The present thesis is the first thorough grammatical description of Romeyka, i.e., the Muslim variety of Pontic Greek still spoken in the indigenous setting in Trabzon province in north-eastern Turkey. While the language of the Christian speech communities of Pontus has been featured in earlier research during the last hundred years – both in Pontus prior to the population exchange in 1923, and after that in Greece –, less research is available on the variety of Pontic Greek as spoken by Muslims in the area at present. As an unrecognized minority language in a Turkish-dominant majority society and due to ambivalent attitudes and identificational links of the speakers towards their language, Romeyka is currently undergoing language shift to Turkish. While the language has been in contact with Turkish for several hundred years – which arguably resulted in a number of lexical and structural contact influences albeit without leading to a mixed acrolect –, the influence of Turkish on domains where traditionally Romeyka used to be spoken has grown following labour migration from the Black Sea area to larger cities in western Turkey since the 1960s posing now – dependent upon the speech community – a threat to the vitality of Romeyka. On the other hand, Pontic Greek – and in particular the Muslim variety – is known to be a conservative representative of Asia Minor Greek preserving archaisms dating back via Hellenistic and Medieval Greek to Ancient Greek, among them so notorious grammatical features as the Romeyka infinitive, but also complex negators and pronominal forms. It is the aim of the present thesis to describe the synchronic grammar of Romeyka as currently spoken especially by elderly speakers in the Of valley, whose variety can be considered the most archaic. As a basis for profound grammatical research – and as a contribution towards language description and documentation at the same time –, a spoken language corpus has been compiled from the variety Romeyka of Of as spoken in Çaykara based on recordings of naturalistic oral texts produced by ten speakers mainly during fieldwork in the area in 2019. In order to contribute to further scholarly research, the corpus has been transcribed, translated and fully grammatically annotated and will be made publicly available upon the publication of the thesis. In the light of the ongoing language shift in Romeyka, the present thesis focuses on the actual use of the language by bilingual – and most often Turkish dominant – speakers. In order to disentangle the factors that led to the present grammatical shape of Romeyka, three research questions targeting potential causes for the grammatical developments have been considered: (I.) How strong is the Turkish influence on the grammar of Romeyka? (II.) Does the setting of Romeyka as a minority language in a Turkish-dominant society, namely the process of language shift, play a role in grammatical change? (III.) How persistent are the inherited Greek features and what is the role of language-internal changes? However, since the primary aim of the present thesis is the description and presentation of linguistic structures forming potential candidates for an ongoing language change compared to earlier varieties of Greek and to closely related varieties of Asia Minor Greek, the theoretical questions can only tentatively be answered at the present stage of research. It can be nevertheless stated that Romeyka seems to have preserved its Greek core with a Greek basic lexicon, albeit with considerable lexical influences from Turkish in both content and functional word classes, but probably to a lesser extent compared to its close relative Cappadocian. Furthermore, Romeyka appears to preserve indeed a number of archaic features as well as certain particularities of Pontic such as a complex system of spatial deixis. On the other hand, there are considerable Turkish influences on the structural domain such as for example in progressives, verb serialization, adjunct and relative clauses and clause combination, that have evolved under long-time contact and appear consistently across different speakers. In addition, certain contact-induced structural features especially at the syntactic domain have been found to be sensitive to the bilingual profile of the individual speaker, i.e., among others, the dominant language, namely the borrowing of the Turkish question particle mI, OV word orders in declarative clauses, and an increase in non-finite complementation strategies. This finding led to the assumption that – apart from long-term contact-induced changes which seem not to impair the grammatical integrity of Romeyka – language shift is a matter of individual multilingual speaker profiles with different degrees of Turkish dominance in both language competence and use. Finally, it is argued that the specific communicative setting in which Romeyka is spoken, and which determines the communicative practice of the speakers, is decisive to set the pragmatic frame for the language(s) used: in Turkish-dominant settings, speakers tend to be more inclined to apply multiple forms of code-switching and show stronger influences of Turkish structures.

Effective information processing is the pillar of adaptive teams for developing cognitive processes. Research has shown team reflexivity to advance team regulatory processes and performance . However, research has predominantly relied on static measures to examine the nature of the unfolding processes, the relationships and interplay with regulatory processes, cognitive emergence and team performance. As part of this work, a classification system of behavior indicators as an objective communication-based method was developed to assess the dynamics and complexity of the unfolding processes. The theoretical background and requirements of the measurement instrument constituting the classifiers of the classification system was based on intensive literature review, training and testing of the coding analysis procedure. The data supporting this dissertation is the product of the virtual teams’ participation during objective communication exercises. Drawing on the interaction team cognition theory and reflexivity, a theoretical model of all involved constructs was created to reflect upon the complexity of virtual team situations. It was proposed and found, by assessing the pre-defined cognitive behavior and reflexivity communication classifiers, that receiving team reflexivity expedited the externalization of reflexivity and cognitive behaviors in communication. Further, the tested theoretical model results showed that cognitive behaviors of situation awareness and transactive memory have a direct effect on performance, and, that transactive memory mediated the relationship between reflexivity and performance. Finally, these virtual teams stayed initially longer on reflexivity transition phase for strategy development and exhibited different volumes of cognitive behaviors across time. The result was higher team performance.

This thesis is concerned with the inductive synthesis of recursive declarative programs and in particular with the analytical inductive synthesis of functional programs. Program synthesis addresses the problem of (semi-)automatically generating computer programs from specifications. In inductive program synthesis, recursive programs are constructed by generalizing over incomplete specifications such as finite sets of input/output examples (I/O examples). Classical methods for induction of functional programs are analytical, that is, a recursive function definition is derived by detecting and generalizing recurrent patterns between the given I/O examples. Most recent methods, on the other side, are generate-and-test based, that is, they repeatedly generate programs independently from the provided I/O examples until a program is found that correctly computes the examples. Analytical methods are much faster than generate-and-test methods, because they do not rely on search in a program space. Therefore, however, the schemas that generatable programs conform to, must be much more restricted. This thesis at first provides a comprehensive overview of current approaches and methods to inductive program synthesis. Then we present a new algorithm to the inductive synthesis of functional programs that generalizes the analytical approach and combines it with search in a program space. Thereby, the strong restrictions of analytical methods can be resolved for the most part. At the same time, applying analytical techniques allows for pruning large parts of the problem space so that solutions can often be found faster than with generate-and-test methods. By means of several experiments with an implementation of the described algorithm, we demonstrate its capabilities.

The Posthomerica by Quintus of Smyrna, a Greek epic in fourteen books from the 3rd century AD, recounts the story of the Trojan War by covering the events between Hector’s burial and the departure of the Greeks after the destruction of the city. In book 13, we read about the sack of Troy, including famous episodes such as the death of Priam and Astyanax, the enslavement of Andromache, the escape of Aeneas, and the rape of Cassandra. Stephan Renker offers the first full-scale commentary on Posthomerica 13. He introduces each episode with a discussion of the relevant literary tradition and Quintus' potential models. The following line-by-line commentary yields insights into aspects of language, literary technique, realia, and the main issues of interpretation. Thus, the reader is provided with an important tool for further investigations into this fascinating, yet understudied piece of Imperial Greek poetry.

The main objective of this thesis is to bridge the gap between modeling method experts on the one side and tool developers on the other. More precisely, the focus is on the specification of requirements for multi-view modeling tools. In this regard, the thesis introduces a methodological approach that supports the specification of conceptual designs for multi-view modeling tools in a stepwise manner: the MuVieMoT approach. MuVieMoT utilizes generic multi-view modeling concepts and the model-driven engineering paradigm to establish an overarching specification of multi-view modeling tools with an emphasis on consistency requirements. The approach builds on and extends the theoretical foundation of metamodeling and multi-view modeling: generic multi-view modeling concepts, integrated multi-view modeling approaches, and possibilities for formalized modeling method specifications. Applicability and utility of MuVieMoT are evaluated using an illustrative scenario, therefore specifying a conceptual design for a multi-view modeling tool for the Semantic Object Model enterprise modeling method. The thesis moreover introduces the MuVieMoT modeling environment, enabling the efficient application of the approach as well as the model-driven development of initial multi-view modeling tools based on the conceptual models created with MuVieMoT. Consequently, the approach fosters an intersubjective and unambiguous understanding of the tool requirements between method experts and tool developers.

The situation in terms of equality between males and females is substantially determined by the (gendered) opportunities and constraints of a given institutional environment. Denmark is often cited as a prime example of a country which offers its citizens optimal conditions in this regard, and where nowadays gender equality has been fully achieved – including in such important spheres as the worlds of education and work. It is probably for this reason that empirical evidence on the topic is relatively scarce; in particular, there is no in-depth country case study which provides a comprehensive state-of-the-art analysis of Danish men’s and women’s actual educational and professional careers across the life course. To close this gap, the overarching research question pursued by my thesis is: What relevance does gender have for individuals’ educational and occupational life course outcomes within Denmark’s institutional context? For this purpose, Section 1 first of all elaborates on the theoretical underpinnings, the research design, and the information base of this work. Then, by drawing on high-quality longitudinal data from Danish administrative registers, and applying descriptive as well as multivariate methods, a total of three studies are carried out to answer the aforementioned guiding question (Section 2). Here, gender disparities within the following life course stages, spanning from childhood to adulthood, are taken into consideration: First, children’s pathways in tracked Danish post-compulsory education and training; second, young adults’ initial integration into the Danish labor market and their educational achievements and first job outcomes; third, adults’ labor market returns from participation in diverse forms of Danish adult learning. The results, which are again briefly summarized and discussed in Section 3, show that even within Denmark’s specific national setting, strongly committed as it is to guaranteeing everyone equal opportunities in all areas of society, being male or female does indeed play a role in individuals’ educational and occupational life course outcomes. In short: While Danish women have now more than caught up with men when it comes to their level of education and training, already at the time of first labor market entry, both horizontal and vertical gender-based segregation patterns continue to exist (although these are declining over time). As regards the field of adult learning, it appears that females are more likely to engage in such activities than men, and some gender differences can also be observed concerning the economic returns from later-life learning. In conclusion, it can thus be said that, even in Denmark, there is still scope for improvement with respect to the actual realization of gender equality.

The dissertation addresses women’s reconciliation behavior from an, in many ways, more consequentially pursued life course perspective (Mayer 2001) than has been done before. In three self-contained research articles, it goes beyond researching singular transitions, unidirectional mechanisms, short- and medium-term observation periods, and processes that have been assumed to be universal across the life course. Specifically, it elaborates on (a) how the nature and effect of reconciliation behaviors varies by their embedment in the female life course, (b) how reconciliation behaviors are highly interrelated complexes of family and employment decisions and transitions, and (c) how intrinsic (e.g., education) and extrinsic (e.g., policies) conditions influence the nature and effect of women’s reconciliation behavior. Along these lines, it applies both macro- and micro-level approaches and thus offers methodologically innovative strategies and valuable additions to understanding women’s reconciliation of family and employment.

Die Autorinnen Vicki Baum und Gina Kaus wurden in den 1920er Jahren mit ihren ‚Unterhaltungsromanen’ bekannt. Zugleich versuchten sie jedoch auch, als ‚ernsthafte’ Autorinnen zu reüssieren. Das Pendeln zwischen zwei Polen, zwischen der ‚Anpassung’ an spezifische Strukturen des Literaturbetriebs und dem ‚Anspruch’ an ihre Literaturproduktion, wurde für beide zum typischen Muster ihres literarischen Schaffens. Der Soziologe Pierre Bourdieu bietet mit seinem Feld-Konzept die Chance, die Bewegung der Autorinnen innerhalb des literarischen Feldes nachzuzeichnen und dabei dessen historische Bedingtheit zu berücksichtigen. Die Schlagworte ‚Anspruch’ und ‚Anpassung’ bilden an den einander entgegengesetztesten Polen die den ‚Raum der Möglichkeiten’ begrenzenden Koordinaten. Die Autobiografien und literarischen Texte Vicki Baums und Gina Kaus’ werden ebenso in die Analyse miteinbezogen wie die zeitgenössische Rezeption und bislang unveröffentlichte Briefe.

This dissertation designs a metadata-driven infrastructure for panel data that aims to increase both the quality and the usability of the resulting research data. Data quality determines whether the data appropriately represent a particular aspect of our reality. Usability originates notably from a conceivable documentation, accessibility of the data, and interoperability with tools and other data sources. In a metadata-driven infrastructure, metadata are prepared before the digital objects and process steps that they describe. This enables data providers to utilize metadata for many purposes, including process control and data validation. Furthermore, a metadata-driven design reduces the overall costs of data production and facilitates the reuse of both data and metadata. The main use case is the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), but the results claim to be re-usable for other panel studies. The introduction of the Generic Longitudinal Business Process Model (GLBPM) and a general discussion of digital objects managed by panel studies provide a generic framework for the development of a metadata-driven infrastructure for panel studies. A first theoretical application presents two designs for variable linkage to support record linkage and statistical matching with structured metadata: concepts for omnidirectional relations and process models for unidirectional relations. Furthermore, a reference architecture for a metadata-driven infrastructure is designed and implemented. This provides a proof of concept for the previous discussion and an environment for the development of DDI on Rails. DDI on Rails is a data portal, optimized for the documentation and dissemination of panel data. The design considers the process model of the GLBPM, the generic discussion of digital objects, the design of a metadata-driven infrastructure, and the proposed solutions for variable linkage.

During the last decades, information technology has been characterized by constantly increasing performance of available hardware resources. This development allows the assignment of more and more complex tasks to software systems while at the same time leading to a massive increase of inherent complexity of applied systems. The expected further increase of complexity in the future demands for an explicit addressing of complexity. The concept of Component Orientation represents an approach for complexity reduction during the development and configuration of software through functional decomposition. With the vision of Autonomic Computing there does exist an approach for addressing complexity during the operation and maintenance of software systems. In this context, the approach is based on the idea of assigning low level-management tasks to the managed system itself. The concept of Component Orientation leads to the establishment of system architectures out of clearly distinguishable building blocks. Therefore, Component Orientation seems to provide a promising foundation for realizing the vision of Autonomic Computing. This thesis presents a realistic infrastructure for the autonomic management of component-based enterprise systems. The application area of such systems leads to special requirements for managed systems and is highly affected by the complexity problem. As a foundation for the proposed approach, a well established component standard was chosen to guarantee the practical relevance of applied concepts and techniques. The applied standard is Enterprise JavaBeans, version 3.0. The proposed infrastructure is designed and realized in a generic fashion. It provides a platform upon which solutions for different application areas of Autonomic Computing can be realized. Autonomic entities are supported through a programming interface which represents a system on three interrelated levels and allows its management: On the top-level, the underlying software of a managed system is considered. The middle layer addresses the system architecture. Runtime interactions within the system are represented on the lowest layer. On this foundation, a system can be managed in a holistic, model-based way. The runtime management of a system is enabled through a specially developed component which must be integrated into the affected environment. This component is compliant with the applied component standard and does not require any adjustment of the underlying component platform. Finally, a tool is provided which supports the establishment of manageability through the automated execution of required adjustments of components. The management of a system is realized transparently for its constituent elements during runtime. On the whole, the development of enterprise software is not affected by a potential application of the presented infrastructure.

Globalization and rapid technological change elevates the role of the Internet in terms of business service offering and procurement. At the same time, companies specialize on core competencies on the one hand, and on the other hand, integrate with other firms into “service ecosystems” in order to serve market needs in a flexible manner. One challenge in this setting is how to develop and describe novel business services within service ecosystems for efficient trade in services over the Internet. This work proposes a method for describing business services that integrates into business service development processes. The development of such a method leads to three major challenges: Firstly, it is necessary to determine which properties are appropriate for describing business services. This work analyzes existing approaches in the marketing, information systems, and computer science domain and develops a model for a formal description that facilitates offering and discovering of business services. Secondly, business service description elicitation, documentation, and communication must be provided for the whole business service development process. This work’s approach includes the development of an appropriate modeling notation as an extension of the Unified Modeling Notation (UML). Thirdly, there is a need for transforming business service descriptions into software realization languages that are suitable for the Internet. This contribution offers an automatic transformation of business service descriptions into Web Services Description Language (WSDL) documents using model-to-model transformation scripts. The method for describing business services was evaluated by implementing an integrated modeling environment along with related transformation scripts as well as by two case studies in the insurance and IT outsourcing industry.

Serverless Computing is seen as a game changer in operating large-scale applications. While practitioners and researches often use this term, the concept they actually want to refer to is Function as a Service (FaaS). In this new service model, a user deploys only single functions to cloud platforms where the cloud provider deals with all operational concerns – this creates the notion of server-less computing for the user. Nonetheless, a few configurations for the cloud function are necessary for most commercial FaaS platforms as they influence the resource assignments like CPU time and memory. Due to these options, there is still an abstracted perception of servers for the FaaS user. The resource assignment and the different strategies to scale resources for public cloud offerings and on-premise hosted open-source platforms determine the runtime characteristics of cloud functions and are in the focus of this work. Compared to cloud offerings like Platform as a Service, two out of the five cloud computing characteristics improved. These two are rapid elasticity and measured service. FaaS is the first computational cloud model to scale functions only on demand. Due to an independent scaling and a strong isolation via virtualized environments, functions can be considered independent of other cloud functions. Therefore, noisy neighbor problems do not occur. The second characteristic, measured service, targets billing. FaaS platforms measure execution time on a millisecond basis and bill users accordingly based on the function configuration. This leads to new performance and cost trade-offs. Therefore, this thesis proposes a simulation approach to investigate this tradeoff in an early development phase. The alternative would be to deploy functions with varying configurations, analyze the execution data from several FaaS platforms and adjust the configuration. However, this alternative is time-consuming, tedious and costly. To provide a proper simulation, the development and production environment should be as similar as possible. This similarity is also known as dev-prod parity. Based on a new methodology to compare different virtualized environments, users of our simulation framework are able to execute functions on their machines and investigate the runtime characteristics for different function configurations at several cloud platforms without running their functions on the cloud platform at all. A visualization of the local simulations guide the user to choose an appropriate function configuration to resolve the mentioned trade-off dependent on their requirements.

The use of people analytics and social network analysis have grown in popularity in recent years as a way of gaining insights into organizational behavior. Social network analysis can be useful in people analytics the context because it can help identify key influencers and leaders within a group, as well as reveal patterns of communication and collaboration. Understanding these patterns, organizations can make informed decisions about how to structure and manage their teams and how best to support employee development. Social network analysis also helps people analytics to identify potential sources of conflict within an organization and bottlenecks in the flow of information, which in turn can aid in improving communication and productivity. There is, however, still much to learn about the potential of social network analysis in a people analytics context. This thesis aims to contribute to this knowledge by examining the potential of using people analytics in conjunction with social network analysis as a way to understand and analyze relational data better, particularly communication and interaction data. To guide this investigation, the thesis begins with a narrative review of the theories and concepts that form the foundations of social network analysis, organizational network analysis, and people analytics, the overarching topic of this dissertation. This review underlies the development of a taxonomy for categorizing social network analysis studies in work-related contexts. The research conducted as part of this thesis is structured around one main research question and four subordinate research questions, all of which focus the understanding and application of social network analysis in a people analytics context. The findings from this research are presented in the six papers, which together form the core of the dissertation.