Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors among Secondary Students in Hong Kong

Although researchers have identified correlations between specific attitudes and particular behaviors in the pro-environmental domain, the general relationship between young people’s development of environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors is not well understood. Past research indicates that geographic context can play a role, while social factors such as age and gender can have a more significant impact on predicting attitudes and behaviors than formal education. Few studies have systematically examined the relationships between education and environmental attitudes and behaviors among youth in Hong Kong. The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a study comparing secondary school students’ environmental attitudes and behaviors with age and related factors in two international schools and two government schools in Hong Kong. Students’ attitudes and behaviors were compared based on school type (curriculum), while the authors additionally compared the significance of social factors and attitudes on students’ behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – Attitudes were measured using the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) and the NEP for Children (NEPC), the most commonly used, internationally standardized tools for investigating environmental attitudes and values of adults and young people for comparative purposes. The authors compared NEP/NEPC scores and student self-reported environmental behaviors using a short questionnaire. Findings – No significant differences were found in attitudes or behaviors based on school type. However the authors did observe a significant effect of gender and age on students’ attitudes, and a significant correlation of student attitudes in the NEP with students’ self-reports regarding air conditioning consumption. Originality/value – This study builds a foundation for cross-national studies and for evaluating the impact of curricula over time.postprin

Impact of El Niño variability on oceanic phytoplankton

This is the final version. Available from Frontiers Media via the DOI in this recordOceanic phytoplankton respond rapidly to a complex spectrum of climate-driven perturbations, confounding attempts to isolate the principal causes of observed changes. A dominant mode of variability in the Earth-climate system is that generated by the El Niño phenomenon. Marked variations are observed in the centroid of anomalous warming in the Equatorial Pacific under El Niño, associated with quite different alterations in environmental and biological properties. Here, using observational and reanalysis datasets, we differentiate the regional physical forcing mechanisms, and compile a global atlas of associated impacts on oceanic phytoplankton caused by two extreme types of El Niño. We find robust evidence that during Eastern Pacific (EP) and Central Pacific (CP) types of El Niño, impacts on phytoplankton can be felt everywhere, but tend to be greatest in the tropics and subtropics, encompassing up to 67% of the total affected areas, with the remaining 33% being areas located in high-latitudes. Our analysis also highlights considerable and sometimes opposing regional effects. During EP El Niño, we estimate decreases of -56 TgC/y in the tropical eastern Pacific Ocean, and -82 TgC/y in the western Indian Ocean, and increase of +13 TgC/y in eastern Indian Ocean, whereas during CP El Niño, we estimate decreases -68 TgC/y in the tropical western Pacific Ocean and -10 TgC/y in the central Atlantic Ocean. We advocate that analysis of the dominant mechanisms forcing the biophysical under El Niño variability may provide a useful guide to improve our understanding of projected changes in the marine ecosystem in a warming climate and support development of adaptation and mitigation plans

Economics methods in Cochrane systematic reviews of health promotion and public health related interventions.

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Great Expectations: Voluntary Sports Clubs and Their Role in Delivering National Policy for English Sport

“The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com”. Copyright International Society for Third-Sector Research and The Johns Hopkins University. DOI: 10.1007/s11266-009-9095-yVoluntary sports clubs (VSCs) account for about a quarter of all volunteering in England. The volunteers work in a mutual aid, self-production, self-consumption system whose main purpose is identifying and nurturing high-level performers. But the new HMG/Sport England strategies leading to London 2012 expects volunteers to make a major contribution to sustaining and extending participation. The study utilized six focus group sessions with a total of 36 officials and members of 36 clubs across the six counties of Eastern England to assess whether and to what extent government policy objectives can be delivered through the voluntary sector. The study focused on the perceptions and attitudes of club members about being expected to serve public policy and the current pressures they and their clubs face. The results lead the authors to question the appropriateness, sensitivity, and feasibility of current sport policy, particularly the emphasis on VSCs as policy implementers.Peer reviewe

Frame dragging with optical vortices

General Relativistic calculations in the linear regime have been made for electromagnetic beams of radiation known as optical vortices. These exotic beams of light carry a physical quantity known as optical orbital angular momentum (OAM). It is found that when a massive spinning neutral particle is placed along the optical axis, a phenomenon known as inertial frame dragging occurs. Our results are compared with those found previously for a ring laser and an order of magnitude estimate of the laser intensity needed for a precession frequency of 1 Hz is given for these "steady" beams of light.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

A Predator from East Africa that Chooses Malaria Vectors as Preferred Prey

BACKGROUND: All vectors of human malaria, a disease responsible for more than one million deaths per year, are female mosquitoes from the genus Anopheles. Evarcha culicivora is an East African jumping spider (Salticidae) that feeds indirectly on vertebrate blood by selecting blood-carrying female mosquitoes as preferred prey. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By testing with motionless lures made from mounting dead insects in lifelike posture on cork discs, we show that E. culicivora selects Anopheles mosquitoes in preference to other mosquitoes and that this predator can identify Anopheles by static appearance alone. Tests using active (grooming) virtual mosquitoes rendered in 3-D animation show that Anopheles' characteristic resting posture is an important prey-choice cue for E. culicivora. Expression of the spider's preference for Anopheles varies with the spider's size, varies with its prior feeding condition and is independent of the spider gaining a blood meal. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first experimental study to show that a predator of any type actively chooses Anopheles as preferred prey, suggesting that specialized predators having a role in the biological control of disease vectors is a realistic possibility

Non-invasive MRI biomarkers for the early assessment of iron overload in a humanized mouse model of β-thalassemia

β-thalassemia (βT) is a genetic blood disorder causing profound and life threatening anemia. Current clinical management of βT is a lifelong dependence on regular blood transfusions, a consequence of which is systemic iron overload leading to acute heart failure. Recent developments in gene and chelation therapy give hope of better prognosis for patients, but successful translation to clinical practice is hindered by the lack of thorough preclinical testing using representative animal models and clinically relevant quantitative biomarkers. Here we demonstrate a quantitative and non-invasive preclinical Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) platform for the assessment of βT in the γβ(0)/γβ(A) humanized mouse model of βT. Changes in the quantitative MRI relaxation times as well as severe splenomegaly were observed in the heart, liver and spleen in βT. These data showed high sensitivity to iron overload and a strong relationship between quantitative MRI relaxation times and hepatic iron content. Importantly these changes preceded the onset of iron overload cardiomyopathy, providing an early biomarker of disease progression. This work demonstrates that multiparametric MRI is a powerful tool for the assessment of preclinical βT, providing sensitive and quantitative monitoring of tissue iron sequestration and cardiac dysfunction- parameters essential for the preclinical development of new therapeutics

Triglyceride-Rich Lipoproteins Modulate the Distribution and Extravasation of Ly6C/Gr1low Monocytes

Monocytes are heterogeneous effector cells involved in the maintenance and restoration of tissue integrity. However, their response to hyperlipidemia remains poorly understood. Here, we report that in the presence of elevated levels of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins, induced by administration of poloxamer 407, the blood numbers of non-classical Ly6C/Gr1(low) monocytes drop, while the number of bone marrow progenitors remains similar. We observed an increased crawling and retention of the Gr1(low) monocytes at the endothelial interface and a marked accumulation of CD68(+) macrophages in several organs. Hypertriglyceridemia was accompanied by an increased expression of tissue, and plasma CCL4 and blood Gr1(low) monocyte depletion involved a pertussis-toxin-sensitive receptor axis. Collectively, these findings demonstrate that a triglyceride-rich environment can alter blood monocyte distribution, promoting the extravasation of Gr1(low) cells. The behavior of these cells in response to dyslipidemia highlights the significant impact that high levels of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins may have on innate immune cells

Myocardial Viability Imaging using Manganese-Enhanced MRI in the First Hours after Myocardial Infarction

Early measurements of tissue viability after myocardial infarction (MI) are essential for accurate diagnosis and treatment planning but are challenging to obtain. Here, manganese, a calcium analogue and clinically approved magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent, is used as an imaging biomarker of myocardial viability in the first hours after experimental MI. Safe Mn dosing is confirmed by measuring in vitro beating rates, calcium transients, and action potentials in cardiomyocytes, and in vivo heart rates and cardiac contractility in mice. Quantitative T1 mapping-manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) reveals elevated and increasing Mn uptake in viable myocardium remote from the infarct, suggesting MEMRI offers a quantitative biomarker of cardiac inotropy. MEMRI evaluation of infarct size at 1 h, 1 and 14 days after MI quantifies myocardial viability earlier than the current gold-standard technique, late-gadolinium-enhanced MRI. These data, coupled with the re-emergence of clinical Mn -based contrast agents open the possibility of using MEMRI for direct evaluation of myocardial viability early after ischemic onset in patients