Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: 7. Juli 2009To my familyTable of contents TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cortical gene expression profiling in spinal cord repair: insight into the complexity of the neural regeneratio

der Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

“Toll like receptor agonists: assessment of their potential in melanoma therapy

Combining Features and Semantics: Advanced Methods for Content-based Retrieval Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung des Doktorgrades der

Düsseldorf, where I have been working as a research assistant since June 2004. I acknowledge my thesis advisor and first referee, Prof. Dr. Stefan Conrad, for providing a motivating atmosphere and giving constructive comments during my research time as well as on the preliminary version of this thesis. It was a great pleasure for me to pursuit research under his supervision. I also thank the second reviewer of this thesis, Prof. Dr. Martin Mauve, for his interest in my work and willingness to be the second referee. My special compliments go to my former colleagues at the database group, especially to Evgenia Altareva, Cristian Pérez de Laborda and Christopher Popfinger, for the amicable atmosphere, the enlightening tea breaks and the numerous activities beyond university walls. Additionally, I extend my compliments to Hieu Le Quang and all my new colleagues Tim Schlüter, Katrin Zaiß, Jiwu Zhao, and Ludmila Himmelspach for their teaching support and especially Sadet Alčić for several implementations and his interest in my research work. Further compliments go to Guido Königstein, Marga Potthoff, and Sabine Freese for their continuous technical and administrative assistance

κ-Carrageenan Micropellets: Production and Dissolution Behavior INAUGURAL- DISSERTATION zur

aus Hambur