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The SedAlp project contributes to an integrated management of sediment transport in Alpine basins. It is directed to an effective reduction of sediment-related risk while promoting the enhancement of riverine ecosystems and reducing the impacts of hydropower plants (balancing the implementation of EU Directives and national law e.g. RES, WFD, NGP etc.). SedAlp includes pilot actions in various representative Alpine river basins of five countries and contributes in particular to monitor sediment and wood transfer in a large set of Alpine catchments. A major goal of the project was to understand spatial and temporal variability of processes and to provide planning, warning and predictive tools but also sediment and wood management recommendations for protecting people. Furthermore the project includes strategy policy development and implementation actions for the improvement of sediment continuity in Alpine river basins. SedAlp regards the geological and climatic variability across the Alps that generate complex patterns of sediment transfer, whereas management conflicts are similar. To reach the ambitious goals of the project, it is essential to understand the key processes of sediment and wood transport. Workpackage 5 with the title "sediment transport monitoring" was focused to enhance the knowledge about these transport processes by conducting the first standardized transnational monitoring of sediment and wood transport in Alpine basins. WP5 concentrated on monitoring and assessing fluxes of sediment and wood at the local scale. Measured fluxes are strongly depending on the supply from the catchment and on the connectivity to source areas, analysed in WP4. The output of WP5 feeds WP6 which studied the interferences between structures and sediment/wood fluxes and forms the basis for WP7 which linked the catchment with channel processes. Finally, the results of WP5 contribute to policy recommendations in WP8. Within WP5, monitoring activities on 28 different pilot sites in Austria, Germany, France, Italy and Slovenia have been conducted between 2012 and 2015. The monitored transport processes covered woody debris, debris flow, bedload and suspended load. The different pilot sites showed a great diversity in catchment size, channel slope and hydraulic parameters and covered the whole bandwidth from small, high alpine catchments (e.g. Strimm: 5 km² catchment size, 2427 m elevation a.s.l) to large catchments in the alpine valleys (e.g. Drau/Dellach: 2131 km² catchment size, 600 m elevation a.s.l). With the results of the monitoring activities, a database using different parameters regarding the transport process has been established and reflects the big diversity of the different pilot sites. The coordinated sediment transport monitoring outlined the links between the various processes responsible for sediment delivery at catchment scale and stresses out the need for a closer integration between the monitoring of various sediment transport processes in Alpine headwaters. Due to the wide range of different measurement methods used within the project, one focus of this work package was to standardize the measurement procedures and harmonize data analysis. This led to the 1st milestone "Protocol on standardized data collection methods in sediment transport monitoring for transboundary exchange". These protocols were intended to describe the used monitoring techniques and data processing methods for debris flows, wood transport and bedload transport. Furthermore, the protocols work also as guidelines to assist in choosing the appropriate monitoring method for supporting prospective monitoring efforts. 4 An important aspect of the project was to understand spatial and temporal variability of the monitored processes. The observed appearance of clockwise and counter clockwise hysteresis effects between sediment and discharge, showed the significant role of the location of the active sediment source in the temporal variability of sediment transport. Analysis of the spatial distribution showed an evolvement of the bedload transport width with increasing discharge which provides vital information for an improved planning of river related measures. To determine these process related variability, the use of appropriate monitoring methods as well as their right application is of great importance. Indirect monitoring methods (e.g. geophone devices) pointed out their potential in the automatic and continuous detection of these transport processes. The presented data reflect a high spatial and temporal variability in the occurrence of bedload, suspended load debris flow and wood transport and reveal significant consequences for the practical usage of monitoring methods, data and application. Many river engineering tasks require detailed information about the extent of sediment transport and wood mobility, which are provided by sediment and wood transport relations and equations. The 3rd milestone "First set of practically applicable bedload/wood transport relations and models" gives an overview about the most common transport relations and formulas. Furthermore it presents the difficulties and challenges in the application of these relations and shows the last developments in improving transport equations. The comparison between measured and calculated specific bedload transport rates showed substantial differences in the derived results. For the practical use of these relations it is strongly recommended to select, calibrate and validate the sediment and wood transport equations using monitored field data. The evaluation of river restoration projects showed the need of an improved process understanding between sediment transport an engineering measures. The functionality and sustainability of river restoration measures are, beside the hydrologic and hydraulic conditions, mainly depending on the superior sediment regime and thus the sediment input into the reach. By increase or decrease of the mean sediment input, the hydraulic and thus morphological conditions of the reach need to rearrange to the given input by e.g. lateral and vertical adjustments of the river bed or by changing the river type.

Fostering lifelong learning (LLL) is a topic of high relevance for current educational policy. School lays the cornerstone for the key components of LLL, specifically persistent motivation to learn and self-regulated learning behavior. The present study investigated the impact of classroom instruction variables on concrete determinants for these LLL components. Participants in the present study were 2266 fifth, sixth and seventh graders from 125 classrooms. Multi-level analyses showed that perception of autonomy in the classroom is associated with pupils’ motivational beliefs, and that perception that a classroom promotes self-determined performance and self-reflection of learning is a predictor of pupils' monitoring and assessment of learning. Additionally, the extent of perceived autonomy is an important factor in the reduction of gender differences in motivation. The results indicate the importance of providing pupils with appropriate learning contexts to better prepare them for successful LLL.

River morphodynamics and sediment transport River morphology and morphodynamics

Uptake of radioactive iodine by the thyroid gland after oral administration of 75 muCi was determined in 1971-72 in 60 euthyroid female volunteers from the North Shore of Vancouver. Values were as low as 3% at 4 hours and 7% at 24 hours in subjects otherwise proven to be euthyroid. The highest values found were 13 and 26% at 4 and 24 hours. The effective thyroxine ratios were all within the accepted normal range. However, more than half of the volunteers showed some enlargement of the thyroid gland. These results suggest an increased iodine pool in the subjects, the likley source being iodine in mild, dairy products and erythrosine, a colouring agent in foods and pharmaceutical products. Potassium iodate, used sometimes in bread baking, contributed little to this pool in our sample. Subjects were, on the average, 9 to 25% heavier than their peers 20 years ago.

A common methodological problem in the evaluation of the predictive validity of selection methods, e.g. in educational and employment selection, is that the correlation between predictor and criterion is biased. Thorndike’s (1949) formulas are commonly used to correct for this biased correlation. An alternative approach is to view the selection mechanism as a missing data mechanism. The aim of this study was to compare Thorndike’s formulas for direct and indirect range restriction scenarios with two state-of-the-art approaches for handling missing data: full information maximum likelihood (FIML) and multiple imputation by chained equations (MICE). We conducted Monte-Carlo simulations to investigate the accuracy of the population correlation estimates in dependence of the selection ratio and the true population correlation in an experimental design. For a direct range restriction scenario, the three approaches are equally accurate. For an indirect range restriction scenario, the corrections using FIML and MICE are more precise than when using Thorndike’s formula. The higher the selection ratio and the true population correlation, the higher the precision of the population correlation estimates. Our findings indicate that both missing data approaches are alternative corrections to Thorndike’s formulas, especially in the case of indirect range restriction. Accessed 3,954 times on https://pareonline.net from March 24, 2016 to December 31, 2019. For downloads from January 1, 2020 forward, please click on the PlumX Metrics link to the right.

Management of river navigation is a field of great economic importance, which is directly connected with environmental protection. It depends on hydrometeorological conditions and hydrological characteristics, and significantly influences the water quality within a navigable river basin. Timely information about momentary water levels is important for river traffic as well as for the protection against flooding at very high water levels. Use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) is crucial for efficient water quality protection in Europe based on river basin management (EU Water Framework Directive, WFD) and for efficient inland waterborne transport management in Europe (River Information Services, EC RIS Directive). Development of complex systems, applications and services requires timely communication and information management between the European bodies responsible for both fields. Since 2003, the Croatian Government has made great efforts to enhance this kind of activities at national level and to support cooperation at pan- European level. We have actively participated in several European projects and working groups through the International Commission for the Protection of the Danube River (ICPDR) and the GIS Forum Danube for establishment of the Integrated European RIS Platform. Our research and development activities have included ICT applications to environmental protection and river navigation surveillance. The main focus was the development of specialized information systems, web applications for temporal and spatial presentations and services necessary to provide efficient management of complex data and processes in investigations of water quality, natural and anthropogenic pollution sources, risk assessment and particularly the influence of river navigation on the waterways. In this paper, the most significant ICT-based research activities concerning the Danube River Basin will be presented and discussed.