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Antonio Lotti und seine liturgische Kirchenmusik – Vorstudien zu Biographie und Überlieferung
(2023)
Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) gehört zu den venezianischen Komponisten, die in der älteren wie der neueren Fachliteratur ein hohes Ansehen genießen, obwohl seine Werke bis heute nur wenig bekannt sind. Eine unklare Überlieferungslage, aber auch sachfremde ästhetische Postulate verzögerten jedoch die Auseinandersetzung mit Lottis Kompositionen. Erst in neuerer Zeit gab es ein verstärktes Interesse sowohl an seinen Opern und vokaler Kammermusik als auch an seiner Kirchenmusik.
In der vorliegenden Studie wird zunächst Lottis Biographie unter Einbeziehung neuer Quellenfunde auf dem aktuellen Stand des Wissens zusammenfassend dargestellt. Der zweite Teil bietet erstmals eine Identifikation von Lottis Buchstaben- und Notenschrift nach streng philologischen Kriterien. Angesichts des nicht mehr erhaltenen Nachlasses ist dieser Teil von besonderer Bedeutung, bietet er doch die unverzichtbare Basis zur weiteren Erforschung von Lottis Kirchenmusik, ihrer Überlieferung und Faktur.
Factors triggering the ecotoxicity of metal-based nanoparticles towards aquatic invertebrates
(2015)
Nanoparticles are produced and used in huge amounts increasing their probability to end up in surface waters. There, they are subject to environmentally driven modification processes. Consequently, aquatic life may be exposed to different nanoparticle agglomerate sizes, while after sedimentation benthic organisms are more likely to be affected.
However, most ecotoxicity studies with nanoparticles exclusively investigated implications of their characteristics (e.g. size) on pelagic organisms, ignoring environmentally modified nanoparticles. Therefore, a systematic assessment of factors triggering the fate and toxicity of nanoparticles under environmentally relevant conditions is needed. The present thesis, therefore, investigates the implications of nanoparticle related factors (i.e., inherent material-properties and nanoparticle characteristics) as well as environmental conditions towards the pelagic living organism Daphnia magna and the benthic species Gammarus fossarum. In detail, inert titanium dioxide (nTiO2) and ion-releasing silver nanoparticles (nAg), both of varying particle characteristics (e.g. initial size), were tested for their toxicity under different environmental conditions (e.g. ultraviolet-light (UV-light)).
The results indicate that the toxicity of nTiO2 and nAg is mainly determined by: their adsorption potential onto biota, and their fate in terms of reactive oxygen species or Ag+ ion release. Thus, inherent material-properties, nanoparticle characteristics and environmental conditions promoting or inhibiting these aspects revealed significant implications in the toxicity of nTiO2 and nAg towards daphnids.
Furthermore, the presence of ambient UV-light, for example, adversely affected gammarids at 0.20 mg nTiO2/L, while under darkness no effects occurred even at 5.00 mg nTiO2/L. Hence, the currently associated risk of nanoparticles might be underestimated if disregarding their interaction with environmental parameters
Auswirkungen des Zweiten Weltkrieges auf Psychopathologie und Therapie bei psychischen Erkrankungen
(2009)
In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden die Auswirkungen des Zweiten Weltkrieges auf die Psychopathologien und Therapien psychischer Erkrankungen am Beispiel der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Klingenmünster aufgezeigt. Als Quellenmaterial dienten 186 Patientenakten. Die Auswertung der Krankenberichte erfolgte zum einen nach soziodemographischen Merkmalen (wie z.B. Alter, Geschlecht, Wohnort, Beruf usw.), zum anderen nach Diagnose und Therapie. Der Schwerpunkt wurde auf die Auswertung der Diagnosen und die damit verbundenen Psychopathologien gelegt. Dafür wurden die Akten vor dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (1932) und nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg (1948) miteinander verglichen. Dabei erhob sich auch die Frage, ob die Behandlung, die den Patienten in Klingenmünster zuteil wurde, dem Stand der zeitgenössischen Wissenschaft entsprach. Bei den Diagnosen gab es Unterschiede dergestalt, dass 1932 die Diagnose Progressive Paralyse und Schizophrenie signifikant häufiger gestellt wurde als 1948. Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg wurde dafür der angeborene Schwachsinnszustand und die Psychische Störung des höheren Lebensalters signifikant häufiger diagnostiziert. Die Progressive Paralyse trat 1948 wahrscheinlich deshalb seltener auf, weil in den 30er Jahren mit der wirksamen Malariakur und Salvarsantherapie eine recht hohe Remissionsrate erzielt wurde und sie deshalb Ende der 40er Jahre allgemein seltener auftrat. 1948 wurden Patienten mit Schizophrenie seltener aufgenommen als 1932. Es ist denkbar, dass der Anteil der Schizophrenen aufgrund der bereits 1933 laufenden rassenhygienischen Maßnahmen sowie der frühen Deportation und Tötung dieser Patienten abgesunken sein könnte. Patienten mit der Diagnose einer Störung des höheren Lebensalters fielen der Euthanasie wahrscheinlich nicht zum Opfer, da sie ihr Leben lang dem Gemeinwesen genutzt hatten und nicht erbkrank waren. Die Ermordung von "sozial Wertvollen", jetzt jedoch alt gewordenen Menschen wäre auf großen öffentlichen Widerstand gestoßen. Für diese Menschen gab es keinen anderen Ort mehr, denn die Pflege- oder Altenheime waren ausgebombt. Die Versorgung der alten und hinfälligen Menschen wurde im ganzen Land immer schwieriger. Diese Entwicklung der letzten Kriegsjahre und Nachkriegsjahre in Deutschland könnte eine Erklärung dafür sein, dass diese Patienten die größte Patientengruppe 1948 in Klingenmünster bildeten. Das galt sicherlich nicht für Patienten mit angeborenem Schwachsinn, die als erbkrank galten und somit den rassenhygienischen Maßnahmen zum Opfer fielen. In den 40-er Jahren war auch die Öffentlichkeit so weitgehend über die mit einem Klinikaufenthalt verbundene Gefahr der Tötung informiert, dass weniger Patienten einer stationären Behandlung zugeführt worden sein dürften. Diese Patienten wurden während des Krieges wahrscheinlich von ihren Angehörigen nicht in eine Anstalt gebracht. Ziel der vorliegenden Arbeit war es auch zu klären, ob der Zweite Weltkrieg Auswirkungen auf psychiatrische Krankheitsbilder im Sinne einer Kriegsneurose hatte. Es zeigte sich, dass der Zweite Weltkrieg keine Auswirkungen auf die Prävalenz des Krankheitsbildes Kriegsneurose in der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Klingenmünster hatte. Neben den Krankheitsbildern und den Psychopathologien wurden auch die Therapieformen der beiden Jahrgänge miteinander verglichen. Aber auch hier gab es keine kriegsbedingten Unterschiede. Betrachtet man die Therapieformen zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik und der Nachkriegszeit vor dem Hintergrund der gängigen Therapien zu dieser Zeit, so war Klingenmünster auf dem aktuellen wissenschaftlichen Stand. Die am häufigsten eingesetzten Behandlungsmethoden waren zum einen die Arbeitstherapie, zum anderen die medikamentöse Therapie. Der Rückgang der Arbeitstherapie von 1932 auf 1948 könnte mit dem Personalmangel in den Nachkriegsjahren in den Kliniken zu tun haben, wonach unzureichend qualifiziertes Pflegepersonal vorhanden war, die die Kranken bei der Arbeit anleiten und beaufsichtigen konnten. Die medikamentöse Therapie war die führende Therapieform, die in der Heil- und Pflegeanstalt Klingenmünster eingesetzt wurde. Zwischen den beiden Jahrgängen gab es hinsichtlich der Häufigkeit keine Unterschiede. Doch die Art der Therapie hatte sich im Verlauf der Jahre durch die Einführung der Insulinkomatherapie 1933, der Cardiazolkrampftherapie 1934 und der Elektrokrampftherapie 1938 verändert.
This Thesis contributes by reporting on the current state of diffusion of collaboration information technology (CIT). The investigation concludes, with a high degree of certainty, that today we have a "satisfactory" diffusion level of some level-A CITs (mostly e-Mail, distantly followed by Audio Conferencing), and a "dissatisfactory" diffusion level of higher-level CITs (i.e. those requiring significant collaboration and cooperation among users, like Meeting Support Systems, Group Decision Support Systems, etc.). The potential benefits of the latter seem to be far from fully realised due to lack of user acceptance. This conclusion has gradually developed along the research cycle " it was suggested by Empirical Study I, and tested through Empirical Studies II and III. An additional, unplanned and rather interesting, finding from this study has been the recognition of large [mostly business] reporting on numerous Web 2.0 user-community produced collaboration technologies (most of them belonging to the category of "social software") and their metamorphosis from autonomous, "bottom-up" solutions into enterprise-supported infrastructures. Another contribution of this Thesis " again suggested by Empirical Study I, and tested through Empirical Studies II and III " pertains to the "process structure" of CIT diffusion. I have found that collaboration technology has historically diffused following two distinct (interdependent but orthogonal) diffusion paths " top-down (authority-based) and bottom-up. The authority-based diffusion path seems to be characterised by efforts aimed at "imposing" technologies on employees, the primary concern being to make sure that technology seamlessly and easily integrates into the organisational IT infrastructure. On the other hand, the bottom-up diffusion trail seems to be successful. The contribution of this investigation may be summarised as threefold: 1. This investigation consolidates most of the findings to date, pertaining to CIT adoption and diffusion, which have been produced by the CIT research community. Thus, it tells a coherent story of the dynamics of the community focus and the collective wisdom gathered over a period of (at least) one decade. 2. This work offers a meaningful framework within which to analyse existing knowledge " and indeed extends that knowledge base by identifying persistent problems of collaboration technology acceptance, adoption and diffusion. These problems have been repeatedly observed in practice, though the pattern does not seem to have been recognised and internalised by the community. Many of these problems have been observed in cases of CIT use one decade ago, five years ago, three years ago, and continue to be observed today in structurally the same form despite what is unarguably "rapid technological development". This gives me reason to believe that, at least some of the persistent problems of CIT diffusion can be hypothesised as "determining factors". My contribution here is to identify these factors, discuss them in detail, and thus tackle the theme of CIT diffusion through a structured historical narrative. 3. Through my contribution (2) above, I characterise a "knowledge-action gap" in the field of CIT and illuminate a potential path through which the research community might hope to bridge this gap. The gap may be operationalised as cognitive distance between CIT "knowledge" and CIT "action".
Currently, there are a variety of digital tools in the humanities, such
as annotation, visualization, or analysis software, which support researchers in their work and offer them new opportunities to address different research questions. However, the use of these tools falls far
short of expectations. In this thesis, twelve improvement measures are
developed within the framework of a design science theory to counteract the lack of usage acceptance. By implementing the developed design science theory, software developers can increase the acceptance of their digital tools in the humanities context.
Warum kann ich mir nicht vorstellen, meine Haare wachsen zu lassen, insbesondere meine Körperhaare? Diese Frage und das damit verbundene Unbehagen motivierten mich 2016 zur Entwicklung meines Dissertationsprojektes.
Die Suche nach einer Antwort führt zu einer Studie, die einen feministisch-phänomenologischen Erfahrungsbegriff zentral setzt. Bedeutsam für die Entwicklung eines solchen Begriffs sind die phänomenologischen Beiträge „Zur poststrukturalistischen Kritik an der Erfahrung im Kontext der feministischen Philosophie“ (Stoller 2005) von Silvia Stoller und „Phänomenologie, Poststrukturalismus und feministische Theorie. Zum Begriff der Erfahrung“ (Alcoff 1997) von Linda Martín Alcoff. Darauf aufbauend verfolgt das Dissertationsprojekt zunächst das Anliegen, Erfahrungen sichtbar zu machen, indem sie veranschaulicht und zur Sprache gebracht werden. Auf diese Weise wird es möglich, Erfahrungen hinterfragen zu können, um anschließend Antworten entwickeln zu können. Demnach beruhen mein Unvermögen, Körperhaare wachsen zu lassen, sowie das damit einhergehende Unbehagen darauf, eine drohende Erfahrung der Fremdheit mir selbst gegenüber abwenden zu wollen. Zu einer solchen Fremderfahrung würde es kommen, wenn ich durch meine Körperhaare damit konfrontiert werde, dass ich mir fremd bin. Jedoch um sich selbst kennenzulernen sind Menschen nach phänomenologischem Verständnis (vgl. Meyer-Drawe 2001: 141-142) auf andere Menschen angewiesen, da sie sich selbst erst durch andere bewusst werden können. Doch stellt es angesichts des gelebten Ideals der Haarlosigkeit (vgl. Labre 2002: 120-122, Strmljan 2018: 406) eine Herausforderung dar, meine drohende Fremderfahrung, aufgrund der Konfrontation mit meinen Körperhaaren, im Kontakt mit anderen Menschen zu überwinden, sodass ich eine solche Fremderfahrung vermeide, indem ich meine Körperhaare entferne. Als Resultat verbleibt mein Unbehagen darüber, dem Ideal der Haarlosigkeit zu entsprechen.
Zu einer solchen Antwort gelange ich anhand einer Studie, die folgender Forschungsfrage folgt:
Wie erfahren sich Menschen beim Waxing in einem Kosmetikstudio unter den Bedingungen der binären Geschlechterordnung?
Dass die Erfahrungen in einem Kosmetikstudio erforscht werden, begründet sich damit, dass in einem solchen der Zugang zu Erfahrungen bei der Entfernung von Körperhaaren möglich wird. Körperhaare zu entfernen ist zwar ein alltäglicher Umgang mit Körpern, jedoch intim und persönlich, sodass ein Zugang schwierig wird. Eine Lösung stellt hierfür ein Kosmetikstudio dar. Als Praktikantin in dem Kosmetikstudio Beautystudio werden mir Erfahrungen beim Waxing – einer kosmetischen Technik der Haarentfernung – zugänglich.
Auf solche Weise Daten zu erheben folgt dem ethnographischen Vorgehen der teilnehmenden Beobachtung. Forscher*innen nehmen beobachtend vor Ort teil und erheben Daten, indem sie Notizen, Protokolle und schließlich Studien erstellen. Mittels eines solchen Forschungsstils können Forscher*innen Erfahrungen in einer Studie zentral setzen, da sie so Erfahrungen selbst machen können und Zugang zu den Erfahrungen anderer erhalten (vgl. Amann/ Hirschauer 1997: 29-30, Breidenstein et al. 2013: 86-87, 103, 177-178).
Im Zuge der Datenerhebung zeigt sich wiederum, dass im Umgang mit Körperhaaren die Bedingungen der binären Geschlechterordnung wirksam werden. Beispielsweise wird in vielen Situationen die dichotome Differenz zwischen Männern und Frauen betont, ohne dass es konkret für die kosmetische Anwendung notwendig zu sein scheint. So erklärt sich, dass für die Analyse und das Hinterfragen der zur Sprache gebrachten Erfahrungen ein geschlechtertheoretisches Konzept herangezogen wird, welches Erfahrungen hinsichtlich der Bedingungen der binären Geschlechterordnung befragen kann. Eine solche Betrachtung der Daten bietet Gesa Lindemanns Konzept „Der leiblich-affektiven Konstruktion des Geschlechts“ (1992).
Basierend auf dem feministisch-phänomenologischen Erfahrungsbegriff, dem ethnographischen Vorgehen und dem Geschlechterkonzept Lindemann zeigt sich, dass Menschen beim Waxing erfahren (können), mit anderen Menschen verbunden und sich selbst unverbunden zu sein. Dabei wird die Haut zum Kristallisationspunkt der Verbindung zu anderen Menschen (und auch Apparaten). Durch die Berührungen wird einerseits Verbundenheit gestaltet und eine gegenseitige Zuwendung erfahrbar, andererseits wird diese aber auch unterbrochen, wenn durch das Waxing Schmerz zugefügt wird oder Menschen durch Blicke entblößt werden. So wird die Haut zum Medium zwischen den Erfahrungen der Verbundenheit und Unverbundenheit.
(Hinweisen möchte ich an dieser Stelle, dass alle Namen und Orte anonymisiert sind. Demnach handelt es sich beim Beautystudio um den anonymisierten Namen des Kosmetikstudios, in welchem ich forschte. Auf diese Weise soll die Persönlichkeit der Kontaktpersonen im Feld gewahrt bleiben.)
Literaturhinweise:
Alcoff, Linda M. (1997): Phänomenologie, Poststrukturalismus und feministische Theorie. Zum Begriff der Erfahrung. In: Stoller, Silvia/ Vetter, Helmuth (Hg.): Phänomenologie und Geschlechterdifferenz. Wien: WUV-Universitäts-Verlag: 227-271.
Amann, Klaus/ Hirschauer, Stefan (1997): Die Befremdung der eigenen Kultur. Ein Programm. In: Hirschauer, Stefan/ Amann, Klaus (Hg.): Die Befremdung der eigenen Kultur: Zur ethnographischen Herausforderung soziologischer Empirie. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp Verlag: 7-52.
Breidenstein, Georg/ Hirschauer, Stefan/ Kalthoff, Stefan/ Nieswand, Boris (2013): Ethnografie. Die Praxis der Feldforschung. Konstanz & München: UVK Verlagsgesellschaft
Labre Peixoto, Magdala (2002): The Brazilian Wax: New Hairlessness Norm for Women? In: Journal of Communication Inquiry: 26 (2): 113-132.
Lindemann, Gesa (1992): Die leiblich-affektive Konstruktion des Geschlechts. Für eine Mikrosoziologie des Geschlechts unter der Haut. In: Zeitschrift für Soziologie: 21 (5): 330-346.
Meyer-Drawe, Käte (2001): Leiblichkeit und Sozialität. München: Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
Stoller, Silvia (2005): Zur poststrukturalistischen Kritik an der Erfahrung im Kontext der feministischen Philosophie. In: Stoller, Silvia/ Vasterling, Veronica/ Fisher, Linda (Hg.): Feministische Phänomenologie und Hermeneutik. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann GmbH: 139-170.
Strmljan, Alina (2018): Haare zum Schämen? Weibliche Körperbehaarung und ihre Entfernung – Normen, Tabus und Trivialisierungen. In: Breuss, Susanne (Hg.): Mit Haut und Haar. Frisieren, Rasieren, Verschönern. Wien: Metroverlag: 404-410.
Focusing on the triangulation of detective fiction, masculinity studies and disability studies, "Investigating the Disabled Detective – Disabled Masculinity and Masculine Disability in Contemporary Detective Fiction" shows that disability challenges common ideals of (hegemonic) masculinity as represented in detective fiction. After a theoretical introduction to the relevant focal points of the three research fields, the dissertation demonstrates that even the archetypal detectives Dupin and Holmes undermine certain nineteenth-century masculine ideals with their peculiarities. Shifting to contemporary detective fiction and adopting a literary disability studies perspective, the dissertation investigates how male detectives with a form of neurodiversity or a physical impairment negotiate their masculine identity in light of their disability in private and professional contexts. It argues that the occupation as a detective supports the disabled investigator to achieve ‘masculine disability’. Inversing the term ‘disabled masculinity’, predominantly used in research, ‘masculine disability’ introduces a decisively gendered reading of neurodiversity and (acquired) physical impairment in contemporary detective fiction. The term implies that the disabled detective (re)negotiates his masculine identity by implementing the disability in his professional investigations and accepting it as an important, yet not defining, characteristic of his (gender) identity. By applying this approach to five novels from contemporary British and American detective fiction, the dissertation demonstrates that masculinity and disability do not negate each other, as commonly assumed. Instead, it emphasises that disability allows the detective, as much as the reader, to rethink masculinity.
English prepositions take only a small proportion of the language but play a substantial role. Although prepositions are of course also frequently used in English textbooks for secondary school, students fail to incidentally acquire them and often show low achievements in using prepositions correctly. The strategy commonly employed by language instructors is teaching the multiple senses of prepositions by rote which fails to help the students to draw links between the different meanings in usage. New findings in Cognitive Linguistics (CL) suggest a different approach to teaching prepositions and thus might have a strong impact on the methodologies of foreign language teaching and learning on the aspects of meaningful learning. Based on the Theory of Domains (Langacker, 1987), the notions of image schemas (Johnson, 1987) as well as the Conceptual Metaphor Theory (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980), the present study developed a CL-inspired approach to teaching prepositions, which was compared to the traditional teaching method by an empirical study conducted in a German school setting. Referring to the participants from the higher track and the medium track, who are at different proficiency levels, the results indicate that the CL-inspired teaching approach improved students" performance significantly more than the traditional approach in all the cases for the higher track and in some cases for the medium track. Thus, these findings open up a new perspective of the CL-inspired meaningful learning approach on language teaching. In addition, the CL-inspired approach demonstrates the unification of the integrated model of text and picture comprehension (the ITPC model) in integrating the new knowledge with related prior knowledge in the cognitive structure. According to the learning procedure of the ITPC model, the image schema as visual image is first perceived through the sensory register, then is processed in the working memory by conceptual metaphor, and finally it is integrated with cognitive schemata in the long term memory. Moreover, deep-seated factors, such as transfer of mother tongue, the difficulty of teaching materials, and the influence of prior knowledge, have strong effects on the acquisition of English prepositions.
Grundwasser ist eine lebenswichtige Ressource und gleichzeitig ein thermisch stabiler Lebensraum mit einer außergewöhnlichen Fauna. Aufgrund der Klimageschichte der letzten ca. 1,8 Millionen Jahre in Mitteleuropa war die Ausgangshypothese, dass die meisten Grundwasserarten an Temperaturen unterhalb von 14 °C angepasst sind und sich Temperaturerhöhungen daher negativ auf die Grundwasserfauna auswirken.
Um die Folgen einer Klimaerwärmung in situ beurteilen zu können, wurden anthropogen erwärmte Grundwässer als Modelle herangezogen. In ersten Teil dieser Arbeit wurden die Crustaceagemeinschaften natürlich temperierter und anthropogen erwärmter Standorte untersucht. Dazu wurden insgesamt 70 Grundwassermessstellen im Oberrheingraben über ein Jahr (2011 bis 2012) sechsmal beprobt. Ergänzend zu diesem synökologischen Ansatz wurde in einem zweiten Teil die Temperaturpräferenz ausgewählter Arten überprüft. Für diese autökologische Betrachtung wurde ein deutschlandweiter Datensatz herangezogen.
Die ausgewählten Untersuchungsgebiete haben sich als geeignete Modelle für die prognostizierten Temperaturerhöhungen herausgestellt. Die Temperatur erwies sich als einer der wichtigsten Parameter für die Crustaceagemeinschaften. Erwärmungen beeinflussen die Zusammensetzung der Gemeinschaften und die Diversität. Dabei zeigte sich, dass es artspezifisch unterschiedliche Temperaturpräferenzen gibt. Einige vermutlich weniger streng stygobionte Arten scheinen höhere Temperaturen zu tolerieren. Der Großteil der stygobionten Grundwasserarten bevorzugt allerdings Temperaturen unterhalb von 14 °C, wobei wenige Arten als „extrem kalt¬steno-therm“ einzustufen sind. Diese Arten wurden an Standorten nachgewiesen, die aufgrund der hydrologischen Verhältnisse relativ kühl sind und der Fauna auch zukünftig als kalte Refugien Schutz bieten könnten. Einer dieser Standorte ist aufgrund seiner Artenvielalt als „Hot Spot“ einzustufen. Die Ergebnisse legen nahe, dass vor allem kaltstenotherme Arten durch eine Klimaerwärmung und anthropogene Wärmeeinträge gefährdet sind.
Die Untersuchung zeigt, dass Grundwasserlebensräume vor Temperaturerhöhungen zu bewahren sind. Lokale anthropogene Wärmeeinträge sollten keine dauerhafte und großflächige Grundwassererwärmung über 14 °C zur Folge haben. Thermische Ein-träge sollten überwacht und bewertet werden. Es wird empfohlen, die bestehenden rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen den ökologischen Erfordernissen anzupassen.
In Anbetracht der steigenden Scheidungszahlen und der damit immer höher werdenden Zahl betroffener Kinder, erscheint eine Trennung und Scheidung als eine der größten pädagogischen Herausforderungen der Gegenwart (vgl. Figdor, 2000, S. 89). Der Beginn der Scheidungsforschung war durch eine Defizitperspektive geprägt und bewertete die elterliche Scheidung, die sogenannten "broken homes" (vgl. Lexikon der Psychologie), als eine Abweichung von der "Normalfamilie", als generelles Entwicklungsrisiko für Kinder (vgl. Schwarz und Noack, 2002, S. 316). Eine Trennung und Scheidung zählt heute längst nicht mehr zu den familiären Ausnahmesituationen. Gegenwärtig werden in Deutschland circa 50 Prozent der Ehen geschieden. Doch nicht zwangsläufig führt diese Erfahrung zu Traumatisierungen und Entwicklungsbeeinträchtigungen der betroffenen Kinder, sondern kann Entwicklungschancen mit sich bringen.
In der Wissenschaft besteht heute Konsens darüber, dass eine elterliche Trennung und Scheidung zahlreiche negative Folgen für die Entwicklung der Kinder haben kann, aber nicht muss (vgl. Nave-Herz, 2009, S. 96). Unter welchen Voraussetzungen führt nun die Scheidung der Eltern nicht zu negativen Langzeitfolgen der Kinder? Welche Faktoren beeinflussen das Scheidungserleben? Wie bewältigen Kinder das Scheidungsgeschehen und was hilft ihnen im Umgang mit der Problemsituation? Die Motivation zur Bearbeitung dieser Forschungsfragen entstand zum einen durch zahlreiche persönliche Begegnungen mit betroffenen Scheidungskindern in der beruflichen Praxis.
Zum anderen gab die Tatsache, dass in Deutschland trotz steigender Scheidungszahlen Längsschnittstudien fehlen, die altershomogene Gruppen jüngerer Kinder über einen längeren Zeitraum nach der Trennung und Scheidung untersuchen, Anlass, die vorliegende Studie anzustreben. Die Altersgruppe der Fünf- bis Neunjährigen steht im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit, da es sich bei diesen Probanden um eine Gruppe handelt, zu der wenig detaillierte und konkrete Untersuchungen vorliegen.
Assessment of bat activity in agricultural environments and the evaluation of the risk of pesticides
(2013)
Although agriculture dominates with around 50% area much of Europe- landscape, there is virtually no information on how bats use this farmed environment for foraging. Consequently, little is known about effective conservation measures to compensate potential negative effects of agrarian management practice on the food availability for bats in this habitat. Moreover, there are currently no specific regulatory requirements to include bats in European Union risk assessments for the registration of pesticides since no information about pesticide exposure on this mammal group is available. To evaluate the potential pesticide exposure of bats via ingestion of contaminated insects, information about bat presence and activity in agricultural habitats is required. In order to examine bat activity on a landscape scale it was necessary to establish a suitable survey method. Contrary to capture methods, telemetry, and direct observations, acoustic surveys of bat activity are a logistically feasible and cost-effective way of obtaining bat activity data. However, concerns regarding the methodological designs of many acoustic surveys are expressed in the scientific literature. The reasons are the failing of addressing temporal and spatial variation in bat activity patterns and the limitations of the suitability of the used acoustic detector systems. By comparing different methods and detector systems it was found that the set up of several stationary calibrated detector systems which automatically trigger the ultrasonic recording has the highest potential to produce reliable, unbiased and comparable data sets on the relative activity of bats.
By using the proposed survey method, bat diversity and activity was recorded in different crops and semi-natural habitats in southern Rhineland-Palatinate. Simultaneously, the availability of aerial prey insects was studied by using light and sticky traps. In more than 500 sampling nights about 110,000 call sequences were acoustically recorded and almost 120,000 nocturnal insects were sampled. A total of 14 bat species were recorded, among them the locally rare and critically endangered northern bat (Eptesicus nilssonii) and the barbastelle (Barbastella barbastellum), all of them also occurring over agricultural fields. The agricultural landscape of southern Palatinate is dominated by vineyards, a habitat that was shown to be of low quality for most bat species because of the demonstrated low availability of small aerial insects. By surveying bat activity and food availably in a pair-wise design on several rain water retention ponds and neighbouring vineyards it was demonstrated that aquatic insect emergence in artificial wetlands can provide an important resource subsidy for bats. The creation of artificial wetlands would be a possibility to create important foraging habitats for bats and mitigate negative effects of management practice in the agricultural landscape.
In several other agricultural crops, however, high abundances of suitable prey insects and high bat activity levels, comparable or even higher than in the nearby forests and meadows known to be used as foraging habitats were demonstrated. Especially high bat activity levels were recorded over several fruit orchards and vegetable fields where insects were also present. Both crops are known for high pesticide inputs, and, therefore, a pesticide exposure through ingestion of contaminated insects can not be excluded. To follow the current risk assessment approach for birds and mammals pesticide residues were measured on bat-specific food items in an apple orchard following insecticide applications and bat activity was recorded in parallel. The highest residue values were measured on foliage-dwelling arthropods which may results in a reproductive risk for all bat species that, even to a small extent, include this prey group in their diet. The presence of bats in agricultural landscapes that form a majority of the land area in Europe but also on a global scale leads to exposure of bats by contaminated food and depletion of their food resources by pesticide use. So far conservation efforts for bats focussed on securing hibernation sites and the creation of artificial roost sites since especially the latter were thought to be limiting population growth. However the potential pesticide effects might be also crucial for the population persistence in agricultural landscapes of bats and need to be addressed adequately, especially in risk assessment procedures for the regulation of pesticides.
Veränderungen in dem komplexen Wirkungsgefüge eines Agrarökosystems können erhebliche Auswirkungen auf die lokale Biozönose zur Folge haben. Die Überdachung von Obstkulturen mit Netzen oder Folien zum Schutz vor Hagel und Regen stellt eine solche Veränderung dar. Im Rahmen dieser Dissertation wurde anhand einer biozönotischen Risikoanalyse der Einfluss intensiver Landnutzung in Obstkulturen sowie der Einfluss von Kulturschutzeinrichtungen auf die drei Gilden tagaktive Greifvögel, insektivore Vögel und Arthropoden untersucht. Greifvögel, insektivore Vögel und räuberische Arthropoden üben als Prädatoren wichtige Regulationsfunktionen im Nahrungsnetz eines Ökosystems aus. Arthropoden stellen zudem eine wichtige Nahrungsressource dar. Arten aller drei Gilden gelten als Bioindikatoren für Veränderungen im Ökosystem. Phytophage Arthropoden können landwirtschaftlich genutzte Monokulturen erheblich schädigen, weshalb die konventionelle Landwirtschaft zur gezielten Tötung solcher Schädlinge Insektizide einsetzt. Pestizidbehandlungen haben allerdings oft auch Auswirkungen auf viele Nützlinge und andere Organismen im Agrarökosystem.
Die visuelle Erfassung beider Vogelgilden sowie das Fangen der Arthropoden mit Boden- und Flugfallen erfolgte von März bis Juli in den Jahren 2011-2013 auf fünf Untersuchungsflächen im rheinland-pfälzischen Obstanbaugebiet Mainz-Bingen. Es wurden zwei benachbarte Apfelkulturen (eine Kontrollfläche und eine Versuchsfläche mit Hagelschutznetz) und zwei benachbarte Kirschkulturen (eine Kontrollfläche und eine Versuchsfläche ab 2012 mit Folien-Netz-Überdachung) sowie eine nahegelegene Streuobstfläche im lokalen NSG Höllenberg als naturnahe Kontrollfläche untersucht. Zusätzlich wurden im ersten Untersuchungsjahr vom 15. März bis 28. Juli 2011 auf allen Flächen die Ergebnisse einer täglichen automatischen akustischen Erfassung durch ein Stereo-Aufnahmegerät („Songmeter 2“, Wildlife Acoustics) mit denen einer wöchentlichen rein visuellen Erfassung der Vögel verglichen. Es gab keine signifikanten Unterschiede in Detektionseffizienz und Arterfassung der Avifauna zwischen beiden Methoden. Die lokale α-Diversität nach Simpson unterschied sich ebenfalls nicht signifikant zwischen beiden Methoden. Das akustische Monitoring detektierte mehr seltene (=weniger als zehn Funde im Untersuchungszeitraum) Vogelarten; 29% der Arten wurden ausschließlich akustisch nachgewiesen und knapp 13% ausschließlich visuell. Sieben Vogelarten unterschieden sich signifikant in ihrer ermittelten Abundanz zwischen beiden Methoden: Bachstelze, Feldlerche, Mauersegler und die Greifvögel Mäusebussard und Turmfalke waren besser bzw. der Schwarzmilan ausschließlich mit dem visuellen Monitoring zu erfassen, während der Fasan ausschließlich durch das akustische Monitoring nachgewiesen werden konnte. Für die Abundanzschätzung von 48 Vogelarten war es unerheblich, ob sie akustisch oder visuell erfasst wurden. Da seltene Arten bei biozönotischen Untersuchungen keine wesentliche Rolle spielen und die Auswertung der Akustikaufnahmen sehr zeitaufwändig war, wurden für die Risikoanalyse nur die visuell ermittelten Daten berücksichtigt.
Für die Greifvogel-Gilde wurden sechs Arten nachgewiesen, fünf auf der Kirschkontrollfläche und jeweils vier Arten auf den anderen Flächen. Die drei häufigsten Arten waren Mäusebussard, Turmfalke und Schwarzmilan. Greifvögel wurden im Luftraum der Flächen oder auf Sitzwarten wie Zäunen, Pfählen, Bäumen und Kulturschutzeinrichtungen bei der Nahrungssuche oder beim Revierverhalten beobachtet. Es konnte kein Einfluss der Landnutzung auf Greifvögel aufgezeigt werden, Diversität und Abundanz unterschieden sich nicht zwischen den Obstkulturen und der naturnahen Streuobstfläche im NSG. Ein Einfluss von Kulturschutzeinrichtungen auf Greifvögel konnte ebenfalls nicht nachgewiesen werden, die überdachten Flächen wurden genauso oft frequentiert wie die Kontrollflächen. Greifvögel überflogen innerhalb ihrer großen Aktionsräume auch die überdachten Obstkulturen zur Nahrungssuche und wurden weiterhin bei der Ansitzjagd am Rand der Versuchsflächen gesichtet. Zudem wurde der Turmfalke beim Ansitzen unter der Folien-Netz-Überdachung der Kirschkultur sowie beim Fressen auf dieser Überdachung sitzend beobachtet. Für die Insektivoren-Gilde wurden 52 Vogelarten nachgewiesen. Die Streuobstfläche im NSG wies die höchste Artenzahl von 40 auf, gefolgt von der Apfelkontrollfläche mit 27 Arten. Die Apfelversuchsfläche wies dagegen eine geringere Artenzahl von 19 auf, während die Artenzahlen beider Kirschkulturen mit 19 und 18 annähernd gleich gewesen sind. Die zehn häufigsten Arten waren in Reihenfolge ihrer Abundanz Kohlmeise, Star, Rabenkrähe, Amsel, Mauersegler, Bachstelze, Blaumeise, Buchfink, Feldlerche und Stieglitz. Insektivore Vögel wurden überwiegend nahrungssuchend am Boden und in Bäumen der Flächen oder beim Revierverhalten wie Singen, Rufen und Vigilanz auf Sitzwarten Zäunen, Pfählen sowie Kulturschutzeinrichtungen beobachtet. Die intensive Landnutzung der Obstkulturen führte im Vergleich zur naturnahen Streuobstfläche im NSG sowohl auf der Apfel- als auch auf der Kirschkontrollfläche zu einer hochsignifikant geringeren monatlichen Vogelartenzahl. Eine signifikant niedrigere Abundanz der insektivoren Vögel wies jedoch nur die Kirschkontrollfläche auf. Es wurden negative Effekte der intensiven Landnutzung auf die monatliche Abundanz von Gartenrotschwanz, Amsel und Blaumeise nachgewiesen, welche in den Obstkulturen hochsignifikant seltener beobachtet wurden. Der Einsatz von Kulturschutzeinrichtungen führte lediglich beim Hagelschutznetz zu einer zusätzlichen signifikanten Verringerung der monatlichen Vogelartenzahl. Die Folien-Netz-Kombination zeigte keinen signifikanten Einfluss auf die Vogeldiversität. Die Gesamtabundanz der Insektivoren-Gilde blieb in beiden Obstkulturen von Kulturschutzeinrichtungen unbeeinflusst. Abundanzen einzelner Arten zeigten jedoch abweichende Ergebnisse: Die Ringeltaube wurde unter dem Hagelschutznetz der Apfelkultur im Vergleich zur Kontrollfläche gar nicht beobachtet. Die Kohlmeise kam unter der Folien-Netz-Überdachung der Kirschkultur signifikant seltener vor, während der Wiedehopf hier etwa zehnmal häufiger vorkam als auf der Kirschkontrollfläche und der Streuobstfläche im NSG Höllenberg. Entscheidender Faktor für die starke Nutzung der Kirschkulturen waren für den Wiedehopf die vorhandenen vegetationsfreien Bodenbereiche, in denen diese Art bevorzugt nach Nahrungsinsekten sucht. Störungen durch die bei Wind laut flatternde Folienüberdachung auf darunter nahrungssuchende Wiedehopfe wurden nicht beobachtet.
Für die Arthropoden-Gilde wurden 185963 Individuen aus 18 Gruppen gefangen. Der Großteil von 79% dieser Individuen ließ sich Springschwänzen, Ameisen, Zweiflüglern oder Käfern zuordnen. Weitere 20% verteilten sich auf Webspinnen, Asseln, Hautflügler, Milben, Doppelfüßer, Weberknechte, Schnabelkerfe und Ohrwürmer. Die restlichen sechs Arthropodengruppen stellten den restlichen Individuenanteil von 0,9%. Hinsichtlich der determinierten 12910 Käfer-Imagines aus 403 Arten waren Artenzahl, Diversität sowie Anzahl seltener Arten und Habitatspezialisten sandiger Lebensräume in allen drei Untersuchungsjahren auf der naturnahen Streuobstfläche im NSG Höllenberg am höchsten. Die über Bodenfallen ermittelte Arthropoden-Trockenbiomasse lag je nach Fläche bei 9 bis 26 Gramm pro Jahr und die über Flugfallen ermittelte Arthropoden-Trockenbiomasse bei 0,6 bis 4,8 Gramm pro Jahr. Obwohl im Mittel jährlich 5,8 Pestizidbehandlungen in den Kirschkulturen sowie 14,6 Behandlungen in den Apfelkulturen durchgeführt wurden und Insektizide dabei anteilig bis zu 57% ausmachten, konnte kein Einfluss der intensiven Landnutzung mit dem Einsatz von Pestiziden auf die Arthropoden-Trockenbiomasse nachgewiesen werden. Kulturschutzeinrichtungen zeigten ebenfalls keinen Einfluss auf die Arthropoden-Trockenbiomasse.
Diese biozönotische Risikoanalyse belegt, dass der Einsatz von Kulturschutzeinrichtungen zumindest bei Hagelschutznetzen langfristig nachweisbare negative Effekte auf die Diversität von insektivoren Vögeln bewirken kann, welche über die vorhandenen negativen Folgen der intensiven Landnutzung in Obstkulturen hinausgehen. Da intensiv bewirtschaftete Obstkulturen bereits ohne Kulturschutzeinrichtungen zu einer Verarmung der lokalen Biozönose führen, sollte aus ökologischer Sicht vor der Errichtung von Kulturschutzeinrichtungen verlässlich abgewogen werden, ob der zusätzliche Verlust an Biodiversität durch die Verbesserung von Flächenstrukturen der Obstkulturen kompensierbar ist.
Aquatic macrophytes can contribute to the retention of organic contaminants in streams, whereas knowledge on the dynamics and the interaction of the determining processes is very limited. The objective of the present study was thus to assess how aquatic macrophytes influence the distribution and the fate of organic contaminants in small vegetated streams. In a first study that was performed in vegetated stream mesocosms, the peak reductions of five compounds were significantly higher in four vegetated stream mesocosms compared to a stream mesocosm without vegetation. Compound specific sorption to macrophytes was determined, the mass retention in the vegetated streams, however, did not explain the relationship between the mitigation of contaminant peaks and macrophyte coverage. A subsequent mesocosm study revealed that the mitigation of peak concentrations in the stream mesocosms was governed by two fundamentally different processes: dispersion and sorption. Again, the reductions of the peak concentrations of three different compounds were in the same order of magnitude in a sparsely and a densely vegetated stream mesocosm, respectively, but higher compared to an unvegetated stream mesocosm. The mitigation of the peak reduction in the sparsely vegetated stream mesocosm was found to be fostered by longitudinal dispersion as a result of the spatial distribution of the macrophytes in the aqueous phase. The peak reduction attributable to longitudinal dispersion was, however, reduced in the densely vegetated stream mesocosm, which was compensated by compound-specific but time-limited and reversible sorption to macrophytes. The observations on the reversibility of sorption processes were subsequently confirmed by laboratory experiments. The experiments revealed that sorption to macrophytes lead to compound specific elimination from the aqueous phase during the presence of transient contaminant peaks in streams. After all, these sorption processes were found to be fully reversible, which results in the release of the primarily adsorbed compounds, once the concentrations in the aqueous phase starts to decrease. Nevertheless, the results of the present thesis demonstrate that the processes governing the mitigation of contaminant loads in streams are fundamentally different to those already described for non-flowing systems. In addition, the present thesis provides knowledge on how the interaction of macrophyte-induced processes in streams contributes to mitigate loads of organic contaminants and the related risk for aquatic environments.
Global crop production increased substantially in recent decades due to agricultural intensification and expansion and today agricultural areas occupy about 38% of Earth’s terrestrial surface - the largest use of land on the planet. However, current high-intensity agricultural practices fostered in the context of the Green Revolution led to serious consequences for the global environment. Pesticides, in particular, are highly biologically active substances that can threaten the ecological integrity of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems. Although the global pesticide use increases steadily, our field-data based knowledge regarding exposure of non-target ecosystems such as surface waters is very restricted. Available studies have by now been limited to spatially restricted geographical areas or had rather specific objectives rendering the extrapolation to larger spatial scales questionable.
Consequently, this thesis evaluated based on four scientific publications the exposure, effects, and regulatory implications of particularly toxic insecticides` concentrations detected in global agricultural surface waters. FOCUS exposure modelling was used to characterise the highly specific insecticide exposure patterns and to analyse the resulting implications for both monitoring and risk assessment (publication I). Based on more than 200,000 scientific database entries, 838 peer-reviewed studies finally included, and more than 2,500 sites in 73 countries, the risks of agricultural insecticides to global surface waters were analysed by means of a comprehensive meta-analysis (publication II). This meta-analysis evaluated whether insecticide field concentrations exceed legally accepted regulatory threshold levels (RTLs) derived from official EU and US pesticide registration documents and, amongst others, how risks depend on insecticide development over time and stringency of environmental regulation. In addition, an in-depth analysis of the current EU pesticide regulations provided insights into the level of protection and field relevance of highly elaborated environmental regulatory risk assessment schemes (publications III and IV).
The results of this thesis show that insecticide surface water exposure is characterized by infrequent and highly transient concentration peaks of high ecotoxicological relevance. We thus argue in publication I that sampling based on regular intervals is inadequate for the detection of insecticide surface water concentrations and that traditional risk assessment concepts based on all insecticide concentrations including non-detects lead to severely biased results and critical underestimations of risks. Based on these considerations, publication II demonstrates that out of 11,300 measured insecticide concentrations (MICs; i.e., those actually detected and quantified), 52.4% (5,915 cases; 68.5%) exceeded the RTL for either water (RTLSW) or sediments. This indicates a substantial risk for the biological integrity of global water resources as additional analyses on pesticide effects in the field clearly evidence that the regional aquatic biodiversity is reduced by approximately 30% at pesticide concentrations equalling the RTLs. In addition, publication II shows that there is a complete lack of scientific monitoring data for ~90% of global cropland and that both the actual insecticide contamination of surface waters and the resulting ecological risks are most likely even greater due to, for example, inadequate sampling methods employed in the studies and the common occurrence of pesticide mixtures. A linear model analysis identified that RTLSW exceedances depend on the catchment size, sampling regime, sampling date, insecticide substance class, and stringency of countries` environmental regulations, as well as on the interactions of these factors. Importantly, the risks are significantly higher for newer-generation insecticides (i.e., pyrethroids) and are high even in countries with stringent environmental regulations. Regarding the latter, an analysis of the EU pesticide regulations revealed critical deficiencies and the lack of protectiveness and field-relevance for current presumed highly elaborated FOCUS exposure assessment (publication IV) and overall risk assessment schemes (publication III). Based on these findings, essential risk assessment amendments are proposed.
In essence, this thesis analyses the agriculture–environment linkages for pesticides at the global scale and it thereby contributes to a new research frontier in global ecotoxicology. The overall findings substantiate that agricultural insecticides are potential key drivers for the global freshwater biodiversity crisis and that the current regulatory risk assessment approaches for highly toxic anthropogenic chemicals fail to protect the global environment. This thesis provides an integrated view on the environmental side effects of global high-intensity agriculture and alerts that beside worldwide improvements to current pesticide regulations and agricultural pesticide application practices, the fundamental reformation of conventional agricultural systems is urgently needed to meet the twin challenges of providing sufficient food for a growing human population without destroying the ecological integrity of global ecosystems essential to human existence.
Bauxite is, among other raw materials, an important material for the production of refractories. However, the availability of refractory raw material grades is limited worldwide. As high iron contents have a negative influence on the temperature resistance of the refractory material produced, a maximum iron oxide content of 2 wt.-% in the bauxite is acceptable. This means that only native raw materials from a few deposits can be used. In order to counteract the problem of too high iron oxide contents in natural bauxites, the possibility of processing bauxite for the refractory industry by using an acid leaching process was to be investigated within the scope of this work. In previous studies on this topic, some investigations on iron leaching have already been carried out on individual bauxites. However, the resulting bauxite composition was mostly neglected in its entirety and only the influences of individual leaching parameters on the leaching result were investigated independently. Moreover, the results and procedures generated are not generally valid and cannot be transferred to bauxites of other chemical or mineralogical compositions.
In order to clarify the open questions in the processing of natural bauxites, leaching tests with hydrochloric acid were carried out on five different bauxites within this work. By using computerized statistical design of experiments, an individual model was generated for each bauxite to predict the optimal factor settings. The factors investigated were acid concentration, solid-acid ratio, leaching temperature, leaching time and grain fraction. The general planning method for bauxite processing developed in this context contains all necessary factors, useful factor settings and the effects to be considered during planning and evaluation. It could be shown that, based on this planning method, a significant, individual model can be created for each of the bauxites investigated, which predicts the optimal leaching settings for the corresponding bauxite. Furthermore, it was found that the transfer of an already created model to another bauxite of similar composition is possible. Based on the results obtained from the leaching tests and model fittings, in combination with further results on the structural analysis of the bauxites, insights into the leachability of various aluminium and iron minerals from bauxite could be gained.
To develop a sustainable acid leaching process, the possibility of regenerating the contaminated acid produced was also tested as an example. It was shown that liquid-liquid extraction can extract more than 99 % of the iron present in the solution and that the regenerated acid can then be reused for the leaching process.
The conservation of groundwater ecosystems requires an assessment and evaluation scheme that shows the state of the ecosystem. Consequently, faunal and microbial criteria are required for groundwater monitoring, in addition to physico-chemical analyses. To proof the adequacy of the application of groundwater organisms for the biological assessment of groundwater quality, an extensive sampling collection of various groundwater systems was accomplished between 2002 and 2009 in Germany. Key aspects were the examination of the indicator potential of groundwater communities towards surface-groundwater interactions and anthropogenic impacts, as well as the analysis of stygofaunal distribution patterns, as a base and reference for a faunal assessment scheme of groundwater systems. The sampling design considered local, regional, and biogeographic conditions. To test the indicator potential of groundwater organisms on a local and regional scale, groundwater systems in Nordrhein-Westfalen (NRW) and Baden-Württemberg (BW) were examined. The faunal and microbial data from unconsolidated aquifers (Erftgebiet, NRW) show the sensitivity of groundwater organisms against land use effects, e.g. extensive agriculture. Data analyses revealed positive correlations of organic material (estimated amount of detritus, TOC) and nitrate with faunal abundance, species richness, diversity and the proportions of stygoxene species. Moreover, the bacterial abundance and diversity in the groundwater of the Erftgebiet was high compared to oligotrophic groundwater systems, indicating an effect of surface influence due to agricultural land use. The groundwater colonization in the Alb-Donau-Kreis (BW) was analyzed for regional effects (landscape, type of aquifer, hydrogeology) and local effects (comparing single wells). The results show that the fauna reflects the strength of the hydrological exchange on different spatial scales. Furthermore, the fauna reflects the interaction of regional and local conditions. Accordingly, the diversity and abundance of groundwater organisms was influenced by the high connectivity of the karst and unconsolidated alluvial aquifers, the type of land use, covering layers of soil, the age of groundwater, and the sampling depths. In general, faunal and microbial data of the Alb-Donau-Kreis are characteristic for oligotrophic, oligoalimonic groundwaters. The large scale analyses of stygofaunal distribution patterns revealed significant biogeographical differences of the communities. These community patterns of the groundwater fauna do not coincide with existing classification schemes defined for surface landscapes or freshwater systems. The largest differences between faunal surface and subsurface distribution patterns were found between the groundwater of northern and southern Germany and the foothills of the central mountain ranges - all of them regions shaped by the last ice ages.
In accordance with the faunal data assessed in groundwater, four different stygoregions were defined that are populated by distinct faunal assemblages. These are 1) the "Northern lowlands", 2) the "Central mountain ranges", 3) the "South-western mountain ranges", and 4) the "Southern mountain ranges and northern alps". The study corroborates that stygofaunal and microbial communities are an adequate tool for the qualitative assessment and monitoring of groundwater ecosystems. The best indicators to detect anthropogenic impacts on groundwater ecosystems are the faunal diversity, abundance, the proportions of stygobitic (obligate groundwater species) and stygoxene species (species not obligate for groundwater), and the bacterial abundance. The development of an ecologically based groundwater assessment and management, is crucial for the conservation of our groundwater ecosystems and thus, healthy drinking water. The defintion of "stygoregions" is an important base for the development of an assessment and reference scheme for groundwater ecosystems. The assessment of the ecological state of groundwater systems must be conducted on local scale, because the strength of the local hydrological influence determines the amount of food and oxygen as well as stygoxene animals within the aquifer, and thus shapes the local groundwater communities. Nevertheless, information of the biogeographic and regional conditions is needed as a reference for the type of species and abundances that potentially can occur in certain groundwater systems.
Leichte Sprache (LS, easy-to-read German) is a simplified variety of German. It is used to provide barrier-free texts for a broad spectrum of people, including lowliterate individuals with learning difficulties, intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) and/or complex communication needs (CCN). In general, LS authors are proficient in standard German and do not belong to the aforementioned group of people. Our goal is to empower the latter to participate in written discourse themselves. This requires a special writing system whose linguistic support and ergonomic software design meet the target group’s specific needs. We present EasyTalk a system profoundly based on natural language processing (NLP) for assistive writing in an extended variant of LS (ELS). EasyTalk provides users with a personal vocabulary underpinned with customizable communication symbols and supports in writing at their individual level of proficiency through interactive user guidance. The system minimizes the grammatical knowledge needed to produce correct and coherent complex contents by intuitively formulating linguistic decisions. It provides easy dialogs for selecting options from a natural-language paraphrase generator, which provides context-sensitive suggestions for sentence components and correctly inflected word forms. In addition, EasyTalk reminds users to add text elements that enhance text comprehensibility in terms of audience design (e.g., time and place of an event) and improve text coherence (e.g., explicit connectors to express discourse-relations). To tailor the system to the needs of the target group, the development of EasyTalk followed the principles of human-centered design (HCD). Accordingly, we matured the system in iterative development cycles, combined with purposeful evaluations of specific aspects conducted with expert groups from the fields of CCN, LS, and IT, as well as L2 learners of the German language. In a final case study, members of the target audience tested the system in free writing sessions. The study confirmed that adults with IDD and/or CCN who have low reading, writing, and computer skills can write their own personal texts in ELS using EasyTalk. The positive feedback from all tests inspires future long-term studies with EasyTalk and further development of this prototypical system, such as the implementation of a so-called Schreibwerkstatt (writing workshop)
The use of agricultural plastic covers has become common practice for its agronomic benefits such as improving yields and crop quality, managing harvest times better, and increasing pesticide and water use efficiency. However, plastic covers are suspected of partially breaking down into smaller debris and thereby contributing to soil pollution with microplastics. A better understanding of the sources and fate of plastic debris in terrestrial systems has so far been hindered by the lack of adequate analytical techniques for the mass-based and polymer-selective quantification of plastic debris in soil. The aim of this dissertation was thus to assess, develop, and validate thermoanalytical methods for the mass-based quantification of relevant polymers in and around agricultural fields previously covered with fleeces, perforated foils, and plastic mulches. Thermogravimetry/mass spectrometry (TGA/MS) enabled direct plastic analyses of 50 mg of soil without any sample preparation. With polyethylene terephthalate (PET) as a preliminary model, the method limit of detection (LOD) was 0.7 g kg−1. But the missing chromatographic separation complicated the quantification of polymer mixtures. Therefore, a pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS) method was developed that additionally exploited the selective solubility of polymers in specific solvents prior to analysis. By dissolving polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP), and polystyrene (PS) in a mixture of 1,2,4-trichlorobenzene and p-xylene after density separation, up to 50 g soil became amenable to routine plastic analysis. Method LODs were 0.7–3.3 mg kg−1, and the recovery of 20 mg kg−1 PE, PP, and PS from a reference loamy sand was 86–105%. In the reference silty clay, however, poor PS recoveries, potentially induced by the additional separation step, suggested a qualitative evaluation of PS. Yet, the new solvent-based Py-GC/MS method enabled a first exploratory screening of plastic-covered soil. It revealed PE, PP, and PS contents above LOD in six of eight fields (6% of all samples). In three fields, PE levels of 3–35 mg kg−1 were associated with the use of 40 μm thin perforated foils. By contrast, 50 μm PE films were not shown to induce plastic levels above LOD. PP and PS contents of 5–19 mg kg−1 were restricted to single observations in four fields and potentially originated from littering. The results suggest that the short-term use of thicker and more durable plastic covers should be preferred to limit plastic emissions and accumulation in soil. By providing mass-based information on the distribution of the three most common plastics in agricultural soil, this work may facilitate comparisons with modeling and effect data and thus contribute to a better risk assessment and regulation of plastics. However, the fate of plastic debris in the terrestrial environment remains incompletely understood and needs to be scrutinized in future, more systematic research. This should include the study of aging processes, the interaction of plastics with other organic and inorganic compounds, and the environmental impact of biodegradable plastics and nanoplastics.
Diese Studie leistet einen Beitrag zur Weiterentwicklung der Nachrichtenwerttheorie. Hierzu wird das Konzept der Fotonachrichtenfaktoren zunächst theoretisch aufgearbeitet und seine Plausibilität anhand verschiedener Teilbereiche der Journalismusforschung dargelegt. Darauf aufbauend wird es im Rahmen einer Inhaltsanalyse eingesetzt, die die Prüfung des erweiterten Modells der Nachrichtenwerttheorie ermöglicht. Dieses Modell geht von einem gemeinsamen Einfluss der textbasierten Nachrichtenfaktoren und der Fotonachrichtenfaktoren auf den Nachrichtenwert bzw. die journalistische Beachtung eines Beitrags aus. Ergänzend werden die Fotonachrichtenfaktoren zur Bildung von Fototypen herangezogen. Die Analysen werden am Beispiel der Kriegs- und Krisenberichterstattung deutscher Tageszeitungen durchgeführt. Dieser Themenbereich des Journalismus genießt viel Aufmerksamkeit sowohl bei Medienrezipienten als auch bei Kommunikationswissenschaftlern. Die Ergebnisse der Studie unterstützen die Grundidee der Fotonachrichtenfaktoren: Sie können, ähnlich wie die textbasierten Nachrichtenfaktoren, zu übergeordneten Bündeln zusammengefasst werden. Diese Bündel zeigen Einflüsse auf die formale Gestaltung der Fotos und können gemeinsam mit den Textnachrichtenfaktoren teilweise die journalistische Beachtung des Artikels erklären. Darüber hinaus ist die gewählte Operationalisierung der Fotonachrichtenfaktoren geeignet, Fototypen bzw. zentrale Motive der visuellen Kriegsberichterstattung deutscher Tageszeitungen zu identifizieren. Die Ergebnisse dieser Studie liefern Ausgangspunkte für weitere Fragestellungen zum Zusammenwirken der Text- und Fotonachrichtenfaktoren, der Anwendung der Zwei-Komponenten-Theorie und der Wirkung von typischen Bildmotiven.
Perfluorocarboxylic acids (PFCA) are substances of anthropogenic origin and have been used for several decades. These compounds are a new class of environmental pollutants. Their high surface activity, thermal stability, amphipathicity and weak intermolecular interactions lead to persistence and bioaccumulation. Therefore, there is a great need for reliable analytical methods for detecting the presence and determination of concentration in both environmental samples and everyday products. GC-MS is a cost-effective alternative and supplement to established LC-MS/MS methods. The greatest challenge in the method development is the derivatization reaction. Many of the previously published derivatization reactions for PFCA are time consuming and require high reaction temperatures or toxic reagents.
In the present dissertation, two new derivatization reactions for PFCA have been developed and optimized. The first part of the thesis shows the development and optimization of the reaction with triethylsilanol in water. In addition to optimizing the reaction, classical solid-phase extraction was modified to simplify the sample preparation.
In the second part of the work, the reaction products of perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) with N,N-dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal (DMF-DMA) and -diethyl acetal (DMF-DEA) were identified. From these measurements, it follows that both DMF-DMA and DMF-DEA in the presence of PFOA form an iminium cation, which leads to salt formation. This PFOA salt react further in the GC injector and a corresponding amine is produced.
In the last part of the thesis, an analytical method based on the DMF-DMA reaction was developed. The matrix effects have been described in detail. The method has been successfully applied for three different types of samples: dental floss, textiles and sewage sludge. The results were verified by LC-MS/MS analysis in an external laboratory. The differences between the PFCA values for a spiked sample measured by GC-MS and LC-MS/MS were less than 10%.
The belief in a just world in face of injustice: victim, observer, and perpetrator perspectives
(2021)
Injustice happens every day either to us, to our neighbors, or people across the world. Yet, believing that the world is a fair place helps us to cope with this injustice and motivates us to behave fairly. Scholars have found that these functions that the belief in a just world (BJW) serves are crucial for maintaining mental health. However, the conditions under which BJW is functional and when people give up this belief are not well studied. The current dissertation aims to examine: when the BJW can be shattered, the role of the external world and other internal resources in face of injustice, and the role of BJW in predicting corrupt behavior. Three studies were conducted corresponding to each party of injustice: a victim, an observer, and a perpetrator.
Study 1 examined the effects of criminal victimization on BJW and buffering role of perceptions of justice in the criminal justice process. A cross-sectional study showed that victims of very severe crimes such as domestic violence and human trafficking had lower personal BJW than non-victims and victims of less severe crimes, and higher informational justice perceptions reduced the effect of victimization on the personal BJW. Study 2 aimed to test the changes in BJW after observing severe injustice. A longitudinal study showed that after observing school rampage attacks that happened at other schools, BJW of adolescent participants increased. Moreover, life satisfaction and perceived social support moderated the change of BJW. Study 3 examined relationships between BJW and corrupt behavior. A cross-sectional study showed that personal BJW can predict bribery behavior.
The findings of three studies provided evidence that BJW does not function in isolation. An external world and internal resources can reduce the threat of injustice on BJW. BJW plays an important role in predicting unfair behavior therefore authorities should aim to maintain the BJW of their citizens.
Statistical eco(-toxico)logy
(2017)
Freshwaters are of immense importance for human well-being.
Nevertheless, they are currently facing unprecedented levels of threat from habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, invasive species and
pollution.
To prevent risks to aquatic ecosystems, chemical substances, like agricultural pesticides, have to pass environmental risk assessment (ERA) before entering the market.
Concurrently, large-scale environmental monitoring is used for surveillance of biological and chemical conditions in freshwaters.
This thesis examines statistical methods currently used in ERA.
Moreover, it presents a national-scale compilation of chemical monitoring data, an analysis of drivers and dynamics of chemical pollution in streams and, provides a large-scale risk assessment by combination with results from ERA.
Additionally, software tools have been developed to integrate different datasets used in ERA.
The thesis starts with a brief introduction to ERA and environmental monitoring and gives an overview of the objectives of the thesis.
Chapter 2 addresses experimental setups and their statistical analyses using simulations.
The results show that current designs exhibit unacceptably low statistical power, that statistical methods chosen to fit the type of data provide higher power and that statistical practices in ERA need to be revised.
In chapter 3 we compiled all available pesticide monitoring data from Germany.
Hereby, we focused on small streams, similar to those considered in ERA and used threshold concentrations derived during ERA for a large-scale assessment of threats to freshwaters from pesticides.
This compilation resulted in the most comprehensive dataset on pesticide exposure currently available for Germany.
Using state-of-the-art statistical techniques, that explicitly take the limits of quantification into account, we demonstrate that 25% of small streams are at threat from pesticides.
In particular neonicotinoid pesticides are responsible for these threats.
These are associated with agricultural intensity and can be detected even at low levels of agricultural use.
Moreover, our results indicated that current monitoring underestimates pesticide risks, because of a sampling decoupled from precipitation events.
Additionally, we provide a first large-scale study of annual pesticide exposure dynamics.
Chapters 4 and 5 describe software solutions to simplify and accelerate the integration of data from ERA, environmental monitoring and ecotoxicology that is indispensable for the development of landscape-level risk assessment.
Overall, this thesis contributes to the emerging discipline of statistical ecotoxicology and shows that pesticides pose a large-scale threat to small streams.
Environmental monitoring can provide a post-authorisation feedback to ERA.
However, to protect freshwater ecosystems ERA and environmental monitoring need to be further refined and we provide software solutions to utilise existing data for this purpose.
The global problematic issue of the olive oil industry is in its generation of large amounts of olive mill wastewater (OMW). The direct discharge of OMW to the soil is very common which presents environmental problems for olive oil producing countries. Both, positive as well as negative effects on soil have been found in earlier studies. Therefore, the current study hypothesized that whether beneficial effects or negative effects dominate depends on the prevailing conditions before and after OMW discharge to soil. As such, a better understanding of the OMW-soil interaction mechanisms becomes essential for sustainable safe disposal of OMW on soil and sustainable soil quality.
A field experiment was carried out in an olive orchard in Palestine, over a period of 24 months, in which the OMW was applied to the soil as a single application of 14 L m-2 under four different environmental conditions: in winter (WI), spring (SP), and summer with and without irrigation (SUmoist and SUdry). The current study investigated the effects of seasonal conditions on the olive mill wastewater (OMW) soil interaction in the short-term and the long-term. The degree and persistence of soil salinization, acidification, accumulation of phenolic compounds and soil water repellency were investigated as a function of soil depth and time elapsed after the OMW application. Moreover, the OMW impacts on soil organic matter SOM quality and quantity, total organic carbon (SOC), water-extractable soil organic carbon (DOC), as well as specific ultraviolet absorbance analysis (SUVA254) were also investigated for each seasonal application in order to assess the degree of OMW-OM decomposition or accumulation in soil, and therefore, the persisting effects of OMW disposal to soil.
The results of the current study demonstrate that the degree and persistence of relevant effects due to OMW application on soil varied significantly between the different seasonal OMW applications both in the short-term and the long-term. The negative effects of the potentially hazardous OMW residuals in the soil were highly dependent on the dominant transport mechanisms and transformation mechanisms, triggered by the ambient soil moisture and temperature which either intensified or diminished negative effects of OMW in the soil during and after the application season. The negative effects of OMW disposal to the soil decreased by increasing the retention time of OMW in soil under conditions favoring biological activity. The moderate conditions of soil moisture and temperature allowed for a considerable amount of applied OMW to be biologically degraded, while the prolonged application time under dry conditions and high temperature resulted in a less degradable organic fraction of the OMW, causing the OMW constituents to accumulate and polymerize without being degraded. Further, the rainfall during winter season diminished negative effects of OMW in the soil; therefore, the risk of groundwater contamination by non-degraded constituents of OMW can be highly probable during the winter season.
Agricultural pesticides, especially insecticides, are an integral part of modern farming. However, these may often leave their target ecosystems and cause adverse effects in non- target, especially freshwater ecosystems, leading to their deterioration. In this thesis, the focus will be on Insect Growth Regulators (IGRs) that can in many ways cause disruption of the endocrine system of invertebrates. Freshwater invertebrates play important ecological, economic and medical roles, and disruption of their endocrine systems may be crucial, considering the important role hormones play in the developmental and reproductive processes in organisms. Although Endocrine Disruption Chemicals (EDCs) can affect moulting, behaviour, morphology, sexual maturity, time to first brood, egg development time, brood size (fecundity), and sex determination in invertebrates, there is currently no agreement upon how to characterize and assess endocrine disruption (ED). Current traditional ecotoxicity tests for Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA) show limitations on generating data at the population level that may be relevant for the assessment of EDCs, which effects may be sublethal, latent and persist for several generations of species (transgenerational).
It is therefore the primary objective of this thesis to use a test method to investigate adverse effects of EDCs on endpoints concerning development and reproduction in freshwater invertebrates. The full life-cycle test over two generations that includes all sensitive life stages of C. riparius (a sexual reproductive organism) allows an assessment of its reproduction and should be suitable for the investigation of long-term toxicity of EDCs in freshwater invertebrates. C. riparius is appropriate for this purpose because of its short life cycle that enables the assessment of functional endpoints of the organism over several generations. Moreover, the chironomid life cycle consists of a complete metamorphosis controlled by a well-known endocrine mechanism and the endocrine system of insects has been most investigated in great detail among invertebrates. Hence, the full life-cycle test with C. riparius provides an approach to assess functional endpoints (e.g. reproduction, sex ratio) that are population-relevant as a useful amendment to the ERA of EDCs. In the laboratory, C. riparius was exposed to environmentally-relevant concentrations of the selected IGRs in either spiked water or spiked sediment scenario over two subsequent generations.
The results reported in this thesis revealed significant effects of the IGRs on the development and the reproduction of C. riparius with the second (F1) generation showing greater sensitivity. These findings indicated for the first time the suitability of multigenerational testing for various groups of EDCs and strongly suggested considering the full life-cycle of C. riparius as an appropriate test method for a better assessment of EDCs in the freshwater environment. In conclusion, this thesis helps to detect additional information that can be extrapolated at population level and, thus, might contribute to better protection of freshwater ecosystems against the risks of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs.) It may furthermore contribute to changes in the ERA process that are necessary for a real implementation of the new European chemical legislation, REACH (Registration, Evaluation Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals). Finally, significant interactions between temperature, chemical exposure and generation were reported for the first time and, may help predict impacts that may occur in the future, in the field, under predicted climate change scenarios.
Estuaries are characterized by a longitudinal salinity gradient. This gradient is one of the main environmental factors responsible for the distribution of organisms. Distinguishing salinity zones is of crucial importance, e.g., for the development of tools for the assessment of ecological quality. The methods most often applied for classifying water according to salinity are the Venice System and the method of Bulger et al. (1993), both of which determine zone boundaries using species occurrences relative to mean salinity. However, although these methods were developed for homoiohaline waters, they have also been routinely applied to poikilohaline systems. I tested the applicability of both methods using salinity and macroinvertebrate data for the poikilohaline Elbe Estuary (Germany). My results showed that the mid-estuary distribution of macro-invertebrates is determined by variation in salinity rather than by mean salinity. Consequently, neither of the two methods is applicable for defining salinity zones in the Elbe Estuary. Cluster analysis combined with a significance test, by contrast, was a better tool for identifying the boundaries of salinity zones in poikilohaline systems.
In many estuaries, such as the Elbe Estuary, a maximum turbidity zone (MTZ) develops, where suspended matter accumulates owing to circulation processes. It is assumed that the MTZ is a stressful environment with an excess of organic matter, high deposition rates, large variations in salinity, and dredging activities. Under such harsh conditions, populations might remain below the carrying capacity, and it is assumed that competition is of little importance, as predicted by the stress gradient hypothesis. I tested whether competition for food is important in the MTZ of the Elbe Estuary using stable isotope analysis of the macroinvertebrate community. The isotopic niches of no two taxa within a feeding group overlapped, which indicated different resource use and the absence of competition. The main reasons for the lack of overlap of isotopic niches were differences in habitat, feeding behavior, and migration behavior.
The Elbe Estuary is nowadays highly industrialized and has long been subjected to a plethora of human-caused alterations. However, it is largely unknown what changes occurred in benthic communities in the last century. Hence, I considered taxonomic and functional aspects of macrobenthic invertebrates of the Elbe Estuary given in data from 1889 (most natural state), 1985 and 1986 (highly polluted state), and 2006 (recent state) to assess benthic community shifts. Beta-diversity analysis showed that taxonomic differences between the sampling dates were mainly due to species turnover, whereas functional differences were predominantly a result of functional nestedness. Species number (S), functional richness (FRic), and functional redundancy reached minimum values in 1985 and 1986 and were highest and rather similar in 1889 and 2006. The decline in FRic from 1889 to 1985/1986 was non-random, consistent with habitat filtering. FRic, functional beta diversity, and S data suggested that the state of the estuary from 1889 was almost re-established in 2006. However, the community in 1889 significantly differed from that in 2006 owing to species replacement. My results indicate that FRic and FR in 1889 could have promoted ecosystem resilience and stability.
Die Ukraine sieht seit dem Euromaidan im Jahr 2014 ihre Zukunft in einer stabilen Veran-kerung im westlichen Wertesystem. Für die EU ist die Ukraine ein priority partner und damit von besonderem Gewicht. Deshalb lag es folgerichtig im Interesse der EU, die Ukra-ine nach Kräften auf diesem Weg zu unterstützen.
Die wissenschaftliche Forschung zur EU-Demokratieförderung konzentrierte sich bis-her im Wesentlichen auf Staaten mit konkreter EU-Beitrittsperspektive. Sie kam zu dem Ergebnis, dass der Erfolg der Demokratieförderung maßgeblich von der Konditionierung eines EU-Beitritts getragen war. Damit konnte dieser Erfolg der EU als dominanter Träger der Demokratieförderung zugeordnet werden.
Mit dem Fokus auf Staaten ohne EU-Beitrittsperspektive entfällt diese Konditionie-rung. Auch weitere Akteure traten bei der Demokratieförderung hinzu, und die Wirksam-keit der Demokratieförderung kann nicht mehr der EU direkt zugeordnet werden. Es ent-stand also eine Forschungslücke, in welcher Weise jetzt die Wirksamkeit der EU-Demokratieförderung analysiert werden kann. Die vorliegende Studie greift diese For-schungslücke auf.
Zunächst wird analysiert, welcher Demokratiestatus der Ukraine und welche Defizite sich für den Untersuchungszeitraum ermitteln lassen. Im Anschluss erfolgt die Analyse der EU-Demokratieförderung auf der Grundlage einer eigens dafür entworfenen Definition von kohärenter Strategie, die eine statische und eine dynamische Dimension abbildet.
Die statische Dimension geht der Frage nach, ob die Zielsetzungen und Vorhaben der EU-Demokratieförderung auf die Demokratiedefizite zugeschnitten waren. Die dynami-sche Dimension des Transformationsprozesses beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob das jewei-lige Vorgehen den Prinzipien aus sozialkonstruktivistischer Perspektive folgte. Mit dieser sozialkonstruktivistischen Perspektive wird ein Weg aufgezeigt, wie man ohne eine EU-Beitritts-Konditionierung die Transformation demokratischer Werte und Normen erfolg-reich ausgestalten kann.
Das Ergebnis ist, dass die EU-Strategie der Demokratieförderung zwar mit ihren Ziel-setzungen und Vorhaben auf die Demokratiedefizite der Ukraine ausgerichtet war, aber auch, dass das Vorgehen in einem Fall nicht den Prinzipien aus sozialkonstruktivistischer Perspektive entsprach. Diesem Vorgehen lag keine kohärente EU-Strategie zugrunde.
Die Analyse auf der Ebene der Strategie lässt der EU-Demokratieförderung keine di-rekte Wirkung zuweisen, da auch andere Akteure eine Wirkung entfalten. Auf der Ebene eines konkreten Reformprojekts konnte dann der Nachweis geführt werden, dass die De-zen-tralisierungsreform direkt der EU zugeordnet werden kann, das Vorgehen den Prinzi-pien aus sozialkonstruktivistischer Perspektive folgt und eine positive Wirkung entfaltet.
Begünstigt wurde dieser Erfolg, da er sich auf demokratische Werte und Normen ab-stützen konnte, die in überdurchschnittlicher Ausprägung bereits vorhanden waren. Dar-über hinaus wurde aufgezeigt, dass dieses Projekt eine breit gefächerte potenzielle Wirkung auf den Reformprozess in Richtung Demokratie entfaltet.
Die Dissertation wurde am 14. Dezember 2021 abgeschlossen und an der Universität Koblenz-Landau eingereicht. Im Nachgang bietet ein „Postskript“ mit Datum September 2022 unter Berücksichtigung aktueller Entwicklungen eine Perspektive für weiterführende Forschungsfragen.
Maßnahmen der Führungskräfteentwicklung verfolgen das Ziel den Führungsnachwuchs des Unternehmens zu bilden und für einen reibungslosen Einstieg in die Füh-rungsaufgabe zu sorgen. In der Literatur gibt es zahlreiche Theorien und Modelle zu Führung und deren Entwicklung, doch offen bleibt meist, wie es um den praktischen Einsatz und die Effektivität steht. Das Ziel dieser Arbeit ist die Identifikation wesentlicher Bestandteile der Führungskräfteentwicklung, die effektiv Einfluss auf (Nachwuchs-)Führungskräfte nehmen. Drei Studien beschäftigen sich jeweils mit unter-schiedlichen Schwerpunkten mit der Gestaltung und Wirksamkeit von modularen Programmen der Führungskräfteentwicklung. Zur Beschreibung der Gestaltung wurde eine Expertenbefragung unter Verantwortlichen für Führungskräfteentwicklung in 4 Großunternehmen durchgeführt. Zur Prüfung der Wirksamkeit wurden zwei Prädiktoren erfolgreichen Führens, die praktische Führungsintelligenz und die Führungswirksamkeitserwartung (FWE), in zwei repräsentativen modularen Programmen gemessen. Dafür wurden zwei quasiexperimentelle Designs mit Prätest-Posttest durchgeführt: ein Design mit zusätzlicher Kontrollgruppe (Nexp = 14, Nkontr = 12), ein Design mit zusätzlicher Fremdeinschätzung (N = 11 bis N =57 je nach Messzeitpunkt und beteiligten Variablen). Die praktische Führungsintelligenz wurde anhand eines für die Untersuchung entwickelten Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) gemessen. Neben der FWE (in Anlehnung an die Skala zur Erfassung der beruflichen Selbstwirksamkeitserwartung, BSW-Skala) wurden weitere Konstrukte wie Selbstregulation (Locomotion-Assessment-Fragebogen, L-A-F), Optimismus (Skala Optimismus-Pessimismus-2, SOP2) Selbstmanagement (Fragebogens zur Erfassung von Ressourcen und Selbstmanagementfähigkeiten, FERUS) erfasst, sowie explorativ entwicklungsförderliche Merkmale erhoben. Entsprechend der Annahme verdichten sich die Ergebnisse auf drei Merkmale wirksamer Trainingsgestaltung: Erfahrungssammlung, Feedback, Selbstreflexion. Es konnte nachgewiesen werden, dass Programme mit hohem erfahrungsorientiertem Trainingsanteil, die Erfolgserlebnisse und Modelllernen fördern sowie persönliche Gespräche und Feedback beinhalten, die FWE (ŋ2 = .24, ŋ2 = .50) und die praktische Führungsintelligenz (ŋ2 = .54). signifikant (p<.05) steigern. Deutlich wurde auch der enge Zusammenhang zwischen Merkmalen der Person (wie Ausprägung der FWE oder Selbstregulationsfähigkeiten) und der Wirksamkeit der Programme. Aus den Ergebnissen werden Empfehlungen zur praktischen Umsetzung in der Führungskräfteentwicklung abgeleitet und Anregungen für zukünftige Forschung diskutiert.
Population genetic structure in European Hyalodaphnia species: Monopolization versus gene flow
(2012)
Cyclic parthenogens displays an alternation of asexual and sexual reproduction which has consequences for the genetic structure of these organisms. The clonal diversity of cyclic parthenogenetic zooplankton populations is influenced by the size of the dormant egg bank, i.e., the amount of sexually produced dormant eggs that assembled in the sediment, as these dormant eggs contribute new genetic variants to the populations. Further, the clonal diversity is impacted by clonal erosion over time, which reduces the number of different clones through stochastic and selective processes. Although freshwater invertebrates are good dispersers through their dormant stages, the influence of gene flow is assumed to be negligible, as the local population successfully monopolizes the available resources. As these populations reach carrying capacity fast due to the asexual reproduction, the first colonizing individuals are able to successfully establish in the habitat, resulting in a priority effect which hinders the invasion of new genotypes. Due to clonal selection and sexual reproduction a population will locally adapt over time and will establish a dormant egg bank which facilitates the fast re-colonization after a hostile period. This thesis evaluates the processes altering the population genetic structure of cyclic parthenogenetic zooplankton with a special focus on the concepts of monopolization as well as the counteracting effects of gene flow, using large-lake Daphnia species. Thirty-two variable microsatellite DNA markers were developed and a subset of twelve markers was evaluated regarding their suitability for species assignment and hybrid class detection. With this marker set and an additional mitochondrial DNA marker forty-four natural European populations of the species D. cucullata, D. galeata and D. longispina were studied. In D. galeata, most populations were characterized by low clonal diversities which suggest high influence from clonal erosion over the growing season and a low contribution from the dormant egg bank. Further, recent expansions as well as gene flow were detected, probably caused by the anthropogenic alteration of freshwater habitats, in particular eutrophication of many European lakes. D. longispina and D. cucullata revealed a different genetic structure compared to D. galeata, with high genetic differentiation among populations. This indicates low levels of effective gene flow which is in line with the predictions of monopolization. Further, high clonal diversities were found in populations of the two taxa, suggesting a high contribution from the dormant egg bank while clonal erosion was often not detectable. In D. longispina, mitochondrial data revealed an ancient expansion which was probably initiated by the formation of glacial lakes after the last ice age.
In addition, in D. longispina not only clonal diversity but also genetic diversity was high, indicating that during the build-up of the studied populations the influence from gene flow was probably high. To better understand the processes that act on early populations the population build-up in regard to the temporal advantage of clones during invasion succession was experimentally studied and revealed that priority effects shape population structure of Daphnia species. However, in certain cases the highly superior clones resulted in the extinction of inferior clones independent of the temporal advantage the single clones had.
This clearly shows that not only the time of succession is important but also the competitive strength. rnIn conclusion, the results obtained show that the population genetic structure in cyclic parthenogenetic zooplankton species is impacted by various processes. In addition to earlier studies, which mainly focus on local adaptation, clonal erosion and the size of the dormant egg bank to understand population genetic structure, this thesis could show that gene flow may be effective as well. During population build-up the advantage of early arriving individuals does not necessarily predict the outcome of population assembly, as additional genotypes may contribute to the population. Finally, the genetic structure of established populations may be severely impacted by effective gene flow, if severe environmental changes alter the habitat of the locally adapted population.
Die Analyse ortsbezogener Strukturdaten und Merkmale ist eine der wesentlichen Voraussetzungen für die Bewertung von Standorten und Räumen. Durch die Erfassung der lokalen Ausprägung ausgewählter Standortfaktoren und unter Zuhilfenahme eines Geographischen Informationssystems werden in der vorliegenden Dissertation die Städte und Gemeinden des hessischen Rheingau-Taunus-Kreises kategorisiert und miteinander verglichen. Hierbei erfolgt eine besondere Fokussierung auf die lokal bestehende technische und soziale Infrastruktur, um vorrangig das vorhandene Gewerbe- und Wohnumfeld sowie die darüber hinaus existierenden räumlichen Disparitäten eingehend veranschaulichen und beurteilen zu können.
In an attempt to put pronunciation training back in the limelight and to engage in a fruitful discussion on pronunciation- equal importance with other language skills, the current research project focuses on pronunciation. Specifically, one area that causes problems for L1-German speakers is concentrated on, namely the central approximant. German learners should not despair too much as even many native-English children stumble with /r/. For some, acquiring this sound takes a long time and even some professional help (see Secord 2007: 7-8). One problem that these children have is the substitution of /r/ with /w/. "Children with developmental speech substitution," write Raphael et al., "often produce the more easily articulated (…) /w/ for /r/" (2011: 119). Most native-English children require a long time to acquire this sound. According to Bleile, /r/ belongs to the last stage (i.e. stage 4) of a child- language development (see Bleile 2004: 106). This final stage can range from five years of age to adolescence. One of the greatest difficulties, for instance, occurs with postvocalic /r/ (or "[r] colored schwa") and consonant clusters with /r/ (see Bleile 2004: 106).
It is important at this juncture to direct attention to the organization of the current research project and how it addresses the /r/-problem. At the start of the current study, an appropriate and concise definition of the /r/-sound is proposed. While it can be easily stated that the letter <r> is the 18th letter in the English alphabet, it is much more arduous to define what is meant by the /r/-sound. In chapter 2, a number of definitions of /r/ are explored. Section 2.1 presents an articulatory description and section 2.2 offers an acoustic description. A theoretical definition is provided in section 2.3. By exploring the distinguishing features of the /r/-sound, it can be distinguished from other sounds. From these three perspectives, a more encompassing view of the complicated English /r/-sound can be obtained.
In chapter 3, three hypotheses are presented. The first two are the main hypotheses for the current study. There is also a third (minor) hypothesis and it is an offshoot from some of the research findings from the first hypothesis. In section 3.1.1, hypothesis 1 (H1) investigates the frequency of the problem that L1-German speakers have when speaking the American English /r/-sound aloud when it is postvocalic and in a weakened syllable. Hypothesis 2 (H2) is put forward in section 3.1.2. It explores the frequency of /w/-substitution for /r/ when the latter sound is prevocalic in a stressed syllable. For the final and third hypothesis (H3), one specific occassion where L1 interference occurs (i.e. /ɐ/ for /ə/) is researched in section 3.1.3.
Some organizational details concerning the study are also included in the third chapter. The general set-up of the study is provided in section 3.2.1. Information pertaining to both the disqualified participants of the study as well as the 50 test subjects who were selected for the study is available in section 3.2.1.2. Details on technical equipment and software programs are disclosed in sections 3.2.1.1 and 3.2.1.3. The prescribed reading texts that the test subjects needed to read aloud are presented in the subsections of section 3.2.2.
For a better understanding of the acoustic properties of the prevocalic /r/-sound, five expressions from the reading text are selected. In section 3.3, the expressions are also articulated by the author (a native speaker of a variety of English from North America) in four different scenarios. The scenarios try to illustrate a limited number of possible articulatory variations. The author utters the expressions in four different ways: 1.) with lip spreading, 2.) in isolation, 3.) in connected speech and 4.) with /w/-substitution for /r/. These articulations serve as a template for understanding how the acoustic features of /r/ changes. Some of these changes are noticeable in the articulations of the test subjects (presented in chapter 4).
In chapter 4, the data collected for the three hypotheses are presented. For H1, section 4.1 and its subsections document the formant readings of a number of English expressions which contain the postvocalic /r/. In this analysis, it is important to detect where the central approximant is elided. In cases of elision, the samples have their schwa-like sounds plotted in a vowel quadrilateral, so that their locations can be detected. In section 4.2 and its subsections, data observations for H2 are discussed. From these data, the extent of /w/-substitution for /r/ when it is prevocalic in a stressed syllable can be observed. In section 4.3, an analysis of the /ɐ/-sound from three German expressions as they are spoken by the 50 test subjects is presented for H3. Together with pertinent data (i.e. formant readings) from H1, a comparison is made between the locations of /ə/ and /ɐ/. This section concludes with a plotting of all samples of these two vowels in a vowel chart.
In the final chapter of the current study, the main findings of the three hypotheses are summarized. Chapter 5 also provides some insights into a few of the gaps or limitations in the present research. Future research endeavors are proposed in order to suggest possible avenues to advance the findings reported on in the fourth chapter. In addition, several teaching suggestions and pronunciation exercises for implementing the /r/-sound in class are presented.
Lastly, there is an appendix section that consists of 14 smaller appendices (i.e Volume 2). The spectrograms and formant readings for each expression spoken by each of the 50 test subjects are documented in Appendix A to M. In Appendix N, some charts, tables, diagrams, etc. that are discussed throughout the following chapters are made available. Copies of the original questionnaire that were filled out by the test subjects are also in Appendix N.
Gefährdete Weltmacht USA
(2017)
Aims and findings of the dissertation
The completed research uses holistic, politological and historical approaches to present how, during the studied period of the administrations of Clinton to Obama, the liberal, rule-based world order system is gradually supplemented and replaced by a system of realist imposition of vital interests that have short-term effects, preferring military means combined with continuous military optimisation. This also explains a continuity between the leading-power policy of administrations in this study (1993-2017) and the subsequent period of the “transactional leadership of Trump”(1), with its recognizable, far-reaching effects of aiming to reduce idealistic Grand Strategy elements and measures of a benevolent order by passing on costs to and reducing the benefits of European NATO allies. The results of this dissertation, such as the increasingly evident dissolution of a multilateral fundamental order, therefore indicate that Trump’s foreign and security policy to date should be regarded as a clearly noticeable crisis symptom, rather than the cause of a decline in the world order established after 1945. This decline is synonymous with the erosion of the transatlantically initiated bipolar “American system”. Its implementation was the result of the “lesson of two world wars”, based on modern concepts of order introduced by the Enlightenment and the founding criteria of the United States: thus its dissolution is also an indicator of the failure of contemporary criteria of order that thrive in the “American way of life”.
The cause of the described development is shown to be a constantly exacerbating overall threat, from Clinton to Obama, which is connected to the consistent erosion of US supremacy. Among other aspects, this is based on climate change effects postulated in 1979, which multiply the threat while coinciding with American peak production of fossil fuels and increased demand on resources in the context of dwindling raw material resources. Furthermore, during the period of this study, the “US conservative revolution”, which began in the 1980s, increasingly affected foreign and security policy, combining with a consolidation in the influence of corporations and lobby groups in fields such as policy implementation and new underlying conditions. They include the onset of digitisation, entailing a high consumption of resources, and a growing world population faced with specific demographic indicators. Additionally, the maintenance of the armaments sector, originally a result of bipolar development, as the economic basis of military supremacy and the slow decline of the Dollar hegemony since around 1973, should also be taken into account. Complex interaction between Grand Strategy implementation according to the premise of expanding US-American dominance under neoconservative and Christian Right-wing influences, as well as asymmetrical and reactivated conventional security threats and threat multipliers clearly indicate the linear development of the overall threat in the period between 1993 and 2017: in the context of Grand Strategy statements, above all the understanding of defence against this threat, of the latter’s multiplying factors and the market economy explains the following with respect to the US far-right in a complex interaction with the growth of transnational corporations, lobby groups, individuals(2), informal networks and state actors with respect to objects of threat and threat multipliers(3) in connection with the post-bipolar, global anchoring of US economic and consumer patterns: US adaptation of its reaction to this threat – while consolidating imperial presidency(4) and weakening the system of checks and balances – including its implications of a bipolar liberal order. In this way, the necessary continued leadership within NATO through the US-proposed NATO reform can be seen as an appropriate implementation of transformed threat-reaction measures and the legitimisation of systemic adaptation. It equally becomes clear that the established threat reaction measures only provide a short-term defence: instead, they enhance the asymmetric and conventional threat, as well as threat multipliers – by introducing arms races and breaking down arms control – thereby heightening the overall threat. The consequence is the consistently growing likelihood of a conflict of hitherto unimaginable proportions. At the same time, the urgent need to mobilise transatlantic cooperation with respect to supporting global cooperation between state and non-government actors is illustrated with respect to the roots of the threat and its deteriorating underlying conditions: each increase in the overall threat, the adapted US security policy and its continuation in NATO is connected to an erosion of rule-based underlying criteria during the studied period. This continuously and consistently undermines the basis of the above-stated, ever-increasingly important cooperation, to prevent or at least limit the successive erosion of the bipolar “American system” under future dystopias. The research results completely overturn the state of research to date, since for instance it is possible to show that, by means of NATO transformation findings, no transatlantic sharing of burdens on an equal footing and no NATO reform in accordance with its founding principles can be achieved. The same also applies to European opposition to the actual anchoring of NATO transformation positions(5), which is based on the erosion of the bipolar liberal order system and the maintenance of US advantages as well as the consolidation of particular interests they facilitate. Furthermore, it is apparent that a line of continuity in the threat-reaction measures from Clinton to Obama exists with varying external effects, along with an underlying pattern of “Battleship America” – as opposed to a multilaterally orientated foreign and security policy under Clinton, which merged into a unilateral, radical swing under G. W. Bush 43 following 9/11, but was reverted by the Obama administration. A comprehensive wealth of literature was used of the doctoral thesis, as reflected by the extensive bibliography: they firstly include diverse American and European publications, monographs and relevant secondary literature, including biographies, publications of various kinds of important political planning and implementation, as well as collected volumes and research articles from specialist journals on all fields of research and politological methodology and theory. The same applies to publications by leading European and American institutions, research centres and think tanks. Furthermore, this author used publications and documents by governments, foreign ministries, defence ministries, other government bodies and Nato.
Dissertation structure
This dissertation is divided into two volumes and one Appendix: Volume 1 discusses Focus 1, namely a process-tracing in the context of offensive neorealist positioning. Volume 2 presents Focus 2, which is based on the preceding focus in making a structured, focussed comparison in the context of defensive neorealist positioning. The Appendix volume contains further discussion of Chapter 1, Volume 1 with respect to the state of research, literature and sources, theoretical positioning and the choice of the region of study and selected European NATO partners. Furthermore, a historical chapter provides underlying information for process-tracing in Chapter 2, Volume 1, an index of images and abbreviations, and a bibliography.
The entire dissertation uses qualitative methods to focus on these two mutually supporting, building on each other, themes to investigate the following from a US-perspective: firstly the overriding US security-policy reaction to a new overall threat and secondly, its continuation combined with the opportunity of for enabling and legitimising it within and through NATO during the studied period from Clinton to Obama.
Based on the first part of this hypothesis, Focus 1 (Volume 1) establishes a connection between, on the one hand, maintaining the bipolar Grand Strategy target of consolidating the USA as a leading, regulating power, bipolar foreign-policy Grand Strategy indicators and a new overall threat that is developing in a complex way, and, on the other, the necessity of its continued leadership within NATO and the required NATO transformation according to US-proposed NATO transformation positions.
Focus 2 (Volume 2) is based on the second part of the hypothesis, investigating the transatlantic negotiation process to establish these US-proposed NATO transformation positions: in this context, Volume 2 investigates whether the attempt to actually secure and consolidate such US supremacy was unsuccessful in the face of resistance from selected European NATO partners, namely France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
The overall result shows that due to a complex, developing, linear increase in the overall threat, the chance for the USA to consolidate its status as a leading power is steadily diminishing. This must be compensated by adapting US security policy. The resulting American security-policy realignment based on the initiated “revolution in military affairs” in turn modifies the indicators of bipolar collective security guarantees. Everything is enabled and legitimised by means of actually securing US NATO-transformation positions. The actual implementation of such NATO transformation – representing the consistent adaptation of US security policy – enables a mission-orientated, rapid response, flexible, global security projection. It also creates conditions for “alliances of choice” within NATO. Furthermore, the modification of a “bipolar NATO” exacerbates the erosion of key achievements of civilisation as a result of adapted US security policy, as well as undermining the tasks of bipolar collective security guarantees through diminished benefits to European NATO partners.
The actual anchoring of NATO transformation positions is achieved by reactivating the conventional threat in the context of the Ukraine crisis of 2014 and the extension of NATO partnership rings on a global level, without providing them with NATO membership status, thus avoiding globalisation in a mutual defence case. The German and French resistance is particularly intensive through the involvement of European founder states, while the formation of a European leadership triumvirate consisting of France, Germany and the United Kingdom does not take place.
Moreover, a relevant investigation of causes particularly shows that despite constant mutually supporting US security reaction measures with varying international effects and actual continued leadership within NATO, the overall threat is not receding: this leads to a constant increase in the overall threat, a loss of influence of state actors, the diffusion and concentration of power and the increased probability of reactive conventional, nuclear, cyber and ecological destruction scenarios. On this basis, the consequence is an increasingly comprehensive and rapidly responding precision defence combined with growing securitization to compensate for the ongoing containment of US supremacy. This developing process steadily diminishes the reach and power of a liberal, rule-based, bipolar “American system” and the establishment of “idealistic, liberal” elements of US-Grand Strategy. This entails a further reduction in benefits for European NATO allies and increasing US cost-cutting demands – based on the successive NATO transformation positions that build on each other and Obama’s “smart power”(6) during the period studied in this dissertation. Thus the chance is receding of developing the post-bipolar, globally adopted American way of life with individual national character, which is regarded as “non-negotiable”: for instance its articulation is expressed through increasing right-wing populism, the election of outsider-candidates, the dissolution of traditional party systems, isolationist tendencies combined with burgeoning ethnic, regional movements, the rejection of supranationalism, and religious fundamentalism. At the same time, the ongoing erosion of global public goods is apparent.
This all paves the way to limiting the benevolent American regulating power and state actors’ leverage – and therefore to a return to classic power politics in the context of a resulting diffusion and concentration of power. In view of the urgency of a long-term containment of asymmetrical or conventional threats to security, or aspects that exacerbate such threats or clusters thereof, as well as underlying global conditions, this undermines the ability to achieve the following: to achieve transatlantic cooperation by broadening the range of levels and actors in the spirit of proactive and expanded, networked security to achieve according global cooperation with respect to containing the root causes of threats.
Overall, this research work reveals how and why the anticipated “peace dividend” and the notion of an “age of hope”, as postulated by President Clinton, were hardly perceptible during the period of study between 1993 and 2017.
Notes
(1) Cf. Braml, Josef (2018), Trumps transaktionaler Transatlantizismus, in: Jäger, Thomas (Hrsg.), Zeitschrift für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik, Oktober 2018, Volume 11, Ausgabe 4, S. 439-448, Wiesbaden.
(2) Cf. National Intelligence Council (Ed.) (2012), Global Trends 2013: Alternative Worlds (NIC 2012-001), https://publicintelligence.net/global-trends-2030/, last accessed: 12.04.19. See also the “international financial leadership, self-selected at Davos” cit. McCoy, Alfred W. (2017), In the Shadows of the American Century. The Rise and Decline of US Global Power, Chicago.
(3) In 1990, the threat-enhancing nature of climate change was already postulated with respect to asymmetric objects of threat as well as conventional and complex clusters: “Over the next half century, the global average temperature may increase by approximately 4 degrees C. (…) All nations will be affected. (…) How much time will there be to confirm the amount of change and then to act? (…) However, many believe that we will have waited too long to avoid major dislocation, hardship and conflict – on a scale not as yet seen by man“. Cf. Kelley, Terry P. (1990), Global Climate Change. Implications For The United States Navy (The United States Naval War College, Newport, RI), http://documents.theblackvault.com/documents/weather/climatechange/globalclimatechange-navy.pdf, last accessed: 30.03.19. Cf. Mazo, Jeffrey (2010), Climate Conflict. How global warming threatens security and what to do about it, London, Abingdon.
This supports the thesis of a developing, constant overall threat during the period between 1993 and 2017.
(4) Cf. Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr. (1973), The Imperial Presidency, Boston.
(5) In this dissertation, the proposed US positions on NATO adaptation, the NATO Response Force and the Global Partnership Initiative are described as “NATO transformation positions”: Their actual establishment was connected to a NATO transformation with the consistent continuation of adapted US security policy.
(6) Cf. Nossel, Suzanne (2004), Smart Power. Reclaiming Liberal Internationalism, http://www.democracyarsenal.org/SmartPowerFA.pdf, last accessed: 26.08.17, Nye, Joseph S. Jr. (2011), The Future of Power, New York, Nye, Joseph S. Jr. (2011), Macht im 21sten Jahrhundert. Politische Strategien für ein neues Zeitalter, München, Rodham Clinton, Hillary (2010), Leading Through Civilan Power. Redefining American Diplomacy and Development, in: Foreign Affairs, November/December 2010, Vol. 89, No.6, S. 13-24.
Initial goal of the current dissertation was the determination of image-based biomarkers sensitive for neurodegenerative processes in the human brain. One such process is the demyelination of neural cells characteristic for Multiple sclerosis (MS) - the most common neurological disease in young adults for which there is no cure yet. Conventional MRI techniques are very effective in localizing areas of brain tissue damage and are thus a reliable tool for the initial MS diagnosis. However, a mismatch between the clinical fndings and the visualized areas of damage is observed, which renders the use of the standard MRI diffcult for the objective disease monitoring and therapy evaluation. To address this problem, a novel algorithm for the fast mapping of myelin water content using standard multiecho gradient echo acquisitions of the human brain is developed in the current work. The method extents a previously published approach for the simultaneous measurement of brain T1, T∗ 2 and total water content. Employing the multiexponential T∗ 2 decay signal of myelinated tissue, myelin water content is measured based on the quantifcation of two water pools (myelin water and rest) with different relaxation times. Whole brain in vivo myelin water content maps are acquired in 10 healthy controls and one subject with MS. The in vivo results obtained are consistent with previous reports. The acquired quantitative data have a high potential in the context of MS. However, the parameters estimated in a multiparametric acquisition are correlated and constitute therefore an ill-posed, nontrivial data analysis problem. Motivated by this specific problem, a new data clustering approach is developed called Nuclear Potential Clustering, NPC. It is suitable for the explorative analysis of arbitrary dimensional and possibly correlated data without a priori assumptions about its structure. The developed algorithm is based on a concept adapted from nuclear physics. To partition the data, the dynamic behavior of electrically even charged nucleons interacting in a d-dimensional feature space is modeled. An adaptive nuclear potential, comprised of a short-range attractive (Strong interaction) and a long-range repulsive term (Coulomb potential), is assigned to each data point. Thus, nucleons that are densely distributed in space fuse to build nuclei (clusters), whereas single point clusters are repelled (noise). The algorithm is optimized and tested in an extensive study with a series of synthetic datasets as well as the Iris data. The results show that it can robustly identify clusters even when complex configurations and noise are present. Finally, to address the initial goal, quantitative MRI data of 42 patients are analyzed employing NPC. A series of experiments with different sets of image-based features show a consistent grouping tendency: younger patients with low disease grade are recognized as cohesive clusters, while those of higher age and impairment are recognized as outliers. This allows for the definition of a reference region in a feature space associated with phenotypic data. Tracking of the individual's positions therein can disclose patients at risk and be employed for therapy evaluation.
Social entrepreneurship is a form of entrepreneurship that marries a social mission to a competitive value proposition. Notably, social entrepreneurship fosters a more equitable society by addressing social issues and trying to achieve an ongoing sustainable impact through a social mission rather than purely profit maximization. The topic of social entrepreneurship has appealed considerably to many different streams of research. The focus on understanding how and why entrepreneurs think and act is a significant justification for future research. Nevertheless, the theoretical examination of this phenomenon is in its infancy. Social entrepreneurship research is still largely phenomenon-driven. Specifically, Social Entrepreneurial Intention is in an early stage and lacks quantitative research. Therefore, this thesis proposes to address this need. The thesis’ objectives are twofold: (1) develop a formation model for Social Entrepreneurial Intentions in general and (2) test the model by conducting an empirical study. Based on these objectives, the two research questions guiding the thesis are (1) what factors influence the intention of a person to become a social entrepreneur and (2) what relationships exist among these factors.
In order to answer these two research questions, this thesis uses purposeful research design, which is a combination of literature review and empirical study. The literature review is based on a comprehensive range of books, articles, and research papers published in leading academic journals and conference proceedings in different disciplines such as entrepreneurship, social entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship education, management, social psychology, and social economics. The empirical study is conducted via a survey of 600 last-year students from four universities in three regions in Vietnam: Hanoi, Da Nang, and Ho Chi Minh. The data are analyzed with SPSS-AMOS version 24, using screening data, scale development, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmation factor analysis. The thesis ascertains that Entrepreneurship Experience/Extra-curricular Activity, Role Model, Social Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, and Social Entrepreneurial Outcome Expectation directly and positively affect the intention of the Vietnamese students to be social entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Education also influences the Social Entrepreneurial Intention, but not directly, otherwise indirectly via Social Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy and Social Entrepreneurial Outcome Expectation. Similarly, Perceived Support has no direct relationship to Social Entrepreneurial Intention; however, it shows an indirect link via the mediator ‘Social Entrepreneurial Outcome Expectation’. Furthermore, the dissertation brings new insights to the social entrepreneurship literature and provides important implications for practice. Limitations and future directions are also provided in the thesis.
This dissertation is dedicated to a new concept for capturing renunciation-oriented attitudes and beliefs — sufficiency orientation. Sufficiency originates in the interdisciplinary sustain-ability debate. In contrast to efficiency and consistency, sufficiency considers human behaviour as the cause of socio-ecological crises and strives for a reduction in consumption respecting the planetary boundaries. The present work places sufficiency in a psychological research context and explores it qualitatively and quantitatively. On the basis of five manuscripts, the overarching question pursued is to what extent sufficiency orientation contributes to socio-ecological transformation. Based on one qualitative study and five further quantitative studies, sufficiency orientation is investigated in different behavioural contexts that are of particular importance with regard to CO2 emissions. In addition, sufficiency orientation is linked to a wider range of psychologically relevant theories that help gain an overview of correlates and possible causes for the development of a sufficiency orientation.
Manuscript 1 uses expert interviews (N = 21) to develop a heuristic framework on a transformation towards societal sufficiency orientation including barriers and enablers, as well as ambiguities on such a change. The derived elements are interpreted in the light of the leverage points approach. This framework can serve as a heuristic for future research and to develop measures concerning sufficiency orientation.
As part of an online study (N = 648), Manuscript 2 examines the extent to which sufficiency orientation can be embedded in classic models for explaining pro-environmental intentions and behaviour (Theory of Planned Behaviour, Norm Activation Model), and showed a significant contribution to the explanation of intentions and behaviour in the field of plastic consumption.
Manuscript 3 reports two framing experiments (Study 1, N = 123, Study 2, N = 330) to investigate how pro-social justice sensitivity contributes to making sufficiency orientation more salient and promoting it. While sufficiency orientation and pro-social facets of justice sensitivity were positively related to each other, there was no effect of the framing intervention in the hypothesised direction. The results indicate that justice-related information at least in the presented manner is more likely to generate reactance.
Manuscript 4 presents an online study (N = 317) and targets the importance of sufficiency orientation for predicting actual greenhouse gas emissions in relation to flight behav-iour and policy support for the decarbonisation of mobility. In addition, the connection between sufficiency orientation and global identity is examined. It turns out that sufficiency orientation is superior to global identity in predicting actual emissions and decarbonisation policies. Contrary to expectations, sufficiency orientation and the form of global identity operationalised in the presented study shows a positive correlation and are compatible.
Manuscript 5 reports a reflective diary intervention (N = 252) that should lead to a short- and long-term increase in sufficiency orientation by satisfying basic psychological needs through induced self-reflection. For both groups with or without the intervention, sufficiency orientation increased slightly but significantly. Although no specific effect of the manipulation was found, basic psychological need satisfaction turns out to be the largest predictor for sufficiency orientation. Subjective well-being is positively associated with sufficiency orientation, while time affluence shows no clear associations in the study.
Overall, the results highlight the relevance of sufficiency orientation in relation to socio-ecological transformation and actual behavioural change. Sufficiency orientation is related to low-emission behaviour and support for political measures to decarbonize infrastructures. These results contribute to the discussion on the intention-behaviour gap in regard to impact-relevant behaviour, i.e. behaviour producing high emissions. The present findings suggest, that sufficiency orientation could be related to a strong intention-behavioural consistency. However, further research is needed to validate these results and improve the measurement of sufficiency orientation. Furthermore, the studies provided insights on correlates of sufficiency orientation: justice sensitivity, global identity, subjective well-being and left-wing liberal political ideologies are all found to be positively related to sufficiency orien-tation. Moreover, basic psychological need satisfaction was identified as a potential mechanism that can support the emergence of sufficiency orientation, however, causality remains unclear. From these findings, the work derives practical implications how to possibly strengthen sufficiency orientation on the micro, meso and macro levels of society.
Taken together, the dissertation provides important insights into a new and still developing concept, and shows its connectivity to psychological theories. However, future research is required in order to grasp more precisely the complexity of sufficiency orientation and to understand origins and predictors of sufficiency orientation. This work contributes to the interdisciplinary debate on socio-ecological transformation and points out that sufficiency orientation can serve to a future worth living as being related to reduced consumption.
Im Rahmen des vorliegenden Promotionsprojekts wird untersucht, welche Körperideologien in den drei unterschiedlichen Sportfeldern Hochleistungs-, Gesundheits- sowie Erlebnis- bzw. Funsport gegeben sind und welchen gesellschaftswirksamen Einfluss diese Ideologien aufweisen. Im Rahmen der zentralen Forschungsfrage wird des Weiteren erforscht, welche diskursiven Mittel bei Körperideologien im Sportbereich eingesetzt werden, welche Formationen in Bezug auf den Gegenstand, welche Äußerungsmodalitäten, Begrifflichkeiten und Strategien dem Diskurs zugrundeliegen und wer als TrägerIn oder AdressatIn des Diskurses identifiziert werden kann. Außerdem steht die Fragestellung im Fokus, welche Bezüge zu anderen Diskursen bestehen und um welche Diskurse es sich dabei handelt. Körperideologien des Sports werden in diesem Zusammenhang als Vorstellungen von einem (idealen) Körper betrachtet, welche durch den Sport übertragen und in der Gesellschaft verbreitet werden. Dabei wird zunächst der Begriff der Ideologie theoretisch hergeleitet und definiert sowie im Hinblick auf die vorliegende Arbeit als Weltdeutung mit einem Anspruch auf Alleinvertretung aufgefasst. Des Weiteren wird die Gouvernementalitätstheorie von Foucault aufgegriffen und für die Identifizierung der Macht- und Herrschaftsstrukturen in Bezug auf die untersuchten Körperideologien herangezogen. Dabei geht es darum, inwieweit die durch den Sport übermittelten Körperideologien dazu geeignet sind, in einem gouvernementalitätstheoretischen Sinne Führung zur Selbstführung zu ermöglichen. In einer sportsoziologischen Hinsicht beinhaltet der Sport leistungsbezogene Eigenschaften, welche in auf Effektivität abzielenden wirtschaftlichen Prozessen eine grundlegende Voraussetzung darstellen. Im Rahmen der Studie werden für jeden der drei genannten Sportbereiche jeweils zwei Individualsportarten ausgewählt, bei welchen die fokussierten Körperideologien untersucht werden. Während im Bereich des Hochleistungssports Schwimmen und Biathlon und im Bereich des Gesundheitssports Nordic Walking sowie Pilates betrachtet werden, stellen Stand Up Paddling und Parkour die fokussierten Sportarten im Bereich des Fun- bzw. Erlebnissports dar. Für die vorliegende Untersuchung kommt das Verfahren der kritischen Diskursanalyse (KDA) von Jäger zur Anwendung, da dieses für die Rekonstruktion von ideologischen Diskursen geeignet erscheint. Hierfür werden aus den drei Sportbereichen sowohl Print- als auch Onlinepublikationen sondiert und anhand von Strukturanalysen hinsichtlich verschiedener formaler und inhaltlicher Charakteristika untersucht. Des Weiteren wird mit Hilfe der tiefergehenden Feinanalyse jeweils ein Artikel pro Sportart explorativ analysiert, um verschiedene Muster zu vorhandenen Körperideologien in den fokussierten Sportarten und Sportbereichen identifizieren und anhand ausgewählter Textstellen belegen zu können. Bei den Ergebnissen zeigt sich, dass der Körper in den Hochleistungssportarten Schwimmen und Biathlon als formbares Material bzw. als Instrument zur Erbringung sportlicher Höchstleistungen betrachtet und dargestellt wird. Auch im Gesundheitssport wird der Körper als form- bzw. trainierbar hervorgehoben, wobei hierbei die Gesundheit im Fokus steht und mit Schlankheit gleichgesetzt wird. Im Bereich des Fun- bzw. Erlebnissports zeigt sich bei der Sportart Stand Up Paddling der Körper ebenfalls als zu bearbeitendes Objekt. Dagegen wird bei der Sportart Parkour der angenommene Normalismus von Jugendlichkeit anhand der Ergebnisse widerlegt. Deutlich wird, dass als diskursives Mittel vor allem der Körper als formbares Material erscheint. Dabei stehen in Bezug auf die Äußerungsmodalitäten und Begrifflichkeiten der Diskurse vor allem das Leistungsmaximum, aber auch Schlankheit und Fitness im Fokus. Die identifizierten Diskurse sind an die gesamte Gesellschaft adressiert und werden zudem durch sich selbst getragen, wodurch sie nicht nur die Realität abbilden, sondern auch ein Eigenleben in der Form entwickeln, dass sie als Träger von Wissen fungieren.
The scientific interest in nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) has increased in the last two decades. High prevalence and comorbidity rates, low quality of life and increased risk of suicidality highlight the importance of this research field. The present thesis focuses on intra- and interpersonal factors associated with the development and maintenance of NSSI.
The aim of study 1 was the examination of personality traits of adolescents with NSSI without Borderline Personality Disorder (NSSI-BPD), adolescents with NSSI and BPD (NSSI+BPD), clinical controls (CC) and nonclinical controls (NC). Results showed that adolescents with NSSI disorder scored significantly higher on novelty seeking and harm avoidance and lower on persistence, self-directedness, and cooperativeness than CC. In adolescents with NSSI+BPD this personality pattern was even more pronounced than in adolescents with NSSI-BPD.
Adolescents´ NSSI leads to distress that affects the whole family system, often resulting in conflicts and disrupted family communication and functioning. Parents report feelings of distress, insecurity and helplessness. Adolescents with NSSI report more parental criticism and control and less support than adolescents without NSSI. Study 2 investigated the parenting behavior in families of adolescents with NSSI. Adolescents with NSSI reported less maternal warmth and support than NC adolescents. Mothers of adolescents with NSSI showed higher psychopathology scores than NC mothers and less parental satisfaction than CC and NC mothers.
Siblings are also reported to suffer from changes in family dynamics. The aim of study 3 was to examine the sibling relationship quality of adolescents with NSSI, CC and NC. Siblings reported a wide range of negative emotional and familial consequences as a result of their sister´s NSSI. Siblings of adolescents with NSSI experienced significantly more coercion in the relationship with their sister compared to CC and NC siblings. Adolescents with NSSI reported significantly less warmth and empathy in the sibling relationship and higher rivalry scores between their siblings and themselves than NC adolescents. For both, adolescents with NSSI and their siblings, associations were found between sibling relationship quality and internalizing problems.
Study 4 aimed to further explore the family emotional climate. Therefore, the level of expressed emotion (EE) was assessed in adolescents with NSSI, CC, NC and their mothers. Parental high EE (HEE) is linked to adolescent NSSI, especially parental criticism seems to be strongly associated with NSSI. Previous research into NSSI and EE has focused on parental EE, however, the conceptualization of EE as a unidirectional construct from parent to child may present an incomplete picture. Therefore, the current study included both, adolescent and maternal EE. Adolescents in the NSSI and CC group more often met criteria for HEE than NC. Adolescents with NSSI exhibited significantly more covert criticism and critical tone toward their mothers than CC and NC. HEE of adolescents with NSSI was associated with a range of difficulties in emotion regulation. For the total sample, moderate concordance was found between adolescents and mothers EE-status.
The research presented in this thesis has important clinical implications. The differences in personality traits of adolescents with NSSI with and without BPD underline the need for a dimensional personality assessment as well as specific treatment programs for adolescents with NSSI-BPD. Problems within the family are frequent triggers for NSSI. Therefore, interventions for adolescents with NSSI should include both, the improvement of emotion regulation and family interaction and communication. Along with the reduction of negative relationship aspects, psychotherapy should also focus on the enhancement of positive relationship quality. The emotional burden of family members stresses the need for emotional and practical support for parents and siblings.
Flowering habitats to enhance biodiversity and pest control services in agricultural landscapes
(2015)
Meeting growing demands for agricultural products requires management solutions that enhance food production, whilst minimizing negative environmental impacts. Conventional agricultural intensification jeopardizes farmland biodiversity and associated ecosystem services through excessive anthropogenic inputs and landscape simplification. Agri-environment schemes (AES) are commonly implemented to mitigate the adverse effects of conventional intensification on biodiversity. However the moderate success of such schemes thus far would strongly benefit from more explicit goals regarding ecosystem service provisioning. Providing key resources to beneficial organisms may improve their abundance, fitness, diversity and the ecosystem services they provide. With targeted habitat management, AES may synergistically enhance biodiversity and agricultural production and thus contribute to ecological intensification. We demonstrate that sown perennial wildflower strips, as implemented in current AES focusing on biodiversity conservation also benefit biological pest control in nearby crops (Chapter 2).
Comparing winter wheat fields adjacent to wildflower strips with fields without wildflower strips we found strongly reduced cereal leaf beetle (Oulema sp.) density and plant damage near wildflower strips. In addition, winter wheat yield was 10 % higher when fields adjoined wildflower strips. This confirms previous assumptions that wildflower strips, known for positive effects on farmland biodiversity, can also enhance ecosystem services such as pest control and the positive correlation of yield with flower abundance and diversity suggests that floral resources are key. Refining sown flower strips for enhanced service provision requires mechanistic understanding of how organisms benefit from floral resources. In climate chamber experiments investigating the impact of single and multiple flowering plant species on fitness components of three key arthropod natural enemies of aphids, we demonstrate that different natural enemies benefit differently from the offered resources (Chapter 3).
Some flower species were hereby more valuable to natural enemies than others overall. Additionally, the mixture with all flowers generally performed better than monocultures, yet with no transgressive overyielding. By explicitly tailoring flower strips to the requirements of key natural enemies of crop pests we aimed to maximise natural enemy mediated pest control in winter wheat (Chapter 4)and potato (Chapter 5) crops.
Respecting the manifold requirements of diverse natural enemies but not pests, in terms of temporal and spatial provisioning of floral, extra floral and structural resources, we designed targeted annual flower strips that can be included in crop rotation to support key arthropods at the place and time they are needed. Indeed, field experiments revealed that cereal leaf beetle density and plant damage in winter wheat can be reduced by 40 % to 61 % and aphid densities in potatoes even by 77 %, if a targeted flower strip is sown into the field. These effects were not restricted to the vicinity of flower strips and, in contrast to fields without flower strip, often prevented action thresholds from being reached. This suggests that targeted flower strips could replace insecticides. All adult natural enemies were enhanced inside targeted flower strips when compared to control strips. Yet, spillover to the field was restricted to key natural enemies such as ground beetles (winter wheat), hoverflies (potato) and lacewings (winter wheat and potato), suggesting their dominant role in biological control. In potatoes, targeted flower strips also enhanced hoverfly species richness in strips and crop, highlighting their additional benefits for diversity.
The present results provide more insights into the mechanisms underlying conservation biological control and highlight the potential of tailored habitat management for ecological intensification.
Student misbehavior and its treatment is a major challenge for teachers and a threat to their well-being. Indeed, teachers are obliged to punish student misbehavior on a regular basis. Additionally, teachers’ punishment decisions are among the most frequently reported situations when it comes to students’ experiences of injustice in school. By implication, it is crucial to understand teachers’ treatment of student misbehavior vis-à-vis students’ perceptions. One key dimension of punishment behavior reflects its underlying motivation and goals. People generally intend to achieve three goals when punishing misbehavior, namely, retribution (i.e., evening out the harm caused), special prevention (i.e., preventing recidivism of the offender), and general prevention (i.e., preventing imitation of others). Importantly, people’s support of these punishment goals is subject to hierarchy and power, implying that teachers’ and students’ punishment goal preferences differ. In this dissertation, I present three research projects that shed first light on teachers’ punishment and its goals along with the students’ perception of classroom intervention strategies pursuing these goals. More specifically, I first examined students’ (i.e., children’s) general support of each of the three punishment goals sketched above. Furthermore, I applied an attributional approach to understand and study the goals teachers intend to achieve when punishing student misbehavior. Finally, I investigated teachers’ and students’ support of the punishment goals regarding the same student misbehavior to directly compare their views on these goals and reactions pursuing them. In sum, the findings show that students generally prefer retribution and special prevention to general prevention, whereas teachers prefer general prevention and special prevention to retribution. This ultimately translates into a "mismatch" of teachers and students in their preferences for specific punishment goals, and the findings suggest that this may indeed enhance students’ perception of injustice. Overall, the results of the present research program may be valuable for the development of classroom intervention strategies that may reduce rather than enhance conflicts in student-teacher-interactions.
The European landscape is dominated by intensive agriculture which leads to widespread impact on the environment. The frequent use of agricultural pesticides is one of the major causes of an ongoing decline in flower-visiting insects (FVIs). The conservation of this ecologically diverse assemblage of mobile, flying insect species is required by international and European policy. To counteract the decrease in species numbers and their abundances, FVIs need to be protected from anthropogenic stressors. European pesticide risk assessment was devised to prevent unacceptable adverse consequences of pesticide use on FVIs. However, there is an ongoing discussion by scientists and policy-makers if the current risk assessment actually provides adequate protection for FVI species.
The first main objective of this thesis was to investigate pesticide impact on FVI species. The scientific literature was reviewed to identify groups of FVIs, summarize their ecology, and determine their habitat. This was followed by a synthesis of studies about the exposure of FVIs in their habitat and subsequent effects. In addition, the acute sensitivity of one FVI group, bee species, to pesticides was studied in laboratory experiments.
The second main objective was to evaluate the European risk assessment for possible deficits and propose improvements to the current framework. Regulatory documents were screened to assess the adequacy of the guidance in place in light of the scientific evidence. The suitability of the honey bee Apis mellifera as the currently only regulatory surrogate species for FVIs was discussed in detail.
The available scientific data show that there are far more groups of FVIs than the usually mentioned bees and butterflies. FVIs include many groups of ecologically different species that live in the entire agricultural landscape. Their habitats in crops and adjacent semi-natural areas can be contaminated by pesticides through multiple pathways. Environmentally realistic exposure of these habitats can lead to severe effects on FVI population parameters. The laboratory studies of acute sensitivity in bee species showed that pesticide effects on FVIs can vary greatly between species and pesticides.
The follow-up critical evaluation of the European FVI risk assessment revealed major shortcomings in exposure and effect assessment. The honey bee proved to be a sufficient surrogate for bee species in lower tier risk assessment. Additional test species may be chosen for higher tier risk assessment to account for ecological differences. This thesis shows that the ecology of FVIs should generally be considered to a greater extent to improve the regulatory process. Data-driven computational approaches could be used as alternative methods to incorporate ecological trait data in spatio-temporal scenarios. Many open questions need to be answered by further research to better understand FVI species and promote necessary changes to risk assessment. In general, other FVI groups than bees need to be investigated. Furthermore, comprehensive data on FVI groups and their ecology need to be collected. Contamination of FVI habitat needs to be linked to exposure of FVI individuals and ecologically complex effects on FVI populations should receive increased attention. In the long term, European FVI risk assessment would benefit from shifting its general principles towards more scientifically informed regulatory decisions. This would require a paradigm shift from arbitrary assumptions and unnecessarily complicated schemes to a substantiated holistic framework.
Zahlreiche Untersuchungen weisen darauf hin, dass die Kombination von Texten und Bildern beim Wissenserwerb zu besseren Lern- und Behaltensleistungen führt, als wenn nur mit Texten gearbeitet wird. Dieser Multimediaeffekt ist häufig auch dann zu beobachten, wenn beispielsweise Schüler oder Studierende Bild und Text sequenziert lernen. Einige Arbeiten haben dabei gezeigt, dass die Reihenfolge, in der die beiden Formate verarbeitet werden, großen Einfluss auf den Wissenserwerb hat. Erfolgt die Präsentation des Bildes vor dem Text, gelingt es den Lernenden in der Regel mehr Fakten zu erinnern. Das Phänomen des picture-text-sequencing-Effekts wurde von zwei Forschern aufgegriffen und anhand alternativer Theoriemodelle auf unterschiedliche Weise erklärt. Während einer der Autoren kapazitätsspezifische Merkmale der mentalen Repräsentation des Bildes als Ursache ansieht, macht der andere Autor Interferenzen für den Einfluss der Verarbeitungsreihenfolge verantwortlich. Das Ziel der Arbeit war es daher, zu untersuchen, welcher der beiden Ansätze der Wahrheit am ehesten entspricht. Zu diesem Zweck wurde eine Studie durchgeführt, bei der Verarbeitungsreihenfolge und Informationverhältnis beim Lernen mit multiplen Repräsentationen experimentell variierte. Das Stimulusmaterial bestand aus Texten und Bildern zur Geodynamik, die in einer komplementären und einer kongruenten Version vorlagen. Anders als erwartet, zeigte sich jedoch kein eindeutiges Ergebnis, obwohl die Analyse der Lernzeiten letztlich gegen die Annahme eines besonderen Kapäzitätsvorteils sprach. Eine Anschlussuntersuchung erbrachte die Möglichkeit, Personen, die Texte und Bilder erhalten hatten, mit Teilnehmern zu vergleichen, die nur auf ein Format zurückgreifen konnten. Die Auswertungen ergab Unterschiede hinsichtlich der mentalen Belastung bei äquivalenten Leistungen im Wissenstest. Interpretiert wurden diese Resultate als Hinweis für das Auftreten von Interferenzen, die immer dann entstanden, wenn die Versuchspersonen das Bild nach dem Text lernten. In diesem Zusammenhang hatte die dritte und letzte Untersuchung den Zweck, weitere Belege für die Interferenzannahme zu finden. Anhand von Blickbewegungsparametern, die während des sequenzierten Lernens mit den Texten und Bildern erhoben worden waren, konnten jedoch keine Unterschiede festgestellt werden. Insgesamt ließ sich die Schlussfolgerung ziehen, dass hinsichtlich des sequenzierten Lernens mit Texten und Bildern weiterhin ein großer Spielraum für zusätzliche Forschungsarbeiten besteht.
This study was conducted in Nyungwe National Park (NNP); a biodiversity hotspot Mountain rainforest of high conservation importance in Central Africa, but with little knowledge of its insect communities including butterflies, good indicators of climate change, and forest ecosystem health. The study aimed at availing baseline data on butterfly species diversity and distribution in NNP, for future use in monitoring climate change-driven shifts and the effects of forest fragmentation on the biodiversity of Nyungwe. Butterflies were collected seasonally using fruit-baited traps and hand nets along elevational transects spanning from 1700 m up to 2950 m of altitude. Two hundred forty-two species including 28 endemics to the Albertine Rift and 18 potential local climate change indicators were documented. Species richness and abundance declined with increasing elevation and higher seasonal occurrence was observed during the dry season. This was the first study on the spatial and temporal distribution of butterflies in NNP and further studies could be conducted to add more species and allow a depth understanding of the ecology of Nyungwe butterflies.
While the existing literature on cooperative R&D projects between firms and public research institutes (PRI) has made valuable contributions by examining various factors and their influence on different outcome measures, there has been no investigation of cooperative R&D project success between firms and PRI from a product competitive advantage perspective. However, insights into the development of a meaningful and superior product (i.e., product competitive advantage) are particularly important in the context of cooperative R&D projects between PRI and (mainly small and medium-sized) firms in the biotechnology industry in response to increasing competition to raise capital funds necessary for survival.
The objectives of this thesis are: (1) to elaborate the theoretical foundations which explain the achievement of a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI, (2) to identify and empirically evaluate the determining factors for achieving a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI, and (3) to show how cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI should be designed and executed to support the achievement of a product competitive advantage.
To accomplish these objectives, a model of determinants of product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI is developed by drawing from the theoretical foundations of resource-based theory and information-processing theory. The model is evaluated using data from 517 questionnaires on cooperative R&D projects between at least one biotechnology firm and one PRI. The data are analyzed using variance-based structural equation modeling (i.e., PLS-SEM) in order to conduct hypotheses testing. The evaluation of the empirical data includes an additional mediation analysis and the comparison of effects in subsamples.
The results demonstrate the importance of available resources and skills, as well as the proficient execution of marketing-related and technical activities for the achievement of a product competitive advantage in cooperative R&D projects between biotechnology firms and PRI. By identifying project-related and process-related factors affecting product competitive advantage and empirically testing their relationships, the research findings should be valuable for both researchers and practitioners. After discussing contributions and implications for research and practice, the present thesis concludes with limitations and avenues for future research.
The term “Software Chrestomaty” is defined as a collection of software systems meant to be useful in learning about or gaining insight into software languages, software technologies, software concepts, programming, and software engineering. 101companies software chrestomathy is a community project with the attributes of a Research 2.0 infrastructure for various stakeholders in software languages and technology communities. The core of 101companies combines a semantic wiki and confederated open source repositories. We designed and developed an integrated ontology-based knowledge base about software languages and technologies. The knowledge is created by the community of contributors and supported with a running example and structured documentation. The complete ecosystem is exposed by using Linked Data principles and equipped with the additional metadata about individual artifacts. Within the context of software chrestomathy we explored a new type of software architecture – linguistic architecture that is targeted on the language and technology relationships within a software product and based on the megamodels. Our approach to documentation of the software systems is highly structured and makes use of the concepts of the newly developed megamodeling language MegaL. We “connect” an emerging ontology with the megamodeling artifacts to raise the cognitive value of the linguistic architecture.
La tesis doctoral examina los tres manuscritos conocidos hasta hoy de la Explicación de la Guitarra, primer método para guitarra de seis órdenes conocido hasta escrito por Juan Antonio de Vargas y Guzmán. Fue escrito primeramente cuando Vargas y Guzmán era vecino de la ciudad de Cádiz, en 1773; y copiado en dos ocasiones cuando el autor era maestro de este instrumento en la Ciudad de Veracruz, en 1776. Después de 200 años, específicamente en 1974, se dio la primera referencia de un manuscrito de este método, fechado en Veracruz en 1776, que se resguardaba en la Biblioteca Newberry de Chicago. Años más tarde, ya en 1980, la doctora María Fernanda García de los Arcos encontró en el Archivo General de la Nación (AGN) la segunda copia manuscrita, con la misma información de lugar y fecha que la anterior, pero que contenía una diferencia sustancial con el primero: 13 Sonatas para guitarra y bajo continuo. El tercero de ellos, fechado en Cádiz en 1773, fue adquirido por el investigador Ángel Medina Álvarez en una librería anticuaria a fines de los años 70; pero no fue sino hasta 1989, que decidió dar noticias de él y publicarlo posteriormente. A su vez, este manuscrito contiene una diferencia sustancial: un Tratado de Rasgueado. Además de esas diferencias sustanciales, la Explicación de la Guitarra, en su conjunto contiene, un Tratado de Punteado y un Tratado de Bajo continuo para guitarra.
El estudio establece la relación entre cada uno de los manuscritos; define sus contenidos y analiza los principios y fundamentos que sustentan las innovaciones de ellos sobre los ya conocidos por el autor; establece la relación entre los contenidos teóricos y prácticos; compara su evolución; los sitúa en un contexto histórico; establece su relación con otros métodos de la misma índole, así como con métodos de características similares; compila sus fuentes y determina la influencia que tuvieron éstas sobre la Explicación de la Guitarra y ésta sobre aquellas; y determina su importancia histórica y teórica en la música para este instrumento.
World’s ecosystems are under great pressure satisfying anthropogenic demands, with freshwaters being of central importance. The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment has identified anthropogenic land use and associated stressors as main drivers in jeopardizing stream ecosystem functions and the
biodiversity supported by freshwaters. Adverse effects on the biodiversity of freshwater organisms, such as macroinvertebrates, may propagate to fundamental ecosystem functions, such as organic matter breakdown (OMB) with potentially severe consequences for ecosystem services. In order to adequately protect and preserve freshwater ecosystems, investigations regarding potential and observed as well as direct and indirect effects of anthropogenic land use and associated stressors (e.g. nutrients, pesticides or heavy metals) on ecosystem functioning and stream biodiversity are needed. While greater species diversity most likely benefits ecosystem functions, the direction and magnitude of changes in ecosystem functioning depends primarily on species functional traits. In this context, the functional diversity of stream organisms has been suggested to be a more suitable predictor of changes in ecosystem functions than taxonomic diversity.
The thesis aims at investigating effects of anthropogenic land use on (i) three ecosystem functions by anthropogenic toxicants to identify effect thresholds (chapter 2), (ii) the organic matter breakdown by three land use categories to identify effects on the functional level (chapter 3) and (iii)on the stream community along an established land-use gradient to identify effects on the community level.
In chapter 2, I reviewed the literature regarding pesticide and heavy metal effects on OMB, primary production and community respiration. From each reviewed study that met inclusion criteria, the toxicant concentration resulting in a reduction of at least 20% in an ecosystem function was standardized based on laboratory toxicity data. Effect thresholds were based on the relationship between ecosystem functions and standardized concentration-effect relationships. The analysis revealed that more than one third of pesticide observations indicated reductions in ecosystem functions at concentrations that are assumed being protective in regulation. However, high variation within and between studies hampered the derivation of a concentration-effect relationship and thus effect thresholds.
In chapter 3, I conducted a field study to determine the microbial and invertebrate-mediated OMB by deploying fine and coarse mesh leaf bags in streams with forested, agricultural, vinicultural
and urban riparian land use. Additionally, physicochemical, geographical and habitat parameters were monitored to explain potential differences in OMB among land use types and sites. Regarding results, only microbial OMB differed between land use types. The microbial OMB showed a negative relationship with pH while the invertebrate-mediated OMB was positively related to tree cover. OMB responded to stressor gradients rather than directly to land use.
In chapter 4, macroinvertebrates were sampled in concert with leaf bag deployment and after species identification (i) the taxonomic diversity in terms of Simpson diversity and total taxonomic
richness (TTR) and (ii) the functional diversity in terms of bio-ecological traits and Rao’s quadratic entropy was determined for each community. Additionally, a land-use gradient was established and the response of the taxonomic and functional diversity of invertebrate communities along this gradient was investigated to examine whether these two metrics of biodiversity are predictive for the rate of OMB. Neither bio-ecological traits nor the functional diversity showed a significant relationship with
OMB. Although, TTR decreased with increasing anthropogenic stress and also the community structure and 26 % of bio-ecological traits were significantly related to the stress gradient, any of these shifts propagated to OMB.
Our results show that the complexity of real-world situations in freshwater ecosystems impedes the effect assessment of chemicals and land use for functional endpoints, and consequently our potential to predict changes. We conclude that current safety factors used in chemical risk assessment may not be sufficient for pesticides to protect functional endpoints. Furthermore, simplifying real-world stressor gradients into few land use categories was unsuitable to predict and quantify losses in OMB. Thus, the monitoring of specific stressors may be more relevant than crude land use categories to detect effects on ecosystem functions. This may, however, limit the large scale assessment of the status of OMB. Finally, despite several functional changes in the communities the functional diversity over several trait modalities remained similar. Neither taxonomic nor functional diversity were suitable predictors of OMB. Thus, when understanding anthropogenic impacts on the linkage between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is of main interest, focusing on diversity metrics that are clearly linked to the stressor in question (Jackson et al. 2016) or integrating taxonomic and functional metrics (Mondy et al., 2012) might enhance our predictive capacity.
Das Lernen und Verstehen dynamischer Sachverhalte kann sowohl anhand von statischen Bildern als auch von Animationen erfolgen. Da die bisher vorliegenden Befunde keine eindeutige Überlegenheit der einen oder der anderen Repräsentationsform erkennen lassen, sind differenziertere Wirkungsanalysen erforderlich. Grundannahme der vorliegenden Dissertation war, dass beide Darstellungsformen unterschiedlich gut für den Aufbau dynamischer mentaler Modelle einerseits und den Aufbau dynamischer perzeptueller Repräsentationen andererseits geeignet sind. Es wurde erstens angenommen, dass dynamische mentale Modelle keine kontinuierlichen mentalen Simulationen ermöglichen, sondern aus einer Sequenz von diskreten prototypischen Prozess-Zuständen (sog. "key states") bestehen und deshalb besser anhand statischer Bilder dieser "key states" als anhand einer Animation konstruiert werden können. Zweitens wurde angenommen, dass perzeptuelle Repräsentationen dynamischer Sachverhalte aus dynamischen Schemata bestehen, die besser anhand einer Animation als anhand von statischen Bildern gebildet werden können. Als Indikator für die Qualität mentaler Modelle wurden Inferenzaufgaben verwendet, bei denen durch Manipulation dieser Modelle neue Informationen zu erschließen sind. Als Indikator für die Qualität dynamischer perzeptueller Repräsentationen wurden Leistungen bei der Kategorisierung von Bewegungsabläufen verwendet. Die erste Annahme wurde am Beispiel der synaptischen Informationsübertragung (nach einer Vorpilot- und Pilotstudie) in einer ersten Hauptstudie mit 61 Probanden überprüft.
Die Ergebnisse weisen darauf hin, dass die Hypothese eher bei Probanden mit höherem Vorwissen als bei solchen mit niedrigerem Vorwissen zutrifft. Die zweite Annahme wurde am Beispiel des Erkennens der Gangart von Pferden (nach einer Pilotstudie) in einer zweiten Hauptstudie mit 52 Probanden überprüft. Die Ergebnisse zeigten durchwegs Unterschiede in der erwarteten Richtung, die jedoch nicht oder nur marginal signifikant sind. Allerdings führten die Animationen zu einer hochsignifikant geringeren kognitiven Belastung als statische Bilder. Darüber hinaus zeigten sich signifikante Interaktionen mit den räumlichen Fähigkeiten: Probanden mit geringeren Fähigkeiten profitieren bei der Kategorisierung von Bewegungsabläufen bedeutsam mehr von Animationen als von statischen Bildern.
Traditional Driver Assistance Systems (DAS) like for example Lane Departure Warning Systems or the well-known Electronic Stability Program have in common that their system and software architecture is static. This means that neither the number and topology of Electronic Control Units (ECUs) nor the presence and functionality of software modules changes after the vehicles leave the factory.
However, some future DAS do face changes at runtime. This is true for example for truck and trailer DAS as their hardware components and software entities are spread over both parts of the combination. These new requirements cannot be faced by state-of-the-art approaches of automotive software systems. Instead, a different technique of designing such Distributed Driver Assistance Systems (DDAS) needs to be developed. The main contribution of this thesis is the development of a novel software and system architecture for dynamically changing DAS using the example of driving assistance for truck and trailer. This architecture has to be able to autonomously detect and handle changes within the topology. In order to do so, the system decides which degree of assistance and which types of HMI can be offered every time a trailer is connected or disconnected. Therefore an analysis of the available software and hardware components as well as a determination of possible assistance functionality and a re-configuration of the system take place. Such adaptation can be granted by the principles of Service-oriented Architecture (SOA). In this architectural style all functionality is encapsulated in self-contained units, so-called Services. These Services offer the functionality through well-defined interfaces whose behavior is described in contracts. Using these Services, large-scale applications can be built and adapted at runtime. This thesis describes the research conducted in achieving the goals described by introducing Service-oriented Architectures into the automotive domain. SOA deals with the high degree of distribution, the demand for re-usability and the heterogeneity of the needed components.
It also applies automatic re-configuration in the event of a system change. Instead of adapting one of the frameworks available to this scenario, the main principles of Service-orientation are picked up and tailored. This leads to the development of the Service-oriented Driver Assistance (SODA) framework, which implements the benefits of Service-orientation while ensuring compatibility and compliance to automotive requirements, best-practices and standards. Within this thesis several state-of-the-art Service-oriented frameworks are analyzed and compared. Furthermore, the SODA framework as well as all its different aspects regarding the automotive software domain are described in detail. These aspects include a well-defined reference model that introduces and relates terms and concepts and defines an architectural blueprint. Furthermore, some of the modules of this blueprint such as the re-configuration module and the Communication Model are presented in full detail. In order to prove the compliance of the framework regarding state-of-the-art automotive software systems, a development process respecting today's best practices in automotive design procedures as well as the integration of SODA into the AUTOSAR standard are discussed. Finally, the SODA framework is used to build a full-scale demonstrator in order to evaluate its performance and efficiency.
This dissertation provides an interdisciplinary contribution to the project ReGLaN-Health & Logistics. ReGLaN-Health & Logistics, is an international cooperation deriving benefits from the capabilities of scientists working on different fields. The aim of the project is the development of a socalled SDSS that supports decision makers working within health systems with a special focus on rural areas. In this dissertation, one important component for the development of the DSS named EWARS is proposed and described in detail. This component called SPATTB is developed with the intention of dealing with spatial data, i.e. data with additional geocoded information with regard to the special requirements of the EWARS.rnrnAn important component in the process of developing the EWARS is the concept of GIS. Classically, geocoded information with a vectorial character numerically describing spatial phenomena is managed and processed in a GIS. For the development of the EWARS, the manageability of the type of data exemplarily given by (x,y,o) with coordinates x,y ) and Ozon-concentration o is not sufficient. It is described, that the manageable data has to be extended to data of type (x,y,f ), where (x,y) are the geocoded information, but where f is not only a numerical value but a functional description of a certain phenomenom. An example for the existence and appearance of that type of data is the geocoded information about the variation of the Ozon-concentration in time or depending on temperature. A knowledge-base as important subsystem of DSS containing expert knowledge is mentioned. This expert-knowledge can be made manageable when using methods from the field of fuzzy logic. Thereby mappings, socalled fuzzy-sets, are generated. Within the EWARS, these mappings will be used with respect to additional geocoded data. The knowledge about the geocoded mapping information only at a finite set of locations (x,y) associated with mapping information f is not sufficient in applications that need continuous statements in a certain geographical area. To provide a contribution towards solving this problem, methods from the field of computer geometry and CAD, so-called Bezier-methods, are used for interpolating this geocoded mapping information. Classically, these methods operates on vectors a the multidimensional vector-space whose elements contain real-valued components but in terms of dealing with mapping information, there has to be an extension on topological vector spaces since mapping spaces can be defined as such spaces. This builds a new perspective and possibility in the application of these methods. Therefore, the according algorithms have to be extended; this work is presented. The field of Artificial Neural Networks plays an important role for the processing and management of the data within the EWARS, where features of biological processes and structures are modeled and implemented as algorithms. Generally, the developed methods can be divided as usable in terms of interpolation or approximation functional coherences and in such being applicable to classification problems. In this dissertation one method from each type is regarded in more detailed. Thereby, the classical algorithms of the so-called Backpropagation-Networks for approximation and the Kohonen-Networks for classification are described. Within the thesis, an extension of these algorithms is then proposed using coherences from mathematical measure-theory and approximation theory. The mentioned extension of these algorithms is based on a preprocessing of the mapping data using integration methods from measure theory.
In der vorliegenden Untersuchung geht es um methodische Fragen der Unterrichtswahrnehmung aus Schülersicht. Dabei werden theoretische Ansätze zur Urteilsbildung aus der Klassenklima- und der kognitiv fundierten Survey-Forschung sowie der Forschung zur Interpersonalen Wahrnehmung diskutiert. Weiterhin werden Modelle zur inhaltlichen Interpretation von Aggregatmerkmalen (sogenannte Kompositionsmodelle) und zum Einfluss sogenannter "Halo"-Effekte berücksichtigt. Die relevanten Aspekte aus den genannten Theorien sowie empirische Befunde zum Einfluss von Fachleistung, Schulnote und Geschlecht auf die Beurteilung des Unterrichts werden in einem Modell zur Unterrichtswahrnehmung aus Schülersicht zusammengeführt. Daneben werden in der vorliegenden Untersuchung Möglichkeiten und Grenzen verschiedener statistischer Verfahren zur Analyse von Daten zur Wahrnehmung des Unterrichts aus Schülersicht aufgezeigt und diskutiert. Dabei geht es um Fragen der absoluten Übereinstimmung von Urteilern vs. der Interrater-Reliabilität. Weiterhin werden Grundlagen und Effekte von Verletzungen der Annahmen mehrebenenanalytischer konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalysen dargestellt, die im Rahmen einer Monte-Carlo-Studie überprüft werden. Datengrundlage der vorliegenden Untersuchung sind im Rahmen des Projekts DESI (Deutsch Englisch Schülerleistungen International) erhobene Fragebogendaten aus 330 Klassen bzw. Kursen der neunten Jahrgangsstufe, sowie im Längsschnitt erhobene Testleistungen in den Bereichen Deutsch und Englisch. Die Ergebnisse der Analysen bestätigen in großen Teilen das zugrunde gelegte theoretische Modell: Es zeigen sich hohe relative Übereinstimmungen der unterrichtsbezogenen Urteile von Schülerinnen und Schülern. Der Einfluss der Kommunikation mit Mitschülern auf die Urteilsbildung zeigt sich v.a. in der Gruppe der Mädchen. Die theoretischen Unterrichtsmerkmale lassen sich als Faktoren auf beiden Analyseebenen (innerhalb von Klassen und zwischen Klassen) nachweisen, wobei diese " bis auf wenige Ausnahmen " ebenen- sowie fachübergreifend nur im Sinne analoger und nicht "isomorpher" Konstrukte interpretierbar sind. Daneben finden sich deutliche Hinweise auf eine eher Lehrkraft- statt Unterrichtsfach-bezogene Wahrnehmung auf beiden Ebenen. Der Itemformulierung (Ich vs. Klassen-Bezug) kommt insgesamt betrachtet eine eher geringe Bedeutung zu. Bezüglich der Unterrichtswahrnehmungen finden sich Einflüsse der oben genannten Prädiktoren insbesondere auf der Ebene innerhalb von Klassen. Auf Klassenebene zeigt sich ein möglicher Einfluss einer "milden" Benotung auf die geteilte Unterrichtswahrnehmung. Die auf beiden Ebenen deutlichsten Effekte auf die Unterrichtswahrnehmung finden sich bei den Globalurteilen bezüglich der jeweiligen Lehrkraft. Zusammengenommen mit den extrem hohen Interkorrelationen der Faktoren innerhalb eines Fachs (die sich jeweils auf dieselbe Lehrkraft beziehen) und den " aufgrund von Effekten auf Schulebene etc. erwartungswidrigen " niedrigen bis nicht vorhandenen fachübergreifenden Interkorrelationen spricht dies in hohem Maße für eine Verzerrung der Unterrichtswahrnehmung im Sinne einer globalen Wahrnehmungstendenz. Die globale Wahrnehmung muss allerdings gleichzeitig überwiegend als Ergebnis von Unterrichtswahrnehmungen betrachtet werden: Hier zeigen sich die auf der Basis empirischer Untersuchungen theoretisch postulierten unterschiedlichen Gewichtungen der einzelnen Unterrichtsmerkmale über verschiedene Klassen hinweg.
The availability of digital cameras and the possibility to take photos at no cost lead to an increasing amount of digital photos online and on private computers. The pure amount of data makes approaches that support users in the administration of the photo necessary. As the automatic understanding of photo content is still an unsolved task, metadata is needed for supporting administrative tasks like search or photo work such as the generation of photo books. Meta-information textually describes the depicted scene or consists of information on how good or interesting a photo is.
In this thesis, an approach for creating meta-information without additional effort for the user is investigated. Eye tracking data is used to measure the human visual attention. This attention is analyzed with the objective of information creation in the form of metadata. The gaze paths of users working with photos are recorded, for example, while they are searching for photos or while they are just viewing photo collections.
Eye tracking hardware is developing fast within the last years. Because of falling prices for sensor hardware such as cameras and more competition on the eye tracker market, the prices are falling, and the usability is increasing. It can be assumed that eye tracking technology can soon be used in everyday devices such as laptops or mobile phones. The exploitation of data, recorded in the background while the user is performing daily tasks with photos, has great potential to generate information without additional effort for the users.
The first part of this work deals with the labeling of image region by means of gaze data for describing the depicted scenes in detail. Labeling takes place by assigning object names to specific photo regions. In total, three experiments were conducted for investigating the quality of these assignments in different contexts. In the first experiment, users decided whether a given object can be seen on a photo by pressing a button. In the second study, participants searched for specific photos in an image search application. In the third experiment, gaze data was collected from users playing a game with the task to classify photos regarding given categories. The results of the experiments showed that gaze-based region labeling outperforms baseline approaches in various contexts. In the second part, most important photos in a collection of photos are identified by means of visual attention for the creation of individual photo selections. Users freely viewed photos of a collection without any specific instruction on what to fixate, while their gaze paths were recorded. By comparing gaze-based and baseline photo selections to manually created selections, the worth of eye tracking data in the identification of important photos is shown. In the analysis of the data, the characteristics of gaze data has to be considered, for example, inaccurate and ambiguous data. The aggregation of gaze data, collected from several users, is one suggested approach for dealing with this kind of data.
The results of the performed experiments show the value of gaze data as source of information. It allows to benefit from human abilities where algorithms still have problems to perform satisfyingly.