Open access: A revolution in scientific publication? Or just a minor amendment of accessibility?

Scientific communication is a misnomer. The process of scientific publication is much less a forum where information is exchanged for information than a market where information is exchanged for attention. Nevertheless, the exchange of information for attention is a somewhat peculiar market, since it seems much more natural to sell the information one has produced laboriously for money. Why publish a discovery, why share it with other researchers when knowledge is power?In antiquity and in the middle ages, scientists were not preoccupied with publishing their findings. Up to the 17^th century, scholars, even in mathematics and astronomy, were pre-eminently concerned with protecting their claims to priority through secretiveness and mystification (Cf. ^{ref. 1}; on priority conflicts, see ^{ref. 2}). It was only through the emergence of new means of information sharing, such as academies and learned societies with their meetings and published proceedings, that the temptation to monopolize knowledge could be overcome. Ironically, these novel means of information sharing started as a novel branch of entertainment. The purpose of the academies and learned societies mushrooming in early modernity was the entertainment of noblemen bored of the habitual kinds of pastimes. Aristocrats were supposed to observe a code of conduct different from that of researchers and businessmen. The scholar, accordingly, did not risk his right of authorship and priority being stolen when presenting his findings to an audience of noblemen. As long as there were reliable witnesses around, this risk was minimal even when other scholars were in the audience. Testimony of a noble audience, rather, became the first step to what later came to be called intellectual property (^{ref. 3} and literature cited therein).As soon as scientists work for publication, they work for the “wage of fame,” i.e., for being paid attention.⁴ Publication puts intellectual property at the disposal of the general public under the sole condition that its processing into the user''s intellectual property is credited by citation. In terms of attention, citation is not free of cost. It means, rather, transfer of a part of the attention that the citing author earns for her or his work to the cited author. Citation, thus, tests the preparedness to pay on the part of the scientist looking for pre-processed information as a means of production. Since the account of the citations a theory or a theorem earns is a measure of its productivity (i.e., of the times it was used as a means of production), the process of citation amounts to a measuring process of the pragmatic value of scientific information.⁵Maximizing the pragmatic value of output is the best thing that the individual scientist can do for the collective advancement of knowledge. This means that scientists, as long as observing the pertinent rules of conduct, are doing exactly what they are supposed to do if they maximize citations in the way businessmen maximize profits.⁵ They are themselves entrepreneurs, who are supposed to maximize their income of expertise attention. This means that they have to have a professional interest in their products being marketed professionally. Marketing is the professional service publishers have to offer to scientists. At the same time, publishers can offer the service of pre-selection to those looking for pre-processed information as a means of production. Blind publication would have the disadvantage of a substantial waste of attention in looking for useful information. Since publishers are commercial enterprises, these services are not offered for free, but sold to the buyer or to the producer of the marketed product (or to both parties).Since its beginnings with the published proceedings of the learned societies’ meetings, the business of scientific publication has been a regular part of scientific communication by and large. As long as dissemination had to rely on analog media, it was only natural to package scientific information together with those services of pre-selection and marketing into the books and journals sold on commercial markets. Since the advent of digital media and, in particular, the Internet, a new business model has become popular that leaves the selling of information for money behind. Where what counts is just the attention a piece of information earns, offer it for free and advertise with the download figures! Where there are costs of providing to be covered, try to sell the service of attraction to the advertising industry! At any rate, don’t charge those demanding the information, since that might shoo them. With this business model, Google, for example has successfully entered the field of scientific communication. Google Scholar not only competes with traditional publishers, but was even invited to do so by the price policies some publishers of high-impact media were adopting. Since the advent of the Internet, complaints have been growing about publishers that use their market position to plunder library budgets.Google and the like, however, are no full-fledged competitors to Elsevier and the like. They just recycle material already published. In order to compete in full extent, another business idea was launched: open access. Open access means that the information is offered for free, whereas the production costs of the marketing and pre-selection services are borne by the author. It will be understood that this solution is hailed on the demand side. In a community where expecting that information is something one can download for free has become a general attitude, this solution may seem even mandatory. Open access, however, has an appeal for authors as well. Offering one’s product in free access media raises, other things being equal, the probability of being read and, accordingly, of being cited. In a sense, thus, paying for an open access publication amounts to buying into the probability of being cited. As long as the prices charged for the publication just compensate for the outlays incurred by the publisher, this possibility may be considered harmless. As soon, however, as the prices become negotiable, conflicts of objectives are imminent. The higher the impact factor of the medium, the higher its price expectations will be. With price expectations, the probability of discrimination between producers according to ability to pay will rise, as well as of interference between the requirement of objective selection and the commercial interest on the part of the publisher.Already we are warned of allowing the hopes raised by open access to fly too high. Open access is to be welcomed as an enrichment of business models competing in the market of scientific publication. Intensifying competition is the best-proven means to fight monopoly power. Open access, however, is suited to foster competition on the commercial market only. It is neutral with regards to competition in the market where information is exchanged for attention. It is neutral, accordingly, with regard to the monopoly power played off by the owners of high-impact media. The impact a medium calls its own is a function of its renown, which, in turn, is wealth of attention activated as an asset. The probability of a paper being cited depends, among other things, on the renown of the medium it is published in. The higher the renown of the medium, the more attractive it is for authors as well as for readers, and thus, for the libraries serving the readers’ needs. This is what the power of publishers owning high-impact media to plunder library budgets relies on. It is hopeless to fight this kind of monopoly power by fostering competition on the commercial market.Publishers are entrepreneurs in the commercial economy as well as in the economy of attention. In the attention economy, the interests of publishers largely coincide with those of authors. The attention a publication earns is shared between author and publisher. The higher the earnings, the higher the gain of reputation on both parts. The author is as interested in the reputation of the publisher as is the publisher in the reputation of the author. For the author, the reputation of the publisher is what the expected value of the publication heavily depends on. For the publisher, the reputation of the author is what the attractiveness of the organ for other reputed authors depends on. For him, the reputations of his authors are like bank deposits that he can turn into credits to newcomers who seem promising to him. By way of this credit, a reputed publisher can grant an expectation value of citations that otherwise would remain fantastic for a newcomer. All those who have really made it in science took advantage of such a credit at some point of their career. Remarkably, though, publishers granting credits in terms of guaranteed attention income are entering, and thus opening, the business field of finance in the scientific economy of attention.Regarding the promotion of the talented, importing the business model of finance is certainly among the commendable functions of publishers in the scientific economy of attention. By acting as bankers, however, they are active in wealth management as well. They are managing the wealth of scientists by translating the accumulated wage of fame (account of citations) into an asset yielding interest. Wealth yielding interest is wealth activated as a capital enhancing itself according to size. The bigger the size, the bigger, as a rule, is the rate of growth. Renown that has reached the critical mass for triggering self-enhancement gives rise, thus, to economies of scale in building up renown. Markets where suppliers realize economies of scale will be shot through by moments of monopolistic competition.In fact, since the citation process is monitored and charted statistically, a remarkably uneven distribution of citations is observed. There are few who receive many citations and many who get only a few. Robert Merton (1968) called this conspicuously uneven distribution the “Matthew effect in science.” The Matthew effect refers to the biblical parable of being entrusted with talents, the text reading that “those who have will be given and those who have not will be taken away” (Matthew 25:14–30).The skewed distribution of citations is not reducible to the uneven distribution of publications authors call their own. The explanation lies in the working of reputation as an income-generating asset. The Matthew effect denotes the role that hype plays in science. It is due not to extraordinary productivity, but to the homage that scientists, as do other people, pay to renown, prominence, fame. If you have grown prominent, you will be cited not only for the discovery you owe your prominence to, but just for being a celebrity. To be paid attention for being a celebrity means to be given because of having.The gains generated by the Matthew effect are shared between author and publisher. These gains are monopoly profits. Since the publisher is engaged in both the market where information is exchanged for attention and in the market where information is exchanged for money, he is particularly well-equipped to translate his monopoly position in the economy of attention into a monopoly position in commercial economy. This translation cannot be suppressed by toughening competition on the commercial market. The only way of pre-empting monopoly due to renown would lie in preventing the Matthew effect.If there are any means to suppress the Matthew effect, open access is certainly not among them. Nor is it clear, however, whether it makes sense at all to fight the manifestations of celebrity culture in science. In order to do so, you would have to start with abolishing the distinguished awards such as the Nobel prize and the Fields medal. You would have to ban any talk of excellence and even suppress the publication of citation indices and other ratings. Even working for the wage of fame would have to be frowned upon. Finally, social media’s way of amassing entourage would have to be suspected politically incorrect.Open access, to sum up, is far from a revolutionary innovation. It is a mode of redistributing the costs incurred by the publisher for delivering the services of marketing and pre-selection. Scientists eager to publish in renowned journals can be exploited, as libraries eager to make accessible renowned journals can. Since, as a rule, the publication outlays of the scientists will be borne by the same institution as the acquisitions of the libraries, the conversion risks to be just a switch between cost centers.     

Visual attention: insights from brain imaging

We are not passive recipients of the information that impinges on our retinae, but active participants in our own perceptual processes. Visual experience depends critically on attention. We select particular aspects of a visual scene for detailed analysis and control of subsequent behaviour, but ignore other aspects so completely that moments after they disappear from view we cannot report anything about them. Here we show that functional neuroimaging is revealing much more than where attention happens in the brain; it is beginning to answer some of the oldest and deepest questions about what visual attention is and how it works.     

Mechanisms of Selective Attention during Competitive Discrimination of Visual and Auditory Verbal Information: Positron Emission Tomography and Cortical Evoked Potential Studies

The mechanisms of selective verbal attention were studied under conditions of simultaneous delivery of speech signals via the visual and auditory channels. The investigation was based on the comparison and synthesis of data obtained by two methods: positron emission tomography (PET) and brain evoked potentials (EPs). A new approach was developed: complementary tasks were constructed in such a way that, despite principal methodological problems, the same phenomenon could be investigated in one paradigm in EP and PET studies. The results obtained by the two methods are in rather good agreement with respect to topography: the secondary and tertiary areas, as well as the associative brain areas, are involved in attention concentration, that is, selection of verbal information occurs at the level of cognitive processes. The combination of two complementary methods, PET and EP, allowed the processes of processing of sensory information and brain mechanisms of selective attention to be investigated much more completely. The PET studies contributed to further understanding of brain mechanisms evidencing where processing occurs and the EP method provided insight into the mechanism of how this information is processed inside the corresponding cortical areas. The finding that the activation of primary areas of the visual cortex is accompanied by the inhibition of visual information deserves attention. This conclusion can be considered highly significant because of the concordance of the two independent methods. How to interpret it is not yet clear. It is possible that, in the case of primary importance of verbal information and priority of the visual channel for the repression from consciousness of artificially irrelevant information, a safety mechanism is activated: the amplified signal enters the brain cortex, where it is retained in the short-term iconic memory. This enables a reaction to this stimulus (if necessary), in the presence of any additional sign involving selective attention.     

Cleome viscosa, capparidaceae: A weed or a cash crop?

Cleome viscosa, an annual herb locally known as Jakhiya, grows naturally from seed in rainfed agricultural land and abandoned crop fields at altitudes ranging from 500 to 1500 m in scattered pockets of the Garhwal Himalaya. The seeds are mostly used as condiment. This species is a good substitute of cumin (Cuminum cyminum). Traditionally it is also used to cure a variety of diseases. It provides, three times higher yield when maintained by the farmers as a pure crop compared to yield obtained in mixed cropping conditions. With other food commodities, it is exchanged by the traditional farmers of Garhwal with the people of the areas where it does not grow. Because of its increasing demand, it is being sold in the market and is gaining more and more popularity. Until now no systematic attempt has been made to study the ecological significance and economic potential of Cleome viscosa. This paper describes the agronomy, yield, cost-benefit analysis, uses, and ethnobotany of Cleome viscosa. Systematic efforts are needed to promote its cultivation on a larger scale in village community degraded land and in marginal agricultural land where traditional crops grow with difficulty.     

A pattern to regenerate through turnover

Tissues of animals and plants are maintained through balanced cell growth, movement, and elimination. Although cells are exchanged perpetually, the whole structure of the tissue is maintained. This form of maintenance is called cell turnover. Here I propose a bio-inspired model of patterns that regenerate through turnover. This model is derived from the Dachsous-Fat system, which has recently attracted much attention because it is considered to facilitate regeneration in insect legs. In this model, I parameterized the manner of the redistribution of Dachsous and Fat during cell division, and then derived equations in the parameters that enable the patterns to regenerate and maintain themselves through turnover. I extended the equations derived in the one-dimensional model into a two-dimensional model. Finally, I discuss a possible relationship between regeneration and turnover.     

Optimal Information Transfer in the Cortex through Synchronization

In recent experimental work it has been shown that neuronal interactions are modulated by neuronal synchronization and that this modulation depends on phase shifts in neuronal oscillations. This result suggests that connections in a network can be shaped through synchronization. Here, we test and expand this hypothesis using a model network. We use transfer entropy, an information theoretical measure, to quantify the exchanged information. We show that transferred information depends on the phase relation of the signal, that the amount of exchanged information increases as a function of oscillations in the signal and that the speed of the information transfer increases as a function of synchronization. This implies that synchronization makes information transport more efficient. In summary, our results reinforce the hypothesis that synchronization modulates neuronal interactions and provide further evidence that gamma band synchronization has behavioral relevance.     

Information as a regulatory instrument to price biodiversity benefits: certification and ecolabeling policy practices

In this paper we address the issue of market failure arising from the non-existence of (market) prices for biodiversity, and also present and discuss alternative policies to cope with it. Particular attention is given to certification and ecolabeling of policies. First, we critically survey the role of certification and ecolabeling as an information provision instrument. Second, we provide a comprehensive view on basic foundations and crucial issues that underpin the design of a certification and ecolabeling policy. Finally, we present some case studies to draw some lessons from current certification and ecolabeling policy practices.     

A Financial Market Model Incorporating Herd Behaviour

Herd behaviour in financial markets is a recurring phenomenon that exacerbates asset price volatility, and is considered a possible contributor to market fragility. While numerous studies investigate herd behaviour in financial markets, it is often considered without reference to the pricing of financial instruments or other market dynamics. Here, a trader interaction model based upon informational cascades in the presence of information thresholds is used to construct a new model of asset price returns that allows for both quiescent and herd-like regimes. Agent interaction is modelled using a stochastic pulse-coupled network, parametrised by information thresholds and a network coupling probability. Agents may possess either one or two information thresholds that, in each case, determine the number of distinct states an agent may occupy before trading takes place. In the case where agents possess two thresholds (labelled as the finite state-space model, corresponding to agents’ accumulating information over a bounded state-space), and where coupling strength is maximal, an asymptotic expression for the cascade-size probability is derived and shown to follow a power law when a critical value of network coupling probability is attained. For a range of model parameters, a mixture of negative binomial distributions is used to approximate the cascade-size distribution. This approximation is subsequently used to express the volatility of model price returns in terms of the model parameter which controls the network coupling probability. In the case where agents possess a single pulse-coupling threshold (labelled as the semi-infinite state-space model corresponding to agents’ accumulating information over an unbounded state-space), numerical evidence is presented that demonstrates volatility clustering and long-memory patterns in the volatility of asset returns. Finally, output from the model is compared to both the distribution of historical stock returns and the market price of an equity index option.     

棉铃虫田间种群抗药性的生态学干扰和生化机制研究

从生态遗传学角度和抗性机制两个方面研究了作物布局和解毒酶系对棉铃虫高效氯氰菊酯抗药性的影响,通过田间采样,测定了姜堰,如皋,兴化3个地区的棉铃虫对高效氯氰菊酯的抗药性。结果表明,作物布局对棉铃虫菊酯抗性的发展具有明显的影响,寄主相对单一的棉花连片种植区（兴化）棉田棉铃虫对高效氯氰菊酯的抗性水平最高,是棉花春玉米混栽区（如皋）棉田棉铃虫抗药性的3．5倍,在邻近春玉米种植区的稻棉区（姜堰）,棉田棉铃虫的抗药性水平,是4－5km外玉米田棉铃虫的4．8倍,研究同时表明,四代棉铃虫的抗药性比3代棉铃虫的抗药性下降了2．3倍,棉铃虫离体解毒酶和乙酰胆碱酯酶活性测定表明,棉铃虫的羧酸酯酶,谷胱甘肽S－转移酶和乙酰胆碱酯酶活性与棉铃虫对高效氯氰菊酯的抗药性水平有显著的相关性,对姜堰南部棉田和如振戴庄棉田棉铃虫的活体增效试验表明,多功能氧化酶是抗性棉铃虫对高效氯氰菊酯重要的解毒酶系,增效醚可分别增效22．79倍和12．33倍,羧酸酯酶对抗性棉铃虫的解毒代谢也有部分贡献,磷酸三苯酯可分别增效4．41倍和3．70倍。     

The HIPAA privacy rule and bioterrorism planning, prevention, and response

Effective bioterrorism planning, prevention, and response require information sharing between various entities, ranging from public health authorities and health-care workers to national security and law enforcement officials. While the source of much information exchanged may be nonidentifiable, many entities legitimately need access to personally identifiable health information (or "protected health information" [PHI]) in planning for and responding to a bioterrorism event. The HIPAA Privacy Rule allows for essential exchanges of health data during a public health emergency while protecting against unnecessary disclosures of PHI. In the event of a bioterrorist attack, the Privacy Rule allows covered entities to disclose PHI without individual authorization in the following instances: (1) for treatment by health-care providers, (2) to avert a serious threat to health or safety, (3) to public health authorities for public health purposes, (4) to protect national security, (5) to law enforcement under certain conditions, and (6) for judicial or administrative proceedings. Despite these favorable disclosure provisions, some privacy challenges remain. The flow of PHI may be slowed by misunderstandings of the Privacy Rule's accounting requirement. In addition, in a bioterrorism scenario, nontraditional entities may find themselves acting as health-care providers, triggering Privacy Rule provisions. Finally, the potential for de facto disclosures of individuals' disease or exposure status increases where conspicuous treatment methods, isolation, or quarantine are implemented without additional measures to protect privacy. Understanding the Privacy Rule's impact on bioterrorism planning and response ensures that various entities can conduct their activities with needed information while still protecting individual privacy.     

The evolutionary stability of attenuators that mask information about animals that social partners can exploit

Signals and cues are fundamental to social interactions. A well‐established concept in the study of animal communication is an amplifier, defined as a trait that does not add extra information to that already present in the original cue or signal, but rather enhances the fidelity with which variation in the original cue or signal is correctly perceived. Attenuators as the logical compliment of amplifiers: attenuators act to reduce the fidelity with which variation in a signal or cue can be reliably evaluated by the perceivers. Where amplifiers reduce the effect of noise on the perception of variation, attenuators add noise. Attenuators have been subject to much less consideration than amplifiers; however, they will be the focus of our theoretical study. We utilize an extension of a well‐established model incorporated signal or cue inaccuracy and costly investments by emitter and perceiver in sending and attending to the signal or cue. We present broad conditions involving some conflict of interest between emitter and perceiver where it may be advantageous for emitters to invest in costly attenuators to mask cues from potential perceivers, and a subset of these conditions where the perceiver may be willing to invest in costly anti‐attenuators to mitigate the loss of information to them. We demonstrate that attenuators can be evolutionary stable even if they are costly, even if they are sometimes disadvantageous and even if a perceiver can mount counter‐measures to them. As such, we feel that attenuators of cues may be deserving of much more research attention.     

The content and availability of information affects the evolution of social-information gathering strategies

Social animals can gather information by observing the other members of their groups. Strategies for gathering this type of social information have many components. In particular, an animal can vary the number of other animals it observes. European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in flight pay attention to a number of neighbors that allows the flock to reach consensus quickly and robustly. The birds may do this because being in such a flock confers benefits on its members, or the birds may use the strategy that is individually beneficial without regard for the flock’s structure. To understand when individual-level optimization results in a group-level optimum, we develop a model of animals gathering social information about environmental cues, where the cue can be about either predators or resources, and we analyze two processes through which the number of neighbors changes over time. We then identify the number of neighbors the birds use when the two dynamics reach equilibrium. First, we find that the equilibrium number of neighbors is much lower when the birds are learning about the presence of resources rather than predators. Second, when the information is about the presence of predators, we find that the equilibrium number of neighbors increases as the information becomes more widespread. Third, we find that an optimization process converges on strategies that allow the flock to reach consensus when the information is about the presence of abundant resources, but not when it is about the presence of scarce resources or predators.     

An exploration of information exchange by adolescents and parents participating in adolescent idiopathic scoliosis online support groups

Background

Research indicates that healthcare providers frequently fail to adequately address patients’ health information needs. Therefore, it is not surprising that patients or parents of a sick child are seeking health information on the internet, in particular in online support groups (OSGs). In order to improve our understanding of the unmet health information needs of families dealing with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS), this study assessed and compared the types of information that adolescents and parents are seeking in OSGs.

Methods

This study used two publicly accessible AIS-related OSGs on the National Scoliosis Foundation (NSF) website that targeted those who are receiving brace treatment and those under observation without treatment. Information exchanges were coded as providing or seeking information. Types of information being exchanged were categorized into several AIS-specific and brace-specific categories. Through a review of over 8,000 messages, 305 adolescents with AIS and 300 parents of a child with AIS were identified and categorized based on stage of illness/treatment. One message from each individual was randomly selected and coded for analysis.

Results

There were significantly more (p?<?0.001) parents that had a recently diagnosed child compared to recently diagnosed adolescents participating in the AIS-related OSGs, whereas there were significantly more (p?=?0.004) adolescents that experienced brace treatment compared to parents of a child that experienced brace treatment. The most frequent information exchanged by adolescents and parents was AIS-related concerns regarding causes, diagnosis, and progression of the condition. However, compared to adolescents, parents exchanged this AIS-related information significantly more (p?<?.001) in their posts. Finally, compared to parents, adolescents exchanged significantly more information about appearance-related concerns regarding both AIS-related deformity (p?<?0.002) and wearing a brace (p?<?0.001).

Conclusion

Families dealing with AIS are participating in OSGs to exchange information, in particular information related to the condition and to treatment. This study found similarities and differences regarding how information was exchanged (providing or seeking) and regarding frequency and types of information exchanged. Knowledge of these similarities and differences may be useful for improving health communication in the healthcare setting, at home, and for development and improvement of AIS-related website support.

     

Thermal Analysis on Bioprotectant Disaccharides by Elastic Incoherent Neutron Scattering

In this work the attention is focused on the thermal properties of trehalose, a glass-forming disaccharide which is very effective as a shelf-life extending compound in food industry. A wavelet analysis of Elastic Incoherent Neutron Scattering (EINS) intensity data as a function of the exchanged wavevector on trehalose and its homologous, maltose and sucrose, is presented. This analysis, which allows to highlight the correlation between the signal and the set of the scaled and translated mother functions, reveals the existence of different kinds of protons dynamics which cover different spatial scales. Differently from previous analyses, it emerges that the energy distribution as a function of the exchanged wavevector for trehalose mixture is less sensitive to temperature changes. Furthermore, the application of a new fitting model to the partial and global EINS intensity data as a function of temperature allows to put into evidence both the different wavevector dependence of the system relaxation times, extracted from the intensity vs temperature inflection point, and the higher thermal resistance of trehalose in respect to the other investigated disaccharides.     

Microtubule self-repair

The stochastic switching between microtubule growth and shrinkage is a fascinating and unique process in the regulation of the cytoskeleton. To understand it, almost all attention has been focused on the microtubule ends. However, recent research has revived the idea that tubulin dimers can also be exchanged in protofilaments along the microtubule shaft, thus repairing the microtubule and protecting it from disassembly. Here, we review the research describing this phenomenon, the mechanisms regulating the removal and insertion of tubulin dimers, as well as the potential implications for key functions of the microtubule network, such as intracellular transport and cell polarization.     

Decrypting Financial Markets through E-Joint Attention Efforts: On-Line Adaptive Networks of Investors in Periods of Market Uncertainty

This paper looks at 800,000 messages on the Unicredit stock, exchanged by 7,500 investors in the Finanzaonline.com forum, between 2005 and 2012 and measured collective interpretations of stock market trends. We examined the correlation patterns between market uncertainty, bad news and investors'' network structure by measuring the investors'' communication patterns. Our results showed that the investors'' network reacted to market trends in different ways: While less turbulent market phases implied less communication, higher market volatility generated more complex communication patterns. While the information content of messages was less technical in situations of uncertainty, bad news caused more informative messages only when market volatility was lower. This meant that bad news had a different impact on network behaviour, depending on market uncertainty. By measuring the investors'' expertise, we found that their behaviour could help predict changes in daily stock returns. We also found that expert investors were more influential in communication processes during high volatility market phases, whereas they had less influence on the real-time forum''s reaction after bad news. Our findings confirm the crucial role of e-communication platforms. However, they also show the need to reconsider the fragility of these collective intelligence systems when under external shocks.     

Introducing accessibility analysis in mapping cultural ecosystem services

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the study of the spatial link between service providing areas (SPA) and service benefiting areas (SBA). Understanding the spatial link between SPAs and SBAs is essential when studying the ecosystem service delivery and the fulfilment of ecosystem service demand. However, far too little attention has been paid to the user movement related ecosystem services and where people should be geographically situated in order to benefit from these services. In the movement related services, benefiting areas are equal to providing areas and the spatial link from residential area to SPA is important. The spatial link is addressed through the concept of accessibility which determines the opportunity to move from the area where beneficiaries are located to areas where ecosystem services are produced.This study presents an accessibility approach to the ecosystem services research. Accessibility analyses offer an opportunity to identify the gap between the ecosystems’ potential to produce services and the actual usage possibilities of such services. We demonstrate the suitability of the method by using outdoor recreation and cultural heritage as examples of cultural ecosystem services that people actively want to reach. Accessibility was calculated using a geographical information system-based least-cost path analysis, which measures travel time by car between residential location and the nearest SPA via road network.The examples highlight that accessibility varies according to the ecosystem service and depends mostly on population distribution and travel possibilities. Our results demonstrate that the density of the analysed ecosystem service opportunities is higher near urban areas than elsewhere. The accessibility of different ecosystem services also depends on how much time people are willing to spend for reaching these services. Our study emphasised that, from a population perspective, accessibility analyses provide a powerful tool for illustrating the utilisation possibilities of spatially distributed ecosystem services. The accessibility approach offers great potential to assess the potential use of SPAs and respond to the need to develop a practical tool for ecosystem service research. It effectively shows, for example, the areas where the risk of overuse of ecosystem services is increased. Knowing about the regional differences in ecosystem service usage also gives background information for the decision-makers for drawing conclusions about how much and where it is sensible to invest in the maintenance of ecosystem services.     

A model for thermal exchange in axons during action potential propagation

Several experiments have shown that during propagation of the action potential in axons, thermal energy is locally exchanged. In this paper, we use a simple model based on statistical physics to show that an important part of this exchange comes from the physics of the effusion. We evaluate, during the action potential propagation, the variation of internal energy and of the energy associated with the chemical potential of the effusion of water and ions to extract the thermal energy exchanged. The temperature exchanged is then evaluated on the area where the action potential is active. Results give a good correspondence between experimental work and this model, showing that an important part of the thermal energy exchange comes from the statistical cooling power of the effusion.     

Effect of Bicuculline on the GABA Receptor of the Crayfish Neuromuscular Junction

SINCE it was reported that bicuculline is a specific antagonist of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)^1–3, much attention has been paid to the action of this alkaloid on cortical neurones^4–6. Thus it seemed worthwhile to test the mode of action of bicuculline on the inhibitory neuromuscular junction of the crayfish, where the action of GABA has been well documented^7,8.     

The fitness value of information

Communication and information are central concepts in evolutionary biology. In fact, it is hard to find an area of biology where these concepts are not used. However, quantifying the information transferred in biological interactions has been difficult. How much information is transferred when the first spring rainfall hits a dormant seed, or when a chick begs for food from its parent? One measure that is commonly used in such cases is fitness value: by how much, on average, an individual's fitness would increase if it behaved optimally with the new information, compared to its average fitness without the information. Another measure, often used to describe neural responses to sensory stimuli, is the mutual information – a measure of reduction in uncertainty, as introduced by Shannon in communication theory. However, mutual information has generally not been considered to be an appropriate measure for describing developmental or behavioral responses at the organismal level, because it is blind to function; it does not distinguish between relevant and irrelevant information. In this paper we show that there is in fact a surprisingly tight connection between these two measures in the important context of evolution in an uncertain environment. In this case, a useful measure of fitness benefit is the increase in the long‐term growth rate, or the fold increase in number of surviving lineages. We show that in many cases the fitness value of a developmental cue, when measured this way, is exactly equal to the reduction in uncertainty about the environment, as described by the mutual information.