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The uncanny valley of a virtual animal.

The relationship between challenging behaviour and anxiety in adults with intellectual disabilities: a literature review

Background Anxiety and challenging behaviour (CB) often occur simultaneously in people with intellectual disabilities (ID). Understanding the associations between anxiety and CB may contribute to more accurate diagnoses and management of both anxiety and CB in this population. Aims To examine the relationship between anxiety and CB. Methods A literature review covering the period from January 2000 to January 2012. Results Seven studies about the relationship between psychiatric disorders, including anxiety, and CB were identified. These studies confirm the relationship between anxiety and CB in people with ID, although the precise nature of this relationship remains unclear. Conclusions The study points toward the existence of a moderate association between anxiety and CB. Further research is needed to clarify the complex nature of the association between anxiety and CB.

Just preservation and the half-earth view

For interspecies justice, animal welfare, and animal rights, the planet needs to be divided on the basis of species' natural resource requirements. The Half-Earth View is that to maintain viable populations of the Earth's remaining species, half of landscapes and seascapes need protection from intensive economic activity. This protection is needed outside the nature preserve system, such as in agricultural areas or cities, so nature can co-exist with local communities. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenkopnina/

How Faculty in The Hague University of Applied Sciences Uses the Scoring Rubric for Information Literacy

The aim of this research was to gain evidence based arguments for the use of the scoring rubric for performance assessment of information literacy [1] in Dutch Universities of Applied Sciences. Faculty members from four different departments of The Hague University were interviewed on the ways in which they use the scoring rubric and their arguments for it. A fifth lecturer answered the main question by email. The topic list, which has been used as a guide for the interviews, was based on subject analysis of scholar literature on rubric use. Four of the five respondents used (parts of) the rubric for the measurement of students’ performances in information use but none of them used the rubric as it is. What the faculty staff told the researcher is that the rubric helped them to improve the grading criteria for existing assignments. Only one respondent used the rubric itself, but this lecturer extended it with some new criteria on writing skills. It was also discovered that the rubric is not only used for grading but also for the development of new learning content on research skills. [De hier gepubliceerde versie is het 'accepted paper' van het origineel dat is gepubliceerd op www.springerlink.com . De officiële publicatie kan worden gedownload op http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-03919-0_58]

Dieter Eckstein's bibliography and legacy of connection to wood biology and tree-ring science

Prof. Dr. Dieter Eckstein (1939 - 2021) significantly influenced the global development of dendrochronology and the underlying science of wood biology. Eckstein’s research areas included dendroclimatology, xylogenesis, ecophysiology, and quantitative wood anatomy. His personal and collaborative work continues to improve our understanding of both the natural environment and human cultural development. The techniques he developed and championed resolved long-standing difficulties in the application of tree-ring science to understand both natural processes and human effects on tree and forest development. As importantly, he nurtured and promoted both the careers and the lives of many fellow scholars and students around the world. Here we present a systematic bibliography of more than 280 publications that illustrates the development of tree-ring research in Europe and elsewhere throughout the almost 50 years of Eckstein’s career. Throughout his scientific career, Eckstein pioneered, developed, and promoted research opportunities with his students and co-workers at the University of Hamburg and beyond. His greatest legacy for his students and colleagues, and which we are challenged to continue, is to continue to build the international spirit of a "dendrofamily".

Urban Innovation Systems

Introduction: There are good reasons to study urban innovation from a systemic perspective. A key finding in innovation research is that organizations rarely innovate in isolation, but in interaction with clients, competitors, suppliers, and other organizations. A system perspective is useful in understanding and analyzing these interactions. Cities and urban regions are increasingly recognized as key milieus in which these interactions occur. The urban innovation system approach conceptualizes the city or urban region as a context in which innovations emerge from complex interactions between urban actors—firms, citizens, governments, knowledge institutes— in a particular institutional setting. The systemic view of innovation departs from traditional linear models that depict innovation as a staged process that starts with (basic) scientific research and ends with commercialization by companies. Innovation processes are much more complex and diverse, influenced by multiple actors that interact in networks with feedback loops, and involving many types of knowledge beyond scientific knowledge. Urban innovation systems are nested in innovation systems on other spatial levels—regional, national, international. Studies on urban innovation systems seek to explain how innovations emerge in an urban context, why urban regions differ in their innovative performance, and also address questions on the governance and management of such systems. Studies in this field draw from a variety of disciplines including economic geography, urban and regional economics, political sciences, innovation studies, social sciences, and urban planning.