Cosmological billiards and oxidation

We show how the properties of the cosmological billiards provide useful information (spacetime dimension and $p$-form spectrum) on the oxidation endpoint of the oxidation sequence of gravitational theories. We compare this approach to the other available methods: $GL(n,R)$ subgroups and the superalgebras of dualities.Comment: To appear in the Proceedings of the 27th Johns Hopkins Workshop and in the Proceedings of the 36th International Symposium Ahrenshoop; v2: minor error correcte

The pre-19th-century manuscript tradition and textual transmission of the Early Modern Irish tale Oidheadh Con Culainn: a preliminary study

The Early Modern Irish recension of the tale relating Cú Chulainn’s death, Oidheadh Con Culainn, has received comparatively little scholarly attention, especially compared with its Early Irish counterpart, Aided Con Culainn. Consequently, little is known about the textual transmission and manuscript tradition of the Early Modern Irish tale. The present thesis seeks to rectify this and give a more accurate view and preliminary analysis of the extant manuscripts, concentrating on the manuscripts that date to before the 19th century. A core element of this thesis is a draft catalogue of these pre-19th-century manuscripts. Taking advantage of the tale’s prosimetric structure, it will be argued and demonstrated that it is possible to classify the manuscripts of Oidheadh Con Culainn into distinct groups. Within the extant manuscripts preserving the tale we can identify a number of versions of it, differing most notably in the poetry that they contain. The classification of the manuscripts into groups can be established on the basis of the poetry that a version of the tale contains; the emerging groups thus established can be used to comment on the transmission of the tale. In order to corroborate the argument for the manuscript groups, we will explore a number of aspects of the text and the manuscripts, such as textual comparisons on both intra- and inter-group levels, possible relations (e.g. geographical) of the scribes, linguistic and metrical variations, the ‘rhetorics’, and different versions of the tale written by the same scribe. The thesis will further investigate the most famous poem from the text, Laoidh na gCeann (‘The Lay of the Heads’), in order to establish to what extent the evidence from the poem can be used to add to our understanding of the transmission of the overall tale

Acoustic bat activty at wind turbines in temperate forests - Avoidance patterns and potential causes

Anthropogenic activities have caused two current major crises: biodiversity decline and climate change. Climate change mitigation is largely accepted as a societal goal and policy makers unite forces to substantially reduce carbon dioxide emission. However, the ongoing transition from fossil to renewable energy sources, such as wind energy, is not without impact on biodiversity, thereby creating a conflict of two sustainability objectives. Wind turbines are increasingly built in forest ecosystems, which present important foraging and roosting habitats for European bats. Forest bats may be affected by the deployment of wind turbines through collisions with the rotor blades, through habitat losses where forest is cleared, and through displacement effects. In this thesis, I investigated effects of wind turbines in forests as reflected in activity patterns of local bat communities. To this end, I performed an acoustic study across 22 wind turbines sites in temperate forests of Hesse, Central Germany. I determined bat activity levels at wind turbine clearings, at adjacent forest edges and in the surrounding forests at distances between 80 m and 450 m to the closest wind turbine. Recorded bat activity was investigated for three foraging guilds: narrow-space foraging bats specialized on flight in vegetation clutter, edge-space foraging bats specialized on flight in semi-open habitats like forest edges, and open-space foraging bats specialized on flight above forest canopies. I found that bats were negatively affected by wind turbines in forests. Specifically, narrow-space foraging bats avoided wind turbines over distances of at least 450 m, which presents an indirect habitat loss for these bats. The avoidance was at least partly explained by noise emissions of operating wind turbines which were amplified by high wind speeds. In contrast, the presence of cleared spaces around wind turbines did not contribute to the avoidance in narrow-space foraging bats. Edge-space and open-space foraging bats were less susceptible to displacements by wind turbines. Instead, they displayed higher activity levels at wind turbine clearings than in the surrounding forest canopies which might lead to increased collision rates for these bats in comparison to wind turbines in open landscapes. This thesis highlights the existence of forest-specific wind turbine effects on bat activity patterns which may affect local bat communities and populations. Consequently, when wind turbines are installed and operated in forests, forest-specific conservation measures are required, e.g., the exclusion or compensation of forest areas with heterogeneous vegetation structure and the reduction of turbine noise emissions. Such measures will contribute towards resolving the bat-wind energy conflict as an example of how objectives of climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation can be reconciled

The decision to approach or avoid: Influence of social experiences during development on the establishment of consistent inter-individual differences and the role of neuromodulators in Gryllus bimaculatus

Intraspecific aggression is a widely distributed, highly plastic behaviour throughout the animal kingdom and serves to secure resources, as members of the same species compete for identical ecological niches. But the costs can rapidly exceed the advantages. Over the past years, the two-spotted Mediterranean field cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus, has emerged to a model organism for studying the mechanisms underlying aggressive behaviour. Crickets implement seemingly complex decisions via the action of well-known neuromodulators with analogues in vertebrates including humans. This study shows that an individual´s decision to approach or avoid an agonistic stimulus is mainly shaped by social experiences gathered during nymphal development and early adult life. In particular, the chronic subjugation of nymphs by adult males in the breeding colony and the absence thereof lead to the establishment of distinct behavioural ethotypes shifting the answer to the question of whether inter-individual differences are nature or nurture in favour of nurture. Individuality in adult behaviour can thus result from social experiences during development alone. Moreover, the decision to approach or avoid a potentially agonistic stimulus is differentially modulated by the actions of the neuromodulators octopamine, serotonin and nitric oxide, which are released in response to social interactions. Interestingly, the social status dependent predisposed response to an antennal stimulus can be altered by octopamine alone. Furthermore, the present study reveals that the nitridergic and serotonergic system play a major role in the assessment of agonistic signals.:1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 1 2 Methods ............................................................................................................ 6 2.1 Experimental animals .................................................................................... 6 2.2 Experimental groups based on social experiences and isolation time .................................................................................. 8 2.3 Evaluation of dominance and subordination ......................................... 10 2.4 Multiple wins and defeats ...................................................................... 12 2.5 Contests against a hyper-aggressive opponent .................................... 13 2.6 The mandible threat display in response to antennal stimulation and feeding ............................................................................. 13 2.7 The priming effect .................................................................................... 14 2.8 Influence of food as a resource ............................................................... 14 2.9 Set up and video tracking ....................................................................... 15 2.10 Evaluation of exploratory behaviour ..................................................... 16 2.11 Response to a single antennal touch with an adult male´s antenna ..................................................................................................... 17 2.12 Pharmacological treatment ...................................................................... 18 2.13 Data analysis ............................................................................................. 20 3 Results ............................................................................................................ 22 3.1 Responses of nymphs and adults towards conspecifics ........................... 22 3.2 Mandible threat display and the mandible spread angle .......................... 24 3.3 Influence of dominance and subordination ................................................. 26 3.4 Influence of prior antennal stimulation (priming) .......................................... 28 3.5 Influence of priming coupled with CDM ...................................................... 30 3.6 Influence of food as a resource .................................................................... 30 3.7 Effects of different social experiences during nymphal development on adult behaviour ................................................................. 31 3.8 Turning responses as a reaction to a single antennal touch with an adult male´s antenna ....................................................................... 34 3.8.1 Short term isolates ............................................................................... 34 3.8.2 Long term isolates ............................................................................... 38 3.9 Effects of neuromodulatory drugs on behavioural elements in STI and LTI crickets ............................................................... 43 3.9.1 Aggression ............................................................................................ 43 3.9.2 General motility .................................................................................... 46 3.9.3 Turning responses ................................................................................. 50 3.9.3.1 Influence of octopaminergic drugs .................................... 50 3.9.3.2 Influence of nitridergic drugs ............................................... 53 3.9.3.3 Influence of serotonergic drugs .......................................... 58 4 Discussion .................................................................................................... 68 4.1 Nymphal interactions and their consequences for adult behaviour .......... 68 4.2 The decision to approach or avoid an agonistic stimulus ........................... 72 4.3 The role of neuromodulators released in response to social experience .... 77 4.4 Overall conclusion and outlook .................................................................... 84 5 Summary .......................................................................................................... 86 6 Zusammenfassung ........................................................................................... 91 7 References ........................................................................................................ 98 8 Appendix .......................................................................................................... 109 8.1 Figures and Tables .......................................................................................... 109 8.2 Publications and published abstracts ............................................................ 111 8.3 Curriculum vitae ............................................................................................ 113 8.4 Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... 11

Optical photothermal infrared spectroscopy with simultaneously acquired Raman spectroscopy for two-dimensional microplastic identification

In recent years, vibrational spectroscopic techniques based on Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) or Raman microspectroscopy have been suggested to fulfill the unmet need for microplastic particle detection and identification. Inter-system comparison of spectra from reference polymers enables assessing the reproducibility between instruments and advantages of emerging quantum cascade laser-based optical photothermal infrared (O-PTIR) spectroscopy. In our work, IR and Raman spectra of nine plastics, namely polyethylene, polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate, polystyrene, silicone, polylactide acid and polymethylmethacrylate were simultaneously acquired using an O-PTIR microscope in non-contact, reflection mode. Comprehensive band assignments were presented. We determined the agreement of O-PTIR with standalone attenuated total reflection FTIR and Raman spectrometers based on the hit quality index (HQI) and introduced a two-dimensional identification (2D-HQI) approach using both Raman- and IR-HQIs. Finally, microplastic particles were prepared as test samples from known materials by wet grinding, O-PTIR data were collected and subjected to the 2D-HQI identification approach. We concluded that this framework offers improved material identification of microplastic particles in environmental, nutritious and biological matrices

CLAIM THE NAME: NAMES OF IT SOLUTIONS AND THE INFLUENCE ON OLDER ADULTS

The number of older adults as Information Technology (IT) users is increasing. While attention is already being paid to the design of IT solutions for older adults, the names of IT solutions have received little attention. It is important that the name does not convey negative attributes. In the case of older adults, stereotypes pose a challenge since they can lead to rejection of potentially helpful IT solutions. In this paper, we therefore propose a model for a stereotype-free naming process in the conceptual background of sociotechnical systems. The model will be developed and tested according to a design science research approach. The final model will be adaptable for further target groups to name IT solutions free from stereotypes

Evaluation Criteria for Sociotechnical Systems for the Digitally Disadvantaged

This paper addresses the challenge of finding criteria to evaluate social inclusiveness of sociotechnical systems (STS). While IT offers opportunities to reduce inequalities, the digital divide is a growing challenge. This divide between individuals with access and sufficient digital literacy, has economic and social consequences. Although several factors have been identified as barriers to the use of IT or design principles for socially inclusive research, there is a gap in the literature in assessing the final STS in their social inclusivity. This paper aims to identify criteria for evaluating STS in terms of social inclusion of the digitally disadvantaged. Based on the STS perspective, design requirements and principles are derived to help design a checklist of whether needs of digitally disadvantaged have been met. The paper contributes to the existing body of knowledge by adding the STS design evaluation step to the current literature