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Antibiotics have been extensively used as pharmaceuticals for diverse applications. However, their overuse and indiscriminate discharge to water systems have led to increased antibiotic levels in our aquatic environments, which poses risks to human and livestock health. Non-thermal plasma water. However, the issues of process scalability and the mechanisms towards understanding the plasma-induced degradation remain. This study addresses these issues by coupling a non-thermal plasma jet with a continuous flow reactor to reveal the effective mechanisms of amoxicillin degradation. Four industry-relevant feeding gases (nitrogen, air, argon, and oxygen), discharge voltages, and frequencies were assessed. Amoxicillin degradation efficiencies achieved using nitrogen and air were much higher compared to argon and oxygen and further improved by increasing the applied voltage and frequency. The efficiency of plasma-induced degradation depended on the interplay of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and nitrite (NO2−), validated by mimicked chemical solutions tests. Insights into prevailing degradation pathways were elucidated through the detection of intermediate products by advanced liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.

Kulturelle Souveränität - ist das nicht ein Widerspruch? Lassen sich das flüchtige und prozesshafte Verständnis von Kultur und der häufig monolithisch verstandene Begriff der Souveränität überhaupt sinnvoll zueinander in Bezug setzen? In ihren Beiträgen zu Nation, Religion und Kultur argumentieren die Autorinnen und Autoren zugunsten eines neuen Instruments für die historische Analyse von Souveränitätspraktiken jenseits des Staates. Kulturelle Souveränität erschließt gesellschaftliches und politisches Handeln aus Sicht der jeweiligen Akteure und entwickelt so einen kulturwissenschaftlichen Zugang zu einem zentralen Konzept europäischer Geschichte.

Als der größte Binnenhafen Süddeutschlands und das industrielle Herz Badens wurde die Stadt Mannheim im Laufe des 19. Jahrhunderts auch zu einem Knotenpunkt transkontinentaler Verbindungen mit der kolonialen Welt der Südhalbkugel. Mannheims Wirtschaft verarbeitete Rohstoffe kolonialen Ursprungs, in den Magazinen der Reiß-Engelhorn-Museen zeugen Tausende von Objekten kolonialer Provenienz vom Jahrzehnte lang gehegten Traum, in der Stadt das Kolonialmuseum des deutschen Südwestens zu errichten. Der Sammelband untersucht die kolonialen Verflechtungen der Handels- und Industriemetropole aus biographischer Perspektive. Er setzt bei der schillernden Persönlichkeit des Mannheimer "Kolonialhelden" Theodor Bumiller an, analysiert kritisch seine Verstrickungen in koloniale Gewalt, die Verbindungen zwischen Korpsstudententum und Kolonialismus und seine vielfältigen Inszenierungen imperialer Weltläufigkeit. Weitere Beiträge kontrastieren Bumillers Biographie mit der subalternen Weltläufigkeit seines langjährigen komorischen Begleiters Silimu bin Abakari sowie anderen kolonialen Biographien Mannheimer Provenienz. Eine erste, dringend notwendige Auseinandersetzung mit den Verbindungen der Quadratestadt zum überseeischen Kolonialismus in den Jahrzehnten um 1900., The colonial turn in the recent historiography of the German Empire has been based upon the claim that the colonial encounter has profoundly shaped not only the colonial societies in Africa and Oceania, but equally the German society of the "Kaiserreich". This volume traces the colonial entanglements, performances, and spectacles in the rising industrial and harbour city of Mannheim in Southwest Germany. Systematically asking for specific localizations and institutionalizations of the encounter with the overseas colonies, the contributions in the volume underline the need to provincialize monolithic understandings of the imperial metropolis.

We address the identifiability and estimation of recursive max‐linear structural equation models represented by an edge‐weighted directed acyclic graph (DAG). Such models are generally unidentifiable and we identify the whole class of DAG s and edge weights corresponding to a given observational distribution. For estimation, standard likelihood theory cannot be applied because the corresponding families of distributions are not dominated. Given the underlying DAG, we present an estimator for the class of edge weights and show that it can be considered a generalized maximum likelihood estimator. In addition, we develop a simple method for identifying the structure of the DAG. With probability tending to one at an exponential rate with the number of observations, this method correctly identifies the class of DAGs and, similarly, exactly identifies the possible edge weights.

We address the identifiability and estimation of recursive max‐linear structural equation models represented by an edge‐weighted directed acyclic graph (DAG). Such models are generally unidentifiable and we identify the whole class of DAG s and edge weights corresponding to a given observational distribution. For estimation, standard likelihood theory cannot be applied because the corresponding families of distributions are not dominated. Given the underlying DAG, we present an estimator for the class of edge weights and show that it can be considered a generalized maximum likelihood estimator. In addition, we develop a simple method for identifying the structure of the DAG. With probability tending to one at an exponential rate with the number of observations, this method correctly identifies the class of DAGs and, similarly, exactly identifies the possible edge weights.

Silver nanoparticles have applications in plasmonics, medicine, catalysis and electronics. We report a simple, cost-effective, facile and reproducible technique to synthesise silver nanoparticles via plasma-induced non-equilibrium liquid chemistry with the absence of a chemical reducing agent. Silver nanoparticles with tuneable sizes from 5.4 to 17.8 nm are synthesised and characterised using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and other analytic techniques. A mechanism for silver nanoparticle formation is also proposed. The antibacterial activity of the silver nanoparticles was investigated with gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. The inhibition of both bacteria types was observed. This is a promising alternative method for the instant synthesis of silver nanoparticles, instead of the conventional chemical reduction route, for numerous applications.

Graphical modeling has mainly been limited to distributions that lead to severe underestimation of large risks and, therefore, to unsuitable models in the context of risk assessment. This thesis introduces a recursive max-linear structural equation model that finds its application in situations where extreme risks may propagate through a network, for example, when modeling water levels in a river network. We address structural properties, statistical issues, identifiability questions, and algorithms to apply the new model to data in the future., Die graphische Modellierung ist bisher hauptsächlich auf Verteilungen beschränkt, die zu einer starken Unterschätzung großer Risiken und damit zu ungeeigneten Modellen im Kontext der Risikobewertung führen. Diese Arbeit führt ein rekursives max-lineares Strukturgleichungsmodell ein, welches in Situationen Anwendung findet, in denen sich extreme Risiken über ein Netzwerk ausbreiten können. Ein Beispiel ist die Modellierung von Wasserständen in einem Flussnetzwerk. Wir sprechen strukturelle Eigenschaften, statistische Fragestellungen, Identifizierungsfragen und Algorithmen an, um das neue Modell in Zukunft auf Daten anwenden zu können.

Graphical modeling has mainly been limited to distributions that lead to severe underestimation of large risks and, therefore, to unsuitable models in the context of risk assessment. This thesis introduces a recursive max-linear structural equation model that finds its application in situations where extreme risks may propagate through a network, for example, when modeling water levels in a river network. We address structural properties, statistical issues, identifiability questions, and algorithms to apply the new model to data in the future., Die graphische Modellierung ist bisher hauptsächlich auf Verteilungen beschränkt, die zu einer starken Unterschätzung großer Risiken und damit zu ungeeigneten Modellen im Kontext der Risikobewertung führen. Diese Arbeit führt ein rekursives max-lineares Strukturgleichungsmodell ein, welches in Situationen Anwendung findet, in denen sich extreme Risiken über ein Netzwerk ausbreiten können. Ein Beispiel ist die Modellierung von Wasserständen in einem Flussnetzwerk. Wir sprechen strukturelle Eigenschaften, statistische Fragestellungen, Identifizierungsfragen und Algorithmen an, um das neue Modell in Zukunft auf Daten anwenden zu können.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) are widespread environmental pollutants of considerable risk to human health. The aerobic degradation of PAH via oxygenase reactions has been studied for several decades. In contrast, it was not until very recent that the first key enzyme involved in anaerobic PAH degradation, the dearomatizing 2-naphthoyl-CoA reductase, was isolated and characterized. In this work, a PCR-based functional assay was developed to detect microorganisms that have the ability to anaerobically degrade naphthalene, as a model for larger PAH. The degenerative oligonucleotide probes introduced here amplified a highly conserved region of the gene encoding 2-naphthoyl-CoA reductase (Ncr) in numerous sulfate-reducing pure cultures and environmental enrichments. The assay provides the first molecular tool for monitoring the anaerobic degradation of a model PAH.

QC 20130531

National parks are one of the most important and successful institutions in global environmentalism. Since their first designation in the United States in the 1860s and 1870s they have become a global phenomenon. The development of these ecological and political systems cannot be understood as a simple reaction to mounting environmental problems, nor can it be explained by the spread of environmental sensibilities. Shifting the focus from the usual emphasis on national parks in the United States, this volume adopts an historical and transnational perspective on the global geography of protected areas and its changes over time. It focuses especially on the actors, networks, mechanisms, arenas, and institutions responsible for the global spread of the national park and the associated utilization and mobilization of asymmetrical relationships of power and knowledge, contributing to scholarly discussions of globalization and the emergence of global environmental institutions and governance., QC 20160212

We present an optofluidic nonlinear coupler fabricated by selective filling of two strands of a photonic crystal fiber with the liquid CCl 4 which exhibits a large ultrafast Kerr nonlinearity. We demonstrate power dependent switching in this novel optofluidic device. The large thermo-optical effect of liquids enables us to tune the behavior of the nonlinear coupler by changing the coupling strength with temperature. This opens the road towards flexible designs and realization of a new class of tunable ultrafast nonlinear couplers with switching times below 1 ps., Peer Reviewed, Postprint (published version)

We present an optofluidic nonlinear waveguide array that is fabricated by selectively filling several strands of a photonic crystal fiber with the liquid CCl4, which exhibits a large focusing ultrafast Kerr nonlinearity. We demonstrate a power dependent formation of a spatial soliton in this novel optofluidic device. The large thermo-optical effect of liquids enables us to control the characteristics of the spatial soliton formation in these nonlinear structures. This opens the road toward flexible designs and the realization of a new class of optofluidic devices with complex nonlinear landscapes and novel effects., Postprint (published version)

A thorough experimental and theoretical study of the enantioselective cyclopropanation of alkenes catalyzed by chiral bis(oxazoline)- and azabis(oxazoline)-copper complexes, which comprise a new family of ligands that lack C2 symmetry, has been conducted. Surprisingly high enantioselectivities were observed with some of these ligands, which were rationalized on the basis of molecular modeling studies. The course of the asymmetric induction in connection with ligand symmetry and the implications for supported enantioselective catalysts are discussed.