Plant Community Diversity Influences Allocation to Direct Chemical Defence in Plantago lanceolata

Background: Forecasting the consequences of accelerating rates of changes in biodiversity for ecosystem functioning requires a mechanistic understanding of the relationships between the structure of biological communities and variation in plant functional characteristics. So far, experimental data of how plant species diversity influences the investment of individual plants in direct chemical defences against herbivores and pathogens is lacking. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used Plantago lanceolata as a model species in experimental grasslands differing in species richness and composition (Jena Experiment) to investigate foliar concentrations of the iridoid glycosides (IG), catalpol and its biosynthetic precursor aucubin. Total IG and aucubin concentrations decreased, while catalpol concentrations increased with increasing plant diversity in terms of species or functional group richness. Negative plant diversity effects on total IG and aucubin concentrations correlated with increasing specific leaf area of P. lanceolata, suggesting that greater allocation to light acquisition reduced the investment into these carbon-based defence components. In contrast, increasing leaf nitrogen concentrations best explained increasing concentrations of the biosynthetically more advanced IG, catalpol. Observed levels of leaf damage explained a significant proportion of variation in total IG and aucubin concentrations, but did not account for variance in catalpol concentrations. Conclusions/Significance: Our results clearly show that plants growing in communities of varying species richness an

Über den Zusammenhang von Kommunikation und Lernen im schulischen Kontext. Ein Modell Kommunikationsorientierter Schulsozialarbeit auf der Grundlage der Gewaltfreien Kommunikation von Marshall B. Rosenberg

Zum ersten geht es um die Leitfrage, wie Schulsozialarbeit dazu beitragen kann, dass Schulbildung nicht nur für einen anpassungsbereiten Teil der Schüler/innen Teilhabe befördert, sondern auch diejenigen erreicht, die dazu neigen, sich von ihr abzuwenden. Hierfür wird im ersten Teil der Arbeit zunächst untersucht, wie Lernen aus neurobiologischer, pädagogischer und psychologischer Perspektive verstanden werden kann, welche Faktoren Lernprozesse begünstigen bzw. hemmen und wie die subjektive Tätigkeit des Lernens auf schulisch-gesellschaftlicher Ebene in einen Kanon des Lernens einfließt. In den beiden darauffolgenden Kapiteln werden zunächst wesentliche Aspekte der zwischenmenschlichen Kommunikation mit Bezug auf psychologisch-soziologische Kommunikationstheorien umrissen und anschließend zu dem Sachverhalt übergeleitet, dass jedes Lernen immer auch eine komplexe Kommunikationsleistung ist. Neben der Relevanz, Kommunikation in der Schule zu thematisieren, wird darin ebenso aufgezeigt, an welcher Stelle der Kommunikationsbegriff in der Schul- und Sozialpädagogik an eine Grenze gelangt. Innerhalb der zweiten Kernfrage wird betrachtet, wie eine Kooperation von Schule und Jugendhilfe idealer Weise aussehen könnte, in der die wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen zu Lernverläufen offensiv einbezogen werden. Dem liegt eine Analyse des deutschen allgemeinbildenden Schulwesens zu Grunde. Hierin wird die Schulpflicht und auch die Selektivität, welche mit der Einführung verschiedener Schulformen einhergeht, in deren historischen Wurzeln betrachtet, worin einzelne Wellen der Bildungsreformen ersichtlich werden. Vertiefend dazu wird aufgezeigt, welche Faktoren Bildungsreformen begünstigten bzw. hervorriefen und welche Kräfte dem horizontalen Schulwesen in Deutschland und damit der Verringerung des selektiven Gehalts von Schule, entgegen wirkten. Denn Inklusionsleistungen, zu denen Schulsozialarbeit unter anderem berufen ist, finden keinen Bedarf, wenn nicht vorher eine Exklusion stattfand. Welche Möglichkeiten Schulsozialarbeit für allgemeinbildende Schulen dahingehend eröffnen kann, sich inhaltlich und methodisch anzureichern, weiterzuentwickeln, zu öffnen und zu vernetzen, sowie ein Blick auf die Herausforderungen für eine gegenseitig integrierende Kooperation, wird im darauffolgenden Teil, im Hinblick auf eine Charakterisierung von Schulsozialarbeit aufgezeigt. Dem folgt ein Einblick in das Konzept der Gewaltfreien Kommunikation, und daran anschließend ein Rahmenkonzept Kommunikationsorientierter Schulsozialarbeit. Dieses verbindet wissenschaftliche Erkenntnisse zu Lernverläufen und das Konzept der Gewaltfreien Kommunikation mit den ermittelten Schwachstellen von Schule, was schließlich einen ideellen Ausblick über sozialpädagogische Handlungsfelder in der Schule gibt. Und letztendlich schließt die Arbeit mit einer schlussfolgernden Zusammenfassung ab.The first central question is about, what schoolsocialwork could contribute to the actual school-situation, that not only adaptionable pupils getting reached, but also those ones, whose are tended to anticipate themselves from school. Therefore in the first part of the work gets analyzed, how learning out of the perspective of neurobiology, education and psychology can be understood, which factors are suppporting respectively blocking learning-processes and how the subjective learning-activity is connected to the school-societal-level. In the both following chapters initially it gets outlined main aspects of the interpersonal communication related to psychologic-sociological communication-theories, bridging to the point where every learning also is a complex communication-activity. Next to the relevance to broach the issue of communication in school, it also gets illustrated on which point the communication-term is coming to a border within the school- and social pedagogy. Inside the second central question gets considered how an ideal cooperation of school and youth welfare can look like, wherein the scientific knowledge to learning-processes offensive getting included. The analysis of the german, general-education-system is the first base therefor. Herein gets regarded the historical roots of the school-obligation and also the selectivity, which results automatically out of different kindes of schools. This showes single waves of education-reformes. Deepening to that it gets demonstrated which factors were supporting respectively effecting education-reformes and which power was working against the horizontal school-system in Germany, and therein working against the reduction of the selective content of school. Because inclusion-activities, to which schoolsocialwork is appointed, does not have a necessity, if not before happened an exclusion. Which possibilities schoolsocialwork can develop for general-education-schools, to get with regard to contents and methodes enriched, advanced, opened up and linked, as well as building up a mutual integrative cooperation, gets brought out in the following part within a characterisation of schoolsocialwork. Thereafter it is about to gain inside the concept of nonviolent communiation which followes a frame-concept of communication-oriented schoolsocialwork. These connects scientific findings of learning processes and the concept of the nonviolent communication with the determined weak points of school, which gives finally an forecast about social pedagogic spheres of activity in schools. And eventual the work is closing with a deductive abstraction

Bilateral transient osteoporosis of the knee during pregnancy

Transient osteoporosis is a rare disease, which can affect pregnant women in the third trimester. Bone marrow edema syndrome, transient bone demineralization, hip algodystrophy, regional migratory osteoporosis, and even reflex sympathetic dystrophy all are terms that have been used to describe the condition. Babinsky and Fromen first documented the symptoms of transient osteoporosis in 1916, and in 1959 Curtiss and Kincaid discussed two cases affecting women in the third trimester of pregnancy. The hip joints are most commonly affected in pregnant women, being reported in 76 % of cases

Modelling historical landscape changes

Context: Historical maps of land use/land cover (LULC) enable detection of landscape changes, and help to assess drivers and potential future trajectories. However, historical maps are often limited in their spatial and temporal coverage. There is a need to develop and test methods to improve re-construction of historical landscape change. Objectives: To implement a modelling method to accurately identify key land use changes over a rural landscape at multiple time points. Methods: We used existing LULC maps at two time points for 1930 and 2015, along with a habitat time-series dataset, to construct two new, modelled LULC maps for Dorset in 1950 and 1980 to produce a four-step time-series. We used the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) Scenario Generator tool to model new LULC maps. Results: The modelled 1950 and 1980 LULC maps were cross-validated against habitat survey data and demonstrated a high level of accuracy (87% and 84%, respectively) and low levels of model uncertainty. The LULC time-series revealed the timing of LULC changes in detail, with the greatest losses in neutral and calcareous grassland having occurred by 1950, the period when arable land expanded the most, whilst the expansion in agriculturally-improved grassland was greatest over the period 1950–1980. Conclusions: We show that the modelling approach is a viable methodology for re-constructing historical landscapes. The time-series output can be useful for assessing patterns and changes in the landscape, such as fragmentation and ecosystem service delivery, which is important for informing future land management and conservation strategies

China's Engagement with Global Health Diplomacy: Was SARS a Watershed?

As part of the PLoS Medicine series on Global Health Diplomacy, Lai-Han Chan and colleagues provide a case study of China's growing engagement in global health diplomacy following the SARS epidemic

Foraging for foundations in decision neuroscience: insights from ethology

Modern decision neuroscience offers a powerful and broad account of human behaviour using computational techniques that link psychological and neuroscientific approaches to the ways that individuals can generate near-optimal choices in complex controlled environments. However, until recently, relatively little attention has been paid to the extent to which the structure of experimental environments relates to natural scenarios, and the survival problems that individuals have evolved to solve. This situation not only risks leaving decision-theoretic accounts ungrounded but also makes various aspects of the solutions, such as hard-wired or Pavlovian policies, difficult to interpret in the natural world. Here, we suggest importing concepts, paradigms and approaches from the fields of ethology and behavioural ecology, which concentrate on the contextual and functional correlates of decisions made about foraging and escape and address these lacunae

Modelling of the effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W divertor of JET

Effect of ELMs on fuel retention at the bulk W target of JET ITER-Like Wall was studied with multi-scale calculations. Plasma input parameters were taken from ELMy H-mode plasma experiment. The energetic intra-ELM fuel particles get implanted and create near-surface defects up to depths of few tens of nm, which act as the main fuel trapping sites during ELMs. Clustering of implantation-induced vacancies were found to take place. The incoming flux of inter-ELM plasma particles increases the different filling levels of trapped fuel in defects. The temperature increase of the W target during the pulse increases the fuel detrapping rate. The inter-ELM fuel particle flux refills the partially emptied trapping sites and fills new sites. This leads to a competing effect on the retention and release rates of the implanted particles. At high temperatures the main retention appeared in larger vacancy clusters due to increased clustering rate

On the mechanisms governing gas penetration into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection

A new 1D radial fluid code, IMAGINE, is used to simulate the penetration of gas into a tokamak plasma during a massive gas injection (MGI). The main result is that the gas is in general strongly braked as it reaches the plasma, due to mechanisms related to charge exchange and (to a smaller extent) recombination. As a result, only a fraction of the gas penetrates into the plasma. Also, a shock wave is created in the gas which propagates away from the plasma, braking and compressing the incoming gas. Simulation results are quantitatively consistent, at least in terms of orders of magnitude, with experimental data for a D 2 MGI into a JET Ohmic plasma. Simulations of MGI into the background plasma surrounding a runaway electron beam show that if the background electron density is too high, the gas may not penetrate, suggesting a possible explanation for the recent results of Reux et al in JET (2015 Nucl. Fusion 55 093013)