Search results for "SITE"
showing 10 items of 8388 documents
Ecosystem health and planetary well-being
2024
Healthy ecosystems support the well-being of all organisms on Earth. Yet, the overexploitation of natural resources for human needs and profit has resulted in widespread ecosystem degradation, loss of biodiversity, and climate emergency, which pose fundamental threats to planetary well-being. Impoverished ecosystems may become dysfunctional and fail to provide for the needs of many organisms, including humans and wildlife. Changes in ecosystem functioning and wildlife distributions affect the prevalence and spread of pathogens, with consequences for the health and well-being of human and wildlife communities alike. Increasing contact between humans and domestic and wild animals enable patho…
Extinction risk indices for measuring and promoting planetary well-being
2024
The concept of planetary well-being, which stresses the persistence of lineages in ecosystems, is intimately linked to species extinction risk. Avoiding extinctions is a moral issue, as wiping out the outcomes of eons of evolutionary history and their future potential is clearly unconscionable. The concept of planetary well-being is also systemic: It is understood that species, as integral parts of ecosystems, are vital for the well-being of all systems on Earth. Yet, despite international agreements to protect biodiversity, global biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation has continued unimpeded over the past decades. We review the role of goals and targets in the UN Convention on Biolog…
Introduction to interdisciplinary perspectives on planetary well-being
2024
This chapter gives an overview of the objectives of the book, presents its structure, and summarizes the content of each section and chapter. It introduces planetary well-being as a novel cross-disciplinary concept coined to foster global transformation to a more inclusive and equal expression of well-being for all. The chapter describes how researchers from different human, social, and natural sciences apply and reflect on the concept of planetary well-being in this book, demonstrating its value as an interdisciplinary and cross-cutting driver of change. The Introduction concludes that sustainability science and policy need a concept of well-being that is built on systemic and non-anthropo…
A landscape approach to planetary well-being
2024
“Landscape” refers to a perceivable spatial level shaped by socio-ecological interactions and represents the systems where people live. Human societies have globally transformed landscapes to meet their needs, e.g., nutrition or shelter, according to cultural preferences. This human domination of land has resulted in considerable competition for space with other lifeforms, driving biodiversity loss through land-use change and intensification, as well as coming into conflict with planetary well-being. Recent research has highlighted the relevance of the landscape level when articulating human activities with and in their environment and maintaining human and nonhuman cohabitation. Indeed, th…
Fracture and fatigue of titanium narrow dental implants: New trends in order to improve the mechanical response
2019
Sixty-four fractured commercially pure titanium (cp-Ti) narrow dental implants (NDIs) with similar macrogeometry and connection designs were studied after different implantation times in humans in order to determine their reliability and to evaluate the causes of the fracture. These NDIs were compared with other similar implants, made with alloyed titanium with 15% Zr and with 12% strained titanium. Original implants were tested under static and fatigue conditions, simulating the tri-axial loads in the mouth by means of a Bionix hydraulic test machine. Fractography was studied using field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FSEM). The results showed that cp-Ti NDI exhibits low strength f…
Speaking of politics in parliament : experiences of writing a book on the digitized Bundestag debates, 1949–2017
2022
This article consists of ex post methodological reflections on the procedures and practices that I applied in my monograph Politik als parlamentarischer Begriff: Perspektiven aus den Plenardebatten des Deutschen Bundestags (Leverkusen, 2021). The book analyses through 18 parliamentary terms the conceptualization of politics in German Bundestag plenary debates from 1949 to 2017. The book was an illustration of my long-term aim of combining political theorizing with the empirical analysis of debate. In writing the book, my guiding idea was to apply Ludwig Wittgenstein’s point, that the meaning of a concept lies in its use, to an analysis of how parliamentary debates open a perspective on the …
The relationship between genetic diversity of an annelid worm, Pygospio elegans, and local invertebrate species diversity
2016
Ympäristön monimuotoisuutta mitataan pääasiassa erilaisten biologisten yksiköiden lukumäärinä. Populaatiogenetiikassa ne ovat geenejä tai alleeleja yhden lajin sisällä, yhteisöekologiassa puolestaan lajeja eliöyhteisöjen sisällä. Molemmat näistä monimuotoisuuden tasoista – lajin sisäinen ja lajien välinen monimuotoisuus – muokkautuvat ekologisten ja evolutiivisten prosessien kautta, jotka puolestaan syntyvät ympäristön olosuhteista. Ympäristön ominaisuuksien ja niistä syntyvien prosessien tiedetään vaikuttavan molempiin monimuotoisuuden tasoihin samankaltaisesti: tämän teorian mukaan niiden välillä tulisi siten löytyä positiivinen korrelaatio. Tässä tutkimuksessa pyrin etsimään laajalti huo…
Spatial variation of benthic macroinvertebrate biodiversity in boreal streams : biogeographic context and conservation implications
2002
Biodiversity patterns of most lotic animal and plant groups remain poorly known, which hinders the implementation of effective conservation, monitoring, and restoration programs. The major aims of this thesis were (i) to examine spatial variation in macroinvertebrate assemblage structure and diversity across natural environmental gradients, and (ii) to assess the utility of such information as the basis of stream conservation programs.
New composite materials made up of nanofibers and hydrogel as biomimetic scaffolds for human pluripotent stem cell culture
2014
Polypropylene/polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane nanocomposites – study of free volumes, crystallinity degree and mass flow rate
2016
Nanokompozyty polipropylen/poliedryczne oligomeryczne silseskwioksany (PP/POSS) przygotowano metodą mieszania w stanie stopionym polimeru. Wpływ struktury oraz ilości zastosowanych nanonapełniaczy POSS na objętości swobodne w polipropylenie określono z zastosowaniem spektroskopii czasów życia pozytonów (PALS). Ustalono zależności pomiędzy parametrami PALS: czasem życia o-Ps (τ3) i natężeniem (I3) składowej o-Ps oraz wartościami stopnia krystaliczności (Xc ) i masowego wskaźnika szybkości płynięcia (MFR) badanych materiałów. Obecność nanonapełniaczy POSS wpłynęła na liczbę i rozmiary objętości swobodnych w polimerze, co spowodowało zmianę mikrostruktury osnowy polipropylenowej. Wraz ze zwięk…