abilities, further experiments on neurons and in vivo studies could be helpful to clarify whether the inhibition of poly(ADP-ribosyl) ation contributes to organic Hg induced neurotoxicity.
Werner Mittenzwei’s article of 1967, the title of which coined the term “Brecht-Lukács-Debatte”, is widely considered as a milestone in the development of East German literary criticism towards an “emancipation” from party politics. By placing Mittenzwei’s contribution in the wider context of discussions about the literature of the GDR, within the SED and the writers’ union as well as at international conferences, this article attempts to trace the emergence of “Umfunktionierung” both as a key term and in its official approval by the party.
Probably no other field of statistical physics at the borderline of soft matter and biological physics has caused such a flurry of papers as polymer translocation since the 1994 landmark paper by Bezrukov, Vodyanoy, and Parsegian and the study of Kasianowicz in 1996. Experiments, simulations, and theoretical approaches are still contributing novel insights to date, while no universal consensus on the statistical understanding of polymer translocation has been reached. We here collect the published results, in particular, the famous–infamous debate on the scaling exponents governing the translocation process. We put these results into perspective and discuss where the field is going. In particular, we argue that the phenomenon of polymer translocation is non-universal and highly sensitive to the exact specifications of the models and experiments used towards its analysis.
Background: Development of eukaryotic organisms is controlled by transcription factors that trigger specific and global changes in gene expression programs. In plants, MADS-domain transcription factors act as master regulators of developmental switches and organ specification. However, the mechanisms by which these factors dynamically regulate the expression of their target genes at different developmental stages are still poorly understood.
Results: We characterized the relationship of chromatin accessibility, gene expression, and DNA binding of two MADS-domain proteins at different stages of Arabidopsis flower development. Dynamic changes in APETALA1 and SEPALLATA3 DNA binding correlated with changes in gene expression, and many of the target genes could be associated with the developmental stage in which they are transcriptionally controlled. We also observe dynamic changes in chromatin accessibility during flower development. Remarkably, DNA binding of APETALA1 and SEPALLATA3 is largely independent of the accessibility status of their binding regions and it can precede increases in DNA accessibility. These results suggest that APETALA1 and SEPALLATA3 may modulate chromatin accessibility, thereby facilitating access of other transcriptional regulators to their target genes.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that different homeotic factors regulate partly overlapping, yet also distinctive sets of target genes in a partly stage-specific fashion. By combining the information from DNA-binding and gene expression data, we are able to propose models of stage-specific regulatory interactions, thereby addressing dynamics of regulatory networks throughout flower development. Furthermore, MADS-domain TFs may regulate gene expression by alternative strategies, one of which is modulation of chromatin accessibility.
Unstetige Galerkin-Diskretisierung niedriger Ordnung in einem atmosphärischen Multiskalenmodell
(2014)
Die Dynamik der Atmosphäre der Erde umfasst einen Bereich von mikrophysikalischer Turbulenz über konvektive Prozesse und Wolkenbildung bis zu planetaren Wellenmustern. Für Wettervorhersage und zur Betrachtung des Klimas über Jahrzehnte und Jahrhunderte ist diese Gegenstand der Modellierung mit numerischen Verfahren. Mit voranschreitender Entwicklung der Rechentechnik sind Neuentwicklungen der dynamischen Kerne von Klimamodellen, die mit der feiner werdenden Auflösung auch entsprechende Prozesse auflösen können, notwendig. Der dynamische Kern eines Modells besteht in der Umsetzung (Diskretisierung) der grundlegenden dynamischen Gleichungen für die Entwicklung von Masse, Energie und Impuls, so dass sie mit Computern numerisch gelöst werden können. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht die Eignung eines unstetigen Galerkin-Verfahrens niedriger Ordnung für atmosphärische Anwendungen. Diese Eignung für Gleichungen mit Wirkungen von externen Kräften wie Erdanziehungskraft und Corioliskraft ist aus der Theorie nicht selbstverständlich. Es werden nötige Anpassungen beschrieben, die das Verfahren stabilisieren, ohne sogenannte „slope limiter” einzusetzen. Für das unmodifizierte Verfahren wird belegt, dass es nicht geeignet ist, atmosphärische Gleichgewichte stabil darzustellen. Das entwickelte stabilisierte Modell reproduziert eine Reihe von Standard-Testfällen der atmosphärischen Dynamik mit Euler- und Flachwassergleichungen in einem weiten Bereich von räumlichen und zeitlichen Skalen. Die Lösung der thermischen Windgleichung entlang der mit den Isobaren identischen charakteristischen Kurven liefert atmosphärische Gleichgewichtszustände mit durch vorgegebenem Grundstrom einstellbarer Neigung zu(barotropen und baroklinen)Instabilitäten, die für die Entwicklung von Zyklonen wesentlich sind. Im Gegensatz zu früheren Arbeiten sind diese Zustände direkt im z-System(Höhe in Metern)definiert und müssen nicht aus Druckkoordinaten übertragen werden.Mit diesen Zuständen, sowohl als Referenzzustand, von dem lediglich die Abweichungen numerisch betrachtet werden, und insbesondere auch als Startzustand, der einer kleinen Störung unterliegt, werden verschiedene Studien der Simulation von barotroper und barokliner Instabilität durchgeführt. Hervorzuheben ist dabei die durch die Formulierung von Grundströmen mit einstellbarer Baroklinität ermöglichte simulationsgestützte Studie des Grades der baroklinen Instabilität verschiedener Wellenlängen in Abhängigkeit von statischer Stabilität und vertikalem Windgradient als Entsprechung zu Stabilitätskarten aus theoretischen Betrachtungen in der Literatur.
The nature of the links between speech production and perception has been the subject of longstanding debate. The present study investigated the articulatory parameter of tongue height and the acoustic F1–F0 difference for the phonological distinction of vowel height in American English front vowels. Multiple repetitions of /i, ɪ, e, ɛ, æ/ in [(h)Vd] sequences were recorded in seven adult speakers. Articulatory (ultrasound) and acoustic data were collected simultaneously to provide a direct comparison of variability in vowel production in both domains. Results showed idiosyncratic patterns of articulation for contrasting the three front vowel pairs /i-ɪ/, /e-ɛ/, and /ɛ-æ/ across subjects, with the degree of variability in vowel articulation comparable to that observed in the acoustics for all seven participants. However, contrary to what was expected, some speakers showed reversals for tongue height for /ɪ/-/e/ that were also reflected in acoustics, with F1 higher for /ɪ/ than for /e/. The data suggest the phonological distinction of height is conveyed via speaker-specific articulatory-acoustic patterns that do not strictly match features descriptions. However, the acoustic signal is faithful to the articulatory configuration that generated it, carrying the crucial information for perceptual contrast.
Ultraschall Berlin
(2014)
1. Einführung
2. Kriminalität, Gewalt und Rechtsextremismus: Begriffsgenese und Modell „nachhaltiger Prävention“
2.1 Entwicklungsorientierung
2.2 Kommunale Netzwerkarbeit
2.3 Evaluation und Qualität
3. Kriminal- und Gewaltprävention im Land Brandenburg
3.1 Gewaltprävention an einer Brennpunkt-Schule am Beispiel von „Wir für uns“
3.2 Regionale Netzwerkarbeit am Beispiel von „Mit-Ein-Ander in Kita und Schule“
3.3 Rechtsextremismusprävention am Beispiel des Handlungskonzepts „Tolerantes Brandenburg“
4. Folgerungen und Empfehlungen
Literatur
Large-scale floodplain sediment dynamics in the Mekong Delta : present state and future prospects
(2014)
The Mekong Delta (MD) sustains the livelihood and food security of millions of people in Vietnam and Cambodia. It is known as the “rice bowl” of South East Asia and has one of the world’s most productive fisheries. Sediment dynamics play a major role for the high productivity of agriculture and fishery in the delta. However, the MD is threatened by climate change, sea level rise and unsustainable development activities in the Mekong Basin. But despite its importance and the expected threats, the understanding of the present and future sediment dynamics in the MD is very limited. This is a consequence of its large extent, the intricate system of rivers, channels and floodplains and the scarcity of observations. Thus this thesis aimed at (1) the quantification of suspended sediment dynamics and associated sediment-nutrient deposition in floodplains of the MD, and (2) assessed the impacts of likely future boundary changes on the sediment dynamics in the MD. The applied methodology combines field experiments and numerical simulation to quantify and predict the sediment dynamics in the entire delta in a spatially explicit manner. The experimental part consists of a comprehensive procedure to monitor quantity and spatial variability of sediment and associated nutrient deposition for large and complex river floodplains, including an uncertainty analysis. The measurement campaign applied 450 sediment mat traps in 19 floodplains over the MD for a complete flood season. The data also supports quantification of nutrient deposition in floodplains based on laboratory analysis of nutrient fractions of trapped sedimentation.The main findings are that the distribution of grain size and nutrient fractions of suspended sediment are homogeneous over the Vietnamese floodplains. But the sediment deposition within and between ring dike floodplains shows very high spatial variability due to a high level of human inference. The experimental findings provide the essential data for setting up and calibration of a large-scale sediment transport model for the MD. For the simulation studies a large scale hydrodynamic model was developed in order to quantify large-scale floodplain sediment dynamics. The complex river-channel-floodplain system of the MD is described by a quasi-2D model linking a hydrodynamic and a cohesive sediment transport model. The floodplains are described as quasi-2D presentations linked to rivers and channels modeled in 1D by using control structures. The model setup, based on the experimental findings, ignored erosion and re-suspension processes due to a very high degree of human interference during the flood season. A two-stage calibration with six objective functions was developed in order to calibrate both the hydrodynamic and sediment transport modules. The objective functions include hydraulic and sediment transport parameters in main rivers, channels and floodplains. The model results show, for the first time, the tempo-spatial distribution of sediment and associated nutrient deposition rates in the whole MD. The patterns of sediment transport and deposition are quantified for different sub-systems. The main factors influencing spatial sediment dynamics are the network of rivers, channels and dike-rings, sluice gate operations, magnitude of the floods and tidal influences. The superposition of these factors leads to high spatial variability of the sediment transport and deposition, in particular in the Vietnamese floodplains. Depending on the flood magnitude, annual sediment loads reaching the coast vary from 48% to 60% of the sediment load at Kratie, the upper boundary of the MD. Deposited sediment varies from 19% to 23% of the annual load at Kratie in Cambodian floodplains, and from 1% to 6% in the compartmented and diked floodplains in Vietnam. Annual deposited nutrients (N, P, K), which are associated to the sediment deposition, provide on average more than 50% of mineral fertilizers typically applied for rice crops in non-flooded ring dike compartments in Vietnam. This large-scale quantification provides a basis for estimating the benefits of the annual Mekong floods for agriculture and fishery, for assessing the impacts of future changes on the delta system, and further studies on coastal deposition/erosion. For the estimation of future prospects a sensitivity-based approach is applied to assess the response of floodplain hydraulics and sediment dynamics to the changes in the delta boundaries including hydropower development, climate change in the Mekong River Basin and effective sea level rise. The developed sediment model is used to simulate the mean sediment transport and sediment deposition in the whole delta system for the baseline (2000-2010) and future (2050-2060) periods. For each driver we derive a plausible range of future changes and discretize it into five levels, resulting in altogether 216 possible factor combinations. Our results thus cover all plausible future pathways of sediment dynamics in the delta based on current knowledge. The uncertainty of the range of the resulting impacts can be decreased in case more information on these drivers becomes available. Our results indicate that the hydropower development dominates the changes in sediment dynamics of the Mekong Delta, while sea level rise has the smallest effect. The floodplains of Vietnamese Mekong Delta are much more sensitive to the changes compared to the other subsystems of the delta. In terms of median changes of the three combined drivers, the inundation extent is predicted to increase slightly, but the overall floodplain sedimentation would be reduced by approximately 40%, while the sediment load to the Sea would diminish to half of the current rates. These findings provide new and valuable information on the possible impacts of future development on the delta, and indicate the most vulnerable areas. Thus, the presented results are a significant contribution to the ongoing international discussion on the hydropower development in the Mekong basin and its impact on the Mekong delta.
What is a radical? Somebody who goes against mainstream opinions? An agitator who suggests transforming society at the risk of endangering its harmony? In the political context of the British Isles at the end of the eighteenth century, the word radical had a negative connotation. It referred to the Levellers and the English Civil War, it brought back a period of history which was felt as a traumatic experience. Its stigmas were still vivid in the mind of the political leaders of these times. The reign of Cromwell was certainly the main reason for the general aversion of any form of virulent contestation of the power, especially when it contained political claims.
In the English political context, radicalism can be understood as the different campaigns for parliamentary reforms establishing universal suffrage. However, it became evident that not all those who were supporting such a reform originated from the same social class or shared the same ideals. As a matter of fact, the reformist associations and their leaders often disagreed with each other. Edward Royle and Hames Walvin claimed that radicalism could not be analyzed historically as a concept, because it was not a homogeneous movement, nor it had common leaders and a clear ideology. For them, radicalism was merely a loose concept, « a state of mind rather than a plan of action. »
At the beginning of the nineteenth-century, the newspaper The Northern Star used the word radical in a positive way to designate a person or a group of people whose ideas were conform to those of the newspaper. However, an opponent of parliamentary reform will use the same word in a negative way, in this case the word radical will convey a notion of menace. From the very beginning, the term radical covered a large spectrum of ideas and conceptions. In fact, the plurality of what the word conveys is the main characteristic of what a radical is. As a consequence, because the radicals tended to differentiate themselves with their plurality and their differences rather than with common features, it seems impossible to define what radicalism (whose suffix in –ism implies that it designate a doctrine, an ideology) is. Nevertheless, today it is accepted by all historians. From the mid-twentieth century, we could say that it was taken from granted to consider radicalism as a movement that fitted with the democratic precepts (universal suffrage, freedom of speech) of our modern world.
Let us first look at radicalism as a convenient way to designate the different popular movements appealing to universal suffrage during the time period 1792-1848. We could easily observe through the successions of men and associations, a long lasting radical state of mind: Cartwright, Horne Tooke, Thomas Hardy, Francis Burdett, William Cobbett, Henry Hunt, William Lovett, Bronterre O’Brien, Feargus O’Connor, The London Society for Constitutional information (SCI), The London Corresponding Society (LCS), The Hampden Clubs, The Chartists, etc. These organizations and people acknowledged having many things in common and being inspired by one another in carrying out their activities. These influences can be seen in the language and the political ideology that British historians name as "Constitutionalist", but also, in the political organization of extra-parliamentary societies. Most of the radicals were eager to redress injustices and, in practice, they were inspired by a plan of actions drawn on from the pamphlets of the True Whigs of the eighteenth-century. We contest the argument that the radicals lacked coherence and imagination or that they did not know how to put into practice their ambitions. In fact, their innovative forms of protest left a mark on history and found many successors in the twentieth century. Radicals’ prevarications were the result of prohibitive legislation that regulated the life of associations and the refusal of the authorities to cooperate with them.
As mentioned above, the term radical was greatly used and the contemporaries of the period starting from the French Revolution to Chartism never had to quarrel about the notions the word radical covered. However, this does not imply that all radicals were the same or that they belong to the same entity. Equally to Horne Tooke, the Reverend and ultra-Tory Stephens was considered as a radical, it went also with the shoemaker Thomas Hardy and the extravagant aristocrat Francis Burdett. Whether one belonged to the Aristocracy, the middle-class, the lower class or the Church, nothing could prevent him from being a radical. Surely, anybody could be a radical in its own way. Radicalism was wide enough to embrace everybody, from revolutionary reformers to paternalistic Tories.
We were interested to clarify the meaning of the term radical because its inclusive nature was overlooked by historians. That’s why the term radical figures in the original title of our dissertation Les voix/voies radicales (radical voices/ways to radicalism). In the French title, both words voix/voies are homonymous; the first one voix (voice) correspond to people, the second one voies (ways) refers to ideas. By this, we wanted to show that the word radical belongs to the sphere of ideas and common experience but also to the nature of human beings.
Methodoloy
The thesis stresses less on the question of class and its formation than on the circumstances that brought people to change their destiny and those of their fellows or to modernize the whole society. We challenged the work of E.P. Thompson, who in his famous book, The Making of the English Working Class, defined the radical movements in accordance with an idea of class.
How a simple shoe-maker, Thomas Hardy, could become the center of attention during a trial where he was accused of being the mastermind of a modern revolution? What brought William Cobbett, an ultra-Tory, self-taught intellectual, to gradually espouse the cause of universal suffrage at a period where it was unpopular to do so? Why a whole population gathered to hear Henry Hunt, a gentleman farmer whose background did not destine him for becoming the champion of the people? It seemed that the easiest way to answer to these questions and to understand the nature of the popular movements consisted in studying the life of their leaders. We aimed at reconstructing the universe which surrounded the principal actors of the reform movements as if we were a privileged witness of theses times.
This idea to associate the biographies of historical characters for a period of more than fifty years arouse when we realized that key events of the reform movements were echoing each other, such the trial of Thomas Hardy in 1794 and the massacre of Peterloo of 1819. The more we learned about the major events of radicalism and the life of their leaders, the more we were intrigued. Finally, one could ask himself if being a radical was not after all a question of character rather than one of class. The different popular movements in favour of a parliamentary reform were in fact far more inclusive and diversified from what historians traditionally let us to believe. For instance, once he manage to gather a sufficient number of members of the popular classes, Thomas Hardy projected to give the control of his association to an intellectual elite led by Horne Tooke.
Moreover, supporters of the radical reforms followed leaders whose background was completely different as theirs. For example, O’Connor claimed royal descent from the ancient kings of Ireland. William Cobbett, owner of a popular newspaper was proud of his origins as a farmer. William Lovett, close to the liberals and a few members of parliament came from a very poor family of fishermen. We have thus put together the life of these five men, Thomas hardy, William Cobbett, Henry Hunt, William Lovett and Feargus O’Connor in order to compose a sort of a saga of the radicals. This association gives us a better idea of the characteristics of the different movements in which they participated, but also, throw light on the circumstances of their formation and their failures, on the particular atmosphere which prevailed at these times, on the men who influenced these epochs, and finally on the marks they had left. These men were at the heart of a whole network and in contact with other actors of peripheral movements. They gathered around themselves close and loyal fellows with whom they shared many struggles but also quarreled and had strong words.
The original part of our approach is reflected in the choice to not consider studying the fluctuations of the radical movements in a linear fashion where the story follows a strict chronology. We decided to split up the main issue of the thesis through different topics. To do so, we simply have described the life of the people who inspired these movements. Each historical figure covers a chapter, and the general story follows a chronological progression. Sometimes we had to go back through time or discuss the same events in different chapters when the main protagonists lived in the same period of time.
Radical movements were influenced by people of different backgrounds. What united them above all was their wish to obtain a normalization of the political world, to redress injustices and obtain parliamentary reform. We paid particular attention to the moments where the life of these men corresponded to an intense activity of the radical movement or to a transition of its ideas and organization. We were not so much interested in their feelings about secondary topics nor did we about their affective relations. Furthermore, we had little interest in their opinions on things which were not connected to our topic unless it helped us to have a better understanding of their personality. We have purposely reduced the description of our protagonists to their radical sphere. Of course we talked about their background and their intellectual development; people are prone to experience reversals of opinions, the case of Cobbett is the most striking one.
The life of these personalities coincided with particular moments of the radical movement, such as the first popular political associations, the first open-air mass meetings, the first popular newspapers, etc. We wanted to emphasize the personalities of those who addressed speeches and who were present in the radical associations. One could argue that the inconvenience of focusing on a particular person presents a high risk of overlooking events and people who were not part of his world. However, it was essential to differ from an analysis or a chronicle which had prevailed in the studies of the radical movements, as we aimed at offering a point of view that completed the precedents works written on that topic. In order to do so, we have deliberately put the humane character of the radical movement at the center of our work and used the techniques of biography as a narrative thread.
Conclusion
The life of each historical figure that we have portrayed corresponded to a particular epoch of the radical movement. Comparing the speeches of the radical leaders over a long period of time, we noticed that the radical ideology evolved. The principles of the Rights of Men faded away and gave place to more concrete reasoning, such as the right to benefit from one’s own labour. This transition is characterized by the Chartist period of Feargus O’Connor. This does not mean that collective memory and radical tradition ceased to play an important part. The popular classes were always appealed to Constitutional rhetoric and popular myths. Indeed, thanks to them they identified themselves and justified their claims to universal suffrage.
We focused on the life of a few influent leaders of radicalism in order to understand its evolution and its nature. The description of their lives constituted our narrative thread and it enabled us to maintain consistency in our thesis. If the chapters are independent the one from the other, events and speeches are in correspondences. Sometimes we could believe that we were witnessing a repetition of facts and events as if history was repeating itself endlessly. However, like technical progress, the spirit of time, Zeitgeist, experiences changes and mutations. These features are fundamental elements to comprehend historical phenomena; the latter cannot be simplified to philosophical, sociological, or historical concept. History is a science which has this particularity that the physical reality of phenomena has a human dimension. As a consequence, it is essential not to lose touch with the human aspect of history when one pursues studies and intellectual activities on a historical phenomenon.
We decided to take a route opposite to the one taken by many historians. We have first identified influential people from different epochs before entering into concepts analysis. Thanks to this compilation of radical leaders, a new and fresh look to the understanding of radicalism was possible. Of course, we were not the first one to have studied them, but we ordered them following a chronology, like Plutarch enjoyed juxtaposing Greeks and Romans historical figures. Thanks to this technique we wanted to highlight the features of the radical leaders’ speeches, personalities and epochs, but also their differences. At last, we tried to draw the outlines and the heart of different radical movements in order to follow the ways that led to radicalism. We do not pretend to have offered an original and exclusive definition of radicalism, we mainly wanted to understand the nature of what defines somebody as a radical and explain the reasons why thousands of people decided to believe in this man. Moreover, we wanted to distance ourselves from the ideological debate of the Cold War which permeated also the interpretation of past events. Too often, the history of radicalism was either narrated with a form of revolutionary nostalgia or in order to praise the merits of liberalism.
If the great mass meetings ends in the mid-nineteenth-century with the fall of Chartism, this practice spread out in the whole world in the twentieth-century. Incidentally, the Arab Spring of the beginning of the twenty-first-century demonstrated that a popular platform was the best way for the people to claim their rights and destabilize a political system which they found too authoritative. Through protest the people express an essential quality of revolt, which is an expression of emancipation from fear. From then on, a despotic regime loses this psychological terror which helped it to maintain itself into power. The balance of power between the government and its people would also take a new turn. The radicals won this psychological victory more than 150 years ago and yet universal suffrage was obtained only a century later. From the acceptance of the principles of liberties to their cultural practice, a long route has to be taken to change people’s mind. It is a wearisome struggle for the most vulnerable people. In the light of western history, fundamental liberties must be constantly defended. Paradoxically, revolt is an essential and constitutive element of the maintenance of democracy.
Der Begriff Altruismus geht auf Auguste Comte, den Gründer der Soziologie zurück. Es bezeichnet zugleich Uneigennütziges als auch selbstloses Verhalten von Individuen und wird daher oft dem egoistischen Verhalten gegenübergestellt. Die zahlreichen Anhänger des rationalen-egoistischem Paradigma lehnen die Idee der altruistischen Natur des Menschen meist ab, wohingegen die Anhänger des Altruismus nicht nur schwerer zu finden sind, sondern vor allem die Idee einer rein egoistischen Natur ablehnen. Diese Arbeit untersucht die Altruismus-Begriffe der Soziologen Emile Durkheim und James Coleman, welche die Kontroverse zwischen den unterschiedlichen Paradigmen wiederspiegeln. Ziel dieser Arbeit wird es sein, die unterschiedlichen Altruismus-Konzepte von Durkheim und Coleman zunächst vorzustellen, anschließend einander gegenüberzustellen und darauf folgend zu untersuchen, welche Auswirkung ihre unterschiedlichen Weltanschauungen, Prämissen und Methodologien auf ihr Verständnis von der Logik des selbstlosen Gebens haben. Durch den Vergleich soll versucht werden die Grenzen beider Theorien aufzuzeigen und damit auch ein Ausweg aus dem methodologischem Disput, welcher folglich zur Überwindung der Altruismus-Egoismus Kontroverse beitragen soll.
The work elaborates on the question if coaches in non-professional soccer can influence referee decisions. Modeled from a principal-agent perspective, the managing referee boards can be seen as the principal. They aim at facilitating a fair competition which is in accordance with the existing rules and regulations. In doing so, the referees are assigned as impartial agents on the pitch. The coaches take over a non-legitimate principal-like role trying to influence the referees even though they do not have the formal right to do so.
Separate questionnaires were set up for referees and coaches. The coach questionnaire aimed at identifying the extent and the forms of influencing attempts by coaches. The referee questionnaire tried to elaborate on the questions if referees take notice of possible influencing attempts and how they react accordingly.
The results were put into relation with official match data in order to identify significant influences on personal sanctions (yellow cards, second yellow cards, red cards) and the match result.
It is found that there is a slight effect on the referee’s decisions. However, this effect is rather disadvantageous for the influencing coach and there is no evidence for an impact on the match result itself.
Hemocompatible materials are needed for internal and extracorporeal biomedical applications, which should be realizable by reducing protein and thrombocyte adhesion to such materials. Polyethers have been demonstrated to be highly efficient in this respect on smooth surfaces. Here, we investigate the grafting of oligo- and polyglycerols to rough poly(ether imide) membranes as a polymer relevant to biomedical applications and show the reduction of protein and thrombocyte adhesion as well as thrombocyte activation. It could be demonstrated that, by performing surface grafting with oligo- and polyglycerols of relatively high polydispersity (>1.5) and several reactive groups for surface anchoring, full surface shielding can be reached, which leads to reduced protein adsorption of albumin and fibrinogen. In addition, adherent thrombocytes were not activated. This could be clearly shown by immunostaining adherent proteins and analyzing the thrombocyte covered area. The presented work provides an important strategy for the development of application relevant hemocompatible 3D structured materials.
A vector error correction model for the relationship between public debt and inflation in Germany
(2014)
In the paper, the interaction between public debt and inflation including mutual impulse response will be analysed. The European sovereign debt crisis brought once again the focus on the consequences of public debt in combination with an expansive monetary policy for the development of consumer prices. Public deficits can lead to inflation if the money supply is expansive. The high level of national debt, not only in the Euro-crisis countries, and the strong increase in total assets of the European Central Bank, as a result of the unconventional monetary policy, caused fears on inflating national debt. The transmission from public debt to inflation through money supply and long-term interest rate will be shown in the paper. Based on these theoretical thoughts, the variables public debt, consumer price index, money supply m3 and long-term interest rate will be analysed within a vector error correction model estimated by Johansen approach. In the empirical part of the article, quarterly data for Germany from 1991 by 2010 are to be examined.
The system of German capitalisation seems to be based on dissimilar levels of linguistic description, i. e. semantics, morphology, and syntax. This leads to several competing scientific models as well as a large range of different rules which appear to be widely autonomous and incompatible with each other. This paper opens an integrative view on the topic by focussing on a pragmatic perspective, which is capable not only on integrating all major application areas of German capitalisation but also of motivating them. Based on theDiscourse Representation Theory (DRT) the text pragmatic model can add a functional perspective to established theories by making similar predictions on capitalisation but additionally specifying communicative reasons for them. Therefore it claims explanatory adequacy from the functional perspective.
Knowing the rates and mechanisms of geomorphic process that shape the Earth’s surface is crucial to understand landscape evolution. Modern methods for estimating denudation rates enable us to quantitatively express and compare processes of landscape downwearing that can be traced through time and space—from the seemingly intact, though intensely shattered, phantom blocks of the catastrophically fragmented basal facies of giant rockslides up to denudational noise in orogen-wide data sets averaging over several millennia. This great variety of spatiotemporal scales of denudation rates is both boon and bane of geomorphic process rates. Indeed, processes of landscape downwearing can be traced far back in time, helping us to understand the Earth’s evolution. Yet, this benefit may turn into a drawback due to scaling issues if these rates are to be compared across different observation timescales.
This thesis investigates the mechanisms, patterns and rates of landscape downwearing across the Himalaya-Tibet orogen.
Accounting for the spatiotemporal variability of denudation processes, this thesis addresses landscape downwearing on three distinctly different spatial scales, starting off at the local scale of individual hillslopes where considerable amounts of debris are generated from rock instantaneously: Rocksliding in active mountains is a major impetus of landscape downwearing. Study I provides a systematic overview of the internal sedimentology of giant rockslide deposits and thus meets the challenge of distinguishing them from macroscopically and microscopically similar glacial deposits, tectonic fault-zone breccias, and impact breccias. This distinction is important to avoid erroneous or misleading deduction of paleoclimatic or tectonic implications. -> Grain size analysis shows that rockslide-derived micro-breccia closely resemble those from meteorite impact or tectonic faults. -> Frictionite may occur more frequently that previously assumed. -> Mössbauer-spectroscopy derived results indicate basal rock melting in the absence of water, involving short-term temperatures of >1500°C.
Zooming out, Study II tracks the fate of these sediments, using the example of the upper Indus River, NW India. There we use river sand samples from the Indus and its tributaries to estimate basin-averaged denudation rates along a ~320-km reach across the Tibetan Plateau margin, to answer the question whether incision into the western Tibetan Plateau margin is currently active or not. -> We find an about one-order-of-magnitude upstream decay—from 110 to 10 mm kyr^-1—of cosmogenic Be-10-derived basin-wide denudation rates across the morphological knickpoint that marks the transition from the Transhimalayan ranges to the Tibetan Plateau. This trend is corroborated by independent bulk petrographic and heavy mineral analysis of the same samples. -> From the observation that tributary-derived basin-wide denudation rates do not increase markedly until ~150–200 km downstream of the topographic plateau margin we conclude that incision into the Tibetan Plateau is inactive. -> Comparing our postglacial Be-10-derived denudation rates to long-term (>10^6 yr) estimates from low-temperature thermochronometry, ranging from 100 to 750 mm kyr^-1, points to an order- of-magnitude decay of rates of landscape downwearing towards present. We infer that denudation rates must have been higher in the Quaternary, probably promoted by the interplay of glacial and interglacial stages.
Our investigation of regional denudation patterns in the upper Indus finally is an integral part of Study III that synthesizes denudation of the Himalaya-Tibet orogen. In order to identify general and time-invariant predictors for Be-10-derived denudation rates we analyze tectonic, climatic and topographic metrics from an inventory of 297 drainage basins from various parts of the orogen. Aiming to get insight to the full response distributions of denudation rate to tectonic, climatic and topographic candidate predictors, we apply quantile regression instead of ordinary least squares regression, which has been standard analysis tool in previous studies that looked for denudation rate predictors. -> We use principal component analysis to reduce our set of 26 candidate predictors, ending up with just three out of these: Aridity Index, topographic steepness index, and precipitation of the coldest quarter of the year. -> Topographic steepness index proves to perform best during additive quantile regression. Our consequent prediction of denudation rates on the basin scale involves prediction errors that remain between 5 and 10 mm kyr^-1. -> We conclude that while topographic metrics such as river-channel steepness and slope gradient—being representative on timescales that our cosmogenic Be-10-derived denudation rates integrate over—generally appear to be more suited as predictors than climatic and tectonic metrics based on decadal records.
Hemolysis, the rupturing of red blood cells, can result from numerous medical conditions (in vivo) or occur after collecting blood specimen or extracting plasma and serum out of whole blood (in vitro). In clinical laboratory practice, hemolysis can be a serious problem due to its potential to bias detection of various analytes or biomarkers. Here we present the first ‘‘mix-and-measure’’ method to assess the degree of hemolysis in biosamples using luminescence spectroscopy. Luminescent terbium complexes (LTC) were studied in the presence of free hemoglobin (Hb) as indicators for hemolysis in TRIS-buffer, and in fresh human plasma with absorption, excitation and emission measurements. Our findings indicate dynamic as well as resonance energy transfer (FRET) between the LTC and the porphyrin ligand of hemoglobin. This transfer leads to a decrease in luminescence intensity and decay time even at nanomolar hemoglobin concentrations either in buffer or plasma. Luminescent terbium complexes are very sensitive to free hemoglobin in buffer and blood plasma. Due to the instant change in luminescence properties of the LTC in presence of Hb it is possible to access the concentration of hemoglobin via spectroscopic methods without incubation time or further treatment of the sample thus enabling a rapid and sensitive detection of hemolysis in clinical diagnostics.
The B fields in OB stars (BOB) survey is an ESO large programme collecting spectropolarimetric observations for a large number of early-type stars in order to study the occurrence rate, properties, and ultimately the origin of magnetic fields in massive stars. As of July 2014, a total of 98 objects were observed over 20 nights with FORS2 and HARPSpol. Our preliminary results indicate that the fraction of magnetic OB stars with an organised, detectable field is low. This conclusion, now independently reached by two different surveys, has profound implications for any theoretical model attempting to explain the field formation in these objects. We discuss in this contribution some important issues addressed by our observations (e.g., the lower bound of the field strength) and the discovery of some remarkable objects.
Co-doping of the MOF 3∞[Zn(2-methylimidazolate-4-amide-5-imidate)] (IFP-1 = Imidazolate Framework Potsdam-1) with luminescent Eu3+ and Tb3+ ions presents an approach to utilize the porosity of the MOF for the intercalation of luminescence centers and for tuning of the chromaticity to the emission of white light of the quality of a three color emitter. Organic based fluorescence processes of the MOF backbone as well as metal based luminescence of the dopants are combined to one homogenous single source emitter while retaining the MOF's porosity. The lanthanide ions Eu3+ and Tb3+ were doped in situ into IFP-1 upon formation of the MOF by intercalation into the micropores of the growing framework without a structure directing effect. Furthermore, the color point is temperature sensitive, so that a cold white light with a higher blue content is observed at 77 K and a warmer white light at room temperature (RT) due to the reduction of the organic emission at higher temperatures. The study further illustrates the dependence of the amount of luminescent ions on porosity and sorption properties of the MOF and proves the intercalation of luminescence centers into the pore system by low-temperature site selective photoluminescence spectroscopy, SEM and EDX. It also covers an investigation of the border of homogenous uptake within the MOF pores and the formation of secondary phases of lanthanide formates on the surface of the MOF. Crossing the border from a homogenous co-doping to a two-phase composite system can be beneficially used to adjust the character and warmth of the white light. This study also describes two-color emitters of the formula Ln@IFP-1a–d (Ln: Eu, Tb) by doping with just one lanthanide Eu3+ or Tb3+.
Arsenic-containing hydrocarbons (AsHC) constitute one group of arsenolipids that have been identified in seafood. In this first in vivo toxicity study for AsHCs, we show that AsHCs exert toxic effects in Drosophila melanogaster in a concentration range similar to that of arsenite. In contrast to arsenite, however, AsHCs cause developmental toxicity in the late developmental stages of Drosophila melanogaster. This work illustrates the need for a full characterisation of the toxicity of AsHCs in experimental animals to finally assess the risk to human health related to the presence of arsenolipids in seafood.
Arsenic-containing hydrocarbons are one group of fat-soluble organic arsenic compounds (arsenolipids) found in marine fish and other seafood. A risk assessment of arsenolipids is urgently needed, but has not been possible because of the total lack of toxicological data. In this study the cellular toxicity of three arsenic-containing hydrocarbons was investigated in cultured human bladder (UROtsa) and liver (HepG2) cells. Cytotoxicity of the arsenic-containing hydrocarbons was comparable to that of arsenite, which was applied as the toxic reference arsenical. A large cellular accumulation of arsenic, as measured by ICP-MS/MS, was observed after incubation of both cell lines with the arsenolipids. Moreover, the toxic mode of action shown by the three arsenic-containing hydrocarbons seemed to differ from that observed for arsenite. Evidence suggests that the high cytotoxic potential of the lipophilic arsenicals results from a decrease in the cellular energy level. This first in vitro based risk assessment cannot exclude a risk to human health related to the presence of arsenolipids in seafood, and indicates the urgent need for further toxicity studies in experimental animals to fully assess this possible risk.
Process models specify behavioral execution constraints between activities as well as between activities and data objects. A data object is characterized by its states and state transitions represented as object life cycle. For process execution, all behavioral execution constraints must be correct. Correctness can be verified via soundness checking which currently only considers control flow information. For data correctness, conformance between a process model and its object life cycles is checked. Current approaches abstract from dependencies between multiple data objects and require fully specified process models although, in real-world process repositories, often underspecified models are found. Coping with these issues, we introduce the concept of synchronized object life cycles and we define a mapping of data constraints of a process model to Petri nets extending an existing mapping. Further, we apply the notion of weak conformance to process models to tell whether each time an activity needs to access a data object in a particular state, it is guaranteed that the data object is in or can reach the expected state. Then, we introduce an algorithm for an integrated verification of control flow correctness and weak data conformance using soundness checking.
Modern microscopic techniques following the stochastic motion of labelled tracer particles have uncovered significant deviations from the laws of Brownian motion in a variety of animate and inanimate systems. Such anomalous diffusion can have different physical origins, which can be identified from careful data analysis. In particular, single particle tracking provides the entire trajectory of the traced particle, which allows one to evaluate different observables to quantify the dynamics of the system under observation. We here provide an extensive overview over different popular anomalous diffusion models and their properties. We pay special attention to their ergodic properties, highlighting the fact that in several of these models the long time averaged mean squared displacement shows a distinct disparity to the regular, ensemble averaged mean squared displacement. In these cases, data obtained from time averages cannot be interpreted by the standard theoretical results for the ensemble averages. Here we therefore provide a comparison of the main properties of the time averaged mean squared displacement and its statistical behaviour in terms of the scatter of the amplitudes between the time averages obtained from different trajectories. We especially demonstrate how anomalous dynamics may be identified for systems, which, on first sight, appear to be Brownian. Moreover, we discuss the ergodicity breaking parameters for the different anomalous stochastic processes and showcase the physical origins for the various behaviours. This Perspective is intended as a guidebook for both experimentalists and theorists working on systems, which exhibit anomalous diffusion.
Es ist in dieser Arbeit gelungen, starre Oligospiroketal(OSK)-Stäbe als Grundbausteine für komplexe 2D- und 3D-Systeme zu verwenden. Dazu wurde ein difunktionalisierter starrer Stab synthetisiert, der mit seines Gleichen und anderen verzweigten Funktionalisierungseinheiten in Azid-Alkin-Klickreaktionen eingesetzt wurde. An zwei über Klickreaktion verknüpften OSK-Stäben konnten mittels theoretischer Berechnungen Aussagen über die neuartige Bimodalität der Konformation getroffen werden. Es wurde dafür der Begriff Gelenkstab eingeführt, da die Moleküle um ein Gelenk gedreht sowohl gestreckt als auch geknickt vorliegen können. Aufbauend auf diesen Erkenntnissen konnte gezeigt werden, dass nicht nur gezielt große Polymere aus bis zu vier OSK-Stäben synthetisiert werden können, sondern es auch möglich ist, durch gezielte Änderung von Reaktionsbedingungen der Klickreaktion auch Cyclen aus starren OSK-Stäben herzustellen. Die neu entwickelte Substanzklasse der Gelenkstäbe wurde im Hinblick auf die Steuerung des vorliegenden Gleichgewichts zwischen geknicktem und gestrecktem Gelenkstab hin untersucht. Dafür wurde der Gelenkstab mit Pyrenylresten in terminaler Position versehen. Es wurde durch Fluoreszenzmessungen festgestellt, dass das Gleichgewicht z. B. durch die Temperatur oder die Wahl des Lösungsmittels beeinflussbar ist. Für vielfache Anwendungen wurde eine vereinfachte Synthesestrategie gefunden, mit der eine beliebige Funktionalisierung in nur einem Syntheseschritt erreicht werden konnte. Es konnten photoaktive Gelenkstäbe synthetisiert werden, die gezielt zur intramolekularen Dimerisierung geführt werden konnten. Zusätzlich wurde durch Aminosäuren ein Verknüpfungselement am Ende der Gelenkstäbe gefunden, das eine stereoselektive Synthese von Mehrfachfunktionalisierungen zulässt. Die Synthese der komplexen Gelenkstäbe wurde als ein neuartiges Gebiet aufgezeigt und bietet ein breites Forschungspotential für weitere Anwendungen z. B. in der Biologie (als molekulare Schalter für Ionentransporte) und in der Materialchemie (als Ladungs- oder Energietransporteure).