Buried-object detection using free-space time-domain near-field measurements

The detection of buried objects using time-domain freespace measurements was carried out in the near field. The location of a hidden object was determined from an analysis of the reflected signal. This method can be extended to detect any number of objects. Measurements were carried out in the X- and Ku-bands using ordinary rectangular pyramidal horn antennas of gain 15 dB. The same antenna was used as the transmitter and recei er. The experimental results were compared with simulated results by applying the two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain(FDTD)method, and agree well with each other. The dispersi e nature of the dielectric medium was considered for the simulation.

Characterization of polyhydroxyalkanoates accumulating vibrios from marine benthic environments and production studies of polyhydroxyalkanoates by Vibrio sp. BTKB33

The present work deals with the characterization of polyhydroxyalkanoates accumulating vibrios from marine benthic environments and production studies of polyhydroxyalkanoates by vibrio sp.BTKB33. Vibrios are a group of (iram negative, curved or straight motile rods that normally inhabit the aquatic environments.The present study therefore aimed at evaluating the occurrence of PHA accumulating vibrios inhabiting marine benthic environments; characterizing the potential PHA accumulators employing phenotypic and genotypic approaches and molecular characterization of the PHA synthase gene. The study also evaluated the PHA production in V:'hri0 sp. strain BTKB33, through submerged fennentation using statistical optimization and characterized the purified biopolymer. Screening for PHA producing vibrios from marine benthic environments. Characterization of PHA producers employing phenotypic and genotypic approaches.The incidence of PHA accumulation in Vibrio sp. isolated from marine sediments was observed to be high, indicating that the natural habitat of these bacteria are stressful. Considering their ubiquitous nature, the ecological role played by vibrios in maintaining the delicate balance of the benthic ecosystem besides returning potential strains, with the ability to elaborate a plethora of extracellular enzymes for industrial application, is significant. The elaboration of several hydrolytic enzymes by individuals also emphasize the crucial role of vibrios in the mineralization process in the marine environment. This study throws light on the extracellular hydrolytic enzyme profile exhibited by vibrios. It was concluded that apart from the PHA accumulation, presence of exoenzyme production and higher MAR index also aids in their survival in the highly challenging benthic enviromnents. The phylogenetic analysis of the strains and studies on intra species variation within PHA accumulating strains reveal their diversity. The isolate selected for production in this study was Vibrio sp. strain BTKB33, identified as V.azureus by 16S rDNA sequencing and phenotypic characterization. The bioprocess variables for PHA production utilising submerged fermentation was optimized employing one-factor-at-a-time-method, PB design and RSM studies. The statistical optimization of bioprocess variables revealed that NaCl concentration, temperature and incubation period are the major bioprocess variables influencing PHA production and PHA content. The presence of Class I PHA synthase genes in BTKB33 was also unveiled. The characterization of phaC genes by PCR and of the extracted polymer employing FTIR and NMR analysis revealed the presence of polyhydroxybutyrate, smallest known PI-IAs, having wider domestic, industrial and medical application. The strain BTKB33 bearing a significant exoenzyme profile, can thus be manipulatedin future for utilization of diverse substrates as C- source for PHA production. In addition to BTKB33, several fast growing Vibrio sp. having PHA accumulating ability were also isolated, revealing the prospects of this environment as a mine for novel PHA accumulating microbes. The findings of this study will provide a reference for further research in industrial production of PHAs from marine microorganisms .

Studies on The Ecophysiology Of Some Heterotrophic and Indicator Bacteria In The Marine Environments of Kerala

The thesis entitled "Studies on the eco-physiology of heterotrophic and indicator bacteria in the marine environments of Kerala" embodies the results of an investigation carried out by the candidate at the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Cochin. It is presentedd under 4 chapters in two parts (Parts A & B) and includes 6 sections. The material for the study was collected in the Cochin backwater during April 1972 to February. 1973, March 1974 to February 1975, July 1975 to June 1976 and in the ishore area during January to October, 1978 and an account of the heterotropic and indicator bacteria are given with intensity charts and tables. Samples from all the stations contained significant quantities of heterotrophs (Part A, Section I) and faecal pollution indicators (Section II). Maximum number of heterotrophic bacteria was observed during the postmonsoon period. The total counts betwen one station and the other did not vary as much as the counts between months did. The distribution was characterised by overdispersion. During 1972-73 in all the stations except the fourth the minimum heterotrophs (Total counts) were recorded during the monsoon period. Minimum counts were observed during the premonsoon period, with an increasing trend from the premonsoon to postmonsoon seasons. Maximum counts were recorded during monsoon months during 1974-75. No significant difference was noted in the total plate count between stations, months and regions. Seasonal variations in sea water was meagre during 1975-76, whereas in sediments variations were prominent during monsoon in Station I - near the mouth of the sewage effluent of Cochin City and in postmonsoon at Station II in the Mattancherry Channel and Station III near barmouth

Studies on phytoplankton of the estuarine and marine environments

This thesis deals with the results oi’ investigations on phytoplankton productivity and related aspects conducted in various ecoaystms such as estuarine, inshore and oceanic enviroments and certain special ecosytans including the pu.-awn culture fields and associated many-eves, mud bank and the seas around the Andaman-Nicobar Islands. This study also includes the qualitative and quantitative variations of phytoplankton production, their seasonal abundance, factors controlling the same and the magnitude of the potential resources derived 1!:-om it

"Effects of some heavy metals copper. zinc and lead on certain tissues of £153 Qarsia (Hamilton and Buchanan) in different environments

The research investigations on pollution, particularly in coastal/ estuarine environments are recent ones and started only in 1970s. Hence the informations available are fragmentary and scattered. They throw some light only on either the concentration of heavy metals in water or in sediment or in organisms. No concerted efforts have been made to consolidate and correlate the results between the environment and biota. Literature on the level of concentration of heavy metals in different tissues of organisms with regard to their availability in the living media, their ratio, their inter—relationship, tolerance limit of organisms, etc. are very few or rather nil. in view of the importance enumerated above, the candidate has selected the topic "Effects of some heavy metals copper, zinc and lead on certain tissues of E E (Hamilton and Buchanan) in different environments" for detailed studies and to understand systematically (i) the source of effluents and wastes, (ii) the concentration of heavy metals copper, zinc and lead in water, in sediments and in tissues of the test animal, (iii) their effects, (iv) capacity of tolerance and accumulation in different tissues of the animal, and (V) the "Bioaccumulation Factor", etc.

THE SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS IN HINDI LITERATURE OF BHAKTI PERIOD

HINDI

Characterization and Pathogenicity of Vibrio cholerae and Vibrio vulnificus from Marine environments

The genus Vibrioof the family Vibrionaceae are Gram negative, oxidasepositive, rod- or curved- rodshaped facultative anaerobes, widespread in marine and estuarine environments. Vibrio species are opportunistic human pathogens responsible for diarrhoeal disease, gastroenteritis, septicaemia and wound infections and are also pathogens of aquatic organisms, causing infections to crustaceans, bivalves and fishes. In the present study, marine environmental samples like seafood and water and sediment samples from aquafarms and mangroves were screened for the presence of Vibrio species. Of the134 isolates obtained from the various samples, 45 were segregated to the genus Vibrio on the basis of phenotypic characterization.like Gram staining, oxidase test, MoF test and salinity tolerance. Partial 16S rDNA sequence analysis was utilized for species level identification of the isolates and the strains were identified as V. cholerae(N=21), V. vulnificus(N=18), V. parahaemolyticus(N=3), V. alginolyticus (N=2) and V. azureus (N=1). The genetic relatedness and variations among the 45 Vibrio isolates were elucidated based on 16S rDNA sequences. Phenotypic characterization of the isolates was based on their response to 12 biochemical tests namely Voges-Proskauers’s (VP test), arginine dihydrolase , tolerance to 3% NaCl test, ONPG test that detects β-galactosidase activity, and tests for utilization of citrate, ornithine, mannitol, arabinose, sucrose, glucose, salicin and cellobiose. The isolates exhibited diverse biochemical patterns, some specific for the species and others indicative of their environmental source.Antibiogram for the isolates was determined subsequent to testing their susceptibility to 12 antibiotics by the disc diffusion method. Varying degrees of resistance to gentamycin (2.22%), ampicillin(62.22%), nalidixic acid (4.44%), vancomycin (86.66), cefixime (17.77%), rifampicin (20%), tetracycline (42.22%) and chloramphenicol (2.22%) was exhibited. All the isolates were susceptible to streptomycin, co-trimoxazole, trimethoprim and azithromycin. Isolates from all the three marine environments exhibited multiple antibiotic resistance, with high MAR index value. The molecular typing methods such as ERIC PCR and BOX PCR revealed intraspecies relatedness and genetic heterogeneity within the environmental isolatesof V. cholerae and V. vulnificus. The 21 strains of V. choleraewere serogroupedas non O1/ non O139 by screening for the presence O1rfb and O139 rfb marker genes by PCR. The virulence/virulence associated genes namely ctxA, ctxB, ace, VPI, hlyA, ompU, rtxA, toxR, zot, nagst, tcpA, nin and nanwere screened in V. cholerae and V. vulnificusstrains.The V. vulnificusstrains were also screened for three species specific genes viz., cps, vvhand viu. In V. cholerae strains, the virulence associated genes like VPI, hlyA, rtxA, ompU and toxR were confirmed by PCR. All the isolates, except for strain BTOS6, harbored at least one or a combination of the tested genes and V. choleraestrain BTPR5 isolated from prawn hosted the highest number of virulence associated genes. Among the V. vulnificusstrains, only 3 virulence genes, VPI, toxR and cps, were confirmed out of the 16 tested and only 7 of the isolates had these genes in one or more combinations. Strain BTPS6 from aquafarm and strain BTVE4 from mangrove samples yielded positive amplification for the three genes. The toxRgene from 9 strains of V. choleraeand 3 strains of V. vulnificus were cloned and sequenced for phylogenetic analysis based on nucleotide and the amino acid sequences. Multiple sequence alignment of the nucleotide sequences and amino acid sequences of the environmental strains of V. choleraerevealed that the toxRgene in the environmental strains are 100% homologous to themselves and to the V. choleraetoxR gene sequence available in the Genbank database. The 3 strains of V. vulnificus displayed high nucleotide and amino acid sequence similarity among themselves and to the sequences of V. cholerae and V. harveyi obtained from the GenBank database, but exhibited only 72% homology to the sequences of its close relative V. vulnificus. Structure prediction of the ToxR protein of Vibrio cholerae strain BTMA5 was by PHYRE2 software. The deduced amino acid sequence showed maximum resemblance with the structure of DNA-binding domain of response regulator2 from Escherichia coli k-12 Template based homology modelling in PHYRE2 successfully modelled the predicted protein and its secondary structure based on protein data bank (PDB) template c3zq7A. The pathogenicity studies were performed using the nematode Caenorhabditiselegansas a model system. The assessment of pathogenicity of environmental strain of V. choleraewas conducted with E. coli strain OP50 as the food source in control plates, environmental V. cholerae strain BTOS6, negative for all tested virulence genes, to check for the suitability of Vibrio sp. as a food source for the nematode;V. cholerae Co 366 ElTor, a clinical pathogenic strain and V. cholerae strain BTPR5 from seafood (Prawn) and positive for the tested virulence genes like VPI, hlyA, ompU,rtxA and toxR. It was found that V. cholerae strain BTOS6 could serve as a food source in place of E. coli strain OP50 but behavioral aberrations like sluggish movement and lawn avoidance and morphological abnormalities like pharyngeal and intestinal distensions and bagging were exhibited by the worms fed on V. cholerae Co 366 ElTor strain and environmental BTPR5 indicating their pathogenicity to the nematode. Assessment of pathogenicity of the environmental strains of V. vulnificus was performed with V. vulnificus strain BTPS6 which tested positive for 3 virulence genes, namely, cps, toxRand VPI, and V. vulnificus strain BTMM7 that did not possess any of the tested virulence genes. A reduction was observed in the life span of worms fed on environmental strain of V. vulnificusBTMM7 rather than on the ordinary laboratory food source, E. coli OP50. Behavioral abnormalities like sluggish movement, lawn avoidance and bagging were also observed in the worms fed with strain BTPS6, but the pharynx and the intestine were intact. The presence of multi drug resistant environmental Vibrio strainsthat constitute a major reservoir of diverse virulence genes are to be dealt with caution as they play a decisive role in pathogenicity and horizontal gene transfer in the marine environments.

Spacelike maximal surfaces in 3D Lorentz-Minkowski space

We investigate spacelike maximal surfaces in 3-dimensional Lorentz-Minkowski space, give an Enneper-Weierstrass representation of such surfaces and classify those with a Lorentzian or Euclidian rotation symmetry.

Architecture and other Architectures: Mapping the Production of Insular Space in the Pearl River Delta (China) and Jakarta (Indonesia)

Globalization is widely regarded as the rise of the borderless world. However in practice, true globalization points rather to a “spatial logic” by which globalization is manifested locally in the shape of insular space. Globalization in this sense is not merely about the creation of physical fragmentation of space but also the creation of social disintegration. This study tries to proof that global processes also create various forms of insular space leading also to specific social implications. In order to examine the problem this study looks at two cases: China’s Pearl River Delta (PRD) and Jakarta in Indonesia. The PRD case reveals three forms of insular space namely the modular, concealed and the hierarchical. The modular points to the form of enclosed factories where workers are vulnerable for human-right violations due to the absent of public control. The concealed refers to the production of insular space by subtle discrimination against certain social groups in urban space. And the hierarchical points to a production of insular space that is formed by an imbalanced population flow. The Jakarta case attempts to show more types of insularity in relation to the complexity of a mega-city which is shaped by a culture of exclusion. Those are dormant and hollow insularity. The dormant refers to the genesis of insular– radical – community from a culture of resistance. The last type, the hollow, points to the process of making a “pseudo community” where sense of community is not really developed as well as weak social relationship with its surrounding. Although global process creates various expressions of territorial insularization, however, this study finds that the “line of flight” is always present, where the border of insularity is crossed. The PRD’s produces vernacular modernization done by peasants which is less likely to be controlled by the politics of insularization. In Jakarta, the culture of insularization causes urban informalities that have no space, neither spatially nor socially; hence their state of ephemerality continues as a tactic of place-making. This study argues that these crossings possess the potential for reconciling venue to defuse the power of insularity.

Influence of the buffer environment on the Relative Biological Effectiveness of carbon ion radiation, investigated by Scanning Force Microscopy and gel electrophoresis

This work focuses on the analysis of the influence of environment on the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of carbon ions on molecular level. Due to the high relevance of RBE for medical applications, such as tumor therapy, and radiation protection in space, DNA damages have been investigated in order to understand the biological efficiency of heavy ion radiation. The contribution of this study to the radiobiology research consists in the analysis of plasmid DNA damages induced by carbon ion radiation in biochemical buffer environments, as well as in the calculation of the RBE of carbon ions on DNA level by mean of scanning force microscopy (SFM). In order to study the DNA damages, besides the common electrophoresis method, a new approach has been developed by using SFM. The latter method allows direct visualisation and measurement of individual DNA fragments with an accuracy of several nanometres. In addition, comparison of the results obtained by SFM and agarose gel electrophoresis methods has been performed in the present study. Sparsely ionising radiation, such as X-rays, and densely ionising radiation, such as carbon ions, have been used to irradiate plasmid DNA in trishydroxymethylaminomethane (Tris buffer) and 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES buffer) environments. These buffer environments exhibit different scavenging capacities for hydroxyl radical (HO0), which is produced by ionisation of water and plays the major role in the indirect DNA damage processes. Fragment distributions have been measured by SFM over a large length range, and as expected, a significantly higher degree of DNA damages was observed for increasing dose. Also a higher amount of double-strand breaks (DSBs) was observed after irradiation with carbon ions compared to X-ray irradiation. The results obtained from SFM measurements show that both types of radiation induce multiple fragmentation of the plasmid DNA in the dose range from D = 250 Gy to D = 1500 Gy. Using Tris environments at two different concentrations, a decrease of the relative biological effectiveness with the rise of Tris concentration was observed. This demonstrates the radioprotective behavior of the Tris buffer solution. In contrast, a lower scavenging capacity for all other free radicals and ions, produced by the ionisation of water, was registered in the case of HEPES buffer compared to Tris solution. This is reflected in the higher RBE values deduced from SFM and gel electrophoresis measurements after irradiation of the plasmid DNA in 20 mM HEPES environment compared to 92 mM Tris solution. These results show that HEPES and Tris environments play a major role on preventing the indirect DNA damages induced by ionising radiation and on the relative biological effectiveness of heavy ion radiation. In general, the RBE calculated from the SFM measurements presents higher values compared to gel electrophoresis data, for plasmids irradiated in all environments. Using a large set of data, obtained from the SFM measurements, it was possible to calculate the survive rate over a larger range, from 88% to 98%, while for gel electrophoresis measurements the survive rates have been calculated only for values between 96% and 99%. While the gel electrophoresis measurements provide information only about the percentage of plasmids DNA that suffered a single DSB, SFM can count the small plasmid fragments produced by multiple DSBs induced in a single plasmid. Consequently, SFM generates more detailed information regarding the amount of the induced DSBs compared to gel electrophoresis, and therefore, RBE can be calculated with more accuracy. Thus, SFM has been proven to be a more precise method to characterize on molecular level the DNA damage induced by ionizing radiations.

Gender and Space in Tehran

Abstract: This dissertation generally concentrates on the relationships between “gender” and “space” in the present time of urban life in capital city of Tehran. “Gender” as a changing social construct, differentiated within societies and through time, studied this time by investigation on “gender attitude” or “gender identity” means attitudes towards “gender” issues regarding Tehran residences. “Space” as a concept integrated from physical and social constituents investigated through focus on “spatial attitude” means attitudes towards using “living spaces” including private space of “house”, semi private semi public space of neighborhood and finally public spaces of the city. “Activities and practices” in space concentrated instead of “physical” space; this perspective to “space” discussed as the most justified implication of “space” in this debate regarding current situations in city of Tehran. Under a systematic approach, the interactions and interconnections between “gender” and “space” as two constituent variables of social organization investigated by focus on the different associations presented between different “gender identities” and their different “spatial identities”; in fact, “spatial identity” manifests “gender identity” and in opposite direction, “spatial identity” influences to construction of “gender identity”. The hypotheses of case study in Tehran defined as followed: • “Gender identity” is reflected on “spatial identity”. Various “gender identities” in Tehran present different perspectives of “space” or they identify “space” by different values. • As “gender identity” internalizes patriarchal oppression, it internalizes associated “spatial” oppression too. • Within the same social class, different “gender identities” related to men and women, present interconnected qualities, compared with “gender identities” related to men or women of different social classes. This situation could be found in the “spatial” perspectives of different groups of men and women too. • Following the upper hypotheses, “spatial” oppression differs among social classes of Tehran living in different parts of this city. This research undertook a qualitative study in Tehran by interviewing with different parents of both young daughter and son regarding their attitudes towards gender issues from one side and activities and behaviors of their children in different spaces from the other side. Results of case study indicated the parallel changes of parents’ attitudes towards “gender” and “spatial” issues; it means strong connection between “gender” and “space”. It revealed association of “equal” spatial attitudes with “open, neutral” gender attitudes, and also the association of “biased, unequal” spatial identities with “conservative patriarchal” gender identities. It was cleared too that this variable concept – gender space - changes by “sex”; mothers comparing fathers presented more equitable notions towards “gender spatial” issues. It changes too by “social class” and “educational level”, that means “gender spatial” identity getting more open equitable among more educated people of middle and upper classes. “Breadwinning status in the family” also presents its effect on the changes of “gender spatial” identity so participant breadwinners in the family expressed relatively more equitable notions comparing householders and housekeepers. And finally, “gender spatial” identity changes through “place” in the city and regarding South – North line of the city. The illustration of changes of “gender spatial” identity from “open” to “conservative” among society indicated not only vertical variation across social classes, furthermore the horizontal changing among each social class. These results also confirmed hypotheses while made precision on the third one regarding variable of sex. More investigations pointed to some inclusive spatial attitudes throughout society penetrated to different groups of “gender identities”, to “opens” as to “conservatives”, also to groups between them, by two opposite features; first kind, conservative biased spatial practices in favor of patriarchal gender relations and the second, progressive neutral actions in favor of equal gender relations. While the major reason for the inclusive conservative practices was referred to the social insecurity for women, the second neutral ones associated to more formal & safer spaces of the city. In conclusion, while both trends are associated deeply with the important issues of “sex” & “body” in patriarchal thoughts, still strong, they are the consequences of the transitional period of social change in macro level, and the challenges involved regarding interactions between social orders, between old system of patriarchy, the traditional biased “gender spatial” relations and the new one of equal relations. The case study drew an inhomogeneous illustration regarding gender spatial aspects of life in Tehran, the opposite groups of “open” and “conservative”, and the large group of “semi open semi conservative” between them. In macro perspective it presents contradicted social groups according their general life styles; they are the manifestations of challenging trends towards tradition and modernity in Iranian society. This illustration while presents unstable social situations, necessitates probing solutions for social integration; exploring the directions could make heterogeneous social groups close in the way they think and the form they live in spaces. Democratic approaches like participatory development planning might be helpful for the city in its way to more solidarity and sustainability regarding its social spatial – gender as well – development, in macro levels of social spatial planning and in micro levels of physical planning, in private space of house and in public spaces of the city.

Semantic web mining and the representation, analysis, and evolution of web space

Semantic Web Mining aims at combining the two fast-developing research areas Semantic Web and Web Mining. This survey analyzes the convergence of trends from both areas: Growing numbers of researchers work on improving the results of Web Mining by exploiting semantic structures in the Web, and they use Web Mining techniques for building the Semantic Web. Last but not least, these techniques can be used for mining the Semantic Web itself. The second aim of this paper is to use these concepts to circumscribe what Web space is, what it represents and how it can be represented and analyzed. This is used to sketch the role that Semantic Web Mining and the software agents and human agents involved in it can play in the evolution of Web space.

Information Exchange and Fusion in Dynamic and Heterogeneous Distributed Environments

Context awareness, dynamic reconfiguration at runtime and heterogeneity are key characteristics of future distributed systems, particularly in ubiquitous and mobile computing scenarios. The main contributions of this dissertation are theoretical as well as architectural concepts facilitating information exchange and fusion in heterogeneous and dynamic distributed environments. Our main focus is on bridging the heterogeneity issues and, at the same time, considering uncertain, imprecise and unreliable sensor information in information fusion and reasoning approaches. A domain ontology is used to establish a common vocabulary for the exchanged information. We thereby explicitly support different representations for the same kind of information and provide Inter-Representation Operations that convert between them. Special account is taken of the conversion of associated meta-data that express uncertainty and impreciseness. The Unscented Transformation, for example, is applied to propagate Gaussian normal distributions across highly non-linear Inter-Representation Operations. Uncertain sensor information is fused using the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence as it allows explicit modelling of partial and complete ignorance. We also show how to incorporate the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence into probabilistic reasoning schemes such as Hidden Markov Models in order to be able to consider the uncertainty of sensor information when deriving high-level information from low-level data. For all these concepts we provide architectural support as a guideline for developers of innovative information exchange and fusion infrastructures that are particularly targeted at heterogeneous dynamic environments. Two case studies serve as proof of concept. The first case study focuses on heterogeneous autonomous robots that have to spontaneously form a cooperative team in order to achieve a common goal. The second case study is concerned with an approach for user activity recognition which serves as baseline for a context-aware adaptive application. Both case studies demonstrate the viability and strengths of the proposed solution and emphasize that the Dempster-Shafer Theory of Evidence should be preferred to pure probability theory in applications involving non-linear Inter-Representation Operations.

Beyond - Another view on space and landscape

Die Beiträge dieser Veröffentlichung sind aus Vorträgen anlässlich der Postdoc-Konferenz zu Ehren von Prof. Dr. Detlev Ipsen, der sich im September 2010 aus dem Universitätsdienst verabschiedete, entstanden. Das inhaltliche Kernprogramm der Postdoc-Konferenz war bewusst auf sehr unterschiedliche Perspektiven auf den Raum und die Raumwahrnehmung ausgerichtet und bildet sich auch in den Beiträgen dieser Veröffentlichung ab. Elisabeth Heidenreich widmet sich in ihrem Beitrag „Der moderne Dschihad und seine (sakralen) Räume“ den technischen Räumen des islamistischen Terrorismus. Hans-Ulrich Werner zeigt in seinem Beitrag „SoundScapes als Klang und Raum“ verschiedene Begegnungen der Musik- und Klangwissenschaft mit der Stadt- und Umweltplanung auf und setzt sich mit der Bedeutung und Transformation von „Klangräumen“ in der Planung auseinander. Der Beitrag von Susanne Kost „Kulturbedingte Unterschiede im Landschaftsbewusstsein – eine Annäherung“ analysiert, wie und wodurch sich bestimmte Handlungs- und Wahrnehmungsweisen in Kulturen entwickelt haben könnten und ob sich am Beispiel der Niederlande bestimmte Muster der Landschaftswahrnehmung identifizieren lassen. Ilya Maharika erörtert in seinem Beitrag „Urban Gene of Desakota. A Dynamic of Indonesian Urban-Rural Continuum with the Case of Yogyakarta Region” internationale Phänomene und Dynamiken im Stadt-Land-Gefüge.

UEBERflow

In der Dissertation wird der Frage nachgegangen, welche globalen bildungspolitischen Maßnahmen erforderlich sind, um auch bislang exkludierten Menschen den Kompetenzerwerb zu ermöglichen, der benötigt wird, eine positive User Experience in benutzergenerierten, digitalen Lernumgebungen auszubilden, damit sie an der modernen Weltgesellschaft selbstbestimmt teilhaben können. Zu diesem Zweck wurden Castells ‘Netzwerkgesellschaft’ und Csikszentmihalys ‘Theorie der optimalen Erfahrung’ als analytische Grundlagen zur Einordnung der sozialen Netzwerk-Aktivitäten herangezogen. Dies ermöglichte es, unter Rückgriff auf aktuelle Lerntheorien, Kompetenzdebatten, ökonomische Analysen des Bildungssystems und User Experience-Forschungen, einige individuelle und gesamtgesellschaftliche Voraussetzungen abzuleiten, um in der Netzwerkgesellschaft konstruktiv überleben zu können. Mit Blick auf unterschiedliche sozio-kulturelle Bedingungen für persönlichen Flow im ‘space of flows’ liessen sich schließlich differenzierte Flow-Kriterien entwickeln, die als Grundlage für die Operationalisierung im Rahmen einer Real-Time Delphi (RTD)-Studie mit einem internationalen Expertinnen-Panel dienen konnten. Ziel war es, bildungspolitische Ansatzpunkte zu finden, den bislang Exkludierten bis zum Jahre 2020 erste Rahmenbedingungen zu bieten, damit sie potentiell teilhaben können an der Gestaltung der zukünftigen Netzwerkgesellschaft. Das Ergebnis der Expertinnen-Befragung wurde unter Rückgriff auf aktuelle Global und Educational Governance-Studien und das Einflusspotenzial der Zivilgesellschaft auf den Digital Divide reflektiert. Vor diesem Hintergrund konnten abschließend vier bildungspolitische Verlaufsszenarien entworfen werden, die es ermöglichen könnten, bis 2020 die Kluft zu den global Exkludierten wenigstens etwas zu schließen.