Plant nutrition in Spanish secondary textbooks

In this paper, the authors analyse the conceptual contents related to plant nutrition in the widely-used school texts of six Spanish publishers. An analysis dossier was elaborated based on the epistemological and pedagogical study of this subject. The publishers deal with the issue of plant nutrition at three different levels (multicellular, cellular and ecosystem) and they establish a conceptual progression. Furthermore, they include a great number of concepts which they deal with in the texts. However, not all of the texts promote the development of a global conception of plant nutrition.     

School start times matter,eveningness does not

ABSTRACT

Morningness–Eveningness (M–E) has been associated with school performance when school activities are arranged early in the morning. This study aims to evaluate this association in 224 adolescents of a secondary school in Montevideo, Uruguay, attending either morning or afternoon shifts. Students’ socio-demographic characteristics and performance indicators were similar across shifts, while afternoon-shift students exhibited later circadian preferences. After controlling for socio-demographic and other educational variables, eveningness was associated with lower grades only in morning-shift students. Our study suggests that eveningness influence on school performance is contingent on the temporal arrangement of scholar activities.     

Teaching in nature? Naturally!

Elementary school children spend less and less time outdoors in nature. In this way they will neither become familiar with plants and animals in their environment, nor will their environmental awareness develop. The solution for them would be to spend more quality time outdoors. In this work 170 teachers from Hungary and 170 teachers from Serbia shared their experiences and opinions about outdoor education. The aim was to determine whether they thought that outdoor classes were an effective method to bring pupils closer to nature. The research showed that teachers from both countries found teaching in a real environment vital but could not always implement it. They need help in the form of ideas, teaching programs and professional development courses to be confident and motivated to hold more outdoor classes.     

Designing research funding schemes to promote global health equity: An exploration of current practice in health systems research

International research is an essential means of reducing health disparities between and within countries and should do so as a matter of global justice. Research funders from high‐income countries have an obligation of justice to support health research in low and middle‐income countries (LMICs) that furthers such objectives. This paper investigates how their current funding schemes are designed to incentivise health systems research in LMICs that promotes health equity. Semi‐structured in‐depth interviews were performed with 16 grants officers working for 11 funders and organisations that support health systems research: the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, Comic Relief, Doris Duke Foundation, European Commission, International Development Research Centre, Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Research Council of Norway, Rockefeller Foundation, UK Department of International Development, UK Medical Research Council, and Wellcome Trust. Thematic analysis of the data demonstrates their funding schemes promote health systems research with (up to) five key features that advance health equity: being conducted with worst‐off populations, focusing on research topics that advance equitable health systems, having LMIC ownership of the research agenda, strengthening LMIC research capacity, and having an impact on health disparities. The different types of incentives that encouraged proposed projects to have these features are identified and classified by their strength (strong, moderate, weak). It is suggested that research funders ought to create and maintain funding schemes with strong incentives for the features identified above in order to more effectively help reduce global health disparities.     

学生参与的大学校园景观设计研究—以清华大学为例

校园通过环境育人的作用潜移默化地影响着学生的成长,校园景观设计研究已成为设计类专业学生学位论文及设计课选题的主要对象之一。清华大学的教学与实践中,设计类专业学生参与校园景观营造的过程主要与其专业学习相结合,本科生与研究生各有侧重。非设计类专业学生是校园学生使用者中的多数,其参与过程以公众参与理论为指导,通过多种形式进行。合理进行资源整合与计划协调,校园景观设计研究可以成为学生价值塑造、能力培养、知识传授的理想平台。     

建筑与庭院“共舞”—以清华大学八家附小建筑设计为例

建筑和庭院的关系一直以来是建筑学重要的研究课题之一。以清华大学八家附小建筑与庭院设计为例进行研究,提出建筑与庭院“共舞”的理念,总结了形成庭院格局的3种设计模式和庭院的3种设计模式。试图创造建筑和庭院“共舞”的校园环境,探寻其连续而整体的、丰富而多层次的美,是本设计与研究的努力目标。     

The Prognostic Value of Tumor-Infiltrating lymphocytes in Stage II Colon Cancer. A Nationwide Population-Based Study

BACKGROUND: Additional prognostic markers are needed for better treatment stratification of stage II colon cancer (CC). We investigated the prognostic value of tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) in a true population-based cohort of patients with stage II CC. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A total of 573 patients were included. Tumor blocks representing the deepest invasive part of the primary tumor were used for analysis. CD3+ and CD8+ TILs at the invasive front were evaluated by immunohistochemistry on whole tumor sections. The invasive area was manually outlined, and Visiopharm Integrator System software was used for quantification. Data were dichotomized for comparison with clinical data. The prognostic value was investigated in Cox proportional-hazard models for recurrence-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: Low CD3+ or CD8+ TILs were significantly associated with poor RFS and OS (P?=?.0021 and P?≤?.0009, respectively, log-rank test). In multiple Cox regression analysis, low CD3+ and CD8+ TILs were associated with reduced RFS with hazard ratio (HR)?=?1.386 (95% CI 1.039-1.850), P?=?.026, and HR?=?1.394 (95% CI 1.029-1.890), P?=?.032, respectively, independent of age, T-stage, localization, perforation, and microsatellite instability (MSI). In the subgroups of patients with low CD3+ or CD8+ TILs, there was no difference in survival between patients with MSI and microsatellite-stable tumors, (P?=?.821 and P?=?.907, respectively). CONCLUSION: Low CD3+ and CD8+ TILs in the invasive area are both related to inferior prognosis of stage II CC, and we recommend either of these parameters to be considered as additional high-risk factor.     

Scaling of the marsupial middle ear and its functional significance

The marsupial middle ear performs an anatomical impedance matching for acoustic energy travelling in air to reach the cochlea. The size of the middle ear sets constraints for the frequencies transmitted. For generalized placental mammals, it has been shown that the limit for high-frequency hearing can be predicted on the basis of middle ear ossicle mass, provided that the ears fulfil requirements of isometry. We studied the interspecific size variation of the middle ear in 23 marsupial species, with the following measurable parameters: skull mass, condylobasal length, ossicular masses for malleus, incus and stapes, tympanic membrane area, oval window area, and lever arm lengths for malleus and incus. Our results show that the middle ear size grows with negative allometry in relation to body size and that the internal proportions of the marsupial middle ear are largely isometric. This resembles the situation in placental mammals and allows us to use their isometric middle ear model to predict the high-frequency hearing limit for marsupials. We found that the isometry model predicts the high-frequency hearing limit for different marsupials well, indicating that marsupials can be used as auditory models for general therian mammalian hearing. At very high frequencies, other factors, such as the inner ear, seem to constrain mammalian hearing.     

Ecological risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in surface sediments from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River,China

In this research, ecological risks for eight individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and ∑PAH₈ in surface sediments from middle and lower reaches of Yellow River are evaluated using overlapping areas of probability density curves and margin of safety (MOS), based on the toxicity data and the exposure concentrations of PAHs in sediments collected from 23 sites. In the overlapping areas of probability density curves, the risk of Ant and Pyr are the highest, then the risk level is in the order of Flua > Nap > Phe > BaP > Flu > Ace. The values of MOS₁₀ present that Pyr (4.62 × 10^?4), Ant (5.60 × 10^?3), and Flua (6.4 × 10^?3) have a significantly high ecological risk level, while Nap and Phe have middle-level ecological risk. As for Ace, BaP, and Flu, they pose limited risk to the ecological system with MOS₁₀ greater than 1.0. The ∑PAH₈ (2.66 × 10^?5) is a higher risk level than that of any individual PAHs, where the probabilities of ∑PAH₈ in excess of the 10th percentile of the toxicity data were 86%.