Ascent into darkness: German Himalaya expeditions and the National Socialist quest for high-altitude flight

This paper, via a detailed investigation of the lives and careers of scientists Dr Hans Hartmann, Dr Ulrich Cameron Luft, and Dr Bruno Balke, explores the relationship between high-altitude physiology research conducted on several 1930s German Himalaya expeditions and the efforts of the (National Socialist) German Luftwaffe at achieving high-altitude flight.     

“What is Less or More than a Touch?” Multimedia Classics and Hypermedia Hermeneutics

Hypermedia is so diverse that it is in need of documentation, analysis, and methodology. For more than 20 years, online and offline applications of hypermedia technology have combined text, image, video, animation, and sound into a total work of art (Gesamtkunstwerk). This essay provides an insight into my research project, Multimedia Classics and Hypermedia Hermeneutics, focusing on why it is so difficult to describe and analyze hypermedia applications on cultural topics. It suggests how the functions, contents, and forms of hypermedia could be analyzed; to do so, it looks at Notzimmer, an interactive website story about a knockdown furniture construction kit designed by Jewish refugee Mauritius Ehrlich during World War II.     

The impact of context relevance during extinction learning

In two predictive-learning experiments, we investigated the role of the informational value of contexts for the formation of context-specific extinction learning. The contexts were each composed of two elements from two dimensions, A and B. In Phase 1 of each experiment, participants received acquisition training with a target cue Z in context A1B1 (the numbers assign particular values on the context dimensions). In Phase 2, participants were trained with conditional discriminations between two other cues, X and Y, for which only one of the two context dimensions was relevant. In a third phase, participants received extinction trials with cue Z in context A2B2. During a final test phase, we observed that a partial change of the extinction context disrupted extinction performance when the extinction context was changed on the dimension that had been trained as being relevant for the conditional discrimination. However, when the extinction context was changed on the irrelevant context dimension, extinction performance was not affected. Our results are consistent with the idea that relevant contexts receive more attention than do irrelevant contexts, leading to stronger context-specific processing of information learned in the former than in the latter type of contexts.     

The twin-cycle experiential learning model: reconceptualising Kolb's theory

Experiential learning styles remain popular despite criticisms about their validity, usefulness, fragmentation and poor definitions and categorisation. After examining four prominent models and building on Bergsteiner, Avery, and Neumann's suggestion of a dual cycle, this paper proposes a twin-cycle experiential learning model to overcome identified problems and integrate the experiential learning field. In the model, an initial response to a learning stimulus or intent occurs at the intersection of a concrete/active/primary learning cycle and an abstract/passive/secondary cycle. The model accommodates four classes of variables that describe six broad learning activity types (engage in, write about, observe, hear/see, read, hear), the three senses these activities predominantly engage (kinaesthetic, visual, aural), six learning modes (concrete, active, primary, abstract, passive, secondary) and four learning stages. Importantly, instead of assigning learning modes to stages of learning as Kolb does, the model assigns them to the two cycles as a whole.     

Content and Form in Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development

Abstract: R?rvik, H. 1980. Content and Form in Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research 24,105‐120. One of the fundamental premises in Kohlberg's theory of moral development is the possibility of discerning between form and content, and he maintains that his test measures aspects of form alone. The present article reports on an empirical investigation of that allegation. The results of this study indicate that this part of Kohlberg's theory lacks support in the data. Thus, when teachers study groups of pupils’ answers from the Kohlberg's test, they recognize norms that the school intentionally transmits to pupils. Grading of this norm content and of motivation for choice of norm in moral decisions shows clear relations to grading advocated in connection with Kohlberg's test on moral judgment.     

Legitimizing research, technology and innovation policies for transformative change: Combining insights from innovation systems and multi-level perspective in a comprehensive ‘failures’ framework

The recent policy debates about orientating research, technology and innovation policy towards societal challenges, rather than economic growth objectives only, call for new lines of argumentation to systematically legitimize policy interventions. While the multi-level perspective on long-term transitions has attracted quite some interest over the past years as a framework for dealing with long-term processes of transformative change, but the innovation systems approach is still the dominant perspective for devising innovation policy. Innovation systems approaches stress the importance of improving innovation capabilities of firms and the institutional settings to support them, but they are less suited for dealing with the strategic challenges of transforming systems of innovation, production and consumption, and thus with long-term challenges such as climate change or resource depletion. It is therefore suggested to consider insights from transition studies more prominently in a policy framework that is based on the innovation systems approach and the associated notion of ‘failures’. We propose a comprehensive framework that allows legitimizing and devising policies for transformative change that draws on a combination of market failures, structural system failures and transformational system failures.     

Sila-substitution — a useful strategy for drug design?

Sila-substitution (C/Si-exchange) of drugs is one of the approaches currently used in the search for new biologically active organosilicon compounds. Replacement of specific carbon atoms in drugs by silicon results in changes in chemical and physicochemical properties as well as in the structure. As a consequence, the biological properties, such as pharmacological potency and selectivity and toxicity, may be influenced. Systematic sila-substitution seems to be a useful and efficient strategy in drug design and should be regarded as a complementary tool for the development of new drugs.