OPUS documents https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/index/index/ Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:14:21 +0200 Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:14:21 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2744 Binge Eating (BE) is a common disordered eating behavior, and the study explored social-cultural influences associated with BE development among university students in Nairobi, Kenya. Objectives included determining the influence of ethnicity, social comparison, mass media, peer and family pressure and the mediating role of coping orientation. A descriptive and correlational research design involving 395 participants from the University of Nairobi, responded to online close-ended survey questions from the Binge Eating Scale (BES), Social Comparison Scale (SCS), Coping Orientation to Problems Experienced Inventory (Brief COPE), Social Cultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire-4 Revised (SATAQ-4R Male and Female) and a Socio-Demographic Questionnaire. Results showed that ethnicity and social comparison do not have a significant association with BE. Mass media has a significant association with BE among both males and females. The societal, peer and family pressure also have a significant association with BE among males and females. Coping orientation had a partial mediation on mass media, family and peer pressure among females. Similar partial mediation findings were present among males with regards to mass media and family pressure, but coping orientation had no mediating association with peer pressure. Findings reveal that social-cultural factors are associated with BE through direct and indirect pathways mediated by coping strategies, with notable gender differences in vulnerability patterns and coping mechanisms. Therefore, more advanced research in this area needs to be explored to understand BE and EDs from a Kenyan view point. Keywords: binge eating, peer pressure, family pressure, ethnicity, mass media, university students.  Evelyne Arasa doctoralthesis https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2744 Mon, 28 Sep 2026 13:14:21 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2739 Environmental fate assessment of organic contaminants in soil is essential for chemical risk assessment within the regulatory frameworks. While conventional biodegradability testing allows quantification of extractable residues and mineralisation, the analysis of non-extractable residues (NER) remains a significant analytical challenge. This review synthesizes current analytical strategies and workflows for the characterization and differentiation of NER in soil originating from organic contaminants. Therefore, we describe current analytical strategies and workflows that enable robust NER characterization. The analytical framework distinguishes three NER types based on formation mechanisms and environmental relevance: type 1 (physically entrapped residues sequestered within soil aggregates with remobilization risk), type 2 (covalently bound residues with strong chemical bonds to a solid matrix and minimal remobilization potential), and type 3 (microbial biomass residues integrated into natural organic matter with no environmental concern). Sequential extraction procedures using aqueous and organic solvents, combined with targeted chemical degradation methods and derivatisation like silylation, provide systematic approaches to distinguish NER types. Silylation enables the release and quantification of physically entrapped (type 1) NER, while remaining covalently bound (type 2) NER require chemo- or thermochemolytic cleavage for identification. Biogenic NER (type 3) are quantified via acidic hydrolysis and analysis of the released amino acids as microbial biomass proxies carrying the label from the degraded contaminant. Isotopic labelling utilizing both radioactive ( 14 C, 3 H: tritium) and stable ( 13 C, 15 N, 2 H: deuterium) isotopes has greatly advanced mass balance tracking and molecular identification capabilities. While radioactive labelling provides unparalleled sensitivity for quantification, stable isotope methods coupled with GC-IRMS, LC-MS/MS, or NMR offer mechanistic and structural information. So far, NER research using isotope labelling was mainly based on 14 C-, 13 C- and 15 N, but recently the suitability of 2 H-labels for this purpose has been described. This innovative approach, which can ease distinction between the formations of xenobiotic NER (type 1 and 2) and biogenic NER (type 3), is presented here. By integrating state-of-the-art extraction, degradation, and isotope-tracing techniques, researchers can now achieve robust discrimination of NER types. These analytical advancements are crucial for regulatory bodies to assess chemical safety, support persistence classification, and predict long-term risks associated with organic pollutants in soils. Suggestions for further research on the use of deuterium and tritium as isotope labels and the investigation of mass-dependent isotope effects on the degradation of the labelled test substance are also given. Karolina M. Nowak; Jan Schwarzbauer; Andreas Schäffer article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2739 Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:59:49 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2740 The goal of this thesis is to use methods from automated reasoning to analyze graphs occurring in the context of wireless networks. For this a suitable representation of the considered graphs, the transformations and algorithms executed on the graphs and also the underlying geometric conditions are required. The considered graphs resp. classes of graphs in this thesis refer to a) graphs only defined by geometric conditions, b) graphs defined by more general axioms after applying transformations, c) graphs resulting from a graph transformation algorithm. For studying graphs in the context of wireless networks, an important task is the construction of graphs without intersecting edges. Such graphs are called plane graphs and have a wide range of applications, for example in routing procedures. For the construction of connected plane graphs on a given set of vertices, the concepts of Gabriel graphs and relative neighborhood graphs exist. These concepts were originally developed for the Euclidean plane with Euclidean distance. In this thesis it is investigated, for which more general distance functions, Gabriel graphs, and relative neighborhood graphs are plane graphs, whenever possible by using the hierarchical prover HPiLoT. In addition to graph constructions, this thesis also examines graph transformations. A transformation is simple if the existence of an edge uv in the transformed graph depends only on the existence of the edges uv and vu in the underlying original graph. In the original graph, predicates determine which edges must exist, which edges must not exist, and which edges exist depending on the existence of other edges. It is investigated under which conditions for the predicates and for which transformations expressions can be found to automatically examine the containedness relation between two graph classes, whereby only graphs up to a certain number of vertices need to be considered. For the expressions found in this way, the containedness relations are evaluated for all possible graph classes using Mathematica. Graphs can also be transformed using algorithms instead of simple transformations. This thesis examines a planarization algorithm that generates a plane graph from an original graph by selecting a subset of edges. To maintain, in addition also the graph’s connectivity, the original graph must satisfy certain structural properties. Such properties are the redundancy and coexistence property. It is shown that for RCGs, i.e. graphs that satisfy these two properties, a connected plane subgraph always exists. To obtain this connected plane graph, the correctness of a local planarization algorithm for RCGs is proven by verifying the individual proof steps of a manual proof using the theorem prover Z3. To perform this verification, a suitable axiom system is defined that describes, the properties of the graphs, the properties required for the proof, as well as the underlying geometry. Lucas Böltz doctoralthesis https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2740 Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:04:52 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2738 Die Sicherstellung der pflegerischen Versorgung ist insbesondere in strukturschwachen ländlichen Regionen gefährdet, die durch einen hohen Anteil hochaltriger Bevölkerung und einen akuten Mangel an qualifiziertem Pflege-personal gekennzeichnet sind. Diese Studie analysiert, welche Typen von Pflegeunternehmen die Versorgung in diesen Gebieten dominieren und welche zentrale Rolle sie bei der notwendigen Sozialraumentwicklung einnehmen können. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden organisationale Versorger-Faktoren (Trägerschaft, Geschäftsmodell, Größe) von Pflegeunternehmen systematisch erfasst und im Kontext strukturschwacher ländlicher Regionen aus pflegewissenschaftlicher Perspektive analysiert. Mittels Sekundärdatenanalysen, welche eine Zusammenführung von Daten aus dem Landatlas und den amtlichen Pflegestatistiken beinhalten, werden valide Daten zu Pflegequoten und Pflegesettings erhoben, um einen systematischen Vergleich zwischen ländlichen und urbanen Versorgungsstrukturen zu ermöglichen. Ziel-setzung der empirischen Erhebung und Analyse ist, Pflegeanbieter in strukturschwachen ländlichen Regionen zu erfassen und dominante Trägertypen auf Basis einer Kategorisierung von Pflegeunternehmen zu ermitteln. Die Datengrundlage umfasst 751 stationäre und teilstationäre Pflegeeinrichtungen. Die Ergebnisse belegen strukturelle Unterschiede, die sich in erhöhten Pflegequoten sowie einem überproportionalen Anteil ambulanter Versorgungsangebote bei gleichzeitig reduzierter stationärer Kapazität in ländlichen Regionen zeigen. Große freigemeinnützige Komplexträger nehmen in ländlichen strukturschwachen Regionen eine marktbeherrschende Stellung ein. Diese Befunde implizieren, dass Pflegeunternehmen spezielle strategische Kompetenzen entwickeln müssen, welche die Etablierung integrierter Versorgungsnetzwerke und die intelligente Verknüpfung aller Angebotsformen ermöglichen und dabei Größen- und Synergieeffekten nutzen. Die zukünftige Versorgungsplanung in ländlichen Gebieten muss die regionalen Besonderheiten zwingend berücksichtigen. Angesichts der strukturellen Heterogenität der lokalen Pflegemärkte sind gezielte Professionalisierungsmaßnahmen, z. B. in Fort- und Weiterbildung, sowie zusätzliche Ressourcen für die Koordination und Vernetzung ein entscheidendes Element für eine nachhaltige und qualitativ hochwertige Pflegeversorgung. Markus Ungar-Hermann doctoralthesis https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2738 Wed, 23 Sep 2026 12:29:23 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2730 Clustering algorithms partition unlabelled data into groups based on similarity, yet standard methods provide no guarantee that different demographic subpopulations are treated equitably across those groups. A second, often overlooked gap is interpretability: the partition produced by an algorithm such as k-means gives no human-readable account of why a data point was assigned to its cluster. This thesis addresses both gaps jointly by building a unified evaluation framework in which fairness and explainability are assessed alongside conventional clustering quality. The framework implements and compares four clustering methods k-means, k-medians, a fairlet-based fair k-medians method derived from quadtree decomposition, and a bounded-representation method across four real-world datasets: Bank Marketing, Adult Census Income, COMPAS Recidivism, and German Credit. Each configuration is evaluated on three axes: clustering quality (silhouette score, sum of squared errors, PAM cost), group fairness (Balance, violation rate, and cost of fairness), and explainability (surrogate decision-tree fidelity and complexity). Protected attributes reflect established fairness benchmarks: marital status for Bank Marketing, gender for Adult, race for COMPAS, and gender for German Credit. The results show that enforcing fairness does not uniformly degrade clustering quality. The bounded-representation method achieves a cost-of-fairness ratio close to 1.0 across all four datasets, meaning the quality penalty for a formal fairness guarantee is small in practice. Surrogate decision trees maintain high fidelity on both constrained and unconstrained clusterings, showing that post-hoc explainability is compatible with fairness-aware assignment. A recurring finding is that k-medians produces more balanced clusters than k-means without any explicit fairness constraint — a structural effect of the L1 objective yet it offers no provable guarantee. This contrast illustrates why formal methods such as bounded representation remain necessary. Together, the results provide an empirical basis for choosing clustering methods when both accountability and interpretability are required. Harish Sharma masterthesis https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2730 Tue, 22 Sep 2026 10:47:15 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2736 A unified framework outlining the procedures and methods necessary to adhere to data management standards is essential for effective Data Governance. Data Governance Frameworks serve as a guide to secure and trustworthy data exchange between different (legal) entities. Their specific implications differ based on the field they are incorporated in. Thus, to extract their full potential, they need to be suitably designed. However, there is a lack of knowledge in the literature concerning the assets and components of Data Governance Frameworks tailored for data intermediaries, including Data Trusts. Moreover, there is a limited understanding of what crucial components the frameworks consist of and how they can be managed to maximize frameworks’ performance. The level of effectiveness of such frameworks needs to be measured by analyzing the performance of certain assets. These relations between the components and the assets are yet to be thoroughly explored and precisely defined. Establishing a strong link between the components and assets gives an overview to practitioners on how the intended assets can be fulfilled properly with the corresponding component. Therefore, practitioners can tackle the respective management components to achieve the intended trustworthiness in the data trust ecosystem. This study conducts a systematic analysis of existing Data Governance Frameworks, identifying the crucial assets as well as components, and provides a mapping between them. The findings set a base that enables the development of a comprehensive Data Governance Framework tailored specifically for Data Trusts. David Acev; Sankalp Biyani; Florian Rieder; Timon T. Aldenhoff; Mevludin Blazevic; Dennis M. Riehle; Maria A. Wimmer article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2736 Fri, 18 Sep 2026 09:58:00 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2735 Recent progress in intelligent, adaptive, and security-aware Software-Defined Wireless Sensor Networks (SDWSNs) is driven by the integration of Machine Learning (ML) with Software-Defined Networking (SDN) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). This systematic survey analyzes 46 peer-reviewed articles published between 2024 and 2025, providing a problem-oriented synthesis of ML-SDWSN research. Emphasizing security, routing, and performance optimization, with a particular focus on deployment architectures, the survey identifies three major trends: increased adoption of ensemble and Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods for security and adaptive control; broader implementation of edge-based ML to minimize inference latency; and greater emphasis on privacy-preserving techniques, especially Federated Learning (FL). The survey presents a structured taxonomy encompassing seven thematic areas: Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) mitigation, Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs), routing optimization, Quality of Service (QoS) management, privacy preservation, data integrity, and network-efficiency optimization. Findings are synthesized from over 120 experimental configurations reported in the literature. Due to substantial differences among the reviewed studies in terms of datasets, network topologies, hardware platforms, measurement definitions, and validation methodologies, the reported values are presented as descriptive cross-study aggregates rather than direct comparative benchmarks or formal effect-size estimates. Within these constraints, the survey identifies recurring trade-offs among accuracy, latency, scalability, and privacy. It provides evidence-based design considerations for researchers and practitioners. The survey also highlights eight critical research gaps, including limited multi-dataset validation, a lack of real-world deployments, insufficient scalability analysis, and the need for rigorous evaluation of RL-based SDWSN control. Ahmed Nader Al-Dulaimy; Hannes Frey article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2735 Wed, 09 Sep 2026 08:12:24 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2725 The paper is devoted to the simulation of maritime two-phase flows of air and water. Emphasis is put on an extension of the classical Volume-of-Fluid (VoF) method by a diffusive contribution derived from a Cahn-Hilliard (CH) model and its benefits for simulating immiscible, incompressible two-phase flows. Such flows are predominantly simulated with implicit VoF schemes, which mostly employ heuristic downwind-biased approximations for the concentration transport to mimic a sharp interface. This strategy introduces a severe time step restriction and requires pseudo time-stepping of steady flows. Our overall goal is a sound description of the free-surface region that alleviates artificial time-step restrictions, supports an efficient and robust upwind-based approximation framework, and inherently includes surface tension effects when needed. The Cahn-Hilliard Navier-Stokes (CH-NS) system is verified for an analytical Couette-flow example and the bubble formation under the influence of surface tension forces. 2D validation examples are concerned with laminar standing waves reaching from gravity to capillary scale as well as a submerged hydrofoil flow. The final application refers to the 3D flow around an experimentally investigated container vessel at fixed floatation for Re = 1.4 × 10 7 and Fn = 0.26. Results are compared with data obtained from VoF approaches, supplemented by analytical solutions and measurements. The study indicates the superior efficiency, resharpening capability, and wider predictive realm of the CH-based extension for free-surface flows with a confined spatial range of interface Courant numbers. Niklas Kühl; Michael Hinze; Thomas Rung article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2725 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:29:59 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2704 Andreas Linsenmann review https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2704 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:15:16 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2700 Iwona Kocjan review https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2700 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:03:09 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2718 Falk Mörl; Michael Günther; Robert Rockenfeller article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2718 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 10:34:13 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2721 Michael Günther; Falk Mörl; Robert Rockenfeller article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2721 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:56:02 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2663 Mine Yilmazer; Eva Plath; Klaus Fischer other https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2663 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:37:13 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2672 In recent decades, severe declines in biodiversity have been observed globally, with agricultural intensification being one of the key drivers. However, the abandonment of traditional land-use practices may also negatively affect diversity. Setting aside steep-slope vineyards, driven by heavy workloads and diminishing profitability, may pose a major challenge to biodiversity conservation and related ecosystem services in Germany. Here, we compare ground-dwelling beetle taxonomic and functional diversity across four management categories: (1) conventionally managed vineyards, (2) set-aside vineyards that are now managed as grazed grasslands, (3) set-aside vineyards that are now managed as mown grasslands, and (4) vineyard fallows. Using pitfall traps, we examined 10 sites per management category along the Upper Middle Rhine Valley in southwestern Germany. We show that conventionally managed vineyards and grazed grasslands exhibited the highest species richness, taxonomic and functional diversity, while fallows showed strongly reduced values. The same applies to the ‘conservation value’ of beetle assemblages, being highest on conventionally managed vineyards and grazed grasslands but lowest on fallows. Especially open landscape and xerothermic beetle species were negatively affected by abandonment. Beetle diversity was additionally affected by landscape composition, with (semi)-natural habitats having positive effects. Thus, our findings suggest that conventionally managed vineyards can provide valuable habitats for taxonomically and functionally diverse ground beetle communities, and that grazing represents an appropriate alternative for set-aside sites. Implications for insect conservation Our results show that some sort of management is important to halt secondary succession in xerothermic landscapes to preserve landscape heterogeneity and promote ground-dwelling beetle diversity. To this end, grazing seems to be especially suitable. Mine Yilmazer; Eva Plath; Klaus Fischer article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2672 Fri, 28 Aug 2026 08:36:53 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2728 We propose a least squares formulation for abstract parabolic equations in the natural L2(0,T;V⋆)×Hnorm which only relies on natural regularity assumptions on the data of the problem. The resulting bilinear form then is symmetric, coercive, and continuous and contains the V⋆-norm. We propose a solution approach that uses a conforming Galerkin discretization of an equivalent saddle point problem to circumvent the evaluation of V⋆-norms. We prove strong convergence of discrete solutions towards continuous solutions and provide a preconditioner for efficient numerical solution of the discrete saddle point problem. We illustrate our analytical findings by selected numerical experiments. Michael Hinze; Christian Kahle; Michael Stahl article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2728 Fri, 21 Aug 2026 08:08:00 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2727 Bei Hildegard von Bingen finden sich vielfältige Aussagen zum Wesen und zum Handeln des Hl. Geistes. Die Wesensaussagen beziehen sich auf den Hl. Geist selbst sowie als dritte göttliche Person der Dreifaltigkeit. Das Handeln des Hl. Geistes umfasst sein (kontinuierliches) schöpferisches Wirken und sein Tun bezüglich der Menschen. Dieses enthält auch sein Handeln mit Blick auf die Kirche. Der vorliegende Artikel trägt Schlüsselaspekte zu den genannten Kategorien zusammen. Am Ende zieht er daraus ein Fazit, das hilfreiche Gesichtspunkte für den Glaubensinhalt sowie den Glaubensakt enthält. Für den Glaubensinhalt stellt er heraus, wie die Ausführungen Hildegards diesen in verschiedener und plastischer Weise bereichern können. Als Schlussfolgerungen für den Glaubensakt lassen sich aus diesen Darlegungen sowohl allgemeine, hilfreiche Schlüsse für das Glaubensleben ziehen als auch Konsequenzen für die kirchlichen Grundvollzüge formulieren. Sven Jast article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2727 Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:54:15 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2711 The proliferation and sharing of data in smart cities presents both unprecedented opportunities for urban innovation and substantial challenges around privacy, governance, and data ownership. To leverage the opportunities and handle the challenges, data trusts present a model for secure, privacy-preserving data sharing in urban environments. We critically review regulatory frameworks such as the European Union’s GDPR and Data Governance Act and perform a structured literature review and analysis of existing data governance and privacy-enhancing technologies that integrate usage control, advanced anonymization, and consent management to enable scalable, redacted data sharing while upholding individuals’ rights and intellectual property boundaries. Our results shed light on an emerging concept for resilient smart city data ecosystems and outline future research avenues for trustworthy urban data sharing and governance. Sankalp Biyani; Maria A. Wimmer article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2711 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 12:05:06 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2710 Die Forschung zu Smart Cities wurde bisher aus verschiedenen disziplinären Perspektiven wissenschaftlich aufgearbeitet. Getrieben durch die eingeschränkte Erkenntnisbreite sowie Transferfähigkeit dieser disziplinären Sichtweise verfolgen viele jüngere Smart-City-Forschungsansätze inter- oder sogar transdisziplinäre Forschungsansätze. Es zeigt sich dabei jedoch zunehmend, dass eine übergreifende, inter- und transdisziplinäre Strategie zur systematischen Weiterentwicklung des Forschungsfeldes Smart Cities fehlt. Daher bleiben viele Projekterfolge lokal begrenzt auf die teilnehmenden Partnerstädte und Universitäten bzw. beteiligten Disziplinen; die Möglichkeiten eines breiten Erkenntnistransfers werden nicht ausgeschöpft. Finanziert durch die VolkswagenStiftung trafen sich daher vom 4.–6. Februar 2026 28 Personen aus Wissenschaft und Praxis zu einem Scoping Workshop unter dem Titel „Smart City Science: Forschung neu denken“. Ziel des Workshops war es, gemeinsame Forschungsperspektiven und Empfehlungen für die Wissenschaftspolitik zu erarbeiten. Aufbauend auf verschiedenen interaktiven, erfahrungsbasierten und Kreativ-Workshoptechniken setzten sich die Teilnehmenden damit auseinander, ob Forschung im Kontext von Smart Cities ein eigenes Forschungsgebiet oder nur eine weitere Anwendungsdomäne ist und welche Faktoren zu erfolgreichen Smart-City-Projekten führen – sowohl bezüglich der Forschung (reproduzierbarer Erkenntnisgewinn) als auch der Stadtentwicklung (z. B. Steigerung der Lebensqualität im urbanen Kontext). Dazu wurden bekannte Forschungsprobleme interdisziplinär neu gedacht und mit Hilfe der Methode „Appreciative Inquiry“ eine Zukunftsvision für Wissenschaft, Politik und Praxis diskutiert: die Smart City Science (SCiS). Katharina Ebner; Daniela Nicklas; Marc Redepenning; Maria Wimmer article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2710 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 11:56:05 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2723 Hajo Diekmannshenke review https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2723 Tue, 18 Aug 2026 10:26:37 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2720 Ina Kerner review https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2720 Fri, 14 Aug 2026 11:20:37 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2719 In Studie 1 wurde die Validität des Fragebogens FEMOLA (Fragebogen zur Erfassung der Motivation für die Wahl des Lehramtsstudiums) durch Überprüfung der internen Struktur untersucht. Hierzu wurden anhand von Daten von N = 1467 Lehramtsstudierenden zwei in der Literatur vorgeschlagene Faktorenstrukturen verglichen, wobei sich zeigte, dass eine Lösung mit sieben Faktoren besser zu den Daten passte als die ursprünglich vorgeschlagene Lösung mit sechs Faktoren. Anschließend wurde die Messinvarianz über nach angestrebter Schulform gebildete Gruppen von Lehramtsstudierenden (Grundschule, Förderschule, Sekundarstufe I und Gymnasium) untersucht; hier konnte schwache Invarianz (gleiche Faktorladungen) festgestellt werden. In Studie 2 wurde anhand von Längsschnittdaten (N = 442) untersucht, ob pädagogisches Wissen und selbst eingeschätzte Unterrichtskompetenz bei Lehramtsstudierenden anhand der Studienwahlmotivation und Zielorientierungen (Lernziele, Annäherungs- und Vermeidungs-Leistungsziele sowie Arbeitsvermeidung) vorhergesagt werden können. Dabei wurde mittels eines Strukturgleichungsmodells u.a. die Annahme geprüft, dass die Effekte der Studienwahlmotivation durch die Zielorientierungen vermittelt werden; der Einfluss von Intelligenz wurde kontrolliert. Erwartungskonform war die Studienwahl aus intrinsischer Motivation mit einer höheren Lernzielorientierung und einer niedrigeren Tendenz zur Arbeitsvermeidung verbunden; die Studienwahl aus extrinsischer Motivation hingegen mit höheren Ausprägungen von Annäherungs- und Vermeidungs-Leistungszielen sowie einer stärkeren Tendenz zur Arbeitsvermeidung. Die durch die Zielorientierungen vermittelten Pfade von den Studienwahlmotivations-Faktoren zu den Kriterien erwiesen sich jedoch weitgehend als nicht signifikant. Beide Kriterien waren zudem nur schwach miteinander korreliert und für Intelligenz ergab sich nur mit dem pädagogischen Wissen ein signifikanter Zusammenhang. Ursachen für diese Befunde und Abweichungen von vorliegenden Studien werden diskutiert. Nikolas Leichner; Elisabeth Prestele; Svenja Matheis; Susanne Weis; Manfred Schmitt; Tanja Lischetzke article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2719 Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:55:20 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2716 Leichte Sprache (LS; easy-to-read German) defines a variety of German characterized by simplified syntactic constructions and a small vocabulary. It provides barrier-free information for a wide spectrum of people with cognitive impairments, learning difficulties, and/or a low level of literacy in the German language. The levels of difficulty of a range of syntactic constructions were systematically evaluated with LS readers as part of the recent LeiSA project (). That study identified a number of constructions that were evaluated as being easy to comprehend but which fell beyond the definition of LS. We therefore want to broaden the scope of LS to include further constructions that LS readers can easily manage and that they might find useful for putting their thoughts into words. For constructions not considered in the LeiSA study, we performed a comparative treebank study of constructions attested to in a collection of 245 LS documents from a variety of sources. Employing the treebanks TüBa-D/S (also called VERBMOBIL) and TüBa-D/Z, we compared the frequency of such constructions in those texts with their incidence in spoken and written German sources produced without the explicit goal of facilitating comprehensibility. The resulting extension is called Extended Leichte Sprache (ELS). To date, text in LS has generally been produced by authors proficient in standard German. In order to enable text production by LS readers themselves, we developed a computational linguistic system, dubbed ExtendedEasyTalk. This system supports LS readers in formulating grammatically correct and semantically coherent texts covering constructions in ELS. This paper outlines the principal components: (1) a natural-language paraphrase generator that supports fast and correct text production while taking readership-design aspects into account, and (2) explicit coherence specifications based on Rhetorical Structure Theory (RST) to express the communicative function of sentences. The system’s writing-workshop mode controls the options in (1) and (2). Mandatory questions generated by the system aim to teach the user when and how to consider audience-design concepts. Accordingly, users are trained in text production in a similar way to elementary school students, who also tend to omit audience-design cues. Importantly, we illustrate in this paper how to make the dialogues of these components intuitive and easy to use to avoid overtaxing the user. We also report the results of our evaluation of the software with different user groups. Karin Harbusch; Ina Steinmetz article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2716 Thu, 13 Aug 2026 11:45:41 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2707 Spatial ability, particularly mental rotation, has been widely studied in relation to gender differences. Ensuring equitable assessment of spatial skills is especially relevant for sustainability-related STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) domains, where early educational experiences may shape later participation patterns. This study examined gender differences using a newly developed computerised Mental Rotation Test (nMRT) measuring accuracy and response time across 28 items varying in stimulus type and difficulty. To enhance inclusivity in task design, the test included concrete objects (e.g., cars, dolls, animals) and abstract figures (cubes, pellets, polyhedra), comprising male-stereotyped, female-stereotyped, and neutral objects. Stimuli were presented in two test parts, with rotations in picture plane followed by rotations in depth. Participants were 279 German primary school children ( Mage  = 8.66 years; 134 girls, 145 boys), tested in classroom settings. Reliability analyses indicated high overall internal consistency of the nMRT ( α  = 0.86). Multivariate analyses revealed no overall gender differences in accuracy or response time ( ps  > 0.05), indicating broadly comparable performance across the full test. A small but reliable accuracy advantage for girls emerged only for picture-plane rotations of animals and letters ( ηp 2  = 0.03). Although boys demonstrated a small advantage for female-stereotyped stimuli rotated in depth, this effect did not remain statistically significant following correction for multiple comparisons. Controlling for age did not substantially alter the overall pattern of findings. Improved performance on some abstract stimuli across test parts was consistent with the effects of task familiarity. Overall, the findings suggest that gender differences in childhood mental rotation performance are sensitive to contextual and task-related factors, including stimulus content and rotation format, rather than emerging uniformly across spatial tasks. Michelle Lennon-Maslin; Vera Ruthsatz; Claudia Quaiser-Pohl article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2707 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:51:10 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2713 Erste Ordnung zur Änderung der Antidiskriminierungsrichtlinie der Universität Koblen7 periodicalpart https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2713 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:44:55 +0200 https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2708 Agricultural intensification, driven by increasing food demand, is one of the main drivers of global biodiversity loss. Pesticides, including fungicides, may increase crop yield but pose substantial threats to the environment. However, our current knowledge on the effects of fungicides on biodiversity suffers from less research interest compared to other pesticides and a neglect of insect herbivores. We here investigate the effects of a commercially available, ready-to-use difenoconazole fungicide on a non-target insect, the butterfly Pieris napi , under controlled laboratory conditions. When being fed with fungicide-treated host plants, butterfly larvae showed a strongly reduced survival (15%) compared to controls (60%). Survival in larvae treated with the fungicide plus an insecticide was only 1%. Sublethal effects of the fungicide included prolonged development and reduced adult size. Our results indicate a surprisingly high toxicity of the tested fungicide formulation on P. napi . Based on the available literature, we speculate that triazole fungicides may be in general toxic to Lepidoptera and potentially other herbivorous insects. This study contributes to the growing evidence that fungicides may well be involved in the loss of insect biodiversity in agricultural landscapes at the global scale. Klaus Fischer; Jawaria Khalid; Mine Yilmazer; Ange Raharivololoniaina article https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-uni-koblenz/frontdoor/index/index/docId/2708 Mon, 10 Aug 2026 09:15:07 +0200