Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät

Urban Transformation and Informal Livelihoods

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Urban Transformation and Informal Livelihoods Sarpong, Akwasi Owusu Cities across the world are experiencing rapid urbanisation, bringing complex challenges related to employment, housing, and infrastructure. In response, governments are increasingly implementing large-scale urban transformation projects aimed at enhancing modernity, liveability, and economic competitiveness. In Accra, Ghana, these interventions often produce exclusionary outcomes for informal workers whose livelihoods depend on contested urban spaces. State-led demolitions and evictions have thus become central tools of urban restructuring, deepening socio-spatial inequalities.
This dissertation examines the tensions between urban redevelopment and the lived realities of informal e-waste workers, focusing on the 2021 demolition of the Agbogbloshie scrapyard. It analyses how redevelopment rationales intersect with displacement, livelihood precarity, and the reconfiguration of informal economies, drawing on three interrelated publications.
Methodologically, the research adopts a mixed-methods approach, integrating quantitative, qualitative, spatial, and policy analysis. It draws on a survey of 350 displaced e-waste workers, 58 semi-structured interviews with workers, residents, and institutional stakeholders, and two focus group discussions involving 96 participants. Additional data include policy document analysis, GIS mapping of post-demolition e-waste clusters, and field observations. Quantitative data were analysed using SPSS and Stata, while qualitative data were thematically coded using NVivo.
Findings reveal that the demolition reflects a broader neoliberal and revanchist urban agenda that prioritises elite-oriented development over inclusive urban governance. The intervention resulted in severe livelihood disruptions, income losses, health challenges, and the breakdown of institutional support networks. It also triggered the emergence of 26 new e-waste clusters across Accra, alongside environmental risks and weakened regulatory capacity. Notably, partial reoccupation of Agbogbloshie highlights the resilience of informal actors and the limitations of exclusionary planning approaches.
The dissertation concludes that demolition-led urban transformation reproduces inequality and calls for inclusive, participatory governance that recognises informal workers as co-producers of urban space, essential for sustainable and just urban futures.

In silico exploration of structural peculiarities of heme-binding proteins

Fri, 22 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In silico exploration of structural peculiarities of heme-binding proteins Rathod, Dhruv C. Exponential gains in computing and AI have reshaped biochemical research, enabling pathways-level reasoning and atomistic simulation of proteins. Among small-molecule effectors, labile heme is distinctive as it can impair signaling pathways to varying degrees. This dissertation focuses on transient heme-protein interactions and its detrimental consequences, using modern computational tools, such as molecular docking, molecular dynamics (MD), and knowledge-graph (KG) approaches to accompany the experimental work. As a starting point, peptide models and structure-based analyses were used to explore sequential and conformational features of heme-binding sites in mammalian proteins. The study identified distinct N-terminal sequence patterns around heme-binding motifs (HBMs) and showed that CP motifs are mainly occurring in flexible loop/linker regions, while C motifs are typically in longer flexible loops and H/Y motifs are more often embedded within α-helices or β-sheets. These rules provide a practical guideline summarizing the characteristics for motif identification in yet unknown heme-binding proteins to testable hypotheses. This work formed the basis for many studies on potential protein targets, one example representing the Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4). Mapping and validating candidate HBMs revealed multiple interaction sites and a cofactor regime different from that of the known natural activator lipopolysaccharide (LPS), whose binding to TLR4 is the key event of the innate immune system in recognizing Gram-negative bacteria. It was hence found that heme activates inflammatory TLR4 signaling in human immune cells primarily through direct interactions with TLR4 and can do so largely independently of other interaction partners, highlighting a distinct activation mechanism from LPS. To connect local signaling events to system behavior, the recently established TLR4-focused HemeKG was updated. Newly curated computable relations and missing downstream components, such as AP-1, IL-12, CD80/86, and CXCL1, were added and confirmed TLR4 pathway enrichment in accordance with the signaling databases KEGG, Reactome, and WikiPathways. Finally, two approaches to model protein structures were comparably analyzed, namely AlphaFold (AF) and homology modeling (HM). While, AF provides excellent folds but can mislead at flexible, ligand-exposed pockets, HM often yields more realistic local geometry for docking and motif pattern recognition, motivating local confidence metrics and pocket chemistry checks to assist experimental work.
Together, these advances show how computational approaches can convert atom-level heme recognition data into pathway-level insight to contribute to our understanding of heme's action as an effector molecule in pathological conditions.

Community Assembly and Species Coexistence in Sulawesi's Stream Fishes

Mon, 18 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Community Assembly and Species Coexistence in Sulawesi's Stream Fishes Wantania, Letha Louisiana (noch nicht zugänglich / not yet accessible)

Molecular tools, drugs and conjugates for the modulation of purinergic signal transduction

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Molecular tools, drugs and conjugates for the modulation of purinergic signal transduction Potaptschuk, Eugen (noch nicht zugänglich / not yet accessible)