Improving explicit model checking for Petri nets

Model checking is the automated verification that systematically checks if a given behavioral property holds for a given model of a system. We use Petri nets and temporal logic as formalisms to describe a system and its behavior in a mathematically precise and unambiguous manner. The contributions of this thesis are concerned with the improvement of model checking efficiency both in theory and in practice. We present two new reduction techniques and several supplementary strength reduction techniques. The thesis also enhances partial order reduction for certain temporal logic classes

Alterations in Interpersonal Relations in Borderline Personality Disorder: Loneliness, Rejection, and Belonging

Borderline personality disorder is characterized by severe alterations in interpersonal relations that are described as a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships and frantic efforts to avoid real or imagined abandonment. According to important theoretical frameworks, problems in interpersonal relationships can be both cause and consequence of borderline personality disorder. The overall aim of the present thesis is to gain deeper insight into important aspects of interpersonal relations that might be especially altered in borderline personality disorder: Loneliness, rejection, and belonging. These three concepts are interrelated, since social rejection threatens the fundamental need to belong, and hence can contribute to opposite feelings, like loneliness. Loneliness, i.e., the subjective feeling of being socially isolated, has been shown to cause fundamental burden to social interaction, health, and well-being. Although generally it has been linked to aspects of social networks and social functioning that are known to be altered in patients suffering from borderline personality disorder, empirical data focusing specifically on the role that loneliness plays in these patients’ lives was lacking so far. Hence, in study I, we started to close this gap, confirming that borderline personality disorder patients report remarkably increased levels of loneliness. Moreover, they report smaller and less diverse social networks, as well as lower social functioning across all assessed domains of social skills and behaviors, when compared to healthy individuals. In addition to factors that are related to increased loneliness in general (i.e., small network size and low functioning in the domains of social engagement and prosocial behavior), we identified aspects with particular relevance for loneliness in borderline personality disorder (i.e., diversity of social networks and reduced interpersonal communication). Since after controlling for effects of social network features and social functioning, loneliness scores were still increased, further factors contributing to the painful experience of loneliness in borderline personality disorder need to be investigated in future research. Thus, study I is only a first step in understanding loneliness in borderline personality disorder, nonetheless providing important starting points to determine an approach that might improve these persistent negative social feelings in this clinical sample. After investigating loneliness as an affective subcomponent of social relatedness in study I, in study II and III we were interested in the effects of social rejection and acceptance on social cognition and interpersonal behavior. Since the paradigm used to induce social rejection and acceptance has been shown to be crucial, we developed a new paradigm specifically tailored to our research needs: The Mannheim Virtual Group Interaction Paradigm. Along with testing the ecological validity of the Mannheim Virtual Group Interaction Paradigm, in study II, we were particularly interested in whether the degree of affiliation with social partners would affect the degree and the adjustment of expectations of social acceptance and the adjustment of arousal over the course of repeated experiences of acceptance or rejection. Our findings revealed that expectations change very quickly after experiences of acceptance or rejection. Furthermore, expectations were influenced by affiliation particularly in case of positive social feedback of acceptance, whereas the adjustment of expectations after rejection was not affected by the degree of affiliation. Contrarily, subjects with higher affiliation responded to social rejection with a stronger increase in psychophysiological arousal, particularly during rejection feedback. This supports the idea that becoming part of a group and avoiding rejection constitute distinct domains of affiliation. Moreover, our findings emphasize the need to use social rejection paradigms that include a phase during which participants have the opportunity to create bonds with future executors of rejection or acceptance. Hence, the use of a virtual approach which allows people to become acquainted seems to be a promising approach, combining mundane realism with high experimental control. In study III, we extended our investigations of study II to a comparison between healthy indi-viduals and patients with borderline personality disorder. Our findings support the assumption that expectations of social acceptance are reduced in borderline personality disorder. Most importantly, they clearly reveal alterations particularly in case of positive social interaction: Patients failed to adjust their expectations to positive feedback, and instead responded with anger and behaved less cooperative towards cooperating interaction partners in a different social context after feedback of social acceptance. These findings suggest deficits in the appraisal and integration of signals of social acceptance in borderline personality disorder. Alterations during the processing of positive social cues disadvantageously affect social encounters in subsequent independent social situations, i.e., interpersonal problems may arise if an interaction partner behaves fair, and the patients were previously confronted with social acceptance of others that violated their expectations. Hence, study III exposes that patients with borderline personality disorder do not only fear and avoid rejection, but also exhibit non-negligible difficulties with becoming part of a dyad or group and developing a sense of belonging. Taken together, the present thesis emphasizes tremendous alterations in interpersonal rela-tions in borderline personality disorder throughout emotional experiencing (heightened loneliness), cognitive processing (reduced expectations of social acceptance and a failure to update these expectations according to positive social information), and social interaction (reduced cooperative behavior towards a cooperating interaction partner after an independent social encounter that provided feedback of social acceptance). Increased feelings of loneliness as well as the mismatch of expectations and experiences of social acceptance together with resulting consequences for interpersonal relations should be targeted in future research and hereafter in the development of psychotherapeutic interventions

What the CERAD Battery Can Tell Us about Executive Function as a Higher-Order Cognitive Faculty

Executive function (EF) is believed to control or influence the integration and application of cognitive functions such as attention and memory and is an important area of research in cognitive aging. Recent studies and reviews have concluded that there is no single test for EF. Results from first-order latent variable modeling have suggested that little, if any, variability in cognitive performance can be directly (and uniquely) attributed to EF; so instead, we modeled EF, as it is conceptualized, as a higher-order function, using elements of the CERAD neuropsychological battery. Responses to subtests from two large, independent cohorts of nondemented elderly persons were modeled with three theoretically plausible structural models using confirmatory factor analysis. Robust fit statistics, generated for the two cohorts separately, were consistent and support the conceptualization of EF as a higher-order cognitive faculty. Although not specifically designed to assess EF, subtests of the CERAD battery provide theoretically and empirically robust evidence about the nature of EF in elderly adults

Timing of India-Asia collision: Geological, biostratigraphic, and palaeomagnetic constraints

A range of ages have been proposed for the timing of India-Asia collision; the range to some extent reflects different definitions of collision and methods used to date it. In this paper we discuss three approaches that have been used to constrain the time of collision: the time of cessation of marine facies, the time of the first arrival of Asian detritus on the Indian plate, and the determination of the relative positions of India and Asia through time. In the Qumiba sedimentary section located south of the Yarlung Tsangpo suture in Tibet, a previous work has dated marine facies at middle to late Eocene, by far the youngest marine sediments recorded in the region. By contrast, our biostratigraphic data indicate the youngest marine facies preserved at this locality are 50.6–52.8 Ma, in broad agreement with the timing of cessation of marine facies elsewhere throughout the region. Double dating of detrital zircons from this formation, by U-Pb and fission track methods, indicates an Asian contribution to the rocks thus documenting the time of arrival of Asian material onto the Indian plate at this time and hence constraining the time of India-Asia collision. Our reconstruction of the positions of India and Asia by using a compilation of published palaeomagnetic data indicates initial contact between the continents in the early Eocene. We conclude the paper with a discussion on the viability of a recent assertion that collision between India and Asia could not have occurred prior to ∼35 Ma

Weiterbildung von Hochschuldozierenden in der medizinischen Lehre. Ein Blended-Learning basiertes Format

Die Qualifikation von Hochschuldozierenden steht vor der Herausforderung, dass eine große Zahl von heterogenen Lehrenden auf verschiedenste komplexe Lehrsituationen trifft. Hierbei steigen die Anforderungen, während insbesondere zeitliche Ressourcen häufig knapp sind. Es wird eine Möglichkeit veranschaulicht, dieser Herausforderung mit einem Blended-Learning basierten Format der Hochschulweiterbildung zu begegnen: In einem in bedarfsgerechte Module aufgebauten, dreischrittigen Trainingssystem aus Online-Kursen, Präsenzveranstaltungen und kollegialem Coaching werden zunächst kleine Lerneinheiten niederschwellig online zur Verfügung gestellt; in der Regel erfolgen ergänzende Präsenzveranstaltungen zur Vertiefung und praktischen Anwendung der Inhalte. Inhaltlich werden Teilkompetenzen definiert, die für professionelles Handeln der Lernenden in ihrer darauffolgenden Aufgabe als Lehrende erforderlich sind. Anhand des kollegialen Coachings werden diese Handlungskompetenzen erweitert und gleichzeitig die Anvertraubarkeit der professionellen Tätigkeit an die jeweilige Lehrperson überprüft. Die didaktische Einbettung des zugrundeliegenden Lehr-/Lernansatzes und das Spannungsfeld, in dem sich dieser bewegt, werden vor dem Hintergrund des aktuellen Bedarfs diskutiert und Chancen für personalisiertes Lernen aufgezeigt. (DIPF/Orig.

Weiterbildung von Hochschuldozierenden in der medizinischen Lehre : Ein Blended-Learning basiertes Format

Herausforderung, dass eine große Zahl von heterogenen Lehrenden auf verschiedenste komplexe Lehrsituationen trifft. Hierbei steigen die Anforderungen, während insbesondere zeitliche Ressourcen häufig knapp sind. Es wird eine Möglichkeit veranschaulicht, dieser Herausforderung mit einem Blended-Learning basierten Format der Hochschulweiterbildung zu begegnen: In einem in bedarfsgerechte Module aufgebauten, dreischrittigen Trainingssystem aus Online-Kursen, Präsenzveranstaltungen und kollegialem Coaching werden zunächst kleine Lerneinheiten niederschwellig online zur Verfügung gestellt; in der Regel erfolgen ergänzendePräsenzveranstaltungen zur Vertiefung und praktischen Anwendung der Inhalte. Inhaltlich werden Teilkompetenzen definiert, die für professionelles Handeln der Lernenden in ihrer darauffolgenden Aufgabe als Lehrende erforderlich sind. Anhand des kollegialen Coachings werden diese Handlungskompetenzenerweitert und gleichzeitig die Anvertraubarkeit der professionellen Tätigkeit an die jeweilige Lehrpersonüberprüft. Die didaktische Einbettung des zugrundeliegenden Lehr-/Lernansatzes und das Spannungsfeld, in dem sich dieser bewegt, werden vor dem Hintergrund des aktuellen Bedarfs diskutiert und Chancen für personalisiertes Lernen aufgezeigt

What the CERAD Battery Can Tell Us about Executive Function as a Higher-Order Cognitive Faculty

Executive function (EF) is believed to control or influence the integration and application of cognitive functions such as attention and memory and is an important area of research in cognitive aging. Recent studies and reviews have concluded that there is no single test for EF. Results from first-order latent variable modeling have suggested that little, if any, variability in cognitive performance can be directly (and uniquely) attributed to EF; so instead, we modeled EF, as it is conceptualized, as a higher-order function, using elements of the CERAD neuropsychological battery. Responses to subtests from two large, independent cohorts of nondemented elderly persons were modeled with three theoretically plausible structural models using confirmatory factor analysis. Robust fit statistics, generated for the two cohorts separately, were consistent and support the conceptualization of EF as a higherorder cognitive faculty. Although not specifically designed to assess EF, subtests of the CERAD battery provide theoretically and empirically robust evidence about the nature of EF in elderly adults

Abiotic Stress‐Related Expressed Sequence Tags from the Diploid Strawberry Fragaria vesca

Strawberry ( spp.) is a eudicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Rosaceae family, which includes other agronomically important plants such as raspberry ( L.) and several tree-fruit species. Despite the vital role played by cultivated strawberry in agriculture, few stress-related gene expression characterizations of this crop are available. To increase the diversity of available transcriptome sequence, we produced 41,430 L. expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from plants growing under water-, temperature-, and osmotic-stress conditions as well as a combination of heat and osmotic stresses that is often found in irrigated fields. Clustering and assembling of the ESTs resulted in a total of 11,836 contigs and singletons that were annotated using Gene Ontology (GO) terms. Furthermore, over 1200 sequences with no match to available Rosaceae ESTs were found, including six that were assigned the “response to stress” GO category. Analysis of EST frequency provided an estimate of steady state transcript levels, with 91 sequences exhibiting at least a 20-fold difference between treatments. This EST collection represents a useful resource to advance our understanding of the abiotic stress-response mechanisms in strawberry. The sequence information may be translated to valuable tree crops in the Rosaceae family, where whole-plant treatments are not as simple or practical

Constraining the Jurassic extent of Greater India: Tectonic evolution of the West Australian margin

Alternative reconstructions of the Jurassic northern extent of Greater India differ by up to several thousand kilometers. We present a new model that is constrained by revised seafloor spreading anomalies, fracture zones and crustal ages based on drillsites/dredges from all the abyssal plains along the West Australian margin and the Wharton Basin, where an unexpected sliver of Jurassic seafloor (153 Ma) has been found embedded in Cretaceous (95 My old) seafloor. Based on fracture zone trajectories, this NeoTethyan sliver must have originally formed along a western extension of the spreading center that formed the Argo Abyssal Plain, separating a western extension of West Argoland/West Burma from Greater India as a ribbon terrane. The NeoTethyan sliver, Zenith and Wallaby plateaus moved as part of Greater India until westward ridge jumps isolated them. Following another spreading reorganization, the Jurassic crust resumed migrating with Greater India until it was re-attached to the Australian plate ∼95 Ma. The new Wharton Basin data and kinematic model place strong constraints on the disputed northern Jurassic extent of Greater India. Late Jurassic seafloor spreading must have reached south to the Cuvier Abyssal Plain on the West Australian margin, connected to a spreading ridge wrapping around northern Greater India, but this Jurassic crust is no longer preserved there, having been entirely transferred to the conjugate plate by ridge propagations. This discovery constrains the major portion of Greater India to have been located south of the large-offset Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone, excluding much larger previously proposed shapes of Greater India