@phdthesis{Krauss2015,
  author    = {Krauß, Manuel Ernst},
  title     = {Non-minimal supersymmetric models: LHC phenomenology and model discrimination},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-123555},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {It is generally agreed upon the fact that the Standard Model of particle physics can only be viewed as an effective theory that needs to be extended as it leaves some essential questions unanswered. The exact realization of the necessary extension is subject to discussion. Supersymmetry is among the most promising approaches to physics beyond the Standard Model as it can simultaneously solve the hierarchy problem and provide an explanation for the dark matter abundance in the universe. Despite further virtues like gauge coupling unification and radiative electroweak symmetry breaking, minimal supersymmetric models cannot be the ultimate answer to the open questions of the Standard Model as they still do not incorporate neutrino masses and are besides heavily constrained by LHC data. This does, however, not derogate the beauty of the concept of supersymmetry. It is therefore time to explore non-minimal supersymmetric models which are able to close these gaps, review their consistency, test them against experimental data and provide prospects for future experiments. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to this process by exploring an extraordinarily well motivated class of models which bases upon a left-right symmetric gauge group. While relaxing the tension with LHC data, those models automatically include the ingredients for neutrino masses. We start with a left-right supersymmetric model at the TeV scale in which scalar \(SU(2)_R\) triplets are responsible for the breaking of left-right symmetry as well as for the generation of neutrino masses. Although a tachyonic doubly-charged scalar is present at tree-level in this kind of models, we show by performing the first complete one-loop evaluation that it gains a real mass at the loop level. The constraints on the predicted additional charged gauge bosons are then evaluated using LHC data, and we find that we can explain small excesses in the data of which the current LHC run will reveal if they are actual new physics signals or just background fluctuations. In a careful evaluation of the loop-corrected scalar potential we then identify parameter regions in which the vacuum with the phenomenologically correct symmetry-breaking properties is stable. Conveniently, those regions favour low left-right symmetry breaking scales which are accessible at the LHC. In a slightly modified version of this model where a \(U(1)_R × U(1)_{B-L}\) gauge symmetry survives down to the TeV scale, we implement a minimal gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking mechanism for which we calculate the boundary conditions in the presence of gauge kinetic mixing. We show how the presence of the extended gauge group raises the tree-level Higgs mass considerably so that the need for heavy supersymmetric spectra is relaxed. Taking the constraints from the Higgs sector into account, we then explore the LHC phenomenology of this model and point out where the expected collider signatures can be distinguished from standard scenarios. In particular if neutrino masses are explained by low-scale seesaw mechanisms as is done throughout this work, there are potentially spectacular signals at low-energy experiments which search for charged lepton flavour violation. The last part of this thesis is dedicated to the detailed exploration of processes like μ → e γ, μ → 3 e or μ-e conversion in nuclei in a supersymmetric framework with an inverse seesaw mechanism. In particular, we disprove claims about a non-decoupling effect in Z-mediated three-body decays and study the prospects for discovering and distinguishing signals at near-future experiments. In this context we identify the possibility to deduce from ratios like BR(\(τ → 3 μ\))/BR(\(τ → μ e^+ e^-\)) whether the contributions from ν - W loops dominate over supersymmetric contributions or vice versa.},
  subject      = {Supersymmetrie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Campbell2015,
  author    = {Campbell, Marlen Jamie-Lee},
  title     = {Organizational cultures' impact on employees' corruption},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-123251},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  pages     = {197},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Although many researchers refer to organizational culture as the key to explain employees' organizational corruption (= corruption on behalf of the organization), literature lacks systematic empirical evidence. Through a mixed-method approach this research tries to shed some first lights on this issue with the questions: what characteristics describe an organizational culture that promotes employees' corruption? Does a certain type of organizational culture shape a positive attitude towards organizational corruption? Does organizational culture differ in its impact on different types of corruption? Does organizational culture interact with employees' sex to promote employees' corruption? And, is there a main effect of sex on corruption? A qualitative study investigates the characteristics of a corrupt organizational culture in both general and in particular for managers and employees (Study 1). 14 experts of different occupations were asked about underlying assumptions, values, and norms of a corrupt organizational culture coding the frequency and relationship of their answers. The results showed specific underlying assumptions, values, and norms that were shared by the interviewees and provide first insights into their interrelatedness. In addition, the quantitative field survey (Study 2) analyzed if a corrupt organizational culture shapes a positive attitude towards organizational corruption and if both tangible rewards and lax control mechanism mediate this impact. 131 participants answered questionnaires about their perceived competition in their industry, tangible rewards, lax control mechanism, and their attitude towards both gifting and bribery. Results showed that lax control mechanism (and for gifting also tangible rewards) mediated the positive impact of a corrupt organizational culture on organizational corruption. In addition, men and women did not differ in their attitude towards organizational corruption in a corrupt organizational culture. Finally a web-based experiment investigates if organizational culture shapes employees' corruption (Study 3). In addition this approach also covers if the impact of organizational culture on corruption depends on the type of corruption (organizational corruption vs. counterproductive), and if employees' sex influence corruption and if there is an interaction of organizational culture and sex on employees' corruption. 563 participants had to decide whether they engage in corruption. Although a corrupt organizational culture raises both types of corruption, there was neither a notable main effect of sex nor a high impact interaction effect of both on both types of corruption. Thus, aspects of a corrupt organizational culture seem to influence employees' corruption.},
  subject      = {Korruption},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Rehm2015,
  author    = {Rehm, Stefanie},
  title     = {Spermine-functionalized Perylene Bisimide Dyes: Synthesis and Self-assembly in Water},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-123201},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The main objective of this thesis was the design and synthesis of perylene bisimide dyes with sufficient water-solubility for the construction of self-assembled architectures in aqueous solutions. Beside these tasks another goal of this project was the control over the self-assembly process in terms of aggregate size and helicity, respectively. Within this thesis an appropriate synthesis for spermine-functionalized perylene bisimide dyes was developed and conducted successfully. The characterization of these building blocks and their course of self-assembly were investigated by NMR, UV/Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy as well as by atomic force and transmission electron microscopy. For the better understanding of the experimental results theoretical calculations were performed.},
  subject      = {Perylenderivate},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Awoye2015,
  author    = {Awoye, Oy{\´e}monbad{\´e} Herv{\´e} Rodrigue},
  title     = {Implications of future climate change on agricultural production in tropical West Africa: evidence from the Republic of Benin},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122887},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Environmental interlinked problems such as human-induced land cover change, water scarcity, loss in soil fertility, and anthropogenic climate change are expected to affect the viability of agriculture and increase food insecurity in many developing countries. Climate change is certainly the most serious of these challenges for the twenty-first century. The poorest regions of the world - tropical West Africa included - are the most vulnerable due to their high dependence on climate and weather sensitive activities such as agriculture, and the widespread poverty that limits the institutional and economic capacities to adapt to the new stresses brought about by climate change. Climate change is already acting negatively on the poor smallholders of tropical West Africa whose livelihoods dependent mainly on rain-fed agriculture that remains the cornerstone of the economy in the region. Adaptation of the agricultural systems to climate change effects is, therefore, crucial to secure the livelihoods of these rural communities. Since information is a key for decision-making, it is important to provide well-founded information on the magnitude of the impacts in order to design appropriate and sustainable adaptation strategies. Considering the case of agricultural production in the Republic of Benin, this study aims at using large-scale climatic predictors to assess the potential impacts of past and future climate change on agricultural productivity at a country scale in West Africa. Climate signals from large-scale circulation were used because state-of-the art regional climate models (RCM) still do not perfectly resolve synoptic and mesoscale convective processes. It was hypothesised that in rain-fed systems with low investments in agricultural inputs, yield variations are widely governed by climatic factors. Starting with pineapple, a perennial fruit crops, the study further considered some annual crops such as cotton in the group of fibre crops, maize, sorghum and rice in the group of cereals, cowpeas and groundnuts belonging to the legume crops, and cassava and yams which are root and tuber crops. Thus the selected crops represented the three known groups of photosynthetic pathways (i.e. CAM, C3, and C4 plants). In the study, use was made of the historical agricultural yield statistics for the Republic of Benin, observed precipitation and mean near-surface air temperature data from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU TS 3.1) and the corresponding variables simulated by the regional climate model (RCM) REMO. REMO RCM was driven at its boundaries by the global climate model ECHAM 5. Simulations with different greenhouse gas concentrations (SRES-A1B and B1 emission scenarios) and transient land cover change scenarios for present-day and future conditions were considered. The CRU data were submitted to empirical orthogonal functions analysis over the north hemispheric part of Africa to obtain large-scale observed climate predictors and associated consistent variability modes. REMO RCM data for the same region were projected on the derived climate patterns to get simulated climate predictors. By means of cross-validated Model Output Statistics (MOS) approach combined with Bayesian model averaging (BMA) techniques, the observed climate predictors and the crop predictand were further on used to derive robust statistical relationships. The robust statistical crop models perform well with high goodness-of-fit coefficients (e.g. for all combined crop models: 0.49 ≤ R2 ≤ 0.99; 0.28 ≤ Brier-Skill-Score ≤ 0.90). Provided that REMO RCM captures the main features of the real African climate system and thus is able to reproduce its inter-annual variability, the time-independent statistical transfer functions were then used to translate future climate change signal from the simulated climate predictors into attainable crop yields/crop yield changes. The results confirm that precipitation and air temperature governed agricultural production in Benin in general, and particularly, pineapple yield variations are mainly influenced by temperature. Furthermore, the projected yield changes under future anthropogenic climate change during the first-half of the 21st century amount up to -12.5\% for both maize and groundnuts, and -11\%, -29\%, -33\% for pineapple, cassava, and cowpeas respectively. Meanwhile yield gain of up to +10\% for sorghum and yams, +24\% for cotton, and +39\% for rice are expected. Over the time period 2001 - 2050, on average the future yield changes range between -3\% and -13\% under REMO SRES-B1 (GHG)+LCC, -2\% and -11\% under REMO SRES-A1B (GHG only),and -3\% and -14\% under REMO SRES-A1B (GHG)+LCC for pineapple, maize, sorghum, groundnuts, cowpeas and cassava. In the meantime for yams, cotton and rice, the average yield gains lie in interval of about +2\% to +7\% under REMO SRES-B1 (GHG)+LCC, +0.1\% and +12\% under REMO SRES-A1B (GHG only), and +3\% and +10\% under REMO SRES-A1B (GHG)+LCC. For sorghum, although the long-term average future yield depicts a reduction there are tendencies towards increasing yields in the future. The results also reveal that the increases in mean air temperature more than the changes in precipitation patterns are responsible for the projected yield changes. As well the results suggest that the reductions in pineapple yields cannot be attributed to the land cover/land use changes across sub-Saharan Africa. The production of groundnuts and in particular yams and cotton will profit from the on-going land use/land cover changes while the other crops will face detrimental effects. Henceforth, policymakers should take effective measures to limit the on-going land degradation processes and all other anthropogenic actions responsible for temperature increase. Biotechnological improvement of the cultivated crop varieties towards development of set of seed varieties adapted to hotter and dry conditions should be included in the breeding pipeline programs. Amongst other solutions, application of appropriate climate-smart agricultural practices and conservation agriculture are also required to offset the negative impacts of climate change in agriculture.},
  subject      = {Benin},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Bellwon2015,
  author    = {Bellwon, Patricia},
  title     = {Kinetic assessment by in vitro approaches - A contribution to reduce animals in toxicity testing},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122693},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The adoption of directives and regulations by the EU requires the development of alternative testing strategies as opposed to animal testing for risk assessment of xenobiotics. Additionally, high attrition rates of drugs late in the discovery phase demand improvement of current test batteries applied in the preclinical phase within the pharmaceutical area. These issues were taken up by the EU founded 7th Framework Program "Predict-IV"; with the overall goal to improve the predictability of safety of an investigational product, after repeated exposure, by integration of "omics" technologies applied on well established in vitro approaches. Three major target organs for drug-induced toxicity were in focus: liver, kidney and central nervous system. To relate obtained dynamic data with the in vivo situation, kinetics of the test compounds have to be evaluated and extrapolated by physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling. This thesis assessed in vitro kinetics of the selected test compounds (cyclosporine A, adefovir dipivoxil and cisplatinum) regarding their reliability and relevance to respective in vivo pharmacokinetics. Cells were exposed daily or every other day to the test compounds at two concentration levels (toxic and non-toxic) for up to 14 days. Concentrations of the test compounds or their major biotransformation products were determined by LC-MS/MS or ICP-MS in vehicle, media, cells and plastic adsorption samples generated at five different time-points on the first and the last treatment day. Cyclosporine A bioaccumulation was evident in primary rat hepatocytes (PRH) at the high concentration, while efficient biotransformation mediated by CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 was determined in primary human hepatocytes (PHH) and HepaRG cells. The lower biotransformation in PRH is in accordance with observation made in vivo with the rat being a poor model for CYP3A biotransformation. Further, inter-assay variability was noticed in PHH caused by biological variability in CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 activity in human donors. The inter-assay variability observed for PRH and HepaRG cells was a result of differences between vehicles regarding their cyclosporine A content. Cyclosporine A biotransformation was more prominent in HepaRG cells due to stable and high CYP3A4 and CYP3A5 activity. In addition, in vitro clearances were calculated and scaled to in vivo. All scaled in vitro clearances were overestimated (PRH: 10-fold, PHH: 2-fold, HepaRG cells: 2-fold). These results should be proven by physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modeling and additional experiments, in order to verify that these overestimations are constant for each system and subsequently can be diminished by implementation of further scaling factors. Brain cell cultures, primary neuronal culture of mouse cortex cells and primary aggregating rat brain cells, revealed fast achieved steady state levels of cyclosporine A. This indicates a chemical distribution of cyclosporine A between the aqueous and organic phases and only minor involvement of biological processes such as active transport and biotransformation. Hence, cyclosporine A uptake into cells is presumably transport mediated, supported by findings of transporter experiments performed on a parallel artificial membrane and Caco-2 cells. Plastic adsorption of cyclosporine A was significant, but different for each model, and should be considered by physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling. Kinetics of adefovir dipivoxil highlights the limits of in vitro approaches. Active transporters are required for adefovir uptake, but were not functional in RPTECT/TERT1. Therefore, adefovir uptake was limited to passive diffusion of adefovir dipivoxil, which itself degrades time-dependently under culture conditions. Cisplatinum kinetics, studied in RPTEC/TERT1 cells, indicated intracellular enrichment of platinum, while significant bioaccumulation was not noted. This could be due to cisplatinum not reaching steady state levels within 14 days repeated exposure. As shown in vivo, active transport occurred from the basolateral to apical side, but with lower velocity. Hence, obtained data need to be modeled to estimate cellular processes, which can be scaled and compared to in vivo. Repeated daily exposure to two different drug concentrations makes it possible to account for bioaccumulation at toxic concentrations or biotransformation/extrusion at non-toxic concentrations. Potential errors leading to misinterpretation of data were reduced by analyses of the vehicles as the applied drug concentrations do not necessarily correspond to the nominal concentrations. Finally, analyses of separate compartments (medium, cells, plastic) give insights into a compound's distribution, reduce misprediction of cellular processes, e.g. biotransformation, and help to interpret kinetic data. On the other hand, the limits of in vitro approaches have also been pointed out. For correct extrapolation to in vivo, it is essential that the studied in vitro system exhibits the functionality of proteins, which play a key role in the specific drug induced toxicity. Considering the benefits and limitations, it is worth to validate this long-term treatment experimental set-up and expand it on co-culture systems and on organs-on-chips with regard to alternative toxicity testing strategies for repeated dose toxicity studies.},
  subject      = {Zellkultur},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Schaeffner2015,
  author    = {Sch{\"a}ffner, Mathias},
  title     = {Multiscale analysis of non-convex discrete systems via \(\Gamma\)-convergence},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122349},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The subject of this thesis is the rigorous passage from discrete systems to continuum models via variational methods. The first part of this work studies a discrete model describing a one-dimensional chain of atoms with finite range interactions of Lennard-Jones type. We derive an expansion of the ground state energy using \(\Gamma\)-convergence. In particular, we show that a variant of the Cauchy-Born rule holds true for the model under consideration. We exploit this observation to derive boundary layer energies due to asymmetries of the lattice at the boundary or at cracks of the specimen. Hereby we extend several results obtained previously for models involving only nearest and next-to-nearest neighbour interactions by Braides and Cicalese and Scardia, Schl{\"o}merkemper and Zanini. The second part of this thesis is devoted to the analysis of a quasi-continuum (QC) method. To this end, we consider the discrete model studied in the first part of this thesis as the fully atomistic model problem and construct an approximation based on a QC method. We show that in an elastic setting the expansion by \(\Gamma\)-convergence of the fully atomistic energy and its QC approximation coincide. In the case of fracture, we show that this is not true in general. In the case of only nearest and next-to-nearest neighbour interactions, we give sufficient conditions on the QC approximation such that, also in case of fracture, the minimal energies of the fully atomistic energy and its approximation coincide in the limit.},
  subject      = {Gamma-Konvergenz},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Probst2015,
  author    = {Probst, Lilli Teresa},
  title     = {Immune cell function in the Clec16a Knock-down Mouse},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122513},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Genome wide association studies (GWAS) have identified Clec16a as disease suscepti-bility gene for numerous auto-immune disorders in particular type 1 diabetes. In spite of this strong genetic link, the role of Clec16a for immune regulation continues to be largely unknown. To study the function of Clec16a in an environment susceptible to autoimmune diseases a Clec16a deficient non obese diabetic (NOD) mouse strain was generated by means of lentiviral RNA interference. Clec16a knock down (KD) mice prove to be strongly protected against developing type 1 diabetes, an effect that is mediated by hyporeactive T effector cells. T cell hyporeactivity seems to result from an impairment of proximal TCR signalling and its cause is likely to be external to T cells. Given evidence on the involvement of the Clec16a Drosophila ortholog ema in endo- and autophagosomal processes, alterations in peripheral and/or central antigen presenting cells appeared to be potential reasons for the observed T cell hyporeactivity. While we are not able to identify any changes in quantity and quality of peripheral antigen presenting cells due to Clec16a silencing activation status of thymic epithelial cells in Clec16a KD mice deviates from NOD WT. The findings presented here suggest that thymic T cell development is affected by Clec16a variation. Such a relationship could explain the genetic association between Clec16a variations in humans and susceptibility to immune-mediated diseases, yet further investigations are needed to confirm this notion.},
  language  = {en}
}
@techreport{Segueda2015,
  type      = {Working Paper},
  author    = {Segueda, Wendpanga Eric},
  title     = {Imported Religions, Colonialism and the Situation of Women in Africa},
  edition   = {1},
  issn      = {2199-4315},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-12240},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122400},
  pages     = {24},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Women are a key to development, and gender is crucial to development policies. However, Western development organisations often promote gender equality as something valued in the West, or even as a new idea altogether, rather than taking the time to research how it was rooted in African societies. The same holds true for many Africans who frequently argue that gender equality is a Western idea. This paper intents to show that gender equality or complementarity is not an altogether new phenomenon to African societies, but that it existed in pre-colonial Africa. Raising awareness on this within African societies can help to put in place strategies for gender equality and facilitate change from within.},
  subject      = {Afrika},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Thienel2015,
  author    = {Thienel, Cornelius},
  title     = {Exploring the transport properties of the three-dimensional topological insulator material HgTe},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-122031},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden die Transporteigenschaften von verspannten HgTe-Volumenkristallen untersucht. Verspanntes HgTe stellt einen dreidimensionalen topologischen Isolator dar und ist zur Erkundung von topologischen Oberfl{\"a}chenzust{\"a}nden von speziellem Interesse, da es mit Hilfe von Molekularstrahlepitaxie in hoher Kristallqualit{\"a}t gewachsen werden kann. Die niedrige Defektdichte f{\"u}hrt zu beachtlichen Ladungstr{\"a}gerbeweglichkeiten, die deutlich {\"u}ber denen anderer topologischer Isolatoren liegen. Verspanntes HgTe hat jedoch eine kleine Energiel{\"u}cke von ca. 20 meV. Deshalb ist es f{\"u}r eine m{\"o}gliche Verwendung des Materials ein wichtiger Aspekt, in welchem Parameterbereich Oberfl{\"a}chentransport stattfindet. Um dieser Frage nachzugehen, werden die HgTe-Proben bei tiefen Temperaturen (T < 100 mK) und unter dem Einfluss hoher Magnetfelder in verschiedenen Orientierungen untersucht. Der Einfluss von Gate-Elektroden ober- und unterhalb der Struktur sowie von Deckschichten, die die Oberfl{\"a}chen sch{\"u}tzen, wird diskutiert. Basierend auf einer Analyse des Quanten-Hall-Effekts wird gezeigt, dass der Transport in diesem Material von topologischen Oberfl{\"a}chenzust{\"a}nden dominiert ist. Die Abh{\"a}ngigkeit der topologischen Oberfl{\"a}chenzust{\"a}nde von der Gate-Spannung wird dargestellt. Durch diese Abh{\"a}ngigkeit ist es zum ersten Mal m{\"o}glich, eine ungerade ganzzahlige Quanten-Hall-Plateau Sequenz nachzuweisen, die von den Oberfl{\"a}chen senkrecht zum Magnetfeld stammt. Des Weiteren wird im Rahmen dieser Arbeit in Proben hoher Oberfl{\"a}chenqualit{\"a}t zum ersten Mal f{\"u}r einen 3D TI der p-Typ QHE der Oberfl{\"a}chenzust{\"a}nde beobachtet. Aus der Gate-Abh{\"a}ngigkeit der Messungen wird geschlossen, dass das Abschirmverhalten in 3D TIs nicht trivial ist. Die Transportdaten werden mit Hilfe von intuitiven theoretischen Modellen auf qualitative Weise analysiert.},
  subject      = {Topologischer Isolator},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Klein2015,
  author    = {Klein, Dennis},
  title     = {The pathogenic role of endogenous antibodies in a mouse model for Charcot-Marie-Tooth 1B neuropathy},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121941},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) type 1 neuropathies are a genetically heterogeneous group of non-treatable inherited disorders affecting the peripheral nervous system that lead to sensory and motor dysfunction. Secondary low grade inflammation, implicating the innate and adaptive immune system, could previously be identified as a substantial disease modifier in two mouse models for CMT1, CMT1B and 1X, respectively. However, the exact mechanism how the adaptive immune system contributes to disease pathogenesis is not completely understood. Based on observations that the accumulation of endogenous antibodies to myelin components is important for rapid myelin clearance after nerve injury during Wallerian degeneration, a possibly similar mechanism was considered for endogenous antibodies as disease amplifier in mice heterozygously deficient for P0 (P0het), mimicking some typical features of CMT1B. In this study an increased antibody deposition was detected in the affected peripheral nerves of P0het myelin mutant mice. By crossbreeding P0het mutants with mice specifically lacking B-lymphocytes, and therefore antibodies (JHD-/-), a decline of endoneurial macrophages together with a substantially ameliorated demyelination could be demonstrated in 6-month-old mutant mice. Moreover, reconstitution with murine IgGs reverted the neuropathic phenotype, substantiating that endogenous antibodies are potentially pathogenic at this early stage of disease. Unexpectedly, in 12-months-old P0het mutants, JHD deficiency resulted in disease aggravation accompanied by an increased inflammatory reaction and M2-polarized macrophage response. These observations suggest that in a mouse model for CMT1B, the lack of endogenous antibodies has a dichotomous effect: ameliorating early macrophage-mediated demyelination, as opposed to increasing inflammatory reactions leading to disease aggravation at older ages.},
  subject      = {Maus},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Erlbeck2015,
  author    = {Erlbeck, Helena},
  title     = {The event-related potentials Mismatch Negativity, P300, and N400: Effects of attentional modulation and application in patients with disorders of consciousness},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121041},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The present work comprises four studies dealing with the investigation of the auditory event-related potentials (ERP) Mismatch Negativity (MMN), P300, and N400 under different attentional instructions, and with their application in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) to assess residual cognitive functioning. In guided interviews (study 1), practitioners working with DOC patients stated their general interest in and an objective need for the complementation of current diagnostic procedures by reliable and valid ERP-based methods. Subsequently, in study 2, simple oddball and semantic paradigms were applied to 19 behaviorally non-responsive DOC patients revealing the presence of at least one ERP in eight patients investigated. In the third and fourth study, specific attentional effects on ERPs were investigated in healthy participants to define optimal instructions and stimulus parameters. In study 3, MMN and N400 amplitudes were assessed in 18 participants, and in study 4, MMN and P300 amplitudes were assessed in 32 participants. Both studies included an ignore task (attention on simultaneous visual stimuli), a passive task, and a focused task and revealed distinct attentional effects on P300 and N400 with largest amplitudes in the focused task, smaller ones in the passive task and no ERP in the ignore task. An MMN was elicited in all tasks, but still, amplitudes differed as a function of task. In addition, study 4 included oddball paradigms comprising several deviants in different dimensions. Higher amplitudes were found in this multifeature paradigm compared to traditional oddball paradigms and larger amplitudes were elicited by deviants highly different from standards. It is concluded that ERPs represent a promising tool to complement clinical assessment of DOC patients. Application of ERP paradigms should include focused instructions, especially when using semantic material. Furthermore, multifeature paradigms have been proven especially useful eliciting large amplitudes and allowing for the investigation of several dimensions of deviants at the same time.},
  subject      = {Bewusstseinsst{\"o}rung},
  language  = {en}
}
@inproceedings{HoeggerXiao2015,
  author    = {H{\"o}gger, Petra and Xiao, Jianbo},
  title     = {Abstracts of the International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121585},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The International Symposium on Phytochemicals in Medicine and Food (ISPMF2015), organized by the Phytochemical Society of Europe (PSE) and the Phytochemical Society of Asia (PSA), was held June 26-29, 2015, in Shanghai of China. This was the first time that a PSE meeting has been held in Asia and a PSE-PSA joint symposium provided an opportunity for communication between scientists from Europe and Asia and other continents. ISPMF2015 has been jointly sponsored by Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Guizhou Medical University, Shanghai Normal University, Yancheng Institute of Technology, Beijing Normal University, and Fudan University. More than 270 scientists from 48 countries attended this meeting and presented their research and opinions on phytochemistry, phytomedicine and phytoneering. The international organizing committee and scientific advisory board of ISPMF 2015 comprised of outstanding scientists from around the globe. Dr. Jianbo Xiao was the chairman of the International Organizing Committee of ISPMF2015 and moderated the open address on June 26. The organizing committee of ISPMF2015 assembled an exciting and diverse program, featuring 16 sessions including 12 plenary lectures, 20 invited talks, 55 short oral presentations, and more than 130 posters, which were dedicated to creating a podium for exchanging the latest research results in the phytochemicals for food and human health.},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Schreyer2015,
  author    = {Schreyer, Manuel},
  title     = {Search for supersymmetry in events containing light leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum in \(\sqrt{s}\) = 8 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120863},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The results of two analyses searching for supersymmetry (SUSY) in data of the ATLAS experiment are presented in this thesis. The data were recorded in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 at a centre of mass energy of \(\sqrt{s}\)=8 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb\(^{-1}\). The first search is performed in signatures containing an opposite-sign electron or muon pair, which is compatible with originating from a Z boson decay, in addition to jets and large missing transverse momentum. The analysis targets the production of squarks and gluinos in R-parity conserving (RPC) models with SUSY breaking via General Gauge Mediation (GGM). The main Standard Model (SM) backgrounds are \(t\overline t\), WW, W+t and Z to \(\tau \tau\) processes which are entirely estimated from data using different-flavour events. Besides that, the SM production of Z bosons in association with jets and large fake missing momentum from mismeasurements plays a role and is predicted with the data-driven jet smearing method. Backgrounds from events with fake leptons are estimated with the data-driven matrix method. WZ/ZZ production as well as smaller background contributions are determined from Monte-Carlo simulations. The search observes an excess of data over the SM prediction with a local significance of 3.0 \(\sigma\) in the electron channel, 1.7 \(\sigma\) in the muon channel and 3.0 \(\sigma\) when the two channels are added together. The results are used to constrain the parameters of the GGM model. The second analysis uses the already published results of an ATLAS search for SUSY in events with one isolated electron or muon, jets and missing transverse momentum to reinterpret them in the context of squark and gluino production in SUSY models with R-parity violating (RPV) \(LQ\overline D\)-operators. In contrast to RPC models, the lightest SUSY particle (LSP) is not stable but decays into SM particles. "Standard" analyses often do not consider SUSY models with RPV although they are in principle sensitive to them. The exclusion limits on the squark and gluino mass obtained from the reinterpretation extend up to 1200 GeV. These are the first results by any ATLAS SUSY search which systematically cover a wide range of RPV couplings in the case of prompt LSP decays. However, the analysis is not sensitive to the full parameter space of the \(LQ\overline D\)-model and reveals gaps in the ATLAS SUSY program which have to be closed by dedicated search strategies in the future.},
  subject      = {Supersymmetrie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Wongkaew2015,
  author    = {Wongkaew, Suttida},
  title     = {On the control through leadership of multi-agent systems},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120914},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The investigation of interacting multi-agent models is a new field of mathematical research with application to the study of behavior in groups of animals or community of people. One interesting feature of multi-agent systems is collective behavior. From the mathematical point of view, one of the challenging issues considering with these dynamical models is development of control mechanisms that are able to influence the time evolution of these systems. In this thesis, we focus on the study of controllability, stabilization and optimal control problems for multi-agent systems considering three models as follows: The first one is the Hegselmann Krause opinion formation (HK) model. The HK dynamics describes how individuals' opinions are changed by the interaction with others taking place in a bounded domain of confidence. The study of this model focuses on determining feedback controls in order to drive the agents' opinions to reach a desired agreement. The second model is the Heider social balance (HB) model. The HB dynamics explains the evolution of relationships in a social network. One purpose of studying this system is the construction of control function in oder to steer the relationship to reach a friendship state. The third model that we discuss is a flocking model describing collective motion observed in biological systems. The flocking model under consideration includes self-propelling, friction, attraction, repulsion, and alignment features. We investigate a control for steering the flocking system to track a desired trajectory. Common to all these systems is our strategy to add a leader agent that interacts with all other members of the system and includes the control mechanism. Our control through leadership approach is developed using classical theoretical control methods and a model predictive control (MPC) scheme. To apply the former method, for each model the stability of the corresponding linearized system near consensus is investigated. Further, local controllability is examined. However, only in the Hegselmann-Krause opinion formation model, the feedback control is determined in order to steer agents' opinions to globally converge to a desired agreement. The MPC approach is an optimal control strategy based on numerical optimization. To apply the MPC scheme, optimal control problems for each model are formulated where the objective functions are different depending on the desired objective of the problem. The first-oder necessary optimality conditions for each problem are presented. Moreover for the numerical treatment, a sequence of open-loop discrete optimality systems is solved by accurate Runge-Kutta schemes, and in the optimization procedure, a nonlinear conjugate gradient solver is implemented. Finally, numerical experiments are performed to investigate the properties of the multi-agent models and demonstrate the ability of the proposed control strategies to drive multi-agent systems to attain a desired consensus and to track a given trajectory.},
  subject      = {Mehragentensystem},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Fliesser2015,
  author    = {Fließer, Mirjam},
  title     = {Hypoxia and hypoxia-inducible factor 1α modulate the immune response of human dendritic cells against Aspergillus fumigatus},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-121392},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {The mold Aspergillus fumigatus causes life-threatening infections in immunocompromised patients. Over the past decade new findings in research have improved our understanding of A. fumigatus-host interactions. One of them was the detection of localized areas of tissue hypoxia in the lungs of mice infected with A. fumigatus. The transcription factor hypoxia-inducible factor 1α (HIF 1α) is known as the central regulator of cellular responses to hypoxia. Under normoxia, this constitutively expressed protein is degraded by oxygen-dependent mechanisms in most mammalian cell types. Interaction with pathogens can induce HIF 1α stabilization under normoxic conditions in innate immune cells. Bacterial infection models revealed that hypoxic microenvironments and signaling via HIF 1α modulate functions of host immune cells. Moreover, it was recently described that in murine phagocytes, HIF 1α expression is essential to overcome an A. fumigatus infection. However, the influence of hypoxia and the role of HIF 1α signaling for anti-A. fumigatus immunity is still poorly understood, especially regarding dendritic cells (DCs), which are important regulators of anti-fungal immunity. In this study, the functional relevance of hypoxia and HIF 1α signaling in the response of human DCs against A. fumigatus has been investigated. Hypoxia attenuated the pro-inflammatory response of DCs against A. fumigatus during the initial infection as shown by genome-wide microarray expression analyses and cytokine quantification. The up-regulation of maturation-associated molecules on DCs stimulated with A. fumigatus under hypoxia was reduced; however, these DCs possessed an enhanced capacity to stimulate T cells. This study thereby revealed divergent influence of hypoxia on anti-A. fumigatus DC functions that included both, inhibiting and enhancing effects. HIF-1α was stabilized in DCs following stimulation with A. fumigatus under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. This stabilization was partially dependent on Dectin-1, the major receptor for A. fumigatus on human DCs. Using siRNA-based HIF 1α silencing combined with gene expression microarrays, a modulatory effect of HIF-1α on the anti-fungal immune response of human DCs was identified. Specifically, the transcriptomes of HIF-1α silenced DCs indicated that HIF-1α enhanced DC metabolism and cytokine release in response to A. fumigatus under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. This was confirmed by further down-stream analyses that included quantification of glycolytic activity and cytokine profiling of DCs. By that, this study demonstrated functional relevance of HIF 1α expression in DCs responding to A. fumigatus. The data give novel insight into the cellular functions of HIF 1α in human DCs that include regulation of the anti-fungal immune response under normoxia and hypoxia. The comprehensive transcriptome datasets in combination with the down-stream protein analyses from this study will promote further investigations to further characterize the complex interplay between hypoxia, activation of Dectin-1 and HIF-1α signaling in host responses against A. fumigatus.},
  subject      = {Immunologie},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{NavarroBullock2015,
  author    = {Navarro Bullock, Beate},
  title     = {Privacy aware social information retrieval and spam filtering using folksonomies},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120941},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Social interactions as introduced by Web 2.0 applications during the last decade have changed the way the Internet is used. Today, it is part of our daily lives to maintain contacts through social networks, to comment on the latest developments in microblogging services or to save and share information snippets such as photos or bookmarks online. Social bookmarking systems are part of this development. Users can share links to interesting web pages by publishing bookmarks and providing descriptive keywords for them. The structure which evolves from the collection of annotated bookmarks is called a folksonomy. The sharing of interesting and relevant posts enables new ways of retrieving information from the Web. Users can search or browse the folksonomy looking at resources related to specific tags or users. Ranking methods known from search engines have been adjusted to facilitate retrieval in social bookmarking systems. Hence, social bookmarking systems have become an alternative or addendum to search engines. In order to better understand the commonalities and differences of social bookmarking systems and search engines, this thesis compares several aspects of the two systems' structure, usage behaviour and content. This includes the use of tags and query terms, the composition of the document collections and the rankings of bookmarks and search engine URLs. Searchers (recorded via session ids), their search terms and the clicked on URLs can be extracted from a search engine query logfile. They form similar links as can be found in folksonomies where a user annotates a resource with tags. We use this analogy to build a tripartite hypergraph from query logfiles (a logsonomy), and compare structural and semantic properties of log- and folksonomies. Overall, we have found similar behavioural, structural and semantic characteristics in both systems. Driven by this insight, we investigate, if folksonomy data can be of use in web information retrieval in a similar way to query log data: we construct training data from query logs and a folksonomy to build models for a learning-to-rank algorithm. First experiments show a positive correlation of ranking results generated from the ranking models of both systems. The research is based on various data collections from the social bookmarking systems BibSonomy and Delicious, Microsoft's search engine MSN (now Bing) and Google data. To maintain social bookmarking systems as a good source for information retrieval, providers need to fight spam. This thesis introduces and analyses different features derived from the specific characteristics of social bookmarking systems to be used in spam detection classification algorithms. Best results can be derived from a combination of profile, activity, semantic and location-based features. Based on the experiments, a spam detection framework which identifies and eliminates spam activities for the social bookmarking system BibSonomy has been developed. The storing and publication of user-related bookmarks and profile information raises questions about user data privacy. What kinds of personal information is collected and how do systems handle user-related items? In order to answer these questions, the thesis looks into the handling of data privacy in the social bookmarking system BibSonomy. Legal guidelines about how to deal with the private data collected and processed in social bookmarking systems are also presented. Experiments will show that the consideration of user data privacy in the process of feature design can be a first step towards strengthening data privacy.},
  subject      = {Information Retrieval},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Nagel2015,
  author    = {Nagel, Christoph},
  title     = {Novel manganese- and molybdenum-based photoactivatable CO-releasing molecules: synthesis and biological activity},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120376},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Since its discovery as a small signaling molecule in the human body, researchers have tried to utilize the beneficial cytoprotective properties of carbon monoxide in therapeutic applications. Initial work focused on the controlled direct application of CO gas. However, to circumvent the disadvantages of this method such as requirement for special equipment, hospitalization of the patient and the risk of overdosing, metal-carbonyl complexes were developed as CO-releasing molecules (CORMs) which are able to deliver CO in a tissue-specific manner. However, upon the release of CO from the metal coordination sphere, complex fragments termed inactivated CORMs (iCORMs) with free coordination sites remain which can undergo nonspecific follow-up reactions under physiological conditions. Thus, the first aim of the present thesis was the coordination of tetradentate ligands such as tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (tpa), bis(2-pyridylmethyl)(2-quinolylmethyl)amine (bpqa), bis(2-quinolylmethyl)(2-pyridylmethyl)amine (bqpa) and tris(2-quinolylmethyl) amine (tmqa) in a tridentate facial manner to a fac-Mn(CO)3 moiety previously established as a photoactivatable CO-releasing molecule (PhotoCORM). The desired coordination of the pedant donor group upon photolytic CO release at 365 nm was demonstrated by UV/Vis-, IR- und 1H NMR experiments and verified by DFT calculations. All complexes of the series showed long-term dark stability in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS), but released between two and three equivalents of carbon monoxide with half-lives of around 5-10 minutes upon illumination at 365 nm. Although the photolytic properties of the complexes were quite similar besides the differences in type of hetereoaromatic ligands, the determination of the logP values showed an increase of lipophilicity with the number of quinoline groups, which might enable tissue-specific uptake. A significant cellular manganese uptake as well as the binding of CO released upon photolysis to the cytochrome c oxidases in E. coli cells was demonstrated for [Mn(CO)3(tpa)]+. Furthermore, this complex exhibited photoinduced bactericidal activity when the cells were grown in succinate-containing medium and thus unable to change their metabolism to mixed acid fermentation. In the second part of the project, the hexadentate ligand 1,4,7-tris(2-pyridylmethyl)-1,4,7-triazacyclononane (py3tacn) was coordinated to a facial Mn(CO)3 moiety. The resulting [Mn(CO)3(py3tacn-3N)]+ complex has one pedant donor group per labile carbonyl ligand and thus is a significant improvement over the 1st generation tpa-complexes. The metal-coligand inactivated CORM (iCORM) fragment expected to be generated upon complete photolytic CO release, [Mn(py3tacn-6N)]2+, was synthesized independently and will serve as a well-defined negative control in upcoming biological tests. The corresponding CORM has long-term dark stability in pure dimethylsulfoxide or phosphate-buffered myoglobin solution, with three equivalents of CO released with a half-life of 22 minutes upon illumination at 412 nm. The photolysis was also followed by IR spectroscopy and the intermediates, in line with a stepwise release of carbon monoxide, and occupation of vacated sites by the pedant pyridine group were verified by DFT calculations. Due to possible tissue damage by energy-rich light and the inverse correlation of tissue penetration depth and illumination wavelength, the absorption maxima of PhotoCORMs should ideally be in the phototherapeutic window between 600 and 1200 nm. Thus, in the third part of this work, a series of heterobinuclear Mn(CO)3/Ru(bpy)2 PhotoCORMs was prepared to shift the absorption of these compounds into the red region of the UV/Vis spectrum. For the synthesis of such Mn(I)/Ru(II) complexes, the bridging ligands 2,3-di(2-pyridyl)quinoxaline (dpx) and 3-(pyridin-2-yl)-1,2,4-triazine[5,6-f]-1,10-phenanthroline (pytp) were prepared and the two binding pockets subsequently filled with a Ru(bpy)2 and a fac-Mn(CO)3 moiety. The resulting two heterobinuclear metal complexes [Ru(bpy)2(dpx)MnBr(CO)3]2+ and [Ru(bpy)2(pytp)MnBr(CO)3]2+ as well as [Ru(etx)(tbx)MnBr(CO)3]2+ with etx = ethyl(2,2':6',2''-terpyridine)-4'-carboxylate and tbx = N-((2,2':6',2''-terpyridin)-4'-yl)2,2'-bipyridine-5-carboxamide which was prepared by a metal precursor provided by the group of Prof. Dr. Katja Heinze showed a significant shift of the main absorption bands to higher wavelengths as well as two times higher extinction coefficients than the analogous mononuclear Mn(I) compounds. However, both the Mn(I)/Ru(II) and Mn(I) complexes had a reduced stability in phosphate-buffered myoglobin solution even in the absence of light. The efficiency of the CO-release from [Ru(etx)(tbx)MnBr(CO)3]2+ and [Ru(bpy)2(dpx)MnBr(CO)3]2+ could be controlled by proper choice of the excitation wavelength. A change from 468 to 525 nm or even 660 nm led to a decrease of the number of CO equivalents released from two to one and an elongation of the half-lives. Finally, since nitric oxide also serves as a small messenger molecule in the human body with its signaling pathways interacting with those of CO, a mixed-ligand CO/NO metal complex was sought. [Mo(CO)2(NO)(iPr3tacn)]+ with iPr3tacn = 1,4,7-triisopropyl-1,4,7-triazacyclonane was selected from the literature and its molecular structure determined by single crystal diffraction, demonstrating the presence of an NO+ ligand in the coordination sphere as indicated by a MO-N-O angle close to 180°. Photolysis of [Mo(CO)2(NO)(iPr3tacn)]+ required high-energy UV light, which prevented a quantification of the CO release due to photolytic decomposition of the myoglobin. However, solution IR experiments showed that the complex lost the two carbon monoxide ligands upon illumination at 254 nm while the NO remained tightly bound to the metal. The structures observed of the intermediates were also verified by DFT calculations. In conclusion, in this project, four different classes of novel transition metal-based photoactivatable CO-releasing molecules (PhotoCORMs) were prepared and studied. The first group incorporated one additional free donor group per LMn(CO)3 moiety but varied in the number of coordinated pyridyl and quinolinyl groups which allows the control of the lipophilicity of these compounds. As an extension of this concept, the second series incorporated one free donor group per labile carbonyl ligand which gives rise to well-defined photolysis products that can be independently prepared and assayed. The third class was based on a Ru(II) photosensitizer unit connected to a MnBr(CO)3 PhotoCORM moiety. This shifts the absorption maximum from 500 nm to about 585 nm in [Ru(bpy)2(dpx)MnBr(CO)3]2+. Finally, a first mixed-ligand CO/NO carrier molecule was evaluated for its photolytic behavior. However, while the carbonyl ligands were photolabile at low excitation wavelengths, release of the NO ligand was not observed under the conditions studied. In a next step, detailed studies on the bioactivity of the different classes of PhotoCORMs need to be carried out with partner groups from biochemistry to fully explore their biomedical potential.},
  subject      = {Kohlenmonoxid},
  language  = {en}
}
@techreport{MuellerBrandeckBocquetGiegLowingeretal.2015,
  type      = {Working Paper},
  author    = {M{\"u}ller-Brandeck-Bocquet, Gisela and Gieg, Philipp and Lowinger, Timo and Gs{\"a}nger, Matthias and Becker, Michael and Kundu, Amitabh and Valerian, Rodrigues and S, Shaji and Sch{\"o}mbucher-Kusterer, Elisabeth and Biswas, Aparajita},
  title     = {Exploring Emerging India - Eight Essays},
  editor    = {M{\"u}ller-Brandeck-Bocquet, Gisela and Gieg, Philipp and Lowinger, Timo},
  doi       = {10.25972/OPUS-11997},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-119973},
  pages     = {58},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {India's economic rise since the 1990s has been followed by a more prominent global role for the country. Despite economic setbacks in recent years and huge domestic challenges like poverty, caste issues, and gender inequality, India today is almost universally characterised as an "emerging power". At the same time, the country continues to show an enormous diversity. Thus, exploring emerging India can surely not be confined to economic analysis only. Instead, it is vital to take current developments in domestic and international politics, society, culture, religion, and political thinking into consideration as well. Following an interdisciplinary approach, contributions from Political Science, International Relations, Indology, Political Theory, and Economics are fundamental in order to grasp the country's diversity. This collection assembles eight essays which, individually, serve as working papers reflecting the authors' various research focuses, while collectively composing a multifaceted and multidis-ciplinary picture of emerging India. It thereby reflects the approach the University of W{\"u}rz-burg's Centre for Modern India and the Institute for Political Science and Sociology's India Forum are committed to: bringing together different academic disciplines in order to generate nuanced insights into India's manifold diversity.},
  subject      = {Indien / Government},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Zuern2015,
  author    = {Z{\"u}rn, Michael},
  title     = {The Dual Nature of Utility - Categorical and Comparative Evaluations in Economic Decisions},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-120141},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {Utility is perhaps the most central concept in modern economic theorizing. However, the behaviorist reduction to Revealed Preference not only removed the psychological content of utility but experimental investigations also exposed numerous anomalies in this theory. This program of research focused on the psychological processes by which utility judgments are generated. For this purpose, the standard assumption of a homogeneous concept is substituted by the Utilitarian Duality Hypothesis. In particular, judgments concerning categorical utility (uCat) infer an object's category based on its attributes which may subsequently allow the transfer of evaluative information like feelings or attitudes. In contrast, comparative utility (uCom) depends on the distance to a reference value on a specific dimension of comparison. Importantly, dimensions of comparison are manifold and context dependent. In a series of experiments, we show that the resulting Dual Utility Model is able to explain several known anomalies in a parsimonious fashion. Moreover, we identify central factors determining the relative weight assigned to both utility components. Finally, we discuss the implications of the Utilitarian Duality for both, the experimental practice in economics as well as the consequences for economic theorizing. In sum, we propose that the Dual Utility Model can serve as an integrative framework for both the rational model and its anomalies.},
  subject      = {Nutzen},
  language  = {en}
}
@phdthesis{Ciaramella2015,
  author    = {Ciaramella, Gabriele},
  title     = {Exact and non-smooth control of quantum spin systems},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-118386},
  school      = {Universit{\"a}t W{\"u}rzburg},
  year      = {2015},
  abstract  = {An efficient and accurate computational framework for solving control problems governed by quantum spin systems is presented. Spin systems are extremely important in modern quantum technologies such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, quantum imaging and quantum computing. In these applications, two classes of quantum control problems arise: optimal control problems and exact-controllability problems, with a bilinear con- trol structure. These models correspond to the Schr{\"o}dinger-Pauli equation, describing the time evolution of a spinor, and the Liouville-von Neumann master equation, describing the time evolution of a spinor and a density operator. This thesis focuses on quantum control problems governed by these models. An appropriate definition of the optimiza- tion objectives and of the admissible set of control functions allows to construct controls with specific properties. These properties are in general required by the physics and the technologies involved in quantum control applications. A main purpose of this work is to address non-differentiable quantum control problems. For this reason, a computational framework is developed to address optimal-control prob- lems, with possibly L1 -penalization term in the cost-functional, and exact-controllability problems. In both cases the set of admissible control functions is a subset of a Hilbert space. The bilinear control structure of the quantum model, the L1 -penalization term and the control constraints generate high non-linearities that make difficult to solve and analyse the corresponding control problems. The first part of this thesis focuses on the physical description of the spin of particles and of the magnetic resonance phenomenon. Afterwards, the controlled Schr{\"o}dinger- Pauli equation and the Liouville-von Neumann master equation are discussed. These equations, like many other controlled quantum models, can be represented by dynamical systems with a bilinear control structure. In the second part of this thesis, theoretical investigations of optimal control problems, with a possible L1 -penalization term in the objective and control constraints, are consid- ered. In particular, existence of solutions, optimality conditions, and regularity properties of the optimal controls are discussed. In order to solve these optimal control problems, semi-smooth Newton methods are developed and proved to be superlinear convergent. The main difficulty in the implementation of a Newton method for optimal control prob- lems comes from the dimension of the Jacobian operator. In a discrete form, the Jacobian is a very large matrix, and this fact makes its construction infeasible from a practical point of view. For this reason, the focus of this work is on inexact Krylov-Newton methods, that combine the Newton method with Krylov iterative solvers for linear systems, and allows to avoid the construction of the discrete Jacobian. In the third part of this thesis, two methodologies for the exact-controllability of quan- tum spin systems are presented. The first method consists of a continuation technique, while the second method is based on a particular reformulation of the exact-control prob- lem. Both these methodologies address minimum L2 -norm exact-controllability problems. In the fourth part, the thesis focuses on the numerical analysis of quantum con- trol problems. In particular, the modified Crank-Nicolson scheme as an adequate time discretization of the Schr{\"o}dinger equation is discussed, the first-discretize-then-optimize strategy is used to obtain a discrete reduced gradient formula for the differentiable part of the optimization objective, and implementation details and globalization strategies to guarantee an adequate numerical behaviour of semi-smooth Newton methods are treated. In the last part of this work, several numerical experiments are performed to vali- date the theoretical results and demonstrate the ability of the proposed computational framework to solve quantum spin control problems.},
  subject      = {Spinsystem},
  language  = {en}
}