The global spread and invasion capacities of alien ants

The ecological and economic impacts of biological invasions are usually highly conspicuous, but these are the outcome of a global, multistage process that is obscured from view. For most taxa, we lack a large-scale picture of the movements of alien species, the biases and filters that promote or inhibit their spread at each stage, and blind spots in our ability to detect species during their spread. For instance, countries rely heavily on customs interceptions to prevent new species introductions, but their efficacy for detecting invaders remains unclear. To address these gaps, we synthesize and provide data at unprecedented geographic resolution on the global diversity and distribution of alien ants, a pervasive group strongly impacting humans and ecosystems. From >145,000 records spanning 602 regions, we identify 522 ant species exhibiting human-mediated spread, doubling recent estimates of their diversity. We show that movements of alien ant species across regions globally are non-random and, moreover, that these flows differ by the extents to which species invade—ranging from arrival to indoor establishment, naturalization, and harmful status. Importantly, we find that almost two-thirds of the 309 species that naturalize globally—most of which are ground- and litter-dwelling—are absent from customs interceptions, which record disproportionately high numbers of arboreal species. Our results illustrate the vast, yet uneven extent of ant invasions globally, and suggest that most alien species bypass biosecurity controls while spreading successfully worldwide. This raises doubts on the efficacy of current customs interceptions procedures and highlights a need for radically new approaches.

Storytelling as a Tool for Vicarious Learning among Air Medical Transport Crews

Learning vicariously from the experiences of others at work, such as those working on different teams or projects, has long been recognized as a driver of collective performance in organizations. Yet as work becomes more ambiguous and less observable in knowledge-intensive organizations, previously identified vicarious learning strategies, including direct observation and formal knowledge transfer, become less feasible. Drawing on ethnographic observations and interviews with flight nurse crews in an air medical transport program, I inductively build a model of how storytelling can serve as a valuable tool for vicarious learning. I explore a multistage process of triggering, telling, and transforming stories as a means by which flight nurses convert the raw experience of other crews’ patient transports into prospective knowledge and expanded repertoires of responses for potential future challenges. Further, I highlight how this storytelling process is situated within the transport program’s broader structures and practices, which serve to enable flight nurses’ storytelling and to scale the lessons of their stories throughout the entire program. I discuss the implications of these insights for the study of storytelling as a learning tool in organizations, as well as for revamping the field’s understanding of vicarious learning in knowledge-intensive work settings.

Uveal Melanoma – Standardised Procedure in Diagnosis, Therapy and Surveillance

Background Uveal melanoma is a rare intraocular tumour, for which there is currently no national evidence-based guideline in Germany. The aim of this project was to provide a common standard operating procedure (SOP) for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care of uveal melanoma, within the network of German leading oncology centres funded by German Cancer Aid. The SOP was created as part of a moderated consensus process. Results and Conclusion In a multistage process, a common SOP was developed for the diagnosis, therapy and follow-up of uveal melanoma, as based on current knowledge of the subject.

Quasi-Continuous Production and Separation of Lysozyme Crystals on an Integrated Laboratory Plant

Vacuum crystallization with subsequent solid–liquid separation is a suitable method to produce and separate the temperature-sensitive protein lysozyme. The conventional process is performed batch-wise and on different devices, which in turn leads to disadvantages in terms of energy efficiency, contamination risk and process control. This publication therefore focuses on the application of the previously multistage process to a quasi-continuous, integrated single plant. The transfer occurs successively and starts with the substitution of the batch vessel by a process chamber. Afterwards, the filtration scale is increased and the formerly deployed membrane is replaced by an industrial filter cloth. Based on the results of these experiments, the complete process chain is successfully transferred to an integrated laboratory plant.

PARAMETERS OF NOUN ACTUALIZATION

При построении высказывания виртуальные знаки проходят многоступенчатый процесс актуализации, в результате которого они получают тот или иной тип соотнесенности с объектами внеязыковой действительности, обозначаемый в статье как денотативный статус. Денотативные статусы предметных и непредметных именных групп частично расходятся. Одними из показателей актуализации являются детерминативы именных групп. Utterance production implies multistage process of virtual signs actualization as a result of which they acquire a certain type of relationship with out-of-language reality marked here as a denotative status. Denotative statuses of object and non-object names are different. Determiners of noun groups make up one of the types of actualization.

Tumor-derived exosomal components: the multifaceted roles and mechanisms in breast cancer metastasis

Breast cancer (BC) is the most frequently invasive malignancy and the leading cause of tumor-related mortality among women worldwide. Cancer metastasis is a complex, multistage process, which eventually causes tumor cells to colonize and grow at the metastatic site. Distant organ metastases are the major obstacles to the management of advanced BC patients. Notably, exosomes are defined as specialized membrane-enclosed extracellular vesicles with specific biomarkers, which are found in a wide variety of body fluids. Recent studies have demonstrated that exosomes are essential mediators in shaping the tumor microenvironment and BC metastasis. The transferred tumor-derived exosomes modify the capability of invasive behavior and organ-specific metastasis in recipient cells. BC exosomal components, mainly including noncoding RNAs (ncRNAs), proteins, lipids, are the most investigated components in BC metastasis. In this review, we have emphasized the multifaceted roles and mechanisms of tumor-derived exosomes in BC metastasis based on these important components. The underlying mechanisms mainly include the invasion behavior change, tumor vascularization, the disruption of the vascular barrier, and the colonization of the targeted organ. Understanding the significance of tumor-derived exosomal components in BC metastasis is critical for yielding novel routes of BC intervention.

Exploring Disaster Mitigation in India: A Financial Viewpoint

Disaster management is a multidimensional and multistage process. It broadly includes preparedness, rescue, relief rehabilitation and mitigation. Disaster mitigation is an integral part of disaster management. In fact, it is an act of pre disaster stage. It involves the material and social activities to convert disaster-prone areas into disaster resilient one. Disaster mitigation requires proper vulnerability mapping and funds to carry out disaster specific mitigative activities. It is for this reason that Disaster management Act 2005 provides for creation of Disaster Mitigation Funds at national, state and district levels. Irrespective of the consistent demands from states various finance commissions did not recognizing mitigation as an integral part of disaster risk funding as mitigation was left up to the centrally sponsored schemes. However, this task was performed by 15th Finance Commission by creating and allocating the disaster mitigation funds. The FC-XV replaced the earlier expenditure based allocation of funds and devised a new formula based on physical and socio-economic factors like vulnerability of a state to selected disasters like flood and drought and its ratio of poverty. It is under this background that the present research article makes a modest attempt to explore the financial perspective of disaster mitigation in India. Methodologically speaking this paper applies qualitative and qualitative research tools. It is analytical and descriptive in approach and exploratory in its findings. Major part of the present research is based on the primary sources like reports and acts of government of India and texts of international agreements. In addition, it also includes secondary sources like books and journals.