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.

TiOCl 2 acid solution hydrolyzes N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) at room temperature, leading to the formation of dimethylammonium chloride (DMACl) and methanoic acid. During hydrolysis, a slow consumption of hydrochloric acid enables a gentle control over the inorganic polymerization. This onepot process allows the preparation of novel hybrid organic-inorganic sols and gels based on titanium oxide. The hydrolytic inorganic polymer was structurally characterized by XAS, X-ray diffraction, and TEM measurements, and a chemical composition was proposed for sol and gel, based on FT-IR, Raman spectroscopies, and 1 H and 13 C NMR experiments for the organic part. Results on the kinetics and growth mechanisms for nanostructured sols and gels based on titanium oxide are presented to explain the respective roles of TiOCl 2 and DMF in this double hydrolysis reaction.