Reflective Mediation: Toward a Sociocultural Conception of Situated Reflection

The objective of the article is to contribute to the development of a sociocultural conception of situated reflection that can be used in empirical studies of reflection, and that can be utilised in development of educational practices. Based on a development of the concept of 'reflective mediation', a conception of reflection is developed from a situated understanding of learning processes. Taking a situated approach, the concept of reflective mediation describes how to understand reflection as an integral part of the immediate activities of the individual. A theoretical framework is developed for empirical studies on reflective activities of higher education students. The framework can be utilised by teachers to develop teaching methods in support of reflection in student learning. The concept of reflective mediation is developed from a combination of pragmatism and cultural historical activity theory, and it covers seven categories of learning and reflection processes. The article makes a distinction between three forms of mediation, two forms of empirical reflection, and two forms of theoretical reflection. The article concludes in a discussion of the implications of the theoretical framework for educational research and for teaching practices within higher education. The article is frontline in the sense that it aims at developing a theoretical conception of situated reflection by combining cultural historical activity theory with pragmatism and theories of situated learning. The novelty of the article is to consider levels of human activity as levels of reflection and to introduce the distinction between theoretical and empirical reflection. Further, the article provides arguments that awareness of objects and instruments of human activity forms the basis of reflective processes. Finally, the article explains how reflection can connect levels of human activity and learning

THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA IN RAINBOW TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS) IS INFLUENCED BY DIET TYPE AND YERSINIA RUCKERI CHALLENGE

In recent years it has become more and more evident that the bacterial flora in the gut of warm-blooded animals modulates physiological processes and the immunological status of the host. Besides effects on growth parameters, commensal intestinal bacteria balance the immune system and prevent colonization of pathogenic bacteria. The question is if the gut microbiota is also important in lower vertebrates such as fish? Is the microbiota related to the diet type and does it play a protective role in connection to pathogenic challenge? To examine these questions rainbow trout fry were fed two different diets of either a marine or vegetable origin from first feeding and onwards. At a size of about four gram the fish were bath challenged by Yersinia ruckeri serotype O1 and intestines were then sampled 5 days post challenge for subsequent metagenomic examination. Next-generation sequencing was applied for the metagenomic studies using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. The results showed two distinctly different microbial patterns in the intestines dependent on the diet type. Fish fed a marine based diet overall had a significantly higher amount of the class β-proteobacteria, while the amount of reads belonging to phylum Firmicutes were significantly higher in the intestines of vegetable fed fish. The genera within phylum Firmicutes present in significantly higher amounts in vegetable fed fish were Weissella, Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. Genus Aeromonas from the γ-proteobacteria class was also present in significantly higher amounts in the vegetable fed fish. When challenged with Yersinia ruckeri, fish with a high amount of sequence reads belonging to genus Yersinia had a significantly lower amount of reads from the order Burkholderiales relative to non-infected control fish and fish with a low amount of Yersinia specific sequences. Further, these infected fish further clustered separately when analyzing the bacterial community on a PCA plot. The immunological examinations using RT-qPCR showed similar constitutive expression between the two diet groups, but the response differed between the two diet groups in challenged fish. Here, the general pattern was a pro-inflammatory response in the intestine of marine fed fish challenged with Yersinia ruckeri relative to non-infected control fish, while several immune genes were down-regulated in vegetable fed fish relative to non-infected control fish. Overall, the results indicate that the gut microbiota in rainbow trout is highly plastic according to the type of diet and does further seem to be involved in the immunological response in connection to pathogenic challenge

Is the intestinal microbiota in rainbow trout influenced by diet type and challenge by Yersinia ruckeri?

In recent years it has become more and more evident that the bacterial flora in the gut of warm-blooded animals modulates physiological processes and the immunological status of the host. Besides effects on growth parameters, commensal intestinal bacteria balance the immune system and prevent colonization of pathogenic bacteria. The question is if the gut microbiota is also important in lower vertebrates such as fish? And does it play a role in connection to pathogenic challenge? To examine these questions rainbow trout fry were fed two different diets of either a marine or vegetable origin directly after first feeding. At a size of about four gram the fish were bath challenged by Yersinia ruckeri and intestines were then sampled 5 and 18 days post challenge for subsequent metagenomic and immunological examinations. Next-generation sequencing was applied for the metagenomic studies using the Illumina HiSeq platform. The results clearly showed two different microbial patterns in the intestines dependent on the diet type. Control fish fed a marine based diet overall had a higher amount of proteobacteria, while high amount of reads belonging to phylum Firmicutes dominated in the intestines of vegetable fed fish. Several genera within the order Lactobacillales belonged to the many reads from Firmicutes. In challenged fish with a high load of reads from genus Yersinia there was a significantly lower amount of reads from the order Burkholderiales. Further, these fish further clustered separately when analyzing the bacterial community on a PCA plot. The immunological examinations using RT-qPCR showed no different expression patterns between the diet groups in control fish, but the response was very different in connection to challenge. Here, the general pattern was a pro-inflammatory response in the intestine of marine fed fish challenged with Yersinia ruckeri, while several immune genes were down-regulated in vegetable fed fish. Overall, the results indicate that the gut microbiota in rainbow trout is highly plastic according to the type of diet and does further seem to be involved in the immunological response in connection to pathogenic challenge

DIET TYPE AND CHALLENGE BY YERSINIA RUCKERI INFLUENCE THE INTESTINAL MICROBIOTA IN RAINBOW TROUT (ONCORHYNCHUS MYKISS)

In warm-blooded animals such as humans and pigs the intestinal microbial composition is dependent on the type of ingested diet. It is known that it also influences the immune system and prevent colonization of pathogenic bacteria. The question is if the gut microbiota has the same impact in lower vertebrates such as fish? To examine this rainbow trout fry were fed two different diets of either a marine or vegetable origin. At a size of about four gram a subset of the fish was bath challenged by Yersinia ruckeri serotype O1 and intestines were then sampled 5 days post challenge from challenged fish (n = 40) and non-challenged control fish (n = 40). Subsequent metagenomic examination based on the 16S rDNA gene was then performed using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform. Obtained sequences were paired, sorted, filtered, checked for chimeras and finally mapped against the Greengene database using the open-source package Bion-meta. Analysis of the microbial communities when then made for the non-infected control fish and Yersinia ruckeri challenged fish. For the non-infected control fish, the results showed two distinctly different microbial patterns in the intestines dependent on the administered diet type. Fish fed a marine based diet overall had a significantly higher amount of the class β-proteobacteria, while phylum Firmicutes was significantly higher abundant in the intestines of vegetable fed fish. The genera within phylum Firmicutes present in significantly higher amounts in vegetable fed fish were Weissella, Leuconostoc and Streptococcus. Genus Aeromonas from the γ-proteobacteria class was also present in significantly higher amounts in the vegetable fed fish. The microbial community was different in the fish that were challenged by Yersinia ruckeri. Challenged fish clustered into two groups according to the load of Yersinia ruckeri specific reads in their intestine; the main part of challenged fish (n = 34) had a low amount of Yersinia specific reads (≤ 1.2 % of total amount of reads), while a minor group (n = 6) had a high load ranging between 13.9 and 23.2 % of all reads. These ‘high Yersinia level’ fish had a significantly lower amount of reads from the order Burkholderiales relative to the ‘low Yersinia level’ fish and non-infected control fish. Further, the ‘high Yersinia level’ fish further clustered separately when analyzing the bacterial community on a PCA plot. The immunological examinations were performed by RT-qPCR in order to measure the expression of selected immune genes. The results showed a similar expression pattern between the two diet groups of non-infected fish, but the response differed between the two diet groups in challenged fish. Overall, the results indicate that the gut microbiota in rainbow trout, like in warm-blooded animals, is highly plastic according to the type of diet and does also seem to be involved in the immunological response in connection to pathogenic challenge

Specialization in Plant-Hummingbird Networks Is Associated with Species Richness, Contemporary Precipitation and Quaternary Climate-Change Velocity

Bo Dalsgaard et al...Large-scale geographical patterns of biotic specialization and the underlying drivers are poorly understood, but it is widely believed that climate plays an important role in determining specialization. As climate-driven range dynamics should diminish local adaptations and favor generalization, one hypothesis is that contemporary biotic specialization is determined by the degree of past climatic instability, primarily Quaternary climate-change velocity. Other prominent hypotheses predict that either contemporary climate or species richness affect biotic specialization. To gain insight into geographical patterns of contemporary biotic specialization and its drivers, we use network analysis to determine the degree of specialization in plant-hummingbird mutualistic networks sampled at 31 localities, spanning a wide range of climate regimes across the Americas. We found greater biotic specialization at lower latitudes, with latitude explaining 20–22% of the spatial variation in plant-hummingbird specialization. Potential drivers of specialization - contemporary climate, Quaternary climate-change velocity, and species richness - had superior explanatory power, together explaining 53–64% of the variation in specialization. Notably, our data provides empirical evidence for the hypothesized roles of species richness, contemporary precipitation and Quaternary climate-change velocity as key predictors of biotic specialization, whereas contemporary temperature and seasonality seem unimportant in determining specialization. These results suggest that both ecological and evolutionary processes at Quaternary time scales can be important in driving large-scale geographical patterns of contemporary biotic specialization, at least for co-evolved systems such as plant-hummingbird networks.Funding for BD was supported by Frimodt-Heineke Foundation, Augustinus Foundation, Knud Højgaard Foundation, a PhD fellowship by Aarhus University, Weis-Fogh Fund at Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, and The Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences. EM was supported by the Center for Massive Data Algorithmics, a Danish National Research Foundation Center of Excellence. JF and CR thank the Danish National Research Foundation for its support of the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate. AMG was supported by Svend Fiedler & Wife Foundation, J.Olesen by the Danish Council for Independent Research - Natural Sciences and Novozymes/World Wildlife Foundation-Denmark, J.Ollerton and SW by the British Ecological Society, Idea Wild, The Biodiversity Trust, The Anglo Peruvian Society and The Leslie Church Bursary Fund, RA by The United States National Science Foundation's Predoctoral Fellowship Program and The California Alliance for Minority Participation, ACA by The Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado da Bahia (FAEP) and The National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), PC by the British Ornithologists' Union, CL by the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, CM by FAPESB and CNPq, IS and MS by FAPESP and CNPq, AT by Aarhus University, and J-CS by the Danish Council for Independent Research - Natural Sciences (grant 272-07-0242). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Peer reviewe

Towards Increased Citizen Participation in Europe: Impact of Current Developments on Political Decision Making and Democracy

[extract] At the moment we witness an interesting trend in Europe. New elements of direct democracy have been introduced at the national level in the nation states and at the EU level since the 1990’s. At the national level the new direct democracy elements include an increased number of national referenda, introductions of citizens’ initiatives and a generally increased involvement of the People in formulating constitutional revisions. Many reasons can be provided for this development for instance an economic and political crisis; reestablishment of democracies in East and Central Europe; a reaction to EU integration; direct democracy as a tool and strategy for upholding the nation state in EU integration; the EU searching for more democratic legitimacy; and competition between the EU and the nation states for democratic legitimacy.At the EU level an EU citizens’ initiative has been introduced with the Lisbon Treaty. This can be seen as an attempt to make the EU decision-making process more democratic.It has also been put forward that the development at the national level and at the EU level viewed together could be seen as a competition for democratic legitimacy between the member states and the EU. The development towards more direct democracy elements at all levels seems to indicate an increased democratisation of the European decision-making processes. However, whether this is really true naturally depends on the impact of the new initiatives. In this paper we analyse the impact of the introduction of one kind of direct democracy instrument namely citizens’ initiatives. We analyse the impact of citizens’ initiatives in a number of European nation states and the impact of the EU citizens’ initiative. Accordingly, we show synergies between the national level and the EU level. The impact will primarily be measured as the success rate of the citizens’ initiatives meaning the amount of initiatives brought to the national parliaments subsequently becoming a legislative act as a result of the initiative procedure. The reason for this is mainly that it is easy to measure such an effect and that the data is generally accessible. However, as we shall return to, citizens’ initiatives can have other kinds of impact than concrete legislation.