Visualizing brain simulation data is in many aspects a challenging task. For one, data used in brain simulations and the resulting datasets is heterogeneous and insight is derived by relating all different kinds of it. Second, the analysis process is rapidly changing while creating hypotheses about the results. Third, the scale of data entities in these heterogeneous datasets is manifold, reaching from single neurons to brain areas interconnecting millions. Fourth, the heterogeneous data consists of a variety of modalities, e.g.: from time series data to connectivity data, from single parameters to a set of parameters spanning parameter spaces with multiple possible and biological meaningful solutions; from geometrical data to hierarchies and textual descriptions, all on mostly different scales. Fifth, visualizing includes finding suitable representations and providing real-time interaction while supporting varying analysis workflows. To this end, this thesis presents a scalable and flexible software architecture for visualizing, integrating and interacting with brain simulations data. The scalability and flexibility is achieved by interconnected services forming in a series of Coordinated Multiple View (CMV) systems. Multiple use cases are presented, introducing views leveraging this architecture, extending its ecosystem and resulting in a Problem Solving Environment (PSE) from which custom-tailored CMV systems can be build. The construction of such CMV system is assisted by semantic reasoning hence the term semantic-aware CMVs.

In order to shed light on the important function Inger Christensen had for the German poetry scene in the 1990s and 2000s, the article examines texts by Thomas Kling and Oswald Egger. The central argument is that both Kling and Egger drew on Christensen’s sophisticated nature-philosophical inspired poetics in “det”/“das” to break away from an experimental poetry that is primarily interested in questions of language and media theory. Both seem to be particularly fascinated by Christensen’s attempt to think of the relationship between language and the world in terms of a chiastic entanglement, which shows clear traces of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception. But despite this similarity, they react very differently to the poetological considerations of the Danish poet. Both do not adopt Christensen’s reflections uncritically but attempt to utilize them for their own aesthetic purposes.

Physically-based distributed rainfall-runoff models as the standard analysis tools for hydro-logical processes have been used to simulate the water system in detail, which includes spa-tial patterns and temporal dynamics of hydrological variables and processes (Davison et al., 2015; Ek and Holtslag, 2004). In general, catchment models are parameterized with spatial information on soil, vegetation and topography. However, traditional approaches for eval-uation of the hydrological model performance are usually motivated with respect to dis-charge data alone. This may thus cloud model realism and hamper understanding of the catchment behavior. It is necessary to evaluate the model performance with respect to in-ternal hydrological processes within the catchment area as well as other components of wa-ter balance rather than runoff discharge at the catchment outlet only. In particular, a consid-erable amount of dynamics in a catchment occurs in the processes related to interactions of the water, soil and vegetation. Evapotranspiration process, for instance, is one of those key interactive elements, and the parameterization of soil and vegetation in water balance mod-eling strongly influences the simulation of evapotranspiration. Specifically, to parameterize the water flow in unsaturated soil zone, the functional relationships that describe the soil water retention and hydraulic conductivity characteristics are important. To define these functional relationships, Pedo-Transfer Functions (PTFs) are common to use in hydrologi-cal modeling. Opting the appropriate PTFs for the region under investigation is a crucial task in estimating the soil hydraulic parameters, but this choice in a hydrological model is often made arbitrary and without evaluating the spatial and temporal patterns of evapotran-spiration, soil moisture, and distribution and intensity of runoff processes. This may ulti-mately lead to implausible modeling results and possibly to incorrect decisions in regional water management. Therefore, the use of reliable evaluation approaches is continually re-quired to analyze the dynamics of the current interactive hydrological processes and predict the future changes in the water cycle, which eventually contributes to sustainable environ-mental planning and decisions in water management. Remarkable endeavors have been made in development of modelling tools that provide insights into the current and future of hydrological patterns in different scales and their im-pacts on the water resources and climate changes (Doell et al., 2014; Wood et al., 2011). Although, there is a need to consider a proper balance between parameter identifiability and the model's ability to realistically represent the response of the natural system. Neverthe-less, tackling this issue entails investigation of additional information, which usually has to be elaborately assembled, for instance, by mapping the dominant runoff generation pro-cesses in the intended area, or retrieving the spatial patterns of soil moisture and evapotran-spiration by using remote sensing methods, and evaluation at a scale commensurate with hydrological model (Koch et al., 2022; Zink et al., 2018). The present work therefore aims to give insights into the modeling approaches to simulate water balance and to improve the soil and vegetation parameterization scheme in the hydrological model subject to producing more reliable spatial and temporal patterns of evapotranspiration and runoff processes in the catchment. An important contribution to the overall body of work is a book chapter included among publications. The book chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the topic and valua-ble insights into the understanding the water balance and its estimation methods. Moreover, the first paper aimed to evaluate the hydrological model behavior with re-spect to contribution of various sources of information. To do so, a multi-criteria evaluation metric including soft and hard data was used to define constraints on outputs of the 1-D hydrological model WaSiM-ETH. Applying this evaluation metric, we could identify the optimal soil and vegetation parameter sets that resulted in a “behavioral” forest stand water balance model. It was found out that even if simulations of transpiration and soil water con-tent are consistent with measured data, but still the dominant runoff generation processes or total water balance might be wrongly calculated. Therefore, only using an evaluation scheme which looks over different sources of data and embraces an understanding of the local controls of water loss through soil and plant, allowed us to exclude the unrealistic modeling outputs. The results suggested that we may need to question the generally accept-ed soil parameterization procedures that apply default parameter sets. The second paper attempts to tackle the pointed model evaluation hindrance by getting down to the small-scale catchment (in Bavaria). Here, a methodology was introduced to analyze the sensitivity of the catchment water balance model to the choice of the Pedo-Transfer Functions (PTF). By varying the underlying PTFs in a calibrated and validated model, we could determine the resulting effects on the spatial distribution of soil hydraulic properties, total water balance in catchment outlet, and the spatial and temporal variation of the runoff components. Results revealed that the water distribution in the hydrologic system significantly differs amongst various PTFs. Moreover, the simulations of water balance components showed high sensitivity to the spatial distribution of soil hydraulic properties. Therefore, it was suggested that opting the PTFs in hydrological modeling should be care-fully tested by looking over the spatio-temporal distribution of simulated evapotranspira-tion and runoff generation processes, whether they are reasonably represented. To fulfill the previous studies’ suggestions, the third paper then aims to focus on evalu-ating the hydrological model through improving the spatial representation of dominant run-off processes. It was implemented in a mesoscale catchment in southwestern Germany us-ing the hydrological model WaSiM-ETH. Dealing with the issues of inadequate spatial ob-servations for rigorous spatial model evaluation, we made use of a reference soil hydrologic map available for the study area to discern the expected dominant runoff processes across a wide range of hydrological conditions. The model was parameterized by applying 11 PTFs and run by multiple synthetic rainfall events. To compare the simulated spatial patterns to the patterns derived by digital soil map, a multiple-component spatial performance metric (SPAEF) was applied. The simulated DRPs showed a large variability with regard to land use, topography, applied rainfall rates, and the different PTFs, which highly influence the rapid runoff generation under wet conditions. The three published manuscripts proceeded towards the model evaluation viewpoints that ultimately attain the behavioral model outputs. It was performed through obtaining information about internal hydrological processes that lead to certain model behaviors, and also about the function and sensitivity of some of the soil and vegetation parameters that may primarily influence those internal processes in a catchment. Accordingly, using this understanding on model reactions, and by setting multiple evaluation criteria, it was possi-ble to identify which parameterization could lead to behavioral model realization. This work, in fact, will contribute to solving some of the issues (e.g., spatial variability and modeling methods) identified as the 23 unsolved problems in hydrology in the 21st century (Blöschl et al., 2019). The results obtained in the present work encourage the further inves-tigations toward a comprehensive model calibration procedure considering multiple data sources simultaneously. This will enable developing the new perspectives to the current parameter estimation methods, which in essence, focus on reproducing the plausible dy-namics (spatio-temporal) of the other hydrological processes within the watershed.

　

Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) have become a valuable treatment for patients with advanced heart failure. Women appear to be disadvantaged in the usage of LVADs and concerning clinical outcomes such as death and adverse events after LVAD implant. Contrary to typical clinical characteristics (e.g., disease severity), device-related factors such as the intended device strategy, bridge to a heart transplantation or destination therapy, are often not considered in research on gender differences. In addition, the relevance of pre-implant psychosocial risk factors, such as substance abuse and limited social support, for LVAD outcomes is currently unclear. Thus, the aim of this dissertation is to explore the role of pre-implant psychosocial risk factors for gender differences in clinical outcomes, accounting for clinical and device-related risk factors. In the first article, gender differences in pre-implant characteristics of patients registered in The European Registry for Patients with Mechanical Circulatory Support (EUROMACS) were investigated. It was found that women and men differed in multiple pre-implant characteristics depending on device strategy. In the second article, gender differences in major clinical outcomes (i.e., death, heart transplant, device explant due to cardiac recovery, device replacement due to complications) were evaluated for patients in the device strategy destination therapy in the Interagency Registry for Mechanically Assisted Circulation (INTERMACS). Additionally, the association of gender and psychosocial risk factors with the major outcomes were analyzed. Women had similar probabilities to die on LVAD support, and even higher probabilities to experience explant of the device due to cardiac recovery compared with men in the destination therapy subgroup. Pre-implant psychosocial risk factors were not associated with major outcomes. The third article focused on gender differences in 10 adverse events (e.g., device malfunction, bleeding) after LVAD implant in INTERMACS. The association of a psychosocial risk indicator with gender and adverse events after LVAD implantation was evaluated. Women were less likely to have psychosocial risk pre-implant but more likely to experience seven out of 10 adverse events compared with men. Pre-implant psychosocial risk was associated with adverse events, even suggesting a dose response-relationship. These associations appeared to be more pronounced in women. In conclusion, women appear to have similar survival to men when accounting for device strategy. They have higher probabilities of recovery, but higher probabilities of device replacement and adverse events compared with men. Regarding these adverse events, women may be more susceptible to psychosocial risk factors than men. The results of this dissertation illustrate the importance of gender-sensitive research and suggest considering device strategy when studying gender differences in LVAD recipients. Further research is warranted to elucidate the role of specific psychosocial risk factors that lead to higher probabilities of adverse events, to intervene early and improve patient care in both, women and men

Internet-Memes sind ein globales, populäres Medium, oft und zumeist unproblematisiert rezipiert und in ihrer Komik meist nur fragmentarisch, auf bestimmte Aspekte fokussiert analysiert. Die vorliegende Arbeit bemüht sich um eine möglichst umfassende Darstellung der Komik in Memes basierend auf klassischen und modernen Komikkategorien. Auf Grundlage einer umfassend-kritischen Synthese der vorliegenden Fachliteratur und eines präzisen Analysemodells kann so eine begründete Diskussion über memetische Komik, ihre Funktionen und ihre positiven wie problematischen Aspekte geführt werden.

This thesis consists of four highly related chapters examining China’s rise in the aluminium industry. The first chapter addresses the conditions that allowed China, which first entered the market in the 1950s, to rise to world leadership in aluminium production. Although China was a latecomer, its re-entry into the market after the oil crises in the 1970s was a success and led to its ascent as the world’s largest aluminium producer by 2001. With an estimated production of 40.4 million tonnes in 2022, China represented almost 60% of the global output. Chapter 1 examines the factors underlying this success, such as the decline of international aluminium cartels, the introduction of innovative technology, the US granting China the MFN tariff status, Chinese-specific factors, and supportive government policies. Chapter 2 develops a mathematical model to analyze firms’ decisions in the short term. It examines how an incumbent with outdated technology and a new entrant with access to a new type of technology make strategic decisions, including the incumbent’s decision whether to deter entry, the production choice of firms, the optimal technology adoption rate of the newcomer, and cartel formation. Chapter 3 focuses on the adoption of new technology by firms upon market entry in four scenarios: firstly, a free market Cournot competition; secondly, a situation in which the government determines technology adoption rates; thirdly, a scenario in which the government controls both technology and production; and finally, a scenario where the government dictates technology adoption rates, production levels, and also the number of market participants. Chapter 4 applies the Spencer and Brander (1983) framework to examine strategic industrial policy. The model assumes that there are two exporting firms in two different countries that sell a product to a third country. We examine how the domestic firm is influenced by government intervention, such as the provision of a fixed-cost subsidy to improve its competitiveness relative to the foreign company. Chapter 4 initially investigates a scenario where only one government offers a fixed-cost subsidy, followed by an analysis of the case when both governments simultaneously provide financial help. Taken together, these chapters provide a comprehensive analysis of the strategic, technological, and political factors contributing to China’s leadership in the global aluminium industry. Chapter 1: The Rise of China as a Latecomer in the Global Aluminium Industry This chapter examines China’s remarkable transformation into a global leader in the aluminium industry, a sector in which the country accounted for approximately 58.9% of worldwide production in 2022. We examine how China, a latecomer to the aluminium industry that started off with labor-intensive technology in 1953, grew into the largest aluminium producer with some of the most advanced smelters in the world. This analysis identifies and discusses several opportunities that Chinese aluminium producers took advantage of. The first set of opportunities happened during the 1970s oil crises, which softened international competition and allowed China to acquire innovative smelting technology from Japan. The second set of opportunities started at about the same time when China opened its economy in 1978. The substantial demand for aluminium in China is influenced by both external and internal factors. Externally, the US granted China’s MFN tariff status in 1980 and China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. Both events contributed to a surge in Chinese aluminium consumption. Internally, China’s investment-led growth model boosted further its aluminium demand. Additional factors specific to China, such as low labor costs and the abundance of coal as an energy source, offer Chinese firms competitive advantages against international players. Furthermore, another window of opportunity is due to Chinese governmental policies, including phasing out old technology, providing subsidies, and gradually opening the economy to enhance domestic competition before expanding globally. By describing these elements, the study provides insights into the dynamic interplay of external circumstances and internal strategies that contributed to the success of the Chinese aluminium industry. Chapter 2: Technological Change and Strategic Choices for Incumbent and New Entrant This chapter introduces an oligopoly model that includes two actors: an incumbent and a potential entrant, that compete in the same market. We assume that two participants are located in different parts of the market: the incumbent is situated in area 1, whereas the potential entrant may venture into the other region, area 2. The incumbent exists in stage zero, where it can decide whether to deter the newcomer’s entry. A new type of technology exists in period one, when the newcomer may enter the market. In the short term, the incumbent is trapped with the outdated technology, while the new entrant may choose to partially or completely adopt the latest technology. Our results suggest the following: Firstly, the incumbent only tries to deter the new entrant if a condition for entry cost is met. Secondly, the new entrant is only interested in forming a cartel with the incumbent if a function of the ratio of the variable to new technology’s fixed-cost parameters is sufficiently high. Thirdly, if the newcomer asks to form a cartel, the incumbent will always accept this request. Finally, we can obtain the optimal new technology adoption rate for the newcomer. Chapter 3: Technological Adoption and Welfare in Cournot Oligopoly This study examines the difference between the optimal technology adoption rates chosen by firms in a homogeneous Cournot oligopoly and that preferred by a benevolent government upon firms’ market entry. To address the question of whether the technology choices of firms and government are similar, we analyze several different scenarios, which differ in the extent of government intervention in the market. Our results suggest a relationship between the number of firms in the market and the impact of government intervention on technology adoption rates. Especially in situations with a low number of firms that are interested in entering the market, greater government influence tends to lead to higher technology adoption rates of firms. Conversely, in scenarios with a higher number of firms and a government that lacks control over the number of market players, the technology adoption rate of firms will be highest when the government plays no role. Chapter 4: International Technological Innovation and Industrial Strategies Supporting domestic firms when they first enter the market may be seen as a favorable policy choice by governments around the world thanks to their ability to enhance the competitive advantage of domestic firms in non-cooperative competition against foreign enterprises (infant industry protection argument). This advantage may allow domestic firms to increase their market share and generate higher profits, thereby improving domestic welfare. This chapter utilizes the Spencer and Brander (1983) framework as a theoretical foundation to elucidate the effects of fixed-cost subsidies on firms’ production levels, technological innovations, and social welfare. The analysis examines two firms in different countries, each producing a homogeneous product that is sold in a third, separate country. We first examine the Cournot-Nash equilibrium in the absence of government intervention, followed by analyzing a scenario where just one government provides a financial subsidy for its domestic firm, and finally, we consider a situation where both governments simultaneously provide financial assistance for their respective firms. Our results suggest that governments aim to maximize social welfare by providing fixed-cost subsidies to their respective firms, finding themselves in a Chicken game scenario. Regarding technology innovation, subsidies lead to an increased technological adoption rate for recipient firms, regardless of whether one or both firms in a market receive support, compared to the situation without subsidies. The technology adoption rate of the recipient firm is higher than of its rival when only the recipient firm benefits from the fixed-cost subsidy. The lowest technology adoption rate of a firm occurs when the firm does not receive a fixed-cost subsidy, but its competitor does. Furthermore, global welfare will benefit the most in case when both exporting countries grant fixed-cost subsidies, and this welfare level is higher when only one country subsidizes than when no subsidies are provided by any country.

Introduction: This study examined the sources and factors of resilience in Russian sexual and gender minorities. We hypothesized that, through their involvement in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community (source of resilience), LGBT people establish friendships that provide them with social support (factor of resilience), which in turn should contribute to their mental health. Method: The study sample consisted of 1,127 young and middle-aged LGBT adults (18 to 50 years) from Russia. We collected the data online and anonymously. Results: Partial mediation could be confirmed. LGBT people who were involved in “their” community reported more social support from friends, which partially mediated the positive association between community involvement and mental health. The mediation remained significant when we controlled for demographics and outness as potential covariates. Additional analyses showed that the present sample reported lower mental health but not less social support than Russian nonminority samples recruited in previous research. Conclusion: Our study underlines the importance of the LGBT community in times of increasing stigmatization of sexual and gender minorities.

Differential equations yield solutions that necessarily contain a certain amount of regularity and are based on local interactions. There are various natural phenomena that are not well described by local models. An important class of models that describe long-range interactions are the so-called nonlocal models, which are the subject of this work. The nonlocal operators considered here are integral operators with a finite range of interaction and the resulting models can be applied to anomalous diffusion, mechanics and multiscale problems. While the range of applications is vast, the applicability of nonlocal models can face problems such as the high computational and algorithmic complexity of fundamental tasks. One of them is the assembly of finite element discretizations of truncated, nonlocal operators. The first contribution of this thesis is therefore an openly accessible, documented Python code which allows to compute finite element approximations for nonlocal convection-diffusion problems with truncated interaction horizon. Another difficulty in the solution of nonlocal problems is that the discrete systems may be ill-conditioned which complicates the application of iterative solvers. Thus, the second contribution of this work is the construction and study of a domain decomposition type solver that is inspired by substructuring methods for differential equations. The numerical results are based on the abstract framework of nonlocal subdivisions which is introduced here and which can serve as a guideline for general nonlocal domain decomposition methods.

Der zentrale Gegenstand der Untersuchung ist die Rechtsfigur des Indigenats im Kontext der württembergischen und preußischen Staatenlandschaft. Das Indigenat lässt sich als ein Recht bestimmen, das seine potenziellen Rechtsträger maßgeblich über das Abstammungsprinzip definiert und ein Verhältnis zwischen Rechtsträger und einem übergeordneten Rechtssubjekt zum Ausdruck bringt, sei es lehns- oder standes-, staats- oder auch bundes- beziehungsweise reichsrechtlicher Natur. Der zeitliche Schwerpunkt der Betrachtung liegt auf dem 19. Jahrhundert. Es werden jedoch auch Rückblicke in die Frühe Neuzeit geworfen, weil Wandel und Kontinuität in der Entwicklung des Indigenats in einer solch langen Perspektive besonders klar hervortreten können. Die zentrale These dieser Arbeit ist, dass ein enger Zusammenhang zwischen der im 19. Jahrhundert entstehenden und bis heute geläufigen Form der Zuordnung von Menschen zum Staat und den aus diesem Verhältnis entspringenden Rechten einerseits und dem frühneuzeitlichen Indigenat andererseits besteht. Dabei kann gezeigt werden, dass Gesellschaften ihre politischen Machtpositionen gegenüber „fremdstämmigen“, etwa zuwandernden Personen abschirmten, indem sie sich auf indigenatrechtliche, ethnische Bestimmungen beriefen.