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result(s) for
"Simplification Of Life"
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Etiology, Pathogenesis, and Therapy According to Pierre Janet Concerning Conversion Disorders and Dissociative Disorders
2012
Pierre Janet's works on conversion disorders or dissociative disorders has mainly fallen to the wayside in favour of Freud's works. In the first part of this paper, Janet's conception of hysteria is discussed and his place in French psychiatry described. Different aspects of Janet's
diathesis-stress approach are presented (particularly the pathogenic concept of fixed ideas), which refer not only to a conception of hysteria but also to traumatic (stress) disorders and other psychological disturbances. The second part of the paper details the varieties of Janetian therapeutic
treatments of these disorders: the \"liquidation\" of fixed ideas by hypnosis and suggestion, confrontation techniques, which resemble contemporary cognitive behavioural approaches, and special cognitive (\"logagogic\") interventions. Finally, we discuss the various treatment strategies based
on psychoeconomic considerations such as physical or psycho-phyical therapies, psychoeducation, treatment through rest, and simplification of life for dealing with basic disturbances of psychic disorders.
Journal Article
Etiology, Pathogenesis, and Therapy According to Pierre Janet Concerning Conversion Disorders and Dissociative Disorders
by
Heim, Gerhard
,
Bühler, Karl-Ernst
in
Abreaction
,
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
,
Bankruptcy
2011
Pierre Janet's works on conversion disorders or dissociative disorders has mainly fallen to the wayside in favour of Freud's works. In the first part of this paper, Janet's conception of hysteria is discussed and his place in French psychiatry described. Different aspects of Janet's diathesis-stress approach are presented (particularly the pathogenic concept of fixed ideas), which refer not only to a conception of hysteria but also to traumatic (stress) disorders and other psychological disturbances. The second part of the paper details the varieties of Janetian therapeutic treatments of these disorders: the \"liquidation\" of fixed ideas by hypnosis and suggestion, confrontation techniques, which resemble contemporary cognitive behavioural approaches, and special cognitive (\"logagogic\") interventions. Finally, we discuss the various treatment strategies based on psychoeconomic considerations such as physical or psycho-phyical therapies, psychoeducation, treatment through rest, and simplification of life for dealing with basic disturbances of psychic disorders.
Journal Article
Changing taxonomic and functional β-diversity of cladoceran communities in Northeastern and South Brazil
by
Simões, Nadson R
,
Santos, Josiane S
,
Duré, Gustavo A
in
Anthropogenic factors
,
Aquatic ecosystems
,
Community composition
2020
Disturbances caused by both natural and anthropogenic forces can drive changes in alpha and beta taxonomic diversity and be accompanied by losses or gains in freshwater ecosystem function (e.g., secondary productivity and rate of decomposition). In this study, we tested the hypothesis that increases in cladoceran (microcrustaceans) taxonomic beta diversity in highly impacted environments lead to functional simplification and homogenization of community trait composition. This was accomplished by comparing a reference group of low-impact waterbodies (lakes and reservoirs) to high-impact waterbodies located in four regions of northeastern and south Brazil. Functional composition of cladoceran communities was inferred using a suite of morphological, physiological, behavioral, and life-history traits. Differences in taxonomic and functional community composition were tested using univariate and multivariate statistics. Taxonomic beta diversity and functional richness differed significantly between the reference (low-impact) and high-impact waterbodies, where high-impact environments showed higher taxonomic and functional beta diversity and lower functional richness. By contrast, we found functional homogenization of cladoceran communities in just one out of the four regions. Last, we propose that disturbances can affect traits locally in communities, making them rarer until they are lost, by promoting functional simplification. When disturbances are persistent, they lead to functional and taxonomic homogenization.
Journal Article
Crop pests and predators exhibit inconsistent responses to surrounding landscape composition
by
Albrecht, Matthias
,
Peterson, Julie A.
,
Jones, Laura
in
Agricultural Science
,
Agricultural sciences
,
Animals
2018
The idea that noncrop habitat enhances pest control and represents a win–win opportunity to conserve biodiversity and bolster yields has emerged as an agroecological paradigm. However, while noncrop habitat in landscapes surrounding farms sometimes benefits pest predators, natural enemy responses remain heterogeneous across studies and effects on pests are inconclusive. The observed heterogeneity in species responses to noncrop habitat may be biological in origin or could result from variation in how habitat and biocontrol are measured. Here, we use a pest-control database encompassing 132 studies and 6,759 sites worldwide to model natural enemy and pest abundances, predation rates, and crop damage as a function of landscape composition. Our results showed that although landscape composition explained significant variation within studies, pest and enemy abundances, predation rates, crop damage, and yields each exhibited different responses across studies, sometimes increasing and sometimes decreasing in landscapes with more noncrop habitat but overall showing no consistent trend. Thus, models that used landscape-composition variables to predict pest-control dynamics demonstrated little potential to explain variation across studies, though prediction did improve when comparing studies with similar crop and landscape features. Overall, our work shows that surrounding noncrop habitat does not consistently improve pest management, meaning habitat conservation may bolster production in some systems and depress yields in others. Future efforts to develop tools that inform farmers when habitat conservation truly represents a win–win would benefit from increased understanding of how landscape effects are modulated by local farm management and the biology of pests and their enemies.
Journal Article
Landscape simplification reduces classical biological control and crop yield
by
Poveda, Katja
,
Grab, Heather
,
Danforth, Bryan
in
Agricultural land
,
agricultural landscape simplification
,
Agricultural production
2018
Agricultural intensification resulting in the simplification of agricultural landscapes is known to negatively impact the delivery of key ecosystem services such as the biological control of crop pests. Both conservation and classical biological control may be influenced by the landscape context in which they are deployed; yet studies examining the role of landscape structure in the establishment and success of introduced natural enemies and their interactions with native communities are lacking. In this study, we investigated the relationship between landscape simplification, classical and conservation biological control services and importantly, the outcome of these interactions for crop yield. We showed that agricultural simplification at the landscape scale is associated with an overall reduction in parasitism rates of crop pests. Additionally, only introduced parasitoids were identified, and no native parasitoids were found in crop habitat, irrespective of agricultural landscape simplification. Pest densities in the crop were lower in landscapes with greater proportions of semi-natural habitats. Furthermore, farms with less semi-natural cover in the landscape and consequently, higher pest numbers, had lower yields than farms in less agriculturally dominated landscapes. Our study demonstrates the importance of landscape scale agricultural simplification in mediating the success of biological control programs and highlights the potential risks to native natural enemies in classical biological control programs against native insects. Our results represent an important contribution to an understanding of the landscape-mediated impacts on crop yield tha t will be essential to implementing effective policies that simultaneously conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services.
Journal Article
A Model Simplification Algorithm for 3D Reconstruction
by
Zhang, Chengcheng
,
Liu, Zhendong
,
Cai, Haolin
in
Aerial photography
,
Algorithms
,
calibrated images
2022
Mesh simplification is an effective way to solve the contradiction between 3D models and limited transmission bandwidth and smooth model rendering. The existing mesh simplification algorithms usually have problems of texture distortion, deformation of different degrees, and no texture simplification. In this paper, a model simplification algorithm suitable for 3D reconstruction is proposed by taking full advantage of the recovered 3D scene structure and calibrated images. First, the reference 3D model scene is constructed on the basis of the original mesh; second, the images are collected on the basis of the reference 3D model scene; then, the mesh and texture are simplified by using the reference image set combined with the QEM algorithm. Lastly, the 3D model data of a town in Tengzhou are used for experimental verification. The results show that the algorithm proposed in this paper basically has no texture distortion and deformation problems in texture simplification and can effectively reduce the amount of texture data, with good feasibility.
Journal Article
Diverse approaches to crop diversification in agricultural research. A review
by
Ewert, Frank
,
Reckling, Moritz
,
Hufnagel, Johannes
in
Adaptability
,
Agricultural land
,
Agricultural practices
2020
Agricultural intensification increased crop productivity but simplified production with lower diversity of cropping systems, higher genetic uniformity, and a higher uniformity of agricultural landscapes. Associated detrimental effects on the environment and biodiversity as well as the resilience and adaptability of cropping systems to climate change are of growing concern. Crop diversification may stabilize productivity of cropping systems and reduce negative environmental impacts and loss of biodiversity, but a shared understanding of crop diversification including approaches towards a more systematic research is lacking. Here, we review the use of ‘crop diversification’ measures in agricultural research. We (i) analyse changes in crop diversification studies over time; (ii) identify diversification practices based on empirical studies; (iii) differentiate their use by country, crop species and experimental setup and (iv) identify target parameters to assess the success of diversification. Our main findings are that (1) less than 5% of the selected studies on crop diversification refer to our search term ‘diversification’; (2) more than half of the studies focused on rice, corn or wheat; (3) 76% of the experiments were conducted in India, USA, Canada, Brazil or China; (4) almost any arable crop was tested on its suitability for diversification; (5) in 72% of the studies on crop diversification, at least one additional agronomic measure was tested and (6) only 45% of the studies analysed agronomic, economic and ecological target variables. Our findings show the high variability of approaches to crop diversification and the lack of a consistent theoretical concept. For better comparability and ability to generalise the results of the different primary studies, we suggest a novel conceptual framework. It consists of five elements, (i) definition of the problem of existing farming practices and the potential need for diversification, (ii) characterisation of the baseline system to be diversified, (iii) definition of the scale and target area, (iv) description of the experimental design and target variables and (v) definition of the expected impacts. Applying this framework will contribute to utilizing the benefits of crop diversification more efficiently.
Journal Article
A simplified synthetic community rescues Astragalus mongholicus from root rot disease by activating plant-induced systemic resistance
2021
Background
Plant health and growth are negatively affected by pathogen invasion; however, plants can dynamically modulate their rhizosphere microbiome and adapt to such biotic stresses. Although plant-recruited protective microbes can be assembled into synthetic communities for application in the control of plant disease, rhizosphere microbial communities commonly contain some taxa at low abundance. The roles of low-abundance microbes in synthetic communities remain unclear; it is also unclear whether all the microbes enriched by plants can enhance host adaptation to the environment. Here, we assembled a synthetic community with a disease resistance function based on differential analysis of root-associated bacterial community composition. We further simplified the synthetic community and investigated the roles of low-abundance bacteria in the control of
Astragalus mongholicus
root rot disease by a simple synthetic community.
Results
Fusarium oxysporum
infection reduced bacterial Shannon diversity and significantly affected the bacterial community composition in the rhizosphere and roots of
Astragalus mongholicus
. Under fungal pathogen challenge,
Astragalus mongholicus
recruited some beneficial bacteria such as
Stenotrophomonas
,
Achromobacter
,
Pseudomonas
, and
Flavobacterium
to the rhizosphere and roots. We constructed a disease-resistant bacterial community containing 10 high- and three low-abundance bacteria enriched in diseased roots. After the joint selection of plants and pathogens, the complex synthetic community was further simplified into a four-species community composed of three high-abundance bacteria (
Stenotrophomonas
sp.,
Rhizobium
sp.,
Ochrobactrum
sp.) and one low-abundance bacterium (
Advenella
sp.). Notably, a simple community containing these four strains and a thirteen-species community had similar effects on the control root rot disease. Furthermore, the simple community protected plants via a synergistic effect of highly abundant bacteria inhibiting fungal pathogen growth and less abundant bacteria activating plant-induced systemic resistance.
Conclusions
Our findings suggest that bacteria with low abundance play an important role in synthetic communities and that only a few bacterial taxa enriched in diseased roots are associated with disease resistance. Therefore, the construction and simplification of synthetic communities found in the present study could be a strategy employed by plants to adapt to environmental stress.
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Video abstract
Journal Article
Efficient long fragment editing technique enables large-scale and scarless bacterial genome engineering
2020
Bacteria are versatile living systems that enhance our understanding of nature and enable biosynthesis of valuable chemicals. Long fragment editing techniques are of great importance for accelerating bacterial genome engineering to obtain desirable and genetically stable strains. However, the existing genome editing methods cannot meet the needs of engineers. We herein report an efficient long fragment editing method for large-scale and scarless genome engineering in Escherichia coli. The method enabled us to insert DNA fragments up to 12 kb into the genome and to delete DNA fragments up to 186.7 kb from the genome, with positive rates over 95%. We applied this method for E. coli genome simplification, resulting in 12 individual deletion mutants and four cumulative deletion mutants. The simplest genome lost a total of 370.6 kb of DNA sequence containing 364 open reading frames. Additionally, we applied this technique to metabolic engineering and obtained a genetically stable plasmid-independent isobutanol production strain that produced 1.3 g/L isobutanol via shake-flask fermentation. These results suggest that the method is a powerful genome engineering tool, highlighting its potential to be applied in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering.Key points• This article reports an efficient genome engineering tool for E. coli.• The tool is advantageous for the manipulations of long DNA fragments.• The tool has been successfully applied for genome simplification.• The tool has been successfully applied for metabolic engineering.
Journal Article
Habitat enhancements rescue bee body size from the negative effects of landscape simplification
by
Poveda, Katja
,
Gibbs, Jason
,
Grab, Heather
in
Agricultural land
,
Agricultural management
,
Animal behavior
2019
The negative effects of landscape simplification on bee communities are well documented. To reverse these effects, flowering habitat enhancements are designed to provide supplemental nutritional resources for wild bees and are particularly important when few resources are available in the surrounding landscape. Yet, it is not known whether or how habitat enhancements support bee populations under varying landscape contexts. Body size is a morphological trait that is strongly linked to foraging ability, immune function, and fitness in bees. Landscape simplification has been associated with size declines across bee taxa and smaller body size can be an early indicator of environmental stress. To determine whether the negative effects of landscape simplification on body size can be improved by adding floral resources to farm landscapes, we measured the body size of 10 wild bee species collected at 70 sites with or without habitat enhancements in Michigan and New York. Bees were collected at sites with varying amounts of agriculture in the surrounding landscape, allowing us to test whether morphological responses to enhancements are affected by landscape simplification. Half of the bee species measured exhibited declining body size across the landscape gradient. Among these species, declines were buffered by the presence of habitat enhancements suggesting this response is the result of improved nutrition, reduced need for long‐distance foraging, enhanced recruitment of larger individuals or a combination of these mechanisms. Declines in body size were strongest in both the smallest and the largest species. Large and medium sized species exhibited the greatest response to flowering habitat enhancements. Synthesis and applications. At sites with high agricultural cover, we observed intraspecific body size declines among many species; however, we did not observe decreased body size in any species at sites with a flowering habitat enhancement. Therefore, our findings suggest that the presence of flowering habitat enhancements can support wild bees experiencing stress from intensively managed agricultural landscapes across multiple cropping systems and regions. At sites with high agricultural cover, we observed intraspecific body size declines among many species; however, we did not observe decreased body size in any species at sites with a flowering habitat enhancement. Therefore, our findings suggest that the presence of flowering habitat enhancements can support wild bees experiencing stress from intensively managed agricultural landscapes across multiple cropping systems and regions.
Journal Article