Thompson Rivers University

Ruminant livestock are important sources of human food and global greenhouse gas emissions. Feed degradation and methane formation by ruminants rely on metabolic interactions between rumen microbes and affect ruminant productivity. Rumen and camelid foregut microbial community composition was determined in 742 samples from 32 animal species and 35 countries, to estimate if this was influenced by diet, host species, or geography. Similar bacteria and archaea dominated in nearly all samples, while protozoal communities were more variable. The dominant bacteria are poorly characterised, but the methanogenic archaea are better known and highly conserved across the world. This universality and limited diversity could make it possible to mitigate methane emissions by developing strategies that target the few dominant methanogens. Differences in microbial community compositions were predominantly attributable to diet, with the host being less influential. There were few strong co-occurrence patterns between microbes, suggesting that major metabolic interactions are non-selective rather than specific.

Brand equity is a valuable yet fragile asset. The mounting frequency of product-harm crises and ill-prepared corporate responses to such crises can have profound consequences for brand equity. Yet there is little research on the marketing impact of crises. The authors employ the expectations–evidence framework to understand the impact of firms' responses to crises on customer-based brand equity. The results of a field survey and two laboratory experiments indicate that consumers interpret firm response on the basis of their prior expectations about the firm. The interaction of expectations and firm response is shown to affect postcrisis brand equity. The authors draw implications for the expectations–evidence framework and for the outcomes of different types of firm response (i.e., unambiguous support, ambiguous response, and unambiguous stonewalling) on brand equity.

Leisure travelers increasingly prefer to book hotel online when considering the convenience and cost/time saving. This research examines the direct and mediating effects of brand image, perceived price, trust, perceived value on consumers' booking intentions and compares the gender differences in online hotel booking. The outcomes confirm most of the direct and indirect path effects and are consistent with findings from previous studies. Consumers in Taiwan tend to believe the hotel price is affordable, the hotel brand is attractive, the hotel is trustworthy, the hotel will offer good value for the price and the likelihood of their booking intentions is high. Brand image, perceived price, and perceived value are the three critical determinants directly influencing purchase intentions. However, the impact of trust on purchase intentions is not significant. The differences between males and females on purchase intentions are not significant as well. Managerial implications of these results are discussed.

The search for predictions of species diversity across environmental gradients has challenged ecologists for decades. The humped-back model (HBM) suggests that plant diversity peaks at intermediate productivity; at low productivity few species can tolerate the environmental stresses, and at high productivity a few highly competitive species dominate. Over time the HBM has become increasingly controversial, and recent studies claim to have refuted it. Here, by using data from coordinated surveys conducted throughout grasslands worldwide and comprising a wide range of site productivities, we provide evidence in support of the HBM pattern at both global and regional extents. The relationships described here provide a foundation for further research into the local, landscape, and historical factors that maintain biodiversity.

Grazing represents the most extensive use of land worldwide. Yet its impacts on ecosystem services remain uncertain because pervasive interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil properties, and biodiversity may occur but have never been addressed simultaneously. Using a standardized survey at 98 sites across six continents, we show that interactions between grazing pressure, climate, soil, and biodiversity are critical to explain the delivery of fundamental ecosystem services across drylands worldwide. Increasing grazing pressure reduced ecosystem service delivery in warmer and species-poor drylands, whereas positive effects of grazing were observed in colder and species-rich areas. Considering interactions between grazing and local abiotic and biotic factors is key for understanding the fate of dryland ecosystems under climate change and increasing human pressure.

Bacterial taxonomic community analyses using PCR-amplification of the 16S rRNA gene and high-throughput sequencing has become a cornerstone in microbiology research. To reliably detect the members, or operational taxonomic units (OTUs), that make up bacterial communities, taxonomic surveys rely on the use of the most informative PCR primers to amplify the broad range of phylotypes present in up-to-date reference databases. However, primers specific for the domain Bacteria were often developed some time ago against database versions that are now out of date. Here we evaluated the performance of four bacterial primers on complex microbial communities of an explosives contaminated and non-contaminated forest soil and by in silico evaluation against the current SILVA123 database. Primer pair 341f/785r produced the highest number of bacterial OTUs, phylogenetic richness, Shannon diversity, low non-specificity and most reproducible results, followed by 967f/1391r and 799f/1193r. Primer pair 68f/518r showed overall low coverage and a bias towards Alphaproteobacteria. The primer pair 341f/785r showed also in silico the highest coverage of the domain Bacteria (96.1 %) with no obvious bias towards the majority of bacterial species. This suggests the high utility of primer pair 341f/785r for soil and plant-associated bacterial microbiome studies.

The ever increasing mobile data demands have posed significant challenges in the current radio access networks, while the emerging computation- heavy Internet of Things applications with varied requirements demand more flexibility and resilience from the cloud/edge computing architecture. In this article, to address the issues, we propose a novel air-ground integrated mobile edge network (AGMEN), where UAVs are flexibly deployed and scheduled, and assist the communication, caching, and computing of the edge network. Specifically, we present the detailed architecture of AGMEN, and investigate the benefits and application scenarios of drone cells, and UAV-assisted edge caching and computing. Furthermore, the challenging issues in AGMEN are discussed, and potential research directions are highlighted.

There is a growing realization among scientists and policy makers that an increased understanding of today's environmental issues requires international collaboration and data synthesis. Meta‐analyses have served this role in ecology for more than a decade, but the different experimental methodologies researchers use can limit the strength of the meta‐analytic approach. Considering the global nature of many environmental issues, a new collaborative approach, which we call coordinated distributed experiments (CDEs), is needed that will control for both spatial and temporal scale, and that encompasses large geographic ranges. Ecological CDEs, involving standardized, controlled protocols, have the potential to advance our understanding of general principles in ecology and environmental science.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of Country across the world, and their continuing relationship to culture, community, land, waters and sky. We honour children born and yet to be, and pay our respects to Elders, past, present and future. Every person on Earth has been affected in some way by the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. However, there is a marked inequity in the impact and threat of the disease for the 370 million Indigenous Peoples worldwide. While honouring diversity in Peoples and cultures, this editorial (written by a collaborative of Indigenous nurses from Australia, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Canada, the United States of America and Central America) explores contemporary issues raised for Indigenous communities by this latest public health emergency. Please note, while we may describe a situation about a specific Indigenous group, readers can be assured that the issues we raise are endemic across colonised Indigenous communities globally. During pandemics, Indigenous Peoples suffer higher infection rates, and more severe symptoms and death than the general population because of the powerful forces of the social and cultural determinants of health and lack of political power. During the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic, Māori died at a rate of seven times that of the European population, which is likely an underestimation because of undocumented Māori deaths (Summers, Baker, & Wilson, 2018). First Nations people in Canada were eight times more likely to die compared with non-First Nations (Kelm, 1999). Although COVID-19 infection rates are currently low, in the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Aboriginal people in central Australia experienced rates five times higher than the nonindigenous population (Mousseau, 2013). Pacific Island and Māori people were seven times more likely to be hospitalised than Europeans and three and a half times more likely to die (Mousseau, 2013). Mortality for American Indian and Alaska Natives from H1N1 was four times higher than people from all other ethnicities combined (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2009). In Canada, First Nations people were three times more likely to be hospitalised, and six and a half times more likely to be admitted to an intensive care unit (Boggild, Yuan, Low, & McGeer, 2011). Indigenous Peoples experience a more significant burden of noncommunicable and infectious diseases generally, and this is related to social and health inequities stemming from invasion and subsequent colonisation. Colonisation's legacy for Indigenous Peoples includes intergenerational and concentrated poverty, poor physical and mental health, transport and housing issues, increased rates of domestic and family violence, shorter life expectancy and inadequate access to culturally safe care (Allan & Smylie, 2015; Braveman et al., 2011). Colonisation is known to have a negative effect on the social determinants of health (Greenwood, de Leeuw, & Lindsay, 2018; Sherwood, 2018) and cultural determinants of health (Salmon et al., 2019). In Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas, invasion and subsequent colonisation have brought about disproportionate inequities that detrimentally affect Indigenous Peoples compared with other groups in their respective countries. Indigenous Peoples in colonised nations share similar histories of invasion, displacement from traditional lands and relocation onto missions or reservations, stolen generations, forced assimilation, genocide, decimation from introduced infectious diseases and the attempted erasure of culture through the banning of languages and cultural practices (Sherwood, 2018). In Central American countries like Guatemala and Panama, Indigenous Peoples have endured centuries of war, internal violence, exile, marginalisation, genocide and other trauma. The existence of imposed trauma and decimation began when Spaniards invaded Panama in the early 16th century (Central Intelligence Agency, 2020). Despite the world class, universal healthcare systems available in Canada and Australia, Indigenous populations continue to experience much poorer health outcomes due to the legacies and intersections of colonialism and racism (Allan & Smylie, 2015). Indigenous People's increased vulnerability to disease is unquestionable, evident not only in shorter life expectancies but also in the lower age we become more vulnerable. In Australia, the Health Department advice is for Australians aged 70 years or over, or those aged 65 years or over with chronic medical conditions to stay at home and avoid all contact with other people. However, for Indigenous Peoples, this recommendation is for those aged over 50 years (Department of Health, 2020b). Regretfully, while they do highlight the danger of comorbidities, several of our governments have neglected to explicitly recognise the premature mortality of Indigenous Peoples in their advice about vulnerability to COVID-19 (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, 2020; New Zealand Government, 2020b; Public Health Agency of Canada, 2020). Historical data have demonstrated that poor health and poverty positively correlate with pandemic severity (Clay, Lewis, & Severnini, 2019). Poverty impacts Indigenous Peoples' capacity to respond to COVID-19 on multiple levels. In this current crisis, health outcomes are determined by levels of secure housing, employment, comorbidities, functional literacy, health insurance, food security, access to running water, access to health care and technology. A one-size-fits-all response to COVID-19 ignores the roles of privilege, affluence and racism in perpetuating inequities, and therefore the ability to provide culturally safe care (Best, 2018). Globally, many Indigenous Peoples live on missions and reserves. Many of these missions and reserves are geographically rural or remote. Among the 574 tribes in the USA, the Navajo Nation is the third highest population in the nation for per capita infections after New York and New Jersey. As of 22nd May 2020, the Navajo Nation had over 4,253 positive cases and 146 deaths from COVID-19 (Navajo Department of Health, 2020a). Older age, multigenerational housing, lack of running water, communal wells, increased chronic disease and poverty have increased the impact of COVID-19. Forty per cent of Navajo households do not have access to running water, and thirty per cent do not have electricity (DigDeep & US Water Alliance, 2020). Lack of access to running water makes it difficult to comply with handwashing recommendations. Additionally, many Native American tribes, such as the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, are not eligible to receive federal funds to provide health care (Maynor Lowery, 2009, 2018). The marginalisation, segregation and discrimination of these tribes are negatively impacting their health and wellbeing during the COVID-19 situation. These tribes are relying upon their own resources to address their tribal community needs. Likewise, in Central America, many Indigenous groups live in low- or middle-income countries lacking fundamental basic human needs such as clean water and environment to live in, resulting in higher rates of infectious disease such as COVID-19 (Babyar, 2019). To help curb the spread of COVID-19, the Navajo Department of Health ordered all members within their 17-million-acre reservation/jurisdiction, over the age of 2 years to wear masks in public and have instituted isolation measures including weekend curfews. Unnecessary travel is punishable by up to 30 days incarceration or a $1,000 (USD) fine (Navajo Department of Health, 2020b). Similar lockdowns are evident across the globe. In Australia, enactment of the Biosecurity Act 2015 has given the Federal Minister of Health extraordinary powers (Maclean & Elphick, 2020). On the 26th March 2020, the Minister invoked biosecurity travel restrictions for remote areas. People wishing to enter remote communities must self-isolate for 14 days prior to entry (National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), 2020). Assurances that “Governments will support people who do not have appropriate alternate arrangements to self-isolate” are not trusted (NIAA, 2020). Some communities are hundreds of kilometres and many hours away from regional centres, and where people would be accommodated is not clear. Furthermore, this support has not been evident for other Aboriginal people, with media reports of rough sleepers having camps broken up by police, and possessions thrown into garbage trucks (Hirini, 2020). A central tension exists between food security and affordability and the closing of missions, reservations, and communities to keep Indigenous Peoples safe from the virus. Prepandemic, one in three adult Aboriginal people who lived remotely in Australia reported running out of food and being unable to afford more (Rogers, Ferguson, Ritchie, Van Den Boogaard, & Brimblecombe, 2018). In many remote communities, there is only one store to buy food from, and prices are exorbitant due to transport and access issues (Rogers et al., 2018). In some cases, price-gouging is evident (Central Land Council, 2020). Because of food costing up to sixty per cent more in remote communities, many Aboriginal people prefer to travel to regional towns to do their shopping (Central Land Council, 2020). With biosecurity lockdowns in effect, this is no longer possible. COVID-19 exacerbates food insecurity by unexpected increases in unemployment, halts in tourism and people being unable to leave their communities to hunt and participate in cultural determinants of health. This also demonstrates one of the unique differences globally among Indigenous populations in locking down communities. Within Australia, Indigenous Peoples have a history of being confined to designated areas called missions and reserves. This was government policy from approximately the 1890s to 1970s (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS), 2019). In other global Indigenous populations, locking down has been a self-determined process. Within Australia, the question of triggering episodes of post-traumatic stress has arisen for those older Indigenous Peoples who still live on the missions and reserves. Being locked down again due to government intervention and legislation as they were up until the early 1970s in the state of Queensland is still in the lived experiences of a number of Indigenous Australians. Characteristics of crises like pandemics include a rapid increase in rape, sexual assault and violence (Peterman et al., 2020). Indigenous people worldwide are already at increased risk of family violence, a consequence of colonisation and historical trauma, (Wilson, Mikahere-Hall, Sherwood, Cootes, & Jackson, 2019), with "prevalence rates of 57% and 80% found for lifetime violence among wāhine Māori" (women; Wilson et al., 2019, p. 15). “Aboriginal women [in Australia] are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised for family violence as non-Aboriginal women” (Andrews, 2020, para. 3). In Canada, First Nations, Inuit and Métis women are two and half times more likely to experience violence than nonindigenous women (Klingspohn, 2018). In the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (NIMMIWG) (2019) in Canada, the sexual and physical abuse and murder of Indigenous women and girls that have been ongoing for generations have been labelled genocide. Native American women sustain rates of violent victimisation (rape, sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault and simple assault) at rates that are two times higher than African Americans, two and a half times that of Hispanics, two and a half times that of Caucasians, and four times that of Asians (Morgan & Oudekerk, 2019). The current COVID-19 crisis has seen “reports from Australia, Brazil, China and the United States suggesting a sudden rise in violence against women and children” (Peterman et al., 2020, p. 3). Compounding the sudden increase in violence during a pandemic is the intersecting forms of stressors stemming from a sudden rise in economic, emotional and physical pressures; enforced proximity from lockdowns; and, reduced access to support systems, health care and first responders (Peterman et al., 2020). Pre-existing trauma and stress are triggered during disasters, so there will also be a corresponding rise in harmful alcohol and substance abuse (Macauley, 2020). Families faced with the stressors associated with COVID-19 may see violence occurring for the first time. These factors all culminate in Indigenous women and children affected by violence, no longer being able to enact the strategies they could take to keep themselves and their children safe. It will also be very difficult to seek help outside of their homes. The COVID-19 crisis has seen unprecedented disruption to cultural practices and the normal relational and collective practices of Indigenous Peoples. This is detrimental as it has been empirically proven that the cultural determinants of health have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the health of Indigenous Peoples (Bourke et al., 2018). Many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia travel frequently between communities to attend to Sorry Business (funerals and grieving; Department of Health, 2020a). In the current environment of lockdowns and social distancing, Indigenous people are having difficulties reconciling coronavirus restrictions with their relationally based cultural obligations, with mourning taking precedence (Wainwright, 2020). Māori in Aotearoa have also been forced to reconsider how they undertake the cultural practices involved to farewell someone who passed away and how they support older people and those with high needs. Traditional greetings of hongi (pressing noses when greeting) and harirū (shaking hands) have a rāhui (temporary prohibition) suspending such practices that breach social distancing regulations (New Zealand Government, 2020a). Prepandemic, governments were already failing in their efforts to reduce the inequities in social determinants and health outcomes between Indigenous and nonindigenous citizens, and Indigenous Peoples are generally under-resourced for responding to the current crisis. A 2019 report on health security across 195 countries found that the majority of countries were ill-equipped to prevent, detect and respond to health emergencies (Nalabandian et al., 2019). For instance, it is estimated that there are only 100 ventilators available from Guatemala to Haiti (Burki, 2020). Furthermore, algorithms triaging access to intensive care facilities are likely to exclude Indigenous Peoples because of the co-morbid conditions they may have. Indigenous Peoples are known to survive historical and contemporary adversities, demonstrating resourcefulness and resilience in adversity. Despite the marginalisation of Indigenous Peoples in countries’ COVID-19 responses, Indigenous communities are instituting their own measures in the presence of universal approaches to managing not only the spread of COVID-19 but in addressing the needs borne out of poverty, housing and food insecurity. In Aotearoa, Iwi (tribal nations) are distributing food parcels to older people who cannot leave their homes and whanau (Family) rather than expecting people to make their way to a food bank. In some more remote areas, Iwi are monitoring who comes and goes out of their rohe (Iwi region) with roadblocks. In Canada, First Nation populations are gathering their bundles for medicine, food, birthing and death, while developing innovative ways to protect themselves such as making their own protective facemasks (Wright, 2020). Although we and some allied media are reporting on these initiatives, information on strategies Indigenous Peoples have implemented during pandemics is not routinely collected or acknowledged (Zavaleta, 2020). To this date, despite known vulnerability and high mortality rates, little information related to the rates of COVID-19 in Indigenous Peoples is obtainable. Even where testing is available, data are rarely disaggregated by ethnicity (United Nations, 2020). Yet data will be essential to understand the true impact of COVID-19 on our communities, justify the demand for resources like food and personal protection equipment (PPE) and allow service access and delivery to ensure already existing inequities do not worsen further (Phelan, 2020). Indigenous communities across Canada are urging provincial and federal health leaders to disclose COVID statistics to their nations, reporting that these numbers will help nations prepare and respond appropriately to potential outbreaks. In Central America, statistical transparency among Indigenous groups related to previous pandemics and other health outcomes is lacking, further perpetuating the lack of Indigenous voice and increasing the health disparity gap (Babyar, 2019). Failure to recognise the differences in morbidity and mortality among Indigenous Peoples contributes to inequities. There is not only a lack of information sharing but the delay in funding to support nations, and the growing jurisdictional disputes over who will provide these services has once again been intensified in the response to COVID pandemic planning. If ever there was a time to acknowledge the need to collect accurate ethnicity data and disseminate adequate resources to address health disparities among Indigenous people globally, now is that time. The needs of Indigenous Peoples must be made visible and not subsumed instead, in generalised universal response strategies. In this editorial, we have drawn attention to the existing health and social justice inequities stemming from colonisation. We have discussed the devastating effects pandemics have on our health and capacity to practice culture which is our medicine. We have asked the reader to consider the desperate situation our Peoples face, but recognise the Indigenous-led solutions that are being enacted. We demand our governments recognise that the harm and hurt and drastically increased morbidity and mortality in our communities during this pandemic are their legacies of failing to address historical and ongoing inequities. The cultural determinants of health must be recognised as the remedy and be built into health policy, practice and research. Going forward, data need to meticulously document the damage, naming us by our countries, our communities, our clans and our tribes. So that the next time disease sweeps our planet, we know our weaknesses, we know our strengths, and if more informed and empowered, we will prevail against the next neo colonial wave.

This article addresses the theoretical paradigm of intersectionality and interlocking oppressions, focusing on its evolution over time and place and application to the everyday lives of women. The objective is both to honor the roots of intersectional scholarship and to demonstrate the temporal and spatial nature of oppression and privilege. Theoretical concepts are illustrated by narratives from women who have crossed different sociocultural contexts and phases of the life course. This dialectical and self-reflexive intersectional analysis focuses not only on oppression but also on privilege and demonstrates that intersectionality and interlocking oppressions are time and context contingent, rather than fixed and ahistorical.

The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)-has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.

This study examined cross‐language transfer of morphological awareness in Chinese–English bilingual children. One hundred and thirty‐seven first to fourth graders participated in the study. The children were tested on parallel measures of compound awareness, vocabulary, word reading and reading comprehension in Chinese and English. They also received measures of English derivational awareness, English phonological awareness and nonverbal reasoning. Structural equation modelling was used to compare a baseline model with only within‐language paths to a model with cross‐language paths. The cross‐language model fit significantly better than the within‐language model, suggesting transfer of morphological awareness between English and Chinese. In particular, we observed a bidirectional relationship between English compound awareness and Chinese vocabulary. Furthermore, English compound awareness was a significant predictor of Chinese reading comprehension. The conditions that support transfer of morphological awareness and the impact of transfer on literacy development in Chinese and English are discussed.

Widespread pollution of terrestrial ecosystems with petroleum hydrocarbons (PHCs) has generated a need for remediation and, given that many PHCs are biodegradable, bio- and phyto-remediation are often viable approaches for active and passive remediation. This review focuses on phytoremediation with particular interest on the interactions between and use of plant – associated bacteria to restore PHC polluted sites. Plant-associated bacteria include endophytic, phyllospheric and rhizospheric bacteria, and cooperation between these bacteria and their host plants allows for greater plant survivability and treatment outcomes in contaminated sites. Bacterially-driven PHC bioremediation is attributed to the presence of diverse suites of metabolic genes for aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons, along with a broader suite of physiological properties including biosurfactant production, biofilm formation, chemotaxis to hydrocarbons, and flexibility in cell-surface hydrophobicity. In soils impacted by PHC contamination, microbial bioremediation generally relies on the addition of high-energy electron acceptors (e.g. oxygen) and fertilization to supply limiting nutrients (e.g. nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium) in the face of excess PHC carbon. As an alternative, the addition of plants can greatly improve bioremediation rates and outcomes as plants provide microbial habitats, improve soil porosity (thereby increasing mass transfer of substrates and electron acceptors), and exchange limiting nutrients with their microbial counterparts. In return, plant-associated microorganisms improve plant growth by reducing soil toxicity through contaminant removal, producing plant growth promoting metabolites, liberating sequestered plant nutrients from soil, fixing nitrogen, and more generally establishing the foundations of soil nutrient cycling. In a practical and applied sense, the collective action of plants and their associated microorganisms is advantageous for remediation of PHC contaminated soil in terms of overall cost and success rates for in situ implementation in a diversity of environments. Mechanistically, there remain biological unknowns that present challenges for applying bio- and phyto-remediation technologies without having a deep prior understanding of individual target sites. In this review, evidence from traditional and modern omics technologies is discussed to provide a framework for plant-microbe interactions during PHCs remediation. The potential for integrating multiple molecular and computational techniques to evaluate linkages between microbial communities, plant communities and ecosystem processes is explored with an eye on

Abstract Facebook and other social media have been hailed as delivering the promise of new, socially engaged educational experiences for students in undergraduate, self‐directed, and other educational sectors. A theoretical and historical analysis of these media in the light of earlier media transformations, however, helps to situate and qualify this promise. Specifically, the analysis of dominant social media presented here questions whether social media platforms satisfy a crucial component of learning – fostering the capacity for debate and disagreement. By using the analytical frame of media theorist Raymond Williams, with its emphasis on the influence of advertising in the content and form of television, we weigh the conditions of dominant social networking sites as constraints for debate and therefore learning. Accordingly, we propose an update to Williams' erudite work that is in keeping with our findings. Williams' critique focuses on the structural characteristics of sequence, rhythm, and flow of television as a cultural form. Our critique proposes the terms information design , architecture , and above all algorithm , as structural characteristics that similarly apply to the related but contemporary cultural form of social networking services. Illustrating the ongoing salience of media theory and history for research in e‐learning, the article updates Williams' work while leveraging it in a critical discussion of the suitability of commercial social media for education.

Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species' threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project - and avert - future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups - including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems - http://www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.

The arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are a globally distributed group of soil organisms that play critical roles in ecosystem function. However, the ecological niches of individual AM fungal taxa are poorly understood. We collected > 300 soil samples from natural ecosystems worldwide and modelled the realised niches of AM fungal virtual taxa (VT; approximately species-level phylogroups). We found that environmental and spatial variables jointly explained VT distribution worldwide, with temperature and pH being the most important abiotic drivers, and spatial effects generally occurring at local to regional scales. While dispersal limitation could explain some variation in VT distribution, VT relative abundance was almost exclusively driven by environmental variables. Several environmental and spatial effects on VT distribution and relative abundance were correlated with phylogeny, indicating that closely related VT exhibit similar niche optima and widths. Major clades within the Glomeraceae exhibited distinct niche optima, Acaulosporaceae generally had niche optima in low pH and low temperature conditions, and Gigasporaceae generally had niche optima in high precipitation conditions. Identification of the realised niche space occupied by individual and phylogenetic groups of soil microbial taxa provides a basis for building detailed hypotheses about how soil communities respond to gradients and manipulation in ecosystems worldwide.

The 2023 wildfire season in Canada was unprecedented in its scale and intensity, spanning from mid-April to late October and across much of the forested regions of Canada. Here, we summarize the main causes and impacts of this exceptional season. The record-breaking total area burned (~15 Mha) can be attributed to several environmental factors that converged early in the season: early snowmelt, multiannual drought conditions in western Canada, and the rapid transition to drought in eastern Canada. Anthropogenic climate change enabled sustained extreme fire weather conditions, as the mean May-October temperature over Canada in 2023 was 2.2 °C warmer than the 1991-2020 average. The impacts were profound with more than 200 communities evacuated, millions exposed to hazardous air quality from smoke, and unmatched demands on fire-fighting resources. The 2023 wildfire season in Canada not only set new records, but highlights the increasing challenges posed by wildfires in Canada.

The Perceived Restorativeness Scale (PRS) has been reported relatively frequently in the literature, despite the psychometric and factorial properties of the scale not being well established. We argue that a detailed understanding of the meaning of individual items is the proper starting point for scale development and used this approach to develop shorter (11-item rather than 26-item) parallel versions in both Italian and English. Data collected from samples of Italian (n = 230) and English speakers (n = 100) were analysed by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), comparing a 5 models based on previous published research and underlying theory. A four-factor model that mirrored four elements of Attention Restoration Theory (ART) had the best fit to the data. The resulting composite scale was invariant across nationality and gender.

Environmental awareness and changing attitudes toward “green consumption” are becoming evident in emerging countries’ markets. Using an extended theory of planned behavior, this paper aims to examine emerging countries’ business students’ intentions to purchase green vehicles. Stratified random sampling was used to select study participants, and data were collected through face-to-face interviews. Results revealed that environmental knowledge and awareness have a significant influence on business students’ favorable attitudes toward green vehicles. Further, a significant association between attitudes toward green vehicles, perceived behavioral controls, and intentions to purchase green vehicles was observed. Findings serve to inform managers and policy makers who are formulating strategies for maximizing value creation in an era of increasingly environmentally aware consumers in emerging markets. Ultimately, this policy will help to promote green technology initiatives, and encourage higher rates of adoption of eco-friendly vehicles in emerging countries.

On live streams, viewers can support streamers through various methods ranging from well-wishing text messages to money. In this study (N=230) we surveyed viewers who had given money to a streamer. We identified six motivations for why they gave money to their favorite live streamer. We then examined how factors related to viewer, streamer, and viewer-streamer interaction were associated with three forms of social support provision: emotional, instrumental, and financial support. Our main findings are: parasocial relationship was consistently correlated with all three types of social support, while social presence was only related with instrumental and financial support; interpersonal attractiveness was associated with emotional and instrumental support and lonely people were more likely to give instrumental support. Our focus on various types of social support in a live streaming masspersonal platform adds a more detailed understanding to the existing literature of mediated social support. Furthermore, it suggests potential directions for designing more supportive and interactive live streaming platforms.