Interaction of oddball probability and primary task type on P300 in the dual-task paradigm

Using a dual-task paradigm with an oddball secondary task, P300 amplitude and latency were studied as a function of factorially manipulated oddball probability (low = .22, high = .44) and primary task type. In addition to a Baselinecondition (oddball task only), three primary tasks were used: (1) Pure Sensory;watching a movie; (2) Pure Motor (manipulating a flashlight); and (3) Sensory/Motor(using the flashlight to trace the outlines of characters in a movie). The findings included the usual significant effects of probability on amplitude. There was also a significant effect of task type on amplitude, and a significant interaction of oddball probability with task type. In the low but not high probability condition, a pure Sensory task depressed P300 amplitude. In both probability conditions, the Sensory/motortask depressed P300 amplitude. Only task type had a significant effect on P300 latency. The results confirm the ability of other labs (using Sensory/motor primary tasks) to demonstrate P300 depression at high oddball probability, in view of the difficulty in our lab of achieving P300 depression with pure sensory tasks and high oddball probabilities. The results are discussed in terms of partial overlap of processing resource pools. A preliminary report of these data was presented at the 1990 meetings of the Society for Psychophysiological Research.     

气候变化影响与风险研究的理论范式和方法体系

以全球变暖为主的气候变化将会在本世纪持续,针对气候变化影响与风险而采取适应和减缓措施,得到了国际社会的广泛认同。然而,气候变化影响与风险研究领域理论和方法并不规范,研究结果缺乏可比性。基于科学哲学家库恩提出的理论范式和构造范式概念,梳理、集成气候变化影响与风险研究的"脆弱性-要素分离-不确定性-风险"理论框架,总结相应的方法体系包括实地观测与科学实验、数值模型和统计方法、风险定量化评估框架等。气候变化影响与风险研究应遵循理论范式"四要素"的逻辑关系,综合运用多种分析方法,力求相关研究的整体性和系统化,以利增强气候变化影响与风险研究的科学性及其成果的应用指导意义。     

Short-term effects of a "health-at-every-size" approach on eating behaviors and appetite ratings

Objective: To assess the effects of a “Health‐At‐Every‐Size” (HAES) intervention on eating behaviors and appetite ratings in 144 premenopausal overweight women. Research Methods and Procedures: Women were randomly assigned to one of the 3 groups: HAES group, social support (SS) group, and control group (N = 48 in each group). Interventions were conducted over a 4‐month period, and measurements were taken before and after this period. Eating behaviors (cognitive dietary restraint, disinhibition, and susceptibility to hunger) were evaluated by the Three‐Factor Eating Questionnaire. Appetite ratings (desire to eat, hunger, fullness, and prospective food consumption) were assessed by visual analogue scales before and after a standardized breakfast. Results: More important decreases in susceptibility to hunger and external hunger were observed in the HAES group when compared with the SS group (p = 0.05, for susceptibility to hunger) and the control group (p = 0.02 and p = 0.005, for susceptibility to hunger and external hunger, respectively). In addition, women from the HAES group had more important decreases in postprandial area under the curve for desire to eat (p = 0.02) and hunger (p = 0.04) when compared with the control group. The change in the desire to eat noted in the HAES group was also different from the one observed in SS group (p = 0.02). Women from the HAES group experienced significant weight loss at 4 months (?1.6 ± 2.5 kg, p < 0.0001), which did not differ significantly from the SS and control groups (p = 0.09). An increase in flexible restraint was significantly related to a greater weight loss in both HAES and SS groups (r = ?0.39, p < 0.01; and r = ?0.37, p < 0.05, respectively). A decrease in habitual susceptibility to disinhibition was also associated with a greater weight loss in HAES and control groups (r = 0.31, p < 0.05; and r = 0.44, p < 0.05, respectively). Discussion: These results suggest that a HAES intervention could have significant effects on eating behaviors and appetite ratings in premenopausal overweight women, when compared with an SS intervention or a control group.     

Cladistic biogeography and the art of discovery

Aims

Cladistic biogeography is about discovering geographical congruence. The agreement of several taxon‐area cladograms (TACs) rarely yields a perfect result. Areas may overlap, taxa may not be evenly distributed, and thus, ambiguity may be prevalent in the data. Ambiguity is incongruence and may be resolved by reducing paralogy and resolving potential information. Recently, several new approaches in cladistic biogeography [i.e. Brooks parsimony analysis (BPA), Assumption 0] interpret ambiguity as congruence. These methods are problematic, as they are generational. Methods constructed under the generation paradigm are flawed concepts that are immunized from falsifying evidence. A critique of modified BPA reveals that taking an evolutionary stance in biogeography leads to flaws in implementation.

Methods

Area cladistics is a new development in cladistic biogeography. Area cladistics adopts paralogy‐free subtree analysis using Assumption 2, to discover the relative positions of continents through time.

Results

Geographical congruence is the result of allopatric (geographical) speciation. Vicariance, dispersal and combinations of both, are recognized causes for allopatric speciation. Area cladistics highlights the concept that all these events occur in response to geological changes (e.g. continental drift) either directly, by geographical boundaries, or indirectly, at the level of ocean currents. Samples of chosen examples all respond to the geological process. The examples include Ordovician–Silurian and Lower Devonian trilobites to yield a general areagram which is a representational branching diagram that depicts the relationships of areas.

Main conclusion

Finding one common biogeographical pattern from several unrelated groups is a qualitative approach to interpret the positions of continental margins through time. Area cladistics is not a substitute for palaeomaps that are derived from palaeomagnetic data, but general areagrams adding to the body of knowledge that yields more precise interpretations of the earth's past.

     

Scale,succession and complexity in island biogeography: are we asking the right questions?

• 1 This paper offers a commentary on the development of island ecological theory since the publication of MacArthur & Wilson’s equilibrium theory in the 1960s. I distinguish the simple model at the core of their Equilibrium Theory of Island Biogeography (ETIB) and the broader body of their theory, which embraces evolutionary as well as ecological patterns — all, however, within the overarching framework or assumption of equilibrium.
• 2 The basic problems with the ETIB have long been known, and its status as a ruling paradigm has been the subject of concern for more than two decades. With the development of nonequilibrium ideas in ecology, island biogeographers arguably now have viable theoretical frameworks to set alongside or around the ETIB. Four conditions are highlighted as extremes: i) dynamic equilibrium; ii) dynamic nonequilibrium; iii) ‘static’ equilibrium; and iv) ‘static’ nonequilibrium: together providing a conceptual framework for island ecological analyses.
• 3 The importance of scale is stressed and attention is drawn to Haila’s spatial‐temporal continuum as an organizational device. It is argued that the processes represented within the ETIB (and by extension, other island theories) may be prominent within only a limited portion of this continuum, while elsewhere they are generally subsumed by other dominant processes.
• 4 Colonization and ecosystem development of near‐shore islands constitute just a special case of ecological succession, and thus the development of theories of island assembly may benefit accordingly from efforts to incorporate ideas from the ecological succession literature.
• 5 The desirability of specifying answerable questions is stressed, as is the need to build a greater degree of complexity into the development of island ecological models. Notwithstanding which, it is also recognized that key advances are often brought about by simple, but bold models, of the form exemplified elsewhere in this issue.

     

Declining old‐forest species as a legacy of large trees lost

Aim

Global declines in large old trees from selective logging have degraded old‐forest ecosystems, which could lead to delayed declines or losses of old‐forest‐associated wildlife populations (i.e., extinction debt). We applied the declining population paradigm and explored potential evidence for extinction debt in an old‐forest dependent species across landscapes with different histories of large tree logging.

Location

Montane forests of the Sierra Nevada, California, USA.

Methods

We tested hypotheses about the influence of forest structure on territory extinction dynamics of the spotted owl (Strix occidentalis) using detection/non‐detection data from 1993 to 2011 across two land tenures: national forests, which experienced extensive large tree logging over the past century, and national parks, which did not.

Results

Large tree/high canopy cover forest was the best predictor of extinction rates and explained 26%–77% of model deviance. Owl territories with more large tree/high canopy cover forest had lower extinction rates, and this forest type was ~4 times more prevalent within owl territories in national parks ( = 19% of territory) than national forests ( = 4% of territory). As such, predicted extinction probability for an average owl territory was ~2.5 times greater in national forests than national parks, where occupancy was declining () and stable (), respectively. Large tree/high canopy cover forest remained consistently low, but did not decline, during the study period on national forests while owl declines were ongoing—an observation consistent with an extinction debt.

Main conclusions

In identifying a linkage between large trees and spotted owl dynamics at a regional scale, we provide evidence suggesting past logging of large old trees may have contributed to contemporary declines in an old‐forest species. Strengthening protections for remaining large old trees and promoting their recruitment in the future will be critical for biodiversity conservation in the world's forests.

     

岛屿生物地理学与集合种群理论的本质与渊源

岛屿生物地理学和集合种群理论是目前生物多样性保育所依赖的主要生态学理论。人们通常强调这两种理论的区别,对它们之间的关联却很少注意到。事实上,这两种理论是同根同源的。以经典集合种群理论的创始者R．Levim对他与岛屿生物地理学的创始者R．H．MaeArthur的合作过程以及岛屿生物地理学对他提出集合种群理论的影响的回顾为基础,分析比较了岛屿生物地理学、经典集合种群理论、以Hanski为代表的现代集合种群理论的基本假设、研究范式和核心思想的异同,简要介绍了多物种集合种群与集合群落研究的差异,最后分析了岛屿生物地理学和集合种群理论在生物多样性保育实践中的应用和存在问题。     

基于景观生态学的城市人居环境代谢研究范式与研究框架建构

人居环境建设已经成为中国城市发展和当代生态学研究的新兴命题,基于物质代谢研究成果,系统剖析城市人居环境问题,提升城市化过程的生态文明水准成为推动新型城市化发展的重要路径选择。通过对人居环境视角和社会代谢视角的城市研究进行简要回顾,认为两种视角的有机整合可以弥补各自的理论和方法论缺陷,进而凝练出新的城市生态学研究思路。利用景观生态学理论和概念体系,建构了多层次、多维度的城市人居环境代谢研究范式和基本研究框架。这一范式可以从多尺度和多维度反映城市人居环境代谢的过程特征,厘清城市人为活动和各种资源环境问题的关联关系,整合多学科的知识和技术手段,解析城市人居环境的时空动态演化过程及其驱动机制,为城市人居环境研究学科的发展创造有利条件。通过建构基于景观生态学的城市人居环境物质能量代谢研究框架,还可以有效推进城市人居环境物质能量代谢中的格局-过程-尺度耦合问题,数据采集、储存与分析问题和效应调控与过程管理问题的研究,对于完善城市代谢研究方法,促进城市人居环境建设具有重要的参考和借鉴意义。     

Analysis of Determining Factors of the Public's Risk Acceptance Level in China

This work will characterize risk acceptance in China, based on the psychometric paradigm, and explore the determining factors that influence the risk acceptable level to the Chinese public. For this purpose, a survey was conducted including 12 hazards, 10 risk attributes (including risk acceptance), and demographic variables. First, the research attempted to explore Nanjing citizens’ average risk acceptable level for 12 hazards in China. Second, intercorrelation analysis and factor analysis of nine risk attributes were performed to obtain the suitable risk perception factors as independent variables. Three risk perception models of acceptance were constructed, which were named “Environmental risk model,” “Daily risk model,” and “Technical risk model,” that explained 59.0–69.6% of variance separately. In general, the variables of Knowledge, Benefit, and Trust were found to be significant in all models, implying that these variables are the main determining factors. However, in the environmental risk model, the variable of effect was also significant, which means the determining factors would change for different types of hazards. These results could help the Chinese government to improve the communication of risks with the public and make effective mitigation policies to improve people's rational judgment on the acceptability of risks.