The following dissertation contains three studies examining academic boredom development in five high-track German secondary schools (AVG-project data; Study 1: N = 1,432; Study 2: N = 1,861; Study 3: N = 1,428). The investigation period spanned 3.5 years, with four waves of measurement from grades 5 to 8 (T1: 5th grade, after transition to secondary school; T2: 5th grade, after mid-term evaluations; T3: 6th grade, after mid-term evaluations; T4: 8th grade, after mid-term evaluations). All three studies featured cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses, separating, and comparing the subject domains of mathematics and German. Study 1 provided an investigation of academic boredom’s factorial structure alongside correlational and reciprocal relations of different forms of boredom and academic self-concept. Analyses included reciprocal effects models and latent correlation analyses. Results indicated separability of boredom intensity, boredom due to underchallenge and boredom due to overchallenge, as separate, correlated factors. Evidence for reciprocal relations between boredom and academic self-concept was limited. Study 2 examined the effectiveness and efficacy of full-time ability grouping for as a boredom intervention directed at the intellectually gifted. Analyses included propensity score matching, and latent growth curve modelling. Results pointed to limited effectiveness and efficacy for full-time ability grouping regarding boredom reduction. Study 3 explored gender differences in academic boredom development, mediated by academic interest, academic self-concept, and previous academic achievement. Analyses included measurement invariance testing, and multiple-indicator-multi-cause-models. Results showed one-sided gender differences, with boys reporting less favorable boredom development compared to girls, even beyond the inclusion of relevant mediators. Findings from all three studies were embedded into the theoretical framework of control-value theory (Pekrun, 2006; 2019; Pekrun et al., 2023). Limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications were acknowledged and discussed. Overall, this dissertation yielded important insights into boredom’s conceptual complexity. This concerned factorial structure, developmental trajectories, interrelations to other learning variables, individual differences, and domain specificities. Keywords: Academic boredom, boredom intensity, boredom due to underchallenge, boredom due to overchallenge, ability grouping, gender differences, longitudinal data analysis, control-value theory

This cumulative thesis encompass three studies focusing on the Weddell Sea region in the Antarctic. The first study produces and evaluates a high quality data set of wind measurements for this region. The second study produces and evaluates a 15 year regional climate simulation for the Weddell Sea region. And the third study produces and evaluates a climatology of low level jets (LLJs) from the simulation data set. The evaluations were done in the attached three publications and the produced data sets are published online. In 2015/2016, the RV Polarstern undertook an Antarctic expedition in the Weddell Sea. We operated a Doppler wind lidar on board during that time running different scan patterns. The resulting data was evaluated, corrected, processed and we derived horizontal wind speed and directions for vertical profiles with up to 2 km height. The measurements cover 38 days with a temporal resolution of 10-15 minutes. A comparisons with other radio sounding data showed only minor differences. The resulting data set was used alongside other measurements to evaluate temperature and wind of simulation data. The simulation data was produced with the regional climate model CCLM for the period of 2002 to 2016 for the Weddell Sea region. Only smaller biases were found except for a strong warm bias during winter near the surface of the Antarctic Plateau. Thus we adapted the model setup and were able to remove the bias in a second simulation. This new simulation data was then used to derive a climatology of low level jets (LLJs). Statistics of occurrence frequency, height and wind speed of LLJs for the Weddell Sea region are presented along other parameters. Another evaluation with measurements was also performed in the last study.

Intensiv diskutierte Aspekte der Politikwissenschaft heben zunehmend die Bedeutung von Strategiefähigkeit zur erfolgreichen Durchführung von Wahlkämpfen für Parteien hervor. Der Widerspruch der mit den Implikationen der modernen Mediengesellschaft eingehergehenden unterstellten Akteursfähigkeit der Parteien und ihrer kollektiven heterogenen Interessens- und Organisationsvielfalt bleibt dabei bestehen. Die Fokussierung der Parteien auf das Ziel der Stimmenmaximierung bringt unter den sich wandelnden Rahmenbedingungen Veränderungen der Binnenstrukturen mit sich. So diskutieren Parteienforscher seit Längerem die Notwendigkeit eines vierten Parteitypus als Nachfolger von Kirchheimers Volkspartei (1965). Verschiedene dieser Ansätze berücksichtigen primär die Wahlkampffokussierung der Parteien, während andere vor allem auf den gesteigerten Strategiebedarf abzielen. Auch die Wechselwirkungen mit den Erfordernissen der Mediengesellschaft sowie Auswirkungen des gesellschaftlichen Wandels stehen im Vordergrund zahlreicher Untersuchungen. Die Arbeit von Uwe Jun (2004), der mit dem Modell der professionalisierten Medienkommunikationspartei auch die organisatorischen und programmatischen Transformationsaspekte des Parteiwandels beleuchtet, liefert einen bemerkenswerten Beitrag zur Party-Change-Debatte und bietet durch die angeschlossene vergleichende exemplarische Fallstudie eine praxisnahe Einordnung. Die geringe empirische Relevanz, die Jun seinem Parteityp anhand der Untersuchung von SPD und New Labor zwischen 1995 und 2005 bestätigt, soll in dieser Arbeit versucht werden zu relativieren, in dem der Parteiwandel der deutschen Großparteien seit der Wiedervereinigung durch die Untersuchung ihrer Wahlkampffähigkeit aufgezeigt wird. Anhand eines längsschnittlichen Vergleiches der Bundestagswahlkämpfe von SPD und CDU zwischen 1990 und 2013 soll die Plausibilität dieses vierten Parteitypus überprüft werden. Hierdurch soll die Entwicklung der Strategie- und Wahlkampffähigkeit beider Großparteien in den Bundestagswahlkämpfen seit 1990 untersucht und die Ergebnisse miteinander verglichen und in Bezug auf den Parteiwandel eingeordnet werden. Dass sich Parteien genau wie ihre gesellschaftliche und politische Umwelt im Wandel befinden, ist nicht zu bestreiten und seit Langem viel diskutierter Gegenstand der Parteienforschung. „Niedergangsdiskussion“, Mitgliederschwund, Nicht- und Wechselwähler, Politik- und Parteienverdrossenheit, Kartellisierung und Institutionalisierung von Parteien sind nur einige der in diesem Kontext geläufigen Schlagwörter. Prozesse der Individualisierung, Globalisierung und Mediatisierung führen zu veränderten Rahmenbedingungen, unter denen Parteien sich behaupten müssen. Diese Veränderungen in der äußeren Umwelt wirken sich nachhaltig auf das parteipolitische Binnenleben, auf Organisationsstrukturen und Programmatik aus. Die Parteienforschung hat daher schon vor zwanzig Jahren begonnen, ein typologisches Nachfolgemodell der Volkspartei zu diskutieren, das diesen Wandel berücksichtigt. Verschiedene typologische Konstruktionen von z. B. Panebianco (1988), Katz und Mair (1995) oder von Beyme erfassen (2000) wichtige Facetten des Strukturwandels politischer Parteien und stellen mehrheitlich plausible typologische Konzepte vor, die die Parteien in ihrem Streben nach Wählerstimmen und Regierungsmacht zutreffend charakterisieren. Die Parteienforschung stimmt bezüglich des Endes der Volksparteiära mehrheitlich überein. Bezüglich der Nachfolge konnte sich unter den neueren vorgeschlagenen Typen jedoch kein vierter Typ als verbindliches Leitmodell etablieren. Bei genauerer Betrachtung weichen die in den verschiedenen Ansätzen für einen vierten Parteitypen hervorgehobenen Merkmale (namentlich Professionalisierung des Parteiapparates, die Berufspolitikerdominanz, Verstaatlichung und Kartellbildung sowie die Fixierung auf die Medien) wenig von jüngeren Modellvorschlägen ab und bedürfen daher mehr einer Ergänzung. Die in der Regel mehrdimensionalen entwicklungstypologischen Verlaufstypen setzten seit den 1980er Jahren unterschiedliche Schwerpunkte und warten mit vielen Vorschlägen der Einordnung auf. Einer der jüngsten Ansätze von Uwe Jun aus dem Jahr 2004, der das typologische Konzept der professionalisierten Medienkommunikationspartei einführt, macht deutlich, dass die Diskussion um Gestalt und Ausprägungen des vierten Parteityps noch in vollem Gang und für weitere Vorschläge offen ist – der „richtige“ Typ also noch nicht gefunden wurde. Jun bleibt in seiner Untersuchung den zentralen Transformationsleitfragen nach der Ausgestaltung der Parteiorganisation, der ideologisch-programmatischen Orientierung und der strategisch-elektoralen Wählerorientierung verhaftet und setzt diese Elemente in den Fokus sich wandelnder Kommunikationsstrategien. Die bisher in parteitypologischen Arbeiten mitunter vernachlässigte Komponente der strukturellen Strategiefähigkeit als Grundlage zur Entwicklung ebensolcher Reaktionsstrategien wird bei Jun angestoßen und soll in dieser Arbeit aufgegriffen und vertieft werden. Der aktuellen Partychange-Diskussion zum Trotz scheint die Annahme, dass Parteien, die sich verstärkt der Handlungslogik der Massenmedien unterwerfen, deren strategischen Anforderungen durch interne Adaptionsverfahren auch dauerhaft gerecht zu werden vermögen, nicht immer zutreffend. Die Veränderungen der Kommunikationsstrategien als Reaktion auf gesamtgesellschaftliche Wandlungsprozesse stehen zwar im Zentrum der Professionalisierungsbemühungen der politischen Akteure, bleiben aber in ihrer Wirkung eingeschränkt. Wenngleich das Wissen in den Parteien um die Notwendigkeiten (medialer) Strategiefähigkeit besteht und die Parteien hierauf mit Professionalisierung, organisatorischen und programmatischen Anpassungsleistungen und der Herausbildung strategischer Zentren reagieren, so ist mediengerechtes strategisches Agieren noch lange keine natürliche Kernkompetenz der Parteien. Vor allem in Wahlkampfzeiten, die aufgrund abnehmender Parteibindungen und zunehmender Wählervolatilität für die Parteien zum eigentlich zentralen Moment der Parteiendemokratie werden, wird mediengerechtes Handeln zum wesentlichen Erfolgsfaktor. Strategiefähigkeit wird hierbei zur entscheidenden Voraussetzung und scheint zudem in diesen Phasen von den Parteien erfolgreicher umgesetzt zu werden als im normalen politischen Alltag. Die wahlstrategische Komponente findet in Juns typologischer Konstruktion wenig Beachtung und soll in dieser Arbeit daher als ergänzendes Element hinzugefügt werden. Arbeitshypothese Die beiden deutschen Großparteien berufen sich auf unterschiedliche Entstehungsgeschichten, die sich bis in die Gegenwart auf die Mitglieder-, Issue- und Organisationsstrukturen von SPD und CDU auswirken und die Parteien in ihren Anpassungsleistungen an die sich wandelnde Gesellschaft beeinflussen. Beide Parteien versuchen, auf die veränderten sozialen und politischen Rahmenbedingungen und den daraus resultierenden Bedeutungszuwachs von politischer Kommunikationsplanung mit einem erhöhten Maß an Strategiefähigkeit und kommunikativer Kompetenz zu reagieren. Diese Entwicklung tritt seit der deutschen Wiedervereinigung umso stärker in Augenschein, als dass nach 1990 die Bindekraft der Volksparteien nochmals nachließ, sodass die Parteien sich zunehmend gezwungen sehen, die „lose verkoppelten Anarchien“ in wahlstrategische Medienkommunikationsparteien zu transformieren. Diesen vierten Parteityp kennzeichnet vor allem die zunehmende Bemühung um Strategiefähigkeit, die mittels Organisationsstrukturen und programmatischer Anpassungsleistungen die Effizienz der elektoralen Ausrichtung verbessern soll. Insgesamt geht die Party-Change-Forschung davon aus, dass die Parteien sich zunehmend angleichen. Dies gilt es in dieser Studie zu überprüfen. Unter Berücksichtigung unterschiedlicher Entwicklungspfade kann vermutet werden, dass auch die Transformationsprozesse bei SPD und CDU in unterschiedlicher Weise verlaufen. Wenngleich die SPD über einen höheren Strategiebedarf und die größere Innovationsbereitschaft zu verfügen scheint, werden auf Seiten der Union potentiell strategiefähigere Strukturen vermutet, die die erfolgreiche Umsetzung von Wahlkampfstrategien erleichtern. Die historische Entwicklung und der Aspekt der Historizität spielen in diesem Kontext eine Rolle. Zusätzlich spielen individuelle Führungspersönlichkeiten eine zentrale Rolle in innerparteilichen Transformationsprozessen, welche für die Ausprägung strategiefähiger Strukturen oftmals von größerer Bedeutung sind als institutionalisierte Strukturen. Im Vordergrund steht die Untersuchung des Parteiwandels anhand der Veränderung der Kommunikationsstrategien der Parteien im Allgemeinen sowie der Strategiefähigkeit in Wahlkämpfen im Besonderen, da diese als zentrale Merkmale für den vierten Parteityp in Anlehnung an die Professionelle Medienkommunikationspartei (Jun 2004) gewertet werden sollen. Strategiefähigkeit soll dabei anhand der Kriterien des Umgangs der Parteien mit Programmatik, Organisation und externen Einflussfaktoren in Wahlkämpfen operationalisiert werden. Die Analyse untersucht sowohl das Handeln einzelner Personen wie auch die Rolle der Partei als Gesamtorganisation. Die Arbeit besteht aus zehn Kapiteln und gliedert sich in zwei Blöcke: einen theoretisch konzeptionellen Teil, der die in der Perspektive dieser Arbeit zentralen Grundlagen und Rahmenbedingungen zusammenführt sowie die sich daran anschließende Untersuchung der Konzeption und Implementation von Kommunikationskampagnen im Wahlkampf seit 1990. Das aktuell in die politikwissenschaftliche Diskussion eingebrachte Feld der politischen Strategiefähigkeit (Raschke/Tils 2007) wird in ausführlicher theoretischer Grundlegung bisher zwar mit den Implikationen der Medienkommunikation und damit einhergehend auch den organisatorischen und programmatischen Strukturmerkmalen der Parteien verknüpft, diese erfolgte allerdings oft ohne vertiefte Berücksichtigung des Parteiwandels. Dies soll in diesem Beitrag daher versucht werden. Der Diskursanalyse des Strategiebegriffes in Wahlkampfsituationen folgt die detaillierte Darstellung der drei Operationalisierungsparameter, die in die Festlegung des Parteityps münden. Die Diskussion idealtypischer Wahlkampfmodelle als theoretischer Bezugsrahmen für die Bewertung der Wahlkampagnen ergänzt den theoretisch-konzeptionellen Bezugsrahmen. Die insgesamt in der Literatur in ihren Ausführungen oftmals normativ gestalteten Darstellungen idealtypischer politischer Strategie sollen im letzten Teil der Arbeit auf ihre Umsetzbarkeit im parteipolitischen Alltag überprüft werden und dies nicht nur anhand einzelner, mit einander nicht in Zusammenhang stehender Ereignisse, sondern anhand der sich periodisch unter vergleichbaren Bedingungen wiederholenden Wahlkämpfe. Dafür werden die jeweiligen Ausgangs- und Rahmenbedingungen der einzelnen Wahlkämpfe sowie die zuvor dargelegten Elemente professionalisierter Wahlkampagnen für die Wahlkampagnen von SPD und CDU seit 1990 dargestellt. Aus diesen Gegenüberstellungen soll im Anschluss der längsschnittliche Vergleich der Strategiefähigkeit und Kommunikationskompetenz von SPD und CDU abgeleitet werden

Das Thema Glück wird in dieser Dissertation von Aristoteles für das diesseitige Leben beschrieben, während Thomas von Aquin das vollkommene Glück mit Blick auf das jenseitige Leben darstellt.

Die Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit einer neuartigen Art von Branch-and-Bound Algorithmen, deren Unterschied zu klassischen Branch-and-Bound Algorithmen darin besteht, dass das Branching durch die Addition von nicht-negativen Straftermen zur Zielfunktion erfolgt anstatt durch das Hinzufügen weiterer Nebenbedingungen. Die Arbeit zeigt die theoretische Korrektheit des Algorithmusprinzips für verschiedene allgemeine Klassen von Problemen und evaluiert die Methode für verschiedene konkrete Problemklassen. Für diese Problemklassen, genauer Monotone und Nicht-Monotone Gemischtganzzahlige Lineare Komplementaritätsprobleme und Gemischtganzzahlige Lineare Probleme, präsentiert die Arbeit verschiedene problemspezifische Verbesserungsmöglichkeiten und evaluiert diese numerisch. Weiterhin vergleicht die Arbeit die neue Methode mit verschiedenen Benchmark-Methoden mit größtenteils guten Ergebnissen und gibt einen Ausblick auf weitere Anwendungsgebiete und zu beantwortende Forschungsfragen.

Formulations of macrocyclic lactone anthelmintics such as moxidectin are regularly administered to sheep to combat parasites. A disadvantage of these pharmaceuticals are their side effects on non-target organisms when entering the environment. Little is known about anthelmintic effects on plant reproduction and whether the effects depend on environmental factors. For ecological and methodological reasons, we aimed at testing whether temperature affects the efficacy of a common moxidectin-based formulation on seed germination. We carried out a germination experiment including three typical species of temperate European grasslands (Centaurea jacea, Galium mollugo, Plantago lanceolata). We applied three temperature regimes (15/5, 20/10, 30/20°C), and a four-level dilution series (1:100–1:800) of formulated moxidectin (i.e., Cydectin oral drench). These solutions represent seed-anthelmintic contacts in the digestive tract of sheep shortly after deworming. In addition, a control was carried out with purified water only. We regularly counted emerging seedlings and calculated final germination percentage, mean germination time and synchrony of germination. Formulated moxidectin significantly reduced percentage, speed and synchrony of germination. A 1:100 dilution of the formulation reduced germination percentage by a quarter and increased mean germination time by six days compared to the control. Temperature moderated effects of the anthelmintic drug on germination in all response variables and all species, but in different patterns and magnitudes (significant anthelmintic x temperature x species interactions). In all response variables, the two more extreme temperature regimes (15/5, 30/20°C) led to the strongest effects of formulated moxidectin. With respect to germination percentage, G. mollugo was more sensitive to formulated moxidectin at the warmest temperature regime, whereas P. lanceolata showed the highest sensitivity at the coldest regime. This study shows that it is important to consider temperature dependencies of the effects of pharmaceuticals on seed germination when conducting standardised germination experiments.

With the start of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the global education system has a faced immense challenges and disruptions resulting in and the necessity for an immediate redesign of teaching and learning in the school context. Face-to-face classroom instruction had to be replaced by ‘emergency remote teaching’, requiring teacher to adapt their daily routines to a new and unprecedented educational reality. Researchers and policymakers worldwide have agreed that, despite the fact that efforts were made to immediately adapt to emergency remote teaching, disadvantaged and vulnerable students may be especially at risk in emergency remote teaching. Given the differences in schooling organization across countries during the COVID-19 pandemic it can be expected that teachers performed inclusive instructional practices significantly different. Against the unpredictable situation, cross-country research has been urgently required to provide data that could inform education policy. Thus, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of supporting at risk students during the first COVID-19 school closures, as well as examining teachers’ inclusive teaching practices in three countries: Germany, Austria and Portugal. ANOVA results revealed important country differences. In general, it appears that teachers in Germany and Austria reported to have implemented less practices to address vulnerable and at-risk students compared to Portuguese teachers. Implications of the results, as well as further lines of research are outlined.

Der Beitrag diskutiert das Verhältnis von allgemeiner und beruflicher Bildung mithilfe einer pädagogischen Theorie der Organisation. Allgemeine Erwachsenen- und berufliche Bildung treffen sich darin, Prozess und Ergebnis der wechselseitigen Auseinandersetzung zwischen Organisationen und Individuen zu sein. Organisationen sind nicht nur Kontext von Bildung, sie sind selber gebildet und wirken pädagogisch. Der Beitrag erschließt die Funktion und Eigenlogik der Organisation in ihrem Verhältnis zu den Grundbegriffen der Erziehungswissenschaft. Der Vorschlag ermöglicht es, Lernen, Sozialisation, Erziehung, Bildung und Kompetenz in ihrer Geltung für die ineinander verflochtene Strukturdynamik von Organisation und Subjekt zu differenzieren. Als Alternative zur geläufigen Organisationsvergessenheit der Pädagogik integriert die differenzierende Ordnung dieser Begriffe eine erziehungswissenschaftliche Perspektive auf Individuum und Organisation.

Background: Hyperhidrosis (excessive sweating, OMIM %114110) is a complex disorder with multifactorial causes. Emotional strains and social stress increase symptoms and lead to a vicious circle. Previously, we showed significantly higher depression scores, and normal cortisol awakening responses in patients with primary focal hyperhidrosis (PFH). Stress reactivity in response to a (virtual) Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-VR) has not been studied so far. Therefore, we measured sweat secretion, salivary cortisol and alpha amylase (sAA) concentrations, and subjective stress ratings in affected and non-affected subjects in response to a TSST-VR. Method: In this pilot study, we conducted TSST-VRs and performed general linear models with repeated measurements for salivary cortisol and sAA levels, heart rate, axillary sweat and subjective stress ratings for two groups (diagnosed PFH (n = 11), healthy controls (n = 16)). Results: PFH patients showed significantly heightened sweat secretion over time compared to controls (p = 0.006), with highest quantities during the TSST-VR. In both groups, sweating (p < 0.001), maximum cortisol levels (p = 0.002), feelings of stress (p < 0.001), and heart rate (p < 0.001) but not sAA (p = 0.068) increased significantly in response to the TSST-VR. However, no differences were detected in subjective ratings, cortisol concentrations and heart rate between PFH patients and controls (pall > 0.131). Conclusion: Patients with diagnosed PFH showed stress-induced higher sweat secretion compared to healthy controls but did not differ in the stress reactivity with regard to endocrine or subjective markers. This pilot study is in need of replication to elucidate the role of the sympathetic nervous system as a potential pathway involved in the stress-induced emotional sweating of PFH patients.

Conformance checking enables organizations to determine whether their executed processes are compliant with the intended process. However, if the processes contain recurring activities, state-of-the-art approaches unfortunately have difficulties calculating the conformance. The occurrence of complex temporal rules can further increase the complexity of the problem. Identifying this limitation, this paper presents a novel approach towards dealing with recurring activities in conformance checking. The core idea of the approach is to reconstruct the missing events in the event log using defined rules while incorporating specified temporal event characteristics. This approach then enables the use of native conformance checking algorithms. The paper illustrates the algorithmic approach and defines the required temporal event characteristics. Furthermore, the approach is applied and evaluated in a case study on an event log for melanoma surveillance.

The global spread of the coronavirus pandemic has particularly dramatic consequences for the lives of migrants and refugees living in already marginalised and restricted conditions, whose ongoing crisis is at risk of being overlooked. But refugees are not only extremely vulnerable and at risk of infection, as several reports show, quickly develop their own protection measures like the production of hygienic products, the publication of their situation and calls for action and help. Therefore, this paper aims to research the effects of the coronavirus crisis on refugees in camp settings with a special ethnographic focus on how refugees actively deal with this crisis and if they, through already developed resilience, are capable of adapting to the restrictions as well as inventing strategies to cope with the difficult situation. To account for the variety of refugee camps as well as the different living conditions due to their locality, history and national asylum politics, we will look at three different locations, namely refugee asylum homes in Germany, hotspots on the Greek islands as well as one refugee camp in Kenya. The main questions will be how, under structurally and institutionally framed conditions of power and victimisation in refugee camps, forms of agency are established, made possible or limited. The goal is to show which strategies refugees apply to cope with the enhanced restrictions and exclusion, how they act to protect themselves and others from the virus and how they present and reflect their situation during the coronavirus pandemic. Finally, this discussion offers a new perspective to consider refugees not only as vulnerable victims, but also as actively engaged individuals.

The unrestrainable evolution of medical science and technology is drastically changing health-care, enabling new medical procedures and remedies, which are increasingly intertwined with moral principles. Although a uniform European approach on assisted suicide is lacking, a common trend is developing: the boundary between euthanasia, assisted suicide and end-of-life care and the frontiers of legitimate medicine are becoming increasingly blurred. In Italy, a ruling of the Constitutional Court, no. 242/2019, declared the partial unconstitutionality of article 580 of the Italian Criminal Code, which prohibited assistance in suicide. Specifically, article 580 excluded the criminal liability for the person who, in the manner provided for in Articles 1 and 2 of the law 22 December 2017, no. 219, “facilitates the execution of intention of suicide, autonomously and freely formed, of one person kept alive by life-sustaining treatments and suffering from an irreversible pathology, source of physical or psychological suffering that he/she deems intolerable, but fully capable of making free aware decisions, provided that such conditions and methods of execution have been verified by a public structure of the national health service, following the opinion of the territorially competent ethics committee.” The present paper analyzes the legal regime of assisted suicide in Italy, the role of the rule of law, and the crucial boundary between the branches of government with regard to this delicate issue, and investigates current legal challenges and potential future legal tracks.

Instead of presuming only local interaction, we assume nonlocal interactions. By doing so, mass at a point in space does not only interact with an arbitrarily small neighborhood surrounding it, but it can also interact with mass somewhere far, far away. Thus, mass jumping from one point to another is also a possibility we can consider in our models. So, if we consider a region in space, this region interacts in a local model at most with its closure. While in a nonlocal model this region may interact with the whole space. Therefore, in the formulation of nonlocal boundary value problems the enforcement of boundary conditions on the topological boundary may not suffice. Furthermore, choosing the complement as nonlocal boundary may work for Dirichlet boundary conditions, but in the case of Neumann boundary conditions this may lead to an overfitted model. In this thesis, we introduce a nonlocal boundary and study the well-posedness of a nonlocal Neu- mann problem. We present sufficient assumptions which guarantee the existence of a weak solution. As in a local model our weak formulation is derived from an integration by parts formula. However, we also study a different weak formulation where the nonlocal boundary conditions are incorporated into the nonlocal diffusion-convection operator. After studying the well-posedness of our nonlocal Neumann problem, we consider some applications of this problem. For example, we take a look at a system of coupled Neumann problems and analyze the difference between a local coupled Neumann problems and a nonlocal one. Furthermore, we let our Neumann problem be the state equation of an optimal control problem which we then study. We also add a time component to our Neumann problem and analyze this nonlocal parabolic evolution equation. As mentioned before, in a local model mass at a point in space only interacts with an arbitrarily small neighborhood surrounding it. We analyze what happens if we consider a family of nonlocal models where the interaction shrinks so that, in limit, mass at a point in space only interacts with an arbitrarily small neighborhood surrounding it.

Traditional workflow management systems support process participants in fulfilling business tasks through guidance along a predefined workflow model. Flexibility has gained a lot of attention in recent decades through a shift from mass production to customization. Various approaches to workflow flexibility exist that either require extensive knowledge acquisition and modelling effort or an active intervention during execution and re-modelling of deviating behaviour. The pursuit of flexibility by deviation is to compensate both of these disadvantages through allowing alternative unforeseen execution paths at run time without demanding the process participant to adapt the workflow model. However, the implementation of this approach has been little researched so far. This work proposes a novel approach to flexibility by deviation. The approach aims at supporting process participants during the execution of a workflow through suggesting work items based on predefined strategies or experiential knowledge even in case of deviations. The developed concepts combine two renowned methods from the field of artificial intelligence - constraint satisfaction problem solving with process-oriented case-based reasoning. This mainly consists of a constraint-based workflow engine in combination with a case-based deviation management. The declarative representation of workflows through constraints allows for implicit flexibility and a simple possibility to restore consistency in case of deviations. Furthermore, the combined model, integrating procedural with declarative structures through a transformation function, increases the capabilities for flexibility. For an adequate handling of deviations the methodology of case-based reasoning fits perfectly, through its approach that similar problems have similar solutions. Thus, previous made experiences are transferred to currently regarded problems, under the assumption that a similar deviation has been handled successfully in the past. Necessary foundations from the field of workflow management with a focus on flexibility are presented first. As formal foundation, a constraint-based workflow model was developed that allows for a declarative specification of foremost sequential dependencies of tasks. Procedural and declarative models can be combined in the approach, as a transformation function was specified that converts procedural workflow models to declarative constraints. One main component of the approach is the constraint-based workflow engine that utilizes this declarative model as input for a constraint solving algorithm. This algorithm computes the worklist, which is proposed to the process participant during workflow execution. With predefined deviation handling strategies that determine how the constraint model is modified in order to restore consistency, the support is continuous even in case of deviations. The second major component of the proposed approach constitutes the case-based deviation management, which aims at improving the support of process participants on the basis of experiential knowledge. For the retrieve phase, a sophisticated similarity measure was developed that integrates specific characteristics of deviating workflows and combines several sequence similarity measures. Two alternative methods for the reuse phase were developed, a null adaptation and a generative adaptation. The null adaptation simply proposes tasks from the most similar workflow as work items, whereas the generative adaptation modifies the constraint-based workflow model based on the most similar workflow in order to re-enable the constraint-based workflow engine to suggest work items. The experimental evaluation of the approach consisted of a simulation of several types of process participants in the exemplary domain of deficiency management in construction. The results showed high utility values and a promising potential for an investigation of the transfer on other domains and the applicability in practice, which is part of future work. Concluding, the contributions are summarized and research perspectives are pointed out.

Dieser Maßnahmenkatalog stellt Anpassungsoptionen für den Weinbau an der Mittelmosel vor. Die gemeinsam mit lokalen Akteur*innen erarbeiteten Maßnahmen zielen erstens darauf ab, konkrete Handlungsoptionen zur Anpassung des Weinbaus an den Klimawandel aufzuzeigen. Zweitens sollen durch strukturelle Maßnahmen bestehende regionalspezifische Herausforderungen adressiert und die generellen Anpassungskapazitäten der Akteur*innen an der Mittelmosel gestärkt werden.

This study critically investigates the U.S.-American Western and its construction of sexuality and gender, revealing that the heteronormative matrix that is upheld and defended in the genre is consistently preceded by the exploration of alternative sexualities and ways to think gender beyond the binary. The endeavor to naturalize heterosexuality seems to be baked in the formula of the U.S.-Western. However, as I show in this study, this endeavor relies on an aporia, because the U.S.-Western can only ever attempt to naturalize gender by constructing it first, hence inevitably and simultaneously construct evidence that supports the opposite: the unnaturalness and contingency of gender and sexuality. My study relies on the works of Raewyn Connell, Pierre Bourdieu, and Judith Butler, and amalgamates in its methodology established approaches from film and literary studies (i.e., close readings) with a Foucaultian understanding of discourse and discourse analysis, which allows me to relate individual texts to cultural, socio-political and economical contexts that invariably informed the production and reception of any filmic text. In an analysis of 14 U.S.-Westerns (excluding three excursions) that appeared between 1903 and 1969 I give ample and minute narrative and film-aesthetical evidence to reveal the complex and contradictory construction of gender and sexuality in the U.S.-Western, aiming to reveal both the normative power of those categories and its structural instability and inconsistency. This study proofs that the Western up until 1969 did not find a stable pattern to represent the gender binary. The U.S.-Western is not necessarily always looking to confirm or stabilize governing constructs of (gendered) power. However, it without fail explores and negotiates its legitimacy. Heterosexuality and male hegemony are never natural, self-evident, incontestable, or preordained. Quite conversely: the U.S.-Western repeatedly – and in a surprisingly diverse and versatile way – reveals the illogical constructedness of the heteronormative matrix. My study therefore offers a fresh perspective on the genre and shows that the critical exploration and negotiation of the legitimacy of heteronormativity as a way to organize society is constitutive for the U.S.-Western. It is the inquiry – not necessarily the affirmation – of the legitimacy of this model that gives the U.S.-Western its ideological currency and significance as an artifact of U.S.-American popular culture.

Modern decision making in the digital age is highly driven by the massive amount of data collected from different technologies and thus affects both individuals as well as economic businesses. The benefit of using these data and turning them into knowledge requires appropriate statistical models that describe the underlying observations well. Imposing a certain parametric statistical model goes along with the need of finding optimal parameters such that the model describes the data best. This often results in challenging mathematical optimization problems with respect to the model’s parameters which potentially involve covariance matrices. Positive definiteness of covariance matrices is required for many advanced statistical models and these constraints must be imposed for standard Euclidean nonlinear optimization methods which often results in a high computational effort. As Riemannian optimization techniques proved efficient to handle difficult matrix-valued geometric constraints, we consider optimization over the manifold of positive definite matrices to estimate parameters of statistical models. The statistical models treated in this thesis assume that the underlying data sets used for parameter fitting have a clustering structure which results in complex optimization problems. This motivates to use the intrinsic geometric structure of the parameter space. In this thesis, we analyze the appropriateness of Riemannian optimization over the manifold of positive definite matrices on two advanced statistical models. We establish important problem- specific Riemannian characteristics of the two problems and demonstrate the importance of exploiting the Riemannian geometry of covariance matrices based on numerical studies.

Stress position in English words is well-known to correlate with both their morphological properties and their phonological organisation in terms of non-segmental, prosodic categories like syllable structure. While two generalisations capturing this correlation, directionality and stratification, are well established, the exact nature of the interaction of phonological and morphological factors in English stress assignment is a much debated issue in the literature. The present study investigates if and how directionality and stratification effects in English can be learned by means of Naive Discriminative Learning, a computational model that is trained using error-driven learning and that does not make any a-priori assumptions about the higher-level phonological organisation and morphological structure of words. Based on a series of simulation studies we show that neither directionality nor stratification need to be stipulated as a-priori properties of words or constraints in the lexicon. Stress can be learned solely on the basis of very flat word representations. Morphological stratification emerges as an effect of the model learning that informativity with regard to stress position is unevenly distributed across all trigrams constituting a word. Morphological affix classes like stress-preserving and stress-shifting affixes are, hence, not predefined classes but sets of trigrams that have similar informativity values with regard to stress position. Directionality, by contrast, emerges as spurious in our simulations; no syllable counting or recourse to abstract prosodic representations seems to be necessary to learn stress position in English.

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht erstmals systematisch die Intonation des Luxemburgischen, mit dem Ziel, ein Inventar der gängigsten Intonationskonturen sowie deren Funktion zu erstellen und damit Vergleiche mit Intonationssystemen anderer Sprachen zu ermöglichen. Datengrundlage für diese formale sowie funktionale Analyse bildet sowohl geskriptetes als auch ungeskriptetes Sprachmaterial von zwölf luxemburgischen Muttersprachlern in monologischer und dialogischer Form. Insgesamt können sechs verschiedene Konturen ermittelt werden, wobei vier davon in mehr als einer Funktion vorkommen. Auf diesem Ergebnis basierend werden die Unterschiede bzw. Ähnlichkeiten zu den Intonationssystemen der beiden weiteren Landessprachen in Luxemburg – Deutsch und Französisch – erarbeitet. Die kontrastive Analyse zeigt, dass sich beide Systeme substanziell von dem des Luxemburgischen unterscheiden, auch wenn die Unterschiede zum Deutschen aufgrund ähnlicherer prosodischer Strukturen leichter zu vergleichen und damit eindeutiger sind. In einem weiteren Schritt wird der Transfer luxemburgischer Strukturen in die beiden Fremdsprachen untersucht, um mögliche Interferenzen aufzeigen zu können. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die Sprecher häufig muttersprachliche Konturen in die Fremdsprachen importieren.

Survey data can be viewed as incomplete or partially missing from a variety of perspectives and there are different ways of dealing with this kind of data in the prediction and the estimation of economic quantities. In this thesis, we present two selected research contexts in which the prediction or estimation of economic quantities is examined under incomplete survey data. These contexts are first the investigation of composite estimators in the German Microcensus (Chapters 3 and 4) and second extensions of multivariate Fay-Herriot (MFH) models (Chapters 5 and 6), which are applied to small area problems. Composite estimators are estimation methods that take into account the sample overlap in rotating panel surveys such as the German Microcensus in order to stabilise the estimation of the statistics of interest (e.g. employment statistics). Due to the partial sample overlaps, information from previous samples is only available for some of the respondents, so the data are partially missing. MFH models are model-based estimation methods that work with aggregated survey data in order to obtain more precise estimation results for small area problems compared to classical estimation methods. In these models, several variables of interest are modelled simultaneously. The survey estimates of these variables, which are used as input in the MFH models, are often partially missing. If the domains of interest are not explicitly accounted for in a sampling design, the sizes of the samples allocated to them can, by chance, be small. As a result, it can happen that either no estimates can be calculated at all or that the estimated values are not published by statistical offices because their variances are too large.

In spite of the wide agreement among linguists as to the significance of spoken language data, actual speech data have not formed the basis of empirical work on English as much as one would think. The present paper is intended to contribute to changing this situation, on a theoretical and on a practical level. On a theoretical level, we discuss different research traditions within (English) linguistics. Whereas speech data have become increasingly important in various linguistic disciplines, major corpora of English developed within the corpus-linguistic community, carefully sampled to be representative of language usage, are usually restricted to orthographic transcriptions of spoken language. As a result, phonological phenomena have remained conspicuously understudied within traditional corpus linguistics. At the same time, work with current speech corpora often requires a considerable level of specialist knowledge and tailor-made solutions. On a practical level, we present a new feature of BNCweb (Hoffmann et al. 2008), a user-friendly interface to the British National Corpus, which gives users access to audio and phonemic transcriptions of more than five million words of spontaneous speech. With the help of a pilot study on the variability of intrusive r we illustrate the scope of the new possibilities.

The intonational realization of utterances is generally characterized by regional as well as inter- and intra-speaker variability in f0. Category boundaries thus remain “fuzzy” and it is non-trivial how the (continuous) acoustic space maps onto (discrete) pitch accent categories. We focus on three types of rising-falling contours, which differ in the alignment of L(ow) and H(igh) tones with respect to the stressed syllable. Most of the intonational systems on German have described two rising accent categories, e.g., L+H* and L*+H in the German ToBI system. L+H* has a high-pitched stressed syllable and a low leading tone aligned in the pre-tonic syllable; L*+H a low-pitched stressed syllable and a high trailing tone in the post-tonic syllable. There are indications for the existence of a third category which lies between these two categories, with both L and H aligned within the stressed syllable, henceforth termed (LH)*. In the present paper, we empirically investigate the distinctiveness of three rising-falling contours [L+H*, (LH)*, and L*+H, all with a subsequent low boundary tone] in German wh-questions. We employ an approach that addresses both the form and the function of the contours, also taking regional variation into account. In Experiment 1 (form), we used a delayed imitation paradigm to test whether Northern and Southern German speakers can imitate the three rising-falling contours in wh-questions as distinct contours. In Experiment 2 (function), we used a free association task to investigate whether listeners interpret the pragmatic meaning of the three contours differently. Imitation results showed that German speakers—both from the North and the South—reproduced the three contours. There was a small but significant effect of regional variety such that contours produced by speakers from the North were slightly more distinct than those by speakers from the South. In the association task, listeners from both varieties attributed distinct meanings to the (LH)* accent as opposed to the two ToBI accents L+H* and L*+H. Combined evidence from form and function suggests that three distinct contours can be found in the acoustic and perceptual space of German rising-falling contours.

This thesis focuses on the issues in price measurement and consists of three chapters. Due to outdated weighting information, a Laspeyres-based consumer price index (CPI) is prone to accumulating upward bias. Therefore, chapter 1 introduces and examines simple and transparent revision approaches that retrospectively address the source of the bias. They provide a consistent long-run time series of the CPI and require no additional information. Furthermore, a coherent decomposition of the bias into the contributions of individual product groups is developed. In a case study, the approaches are applied to a Laspeyres-based CPI. The empirical results confirm the theoretical predictions. The proposed revision approaches are adoptable not only to most national CPIs but also to other price-level measures such as the producer price index or the import and export price indices. Chapter 2 is dedicated to the measurement of import and export price indices. Such indices are complicated by the impact of exchange rates. These indices are usually also compiled by some Laspeyres type index. Therefore, substitution bias is an issue. The terms of trade (ratio of export and import price index) are therefore also likely to be distorted. The underlying substitution bias accumulates over time. The present article applies a simple and transparent retroactive correction approach that addresses the source of the substitution bias and produces meaningful long-run time series of import and export price levels and, therefore, of the terms of trade. Furthermore, an empirical case study is conducted that demonstrates the efficacy and versatility of the correction approach. Chapter 3 leaves the field of index revision and studies another issue in price measurement, namely, the economic evaluation of digital products in monetary terms that have zero market prices. This chapter explores different methods of economic valuation and pricing of free digital products and proposes an alternative way to calculate the economic value and a shadow price of free digital products: the Usage Cost Model (UCM). The goal of the chapter is, first of all, to formulate a theoretical framework and incorporate an alternative measure of the value of free digital products. However, an empirical application is also made to show the work of the theoretical model. Some conclusions on applicability are drawn at the end of the chapter.

Stress gilt als zentrales Gesundheitsrisiko des 21. Jahrhunderts und wird in der Forschung als multidimensionales Konstrukt auf psychologischer und biologischer Ebene untersucht. Wäh-rend die subjektive Wahrnehmung von Stress nicht mit der biologischen Stressreaktivität zu-sammenhängen muss, ist der negative Einfluss stressassoziierter biologischer Prozesse auf Wohlbefinden und Gesundheit gut belegt. Bereits im Grundschulalter zeigen Kinder eine mit Erwachsenen vergleichbare Stressbelastung und gesundheitliche Folgen, Bewältigungsstrategien sind in diesem Alter allerdings noch nicht vollständig entwickelt. Präventionsprogramme im Grundschulalter sollen Kinder in ihren sich entwickelnden Stressbewältigungsfähigkeiten fördern, wobei sowohl emotionsfokussierte und problemorientierte Ansätze als auch soziale Unterstützung wichtige Faktoren darstellen könnten. Das einleitende Literatur-Review evaluiert bisherige Stresspräventionsstudien und verdeutlicht, dass zwar die Wirksamkeit und Anwendbarkeit von mehrfaktoriellen Stresspräventionsprogrammen im Rahmen psychometrischer Erhebungen gezeigt werden konnten, biologische Prozesse in der Forschung bisher allerdings nicht erhoben und außer Acht gelassen wurden. Die empirische Untersuchung in Studie 1 zeigt, dass eine multidimensionale psychobiologische Betrachtungsweise sinnvoll ist, indem sowohl die Psychometrie, als auch psychobiologische Prozesse der Stressreaktion miteinbezogen und die Auswirkungen von Stressprävention auf den verschiedenen Ebenen untersucht wurden. Zwei Kurzinterventionen wurden dazu miteinander verglichen und ihre Wirkung auf psychophysiologischen Ebenen (z.B. Kortisol, α-Amylase und Herzrate) in einem Prä-Post Design geprüft. Eine statistisch signifikante Abnahme psychophysiologischer Stressreaktivität, sowie stressassoziierter psychologischer Symptome verdeutlichte die multidimensionale Wirksamkeit von Stressmanagementtrainings. Studie 2 wurde im Rahmen der Covid-19-Pandemie entworfen. Die in Studie 1 trainierten Kinder wurden mittels Online-Fragebogenerhebung mit einer Kontrollgruppe hinsichtlich ihrer Stressbelastung verglichen. Die Ergebnisse zeigten eine geringere Belastung und vermehrte günstige Bewältigungsstrategien trainierter Kinder im Vergleich zur Kontrollgruppe. Diese Ergebnisse heben die Relevanz einer multidimensionalen Betrachtung kindlichen Stresses hervor. Es wurde gezeigt, dass Stresspräventionsprogramme auf den unterschiedlichen Ebenen der Stressreaktion wirken und sogar in gesamtgesellschaftlichen Krisensituationen stresspro-tektiv wirken können. Zukünftige Studien sollten Stresspräventionen im Grundschulalter psychophysiologisch evaluieren und deren Wirkung in Längsschnittstudien beurteilen, um das Verständnis der zugrundeliegenden Mechanismen zu verbessern.

Climate fluctuations and the pyroclastic depositions from volcanic activity both influence ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycling in terrestrial and marine environments globally. These controlling factors are crucial for the evolution and fate of the pristine but fragile fjord ecosystem in the Magellanic moorlands (~53°S) of southernmost Patagonia, which is considered a critical hotspot for organic carbon burial and marine bioproductivity. At this active continental margin in the core zone of the southern westerly wind belt (SWW), frequent Plinian eruptions and the extremely variable, hyper-humid climate should have efficiently shaped ecosystem functioning and land-to-fjord mass transfer throughout the Late Holocene. However, a better understanding of the complex process network defining the biogeochemical cycling at this land-to-fjord continuum principally requires a detailed knowledge of substrate weathering and pedogenesis in the context of the extreme climate. Yet, research on soils, the ubiquitous presence of tephra and the associated chemical weathering, secondary mineral (trans)formation and organic matter (OM) turnover processes is rare in this remote region. This complicates an accurate reconstruction of the ecosystem´s potentially sensitive response to past environmental impacts, including the dynamics of Late Holocene land-to-fjord fluxes as a function of volcanic activity and strong hydroclimate variability. Against this background, this PhD thesis aims to disentangle the controlling factors that modulate the terrigenous element mobilization and export mechanisms in the hyper-humid Patagonian Andes and assesses their significance for fjord primary productivity over the past 4.5 kyrs BP. For the first time, distinct biogeochemical characteristics of the regional weathering system serve as major criterion in paleoenvironmental reconstruction in the area. This approach includes broad-scale mineralogical and geochemical analyses of basement lithologies, four soil profiles, volcanic ash deposits, the non-karst stalagmite MA1 and two lacustrine sediment cores. In order to pay special attention to the possibly important temporal variations of pedosphere-atmosphere interaction and ecological consequences initiated by volcanic eruptions, the novel data were evaluated together with previously published reconstructions of paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental conditions. The devastative high-tephra loading of a single eruption from Mt. Burney volcano (MB2 at 4.216 kyrs BP) sustainably transformed this vulnerable fjord ecosystem, while acidic peaty Andosols developed from ~2.5 kyrs BP onwards after the recovery from millennium-scale acidification. The special setting is dominated by most variable redox-pH conditions, profound volcanic ash weathering and intense OM turnover processes, which are closely linked and ultimately regulated by SWW-induced water-level fluctuations. Constant nutrient supply though sea spray deposition represents a further important control on peat accumulation and OM turnover dynamics. These extreme environmental conditions constrain the biogeochemical framework for an extended land-to-fjord export of leachates comprising various organic and inorganic colloids (i.e., Al-humus complexes and Fe-(hydr)oxides). Such tephra- and/or Andosol-sourced flux contains high proportions of terrigenous organic carbon (OCterr) and mobilized essential (micro)nutrients, e.g., bio-available Fe, that are beneficial for fjord bioproductivity. It can be assumed that this supply of bio-available Fe produced by specific Fe-(hydr)oxide (trans)formation processes from tephra components may outlast more than 6 kyrs and surpasses the contribution from basement rock weathering and glacial meltwaters. However, the land-to-fjord exports of OCterr and bio-available Fe occur mostly asynchronous and are determined by the frequency and duration of redox cycles in soils or are initiated by SWW-induced extreme weather events. The verification of (crypto)tephra layers embedded stalagmite MA1 enabled the accurate dating of three smaller Late Holocene eruptions from Mt. Burney (MB3 at 2.291 kyrs BP and MB4 at 0.853 kyrs BP) and Aguilera (A1 at 2.978 kyrs BP) volcanoes. Irrespective of the improvement of the regional tephrochronology, the obtained precise 230Th/U-ages allowed constraints on the ecological consequences caused by these Plinian eruptions. The deposition of these thin tephra layers should have entailed a very beneficial short-term stimulation of fjord bioproductivity with bio-available Fe and other (micro)nutrients, which affected the entire area between 52°S and 53°S 30´, respectively. For such beneficial effects, the thickness of tephra deposited to this highly vulnerable peatland ecosystem should be below a threshold of 1 cm. The Late Holocene element mobilization and land-to-fjord transport was mainly controlled by (i) volcanic activity and tephra thickness, (ii) SWW-induced and southern hemispheric climate variability and (iii) the current state of the ecosystem. The influence of cascading climate and environmental impacts on OCterr and Fe-(hydr)oxide fluxes to can be categorized by four individual, in part overlapping scenarios. These different scenarios take into account the previously specified fundamental biogeochemical mechanisms and define frequently recurring patterns of ecosystem feedbacks governing the land-to-fjord mass transfer in the hyper-humid Patagonian Andes on the centennial-scale. This PhD thesis provides first evidence for a primarily tephra-sourced, continuous and long-lasting (micro)nutrient fertilization for phytoplankton growth in South Patagonian fjords, which is ultimately modulated by variations in SWW-intensity. It highlights the climate sensitivity of such critical land-to-fjord element transport and particularly emphasizes the important but so far underappreciated significance of volcanic ash inputs for biogeochemical cycles at active continental margins.