Effects of Management Practices on Grassland Birds: Sprague’s Pipit

Sprague’s Pipit (Anthus spragueii): Breeding range Suitable habitat Area requirements Brown-headed Cowbird brood parasitism Breeding-season phenology and site fidelity Species’ response to management Management Recommendations Habitat Characteristic

Effects of Management Practices on Grassland Birds: Sprague’s Pipit

Sprague’s Pipit (Anthus spragueii): Breeding range Suitable habitat Area requirements Brown-headed Cowbird brood parasitism Breeding-season phenology and site fidelity Species’ response to management Management Recommendations Habitat Characteristic

Effects of Management Practices on Grassland Birds: Grasshopper Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum): Breeding range Suitable habitat Area requirements Brown-headed Cowbird brood parasitism Breeding-season phenology and site fidelity Species’ response to management Management Recommendations Habitat Characteristic

Effects of Management Practices on Grassland Birds: Grasshopper Sparrow

Grasshopper Sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum): Breeding range Suitable habitat Area requirements Brown-headed Cowbird brood parasitism Breeding-season phenology and site fidelity Species’ response to management Management Recommendations Habitat Characteristic

The Relationship between Therapeutic Alliance and Service User Satisfaction in Mental Health Inpatient Wards and Crisis House Alternatives: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Poor service user experiences are often reported on mental health inpatient wards. Crisis houses are an alternative, but evidence is limited. This paper investigates therapeutic alliances in acute wards and crisis houses, exploring how far stronger therapeutic alliance may underlie greater client satisfaction in crisis houses. Methods and Findings Mixed methods were used. In the quantitative component, 108 crisis house and 247 acute ward service users responded to measures of satisfaction, therapeutic relationships, informal peer support, recovery and negative events experienced during the admission. Linear regressions were conducted to estimate the association between service setting and measures, and to model the factors associated with satisfaction. Qualitative interviews exploring therapeutic alliances were conducted with service users and staff in each setting and analysed thematically. Results We found that therapeutic alliances, service user satisfaction and informal peer support were greater in crisis houses than on acute wards, whilst self-rated recovery and numbers of negative events were lower. Adjusted multivariable analyses suggest that therapeutic relationships, informal peer support and negative experiences related to staff may be important factors in accounting for greater satisfaction in crisis houses. Qualitative results suggest factors that influence therapeutic alliances include service user perceptions of basic human qualities such as kindness and empathy in staff and, at service level, the extent of loss of liberty and autonomy. Conclusions and Implications We found that service users experience better therapeutic relationships and higher satisfaction in crisis houses compared to acute wards, although we cannot exclude the possibility that differences in service user characteristics contribute to this. This finding provides some support for the expansion of crisis house provision. Further research is needed to investigate why acute ward service users experience a lack of compassion and humanity from ward staff and how this could be changed

Hormone-like (endocrine) Fgfs: their evolutionary history and roles in development, metabolism, and disease

Fibroblast growth factors (Fgfs) are proteins with diverse functions in development, repair, and metabolism. The human Fgf gene family with 22 members can be classified into three groups, canonical, intracellular, and hormone-like Fgf genes. In contrast to canonical and intracellular Fgfs identified in invertebrates and vertebrates, hormone-like Fgfs, Fgf15/19, Fgf21, and Fgf23, are vertebrate-specific. The ancestral gene of hormone-like Fgfs was generated from the ancestral gene of canonical Fgfs by gene duplication early in vertebrate evolution. Later, Fgf15/19, Fgf21, and Fgf23 were generated from the ancestral gene by genome duplication events. Canonical Fgfs act as autocrine/paracrine factors in an Fgf receptor (Fgfr)-dependent manner. In contrast, hormone-like Fgfs act as endocrine factors in an Fgfr-dependent manner. Canonical Fgfs have a heparin-binding site necessary for the stable binding of Fgfrs and local signaling. In contrast, hormone-like Fgfs acquired endocrine functions by reducing their heparin-binding affinity during their evolution. Fgf15/19 and Fgf23 require βKlotho and αKlotho as cofactors, respectively. However, Fgf21 might physiologically require neither. Hormone-like Fgfs play roles in metabolism at postnatal stages, although they also play roles in development at embryonic stages. Fgf15/19 regulates bile acid metabolism in the liver. Fgf21 regulates lipid metabolism in the white adipose tissue. Fgf23 regulates serum phosphate and active vitamin D levels. Fgf23 signaling disorders caused by hereditary diseases or tumors result in metabolic disorders. In addition, serum Fgf19 or Fgf21 levels are significantly increased by metabolic disorders. Hormone-like Fgfs are newly emerging and quite unique in their evolution and function

Politische Dimensionen von Militärübungen und Manövern – ein Projektbericht

Die virtuellen Kriege und Operationen, die in Militärübungen gespielt und geprobt werden, können entweder der Abschreckung dienen oder aber Angriffe vorbereiten bzw. zur Maskierung tatsächlicher Angriffe dienen. Für Beobachter ist es vielfach nicht offensichtlich, um welche Art von Militärübung es sich handelt. Die Ergebnisse eines vierjährigen internationalen Projektes zu politischen Dimensionen von Militärübungen richten das Schlaglicht insbesondere auf Missverständnisse und deren ungewollte politische Auswirkungen, die im Extremfall unbeabsichtigt zum Krieg führen können

A behavioral database for masked form priming

Reading involves a process of matching an orthographic input with stored representations in lexical memory. The masked priming paradigm has become a standard tool for investigating this process. Use of existing results from this paradigm can be limited by the precision of the data and the need for cross-experiment comparisons that lack normal experimental controls. Here, we present a single, large, high-precision, multicondition experiment to address these problems. Over 1,000 participants from 14 sites responded to 840 trials involving 28 different types of orthographically related primes (e.g., castfe–CASTLE) in a lexical decision task, as well as completing measures of spelling and vocabulary. The data were indeed highly sensitive to differences between conditions: After correction for multiple comparisons, prime type condition differences of 2.90 ms and above reached significance at the 5% level. This article presents the method of data collection and preliminary findings from these data, which included replications of the most widely agreed-upon differences between prime types, further evidence for systematic individual differences in susceptibility to priming, and new evidence regarding lexical properties associated with a target word’s susceptibility to priming. These analyses will form a basis for the use of these data in quantitative model fitting and evaluation and for future exploration of these data that will inform and motivate new experiments