Health Literacy bei älteren Menschen - Konsequenzen für die Stärkung der Nutzerkompetenz

Vogt D. Health Literacy bei älteren Menschen - Konsequenzen für die Stärkung der Nutzerkompetenz. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2017

Information structure in Caucasian Urum. An empirical investigation on the effect of focus and topic on word order

Schröter S. Information structure in Caucasian Urum. An empirical investigation on the effect of focus and topic on word order. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2019.This thesis investigates the interaction of syntax and information structure in Caucasian Urum. Caucasian Urum (henceforth: Urum) is a little document and severely endangered variety of Anatolian Turkish, which is spoken by a minority of ethnic Greeks in the Small Caucasus in Georgia. Although Urum is an Anatolian variety of Turkish and shares a lot of similarities with Standard Turkish, previous studies have shown that the language reveals several influences from Russian, especially in the lexicon and in the grammar (cf. Skopeteas2013). A particular characteristic of Urum is the free position of the verb within the verb phrase, i.e., both OV and VO orders frequently occur in the same discourse contexts (Skopeteas2014). The main objectives of this dissertation are to analyze whether there is an interaction of focus/topic and word order in Urum and to answer the research question to what extend the observed change in the word order from OV to a language with a free position of the verb affects the information structural possibilities of Urum. In order to answer the research questions I conducted two elicitation studies and two acceptability judgment tasks on the interaction of (a) focus and word order and (b) topic and word order in the three object languages Turkish (=substrate language), Russian (=contact language) and Urum. The results of the empirical studies revealed that Urum shows a lot more flexibility with regard to its information structural possibilities than Turkish, which does for instance not allow postverbal foci. By contrast, the results of the elicitation study indicated that foci in Russian are most likely to occur either in-situ or clause-finally. Furthermore, the results of the acceptability judgment task revealed that Russian speakers also accept preverbal foci. Quite similar results were also found for Urum. However, the position of both topics and foci in Urum seems to be even more flexible than in Russian. These findings suggest that the change in the word order of Urum from OV to a language with a free position of the verb within the VP led to an extension of the information structural possibilities of the language

Perceived Risk of Predation Affects Reproductive Life - History Traits in Gambusia holbrooki, but Not in Heterandria formosa

Key to predicting impacts of predation is understanding the mechanisms through which predators impact prey populations. While consumptive effects are well-known, non-consumptive predator effects (risk effects) are increasingly being recognized as important. Studies of risk effects, however, have focused largely on how trade-offs between food and safety affect fitness. Less documented, and appreciated, is the potential for predator presence to directly suppress prey reproduction and affect life-history characteristics. For the first time, we tested the effects of visual predator cues on reproduction of two prey species with different reproductive modes, lecithotrophy (i.e. embryonic development primarily fueled by yolk) and matrotrophy (i.e. energy for embryonic development directly supplied by the mother to the embryo through a vascular connection). Predation risk suppressed reproduction in the lecithotrophic prey (Gambusia holbrokii) but not the matrotroph (Heterandria formosa). Predator stress caused G. holbrooki to reduce clutch size by 43%, and to produce larger and heavier offspring compared to control females. H. formosa, however, did not show any such difference. In G. holbrooki we also found a significantly high percentage (14%) of stillbirths in predator-exposed treatments compared to controls (2%). To the best of our knowledge, this is the first direct empirical evidence of predation stress affecting stillbirths in prey. Our results suggest that matrotrophy, superfetation (clutch overlap), or both decrease the sensitivity of mothers to environmental fluctuation in resource (food) and stress (predation risk) levels compared to lecithotrophy. These mechanisms should be considered both when modeling consequences of perceived risk of predation on prey-predator population dynamics and when seeking to understand the evolution of reproductive modes

Assessing the role of large herbivores in the structuring and functioning of freshwater and marine angiosperm ecosystems

2 figuras, 3 tablasWhile large herbivores can have strong impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, much less is known of their role in aquatic systems. We reviewed the literature to determine: (1) which large herbivores (>10 kg) have a (semi-)aquatic lifestyle and are important consumers of submerged vascular plants, (2) their impact on submerged plant abundance and species composition and (3) their ecosystem functions. We grouped herbivores according to diet, habitat selection and movement ecology: (1) Fully aquatic species, either resident or migratory (manatees, dugongs, turtles), (2) Semi-aquatic species that live both in water and on land, either resident or migratory (swans), (3) Resident semi-aquatic species that live in water and forage mainly on land (hippopotamuses, beavers, capybara), (4) Resident terrestrial species with relatively large home ranges that frequent aquatic habitats (cervids, water buffalo, lowland tapir). Fully aquatic species and swans have the strongest impact on submerged plant abundance and species composition. They may maintain grazing lawns. Because they sometimes target belowground parts, their activity can result in local collapse of plant beds. Semi-aquatic species and turtles serve as important aquatic-terrestrial linkages, by transporting nutrients across ecosystem boundaries. Hippopotamuses and beavers are important geomorphological engineers, capable of altering the land and hydrology at landscape scales. Migratory species and terrestrial species with large home ranges are potentially important dispersal vectors of plant propagules and nutrients. Clearly, large aquatic herbivores have strong impacts on associated species and can be critical ecosystem engineers of aquatic systems, with the ability to modify direct and indirect functional pathways in ecosystems. While global populations of large aquatic herbivores are declining, some show remarkable local recoveries with dramatic consequences for the systems they inhabit. A better understanding of these functional roles will help set priorities for the effective management of large aquatic herbivores along with the plant habitats they rely on.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (CTM2013-48027-C3-3-R), an Intramural Project from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, 201330E062) and the Pew Marine Fellowship.Peer reviewe

Corn plant-KCES Field 1st Summer

https://digital.kenyon.edu/bfec_images/1728/thumbnail.jp

Beth Schiller\u27s garden plots KCES

https://digital.kenyon.edu/bfec_images/1956/thumbnail.jp

KCES Ground Beetle

https://digital.kenyon.edu/bfec_images/1494/thumbnail.jp

Bufo and Eggs KCES

https://digital.kenyon.edu/bfec_images/1451/thumbnail.jp

Wetland area KCES by Wolf Run

https://digital.kenyon.edu/bfec_images/1600/thumbnail.jp