Bronchodilatory properties of 2-decarboxy-2-hydroxymethyl prostaglandin E1

We evaluated in a double-blind study the bronchodilatory properties of 2-decarboxy-2-hydroxymethyl prostaglandin E₁ (PGE₁-carbinol), described recently as a nonirritant bronchodilator in animals. Fifteen asthmatic patients received by inhalation single doses of 1, 10, and 30 μg PGE₁-carbinol, 55 μg PGE₂, and placebo (10% ethanol in normal saline, which was also used as diluent for the PGs). Such pulmonary function tests as forced expiratory volume in 1 second, forced vital capacity, and maximal expiratory flow were monitored during 2 hours following inhalation of each compound. 10 and 30 μg PGE₁-carbinol produced significant but short-acting bronchodilation, similar to that caused by 55 μg PGE₂. One-third of the patients reported mild cough and throat irritation during and shortly after inhalation of 30 μg PGE₁-carbinol or 55 μg PGE₂. Placebo and 1 μg PGE₁-carbinol produced minimal side effects, but neither agent caused bronchodilation. In an adjunctive, unblinded trial, the same patients received 400 μg fenoterol. Fenoterol caused greater bronchodilation 15 and 30 minutes after inhalation than did the PGs in the double-blind study.     

Scale‐dependent effects of neighborhood biodiversity on individual tree productivity in a coniferous and broad‐leaved mixed forest in China

The relationship between biodiversity and productivity has stimulated an increasing body of research over the past decades, and this topic still occupies a central place in ecology. While most studies have focused on biomass production in quadrats or plots, few have investigated the scale‐dependent relationship from an individual plant perspective. We present an analysis of the effects of biodiversity (species diversity and functional diversity) on individual tree growth with a data set of 16,060 growth records from a 30‐ha temperate forest plot using spatially explicit individual tree‐based methods. A significant relationship between species diversity and tree growth was found at the individual tree level in our study. The magnitude and direction of biodiversity effects varies with the spatial scale. We found positive effects of species diversity on tree growth at scales exceeding 9 m. Individual tree growth rates increased when there was a greater diversity of species in the neighborhood of the focal tree, which provides evidence of a niche complementarity effect. At small scales (3–5 m), species diversity had negative effects on tree growth, suggesting that competition is more prevalent than complementarity or facilitation in these close neighborhoods. The results also revealed many confounding factors which influence tree growth, such as elevation and available sun light. We conclude that the use of individual tree‐based methods may lead to a better understanding of the biodiversity‐productivity relationship in forest communities.     

On the limitations of standard statistical modeling in biological systems: A full Bayesian approach for biology

One of the most important scientific challenges today is the quantitative and predictive understanding of biological function. Classical mathematical and computational approaches have been enormously successful in modeling inert matter, but they may be inadequate to address inherent features of biological systems. We address the conceptual and methodological obstacles that lie in the inverse problem in biological systems modeling. We introduce a full Bayesian approach (FBA), a theoretical framework to study biological function, in which probability distributions are conditional on biophysical information that physically resides in the biological system that is studied by the scientist.     

Survey Insights into Weighting Environmental Damages: Influence of Context and Group

When one models impact pathways due to stressors that are caused by the provision of product systems, it results in indicators for environmental damages. These indicators are incommensurable and cannot be compared per se. For example, the statistical life years lost for a human population cannot necessarily be compared with the potentially affected fraction of species within an ecosystem. However, some decision makers who use life-cycle assessment (LCA) prefer a single index, because it facilitates interpretation better than a multi-indicator system. This requires a method for aggregating environmental damages of differing types, thereby confronting LCA with a valuation problem.
The article describes a nonmonetary approach to valuation in LCA that incorporates the findings of a survey among LCA practitioners and users. The survey focuses on the weighting of three safeguard subjects for Eco-indicator 99, a damage-oriented impact-assessment method: human health, ecosystem quality, and resources. Of particular interest here is what influence the context provided in the survey (framing) and an individual's characteristics have on his or her weighting of environmental damages. The results indicate that damages on the European level are easier to compare than damages on a micro level. Additionally, although only half of the survey participants could be classified unequivocally into one of three cultural perspectives, each perspective rated the damage categories presented to them significantly differently from the others. Our conclusions were that framing effects need to be more carefully considered in weighting procedures and that weighting preferences vary significantly according to a group's archetypical attitudes.     

Observational visuospatial encoding of the cache locations of others by western scrub-jays (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Aphelocoma californica</Emphasis>)

Western scrub-jays (Aphelocoma californica) hide food and rely on spatial memory to recover their caches at a later date. They also rely on observational spatial memory to steal caches made by other individuals. Successful pilfering may require an understanding of allocentric space because the observer will often be in a different position from the demonstrator when the caching event occurs. We compared cache recovery accuracy of pairs of observers that watched a demonstrator cache food. The pattern of recovery searches showed that observers were more accurate when they had observed the caching event from the same viewing direction as the demonstrator than when they had watched from the opposite direction. Search accuracy was not affected by whether or not the tray-specific local cues provided left–right landmark information (i.e. heterogeneous vs. homogeneous local cues), or whether or not the caching tray location was rotated. Taken together, these results suggest that observers have excellent spatial memory and that they have little difficulty with mental rotation.     

Reducing Urban Disaster Risk by Improving Resilience in China from a Planning Perspective

ABSTRACT

This article aims to examine the implications of improving urban resilience that emerge from Chinese practices for reducing urban disaster risk. First, the concept of urban resilience is discussed, the goal of which is to shape a “culture of resilience” to the largest extent possible in order to reduce urban risk. Urban resilience encompasses broad and diverse areas, and thus can be improved in many ways. This article primarily discusses the planning process. Second, the main focus of the discussion on planning process to improve urban resilience is that of the urban risk management planning of Shenzhen, China. This was the first local urban government project in China to have comprehensively and broadly assessed and reduced urban risk, and it is covered along with the Chinese legislation system and current urban resilience programs in China. The findings show that both the Chinese central government and local governments are paying more and more attention to urban resilience through various legislation and programs, even if they are not using the same terminology as other countries.     

Visitor reaction to pacing behavior: influence on the perception of animal care and interest in supporting zoological institutions

Many publications within the field of zoo animal welfare have stated the importance of decreasing stereotypic behavior (e.g., pacing) to help ensure a positive visitor experience. The idea behind these statements is that visitors want to see animals engaged in natural behavior. Additionally, it is thought that watching an animal exhibit species-appropriate behavior could help increase a visitor's connection to wildlife and ultimately their interest in conservation. However, until recently, no information was available to validate such statements. The purpose of this research was to examine people's reaction to viewing an animal engaged in pacing behavior. Participants were randomly selected to fill out a survey after watching a short video of either a tiger pacing or resting (control). Results indicate that having viewed a tiger pacing significantly decreases people's perception of the level of care animals receive at that facility. In addition, people's interest in supporting zoos decreased as a result of viewing this behavior. Results are discussed from an animal welfare, business, and conservation perspective.     

Civic Biology and the Origin of the School Antievolution Movement

In discussing the origins of the antievolution movement in American high schools within the framework of science and religion, much is overlooked about the influence of educational trends in shaping this phenomenon. This was especially true in the years before the 1925 Scopes trial, the beginnings of the school antievolution movement. There was no sudden realization in the 1920’s – sixty years after the Origin of Species was published – that Darwinism conflicted with the Bible, but until evolution was being taught in the high schools, there was no impetus to outlaw it. The creation of “civic biology” curricula in the late 1910’s and early 20’s, spearheaded by a close-knit community of textbook authors, brought evolution into the high school classroom as part of a complete reshaping of “biology” as a school subject. It also incorporated progressive ideologies about the purposes of compulsory public education in shaping society, and civic biology was fundamentally focused on the applications of the life sciences to human life. Antievolution legislation was part of a broader response to the ideologies of the new biology field, and was a reaction not only to the content of the new subject, but to the increasingly centralized control and regulation of education. Viewing the early school antievolution movement through the science-religion conflict is an artifact of the Scopes trial’s re-creation of its origins. What largely caused support for␣the school antievolution movement in the South and particularly Tennessee were concerns over public education, which biology came to epitomize.