TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits-the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants-determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait-based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits-almost complete coverage for 'plant growth form'. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait-environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Testing robots using CSP

This paper presents a technique for automatic generation of tests for robotic systems based on a domain-specific notation called RoboChart. This is a UML-like diagrammatic notation that embeds a component model suitable for robotic systems, and supports the definition of behavioural models using enriched state machines that can feature time properties. The formal semantics of RoboChart is given using tockCSP, a discrete-time variant of the process algebra CSP. In this paper, we use the example of a simple drone to illustrate an approach to generate tests from RoboChart models using a mutation tool called Wodel. From mutated models, tests are generated using the CSP model checker FDR. The testing theory of CSP justifies the soundness of the tests

TRY plant trait database - enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits—the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants—determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits—almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Las fuerzas sociales y el escenario comunicativo en la educación para la salud: el caso del programa de crecimiento y desarrollo Social forces and the communicative scenario in health education: the case of the growth and development program

Objetivos: comprender la construcción de los significados sobre crianza en el Programa de Monitoreo del Crecimiento y Desarrollo como medio para investigar la educación para la salud y avanzar en su fundamentación teórica y pedagógica. Método: etnografía en cuatro instituciones de salud de la ciudad de Medellín basada en observación de las sesiones y entrevistas con los actores: adultos significativos y miembros de los equipos de salud. Resultados: se instaura un proceso comunicativo basado en un modelo educativo transmisionista y conductista dirigido a inculcar el cambio en los comportamientos. Discusión: el escenario pedagógico o microcontexto se encuentra influenciado por fuerzas del macrocontexto que ejercen poder sobre este, las cuales se configuran como producto de la desigual distribución de los capitales sociales, culturales y económicos. Como consecuencia, el adulto significativo y el miembro del equipo de salud se sitúan en dos planos diferentes para la construcción de significados, lo que afecta seriamente la comunicación entre ellos. La comprensión de dicho proceso social desde una perspectiva teórica más amplia permite el fortalecimiento de una posición crítica, fundamental para lograr una educación para la salud más pertinente desde su dimensión sociocultural.<br>Objectives: to understand how the significance of child rearing is construed in the Growth and Development Monitoring Program as a way of studying health education and enhancing its theoretical and pedagogical framework. Method: an ethnographic study in four health institutions in Medellín, Colombia, developed through observation of sessions and interviews with actors, namely significant adults and health team members. Results: a communicative process based on a behavioral education model is established to modify behavior and to impose cultural values. Conclusions: the pedagogical setting or micro-context is influenced by powerful macro-contextual forces, which are a product of uneven distribution of social, cultural and economic capital. Consequently, significant adults and health team members are situated at two different communicative levels for the construction of significance, which affects communication between them. Understanding this social process from a wider theoretical perspective strengthens critical positions, which is required for achieving more pertinent health education from a socio-cultural dimension