bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Curriculum Development
Authors: Wyse Dominic , Manyukhina Yana
Published: April 2024

The word curriculum refers to the planned activities and experiences that education systems organize for students to help them achieve learning goals that are usually specified at national, school, and classroom levels. Within the realm of the discipline of education, curriculum represents a distinctive field of study in which a key debate has been about the best approaches to curriculum design and delivery. Various kinds of research, such as experimental trials, qualitative research, and comparative analyses, have been employed to analyze and attempt to optimize curricula and associated pedagogies. Philosophical thinking about the purposes of education has also been central to these debates.

An important topic in curriculum study is the extent to which learner-centered approaches, which emphasize the needs and interests of individual learners while addressing broader societal aspirations for education, are appropriate. Learner-centered curricula necessitate pedagogies that allow for differentiated, personalized, and meaningful learning experiences that can accommodate learners’ prior experiences and their interests.
Multiliteracies in Teacher Education
Authors: Karkar Esperat Tala Michelle
Published: April 2024

Multiliteracies is an inclusive literacy approach that extends traditional print-based literacy (reading and writing) to integrate a wide range of modes of communication. These modes of communication include linguistic (words, text, speech), visual (images, pictures, video, color), audio (music, sounds), spatial (placement, location), gestural (movement, sensuality), and synesthesia (multimodal design). In addition to communication modes, multiliteracies integrates technologies (e.g., new literacies; digital media) in the classroom and is characterized by four pedagogical practices (situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice) and cultural and social practices. Multiliteracies in teacher education includes the understanding of nature, theory, and pedagogical practices to inform curriculum decisions to meet the needs of all students.

The concept of multiliteracies was developed as a new approach to literacy pedagogy by the New London Group in 1996. This provides a pedagogical space for learners to interact with information by using different modes of text forms to accommodate language, culture, context, and social effects to connect to the local and global world. Since the constitution of multiliteracies (1996–2024), the conversation of adopting multiliteracies as a pedagogical approach has evolved to identify the need for urgent and equitable educational change. It advocates for multilingual students’ learning experiences using modalities that support their individual learning. One way to ensure this is using tangible tools in teacher preparation, such as the pedagogical holistic model of the new literacies framework and pedagogical content knowledge of the multiliteracies survey instrument, which allow preservice teachers to continue to reflect on their teaching delivery.

Educators use multiliteracies in the classroom to engage students in learning, embrace students’ diverse cultures, and help students form their identities. Multiliteracies education can be used as a tool for the empowerment of marginalized students. It supports the development of multimodal literacy skills and enables learners to communicate their identities in authentic ways, which fosters a more inclusive and equitable society. Multiliteracies aims to promote social justice through education, inspiring learners to think critically and become active participants in understanding the world by engaging in dialogue, developing more profound understanding, and appreciating other cultures.

The use of multiliteracies is crucial in the diverse classroom. Teacher education programs must respond to the growing need by addressing the following questions: What do preservice teachers need to know about multiliteracies? Why do preservice teachers need to adopt multiliteracies? How can multiliteracies be used to prepare preservice teachers to integrate multiliteracies in multilingual classrooms?
Fostering Indigenous Educational Sovereignty in the Navajo Nation
Authors: Reyhner Jon , Martin Joseph
Published: April 2024

After a long history of U.S. government efforts to take away their independence, culture, and language, since the 1970s the Diné (aka Navajos) have been working through their elected leaders to re-establish their sovereignty and pursuit of self-determination on their terms, including decolonizing the education their children receive in schools. This process has occurred through the strengthening of their elected government, establishing an education division, and adopting educational and accreditation standards that promote the teaching of Diné government, history, and language so that Diné citizens can knowledgeably exercise their democratic rights of self-government. This is important because it has a powerful influence in schools as it defines the important elements of a school and the manner in which Navajo school community members operate. These efforts are part of a global Indigenous movement, leading the United Nations to adopt the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in 2007 and UNESCO to declare 2022–2032 the International Decade of Indigenous Languages.
Religious Liberty in American Public Higher Education
Authors: Thro William E.
Published: April 2024

A state college or university, through its administrators and, in some contexts, its faculty and students, is a constitutional actor. This statement surprises many who work in public higher education. Because students, staff, faculty members, and visitors retain their constitutional rights, those who act on behalf of public colleges and universities are constitutional actors, the paramount duty is to obey the Constitution. The constitutional obligations trump other duties under statutes, regulations, guidance documents, union agreements, internal policies, and faculty rules.

Because they are flawed human beings, university administrators are no more or no less virtuous than other governmental actors are. Like other government officials, higher education administrators may pursue their own interests at the expense of the public interests, may reward their friends and punish their enemies, and may subordinate the constitutional rights of others to their own well-intentioned policy objectives. Constitutional conflict and constitutional litigation are inevitable. Like government officials outside of academe, a public college or university’s constitutional actors must ensure their own behavior conforms to the Constitution while striving to ensure their colleagues also comply.

Although constitutional conflicts for public universities arise in many contexts, disputes involving the “first freedom” of religious liberty are quite common. Americans are a religious people and, while they differ on fundamental theological questions, there is a broad consensus around the existence of a higher power. Consequently, their government’s foundational documents explicitly acknowledge the unalienable right of religious liberty. This acknowledgment takes the form of the Establishment Clause, which prevents the government from favoring a particular faith, and the Free Exercise Clause, which prohibits government interference with religious practice.
Lothal in the History of the Indian Ocean
Authors: Ratnagar Shereen
Published: April 2024

Whether Lothal was a port is a problem, and this question is no longer seen as an inquiry only of whether it had a dock basin or how it compares with contemporary Ur. (Ur had two basins sheltering inside its perimeter wall; Lothal had none.) Since the beginning of excavation in Lothal in the 1950s, archaeology has become increasingly focused on matters other than local landscapes and seasonal rivers and whether ships could enter the basin from the Gulf of Khambhat. In the early 21st century, it can be compared the water storage reservoirs in the 1995 excavation of Harappan Dholavira with the basin at Lothal, as has been tried. Archaeologists have, besides, realized the significance of the Gulf of Kutch and its sites. Thus, world routes for ships have to be considered and, with that, the relevance of the Oman Peninsula to India, the nearest landmass and its neighbor across the sea. Perhaps the Omani seafaring tradition was as old as that in India. International archaeology has put Oman on the “Harappan trade” map, and Indian students would do well to read about its past—strange as it is in its culture from India.
The Chinese in Colonial Myanmar
Authors: Li Yi
Published: April 2024

Exchanges of people and goods between Myanmar (formerly Burma) and China have a long history spanning over a millennium. However, it was during the British colonial era in Burma (1824–1948) that substantial and consistent migration of ethnic Chinese occurred, laying the foundations of Sino-Burmese communities in present-day Myanmar. Two distinct migration routes were initially taken by Chinese immigrants: the overland route between northern Burma and Yunnan, predominantly used by southwestern Chinese since precolonial days; and the overseas route connecting the southern coast of China with port cities in Southeast Asia, including Rangoon. The latter forms part of the Nanyang Chinese network and was primarily used by immigrants from Fujian and Guangdong provinces. Over time, regional differences between different Chinese immigrant groups blurred, and Chinatowns or Chinese quarters in Rangoon, Mandalay, and other major towns across the colony emerged with distinctive Chinese characters. In colonial Burma, migrants from China constituted a smaller population, were less influential commercially and socially, and were generally less visible than their Indian counterparts. Nonetheless, they were recognized as a distinct ethnic group in the colonial state. Given colonial Burma’s geographic and administrative position, Chinese immigrants, while maintaining strong connections with other Southeast Asian Chinese communities, experienced a unique trajectory under colonial rule, navigating through internal tensions and World War II, and, alongside their multiethnic fellow residents, in British Burma, declared the independence at the beginning of 1948.
Middle Kingdom
Authors: Grajetzki Wolfram
Published: April 2024

The Middle Kingdom covers roughly the first half of the second millennium bce. It is the Middle Bronze Age. In the Eleventh Dynasty, around 2000 bce, Egypt was again united after a period of disunity. In the following early Twelfth Dynasty, Egypt was a decentralized country with many local governors in charge of the provinces. At the royal court, seven kings with the names Amenemhat and Senusret as well as the ruling queen Sobeknofru ruled the country for about two hundred years, which attests to great political stability. The kings conquered Lower Nubia, raided South Palestine, and started to replace many local, mud-brick built temples with those built in stone. Kings were buried in pyramids. Itj-tawy was founded as the new capital. Within the dynasty, further towns were built as part of an inner colonization. Part of this colonization was also the cultivation of the Fayum, a river oasis that was before not suitable for agriculture on a larger scale. Within the dynasty, there is also a visible trend of centralization that reached its peak under king Senusret III, who reduced the power of the local governors. An institution called the great enclosure organized corvée work. In the Thirteenth Dynasty, over about 150 years there were many kings who each ruled for a short time, which attests to a politically unstable period, while the administration went on without a major break. However, at the end of the period, the unity of the country felt apart. People from the Levant took over part of the Eastern Delta, while in the south, Egypt lost control of the Nubian provinces and struggled with attacks from the powerful Nubian empire of Kerma.

In terms of art and culture, the Middle Kingdom was seen by the Ancient Egyptians as their classical period. The language of the period became the classical Egyptian language. Works of literature were still read hundred years later, and the art production of this time was the model for many later periods.
Politics of Colonial Conservation in Kenya
Authors: Shanguhyia Martin S.
Published: April 2024

Colonial conservation in Africa was so controversial that it has elicited diverse interpretations from historians. In colonial Kenya, the presence of European settlers amplified the controversy due to their entrenched interests in the territory’s natural resources, particularly land. Settlers instigated colonial imposition of extra-environmental regulations that proscribed African interests and modes of production while seeking to secure their own. Politics of conservation raised the stakes and tensions over access to, use, and management of critical resources that had sustained African livelihoods in pre-colonial times, especially land, forests, wildlife, and even livestock. Colonial conservation policies and programs were premised on ensuring “efficient” use of natural resources and their “preservation” for the future generations. In reality, those policies and programs afforded the colonial state a wide latitude of control over these resources in ways that economically benefited the state and its agencies. They were also tools through which colonial authorities wielded social control over African communities. This control was enacted through ordinances or legislations to protect forests, wildlife, and land from what colonial officials perceived as “abuse” or “misuse” by African communities. Thus, ecological order, social control, and economic interests were all intertwined in the way colonial authorities in Kenya designed and executed conservation measures. African communities were not merely malleable actors in the politics of colonial conservation. Like settlers, they sought to secure their economic and social interests by ignoring or actively resisting the invasive aspects of colonial conservation. Some Africans were co-opted by the government into institutions that implemented restrictive policies. Although violence was not a widespread African response, it was an option, as evidenced in the Mau Mau Uprising during the 1950s. In spite of pushback from Africans, regimented colonial control over critical resources became institutionalized, its most permanent legacy being a transformation from communal to individual or private forms of ownership.
Slavery and the African Diaspora in Spanish America
Authors: Smith Sabrina
Published: April 2024

The European demand for African captives in Spanish America began during the conquest and settlement of the New World. This labor demand quickly became a part of the global forced movement of captive Africans. During the colonial period, from the 1500s to the mid-19th century, over 12.5 million captives arrived in the Americas from Africa, primarily West Central Africa. For Spanish America, approximately 2,072,300 people endured the transoceanic and intra-American slave trades and disembarked at Atlantic-facing ports in the mainland of this region. Many of these individuals later experienced the forced migration to the cities and sugar-producing lowlands in New Spain (Mexico) and Peru.

Following the military invasion in New Spain and Peru, African and American-born captives formed a supplementary labor force in Spanish America. Enslaved people labored in producing agricultural products, such as sugar and coffee. They also worked with indigenous populations in silver mining and urban textile mills. In Spanish American cities, captives were skilled artisans and shopkeepers, and they offered domestic services in the homes of Spanish elites.

Captives often challenged their enslavement throughout Spanish America. Some enslaved men and women challenged enslavers in the colonial courts. Other enslaved people, such as the Wolof slaves in Hispaniola, collaborated with native Taíno people to form one of the earliest slave revolts in the Americas. Many captives also saved their earnings to purchase their legal freedom, while others fled to new locations. Runaways often formed autonomous communities in the remote areas of Hispaniola, Panama, New Granada (Colombia), Peru, and New Spain. In New Granada, for instance, runaways formed palenques (autonomous slave communities) as early as the 1590s. These maroon communities were able to survive because they opposed the colonial state, developed their own system of governance, and at times, negotiated with colonial authorities.

By the early 1800s, African-descended people also formed an important part of the wars for independence and the formal abolition of slavery. In Mexico, the Dominican Republic, and Central America, the end of Spanish colonial rule and abolition were closely linked in the first three decades of the 19th century. In South America, enslaved people participated in the wars for independence. Similarly, gradual abolition in this region included abolitionist debates, Free Womb Laws, and conditional freedom for the enslaved. Cuba was the last Spanish colony to end slavery in 1886.
Witchcraft in Liberia
Authors: Ballah Henryatta L.
Published: April 2024

In Liberian cosmology, the spirit world influences and regulates all aspects of daily life, for good and evil. Liberians of various religious backgrounds—Indigenous faiths, Christianity, and Islam—believe in the supernatural abilities of witches to cause misery to and even kill their victims. Throughout Liberia’s history, most accused witches have been women and people with physical disabilities. Since the 1990s, Liberia has witnessed a surge in violence against women and children, boys and girls, accused of witchcraft. Scholars see this surge as a reaction to mass violence and socio-economic uncertainty—the country’s fourteen-year civil war, massive unemployment, state corruption, lack of adequate health care and educational infrastructure, and more. Many accused witches in this period, like in precolonial Liberia are from low socio-economic backgrounds, and they are often attacked physically and sexually, with impunity.

And yet, while Liberian national laws criminalize violence against women and children, efforts to combat witchcraft violence through legal means have been minimal and ineffective. This is partly the result of how laws and policies were conceptualized and implemented in Liberia by international organizations, such as the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL), United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), and Amnesty International, during post-civil war reconstruction of the country (2003–2010). Lack of funding and Liberians’ persistent belief in the power of witchcraft, including politicians, help to explain why little has been done to eradicate witchcraft violence against women and children.
Cartography in Colonial Africa
Authors: Braun Lindsay Frederick
Published: April 2024

Cartography, which includes maps and plans as well as the processes and contexts of their production and use, played an important role in shaping colonial encounters in Africa. The early manuscript and print maps of the limited spaces of interaction, where Europeans expressed power prior to the 19th century, tended to be broadly representative of wide areas or focused closely on key locales, usually forts or coastal settlements. Until the late 18th century most tended to be imprecise and relational, with few clear markers of dominion or signs of administrative structures, and heavily dependent on local exchanges of knowledge.

As with other European fields of scientific knowledge that intersected African spaces and places, however, cartography accelerated in importance and changed in character with the expansion of colonial rule and the emergence of modern bureaucracies from the late 19th century. Although manuscript maps never lost their importance to local administrators or their place in the collection of information, cheap lithography after about 1850 assured colonial governments a greater number of precise and elaborate representations than ever before, which created a variety of notional spaces and spatial notions for the deployment of colonial power. Into the 20th century, compilation mapping from variegated data continued to yield slowly—and incompletely—to even more precise survey-based maps that claimed to approach truly objective representational accuracy. This claim of accuracy in turn abetted a variety of new economic, social, and political schemes under colonial auspices.

Overall, the relationship between cartography and colonialism was cyclical in that mapped processes framed colonial visions of African territory and spatiality and translated these illusions into instruments of power to advance those colonial designs on people, land, and resources. A lack of consideration for spatialities beyond the idealized model of planimetric positional representation or, thematically, colonial priorities and schemas of organization may be the most consistent characteristic of mapping in colonial Africa. At the same time, this cartography continued to depend on the knowledge of African informants or assistants and, ultimately, the work of locally trained professionals through political independence, which created spaces for interpretation, opposition, and coproduction that shaped the map output. The colonial relationship and colonial priorities thus framed cartography in African spaces throughout the era, although the discursive nature of mapping and its processual nature meant influences traveled in more than one direction, and the map was not simply a direct imposition.
Donas, Nharas, and Signares: Women Slave Traders in Atlantic Africa
Authors: Jones Hilary
Published: April 2024

Donas, nharas, and signares belonged to a class of women who obtained high social and economic standing in Africa’s west and west central region from the age of the European encounter to the era of mercantile companies and transatlantic slavery. These women owned slaves consistent with the notion of “slavery” or institutions of marginality within their specific West African and West Central African societies. As women who lived in close proximity to European military and mercantile installations on the Atlantic coast, they acted as cross-cultural brokers between European merchants and officials and African elites. Whether through marriages arranged by lineage elders or by relationships of convenience between African women and European men, donas, nharas, and signares entered contractual unions with European men. From the late 16th to the early 19th centuries, these relationships originated Afro-European families and established Afro-European men and some women as a propertied class along Africa’s Atlantic coast. Infamous in the texts of traveler’s accounts written by European men and a few Afro-European men, documentation of this era of women’s influence and their role in the Atlantic commercial system largely resides in European administrative reports and population data, court records and notarized documents, and published and unpublished genealogies.
The Arctic in International Relations
Authors: Østhagen Andreas
Published: April 2024

The Arctic has risen on the international agenda, both for the eight Arctic states and for other actors external to the region. Security and geopolitical dynamics have developed and changed in the north. Nevertheless, one-liner predictions of a resource race or an imminent conflict do not capture the nuances of Arctic politics. When it comes to territorial or border disputes, none remains in the Arctic. The last territorial dispute—over Hans Island—was settled in 2022. When it comes to maritime boundary disputes, only one remains—namely, between Canada and the United States. Along these parameters, the Arctic is in fact remarkably defined and stable, in contrast to other maritime domains surrounded by states. There are still disputes in which states disagree over the interpretation of international law or how to manage the change in resource activity brought forth by climate change. Looking at the international relations of the Arctic, it also makes sense to separate three sets of political dynamics: regional (intra-Arctic) relations, global relations with an Arctic impact or relevance or both, and subregional security relations. Examining security relations as a subset of Arctic International Relations makes it particularly apparent that these primarily revolve around the Barents Sea or North Atlantic maritime domain and the Bering Sea or North Pacific maritime domain, linking to, but not encompassing all of, the Arctic.
Experimental Archaeology
Authors: Bentsen Silje Evjenth
Published: April 2024

Scientific definitions of “experimental archaeology” emphasize key words such as exploring, testing, and imitation. Archaeological data and observations are key elements in experiments, whether the researcher is testing hypotheses derived from archaeological deposits or objects, innovative approaches to documentation and excavation, or the formation of and post-depositional processess affecting the archaeological record. Experiments can be conducted in sterile laboratory settings, with strict control of variables and materials, or in actualistic settings replicating the conditions of the prehistoric settings. Laboratory and actualistic experiments are complementary, allowing testing of different aspects of hypotheses and materials, and it is often essential to explore an archaeological phenomenon through experiments in both settings. Studying fire-cracked rocks and heating of different rock types, for example, can benefit from both heating experiments in a laboratory furnace, allowing observations of temperature thresholds for thermal alterations, and an open-air fire, allowing recording of how a live fire with temperature changes and smoke affects rocks. A third type of experiment is digital, made possible through virtual models and allowing one to replicate and test multiple variables within a controlled setting.

Experimental archaeology also includes non-academic approaches to exploring the past. It contains elements educational both for the person(s) conducting the experiments and for people watching, reading, or in other ways learning about the experiment and its results. Some experiments are experiential—that is, re-enactments or performances. These re-enactments can be part of an educational program, such as demonstrating prehistoric living conditions at an open-air museum, or they may be initiated by, and important to, the experience of the re-enactors. Experiential archaeology has elements of perceived time travel and can be a recreational activity.
Archaeologists and Community Collaboration
Authors: Ryzewski Krysta
Published: April 2024

Collaborative archaeology is a practice of partnership, stewardship, and accountability involving professional archaeologists and community stakeholders who share interests in a project’s objectives and outcomes. Community stakeholders may include familial descendants, local residents, civic officials, nonprofit organizations, tribal representatives, government agencies, commercial developers, business owners, the media, students, professionals from other fields (e.g., historic preservationists, architects, environmental scientists), and any other individuals or groups who have a vested interest in the sites that archaeologists investigate and interpret. Collaborative partnerships between archaeologists and communities take many forms, from one-time consultations to long-term initiatives that involve stakeholders in all aspects of project design, data recovery, and outcomes. In the early 21st century, collaborative archaeology projects have become increasingly oriented toward political action, ethical practice, restorative justice, community welfare, and engaging social issues that extend beyond the traditional disciplinary scope of archaeology. The sheer variety of community-involved archaeology projects and their culturally specific variations across the world are impossible to convey in a single summary. Therefore, this discussion focuses on the politically engaged and action-oriented perspectives of community archaeology projects and their processes, drawing primarily from North American examples.
Philadelphia
Authors: Lombardo Timothy J.
Published: April 2024

Officially established by English Quaker William Penn in 1682, Philadelphia’s history began when indigenous peoples first settled the area near the confluence of the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers. Since European colonization, Philadelphia has grown from a major colonial-era port to an industrial manufacturing center to a postindustrial metropolis. For more than three centuries, Philadelphia’s history has been shaped by immigration, migration, industrialization, deindustrialization, ethnic and racial conflict, political partisanship, and periods of economic restructuring. The city’s long history offers a window into urban development in the United States.
Dayton, Ohio
Authors: Bednarek Janet
Published: April 2024

In 1796, twelve white settlers traveled north from the Ohio River into what became known as the Miami Valley. There, they established a small settlement on the banks of the Great Miami River, not far from where the Mad River, the Stillwater River, and Wolf Creek empty into the Great Miami. They named their new town after Jonathan Dayton, a Revolutionary War veteran, investor in land in Ohio, and the youngest signer of the US Constitution. Though the settlement grew slowly at first, once connected by canal (1829), railroad (1851), and telegraph (1847), the city began to flourish. By the time of the US Civil War, Dayton had emerged as a manufacturing city with an increasingly diverse population. Between the 1870s and 1920s, Dayton became known for products ranging from paper to potato chips, cash registers, bicycles, and refrigerators. During this time, several individuals from Dayton rose to international prominence, including poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and the inventors of the airplane, Wilbur and Orville Wright. This period also witnessed the most important event in Dayton’s history, the 1913 flood. After that, Dayton became the largest city in the United States to adopt the city manager form of city government. After World War II, Dayton, like many cities in the so-called “Rust Belt,” suffered from deindustrialization and racial tensions. Dayton’s population peaked in the 1960s and, thereafter, the city lost population in every decade through the 2020s. Deep and lasting patterns of racial segregation divided Dayton’s population between an African American West Side and the largely white East and North Dayton. Local leaders embraced urban renewal and highway construction as potential answers to the city’s challenges with, at best, mixed results. As economic and population losses continued into the 21st century, the local economy shifted from manufacturing to “eds and meds.”
Heresies, Religious Persecution, and Intolerance in Colonial Brazil
Authors: Feitler Bruno
Published: April 2024

Portuguese America, or colonial Brazil, was a world of multiple cultures and peoples, integrating Amerindians, Europeans and enslaved Africans. However, this integration was carried out under the exclusive dominion of the Portuguese, for whom religious unity within Roman Catholicism was a political necessity. This fact was not apparent in the early decades of the 16th century when they first landed in what would become Brazil; however, with the beginning of effective colonization and the presence of missionaries in the 1540s, while religious strife in Europe was in ascension, there was no doubt. Although a local Inquisition tribunal was never established, intolerance was the norm, and religious persecution of acts and beliefs deemed heretical (or associated with them) was a reality. This search for Catholic orthodoxy and exclusivism was ensured in colonial Brazil mainly by three ecclesiastic institutes or organizations: Inquisition representatives, members of the secular clergy, and missionaries (Jesuits, but also Capuchins, Carmelites, and members of other regular orders). While not all had the primary objective of persecuting heretics, they considered religious homogeneity as essential and thus struggled to uncover and punish potential Protestants or crypto-Jews. They also confronted practices and beliefs of local origin on a much more regular basis, such as the santidade of Jaguaripe and the mandinga pouches and calundus of African origin, associating them with devilish customs and calling those practices and beliefs “inventions,” “abuses,” or “errors” rather than a more theologically established “heresy.”
Ecosystem Services into Water Resource Planning and Management
Authors: Koundouri Phoebe , Alamanos Angelos , Dellis Kostas , Landis Conrad , Stratopoulou Artemis
Published: April 2024

The broad economic notion of ecosystem services (ES) refers to the benefits that humans derive, directly or indirectly, from ecosystem functions. Provisioning ES refer to human-centered benefits that can be extracted from nature (e.g., food, drinking water, timber, wood fuel, natural gas, oils, etc.), whereas regulating ES include ecosystem processes that moderate natural phenomena (pollination, decomposition, flood control, carbon storage, climate regulation, etc.). Cultural ES entail nonmaterial benefits accruing to the cultural advancement of people, such as the role of ecosystems in national and supranational cultures, recreation, and the spur of knowledge and creativity (music, art, architecture). Finally, supporting ES refer to the main natural cycles that nature needs to function, such as photosynthesis, nutrient cycling, the creation of soils, and the water cycle. Most ES either depend on or provide freshwater services, so they are linked to water resources management (WRM). The concept of ES initially had a pedagogical purpose to raise awareness on the importance of reasonable WRM; later, however, it started being measured with economic methods, and having policy implications.

The valuation of ES is an important methodology aimed at achieving environmental, economic and sustainability goals. The total economic value of ecosystems includes market values (priced) as well as nonmarket values (not explicit in any market) of different services for humanity’s benefit. The valuation of ES inherently reflects human preferences and perceptions regarding the contribution of ecosystems and their functions to the economy and society. The ES concept and associated policies have been criticized on the technical weaknesses of the valuation methods, interdisciplinary conflicts (e.g., ecological vs. economic perception of value), and ethical aspects on the limits of economics, nature’s commodification, and its policy implications.

Since valuation affects the incentives and policies aimed at conserving key ES, e.g., through payment schemes, it is important to understand the way that humans decide and develop preferences under uncertainty. Behavioral economics attempts to understand human behavior and psychology and can help to identify appropriate institutions and policies under uncertainty that enhance ecosystem services that are key to WRM.
Deficiency of β-xylosidase activity in Aspergillus luchuensis mut. kawachii IFO 4308
Authors: Zhu Enkang , Hiramatsu Kentaro , Inoue Taiga , Mori Kazuki , Tashiro Kosuke , Fujita Kiyotaka , Karashima Takefumi , Takashita Hideharu , Okutsu Kayu , Yoshizaki Yumiko , Takamine Kazunori , Tamaki Hisanori , Futagami Taiki
Published: April 2024

In this study, we investigated a deleterious mutation in the β-xylosidase gene, xylA (AkxylA), in Aspergillus luchuensis mut. kawachii IFO 4308 by constructing an AkxylA disruptant and complementation strains of AkxylA and xylA derived from A. luchuensis RIB2604 (AlxylA), which does not harbor the mutation in xylA. Only the AlxylA complementation strain exhibited significantly higher growth and substantial β-xylosidase activity in medium containing xylan, accompanied by an increase in XylA expression. This resulted in lower xylobiose and higher xylose concentrations in the mash of barley shochu. These findings suggest that the mutation in xylA affects xylose levels during the fermentation process. Because the mutation in xylA was identified not only in the genome of strain IFO 4308 but also the genomes of other industrial strains of A. luchuensis and A. luchuensis mut. kawachii, these findings enhance our understanding of the genetic factors that affect the fermentation characteristics.
Trajectory of primordial follicle depletion is accelerated in obese mice in response to 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene exposure
Authors: Rishi Jaspreet K , Timme Kelsey , White Hunter E , Kerns Karl C , Keating Aileen F
Published: April 2024

Both obesity and exposure to environmental genotoxicants, such as 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene, negatively impair female reproductive health. Hyperphagic lean KK.Cg-a/a (n = 8) and obese KK.Cg-Ay/J (n = 10) mice were exposed to corn oil as vehicle control (CT) or 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (1 mg/kg/day) for 7d intraperitoneally, followed by a recovery period. Obesity increased liver and spleen weight (P < 0.05), and 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene exposure decreased uterine weight (P < 0.05) in obese mice. Primordial follicle loss (P < 0.05) caused by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene exposure was observed in obese mice only. Primary (lean P < 0.1; obese P < 0.05) and secondary (lean P < 0.05, obese P < 0.1) follicle loss initiated by 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene exposure continued across recovery. Reduced pre-antral follicle number in lean mice (P < 0.05), regardless of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene exposure, was evident with no effect on antral follicles or corpora lutea number. Immunofluorescence staining of DNA damage marker, γH2AX, did not indicate ongoing DNA damage but TRP53 abundance was decreased in follicles (P < 0.05) of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-exposed obese mice. In contrast, increased (P < 0.05) superoxide dismutase was observed in the corpora lutea of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-exposed obese mice and reduced (P < 0.05) TRP53 abundance was noted in preantral and antral follicles of 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-exposed obese mice. This study indicates that obesity influences ovotoxicity caused by a genotoxicant, potentially involving accelerated primordial follicle activation and hampering normal follicular dynamics.
Phylogeny, chronology, and phylogeography in Australasian Hypnodendraceae
Authors: Sánchez-Ganfornina Diego , Bell Neil E
Published: April 2024

The Hypnodendrales form the sister group to all other pleurcarpous mosses in the superorder Hypnanae. Many species are closely associated with the cool temperate rainforests of Australasia, while others are widespread in higher altitude wet forests across tropical South-East Asia. Several of the Malesian entities are taxonomically ambiguous, having been variously treated as species complexes or as single very variable species.

Here we use dated phylogenies to examine the timing of diversification of major clades within the Hypnodendrales, test the hypothesis that widespread, taxonomically problematic species have diversified relatively recently in South-East Asia from within clades of southern temperate origin, and address taxonomic questions within Hypnodendron. A chronogram with broad taxonomic sampling is constructed, followed by a second dated phylogeny with dense sampling from Hypnodendron vitiense, a representative morphologically variable species found throughout Eastern Australia and South-East Asia.

The crown group Hypnodendrales are found to have originated in the mid-Cretaceous, although they share a Most Recent Common Ancestor (MRCA) with the other Hypnanae in the late Jurassic. Extant members of Hypnodendron share a MRCA ±28 Mya, a little before the start of the collision of Australia with the Sunda plate that initiated the Australasian–Malesian floristic interchange. Within H. vitiense, there is strong phylogenetic structure consistent with the diversification and isolation of populations in South-East Asia within the last 10 Mya. The New Zealand endemic H. marginatum is found to be derived from within an Australasian clade of H. vitiense, this in turn being distinct from a South-East Asian/tropical Australian H. vitiense clade. Our results suggest that the phylogeography of this prominent group of mosses closely mirrors that of the rainforest ecosystems of which they are a part.
Endothelial nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 inflammasome regulation in atherosclerosis
Authors: Guo Shuai , Wang Litao , Cao Kaixiang , Li Ziling , Song Mingchuan , Huang Shuqi , Li Zou , Wang Cailing , Chen Peiling , Wang Yong , Dai Xiaoyan , Chen Xianglin , Fu Xiaodong , Feng Du , He Jun , Huo Yuqing , Xu Yiming
Published: April 2024

Aims

The activation of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome in endothelial cells (ECs) contributes to vascular inflammation in atherosclerosis. Considering the high glycolytic rate of ECs, we delineated whether and how glycolysis determines endothelial NLRP3 inflammasome activation in atherosclerosis.

Methods and results

Our results demonstrated a significant up-regulation of 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3), a key regulator of glycolysis, in human and mouse atherosclerotic endothelium, which positively correlated with NLRP3 levels. Atherosclerotic stimuli up-regulated endothelial PFKFB3 expression via sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP2) transactivation. EC-selective haplodeficiency of Pfkfb3 in Apoe−/− mice resulted in reduced endothelial NLRP3 inflammasome activation and attenuation of atherogenesis. Mechanistic investigations revealed that PFKFB3-driven glycolysis increased the NADH content and induced oligomerization of C-terminal binding protein 1 (CtBP1), an NADH-sensitive transcriptional co-repressor. The monomer form, but not the oligomer form, of CtBP1 was found to associate with the transcriptional repressor Forkhead box P1 (FOXP1) and acted as a transrepressor of inflammasome components, including NLRP3, caspase-1, and interleukin-1β (IL-1β). Interfering with NADH-induced CtBP1 oligomerization restored its binding to FOXP1 and inhibited the glycolysis-dependent up-regulation of NLRP3, Caspase-1, and IL-1β. Additionally, EC-specific overexpression of NADH-insensitive CtBP1 alleviates atherosclerosis.

Conclusion

Our findings highlight the existence of a glycolysis-dependent NADH/CtBP/FOXP1-transrepression pathway that regulates endothelial NLRP3 inflammasome activation in atherogenesis. This pathway represents a potential target for selective PFKFB3 inhibitors or strategies aimed at disrupting CtBP1 oligomerization to modulate atherosclerosis.
nhanesA: achieving transparency and reproducibility in NHANES research
Authors: Ale Laha , Gentleman Robert , Sonmez Teresa Filshtein , Sarkar Deepayan , Endres Christopher
Published: April 2024

The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey provides comprehensive data on demographics, sociology, health and nutrition. Conducted in 2-year cycles since 1999, most of its data are publicly accessible, making it pivotal for research areas like studying social determinants of health or tracking trends in health metrics such as obesity or diabetes. Assembling the data and analyzing it presents a number of technical and analytic challenges. This paper introduces the nhanesA R package, which is designed to assist researchers in data retrieval and analysis and to enable the sharing and extension of prior research efforts. We believe that fostering community-driven activity in data reproducibility and sharing of analytic methods will greatly benefit the scientific community and propel scientific advancements.

Database URL: https://github.com/cjendres1/nhanes
Association between alcohol consumption and peripheral artery disease: two de novo prospective cohorts and a systematic review with meta-analysis
Authors: Yuan Shuai , Wu Jing , Chen Jie , Sun Yuhao , Burgess Stephen , Li Xue , Åkesson Agneta , Larsson Susanna C
Published: April 2024

Aims

The association between alcohol consumption and risk of peripheral artery disease (PAD) is inconclusive. We conducted this study to examine the association between alcohol consumption and PAD risk in two de novo cohort studies and a meta-analysis of observational studies.

Methods and results

A systematic review was conducted to identify studies on alcohol consumption in relation to PAD risk. We further used data from two cohorts of 70 116 Swedish and 405 406 British adults and performed a meta-analysis of results from previously published studies and current cohort studies. There was a U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and incident PAD risk in the Swedish and British cohorts. The meta-analysis of results of these two cohorts and previously published studies found that compared with non- or never-drinkers, the relative risk of PAD was 0.83 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.77–0.89], 0.81 (95% CI 0.74–0.90), and 0.94 (95% CI 0.83–1.07) for light, moderate, and high-to-heavy alcohol drinkers, respectively. The nonlinear meta-analysis revealed a possibly U-shaped association between alcohol consumption and PAD risk (P nonlinearity <0.001). The risk of PAD was observed to be the lowest for 2 drinks/week and to be pronounced for ≥10 drinks/week. All these associations persisted in a sensitivity meta-analysis including cohort and other types of observational studies.

Conclusion

Alcohol intake ≤2 drinks/week was associated with a reduced risk of PAD, and the risk of PAD became pronounced with intake ≥10 drinkers/week.
Interaction between phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria in Arctic fjords during the glacial melting season as revealed by eDNA metabarcoding
Authors: Han Dukki , Park Ki-Tae , Kim Haryun , Kim Tae-Hoon , Jeong Man-Ki , Nam Seung-Il
Published: April 2024

The hydrographic variability in the fjords of Svalbard significantly influences water mass properties, causing distinct patterns of microbial diversity and community composition between surface and subsurface layers. However, surveys on the phytoplankton-associated bacterial communities, pivotal to ecosystem functioning in Arctic fjords, are limited. This study investigated the interactions between phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacterial communities in Svalbard fjord waters through comprehensive eDNA metabarcoding with 16S and 18S rRNA genes. The 16S rRNA sequencing results revealed a homogenous community composition including a few dominant heterotrophic bacteria across fjord waters, whereas 18S rRNA results suggested a spatially diverse eukaryotic plankton distribution. The relative abundances of heterotrophic bacteria showed a depth-wise distribution. By contrast, the dominant phytoplankton populations exhibited variable distributions in surface waters. In the network model, the linkage of phytoplankton (Prasinophytae and Dinophyceae) to heterotrophic bacteria, particularly Actinobacteria, suggested the direct or indirect influence of bacterial contributions on the fate of phytoplankton-derived organic matter. Our prediction of the metabolic pathways for bacterial activity related to phytoplankton-derived organic matter suggested competitive advantages and symbiotic relationships between phytoplankton and heterotrophic bacteria. Our findings provide valuable insights into the response of phytoplankton-bacterial interactions to environmental changes in Arctic fjords.