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Der Schwarzmeerraum stellte am Ende des Mittelalters einen Schnittpunkt unterschiedlichster Kulturbereiche dar. Hier trafen das zerfallende Byzantinische Reich, die Reste der Kreuzfahrerstaaten, verschiedene mongolische Reiche und das aufsteigende Osmanische Reich aufeinander. Wie sich aus diesem Aufeinandertreffen ein über Jahrzehnte trotz immer wieder entstehender Konflikte fruchtbares und bei aller Dynamik relativ stabiles Miteinander entwickelte, wird anhand der aufschlussreichen Register der genuesischen Massaria von Caffa untersucht. Dabei liegt der Fokus sowohl auf der Organisation des italienischen Netzwerks in der Region als auch auf dem Umgang mit den tatarischen und türkischen Nachbarn, auf deren Gebiet die Genuesen operierten, insbesondere auf den diplomatischen Aktivitäten. Wie sich unter diesen Umständen der Handel als Hauptaktivität entfaltete, wird am Beispiel des Sklavenhandels verdeutlicht.
Die Auswirkungen von Rahmenfehlern in Zensen werden bereits seit vielen Jahren untersucht. Eine Methode, um aktuelle Bevölkerungszahlen zu gewinnen, basiert auf Fortschreibung. Wegen Ungenauigkeiten in der Fortschreibung wurden aber auch andere Modelle entwickelt - die capture-recapture-Modelle. Am 29. August 2006 hat die Bundesregierung beschlossen, dass in Deutschland 2011 ein registergestützter Zensus durchgeführt wird. Der Schwerpunkt dieser Dissertation liegt in der Anwendung des capture-recapture-Modelles im deutschen Zensus 2011. Die Dissertation vergleicht den dual system estimator (DSE) und alternative Schätzer (Verallgemeinerter-Regressionsschätzer, Verhältnis-synthetischer Schätzer, Schätzer basierend auf dem Unit-level Modell) für die Schätzung der Anzahl der tatsächlich vorhandenen Personen. Die empirische Untersuchung der Güte der Schätzer basiert auf Monte Carlo Simulationen synthetischer Populationen des Bundeslandes Saarland.
This thesis centers on formal tree languages and on their learnability by algorithmic methods in abstractions of several learning settings. After a general introduction, we present a survey of relevant definitions for the formal tree concept as well as special cases (strings) and refinements (multi-dimensional trees) thereof. In Chapter 3 we discuss the theoretical foundations of algorithmic learning in a specific type of setting of particular interest in the area of Grammatical Inference where the task consists in deriving a correct formal description for an unknown target language from various information sources (queries and/or finite samples) in a polynomial number of steps. We develop a parameterized meta-algorithm that incorporates several prominent learning algorithms from the literature in order to highlight the basic routines which regardless of the nature of the information sources have to be run through by all those algorithms alike. In this framework, the intended target descriptions are deterministic finite-state tree automata. We discuss the limited transferability of this approach to another class of descriptions, residual finite-state tree automata, for which we propose several learning algorithms as well. The learnable class by these techniques corresponds to the class of regular tree languages. In Chapter 4we outline a recent range of attempts in Grammatical Inference to extend the learnable language classes beyond regularity and even beyond context-freeness by techniques based on syntactic observations which can be subsumed under the term 'distributional learning', and we describe learning algorithms in several settings for the tree case taking this approach. We conclude with some general reflections on the notion of learning from structural information.
Eine Vielzahl hydrophiler Xenobiotika wird in kommunalen Kläranlagen nur unvollständig abgebaut und stellt ein potentielles Risiko für aquatische Ökosysteme dar. Die Eliminationsleistung von Kläranlagen hat sich deshalb während des letzten Jahrzehnts zu einem Schwerpunkt in der aquatischen Umweltchemie entwickelt. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht in diesem Zusammenhang die Variation biologischer Abbauleistungen kommunaler Kläranlagen für polare Xenobiotika. Es soll überprüft werden, ob die Abbauleistung von Xenobiotika mit derer klassischer Nährstoffe in Beziehung gesetzt werden kann. Als zusätzlicher Faktor zur Erklärung von unterschiedlichen Eliminationsleistungen wurden Probenahmestrategien hinsichtlich der Erstellung von Massenbilanzen analysiert. Fünf Pharmaka sowie drei Aminopolycarbonsäuren wurden als Testsubstanzen ausgewählt. Diese umfassen ein Spektrum an mikrobiologischer Abbaubarkeit bedingt durch die Reaktivität ihrer unterschiedlichen molekularen Strukturen. Ein kombinierter Versuchsaufbau aus Respirometrie und Abbautests ermöglichte, neben der Bestimmung von Abbaukinetiken, auch die Charakterisierung von Belebtschlamm. Der Einfluss von Mischungsprozessen auf die Abbauleistungen von Kläranlagen wurde mittels hydraulischer Aufenthaltszeitverteilungen modelliert. Darauf basierend wurde eine Methode zur Beurteilung und Erstellung von Eliminationsleistungen aus Zulauf-Ablauf Massenbilanzen entwickelt. Die Resultate zeigen deutliche Unterschiede in den Belebtschlammcharakteristika und dem Abbaupotential von Xenobiotika zwischen verschiedenen Kläranlagen. Die aktive heterotrophe Biomasse wurde als steuernder Faktor für die Biodegradation der untersuchten leicht und moderat abbaubaren Xenobiotika identifiziert. Dies kann als Hinweis auf kometabolische Abbauprozesse durch unspezifische Enzymaktivitäten gewertet werden. Die beobachtete Abnahme der Eliminationsleistung mit steigendem Schlammalter konnte anhand modifizierter Kinetiken pseudo-erster Ordnung beschrieben werden. Die Modellierung von Mischungsprozessen mittels hydraulischer Aufenthaltszeitverteilungen macht deutlich, mit welcher Unsicherheit Massenbilanzen in Kläranlagen behaftet sind. Die Ergebnisse demonstrieren, dass dies vor allem auf inadäquate Probenahmestrategien zurückzuführen ist. Insbesondere Massenbilanzen auf der Basis von kurzen Probenahmezeiträumen und 24-h Mischproben resultieren in fehlerhafte Eliminationsraten. Der vorgestellte Ansatz benutzt die Verteilungen von Aufenthaltszeiten als Leitprinzip, um Zulauf- und Ablauffrachten zueinander in Beziehung zu setzen. Die Methode kann als Grundlage zur akkuraten Schätzung von Eliminationsleistungen herangezogen werden und bietet eine Erklärung für das Vorkommen negativer Eliminationsleistungen.
Psychiatric/Behavioral disorders/traits are usually polygenic in nature, where a particular phenotype is the manifestation of multiple genes. However, the existence of large families with numerous members who are affected by these disorders/traits steers us towards a Mendelian (or monogenic) possibility, where the phenotype is caused by a single gene. In order to better understand the genetic architecture of general psychiatric/behavioral disorders/traits, this thesis investigates large pedigrees that display a Mendelian pattern for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Numerous challenges in the field of psychiatric and behavioral sciences have impeded the genetic investigation of such disorders/traits. Examples include frequent cross-disorders, genetic heterogeneity across subjects as well as the use of diagnostic tools that can be subjective at times. To overcome these challenges, this thesis investigates large multi-generational pedigrees, which comprise a significant number of members who exhibit specific psychiatric/behavioral phenotypes. These pedigrees provide high-resolution experimental setups that can dissect the genetic complexities of psychiatric/behavioral disorders/traits. This thesis adopts a classical two-stage genetic approach to investigate the various psychiatric/behavioral disorders/traits in large pedigrees. The classical two-stage genetic approach is commonly used by many human geneticists to study a wide spectrum of human physiological disorders but is only being applied to the field of psychiatric and behavioral genetics recently. Through the study of large pedigrees, this thesis discovers the genomic regions that may play a causative role in the expression of certain psychiatric/behavioral disorders/traits within the vast genome.
In addition to the well-recognised effects of both, genes and adult environment, it is now broadly accepted that adverse conditions during pregnancy contribute to the development of mental and somatic disorders in the offspring, such as cardiovascular disorders, endocrinological disorders, metabolic disorders, schizophrenia, anxious and depressive behaviour and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Early life events may have long lasting impact on tissue structure and function and these effects appear to underlie the developmental origins of vulnerability to chronic diseases. The assumption that prenatal adversity, such as maternal emotional states during pregnancy, may have adverse effects on the developing infant is not new. Accordant references can be found in an ancient Indian text (ca. 1050 before Christ), in biblical texts and in documents originating during the Middle Ages. Even Hippocrates stated possible effects of maternal emotional states on the developing fetus. Since the mid-1950s, research examining the effects of maternal psychosocial stress during pregnancy appeared in the literature. Extensive research in this field has been conducted since the early 1990s. Thus, the relationship between early life events and long-term health outcomes was already postulated over 20 years ago. David Barker and colleagues demonstrated that children of lower birth weight - which represents a crude marker of an adverse intrauterine environment - were at increased risk of high blood pressure, cardiovascular disorders, and type-2 diabetes later in life. These provocative findings led to a large amount of subsequent research, initially focussing on the role of undernutrition in determining fetal outcomes. The phenomenon of prenatal influences that determine in part the risk of suffering from chronic disease later in life has been named the "fetal origins of health and disease" paradigm. The concept of "prenatal programming" has now been extended to many other domains, such as the effects of prenatal maternal stress, prenatal tobacco exposure, alcohol intake, medication, toxins, as well as maternal infection and diseases. During the process of prenatal programming, environmental agents are transmitted across the placenta and act on specific fetal tissues during sensitive periods of development. Thus, developmental trajectories are changed and the organisation and function of tissue structure and organ system is altered. The biological purpose of those "early life programming" may consist in evolutionary advantages. The offspring adapts its development to the expected extrauterine environment which is forecast by the clues available during fetal life. If the fetus receives signals of a challenging environment, e.g. due to maternal stress hormones or maternal undernutrition, its survival may be promoted due to developmental adaptation processes. However, if the expected environment does not match with the real environment, maladapation and later disease risk may result. For example, a possible indicator of a "response ready" trait, such as hyperactivity/inattention may have been advantageous in an adverse ancient environment. However, it is of disadvantage when the postnatal environment demands oppositional skills, such as attention and concentration " e.g. in the classroom, at school, to achieve academic success. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a prevalent psychiatric disorder, characterized by impulsivity, affective instability, dysfunctional interpersonal relationships and identity disturbance. Although many studies report different risk factors, the exact etiologic mechanisms are not yet understood. In addition to the well-recognised effects of genetic components and adverse childhood experiences, BPD may potentially be co-determined by further environmental influences, acting very early in life: during pre- and perinatal period. There are several hints that may suggest possible prenatal programming processes in BPD. For example, patients with BPD are characterized by elevated stress sensitivity and reactivity and dysfunctions of the neuroendocrine stress system, such as the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Furthermore, patients with BPD show a broad range of somatic comorbidities " especially those disorders for which prenatal programming processes have been described. During infancy and childhood, BPD patients already show behavioural and emotional abnormalities as well as pronounced temperamental traits, such as impulsivity, emotional dysregulation and inattention that may potentially be co-determined by prenatal programming processes. Such temperamental traits - similar to those, seen in patients with ADHD - have been described to be associated with low birthweight which indicates a suboptimal intrauterine environment. Moreover, the functional and structural alterations in the central nervous system (CNS) in patients with BPD might also be mediated in part by prenatal agents, such as prenatal tobacco exposure. Prenatal adversity may thus constitute a further, additional component in the multifactorial genesis of BPD. The association between BPD and prenatal risk factors has not yet been studied in such detail. We are not aware of any further study that assessed pre- and perinatal risk factors, such as maternal psychoscocial stress, smoking, alcohol intake, obstetric complications and lack of breastfeeding in patients with BPD.
Diese Dissertation befasst sich mit anreiztheoretischen Konsequenzen der Reform der Professorenbesoldung. Dabei stehen vor allem die besonderen Leistungsbezüge im Mittelpunkt, die ökonomisch als relative Leistungsturniere zu betrachten sind. Das erste Papier mit dem Titel "Stufenmodell oder Leistungspunkte? Die Vergabe besonderer Leistungsbezüge an deutschen Universitäten" beschäftigt sich mit den Vergabeverfahren für besondere Leistungsbezüge auf Universitätsebene und zeigt, dass die existierenden Systeme unterschiedliche Turniertypen darstellen: Bei dem Stufenmodell handelt es sich um ein U-Typ Turnier, während das Leistungspunkte-Modell als J-Typ Turnier aufzufassen ist. Ein Vergleich dieser beiden Typen liefert modelltheoretische Empfehlungen für die Umsetzung. Diese werden empirisch für 60 deutsche Universitäten überprüft. Das zweite Papier "Searching for the best? Clubs and their admission decision" beschäftigt sich mit strategischen Entscheidungen in Berufungskommissionen. Mit der Einführung der W-Besoldung an deutschen Universitäten werden Professoren stärker leistungsabhängig entlohnt. Die so genannten besonderen Leistungsbezüge werden durch relative Leistungsturniere auf Fachbereichsebene vergeben. Im Zusammenspiel mit der Auswahl neuer Hochschullehrer in Berufungskommissionen können adverse Anreize entstehen, nicht den besten Bewerber auszuwählen. Die Fachbereiche sehen sich bei der Einstellungsentscheidung einem Trade-off gegenüber: Die Berufung eines sehr guten Kandidaten erzeugt Spill-over-Effekte. Zum einen können durch Kooperationen mit anderen (guten) Forschern des Fachbereichs neue Projekte entstehen, die Forschungsgelder und Drittmittel einbringen und somit auch die Reputation des Fachbereichs insgesamt (oder dieser Forschergruppe) steigern. Zum anderen führt diese Berufungsentscheidung dazu, dass bei der Vergabe der besonderen Leistungsbezüge die zusätzliche Konkurrenz durch einen besonders erfolgreichen Professor bedeutet, dass weniger erfolgreiche Fakultätsmitglieder geringere besondere Leistungsbezüge erhalten. Dieser Effekt kann als relative Deprivation verstanden werden. Welcher Effekt überwiegt, wird mit Hilfe eines zweistufigen Spiels untersucht. Das dritte Papier "Kooptation und Wettbewerb - Experimentelle Analyse" analysiert das Zusammenwirken von relativen Leistungsturnieren und Team-Arbeit experimentell. Dazu wird das Design von Irlenbusch/Ruchala (2008) um das Element der Kooptation eines neuen Mitspielers und Turniergegners erweitert. Es zeigt sich, dass die Anreizwirkung von Wettbewerben mit nur einem Preis (Stufenmodell) größer ist als bei mehreren, relativ vergebenene Preisen (Leistungspunkte-Verfahren). Bei der Zuwahl-Entscheidung gibt es zwei Spiel-Strategien: Neben der typischen Auszahlungsmaximierung gibt es Spieler, die bereit sind auf Einkommen zu Gunsten von Status zu verzichten. Diese Spieler wählen einen Bewerber, der ihre eigene Position im internen Ranking nicht gefährdet. Besonders anfällig für dieses Verhalten ist das Stufenmodell mit nur einem Siegerpreis. Das Leistungspunkte-Verfahren schneidet hier besser ab, da es dort nur wenige Fälle von Status sichernden Zuwahl-Entscheidungen gibt.
Wilhelm Windelband (1848-1915) gilt als ein wegbereitender Denker, der die wertphilosophische Ausrichtung der sogenannten Südwestdeutschen Schule vorzeichnet. Aufgrund dieser Vorreiterrolle sowie seiner fragmentarischen Denkweise gerät die Eigenständigkeit seines Philosophierens oft in Vergessenheit oder wird meistens im Schatten der Rezeptionsgeschichte gesehen. Die vorliegende Arbeit macht sich zur Aufgabe, Windelbands Philosophie zunächst in ihrer Eigentümlichkeit wiederherzustellen, um anschließend nach ihrer systematischen Bedeutung fragen zu können. Neben den entwicklungsgeschichtlichen Aspekten, anhand derer Windelbands gedanklicher Werdegang in drei Phasen (Psychologismus, Wertphilosophie und Kulturphilosophie) eingeteilt wird, geht die vorliegende Arbeit vor allem der Frage nach, in wie fern die von ihm konzipierte Wertphilosophie als Kulturphilosophie zu verstehen ist. Die Forderung des späten Windelbands, den Kantischen Kritizismus zu einer umfassenden Kulturphilosophie zu erweitern, dient dabei als roter Faden dieses Interpretationsversuchs. Die Herausarbeitung möglicher systematischer Ansatzpunkte innerhalb seiner Werttheorie, die dieser Forderung genügen, soll Windelbands Status als Kulturphilosoph untermauern.
Variational inequality problems constitute a common basis to investigate the theory and algorithms for many problems in mathematical physics, in economy as well as in natural and technical sciences. They appear in a variety of mathematical applications like convex programming, game theory and economic equilibrium problems, but also in fluid mechanics, physics of solid bodies and others. Many variational inequalities arising from applications are ill-posed. This means, for example, that the solution is not unique, or that small deviations in the data can cause large deviations in the solution. In such a situation, standard solution methods converge very slowly or even fail. In this case, so-called regularization methods are the methods of choice. They have the advantage that an ill-posed original problem is replaced by a sequence of well-posed auxiliary problems, which have better properties (like, e.g., a unique solution and a better conditionality). Moreover, a suitable choice of the regularization term can lead to unconstrained auxiliary problems that are even equivalent to optimization problems. The development and improvement of such methods are a focus of current research, in which we take part with this thesis. We suggest and investigate a logarithmic-quadratic proximal auxiliary problem (LQPAP) method that combines the advantages of the well-known proximal-point algorithm and the so-called auxiliary problem principle. Its exploration and convergence analysis is one of the main results in this work. The LQPAP method continues the recent developments of regularization methods. It includes different techniques presented in literature to improve the numerical stability: The logarithmic-quadratic distance function constitutes an interior point effect which allows to treat the auxiliary problems as unconstrained ones. Furthermore, outer operator approximations are considered. This simplifies the numerical solution of variational inequalities with multi-valued operators since, for example, bundle-techniques can be applied. With respect to the numerical practicability, inexact solutions of the auxiliary problems are allowed using a summable-error criterion that is easy to implement. As a further advantage of the logarithmic-quadratic distance we verify that it is self-concordant (in the sense of Nesterov/Nemirovskii). This motivates to apply the Newton method for the solution of the auxiliary problems. In the numerical part of the thesis the LQPAP method is applied to linearly constrained, differentiable and nondifferentiable convex optimization problems, as well as to nonsymmetric variational inequalities with co-coercive operators. It can often be observed that the sequence of iterates reaches the boundary of the feasible set before being close to an optimal solution. Against this background, we present the strategy of under-relaxation, which robustifies the LQPAP method. Furthermore, we compare the results with an appropriate method based on Bregman distances (BrPAP method). For differentiable, convex optimization problems we describe the implementation of the Newton method to solve the auxiliary problems and carry out different numerical experiments. For example, an adaptive choice of the initial regularization parameter and a combination of an Armijo and a self-concordance step size are evaluated. Test examples for nonsymmetric variational inequalities are hardly available in literature. Therefore, we present a geometric and an analytic approach to generate test examples with known solution(s). To solve the auxiliary problems in the case of nondifferentiable, convex optimization problems we apply the well-known bundle technique. The implementation is described in detail and the involved functions and sequences of parameters are discussed. As far as possible, our analysis is substantiated by new theoretical results. Furthermore, it is explained in detail how the bundle auxiliary problems are solved with a primal-dual interior point method. Such investigations have by now only been published for Bregman distances. The LQPAP bundle method is again applied to several test examples from literature. Thus, this thesis builds a bridge between theoretical and numerical investigations of solution methods for variational inequalities.
The role of cortisol and cortisol dynamics in patients after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage
(2011)
Spontaneous aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) is a form of stroke which constitutes a severe trauma to the brain and often leads to serious long-term medical and psychosocial sequels which persist for years after the acute event. Recently, adrenocorticotrophic hormone deficiency has been identified as one possible consequence of the bleeding and is assumed to occur in around 20% of all survivors. Additionally, a number of studies report a high prevalence of post-SAH symptoms such as lack of initiative, fatigue, loss of concentration, impaired quality of life and psychiatric symptoms such as depression. The overlap of these symptoms and those of patients with untreated partial or complete hypopituitarism lead to the suggestion that neuroendocrine dysregulations may contribute to the psychosocial sequels of SAH. Therefore, one of the aims of this work is to gain insights into the role of neuroendocrine dysfunction on quality of life and the prevalence of psychiatric sequels in SAH-patients. Additionally, as data on cortisol dynamics after SAH are scarce, diurnal cortisol profiles are investigated in patients in the acute and chronic phase, as well as the cortisol awakening response and feedback sensitivity in the chronic phase after SAH. As a result, it can be shown that some SAH patients exhibit lower serum cortisol levels but at the same time a higher cortisol awakening response in saliva than healthy controls. Also, patients in the chronic phase after SAH do have a stable diurnal cortisol rhythm while there are disturbances in around 50% of all patients in the acute phase, leading to the conclusion that a single baseline measurement of cortisol is of no substantial use for diagnosing cortisol dysregulations in the acute phase after SAH. It is assumed that in SAH patients endocrine changes occur over time and that a combination of adrenal exhaustion and a subsequent downregulation of corticosteroid binding globulin may be the most probable causes for the dissociation of serum cortisol concentrations and salivary cortisol profiles in the investigated SAH patients. These changes may be an emergency response after SAH and, as elevated free cortisol levels are connected to a better psychosocial outcome in patients in the chronic phase after SAH, this reaction may even be adaptive.
The demand for reliable statistics has been growing over the past decades, because more and more political and economic decisions are based on statistics, e.g. regional planning, allocation of funds or business decisions. Therefore, it has become increasingly important to develop and to obtain precise regional indicators as well as disaggregated values in order to compare regions or specific groups. In general, surveys provide the information for these indicators only for larger areas like countries or administrative divisions. However, in practice, it is more interesting to obtain indicators for specific subdivisions like on NUTS 2 or NUTS 3 levels. The Nomenclature of Units for Territorial Statistics (NUTS) is a hierarchical system of the European Union used in statistics to refer to subdivisions of countries. In many cases, the sample information on such detailed levels is not available. Thus, there are projects such as the European Census, which have the goal to provide precise numbers on NUTS 3 or even community level. The European Census is conducted amongst others in Germany and Switzerland in 2011. Most of the participating countries use sample and register information in a combined form for the estimation process. The classical estimation methods of small areas or subgroups, such as the Horvitz-Thompson (HT) estimator or the generalized regression (GREG) estimator, suffer from small area-specific sample sizes which cause high variances of the estimates. The application of small area methods, for instance the empirical best linear unbiased predictor (EBLUP), reduces the variance of the estimates by including auxiliary information to increase the effective sample size. These estimation methods lead to higher accuracy of the variables of interest. Small area estimation is also used in the context of business data. For example during the estimation of the revenues of specific subgroups like on NACE 3 or NACE 4 levels, small sample sizes can occur. The Nomenclature statistique des activités économiques dans la Communauté européenne (NACE) is a system of the European Union which defines an industry standard classification. Besides small sample sizes, business data have further special characteristics. The main challenge is that business data have skewed distributions with a few large companies and many small businesses. For instance, in the automotive industry in Germany, there are many small suppliers but only few large original equipment manufacturers (OEM). Altogether, highly influential units and outliers can be observed in business statistics. These extreme values in connection with small sample sizes cause severe problems when standard small area models are applied. These models are generally based on the normality assumption, which does not hold in the case of outliers. One way to solve these peculiarities is to apply outlier robust small area methods. The availability of adequate covariates is important for the accuracy of the above described small area methods. However, in business data, the auxiliary variables are hardly available on population level. One of several reasons for that is the fact that in Germany a lot of enterprises are not reflected in business registers due to truncation limits. Furthermore, only listed enterprises or companies which trespass specific thresholds are obligated to publish their results. This limits the number of potential auxiliary variables for the estimation. Even though there are issues with available covariates, business data often include spatial dependencies which can be used to enhance small area methods. Next to spatial information based on geographic characteristics, group-specific similarities like related industries based on NACE codes can be used. For instance, enterprises from the same NACE 2 level, e.g. sector 47 retail trade, behave more similar than two companies from different NACE 2 levels, e.g. sector 05 mining of coal and sector 64 financial services. This spatial correlation can be incorporated by extending the general linear mixed model trough the integration of spatially correlated random effects. In business data, outliers as well as geographic or content-wise spatial dependencies between areas or domains are closely linked. The coincidence of these two factors and the resulting consequences have not been fully covered in the relevant literature. The only approach that combines robust small area methods with spatial dependencies is the M-quantile geographically weighted regression model. In the context of EBLUP-based small area models, the combination of robust and spatial methods has not been considered yet. Therefore, this thesis provides a theoretical approach to this scientific and practical problem and shows its relevance in an empirical study.
There is a lot of evidence for the impact of acute glucocorticoid treatment on hippocampus-dependent explicit learning and memory (memory for facts and events). But there have been few studies, investigating the effect of glucocorticoids on implicit learning and memory. We conducted three studies with different methodology to investigate the effect of glucocorticoids on different forms of implicit learning. In Study 1, we investigated the effect of cortisol depletion on short-term habituation in 49 healthy subjects. 25 participants received oral metyrapone (1500 mg) to suppress endogenous cortisol production, while 24 controls received oral placebo. Eye blink electromyogram (EMG) responses to 105 dB acoustic startle stimuli were assessed. Effective endogenous cortisol suppression had no effect on short-term habituation of the startle reflex, but startle eye blink responses were significantly increased in the metyrapone group. The latter findings are in line with previous human studies, which have shown that excess cortisol, sufficient to fully occupy central nervous system (CNS) corticosteroid receptors, may reduce startle eye blink. This effect may be mediated by CNS mechanisms controlling cortisol feedback. In Study 2, we investigated delay or trace eyeblink conditioning in a patient group with a relative hypocortisolism (30 patients with fibromyaligia syndrome/FMS) compared to 20 healthy control subjects. Conditioned eyeblink response probability was assessed by EMG. Morning cortisol levels, ratings of depression, anxiety and psychosomatic complaints as well as general symptomatology and psychological distress were assessed. As compared to healthy controls FMS patients showed lower morning cortisol levels, and trace eyeblink conditioning was facilitated whereas delay eyeblink conditioning was reduced. Cortisol measures correlate significantly only with trace eyeblink conditioning. Our results are in line with studies of pharmacologically induced hyper- and hypocortisolism, which affected trace eyeblink conditioning. We suggest that endocrine mechanisms affecting hippocampus-mediated forms of associative learning may play a role in the generation of symptoms in these patients.rnIn Study 3, we investigated the effect of excess cortisol on implicit sequence learning in healthy subjects. Oral cortisol (30 mg) was given to 29 participants, whereas 31 control subjects received placebo. All volunteers performed a 5-choice serial reaction time task (SRTT). The reaction speed of every button-press was determined and difference-scores were calculated as a proof of learning. Compared to the control group, we found a delayed learning in the cortisol group at the very beginning of the task. This study is the first human investigation, indicating impaired implicit memory function after exogenous administration of the stress hormone cortisol. Our findings support a previous neuroimaging study, which suggested that the medial temporal lobe (including the hippocampus) is also active in implicit sequence learning, but our results may also depend on the engagement of other brain structures.
This work is concerned with two kinds of objects: regular expressions and finite automata. These formalisms describe regular languages, i.e., sets of strings that share a comparatively simple structure. Such languages - and, in turn, expressions and automata - are used in the description of textual patterns, workflow and dependence modeling, or formal verification. Testing words for membership in any given such language can be implemented using a fixed - i.e., finite - amount of memory, which is conveyed by the phrasing finite-automaton. In this aspect they differ from more general classes, which require potentially unbound memory, but have the potential to model less regular, i.e., more involved, objects. Other than expressions and automata, there are several further formalisms to describe regular languages. These formalisms are all equivalent and conversions among them are well-known.However, expressions and automata are arguably the notions which are used most frequently: regular expressions come natural to humans in order to express patterns, while finite automata translate immediately to efficient data structures. This raises the interest in methods to translate among the two notions efficiently. In particular,the direction from expressions to automata, or from human input to machine representation, is of great practical relevance. Probably the most frequent application that involves regular expressions and finite automata is pattern matching in static text and streaming data. Common tools to locate instances of a pattern in a text are the grep application or its (many) derivatives, as well as awk, sed and lex. Notice that these programs accept slightly more general patterns, namely ''POSIX expressions''. Concerning streaming data, regular expressions are nowadays used to specify filter rules in routing hardware.These applications have in common that an input pattern is specified in form a regular expression while the execution applies a regular automaton. As it turns out, the effort that is necessary to describe a regular language, i.e., the size of the descriptor,varies with the chosen representation. For example, in the case of regular expressions and finite automata, it is rather easy to see that any regular expression can be converted to a finite automaton whose size is linear in that of the expression. For the converse direction, however, it is known that there are regular languages for which the size of the smallest describing expression is exponential in the size of the smallest describing automaton.This brings us to the subject at the core of the present work: we investigate conversions between expressions and automata and take a closer look at the properties that exert an influence on the relative sizes of these objects.We refer to the aspects involved with these consideration under the titular term of Relative Descriptional Complexity.
Durch Bodendegradation werden jedes Jahr weltweit große Schäden verursacht. Die beiden Hauptverursacher für die globale Bodendegradation sind die Wind- und die Wassererosion. Für die Planung von effizienten Schutzmaßnahmen oder regionalen Managementplänen ist es deshalb wichtig zu verstehen, dass die beiden Prozesse nicht nur als abgekoppelte Phänomene auftreten. Auch wenn seit einiger Zeit das Bewusstsein hierfür zugenommen hat und eine steigende Anzahl von Bodenerosionsstudien auf diesen Sachverhalt eingehen, so bestehen vor allem bei der Abschätzung der relativen Bedeutung und dem Verständnis der vorhandenen Interaktionen zwischen der Wind- und Wassererosion noch substantielle Wissenslücken. Da indirekte Messverfahren, wie beispielsweise die Luftbildauswertung oder die Fernerkundung, für mikro-skalige Prozessstudien ungeeignet sind, beschränken sich die Studien zur Erfassung der Interaktion beider Prozesse zumeist auf die direkten und/oder experimentellen Messungen. Ein Vergleich der Abtragsraten und eine Untersuchung der Interaktionen zwischen der Wind- und der Wassererosion ist jedoch sehr schwierig, da es bislang kein Messinstrument gibt, dass einfach und schnell, die durch Wind, Wasser oder deren Zusammenwirken verursachten Erosionsraten auf natürlichen Oberflächen bestimmen kann. Aus diesem Grund wurde im Rahmen dieses Dissertationsprojekts erstmals, ein mobiler Windkanal mit integrierter Beregnungsanlage konzipiert und umgesetzt. Seine simulierten Wind- und Niederschlagseigenschaften wurden in Labormessungen mit einem Laserdistrometer, Niederschlagssammlern, Anemometern und Nebelversuchen bestimmt. Die beim Einsatz der Anlage in unterschiedlichen Messkampagnen gewonnenen Erkenntnisse zu seinem Aufbau flossen stetig in die Weiterentwicklung des Kanals ein. Die Qualität der simulierten Bedingungen im Kanal können nach den Modifikationen und unter Einbeziehung der Anforderungen an einen geländefähigen Kanal mit guter Mobilität, als sehr gut bezeichnet werden. Insbesondere die Reproduzierbarkeit der simulierten Bedingungen treten hier positiv hervor. Die angestrebten Ziele dieser Arbeit konnten weitestgehend erfüllt werden. Mit dem mobilen Windkanal mit integrierter Beregnungsanlage steht in Zukunft eine Anlage zur Verfügung, mit der die Abtragsraten der Wind- und Wassererosion im Gelände, getrennt und in ihrer gemeinsamen Wirkung, gemessen werden können. Durch den Einsatz der Anlage ist es möglich, einige der noch offenen wissenschaftlichen Fragen zur relativen Bedeutung und Interaktion der beiden Prozesse zukünftig zu untersuchen, um weitere Erkenntnisse über Ihren Einfluss auf die Bodendegradation, in Abhängigkeit von Landnutzungsänderungen und dem Klimawandel, zu erhalten.
By rodent studies it has been shown that the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR) is a candidate gene for the investigation of cognitive functions comparable to human executive function. The present work addresses the question if polymorphisms in the MR gene can act as a "probe" to explain a part of the interindividual variance of human executive functions. For this purpose, 72 healthy young participants were assigned to four equally sized groups, concerning their particular MR genotype for two common MR polymorphisms. They were investigated in an electroencephalogram (EEG) test session, accomplishing two cognitive tests while delivering saliva samples for subsequent cortisol measures. The two tests chosen for the assessment of executive functions were the Attention Network Task (ANT) and a modified version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST).Chapter 1 of the present work reports of the rational bases for the empirical approach, which were built up on a broad theoretical background presented in Chapter 2. In the third chapter, the investigation and results of the statistical analysis for behavioral data (i.e. reaction times, accuracy/error rates) are presented. No association with MR polymorphisms was found for the reaction times of both tests. For the accuracy rate, differences between genotype groups were found for ANT and WCST, indicating an association of MR polymorphisms and accuracy in the Alertness and Executive Control network of the ANT and during the detection of an intradimensional shift in the WCST. Data acquisition and the results for EEG data analyses are presented in Chapter 4. The results show that groups differing for MR genotype show different activity over prefrontal motor areas during the process of answering to the ANT. Those group differences again were prominent for the Alertness and Executive Control network. A tendency for further significant group differences was found for activity on frontopolar positions in extradimensional rule switching. Chapter 5 summarizes the findings for the analysis of salivary free cortisol, showing a tendency for an association between MR polymorphisms and a mildly stimulated Hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis during the test situation. The results of the different measures are integrated and discussed in Chapter 6 within the scope of novel findings in investigating the functionality of the chosen MR polymorphisms. Finally, Chapter 7 gives an outlook on the methodology and constraints of future research strategies to further describe the role of the MR in human cognitive function.
The article deals with the untenable overloading of German criminal trial court judges presenting the overloading in detail and analyzing its reasons and consequences. In this context, serious failures by the German federal and state executive and legislative organs as well as undesirable developments of the Federal Constitutional Court's (BVerfG and the Federal Supreme Court of Justice's BGH) case law.
Monatelange Wartezeiten auf einen ambulanten Psychotherapieplatz sind der Regelfall im deutschen Gesundheitssystem. Die Veränderung der Symptombelastung der Patienten in der Wartezeit ist bislang allerdings kaum empirisch untersucht worden. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden an einer Stichprobe ambulanter Psychotherapiepatienten die Ausprägungen und Veränderungen der allgemeinen psychischen Symptombelastung während der durchschnittlich sechsmonatigen Wartezeit auf den Psychotherapieplatz untersucht. Zudem wurde überprüft, mit welchen Merkmalen die Symptombelastungen zum Zeitpunkt der Anmeldung zur Therapie und zum Zeitpunkt des Erstgesprächs sowie ihre Veränderungen in der Wartezeit zusammenhängen. Die dabei untersuchten Persönlichkeitsmerkmale wurden aus theoretischen Rahmenmodellen abgeleitet. Hierzu gehören die aktionale Entwicklungspsychologie, das handlungstheoretische Partialmodell der Persönlichkeit mit der darin eingeordneten Vertrauens-Trias und das Androgynie-Modell der psychischen Gesundheit. Nach einem direkten Veränderungskriterium zeigten 48 % der Patienten in der Wartezeit keine bedeutsame Veränderung, 29 % eine Verbesserung und 23 % eine Verschlechterung. Durch die bei der Anmeldung erfassten Persönlichkeitsmerkmale konnten Verbesserungen, Verschlechterungen und gleichbleibende Symptombelastungen in der Wartezeit anhand einer multinomialen logistischen Regressionsanalyse für 60 % der Patienten korrekt vorausgesagt werden. Eine traditionelle normative Geschlechtsrollen-Orientierung stellt einen negativen Prädiktor für eine Verbesserung dar. Soziales Vertrauen konnte Verschlechterungen negativ vorhersagen. Bei Hoffnungslosigkeit handelt es sich um einen marginal negativen Prädiktor für eine Verbesserung. Ein hoch ausgeprägtes Selbstkonzept eigener Fähigkeiten ist ein positiver Prädiktor für eine Verschlechterung. Hinsichtlich der soziodemografischen und störungsbezogenen Merkmale konnten das Alter, das Geschlecht und die Anzahl der Diagnosen die Veränderungen der Symptombelastung in der Wartezeit zu 54 % korrekt vorhersagen. Das Alter ist ein positiver Prädiktor für eine Verschlechterung. Weibliches Geschlecht und die Anzahl an Diagnosen sind negative Prädiktoren für eine Verbesserung. Darüber hinaus wurden differenzierte Zusammenhänge zwischen den Persönlichkeitsmerkmalen und der Symptombelastung exploratorisch untersucht.
Primo ist ein Softwareprodukt der Firma Ex Libris und ermöglicht eine einheitliche Einschlitz-Suche im Bibliothekskatalog, Artikeldatenbanken und anderen Datenquellen wie etwa digitalen Repositorien. An der Universitätsbibliothek Trier wird Primo eingeführt und die Artikeldatenbank Primo Central lizenziert mit dem primären Ziel, Zeitschriftenartikel und Bibliotheksbestand über eine Suchoberfläche zu erschließen. Im Folgenden wird insbesondere auf diese Implementierung eingegangen und einige Beobachtungen aus der Projektphase wiedergegeben. Die Arbeiten an Primo laufen bei uns momentan noch und eine öffentlichernVersion zur Ablösung des Online-Katalogs ist für 2012 geplant. Nach einer kurzen Einführung und Beschreibung der Funktionsweise von Primo werde ich folgende Thesen weiter ausführen: (1) Eine einheitliche Einschlitz-Suche wird aufgrund der Heterogenität derrnMetadatenqualität nur bedingt erreicht. (2) Die Auswertung großer Treffermengen wird mit Primo insbesondere durch diernFacettierungen in einem großen Masse unterstützt. Allerdings suggerieren diernFacettenwerte eine Vollständigkeit, die in dieser Weise nicht gewährleistet wird. Ebenfalls können Facettenwerte abhängig von der Sortierreihenfolge verloren gehen. (3) Die Darstellung der Daten kann man auf vielseitige Weise anpassen, so dass auch lokale Besonderheiten abgebildet werden können. Es wird als Beispiel gezeigt, wie wir die lokalen Signaturen in Primo zur Anzeige gebracht haben.
The 22nd annual conference of the European Consortium for Church and State Research took place from 11 to 14 November 2010 in Trier, Germany. Founded in 1989, the Consortium unites experts of law and religion of all Member States of the European Union. In annual meetings, various topics of the relations between religions and states within the European Union are discussed. This year- conference was dedicated to the topic "Religion in Public Education". Scholars from 27 European countries discussed inter alia the role of religion in the European member states" educational systems, opting out of school obligations for religious reasons, home schooling as well as religious dress and symbols in public schools. The present proceedings contain the opening lectures, all country reports and a report on the European Union law.
Stress represents a significant problem for Western societies inducing costs as high as 3-4 % of the European gross national products, a burden that is continually increasing (WHO Briefing, EUR/04/5047810/B6). The classical stress response system is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis which acts to restore homeostasis after disturbances. Two major components within the HPA axis system are the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and the mineralocorticoid receptor (MR). Cortisol, released from the adrenal glands at the end of the HPA axis, binds to MRs and with a 10 fold lower affinity to GRs. Both, impairment of the HPA axis and an imbalance in the MR/GR ratio enhances the risk for infection, inflammation and stress related psychiatric disorders. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is characterised by a variety of symptoms, however, one of the most consistent findings is the hyperactivity of the HPA axis. This may be the result of lower numbers or reduced activity of GRs and MRs. The GR gene consists of multiple alternative first exons resulting in different GR mRNA transcripts whereas for the MR only two first exons are known to date. Both, the human GR promoter 1F and the homologue rat Gr promoter 1.7 seem to be susceptible to methylation during stressful early life events resulting in lower 1F/1.7 transcript levels. It was proposed that this is due to methylation of a NGFI-A binding site in both, the rat promoter 1.7 and the human promoter 1F. The research presented in this thesis was undertaken to determine the differential expression and methylation patterns of GR and MR variants in multiple areas of the limbic brain system in the healthy and depressed human brain. Furthermore, the transcriptional control of the GR transcript 1F was investigated as expression changes of this transcript were associated with MDD, childhood abuse and early life stress. The role of NGFI-A and several other transcription factors on 1F regulation was studied in vitro and the effect of Ngfi-a overexpression on the rat Gr promoter 1.7 in vivo. The susceptibility to epigenetic programming of several GR promoters was investigated in MDD. In addition, changes in methylation levels have been determined in response to a single acute stressor in rodents. Our results showed that GR and MR first exon transcripts are differentially expressed in the human brain, but this is not due to epigenetic programming. We showed that NGFI-A has no effect on endogenous 1F/1.7 expression in vitro and in vivo. We provide evidence that the transcription factor E2F1 is a major element in the transcriptional complex necessary to drive the expression of GR 1F transcripts. In rats, highly individual methylation patterns in the paraventricular nucleus of the hypothalamus (PVN) suggest that this is not related to the stressor but can rather be interpreted as pre-existing differences. In contrast, the hippocampus showed a much more uniform epigenetic status, but still is susceptible to epigenetic modification even after a single acute stress suggesting a differential "state‟ versus "trait‟ regulation of the GR gene in different brain regions. The results of this thesis have given further insight in the complex transcriptional regulation of GR and MR first exons in health and disease. Epigenetic programming of GR promoters seems to be involved in early life stress and acute stress in adult rats; however, the susceptibility to methylation in response to stress seems to vary between brain regions.