GeographielehrerInnen erproben Service Learning. Empirische Rekonstruktion von Bewertungsmustern, Akzeptanzkomponenten und Gelingensbedingungen für einen gemeinwohlorientierten Geographieunterricht

Ausgangspunkt dieser Arbeit ist die Frage: „Wovon hängt die Bewertung von Service Learning-Projekten durch GeographielehrerInnen ab?“. Der empirischen Beantwortung dieser Forschungsfrage geht eine theoretische und literaturgestütze Potenzialanalyse von „Service Learning im Geographieunterricht“ voraus. Diese offenbart, dass Service Learning als innovativer und vielversprechender konzeptioneller Ansatz für einen an den Bildungsstandards (DGFG 2012) orientierten und modernen Geographieunterricht bewertet werden kann. Sie zeigt jedoch auch, dass Service Learning - trotz dieser vermeintlichen Potenzialvielfalt - bislang nahezu keine Anwendung im Geographieun-terricht gefunden hat. Es ist das Ziel dieser Arbeit zu erforschen, welche Gründe und Barrieren für den zu-rückhaltenden Umgang der GeographielehrerInnen mit der Unterrichtskonzeption vor-liegen und - in einer positiven Betrachtungsweise und als Forschungsschwerpunkt - welche Akzeptanzkomponenten für Service Learning im Geographieunterricht sich aus den Wahrnehmungs- und Bewertungsmustern von LehrerInnen, die erstmalig ein Ser-vice Learning-Projekt umgesetzt haben, ableiten lassen. Diese so gewonnenen Akzep-tanzkomponenten werden abschließend im Sinne der Grounded Theory (GLASER & STRAUSS 1967) zu einem Gelingensbedingungsgefüge verknüpft. Dieses kann als wis-senschaftlich hergeleitete Hilfestellung für Initiations- und Implementationsprozesse der Unterrichtskonzeption Service Learning in den Geographieunterricht verstanden werden und richtet sich somit an GeographielehrerInnen, FachleiterInnen und Geographiedidak-tikerInnen.

Global Modernities and the (Re-)Emergence of Ghosts

Are ghosts modern? It seems that modernization and spirituality do not contradict each other in most parts of the world. Animist beliefs and ghost rituals often form part of people’s everyday lives vis-à-vis a globalized economy. For them, the unpredictable forces of ‘the market’ correspond with the elusive world of spectral entities. Facing economic risk, flexibility, and precarity, people address the ghosts for protection and luck. This issue of “Voices” will explore the interplay of economic and ritual practice, of everyday uncertainties and ghostly agency, of emerging modernities and (re-)emerging spiritualities.

A Grammar of Ts'ixa (Kalahari Khoe)

Ts’ixa is an endangered language of northern Botswana. It belongs to the Kalahari branch of the Khoe-Kwadi language family and is nowadays spoken by a small community of 200 individuals residing in the village of Mababe, Ngamiland. The internal affiliation of Ts’ixa within Kalahari Khoe is not clear, as the language displays affinities to both the western Kalahari Khoe language Khwe and the eastern Kalahari Khoe language Shua. The present work is the first attempt at providing a systematic description of Ts’ixa, based on phonological, morphological and syntactical features. Data from related Khoe languages, as well as from unrelated “Khoisan” languages of the Kx’a and Tuu families is used to locate Ts’ixa in both a genealogical and an areal framework. Findings suggest that Ts’ixa was shaped by a history of migration and contact between both related and unrelated languages, leading to a unique profile different from both Khwe and Shua, but with strong typological affinities to the Kalahari Basin as a linguistic area.

Eine verfassungsrechtlich vergleichende Studie über die Effektuierung des Umweltschutzes durch ökologisch orientierte Steuern in Deutschland und Brasilien

Der Gedanke des Umweltschutzes hat sich im Rahmen der Globalisierung in den vergangenen Jahren rasch fortentwickelt und ist weltweit Gegenstand anhaltender Diskussionen. Namentlich die Suche nach neuen Wegen zur Verringerung der negativen Einwirkungen auf die Umwelt sowie zur Verbesserung der Lebensqualität steht unvermindert im Fokus der Aufmerksamkeit. Zunehmende Bedeutung erlangen dabei abgabenrechtliche Instrumente, die einen effektiven Umweltschutz forcieren. Die Synchronisierung wirtschaftlicher Interessen mit den Herausforderungen des Umweltschutzes erstarkt folglich zur fundamentalen Aufgabe politischer Gestaltungsprozesse. Die Suche nach verfassungsrechtlichen Vorgaben und Grenzen der Lenkungsbesteuerung wird in dem skizzierten Problemfeld mit der spezifischen Herausforderung konfrontiert, dass eine zunehmenden Bedeutung des Umweltschutzes zu verzeichnen ist und die Ökologisierung staatlicher Interessen voranschreitet. Vor diesem Hintergrund besteht ein valides Interesse an einer rechtsvergleichenden Betrachtung der verfassungsrechtlichen Aspekte des Umweltschutzes in Schwellenländer und entwickelten Länder. Aus methodischer Perspektive dient die Rechtsvergleichung als Deutungsfolie der Untersuchung. Die Dissertation untersucht weiter die verfassungsrechtlichen Grundlagen der Umweltbesteuerung in Brasilien und Deutschland. Von grundlegender Bedeutung für die gewählte Thematik sind zwei Aspekte: Zum einen ist der abweichende Stellenwert des Umweltschutzes in den brasilianischen und deutschen Verfassungen für die Betrachtung fundamental. Zweitens kommt seinem Einfluss auf die Wirtschaftsordnung, sowie schließlich der Rolle der Staat bei der Gewährleistung des Umweltschutzes durch Umweltabgaben entscheidende Bedeutung zu. Im Anschluss an diese Untersuchung sollen die gefundenen Ergebnisse durch konkrete Beispiele von ökologischen relevanten Abgaben exempliziert werden. Ausgewählte Umweltabgaben sind die Öko-Steuern in Deutschland und die CIDE-Combustíveis (Sonderabgabe für Eingriff in der Wirtschaft im Bereich Treibstoff) in Brasilien, die große Auswirkung auf die Umweltwirtschaft haben. Den Abschluss der Untersuchung bildet ein Beitrag zur Diskussion über die Umweltabgaben im Rahmen der aktuellen Steuerreformen in Brasilien und in Deutschland.

Turning conflict into coexistence: cross-cutting ties and institutions in the agro-pastoral borderlands of Lake Naivasha basin, Kenya

The Maasai/Kikuyu agro-pastoral borderlands of Maiella and Enoosupukia, located in the hinterlands of Lake Naivasha’s agro-industrial hub, are particularly notorious in the history of ethnicised violence in the Kenya’s Rift Valley. In October 1993, an organised assault perpetrated by hundreds of Maasai vigilantes, with the assistance of game wardens and administration police, killed more than 20 farmers of Kikuyu descent. Consequently, thousands of migrant farmers were violently evicted from Enoosupukia at the instigation of leading local politicians. Nowadays, however, intercommunity relations are surprisingly peaceful and the cooperative use of natural resources is the rule rather than the exception. There seems to be a form of reorganization. Violence seems to be contained and the local economy has since recovered. This does not mean that there is no conflict, but people seem to have the facility to solve them peacefully. How did formerly violent conflicts develop into peaceful relations? How did competition turn into cooperation, facilitating changing land use? This dissertation explores the value of cross-cutting ties and local institutions in peaceful relationships and the non-violent resolution of conflicts across previously violently contested community boundaries. It mainly relies on ethnographic data collected between 2014 and 2015. The discussion therefore builds on several theoretical approaches in anthropology and the social sciences – that is, violent conflicts, cross-cutting ties and conflicting loyalties, joking relationships, peace and nonviolence, and institutions, in order to understand shared spaces that are experiencing fairly rapid social and economic changes, and characterised by conflict and coexistence. In the researched communities, cross-cutting ties and the split allegiances associated with them result from intermarriages, land transactions, trade, and friendship. By institutions, I refer to local peace committees, an attempt to standardise an aspect of customary law, and Nyumba Kumi, a strategy of anchoring community policing at the household level. In 2010, the state “implanted” these grassroots-level institutions and conferred on them the rights to handle specific conflicts and to prevent crime. I argue that the studied groups utilise diverse networks of relationships as adaptive responses to landlessness, poverty, and socio-political dynamics at the local level. Material and non-material exchanges and transfers accompany these social and economic ties and networks. In addition to being instrumental in nurturing a cohesive social fabric, I argue that such alliances could be thought of as strategies of appropriation of resources in the frontiers – areas that are considered to have immense agricultural potential and to be conducive to economic enterprise. Consequently, these areas are continuously changed and shaped through immigration, population growth, and agricultural intensification. However, cross-cutting ties and intergroup alliances may not necessarily prevent the occurrence or escalation of conflicts. Nevertheless, disputes and conflicts, which form part of the social order in the studied area, create the opportunities for locally contextualised systems of peace and non-violence that inculcate the values of cooperation, coexistence, and restraint from violence. Although the neo-traditional institutions (local peace committees and Nyumba Kumi) face massive complexities and lack the capacity to handle serious conflicts, their application of informal constraints in dispute resolution provides room for some optimism. Notably, the formation of ties and alliances between the studied groups, and the use of local norms and values to resolve disputes, are not new phenomena – they are reminiscent of historical patterns. Their persistence, particularly in the context of Kenya, indicates a form of historical continuity, which remains rather “undisturbed” despite the prevalence of ethnicised political economies. Indeed, the formation of alliances, which are driven by mutual pursuit of commodities (livestock, rental land, and agricultural produce), markets, and diversification, tends to override other identities. While the major thrust of social science literature in East Africa has focused on the search for root causes of violence, very little has been said about the conditions and practices of cooperation and non-violent conflict resolution. In addition, situations where prior violence turned into peaceful interaction have attracted little attention, though the analysis of such transitional phases holds the promise of contributing to applicable knowledge on conflict resolution. This study is part of a larger multidisciplinary project, “Resilience in East African Landscapes” (REAL), which is a Marie Curie Actions Innovative Training Networks (ITN) project. The principal focus of this multidisciplinary project is to study past, present, and future thresholds and sustainable trajectories in human-landscape interactions in East Africa over the last millennia. While other individual projects focus on long-term ecosystem dynamics and societal interactions, my project examines human-landscape interactions in the present and the very recent past (i.e. the period in which events and processes were witnessed or can still be recalled by today’s population). The transition from conflict to coexistence and from competition to cooperative use of previously violently contested land resources is understood here as enhancing adaptation in the face of social-political, economic, environmental, and climatic changes. This dissertation is therefore a contribution to new modes of resilience in human-landscape interactions after a collapse situation.

Estimation of Convective Extreme Events over Germany based on Large Scale Parameters

Strong convective events can produce extreme precipitation, hail, lightning or gusts, potentially inducing severe socio-economic impacts. These events have a relatively small spatial extension and, in most cases, a short lifetime. In this study, a model is developed for estimating convective extreme events based on large scale conditions. It is shown that strong convective events can be characterized by a Weibull distribution of radar-based rainfall with a low shape and high scale parameter value. A radius of 90km around a station reporting a convective situation turned out to be suitable. A methodology is developed to estimate the Weibull parameters and thus the occurrence probability of convective events from large scale atmospheric instability and enhanced near-surface humidity, which are usually found on a larger scale than the convective event itself. Here, the probability for the occurrence of extreme convective events is estimated from the KO-index indicating the stability, and relative humidity at 1000hPa. Both variables are computed from ERA-Interim reanalysis. In a first version of the methodology, these two variables are applied to estimate the spatial rainfall distribution and to estimate the occurrence of a convective event. The developed method shows significant skill in estimating the occurrence of convective events as observed at synoptic stations, lightning measurements, and severe weather reports. In order to take frontal influences into account, a scheme for the detection of atmospheric fronts is implemented. While generally higher instability is found in the vicinity of fronts, the skill of this approach is largely unchanged. Additional improvements were achieved by a bias-correction and the use of ERA-Interim precipitation. The resulting estimation method is applied to the ERA-Interim period (1979-2014) to establish a ranking of estimated convective extreme events. Two strong estimated events that reveal a frontal influence are analysed in detail. As a second application, the method is applied to GCM-based decadal predictions in the period 1979-2014, which were initialized every year. It is shown that decadal predictive skill for convective event frequencies over Germany is found for the first 3-4 years after the initialization.

Mechanisms of force-mediated regulation of transcription, chromatin remodeling and cell fate decisions

Tissue mechanics and cellular interactions influence every single cell in our bodies to drive morphogenesis. However, little is known about mechanisms by which cells sense physical forces and transduce them from the cytoskeleton to the nucleus to control gene expression and stem cell fate. We have identified a novel nuclear-mechanosensor complex, consisting of the nuclear membrane protein emerin (Emd), actin and non-muscle myosin IIA (NMIIA), that regulates transcription, chromatin remodeling and lineage commitment. Force-induced enrichment of Emd at the outer nuclear membrane leads to a compensation between H3K9me2,3 and H3K27me3 on constitutive heterochromatin. This strain-induced epigenetic switch is accompanied by the global rearrangement of chromatin. In parallel, forces promote local F-actin polymerization at the outer nuclear membrane, which limits the availability of nuclear G-actin. Subsequently, the reduction of nuclear G-actin results in attenuated global transcription and therefore increased H3K27me3 occupancy to reinforce gene silencing. Restoring nuclear actin levels in the presence of mechanical strain counteracts PRC2-mediated silencing of transcribed genes. This mechanosensory circuit is also observed in vivo. Depletion of NMIIA in mouse epidermis leads to decreased H3K27me3 levels and precocious lineage commitment, thus abrogating organ growth and patterning. Our results reveal how mechanical signals regulate nuclear architecture, chromatin organization and transcription to control cell fate decisions.

"Pars fructuaria". Studie zu Nebengebäuden mit Speicherfunktion auf römerzeitlichen Villae im Hambacher Forst. Mit Vergleichen aus den germanischen und britannischen Provinzen

Die Arbeit untersucht die Nebengebäude von 11 bislang nicht umfassend bearbeiteten Villa- Fundplätzen des Tagebaugebietes Hambacher forst und vergleicht diese mit den Nebengebäuden anderer römischer Villae sowohl in den rheinischen Tagebaugebieten als auch in der übrigen Provinz Niedergermanien sowie Obergermanien und Britannien. Hierbei konnten neue Aussagen zur Funktion, zur Nutzung, zur Konstruktion sowie zur baulichen Entwicklung gemacht werden. Darüber hinaus wurden auf Grundlage der gewonnenen Erkenntnisse bestehende Denkmodelle ins besondere zur Errechnung der Fundus-Größen römerzeitlicher Villae kritisch hinterfragt und geschärft.

Raum - Klang - Bild - Bewegung. Eine Erweiterung ästhetischen Lernens und Lehrens im Zeigekontext der Erziehung

Im Zuge einer Auseinandersetzung mit Erweiterungsmöglichkeiten ästhetischen Lernens in der Grundschule steht insbesondere die Vermittlungstätigkeit im Zentrum. Dabei wird die Gebärde des Zeigens herausgearbeitet, um sie für ästhetische Lehr- und Lernprozesse in der Grundschule nutzbar zu machen. In diesem Zusammenhang stellt sich die Frage, inwiefern eine differenzierte Auseinandersetzung mit Vermittlungsformen und -methoden performativer Praxen das Spektrum ästhetischen Lernens in der Grundschule erweitern kann. Im Rahmen kultureller Bildung erfolgt eine Spezifizierung ästhetischer Lernprozesse auf eine Gestaltungspraxis im kulturellen Handlungsfeld des Tanzes. Um entsprechende Vermittlungsformen ästhetischen Lehrens darzulegen, wird eine an der Tanzkunst orientierte Methodik herausgearbeitet. Sie schließt sich an künstlerische Arbeitsweisen und Inszenierungsstrategien von Pina Bausch und William Forsythe an. Dies bietet grundlegendes methodisches Potenzial, das für ästhetische Lern- und Lehrprozesse in der Grundschule nutzbar gemacht werden kann. Daraus erwächst die Frage nach dem Wie des Erzeugens theatraler Präsenz und Verkörperung. In den Mittelpunkt rückt damit auch die Frage nach Könnerschaft, bei der didaktische Perspektiven im Sinne eines „Lehrgangs“ körperlich-performativer Alphabetisierung im Zentrum stehen. Grundlegend ist in jeder Hinsicht die anthropologische Doppelperspektive auf Verkörperung als Wechsel zwischen Leib-Sein und Körper-Haben. Weitergehendes Ziel ist die Skizzierung eines Lernbereichs „Künstlerisches Gestalten in Raum – Klang – Bild – Bewegung“, der in korrespondierenden Bezügen zu den tradierten ästhetisch affinen Fächern in der Grundschule steht. Leitidee bildet die Auseinandersetzung mit vielfältigen Gestaltungsmöglichkeiten, die auf spezifische Fähigkeiten und Fertigkeiten in musikalischen, bildnerischen, tänzerischen und sprachlichen Bereichen bezogen sind. Der begrifflich-systematische Argumentationsstrang, der in dieser Arbeit verfolgt wird, ist gestützt auf anthropologische, ästhetische-künstlerische und pädagogische Theorien und durch Praxisbeispiele veranschaulicht.

Manipulating the structural and electronic properties of epitaxial NaNbO3 films via strain and stoichiometry

Due to their intriguing dielectric, pyroelectric, elasto-electric, or opto-electric properties, oxide ferroelectrics are vital candidates for the fabrication of most electronics. However, these extraordinary properties exist mainly in the temperature regime around the ferroelectric phase transition, which is usually several hundreds of K away from room temperature. Therefore, the manipulation of oxide ferroelectrics, especially moving the ferroelectric transition towards room temperature, is of great interest for application and also basic research. In this thesis, we demonstrate this using examples of NaNbO3 films. We show that the transition temperature of these films can be modified via plastic strain caused by epitaxial film growth on a structurally mismatched substrate, and this strain can be fixed by controlling the stoichiometry. The structural and electronic properties of Na1+xNbO3+δ thin films are carefully examined by among others XRD (e.g. RSM) and TEM and cryoelectronic measurements. Especially the electronic features are carefully analyzed via specially developed interdigitated electrodes in combination with integrated temperature sensor and heater. The electronic data are interpreted using existing as well as novel theories and models, they are proved to be closely correlated to the structural characteristics. The major results are: -Na1+xNbO3+δ thin films can be grown epitaxially on (110)NdGaO3 with a thickness up to 140 nm (thicker films have not been studied). Plastic relaxation of the compressive strain sets in when the thickness of the film exceeds approximately 10 – 15 nm. Films with excess Na are mainly composed of NaNbO3 with minor contribution of Na3NbO4. The latter phase seems to form nanoprecipitates that are homogeneously distributed in the NaNbO3 film which helps to stabilize the film and reduce the relaxation of the strain. -For the nominally stoichiometric films, the compressive strain leads to a broad and frequency-dispersive phase transition at lower temperature (125 – 147 K). This could be either a new transition or a shift in temperature of a known transition. Considering the broadness and frequency dispersion of the transition, this is actually a transition from the dielectric state at high temperature to a relaxor-type ferroelectric state at low temperature. The latter is based on the formation of polar nano-regions (PNRs). Using the electric field dependence of the freezing temperature, allows a direct estimation of the volume (70 to 270 nm3) and diameter (5.2 to 8 nm, spherical approximation) of the PNRs. The values confirm with literature values which were measured by other technologies. -In case of the off-stoichiometric samples, we observe again the classical ferroelectric behavior. However, the thermally hysteretic phase transition which is observed around 620 – 660 K for unstrained material is shifted to room temperature due to the compressive strain. Beside to the temperature shift, the temperature dependence of the permittivity is nearly identical for strained and unstrained materials. -The last but not least, in all cases, a significant anisotropy in the electronic and structural properties is observed which arises automatically from the anisotropic strain caused by the orthorhombic structure of the substrate. However, this anisotropy cannot be explained by the classical model which tries to fit an orthorhombic film onto an orthorhombic substrate. A novel “square lattice” model in which the films adapt a “square” shaped lattice in the plane of the film during the epitaxial growth at elevated temperature (~1000 K) nicely explains the experimental results. In this thesis we sketch a way to manipulate the ferroelectricity of NaNbO3 films via strain and stoichiometry. The results indicate that compressive strain which is generated by the epitaxial growth of the film on mismatched substrate is able to reduce the ferroelectric transition temperature or induce a phase transition at low temperature. Moreover, by adding Na in the NaNbO3 film a secondary phase Na3NbO4 is formed which seems to stabilize the main phase NaNbO3 and the strain and, thus, is able to engineer the ferroelectric behavior from the expected classical ferroelectric for perfect stoichiometry to relaxor-type ferroelectric for slightly off-stoichiometry, back to classical ferroelectric for larger off-stoichiometry. Both strain and stoichiometry are proven as perfect methods to optimize the ferroelectric properties of oxide films.

Gutgläubiger Erwerb von GmbH-Geschäftsanteilen nach dem Regierungsentwurf des MoMiG

Die Arbeit befasst sich mit dem gutgläubigen Erwerb von GmbH-Geschäftsanteilen nach dem Regierungsentwurf MoMiG. Die Reform des deutschen GmbH-Rechts ist am 01.11.2008 in Kraft getreten. Der Autor untersucht die neue Gutglaubensregelung des § 16 Abs. 3 GmbH, deren Voraussetzungen und Rechtsfolgen und wirft die Frage auf, ob diese Regelung zum Schutz des Rechtsverkehrs ausreichend ist, oder ob nicht ein gutgläubig lastenfreier Erwerb sowie ein Erwerb von nichtexistenten und nicht-so-wie-eingetragen existenten Geschäftsanteilen möglich sein sollte.

The potential of symbolic approximation. Disentangling the effects of approximation vs. calculation demands in nonsymbolic and symbolic representations.

Mathematical skills that we acquire during formal education mostly entail exact numerical processing. Besides this specifically human faculty, an additional system exists to represent and manipulate quantities in an approximate manner. We share this innate approximate number system (ANS) with other nonhuman animals and are able to use it to process large numerosities long before we can master the formal algorithms taught in school. Dehaene´s (1992) Triple Code Model (TCM) states that also after the onset of formal education, approximate processing is carried out in this analogue magnitude code no matter if the original problem was presented nonsymbolically or symbolically. Despite the wide acceptance of the model, most research only uses nonsymbolic tasks to assess ANS acuity. Due to this silent assumption that genuine approximation can only be tested with nonsymbolic presentations, up to now important implications in research domains of high practical relevance remain unclear, and existing potential is not fully exploited. For instance, it has been found that nonsymbolic approximation can predict math achievement one year later (Gilmore, McCarthy, & Spelke, 2010), that it is robust against the detrimental influence of learners´ socioeconomic status (SES), and that it is suited to foster performance in exact arithmetic in the short-term (Hyde, Khanum, & Spelke, 2014). We provided evidence that symbolic approximation might be equally and in some cases even better suited to generate predictions and foster more formal math skills independently of SES. In two longitudinal studies, we realized exact and approximate arithmetic tasks in both a nonsymbolic and a symbolic format. With first graders, we demonstrated that performance in symbolic approximation at the beginning of term was the only measure consistently not varying according to children´s SES, and among both approximate tasks it was the better predictor for math achievement at the end of first grade. In part, the strong connection seems to come about from mediation through ordinal skills. In two further experiments, we tested the suitability of both approximation formats to induce an arithmetic principle in elementary school children. We found that symbolic approximation was equally effective in making children exploit the additive law of commutativity in a subsequent formal task as a direct instruction. Nonsymbolic approximation on the other hand had no beneficial effect. The positive influence of the symbolic approximate induction was strongest in children just starting school and decreased with age. However, even third graders still profited from the induction. The results show that also symbolic problems can be processed as genuine approximation, but that beyond that they have their own specific value with regard to didactic-educational concerns. Our findings furthermore demonstrate that the two often con-founded factors ꞌformatꞌ and ꞌdemanded accuracyꞌ cannot be disentangled easily in first graders numerical understanding, but that children´s SES also influences existing interrelations between the different abilities tested here.

Immobilized Microalgae for Nutrient Recovery from Source Separated Urine

Shortages in supply of nutrients and freshwater for a growing human population are critical global issues. Traditional centralized sewage treatment can prevent eutrophication and provide sanitation, but is neither efficient nor sustainable in terms of water and resources. Source separation of household wastes, combined with decentralized resource recovery, presents a novel approach to solve these issues. Urine contains within 1 % of household waste water up to 80 % of the nitrogen (N) and 50 % of the phosphorus (P). Since microalgae are efficient at nutrient uptake, growing these organisms in urine might be a promising technology to concomitantly clean urine and produce valuable biomass containing the major plant nutrients. While state-of-the-art suspension systems for algal cultivation have mayor shortcomings in their application, immobilized cultivation on Porous Substrate Photobioreactors (PSBRs) might be a feasible alternative. The aim of this study was to develop a robust process for nutrient recovery from minimally diluted human urine using microalgae on PSBRs. The green alga Desmodesmus abundans strain CCAC 3496 was chosen for its good growth, after screening 96 algal strains derived from urine-specific isolations and culture collections. Treatment of urine, 1:1 diluted with tap water and without addition of nutrients, was performed at a light intensity of 600 μmol photons m-2 s-1 with 2.5 % CO2 and at pH 6.5. A growth rate of 7.2 g dry weight m-² day-1 and removal efficiencies for N and P of 13.1 % and 94.1 %, respectively, were determined. Pre-treatment of urine with activated carbon was found to eliminate possible detrimental effects of pharmaceuticals. These results provide a basis for further development of the technology at pilot-scale. If found to be safe in terms human and environmental health, the biomass produced from three persons could provide the P for annual production of 31 kg wheat grain and 16 kg soybean, covering the caloric demand in food for almost one month of the year for such a household. In combination with other technologies, PSBRs could thus be applied in a decentralized resource recovery system, contributing to locally close the link between sanitation and food production.