Are signs enough? Using normative and narrative messaging to protect the western snowy plover (Charadrius nivosus) in coastal Oregon

Outdoor recreation can negatively impact wildlife. Shorebirds are especially sensitive because they often inhabit beaches used for recreation. Beaches at Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area (ODNRA) provide critical habitat for the federally threatened western snowy plover (WSPL) (Charadrius nivosus), which nests and forages in open sand. The ODNRA uses rope fencing and signs to communicate closures of WSPL habitat, but past efforts have not been highly successful. To improve compliance with closures, this study tested signs with messages based on the focus theory of normative conduct (i.e., Normative) and the extended elaboration likelihood model (i.e., Narrative). In an experimental design, the two treatment signs were compared to a control (an existing sign). We examined how the messages affected visitor attention to signs and impacted compliance with WSPL restrictions. Nearly 800 people were unobtrusively observed as they approached the sign and their reading behavior was documented. At regular intervals, an observer scanned the beach to count the number of people in and out of compliance with the regulations. Approximately one third of visitors read the treatment signs, while only 5% read the control sign. The Narrative sign was the most effective in deterring entry into WSPL nesting habitat. Findings suggest that a narrative format may encourage visitors to perform wildlife friendly behaviors. However, because many visitors still recreated inside WSPL nesting habitat after being exposed to signs, signs should be used to supplement strategies such as fencing or personal contact.     

Current capacity,bottlenecks, and future projections for offsetting habitat loss using Mitigation and Conservation banking in the United States

Habitat banking in its many iterations is an established and popular mechanism to deliver environmental offsets. The United States can look back at over 30 years of banking experience with the underlying framework and policies being consistently updated and improved. Given the increased demand in habitat banking, we provide insights into how bank area capacity is distributed across the United States for four different bank targets (wetlands, streams, multiple ecosystems, species) based on information extracted from the Regulatory In-lieu Fee and Bank Information Tracking System, as well as, estimating future capacities and area reserves through a predictive modeling approach based on data from the past 26 years. Future predictions indicate a decrease in available reserves for banks targeting wetlands or multiple ecosystems, with potential bottlenecks relating to large reserves being limited to the southeast and release schedules not catching up to the current and anticipated demand. Banks targeting species or streams are predicted to meet future demand, with species banks (conservation banks) following a different legislative and operational approach based on the listing of endangered species and pro-active approaches with anticipated future demand. Most current reserves for all four bank types are restricted to very few service areas with around one-third of all bank areas still awaiting release, limiting their availability on a broader scale. Strategic planning networks are necessary to meet future demand on a national scale and to identify areas suitable for banking or likely to experience future environmental or developmental stress.     

Leveraging remote learning during the Covid‐19 pandemic to enhance student understanding of biodiversity

We evaluated whether individual nature‐based ecological (NBE) study used in tandem with group collaboration enhanced undergraduate student understanding of ecological concepts and pro‐environmental perceptions. In response to the Covid‐19 pandemic, we developed a multiweek unit on the latitude diversity gradient (LDG) for fully online instruction that leveraged the unique situation of students learning in disparate geographic locations. Student understanding of the LDG and pro‐environmental perceptions were assessed with surveys administered both pre‐ and post‐activity in an introductory‐level biology laboratory course. Student understanding of the geographic location where biodiversity is the highest was high prior to the start of the laboratory unit and exhibited only a small improvement after the unit. In contrast, students’ higher order thinking around the LDG was enhanced by the lab activity. Student environmental perceptions shifted toward ecocentric views and away from anthropocentric views after the laboratory unit. The greatest gains in ecological understanding and shifts toward ecocentric viewpoints occurred in the group of students who visited their field sites most often. Our results provide further evidence as to the value of NBE for the introductory biology laboratory, even in an online learning setting. The lab unit described in this study provides a potential approach to teaching ecology in an online format that could easily be adapted to fit the needs of a particular curriculum.     

适于工程教育的生物化学PBL教学案例设计

工程教育是我国高等教育的重要组成部分,随着新工科人才培养内涵的不断深化,全方位开展课程改革,提高工科人才培养质量正当其时。为了突出新工科人才培养的特色,专业课和实习实践类课程正在成为课程教学改革的重点。但是,在专业基础课中如何突出工科特色人才培养的实践亟待探索。本文以生物化学课程为例,采用问题引导式教学方法,选择合适的教学案例,从科学与技术问题出发探索教学设计,引导学生凝练问题、分析问题并解决问题。实现引导学生从“被动式”到“主动式”学习的转变,提升学生思辨能力的同时,突出科学与技术的工程化应用,并为持续甚至终生学习奠定基础,为新工科背景下应用型人才培养提供参考和借鉴。     

CURRICULUM GUIDE FOR RESEARCH ETHICS WORKSHOPS FOR COUNTRIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST

To help ensure the ethical conduct of research, many have recommended educational efforts in research ethics to investigators and members of research ethics committees (RECs). One type of education activity involves multi‐day workshops in research ethics. To be effective, such workshops should contain the appropriate content and teaching techniques geared towards the learning styles of the targeted audiences. To ensure consistency in content and quality, we describe the development of a curriculum guide, core competencies and associated learning objectives and activities to help educators organize research ethics workshops in their respective institutions. The curriculum guide is divided into modular units to enable planners to develop workshops of different lengths and choose content materials that match the needs, abilities, and prior experiences of the target audiences. The content material in the curriculum guide is relevant for audiences in the Middle East, because individuals from the Middle East who participated in a Certificate Program in research ethics selected and developed the training materials (e.g., articles, powerpoint slides, case studies, protocols). Also, many of the activities incorporate active‐learning methods, consisting of group work activities analyzing case studies and reviewing protocols. The development of such a workshop training curriculum guide represents a sustainable educational resource to enhance research ethics capacity in the Middle East.     

Enhancing Bioinformatics and Genomics Courses: Building Capacity and Skills via Lab Meeting Activities

Reading, writing, publishing, and publicly presenting scientific works are vital for a young researcher's profile building and career development. Generally, the traditional educational curricula do not offer training possibilities to learn and practice how to prepare, write, and present scientific works. These are rather a part of lab meeting activities in research groups. The lack of such training is more critical in some developing countries because this adds to the rare opportunities to discuss and become involved in the exchanges on state of the art scientific literature. Here the authors relate their experience in introducing a weekly 1-day lab meeting in the framework of two previously organized 3-month courses on “Bioinformatics and Genome Analyses”. The main activities which are developed during these lab meetings include scientific literature follow up as well as preparing and presenting oral and written scientific reviews. These activities prove to be useful for a student's self-confidence building, for enhancing their active participation during the lectures and practical sessions, as well as for the positive impact on running the whole course program. Incorporation of such lab meeting activities in the course program significantly improves the capacity building of the participants, their analytical and critical reading of scientific literature, as well as communication skills. In this work it is shown how to proceed with the different steps involved in the implementation of lab meeting activities, and to recommend their regular institution in similar courses.     

Development and Application of a Framework for Analyzing the Impacts of Urban Transportation

To adequately analyze the impacts associated with the rising use of automobiles, an assessment framework is needed that includes environment, health, economic, and sociocultural impacts. Such a framework was developed and applied to a proposed freeway-widening project in Edmonton, Canada. The assessment framework was developed using both Multi-Criteria Analysis and the Ecosystem Approach to Human Health (Ecohealth). Community participation was vital in the application of the assessment framework to this case study. Six stakeholder groups, including community members, City Councillors, and health, environment, and transportation experts, provided needed qualitative data for the assessment framework. Quantitative data were gathered from an ecological study design that associated traffic volumes with respiratory conditions in Edmonton. Community members perceptions about the impacts of the freeway widening differed from those of the expert groups in a number of areas. Environmental and health degradation was more of an issue to community members than to expert groups. Though respiratory conditions were not projected to increase by a significant amount because of the freeway widening, further analysis is necessary on other biophysical and socioeconomic impacts listed in the assessment framework. The divergence in opinion between community members and experts suggests that more communication is needed between these groups in relation to transportation planning. The Ecohealth approach ensures that community concerns are addressed in transportation planning.     

A review of bioinformatics degrees in Australia

Bioinformatics has been a hot topic in Australia's biotechnology circles for the past five years. As with biotechnology in the 1990s, there has been a sudden increase in the number of Bioinformatics undergraduate degrees. For students in the 2005 intake there are six undergraduate Bioinformatics degrees to choose from and another five Bioinformatics streams within a Bachelor of Science degree. The courses vary from three to four years of full-time study. This report aims at dissecting each of these degrees to determine where the differences lie, to give the prospective students an idea as to which degree suits their career goals and to give an overview of the pedagogy of Australian bioinformatics education.     

Using LCA to examine greenhouse gas abatement policy

The site-generic approach currently adopted by the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology introduces uncertainties into the impact assessment phase of an LCA study. These uncertainties are greatest for localised and short-lived problems but are less significant for long lasting, cumulative environmental effects. Indeed, the reliability of LCA results is high for problems that manifest at a global scale. Nevertheless, even though these results are considered accurate, it is still often unclear as to their relevance in terms of policy development and decision-making. Therefore, this paper demonstrates how LCA can be used to determine the efficacy of policies aimed at reducing a product system’s contribution to global environmental problems. We accomplish this aim by presenting a case study that evaluates the greenhouse gas contributions of each stage in the life cycle of containerboard packaging and the potential impact on emissions of various policy options available to decision makers. Our analysis showed that in general the most useful strategy was to recycle the used packaging. However, our analysis also indicated that when measures are taken to eliminate sources of methane emissions and encourage the use of plantation timber then recycling is no longer beneficial from a greenhouse perspective. This is because the process energy required in the form of gas and electricity is substantially greater for containerboard manufactured from recycled material than it is for virgin fibre.