Socio - ecological analysis of natural resource use in Betampona Strict Natural Reserve

Without an adequate understanding of the socio-political context in which a natural environment is embedded, it is impossible to prevent, mitigate and adapt to future unwanted changes in the socio - ecological system. It is advantageous for environmental managers to see the social aspects of the socio-ecological system so that they can understand not only the effects but also the motivations of natural resource use. In Madagascar, lemurs and other mammalian wildlife are hotly contested resources because they are threatened and endemic biodiversity and yet are hunted for food throughout the island. Using semi - structured interviews in nearly 300 households in 19 communities surrounding the Betampona Strict Natural Reserve, our team found that more than 60 % of households had consumed wildlife within the past year, with approximately a quarter of wildlife harvest being illegal and nearly 95 % of wildlife harvest being directed to subsistence consumption and not for sale. Although rates of wildlife consumption were quite low throughout the region, we found a strong effect of the presence of the Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group research station. We found that the rates of wildlife consumption increased by 1.3 times for each kilometer distance from the station. Due to the low rates of wildlife consumption, we did not find a significant impact on human health and anemia (as measured through hemoglobin levels), and very low prevalence of anemia generally compared to other regions of Madagascar. Wildlife consumption does not appear to play a tremendous economic or health role in the communities surrounding this particular protected area, and thus increased enforcement of seasonal infractions of legal species and of all illegal species would be warranted. To improve current levels of nutrition, targeted interventions could focus on domesticated livestock diseases that plague the region.RÉSUMÉLorsque des changements inopinés surviennent dans un système socio-écologique, il est impossible de prévenir, d’atténuer et d’adapter si le contexte socio-politique dans lequel un environnement naturel évolue n’est pas bien compris. Les gestionnaires de l’environnement ont tout intérêt à considérer les aspects sociaux du système socio-écologique de manière à comprendre non seulement les effets de l’utilisation des ressources naturelles mais aussi ce qui motive cette utilisation. A Madagascar, les lémuriens et d’autres mammifères sont des ressources vivement contestées car ces espèces sont menacées et tout en représentant la biodiversité endémique, elles sont cependant chassées pour leur viande sur l’ensemble de l’île. En utilisant des entretiens semi-structurés auprès de 300 ménages dans 19 communautés villageoises de la périphérie de la Réserve Naturelle Intégrale de Betampona, la présente étude a montré que plus de 60 % des ménages avaient consommé du gibier au cours de l’année écoulée dont environ un quart de manière illégale et près de 95 % pour répondre à des besoins de subsistance mais pas pour la vente. Bien que les taux de consommation de gibier étaient plutôt faibles sur l’ensemble de la région, un fort effet de la présence de la station de recherche de Madagascar Fauna and Flora Group a été noté avec des taux de consommation de gibier multipliés par un facteur de 1,3 pour chaque km distant de la station de recherche. En raison des faibles taux de consommation de gibier, aucun impact significatif sur la santé humaine et l’anémie n’a été observé (tel que mesuré par le taux d’hémoglobine) et une prévalence extrêmement faible de l’anémie générale par rapport à d’autres régions de Madagascar. La consommation de gibier ne semble pas jouer un rôle économique ou sanitaire majeur pour les communautés de la périphérie de cette aire protégée en particulier, de sorte qu’il serait justifié d’appliquer plus strictement les lois portant sur le calendrier de chasse du gibier autorisé et l’interdiction de chasser d’autres espèces. Pour améliorer les niveaux actuels de la nutrition, des interventions ciblées pourraient se concentrer sur les maladies des animaux domestiques qui sévissent dans la région

Changing storminess and global capture fisheries

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Nature Publishing Group via the DOI in this record.Climate change-driven alterations in storminess pose a signifcant threat to global capture fsheries. Understanding how storms interact with fshery social-ecological systems can inform adaptive action and help to reduce the vulnerability of those dependent on fisheries for life and livelihood.N.C.S. acknowledges the financial support of the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC; GW4+ studentship NE/L002434/1), Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and Willis Research Network

Minimal Conformal Technicolor and Precision Electroweak Tests

We study the minimal model of conformal technicolor, an SU(2) gauge theory near a strongly coupled conformal fixed point, with conformal symmetry softly broken by technifermion mass terms. Conformal symmetry breaking triggers chiral symmetry breaking in the pattern SU(4) -> Sp(4), which gives rise to a pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson that can act as a composite Higgs boson. The top quark is elementary, and the top and electroweak gauge loop contributions to the Higgs mass are cut off entirely by Higgs compositeness. In particular, the model requires no top partners and no "little Higgs" mechanism. A nontrivial vacuum alignment results from the interplay of the top loop and technifermion mass terms. The composite Higgs mass is completely determined by the top loop, in the sense that m_h/m_t is independent of the vacuum alignment and is computable by a strong-coupling calculation. There is an additional composite pseudoscalar A with mass larger than m_h and suppressed direct production at LHC. We discuss the electroweak fit in this model in detail. Corrections to Z -> bb and the T parameter from the top sector are suppressed by the enhanced Sp(4) custodial symmetry. Even assuming that the strong contribution to the S parameter is positive and usuppressed, a good electroweak fit can be obtained for v/f ~ 0.25, where v and f are the electroweak and chiral symmetry breaking scales respectively. This requires fine tuning at the 10% level.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures; v2: updated precision electroweak fi

Bilayer manganites: polarons in the midst of a metallic breakdown

The exact nature of the low temperature electronic phase of the manganite materials family, and hence the origin of their colossal magnetoresistant (CMR) effect, is still under heavy debate. By combining new photoemission and tunneling data, we show that in La{2-2x}Sr{1+2x}Mn2O7 the polaronic degrees of freedom win out across the CMR region of the phase diagram. This means that the generic ground state is that of a system in which strong electron-lattice interactions result in vanishing coherent quasi-particle spectral weight at the Fermi level for all locations in k-space. The incoherence of the charge carriers offers a unifying explanation for the anomalous charge-carrier dynamics seen in transport, optics and electron spectroscopic data. The stacking number N is the key factor for true metallic behavior, as an intergrowth-driven breakdown of the polaronic domination to give a metal possessing a traditional Fermi surface is seen in the bilayer system.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, includes supplementary informatio

Serosorting Is Associated with a Decreased Risk of HIV Seroconversion in the EXPLORE Study Cohort

Background: Seroadaptation strategies such as serosorting and seropositioning originated within communities of men who have sex with men (MSM), but there are limited data about their effectiveness in preventing HIV transmission when utilized by HIV-negative men. Methodology/Principal Findings: Data from the EXPLORE cohort of HIV-negative MSM who reported both seroconcordant and serodiscordant partners were used to evaluate serosorting and seropositioning. The association of serosorting and seropositioning with HIV seroconversion was evaluated in this cohort of high risk MSM from six U.S. cities. Serosorting was independently associated with a small decrease in risk of HIV seroconversion (OR = 0.88; 95%CI, 0.81–0.95), even among participants reporting $10 partners. Those who more consistently practiced serosorting were more likely to be white (p = 0.01), have completed college (p =,0.0002) and to have had 10 or more partners in the six months before the baseline visit (p = 0.01) but did not differ in age, reporting HIV-infected partners, or drug use. There was no evidence of a seroconversion effect with seropositioning (OR 1.02, 95%CI, 0.92–1.14). Significance: In high risk HIV uninfected MSM who report unprotected anal intercourse with both seroconcordant and serodiscordant partners, serosorting was associated with a modest decreased risk of HIV infection. To maximize any potential benefit, it will be important to increase accurate knowledge of HIV status, through increased testing frequency

Habitat Selection and Temporal Abundance Fluctuations of Demersal Cartilaginous Species in the Aegean Sea (Eastern Mediterranean)

Predicting the occurrence of keystone top predators in a multispecies marine environment, such as the Mediterranean Sea, can be of considerable value to the long-term sustainable development of the fishing industry and to the protection of biodiversity. We analysed fisheries independent scientific bottom trawl survey data of two of the most abundant cartilaginous fish species (Scyliorhinus canicula, Raja clavata) in the Aegean Sea covering an 11-year sampling period. The current findings revealed a declining trend in R. clavata and S. canicula abundance from the late ′90 s until 2004. Habitats with the higher probability of finding cartilaginous fish present were those located in intermediate waters (depth: 200–400 m). The present results also indicated a preferential species' clustering in specific geographic and bathymetric regions of the Aegean Sea. Depth appeared to be one of the key determining factors for the selection of habitats for all species examined. With cartilaginous fish species being among the more biologically sensitive fish species taken in European marine fisheries, our findings, which are based on a standardized scientific survey, can contribute to the rational exploitation and management of their stocks by providing important information on temporal abundance trends and habitat preferences

Age shall not weary us: Deleterious effects of self-regulation depletion are specific to younger adults

Self-regulation depletion (SRD), or ego-depletion, refers to decrements in self-regulation performance immediately following a different self-regulation-demanding activity. There are now over a hundred studies reporting SRD across a broad range of tasks and conditions. However, most studies have used young student samples. Because prefrontal brain regions thought to subserve self-regulation do not fully mature until 25 years of age, it is possible that SRD effects are confined to younger populations and are attenuated or disappear in older samples. We investigated this using the Stroop color task as an SRD induction and an autobiographical memory task as the outcome measure. We found that younger participants (<25 years) were susceptible to depletion effects, but found no support for such effects in an older group (40–65 years). This suggests that the widely-reported phenomenon of SRD has important developmental boundary conditions casting doubt on claims that it represents a general feature of human cognition

Dirichlet Higgs as radion stabilizer in warped compactification

We study implications of generalized non-zero Dirichlet boundary condition along with the ordinary Neumann one on a bulk scalar in the Randall-Sundrum warped compactification. First we show profiles of vacuum expectation value of the scalar under the general boundary conditions. We also investigate Goldberger-Wise mechanism in several setups with the general boundary conditions of the bulk scalar field and find that the mechanism can work under non-zero Dirichlet boundary conditions with appropriate vacuum expectation values. Especially, we show that $SU(2)_R$ triplet Higgs in the bulk left-right symmetric model with custodial symmetry can be identified with the Goldberger-Wise scalar.Comment: 35 pages, 25 figures, published versio

Pharmacological inhibition of leukotrienes in an animal model of bleomycin-induced acute lung injury

Leukotrienes are increased locally in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Furthermore, a role for these arachidonic acid metabolites has been thoroughly characterized in the animal bleomycin model of lung fibrosis by using different gene knock-out settings. We investigated the efficacy of pharmacological inhibition of leukotrienes activity in the development of bleomycin-induced lung injury by comparing the responses in wild-type mice with mice treated with zileuton, a 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor and MK-571, a cys-leukotrienes receptor antagonist. Mice were subjected to intra-tracheal administration of bleomycin or saline and were assigned to receive either MK-571 at 1 mg/Kg or zileuton at 50 mg/Kg daily. One week after bleomycin administration, BAL cell counts, lung histology with van Gieson for collagen staining and immunohistochemical analysis for myeloperoxidase, IL-1 and TNF-α were performed. Following bleomycin administration both MK-571 and zileuton treated mice exhibited a reduced degree of lung damage and inflammation when compared to WT mice as shown by the reduction of:(i) loss of body weight, (ii) mortality rate, (iii) lung infiltration by neutrophils (myeloperoxidase activity, BAL total and differential cell counts), (iv) lung edema, (v) histological evidence of lung injury and collagen deposition, (vi) lung myeloperoxidase, IL-1 and TNF-α staining. This is the first study showing that the pharmacological inhibition of leukotrienes activity attenuates bleomycin-induced lung injury in mice. Given our results as well as those coming from genetic studies, it might be considered meaningful to trial this drug class in the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that still represents a major challenge to medical treatment