A basic assumption of standard small area models is that the statistic of interest can be modelled through a linear mixed model with common model parameters for all areas in the study. The model can then be used to stabilize estimation. In some applications, however, there may be different subgroups of areas, with specific relationships between the response variable and auxiliary information. In this case, using a distinct model for each subgroup would be more appropriate than employing one model for all observations. If no suitable natural clustering variable exists, finite mixture regression models may represent a solution that „lets the data decide“ how to partition areas into subgroups. In this framework, a set of two or more different models is specified, and the estimation of subgroup-specific model parameters is performed simultaneously to estimating subgroup identity, or the probability of subgroup identity, for each area. Finite mixture models thus offer a fexible approach to accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. Therefore, in this thesis, finite mixtures of small area models are proposed to account for the existence of latent subgroups of areas in small area estimation. More specifically, it is assumed that the statistic of interest is appropriately modelled by a mixture of K linear mixed models. Both mixtures of standard unit-level and standard area-level models are considered as special cases. The estimation of mixing proportions, area-specific probabilities of subgroup identity and the K sets of model parameters via the EM algorithm for mixtures of mixed models is described. Eventually, a finite mixture small area estimator is formulated as a weighted mean of predictions from model 1 to K, with weights given by the area-specific probabilities of subgroup identity.

One of the most essential hypotheses of usage-based theories and many constructionist approaches to language is that language entails the piecemeal learning of constructions on the basis of general cognitive mechanisms and exposure to the target language in use (Ellis 2002; Tomasello 2003). However, there is still a considerable lack of empirical research on the emergence and mental representation of constructions in second language (L2) acquisition. One crucial question that arises, for instance, is whether L2 learners’ knowledge of a construction corresponds to a native-like mapping of form and meaning and, if so, to what extent this representation is shaped by usage. For instance, it is unclear how learners ‘build’ constructional knowledge, i.e. which pieces of frequency-, form- and meaning-related information become relevant for the entrenchment and schematisation of a L2 construction. To address these issues, the English catenative verb construction was used as a testbed phenomenon. This idiosyncratic complex construction is comprised of a catenative verb and a non-finite complement clause (see Huddleston & Pullum 2002), which is prototypically a gerund-participial (henceforth referred to as ‘target-ing’ construction) or a to-infinitival complement (‘target-to’ construction): (1) She refused to do her homework. (2) Laura kept reading love stories. (3) *He avoids to listen to loud music. This construction is particularly interesting because learners often show choices of a complement type different from those of native speakers (e.g. Gries & Wulff 2009; Martinez‐Garcia & Wulff 2012) as illustrated in (3) and is commonly claimed to be difficult to be taught by explicit rules (see e.g. Petrovitz 2001). By triangulating different types of usage data (corpus and elicited production data) and analysing these by multivariate statistical tests, the effects of different usage-related factors (e.g. frequency, proficiency level of the learner, semantic class of verb, etc.) on the representation and development of the catenative verb construction and its subschemas (i.e. target-to and target-ing construction) were examined. In particular, it was assessed whether they can predict a native-like form-meaning pairing of a catenative verb and non-finite complement. First, all studies were able to show a robust effect of frequency on the complement choice. Frequency does not only lead to the entrenchment of high-frequency exemplars of the construction but is also found to motivate a taxonomic generalisation across related exemplars and the representation of a more abstract schema. Second, the results indicate that the target-to construction, due to its higher type and token frequency, has a high degree of schematicity and productivity than the target-ing construction for the learners, which allows for analogical comparisons and pattern extension with less entrenched exemplars. This schema is likely to be overgeneralised to (less frequent) target-ing verbs because the learners perceive formal and semantic compatibility between the unknown/infrequent verb and this pattern. Furthermore, the findings present evidence that less advanced learners (A2-B2) make more coarse-grained generalisations, which are centred around high-frequency and prototypical exemplars/low-scope patterns. In the case of high-proficiency learners (C1-C2), not only does the number of native-like complement choices increase but relational information, such as the semantic subclasses of the verb, form-function contingency and other factors, becomes also relevant for a target-like choice. Thus, the results suggests that with increasing usage experience learners gradually develop a more fine-grained, interconnected representation of the catenative verb construction, which gains more resemblance to the form-meaning mappings of native speakers. Taken together, these insights highlight the importance for language learning and teaching environments to acknowledge that L2 knowledge is represented in the form of highly interconnected form-meaning pairings, i.e. constructions, that can be found on different levels of abstraction and complexity.

The article offers a concise view on the constitution of the Baltic state of Latvia. After an introduction focusing on constitutional history, the author explores basic principles and human rights in the text of the constitution and explains the main constitutional bodies and their functions in legislative, executive and judiciary. Chapters on citizenship and religious rights round up this introduction to the Latvian Constitution.

This working paper outlines analytical pathways that could contribute to deepening the understanding of water inequalities in cities of the Global South. It brings together the status quo of research on water inequalities in Accra, the capital of Ghana, and studies on Environmental Justice. In doing so, it argues for the need to analytically distinguish between the terms ‘(in)equality’ and ‘(in)justice’. Studying everyday water practices and per- spectives on water (in)justice of different stakeholders would be a suitable entry point for an in-depth ethnographic study that analytically separates water inequalities and water injustices but considers their interlinkages. The working paper is based on a literature review conducted in 2015 in the scope of the WaterPower project.

Behavioural traces from interactions with digital technologies are diverse and abundant. Yet, their capacity for theory-driven research is still to be constituted. In the present cumulative dissertation project, I deliberate the caveats and potentials of digital behavioural trace data in behavioural and social science research. One use case is online radicalisation research. The three studies included, set out to discern the state-of-the-art of methods and constructs employed in radicalization research, at the intersection of traditional methods and digital behavioural trace data. Firstly, I display, based on a systematic literature review of empirical work, the prevalence of digital behavioural trace data across different research strands and discern determinants and outcomes of radicalisation constructs. Secondly, I extract, based on this literature review, hypotheses and constructs and integrate them to a framework from network theory. This graph of hypotheses, in turn, makes the relative importance of theoretical considerations explicit. One implication of visualising the assumptions in the field is to systematise bottlenecks for the analysis of digital behavioural trace data and to provide the grounds for the genesis of new hypotheses. Thirdly, I provide a proof-of-concept for incorporating a theoretical framework from conspiracy theory research (as a specific form of radicalisation) and digital behavioural traces. I argue for marrying theoretical assumptions derived from temporal signals of posting behaviour and semantic meaning from textual content that rests on a framework from evolutionary psychology. In the light of these findings, I conclude by discussing important potential biases at different stages in the research cycle and practical implications.

Objective Our study investigated body image representations in female patients with anorexia nervosa and healthy controls using a size estimation with pictures of their own body. We also explored a method to reduce body image distortions through right hemispheric activation. Method Pictures of participants’ own bodies were shown on the left or right visual fields for 130 ms after presentation of neutral, positive, or negative word primes, which could be self-relevant or not, with the task of classifying the picture as “thinner than”, “equal to”, or “fatter than” one’s own body. Subsequently, activation of the left- or right hemispheric through right- or left-hand muscle contractions for 3 min., respectively. Finally, participants completed the size estimation task again. Results The distorted “fatter than” body image was found only in patients and only when a picture of their own body appeared on the right visual field (left hemisphere) and was preceded by negative self-relevant words. This distorted perception of the patients’ body image was reduced after left-hand muscle contractions (right hemispheric activation). Discussion To reduce body image distortions it is advisable to find methods that help anorexia nervosa patients to increase their self-esteem. The body image distortions were ameliorated after right hemispheric activation. A related method to prevent distorted body-image representations in these patients may be Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.

Striving for sustainable development by combating climate change and creating a more social world is one of the most pressing issues of our time. Growing legal requirements and customer expectations require also Mittelstand firms to address sustainability issues such as climate change. This dissertation contributes to a better understanding of sustainability in the Mittelstand context by examining different Mittelstand actors and the three dimensions of sustainability - social, economic, and environmental sustainability - in four quantitative studies. The first two studies focus on the social relevance and economic performance of hidden champions, a niche market leading subgroup of Mittelstand firms. At the regional level, the impact of 1,645 hidden champions located in Germany on various dimensions of regional development is examined. A higher concentration of hidden champions has a positive effect on regional employment, median income, and patents. At the firm level, analyses of a panel dataset of 4,677 German manufacturing firms, including 617 hidden champions, show that the latter have a higher return on assets than other Mittelstand firms. The following two chapters deal with environmental strategies and thus contribute to the exploration of the environmental dimension of sustainability. First, the consideration of climate aspects in investment decisions is compared using survey data from 468 European venture capital and private equity investors. While private equity firms respond to external stakeholders and portfolio performance and pursue an active ownership strategy, venture capital firms are motivated by product differentiation and make impact investments. Finally, based on survey data from 443 medium-sized manufacturing firms in Germany, 54% of which are family-owned, the impact of stakeholder pressures on their decarbonization strategies is analyzed. A distinction is made between symbolic (compensation of CO₂-emissions) and substantive decarbonization strategies (reduction of CO₂-emissions). Stakeholder pressures lead to a proactive pursuit of decarbonization strategies, with internal and external stakeholders varying in their influence on symbolic and substantial decarbonization strategies, and the relationship influenced by family ownership.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is one of the most important variables in hydrological studies. In the ET process, energy exchange and water transfer are involved. ET consists of transpiration and evaporation. The amount of plants transpiration dominates in ET. Especially in the forest regions, the ratio of transpiration to ET is in general 80-90 %. Meteorological variables, vegetation properties, precipitation and soil moisture are critical influence factors for ET generation. The study area is located in the forest area of Nahe catchment (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany). The Nahe catchment is highly wooded. About 54.6 % of this area is covered by forest, with deciduous forest and coniferous forest are two primary types. A hydrological model, WaSiM-ETH, was employed for a long-term simulation from 1971-2003 in the Nahe catchment. In WaSiM-ETH, the potential evapotranspiration (ETP) was firstly calculated by the Penman-Monteith equation, and subsequently reduced according to the soil water content to obtain the actual evapotranspiration (ETA). The Penman-Monteith equation has been widely used and recommended for ETP estimation. The difficulties in applying this equation are the high demand of ground-measured meteorological data and the determination of surface resistance. A method combined remote sensing images with ground-measured meteorological data was also used to retrieve the ETA. This method is based on the surface properties such as surface albedo, fractional vegetation cover (FVC) and land surface temperature (LST) to obtain the latent heat flux (LE, corresponding to ETA) through the surface energy balance equation. LST is a critical variable for surface energy components estimation. It was retrieved from the TM/ETM+ thermal infrared (TIR) band. Due to the high-quality and cloudy-free requirements for TM/ETM+ data selection as well as the overlapping cycle of TM/ETM+ sensor is 16 days, images on only five dates are available during 1971-2003 (model ran) " May 15, 2000, July 05, 2001, July 19, August 04 and September 21 in 2003. It is found that the climate conditions of 2000, 2001 and 2003 are wet, medium wet and dry, respectively. Therefore, the remote sensing-retrieved observations are noncontinuous in a limited number over time but contain multiple climate conditions. Aerodynamic resistance and surface resistance are two most important parameters in the Penman-Monteith equation. However, for forest area, the aerodynamic resistance is calculated by a function of wind speed in the model. Since transpiration and evaporation are separately calculated by the Penman-Monteith equation in the model, the surface resistance was divided into canopy surface resistance rsc and soil surface resistance rse. rsc is related to the plants transpiration and rse is related to the bare soil evaporation. The interception evaporation was not taken into account due to its negligible contribution to ET rate under a dry-canopy (no rainfall) condition. Based on the remote sensing-retrieved observations, rsc and rse were calibrated in the WaSiM-ETH model for both forest types: for deciduous forest, rsc = 150 sm−1, rse = 250 sm−1; for coniferous forest, rsc = 300 sm−1, rse = 650 sm−1. We also carried out sensitivity analysis on rsc and rse. The appropriate value ranges of rsc and rse were determined as (annual maximum): for deciduous forest, [100,225] sm−1 for rsc and [50,450] sm−1 for rse; for coniferous forest, [225,375] sm−1 for rsc and [350,1200] sm−1 for rse. Due to the features of the observations that are in a limited number but contain multiple climate conditions, the statistical indices for model performance evaluation are required to be sensitive to extreme values. In this study, boxplots were found to well exhibit the model performance at both spatial and temporal scale. Nush-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), RMSE-observations standard deviation ratio (RSR), percent bias (PBIAS), mean bias error (MBE), mean variance of error distribution (S2d), index of agreement (d), root mean square error (RMSE) were found as appropriate statistical indices to provide additional evaluation information to the boxplots. The model performance can be judged as satisfactory if NSE > 0.5, RSR ≤ 0.7, PBIAS < -±12, MBE < -±0.45, S2d < 1.11, d > 0.79, RMSE < 0.97. rsc played a more important role than rse in ETP and ETA estimation by the Penman-Monteith equation, which is attributed to the fact that transpiration dominates in ET. The ETP estimation was found the most correlated to the relative humidity (RH), followed by air temperature (T), relative sunshine duration (SSD) and wind speed (WS). Under wet or medium wet climate conditions, ETA estimation was found the most correlated to T, followed by RH, SSD and WS. Under a water-stress condition, there were very small correlations between ETA and each meteorological variable.

This work addresses the algorithmic tractability of hard combinatorial problems. Basically, we are considering \NP-hard problems. For those problems we can not find a polynomial time algorithm. Several algorithmic approaches already exist which deal with this dilemma. Among them we find (randomized) approximation algorithms and heuristics. Even though in practice they often work in reasonable time they usually do not return an optimal solution. If we constrain optimality then there are only two methods which suffice for this purpose: exponential time algorithms and parameterized algorithms. In the first approach we seek to design algorithms consuming exponentially many steps who are more clever than some trivial algorithm (who simply enumerates all solution candidates). Typically, the naive enumerative approach yields an algorithm with run time $\Oh^*(2^n)$. So, the general task is to construct algorithms obeying a run time of the form $\Oh^*(c^n)$ where $c<2$. The second approach considers an additional parameter $k$ besides the input size $n$. This parameter should provide more information about the problem and cover a typical characteristic. The standard parameterization is to see $k$ as an upper (lower, resp.) bound on the solution size in case of a minimization (maximization, resp.) problem. Then a parameterized algorithm should solve the problem in time $f(k)\cdot n^\beta$ where $\beta$ is a constant and $f$ is independent of $n$. In principle this method aims to restrict the combinatorial difficulty of the problem to the parameter $k$ (if possible). The basic hypothesis is that $k$ is small with respect to the overall input size. In both fields a frequent standard technique is the design of branching algorithms. These algorithms solve the problem by traversing the solution space in a clever way. They frequently select an entity of the input and create two new subproblems, one where this entity is considered as part of the future solution and another one where it is excluded from it. Then in both cases by fixing this entity possibly other entities will be fixed. If so then the traversed number of possible solution is smaller than the whole solution space. The visited solutions can be arranged like a search tree. To estimate the run time of such algorithms there is need for a method to obtain tight upper bounds on the size of the search trees. In the field of exponential time algorithms a powerful technique called Measure&Conquer has been developed for this purpose. It has been applied successfully to many problems, especially to problems where other algorithmic attacks could not break the trivial run time upper bound. On the other hand in the field of parameterized algorithms Measure&Conquer is almost not known. This piece of work will present examples where this technique can be used in this field. It also will point out what differences have to be made in order to successfully apply the technique. Further, exponential time algorithms for hard problems where Measure&Conquer is applied are presented. Another aspect is that a formalization (and generalization) of the notion of a search tree is given. It is shown that for certain problems such a formalization is extremely useful.

The present thesis is devoted to a construction which defies generalisations about the prototypical English noun phrase (NP) to such an extent that it has been termed the Big Mess Construction (Berman 1974). As illustrated by the examples in (1) and (2), the NPs under study involve premodifying adjective phrases (APs) which precede the determiner (always realised in the form of the indefinite article a(n)) rather than following it. (1) NoS had not been hijacked – that was too strong a word. (BNC: CHU 1766) (2) He was prepared for a battle if the porter turned out to be as difficult a customer as his wife. (BNC: CJX 1755) Previous research on the construction is largely limited to contributions from the realms of theoretical syntax and a number of cursory accounts in reference grammars. No comprehensive investigation of its realisations and uses has as yet been conducted. My thesis fills this gap by means of an exhaustive analysis of the construction on the basis of authentic language data retrieved from the British National Corpus (BNC). The corpus-based approach allows me to examine not only the possible but also the most typical uses of the construction. Moreover, while previous work has almost exclusively focused on the formal realisations of the construction, I investigate both its forms and functions. It is demonstrated that, while the construction is remarkably flexible as concerns its possible realisations, its use is governed by probabilistic constraints. For example, some items occur much more frequently inside the degree item slot than others (as, too and so stand out for their particularly high frequency). Contrary to what is assumed in most previous descriptions, the slot is not restricted in its realisation to a fixed number of items. Rather than representing a specialised structure, the construction is furthermore shown to be distributed over a wide range of possible text types and syntactic functions. On the other hand, it is found to be much less typical of spontaneous conversation than of written language; Big Mess NPs further display a strong preference for the function of subject complement. Investigations of the internal structural complexity of the construction indicate that its obligatory components can optionally be enriched by a remarkably wide range of optional (if infrequent) elements. In an additional analysis of the realisations of the obligatory but lexically variable slots (head noun and head of AP), the construction is highlighted to represent a productive pattern. With the help of the methods of Collexeme Analysis (Stefanowitsch and Gries 2003) and Co-varying Collexeme Analysis (Gries and Stefanowitsch 2004b, Stefanowitsch and Gries 2005), the two slots are, however, revealed to be strongly associated with general nouns and ‘evaluative’ and ‘dimension’ adjectives, respectively. On the basis of an inspection of the most typical adjective-noun combinations, I identify the prototypical semantics of the Big Mess Construction. The analyses of the constructional functions centre on two distinct functional areas. First, I investigate Bolinger’s (1972) hypothesis that the construction fulfils functions in line with the Principle of Rhythmic Alternation (e.g. Selkirk 1984: 11, Schlüter 2005). It is established that rhythmic preferences co-determine the use of the construction to some extent, but that they clearly do not suffice to explain the phenomenon under study. In a next step, the discourse-pragmatic functions of the construction are scrutinised. Big Mess NPs are demonstrated to perform distinct information-structural functions in that the non-canonical position of the AP serves to highlight focal information (compare De Mönnink 2000: 134-35). Additionally, the construction is shown to place emphasis on acts of evaluation. I conclude the construction to represent a contrastive focus construction. My investigations of the formal and functional characteristics of Big Mess NPs each include analyses which compare individual versions of the construction to one another (e.g. the As Big a Mess, Too Big a Mess and So Big a Mess Constructions). It is revealed that the versions are united by a shared core of properties while differing from one another at more abstract levels of description. The question of the status of the constructional versions as separate constructions further receives special emphasis as part of a discussion in which I integrate my results into the framework of usage-based Construction Grammar (e.g. Goldberg 1995, 2006).