Protocol for Development of American Association of Clinical Endocrinology Clinical Practice Guidelines and Consensus Statements: Summary of Methodology,Process, and Policy – 2023 Update

ObjectiveThis 2023 updated protocol summarizes the American Association of Clinical Endocrinology’s (AACE’s) new framework for the development of clinical practice guidelines and other guidance documents that includes changes to methodology, processes, and policies.MethodsAACE has critically reviewed its development processes for guidance documents over the last several years against the National Academy of Medicine Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Council of Medical Specialty Societies Principles for Development of Specialty Society Clinical Guidelines to determine areas for improvement.ResultsThe new AACE framework for development of guidance documents incorporates many changes, including a revised conflicts of interest (COI) policy; strengthened commitment to collection of disclosures and management of relevant COI during development; open calls to membership for authors; new requirements for authors; new diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policy; new empanelment process that incorporates consideration of DEI; and adoption of the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology to increase the quality of evidence assessment and standardize recommendation grades and statements, among other improvements.ConclusionsAACE has revised its policies and adopted a completely new methodology for guideline development in support of the mission to elevate the practice of clinical endocrinology to improve patient care. With the use of an evidence-based medicine framework and by continually assessing and improving its processes for development of guidance, AACE strives to deliver trustworthy, unbiased, and up-to-date information that ensures clinician and patient confidence in AACE content. Further, AACE hopes that these enhancements foster a more collaborative approach to development and increase engagement with the worldwide medical community to improve global health.     

Unity and diversity in human language

Human language is both highly diverse-different languages have different ways of achieving the same functional goals-and easily learnable. Any language allows its users to express virtually any thought they can conceptualize. These traits render human language unique in the biological world. Understanding the biological basis of language is thus both extremely challenging and fundamentally interesting. I review the literature on linguistic diversity and language universals, suggesting that an adequate notion of 'formal universals' provides a promising way to understand the facts of language acquisition, offering order in the face of the diversity of human languages. Formal universals are cross-linguistic generalizations, often of an abstract or implicational nature. They derive from cognitive capacities to perceive and process particular types of structures and biological constraints upon integration of the multiple systems involved in language. Such formal universals can be understood on the model of a general solution to a set of differential equations; each language is one particular solution. An explicit formal conception of human language that embraces both considerable diversity and underlying biological unity is possible, and fully compatible with modern evolutionary theory.     

多维教学资源下的混合式微生物学实验教学创新

微生物学实验是高校生物技术等相关专业的核心实践课程,具有实践性和应用性强的特点,对学生的高阶创新实践能力培养至关重要。但当前教学存在课程内容抽象繁杂、理论与实践联系不紧密以及学生缺乏持续内驱力等问题,不能满足新时代对人才培养的要求。为此,本课程团队以新建微生物学实验课程思政体系为育人基础,基于现代信息技术自建了多维教学资源环境平台,以满足个性化学习需求;通过采用双向互馈的混合式教学方法,将理论知识与实验相融合,改革实验内容,建立了具有探索性质、科教融合的\"三独\"项目型实验,并采用全程参与、动态多元多维的评价体系。上述课程改革激发了学生的学习热情和兴趣,显著提升了学习效果,培养了学生的高阶实践创新思维能力和综合素质。     

Effect of primer mismatch, annealing temperature and PCR cycle number on 16S rRNA gene-targetting bacterial community analysis

In the attempt to explore complex bacterial communities of environmental samples, primers hybridizing to phylogenetically highly conserved regions of 16S rRNA genes are widely used, but differential amplification is a recognized problem. The biases associated with preferential amplification of multitemplate PCR were investigated using 'universal' bacteria-specific primers, focusing on the effect of primer mismatch, annealing temperature and PCR cycle number. The distortion of the template-to-product ratio was measured using predefined template mixtures and environmental samples by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis. When a 1 : 1 genomic DNA template mixture of two strains was used, primer mismatches inherent in the 63F primer presented a serious bias, showing preferential amplification of the template containing the perfectly matching sequence. The extent of the preferential amplification showed an almost exponential relation with increasing annealing temperature from 47 to 61 degrees C. No negative effect of the various annealing temperatures was observed with the 27F primer, with no mismatches with the target sequences. The number of PCR cycles had little influence on the template-to-product ratios. As a result of additional tests on environmental samples, the use of a low annealing temperature is recommended in order to significantly reduce preferential amplification while maintaining the specificity of PCR.     

峨眉山世界遗产地植物多样性全球突出普遍价值及保护

该研究在申遗文本和大量文献资料的基础上,以峨眉山世界遗产地原生植物及植被群落为研究对象,从物种多样性、物种组成、植物区系、植被类型及垂直分布格局等方面,分析论证了峨眉山世界遗产地植物多样性的全球突出普遍价值,并简要概述了当前峨眉山世界遗产地植物受威胁状况以及在保护与发展中出现的问题。结果表明:(1)峨眉山世界遗产地目前拥有高等植物242科3 200种以上,特有植物、孑遗植物种类丰富。(2)与中国其他湿润性亚热带山地森林垂直带谱相比,峨眉山亚热带森林植被类型完整,常绿阔叶林东部类型在山地垂直带谱中占据显著地位,海拔上限最高,跨度最大,具有典型的亚热带常绿阔叶林东部亚区森林群落特点。(3)植物区系复杂,既有热带、亚热带和温带植物区系成份,又有中国—日本与中国—喜马拉雅植物区系分布。(4)受人为活动(旅游发展、基础设施建设等)和自然扰动(气候变暖、地质灾害等)影响,峨眉山世界遗产地植物多样性下降明显,珍稀濒危植物受威胁程度增加,典型群落面积退化,稳定性降低。建议在划定珍稀植物保护区,对植物栖息地进行专门保护的基础上,开展植物多样性、环境因子、人为活动动态监测,预见性地保护其突出普遍价值,实现世界遗产地的可持续发展。     

生态补偿权衡关系研究进展

生态补偿是以市场机制解决环境外部性问题的方法,其典型特征是通过经济激励而实现生态系统保护和减贫的双赢,因此在世界范围内得到了广泛实施。权衡关系是生态补偿理论和实践中面临的问题和困境之一。生态补偿存在4种权衡关系:生态系统服务之间的权衡、监测成本与交易成本之间的权衡、公平与效率之间的权衡以及生态系统服务供应与减贫之间的权衡。分析了权衡关系的产生源于生态系统服务产生过程的不确定性、自然和社会经济系统的耦合性以及生态补偿实施背景的异质性,并提出应该在理论基础、实践模式和评估系统3个方面加强权衡关系的研究。     

Why are many anthropogenic agroecosystems particularly species-rich?

Species-rich meadow and pasture habitats are recognised by the European Union Habitats Directive as targets for biodiversity conservation. High species richness is hypothesised to be associated with diversity in plant functional traits and life-history strategies, which are potentially restricted in situations of extremely high and low biomass production. However, variability in functional traits has yet to be investigated across a broad biomass range in nature. We measured variability in a range of functional traits and Grime's competitor, stress-tolerator, ruderal (CSR) strategies for species comprising lowland meadows, subalpine pastures, abandoned grassland and field margins at sites in northern Italy, alongside peak above-ground biomass. The factor most highly and positively correlated with species richness was strategy richness (the number of CSR strategies; Pearson's r = 0.864, P < 0.0001, n = 39), followed by variance in traits involved in leaf resource economics and the timing of flowering. Species richness, trait variance and strategy richness were greatest at intermediate biomass. Thus whilst extremes of biomass production were associated with relatively few taxa exhibiting similar trait values and specialised strategies, greater species richness was apparent in meadows and pastures in which species exhibited divergence in resource economics trait values, reproductive timing and strategy richness.