Urbanization poses complex challenges and opportunities for biodiversity conservation, yet most studies rely on single taxa or a limited set of environmental dimensions. We calculated multispecies-diversity and abundance for 49 extensively managed dry grassland sites across an urban-to-rural gradient in Berlin, Germany, encompassing 13 taxonomic groups from primary producers to a top predator and 158 Red-listed species. We evaluated the relative influence of urban structure (impervious surface cover, patch size, habitat connectivity), environmental factors (air temperature, non-native plant cover), socioeconomic context (composite social index), and historical landscape configuration (historical connectivity) on total multispecies richness and abundance, as well as on Red-listed species richness. Historical connectivity was the strongest predictor for Red-listed species richness, indicating that many urban populations persist as relicts and may be subject to extinction debt. Impervious surface cover showed a nonlinear effect on total diversity, with substantial declines only beyond 40% coverage, suggesting conservation opportunities up to moderate development. Socioeconomic status positively influenced all multispecies measures (indices), consistent with the luxury effect, whereas 2D and 3D connectivity exhibited neutral and negative association with total multispecies richness and abundance. Patch size was important for Red-listed species but not for total multispecies diversity, while local temperature and non-native plant cover were not significantly related to any diversity index. Overall, biodiversity responses to urbanization were context-dependent and nonlinear, and often differed between total and Red-listed multispecies diversity. Consequently, urban conservation planning requires multidimensional approaches that integrate historical land-use legacies, socioeconomic conditions, and historical connectivity to support both common and endangered species in cities.
Covalent functionalization of two-dimensional (2D) materials often produces layered structures where surface layers mask the underlying substrate for many surface-sensitive analytical techniques. However, it remains unclear how the measured signals obtained by surface-sensitive techniques of different information depths relate to the functional layer and the underlying substrate. Here, we present a correlative characterization strategy for covalently functionalized graphene oxide (GO) and black phosphorus (BP) sheets with complementary techniques of different information depths. The strategy is particularly well suited for layered materials and thin films, where depth-resolved information is more relevant compared to lateral resolution. Four model systems are investigated, comprising GO and BP functionalized either with small triazine derivatives or with larger biomolecules (bovine serum albumin and fucoidan). The materials are characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS), near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS), and Raman spectroscopy. Small-molecule functionalization allows simultaneous detection of both the functional layer and the underlying substrate across the investigated techniques. In contrast, modification with macromolecules suppresses substrate-related signals in XPS and ToF-SIMS measurements, whereas HAXPES and Raman spectroscopy allow deeper analysis and detection of underlying 2D substrate. The presented approach provides a general strategy to interpret the results obtained from complementary surface-sensitive techniques and is broadly applicable to functionalized layered materials and thin films.
Agricultural soils are a major reservoir and conduit within the anthropogenic water cycle, receiving microplastics (MPs) through sewage-sludge/biosolid land application, reclaimed-water irrigation, plastic-mulch degradation and atmospheric deposition, and exporting dissolved nutrients to surface and ground waters via runoff and leaching. Phosphatase enzymes govern organic-phosphorus mineralization and therefore the size of the dissolved phosphorus (P) pool that drives aquatic eutrophication, yet how MPs alter soil acid (ACP) and alkaline (ALP) phosphatase activity, and which conditions create the greatest soil-to-water transfer risk, remains unresolved. We synthesized 171 global studies (866 ACP and 688 ALP observations) in a meta-analysis integrated with an interpretable machine-learning ensemble that stacked XGBoost, LightGBM and Random Forest, with SHAP and accumulated local effects (ALE) interpretation. MPs significantly increased ACP activity by 9.89%, whereas the overall ALP effect was non-significant (+1.40%) but strongly context-dependent, ranging from significant stimulation (e.g., biodegradable MPs: +15.15%; aged MPs: +25.60%) to significant decrease under certain conditions (e.g., with nitrogen addition:-9.45%). Soil pH was the dominant control on ACP responses (mean | SHAP| = 0.088) and clay content on ALP responses (0.062), each ranking first across all five best-performing XGBoost configurations, indicating divergent driver hierarchies for the two enzymes. In the machine-learning analysis, ALP suppression was concentrated in clay-rich soils, whereas low-clay soils showed neutral-to-positive responses. By identifying where MP contamination most strongly perturbs phosphatase-mediated P mobilization, our findings connect a terrestrial contaminant to diffuse nutrient pollution of receiving waters and provide a transferable framework for contaminant-water-quality synthesis.
Personality disorders (PDs) are commonly associated with impairments in social cognition, particularly emotion recognition. However, evidence also suggests deficits in more basic cognitive functions, including face processing (e.g., detection of non-emotional facial features) and indicators of general intelligence (e.g., crystallized intelligence). We addressed two exploratory research questions: first, how emotion recognition, face processing, and crystallized intelligence relate to personality pathology across categorical and dimensional PD models, and second, whether these associations primarily reflect general or specific personality pathology. We further hypothesized that the association between personality functioning and emotion recognition would be attenuated when controlling for face processing or crystallized intelligence. In a clinical sample (n = 219), cognitive abilities were assessed using performance-based measures, and personality pathology was assessed using interviews and self-reports. Structural equation modeling, including correlated factor and bifactor-(S-1) models, was applied to separate general from specific personality pathology variance. General personality pathology showed strong negative associations with emotion recognition and small-to-moderate negative associations with face processing and crystallized intelligence. Associations with specific personality pathology were substantially attenuated when controlling for general personality pathology. The link between personality functioning and emotion recognition was only minimally accounted for by face processing or crystallized intelligence. These findings suggest that cognitive deficits in PD may primarily reflect severity rather than disorder-specific variance, while the association between personality functioning and emotion recognition appears not to be reducible to face processing or crystallized intelligence. Our study suggests that dimensional models provide a more nuanced framework for understanding cognitive impairment in personality pathology.
Der Ansatzpunkt und die Vorgabe für diesen Beitrag sind Gütekriterien qualitativer Forschung in der Psychologie. In anderen Kontexten wird zwar mittlerweile ein breiterer Zugang zu der im Hintergrund virulenten Fragestellung gewählt. So beschäftigt sich Seale (1999) explizit mit der Qualität qualitativer Forschung, und diese wird auch im Fokus des Qualitätsmanagements in der Forschung weiterverfolgt (Flick 2008a). Im Kontext qualitativer Forschung in der Psychologie wird jedoch der Ansatzpunkt der Kriterien häufiger gewählt (vgl. Steinke 1999, 2008). Dies und die nach wie vor im Raum stehende und auch von außen an die qualitative Forschung herangetragene Frage nach Kriterien lassen es sinnvoll erscheinen, in diesem Beitrag die Problematik der Qualität qualitativer Forschung unter der Überschrift und mit dem Fokus „Kriterien“ zu behandeln.
