Unsere Pflanzenwelt im Umbruch

In unserer Zeit jagen sich die Hiobsbotschaften über die Verarmung der Umwelt. Ist es möglich, rasch eine ausgewogene Übersicht der wirklichen Lage zu gewinnen? Für die höheren Pflanzen des Kreises Höxter östlich vom 9.Meridian seit 1976 ja! Damals erschien der "Atlas zur Flora von Südniedersachsen" von H. HAEUPLER. Er umfaßt zu 96% auch die Fläche des Kreises Höxter. Im Gegensatz zu den geschriebenen Floren, die nur bei den selteneren Arten Verbreitungsangaben bringen, arbeitet der Atlas bei allen Arten gleichmäßig flächendeckend. Das ganze Gebiet ist in Grundfelder eingeteilt, hier in Viertel der "Topographischen Karte 1: 25.000", die früher "Meßtischblatt" hieß. In jedem dieser "MTB-Quadranten" hakt mindestens ein Bearbeiter alle Pflanzenarten, die er dort findet, in einer vorgedruckten Liste an. Jede solche Feststellung erscheint in der Karte als Punkt, ältere Angaben, die nach 1945 nicht mehr bestätigt werden konnten, als Kreis

Decoupled Programs, Payment Incidence, and Factor Markets: Evidence from Market Experiments

We use laboratory market experiments to assess the impact of asymmetric knowledge of a per-unit subsidy and the effect of a decoupled annual income subsidy on factor market outcomes. Results indicate that when the subsidy is tied to the factor as a per-unit subsidy, regardless of full or asymmetric knowledge for market participants, subsidized factor buyers distribute nearly 22 percent of the subsidy to factor sellers. When the subsidy is fully decoupled from the factor, as is the case with the annual payment, payment incidence is mitigated and prices are not statistically different from the no-policy treatment.laboratory market experiments, agricultural subsidies, subsidy incidence, land market, ex ante policy analysis, Agricultural and Food Policy, Institutional and Behavioral Economics, Q18, D03, C92,

Teachers’ Beliefs Concerning Teaching Multilingual Learners: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Between the US and Germany

We analysed the beliefs about multilingualism in school of in-service teachers from the US (n = 60) and Germany (n = 65), utilising a survey originally developed in German that was translated and adapted into English. Results show that teachers from both samples, on average, strongly agree that a person’s identity is connected to their language and culture. However, we found significant differences in scale mean values between US teachers and German teachers concerning their beliefs about (1) the interconnected nature of language with culture and identity, (2) language demand in content classrooms, (3) responsibility for language teaching, and (4) valuing multilingualism. Our results provide insight into cross-cultural differences between German and US teachers’ beliefs, as well as a strong instrument in two languages to measure teachers’ beliefs about multilingualism in schools

Do big unstructured biodiversity data mean more knowledge?

Conserving species biodiversity demands decisive and effective action. Effective action requires an understanding of species population dynamics. Therefore, robust measures which track temporal changes in species populations are needed. This need, however, must be balanced against the scale at which population change is being assessed. Advances in citizen science and remote sensing technology have heralded an era of “big unstructured data” for biodiversity conservation. However, the value of big unstructured data for assessing changes in species populations, and effectively guiding conservation management has not been rigorously assessed. This can be achieved only by benchmarking big unstructured data against high-quality structured datasets, and ensuring the latter are not lost through an over-emphasis on “big data.” Here, we illustrate the current trend to disproportionately prioritize data quantity over data quality and highlight the discrepancy in global availability between both data types. We propose a research agenda to test whether this trend will result in a net decrease of useful knowledge for biodiversity conservation. We exemplify this by examining the availability of big unstructured data vs. standardized data using data from global repositories on birds as an example. We share experiences from the data collation exercise needed to develop the Australian Threatened Species Index. We argue there is an urgent need to validate and enhance the utility of big unstructured data by: (1) maintaining existing well-designed, standardized long-term species population studies; (2) strengthening data quality control, management, and curation of any type of dataset; and (3) developing purpose-specific rankings to assess data quality

Effect of Periodontal Treatment on HbA1c among Patients with Prediabetes

Evidence is limited regarding whether periodontal treatment improves hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) among people with prediabetes and periodontal disease, and it is unknown whether improvement of metabolic status persists >3 mo. In an exploratory post hoc analysis of the multicenter randomized controlled trial “Antibiotika und Parodontitis” (Antibiotics and Periodontitis)—a prospective, stratified, double-blind study—we assessed whether nonsurgical periodontal treatment with or without an adjunctive systemic antibiotic treatment affects HbA1c and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) levels among periodontitis patients with normal HbA1c (≤5.7%, n = 218), prediabetes (5.7% 1 mm in both groups. In the normal HbA1c group, HbA1c values remained unchanged at 5.0% (95% CI, 4.9% to 6.1%) during the observation period. Among periodontitis patients with prediabetes, HbA1c decreased from 5.9% (95% CI, 5.9% to 6.0%) to 5.4% (95% CI, 5.3% to 5.5%) at 15.5 mo and increased to 5.6% (95% CI, 5.4% to 5.7%) after 27.5 mo. At 27.5 mo, 46% of periodontitis patients with prediabetes had normal HbA1c levels, whereas 47.9% remained unchanged and 6.3% progressed to diabetes. Median hsCRP values were reduced in the normal HbA1c and prediabetes groups from 1.2 and 1.4 mg/L to 0.7 and 0.7 mg/L, respectively. Nonsurgical periodontal treatment may improve blood glucose values among periodontitis patients with prediabetes (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00707369)

VarFish - Collaborative and comprehensive variant analysis for diagnosis and research

VarFish is a user-friendly web application for the quality control, filtering, prioritization, analysis, and user-based annotation of panel and exome variant data for rare disease genetics. It is capable of processing variant call files with single or multiple samples. The variants are automatically annotated with population frequencies, molecular impact, and presence in databases such as ClinVar. Further, it provides support for pathogenicity scores including CADD, MutationTaster, and phenotypic similarity scores. Users can filter variants based on these annotations and presumed inheritance pattern and sort the results by these scores. Filtered variants are listed with their annotations and many useful link-outs to genome browsers, other gene/variant data portals, and external tools for variant assessment. VarFish allows user to create their own annotations including support for variant assessment following ACMG-AMP guidelines. In close collaboration with medical practitioners, VarFish was designed for variant analysis and prioritization in diagnostic and research settings as described in the software’s extensive manual. The user interface has been optimized for supporting these protocols. Users can install VarFish on their own in-house servers where it provides additional lab notebook features for collaborative analysis and allows re-analysis of cases, e.g., after update of genotype or phenotype databases