Doctoral Thesis
Refine
Year of publication
- 2014 (24) (remove)
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (24) (remove)
Keywords
- Pestizid (2)
- Pflanzenschutzmittel (2)
- monitoring (2)
- Abdrift (1)
- Annotation (1)
- Anpassung (1)
- Araneae (1)
- Augenbewegung (1)
- Auslese (1)
- Auswahl (1)
- Barriere (1)
- Berichterstattung (1)
- Bildungsaspiration (1)
- Bildungserfolg (1)
- Bildungsinteresse (1)
- Blickbewegung (1)
- Chancengleichheit (1)
- Düngemittel (1)
- Emissionen (1)
- Empirical Studies (1)
- Erfolgsfaktor (1)
- Exposition (1)
- Eyetracking (1)
- Feldsaum (1)
- Felis catus (1)
- Felis silvestris domestica (1)
- Fotoauswahl (1)
- Frau (1)
- Fuzzy-Logik (1)
- Führung (1)
- GIS (1)
- Gasblasen (1)
- Gebrauchsgraphik (1)
- Gender (1)
- Geoinformationssystem (1)
- Gewässer (1)
- Graphische Benutzeroberfläche (1)
- Grounded Theory (1)
- Hauskatze (1)
- Insektizid (1)
- Integration (1)
- Iran (1)
- Jugendstil (1)
- Karriere (1)
- Katze (1)
- Konkurrenz (1)
- Krisenberichterstattung (1)
- Landwirtschaft (1)
- Latent Negative (1)
- Lernerfolg (1)
- Lernkontext (1)
- Link Prediction (1)
- Makroinvertebraten (1)
- Maschinelles Lernen (1)
- Methan (1)
- Methane emissions (1)
- Migration (1)
- Monitoring (1)
- Motivation (1)
- Nachrichtenwerttheorie (1)
- Naturschutzgenetik (1)
- Nicht-Ziel-Pflanzen (1)
- Oberflächenabfluss (1)
- Open Content (1)
- Open Source (1)
- Pfalz (1)
- Pflanzen (1)
- Photographie (1)
- Regionenlabeling (1)
- Rehabilitation (1)
- Reproduktion (1)
- Ressourcen (1)
- Risikobewertung (1)
- Risikominderungsmaßnahmen (1)
- Räuber (1)
- Selbstwirksamkeit (1)
- Software Engineering (1)
- Sozialarbeit (1)
- Spear (1)
- State (1)
- Staugeregelte Flüsse (1)
- Stechmücke (1)
- Stechmücken-Kontrolle (1)
- Stress (1)
- Top-Management (1)
- Trait (1)
- Uferrandstreifen (1)
- Unlink Prediction (1)
- Unterrichtsforschung (1)
- Validität (1)
- Variabilität (1)
- Visuelle Kommunikation (1)
- Vorsorge (1)
- Wastewater treatment plants (1)
- Wohlfahrtspflege (1)
- Ziel (1)
- adaptive GUI Design (1)
- behavioural ecology (1)
- buffer strips (1)
- competition (1)
- conservation genetics (1)
- ebullition (1)
- ecology (1)
- educational achievement (1)
- educational aspirations (1)
- eye tracking (1)
- field margin (1)
- impounded rivers (1)
- insecticide (1)
- integration (1)
- invasive Arten (1)
- invasive species (1)
- learning context (1)
- macroinvertebrates (1)
- mathematical Modelling (1)
- mathematische Modellbildung (1)
- migration (1)
- mitigation measures (1)
- mosquito control (1)
- motivation (1)
- non-consumptive effects (1)
- non-target plants (1)
- off-field habitats (1)
- organic pollution (1)
- pesticide (1)
- pesticides (1)
- photo selection (1)
- point source (1)
- predation (1)
- prevention (1)
- region labeling (1)
- rehabilitation (1)
- reproduction (1)
- resources (1)
- risk assessment (1)
- risk mitigation measures (1)
- runoff (1)
- self-efficacy (1)
- spatial Fuzzy Logic (1)
- spatial and temporal varibility (1)
- stress (1)
- surface water (1)
- teaching research (1)
- trait-mediated effects (1)
- trophic cascades (1)
- validity (1)
- Ökologie (1)
- Ökosystem (1)
- Überwachung (1)
Institute
- Fachbereich 7 (8)
- Fachbereich 5 (3)
- Institut für Informatik (3)
- Fachbereich 8 (2)
- Institut für Erziehungswissenschaft (2)
- Institute for Web Science and Technologies (2)
- Fachbereich 6 (1)
- Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik (1)
- Institut für Computervisualistik (1)
- Institut für Grundschulpädagogik (1)
Field margins are often the only remaining habitats of various wild plant species in agricultural landscapes. However, due to their proximity to agricultural fields, the vegetation of field margins can be affected by agrochemicals applied to the crop fields. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the individual and combined effects of herbicide, insecticide and fertilizer inputs on the plant community of a field margin. Therefore, a 3-year field experiment with a randomized block design including seven treatments (H: herbicide, I: insecticide, F: fertilizer, H+I, F+I, F+H and F+H+I) and one control was conducted on a low-production meadow. Each treatment was replicated 8 times in 8 m x 8 m plots with a distance of 2 m between each plot. The fertilizer rates (25 % of the field rate) and pesticide rates (30 % of the field rate) used for the plot applications were consistent with realistic average input rates (overspray + drift) in the first meter of a field margin directly adjacent to a wheat field.
The study revealed that fertilizer and herbicide misplacements in field margins are major factors that affect the natural plant communities of these habitats. In total, 20 of the 26 abundant species on the study site were significantly affected by the fertilizer and herbicide treatment. The fertilizer promoted plants with high nutrient uptake and decreased the frequencies of small species. The herbicide caused a nearly complete disappearance of three species directly after the first application, whereas sublethal effects (e.g., phytotoxic effects and reduced seed productions of up to 100 %) were observed for the other affected species. However, if field margins are exposed to repeated agrochemical applications over several years, then such sublethal effects (particularly reproduction effects) also reduce the population size of plant species significantly, as observed in this study.
Significant herbicide-fertilizer interaction effects were also detected and could not be extrapolated from individual effects. The fertilizer and herbicide effects became stronger over time, leading to shifts in plant community compositions after three years and to a 15 % lower species diversity than in the control. The insecticide significantly affected the frequencies of two plant species (1 positively and 1 negatively). The results of the experiment suggest that a continuous annual agrochemical application on the study site would cause further plant community shifts and would likely lead to the disappearance of certain affected plants. A clear trend of increasing grass dominance at the expense of flowering herbs was detected. This finding corresponds well with monitoring data from field margins near the study site.
Although herbicide risk assessment aims to protect non-target plants in off-field habitats from adverse effects, reproduction effects and combined effects are currently not considered. Furthermore, no regulations for fertilizer applications next to field margins exist and thus, fertilizer misplacements in field margins are likely to occur and to interact with herbicide effects.
Adaptations of the current risk assessment, a development of risk mitigation measures (e.g., in-field buffers) for the application of herbicides and fertilizers, and general management measures for field margins are needed to restore and conserve plant diversity in field margins in agricultural landscapes.
The goal of this thesis is the development of methods for augmented image synthesis using 3D photo collections. 3D photo collections are representations of real scenes automatically generated from single photos and describe a scene as a set of images with known camera poses as well as a sparse point-based model of the scene geometry. The main goal is to perform a photo-realistic augmented image synthesis of real and virtual parts, where the real scene is provided as a 3D photo collection. Therefore, three main problems are addressed.
Since the photos may be represented in different device-specific RGB color spaces, a color characterization of the 3D photo collections is necessary to gain correct color information that is consistent with human perception. The proposed novel method automatically transforms all images into a common RGB color space and thereby simplifies color characterization of 3D photo collections.
As a main problem for augmented image synthesis, all environmental lighting has to be known in order to apply illumination to virtual parts that is consistent with the real portions shown in the photos. To solve this problem, two novel methods were developed to reconstruct the lighting from 3D photo collections.
In order to perform image synthesis for arbitrary views on the scene, an image-based approach was developed that generates new views in 3D photo collections making direct use of its point cloud. The novel method creates new views in real-time and allows free-navigation.
In conclusion, the proposed novel methods show that 3D photo collections are a useful representation for real scenes in Augmented Reality and they can be used to perform a realistic image synthesis of real and virtual portions.
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.
Die Studie befasst sich mit der Bildungsaspiration, der Wertevermittlung und -tradierung iranischstämmiger Familien in Deutschland. Ziel ist es, zu ermitteln, worauf die familiäre Bildungsaspiration zurückzuführen ist. Im Fokus der Fallstudie stehen drei Familien, die nach der Islamischen Revolution von 1979 aus ihrem Herkunftsland nach Deutschland immigriert sind. Es handelt sich um eine zweigenerationenperspektivische Befragung innerhalb einer Familie. Dies bedeutet, dass innerhalb einer Familie Einzelinterviews mit jeweils einer Person aus der Eltern- und Kindergeneration durchgeführt wurden. So werden gemeinsam erlebte Situationen, wie z.B. Flucht oder Teilhabe am deutschen Bildungssystem, oder Begriffe, wie z.B. Bildung oder Bildungserfolg, aus der jeweiligen Perspektive geschildert bzw. definiert. Darüber hinaus geben die Befragten Auskünfte über die Großelterngeneration, sodass das gesamte Datenmaterial Angaben über drei Generationen umfasst. Dieser qualitativen Exploration geht eine bundesweite Befragung voraus an der 70 Personen iranischer Herkunft teilnahmen. Weiterhin zeichnet sich die Arbeit durch einen ressourcenorientierten Forschungsansatz aus. Die erhobenen Daten geben Antwort auf die zentralen Fragen:
Auf welche Ursachen lässt sich Bildungsaspiration von immigrierten, iranischstämmigen Familien in Deutschland zurückführen?
Welche Rolle spielen die Sprachen des Herkunfts- und Einwanderungslandes in der Wertetradierung? In der Studie werden die individuellen Bildungsgeschichten der Befragten in den wissenschaftlichen Diskurs zur Bildungsaspiration, Bildungs-, Migrations- und Mehrsprachigkeitsforschung eingefügt. Hierbei wird ein interdisziplinäres und somit multiperspektivisches Theoriekonstrukt zugrunde gelegt, welches sich durch einen geschichts-, länder- und generationsübergreifenden Forschungsansatz auszeichnet. Ein zentrales Ergebnis ist, dass ein Verständnis für geschichtliche Entwicklungen im Herkunftsland erforderlich ist, um das Bildungsverhalten im iranischstämmigen Familienkontext nachzuvollziehen. Erst durch Kontextualisierung von individuellen und gesellschaftlichen Dimensionen kann nachvollzogen werden, warum im Falle dieser Minderheitengruppe geringes ökonomisches Kapital, das infolge von beruflichen Brüchen der Eltern nach ihrer Flucht im Einwanderungsland entstanden ist, keine negativen Auswirkungen auf die Entwicklung des kulturellen Kapitals der Folgegenerationen hat. Folglich zeigt die Studie, dass im Falle der interviewten Familien gängige Erklärungsmodelle, wie die Korrelation vom geringem ökonomischen Kapital und geringem kulturellen Kapital, nicht zutreffen. Vielmehr wird kulturelles Kapital von Generation zu Generation tradiert. Ein weiteres Ergebnis der Studie ist das erarbeitete Dreiebenen-Modell. Es umfasst geschichtlich-gesellschaftliche, politische sowie familiäre Entwicklungen und Einstellungen auf der Mikro-, Meso- und Makroebene. Damit ist eine Grundlage geschaffen, um das Tradierungsverhalten anderer Zuwanderungsgruppen zu erklären.
German politicians have identified a need for greater citizen involvement in decision-making than in the past, as confirmed by a recent German parliamentarians study ("DEUPAS"). As in other forms of social interactions, the Internet provides significant potential to serve as the digital interface between citizens and decision-makers: in the recent past, dedicated electronic participation ("e-participation") platforms (e.g. dedicated websites) have been provided by politicians and governments in an attempt to gather citizens" feedback and comment on a particular issue or subject. Some of these have been successful, but a large proportion of them are grossly under-used " often only small numbers of citizens use them. Over the same time period, enthusiasm of Society for social networks has increased and is now commonplace. Many citizens use social networks such as Facebook and Twitter for all kinds of purposes, and in some cases to discuss political issues.
Social networks are therefore obviously attractive to politicians " from local government to federal agencies, politicians have integrated social media into their daily work. However, there is a significant challenge regarding the usefulness of social networks. The problem is the continuous increase in digital information: social networks contain vast amounts of information, and it is impossible for a human to manually filter the relevant information from the irrelevant (so-called "information overload"). Even using the search tools provided by social networks, it is still a huge task for a human to determine meanings and themes from the multitude of search results. New technologies and concepts have been proposed to provide summaries of masses of information through lexical analysis of social media messages, and therefore they promise an easy and quick overview of the information.
This thesis examines the relevance of these analyses" results, for the use in everyday political life, with the emphasis on the social networks Facebook and Twitter as data sources. Here we make use of the WeGov Toolbox and its analysis components that were developed during the EU project WeGov. The assessment has been performed in consultation with actual policy-makers from different levels of German government: policy-makers from the German Federal Parliament, the State Parliament North Rhine-Westphalia, the State Chancellery of the Saarland and the cities of Cologne and Kempten all took part in the study. Our method was to execute the analyses on data collected from Facebook and Twitter, and present the results to the policy-makers, who would then evaluate them using a mixture of qualitative methods.
The responses of the participants have provided us with some useful conclusions:
1) None of the participants believe that e-participation is possible in this way. But participants confirm that "citizen-friendliness" can be supported by this approach.
2) The most likely users for the summarisation tools are those who have experience with social networks, but are not "power users". The reason being is that "power users" already knew the relevant information provided by analysis tools. But without any experiences for social networks it is hard to interpret the analysis results the right way.
3) The evaluation has considered geographical aspects, and related this to e.g. a politician- constituency as a local area of social networks. Comparing the rural to the urban areas, it is shown that the amount of relevant political information in the rural areas is low. While the proportion of publicly available information in urban areas is relatively high, the proportion in the rural areas is much lower.
The findings that result from the engagement with policy-makers will be systematically surveyed and validated within this thesis.
Studien zeigen einen hohen Anteil an gut ausgebildeten Frauen, auch weisen Untersuchungen über die Führungskompetenz mehr führungsstarke Frauen (jede 12.) als Männer (jeder 17.) auf. Diese Ergebnisse spiegeln sich jedoch nicht in der nur geringen Anzahl von Frauen in höheren Führungspositionen wieder, mit der Folge, dass diese Ressource damit ungenutzt bleibt. Wenn Mitarbeitende aber als bedeutsam für den Unternehmenserfolg angesehen werden, dann sollten ein optimaler Einsatz und eine bestmögliche Entwicklung selbstverständlich sein. Dieser Aspekt findet sich auch in der Politik zur Gleichbehandlung der Geschlechter wieder. Organisationen vernachlässigen Potential, wenn sie Frauen, die gut ausgebildet sind, nicht die Möglichkeiten geben, beruflich aufzusteigen. Gerade in der Sozialen Arbeit ist der Anteil der Frauen sehr hoch, dennoch kehrt sich diese Verhältnismäßigkeit, vor allem bei den höheren Führungspositionen wie Vorstände, Geschäftsführungen, Aufsichtsgremien, um. Im Rahmen der vorliegenden Dissertation werden förderliche und hemmende Faktoren im Erreichen einer Leitungsposition von Frauen analysiert. Der besondere Fokus ist dabei auf die obere Führungsebene in Organisationen der Sozialen Arbeit gerichtet, im Besonderen auf die Freie Wohlfahrtspflege. Ziel ist darüber hinaus die Darstellung von Handlungsimplikationen zur Förderung weiblicher Karrieren in der Sozialen Arbeit, als Beitrag zur besseren Nutzung weiblichen Know-Hows. Die Arbeit berücksichtigt dabei sowohl die Sicht von Frauen in Führungspositionen, als auch die Sicht von Personalentscheiderinnen und -entscheidern und leistet einen Beitrag dazu, wie Frauen in Verbänden und Organisationen der Freien Wohlfahrtspflege der Zugang zu Führungspositionen ermöglicht werden kann. Die hieraus resultierenden Leitfragen sind: Welche biografischen und institutionellen Faktoren fördern und hemmen den Aufstieg weiblicher Führungskräfte in die obere Führungsebene? Welche Faktoren zeigen sich aus Sicht der Frauen, welche aus Sicht der Personalentscheiderinnen und -entscheider? Welche Lösungswege ergeben sich zur Anhebung des Frauenanteils in der oberen Führungsebene? In der theoretischen Ausarbeitung werden zunächst im Rahmen des ersten Themenkomplexes Frauen und Führung bspw. geschlechtsspezifische Aspekte von Führungsverhalten besprochen, Bezug nehmende Ergebnisse der Führungsforschung sowie der Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung aufgezeigt und berufliche Situationen und Karrieren von Frauen dargestellt. Einfluss- und Erfolgsfaktoren weiblicher Karrieren, mögliche Aufstiegsbarrieren (biografisch konstruiert, gesellschaftlich sozialisiert, organisationsstrukturell) und Strategien zur Realisierung von Chancengleichheit im Aufstieg werden beschrieben. Der erste Themenkomplex endet mit der analytischen Betrachtung des Nutzens dieser Chancengleichheit. Der zweite Themenkomplex geht konkret auf den Bereich Soziale Arbeit ein, beleuchtet den Begriff Frauenberuf, die berufliche Situation von Frauen in der Sozialen Arbeit, die Freie Wohlfahrtspflege, das hier vorherrschende Verständnis von Führung und geht im Abschluss auf Frauen in Führungspositionen in der Sozialen Arbeit ein. Neben Faktoren, die Frauen möglicherweise einen Führungsaufstieg erschweren, werden auch Möglichkeiten von Organisationen bei der Unterstützung von Karrieren der Frauen beleuchtet. Die Untersuchung legt ihren Schwerpunkt auf die Organisationen der Sozialen Arbeit und die Führungspositionen des oberen Managements. Im sich anschließenden empirischen Teil erfolgt daher die Darstellung des Forschungsprojekts und des Forschungssettings, der Forschungsergebnisse, als auch der daraus abgeleiteten Schlussfolgerungen.
In the recent years, Software Engineering research has shown the rise of interest in the empirical studies. Such studies are often based on empirical evidence derived from corpora - collections of software artifacts. While there are established forms of carrying out empirical research (experiments, case studies, surveys, etc.), the common task of preparing the underlying collection of software artifacts is typically addressed in ad hoc manner.
In this thesis, by means of a literature survey we show how frequently software engineering research employs software corpora and using a developed classification scheme we discuss their characteristics. Addressing the lack of methodology, we suggest a method of corpus (re-)engineering and apply it to an existing collection of Java projects.
We report two extensive empirical studies, where we perform a broad and diverse range of analyses on the language for privacy preferences (P3P) and on object-oriented application programming interfaces (APIs). In both cases, we are driven by the data at hand, by the corpus itself, discovering the actual usage of the languages.
The transport of pesticides from agricultural land into surface waters via diffuse entry pathways such as runoff is a major threat to aquatic ecosystems and their communities. Although certain risk mitigation measures are currently stipulated during pesticide product authorisation, further approaches might be needed to manage hot spots of pesticide exposure. Such a management is, for example, required by the European Union- directive for the sustainable use pesticides (2009/128/EC).
The need for mitigation measures was investigated within the present thesis at stream sites draining an arable and a vineyard region in Germany by characterising pesticide exposure following edge-of-field runoff and (expected) effects on the aquatic macroinvertebrates. The results of these field studies showed, that streams in both regions were exposed to pesticide concentrations suggesting effects on the macroinvertebrate community. In the arable region the observed toxicity was mainly attributed to the insecticides lambda-cyhalothrin (in the water-phase samples) and alpha-cypermethrin (in the suspended particle samples), whereas in the vineyard region fungicides were most important. Furthermore stream water and suspended particles sampled in the vineyard region showed critical copper concentrations, which might cause ecotoxicological effects in the field. In addition to pesticide exposure, in the arable region also the effects on aquatic macroinvertebrates were assessed in the field. Generally, invertebrate fauna was dominated by pesticide-tolerant species, which suggested a high pesticide exposure at almost all sites. The elevated levels of suspended particle contamination in terms of maximum toxic units per sample (logTUMax > -2) reflect also this result. At two sites that received high aqueous-phase entries of the insecticide lambda-cyhalothrin (logTUMax > -0.6), the abundance and number of sensitive species (indicated by the SPEcies At Risk index) decreased during the pesticide application period. In contrast, at sites characterised by low water-phase toxicity (logTUMax < -3.5), no acute significant negative effects on macroinvertebrates were observed. In conclusion these data showed that in both regions the implementation of risk mitigation measures is needed to protect the aquatic communities.
To mitigate runoff-related pesticide entries, riparian buffer strips are often recommended. However, the mitigating influence with increasing buffer strip width could not be demonstrated for riparian buffers which were already present in the arable and vineyard region. This result was attributed in the vineyard region to the high number of paved field paths associated with artificial erosion rills, which concentrate and rapidly transport receiving edge-of-field runoff in stream direction. Consequently the pesticide reduction efficiency of buffer strips is considerably reduced. We assumed that a similar process occurred in the arable region, due to a high number of erosion rills, which complicate a laminar sheet flow of edge-of-field runoff through the riparian buffer strip. Additionally also the presence of ephemeral drainage ditches, which led surface runoff from the agricultural fields to the streams may have contributed to observed pesticide entries despite wide buffers.
Effective risk mitigation measures should address these identified most important input pathways in the study areas. As possible measures the implementation of grassed field paths and vegetated ditches or wetlands were suggested. In general also the improvement of currently present riparian buffer strips regarding their efficiency to reduce pesticide runoff entries should be taken into account. In conclusion the results of the field studies underline the importance that risk mitigation measures are identified specifically for the respective pollution situation in stream catchments. To facilitate this process, a user guide was developed within the present thesis for identifying appropriate mitigation measures at high-risk sites. Based on a survey of exposure relevant landscape parameter a set of risk mitigation measures is suggested that focus on the specific pollution situation. Currently the guide includes 12 landscape- and six application-related measures and presents an overview of these measures" efficiency to reduce pesticide entries via runoff and spray drift, their feasibility and expected acceptability to farmers. Based on this information the user can finally choose the mitigation measures for implementation. The present guide promotes the practical implementation of appropriate risk mitigation measures in pesticide-polluted streams, and thus the protection of aquatic stream communities against pesticide entries.
This study examined whether positive resource change and two types of baseline stressors would influence general life satisfaction and satisfaction with health at the end of treatment in mothers attending an inpatient rehabilitation or preventive program for mothers, fathers and children. Parenting self-efficacy was included as an indicator of resources while baseline distress was operationalized in terms of parenting-related stressors and depressive symptoms, respectively. Drawing on Hobfoll- conservation of resources theory, it was hypothesized that resource change and baseline stressors would interact in their effect on satisfaction measures at the end of the preventive/rehabilitation program: resource gains were expected to influence satisfaction more strongly in patients who reported higher stress levels at baseline (as compared to patients with lower baseline distress; primary research question). Hypotheses were tested using a sample of N=1724 female prevention and rehabilitation patients by means of structural equation modeling including latent interactions. Results showed that parenting-related stressors were negatively associated with general satisfaction as well as satisfaction with health while resource gains had a small positive effect on satisfaction. There was, however, no significant interaction of parenting-related stressors and positive resource change. When depressive symptoms were included as a measure of baseline distress, they were negatively associated with both facets of satisfaction. In these models, there were only small positive associations of resource gains and satisfaction measures. Again, no interaction effects were found. Additional analyses that comprised both stressor types as predictors showed that the effects of depressive symptoms on satisfaction were more pronounced than the influence of parenting-related stressors; the effects of resource gains were small to negligible. In addition, it was examined whether problem-oriented coping strategies mediated the influence of positive resource change on general life satisfaction and satisfaction with health, respectively (secondary research question). Correlations between coping, resource change and satisfaction were low or not significant. Given this lack of direct associations between the relevant variables, no further path analytic testing was performed; the hypothesized mediating role of problem-oriented coping could thus not be confirmed. All in all, study results show that contrary to the hypotheses derived from conservation of resources theory, the effects of positive resource change and distress indicators on patients" life satisfaction and satisfaction with health were not interdependent.
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.