Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human-related processes drive the richness of exotic birds in Europe

Both human-related and natural factors can affect the establishment and distribution of exotic species. Understanding the relative role of the different factors has important scientific and applied implications. Here, we examined the relative effect of human-related and natural factors in determining the richness of exotic bird species established across Europe. Using hierarchical partitioning, which controls for covariation among factors, we show that the most important factor is the human-related community-level propagule pressure (the number of exotic species introduced), which is often not included in invasion studies due to the lack of information for this early stage in the invasion process. Another, though less important, factor was the human footprint (an index that includes human population size, land use and infrastructure). Biotic and abiotic factors of the environment were of minor importance in shaping the number of established birds when tested at a European extent using 50×50 km2 grid squares. We provide, to our knowledge, the first map of the distribution of exotic bird richness in Europe. The richest hotspot of established exotic birds is located in southeastern England, followed by areas in Belgium and The Netherlands. Community-level propagule pressure remains the major factor shaping the distribution of exotic birds also when tested for the UK separately. Thus, studies examining the patterns of establishment should aim at collecting the crucial and hard-to-find information on community-level propagule pressure or develop reliable surrogates for estimating this factor. Allowing future introductions of exotic birds into Europe should be reconsidered carefully, as the number of introduced species is basically the main factor that determines the number established.
P-113d, an Antimicrobial Peptide Active againstPseudomonas aeruginosa, Retains Activity in the Presence of Sputum from Cystic Fibrosis Patients

ABSTRACT Antimicrobial peptides are a source of novel agents that could be useful for treatment of the chronic lung infections that afflict cystic fibrosis (CF) patients. Efficacy depends on antimicrobial activity against the major pathogens of CF patients, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Haemophilus influenzae, in the environment of the CF patient's airway. We describe the in vitro efficacies of derivatives of histatins, which are histidine-rich peptides produced by the salivary glands of humans and higher primates. P-113, a peptide containing 12 of the 24 amino acid residues of the parent molecule, histatin 5, retained full antibacterial activity and had a good spectrum of activity in vitro against the prominent pathogens of CF patients. However, P-113 was not active in the presence of purulent sputum from CF patients. In contrast, P-113d, the mirror-image peptide with the amino acid residues in the d configuration, was stable in sputum, was as active as P-113 against pathogens of CF patients in the absence of sputum and retained significant activity in the presence of sputum from CF patients. Recombinant human DNase, which effectively liquefies sputum, enhanced the activity of P-113d in undiluted sputum against both exogenous (added) bacteria and endogenous bacteria. Because of its properties, P-113d shows potential as an inhalant in chronic suppressive therapy for CF patients.
English secondary students’ thinking about the status of scientific theories: consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world – or just ‘an idea someone has’

Teaching about the nature of science (NOS) is seen as a priority for science education in many national contexts. The present paper focuses on one central issue in learning about NOS: understanding the nature and status of scientific theories. A key challenge in teaching about NOS is to persuade students that scientific knowledge is generally robust and reliable, yet also in principle always open to challenge and modification. Theories play a central role, as they are a form of conjectural knowledge that over time may be abandoned, replaced, modified, yet sometimes become well established as current best scientific understanding. The present paper reports on findings from interviews with 13–14 year olds in England where target knowledge presents theories as ‘consistent, comprehensive, coherent and extensively evidenced explanations of aspects of the natural world’. Student thinking reflected a two-tier typology of scientific knowledge in which largely unsupported imaginative ideas (‘theories’) became transformed into fairly definitive knowledge (such as laws) through relatively straightforward testing. These results are considered in relation to research into intellectual development which indicates that effective teaching in this area requires careful scaffolding of student learning, but has potential to contribute to supporting intellectual development across the curriculum.
Addressing ecology and sustainability in mega-sporting events: The 2006 football World Cup in Germany

Abstract For the first time in the history of FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the football (soccer) World Cup held in Germany 2006 specifically addressed environmental concerns. By doing so, the German Organizing Committee did not have the objective of creating a short-term vision, but rather of making a long-term and lasting contribution to the improvement of environmental protection in hosting a mega-sporting event. By taking the football world cup in Germany as a case study, we will provide insights into the so-called ‘Green Goal’ programme and its four main areas: water, waste, energy, and transportation. From a global point of view, climate protection was added by the Organizing Committee as the fifth area of action and was recognised as a cross-sectorial task. Finally, questions are addressed on how to apply those measurements in the planning and organisation of other mega (-sporting) events.
Anti-TNF Agents as Therapeutic Choice in Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Diseases: Focus on Adalimumab

The complex pathogenesis of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) has been extensively investigated and dysregulation of cytokines, such as tumour necrosis factor (TNF), has been shown to play a dominant role in the pathogenesis of various IMIDs, such as rheumatoid arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis. The subsequent development of biological agents capable of blocking TNF has led to important advances in the pharmacotherapy of such diseases and confirmed the concept of a common pathophysiology among IMIDs with TNF having a predominant role. Five TNF inhibitors have currently been approved for treatment of one or more IMIDs; these include infliximab, etanercept, adalimumab, golimumab and certolizumab pegol. Given the similarities in the pathogenic background of IMIDs, one could expect that anti-TNF agents be similarly effective and with comparable tolerability profiles; however, this may not be the case. Structural and pharmacological differences among the anti-TNF drugs are likely to result in differences in efficacy and tolerability among the agents in the different IMIDs, together with differences in potency, therapeutic dose ranges, dosing regimens, administration routes, and propensity for immunogenicity. Among the five TNF inhibitors approved for treatment of IMIDs, adalimumab has the widest range of indications. Data from controlled clinical trials of adalimumab, showing its excellent efficacy and tolerability in a wide range of indications, are supported by real-world long-term data from observational studies, which confirm the value of adalimumab as a suitable choice in the management of IMIDs.
Rewriting Modulo SMT

Combining symbolic techniques such as: (i) SMT solving, (ii) rewriting modulo theories, and (iii) model checking can enable the analysis of infinite-state systems outside the scope of each such technique. This paper proposes rewriting modulo SMT as a new technique combining the powers of (i)-(iii) and ideally suited to model and analyze infinite-state open systems; that is, systems that interact with a non-deterministic environment. Such systems exhibit both internal non-determinism due to the system, and external non-determinism due to the environment. They are not amenable to finite-state model checking analysis because they typically are infinite-state. By being reducible to standard rewriting using reflective techniques, rewriting modulo SMT can both naturally model and analyze open systems without requiring any changes to rewriting-based reachability analysis techniques for closed systems. This is illustrated by the analysis of a real-time system beyond the scope of timed automata methods.
Double Wavelength and Different Frequency Based Pulse Wave Testing Using Photoelectric Sensor

People pay more and more attention to health in modern society, and diagnosis without harm plays most essential role in medical area. The pulse wave signal reflects a lot of important information of human body, including rich pathology and physiology information. Contrary to conventional ways, the circuit's accuracy increases a lot and it supports collecting more than one blood information in one time, by using light in separate wavelengths to enter human tissue. Using the photoelectric sensor, this paper presents a new and efficient way to get accuracy and useful information about pulse wave. In normal light condition, the proposed method can generate clear wave for later medical processing. The result shows facility of access and practicability.
Battlefield tours and staff rides: a useful learning experience?

A key component of current British military education is the battlefield tour and staff ride. These tours allow students to visit the location of military events, most commonly the battlefields of the First and Second World Wars in northern Europe, to facilitate their understanding of military history and draw contemporary parallels from the events concerned. While these tours are commonly hailed as excellent opportunities for learning, there has been a lack of critical discussion on the learning and teaching implications of these exercises. This article aims to provide a review of the available literature on the pedagogical value of battlefield tours and staff rides and to bring them within a theoretical learning context. It will then present some conclusions on the ways in which learning outcomes from battlefield tours and staff rides can be improved.
Newcomer pupils in Northern Ireland: a pastoral perspective

Rapid changes in Northern Ireland’s demographic, resulting in an increasingly multicultural and multilingual school population, are presenting new opportunities and challenges for schools in a region emerging from a troubled recent past. Reflecting on this from a pastoral perspective, this article focuses on the relationships between the school and the family, the teacher and the child, and finally the child and their peers. The conclusion is reached that, although schools have made remarkable progress in adapting their practice in order to offer a high-quality learning experience for all pupils, the pastoral needs of newcomer pupils, their families and their teachers should not be overlooked.
Children's and Adults' Knowledge about What Variables Affect Selective Attention.

MILLER, PATRICIA H. , and Wmass, MICHAEL C. Children's and Adults' Knowledge about What Variables Affect Selective Attention. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1982, 53, 543-549. The purpose of this research was to examine developmental changes in the knowledge about what variables affect performance on the incidental learning task. In the typical incidental learning task, subjects are told to remember 1 category of objects (e.g., animals) when other objects not to be remembered (e.g., household objects) are present. Kindergartners, second graders, fifth graders, and college students indicated on a rating scale how many animals a hypothetical person would remember under easy and difficult levels of each variable. The 11 variables examined were person, task, and strategy variables known to affect recall. Most of the increase in understanding came between kindergarten, when 4 of the 11 variables were understood, and second grade, when 9 variables were understood. In general, understanding of external variables (task variables) developed later than understanding of internal variables (person or strategy variables). This finding was discussed in the framework of social attribution theory.
On the Knowledge of Politics and the Politics of Knowledge: How a Social Representations Approach Helps Us Rethink the Subject of Political Psychology

Fifty years ago, Serge Moscovici first outlined a theory of social representations. In this article, we attempt to discuss and to contextualize research that has been inspired by this original impetus from the particular angle of its relevance to political psychology. We argue that four defining components of social representations need to be taken into account, and that these elements need to be articulated with insights from the social identity tradition about the centrality of self and group constructions in order to develop original insights into political psychological phenomena. First, social representations are shared knowledge, and the way interpretations of the world are collectively elaborated is critical to the way people are able to act within the world. Second, social representations are meta-knowledge, which implies that what people assume relevant others know, think, or value is part of their own interpretative grid, and that collective behavior can often be influenced more powerfully at the level of meta-representations than of intimate beliefs. Third, social representations are enacted communication, which means that social influence is exerted by the factors that constrain social practices as much as by the discourse that interprets these practices. Fourth, social representations are world-making assumptions: collective understandings do not only reflect existing realities but often bring social reality into being. Put together, these four components provide a distinctive theoretical perspective on power, resistance and conflict. The added conceptual value of this perspective is illustrated by showing how it allows revisiting ethnic conflict in the former Yugoslavia. We conclude with implications for research practices and discuss how the proposed model of social representations invites us to define new priorities and challenges for the methods used to study political psychological phenomena.
The Centre–Periphery Model and Cross-National Educational Transfer: The influence of the US on teaching reform in China's universities

This article examines the center–periphery concept by focusing on the impact of educational transfer from the US to China on teaching reform in China's higher education institutions from the early 1980s to the present. As the scale and scope of the Sino–US exchange expanded, the impact on China deepened. This was especially evident in the transformation of teaching ideas, curricula, teaching methods, and administrative systems. Chinese scholars returning from the US bring with them not only knowledge but also American academic models. While the American experience was one of the most important forces advancing teaching reform in China's higher education institutions, it primarily existed as a kind of external cause rather than a fundamental impetus. This article shows that peripheral countries, even gigantic peripheral ones, should only import educational experiences from the central countries selectively, and not copy those models blindly.
Rhizobial and Actinorhizal Symbioses: What Are the Shared Features?

In endophytic symbioses, microorganisms live intercellularly or intracellularly inside a plant, in a mutually beneficial rela? tionship. The host plant (the macrosymbiont) usually supplies the endophyte (the microsymbiont) with photosynthates, whereas the benefit of these associations for the plant is an improvement in access to important mineral nutrients whose supply would otherwise be growth limiting. With the exception of cyanobacterial symbioses, in most endophytic symbioses involving higher plants, microorganisms colonize the plant root (reviewed in Quispel, 1992). In mycorrhizal sym? bioses, the fungus improves the absorption of minerals, particularly phosphorus, by the roots (Read et al., 1992; Harrison and van Buuren, 1995; see also Gianinazzi-Pearson, 1996, in this issue). In root nodule symbioses involving eubacteria of the family Rhizobiaceae or actinomycetes of the genus Frankia, the microsymbiont supplies the plant host with am? monium, the product of biological nitrogen fixation. To provide an ecological niche for the endophyte, the mac? rosymbiont has to undergo symbiosis-specific differentiation. In nitrogen-fixing root nodule symbioses, the microsymbionts are hosted in special organs, the root nodules, which develop on roots upon infection by the microsymbiont (reviewed in Benson and Silvester, 1993; Mylona et al., 1995). In root sym? bioses with fungi, plant differentiation is less dramatic. In ectomycorrhizal symbioses, for example, the fungus somewhat alters root growth, triggering the formation of short thick infected roots (Martin and Hilbert, 1991), whereas in endomycorrhizal symbioses, the plant root structure is altered at the cellular level but not macroscopically (Koide, 1991; Gianinazzi-Pearson, 1996, in this issue). In this review, we discuss the recent progress in research on endophytic symbioses involving plant roots. Special attention is given to nitrogen-fixing symbiotic interactions, and we summarize our current knowledge of nodule formation and function. The last part of this review focuses on the develop? ment of model systems and the relationships between different endophytic symbioses involving plant roots.
Corporate planning, forecasting, and the long wave

The author describes how his two decades of experience in corporate planning and three in professional journal editing suggest a correlation of technological innovation clusters, corporate planning and technological forecasting with the well-known 50 to 60 year-long wave cycles, i.e., the knowledge consolidation associated with the upswing phase and the creative destruction/knowledge innovation corresponding to the downswing phase of the 4/sup th/ long wave.
Effect of prehabilitation in gastro-oesophageal adenocarcinoma: study protocol of a multicentric, randomised, control trial—the PREHAB study

Introduction Perioperative chemotherapy is the gold standard treatment of the resectable gastro-oesophageal adenocarcinoma. However, 70% of patients cannot receive the complete sequence because of a postoperative complication or a decrease in functional and nutritional reserves. Recently, a new concept appeared in digestive surgery: prehabilitation. This interventional process consists of patient preparation, between surgical consultation and surgery, and is based on 3 components: (1) physical management, (2) nutritional care and (3) psychological care. Prehabilitation should decrease postoperative complications and improve nutritional and physical status during the preoperative and postoperative periods. Therefore, it is becoming essential to evaluate the effect of prehabilitation, compared to conventional care, on the percentage of patients reaching the complete oncological treatment. Methods and analysis The PREHAB trial aimed to evaluate the efficacy of prehabilitation compared to conventional care, in patients with gastro-oesophageal cancer with perioperative chemotherapy. This trial is a prospective, randomised, controlled, open-blind and interventional study in 4 centres. Patients (n=60 per group) will be randomly assigned for management with either prehabilitation or conventional care. The primary outcome is the percentage of patients reaching the complete oncological treatment decided in a multidisciplinary tumour board. The secondary outcomes are the postoperative morbidity, disease-free survival, overall survival, feasibility of the protocol, length of stay, variation of the functional reserve after the preoperative chemotherapy (defined by the VO2peak, ventilatory threshold and 6-min walk test), preoperative and postoperative nutritional status, preoperative anxiety, quality of life, 30-day and 90-day mortality and cumulative dose of cytotoxic treatment received. Ethics and dissemination The study was approved by an independent medical ethics committee (IRB00008526, CPP Sud-Est VI, Clermont-Ferrand, France) and by the competent French authority (ANSM, Saint Denis, France) and registered on Clinicaltrial.gov. The results will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed journal. Trial registration number NCT02780921.
ARCH Spherical mapping of a perforated-wall model

This essay discusses the general problem in visibility analysis of mapping a building envelope, i. e. , the physical membrane separating a building’s interior from its exterior, onto a hollow sphere. A digital model of the building envelope is constructed as a perforated-wall model and a constructive method is introduced to produce a spherical map of the model. The construction of spherical maps provides a means of comparison between buildings and environments, and between vantage points within buildings. Possible future approaches are suggested here, including the superimposition of one spherical map onto another to test for similarities and differences. The Alcuin Library at St. John’s University in rural Minnesota (USA), designed by architect Marcel Breuer, is used as a test case for the ideas introduced in this paper.
The Chart Essay: A Strategy for Communicating Research Findings to Policymakers and Practitioners

The greatest impact of research stems from clearly communicating research findings to policymakers and practitioners. Chart essays are an effective communication technique for this purpose. They (a) link specific research questions to real policy decisions and practical applications and (b) arrange the answer to each question in a chart that highlights actual research data gathered in the field. A study on extracurricular activities is used to illustrate how this technique translates the methods-oriented report into a form that can be readily understood and implemented by practitioners and policymakers.
Influence of Social Support, Self-Efficacy, and Personality on the General Health of Retirees in Lagos, Nigeria

The influence of social-support, self-efficacy, and personality on the general-health of retirees in Lagos, Nigeria was investigated. Retirees (N = 475) attending a monthly pensioners' program participated. A MANOVA revealed significant influence of social-support on two dimensions of general-health status: social dysfunction (F(1) = 12.009) p = <. 05) and depression (F(1) = 13.119, p = <. 05). Self-efficacy significantly influenced somatic symptoms (F(1) = 60.943, p = <. 05) and depression, (F(1) = 53.255, p = <. 05). Personality influenced the four dimensions of general-health status. The need for improved self-efficacy, social-support, and stability of personality among retirees was suggested.