The aim of the study was to test specifically whether the precision of tennis serves and, similarly, penalty soccer kicks as representative closed skills can be improved through mental training. Further research questions illuminate which potential influencing variables play the biggest role in determining the efficacy of the mental training intervention in this study. These variables include imagery ability; commitment; the level of somatic fear, anxiety, and confidence; ability to concentrate; sex, and age. The study used experimental design with a pre- and post- test and a control group. Data were collected from a sample of 60 (38 male, 22 female) amateur athletes with a high skill level in tennis, ages 12 to 35 in Germany and 54 (male) soccer athletes playing in the third league, ages 14 to 22 in Germany. All subjects were registered with the state tennis and soccer federations of Baden Württemberg, Germany. The subjects for tennis and soccer each completed the questionnaire and were divided into two groups: The intervention group (IG)

am 15.07.2004 angenommen. Numerical time–domain methods for electromagnetic field simulations typically provide very broad band frequency–domain characterizations as well as transient response with a single simulation and without in general requiring any pre–processing. However long simulation times and large memory requirements arise for the case of electromagnetic structures characterized by low loss (high quality factor) and high aspect ratios (complex three– dimensional structures), since the first yields long transient responses and the second small time discretization intervals. Passive network impulse responses can be characterized by the singularity expansion method theory, implying that they can be efficiently described by means of exponentially damped oscillating components corresponding to the network natural frequencies. In principle, the entire time behavior of an electromagnetic structure can therefore be predicted from a few time samples by applying high resolution parametric model estimation techniques, based on system identification (SI) methods. These methods allow the determination of the network equivalent model directly from the simulated results.

Studies on host plant resistance to cassava bacterial blight in combination with cultural control measures in ecozones of

und Umwelt am 29.04.2009 angenommen. Summary The semiarid grasslands of northern China are used for at least two thousand years by nomads and their herds as extensive pastures. They are part of the Eurasian steppe, the largest continuous terrestrial biome in the world. Stocking rates reached a maximum during the last 20 years as a consequence of political decisions in the 1980s. Intensive land use and especially heavy continued grazing resulted in degradation of steppe vegetation associated with changes in the amount and the composition of soil organic matter (SOM). The concurrent degradation of soil structure and destruction of aggregation led to enhanced soil erosion and the formation of dust storms. Nowadays, the most apparent consequences of this overgrazing are wide-spread desertification and a high abundance of severe supraregional dust storms, impairing not only the local population but also the densely populated coastal regions. Grazed steppe ecosystems are discussed as one of the big global carbon sinks that may have the potential to sequester large amounts of atmospheric CO2 and mitigate the effects of global change if grazing is abandoned or

Vaccinia virus host range factor C7L plays an important regulatory role in the MVA life cycle

Zweitgutachterin: Dr. Jeannette Littlemore (Birmingham, UK) Dip into your savings! i Contents

Up-regulation of sterol regulatory element binding protein 2 (Srebp2)-mediated cholesterol biosynthesis in prion infected cells

Die Dissertation wurde am 20.01.2003 bei der Technischen Universität München eingereicht und durch die Fakultät für Elektrotechnik und Informationstechnik am 21.07.2003 angenommen. ii Meinen Eltern gewidmet iv

Hiermit versichere ich an Eides statt, dass ich die vorliegende Arbeit selbstständig

Die Dissertation wurde am 31.08.2006 bei der Technischen Universität München eingereicht und durch die Fakultät Wissenschaftszentrum Weihenstephan für Ernährung, Landnutzung und Umwelt am 29.11.2006 angenommen.