193 research outputs found
Discussions and Reviews : Toward an ethology of human conflict: a review
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/67149/2/10.1177_002200276701100310.pd
A practical tool for assessing ecosystem services enhancement and degradation associated with invasive alien species
Current approaches for assessing the effects of invasive alien species (IAS) are biased toward the negative effects of these species, resulting in an incomplete picture of their real effects. This can result in an inefficient IAS management. We address this issue by describing the INvasive Species Effects Assessment Tool (INSEAT) that enables expert elicitation for rapidly assessing the ecological consequences of IAS using the ecosystem services (ES) framework. INSEAT scores the ecosystem service âgains and lossesâ using a scale that accounted for the magnitude and the reversibility of its effects. We tested INSEAT on 18 IAS in Great Britain. Here, we highlighted four case studies: Harmonia axyridis (Harlequin ladybird), Astacus leptodactylus (Turkish crayfish), Pacifastacus leniusculus (Signal crayfish) and Impatiens glandulifera (Himalayan balsam). The results demonstrated that a collation of different expertsâ opinions using INSEAT could yield valuable information on the invasive aliensâ ecological and social effects. The users can identify certain IAS as ES providers and the trade-offs between the ES provision and loss associated with them. This practical tool can be useful for evidence-based policy and management decisions that consider the potential role of invasive species in delivering human well-being.</p
Warming and Resource Availability Shift Food Web Structure and Metabolism
Experimental warming of a marine food web suggests that ocean warming can lead to greater consumer abundance but reduced overall biomass, providing a potentially species-independent response to environmental warming
The adaptive significance of cultural behavior: Comments and reply
Fundamentally, theoretically, there is only one process underlying genetic and cultural evolution: natural selection. Organism fitness-enhancement (âadaptive significanceâ) is one of its practical mechanisms; group formation and maintenance is another, often but not always through fitness-enhancement; and need-fulfillment is still another. If Durham can accept that formulation, and switch from âorganism-thinkingâ to âinstruction-thinkingâ (Cloak, 1975: 178), he will free himself from two handicaps: First, he can forget his worries about âreductionismâ and âdeterminismâ (1976a: 100, 101). Under this general theory of natural selection, cultural evolution is biological evolution, continued by âotherâ (nongenetic) means. Second, he will spare himself the appearance of anthropomorphism, mentalism, and wishy-washiness attendant on his discussion of kinds of âsignificance,â other than adaptive âsignificance,â of cultural behaviors (1976a: 102â106, 115).Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44494/1/10745_2005_Article_BF01880258.pd
The role of supportive supervision on immunization program outcome - a randomized field trial from Georgia
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>One of the most common barriers to improving immunization coverage rates is human resources and its management. In the Republic of Georgia, a country where widespread health care reforms have taken place over the last decade, an intervention was recently implemented to strengthen performance of immunization programs. A range of measures were taken to ensure that immunization managers carry out their activities effectively through direct, personal contact on a regular basis to guide, support and assist designated health care facility staff to become more competent in their immunization work. The aim of this study was to document the effects of "supportive" supervision on the performance of the immunization program at the district(s) level in Georgia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A pre-post experimental research design is used for the quantitative evaluation. Data come from baseline and follow-up surveys of health care providers and immunization managers in 15 intervention and 15 control districts. These data were supplemented by focus group discussions amongst Centre of Public Health and health facility staff.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The results of the study suggest that the intervention package resulted in a number of expected improvements. Among immunization managers, the intervention independently contributed to improved knowledge of supportive supervision, and helped remove self-perceived barriers to supportive supervision such as availability of resources to supervisors, lack of a clear format for providing supportive supervision, and lack of recognition among providers of the importance of supportive supervision. The intervention independently contributed to relative improvements in district-level service delivery outcomes such as vaccine wastage factors and the DPT-3 immunization coverage rate. The clear positive improvement in all service delivery outcomes across both the intervention and control districts can be attributed to an overall improvement in the Georgian population's access to health care.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Provider-based interventions such as supportive supervision can have independent positive effects on immunization program indicators. Thus, it is recommended to implement supportive supervision within the framework of national immunization programs in Georgia and other countries in transition with similar institutional arrangements for health services organization.</p> <p>Abstract in Russian</p> <p>See the full article online for a translation of this abstract in Russian.</p
Isolation and characterization of a new CO-utilizing strain, Thermoanaerobacter thermohydrosulfuricus subsp. carboxydovorans, isolated from a geothermal spring in Turkey
A novel anaerobic, thermophilic, Gram-positive, spore-forming, and sugar-fermenting bacterium (strain TLO) was isolated from a geothermal spring in AyaĆ, Turkey. The cells were straight to curved rods, 0.4â0.6 Όm in diameter and 3.5â10 Όm in length. Spores were terminal and round. The temperature range for growth was 40â80°C, with an optimum at 70°C. The pH optimum was between 6.3 and 6.8. Strain TLO has the capability to ferment a wide variety of mono-, di-, and polysaccharides and proteinaceous substrates, producing mainly lactate, next to acetate, ethanol, alanine, H2, and CO2. Remarkably, the bacterium was able to grow in an atmosphere of up to 25% of CO as sole electron donor. CO oxidation was coupled to H2 and CO2 formation. The G + C content of the genomic DNA was 35.1 mol%. Based on 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis and the DNAâDNA hybridization data, this bacterium is most closely related to Thermoanaerobacter thermohydrosulfuricus and Thermoanaerobacter siderophilus (99% similarity for both). However, strain TLO differs from Thermoanaerobacter thermohydrosulfuricus in important aspects, such as CO-utilization and lipid composition. These differences led us to propose that strain TLO represents a subspecies of Thermoanaerobacter thermohydrosulfuricus, and we therefore name it Thermoanaerobacter thermohydrosulfuricus subsp. carboxydovorans
Cnidocyte discharge is regulated by light and opsin-mediated phototransduction
Cnidocyte discharge is regulated by light and opsin-mediated phototransduction Plachetzki et al. Plachetzki et al. BMC Biology 2012, 10:1
Modes, mechanisms and evidence of bet hedging in rotifer diapause traits
In this contribution, we review our knowledge on bet-hedging strategies associated with rotifer diapause. First, we describe the ecological scenario under which bet hedging is likely to have evolved in three diapause-related traits in monogonont rotifer populations: (1) the timing of sex (because diapausing eggs are produced via sexual reproduction), (2) the sexual reproduction ratio (i.e. the fraction of sexually reproducing females) and (3) the timing of diapausing egg hatching. Then, we describe how to discriminate among bet-hedging modes and discuss which modes and mechanisms better fit the variability observed in these traits in rotifers. Finally, we evaluate the strength of the empirical evidence for bet hedging in the scarce studies available, and we call for the need of research at different levels of biological complexity to fully understand bet hedging in rotifer diapause
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