Historical and contemporary perspectives on the sediments of Lake Rotorua

Lake Rotorua is probably the oldest continuously inundated lake in New Zealand, occupying a caldera formed by or closely associated with the eruption of the Mamaku ignimbrite and the collapse of the Rotorua caldera (Healy, 1975; Lowe and Green, 1991). The lake has undergone drastic changes in size and depth as a result of tectonics, volcanic activity and erosion. Since the Rotoehu eruption, (~60 kyr), the lake level has fluctuated between 120 m above present (280 m asl) and 10 m below present level. The modern lake covers an area of 79 km2 and has a mean depth of 10 m. Despite its long history of sedimentation, Lake Rotorua has an irregular bathymetry with features including faulted blocks, slumps, hydrothermal explosion craters, springs and large methane discharge pock marks

Signatures of seaway closures and founder dispersal in the phylogeny of a circumglobally distributed seahorse lineage

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The importance of vicariance events on the establishment of phylogeographic patterns in the marine environment is well documented, and generally accepted as an important cause of cladogenesis. Founder dispersal (i.e. long-distance dispersal followed by founder effect speciation) is also frequently invoked as a cause of genetic divergence among lineages, but its role has long been challenged by vicariance biogeographers. Founder dispersal is likely to be common in species that colonize remote habitats by means of rafting (e.g. seahorses), as long-distance dispersal events are likely to be rare and subsequent additional recruitment from the source habitat is unlikely. In the present study, the relative importance of vicariance and founder dispersal as causes of cladogenesis in a circumglobally distributed seahorse lineage was investigated using molecular dating. A phylogeny was reconstructed using sequence data from mitochondrial and nuclear markers, and the well-documented closure of the Central American seaway was used as a primary calibration point to test whether other bifurcations in the phylogeny could also have been the result of vicariance events. The feasibility of three other vicariance events was explored: a) the closure of the Indonesian Seaway, resulting in sister lineages associated with the Indian Ocean and West Pacific, respectively; b) the closure of the Tethyan Seaway, resulting in sister lineages associated with the Indo-Pacific and Atlantic Ocean, respectively, and c) continental break-up during the Mesozoic followed by spreading of the Atlantic Ocean, resulting in pairs of lineages with amphi-Atlantic distribution patterns.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Comparisons of pairwise genetic distances among the seahorse species hypothesized to have diverged as a result of the closure of the Central American Seaway with those of published teleost sequences having the same distribution patterns show that the seahorses were among the last to diverge. This suggests that their cladogenesis was associated with the final closure of this seaway. Although two other divergence events in the phylogeny could potentially have arisen as a result of the closures of the Indonesian and Tethyan seaways, respectively, the timing of the majority of bifurcations in the phylogeny differed significantly from the dates of vicariance events suggested in the literature. Moreover, several divergence events that resulted in the same distribution patterns of lineages at different positions in the phylogeny did not occur contemporaneously. For that reason, they cannot be the result of the same vicariance events, a result that is independent of molecular dating.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Interpretations of the cladogenetic events in the seahorse phylogeny based purely on vicariance biogeographic hypotheses are problematic. We conclude that the evolution of the circumglobally distributed seahorse lineage was strongly influenced by founder dispersal, and suggest that this mode of speciation may be particularly important in marine organisms that lack a pelagic dispersal phase and instead disperse by means of rafting.</p

LOCALITY UNCERTAINTY AND THE DIFFERENTIAL PERFORMANCE OF FOUR COMMON NICHE-BASED MODELING TECHNIQUES

We address a poorly understood aspect of ecological niche modeling: its sensitivity to different levels of geographic uncertainty in organism occurrence data. Our primary interest was to assess how accuracy degrades under increasing uncertainty, with performance measured indirectly through model consistency. We used Monte Carlo simulations and a similarity measure to assess model sensitivity across three variables: locality accuracy, niche modeling method, and species. Randomly generated data sets with known levels of locality uncertainty were compared to an original prediction using Fuzzy Kappa. Data sets where locality uncertainty is low were expected to produce similar distribution maps to the original. In contrast, data sets where locality uncertainty is high were expected to produce less similar maps. BIOCLIM, DOMAIN, Maxent and GARP were used to predict the distributions for 1200 simulated datasets (3 species x 4 buffer sizes x 100 randomized data sets). Thus, our experimental design produced a total of 4800 similarity measures, with each of the simulated distributions compared to the prediction of the original data set and corresponding modeling method. A general linear model (GLM) analysis was performed which enables us to simultaneously measure the effect of buffer size, modeling method, and species, as well as interactions among all variables. Our results show that modeling method has the largest effect on similarity scores and uniquely accounts for 40% of the total variance in the model. The second most important factor was buffer size, but it uniquely accounts for only 3% of the variation in the model. The newer and currently more popular methods, GARP and Maxent, were shown to produce more inconsistent predictions than the earlier and simpler methods, BIOCLIM and DOMAIN. Understanding the performance of different niche modeling methods under varying levels of geographic uncertainty is an important step toward more productive applications of historical biodiversity collections

Metaphor use in the political communication of major resource projects in Australia

This article explores the patterns of political communication surrounding the environmental regulation of major Australian resource projects during the Business Advisory Forum of April 2012. The Forum discussed business and government responses to major project approvals to improve national productivity at a time when these projects also posed significant implications for anthropogenic global warming. The article’s method is to examine print news articles published during this period. While the international literature has long demonstrated how the American fossil fuel lobby has employed metaphor to characterise climate change as a ‘non-problem’—therefore allegedly making regulation of greenhouse gas emissions economically and politically unnecessary—no Australian study of metaphor use in climate science news has been conducted. This article, in finding news stories on so-called ‘green tape’ environmental regulation were saturated with metaphor clusters, argues that journalistic metaphor use has made the complex issue of environmental regulation accessible to mass audiences. But, in so doing, we also argue this metaphor use has supported business and government’s position on environmental deregulation of major projects. Finally, this article also argues that some journalists’ use of metaphors encouraged policy-makers to adopt, and re-use, journalists’ own language and, in so doing, allow those journalists to be seen as complicit in the shaping of softer public attitudes to the impact of major projects on anthropogenic climate change

Regulation of the human LAT gene by the Elf-1 transcription factor

BACKGROUND: The LAT gene encodes an intracellular adaptor protein that links cell-surface receptor engagement to numerous downstream signalling events, and thereby plays an integral role in the function of cell types that express the gene, including T cells, mast cells, natural killer cells, and platelets. To date, the mechanisms responsible for the transcriptional regulation of this gene have not been investigated. RESULTS: In this study we have mapped the transcriptional start sites for the human LAT gene and localized the 5' and 3' boundaries of the proximal promoter. We find that the promoter contains both positive and negative regulatory regions, and that two binding sites for the Ets family of transcription factors have a strong, positive effect on gene expression. Each site binds the Ets family member Elf-1, and overexpression of Elf-1 augments LAT promoter activity. The promoter also contains a Runx binding site adjacent to one of the Ets sites. This site, which is shown to bind Runx-1, has an inhibitory effect on gene expression. Finally, data is also presented indicating that the identified promoter may regulate cell-type specific expression. CONCLUSION: Collectively, these results provide the first insights into the transcriptional regulation of the LAT gene, including the discovery that the Ets transcription factor Elf-1 may play a central role in its expression

The dead of Stonehenge.

The assemblage of Neolithic cremated human remains from Stonehenge is the largest in Britain, and demonstrates that the monument was closely associated with the dead. New radiocarbon dates and Bayesian analysis indicate that cremated remains were deposited over a period of around five centuries from c. 3000-2500 BC. Earlier cremations were placed within or beside the Aubrey Holes that had held small bluestone standing stones during the first phase of the monument; later cremations were placed in the peripheral ditch, perhaps signifying the transition from a link between specific dead individuals and particular stones, to a more diffuse collectivity of increasingly long-dead ancestors

Hippocampus japapigu, a new species of pygmy seahorse from Japan, with a redescription of H. pontohi (Teleostei, Syngnathidae)

The pygmy seahorse Hippocampus japapigu sp. n. is described based on three specimens, 13.9–16.3 mm SL, collected from a mixed soft coral and algae reef at 11 m depth at Hachijo-jima Island, Izu Islands, Japan. The new taxon shares morphological synapomorphies with the previously described central Indo-Pacific pygmy seahorses, H. colemani, H. pontohi, H. satomiae, and H. waleananus, including extremely small size, 12 trunk rings, strongly raised continuous cleithral ring, snout spine, large spine on the eighth lateral and fifth and 12 superior trunk ridges, respectively, and unusual wing-like-protrusions immediately posterior to the head. Hippocampus japapigu sp. n. can be distinguished from all congeners by the following combination of features in the anterodorsal area of the trunk: bilaterally paired wing-like protrusions formed by a single pair of large, truncate spines projecting dorsolaterad on the first superior trunk ridge, followed by a unique elevated dorsal ridge formed by triangular bony mounds dorsally on the second to fourth superior trunk ridges. In contrast, H. pontohi possesses a pair of large truncate spines projecting strongly laterad on both the first and second superior trunk ridges followed by flat surfaces dorsally on the third and fourth superior trunk rings. The new species can be further differentiated by genetic divergence from H. pontohi (an uncorrected p-distance of 10.1% in the mitochondrial COI gene) and a striking reticulated white and brown lattice pattern on the head, trunk, and tail. Hippocampus japapigu sp. n. represents the fifth species of pygmy seahorse recorded in Japan

Deleterious Associations of Sitting Time and Television Viewing Time With Cardiometabolic Risk Biomarkers: Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) study 2004–2005

OBJECTIVE - We examined the associations Of Sitting time and television (TV) Viewing time with continuously measured biomarkers of cardio-metabolic risk in Australian adults

Physical activity and sedentary behaviour: Applying lessons to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

In health and disease, the benefits of regular participation in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity are well documented. However, individuals with chronic conditions, such as those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), typically do very little activity at a moderate or vigorous intensity. Much of their day is instead spent in sedentary behaviour, such as sitting or reclining, which requires very little energy expenditure. This high level of time spent in sedentary behaviour can have serious health consequences, including increased risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease and premature mortality. There is emerging evidence to suggest that participation in light intensity physical activities (e.g. standing or slow walking) may have benefits for cardio-metabolic health. Given the low aerobic capacity of individuals with moderate to severe COPD, increasing light intensity activity (through reducing sedentary time) may be a feasible additional strategy to improve health in this population, alongside traditional recommendations to increase the time spent in moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity. This review provides an overview of physical activity and sedentary behaviour, with a particular emphasis on these behaviours for people with COPD. It provides suggestions for the measurement of these behaviours within the clinical setting, as well as for interventions that may be effective at increasing physical activity and reducing sedentary behaviour in this population

Source Reduction Behavior as an Independent Measurement of the Impact of a Public Health Education Campaign in an Integrated Vector Management Program for the Asian Tiger Mosquito

The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a public health educational campaign to reduce backyard mosquito-larval habitats. Three communities each, within two New Jersey counties, were randomly selected to receive: (1) both education and mosquito control, (2) education only, and (3) no education or mosquito control. Four separate educational events included a 5-day elementary school curriculum in the spring, and three door to door distributions of educational brochures. Before and after each educational event, the numbers of mosquito-larval container habitats were counted in 50 randomly selected homes per study area. Container surveys allowed us to measure source reduction behavior. Although we saw reductions in container habitats in sites receiving education, they were not significantly different from the control. Our results suggest that traditional passive means of public education, which were often considered the gold standard for mosquito control programs, are not sufficient to motivate residents to reduce backyard mosquito-larval habitats