Assessing Cultural and Ecological Variation in Ethnobiological Research: The Importance of Gender

Contending that a significant portion of current ethnobiological research continues to overlook cultural variation in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) and practice, this paper explores the potential impacts of gender-imbalanced research on data collection, hypothesis testing, and the formulation and application of ethnobiological inventories and theories. A multidisciplinary review of over 220 studies addresses commonly held stereotypes underlying gender-imbalanced field research and demonstrates the need for more inclusive, finely-tuned studies which disaggregate indigenous knowledge and practice by gender. The paper outlines factors underlying gender-based spatial and temporal variation in ecosystem exposure and traditional ecological knowledge in rural societies worldwide, and discusses how these factors contribute to gender differences in wild food harvesting, biodiversity and agrobiodiversity maintenance, natural resource management, and the transmission and conservation of sacred and secular customs. The review concludes with suggestions for designing and implementing more inclusive research

Results from thinning experiments in 2002 and 2003

In 2002 an experiment about thinning blossoms of the apple variety 'Pinova' lime sulfur (in 2002 45 % thinning) and sodium salt (21 % thinning) showed good effects, the number of blossom-clusters in 2003 was very high in the lime sulfur parcels. Results from extracts of Hericium erinaceum in 2003 have to be replicated again, the number of applications must be increased

Higher Gauge Theory and Gravity in (2+1) Dimensions

Non-abelian higher gauge theory has recently emerged as a generalization of standard gauge theory to higher dimensional (2-dimensional in the present context) connection forms, and as such, it has been successfully applied to the non-abelian generalizations of the Yang-Mills theory and 2-form electrodynamics. (2+1)-dimensional gravity, on the other hand, has been a fertile testing ground for many concepts related to classical and quantum gravity, and it is therefore only natural to investigate whether we can find an application of higher gauge theory in this latter context. In the present paper we investigate the possibility of applying the formalism of higher gauge theory to gravity in (2+1) dimensions, and we show that a nontrivial model of (2+1)-dimensional gravity coupled to scalar and tensorial matter fields - the $\Sigma\Phi EA$ model - can be formulated both as a standard gauge theory and as a higher gauge theory. Since the model has a very rich structure - it admits as solutions black-hole BTZ-like geometries, particle-like geometries as well as Robertson-Friedman-Walker cosmological-like expanding geometries - this opens a wide perspective for higher gauge theory to be tested and understood in a relevant gravitational context. Additionally, it offers the possibility of studying gravity in (2+1) dimensions coupled to matter in an entirely new framework.Comment: 22 page

A new development cycle of the Statistical Toolkit

The Statistical Toolkit is an open source system specialized in the statistical comparison of distributions. It addresses requirements common to different experimental domains, such as simulation validation (e.g. comparison of experimental and simulated distributions), regression testing in the course of the software development process, and detector performance monitoring. Various sets of statistical tests have been added to the existing collection to deal with the one sample problem (i.e. the comparison of a data distribution to a function, including tests for normality, categorical analysis and the estimate of randomness). Improved algorithms and software design contribute to the robustness of the results. A simple user layer dealing with primitive data types facilitates the use of the toolkit both in standalone analyses and in large scale experiments.Comment: To be published in the Proc. of CHEP (Computing in High Energy Physics) 201

Effects of loperamide on the human hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis in vivo and in vitro.

Loperamide, an opiate agonist of high specificity for p-receptors, was recently reported to suppress ACTH and cortisol levels in normal subjects, but not in patients with proven ACTH-dependent Cushing’s disease. However, there is little information on the site of action of loperamide in the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis of man. We investigated the effect of loperamide on pituitary hormone secretion in uiuo and in vitro. In seven normal subjects, basal ACTH plasma levels were significantly suppressed 3 h after loperamide administration (16 mg, orally) from 5 + 1 to 2 f 0 pmol/L (P < 0.0001). After the combined pituitary stimulation test (100 pg human CRH, 100 rg GnRH, 100 pg GH-releasing hormone, and 200 pg TRH), the ACTH peak (maximum increase at 30 min) was significantly blunted by loperamide from 9 + 1 to 4 of: 1 pmol/L (P < 0.001) and the area under the curve of ACTH from O-120 min was reduced from 35 + 5 to 23 + 4 pmol/L.2 h (P < 0.05). In the insulin-hypoglycemia test (0.15 IU/kg BW), neither the ACTH peak nor the area under the curve of ACTH was affected by loperamide. In six patients with Cushing’s disease and one patient with secondary adrenal insufficency due to hypothalamic failure, neither basal ACTH and cortisol levels nor CRH-stimulated levels were influenced by loperamide. In four cultured human corticotropic adenomas, loperamide was not able to reduce basal and CRH-induced ACTH secretion. In summary, loperamide is able to reduce basal and CRHinduced ACTH and cortisol levels in normal subjects, but not in patients with Cushing’s disease or secondary adrenal failure of hypothalamic origin. Loperamide has no significant effect on insulin-hypoglycemia- induced ACTH and cortisol levels and, therefore, no effect on stress-induced elevation of cortisol levels. Loperamide might act at a suprapituitary site in man in viuo, but, nevertheless, a pituitary site cannot be excluded