A Qualitative Exploration of Collective Collapse in a Norwegian Qualifying Premier League Soccer Match—The Successful Team's Perspective

The current case study focused on a crucial match in the qualification for the Norwegian Premier League (Eliteserien). In the match, the participants of the study experienced a radical change in performance toward the end of the second half, from being behind by several goals to scoring 3 goals in 6 min and winning the qualifying game. The purpose of this study was therefore to examine the perceptions and reflections of players and coaches (sporting director) on what occurred within their own team and within the opposing team. The momentum shift in the opposition team can be described as a collective collapse. In the study, the theoretical collective collapse process model was used as a guide for the design of the interview questions where five semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants involved in the match (players, coach, and sporting director). The participants watched excerpt clips from the match to recall the main events, which they subsequently reflected on. The results highlighted the importance of the “before-game” aspects (i.e., pressure, first game result), the “during-the-game” behavior (i.e., goals scored, playing with a low degree of risk) and the cognitive (i.e., feelings of pressure, despair) and emotional reactions (i.e., frustration, joy) to the match unfolding. In addition, social contagion processes were evident in both teams relating to emotion and behavior. Overall, the data from this study investigated the general structure of the process model of collective sport team collapse and found support for the notion of a temporal cascade of causes for a team collapse. Future research is encouraged to examine this model, to provide guidance to teams, coaches, and sport psychologists in order to make recommendations for dealing with collective collapse in sport teams

Emergent global patterns of ecosystem structure and function from a mechanistic general ecosystem model

Anthropogenic activities are causing widespread degradation of ecosystems worldwide, threatening the ecosystem services upon which all human life depends. Improved understanding of this degradation is urgently needed to improve avoidance and mitigation measures. One tool to assist these efforts is predictive models of ecosystem structure and function that are mechanistic: based on fundamental ecological principles. Here we present the first mechanistic General Ecosystem Model (GEM) of ecosystem structure and function that is both global and applies in all terrestrial and marine environments. Functional forms and parameter values were derived from the theoretical and empirical literature where possible. Simulations of the fate of all organisms with body masses between 10 µg and 150,000 kg (a range of 14 orders of magnitude) across the globe led to emergent properties at individual (e.g., growth rate), community (e.g., biomass turnover rates), ecosystem (e.g., trophic pyramids), and macroecological scales (e.g., global patterns of trophic structure) that are in general agreement with current data and theory. These properties emerged from our encoding of the biology of, and interactions among, individual organisms without any direct constraints on the properties themselves. Our results indicate that ecologists have gathered sufficient information to begin to build realistic, global, and mechanistic models of ecosystems, capable of predicting a diverse range of ecosystem properties and their response to human pressures

Evaluering av utprøving av digital hjemmeoppfølging: Delrapport II

Med støtte fra Helsedirektoratet prøver seks lokale prosjekter i kommunal regi ut digital hjemmeoppfølging av personer med kronisk sykdom. Utprøvingen gjennomføres i perioden 2018-2021 som en del av Nasjonalt velferdsteknologiprogram. Formålet med utprøvingen er å få tilstrekkelig kunnskap om digital hjemmeoppfølging til å gi nasjonale anbefalinger om implementering av tiltaket. Utprøvingen evalueres av forskere fra Universitetet i Oslo, Oslo Economics og Nasjonal senter for distriksmedisin. I denne delrapporten beskriver vi erfaringer med og effekter av digital hjemmeoppfølging til og med høsten 2020

Temporal correlations among demographic parameters are ubiquitous but highly variable across species

Temporal correlations among demographic parameters can strongly influence population dynamics. Our empirical knowledge, however, is very limited regarding the direction and the magnitude of these correlations and how they vary among demographic parameters and species’ life histories. Here, we use long-term demographic data from 15 bird and mammal species with contrasting pace of life to quantify correlation patterns among five key demographic parameters: juvenile and adult survival, reproductive probability, reproductive success and productivity. Correlations among demographic parameters were ubiquitous, more frequently positive than negative, but strongly differed across species. Correlations did not markedly change along the slow-fast continuum of life histories, suggesting that they were more strongly driven by ecological than evolutionary factors. As positive temporal demographic correlations decrease the mean of the long-run population growth rate, the common practice of ignoring temporal correlations in population models could lead to the underestimation of extinction risks in most species

A functional SUMO-interacting motif in the transactivation domain of c-Myb regulates its myeloid transforming ability

c-Myb is an essential hematopoietic transcription factor that controls proliferation and differentiation of progenitors during blood cell development. Whereas sumoylation of the C-terminal regulatory domain (CRD) is known to have a major impact on the activity of c-Myb, no role for noncovalent binding of small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) to c-Myb has been described. Based on the consensus SUMO-interacting motif (SIM), we identified and examined putative SIMs in human c-Myb. Interaction and reporter assays showed that the SIM in the in the transactivation domain of c-Myb (V 267 NIV) is functional. This motif is necessary for c-Myb to be able to interact noncovalently with SUMO, preferentially SUMO2/3. Destroying the SUMO-binding properties by mutation resulted in a large increase in the transactivation potential of c-Myb. Mutational analysis and overexpression of conjugation-defective SUMO argued against intramolecular repression caused by sumoylated CRD and in favor of SUMO-dependent repression in trans. Using both a myeloid cell line-based assay and a primary hematopoietic cell assay, we addressed the transforming abilities of SUMO binding and conjugation mutants. Interestingly, only loss of SUMO binding, and not SUMO conjugation, enhanced the myeloid transformational potential of c-Myb. c-Myb with the SIM mutated conferred a higher proliferative ability than the wild-type and caused an effective differentiation block. This establishes SUMO binding as a mechanism involved in modulating the transactivation activity of c-Myb, and responsible for keeping the transforming potential of the oncoprotein in check

Habitat-Specific Population Growth of a Farmland Bird

BACKGROUND: To assess population persistence of species living in heterogeneous landscapes, the effects of habitat on reproduction and survival have to be investigated. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We used a matrix population model to estimate habitat-specific population growth rates for a population of northern wheatears Oenanthe oenanthe breeding in farmland consisting of a mosaic of distinct habitat (land use) types. Based on extensive long-term data on reproduction and survival, habitats characterised by tall field layers (spring- and autumn-sown crop fields, ungrazed grasslands) displayed negative stochastic population growth rates (log lambda(s): -0.332, -0.429, -0.168, respectively), that were markedly lower than growth rates of habitats characterised by permanently short field layers (pastures grazed by cattle or horses, and farmyards, log lambda(s): -0.056, +0.081, -0.059). Although habitats differed with respect to reproductive performance, differences in habitat-specific population growth were largely due to differences in adult and first-year survival rates, as shown by a life table response experiment (LTRE). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results show that estimation of survival rates is important for realistic assessments of habitat quality. Results also indicate that grazed grasslands and farmyards may act as source habitats, whereas crop fields and ungrazed grasslands with tall field layers may act as sink habitats. We suggest that the strong decline of northern wheatears in Swedish farmland may be linked to the corresponding observed loss of high quality breeding habitat, i.e. grazed semi-natural grasslands

Can Thermoclines Be a Cue to Prey Distribution for Marine Top Predators? A Case Study with Little Penguins

The use of top predators as bio-platforms is a modern approach to understanding how physical changes in the environment may influence their foraging success. This study examined if the presence of thermoclines could be a reliable signal of resource availability for a marine top predator, the little penguin (Eudyptula minor). We studied weekly foraging activity of 43 breeding individual penguins equipped with accelerometers. These loggers also recorded water temperature, which we used to detect changes in thermal characteristics of their foraging zone over 5 weeks during the penguin’s guard phase. Data showed the thermocline was detected in the first 3 weeks of the study, which coincided with higher foraging efficiency. When a thermocline was not detected in the last two weeks, foraging efficiency decreased as well. We suggest that thermoclines can represent temporary markers of enhanced food availability for this top-predator to which they must optimally adjust their breeding cycle