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Salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) influences the perception of taste and texture, features both relevant in acquiring food liking and, with time, food preference. However, no studies have yet investigated the relationship between basal activity levels of sAA and food preference. We collected saliva from 57 volunteers (63% women) who we assessed in terms of their preference for different food items. These items were grouped into four categories according to their nutritional properties: high in starch, high in sugar, high glycaemic index, and high glycaemic load. Anthropometric markers of cardiovascular risk were also calculated. Our findings suggest that sAA influences food
preference and body composition in women. Regression analysis showed that basal sAA activity is inversely associated with subjective but not self-reported behavioural preference for foods high in sugar. Additionally, sAA and subjective preference are associated with anthropometric markers of cardiovascular risk. We believe that this pilot study points to this enzyme as an interesting candidate to consider among the physiological factors that modulate eating behaviour.
Academic achievement is a central outcome in educational research, both in and outside higher education, has direct effects on individual’s professional and financial prospects and a high individual and public return on investment. Theories comprise cognitive as well as non-cognitive influences on achievement. Two examples frequently investigated in empirical research are knowledge (as a cognitive determinant) and stress (as a non-cognitive determinant) of achievement. However, knowledge and stress are not stable, what raises questions as to how temporal dynamics in knowledge on the one hand and stress on the other contribute to achievement. To study these contributions in the present doctoral dissertation, I used meta-analysis, latent profile transition analysis, and latent state-trait analysis. The results support the idea of knowledge acquisition as a cumulative and long-term process that forms the basis for academic achievement and conceptual change as an important mechanism for the acquisition of knowledge in higher education. Moreover, the findings suggest that students’ stress experiences in higher education are subject to stable, trait-like influences, as well as situational and/or interactional, state-like influences which are differentially related to achievement and health. The results imply that investigating the causal networks between knowledge, stress, and academic achievement is a promising strategy for better understanding academic achievement in higher education. For this purpose, future studies should use longitudinal designs, randomized controlled trials, and meta-analytical techniques. Potential practical applications include taking account of students’ prior knowledge in higher education teaching and decreasing stress among higher education students.
Early life adversity (ELA) poses a high risk for developing major health problems in adulthood including cardiovascular and infectious diseases and mental illness. However, the fact that ELA-associated disorders first become manifest many years after exposure raises questions about the mechanisms underlying their etiology. This thesis focuses on the impact of ELA on startle reflexivity, physiological stress reactivity and immunology in adulthood.
The first experiment investigated the impact of parental divorce on affective processing. A special block design of the affective startle modulation paradigm revealed blunted startle responsiveness during presentation of aversive stimuli in participants with experience of parental divorce. Nurture context potentiated startle in these participants suggesting that visual cues of childhood-related content activates protective behavioral responses. The findings provide evidence for the view that parental divorce leads to altered processing of affective context information in early adulthood.
A second investigation was conducted to examine the link between aging of the immune system and long-term consequences of ELA. In a cohort of healthy young adults, who were institutionalized early in life and subsequently adopted, higher levels of T cell senescence were observed compared to parent-reared controls. Furthermore, the results suggest that ELA increases the risk of cytomegalovirus infection in early childhood, thereby mediating the effect of ELA on T cell-specific immunosenescence.
The third study addresses the effect of ELA on stress reactivity. An extended version of the Cold Pressor Test combined with a cognitive challenging task revealed blunted endocrine response in adults with a history of adoption while cardiovascular stress reactivity was similar to control participants. This pattern of response separation may best be explained by selective enhancement of central feedback-sensitivity to glucocorticoids resulting from ELA, in spite of preserved cardiovascular/autonomic stress reactivity.
Reptiles belong to a taxonomic group characterized by increasing worldwide population declines. However, it has not been until comparatively recent years that public interest in these taxa has increased, and conservation measures are starting to show results. While many factors contribute to these declines, environmental pollution, especially in form of pesticides, has seen a strong increase in the last few decades, and is nowadays considered a main driver for reptile diversity loss. In light of the above, and given that reptiles are extremely underrepresented in ecotoxicological studies regarding the effects of plant protection products, this thesis aims at studying the impacts of pesticide exposure in reptiles, by using the Common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis) as model species. In a first approach, I evaluated the risk of pesticide exposure for reptile species within the European Union, as a means to detect species with above average exposure probabilities and to detect especially sensitive reptile orders. While helpful to detect species at risk, a risk evaluation is only the first step towards addressing this problem. It is thus indispensable to identify effects of pesticide exposure in wildlife. For this, the use of enzymatic biomarkers has become a popular method to study sub-individual responses, and gain information regarding the mode of action of chemicals. However, current methodologies are very invasive. Thus, in a second step, I explored the use of buccal swabs as a minimally invasive method to detect changes in enzymatic biomarker activity in reptiles, as an indicator for pesticide uptake and effects at the sub-individual level. Finally, the last part of this thesis focuses on field data regarding pesticide exposure and its effects on reptile wildlife. Here, a method to determine pesticide residues in food items of the Common wall lizard was established, as a means to generate data for future dietary risk assessments. Subsequently, a field study was conducted with the aim to describe actual effects of pesticide exposure on reptile populations at different levels.
A basic assumption of standard small area models is that the statistic of interest can be modelled through a linear mixed model with common model parameters for all areas in the study. The model can then be used to stabilize estimation. In some applications, however, there may be different subgroups of areas, with specific relationships between the response variable and auxiliary information. In this case, using a distinct model for each subgroup would be more appropriate than employing one model for all observations. If no suitable natural clustering variable exists, finite mixture regression models may represent a solution that „lets the data decide“ how to partition areas into subgroups. In this framework, a set of two or more different models is specified, and the estimation of subgroup-specific model parameters is performed simultaneously to estimating subgroup identity, or the probability of subgroup identity, for each area. Finite mixture models thus offer a fexible approach to accounting for unobserved heterogeneity. Therefore, in this thesis, finite mixtures of small area models are proposed to account for the existence of latent subgroups of areas in small area estimation. More specifically, it is assumed that the statistic of interest is appropriately modelled by a mixture of K linear mixed models. Both mixtures of standard unit-level and standard area-level models are considered as special cases. The estimation of mixing proportions, area-specific probabilities of subgroup identity and the K sets of model parameters via the EM algorithm for mixtures of mixed models is described. Eventually, a finite mixture small area estimator is formulated as a weighted mean of predictions from model 1 to K, with weights given by the area-specific probabilities of subgroup identity.
Stiftungsunternehmen sind Unternehmen, die sich ganz oder teilweise im Eigentum einer gemeinnützigen oder privaten Stiftung befinden. Die Anzahl an Stiftungsunternehmen in Deutschland ist in den letzten Jahren deutlich gestiegen. Bekannte deutsche Unternehmen wie Aldi, Bosch, Bertelsmann, LIDL oder Würth befinden sich im Eigentum von Stiftungen. Einige von ihnen, wie beispielsweise Fresenius, ZF Friedrichshafen oder Zeiss, sind sogar an der Börse notiert. Die Mehrzahl der Stiftungsunternehmen entsteht dadurch, dass Unternehmensgründer oder Unternehmerfamilien ihr Unternehmen in eine Stiftung einbringen, anstatt es zu vererben oder zu verkaufen.
Die Motive hierfür sind vielfältig und können familiäre Gründe (z. B. Kinderlosigkeit, Vermeidung von Familienstreit), unternehmensbezogene Gründe (z. B. Möglichkeit der langfristigen Planung durch stabile Eigentümerstruktur) und steuerliche Gründe (Vermeidung oder Reduzierung der Erbschaftssteuer) haben oder sind durch die Person des Gründers motiviert (Möglichkeit, das Unternehmen auch nach dem eigenen Tod über die Stiftung noch weiterhin zu prägen). Aufgrund der Tatsache, dass Stiftungsunternehmen zumeist aus Familienunternehmen hervorgehen, wird in der Forschung häufig nicht zwischen Familien- und Stiftungsunternehmen differenziert. Aus diesem Grund werden in dieser Dissertation zu Beginn anhand des Drei-Kreis-Modells für Familienunternehmen die Unterschiede zwischen Stiftungs- und Familienunternehmen dargestellt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass nur eine sehr geringe Anzahl von Stiftungsunternehmen eine große Ähnlichkeit zu klassischen Familienunternehmen aufweist. Die meisten Stiftungsunternehmen unterscheiden sich zum Teil sehr stark von Familienunternehmen. Diese Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, dass Stiftungsunternehmen als separates Forschungsfeld betrachtet werden sollten.
Da innerhalb der Gruppe der Stiftungsunternehmen ebenfalls eine starke Heterogenität herrscht, werden im Anschluss Performanceunterschiede innerhalb der Gruppe der Stiftungsunternehmen untersucht. Hierzu wurden die Daten von 142 deutschen Stiftungsunternehmen für die Jahre 2006-2016 erhoben und mittels einer lineareren Regression ausgewertet. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass zwischen den verschiedenen Typen signifikante Unterschiede herrschen. Unternehmen, die von einer gemeinnützigen Stiftung gehalten werden, weisen eine signifikant schlechtere Performance auf, als Unternehmen die eine private Stiftung als Shareholder haben.
Im nächsten Schritt wird die Gruppe der börsennotierten Stiftungsunternehmen untersucht. Mittels einer Ereignisstudie wird getestet, wie sich die Stiftung als Eigentümer eines börsennotierten Unternehmens auf den Shareholder Value auswirkt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine Anteilsverringerung einer Stiftung einen positiven Einfluss auf den Shareholder Value hat. Stiftungen werden vom Kapitalmarkt dementsprechend negativ bewertet. Aufgrund der divergierenden Ziele von Stiftung und Unternehmen birgt die Verbindung zwischen Stiftung und Unternehmen potentielle Konflikte und Herausforderungen für die beteiligten Personen. Mittels eines qualitativen explorativen Ansatzes, wird basierend auf Interviews, ein Modell entwickelt, welches die potentiellen Konflikte in Stiftungsunternehmen anhand des Beispiels der Doppelstiftung aufzeigt.
Im letzten Schritt werden Handlungsempfehlungen in Form eines Entwurfs für einen Corporate Governance Kodex erarbeitet, die (potentiellen) Stifterinnen und Stiftern helfen sollen, mögliche Konflikte entweder zu vermeiden oder bereits bestehende Probleme zu lösen.
Die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation sind relevant für Theorie und Praxis. Aus theoretischer Sicht liegt der Wert dieser Untersuchungen darin, dass Forscher künftig besser zwischen Stiftungs- und Familienunternehmen unterscheiden können. Zudem bringt diese Arbeit den aktuellen Forschungsstand zum Thema Stiftungsunternehmen weiter. Außerdem bietet diese Dissertation insbesondere potentiellen Stiftern einen Überblick über die verschiedenen Ausgestaltungsmöglichkeiten und die Vor- und Nachteile, die diese Konstruktionen mit sich bringen. Die Handlungsempfehlungen ermöglichen es Stiftern, vorab potentielle Gefahren erkennen zu können und diese zu umgehen.
Acute social and physical stress interact to influence social behavior: the role of social anxiety
(2018)
Stress is proven to have detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Due to different tasks and study designs, the direct consequences of acute stress have been found to be wide-reaching: while some studies report prosocial effects, others report increases in antisocial behavior, still others report no effect. To control for specific effects of different stressors and to consider the role of social anxiety in stress-related social behavior, we investigated the effects of social versus physical stress on behavior in male participants possessing different levels of social anxiety. In a randomized, controlled two by two design we investigated the impact of social and physical stress on behavior in healthy young men. We found significant influences on various subjective increases in stress by physical and social stress, but no interaction effect. Cortisol was significantly increased by physical stress, and the heart rate was modulated by physical and social stress as well as their combination. Social anxiety modulated the subjective stress response but not the cortisol or heart rate response. With respect to behavior, our results show that social and physical stress interacted to modulate trust, trustworthiness, and sharing. While social stress and physical stress alone reduced prosocial behavior, a combination of the two stressor modalities could restore prosociality. Social stress alone reduced nonsocial risk behavior regardless of physical stress. Social anxiety was associated with higher subjective stress responses and higher levels of trust. As a consequence, future studies will need to investigate further various stressors and clarify their effects on social behavior in health and social anxiety disorders.
The changing views on the evolutionary relationships of extant Salamandridae (Amphibia: Urodela)
(2018)
The phylogenetic relationships among members of the family Salamandridae have been repeatedly investigated over the last 90 years, with changing character and taxon sampling. We review the changing composition and the phylogenetic position of salamandrid genera and species groups and add a new phylogeny based exclusively on sequences of nuclear genes. Salamandrina often changed its position depending on the characters used. It was included several times in a clade together with the primitive newts (Echinotriton, Pleurodeles, Tylototriton) due to their seemingly ancestral morphology. The latter were often inferred as a monophyletic clade. Respective monophyly was almost consistently established in all molecular studies for true salamanders (Chioglossa, Lyciasalamandra, Mertensiella, Salamandra), modern Asian newts (Cynops, Laotriton, Pachytriton, Paramesotriton) and modern New World newts (Notophthalmus, Taricha). Reciprocal non-monophyly has been established through molecular studies for the European mountain newts (Calotriton, Euproctus) and the modern European newts (Ichthyosaura, Lissotriton, Neurergus, Ommatotriton, Triturus) since Calotriton was identified as the sister lineage of Triturus. In pre-molecular studies, their respective monophyly had almost always been assumed, mainly because a complex courtship behaviour shared by their respective members. Our nuclear tree is nearly identical to a mito-genomic tree, with all but one node being highly supported. The major difference concerns the position of Calotriton, which is no longer nested within the modern European newts. This has implications for the evolution of courtship behaviour of European newts. Within modern European newts, Ichthyosaura and Lissotriton changed their position compared to the mito-genomic tree. Previous molecular trees based on seemingly large nuclear data sets, but analysed together with mitochondrial data, did not reveal monophyly of modern European newts since taxon sampling and nuclear gene coverage was too poor to obtain conclusive results. We therefore conclude that mitochondrial and nuclear data should be analysed on their own.
Species can show strong variation of local abundance across their ranges. Recent analyses suggested that variation in abundance can be related to environmental suitability, as the highest abundances are often observed in populations living in the most suitable areas. However, there is limited information on the mechanisms through which variation in environmental suitability determines abundance. We analysed populations of the microendemic salamander Hydromantes flavus, and tested several hypotheses on potential relationships linking environmental suitability to population parameters. For multiple populations across the whole species range, we assessed suitability using species distribution models, and measured density, activity level, food intake and body condition index. In high-suitability sites, the density of salamanders was up to 30-times higher than in the least suitable ones. Variation in activity levels and population performance can explain such variation of abundance. In high-suitability sites, salamanders were active close to the surface, and showed a low frequency of empty stomachs. Furthermore, when taking into account seasonal variation, body condition was better in the most suitable sites. Our results show that the strong relationship between environmental suitability and population abundance can be mediated by the variation of parameters strongly linked to individual performance and fitness.
Surveys are commonly tailored to produce estimates of aggregate statistics with a desired level of precision. This may lead to very small sample sizes for subpopulations of interest, defined geographically or by content, which are not incorporated into the survey design. We refer to subpopulations where the sample size is too small to provide direct estimates with adequate precision as small areas or small domains. Despite the small sample sizes, reliable small area estimates are needed for economic and political decision making. Hence, model-based estimation techniques are used which increase the effective sample size by borrowing strength from other areas to provide accurate information for small areas. The paragraph above introduced small area estimation as a field of survey statistics where two conflicting philosophies of statistical inference meet: the design-based and the model-based approach. While the first approach is well suited for the precise estimation of aggregate statistics, the latter approach furnishes reliable small area estimates. In most applications, estimates for both large and small domains based on the same sample are needed. This poses a challenge to the survey planner, as the sampling design has to reflect different and potentially conflicting requirements simultaneously. In order to enable efficient design-based estimates for large domains, the sampling design should incorporate information related to the variables of interest. This may be achieved using stratification or sampling with unequal probabilities. Many model-based small area techniques require an ignorable sampling design such that after conditioning on the covariates the variable of interest does not contain further information about the sample membership. If this condition is not fulfilled, biased model-based estimates may result, as the model which holds for the sample is different from the one valid for the population. Hence, an optimisation of the sampling design without investigating the implications for model-based approaches will not be sufficient. Analogously, disregarding the design altogether and focussing only on the model is prone to failure as well. Instead, a profound knowledge of the interplay between the sample design and statistical modelling is a prerequisite for implementing an effective small area estimation strategy. In this work, we concentrate on two approaches to address this conflict. Our first approach takes the sampling design as given and can be used after the sample has been collected. It amounts to incorporate the survey design into the small area model to avoid biases stemming from informative sampling. Thus, once a model is validated for the sample, we know that it holds for the population as well. We derive such a procedure under a lognormal mixed model, which is a popular choice when the support of the dependent variable is limited to positive values. Besides, we propose a three pillar strategy to select the additional variable accounting for the design, based on a graphical examination of the relationship, a comparison of the predictive accuracy of the choices and a check regarding the normality assumptions.rnrnOur second approach to deal with the conflict is based on the notion that the design should allow applying a wide variety of analyses using the sample data. Thus, if the use of model-based estimation strategies can be anticipated before the sample is drawn, this should be reflected in the design. The same applies for the estimation of national statistics using design-based approaches. Therefore, we propose to construct the design such that the sampling mechanism is non-informative but allows for precise design-based estimates at an aggregate level.