Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
Dokumenttyp
- Dissertation (2040) (entfernen)
Sprache
- Englisch (2040) (entfernen)
Volltext vorhanden
- ja (2040)
Gehört zur Bibliographie
- nein (2040)
Schlagworte
- ALICE (8)
- Quark-Gluon-Plasma (8)
- Membranproteine (7)
- Geldpolitik (6)
- Proteine (6)
- Apoptosis (5)
- Biochemie (5)
- Heavy Ion Collisions (5)
- Immunologie (5)
- LHC (5)
Institut
- Biowissenschaften (422)
- Physik (373)
- Biochemie und Chemie (281)
- Biochemie, Chemie und Pharmazie (204)
- Medizin (122)
- Pharmazie (92)
- Geowissenschaften (87)
- Informatik und Mathematik (85)
- Informatik (54)
- Mathematik (46)
Gegenstand dieser Arbeit sind Eigenschaften angeregter hadronischer Materie sowie physikalische Systeme, in denen diese Materie auftritt bzw. produziert wird. Die Beschreibung der stark wechselwirkenden Materie erfolgt in einem hadronischen, chiral-symmetrischen SU(3)L x SU(3)R Modell, welches die Saturierungseigenschaften von Kernmaterie und die Eigenschaften von Atomkernen reproduziert. Die Untersuchung heißer und dichter unendlicher hadronischor Materie zeigt, dass das vom Modell vorhergesagte Phasendiagramm stark von den Kopplungen der Baryonenresonanzen abhängt. Für kalte hadronische Materie ergibt die Einbeziehung des Baryonendekupletts und die Freiheit in deren Vektorkopplungen eine sehr große Bandbreite an verschiedenen Zustandsgleichungen. Für heiße hadronische Materie mit verschwindendem baryochemischen Potential zeigt sich ebenfalls eine starke Abhängigkeit der Eigenschaften hadronischer Materie von der Ankopplung der baryonischen Resonanzen. Es werden drei verschiedene Parametrisierungen betrachtet. Das resultierende Phasenübergangsverhalten variiert von einem "Crossover" über einen schwachen, zu einem doppelten Phasenübergang erster Ordnung. Es zeigt sich jedoch, dass die beobachteten Eigenschaften von Neutronensternen die Unbestimmtheit bzgl. der Vektorkopplung dieser Freiheitsgrade und damit der Zustandsgleichung deutlich verringern. Das Raum-Zeit Verhalten relativistischer Schwerionenkollisionen bei SPS- und RHIC-Energien wird mittels einer hydrodynamischen Simulation unter Benutzung der chiralen Zustandsgleichungen untersucht. Dabei spiegelt sich das unterschiedliche Phasenübergangsverhalten deutlich im Ausfrierverhalten der hadronischen Materie wider. Die im chiralen Modell berechneten Teilchenzahlverhältnisse werden mit den aus Schwerionenkollisionen von AGS- bis RHIC-Energien erhaltenen experimentellen Daten verglichen. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die verschiedenen Parametersätze des chiralen Modells und die Rechnungen für ein nichtwechselwirkendes, ideales Hadronengas eine ähnlich gute Beschreibung der gemessenen Weite liefern. Die deduzierten Ausfrierwerte für die Temperatur sind sensitiv auf das Phasenübergangsverhalten und liegen unterhalb der jeweiligen kritischen Temperatur. Die vorhergesagten Ausfriermassen sind in allen Parametrisierungen sehr ähnlich mit Abweichungen bis zu 15% von den entsprechenden Vakuumwerten. Die Untersuchung der Eigenschaften von Vektormesonen in dichter Materie erfolgt in der Mittleren-Feld- und in der HartreeNäherung. Hierbei zeigt sich eine signifikante Reduzierung der Teilchenmassen durch Vakuumpolarisationseffekte.
We consider the long-time behaviour of spatially extended random populations with locally dependent branching. We treat two classes of models: 1) Systems of continuous-time random walks on the d-dimensional grid with state dependent branching rate. While there are k particles at a given site, a branching event occurs there at rate s(k), and one of the particles is replaced by a random number of offspring (according to a fixed distribution with mean 1 and finite variance). 2) Discrete-time systems of branching random walks in random environment. Given a space-time i.i.d. field of random offspring distributions, all particles act independently, the offspring law of a given particle depending on its position and generation. The mean number of children per individual, averaged over the random environment, equals one The long-time behaviour is determined by the interplay of the motion and the branching mechanism: In the case of recurrent symmetrised individual motion, systems of the second type become locally extinct. We prove a comparison theorem for convex functionals of systems of type one which implies that these systems also become locally extinct in this case, provided that the branching rate function grows at least linearly. Furthermore, the analysis of a caricature model leads to the conjecture that local extinction prevails generically in this case. In the case of transient symmetrised individual motion the picture is more complex: Branching random walks with state dependent branching rate converge towards a non-trivial equilibrium, which preserves the initial intensity, whenever the branching rate function grows subquadratically. Systems of type 1) and systems of type 2) with quadratic branching rate function show very similar behaviour. They converge towards a non-trivial equilibrium if a conditional exponential moment of the collision time of two random walks of an order that reflects the variability in the branching mechanism is finite almost surely. The equilibrium population has finite variance of the local particle number if the corresponding unconditional exponential moment is finite. These results are proved by means of genealogical representations of the locally size-biased population. Furthermore, we compute the threshold values for existence of conditional exponential moments of the collision time of two random walks in terms of the entropy of the transition functions, using tools from large deviations theory. Our results prove in particular that - in contrast to the classical case of independent branching - there is a regime of equilibria with variance of the local number of particles.
One of the known apoptotic pathways in mammalian cells involves release of mitochondrial Cytochrome c into the cytosol. Cyt c then together with ATP or dATP induces a conformational change in the adaptator protein Apaf-1 (a homologue of the C. elegans CED4 protein) (Zou, Henzel et al. 1997), leading to its oligomerization and the recruitment of several pro-Casp-9 molecules. This protein complex assembly called "apoptosome" leads to the activation of Casp-9 which then initiates or amplifies the caspase cascade. The cell death program can be stalled at several points and we were interested in identifying new proteins inhibiting cell death downstream of Cyt c release. This thesis describes how I have screened a cDNA library derived from a pool of human breast carcinomas in a yeast-based survival screen, using the S. pombe yeast strain HC4 containing an inducible CED4 construct(James, Gschmeissner et al. 1997). The screen resulted in the identification of six proteins displaying cell death-inhibiting activity in S. pombe as well as anti-apoptotic potential in mammalian cells. Those six molecules were RoRet (Ruddy, Kronmal et al. 1997), Aven (Chau, Cheng et al. 2000), Fte-1/S3a (Kho, Wang et al. 1996), PGC2 (Padilla, Kaur et al. 2000; Goetze, Eilers et al. 2002), SAA1-2ß (Moriguchi, Terai et al. 2001) and FBP (Brockstedt, Rickers et al. 1998) of which I selected RoRet, Aven and Fte-1/S3a for further analysis. RoRet is a new anti-apoptotic molecule that can inhibit the mitochondrial pathway via its PRY-SPRY domain. RoRet does not seem to bind to Apaf-1, and does not co-localize with the activated Apaf-1/Caspase-9 complex. Aven was published to act as an anti-apoptotic protein and suggested to function via the recruitment of Bcl-XL to Apaf-1. This work shows that its C-terminal domain can bind to Apaf-1 and has a strong anti-apoptotic activity by itself. Moreover, Aven co-localizes with the activated Apaf-1/Caspase-9 complex suggesting that it is a component of the apoptosome. Furthermore, the expression of Aven is regulated in mammary glands during the pregnancy cycle. Fte-1/S3a has been already implicated in increased transformation capacity of v-Fos in fibroblasts (Kho and Zarbl 1992; Kho, Wang et al. 1996). This work shows that it has anti-apoptotic activity and can protect against Bak- and Apaf-1-induced apoptosis. It can bind directly to activated Apaf-1 at the linker domain between the WD40 repeats and the CED4-like domain, suggesting that it may protect by sequestering the activated Apaf-1 to some organelles whose nature remains to be determined. Moreover, expression studies on mRNA and protein level showed upregulation of Fte-1/S3a in colon, lung and kidney carcinoma. Hmgb1 (Flohr, Rogalla et al. 2001; Pasheva, Ugrinova et al. 2002; Stros, Ozaki et al. 2002) was identified during a survival screen performed with a NIH 3T3 mouse fibroblast cDNA library in a Bak-expressing yeast S. pombe strain. HMGB1 can protect against Bak-, UV-, FasL- and TRAIL-induced apoptosis. Significant overexpression of HMGB1 was found in breast and colon carcinoma, and elevated mRNA amounts were detected in uterus, colon and stomach carcinoma, suggesting that it may be a tumour marker (Brezniceanu et al., 2003).
Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) are gaseous parallel plate avalanche detectors that implement electrodes made from a material with a high volume resistivity between 10 high 7 and 10 high 12 omega cm. Large area RPCs with 2mm single gaps operated in avalanche mode provide above 98% efficiency and a time resolution of around 1 ns up to a flux of several kHz/cm high 2. These Trigger RPCs will, as an example, equip the muon detector system of the ATLAS experiment at CERN on an area of 3650 m high 2 and with 355.000 independent read out channels. Timing RPCs with a gas gap of 0.2 to 0.3mm are widely used in multi gap configurations and provide 99% efficiency and time resolution down to 50 ps. While their performance is comparable to existing scintillator-based Time-Of-Flight (TOF) technology, Timing RPCs feature a significantly, up to an order of magnitude, lower price per channel. They will for example equip the 176 m high 2 TOF barrel of the ALICE experiment at CERN with 160.000 independent read out cells. RPCs were originally operated in streamer mode providing large signals which simplifies readout electronics and gap uniformity requirements. However, high rate applications and detector aging issues made the operation in avalanche mode popular. This was also facilitated by the development of new highly quenching C2F4H2-based gas mixtures with small contents of SF6. While the physics of streamers is difficult to study, the avalanche mode opened the possibility for a detailed simulation of the detector physics processes in RPCs. Even though RPCs were introduced in the early eighties and have been (will be) used in experiments, there are still disagreements about the explanation of several aspects of the RPC performance. The high efficiency of single gap RPCs would require a large ionization density of the used gases, which according to some authors contradicts measurements. Even in the case of a large ionization density the gas gain has to be extremely large, in order to arrive at the observed RPC efficiency. This raises other questions: A very strong space charge effect is required to explain the observed small avalanche charges around 1 pC. Doubts have been raised whether an avalanche can progress under such extreme conditions without developing into a streamer. To overcome these difficulties, other processes, like the emission of an electron from the cathode, were suggested. Moreover, the shape of measured charge spectra of single gap RPCs differs largely from what is expected from the statistics of the primary ionization and the avalanche multiplication. In this thesis we discuss the detector physics processes of RPCs, from the primary ionization and the avalanche statistics to the signal induction and the read out electronics. We present Monte-Carlo simulation procedures that implement the described processes. While the fundament of the described model and some results were already published elsewhere [1], the subject of this thesis is the implementation of the space charge effect. We present analytic formulas for the electrostatic potential of a point charge in the gas gap of an RPC. These formulas were developed in collaboration with the University of Graz [2] and were published in [3, 4]. The simulation model presented in [1] is completed by the dynamic calculation of the space charge field using these formulas. Since the gas parameters like drift velocity and the Townsend and attachment coefficients depend on the electric field, they are calculated dynamically as well. The functional dependence of these parameters on the field is obtained with the simulation programs MAGBOLTZ and IMONTE. For the primary ionization parameters, we use the values that are predicted by the program HEED. While the described procedure only simulates the longitudinal avalanche development towards the anode of the RPC, we also present more dimensional models that allow a careful study of the transverse repulsive and attractive forces of the space charge fields, and of the consequences for the avalanche propagation. We shall show that the efficiencies of single gap Timing RPCs is indeed explained by the high primary ionization density (about 9.5 /cm as predicted by HEED) and a large effective Townsend coefficient (around 113 /mm as predicted by IMONTE). We show that the space charge field reaches the same magnitude as the applied electric field in avalanches at large gas gain. This strong space charge effect effectively suppresses large values for the avalanche charges. The shape of the simulated charge spectra is very similar to the measurements. Also the simulated average charges are close to the experimental results. RPCs are operated in a strong space charge regime over a large range of applied voltage, contrary to wire chambers. We apply only standard detector physics simulations to RPCs. The performance of Timing and Trigger RPCs is well reproduced by our simulations. The results concerning the space charge effect were presented and discussed at the 'RPC 2001' workshop [5] and on the '2002 NSS/MIC' conference [6].
In summary, the cooled heavy-ion beams of the ESR storage ring offer excellent experimental conditions for a precise study of the effects of QED in the groundstate of high-Z one- and two-electron ions. This has been demonstrated within the series of experiments conducted at the electron cooler device as well as at the gasjet target. In this work we have used a recently developed experimental approach to obtain the first direct measurement of the two-electron contributions to the ground state binding energy of helium-like uranium. By employing our method, all one-electron contributions to the binding energy such as finite-nuclear size corrections and the one-electron self energy cancel out completely. Note, this is a distinctive feature of this particular kind of QED test and is in contrast to all other tests of bound state QED for high-Z ions such as 1s Lamb shift (in one-electron systems), g-factor of bound electrons, or hyperfine splitting. Compared to former investigations conducted at the superEBIT in Livermore we could already substantially improve the statistical accuracy and extend studies to the higher-Z regime. Moreover, our result has reached a sensitivity on specific two-electron QED contributions. Our value agrees with the theoretical predictions within the experimental uncertainty. Similar to the superEBIT experiment possible sources of systematic errors are essentially eliminated and the final result is limited only by counting statistics. For the case of the 1s Lamb shift in hydrogen-like uranium, the achieved accuracy of +- 4.2 eV is a substantial improvement by a factor of 3 compared to the most precise value up to now [44] (see Fig. 5.6). Our result already provides a test of the first-order QED contributions at the 1.5% level and only a slight improvement is required in order to achieve a sensitivity to QED contributions beyond first-order SE and VP.
The mechanism of peptide transport has been studied on two different ABC transporters of S. cerevisiae. Thereby, the aim of this PhD thesis was to characterise the transporter function on molecular level and shed light on the physiological role of these transporters. The ABC gene YLL048 encodes a novel intracellular transporter translocating peptides from the cytosol to the lumen of the ER. Deletion of the gene resulted in loss of peptide transport activity. The transport activity was fully restored after transformation of the deletion mutant by plasmid-encoded YLL048. Studying the substrate specificity using randomized peptide libraries it was demonstrated that peptides of the size from 6 to 56 amino acids are recognized. So far, no upper limit of the substrate size was obtained. Introduction of D-amino acids in various positions of a nonamer peptide did not impair transport activity. The physiological function of YLL048p is not well understood. The gene product is not essential for cell viability as the deletion mutant did not show any growth phenotype. To examine the possibility that YLL048 encoded protein is part of a quality control of yeast cells involved in the unfolded protein response (UPR), upregulation of YLL048 transcription by heat shock and stress conditions were investigated. We could not observe an influence of stress factors on YLL048 mRNA level. Upregulation of gene expression by the transcription factors Pdr1p and Pdr3p was excluded. The ABC transporter Mdl1p has been identified as peptide transporter of the inner mitochondrial membrane. This protein is required for the export of peptides with the size of 6 to 21 amino acids from the matrix into the intermembrane space. These peptides are generated by m-AAA proteases degrading non-assembled or missfolded membrane proteins. In order to understand the transport mechanism in detail, Mdl1p was expressed in S. cerevisiae and E. coli. Partially enriched protein was reconstituted into liposomes and was active in ATP binding. The association of the NBDs has been described as a central step of the ATPase cycle of ABC transporters, but it is still controversial how both motor domains cooperate and coordinate ATP hydrolysis. To address this question, the Mdl1p-NBD was overexpressed in E. coli and purified to homogeneity. The isolated NBD was active in ATP binding and hydrolysis with a turnover of 0.5 ATP per min and a Km value of 0.2 mM. Isolated NBDs did not show cooperativity in ATPase activity. However, the ATPase activity was observed to be non-linearly dependent on protein concentration suggesting the active form of this enzyme is not a monomer. Very importantly, for the first time an ATP-induced dimer was observed after trapping the NBD by ortho-vanadate or BeFx. The nucleotide composition of the trapped intermediate state was determined and two ADP molecules were simultaneously bound per dimer. An ATP-induced dimer of the ATPase inactive mutant (E559Q) was observed already in the absence of ATPase inhibitor. The E599Q dimer contained two ATP molecules in the absence of Mg2+ at 4°C. Prolonged incubation at 30°C in the presence of Mg2+ induced a stable dimer in which one ATP and ADP molecule were trapped at the same time. Based on these experiments, a new cycle for ATPase activity of ABC transporters was proposed. Binding of ATP to two NBD monomers induces dimerization. Both nucleotides are hydrolysed sequentially. During the hydrolysis cycle the nucleotides cannot be released from the dimer. After hydrolysis of two ATP molecules the domains dissociate and start a new cycle.
Die Entwicklung der Renormierungsgruppen-Technik, die in ihrer feldtheoretischen Version auf Ideen von Stückelberg und Petermann und in der Festkörperphysik auf K.G. Wilson zurückgeht, hat wesentliche Einsichten in die Natur physikalischer Systeme geliefert. Insbesondere das Konzept der so genannten Universalitätsklassen erhellt, warum Systeme, die durch scheinbar sehr verschiedene Hamilton-Operatoren beschrieben werden, doch im Wesentlichen die selbe (Niederenergie-)Physik zeigen. Ein weiterer Grund für den Erfolg dieser Methode liegt darin begründet, dass sie in systematischer Weise unendlich viele Feynman-Diagramme aufsummiert und somit über konventionelle Störungstheorie hinaus geht. Dies spielt in der Festkörperphysik vor allem dann eine wichtige Rolle, wenn das vorliegende physikalische System stark korreliert ist. Entsprechend der Vielzahl von Anwendungsmöglichkeiten hat sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten eine große Bandbreite verschiedener Formulierungen der Renormierungsgruppen-Technik ergeben. Eine davon ist die sogenannte funktionale Renormierungsgruppe, die auf Wegner und Houghton zurück geht und die auch in der vorliegenden Arbeit benutzt und weiter entwickelt wurde. Wir haben hier insbesondere auf die Einbeziehung der wichtigen Reskalierungsschritte wertgelegt. Als erstes Anwendungsgebiet des neu entwickelten Formalismus wurden stark korrelierte Elektronen in einer Raumdimension ausgewählt und hier insbesondere ein Modell, das als Tomonaga-Luttinger-Modell (TLM) bezeichnet wird. Im TLM wechselwirken Elektronen mit einer strikt linearen Energiedispersion ausschließlich über so genannte Vorwärtsstreu-Prozesse. Aufgrund der Linearisierung der Energiedispersion nahe der Fermipunkte ergibt sich ein Modell, das z.B. mit Hilfe der so genannten Bosonisierungs-Technik exakt gelöst werden kann. Hauptziel der vorliegenden Arbeit ist es, die bekannte Spektralfunktion dieses Modells unter Verwendung des Renormierungsgruppen-Formalismus zu reproduzieren. Gegenüber der bisherigen Implementierung der Renormierungsgruppe, bei der lediglich der Fluss einer endlichen Anzahl von Kopplungskonstanten betrachtet wird, stellt die Berechnung des Flusses ganzer Korrelationsfunktionen eine enorme Erweiterung dar. Der Erfolg dieser Herangehensweise im TLM bestärkt die Hoffnung, dass es in Zukunft auch möglich sein wird, die Spektralfunktionen anderer Modelle mit dieser Methode zu berechnen, bei denen herkömmliche Techniken versagen.
This thesis presented the measurement of antideuteron and antihelium-3 production in central AuAu collisions at V SNN = 200 GeV center-of-mass energy at RHIC. The analysis is based on STAR data, about 3 x 10 high 6 events at top 10% centrality. Within the data sample a total number of about 5000 antideuterons and 193 antihelium-3 were observed in the STARTPC at mid-rapidity. The specific energy loss measurement in the TPC provides antideuteron identification only in a small momentum window, antihelium-3 however can be identified nearly background free with almost complete momentum range coverage. Following the statistical analysis of the hadronic composition at chemical freeze-out of the fireball, the antinuclei abundances were analyzed in terms of the same statistical description. Now applied to the clusterization of the fireball, the statistical analysis yields a fireball temperature of (135+-10) MeV and chemical potential of (5+-10) MeV at kinetic freeze-out. In the same way as the hadronization, the clusterization process is phase-space dominated and clusters are born into a state of maximum entropy. The large sample of observed antihelium-3 allowed for the first time in heavy-ion physics to calculate a differential multiplicity and invariant cross section as a function of transverse momentum. As expected, the collective transverse flow in the fireball flattens the shape of the transverse momentum spectrum and leads to the high inverse slope parameter of (950+-140) MeV of the antihelium-3 spectrum. With the extracted mean transverse momentum of antihelium-3, the collective flow velocity in transverse direction could be estimated. As the average thermal velocity is small compared to the mean collective flow velocity for heavy particles, the mean transverse momentum of antihelium-3 by itself constrains the flow velocity. Here, a simple ideal-gas approximation was fitted to the distribution of the mean transverse momentum as a function of particle mass and provided direct access to the kinetic freeze-out temperature and the flow velocity. A concept, which is complementary to the combined analysis of momentum spectra and two-particle HBT correlation methods commonly used to extract these parameters, and a cross check for the statistical analysis. The upper limit for the transverse collective flow velocity from the antihelium-3 measurement alone is v flow <= (0.68+-0.06)c, whereas the ideal-gas approximation yields a temperature of (130+-40) MeV and v flow = (0.46+-0.08)c. The results indicate, that the kinetic freeze-out conditions at SPS and RHIC are very similar, except for a smaller baryon chemical potential at RHIC. The simultaneous inclusive measurement of antiprotons allowed to study the cluster production in terms of the coalescence picture. With the large momentum coverage of the antihelium-3 momentum spectrum, the coalescence parameter could be calculated as a function of transverse momentum. Due to the difference between antiproton and antihelium-3 inverse slopes, increases with increasing transverse momentum - again a direct consequence of collective transverse flow. Both B2 and B3 follow the common behavior of decreasing coalescence parameters as a function of collision energy. According to the simple thermodynamic coalescence model, this indicates an increasing freeze-out volume for higher energies and is confirmed by the interpretation of the coalescence parameters in the framework of Scheibl and Heinz. Their model includes a dynamically expanding source in a quantum mechanical description of the coalescence process and expresses the coalescence parameter as a function of the homogeneity volume V hom accessible also in two-particle HBT correlation analyzes. The values for the antideuteron and antihelium-3 results agree well with the homogeneity volume from pion-pion correlations, but do not seem to follow the same transverse mass dependence. A comparison with proton-proton correlations may clarify this point and provide an important cross check for this analysis. Compared to SPS the homogeneity volume increases nearly by a factor of two. The analysis of the antinuclei emission at RHIC allowed to study the kinetic freeze-out of the created fireball. The results show, that the temperature and mean transverse velocity in the expanding system does not change significantly, when the collision energy increases by one order of magnitude. Only the source volume, i.e. the homogeneity volume, increases. That leaves open questions for the theoreticians to the details of the system evolution from the initial hot and dense phase - the initial energy density is a factor of two to three higher at RHIC than at SPS - to the final kinetic freeze-out with similar conditions. At the same time, the results are important constraints for the theoretical descriptions. The successful implementation of the Level-3 trigger system in STAR opens the door for the measurement of very rare signals. Indeed, in the coalescence physics perspective, the first observations of anti-alpha 4 He nuclei and antihypertritons 3/Delta H will come within the reach of STAR, in addition to a high statistics sample of antihelium-3.
For palaeotropical regions, only a few anecdotal reports had been published on the existence of 'ant-gardens' before this study started. As opposed to this, 'ant-house epiphytes' (i.e. domatiabearing epiphytes) were reported to be highly abundant in Southeast Asia and were presumed to be a second type of ant-epiphyte interaction. In the much better studied neotropical regions the situation seemed to be the reverse: Many reports on AGs in contrast to very few reports on anthouse epiphytes. In this study, I have presented extensive data which may help towards a better understanding of the 'Southeast Asian part' of this 'ant-epiphyte puzzle'. In Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Java, and Southern Thailand, a great variety of formerly unknown AG systems were discovered. 18 ant species (from 5 genera, 4 subfamilies) were identified as true AG ants, i.e. these ants actively retrieved seeds of certain epiphyte species into their carton nests. Another 49 ant species inhabited AGs as secondary, opportunistic settlers. On the epiphyte side, 84 plant species were found growing on AGs, 51 (19 genera, 12 families) of which were probably true AG epiphytes, i.e. ants retrieved the seeds to their arboreal carton nests, on which the epiphytes were then cultivated. Most of the epiphyte flora of lowland forests in Peninsular Malaysia (except for ferns, orchids and facultative epiphytes) seemed to be totally dependent on ants for their establishment in the canopy. Together with the high number of opportunistic AG inhabitants (ants, epiphytes, and many arthropod guests), these facts suggest that AGs function as pioneers in the canopy of Southeast Asian rain forests. Moreover, AG-associations might even have accounted for the unusual species richness in the epiphyte genera Dischidia, Hoya (Asclepiadaceae), Myrmecodia, and Hydnophytum (Rubiaceae). The definition of the term ant-garden only describes the basic interactions. In the ant-garden associations investigated in this study, interactions going beyond these basic ones varied depending on ant and epiphyte species. Ant-gardens initiated by Diacamma spKfmA111 were regarded as the 'most primitive' type, because this ponerine was totally dependent on preformed cavities for nest establishment, did not tend any trophobionts, and was the least selective in its seed-retrieving behavior. On the other end of the scale, Crematogaster spKfmA18 and Camponotus spKfmA9 were rated as 'most advanced' because both lived in free (i.e. cavityindependent) AGs, tended trophobionts underneath their nests, were associated with a couple of other organisms, and were highly selective in their seed-retrieving behavior. Moreover, Camponotus spKfmA9 occurred preferentially with one single epiphyte species, Hoya elliptica (Asclepiadaceae), and Crematogaster spKfmA18 was specialized on some species of giant bamboo as phorophyte. Philidris spKfmA160, which occupied a medium position in relation to the other AGs was particularly interesting for several reasons. This ant species was mainly associated with ant- house epiphytes and occurred in the heath forests of Borneo. However, the major part of the colonies, including the queen, was located underneath carton structures near the surface of the host tree and not inside the domatia of the associated plants. Moreover, very young Philidris spKfmA160 colonies had only small seedlings growing on their carton nests. The ant workers actively retrieved the seeds of their epiphyte partners into the nests. These results indicate that associations with ant-house epiphytes must be regarded as a special case of ant-gardens. I therefore suggest using the term 'ant-house' only to describe the epiphytes, but not to describe the association, and to include this type of association in the group of AGs. Strict species-specificity never occurred, but some epiphytes showed great preference for growing on the nests of certain ant species, while others occurred over a wider range. Vice versa, most ant species had several epiphytes growing on their nests, while others were mostly found with one or very few epiphyte species. These patterns were shown to be the effect of different factors, including common microclimatic preferences of ants and epiphytes, interspecific competition of epiphytes, and selective seed retrieval of AG ants. The main behavioral trait responsible for the establishment of AGs was the selectivity shown by the ants in the epiphyte seeds they carried. However, details of the mechanisms, i.e. what characteristics of the seeds are important and what motivates the ants to retrieve them, varied widely. In many cases, seed compounds located on the surface triggered carrying behavior. Detailed experimental investigations combined with literature data from the two other known 'myrmecochory systems', terricolous myrmecochores and neotropical AGs, suggested that myrmecochory is frequently triggered by a two-stage system. One relatively unspecific compound (or a combination of such compounds) constitutes the basic attractiveness for a number of ant species. Other seed characteristics (elaiosomes, mechanical properties, other surface-compounds) modulate this basic signal, accounting for species-specific preferences of ants towards certain plant species. A comparison of AGs in Southeast Asia and the neotropics shows that the numbers of AG ant and epiphyte species in each case are almost equal. Southeast Asian AG epiphytes might even turn out to outnumber the neotropical ones. Thus, not only was it possible to break down the distinction between ant-house and AG associations, but also to show that AGs in Southeast Asia are present in such high diversity and abundance as to diminish the apparent contrast between the two biogeographical regions yet further. These data help to solve at least the Southeast Asian part of the 'ant-epiphyte puzzle'.