Ziel der Studie war es Veränderungen der Zellzahl der weißen Blutzellen bei Erkrankungen von Heimtierkaninchen zu untersuchen. Ebenso sollte ein Methodenvergleich zwischen der maschinellen und manuellen Differenzierung des weißen Blutbildes vorgenommen werden. Die manuelle Differenzierung war vor allem bei häufiger auftretenden Leukozytenpopulationen vergleichbar mit den Messungen des automatischen Analysegerätes (Sysmex XT-2000iV). Weniger häufig auftretende Zellpopulationen konnten dagegen genauer mit der maschinellen Messung ermittelt werden. Prognostische und diagnostische Parameter für einzelne Erkrankungen konnten nicht nachgewiesen werden. Die Gesamtleukozytenzahl hatte wenig Aussagekraft bei spezifischen Erkrankungen. Nur selten waren Werte außerhalb des Referenzbereiches nachweisbar. Diese waren nicht krankheitsspezifisch. Neoplastische Erkrankungen wie Thymome und Lymphome gingen wahrscheinlicher mit einer Leukozytose einher. Kaninchen wiesen bei Erkrankungen häufiger eine Leukozytose (16,7 %) als eine Leukopenie (3,9 %) auf, die eher bei Kaninchen mit sehr schlechtem Allgemeinzustand (z. B. SIRS, Kokzidiose) nachgewiesen wurde. Eine Linksverschiebung in Richtung der stabkernigen Heterophilen entwickelte sich anders als bei Kleintieren signifikant häufiger bei akuten, nicht-infektiösen Erkrankungen. Das Heterophilen-Lymphozyten-Verhältnis war bei 86,2 % (387/449) aller Proben bei Erstvorstellung im klinikinternen Referenzbereich (Messbereich: 0,1-5,3; Median: 0,6). 1,1 % (5/449) der Proben lagen unterhalb des Referenzbereichs und waren somit in den lymphozytären Bereich verschoben, während 12,7 % (57/449) oberhalb des Referenzbereichs und somit in den heterophilen Bereich verschoben waren. Das Verhältnis lag bei gesunden Referenzkaninchen signifikant häufiger im lymphozytären Bereich (Kolmogorov-Smirnov; p < 0,001). Der Median des Heterophilen-Lymphozyten-Verhältnis war bei 0,6, d. h. es lagen bei den meisten Proben deutlich mehr Lymphozyten als Heterophile vor. Im Vergleich dazu lag das Heterophilen-Lymphozyten-Verhältnis erkrankter Kaninchen ebenfalls signifikant im lymphozytären Bereich (Kolmogorov-Smirnov; p < 0,001), d. h. die Lymphozytenzahl lag wie bei gesunden Kaninchen oft im Referenzbereich. Der Median des Heterophilen-Lymphozyten-Verhältnis von erkrankten Kaninchen bei Erstvorstellung lag mit 1,7 (Messbereich: 0,01 - 45) deutlich über dem der gesunden Kaninchen und die Heterophilenzellzahl war bei erkrankten Kaninchen signifikant häufiger höher als die Lymphozytenzellzahl (Kruskal-Wallis-Test; p < 0,001). Im Verlauf der Erkrankungen sank der Median auf 1,02 und näherte sich damit dem Median des Heterophilen-Lymphozyten-Verhältnis gesunder Kaninchen an. Die Anzahl der Monozyten war sehr variabel. Ihr Vorkommen in der Heilungsphase kann ein Hinweis darauf sein, dass viele Kaninchen erst nach der akuten Erkrankung vorgestellt werden. Monozytosen bei Infektionskrankheiten scheinen bei Kaninchen ebenso wie bei Kleintieren aufzutreten. Eine Eosinophilie wie bei Kleintieren konnte bei parasitären Erkrankung nicht nachgewiesen werden und scheint entgegen Vermutungen in der Literatur eine untergeordnete Rolle bei Kaninchen zu spielen. Stattdessen wurde bei Ektoparasiten- bzw. Kokzidienbefall signifikant häufiger eine Eosinopenie gemessen. Andere nicht-parasitäre Krankheitsbilder wie neurologische Erkrankungen, die vermutlich unabhängig von einer Infektion mit Encephalitozoon cuniculi auftraten, wiesen dagegen eine um 73,5-fach erhöhte Wahrscheinlichkeit für eine Eosinophilie auf. Die Anzahl der Basophilen wies eine hohe Variabilität auf, die ähnlich dem Vorkommen bei Kleintieren ist und in dieser Studie keine direkte Krankheitszuordnung zulässt. Mikroskopisch wurden vor allem Granula in Monozyten bei erkrankten Kaninchen festgestellt, die vermutlich einen Hinweis auf den Schweregrad der Erkrankung geben können. Zusammenfassend kann gesagt werden, dass sich Veränderungen des weißen Blutbildes bei Heimtierkaninchen deutlich zu denen von Kleintieren unterscheiden. Viele Erkrankungen scheinen ohne Veränderungen einherzugehen oder weisen stark individuelle Schwankungen auf. Das Heterophilen-Lymphozyten-Verhältnis kann ein Krankheitshinweis, aber nicht -beweis sein. Die Monozytenzahl sollte vor allem bei infektiösen Erkrankungen beachtet werden.

In den 1840er-Jahren nehmen die Autorinnen des Vormärz zunehmend gesellschaftliche, politische und ökonomische Themen aus der von Umbrüchen geprägten Gegenwart in ihre literarischen Werke auf – allen voran das Phänomen der Massenverelendung, das das öffentliche Leben zwischen dem Schlesischen Weberaufstand (1844) und der Märzrevolution (1848) dominiert. Dabei schreiben die Autorinnen nicht nur über ein zeitgeschichtliches Thema, sondern auch gegen zugewiesene Begrenzungen und Beschränkungen an, denn sie sind einer zweifachen Marginalisierung ausgesetzt: Zum einen aufgrund ihres Geschlechts, und zum anderen aufgrund des Erzählgegenstandes. So haftet sowohl den Werken von Frauen als auch der Literatur über den Pauperismus der Verdacht der Minderwertigkeit an, und zwar aus demselben Grund: aus einer angeblich zu großen Nähe zum ,Leben‘, sei es aufgrund von traditioneller Geschlechterontologie oder aufgrund von allzu ,ungefilterter‘ Darstellung der Wirklichkeit in der Kunst. Als Antwort auf die auferlegten Begrenzungen entwickeln die drei untersuchten Autorinnen jeweils individuelle Modelle des Erzählens über das Elend. Für Louise Aston dient das Sujet des Liebesromans in Aus dem Leben einer Frau (1847) als ein ,Schafspelz‘, um brisante politische Theorien über den Pauperismus unter die Leserinnen zu bringen. Auch werden im Roman die Parallelen zwischen der Lage der Frauen und der Lage der Arbeiterschaft vorgeführt, da in der frühindustriellen Vormärz-Gesellschaft mit beiden wie mit Ware gehandelt werde. Louise Ottos Schloß und Fabrik (1846) ist ein Gesellschaftsroman, in dem sämtliche Lösungsszenarien für das Elend präsentiert, diskutiert oder in Szene gesetzt werden. Der Text ermöglicht insbesondere den Leserinnen, die zur damaligen Zeit von höherer Ausbildung und der Teilnahme am öffentlichen Leben ausgeschlossen waren, „spielend [zu] lernen“, d. h. in der Sphäre der Phantasie Wissen über die Not zu sammeln, Denkweisen zu erproben oder sich in ein Leben in Armut einzufühlen. Bettina von Arnims Armenbuch (1844) bringt statistische Zahlenlisten, philosophische Denkschriften und ein Märchen in einer Gattungstriade zusammen. Von den behandelten Werken geht es in der ästhetischen Grenzüberschreitung am weitesten und ist darin auch in der gesamten Literaturproduktion der Zeit einzigartig. Besonders innovativ ist der biografisch-poetische Selbstentwurf des sozial engagierten Genies, der die Grenzen zwischen Fakt und Fiktion, zwischen sozialem Engagement und politischem Handeln, zwischen Literatur und Leben durch einen kreativen Schöpfungsakt verschwinden lässt. Die Autorinnen greifen literarische Formen und Muster, die zum großen Teil mit dem Erwartungshorizont der damaligen Zeit zusammenhängen, in ihren Erzählwerken auf, unterminieren sie und gehen über sie hinaus. Häufig werden dabei überlieferte literarische Topoi – wie etwa das Bild vom bescheidenen Glück in den Hütten der Armen – als Wunschbilder entlarvt und es wird ein kritischer Blick auf die gesellschaftliche Ordnung gerichtet, die die extreme Not hervorgebracht hat. So führen das Einbringen von Wirklichkeit, bzw. ,Leben‘ in die Literatur und das Überschreiten von Begrenzungen dazu, dass die von Vormärz-Autorinnen verfassten Erzählwerke über das Elend ein innovatives Potential entfalten.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird untersucht, welche Amtsträger und Senatoren die Senatsbeschlüsse initiiert haben, durch die Caesar aus Gallien abberufen wurde. Besondere Beachtung wird dabei ihrer politischen Stellung, ihrer Position auf der Ämterlaufbahn und ihren persönlichen Beziehungen geschenkt. Dabei wird deutlich, dass die Personen keine organisierte Clique bildeten. Überdies wird die Bedeutung Catos für das Zustandekommen der Ablösungsbeschlüsse relativiert. Als bedeutende Urheber der Senatsbeschlüsse treten insbesondere Personen aus dem Umfeld des Pompeius hervor sowie der Consul Lentulus. Die gesellschaftliche Stellung der Initiatoren hätte, auch dies ergibt die Analyse, vorhersehbar unter einer erfolgreichen Rückkehr Caesars gelitten. Insbesondere wird ausgemacht, dass die Neuregelung der Provinzialverwaltung der Jahre 53/52, die eine mögliche Bereicherung in den Provinzen von den kostspieligen Wahlkämpfen zeitlich entkoppelt hatte, sich nachteilig auf die Initiatoren ausgewirkt hat.

Control of biochemical (e.g., integrin bioligands, growth factors, and drugs) and biophysical (e.g., stiffness, porosity, and geometry) properties of scaffolds to modulate dynamic signals influencing cell behavior is crucial for the fundamental understanding of mechanisms in cellular processes, such as regeneration, embryonic development, and tumor invasion. In this thesis, thermo-triggered reversible dynamic microenvironments were investigated mainly based on the thermoresponsive polymer PNIPAM to mimic intricate feedback loops between multi-responsive 3D ECM and cells that exist in vivo. Moreover, we also established a cyclic compressive stress of harnessing mechanical stimuli to study the mechanotransductive response, which provided a versatile approach to preclude the era of modern mechanobiology with computational tools. In the first project, we successfully fabricated a biodegradable PCL scaffold via electrospinning, which can achieve the dynamic adhesion of endothelial cells. The cRGD-functionalized PNIPAM and antifouling linear polyglycerol (LPG) were anchored on the microfiber matrix based on polydopamine-triggered reactions. At low temperature (25 ºC), the human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were quickly attached to the surface via integrin αvβ3-cRGD interaction. However, the increase of the temperature to 37 ºC concealed the cRGD-PNIPAM to the LPG surface, which induced the cell release from the surface. (see Section 3.1). Compared with pure hydrophobic and hydrophilic interaction, using thermo-triggered PNIPAM only, cRGD-PNIPAM grafted surface exhibited higher cell attachment and release efficiency, especially under dynamic flow conditions. Moreover, the ratio of the adhesive factor on the surface was related to the attachment efficiency onto the scaffolds. The fiber matrices provided a suitable microenvironment for accelerating targeted endothelial cells spread and growth after primary screening. Therefore, this tunable dynamic system could dynamically modulate targeted cell attachment and detachment, which could be potentially applied for cell recruitment in vascular tissue engineering or cell isolation for downstream detection of diseases. Furthermore, in order to understand how cells transduce material properties in the nonlinear dynamic microenvironment, we designed a dynamic nonlinear elastic of the fibrillar network to study the cell behavior under the reversible dynamic mechanical stimulation (RD-MS) with computational tools. In the second project, we utilized a copolymer of acryloyl carbonated polycaprolactone P(CL-co-AC)[157] with a responsive copolymer of N-isopropylacrylamide and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate P[(NIPAM-co-HEMA)] to introduce the fibrous character of native ECM by electrospinning. The synthetic thermally responsive hybrid microfibrous network shrunk at 37 °C and swelled at 25 °C, which allowed hMSCs to assimilate with their surroundings under the dynamic tuning of the local stiffness and geometric deformation by RD-MS. The nonlinear elastic fibrous networks increased focal adhesion ligand density, cell spreading, and polarization by recruiting fiber assembly under the RD-MS (see Section 3.2). In addition, compared to the hMSCs cultured under normal culture conditions, the tunable mechanics with multiple cycles from 37 to 25 °C highlighted the intimate control of cell-matrix interactions, which promoted nuclear translocation of YAP and osteogenic differentiation. The hMSCs could benefit more from integrating the combination of multiple stimuli under the RD-MS, such as stiffness, swelling behavior, and porosity, which may serve as a dynamic platform to closer mimic the complex natural system in vivo. In the third project, we show that the commitment and differentiation of encapsulating hMSC spheroids in thermosensitive 3D hydrogels were simply altered by an interpenetrating poly (NIPAM-HEMA) nanogel to a gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) network. This cell-laden hydrogel provided dynamic mechanics with a covalent crosslinking-coordinated with reversible physical network, which could regulate hMSCs in situ by dynamically stiffening soft niches via multicyclic changing temperatures from 25 to 37 ºC (see Section 3.3). Notably, the dynamic microenvironment gradually influenced the distribution from the basal to apical side and expression of nuclear lamin A/C and increased the YAP nuclear localization with cycles, which favors hMSCs undergoing osteogenesis (but not adipogenesis) in soft microniches. These findings highlight the central roles of the dynamic relationship between the biomechanical signals and mechanosensitive transcriptional regulators in the cellular mechanosensing. To mimic natural ECM properties, this dynamic platform has provided a powerful tool to probe the effects of dynamic signals on cell behavior through mechanotransduction in many in vitro studies. We have provided a new insight into how cyclically reversible in situ changes in matrix mechanics affect cell fate based on thermo-triggered microenvironment in this thesis. However, there remain several challenges that need to be overcome in this field: 1. The temperature-triggered dynamic platform was very easy to operate and controlled cell adhesion, migration, and differentiation in vitro. However, it was difficult to integrate into the in vivo tissue microenvironment, where the temperature was relatively constant. Therefore, novel strategies for designing new materials can focus on providing in vivo spatiotemporal mechanics cues to make progress towards bridging the gap between in vitro and in vivo studies. 2. Although mechanotransduction has drawn much attention in the past five years, further studies can be focused on the specific mechanosensing mechanisms, such as embryonic development, vascular microenvironment, and cardiac fibrotic remodeling. Moreover, traction fore microscopy and computational tools can be employed to explain more complicated mechanisms. Therefore, the development of the dynamic biomaterials for cell-ECM interactions will contribute to the understanding of the role of ECM in cell signaling, stem cell differentiation, and tissue repair.

Let X/C be a smooth projective variety over the complex numbers. In the early 90's, Simpson established an equivalence between the category of local systems and that of the semi-stable Higgs bundles whose Chern class is zero. The correspondence between Higgs bundles and local systems can be viewed as a Hodge theorem for nonabelian cohomology. The theory is hence called the non-abelian Hodge theory, and sometimes is called the Simpson correspondence.

It has been a while to search for such a correspondence in positive characteristic. In this article, the following result is shown. Let X be an abelian variety over an algebraically closed field k of characteristic p > 0. Let X' be its Frobenius twist. Fix a natural number r, and consider the moduli stack (Higgs') of Higgs bundles on X' of rank r and the moduli stack (LocSys) of local systems on X of rank r. Then there are maps from (LocSys) and (Higgs') to a common base scheme B', which is an affine space over k. Moreover, there exists an étale surjective map U to B', such that after a base change to U, the two stacks (Higgs') and (LocSys) are isomorphic.

This result partially generalizes a previous result of Groechenig, where X is a curve, to higher dimensional varieties.

Aufgrund klimatischer Veränderungen, dem zunehmenden Import von Hunden aus dem Ausland sowie dem zunehmenden Reise- und Güterverkehr innerhalb Europas und damit verbunden der zunehmenden Ausbreitung möglicher Vektoren gewinnen vektorübertragene Infektionen bei Hunden in Deutschland an Bedeutung. In den Ländern des Mittelmeerraumes sowie in Südosteuropa sind Erreger wie L. infantum, H. canis, E. canis, A. platys und Dirofilaria spp. endemisch. Erreger wie A. phagocytophilum und Babesia spp. kommen ebenfalls in Zentral- und Westeuropa vor. Ziel der Studie war die Untersuchung des Infektionsrisikos von Hunden im Raum Berlin/Brandenburg nach Import aus endemischen Regionen und nach reisebegleitendem Aufenthalt in endemischen Regionen. Sechszehn Länder in der Mittelmeerregion und Südosteuropa wurden als endemisch definiert. Es konnten 345 Hunde, die aus endemischen Regionen nach Deutschland importiert und im Zeitraum von 2007 bis 2015 an der Kleintierklinik der Freien Universität Berlin vorgestellt wurden, und 303 Hunde aus Deutschland, die reisebegleitend in endemischen Regionen waren und im Zeitraum von 2007 bis 2018 vorgestellt wurden, in die Studie eingeschlossen werden. Bei den reisebegleitenden Hunden wurden 1174 Testverfahren ausgewertet, aufgeteilt in 525 direkte und 449 indirekte Nachweisverfahren, bei den importierten Hunden 1368 Testverfahren, aufgeteilt in 576 direkte und 792 indirekte Untersuchungsverfahren. Mehr als ein Zehntel der Hunde (40/303 Hunde, 13%), die reisebegleitend in endemischen Ländern waren, wurden positiv auf mindestens eine vektorübertragene Infektion getestet. Bei den Hunden, die aus endemischen Ländern nach Deutschland importiert wurden, waren mehr als ein Drittel (122/345 Hunde, 35%) mit mindestens einer vektorübertragenen Infektion infiziert. Diejenigen Hunde, die aus endemischen Ländern nach Deutschland importiert wurden, wurden am häufigsten positiv auf Leishmanien (66/314 auf den Erreger getestete Hunde, 21%), Ehrlichien (45/278, 16%) und Babesien (25/251, 10%) getestet. Diejenigen Hunde, die sich reisebegleitend in endemischen Ländern aufhielten, wurden hauptsächlich positiv auf Ehrlichen (18/231, 8%), Leishmanien (14/260, 5%) und Babesien (14/260, 5%) getestet. Infektionen mit mehr als einem Erreger, die die Diagnosestellung erschweren und stärkere klinische Symptome auslösen können, waren im Falle der reisebegleitenden Hunde bei 1% (4/303 Hunde) der getesteten Hunde und im Falle der importierten Hunde bei 8% (27/345 Hunde) nachweisbar. Am meisten Hunde wurden aus Spanien (186/345 Hunde), Griechenland (48/345), Ungarn (19/345) und Italien (19/345) nach Deutschland importiert. Positiv auf mindestens eine vektorübertragene Infektion getestete Hunde stammten hauptsächlich aus Portugal (6/12 Hunde, 50%), Griechenland (22/48, 46%) und Spanien (67/186, 36%). Es wurden nur Länder in den Vergleich einbezogen, aus denen mindestens 10 Hunde nach Deutschland importiert wurden. Die beliebtesten Reiseziele waren Italien (90/303 Hunde), Frankreich (53/303) und Spanien (49/303). Siebenundfünfzig Hunde waren reisebegleitend in zwei oder drei Ländern. Am häufigsten wurden positive Testverfahren für vektorübertragene Infektionen bei Hunden festgestellt, die reisebegleitend in Kroatien (3/15 Hunde, 20%), Italien (13/90, 14%) und Spanien (6/49, 12%) waren. Es wurden nur Länder in den Vergleich einbezogen, die von mindestens 10 Hunden bereist wurden. Aufgrund klimatischer Veränderungen, dem zunehmenden Import von Hunden aus dem Ausland sowie dem zunehmendem Reise- und Güterverkehr innerhalb Europas und damit verbunden der zunehmenden Ausbreitung möglicher Vektoren ist es erforderlich, alle Hunde in Deutschland mittels Ektoparasitenprophylaxe vor Infektionen zu schützen, am besten mit Wirkstoffen, die eine repellierende Wirkung aufweisen. Weiterhin wäre eine behördliche Überwachung von reisebegleitenden Hunden sowie eine Erfassung von aus dem Ausland importieren Hunden in Kombination mit Aufklärung der Besitzer durch Behörden und/oder Tierärzte in Deutschland wünschenswert, um die Verbreitung der Infektionen und möglicher Vektoren zu vermindern. Vektorübertragene Infektionen sind nicht nur für die Veterinärmedizin, sondern aufgrund des zoonotischen Potentials einiger Infektionserreger auch für die Humanmedizin und die öffentliche Gesundheit bedeutend. Testverfahren für vektorübertragene Infektionen sollten gezielt und überlegt angewandt werden unter Berücksichtigung des Zeitpunktes und der Lokalität des Auslandsaufenthaltes und/oder Imports, der klinischen und klinikopathologischen Befunde betroffener Hunde und möglicher finanzieller Limitationen der Besitzer.

Zeckenübertragene Krankheitserreger gewinnen sowohl in der Human- als auch in der Veterinärmedizin zunehmend an Bedeutung. In Europa ist Dermacentor reticulatus die zweithäufigste Zeckenart nach Ixodes ricinus. Durch die Schaffung geeigneter Habitate, durch die im Rahmen der Globalisierung steigenden Tierbewegungen und dem Klimawandel wird die weitere geografische Ausbreitung der Zeckenspezies beobachtet. Dermacentor reticulatus ist als Vektor verschiedener, insbesondere veterinärmedizinisch bedeutender Pathogene von großer Relevanz. Zur Einschätzung des von D. reticulatus ausgehenden Risikopotentials im Raum Berlin/Brandenburg wurde im Rahmen dieser Dissertation sowohl die saisonale Aktivität als auch die Häufigkeit verschiedener Erreger in adulten Buntzeckenpopulationen untersucht. Dazu wurden vier verschiedene Standorte im Umland von Berlin (Güterfelde, Gatow, Falkenberg, Königs Wusterhausen) im Zeitraum März 2010 bis November 2011 in einem zweiwöchigen Intervall unter Verwendung der Flaggen-Methode beprobt. Mit insgesamt 8166 gesammelten Exemplaren stellte D. reticulatus gegenüber 1020 geflaggten I. ricinus die dominierende Zeckenspezies dar. Sämtliche Buntzecken waren adult und an allen Standorten wurde ein signifikant höheres Vorkommen weiblicher Vertreter dokumentiert. Dermacentor reticulatus zeigte an allen Standorten und in beiden Sammeljahren ein charakteristisches bimodales Aktivitätsmuster. Demnach erstreckten sich die Zeiträume stabiler Zeckenaktivitäten von März bis Mitte/Ende Mai und von Mitte August bis November. Während der Sommermonate wurde ein nahezu kompletter Rückgang der Buntzeckenaktivität beobachtet. Probennahmen zum Jahresbeginn 2011 sowie zusätzliche Beprobungen von Dezember 2011 bis April 2012 am Standort Güterfelde verdeutlichten eine, wenn auch hohen Schwankungen unterliegende, Aktivität von D. reticulatus während der Wintermonate. Potentielle Einflüsse auf die Zeckenaktivität wurden durch die multivariate Analyse der Parameter Standort, Jahr, Saison, Temperatur und relative Luftfeuchtigkeit in einer Negativ-Binomial-Regressionsanalyse überprüft. Im Ergebnis zeigte sich der signifikante Einfluss der Variablen Standort, Saison und Temperatur auf die Buntzeckenaktivität. Die Temperatur wirkte dabei in Abhängigkeit von ihrer Höhe unterschiedlich auf die Aktivität von D. reticulatus: die Zahl aktiver Zecken nahm mit zunächst steigenden Temperaturen zu und fiel ab Erreichen eines Temperaturoptimums von 14,03 °C wieder ab. Aus der Gesamtanzahl gesammelter Buntzecken wurde eine Stichprobe von 2000 adulten weiblichen Exemplaren mithilfe verschiedener PCR-Verfahren auf Babesia spp., Borrelia spp., Anaplasma spp., Ehrlichia spp., Candidatus Neoehrlichia mikurensis und Rickettsia spp. untersucht. Mit Ausnahme der Rickettsien lagen nur geringe Erregerprävalenzen in D. reticulatus vor. Gerade einmal 0,05 % (95 % Konfidenzintervall [95 % KI]: 0,01-0,28 %) und 0,25 % (95 % KI: 0,11-0,58 %) der Zecken beherbergten Anaplasmen bzw. Borrelien. In keinem einzigen Exemplar wurden Babesien, Ehrlichien bzw. Cand. Neoehrlichia mikurensis detektiert (0 %; 95 % KI: 0-0,14 %). Die Sequenzierung der positiven Proben verdeutlichte eine Infektion mit Anaplasma phagocytophilum, Borrelia afzelii und Borrelia miyamotoi. Letzterer Befund gilt als Erstbeschreibung in D. reticulatus. Die Rickettsien-Prävalenz erreichte mit insgesamt 64,0 % (95 % KI: 61,9-66,1 %) eine der höchsten jemals in D. reticulatus beschriebenen Werte. Die Sequenzierung einer Stichprobe positiv getesteter Proben ergab die Infektion mit Rickettsia raoultii. Am Standort Gatow waren mit 31,4 % wesentlich weniger Zecken mit Rickettsien infiziert als in den drei verbleibenden Gebieten, welche Prävalenzen von 71,5-78,3 % aufwiesen. Die im generalisierten linearen logistischen Regressionsmodell durchgeführte Beurteilung möglicher Einflüsse durch die Parameter Standort, Jahr und Saison zeigte, dass ausschließlich die Standorte von signifikanter Bedeutung in Bezug auf die Prävalenzhöhe sind. Die Untersuchungen verdeutlichen das Vorkommen stabiler D. reticulatus-Populationen in den untersuchten Gebieten am Berliner Stadtrand und dessen Umland, welche z. T. auch als Naherholungsgebiete genutzt werden. Darüber hinaus sollte ein mögliches Infestationsrisiko durch infizierte Zecken auch in der kalten Jahreszeit ins Bewusstsein der Menschen gerufen werden und unter Umständen eine ganzjährig durchzuführende Zeckenprophylaxe empfohlen werden. Der in den untersuchten Populationen primär detektierte Erreger R. raoultii ist bezüglich möglicher klinischer Folgen in der Veterinärmedizin nicht ausreichend untersucht, in der Humanmedizin gilt er jedoch als Auslöser der SENLAT-Erkrankung. Die Studie liefert damit einen grundlegenden Beitrag zur Risikoeinschätzung hinsichtlich des Zeckenbefalls sowie der durch Buntzecken übertragenen Krankheitserreger in der Region Berlin/Brandenburg.

This thesis aimed to investigate interactions between human driven ecosystem changes and waterfowl species in the frame of immunity and parasitic infections. This interplay was investigated studying parasite indices and immunity of the mallards and Egyptian geese in the context of lead pollution in mallards, helminthic parasites of zoonotic potential in mallards, the role of immunity and parasites in the invasion process of Egyptian goose and infectious agents of Egyptian goose which could be of relevance for native species, livestock and humans. In chapter 1, it was studied how lead pollution affects parasite diversity by investigating intestinal helminth species richness and infection intensity in mallards exposed to environmental lead. Parasite species richness and infection intensity was found to be significantly lower in birds with higher chronic lead levels suggesting both host and parasites respond to lead exposure. Thus, it was shown that anthropogenic induced environmental lead pollution resulting in long term intoxication of mallards, is related to significant biodiversity loss in intestinal helminth species communities of mallards. In chapter 2, parasite prevalence and immunity of an invasive and a native Egyptian goose populations were compared, showing that the variance of immune marker is significantly higher in the invasive than in the native population. Moreover, a new hypothesis (“Immunological Plasticity Hypothesis”) was raised in the field of vertebrate invasion, which aims to combine existing hypothesis with the impact of newly acquired pathogens on invasive species. The new hypothesis will help to study health related drivers of invasion processes. In chapter 3, prevalence of neural bird schistosomes, whose cercaria might cause swimmer´s itch in humans, in mallards was investigated. Showing a prevalence of 21%, Trichobilharzia regenti was the most prevalent neural bird schistosome. Beside T. regenti, Bilharziella polonica was detected either between the brain membranes (meninges) and the brain, in the spinal cord or in the intestine of 12% of the mallards, which is the first description of this species from the birds neural system. This finding indicates that the spectrum of neural bird schistosome species is broader than previously acknowledged. Both findings highlight the importance of monitoring this parasitic group in vertebrate hosts. Chapter 4 shows that Egyptian geese are frequent carriers of Riemerella anatipestifer and furthermore provides serological evidence of exposure to selected viral pathogens of relevance for native birds and poultry. Thus, invasive Egyptian geese are involved in native pathogen transmission cycles and therefore might potentially spillover and spillback pathogens to native species and poultry. In conclusion, this thesis highlights the importance to encounter the complex interplay between health indices of waterfowl and anthropogenic impacted environmental factors such as pollution and species invasion to studies on species biodiversity in freshwater ecosystems. Moreover, it provides one of the very few studies on infectious agents and immunity of invasive birds and proposes a new hypothesis in the field of vertebrate invasion, which will help to study health related drivers of animal invasion.

In the puerperium, inflammatory diseases of the bovine uterus are observed with a high prevalence in dairy cows. These diseases impair animal welfare, the reproductive performance of the herd and, as a result, the economic situation of dairy farms. To evaluate bovine uterine inflammatory diseases on a molecular basis, the endometrial mRNA expression of specific factors can be used. Representatives for inflammation include e.g. different types of immune cells (e.g. polymorphonuclear neutrophils [PMN]), mediators (e.g. interleukins [ILs], tumor necrosis factor [TNF], chemokine ligands [CXCLs]), enzymes (e.g. prostaglandin [PG] synthases, matrix metallopeptidase 1 [MMP1]) and receptors (e.g. protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type C [PTPRC], platelet-activating factor receptor [PTAFR]). For the therapy of bovine uterine inflammatory diseases, mainly antibiotics and the hormone PGF2α are applied. However, there are disadvantages to both strategies, such as possible residues in animal products and the potential development of bacterial resistances or a questionable efficiency, respectively. This explains the ongoing search for alternatives, which includes research about Lactobacillus (L.) spp. as potential probiotics for the bovine reproductive tract. The aim of the first study was the evaluation of the mRNA expression profiles of selected pro-inflammatory factors in the endometrium of dairy cows depending on their uterine health status (healthy [H], subclinical endometritis [SCE] and clinical endometritis [CE]) during the second half of the puerperium (days 24-51 postpartum [pp]). The second study analyzed the uterine health, the endometrial PMN contents and the endometrial mRNA expression profiles of selected pro-inflammatory factors after the intrauterine administration of L. buchneri DSM 32407 on days 24-30 pp to cows with SCE. In addition, the impact of L. buchneri DSM 32407 on the histopathology of endometrial biopsy samples of clinically healthy cows (taken at various days pp) was evaluated. Furthermore, the influence of the intrauterine administration of L. buchneri DSM 32407 on days 24-30 pp to clinically healthy cows (H and SCE) on reproductive performance was investigated. For both studies, cows were examined and sampled on a weekly basis during days 24-51 pp. Additionally, endometrial samples for the cultivation of bacteria were obtained in both studies. The mRNA expression analysis of endometrial pro-inflammatory factors revealed the strongest correlation to the uterine health status on days 45-51 pp, the end of the puerperal period. In contrast to the earlier investigated time points, almost all of the selected factors were significantly higher expressed in endometrial samples from cows with SCE and/or CE in comparison to healthy cows. This regards the mRNA expression of CXCL1/2, CXCL3, CXCL5, chemokine receptor 2 (CXCR2), IL1A, IL1B, IL6, IL8, prostaglandin-endoperoxide synthase 1 (PTGS1), PTGS2, prostaglandin D2 synthase (PTGDS), TNF, MMP1 and PTAFR. The intrauterine administration of L. buchneri DSM 32407 on days 24-30 pp to cows with SCE resulted in a significantly higher mRNA expression of TNF on days 31-37 pp. Furthermore, the mRNA expression of CXCL1/2, CXCL3, CXCR2, IL1B, IL8 and PTPRC was significantly lower on days 45-51 pp in comparison to cows treated with a placebo. The histopathological evaluation showed an infiltration of immune cells into the endometrium one week after the intrauterine administration of L. buchneri DSM 32407. Clinically healthy cows treated with L. buchneri DSM 32407 had significantly shorter median days to conception compared to cows treated with a placebo (103 vs. 133 median days to conception; P = 0.035). This difference was even more significant when only cows with SCE were observed (74 vs. 164 median days to conception; P = 0.001). In the first study, there was a significantly higher number of endometrial samples positive for cultivable Trueperella (T.) pyogenes on days 24-30 pp from cows with CE in comparison to cows from the H and SCE group. The second study showed a significantly higher number of endometrial samples positive for Histophilus (H.) somni on days 31-37 pp in the SCE group that received a placebo in comparison to the whole group (H and SCE) that received L. buchneri DSM 32407. In conclusion, the first study revealed the strongest correlation of endometrial pro-inflammatory mRNA contents to the uterine health status (H, SCE and CE) on days 45-51 pp. This suggests that the mRNA expression analysis could be a powerful tool for the judgement of the severity of endometrial inflammation especially at this time point of the puerperium. The second study showed that an intrauterine administration of L. buchneri DSM 32407 first had an immunostimulatory effect with a subsequent downregulation of the endometrial immune system on days 45-51 pp. Moreover, the intrauterine administration of L. buchneri DSM 32407 was highly beneficial for the following reproductive performance of clinically healthy cows (H and SCE). Overall, this indicates that an intrauterine administration of L. buchneri DSM 32407 on days 24-30 pp could contribute to a uterine environment that is associated with health on days 45-51 pp and an improved subsequent reproductive performance.

Synthetic supramolecular systems share many similarities with natural biological assemblies, especially when considering that the structure and guest binding are typically governed by non-covalent interactions. As such, the defining characteristic is that only comparably weak forces define the shape of a synthetic supramolecule or the tertiary structure of a protein, so that the resulting dynamic binding mode makes structure elucidation challenging. One of the major advances in recent analytical chemistry has been the development of ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IM-MS) to tackle the challenging problems faced in proteomics, glycomics, metabolomics, and lipidomics. By analogy, the prospects of applying IM-MS to supramolecules are bright and it is to be expected that unprecedented analytical insights into diverse systems such as host-guest complexes, molecular devices, self-assemblies and metallosupramolecular complexes will be obtained. The recurrent theme throughout this dissertation is that both structure (differentiation of diastereomers, photoisomers, mechanoisomers) and non-covalent interactions (hydrogen bonding, $TTF^{n+}/TTF^{n+}$-charge repulsion, dispersive interactions) can be investigated by a combination of the three methods of ion-mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS), collision-induced dissociation (CID) and gas-phase H/D-exchange (GP-HDX). In the study of the gas-phase chiral recognition of crown-ether ammonium complexes, the importance of a single hydrogen bond for the enantiodifferentiation was revealed. Similarly, in an azobenzene model a hydrogen bonding interaction led to an increased stability of the (Z)-photoisomer. This surprising observation illustrates an important aspect, namely that there can be significant differences between the gas-phase and the solution environment. In the absence of solvent, both the stabilization of charged sites and the Coulomb repulsion of nearby charges are accentuated. In a way, the conundrum of supramolecular mass spectrometry revolves around the problem that ions are easily manipulated in the gas-phase where a high analytic resolution power is available, to then face the question if the obtained results still reflect the solution environment. Therefore, it is very convincing to see that in three of the five presented studies, the solution environment is reflected in a quantitative fashion: In the quantification of the enantiomeric excess (first study), the quantification of photoisomer content (second study), and the quantitative determination of equilibrium constants for redox-controlled dethreading (third study). Together with these five studies, and the detailed description in the subsequent chapters, I expect the treatment to be useful also from the practitioner's point of view. It is my hope that the performance, speed, and reliability with which measurements can be performed with modern instrumentation will make IM-MS a routine analytical tool in the repertoire of the working supramolecular chemist.

The experimental progress in cold atomic gases and mesoscopic systems has allowed unprecedented access to low dimensional correlated quantum systems far from equilibrium. This has revealed a variety of novel phenomena such as many-body localization, time crystals and dynamical phase transitions.

The theoretical description of such systems has remained a challenge: The numerically exact solution of generic, correlated quantum systems requires computational effort that scales exponentially in the number of fermions, rendering larger systems and therefore collective behavior inaccessible. This necessitates approximations. In low dimensions, infrared divergences prohibit the use of a purely perturbative approach. Renormalization group based techniques, where energy scales are treated successively remedy some of these shortcomings. We therefore propose the use of the functional renormalization group to access correlation functions far from equilibrium in large, interacting systems. Such techniques were previously successfully applied in the investigation of quantum impurity problems and quenches in tight-binding chains and are widely used in the study of equilibrium phase diagrams.

After a presentation of the Keldysh formalism, that constitutes a natural language out of equilibrium, we present perturbation theory and the functional renormalization group approach in a diagrammatic language. We then develop, optimize and apply flexible fRG techniques to four different problems in one-dimensional tight-binding chains with short-ranged two-particle interaction.

First, we discuss the emergence of anomalous transport in the presence of a quasiperiodic potential by analyzing linear response and a far-from-equilibrium quench protocol. We then develop a variant of the fRG to access pure excited eigenstates. We use this algorithm to investigate many-body states in large tight-binding chains and show that generic excitations appear thermal while some states show unique spectral properties. To study the influence of inelastic scattering on the transport properties in such a chain we then go beyond an effective single-particle picture; to that end, we present an algorithm, that includes scattering in long chains. Finally, we discuss infinite chains coupled to a substrate while driven out of equilibrium by an electric field. Exploiting the inherent symmetries, we develop efficient algorithms and apply them to a simple tight-binding chain with nearest-neighbor interaction to explore the interplay of spontaneous symmetry breaking and driving. We demonstrate, that ordering is suppressed and provide results that indicate unconventional transport in the driven system.

The goal of this dissertation was to understand the structure and dynamics of quasi–1D and quasi–2D water confined in low dimensional carbon materials by the use of molecular dynamics simulation methods combined with enhanced sampling strategies. For this goal, a first step was to derive simple but reliable LJ potential models for the interaction between water and carbon sheets of different curvature. These effective models then can be used to carry out a series of MD investigations on water confined inside CNTs and graphene capillaries, comprising the variation of the water model.

Recent advancements in Cu(In,Ga)Se2 based solar cells with alkaline fluoride treatment have suggested the role of the recombination at the absorber/buffer interface as a limiting factor of open-circuit voltage (Voc ) in high-efficiency CIGSe solar cells. Therefore, this work focuses on the interface engineering at the CIGSe/buffer of 2 μm standard absorbers. Furthermore, as the influence of recombination at the back interface becomes noticeable with thin absorbers, the back interface Mo/CIGSe of thinner absorbers is also optimised. Both use the concept of point junctions through a passivation layer (PaL). A low-cost versatile technique for point contact fabrication is developed by using a nanolithographic technique employing a sacrificial template of low temperature synthesised, mono-dispersed, self-assembled and size-tunable CdS nanoparticels (NP’s), and a PaL of aluminium oxide (Al2O3), thereby achieving 60 nm point contact radius and a maximum of 89% PaL coverage on CIGSe. The impact of point contacts at the CIGSe/buffer interface on solar cell performance is theoretically analysed using three-dimensional simulations on the point contact radius, coverage area, defect density and interface quality. An efficient PaL should create positive surface charge, which induces band bending at the CIGSe/PaL and influences the contact junction properties; its beneficial effect on Voc and efficiency reaches a maximum when the coverage area of PaL is more than 95% and the interface charge density is greater than 10^12/cm2 . The point contact technology is experimentally validated by incorporating it into tangible CIGSe devices, featuring CdS and Zn(O,S) buffer layers. A positive impact of +10.4% is seen on the Voc of the point contact devices with sputtered Zn(O,S) compared to the unpassivated reference cells. However the power conversion efficiency (PCE) didn’t follow the same trend, which might be due to an upward bandbending created by Al2O3 at the interface, impeding the current flow. Nonetheless, at the Mo/CIGSe interface of thinner CIGSe absorbers, the technology led to a significant reduction in the surface recombination velocity, due to the back surface field from the Al2O3 layer. Consequently, all cell parameters of point contact devices showed a relative improvement to the unpassivated reference devices: open-circuit voltage (Voc : +21%), short-circuit current (Jsc : +2.6%), fill-factor (FF: +4.9%), and efficiency (η: +31%).

Den Schwerpunkt der vorliegenden Arbeit bildet das künstlerische und kunsttheoretische Œuvre des bis heute wenig bekannten russischen Avantgardisten Ivan Kljun (1873–1943). Obwohl dieser Künstler eng mit Kazimir Malevič (1878–1935), Aleksandr Rodčenko (1891–1956), Ljubov’ Popova (1889–1924), Vladimir Tatlin (1885–1953), Ol’ga Rozanova (1886–1918) und Nadežda Udal’cova (1886–1961) ausstellte, Manifeste veröffentlichte und mit den erwähnten Künstlern im Institut für Künstlerische Kultur (INChUK) und in den Höheren Künstlerisch-Technischen Werkstätten (VChUTEMAS) zusammenarbeitete, gibt es kaum Veröffentlichungen und Untersuchungen zu den von Kljun hinterlassenen zahlreichen kunsttheoretischen Manuskripten, die viele wichtige Ereignisse und Diskurse in den Kreisen der russischen Avantgarde-Künstler in der Zeitspanne zwischen 1910 und 1935 beleuchten. Nur ein Teil dieser Schriften ist publiziert worden und das fast ausschließlich in russischer Sprache. Die in dieser Arbeit besprochenen Auszüge aus veröffentlichten, aber vor allem aus neu entdeckten, unveröffentlichten Manuskripten Kljuns machen seinen Beitrag zur Entwicklung der ungegenständlichen Kunst und einer Kunstwissenschaft in Russland Anfang der 1920er-Jahre evident. Die vorliegende Dissertation schließt eine Lücke in der bisherigen Forschung bezüglich der nahezu unbekannten Farbtheorie von Ivan Kljun. Zum ersten Mal werden hier Kljuns zum Teil immer noch unveröffentlichte theoretische Aufsätze zu den Grundelementen der Malerei wie Farbe, ihre Wirkung, zur Korrespondenz zwischen Farben und Formen, zu Faktur, Rhythmus, Licht und Fragen der Komposition untersucht und besprochen. Kljun ging es darum, die visuellen Phänomene aufzudecken, die in einem abstrakten Gemälde zum Vorschein kommen, und nicht um eine praktische Anleitung für Gewerbemaler oder Kunsthandwerker. In seinen zahlreichen Untersuchungen und theoretischen Ausführungen bewegte sich Kljun bewusst in Richtung der Wahrnehmungsforschung. Es stellte sich heraus, dass er eine Art Grammatik oder ein universelles Regelsystem für die abstrakte Malerei auszuarbeiten beabsichtigte. Dieses Regelsystem sollte eine theoretische Grundlage für die künstlerische Gestaltung bilden und zum Verständnis der modernen abstrakten Malerei aber auch der Werke Alter Meister verhelfen. Darüber hinaus fand zum ersten Mal die Rekonstruktion seiner erhaltenen Farb-Form-Tabellen statt, die der Künstler zusammenstellte, um seine Untersuchungen zur Korrespondenz zwischen Farben und Formen wissenschaftlich zu begründen. Die zahlreichen Regeln, nach denen Farben und Formen sich in einer Komposition verhalten, fasste der Künstler in seinem Heft „Komposition und Faktur“ zusammen, das in der vorliegenden Arbeit in seinem vollen Umfang erstmalig behandelt wird. Ein anderer wichtiger Beitrag der vorliegenden Arbeit ist die Analyse des künstlerischen Werkes Kljuns unter Einbeziehung seiner kunsttheoretischen Ausführungen, die bislang in der Fachliteratur ausblieb. Ausgewählte künstlerische Werke Kljuns werden hier im Kontext seines umfassenden theoretischen Œuvres zum ersten Mal vorgestellt und besprochen. Bis heute stand eine Vergleichsanalyse von Kljuns Ideen und theoretischen Ausführungen mit denen von Vasilij Kandinskij und anderen Kollegen und Freunden wie Kazimir Malevič, Michail Matjušin und Ljubov’ Popova aus. Diese Zusammenhänge wurden hier samt den Diskursen zu den Grundelementen der Malerei im künstlerischen Umfeld der erwähnten Künstler beleuchtet. Kljuns Vorhaben, eine für Künstler brauchbare Malgrammatik zu erarbeiten, war mit Sicherheit ein bei Kandinskij entlehnter Gedanke, dessen Verwirklichung Kljun aber eigenständig verfolgte. Verankert in der Tradition der von Kandinskij entwickelten Programme für das Institut für Künstlerische Kultur (INChUK) und die Russische Akademie der Kunstwissenschaften (RAChN), strebte Kljun die Entwicklung objektiver Untersuchungsmethoden für die Werke der Kunst an, mit deren Hilfe die subjektive Beurteilung der künstlerischen Mittel durch die Probanden objektiv untersucht und gedeutet werden konnten. Er stellte seine eigenen Theorien auf und untermauerte sie anhand unterschiedlicher wissenschaftlicher Abhandlungen zur Farbenlehre sowie experimentell. Die vorliegende Arbeit veranschaulicht welche Theorien Kljun in Bezug auf gestalterische Elemente aufstellte und praktisch umsetzte, welche Quellen er dabei verwendete, wie stark er im unter den russischen Avantgardisten verbreiteten Topos der Erneuerung der Kunst verankert war und mit welchen Neuerungen und einzigartigen Ideen er die Kunst bereicherte.

Tramadol applied via the drinking water is a commonly used analgesia in the mouse osteotomy model. Another opioid that can be used is buprenorphine. The recommendation for tramadol in the drinking water was increased 40-fold by the GV-SOLAS from 2010 to 2015. A recommendation on buprenorphine is given for injection but not for the application in the drinking water. Nevertheless, some standard operating procedures are found on buprenorphine applied via the drinking water. Model-specific recommendations on pain management in the mouse osteotomy model are not available. In the current study, three pain management protocols, two dosages of tramadol and buprenorphine applied via the drinking water in the mouse osteotomy model were tested. This refinement project was integrated into a basic research study. The aim of this project was to provide researchers with a specific recommendation on pain treatment in bone-linked mouse models. The three pain management protocols (tramadol 0.1 mg/ml, tramadol 1 mg/ml and buprenorphine 0.009 mg/ml in the drinking water) were evaluated for feasibility, analgesic efficacy and impact on the bone healing in the mouse osteotomy model. The feasibility was tested with the assessment of body weight, food and water intake, serum level of tramadol and M1 as well as stress measurements. The stress measurements consisted of the analysis of fecal corticosterone metabolites as a parameter for short-term stress and the histological assessment of adrenal glands as a measurement for long-term stress. To check for possible side effects of the different medications, the livers were histologically assessed. With the help of parameters such as a clinical score, nest complexity, explorative behavior and an activity assessment the animals were screened for behavior indicating pain or reduced wellbeing. Model-specific pain parameters like the limp score, dragging score, flinching, guarding, grooming time of the operated limb and rear up time were applied. These behavioral and model-specific tests are used to evaluate the analgesic efficiency of tramadol and buprenorphine. To grade the impact of the different pain management protocols on the animal model parameters of bone healing were assessed. These included in vitro μCT and histology of the osteotomized bone after euthanasia. During the refinement project, more questions came up regarding the pre-emptive injection of buprenorphine. Therefore, a study on the impact of pre-emptive injected buprenorphine on bleeding during the surgery was conducted. The animals used in the study drank after the procedure with more drinking events in the night compared to the day. A reduced wellbeing in animals treated with the tramadol dosage of 1 mg/ml was found. Also seen in the body weight loss, reduced food intake and drinking events, the clinical scoring and nest complexity. Short stress was visible on day one in all animals, but there were no signs of histological changes in the adrenal glands. The used clinical scoring was not specific to pain, but rather displayed a reduced wellbeing in Thigh animals. In the explorative behavior Tlow animals showed the fastest recovery. Operated animals had lowest activity with no clear differences between the treatment groups. The pain-specific parameters showed no better pain relief in the high tramadol group. No impact of the changed pain management protocol on the bone healing and therefore on the main read-out of the mouse osteotomy model was seen. One animal was euthanized prior to the end of the study which was not related to the analgesic treatment but rather due to a preexisting potential metabolic disorder. Tramadol of the low dosage showed serum concentrations that can be assumed sufficient to relief pain compared to human values. The time point of pre-emptive buprenorphine injection influenced the bleeding during surgery, specifically an injection 1h before the surgery increased bleeding. Additionally, buprenorphine may alter wound healing. After successfully conducting this integrated refinement study, more projects of this kind can be recommended to gain knowledge of possible refinement benefits in specific animal models. Tramadol and buprenorphine in the drinking water is an efficient route of applying analgesia in the MOMo. The concern of a reduced water intake was not confirmed in tramadol of the low dosage and in buprenorphine. The use of tramadol in the dosage of 1 mg/ml is not necessary in the MOMo. It offers no extra benefit in pain reduction but rather reduces wellbeing in the animals. Tramadol in the dosage of 0.1 mg/ml or buprenorphine in the drinking water are a sufficient method to relief pain in the MOMo.

Knowledge of spatial and temporal distribution of fluids in the subsurface is crucial in a wide range of applications. During the production of crude oil typically high saline produced formation water is injected into the reservoir layer, aiming to push the oil towards production wells. While oil is commonly seen as an electrical insulator, the injected saline brines are characterised by low electrical resistivity. Thus, electromagnetic (EM) methods and especially Controlled Source Electromagnetics (CSEM) attracted an increasing interest to monitor these resistivity changes inside the reservoir over time. This thesis mainly reports on numerical aspects of modelling and inversion of land based CSEM with particular focus towards hydrocarbon monitoring applications. Most of the presented developments were inspired by a superordinate research project including CSEM field surveys across an actively producing onshore oil field in Northern Germany. In producing oil fields there exists a large number of steel-cased wells. Such existing oil field infrastructure and especially the presence of metal casings significantly alters the propagation of EM fields in the subsurface. Their spatially unfavourable dimensions effectively prohibits a straightforward implementation into the modelling grid. Thus I developed a new modelling approach allowing consideration of such thin but vertically extended highly conductive structures including their mutual interaction. The developed methodology had been implemented into existing modelling and inversion codes. Using the new approach to investigate the influence of metal casings on CSEM data shows that they act as additional inductively coupled vertical electric dipole sources at depth and thereby increase resolution capabilities at depth. The presence of metal casings can thus be exploited by optimising the source receiver layout in such a way that the strength of these additional vertical dipole sources is maximised. An additional working package of the superordinate project was the measurement of vertical electric fields in a shallow observation well. However, measurements of vertical electric fields requires long measurement dipoles to achieve satisfactory signalto- noise ratios. Such extended dipoles span several modelling cells and are therefore in conflict with assumptions usually made for modelling, that receivers can be represented as point dipoles. I therefore expanded the modelling and inversion codes to consider the physical receiver dimensions. The new algorithm implicitly considers imperfect alignment of the receiver with the corresponding field component. Without the consideration of this effect inversion of vertical electric field measurements is likely to cause erroneous results. Finally I discuss different aspects of time-lapse inversion required to track changes in fluid saturation over time. The cascaded inversion scheme is applied to synthetic timelapse data for a simplified oilfield undergoing brine flushing. The influence of various inversion parameters in particular different regularisation techniques are examined. Surface based sources and receivers typically provide low sensitivity towards deep targets in highly conductive backgrounds. Despite that using additional constraints, in particular a model weighting scheme together with energised steel casings allowed to track resistivity changes inside the reservoir based on synthetic time-lapse data.

This thesis addresses the issue of political representation of emigrants in their states of origin. Focusing on the Latin American and the Caribbean (LAC) region, it analyzes the institutional mechanisms by which homelands allow their emigrants to participate in their institutions and asks why states of origin have adopted such mechanisms. While the core of the thesis is empirical, there is a normative interest that guides the thesis: should emigrants be represented in their states of origin? And if so, how much presence shall be allowed from abroad? The theoretical framework of the thesis builds upon the literature on political representation and the literature on political transnationalism. The dissertation follows a cumulative logic developed over four journal articles that provide the empirical basis needed to answer the main research questions. These four papers combine different sources of information (e.g. legal texts, legislative speeches, and interviews) and a diverse set of methods (e.g. quantitative text analysis, regression analyses, and case studies). The findings reveal that emigrants are present in their homelands through two main mechanisms of representation. The first is the legislative, which facilitates the participation from abroad in homeland legislative elections by either voting or by running as candidates. Emigrants can run as candidates from districts located within the territorial boundaries of the states of origin (i.e. general representation) or through external districts (i.e. special representation). The second mechanism is the consultative one, which enables the representation of non-resident citizens through emigrant advisory boards. Both have been adopted in the LAC region. Yet, states have developed different ‘systems’ of emigrant representation which range from the total absence of emigrant political representation to an integrated model that combines both mechanisms of representation and maximizes the possibilities of political representation for non-resident citizens. Moving beyond a static assessment of the mechanisms of representation, the study also analyzes their adoption as a process that extends over time and in which it is possible to differentiate stages. Furthermore, the findings show the importance of studying the specific regulations of the mechanisms of representation. As a result, the thesis challenges the widely held claim that external voting has been diffused all across the region. It argues that the trend towards convergence does not exist when the concrete regulations of external voting (e.g. in which elections emigrants can participate, from where and with which methods of voting) are factored in. Complementing the broad regional perspective, the thesis presents a more detailed analysis of two countries (Ecuador and Colombia) that have special seats for emigrant parliamentarians. The analyses reveal that emigrant members of the parliament (EMPs) in Ecuador and Colombia do dedicate more time and resources to represent the interests of emigrants in the legislative chambers than non-emigrant members of the parliament (NEMPs). However, the data clearly shows that salience of emigrant-related issues is higher in Ecuador, a country that has proportional emigrant representation, than in Colombia, a country in which non-resident citizens are under-represented. This finding shows that parliamentarian representation can have a ‘containment effect’ rather than being an effective way of representation if the number of seats allocated to emigrants is disproportionally low in comparison to the share of emigrants in the total population. The empirical evidence of the thesis helps to address the normative concerns around the representation of emigrants in their homelands. To overcome the pitfalls of both under- and over-representation of emigrants in their homelands, a combination between both mechanisms of representation emerges as the most appropriate option.

A central goal of nanotechnology is the precise construction of nanoscale heterostructures with optimized chemical, physical or biological functionalities. It is known that function stems from structure but, in addition, function always involves nonequilibrium conditions and energy flow. The central topic of this thesis is the ultrafast energy flow in nanoscale heterostructures and how this energy flow drives ultrafast structural changes. The main experimental technique of this work is femtosecond electron diffraction, which probes the lattice response to electronic excitations. The nanoscale heterostructures contain metallic (Au) nanostructures of well-defined 0D or 2D morphology, supported on 2D substrates. In photoexcited heterostructures, thermal equilibrium is restored by electron-lattice interactions, within each component, and electronic and vibrational coupling across their interface. A newly developed model of ultrafast energy flow is used to measure the microscopic couplings, like electron-phonon coupling and interfacial vibrational coupling in nanoscale heterostructures using the observed Debye-Waller dynamics. Ultrafast energy flow in supported metallic nanostructures can initiate a rich variety of real-space motions like anharmonic lattice expansion and surface premelting, which manifest as distinct and quantifiable observables in reciprocal-space. These phenomena have been studied for Au nanoclusters on amorphous thin-film substrates. Au nanoclusters are found to exhibit ultrafast surface premelting at atypically low lattice temperatures and pronounced electron-lattice nonequilibrium conditions. Femtosecond electron diffraction is mostly used to study ultrafast motions related with phonons but in ultrasmall nanocrystals a new observable arises: the motion of the phonons’ frame of reference, meaning the crystal itself. This has been demonstrated for Au nanoclusters attached on graphene using femtosecond electron diffraction experiments, molecular dynamics and electron diffraction simulations. The substrate has a significant effect on the energy flow and the structural motions of ultrasmall, adsorbed nanostructures and, inversely, metallic nanostructures can alter fundamental properties of semiconducting substrates. Surface decoration with plasmonic, quasi-2D nanoislands of Au sensitizes WSe2 to sub-band-gap photons, causes nonlinear lattice heating and accelerates electron-phonon equilibration times. Conclusively, nanoscale heterostructures have a rich variety of nonequilibrium phenomena that affect their structure at ultrafast timescales. Ultrafast diffractive probes, like femtosecond electron diffraction, can provide a detailed, quantitative understanding of this relationship.

The ubiquitous alphaB-crystallin belongs to the small heat shock proteins, a protein class involved in the maintenance of the homeostasis in cells. As a chaperone it prevents the aggregation of misfolded proteins by keeping them in the dissolved state. alphaB-crystallin is found upregulated among others in neurodegenerative disease states like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson and cardiomyopathies as well as certain cancer types. The remarkable palette of substrate proteins, the number of disease-states in which upregulation occurs and the variation in substrate affinity in dependency of posttranslational modifications, all indicate an important role of alphaB-crystallin in the homeostasis of living cells. Although the description of structural features of the protein is constantly being refined, so far, there are only models available to describe its quaternary structure of the oligomeric ensemble and an atomic structure for the full-length protein stays elusive. Being essential for both, substrate recognition and formation of higher order oligomers, the role and structural features of the N-terminus remains enigmatic. In this work we aimed to gain a deeper understanding of the role of the N-terminus and the two terminal IXI-motifs, 3 – IAI – 5 and 159 – IPI – 161, by making use of different NMR-techniques for their investigation. The C-terminal motif is known for binding to a hydrophobic groove formed by the strands beta4 and beta8. We use both IXI-motifs as anchor points in our investigations by comparing the wild-type protein and a set of valine-mutants of the two IXI-motifs, namely alphaB I3/5V, alphaB I159/161V and alphaB I3/5/159/161V via MAS solid-state and solution NMR-spectroscopy methods. It was possible to identify and assign the N-terminal motif-related isoleucines for the first time. Carbon correlation spectra revealed very similar chemical shifts for the isoleucine sidechain atoms for both motifs, which is interpreted as both motifs being located in a very similar chemical environment within the complex oligomer. This strongly implicates that the N-terminal IXI-motif can also bind to the hydrophobic groove. Furthermore, through carbon direct-excitation experiments in solution NMR and subsequent subtraction of the resulting spectra of the different samples, the amount of bound C-terminal motif could be determined via integration of the signals, as well as the ratio of bound N- and C-termini. We found that the C-terminus is being bound to an extend of approximately 50% in the temperature range of 290 – 310 K. The binding of the N-terminus is more temperature dependent, the lower the temperature, the more of the N-terminal IXI-motif is bound to the groove. The binding of the N-terminus serves as an additional way for self-regulation and oligomerization. This provides a rational explanation for the broad distribution of oligomers. To probe the proximity of the IXI-motifs to the alpha-crystallin domain we mutated the residue between the isoleucines to cysteines (alphaB A4C and alphaB P160C). These mutants were spin-labelled with MTSL and in case of the C-terminal variant also with a TOTAPOL derivative. It turned out that the label is cleaved off very quickly in case of the N-terminal mutant, implying that the cysteines are very close to each other. In case of the C-terminal spin labelled variants, the paramagnetic relaxation enhancement-effect on the signals in the PDSD spectra was analyzed, the effect evaluated and discussed on the two existing 24mer models by Jehle and Weinkauf.

The thesis consists of five chapters that analyze the economic implications of intergenerational wealth transfers (inheritances or inter-vivo gifts) with respect to the behavioral adjustments of receiving households and with respect to wealth inequality. The first chapter provides an introduction to the broader scientific debate on intergenerational wealth transfers. In the second chapter we use data from the European Household Finance and Consumption Survey in order to examine the distributional effects of intergenerational wealth transfers on the net worth distribution in 8 European countries and compare it to recent findings for the US. To do so, we resort to the decomposition of the coefficient of variation as suggested and applied by Wolff (1987, 2002, 2015) and Wolff and Gittleman (2014). The results hint that inheritances and gifts have a vastly equalizing effect on inequality in household wealth in all eight countries. This decomposition approach, while being frequently used in the literature, neglects potential behavioral adjustments of the transfer-receiving households. Two of the remaining chapters of the dissertation seek to measure and take into account such behavioral effects: Chapter three uses the German SAVE panel study in order to estimate the effect of intergenerational transfers on the retirement behavior of individuals. The literature in this field typically estimates the transfer effect on the actual retirement probability. We suggest to base the analysis on the expected retirement age instead. This entails two methodological advantages: First, it is possible to exploit the within individual variation for the entire sample (even of those who do not yet retire) and thereby permits to analyze a key trade-off in the life-cycle plannings of individuals. Second, the effect size can easily be expressed in terms of time and thereby monetary opportunity costs. We find that heirs expect to retire earlier, even when receipts are expected to some degree. Specifically, heirs plan to retire four to five months earlier and thereby accept costs in the form of foregone income and pension entitlements corresponding to 20-30 % of the inheritance. Chapter four shifts the focus on the savings behavior of households after transfer receipt. It uses SOEP data to study the distributional effect of intergenerational transfers on the wealth distribution of German households. Similar to most other central European countries, Germany is likely to face a period of increasing aggregate bequest flows. At the same time, there is an ongoing debate on the distributional implications of such wealth shocks. This study adds to the discussion by providing causal estimates for the effect of transfer receipt on the savings behavior of households. The model allows for dynamic adjustment and variations in the savings behavior over the wealth distribution. I use the estimates to decompose the overall effect of transfers on wealth inequality in the effect of the aggregated transfer volume, the transfer incidence over the wealth distribution and the effect of the savings behavior. The results are very much in line with the literature, indicating that transfers tend to equalize wealth inequality, despite minor variations in the savings behavior over the wealth distribution and despite a strong relationship between initial household wealth and transfer accrual. Chapter five is a theoretical chapter that seeks to line out the redistributional motives the social planner has to take into account when designing an optimal inheritance taxation. To do so, we derive optimal nonlinear inheritance and linear income tax rates in a two generations model of inheritance where parents differ by their preferences for bequeathing. We provide simulations that show that results depend crucially on the degree of the so-called “double counting" of the heirs' utility in the social welfare function. We allow for income effects and characterize the entire tax schedule. Detailed simulations illustrate the implications of parental preferences interacting with social discounting. Optimal inheritance tax rates are negative and progressive unless double counting is minimal. The reasons are an intergenerational redistributive motive due to double counting and an intragenerational redistributive motive for the generation of heirs. For some parameterizations with limited double counting, an intragenerational redistributive motive for the generation of parents can lead to an optimal regressive inheritance tax.