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This Thesis puts its focus on the physics of neutron stars and its description with methods of numerical relativity. In the first step, a new numerical framework the Whisky2D code will be developed, which solves the relativistic equations of hydrodynamics in axisymmetry. Therefore we consider an improved formulation of the conserved form of these equations. The second part will use the new code to investigate the critical behaviour of two colliding neutron stars. Considering the analogy to phase transitions in statistical physics, we will investigate the evolution of the entropy of the neutron stars during the whole process. A better understanding of the evolution of thermodynamical quantities, like the entropy in critical process, should provide deeper understanding of thermodynamics in relativity. More specifically, we have written the Whisky2D code, which solves the general-relativistic hydrodynamics equations in a flux-conservative form and in cylindrical coordinates. This of course brings in 1/r singular terms, where r is the radial cylindrical coordinate, which must be dealt with appropriately. In the above-referenced works, the flux operator is expanded and the 1/r terms, not containing derivatives, are moved to the right-hand-side of the equation (the source term), so that the left hand side assumes a form identical to the one of the three-dimensional (3D) Cartesian formulation. We call this the standard formulation. Another possibility is not to split the flux operator and to redefine the conserved variables, via a multiplication by r. We call this the new formulation. The new equations are solved with the same methods as in the Cartesian case. From a mathematical point of view, one would not expect differences between the two ways of writing the differential operator, but, of course, a difference is present at the numerical level. Our tests show that the new formulation yields results with a global truncation error which is one or more orders of magnitude smaller than those of alternative and commonly used formulations. The second part of the Thesis uses the new code for investigations of critical phenomena in general relativity. In particular, we consider the head-on-collision of two neutron stars in a region of the parameter space where two final states a new stable neutron star or a black hole, lay close to each other. In 1993, Choptuik considered one-parameter families of solutions, S[P], of the Einstein-Klein-Gordon equations for a massless scalar field in spherical symmetry, such that for every P > P⋆, S[P] contains a black hole and for every P < P⋆, S[P] is a solution not containing singularities. He studied numerically the behavior of S[P] as P → P⋆ and found that the critical solution, S[P⋆], is universal, in the sense that it is approached by all nearly-critical solutions regardless of the particular family of initial data considered. All these phenomena have the common property that, as P approaches P⋆, S[P] approaches a universal solution S[P⋆] and that all the physical quantities of S[P] depend only on |P − P⋆|. The first study of critical phenomena concerning the head-on collision of NSs was carried out by Jin and Suen in 2007. In particular, they considered a series of families of equal-mass NSs, modeled with an ideal-gas EOS, boosted towards each other and varied the mass of the stars, their separation, velocity and the polytropic index in the EOS. In this way they could observe a critical phenomenon of type I near the threshold of black-hole formation, with the putative solution being a nonlinearly oscillating star. In a successive work, they performed similar simulations but considering the head-on collision of Gaussian distributions of matter. Also in this case they found the appearance of type-I critical behaviour, but also performed a perturbative analysis of the initial distributions of matter and of the merged object. Because of the considerable difference found in the eigenfrequencies in the two cases, they concluded that the critical solution does not represent a system near equilibrium and in particular not a perturbed Tolmann-Oppenheimer-Volkoff (TOV) solution. In this Thesis we study the dynamics of the head-on collision of two equal-mass NSs using a setup which is as similar as possible to the one considered above. While we confirm that the merged object exhibits a type-I critical behaviour, we also argue against the conclusion that the critical solution cannot be described in terms of equilibrium solution. Indeed, we show that, in analogy with what is found in, the critical solution is effectively a perturbed unstable solution of the TOV equations. Our analysis also considers fine-structure of the scaling relation of type-I critical phenomena and we show that it exhibits oscillations in a similar way to the one studied in the context of scalar-field critical collapse.
Sediment records of three European lakes were investigated in order to reconstruct the regional climate development during the Lateglacial and Holocene, to investigate the response of local ecosystems to climatic fluctuations and human impact and to relate regional peculiarities of past climate development to climatic changes on a larger spatial scale. The Lake Hańcza (NE Poland) sediment record was studied with a focus on reconstructing the early Holocene climate development and identifying possible differences to Western Europe. Following the initial Holocene climatic improvement, a further climatic improvement occurred between 10 000 and 9000 cal. a BP. Apparently, relatively cold and dry climate conditions persisted in NE Poland during the first ca. 1500 years of the Holocene, most likely due to a specific regional atmospheric circulation pattern. Prevailing anticyclonic circulation linked to a high-pressure cell above the remaining Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS) might have blocked the eastward propagation of warm and moist Westerlies and thus attenuated the early Holocene climatic amelioration in this region until the final decay of the SIS, a pattern different from climate development in Western Europe. The Lateglacial sediment record of Lake Mondsee (Upper Austria) was investigated in order to study the regional climate development and the environmental response to rapid climatic fluctuations. While the temperature rise and environmental response at the onset of the Holocene took place quasi-synchronously, major leads and lags in proxy responses characterize the onset of the Lateglacial Interstadial. In particular, the spread of coniferous woodlands and the reduction of detrital flux lagged the initial Lateglacial warming by ca. 500–750 years. Major cooling at the onset of the Younger Dryas took place synchronously with a change in vegetation, while the increase of detrital matter flux was delayed by about 150–300 years. Complex proxy responses are also detected for short-term Lateglacial climatic fluctuations. In summary, periods of abrupt climatic changes are characterized by complex and temporally variable proxy responses, mainly controlled by ecosystem inertia and the environmental preconditions. A second study on the Lake Mondsee sediment record focused on two small-scale climate deteriorations around 8200 and 9100 cal. a BP, which have been triggered by freshwater discharges to the North Atlantic, causing a shutdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (MOC). Combining microscopic varve counting and AMS 14C dating yielded a precise duration estimate (ca. 150 years) and absolute dating of the 8.2 ka cold event, both being in good agreement with results from other palaeoclimate records. Moreover, a sudden temperature overshoot after the 8.2 ka cold event was identified, also seen in other proxy records around the North Atlantic. This was most likely caused by enhanced resumption of the MOC, which also initiated substantial shifts of oceanic and atmospheric front systems. Although there is also evidence from other proxy records for pronounced recovery of the MOC and atmospheric circulation changes after the 9.1 ka cold event, no temperature overshoot is seen in the Lake Mondsee record, indicating the complex behaviour of the global climate system. The Holocene sediment record of Lake Iseo (northern Italy) was studied to shed light on regional earthquake activity and the influence of climate variability and anthropogenic impact on catchment erosion and detrital flux into the lake. Frequent small-scale detrital layers within the sediments reflect allochthonous sediment supply by extreme surface runoff events. During the early to mid-Holocene, increased detrital flux coincides with periods of cold and wet climate conditions, thus apparently being mainly controlled by climate variability. In contrast, intervals of high detrital flux during the late Holocene partly also correlate with phases of increased human impact, reflecting the complex influences on catchment erosion processes. Five large-scale event layers within the sediments, which are composed of mass-wasting deposits and turbidites, are supposed to have been triggered by strong local earthquakes. While the uppermost of these event layers is assigned to a documented adjacent earthquake in AD 1222, the four other layers are supposed to be related to previously undocumented prehistorical earthquakes.
Dryland vulnerability : typical patterns and dynamics in support of vulnerability reduction efforts
(2011)
The pronounced constraints on ecosystem functioning and human livelihoods in drylands are frequently exacerbated by natural and socio-economic stresses, including weather extremes and inequitable trade conditions. Therefore, a better understanding of the relation between these stresses and the socio-ecological systems is important for advancing dryland development. The concept of vulnerability as applied in this dissertation describes this relation as encompassing the exposure to climate, market and other stresses as well as the sensitivity of the systems to these stresses and their capacity to adapt. With regard to the interest in improving environmental and living conditions in drylands, this dissertation aims at a meaningful generalisation of heterogeneous vulnerability situations. A pattern recognition approach based on clustering revealed typical vulnerability-creating mechanisms at global and local scales. One study presents the first analysis of dryland vulnerability with global coverage at a sub-national resolution. The cluster analysis resulted in seven typical patterns of vulnerability according to quantitative indication of poverty, water stress, soil degradation, natural agro-constraints and isolation. Independent case studies served to validate the identified patterns and to prove the transferability of vulnerability-reducing approaches. Due to their worldwide coverage, the global results allow the evaluation of a specific system’s vulnerability in its wider context, even in poorly-documented areas. Moreover, climate vulnerability of smallholders was investigated with regard to their food security in the Peruvian Altiplano. Four typical groups of households were identified in this local dryland context using indicators for harvest failure risk, agricultural resources, education and non-agricultural income. An elaborate validation relying on independently acquired information demonstrated the clear correlation between weather-related damages and the identified clusters. It also showed that household-specific causes of vulnerability were consistent with the mechanisms implied by the corresponding patterns. The synthesis of the local study provides valuable insights into the tailoring of interventions that reflect the heterogeneity within the social group of smallholders. The conditions necessary to identify typical vulnerability patterns were summarised in five methodological steps. They aim to motivate and to facilitate the application of the selected pattern recognition approach in future vulnerability analyses. The five steps outline the elicitation of relevant cause-effect hypotheses and the quantitative indication of mechanisms as well as an evaluation of robustness, a validation and a ranking of the identified patterns. The precise definition of the hypotheses is essential to appropriately quantify the basic processes as well as to consistently interpret, validate and rank the clusters. In particular, the five steps reflect scale-dependent opportunities, such as the outcome-oriented aspect of validation in the local study. Furthermore, the clusters identified in Northeast Brazil were assessed in the light of important endogenous processes in the smallholder systems which dominate this region. In order to capture these processes, a qualitative dynamic model was developed using generalised rules of labour allocation, yield extraction, budget constitution and the dynamics of natural and technological resources. The model resulted in a cyclic trajectory encompassing four states with differing degree of criticality. The joint assessment revealed aggravating conditions in major parts of the study region due to the overuse of natural resources and the potential for impoverishment. The changes in vulnerability-creating mechanisms identified in Northeast Brazil are well-suited to informing local adjustments to large-scale intervention programmes, such as “Avança Brasil”. Overall, the categorisation of a limited number of typical patterns and dynamics presents an efficient approach to improving our understanding of dryland vulnerability. Appropriate decision-making for sustainable dryland development through vulnerability reduction can be significantly enhanced by pattern-specific entry points combined with insights into changing hotspots of vulnerability and the transferability of successful adaptation strategies.
The present thesis introduces an iterative expert-based Bayesian approach for assessing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the 2030 German new vehicle fleet and quantifying the impacts of their main drivers. A first set of expert interviews has been carried out in order to identify technologies which may help to lower car GHG emissions and to quantify their emission reduction potentials. Moreover, experts were asked for their probability assessments that the different technologies will be widely adopted, as well as for important prerequisites that could foster or hamper their adoption. Drawing on the results of these expert interviews, a Bayesian Belief Network has been built which explicitly models three vehicle types: Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (which include mild and full Hybrid Electric Vehicles), Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles, and Battery Electric Vehicles. The conditional dependencies of twelve central variables within the BBN - battery energy, fuel and electricity consumption, relative costs, and sales shares of the vehicle types - have been quantified by experts from German car manufacturers in a second series of interviews. For each of the seven second-round interviews, an expert's individually specified BBN results. The BBN have been run for different hypothetical 2030 scenarios which differ, e.g., in regard to battery development, regulation, and fuel and electricity GHG intensities. The present thesis delivers results both in regard to the subject of the investigation and in regard to its method. On the subject level, it has been found that the different experts expect 2030 German new car fleet emission to be at 50 to 65% of 2008 new fleet emissions under the baseline scenario. They can be further reduced to 40 to 50% of the emissions of the 2008 fleet though a combination of a higher share of renewables in the electricity mix, a larger share of biofuels in the fuel mix, and a stricter regulation of car CO$_2$ emissions in the European Union. Technically, 2030 German new car fleet GHG emissions can be reduced to a minimum of 18 to 44% of 2008 emissions, a development which can not be triggered by any combination of measures modeled in the BBN alone but needs further commitment. Out of a wealth of existing BBN, few have been specified by individual experts through elicitation, and to my knowledge, none of them has been employed for analyzing perspectives for the future. On the level of methods, this work shows that expert-based BBN are a valuable tool for making experts' expectations for the future explicit and amenable to the analysis of different hypothetical scenarios. BBN can also be employed for quantifying the impacts of main drivers. They have been demonstrated to be a valuable tool for iterative stakeholder-based science approaches.
Mathematical modeling of biological phenomena has experienced increasing interest since new high-throughput technologies give access to growing amounts of molecular data. These modeling approaches are especially able to test hypotheses which are not yet experimentally accessible or guide an experimental setup. One particular attempt investigates the evolutionary dynamics responsible for today's composition of organisms. Computer simulations either propose an evolutionary mechanism and thus reproduce a recent finding or rebuild an evolutionary process in order to learn about its mechanism. The quest for evolutionary fingerprints in metabolic and gene-coexpression networks is the central topic of this cumulative thesis based on four published articles. An understanding of the actual origin of life will probably remain an insoluble problem. However, one can argue that after a first simple metabolism has evolved, the further evolution of metabolism occurred in parallel with the evolution of the sequences of the catalyzing enzymes. Indications of such a coevolution can be found when correlating the change in sequence between two enzymes with their distance on the metabolic network which is obtained from the KEGG database. We observe that there exists a small but significant correlation primarily on nearest neighbors. This indicates that enzymes catalyzing subsequent reactions tend to be descended from the same precursor. Since this correlation is relatively small one can at least assume that, if new enzymes are no "genetic children" of the previous enzymes, they certainly be descended from any of the already existing ones. Following this hypothesis, we introduce a model of enzyme-pathway coevolution. By iteratively adding enzymes, this model explores the metabolic network in a manner similar to diffusion. With implementation of an Gillespie-like algorithm we are able to introduce a tunable parameter that controls the weight of sequence similarity when choosing a new enzyme. Furthermore, this method also defines a time difference between successive evolutionary innovations in terms of a new enzyme. Overall, these simulations generate putative time-courses of the evolutionary walk on the metabolic network. By a time-series analysis, we find that the acquisition of new enzymes appears in bursts which are pronounced when the influence of the sequence similarity is higher. This behavior strongly resembles punctuated equilibrium which denotes the observation that new species tend to appear in bursts as well rather than in a gradual manner. Thus, our model helps to establish a better understanding of punctuated equilibrium giving a potential description at molecular level. From the time-courses we also extract a tentative order of new enzymes, metabolites, and even organisms. The consistence of this order with previous findings provides evidence for the validity of our approach. While the sequence of a gene is actually subject to mutations, its expression profile might also indirectly change through the evolutionary events in the cellular interplay. Gene coexpression data is simply accessible by microarray experiments and commonly illustrated using coexpression networks where genes are nodes and get linked once they show a significant coexpression. Since the large number of genes makes an illustration of the entire coexpression network difficult, clustering helps to show the network on a metalevel. Various clustering techniques already exist. However, we introduce a novel one which maintains control of the cluster sizes and thus assures proper visual inspection. An application of the method on Arabidopsis thaliana reveals that genes causing a severe phenotype often show a functional uniqueness in their network vicinity. This leads to 20 genes of so far unknown phenotype which are however suggested to be essential for plant growth. Of these, six indeed provoke such a severe phenotype, shown by mutant analysis. By an inspection of the degree distribution of the A.thaliana coexpression network, we identified two characteristics. The distribution deviates from the frequently observed power-law by a sharp truncation which follows after an over-representation of highly connected nodes. For a better understanding, we developed an evolutionary model which mimics the growth of a coexpression network by gene duplication which underlies a strong selection criterion, and slight mutational changes in the expression profile. Despite the simplicity of our assumption, we can reproduce the observed properties in A.thaliana as well as in E.coli and S.cerevisiae. The over-representation of high-degree nodes could be identified with mutually well connected genes of similar functional families: zinc fingers (PF00096), flagella, and ribosomes respectively. In conclusion, these four manuscripts demonstrate the usefulness of mathematical models and statistical tools as a source of new biological insight. While the clustering approach of gene coexpression data leads to the phenotypic characterization of so far unknown genes and thus supports genome annotation, our model approaches offer explanations for observed properties of the coexpression network and furthermore substantiate punctuated equilibrium as an evolutionary process by a deeper understanding of an underlying molecular mechanism.
In der brandenburgischen Landesverwaltung und Justiz sollen in den nächsten Jahren noch ca. 8.000 Stellen eingespart werden. Gleichzeitig sind die Landesverwaltung und die Justiz an die demografische Entwicklung und die damit verbundenen Aufgabenveränderungen anzupassen. Das ressortübergreifende Personalmanagement gewinnt hierdurch an Bedeutung. Um den Prozess zu gestalten, hat die Landesregierung eine Besetzungsrichtlinie erlassen und mit den Gewerkschaften einen Tarifvertrag zum Verwaltungsumbau (TV Umbau) abgeschlossen, die in diesem Band ebenso abgedruckt sind, wie die Durchführungshinweise des Ministeriums des Innern. Darüber hinaus enthält der Band die aktuell geltende Personalbedarfsplanung bis Ende 2015, die Dr. Folke Schneider erläutert. In einem Beitrag von Volker-Gerd Westphal wird eine Gesamtschau der Rahmenbedingungen für das Personalmanagement in der brandenburgischen Landesverwaltung und Justiz vorgenommen.
Conventional energy sources are diminishing and non-renewable, take million years to form and cause environmental degradation. In the 21st century, we have to aim at achieving sustainable, environmentally friendly and cheap energy supply by employing renewable energy technologies associated with portable energy storage devices. Lithium-ion batteries can repeatedly generate clean energy from stored materials and convert reversely electric into chemical energy. The performance of lithium-ion batteries depends intimately on the properties of their materials. Presently used battery electrodes are expensive to be produced; they offer limited energy storage possibility and are unsafe to be used in larger dimensions restraining the diversity of application, especially in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). This thesis presents a major progress in the development of LiFePO4 as a cathode material for lithium-ion batteries. Using simple procedure, a completely novel morphology has been synthesized (mesocrystals of LiFePO4) and excellent electrochemical behavior was recorded (nanostructured LiFePO4). The newly developed reactions for synthesis of LiFePO4 are single-step processes and are taking place in an autoclave at significantly lower temperature (200 deg. C) compared to the conventional solid-state method (multi-step and up to 800 deg. C). The use of inexpensive environmentally benign precursors offers a green manufacturing approach for a large scale production. These newly developed experimental procedures can also be extended to other phospho-olivine materials, such as LiCoPO4 and LiMnPO4. The material with the best electrochemical behavior (nanostructured LiFePO4 with carbon coating) was able to delive a stable 94% of the theoretically known capacity.
In the living cell, the organization of the complex internal structure relies to a large extent on molecular motors. Molecular motors are proteins that are able to convert chemical energy from the hydrolysis of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) into mechanical work. Being about 10 to 100 nanometers in size, the molecules act on a length scale, for which thermal collisions have a considerable impact onto their motion. In this way, they constitute paradigmatic examples of thermodynamic machines out of equilibrium. This study develops a theoretical description for the energy conversion by the molecular motor myosin V, using many different aspects of theoretical physics. Myosin V has been studied extensively in both bulk and single molecule experiments. Its stepping velocity has been characterized as a function of external control parameters such as nucleotide concentration and applied forces. In addition, numerous kinetic rates involved in the enzymatic reaction of the molecule have been determined. For forces that exceed the stall force of the motor, myosin V exhibits a 'ratcheting' behaviour: For loads in the direction of forward stepping, the velocity depends on the concentration of ATP, while for backward loads there is no such influence. Based on the chemical states of the motor, we construct a general network theory that incorporates experimental observations about the stepping behaviour of myosin V. The motor's motion is captured through the network description supplemented by a Markov process to describe the motor dynamics. This approach has the advantage of directly addressing the chemical kinetics of the molecule, and treating the mechanical and chemical processes on equal grounds. We utilize constraints arising from nonequilibrium thermodynamics to determine motor parameters and demonstrate that the motor behaviour is governed by several chemomechanical motor cycles. In addition, we investigate the functional dependence of stepping rates on force by deducing the motor's response to external loads via an appropriate Fokker-Planck equation. For substall forces, the dominant pathway of the motor network is profoundly different from the one for superstall forces, which leads to a stepping behaviour that is in agreement with the experimental observations. The extension of our analysis to Markov processes with absorbing boundaries allows for the calculation of the motor's dwell time distributions. These reveal aspects of the coordination of the motor's heads and contain direct information about the backsteps of the motor. Our theory provides a unified description for the myosin V motor as studied in single motor experiments.
Indonesia is one of the countries most prone to natural hazards. Complex interaction of several tectonic plates with high relative velocities leads to approximately two earthquakes with magnitude Mw>7 every year, being more than 15% of the events worldwide. Earthquakes with magnitude above 9 happen far more infrequently, but with catastrophic effects. The most severe consequences thereby arise from tsunamis triggered by these subduction-related earthquakes, as the Sumatra-Andaman event in 2004 showed. In order to enable efficient tsunami early warning, which includes the estimation of wave heights and arrival times, it is necessary to combine different types of real-time sensor data with numerical models of earthquake sources and tsunami propagation. This thesis was created as a result of the GITEWS project (German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System). It is based on five research papers and manuscripts. Main project-related task was the development of a database containing realistic earthquake scenarios for the Sunda Arc. This database provides initial conditions for tsunami propagation modeling used by the simulation system at the early warning center. An accurate discretization of the subduction geometry, consisting of 25x150 subfaults was constructed based on seismic data. Green’s functions, representing the deformational response to unit dip- and strike slip at the subfaults, were computed using a layered half-space approach. Different scaling relations for earthquake dimensions and slip distribution were implemented. Another project-related task was the further development of the ‘GPS-shield’ concept. It consists of a constellation of near field GPS-receivers, which are shown to be very valuable for tsunami early warning. The major part of this thesis is related to the geophysical interpretation of GPS data. Coseismic surface displacements caused by the 2004 Sumatra earthquake are inverted for slip at the fault. The effect of different Earth layer models is tested, favoring continental structure. The possibility of splay faulting is considered and shown to be a secondary order effect in respect to tsunamigenity for this event. Tsunami models based on source inversions are compared to satellite radar altimetry observations. Postseismic GPS time series are used to test a wide parameter range of uni- and biviscous rheological models of the asthenosphere. Steady-state Maxwell rheology is shown to be incompatible with near-field GPS data, unless large afterslip, amounting to more than 10% of the coseismic moment is assumed. In contrast, transient Burgers rheology is in agreement with data without the need for large aseismic afterslip. Comparison to postseismic geoid observation by the GRACE satellites reveals that even with afterslip, the model implementing Maxwell rheology results in amplitudes being too small, and thus supports a biviscous asthenosphere. A simple approach based on the assumption of quasi-static deformation propagation is introduced and proposed for inversion of coseismic near-field GPS time series. Application of this approach to observations from the 2004 Sumatra event fails to quantitatively reconstruct the rupture propagation, since a priori conditions are not fulfilled in this case. However, synthetic tests reveal the feasibility of such an approach for fast estimation of rupturing properties.
Spatial and temporal temperature and moisture patterns across the Tibetan Plateau are very complex. The onset and magnitude of the Holocene climate optimum in the Asian monsoon realm, in particular, is a subject of considerable debate as this time period is often used as an analogue for recent global warming. In the light of contradictory inferences regarding past climate and environmental change on the Tibetan Plateau, I have attempted to explain mismatches in the timing and magnitude of change. Therefore, I analysed the temporal variation of fossil pollen and diatom spectra and the geochemical record from palaeo-ecological records covering different time scales (late Quaternary and the last 200 years) from two core regions in the NE and SE Tibetan Plateau. For interpretation purposes I combined my data with other available palaeo-ecological data to set up corresponding aquatic and terrestrial proxy data sets of two lake pairs and two sets of sites. I focused on the direct comparison of proxies representing lacustrine response to climate signals (e.g., diatoms, ostracods, geochemical record) and proxies representing changes in the terrestrial environment (i.e., terrestrial pollen), in order to asses whether the lake and its catchments respond at similar times and magnitudes to environmental changes. Therefore, I introduced the established numerical technique procrustes rotation as a new approach in palaeoecology to quantitatively compare raw data of any two sedimentary records of interest in order to assess their degree of concordance. Focusing on the late Quaternary, sediment cores from two lakes (Kuhai Lake 35.3°N; 99.2°E; 4150 m asl; and Koucha Lake 34.0°N; 97.2°E; 4540 m asl) on the semi-arid northeastern Tibetan Plateau were analysed to identify post-glacial vegetation and environmental changes, and to investigate the responses of lake ecosystems to such changes. Based on the pollen record, five major vegetation and climate changes could be identified: (1) A shift from alpine desert to alpine steppe indicates a change from cold, dry conditions to warmer and more moist conditions at 14.8 cal. ka BP, (2) alpine steppe with tundra elements points to conditions of higher effective moisture and a stepwise warming climate at 13.6 cal. ka BP, (3) the appearance of high-alpine meadow vegetation indicates a further change towards increased moisture, but with colder temperatures, at 7.0 cal. ka BP, (4) the reoccurrence of alpine steppe with desert elements suggests a return to a significantly colder and drier phase at 6.3 cal. ka BP, and (5) the establishment of alpine steppe-meadow vegetation indicates a change back to relatively moist conditions at 2.2 cal. ka BP. To place the reconstructed climate inferences from the NE Tibetan Plateau into the context of Holocene moisture evolution across the Tibetan Plateau, I applied a five-scale moisture index and average link clustering to all available continuous pollen and non-pollen palaeoclimate records from the Tibetan Plateau, in an attempt to detect coherent regional and temporal patterns of moisture evolution on the Plateau. However, no common temporal or spatial pattern of moisture evolution during the Holocene could be detected, which can be assigned to the complex responses of different proxies to environmental changes in an already very heterogeneous mountain landscape, where minor differences in elevation can result in marked variations in microenvironments. Focusing on the past 200 years, I analysed the sedimentary records (LC6 Lake 29.5°N, 94.3°E, 4132 m asl; and Wuxu Lake 29.9°N, 101.1°E, 3705 m asl) from the southeastern Tibetan Plateau. I found that despite presumed significant temperature increases over that period, pollen and diatom records from the SE Tibetan Plateau reveal only very subtle changes throughout their profiles. The compositional species turnover investigated over the last 200 years appears relatively low in comparison to the species reorganisations during the Holocene. The results indicate that climatically induced ecological thresholds are not yet crossed, but that human activity has an increasing influence, particularly on the terrestrial ecosystem. Forest clearances and reforestation have not caused forest decline in our study area, but a conversion of natural forests to semi-natural secondary forests. The results from the numerical proxy comparison of the two sets of two pairs of Tibetan lakes indicate that the use of different proxies and the work with palaeo-ecological records from different lake types can cause deviant stories of inferred change. Irrespective of the timescale (Holocene or last 200 years) or region (SE or NE Tibetan Plateau) analysed, the agreement in terms of the direction, timing, and magnitude of change between the corresponding terrestrial data sets is generally better than the match between the corresponding lacustrine data sets, suggesting that lacustrine proxies may partly be influenced by in-lake or local catchment processes whereas the terrestrial proxy reflects a more regional climatic signal. The current disaccord on coherent temporal and spatial climate patterns on the Tibetan Plateau can partly be ascribed to the complexity of proxy response and lake systems on the Tibetan Plateau. Therefore, a multi-proxy, multi-site approach is important in order to gain a reliable climate interpretation for the complex mountain landscape of the Tibetan Plateau.
The Arctic is a particularly sensitive area with respect to climate change due to the high surface albedo of snow and ice and the extreme radiative conditions. Clouds and aerosols as parts of the Arctic atmosphere play an important role in the radiation budget, which is, as yet, poorly quantified and understood. The LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) measurements presented in this PhD thesis contribute with continuous altitude resolved aerosol profiles to the understanding of occurrence and characteristics of aerosol layers above Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen. The attention was turned to the analysis of periods with high aerosol load. As the Arctic spring troposphere exhibits maximum aerosol optical depths (AODs) each year, March and April of both the years 2007 and 2009 were analyzed. Furthermore, stratospheric aerosol layers of volcanic origin were analyzed for several months, subsequently to the eruptions of the Kasatochi and Sarychev volcanoes in summer 2008 and 2009, respectively. The Koldewey Aerosol Raman LIDAR (KARL) is an instrument for the active remote sensing of atmospheric parameters using pulsed laser radiation. It is operated at the AWIPEV research base and was fundamentally upgraded within the framework of this PhD project. It is now equipped with a new telescope mirror and new detection optics, which facilitate atmospheric profiling from 450m above sea level up to the mid-stratosphere. KARL provides highly resolved profiles of the scattering characteristics of aerosol and cloud particles (backscattering, extinction and depolarization) as well as water vapor profiles within the lower troposphere. Combination of KARL data with data from other instruments on site, namely radiosondes, sun photometer, Micro Pulse LIDAR, and tethersonde system, resulted in a comprehensive data set of scattering phenomena in the Arctic atmosphere. The two spring periods March and April 2007 and 2009 were at first analyzed based on meteorological parameters, like local temperature and relative humidity profiles as well as large scale pressure patterns and air mass origin regions. Here, it was not possible to find a clear correlation between enhanced AOD and air mass origin. However, in a comparison of two cloud free periods in March 2007 and April 2009, large AOD values in 2009 coincided with air mass transport through the central Arctic. This suggests the occurrence of aerosol transformation processes during the aerosol transport to Ny-Ålesund. Measurements on 4 April 2009 revealed maximum AOD values of up to 0.12 and aerosol size distributions changing with altitude. This and other performed case studies suggest the differentiation between three aerosol event types and their origin: Vertically limited aerosol layers in dry air, highly variable hygroscopic boundary layer aerosols and enhanced aerosol load across wide portions of the troposphere. For the spring period 2007, the available KARL data were statistically analyzed using a characterization scheme, which is based on optical characteristics of the scattering particles. The scheme was validated using several case studies. Volcanic eruptions in the northern hemisphere in August 2008 and June 2009 arose the opportunity to analyze volcanic aerosol layers within the stratosphere. The rate of stratospheric AOD change was similar within both years with maximum values above 0.1 about three to five weeks after the respective eruption. In both years, the stratospheric AOD persisted at higher rates than usual until the measurements were stopped in late September due to technical reasons. In 2008, up to three aerosol layers were detected, the layer structure in 2009 was characterized by up to six distinct and thin layers which smeared out to one broad layer after about two months. The lowermost aerosol layer was continuously detected at the tropopause altitude. Three case studies were performed, all revealed rather large indices of refraction of m = (1.53–1.55) - 0.02i, suggesting the presence of an absorbing carbonaceous component. The particle radius, derived with inversion calculations, was also similar in both years with values ranging from 0.16 to 0.19 μm. However, in 2009, a second mode in the size distribution was detected at about 0.5 μm. The long term measurements with the Koldewey Aerosol Raman LIDAR in Ny-Ålesund provide the opportunity to study Arctic aerosols in the troposphere and the stratosphere not only in case studies but on longer time scales. In this PhD thesis, both, tropospheric aerosols in the Arctic spring and stratospheric aerosols following volcanic eruptions have been described qualitatively and quantitatively. Case studies and comparative studies with data of other instruments on site allowed for the analysis of microphysical aerosol characteristics and their temporal evolution.
The Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) contains enough water volume to raise global sea level by over 7 meters. It is a relic of past glacial climates that could be strongly affected by a warming world. Several studies have been performed to investigate the sensitivity of the ice sheet to changes in climate, but large uncertainties in its long-term response still exist. In this thesis, a new approach has been developed and applied to modeling the GIS response to climate change. The advantages compared to previous approaches are (i) that it can be applied over a wide range of climatic scenarios (both in the deep past and the future), (ii) that it includes the relevant feedback processes between the climate and the ice sheet and (iii) that it is highly computationally efficient, allowing simulations over very long timescales. The new regional energy-moisture balance model (REMBO) has been developed to model the climate and surface mass balance over Greenland and it represents an improvement compared to conventional approaches in modeling present-day conditions. Furthermore, the evolution of the GIS has been simulated over the last glacial cycle using an ensemble of model versions. The model performance has been validated against field observations of the present-day climate and surface mass balance, as well as paleo information from ice cores. The GIS contribution to sea level rise during the last interglacial is estimated to be between 0.5-4.1 m, consistent with previous estimates. The ensemble of model versions has been constrained to those that are consistent with the data, and a range of valid parameter values has been defined, allowing quantification of the uncertainty and sensitivity of the modeling approach. Using the constrained model ensemble, the sensitivity of the GIS to long-term climate change was investigated. It was found that the GIS exhibits hysteresis behavior (i.e., it is multi-stable under certain conditions), and that a temperature threshold exists above which the ice sheet transitions to an essentially ice-free state. The threshold in the global temperature is estimated to be in the range of 1.3-2.3°C above preindustrial conditions, significantly lower than previously believed. The timescale of total melt scales non-linearly with the overshoot above the temperature threshold, such that a 2°C anomaly causes the ice sheet to melt in ca. 50,000 years, but an anomaly of 6°C will melt the ice sheet in less than 4,000 years. The meltback of the ice sheet was found to become irreversible after a fraction of the ice sheet is already lost – but this level of irreversibility also depends on the temperature anomaly.
Wissenschaftler sind regelmäßig mehr an Forschung interessiert als an Lehre. Dies hat verschiedene Gründe, auf die hier nicht im Einzelnen eingegangen werden soll. Einer dieser Gründe liegt im eigenen Professionsverständnis als Forscher/in bzw. Wissenschaftler/in begründet. Im Kern geht es dabei um Entdeckungen, um Innovationen, um die Weiterentwicklung vorhandenen Wissens. Lehre wird dem gegenüber als intermediärer Bereich gesehen, in dem vorhandenes Wissen reproduziert wird, der deshalb mehr dem Berufssystem zugehörig ist und weniger dem Wissenschaftssystem (Fangmann 2006, S. 30). Lehre erscheint deshalb als Belastung, die mit Forschung nicht korrespondiert, eher von Forschung abhält, insbesondere wenn Studierende den eigenen Lehrbemühungen passiv gegenüberstehen und der Ertrag der Lehre zweifelhaft erscheint. Im Folgenden soll die Verwandtschaft von Forschung und Lernen dargestellt und auf ihre korrespondierenden Logiken verwiesen werden. Grundlage dafür ist ein lerntheoretisches Modell, das Lernen subjekttheoretisch als soziales Handeln konzipiert (Holzkamp 1993), das mit Forschen vergleichbar ist. Forschungsbasierte Lehre wird im Kontext einer subjekttheoretischen Didaktik (Ludwig 2006) als Lehre im Format der Forschung vorgestellt, die Lernen unterstützen kann, weil Lernen dem Forschungsprozess ähnelt. Typen, Erträge und Umsetzungsprobleme forschungsbasierter Lehre werden kurz skizziert.
Complex network theory provides an elegant and powerful framework to statistically investigate the topology of local and long range dynamical interrelationships, i.e., teleconnections, in the climate system. Employing a refined methodology relying on linear and nonlinear measures of time series analysis, the intricate correlation structure within a multivariate climatological data set is cast into network form. Within this graph theoretical framework, vertices are identified with grid points taken from the data set representing a region on the the Earth's surface, and edges correspond to strong statistical interrelationships between the dynamics on pairs of grid points. The resulting climate networks are neither perfectly regular nor completely random, but display the intriguing and nontrivial characteristics of complexity commonly found in real world networks such as the internet, citation and acquaintance networks, food webs and cortical networks in the mammalian brain. Among other interesting properties, climate networks exhibit the "small-world" effect and possess a broad degree distribution with dominating super-nodes as well as a pronounced community structure. We have performed an extensive and detailed graph theoretical analysis of climate networks on the global topological scale focussing on the flow and centrality measure betweenness which is locally defined at each vertex, but includes global topological information by relying on the distribution of shortest paths between all pairs of vertices in the network. The betweenness centrality field reveals a rich internal structure in complex climate networks constructed from reanalysis and atmosphere-ocean coupled general circulation model (AOGCM) surface air temperature data. Our novel approach uncovers an elaborately woven meta-network of highly localized channels of strong dynamical information flow, that we relate to global surface ocean currents and dub the backbone of the climate network in analogy to the homonymous data highways of the internet. This finding points to a major role of the oceanic surface circulation in coupling and stabilizing the global temperature field in the long term mean (140 years for the model run and 60 years for reanalysis data). Carefully comparing the backbone structures detected in climate networks constructed using linear Pearson correlation and nonlinear mutual information, we argue that the high sensitivity of betweenness with respect to small changes in network structure may allow to detect the footprints of strongly nonlinear physical interactions in the climate system. The results presented in this thesis are thoroughly founded and substantiated using a hierarchy of statistical significance tests on the level of time series and networks, i.e., by tests based on time series surrogates as well as network surrogates. This is particularly relevant when working with real world data. Specifically, we developed new types of network surrogates to include the additional constraints imposed by the spatial embedding of vertices in a climate network. Our methodology is of potential interest for a broad audience within the physics community and various applied fields, because it is universal in the sense of being valid for any spatially extended dynamical system. It can help to understand the localized flow of dynamical information in any such system by combining multivariate time series analysis, a complex network approach and the information flow measure betweenness centrality. Possible fields of application include fluid dynamics (turbulence), plasma physics and biological physics (population models, neural networks, cell models). Furthermore, the climate network approach is equally relevant for experimental data as well as model simulations and hence introduces a novel perspective on model evaluation and data driven model building. Our work is timely in the context of the current debate on climate change within the scientific community, since it allows to assess from a new perspective the regional vulnerability and stability of the climate system while relying on global and not only on regional knowledge. The methodology developed in this thesis hence has the potential to substantially contribute to the understanding of the local effect of extreme events and tipping points in the earth system within a holistic global framework.
The widespread usage of products containing volatile organic compounds (VOC) has lead to a general human exposure to these chemicals in work places or homes being suspected to contribute to the growing incidence of environmental diseases. Since the causal molecular mechanisms for the development of these disorders are not completely understood, the overall objective of this thesis was to investigate VOC-mediated molecular effects on human lung cells in vitro at VOC concentrations comparable to exposure scenarios below current occupational limits. Although differential expression of single proteins in response to VOCs has been reported, effects on complex protein networks (proteome) have not been investigated. However, this information is indispensable when trying to ascertain a mechanism for VOC action on the cellular level and establishing preventive strategies. For this study, the alveolar epithelial cell line A549 has been used. This cell line, cultured in a two-phase (air/liquid) model allows the most direct exposure and had been successfully applied for the analysis of inflammatory effects in response to VOCs. Mass spectrometric identification of 266 protein spots provided the first proteomic map of A549 cell line to this extent that may foster future work with this frequently used cellular model. The distribution of three typical air contaminants, monochlorobenzene (CB), styrene and 1,2 dichlorobenzene (1,2-DCB), between gas and liquid phase of the exposure model has been analyzed by gas chromatography. The obtained VOC partitioning was in agreement with available literature data. Subsequently the adapted in vitro system has been successfully employed to characterize the effects of the aromatic compound styrene on the proteome of A549 cells (Chapter 4). Initially, the cell toxicity has been assessed in order to ensure that most of the concentrations used in the following proteomic approach were not cytotoxic. Significant changes in abundance and phosphorylation in the total soluble protein fraction of A549 cells have been detected following styrene exposure. All proteins have been identified using mass spectrometry and the main cellular functions have been assigned. Validation experiments on protein and transcript level confirmed the results of the 2-DE experiments. From the results, two main cellular pathways have been identified that were induced by styrene: the cellular oxidative stress response combined with moderate pro-apoptotic signaling. Measurement of cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) as well as the styrene-mediated induction of oxidative stress marker proteins confirmed the hypothesis of oxidative stress as the main molecular response mechanism. Finally, adducts of cellular proteins with the reactive styrene metabolite styrene 7,8 oxide (SO) have been identified. Especially the SO-adducts observed at both the reactive centers of thioredoxin reductase 1, which is a key element in the control of the cellular redox state, may be involved in styrene-induced ROS formation and apoptosis. A similar proteomic approach has been carried out with the halobenzenes CB and 1,2-DCB (Chapter 5). In accordance with previous findings, cell toxicity assessment showed enhanced toxicity compared to the one caused by styrene. Significant changes in abundance and phosphorylation of total soluble proteins of A549 cells have been detected following exposure to subtoxic concentrations of CB and 1,2-DCB. All proteins have been identified using mass spectrometry and the main cellular functions have been assigned. As for the styrene experiment, the results indicated two main pathways to be affected in the presence of chlorinated benzenes, cell death signaling and oxidative stress response. The strong induction of pro-apoptotic signaling has been confirmed for both treatments by detection of the cleavage of caspase 3. Likewise, the induction of redox-sensitive protein species could be correlated to an increased cellular level of ROS observed following CB treatment. Finally, common mechanisms in the cellular response to aromatic VOCs have been investigated (Chapter 6). A similar number (4.6-6.9%) of all quantified protein spots showed differential expression (p<0.05) following cell exposure to styrene, CB or 1,2-DCB. However, not more than three protein spots showed significant regulation in the same direction for all three volatile compounds: voltage-dependent anion-selective channel protein 2, peroxiredoxin 1 and elongation factor 2. However, all of these proteins are important molecular targets in stress- and cell death-related signaling pathways.
Forschungsbasierte Lehre
(2010)
Mit der Integration von Forschung in Lehre gelingen nicht nur aktivierende, teilnehmerorientierte Lehrmethoden, sie bietet vielmehr für Studierende die Möglichkeit an Forschung teilzuhaben. Dabei geht forschungsbasiertes Lernen über die Förderung von Selbstständigkeit und projektorientiertem Studium hinaus, denn es wird von den Studierenden eine sie interessierende Problemstellung entwickelt mit dem Ziel neue Erkenntnisse zu gewinnen. Hierin liegt die Besonderheit des Konzepts: es wird bei den Lerninteressen der Studierenden angesetzt. Dieser Beitrag erörtern ein Beispiel, wie Forschungsprojekte in der Lehre genutzt werden können.
Large-scale volcanic deformation recently detected by radar interferometry (InSAR) provides new information and thus new scientific challenges for understanding volcano-tectonic activity and magmatic systems. The destabilization of such a system at depth noticeably affects the surrounding environment through magma injection, ground displacement and volcanic eruptions. To determine the spatiotemporal evolution of the Lazufre volcanic area located in the central Andes, we combined short-term ground displacement acquired by InSAR with long-term geological observations. Ground displacement was first detected using InSAR in 1997. By 2008, this displacement affected 1800 km2 of the surface, an area comparable in size to the deformation observed at caldera systems. The original displacement was followed in 2000 by a second, small-scale, neighbouring deformation located on the Lastarria volcano. We performed a detailed analysis of the volcanic structures at Lazufre and found relationships with the volcano deformations observed with InSAR. We infer that these observations are both likely to be the surface expression of a long-lived magmatic system evolving at depth. It is not yet clear whether Lazufre may trigger larger unrest or volcanic eruptions; however, the second deformation detected at Lastarria and the clear increase of the large-scale deformation rate make this an area of particular interest for closer continuous monitoring.
Business process management aims at capturing, understanding, and improving work in organizations. The central artifacts are process models, which serve different purposes. Detailed process models are used to analyze concrete working procedures, while high-level models show, for instance, handovers between departments. To provide different views on process models, business process model abstraction has emerged. While several approaches have been proposed, a number of abstraction use case that are both relevant for industry and scientifically challenging are yet to be addressed. In this paper we systematically develop, classify, and consolidate different use cases for business process model abstraction. The reported work is based on a study with BPM users in the health insurance sector and validated with a BPM consultancy company and a large BPM vendor. The identified fifteen abstraction use cases reflect the industry demand. The related work on business process model abstraction is evaluated against the use cases, which leads to a research agenda.
Data obtained from foreign data sources often come with only superficial structural information, such as relation names and attribute names. Other types of metadata that are important for effective integration and meaningful querying of such data sets are missing. In particular, relationships among attributes, such as foreign keys, are crucial metadata for understanding the structure of an unknown database. The discovery of such relationships is difficult, because in principle for each pair of attributes in the database each pair of data values must be compared. A precondition for a foreign key is an inclusion dependency (IND) between the key and the foreign key attributes. We present with Spider an algorithm that efficiently finds all INDs in a given relational database. It leverages the sorting facilities of DBMS but performs the actual comparisons outside of the database to save computation. Spider analyzes very large databases up to an order of magnitude faster than previous approaches. We also evaluate in detail the effectiveness of several heuristics to reduce the number of necessary comparisons. Furthermore, we generalize Spider to find composite INDs covering multiple attributes, and partial INDs, which are true INDs for all but a certain number of values. This last type is particularly relevant when integrating dirty data as is often the case in the life sciences domain - our driving motivation.
In the first section of the thesis graphitic carbon nitride was for the first time synthesised using the high-temperature condensation of dicyandiamide (DCDA) – a simple molecular precursor – in a eutectic salt melt of lithium chloride and potassium chloride. The extent of condensation, namely next to complete conversion of all reactive end groups, was verified by elemental microanalysis and vibrational spectroscopy. TEM- and SEM-measurements gave detailed insight into the well-defined morphology of these organic crystals, which are not based on 0D or 1D constituents like known molecular or short-chain polymeric crystals but on the packing motif of extended 2D frameworks. The proposed crystal structure of this g-C3N4 species was derived in analogy to graphite by means of extensive powder XRD studies, indexing and refinement. It is based on sheets of hexagonally arranged s-heptazine (C6N7) units that are held together by covalent bonds between C and N atoms. These sheets stack in a graphitic, staggered fashion adopting an AB-motif, as corroborated by powder X-ray diffractometry and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. This study was contrasted with one of many popular – yet unsuccessful – approaches in the last 30 years of scientific literature to perform the condensation of an extended carbon nitride species through synthesis in the bulk. The second section expands the repertoire of available salt melts introducing the lithium bromide and potassium bromide eutectic as an excellent medium to obtain a new phase of graphitic carbon nitride. The combination of SEM, TEM, PXRD and electron diffraction reveals that the new graphitic carbon nitride phase stacks in an ABA’ motif forming unprecedentedly large crystals. This section seizes the notion of the preceding chapter, that condensation in a eutectic salt melt is the key to obtain a high degree of conversion mainly through a solvatory effect. At the close of this chapter ionothermal synthesis is seen established as a powerful tool to overcome the inherent kinetic problems of solid state reactions such as incomplete polymerisation and condensation in the bulk especially when the temperature requirement of the reaction in question falls into the proverbial “no man’s land” of classical solvents, i.e. above 250 to 300 °C. The following section puts the claim to the test, that the crystalline carbon nitrides obtained from a salt melt are indeed graphitic. A typical property of graphite – namely the accessibility of its interplanar space for guest molecules – is transferred to the graphitic carbon nitride system. Metallic potassium and graphitic carbon nitride are converted to give the potassium intercalation compound, K(C6N8)3 designated according to its stoichiometry and proposed crystal structure. Reaction of the intercalate with aqueous solvents triggers the exfoliation of the graphitic carbon nitride material and – for the first time – enables the access of singular (or multiple) carbon nitride sheets analogous to graphene as seen in the formation of sheets, bundles and scrolls of carbon nitride in TEM imaging. The thus exfoliated sheets form a stable, strongly fluorescent solution in aqueous media, which shows no sign in UV/Vis spectroscopy that the aromaticity of individual sheets was subject to degradation. The final section expands on the mechanism underlying the formation of graphitic carbon nitride by literally expanding the distance between the covalently linked heptazine units which constitute these materials. A close examination of all proposed reaction mechanisms to-date in the light of exhaustive DSC/MS experiments highlights the possibility that the heptazine unit can be formed from smaller molecules, even if some of the designated leaving groups (such as ammonia) are substituted by an element, R, which later on remains linked to the nascent heptazine. Furthermore, it is suggested that the key functional groups in the process are the triazine- (Tz) and the carbonitrile- (CN) group. On the basis of these assumptions, molecular precursors are tailored which encompass all necessary functional groups to form a central heptazine unit of threefold, planar symmetry and then still retain outward functionalities for self-propagated condensation in all three directions. Two model systems based on a para-aryl (ArCNTz) and para-biphenyl (BiPhCNTz) precursors are devised via a facile synthetic procedure and then condensed in an ionothermal process to yield the heptazine based frameworks, HBF-1 and HBF-2. Due to the structural motifs of their molecular precursors, individual sheets of HBF-1 and HBF-2 span cavities of 14.2 Å and 23.0 Å respectively which makes both materials attractive as potential organic zeolites. Crystallographic analysis confirms the formation of ABA’ layered, graphitic systems, and the extent of condensation is confirmed as next-to-perfect by elemental analysis and vibrational spectroscopy.
STG decomposition is a promising approach to tackle the complexity problems arising in logic synthesis of speed independent circuits, a robust asynchronous (i.e. clockless) circuit type. Unfortunately, STG decomposition can result in components that in isolation have irreducible CSC conflicts. Generalising earlier work, it is shown how to resolve such conflicts by introducing internal communication between the components via structural techniques only.
Recent years witnessed a vast advent of stalagmites as palaeoclimate archives. The multitude of geochemical and physical proxies and a promise of a precise and accurate age model greatly appeal to palaeoclimatologists. Although substantial progress was made in speleothem-based palaeoclimate research and despite high-resolution records from low-latitudinal regions, proving that palaeo-environmental changes can be archived on sub-annual to millennial time scales our comprehension of climate dynamics is still fragmentary. This is in particular true for the summer monsoon system on the Indian subcontinent. The Indian summer monsoon (ISM) is an integral part of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). As this rainfall belt migrates northward during boreal summer, it brings monsoonal rainfall. ISM strength depends however on a variety of factors, including snow cover in Central Asia and oceanic conditions in the Indic and Pacific. Presently, many of the factors influencing the ISM are known, though their exact forcing mechanism and mutual relations remain ambiguous. Attempts to make an accurate prediction of rainfall intensity and frequency and drought recurrence, which is extremely important for South Asian countries, resemble a puzzle game; all interaction need to fall into the right place to obtain a complete picture. My thesis aims to create a faithful picture of climate change in India, covering the last 11,000 ka. NE India represents a key region for the Bay of Bengal (BoB) branch of the ISM, as it is here where the monsoon splits into a northwestward and a northeastward directed arm. The Meghalaya Plateau is the first barrier for northward moving air masses and receives excessive summer rainfall, while the winter season is very dry. The proximity of Meghalaya to the Tibetan Plateau on the one hand and the BoB on the other hand make the study area a key location for investigating the interaction between different forcings that governs the ISM. A basis for the interpretation of palaeoclimate records, and a first important outcome of my thesis is a conceptual model which explains the observed pattern of seasonal changes in stable isotopes (d18O and d2H) in rainfall. I show that although in tropical and subtropical regions the amount effect is commonly called to explain strongly depleted isotope values during enhanced rainfall, alone it cannot account for observed rainwater isotope variability in Meghalaya. Monitoring of rainwater isotopes shows no expected negative correlation between precipitation amount and d18O of rainfall. In turn I find evidence that the runoff from high elevations carries an inherited isotopic signature into the BoB, where during the ISM season the freshwater builds a strongly depleted plume on top of the marine water. The vapor originating from this plume is likely to memorize' and transmit further very negative d18O values. The lack of data does not allow for quantication of this plume effect' on isotopes in rainfall over Meghalaya but I suggest that it varies on seasonal to millennial timescales, depending on the runoff amount and source characteristics. The focal point of my thesis is the extraction of climatic signals archived in stalagmites from NE India. High uranium concentration in the stalagmites ensured excellent age control required for successful high-resolution climate reconstructions. Stable isotope (d18O and d13C) and grey-scale data allow unprecedented insights into millennial to seasonal dynamics of the summer and winter monsoon in NE India. ISM strength (i. e. rainfall amount) is recorded in changes in d18Ostalagmites. The d13C signal, reflecting drip rate changes, renders a powerful proxy for dry season conditions, and shows similarities to temperature-related changes on the Tibetan Plateau. A sub-annual grey-scale profile supports a concept of lower drip rate and slower stalagmite growth during dry conditions. During the Holocene, ISM followed a millennial-scale decrease of insolation, with decadal to centennial failures resulting from atmospheric changes. The period of maximum rainfall and enhanced seasonality corresponds to the Holocene Thermal Optimum observed in Europe. After a phase of rather stable conditions, 4.5 kyr ago, the strengthening ENSO system dominated the ISM. Strong El Nino events weakened the ISM, especially when in concert with positive Indian Ocean dipole events. The strongest droughts of the last 11 kyr are recorded during the past 2 kyr. Using the advantage of a well-dated stalagmite record at hand I tested the application of laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) to detect sub-annual to sub-decadal changes in element concentrations in stalagmites. The development of a large ablation cell allows for ablating sample slabs of up to 22 cm total length. Each analyzed element is a potential proxy for different climatic parameters. Combining my previous results with the LAICP- MS-generated data shows that element concentration depends not only on rainfall amount and associated leaching from the soil. Additional factors, like biological activity and hydrogeochemical conditions in the soil and vadose zone can eventually affect the element content in drip water and in stalagmites. I present a theoretical conceptual model for my study site to explain how climatic signals can be transmitted and archived in stalagmite carbonate. Further, I establish a first 1500 year long element record, reconstructing rainfall variability. Additionally, I hypothesize that volcanic eruptions, producing large amounts of sulfuric acid, can influence soil acidity and hence element mobilization.
Business process management experiences a large uptake by the industry, and process models play an important role in the analysis and improvement of processes. While an increasing number of staff becomes involved in actual modeling practice, it is crucial to assure model quality and homogeneity along with providing suitable aids for creating models. In this paper we consider the problem of offering recommendations to the user during the act of modeling. Our key contribution is a concept for defining and identifying so-called action patterns - chunks of actions often appearing together in business processes. In particular, we specify action patterns and demonstrate how they can be identified from existing process model repositories using association rule mining techniques. Action patterns can then be used to suggest additional actions for a process model. Our approach is challenged by applying it to the collection of process models from the SAP Reference Model.
The comprehension of figurative language : electrophysiological evidence on the processing of irony
(2008)
This dissertation investigates the comprehension of figurative language, in particular the temporal processing of verbal irony. In six experiments using event-related potentials(ERP) brain activity during the comprehension of ironic utterances in relation to equivalent non-ironic utterances was measured and analyzed. Moreover, the impact of various language-accompanying cues, e.g., prosody or the use of punctuation marks, as well as non-verbal cues such as pragmatic knowledge has been examined with respect to the processing of irony. On the basis of these findings different models on figurative language comprehension, i.e., the 'standard pragmatic model', the 'graded salience hypothesis', and the 'direct access view', are discussed.
Controlling interactions in synthetic polymers as precisely as in proteins would have a strong impact on polymer science. Advanced structural and functional control can lead to rational design of, integrated nano- and microstructures. To achieve this, properties of monomer sequence defined oligopeptides were exploited. Through their incorporation as monodisperse segments into synthetic polymers we learned in recent four years how to program the structure formation of polymers, to adjust and exploit interactions in such polymers, to control inorganic-organic interfaces in fiber composites and induce structure in Biomacromolecules like DNA for biomedical applications.
Supernovae are known to be the dominant energy source for driving turbulence in the interstellar medium. Yet, their effect on magnetic field amplification in spiral galaxies is still poorly understood. Analytical models based on the uncorrelated-ensemble approach predicted that any created field will be expelled from the disk before a significant amplification can occur. By means of direct simulations of supernova-driven turbulence, we demonstrate that this is not the case. Accounting for vertical stratification and galactic differential rotation, we find an exponential amplification of the mean field on timescales of 100Myr. The self-consistent numerical verification of such a “fast dynamo” is highly beneficial in explaining the observed strong magnetic fields in young galaxies. We, furthermore, highlight the importance of rotation in the generation of helicity by showing that a similar mechanism based on Cartesian shear does not lead to a sustained amplification of the mean magnetic field. This finding impressively confirms the classical picture of a dynamo based on cyclonic turbulence.
Bundistinnen
(2009)
Pri ha-Pardes (Früchte des Obstgartens) ist eine Reihe der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e.V., welche in Verbindung mit dem Zentrum für Jüdische Studien der Universität Potsdam publiziert wird. Pri ha-Pardes möchte kleineren wissenschaftlichen Studien, Forschungen am Rande der großen Disziplinen und exzellenten Masterarbeiten eine Publikationsplattform bieten. Im fünften Band der Reihe Pri ha-Pardes skizziert Rebekka Denz die Geschichte von Frauen im Allgemeinen Jüdischen Arbeiterbund („Bund“) seit seiner Gründung 1897 bis zum Jahr 1939. Durch das Prisma der gewählten Hauptquelle ─ die Frauenbiographien der „Doires Bundistn“, einer jiddischsprachigen Biographiensammlung verfasst von Mitgliedern des „Bund“ ─ werden das Mitwirken und die Bedeutung von Frauen in dieser sozialistischen, jiddischistischen Bewegung Ost(mittel)europas dargestellt. Zudem wird ein erster Versuch unternommen, diesen Teil der bundischen Parteigeschichtsschreibung hinsichtlich ihrer (Re-) Konstruktionsprinzipien zu lesen. Die Arbeit gliedert sich dabei analog zum bundischen Selbstverständnis und der geographischen Verschiebung seines Hauptwirkungsfeldes in zwei Teile: Frauen im „Russischen Bund“ (1897-1917) und Frauen im „Polnischen Bund“ (1918-1939). Die Auswirkungen der unterschiedlichen historischen Kontexte auf lebensweltliche Aspekte, Tätigkeiten in Bewegung und Partei sowie Tendenzen der Lebensgestaltung der Bundistinnen werden anhand von drei Vergleichskapiteln aufgezeigt; weitere Einzelkapitel behandeln zeitspezifische Aspekte. Die Instabilität der Lebensverhältnisse für die Mitglieder im illegalen „Russischen Bund“ bzw. die größere Stabilität in der Zeit des „Bund“ in Polen als legale Partei bilden wichtige, bislang vernachlässigte Faktoren bei der Betrachtung der weiblichen Lebensmuster.
Chloroplasts as bioreactors : high-yield production of active bacteriolytic protein antibiotics
(2008)
Plants, more precisely their chloroplasts with their bacterial-like expression machinery inherited from their cyanobacterial ancestors, can potentially offer a cheap expression system for proteinaceous pharmaceuticals. This system would be easily scalable and provides appropriate safety due to chloroplasts maternal inheritance. In this work, it was shown that three phage lytic enzymes (Pal, Cpl-1 and PlyGBS) could be successfully expressed at very high levels and with high stability in tobacco chloroplasts. PlyGBS expression reached an amount of foreign protein accumulation (> 70% TSP) that has never been obtained before. Although the high expression levels of PlyGBS caused a pale green phenotype with retarded growth, presumably due to exhaustion of plastid protein synthesis capacity, development and seed production were not impaired under greenhouse conditions. Since Pal and Cpl-1 showed toxic effects when expressed in E. coli, a special plastid transformation vector (pTox) was constructed to allow DNA amplification in bacteria. The construction of the pTox transformation vector allowing a recombinase-mediated deletion of an E. coli transcription block in the chloroplast, leading to an increase of foreign protein accumulation to up to 40% of TSP for Pal and 20% of TSP for Cpl-1. High dose-dependent bactericidal efficiency was shown for all three plant-derived lytic enzymes using their pathogenic target bacteria S. pyogenes and S. pneumoniae. Confirmation of specificity was obtained for the endotoxic proteins Pal and Cpl-1 by application to E. coli cultures. These results establish tobacco chloroplasts as a new cost-efficient and convenient production platform for phage lytic enzymes and address the greatest obstacle for clinical application. The present study is the first report of lysin production in a non-bacterial system. The properties of chloroplast-produced lysins described in this work, their stability, high accumulation rate and biological activity make them highly attractive candidates for future antibiotics.
Die Arbeit beschreibt die Analyse von Beobachtungen zweier Sonnenflecken in zweidimensionaler Spektro-Polarimetrie. Die Daten wurden mit dem Fabry-Pérot-Interferometer der Universität Göttingen am Vakuum-Turm-Teleskop auf Teneriffa erfasst. Von der aktiven Region NOAA 9516 wurde der volle Stokes-Vektor des polarisierten Lichts in der Absorptionslinie bei 630,249 nm in Einzelaufnahmen beobachtet, und von der aktiven Region NOAA 9036 wurde bei 617,3 nm Wellenlänge eine 90-minütige Zeitserie des zirkular polarisierten Lichts aufgezeichnet. Aus den reduzierten Daten werden Ergebniswerte für Intensität, Geschwindigkeit in Beobachtungsrichtung, magnetische Feldstärke sowie verschiedene weitere Plasmaparameter abgeleitet. Mehrere Ansätze zur Inversion solarer Modellatmosphären werden angewendet und verglichen. Die teilweise erheblichen Fehlereinflüsse werden ausführlich diskutiert. Das Frequenzverhalten der Ergebnisse und Abhängigkeiten nach Ort und Zeit werden mit Hilfe der Fourier- und Wavelet-Transformation weiter analysiert. Als Resultat lässt sich die Existenz eines hochfrequenten Bandes für Geschwindigkeitsoszillationen mit einer zentralen Frequenz von 75 Sekunden (13 mHz) bestätigen. In größeren photosphärischen Höhen von etwa 500 km entstammt die Mehrheit der damit zusammenhängenden Schockwellen den dunklen Anteilen der Granulen, im Unterschied zu anderen Frequenzbereichen. Die 75-Sekunden-Oszillationen werden ebenfalls in der aktiven Region beobachtet, vor allem in der Lichtbrücke. In den identifizierten Bändern oszillatorischer Power der Geschwindigkeit sind in einer dunklen, penumbralen Struktur sowie in der Lichtbrücke ausgeprägte Strukturen erkennbar, die sich mit einer Horizontalgeschwindigkeit von 5-8 km/s in die ruhige Sonne bewegen. Diese zeigen einen deutlichen Anstieg der Power, vor allem im 5-Minuten-Band, und stehen möglicherweise in Zusammenhang mit dem Phänomen der „Evershed-clouds“. Eingeschränkt durch ein sehr geringes Signal-Rausch-Verhältnis und hohe Fehlereinflüsse werden auch Magnetfeldvariationen mit einer Periode von sechs Minuten am Übergang von Umbra zu Penumbra in der Nähe einer Lichtbrücke beobachtet. Um die beschriebenen Resultate zu erzielen, wurden bestehende Visualisierungsverfahren der Frequenzanalyse verbessert oder neu entwickelt, insbesondere für Ergebnisse der Wavelet-Transformation.
For the first time stabilizer-free vinylidene fluoride (VDF) polymerizations were carried out in homogeneous phase with supercritical CO₂. Polymerizations were carried out at 140°C, 1500 bar and were initiated with di-tert-butyl peroxide (DTBP). In-line FT-NIR (Fourier Transform- Near Infrared) spectroscopy showed that complete monomer conversion may be obtained. Molecular weights were determined via size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and polymer end group analysis by 1H-NMR spectroscopy. The number average molecular weights were below 104 g∙mol−1 and polydispersities ranged from 3.1 to 5.7 depending on DTBP and VDF concentration. To allow for isothermal reactions high CO₂ contents ranging from 61 to 83 wt.% were used. The high-temperature, high-pressure conditions were required for homogeneous phase polymerization. These conditions did not alter the amount of defects in VDF chaining. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicated that regular stack-type particles were obtained upon expansion of the homogeneous polymerization mixture. To reduce the required amount of initiator, further VDF polymerizations using chain transfer agents (CTAs) to control molecular weights were carried out in homogeneous phase with supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO₂) at 120 °C and 1500 bar. Using perfluorinated hexyl iodide as CTA, polymers of low polydispersity ranging from 1.5 to 1.2 at the highest iodide concentration of 0.25 mol·L-1 were obtained. Electrospray ionization- mass spectroscopy (ESI-MS) indicates the absence of initiator derived end groups, supporting livingness of the system. The “livingness” is based on the labile C-I bond. However, due to the weakness of the C-I bond perfluorinated hexyl iodide also contributes to initiation. To allow for kinetic analyses of VDF polymerizations the CTA should not contribute to initiation. Therefore, additional CTAs were applied: BrCCl3, C6F13Br and C6F13H. It was found that C6F13H does not contribute to initiation. At 120°C and 1500 bar kp/kt0.5~ 0.64 (L·mol−1·s−1)0.5 was derived. The chain transfer constant (CT) at 120°C has been determined to be 8·10−1, 9·10−2 and 2·10−4 for C6F13I, C6F13Br and C6F13H, respectively. These CT values are associated with the bond energy of the C-X bond. Moreover, the labile C-I bond allows for functionalization of the polymer to triazole end groups applying click reactions. After substitution of the iodide end group by an azide group 1,3 dipolar cycloadditions with alkynes yield polymers with 1,2,3 triazole end groups. Using symmetrical alkynes the reactions may be carried out in the absence of any catalyst. This end-functionalized poly (vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) has higher thermal stability as compared to the normal PVDF. PVDF samples from homogeneous phase polymerizations in supercritical CO₂ and subsequent expansion to ambient conditions were analyzed with respect to polymer end groups, crystallinity, type of polymorphs and morphology. Upon expansion the polymer was obtained as white powder. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that DTBP derived polymer end groups led to stack-type particles whereas sponge- or rose-type particles were obtained in case of CTA fragments as end groups. Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy and wide angle X-ray diffraction indicated that the type of polymorph, α or β crystal phase was significantly affected by the type of end group. The content of β-phase material, which is responsible for piezoelectricity of PVDF, is the highest for polymer with DTBP-derived end groups. In addition, the crystallinity of the material, as determined via differential scanning calorimetry is affected by the end groups and polymer molecular weights. For example, crystallinity ranges from around 26 % for DTBP-derived end groups to a maximum of 62 % for end groups originating from perfluorinated hexyl iodide for polymers with Mn ~2200 g·mol–1. Expansion of the homogeneous polymerization mixture results in particle formation by a non-optimized RESS (Rapid Expansion from Supercritical Solution) process. Thus, it was tested how polymer end groups affect the particles size distribution obtained from RESS process under controlled conditions (T = 50°C and P = 200 bar). In all RESS experiments, small primary PVDF with diameters less than 100 nm without the use of liquid solvents, surfactants, or other additives were produced. A strong correlation between particle size and particle size distribution with polymer end groups and molecular weight of the original material was observed. The smallest particles were found for RESS of PVDF with Mn~ 4000 g·mol–1 and PFHI (C6F13I) - derived end groups.
Bei N = 101 Arbeitnehmern verschiedener Berufe wurden mit der Experience Sampling Method (ESM) eine Woche lang Daten zum Flow-Erleben, zu Glück/Zufriedenheit und zur Zielausrichtung laufender Aktivitäten erhoben (N = 4603 Messungen). Die Daten wurden mit GLMM-Analysen ausgewertet. Auch bei der jetzt vollständigen Erfassung aller Flow-Komponenten mit der FKS bestätigte sich das „Paradoxon der Arbeit“, wonach während der Arbeit höhere Flow-Werte, aber niedrigere Werte für Glück/Zufriedenheit auftreten als jeweils in der Freizeit. Während der Arbeit waren Aktivitäten häufiger auf die Erreichung von Zielen ausgerichtet als während der Freizeit. Die Zielausrichtung wirkte auf Flow vs. Glück/Zufriedenheit signifikant verschieden. Während der Arbeit hat die Zielausrichtung auf Flow einen stark positiven Effekt, auf Glück/Zufriedenheit jedoch nicht. Im Freizeitbereich war der Effekt von Zielausrichtung auf Glück/Zufriedenheit sogar negativ. Das „Paradoxon der Arbeit“ lässt sich partiell als Effekt der Zielausrichtung verstehen.
In biological cells, the long-range intracellular traffic is powered by molecular motors which transport various cargos along microtubule filaments. The microtubules possess an intrinsic direction, having a 'plus' and a 'minus' end. Some molecular motors such as cytoplasmic dynein walk to the minus end, while others such as conventional kinesin walk to the plus end. Cells typically have an isopolar microtubule network. This is most pronounced in neuronal axons or fungal hyphae. In these long and thin tubular protrusions, the microtubules are arranged parallel to the tube axis with the minus ends pointing to the cell body and the plus ends pointing to the tip. In such a tubular compartment, transport by only one motor type leads to 'motor traffic jams'. Kinesin-driven cargos accumulate at the tip, while dynein-driven cargos accumulate near the cell body. We identify the relevant length scales and characterize the jamming behaviour in these tube geometries by using both Monte Carlo simulations and analytical calculations. A possible solution to this jamming problem is to transport cargos with a team of plus and a team of minus motors simultaneously, so that they can travel bidirectionally, as observed in cells. The presumably simplest mechanism for such bidirectional transport is provided by a 'tug-of-war' between the two motor teams which is governed by mechanical motor interactions only. We develop a stochastic tug-of-war model and study it with numerical and analytical calculations. We find a surprisingly complex cooperative motility behaviour. We compare our results to the available experimental data, which we reproduce qualitatively and quantitatively.
Under the influence of orientation towards European integration, Georgia has introduced a variety of new laws with the apparent aim to decentralize legislative and executive powers. This paper shows that the Georgian efforts of decentralization remain superficial, mainly because they are not backed by additional fiscal competences at the municipality level. Following an initial description of the pre-reform situation as of 2006 and based upon a detailed account of the structural changes since 2007, the author gives insight into the conflicts which arise from the lack of institutional congruency. Neither the extraordinary status of the capital Tbilisi nor the seeming autonomy of the Rebublic of Adjara are likely to sway the renegade territories of Abchasia and Ossetia towards a reintegration under Georgian centralized rule as it continues to exist today. Likewise, the success of the proposed and discussed fiscal equalization scheme depends on whether the President and his ruling party are willing to delegate powers to the subodinate jurisdictions.
This PhD thesis presents the spatio-temporal distribution of terrestrial carbon fluxes for the time period of 1982 to 2002 simulated by a combination of the process-based dynamic global vegetation model LPJ and a 21-year time series of global AVHRR-fPAR data (fPAR – fraction of photosynthetically active radiation). Assimilation of the satellite data into the model allows improved simulations of carbon fluxes on global as well as on regional scales. As it is based on observed data and includes agricultural regions, the model combined with satellite data produces more realistic carbon fluxes of net primary production (NPP), soil respiration, carbon released by fire and the net land-atmosphere flux than the potential vegetation model. It also produces a good fit to the interannual variability of the CO2 growth rate. Compared to the original model, the model with satellite data constraint produces generally smaller carbon fluxes than the purely climate-based stand-alone simulation of potential natural vegetation, now comparing better to literature estimates. The lower net fluxes are a result of a combination of several effects: reduction in vegetation cover, consideration of human influence and agricultural areas, an improved seasonality, changes in vegetation distribution and species composition. This study presents a way to assess terrestrial carbon fluxes and elucidates the processes contributing to interannual variability of the terrestrial carbon exchange. Process-based terrestrial modelling and satellite-observed vegetation data are successfully combined to improve estimates of vegetation carbon fluxes and stocks. As net ecosystem exchange is the most interesting and most sensitive factor in carbon cycle modelling and highly uncertain, the presented results complementary contribute to the current knowledge, supporting the understanding of the terrestrial carbon budget.
We formalize and analyze the notions of monotonicity and complete monotonicity for Markov Chains in continuous-time, taking values in a finite partially ordered set. Similarly to what happens in discrete-time, the two notions are not equivalent. However, we show that there are partially ordered sets for which monotonicity and complete monotonicity coincide in continuoustime but not in discrete-time.
Stellar winds play an important role for the evolution of massive stars and their cosmic environment. Multiple lines of evidence, coming from spectroscopy, polarimetry, variability, stellar ejecta, and hydrodynamic modeling, suggest that stellar winds are non-stationary and inhomogeneous. This is referred to as 'wind clumping'. The urgent need to understand this phenomenon is boosted by its far-reaching implications. Most importantly, all techniques to derive empirical mass-loss rates are more or less corrupted by wind clumping. Consequently, mass-loss rates are extremely uncertain. Within their range of uncertainty, completely different scenarios for the evolution of massive stars are obtained. Settling these questions for Galactic OB, LBV and Wolf-Rayet stars is prerequisite to understanding stellar clusters and galaxies, or predicting the properties of first-generation stars. In order to develop a consistent picture and understanding of clumped stellar winds, an international workshop on 'Clumping in Hot Star Winds' was held in Potsdam, Germany, from 18. - 22. June 2007. About 60 participants, comprising almost all leading experts in the field, gathered for one week of extensive exchange and discussion. The Scientific Organizing Committee (SOC) included John Brown (Glasgow), Joseph Cassinelli (Madison), Paul Crowther (Sheffield), Alex Fullerton (Baltimore), Wolf-Rainer Hamann (Potsdam, chair), Anthony Moffat (Montreal), Stan Owocki (Newark), and Joachim Puls (Munich). These proceedings contain the invited and contributed talks presented at the workshop, and document the extensive discussions.
Ziel der Studie war die Untersuchung individueller und familialer Faktoren für den sozialen Status eines Kindes in seiner Schulklasse. Durch die Unterscheidung von Akzeptanz und Einfluss als zweier Hauptdimensionen des sozialen Status konnte die Arbeit aufklären, welche Rolle verschiedene Attribute für das Erreichen von Akzeptanz oder Einfluss spielen. 234 Dritt- und Fünftklässler aus Berliner Grundschulen erhielten soziometrische Maße, durch welche der soziale Status erhoben wurde (Akzeptanz und Einfluss). Individuelle und familiale Faktoren wurden mittels Peernominationen über das Verhalten der Kinder (Fremdurteil), Schulnoten (Lehrerangabe)und Maße des sozio-ökonomischen Status der Eltern (Elternangabe)erhoben. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass Akzeptanz positiv mit prosozialem und negativ mit aggressivem Verhalten eines Kindes assoziiert ist. Die Zusammenhänge dieser Verhaltensweisen mit Einfluss wiesen in dieselbe Richtung, waren aber deutlich geringer. Ideenreichtum und Humor hingen mit Akzeptanz und Einfluss gleichermaßen positiv zusammen, sowie Traurigsein gleichermaßen negativ mit beiden Statusdimensionen verbunden war. Das Verhalten eines Kindes vermittelte den Zusammenhang zwischen Merkmalen wie Geschlecht, relativem Alter, Schulnoten und der Akzeptanz und dem Einfluss eines Kindes. Zum Beispiel war die positive Beziehung zwischen Schulnoten und dem sozialen Status überwiegend auf die mit(guten)Schulnoten assoziierten Verhaltensweisen Prosozialität und (geringe) Aggressivität zurückzuführen. Die größere Akzeptanz von Mädchen ließ sich ebenso durch deren größere Prosozialität und geringere Aggressivität erklären. Jungen waren im Hinblick auf ihren Einfluss sowohl am oberen als auch am unteren Ende der Hierarchie überrepräsentiert. Sowohl sehr einflussreiche als auch einflusslose Jungen zeichneten sich durch eine erhöhte Aggressivität aus. Komplexere Analysen wiesen daraufhin, dass Jungen negative Auswirkungen von aggressivem Verhalten durch Humor und Ideenreichtum auf ihren Status kompensieren konnten. Der moderate Zusammenhang zwischen dem elterlichen sozioökonomischen Status und dem sozialen Status des Kindes wurde vollständig durch das Verhalten des Kindes mediiert. Das Elternhaus war wichtiger für die Akzeptanz als für den Einfluss eines Kindes. Kinder mit Migrationshintergrund waren sowohl weniger akzeptiert als auch weniger einflussreich in ihrer Klasse. Elterliche Trennung trug nicht zur sozialen Position eines Kindes bei.
Today about 24 Million people worldwide suffer from dementia, Alzheimer’s Disease accounts for approximately 50-60% of all dementia cases. As the prevalence of dementia grows with increasing age Alzheimer’s Disease becomes more and more of an issue for society as the proportion of elderly people increases from year to year. It is well established, that the amino acid glutamate - quantitatively being the most important neurotransmitter in the central nervous system (CNS) - may reach toxic concentrations if not cleared from the synaptic cleft into which it is released during transmittance of action potentials. In Alzheimer’s Disease there is strong evidence for a generally impaired glutamate uptake system which in turn is thought to result in toxic levels of the amino acid with the potential to kill off neurons. The excitatory amino acid transporter 1 (EAAT1) belongs to the family of Na+-dependent glutamate transporter and accounts together with EAAT2 for most of the glutamate uptake in the CNS. In this project a new splice variant of EAAT1, skipping exon 3 was detected in human brain samples and subsequently called EAAT1Δ3, this being the second splice variant found after the recent detection of EAAT1Δ9. A method was developed to quantify the transcript of EAAT1 wt, EAAT1Δ3 and EAAT1Δ9 by means of real-time PCR. Samples were taken from different brain areas of a set of control and AD cases. The areas chosen for examination are affected differently in Alzheimer’s Disease, this was used an internal control for the experiments done in this project as to determine whether any effect observed is specific for AD, i.e. AD affected areas or is generally seen in all areas examined. The results of this project show that EAAT1Δ3 is transcribed in very low copy numbers making up a proportion of 0.15% of EAAT1 wt whereas EAAT1Δ9 is transcribed in a considerably large proportion of EAAT1 wt of 26.6%. It was moreover found that all EAAT1 variants are transcribed at significantly lower rates (P<0.0001) in AD cases, supporting the theory that EAAT1 protein expression is reduced to a point where glutamate uptake normally mediated by this transporter is impaired. This in turn is thought to result in toxic levels glutamate accounting for neuronal loss in the disease. No area-dependent effects were found, suggesting that the reduction of EAAT1 transcription is rather a result of an underlying general mechanism present in AD. Further research will have to be done to assess the degree of EAAT1 expression in AD and whether those future findings match with the result of this project.
Inhalt: Polnische Staatsverschuldung vor 1990 - Auslandsverschuldung - Inlandsverschuldung Die Entwicklung der Staatsverschuldung in der Transformationsphase - Entwicklung der Auslandsverschuldung in den Jahren 1990 - 1994 - Entwicklung der Inlandsverschuldung in den Jahren 1990 - 1994 Szenarien für die Entwicklung des Schuldendienstes - Die Gesamtverschuldungsprognose in Inlandswährung - Szenarien für die Staatseinnahmenentwicklung - Gegenüberstellung der Staatseinnahmen und des Gesamtschuldendienstes - Entwicklung des Auslandsschuldendienstes in Auslandswährung Zur Realitätsnähe der Szenarien
Die Arbeit beschreibt die Synthese, Charakterisierung und Anwendung von meso- und mikroporösen Hochleistungspolymeren. Im ersten Teil wird die Synthese von mesoporösen Polybenzimidazol (PBI) auf der Basis einer Templatierungsmethode vorgestellt. Auf der Grundlage kommerzieller Monomere und Silikatnanopartikel sowie eines neuen Vernetzers wurde ein Polymer-Silikat-Hybridmaterial aufgebaut. Das Herauslösen des Silikats mit Ammoniumhydrogendifluorid führt zu mesoporösen Polybenzimidazolen mit spherischen Poren von 9 bis 11 nm Durchmesser. Die Abhängigkeit der beobachteten Porosität vom Massenverhältnis Silikat zu Polymer wurde ebenso untersucht wie die Abhängigkeit der Porosität vom Vernetzergehalt. Die Porosität vollvernetzter Proben zeigt eine lineare Abhängigkeit vom Verhältnis Silikat zu Polymer bis zu einem Grenzwert von 1. Wird der Grenzwert überschritten, ist teilweiser Porenkollaps zu beobachten. Die Abhängigkeit der Porosität vom Vernetzergehalt bei festem Silikatgehalt ist nichtlinear. Oberhalb einer kritischen Vernetzerkonzentration wird eine komplette Replikation der Nanopartikel gefunden. Ist die Vernetzerkonzentration dagegen kleiner als der kritische Wert, so ist der völlige Kollaps einiger Poren bei Stabilität der verbleibenden Poren zu beobachten. Ein komplett unporöses PBI resultiert bei Abwesenheit des Vernetzers. Die mesoporösen PBI-Netzwerke konnten kontrolliert mit Phosphorsäure beladen werden. Die erhaltenen Addukte wurden auf ihre Protonenleitfähigkeit untersucht. Es kann gezeigt werden, dass die Nutzung der vordefinierten Morphologie im Vergleich zu einem unstrukturierten PBI in höheren Leitfähigkeiten resultiert. Durch die vernetzte Struktur war des Weiteren genügend mechanische Stabilität gegeben, um die Addukte reversibel und bei sehr guten Leitfähigkeiten bis zu Temperaturen von 190°C bei 0% relativer Feuchtigkeit zu untersuchen. Dies ist für unstrukturierte Phosphorsäure/PBI - Addukte aus linearem PBI nicht möglich. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit wird die Synthese intrinsisch mikroporöser Polyamide und Polyimide vorgestellt. Das Konzept intrinsisch mikroporöser Polymere konnte damit auf weitere Polymerklassen ausgeweitet werden. Als zentrales, strukturinduzierendes Motiv wurde 9,9'-Spirobifluoren gewählt. Dieses Molekül ist leicht und vielfältig zu di- bzw. tetrafunktionellen Monomeren modifizierbar. Dabei wurden bestehende Synthesevorschriften modifiziert bzw. neue Vorschriften entwickelt. Ein erster Schwerpunkt innerhalb des Kapitels lag in der Synthese und Charakterisierung von löslichen, intrinsisch mikroporösen, aromatischen Polyamid und Polyimid. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass das Beobachten von Mikroporosität stark von der molekularen Architektur und der Verarbeitung der Polymere abhängig ist. Die Charakterisierung der Porosität erfolgte unter Nutzung von Stickstoffsorption, Kleinwinkelröntgenstreuung und Molecular Modeling. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass die Proben stark vom Umgebungsdruck abhängigen Deformationen unterliegen. Die starke Quellung der Proben während des Sorptionsvorgangs konnte durch Anwendung des "dual sorption" Modells, also dem Auftreten von Porenfüllung und dadurch induzierter Henry-Sorption, erklärt werden. Der zweite Schwerpunkt des Kapitels beschreibt die Synthese und Charakterisierung mikroporöser Polyamid- und Polyimidnetzwerke. Während Polyimidnetzwerke auf Spirobifluorenbasis ausgeprägte Mikroporosität und spezifische Oberflächen von ca. 1100 m²/g aufwiesen, war die Situation für entsprechende Polyamidnetzwerke abweichend. Mittels Stickstoffsorption konnte keine Mikroporosität nachgewiesen werden, jedoch konnte mittels SAXS eine innere Grenzfläche von ca. 300 m²/g nachgewiesen werden. Durch die in dieser Arbeit gezeigten Experimente kann die Grenze zwischen Polymeren mit hohem freien Volumen und mikroporösen Polymeren somit etwas genauer gezogen werden. ausgeprägte Mikroporosität kann nur in extrem steifen Strukturen nachgewiesen werden. Die Kombination der Konzepte "Mesoporosität durch Templatierung" und "Mikroporosität durch strukturierte Monomere" hatte ein hierarchisch strukturiertes Polybenzimidazol zum Ergebnis. Die Präsenz einer Strukturierung im molekularen Maßstab konnte SAXS bewiesen werden. Das so strukturierte Polybenzimidazol zeichnete sich durch eine höhere Protonenleitfähigkeit im Vergleich zu einem rein mesoporösen PBI aus. Der letzte Teil der Arbeit beschäftigte sich mit der Entwicklung einer neuen Synthesemethode zur Herstellung von Polybenzimidazol. Es konnte gezeigt werden, dass lineares PBI in einer eutektischen Salzschmelze aus Lithium- und Kaliumchlorid synthetisiert werden kann. Die Umsetzung der spirobifluorenbasierten Monomere zu löslichem oder vernetztem PBI ist in der Salzschmelze möglich.
The Arctic plays a key role in Earth’s climate system as global warming is predicted to be most pronounced at high latitudes and because one third of the global carbon pool is stored in ecosystems of the northern latitudes. In order to improve our understanding of the present and future carbon dynamics in climate sensitive permafrost ecosystems, the present study concentrates on investigations of microbial controls of methane fluxes, on the activity and structure of the involved microbial communities, and on their response to changing environmental conditions. For this purpose an integrated research strategy was applied, which connects trace gas flux measurements to soil ecological characterisation of permafrost habitats and molecular ecological analyses of microbial populations. Furthermore, methanogenic archaea isolated from Siberian permafrost have been used as potential keystone organisms for studying and assessing life under extreme living conditions. Long-term studies on methane fluxes were carried out since 1998. These studies revealed considerable seasonal and spatial variations of methane emissions for the different landscape units ranging from 0 to 362 mg m-2 d-1. For the overall balance of methane emissions from the entire delta, the first land cover classification based on Landsat images was performed and applied for an upscaling of the methane flux data sets. The regionally weighted mean daily methane emissions of the Lena Delta (10 mg m-2 d-1) are only one fifth of the values calculated for other Arctic tundra environments. The calculated annual methane emission of the Lena Delta amounts to about 0.03 Tg. The low methane emission rates obtained in this study are the result of the used remotely sensed high-resolution data basis, which provides a more realistic estimation of the real methane emissions on a regional scale. Soil temperature and near soil surface atmospheric turbulence were identified as the driving parameters of methane emissions. A flux model based on these variables explained variations of the methane budget corresponding to continuous processes of microbial methane production and oxidation, and gas diffusion through soil and plants reasonably well. The results show that the Lena Delta contributes significantly to the global methane balance because of its extensive wetland areas. The microbiological investigations showed that permafrost soils are colonized by high numbers of microorganisms. The total biomass is comparable to temperate soil ecosystems. Activities of methanogens and methanotrophs differed significantly in their rates and distribution patterns along both the vertical profiles and the different investigated soils. The methane production rates varied between 0.3 and 38.9 nmol h-1 g-1, while the methane oxidation ranged from 0.2 to 7.0 nmol h-1 g-1. Phylogenetic analyses of methanogenic communities revealed a distinct diversity of methanogens affiliated to Methanomicrobiaceae, Methanosarcinaceae and Methanosaetaceae, which partly form four specific permafrost clusters. The results demonstrate the close relationship between methane fluxes and the fundamental microbiological processes in permafrost soils. The microorganisms do not only survive in their extreme habitat but also can be metabolic active under in situ conditions. It was shown that a slight increase of the temperature can lead to a substantial increase in methanogenic activity within perennially frozen deposits. In case of degradation, this would lead to an extensive expansion of the methane deposits with their subsequent impacts on total methane budget. Further studies on the stress response of methanogenic archaea, especially Methanosarcina SMA-21, isolated from Siberian permafrost, revealed an unexpected resistance of the microorganisms against unfavourable living conditions. A better adaptation to environmental stress was observed at 4 °C compared to 28 °C. For the first time it could be demonstrated that methanogenic archaea from terrestrial permafrost even survived simulated Martian conditions. The results show that permafrost methanogens are more resistant than methanogens from non-permafrost environments under Mars-like climate conditions. Microorganisms comparable to methanogens from terrestrial permafrost can be seen as one of the most likely candidates for life on Mars due to their physiological potential and metabolic specificity.
Being living systems unable to adjust their location to changing environmental conditions, plants display homeostatic networks that have evolved to maintain transition metal levels in a very narrow concentration range in order to avoid either deficiency or toxicity. Hence, plants possess a broad repertoire of mechanisms for the cellular uptake, compartmentation and efflux, as well as for the chelation of transition metal ions. A small number of plants are hypertolerant to one or a few specific transition metals. Some metal tolerant plants are also able to hyperaccumulate metal ions. The Brassicaceae family member Arabidopis halleri ssp. halleri (L.) O´KANE and AL´SHEHBAZ is a hyperaccumulator of zinc (Zn), and it is closely related to the non-hypertolerant and non-hyperaccumulating model plant Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) HEYNHOLD. The close relationship renders A. halleri a promising emerging model plant for the comparative investigation of the molecular mechanisms behind hypertolerance and hyperaccumulation. Among several potential candidate genes that are probably involved in mediating the zinc-hypertolerant and zinc-hyperaccumulating trait is AhHMA3. The AhHMA3 gene is highly similar to AtHMA3 (AGI number: At4g30120) in A. thaliana, and its encoded protein belongs to the P-type IB ATPase family of integral membrane transporter proteins that transport transition metals. In contrast to the low AtHMA3 transcript levels in A. thaliana, the gene was found to be constitutively highly expressed across different Zn treatments in A. halleri, especially in shoots. In this study, the cloning and characterisation of the HMA3 gene and its promoter from Arabidopsis halleri (L.) O´KANE and AL´SHEHBAZ and Arabidopsis thaliana (L.) HEYNHOLD is described. Heterologously expressed AhHMA3 mediated enhanced tolerance to Zn and to a much lesser degree to cadmium (Cd) but not to cobalt (Co) in metal-sensitive mutant strains of budding yeast. It is demonstrated that the genome of A. halleri contains at least four copies of AhHMA3, AhHMA3-1 to AhHMA3-4. A copy-specific real-time RT-PCR indicated that an AhHMA3-1 related gene copy is the source of the constitutively high transcript level in A. halleri and not a gene copy similar to AhHMA3-2 or AhHMA3-4. In accordance with the enhanced AtHMA3mRNA transcript level in A. thaliana roots, an AtHMA3 promoter-GUS gene construct mediated GUS activity predominantly in the vascular tissues of roots and not in shoots. However, the observed AhHMA3-1 and AhHMA3-2 promoter-mediated GUS activity in A. thaliana or A. halleri plants did not reflect the constitutively high expression of AhHMA3 in shoots of A. halleri. It is suggested that other factors e. g. characteristic sequence inserts within the first intron of AhHMA3-1 might enable a constitutively high expression. Moreover, the unknown promoter of the AhHMA3-3 gene copy could be the source of the constitutively high AhHMA3 transcript levels in A. halleri. In that case, the AhHMA3-3 sequence is predicted to be highly homologous to AhHMA3-1. The lack of solid localisation data for the AhHMA3 protein prevents a clear functional assignment. The provided data suggest several possible functions of the AhHMA3 protein: Like AtHMA2 and AtHMA4 it might be localised to the plasma membrane and could contribute to the efficient translocation of Zn from root to shoot and/or to the cell-to-cell distribution of Zn in the shoot. If localised to the vacuolar membrane, then a role in maintaining a low cytoplasmic zinc concentration by vacuolar zinc sequestration is possible. In addition, AhHMA3 might be involved in the delivery of zinc ions to trichomes and mesophyll leaf cells that are major zinc storage sites in A. halleri.
Vor einhundert Jahren eröffnete die Wissenschaftlerin und Sozialreformerin Dr. med. Maria Montessori in Rom ihre erste Kindertagesstätte, das „Casa dei Bambini”. Inzwischen gibt es allein in Deutschland ca. eintausend Kindergärten und auch Schulen, die nach ihrem Konzept arbeiten. Der Beitrag will auf die Zusammenhänge zwischen dem Menschenrecht auf Bildung, dem pädagogischen Konzept der Maria Montessori und ihrem natur- und verhaltenswissenschaftlich begründeten Ansatz der Lernforschung hinweisen.
Was haben Menschenrechte und Mediation miteinander zu tun? Was bezwecken sie, und welche Rolle spielt das Wissen der Natur- und Verhaltenswissenschaften über zwischenmenschliche Kommunikation? Der Beitrag versucht, ausgehend von den Begriffen Menschenrechte und Mediation deren Beziehungsgefüge aus interdisziplinärer Sicht aufzudecken.
Juden in Wriezen
(2007)
Pri ha-Pardes (Früchte des Obstgartens) ist eine Reihe der Vereinigung für Jüdische Studien e.V., welche in Verbindung mit dem Zentrum für Jüdische Studien der Universität Potsdam publiziert wird. Pri ha-Pardes möchte kleineren wissenschaftlichen Studien, Forschungen am Rande der großen Disziplinen und exzellenten Masterarbeiten eine Publikationsplattform bieten. Im ersten Band dieser Reihe zeichnet Brigitte Heidenhain die Geschichte der Juden in Wriezen nach, welche 1677 einsetzte und 1940 mit ihrer Vertreibung und Ermordung endete. Zahlreiche, zumeist bislang unbeachtete Quellen des 18. und 19. Jahrhunderts aus brandenburgischen und Berliner Archiven lassen die Auswirkungen der preußischen Judenpolitik im Leben des Einzelnen und der Gemeinde lebendig vor uns erstehen. Im 18. Jahrhundert war die Existenz der Wriezener Juden vom Kampf um die Aufenthaltserlaubnis und gegen drohende Verarmung geprägt. Die im 19. Jahrhundert neu gewonnene Niederlassungsfreiheit brachte eine Vergrößerung der jüdischen Gemeinde mit sich und gegen Ende des Jahrhunderts eine leichte Verbesserung der wirtschaftlichen Lage. Über das schnelle und vollständige Ende jüdischen Lebens in Wriezen nach 1938 gibt es kaum schriftliche Informationen. Die wichtigste Quelle ist die Datenbank der Gedächtnisstätte JadwaSchem in Jerusalem. In ihr wird die Erinnerung an 56 namentlich bekannte ermordete Wriezener Juden aufbewahrt. Der Band wird mit der Beschreibung des seit 1730 existierenden jüdischen Friedhofes und der Erfassung der hebräischen Grabinschriften abgeschlossen.
The aim of this work was the generation of carbon materials with high surface area, exhibiting a hierarchical pore system in the macro- and mesorange. Such a pore system facilitates the transport through the material and enhances the interaction with the carbon matrix (macropores are pores with diameters > 50 nm, mesopores between 2 – 50 nm). Thereto, new strategies for the synthesis of novel carbon materials with designed porosity were developed that are in particular useful for the storage of energy. Besides the porosity, it is the graphene structure itself that determines the properties of a carbon material. Non-graphitic carbon materials usually exhibit a quite large degree of disorder with many defects in the graphene structure, and thus exhibit inherent microporosity (d < 2nm). These pores are traps and oppose reversible interaction with the carbon matrix. Furthermore they reduce the stability and conductivity of the carbon material, which was undesired for the proposed applications. As one part of this work, the graphene structures of different non-graphitic carbon materials were studied in detail using a novel wide-angle x-ray scattering model that allowed precise information about the nature of the carbon building units (graphene stacks). Different carbon precursors were evaluated regarding their potential use for the synthesis shown in this work, whereas mesophase pitch proved to be advantageous when a less disordered carbon microstructure is desired. By using mesophase pitch as carbon precursor, two templating strategies were developed using the nanocasting approach. The synthesized (monolithic) materials combined for the first time the advantages of a hierarchical interconnected pore system in the macro- and mesorange with the advantages of mesophase pitch as carbon precursor. In the first case, hierarchical macro- / mesoporous carbon monoliths were synthesized by replication of hard (silica) templates. Thus, a suitable synthesis procedure was developed that allowed the infiltration of the template with the hardly soluble carbon precursor. In the second case, hierarchical macro- / mesoporous carbon materials were synthesized by a novel soft-templating technique, taking advantage of the phase separation (spinodal decomposition) between mesophase pitch and polystyrene. The synthesis also allowed the generation of monolithic samples and incorporation of functional nanoparticles into the material. The synthesized materials showed excellent properties as an anode material in lithium batteries and support material for supercapacitors.
A numerical bifurcation analysis of the electrically driven plane sheet pinch is presented. The electrical conductivity varies across the sheet such as to allow instability of the quiescent basic state at some critical Hartmann number. The most unstable perturbation is the two-dimensional tearing mode. Restricting the whole problem to two spatial dimensions, this mode is followed up to a time-asymptotic steady state, which proves to be sensitive to three-dimensional perturbations even close to the point where the primary instability sets in. A comprehensive three-dimensional stability analysis of the two-dimensional steady tearing-mode state is performed by varying parameters of the sheet pinch. The instability with respect to three-dimensional perturbations is suppressed by a sufficiently strong magnetic field in the invariant direction of the equilibrium. For a special choice of the system parameters, the unstably perturbed state is followed up in its nonlinear evolution and is found to approach a three-dimensional steady state.
We investigate numerically the appearance of heteroclinic behavior in a three-dimensional, buoyancy-driven fluid layer with stress-free top and bottom boundaries, a square horizontal periodicity with a small aspect ratio, and rotation at low to moderate rates about a vertical axis. The Prandtl number is 6.8. If the rotation is not too slow, the skewed-varicose instability leads from stationary rolls to a stationary mixed-mode solution, which in turn loses stability to a heteroclinic cycle formed by unstable roll states and connections between them. The unstable eigenvectors of these roll states are also of the skewed-varicose or mixed-mode type and in some parameter regions skewed-varicose like shearing oscillations as well as square patterns are involved in the cycle. Always present weak noise leads to irregular horizontal translations of the convection pattern and makes the dynamics chaotic, which is verified by calculating Lyapunov exponents. In the nonrotating case, the primary rolls lose, depending on the aspect ratio, stability to traveling waves or a stationary square pattern. We also study the symmetries of the solutions at the intermittent fixed points in the heteroclinic cycle.
Our dynamic Sun manifests its activity by different phenomena: from the 11-year cyclic sunspot pattern to the unpredictable and violent explosions in the case of solar flares. During flares, a huge amount of the stored magnetic energy is suddenly released and a substantial part of this energy is carried by the energetic electrons, considered to be the source of the nonthermal radio and X-ray radiation. One of the most important and still open question in solar physics is how the electrons are accelerated up to high energies within (the observed in the radio emission) short time scales. Because the acceleration site is extremely small in spatial extent as well (compared to the solar radius), the electron acceleration is regarded as a local process. The search for localized wave structures in the solar corona that are able to accelerate electrons together with the theoretical and numerical description of the conditions and requirements for this process, is the aim of the dissertation. Two models of electron acceleration in the solar corona are proposed in the dissertation: I. Electron acceleration due to the solar jet interaction with the background coronal plasma (the jet--plasma interaction) A jet is formed when the newly reconnected and highly curved magnetic field lines are relaxed by shooting plasma away from the reconnection site. Such jets, as observed in soft X-rays with the Yohkoh satellite, are spatially and temporally associated with beams of nonthermal electrons (in terms of the so-called type III metric radio bursts) propagating through the corona. A model that attempts to give an explanation for such observational facts is developed here. Initially, the interaction of such jets with the background plasma leads to an (ion-acoustic) instability associated with growing of electrostatic fluctuations in time for certain range of the jet initial velocity. During this process, any test electron that happen to feel this electrostatic wave field is drawn to co-move with the wave, gaining energy from it. When the jet speed has a value greater or lower than the one, required by the instability range, such wave excitation cannot be sustained and the process of electron energization (acceleration and/or heating) ceases. Hence, the electrons can propagate further in the corona and be detected as type III radio burst, for example. II. Electron acceleration due to attached whistler waves in the upstream region of coronal shocks (the electron--whistler--shock interaction) Coronal shocks are also able to accelerate electrons, as observed by the so-called type II metric radio bursts (the radio signature of a shock wave in the corona). From in-situ observations in space, e.g., at shocks related to co-rotating interaction regions, it is known that nonthermal electrons are produced preferably at shocks with attached whistler wave packets in their upstream regions. Motivated by these observations and assuming that the physical processes at shocks are the same in the corona as in the interplanetary medium, a new model of electron acceleration at coronal shocks is presented in the dissertation, where the electrons are accelerated by their interaction with such whistlers. The protons inflowing toward the shock are reflected there by nearly conserving their magnetic moment, so that they get a substantial velocity gain in the case of a quasi-perpendicular shock geometry, i.e, the angle between the shock normal and the upstream magnetic field is in the range 50--80 degrees. The so-accelerated protons are able to excite whistler waves in a certain frequency range in the upstream region. When these whistlers (comprising the localized wave structure in this case) are formed, only the incoming electrons are now able to interact resonantly with them. But only a part of these electrons fulfill the the electron--whistler wave resonance condition. Due to such resonant interaction (i.e., of these electrons with the whistlers), the electrons are accelerated in the electric and magnetic wave field within just several whistler periods. While gaining energy from the whistler wave field, the electrons reach the shock front and, subsequently, a major part of them are reflected back into the upstream region, since the shock accompanied with a jump of the magnetic field acts as a magnetic mirror. Co-moving with the whistlers now, the reflected electrons are out of resonance and hence can propagate undisturbed into the far upstream region, where they are detected in terms of type II metric radio bursts. In summary, the kinetic energy of protons is transfered into electrons by the action of localized wave structures in both cases, i.e., at jets outflowing from the magnetic reconnection site and at shock waves in the corona.
Die durch Phosphatidylserin Decarboxylase (PSD) katalysierte Decarboxylierung von Phosphatidylserin (PS) zu Phosphatidylethanolamin (PE) ist für Mitochondrien in Hefe und Mäusen von essentieller Bedeutung. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Dissertation wurde erstmals die Rolle dieses PE-Syntheseweges in Pflanzen untersucht. Die drei in Arabidopsis identifizierten PSD Gene atPSD1, atPSD2, atPSD3 codieren für Enzyme, die in Membranen der Mitochondrien (atPSD1), der Tonoplasten (atPSD2) und des Endoplasmatischen Retikulums (atPSD3) lokalisiert sind. Der Beitrag der einzelnen PSDs zur PE-Synthese wurde anhand von psd Null-Mutanten untersucht. Dabei stellte sich atPSD3 als das Enzym mit der höchsten Aktivität heraus. Alternativ zum PSD-Weg wird in Arabidopsis PE auch mittels Aminoalkohol-phosphotransferase synthetisiert. Der Verlust der gesamten PSD-Aktivität, wie es in der erzeugten psd Dreifachmutante der Fall ist, wirkt sich ausschließlich auf die Lipidzusammensetzung in der Mitochondrienmembran aus. Demzufolge wird extramitochondriales PE hauptsächlich über die Aminoalkoholphosphotransferase synthetisiert. Die veränderte Lipidzusammensetzung der Mitochondrienmembran hatte jedoch keinen Einfluss auf die Anzahl, Größe und Ultrastruktur der Mitochondrien sowie auf das ADP/ATP-Verhältnis und die Respiration. Neben der Bereitstellung von Reduktionsäquivalenten beeinflusst die Funktionalität der Mitochondrien auch die Bildung von Blüten- und Staubblättern. Diese Blütenorgane waren in der psd Dreifachmutante stark verändert, und der Blütenphänotyp ähnelte der APETALA3-Mutante. Dieses homöotische Gen ist für die Ausbildung von Blüten- und Staubblättern verantwortlich. Für die Erzeugung der Mutanten psd2-1 und psd3-1 wurde ein T-DNA Vektor verwendet, der den Promotor des APETALA3 Gens enthielt, welcher in den Mutanten psd2-1, psd3-1 sowie psd2-1psd3-1 und der psd1psd2-1psd3-1 Dreifachmutante eine vergleichbare Co-Suppression des APETALA3 Gens hervorruft. Der Blütenphänotyp trat jedoch nur in der psd Dreifachmutante auf, da nur in ihr die Kombination von geringen Funktionstörungen der Mitochondrien, hervorgerufen durch veränderte Lipidzusammensetzung, mit der Co-Suppression von APETALA3 auftritt.
Dem Schriftsteller Jorge Semprún wurde am 25. Mai 2007 die Ehrendoktorwürde der Philosophischen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam verliehen. Damit ehrt die Philosophische Fakultät seine Lebensleistung als Schriftsteller, Denker und engagierter Intellektueller unserer Zeit. Der Geehrte sprach zum Thema "Philosophie als Überlebenswissenschaft". Jorge Semprún, 1923 in Madrid/Spanien geboren, muss mit 14 Jahren zu Beginn des spanischen Bürgerkrieges mit seiner Familie nach Paris fliehen. Dort studiert er Philosophie an der Sorbonne. Im Jahre 1941 tritt er der kommunistischen Résistance-Bewegung "Francs- Tireurs et Partisans" bei. Zwei Jahre später wird er von der deutschen Gestapo verhaftet und in das Konzentrationslager Buchenwald deportiert. 1945 kehrt er nach Paris zurück. Zwischen 1957 und 1962 arbeitet er im Untergrund der Kommunistischen Partei im faschistischen Spanien. Seit 1964, dem Jahr, in dem er wegen der Abweichung von der Parteilinie aus der Kommunistischen Partei ausgeschlossen wurde, ist er schriftstellerisch tätig. Von 1988 bis 1991 war er Kultusminister Spaniens. Zu den bekanntesten Werken des Schriftstellers gehören "Die große Reise", "Der zweite Tod des Ramón Mercader", "Was für ein schöner Sonntag" sowie "Der weiße Berg".
In this thesis we mainly generalize two theorems from Mackaay-Picken and Picken (2002, 2004). In the first paper, Mackaay and Picken show that there is a bijective correspondence between Deligne 2-classes $\xi \in \check{H}^2(M,\mathcal{D}^2)$ and holonomy maps from the second thin-homotopy group $\pi_2^2(M)$ to $U(1)$. In the second one, a generalization of this theorem to manifolds with boundaries is given: Picken shows that there is a bijection between Deligne 2-cocycles and a certain variant of 2-dimensional topological quantum field theories. In this thesis we show that these two theorems hold in every dimension. We consider first the holonomy case, and by using simplicial methods we can prove that the group of smooth Deligne $d$-classes is isomorphic to the group of smooth holonomy maps from the $d^{th}$ thin-homotopy group $\pi_d^d(M)$ to $U(1)$, if $M$ is $(d-1)$-connected. We contrast this with a result of Gajer (1999). Gajer showed that Deligne $d$-classes can be reconstructed by a different class of holonomy maps, which not only include holonomies along spheres, but also along general $d$-manifolds in $M$. This approach does not require the manifold $M$ to be $(d-1)$-connected. We show that in the case of flat Deligne $d$-classes, our result differs from Gajers, if $M$ is not $(d-1)$-connected, but only $(d-2)$-connected. Stiefel manifolds do have this property, and if one applies our theorem to these and compare the result with that of Gajers theorem, it is revealed that our theorem reconstructs too many Deligne classes. This means, that our reconstruction theorem cannot live without the extra assumption on the manifold $M$, that is our reconstruction needs less informations about the holonomy of $d$-manifolds in $M$ at the price of assuming $M$ to be $(d-1)$-connected. We continue to show, that also the second theorem can be generalized: By introducing the concept of Picken-type topological quantum field theory in arbitrary dimensions, we can show that every Deligne $d$-cocycle induces such a $d$-dimensional field theory with two special properties, namely thin-invariance and smoothness. We show that any $d$-dimensional topological quantum field theory with these two properties gives rise to a Deligne $d$-cocycle and verify that this construction is surjective and injective, that is both groups are isomorphic.
The Voyager 2 Photopolarimeter experiment has yielded the highest resolved data of Saturn's rings, exhibiting a wide variety of features. The B-ring region between 105000 km and 110000 km distance from Saturn has been investigated. It has a high matter density and contains no significance features visible by eye. Analysis with statistical methods has let us to the detection of two significant events. These features are correlated with the inner 3:2 resonances of the F-ring shepherd satellites Pandora and Prometheus, and may be evidence of large ring paricles caught in the corotation resonances.
Alle Organismen sind für ihr Überleben auf Metalle angewiesen. Hierbei gibt es für jedes Metall einen Konzentrationsbereich, der das Optimum zwischen Metallmangel, -bedarf und -toxizität darstellt. Es gilt mittlerweile als erwiesen, dass alle Organismen zur Aufrechterhaltung des Metallgleichgewichts ein komplexes Netzwerk von Proteinen und niedermolekularen Verbindungen entwickelt haben. Die molekularen Komponenten dieses Netzwerks sind nur zu einem Teil bekannt und charakterisiert: In den letzten Jahren wurden einige Proteinfamilien identifiziert, deren Mitglieder Metalle durch Lipidmembranen transportieren. Eine dieser Metalltransporterfamilien ist die Cation Diffusion Facilitator (CDF)-Familie: Alle charakterisierten Mitglieder exportieren Metalle aus dem Zytoplasma – entweder in zelluläre Kompartimente oder aus der Zelle heraus. Von den zwölf Mitgliedern dieser Familie in Arabidopsis thaliana (A. thaliana) – Metall Toleranz Protein (MTP)-1 bis -12 – wurden bisher AtMTP1 und AtMTP3 charakterisiert. In dieser Arbeit wird die Charakterisierung von AtMTP2 beschrieben. Wie die homologen Proteine AtMTP1 und AtMTP3 führt AtMTP2 zu Zn-Toleranz, wenn es heterolog in Zn-sensitiven Hefemutanten exprimiert wird. Mit AtMTP2 transformierte Hefemutanten zeigten darüber hinaus erhöhte Co-Toleranz. Expression von chimären AtMTP2/GFP Fusionsproteinen in Hefe, A.thaliana protoplasten und in stabil transformierten A.thalinana Planzenlinien deutet auf Lokalisation of AtMTP2 in Membranen des Endoplasmatischen Retikulums (ER) hin, wenn GFP an den C-Terminus von MTP2 fusioniert wird. Fusion of GFP an den N-Terminus von AtMTP2 führte zu Lokalisation in der vakuolären Membran, was wahrscheinlichsten auf Fehllokalisierung durch Maskierung eines ER-Retentionsmotivs (XXRR) am N-Terminus von AtMTP2 zurückgeht. Dies legt nahe, dass AtMTP2 die erwähnten Metalle in das Endomembransystem der Zelle transportieren kann. Eine gewebespezifische Lokalisierung wurde mit Pflanzen durchgeführt, die das β-Glucuronidase (GUS)-Reporterprotein bzw. chimäre Fusionsproteine aus EGFP und AtMTP2 unter Kontrolle des nativen pMTP2-Promotors exprimierten. Diese Experimente bestätigten zum einen, dass der pMTP2-Promotor nur unter Zn-Defizienz aktiv ist. GUS-Aktivität wurde unter diesen Bedingungen in zwei Zonen der Wurzelspitze beobachtet: in den isodiametrischen Zellen der meristematischen Zone und in der beginnenden Wurzelhaarzone. Darüber hinaus konnte gezeigt werden, dass die EGFP-Fusionsproteine unter Kontrolle des nativen pMTP2-Promotors nur in epidermalen Zellen exprimiert werden. Für eine homozygote Knockout- Linie, mtp2-S3, konnte bisher kein eindeutiger Phänotyp identifiziert werden. Auf Grundlage der bisher durchgeführten Charakterisierung von AtMTP2 erscheinen zwei Modelle der Funktion von AtMTP2 in der Pflanze möglich: AtMTP2 könnte essentiell für die Versorgung des ER mit Zn unter Zn-Mangelbedingungen sein. Hierfür spricht, dass AtMTP2 in jungen, teilungsaktiven und damit Zn-benötigenden Wurzelzonen exprimiert wird. Die auf die Epidermis beschränkte Lokalisation könnte bei diesem Modell auf die Möglichkeit der zwischenzellulären Zn-Verteilung innerhalb des ER über Desmotubules hindeuten. Alternativ könnte AtMTP2 eine Funktion bei der Detoxifizierung von Zn unter Zn-Schock Bedingungen haben: Es ist bekannt, dass unter Zn- Mangelbedingungen die Expression der zellulären Zn-Aufnahmesysteme hochreguliert wird. Wenn nun die Zn-Verfügbarkeit im Boden z. B durch eine pH-Änderung innerhalb kurzer Zeit stark ansteigt, besteht die Notwendigkeit der Entgiftung von Zn innerhalb der Zelle, bis der starke Einstrom von Zn ins Zytoplasma durch die Deaktivierung der Zn-Aufnahmesysteme und einer geringeren Expression in der Pflanze gedrosselt ist. Ein ähnlicher Mechanismus wurde in der Bäckerhefe S. cerevisae beschrieben, in der darüber hinaus ein Zn-Transporter verstärkt exprimiert wird, der Zn durch Transport in die Vakuole entgiften kann. Es ist durchaus möglich, dass in Arabidopsis AtMTP2 die Zn-Detoxifizierung unter diesen speziellen Bedingungen durch Zn-Transport in das ER oder die Vakuole vermittelt. Zur Identifikation weiterer Komponenten des Metallhomöostasenetzwerks sind verschiedene Ansätze denkbar. In dieser Arbeit wurde in Hefe ein heterologer Screen durchgeführt, um Interaktoren für vier Mitglieder der Arabidopsis-CDF-Familie zu identifizieren. Unter den 11 im Hefesystem bestätigten Kandidaten befindet sich mit AtSPL1 ein AtMTP1-Interaktionskandidat, der möglicherweise eine Rolle bei der Cu-,Zn-Homöostase spielt. Als wahrscheinliche AtMTP3-Interaktionskandidaten wurde die c”-Untereinheit der vakuolären H+-ATPase AtVHA identifiziert sowie mit AtNPSN13 ein Protein, das vermutlich eine Rolle bei Fusionen von Vesikeln mit Zielmembranen spielt. Ein anderer Ansatz zur Identifikation neuer Metallhomöostasegene ist die vergleichende Elementanalyse von natürlichen oder mutagenisierten Pflanzenpopulationen. Voraussetzung für diesen Ansatz ist die schnelle und genaue Analyse des Elementgehalts von Pflanzen. Eine etablierte Methode zur simultanen Bestimmung von bis zu 65 Elementen in einer Probe ist die Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP OES). Der limitierende Faktor für einen hohen Probendurchsatz ist die Notwendigkeit, Proben für die Analyse zu verflüssigen. Eine alternative Methode der Probenzuführung zum Analysegerät ist die elektrothermale Verdampfung (ETV) der Probe. Zur weitgehend automatisierten Analyse von Pflanzenmaterial mit minimiertem Arbeitsaufwand wurde eine Methode entwickelt, die auf der Kopplung der ETV mit der ICP OES basiert.
It is desirable to reduce the potential threats that result from the variability of nature, such as droughts or heat waves that lead to food shortage, or the other extreme, floods that lead to severe damage. To prevent such catastrophic events, it is necessary to understand, and to be capable of characterising, nature's variability. Typically one aims to describe the underlying dynamics of geophysical records with differential equations. There are, however, situations where this does not support the objectives, or is not feasible, e.g., when little is known about the system, or it is too complex for the model parameters to be identified. In such situations it is beneficial to regard certain influences as random, and describe them with stochastic processes. In this thesis I focus on such a description with linear stochastic processes of the FARIMA type and concentrate on the detection of long-range dependence. Long-range dependent processes show an algebraic (i.e. slow) decay of the autocorrelation function. Detection of the latter is important with respect to, e.g. trend tests and uncertainty analysis. Aiming to provide a reliable and powerful strategy for the detection of long-range dependence, I suggest a way of addressing the problem which is somewhat different from standard approaches. Commonly used methods are based either on investigating the asymptotic behaviour (e.g., log-periodogram regression), or on finding a suitable potentially long-range dependent model (e.g., FARIMA[p,d,q]) and test the fractional difference parameter d for compatibility with zero. Here, I suggest to rephrase the problem as a model selection task, i.e.comparing the most suitable long-range dependent and the most suitable short-range dependent model. Approaching the task this way requires a) a suitable class of long-range and short-range dependent models along with suitable means for parameter estimation and b) a reliable model selection strategy, capable of discriminating also non-nested models. With the flexible FARIMA model class together with the Whittle estimator the first requirement is fulfilled. Standard model selection strategies, e.g., the likelihood-ratio test, is for a comparison of non-nested models frequently not powerful enough. Thus, I suggest to extend this strategy with a simulation based model selection approach suitable for such a direct comparison. The approach follows the procedure of a statistical test, with the likelihood-ratio as the test statistic. Its distribution is obtained via simulations using the two models under consideration. For two simple models and different parameter values, I investigate the reliability of p-value and power estimates obtained from the simulated distributions. The result turned out to be dependent on the model parameters. However, in many cases the estimates allow an adequate model selection to be established. An important feature of this approach is that it immediately reveals the ability or inability to discriminate between the two models under consideration. Two applications, a trend detection problem in temperature records and an uncertainty analysis for flood return level estimation, accentuate the importance of having reliable methods at hand for the detection of long-range dependence. In the case of trend detection, falsely concluding long-range dependence implies an underestimation of a trend and possibly leads to a delay of measures needed to take in order to counteract the trend. Ignoring long-range dependence, although present, leads to an underestimation of confidence intervals and thus to an unjustified belief in safety, as it is the case for the return level uncertainty analysis. A reliable detection of long-range dependence is thus highly relevant in practical applications. Examples related to extreme value analysis are not limited to hydrological applications. The increased uncertainty of return level estimates is a potentially problem for all records from autocorrelated processes, an interesting examples in this respect is the assessment of the maximum strength of wind gusts, which is important for designing wind turbines. The detection of long-range dependence is also a relevant problem in the exploration of financial market volatility. With rephrasing the detection problem as a model selection task and suggesting refined methods for model comparison, this thesis contributes to the discussion on and development of methods for the detection of long-range dependence.
In the modern industrialized countries every year several hundred thousands of people die due to the sudden cardiac death. The individual risk for this sudden cardiac death cannot be defined precisely by common available, non-invasive diagnostic tools like Holter-monitoring, highly amplified ECG and traditional linear analysis of heart rate variability (HRV). Therefore, we apply some rather unconventional methods of nonlinear dynamics to analyse the HRV. Especially, some complexity measures that are basing on symbolic dynamics as well as a new measure, the renormalized entropy, detect some abnormalities in the HRV of several patients who have been classified in the low risk group by traditional methods. A combination of these complexity measures with the parameters in the frequency domain seems to be a promising way to get a more precise definition of the individual risk. These findings have to be validated by a representative number of patients.
We have used techniques of nonlinear dynamics to compare a special model for the reversals of the Earth's magnetic field with the observational data. Although this model is rather simple, there is no essential difference to the data by means of well-known characteristics, such as correlation function and probability distribution. Applying methods of symbolic dynamics we have found that the considered model is not able to describe the dynamical properties of the observed process. These significant differences are expressed by algorithmic complexity and Renyi information.
Es ist bekannt, dass Änderungen im Kohlenstoff- bzw. Stickstoffstaus der Pflanzen zu einer parallelen statt reziproken Änderung der kohlenstoff- und stickstoffhaltigen Primärmetabolite führen. Unter diesem Gesichtspunkt wurden in der vorliegenden Arbeit der Aminosäurestoffwechsel und der Sekundärstoffwechsel unter reduzierten Stickstoffbedingungen untersucht. Zur Beeinflussung des Stickstoffstoffwechsels wurden nitratmangelernährte Tabakwildtyppflanzen und Genotypen mit unterschiedlich stark reduzierter Nitratreduktase-Aktivität verwendet. Dieses experimentelle System erlaubt zusätzlich durch den Vergleich Nitrat defizienter Wildtyppflanzen mit Nitrat akkumulierenden NIA-Transformanten Prozesse zu identifizieren, die durch Nitrat gesteuert werden. Die Analysen der Primär- und Sekundärmetabolite wurde in allen Genotypen diurnal durchgeführt, um auch tageszeitlich abhängige Prozesse zu identifizieren. Die Analyse der absoluten Gehalte aller individuellen Aminosäuren enthüllte bei den meisten erstaunlich stabile diurnale Muster mit einem Anstieg während des Tages und einem Abfall in der Nacht in Wildtyppflanzen gewachsen mit ausreichend Nitrat. Dieses Ergebnis legt die Schlussfolgerung nahe, dass die Biosynthese der Aminosäuren koordiniert abläuft. In Pflanzen mit reduziertem Stickstoffstatus haben diese diurnalen Muster jedoch keinen Bestand. Die Kombination des erzeugten stickstoffbasierten Aminosäuredatensatz in Kombination mit einem bereits erzeugten Aminosäuredatensatz unter kohlenstofflimitierten Bedingungen von Matt et al. (2002) führte durch Hauptkomponentenanalyse (PCA) und Korrelationsanalyse zu dem Ergebnis, dass die Hypothese nach einer koordinierten Aminosäurebiosynthese nicht allgemeine Gültigkeit hat. Die PCA identifizierte Glutamin, Glutamat, Aspartat, Glycin, Pheny-lalanin und Threonin als Faktoren, die den Datensätzen ihre charakteristische Eigenschaft und deren Varianz verleihen. Die Korrelationsanalyse zeigte, dass die sehr guten Korrelationen der individuellen Aminosäuren untereinander in reduzierten Stickstoff- und Kohlenstoffbedingungen sich verschlechtern. Das Verhältnis einer einzelnen Aminosäure relativ zu den anderen führte zur Identifizierung einiger Aminosäuren, die individuelle Antworten auf Stickstoff- und/oder Kohlenstoffstatus zeigen, und/oder speziell auf Nitrat, Licht und/oder den E-nergiestatus der Thylakoidmembran. Glutamat beispielsweise verhält sich in den meisten Situationen stabil, Phenylalanin dagegen zeigt in jeder physiologischen Situation eine individuelle Antwort. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit führen zu einer Erweiterung der Hypothese einer koordinierten Synthese der Aminosäuren dahingehend, dass diese nicht generell für alle Aminosäuren angenommen werden kann. Es gibt einige Aminosäuren deren, Anteile sich situationsbedingt anpassen. Die Reduktion des Stickstoffstatus in nitratmangelernährten Tabakwildtyppflanzen führte zu der, nach der „Carbon-Nutrient-Balance“ Hypothese erwarteten Verlagerung der kohlenstoffreichen Phenylpropanoide und des stickstoffreichen Nikotins. Die Erhöhung der Phenylpropanoidgehalte war nicht in der Nitrat akkumulierenden NIA-Transformante zu beobachten und somit konnte Nitrat als regulatorisches Element identifiziert werden. Ein Einfluss der Vorläufermetabolite konnte ausgeschlossen werden, da sowohl nitratmangelernährter Wildtyp als auch die Nitrat akkumulierende NIA-Transformante ähnliche Gehalte dieser aufwiesen. Genexpressionsanalysen über Mikroarray-Hybridisierung und quantitative RT-PCR zeigten, dass Nitrat durch noch nicht geklärte Mechanismen Einfluss auf die Expression einiger Gene nimmt, die dem Phenylpropanoidstoffwechsels zugeordnet sind. Aus der Arbeit hervorgegangene Veröffentlichungen: Christina Fritz, Natalia Palacios-Rojas, Regina Feil und Mark Stitt (2006) Regulation of Secondary Metabolism by the Carbon-Nitrogen Status in Tobacco: Nitrate Inhibits Large Sectors of Phenylpropanoid Metabolism. Plant Journal 46, 533 - 548 Christina Fritz, Petra Matt, Cathrin Müller, Regina Feil und Mark Stitt (2006) Impact of the Carbon-Nitrogen Status on the Amino Acid Profile in Tobacco Source Leaves. Plant, Cell and Environment 29 (11), 2009 - 2111
Theoretischer Hintergrund: Eine frühzeitige Gesundheitsförderung wird als wesentliches Bestimmungsstück zur Prävention körperlicher und psychischer Erkrankungen angesehen. Als ideales Setting für eine gezielte Gesundheitsförderung wird der Lebensraum Kita angesehen. Fragestellungen: Welche Aktivitäten zur Gesundheitsförderung gibt es bisher in den Brandenburger Kitas? Spielt hier die Bildungsnähe/-ferne der betreuten Kinder eine Rolle? In welchen Bereichen gibt es den größten Fort- und Weiterbildungsbedarf der Mitarbeiterinnen? Methode: Untersuchung einer Stichprobe von 269 Brandenburger Kitas mit insgesamt 21 653 betreuten Kindern. Erfassung struktureller Rahmenbedingungen, pädagogischer Konzepte, Aktivitäten zur Gesundheitsförderung, Partizipation und Fortbildungsbedarf. Ergebnisse: Es zeigte sich eine nachhaltige Umsetzung von Aktivitäten und große Kreativität. Dabei standen vor allem Angebote der Bereiche Bewegung und Ernährung im Zentrum. Psychosoziale Themen wurden seltener als Schwerpunkt benannt, wohingegen hierfür der größte Fortbildungbedarf (Ranking der Fortbildungsthemen: 1. Psychosoziale Entwicklung, 2. Psychische Probleme, 3. Stressbewältigung) vorlag.
Die Zuwanderung nach Tirana führte im Verlauf der 1990er Jahre zu einem enormen Flächenverbrauch auf Kosten landwirtschaftlicher Flächen im Umland der albanischen Hauptstadt. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Arbeit wird die Entwicklung des rasanten Flächenverbrauchs mit computergestützten Methoden dokumentiert. Grundlage der Untersuchung bilden zwei zu unterschiedlichen Zeitpunkten (1988 und 2000) aufgenommene Satellitenszenen, mit Hilfe derer eine Änderungsanalyse durchgeführt wird. Ziel der Änderungsanalyse ist es, den Flächennutzungswandel zu analysieren, Daten zu generieren und die Ergebnisse in geeigneter Weise zu visualisieren. Zu den protagonistischen Verfahren der Änderungsanalyse zählen sowohl die Maximum-Likelihood Klassifikation sowie ein wissensbasierter Klassifizierungsansatz. Die Ergebnisse der Änderungsanalyse werden in Änderungskarten dargestellt und mittels einer GIS-Software statistisch ausgewertet.
The innovation of information techniques has changed many aspects of our life. In health care field, we can obtain, manage and communicate high-quality large volumetric image data by computer integrated devices, to support medical care. In this dissertation I propose several promising methods that could assist physicians in processing, observing and communicating the image data. They are included in my three research aspects: telemedicine integration, medical image visualization and image segmentation. And these methods are also demonstrated by the demo software that I developed. One of my research point focuses on medical information storage standard in telemedicine, for example DICOM, which is the predominant standard for the storage and communication of medical images. I propose a novel 3D image data storage method, which was lacking in current DICOM standard. I also created a mechanism to make use of the non-standard or private DICOM files. In this thesis I present several rendering techniques on medical image visualization to offer different display manners, both 2D and 3D, for example, cut through data volume in arbitrary degree, rendering the surface shell of the data, and rendering the semi-transparent volume of the data. A hybrid segmentation approach, designed for semi-automated segmentation of radiological image, such as CT, MRI, etc, is proposed in this thesis to get the organ or interested area from the image. This approach takes advantage of the region-based method and boundary-based methods. Three steps compose the hybrid approach: the first step gets coarse segmentation by fuzzy affinity and generates homogeneity operator; the second step divides the image by Voronoi Diagram and reclassifies the regions by the operator to refine segmentation from the previous step; the third step handles vague boundary by level set model. Topics for future research are mentioned in the end, including new supplement for DICOM standard for segmentation information storage, visualization of multimodal image information, and improvement of the segmentation approach to higher dimension.
Inhalt: 1 Die Trias wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Regimes 2 Der kulturelle und institutionelle Bezugsrahmen in den drei Modell-Ländern: Deutschland, Norwegen, USA 3 Die Operationalisierung der Berufsstrukturen mit Hilfe der international Standard Classification of Occupations 1968 (ISCO1968) 4 Schichtselbsteinstufung und Einstellungsindex zu staatlicher Intervention auf Basis des International Social Survey Programme 1992 (ISSP1992) 5 Schichtselbsteinstufung und Einstellungsindex zur Frauenerwerbstätigkeit auf Basis des International Social Survey Programme 1994 (ISSP1994)
Ziel der Arbeit ist es, einen Vorschlag zur Untersuchung des Mikro-Makro Links zu unterbreiten. Die zentrale These ist, daß die in der westlichen Welt entstandenen Wohlfahrtsstaaten seit ihrer Entstehung wesentlich die Einstellungen der in ihnen lebenden Bevölkerung beeinflußt haben. Inhalt: Die Unterscheidung von Wohlfahrtsstaaten Die Untersuchung von Mikro- Makrozusammenhängen Der Zusammenhang zwischen wohlfahrtsstaatlichen Regimetypen und individuellen Einstellungen - Der Markt-Staat Index - Der Akzeptanz arbeitender Mütter Index
Gegenstand der Untersuchung sind individuelle und kollektive Einstellungen zu Frauenerwerbstätigkeit im Ländervergleich. Inhalt: Erklärungsansätze - Makrosoziologische Ansätze - Mikrosoziologische Ansätze - Einstellungen zu Frauenerwerbstätigkeit - Einstellungen im Zusammenhang von Makro- und Mikroebene Kulturelle Leitbilder und Wohlfahrtsregimes - Westdeutschland - Ostdeutschland - Großbritannien Arbeitsmarkt und Frauenerwerbsbeteiligung - Frauenerwerbsbeteiligung - Berufsstruktur im Vergleich Der Einstellungsindex zu Frauenerwerbstätigkeit - Einstellungen zu Frauenerwerbstätigkeit - Einstellungsindex zu Frauenerwerbstätigkeit Variation der Einstellungen zu Frauenerwerbstätigkeit - Modell der Binnenvariation - Länderanalyse: Westdeutschland, Ostdeutschland, Großbritannien - Länderspezifische Erklärungsmuster im Vergleich - Interstaatliche Variation der Einstellungen zu Frauenerwerbstätigkeit
Inhalt: 1 Die Trias wohlfahrtsstaatlicher Regimes 2 Der kulturelle und institutionelle Bezugsrahmen in den drei Modell-Ländern 3 Die Operationalisierung der beruflichen Lagen mit Hilfe der International Standard Classification of Occupations 1968 (ISCO1968) 4 Schichtselbsteinstufung und Einstellungsindex zu staatlicher Intervention nach Geschlecht auf Basis des International Social Survey Programme 1992 (ISSP1992) 5 Schichtselbsteinstufung und Einstellungsindex zur Frauenerwerbstätigkeit nach Geschlecht auf Basis des International Social Survey Programme 1994 (ISSP1994) 6 Zusammenfassung und Schlußfolgerungen
First studies of electron transfer in [N]phenylenes were performed in bimolecular quenching reactions of angular [3]- and triangular [4]phenylene with various electron acceptors. The relation between the quenching rate constants kq and the free energy change of the electron transfer (ΔG0CS ) could be described by the Rehm-Weller equation. From the experimental results, a reorganization energy λ of 0.7 eV was derived. Intramolecular electron transfer reactions were studied in an [N]phenylene bichomophore and a corresponding reference compound. Fluorescence lifetime and quantum yield of the bichromophor display a characteristic dependence on the solvent polarity, whereas the corresponding values of the reference compound remain constant. From the results, a nearly isoenergonic ΔG0CS can be determined. As the triplet quantum yield is nearly independent of the polarity, charge recombination leads to the population of the triplet state.
Contents: Chapter 1. Introduction 1 Information Structure 2 Grammatical Correlates of Information Structure 3 Structure of the Questionnaire 4 Experimental Tasks 5 Technicalities 6 Archiving 7 Acknowledgments Chapter 2. General Questions 1 General Information 2 Phonology 3 Morphology and Syntax Chapter 3. Experimental tasks 1 Changes (Given/New in Intransitives and Transitives) 2 Giving (Given/New in Ditransitives) 3 Visibility (Given/New, Animacy and Type/Token Reference) 4 Locations (Given/New in Locative Expressions) 5 Sequences (Given/New/Contrast in Transitives) 6 Dynamic Localization (Given/New in Dynamic Loc. Descriptions) 7 Birthday Party (Weight and Discourse Status) 8 Static Localization (Macro-Planning and Given/New in Locatives) 9 Guiding (Presentational Utterances) 10 Event Cards (All New) 11 Anima (Focus types and Animacy) 12 Contrast (Contrast in pairing events) 13 Animal Game (Broad/Narrow Focus in NP) 14 Properties (Focus on Property and Possessor) 15 Eventives (Thetic and Categorical Utterances) 16 Tell a Story (Contrast in Text) 17 Focus Cards (Selective, Restrictive, Additive, Rejective Focus) 18 Who does What (Answers to Multiple Constituent Questions) 19 Fairy Tale (Topic and Focus in Coherent Discourse) 20 Map Task (Contrastive and Selective Focus in Spontaneous Dialogue) 21 Drama (Contrastive Focus in Argumentation) 22 Events in Places (Spatial, Temporal and Complex Topics) 23 Path Descriptions (Topic Change in Narrative) 24 Groups (Partial Topic) 25 Connections (Bridging Topic) 26 Indirect (Implicational Topic) 27 Surprises (Subject-Topic Interrelation) 28 Doing (Action Given, Action Topic) 29 Influences (Question Priming) Chapter 4. Translation tasks 1 Basic Intonational Properties 2 Focus Translation 3 Topic Translation 4 Quantifiers Chapter 5. Information structure summary survey 1 Preliminaries 2 Syntax 3 Morphology 4 Prosody 5 Summary: Information structure Chapter 6. Performance of Experimental Tasks in the Field 1 Field sessions 2 Field Session Metadata 3 Informants’ Agreement
Die vorliegende Festschrift wird Frau Prof. Gabrielle Saupe anlässlich ihrer Verabschiedung aus dem Institut für Geographie der Universität Potsdam gewidmet. Bewegende Räume - damit sind emotionale, materielle und strukturelle Bewegungen in einem räumlichen Kontext gemeint. Die Vieldeutigkeit des Titels impliziert die Vielfalt der wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Raum. Ein illustres Autorenkollektiv deutscher Raumwissenschaftler verdeutlicht anhand von verschiedenen zum Teil essayartigen Artikeln sein Verständnis von Raum. Die interdisziplinäre Konzeption des Heftes soll das ständige Bemühen von Frau Saupe verdeutlichen, verschiedene Perspektiven, Herangehensweisen und Fachdisziplinen zur Bewältigung der Forschungsaufgaben zusammenzuführen. Hierbei sind die wichtigsten Forschungsprojekte von Frau Saupe ebenso vertreten wie einige der von ihr betreuten Qualifikationsarbeiten. Die Beiträge reichen von der Landschafts- bzw. Geoökologie bis zum Fußball und der Musik. Sie spannen einen Bogen von der Geographie als Regionalwissenschaft zu modernen stadtsoziologischen Fragestellungen, stellen Ergebnisse neuerer Forschungsprojekte vor und widmen sich der Entwicklung von nahen und fernen Räumen aus verschiedenen Perspektiven.
The best of both worlds
(2006)
Gegenstand der Publikation ist eine Art der Transmigration, die nicht, wie in der bisherigen Forschungsliteratur aufgezeigt, durch die Überbrückung des Wohlstandsgefälles entsteht, sondern durch die Verwirklichung eines bestimmten Lebensstils. In mehreren Interviews mit drei Seglern, die – neben der Teilnahme an internationalen Regatten – aus Sets verschiedener Motive zwischen Neuseeland und Europa pendeln, wird deren Lebenswelt als "Long distance-Transmigranten" dargestellt und miteinander verglichen. Im theoretischen Teil werden die Befunde der Fallstudie in die wissenschaftliche Debatte eingeordnet. Ein Abriss zur Kritik sowie die Konsequenzen dieser für die Arbeit werden gezogen. Der Nachweis, dass die untersuchten Probanden "Sonderfälle" darstellen, wird erbracht und die Einführung eines eigenen wissenschaftlichen Begriffes für dieses neue Migrationsphänomen erfolgt. Obgleich diese Studie auf einer relativ schmalen empirischen Basis erwachsen ist, zeichnet sie sich durch das innovative Vorgehen der Autorin aus.
Enge Kooperationsformen basieren auf Vertrauen und dementsprechend wurde seine zentrale Rolle für die Funktionsfähigkeit von Netzwerken in den letzten Jahren auch zunehmend anerkannt. Diese Bedeutung von Vertrauen wird in grenzüberschreitenden Netzwerken noch potenziert, da neben den mangelnden formalen Sanktionsmöglichkeiten und der Ungleichzeitigkeit des Tauschs die Unsicherheiten resultierend aus der Berührung unterschiedlicher Wirtschafts-, Kultur und Rechtsräume zunehmen, während gleichzeitig die Funktionsfähigkeit verschiedener Institutionen zur Reduzierung dieser Unsicherheiten abnimmt. Trotz dieser anerkannten Rolle, die Vertrauen in grenzüberschreitenden Kooperationen spielt, wird dem Aufbau von Vertrauen in grenzüberschreitenden Netzwerken und den Möglichkeiten einer gezielten Vertrauensförderung in der Literatur bisher nur wenig Beachtung geschenkt. Um diese Fragen näher zu untersuchen, wurde eine empirische Studie zwischen den deutschen, polnischen und tschechischen Akteuren des von der Europäischen Union geförderten Projektes Enlarge-Net durchgeführt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie zeigen, dass gemeinsame Erfahrungen und wiederholte Interaktion, direkte Kommunikation, institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen, soziale, kulturelle und räumliche Distanzen zwischen den Akteuren und Dritten Parteien einen entscheidenden Einfluss auf den Vertrauensaufbau zwischen den Akteuren eines grenzüberschreitenden Netzwerkes haben. Um den Prozess des Vertrauensaufbaus zu fördern, sollte ein Vertrauensmanagement eingeführt werden, das unter anderem auf die Schaffung formaler und informeller Austauschplattformen abzielt, die Qualität der Kommunikation verbessert und Regeln der Kooperation institutionalisiert. Doch bleibt zu beachten, dass es sich bei dem Aufbau von Vertrauen um einen langsamen und sich sukzessive verstärkenden Prozess handelt, der extrem empfindlich gegenüber Störungen ist, die den gesamten Prozess mit einem Schlag zum Erliegen bringen können.
Dieser Aufsatz verknüpft die komparative Wohlfahrtsforschung mit der traditionellen Einstellungsforschung auf Basis von quantitativen empirischen Erhebungen. Inhalt: 1 Wohlfahrtskonzepte 1.1 Die Zieldimension 1.2 Die Wohlfahrtsproduzenten 2 Determinanten von Unterstützungen 2.1 Die Makroebene: Wohlfahrtsregimetypologien 2.2 Die Mikroebene: Interessen und Werte 3 Operationalisierung 3.1 Wohlfahrtskonzepte 3.2 Indikatoren der Mikroebene 4 Unterstützungspotentiale für die Wohlfahrtskonzepte 4.1 Die Unterstützung des Egalitarismus-Etatismus 4.1.1 Innerstaatliche Einstellungsvariationen 4.1.2 Zwischenstaatliche Einstellungsvariation 4.2 Die Unterstützung des Funktionalismus 4.3 Die Unterstützung des Investitionsprinzips 4.4 Die Unterstützung des reinen Leistungsprinzips 4.5 Die Unterstützung des Familialismus 4.6 Die Unterstützung des Chancengleichheit-Marktliberalismus-Index 4.7 Kompositionen von Wohlfahrtskonzepten
Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Migration and Assimilation – Theoretical Approaches 2.1 Meaning and Definition of the Terms Migration and Migrant 2.2 Milton M. Gordon – Sub Processes of Assimilation 2.3 Hartmut Esser - Acculturation, Integration, and Assimilation 2.4 The Concept of Integration and Assimilation 2.5 Straight–line Assimilation and its Implications 2.6 Segmented Assimilation and its Implications 3. Social Inequality and Welfare – Theoretical Approaches 3.1 Dimensions of Inequality 3.2 Welfare Regimes and Social Inequality 3.3 Migration, Assimilation and Inequality 4. Research Design 4.1 Research Question and General Proceeding 4.2 Sample and Data Base 4.3 Operationalisation and Indicators 5. Migration, Welfare and Inequality in Three European Countries 6. Empirical Results 6.1 Performance of Migrants Compared With Natives 6.2 Different Trajectories of Assimilation 6.3 Trajectories of Segmented Assimilation and their Determinants 6.4 Policies, Attitudes and Assimilation – An Aggregate Analysis 6.5 Summary – What Determines the Performance of Migrants? 7. Discussion of Empirical Results in Terms of Theoretical Approaches 7.1 The Situation of Migrants in Three European Countries 7.2 Assessment of the Trajectories of Assimilation 8. Conclusion – Future Prospects of Migration in Europe
One type of internal diachronic change that has been extensively studied for spoken languages is grammaticalization whereby lexical elements develop into free or bound grammatical elements. Based on a wealth of spoken languages, a large amount of prototypical grammaticalization pathways has been identified. Moreover, it has been shown that desemanticization, decategorialization, and phonetic erosion are typical characteristics of grammaticalization processes. Not surprisingly, grammaticalization is also responsible for diachronic change in sign languages. Drawing data from a fair number of sign languages, we show that grammaticalization in visual-gestural languages – as far as the development from lexical to grammatical element is concerned – follows the same developmental pathways as in spoken languages. That is, the proposed pathways are modalityindependent. Besides these intriguing parallels, however, sign languages have the possibility of developing grammatical markers from manual and non-manual co-speech gestures. We will discuss various instances of grammaticalized gestures and we will also briefly address the issue of the modality-specificity of this phenomenon.
In dieser Arbeit wird ein Verfahren für robustes Parsing von uneingeschränktem natürlichsprachlichen Text mit gewichteten Transduktoren erarbeitet. Es werden zwei linguistische Theorien, das Chunking und das syntaktische Tagging, vorgestellt, die sich besonders für die praktische Anwendung mit Finite-State Maschinen eignen. Über die formalen Grundlagen, die es möglich machen, Finite-State Maschinen zu modellieren, werden existierende Ansätze vorgestellt, die diese linguistischen Theorien mit Finite-State Maschinen realisieren. Jedoch sind diese Ansätze in vieler Hinsicht problematisch. Es wird gezeigt, dass sich Probleme lösen lassen, indem Disambiguierungsstrategien durch Constraints realisiert werden, die als Gewicht bzw. Semiring vorliegen. Durch die Bestimmung des besten Pfades ist dann eine Disambiguierung möglich. Das Verfahren bewegt sich zwischen einem Low- und High-Level Parsing und behandelt flache Dependenzstrukturen. Für die Analyse wird eine rudimentäre Grammatik für das Deutsche entwickelt. Durch eine Implementierung wird letztlich der Ansatz getestet.
Dieser vorliegende Lehr- und Forschungsbericht des Lehrstuhls für Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit dem Schwerpunkt Marketing beschreibt ausgewählte Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie zum Kulturmarketing. Inhalt: Erhebungssteckbrief Ziel der Studie und methodisches Vorgehen Erhebungsdesign und Stichprobenstruktur - Vorgehen bei der Erhebung - Probleme bei der Durchführung der Interviews - Stichprobenstruktur - Eine Analyse der Besucherstrukturen der Potsdamer Arkadien und konkurrierender Kulturveranstaltungen Marktanalyse des Kulturangebots in Potsdam - Beschreibung der Wettbewerbssituation des Potsdamer Kulturangebots - Positionierung der Potsdamer Arkadien und anderer Kulturveranstaltungen aus Sicht der Veranstalter Darstellung der Ergebnisse - Bekanntheit der Potsdamer Arkadien - Das Entscheidungs- und Nutzungsverhalten von Besuchern der Potsdamer Arkadien und Besuchern konkurrierender Kulturveranstaltungen - Das lnformationsverhalten von Besuchern der Potsdamer Arkadien - Stärken und Schwächen der Potsdamer Arkadien - Verbesserungsvorschläge - Zufriedenheit mit den Potsdamer Arkadien aus Sicht der Besucher - Zahlungsbereitschaftsanalyse von Besuchern der Potsdamer Arkadien - Erwartungen an Kulturveranstaltungen und Gründe für den Besuch der Potsdamer Arkadien - Einstellungen zu den Potsdamer Arkadien: Wichtigkeit und Bewertung von ausgewählten Merkmalen der Potsdamer Arkadien - Die Stadt Potsdam in der Wahrnehmung ihrer Bürger: Ermittlung des Wahrnehmungsraumes von Kulturveranstaltungen mittels der Korrespondenzanalyse - Typologisierung der Befragten nach ihren kulturellen Werteorientierungen
Dieser erste Lehr- und Forschungsbericht des Lehrstuhls für Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit dem Schwerpunkt Marketing beschreibt, analysiert und interpretiert ausgewählte Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie zum lmage Potsdams bei lokalen Unternehmern. Inhalt: Die Studie im Überblick: Erhebungssteckbrief, Zusammenfassung der wichtigsten Ergebnisse Ziel der Studie Erhebungsdesign und Struktur der Stichprobe Das Image Potsdams als Wirtschaftsstandort - Die Standortfaktoren - Die Einschätzung der Standortfaktoren: Das Überzeugungsprofil - Die Wichtigkeit der Standortfaktoren: Das Anforderungsprofil - Die Stärken und Schwächen Potsdams als Wirtschaftsstandort Typologisierung der lokalen Unternehmer nach ihrem lmage vom Wirtschaftsstandort Potsdam Das lmage Potsdams als Lebensraum für Unternehmer - Das lmageprofil der Stadt Potsdam als Lebensraum - Das 'Innere Bild' von der Stadt Potsdam Die wirtschaftliche Zukunft von Potsdam aus der Sicht der befragten Unternehmer Konsequenzen und Ansatzpunkte für die Gestaltung eines effizienten Regionalen Marketingkonzepts
Inklusion oder Exklusion?
(2003)
Inhalt: 1. Ziel und Fragestellung der Arbeit 2.1 Spezifika des deutschen Wohlfahrtsstaates 2.2 Theoretische Erkenntnisse zu Übergangsmodellen in und aus Teilzeitbeschäftigung 2.2.1 Humankapitaltheorie 2.2.2 Der Ansatz der Haushaltsstruktur 2.2.3 Ansätze zur Arbeitsmarktsegmentation 2.2.4 Theorien individuellen Handelns 2.3 Inklusion und Exklusion 3. Forschungsstand zu Übergangsmodellen in und aus Teilzeitbeschäftigung 4. Der Modellrahmen 4.1 Spezifikation der Hazard-Funktion 4.2 Einzelne Episoden 4.3 Mehrzustandsmodell 5. Typen von Erwerbsverläufen 5.1 Inkludierende, exkludierende und erhaltende Übergänge 6. Einflussfaktoren 6.1 Übergänge von Teilzeitbeschäftigung in die Erwerbstätigkeit 6.2 Übergänge von Teilzeitbeschäftigung in die Nichterwerbstätigkeit 6.3 Übergänge von Teilzeitbeschäftigung in die Arbeitslosigkeit 6.4 Übergänge von Teilzeitbeschäftigung in den Hausfrauen/männerstatus 7. Zentrale Ergebnisse und Schlussfolgerungen
Die Aufgaben dieser Arbeit liegen in der Ermittlung einer Lebensstiltypologie für Gesamtdeutschland, der Untersuchung des Zusammenhangs zwischen sozialstrukturellen Merkmalen und dem Lebensstil und der Ermittlung der Wertorientierung der eruierten Lebensstile an Hand der Semiometrie. Inhalt: 1. Einleitung 2. Lebensstile 3. Ermittlung einer Lebensstiltypologie 3.1 Operationalisierung des Lebensstilkonzepts 3.2 Stichprobe 3.3 Faktorenanalyse 3.3.1 Faktoren und Faktorladungen 3.4 Clusteranalyse 3.4.1 Ermittlung der optimalen Clusterzahl 3.5 Sechs Lebensstile 3.5.1 Lebensstil der Ausschließlich kulturell Interessierten 3.5.2 Lebensstil der Einfachen Unbeteiligten 3.5.3 Lebensstil der Universell Aktiven 3.5.4 Lebensstil der Geselligen Spannungsorientierten 3.5.5 Lebensstil der Agilen Informationshungrigen 3.5.6 Lebensstil der Elektronikgeneigten Actionsuchenden 3.5.7 Vergleich der eruierten Lebensstile 4. Lebensstil im Zusammenhang mit sozialstrukturellen Merkmalen 4.1 Diskriminanzanalytische Ergebnisse 4.2 Zusammenfassung 5. Die Wertorientierung der Lebensstile 5.1 Methodik der Semiometrie 5.2 Wertsystem der Ausschließlich kulturell Interessierten 5.3 Wertsystem der Einfachen Unbeteiligten 5.4 Wertsystem der Universell Aktiven 5.5 Wertsystem der Geselligen Spannungsorientierten 5.6 Wertsystem der Agilen Informationshungrigen 5.7 Wertsystem der Elektronikgeneigten Actionsuchenden 5.8 Überblickspositionierung der Lebensstile und sozialstruktureller Merkmale 5.9 Fazit 6. Resümee
Ziel der hier durchgeführten Analyse war es herauszufinden, ob und inwieweit sich unterschiedliche Wohlfahrtsstaaten auf das Erwerbsverhalten von Frauen nach der Geburt des ersten Kindes auswirken. Dazu wurde ein deutsch-britischer Ländervergleich angestellt. Die beiden Länder dienten exemplarisch für den konservativ-korporatistischen (Deutschland) und den liberalen (Großbritannien) Wohlfahrtsstaatstypus. Inhalt: Teil I Theoretischer Hintergrund 1 Zum Begriff des "Wohlfahrtsstaates" 1.1 Wohlfahrtsstaatstypologien nach Esping-Andersen 2 Wohlfahrtsstaat und Geschlechterverhältnisse 2.1 Kulturelle Rahmenbedingungen zur Erklärung unterschiedlichen Erwerbsverhaltens 3 Der deutsche und der britische Wohlfahrtsstaat 3.1 Wohlfahrtsstaatliche Rahmenbedingungen 3.1.1 Möglichkeiten der Kinderbetreuung 3.1.2 Systeme der Ehegattenbesteuerung 3.1.3 Familienpolitische Regulierungen 3.2 Kulturelle Unterschiede – Entwicklungen der Geschlechterverhältnisse in Deutschland und Großbritannien 3.2.1 Die Entwicklung der Geschlechterverhältnisse in Ost- und Westdeutschland 3.2.2 Die Entwicklung der Geschlechterverhältnisse in Großbritannien 4 Die Bedeutung von Teilzeitbeschäftigung für Frauen 5 Der Einfluss von Bildung und Bildungssystemen auf die Erwerbstätigkeit von Frauen Teil II Empirische Analyse 6 Hypothesenbildung 7 Der Datensatz 8 Ergebnisse 8.1 Deutschland und Großbritannien im Vergleich 8.2 Deutschland – Großbritannien nach Bildungsgruppen Fazit
Die Dunkelziffer der Armut
(2003)
In der vorliegenden Arbeit soll Aufschluss über die Motivationen zum Verzicht auf Sozialhilfe gewonnen werden. Darüber hinaus soll der Wissensstand über Ausmaß und demographischen Struktur der Armut durch Nichtinanspruchnahme aktualisiert werden. Die Analyse basiert auf Daten aus dem Jahr 2001 des Sozio-ökonomischen Panels (SOEP) des Deutschen Instituts für Wirtschaftsforschung. Inhalt: I. Einleitung II. Das Bundessozialhilfegesetz der Bundesrepublik III. Literaturüberblick: Nicht-Inanspruchnahme von Sozialhilfe in der Bundesrepublik IV. Hypothesen und Operationalisierung V. Daten und Sozialhilfeberechtigung VI. Das statistische Modell VII. Regressionsanalyse und Ergebnisse VIII. Zusammenfassung
In dieser Arbeit wird den verschiedenen Thesen, die das Wahlverhalten in Ostdeutschland begründen, nachgegangen. Der Einbezug der politischen Kultur scheint als Erweiterung des sozialpsychologischen Ansatzes notwendig, um das Wählerverhalten in den neuen Bundesländern angemessen zu modellieren. Für die Analyse der Parteiaffinitäten werden die in den ersten beiden Kapiteln ausgearbeiteten Deutungen zu empirisch überprüfbaren Hypothesen verdichtet und anhand der im empirischen Teil der Arbeit aufgestellten Regressionsmodelle getestet. Inhalt: Die politische Kultur in Ostdeutschland - Besonderheiten politischer Einstellungen: Einstellungen zur Demokratie, Identitätsabgrenzung - Problemwahrnehmungen und Kompetenzzuweisungen Ostdeutsches Wahlverhalten - Thesen - Politisierung der Sozialstruktur - Anwendbarkeit des Konzeptes Parteiidentifikation - Parteiidentifikation und Sozialstruktur - Sachthemen und Kandidaten Empirischer Test - Daten und Methode: Kausalmodell - Hypothesen - Ergebnisse für die einzelnen Parteien: CDU, SPD, PDS - Relatives Gewicht lang- und kurzfristiger Faktoren Fazit - Diskussion der Ergebnisse
Gegenstand des Projektes war eine Befragung der Gremien zur kommunalen Kriminalitätsverhütung des Landes Brandenburg. Ziel des Projektes war eine Bestandsaufnahme und Systematisierung der konkreten regionalen Erscheinungsformen von Gewalt und Fremdenfeindlichkeit und ihrer möglichen Ursachen sowie die Ermittlung des von den KKV-Gremien wahrgenommenen politischen Handlungsbedarfs. Inhalt: Gewalt und Fremdenfeindlichkeit: Phänomene, Analyseebenen, Problem- und Thematisierungswellen, Erklärungsansätze und Schlussfolgerungen für die Prävention Kommunale Problemkonstellation und Problembearbeitung gemäß der Expertenbefragung der Leiter der vor Ort bestehenden Gremien kommunaler Kriminalitätsverhütung im Land Brandenburg - Integrationsprobleme und Anlässe der Gewalt - Kommunale Integrationsmaßnahmen - Jugendsubkulturen aus der Sicht kommunaler Gremien zur Kriminalitätsverhütung - Präventionsmaßnahmen zu den Jugendsubkulturen - Gremien zur kommunalen Kriminalitäts-Prävention und Möglichkeiten der Vernetzung - Maßnahmen der KKV-Kommissionen Schlussfolgerungen und Empfehlungen zur Prävention - Grundlegende Werte als Basis eines friedlichen Zusammenlebens stärken - Soziale Integration fördern - Umgang mit Medien und Images verbessern - Regionale Identität als Basis gemeinschaftlicher Verantwortung stärken - Die innerschulische soziale Integration verbessern - Kinder- und Jugendarbeit verstetigen - Zivilgesellschaftliche Initiativen unterstützen - Konsequentes rechtsstaatliches Handeln der Ordnungskräfte - Wirkung bisheriger Maßnahmen - Prävention und Präventionsgremien
Inhalt: Kriminalität als gesellschaftliches Phänomen - Begrifflichkeiten - Statistische Erfassung von Kriminalität - Entwicklung von Kriminalität in der BRD Das Land Brandenburg in ausgewählten Strukturmerkmalen - Siedlungsstruktur und Verwaltungsgliederung - Bevölkerungsentwicklung - Wirtschaftsstruktur und Arbeitsmarkt Gewaltkriminalität im Land Brandenburg - Gewaltkriminalitätsbelastung - Zusammenhänge zwischen Ortsgröße und Zahl der Gewalttaten: Jahr 1999, Jahr 2000, Entwicklung 1999-2000 - Alterstruktur der Tatverdächtigen - Zusammenhänge zwischen Strukturmerkmalen und Gewaltkriminalität Zusammenfassung
Gegenstand der Untersuchung ist die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit der OECD-Länder. Inhalt: 1. Einleitung 2. Ausgangspunkt der Untersuchung 3. Die theoretische Entwicklung des Pfadmodells 3.1. Die Zielvariablen 3.2. Die Einflußfaktoren der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit 4. Die empirische Analyse 4.1. Korrelationskoeffizienten 4.2. Multiple lineare Regression 5. Schlußbemerkungen
Inhalt: Veränderte ostdeutsche Lebenswelt - Darstellung der Verschiebungen innerhalb des Erwerbsstatus in den neuen Bundesländern Erwerbsstatus in Ostdeutschland vor und nach staatlichen Eingriffen Die sektorale Verteilung der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft - Erfinder und Nachahmer? Die sektorale Verteilung der ostdeutschen Wirtschaft im Bundeslandvergleich - Exkurs: Der öffentliche Dienst Die neuen Berufe - Klassifizierung der ausgeübten Tätigkeiten in den tertiären Beschäftigungsbereichen - Entwicklungsdynamiken an ausgewählten Beispielen des Dienstleistungssektors - Geschlecht und Alter als Determinanten der Beschäftigung
Inhalt: Ulrike Franke, Gabriele Krätzer: Das Leitbild der Stadtentwicklung in Potsdam und die Bedeutung des Handels für die Stadtentwicklung Silvana Wagenitz: Rahmenbedingungen des Handels in und um Potsdam Torben Roffka: Vorhandene Handelsstrukturen und geplante Handelsprojekte in und um Potsdam Gesine Schmeichel: Perspektiven der Potsdamer Stadt- und Handelsentwicklung : Szenarien der Handelsentwicklung in Potsdam Cindy Kramer, Elke Radke: Perspektiven der Potsdamer Stadt- und Handelsentwicklung : Maßnahmen zur Steigerung der Attraktivität des inner- und außerstädtischen Handels in Potsdam
Der Tourismus wird oft als Erfolgsfaktor der endogenen Regionalentwicklung für strukturschwache ländliche Räume verstanden. Landschaftlich attraktive Gebiete können mit dem Erleben einer intakten und unzerstörten Natur- und Kulturlandschaft, einer vielfältigen Tierund Pflanzenwelt sowie kultureller Traditionen und Lebensweisen eine touristische Positionierung erreichen. Um die Rahmenbedingungen für einen naturnahen Tourismus, eine gemeinsame Verwirklichung ökologischer und touristischer Ziele, zu verbessern, kann in der Regionalentwicklung auf das Instrument der Einrichtung von Naturparken zurückgegriffen werden. Aus marketingstrategischer Sicht bildet das Konzept des sanften bzw. des naturnahen Tourismus für die regionale touristische Akteure das inhaltliche Pendant. Die notwendigen Planungs- und Koordinationsprozesse werden in diesem Beitrag konzeptionell vorgestellt. Daran anschließend werden die Perspektiven und Herausforderungen des naturnahen Tourismus in Naturparken am Beispiel von Brandenburg skizziert.
Im Rahmen dieser Studie soll ermittelt werden, welche Bedeutung sowohl quantitative, als auch qualitative Kriterien für die Beurteilung von Risiken in den Akteursgruppen Manager, Verwaltungsangehörige, Experten und Laien einnehmen. Bei der Beurteilung von Umweltrisiken spielen neben quantitativen Beurteilungskriterien (z.B. der Schadenswahrscheinlichkeit) auch qualitative Kriterien (z.B. die ausgelösten Emotionen) eine zentrale Rolle, wie insbesondere die Ergebnisse der psychometrischen Risikoforschung zeigen.
Im Rahmen dieser Studie soll ermittelt werden, welche Urteilsmodelle bzw. -konzepte Manager, Verwaltungsangehörige, Experten und Laien zur Bewertung von Risiken verwenden. Dazu wird eine Untersuchungsmethode, die Conjoint-Analyse, verwendet, die mit spezifischen Problemen der psychometrischen Risikoforschung besser umzugehen vermag und die u.E. noch nicht in der Risikowahrnehmungsforschung eingesetzt wurde. Inhalt: Ziel der Untersuchung Fragestellung Die Conjoint-Analyse Das Design der Studie Stichprobe und Datenerhebungsprozedur Ergebnisse: -Risikoakzeptanzwerte -Entscheidungswichtigkeit der Risiken -Gruppenanalyse
Gegenstand der Studie sind Risikobewertungen als Teil von Entscheidungen über die Akzeptanz von Risiken. Dabei handelt es sich nicht nur um einen Problembereich für Experten. Auch die Wirtschaft, die Verwaltung, die Politik und die interessierte Öffentlichkeit ist an solchen Entscheidungen beteiligt. Inhalt: Gegenstand der Studie Ziele der Studie Theoretischer Rahmen Hypothesen Methodische Grundlagen Ergebnisse -Das Kategorienschema -Häufigkeit und Inhalte kognitiver Kategorien: Zentrale Kategorien -Graphische Auswertung: Hierarchical Value Maps: HVM für gentechnisch verändertes Getreidesaatgut, HVM für Kunststoffzusatz, HVM für neues Arzneimittel, Gesamtanalysen
Die vorliegende Untersuchung basiert auf einer Befragung von insgesamt 93 Unternehmen aus den Regionen Potsdam, Berlin und Chemnitz. Die Interviews wurden im Zeitraum Mai/Juni 1996 durchgeführt und dauerten ca. 1 Stunde. Im Mittelpunkt der Befragung standen die Themenbereiche: ökologische Betroffenheit, Einstellung zum Umweltschutz, Markt- und Wettbewerbsbedingungen des betrieblichen Umweltschutzes, Umfang und Intensität betrieblicher Maßnahmen zum Umweltschutz sowie Verhaltensbarrieren. Als Interviewpartner standen in der Mehrzahl der befragten Unternehmen die Geschäftsführer oder Umweltbeauftragte bzw. andere Personen in Führungspositionen zur Verfügung. Zum überwiegenden Teil waren die von uns befragten Unternehmer selbst Eigentümer der Unternehmung. Die befragten Unternehmen gehören überwiegend dem Konsumgütersektor (44%) an. Ein Drittel der Unternehmen stammt aus dem Investitionsgütersektor (33%). Der Dienstleistungssektor ist mit lediglich 23% in der Stichprobe vertreten. Insgesamt bildet die Stichprobe ein breites Branchenspektrum ab, wenn auch die Geschäftsbereiche Maschinenbau und Anlagen, bedingt durch ihre starke Präsenz im Raum Chemnitz, deutlich überrepräsentiert sind. Hinsichtlich der Beschäftigtenzahlen und Umsätze handelt es sich in der Befragung überwiegend um kleine und mittelständische Betriebe, wiewohl auch einige größere Unternehmen berücksichtigt wurden.
Inhalt: Umweltbeziehungen und Verantwortungsbewußtsein von Unternehmen -Ökologische Anliegen der Unternehmensumwelt -Verantwortliches Verhalten von Unternehmen -Der Risiko- und Krisenbegriff Subjektive Wahrnehmung und Bewertung von Risiken und Krisen -Subjektive Risikowahrnehmung: Wahrnehmung quantitativer Risikofaktoren,die Wahrnehmung qualitativer Merkmale der Risikoquelle, individuelle Risikodeterminanten -Empirische Studie zur Risikowahrnehmung -Subjektive Krisenbewältigung: Prozesse der Krisenentstehung und –entwicklung, Merkmale der Krisenwahrnehmung durch Manager, Verhaltenswissenschaftliche Theorien zur Krisenbewältigung Risiko- und Krisenmanagement
Public pensions in the U.S.
(2005)
Contents: The Public Old Age Insurance of the U.S. -Historical overview -Technical details -Individual equity and social adequacy The Economic Problem of Old Age -Risks and economic security -Old age, retirement, and idividual precaution -Insurance markets, market failures, and social insurance -Options for public pension systems The Problems of Social Security -The financial balance of OASDI -Causes of the long-run problems -Rates of return -Conclusion - The case for Social Security reform Proposed Remedies -Full, partial, or no privatization? -The President's Commission to Strengthen Social Security -Kotlikoff's Personal Security System -The Diamond-Orszag Three-Part plan
Many European countries have experienced a significant increase of unemployment in recent years. This paper reviews several theoretical models that try to explain this phenomenon. Predominantly, these models claim a link between the poor performance of European labor markets and the high level of market regulation. Commonly referred to as the Eurosclerosis debate, prominent approaches consider insider-outsider relationships, search-models, and the influence of hiring and firing costs on equilibrium employment. The paper presents empirical evidence of each model and studies the relevance of the identified rigidities as a determinant of high unemployment in Europe. Furthermore, a case study analyzes the unemployment problem in Germany and critically discusses new reform efforts. In particular this section analyzes whether the recently enacted Hartz reforms can induce higher employment.
Revisiting public investment
(2004)
The consumption equivalence method is the theoretical basis of public cost-benefit analysis. Consumption equivalence public capital prices are explicitly introduces in order to sufficiently care for the opportunity cost of public expenditure. This can solve the dispute about the social rate of discount within public cost-benefit analysis witch was generated on a criterion looking similar to the capital value formula, known as Lind’s approach. The social rate of discount is liberated from opportunity costs considerations and the discounting away of the effects for future welfare vanishes. The corresponding question whether one should accept a positive value of the pure rate of social time preference is an old issue. Its current state between the prescriptive and descriptive view can also be interpreted as a consequence of the oversimplification of standard cost– benefit analysis. But apart from an economic self-process the pure rate of social time preference is also defined as a business-as-usual value of social distance discounting. Hence, a political choice has to be made about this rate which is free in principal.
An exhaustive and disjoint decomposition of social choice situations is derived in a general set theoretical framework using the new tools of the Lifted Pareto relation on the power set of social states representing a pre-choice comparison of choice option sets. The main result is the classification of social choice situations which include three types of social choice problems. First, we usually observe the common incompleteness of the Pareto relation. Second, a kind of non-compactness problem of a choice set of social states can be generated. Finally, both can be combined. The first problem root can be regarded as natural everyday dilemma of social choice theory whereas the second may probably be much more due to modeling technique implications. The distinction is enabled at a very general set theoretical level. Hence, the derived classification of social choice situations is applicable on almost every relevant economic model.
Inhalt: Dynamische Interpretation der Leistungsfähigkeit Integrierte Einkommens- und Gewinnbesteuerung Zins- und Sparbereinigung Individuelle Fairness und Familiengerechtigkeit Einfachheit für Administration und Bürger Auswirkungen auf Steueraufkommen und Einkommensverteilung Generationengerechtigkeit Begleitende Maßnahmen Systemdynamik und Wirtschaftswachstum