Relating Urban Biodiversity to Human Health With the ‘Holobiont’ Concept

A relatively unaccounted ecosystem service from biodiversity is the benefit to human health via symbiotic microbiota from our environment. This benefit occurs because humans evolved alongside microbes and have been constantly exposed to diverse microbiota. Plants and animals, including humans, are organised as a host with symbiotic microbiota, whose collective genome and life history form a single holobiont. As such, there are interdependencies between biodiversity, holobionts, and public health which lead us to argue that human health outcomes could be improved by increasing contact with biodiversity in an urban context. We propose that humans, like all holobionts, likely require a diverse microbial habitat to appropriate resources for living healthy, long lives. We discuss how industrial urbanisation likely disrupts the symbiosis between microbiota and their hosts, leading to negative health outcomes. The industrialised urban habitat is low in macro and microbial biodiversity and discourages contact with beneficial environmental microbiota. These habitat factors, alongside diet, antibiotics, and others, are associated with the epidemic of non-communicable diseases in these societies. We suggest that restoration of urban microbial biodiversity and micro-ecological processes through microbiome rewilding can benefit holobiont health and aid in treating the urban non-communicable disease epidemic. Further, we identify research gaps and some solutions to economic and strategic hurdles in applying microbiome rewilding into daily urban life

Hermeneutiese vertrekpunte vir gereformeerde eksegese

Die Koos Vorster HuldigingsbundelHermeneutics as discipline finds itself in troubled waters. This has been caused, inter alia, by a postmodernistic mindset that has exchanged the truth of a retraceable conclusion for the individual’s subjective perception of truth and reality. This has contributed to the fact that biblical hermeneutics finds itself in an impasse, so that it has become necessary for the reformed hermeneutics to redefine its fundamentals: the hermeneutic premises on which reformed exegesis is founded. This article attempts this by way of establishing the state of the art of the hermeneutic premises of reformed exegesis and developing and edifying it, utilising results of the past half century’s new insights in hermeneuticsHermeneutiese vertrekpunte vir gereformeerde eksegese Hermeneutiek het as wetenskaplike dissipline in sekere opsigte sy bestaansreg verloor. Dit is onder andere veroorsaak deur postmodernistiese denke waarin die waarheid van ’n kontroleerbare bevinding ingeruil is vir die individu se subjektiewe persepsie van waarheid en werklikheid. Dit werk daartoe mee dat die Bybelse hermeneutiek hom in ’n impasse bevind, sodat dit vir die gereformeerde hermeneutiek noodsaaklik geword het om sy vaste punt, die hermeneutiese vertrekpunte waarop die gereformeerde eksegese gegrond is, opnuut te definieer. Hierdie artikel wil dit doen deur ’n kort bestekopname van die hermeneutiese vertrekpunte van die gereformeerde eksegese te Hermeneutiese vertrekpunte vir gereformeerde eksegese maak en dit vanuit nuwe insigte wat oor die afgelope halfeeu van hermeneutiese besinning na vore gekom het, aan te vul en te verryk.http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/ids.v45i2&3.1

Preparing against immorality in a postmodern society : a hermeneusis of 2 Peter 1:12-15

Under the influence of postmodernism the moral autonomy of man is at present strongly accentuated and society more and more evinces the characteristics of this perspective. This article on 2 Peter 1:12-15 argues that it is important to make believers' aware of the consequences of an immoral lifestyle and to prepare them against it. Believers must be equipped with fresh and clear knowledge of the teachings of the apostles. In these teachings the believers possess authoritative guidance that will help them to distinguish between true and false teachers of Jesus Christ and that will lead them to sanctification. The teachings of the apostles will also teach them to call lovingly upon other people to live a life true to God and one that speaks of high moral values and self control.Spine cut of Journal binding and pages scanned on flatbed EPSON Expression 10000 XL; 400dpi; text/lineart - black and white - stored to Tiff Derivation: Abbyy Fine Reader v.9 work with PNG-format (black and white); Photoshop CS3; Adobe Acrobat v.9 Web display format PDFhttp://explore.up.ac.za/record=b100134

Changes in abundance and reproductive activity of small arid zone murid rodents on an active cattle station in central Australia

Context. Boom and bust population cycles are characteristic of many arid-zone rodents, but it is unknown to what extent these dynamics might be influenced by the presence of invasive rodents, such as the house mouse (Mus musculus) in Australia. Aim. To determine whether the presence of M. musculus can have negative consequences on the population abundance and reproduction of two old Australian endemic rodents (the spinifex hopping mouse, Notomys alexis, and sandy inland mouse, Pseudomys hermannsburgensis). Methods. The study took place on the sand dunes of a cattle station in central Australia. Population abundance was estimated as the number of individuals caught in small mammal traps, and female reproductive condition by external examination and, in a few cases, euthanasia and inspection of the reproductive tract. Key results. Two synchronous periods of high abundance of N. alexis and M. musculus occurred several months after significant rainfall events, whereas the abundance of P. hermannsburgensis was consistently low.Noreproduction took place in N. alexis or M. musculus when populations had reached high abundance. During low-rainfall periods, M. musculus was not detected on the sand dunes, and the two endemic species were sparsely distributed, with reproduction occasionally being evident. Conclusions. During dry periods, M. musculus contracted back to refuges around the homestead and, after significant rainfall, it expanded onto the sand dunes and became abundant at the same time as did N. alexis. In contrast, and unlike in areas where M. musculus was generally rare, P. hermannsburgensis always remained at a low abundance. These patterns suggest that in areas of the natural environment close to human-modified sites, populations of at least one species of an old endemic rodent are supressed by the presence of M. musculus. Reproduction did not occur in the old endemics at times of high M. musculus abundance, but did take place in spring/early summer, even in some dry years. Implications. The spread of M. musculus into the Australian arid zone may have had negative impacts on the population dynamics of P. hermannsburgensis. These findings suggest that the presence of human settlements has resulted in refuges for house mice, which periodically spread out into the natural environment during ‘boom’ times and adversely affect the natural population cycle of ecologically similar species such as P. hermannsburgensis.W. G. Breed, C. M. Leigh and M. F. Bree