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Up to now, there is no equivalent to the smart city concept for rural areas. Such a concept can draw on the findings and experiences from the urban context, but must adequately take into account the characteristics and structures of rural areas. This is where the enrolment of a concept for smart countryside in this paper starts as an action-oriented framework. Through an integrative consideration of current trends and tendencies, normative debates about equality and justice as well as possibilities in various fields of action, it includes development options that become possible through digitalisation and 'smart' implementation. Their realisation should be strongly demanddriven. The concept includes also governance processes and knowledgemanagement, and the application of co-design approaches. Development potentials of digitalisation are seen beyond simple technology orientation. The concept of digitalisation presented here can contribute to a more comprehensive transformation of rural areas towards sustainability. It formulates a joint design mandate for politics, society and science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses digital neighbourhood communication in rural areas and its effects on local communal life. Therefore, survey data as well as guided interviews of residents in Metelen, county Steinfurt (Germany), are analysed. The results indicate that using digital neighbourhood platforms in rural communities intensifies contacts and further strengthens the feeling of social participation.However, digital neighbourhood contacts do not facilitate relationships concerning analogous material exchange, such as lending items. Furthermore, the analysis of the qualitative interviews shows that digital neighbourhood communication is used in the organisation of community life, presents local activities, and simplifies the organisation of local customs. All in all, those digital structures are mainly used for information purposes. Consequently, digital neighbourhood relations must be regarded when developing and organising future public services, although a functional usage is required to achieve a successful outcome. As digital contact emerges from analogous contact, occasions and infrastructure to actually ensure direct contact are inevitable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the public debate, plant protection is often reduced to the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and their possible consequences, especially for the environment. In fact, the protection of our cultivated plants is almost inherent in the system, because many of the cultivated plants have been deprived of their own defence mechanisms in the course of their cultivation in order to make them digestible for us or even edible in the first place. The instruments of sustainable plant protection consist of a multitude of options for action which, due to the progressive loss of important active substances in the future and the demands of society, are increasingly needed in their interplay to protect plants from pests, competition and diseases. In addition to low-risk or selective crop protection products and breeding efforts, technical innovations in equipment technology, forecasting, and farm and machinery management are particularly important for comprehensive crop protection. In addition to the conservation of natural resources, the focus must be on the production of safe, regional and high-quality food as well as the economic livelihood of the predominantly family-owned farms. Existing conflicting goals must be resolved in an open and consensus-oriented dialog in order to achieve social acceptance for the protection of our crops. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital learning and self-assessment tools have gained importance in medical education over the last years and are pushing back print media more and more. They enable flexible learning that is aligned with current state exams and the latest scientific findings. Embedded videos, interactive graphics and practice questions offer a more diverse learning experience than using books alone. While the commercial learning tools cover the state examinations' content well, they often lack what is additionally taught in different faculties. At the same time, the dominance of a few providers is tied to rising costs for students or to provide campus licenses. Faculties may thus offer literature and learning platforms of less variety, and an intensive and broad examination of subjects and problems is made more difficult. The promotion and nationwide availability of locally initiated non-commercial learning and examination tools can counteract this development. Electronic learning platforms enable efficient exam preparation with the presentation of exam questions. Paper-based preparatory exams have already been almost completely replaced by their electronic counterparts. Digital exams offer decisive advantages over paper-based exams, for example with the embedding of video sequences and increased feasibility of sequential questions, and should become standard not only in exam preparation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper deals with the transformation and finitude of bodies in the lifelong aging process and the social conditions that predispose them focussing on close relationships in a pandemic context. The material was generated during virtually conducted group discussions with people between the ages of 60 and 80. The virtual space formed both a boundary and a space of possibility to (re)read bodies retrospectively. The narrated »body biographies« represent negotiations of the subject in the context of the pandemic situatedness and agency. Participants reflected on the ambivalence of the restrictions imposed by regulations and lockdowns, the construction as a risk group, and the resulting perception of corporeality. The data points to the lack of physical closeness relationships and the possibilities of closeness in virtual spaces. The reflexive, intra-biographical encounters oscillate between self-assurance and transformative processes of self-formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]