Legal Ambiguities Concerning the Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles in Marine Scientific Research

How unmanned aerial vehicles challenge the regime of marine scientific research under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea – and how they nevertheless may be accommodate

Fusing low-valent Germanium with Silicon : from double bonds to polymers and clusters

Low-valent species of silicon and germanium play a pivotal role in the chemical vapor deposition of the bulk elements and their alloys for semiconductor applications. The transition from molecular intermediates to extended unsaturated cluster motifs incorporated into the bulk is of particular interest and stable model compounds for these species are intensively sought. This thesis investigates the structural behavior of such low-valent germanium and germanium-silicon compounds in comparison to their well-established silicon congeners. An anionic Si4Ge2 siliconoid is synthesized by reduction of a Si4Ge2 benzene and the position of the germanium atoms in the scaffold allows mechanistic insight in E6-cluster rearrangements in general (E = Group 14 element). The first examples of heavy germanium-containing Group 14 allyl chlorides and α,β-unsaturated ketones are now accessible from a lithium digermenide and show extraordinary resilience against cyclization, a rearrangement mode commonly observed for the analogue silicon compounds. The same digermenide is used for synthesis of targeted designed asymmetric digermenes, able to undergo heavy olefin metathesis by a dissociation-association rearrangement. Two symmetric digermenes are synthesized that way and the lack of demand for any catalyst is a first in olefin metathesis in general. Extension of the concept now allows Heavy Acyclic Metathesis (HADMET) polymerization of a α,ω-bis(digermene) to the first example of a poly(digermene).Niedervalente Silizium- und Germaniumspezies spielen eine entscheidende Rolle in der chemischen Gasphasenabscheidung beider Elemente für Halbleiteranwendungen. Der Übergang von molekularen Intermediaten zu ungesättigten Cluster-Motiven, die im Festkörper verbleiben, ist von besonderem Interesse und stabile Modellverbindungen dieser Spezies werden intensiv gesucht. Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht das strukturelle Verhalten solcher niedervalenter Ge- und Si/Ge-Verbindungen im Vergleich zu ihren wohlbekannten Si-analoga. Ein anionisches Si4Ge2 Silicoid wird durch Reduktion eines Si4Ge2 Benzols hergestellt und die Position der Ge-Atome im Gerüst gibt mechanistische Einblicke in E6-Cluster Umlagerungen im Allgemeinen (E= Gruppe 14 Element). Die ersten Beispiele für schwere Ge-haltige Gruppe-14 Allylchloride sowie α,β-ungesättigte Ketone sind nun von einem Lithiumdigermenid aus zugänglich und zeigen erstaunliche Resilienz gegen Cyclisierung, eine Umlagerungsart, die häufig bei den analogen Si-verbindungen auftritt. Dasselbe Digermenid wird für die Synthese zielgerichtet gestalteter, asymmetrischer Digermene verwendet, die durch eine Dissoziations-Assoziations-Umlagerung eine schwere Olefin Metathese durchzumachen. Zwei symmetrische Digermene wurden so hergestellt und der mangelnde Bedarf an Katalysator ist eine Premiere für Olefin-Metathesen. Erweiterung des Konzepts erlaubt nun Schwere Acylische Dien Metathese (HADMET) Polymerisierung von α,ω-Bis(digermenen) zum Poly(digermen)

Mission-driven communication for the non-profit organization: a case study of the Downtown Spokane Partnership

The development, content, and application of mission statements have been highly researched, studied, and discussed in generic terms. This case study was designed to develop and expand understanding of the mission of Downtown Spokane Partnership, rather than to generalize beyond it. Mission-focused questions were included in a communication audit conducted for Downtown Spokane Partnership [DSP], a non-profit organization [NPO] that advocates for the development of the downtown Spokane area. The study investigated perceptual differences and similarities of the DSP mission expressed by downtown business owners and DSP constituents compared to those expressed by DSP\u27s staff and board members. The results showed that the perceptions were congruent between most constituents, but there was inconsistency in the way those inside and outside the organization understood their roles in fulfilling the mission. After identifying areas of strength and opportunities for growth, these findings were presented to Downtown Spokane Partnership to increase mission-understanding and fulfillment congruency among Employees, Board Members, and external constituents --Leaf iv

Population mapping in informal settlements with high-resolution satellite imagery and equitable ground-truth

We propose a generalizable framework for the population estimation of dense, informal settlements in low-income urban areas–so called ’slums’–using high-resolution satellite imagery. Precise population estimates are a crucial factor for efficient resource allocations by government authorities and NGO’s, for instance in medical emergencies. We utilize equitable ground-truth data, which is gathered in collaboration with local communities: Through training and community mapping, the local population contributes their unique domain knowledge, while also maintaining agency over their data. This practice allows us to avoid carrying forward potential biases into the modeling pipeline, which might arise from a less rigorous ground-truthing approach. We contextualize our approach in respect to the ongoing discussion within the machine learning community, aiming to make real-world machine learning applications more inclusive, fair and accountable. Because of the resource intensive ground-truth generation process, our training data is limited. We propose a gridded population estimation model, enabling flexible and customizable spatial resolutions. We test our pipeline on three experimental site in Nigeria, utilizing pre-trained and fine-tune vision networks to overcome data sparsity. Our findings highlight the difficulties of transferring common benchmark models to real-world tasks. We discuss this and propose steps forward