Basaltic fissure eruptions, such as on Hawai'i or on Iceland, are thought to be driven by the lateral propagation of feeder dikes and graben subsidence. Associated solid earth processes, such as deformation and structural development, are well studied by means of geophysical and geodetic technologies. The eruptions themselves, lava fountaining and venting dynamics, in turn, have been much less investigated due to hazardous access, local dimension, fast processes, and resulting poor data availability. This thesis provides a detailed quantitative understanding of the shape and dynamics of lava fountains and the morphological changes at their respective eruption sites. For this purpose, I apply image processing techniques, including drones and fixed installed cameras, to the sequence of frames of video records from two well-known fissure eruptions in Hawai'i and Iceland. This way I extract the dimensions of multiple lava fountains, visible in all frames. By putting these results together and considering the acquisition times of the frames I quantify the variations in height, width and eruption velocity of the lava fountains. Then I analyse these time-series in both time and frequency domains and investigate the similarities and correlations between adjacent lava fountains. Following this procedure, I am able to link the dynamics of the individual lava fountains to physical parameters of the magma transport in the feeder dyke of the fountains. The first case study in this thesis focuses on the March 2011 Pu'u'O'o eruption, Hawai'i, where a continuous pulsating behaviour at all eight lava fountains has been observed. The lava fountains, even those from different parts of the fissure that are closely connected, show a similar frequency content and eruption behaviour. The regular pattern in the heights of lava fountain suggests a controlling process within the magma feeder system like a hydraulic connection in the underlying dyke, affecting or even controlling the pulsating behaviour. The second case study addresses the 2014-2015 Holuhraun fissure eruption, Iceland. In this case, the feeder dyke is highlighted by the surface expressions of graben-like structures and fault systems. At the eruption site, the activity decreases from a continuous line of fire of ~60 vents to a limited number of lava fountains. This can be explained by preferred upwards magma movements through vertical structures of the pre-eruptive morphology. Seismic tremors during the eruption reveal vent opening at the surface and/or pressure changes in the feeder dyke. The evolving topography of the cinder cones during the eruption interacts with the lava fountain behaviour. Local variations in the lava fountain height and width are controlled by the conduit diameter, the depth of the lava pond and the shape of the crater. Modelling of the fountain heights shows that long-term eruption behaviour is controlled mainly by pressure changes in the feeder dyke. This research consists of six chapters with four papers, including two first author and two co-author papers. It establishes a new method to analyse lava fountain dynamics by video monitoring. The comparison with the seismicity, geomorphologic and structural expressions of fissure eruptions shows a complex relationship between focussed flow through dykes, the morphology of the cinder cones, and the lava fountain dynamics at the vents of a fissure eruption.

Die Frage nach dem Zusammenhalt einer ganzen Gesellschaft ist eine der zentralen Fragen der Sozialwissenschaften und Soziologie. Seit dem Übergang in die Moderne bildet das Problem des Zusammenhalts von sich differenzierenden Gesellschaften den Gegenstand des wissen-schaftlichen und gesellschaftlichen Diskurses. In der vorliegenden Studie stellt soziale Integra-tion eine Form der gelungenen Vergesellschaftung dar, die sich in der Reproduktion von sym-bolischen und nicht-symbolischen Ressourcen artikuliert. Das Resultat dieser Reproduktion sind pluralistische Vergesellschaftungen, die, bezogen auf politische Präferenzen, konfligierende Interessen verursachen. Diese Präferenzen kommen in unterschiedlichen Formen, in ihrer Inten-sität und Wahrnehmung der politischen Partizipation zum Ausdruck. Da moderne politische Herrschaft aufgrund der rechtlichen und institutionellen Ausstattung einen bedeutsamen Einfluss auf soziale Reproduktion ausüben kann (z.B. durch Sozialpolitik), stellt direkte Beeinflus-sung politischer Entscheidungen, als Artikulation von sich aus den Konfliktlinien etablierenden, unterschiedlichen Präferenzen, das einzige legitime Mittel zwecks Umverteilung von Ressour-cen auf der Ebene des Politischen dar. Somit wird die Konnotation zwischen Integration und politischer Partizipation sichtbar. In die Gesellschaft gut integrierte Mitglieder sind aufgrund einer breiten Teilnahme an Reproduktionsprozessen in der Lage, eigene Interessen zu erkennen und durch politische Aktivitäten zum Ausdruck zu bringen. Die empirischen Befunde scheinen den Eindruck zu vermitteln, dass der demokratische Konflikt in der modernen Gesellschaft nicht mehr direkt von Klassenzugehörigkeit und Klasseninteressen geprägt wird, sondern durch den Zugang zu und die Verfügbarkeit von symbolischen und nicht-symbolischen Ressourcen geformt wird. In der Konsequenz lautet die Fragestellung der vorliegenden Arbeit, ob integrierte Gesellschaften politisch aktiver sind. Die Fragestellung der Arbeit wird mithilfe von Aggregatdaten demokratisch-verfasster politischer Systemen untersucht, die als etablierte Demokratien gelten und unterschiedlich Breite wohlfahrtstaatlichen Maßnahmen aufweisen. Die empirische Überprüfung der Hypothesen erfolgte mithilfe von bivariaten und multivariaten Regressionsanalysen. Die überprüften Hypothesen lassen sich folgend in einer Hypothese zusammenfassen: Je stärker die soziale Integration einer Gesellschaft, desto größer ist die konventionelle bzw. unkonventionelle politische Partizipation. Verallgemeinert ist die Aussage zulässig, dass soziale Integration einer Gesellschaft positive Effekte auf die Häufigkeit politischer Partizipation innerhalb dieser Gesellschaft hat. Stärker integrierte Gesellschaften sind politisch aktiver und dies unabhängig von der Form (konventionelle oder unkonventionelle) politischer Beteiligung. Dabei ist der direkte Effekt der gesamtgesellschaftlichen Integration auf die konventionellen Formen stärker als auf unkonventionellen. Diese Aussage ist nur zulässig, wenn die Elemente des Wahlsystems, wie z.B. Ver-hältniswahlrecht, und das BIP nicht berücksichtigt werden. Auf der Grundlage der Ergebnisse mit Kontrollvariablen erlauben die Daten die auf die Makroebene bezogene Aussage, dass neben einem hohen Niveau sozialer Integration auch ein durch (Mit-)Beteiligung bestimmtes Wahlsystem und ein hoher wirtschaftlicher Entwicklungsgrad begünstigend für ein hohes Niveau politischer Partizipation sind.

German football stadiums are well known for their atmosphere. It is often described as ‘electrifying,’ or ‘cracking.’ This article focuses on this atmosphere. Using a phenomenological approach, it explores how this emotionality can be understood and how geography matters while attending a match. Atmosphere in this context is conceptualized based on work by as a mood-charged space, neither object- nor subject-centered, but rather a medium of perception which cannot not exist. Based on qualitative research done in the home stadium of Hertha BSC in the German Bundesliga, this article shows that the bodily sensations experienced by spectators during a visit to the stadium are synchronized with events on the pitch and with the more or less imposing scenery. The analysis of in situ diaries reveals that spectators experience a comprehensive sense of collectivity. The study presents evidence that the occurrence of these bodily sensations is strongly connected with different aspects of spatiality. This includes sensations of constriction and expansion within the body, an awareness of one’s location within the stadium, the influence of the immediate surroundings and cognitive here/there and inside/outside distinctions.

The transmission of wildlife zoonoses to humans depends, amongst others, on complex interactions of host population ecology and pathogen dynamics within host populations. In Europe, the Puumala virus (PUUV) causes nephropathia epidemica in humans. In this study we investigated complex interrelations within the epidemic system of PUUV and its rodent host, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus). We suggest that beech fructification and bank vole abundance are both decisive factors affecting human PUUV infections. While rodent host dynamics are expected to be directly linked to human PUUV infections, beech fructification is a rather indirect predictor by serving as food source for PUUV rodent hosts. Furthermore, we examined the dependence of bank vole abundance on beech fructification. We analysed a 12-year (2001-2012) time series of the parameters: beech fructification (as food resource for the PUUV host), bank vole abundance and human incidences from 7 Federal States of Germany. For the first time, we could show the direct interrelation between these three parameters involved in human PUUV epidemics and we were able to demonstrate on a large scale that human PUUV infections are highly correlated with bank vole abundance in the present year, as well as beech fructification in the previous year. By using beech fructification and bank vole abundance as predictors in one model we significantly improved the degree of explanation of human PUUV incidence. Federal State was included as random factor because human PUUV incidence varies considerably among states. Surprisingly, the effect of rodent abundance on human PUUV infections is less strong compared to the indirect effect of beech fructification. Our findings are useful to facilitate the development of predictive models for host population dynamics and the related PUUV infection risk for humans and can be used for plant protection and human health protection purposes.

Readers differ considerably in their speed of self-paced reading. One factor known to influence fixation durations in reading is the preprocessing of words in parafoveal vision. Here we investigated whether individual differences in reading speed or the amount of information extracted from upcoming words (the preview benefit) can be explained by basic differences in extrafoveal vision-i.e., the ability to recognize peripheral letters with or without the presence of flanking letters. Forty participants were given an adaptive test to determine their eccentricity thresholds for the identification of letters presented either in isolation (extrafoveal acuity) or flanked by other letters (crowded letter recognition). In a separate eye-tracking experiment, the same participants read lists of words from left to right, while the preview of the upcoming words was manipulated with the gaze-contingent moving window technique. Relationships between dependent measures were analyzed on the observational level and with linear mixed models. We obtained highly reliable estimates both for extrafoveal letter identification (acuity and crowding) and measures of reading speed (overall reading speed, size of preview benefit). Reading speed was higher in participants with larger uncrowded windows. However, the strength of this relationship was moderate and it was only observed if other sources of variance in reading speed (e.g., the occurrence of regressive saccades) were eliminated. Moreover, the size of the preview benefit-an important factor in normal reading-was larger in participants with better extrafoveal acuity. Together, these results indicate a significant albeit moderate contribution of extrafoveal vision to individual differences in reading speed.