8 research outputs found
National records of 3000 European bee and hoverfly species: A contribution to pollinator conservation
peer reviewedPollinators play a crucial role in ecosystems globally, ensuring the seed production of most flowering plants. They are threatened by global changes and knowledge of their distribution at the national and continental levels is needed to implement efficient conservation actions, but this knowledge is still fragmented and/or difficult to access. As a step forward, we provide an updated list of around 3000 European bee and hoverfly species, reflecting their current distributional status at the national level (in the form of present, absent, regionally extinct, possibly extinct or non-native). This work was attainable by incorporating both published and unpublished data, as well as knowledge from a large set of taxonomists and ecologists in both groups. After providing the first National species lists for bees and hoverflies for many countries, we examine the current distributional patterns of these species and designate the countries with highest levels of species richness. We also show that many species are recorded in a single European country, highlighting the importance of articulating European and national conservation strategies. Finally, we discuss how the data provided here can be combined with future trait and Red List data to implement research that will further advance pollinator conservation
Characterizing Myocardial Deformation in Patients With Left Ventricular Hypertrophy of Different Etiologies Using the Strain Distribution Obtained by Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Introduction and objectives: In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), it has been suggested that regional fiber disarray produces segments that exhibit no or severely reduced deformation, and that these segments are distributed nonuniformly within the left ventricle (LV). This contrasts with observations in other types of hypertrophy, such as in athlete's heart or hypertensive left ventricular hypertrophy (HLVH), in which abnormal cardiac deformation may exist but the reduction is not so severe that some segments exhibit no deformation. Our aim was to use the strain distribution to study deformation in HCM. Methods: We used tagged magnetic resonance imaging to reconstruct LV systolic deformation in 12 controls, 10 athletes, 12 patients with HCM, and 10 patients with HLVH. Deformation was quantified using a fast nonrigid registration algorithm and peak radial and circumferential systolic strain values were determined in 16 LV segments. Results: Patients with HCM had significantly lower average strain values than individuals in other groups. However, while the deformation observed in healthy subjects and HLVH patients clustered around the mean, in HCM patients, segments with normal contraction coexisted with segments exhibiting no or significantly reduced deformation, which resulted in a greater heterogeneity of strain values. Moreover, some nondeforming segments were observed even when fibrosis and hypertrophy were absent. Conclusions: The strain distribution characterized specific patterns of myocardial deformation in patients with LVH due to different etiologies. Patients with HCM had significantly lower mean strain values and a greater heterogeneity in strain values than controls, athletes and HLVH patients. In addition, they had nondeforming regions.</p
How do 5-year-olds understand questions? Differences in languages across Europe
The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18 different languages, and 7 language (sub-)families. The study investigated the effects of two factors on question formation: (a) whether the question contains a simple interrogative word like ‘who’ or a complex one like ‘which princess’, and (b) whether the question word was related to the sentential subject or object position of the verb. The findings show that there is considerable variation among languages, but the two factors mentioned consistently affect children’s performance. The cross-linguistic variation shows that three linguistic factors facilitate children’s understanding of questions: having overt case morphology, having a single lexical item for both ‘who’ and ‘which’, and the use of synthetic verbal formsLituanistikos katedraUžsienio kalbų, lit. ir vert. s. katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta
How do 5-year-olds understand questions? Differences in languages across Europe
The comprehension of constituent questions is an important topic for language acquisition research and for applications in the diagnosis of language impairment. This article presents the results of a study investigating the comprehension of different types of questions by 5-year-old, typically developing children across 19 European countries, 18 different languages, and 7 language (sub-)families. The study investigated the effects of two factors on question formation: (a) whether the question contains a simple interrogative word like 'who' or a complex one like 'which princess', and (b) whether the question word was related to the sentential subject or object position of the verb. The findings show that there is considerable variation among languages, but the two factors mentioned consistently affect children's performance. The cross-linguistic variation shows that three linguistic factors facilitate children's understanding of questions: having overt case morphology, having a single lexical item for both 'who' and 'which', and the use of synthetic verbal forms
National records of 3000 European bee and hoverfly species: A contribution to pollinator conservation
Pollinators play a crucial role in ecosystems globally, ensuring the seed production of most flowering plants. They are threatened by global changes and knowledge of their distribution at the national and continental levels is needed to implement efficient conservation actions, but this knowledge is still fragmented and/or difficult to access. As a step forward, we provide an updated list of around 3000 European bee and hoverfly species, reflecting their current distributional status at the national level (in the form of present, absent, regionally extinct, possibly extinct or non-native). This work was attainable by incorporating both published and unpublished data, as well as knowledge from a large set of taxonomists and ecologists in both groups. After providing the first National species lists for bees and hoverflies for many countries, we examine the current distributional patterns of these species and designate the countries with highest levels of species richness. We also show that many species are recorded in a single European country, highlighting the importance of articulating European and national conservation strategies. Finally, we discuss how the data provided here can be combined with future trait and Red List data to implement research that will further advance pollinator conservation