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High class students in the universities, the rest in the other institutions of higher education
(2011)
In Germany, different types of university-level institutions are available for tertiary education: traditional universities (Universitaten) and-since the 1970s-universities of applied science (Fachhochschulen) as well as universities of cooperative education (Berufsakademien). The present study investigates differences in key areas related to students' academic choices and success: do students at different types of university differ significantly in terms of cognitive performance, personality or social background? We compared N = 1.230 students at traditional universities, universities of applied science, and universities of cooperative education (Baden-Wurttemberg Cooperative State University) on the basis of a large scale longitudinal study in the German federal state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Students of the different university types differed significantly in all three key areas (cognitive performance, personality, and social background) within the fields of technical sciences and economics. We determine the relative importance of these key areas for differences between university types and we discuss the implications of our findings.
Biological responses to climate change have been widely documented across taxa and regions, but it remains unclear whether species are maintaining a good match between phenotype and environment, i.e. whether observed trait changes are adaptive. Here we reviewed 10,090 abstracts and extracted data from 71 studies reported in 58 relevant publications, to assess quantitatively whether phenotypic trait changes associated with climate change are adaptive in animals. A meta-analysis focussing on birds, the taxon best represented in our dataset, suggests that global warming has not systematically affected morphological traits, but has advanced phenological traits. We demonstrate that these advances are adaptive for some species, but imperfect as evidenced by the observed consistent selection for earlier timing. Application of a theoretical model indicates that the evolutionary load imposed by incomplete adaptive responses to ongoing climate change may already be threatening the persistence of species.