INTRAVENOUS ADMINISTRATION OF FAT EMULSIONS—Metabolic and Clinical Studies

Fat emulsions alone or in alternation with amino acid mixtures were administered by continuous intravenous infusion to human subjects. Adequate nutrition was maintained thereby, without untoward effects. Upon too rapid administration of such emulsions, toxic manifestations occurred, apparently referable to an “overload” of the enzyme systems concerned with fat catabolism and storage.     

Fewer invited talks by women in evolutionary biology symposia

Lower visibility of female scientists, compared to male scientists, is a potential reason for the under‐representation of women among senior academic ranks. Visibility in the scientific community stems partly from presenting research as an invited speaker at organized meetings. We analysed the sex ratio of presenters at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) Congress 2011, where all abstract submissions were accepted for presentation. Women were under‐represented among invited speakers at symposia (15% women) compared to all presenters (46%), regular oral presenters (41%) and plenary speakers (25%). At the ESEB congresses in 2001–2011, 9–23% of invited speakers were women. This under‐representation of women is partly attributable to a larger proportion of women, than men, declining invitations: in 2011, 50% of women declined an invitation to speak compared to 26% of men. We expect invited speakers to be scientists from top ranked institutions or authors of recent papers in high‐impact journals. Considering all invited speakers (including declined invitations), 23% were women. This was lower than the baseline sex ratios of early‐mid career stage scientists, but was similar to senior scientists and authors that have published in high‐impact journals. High‐quality science by women therefore has low exposure at international meetings, which will constrain Evolutionary Biology from reaching its full potential. We wish to highlight the wider implications of turning down invitations to speak, and encourage conference organizers to implement steps to increase acceptance rates of invited talks.     

Increasing arboreality with altitude: a novel biogeographic dimension

Biodiversity is spatially organized by climatic gradients across elevation and latitude. But do other gradients exist that might drive biogeographic patterns? Here, we show that rainforest''s vertical strata provide climatic gradients much steeper than those offered by elevation and latitude, and biodiversity of arboreal species is organized along this gradient. In Philippine and Singaporean rainforests, we demonstrate that rainforest frogs tend to shift up in the rainforest strata as altitude increases. Moreover, a Philippine-wide dataset of frog distributions shows that frog assemblages become increasingly arboreal at higher elevations. Thus, increased arboreality with elevation at broad biogeographic scales mirrors patterns we observed at local scales. Our proposed ‘arboreality hypothesis’ suggests that the ability to exploit arboreal habitats confers the potential for larger geographical distributions because species can shift their location in the rainforest strata to compensate for shifts in temperature associated with elevation and latitude. This novel finding may help explain patterns of species richness and abundance wherever vegetation produces a vertical microclimatic gradient. Our results further suggest that global warming will ‘flatten’ the biodiversity in rainforests by pushing arboreal species towards the cooler and wetter ground. This ‘flattening’ could potentially have serious impacts on forest functioning and species survival.     

The wildlife snaring crisis: an insidious and pervasive threat to biodiversity in Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia, a region supporting more threatened species than any other comparable continental area, is in the midst of a conservation crisis. Hunting constitutes the greatest current threat to the region’s threatened vertebrates and has resulted in many areas of largely intact forest losing much of their former vertebrate diversity and abundance. Though numerous hunting methods are used, capture with home-made snares is a major driver of this defaunation. Snares are cheaply constructed and easy to set but can be difficult to detect and are highly damaging to vertebrate populations due to their indiscriminate and wasteful nature. The primary response to snaring is the removal of snares by patrol teams: more than 200,000 snares were removed from just five of the region’s protected areas between 2010 and 2015. However due to the low opportunity costs of replacing snares, removal alone is largely ineffective. Without the proactive search, arrest and prosecution of snare-setters, along with incentives not to hunt, snares will continue to be replaced. Legislative reform that criminalises the possession of snares, and the materials used for their construction, inside and immediately adjacent to protected areas is also required. Consistent enforcement of such legislation is essential. This must be combined with longer-term demand reduction activities aimed at changing cultural attitudes and behaviors related to the consumption of wildlife products in Southeast Asia.