Forest continuity and conservation value in Western Europe

Long forest continuity has often been linked with high conservation value in western European Quercus and Fagus woodlands, but this assumption of long continuity has rarely been tested. Birks discussed the antiquity of bryophyte-rich Quercus woodland in western United Kingdom, presenting evidence that the modern plant communities developed during the late Holocene influenced by human activities. We use pollen data from forest hollows to show that the modern communities within ancient woodlands are all significantly influenced by recent human disturbance. A short period of deforestation in Johnny’s Wood, Cumbria, UK dates from the late 19th century and is not of Viking age as previously thought. The brief opening of the forest is associated with the local loss of Tilia cordata and Taxus baccata, but a rich bryophyte community exists today. Rich lichen floras of high conservation interest growing on Fagus sylvatica in south-western Sweden occur despite a recent history of human disturbance and local immigration of Fagus as recently as the 9th century ad. Wistman’s Wood, Cornwall, UK had a diverse tree flora until the 11th century ad and then experienced heavy browsing and grazing until ad 1850, after which time the present Quercus woodland developed with its associated flora of high conservation value. Most western European forests today have long and diverse histories of anthropogenic disturbance and current conservation values incorporate both natural and cultural features. Pollen studies with high spatial resolution demonstrate that simple temporal concepts like ‘natural baselines’ and the continuity of forest cover underestimate the complexity of the past. Long forest continuity may be of importance for the local survival of higher plants, but for the insects, fungi, lichens and bryophytes that are so valued in contemporary European temperate and boreal forests, habitat diversity maintained by dynamic processes would appear to be of greater significance

Semi-Analytic Modelling of Galaxy Formation: The Local Universe

Using semi-analytic models of galaxy formation, we investigate galaxy properties such as the Tully-Fisher relation, the B and K-band luminosity functions, cold gas contents, sizes, metallicities, and colours, and compare our results with observations of local galaxies. We investigate several different recipes for star formation and supernova feedback, including choices that are similar to the treatment in Kauffmann, White & Guiderdoni (1993) and Cole et al. (1994) as well as some new recipes. We obtain good agreement with all of the key local observations mentioned above. In particular, in our best models, we simultaneously produce good agreement with both the observed B and K-band luminosity functions and the I-band Tully-Fisher relation. Improved cooling and supernova feedback modelling, inclusion of dust extinction, and an improved Press-Schechter model all contribute to this success. We present results for several variants of the CDM family of cosmologies, and find that models with values of $\Omega_0 \simeq 0.3$--0.5 give the best agreement with observations.Comment: 26 pages, LaTeX, MNRAS format, 23 inlined postscript figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. Revised version contains substantial changes including improved models. High resolution figures, original version, and summary of changes may be found at http://www.fiz.huji.ac.il/~rachels/papers/sp.htm

Domestic horses (Equus caballus) discriminate between negative and positive human nonverbal vocalisations

The ability to discriminate between emotion in vocal signals is highly adaptive in social species. It may also be adaptive for domestic species to distinguish such signals in humans. Here we present a playback study investigating whether horses spontaneously respond in a functionally relevant way towards positive and negative emotion in human nonverbal vocalisations. We presented horses with positively- and negatively-valenced human vocalisations (laughter and growling, respectively) in the absence of all other emotional cues. Horses were found to adopt a freeze posture for significantly longer immediately after hearing negative versus positive human vocalisations, suggesting that negative voices promote vigilance behaviours and may therefore be perceived as more threatening. In support of this interpretation, horses held their ears forwards for longer and performed fewer ear movements in response to negative voices, which further suggest increased vigilance. In addition, horses showed a right-ear/left-hemisphere bias when attending to positive compared with negative voices, suggesting that horses perceive laughter as more positive than growling. These findings raise interesting questions about the potential for universal discrimination of vocal affect and the role of lifetime learning versus other factors in interspecific communication

Using Routinely Collected Administrative Data in Public Health Research: Geocoding Alcohol Outlet Data

We describe our process of geocoding alcohol outlets to create a national longitudinal exposure dataset for Wales, United Kingdom from 2006 to 2011. We investigated variation in the availability of data items and the quality of alcohol outlet addresses held within unitary authorities. We used a standard geocoding method augmented with a manual matching procedure to achieve a fully spatially referenced dataset. We found higher quality addresses are held for outlets based in urban areas, resulting in the automatic geocoding of 68 % of urban outlets, compared to 48 % in rural areas. Missing postcodes and a lack of address structure contributed to a lower geocoding proportion. An urban rural bias was removed with the development of a manual matching procedure. Only one-half of the unitary authorities provided data on on/off sales and opening times, which are important availability factors. The resulting outlet dataset is suitable for contributing to the evidence-base of alcohol availability and alcohol-related harm. Local government should be encouraged to use standardised data fields, including addresses, to enable accurate geocoding of alcohol outlets and facilitate research that aims to prevent alcohol-related harm. Standardising data collection would enable efficient secondary data reuse using record linkage techniques, allowing the retrospective creation and evaluation of population-based natural experiments to provide evidence for policy and practice

Expression of emotional arousal in two different piglet call types

Humans as well as many animal species reveal their emotional state in their voice. Vocal features show strikingly similar correlation patterns with emotional states across mammalian species, suggesting that the vocal expression of emotion follows highly conserved signalling rules. To fully understand the principles of emotional signalling in mammals it is, however, necessary to also account for any inconsistencies in the way that they are acoustically encoded. Here we investigate whether the expression of emotions differs between call types produced by the same species. We compare the acoustic structure of two common piglet calls—the scream (a distress call) and the grunt (a contact call)—across three levels of arousal in a negative situation. We find that while the central frequency of calls increases with arousal in both call types, the amplitude and tonal quality (harmonic-to-noise ratio) show contrasting patterns: as arousal increased, the intensity also increased in screams, but not in grunts, while the harmonicity increased in screams but decreased in grunts. Our results suggest that the expression of arousal depends on the function and acoustic specificity of the call type. The fact that more vocal features varied with arousal in scream calls than in grunts is consistent with the idea that distress calls have evolved to convey information about emotional arousal

A cluster randomised controlled trial and evaluation and cost-effectiveness analysis of the Roots of Empathy schools-based programme for improving social and emotional well-being outcomes among 8- to 9-year-olds in Northern Ireland

Background:There is growing consensus regarding the importance of attending to children’s social and emotional well-being. There is now a substantial evidence base demonstrating the links between a child’s early social and emotional development and a range of key longer-term education, social and health outcomes. Universal school-based interventions provide a significant opportunity for early intervention in this area and yet the existing evidence base, particularly in relation to their long-term effects, is limited.Objectives and main outcomes:To determine the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Roots of Empathy (ROE), a universal school-based programme that, through attempting to enhance children’s empathy, seeks to achieve the following two main outcomes: improvement in prosocial behaviour and reduction in difficult behaviour.Design:A cluster randomised controlled trial and an economic evaluation. A total of 74 primary schools were randomly assigned to deliver ROE or to join a waiting list control group. Seven schools withdrew post randomisation and a further two withdrew before the immediate post-test time point. Children (n = 1278) were measured pre test and immediately post test, and then for 3 years following the end of the programme. Data were also collected from teachers and parents.Setting and participants:The intervention schools delivered ROE to their Year 5 children (aged 8–9 years) as a whole class.Intervention:ROE is delivered on a whole-class basis for one academic year (October–June). It consists of 27 lessons based around the monthly visit from a baby and parent who are usually recruited from the local community. Children learn about the baby’s growth and development and are encouraged to generalise from this to develop empathy towards others.Results:Although it was developed in Canada, the programme was very well received by schools, parents and children, and it was delivered effectively with high fidelity. ROE was also found to be effective in achieving small improvements in children’s prosocial behaviour (Hedges’ g = 0.20; p = 0.045) and reductions in their difficult behaviour (Hedges’ g = –0.16; p = 0.060) immediately post test. Although the gains in prosocial behaviour were not sustained after the immediately post-test time point, there was some tentative evidence that the effects associated with reductions in difficult behaviour may have remained up to 36 months from the end of the programme. These positive effects of ROE on children’s behaviour were not found to be associated with improvements in empathy or other social and emotional skills (such as emotional recognition and emotional regulation), on which the trial found no evidence of ROE having an effect. The study also found that ROE was likely to be cost-effective in line with national guidelines.Conclusions:These findings are consistent with those of other evaluations of ROE and suggest that it is an effective and cost-effective programme that can be delivered appropriately and effectively in regions such as Northern Ireland. A number of issues for further consideration are raised regarding opportunities to enhance the role of parents; how a time-limited programme such as ROE can form part of a wider and progressive curriculum in schools to build on and sustain children’s social and emotional development; and the need to develop a better theory of change for how ROE works.Trial registration:Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN07540423.Funding:This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 6, No. 4. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information

Do schistosome vaccine trials in mice have an intrinsic flaw that generates spurious protection data?

The laboratory mouse has been widely used to test the efficacy of schistosome vaccines and a long list of candidates has emerged from this work, many of them abundant internal proteins. These antigens do not have an additive effect when co-administered, or delivered as SWAP homogenate, a quarter of which comprises multiple candidates; the observed protection has an apparent ceiling of 40–50 %. We contend that the low level of maturation of penetrating cercariae (~32 % for Schistosoma mansoni) is a major limitation of the model since 68/100 parasites fail to mature in naïve mice due to natural causes. The pulmonary capillary bed is the obstacle encountered by schistosomula en route to the portal system. The fragility of pulmonary capillaries and their susceptibility to a cytokine-induced vascular leak syndrome have been documented. During lung transit schistosomula burst into the alveolar spaces, and possess only a limited capacity to re-enter tissues. The acquired immunity elicited by the radiation attenuated (RA) cercarial vaccine relies on a pulmonary inflammatory response, involving cytokines such as IFNγ and TNFα, to deflect additional parasites into the alveoli. A principal difference between antigen vaccine protocols and the RA vaccine is the short interval between the last antigen boost and cercarial challenge of mice (often two weeks). Thus, after antigen vaccination, challenge parasites will reach the lungs when both activated T cells and cytokine levels are maximal in the circulation. We propose that “protection” in this situation is the result of physiological effects on the pulmonary blood vessels, increasing the proportion of parasites that enter the alveoli. This hypothesis will explain why internal antigens, which are unlikely to interact with the immune response in a living schistosomulum, plus a variety of heterologous proteins, can reduce the level of maturation in a non-antigen-specific way. These proteins are “successful” precisely because they have not been selected for immunological silence. The same arguments apply to vaccine experiments with S. japonicum in the mouse model; this schistosome species seems a more robust parasite, even harder to eliminate by acquired immune responses. We propose a number of ways in which our conclusions may be tested

Clustering of 2PIGG galaxy groups with 2dFGRS galaxies

Prompted by indications from QSO lensing that there may be more mass associated with galaxy groups than expected, we have made new dynamical infall estimates of the masses associated with 2PIGG groups and clusters. We have analysed the redshift distortions in the cluster-galaxy cross-correlation function as a function of cluster membership, cross-correlating z<0.12 2PIGG clusters and groups with the full 2dF galaxy catalogue. We have made estimates of the dynamical infall parameter beta and new estimates of the group velocity dispersions. We first find that the amplitude of the full 3-D redshift space cross-correlation function, xi_{cg}, rises monotonically with group membership. We use a simple linear-theory infall model to fit xi(sigma, pi) in the range 5<s<40h^{-1}Mpc. We find that the beta versus membership relation for the data shows a minimum at intermediate group membership n~20 or L~2x10^11h^-2Lsun, implying that the bias and hence M/L ratios rise by a significant factor (~5x) both for small groups and rich clusters. However, the mocks show a systematic shift between the location of the beta minimum and the M/L minimum at L~10^10h^-2Lsun given by direct calculation using the known DM distribution. Our overall conclusion is that bias estimates from dynamical infall appear to support the minimum in star-formation efficiency at intermediate halo masses. Nevertheless, there may still be significant systematic problems arising from measuring beta~1/b using large-scale infall rather than M/L using small-scale velocity dispersions.Comment: 20 pages, 32 figures, 9 table

Simulating the midlatitude atmospheric circulation: what might we gain from high-resolution modeling of air-sea interactions?

Purpose of Review. To provide a snapshot of the current research on the oceanic forcing of the atmospheric circulation in midlatitudes and a concise update on previous review papers. Recent findings. Atmospheric models used for seasonal and longer timescales predictions are starting to resolve motions so far only studied in conjunction with weather forecasts. These phenomena have horizontal scales of ~ 10–100 km which coincide with energetic scales in the ocean circulation. Evidence has been presented that, as a result of this matching of scale, oceanic forcing of the atmosphere was enhanced in models with 10–100 km grid size, especially at upper tropospheric levels. The robustness of these results and their underlying mechanisms are however unclear. Summary. Despite indications that higher resolution atmospheric models respond more strongly to sea surface temperature anomalies, their responses are still generally weaker than those estimated empirically from observations. Coarse atmospheric models (grid size greater than 100 km) will miss important signals arising from future changes in ocean circulation unless new parameterizations are developed

Projected Range Contractions of European Protected Oceanic Montane Plant Communities: Focus on Climate Change Impacts Is Essential for Their Future Conservation

Global climate is rapidly changing and while many studies have investigated the potential impacts of this on the distribution of montane plant species and communities, few have focused on those with oceanic montane affinities. In Europe, highly sensitive bryophyte species reach their optimum occurrence, highest diversity and abundance in the northwest hyperoceanic regions, while a number of montane vascular plant species occur here at the edge of their range. This study evaluates the potential impact of climate change on the distribution of these species and assesses the implications for EU Habitats Directive-protected oceanic montane plant communities. We applied an ensemble of species distribution modelling techniques, using atlas data of 30 vascular plant and bryophyte species, to calculate range changes under projected future climate change. The future effectiveness of the protected area network to conserve these species was evaluated using gap analysis. We found that the majority of these montane species are projected to lose suitable climate space, primarily at lower altitudes, or that areas of suitable climate will principally shift northwards. In particular, rare oceanic montane bryophytes have poor dispersal capacity and are likely to be especially vulnerable to contractions in their current climate space. Significantly different projected range change responses were found between 1) oceanic montane bryophytes and vascular plants; 2) species belonging to different montane plant communities; 3) species categorised according to different biomes and eastern limit classifications. The inclusion of topographical variables in addition to climate, significantly improved the statistical and spatial performance of models. The current protected area network is projected to become less effective, especially for specialised arctic-montane species, posing a challenge to conserving oceanic montane plant communities. Conservation management plans need significantly greater focus on potential climate change impacts, including models with higher-resolution species distribution and environmental data, to aid these communities’ long-term survival