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Background Transcatheter aortic-valve implantation (TAVI) is an established alternative therapy in patients with severe aortic stenosis and a high surgical risk. Despite a rapid growth in its use, very few data exist about the efficacy of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) in these patients. We assessed the hypothesis that patients after TAVI benefit from CR, compared to patients after surgical aortic-valve replacement (sAVR).
Methods From September 2009 to August 2011, 442 consecutive patients after TAVI (n=76) or sAVR (n=366) were referred to a 3-week CR. Data regarding patient characteristics as well as changes of functional (6-min walk test. 6-MWT), bicycle exercise test), and emotional status (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were retrospectively evaluated and compared between groups after propensity score adjustment.
Results Patients after TAVI were significantly older (p<0.001), more female (p<0.001), and had more often coronary artery disease (p=0.027), renal failure (p=0.012) and a pacemaker (p=0.032). During CR, distance in 6-MWT (both groups p0.001) and exercise capacity (sAVR p0.001, TAVI p0.05) significantly increased in both groups. Only patients after sAVR demonstrated a significant reduction in anxiety and depression (p0.001). After propensity scores adjustment, changes were not significantly different between sAVR and TAVI, with the exception of 6-MWT (p=0.004).
Conclusions Patients after TAVI benefit from cardiac rehabilitation despite their older age and comorbidities. CR is a helpful tool to maintain independency for daily life activities and participation in socio-cultural life.
This paper reports a problematic case of unequivocally evidencing participant orientation to the projective force of some turn-initial demonstrative wh-clefts (DCs) within the framework of Conversation Analysis (CA) and Interactional Linguistics (IL). Conducting rhythmic analyses appears helpful in this regard, in that they disclose rhythmic regularities which suggest a speaker's orientation towards a projected turn continuation. In this particular case, rhythmic analyses can therefore be shown to meaningfully complement sequential analyses and analyses of turn-design, so as to gather additional evidence for participant orientations. In conclusion, I will point to possibly more extensive relations between rhythmicity and projection and proffer a tentative outlook for the usability of rhythmic analyses as an analytic tool in CA and IL.
In today’s life, embedded systems are ubiquitous. But they differ from traditional desktop systems in many aspects – these include predictable timing behavior (real-time), the management of scarce resources (memory, network), reliable communication protocols, energy management, special purpose user-interfaces (headless operation), system configuration, programming languages (to support software/hardware co-design), and modeling techniques. Within this technical report, authors present results from the lecture “Operating Systems for Embedded Computing” that has been offered by the “Operating Systems and Middleware” group at HPI in Winter term 2013/14. Focus of the lecture and accompanying projects was on principles of real-time computing. Students had the chance to gather practical experience with a number of different OSes and applications and present experiences with near-hardware programming. Projects address the entire spectrum, from bare-metal programming to harnessing a real-time OS to exercising the full software/hardware co-design cycle. Three outstanding projects are at the heart of this technical report. Project 1 focuses on the development of a bare-metal operating system for LEGO Mindstorms EV3. While still a toy, it comes with a powerful ARM processor, 64 MB of main memory, standard interfaces, such as Bluetooth and network protocol stacks. EV3 runs a version of 1 1 Introduction Linux. Sources are available from Lego’s web site. However, many devices and their driver software are proprietary and not well documented. Developing a new, bare-metal OS for the EV3 requires an understanding of the EV3 boot process. Since no standard input/output devices are available, initial debugging steps are tedious. After managing these initial steps, the project was able to adapt device drivers for a few Lego devices to an extent that a demonstrator (the Segway application) could be successfully run on the new OS. Project 2 looks at the EV3 from a different angle. The EV3 is running a pretty decent version of Linux- in principle, the RT_PREEMPT patch can turn any Linux system into a real-time OS by modifying the behavior of a number of synchronization constructs at the heart of the OS. Priority inversion is a problem that is solved by protocols such as priority inheritance or priority ceiling. Real-time OSes implement at least one of the protocols. The central idea of the project was the comparison of non-real-time and real-time variants of Linux on the EV3 hardware. A task set that showed effects of priority inversion on standard EV3 Linux would operate flawlessly on the Linux version with the RT_PREEMPT-patch applied. If only patching Lego’s version of Linux was that easy... Project 3 takes the notion of real-time computing more seriously. The application scenario was centered around our Carrera Digital 132 racetrack. Obtaining position information from the track, controlling individual cars, detecting and modifying the Carrera Digital protocol required design and implementation of custom controller hardware. What to implement in hardware, firmware, and what to implement in application software – this was the central question addressed by the project.
Bats are important components in tropical mammal assemblages. Unravelling the mechanisms allowing multiple syntopic bat species to coexist can provide insights into community ecology. However, dietary information on component species of these assemblages is often difficult to obtain. Here we measuredstable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in hair samples clipped from the backs of 94 specimens to indirectly examine whether trophic niche differentiation and microhabitat segregation explain the coexistence of 16 bat species at Ankarana, northern Madagascar. The assemblage ranged over 4.4% in delta N-15 and was structured into two trophic levels with phytophagous Pteropodidae as primary consumers (c. 3% enriched over plants) and different insectivorous bats as secondary consumers (c. 4% enriched over primary consumers). Bat species utilizing different microhabitats formed distinct isotopic clusters (metric analyses of delta C-13-delta N-15 bi-plots), but taxa foraging in the same microhabitat did not show more pronounced trophic differentiation than those occupying different microhabitats. As revealed by multivariate analyses, no discernible feeding competition was found in the local assemblage amongst congeneric species as compared with non-congeners. In contrast to ecological niche theory, but in accordance with studies on New and Old World bat assemblages, competitive interactions appear to be relaxed at Ankarana and not a prevailing structuring force.
Ultraschall Berlin
(2014)
Masked priming research with late (non-native) bilinguals has reported facilitation effects following morphologically derived prime words (scanner - scan). However, unlike for native speakers, there are suggestions that purely orthographic prime-target overlap (scandal - scan) also produces priming in non-native visual word recognition. Our study directly compares orthographically related and derived prime-target pairs. While native readers showed morphological but not formal overlap priming, the two prime types yielded the same magnitudes of facilitation for non-natives. We argue that early word recognition processes in a non-native language are more influenced by surface-form properties than in one's native language.
The Babylonian Talmud (BT) attributes the idea of committing a transgression for the sake of God to R. Nahman b. Isaac (RNBI). RNBI's statement appears in two parallel sugyot in the BT (Nazir 23a; Horayot 10a). Each sugya has four textual witnesses. By comparing these textual witnesses, this paper will attempt to reconstruct the sugya's earlier (or, what some might term, original) dialectical form, from which the two familiar versions of the text in Nazir and Horayot evolved. This article reveals the specific ways in which, value-laden conceptualizations have a major impact on the Talmud's formulation, as we know it today.
Synchronization is a fundamental phenomenon in nature. It can be considered as a general property of self-sustained oscillators to adjust their rhythm in the presence of an interaction.
In this work we investigate complex regimes of synchronization phenomena by means of theoretical analysis, numerical modeling, as well as practical analysis of experimental data.
As a subject of our investigation we consider chimera state, where due to spontaneous symmetry-breaking of an initially homogeneous oscillators lattice split the system into two parts with different dynamics. Chimera state as a new synchronization phenomenon was first found in non-locally coupled oscillators system, and has attracted a lot of attention in the last decade. However, the recent studies indicate that this state is also possible in globally coupled systems. In the first part of this work, we show under which conditions the chimera-like state appears in a system of globally coupled identical oscillators with intrinsic delayed feedback. The results of the research explain how initially monostable oscillators became effectivly bistable in the presence of the coupling and create a mean field that sustain the coexistence of synchronized and desynchronized states. Also we discuss other examples, where chimera-like state appears due to frequency dependence of the phase shift in the bistable system.
In the second part, we make further investigation of this topic by modeling influence of an external periodic force to an oscillator with intrinsic delayed feedback. We made stability analysis of the synchronized state and constructed Arnold tongues. The results explain formation of the chimera-like state and hysteric behavior of the synchronization area. Also, we consider two sets of parameters of the oscillator with symmetric and asymmetric Arnold tongues, that correspond to mono- and bi-stable regimes of the oscillator.
In the third part, we demonstrate the results of the work, which was done in collaboration with our colleagues from Psychology Department of University of Potsdam. The project aimed to study the effect of the cardiac rhythm on human perception of time using synchronization analysis. From our part, we made a statistical analysis of the data obtained from the conducted experiment on free time interval reproduction task. We examined how ones heartbeat influences the time perception and searched for possible phase synchronization between heartbeat cycles and time reproduction responses. The findings support the prediction that cardiac cycles can serve as input signals, and is used for reproduction of time intervals in the range of several seconds.
Polyadenylation is a decisive 3’ end processing step during the maturation of pre-mRNAs. The length of the poly(A) tail has an impact on mRNA stability, localization and translatability. Accordingly, many eukaryotic organisms encode several copies of canonical poly(A) polymerases (cPAPs). The disruption of cPAPs in mammals results in lethality. In plants, reduced cPAP activity is non-lethal. Arabidopsis encodes three nuclear cPAPs, PAPS1, PAPS2 and PAPS4, which are constitutively expressed throughout the plant. Recently, the detailed analysis of Arabidopsis paps1 mutants revealed a subset of genes that is preferentially polyadenylated by the cPAP isoform PAPS1 (Vi et al. 2013). Thus, the specialization of cPAPs might allow the regulation of different sets of genes in order to optimally face developmental or environmental challenges.
To gain insights into the cPAP-based gene regulation in plants, the phenotypes of Arabidopsis cPAPs mutants under different conditions are characterized in detail in the following work. An involvement of all three cPAPs in flowering time regulation and stress response regulation is shown. While paps1 knockdown mutants flower early, paps4 and paps2 paps4 knockout mutants exhibit a moderate late-flowering phenotype. PAPS1 promotes the expression of the major flowering inhibitor FLC, supposedly by specific polyadenylation of an FLC activator. PAPS2 and PAPS4 exhibit partially overlapping functions and ensure timely flowering by repressing FLC and at least one other unidentified flowering inhibitor. The latter two cPAPs act in a novel regulatory pathway downstream of the autonomous pathway component FCA and act independently from the polyadenylation factors and flowering time regulators CstF64 and FY. Moreover, PAPS1 and PAPS2/PAPS4 are implicated in different stress response pathways in Arabidopsis. Reduced activity of the poly(A) polymerase PAPS1 results in enhanced resistance to osmotic and oxidative stress. Simultaneously, paps1 mutants are cold-sensitive. In contrast, PAPS2/PAPS4 are not involved in the regulation of osmotic or cold stress, but paps2 paps4 loss-of-function mutants exhibit enhanced sensitivity to oxidative stress provoked in the chloroplast. Thus, both PAPS1 and PAPS2/PAPS4 are required to maintain a balanced redox state in plants. PAPS1 seems to fulfil this function in concert with CPSF30, a polyadenylation factor that regulates alternative polyadenylation and tolerance to oxidative stress.
The individual paps mutant phenotypes and the cPAP-specific genetic interactions support the model of cPAP-dependent polyadenylation of selected mRNAs. The high similarity of the polyadenylation machineries in yeast, mammals and plants suggests that similar regulatory mechanisms might be present in other organism groups. The cPAP-dependent developmental and physiological pathways identified in this work allow the design of targeted experiments to better understand the ecological and molecular context underlying cPAP-specialization.
We establish in this paper the existence of weak solutions of infinite-dimensional shift invariant stochastic differential equations driven by a Brownian term. The drift function is very general, in the sense that it is supposed to be neither small or continuous, nor Markov. On the initial law we only assume that it admits a finite specific entropy. Our result strongly improves the previous ones obtained for free dynamics with a small perturbative drift. The originality of our method leads in the use of the specific entropy as a tightness tool and on a description of such stochastic differential equation as solution of a variational problem on the path space.
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.
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.
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+.
Rezensiertes Werk:
George, Rosemary Marangoly, Indian English and the Fiction of National Literature - Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. - Hb. viii, 285 pp. - (Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik ; 62(4)) ISBN 978-1-107-04000-7.
The large-scale green synthesis of graphene-type two-dimensional materials is still challenging. Herein, we describe the ionothermal synthesis of carbon-based composites from fructose in the iron-containing ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrachloridoferrate(III), [Bmim][FeCl4] serving as solvent, catalyst, and template for product formation. The resulting composites consist of oligo-layer graphite nanoflakes and iron carbide particles. The mesoporosity, strong magnetic moment, and high specific surface area of the composites make them attractive for water purification with facile magnetic separation. Moreover, Fe3Cfree graphite can be obtained via acid etching, providing access to fairly large amounts of graphite material. The current approach is versatile and scalable, and thus opens the door to ionothermal synthesis towards the larger-scale synthesis of materials that are, although not made via a sustainable process, useful for water treatment such as the removal of organic molecules.
התזות של העבודה
תקופת חז"ל
1. איסור הנישואין מתייחס לשתי נשים – מעוברת ומנקת, ובהתאם לסוגיה הסתמאית בבבלי יבמות, מדובר באיסור שטעמו אחד. למרות תפיסה מקובלת זו, להערכתנו בהלכה הקדומה מדובר היה בשני איסורים שונים: איסור נישואי מעוברת חברו ואיסור נישואי מנקת שמת בעלה.
למסקנה זו הגענו כתוצאה משורה של ראיות:
א. הסוגיה הסתמאית במסכת יבמות מעוררת קשיים רבים (אשר פורטו בעמ' לעבודתנו). קשיים אלה והעובדה כי במחקר המודרני נהוג לשייך סוגיות סתמאיות לסוף תקופת האמוראים ואף לאחר מכן, הביאו אותנו לשער כי סוגיה זו משקפת הצגה מאוחרת של טעם הדין. טעם שונה של הדין מצוי במקורות תנאיים, והוא המשקף כנראה את טעמו הקדום של הדין .
ב. שניים מתוך שלושת המקורות התנאיים, עוסקים האחד רק במנקת והשני רק במעוברת, ולא בשתי הנשים יחד.
ג. ניתוח הלשון של המקורות, מצביע על שורה של שינויים משמעותיים, אשר יש בהם כדי ללמד כי מדובר באיסורים שונים.
2. בהלכה הקדומה נתפס איסור נישואי "מעוברת חברו" כאיסור חמור, והוא הוסמך לפסוקים מהתנ"ך שאסרו הסגת גבול. בשלב מאוחר יותר בתקופת התנאים האיסור פורש ככזה שנועד להבטיח את הנקתו של הילד, צורפה לאיסור הקביעה כי אין לשאת אלמנה מנקת, והיחס לאיסור היה מקל יותר.
למסקנה זו הגענו כתוצאה מהדברים הבאים:
א. בניגוד למקורות תנאיים שנקטו בגישה מקלה במגוון עניינים, ישנם מספר מקורות המציגים גישה מחמירה – לפיה מי שעבר ונשא אלמנה בניגוד לאיסור, "יוציא ולא יחזיר עולמית".
ב. משורה של מקורות שעסקו בדין סוטה, ניכר כי העמדה ההלכתית הקדומה נקטה בגישה לפיה מי שעבר ונשא אלמנה בניגוד לדין והוא חושד כי אשתו סטתה, אינו משקה אותה מי סוטה, שכן היא אסורה עליו עולמית. גישה מקלה יותר, לפיה יכול הוא להפרישה ולהחזירה לאחר זמן ולכן יש טעם בהשקאת הסוטה במקרה כגון זה, התגבשה בספרות התנאית רק בשלב מאוחר יותר. במקביל וללא קשר לדיני סוטה, התפתחה אצל התנאים גישה מקלה, לפיה ישנם חריגים משמעותיים לאיסור נישואי האלמנה (כגון: כאשר הילד נגמל; כאשר הילד נמסר למנקת).
ג. מקור תנאי שעסק רק במעוברת חברו ולא במנקת שמת בעלה, נקט בגישה המחמירה ("יוציא ולא יחזיר עולמית") ולא הזכיר כלל קיומה של גישה מקלה ("יכול הוא להפרישה ולהחזירה לאחר זמן".
ד. מקורות תנאיים בספרות ארץ-ישראלית (מדרש הלכה, התוספתא וברייתא בירושלמי), ראו במי שעבר ונשא כמי שעבר על איסור הנמסך לפסוקים מהתנ"ך (ספר דברים וספר משלי) והאוסרים הסגת גבול. הצענו להבין את הסגת הגבול כמתארת מסגרת שייכות, ולפיה אלמנה שייכת לבעלה המנוח וזאת בכל הקושר לחובתה להבטחת זרעו.
ה. חוקרים (כגון י' גילת) הצביעו על תופעה המאפיינת את המעבר מההלכה הקדומה אל משנתם של התנאים לאחר החורבן: מעבר מגישה מחמירה אשר אינה מכירה בהבחנה בין דין שמעמדו מדאורייתא לדין שמעמדו מדרבנן, אל גישה מקלה יותר המשתלבת עם הנמקה שונה של האיסורים הקדומים והעמדתם במעמד של דרבנן בלבד.
ו. אנו משערים, למרות שהדבר אינו בר הוכחה חותכת, כי תהליך דומה פקד את הדין בו אנו עוסקים: בהלכה הקדומה נאסרה מעוברת חברו, מכוח הפסוק המקראי האוסר על הסגת גבול. איסור זה נחשב כאיסור מהתורה, ולכן היה בו כדי לדחות את מצוות השקאת הסוטה. בשלב מאוחר יותר, כאשר המוסג השגת גבול בכל הנוגע לאלמנה נראה פחות מתאים (בין השאר, הואיל ואלמנה "קונה עצמה" במיתת הבעל – כדברי המשנה בקידושין), הוצע טעם חדש לאיסור – הפגיעה האפשרית בחלב האם. לאור הנמקה זו, חבר אל איסור נישואי מעוברת חברו, גם האיסור לשאת מנקת שמת בעלה, והאיסור בכללותו נתפס בקרב התנאים כאיסור מדרבנן בלבד ושחומרתו קלה יותר. בשלב זה, הפכה הדעה לפיה מי שעבר ונשא "יוציא ולא יחזיר עולמית" לדעת יחיד בלבד(דעת ר' מאיר), ואילו הרבים קבעו כי "יכול הוא להפרישה ולהחזירה לאחר זמן".
3. בתום תקופת האמוראים ואולי אף בתקופה הסבוראית, הוחלט לאמץ את העמדות המחמירות יותר בכל הנוגע לאיסור הנישואין. נקבע כי מלבד מקרה של מות הילד, אין לאיסור חריגים, והאיסור חל גם כאשר הילד כבר אינו יונק. כמו כן נקבע כי משך ההמתנה הנדרש הוא 24 חודשים מהמועד בו נולד הילד. קביעות אלה משקפות הכרעה לאמץ מגמה מחמירה, מתוך מכלול הדעות אשר אפשרו גם אימוץ גישה מקלה יותר.
כפי שהראנו בעבודתנו , ההכרעה לכיוון המחמיר התקבלה ככל הנראה בתקופה הסבוראית. הכרעה זו אינה מובנת מאליה, שכן היו מקורות תנאיים ואמוראיים על בסיסם ניתן היה לקבוע כי יש לאמץ גישה מקלה יותר. לדוגמא, דעת בית הלל ודעת ר' יהודה הייתה כי משך האיסור הוא 18 חודשים בלבד. דעת רשב"ג הייתה כי ניתן לקצר את האיסור בשלושה חודשים נוספים, כך באיסור יהיה למשך 15 חודשים בלבד. לאור זאת, קביעת ההלכתא הסבוראית כי משך ההמתנה הוא 24 חודשים – אינה מובנת מאליה. למרות שאין ביכולתנו להצביע בוודאות על הסבר מדוע אומצה הגישה המחמירה, בעבודתנו הצבענו על ההחמרה במצב היהודים בתקופה הרלבנטית, כרקע אשר עשוי להשתלב עם אימוץ הגישה המחמירה .
תקופת הגאונים
4. בתקופת הגאונים נשמרו חילוקי הדעות בין בני בבל לבני ארץ ישראל, אשר מקורם בהבדלים בין התלמוד הבבלי לתלמוד הירושלמי. הבדלים אלה נוגעים לשאלה מה הדין במקרה בו מת הילד, ולטענתנו גם אודות השאלה האם מי שעבר ונשא יחויב לתת לאשתו גט או שדי בהפרשה בלבד. בסופו של דבר, גאוני בבל הביאו לכך שעמדת הבבלי היא שהתקבלה בעניינים אלה בקרב פוסקי ההלכה.
בעבודתנו עמדנו על היתר שחודש בתקופת הגאונים, ועל שלבים משעורים בהתפתחותו.
תקופת הראשונים
5. בעבודתנו עמדנו על המגמה שאפיינה את פסיקת ההלכה בדין בו אנו עוסקים בתקופת הראשונים. ניסינו להסביר מדוע נעשו ניסיונות לגבש הקלות באיסור הנישואין, ומדוע בסופו של דבר, לדעת רוב הראשונים וכפי שההלכה סוכמה בשלחן ערוך, הגישות המחמירות הן שאומצו. על עניינים אלו.
6. הרחבת היקף פריסתו של האיסור: בניגוד למקורות מתקופת חז"ל מהם נראה כי האיסור חל רק על אלמנה, בתקופת הראשונים נקבע כי האיסור חל גם על גרושה שיש לה ילד מנישואיה הקודמים, וגם על רווקה שילדה ילד מחוץ למסגרת הנישואין. קביעות אלה הביאו להרחבה ניכרת של המקרים בהם חל האיסור.
בעבודתנו עמדנו על הגישות השונות שהיו בסוגיה זו: אודות גרושה אודות מי שילדה בזנות .
עמדנו על כך שישנה קירבה בין שני הנימוקים השונים שהוזכרו בראשית דרכה של ההלכה על טעם האיסור, לבין המחלוקת בין הדעות השונות בשאלת תחולת האיסור על גרושה ועל מי שילדה בזנות. בהתאם לגישה שראתה באיסור משום הסגת גבולו של הבעל הראשון, אין מקום להחלת האיסור כאשר הנישואין הסתיימו בגירושין או כאשר הילד נולד מבלי שהיה קשר נישואין בין הוריו. מנגד, בהתאם לטעם שפורט בבבלי ואשר התמקד בנזק שעלול להיגרם לילד, חשש זה רלבנטי ללא קשר לטיב היחסים בין ההורים ומשכך יש מקום להחיל את איסור הנישואין גם על גרושה וגם על מי שילדה בזנות.
7. פרשיית ר' יעקב מקרקוב והשפעתה על עמדת חכמי ספרד: ר' יעקב מקרקוב סבר כי ניתן לייצר חריגים לאיסור, וזאת על-ידי מסירת הילד למנקת בשכר ועיצוב מנגנון אשר יבטיח שהמנקת לא תפר את התחייבותה להניק את הילד. עמדה זו נדחתה בחריפות על-ידי חכמי אשכנז, אולם נראה כי היא הייתה מקובלת על הרשב"א. כאשר הרא"ש היגר מאשכנז לספרד, הוא הוביל שינוי בתפיסה הספרדית ואימוץ הגישה המחמירה שמקורה באשכנז . העמדות המקלות בסוגיה זו, ככל הנראה צונזרו באופן כה יעיל, עד כי נראה שר' יוסף קארו מחבר השלחן ערוך, לא היה מודע לקיומן.
8. יחסו של הרא"ש להיתר שקבעו הגאונים: עמדנו בפירוט על תהליך העולה ממכלול יצירותיו של הרא"ש: דחיה של היתר שיוחס לגאונים; לאחר מכן אימוץ מהוסס בשעת הדחק של ההיתר; ובסופו של דבר אימוץ היתר רחב יותר העומד בפני עצמו ואינו נשען על משנתם של הגאונים. בהמשך, עמדנו על האופן בו התייחסו חכמי ספרד להיתר הרחב שקבע הרא"ש.
סוגיה זו ממחישה את יחסם השונה של חכמי ספרד וחכמי אשכנז אל תורתם של גאוני בבל, וכן היחס השונה של חכמי ספרד וחכמי אשכנז ללגיטימיות החדשנות ההלכתית. בסוגיה זו, בניגוד לסוגיה שנדונה בסעיף הקודם, הרא"ש גילה גמישות, והסכים להתקרב לעמדת חכמי ספרד (על השערתנו אודות ההסבר לכך).
העת החדשה
9. בעת החדשה, בעקבות קיצור משך ההנקה המקובל, נוצרו שני זרמים מרכזיים ביחס אל איסור הנישואין: הגישה המחמירה מבית מדרשו של החת"ם סופר, והגישה המקלה. הגישה המחמירה מבית מדרשו של החת"ם סופר, הסכימה להתיר את איסור הנישואין, רק כאשר היה חשש שאם איסור הנישואין לא יבוטל, הילד עלול לצאת ממסגרת החיים הדתיים. גישתו המחמירה של החת"ם סופר, הושפעה להערכתנו מהעובדה שאחד מראשוני תנועת הרפורמה, ר' אהרן חורין, טען כי יש לבטל את איסור הנישואין . על-מנת לחזק את תוקפו של האיסור, תלמידו של החת"ם סופר – המהר"ם שיק, טען כי מדובר באיסור מהתורה.
10. הגישה המקלה: גישה זו מורכבת מפסקי הלכה של פוסקים שונים, אשר הסכימו לאמץ הקלות באיסור הנישואין (לפירוט ההקלות העיקריות). הקלות אלה משקפות את גמישותו הרבה של הטקסט המתפרש. אותם טקסטים עצמם שהובנו בעבר באופן מחמיר, פורשו לפתע באופן מקל הרבה יותר. אנו מעריכים כי שינוי הפרשנות נבע משינוי המציאות הסובבת.
11. גם בעלי הגישה המקלה, הושפעו מעמדותיו של החת"ם סופר. השפעה זו באה לידי ביטוי בכך שבעלי הגישה המקלה היו מוכנים לאמץ גישות מקלות שנדחו על-ידי פוסקי ההלכה בעבר, אולם בדרך כלל הם לא היו מוכנים להכיר בצורך בשינוי דרמטי במעמדו של הדין, לאור שינוי המציאות. להערכתנו, עמדה שמרנית זו מובילה לתוצאות בלתי ראויות, והיא אינה משקפת בחינה אמיצה של מידת הרלבנטיות של איסור הנישואין למציאות החיים היהודיים בעשורים האחרונים.
Background: Cross-sectional studies detected associations between physical fitness, living area, and sports participation in children. Yet, their scientific value is limited because the identification of cause-and-effect relationships is not possible. In a longitudinal approach, we examined the effects of living area and sports club participation on physical fitness development in primary school children from classes 3 to 6.
Methods: One-hundred and seventy-two children (age: 9-12 years; sex: 69 girls, 103 boys) were tested for their physical fitness (i.e., endurance [9-min run], speed [50-m sprint], lower- [triple hop] and upper-extremity muscle strength [1-kg ball push], flexibility [stand-and-reach], and coordination [star coordination run]). Living area (i.e., urban or rural) and sports club participation were assessed using parent questionnaire.
Results: Over the 4 year study period, urban compared to rural children showed significantly better performance development for upper- (p = 0.009, ES = 0.16) and lower-extremity strength (p < 0.001, ES = 0.22). Further, significantly better performance development were found for endurance (p = 0.08, ES = 0.19) and lower-extremity strength (p = 0.024, ES = 0.23) for children continuously participating in sports clubs compared to their non-participating peers.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that sport club programs with appealing arrangements appear to represent a good means to promote physical fitness in children living in rural areas.
Background
In the past, plyometric training (PT) has been predominantly performed on stable surfaces. The purpose of this pilot study was to examine effects of a 7-week lower body PT on stable vs. unstable surfaces. This type of exercise condition may be denoted as metastable equilibrium.
Methods
Thirty-three physically active male sport science students (age: 24.1 ± 3.8 years) were randomly assigned to a PT group (n = 13) exercising on stable (STAB) and a PT group (n = 20) on unstable surfaces (INST). Both groups trained countermovement jumps, drop jumps, and practiced a hurdle jump course. In addition, high bar squats were performed. Physical fitness tests on stable surfaces (hexagonal obstacle test, countermovement jump, hurdle drop jump, left-right hop, dynamic and static balance tests, and leg extension strength) were used to examine the training effects.
Results
Significant main effects of time (ANOVA) were found for the countermovement jump, hurdle drop jump, hexagonal test, dynamic balance, and leg extension strength. A significant interaction of time and training mode was detected for the countermovement jump in favor of the INST group. No significant improvements were evident for either group in the left-right hop and in the static balance test.
Conclusions
These results show that lower body PT on unstable surfaces is a safe and efficient way to improve physical performance on stable surfaces.
עבירה לשמה
(2014)
A Transgression for the Sake of God -‘Averah li-shmah: A Tale of a Radical Idea in Talmudic Literature
All cultures, religions, and ethical or legal systems struggle with the role intention plays in evaluating actions. The Talmud compellingly elaborates on the notion of intention through the radical concept that “A sin committed for the sake of God [averah li-shmah] is greater than a commandment fulfilled not for the sake of God [mi-mizvah she-lo li-shmah].” The Babylonian Talmud attributes this concept—which challenges one of rabbinic Judaism’s most fundamental dogmas, the obligation to fulfill the commandments and avoid sin—to R. Nahman b. Isaac (RNBI), a renowned 4th century Amora. Considering the normative character of the rabbinic culture in which Halakhah (Jewish religious law) plays such a central role, this concept, seems almost like a foreign body in the Talmudic corpus.
The study focuses on the linguistic stratum of RNBI’s statement. By tracking the development of the meanings and uses of the word ‘li-shmah’ the research locates RNBI’s statement as part of the broader Talmudic discourse evaluating two levels of performing religious actions ‘li-shmah/she-lo li-shmah’. Since we wish to explain the word ‘li-shmah’ consistently both times it appears in the statement, the best translation would be ‘for the sake of God’. This translation is based on the linguistic connection between the word ‘li-shmah’ and the term ‘le-shem shamayim’ (for the sake of God) that appears in several rabbinic sources. This linguistic connection is also the key to identifying the possible root of RNBI’s concept. RNBI bolsters his idea by quoting a verse about Jael, thus implying that Jael sinned for the sake of God. The research describes at least five statements in Sages’ Literature that attribute sins for the sake of God to other biblical figures, all the while using the term ‘le-shem shamim’. Therefore we may presume that RNBI’s concept has evolved from the exegetical notion of attributing sin for the sake of God to biblical figures.
To understand the way RNBI’s statement was accepted in Talmudic culture, we must explore the textual witnesses to the literary frame of RNBI’s statement: the Talmudic sugya (Nazir 23a; Horayot 10b). We possess five versions of the sugya’s dialectical structure. Comparison of these versions, allows us to reconstruct the earlier dialectical structure, from which the familiar versions developed. The radical potential of RNBI’s statement led to cultural activity, in the transmission of the sugya, in an effort to mitigate it. This activity is reflected in late additions to the sugya identified by our research—which should be viewed as a process of self-censorship for ideological reasons.
This research explores a fundamental issue in rabbinic world: the immanent contradiction between law and intention. The research depicts in detail the movement of a radical idea from the margins culture to mainstream - in this case into the Babylonian Talmud. Therefore, the findings of this research provide substantial insight into our understanding of the interpretive process and of conceptual adaptation in rabbinic culture.
World market governance
(2014)
Democratic capitalism or liberal democracy, as the successful marriage of convenience between market liberalism and democracy sometimes is called, is in trouble. The market economy system has become global and there is a growing mismatch with the territoriality of the nation-states. The functional global networks and inter-governmental order can no longer keep pace with the rapid development of the global market economy and regulatory capture is all too common. Concepts like de-globalization, self-regulation, and global government are floated in the debate. The alternatives are analysed and found to be improper, inadequate or plainly impossible. The proposed route is instead to accept that the global market economy has developed into an independent fundamental societal system that needs its own governance. The suggestion is World Market Governance based on the Rule of Law in order to shape the fitness environment for the global market economy and strengthen the nation-states so that they can regain the sovereignty to decide upon the social and cultural conditions in each country. Elements in the proposed Rule of Law are international legislation decided by an Assembly supported by a Council, and an independent Judiciary. Existing international organisations would function as executors. The need for broad sustained demand for regulations in the common interest is identified.
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.
Flood damage has increased significantly and is expected to rise further in many parts of the world. For assessing potential changes in flood risk, this paper presents an integrated model chain quantifying flood hazards and losses while considering climate and land use changes. In the case study region, risk estimates for the present and the near future illustrate that changes in flood risk by 2030 are relatively low compared to historic periods. While the impact of climate change on the flood hazard and risk by 2030 is slight or negligible, strong urbanisation associated with economic growth contributes to a remarkable increase in flood risk. Therefore, it is recommended to frequently consider land use scenarios and economic developments when assessing future flood risks. Further, an adapted and sustainable risk management is necessary to encounter rising flood losses, in which non-structural measures are becoming more and more important. The case study demonstrates that adaptation by non-structural measures such as stricter land use regulations or enhancement of private precaution is capable of reducing flood risk by around 30 %. Ignoring flood risks, in contrast, always leads to further increasing losses-with our assumptions by 17 %. These findings underline that private precaution and land use regulation could be taken into account as low cost adaptation strategies to global climate change in many flood prone areas. Since such measures reduce flood risk regardless of climate or land use changes, they can also be recommended as no-regret measures.
In the aftermath of the severe flooding in Central Europe in August 2002, a number of changes in flood policies were launched in Germany and other European countries, aiming at improved risk management. The question arises as to whether these changes have already had an impact on the residents' ability to cope with floods, and whether flood-affected private households are now better prepared than they were in 2002. Therefore, computer-aided telephone interviews with private households in Germany that suffered from property damage due to flooding in 2005, 2006, 2010 or 2011 were performed and analysed with respect to flood awareness, precaution, preparedness and recovery. The data were compared to a similar investigation conducted after the flood in 2002.
After the flood in 2002, the level of private precautions taken increased considerably. One contributing factor is the fact that, in general, a larger proportion of people knew that they were at risk of flooding. The best level of precaution was found before the flood events in 2006 and 2011. The main reason for this might be that residents had more experience with flooding than residents affected in 2005 or 2010. Yet, overall, flood experience and knowledge did not necessarily result in building retrofitting or flood-proofing measures, which are considered as mitigating damages most effectively. Hence, investments still need to be stimulated in order to reduce future damage more efficiently.
Early warning and emergency responses were substantially influenced by flood characteristics. In contrast to flood-affected people in 2006 or 2011, people affected by flooding in 2005 or 2010 had to deal with shorter lead times and therefore had less time to take emergency measures. Yet, the lower level of emergency measures taken also resulted from the people's lack of flood experience and insufficient knowledge of how to protect themselves. Overall, it was noticeable that these residents suffered from higher losses. Therefore, it is important to further improve early warning systems and communication channels, particularly in hilly areas with rapid-onset flooding.
The aim of the present thesis is to answer the question to what degree the processes involved in sentence comprehension are sensitive to task demands. A central phenomenon in this regard is the so-called ambiguity advantage, which is the finding that ambiguous sentences can be easier to process than unambiguous sentences. This finding may appear counterintuitive, because more meanings should be associated with a higher computational effort. Currently, two theories exist that can explain this finding.
The Unrestricted Race Model (URM) by van Gompel et al. (2001) assumes that several sentence interpretations are computed in parallel, whenever possible, and that the first interpretation to be computed is assigned to the sentence. Because the duration of each structure-building process varies from trial to trial, the parallelism in structure-building predicts that ambiguous sentences should be processed faster. This is because when two structures are permissible, the chances that some interpretation will be computed quickly are higher than when only one specific structure is permissible. Importantly, the URM is not sensitive to task demands such as the type of comprehension questions being asked.
A radically different proposal is the strategic underspecification model by Swets et al. (2008). It assumes that readers do not attempt to resolve ambiguities unless it is absolutely necessary. In other words, they underspecify. According the strategic underspecification hypothesis, all attested replications of the ambiguity advantage are due to the fact that in those experiments, readers were not required to fully understand the sentence.
In this thesis, these two models of the parser’s actions at choice-points in the sentence are presented and evaluated. First, it is argued that the Swets et al.’s (2008) evidence against the URM and in favor of underspecification is inconclusive. Next, the precise predictions of the URM as well as the underspecification model are refined. Subsequently, a self-paced reading experiment involving the attachment of pre-nominal relative clauses in Turkish is presented, which provides evidence against strategical underspecification. A further experiment is presented which investigated relative clause attachment in German using the speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) paradigm. The experiment provides evidence against strategic underspecification and in favor of the URM. Furthermore the results of the experiment are used to argue that human sentence comprehension is fallible, and that theories of parsing should be able to account for that fact. Finally, a third experiment is presented, which provides evidence for the sensitivity to task demands in the treatment of ambiguities. Because this finding is incompatible with the URM, and because the strategic underspecification model has been ruled out, a new model of ambiguity resolution is proposed: the stochastic multiple-channel model of ambiguity resolution (SMCM). It is further shown that the quantitative predictions of the SMCM are in agreement with experimental data.
In conclusion, it is argued that the human sentence comprehension system is parallel and fallible, and that it is sensitive to task-demands.
Recently, C K-edge Near Edge X-ray Absorption Fine Structure (NEXAFS) spectra of graphite (HOPG) surfaces have been measured for the pristine material, and for HOPG treated with either bromine or krypton plasmas (Lippitz et al., Surf. Sci., 2013, 611, L1). Changes of the NEXAFS spectra characteristic for physical (krypton) and/or chemical/physical modifications of the surface (bromine) upon plasma treatment were observed. Their molecular origin, however, remained elusive. In this work we study by density functional theory, the effects of selected point and line defects as well as chemical modifications on NEXAFS carbon K-edge spectra of single graphene layers. For Br-treated surfaces, also Br 3d X-ray Photoelectron Spectra (XPS) are simulated by a cluster approach, to identify possible chemical modifications. We observe that some of the defects related to plasma treatment lead to characteristic changes of NEXAFS spectra, similar to those in experiment. Theory provides possible microscopic origins for these changes.
Graphitic carbon nitride, g-C₃N₄, is a promising organic photo-catalyst for a variety of redox reactions. In order to improve its efficiency in a systematic manner, however, a fundamental understanding of the microscopic interaction between catalyst, reactants and products is crucial. Here we present a systematic study of water adsorption on g-C₃N₄ by means of density functional theory and the density functional based tight-binding method as a prerequisite for understanding photocatalytic water splitting. We then analyze this prototypical redox reaction on the basis of a thermodynamic model providing an estimate of the overpotential for both water oxidation and H⁺ reduction. While the latter is found to occur readily upon irradiation with visible light, we derive a prohibitive overpotential of 1.56 eV for the water oxidation half reaction, comparing well with the experimental finding that in contrast to H₂ production O₂ evolution is only possible in the presence of oxidation cocatalysts.
Inhalt:
Eberhard Knobloch: Der Briefwechsel zwischen Alexander von Humboldt und Charles Lyell: Ein Überblick
Alejandro Cheirif Wolosky: La recepción humboldtiana de Cristóbal Colón
Luiz Estevam O. Fernandes: Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain: Humboldt and the history of Mexico
Dominik Erdmann/Christian Thomas: „… zu den wunderlichsten Schlangen der Gelehrsasmkeit zusammengegliedert“. Neue Materialien zu den ‚Kosmos-Vorträgen‘ Alexander von Humboldts, nebst Vorüberlegungen zu deren digitaler Edition
Konstantin Treuber „Warum ich nicht Diorit-Trachyt sagen soll.“ – Ein geologischer Brief Gustav Roses an Alexander von Humboldt
Anja Werner: Alexander von Humboldt’s Footnotes: “Networks of Knowledge” in the Sources of the 1826 Essai politique sur l’île de Cuba
Peter Honigmann: Alexander von Humboldts Journale seiner russisch-sibirischen Reise 1829 [mit einer Einführung von Eberhard Knobloch]
Inhalt:
Alexander von Humboldt-Forschungsstelle: Ingo Schwarz zum 65. Geburtstag
Ottmar Ette: Findung und Erfindung einer Leserschaft. Neuere Editionsprojekte zu Alexander von Humboldt als Grundlage und Herausforderung künftigen Forschens
Eberhard Knobloch: Alexandre de Humboldt et le Marquis de Laplace
Oliver Schwarz: Alexander von Humboldt als astronomischer Arbeiter, Diskussionspartner und Ideengeber
Petra Werner: Innenwelten und bleiche Gärten. Alexander von Humboldt untertage und in der Caripe-Höhle
Christian Suckow: Alexander von Humboldt in Ust’-Kamenogorsk
Anne Jobst: Neue Briefe Christian Gottfried Ehrenbergs an Alexander von Humboldt
Thomas Schmuck: Humboldt, Baer und die Evolution
Manfred Ringmacher: Zwei Briefe auf Guaraní in Alexander von Humboldts Handschrift
Ute Tintemann: Julius Klaproths Mithridates-Projekt, Alexander von Humboldt und das Verlagshaus Cotta
Ulrike Leitner: „Ja! Wenn Berlin Bonn wäre!“ Friedrich Rückerts Berufung nach Berlin
Frank Holl: „Zur Freiheit bestimmt“ – Alexander von Humboldts Blick auf die Kulturen der Welt
Sebastian Panwitz: Das Humboldt-Mendelssohn-Haus Jägerstraße 22. Ein Quellenfund
Laura Péaud: Du Mexique à l‘Oural : l‘expertise humboldtienne au service du politique
Bärbel Holtz: „Cicerone“ des Königs? Alexander von Humboldt und Friedrich Wilhelm III.
Menso Folkerts: Ein unerwartetes Zusammentreffen in Sanssouci. Alexander von Humboldt und Karl Ludwig Hencke an der Tafel Friedrich Wilhelms IV.
Ulrich Päßler: Preußens Mann in Washington. Fünf Briefe Friedrich von Gerolts an Alexander von Humboldt (1858/1859)
Bill Roba: German-Iowan Strategies in Celebrating the Centennial of Alexander von Humboldt’s Birth
Regina Mikosch: Ingo Schwarz‘ Veröffentlichungen zur Alexander von Humboldt
Über die Autoren
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.
HPI Future SOC Lab
(2014)
The “HPI Future SOC Lab” is a cooperation of the Hasso-Plattner-Institut (HPI) and industrial partners. Its mission is to enable and promote exchange and interaction between the research community and the industrial partners.
The HPI Future SOC Lab provides researchers with free of charge access to a complete infrastructure of state of the art hard- and software. This infrastructure includes components, which might be too expensive for an ordinary research environment, such as servers with up to 64 cores. The offerings address researchers particularly from but not limited to the areas of computer science and business information systems. Main areas of research include cloud computing, parallelization, and In-Memory technologies.
This technical report presents results of research projects executed in 2014. Selected projects have presented their results on April 9th and September 29th 2014 at the Future SOC Lab Day events.
HPI Future SOC Lab
(2014)
The “HPI Future SOC Lab” is a cooperation of the Hasso-Plattner-Institut (HPI) and industrial partners. Its mission is to enable and promote exchange and interaction between the research community and the industrial partners. The HPI Future SOC Lab provides researchers with free of charge access to a complete infrastructure of state of the art hard- and software. This infrastructure includes components, which might be too expensive for an ordinary research environment, such as servers with up to 64 cores. The offerings address researchers particularly from but not limited to the areas of computer science and business information systems. Main areas of research include cloud computing, parallelization, and In-Memory technologies. This technical report presents results of research projects executed in 2013. Selected projects have presented their results on April 10th and September 24th 2013 at the Future SOC Lab Day events.
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.
Über die Autoren
(2014)
Durch die immer stärker werdende Flut an digitalen Informationen basieren immer mehr Anwendungen auf der Nutzung von kostengünstigen Cloud Storage Diensten. Die Anzahl der Anbieter, die diese Dienste zur Verfügung stellen, hat sich in den letzten Jahren deutlich erhöht. Um den passenden Anbieter für eine Anwendung zu finden, müssen verschiedene Kriterien individuell berücksichtigt werden. In der vorliegenden Studie wird eine Auswahl an Anbietern etablierter Basic Storage Diensten vorgestellt und miteinander verglichen. Für die Gegenüberstellung werden Kriterien extrahiert, welche bei jedem der untersuchten Anbieter anwendbar sind und somit eine möglichst objektive Beurteilung erlauben. Hierzu gehören unter anderem Kosten, Recht, Sicherheit, Leistungsfähigkeit sowie bereitgestellte Schnittstellen. Die vorgestellten Kriterien können genutzt werden, um Cloud Storage Anbieter bezüglich eines konkreten Anwendungsfalles zu bewerten.
摘要。哈索•普拉特纳研究院 (HPI) 的新型互动在线教育平台 openHPI (https://openHPI.de) 可以为从事信息技术和信息学领域内容的工作和感兴趣的学员提供可自由访问的、免费的在线课程。与斯坦福大学于 2011 年首推,之后也在美国其他精英大学提供的“网络公开群众课”(简称 MOOC)一样,openHPI 同样在互联网中提供学习视频和阅读材料,其中综合了支持学习的自我测试、家庭作业和社交讨论论坛,并刺激对促进学习的虚拟学习团队的培训。与“传统的”讲座平台,比如 tele-TASK 平台 (http://www.tele-task.de) 不同(在该平台中,可调用以多媒体方式记录的和已准备好的讲座),openHPI 提供的是按教学法准备的在线课程。这些课程的开始时间固定,之后在连续六个课程周稳定的提供以多媒体方式准备的、尽可能可以互动的学习材料。每周讲解课程主题的一章。为此在该周开始前会准备一系列学习视频、文字、自我测试和家庭作业材料,课程学员在该周将精力用于处理这些内容。这些计划与一个社交讨论平台相结合,学员在该平台上可以与课程导师和其他学员交换意见、解答问题和讨论更多主题。当然,学员可以自己决定学习活动的类型和范围。他们可以为课程作出自己的贡献,比如在论坛中引用博文或推文。之后其他学员可以评论、讨论或自己扩展这些博文或推文。这样学员、教师和提供的学习内容就在一个虚拟的团体中与社交学习网络相互结合起来。
Design and Implementation of service-oriented architectures imposes a huge number of research questions from the fields of software engineering, system analysis and modeling, adaptability, and application integration. Component orientation and web services are two approaches for design and realization of complex web-based system. Both approaches allow for dynamic application adaptation as well as integration of enterprise application. Commonly used technologies, such as J2EE and .NET, form de facto standards for the realization of complex distributed systems. Evolution of component systems has lead to web services and service-based architectures. This has been manifested in a multitude of industry standards and initiatives such as XML, WSDL UDDI, SOAP, etc. All these achievements lead to a new and promising paradigm in IT systems engineering which proposes to design complex software solutions as collaboration of contractually defined software services. Service-Oriented Systems Engineering represents a symbiosis of best practices in object-orientation, component-based development, distributed computing, and business process management. It provides integration of business and IT concerns. The annual Ph.D. Retreat of the Research School provides each member the opportunity to present his/her current state of their research and to give an outline of a prospective Ph.D. thesis. Due to the interdisciplinary structure of the Research Scholl, this technical report covers a wide range of research topics. These include but are not limited to: Self-Adaptive Service-Oriented Systems, Operating System Support for Service-Oriented Systems, Architecture and Modeling of Service-Oriented Systems, Adaptive Process Management, Services Composition and Workflow Planning, Security Engineering of Service-Based IT Systems, Quantitative Analysis and Optimization of Service-Oriented Systems, Service-Oriented Systems in 3D Computer Graphics sowie Service-Oriented Geoinformatics.
Permafrost, defined as ground that is frozen for at least two consecutive years, is a distinct feature of the terrestrial unglaciated Arctic. It covers approximately one quarter of the land area of the Northern Hemisphere (23,000,000 km²). Arctic landscapes, especially those underlain by permafrost, are threatened by climate warming and may degrade in different ways, including active layer deepening, thermal erosion, and development of rapid thaw features. In Siberian and Alaskan late Pleistocene ice-rich Yedoma permafrost, rapid and deep thaw processes (called thermokarst) can mobilize deep organic carbon (below 3 m depth) by surface subsidence due to loss of ground ice. Increased permafrost thaw could cause a feedback loop of global significance if its stored frozen organic carbon is reintroduced into the active carbon cycle as greenhouse gases, which accelerate warming and inducing more permafrost thaw and carbon release. To assess this concern, the major objective of the thesis was to enhance the understanding of the origin of Yedoma as well as to assess the associated organic carbon pool size and carbon quality (concerning degradability). The key research questions were:
- How did Yedoma deposits accumulate?
- How much organic carbon is stored in the Yedoma region?
- What is the susceptibility of the Yedoma region's carbon for future decomposition?
To address these three research questions, an interdisciplinary approach, including detailed field studies and sampling in Siberia and Alaska as well as methods of sedimentology, organic biogeochemistry, remote sensing, statistical analyses, and computational modeling were applied. To provide a panarctic context, this thesis additionally includes results both from a newly compiled northern circumpolar carbon database and from a model assessment of carbon fluxes in a warming Arctic.
The Yedoma samples show a homogeneous grain-size composition. All samples were poorly sorted with a multi-modal grain-size distribution, indicating various (re-) transport processes. This contradicts the popular pure loess deposition hypothesis for the origin of Yedoma permafrost. The absence of large-scale grinding processes via glaciers and ice sheets in northeast Siberian lowlands, processes which are necessary to create loess as material source, suggests the polygenetic origin of Yedoma deposits.
Based on the largest available data set of the key parameters, including organic carbon content, bulk density, ground ice content, and deposit volume (thickness and coverage) from Siberian and Alaskan study sites, this thesis further shows that deep frozen organic carbon in the Yedoma region consists of two distinct major reservoirs, Yedoma deposits and thermokarst deposits (formed in thaw-lake basins). Yedoma deposits contain ~80 Gt and thermokarst deposits ~130 Gt organic carbon, or a total of ~210 Gt. Depending on the approach used for calculating uncertainty, the range for the total Yedoma region carbon store is ±75 % and ±20 % for conservative single and multiple bootstrapping calculations, respectively. Despite the fact that these findings reduce the Yedoma region carbon pool by nearly a factor of two compared to previous estimates, this frozen organic carbon is still capable of inducing a permafrost carbon feedback to climate warming. The complete northern circumpolar permafrost region contains between 1100 and 1500 Gt organic carbon, of which ~60 % is perennially frozen and decoupled from the short-term carbon cycle.
When thawed and reintroduced into the active carbon cycle, the organic matter qualities become relevant. Furthermore, results from investigations into Yedoma and thermokarst organic matter quality studies showed that Yedoma and thermokarst organic matter exhibit no depth-dependent quality trend. This is evidence that after freezing, the ancient organic matter is preserved in a state of constant quality. The applied alkane and fatty-acid-based biomarker proxies including the carbon-preference and the higher-land-plant-fatty-acid indices show a broad range of organic matter quality and thus no significantly different qualities of the organic matter stored in thermokarst deposits compared to Yedoma deposits. This lack of quality differences shows that the organic matter biodegradability depends on different decomposition trajectories and the previous decomposition/incorporation history. Finally, the fate of the organic matter has been assessed by implementing deep carbon pools and thermokarst processes in a permafrost carbon model. Under various warming scenarios for the northern circumpolar permafrost region, model results show a carbon release from permafrost regions of up to ~140 Gt and ~310 Gt by the years 2100 and 2300, respectively. The additional warming caused by the carbon release from newly-thawed permafrost contributes 0.03 to 0.14°C by the year 2100. The model simulations predict that a further increase by the 23rd century will add 0.4°C to global mean surface air temperatures.
In conclusion, Yedoma deposit formation during the late Pleistocene was dominated by water-related (alluvial/fluvial/lacustrine) as well as aeolian processes under periglacial conditions. The circumarctic permafrost region, including the Yedoma region, contains a substantial amount of currently frozen organic carbon. The carbon of the Yedoma region is well-preserved and therefore available for decomposition after thaw. A missing quality-depth trend shows that permafrost preserves the quality of ancient organic matter. When the organic matter is mobilized by deep degradation processes, the northern permafrost region may add up to 0.4°C to the global warming by the year 2300.
Dimensional psychiatry
(2014)
A dimensional approach in psychiatry aims to identify core mechanisms of mental disorders across nosological boundaries.
We compared anticipation of reward between major psychiatric disorders, and investigated whether reward anticipation is impaired in several mental disorders and whether there is a common psychopathological correlate (negative mood) of such an impairment.
We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a monetary incentive delay (MID) task to study the functional correlates of reward anticipation across major psychiatric disorders in 184 subjects, with the diagnoses of alcohol dependence (n = 26), schizophrenia (n = 44), major depressive disorder (MDD, n = 24), bipolar disorder (acute manic episode, n = 13), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD, n = 23), and healthy controls (n = 54). Subjects' individual Beck Depression Inventory-and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-scores were correlated with clusters showing significant activation during reward anticipation.
During reward anticipation, we observed significant group differences in ventral striatal (VS) activation: patients with schizophrenia, alcohol dependence, and major depression showed significantly less ventral striatal activation compared to healthy controls. Depressive symptoms correlated with dysfunction in reward anticipation regardless of diagnostic entity. There was no significant correlation between anxiety symptoms and VS functional activation.
Our findings demonstrate a neurobiological dysfunction related to reward prediction that transcended disorder categories and was related to measures of depressed mood. The findings underline the potential of a dimensional approach in psychiatry and strengthen the hypothesis that neurobiological research in psychiatric disorders can be targeted at core mechanisms that are likely to be implicated in a range of clinical entities.
Diffusion of finite-size particles in two-dimensional channels with random wall configurations
(2014)
Diffusion of chemicals or tracer molecules through complex systems containing irregularly shaped channels is important in many applications. Most theoretical studies based on the famed Fick–Jacobs equation focus on the idealised case of infinitely small particles and reflecting boundaries. In this study we use numerical simulations to consider the transport of finite-size particles through asymmetrical two-dimensional channels. Additionally, we examine transient binding of the molecules to the channel walls by applying sticky boundary conditions. We consider an ensemble of particles diffusing in independent channels, which are characterised by common structural parameters. We compare our results for the long-time effective diffusion coefficient with a recent theoretical formula obtained by Dagdug and Pineda [J. Chem. Phys., 2012, 137, 024107].
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.
Genossenschaften wirken auf manche wie ein angestaubtes Relikt aus der Vergangenheit. Das eingetrübte Image überrascht. Denn Genossenschaften haben sich immer wieder als besonders krisenfest erwiesen und längst auch als erfolgreiches Zukunftsmodell entpuppt. Der stetige Zuwachs an Neugründungen, die steigenden Mitgliederzahlen und die ständige Ausweitung der Aktionsfelder bestätigen die hohe Attraktivität. Dem entspricht eine enorme Einsatzbreite der Genossenschaftsidee. Sie reicht von Agrargenossenschaften über Produktionsgenossenschaften in Handel, Handwerk und Gewerbe bis hin zu sehr modernen Bereichen etwa der neuen Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien. In all diesen und vielen anderen Segmenten finden sich variantenreiche genossenschaftliche Gestaltungsoptionen nach Maximen wie Selbsthilfe, Solidarität, Bürgerengagement, Partizipation, Mitglieder- und Gemeinwohlorientierung. Inzwischen lockt die hohe Anziehungskraft der Genossenschaftsidee auch die Kommunen. Angestoßen durch gesetzgeberische Impulse erleben die Genossenschaften auf der kommunalen Ebene derzeit bundesweit einen richtigen Aufschwung. Die Aufwertung erweitert die Überlegungen zur Gewährleistung und Optimierung kommunaler Leistungserbringung um eine wichtige Gestaltungsvariante, nimmt aber den Kommunen die Auswahlentscheidung nicht ab. Denn wie bei allen Organisationsentscheidungen ist vor dem Rückgriff auf genossenschaftliche Organisationsformen in jedem Einzelfall eine nüchterne aufgaben-, sach- und situationsbezogene Vergleichsanalyse geboten, die den Entscheidungsträgern spezifische Kenntnisse und detaillierte Fachkompetenz abverlangt. Die 19. Fachtagung des KWI diskutiert rechtliche Rahmenbedingungen und normative Direktiven, praktische Erfahrungen, Einsatzfelder, Erfolgsbedingungen und Fallstricke in der Praxis.
Previous studies on the acquisition of verb inflection in normally developing children have revealed an astonishing pattern: children use correctly inflected verbs in their own speech but fail to make use of verb inflections when comprehending sentences uttered by others. Thus, a three-year old might well be able to say something like ‘The cat sleeps on the bed’, but fails to understand that the same sentence, when uttered by another person, refers to only one sleeping cat but not more than one. The previous studies that have examined children's comprehension of verb inflections have employed a variant of a picture selection task in which the child was asked to explicitly indicate (via pointing) what semantic meaning she had inferred from the test sentence. Recent research on other linguistic structures, such as pronouns or focus particles, has indicated that earlier comprehension abilities can be found when methods are used that do not require an explicit reaction, like preferential looking tasks. This dissertation aimed to examine whether children are truly not able to understand the connection the the verb form and the meaning of the sentence subject until the age of five years or whether earlier comprehension can be found when a different measure, preferential looking, is used. Additionally, children's processing of subject-verb agreement violations was examined. The three experiments of this thesis that examined children's comprehension of verb inflections revealed the following: German-speaking three- to four-year old children looked more to a picture showing one actor when hearing a sentence with a singular inflected verb but only when their eye gaze was tracked and they did not have to perform a picture selection task. When they were asked to point to the matching picture, they performed at chance-level. This pattern indicates asymmetries in children's language performance even within the receptive modality. The fourth experiment examined sensitivity to subject-verb agreement violations and did not reveal evidence for sensitivity toward agreement violations in three- and four-year old children, but only found that children's looking patterns were influenced by the grammatical violations at the age of five. The results from these experiments are discussed in relation to the existence of a production-comprehension asymmetry in the use of verb inflections and children's underlying grammatical knowledge.
Adopting a minimalist framework, the dissertation provides an analysis for the syntactic structure of comparatives, with special attention paid to the derivation of the subclause. The proposed account explains how the comparative subclause is connected to the matrix clause, how the subclause is formed in the syntax and what additional processes contribute to its final structure. In addition, it casts light upon these problems in cross-linguistic terms and provides a model that allows for synchronic and diachronic differences. This also enables one to give a more adequate explanation for the phenomena found in English comparatives since the properties of English structures can then be linked to general settings of the language and hence need no longer be considered as idiosyncratic features of the grammar of English. First, the dissertation provides a unified analysis of degree expressions, relating the structure of comparatives to that of other degrees. It is shown that gradable adjectives are located within a degree phrase (DegP), which in turn projects a quantifier phrase (QP) and that these two functional layers are always present, irrespectively of whether there is a phonologically visible element in these layers. Second, the dissertation presents a novel analysis of Comparative Deletion by reducing it to an overtness constraint holding on operators: in this way, it is reduced to morphological differences and cross-linguistic variation is not conditioned by way of postulating an arbitrary parameter. Cross-linguistic differences are ultimately dependent on whether a language has overt operators equipped with the relevant – [+compr] and [+rel] – features. Third, the dissertation provides an adequate explanation for the phenomenon of Attributive Comparative Deletion, as attested in English, by way of relating it to the regular mechanism of Comparative Deletion. I assume that Attributive Comparative Deletion is not a universal phenomenon, and its presence in English can be conditioned by independent, more general rules, while the absence of such restrictions leads to its absence in other languages. Fourth, the dissertation accounts for certain phenomena related to diachronic changes, examining how the changes in the status of comparative operators led to changes in whether Comparative Deletion is attested in a given language: I argue that only operators without a lexical XP can be grammaticalised. The underlying mechanisms underlying are essentially general economy principles and hence the processes are not language-specific or exceptional. Fifth, the dissertation accounts for optional ellipsis processes that play a crucial role in the derivation of typical comparative subclauses. These processes are not directly related to the structure of degree expressions and hence the elimination of the quantified expression from the subclause; nevertheless, they are shown to be in interaction with the mechanisms underlying Comparative Deletion or the absence thereof.
Die Arbeitsbibliothek von Dieter Adelmann befindet sich in der Universitätsbibliothek Potsdam und ist in diesem Band verzeichnet; der Nachlass und das Findbuch befinden sich im Universitätsarchiv Potsdam. Dieter Adelmann wurde am 1. Februar 1936 in Eisenach, Thüringen, geboren. Er studierte Philosophie, Germanistik und Soziologie an der Freien Universität Berlin und an der Universität Heidelberg und wurde dort 1968 mit der Arbeit Einheit des Bewusstseins als Grundlage der Philosophie Hermann Cohens bei Dieter Henrich und Hans-Georg Gadamer promoviert. Von 1968 bis 1970 war Adelmann Leiter des „Collegium Academicum“ der Universität Heidelberg; von 1970 bis 1974 Landesgeschäftsführer der SPD in Baden-Württemberg (Zuständigkeit: Politische Planung) und zeitweise auch Wahlkreisassistent des SPD-Bundestagsabgeordneten Horst Ehmke. Anschließend arbeitete Adelmann publizistisch mit dem Grafiker und gegenwärtigen Präsidenten der Berliner Akademie der Künste, Klaus Staeck zusammen, bevor er von Juli 1977 bis einschließlich September 1979 beim Vorwärts im Ressort Parteien und Programme beschäftigt war. Nach seinem Abschied vom Vorwärts war Adelmann freiberuflich in Bonn tätig, u.a. als Journalist. 1995 war er wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter im Rahmen der Herausgabe der Werke Hermann Cohens am „Moses-Mendelssohn-Zentrum“ und am Lehrstuhl für Innenraumgestaltung an der Technischen Universität Dresden. Nach dem Ende der Tätigkeit in Potsdam war Adelmann bis zu seinem Tod am 30. September 2008 freiberuflicher Philosoph und Cohen-Forscher.
Die Tränen des Henri Quatre
(2014)
Der vorliegende zweite Band mit Texten aus dem Nachlass von Dieter Adelmann (1936–2008) macht eine der letzten Arbeiten, die ihr Verfasser anlässlich seines 70. Geburtstags aus der Hand gegeben hat, für ein breites Publikum zugänglich. Der Essay bildet dabei einen Abschluss von Adelmanns ersten, im weitesten Sinne philosophischen Publikationen, die nach der Doktorarbeit (Bd. 1 der Nachlasspublikationen) entstanden sind. Ausgehend von einer Beobachtung in Heinrich Manns epochaler Doppelromanbiografie des navarresisch-französischen protestantischen Königs Henri IV. untersucht Adelmann die Tränen- und Todesmetaphorik in dem Romanwerk aus den 1930er Jahren. Von hier aus wird eine Brücke zur literaturwissenschaftlichen Ästhetik und Erkenntnistheorie Walter Benjamins geschlagen, mit der sich Adelmann bereits in seinen Arbeiten zur Politkunst Klaus Staecks beschäftigt hatte. Dabei deckt der Verfasser Fehlinterpretationen der Benjaminschen Theorien durch dessen Freund und Nachlassverwalter Theodor W. Adorno auf.
Previous studies suggest that there are special timing relations in syllable onsets. The consonants are assumed to be timed, on the one hand, with the vocalic nucleus and, on the other hand, with each other. These competing timing relations result in the C-center effect. However, the C-center effect has not consistently been found in languages with complex onsets. Moreover, it has occasionally been found in languages disallowing complex onsets. The present study investigates onset timing in German while discussing alternative explanations (not related to bonding) for the timing patterns observed. Six German speakers were recorded via Electromagnetic Articulography. The corpus contained items with four clusters (/sk/, /kv/, /gl/, and /pl/). The clusters occur in word-initial position, word-medial position, and across a word boundary preceding different vowels. The results suggest that segmental properties (i.e., oral-laryngeal coordination, coarticulatory resistance) determine the observed timing patterns, and specifically the absence or presence of the C-center effect.
On the role of fluoro-substituted nucleosides in DNA radiosensitization for tumor radiation therapy
(2014)
Gemcitabine (2′,2′-difluorocytidine) is a well-known radiosensitizer routinely applied in concomitant chemoradiotherapy. During irradiation of biological media with high-energy radiation secondary low-energy (<10 eV) electrons are produced that can directly induce chemical bond breakage in DNA by dissociative electron attachment (DEA). Here, we investigate and compare DEA to the three molecules 2′-deoxycytidine, 2′-deoxy-5-fluorocytidine, and gemcitabine. Fluorination at specific molecular sites, i.e., nucleobase or sugar moiety, is found to control electron attachment and subsequent dissociation pathways. The presence of two fluorine atoms at the sugar ring results in more efficient electron attachment to the sugar moiety and subsequent bond cleavage. For the formation of the dehydrogenated nucleobase anion, we obtain an enhancement factor of 2.8 upon fluorination of the sugar, whereas the enhancement factor is 5.5 when the nucleobase is fluorinated. The observed fragmentation reactions suggest enhanced DNA strand breakage induced by secondary electrons when gemcitabine is incorporated into DNA.
Schlucken ist ein lebensnotwendiger Prozess, dessen Diagnose und Therapie eine enorme Herausforderung bedeutet. Die Erkennung und Beurteilung von Schlucken und Schluckstörungen erfordert den Einsatz von technisch aufwendigen Verfahren, wie Videofluoroskopie (VFSS) und fiberoptisch-endoskopische Schluckuntersuchung (FEES), die eine hohe Belastung für die Patienten darstellen. Beide Verfahren werden als Goldstandard in der Diagnostik von Schluckstörungen eingesetzt. Die Durchführung obliegt in der Regel ärztlichem Personal. Darüber hinaus erfordert die Auswertung des Bildmaterials der Diagnostik eine ausreichend hohe Erfahrung. In der Therapie findet neben den klassischen Therapiemethoden, wie z.B. diätetische Modifikationen und Schluckmanöver, auch zunehmend die funktionelle Elektrostimulation Anwendung. Ziel der vorliegenden Dissertationsschrift ist die Evaluation eines im Verbundprojekt BigDysPro entwickelten Bioimpedanz (BI)- und Elektromyographie (EMG)-Messsystems. Es wurde geprüft, ob sich das BI- und EMG-Messsystem eignet, sowohl in der Diagnostik als auch in der Therapie als eigenständiges Messsystem und im Rahmen einer Schluckneuroprothese eingesetzt zu werden. In verschiedenen Studien wurden gesunde Probanden für die Überprüfung der Reproduzierbarkeit (Intra-und Interrater-Reliabilität), der Unterscheidbarkeit von Schluck- und Kopfbewegungen und der Beeinflussung der Biosignale (BI, EMG) durch verschiedene Faktoren (Geschlecht der Probanden, Leitfähigkeit, Konsistenz und Menge der Nahrung) untersucht. Durch zusätzliche Untersuchungen mit Patienten wurde einerseits der Einfluss der Elektrodenart geprüft. Andererseits wurden parallel zur BI- und EMG-Messung auch endoskopische (FEES) und radiologische Schluckuntersuchungen (VFSS) durchgeführt, um die Korrelation der Biosignale mit der Bewegung anatomischer Strukturen (VFSS) und mit der Schluckqualität (FEES) zu prüfen. Es wurden 31 gesunde Probanden mit 1819 Schlucken und 60 Patienten mit 715 Schlucken untersucht. Die Messkurven zeigten einen typischen, reproduzierbaren Signalverlauf, der mit anatomischen und funktionellen Änderungen während der pharyngalen Schluckphase in der VFSS korrelierte (r > 0,7). Aus dem Bioimpedanzsignal konnten Merkmale extrahiert werden, die mit physiologischen Merkmalen eines Schluckes, wie verzögerter laryngealer Verschluss und Kehlkopfhebung, korrelierten und eine Einschätzung der Schluckqualität in Übereinstimmung mit der FEES ermöglichten. In den Signalverläufen der Biosignale konnten signifikante Unterschiede zwischen Schluck- und Kopfbewegungen und den Nahrungsmengen und -konsistenzen nachgewiesen werden. Im Gegensatz zur Nahrungsmenge und -konsistenz zeigte die Leitfähigkeit der zu schluckenden Nahrung, das Geschlecht der Probanden und die Art der Elektroden keinen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Messsignale. Mit den Ergebnissen der Evaluation konnte gezeigt werden, dass mit dem BI- und EMG-Messsystem ein neuartiges und nicht-invasives Verfahren zur Verfügung steht, das eine reproduzierbare Darstellung der pharyngalen Schluckphase und ihrer Veränderungen ermöglicht. Daraus ergeben sich vielseitige Einsatzmöglichkeiten in der Diagnostik, z.B. Langzeitmessung zur Schluckfrequenz und Einschätzung der Schluckqualität, und in der Therapie, z.B. der Einsatz in einer Schluckneuroprothese oder als Biofeedback zur Darstellung des Schluckes, von Schluckstörungen.
Bolivia is one of the poorest countries in Latin America. This study analyzes whether rural poverty increases the incidence of food insecurity and whether food insecurity perpetuates the condition of poverty among the rural poor in Bolivia. In order to achieve this aim, the risks that households face and the capacity of households to implement coping strategies in order to mitigate vulnerability shocks are identified. We suggest that efforts by households to become food secure may be difficult in rural areas because of poverty and the vulnerability associated with a lack of physical assets, low levels of human capital, poor infrastructure, and poor health; as well as the precarious regional environment aggravating the severity of vulnerability to food insecurity.
Bürgerbeteiligungsverfahren auf lokaler Ebene sollen die Mitwirkungschancen der BürgerInnen vergrößern. Auf Landkreisebene werden diese bislang wenig genutzt. Dies verwundert kaum, denn die Identifikation der BürgerInnen mit dieser administrativen Ebene ist deutlich geringer als mit ihren Gemeinden. Das fehlende Wissen über Zuständigkeiten verstärkt diesen Effekt. Als einer der ersten deutschen Landkreise führte der Landkreis Mansfeld-Südharz (Sachsen-Anhalt) in den Jahren 2012-2013 ein Bürgerhaushaltsverfahren durch. Dieses Gutachten dient der Evaluation dieses demokratischen Experiments. Dabei sollen Vorschläge zu dessen möglicher Weiterführung gemacht werden. Die vom Gutachter geführten Interviews mit Kreistagsmitgliedern und Führungskräften der Kreisverwaltung zeigten eine generell positive Einschätzung des Bürgerhaushalts und die weit verbreitete Bereitschaft, dieses Experiment fortzusetzen. Im Gutachten werden drei unterschiedliche Szenarien für eine mögliche Fortsetzung des Bürgerhaushalts im Landkreis entwickelt. Das „Weiter so“-Szenario mit viel Kontinuität, die Entwicklung eines Bürgerhaushalts in Kooperation mit der organisierten Zivilgesellschaft oder eines Bürgerhaushalts der interkommunalen Zusammenarbeit.
Postcolonial piracy
(2014)
Across the global South, new media technologies have brought about new forms of cultural production, distribution and reception. The spread of cassette recorders in the 1970s; the introduction of analogue and digital video formats in the 80s and 90s; the pervasive availability of recycled computer hardware; the global dissemination of the internet and mobile phones in the new millennium: all these have revolutionised the access of previously marginalised populations to the cultural flows of global modernity.
Yet this access also engenders a pirate occupation of the modern: it ducks and deranges the globalised designs of property, capitalism and personhood set by the North. Positioning itself against Eurocentric critiques by corporate lobbies, libertarian readings or classical Marxist interventions, this volume offers a profound postcolonial revaluation of the social, epistemic and aesthetic workings of piracy. It projects how postcolonial piracy persistently negotiates different trajectories of property and self at the crossroads of the global and the local.
Virtualized cloud data centers provide on-demand resources, enable agile resource provisioning, and host heterogeneous applications with different resource requirements. These data centers consume enormous amounts of energy, increasing operational expenses, inducing high thermal inside data centers, and raising carbon dioxide emissions. The increase in energy consumption can result from ineffective resource management that causes inefficient resource utilization. This dissertation presents detailed models and novel techniques and algorithms for virtual resource management in cloud data centers. The proposed techniques take into account Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and workload heterogeneity in terms of memory access demand and communication patterns of web applications and High Performance Computing (HPC) applications. To evaluate our proposed techniques, we use simulation and real workload traces of web applications and HPC applications and compare our techniques against the other recently proposed techniques using several performance metrics. The major contributions of this dissertation are the following: proactive resource provisioning technique based on robust optimization to increase the hosts' availability for hosting new VMs while minimizing the idle energy consumption. Additionally, this technique mitigates undesirable changes in the power state of the hosts by which the hosts' reliability can be enhanced in avoiding failure during a power state change. The proposed technique exploits the range-based prediction algorithm for implementing robust optimization, taking into consideration the uncertainty of demand. An adaptive range-based prediction for predicting workload with high fluctuations in the short-term. The range prediction is implemented in two ways: standard deviation and median absolute deviation. The range is changed based on an adaptive confidence window to cope with the workload fluctuations. A robust VM consolidation for efficient energy and performance management to achieve equilibrium between energy and performance trade-offs. Our technique reduces the number of VM migrations compared to recently proposed techniques. This also contributes to a reduction in energy consumption by the network infrastructure. Additionally, our technique reduces SLA violations and the number of power state changes. A generic model for the network of a data center to simulate the communication delay and its impact on VM performance, as well as network energy consumption. In addition, a generic model for a memory-bus of a server, including latency and energy consumption models for different memory frequencies. This allows simulating the memory delay and its influence on VM performance, as well as memory energy consumption. Communication-aware and energy-efficient consolidation for parallel applications to enable the dynamic discovery of communication patterns and reschedule VMs using migration based on the determined communication patterns. A novel dynamic pattern discovery technique is implemented, based on signal processing of network utilization of VMs instead of using the information from the hosts' virtual switches or initiation from VMs. The result shows that our proposed approach reduces the network's average utilization, achieves energy savings due to reducing the number of active switches, and provides better VM performance compared to CPU-based placement. Memory-aware VM consolidation for independent VMs, which exploits the diversity of VMs' memory access to balance memory-bus utilization of hosts. The proposed technique, Memory-bus Load Balancing (MLB), reactively redistributes VMs according to their utilization of a memory-bus using VM migration to improve the performance of the overall system. Furthermore, Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) of the memory and the proposed MLB technique are combined to achieve better energy savings.
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.
Entwicklung von Strategien zur Attraktivitätssteigerung von Fortbildungen im Gesundheitsmanagement
(2014)
Die Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts bewirken sowohl im Bundesministerium der Finanzen BMF als auch im französischen Wirtschafts- und Finanzministerium MINEFI, der Gesunderhaltung der Beschäftigten besondere Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken. Beide Verwaltungen sehen dabei die Referatsleiter/innen (RL) in der Pflicht und bieten deshalb Fortbildungen im Gesundheitsmanagement an. Das Interesse der RL für dieses Angebot ist bisher gering. Die vorliegende Masterarbeit untersucht die Ursachen für das in der deutschen und französischen Finanzverwaltung unterschiedlich geringe Interesse und kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die Hemmnisse im MINEFI stärker durch soziokulturelle und institutionelle Faktoren (republikanische Elitenbildung und Positionsmacht der jeweiligen Hierarchiestufe) bedingt sind, während im BMF institutionelle und persönlichkeitsspezifische Gründe zusammentreffen. Die Behördenkultur beider Ministerien fokussiert die Arbeitsergebnisse der RL und lässt ihr Verhältnis zu den Referatsangehörigen weitestgehend außer Acht. Eine Attraktivitätssteigerung des Fortbildungsangebots im Gesundheitsmanagement setzt in beiden Verwaltungen voraus, Marketingstrategien innerhalb der Behörde zu etablieren, die die Wertigkeit des Gesundheitsmanagements im Organisationsgefüge erhöhen und dadurch die RL stärker motivieren. Dieser Change-Prozess erfordert Ausdauer und Geduld.
Dieser Artikel adressiert zwei bisher nur wenig untersuchte Aspekte der Führungsforschung: Führungsverhalten im öffentlichen Sektor und Faktoren die Führungsverhalten beeinflussen. Mittels einer Fallstudie in der Bundesagentur für Arbeit werden explorativ Hypothesen über Einflussfaktoren des Führungsverhaltens aufgestellt. Die Studie kommt zu der Erkenntnis, dass eine oftmals angenommene Führungslücke im öffentlichen Sektor nicht bestätigt werden kann. Für das ausgeprägte Führungsverhalten, das in der Fallstudie beobachtet wurde, wird als Determinante die besondere Ausgestaltung des Managementsystems der Bundesagentur für Arbeit verantwortlich gemacht. Dazu gehört unter anderem das Performance Management System sowie die Führungskräfteauswahl und -entwicklung. Die Arbeit schließt mit Empfehlungen für weitere Forschungsansätze auf dem Gebiet der Führungsforschung im öffentlichen Sektor.
One of the most significant current discussions in Astrophysics relates to the origin of high-energy cosmic rays. According to our current knowledge, the abundance distribution of the elements in cosmic rays at their point of origin indicates, within plausible error limits, that they were initially formed by nuclear processes in the interiors of stars. It is also believed that their energy distribution up to 1018 eV has Galactic origins. But even though the knowledge about potential sources of cosmic rays is quite poor above „ 1015 eV, that is the “knee” of the cosmic-ray spectrum, up to the knee there seems to be a wide consensus that supernova remnants are the most likely candidates. Evidence of this comes from observations of non-thermal X-ray radiation, requiring synchrotron electrons with energies up to 1014 eV, exactly in the remnant of supernovae. To date, however, there is not conclusive evidence that they produce nuclei, the dominant component of cosmic rays, in addition to electrons. In light of this dearth of evidence, γ-ray observations from supernova remnants can offer the most promising direct way to confirm whether or not these astrophysical objects are indeed the main source of cosmic-ray nuclei below the knee. Recent observations with space- and ground-based observatories have established shell-type supernova remnants as GeV-to- TeV γ-ray sources. The interpretation of these observations is however complicated by the different radiation processes, leptonic and hadronic, that can produce similar fluxes in this energy band rendering ambiguous the nature of the emission itself. The aim of this work is to develop a deeper understanding of these radiation processes from a particular shell-type supernova remnant, namely RX J1713.7–3946, using observations of the LAT instrument onboard the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. Furthermore, to obtain accurate spectra and morphology maps of the emission associated with this supernova remnant, an improved model of the diffuse Galactic γ-ray emission background is developed. The analyses of RX J1713.7–3946 carried out with this improved background show that the hard Fermi-LAT spectrum cannot be ascribed to the hadronic emission, leading thus to the conclusion that the leptonic scenario is instead the most natural picture for the high-energy γ-ray emission of RX J1713.7–3946. The leptonic scenario however does not rule out the possibility that cosmic-ray nuclei are accelerated in this supernova remnant, but it suggests that the ambient density may not be high enough to produce a significant hadronic γ-ray emission. Further investigations involving other supernova remnants using the improved back- ground developed in this work could allow compelling population studies, and hence prove or disprove the origin of Galactic cosmic-ray nuclei in these astrophysical objects. A break- through regarding the identification of the radiation mechanisms could be lastly achieved with a new generation of instruments such as CTA.
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.