Wissensgesellschaft als Herausforderung für ländlich-periphere Regionen: Beispiele aus Nordostdeutschland

Die Heuristik einer dreidimensionalen Wissensgesellschaft wird in diesem Band aufgegriffen und weiterentwickelt. Die soziale, die ökonomische und die technische Dimension der Wissensgesellschaft werden im theoretischen Teil ausdifferenziert und anhand charakteristischer Ausprägungen strukturiert, z.B. individuelle Kompetenzen, kollektive Lernprozesse, Wirtschaftsfaktor Wissen, Zentralität, Mobilität oder Einbindung in globale Institutionensysteme. Diese strukturierenden Elemente bilden die Grundlage für die Auswahl von vertiefenden Studien im ländlichen, peripher gelegenen Raum Nordostdeutschlands im Hinblick auf Wachstumskerne in Brandenburg, Gesundheitsinfrastruktur, Mobilitätsangebote und Anschluss an Kommunikationstechnologien sowie Aus- und Weiterbildung, Bildungsnetzwerke und Bildungslandschaften. Beim Vergleich von Theorie und Praxis, von heuristischem Modell und Fallstudien, ist die Auswahl der Beispiele nicht repräsentativ und deckt nicht die ganze Vielfalt und Vielschichtigkeit der Wissensgesellschaft in ländlich- peripheren Räumen ab. Erste Konturen, wie die Wissensgesellschaft in diesen Räumen zum Ausdruck kommt, welche strategischen Herausforderungen dies mit sich bringt und welchen Anteil die räumliche Planung an den anstehenden strategischen Ansätzen haben kann, zeigen sich dennoch. Der Fachkräftemangel scheint eine zentrale Ausprägung und Herausforderung der Wissensgesellschaft in der ländlichen Peripherie zu sein. Die scharfe, theoretisch begründete Trennung der Dimensionen ist in der Praxis nicht in dieser Form aufrechtzuerhalten: So sind die für die ökonomische Dimension charakteristischen Innovationen nicht ohne soziale Lernprozesse und brückenschlagende Institutionensysteme, die hier der technischen Dimension zugerechnet werden, denkbar. Letztere wiederum funktionieren nur dann tatsächlich, wenn Menschen und Wissen mobilisiert werden und damit Wissensnetzwerke entstehen. Die peripher gelegenen ländlichen Räume sind genauso wie die Metropolräume Teil der Wissensgesellschaft. Damit sind beide Raumtypen gleichermaßen Wettbewerbs- und Selektionsprozessen ausgesetzt. Aus dieser Konstellation ergeben sich für ländlich-periphere Regionen Kernherausforderungen, die sich in zwei sich ergänzenden strategischen Ansätzen manifestieren: eine mitnehmende Basisstrategie und eine flankierende Profilierungsstrategie. Der Beitrag der räumlichen Planung zur Steuerung der wissensgesellschaftlich relevanten Veränderungsprozesse beschränkt sich weitgehend auf folgende Funktionen: Sensibilisierung für räumliche Zusammenhänge, Organisation räumlichen Wandels und Umsetzungsbegleitung sowie damit verbunden Interessenausgleich der vielen unterschiedlichen Akteure einer Region.The heuristics of a three-dimensional knowledge society has been addressed and further developed in this volume. The social, economic and technical dimensions are differentiated and structured in accordance to characteristic manifestations such as individual competences, collective learning processes, knowledge as an economic factor, centrality, mobility, or integration in global institutional systems. These structuring elements provide the basis for the choice of in-depth studies in the rural, peripherally located area of northeast Germany with regard to regional growth cores in Brandenburg, health infrastructure, mobility offerings, access to communication technologies, and educational networks and educational landscapes. Regarding the comparison of theory and practice, of the heuristic model and the case studies, the choice of examples is not representative and does not cover the entire diversity and complexity of the knowledge society in rural peripheral areas. However, the case studies do provide an initial picture of how the knowledge society finds expression in these areas, the strategic challenges it brings with it, and the role that spatial planning can play in necessary strategic approaches. The shortage of skilled workers seems to be a central feature of and a challenge for the knowledge society in the rural periphery. The sharp, theoretically founded differentiation made between the dimensions cannot be sustained in this form in practice. Thus the innovations characteristic for the economic dimension are not feasible without social learning processes and bridging institutional systems, which are here regarded as part of the technical dimension. Furthermore, these processes and systems will only actually function when people and knowledge are mobilised and knowledge networks develop. The peripherally located rural areas are just as much part of the knowledge society as the metropolitan areas. Both types of area are thus similarly subject to processes of competition and selection. This constellation gives rise to key challenges for rural peripheral regions that manifest themselves in two complementary strategic approaches: a participatory basic strategy and a flanking strategy focused on profiling. The contribution of spatial planning to the processes of change related to the knowledge society is thus mainly restricted on raising awareness of spatial interrelations, organising spatial transformation and guiding implementation while ensuring the interests of the many different regional actors

Mobility in a Globalised World 2012

The term mobility has different meanings in the following science disciplines. In economics, mobility is the ability of an individual or a group to improve their economic status in relation to income and wealth within their lifetime or between generations. In information systems and computer science, mobility is used for the concept of mobile computing, in which a computer is transported by a person during normal use. By designing logistics networks, logistics creates the infrastructure for the mobility of people and goods. Electric mobility is one of today’s solutions from an engineering perspective to the problem of reducing the need for energy resources and environmental impact. Finally, for urban planning, mobility is the crunch question as to how to optimise the different needs for mobility and how to link different transportation systems. In this publication we have collected the ideas of practitioners, researchers, and government officials about the different modes of mobility in a globalised world, focusing on both domestic and international issues

Subpopulation-Specific Metabolic Pathway Usage in Mixed Cultures as Revealed by Reporter Protein-Based 13C Analysis▿

Most large-scale biological processes, like global element cycling or decomposition of organic matter, are mediated by microbial consortia. Commonly, the different species in such consortia exhibit mutual metabolic dependencies that include the exchange of nutrients. Despite the global importance, surprisingly little is known about the metabolic interplay between species in particular subpopulations. To gain insight into the intracellular fluxes of subpopulations and their interplay within such mixed cultures, we developed here a 13C flux analysis approach based on affinity purification of the recombinant fusion glutathione S-transferase (GST) and green fluorescent protein (GFP) as a reporter protein. Instead of detecting the 13C labeling patterns in the typically used amino acids from the total cellular protein, our method detects these 13C patterns in amino acids from the reporter protein that has been expressed in only one species of the consortium. As a proof of principle, we validated our approach by mixed-culture experiments of an Escherichia coli wild type with two metabolic mutants. The reporter method quantitatively resolved the expected mutant-specific metabolic phenotypes down to subpopulation fractions of about 1%

A Sulfur Oxygenase from the Haloalkaliphilic Bacterium Thioalkalivibrio paradoxus with atypically low Reductase Activity.

Sequence comparisons showed that the sulfur oxygenase reductase (SOR) of the haloalkaliphilic bacterium Thioalkalivibrio paradoxus Arh 1 (TpSOR) is branching deeply within dendrograms of these proteins (29-34% identity). A synthetic gene encoding the TpSOR expressed in E. coli resulted in a protein of 14.7±0.9 nm in diameter and an apparent molecular mass of 556 kDa. Sulfite and thiosulfate were formed from elemental sulfur in a temperature range of 10-98°C (Topt≈80°C) and a pH range of 6-11.5 (pHopt≈9; 308±78 U/mg protein). Sulfide formation had a maximum specific activity of 0.03 U/mg, or less than 1% of the corresponding activity of other SORs. Hence, reductase activity seems not to be an integral part of the reaction mechanism. The TpSOR was most active at NaCl or glycine betaine concentrations of 0-1 M although 0.2% of the maximal activity was detected even at 5 M NaCl and 4 M betaine. The melting point of the TpSOR was close to 80°C, when monitored by CD spectroscopy or differential scanning fluorimetry, however denaturation kinetics were slow: 55% of the residual activity remained after 25 min incubation at 80°C. Site-directed mutagenesis showed that the active-site residue Cys44 is essential for activity whereas alanine mutants of the two other conserved cysteines retained about 0.5% residual activity. A model of the sulfur metabolism in T. paradoxus is discussed. IMPORTANCE Sulfur oxygenase reductases (SORs) are the only enzymes catalyzing an oxygen-dependent disproportionation of elemental sulfur and/or polysulfides to sulfite, thiosulfate and hydrogen sulfide. SORs are known from mesophilic and extremophilic Archaea and Bacteria. All SORs seem to form highly thermostable 24-subunit hollow spheres. They carry a low-potential mononuclear non-heme iron in the active site and an indispensable cysteine, however, their exact reaction mechanisms are unknown. Typically, the reductase activity of SORs is in the range of 5-50% of the oxygenase activity but mutagenesis studies had so far failed to identify residues crucial for the reductase reaction. Here we describe the first SOR, which is almost devoid of the reductase reaction and which comes from a haloalkaliphilic bacterium