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Internet applications are becoming more and more flexible to support diverge user demands and network conditions. This is reflected by technical concepts, which provide new adaptation mechanisms to allow fine grained adjustment of the application quality and the corresponding bandwidth requirements. For the case of video streaming, the scalable video codec H.264/SVC allows the flexible adaptation of frame rate, video resolution and image quality with respect to the available network resources. In order to guarantee a good user-perceived quality (Quality of Experience, QoE) it is necessary to adjust and optimize the video quality accurately. But not only have the applications of the current Internet changed. Within network and transport, new technologies evolved during the last years providing a more flexible and efficient usage of data transport and network resources. One of the most promising technologies is Network Virtualization (NV) which is seen as an enabler to overcome the ossification of the Internet stack. It provides means to simultaneously operate multiple logical networks which allow for example application-specific addressing, naming and routing, or their individual resource management. New transport mechanisms like multipath transmission on the network and transport layer aim at an efficient usage of available transport resources. However, the simultaneous transmission of data via heterogeneous transport paths and communication technologies inevitably introduces packet reordering. Additional mechanisms and buffers are required to restore the correct packet order and thus to prevent a disturbance of the data transport. A proper buffer dimensioning as well as the classification of the impact of varying path characteristics like bandwidth and delay require appropriate evaluation methods. Additionally, for a path selection mechanism real time evaluation mechanisms are needed. A better application-network interaction and the corresponding exchange of information enable an efficient adaptation of the application to the network conditions and vice versa. This PhD thesis analyzes a video streaming architecture utilizing multipath transmission and scalable video coding and develops the following optimization possibilities and results: Analysis and dimensioning methods for multipath transmission, quantification of the adaptation possibilities to the current network conditions with respect to the QoE for H.264/SVC, and evaluation and optimization of a future video streaming architecture, which allows a better interaction of application and network.
This dissertation is divided into three studies by addressing the following constitutive research questions in the context of the biotechnology industry: (1) How do different types of inter-firm alliances influence a firm’s R&D activity? (2) How does an increasing number and diversity of alliances in a firm’s alliance portfolio affect its R&D activity? (3) What is the optimal balance between exploration and exploitation? (1) To answer these research questions the first main chapter analyzes the impact of different types of alliances on the R&D activities of successful firms in the biotechnology industry. Following the use of a new approach to measuring changes in research activities, the results show that alliances are used to specialize in a certain research field, rather than to enter a completely new market. This effect becomes smaller when the equity involvement of the partners in the alliance project increases. (2) The second main chapter analyzes the impact on innovation output of having heterogeneous partners in a biotechnology firm’s alliance portfolio. Previous literature has stressed that investment in the heterogeneity of partners in an alliance portfolio is more important than merely engaging in multiple collaborative agreements. The analysis of a unique panel dataset of 20 biotechnology firms and their 8,602 alliances suggests that engaging in many alliances generally has a positive influence on a firm’s innovation output. Furthermore, maintaining diverse alliance portfolios has an inverted U-shaped influence on a firm’s innovation output, as managerial costs and complexity levels become too high. (3) And the third main chapter investigates whether there is an optimal balance to be found between explorative and exploitative innovation strategies. Previous literature states that firms that are ambidextrous (i.e., able to focus on exploration and exploitation simultaneously) tend to be more successful. Using a unique panel dataset of 20 leading biotechnology firms and separating their explorative and exploitative research, the chapter suggests that firms seeking to increase their innovation output should avoid imbalances between their explorative and exploitative innovation strategies. Furthermore, an inverted U-shaped relationship between a firm’s relative research attention on exploration and its innovation output is found. This dissertation concludes with the results of the dissertation, combines the findings, gives managerial implications and proposes areas for potential further research.
PTPN22 encodes the lymphoid tyrosine phosphatase Lyp that can dephosphorylate Lck, ZAP-70 and Fyn to attenuate TCR signaling. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (C1858T) causes a substitution from arginine (R) to tryptophan (W) at 620 residue (R620W). Lyp-620W has been confirmed as a susceptible allele in multiple autoimmune diseases, including type 1 diabetes (T1D). Several independent studies proposed that the disease-associated allele is a gain-of-function variant. However, a recent report found that in human cells and a knockin mouse containing the R620W homolog that Ptpn22 protein degradation is accelerated, indicating Lyp-620W is a loss-of-function variant. Whether Lyp R620W is a gain- or loss-of-function variant remains controversial. To resolve this issue, we generated two lines (P2 and P4) of nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice in which Ptpn22 can be inducibly silenced by RNAi. We found long term silencing of Ptpn22 increased spleen cellularity and regulatory T (Treg) cell numbers, replicating the effect of gene deletion reported in the knockout (KO) B6 mice. Notably, Ptpn22 silencing also increased the reactivity and apoptotic behavior of B lymphocytes, which is consistent with the reduced reactivity and apoptosis of human B cells carrying the alleged gain-of-function PTPN22 allele. Furthermore, loss of Ptpn22 protected P2 KD mice from spontaneous and Cyclophosphamide (CY) induced diabetes. Our data support the notion that Lyp-620W is a gain-of-function variant. Moreover, Lyp may be a valuable target for the treatment of autoimmune diseases.
Plant-derived natural products and their analogs continue to play an important role in the discovery of new drugs for the treatment of human diseases. Potentially promising representatives of secondary metabolites are the naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids, which show a broad range of activities against protozoan pathogens, such as plasmodia, leishmania, and trypanosoma. Due to the increasing resistance of those pathogens against current therapies, highly potent novel agents are still urgently needed. Thus, it is worthy to discover new naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids hopefully with pronounced bioactivities by isolation from plants or by synthesis. The naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids are biosynthetically related to another class of plant-derived products, the naphthoquinones, some of which have been recently found to display excellent anti-multiple myeloma activities without showing any cytotoxicities on normal blood cells. Multiple myeloma still remains incurable, although remissions may be induced with co-opted therapeutic treatments. Therefore, more potent naphthoquinones are urgently required, and can be obtained by isolation from plants or by synthesis. In detail, the results in this thesis are listed as follows: 1) Isolation and characterization of naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids from the stems of a Chinese Ancistrocladus tectorius species. Nine new naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids, named ancistectorine A1 (60), N-methylancistectorine A1 (61), ancistectorine A2 (62a), 5-epi-ancistectorine A2 (62b), 4'-O-demethylancistectorine A2 (63), ancistectorine A3 (64), ancistectorine B1 (65), ancistectorine C1 (66), and 5-epi-ancistrolikokine D (67) were isolated from the Chinese A. tectorius and fully characterized by chemical, spectroscopic, and chiroptical methods. Furthermore, the in vitro anti-infectious activities of 60-62 and 63-66 have been tested. Three of the metabolites, 61, 62a, and 62b, exhibited strong antiplasmodial activities against the strain K1 of P. falciparum without showing significant cytotoxicities. With IC50 values of 0.08, 0.07, and 0.03 μM, respectively, they were 37 times more active than the standard chloroquine (IC50 = 0.26 μM). Moreover, these three compounds displayed high antiplasmodial selectivity indexes ranging from 100 to 3300. According to the TDR/WHO guidelines, they could be considered as lead compounds. In addition, seven alkaloids, 69-74 (structures not shown here), were isolated from A. tectorius that were known, but new to the plant, together with another fourteen known compounds (of these, only the structures of the three main alkaloids, 5a, 5b, and 78 are shown here), which had been previously found in the plant. The three metabolites ancistrocladine (5a), hamatine (5b), and (+)-ancistrocline (78) were found to show no or moderate activities against the MM cell lines. 2) Isolation and characterization of naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids from the root bark of a new, botanically yet undescribed Congolese Ancistrocladus species. An unprecedented dimeric Dioncophyllaceae-type naphthylisoquinoline alkaloid, jozimine A2 (84), as first recognized by G. Bauckmann from an as yet undescribed Ancistrocladus species, was purified and characterized as part of this thesis. Its full structural assignment was achieved by spectroscopic and chiroptical methods, and further confirmed by an X-ray diffraction analysis, which had never succeeded for any other dimeric naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids before. Structurally, the dimer is composed of two identical 4'-O-demethyldioncophylline A halves, coupled through a sterically hindered central axis at C-3',3'' of the two naphthalene moieties. Pharmacologically, jozimine A2 (84) showed an extraordinary antiplasmodial activity (IC50 = 1.4 nM) against the strain NF54 of P. falciparum. Beside jozimine A2 (85), another new alkaloid, 6-O-demethylancistrobrevine C (84), and four known ones, ancistrocladine (5a), hamatine (5b), ancistrobrevine C (86), and dioncophylline A (6) were isolated from the Ancistrocladus species, the latter in a large quantity (~500 mg), showing that the plant produces Ancistrocladaceae-type, mixed-Ancistrocladaceae/Dioncophyllaceae-type, and Dioncophyllaceae-type naphthyl- isoquinoline alkaloids. Remarkably, it is one of the very few plants, like A. abbreviatus, and A. barteri, that simultaneously contain typical representatives of all the above three classes of alkaloids. 3) Semi-synthesis of jozimine A2 (85), 3'-epi-85, jozimine A3 (93) and other alkaloids from dioncophylline A (6). The dimeric naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids, jozimine A2 (85) and 3'-epi-85, constitute rewarding synthetic targets for a comparative analysis of their antiplasmodial activities and for a further confirmation of the assigned absolute configurations of the isolated natural product of 85. They were semi-synthesized in a four-step reaction sequence from dioncophylline A (6) in cooperation with T. Büttner. The key step was a biomimetic phenol-oxidative dimerization at C-3' of the N,O-dibenzylated derivative of 89 by utilizing Pb(OAc)4. This is the first time that the synthesis of such an extremely sterically hindered (four ortho-substituents) naphthylisoquinoline alkaloid – with three consecutive biaryl axes! – has been successfully achieved. A novel dimeric naphthylisoquinoline, jozimine A3 (93), bearing a 6',6''-central biaryl axis, was semi-synthesized from 5'-O-demethyldioncophylline A (90) by a similar biomimetic phenol-oxidative coupling reaction as a key step, by employing Ag2O. HPLC analysis with synthetic reference material of 3'-epi-85 and 93 for co-elution revealed that these two alkaloids clearly are not present in the crude extract of the Ancistrocladus species from which jozimine A2 (85) was isolated. This evidences that jozimine A2 (85) is very specifically biosynthesized by the plant with a high regio- and stereoslectivity. Remarkably, the two synthetic novel dimeric naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids 3'-epi-85 and 93 were found to display very good antiplasmodial activities, albeit weaker than that of the natural and semi-synthetic product 85. Additionally, the two compounds 3'-epi-85 and 93 possessed high or moderate selectivity indexes, which were much lower than that of 85. However, they can still be considered as new lead structures. Two unprecedented oxidative products of dioncophylline A, the diastereomeric dioncotetralones A (94a) and B (94b), were synthesized from dioncophylline A (6) in a one-step reaction. Remarkably, the aromatic properties in the “naphthalene” and the “isoquinoline” rings of 94a and 94b are partially lost and the “biaryl” axis has become a C,C-double bond, so that the two halves are nearly co-planar to each other, which has never been found among any natural or synthetic naphthylisoquinoline alkaloid. Their full structural characterization was accomplished by spectroscopic methods and quantum-chemical CD calculations (done by Y. Hemberger). The presumed reaction mechanism was proposed in this thesis. In addition, one of the two compounds, 94a, exhibited a highly antiplasmodial activity (IC50 = 0.09 μM) with low cytotoxicity, and thus, can be considered as a new promising lead structure. Its 2'-epi-isomer, 94b, was inactive, evidencing a significant effect of chirality on the bioactivity. Of a number of naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids tested against the multiple-myeloma cell lines, the three compounds, dioncophylline A (6), 4'-O-demethyldioncophylline A (89), and 5'-O-demethyldioncophylline A (90) showed excellent activities, even much stronger than dioncoquinones B (10), C (102), the epoxide 175, or the standard drug melphalan. 4) Isolation and characterization of bioactive naphthoquinones from cell cultures of Triphyophyllum peltatum. Three new naphthoquinones, dioncoquinones C (102), D (103), and E (104), the known 8-hydroxydroserone (105), which is new to this plant, and one new naphthol dimer, triphoquinol A (107), were isolated from cell cultures of T. peltatum in cooperation with A. Irmer. Dioncoquinone C (102) showed an excellent activity against the MM cells, very similar to that of the previously found dioncoquinone B (10), without showing any inhibitory effect on normal cells. The other three naphthoquinones, 103105, were inactive or only weakly active. 5) Establishment of a new strategy for a synthetic access to dioncoquinones B (10) and C (102) on a large scale for in vivo experiments and for the synthesis of their analogs for first SAR studies. Before the synthesis of dioncoquinone B (10) described in this thesis, two synthetic pathways had previously been established in our group. The third approach described here involved the preparation of the joint synthetic intermediate 42 with the previous two routes. The tertiary benzamide 135 was ortho-deprotonated by using s-BuLi/TMEDA, followed by transmetallation with MgBr2▪2Et2O, and reaction with 2-methylallyl bromide (139). It resulted in the formation of ortho-allyl benzamide 140, which was cyclized by using methyl lithium to afford the naphthol 42. This strategy proved to be the best among the established three approaches with regard to its very low number of steps and high yields. By starting with 136, this third strategy yielded the related bioactive natural product, dioncoquinone C (102), which was accessed by total synthesis for the first time. To identify the pharmacophore of the antitumoral naphthoquinones, a library of dioncoquinone B (10) and C (102) analogs were synthesized for in vitro testing. Among the numerous naphthoquinones tested, the synthetic 7-O-demethyldioncoquinone C (or 7-O-hydroxyldioncoquinone B) (145), constitutes another promising basic structure to develop a new anti-MM agent. Furthermore, preliminary SAR results evidence that the three hydroxy functions at C-3, C-5, and C-6 are essential for the biological properties as exemplarily shown through the compounds 10, 102, and 145. All other mixed OH/OMe- or completely OMe-substituted structures were entirely inactive. By a serendipity the expoxide 175 was found to display the best anti-MM activity of all the tested isolated metabolites from T. peltatum, the synthesized naphthoquinones, and their synthetic intermediates. Toxic effects of 175 on normal cells were not observed, in contrast to the high toxicities of all other epoxides. Thus, the anti-MM activity of 175 is of high selectivity. The preliminary SAR studies revealed that the 6-OMe group in 175 is required, thus differed with the above described naphthoquinones (where 6-OH is a requisite in 10, 102, and 145), which evidenced potentially different modes of action for these two classes of compounds. 6) The first attempted total synthesis of the new naturally occurring triphoquinone (187a), which was recently isolated from the root cultures of T. peltatum in our group. A novel naphthoquinone-naphthalene dimer, 187a (structure shown in Chapter 10), was isolated in small quantities from the root cultures of T. peltatum. Thus, its total synthesis was attempted for obtaining sufficient amounts for selected biotestings. The key step was planned to prepare the extremely sterically hindered (four ortho-substituents) binaphthalene 188 by a coupling reaction between the two 2-methylnaphthalene derivatives. Test reactions involving a system of two simplified 2-methylnaphthylboron species and 2-methylnaphthyl bromide proved the Buchwald ligand as most promising. The optimized conditions were then applied to the two true - highly oxygenated - coupling substrates, between the 2-methylnaphthylboron derivatives 210, 211, 213, or 214 and the 2-methylnaphthyl iodides (or bromides) 215 (206), 215 (206), 212 (205), or 212 (205), respectively. Unfortunately, this crucial step failed although various bases and solvent systems were tested. This could be due to the high electron density of the two coupling substrates, both bearing strongly OMOM/OMe-donating function groups. Therefore, a more powerful catalyst system or an alternative synthetic strategy must be explored for the total synthesis of 187a. 7) Phytochemical investigation of the Streptomyces strain RV-15 derived from a marine sponge. Cyclodysidins A-D (216-219), four new cyclic lipopeptides with a- and ß-amino acids, were isolated from the Streptomyces strain RV15 derived from a marine sponge by Dr. U. Abdelmohsen. Their structures were established as cyclo-(ß-AFA-Ser-Gln-Asn-Tyr-Asn-Ser-Thr) by spectroscopic analysis using 2D NMR techniques and CID-MS/MS in the course of this thesis. In conclusion, the present work contributes to the discovery of novel antiplasmodial naphthylisoquinoline alkaloids and antitumoral naphthoquinones, which will pave the way for future studies on these two classes of compounds.
Computer Science approaches (software, database, management systems) are powerful tools to boost research. Here they are applied to metabolic modelling in infections as well as health care management. Starting from a comparative analysis this thesis shows own steps and examples towards improvement in metabolic modelling software and health data management. In section 2, new experimental data on metabolites and enzymes induce high interest in metabolic modelling including metabolic flux calculations. Data analysis of metabolites, calculation of metabolic fluxes, pathways and their condition-specific strengths is now possible by an advantageous combination of specific software. How can available software for metabolic modelling be improved from a computational point of view? A number of available and well established software solutions are first discussed individually. This includes information on software origin, capabilities, development and used methodology. Performance information is obtained for the compared software using provided example data sets. A feature based comparison shows limitations and advantages of the compared software for specific tasks in metabolic modeling. Often found limitations include third party software dependence, no comprehensive database management and no standard format for data input and output. Graphical visualization can be improved for complex data visualization and at the web based graphical interface. Other areas for development are platform independency, product line architecture, data standardization, open source movement and new methodologies. The comparison shows clearly space for further software application development including steps towards an optimal user friendly graphical user interface, platform independence, database management system and third party independence especially in the case of desktop applications. The found limitations are not limited to the software compared and are of course also actively tackled in some of the most recent developments. Other improvements should aim at generality and standard data input formats, improved visualization of not only the input data set but also analyzed results. We hope, with the implementation of these suggestions, metabolic software applications will become more professional, cheap, reliable and attractive for the user. Nevertheless, keeping these inherent limitations in mind, we are confident that the tools compared can be recommended for metabolic modeling for instance to model metabolic fluxes in bacteria or metabolic data analysis and studies in infection biology. ...
Synthesis and Investigation of Borylene Complexes: from Borylene Transfer to Borylene Catenation
(2012)
Within the scope of this thesis, the area of borylene transfer has been broadened by including transition-metal alkynyl complexes and metal-carbon double bonds as borylene acceptors. In addition to double salt elimination, halide abstraction and dehydrogenation processes, a novel high-yield synthetic procedure for terminal borylene complexes was established, i.e. salt elimination and subsequent silylhalogenide liberation. Accordingly, it was possible to prepare [(OC)3(Me3P)Fe=BDur] as a rare example of a neutral arylborylene species. Moreover, this compound has been demonstrated to possess great potential for metathesis reactions and the functionalization of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons such as naphthalene. Moreover, it could undergo a phosphine-borylene exchange reaction, yielding the iron bis(borylene) complex [(OC)3Fe(BDur){BN(SiMe3)2}], which has turned out to be applicable for preparation of 1,4-diboracyclohexadiene and unprecedented 1,4-dibora-1,3-butadiene complexes, thus establishing a new type of borylene transfer. Most interestingly, upon transfer of further borylene moieties into the coordination sphere of iron, borylene-catenation was accomplished in a highly controlled manner.
Streptococcus pneumoniae (Pneumococcus) is one of the leading causes of childhood meningitis,pneumonia and sepsis. Despite the availability of childhood vaccination programs and antimicrobial agents, childhood pneumococcal meningitis is still a devastating illness with mortality rates among the highest of any cause of bacterial meningitis. Especially in low-income countries, where medical care is less accessible, mortality rates up to 50 % have been reported. In surviving patients, neurological sequelae, including hearing loss, focal neurological deficits and cognitive impairment, is reported in 30 to 50 %. Growing resistance of pneumococci towards conventional antibiotics emphasize the need for effective therapies and development of effective vaccines against Streptococcus pneumoniae. One major virulence factor of Streptococcus pneumoniae is the protein toxin Pneumolysin (PLY). PLY belongs to a family of structurally related toxins, the so-called cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs). Pneumolysin is produced by almost all clinical isolates of the bacterium. It is expressed during the late log phase of bacterial growth and gets released mainly through spontaneous autolysis of the bacterial cell. After binding to cholesterol in the host cell membranes, oligomerization of up to 50 toxin monomers and rearrangement of the protein structure, PLY forms large pores, leading to cell lysis in higher toxin concentrations. At sub-lytic concentrations, however, PLY mediates several other effects, such as activation of the classic complement pathway and the induction of apoptosis. First experiments with pneumococcal strains, deficient in pneumolysin, showed a reduced virulence of the organism, which emphasizes the contribution of this toxin to the course of bacterial meningitis and the urgent need for the understanding of the multiple mechanisms leading to invasive pneumococcal disease. The aim of this thesis was to shed light on the contribution of pneumolysin to the course of the disease as well as to the mental illness patients are suffering from after recovery from pneumococcal meningitis. Therefore, we firstly investigated the effects of sub-lytic pneumolysin concentrations onto primary mouse neurons, transfected with a GFP construct and imaged with the help of laser scanning confocal microscopy. We discovered two major morphological changes in the dendrites of primary mouse neurons: The formation of focal swellings along the dendrites (so-called varicosities) and the reduction of dendritic spines. To study these effects in a more complex system, closer to the in vivo situation, we established a reproducible method for acute brain slice culturing. With the help of this culturing method, we were able to discover the same morphological changes in dendrites upon challenge with sub-lytic concentrations of pneumolysin. We were able to reverse the seen alterations in dendritic structure with the help of two antagonists of the NMDA receptor, connecting the toxin´s mode of action to a non-physiological stimulation of this subtype of glutamate receptors. The loss of dendritic spines (representing the postsynapse) in our brain slice model could be verified with the help of brain slices from adult mice, suffering from pneumococcal meningitis. By immunohistochemical staining with an antibody against synapsin I, serving as a presynaptic marker, we were able to identify a reduction of synapsin I in the cortex of mice, infected with a pneumococcal strain which is capable of producing pneumolysin. The reduction of synapsin I was higher in these brain slices compared to mice infected with a pneumococcal strain which is not capable of producing pneumolysin, illustrating a clear role for the toxin in the reduction of dendritic spines. The fact that the seen effects weren´t abolished under calcium free conditions clarifies that not only the influx of calcium through the pneumolysin-pore is responsible for the alterations. These findings were further supported by calcium imaging experiments, where an inhibitor of the NMDA receptor was capable of delaying the time point, when the maximum of calcium influx upon PLY challenge was reached. Additionally, we were able to observe the dendritic beadings with the help of immunohistochemistry with an antibody against MAP2, a neuron-specific cytoskeletal protein. These observations also connect pneumolysin´s mode of action to excitotoxicity, as several studies mention the aggregation of MAP2 in dendritic beadings in response to excitotoxic stimuli. All in all, this is the first study connecting pneumolysin to excitotoxic events, which might be a novel chance to tie in other options of treatment for patients suffering from pneumococcal meningitis.
This thesis deals with nanoelectromechanical systems in the quantum regime. Nanoelectromechanical systems are systems where a mechanical degree of freedom of rather macroscopic size is coupled to an electronic degree of freedom. The mechanical degree of freedom can without any constraints be modeled as the fundamental mode of a harmonic oscillator. Due to their size and the energy scales involved in the setting, quantum mechanics plays an important role in their description. We investigate transport through such nanomechanical devices where our focus lies on the quantum regime. We use non-equilibrium methods to fully cover quantum effects in setups where the mechanical oscillator is part of a tunnel junction. In such setups, the mechanical motion influences the tunneling amplitude and thereby the transport properties through the device. The electronics in these setups can then be used to probe and characterize the mechanical oscillator through signatures in transport quantities such as the average current or the current noise. The interplay between the mechanical motion and other physical degrees of freedom can also be used to characterize these other degrees of freedom, i.e., the nanomechanical oscillator can be used as a detector. In this thesis, we will show that a nanomechanical oscillator can be used as a detector for rather exotic degrees of freedom, namely Majorana bound states which recently attracted great interest, theoretically as well as experimentally. Again, the quantum regime plays an essential role in this topic. One of the major manifestations of quantum mechanics is entanglement between two quantum systems. Entanglement of quantum systems with few (discrete) degrees of freedom is a well established and understood subject experimentally as well as theoretically. Here, we investigate quantum entanglement between two macroscopic continuous variable systems. We study different setups where it is possible to entangle two nanomechanical oscillators which are not directly coupled to each other. We conclude with reviewing the obtained results and discuss open questions and possible future developments on the quantum aspects of nanomechanical systems.
The aim of the present piece of work was to give information about the frequency of psychoactive substances within the German driver population and to identify preventive and promotive circumstances of drug driving. Furthermore, a new methodological approach to gather and link data about the consumption of psychoactive substances and the mobility of drug users is shown. Traditionally, roadside surveys are conducted to estimate the prevalence of drug driving within a population. By the present study, an alternative method is introduced. In total, 195 drug users (mainly cannabis users) and 100 controls out of the normal driving population were queried for four weeks about their driving and drug consumption behaviour by a questionnaire that was deployed on smartphones. The prevalences of drug driving within the sample were extrapolated into representative values. Because the subjects reported all daily activities within the study-period, it was also possible to describe situations in which the subjects decided against driving under influence. Besides, relevant previous experiences, attitudes, the approval of legal regulations, other traffic-specific parameters, social influences and personality variables were queried. So, individual factors that are associated with drug driving can be specified. The results are integrated in a model that shows dependencies of different societal, behavioural and legal variables. They can serve as major input to the discussion on drug driving and can be of practical use for rehabilitation and prevention purposes. The results can be summarised as follows: - Compared to the results of a German roadside survey from 1994, the prevalences that are found within the present study seem pretty low. This finding is discussed and possible explanations for the described trend are lined out. Furthermore, the prevalences that were calculated in the present study are compared to current data from other European countries. - The results show differences between users and controls on several variables. The differences indicate that substance use impacts on the structuring of day-to-day life. Overall, the controls’ days proceed more along a daily working routine than the users’ (e.g. less mobility at night, more mobility at rush-hour, alcohol consumption mainly at nights out). - The individual extent to which drugs are consumed differs dependent on daytime, day of the week and kind of substance. Of course, these dependencies also influence the occurrence of drug driving. Other factors of influence on drug driving are the distance, the availability of alternative modes of transport as well as the presence of female companions. - Not everybody who uses drugs drives under the influence of drugs. A striking predictor for frequent drug driving and highly intoxicated driving is a high consumption, associated with risky consumption patterns and a low subjective feeling of impairment after drug consumption. - The subjects’ attitudes towards drug driving and their beliefs about social norms largely go in line with the behaviour they engage in. Drug users have rather liberal attitudes towards drug use and driving under influence. - A possible deterrence effect of sanctioning and police enforcement and its dependence on the acceptance and awareness of the measures is delineated. - Only small effects are found when examining the objective impairment that is caused by drug use by a computer-based test battery. This result is critically discussed with regards to the operationalisation of the study groups. - Except from driving under influence, there is no evidence to suggest that DUI offenders also show problematic behaviour according to other traffic-related measures. - Parents and peers may have an influence as role models on the development of problematic behaviour. A good relationship between parents and children may have a positive impact on the development of conventional values and behaviour. - Drug use is associated with some crucial personality dimensions and drugs are often used to solve personal problems. A less precise but similar difference was found for users who commit many drives under influence compared to users who never or only sometimes drive under influence. Moreover, users marginally more often have psychological problems compared to controls. Finally, the strengths and weaknesses of the new methodological approach of data collection are discussed as well as the challenges that are faced when implementing it. All in all, it has proved to be a promising method and should serve as a standard to which future studies should aspire.
Based on genetic association and functional imaging studies, reduced function of tryptophan hydroxylase-2 (TPH2) has been shown to be critically involved in the pathophysiology of anxiety-disorders and depression. In order to elucidate the impact of a complete neuronal 5-HT deficiency, mice with a targeted inactivation of the gene encoding Tph2 were generated. Interestingly, survival of Tph2-/- mice, the formation of serotonergic neurons and the pathfinding of their projections was not impaired. Within this thesis, I investigated the influence of 5-HT deficiency on the γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) system. The GABAergic system is implicated in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders. Therefore, measurement of GABA concentrations in different limbic brain regions was carried out. These measurements were combined with immunohistochemical estimation of GABAergic cell subpopulations in the dorsal hippocampus and amygdala. In Tph2-/- mice GABA concentrations were increased exclusively in the dorsal hippocampus. In heterozygous Tph2+/- mice concentrations of GABA were increased in the amygdala compared to Tph2-/- and wt control mice, while the reverse was found in the prefrontal cortex. The changes in GABA concentrations were accompanied by altered cell density of GABAergic neurons within the basolateral complex of the amygdala and parvalbumin (PV) neurons of the dorsal hippocampus and by adaptational changes of 5-HT receptors. Thus, adaptive changes during the development on the GABA system may reflect altered anxiety-like and depressive-like behavior in adulthood. Moreover, chronic mild stress (CMS) rescues the depressive-like effects induced by 5-HT deficiency. In contrast, 5-HT is important in mediating an increased innate anxiety-like behavior under CMS conditions. This is in line with a proposed dual role of 5-HT acting through different mechanisms on anxiety and depressive-like behavior, which is influenced by gene-environment interaction effects. Further research is needed to disentangle these complex networks in the future.
Precise control of progression through mitosis is essential to maintain genomic stability and to prevent aneuploidy. The DREAM complex is an important regulator of mitotic gene expression. Depletion of Lin9, one core-subunit of DREAM, leads to reduced expression of G2/M genes and impaired proliferation. In conditional mouse knockout cells (MEFs) Lin9 deletion causes defects in mitosis and cytokinesis and cells undergo premature senescence in order to prevent further proliferation. In this work it could be shown that the senescence phenotype in Lin9 knockout MEFs is independently mediated by the two tumor suppressor pathways p53-p21 and p16-pRB. Studies using the conditional Lin9 knockout mouse model demonstrated an important function of Lin9 in the regulation of mitotic gene expression and proliferation in vivo. Deletion of Lin9 caused reduced proliferation in the intestinal crypts resulting in atrophy of the intestinal epithelium and in rapid death of the animals. In the second part of this work, the pathways leading to p53 mediated G1 arrest after failed cytokinesis were analyzed by using a chemical inhibitor of the mitotic kinase Aurora B. In a high throughput siRNA screen the MAP kinase MAP3K4 was identified as an upstream activator of p53. It could be shown that MAP3K4 activates the downstream stress kinase p38b to induce the p53 mediated cell cycle arrest of tetraploid cells. p38b was required for the transcriptional activation of the p53 target gene p21 in response to Aurora B inhibition. In contrast, phosphorylation, stabilization and recruitment of p53 to the p21 promoter occured independently of p38 signaling. Partial inhibition of Aurora B demonstrated that chromosome missegregation also activates the MAP3K4-p38-p53 pathway, suggesting that subtle defects in mitosis are sufficient for inducing this stress signaling pathway. Although p38 was required for the G1 cell cycle arrest after mitotic failures, long-term co-inhibition of p38 and Aurora B resulted in reduced proliferation probably due to increased apoptosis. Presumably, MAP3K4-p38-p53 signaling is a common pathway that is activated after errors in mitosis or cytokinesis to arrest cells in G1 and to prevent chromosomal instability.
The celebrated AdS/CFT dualities provide a window to strongly-coupled quantum field theories (QFTs), which are realized in nature at the most fundamental level on the one hand, but are hardly accessible for the standard mathematical tools on the other hand. The prototype examples of AdS/CFT relate classical supergravity theories on (d+1)-dimensional anti-de Sitter space (AdS) to strongly-coupled d-dimensional conformal field theories (CFTs). The AdS spacetimes admit a timelike conformal boundary, on which the dual CFT is defined. In that sense the AdS/CFT dualities are holographic, and this new approach has led to remarkable progress in understanding strongly-coupled QFTs defined on Minkowski space and on the Einstein cylinder. On the other hand, the study of QFT on more generic curved spacetimes is of fundamental interest and non-trivial already for free theories. Moreover, understanding the properties of gravity as a quantum theory remains among the hardest problems to solve in physics. Both of these issues can be studied holographically and we investigate here generalizations of AdS/CFT involving on the lower-dimensional side QFTs on curved backgrounds and as a further generalization gravity. In the first part we expand on the holographic description of QFT on fixed curved backgrounds, which involves gravity on an asymptotically-AdS space with that prescribed boundary structure. We discuss geometries with de Sitter and AdS as conformal boundary to holographically describe CFTs on these spacetimes. After setting up the procedure of holographic renormalization we study the reflection of CFT unitarity properties in the dual bulk description. The geometry with AdS on the boundary exhibits a number of interesting features, mainly due to the fact that the boundary itself has a boundary. We study both cases and resolve potential tensions between the unitarity properties of the bulk and boundary theories, which would be incompatible with a duality. The origin of these tensions is partly in the structure of the geometry with AdS conformal boundary, while another one arises for a particular limiting case where the bulk and boundary descriptions naively disagree. Besides technical challenges, the hierarchy of boundaries for the geometry with AdS conformal boundary offers an interesting option. Namely, having the dual theory on the conformal boundary itself defined on an AdS space offers the logical possibility of implementing a second instance of AdS/CFT. We discuss an appropriate geometric setting allowing for the notion of the boundary of a boundary and identify limitations for such multi-layered dualities. In the second part we consider five-dimensional supergravities whose solutions can be lifted to actual string-theory backgrounds. We work out the asymptotic structure of the theories on asymptotically-AdS spaces and calculate the Weyl anomaly of the dual CFTs. These holographic calculations confirm the expectations from the field-theory side and provide a non-trivial test of the AdS/CFT conjecture. Moreover, building on the previous results we show that in addition to the usual Dirichlet also more general boundary conditions can be imposed. That allows to promote the boundary metric to a dynamical quantity and is expected to yield a holographic description for a conformal supergravity on the boundary. The boundary theory obtained this way exhibits pathologies such as perturbative ghosts, which is in fact expected for a conformal gravity. The fate of these ghosts beyond perturbation theory is an open question and our setting provides a starting point to study it from the string-theory perspective. That discussion leads to a regime where the holographic description of the boundary theory requires quantization of the bulk supergravity. A necessary ingredient of any supergravity is a number of gravitinos as superpartners of the graviton, for which we thus need an effective-QFT description to make sense of AdS/CFT beyond the limit where bulk theory becomes classical. In particular, quantization should be possible not only on rigid AdS, but also on generic asymptotically-AdS spacetimes which may not be Einstein. In the third part we study the quantization and causality properties of the gravitino on Friedmann-Robertson-Walker spacetimes to explicitly show that a consistent quantization can be carried out also on non-Einstein spaces, in contrast to claims in the recent literature. Furthermore, this reveals interesting non-standard effects for the gravitino propagation, which in certain cases is restricted to regions more narrow than the expected light cones.
ATP dependent chromatin remodeling complexes are multifactorial complexes that utilize the energy of ATP to rearrange the chromatin structure. The changes in chromatin structure lead to either increased or decreased DNA accessibility. SWI/SNF is one of such complex. The SWI/SNF complex is involved in both transcription activation and transcription repression. The ATPase subunit of SWI/SNF is called SWI2/SNF2 in yeast and Brahma, Brm, in Drosophila melanogaster. In mammals there are two paralogs of the ATPase subunit, Brm and Brg1. Recent studies have shown that the human Brm is involved in the regulation of alternative splicing. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of Brm in pre-mRNA processing. The model systems used were Chironomus tentans, well suited for in situ studies and D. melanogaster, known for its full genome information. Immunofluorescent staining of the polytene chromosome indicated that Brm protein of C. tentans, ctBrm, is associated with several gene loci including the Balbiani ring (BR) puffs. Mapping the distribution of ctBrm along the BR genes by both immuno-electron microscopy and chromatin immunoprecipitation showed that ctBrm is widely distributed along the BR genes. The results also show that a fraction of ctBrm is associated with the nascent BR pre-mRNP. Biochemical fractionation experiments confirmed the association of Brm with the RNP fractions, not only in C. tentans but also in D. melanogaster and in HeLa cells. Microarray hybridization experiments performed on S2 cells depleted of either dBrm or other SWI/SNF subunits show that Brm affects alternative splicing and 3´ end formation. These results indicated that BRM affects pre-mRNA processing as a component of SWI/SNF complexes. 1
Time-resolved optical spectroscopy has become an important tool to investigate the dynamics of quantum mechanical processes in matter. In typical applications, a first “pump” pulse excites the system under investigation from the thermal equilibrium to an excited state, and a second variable time-delayed “probe” pulse then maps the dynamics of the excited system. Although advanced nonlinear techniques have been developed to investigate, e.g., coherent quantum effects, all of these techniques are limited in their spatial resolution. The laser focus diameter has a lower bound given by Abbe’s diffraction limit, which is roughly half the optical excitation wavelength—corresponding to about 400nm in the presented experiments. In the time-resolved experiments that have been suggested so far, averaging over the sample volume within this focus cannot be avoided. In this thesis, two approaches were developed to overcome the diffraction limit in optical spectroscopy and to enable the investigation of coherent processes on the nanoscale. In the first approach, analytic solutions were found to calculate optimal polarizationshaped laser pulses that provide optical near-field pump–probe pulse sequences in the vicinity of a nanostructure. These near-field pulse sequences were designed to allow excitation of a quantum system at one specific position at a certain time and probing at a different position at a later time. In the second approach, the concept of coherent two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy, which has had great impact on the investigation of coherent quantum effects in recent years, was combined with photoemission electron microscopy, which yields a spatial resolution well below the optical diffraction limit. Using the analytic solutions, optical near fields were investigated in terms of spectroscopic applications. Near fields that are excited with polarization-shaped femtosecond laser pulses in the vicinity of appropriate nanostructures feature two properties that are especially interesting in the view of spectroscopic applications: On the one hand, control of the spatial distribution of the optical fields is achieved on the order of nanometers. On the other hand, the temporal evolution of these fields can be adjusted on the order of femtoseconds. In this thesis, solutions were found to calculate the optimal polarizationshaped laser pulses that control the near field in a general manner. The main idea to achieve this deterministic control was to disentangle the spatial and temporal near-field control. First, the spatial distribution of the optical near field was controlled by assigning the correct state of polarization for each frequency within the polarization-shaped laser pulse independently. The remaining total phase—not employed for spatial control—was then used for temporal near-field compression, which, in experimental applications, would lead to an enhancement of the nonlinear signal at the respective location. In contrast to the use of optical near fields, where pump–probe sequences themselves are localized below the diffraction limit and the detection does not have to provide the spatial resolution, a different approach was suggested in this thesis to gain spectroscopic information on the nanoscale. The new method was termed “Coherent two-dimensional (2D) nanoscopy” and transfers the concept of “conventional” coherent 2D spectroscopy to photoemission electron microscopy. The pulse sequences used for the investigation of quantum systems in this method are still limited by diffraction. However, the new key concept is to detect locally generated photoelectrons instead of optical signals. This yields a spatial resolution that is well below the optical diffraction limit. In “conventional” 2D spectroscopy a triple-pulse sequence initiates a four wave mixing process that creates a coherence. In a quantum mechanical process, this coherence is converted into a population by emission of an electric field, which is measured in the experiment. Contrarily, in the developed 2D nanoscopy, four-wave mixing is initiated by a quadruple-pulse sequence, which leaves the quantum system in an electronic population. This electronic population carries coherent information about the investigated quantum system and can be mapped with a spatial resolution down to a few nanometers given by the spatial resolution of the photoemission electron microscope. Hence, 2D nanoscopy can be considered a generalization of time-resolved photoemission experiments. In the future, it may be of similar beneficial value for the field of photoemission research as “conventional” 2D spectroscopy has proven to be for optical spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. In a first experimental implementation of coherent 2D nanoscopy coherent processes on a corrugated silver surface were measured and unexpected long coherence lifetimes could be determined.
Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the deadliest form of lung cancer and has a poor prognosis due to its high rate of metastasis. Notably, metastasis is one of the leading causes of death among cancer patients. Despite the clinical importance, the cellular and molecular mechanisms that govern the initiation, establishment and progression of metastasis remain unclear. Moreover, knowledge gained on metastatic process was largely based on cultured or in vitro manipulated cells that were reintroduced into immune-compromised recipient mice. In the present study, a spontaneous metastasis mouse model for NSCLC was generated with a heritable fluorescent tag (DsRed) driven by CAG (combination of cytomegalovirus early enhancing element and chicken beta actin) promoter in alveolar type II cells (SpC-rtTA/TetO-Cre/LSL-DsRed). This approach is essential, keeping in mind the reprogramming nature of Myc oncogene (Rapp et al, 2009). Such genetic lineage tracing approach not only allowed us to monitor molecular and cellular changes during development of primary tumor but also led us to identify the different stages of secondary tumor development in distant organs. Upon combined expression of oncogenic C Raf-BXB and c-Myc (MYC-BXB-DsRed) in lung alveolar type II epithelial cells, macroscopic lung tumors arose comprising of both cuboidal and columnal cellular features. C Raf-BXB induced tumors (CRAF-DsRed) exhibit cuboidal morphology and is non-metastatic whereas Myc-BXB induced lung tumors (Myc-BXB-DsRed) present cuboidal-columnar cellular features and is able to undergo metastasis mainly in liver. Surprisingly, cystic lesions which were negative for SpC (Surfactant protein C) and CCSP (Clara cell secretory protein), strongly expressed DsRed proteins indicating its origin from lung alveolar type II cells. Moreover, early lung progenitor markers such as GATA4 (GATA-binding protein 4) and TTF1 (Thyroid Transcription Factor 1) were still expressed in these early cystic lesions suggesting metastasis as a faulty recapitulation of ontogeny (Rapp et al, 2008). Interestingly, mixed cystic lesions and metastatic tumors contained DsRed and SpC positive cells. These results demonstrate secondary tumor progression from cystic, mixed cystic to malignant transformation. Our results shed tremendous light on reprogramming of metastasizing cells during secondary tumor development. Moreover, such fluorescent tagged metastatic mice model can also be used to track the migration ability of metastatic cancer cell to different organs and its potential to differentiate into other cell types such as blood vessel or stromal cell within the primary tumor.
SUMMARY GABP is a heterodymeric member of Ets-family transcription factors. It consists of two subunits – GABPa which contains DNA binding domain and GABPb, which provides transcriptional activation domain and nuclear localization signal. GABPa/b complex is essential for transcriptional activation of multiple lineage-restricted and housekeeping genes, several viral genes, and in some cases might function as transcriptional repressor. Large variety of data indicates involvement of GABP in the complex regulation of cell growth, specified by quiescence, stimulation/proliferation, apoptosis and senescence. Expression level of GABPa subunit is rapidly increased when resting cells enter S-phase, and GABPa/b complex is critical to promote the continuity of the cell cycle. Conditional inactivation of GABPa expression in mouse embryonic fibroblasts results in a complete block of proliferation and acquisition of senescence-like phenotype. However, the influence of GABP on the other cell growth determinant – the apoptosis – remains largely obscure. Therefore we aimed to investigate the influence of GABPa/b expression level on the cell growth in vitro. Using siRNA approach we achieved efficient but only transient down-regulation of GABPa expression which precluded further cell growth studies. Persistent increase of the expression of GABPb subunit only resulted in a positive effect on the cell growth speed. Simultaneous conditional overexpression of both GABPa and GABPb subunits though, strongly reduced the growth of the affected cell cultures in reversible and in expression level dependent manner. Interestingly, GABPa/b overexpressing cells did show neither cell cycle arrest nor massive induction of apoptosis. However, more detailed analyses revealed that dampened apoptotic processes were taking place in GABPa/b−overexpressing cells, starting with a prominent activation of caspase-12. Interestingly, activation of downstream effector caspases was rather suppressed explaining a weak increase of apoptotic cells in GABPa/b overexpressing cultures. This effect suggests that the activation of caspase-12 by elevated amounts of exogenous GABPa/b reflects the normal physiological mechanism of caspase-12 regulation.
The sexual phase of Plasmodium falciparum begins with the differentiation of intraerythrocytic sexual stages, termed gametocytes, in the human host. Mature gametocytes circulate in the peripheral blood and are taken up by the mosquito during the blood meal. These stages are essential for the spread of the malaria disease and form gametes in the mosquito midgut within minutes. A highly conserved family of six secreted proteins has been identified in Plasmodium falciparum. They comprise multiple adhesive domains and are termed PfCCp1 through PfCCp5, and PfFNPA. It was revealed in this work that PfCCp multi-domain adhesion proteins form protein complexes in gametocytes and on the surface of newly emerged macrogametes by adhesion domain-mediated binding. Co-Immunoprecipitation assays with activated gametocyte lysates show interactions between PfCCp proteins and indicate surface association via Pfs230 and Pfs25. Pfs230 is connected with the plasma membrane of the parasite by its interaction partner Pfs48/45. This protein is linked to the plasma membrane by a GPI anchor and presumably retains the multi-protein complex on the surface of newly emerged macrogametes in the mosquito midgut. A WD40 domain containing protein was identified to be part of this protein complex. It might serve as platform for the assembly of the multi protein complex or mediate the interplay among proteins, as suggested from known functions of the WD40 domain repeats. During egress from the host erythrocyte, the emerging gametes become vulnerable to factors of the human complement, which is taken up with the blood meal. In this thesis it was found that the complement system is active for about one hour post feeding. Macrogametes defend against complement-mediated lysis by co-opting the human complement regulators Factor H and FHL-1 from the blood-meal. These serum proteins bind via its SCR domains 5-7 to the surface of macrogametes. Once bound, they trigger complement inactivation of the alternative pathway, which prevents induction of complement lysis on the surface of the malaria parasite. Antibodies against Factor H are able to impair the sexual development in vitro and are able to block transmission to the mosquito. Interaction studies on endogenous proteins and immobilized recombinant proteins revealed the PfGAP50 protein as binding partner of Factor H and FHL-1. This protein was hitherto described as a glideosome-associated protein in invasive parasite stages, but has not yet been characterized in gametes. First localization studies indicate a relocation of PfGAP50 from the inner membrane complex to the surface of macrogametes. Malaria still persists as one of the deadliest infectious diseases worldwide. Investigations on the essential transmissive stages, gametocytes and gametes of Plasmodium falciparum, stood in the background of research for a long time. This work deciphered details on protein interactions on the surface of the malaria parasite and provides first information about coactions between the parasite and the human complement in the mosquito midgut.
This thesis on the “Impacts of extreme hydro-meteorological events on electricity generation and possible adaptation measures – a GIS-based approach for corporate risk management and enhanced climate mitigation concepts in Germany” presents an identification of hydro-meteorological extreme events in Germany and their effects on electricity generating units, i.e. on conventional thermal and nuclear power plants as well as on installations of the renewable energies of hydropower, wind energy and photovoltaic installations. In addition, adaptation measures and strategies are named that help power plant operators to prepare for a changing climate. Due to the different requirements of large facility operators and local planners and owners of renewable energies, the work contains the two approaches of corporate risk management and climate mitigation concepts. A changing climate not only consists of a shift in mean values of weather parameters such as global and regional air temperature and precipitation, but may also result in more frequent and more severe single events such as extreme precipitation, tornadoes and thunderstorms. In two case studies, these findings are implemented into an adjusted general risk management structure. This is enhanced by the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) to accomplish a localisation of events and infrastructure. The first example gives insight into the consequences of ice throw from wind turbines and how climate mitigation concepts can act as a framework for an adapted, sustainable energy planning. The second example on the other hand highlights a GIS-based flood risk management for thermal power plants and the benefits of an adjusted corporate risk management cycle. The described approach leads to an integrated management of extreme hydro-meteorological events at power plant site respectively district level by combining two cycles of site-related and local planning in addition to GIS-based analyses. This is demonstrated as an example by the comparison of two districts in Germany. The practical outcome is a comprehensive support for decision-making processes.
The present thesis is devoted to the spectroscopic study of rare earth manganites RMnO3 (R = Gd, Dy, Tb, Eu(1 - x)Y(x)) in the submillimeter frequency range. A dynamic manifestation of a strong magnetoelectric coupling in these systems is the existence of electromagnons - spin waves excited by the electric component of the electromagnetic wave. The exact analytical solution of the Landau-Lifshitz equations obtained for cycloidal antiferromagnets builds the bridge between the inelastic neutron scattering and the optical experiments. A semi-quantitative agreement is achieved between the theory and the results by these two experimental techniques. Two suggested mechanisms of the magnetoelectric coupling, the inverse Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (IDM) interaction and the symmetric Heisenberg exchange (HE) striction, are introduced in a perturbative manner. The qualitative conclusions regarding both static and dynamic electric properties are also in agreement with the experiment. GdMnO3 is the system in which the electromagnons were first detected at low frequencies. Far infrared measurements in GdMnO3 presented here have confirmed the existence of a second high frequency electromagnon at 75 reciprocal centimeter. The detection of an additional mode suggests the existence of at least short range ferroelectric order. Such order has not been observed in static experiments so far. The electromagnons in Eu(1 - x)Y(x)MnO3 helped to clarify the role of the rare earth magnetism. As the Y(3+) ions are diamagnetic and Eu(3+) ions possess Van Vleck paramagnetism only, it is the Mn subsystem that is primarily responsible for the magnetoelectric properties of rare earth manganites. The electromagnons in DyMnO3 and TbMnO3 do not change their excitation conditions upon the flop of the spin cycloid in external magnetic fields. This fact still lacks consistent theoretical explanation. Detailed measurements on TbMnO3 of different orientations have allowed to prove the existence of the IDM electromagnon. The study of DyMnO3 in external magnetic fields has shown that, depending on the Dy ordering, the electromagnons and static electric polarization can be either enhanced or suppressed. Thus, the magnetic order of rare earth moments still plays an important role. As a general result of the present work, the IDM interaction is capable to describe the static electric polarization and the weak electro-active excitation in the high-field phase of TbMnO3. The HE model is successful in explaining the high frequency electromagnon, including its excitation conditions and the spectral weight. However, both models are still unable to describe the energy and the spectral weight of the low frequency electromagnon. Further theoretical and experimental efforts are required in this direction.
The objective of this thesis focuses on the development of strategies for precise control of perylene bisimide (PBI) self-assembly and the in-depth elucidation of structural and optical features of discrete PBI aggregates by means of NMR and UV/Vis spectroscopy. The strategy for discrete dimer formation of PBIs is based on delicate steric control that distinguishes the two facets of the central perylene surface. The strategy applied in this thesis for accessing discrete PBI quadruple and further oligomeric stacks relies on backbone-directed PBI self-assembly. For this purpose, two tweezer-like PBI dyads bearing the respective rigid backbones, diphenylacetylene (DPA) and diphenylbutydiyne (DPB), were synthesized. The distinct aggregation behavior of these structurally similar PBI dyads can be ascribed to the intramolecular distance between the two PBI chromophores imparted by the DPA and DPB spacers.
In the context of this dissertation very long ranged exciton diffusion lengths (LD) were simulated for perylene-based materials under ideal conditions. This leads to the conclusion that the short LD values in existing materials result from an extrinsic and intrinsic immobilization. The latter, which is a specific material property, is based on a relaxation of the exciton into self-trapping states. An in-depth understanding of the atomistic processes defining self-trapping is essential to developing materials with long LD in the future, in which intrinsic immobilization is prevented. For the development of such a mechanistic understanding it is crucial that a clear relationship between molecular structure and LD is available. This is given by single crystals of diindeno perylene (DIP) and α-perylene tetracarboxylic anhydride (α-PTCDA). An extraordinary large LD of 90 nm was measured for the first one, while the latter possesses only 22 nm. Part of this thesis was to deliver reasons for this discrepancy. Only self-trapping comes into question to explain the different LD values. One reason for the different self-trapping in DIP and α-PTCDA could lie in the electronic structure. However, it was possible to demonstrate that a wide range of perylene-based materials possess no significant differences in their electronic structures. Consequently, such differences can be neglected for the explanation of immobilization mechanisms for the exciton. A further possible explanation could be polarization effects in the crystal, which influences the electronic structure of perylene based materials differently. Especially their influence on charge transfer (CT) states, which are located above the optically bright Frenkel state, was in question because such states could be stabilized by a polarizable surrounding. A significant influence of polarization effects on all considered states were excluded by using a polarizable continuum model. Hence, the small LD values in α-PTCDA are an evidence for self-trapping, which produces a crystal structure built up by π-stacks, while the one of DIP is of herringbone type. Since polarization effects can be neglected, is the dimer only via steric restrictions influenced by the crystal. Hence, a method describing self-trapping has to consider such effects, so that a mechanical embedding QM/MM approach is sufficient. Now, potential energy surfaces were calculated, on which wave packet dynamics were subsequently performed. In this way, atomistic mechanisms for the immobilization of excitons were described for the first time in organic materials. Self-trapping was studied in crystals of α-PTCDA by potential energy surfaces, which map an intermolecular shift motion of the dimer in the crystal. An immobilization of excitons occurs within 500 fs, which results from an irreversible energy loss together with a local deformation of the crystal lattice. This prevents a further transport of the exciton. In the case of DIP, this immobilization does not proceed due to high barriers. These barriers result from the herringbone type packing motif in the DIP crystal. This discrepancy in the dynamics explains the different LD values in DIP and α-PTCDA. In a further example, an exciton immobilization was found in helical π-aggregates of perylene tetracarboxylic bisimide (PBI) molecules. Self-trapping is caused by a relaxation mechanism, in which the exciton is transferred by asymmetric vibrations of the aggregate from the bright to a dark Frenkel state within 200 fs, whereby the transition is mediated by a CT state. However, the CT state is almost non-populated during the whole mechanism so that its participation could not yet be proven experimentally. This entire procedure is solely possible in helical aggregates, because only for such structures is there a CT state located next to the bright Frenkel state. At the final Frenkel state a torsional motion around the π-stacking axis is possible so that the loss in energy and the local rearrangement of the aggregate structure occurs, which means a self-trapping of the exciton. This mechanism is in perfect agreement with all available experimental data. These insights allow the conclusion that in future materials for organic solar cells an irreversible and ultrafast deformation of aggregates after photo-absorption must be avoided. Only in this way long LD values can be achieved and exciton self-trapping can be prevented. However, small LD values are always predicted in helical aggregates of perylene-based materials, because exciton immobilization occurs already due to small molecular motions. For this reason such aggregates are inappropriate for the use in organic solar cells. Long LD values are expected for aggregate structures with long intermolecular shifts or molecules with bulky substituents.
The probiotic Escherichia coli strain Nissle 1917 (EcN) is one of the few probiotics licensed as a medication in several countries. Best documented is its effectiveness in keeping patients suffering from ulcerative colitis (UC) in remission. This might be due to its ability to induce the production of human beta defensin 2 (HBD2) in a flagellin-dependent way in intestinal epithelial cells. In contrast to ulcerative colitis, for Crohn´s disease (CD) convincing evidence is lacking that EcN might be clinically effective, most likely due to the genetically based inability of sufficient defensin production in CD patients. As a first step in the development of an alternative approach for the treatment of CD patients, EcN strains were constructed which were able to produce human alpha-defensin 5 (HD5) or beta-defensin 2 (HBD2). For that purpose codon-optimized defensin genes encoding either the proform with the signal sequence or the mature form of human alpha defensin 5 (HD5) or the gene encoding HBD2 with or without the signal sequence were cloned in an expression vector plasmid under the control of the T7 promoter. Synthesis of the encoded defensins was shown by Western blots after induction of expression and lysis of the recombinant EcN strains. Recombinant mature HBD2 with an N-terminal His-tag could be purified by Ni-column chromatography and showed antimicrobial activity against E. coli, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes. In a second approach, that part of the HBD2-gene which encodes mature HBD2 was fused with yebF gene. The resulting fusion protein YebFMHBD2 was secreted from the encoding EcN mutant strain after induction of expression. Presence of YebFMHBD2 in the medium was not the result of leakage from the bacterial cells, as demonstrated in the spent culture supernatant by Western blots specific for ß-galactosidase and maltose-binding protein. The dialyzed and concentrated culture supernatant inhibited the growth of E. coli, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and Listeria monocytogenes in radial diffusion assays as well as in liquid coculture. This demonstrates EcN to be a suitable probiotic E. coli strain for the production of certain defensins.
Time-resolved spectroscopic studies of energy transfer between molecules in solution form a basis for both, our understanding of fundamental natural processes like photosynthesis as well as directed synthetic approaches to optimize organic opto-electronic devices. Here, coherent two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy opens up new possibilities, as it reveals the correlation between absorption and emission frequency and hence the full cause-and-effect chain. In this thesis two optical setups were developed and implemented, permitting the recording of electronic 2D spectra in the visible and in the hitherto unexplored ultraviolet spectral range. Both designs rely on the exclusive manipulation of beam pairs, which reduces the signal modulation to the difference between the transition frequency of the system and the laser frequency. Thus - as has been shown experimentally and theoretically - the timing precision as well as mechanical stability requirements are greatly reduced, from fractions of the oscillation period of the exciting light wave to fractions of the pulse duration. Two-dimensional spectroscopy and femtosecond transient absorption (TA) as well as different theoretical approaches and simulation models were then applied to coupled multichromophore systems of increasing complexity. Perylene bisimide-perylene monoimide dyads were investigated in cooperation with Prof. Dr. Frank Würthner and Prof. Dr. Bernd Engels at the University of Würzburg. In these simplest systems studied, global analysis of six different TA experiments unequivocally revealed an ultrafast interchromophoric energy transfer in the 100 fs range. Comparison between the obtained transfer rates and the predictions of Förster theory suggest a breakdown of this point-transition-dipole-based picture at the donor-acceptor distances realized in our compounds. Furthermore, a model including conformational changes and an interchromophoric charge transfer has been derived to consistently describe the observed pico- to nanosecond dynamics and fluorescence quantum yields. A second collaboration with Prof. Dr. Gregory Scholes (University of Toronto, Canada) and Prof. Dr. Paul Burn (University of Queensland, Australia) addressed the photophysics of a series of uorene-carbazole dendrimers. Here, a combination of 2D-UV spectroscopy and femtosecond ansiotropy decay experiments revealed the initial delocalization of the excited state wave function that saturates with the second generation. In room temperature solution, disorder-induced localization takes place on the time scales comparable to our instrument response, i.e. 100 fs, followed by energy transfer via incoherent hopping processes. Lastly, in tubular zinc chlorin aggregates, semi-synthetic analogues of natural lightharvesting antennae that had again been synthesized in the group of Prof. Dr. Frank Würthner, the interchromophoric coupling is so strong that coherently coupled domains prevail even at room temperature. From an analysis of intensity-dependent TA measurements the dimensions of these domains, the exciton delocalization length, could be determined to span 5-20 monomers. In addition, 2D spectra uncovered efficient energy transfer between neighboring domains, i.e. ultrafast exciton diffusion.
Ovarian cancer currently causes ~6,000 deaths per year in Germany alone. Since only palliative treatment is available for ovarian carcinomas that have developed resistance against platinum-based chemotherapy and paclitaxel, there is a pressing medical need for the development of new therapeutic approaches. As survival is strongly influenced by immunological parameters, immunotherapeutic strategies appear promising. The research of our group thus aims at overcoming tumour immune escape by counteracting immunosuppressive mechanisms in the tumour microenvironment. In this context, we found that tumour-infiltrating myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC) or tumour associated macrophages (TAM) which are abundant in ovarian cancer express high levels of the enzyme 11β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase1 (11-HSD1). This oxido-reductase enzyme is essential for the conversion of biologically inactive cortisone into active cortisol. In line with this observation, high endogenous cortisol levels could be detected in serum, ascitic fluid and tumour exudates from ovarian cancer patients. Considering that cortisol exerts strong anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive effects on immune cells, it appears likely that high endogenous cortisol levels contribute to immune escape in ovarian cancer. We thus hypothesised that local activation of endogenous glucocorticoids could suppress beneficial immune responses in the tumour microenvironment and thereby prevent a successful immunotherapy. To investigate the in vivo relevance of this postulated immune escape mechanism, irradiated PTENloxP/loxP loxP-Stop-loxP-krasG12D mice were reconstituted with hematopoietic stem cells from either glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expressing mice (GRloxP/loxP) or from mice with a T cell-specific glucocorticoid receptor knock-out (lck-Cre GRloxP/loxP) mice. In the host mice, the combination of a conditional PTEN knock-out with a latent oncogenic kras leads to tumour development when a Cre-encoding adenovirus is injected into the ovarian bursa. Using this model, mice that had been reconstituted with GC-insensitive T cells showed better intratumoural T cell infiltration than control mice that had received functionally unaltered GRloxP/loxP cells via adoptive transfer. However, tumour-infiltrating T cells mostly assumed a Foxp3+ (regulatory) phenotype and survival was even shortened in mice with cortisol-insensitive T cells. Thus, endogenous cortisol seems to inhibit immune cell infiltration in ovarian cancer, but productive anti-tumour immune responses might still be prevented by further factors from the tumour microenvironment. Thus, our data did not provide a sufficiently strong rationale to further pursue the antagonisation of glucocorticoid signalling in ovarian cancer patients, Moreover, glucocorticoids are frequently administered to cancer patients to reduce inflammation and swelling and to prevent chemotherapy-related toxic side effects like nausea or hypersensitivity reactions associated with paclitaxel therapy. Thus, we decided to address the question whether specific signalling pathways in innate immune cells, preferentially in NK cells, could still be activated even in the presence of GC. A careful investigation of the various activating NK cell receptors (i.e. NKp30, NKp44, NKp46), DNAM-1 and NKG2D) was thus performed which revealed that NKp30, NKp44 and NKG2D are all down-regulated by cortisol whereas NKp46 is actually induced by cortisol. Interestingly, NKp46 is the only known receptor that is strictly confined to NK cells. Its activation via crosslinking leads to cytokine release and activation of cytotoxic activity. Stimulation of NK cells via NKp46 may contribute to immune-mediated tumour destruction by triggering the lysis of tumour cells and by altering the cytokine pattern in the tumour microenvironment, thereby generating more favourable conditions for the recruitment of antigen-specific immune cells. Accordingly, our observation that even cortisol-treated NK cells can still be activated via NKp46 and CD2 might become valuable for the design of immunotherapies that can still be applied in the presence of endogenous or therapeutically administered glucocorticoids.
In the verification of positive Harris recurrence of multiclass queueing networks the stability analysis for the class of fluid networks is of vital interest. This thesis addresses stability of fluid networks from a Lyapunov point of view. In particular, the focus is on converse Lyapunov theorems. To gain an unified approach the considerations are based on generic properties that fluid networks under widely used disciplines have in common. It is shown that the class of closed generic fluid network models (closed GFNs) is too wide to provide a reasonable Lyapunov theory. To overcome this fact the class of strict generic fluid network models (strict GFNs) is introduced. In this class it is required that closed GFNs satisfy additionally a concatenation and a lower semicontinuity condition. We show that for strict GFNs a converse Lyapunov theorem is true which provides a continuous Lyapunov function. Moreover, it is shown that for strict GFNs satisfying a trajectory estimate a smooth converse Lyapunov theorem holds. To see that widely used queueing disciplines fulfill the additional conditions, fluid networks are considered from a differential inclusions perspective. Within this approach it turns out that fluid networks under general work-conserving, priority and proportional processor-sharing disciplines define strict GFNs. Furthermore, we provide an alternative proof for the fact that the Markov process underlying a multiclass queueing network is positive Harris recurrent if the associate fluid network defining a strict GFN is stable. The proof explicitely uses the Lyapunov function admitted by the stable strict GFN. Also, the differential inclusions approach shows that first-in-first-out disciplines play a special role.
Fanconi anemia (FA) is an autosomal recessive or X-chromosomal inherited disorder, which is not only phenotypically but also genotypically very heterogeneous. While its hallmark feature is progressive bone marrow failure, many yet not all patients suffer additionally from typical congenital malformations like radial ray defects and growth retardation. In young adulthood the cumulative risk for developing hematological or other malignancies is compared to the general population several hundred-fold increased. The underlying molecular defect is the deficiency of DNA interstrand crosslink (ICL) repair. ICLs are deleterious lesions, which interfere with crucial cellular processes like transcription and replication and thereby can lead to malignant transformation, premature senescence or cell death. To overcome this threat evolution developed a highly complex network of interacting DNA repair pathways, which is conserved completely only in vertebrates. The so called FA/BRCA DNA damage response pathway is able to recognize ICLs on stalled replication forks and promotes their repair through homologous recombination (HR). Today we know 15 FA genes (FANCA, -B, -C, -D1, -D2, -E, -F, -G, -I, -J, -L, -M, -N, -O and -P) whose products are involved in this pathway. Although more than 80% of FA patients carry biallelic mutations in either FANCA, FANCC or FANCG, there are still some who cannot be assigned to any of the known complementation groups. This work aimed to indentify the di¬sease causing mutations in a cohort of those unassigned patients. Initial screens of the candidate genes FAN1, MHF1 and MHF2 did not reveal any pathogenic alterations. Moreover, FAN1 could be excluded as FA candidate gene because patients carrying a homozygous microdeletion including the FAN1 locus did not show a phenotype comparable to FA patients. In the case of MHF1 and MHF2 the reason for the negative screening result is not clear. Mutation carriers might be rare or, regarding the diverse and also FA pathway independent protein functions, phenotypically not comparable to FA patients. Nevertheless, this study contri¬buted to the identification and characterization of the most recent members of the FA pathway - RAD51C (FANCO), SLX4 (FANCP) and XPF (FANCQ). FANCO is one of the RAD51 paralogs and is involved in crucial steps of HR. But since the only reported FA-O patient has so far not developed any hematological anomalies, FANCO is tentatively designated as gene underlying an FA-like disorder. In contrast, patients carrying biallelic mutations in FANCP do not only show hematological anomalies, but as well congenital malformations typical for FA. The distinct role of FANCP in the FA pathway could not be determined, but it is most likely the coordination of structure-specific nucleases during ICL excision. One of these nucleases is the heterodimer XPF/ERCC1. XPF is probably disease causing in the complementation group FA-Q and is the first FA gene, which was identified by Next Generation Sequencing (NGS). Extraordinarily is that mutations in this gene had previously been reported to cause two other disorders, xeroderma pigmentosum and segmental progeria. Despite some overlaps, it was shown that the divergent phenotypes could clearly be distinguished and are caused by distinct functional defects of XPF. Additionally, this work aimed to improve and accelerate the genotyping process of FA patients in general. Therefore, classical approaches should be complemented or fully replaced by approa¬ches using NGS. Massively parallel sequencing of the whole exome proved to be most appro¬priate and the establishment of an FA-specific analysis pipeline facilitated improved molecular diagnostics by combining complementation group assignment and mutation analysis in one step. Consequently two NGS studies revealed the pathogenic defect in several previously unassigned FA patients and thereby added another patient to one of the most recent subtypes, FA-P. In summary, this work contributed not only to further completion of the FA/BRCA DNA repair network by adding three novel genes, it also showed that classical molecular approaches for re¬search as well as for diagnostics could be replaced by NGS.
Both specific stimulus valence and unspecific processing dynamics can influence evaluative responses. Eight experiments investigated their respective influence on evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. Valence of stereotypic information and consistency-driven fluency were manipulated in an impression formation paradigm. When information about the to-be-evaluated target person was strongly valenced, no effects of consistency-driven fluency were observed. Higher cognitive processes, valence of inconsistent attributes, processing priority of category information, and impression formation instructions were ruled out as possible factors responsible for the non-occurrence of fluency effects. However, consistency-driven fluency did influence the evaluative judgment, if the information about a target person was not strongly valenced. It is therefore concluded that both stimulus valence and consistency-driven processing fluency play a role in evaluative judgments in the domain of stereotyping. The respective impact of stimulus valence is much stronger than the impact of unspecific processing dynamics, however. Implications for fluency research and the applied field of stereotype change are discussed.
Consider the situation where two or more images are taken from the same object. After taking the first image, the object is moved or rotated so that the second recording depicts it in a different manner. Additionally, take heed of the possibility that the imaging techniques may have also been changed. One of the main problems in image processing is to determine the spatial relation between such images. The corresponding process of finding the spatial alignment is called “registration”. In this work, we study the optimization problem which corresponds to the registration task. Especially, we exploit the Lie group structure of the set of transformations to construct efficient, intrinsic algorithms. We also apply the algorithms to medical registration tasks. However, the methods developed are not restricted to the field of medical image processing. We also have a closer look at more general forms of optimization problems and show connections to related tasks.
Dendritic cell-based vaccination is a well established technique for preventive and therapeutic instruction of the immune system where conservative vaccine formulations fail to cure or prevent diseases, respectively. Efficiency of this technique already was demonstrated in infectious diseases as well as for cancer in animal or human studies. Well controlled manipulation and antigen-loading of immature DC is most beneficial to this technique. But, time-consuming and cost-extensive procedures for preparation of DC precursors, expansion and stimulation of DC and inpatient administration are big disadvantages regarding vaccine development for pandemic infectious diseases that occur mainly in underdeveloped countries. Therefore vaccines are needed that are pathogen-tailored and able to induce equal immune responses as their DC-based vaccine models. For vaccination against Leishmania parasites such a DC-based vaccine is feasible and its efficacy to induce protective Th1-based immune responses was already demonstrated in several animal studies. But, one of our own studies indicated supportive activity of host cells exceeding the allocation of T cells to become activated by transferred DC. IL-12, an important cytokine for the induction of Th1-related immune responses, has to be produced by host cells. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the mechanism of BMDC-based vaccination with regard to simplification of the vaccine formulation. Key questions that have been addressed are: Which cells process the information that is transferred by the injected DC and what are the key components of this information? Further more, it was looked at whether altered vaccine formulations are able to induce protective immunity and whether they share equal molecular mechanisms. The current paradigm of BMDC-based vaccination proposes direct interaction of transferred BMDC with host T cells. These BMDC have to be antigen-loaded for stimulation via antigen-peptide-MHC molecule-complexes and they have to be activated for proper co-stimulation of T cells. Here, this study demonstrates that neither activation for co-stimulation nor direct interaction with adequate MHC molecules is needed for the induction of protective immunity against infection with Leishmania-parasites. Disrupted antigen-loaded BMDC are able to induce protective immunity in BALB/c mice without pre-stimulation via CpG ODN. Beyond, if BMDC were used with a different MHC-background than recipient mice then the vaccine still would be efficient in terms of reduction of footpad swelling and parasite load in draining lymph nodes. Even more, DC-specific features are no key component that leads to protective immunity as vaccination with disrupted antigen-loaded MΦ shows equal properties than before mentioned vaccine formulations. Further more, it was found that host DC play a major role in transforming the incoming signal, received from transferred antigen-loaded DC, into Th1-related stimuli and Leishmania-antigen-specific T cell activation. Suspensions of disrupted antigen-loaded DC resemble a combination of laid off soluble molecules together with exosome-like vesicles that formed after disruption of membranes. Here it was shown that separation of the membranous and soluble fractions and subsequent transfer into BALB/c mice will lead to protection of these mice against infection with L. major promastigotes only if the membranous fraction is used as vaccine. More, this vaccine formulation takes advantage of easy storage at -80°C with no need of fresh production. This clearly demonstrates that the immunity-inducing principle of disrupted DC-based vaccination lies within the membrane enclosed fraction. On a molecular level, disrupted antigen-loaded DC induce Th1-related cytokines during vaccination and as response on pathogen encounter. In vivo assays revealed IL-12 production and antigen-specific T cell proliferation among splenocytes that were stimulated with disrupted antigen-loaded DC. Splenocytes of accordingly vaccinated mice produce tremendous amounts of IFNγ after stimulation with Leishmania parasites. In summary, disrupted antigen-loaded BMDC fulfil all characteristics of DC-based vaccination against Leishmania major. But, while purification of membranes of antigen-loaded DC and subsequent transfer to BALB/c mice leads to control of the disease in the animal model, only slight levels of Th1-related cytokines are seen in the in vivo assays. Whether this points towards a loss of vaccine activity on unseen levels or unknown sites where Th1-related immunity is induced by both, complete solution and purified membranes, still has to be determined.
The objective of this prospective observational controlled study was to evaluate potential effects and dose-response relationship of LT4 administration on BMD, parameters of bone and muscle strength, and biochemical variables of calcium homoeostasis and bone turnover.Ninety-seven men and pre-menopausal women after near total thyroidectomy and ¹³¹I remnant ablation for well-differentiated thyroid carcinoma or after strumectomy for non-toxic goitre were stratified by degree of TSH suppression and by gender in three subgroups: 28 men and 46 women on LT4 suppressive treatment and 23 women on LT4 replacement therapy. Patients were matched for age, gender and BMI to 89 healthy controls with a negative history of thyroid disease. Patients and controls were followed and studied for a mean time of 1.1±0.2 years. Peripheral volumetric total and trabecular BMD as well as bone strength (pQCT) were determined at the ultra-distal radius. Central areal BMD (DXA) was measured at the lumbar spine, left and right femoral neck as well as left and right total hip. Maximum grip strength (dynamometer) of the non-dominant forearm and serum markers of calcium and bone metabolism were assessed. BMD at the axial skeleton and muscle strength were not impaired by LT4 medication irrespective of gender, underlying diagnosis or treatment regimen. By contrast, a general trend of inversely affected total and trabecular BMD and of decreased bone strength was detected at the ultra-distal radius. Only in women on LT4 suppressive treatment, loss of total BMD at the ultra-distal radius reached a level of high significance. In women on LT4 replacement therapy, a significant decline of maximum grip strength appeared in comparison with female controls, while appendicular total and trabecular BMD as well as bone strength remained unchanged and did not differ from respective controls. In men on LT4 suppressive treatment, greater reduction of bone strength as compared to female thyroid cancer patients was marginally significant. Calcium balance was stable and serum concentrations of bone metabolism markers levelled off or rather decreased contradicting (high turnover) bone loss. The study did not reveal any dose-related differential influence of LT4 administration either on primary or secondary study endpoints in female patients. A gender-related difference of bone strength in response to LT4 suppressive treatment might not be excluded, as male thyroid cancer patients showed greater decline of bone strength despite unaffected peripheral BMD and muscle strength. In conclusion, there was only little evidence of adverse LT4 effects. For the most part, LT4 administration irrespective of degree of TSH suppression was not associated with low or accelerated loss of BMD at the peripheral and central skeleton and loss of bone and muscle strength, a finding also confirmed biochemically. The ultra-distal radius as a non-weight bearing skeletal site might be at risk for BMD reduction. According to the results, pre-menopausal women on LT4 suppressive therapy might be at risk of bone loss. The more complex approach of this study also took into account biomechanical qualities of bone material as well as structural and geometrical characteristics of bone architecture implying a causal muscle-bone interrelationship.
Hey1, Hey2 and HeyL are downstream effectors of the Notch signalling pathway. Hey genes play decisive roles during embryonic development for example in cardiovascular development. However, the precise transcriptional programmes and genes, which are affected by each single Hey gene, are still poorly understood. One drawback for the analysis of Hey1, Hey2 or HeyL single gene function is that these genes are co-expressed in many tissues and share a high degree of functional redundancy. Thus, it was necessary to establish a system, which is either devoid of Hey expression, or just comprises one single Hey gene family member. For this, Hey1(fl/fl)/Hey2(-/-)/HeyL(-/-)- as well as Hey-triple- knock out (KO)-ES cells (embryonic stem cells) were generated in this work, because ES cells and their differentiation as EBs (embryoid bodies) represent a valuable tool for the in vitro analysis of embryonic developmental processes. After the establishment of Hey1(fl/fl)/Hey2(-/-)/HeyL(-/-)- and Hey-triple- KO-ES cells, it could be seen by ALP staining and pluripotency marker expression that loss of Hey expression did not affect ES cell pluripotency features. Thus, these ES cells represent bona fide ES cells and could be further used for the differentiation as EBs. Here, differences in gene expression between Hey1(fl/fl)/Hey2(-/-)/HeyL(-/-)- and Hey-triple- KO-ES cells (after the loss of Hey1) could be observed in realtime-RT-PCR analysis for the endodermal marker AFP as well as for neural and myogenic markers in d10 EBs. However, the establishment of inducible Hey1, Hey2 or HeyL ES cell lines will be essential to confirm these findings and to search for novel Hey target genes. To get further insight into the mode of Hey action, the analysis of Hey interaction partners is necessary. One such binding partner, the Bre protein, has previously been found in a yeast-two-hybrid screen. Bre has been described to be a member of two distinct complexes (i.e. the nuclear BRCA1-A complex with a function in DNA damage response and the cytoplasmic BRISC complex), to directly interact with the TNF-receptor and Fas and to interfere with apoptotic signalling. The Hey-Bre interaction could be further corroborated in this work; yet, it was not possible to narrow down the interaction site of Bre with Hey1. It rather seems that non-overlapping parts of the Bre protein may bind to Hey. This interaction may be direct– pointing to more than one interaction site inside the Bre protein – or via a common binding partner such as the endogenous Bre protein itself. Besides the interaction studies, functional assays were performed for a more detailed characterisation of Hey1 and Bre interaction. Here, it could be shown that Hey1 over-expression did not have any influence on Bre sub-cellular localisation. Interestingly, it could be demonstrated that Bre positively interfered with Hey1 repressive function in luciferase assays at three of four promoters analysed. Moreover, interaction with Bre seems to lead to a stabilisation of Hey1. As Bre has been described to modulate the E3-ligase activity intrinsic to the BRCC complex it was analysed whether Bre over-expression results in an ubiquitination of Hey1. Yet, this could not be observed in the present work. Furthermore, an interaction of Bre with ubiquitinated proteins could not be demonstrated in an ubiquitin binding assay. To obtain a better insight into Bre function, Bre LacZ gene trap-ES cells and animals were generated. However, realtime-RT-analyses revealed that these cells and mice did not show a loss of Bre expression on mRNA level indicating that insertion mutagenesis did not occur as expected. However, embryos derived from these mice could nevertheless be used for the detection of tissues with Bre expression by β-galactosidase staining. Bre deficiency on mRNA levels was only achieved after the deletion of the floxed exon 3 resulting in the generation of Bre del-mice. Bre del-mice were fertile and without any obvious phenotype and they were used for the generation of Bre del- and wt-MEFs (murine embryonic fibroblasts). Characterisation of these cells showed that proliferation was not affected after loss of Bre (neither under normal nor under stress conditions). However, loss of Bre notably resulted in a reduction in the BRCA1 DNA damage response, in a slightly increased sensitivity towards apoptosis induction by FasL treatment and in an increase in the K63-poly-ubiquitin content in Bre del-cytoplasmic fractions, probably linked to a change in the BRISC de-ubiquitinase activity. Even though these results have the same tendencies as observed in former studies, the effects in the present work are less striking. Further studies as well as intercrossing of Bre del- to Hey KO-animals will be necessary to further understand the functional relevance of Hey and Bre interaction.
The Influence of Anticipation and Warnings on Collision Avoidance Behavior of Attentive Drivers
(2012)
This thesis deals with collision avoidance. Focus is on the question of under which conditions collision avoidance works well for humans and if drivers can be supported by a Forward Collision Warning (FCW) System when they do not react appropriately. Forward Collision Warning systems work in a way that tries to focus the driver's attention in the direction of the hazard and evoke an avoidance reaction by some sort of alert (e.g., tone or light). Research on these warning systems generally focuses on inattention and distraction as the cause for crashes. If the driver is inattentive, the results of a crash are thought to be worse as the driver‘s reaction is belated or might not mitigate the crash at all. To ensure effectiveness in the worst case, most of the experiments studying FCW systems have been conducted with visually distracted drivers. Research on the cause and possible countermeasures for crashes of attentive drivers are hardly available, although crash databases and field operational test data show that 40-60% of the drivers look at the forward scene shortly before they crash. Hence, only a few studies elaborated on ideas about the reasons for crashes with attentive drivers. On the basis of the literature, it is worked out that one reason for delayed avoidance behavior can be an incorrect allocation of attention. It is further elaborated that high level attention processes are strongly influenced by interpretation of the situation and the anticipation of future status. Therefore, it is hypothesized that alert drivers react later when they can not foresee a potential threat or even when they misinterpret the situation. If the lack of threat anticipation or incorrect anticipation is a reason for crashes, a FCW system could be a great help, when the FCW is easily comprehensible. It is hypothesized that a FCW can compensate for missing threat anticipation in the driver. The results of the experiments show that the level of threat anticipation has the largest influence on driver behavior in an imminent crash situation. The results further suggest that FCW systems - especially warnings of audible or haptic modality - can help attentive drivers who do not anticipate a threat or misinterpret a situation. The negative influence of missing or mislead threat anticipation on objective measures was small when the threat appeared suddenly. This is thought to be due to the visual appearance of the introduced threat. It is assumed that this type of stimulus triggers a lower level attentional process, as opposed to a top-down attention process controlled by an anticipatory process. In the other scenario types such a lower level process may not be triggered. An important result of the second study is that (Forward) Collision Warnings have to be learned. Participants with warnings reacted slower than participants without any FCW in the first critical event. Participants with a visual warning reacted particularly slow. Later in the experiment, the probands with warnings were constantly faster than their counterparts without them. Hence, the results of this study suggest that a haptic or audible modality should be used as a primary warning to the driver. The characteristic of visual warnings to draw the visual attention is both a blessing and a curse. It is suggested to use the visual warning component for only a short period of time to attract the driver's attention to the forward scene, but then end the display to not further distract him. Car manufacturers try to avoid as many unnecessary alarms as possible. If driver monitoring would be available, it is often planned to suppress warnings when the driver is looking through the windshield. The results suggest not to do so. If a driver reaches a critical situation represented by a low Time-to-collision (TTC) or a high need to decelerate, he should always get a warning, unless he is already braking or steering. The most important arguments for this are: - Looking at the street does not mean that the driver has the correct situational awareness. - The driver has to learn the meaning of the warning. - The driver will not be annoyed by a warning when the situation is considered critical.
Dementia, or any form of degenerative cognitive decline, is one of the major problems in present, and even more will be in future medicine. With Alzheimer's disease (AD) being the most prevalent, Vascular Dementia is the second most entity of dementing processes in the elderly. As diagnostic criteria are still imprecise and in many cases do not embrace early stages of the disease, recent studies have proposed more detailed classifications of the newly created condition Vascular Cognitive Impairment (VCI). Of all conditions subsumed under this term, subcortical small-vessel alterations are the most common cause for cognitive decline. The diagnosis of dementia / cognitive impairment is presently often made in late stages of the disease, when therapeutical options are poor. Thus, early detection of changes of the subcortical small vessels is desirable, when there is still time to identify and aggressively treat risk factors and underlying conditions like diabetes, hyper- or hypotension, and hyperlipidemia. This study aimed to evaluate whether cTT correlates to cognitive dysfunction, i.e. if cTT is fit as an early diagnostic tool for VCI. The study cohort included 38 patients from the Neurological Clinic of the Würzburg University hospital admitted due to diagnoses other than dementia or stroke. As a result of this study it turned out that cTT is certainly capable of fulfilling the task to easily and effectively detect and evaluate possible microvascular lesions of the brain with respect to the actual clinical relevance for the patient. When compared to the other proposed diagnostic tools, neuropsychological testing and MRI, the advantages of cTT are obvious: its measurement is a low-cost and quick procedure which would spare both patients and examiners a long neuropsychological exam or complement it. cTT is safe to assess as the only possible risks derive from the use of the contrast agent, which are rare and easily manageable. It has also proven to be more accurate in showing the extent of cognitive impairment than MRI. Finally, it is widely available. The only prerequisite is an ultrasound machine capable of transcranial color-coded duplex sonography. No cost-intensive procedures like MRI are needed. So, with neuropsychological testing remaining the gold standard, cTT here proved to be a reliable alternative which is more time- and cost-effective than MRI.
Is behaviour response or action? In this Thesis I study this question regarding a rather simple organism, the larva of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Despite its numerically simple brain and limited behavioural repertoire, it is nevertheless capable to accomplish surprisingly complex tasks. After association of an odour and a rewarding or punishing reinforcement signal, the learnt odour is able to retrieve the formed memory trace. However, the activated memory trace is not automatically turned into learned behaviour: Appetitive memory traces are behaviourally expressed only in absence of the rewarding tastant whereas aversive memory traces are behaviourally expressed in the presence of the punishing tastant. The ‘decision’ whether to behaviourally express a memory trace or not relies on a quantitive comparison between memory trace and current situation: only if the memory trace (after odour-sugar training) predicts a stronger sugar reward than currently present, animals show appetitive conditioned behaviour. Learned appetitive behaviour is best seen as active search for food – being pointless in the presence of (enough) food. Learned aversive behaviour, in turn, can be seen as escape from a punishment – being pointless in absence of punishment. Importantly, appetitive and aversive memory traces can be formed and retrieved independent from each other but also can, under appriate circumstances, summate to jointly organise conditioned behaviour. In contrast to learned behaviour, innate olfactory behaviour is not influenced by gustatory processing and vice versa. Thus, innate olfactory and gustatory behaviour is rather rigid and reflexive in nature, being executed almost regardless of other environmental cues. I suggest a behavioural circuit-model of chemosensory behaviour and the ‘decision’ process whether to behaviourally express a memory trace or not. This model reflects known components of the larval chemobehavioural circuit and provides clear hypotheses about the kinds of architecture to look for in the currently unknown parts of this circuit. The second chapter deals with gustatory perception and processing (especially of bitter substances). Quinine, the bitter tastant in tonic water and bitter lemon, is aversive for larvae, suppresses feeding behaviour and can act as aversive reinforcer in learning experiments. However, all three examined behaviours differ in their dose-effect dynamics, suggesting different molecular and cellular processing streams at some level. Innate choice behaviour, thought to be relatively reflexive and hard-wired, nevertheless can be influenced by the gustatory context. That is, attraction toward sweet tastants is decreased in presence of bitter tastants. The extent of this inhibitory effect depends on the concentration of both sweet and bitter tastant. Importantly, sweet tastants differ in their sensitivity to bitter interference, indicating a stimulus-specific mechanism. The molecular and cellular processes underlying the inhibitory effect of bitter tastants are unknown, but the behavioural results presented here provide a framework to further investigate interactions of gustatory processing streams.
Human adult cartilage is an aneural and avascular type of connective tissue, which consequently reflects reduced growth and repair rates. The main cell type of cartilage are chondrocytes, previously derived from human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). They are responsible for the production and maintainance of the cartilaginous extracellular matrix (ECM), which consists mainly of collagen and proteoglycans. Signal transmission to or from chondrocytes, generally occurs via interaction with signalling factors connected to the cartilaginous ECM. In this context, proteins of the CCN family were identified as important matricellular and multifunctional regulators with high significance during skeletal development and fracture repair. In this thesis, main focus lies on WISP1/CCN4, which is known as a general survival factor in a variety of cell types and seems to be crucial during lineage progression of hMSCs into chondrocytes. We intend to counter the lack of knowledge about the general importance of WISP1-signalling within the musculoskeletal system and especially regarding cell death and survival by a variety of molecular and cell biology methods. First, we established a successful down-regulation of endogenous WISP1 transcripts within different cell types of the human musculoskeletal system through gene-silencing. Interestingly, WISP1 seems to be crucial to the survival of all examined cell lines and primary hMSCs, since a loss of WISP1 resulted in cell death. Bioinformatical analyses of subsequent performed microarrays (WISP1 down-regulated vs. control samples) confirmed this observation in primary hMSCs and the chondrocyte cell line Tc28a2. Distinct clusters of regulated genes, closely related to apoptosis induction, could be identified. In this context, TRAIL induced apoptosis as well as p53 mediated cell death seem to play a crucial role during the absence of WISP1 in hMSCs. By contrast, microarray analysis of WISP1 down-regulated chondrocytes indicated rather apoptosis induction via MAPK-signalling. Despite apoptosis relevant gene regulations, microarray analyses also identified clusters of differentially expressed genes of other important cellular activities, e.g. a huge cluster of interferon-inducible genes in hMSCs or gene regulations affecting cartilage homeostasis in chondrocytes. Results of this thesis emphasize the importance of regulatory mechanisms that influence cell survival of primary hMSCs and chondrocytes in the enforced absence of WISP1. Moreover, findings intensified the assumed importance for WISP1-signalling in cartilage homeostasis. Thus, this thesis generated an essential fundament for further examinations to investigate the role of WISP1-signalling in cartilage homeostasis and cell death.
In this thesis, the electronic transport properties of mesoscopic condensed matter systems based on graphene are investigated by means of numerical as well as analytical methods. In particular, it is analyzed how the concepts of quantum interference and disorder, which are essential to mesoscopic devices in general, are affected by the unique electronic and transport properties of the graphene material system. We consider the famous Aharonov–Bohm effect in ring-shaped transport geometries, and, besides providing an overview over the recent developments on the subject, we study the signatures of fundamental phenomena such as Klein tunneling and specular Andreev reflection, which are specific to graphene, in the magnetoconductance oscillations. To this end, we introduce and utilize a variant of the well-known recursive Green’s function technique, which is an efficient numerical method for the calculation of transport observables in effectively non-interacting open quantum systems in the framework of a tight binding model. This technique is also applied to study the effects of a specific kind of disorder, namely short-range resonant scatterers, such as strongly bound adatoms or molecules, that can be modeled as vacancies in the graphene lattice. This numerical analysis of the conductance in the presence of resonant scatterers in graphene leads to a non-trivial classification of impurity sites in the graphene lattice and is further substantiated by an independent analytical treatment in the framework of the Dirac equation. The present thesis further contains a formal introduction to the topic of non-equilibrium quantum transport as appropriate for the development of the numerical technique mentioned above, a general introduction to the physics of graphene with a focus on the particular phenomena investigated in this work, and a conclusion where the obtained results are summarized and open questions as well as potential future developments are highlighted.
This dissertation focuses on selected novels written by contemporary indigenous authors from Aotearoa/New Zealand and examines the fictional imagination of the human body as a medium of cultural identity and memory. The novels discussed are Keri Hulme’s »The Bone People« (1984), »Nights in the Gardens of Spain« (1995) and »The Uncle’s Story« (2000) by Witi Ihimaera as well as James George’s »Hummingbird« (2003). In order to further decolonisation processes and to come to terms with the colonial past and the complexity of present realities, the fictional works position the human body as an active entity in the negotiation of specific cultural epistemologies. This project explores the narrative translation of corporeality that is used to locate alternative concepts of identity and cultural memory. Taking into account indigenous perspectives, this thesis makes use of the current theoretical approaches presented by pragmatism and affect theory in order to analyse the investment of the novels in feeling and the reciprocal relationship between text and corporeality depicted by the narratives. On the one hand, the novels aim to undermine oppressive and marginalising categories by placing particular emphasis on »sensuous gaps« in the text. On the other hand, the narratives intend to construct alternative identities and evoke specific aspects of indigenous histories and knowledge by imagining the human body in terms of »sensuous inscription«. The novels portray individuals who act from a place in-between different cultures, and articulate a desire to dissolve polarities and emphasise individual and cultural transformation as a formative element in the creation of complex identities and new perspectives.
Primary contact with human polyomaviruses is followed by lifelong asymptomatic persistence of viral DNA. Under severe immunosuppression JCV activation may lead to unrestricted virus growth in the CNS followed by development of progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML). Besides the kidney and the brain, target cells of persistent infection were also found in the hematopoietic system. This included the presence of JCV genomes in peripheral blood cells (PBCs). In the attempt to understand the role of PBCs for the JCV infection in humans, we asked for the type of cells affected as well as for virus interaction with PBCs. Analysis of separated subpopulations by highly sensitive and specific polymerase chain reaction and Southern blot hybridization revealed the presence of JCV DNA mostly in circulating granulocytes. These cells have important functions in innate immunity and are professional phagocytes. This suggested that PCR amplified DNA might be the result of an extranuclear association of the virus due to membrane attachment or phagocytosis rather than JCV infection with presence of viral DNA in the nucleus. In the attempt to answer this question JCV DNA was subcellularly localized in the blood of 22 healthy donors by JCV specific fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Granulocytes and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were separated by Percoll gradient centrifugation. Intracellular JCV DNA was hybridized with Digoxigenin-labeled JCV specific DNA probes covering half of the viral genome. As the sensitivity of the anti-digoxigenin antibody system was lower than the PCR detection level, a chemical amplification step was included consisting of peroxidase labeled secondary antibody precipitating biotinylated tyramide followed by detection with streptavidin-Texas-Red and fluorescence microscopy. Comparison of the number of cells affected in healthy individuals with 15 HIV-1 infected patients with and without PML revealed that the rate of affected PBMCs was comparable in both groups (2.5±0.4 and 14.5±0.9 per 1000). In contrast, the rate of JCV positive granulocytes in the immunosuppressed group was 92.6±1.7% compared to 4±1.4% in healthy donors thus confirming that granulocytes are the major group of circulating cells affected by JCV and that HIV-1 associated immune impairment has an important effect on the virus-cell association. Localization revealed that JCV DNA was predominantly located within the cytoplasm, although hybridizing signals occasionally covered the nuclear compartment. The fluorescent glow of chemical amplification combined with classical fluorescence microscopy did not allow an unequivocal localization of viral DNA. However, confocal microscopy of 24 sections through single cells combined with FISH without chemical amplification confirmed cytoplasmic localization of JCV DNA in a large number of cells. Additionally, it clearly demonstrated that JCV DNA was also located in the nucleus and nuclear localization directly correlated with the number of cells affected. Calculation of the virus load in subcellular compartments revealed that up to 50% of the JCV genomes were located in the nucleus thus pointing to viral infection at least in the granulocytes of HIV-1 infected patients. This may contribute to the distribution of the virus from sites of peripheral infection to the CNS and may promote the development of active PML in the severely immune impaired patients.
Autoimmune diseases, unwanted overshooting immune responses against self antigens, are due to an imbalance in immunity and tolerance. Although negatively impacting cancer prognosis, myeloid derived suppressor cells (MDSC), with their potent suppressive capabilities, might be applicable in a more beneficial light when applied in to autoimmunity. As previous shown MDSC have protective roles in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE) (Zhu et al., 2007), the established inducible mouse model for the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS). This decrease in disease severity indicates in vitro generated immature myeloid cells (IMC) from bone marrow (BM) as precursors of MDSC are promising candidates for cellular therapy. Important to any cellular therapy by adoptive transfer, the major questions regarding IMC efficacy was addressed within the thesis. This thesis attempts to elucidate how IMC operate in EAE. This thesis defines the factors within the autoimmune microenvironment that lead to the activation of MDSC, where IMC home once delivered in vivo, and the protective mechanisms BMIMC employ. To emulate BM cells when they first enter circulation through the blood, IMC were injected intravenously (i.v.). IMC are protective with no regard to the various routes delivered (i.v., i.p.). They protect to a lesser extent when pre-activated before injection. IMC suppress by causing a delay and/or by decreasing the severity of the disease via a mechanism yet determined. To understand the migration pattern of IMC after i.v. injection, in vivo kinetics experiments employing bioluminescence imaging were performed. This techinique allows for whole in vivo mouse imaging daily, allowing the tracking of cell migration over days within a single mouse. During steady-state, BMIMC circulate and appear to accumulate in the spleen by day 4 after injection, whereas they alternatively home to inflammatory sites (immunization site), draining lymph nodes, and the spleen within mice with low grade EAE. Visualization of CMDiI-labelled BMIMC by fluorescence microscopy could locate IMC injected cells outside the white pulp, as they were colocalizing in the regions stained with CD169 or outside, but not within the follicles of spleens on day 4. Consistant with these findings, the attempt to analyze the phenotype of these cells by flow cytometry was problematic as these cells seem to adhere strongly to collagen also indicating the cells are located in the collagenous area of the marginal zone and the red pulp.To determine factors influencing MDSC activation, we utilized different stimuli through a high throughput method detecting release of nitric oxide (NO). Extracts from yeast, fungi, and bacteria were observed to activate MDSC to produce nitric oxide. Surprisingly, material mimicking viral DNA (CpG) and RNA (poly I:C), and several self glycolipids, could not activate the MDSC to produce NO. Upon attempts to understand synergistic effects between microbial pathogens and host cytokines, IFNg was determined to boost the signal of pathogen stimuli, whereas IL17, another cytokine which causes pathology during EAE, and IFNb, a drug used in therapy to treat MS, did not cause any additional effects. Activation of MDSC was determined by the microbial pathogens components LPS, curdlan, and zymosan, to induce upregulation of B7H1 on the cell surface. MDSC did not increase any co-stimulatory markers, such as CD40, CD80, CD86, CD70, or the co-inhibitory marker, PDL2. On day 1 after EAE induction, endogenous MDSC populations when stimulated showed an increase in B7H1 expression and a downregulation of CD80. After further analysis, these cells were concluded to be mostly granulocytic cells (Ly6G+). As the B7H1 ligand PD1 is upregulated in chronic diseases and correlates to an exhausted phenotype, the PD1 : B7H1 interaction was a good candidate for the mechanism our cells may employ for their suppressive capacity. To investigate this interaction, fixed BM-IMC deficient in B7H1 were incubated with restimulated memory T cells. IMC deficient in B7H1 resulted in a significant loss of T cell suppression, as compared to the wildtype control BMIMC. To assess this interaction in vivo, we injected wildtype (WT) and B7H1-/- IMC into mice followed by induction of EAE to assess whether B7H1 mediated this suppression. The lack of B7H1 did not alter their suppressive capacity under these conditions, contrary to other findings which have described this interaction to be important in their suppressive capacity when administered post EAE induction (Ioannou et al., 2012). Interestingly, EAE mice pre-treated with IMC had similar amounts of cytokine production in the CNS after restimulation. Spleens from IMC injected mice had increased amounts of Arg-1 suggesting suppression is via oxidation or recruitment by soluble mediators may lead to this protection. We speculate this may inhibit T cell reactivation in the CNS.
Multi-Wavelength Observations of the high-peaked BL Lacertae objects 1ES 1011+496 and 1ES 2344+514
(2012)
BL Lacertae objects belong to the most luminous sources in the Universe. They represent a subclass of active galactic nuclei with a spectrum that is dominated by non-thermal emission, extending from radio wavelengths to tera electronvolt (TeV) energies. The emission is strongly variable on time scales of years down to minutes, and arises from relativistic jets pointing at small angles to the line of sight of the observer, which is the reason for naming them “blazars”. Blazars are the dominant extragalactic source class in the radio, microwave and gamma-ray regime, are prime candidates for the origin of the Cosmic Rays and excellent laboratories to study black hole and jet physics as well as relativistic effects. Despite more than 20 years of observational efforts, the physical mechanisms driving their emission are not yet fully understood. So far, studies of their broad-band continuum emission were mostly concentrated on bright, flaring states. However, for a better understanding of the central engine powering the jets, the bias from flux-limited observations of the past must be overcome and their long-term average continuum spectral energy distributions (SEDs) must be determined. This work presents the first simultaneous multi-wavelength campaigns from the radio to the TeV regime of two high-frequency peaked BL Lacertae objects known to emit at TeV energies. The first source, 1ES 1011+496, was observed between February and May 2008, the second one, 1ES 2344+514, between September 2008 and February 2009. The extensive observational campaigns were organised independently from an external trigger for the presence of a flaring state. Since the duty cycle of major flux outbursts is known to be rather low, the campaigns were expected to yield SEDs representative of the long-term average emission. Central for this thesis is the analysis of data obtained with the MAGIC Cherenkov telescope, measuring energy spectra and light curves from ~0.1 to ~10 TeV. For the remaining instruments, observation time was proposed and additional data was organised by collaboration with the instrument teams by the author of this work. Such data was obtained mostly in a fully reduced state. Individual light curves are investigated as well as combined in a search for inter-band correlations. The data of both sources reveal a notable lack of a correlation between the emission at radio and optical wavelengths, indicating that the radio and short-wavelength emission arise in different regions of the jet. Quasi-simultaneous SEDs of two different flux states are observationally determined and described by a one-zone as well as a self-consistent two-zone synchrotron self-Compton model. First approaches to model the SEDs by means of a Chi2 minimisation technique are briefly discussed. The SEDs and the resulting model parameters, characterising the physical conditions in the emission regions, are compared to archival data. Though the models can describe the data well, for 1ES 1011+496 the model parameters indicate that in addition to the synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission of relativistic electrons, emission due to accelerated protons seems to be required. The SEDs of 1ES 2344+514 reveal one of the lowest activity states ever detected from the source. Despite that, the model parameters are not indicative of a distinct quiescent state, which may be caused by the degeneracy of the different parameters in one-zone models. Moreover, indications accumulate that the radiation can not be attributed to a single emission region. The results disfavour some of the current blazar classification schemes and the so-called “blazar sequence”, emphasising the need for a more realistic explanation of the systematics of the blazar SEDs in terms of fundamental parameters.
Stimulatory or superagonistic (SA) CD28-specific monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are potent polyclonal activators of regulatory T cells and have proven highly effective as treatment in a wide range of rodent models for autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. In these models, a preferential activation of regulatory T cells was observed by in vivo administration of CD28SA. In stark contrast, human volunteers receiving TGN1412, a humanized CD28-specific mAb, experienced a life-threatening cytokine release syndrome during the first-in-man trial. Preclinical tests employing human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) failed to announce the rapid cytokine release measured in the human volunteers in response to TGN1412. The aim of this thesis project was to find an explanation of why standard PBMC assays failed to predict the unexpected TGN1412-induced "cytokine storm" observed in human volunteers. CD28 superagonists can activate T cells without T cell receptor (TCR) ligation. They do depend, however, on “tonic” TCR signals received by MHC scanning, signals that they amplify. PBMC do not receive these signals in the circulation. Short-term in vitro preculture of human PBMC at a high cell density (HDC) resulted in massive cytokine release during subsequent TGN1412 stimulation. Restoration of reactivity was cell-contact dependent, associated with TCR polarization and tyrosine-phosphorylation, and blocked by HLA-specific mAb. In HDC, both CD4 T cells and monocytes functionally mature in a mutually dependent fashion. However, only CD4 memory T-cells proliferate upon TGN1412 stimulation, and were identified as the main source of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Importantly, responses to other T-cell activating agents were also enhanced if PBMC were first allowed to interact under tissue-like conditions. A new in vitro protocol is provided that returns circulating T-cells to a tissue-like status where they respond to TGN1412 stimulation, and it might represent a more reliable preclinical in vitro test for both activating and inhibitory immunomodulatory drugs. Finally, the surprising observation was made that the IgG1 “sibling” of TGN1412, which is of the poorly Fc receptor-binding IgG4 isotype, has a much lower stimulatory activity. We could exclude steric hindrance as an explanation and provide evidence for removal of TGN1112 from the T-cell surface by trans-endocytosis.
In initial experiments, the well characterized VACV strain GLV-1h68 and three wild-type LIVP isolates were utilized to analyze gene expression in a pair of autologous human melanoma cell lines (888-MEL and 1936 MEL) after infection. Microarray analyses, followed by sequential statistical approaches, characterized human genes whose transcription is affected specifically by VACV infection. In accordance with the literature, those genes were involved in broad cellular functions, such as cell death, protein synthesis and folding, as well as DNA replication, recombination, and repair. In parallel to host gene expression, viral gene expression was evaluated with help of customized VACV array platforms to get better insight over the interplay between VACV and its host. Our main focus was to compare host and viral early events, since virus genome replication occurs early after infection. We observed that viral transcripts segregated in a characteristic time-specific pattern, consistent with the three temporal expression classes of VACV genes, including a group of genes which could be classified as early-stage genes. In this work, comparison of VACV early replication and respective early gene transcription led to the identification of seven viral genes whose expression correlated strictly with replication. We considered the early expression of those seven genes to be representative for VACV replication and we therefore referred to them as viral replication indicators (VRIs). To explore the relationship between host cell transcription and viral replication, we correlated viral (VRI) and human early gene expression. Correlation analysis revealed a subset of 114 human transcripts whose early expression tightly correlated with early VRI expression and thus early viral replication. These 114 human molecules represented an involvement in broad cellular functions. We found at least six out of 114 correlates to be involved in protein ubiquitination or proteasomal function. Another molecule of interest was the serine-threonine protein kinase WNK lysine-deficient protein kinase 1 (WNK1). We discovered that WNK1 features differences on several molecular biological levels associated with permissiveness to VACV infection. In addition to that, a set of human genes was identified with possible predictive value for viral replication in an independent dataset. A further objective of this work was to explore baseline molecular biological variances associated with permissiveness which could help identifying cellular components that contribute to the formation of a permissive phenotype. Therefore, in a subsequent approach, we screened a set of 15 melanoma cell lines (15-MEL) regarding their permissiveness to GLV-1h68, evaluated by GFP expression levels, and classified the top four and lowest four cell lines into high and low permissive group, respectively. Baseline gene transcriptional data, comparing low and highly permissive group, suggest that differences between the two groups are at least in part due to variances in global cellular functions, such as cell cycle, cell growth and proliferation, as well as cell death and survival. We also observed differences in the ubiquitination pathway, which is consistent with our previous results and underlines the importance of this pathway in VACV replication and permissiveness. Moreover, baseline microRNA (miRNA) expression between low and highly permissive group was considered to provide valuable information regarding virus-host co-existence. In our data set, we identified six miRNAs that featured varying baseline expression between low and highly permissive group. Finally, copy number variations (CNVs) between low and highly permissive group were evaluated. In this study, when investigating differences in the chromosomal aberration patterns between low and highly permissive group, we observed frequent segmental amplifications within the low permissive group, whereas the same regions were mostly unchanged in the high group. Taken together, our results highlight a probable correlation between viral replication, early gene expression, and the respective host response and thus a possible involvement of human host factors in viral early replication. Furthermore, we revealed the importance of cellular baseline composition for permissiveness to VACV infection on different molecular biological levels, including mRNA expression, miRNA expression, as well as copy number variations. The characterization of human target genes that influence viral replication could help answering the question of host cell response to oncolytic virotherapy and provide important information for the development of novel recombinant vaccinia viruses with improved features to enhance replication rate and hence trigger therapeutic outcome.
Ants of the species Camponotus floridanus live in huge colonies composed of genetically identical or closely related animals, which should predispose them to an increased vulnerability towards infection by pathogens (Cremer et al. 2007). Therefore the question is how ants (or social insects in general) can nevertheless efficiently combat infections. In order to investigate the immune response of the ant C. floridanus, the present study initially focused on the identification of possible immune factors, encoded by the ant´s genome. By using the method “suppression subtractive hybridization” as well as by Illumnia sequencing technology, several immune-related genes could be identified. Among these were genes encoding proteins involved in pathogen recognition, signal transduction, antimicrobial activity, or general stress response. In accordance with the ant´s genome sequence (Bonasio et al. 2010), only three antimicrobial peptide (AMP) genes could be identified in C. floridanus. The gene and cDNA sequences of these AMPs were established and their expression was shown to be induced by microbial challenge. Two different defensin genes (type 1 and 2) were characterized. A detailed characterization of the mRNA and gene sequence of the other AMP, a hymenoptaecin, revealed a special repeat structure. The C. floridanus hymenoptaecin has a signal and a pro-sequence followed by a hymenoptaecin-like domain and six directly repeated hymenoptaecin domains (HDs). Since each HD is flanked by two known processing sites, proteolytic processing of the precursor protein may generate several mature AMPs. Bioinformatical analyses revealed the presence of hymenoptaecin genes with similar multipeptide precursor structure in genomes of other ant species suggesting an evolutionary conserved important role of this gene in ant immunity. C. floridanus ants harbor the obligate intracellular bacterium, Blochmannia floridanus, in specialized cells (so-called bacteriocytes), which are intercalated between midgut cells as well as in ovaries of females (Blochmann 1882; Sauer et al. 2002; Schröder et al. 1996). Ant hosts face the problem that on the one hand they have to maintain the beneficial symbiotic bacteria and on the other hand they need to raise an immune response against harmful pathogenic bacteria during an infection. It was investigated, if endosymbionts are actually detected by the host immune system. Injection of B. floridanus induced an immune response of its host C. floridanus, which was comparable to the one towards pathogens. This means that, despite the evolutionary established cooperation of the endosymbionts and their hosts, these bacteria are still recognized as „non-self“ by the host immune system. This finding led to the question, if the ant immune system might be involved in regulation of the endosymbiont number in the midgut tissue in order to avoid their uncontrolled replication. During the holometabolous life cycle of the ant hosts the distribution of bacteriocytes and of Blochmannia endosymbionts is remarkably dynamic and peaks in late pupal stages, in which the entire midgut is transformed into a symbiotic organ (Stoll et al. 2010). It was hypothesized that hosts could regulate the number of endosymbionts present in their tissues via the innate immune system. A quantitative gene expression analysis of assumed symbiosis-relevant candidate genes revealed distinct expression patterns of some genes according to developmental stage and tissue. Moreover, the immune gene expression in response to bacterial challenge was investigated in the pupal stage. By an artificial immune-challenge of pupae it was confirmed that in fact the immune response of the endosymbiont-bearing midgut tissue differs from that of other body parts. The data support a key role for amidase peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs), especially PGRP-LB, in endosymbiont tolerance and suggest an involvement of the lysosomal system in control of Blochmannia endosymbionts. In sum, this thesis provides a first description of the immune response of the ant C. floridanus. A comprehensive set of immune-relevant genes was determined. Especially, the identification and molecular characterization of the hymenoptaecin gene delivered new insights into the immune competence of ants in general. Moreover, first indications could be gathered for the involvement of the immune system in controlling the endosymbiont B. floridanus.
In cultured motoneurons of a mouse model for the motoneuron disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), reduced levels of the protein SMN (survival of motoneurons) cause defects in axonal growth. This correlates with reduced β-actin mRNA and protein in growth cones, indicating that anterograde transport and local translation of β-actin mRNA are crucial for motoneuron function. However, direct evidence that indeed local translation is a physiological phenomenon in growth cones of motoneurons was missing. Here, a lentiviral GFP-based reporter construct was established to monitor local protein synthesis of β-actin mRNA. Time-lapse imaging of fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) in living motoneurons revealed that β-actin is locally translated in the growth cones of embryonic motoneurons. Interestingly, local translation of the β-actin reporter construct was differentially regulated by different laminin isoforms, indicating that laminins provide extracellular cues for the regulation of local translation in growth cones. Notably, local translation of β-actin mRNA was deregulated when motoneurons of a mouse model for type I SMA (Smn-/-; SMN2) were analyzed. In situ hybridization revealed reduced levels of β-actin mRNA in the axons of Smn-/-; SMN2 motoneurons. The distribution of the β-actin mRNA was not modified by different laminin isoforms as revealed by in situ hybridization against the mRNA of the eGFP encoding element of the β-actin reporter. In case of the mRNA of α-actin and γ-actin isoforms, the endogenous mRNA did not localize to the axons and the localization pattern was not affected by the SMN levels expressed in the cell. Taken together our findings suggest that regulation of local translation of β-actin in growth cones of motoneurons critically depends on laminin signaling and the amount of SMN protein. Embryonic stem cell (ESC)-derived motoneurons are an excellent in vitro system to sort out biochemical and cellular pathways which are defective in neurodegenerative diseases like SMA. Here, a protocol for the differentiation and antibody-mediated enrichment of ESC-derived motoneurons is presented, which was optimized during the course of this study. Notably, this study contributes the production and purification of highly active recombinant sonic hedgehog (Shh), which was needed for the efficient differentiation of mouse ESCs to motoneurons. ESC-derived motoneurons will now offer high amounts of cellular material to allow the biochemical identification of disease-relevant molecular components involved in regulated local protein synthesis in axons and growth cones of motoneurons.
Biomolecules are difficult to investigate in their native environment. The vast complexity of cellular systems and seldom availability of chemical reactions compatible with the physiological milieu make it a challenging task. Bioorthogonal chemical reactions serve as a key to achieve selective ligation, whose components must react rapidly and selectively with each other under physiological conditions in the presence of the plethora of functionalities necessary to sustain life. In this dissertation, we focused on the synthesis of chemical reporters and probe molecules for bioorthogonal labeling through click reaction. Initially, sialic acid derivatives with a linker containing terminal alkyne functionality were synthesized. After the synthesis of azide derivatives of fluorescent dyes as counter partners, they were conjugated with sialic acids through Cu(I) catalyzed alkyne azide cycloaddition (CuAAC). The successful in vitro conjugation of Sia and fluorescent dyes was followed by metabolic tagging of human larynx carcinoma (HEp-2) and the carcinoma of Chinese hamster ovary (CHOK1) with alkynated Sia that were subsequently ligated with fluorescein azide. Finally, the stained cells were subjected to fluorescent microscopy to obtain their images. To enable the click reaction compatible to in vivo applications, the reactivity of cyclooctyne was enhanced by two different approaches. In a first approach, following the Bertozzi’s strategy, two fluorine atoms were introduced adjacent to the alkyne to lower the LUMO. In a second strategy the ring strain of cyclooctyne was attempted to be enhanced by the introduction of an amide group. In addition, glutarimide derivatives with free amino and carboxylic acid functional groups were synthesized by domino-Michael addition-cyclization-reaction.
The actin cytoskeleton is essential for many cellular functions, such as the regulation of cell morphology, cell migration and vesicle transport processes. The functional diversity of actin structures is reflected in a variety of distinct molecular mechanisms regulating the polymerization of actin filaments. The spontaneous polymerization of actin however is inhibited, by both the instability of small actin oligomers and by actin monomer binding proteins, which prevent the formation of such oligomers. Actin nucleation factors help to overcome this kinetic barrier of filament initiation and are essential for the generation of novel actin filaments at specified subcellular compartments. Spir proteins are the founding members of the novel class of WH2 domain containing actin nucleation factors. They initiate actin polymerization by binding of actin monomers to four WH2 domains in the central part of the protein. Despite their ability to nucleate actin polymerization in vitro by themselves, Spir proteins form a regulatory complex with the distinct actin nucleators of the formin subgroup of formins. Spir functions in the regulation of vesicular originated filamentous actin structures, vesicle transport processes and the assembly of the cleavage furrow during asymmetric meiotic cell divisions. The mammalian genome encodes two spir genes, spir-1 and spir-2. The corresponding proteins have an identical structural array and share a high degree of homology. In order to elucidate the Spir function in developing and adult mouse tissues, the yet unknown expression of the mouse spir-2 gene was addressed. Real-time PCR analysis revealed highest expression of spir-2 in oocytes, the brain, throughout the gastrointestinal tract, testis and kidney of adult mice. In situ hybridizations were performed to substantiate the cellular nature of spir gene expression. During embryogenesis in situ hybridizations show spir-2 to be expressed in the developing nervous system and intestine. In adult mouse tissues highest expression of spir-2 was detected in the epithelial cells of the digestive tract, in neuronal cells of the nervous system and in spermatocytes. In contrast to the more restricted expression of the mouse spir-1 gene, which is mainly found in the nervous system, oocytes and testis, the data presented here show a distinct and broader expression pattern of the spir-2 gene and by this support a more general cell biological function of the novel actin nucleators. In order to address the function of Spir proteins in the developing and adult nervous system, Spir-1 deficient mice were generated by a gene trap method. Spir-1 deficient mice are viable and provide a perfect tool to address the neurobiological function of the Spir-1 protein. Analyses of primary cortical neurons from Spir-1 deficient mice revealed a specific reduction of dendritic branchpoints and are the first description of a neuronal Spir-1 function. Further, a transgenic mouse line (thy1-GFP-M) was employed that expresses the green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of neuron specific elements from the thy1 promoter. GFP is thereby expressed in only a subset of neurons and labels the neurons in their entirety. Spir-1 deficient mice carrying the GFP transgene were generated and analyzed. It was found that Spir-1 deficient mice exhibit a reduced number of dendritic spines in the entorhinal cortex compared to wildtype littermates. All together this study gives novel information about the cell biological function of Spir and provides insights how cytoskeletal functions structure the mammalian neuronal network.
The superconducting properties of complex materials like the recently discovered iron-pnictides or strontium-ruthenate are often governed by multi-orbital effects. In order to unravel the superconductivity of those materials, we develop a multi-orbital implementation of the functional renormalization group and study the pairing states of several characteristic material systems. Starting with the iron-pnictides, we find competing spin-fluctuation channels that become attractive if the superconducting gap changes sign between the nested portions of the Fermi surface. Depending on material details like doping or pnictogen height, these spin fluctuations then give rise to $s_{\pm}$-wave pairing with or without gap nodes and, in some cases, also change the symmetry to $d$-wave. Near the transition from nodal $s_{\pm}$-wave to $d$-wave pairing, we predict the occurrence of a time-reversal symmetry-broken $(s+id)$-pairing state which avoids gap nodes and is therefore energetically favored. We further study the electronic instabilities of doped graphene, another fascinating material which has recently become accessible and which can effectively be regarded as multi-orbital system. Here, the hexagonal lattice structure assures the degeneracy of two $d$-wave pairing channels, and the system then realizes a chiral $(d+id)$-pairing state in a wide doping range around van-Hove filling. In addition, we also find spin-triplet pairing as well as an exotic spin-density wave phase which both become leading if the long-ranged hopping or interaction parameters are slightly modified, for example, by choosing different substrate materials. Finally, we consider the superconducting state of strontium-ruthenate, a possible candidate for chiral spin-triplet pairing with fascinating properties like the existence of half-quantum vortices obeying non-Abelian statistics. Using a microscopic three orbital description including spin-orbit coupling, we demonstrate that ferromagnetic fluctuations are still sufficient to induce this $\bs{\hat{z}}(p_x\pm ip_y)$-pairing state. The resulting superconducting gap reveals strong anisotropies on the $d_{xy}$-dominated Fermi-surface pocket and nearly vanishes on the other remaining two pockets.
Synthesis and biological activity of molybdenum carbonyl complexes and their peptide conjugates
(2012)
Molybdenum carbonyl complexes with different polypyridyl coligands were prepared and conjugated to peptides by mild bioorthogonal coupling reactions like the oxime ligation and a catalyst-free azide-alkyne click reaction utilized for the first time in such a context. The biological activity of some of the new complexes and conjugates, including their CO release properties, cytotoxicity on human cancer cells, and mode of induction of cell death was studied.
The Mediterranean area reveals a strong vulnerability to future climate change due to a high exposure to projected impacts and a low capacity for adaptation highlighting the need for robust regional or local climate change projections, especially for extreme events strongly affecting the Mediterranean environment. The prevailing study investigates two major topics of the Mediterranean climate variability: the analysis of dynamical downscaling of present-day and future temperature and precipitation means and extremes from global to regional scale and the comprehensive investigation of temperature and rainfall extremes including the estimation of uncertainties and the comparison of different statistical methods for precipitation extremes. For these investigations, several observational datasets of CRU, E-OBS and original stations are used as well as ensemble simulations of the regional climate model REMO driven by the coupled global general circulation model ECHAM5/MPI-OM and applying future greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and land degradation scenarios.
Previous studies by our group revealed that chronic low grade inflammation implicating phagocytosing macrophages is a highly relevant mechanism in the pathogenesis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. The lack of CSF-1, the primary regulator of macrophage function and survival, led to a robust and persistent amelioration of the phenotype in two authentic mouse models of CMT. Moreover, a close contact between CSF-1 producing fibroblasts and endoneurial macrophages carrying CSF-1R has been confirmed in nerve biopsies of CMT patients, further supporting the clinical significance of this pathway. In the current study we treated 3 distinct mouse models of CMT1: the PMP22tg mice as a model for CMT1A, the P0+/- mice as a model for CMT1B and the Cx32def mice as a model for CMT1X, with a CSF-1R specific kinase (c-FMS) inhibitor (800-1200 mg PLX5622/ kg chow) according to different treatment regimes mimicking an ideal early onset treatment, a late onset treatment and the withdrawal of the drug. Using the above mentioned doses of PLX5622, we documented a dramatic decrease in macrophage numbers in the PNS of all 3 myelin mutants, except for the quadriceps nerve of Cx32def mice. Fibroblast numbers remained unchanged in treated animals. Surprisingly, in spite of the decrease in the number of detrimental macrophages we could not detect an unequivocal phenotypic improvement. CMAP amplitudes were reduced in both wild type and myelin mutant mice treated with CSF-1R inhibitor in comparison to untreated littermates. Corresponding to the electrophysiological findings, the axon number and the percentage of large diameter axons were reduced in the quadriceps nerve of treated P0+/- and Cx32def mice. By contrast we observed a higher number of fully myelinated axons, in parallel with a decrease in the percentage of demyelinated (and hypermyelinated in PMP22tg mice) fibers in the ventral roots of P0+/- mice treated with CSF-1R inhibitor from 3 months up to 6 months of age and PMP22tg animals treated from 9 months up to 15 months of age. Our results indicate that CSF-1R inhibitor has the potential to improve the demyelinating phenotype of at least two models of CMT1. Nevertheless, further studies are necessary (for example with lower doses of the inhibitor) to minimize or even eliminate the putative neurotoxic effect we observed with high dose treatment conditions.
SUMMARY Mast cell activation in allergic and inflammatory disease causes increased vascular permeability and edema. This thesis identifies a paracrine mechanism, by which heparin released from intracellular granules, is involved in mast cell-evoked alteration of endothelial barrier function in vivo. Negatively charged heparin initiated factor XII-driven contact activation. Activated factor XII triggered the formation of the inflammatory mediator bradykinin in plasma. Congenital deficiency and pharmacological targeting of factor XII and kinin B2 receptor provided protection from mast cell-heparin-induced leukocyte-endothelial adhesion and hypotension in rats and mice. Intravital laser scanning microscopy and tracer measurements showed that heparin increased leakage with fluid extravasation in skin microvessels in mice. Deficiency in factor XII or kinin B2 receptor conferred resistance to heparin-induced skin edema and largely protected mice from endothelial barrier dysfunction, caused by allergen-induced mast cell activation and anaphylactic reactions. In contrast, heparin and mast cell activation caused excessive edema formation in mice, deficient in the major inhibitor of factor XII, C1 esterase inhibitor. Hereditary angioedema patients, lacking C1 esterase inhibitor, suffered from allergeninduced edema. The data indicate that mast cell-heparin-initiated bradykinin formation plays a fundamental role in defective barrier function of pathological mast cell-mediated inflammation, hypotension and edema formation.
In this study, a double-donor concept is used to improve the performance of thermally evaporated merocyanine(s)/C60 bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells. It is shown that the co-evaporation of two merocyanine dyes with absorption bands at ~ 500 nm (SW dye) and ~ 650 nm (LW dye), respectively, together with C60 fullerene results in an improvement of open-circuit voltage (VOC), short-circuit current (JSC) as well as total power conversion efficiency (PCE) compared to the best single-donor cell. The enhancement of JSC is attributed to a higher photon harvesting efficiency of the mixed-donor devices due to a better spectral coverage.
The “Akọ na Uche” (Wisdom and Justifiability) of Preemptive-strike in Self-defense and Alternative Conflict Resolutions is an ethical examine on man’s inherent right of self-defense, not only as a right that is innate, but also as an individual’s or a nation’s right enshrined in, and guaranteed by the Charter provisions of the United Nations.
Stemming from the painful experience of the First and Second World Wars, nations wishing never again to engage one another in such full scale wars of destruction, met in San Francisco, California, accepted the formation of a new organization, the United Nations, to replace the League of Nations considered as ineffectual. The participating nations articulated a set of guiding principles in the form of rules, rights and responsibilities endorsed by all the early member-nations on June 26, 1945, but effective from October 24, same year. This is the birth of the United Nations Charter.
With the endorsement of the Charter, all member-nations assumed the responsibility of making the world a better place, peaceful and secure for humanity. They vowed never again to engage in unethical wars, they accepted to respect and foster human rights, to fight poverty, to spread democracy and to promote more healthy and robust international relations through a more vibrant cooperation and aggressive diplomacy. The Charter also reaffirmed the intrinsic right of self-defense of the victim of an armed attack, which sometimes has been utilized as well as exploited.
Alveolar echinococcosis (AE) is a severe and life-threatening disease caused by the metacestode larva of the fox-tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis. Parasite entry into the host evokes an early and potentially parasiticidal Th1 immune response that is gradually replaced by a permissive Th2 response. An immunoregulatory environment has also been reported in the host as the disease progresses. As a result of immunomodulation, E. multilocularis larvae persist in the host for decades without being expelled, and thus almost act like a perfect transplant. Very little is currently known on the molecular basis of the host immunomodulation by E. multilocularis. In this work, in vitro cultivation systems were used to assess the influence of metabolites released by the parasite larvae (E/S products) on host immune effector cells. E/S products of cultivated larvae that respresent the early (primary cells) and chronic (metacestode vesicles) phase of AE induced apoptosis and tolerogenic properties (poor responsiveness to LPS stimulation) in host dendritic cells (DC) whereas those of control larvae (protoscoleces) failed to do so. These findings show that the early infective stage of E. multilocularis induces tolerogenicity in host DC, which is most probably important for generating an immunosuppressive environment at an infection phase in which the parasite is highly vulnerable to host attacks. Interestingly, metacestode E/S products promoted the conversion of naïve CD4+ T-cells into Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells in vitro, whereas primary cell and protoscolex E/S products failed to do it. Since Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells are generally known to mediate immunosuppression, the present finding indicates that Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells, expanded by E/S products of the metacestode larva, could play a role in the parasite-driven immunomodulation of the host observed during AE. Furthermore, a substantial increase in number and frequency of suppressive Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells could be observed within peritoneal exudates of mice following intraperitoneal injection of E. multilocularis metacestodes, indicating that Foxp3+ regulatory T-cells could also play an important role in E. multilocularis-driven immunomodulation in vivo. Interestingly, a parasite activin ortholog, EmACT, secreted by metacestodes, was shown to expand host regulatory T-cells in a TGF-β-dependent manner, similarly to mammalian activin A. This observation indicated that E. multilocularis utilizes evolutionarily conserved TGF-β superfamily ligands, like EmACT, to expand host regulatory T-cells. Taken together, the present findings suggest EmACT, a parasite activin secreted by the metacestode and capable of expanding host regulatory T-cells, as an important player in the host immunomodulation by E. multilocularis larvae. Another parasite factor EmTIP, homologous to mammalian T-cell immunomodulatory protein (TIP) was characterized in this work. EmTIP could be detected in the secretions of the parasite primary cells and localized to the intercellular space within the parasite larvae. EmTIP blockade inhibited the proliferation of E. multilocularis primary cells and the formation of metacestode vesicles indicating a major role for parasite development. Furthermore, EmTIP evoked a strong release of IFN-γ by CD4+ T-cells hence suggesting that the secretion of this factor as a result of its role in parasite development could “secondarily” induce a potentially protective Th1 response. In conclusion, this work identified two molecules, EmACT and EmTIP, with high immunomodulatory potential that are released by E. multilocularis larvae. The data presented do provide insights into the mechanisms of parasite-driven host immunomodulation during AE that are highly relevant for the development of anti-parasitic immune therapies.
Systems biology looks for emergent system effects from large scale assemblies of molecules and data, for instance in the human platelets. However, the computational efforts in all steps before such insights are possible can hardly be under estimated. In practice this involves numerous programming tasks, the establishment of new database systems but as well their maintenance, curation and data validation. Furthermore, network insights are only possible if strong algorithms decipher the interactions, decoding the hidden system effects. This thesis and my work are all about these challenges. To answer this requirement, an integrated platelet network, PlateletWeb, was assembled from different sources and further analyzed for signaling in a systems biological manner including multilevel data integration and visualization. PlateletWeb is an integrated network database and was established by combining the data from recent platelet proteome and transcriptome (SAGE) studies. The information on protein-protein interactions and kinase-substrate relationships extracted from bioinformatical databases as well as published literature were added to this resource. Moreover, the mass spectrometry-based platelet phosphoproteome was combined with site-specific phosphorylation/ dephosphorylation information and then enhanced with data from Phosphosite and complemented by bioinformatical sequence analysis for site-specific kinase predictions. The number of catalogued platelet proteins was increased by over 80% as compared to the previous version. The integration of annotations on kinases, protein domains, transmembrane regions, Gene Ontology, disease associations and drug targets provides ample functional tools for platelet signaling analysis. The PlateletWeb resource provides a novel systems biological workbench for the analysis of platelet signaling in the functional context of protein networks. By comprehensive exploration, over 15000 phosphorylation sites were found, out of which 2500 have the corresponding kinase associations. The network motifs were also investigated in this anucleate cell and characterize signaling modules based on integrated information on phosphorylation and protein-protein interactions. Furthermore, many algorithmic approaches have been introduced, including an exact approach (heinz) based on integer linear programming. At the same time, the concept of semantic similarities between two genes using Gene Ontology (GO) annotations has become an important basis for many analytical approaches in bioinformatics. Assuming that a higher number of semantically similar gene functional annotations reflect biologically more relevant interactions, an edge score was devised for functional network analysis. Bringing these two approaches together, the edge score, based on the GO similarity, and the node score, based on the expression of the proteins in the analyzed cell type (e.g. data from proteomic studies), the functional module as a maximum-scoring sub network in large protein-protein interaction networks was identified. This method was applied to various proteome datasets (different types of blood cells, embryonic stem cells) to identify protein modules that functionally characterize the respective cell type. This scalable method allows a smooth integration of data from various sources and retrieves biologically relevant signaling modules.
Cancer-related anemia is prevalent in cancer patients. Anemia negatively affects normal mental and physical function capacity with common symptoms s like fatigue, headache, or depression. Human erythropoietin (hEPO), a glycoprotein hormone regulating red blood cell formation, is approved for the treatment of cancer-related anemia. It has shown benefits in correcting anemia, and subsequently improving health-related quality of life and/or enhancing radio-, and chemotherapy. Several recent clinical trials have suggested that recombinant hEPO (rhEPO) may promote tumor growth that raises the questions concerning the safety of using rhEPO for cancer treatment. However in others, such effects were not indicated. As of today, the direct functional effect of rhEPO in tumor models remains controversial and needs to be further analyzed. Based on the GLV-1h68 backbone, the hEPO-expressing recombinant VACV strains (EPO-VACVs) GLV-1h210, GLV-1h211, GLV-1h212 and GLV-1h213 were generated by replacing the lacZ expression cassette at the J2R locus with hEPO under the control of different vaccinia promoters p7.5, pSE, pSEL, pSL, respectively. Also, GLV-1h209 was generated, which is similar to GLV-1h210 but expresses a mutated non-functinal EPO (R103A). The EPO-VACV strains were characterized for their oncolytic efficacy in lung (A549) cancer cells in culture and tumor xenografts. Concomitantly, the effects of locally expressed hEPO in tumors on virus replication, host immune infiltration, tumor vascularization and tumor growth were also evaluated. As expected, EPO-VACVs enhanced red blood cell (RBC) formation in xenograft model. The number of RBCs and hemoglobin (Hb) levels were significantly increased in EPO-VACVs-treated mice compared to GLV-1h68-treated or untreated control mice. However, the mean size of RBC or Hb content per RBC remained normal. Furthermore, over-expression of hEPO did not significantly affect numbers of lymphocytes, monocytes, leucocytes or platelets in the peripheral blood stream. The expression of hEPO in colonized tumors of mice treated with EPO-VACVs was demonstrated by immunohistological staining. Interestingly, there were 9 - 10 hEPO isoforms detected either in tumors, cells, or supernatant, while 3-4 basic isoforms were missing in blood serum, where only six hEPO isoforms were found. Tumor-bearing mice after treatment with EPO-VACVs showed enhanced tumor regression compared to GLV-1h68. The virus titers in tumors in EPO-VACVs-treated mice were 3-4 fold higher compared to GLV-1h68-treated mice. Nevertheless, no significant difference in virus titers among EPO-VACVs was found. The blood vessels in tumors were significantly enlarged while the blood vessel density remained unchanged compared to the GLV-1h68 treated mice, indicating that hEPO did not affect endothelial cell proliferation in this model. Meanwhile, rhEPO (Epoetin alfa) alone or in combination with GLV-1h68 did not show any signs of enhanced tumor growth when compared to untreated controls and GLV-1h68 groups, while doses used were clinical relevant (500 U/kg). These findings suggested that hEPO did not promote angiogenesis or tumor growth in the A549 tumor xenograft model. Human EPO has been reported to function as an immune modulator. In this study, however, we did not find any involvement of hEPO in immune cytokine and chemokine expression or innate immune cell infiltration (leucocytes, B cells, macrophages and dendritic cells) into infected tumors. The degree of immune infiltration and cytokine expression was directly correlated to the number of virus particles. Increased virus replication, led to more recruited immune cells and secreted cytokines/chemokines. It was proposed that tumor regression was at least partially mediated through activation of innate immune mechanisms. In conclusion, the novel EPO-VACVs were shown to significantly increase the number of RBCs, Hb levels, and virus replication in tumors as well as to enhance tumor regression in the A549 tumor xenograft model. Moreover, locally expressed hEPO did not promote tumor angiogenesis, tumor growth, and immune infiltration but was shown to causing enlarged tumoral microvessels which facilitated virus spreading. It is conceivable that in a possible clinical application, anemic cancer patients could benefit from the EPO-VACVs, where they could serve as “wellness pills” to decrease anemic symptoms, while simultaneously destroying tumors.
Argumentation and proof have played a fundamental role in mathematics education in recent years. The author of this dissertation would like to investigate the development of the proving process within a dynamic geometry system in order to support tertiary students understanding the proving process. The strengths of this dynamic system stimulate students to formulate conjectures and produce arguments during the proving process. Through empirical research, we classified different levels of proving and proposed a methodological model for proving. This methodological model makes a contribution to improve students’ levels of proving and develop their dynamic visual thinking. We used Toulmin model of argumentation as a theoretical model to analyze the relationship between argumentation and proof. This research also offers some possible explanation so as to why students have cognitive difficulties in constructing proofs and provides mathematics educators with a deeper understanding on the proving process within a dynamic geometry system.
Most protein-encoding genes in Eukaryotes are separated into alternating coding and non-coding sequences (exons and introns). Following the transcription of the DNA into pre-messenger RNA (pre-mRNA) in the nucleus, a macromolecular complex termed spliceosome removes the introns and joins the exons to generate mature mRNA that is exported to the cytoplasm. There, it can be interpreted by ribosomes to generate proteins. The spliceosome consists of five small nuclear ribonucleic acids (snRNAs) and more than 150 proteins. Integral components of this complex are RNA-protein particles (RNPs) composed of one or two snRNAs, seven common (Sm) and a various number of snRNP-specific proteins. The Sm proteins form a ring-structure around a conserved site of the snRNA called Sm site. In vitro, Sm proteins (B/B', D1, D2, D3, E, F, G) and snRNA readily assemble to form snRNPs. In the context of the cell, however, two macromolecular trans-acting factors, the PRMT5 (protein arginine methyltransferases type 5) and the SMN (survival motor neuron) complex, are needed to enable this process. Initially, the Sm proteins in the form of heterooligomers D1/D2, D3/B and F/E/G are sequestered by the type II methyltransferase PRMT5. pICln, a component of the PRMT5 complex, readily interacts with Sm proteins to form two distinct complexes. Whereas the first one comprises pICln and D3/B the second one forms a ring consisting of pICln, D1/D2 and F/E/G (6S). It has been found that pICln prevents the premature interaction of snRNAs with the Sm proteins in these complexes and thus functions as an assembly chaperone imposing a kinetic trap upon the further assembly of snRNPs. PRMT5 catalyzes the symmetrical dimethylation of arginine residues in B/B', D1 and D3 increasing their affinity towards the SMN complex. Finally, the SMN complex interacts with the pICln-Sm protein complexes, expels pICln and mediates snRNP assembly in an ATP-dependent reaction. So far, only little is known about the action of PRMT5 in the early phase of snRNP assembly and especially how the 6S complex is formed. Studies of this have so far been hampered by the unavailability of soluble and biologically active PRMT5 enzyme. The composition of the SMN complex and possible functions of individual subunits have been elucidated or hypothesized in recent years. Still, the exact mechanism of the entire machinery forming snRNPs is poorly understood. In vivo, reduced production of functional SMN protein results in the neurodegenerative disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). How specific SMN mutations that have been found in SMA patients cause the disease remains elusive, yet, are likely to interfere with either SMN complex stability or snRNP assembly. The aim of this work was to establish an in vitro system to recapitulate the cytoplasmic assembly of snRNPs. This was enabled by the recombinant production of all PRMT5 and SMN complex components as well as Sm proteins in a combination of bacterial and insect cell expression systems. Co-expression of human PRMT5 and its direct interaction partner WD45 (WD-repeat domain 45) in Sf21 (Spodoptera frugiperda 21) insect cells resulted for the first time in soluble and biologically active enzyme. Recombinant PRMT5/WD45 formed complexes with Sm protein heterooligomers as well as pICln-Sm protein complexes but not with F/E/G alone. Also, the enzyme exhibited a type II methyltransferase activity catalyzing the mono- (MMA) and symmetrical dimethylation (sDMA) of Sm proteins B, D1 and D3. Two experimental setups were devised to quantitatively analyze the overall methylation of substrates as well as to identify the type and relative abundance of specific methylation types. Methylation of Sm proteins followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics. Complex reconstitutions and competition of the methylation reaction indicate that 6S is formed in a step-wise manner on the PRMT5 complex. The analysis of the methylation type could be applied to deduce a model of sequential MMA and sDMA formation. It was found that large Sm protein substrate concentrations favored monomethylation. Following a distributive mechanism this leads to the conclusion that PRMT5 most likely confers partial methylation of several different substrate proteins instead of processing a single substrate iteratively until it is completely dimethylated. Finally, the human SMN complex was reconstituted from recombinant sources and was shown to be active in snRNP formation. The introduction of a modified SMN protein carrying a mutation (E134K) present in spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) proved that mutated complexes can be generated in vitro and that these might be applied to elucidate the molecular etiology of this devastating disease.
Fumonisin B1 (FB1) is a mycotoxin produced by various Fusarium species and constitutes a major contaminant of maize worldwide. A 2-year carcinogenicity study of the National Toxicology Program (NTP) in Fischer N344 rats showed that male rats were most susceptible to FB1-induced tumor formation in the kidney. Histopathologically, a rare and highly malignant tumor type originating from the proximal tubules of rat kidney with increased potential for invasion and metastasis was identified. However, mechanisms underlying the FB1-induced carcinogenesis in kidneys of male rats are still not clear. Previous studies have shown that FB1-mediated disruption of sphingolipid metabolism via inhibition of ceramide synthase is a primary key event in FB1 toxicity. The disruption of sphingolipid metabolism may cause time- and dose-related changes in the relative balance of various bioactive intermediates. Furthermore, the ability of FB1 to induce renal cell death and subsequent compensatory cell proliferation is well known, but it does not completely explain the invasive growth characteristics and exceptionally high metastatic potential of FB1-induced tumors. Considering the complexity of sphingolipid metabolism and the fact that various sphingolipids (e.g. ceramide, sphingoid bases and their respective 1-phosphates) act on opposing signaling pathways, it is hypothesized that the balance between individual sphingolipids and thus the overall cellular response to FB1 may shift with time and by continuing FB1 exposure, resulting in the disruption of specific cell signaling pathways, which may promote tumor formation in kidney. To identify early FB1-induced gene expression patterns in the kidney, which may be associated with sphingolipid-mediated signaling pathways in cancer, a short-term i.p. study on FB1 in male Sprague Dawley rats was performed and changes in gene expression were analyzed using a qRT-PCR array that comprises 84 relevant genes of 6 pathways pivotally involved in the formation of cancer. Furthermore, apoptosis and cell proliferation as well as changes in specific sphingolipids were investigated in FB1-treated kidneys. As shown by classical histopathology (H&E) and (immuno)-histochemical staining (TUNEL and BrdU), FB1 caused a time- and dose-dependent increase in tubular apoptosis in the cortex and OSOM of the kidney, which was compensated by the induction of proliferation in the affected areas. HPLC-MS/MS analysis of bioactive sphingolipids demonstrated that FB1 induced a marked elevation of the pro-apoptotic sphingoid bases sphinganine and sphingosine, which paralleled the time- and dose-dependent increase in renal tubular apoptosis. With prolonged exposure to FB1, increased metabolic conversion of the accumulated sphinganine to the sphinganine-1-phosphate, a second messenger with anti-apoptotic and proliferative properties, was observed in kidney. This finding was compliant with the increased regenerative cell proliferation in the cortex and OSOM. In addition to effects on sphingoid bases and their 1-phosphate metabolites, this study, for the first time, demonstrated reduced levels of specific ceramides in rat kidney after FB1 exposure. In particular, C16-ceramide, which is a widespread constituent of membrane-bound complex sphingolipids involved in cell adhesion, was time- and dose-dependently decreased after treatment with FB1. Besides its role as component of the cell membrane, C16-ceramide functions as a signaling molecule for the initiation of apoptosis in response to various stress stimuli. Under conditions of chronic FB1 exposure, a significant reduction in pro-apoptotic C16-ceramide together with markedly increased levels of anti-apoptotic and proliferation-promoting sphingoid base 1-phosphates may thus favor resistance to stress-induced apoptosis and facilitate the survival of abnormal cells with potential to initiate tumor formation. Our study also revealed that early exposure to FB1 resulted in increased expression of a plethora of genes involved in tumor initiation as well as tumor progression. While single FB1 exposure was demonstrated to predominately induce gene expression of proto-oncogenic transcription factors (e.g. Fos, Jun, Myc) and apoptotis-related genes (e.g. members of the tumor-necrosis factor family), repeated exposure resulted in marked upregulation of genes mediating cell survival and cell proliferation (e.g. Bcl-XL, Bcl-2, Nfκb1 and Egfr). Moreover, continued exposure to FB1 initiated increased expression of genes critically involved in tumor migration, adhesion, invasion and metastasis. A close correlation was established between gene expression changes in response to FB1 and known signaling pathways mediated by extracellular or intracellular action of sphingoid base 1-phosphates - bioactive lipids that were markedly increased after FB1 treatment. In particular, genes encoding components of the plasminogen activator system were abundantly upregulated. These mediate invasion and metastasis in response to So1P, and may hence particularly promote the formation of highly aggressive and invasive tumors in kidney as observed after chronic exposure to FB1. Thus, it is conceivable that upregulation of a majority of genes in response to FB1 may be a direct or indirect consequence of increased So1P signaling. Another aim of this study was to identify differences in the organ-specific susceptibility for tumor formation by comparing FB1-mediated effects on apoptosis, cell proliferation, sphingolipids, and selected cancer-related genes in kidney and liver. Collectively, the present results revealed that kidney and liver showed marked differences in several endpoints of FB1 toxicity, which seemed to be primarily associated with their different susceptibility to FB1-mediated alterations in sphingolipid metabolism. The strong correlation between histopathological lesions and alterations in sphingolipid metabolism as well as sphingoid base 1-phosphate accumulation and concomitant S1P receptor expression suggested that tumor formation and progression to highly malignant carcinomas seems to be rather favored in kidney compared to liver. However, genes mostly deregulated by FB1 treatment in kidney (PAI-1, Thbs1 and Itga2) were also found to be induced in liver. To verify FB1-induced gene expression in kidney, normal rat tubular epithelial (NRK-52E) cells were analyzed for FB1-induced expression changes of the same cancer-related genes as in vivo. The results of qRT-PCR analysis revealed that gene expression changes in NRK-52E cells after FB1 treatment strongly correlated with those found in rat kidney and paralleled the marked alterations in sphingolipid metabolism. Furthermore, a good correlation between FB1-induced expression changes of cancer-related genes obtained in vivo and in vitro and those known to be mediated by bioactive sphingoid base 1-phosphates in cancer was established. Moreover, experiments modeling the invasive behavior of NRK-52E cells showed that FB1 may enhance cell invasion, which also correlated with both the increase in invasion- and metastasis-associated genes and bioactive sphingoid base 1-phophates. Importantly, NRK-52E cells basally expressed the S1P receptors S1P2 and S1P3, which are known to be involved in tumor migration and invasion. Since these receptors were also identified as most abundant S1PRs in kidneys of male Sprague Dawley rats, they may present important mediators of gene expression and invasion in response to FB1 in vivo. In summary, FB1-mediated disruption of sphingolipid metabolism and subsequent time- and dose-related increase in intermediates, such as bioactive sphingoid base 1-phosphates, correlate with early changes in genes and signaling pathways that may mediate loss of growth control, replication, evasion of apoptosis, cell motility and invasion, and thus favor renal tumor formation in response to FB1. However, to clarify whether the obtained gene expression changes in cancer-related genes in kidney are specific to the biological action of sphingoid base 1-phosphates and their respective receptors, further mechanistic studies are necessary.
Oxide heterostructures attract a lot of attention as they display a vast range of physical phenomena like conductivity, magnetism, or even superconductivity. In most cases, these effects are caused by electron correlations and are therefore interesting for studying fundamental physics, but also in view of future applications. This thesis deals with the growth and characterization of several prototypical oxide heterostructures. Fe3O4 is highly ranked as a possible spin electrode in the field of spintronics. A suitable semiconductor for spin injection in combination with Fe3O4 is ZnO due to its oxide character and a sufficiently long spin coherence length. Fe3O4 has been grown successfully on ZnO using pulsed laser deposition and molecular beam epitaxy by choosing the oxygen partial pressure adequately. Here, a pressure variation during growth reduces an FeO-like interface layer. Fe3O4 films grow in an island-like growth mode and are structurally nearly fully relaxed, exhibiting the same lattice constants as the bulk materials. Despite the presence of a slight oxygen off-stoichiometry, indications of the Verwey transition hint at high-quality film properties. The overall magnetization of the films is reduced compared to bulk Fe3O4 and a slow magnetization behavior is observed, most probably due to defects like anti-phase boundaries originating from the initial island growth. LaAlO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures exhibit a conducting interface above a critical film thickness, which is most likely explained by an electronic reconstruction. In the corresponding model, the potential built-up owing to the polar LaAlO3 overlayer is compensated by a charge transfer from the film surface to the interface. The properties of these heterostructures strongly depend on the growth parameters. It is shown for the first time, that it is mainly the total pressure which determines the macroscopic sample properties, while it is the oxygen partial pressure which controls the amount of charge carriers near the interface. Oxygen-vacancy-mediated conductivity is found for too low oxygen pressures. A too high total pressure, however, destroys interface conductivity, most probably due to a change of the growth kinetics. Post-oxidation leads to a metastable state removing the arbitrariness in controlling the electronic interface properties by the oxygen pressure during growth. LaVO3/SrTiO3 heterostructures exhibit similar behavior compared to LaAlO3/SrTiO3 when it comes to a thickness-dependent metal-insulator transition. But in contrast to LaAlO3, LaVO3 is a Mott insulator exhibiting strong electron correlations. Films have been grown by pulsed laser deposition. Layer-by-layer growth and a phase-pure pervoskite lattice structure is observed, indicating good structural quality of the film and the interface. An electron-rich layer is found near the interface on the LaVO3 side for conducting LaVO3/SrTiO3. This could be explained by an electronic reconstruction within the film. The electrostatic doping results in a band-filling-controlled metal-insulator transition without suffering from chemical impurities, which is unavoidable in conventional doping experiments.
A quite new approach to low-cost mass production of flexible solar cells are organic photovoltaics. Even though the device efficiencies increased rapidly during the last years, further imporvements are essential for a successful market launch. One important factor influencing the device efficiency is the photocurrent of a solar cell, which is defined as the difference between the current under illumination and in the dark. In case of organic bulk heterojunction (BHJ) solar cells it is — in contrast to inorganic devices — dependent on the applied bias voltage. The voltage dependence results in a reduced fill factor and thus an even more pronounced influence of the photocurrent on the device efficiency. It is therefore crucial to understand the underlying processes determining the photocurrent in order to be able to further improve the solar cell performance. In a first step the photocurrent of P3HT:PC61BM devices was investigated by a pulsed measurement technique in order to prevent disturbing influences due to device heating under continous illumination. The resulting photocurrent was hyperbolic tangent like and featured a point symmetry, whose origin and meaning were discussed. In addition, the photocurrent was described by a combined model of Braun–Onsager and Sokel–Hughes theory for field dependent polaron pair dissociation and charge extraction, respectively. After this macroscopic view on the photocurrent, the focus of this work moves to the more basic processes determining the photocurrent: charge photogeneration and recombination. In a comparative study the field-dependence of these was investigated by time-delayed collection field (TDCF) measurements for two well-known reference systems, namely P3HT:PC61BM and MDMO-PPV:PC61BM. It was possible to identify two different dominating scenarios for the generation of free charge carriers. The first one — via a thermalized charge transfer state (CTS) — is clearly influenced by geminate recombination and therefore less efficient. In the second scenario, the free charge carriers are either generated directly or via an excited, “hot” CTS. In addition, clear differences in the nongeminate recombination dynamics of both material systems were found. Similar studies were also be presented with two modern low bandgap polymers which only differ by the bridging atom in the cyclopentadithiophene (PCPDTBT:PC71BM vs. Si-PCPDTBT:PC71BM). Such small changes in the chemical structure were already sufficient to affect the charge photogeneration as well as the morphology of the blend. These findings were set into relation to current–voltage characteristics in order to discuss the origin of the clear differences in the solar cell performance of both materials. Another crucial parameter limiting the solar cell efficiency is the builtin potential of a device. Within the range of semiconducting pn-junctions, Mott–Schottky analysis is an established method to determine the built-in potential. As it was originally derived for abrupt pn-junctions, its validity for organic BHJ solar cells — a bipolar, effective medium — was discussed. Experimental findings as well as the contradictions to Mott–Schottky theory indicated, that a direct transfer of this method to organic photovoltaics is not appropriate. Finally, the results obtained in the framework of the MOPS-project (Massengedruckte Organische Papier-Solarzellen) will be presented, in which the first completely roll-to-roll printed paper solar cells were realized.
The "Large Hadron Collider" (LHC) is currently the most powerful particle accelerator. It provides particle collisions at a center of mass energy in the Tera-electronvolt range, which had never been reached in a laboratory before. Thereby a new era in high energy particle physics has began. Now it is possible to test one of the most precise theories in physics, the Standard Model of particle physics, at these high energies. The purpose is particularly served by four large experiments installed at the LHC, namely "A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS" (ATLAS), the "Compact-Muon-Solenoid" (CMS), the "Large Hadron Collider beauty" (LHCb) and "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" (ALICE). Besides exploring the high energy behavior of the well-established portions of the Standard Model, one of the main objectives is to find the Higgs boson included in the model, but not discovered by any preceding effort. It is of tremendous importance since fermions and heavy electroweak gauge bosons acquire mass because of this boson. Although the success of the Standard Model in describing nature is already undisputed, there are some flaws due to observations inexplicable within this theory only. Therefore searches for physics beyond the Standard Model are promoted at the LHC experiments as well. In order to achieve the defined goals, crucial aspects are firstly precise measurements, to verify Standard Model predictions in detail, and secondly an evaluation of as much information as accessible by the detectors, to recognize new phenomena as soon as possible for subsequent optimizations. Both challenges are only possible with a superior understanding of the detectors. An inevitable contribution to attain this knowledge is a realistic simulation, partially requiring new implementation techniques to describe the very complex instrumentation. The research presented here is performed under the patronage of the ATLAS collaboration with a special focus on measurements done with muon spectrometer. Thus a first central issue is the performance of the spectrometer in terms of physics objects that are recognized by the device, the compatibility of data and the existing simulation as well as its improvement and finally the extension of the acceptance region. Once the excellent behavior and comprehension of the muon spectrometer is demonstrated, a second part addresses one physics use case of reconstructed muons. The electroweak force is part of the Standard Model and causes the interaction of heavy electroweak gauge bosons with fermions as well as their self-interaction. In proton-proton collisions such gauge bosons are produced. However, they decay immediately into a pair of fermions. In case of the Z boson, which is one of the gauge bosons, oppositely charged fermions of the same generation, including muons, emerge. The various decay modes are determined precisely at particle accelerators other than the LHC. However, the associated production of two Z bosons is measured less exactly at those facilities because of a very low cross section. The corresponding results acquired with the ATLAS experiment exceed all previous measurements in terms of statistics and accuracy. They are reported in this thesis as obtained from the observation of events with four charged leptons. The enhancement of the signal yield based on the extension of the muon spectrometer acceptance is especially emphasized as well as alternative methods to estimate background events. Furthermore, the impact on the probing of couplings of three Z bosons and intersection with the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson are pointed out.
In this thesis, time-optimal control of the bi-steerable robot is addressed. The bi-steerable robot, a vehicle with two independently steerable axles, is a complex nonholonomic system with applications in many areas of land-based robotics. Motion planning and optimal control are challenging tasks for this system, since standard control schemes do not apply. The model of the bi-steerable robot considered here is a reduced kinematic model with the driving velocity and the steering angles of the front and rear axle as inputs. The steering angles of the two axles can be set independently from each other. The reduced kinematic model is a control system with affine and non-affine inputs, as the driving velocity enters the system linearly, whereas the steering angles enter nonlinearly. In this work, a new approach to solve the time-optimal control problem for the bi-steerable robot is presented. In contrast to most standard methods for time-optimal control, our approach does not exclusively rely on discretization and purely numerical methods. Instead, the Pontryagin Maximum Principle is used to characterize candidates for time-optimal solutions. The resultant boundary value problem is solved by optimization to obtain solutions to the path planning problem over a given time horizon. The time horizon is decreased and the path planning is iterated to approximate a time-optimal solution. An optimality condition is introduced which depends on the number of cusps, i.e., reversals of the driving direction of the robot. This optimality condition allows to single out non-optimal solutions with too many cusps. In general, our approach only gives approximations of time-optimal solutions, since only normal regular extremals are considered as solutions to the path planning problem, and the path planning is terminated when an extremal with minimal number of cusps is found. However, for most desired configurations, normal regular extremals with the minimal number of cusps provide time-optimal solutions for the bi-steerable robot. The convergence of the approach is analyzed and its probabilistic completeness is shown. Moreover, simulation results on time-optimal solutions for the bi-steerable robot are presented.
Cutaneous leishmaniasis is endemic in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Effective vaccination strategies are urgently needed because of the emergence of drug-resistant parasites and severe side effects of chemotherapy. The research group of Heidrun Moll previously established a DC-based vaccination strategy to induce complete and long-lasting immunity to experimental leishmaniasis using LmAg-loaded and CpG ODN-activated DC as a vaccine carrier. Prevention of tissue damages at the site of L. major inoculation can be achieved if the BALB/c mice were systemically given LmAg-loaded BMDC that had been exposed to CpG ODN. The interest in further exploring the role of IL-4 aroused as previous studies allowed establishing that IL-4 was involved in the redirection of the immune response towards a type 1 profile. Thus, wt BALB/c mice or DC-specific CD11ccreIL-4Rα-/lox BALB/c mice were given either wt or IL-4Rα-deficient LmAg-loaded BMDC exposed or not to CpG ODN prior to inoculation of 2 x 105 stationary phase L. major promastigotes into the BALB/c footpad. The results provide evidence that IL4/IL-4Rα-mediated signaling in the vaccinating DC is required to prevent tissue damages at the site of L. major inoculation, as properly conditioned wt DC but not IL-4Rα-deficient DC were able to confer resistance. Furthermore, uncontrolled L. major population size expansion was observed in the footpad and the footpad draining LN in CD11ccreIL-4Rα-/lox mice immunized with CpG ODN-exposed LmAg-loaded IL-4Rα-deficient DC, indicating the influence of IL-4R-mediated signaling in host DC to control parasite replication. In addition, no footpad damage was observed in BALB/c mice that were systemically immunized with LmAg-loaded wt DC doubly exposed to CpG ODN and recombinant IL-4. Discussing these findings allow the assumption that triggering the IL4/IL4Rα signaling pathway could be a precondition when designing vaccines aimed to prevent damaging processes in tissues hosting intracellular microorganisms.
γ-Aminobutyric acid type A receptors (GABAARs) and glycine receptors (GlyRs) are the major mediators of fast synaptic inhibition in the central nervous system. For proper synaptic function their precise localization and exact concentration within the neuronal surface membrane is essential. These properties are mediated by scaffolding proteins which directly contact the large intracellular loops of the receptors and tether them to cytoskeletal elements of the neuronal cells. In my thesis I deciphered the molecular details of several underlying protein-protein interactions, namely the interaction of a subset of GABAAR and GlyR subunits with the scaffolding proteins gephyrin, radixin and collybistin. I determined short linear motifs within the large intracellular loops of the receptors that directly engage in subunit specific scaffold protein interactions. My quantitative binding studies revealed that gephyrins E domain primarily recognizes the GABAAR α1 (Kd = 17 M) and α3 (Kd = 5 M) subunits, in contrast, the SH3 domain of collybistin mainly interacts with the GABAAR α2 subunit (Kd = 1 µM), while the FERM domain of radixin tightly binds to the GABAAR α5 subunit (Kd = 8 µM). My work additionally demonstrated that this simple relationship is complicated by (i) missing or (ii) overlapping binding specificities between the scaffold proteins and the receptor subunits. Moreover, this thesis addressed the possibility of (iii) posttranslational negative regulation as well as amplification generated by (iv) avidity effects as summarized below. (i) First, using biochemical methods I mapped the radixin-GABAAR α5 interaction in detail. My structural analysis and competition assays suggest that radixin mediates the receptor subunit binding via a universal binding site within the F3 subdomain of its FERM domain. This binding site is formed by an α-helix that offers a large hydrophobic pocket, which accepts a variety of different hydrophobic residues adopting different conformations, and a β-strand that readily engages in peptide backbone interactions. Not surprisingly, this binding site has been implicated in a wide variety of different scaffold interactions, thus emphasizing the importance of the essential FERM activation mechanism described earlier and suggesting additional pathways to allow tight regulation of this interaction. (ii) Next, I analyzed in detail the process of gephyrin-mediated GABAAR clustering. My X-ray crystallographic studies and binding assays revealed that gephyrin mediates binding of the GABAAR α1, α2 and α3 subunit via a universal binding site that also mediates the interactions with the GlyR β subunit. Using structure-guided mutagenesis I identified key residues within gephyrin and the receptor subunits that act as major contributors to the overall binding strength. Namely, two conserved aromatic residues within the N-terminal half of the receptor binding region engage in crucial hydrophobic interactions with gephyrin. Accordingly, J. Mukherjee from the group of our collaborator Steven J. Moss verified a substantial decrease in GABAAR cluster number and size in primary hippocampal neurons upon exchange of these residues within the GABAAR α2 subunit. Extension of my studies to collybistin (CB) revealed an overlapping but reciprocal subunit preference for this protein in comparison to gephyrin. The GABAAR α3 subunit exclusively binds gephyrin, in contrast the GABAAR α1 subunit mainly targets gephyrin (Kd = 17 µM) but additionally displays a moderate affinity (Kd ≈ 400 µM) towards the SH3 domain of CB. The GABAAR α2 subunit binds tightly to the SH3 domain of CB (Kd = 1 µM) and additionally displays a weak gephyrin affinity (Kd ≈ 500 µM). Notably, I could exclude the possibility of synergistic effects between gephyrins E domain, the SH3 domain of CB and the GABAAR α2 subunit. Instead, I found that the GABAAR α2 subunit binds gephyrin and CB in a mutually exclusive manner. These results suggest that CBs role in receptor clustering is solely determined by competing binding events of its constituting domains. Namely, the intra-molecular association between the PH/DH domain and the SH3 domain within CB competes with different inter-molecular interactions of CB: GABAAR α2 binding to the SH3 domain, PIP2 binding to the PH domain and gephyrin presumably binding to the PH and DH domain of CB. (iii) Interestingly, the receptor motifs, which have been mapped in my thesis to directly interact with the scaffold proteins, were shown in earlier studies to be posttranslationally modified in vivo. In particular, the GABAAR α1 and GlyR β subunits have been implicated as targets of the ERK/MAPK and PKC phosphorylation-pathways, respectively, while the GABAAR α5 subunit motif was shown to be ubiquitinated. In this dissertation, I analyzed Thr348, a possible ERK phosphorylation site within GABAAR α1. My binding assays verified a severe reduction of the direct gephyrin binding strength upon introduction of the respective phosphomimetic residue. The relevance of this in vitro result was highlighted by J. Mukherjee who confirmed a significant reduction in GABAAR cluster number and size upon introduction of the same mutation. The ERK/MAPK pathway is therefore a promising candidate for regulation of GABAergic transmission. (iv) In vivo, gephyrin presumably forms a multivalent scaffold, which is based on the self-association of its G (GephG) and E domains (GephE). Given the multimeric nature of gephyrin and the pentameric receptor architecture, I tested the possibility of avidity in the clustering of inhibitory neurotransmitter receptors. Cocrystallization of selected minimum peptides with GephE and their crystal structure analyses enabled me to define a receptor-derived peptide that offers a maximized gephyrin affinity. The structure of the GephE-GlyR receptor complex reveals two receptor-binding sites in close spatial vicinity (15 Å). I therefore designed bivalent peptides that enable to target both GephE sites at the same time and, as expected, a variety of biophysical methods verified an avidity-potentiated and unmatched high gephyrin affinity for these bidentate compounds. Notably, I could extend the dimerization approach to low affinity gephyrin ligands, namely short GABAAR-derived peptides that could not be studied using conventional monomeric ligands. Additionally, I verified that this compound specifically targets GephEs receptor binding site, and that it thereby inhibits its receptor binding activity. Further development of this molecule may offer the possibility to specifically analyze the effect of uncoupling the gephyrin-receptor interaction in cell culture-based assays, without altering protein function or expression level that accompanies conventional methods such as protein knock-out, RNA interference or the usage of antibodies.
This thesis presents results covering several topics in correlated many fermion systems. A Monte Carlo technique (CT-INT) that has been implemented, used and extended by the author is discussed in great detail in chapter 3. The following chapter discusses how CT-INT can be used to calculate the two particle Green’s function and explains how exact frequency summations can be obtained. A benchmark against exact diagonalization is presented. The link to the dynamical cluster approximation is made in the end of chapter 4, where these techniques are of immense importance. In chapter 5 an extensive CT-INT study of a strongly correlated Josephson junction is shown. In particular, the signature of the first order quantum phase transition between a Kondo and a local moment regime in the Josephson current is discussed. The connection to an experimental system is made with great care by developing a parameter extraction strategy. As a final result, we show that it is possible to reproduce experimental data from a numerically exact CT-INT model-calculation. The last topic is a study of graphene edge magnetism. We introduce a general effective model for the edge states, incorporating a complicated interaction Hamiltonian and perform an exact diagonalization study for different parameter regimes. This yields a strong argument for the importance of forbidden umklapp processes and of the strongly momentum dependent interaction vertex for the formation of edge magnetism. Additional fragments concerning the use of a Legendre polynomial basis for the representation of the two particle Green’s function, the analytic continuation of the self energy for the Anderson Kane Mele Model, as well as the generation of test data with a given covariance matrix are documented in the appendix. A final appendix provides some very important matrix identities that are used for the discussion of technical details of CT-INT.
Melanoma is the most aggressive skin cancer with very limited treatment options. Upon appearance of metastases chemotherapeutics are used to either kill or slow down the growth of cancer cells by inducing apoptosis or senescence, respectively. With melanomas originating from melanocytes, it is vital to elucidate the mechanisms that distinguish senescence induction from proliferation and tumourigenicity. Xmrk (Xiphophorus melanoma receptor kinase), the fish orthologue of the human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), causes highly aggressive melanoma in fish. Using an inducible variant, HERmrk, I showed that high receptor levels result in melanocyte senescence, whereas low and medium expression allows for cell proliferation and tumourigenicity. Mechanistically, HERmrk leads to increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) levels, which trigger a DNA damage response. Consequently, multinucleated, senescent cells develop by both endomitosis and fusion. Furthermore, oncogenic N‐RAS (N-‐RAS61K) induces a similar multinucleated phenotype in melanocytes. In addition, I found that both overexpression of C‐MYC and the knockdown of miz‐1 (Myc‐interacting zinc finger protein 1) diminished HERmrk‐induced senescence entry. C‐MYC prevent ROS induction, DNA damage and senescence, while acting synergistically with HERmrk in conveying tumourigenic features to melanocytes. Further analyses identified cystathionase (CTH) as a novel target gene of Myc and Miz-1 crucial for senescence prevention. CTH encodes an enzyme involved in the synthesis of cysteine from methionine, thereby allowing for increased ROS detoxification. Even though senescence was thought to be irreversible and hence tumour protective, I demonstrated that prolonged expression of the melanoma oncogene N‐RAS61K in pigment cells overcomes initial OIS by triggering the emergence of tumour‐initiating, mononucleated stem‐like cells from multinucleated senescent cells. This progeny is dedifferentiated, highly proliferative, anoikis‐resistant and induces fast‐growing, metastatic tumours upon transplantation into nude mice. Our data demonstrate that induction of OIS is not only a cellular failsafe mechanism, but also carries the potential to provide a source for highly aggressive, tumour‐initiating cells.
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most frequent psychiatric disorder in children and adolescents and is often treated with methylphenidate (MPH), resulting in MPH exposure in more than 1% of all children in many countries. A 2005 report on cytogenetic effects in peripheral lymphocytes from 12 ADHD children treated for 3 months with MPH raised questions about its genetic toxicity and potential carcinogenicity. A healthy control group (23 individuals), a chronically MPH-treated (>12 months) group (21 patients), and a drug naïve group of ADHD-affected children (26 patients), which was analyzed again after 3 months (17 patients) and 6 months (11 patients), provided samples for analysis of micronucleated lymphocytes. No significant alteration in genomic damage as seen as micronucleus frequency in peripheral lypmphocytes was detected after MPH treatment. No indication for genomic damage induced by MPH was obtained in this study. Ongoing studies in the USA, as well as continuation of recently published epidemiological cancer incidence analysis should provide additional reassurance for MPH-treated ADHD patients.
Understanding the emergence of species' ranges is one of the most fundamental challenges in ecology. Early on, geographical barriers were identified as obvious natural constraints to the spread of species. However, many range borders occur along gradually changing landscapes, where no sharp barriers are obvious. Mechanistic explanations for this seeming contradiction incorporate environmental gradients that either affect the spatio-temporal variability of conditions or the increasing fragmentation of habitat. Additionally, biological mechanisms like Allee effects (i.e. decreased growth rates at low population sizes or densities), condition-dependent dispersal, and biological interactions with other species have been shown to severely affect the location of range margins. The role of dispersal has been in the focus of many studies dealing with range border formation. Dispersal is known to be highly plastic and evolvable, even over short ecological time-scales. However, only few studies concentrated on the impact of evolving dispersal on range dynamics. This thesis aims at filling this gap. I study the influence of evolving dispersal rates on the persistence of spatially structured populations in environmental gradients and its consequences for the establishment of range borders. More specially I investigate scenarios of range formation in equilibrium, periods of range expansion, and range shifts under global climate change ...
The ability to produce toxins is spread among a huge variety of bacterial strains. A very prominent class of bacterial protein toxins is the family of binary AB toxins sharing a common mode of intoxication. A pore forming component B binds and translocates an enzymatic component A into the cytosol of target cells exhibiting a fatal mode of action. These components are supposed to be not toxic themselves but both required for cell toxicity. Anthrax toxin produced by the Gram-positive bacteria Bacillus anthracis is the best studied binary toxin especially since its use as a biological weapon in the context of the attacks of 9/11 in 2001. In contrast to other binary toxins, Anthrax toxin possesses two different enzymatic components, edema factor (EF), a calcium- and calmodulin-dependent adenylat-cyclase and lethal factor (LF), a zinc-dependent metalloprotease. Protective antigen (PA) is the pore-forming component responsible for binding and translocation. Clostridium botulinum possesses in addition to the well known botulinum toxin (Botox) a variety of other toxins, such as the binary C2 toxin. C2 toxin is composed of the binding and translocation moiety C2II and the enzymatic moiety C2I acting as an actin-ADP-ribosyltransferase. In this study, the mode of translocation and the binding kinetics to the enzymatic component were studied in a biophysical experimental setup. In chapter 2, the binding of the N-terminal fractions EFN and LFN to the PA channel are analyzed in artificial bilayer membranes revealing lower binding affinity compared to full-length EF and LF. Other biophysical properties like voltage-dependency and ionic-strength dependency are not influenced. The results suggest that additional forces are involved in the binding process, than those concerning the N-terminus exclusively, as it was supposed previously. As the treatment of an Anthrax infection with antibiotics is often medicated very late due to the lack of early symptoms, tools to prevent intoxication are required. 4-aminoquinolones like chloroquine are known to block the PA channel, thereby inhibiting intoxication but they also lead to severe side-effects. In chapter 3 new promising agents are described that bind to PA in artificial bilayer systems, elucidating common motives and features which are necessary for binding to PA in general. The possible interaction of Anthrax and C2 toxin is investigated by measuring the binding of one enzymatic component to the respective other toxin’s pore (chapter 4). Interestingly, in vitro experiments using the black lipid bilayer assay show that PA is able to bind to C2I resulting in half saturation constants in the nanomolar range. Furthermore, in vivo this combination of toxin components exhibits cell toxicity in human cell lines. This is first-time evidence that a heterologous toxin combination is functional in in vitro and in vivo systems. In contrast, C2II is able to bind to EF as well as to LF in vitro, whereas in in vivo studies almost no toxic effect is detected. In the case of PA, an N-terminal His6-tag attached to the enzymatic subunit increased the binding affinity (chapter 5). A His6-tag attached to not related proteins also led to high binding affinities, providing the possibility to establish PA as a general cargo protein. In chapter 6 a set of different molecules and proteins is summarized, which are either related or not related to binary toxins, PA is able to bind. In first line, the presence of positive charges is found to be responsible for binding to PA which is in accordance to the fact that PA is highly cation selective. Furthermore, we present evidence that different cationic electrolytes serve as a binding partner to the PA channel. In the last decade another toxin has aroused public attention as it was found to be responsible for a rising number of nosocomial infections: Clostridium difficile CDT toxin. The mode of action of the enzymatic subunit CDTa is similar to C2I of C2 toxin, acting as an ADP-ribosylating toxin. The channel forming and binding properties of CDT toxin are studied in artificial bilayer membranes (chapter 7). We found that two different types of channels are formed by the B component CDTb. The first channel is similar to that of iota toxin’s Ib of Clostridium perfringens with comparable single channel conductance, selectivity and binding properties to the enzymatic subunit CDTa. The formation of this type of channel is cholesterol-dependent, whereas in the absence of cholesterol another kind of channel is observed. This channel has a single channel conductance which is rather high compared to all other binary toxin channels known so far, it is anion selective and does not show any binding affinity to the enzymatic component CDTa. The results reveal completely new insights in channel formation properties and the flexibility of a pore-forming component. Additionally, these findings suggest further possibilities of toxicity of the pore forming component itself which is not known for any other binary toxin yet. Therefore, the pathogenic role of this feature has to be studied in detail.
In this thesis, the influence of an environment on molecules and, in particular, on the quantum control of such systems is investigated. Different approaches to describe system-bath dynamics are implemented and applied. The inclusion of a dissipation term in the system Hamiltonian leads to energy loss and relaxation to the ground state. As a first application, the isomerisation reaction in an aromatic complex is treated. It is shown that this simple model is able to reproduce results of time-resolved spectroscopic measurements. Next, the influence of noise is investigated. The incorporation of fluctuations reveals that energy is not conserved and coherences are destroyed. As an example, the quantum control of a population transfer in Na2 is examined. The efficiency of control processes is studied in dependence on the strength of the noise and different system-bath couplings. Starting with the unperturbed system, Local Control Theory is applied to construct a field which selectively transfers population into a single excited electronic state. The coupling to the bath is then switched on to monitor the dependence of the coupling strength on the transfer efficiency. The perturbation of the bath effects the Na2 molecule in such a way that potential energy curves and transition dipole moments are distorted. An important result is that already elastic collisions lead to a substantial loss of control efficiency. The most promising approach used in this thesis is the stochastic Schrödinger equation. It is equivalent to the commonly employed descriptions of system-bath dynamics within the reduced density matrix formalism. It includes decoherences and dissipation caused by elastic and inelastic collisions. Our contribution is the incorporation of laser excitation into the kinetic Monte-Carlo scheme. Thus we are able to apply this stochastic approach to the quantum control of population transfer in the sodium dimer. Because within our description it is possible to separate pure dephasing, inelastic transitions, and coherent time-evolution, we can identify the relative influence of these processes on the control efficiency. This leads to a far more physical picture of the basic processes underlying the perturbations of an environment then what a reduced density matrix description can provide. In utilising the stochastic wave function approach instead of the density matrix formalism, the computations are quite efficient. The stochastic Schrödinger equation is realised by N independent runs, where, in our case, an ensemble size of N = 1000 gives converged results. The efficiency of the laser control process is studied as a function of temperature and collision rates. A rise in temperature (or collision rate) reeffects a stronger fluctuation and thus results in a less efficient transfer by the control field. Though the Gaussian fluctuations used here do not strictly represent 'white'- noise, since a deterministic machine is not able to produce uncorrelated random numbers, an acceptable distribution is achieved by simple procedures. An improvement of the here applied algorithms would, for instance, include a more sophisticated sampling of the dephasing rates. Only one example of a control process is studied here and an application of the developed approach to other problems of quantum control is to be performed. This thesis established a systematic approach to understand quantum control in the presence of an environment.
During the past years, the internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS2) was established as a commonly used molecular phylogenetic marker for the eukaryotes. Its fast evolving sequence is predestinated for the use in low-level phylogenetics. However, the ITS2 also consists of a very conserved secondary structure. This enables the discrimination between more distantly related species. The combination of both in a sequence-structure based analysis increases the resolution of the marker and enables even more robust tree reconstructions on a broader taxonomic range. But, performing such an analysis required the application of different programs and databases making the use of the ITS2 non trivial for the typical biologist. To overcome this hindrance, I have developed the ITS2 Workbench, a completely web-based tool for automated phylogenetic sequence-structure analyses using the ITS2 (http://its2.bioapps.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de). The development started with an optimization of length modelling topologies for Hidden Markov Models (HMMs), which were successfully applied on a secondary structure prediction model of the ITS2 marker. Here, structure is predicted by considering the sequences' composition in combination with the length distribution of different helical regions. Next, I integrated HMMs into the sequence-structure generation process for the delineation of the ITS2 within a given sequence. This re-implemented pipeline could more than double the number of structure predictions and reduce the runtime to a few days. Together with further optimizations of the homology modelling process I can now exhaustively predict secondary structures in several iterations. These modifications currently provide 380,000 annotated sequences including 288,000 structure predictions. To include these structures in the calculation of alignments and phylogenetic trees, I developed the R-package "treeforge". It generates sequence-structure alignments on up to four different coding alphabets. For the first time also structural bonds were considered in alignments, which required the estimation of new scoring matrices. Now, the reconstruction of Maximum Parsimony, Maximum Likelihood as well as Neighbour Joining trees on all four alphabets requires just a few lines of code. The package was used to resolve the controversial chlorophyceaen dataset and could be integrated into future versions of the ITS2 workbench. The platform is based on a modern, feature-rich Web 2.0 user interface equipped with the latest AJAX and Web-service technologies. It performs HMM-based sequence annotation, structure prediction by energy minimization or homology modelling, alignment calculation and tree reconstruction on a flexible data pool that repeats calculations according to data changes. Further, it provides sequence motif detection to control annotation and structure prediction and a sequence-structure based BLAST search, which facilitates the taxon sampling process. All features and the usage of the ITS2 workbench are explained in a video tutorial. However, the workbench bears some limitations regarding the size of datasets. This is caused mainly due to the immense computational power needed for such extensive calculations. To demonstrate the validity of the approach also for large-scale analyses, a fully automated reconstruction of the Chlorophyta (Green Algal) Tree of Life was performed. The successful application of the marker even on large datasets underlines the capabilities of ITS2 sequence-structure analysis and suggests its utilization on further datasets. The ITS2 workbench provides an excellent starting point for such endeavours.
Upon synthesis, nascent polypeptide chains are subject to major rearrangements of their side chains to obtain an energetically more favorable conformation in a process called folding. About one third of all cellular proteins pass through the secretory pathway and undergo oxidative folding in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). During oxidative folding, the conformational rearrangements are accompanied by the formation of disulfide bonds – covalent bonds between cysteine side chains that form upon oxidation. Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) assists in the folding of substrates by catalyzing the oxidation of pairs of cysteine residues and the isomerization of disulfide bonds as well as by acting as chaperones. In addition to PDI itself, a family of related ER-resident proteins has formed. All PDI family members share the thioredoxin fold in at least one of their domains and exhibit a subset of the PDI activities. Despite many studies, the role of most PDI family members remains unclear. The project presented in this thesis was aimed to establish tools for the biochemical characterization of single members of the PDI family and their role in the folding process. A combination of fluorescence based assays was developed to selectively study single functions of PDI family members and relate their properties of either catalysis of oxidation or catalysis of isomerization or chaperone activity to the rest of the protein family. A binding assay using isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was established to complement the activity assays. Using ITC we could show for the first time that members of the PDI family can distinguish between folded and unfolded proteins selectively binding the latter. The unique information provided by this method also revealed a two-site binding of unfolded proteins by PDI itself. In addition to the functional characterization, experiments were conducted to further investigate the oligomeric state of PDI. We could show that the equilibrium between structurally different states of PDI is heavily influenced by the redox state of the protein and its environment. This new data could help to further our understanding of the interplay between oxidases like PDI and their regenerative enzymes like Ero1, which may be governed by structural changes in response to the change in redox status. Another structural approach was the screening of all investigated PDI family members for suitable crystallization conditions. As a result of this screening we could obtain protein crystals of human ERp27 and were able to solve the structure of this protein with X-ray crystallography. The structure gives insight into the mechanisms of substrate binding domains within the PDI family and helps to understand the interaction of ERp27 with the redox active ERp57. In collaboration with the group of Heike Hermanns we could further show the physiological importance of this interaction under oxidative stress. In conclusion, the project presented in this thesis provides novel tools for an extensive analysis of the activities of single PDI family members as well as a useful set of methods to characterize novel oxidoreductases and chaperones. The initial results obtained with the our novel methods are very promising. At the same time, the structural approach of this project could successfully solve the structure of a PDI family member and give information about the interplay within the PDI family.
Many organisms evolved an endogenous clock to adapt to the daily environmental changes caused by the earth’s rotation. Light is the primary time cue (“Zeitgeber”) for entrainment of circadian clocks to the external 24-h day. In Drosophila, several visual pigments are known to mediate synchronization to light: The blue-light photopigment Cryptochrome (CRY) and six well-described rhodopsins (Rh1-Rh6). CRY is present in the majority of clock neurons as well as in the compound eyes, whereas the location of rhodopsins is restricted to the photoreceptive organs – the compound eyes, the ocelli and the HB-eyelets. CRY is thought to represent the key photoreceptor of Drosophila’s circadian clock. Nevertheless, mutant flies lacking CRY (cry01) are able to synchronize their locomotor activity rhythms to light-dark (LD) cycles, but need significantly longer than wild-type flies. In this behavior, cry01 mutants strongly resemble mammalian species that do not possess any internal photoreceptors and perceive light information exclusively through their photoreceptive organs (eyes). Thus, a mammalian-like phase-shifting behavior would be expected in cry01 flies. We investigated this issue by monitoring a phase response curve (PRC) of cry01 and wild-type flies to 1-h light pulses of 1000 lux irradiance. Indeed, cry01 mutants produced a mammalian-similar so called type 1 PRC of comparatively low amplitude (< 25% of wild-type) with phase delays to light pulses during the early subjective night and phase advances to light pulses during the late subjective night (~1 h each). Despite the predominant role of CRY, the visual system contributes to the light sensitivity of the fly’s circadian clock, mainly around dawn and dusk. Furthermore, this phase shifting allows for the slow re-entrainment which we observed in cry01 mutants to 8-h phase delays of the LD 12 h:12 h cycle. However, cry01 also showed surprising differences in their shifting ability: First of all, their PRC was characterized by a second dead zone in the middle of the subjective night (ZT17-ZT19) in addition to the usual unresponsiveness during the subjective day. Second, in contrast to wild-type flies, cry01 mutants did not increase their shift of activity rhythms neither in response to longer stimuli nor to light pulses of higher irradiance. In contrast, both 6-h light pulses of 1000 lux and 1-h light pulses of 10,000 lux light intensity during the early subjective night even resulted in phase advances instead of the expected delays. Thus, CRY seems to be not only responsible for the high light sensitivity of the wild-type circadian clock, but is apparently also involved in integrating and processing light information. Rhodopsin 7 (Rh7) is a yet uncharacterized protein, but became a good photoreceptor candidate due to sequence similarities to the six known Drosophila Rhs. The second part of this thesis investigated the expression pattern of Rh7 and its possible functions, especially in circadian photoreception. Furthermore, we were interested in a potential interaction with CRY and thus, tested cry01 and rh70 cry01 mutants as well. Rh1 is the main visual pigment of the Drosophila compound eye and expressed in six out of eight photoreceptors cells (R1-R6) in each of the ~800 ommatidia. Motion vision depends exclusively on Rh1 function but, moreover, Rh1 plays an important structural role and assures proper photoreceptor cell development and maintenance. In order to investigate its possible photoreceptive function, we expressed Rh7 in place of Rh1. Rh7 was indeed able to overtake the role of Rh1 in both aspects: It prevented retinal degeneration and mediated the optomotor response (OR), a motion vision-dependent behavior. At the transcriptional level, rh7 is expressed at approximately equal amounts in adult fly brains and retinas. Due to a reduced specificity of anti-Rh7 antibodies, we could not verify this result at the protein level. However, analysis of rh7 null mutants (rh70) suggested different Rh7 functions in vivo. Previous experiments strongly indicated an increased sensitivity of the compound eyes in the absence of Rh7 and suggested impaired light adaptation. We aimed to test this hypothesis at the levels of circadian photoreception. Locomotor activity rhythms are a reliable output of the circadian clock. Rh70 mutant flies generally displayed a wild-type similar bimodal activity pattern comprising morning (M) and evening (E) activity bouts. Activity monitoring supported the proposed “shielding” function, since rh70 mutants behaved like wild-type flies experiencing high irradiances. Under all investigated conditions, their activity peaks lay further apart resulting in a prolonged midday break. The behavior of cry01 mutants was mainly characterized by an unexpectedly high flexibility in the timing of M and E activity bouts which allowed tracking of lights-on and lights-off even under extreme photoperiods. Activity profiles of the corresponding rh70 cry01 double mutants reflected neither synergistic nor antagonistic effects of Rh7 and CRY and were dominated by a broad E activity peak. In the future, the different circadian phenotypes will be further investigated on the molecular level by analysis of clock protein cycling in the underlying pacemaker neurons. The work of this thesis confirmed that Rh7 is indeed able to work as a photoreceptor and to initiate the classical phototransduction cascade. On the other hand, it provided further evidence at the levels of circadian photoreception that Rh7 might serve as a shielding pigment for Rh1 in vivo, thereby mediating proper light adaptation.
In 1999, a tragic catastrophe occurred in the Mont Blanc Tunnel, one of the most important transalpine road tunnels. Twenty-seven of the victims never left their vehicles as a result of which they were trapped in smoke and suffocated (Beard & Carvel, 2005). Immediate evacuation is crucial in tunnel fires, but still many tunnel users stay passive. During emergency situations people strongly influence each other’s behavior (e.g. Nilsson & Johansson, 2009a). So far, only few empirical experimental studies investigated the interaction of individuals during emergencies. Recent developments of advanced immersive virtual worlds, allow simulating emergency situations which makes analogue studies possible. In the present dissertation project, theoretical aspects of human behavior and SI in emergencies are addressed (Chapter 1). The question of Social Influence in emergency situations is investigated in five simulation studies during different relevant stages of the evacuation process from a simulated road tunnel fire (Chapter 2). In the last part, the results are discussed and criticized (Chapter 3). Using a virtual reality (VR) road tunnel scenario, study 1 (pilot study) and 2 investigated the effect of information about adequate behavior in tunnel emergencies as well as Social Influence (SI) on drivers’ behavior. Based on a classic study of Darley and Latané (1968) on bystander inhibition, the effect of passive bystanders on self-evacuation was analyzed. Sixty participants were confronted with an accident and smoke in a road tunnel. The presence of bystanders and information status was manipulated and consequently, participants were randomly assigned into four different groups. Informed participants read a brochure containing relevant information about safety behavior in emergency situations prior to the tunnel drives. In the bystander conditions, passive bystanders were situated in a car in front of the emergency situation. Participants who had received relevant information left the car more frequently than the other participants. Neither significant effect of bystanders nor interaction with information status on the participants’ behavior was observed. Study 3 (pilot study) examined a possible alternative explanation for weak SI in VR. Based on the Threshold Theory of Social Influence (Blascovich, 2002b) and the work of Guadagno et al. (2007), the perception of virtual humans as an avatar (a virtual representation of a real human being) or as an agent (a computer-controlled animated character) was manipulated. Subsequently, 32 participants experienced an accident similar to the one in study 1. However, they were co-drivers and a virtual agent (VA) was the driver. Participants reacted differently in avatar and agent condition. Consequently, the manipulation of the avatar condition was implemented in study 4. In study 4, SI within the vehicle was investigated, as drivers are mostly not alone in their car. In a tunnel scenario similar to the first study, 34 participants were confronted with an emergency situation either as drivers or co-drivers. In the driver group, participants drove themselves and a VA was sitting on the passenger seat. Correspondently, participants in the co-driver group were seated on the passenger seat and the VA drove the vehicle on a pre-recorded path. Like in study 1, the tunnel was blocked by an accident and smoke was coming from the accident in one drive. The VA initially stayed inactive after stopping the vehicle but started to evacuate after ca. 30 seconds. About one third of the sample left the vehicle during the situation. There were no significant differences between drivers and co-drivers regarding the frequency of leaving the vehicle. Co-drivers waited significantly longer than drivers before leaving the vehicle. Study 5 looked at the pre-movement and movement phase of the evacuation process. Forty participants were repeatedly confronted with an emergency situation in a virtual road tunnel filled with smoke. Four different experimental conditions systematically varied the presence and behavior of a VA. In all but one conditions a VA was present. Across all conditions at least 60% of the participants went to the emergency exit. If the VA went to the emergency exit, the ratio increased to 75%. If the VA went in the opposite direction of the exit, however, only 61% went there. If participants were confronted with a passive VA, they needed significantly longer until they started moving and reached the emergency exit. The main and most important finding across all studies is that SI is relevant for self-evacuation, but the degree of SI varies across the phases of evacuation and situation. In addition to the core findings, relevant theoretical and methodological questions regarding the general usefulness and limitations of VR as a research tool are discussed. Finally, a short summary and outlook on possible future studies is presented.
A general theory for all classes of unconventional superconductors is still one of the unsolved key issues in condensed-matter physics. Actually, it is not yet fully settled if there is a common underlying pairing mechanism. Instead, it might be possible that several distinct sources for unconventional (not phonon-mediated) superconductivity have to be considered, or an electron-phonon interaction is not negligible. The focus of this thesis is on the most probable mechanism for the formation of Cooper pairs in unconventional superconductors, namely a strictly electronic one where spin fluctuations are the mediators. Studying different superconductors in this thesis, the emphasis is put on material-independent features of the pairing mechanism. In addition, the investigation of the phase diagrams enables a view on the vicinity of superconductivity. Thus, it is possible to clarify which competing quantum fluctuations enhance or weaken the propensity for a superconducting state. The broad range of superconducting materials requires the use of more than one numerical technique to study an appropriate microscopic description. This is not a problem but a big advantage because this facilitates the approach-independent description of common underlying physics. For this evaluation, the strongly correlated cuprates are simulated with the variational cluster approach. Especially the question of a pairing glue is taken into consideration. Furthermore, it is possible to distinguish between retarded and non-retarded contributions to the gap function. The cuprates are confronted with the cobaltate NaCoO and graphene. These weakly correlated materials are investigated with the functional renormalization group (fRG) and reveal a comprehensive phase diagram, including a d+id-wave superconductivity, which breaks time-reversal symmetry. The corresponding gap function is nodeless, but for NaCoO, it features a doping-dependent anisotropy. In addition, some general considerations on the kagome lattice are completing the discussion, where a sublattice interference dramatically affects the Fermi-surface instabilities, suppressing the usual spin-density wave and d+id-wave superconductivity. Thereby, some different fascinating charge and bond orders as well as a nematic are observable. In short, this thesis provides an insight to distinct classes of unconventional superconductors with appropriate simulation techniques. This facilitates to separate the material specific properties from the universal ones.
Chlamydiales are obligate intracellular gram-negative bacteria that have gained high medical relevance. These important human pathogens cause diverse diseases including trachoma and wide spread sexually transmitted diseases. Chlamydia establishes membrane bound inclusions in the host cell and loots the host for nutritional requirements. Infections are usually recognized by the host immune system and eliminated systematically, by triggering apoptosis. However, the pathogen Chlamydia has evolved various strategies to prevent the detection as well as protect the invaded cell against apoptosis or any other form of cell death. The evolutionary conservation of cell death regulation has not been investigated in the order Chlamydiales, which also includes Chlamydia-like organisms with a broader host spectrum. The present study was aimed at investigating the apoptotic response of human cells infected with the Chlamydia-like organism Simkania negevensis (Sn). Simkania infected cells exhibited strong resistance to apoptosis induced by intrinsic stress or by the activation of cell death receptors. Apoptotic signaling was blocked upstream of mitochondria since Bax translocation, Bax and Bak oligomerisation and cytochrome c release were absent in these cells. Caspases were differentially regulated upon Sn infection. Caspase-3 and -9 were not activated upon Sn infection and apoptosis induction; whereas caspases-8 was activated in Sn infected cells even without apoptosis induction. This indicates that, Sn utilizes death receptor association independent caspase activation for thriving in the host environment. Infected cells turned on pro-survival pathways like cellular Inhibitor of Apoptosis Proteins (IAP-1/2 and XIAP) and the Akt/PI3K pathway. Sn infection also 20 activated the pro-survival transcription factor NF-кB. Blocking any of these survival pathways sensitized the infected host cell towards apoptosis induction, demonstrating their role in infection-induced apoptosis resistance. The NF-кB mutant cells also showed reduced infectivity of Sn, which indicated an essential role of NF-кB in Sn infection. It was interesting to observe that, Acanthamoeba castellanii, a natural host of Sn, survived maintaining its trophozoite forms after infection with Sn upon starvation. The metacaspases, responsible for encystment could be regulated by Sn upon infection. This suggests an early level of gene regulation indicating how the pathogen evolved its ability to inhibit apoptosis in higher organisms. The resistance to apoptosis pathways subverted in Sn-infected cells was similar but not identical to those modulated by Chlamydia. Together, the data supports the hypothesis of evolutionary conserved signaling pathways to apoptosis resistance as common denominators in the order Chlamydiales.
Despite intense research efforts, a safe and effective HIV-1/AIDS vaccine still remains far away. HIV-1 escapes the humoral immune response through various mechanisms and until now, only a few nAbs have been identified. A promising strategy to identify new epitopes that may elicit such nAbs is to dissect and analyze the humoral immune response of sera with broadly reactive nAbs. The identified epitopes recognized by these antibodies might then be incorporated into a vaccine to elicit similar nAbs and thus provide protection from HIV-1 infection. Using random peptide phage display libraries, the Ruprecht laboratory has identified the epitopes recognized by polyclonal antibodies of a rhesus monkey with high-titer, broadly reactive nAbs that had been induced after infection with a SHIV encoding env of a recently transmitted HIV-1 clade C. The laboratory analyzed phage peptide inserts for conformational and linear homology with computational assistance. Several of the identified peptides mimicked domains of the original HIV-1 clade Env, such as conformational V3 loop epitopes and the conserved linear region of the gp120 C-terminus. As part of this work, these mimotopes were analyzed for cross-reactivity with other sera obtained from rhesus monkeys with nAbs and antibody recognition was shown for several mimotopes, particularly those representing the V3 loop. In addition, these mimotopes were incorporated into a novel DNA prime/phage boost strategy to analyze the immunogenicity of such phage-displayed peptides. Mice were primed only once with HIV-1 clade C gp160 DNA and subsequently boosted with mixtures of recombinant phages. This strategy was designed to focus the humoral immune response on a few, selected Env epitopes (immunofocusing) and induced HIV-1 clade C gp160 binding antibodies and cross-clade nAbs. Furthermore, the C-terminus of gp120, a conserved HIV Env region, was linked to the induction of nAbs for the first time. The identification of such conserved antigens may lead to the development of a vaccine that is capable of inducing broadly reactive nAbs that might confer protection form HIV-1 infection.
Early-life stress has been shown to influence the development of the brain and to increase the risk for psychiatric disorders later in life. Furthermore, variation in the human serotonin transporter (5-HTT, SLC6A4) gene is suggested to exert a modulating effect on the association between early-life stress and the risk for depression. At the basis of these gene x environment (G x E) interactions, epigenetic mechanisms, such as DNA-methylation, seem to represent the primary biological processes mediating early-life programming for stress susceptibility or resilience, respectively. The exact molecular mechanisms however remain to be elucidated, though. In the present study, we used two different stress paradigms to assess the molecular mechanisms mediating the relationship between early-life stress and disorders of emotion regulation later in life. First, a 5-Htt x prenatal stress (PS) paradigm was applied to investigate whether the effects of PS are dependent on the 5-Htt genotype. For this purpose, the effects of PS on cognition and anxiety- / depression-related behavior were examined using a maternal restraint stress paradigm of PS in C57BL/6 wild-type (WT) and heterozygous 5-Htt deficient (5-Htt+/-) mice. Additionally, in female offspring, a genome-wide hippocampal gene expression and DNA methylation profiling was performed using the Affymetrix GeneChip® Mouse Genome 430 2.0 Array and the AffymetrixGeneChip® Mouse Promoter 1.0R Array. Some of the resulting candidate genes were validated by quantitative real-time PCR. Further, the gene expression of these genes was measured in other brain regions of the PS animals as well as in the hippocampus of offspring of another, 5-Htt x perinatal stress (PeS) paradigm, in which pregnant and lactating females were stressed by an olfactory cue indicating infanticide. To assess resilience to PS and PeS, correlation studies between gene expression and behaviour were performed based on an initial performance-based LIMMA analysis of the gene expression microarray. 5-Htt+/- offspring of the PS paradigm showed enhanced memory performance and signs of reduced anxiety as compared to WT offspring. In contrast, exposure of 5-Htt+/- mice to PS was associated with increased depression-like behavior, an effect that tended to be more pronounced in female offspring. Further, 5-Htt genotype, PS and their interaction differentially affected the expression and DNA methylation of numerous genes and related pathways within the female hippocampus. Specifically, MAPK and neurotrophin signaling were regulated by both the 5-Htt+/- genotype and PS exposure, whereas cytokine and Wnt signaling were affected in a 5-Htt genotype x PS manner, indicating a gene x environment interaction at the molecular level. The candidate genes of the expression array could be validated and their expression patterns were partly consistent in the prefrontal cortex and striatum. Furthermore, the genotype effect of XIAP associated factor 1 (Xaf1) was also detected in the mice of the PeS paradigm. Concerning resilience, we found that the expression of growth hormone (Gh), prolactin (Prl) and fos-induced growth factor (Figf) were downregulated in WTPS mice that performed well in the forced swim test (FST). At the same time, the results indicated that Gh and Prl expression correlated positively with adrenal weight, whereas Figf expression correlated positively with basal corticosteron concentration, indicating an intricate relationship between depression-like behavior, hippocampal gene expression and the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity. Correlation studies in the PeS animals revealed a link between Gh / Prl expression and anxiety-like behavior. In conclusion, our data suggest that although the 5-Htt+/- genotype shows clear adaptive capacity, 5-Htt+/- mice, particularly females, appear to be more vulnerable to developmental stress exposure when compared to WT offspring. Moreover, hippocampal gene expression and DNA methylation profiles suggest that distinct epigenetic mechanisms at the molecular level mediate the behavioral effects of the 5-Htt genotype, PS exposure, and their interaction. Further, resilience to early-life stress might be conferred by genes whose expression is linked to HPA axis function.
Two-Dimensional Electron Systems at Surfaces — Spin-Orbit Interaction and Electronic Correlations
(2012)
This thesis addresses three different realizations of a truly two-dimensional electron system (2DES), established at the surface of elemental semiconductors, i.e., Pt/Si(111), Au/Ge(111), and Sn/Si(111). Characteristic features of atomic structures at surfaces have been studied using scanning tunneling microscopy and low energy electron diffraction with special emphasis on Pt deposition onto Si(111). Topographic inspection reveals that Pt atoms agglomerate as trimers, which represent the structural building block of phase-slip domains. Surprisingly, each trimer is rotated by 30° with respect to the substrate, which results in an unexpected symmetry breaking. In turn, this represents a unique example of a chiral structure at a semiconductor surface, and marks Pt/Si(111) as a promising candidate for catalytic processes at the atomic scale. Spin-orbit interactions (SOIs) play a significant role at surfaces involving heavy adatoms. As a result, a lift of the spin degeneracy in the electronic states, termed as Rashba effect, may be observed. A candidate system to exhibit such physics is Au/Ge(111). Its large hexagonal Fermi sheet is suggested to be spin-split by calculations within the density functional theory. Experimental clarification is obtained by exploiting the unique capabilities of three-dimensional spin detection in spin- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. Besides verification of the spin splitting, the in-plane components of the spin are shown to possess helical character, while also a prominent rotation out of this plane is observed along straight sections of the Fermi surface. Surprisingly and for the first time in a 2DES, additional in-plane rotations of the spin are revealed close to high symmetry directions. This complex spin pattern must originate from crystalline anisotropies, and it is best described by augmenting the original Rashba model with higher order Dresselhaus-like SOI terms. The alternative use of group-IV adatoms at a significantly reduced coverage drastically changes the basic properties of a 2DES. Electron localization is strongly enhanced, and the ground state characteristics will be dominated by correlation effects then. Sn/Si(111) is scrutinized with this regard. It serves as an ideal realization of a triangular lattice, that inherently suffers from spin frustration. Consequently, long-range magnetic order is prohibited, and the ground state is assumed to be either a spiral antiferromagnetic (AFM) insulator or a spin liquid. Here, the single-particle spectral function is utilized as a fundamental quantity to address the complex interplay of geometric frustration and electronic correlations. In particular, this is achieved by combining the complementary strengths of ab initio local density approximation (LDA) calculations, state-of-the-art angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy, and the sophisticated many-body LDA+DCA. In this way, the evolution of a shadow band and a band backfolding incompatible with a spiral AFM order are unveiled. Moreover, beyond nearest-neighbor hopping processes are crucial here, and the spectral features must be attributed to a collinear AFM ground state, contrary to common expectation for a frustrated spin lattice.
Streptococcus pneumoniae is one of the major causes of bacterial meningitis, which mainly affects young infants in the developing countries of Africa, Asia (esp. India) and South America, and which has case fatality rates up to 50% in those regions. Bacterial meningitis comprises an infection of the meninges and the sub-meningeal cortex tissue of the brain, whereat the presence of pneumolysin (PLY), a major virulence factor of the pneumococcus, is prerequisite for the development of a severe outcome of the infection and associated tissue damage (e. g. apoptosis, brain edema, and ischemia). Pneumolysin belongs to the family of pore forming, cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs), bacterial protein toxins, which basically use membrane-cholesterol as receptor and oligomerize to big aggregates, which induce cell lysis and cell death by disturbance of membrane integrity. Multiple recent studies, including this work, have revealed a new picture of pneumolysin, whose cell-related properties go far beyond membrane binding, pore formation and the induction of cell death and inflammatory responses. For a long time, it has been known that bacteria harm the tissues of their hosts in order to promote their own survival and proliferation. Many bacterial toxins aim to rather hijack cells than to kill them, by interacting with cellular components, such as the cytoskeleton or other endogenous proteins. This study was able to uncover a novel capacity of pneumolysin to interact with components of the actin machinery and to promote rapid, actin-dependent cell shape changes in primary astrocytes. The toxin was applied in disease-relevant concentrations, which were verified to be sub-lytic. These amounts of toxin induced a rapid actin cortex collapse in horizontal direction towards the cell core, whereat membrane integrity was preserved, indicating an actin severing function of pneumolysin, and being consistent with cell shrinkage, displacement, and blebbing observed in live cell imaging experiments. In contrast to neuroblastoma cells, in which pneumolysin led to cytoskeleton remodeling and simultaneously to activation of Rac1 and RhoA, in primary astrocytes the cell shape changes were seen to be primarily independent of small GTPases. The level of activated Rac1 and RhoA did not increase at the early time points after toxin application, when the initial shape changes have been observed, but at later time points when the actin-dependent displacement of cells was slower and less severe, probably presenting the cell’s attempt to re-establish proper cytoskeleton function. A GUV (giant unilamellar vesicle) approach provided insight into the effects of pneumolysin in a biomimetic system, an environment, which is strictly biochemical, but still comprises cellular components, limited to the factors of interest (actin, Arp2/3, ATP, and Mg2+ on one side, and PLY on the other side). This approach was able to show that the wildtype-toxin, but not the Δ6 mutant (mutated in the unfolding domain, and thus non-porous), had the capacity to exhibit its functions through a membrane bilayer, meaning it was able to aggregate actin, which was located on the other side of the membrane, either via direct interaction with actin or in an Arp2/3 activating manner. Taking a closer look at these two factors with the help of several different imaging and biochemical approaches, this work unveiled the capacity of pneumolysin to bind and interact both with actin and Arp2 of the Arp2/3 complex. Pneumolysin was capable to slightly stabilize actin in an actin-pyrene polymerization assay. The same experimental setup was applied to show that the toxin had the capacity to lead to actin polymerization through activation of the Arp2/3 complex. This effect was additionally confirmed with the help of fluorescent microscopy of rhodamine (TRITC)-tagged actin. Strongest Arp2/3 activation, and actin nucleation/polymerization is achieved by the VCA domain of the WASP family proteins. However, addition of PLY to the Arp2/3–VCA system led to an enhanced actin nucleation, suggesting a synergistic activation function of pneumolysin. Hence, two different effects of pneumolysin on the actin cytoskeleton were observed. On the one hand an actin severing property, and on the other hand an actin stabilization property, both of which do not necessarily exclude each other. Actin remodeling is a common feature of bacterial virulence strategies. This is the first time, however, that these properties were assigned to a toxin of the CDC family. Cytoskeletal dysfunction in astrocytes leads to dysfunction and unregulated movement of these cells, which, in context of bacterial meningitis, can favor bacterial penetration and spreading in the brain tissue, and thus comprises an additional role of pneumolysin as a virulence factor of Streptococcus pneumonia in the context of brain infection.
In summary, structure-activity relationships in peptide and dendrimer carriers modified with different organometal complexes were studied on a human breast cancer cell line. Variation of the organometal cargo and carrier can significantly influence their biological properties and might open the way to new approaches in chemotherapy. Furthermore, the incorporation of complexes with different C≡O vibrational signatures in a model peptide was explored to examine information encoding in biomolecules in a barcoding strategy for potential imaging applications. In particular for the latter, additional stable metal-carbonyl markers need to be prepared in future work to expand the pool of vibrational labels available.
We introduce some mathematical framework for extreme value theory in the space of continuous functions on compact intervals and provide basic definitions and tools. Continuous max-stable processes on [0,1] are characterized by their “distribution functions” G which can be represented via a norm on function space, called D-norm. The high conformity of this setup with the multivariate case leads to the introduction of a functional domain of attraction approach for stochastic processes, which is more general than the usual one based on weak convergence. We also introduce the concept of “sojourn time transformation” and compare several types of convergence on function space. Again in complete accordance with the uni- or multivariate case it is now possible to get functional generalized Pareto distributions (GPD) W via W = 1 + log(G) in the upper tail. In particular, this enables us to derive characterizations of the functional domain of attraction condition for copula processes. Moreover, we investigate the sojourn time above a high threshold of a continuous stochastic process. It turns out that the limit, as the threshold increases, of the expected sojourn time given that it is positive, exists if the copula process corresponding to Y is in the functional domain of attraction of a max-stable process. If the process is in a certain neighborhood of a generalized Pareto process, then we can replace the constant threshold by a general threshold function and we can compute the asymptotic sojourn time distribution.
Spreading drug resistances among Gram-negative pathogens and the paucity of new agents on the antibacterial drug market against these tenacious bacteria create a pressing need for the development of new antibiotics. The bacterial fatty acid biosynthesis pathway FAS-II, especially the enoyl-ACP reductase catalyzing the last step of the elongation cycle, is an established drug target against tuberculosis but has not been extensively exploited for drug design against other bacterial pathogens. In this thesis the enoyl-ACP reductases of the Gram-negative biothreat organisms Burkholderia pseudomallei and Yersinia pestis were targeted in a structure-based drug design approach. The structure of the most recently identified enoyl-ACP isoenzyme FabV was characterized by X-ray crystallography and could be determined in three different states. FabV from B. pseudomallei was obtained in the apo-form of the enzyme, whereas FabV from Y. pestis was characterized in a binary complex with the cofactor NADH as well as in a ternary complex with NADH and the triclosan-based 2-pyridone inhibitors PT172 and PT173. Analysis of the FabV structure revealed the typical fold of the short chain dehydrogenase/reductase superfamily with the NADH-binding Rossmann fold and a substrate-binding pocket with a conserved active site geometry compared to the related isoenzyme FabI. Additional structural elements of FabV are located around the active site. The monomeric form of the enzyme is thereby stabilized and the substrate-binding loop is kept in a closed, helical conformation. The ternary complexes of FabV exhibited a similar inhibitor-binding mode as observed for triclosan inhibition in FabI and point to a potential substrate-binding mechanism. B. pseudomallei possesses FabI as an additional enoyl-ACP reductase isoenzyme, which was structurally characterized in the apo form and in ternary complexes with NAD+ and the diphenyl ether inhibitors triclosan, PT02, PT12 or PT404 as well as the 4-pyridone inhibitor PT155. The structural data of the ternary enoyl-ACP reductases complexes of B. pseudomallei and Y. pestis hold the promise for the possibility to develop antibacterials targeting FabV or even both isoenzymes, FabI and FabV, based on the triclosan scaffold.
Alveolar echinococcosis (AE), a severe and life-threatening disease is caused by the small fox tapeworm Echinococcus multilocularis. Currently, the options of chemotherapeutic treatment are very limited and are based on benzimidazole compounds, which act merely parasitostatic in vivo and often display strong side effects. Therefore, new therapeutic drugs and targets are urgently needed. In the present work the role of two evolutionarily conserved signalling pathways in E. multilocularis, namely the insulin signalling cascade and Abl kinases, has been studied in regard to host-parasite interaction and the possible use in anti-AE chemotherapy.
The present cumulative dissertation comprises three neuroimaging studies using different techniques, functional tasks and experimental variables of diverse nature to investigate human prefrontal cortex (PFC) (dys)function as well as methodological aspects of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). (1) Both dopamine (DA) availability (“inverted U-model”) and excitatory versus inhibitory DA receptor stimulation (“dual-state theory”) have been linked to PFC processing and cognitive control function. Electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded during a Go/NoGo response inhibition task in 114 healthy controls and 181 adult patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). As a neural measure of prefrontal cognitive response control the anteriorization of the P300 centroid in NoGo- relative to Go-trials (NoGo anteriorization, NGA) was investigated for the impact of genetic polymorphisms modulating catechol-O-methyltransferase efficiency (COMT, Val158Met) in degrading prefrontal DA and inhibitory DA receptor D4 sensitivity (DRD4, 48bp VNTR). Single genes and ADHD diagnosis showed no significant impact on the NGA or behavioral measures. However, a significant COMT×DRD4 interaction was revealed as subjects with relatively increased D4-receptor function (DRD4: no 7R-alleles) displayed an “inverted U”-relationship between the NGA and increasing COMT-dependent DA levels, whereas subjects with decreased D4-sensitivity (7R) showed a U-relationship. This interaction was supported by 7R-allele dose-effects and also reflected by an impact on task behavior, i.e. intraindividual reaction time variability. Combining previous theories of PFC DA function, neural stability at intermediate DA levels may be accompanied by the risk of overly decreased neural flexibility if inhibitory DA receptor function is additionally decreased. The findings of COMT×DRD4 epistasis might help to disentangle the genetic basis of dopaminergic mechanisms underlying prefrontal (dys)function. (2) While progressive neurocognitive impairments are associated with aging and Alzheimer's disease (AD), cortical reorganization might delay difficulties in effortful word retrieval, which is one of the earliest cognitive signs of AD. Therefore, cortical hemodynamic responses were measured with fNIRS during phonological and semantic verbal fluency, and investigated in 325 non-demented, healthy subjects (age: 51-82 years). The predictive value of age, sex, verbal fluency performance and years of education for the cortical hemodynamics was assessed using multiple regression analyses. Age predicted bilaterally reduced inferior frontal junction (IFJ) and increased middle frontal and supramarginal gyri activity in both task conditions. Years of education as well as sex (IFJ activation in females > males) partly predicted opposite effects on activation compared to age, while task performance was not a significant predictor. All predictors showed small effect sizes (-.24 < β < .22). Middle frontal and supramarginal gyri activity may compensate for an aging-related decrease in IFJ recruitment during verbal fluency. The findings of aging-related (compensatory) cortical reorganization of verbal fluency processing might, in combination with other (risk) factors and using longitudinal observations, help to identify neurodegenerative processes of Alzheimer's disease, while individuals are still cognitively healthy. (3) Individual anatomical or systemic physiological sources of variance may hamper the interpretation of fNIRS signals as neural correlates of cortical functions and their association with individual personality traits. Using simultaneous fNIRS and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of hemodynamic responses elicited by an intertemporal choice task in 20 healthy subjects, variability in crossmodal correlations and divergence in associations of the activation with trait "sensitivity to reward" (SR) was investigated. Moreover, an impact of interindividual anatomy and scalp fMRI signal fluctuations on fNIRS signals and activation-trait associations was studied. Both methods consistently detected activation within right inferior/middle frontal gyrus, while fNIRS-fMRI correlations showed wide variability between subjects. Up to 41% of fNIRS channel activation variance was explained by gray matter volume (simulated to be) traversed by near-infrared light, and up to 20% by scalp-cortex distance. Extracranial fMRI and fNIRS time series showed significant temporal correlations at the temple. Trait SR was negatively correlated with fMRI but not fNIRS activation elicited by immediate rewards of choice within right inferior/middle frontal gyrus. Higher trait SR increased the correlation between extracranial fMRI signal fluctuations and fNIRS signals, suggesting that task-evoked systemic arousal-effects might be trait-dependent. Task-related fNIRS signals might be impacted by regionally and individually weighted sources of anatomical and systemic physiological error variance. Traitactivation correlations might be affected or biased by systemic physiological arousal-effects, which should be accounted for in future fNIRS studies of interindividual differences.
This thesis deals with the chaotic dynamics of nonlinear networks consisting of semiconductor lasers which have time-delayed self-feedbacks or mutual couplings. These semiconductor lasers are simulated numerically by the Lang-Kobayashi equations. The central issue is how the chaoticity of the lasers, measured by the maximal Lyapunov exponent, changes when the delay time is changed. It is analysed how this change of chaoticity with increasing delay time depends on the reflectivity of the mirror for the self-feedback or the strength of the mutal coupling, respectively. The consequences of the different types of chaos for the effect of chaos synchronization of mutually coupled semiconductor lasers are deduced and discussed. At the beginning of this thesis, the master stability formalism for the stability analysis of nonlinear networks with delay is explained. After the description of the Lang-Kobayashi equations and their linearizations as a model for the numerical simulation of semiconductor lasers with time-delayed couplings, the artificial sub-Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_{0}$ is introduced. It is explained how the sign of the sub-Lyapunov exponent can be determined by experiments. The notions of "strong chaos" and "weak chaos" are introduced and distinguished by their different scaling properties of the maximal Lyapunov exponent with the delay time. The sign of the sub-Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_{0}$ is shown to determine the occurence of strong or weak chaos. The transition sequence "weak to strong chaos and back to weak chaos" upon monotonically increasing the coupling strength $\sigma$ of a single laser's self-feedback is shown for numerical calculations of the Lang-Kobayashi equations. At the transition between strong and weak chaos, the sub-Lyapunov exponent vanishes, $\lambda_{0}=0$, resulting in a special scaling behaviour of the maximal Lyapunov exponent with the delay time. Transitions between strong and weak chaos by changing $\sigma$ can also be found for the Rössler and Lorenz dynamics. The connection between the sub-Lyapunov exponent and the time-dependent eigenvalues of the Jacobian for the internal laser dynamics is analysed. Counterintuitively, the difference between strong and weak chaos is not directly visible from the trajectory although the difference of the trajectories induces the transitions between the two types of chaos. In addition, it is shown that a linear measure like the auto-correlation function cannot unambiguously reveal the difference between strong and weak chaos either. Although the auto-correlations after one delay time are significantly higher for weak chaos than for strong chaos, it is not possible to detect a qualitative difference. If two time-scale separated self-feedbacks are present, the shorter feedback has to be taken into account for the definition of a new sub-Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_{0,s}$, which in this case determines the occurence of strong or weak chaos. If the two self-feedbacks have comparable delay times, the sub-Lyapunov exponent $\lambda_{0}$ remains the criterion for strong or weak chaos. It is shown that the sub-Lyapunov exponent scales with the square root of the effective pump current $\sqrt{p-1}$, both in its magnitude and in the position of the critical coupling strengths. For networks with several distinct sub-Lyapunov exponents, it is shown that the maximal sub-Lyapunov exponent of the network determines whether the network's maximal Lyapunov exponent scales strongly or weakly with increasing delay time. As a consequence, complete synchronization of a network is excluded for arbitrary networks which contain at least one strongly chaotic laser. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the sub-Lyapunov exponent of a driven laser depends on the number of the incoherently superimposed inputs from unsynchronized input lasers. For networks of delay-coupled lasers operating in weak chaos, the condition $|\gamma_{2}|<\mathrm{e}^{-\lambda_{\mathrm{m}}\,\tau}$ for stable chaos synchronization is deduced using the master stability formalism. Hence, synchronization of any network depends only on the properties of a single laser with self-feedback and the eigenvalue gap of the coupling matrix. The characteristics of the master stability function for the Lang-Kobayashi dynamics is described, and consequently, the master stability function is refined to allow for precise practical prediction of synchronization. The prediction of synchronization with the master stability function is demonstrated for bidirectional and unidirectional networks. Furthermore, the master stability function is extended for two distinct delay times. Finally, symmetries and resonances for certain values of the ratio of the delay times are shown for the master stability function of the Lang-Kobyashi equations.
Cellular responses to outer stimuli are the basis for all biological processes. Signal integration is achieved by protein cascades, recognizing and processing molecules from the environment. Factors released by pathogens or inflammation usually induce an inflammatory response, a signal often transduced by Tumour Necrosis Factor alpha (TNF). TNFα receptors TNF-R1 and TNF-R2 can in turn lead to apoptosis or proliferation via NF-B. These processes are closely regulated by membrane compartimentalization, protein interactions and trafficking. Fluorescence microscopy offers a reliable and non-invasive method to probe these cellular events. However, some processes on a native membrane are not resolvable, as they are well below the diffraction limit of microscopy. The recent development of super-resolution fluorescence microscopy methods enables the observation of these cellular players well below this limit: by localizing, tracking and counting molecules with high spatial and temporal resolution, these new fluorescence microscopy methods offer a previously unknown insight into protein interactions at the near-molecular level. Direct stochastic optical reconstruction microscopy (dSTORM) utilizes the reversible, stochastic blinking events of small commercially available fluorescent dyes, while photoactivated localization microscopy (PALM) utilizes phototransformation of genetically encoded fluorescent proteins. By photoactivating only a small fraction of the present fluorophores in each observation interval, single emitters can be localized with high precision and a super-resolved image can be reconstructed. Quantum Dot Triexciton imaging (QDTI) utilizes the three-photon absorption (triexcitonic) properties of quantum dots (QD) and to achieve a twofold resolution increase using conventional confocal microscopes. In this thesis, experimental approaches were implemented to achieve super-resolution microscopy in fixed and live-cells to study the spatial and temporal dynamics of TNF and other cellular signaling events. We introduce QDTI to study the three-dimensional cellular distribution of biological targets, offering an easy method to achieve resolution enhancement in combination with optical sectioning, allowing the preliminary quantification of labeled proteins. As QDs are electron dense, QDTI can be used for correlative fluorescence and transmission electron microscopy, proving the versatility of QD probes. Utilizing the phototransformation properties of fluorescent proteins, single-receptor tracking on live cells was achieved, applying the concept of single particle tracking PALM (sptPALM) to track the dynamics of a TNF-R1-tdEos chimera on the membrane. Lateral receptor dynamics can be tracked with high precision and the influences of ligand addition or lipid disruption on TNF-R1 mobility was observed. The results reveal complex receptor dynamics, implying internalization processes in response to TNFα stimulation and a role for membrane domains with reduced fluidity, so-called lipid raft domains, in TNF-R1 compartimentalization prior or post ligand induction. Comparisons with previously published FCS data show a good accordance, but stressing the increased data depth available in sptPALM experiments. Additionally, the active transport of NF-κB-tdEos fusions was observed in live neurons under chemical stimulation and/or inhibition. Contrary to phototransformable proteins that need no special buffers to exhibit photoconversion or photoactivation, dSTORM has previously been unsuitable for in vivo applications, as organic dyes relied on introducing the probes via immunostaining in concert with a reductive, oxygen-free medium for proper photoswitching behaviour. ATTO655 had been previously shown to be suitable for live-cell applications, as its switching behavior can be catalyzed by the reductive environment of the cytoplasm. By introducing the cell-permeant organic dye via a chemical tag system, a high specificity and low background was achieved. Here, the labeled histone H2B complex and thus single nucleosome movements in a live cell can be observed over long time periods and with ~20 nm resolution. Implementing these new approaches for imaging biological processes with high temporal and spatial resolution provides new insights into the dynamics and spatial heterogeneities of proteins, further elucidating their function in the organism and revealing properties that are usually only detectable in vitro.
This thesis concerned the design and examination of a scaffold for tissue engineering applications. The template for the presented scaffold came from nature itself: the intercellular space in tissues that provides structure and support to the cells of the respective tissue, known as extracellular matrix (ECM). Fibres are a predominant characteristic feature of ECM, providing adhesion sites for cell-matrix interactions. In this dissertation a fibrous mesh was generated using the electrospinning technique to mimic the fibrous structure of the ECM. Two base polymers were explored: a biodegradable polyester, poly(D,L-lactide-co-glycolide); and a functional PEG-based star polymer, NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO). This topic was described in three major parts: the first part was materials based, concerning the chemical design and characterisation of the polymer scaffolds; the focus was then shifted to the cellular response to this fibrous scaffold; and finally the in vivo performance of the material was preliminarily assessed. The first steps towards an electrospun mesh started with adjusting the spinning parameters for the generation of homogeneous fibres. As reported in Chapter 3 a suitable setup configuration was on the one hand comprised of a spinning solution that consisted of 28.5 w/v% PLGA RG 504 and 6 w/v% NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO) in 450 µL acetone, 50 µL DMSO and 10 µL of an aqueous trifluoroacetic acid solution. On the other hand an ideal spinning behaviour was achieved at process parameters such as a flow rate of 0.5 mL/h, spinneret to collector distance of 12-16 cm and a voltage of 13 kV. The NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO) containing fibres proved to be highly hydrophilic as the functional additive was present on the fibre surface. Furthermore, the fibres featured a bulk degradation pattern as a consequence of the proportion of PLGA. Besides the morphologic similarity to ECM fibres, the functionality of the electrospun fibres is also decisive for a successful ECM mimicry. In Chapter 4, the passive as well as active functionality of the fibres was investigated. The fibres were required to be protein repellent to prevent an unspecific cell adhesion. This was proven as even 6.5 % sP(EO-stat-PO) in the PLGA fibres reduced any unspecific protein adsorption of bovine serum albumin and foetal calf serum to less than 1 %. However, avidin based proteins attached to the fibres. This adhesion process was avoided by an additional fibre surface treatment with glycidol. The active functionalisation of NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO)/PLGA fibres was investigated with two fluorescent dyes and biocytin. A threefold, chemically orthogonal, fibre modification was achieved with these dyes. The chapters about the chemical and mechanical properties laid the basis for the in vitro chapters where a specific fibre functionalisation with peptides was conducted to analyse the cell adhesion and biochemical expressions. Beginning with fibroblasts in Chapter 5 the focus was on the specific cell adhesion on the electrospun fibres. While NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO)/PLGA fibres without peptides did not allow any adhesion of fibroblasts, a fibre modification with GRGDS (an adhesion mediating peptide sequence) induced the adhesion and spreading of human dermal fibroblasts on the fibrous scaffolds. The control sequence GRGES that has no adhesion mediating qualities did not lead to any cell adhesion as observed on fibres without modifications. While the experiments of Chapter 5 were a proof-of-concept, in Chapter 6 a possible application in cartilage tissue engineering was examined. Therefore, primary human chondrocytes were seeded on fibrous scaffolds with various peptide sequences. Though the chondrocytes exhibited high viability on all scaffolds, an active interaction of cells and fibres was only found for the decorin derived sequence CGKLER. Live-cell-imaging revealed both cell attachment and migration within CGKLER-modified meshes. As chondrocytes undergo a de-differentiation towards a fibroblast-like phenotype, the chondrogenic re-differentiation on these scaffolds was investigated in a long term cell culture experiment of 28 days. Therefore, the glycosaminoglycan production was analysed as well as the mRNA expression of genes coding for collagen I and II, aggrecan and proteoglycan 4. In general only low amounts of the chondrogenic markers were measured, suggesting no chondrogenic differentiation. For conclusive evidence follow-up experiments are required that support or reject the findings. The success of an implant for tissue engineering relies not only on the response of the targeted cell type but also on the immune reaction caused by leukocytes. Hence, Chapter 7 dealt with primary human macrophages and their behaviour and phenotype on two-dimensional (2D) surfaces compared to three-dimensional (3D) fibrous substrates. It was found that the general non-adhesiveness of NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO) surfaces and fibres does not apply to macrophages. The cells aligned along the fibres on surfaces or resided in the pores of the meshes. On flat surfaces without 3D structure the macrophages showed a retarded adhesion kinetic accompanied with a high migratory activity indicating their search for a topographical feature to adhere to. Moreover, a detailed investigation of cell surface markers and chemokine signalling revealed that macrophages on 2D surfaces exhibited surface markers indicating a healing phenotype while the chemokine release suggested a pro-inflammatory phenotype. Interestingly, the opposite situation was found on 3D fibrous substrates with pro-inflammatory surface markers and pro-angiogenic cytokine release. As the immune response largely depends on cellular communication, it was concluded that the NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO)/PLGA fibres induce an adequate immune response with promising prospects to be used in a scaffold for tissue engineering. The final chapter of this thesis reports on a first in vivo study conducted with the presented electrospun fibres. Here, the fibres were combined with a polypropylene mesh for the treatment of diaphragmatic hernias in a rabbit model. Two scaffold series were described that differed in the overall surface morphology: while the fibres of Series A were incorporated into a thick gel of NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO), the scaffolds of Series B featured only a thin hydrogel layer so that the overall fibrous structure could be retained. After four months in vivo the treated defects of the diaphragm were significantly smaller and filled mainly with scar tissue. Thick granulomas occurred on scaffolds of Series A while the implants of Series B did not induce any granuloma formation. As a consequence of the generally positive outcome of this study, the constructs were enhanced with a drug release system in a follow-up project. The incorporated drug was the MMP-inhibitor Ilomastat which is intended to reduce the formation of scar tissue. In conclusion, the simple and straight forward fabrication, the threefold functionalisation possibility and general versatile applicability makes the meshes of NCO-sP(EO-stat-PO)/PLGA fibres a promising candidate to be applied in tissue engineering scaffolds in the future.
The mechanisms that enable cells to regulate their gene expression and thus their metabolism, proliferation or cellular behaviour are not only important to understand the basic biology of a living cell, but are also of crucial interest in cancerogenesis. Highly interwoven and tightly regulated pathways are the basis of a robust but also flexible regulatory network. Interference with these pathways can be either causative for tumorigenesis or can modify its outcome. The receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) and RAS dependent pathways leading to AKT or ERK1/2 activation are of particular interest in melanoma. These signaling modules are commonly activated by different mutations that can be found in various pathway components like NRAS, BRAF or PTEN. The first part of this work deals with the diverse and versatile functions of the ERK1/2 pathway feedbackregulator MKP2 in different cellular, melanoma relevant settings. In addition, a functional role of the AP1-complex member FOSL1, an ERK1/2 transcriptional target being implicated in the regulation of proliferation, is demonstrated. Secondly, aspects of direct pharmacological inhibition of the ERK1/2 pathway with regard to the induction of apoptosis have been analysed. Due to the high frequency of melanoma related mutations occurring in the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK pathway (e.g. NRASQ61K, BRAFV600E), inhibition of this signaling cascade is deemed to be a promising therapeutic strategy for the treatment of malignant melanoma. However, although in clinical trials mono-therapeutic treatment with MEK- or RAF inhibitors was successful in the short run, it failed to show satisfactory long-lasting effects. Hence, combination therapies using a MAPK pathway inhibitor and an additional therapy are currently under investigation. I was able to demonstrate that inhibition of MEK using the highly specific inhibitor PD184352 can have a protective effect on melanoma cells with regard to their susceptibility towards the apoptosis inducing agent cisplatin. Single application of cisplatin led to strong DNA damage and the induction of caspase-dependent apoptosis. Additional administration of the MEK inhibitor, however, strongly reduced the apoptosis inducing effect of cisplatin in several melanoma cell lines, These cells displayed an increased activation of the serine/threonine kinase AKT after MEK inhibition. This AKT activation concomitantly led to the phosphorylation of FOXO transcription factors, attenuating the cisplatin induced expression of the BH3-only protein PUMA. PUMA in turn was important to mediate the apoptosis machinery after cisplatin treatment. My results also indicate a participation of RTKs, in particular EGFR, in mediating MEK inhibitor induced activation of AKT. These results demonstrate that inhibition of the RAS/RAF/MEK/ERK signaling pathway in melanoma cell lines does not necessilary have favourable effects in a cytotoxic co-treatment situation. Instead, it can even enhance melanoma survival under pro-apoptotic conditions.
The role of cuticular waxes in the prepenetration processes of Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei
(2012)
The obligate biotrophic fungus Blumeria graminis f.sp. hordei is the causative agent of barley powdery mildew, a destructive foliar disease. The fungus infests barley (Hordeum vulgare), an important crop plant, which causes remarkable yield losses. Leaf cuticular wax of barley consists mainly of primary alcohols (80%), alkyl esters (10%) and minor constituents such as fatty acids (2%), alkanes (2%) and aldehydes (1%). The asexual airborne conidia have an initial contact to the leaf surface, in an environment dominated by cuticular waxes, which trigger germination and differentiation. The conidia undergo a sequential morphogenesis during that phase, the so-called prepenetration processes. The conidium initially forms a short primary germ tube, followed by a secondary elongated germ tube, which swells and finally forms a septate appressorium. The fungal appressorium infests the epidermal cell of the host plant and establishes an initial haustorium, the feeding structure of the fungus. In order to assess the effects of single host plant wax constituents on the prepenetration processes a novel in vitro assay based on Formvar® resin was established. This system permits the setting up of homogeneous surfaces as substrata, at which the adsorbed amounts and the surface hydrophobicity are highly reproducible, independently of the tested substance classes and chain lengths of the molecules. In this system, very-long-chain aldehydes promoted germination and differentiation of B. graminis f.sp. hordei conidia. The appressorium formation rates were decreasing in a concentration and chain-length dependent manner compared to n-hexacosanal (C26), which was the most effective aldehyde (C22<<C24<C26>C28>>C30). The tested alkanes with even and odd numbers (C24-C33), fatty acids (C20-C28), alkyl esters (C40-C44) and primary alcohols (C20-C30) did not induce germination and appressorium formation. The primary alcohol n-hexacosanol (C26) was an exception, as it was capable of significantly stimulating conidial germination and appressorial germ tube formation. To elucidate the impact of very-long-chain aldehydes on an intact plant surface in vivo, B. graminis f.sp. hordei conidia were inoculated on glossy11 mutant leaves of the non-host plant maize (Zea mays), which are - unlike the wildtype - completely devoid of very-long-chain aldehydes. On glossy11 leaves 60% of B. graminis f.sp. hordei conidia remained ungerminated and 10% developed a mature appressorium, which is three times less than on wildtype plants. Spraying of synthetic n-hexacosanal or wildtype leaf wax on glossy11 leaves fully restored the fungal prepenetration processes. In contrast, spraying of non-inducing n-alkanes, primary alcohols or very-long-chain fatty acids on wildtype leaves of maize mimicked the aldehyde deficient phenotype of glossy11. During the prepenetration processes an appressorium is formed, which is a newly formed specialized cell. Germination and subsequent morphogenesis are linked to the cell cycle in certain phytopathogenic fungi. It was investigated to what extent the prepenetration processes of B. graminis f.sp. hordei are synchronized with cell cycle progression. Hence, a distinct staining procedure of nuclei for fixed samples of B. graminis f.sp. hordei conidia based on DAPI (4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) was developed. In combination with a pharmacological approach it was possible to trace mitosis in dependency of conidial germination and differentiation in vivo and in vitro. The uninucleate conidium germinated and after formation of the appressorial germ tube, a single mitosis occurred in the primordial conidium six hours after inoculation. The inhibition of S-phase with hydroxyurea or M-phase with benomyl prevented appressorium formation, but not the development of the appressorial germ tube. These results indicate that mitosis and a successful cytokinesis are necessary prerequisites for the appressorium formation but not for conidial morphogenesis. In order to identify genes that are expressed in response to certain host plant wax constituents, which may be critical for the prepenetration phase, cDNA clone libraries were constructed by suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) after inoculation. The Formvar® resin based in vitro system provided a stable platform to enrich cDNA sequences that were expressed in B.graminis f.sp. hordei conidia incubated on n-hexacosanal coated surfaces for 22 minutes. Among various candidates, a cDNA sequence was identified, which was upregulated on barley leaves and on surfaces coated with n-hexacosanal or extracted barley leaf wax. The hexacosanal responsive transcript was cloned by 3’ and 5’ RACE. The cDNA sequence showed no homologies to genes of known function in fungal development and fungal pathogenicity in plants.
Nowadays, agriculturally used areas form a major part of the German landscape. The conversion from natural habitats to agriculturally used grasslands fundamentally influences the diversity of plants and animals. Intensive use of these areas increases indeed the productivity of crop or biomass on meadows as food source for cattle. How these influences affect biodiversity, ecosystems and trophic interactions over years is still not understood completely. To understand biodiversity functions in an agriculturally used area my study focused on the influence of land use (fertilization, grazing and mowing) on a herbivore-parasitoid system of Plantago lanceolata. The ribwort plantain is a generalist herb of cosmopolitan distribution. It can grow in a very broad range of ground conditions (both in wet and dry habitats), which makes P. lanceolata an ideal model system for investigating tritrophic interactions in a gradient of land use intensity. The weevils Mecinus labilis and M. pascuorum feed and oviposit on P. lanceolata. Mesopolobus incultus is a generalist parasitoid that parasitizes different insect orders. However its only hosts on P. lanceolata are the two weevil species mentioned before. The intention of my study was to investigate the influence of land use on a tritrophic system and its surrounding vegetation (structure, density and species richness) at different spatial scales like subplot, plot and landscape level in three different regions (north, middle and south of Germany). I studied the influence of land use intensity not only correlative but also experimentally. Additionally I aimed to reveal how vegetation composition changes host plant metabolites and whether these changes impact higher trophic levels in the field.
Platelet activation and aggregation are essential to limit posttraumatic blood loss at sites of vascular injury, but also contribute to arterial thrombosis, leading to myocardial infarction and stroke. Thrombus formation is the result of well-defined molecular events, including agonist-induced elevation of intracellular calcium ([Ca2+]i) and series of cytoskeletal rearrangements. With the help of genetically modified mice, the work presented in this thesis identified novel mechanisms underlying the process of platelet activation in hemostasis and thrombosis. Store-operated calcium entry (SOCE) through Orai1 was previously shown to be the main Ca2+ influx pathway in murine platelets. The residual Ca2+ entry in the Orai1 deficient platelets suggested a role for additional non-store-operated Ca2+ (non-SOC) and receptor operated Ca2+ entry (ROCE) in maintaining platelet calcium homeostasis. Canonical transient receptor potential channel 6 (TRPC6), which is expressed in both human and murine platelets, has been attributed to be involved in SOCE as well as in diacylglycerol (DAG)-triggered ROCE. In the first part of the study, the function of TRPC6 in platelet Ca2+ signaling and activation was analyzed by using the TRPC6 knockout mice. In vitro agonist induced Ca2+ responses and in vivo platelet function were unaltered in Trpc6-/- mice. However, Trpc6-/- mice displayed a completely abolished DAG mediated Ca2+-influx but a normal SOCE. These findings identified TRPC6 as the major DAG operated ROC channel in murine platelets, but DAG mediated ROCE has no major functional relevance for hemostasis and thrombosis. In the second part of the thesis, the involvement of the PDLIM family member CLP36 in the signaling pathway of the major platelet collagen receptor glycoprotein (GP) VI was investigated. The GPVI/FcR-chain complex initiates platelet activation through a series of tyrosine phosphorylation events downstream of the FcR-chain-associated immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif (ITAM). GPVI signaling has to be tightly regulated to prevent uncontrolled intravascular platelet activation, but the underlying mechanisms are not fully understood. The present study reports the adaptor protein CLP36 as a major inhibitor of GPVI-ITAM signaling in platelets. Platelets from mice expressing a truncated form of CLP36, (Clp36ΔLIM) and platelets from mice lacking the entire protein (Clp36-/-) displayed profound hyper-activation in response to GPVI-specific agonists, whereas GPCR signaling pathways remained unaffected. These alterations translated into accelerated thrombus formation and enhanced pro-coagulant activity of Clp36ΔLIM platelets and a pro-thrombotic phenotype in vivo. These studies revealed an unexpected inhibitory function of CLP36 in GPVI-ITAM signaling and established it as a key regulator of arterial thrombosis.
The visualization of energy functions is based on the possibility of separating different degrees of freedom. The most important one is the Born-Oppenheimer-approximation, which separates nucleus and electron movements. This allows the illustration of the potential energy as a function of the nuclei coordinates. Minima of the surface correspond to stable points like isomers or conformers. They are important for predicting the stability or thermodynamical of a system. Stationary points of first order correspond to transition points. They describe phase transitions, chemical reaction, or conformational changes. Furthermore, the partition function connects the potential hypersurface to the free energy of the system. The aim of the present work is the development and application of new approaches for the efficient exploration of multidimensional hypersurfaces. Initially, the Conformational Analysis and Search Tool (CAST) program was developed to create a basis for the new methods and algorithms. The development of CAST in object oriented C++ included, among other things, the implementation of a force field, different interfaces to external programs, analysis tools, and optimization libraries. Descriptions of an energy landscape require knowledge about the most stable minima. The Gradient Only Tabu Search (GOTS) has been shown to be very efficient in the optimization of mathematical test functions. Therefore, GOTS was taken as a starting point. Tabu-Search is based on the steepest descent - modest ascent strategy. The steepest descent is used for finding local minima, while the modest ascent is taken for leaving a minimum quickly. Furthermore, Tabu-Search is combined with an adaptive memory design to avoid cycling or returning. The highly accurate exploration of the phase space by Tabu-Search is often too expensive for complex optimization problems. Therefore, an algorithm for diversification of the search is required. After exploration of the proximity of the search space, the algorithm would guide the search to new and hopefully promising parts of the phase space. First application of GOTS to conformational search revealed weaknesses in the diversification search and the modest ascent part. On the one hand, the original methodology for diversification is insufficiently diverse. The algorithm is considerably improved by combining the more local GOTS with the wider searching Basin Hopping (BH) approach. The second weak point is a too inaccurate and inefficient modest ascent strategy. Analysis of common transition state search algorithms lead to the adaption of the Dimer-method to the Tabu-Search approach. The Dimer-method only requires the first derivatives for locating the closest transition state. For conformational search, dihedral angles are usually the most flexible degrees of freedom. Therefore, only those are used in the Dimer-method for leaving a local minimum. Furthermore, the exact localization of the reaction pathway and the transition state is not necessary as the local minimum position should only be departed as fast as possible. This allows for larger step sizes during the Dimer-search. In the following optimization step, all coordinates are relaxed to remove possible strains in the system. The new Tabu-Search method with Dimer-search delivers more and improved minima. Furthermore, the approach is faster for larger systems. For a system with approximately 1200 atoms, an acceleration of 40 was measured. The new approach was compared to Molecular Dynamics with optimization (MD), Simulated Annealing (SA), and BH with the help of conformational search problems of bio-organic systems. In all cases, a better performance was found. A comparison to the Monte Carlo Multiple Minima/Low Mode Sampling (MCMM/LM) method proved the outstanding performance of the new Tabu-Search approach. The solvation of the chignolin protein further revealed the possibility of uncovering discrepancies between the employed theoretical model and the experimental starting structure. Ligand optimization for improvement of x-ray structures was one further new application field. Besides the global optimization, the search for transition states and reaction pathways is also of paramount importance. These points describe different transitions of stable states. Therefore, a new approach for the exploration of such cases was developed. The new approach is based on a global minimization of a hyperplane being perpendicular to the reaction coordinate. Minima of this reduced phase space belong to traces of transition states between reactant and product states on the unchanged hypersurface. Optimization to the closest transition state using the Dimer-method delivers paths lying between the initial and the final state. An iterative approach finally yields complex reaction pathways with many intermediate local minima. The PathOpt algorithm was tested by means of rearrangements of argon clusters showing very promising results.
This thesis concerns (i) the synthesis and olfactory characterisation of silicon-containing analogues of the musk odourant phantolide, (ii) the synthesis and pharmacological investigation of silicon-containing analogues of retinoids of the EC23 and TTNN type and (iii) the attempted syntheses of silicon-containing analogues of the antipsychotic penfluridol and the antidiarrhoeal agent loperamide. All target compounds and intermediates were characterised by multinuclear NMR studies (1H, 13C, 15N, 19F, 29Si) and elemental analyses or high-resolution mass spectrometry. Additionally, some of these compounds were characterized by single crystal X-ray diffraction studies.
Cancer is one of the leading causes of death all over the world. Malnutrition and toxic contaminations of food with substances such as mycotoxins have been thought to account for a high percentage of cancers. However, human diet can deliver both mutagens and components that decrease the cancer risk. Genomic damage could be reduced by food components through different mechanisms such as scavenging of reactive oxygen species. In the first part of this study we tried to investigate the effects of patulin and resveratrol on DNA stability in V79 cells. Patulin is a mycotoxin, which is frequently found in spoiled apples and other fruits. The WHO has established a safety level of 50 µg/L, which is indeed not observed by all manufacturers. The acute toxicity of patulin in high concentrations is well known, however its potential carcinogenicity is still a matter of debate. Therefore we wanted to investigate further steps in the mechanism of patulin-induced genotoxicity. Patulin caused the formation of micronuclei and nucleoplasmic bridges in a dose-dependent manner. Further analysis revealed that patulin induced both kinetochore-negative and positive micronuclei. Time course of incubation indicate a new mechanism for patulin-induced nucleoplasmic bridge formation. We hypothized a mechanism via cross-linking of DNA, which was confirmed by a modified version of comet assay. Incubations of cells with patulin led to an increased number of multinucleated cells and multipolar mitoses. Cell cytometry revealed a G2 arrest by patulin, which might explain the amplification of centrosomes and patulin-induced aneuploidy. Patulin cause a dose-dependent DNA damage in comet assay which was influenced by the cellular GSH content. However, an induction of oxidative stress was just seen with higher concentrations of patulin. Levels of cellular glutathione were increased after 24 h incubation indicating an adaptive response to patulin-induced stress. There is growing interest in polyphenols such as resveratrol which have shown many positive effects on human health. The beneficial properties are partially attributed to their ability to scavenge reactive oxygen species. Co-incubation of V79 cells with patulin and 10 µM of the antioxidant resveratrol led to a slight reduction of micronucleus frequency compared to cells which were just treated with patulin. However, in higher concentrations resveratrol themselves caused the formation of micronuclei in V79 cells. Kinetochore analysis indicated only clastogenic properties for resveratrol but no disturbance of mitosis. The antioxidant properties of resveratrol were shown in ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assay. However, in cellular system resveratrol in higher concentrations revealed also prooxidative properties, as shown in 2,7-dichlordihydrofluorescein (DCF) assay. The increased level of glutathione after resveratrol treatment might reflect an adaptive response to resveratrol-induced oxidative stress. For the second part of this thesis we investigated the effects of an anthocyanin-rich grape extract on hypertensive Ren-2 rats. Ren-2 rats are an accepted genetically modified rat model for the investigation of hypertension and increased oxidative stress. We divided 23 female Ren-2 rats into three groups. One group was fed with an anthocyanin-rich Dacapo grape extract, one group was treated with the angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor ramipril and the third group was kept without medication during the experiment. After one week untreated group showed a clear increase in systolic and diastolic blood pressure compared to the ramipril treated rats. This was in part attenuated in the animals fed with anthocyanin-rich Dacapo grape extract. Effects on blood pressure were also reflected in an increased thirst of untreated and extract fed animals. Comet assay with cells of kidney and liver revealed a slight protective impact of Dacapo extract on DNA damage compared to the other groups. Similar results were obtained after evaluation of ɣ-H2AX-staining of kidney and heart sections. However, in the small intestine oppositional effects were seen, indicating an increased number of double strand breaks probably due to the high local concentration of polyphenols after oral ingestion. Antioxidative properties of the extract were shown in FRAP assay. However, this effect was not reflected in an increased antioxidative capacity in serum or a protective impact in the dihydroethidium (DHE) assay. The extract showed protective effects on DNA damage in comet assay and ɣ-H2AX-staining, but was not able to reduce hypertension back to the control level of ramipril treated animals. High local concentrations could also result in an increased damage of the affected tissue. Therefore, the administration of such concentrated compounds should be handled with care.
U.S. and German Approaches to Regulating Retail Development: Urban Planning Tools and Local Policies
(2012)
This dissertation examines retail development regulation in the U.S. and in Germany, comparing the various urban planning tools and policies in use by municipal governments. These similarities and differences are explored through research into three case study cities in each country, with special attention paid to how these governments regulate large-scale or "big box" retail.
This dissertation provides both empirically and theoretically new insights into the economic effects of housing and housing finance within NK DSGE models. Chapter 1 studies the drivers of the recent housing cycle in Ireland by developing and estimating a two-country NK DSGE model of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). It finds that housing preference (demand) and technology shocks are the most important drivers of real house prices and real residential investment. In particular, housing preference shocks account for about 87% of the variation in real house prices and explain about 60% of the variation in real residential investment. A robustness analysis finally shows that a good part of the variation of the estimated housing preference shocks can be explained by unmodeled demand factors that have been considered in the empirical literature as important determinants of Irish house prices. Chapter 2 deals with the implications of cross-country mortgage market heterogeneity for the EMU. The chapter shows that a change in cross-country institutional characteristics of mortgage markets, such as the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, is likely to be an important driver of an asymmetric development in the housing market and real economic activity of member states. Chapter 3 asks whether monetary policy shocks can trigger boom-bust periods in house prices and create persistent business cycles. The chapter addresses this question by implementing behavioral expectations into an otherwise standard NK DSGE model with housing and a collateral constraint. Key to the approach in chapter 3 is that agents form heterogeneous and biased expectations on future real house prices. Model simulations and impulse response functions suggest that these assumptions have strong implications for the transmission of monetary policy shocks. It is shown that monetary policy shocks might trigger pronounced waves of optimism, respectively, pessimism that drive house prices and the broader economy, all in a self-reinforcing fashion. The chapter shows that in an environment in which behavioral mechanisms play a role an augmented Taylor rule that incorporates house prices is superior, because it limits the scope of self-fulfilling waves of optimism and pessimism to arise. Chapter 4 challenges the view that the observed negative correlation between the Federal Funds rate and the interest rate implied by consumption Euler equations is systematically linked to monetary policy. Using a Monte Carlo experiment based on an estimated NK DSGE model, this chapter shows that risk premium shocks have the capability to drive a wedge between the interest rate targeted by the central bank and the implied Euler equation interest rate, so that the correlation between actual and implied rates is negative. Chapter 4 concludes by arguing that the implementation of collateral constraints tied to housing values is a promising way to strengthen the empirical performance of consumption Euler equations.
Pneumolysin, a protein toxin, represents one of the major virulence factors of Streptococcus pneumoniae. This pathogen causes bacterial meningitis with especially high disease rates in young children, elderly people and immunosuppressed patients. The protein toxin belongs to the family of cholesterol-dependent cytolysins, which require membrane cholesterol in order to bind and to be activated. Upon activation, monomers assemble in a circle and undergo conformational change. This conformational change leads to the formation of a pore, which eventually leads to cell lysis. This knowledge was obtained by studies that used a higher concentration compared to the concentration of pneumolysin found in the cerebrospinal fluid of meningitis patients. Thus, a much lower concentration of pneumolysin was used in this work in order to investigate effects of this toxin on primary mouse astrocytes. Previously, a small GTPase activation, possibly leading to cytoskeletal changes, was found in a human neuroblastoma cell line. This led to the hypothesis that pneumolysin can lead to similar cytoskeletal changes in primary cells. The aim of this work was to investigate and characterise the effects of pneumolysin on primary mouse astrocytes in terms of a possible pore formation, cellular trafficking and immunological responses. Firstly, the importance of pore-formation on cytoskeletal changes was to be investigated. In order to tackle this question, wild-type pneumolysin and two mutant variants were used. One variant was generated by exchanging one amino acid in the cholesterol recognising region, the second variant was generated by deleting two amino acids in a protein domain that is essential for oligomerisation. These variants should be incapable of forming a pore and were compared to the wild-type in terms of lytic capacities, membrane binding, membrane depolarisation, pore-formation in artificial membranes (planar lipid bilayer) and effects on the cytoskeleton. These investigations resulted in the finding that the pore-formation is required for inducing cell lysis, membrane depolarisation and cytoskeletal changes in astrocytes. The variants were not able to form a pore in planar lipid bilayer and did not cause cell lysis and membrane depolarisation. However, they bound to the cell membrane to the same extent as the wild-type toxin. Thus, the pore-formation, but not the membrane binding was the cause for these changes. Secondly, the effect of pneumolysin on cellular trafficking was investigated. Here, the variants showed no effect, but the wild-type led to an increase in overall endocytotic events and was itself internalised into the cell. In order to characterise a possible mechanism for internalisation, a GFP-tagged version of pneumolysin was used. Several fluorescence-labelled markers for different endocytotic pathways were used in a co-staining approach with pneumolysin. Furthermore, inhibitors for two key-players in classical endocytotic pathways, dynamin and myosin II, were used in order to investigate classical endocytotic pathways and their possible involvement in toxin internalisation. The second finding of this work is that pneumolysin is taken up into the cell via dynamin- and caveolin-independent pinocytosis, which could transfer the toxin to caveosomes. From there, the fate of the toxin remains unknown. Additionally, pneumolysin leads to an overall increase in endocytotic events. This observation led to the third aim of this work. If the toxin increases the overall rate of endocytosis, the question arises whether toxin internalisation favours bacterial tissue penetration of the host or whether it serves as a defence mechanism of the cell in order to degrade the protein. Thus, several proinflammatory cytokines were investigated, as previous studies describe an effect of pneumolysin on cytokine production. Surprisingly, only interleukin 6-production was increased after toxin-treatment and no effect of endocytotic inhibitors on the interleukin 6-production was observed. The conclusion from this finding is that pneumolysin leads to an increase of interleukin 6, which would not depend on the endocytotic uptake of pneumolysin. The production of interleukin 6 would enhance the production of acute phase proteins, T-cell activation, growth and differentiation. On the one hand, this activation could serve pathogen clearance from infected tissue. On the other hand, the production of interleukin 6 could promote a further penetration of pathogen into host tissue. This question should be further investigated.