Strokovne kompetence bodocih uciteljev za implementacijo prepoznavanja vrst v soli - studija primera iz Nemcije

This study investigates how well prepared student teachers are to implement species identification in school. Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and a PowerPoint presentation in which local plant and animal species were presented. Participants (n = 357) correctly identified, on average, 23% of the plants and 44% of the animals. They identified plants mainly by flower characteristics and leaves, and animals mainly by shape and colour. Family and school were key sources of participants’ knowledge of species. The self-estimated competence of participants to identify species was positively correlated with their taxonomic knowledge and the amount of time they had spent on species identification during their own schooldays. The number of correctly identified plant and animal species increased with interest in identifying species and participation in species identification courses. Participants considered learner-centred education and experience-based learning, and the use of living organisms to be most important when identifying species in school. (DIPF/Orig.

Do student teachers’ wildlife value orientations impact how they judge management actions of carnivore species from different habitat status groups?

Lethal management of carnivore species in Germany differs according to the species habitat status (i.e., for new arrivals, long-established, or re-colonizing species). Management actions are not always accepted by the public. Since prospective teachers are future multipliers of public acceptance of lethal management, and teaching is influenced by ones’ value orientations, we investigated student teachers’ (N = 95) decisions on lethal management of carnivore species of different habitat status groups in relation to their wildlife value orientations (WVOs). Our results show that student teachers’ WVOs are more strongly associated with certain management actions for new arrivals and re-colonizing species than for long-established species. In those cases, their WVOs are more likely to affect teaching of decision-making in the context of management actions. Thus, teacher education should support student teachers in reflecting their value orientations for teaching local biodiversity protection

Professional Competence of Student Teachers to Implement Species Identification in Schools – A Case Study from Germany

This study investigates how well prepared student teachers are to implement species identification in school. Data were collected with the help of a questionnaire and a PowerPoint presentation in which local plant and animal species were presented. Participants (n = 357) correctly identified, on average, 23% of the plants and 44% of the animals. They identified plants mainly by flower characteristics and leaves, and animals mainly by shape and colour. Family and school were key sources of participants’ knowledge of species. The self-estimated competence of participants to identify species was positively correlated with their taxonomic knowledge and the amount of time they had spent on species identification during their own schooldays. The number of correctly identified plant and animal species increased with interest in identifying species and participation in species identification courses. Participants considered learner-centred education and experience-based learning, and the use of living organisms to be most important when identifying species in school. </p

Visual shape and position sensing algorithm for a continuum robot

Continuum robots represent an actively developing and fast-growing technology in robotics. To successfully implement control and path planning of continuum robots it is important to develop an accurate three-dimensional shape and position sensing algorithm. In this paper, we propose an algorithm for the three-dimensional reconstruction of the continuum robot shape. The algorithm is performed during several steps. Initially, images from two cameras are processed by applying pre-processing and segmentation techniques. Then, the gradient descent method is applied to compare two-dimensional skeleton points of both masks. Having compared these points, it finds a skeleton of the robot in a threedimensional form. Additionally, the proposed algorithm is able to define key points using the distance from the robot base along the center line. The latter allows controlling the position of points of interest defined by a user. As a result, the developed algorithm achieved a relatively high level of accuracy and speed

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world\u27s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (−0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Global maps of soil temperature

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km² resolution for 0–5 and 5–15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e., offset) between in-situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km² pixels (summarized from 8500 unique temperature sensors) across all the world’s major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in-situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Global maps of soil temperature.

Research in global change ecology relies heavily on global climatic grids derived from estimates of air temperature in open areas at around 2 m above the ground. These climatic grids do not reflect conditions below vegetation canopies and near the ground surface, where critical ecosystem functions occur and most terrestrial species reside. Here, we provide global maps of soil temperature and bioclimatic variables at a 1-km2 resolution for 0-5 and 5-15 cm soil depth. These maps were created by calculating the difference (i.e. offset) between in situ soil temperature measurements, based on time series from over 1200 1-km2 pixels (summarized from 8519 unique temperature sensors) across all the world's major terrestrial biomes, and coarse-grained air temperature estimates from ERA5-Land (an atmospheric reanalysis by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). We show that mean annual soil temperature differs markedly from the corresponding gridded air temperature, by up to 10°C (mean = 3.0 ± 2.1°C), with substantial variation across biomes and seasons. Over the year, soils in cold and/or dry biomes are substantially warmer (+3.6 ± 2.3°C) than gridded air temperature, whereas soils in warm and humid environments are on average slightly cooler (-0.7 ± 2.3°C). The observed substantial and biome-specific offsets emphasize that the projected impacts of climate and climate change on near-surface biodiversity and ecosystem functioning are inaccurately assessed when air rather than soil temperature is used, especially in cold environments. The global soil-related bioclimatic variables provided here are an important step forward for any application in ecology and related disciplines. Nevertheless, we highlight the need to fill remaining geographic gaps by collecting more in situ measurements of microclimate conditions to further enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global soil temperature products for ecological applications

Die Wirkung stereoskopischer Visualisierungen beim Arbeiten mit einer Lernsoftware zur Anatomie des Menschen

Recognizing anatomical structure properties depicted within digital representations may be the first step to conceptual understanding. Comparing stereoscopic and non-stereoscopic visualizations, there is little evidence whether stereoscopic visualisations better support the recognition of anatomical structure properties. Likewise, insufficient indication is given whether working with stereoscopic visualizations is in connection with situational variables such as increased situational intrinsic motivation and decreased visual attention performance. To clarify these queries, the present study focused on two e-learning environments dealing with the anatomy and physiology of the nasal cavity and with the anatomy and physiology of hearing. Participants were 8th grade students and teacher students. Working with stereoscopic imagery instead of non-stereoscopic imagery, both succeeded better in absolving anatomical structure-related tasks such as estimating anatomical spatial-relationships. Working with stereoscopic visualizations neither led to increased situational intrinsic motivation nor to decreased visual attention performance. On the one hand, the results show that stereoscopic visualization technology can be used without having any novelty effects. On the other hand, stereoscopic visualizations can be used without having impairments on visual working memory. Coming from these findings it should be investigated, whether the enhanced performance on anatomical structure-related tasks due to stereoscopic imagery can be used to also enhance conceptual understanding.Die Wahrnehmung bildhaft dargestellter anatomischer Strukturen in digitalen Lernumgebungen kann ein erster Schritt zu konzeptuellen Verständnis sein. Dabei liegt wenig Evidenz darüber vor, ob stereoskopische Visualisierungen besser als nicht-stereoskopische die Wahrnehmung anatomischer Strukturen unterstützen. Ebenso fehlen Informationen darüber, ob das Arbeiten mit stereoskopischen Visualisierungen im Zusammenhang mit situativen Variablen wie gesteigerter situativer intrinsischer Motivation oder verringerter visueller Aufmerksamkeit steht. Um diese Fragen zu beantworten, fokussierte die vorliegende Arbeit auf zwei E-Learning Umgebungen zur Anatomie und Physiologie der Nasenhöhle und zur Anatomie und Physiologie des Hörens. Als Probanden fungierten Schülerinnen und Schüler der Jahrgangsstufe 8 sowie Studierende. Beide schnitten bezüglich des Absolvierens Struktur-bezogener Aufgaben wie etwa dem Einschätzen anatomisch-räumlicher Beziehungen im Falle des Nutzens stereoskopischer Visualisierungen besser ab als bei der Nutzung nicht-stereoskopischer Visualisierungen. Arbeitsphasen mit stereoskopischen Visualisierungen standen weder mit situativer intrinsischer Motivation noch mit visueller Aufmerksamkeitsleistung in Verbindung. Einerseits zeigen die Ergebnisse, dass stereoskopische Visualisierungen erfolgreich ohne Verbindungen zu Neuigkeitseffekten eingesetzt werden können. Andererseits wird auch deutlich, dass Beeinträchtigungen des visuellen Arbeitsgedächtnisses nicht zu erwarten sind. Ausgehend von diesen Resultaten sollte nun erforscht werden, ob der gezeigte Mehrwert bei der Wahrnehmung anatomischer Strukturen auch zu einer Förderung konzeptuellen Verständnisses genutzt werden kann