Rethinking the Ecological Crisis

The stories we tell about nature reveal a great deal about how we think about ourselves, our society and the world in which we live. Nature is one of those potent cultural spaces within which a society plays out its dreams and fears, its ambitions and anxieties. As John Rodman reminds us, "just as our statements about other people tend also to be concealed statements about ourselves, so statements about nonhuman nature tend also to be concealed statements about the human condition. "1 Constructed through our various discourses, ideas of nature can be read as maps of our historically and culturally-constituted consciousness

Development and application of an upland boreal forest succession model

A mathematical model was developed to simulate forest succession on permafrost and permafrost-free sites for upland sites near Fairbanks, Alaska. Monthly precipitation and ambient air temperature were generated based on long term records. Site-specific incident sunlight was calculated for given aspects and slopes. Soil moisture regimes were estimated monthly based on precipitation and evapotranspiration. Soil thermal regimes were calculated according to available sunlight and net freezing or thawing ambient air temperatures through time. Individual tree growth was estimated annually for all individuals on a plot, modified according to species-specific growth attributes, competitive factors and climatic characteristics. The model successfully simulated the successional patterns of species dominance on both permafrost and non-permafrost sites. Results indicated that species composition and successional dominance on permafrost sites were greatly influenced by species\u27 sensitivities to active layer depth

Legal Content in Adult Education Graduate Curricula: Moving Forward

This roundtable discusses data gathered and steps currently being taken concerning including legal content in certain adult education graduate programs

Efficacy and safety of tiotropium in COPD patients in primary care – the SPiRiva Usual CarE (SPRUCE) study

BACKGROUND: Clinical trials of tiotropium have principally recruited patients from secondary care with more severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and typically had included limitation of concomitant medication. In primary care, which is the most common setting for COPD management, many patients may have milder disease, and also may take a broad range of concomitant medication. METHODS: This randomised, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, 12-week, 44-centre study investigated the efficacy (trough forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV(1)] response) and safety of additional treatment with once-daily tiotropium 18 μg via the HandiHaler(® )in a primary care COPD population (tiotropium: N = 191, FEV(1 )= 1.25 L [47.91% predicted]; placebo: N = 183, FEV(1 )= 1.32 L [49.86% predicted]). Secondary endpoints included: trough forced vital capacity (FVC) response, weekly use of rescue short-acting β-agonist, and exacerbation of COPD (complex of respiratory symptoms/events of >3 days in duration requiring a change in treatment). Treatment effects were determined using non-parametric analysis. RESULTS: At Week 12, median improvement in trough FEV(1 )response with tiotropium versus placebo was 0.06 L (p = 0.0102). The improvement was consistent across baseline treatment and COPD severity. Median improvement in FVC at 2, 6 and 12 weeks was 0.12 L (p < 0.001). The percentage of patients with ≥1 exacerbation was reduced (tiotropium 9.5%; placebo 17.9%; p = 0.0147), independent of disease severity. Rescue medication usage was significantly reduced in the tiotropium group compared with placebo. Adverse event profile was consistent with previous studies. CONCLUSION: Tiotropium provides additional benefits to usual primary care management in a representative COPD population. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The identifier is: NCT00274079

Impact of Submaximal versus Supramaximal High-Intensity Interval Training on Blood Glucose Regulation in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

High-intensity interval training (HIIT) is an efficient form of exercise that can potentially induce significant and clinically meaningful blood glucose improvements in patients with Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). It is unknown whether certain HIIT interval intensities may be more effective than others in combating hyperglycemia in T2DM. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine if submaximal or supramaximal HIIT reduces blood glucose or improves markers of insulin resistance more than the other in T2DM patients using a systematic review and meta-analytical approach. METHODS: Three databases (Embase/MEDLINE, CENTRAL, and PubMed) were systematically searched in July 2021 and again in April 2022 to identify studies that used submaximal or supramaximal HIIT interventions on T2DM patients. Seventy-eight articles were compared to the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria, with a total of twenty-one selected for this meta-analysis. Six glycemic control outcome variables were analyzed, including HbA1c, FBG, and HOMA-IR. Pre- and post-HIIT means and SDs were used to calculate effect sizes, which were corrected and weighted to produce Hedges’ g values. 95% confidence intervals and p values were also reported. RESULTS: Multivariate meta-analytical analysis found that submaximal HIIT produces an effect size of -0.399 (95% CI [-0.916, -0.226], p = 0.000) in blood glucose metrics, while supramaximal HIIT produces a similar, but non-significant, effect size of -0.366 (95% CI [-0.916, 0.184], p = 0.192). Across five of six outcome variables, submaximal HIIT had a significant small to medium effect, while supramaximal HIIT had a negligible to medium effect. For both HbA1c (%) and fasting blood glucose (FBG), supramaximal HIIT produced effect size values 48% and 67.4% larger, respectively, when compared to submaximal HIIT. Graphing HIIT intensity and training load against HbA1c effect size revealed R2values of 0.08 and 0.2, respectively. CONCLUSION: Submaximal HIIT effectively reduces markers of blood glucose in T2DM patients. Supramaximal HIIT may induce greater and more clinically meaningful improvements in hyperglycemia, but more research is needed. Neither exercise intensity nor training load alone explain improvements to blood glucose homeostasis as measured by HbA1c

Conscious and unconscious memory and eye movements in context-guided visual search: A computational and experimental reassessment of Ramey, Yonelinas, and Henderson (2019)

Are eye movements unconsciously guided towards target locations in familiar scenes? In a recent eyetracking study, Ramey, Yonelinas, and Henderson (2019) measured eye-movement efficiency (scanpath ratio) and memory judgments when participants searched for targets in repeated and novel scenes. When trials judged new with high confidence were selected, scanpath ratio was lower for old scenes (misses) than for new scenes (correct rejections). In addition, familiarity as measured by recognition confidence did not significantly predict scanpath ratio. Ramey et al. attributed these results to unconscious learning guiding eye movements. In a re-assessment of Ramey et al.’s data, we show that their findings can be accounted for by a single-system computational model in which eye movements and memory judgments are driven by a common latent memory representation. In particular, (a) the scanpath ratio difference between high-confidence misses and correct rejections is a consequence of regression to the mean, while (b) the null correlation between familiarity and scanpath ratio, partly a natural consequence of the low reliability of the scanpath ratio measure, is also reproduced by the model. Two pre-registered experiments confirm a novel prediction of the alternative single-system model. This work offers a parsimonious account of Ramey et al.’s findings without recourse to unconscious guidance of eye movements

The Worsening Political Divide: Adult Education as Part of the Cure

The US is experiencing extreme social and political polarization not seen since the Civil War. This divisiveness is causing civil unrest and governmental dysfunction which threatens the stability of the nation. Four major causes of the current state are party realignment, the deregulation of news broadcasting, algorithmic personalization of electronic information, and an unknowing public. Adult education can and should be part of the remedy reducing or eliminating harmful polarization. Knowledge of authoritative systems is key to the solution. To promote such knowledge, adult educators can create practical and theoretical learning experiences about authoritative systems and incorporate such knowledge into existing courses and programs. Breadth of the field should produce myriad ways to do so particular to each educator’s practice

Utilization of savanna-based resources by Plio-Pleistocene baboons

We have determined the tooth enamel carbonate 13C values of five cercopithecoid taxa from the Plio-Pleistocene deposits of Swartkrans Members 1 and 2 and Sterkfontein Member 4. These data were used to determine the relative proportions of C3 and C4 biomass consumed by extinct baboons and contemporary non-human primates. We compared these results with data on modern Papio hamadryas ursinus from different savanna areas in South Africa, as well as with published isotopic data and dietary interpretations based on molar morphology of these taxa. The data reveal little evidence for use of grasses or grass-based foods by modern South African baboons. The fossil papionins Papio hamadryas robinsoni, Papio (Dinopithecus) ingens, and Parapapio spp., however, utilized more savanna-based C4 resources than previously predicted (particularly in the case of P. (D.) ingens). Theropithecus oswaldi had 13C values depicting, as expected, a largely grass-based diet, and we confirm earlier conclusions that this species incorporated a wider range of food items into its diet than do modern T. gelada, as reported in the literature. The colobine monkey, Cercopithecoides williamsi, made extensive use of savanna-.based C4 foods, confirming some degree of terrestrial foraging by the species

Tackling the big questions: What research matters to Australian paediatricians?

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136534/1/jpc13453.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136534/2/jpc13453_am.pd