Lipid membranes are crucial components of living cells. They constitute the outer shell and separate intracellular compartments and organelles. To regulate the mass transfer between the separated regions, they undergo remodeling processes like fusion and budding. In the framework of this thesis, it was examined how viral fusion peptides, cellular solutes and cholesterol modulate the behavior of lipid structures. In a small angle X-ray scattering study on monoolein mesophases, it was explored ...

Angesichts der COVID-19-Pandemie, die plötzliche Veränderungen in vielen Lebensbereichen nach sich zieht, wurde im Forschungsfeld „Alternde Gesellschaften“ der Technischen Universität Dortmund eine Pilotstudie durchgeführt. Ziel der Studie „Gesundheit und Unterstützung in Zeiten von Corona“ war es, Erkenntnisse darüber zu gewinnen, wie sich die COVID-19-Pandemie auf das Gesundheitsverhalten, Lebenszufriedenheit und Wohlbefinden sowie auf geleistete und erhaltene Unterstützung von Personen im ...

Throughout the different scales at which living organisms operate, it is the collective behaviour between the entities that compose them that determines their identity and function. Biomolecules, cells and whole organisms interact to process information and generate organization at the subcellular, tissue and ecosystem scales. In the first part of this thesis, we investigated fundamental principles of cellular morphogenesis in response to external cues in a Synthetic Morphogenic Membrane...

In jedem Lebewesen findet eine Vielzahl verschiedener biochemischer Reaktionen statt, die durch Enzyme vermittelt werden. Angesichts verschiedener Vorteile gegenüber chemischen Katalysatoren besteht ein großes Interesse an der Verwendung solcher Biokatalysatoren in industriellen Prozessen. Um die Produktausbeute einer Reaktion bzw. katalytischen Eigenschaften eines Enzyms noch weiter zu optimieren, werden heutzutage mittels zielgerichtetem Proteindesign, Immobilisierungstechniken sowie durch ...

Diese Arbeit beschreibt die Modellierung von Grenz- und Oberflächen. Ein neuartiger Multiskalen-Modellierungsrahmen, basierend auf molekulardynamischen Simulationen, dient zur Bestimmung von Materialeigenschaften freier Oberflächen auf der Makroskala. Ein wesentlicher Aspekt dafür ist die Entwicklung eines thermodynamisch konsistenten Homogenisierungsansatzes auf Basis des Prinzips der Energieminimierung. Dabei werden die Parameter, welche die Energie auf der Makroskala beschreiben, aus dem Ver...

In this thesis, semiconductor quantum wells (QWs) and quantum dots (QDs) with an indirect band gap in momentum space are investigated with regard to their fine structure and the related spin dynamics. Indirect nanostructures are being developed because of their very long recombination times, which make them interesting for spintronic applications. Here, the focus is on a fascinating but barley studied, quantum mechanical property: The absence of exchange interaction, which, despite the spatia...

Aufgrund seiner vorteilhaften Eigenschaften wird der ebene Torsionsversuch zunehmend zur Charakterisierung von Blechwerkstoffen eingesetzt. Dies sind der ideale einfache Scherspannungszustand bis zum Bruch, die Materialcharakterisierung ohne Randzonen und Kerbwirkungen, die direkte Messbarkeit von Spannungen und Dehnungen und die daraus resultierende Bestimmung von Fließkurven bis zu sehr hohen Vergleichsformänderungen. Das Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die Anwendungsgrenzen des ebene...

We consider the problem of designing experiments for the comparison of two regression curves describing the relation between a predictor and a response in two groups, where the data between and within the group may be dependent. In order to derive effi- cient designs we use results from stochastic analysis to identify the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) in a corresponding continuous time model. It is demonstrated that in general simultaneous estimation using the data from both grou...

Die Bereitschaft, freiwillige Zahlungen zum Ausgleich von CO2- Emissionen zu leisten, etwa bei Flügen, hat in den vergangenen Jahren erheblich zugenommen. Eine Möglichkeit, diese Kompensationsbereitschaft weiter zu erhöhen, besteht in der Aktivierung einer sozialen Norm, indem darauf aufmerksam gemacht wird, dass ein Emissionsausgleich gesellschaftlich erwünscht ist. Vor diesem Hintergrund untersucht dieser Beitrag die Bereitschaft, die durch Flugreisen verursachten CO2- Emissionen durc...

We discuss how ‘parallel-in-space & simultaneous-in-time’ Newton-multigrid approaches can be designed which improve the scaling behavior of the spatial parallelism by reducing the latency costs. The idea is to solve many time steps at once and therefore solving fewer but larger systems. These large systems are reordered and interpreted as a space-only problem leading to multigrid algorithm with semi-coarsening in space and line smoothing in time direction. The smoother is further improved by ...

This paper presents a multi-scale and GIS-based investigation approach whose goal is to quantify the consequences of a climate change scenario (2041-2050) on the energy demand of buildings by comparison to a past scenario (1991-2000) applied to the city of Stuttgart. Energy simulations are made at building scale while taking into account the surrounding urban microclimates. The investigation method combines 1) numerical modelling using TEB and TRNSYS, 2) design of experiments (DOE) statistica...

This thesis investigates the causes and consequences of regional disparities in Germany and consists of three self-contained essays. Each essay utilizes spatially fine-grained microdata for Germany. They differ in focus and methodology but are all inseparably related through the spatial level of analysis. Chapter one provides introductory remarks. The second chapter studies the relative impact of two distinct local business tax instruments on workers' wages. While the primary contribution is ...

A large proportion of local pollutants originating from the road transport sector is generated during the so-called cold-start phase of driving, that is, the first few minutes of driving after a car has stood inactive for several hours. Drawing on data from the German Mobility Panel (MOP), this paper analyzes the factors that affect the frequency of cold starts, approximated here by the number of car tours that a household takes over the course of a week. Based on fixed-effects panel es...

Tuning parameter choices complicate statistical inference in cointegrating regressions and affect finite sample distributions of test statistics. As commonly used asymptotic theory fails to capture these effects, tests often suffer from severe size distortions. We propose a novel self-normalized test statistic for general linear hypotheses, which avoids the choice of tuning parameters. Its limiting null distributions is nonstandard, but simulating asymptotically valid critical values is...

Reports about long-time transfusion trends in Austrian hospitals are rare. In our hospital, we implemented an algorithm of preoperative anemia management as part of a patient blood management (PBM) program in October 2011. Anemic individuals with elective surgery underwent an adequate preoperative anemia classification and treatment with erythropoietin and intravenous iron. The aim of this study was to assess red blood cell (RBC), platelet and plasma transfusions before and after implementati...